ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: November 24, 2014

Former altar boy sued dioceses, order over priest’s alleged abuse.

Some church documents disclosed in a lawsuit alleging clergy sex abuse will remain confidential, a judge says.

The decision by Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann, filed Friday, isn’t unusual in civil cases. But it illustrates the challenges to attorneys representing clients who allege they were abused by clergy.

Guthmann’s decision applies to a suit filed by “Doe 30” against the New Ulm and Duluth dioceses and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate religious order.

Doe 30, a former altar boy, alleges that the Rev. James Vincent Fitzgerald sexually abused him in 1976 when he was 13. Fitzgerald, who is dead, was employed by the three defendants named in the suit.

“While this case is in litigation, the substantial interests of the parties must be balanced against and placed in context with the interests of the general public,” Guthmann wrote in his decision. “The court also has an obligation to limit or prevent case-specific pretrial publicity that serves no purpose other than to influence potential jurors.”

Attorneys representing the Oblates and the two dioceses argued at a hearing earlier this month that Doe 30’s attorneys shouldn’t be allowed to publish key church documents or provide them to the media.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

SNAP Western Regional Director Joelle Casteix issues apology to John Toves regarding her comment that sex abuse allegations were “only rumors.”

Guam – In the latest development on the sex abuse allegations involving the Archbishop, SNAP has issued an apology to John Toves who accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting his relative. SNAP had initially called the allegations only rumors.

It’s the first time sex abuse allegations were ever made public against Archbishop Anthony Apuron and Toves says it’s a secret he’s held on to for nearly three decades. But Toves had had enough, which is why he’s decided that he’ll make the accusations on behalf of his relative instead.

Last week, Toves accused the Archbishop of molesting his relative back in the early 80s. At the time, he told PNC, Apuron was not yet an Archbishop, he was a rector. Toves says his relative was so traumatized by what happened that at one point he even attempted suicide.

Toves even says that while it’s the first time these allegations were made public, it’s no big secret. He says many seminarians will back his claim and that his relative even confided in another priest at the time.

But his allegations quickly unraveled as SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests seemed to counter Toves’ claims, calling allegations “only rumors.” SNAP Western Regional Director Joelle Casteix did note in her interview with PNC last week that she considered them rumors but only because no alleged victim of the Archbishop has ever come forward.

Nevertheless, Casteix issued an apology to Toves saying she did not mean to suggest that Toves himself was spreading rumors.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

On the fifth anniversary of publication of Murphy report – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin reflects

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

Tue, Nov 25, 2014

The fifth anniversary of the publication of the Murphy Report on the management, by both Church and State organisations, of allegations of the sexual abuse of children by priests working in the Archdiocese of Dublin, brings back to me the horror of the revelations that the report contains.

Inevitably, my first reaction is to remember and recognise the horrible abuse that children experienced, which has left them with wounds and hurts in their lives which still remain today. The second reaction is to note how their hurt was in many cases made worse by the inadequacies of the responses of Church leaders and of the HSE and Garda Síochána.

Looking back over these past five years, and over the years examined by the Murphy Commission, my thoughts have curiously been dominated in these days by one group, rarely mentioned, but who are real heroes of the abuse scandals: the mothers and fathers of children who had been abused who turned to the Church authorities, not with a reaction of hostility but simply with a passionate concern to ensure that no other child would have to endure what their child did.

They did not come with legal knowhow or with psychiatric expertise or with any intention to damage the Church. They simply wanted to tell what had happened to their child and tried to put into words how deep the wound was. In some cases the story they had to tell ended in the tragedy of someone taking their own life.

Their evidence made it abundantly clear that the effects of sexual abuse of children were truly devastating. These parents came forward with great courage, very often without any other support than that of their own hurt and their own conscience. Very often, at the time they came forward, abuse was still taking place. The simple language of these mothers and fathers ought to have been enough to touch hearts and change policy.

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ESPANA
Diario de Navarra

Tres sacerdotes y un seglar fueron detenidos este lunes por la Policía en el marco de la investigación sobre supuestos abusos sexuales cometidos en Granada contra, al menos, un menor, dirigida por el Juzgado de Instrucción 4 de esta ciudad andaluza, que prevé tomarles declaración en las próximas horas.

Los tres curas arrestados son el padre Román (R.M.V.C.), que daría nombre al conocido en ámbitos eclesiásticos como el grupo de ‘Los Romanones’; Francisco Javier C.M.; y Manuel M.M.; además del seglar Sergio Q.M., profesor de Religión muy cercano a los tres anteriores, según informaron fuentes de la investigación.

Los detenidos pasaron la mañana en los calabozos de la Jefatura Superior de Policía de Andalucía Oriental de Granada, situada en la calle Palmita, y por la tarde fueron trasladados para un registro policial en un domicilio de Pinos Genil, donde permanecieron durante cerca de dos horas.

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ESPANA
20 Minutos

[Sexual abuse in the Spanish Church at least ten cases in the last two years]

No hay estadística oficial. La detención en Granada de tres sacerdotes y un seglar por supuestos abusos sexuales a menores en la parroquia de San Juan María Vianney es un caso más en un recuento que nadie parece llevar. “Parece que la Conferencia Episcopal y los Defensores del Menor no tienen mucho interés en analizar y en hacer un seguimiento a un grave problema en el seno de la Iglesia: los casos de abusos que salpican a sus religiosos”, señala Carlos Sánchez Mato, portavoz del colectivo Iglesia sin Abusos. Sánchez Mato señala que el caso de Granada es un caso excepcional: una víctima pidiendo ayuda al papa en el Vaticano ante la desidia y falta de interés que encontró en la jerarquía eclesiástica en España. “La Iglesia sigue intentando resolver estos problemas de manera interna en lugar de acudir a la Justicia”, señala a 20minutos.

Carlos Sánchez, por ejemplo, denunció hace una década a un cura de Aluche, un barrio de Madrid. Rafael Sanz Nieto fue condenado en 2006 a dos años de cárcel por abusos sexuales a menores. Además, el Arzobispado de Madrid tuvo que pagar 30.000 euros como responsable civil subsidiario. Sánchez Mato era entonces catequista de la parroquia donde se produjeron los abusos, su denuncia provocó que fuera expulsado de la parroquia. Es cierto que los casos conocidos son, de momento, pocos. La única estadística fiable la lleva el obispo canadiense Charles J. Scicluna, que en octubre de 2012 fue nombrado Promotor de Justicia de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, una especie de fiscal que investiga todos los delitos sexuales que puedan cometer los 440.000 religiosos de todo el mundo.

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ESPANA
Cadena Ser

ANA TERRADILLOS MADRID 24/11/2014

La Iglesia está colaborando con la policía y la justicia intentando localizar a testigos que puedan aportar detalles a la investigación sobre presuntos abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes de la Archidiócesis de Granada. No está siendo fácil para la policía localizar a estos testigos y es la Iglesia la que está aportando nombres de personas que pudieron haber coincido con la presunta trama de sacerdotes implicados en los presuntos abusos sexuales a menores.

Se han investigado a alrededor de veinte testigos aunque según fuentes policiales cercanas a este caso solo la mitad han dado detalles sólidos y valiosos para seguir ampliando la investigación.

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ESPANA
El Periodico

MAYKA NAVARRO / GRANADA

LUNES, 24 DE NOVIEMBRE DEL 2014

La Policía Nacional ha detenido esta mañana a tres sacerdotes y un seglar acusados de los presuntos abusos y agresiones sexuales sufridas por al menos dos adolescentes cuando hacía funciones de monaguillos en una parroquia del barrio de Zaidín de Granada. Los arrestos se han producido por orden del titular del juzgado número 4 de Granada, Antonio Moreno Marín.

Fuentes al corriente de la investigación han asegurado a EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA que los arrestados son el sacerdote Román Martínez, al que se considera responsable del grupo de curas investigados y que se conocían en círculos eclesiásticos como el clan de los Romanones. Los otros dos detenidos son Manuel Morales y Francisco Javier Montes. Además hay un seglar, profesor de Religión, que también ha sido detenido.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former lay teacher at a Catholic boys’ home has told an inquiry that he had no knowledge of any physical or sexual abuse at the home.

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.

The retired teacher had a key role at Rubane House in the Ards peninsula before it closed in the mid 1980s.

He said it would be unlikely widespread abuse would have gone unnoticed.

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SPAIN
Los Angeles Times

By LAUREN FRAYER

Three Catholic priests and a teacher were arrested Monday in southern Spain’s Granada region, suspected of child sex abuse in a scandal that has shaken this traditionally Catholic country.

The arrested priests were among 10 clergymen the Catholic Church suspended from duty last week, after learning of abuse allegations. All four men were taken to national police headquarters, where they were to be held for 72 hours, and face a judge, according to police and Spain’s interior minister. No charges had yet been filed.

Monday’s arrests were the latest development in a sex abuse scandal that in recent weeks has rocked Spain, which has seen far fewer priestly abuse allegations than in the United States.

It began when a 24-year-old teacher from Granada wrote a five-page letter to Pope Francis, describing how several local priests sexually abused him as a child, when he was an altar boy in the Granada parish of Juan Maria de Vianneimeno. The alleged victim, identified only as “Daniel,” wrote that pedophile priests gradually persuaded him to leave his family and live in a parish rectory, where they repeatedly abused him.

He told Spanish media last week that he received a phone call in response to his letter from the pontiff, apologizing for the abuse and promising to investigate. The Vatican would neither confirm nor deny the phone call.

The Catholic Church then suspended 10 priests and two lay people who worked or volunteered in Granada dioceses.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Robert Mickens | Nov. 24, 2014 A Roman Observer

ROME
The blueprint for a major reorganization of the Roman Curia is ready. And Pope Francis on Monday called together all the current heads of the Vatican’s major offices (the nine congregations, three tribunals, 12 pontifical councils and several other bureaus) to explain the plan, get their reactions and hear their suggestions.

But if reports on the reform scheme are correct, the pope has already decided that several of the councils established after the Second Vatican Council will be merged into major congregations. Specifically, these are the various offices dealing with the laity and others focusing on human development and social justice.

According to the Spanish news site Religión Digital, the pope wants to simplify and reduce the number of Vatican offices and establish a “council of ministers.” An article over the weekend said this council would be made up of the heads of 12 congregations: nine that already exist and three more that will be newly created (laity, justice and communications).

But Francis does not want merely to streamline the Vatican’s bureaucracy and make it more efficient; he also wants to instill a new mentality based on service, synodality, better collaboration and interoffice communication, and respect for local bishops. He’s also hoping to drive a stake through the heart of careerism and eliminate what he’s defined as the “cancer” of clericalism.

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TEXAS
Houston Press

By Angelica Leicht Mon., Nov. 24 2014

The family of a child who was abused by an employee at Catholic Charities has filed a lawsuit claiming that the charity has a long, troubling history of covering up sexual assault cases.

The family of the victim filed the lawsuit last week, naming Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and Carlos Valera, a former program coordinator at the charity who is now serving a 7 year jail sentence for child sexual assault, as defendants.

The lawsuit claims the organization has shown “willful disregard for the well-being of others” and has covered up abuse at the charity for nearly a decade.

According to the family, Valera began abusing the 11-year-old boy in 2007, after they sought help from Catholic Charities following their immigration from Cuba.

During a November 2007 visit, Valera approached the young child in the lobby of the charity and offered him candy to lure him to his office. While in Valera’s office, the man allegedly grabbed the child’s wrists, forcing him to touch his genitals.

On a subsequent visit, Valera again offered the young boy candy to lure him to his office, where he forced the child to sit on his lap, and sexually assaulted him, according to the lawsuit. Valera allegedly told the boy his family would not receive assistance from Catholic Charities if he told them about the abuse.

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OREGON
Willamette Week

On Nov. 19, WW reported that Patrick Jay Wallace, the freshman football coach at Central Catholic High School, had previously been fired from David Douglas High by John Harrington who was then the principal at David Douglas and is now president of Central Catholic.

Harrington fired Wallace from David Douglas after a 16-year-old girl who played on a softball team Wallace coached accused him of sexual assault during a 1997 tournament in Idaho. Charges were filed against Wallace but later dropped.

Late Friday, Central Catholic, issued the following statement to The Oregonian, in response to the daily’s questions about WW’s story.

Central Catholic High School Administration is actively investigating a disturbing report by Willamette Week newspaper, in its November 19, 2014 edition. The report describes sexual misconduct allegedly committed seventeen years ago by Central’s current freshman football coach while he formerly was employed by the David Douglas School District as a girls’ softball coach in 1997. The coach, identified in the Willamette Week article as Patrick Jay Wallace, is not currently, nor has he ever been, a member of the full time academic teaching staff at Central Catholic.

In 1997, then-David Douglas High School Principal, John Harrington, investigated the allegations of Mr. Wallace’s misconduct toward a minor female member of a softball team associated with David Douglas. Mr. Harrington concluded that the circumstances surrounding the allegations warranted Mr. Wallace’s termination as girls’ softball coach, and the David Douglas School District terminated Mr. Wallace’s employment. Mr. Harrington also referred the allegations to criminal law enforcement officials, and as the Willamette Week article notes, criminal charges were filed against Mr. Wallace but subsequently were dismissed.

In following years Mr. Wallace obtained other high school coaching positions. From 2006 through 2010, after Mr. Wallace passed an initial background check, he served as a volunteer assistant football coach at Central Catholic. Since 2011, he has served as a paid, part-time, assistant football coach at Central Catholic.

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RHODE ISLAND
Catholic League

[Timeline: Sex-abuse cases involving Rhode Island priests]

Bill Donohue comments on the way priests are treated by some media outlets in Rhode Island:

In December 2012, the Diocese of Providence learned of accusations against Father Barry Meehan; he was accused of sexually molesting adolescents. The police were immediately contacted. In January 2013, he was suspended and removed from ministry; the diocese is awaiting a decision from the Vatican to permanently remove him. Last Friday, he was arrested and indicted. Had he been a clergy member of another religion, the media would have recorded the arrest and moved on. But Meehan is a priest, and that matters greatly to the Providence Journal and NBC 10.

The Providence Journal got so excited that it published a timeline of all sexual abuse cases involving Rhode Island priests since 1972. NBC 10 got so jacked up that it summoned its I-Team: it scoured public records looking for more dirt (it actually began its investigation last year).

We could find no evidence that the Providence Journal has ever provided its readers with a timeline of sexual abuse cases involving ministers, rabbis, or public school teachers. Nor do we know of an NBC 10 I-Team report on this subject. Yet they don’t lack for material.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reproter

Brian Roewe | Nov. 24, 2014

Financial records for the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese released Thursday revealed a $9 million deficit in operating activities for the 2014 fiscal year in addition to uncertainty about how high the costs of its sexual abuse scandal will ultimately rise — or where it might lead.
For its archbishop, the situation pared down to a single word: “trouble.”

“Our local Church and our Chancery Corporation, in particular, have known significant ‘trouble’ during the past year,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a column Thursday for the archdiocesan newspaper, one he began by quoting Jesus (Matthew 6:34), who reminds his followers to focus on today’s troubles rather than to look ahead to tomorrow. “That ‘trouble’ continues today with the disheartening financial information published in this issue of The Catholic Spirit.” …

Charles Zech, director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University, said of the financial picture, “The numbers speak for themselves.”

“This is bleak,” he told NCR. “There’s nothing encouraging in the entire report. If I was a parishioner of St. Paul-Minneapolis, I’d find this very discouraging.”

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UNITED STATES
WBUR – Cognoscenti

In the age of DNA, why are there still statutes of limitations in sexual assault cases? In an era that venerates transparency, why are confidentiality agreements still allowed to shield perpetrators and silence their victims?

Those questions occur in response to recently revived allegations of serial rape against Bill Cosby, the comedic patriarch of the long-running television show that bears his name.

I do not know whether Cosby is guilty of the charges engulfing him. Neither do those who would convict him based on the number of accusers and the similarities in their accounts. Neither do those who, conflating the man with his TV persona, would reflexively exonerate Cliff Huxtable as incapable of such crimes.

There is a reason we have a criminal justice system, after all.

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SPAIN
BBC News

Police in Spain have arrested three priests and one layman on suspicion of child sex abuse, according to the country’s interior minister.

Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the arrests took place in the southern city of Granada, but gave no further details.

The Archdiocese of Granada suspended several priests last week after a man wrote to Pope Francis saying he was abused when he was an altar boy.

The Catholic Church has been rocked by the scandal of sexual abuse by priests.

Media reports said the latest inquiry was personally ordered by the Pope, who also telephoned the man directly to apologise on behalf of the church.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • November 24, 2014

Pope Francis this past September named an American Jesuit, Fr. Robert Geisinger, formerly the head of the Chicago Jesuits, to be the Vatican’s top prosecutor for serious crimes, including child sexual abuse. The Boston Globe reported this weekend that Fr. Geisinger had extensive knowledge for years about a serial sexual abuser within the Jesuit order, a Fr. Donald McGuire (who is now in prison), but went along with the Jesuits’ keeping the abuser in ministry. One of the chief critics of Geisinger is my friend Phil Lawler, editor emeritus of Catholic World Report, who, with his wife Leila, had a personal connection to the McGuire scandal. From the Globe:

Catholic author Lawler said Geisinger’s apparent failure to recommend stronger action in the McGuire case before the proceedings to expel him from the priesthood raises questions about his fitness to prosecute sexually abusive priests.

“What I want to see in this role is someone who will plow through the institutional resistance to prosecution,” he said. “Somebody could make the case that Geisinger was only being a loyal adviser to those in positions of greater responsibility, but the case that you cannot make is that he was aggressive.”

Lawler and his wife, Leila, housed one of McGuire’s victims during the 1999-2000 school year when the victim was an eighth-grader at the Trivium School, a small Catholic school in Lancaster. Both complained about McGuire’s behavior during his visits with the boy, but neither the school nor the Chicago Province took action to stop him.

“The boy was not abused while he was here but he was abused after he left us, after we had communicated our fears to [McGuire’s] Jesuit superiors,’’ Lawler said in a 2012 Globe interview. “That makes me livid.”

Years later, the Lawlers’ boarder notified law enforcement authorities about multiple incidents of abuse by McGuire during trips to other states and other countries, which led to federal charges of traveling in interstate and foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in a sexual act with a person under 18 — and led to McGuire’s 2008 criminal conviction.

Got that? The fact that McGuire is in jail today is not because of anything the Jesuits — including Fr. Geisinger — did, but because one of the victims called the cops on him.

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OSTERREICH
Pressetext

[Sexual violence against children in the Church (Part 1)]

Wien (pts006/24.11.2014/10:00) – Sissi Kammerlander vom Verein VICTIMS MISSION klärt in einer mehrteiligen Serie über sexuelle Missbrauchsfälle in Österreich auf. Dieser erste Teil handelt von Jürgen.

“Mit dem Argument, Jürgen müsse für seine unbefriedigende sportliche Leistung (…) ‘bestraft’ werden, verübte Pater P. regelmäßig orale Penetration an ihm. Die Übergriffe fanden in der Dusche, nach dem Sportunterricht sowie auch im Schlafraum der Kinder statt. Pater P. penetrierte Jürgen jedes Mal oral, bis er schließlich in seinen Rachen und die Mundhöhle ejakulierte.” Dies ist ein Zitat aus dem Klagsentwurf wegen Schadenersatz-Ansprüchen gegen den Deutschen Orden der Salesianer als seinerzeitigem Internatsbetreiber.

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ESPANA
20 Minutos

Tres sacerdotes y un profesor de religión han sido detenidos en Granada en el marco de una investigación judicial sobre abusos sexuales a menores. La denuncia partió de un joven profesor, que contó al papa Francisco en una carta su calvario en el pasado, y apunta directamente al llamado clan de los Romanones, formado por una docena de personas, entre religiosos y seglares. Esta es la sucesión de los hechos:

Una carta al papa Francisco

Un joven de 24 años de Granada, profesor y supernumerario del Opus Dei, escribió al papa Francisco hace unos meses para contarle, después de varios años de guardar silencio, que había sufrido en el pasado abusos sexuales por parte de varios sacerdotes. El pontífice leyó su carta y lo llamó el pasado agosto para pedirle “perdón”; hubo incluso una segunda llamada. Tras este apoyo explícito del Vaticano, el joven, que ya no vive en Granada, acudió en octubre a la Fiscalía Superior de Andalucía.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
24 NOV 2014

An American Jesuit appointed by Pope Francis to oversee the prosecution of priests accused of sexually abusing minors allowed a Chicago priest to remain in the ministry for years after learning of his history of sexual abuse towards young teenage men, reports The Boston Globe.

The Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, selected by the Pope in September to be the Vatican’s “promoter of justice,’’ was the second-in-command among Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when allegations of sexual abuse complaints were levied against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire.

McGuire was convicted in 2006 by a Wisconsin jury of molesting two boys who reported him to civil authorities. He was also convicted on federal charges in 2008 and is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

In September 2013, Jesuit officials in Chicago paid $19.6 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by six men who claim they were molested by a former priest.

According to court documents, the Jesuits failed to notify police or take effective steps to prevent McGuire from molesting minors.

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SPAIN
CNN

By Al Goodman, CNN

Madrid (CNN) — It might all have remained a dark secret, if a young man who was an alleged victim of sexual abuse hadn’t written a letter to the Vatican. And then gotten a surprise phone call from Pope Francis, according to a Spanish digital newspaper.

On Monday, Spanish police arrested three Catholic priests and a religion teacher on suspicion of abusing a minor, Spain’s interior minister announced.

A court statement from Granada confirmed the arrests of four people “for a case of sexual abuse,” and said it would hear initial charges before a judge within three days. The investigation is under seal.
The arrests came a day after the Archbishop of Granada and other clerics took the unusual step of prostrating themselves in the cathedral during Sunday Mass, “asking forgiveness for the sins of Church, for all of the scandals that have, or might have, occurred among us,” the Granada Archdiocese website reported.

The archbishop usually does that once a year, on Good Friday, but he lay on the floor of the cathedral Sunday due to the seriousness of the allegations, a Granada Archdiocese spokeswoman said. The archbishop earlier had removed an unspecified number of priests from their duties, pending an investigation, she said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

The American Jesuit priest who was recently appointed as the Vatican’s top prosecutor in sex-abuse cases was involved in the handling of complaints against a notorious abusive priest, the Boston Globe has revealed.

In September, Pope Francis appointed Father Robert Geisinger, a canon lawyer who had been procurator general of the Society of Jesus, as the promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that post he has primary responsibility for making the case for disciplinary action against priests charged with sexual abuse.

The Globe found, however, that Father Geisinger had advised Jesuit superiors regarding the handling of Donald McGuire, who escaped disciplinary action for years before finally being convicted on multiple criminal charges for molesting young men. McGuire, once a respected lecturer and retreat master, was dismissed from the Jesuit order in 2007 and laicized in 2008; he his now serving a 25-year prison term.

Using court documents, the Globe demonstrated that Father Geisinger was aware of complaints against McGuire as early as 1995. And continued to provide advice on handling the troubled priest through 2002. During that time, Jesuit superiors failed to inform police or alert potential victims, although many complaints had been lodged against McGuire and the priest had repeatedly violated orders to stay away from adolescent boys.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News

A former Guam seminarian has forwarded a written allegation he’s made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron to Vatican officials.

John C. Toves, a Guamanian who lives in California, sent a letter to the Archdiocese of Agana on Nov. 21. It notes that a courtesy copy of the letter also was sent to the Vatican.

In it, Toves alleged that a former co-seminarian and relative, who went to school with him at a minor seminary in Guam between 1980 to 1983, was sexually molested by Apuron.

Apuron couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday, through messages left with Archdiocese of Agana officials.

Meeting with pope

Apuron had a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Nov. 21, but the reason for the meeting was unclear.

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SPAIN
International Business Times

By Dominic Gover
November 24, 2014

Three priests and a religious studies teacher have been arrested over child sex abuse claims in Spain.

The men were held by police in Granada over historical allegations which prompted Pope Francis to order the men to apologise when they emerged.

Spain’s national police held a 61-year-old priest named as Roman, as well as fellow clerics Manuel Morales and Francisco Javier Montes and the teacher, who has not been named.

The spread of sex abuse allegations to Spain has led the Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martínez, to prostrate himself before the cathedral altar to beg forgiveness during mass.

The accused priests were reportedly former members of a church brotherhood called ‘Hermanos Focolares’ before they were expelled. Reports said they were being detained in solidarity confinement on Monday [24 November].

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ESPANHA
R7

A polícia da Espanha prendeu nesta segunda-feira (24) três sacerdotes e um professor de Religião envolvidos em um suposto caso de abuso sexual de um menor ocorrido em Granada (no sul do país) e pelo qual o próprio papa Francisco chegou a se interessar.

A ação policial tem sua origem na denúncia que um jovem de 24 anos fez a um tribunal local em outubro por supostos abusos que ocorreram quando ele era adolescente e que se prolongaram por vários anos.

Identificado apenas como Daniel, ele escreveu ao papa para contar o caso e em agosto recebeu uma resposta de Francisco perguntando por sua situação e pedindo perdão em nome da Igreja.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Abby Ohlheiser November 24

An American priest who was appointed by the Vatican to prosecute sex-abuse cases previously played a role in the church’s failure to remove one of the most infamous abusive priests from the ministry, according to an investigation by the Boston Globe.

Rev. Robert Geisinger, a Jesuit canon lawyer, was named the Vatican’s “promoter of justice” for U.S. abuse cases in September, a position roughly analogous to chief prosecutor. But back in the 1990′s, Geisinger was the second-highest ranking official among Chicago Jesuits just before sex abuse accusations against the now-defrocked Jesuit priest Donald McGuire became public. McGuire is currently serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison.

Court documents surfaced by the Globe indicate that Geisinger was personally aware of multiple complaints against McGuire as early as 1995 — and that he provided advice on disciplinary matters pertaining to the priest as late as August 2002. In 2003, a former student at Loyola Academy filed a lawsuit accusing McGuire of molesting him repeatedly in 1968 and 1969.

Although the Jesuits initially claimed that the 2003 lawsuit was the first they’d heard of accusations against the priest, evidence eventually indicated that the Chicago Jesuits knew about and concealed McGuire’s crimes for decades.

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DOMINICA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Nov. 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Dominica’s Catholic bishop must do more about a now-defrocked predator priest.

We’re glad that Fr. Reginald LaFleur has been defrocked. That, however, doesn’t “cure” him. He remains a risk to kids. And Bishop Gabriel Malzaire knows this.

So Malzaire must use his vast resources – pulpit announcements, parish bulletins and diocesan website – to urge others who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. LaFleur’s crimes to call police and prosecutors so that other kids are spared horrific trauma. Kids are safer when child molesters are jailed. Malzaire can help put this one there. But only if he shows real courage and compassion and aggressively prods others with information or suspicions about LaFleur to call law enforcement.

Catholic bishops recruit, educate, ordain, supervise, shield and transfer child molesting clerics. Then, often bishops kick them out when they’re caught. But that’s not enough. Bishops should go further and actively help law enforcement find evidence to convict these child molesters. That is the civic and moral duty of every Catholic employee – current and former – in Dominica. And Malzaire should lead by example. He should go to every place where LaFleur worked and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to contact police and prosecutors now about LaFleur.

Finally, Malziare should apologize to clergy sex abuse victims for his insensitive remarks about LaFleur’s defrocking. The bishop apparently spoke only of the hurt he and the church suffered because of this priest’s crimes, ignoring the far greater pain of the priest’s victims and their families.

“This is one of the most difficult things that I have ever had to do in my life as a bishop and priest,” he said, calling it “excruciating.” “We know how much universally the church has been hurt in matters of that sort,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Nov. 24

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Yesterday, we called on Pope Francis to rescind his promotion of the new church child sex abuse “prosecutor.” We hope the pontiff will do this.

But if not, we hope Francis or the head of the Jesuit order will at least suspend Fr. Robert Geisinger and hire independent experts to investigate how many other alleged child sex crimes Geisinger may have hidden or may still be hiding. We strongly suspect that there are many more “skeletons” in Geisinger’s closet.

Catholic officials claim they want to “restore trust” in their leadership. Yet time and time again, they continue to promote clerics who endanger kids, keep secrets and protect predators.

Some say Geisinger “failed” to report credible abuse allegations to police. This is not accurate.

Geisinger REFUSED to report credible abuse allegations. And he did so for years. And he refuses, even now, to address these disturbing disclosures, while Francis helps him climb the clerical career ladder.

Geisinger deliberately, repeatedly and selfishly chose to put his needs, career and comfort ahead of the safety of children.

The word “failure” implies a good faith effort that went awry, like a batter swinging at but missing a pitch or a joke that doesn’t elicit laughs. What Geisinger did is much more sinister than “failure.” He intentionally hid credible reports of sexual violence against kids.

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Spanje
NOS (Nederland)

In de Spaanse stad Granada zijn drie priesters en een docent religie opgepakt die worden verdacht van seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen. Een man van 24 zegt dat hij jarenlang door de priesters is misbruikt.

Die man deed afgelopen zomer aangifte. Ook schreef hij een brief aan paus Franciscus, waarin hij vertelde wat hem is overkomen. Een aantal priesters werd toen al tijdelijk geschorst.

Tot zijn eigen verbazing werd de man daarna door de paus gebeld, schrijft de krant El Pais. Franciscus vroeg hem namens de kerk om vergeving en bood zijn excuses aan voor “deze vreselijke daden”.

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ESPANA
Clarin

Juan Carlos Algañaraz

El escándalo que conmueve a España de los curas pedófilos de Granada que actuaban como una secta para abusar sexualmente de menores durante años, y que fue denunciado a la policía y el poder judicial españoles, ha crecido hoy cuando el juez ordenó arrestar a cuatro personas: tres sacerdotes y un laico. Otros siete curas y algún seglar están también bajo investigación.

Los religiosos tienen una gran responsabilidad en los hechos, entre ellos el padre Román, de 61 años, líder de los pedófilos que conformaban un grupo poderoso llamado “los Romanones” en alusión al cura que acaba de ser arrestado.

También han sido arrestados los sacerdotes Manuel Morales y Francisco Javier Montes. El cuarto arrestado es un seglar pero cómplice de “los Romanones”.

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ESPANA
La Informaacion

El Arzobispado de Granada reitera su apoyo a las víctimas y tolerancia cero ante los abusos

Granada, 24 nov (EFE).- El Arzobispado de Granada ha reiterado hoy su colaboración con la Justicia y su ayuda a las víctimas en el caso de supuestos abusos sexuales por el que hoy han sido detenidos tres sacerdotes y un seglar y ha recordado que mantiene su posición de “tolerancia cero” con estas prácticas y con quienes las cometan.

Granada, 24 nov (EFE).- El Arzobispado de Granada ha reiterado hoy su colaboración con la Justicia y su ayuda a las víctimas en el caso de supuestos abusos sexuales por el que hoy han sido detenidos tres sacerdotes y un seglar y ha recordado que mantiene su posición de “tolerancia cero” con estas prácticas y con quienes las cometan.

El Arzobispado de Granada, según las fuentes consultadas por Efe, ha eludido valorar de momento los arrestos practicados esta mañana y se ha remitido al comunicado de prensa enviado el pasado lunes cuando se conocieron públicamente los presuntos abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes contra al menos un menor.

Según las fuentes, este asunto continúa su curso judicial y el Arzobispado mantiene al respecto su total colaboración en la investigación de los hechos denunciados.

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ESPANA
Minuto Uno

La acción policial tiene su origen en la denuncia que un joven de 24 años interpuso en octubre pasado en un juzgado de Granada por supuestos abusos sexuales que ocurrieron cuando era adolescente y que se prolongaron varios años.

El joven, identificado como Daniel, escribió al Sumo Pontífice para contarle el caso y en agosto recibió una llamada de Francisco para preguntarle por su situación y pedirle perdón en nombre de la Iglesia.

En la denuncia presentada en octubre el joven incluyó el nombre de nueve sacerdotes y de dos seglares, de los que tres curas son presentados como supuestos autores materiales de los abusos y el resto como encubridores o conocedores de los hechos.

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SPAIN
El Pais

VALME CORTÉS Granada 24 NOV 2014

A Granada judge investigating a complaint filed against 10 local priests and two laypeople for pedophilia has ordered the first arrests in the case.

Three priests, all believed to be members of the ultraconservative group known as Los Romanones, and a layperson were detained on Monday and taken to National Police headquarters.

Among them are Father Román V, the alleged head of the group; Francisco J. M., who took over from Román at the helm in recent years; and Manuel M.

The Archbishop of Granada has already removed the priests accused of abuse from their duties. The inquiry was triggered by a letter that an alleged victim sent to Pope Francis, who personally telephoned the young man and ordered an internal investigation into the allegations.

The victim, who is now 24 and a teacher, allegedly suffered the abuse when he was an altar boy in the Granada parish of Juan María de Vianneimeno.

According to his account, Román convinced him little by little to leave his family: “Following his advice, I left my parents’ home when I was 17 and I went to live in the parish house with R. and two laypeople.” According to religion news site Religión Digital, one of these laypeople, known only by the initials S. Q., could be the fourth person arrested.

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SPAIN
The Local

Updated: police on Monday arrested three priests and a teacher in Spain’s Granada region as part of ongoing investigations into alleged child sexual abuse — the latest development in a case which has rocked Spain.

A judge overseeing the investigations ordered the arrests of the four men over allegations they had sexually abused at least one minor — a case that came to light after the alleged victim, now 24, wrote to Pope Francis outlining the abuse he had supposedly suffered several years earlier.

The pope reportedly called the victim on several occasions offering support and asking for forgiveness on behalf of the Catholic Church.

A total of ten priests and two laypeople are now being investigated by a Granada-based judge over their possible involvement in the paedophile ring. To date, no one has been charged with any offence.

Among those arrested on Monday — a group originally reported by some Spanish media outlets to comprise four priests — was the alleged leader of the group which is known as Los Romanones, according to Spain’s El Mundo newspaper.

Announcing the arrests, Spain’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz highlighted the tough stance the Catholic Church had taken against sexual abuse in recent times.

“I don’t believe anyone can doubt that John Paul II, Benedict XVI and, now, Pope Francis are being incredibly aggressive in their bid to eradicate this type of behaviour from the heart of the church,” the minister said.

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SPAIN
Reuters

Nov 24 (Reuters) – Three Spanish Catholic priests and a lay person were arrested on Monday, a police source said, in a child sexual abuse case whose victim Pope Francis has reportedly telephoned to offer the Church’s apology.

Investigations into the case in the southern province of Granada started “some time ago,” Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters, confirming four arrests, but he could not give further details because the issue is sub judice.

Granada Archbishop of Granada Francisco Javier Martinez last week removed several priests from their duties after a man wrote to Pope Francis saying he was abused when he was an altar boy.

The Argentine-born pope personally called the man in August to apologise on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, according to the Spanish religion news website Religion Digital.

The website said the four suspects belonged to an unofficial arch-conservative group of priests and lay Catholics in Granada. The interior ministry statement did not identify them.

On Sunday, the archbishop and six priests prostrated themselves in front of the altar in Granada’s cathedral to seek pardon for sexual abuse in the Church.

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SPAIN
The Olive Press

THREE Granada priests involved in claims of paedophilia were arrested on Monday and more are under investigation after a possible victim wrote to Pope Francis.

The priests in question are the supposed leader of the group, Father Roman V; Francisco J. M., who has been taking over leadership from Roman in recent years; and Manuel M.

A fourth person believed to be a layperson has also been arrested.

Investigations are focused on a parish in the city’s Zaidin neighbourhood. There, the priests reportedly convinced young boys that sex with them would not be a sin, say sources quoted by El Pais.

It has been alleged that the group of 10 priests and two lay people lured youngsters in as altar boys or assistants and later took them to luxury apartments or a house in Granada owned by the group, where they were subjected to brutal abuse.

A source who had been close to the group said: “They are a group of friends who are something like a family, and are very supportive of one another.

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ESPANA
Noticieros

{Spanish police on Monday arrested three priests and a lay person, who is a religion professor, in connection with allegations of sexual abuse in Granada.]

MADRID, España, nov. 24, 2014.- La Policía española detuvo este lunes a tres sacerdotes y a un laico en relación con un supuesto caso de abusos sexuales a un menor ocurrido en Granada y por el que el propio papa Francisco ha llegado a interesarse.

El laico es un profesor de Religión muy próximo a los tres curas detenidos, según fuentes de la investigación.

La acción policial tiene su origen en la denuncia que un joven de 24 años interpuso en octubre pasado en un juzgado de Granada por supuestos abusos sexuales que ocurrieron cuando era adolescente y que se prolongaron varios años.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Holy Father has named an Auxiliary Bishop of Milwaukee, Donald J. Hying as the new Bishop of Gary, USA. He succeeds Bishop Dale J. Melczek, whose resignation Pope Francis accepted upon having the age limit.

On Monday the Holy Father also named Fr Victor Hlolo Phalana, currently Vicar General of the Archdiocese of the Archdiocese of Pretoria, as the Bishop of Klerksdorp, South Africa.

Biography of Bishop Daniel Hying

Bishop Hying is a native of West Allis, Wisconsin. Born to Albert and Catherine Hying (both deceased) on August 18, 1963, he is the youngest of six sons. After attending St. Aloysius and Immaculate Heart of Mary grade schools, he graduated from Brookfield Central High School and Marquette University. He earned his Masters of Divinity from Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree from the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – Archbishop Anthony Apuron met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. According to the Vatican Information Service, the archbishop had an audience with the Pope on Friday, November 21.

Archdiocese of Agana spokesperson Father Adrian Cristobal told KUAMn News, “I don’t know what the details are of the meeting the archbishop is still off island perhaps when he gets back we will get more details overall I cans say is that the archbishop is very happy with the meeting it was a very positive meeting the archbishop was very impressed with the humility of the pope.”

According to Father Adrian, Archbishop Apuron was not summoned by the pope. He added that Pope Francis was supportive and encouraging to Apuron. Father Adrian says he expects Archbishop Apuron to return to Guam in early December.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

I forgive him, says wife of the vicar who cheated on her with a churchgoer: Priest sacked after he exchanged hundreds of lurid texts with member of congregation

By JAMES TOZER FOR THE DAILY MAIL

A married priest has been sacked after he was caught having an affair with a member of his congregation.

The Rev Stephen Vincent, 40, exchanged hundreds of lurid text messages with the woman, who was also married.

He admitted they had sex in an alleyway and on another occasion, after she texted, ‘Come and get me’.

When he called at her house she answered the door wearing only a silk dressing gown and knickers.

But she accused him of rape and he was arrested. When police dropped their inquiry, the woman, known only as X, complained to Church of England authorities.

Mr Vincent was barred from the priesthood and his family face eviction from their home.

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BRAZIL
Folha

CRISTINA CAMARGO
COLLABORATION FOR FOLHA

After being officially excommunicated by the Vatican, former Brazilian priest Roberto Francisco Daniel, 49, recorded a video in which he “talks” to Pope Francis and questions the punishment ordered by the Catholic Church.

He was excommunicated in April 2013 by the Diocese of Bauru (329 kilometers from São Paulo city) and still awaited confirmation of his punishment by the Holy See, which occurred on November 15, 2014.

Father Beto, as he is known, was punished after recording videos in which he defended same-sex marriage and second marriages for the divorced – he also questioned church dogmas.

In the video recorded after the Vatican’s decision, he asks what he did wrong and questions the punishment.

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MINNESOTA
Austin Daily Herald

By Trey Mewes

He was a gifted theologian, a man who was expected to become a leader. He was a passionate priest who volunteered in the community, helped the Boy Scouts and was a chaplain for the National Guard.

He preyed upon high school-aged boys and sexually assaulted several Austin teens during his time in the community. He allegedly plied elementary students with drugs and alcohol. He was forced to leave the Catholic Church after he molested another man.

He was a complicated sexual predator, and his victims throughout southeast Minnesota include several people in Austin. His name was Father Jack Krough.

“He was a very smart perpetrator,” Attorney Patrick Wall said. “There was never any physical violence that he ever used. It was all coercion.”

Portrait of a wayward priest

The community at large didn’t know Krough was accused of sexual assault until the Diocese of Winona released his name last December as one of 14 priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Krough’s name wasn’t a surprise to Wall and other attorneys at Anderson Advocates, a law firm specializing in church sexual abuse cases. Anderson Advocates knew about Krough back in 2003, a year after Krough was dismissed from his duties in the church.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 24, 2014 NCR Today

ROME Pope Francis is moving ahead with plans to reform the Catholic church’s central governance structures, meeting Monday with the heads of each of the Vatican’s various departments to discuss pending changes.

While the Vatican released little information about the meeting, spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said in a short briefing Monday that it was held “regarding the reform of the curia,” the Vatican term for its offices and departments.

The meeting, Lombardi said, took about three hours, with the pope and the department heads discussing various proposals for reform. The department heads, said the priest, “spoke and gave their observations” to planned reforms.

News of Monday’s meeting has triggered speculation of just how wide-ranging Francis’ reform of the Vatican curia might be. Some analysts have speculated the pope might be dissolving certain congregations or councils, or raising the importance of others.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Sunday 23 November 2014

The former principal of an elite Tasmanian boys’ school has blamed the Hobart Mercury for the school’s failure to apologise to an alleged victim of sexual assault.

William Toppin told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse the Hutchins school board was worried about how the newspaper would report the event if the man, known as AOA for legal reasons, went public.

Toppin was principal at the school for a decade from 1997 and was not directly involved with the board’s investigation of the claim, which dated back to 1964, against then-headmaster David Ralph Lawrence.

But he was at board meetings when the issue was discussed and on Monday gave his version of events.

“The board, the parents, were very concerned” at the way the Mercury chose to report on “times when Hutchins has not lived up to” what the school “tries to live up to”, Toppin said.

He denied the school was worried about having its reputation damaged. It was worried the Mercury, which “never lets fact interfere with a good story”, would report the matter inaccurately.

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CANADA
Irish Times

Jennifer Hough

Mon, Nov 24, 2014

Indigenous peoples in Canada comprise First Nations people, Inuit and Métis. They account for 4.3 per cent of the national population – 1,400,685 people – and live on reserves across Canada from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.

Traditionally, First Nations people had unlimited access to large expanses of Canadian land, which was sparsely populated.

From the late 18th century onwards, European colonists forced these nomadic hunters and trappers onto tracts of land – reserves – and encouraged aboriginals to assimilate into their culture.

Chief Paddy Peters (left) at a meeting with the Pikangikum working group. Photo: Jennifer HoughCanadian youth pushed to despair in poverty-stricken indigenous community
These efforts eventually resulted in forced integration, through a residential school system that removed more than 150,000 aboriginal children, sometimes as young as six, from their homes, and placed them in Christian-run boarding schools.

There they were subjected to extreme cultural suppression, emotional deprivation and physical, and at times, sexual abuse.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

Monday 24 November 2014

SCOTLAND’S newest ­Catholic bishop will take up his new post after almost of a year of being embroiled in an ongoing row involving a controversial fellow cleric.

Pope Francis appointed Father William Nolan as Bishop of Galloway on Saturday.

Father Nolan is currently parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes, East Kilbride and Vicar General of the Diocese of Motherwell, effectively its number two.

But Father Nolan has also been a key player in the fallout surrounding Father Matthew Despard, suspended last year after publishing allegations of homosexual bullying within the Church in the wake of the Cardinal O’Brien sex scandal.

Father Nolan had been charged with taking over his colleagues parish in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, and has been called to give evidence in a case to remove Father Despard from the parish house.

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ESTADOS UNIDOS
El Diario

Associated Press | Domingo 23 Noviembre 2014

Boston— Un sacerdote estadounidense designado por el papa Francisco como el fiscal del Vaticano para los delitos sexuales fue uno de los dignatarios eclesiásticos que no denunció a un sacerdote abusador a la justicia antes de que éste, ahora en la cárcel, cometiera otros abusos sexuales, según documentos jurídicos revisados por The Boston Globe.

El cura Robert Geisinger, líder con el segundo mayor rango entre los jesuitas de Chicago en la década de 1990, sabía al menos desde 1995 sobre el caso de quejas de abuso contra el sacerdote Donald McGuire, y avisó a funcionarios de la Iglesia hasta agosto de 2002 sobre cómo disciplinar a McGuire, reportó ayer el diario Boston Globe.

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ESPANA
El Pais

JOSÉ ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ Granada 23 NOV 2014

[A young man in writing to Pope Francis about abuse he suffered by priests said he was now 24, although the abuse happened when he was a minor, and was a supernumerary of Opus Dei He said he never expected the pope to answer him.]

“Querido santo padre: (…) tengo 24 años y soy miembro supernumerario del Opus Dei”. Con estas palabras, precedidas del nombre completo de la víctima (que se omite porque era menor de edad cuando sucedieron los hechos), empieza la carta que, antes del verano, escribió un joven de Granada al papa Francisco y a cuyo texto íntegro ha tenido acceso EL PAÍS. Lo que nunca imaginó el remitente es que el propio Papa le iba a telefonear a su móvil para pedirle perdón “en nombre de la Iglesia de Cristo”, expresarle su solidaridad ante el “sufrimiento” que había vivido durante su adolescencia como monaguillo de una parroquia de Granada, san Juan María de Viannei, y asegurarle que se iban a depurar responsabilidades. Cuando la víctima, dentro de su coche, estaba detenido en un semáforo a las 17.23 horas del 10 de agosto, al otro lado de un teléfono de número desconocido alguien dijo: “¿Hablo con el señor…?”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Tyson Shine

An employee at the private Hobart boys’ school at the centre of a sexual abuse inquiry was told to hang up on some people calling about alleged abuse.

A royal commission is investigating the way the Hutchins School handled sexual abuse claims relating to a paedophile ring that operated at the school in the 1960s.

Documents released to the commission outline an instruction for a member of the Hutchins staff to “hang up” on some people calling for information.

A victim, known only as AOA, first approached the school in 1993 to get an apology for abuse he had allegedly suffered under paedophile headmaster David Lawrence in the 1960s.

After almost a decade of fighting for an apology, AOA took his complaint public in February 2002 by publishing an open letter about his sexual assault in The Australian newspaper.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Allegations of sexual abuse against a former student of a Hobart private school were out of the headmaster’s jurisdiction, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been investigating how the Hutchins School and the Anglican Church dealt with sexual abuse claims.

A former headmaster told the hearing that dealing with the claims of former students was up to the school’s board.

Bill Toppin, who was headmaster from 1996-2007, had kept himself at arm’s length from dealing with allegations made by the witness known as AOA.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
CBS News

AP

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Former Bishop Joseph Maguire, who led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield from 1977 to 1992 and faced allegations following retirement that clergy sex abuse and cover-up of that abuse had happened on his watch, died Sunday evening at the age of 95.

Maguire died at his residence in Springfield surrounded by his family and caregivers, diocese spokesman Mark Dupont said. His health had been in decline in recent years but he had been seeing guests and talking on the phone with friends up until a week ago, Dupont said.

Maguire was installed in February 1977 as the fifth bishop of the diocese covering western Massachusetts, which now has 217,000 members. He retired in February 1992 and suffered a heart attack several months later, according to The Springfield Republican.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

By Anne-Gerard Flynn | aflynn@repub.com
on November 23, 2014

This story is updated with remarks by Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, and preliminary funeral arrangements.

SPRINGFIELD – Bishop Emeritus Joseph F. Maguire, fifth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, has died. He had turned 95 on Sept. 4.

According to diocesan spokesman Mark E. Dupont, Maguire died at 6 p.m. at his residence in the Chancery on Elliot Street. His niece and nephews, along with caregivers were present.

“Until a week ago Bishop had been receiving guests and talking on the phone,” Dupont said.

During a hastily called press conference Sunday evening, Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, who was installed as diocesan bishop in August, paid tribute to Maguire as a prelate “committed to ministry and to the service of the people of the Springfield diocese.”

“I could go anywhere, and people would tell me, ‘When you see Bishop Maguire, tell him I say hello,” said Rozanski, adding Western Massachusetts had “lost a great leader and friend.”

Rozanski said Maguire, since turning 95, had grown weaker and “sensed his time was near.”

“It made his faith stronger, which sounds like a contradiction,” Rozanski said. “He laid down the burdens of the elder years.”

A popular bishop, who enjoyed athletics and interacting with parishioners, Maguire also had to face allegations, in retirement, that clergy abuse and cover up of that abuse happened on his watch, and, in a 2012 settlement, he apologized for the victim’s suffering.

When asked about that apology, Rozanski said it signified that Maguire had “felt the pain of those who had been let down.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By JOHN STEVENS FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Allegations of child sex abuse by a Westminster paedophile ring represent only the ‘tip of the iceberg’, Home Secretary Theresa May revealed yesterday.

A group of former MPs and VIPs are alleged to have sexually abused children and killed three boys in the Seventies and Eighties.

But yesterday Mrs May suggested even worse claims would follow as she said it was crucial for society to ‘get the truth’.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Sunday 23 November 2014

The former principal of an elite Tasmanian boys’ school has blamed the Hobart Mercury for the school’s failure to apologise to an alleged victim of sexual assault.

William Toppin told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse the Hutchins school board was worried about how the newspaper would report the event if the man, known as AOA for legal reasons, went public.

Toppin was principal at the school for a decade from 1997 and was not directly involved with the board’s investigation of the claim, which dated back to 1964, against then-headmaster David Ralph Lawrence.

But he was at board meetings when the issue was discussed and on Monday gave his version of events.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Royal commission into child sexual abuse: Dealing with Hutchins abuse claims not my job, ex- headmaster says

Allegations of sexual abuse against a former student of a Hobart private school were out of the headmaster’s jurisdiction, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been investigating how the Hutchins School and the Anglican Church dealt with sexual abuse claims.

A former headmaster told the hearing that dealing with the claims of former students was up to the school’s board.

Bill Toppin, who was headmaster from 1996-2007, had kept himself at arm’s length from dealing with allegations made by the witness known as AOA.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

[with video]

Tasmania’s Anglican Bishop wishes a Hobart boys’ school had taken his advice and apologised sooner to a former student sexually abused by a teacher.

An emotional John Douglas Harrower choked up on Monday as he recounted to a royal commission his 2002 advice to The Hutchins School board that they say sorry to the victim.

‘I personally would have wished that the school had given an apology, a fulsome apology,’ said Bishop Harrower, who has been head of the church in Tasmania since 2000.

In 1993 a man known for legal reasons as AOA reported to the school his abuse in 1964 by then headmaster David Ralph Lawrence.

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UNITED STATES
Press TV (Iran)

A priest named by Pope Francis as the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor was himself involved in covering up abuse committed by a priest, a recent report says.

According to legal documents reviewed and reported by The Boston Globe, American Reverend Robert Geisinger knew of sex abuse complaints against Rev. Donald McGuire as early as 1995, but had failed to report it to police earlier.

The documents say that Geisinger, the second-highest-ranking leader of the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s, only advised church officials on how to discipline McGuire as late as August 2002.

The documents include church records produced during lawsuits by alleged victims of McGuire, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for molesting two boys. Records also show that McGuire had abuse complaints filed against him back in the 1960s.

The director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, David Clohessy, questioned the Pope’s selection of Geisinger back in September, in a statement made after the report was released.

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UNITED STATES/VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Associated Press November 23

BOSTON — An American priest named by Pope Francis as the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor in September was among church officials who failed to report an abusive priest to law enforcement before the now-jailed and defrocked man committed other acts of sexual abuse, according to legal documents reviewed by The Boston Globe.

The Rev. Robert Geisinger, the second-highest-ranking leader of the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s, knew as early as 1995 about abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald McGuire, and he advised church officials as late as August 2002 on how to discipline McGuire, the Globe (http://bit.ly/1FfOFh7 ) reported in Sunday editions. The newspaper cited legal documents including church records produced during lawsuits by McGuire’s victims.

Court documents also show that abuse complaints against McGuire date back to the 1960s, but the Jesuits failed for years to tell police.

McGuire, 84, is in federal prison serving a 25-year sentence. The former spiritual adviser to Mother Theresa, who once commanded a worldwide following as a gifted teacher and philosopher, is considered one of the most influential figures convicted in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Geisinger declined to comment late Sunday, citing the late hour. He referred questions from The Associated Press to the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Lombardi said in a statement that Geisinger has a “solid and proven record in child protection dating back nearly two decades.” Lombardi said that Geisinger, while serving with the Chicago Jesuits, “voiced concerns” about McGuire’s conduct and was the canon lawyer who prepared the case that led to McGuire’s dismissal from the clerical state. …

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, released a statement Sunday urging Pope Francis to rescind the appointment of Geisinger as sex crimes prosecutor.

“Why on earth would Francis pick a priest with a problematic track record on abuse in the U.S. to deal with abuse worldwide?” Clohessy said. “Why choose one who so clearly and repeatedly refused to call the law or tell the truth about a notorious, now-imprisoned serial predator?”

Bishop Charles Scicluna, Geisinger’s predecessor as chief sex crimes prosecutor, or “promoter of justice,” told the AP that Geisinger’s previous work in the church as procurator general in Rome for the Jesuits was excellent.

“He is a fine canonist dedicated to serving as a very strong promoter of justice,” Scicluna said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Kim Geiger,
Chicago Tribune

Making his first of three pastoral visits to ethnic parishes across Chicago, Archbishop Blase Cupich on Sunday apologized to parishioners at a West Side church who have been grappling with a sex abuse scandal involving a former church pastor.

Cupich, 65, who became Chicago’s ninth archbishop Tuesday, said he chose St. Agatha Catholic Church in the Lawndale neighborhood for his first pastoral visit because he wanted to highlight the good work within the predominantly African-American parish in spite of the scandal involving defrocked priest Daniel McCormack, who has been convicted of abusing five boys and was charged earlier this year with molesting more.

“My heartbreak of the terrible things that one of your pastors did is first of all to those who were injured,” he said. “And I apologize. I’m sorry. That’s not the way it should have — that’s not the way we should treat each other. That’s not the way a leader should act.”

But, he added, “also, my heart breaks for the many good priests who seem to be suffering too. So pray for these good men who serve you. Pray that the lord heal all of us.”

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SPAIN
El Pais

JOSÉ ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ

The Granada priests under court investigation for pedophilia worked much like a sect, with an elected leader and brainwashing sessions for their victims, sources familiar with the case have said.

The inquiry was triggered by a letter that a victim sent Pope Francis, who personally phoned the young man and ordered an internal investigation into the allegations.

State investigators are focusing on a parish located near the Andalusian city’s Zaidín neighborhood. This is where the priests, who were all friends, attracted minors to act as their assistants during mass and imbue them with religious ideas. Some of the suspects worked at other churches in the capital and outlying municipalities.

Led by one of their own, the priests also held secret meetings with the youngsters to talk openly about sex and argue that it was not a sin to engage in sexual relations with them, the same sources said. The victims were routinely subjected to brutal sexual practices.

The 10 priests and two laypeople under scrutiny also maintained sexual relations with one another at gatherings that took place several times a week. Some of the suspects are thought to have covered up for the pedophiles but refrained from taking part in the practices themselves.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[The Granada archbishop yesterday apologized for abuse in his diocese and prostrated himself in front of the altar.]

El arzobispo de Granada, Francisco Javier Martínez, ha pedido hoy perdón por los “escándalos” de la Iglesia. Lo ha hecho antes de comenzar la eucaristía que cada domingo se celebra en la Catedral de la capital. Este domingo, con más gente de lo habitual. Antes de su inicio, el arzobispo acompañado de otros religiosos de su archidiócesis se ha postrado ante el altar mayor y ahí ha permanecido varios minutos.

El gesto que, según ha explicado solo se realiza cada Viernes Santo, es la respuesta que en cierto modo da el arzobispo granadino a los fieles después de que la semana pasada se conocieran los presuntos abusos sexuales que habrían cometido sacerdotes de la diócesis, según la denuncia realizada por un joven.

Ya en la eucaristía, Martínez ha insistido en que “los males de la Iglesia son los males de cada uno de nosotros”, al tiempo que ha considerado que resulta aún “más doloroso” que sea en nombre de una confianza sagrada. “Es una herida dolorosísima para Cristo”, ha dicho. El arzobispo, quien ha pedido cuidar de las personas que “por nuestra culpa” hayan podido ser “escandalizadas o heridas”, ha subrayado que “lo que produce escándalo no es el sacerdocio, es que podamos ser malos pastores”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

“It’s astonishing …”, was the reaction of well respected Philip F. Lawler, a top conservative Catholic journalist, formerly the Director of Studies at the US right wing Heritage Foundation, to Pope Francis’ recent appointment of Chicago Jesuit, Robert Geisinger, as the Vatican’s new “top cop” on child abuse crimes.

The Boston Globe, which over a decade ago won a Pulitzer Prize for thoroughly exposing Cardinal Law’s seeming oversight of a priest pedophile paradise in Boston, has now reported (11/23): “It’s astonishing that, for such a high-profile, sensitive position, the Vatican wouldn’t want someone whose background is unassailable, in the sense that there shouldn’t even be questions raised,” that Lawler, the editor of Catholic World News, candidly said of Geisinger. Please see here:

[Boston Globe]

What in God’s name is Pope Francis, a Jesuit, doing? Does he understand the outrage of parents worldwide at rampant priest child abuse? Pressures beyond Vatican control, as I discuss in detail below, can be expected soon to compel much more severe changes if Francis fails to act now effectively and transparently both to curtail child abuse and to make the hierarchy, including himself, accountable to independent Catholic oversight.

This governmental pressure has already begun to be applied with respect to Vatican finances, as a result of the continuing European investigations of multiple misdeeds involving both the Vatican Bank and the Vatican’s own significant portfolio assets, as well as with respect to the investigation of the child abuse scandal by the remarkable Australian Royal Commission investing child abuse in organizations, including the Catholic Church.

Prospects worldwide for criminal prosecutions of Catholic Church officials have seemingly caused the Vatican to focus on overdue reforms in ways that earlier financial penalties and even shameful publicity had rarely done, but has Pope Francis and his advisers yet gotten enough of the message? One must be skeptical here.

And now former US President Carter has called on Catholics to push for real Church changes, while renowned UK international human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has on CNN boldly called for the UK to set up a comprehensive national sex abuse investigation commission like Australia has already done. Will the UK do so? Very likely, in my view. Will the USA follow? Time will soon tell, but likely in my view.

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ITALIA
Repubblica

[Father Paolo Turturro has proclaimed his innocence but the court has sentenced him to three years in prisons for sexual abuse of minors.]

di SALVO PALAZZOLO

Si è sempre proclamato innocente, aveva chiesto di essere affidato ai servizi sociali, ma il tribunale di sorveglianza ha deciso di mandarlo in carcere per scontare la condanna a tre anni per abusi sessuali su minori. Don Paolo Turturro, ex parroco antimafia del Borgo Vecchio, è stato arrestato ieri pomeriggio. “Non ci aspettavamo questo esito – dice uno dei suoi legali, Vincenzo Gervasi – la procura generale aveva sospeso l’esecuzione della pena e aveva espresso parere favorevole alla richiesta di affidamento ai servizi sociali”. Ma il collegio presieduto da Giancarlo Trizzino ha deciso diversamente.

Si conclude così una vicenda giudiziaria durata 13 anni. Le indagini della sezione Minori della squadra mobile, coordinate dal sostituto procuratore Alessia Sinatra, hanno portato il 7 giugno scorso alla pronuncia definitiva della Corte di cassazione. Tre anni per alcuni baci pesanti a un chierichetto. Gli altre tre anni e sei mesi inflitti nel primo processo d’appello, per una violenza ancora più pesante, sono invece caduti per la prescrizione. Ma resta il racconto della vittima, che riporta alla fine degli anni Novanta, quando il sacerdote del Borgo Vecchio era il simbolo della Palermo che non si rassegnava alla violenza mafiosa. In quegli anni, don Turturro era già all’apice della notorietà per le sue battaglie sociali.

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ROMA
Repubblica

[The city of Rome spends more than 440 million euros a year for goods and services offered to the Vatican. The estimate came from a special commission examining expenditures to the Vatican.]

“Oltre 440 milioni di euro all’anno. Sono i costi a carico dal Comune di Roma per beni e i servizi offerti al Vaticano”. A fare la stima è la commissione speciale per la razionalizzazione della spesa dell’amministrazione capitolina, che questa mattina, presieduta da Daniele Frongia (M5S), ha dedicato una riunione ai costi sostenuti da Roma Capitale per beni e servizi offerti agli Stati presenti sul territorio comunale.

“I 440 milioni- chiarisce Frongia- sono divisi fra esenzioni Imu (Ici, Tares, Tarsi), servizi appaltati in convenzione ad organizzazioni cattoliche, cambi di destinazione d’uso, contributi per l’edilizia di culto (oneri di urbanizzazione secondaria), spese straordinarie in occasione di importanti eventi cattolici, edifici concessi a condizioni di favore ad enti e associazioni cattoliche, consumi energetici della Città del Vaticano, sconti per l’accesso a zone a traffico limitato e altri contributi erogati dal Comune”.

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ITALIA
IVG

Savona. E’ stato fissato per martedì mattina l’interrogatorio dell’ispettore della polizia postale di Savona Alberto Bonvicini, arrestato ieri in esecuzione di un’ordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere. Un provvedimento scattato nell’ambito dell’indagine che aveva visto il poliziotto accusato di circonvenzione d’incapace a danno di Luisa Bonello, il medico di Savona trovato senza vita nella sua casa lo scorso 19 settembre. Gli accertamenti delle ultime settimane, durante le quali gli inquirenti hanno indagato a 360° sull’ispettore, hanno portato ad un aggravamento della sua posizione ed al conseguente arresto.

In particolare a Bonvicini viene contestata anche l’accusa di truffa ai danni dello Stato. L’ipotesi della Procura è che il dirigente della polizia postale, in orario di lavoro, si dedicasse infatti ad attività private e personali. Gli inquirenti avrebbero documentato almeno tre episodi durante i quali l’ispettore risultava essere in servizio pur essendo lontano dall’ufficio. Una condotta che, sommata alla pesante accusa di aver sottratto denaro a Luisa Bonello approfittando della sua fragilità emotiva, ha spinto il pm Giovanni Battista Ferro a chiedere una misura di custodia cautelare in carcere. Richiesta che è stata accolta dal gip Fiorenza Giorgi che ha quindi emesso il provvedimento eseguito ieri dagli uomini della Questura. Il poliziotto, in attesa di essere sentito dal giudice, è detenuto nel carcere genovese di Pontedecimo.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[A police inspector has been arrested in the death of Luisa Bonello, who was a whistleblower of nefarious activities of priests in a diocese in Northern Italy.]

Savona. E’ finito in carcere con l’accusa di truffa l’ispettore capo della polizia Alberto Bonvicini, già indagato per la morte di Luisa Bonello, la dottoressa savonese che si era suicidata lo scorso 19 settembre nella sua abitazione di via Turati. A richiedere l’arresto è stato il pm Giovanni Battista Ferro che coordina l’inchiesta della squadra mobile della questura di Savona. L’istanza è stata accolta dal gip Fiorenza Giorgi. Lo stesso pm aveva già formulata l’istanza di sospensione dell’ispettore dal servizio.

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ESPANA
MDZ

[A young man named Daniel in July wrote a letter to Pope Francis telling of sexual abuse he suffered as a child from a group of priests. It was a gang of criminals calling itself the “Clan of Romanones.”]

Un nuevo hecho que tiene que ver con abusos sexuales del clero católico tomó estado público, esta vez en España.

Un joven de nombre Daniel escribió en el mes de julio una carta al papa Francisco para ponerlo en conocimiento de los abusos sexuales que sufrió desde niño de parte de un grupo de curas, con el encubrimiento de dos laicos. Una banda de delincuentes con sotana autodenominada “clan de los Romanones”.

Bergoglio, un fundamentalista de la demagogia, de inmediato se comunicó con él, pidiendo perdón en nombre propio y de su criminal iglesia. De inmediato, el foco de atención se centró en el arzobispo de Granada, Francisco Javier Martínez, principal responsable de la investigación canónica.

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SPANIEN
Saltzburger Nachrichten

[In an unusual gesture, Granada Archbishop Javier Martinez lay down before the altar with several priests and asked for forgiveness for the scandal of sexual abuse of children in Spain.]

Mit einer ungewöhnlichen Geste hat der Erzbischof von Granada, Javier Martinez, um Vergebung für den Skandal um sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern in Spanien gebeten. Vor Beginn des Gottesdienstes legte er sich am Sonntag mit mehreren Priestern vor dem Altar auf den Boden.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

CHICAGO (WLS) — Archbishop Blase Cupich held his first Sunday mass at St. Agatha’s in the city’s West Side, a church formerly hurt by priest abuse scandal.

The new archbishop begins a new era for Chicago’s catholic community, choosing to celebrate mass at a parish where some dark history took place.

“I’m going there – as I will tell the people – to be a witness to the new life that’s possible in all of our lives and in all of our circumstances,” Cupich said.

Cupich’s celebration of mass later Sunday morning took place at the church where former Priest Daniel McCormack was convicted of sexually abusing at least five boys back in 2007.

As McCormack is serving a five-year prison sentence and the archdiocese pays millions in settlement costs to his victims, advocates are pleased with the message sent by the archbishop’s appearance at St. Agatha’s and want him to bring greater focus to rooting out the problem of priest sex abuse.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

Legal documents show an American priest named by Pope Francis as the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor was among church officials who failed to report an abusive priest to law enforcement before the now-jailed man committed other acts of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Robert Geisinger was a leader of the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s. The Boston Globe reported in Sunday editions (http://bit.ly/1FfOFh7) that legal documents show he knew as early as 1995 about abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald McGuire.

Court documents show complaints against McGuire date back to the 1960s, but the Jesuits failed for years to tell police.

Geisinger referred questions to the Vatican press office. That office said Geisinger led the effort to get McGuire dismissed from ministry.

McGuire is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

(CBS) — Chicago’s new archbishop is making his first pastoral visit Sunday since taking office, and he walked into a West Side parish still reeling from the priest sex abuse scandal in the archdiocese.

CBS 2’s Chelsea Irving reports the brand new archbishop is diving right in to the priest sex abuse scandal visiting this church first. St. Agatha’s is one of many area churches that’s dealt with a priest accused of sexual abuse

St. Agatha’s is the church where former priest Daniel McCormack was accused of and later admitted to sexually abusing several boys

Cupich says his he is visiting St. Agatha’s to witness and support parishioners who have struggled and survived together.

“Well I’m going there as I will tell the people to be a witness to the new life that’s possible in all or our lives, all of our circumstances,” Cupich said.

SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, is planning a protest outside this morning’s service. Organizers say they will urge the archbishop to disclose records about priests accused of sexual abuse and encourage him to seek out other possible victims.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014

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

A Chicago priest who was just promoted by the Pope concealed clergy sex crimes, according to today’s Boston Globe. We urge Francis to rescind this promotion.

[Boston Globe]

In September, the Vatican announced that Fr. Robert J. Geisinger will head up child sex abuse and cover up cases across the world. But today’s Boston Globe reveals that Fr. Geisinger, while head of the Chicago Jesuits, hid credible allegations of child sex crimes by a colleague, Fr. Donald McGuire who was close to Mother Teresa. McGuire is now in prison.

Why on earth would Francis pick a priest with a problematic track record on abuse in the US to deal with abuse worldwide? Any one of hundreds of thousands of priests could have been tapped for this key post. So why choose one who so clearly and repeatedly refused to call the law or tell the truth about a notorious, now-imprisoned serial predator?

According to the Globe, Fr. Geisinger “had detailed knowledge of the complaints against McGuire as early as 1995 and advised officials in Chicago on how to discipline McGuire as late as August of 2002, when they were still keeping the complaints secret” and “Fr. Geisinger played a significant role in the Jesuits’ long, unsuccessful effort to prevent McGuire from continuing to befriend and travel with young teenagers despite complaints dating to the 1960s.”

Fr, Geisinger had years and years to call police about Fr. McGuire. He never did so. He has no business being the Catholic church’s top abuse official.

When Fr. Geisinger’s promotion was announced, we publicly said that he “has some links to a notorious, serial convicted predator priest once close to Mother Teresa.” We publicly said”

“We’re anxious to hear from Fr. Geisinger about his dealings with Fr. Donald McGuire, a once high profile but now-imprisoned Jesuit in Fr. Geisinger’s own province who – despite multiple reports of abuse – was allowed to keep ministering until law enforcement officials finally arrested him.

In 2002, another Jesuit (Fr. Rick McGurn) sent Fr. Geisinger a detailed, three page, single-spaced letter about Fr. McGuire:

Notice the phrase: “long list” of Fr. McGuire’s “inappropriate behaviors.”

Not until 2005 were criminal charges brought against Fr. McGuire. We see no evidence that Fr. Geisinger ever helped police or prosecutors investigate Fr. McGuire, or any child molesting cleric. We challenge him to produce such evidence if he has any.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Michael Rezendes

November 23, 2014

A prominent American Jesuit recently named by Pope Francis to prosecute priests accused of sexually abusing minors under Church law was himself one of several Catholic officials who allowed a notorious abusive priest to remain in ministry for years after learning of his long history of sexual abuses, legal documents show.

The Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, named in September as the Vatican’s “promoter of justice,’’ was the second-highest-ranking official among the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when leaders were facing multiple abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, a globe-trotting priest with many influential supporters, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

But the Jesuits failed to notify police or take effective steps to prevent McGuire from continuing to molest minors.

Documents examined by the Globe, most of them Church records produced during lawsuits filed by McGuire’s victims, show Geisinger had detailed knowledge of the complaints against McGuire as early as 1995 and advised officials in Chicago on how to discipline McGuire as late as August 2002.

McGuire was finally convicted in 2006 by a Wisconsin jury of molesting two boys who had notified civil authorities. He was also convicted on federal charges in 2008 and is serving a 25-year-prison sentence.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 18 November 2014)

Broken Rites has helped to obtain justice for victims of a paedophile Catholic priest, Father John Sidney Denham.

* In Sydney on 2 July 2010, this priest was sentenced to a long jail term after getting away with his crimes for four decades.

* In 2013, Denham pleaded guilty to further crimes (on more victims), and he will receive even more time in jail for these crimes. He is due to be sentenced, for these additional crimes, in Sydney’s Downing Centre district court in late November 2014 (case numbers 201100382572 and 201200211543).

This Broken Rites article gives the background to Denham’s life of crime.

Denham committed his crimes under the noses of his superiors and colleagues, while these people looked the other way.

The church recruited Denham as a trainee priest in the late 1960s and, according to statements made in court, some of his child-sex crimes were committed during his period of training.

Denham’s superiors were told in the 1970s about what he was doing to children but the complaints were ignored. He was allowed to continue as a priest and was merely transferred to new districts, thereby putting more children at risk. Twenty years later, in the 1990s, a victim prompted the police to charge Denham but, with the help of church resources, Denham managed to beat the charges.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 18 November 2014)

Helped by Broken Rites, some of the victims of Christian Brother Desmond Eric (“Neil”) Richards have achieved justice. On 7 November 2014, a Sydney court ordered that Richards (aged 75) be taken into custody to await his sentence for indecently assaulting young boys in the 1970s and ’80s. The sentence is due to be announced in court on 27 November 2014. The church had known for years about Richards’ crimes but the crimes were concealed from the police (and from the public). And the Christian Brothers appointed him to be in charge of their worldwide website in Rome.

Brother “Neil” Richards has spent more than half a century as a Christian Brother, including as a headmaster, in Catholic schools in Sydney and regional New South Wales. When Desmond Eric Richards joined the order, a new Brother would normally adopt a new forename. Hence, he became Brother “Neil” Richards.

Originally, one victim contacted Broken Rites, which advised him to have a private interview with a Detectives Office of the NSW Police. Later, another victim from a different school came forward. Detectives then investigated and found two more of Brother Richards’ victims.

These four victims were abused between 1972 and 1982. These four were not necessarily his only victims – they are merely four who finally found an opportunity to talk to the detectives. Other ex-students (outside that 20-year period) could possess relevant information which they can still give to the police.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 19 November 2014)

This Broken Rites article is an update about a former Catholic priest (from Armidale and Moree in northern New South Wales), who is facing 76 child-abuse charges. The priest, whose name (for legal reasons) cannot be published at this stage, has already pleaded “Guilty” to 45 of the 76 charges, and he will eventually be sentenced on those 45 charges. Meanwhile, he is contesting the additional charges and therefore on 18 November 2014 a magistrate ordered the ex-priest to face a trial in 2015 on some of these additional charges.

The magistrate, Karen Stafford, made this order in the Armidale Local Court after conducting a committal hearing (that is, a preliminary procedure) on three of the additional charges (these are three counts of sexual assault of a person under 16 years of age). The magistrate ruled that, on these three charges, there would be sufficient evidence for a jury to convict the ex-priest of an indictable offence. Magistrate Stafford committed the ex-priest to stand trial on these three charges, and the matter will return to the magistrate on 4 February 2015 for the ex-priest to confirm whether he wishes to exercise his right to have a jury trial on these three charges.

So far, each step in the process has been conducted by a magistrate in the Armidale Local Court but eventually the final steps will be completed by a judge in a higher court, the New South Wales District Court.

* The 45 charges to which the ex-priest has pleaded “Guilty” involved offences committed against five boys and three girls. For these charges, the District Court will merely need to conduct a sentencing.

* The 31 other charges, which the ex-priest is resisting, relate to five alleged victims. These contested charges are a more complex process. After the magistrate finishes all the Local Court procedures, any of these 31 contested charges can be passed on to the NSW District Court, where they would be handled by a judge (and, if necessary, a jury).

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 22 November 2014)

A Catholic priest in the Jesuit religious order, Father David Rankin, was jailed in 2014 after pleading guilty to acts of indecency committed against three young boys in Sydney. These offences occurred in the 1960s when Rankin was a school teacher before he was ordained as a priest. These three are not necessarily Rankin’s only victims; they are merely three who took the opportunity to speak with a New South Wales Police detective. This shows that, even after 50 years, it is never too late to report a child-abuse crime to the child-protection police. Broken Rites has received information about Father David Rankin SJ, from elsewhere in Australia and also in Canada, while he has been in the priesthood.

During 2014, Father Rankin (full name Gregory David Rankin), aged 79, appeared in Sydney District Court for pre-sentence proceedings. He confirmed his guilty plea.

Later the court handed down its sentence. Rankin was given an 18 months jail sentence, with 12 months to be served behind bars before he becomes eligible to apply for parole for the final six months.

According to court documents, David Rankin was a lay teacher at Northbridge Primary School in northern Sydney when he committed 11 acts of indecency on three boys in the 1960s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

By Edward Malnick
23 Nov 2014

A married Church of England priest has lost his job and is being evicted from his home after having an affair with a parishioner.

The Rev Stephen Vincent, 40, said his family had been left “on the brink” after his removal from office as a result of a relationship with a woman he had been asked to mentor.

He and his wife Erin, 30, with whom he has three young children, have remained together. This weekend she told The Telegraph that she had “been taught to forgive” and believed “everyone deserves a second chance”.

Mr Vincent was introduced to the woman where he ministered at St Giles church in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, because she had expressed an interest in joining the clergy.

The pair went on to exchange “innumerable” messages over a three-month period. At one point the messages numbered more than 80 per day and were “full of double entendres about underwear” and discussions of sexual acts.

The exchanges were reviewed by a specially convened church disciplinary panel after complaints lodged by the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Mr Vincent’s archdeacon.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims to leaflet archbishop’s mass
They want “prevention, not symbolism”
“Disclose records on notorious predator,” they urge
SNAP: “Catholic officials are still hiding important documents”
Cupich should also apologize to fired whistleblower, victims say
And they urge him to go next to a parish where an accused cleric still works

WHAT:
As Chicago’s new archbishop says mass at a notorious pedophile priest’s former parish, concerned Catholics and clergy sex abuse victims will hand fliers to church-goers urging them to

–push Archbishop Blasé Cupich to disclose records about the predator, and
–aggressively seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes.

The victims will also prod Cupich to

–apologize to a female school principal and whistleblower who was fired, and
–go next weekend to a parish where a twice–accused priest is still on the job.

WHEN:
Sunday, Nov. 23rd, 10:15 a.m.

WHERE:
Outside St. Agatha’s Catholic Church, 3151 W. Douglas Blvd., Chicago 60623 (the corner of W. Douglas Blvd & S. Kedzie Ave., 773-522-3050)

WHO:
Four to five people who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

WHY:
A former priest at St. Agatha’s – Fr. Daniel McCormack – pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and was sentenced in 2007 to five years in prison. Virtually every high ranking archdiocesan staffer who ignored or concealed suspicions or knowledge of McCormack’s crimes has since been promoted.

The exception is the lone woman, Barbara Westrick, the former principal. She called police about allegations against McCormack. As a result, she says, she was fired.

SNAP wants Cupich to publicly apologize to Westrick.

The organization also wants him to personally visit St. Alphonsus parish next weekend (1429 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago 60657; 773-525-0709). That’s where Fr. Michael W. O’Connell remains on the job despite reports from two men that he molested them as boys.

Fr. O’Connell was temporarily removed from St. Alphonsus in December 2013 after the archdiocese received an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a boy at Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park years earlier. In April of this year, then-Cardinal Francis George reinstated O’Connell even though the Cook County Sheriff’s Department never closed the criminal case.

Shortly thereafter, new allegations surfaced involving abuse of different boy in the 1990s and police continue to investigate. O’Connell, however, remains on the job. Catholic officials claim he will avoid the parish school and will not be alone with a child, a contention that SNAP calls “ludicrous and dangerous.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the former leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, helped to orchestrate a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign which led to the election of Pope Francis, a new biography claims.

The choice of the largely unknown Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics came as a surprise to Vatican watchers and the faithful alike when the announcement was made in March last year.

The conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI, the first pope for more than 600 years to step down, was viewed as wide open, although most predicted that the Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola or Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec would be elected.

When 76-year-old Bergoglio emerged as Pope on only the second day of voting, it was largely explained as a unity candidacy to prevent deadlock between rival factions.

But a biography of Pope Francis, to be published next month, discloses that there had been a discreet, but highly organised, campaign by a small group of European cardinals in support of Cardinal Bergoglio.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: November 22, 2014

Several Twin Cities Catholic priests have taken the unusual step of hiring their own attorney to address potential liability from clergy abuse lawsuits and have invited all 200-some parishes in the archdiocese to consider doing the same.

“Since the interests of the individual parishes are distinct from those of the Archdiocese, we believe that it is prudent for the parishes to have their own representation,” said a letter sent to St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese parishes last week.

The letter was signed by the Rev. Kevin Finnegan of Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina and the Rev. David Hennen of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church of Hastings. Priests who previously served in both churches have been identified as child sex abusers.

Finnegan and Hennen invited all pastors, administrators and trustees to attend a December meeting with White Bear Lake bankruptcy attorney Mary Jo Jensen-Carter, whom they have retained.

“We are just looking at our options,” said Finnegan.

The move is the latest response to financial strains in the archdiocese, which is facing more than 20 child abuse lawsuits. Last week, the archdiocese announced a $9.1 million operating loss and said it was weighing whether to file bankruptcy.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on November 22, 2014

A statement of claim filed against a former minister and the United Church of Canada alleges he was a child sexual abuser years earlier than he admitted to when he was convicted in the 1980s.

The woman’s name and community is protected by a Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador order.

In the 1960s, Stephen James Collins was a practising United Church minister in this province.

The Jane Doe civil suit alleges that Collins’ sex abuse of her not only ruined her childhood, but led to a life of physical and mental pain, an impaired ability to gain an education and establish financial well-being, substance abuse, humiliation, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and problems trusting other people and sustaining intimate relationships.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

John Allen wrote an article suggesting what Pope Francis could do to defend religious freedom — “Just by reading the news, one has the impression that religious freedom is under threat today. From the carnage unleashed by the self-declared Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to church/state tensions across the West, the picture seems to grow murkier and grimmer by the day”. FYI — There is total freedom of religion in New York yet look at the alarming rate of closure of Catholic churches which Cardinal Dolan announced last week that he is merging 115 parishes into 55 – and closing down 30 churches – all located in prime real estates to be eventually sold off.

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UNITED STATES/VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

Top Vatican prosecutor failed to report abuser

By Michael Rezendes
GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 23, 2014

A prominent American Jesuit recently named by Pope Francis to prosecute priests accused of sexually abusing minors under Church law was himself one of several Catholic officials who failed to stop a notorious abusive priest now serving a 25-year prison sentence, legal documents show.

The Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, named in September as the pope’s “Promoter of Justice,” was the second highest ranking official among the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when leaders were facing multiple abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, a globe-trotting priest who was close to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But the Jesuits failed to notify police or prevent McGuire from continuing to molest minors.

Documents examined by the Globe, most of them Church records produced during lawsuits filed by McGuire’s victims, show that Geisinger had detailed knowledge of the complaints against McGuire as early as 1995 and advised officials in Chicago on how to discipline McGuire as late as August of 2002, when they were still keeping the complaints secret, and Geisinger had been promoted to a position in Rome.

McGuire was finally convicted in 2006 by a Wisconsin jury of molesting two boys who had notified civil authorities.

“It’s astonishing that, for such a high profile, sensitive position, the Vatican wouldn’t want someone whose background is unassailable, in the sense that there shouldn’t even be questions raised,” said Philip F. Lawler, a noted Catholic writer and the editor of Catholic World News, who has been critical of the church’s handling of the sex abuse crisis.

Geisinger, reached at his Rome office, declined to comment on the role he played as canon lawyer to McGuire’s supervisors, or on the contents of the court documents, insisting that he is bound by confidentiality rules that apply to canon lawyers, or lawyers who hold degrees in Church law. …

Lawler and his wife, Leila, housed one of McGuire’s victims during the 1999-2000 school year when the victim was an eighth-grader at the Trivium School, a small Catholic school in Lancaster. Both complained about McGuire’s behavior during his visits with the boy, but neither the school nor the Chicago Province took action to stop him.

“The boy was not abused while he was here but he was abused after he left us, after we had communicated our fears to [McGuire’s] Jesuit superiors,’’ Lawler said in a 2012 Globe interview. “That makes me livid.” …

Said Terence McKiernan, founder of the advocacy group bishopaccountability.org: “Do you really want to pick someone who is actually in the paper trail of one of the most egregious cases that the Jesuits have ever handled?”

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RHODE ISLAND
Patch

By Mark Schieldrop (Patch Staff)
Updated November 21, 2014

The former priest of St. Mary Parish in Cranston and St. Augustine in Providence has been indicted by the Statewide Grand Jury and charged with five counts of first degree sexual assault.

Meehan was the pastor of St. Timothy Parish in Warwick when he was placed on administrative leave in January of 2013 after the allegations emerged. One of his alleged victims reported it to the Diocese of Providence, which then contacted the State Police.

Police identified a second victim during their investigation.

Meehan allegedly sexually assaulted a male over 14 while assigned to St. Mary Parish in Cranston between April 17 of 1986 and Jan. 25 of 1991. He also allegedly assaulted another male over 14 between Jan. 25 of 1991 and Aug. 31 of 1992 while assigned to St. Augustine in Providence.

Meehan was arraigned in Providence County Superior Court before Superior Court Magistrate Patricia Harwood and bail was set at $50,000 with surety.

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ARGENTINA
Vatican Insider

The journalist Horacio Verbitsky is in an awkward spot following the discovery and removal of some highly critical notes he made about the current Pope, from the digital archive of “Pagina/12”, the newspaper that originally published them

ANDRÉS BELTRAMO ÁLVAREZ
VATICAN CITY

He had been Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s biggest critic for years. Today he finds himself in the eye of the storm, so to speak. His books and articles drove home the theory about the Pope’s incriminating past, in other words his complicity in Argentina’s last military dictatorship. But the most renowned human rights activists gave him the cold shoulder. The disappearance of the most critical notes ever written about Bergoglio from the digital archive of Argentinian newspaper Página/12, has sparked a new debate regarding the credibility of Horacio Verbitsky.

The discovery came to light on the web earlier this week and quickly caught the press’s attention. At least eight articles Verbitsky wrote in 2005 and 2010 have vanished from the website of Argentina’s oldest left-wing newspaper. Some media speculated that it was done in the spirit of the new era of “reconciliation” between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government and the Argentinian Pope.

The journalist called this version of the facts “malicious nonsense” (in the 19/11/14 issue of Argentinian newspaper Clarín) and issued a statement in which he claimed that he himself had asked for access to the reports to be blocked because he didn’t want to give pre-chewed information to the cloud of European journalists that moved to Buenos Aires to prepare instant books on the figure.” He also stated that his investigations are still underway and that he does not like giving his work away for free.

The explanation does not say whether the request Página/12 presented to Google for the journalist’s reports to be blocked was made in the weeks following Bergoglio’s election as Pope or in recent months. But it is interesting, nevertheless, that the episode emerged just days after the President of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo), Estela de Carlotto, publicly admitted she had made a mistake about the role Bergoglio had played during the days of the dictatorship (1976-1983).

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DOMINICA
Dominica News Online

A local Roman Catholic priest in Dominica has been “defrocked” by Rome almost two years after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him. Msgr Reginald LaFleur, who has been a Roman Catholic priest for over 30 years, was issued the decree by Bishop of Roseau Gabriel Malzaire on November 6, 2014.

The 60-year-old priest was put on administrative leave almost two years after a woman alleged that he touched her inappropriately on her “bottom and breast” and made “sweet eyes” at her 19 years ago when she was a 12-year-old parishioner. The woman made the accusations against Lafleur in a series of letters to Bishop Gabriel Malzaire, the head of Dominica’s diocese.

Malzaire had sent the accuser to Trinidad & Tobago for counseling as a local church panel investigated her allegations.

In a statement, Bishop Malzaire stated, “You are aware of the allegations that were brought against Msgr Reginald LaFleur almost two years ago. After a Diocesan preliminary investigation, the case was forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which has exclusive competence in these matters. The Congregation having reviewed the case authorized the Diocesan Bishop to proceed with an Administrative Penal Process.”

He continued, “The accused cleric was duly informed of this process and invited to take part by leading a defense either personally or through his advocate. Two canonists from outside the Diocese were invited as assessors of the evidence gathered. Because the accused cleric had not answered to the invitation to participate in the process, and in an attempt to preserve the right of defense, another canonist from outside the Diocese was invited to lead a defense on behalf of the accused cleric.”

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INTERNATIONAL
Cadena Ser

[This is a map of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church that have become known in recent years.]

El papa emérito, Benedicto XVI, expulsó a unos 400 sacerdotes durante su pontificado. Francisco ya ha relevado a tres obispos y a un sacerdote

Elaborar un mapa sobre la incidencia de los escándalos de pederastia en el seno de la Iglesia Católica no es una tarea sencilla. En los últimos años se han destapado muchos casos, sobre todo a partir de un cambio de actitud por parte del Vaticano, que ha pasado de mirar para otro lado a contribuir activamente a desenmascarar los abusos hacia menores cometidos por el clero. Pero muchos de estos delitos siguen sin salir a la luz, bien porque los afectados no los denuncian, o bien porque las denuncias no pueden ser probadas.

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MINNESOTA
KIPA-APIC

Minneapolis, 21.11.14 (Kipa) Das US-Erzbistum Saint Paul und Minneapolis erwägt einen Konkurs, um die Ansprüche von Missbrauchsopfern zu bedienen. Bei einer Reorganisation unter Insolvenzrecht würde das Kirchenvermögen an alle bekannten Opfer verteilt, nicht nur an jene, die ihre Forderungen als erste geltend gemacht hätten, erklärte das katholische Erzbistum am Donnerstagabend (20. November). Ein Beschluss sei aber noch nicht gefallen. Nach Anmeldung der Insolvenz würde ein Bundesrichter die Kontrolle über die vorhandenen Vermögenswerte übernehmen.

Erzbischof John Nienstedt betonte, leitend für die Entscheidung müsse «Fairness» gegenüber den Opfern sein. Bislang seien erst zwei Gerichtsverfahren zu sexuellem Missbrauch Minderjähriger durch Kleriker abgeschlossen; 20 weitere Verfahren stünden an. Es sei unabsehbar, wie viele Entschädigungsforderungen noch eingehen könnten. «Wir möchten nicht, dass unser ganzes Vermögen für Rechtsstreitigkeiten ausgegeben wird», erklärte Nienstedt. Es gelte sicherzustellen, dass alle Missbrauchsopfer «adäquat entschädigt» würden.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

[A church in Austria contains a memorial where Archbishop Hans Hermann Groer once prayed for unborn children. Groer was accused to sexual abuse. The parish would not remove the memorial so an activist installed a millstone beneath it.]

Dem verstorbenen Wiener Erzbischof Hans Hermann Groër (1919–2003) ist ein Relief an der Fassade der Pfarrkirche von Hohenzell, Bezirk Ried (OÖ), gewidmet: In Stein gemeißelt ist das unvollständige Bibelzitat “Wer aber eines von diesen Kleinen …”. Auf einer Tafel wurde vermerkt, dass der Kardinal dort im Jahr 1989 für Ungeborene gebetet hat.

Weil sich Dorfpfarrer Josef Bauer weigert, der Groër-Verehrung in Hohenzell ein Ende zu setzen, hat Rothwangl am Montag das Denkmal auf eigene Faust umgestaltet: Mit einer Eisenkette befestigte er unterhalb des Reliefs einen massiven Mühlstein, aus dem der Kopf des Kardinals ragt. “Es soll an die Verbrechern Groërs erinnern, die von seinen Anhängern nach wie vor abgestritten werden”, sagt der Aktivist.

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POLSKA
TVP

[Warsaw investigators have a way to enable the Dominican Republic prosecutors participate in the prosecution of Father. Wojciech G., accused of pedophilia. They are going to court to use the solution, which allows, among others, prosecutors to indicate two people who will take part in the proceedings.]

Warszawscy śledczy mają już sposób na umożliwienie dominikańskim prokuratorom uczestnictwa w procesie ks. Wojciecha G., oskarżonego o pedofilię. Zamierzają przed sądem skorzystać z rozwiązania, które pozwala m.in. oskarżycielom wskazać dwie osoby, które będą brały udział w postępowaniu. Polscy śledczy wskażą więc swoich kolegów z Dominikany.

Wykorzystanie art. 361. par 1. Kodeksu postępowania karnego, bo o tym przepisie mowa, sugerował na początku listopada Prokurator Generalny Andrzej Seremet. Prokuratura Generalna szukała jednak także innych rozwiązań. Niestety polskie prawo nie przewiduje możliwości czynnego uczestnictwa w procesie śledczych z innych państw.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

An oblate of St. Francis de Sales takes priestly vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He prays to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Few who pray that prayer could have ever imagined the fate that befell Father Charles Engelhardt.

That was the message of the homily delivered today by Father Michael Connolly at the funeral of Father Engelhardt, his friend and fellow oblate of nearly 50 years.

An oblate wears a silver cross around his neck, Father Connolly said. He fished his own cross out of his priestly garments to show the crowd. It’s a cross an oblate receives on the occasion of his first presentation of faith, the priest said. It’s not a crucifix; there’s no body on it.

“Charlie was the body on that cross in his life,” Father Connolly said. Like Jesus, “Charlie endured his suffering” with patience and humility, the priest said. Like Jesus, Father Engelhardt was falsely accused, tried, and convicted. Like Jesus, Father Engelhardt was painfully humiliated before he died a prisoner.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) On Saturday Pope Francis met with the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, approving a slew of episcopal appointments for the Universal Church, including an Archbishop for Ireland and bishops for Ghana, Scotland and New Zealand.
Ireland

Chief among them was the Pope’s appointment of a new Archbishop for one of Ireland’s four Metropolitan Archdiocese, Cashel and Emly. The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Dermot Clifford on having reached the age of retirement and has chosen Society of African Missionary Bishop Kieran O’ Reilly, to lead the estimated 80 thousand faithful and govern the ecclesiastical province of Cashel- southern Ireland.

Bishop Kieran O’Reilly was born in Cork in 1952. Educated at Presentation Brothers and Scoil Chríost Rí, he entered the Society of African Missions in Wilton, Cork in 1970. Ordained for the Society on the 17th June 1978 he served in Liberia for two years before studying for a licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

From 1984 to 1989 Bishop Kieran was lecturing in Scripture at the major seminary in Ibadan, Nigeria. From 1990 to 2010 he served on the Irish and International Councils of the Society of African Missions. At the time of his appointment as Bishop of the diocese of Killaloe, Ireland, he was serving his second term as Superior General of the Society. He was ordained as Bishop of Killaloe on the 29th August 2010 in succession to Bishop Willie Walsh who had retired as bishop of the diocese on completing his 75th year.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Down Recorder

19 November 2014

OUT of the many horrors Sam Adair says he faced at Rubane House – from being abused in a cold shower in the middle of the night, to the “death marches” of dreaded camping trips – one theme repeats.

The sheer brutal force of the physical abuse was something he stressed time and time again to the Historical Abuse Inquiry in Banbridge.

The Newcastle man made it clear that what he and many others experienced was no ordinary corporal punishment. Instead he said, the Brothers and other staff members used their fists and feet to devastating effect.

Entering the De La Salle-run home in 1977 at the age of 13, after time spent in Belfast’s Nazareth Lodge where he was abused by notorious paedophile Fr. Brendan Smyth, Mr. Adair described a system of autonomous chalets which ran almost as separate children’s homes.

He said the Brother in charge of his chalet was often absent and drinking in the main house, and would beat him often.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

BY G. WAYNE MILLER
Journal Staff Writer
gwmiller@providencejournal.com

1972
The Rev. Louis E. Gelineau is named bishop of Providence, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

1984
The Rev. P. Henry Leech, an assistant pastor at St. Jude’s Parish in Lincoln, is arraigned on five counts of sexual assault on teenage boys.

1985
Feb. 15
The Rev. William C. O’Connell, pastor of Bristol’s St. Mary Church, is charged with sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy. Six felony charges are eventually brought.

Oct. 6
After pleading no contest, Father Leech is sentenced to three years at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He tells a Superior Court judge that therapy helped him recognize that he himself was a childhood victim of sexual assault. “Now I understand why this has happened and swear to you and to all here present that this action will never happen again,” he says.

1986
After additional police investigation, Father O’Connell is sentenced to a year in an ACI work-release program after pleading no contest to 26 counts of sexual contact with three boys.

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CALIFORNIA
The Salinas Californian

Allison Gatlin, The Salinas Californian November 21, 2014

Palma High School officials shot back Thursday against accusations that the Roman Catholic institution had been named in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by one of its former teachers.

In a letter to parents, President Patrick Dunne expressed sadness and anger over reports of sexual abuse of children by any adult, “particularly by religious men whom they trusted and revered.”

“There has never been an incident of abuse during my tenure of 28 years at Palma,” Dunne wrote.

Although Palma High School wasn’t named a defendant in the 23-page lawsuit, plaintiff Steven Cantrell asserts that’s where he attended school when a priest sexually abused him.

In 1984, Cantrell was a 14-year-old student at Palma High School when Father Gerald “Jerry” Funcheon, a teacher, sexually abused him during a camping trip, according to the complaint.

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DOMINICA
Press TV (Iran)

A veteran Dominican parish priest, who was accused of sexually abusing a young girl some 20 years ago, has been defrocked by the Catholic Church.

The east Caribbean island’s bishop, Gabriel Malzaire, issued a decree removing Msgr. Reginald LaFleur’s priesthood late on Thursday.

Malzaire described the defrocking as a painful decision for him and the diocese, adding, “I am sure that one will appreciate that this is one of the most difficult things that I have ever had to do in my life as a bishop and priest.”

LaFleur had been placed on administrative leave in 2013 following reports of inappropriately touching a 12-year-old girl in 1994.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

Sex-abuse cases involving Rhode Island priests

Priest Barry Meehan charged with sexual assault in Cranston and Providence in the 1980s and ’90s

BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writer
bmalinow@providencejournal.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A priest was delivered to Superior Court in handcuffs on Friday and charged with five counts of first-degree sexual assault on two alleged victims in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Rev. Barry Meehan, 65, of 767 Providence St., West Warwick, former pastor of St. Timothy Catholic Church, at 1799 Warwick Ave., in Warwick, pleaded not guilty to the charges through his

The indictment spelling out the charges was unsealed at 12:07 p.m., in the courtroom of Magistrate Patricia Harwood. A clerk declined to release a copy of the indictment to The Providence Journal.
Meehan, an ordinary-looking man with thinning white hair and gold-rimmed glasses, wore a wool coat over a tan cable sweater and gray slacks. Outside the judge’s chambers, he signed several documents with his hands bound in handcuffs.

The statewide grand jury handed up the indictment against Meehan on Wednesday, and it remained sealed until his appearance in Superior Court. According to the indictment, while Meehan was assigned to St. Mary Parish in Cranston between April 17, 1986 and Jan. 25, 1991, he sexually assaulted a boy older than 14 years old. It is further alleged that on or about Jan. 25, 1991 and Aug. 31, 1992, he sexually assaulted another boy older than 14 when he was assigned to St. Augustine Parish in Providence.

One of the alleged victims reported the abuse to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence in December 2012, and the church, in turn, contacted the state police. During the course of their investigation, the state police found a second alleged victim.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Reuters’ respected editor, John Lloyd, who is also a La Repubblica of Rome columnist and an Oxford journalism scholar, candidly observed about the Vatican’s recent Synod huddle: ” … these ageing men did — and still do — have a serious sex scandal within their ranks – one which they have, in the main, dealt with badly.” Fair enough, but are journalists now doing much better, “in the main”, in covering Pope Francis’ failure after 20 months to take decisive action to curtail the clerical sex abuse scandal? No, with only rare exceptions.

CNN is a prime example. It appears, in effect, still to be giving Pope Francis and UK clerics a continuing pass on Vatican controlled secretive investigations, while pressing for an independent and transparent UK investigation of sex abuse allegations involving UK political leaders and celebrities.

A double standard, no? Do UK politicians’ opposition parties have more media clout than Pope Francis’ disorganized opposition that evidently is too often overwhelmed by Pope Francis’ media machine and his seeming support from opportunistic multi-billionaire media magnates in the UK/Australia/USA/Latin America and elsewhere? It appears so.

Pope Francis is clearly running out of time, as he seemingly is only going through some public relations motions on curtailing priest sex abuse. He must now either act decisively and transparently or he can expect to face more governmental investigations that he will most likely be unable to control. He no longer enjoys the support of major international powers that have protected the Vatican for centuries.

I discuss in detail Pope Francis’ dire overall predicament in my recent analysis also included below under “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces” . My analysis relies heavily on my study of the work of Fr. Hans Kung. He is a leading world authority on Catholic theology, history and interreligious dialogue, a former mentor to Cardinal Walter Kasper (Pope Francis’ preferred theologian), and an occasional confidante to world leaders, including the former longtime UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Fr. Kung has over a five year period generously given me by constant example and occasional e-mail some encouragement, including with respect to my recent analysis. Of course, I am an international lawyer, not a professional scholar, and Fr. Kung is not responsible for my judgments.

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RHODE ISLAND
Turn to 10

[with video]

By Katie Davis, NBC 10 I-Team Reporter

The allegations are graphic.

Children raped and forced to perform sex acts by Rhode Island priests.

Some told no one would believe them if they came forward.

The cases were uncovered in state police files by the NBC 10 I-Team through public records requests over a six-month period.

Despite the disturbing details, investigators say the cases are tough to prosecute.

“Witnesses have died. We can’t locate certain witnesses or victims. So it makes it very difficult, time period,” Capt. Christopher Dicomitis

Dicomitis said the statute of limitations has run out in most cases, or the accused priest is dead.

But state police say the indictment of the Rev. Barry Meehan on Friday sends a strong message that priests who can be charged, will face justice.

“Absolutely,” Dicomitis said. …

Following our investigation last year, state police said at least 15 people came forward to file new reports.

Ann Hagen Webb was one of them.

“I found them very sensitive and understanding and encouraging,” Hagen Webb said.

She says she was sexually abused by a West Warwick priest, starting at the age of 5. Although the priest is dead, she felt it was important to tell her story to detectives.

Hagen Webb said she reported the abuse to the diocese in 1994, but she said her case was never sent to state police.

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