ABUSE TRACKER

GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – The Concerned Catholics of Guam organization is contemplating the possibility of filing a class action lawsuit against the head of the island’s Catholic Church over a multimillion dollar transaction. At the heart of the matter is the Redemptoris Mater Seminary – formerly Hotel Accion in Yona.

The property is valued anywhere between $40 million to $70 million . It was thought to be one of the largest assets of the Archdiocese of Agana, but apparently not anymore.

The CCOG was formed last month to investigate and look into recent controversies in the Catholic Church, and within the past few days the organization uncovered the Archdiocese of Agana no longer holds the deed to the seminary.

According to CCOG vice president David Sablan they’ve uncovered a paper trail that leads to Archbishop Anthony Apuron who in November 2011 signed off on a decree that assigns the property to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary Corporation. According to Sablan the archbishop did this without the consent of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and against the advisement of the archdiocese legal counsel. “Because of the way that transfer was going to take place the Archdiocese of Agana and the archbishop himself would generally have no control over that seminary so they advised the archbishop against it,” he explained.

The CCOG uncovered that the paperwork essentially transfers the Yona property from the Archdiocese of Agana to this Redemptoris Mater Seminary Corporation whose mission is to form men for priesthood following the life and practice of the Neocatechumenal Way, which according to Sablan was not the initial intent of the establishment of the seminary. Additionally the property would be under the control of the corporation’s board of which the archbishop sits on, but has little say on decisions.

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VIRGINIA
Fox DC

[with video]

By Tom Fitzgerald, FOX 5 Reporter

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. –
Police say a northern Virginia man used his position at a church to molest children.

Gregory Richard Yeamans remains in jail, but police say they are looking for even more victims.

It is a disturbing start to the new year in Spotsylvania County. The allegations of sexual abuse are rocking a Fredericksburg-area church.

Yeamans was arrested on New Year’s Eve for sexual abuse of two boys, ages 11 and 12. Investigators say the boys met Yeamans at the Fairview at River Club Church in Spotsylvania.

“An anonymous tip came in through the Department of Social Services,” said First Sgt. James Konicki of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office.

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NEW YORK
WWNY

The senior pastor of the Smithville Baptist Church is accused of sexually assaulting a young girl.

State police arrested Thomas Wilson, 63, of 20560 Weaver Road, Watertown on a felony count of first-degree sexual abuse and a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child.

Wilson is accused of having sexual contact with a nine year old girl in the village of Sackets Harbor during the spring or summer of 2008. Trooper Jack Keller, Troop D spokesman, told 7 News Monday night that Wilson was a friend of the girl’s family.

Keller said the girl’s father notified state police after learning some details about what allegedly happened. Keller confirmed the incidents happened behind the former Lake Ontario Playhouse.

Keller said it did not appear the incident was connected to Wilson’s duties with the church.

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VIRGINIA
WSET

[with video]

Lexington, VA – At 62-years-old, Larry Clark may spend the rest of his life in a jail cell.

But the former Buena Vista pastor says he doesn’t deserve the time, maintaining his innocence. At his sentencing Monday, he said, “My life has been devastated by the lies said about me.”

Sandy McElroy, Clark’s niece, tells ABC 13 that Clark would never harm a child.

“He’s innocent and I just hope whoever or whatever has done this to [the victim] that maybe one day they’ll pay and I’ll just say he wishes him no ill will. I just think in this small town it’s a crime not to let the case be moved out of this town,” said McElroy.

In October, a jury found the former Buena Vista pastor guilty of two counts of carnal knowledge and three counts of indecent liberties. During his testimony on a closed-circuit TV, the victim said Clark raped him.

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VIRGINIA
WUSA

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. (WUSA9) — A fifty-two-year-old youth minister from Spotsylvania has been arrested in connection for sexually abusing two minor boys, authorities said.

Richard Yeamans, 52, of Spotsylvania was arrested on December 31, 2014 for two counts of aggravated sexual battery of a minor and one count of taking indecent liberties with a minor.

The Spotsylvania Department of Social Services received an anonymous tip on December 30 alleging sexual abuse of minors by the local youth minister, authorities said.

Detectives interviewed two victims and found evidence related to the alleged crimes involving Yeamans.

The incidents happened at the home of the suspect in Spotsylvania County, officials said. The 11- and 12-year-old boys both knew the youth minister from the Fairview at Riverclub Church located off Tidewater Trail.

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OREGON
KOIN

GRESHAM, Ore. (KOIN 6) — The senior pastor at Powell Valley Church in Gresham faces more than three dozen first-degree sex charges after he was indicted by a Deschutes County grand jury.

James Worley is accused on 37 counts of various first-degree sex acts with a child between September 2002 and June 2004.

Also known as “Jamie,” Worley is accused of sexual abuse, rape, sodomy, attempted sodomy and using a child in sexually explicit conduct. The grand jury indictment was dated Dec. 16, 2014.

The website of the Powell Valley Church said Worley, 42, has been the lead pastor since January 2012, and is married with four children.

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OREGON
KOMO

By Chelsea Kopta, On Your Side Investigator Published: Jan 5, 2015

GRESHAM, Ore. – An evangelical pastor and former police officer is facing more than 30 charges of sex crimes involving two children, one boy and one girl.

James Daniel Worley, 42, has been a senior pastor at Powell Valley Church in Gresham since 2012, according to the church’s website.

The indictment filed Dec. 16 in Deschutes County charges Worley with 37 counts, including two counts of rape, 20 counts of sexual abuse, 11 counts of sodomy, one count of attempted sodomy and three counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

In the latter three counts, the documents state Worley “did unlawfully and knowingly induce (the victims) … to engage in sexually explicit conduct for a person to observe.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY MICHAEL MCHUGH – 06 JANUARY 2015

Catholic-run homes in Northern Ireland in the 1950s were centres of “bleak lovelessness”, an official at the time said.

Kathleen Forrest, a State health inspector, called for the system to be reformed after visiting the Belfast Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

The words of Ms Forrest were read out yesterday at the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry as it reopened in Banbridge.

The long-running inquiry is now examining abuse claims at Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge in south Belfast.

Counsel to the HIA, Christine Smith QC, yesterday quoted from Ms Forrest’s 1953 report in her opening remarks to the hearing.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Michael McHugh

A Catholic religious order has accepted notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused children while they were in the care of nuns in the North, a lawyer told a public inquiry yesterday.

Smyth visited two south Belfast residential homes at the centre of the independent probe into wrongdoing stretching back decades. The serial molester was later convicted of dozens of child abuse charges.

More than 100 witnesses from Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge have come forward to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, headed by a former judge, which is one of the largest investigations of its kind ever held in the UK.

Senior counsel to the inquiry, Christine Smith QC, said: “Sexual abuse of children was perpetrated by the now notorious Fr Brendan Smyth.

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VIRGINIA
The Roanoke Times

Mon Jan 5, 2015

Luanne Rife luanne.rife@roanoke.com 981-3209

LEXINGTON — Before the 62-year-old former preacher was sentenced to serve 35 years in prison for child molestation, he urged his victim “to swallow your pride and come forward and fix your mistake.”

Larry McKinley Clark proclaimed his innocence and directed much of his statement at his sentencing hearing at the teenager he was convicted of molesting for two and a half years, starting when the boy was in middle school.

Clark had been the pastor of Pentecostal Outreach Church in Buena Vista and the teen was a member of the church.

Clark said unless the teen confesses the truth “you will carry the guilt of this your whole life.” Clark said his life has been ruined by fabrications.

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VIRGINIA
WDBJ

Former pastor Larry Clark will spend 35 years in prison for sex crimes against a minor who attened his church.

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NEW YORK
Watertown Daily Times

By CRAIG FOX
TIMES STAFF WRITER

WATERTOWN — The pastor of the Smithville Baptist Church has been accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl in 2008.

State police charged the Rev. Thomas W. Wilson, 63, senior pastor of the Smithville Baptist Church, with single counts of first-degree sexual abuse, a Class D felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a Class A misdemeanor.

Police said Wilson had sexual contact with the girl in the spring or summer of 2008 behind the Lake Ontario Playhouse in the village of Sackets Harbor. He is accused of touching the girl inappropriately, police said.

Trooper Jack L. Keller, public information officer for Troop D in Oneida, said Wilson, of 20560 Weaver Road, was arrested at the Watertown state police station Monday morning after a lengthy investigation.

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PENNSYLVANIA
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The night before falsely accused priest Rev. Charles Engelhardt passed away on November 15, 2014, Pennsylvania prison officials denied the dying cleric critical medical care, and Engelhardt issued a last declaration of his innocence, according to a recent court filing by Engelhardt’s cellmate and exclusively reported by journalist Ralph Cipriano.

According to Cipriano, Engelhardt told cellmate Paul H. Eline before he died: “Paul, I do not feel well. Please understand that I am an innocent man, who was wrongly convicted.”

No end in sight to an outrage

This sad episode adds yet another chapter to the gross injustice against three men – Engelhardt, former teacher Bernard Shero, and ex-priest Edward Avery – who were wrongly convicted for crimes they never committed.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Jan. 5, 2015

A Catholic priest with ties to Wisconsin has been removed from his job at a teacher and coach at a high school in the Bronx after admitting that he sexually abused minors in Milwaukee and New York in the 1970s and ’80s, his religious order announced on Monday.

The Rev. Robert Harrison was relieved of all public ministry, including his job at Cardinal Hayes High School, on Dec. 22, the same day he admitted abusing 10 minors over the years. Colleen Crane, Milwaukee spokeswoman for Harrison’s religious order, the Detroit-based Capuchin province of St. Joseph, said it delayed announcing his dismissal until students could be told personally on their return from Christmas break.

A Milwaukee native, Harrison, 77, was one of the Milwaukee area’s first African-American Catholic priests and the first black priest ordained by the Capuchins for service in the Milwaukee area, in 1964.

Between the 1960s and 70s, he served at St. Francis and St. Benedict the Moor parishes in Milwaukee, the St. Francis Friary, and the Carmelite School for Boys in Wauwatosa, according to the Capuchins.

He also appears to have taught at St. Francis School and Messmer High School, according to a Milwaukee Journal story in 1965.

Harrison did not surface as a potential abuser during an extensive internal review of files undertaken in 2013 to assess the religious order’s handling of sexual abuse cases, according to Crane.

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UNITED STATES
Capuchin Province of St. Joseph

5 January 2015

The Capuchin Province of St. Joseph reports that Fr. Robert Harrison, OFM Cap. Has been removed from public ministry. On Monday, 22 December 2014, the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph learned that Fr. Harrison had abused minors in Milwaukee WI, and New York NY.

To the province’s knowledge, that sexual abuse occurred during the 1970s and 1980s. The province has not received any allegations from victims. The province learned this information on 22 December 2014 during an investigation into Fr. Harrison’s finances. When confronted by the province, Fr. Harrison then admitted to abuse of minors. Fr. Harrison informed the province that, to the best of his knowledge, no one ever reported any of the abuse to the province.

During the June 2013 audit of the Capuchin files, Fr. Harrison’s files were reviewed by the auditors. The auditors reported no evidence that suggested that Fr. Harrison may have been involved with the abuse of minors.

Immediately upon receiving the information on 22 December 2014, Fr. Harrison was removed as teacher and basketball coach from Cardinal Hayes High School, The Bronx NY. He is barred from public ministry as required under the terms of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. He is currently at a professional facility where he cannot have any contact with minors.

Per Capuchin Province of St. Joseph policy, the abuse was reported to the district attorney offices in Manhattan NY, The Bronx NY and Milwaukee WI. The province will continue to work cooperatively with civil authorities in this matter.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 5

Statement by Mary Caplan of New York City leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com )

For two full weeks, Catholic officials in New York and Milwaukee have hidden an admission by a priest who worked at a Bronx school that he sexually assaulted kids. Shame on all of them. (See official church statement below.)

On Dec. 22, Fr. Robert Harrison told his Catholic supervisors that he had molested children. He was then suspended from his post at Hayes High School in the Bronx.

But neither of Fr. Harrison’s supervisors – the Capuchins nor the New York Archdiocese – told the public. We hope they promptly told police. But there’s no excuse for them not telling parents, parishioners and the public immediately, especially since the pedophile priest admitted his crimes.

We suspect obviously selfish reasons for the two irresponsible weeks of secrecy. We suspect Catholic officials didn’t want to risk hurting holiday donations. We challenge the Capuchins and Cardinal Timothy Dolan to explain why Catholic officials once again chose to err on the side of secrecy and recklessness rather than the side of openness and safety.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Harrison or cover ups by his superiors will find the courage to speak up, get help, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect others and start healing.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic bishop of Maitland-Newcastle says he heads into 2015 knowing the Royal Commission into child abuse could turn its attention to the diocese.

The Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is investigating how institutions like churches have responded to allegations of abuse.

The Maitland-Newcastle diocese was the focus of a state government initiated special commission of inquiry that recommended one senior church official be prosecuted.

Bishop Bill Wright said the year ahead could be challenging.

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VIRGINIA
WDBJ

Nadine Maeser, nmaeser@wdbj7.com
Jan 05, 2015

Former pastor Larry Clark will be sentenced Monday afternoon in Rockbridge County.

Clark faces 35 years in prison.

Back in October, a jury found Clark guilty of five counts for sex crimes against a minor.

According to the victim’s mother, the child was a member of Clark’s congregation when he was a pastor at the Pentecostal Outreach Church in Buena Vista.

WDBJ7 spoke to the victim’s mother by phone Monday morning.

She says she hasn’t decided if she will give an impact statement or not, but she says her and her son will be inside the courtroom for the decision. They both hope Monday’s sentencing will bring closure to their family.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Jan 5, 2015 / 11:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In creating 20 new cardinals – 15 of whom will be cardinal electors – Pope Francis has continued to set his sights on the world’s peripheries, and at the same time he began designing the College of Cardinals in order to push forward his reforms.

Among the new cardinal electors, only Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, hails from the Roman curia; he had previously served, since 2006, as the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States.

Most of the new red birettas hail from the peripheries of the world, and follow the rationale of “the universality of the Church,” as Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, put it in a written note delivered Jan. 4.

With the Feb. 14-15 consistory at which the new cardinals are officially appointed, the weight of the curia will be diminished in the election of the next Bishop of Rome.
consistory, there will be 34 voting cardinals from the curia, among 125, a reduction of three percent.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Robert Mickens | Jan. 5, 2015 A Roman Observer

ROME
If any other pope had produced a list of newly designated cardinals similar to the one Pope Francis unveiled Sunday, the reaction would have been shock and disbelief.
Instead, there was only momentary surprise.

Cardinals for the first time in ecclesiastical backwaters such as Tonga, Myanmar, Panama and Cape Verde? Only one Roman Curia official on the list? Still not a single American named by Francis? And two of Italy’s traditional “cardinal sees,” Turin and Venice, snubbed for Ancona and Agrigento, places that haven’t been by led by a prelate with a red hat in 100 years?

Welcome to the Era of Francis. The 78-year-old Jesuit pope announced the names of 15 new cardinal-electors and five other non-voters over the age of 80 who will become cardinals Feb. 14 at the Vatican.

His choices belie a preference for those on the peripheries and the men who pastor them, those who are on the margins of the church and society.

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ILLINOIS
Rock River Times

Rockford priest Aaron R. Brodeski, 45, charged with two misdemeanor counts of public indecency, has pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

The guilty plea was entered in Winnebago County court Friday, Jan. 2. Brodeski was sentenced to two years of court supervision and 30 hours of community service.

Brodeski was charged following a March 27, 2014, incident at Road Ranger Gas Station, 4980 S. Main St., Rockford. Winnebago County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the gas station after receiving a report of a man masturbating in view of a female clerk.

Sheriff’s deputies spoke to a clerk at the station, who said a white male had been inside the business and had exposed himself while in the store and also while parked in a vehicle in the parking lot. Other employees and customers were present at the time of the incident.

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NEW MEXICO
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
January 5, 2015

This past week the Diocese of Gallup disclosed a list of 30 new names of credibly accused priests. As usual, there is talk about the names being old and in many cases dead. Which raises the question of why weren’t these names disclosed earlier? Why were the names not on the original list that was disclosed back in 2003?

At the time of the 2003 disclosure Bishop Donald E. Pelotte claimed:

Of the 494 bishops, priests and permanent deacons that are known to have served in the Diocese of Gallup from 1950 to 2002, there were 8 known individuals who had credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors made against them.

He also pledged:

As much as all of us would like to put this behind us, the healing process and the development of policies and procedures to prevent it in the future require more attention. We have publicly committed ourselves not to return to “business as usual” but to make every effort to reform and move forward. I, as your bishop, commit myself and my staff to transparency and to the protection of all our children and youth.

So why didn’t they find these names earlier? It looks like the Dioceses filed for Bankruptcy in 2012. The January 14,2014 notice letter from Bishop Wall to parishioners spoke not only of overall debt , but of the claims of survivors:

a committee of those who were abused has been appointed as part of the Chapter II process and they will act in the Chapter 11 case on behalf of all those who were harmed in the Diocese.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Jan 5, 2015

Last week, American Conservative blogger Rod Dreher asked for help in understanding the decline of Christianity in the Northeast. Here’s my submission.

Let’s think of the decline in terms of the proportion of self-identified adult Christians (with Christians defined broadly to include Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, among others). Based on the American Religious Identification Survey and PRRI’s American Religion Atlas, between 1990 and 2013 the proportion of Christians in the country as a whole shrank from 86 percent to 71 percent. (The proportion of Nones — those who disclaim a religious identity — grew by an almost equivalent amount, from 8 percent to 21 percent.)

The Christian decline was in fact most pronounced in the Northeast, which went from 84 percent to 64 percent. The West, by contrast, only shrank from 80 percent to 71 percent. The decline in the Midwest was from 88 percent to 72 percent and in the South from 92 percent to 77 percent. In short, over the past quarter-century, the Northeast has supplanted the West as the country’s least Christian region, going from near the national average to well below it. How come?

The answer has everything to do with Roman Catholicism, the region’s largest religious tradition. From 1990 to 2013, the proportion of self-identified Catholics in the Northeast shrank dramatically, from 43 percent to 31 percent. By contrast, the Catholic proportion of the population in the rest of the country has declined by only four points, from 26 percent to 22 percent.

Much of the regional disparity has to do with the church’s Latinization. Latino immigration has been disproportionately into the West and the South, increasing the percentage of Catholics in each region. But this does not explain the difference between the Northeast and the Midwest, where the Catholic proportion of the population has declined by just six points (27 percent to 21 percent), despite having fewer Latino immigrants.

To be sure, shrinking Northeastern Catholicism does not account for the entire decline in Northeastern Christianity. The proportion of non-Catholic Christians in the Northeast shrank by 17 percent between 1990 and 2013, from 41 percent to 34 percent. That, however, is equivalent to the shrinkage of non-Catholics in the Midwest (16 percent) and well below the West (26 percent) and the South (29 percent). In other words, to the extent that the Northeast has de-christianized relative to the rest of the country, it has to do with Catholics — and specifically, with white Catholics.

The key event was the sexual abuse scandal that exploded in Boston in 2002. In Massachusetts, the epicenter of the crisis, the proportion of Catholics has shrunk by fully one-third, from 54 percent of the population to 36 percent. In Rhode Island and Connecticut, the shrinkage was 27 percent and 22 percent respectively. Although the scandal rippled across the country, nowhere has the disaffiliation of Catholics been greater than in southern New England, which has historically been the most Catholic part of the country.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

1.2. 2015 Written By: Rachel Waltner Goossen

Editor’s note: This is excerpted from a longer article, “’Defanging the Beast’: Mennonite Responses to John Howard Yoder’s Sexual Abuse,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 89 (January), based on newly available documents and interviews with 29 individuals. Readers interested in Goossen’s work in its entirety, including documentation for women’s accounts of their experiences as well as Mennonite institutional responses, may order a hard copy of the issue from The Mennonite Quarterly Review. The MQR issue is also available as an e-book through MennoMedia.org, Amazon, iBooks and Barnes & Noble.

During the mid-1970s, the renowned Christian ethicist and theologian John Howard Yoder embarked on an experiment in sexuality, devising his own guidelines and selecting his own subjects, whom he called “sisters.”

Following a three-year term as president of Goshen (Ind.) Biblical Seminary, he developed “the notion of a distinction between two dimensions of sexuality, the familiar and the genital.”

Yoder speculated that people plagued either by inhibitions about sexual intercourse or by promiscuity would have difficulty attaining what he termed “the freedom of the gospel,” which he linked to Jesus’ encounters with women.

In a series of essays that he circulated on the seminary campus and beyond, Yoder speculated about Jesus’ sexuality as a model for his disciples, for the men who followed in his path.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News

A local Catholic church asset — a former hotel worth $57 million at one time — may no longer be under the full control of the Archdiocese of Agana, government land records show.

The group Concerned Catholics of Guam first raised doubts publicly in July about the property’s control, and now plans to show the documents to a visiting delegation from the Vatican this week.

Department of Land Management documents state that Archbishop Anthony Apuron assigned “perpetual use” of the property to the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Seminary and its institute for academic formation.

The seminary is under a four-member “board of guarantors,” including Archbishop Anthony Apuron, according to the seminary’s articles of incorporation. The majority of the board consists of three New Jersey residents affiliated with the Neocatechumenal Way’s leadership: couple Giuseppe Gennarini and Claudia Gennarini; and Angelo Pochetti, the seminary’s Articles of Incorporation states.

The Neocatechumenal Way is a worldwide movement in the Catholic church, but its practices and influence on Apuron are being opposed locally by certain Catholics, including members of Concerned Catholics of Guam.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* A leading US “expert” on the Vatican, John Allen, in an unexpected analysis, raises fair questions about the wisdom of Pope Francis’ new approach to appointing Cardinals, while a prominent conservative US economist, Stephen Moore, sharply questions the pope’s current approach to economics and climate change. Meanwhile, Pope Francis struggles to steer the Vatican through a child abuse and financial scandal infested tsunami and to change the subject, and may be quite surprised at the unexpected criticism from these seemingly predictable papal promoters. Is Pope Francis’ free pass with the media, even the “friendlier media”, continuing to dissipate?

* Allen raises concerns about the recent appointment of new Cardinals, indicating that many lack both ecclesiastical bureaucratic experience and power bases in large traditional dioceses. Please see Allen’s , “The pope’s new cardinals could perpetuate the system, not upend it” at:

* [Crux]

* And a journalist at the influential Los Angeles Times is even questioning whether Pope Francis’ purported aim for diversity among Cardinals is mainly an effort to centralize more power in the Vatican. Please see:

* [Los Angeles Times]

* Meanwhile, Moore, a prominent right wing Catholic economist and former Wall Street Journal editorial writer, has sharply questioned Pope Francis’ approach to economics and climate change in an article entitled, “Vatican’s left turn would leave the poor even poorer”. Given that Pope Francis’ top financial adviser is reportedly Peter Sutherland, Chairman of Goldman Sachs International and former Chairman of BP, Moore may be taking Francis’ typical rhetoric more seriously than the pope’s inconsistent actions suggest Moore should.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Brew

Todd H. Oppenheim is a felony trial attorney in the Office of the Public Defender, with 10 years of experience representing indigent clients before the District Court and Circuit Court in Baltimore City.

Todd H. Oppenheim January 5, 2015

The death of cyclist Thomas Palermo has struck several chords in me. First and foremost, his death is a tragedy and an irreplaceable loss for his family. Second, it is a clarion call for heightened motorist awareness of bicycle safety.

Besides grief, though, Palermo’s death has sparked a strong reaction in me as a criminal defense attorney who represents indigent clients. My reaction focuses on justice. Equal Justice.

Palermo died 10 days ago and still no charges have been filed by the State’s Attorney’s Office against the driver of the vehicle that hit him. Why? Based on my experience as an attorney in the Public Defender’s Office for 10 years, I believe one key factor is at work.

Heather Elizabeth Cook, who drove into Palermo and fled as he lay dying, is a member of the upper tier of Baltimore’s socioeconomic ladder as the Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

If one of my clients, who are mostly African-American men, hit Palermo, charges would have been immediately filed against them. This would have been done at the scene by police without a formal arrest – or at the jail if the police took them in and prosecutors looked at the (still publicly unreleased) police report about the incident.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Want to see Pope Francis’ vision for the church? Look at his new cardinals

By Josephine Mckenna | Religion News Service January 5

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis reinforced his radical reshaping of the Catholic Church by naming 20 new cardinals from countries as far afield as Ethiopia, Tonga, Thailand and Panama.

The clerics — who come from 18 different countries — include 15 who are eligible to vote for the pope’s successor in a future conclave, and five retired bishops and archbishops “distinguished for their pastoral charity” who are over age 80 and ineligible to select the next pontiff.

Dissatisfied with the slow pace of change in Rome, Francis has made appointments that reflect his desire for “pastors on the front line of difficult situations,” one Vatican observer said, who can bring a new perspective from the often overlooked outposts of global Christianity.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the choices showed the pope’s most important criteria was “universality,” and indicated he was not “chained to tradition” as he moves the balance of power at the highest levels of the church closer to the developing world.

It is the first time ever that cardinals have been selected from Tonga, Myanmar and Cape Verde to become “princes of the church.” There are only five Europeans included among the 15 new electors — two from Italy and three others. The United States was shut out for the second time in a row.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

By MICHAEL MCGOUGH

On Sunday, Pope Francis named 20 new members of the College of Cardinals, 15 of who are under 80 and eligible to take part in the next papal election. As he did with his first batch of appointments to the college, Francis chose several bishops and archbishops from the developing world and bypassed the archbishops of sees in Europe and the United States that traditionally are headed by a cardinal.

More proof that the pope is a liberal, right? That was the tenor of a lot of the coverage. Just as the pope has urged bishops to reach out to the “peripheries” of society (the poor, migrants, fallen-away Catholics), so he is now using his appointment power to name prelates from the peripheries of the world.

But there is a sense in which this diversity initiative is not liberal at all. In announcing the new cardinals, the pope said that they “show the indelible tie with the church of Rome to churches in the world.” But for some liberal Catholics, the goal has been to downsize the papacy and the importance of Rome, not to make the central government of the church more representative.

In 1999, the liberal former archbishop of San Francisco, John Quinn, published a book called “The Reform of the Papacy: The Costly Call to Christian Unity.” In a column in 2005, I summarized the proposal for a downsized papacy as follows: “For one thing, it would be more parochial, more local, with, most likely, an Italian pope who tended to his Roman flock and didn’t stride so much on the world stage.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A veteran Vatican watcher based in our area says people shouldn’t be surprised by the 20 men Pope Francis picked over the weekend to be elevated next month to the position of cardinal in the catholic church.

Some were shocked that the church leaders in the United States were bypassed by the pope. But Philadelphia-based journalist Rocco Palmo, who covers the papacy and church affairs, says Pope Francis wants the College of Cardinals to look more like the universal church – a place where wealth or the size of a diocese is immaterial:

“Francis is using this list to basically to cement his legacy in choosing people who look at the church the way he does and who act the way he does, who will choose his successor and determine the long-term future of the church.”

As to why Philadelphia’s archbishop didn’t get the nod this time for a red hat…

“By Rome standards, Philadelphia already still has a vote – at least for another couple of months in a hypothetical conclave – because Cardinal Rigali is still an active papal elector until he turns 80 this coming April,” Palmo says.

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OREGON
Freethinker

Two people who say that they were sexually abused as children by a leader in a Hillsboro Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation have filed a $10.5 million lawsuit against the cult.

According to this report, attorneys for Velicia Alston, 39, above, and an unnamed man said the Jehovah’s Witnesses leadership continues to cover up sexual abuse against children by leaders. They say it is more than a decade behind other organisations, such as the Catholic Church, that have been forced to address their problems through many years of civil litigation.

Said Irwin Zalkin, one of several attorneys representing Alston and the man:

There is a crisis of silence in the Jehovah’s Witness organisation.

Zalkin described the religious organization as:

More concerned about protecting its reputation than it is about protecting its children.

For example, Zalkin said the seven men who make up the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Governing Body have a policy requiring a confession from the perpetrator or two eye witnesses to the abuse before leaders will take any action.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

Pope Francis –“The Great Reformer” – just keeps shaking things up. We’ll take a closer look at the motivations of the Pontiff moving the Catholic Church and the world.

The year is young. So is the time of Pope Francis. Without turning a single element of Catholic Church doctrine, the first pope from Latin America – from Argentina – has somehow turned the world’s sense of the Church and its mission and the papacy in a dramatic new direction. We have to “flip the omelet,” says this humble, potent pope. We have to put the interests of the poor first. And that’s not all he’s up to. Pope Francis is the most compelling new figure to come on the world stage in a long time. What drives him? This hour On Point: my guest says we’ve got a radical Pope. Understanding Pope Francis.

– Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Austen Ivereigh, writer and journalist. Author of “The Great Reformer: Francis And The Making Of A Radical Pope.” Founder of the Catholic Voices project. (@austeni)

Phil Pullella, senior Italy and Vatican correspondent for Reuters. (@philippullella)

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

With the upcoming Consistory Francis is continuing along the path he set out on a year ago: restructuring the Curia and focusing on the peripheries whilst doing away with automatically assigned titles

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

More than the statistics and percentage analyses, it was the pronouncement of the names of the new cardinals that really signalled change in the upcoming Consistory: most of the choices made came as a complete surprise and were totally unexpected. Pastors from the peripheries of the world, in many cases bishops of dioceses that had never had a cardinal before. This is a sign that Pope Francis intends to continue along the path he set out on a year ago: cutting down on the number of cardinals who are members of the Curia (on 14 February their number will drop from 30% to 27%); stopping the Cardinalate from being automatically connected to certain sees, that is the unwritten tradition of naming cardinals the archbishops of certain sees considered “cardinalatial sees”; and above all giving a voice to the southern part of the world, thereby allowing the true universality of the Church to increasingly shine through.

The names on the list all appear to be very personal choices made by the Pope: the new cardinals learn about their nominations on the television. The Italian, Edoardo Menichelli, found out through a friend who called up to tell him the news, which at first he believed to be a joke. The elderly Sardinian archbishop Luigi de Magistris, a pupil of Cardinal Ottaviani, was in Cagliari Cathedral listening to faithful’s confessions. Other “chosen-ones” were reluctant to believe journalists as they tried to get a statement. Nothing was leaked and even the timing of the announcement caught many by surprise.

Francis clearly wants to restyle the future Conclave, bringing into the College of Cardinals pastor-electors who have first-hand experience of difficult contexts, in countries like Tonga and Myanmar that act as frontier lines, in regions torn apart by violence such as Morelia in Mexico and sometimes in small Churches or in areas where the Church represents a minority. In Italy, the Pope chose pastors from periphery Churches over bishops from the country’s biggest dioceses, Turin and Venice. Menichelli from Ancona and Francesco Montenegro from Agrigento. The former drives around his diocese in an old Fiat Panda and has started initiatives to help fragile marriages. The latter is the Bishop of Lampedusa and is right in the thick of the immigration problem. Three of the new cardinals are Italian, two of them are electors and one is over 80, which shows Francis’ attention for Italy.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

A Catholic religious order has accepted that paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth abused children while they were in the care of nuns in Northern Ireland, a lawyer has told a public inquiry.

Fr Smyth visited two south Belfast residential homes at the centre of the independent investigation into wrongdoing stretching back decades. He was later convicted of dozens of child abuse charges over a 40-year period .

More than 100 witnesses from Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge have come forward to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, headed by a former judge.

Senior counsel to the inquiry Christine Smith QC said: “Sexual abuse of children was perpetrated by the now notorious Fr Brendan Smyth.”

“There will be evidence given in this module that he abused children both in Nazareth House and in Nazareth Lodge in Belfast,” she said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jan 05, 2015 By Maurice Fitzmaurice

The homes in Northern Ireland were run by the Sisters of Nazareth and the inquiry heard one witness describe the nuns as “sadistic and bullies”

Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused boys at two care homes run by nuns, an inquiry heard Monday.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was told today that a religious order accepts that the notorious cleric abused children in their care.

The inquiry’s barrister, Christine Smith QC, said witnesses have alleged they were abused by Smyth in two care homes, Narareth House and Nazareth Lodge, in south and east Belfast.

The homes were run by the Sisters of Nazareth and today the inquiry heard one witness describe the nuns as “sadistic and bullies”.

The HIA inquiry was set up in 2013 to investigate child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland over a 73-year period, up to 1995 with a total of 13 Northern Ireland institutions being investigated.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Historical Abuse Inquiry told paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth abused children in Belfast care homes

BY MICHAEL MCHUGH – 05 JANUARY 2015

A Catholic religious order has accepted that a notorious paedophile priest abused children while they were in the care of nuns in Northern Ireland, a lawyer told a public inquiry.

Fr Brendan Smyth visited two south Belfast residential homes at the centre of the independent probe into wrongdoing stretching back decades. The serial molester was later convicted of dozens of child abuse charges.

More than 100 witnesses from Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge have come forward to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, headed by a former judge, which is one of the largest investigations of its kind ever held in the UK.

Senior counsel to the inquiry Christine Smith QC said: “Sexual abuse of children was perpetrated by the now notorious Fr Brendan Smyth.”

She added: “There will be evidence given in this module that he abused children both in Nazareth House and in Nazareth Lodge in Belfast.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor January 5, 2015

ROME – “Throw the bums out” is a well-recognized instinct in politics, often fueled by cycles of scandal and corruption or simply a perception that the same cast of characters has been in power for too long.

In the 1990s, for instance, the desire to shake things up led to the adoption of term limits in 15 American states, usually due to popular referenda or ballot initiatives. Legislators in those states now are compelled to step down after a fixed period, often six to eight years, ensuring a steady infusion of new faces.

Pope Francis appears driven by that same anti-establishment instinct with the College of Cardinals, the body of senior prelates that sets the tone for leadership in the church and also enjoys the exclusive right to elect the next pope.

The pope announced a lineup of 15 new voting-age cardinals on Jan. 4, and it’s clear he’s changing the mix. The experience of American term limits, however, suggests Francis may need to be attentive to the law of unintended consequences, to avoid inadvertently strengthening the very bureaucracy he’s trying to upend.

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GUAM
Jungle Watch

SCHEDULE OF PASTORAL VISIT OF ARCHBISHOP SAVIO HON TAI-FAI, SDB, SECRETARY OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF PEOPLES, ARCHBISHOP MARTIN KREBS, APOSTOLIC DELEGATE TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, REV. FR. TADEUSZ (TED) NOVAK, OMI, C.E.P. – OFFICIAL FOR THE PACIFIC REGION

(As you can see, no non-neo priests were given time, not even Fr. Mike Crisostomo who is the president of the clergy association, except for Msgr. James and Fr. Eric (both of whom the visitors themselves probably asked to see because of Msgr. James’ case and Fr. Eric as a representative of the Capuchins.)

JANUARY 4-10, 2015

Saturday, January 3, 2015:
* arrival 10:15 p.m. (UA 197). Greeting of three Guests @ Guam International Airport by Archbishop Anthony and brought to Discalced Carmelites Guesthouse, 153 Tamuning Villa, Tamuning, Guam 96931

Sunday, January 4, 2015:

* 7:30 a.m. Breakfast with Archbishop Anthony
* 9:30 a.m. Pontifical Mass @ Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica with Archbishop Savio as Principal Celebrant & Homilist & Greeting of people following Mass.
* 12:00 pm. Lunch & Rest
* 3:00-5:00 p.m. Quick tour of the island with Vicar General, Msgr. David C. Quitugua, JCD & Dr. David Atienza, Ph.D., and Mr. Joseph Terlaje, Driver of the Van
* 6:30pm. Evening Prayer with Benediction & Dinner @ Redemptoris Mater Seminary, Yona & * Pastoral Visit. Fr. Pablo Ponce Rodriguez, Rector

Monday, January 5, 2015:

* 7:30 a.m. Breakfast with Vicar General, Chancellor & Vice-Chancellor

[Archbishop Anthony asks to be excused @ 7:30 a.m. for the Official Inauguration Ceremonies of Governor & Lt. Governor @ 8:00 a.m. and Inauguration of 33rd Guam Legislators @ 11:00 a.m.

N.B. Private Meeting with Individuals or Small group up to 10 will be at Carmelites 3rd Floor.
Groups of 10 or more will be at St. Anthony Spiritual Center, next to St. Anthony Church, Tamuning]

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

Jennifer Haselberger

01/04/2015

Or so saith Woody Allen.

Interestingly, it was this quote (and in fact the whole ‘trial scene’ from ‘Bananas’) that came to my mind earlier this weekend after a priest emailed me a question. Perhaps surprisingly, the question was not about the ‘investigation’ into Archbishop Nienstedt (although the quote would certainly be apt). Instead, the question that was posed was this: ‘Why do you think Nienstedt appointed [Father Peter] Laird as Vicar General?’

I remember my colleagues and I asking the same question in November of 2009, when it was announced that Laird would be taking over for [Bishop] Paul Sirba, who had been just appointed Bishop of Duluth. In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I initially greeted Father Laird’s appointment with a cautious optimism, although that didn’t last for long. I suspect that the same was true for Archbishop Nienstedt.

Obviously, the Archbishop never unburdened himself to me as to what motivated his choice, nor am I aware of him doing so with anyone else. However, I can provide a context with which to understand the appointment, as well as to understand what would eventually transpire. I also know for a fact that Father Laird did not enjoy the level of confidence that he (and others) probably thought he did. As the person who prepared the Archbishop’s list of three (canon 413, 1), I can assure you that Father Laird was never high on that list.

In fairness to the Archbishop, it is important to note that Father Laird was also not his first choice to serve as Vicar General. Incredibly unpopular from the moment his appointment was announced, Nienstedt, as coadjutor, would watch as the ship in Saint Paul was scuttled before he could take command. Auxiliary Bishop Pates was transferred to Des Moines in the month prior to Archbishop Flynn’s retirement, and influential and well-respected priests like Bishop Peter Christensen and Bishop John LeVoir were named to lead dioceses of their own. Even lay staff members such as my predecessor and the long-time Schools staffer and Superintendent Lori Glynn would take the opportunity to depart.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

With today’s announcement of 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis has moved decisively toward making the College of Cardinals a truly global institution.

The cardinals come from 14 countries on five continents, including Cape Verde, Myanmar, Panama, New Zealand and even the Kingdom of Tonga, a Pacific archipelago that is home to a mere 15,000 Catholics.

They will receive their red hats at a consistory in Rome in mid-February. The list of appointees included no one from the United States or Canada. Pope Francis, in fact, has yet to appoint a cardinal from the United States, which today has 18 cardinals, a relatively high number.

There are several things to note in the pope’s selections:

— By choosing prelates from eight dioceses that have never had a cardinal, Francis is clearly shaking up the geographical mix of a group known as the church’s “senate.” In effect, the pope is removing the expectation of red hats that have attached to many established major dioceses for centuries. This new policy – enunciated explicitly today by the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi – sets in motion further globalization for the future: expect fewer Europeans, and more cardinals from the Catholic “periphery.”

— Of the 15 new cardinals who are under age 80, and therefore able to vote in a conclave, the pope chose two Italians. That means Italy would continue to have great influence in a potential papal election, with more than one-fifth the number of voting cardinals. But as he did last year, the pope selected Italians from smaller dioceses, passing over traditional cardinalate sees like Venice and Turin. Once again, the effect is to remove the customary expectation of a red hat.

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NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA
New Zealand Herald

John Weekes

Police investigating sex crime allegations against a teacher long presumed dead before being found in rural New Zealand have returned to Australia to prepare a report for a prosecutor.

The allegations relate to Ronald Thomas, formerly a teacher at Tasmania’s elite Hutchins School, who now lives in Tangimoana, near Bulls.

Mr Thomas, aged in his late 70s, has denied allegations of historical sex offences.

Two of his former students made claims to Tasmania’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission, investigating allegations of abuse at Hutchins in the late 1960s, named Mr Thomas in November.

The commission and Mr Thomas’ alleged victims believed the teacher was dead. But last month The Australian newspaper revealed Mr Thomas was living in a rural Manawatu dairy-farming community.

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ROME
Chiesa

An authoritative canonist rebuts the arguments of those who view Bergoglio’s election as invalid and therefore do not recognize him as pope. But uncertainties remain about the maneuvers that preceded the white smoke

by Sandro Magister

ROME, January 5, 2015 – Even after the unveiling of the names of those whom Pope Francis will elevate to the scarlet in the second round of cardinalate appointments of his pontificate, the conclave that elected him pope remains tinged with shadows.

Naturally, there is no conclave that does not draw together the threads of “maneuvers” aimed at the election of one or another candidate to the papacy. They are “maneuvers” that may mature in a few days, or even in a few hours. Or they may go on for years. Even their innocence can be of varying levels. So much so that the apostolic constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis,” which regulates the election of the popes, expressly invalidates “any form of pact, agreement, promise or other commitment of any kind” that in exchange for the vote would lay claim to bind the future elect.

In an article last July 1, www.chiesa demonstrated in what sense and to what extent the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio could approach – without being equated with one – a pact of this kind, seeing the insistence with which the current pope says that he “follows what the cardinals asked for during the general congregations before the conclave”:

But this in fact has to do with the natural dynamic of every papal election. And it is what the English vaticanista Austen Ivereigh has brought to light in a passage from his recent book on Pope Francis, “The Great Reformer,” identifying cardinals Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Walter Kasper, Karl Lehmann, and Godfried Danneels as four active promoters of the election of Bergoglio.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

BY JASON WARICK, THE STARPHOENIX JANUARY 4, 2015

More than $2.6 billion has been paid out to date as compensation to former Indian residential school students across the country, but some say money alone will not heal their wounds.

“There’s still a lot to be done. There are many different ways of healing,” Lac la Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson said.

As of Dec. 1, $2.643 billion had been paid out by the federal government in more than 30,000 settlements across Canada, according to the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat. More than 6,300 of those claims came from Saskatchewan.

That figure is sure to climb. There are still 7,691 claims in progress, including nearly 2,500 from Saskatchewan.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Published Monday, 05 January 2015

Some Catholic nuns at children’s homes in Belfast have been described as “sadistic bullies” at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry which resumed on Monday.

The fourth module of the inquiry at Banbridge Courthouse is focusing on the former Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge, run by the Sisters of Nazareth order of Catholic nuns.

A total of 102 witnesses from the homes have come forward to give their accounts and more than 90 are expected to give evidence.

The atmosphere at the two properties was described as “bleak, harsh and cruel” by alleged victims, a lawyer told the inquiry.

Senior counsel Christine Smith QC quoted one witness: “The nuns were at best indifferent and most often sadistic bullies who spoke with harsh, loud voices in scornful, dismissive tones.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has been told a religious order accepts that a notorious paedophile priest abused children in their care.

The inquiry’s barrister, Christine Smith QC, said witnesses alleged they were abused by Fr Brendan Smyth in two care homes in south and east Belfast.

The inquiry is examining abuse claims at Narareth House and Nazareth Lodge.

The homes were run by the Sisters of Nazareth, who have repeated an earlier apology to all abused in their care.

‘Sadistic and bullies’

The HIA inquiry was set up in 2013 to investigate child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland over a 73-year period, up to 1995.

A total of 13 Northern Ireland institutions are being investigated.

The latest module, focusing on the two Belfast homes, is the single biggest module of the inquiry, in terms of the number of witnesses who have come forward to given evidence about their time in the care of the nuns.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

05 JANUARY 2015

Some Catholic nuns at a children’s home in Northern Ireland were sadistic bullies, a former resident has claimed.

A “bleak, harsh and cruel” atmosphere was described by alleged victims at two properties in Belfast run by the Sisters of Nazareth Order, a lawyer told a public inquiry.

More than 100 witnesses from Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge have come forward to t he Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, headed by a former judge.

Thirteen institutions are being considered by the inquiry panel, which is tasked with making recommendations to Stormont ministers on issues such as compensating alleged victims.

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TONGA
Matangi Tonga

Monday, January 5, 2015

Nuku’alofa, Tonga

Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi (53) is the first Tongan to be made a Cardinal of the Catholic Church.

He was the youngest of the 20 cardinals that Pope Francis announced at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on Sunday January 4.

Fifteen of the newly appointed cardinals are from the developing countries and three, including Bishop Mafi, held the title of bishop rather than archbishop. The cardinals will be officially installed to their posts on February 14. They will be able to vote for the Pope’s successor.

Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi was consecrated as Coadjutor Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tonga and Niue on 5 October 2007.

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

91 percent of citizens have a favourable opinion of Francis despite declining numbers of Catholics

Having dramatically changed the way that the Vatican reaches out to Catholics, followers of other religions and non-believers, and giving the Catholic Church a softer touch, Pope Francis enjoys broad global support with a median of 60 percent of people in 43 countries having a favourable image of the pontiff.

Of the countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center, Poland took the spot for the country with the greatest sympathy for the Argentine pope with as much as 92 percent of the population indicating that they held him in high regard. Remarkably, only three percent of Poles held an unfavourable view, with the remaining group indicating that they had no impression of the pope.

While not rejecting the pope on a majority basis, roughly 40 percent of those in the Middle East, Africa and Asia had no opinion.

Broadly speaking, Francis has taken a far more pastoral approach to the papacy than his immediate predecessor Benedict XVI, while also bringing winds of change to the way that the Vatican is managed and promising no-tolerance for sexual abuse crimes committed by the clergy.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – A delegation from the Vatican has begun their weeklong pastoral visit. The group which consists of Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, the secretary of the Vatican congregation for the evangelization of peoples; Archbishop Martin Krebs, the apostolic delegate to the Pacific Islands; and Reverend Father Tadeusz Nowak arrived to the Guam International Airport Authority Saturday evening where they were greeted by Archbishop Anthony Apuron and KUAM News.

He would not grant an interview.

According to a press release from the archdiocese the pastoral visit is in an effort to foster reconciliation and understanding within the archdiocese. The local Catholic Church has been divided over the last several months. Some of the controversies include last year’s sudden removal of Monsignor James Benavente as rector of the archdiocese, the closure of the Cathedral Museum, and allegations of sexual abuse made by a third party against the archbishop. In response to the controversies a group of parishioners came together to form the Concerned Catholics of Guam with the intent to investigate the issues within the church.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Grant Gallicho concludes his excellent eight part series at Commonweal on the “Curious Case of Carlos Urrutigoity” here.

The conclusion is a bit anti-climactic. The only major player to suffer any kind of serious consequences for this long and tawdry affair seems to be Bishop Livieres of Ciudad del Este, who was asked to resign by Pope Francis back in September. Meanwhile, Urrutigoity and his crew of followers and supporters are still out there, many of them are still functioning as priests, at least one of them continues to fund raise despite his association with the Society of St. John – an organization whose founder allegedly engaged in sex abuse and financial fraud – and I am told that even though Urrutigoity’s associate Eric Ensey has been “defrocked” he still continues to present himself as a priest.

One of the themes that runs through this story is how easy it is for scoundrels to prey upon conservative Catholics simply by using the Fr. Maciel Method – be anti-liberal, pro-Latin Mass, say the right thing, wear cassocks, and you can raise as much money as you want, even while admittedly sleeping in the same beds with underage boys and lavishly wasting the money that’s donated to you. Urrutigoity and his crew were simply preying upon disaffected Catholics, who are angry at the abuse of doctrine and liturgy under the reign of the liberals, and who let that anger cloud their judgment and affect everything they do.

In fact, these disaffected Catholics are still so eager to root for anyone in a cassock (a conservative) as opposed to anyone in a sweater (a liberal), that many of them refuse to see the truth of Livieres removal and of the Urrutigoity situation. And they’ll howl if Bishop Finn is ever (justly) removed.

In fact, the party spirit in the Church is so great that some “cassockists” even continue to spread Bill Donohue’s lie that the priest arrested in the Kansas City case (Fr. Rattigan) was not guilty of producing child porn – despite his being sentenced to 50 years in prison for that very thing. Others seem to think that Finn was not himself convicted, but entered into a plea deal for the sake of the diocese – which is simply not true. But truth is not an issue for these people. They can’t see past the cassock.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

04 Jan 2015 By Jasmine Stole – jasmine@mvguam.com – Variety News Staff

HAGÅTÑA — More than a week has passed since the Concerned Catholics of Guam requested a meeting with Archbishop Anthony Apuron, but spokesman Rev. Adrian Cristobal said on Friday there were no plans to meet with the group.

A meeting with the group is up to the archbishop and he has not yet seen the letters from the Concerned Catholics of Guam, Cristobal said.

Since the group announced their organization​ on Dec. 9 at a press conference, at least one letter has been sent requesting a meeting with the archbishop, according to Concerned Catholics President Greg Perez and Treasurer Deacon Steve Martinez.

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MINNESOTA
Business Insurance

January 4, 2015

A 2013 Minnesota law easing the state’s statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims has led to a barrage of claims against a Minnesota Catholic archdiocese and renewed concerns among institutions nationwide about the potential effect of such laws.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis recently filed suit against its liability insurers dating back to 1952 for coverage of claims arising since Minnesota opened a three-year “window” for those with previously time-barred abuse claims. With more than a year before the window closes, the archdiocese has said the growing cost of dealing with the claims may force it to seek bankruptcy protection.

Minnesota is the fifth U.S. jurisdiction to enact a temporary waiver of the statute of limitation for abuse claims, and similar legislation continues to be introduced in several other states.

“Window” legislation and other retroactive extensions of statutes of limitations are a major concern for institutions that care for children, experts say.

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URUGUAY
The Peninsula (Qatar)

MONTEVIDEO – Uruguay’s Archbishop Daniel Sturla spoke of his shock on Sunday after being named as one of 20 new cardinals by Pope Francis.

Sturla, 55, only the second Uruguayan to be appointed a cardinal, said the honor marked a distinction for the Catholic Church in Uruguay.

I was and am still shocked by the news, Sturla told reporters after a Sunday Mass in Montevideo following the Vatican’s announcement.

I was only very recently appointed as archbishop of Montevideo so I view this as a distinction for the Church in Uruguay, rather than to me, added Sturla, appointed archbishop of Montevideo by Pope Francis in February 2014.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

By Luke Broadwater
The Baltimore Sun

The Episcopal Bishop of Maryland has summoned all the clergy of the Diocese of Maryland to a Tuesday morning meeting in Frederick County after a high-ranking church official was involved in a crash that killed bicyclist Thomas Palermo, 41, a married father of two.

Church spokeswoman Sharon Tillman confirmed Sunday that The Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton has called church clergy to a meeting at the Claggett Center near Buckeystown. She said the meeting was closed to the public to “allow clergy time to process the tragic events of the past week that involved a colleague.”

Police are continuing to investigate the 2:40 p.m. Dec. 27 crash on the 5700 block of Roland Ave. Episcopal officials have identified the driver of the car as Bishop Suffragan Heather Elizabeth Cook, the second-ranking official in the Diocese of Maryland. Cook initially drove away from the scene but returned a short time later, according to the diocese and witnesses at the scene. Another bicyclist followed her to a gated apartment complex. No charges have been filed.

Cook, who has been placed on administrative leave, is “barred from performing any duties of a bishop or a priest,” Tillman said.

Palermo’s death has galvanized many in Baltimore in recent weeks, prompting hundreds to attend a memorial bike ride and Sutton to ask all church members to engage in “silent prayer and reflection” on Saturday.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
JAN. 4, 2015

VERBANIA, Italy — Pope Francis named his second group of new cardinals on Sunday, including 15 who will be eligible to elect the pope’s successor after his death or resignation. Many are from developing countries, reflecting the Roman Catholic Church’s growth in Asia and Africa.

The bishops and archbishops come from Italy, France, Portugal, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Mexico, Myanmar, Thailand, Uruguay, Spain, Panama, Cape Verde and Tonga, representing “every continent, to manifest the indissoluble links between the Church of Rome and the particular churches present in the world,” the pope said.

The new cardinals from Myanmar, Tonga and Cape Verde come from countries that have never been represented in the upper echelons of the church’s hierarchy, Vatican officials said. Nine come from developing countries; only one — from Wellington, New Zealand — is a native English speaker. Five are European.

“The most evident criteria is evidently that of universality,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said in a note published Sunday. “Fourteen different countries are represented, including some that do not currently have a cardinal, and some that have never had one.”

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NEW ZEALAND
Sky News

A New Zealand archbishop has been named among 20 new cardinals appointed by Pope Francis.

The archbishop of Wellington, John Atcherley Dew, 66, is among several appointments seen to reflect the Roman Catholic Church’s changing demographics and efforts to recognise increasingly key areas of support outside its traditional European stronghold.

Of the new cardinals, 15 are considered “princes of the church” and under the age of 80, reports AFP.

This means they are eligible to join the conclave which will elect the pope’s successor.

The list of newly named cardinals includes five from Asia and the Pacific, three from Africa, and five from Latin America.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis added new Cardinals disregarding as absolute monarch the canon law cap of 120 voting Cardinals, yet he still left out women. He picked only men who previously had been selected apparently as obedient and conformist bishops by the current pope’s two conservative predecessors. Francis could have added some women, but as expected, he failed to do so. Of course, he still can add women. He now will move forward soon to preach the ban on contraception to the overcrowded Philippines, and in nine months to conclude his lackluster October Final Synod of the Family run solely by celibate men. Hello?

* Cardinal appointments and papal elections take on special significance now, given the rapidly declining papal prestige and power due to the unchecked priest child abuse scandal. Ironically, the same day that the new Cardinals were named, BishopAccountability.org carried a well deserved tribute to Trish McClelland, one of several unheralded women including Kathy Shaw, Anne Barrrett Doyle and Sylvia Demarest, who have quietly and effectively helped to bring the child abuse scandal to the world’s attention. See:

* [BishopAccountability.org – Trish McLelland]

As expected, “”rubber stamp” journalists and opportunistic apologists, including pathetically many women, have praised Francis for advancing with his latest appointments to the 19th Century with greater geographical diversity, while underplaying Francis’ failure to move into the 21st Century without even a token appointment reflecting gender equality.

Pope Francis will, it appears, continue to rely for women’s input mainly on the likes of US conservative, Mary Ann Glendon, as he continues to work hard to install a friendlier (Republican) US president and to continue a friendly US Supreme Court, while “keeping women in their proper place” principally as child bearing producers. Please see my remarks. “Hillary Clinton vs. Pope Francis in 2015″ at:

* [Christian Catholicism]

Catholics have now seen enough of Pope Francis’ “words without deeds” strategy. They all need now to require that their leaders follow the Gospels. Catholics can require this by (1) ending their donations that even indirectly benefit bishops, (2) publicly challenging their bishops often, and (3) demanding that their democratically elected officials (A) investigate, and if the evidence is found, prosecute suspected bishops, and (B) end all subsidies to bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella January 4, 2015

Pope Francis on Sunday named new cardinals to the group that will choose his successor, with appointments that strengthened the Catholic Church in Asia, Africa and Latin America and further shifted its power center away from the developed world.

It was the second time the 78-year-old Francis has used the appointment of cardinals to put his stamp on the 1.2 billion-member church. The two sets of appointments increase the chances that the next pontiff will, like Francis, be a non-European.

Only one of the new electors is from the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration, which Francis has pledged to overhaul. Last month, the pope said the Curia was infected with careerism, scheming, greed and “spiritual Alzheimer’s”.

Francis’ nominees now make up a quarter of the 125 “cardinal electors” under 80 years old — easily enough to sway the election of a new pope when Francis dies or resigns.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

By Mary Ann Ahern

Pope Francis has announced 20 new cardinals, 15 of whom are less than 80 years old. While there had been speculation that Chicago’s Archbishop Blase Cupich would be one of them, he was not included in Sunday’s list.

If Cupich had been chosen, it would certainly have seemed that he was on a very fast track, considering his recent appointment as archbishop. Other American archbishops, including Jose Gomez from Los Angeles, Wilton Gregory from Atlanta and Charles Chaput from Philadelphia, have not been named cardinals either, and they have been archbishops for much longer.

Another point against Cupich is that his predecessor, Francis George, is a cardinal. It would be unusual to have two voting cardinals from the same archdiocese. While Cardinal George has retired, he will still be a voting member of the College of Cardinals until he is 80 years old. George will turn 78 in January.

There isn’t much doubt that Cupich will eventually be named a cardinal, as Chicago has been a “cardinal seat” since George Mundelein in 1924.

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UNITED STATES
America

Gerard O’Connell | Jan 4 2015

Pope Francis has announced that he will create 15 new cardinals from 13 countries who will have the right to vote in the next conclave, almost all are bishops of dioceses from all continents, and several are from ‘the peripheries’ of the world.

He will also give the red hat to 5 retired archbishops and bishops who are over the age of 80 and are “distinguished for their pastoral charity in the service of the Holy See and of the Church”.

Significantly, abiding by past practice, he has not named any new cardinal-elector from a see where there is still a cardinal under the age of 80, and so he has not given the red hat to the archbishops of Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Madrid or Sydney.

At the time of the announcement there were 10 vacant places in the College of Cardinal Electors, which according to the norms set by Paul VI and approved by his successors should have a total of 120 members. Pope Francis, however, has decided to exceed that number by 5, and so on the day he holds the Consistory, if my calculations are correct, there will be a total of 125 cardinal electors.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail

Pope Francis names 15 new cardinals from every corner of the world – including Tonga, Cape Verde and even Burma

By CLAIRE CARTER FOR MAILONLINE

Pope Francis has named 15 cardinals from countries across the globe, including nations in the developing world.

Cardinals have been appointed from Ethiopia, Tonga and Cape Verde as well as Vietnam and Sicily – reflecting the diversity of the church.

Pope Francis told a crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square that the church leaders come ‘from every continent’ and ‘show the indelible tie with the church of Rome to churches in the world’.
The 15 cardinals, who hail from a total 14 nations, are all under 80 and will therefore be able to vote for the Pope’s successor.

He also made a surprise announcement and said he would lead a meeting of all cardinals to ‘reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia’, the Vatican’s administrative bureaucracy, between February 12 and 13.

Since he took on the role, Pope Francis has remained committed to root out corruption and inefficiency from the curia.

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VATICAN CITY
MSNBC

[with poll]

By Anna Brand

Once again breaking from tradition, Pope Francis on Sunday announced 15 new cardinals chosen from nations far and wide, including Ethiopia, Vietnam, Mexico, Tonga, and Myanmar.

The new “princes of the church” were selected from 14 diverse countries, marking another big move for inclusion within the Catholic church; Francis declared that the churchmen come “from every continent,” according to a statement from the Vatican.

Francis also named five churchman older than 80 – and thus not eligible to vote – for their distinguished commitment to the Vatican.

The new archbishops and bishops will join in a ceremony called Consistory Feb. 14. The Pope said from a Vatican window onlooking St. Peter’s Square that on On Feb. 12-13 he will gather all of the cardinals to “reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 4, 2015

ROME
Continuing to diversify global representation in the most select body of Catholic prelates, Pope Francis announced Sunday that he will be creating 20 new cardinals from 18 different countries — with several from places never before included in the elite group.

Among those Francis has chosen for the role: Bishops from the island nations of Cabo Verde and Tonga; archbishops from the Asian cities of Bangkok, Yangon, and Hà Nôi; and the leader of an Italian community dealing heavily with refugees and migrants from Africa.

Francis made the announcement of the new cardinals, long expected in recent weeks, during his weekly Sunday address following the noon-time Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.

Cardinals, sometimes known as the “princes of the church” and for their wearing of red vestments, are usually senior Catholic prelates who serve either as archbishops in the world’s largest dioceses’ or in the Vatican’s central bureaucracy. Their principal role is to gather in secret conclave following the death or resignation of a pope to elect his successor.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis on Sunday named 20 new cardinals including many from Latin America and Africa, which have become key areas for the Catholic Church as its demographics have shifted away from Europe.

Fifteen of the new cardinals are also under the age of 80, meaning they are eligible to join the conclave which elects the next pontiff.

The list includes African leaders Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel of Ethiopia and Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado of Cape Verde.

The Latin Americans were Archbishop Alberto Suarez Inda of Mexico, Archbishop Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet of Uraguay, Bishop Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan of Panama as well as archbishops emeritus Luis Hector Villaba of Argentina and José de Jesus Pimiento Rodriguez of Columbia.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

[with video tribute]

[Database of Accused Priests]

Trish McLelland
1946–2015

Patricia Ruth McLelland, known to her family as “Pat” and to her friends as “Trish,” died unexpectedly on January 1, 2015, after a brief illness. She is survived by her brother, Eugene Hall, by his wife Dianne, and by their children and grandchildren. She will be greatly missed by her colleagues at the Tahira Khan Merritt Law Firm in Dallas, and by her colleagues at BishopAccountability.org in Waltham, Massachusetts. Trish is also mourned by Sylvia Demarest, whom she supported during the landmark Kos trial in 1997, and by Tom Doyle, Richard Sipe, and the other colleagues and experts involved in that and many other matters.

In her legal assistant work, Trish was known equally for her attention to detail and her attention to the clients represented by Demarest and Merritt. Survivors appreciated her warmth and accessibility, her passion for their cause, and the fierce determination she brought to supporting them, researching their cases, and assisting their advocates.

Beyond the circles that knew her work and understood its significance, Trish’s death is a blow to millions of people who have benefited from her research and expertise, without knowing that a great social movement depended on Trish’s work.

During the last 21 years, Trish was the primary researcher in an effort to name and document every Catholic priest, brother, and nun accused of abusing a child. For the last 10 years, she also coordinated the project. This effort was conceived, organized, and funded by attorney Sylvia Demarest, beginning in 1994, initially to support the Kos litigation, but then for the broader humanitarian purpose of providing an information resource to combat the scourge of child molestation by clergy, and to offer a means of calling the Catholic church to account.

The project started with the names identified by Jason Berry in his groundbreaking Lead Us Not into Temptation, and was greatly aided by the list and newsletter published by the Linkup, a survivors’ organization. In addition to Demarest and McLelland, students from the Southern Methodist University Law School participated in the work.

In 2004, Demarest donated her database and voluminous supporting documentation to BishopAccountability.org, which has employed Trish since 2005 to maintain and enhance the list that she and Demarest had begun. In the initial stages, the work of Demarest’s team was merged with the list developed by the volunteers organized by Paul Baier at Survivors First. Astonishingly, Trish cared for the BishopAccountability.org database on evenings and weekends, after her full-time job in Tahira Khan Merritt’s practice.

Holder of a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Texas, Trish vastly improved and expanded her database in 2005-2014, adding more than 1,100 names and tens of thousands of sources, and enhancing the other entries. Today, BishopAccountability.org’s Database of Publicly Accused Priests in the U.S. lists more than 4,000 bishops, priests, nuns, brothers, deacons, and seminarians. Along with Abuse Tracker, it is the feature used most frequently by BishopAccountability.org’s 1.5 million unique visitors annually.

As attorney Demarest anticipated, the database that Trish built has saved children from being abused. It has also served as a unique and comprehensive resource for law enforcement officials and investigative reporters, and has enabled survivors to come forward and obtain justice. Many developments of the last 20 years would never have occurred, were it not for the information gathered by Trish McLelland. The database has functioned as a force multiplier for any survivor, researcher, advocate, scholar, or activist involved in the child protection cause. Since 2002, dioceses and some religious orders have begun to issue lists of their own, and there is now serious talk of the church’s creating a global list. None of this could have happened without Trish McLelland’s determination and attention to the smallest detail.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor
@JohnLAllenJr

ROME — With his picks for new cardinals announced on Sunday, Pope Francis continued his campaign to reach out to the peripheries. The pontiff bypassed traditional centers of power and awarded red hats to such typically overlooked locales as Panama, Thailand, Cape Verde, New Zealand, and the Pacific island of Tonga.

For the second time, there were no new cardinals from the United States on the list announced by Francis. There were also no Americans in the first crop of cardinals named by Francis in February 2014.

While geography seemed the determining factor in these picks for Pope Francis, who at times struggled even pronouncing the names of his new cardinals, it’s noteworthy that the list includes a couple of high-profile moderates but no one with a clear reputation as a doctrinal or political conservative.

Archbishop John Atcherley Dew from New Zealand, for instance, argued for allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion at a 2005 Vatican synod of bishops. Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez is president of the Spanish bishops’ conference and generally seen as a moderate opposed to the harder line of former Madrid Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

by Elise Harris

Vatican City, Jan 4, 2015 / 06:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his Sunday Angelus address Pope Francis announced the names of the 15 bishops to be created cardinals in February, many of whom hail from small dioceses which have never before had a cardinal.

“As was already announced, next February 14 I will have the joy of holding a Consistory, during which I will name 15 new Cardinals who manifest the indissoluble links between the Church of Rome and the particular Churches present in the world,” the Roman Pontiff said on Jan. 4.

Speaking to the thousands of pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square after his recitation of the traditional Marian prayer, the Pope revealed that the 15 new cardinals to be created come from 13 countries and from every continent.

Announced in the fall, the consistory will take place Feb. 12-14. During the first two days Pope Francis will meet with the entire collage of cardinals to reflect on current proposals for the ongoing reformation of the Roman Curia.

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VATICAN CITY
Caperi

January 04, 2015 (Vatican City) – Pope Francis named fifteen Archbishops and Bishops from thirteen countries who are to become Cardinals in mid-February, Vatican Radio announced on Sunday.

Among the new Cardinals is Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel was born on 14 July 1948 in Tchela Claka, near Harar in Ethiopia.

The list of fifteen Cardinals includes, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Archbishiop Manuel José Macario do Nascimento Clemente, Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal), Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M., of Addis Abeba (Ethiopia), Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington (New Zealand), Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli of Ancona-Osimo (Italy), Archbishop Pierre Nguyên Văn Nhon of Hà Nôi (Viêt Nam), Archbishop Alberto Suàrez Inda of Morelia (Mexico), Archbishop Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B., of Yangon (Myanmar), Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok (Thailand), Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento (Italy), Archbishop Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, S.D.B., of Montevideo (Uruguay), Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez of Vallodolid (Spain), Bishop José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, O.A.R., of David (Panamá), Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado, of Santiago de Cabo Verde (Archipelago of Cape Verde), Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga (Island of Tonga)

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor

Pope Francis has put his stamp firmly on the Roman Catholic Church by naming 20 new cardinals from countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Vietnam and Panama.

The Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the choices signalled that the Pope does not feel “chained to tradition” as he shifts the balance of power in the Church towards the developing world.

The clerics from 14 different countries include the first men from Tonga, Burma and Cape Verde to become so-called “princes of the Church”.

The list also includes five retired bishops and archbishops too old to take part in the conclave to choose the next Pope but who, he said, were “distinguished for their pastoral charity”.
Pope Francis, who declared within days of his election in 2013 that he wanted a “poor church for the poor”, has now appointed 39 cardinals.

That includes 31 cardinal electors, those under the age of 80 who would be eligible to elect his successor in the next conclave – a quarter of the total.

Significantly there was no one from the United States on the list – the second time since Francis become Pope that a new batch of Cardinals had been announced without any names from the Church’s biggest source of income.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

At today’s Angelus Pope Francis read out the names of 20 bishops and archbishops who will be raised to the dignity of the cardinalate at the upcoming Consistory on February 14th. 15 of them will be eligible to vote in a Conclave

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis has announced the names of the new cardinals who will receive the red biretta this coming February 14th. There will be 20 new “senators of the Church”, from across 14 nations and five Continents. 15 of them are under 80 years old and would therefore be eligible to vote in a potential Conclave. Five of them are over 80 . …

Francis seems to have respected the unwritten rule of not creating the current archbishop of a see with a retired cardinal under 80 years of age, a cardinal. Potential US candidates in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago will not therefore be receiving the red biretta and neither will the new Archbishop of Madrid.

Dominique Mamberti, the new Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, is the only Curia member appearing in the list of new cardinals. The Vatican’s former “minister of foreign affairs” was not yet a cardinal when he carried out the only role within a Holy See dicastery where the title of cardinal is a given(as established in John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution “Pastor Bonus”).

None of the Pontifical Council presidents are to be created cardinals. Pontifical Councils are not ordinarily presided over by cardinals (except in the case of the ecumenism council led by Kurt Koch) and are going to be merged as part of the Curia reform process currently underway. The Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, the Frenchman, Jean-Louis Bruguès, did not feature in the list of cardinals-to-be either. Francis’ preference for diocesan bishops is therefore evident, as well as his focus on the southern parts of the world.

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UNITED STATES
Whispers in the Loggia

As expected, at this Sunday’s noontime Angelus, the Pope revealed the names of 20 cardinals-designate – 15 electors, five over 80 – who’ll receive the red hat at the 14 February Consistory.

Yet again, Francis’ second biglietto (ticket) into his Senate represents a shock to the system – again, no Americans (a second consecutive shut-out unseen in almost four decades), while for the first time, membership in the papal electorate goes to prelates from Myanmar, Cape Verde, Panama and Tonga, and returns to long-unvisited locales in New Zealand, Thailand, Ethiopia and Uruguay.

All in all, the ongoing shake-up of the College reiterates Francis’ desire to bring the church’s “peripheries” to its center in the forum which will determine the church’s direction after his pontificate ends – and, of course, the talent pool from which a new Pope has invariably been drawn for the last eight centuries.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Clergy, full- and part-time employees, and volunteers who work with children within the Archdiocese of Chicago are subject to these compliance standards, overseen by the archdiocese’s Safe Environment Office, a division of the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth:

• The church requires personnel to complete eApps online criminal background check. (More than 113,200 employees and volunteers have had background checks.)

• The church requires personnel to submit Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System, or CANTS, Form to Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

• Church personnel attend mandated reporter training.

• Church personnel attend Virtus/Protecting God’s Children training. (3,700 such sessions have been conducted since 2003, attended by 175,000 employees and volunteers.)

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Hugh O’Shaughnessy
Sunday 4 January 2015

Now in his late 70s, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, according to some reports from Rome, is showing his age and may not live long into his 80s. There are even dark hints that some of his Italian opponents in the Vatican are bent on mischief, as they might have been at the time of the strange, untimely death of Pope John Paul I in 1976, and still smarting at the disappearance of the ancient usage that the leader should be a native of their country. After the election of a Polish, followed by German and now – for heaven’s sake – an Argentinian pope, some Italian feathers are still ruffled.

Yet the tremendously vital but brief papacy of John XXIII in the early 1960s illustrated that a short five-year reign by the right man can produce new and very welcome currents of thought in an ancient institution. As the enormous political coup brought off last month when Francis and his men doused the flames of hostility that had been raging for half a century between Havana and Washington demonstrated, forceful and skilled Vatican diplomacy can bring amazing results.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has named 20 new cardinals, including churchmen from Tonga, Ethiopia and Myanmar.

Fifteen of the new appointees are under 80, making them eligible to enter a conclave to elect the Pope’s successor.

Pope Francis said the appointment of cardinals from 14 countries from every continent in the world showed the Vatican’s “inseparable link” with Catholic Churches around the world.

They will be formally installed on 14 February.

The list of names includes five retired bishops who will join the College of Cardinals but are over 80 and so cannot take part in a papal election.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

What makes an allegation of sexual abuse against a priest credible is the heart of the disagreement between the Chicago Archdiocese and victims’ advocates.

Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson and officials with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victims’ advocacy group, have called on newly installed Archbishop Blase Cupich to release files on all priests who’ve ever been accused of sexual abuse — whether archdiocese officials have deemed those allegations to be credible.

“It’s their own review board, their own standards, their own protocols and policies monitored by their own people,” Anderson said in explaining his distrust of the process.

Mike Hoffman, who was a victim of former priest Robert Mayer at a Lake Forest parish in the late 1970s, said he was pleased with the process of the review board, which determined his allegations were substantiated not long after he came forward in August 2006 after he read a newspaper article about a suit by classmates of his. The archdiocese reached a financial settlement and agreed to pay for three years of counseling sessions.

“I thought that’s pretty good for a large institution to come to that determination in 4½ months,” said Hoffman, who remains a practicing Catholic and who worked with the archdiocese to create a healing garden for victims.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

[with timeline]

Christopher Placek

t was 25 years after he was abused by a Catholic priest that Mike Hoffman finally decided to tell someone.

In 2006, he was reading a newspaper article about victims of clergy sex abuse suing the Archdiocese of Chicago. The names of Hoffman’s abuser, Robert Mayer, and classmates who were victims, stood out.

The abuse Hoffman experienced as a teenager at the Church of St. Mary in Lake Forest had become his “normal.”

“That article triggered the fact it wasn’t normal at all,” said Hoffman, now 49, a Chicago resident and owner of a Mount Prospect small business. “That was painful abuse.”

Hoffman contacted the archdiocese to tell his story and, months later, was told an internal review board determined sexual misconduct did occur — a judgment accepted by Cardinal Francis George. Hoffman soon after negotiated a financial settlement with the archdiocese, which also agreed to pay for three years of counseling sessions.

Archdiocese officials say they have substantiated 352 abuse cases relating to 66 priests since 1952 and paid out $130 million in settlements to victims. They say the policies and procedures they’ve implemented in light of the sex abuse scandal can help prevent abuse from happening again. The church’s sharpest critics disagree.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet

04 January 2015 12:00 by Elena Curti

Pope Francis announced at this morning’s Angelus the names of the 15 men who are to receive red hats in a consistory next month.

The new cardinals are from 13 countries including Ethiopia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand. Only two are Italian. The consistory will take place on 12 and 13 February and will examine proposals for reform of the Roman Curia.

The bishops and archbishops who will receive red hats are:
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
Archbishiop Manuel José Macario do Nascimento Clemente, Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal)
Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M., of Addis Abeba (Ethiopia)
Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington (New Zealand)

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VATICAN CITY
ITV (UK)

[with list]

The Pope has named 20 new senior religious leaders from 14 countries as diverse as Vietnam, Tonga, Ethiopia and Mexico in an effort to unite the Catholic church around the world.

Pope Francis announced that he will hold the special ceremony to install 15 new cardinals, known as a consistory, at the Vatican on February 14.

He has also named five new archbishops and bishops emeriti.

The new cardinals, many of whom are under 80, have been appointed to the elite group of religious leaders at the top of the Roman Catholic herarchy – meaning they will be allowed to enter the conclave to choose his successor after his death or resignation.

He said that by choosing new religious leaders from many different countries from every continent, he wanted to “show the inseparable bond between the Church of Rome and the particular churches around the world.”

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By DEBORAH BALL
Updated Jan. 4, 2015

ROME— Pope Francis nominated 15 new members of the College of Cardinals on Sunday, including new cardinals for Vietnam, Ethiopia, Mexico and Myanmar.

The 15 men are all under the age of 80, which makes them eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a future pope.

The majority of the new batch of cardinals is from the developing world, reflecting the Argentine-born pontiff’s efforts to rebalance the College of Cardinals toward countries where Catholicism is growing. There were no Americans among the new nominees.

The group is the second batch of cardinals appointed by Pope Francis. They will be elevated at a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Feb. 14.

The pontiff also nominated five cardinals emeriti, who won’t have the power to vote in a conclave. Such nominations are honorary.

Corrections & Amplifications

The cardinals will be elevated at a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Feb. 14. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the ceremony would take place on Feb. 24. (1/4/2015)

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, head of the Holy See Press Office, has published the following “notes” on the new Cardinals, whose names were announced by Pope Francis at the Angelus on Sunday:

With respect to the number of 120 electors, there were 12 places “open” in the College today or in the coming months. The Pope has slightly exceeded this number, but remained very close to it, such that it is substantially respected.

The most evident criteria is evidently that of universality. Fourteen different countries are represented, including some that do not currently have a Cardinal, and some that have never had one. If the retired Archbishops and Bishops are counted, eighteen countries are represented. There are no new Cardinals from North America (the USA or Canada) because they already have a significant number, and that number has remained stable during the past year. (There is a new Mexican Cardinal).

The presence of countries that have never had a Cardinal (Capo Verde, Tonga, Myanmar) is noteworthy. These countries have ecclesial communities that are small or that represent a minority within their country. (The Bishop of Tonga is the President of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific; the Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde is one of the most ancient African Dioceses; the Diocese of Morelia in Mexico is in a region troubled by violence.)

The fact that only one of the new Cardinals is from the Roman Curia is also notable, while “Roman” Cardinals remain about a quarter of the electors. It is evident that the Pope intends to consider the posts of Prefects of the Congregations and of some other very important institutions within the Curia – as, in this case, the Tribunal of the Signatura – as Cardinalatial posts.

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THAILAND
Bangkok Post

The Archbishop of Bangkok was among 20 new cardinals named by Pope Francis on Sunday to attend the elite group at the top of the Roman Catholic hierarchy who enter the conclave to choose his successor after his death or resignation. Among them are 15 who are under 80.

Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij will join other cardinals from other countries including Italy, Portugal, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Mexico, Myanmar, Uruguay, Spain and Panama, according to a statement of the Vatican released on Sunday.

It is the second time the 78-year-old Pope has put his stamp on the direction he wants the 1.2 billion member church to go, having named 19 cardinals a year ago. The new “princes” of the Church will be installed at a ceremony known as a consistory at the Vatican on Feb 14.

Pope Francis said on Sunday the new cardinals reflect the church’s diversity.

The Thai archbishop is 65 years old. He was born in Bang Rak district, Bangkok, on June 27, 1949, and was ordained in 1976.

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VATICAN CITY
TribTown

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press
First Posted: January 04, 2015

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals Sunday, selecting them from 14 nations, including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar, to reflect the diversity of the church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa..

Other cardinals hail from Ethiopia, Thailand and Vietnam. Another is form Sicily, where the Church in recent decades has been galvanizing public rejection of the Mafia.

Referring to the Vatican, Francis told faithful in St. Peter’s Square that the churchmen come “from every continent” and “show the indelible tie with the church of Rome to churches in the world.”

In addition to the 15 new cardinals who are under 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope, Francis bestowed the honor on five churchmen older than that. He said they distinguished themselves for their work in the Vatican bureaucracy, in diplomatic service in giving witness to their love of Christ and God’s people. Those included men from the pope’s native Argentina, Mozambique and Colombia.

Speaking from a Vatican window to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Francis made another surprise announcement. He said that on Feb. 12-13, he will lead of meeting of all cardinals to “reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia,” the Vatican’s administrative bureaucracy.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN)For the second time during his papacy, Pope Francis has announced a new group of bishops and archbishops set to become cardinals — and they come from all over the world.

Pope Francis said Sunday that he would hold a meeting of cardinals on February 14 “during which I will name 15 new Cardinals who, coming from 13 countries from every continent, manifest the indissoluble links between the Church of Rome and the particular Churches present in the world,” according to Vatican Radio.

New cardinals are always important because they set the tone in the church and also elect the next pope, CNN senior Vatican analyst John L. Allen said. They are sometimes referred to as the princes of the Catholic Church.

The new cardinals come from countries such as Ethiopia, New Zealand and Myanmar.

“This is a pope who very much wants to reach out to people on the margins, and you clearly see that in this set,” Allen said. “You’re talking about cardinals from typically overlooked places, like Cape Verde, the Pacific island of Tonga, Panama, Thailand, Uruguay.”
But for the second time, no Americans made the list.

“Francis’ pattern is very clear: He wants to go to the geographical peripheries rather than places that are already top-heavy with cardinals,” Allen said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis announced the names of fifteen Archbishops and Bishops whom he will raise to the dignity of the Cardinalate on February 14, 2015. In addition, the Holy Father announced that five retired Archbishops and Bishops “distinguished for their pastoral charity in the service of the Holy See and of the Church” would also be made Cardinals.

Below, please find the complete text of the Pope’s announcement, with the names of all those set to be elevated to the Cardinalate:

“As was already announced, on February 14 next I will have the joy of holding a Concistory, during which I will name 15 new Cardinals who, coming from 13 countries from every continent, manifest the indissoluble links between the Church of Rome and the particular Churches present in the world.

“On Sunday February 15 I will preside at a solemn concelebration with the new Cardinals, while on February 12 and 13 I will hold a Consistory with all the Cardinals to reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia.

“The new Cardinals are:

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
Archbishiop Manuel José Macario do Nascimento Clemente, Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal)
Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M., of Addis Abeba (Ethiopia)
Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington (New Zealand)
Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli of Ancona-Osimo (Italy)
Archbishop Pierre Nguyên Văn Nhon of Hà Nôi (Viêt Nam)
Archbishop Alberto Suàrez Inda of Morelia (Mexico)
Archbishop Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B., of Yangon (Myanmar)
Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok (Thailand)
Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento (Italy)
Archbishop Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, S.D.B., of Montevideo (Uruguay)
Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez of Vallodolid (Spain)
Bishop José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, O.A.R., of David (Panamá)
Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado, of Santiago de Cabo Verde (Archipelago of Cape Verde)
Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga (Island of Tonga)

“Additionally, I will join to the Members of the College of Cardinals five Archbishops and Bishops Emeriti who are distinguished for their pastoral charity in the service of the Holy See and of the Church. They represent so many Bishops who, with the same pastoral solicitude, have given witness of love for Christ and for the people of God in particular Churches, in the Rome Curia, and in the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See.

“They are:

José de Jesús Pimiento Rodriguez, Archbishop Emeritus of Manizales
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, Major Pro-Penitentiary Emeritus
Archbishop Karl-Joseph Rauber, Apostolic Nuncio
Luis Héctor Villaba, Archbishop Emeritus of Tucumán
Júlio Duarte Langa, Bishop Emeritus of Xai-Xai

“Let us pray for the new Cardinals, that, renewed in their love for Christ, they might be witnesses of His Gospel in the City of Rome and in the world, and with their pastoral experience they might support me more intensely in my apostolic service.”

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News

VATICAN CITY — Jan 4, 2015

Associated Press

Pope Francis has named 15 new cardinals, selecting the “princes of the church” from 14 nations, including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand and Myanmar.

Other cardinals hail from Ethiopia, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. Francis said Sunday the new cardinals reflect the church’s diversity and will be formally installed on Feb. 14.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Annuncio di Concistoro per la creazione di nuovi Cardinali

Nel corso dell’Angelus di oggi, il Santo Padre Francesco ha annunciato i nomi dei nuovi Cardinali che nominerà nel Concistoro del 14 febbraio prossimo:

Come è stato già annunciato, il prossimo 14 febbraio avrò la gioia di tenere un Concistoro, durante il quale nominerò 15 nuovi Cardinali, che, provenienti da 14 Nazioni di ogni Continente, manifestano l’inscindibile legame fra la Chiesa di Roma e le Chiese particolari presenti nel mondo.

Domenica 15 febbraio presiederò una solenne concelebrazione con i nuovi Cardinali, mentre il 12 e il 13 febbraio terrò un Concistoro con tutti i Cardinali per riflettere sugli orientamenti e le proposte per la riforma della Curia Romana.

I nuovi Cardinali sono:

1 – Mons. Dominique Mamberti, Arcivescovo titolare di Sagona, Prefetto del Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica.

2 – Mons. Manuel José Macário do Nascimento Clemente, Patriarca di Lisboa (Portogallo).

3 – Mons. Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M., Arcivescovo di Addis Abeba (Etiopia).

4 – Mons. John Atcherley Dew, Arcivescovo di Wellington (Nuova Zelanda).

5 – Mons. Edoardo Menichelli, Arcivescovo di Ancona-Osimo (Italia).

6 – Mons. Pierre Nguyên Văn Nhon, Arcivescovo di Hà Nôi (Viêt Nam).

7 – Mons. Alberto Suárez Inda, Arcivescovo di Morelia (Messico).

8 – Mons. Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B., Arcivescovo di Yangon (Myanmar).

9 – Mons. Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij, Arcivescovo di Bangkok (Thailandia).

10 – Mons. Francesco Montenegro, Arcivescovo di Agrigento (Italia).

11 – Mons. Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, S.D.B., Arcivescovo di Montevideo (Uruguay).

12 – Mons. Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, Arcivescovo di Valladolid (Spagna).

13 – Mons. José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, O.A.R., Vescovo di David (Panamá).

14 – Mons. Arlindo Gomes Furtado, Vescovo di Santiago de Cabo Verde (Arcipelago di Capo Verde).

15 – Mons. Soane Patita Paini Mafi, Vescovo di Tonga (Isole di Tonga).

Unirò, inoltre, ai Membri del Collegio Cardinalizio 5 Arcivescovi e Vescovi Emeriti che si sono distinti per la loro carità pastorale nel servizio alla Santa Sede e alla Chiesa. Essi rappresentano tanti Vescovi che, con la stessa sollecitudine di pastori, hanno dato testimonianza di amore a Cristo e al Popolo di Dio sia nelle Chiese particolari, sia nella Curia Romana, sia nel Servizio Diplomatico della Santa Sede.

Essi sono:

1 – Mons. José de Jesús Pimiento Rodríguez, Arcivescovo emerito di Manizales.

2 – Mons. Luigi De Magistris, Arcivescovo titolare di Nova, Pro-Penitenziere Maggiore emerito.

3 – Mons. Karl-Joseph Rauber, Arcivescovo titolare di Giubalziana, Nunzio Apostolico.

4 – Mons. Luis Héctor Villalba, Arcivescovo emerito di Tucumán.

5 – Mons. Júlio Duarte Langa, Vescovo emerito di Xai-Xai.

Preghiamo per i nuovi Cardinali, affinché, rinnovando il loro amore a Cristo, siano testimoni del suo Vangelo nella Città di Roma e nel mondo e con la loro esperienza pastorale mi sostengano più intensamente nel mio servizio apostolico.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Valley News

Randall Balmer
For the Valley News
Sunday, January 4, 2015
(Published in print: Sunday, January 4, 2015)

Imagine for a moment — and unfortunately it’s not difficult to do so — a religious institution with a long and tawdry history of tolerating sexual abuse. Individuals in positions of authority would prey on those in a subordinate status, those most vulnerable. If one of the victims summoned the courage to report the incident, those in authority would either brush it off or blame the victim for provoking the attack.

As evidence of systemic abuse mounted, officials in charge of this religious institution promised to investigate. Those investigations, however, were half-hearted at best and even aborted when investigators came close to the truth of the matter. The institution pledged to root out the corruption and punish the miscreants. But these religious authorities were also adamant that they should handle these sensitive matters internally rather than turn the cases over to law-enforcement authorities.

By now the contours of the story are sadly familiar, and readers know that I’m obviously referring to . . . Bob Jones University.

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UNITED STATES
News-Press

Frank Fear January 3, 2015

Pope Francis is at it again. He is continuing his unprecedented (and very public) effort to reform the Vatican bureaucracy.

In his Christmas Week address to The Curia he called bishops and cardinals “Lords of the Manor – (sometimes feeling) superior to everyone and everything.” “A Curia that does not criticize itself, that does not bring itself up to date, that does not to improve, is a sick body,” Francis proclaimed.

The administrative body of the Church needs to change, says the Pope, and he offered The Curia a framework for reform. Likening it to a diseased body, Francis described what he called “15 ailments of The Curia.” What’s ailing the Church’s top brass? Feeling indispensable. Being boastful. Gossiping. Forming closed circles. Showing off. Focusing excessively on career. Being opportunists. …

Most institutions talk a good game. They “brand” well. And they let the public know the great things they’re doing. But Francis brings to attention something else: what often goes on inside institutions. There you can often find a different storyline, one that’s almost always hidden from public view.

The prevailing approach is “impression management.” Only talk about what’s working well. Focus on highlights. Don’t air “dirty laundry.” Protect the Brand.

Some of that certainly makes sense, but an insular organizational culture emerges when institutional self-enhancement is taken to an extreme. Issues get papered-over. Employees feel they can’t bring up problems. It’s a matter of “going along to get along.”

None of this matters to the public most of the time, but that’s certainly not a hard and fast rule. Consider what happened at General Motors (ignition switch); The Veteran’s Administration (vets’ medical treatment); and Penn State University (sexual predation). And not too long ago the Pope cleaned-up money laundering at The Vatican Bank.

In calling-out the Curia, Francis made public what he believes is happening inside The Vatican. By extrapolation he invites us to ask a parallel question: What’s going on inside our organizations? As The Chicago Tribune wrote last week about the Pope’s talk: “This wasn’t an exclusively Roman Catholic message, or even a particularly religious message. It’s advice to all of us on how to lead our lives.”

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GUAM
Pacific Sunday News

Written by
Maria Hernandez
Pacific Sunday News

Vatican diplomats traveling from Rome were expected to arrive on island yesterday evening, and at least one member of the delegation is expected to attend the governor’s inauguration on Monday, according to the governor’s office.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fair, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; Archbishop Martin Krebs, apostolic delegate to the Pacific Islands; and Reverend Father Tadeusz Nowak will be on island until Jan. 10, according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

The governor’s inauguration will take place Monday morning on the front lawn at Adelup. Krebs is expected to attend, according to the governor’s office.

Concerned Catholics

While the archdiocese stated in a December release that the trip is a “pastoral visit to foster reconciliation and mutual understanding in the archdiocese,” some local organizations are disputing the claim.

In mid-December, a nonprofit group called the Concerned Catholics of Guam Inc. announced its plans to investigate the management of the local church, its financial books and the archdiocese’s handling of accusations of sexual molestation against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, news files state.

Apuron, who is planning a defamation lawsuit to defend the church, called the allegation a “horrible calumny,” but declined to comment further.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

Saturday, January 3, 2014 – Road to Recovery, Inc.

The Xaverian Missionaries are a religious order of men with a headquarters in Wayne, NJ where Fr. James Tully, a serial sexual abuser of children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults is based and has lived recently. Fr. James Tully is a risk and danger to children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults.

Fr. James Tully sexually abused Anthony Turay at approximately age 19. Anthony Turay is a native of Makeni, Sierra Leone, Africa, who came from a devout Catholic family and attended a junior seminary in order to be a priest. Anthony Turay was also sexually abused at approximately age 20 by Br. Martin O’Reilly, CFC, at the Christian Brothers’ Formation Center in Gbarnga, Liberia, Africa, where Anthony was preparing to become a religious brother.

The Xaverian Missionaries have refused to treat Anthony Turay fairly and justly because of the effects of the sexual abuse of Fr. James Tully, Xaverian Missionary.

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting a New Jersey neighborhood and the general public to the dangers posed by a missionary religious order of men which refuses to treat an African sexual abuse victim, Anthony Turay, of a missionary priest, Fr. James Tully, fairly and justly.

When
Sunday, January 4, 2015 from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm (press conference at Noon)

Where
Outside the headquarters of the Xaverian Missionary Religious Order, 12 Helene Court, Wayne, NJ 07470 – 973-942-2975

Who
Anthony Turay, an African man who was sexually abused by Fr. James Tully in a Catholic parish in Kamalo, Sierra Leone at approximately the age of 19; his fiancée; Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families; Kevin Waldrip, a New Jersey sexual abuse victim and supporter of sexual abuse victims.

Why
The Xaverian Missionaries are an international religious order working in approximately 21 countries, including Sierra Leone in Africa. Fr. James Tully, a Xaverian Missionary, is a serial sexual abuser of children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults. The Xaverian Missionaries have settled claims against Fr. Tully for sexually abusing children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults in the United States and foreign countries. Anthony Turay, an innocent victim from Sierra Leone in Africa, was sexually abused by Fr. James Tully at the Xaverian Missionary parish in Kamalo, Sierra Leone on more than one occasion. Demonstrators will go door to door in the cul-de-sac neighborhood of Wayne, NJ where the leaders of the Xaverian Missionaries are based warning innocent families of the danger posed by Fr. James Tully and the Xaverian Missionary leaders who enabled and continue to enable him.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President, Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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UNITED STATES
America

Nathan Schneider | Jan 1 2015

A Catholic sister I know, on her way to yet another street protest for police accountability, emailed me the other day with “an idea for a column,” as her subject line read. This crisis of racism in policing, she wrote, seems familiar. Could it be that there is some connection between prosecutors protecting killer police officers and bishops protecting abusive priests?

It’s a haunting idea—haunting to think that these two hugely powerful yet distinct institutions might have systemic problems in common. Even more haunting is the thought of how touchy partisans of either the cops or the church might respond to such an intimation. Yet the second I saw the sister’s brief suggestion, I couldn’t help but think that there is truth to it.

Think of it this way. Police departments around the country are facing a renewed round of protest for practices and policies that victimize people of color; in a spree of high-profile cases, officers have escaped trial, angering communities and harming public trust in the institution as a whole. Dioceses around the country, too, have been exposed in recent years for practices and policies that victimize the people they purport to serve, particularly children; after a series of high-profile cover-ups, the systematic protection of abusive clergy has sorely harmed the faithful’s trust in the institution as a whole.

Am I missing something?

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In a new posting at his Christian Catholicism site, Jerry Slevin invites Catholics to dream about the impossible. As he notes, countering the idea that such dreams are “impractical,” who dreamt that a “pope for life” would resign in the midst of the mess the Catholic church has made for itself at this point in history?

And did Jesus limit his dreams to the “practical”?

Jerry proposes 12 resolutions for Pope Francis if he really does want to fix the mess:

∙Protect children by holding bishops accountable.
∙Protect children by restoring the age of First Confession to 13 years of age.
∙Help abuse survivors financially and emotionally.
∙Help couples by endorsing contraception.
∙Help women by ordaining women as priests.
∙Appoint women Cardinals.
∙Recognize same sex marriages as holy.
∙Encourage divorced and remarried Catholics to receive all the Sacraments.
∙Have all bishops selected and retained only with the full consent of the Catholics they serve.
∙Sell all excess Church assets and give the proceeds to the poor.
∙End Church involvement in political campaigns.
∙Infallibly declare that popes are always “fallible”.

With regard to the question of naming women cardinals, Jerry notes that the Wall Street Journal has stated that Francis may name new cardinals as early as tomorrow. As he also points out, no less than the Vatican’s Jesuit spokesman Father Lombardi has told The Irish Times that “theologically and theoretically, it is possible” for a pope to name a woman cardinal. As Jerry also reminds his readers, Jesuit Father Tom Reese has also stated that, according to canon law, a pope has “total freedom” to appoint whomever he wishes as a cardinal.

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ITALIA
Firmiamo

[petition site in support of Pope Francis]

L’arrivo del Papa «venuto dalla fine del mondo» che assume il nome di Francesco presentandosi non come Pontefice Massimo, ma come Vescovo di Roma, provoca reazioni scomposte dentro la Curia vaticana che, falcidiata da scandali e corruzioni, considera il Papa come corpo «estraneo» al suo sistema consolidato di alleanze col potere mondano, alimentato da due strumenti perversi: il denaro e il sesso.

Dapprima il chiacchiericcio sul «Papa strano» inizia in sordina, poi via via diventa sempre più palese davanti alle aperture di papa Francesco in fatto di famiglia, di «pastorale popolare» e di vicinanza con il Popolo di Dio per arrivare anche – scandalo degli scandali – a parlare con i non credenti e gli atei.

Dopo lo sgomento di un sinodo «libero di parlare», l’attacco frontale di cinque cardinali (Müller, Burke, Brandmüller, Caffarra e De Paolis), tra cui il Prefetto della Congregazione della Fede, ha rafforzato il fronte degli avversari che vedono in Papa Francesco «un pericolo» che bisogna bloccare a tutti i costi.

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ITALY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor January 3, 2015

Amid a robust Italian debate over the leadership of Pope Francis, a cross-section of liberal Catholic groups in the country has launched an online petition to show backing for the Argentinian pontiff.

Pointedly called “Stop the Attacks on Pope Francis,” the petition was launched on Christmas Day by groups including “We are Church,” “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” the Edith Stein Study Center, an Italian association of theologians, and a variety of base communities. All are generally associated with the liberal wing of the Italian Church.

The petition is also signed by the Rev. Luigi Ciotti of Turin, one of Italy’s best known anti-Mafia priests, and the Rev. Alex Zanotelli, a Combonian missionary priest and a well-known social activist.

As of Jan. 3, the petition had attracted close to 2,500 signatures, toward a goal of 50,000.

The current Italian row over Francis began when one of the country’s most renowned Catholic journalists, Vittorio Messori, published a front-page essay on Dec. 24 in Corriere della Sera stating his “perplexity” over what he sees as the pontiff’s contradictions.

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MARYLAND
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

January 3rd, 2015

Bishop Heather Cook of Baltimore killed a bicyclist last week.

She apparently left her apartment at the end of Roland Avenue in Baltimore. She drove south down a section of Roland Ave which is 6 lanes, untrafficked, with clearly marked bike lanes and smooth pavement.

There she encountered Tony Palermo and ran into him. He was an expert bicyclist, and worked in the bicycle section at REI. My son frequently saw him bicycling. There were other bicyclists around.

She continued on Roland Avenue and turned around. The bicyclists saw her car and realized it must have been the one involved in the accident. A bicyclist pursued her to get her license number. She drove into her gated community but the guard kept the bicyclist out.

45 minutes after the accident (according to eyewitnesses) she returned to the scene of the accident. An official from the Episcopal diocese was on hand.

Cook had had a previous encounter with the police:

Court records show that a sheriff’s deputy stopped Cook on Sept. 10, 2010, in Caroline County on the Eastern Shore. The officer wrote in a report that Cook was driving on the shoulder at 29 mph in a 50 mph-zone with a shredded front tire. The deputy noted that a strong alcohol odor emanated from the vehicle and that Cook had vomit down the front of her shirt.

The officer wrote that Cook was so intoxicated that she couldn’t finish a field sobriety test because she might fall and hurt herself.

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

CALIFORNIA
ABC 30

By Kate Valentine
Friday, January 02, 2015

TULARE, Calif. (KFSN) — A former Tulare priest accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from parishioners has bailed out of jail. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno is reaching out to members to help calm any concerns.

Questions surround former priest Ignacio Villafan of St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Tulare. This week he was arrested and charged with embezzling $425,000.

The Diocese of Fresno was first told about accounting problems several years ago at St. Rita’s. That’s when they put Villafan on paid administrative leave. They also contacted Tulare police.

Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said, “Tulare Police Department did a lengthy thorough investigation and based on that we were able to file charges.”

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

MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

[with video]

By Colin Campbell
The Baltimore Sun

A Maryland Episcopal bishop identified as the motorist in Saturday’s fatal bicycle accident in North Baltimore once gave a sermon in which she used a driving analogy to discuss responsibility.

In the videotaped sermon, “Be Prepared,” Bishop Suffragan Heather Elizabeth Cook cautions the congregation that actions can have serious consequences.

“Things happen suddenly, and we’re either prepared in the moment or we’re not, and we face the consequences. We can’t go back. We can’t do it over,” Cook says in the sermon, posted on YouTube in November. “If we routinely drive 55 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, we won’t be able to stop on a dime if driving conditions get dangerous or if an animal or, God forbid, a human being should step out in front of us,” Cook says.

The video was posted by the All Saints’ Episcopal Church of Reisterstown on its YouTube page and is dated Nov. 13.

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ROMA
Noticias Iruya

La Squadra Mobile de la policía italiana ha detenido en Roma al sacerdote Alessandro De Rossi, sobre quien pesaba una orden de captura internacional emitida por un Juez de Garantías de la ciudad de Salta.

La detención se produjo el pasado miércoles 31 de diciembre, en horas de la tarde, según han informado autoridades italianas.

De Rossi se desempeñaba desde el 1 de septiembre de 2013 como párroco de la iglesia de San Luigi Gonzaga, ubicada en la via Villa Emiliani del barrio de Parioli, al norte de Roma.

El sacerdote, de 46 años, estuvo destinado «fidei donum» durante aproximadamente seis años en la Arquidiócesis de Salta, en donde tuvo a su cargo la iglesia de María Medianera de Todas las Gracias, ubicada al oeste de la capital salteña. De Rossi era, además, uno de los promotores de una ONG religiosa denominada “Salta sul mondo onlus”, que realizaba proyectos en favor de los niños más vulnerables.

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ARGENTINA
Noticias Iruyai

El Arzobispo de Salta avaló con su ‘juicio positivo’ la designación como párroco en Roma del cura detenido

En la tarde de ayer, día viernes 2 de enero de 2015, el Uficio Comunicazioni Sociali (UCS), que depende del Vicariato di Roma, ha hecho público un comunicado de prensa en el que expresa su dolor y desconcierto por el arresto del párroco de San Luigi Gonzaga, «Alessandro De Rossi», acusado de abuso y corrupción de menores por la justicia de Salta.

La nota recuerda que el sacerdote había regresado a Roma a comienzos de 2013, después de pasar varios años como misionero en el extranjero y señala expresamente que su designación como párroco en una iglesia de Roma se debió al juicio positivo emitido sobre él por el «obispo local».

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ROME
Buenos Aires Herald

A priest accused of sexual abuse against minors in Salta province was arrested in Rome, Italy, following an warrant issued by Argentine judges.

Alessandro De Rossi, 46, faced charges for having perpetrated sexual offences against a 14-year-old teenager during three years while he was working at the church “María Medianera de todas las gracias,” located in the neighbourhood Islas Malvinas of the capital city of Salta, according to the website Roma Capitale.

At the time of his arrest, De Rossi was a pastor in a church in Rome’s Parioli district.
The detention took place on December 31 but was reported yesterday.

Salta Judge Diego Rodríguez Pipino issued an arrest warrant to the Interpol international police agency against De Rossi, who is said to have committed a series of sexual offences to an unknown number of victims.

The priest, born in Rome, was sent to Salta by Church authorities. He spent five years in that province.

Between December 23 and Christmas Eve, police officers carried out several raids to seize computers, photographs and some other information that could be used as evidence of the alleged ties between De Rossi and the sexual abuse cases that had been reported by minors.

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