ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
ABC News

Nov 8, 2014

By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer

U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are gathering at a moment of turbulence for them and the American church, as Pope Francis moves toward crafting new policies for carrying out his mission of mercy — a prospect that has conservative Catholics and some bishops in an uproar.

The assembly, which starts Monday in Baltimore, comes less than a month after Francis ended a dramatic Vatican meeting on how the church can more compassionately minister to Catholic families.

The gathering in Rome was only a prelude to a larger meeting next year which will more concretely advise Francis on church practice. Still, the open debate at the event, and the back and forth among bishops over welcoming gays and divorced Catholics who remarry, prompted stunning criticism from some U.S. bishops.

“Many of the U.S. bishops have been disoriented by what this new pope is saying and I don’t see them really as embracing the pope’s agenda,” said John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service. “To a large degree, the U.S. bishops have lost their bearings. I think up until now, they felt Rome had their back, and what they were saying — especially politically — would eventually be supported in Rome. They can’t count on that now.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former St. Louis archbishop and leading voice for conservative Catholics, said the church “is like a ship without a rudder” under Francis. Burke made the comments before the pope demoted him from his position as head of the Vatican high court, a move he had anticipated.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, said the debate and vote on a document summing up the discussion in Rome, which laid bare divisions among church leaders, struck him as “rather Protestant.” Tobin referenced a remark Francis had made to young Catholics last year that they shake up the church and make a “mess” in their dioceses.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis removed U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, 66, as head of the Vatican’s highest court and named him to a largely ceremonial post for a chivalric religious order.

Cardinal Burke, formerly prefect of the Apostolic Signature, will now serve as cardinal patron of the Knights and Dames of Malta, the Vatican announced Nov. 8.

Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, then-prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, leaves the concluding session of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican Oct. 18. (CNS/Paul Haring)

The move had been widely expected since an Italian journalist reported it in September, and the cardinal himself confirmed it to reporters the following month.

It is highly unusual for a pope to remove an official of Cardinal Burke’s stature and age without assigning him comparable responsibilities elsewhere. By church law, cardinals in the Vatican must offer to resign at 75, but often continue in office for several more years. As usual when announcing personnel changes other than retirements for reasons of age, the Vatican did not give a reason for the cardinal’s reassignment.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Times

By JIM YARDLEY
NOV. 8, 2014

ROME — Pope Francis on Saturday sidelined a powerful American cardinal who has emerged as an unabashed conservative critic of the reform agenda and the leadership style that the Argentine pontiff has brought to the Roman Catholic Church.

In an expected move, Cardinal Raymond L. Burke was officially removed as head of the Vatican’s highest judicial authority, known as the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He was demoted to the ceremonial position of chaplain for the Knights of Malta, a charity group.

The Vatican made no comment in announcing the change, but Cardinal Burke is hardly one of the pope’s favorites. Last December, Francis removed the cardinal from a position that gave him great influence in appointing new American bishops. In return, Cardinal Burke has questioned Francis’s leadership and has been a stern opponent of proposals to allow divorced or remarried Catholics to receive communion.

In a contentious October meeting of church leaders, known as a synod, Cardinal Burke also rejected positive, more welcoming language about gay people in a draft document that was released at the halfway point of the gathering. He and other conservative bishops forced the language to be watered down in the synod’s concluding summary document.

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ALASKA
San Antonio Express-News

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A diocese official says Pope Francis has appointed a new bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks.

Diocese spokesman Robert Hannon says in a statement Saturday the pope asked the Rev. Chad Zielinski to lead the United States’ northernmost diocese. Zielinski is an active military chaplain at Eielson Air Force Base. According to Hannon, it’s the first time in recent history an active military chaplain has been named spiritual head of a diocese.

Zielinski’s ordination and installation is scheduled for Dec. 15.

He replaces Bishop Donald Kettler, who was reassigned to Minnesota last year. Archbishop Roger Schwietz has been leading the diocese in the interim.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

07 November 2014 17:09 by Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis today announced that Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading conservative voice in the Church, would be moved from a senior position in the Vatican to become Patron of the Order of Malta.

In a widely expected move, Cardinal Burke will no longer be Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura – the Church’s supreme court – but instead take on a largely ceremonial role for the ancient order which undertakes charitable initiatives across the world.

The 66-year-old American cardinal has been an outspoken critic of the recent Synod on the Family in Rome where many participants called for the Church to adopt less harsh language when talking about homosexuality, the divorced and remarried, and cohabiting couples.

Burke has also contributed to a book opposing proposals by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who suggested the Church permit divorced and remarried couples to receive Communion in certain circumstances. Cardinal Kasper’s theology has been publicly praised by Pope Francis.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Nov. 3, 2014 Distinctly Catholic

Next week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will gather for their annual fall plenary in Baltimore. This will be their second full meeting since the election of Pope Francis and their first full meeting since the Holy Father gave us a particular glimpse of his vision for the Church in Evangelii Gaudium, as well as the first meeting since the recently concluded Synod on the Family.

The Holy Father has called the Church to become less self-referential, to go out to the peripheries of life, especially to the poor and the marginalized, so as to encounter Christ. His simplicity of life and the sheer authenticity of his words and gestures have electrified the world. Yet, the response to the exciting moment in the life of the Church from the staff at the USCCB might charitably be described as underwhelming.

Today, however, I wish to discuss what I perceive as the internal problems of the USCCB. This might seem in conflict with the pope’s vision, a bit too self-referential, but I would point out that Pope Francis is also setting about to reform the curia, which is a self-referential task as well. In the event, reforms in both organizations are badly needed.

In February 2011, George Weigel published an article in First Things entitled “The End of the Bernardin Era.” The article followed the unprecedented defeat of the incumbent Vice President of the USCCB, Bishop Gerald Kicanas, in his bid for the conference presidency. Cardinal Timothy Dolan was elected to the top spot. And, the bishops selected Msgr. Ronny Jenkins as the new conference General Secretary. At the time, many people at the USCCB were hopeful about Jenkins’ selection.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Nov. 4, 2014 Distinctly Catholic

Yesterday, I looked at the internal, managerial, staff-related issues that face the USCCB in advance of their plenary next week. Today, I would like to look at the attitudinal, dare one say ideological, challenges facing the conference. And, to be clear, while I think the bishops must take the lead in resolving the managerial issues, the bishops need to take some long looks in the mirror if they wish to address the attitudinal issues I will discuss today.

I write “issues” and, indeed, there are discrete issues in play, but I think the basic challenge facing the USCCB at this moment is singular. For years, they have been acting on a model of the Church as a bastion or redoubt, confronted by a secular culture that only seems to grow more secular, and more hostile, by the day, bringing the faithful elect within the walls of the redoubt, drawing clear boundaries between the Church and the ambient culture, the washed and the unwashed, with clear sets of propositions to which all are expected to sign on without any troubling questioning, hurling anathemas, nurturing a sense of grievance, perplexed as much as anything by the speed and the comprehensiveness of the cultural changes all around them. It is the culture warrior vision at the heart of the essay by George Weigel that I called attention to yesterday.

Now, Pope Francis has proposed a different model for the Church. He sees the Church as a field hospital. Those who fault Pope Francis for his sunny personality and cheerful, joyful approach to evangelization sometimes mistake that joy for naivete, although the metaphor of a field hospital assumes a battle has been fought or is being fought, but it casts the Church not as a combatant, but as the mender, the healer. More to the point – and this may be the key point – for this pope, the Church as field hospital is not only a metaphor, there is more substance and reality to his vision than that. He actually wants the Church tending to the wounded, the scarred, the embittered, the lost, and tending with all the care of a good nurse. For Francis, as for Benedict, the Church is not a proposition, still less a checklist of propositions, but a way of life that embodies the beliefs we hold and, unlike Benedict, Francis has a knack for using gestures and simple language to communicate his vision to the unlettered, indeed to all. He leads with pastoral care, not with theology or philosophy and bids the Church to do the same, rooting our theology in our experience, not the other way round and giving preferential attention in all our experiences to the poor, not because they need our help but because we need theirs, for it is the poor who are closest to the Lord.

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VATICAN CITY
Buenos Aires Herald

Pope Francis today demoted an outspoken conservative American cardinal who has been highly critical of the pontiff’s reformist leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, 66, was removed as head of the Vatican’s highest court and appointed to the ceremonial post of chaplain of the charity group Knights of Malta.

The move, which the Vatican announced on Saturday without comment, had been expected. Burke said last month he had been told he would move to a new job but did not know when.

Burke, who until today was the highest-ranking American in the Vatican, gave a series of recent interviews criticizing the pope and had emerged as the face of conservative opposition to Francis’ reform agenda.

In an interview with a Spanish magazine last month, Burke, known for his unbending interpretation of doctrine, compared the Catholic Church under Francis to “a ship without a rudder”.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent November 8, 2014

ROME — The Vatican officially confirmed Saturday that American Cardinal Raymond Burke has been removed as head of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s Supreme Court, in order to become the patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta.

The move had been widely expected, and was confirmed by Burke himself in comments to reporters during a recent Synod of Bishops.

The Vatican also announced two other important personnel moves: Burke’s position at the Apostolic Signatura will be taken over by French Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, currently the pope’s foreign minister; and Mamberti’s old job, in turn, will be filled by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, currently the papal ambassador in Australia.

The Order of the Knights of Malta is a chivalric organization for distinguished Catholics from around the world whose mission is to assist the elderly, the handicapped, refugees, children, the homeless, and those with terminal illnesses and leprosy.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

VATICAN CITY (AP) — American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a fervent opponent of abortion and gay marriage, has been removed by Pope Francis from another top Vatican post.

Burke’s removal as head of the Holy See’s supreme court was expected. Last year Francis took Burke off the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for Bishops. While previously leading the St. Louis diocese, Burke was a vocal hardliner in a campaign which included calls for Catholic politicians supporting legalized abortion to be denied Communion.

Francis on Saturday transferred Burke from the Vatican court job to the largely ceremonial post as patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a charity.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by Edward Pentin Saturday, November 08, 2014

Pope Francis today appointed Cardinal Raymond Burke, hitherto prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, as patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, replacing Cardinal Paolo Sardi who has served in the position since 2009.

Confirmation of the appointment was widely awaited: rumors had been circulating for some time, and Cardinal Burke disclosed the Pope’s decision himself in an interview last month.

The move means that Cardinal Burke, 66, is completely removed from the Curia and holds a purely honorary position without any influence in the governance of the universal Church. Given his age and seniority, such a move is unprecedented and many therefore view it as a demotion.

He will be replaced by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States – effectively the Holy See’s foreign minister.

Some have speculated whether Cardinal Burke’s appointment is a result of his outspoken criticisms during the synod. But rumors of the transfer, first circulated by veteran Vatican watcher Sandro Magister, began in mid-September, considerably earlier than the meeting.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Paul Gallagher is currently Nuncio to Australia. The current secretary for Relations with States now becomes Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, replacing the conservative American acrdinal who will go on to lead the Knights of Malta

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

Following Parolin’s appointment a year ago, Francis has made another key change to the structure of the Vatican Secretary of State: the current Secretary for Relations with States, Corsican Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, is being promoted as head of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura: he replaces Cardinal Raymond Burke who in turn is being transferred to the Order of the Knights of Malta. Burke himself confirmed his nomination in an interview given during the recent Synod.

The new Vatican “foreign affairs minister” who succeeds Mamberti is Paul Richard Gallagher, Titular Archbishop of Hodelm (an old Scottish diocese that was closed down), was born in Liverpool on 23 January 1954 and is currently Apostolic Nuncio to Australia. Gallagher was appointed Nuncio in Burundi and consecrated as a Bishop in 2004. From 2009 to the end of 2012 – before he took over his post in Australia – he was Papal Representative in Guatemala.

Gallagher was born in the same neighbourhood where the Beatles kick-started their career. He was a priest in the Diocese of Liverpool in 1977, began by serving as an assistant to the parish priest in the Holy Name Church and was chaplain at Fazakerley hospital. He graduated with a degree in Canon Law and entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service in 1984. Before being appointed Apostolic Nuncio he served the Vatican diplomatic missions in Tanzania, Uruguay, the Philippines and soon the Council of Europe.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (UK)

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Saturday demoted an outspoken conservative American cardinal who has been highly critical of the pontiff’s reformist leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, 66, was removed as head of the Vatican’s highest court and appointed to the ceremonial post of chaplain of the charity group Knights of Malta.

The move, which the Vatican announced on Saturday without comment, had been expected. Burke said last month he had been told he would move to a new job but did not know when.

Burke, who until Saturday was the highest-ranking American in the Vatican, gave a series of recent interviews criticising the pope and had emerged as the face of conservative opposition to Francis’ reform agenda.

In an interview with a Spanish magazine last month, Burke, known for his unbending interpretation of doctrine, compared the Catholic Church under Francis to “a ship without a rudder”.

At a meeting of bishops from around the world last month, Burke was the flag-bearer for conservatives opposed to the Church adopting a more welcoming attitude towards homosexuals.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Il Santo Padre Francesco ha nominato Vescovo della diocesi di Fairbanks (Stati Uniti d’America) il Rev.do Chad Zielinski, del clero di Gaylord, Cappellano dell’Aviazione Militare degli Stati Uniti, attualmente di base a Fairbanks.

Rev.do Chad Zielinski

Il Rev.do Chad Zielinski è nato a Detroit, Michigan, negli Stati Uniti, l’8 settembre 1964. La sua famiglia si è trasferita nella parte settentrionale dello Stato del Michigan. Nel 1982, dopo aver terminato il liceo, si è arruolato nell’Aviazione, dove ha svolto il servizio militare dal 1983 al 1986. Nel 1986, stanziato nella Diocesi di Boise, nello Stato dell’Idaho, ha deciso di seguire la vocazione sacerdotale in quella Circoscrizione ed è entrato nel Seminario Maggiore di Mount Saint Angel. Nel 1989 si è diplomato in Filosofia (BachelorDegree) e ha deciso di interrompere la formazione. Nel 1992 è rientrato nel medesimo Seminario Maggiore e, nel corso degli studi teologici, ha deciso di ritornare alla diocesi della sua giovinezza, Gaylord. Il Vescovo di quella Sede lo ha inviato nel Seminario Maggiore Sacred Heart a Detroit, dove nel 1996 egli ha completato la formazione ecclesiastica, ottenendo un Master of Divinity. L’8 giugno 1996 è stato ordinato sacerdote per la Diocesi di Gaylord.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Nomina del Patrono del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta

Il Santo Padre ha nominato Patrono del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta l’Em.mo Card. Raymond Leo Burke, finora Prefetto del Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica.

[01769-01.01]

Nomina del Prefetto del Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica

Il Papa ha nominato Prefetto del Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica S.E. Mons. Dominique Mamberti, Arcivescovo titolare di Sagona, finora Segretario per i Rapporti con gli Stati.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Nov. 8, 2014 Distinctly Catholic

In this morning’s Bolletino, the announcement makes it official: Cardinal Raymond Burke has been named Patron of the Order of Malta. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, currently the Vatican’s “foreign minister,” will replace +Burke as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. The position of Patron of the the Order of Malta is usually given to a retired cardinal, or as a second task to an active cardinal. It has almost no responsibilities. The demotion is unprecedented, and completely warranted: Cardinal Burke’s influence at the Vatican has been crushingly backward looking, and that influence has resulted in some unhappy appointments. The downside of the appointment? By giving him a job with no real duties, +Burke will be free to make more speeches and give more interviews.

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UNITED STATES
Pew Research Center

BY MICHAEL LIPKA

The recent decision by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York to effectively close dozens of churches in the coming months falls in line with a larger nationwide trend of Catholic parish closures.

The number of Catholic parishes is on the decline.The downsizing in New York was described by The New York Times as the largest reorganization in the diocese’s history. The archdiocese, which stretches from Staten Island, Manhattan and the Bronx through the seven suburban counties in the state that are immediately north of New York City, will merge 112 of its parishes into 55 new parishes.

In 1988, there were 19,705 parishes in the U.S., while there are now 17,483, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.

The current number of parishes is about equal to the number that existed in 1965, even as the number of self-identified U.S. Catholics has risen in the past half-century, from 48.5 million to 76.7 million between 1965 and 2014, according to CARA’s data.

However, the share of U.S. Catholics who reported attending Mass at least weekly fell by nearly half – from 47% to 24% – between 1974 and 2012, according to the General Social Survey (GSS). And the Times reported that as of last year, according to the New York Archdiocese, only 12% of its members regularly attended Sunday Mass.

The number of Catholic priests and nuns is declining.There are a few other possible explanations for the apparent paradox of the growing number of Catholics and the now shrinking number of parishes. For one, the number of priests (as well as nuns) has declined steadily over the past 50 years, potentially leading to staff shortages at parishes. In fact, according to CARA, there are now 3,496 parishes without a resident priest, more than six times as many as there were 50 years ago. Also, the financial ramifications of the clergy sex abuse scandal – including legal costs, settlements and declining donations – have caused economic problems for some dioceses.

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CANADA
The Telegram

[with video]

Tara Bradbury
Published on November 08, 2014

One by one, local celebrities enter the production studio — musicians like Mark Hiscock and Duane Andrews, actors like Pete Soucy, writers like Bernice Morgan.

Each comes with no expectations and perhaps not even a clear idea of what they’ll be asked to do, but all motivated by the opportunity to contribute to a cause they deem worthy.

They’re taking part in a music video for the Pathways Foundation, a non-profit organization established this summer by well-known St. John’s activist Gemma Hickey, with the goal of helping victims of abuse within religious institutions.

Hickey has made no secret of her inspiration for starting the organization, which she says will provide support groups, educational resources and referrals, among other services: she was a victim when she was younger.

“I was assaulted by a Roman Catholic priest and I’ve come out on the other side of that and I’ve worked through it in therapy,” Hickey explains.

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MARYLAND
NBC Washington

By Scott MacFarlane

Concern spread quickly among students and administrators at Towson University after a rabbi was accused of secretly recording naked women at a D.C. synagogue, emails obtained by the News4 I-Team revealed.

According to search warrants, after Rabbi Barry Freundel was accused of recording at least six women in the ritual bath at Kesher Israel in Georgetown, police found micro cameras inside regular objects including a tissue box and a clock at Freundel’s office at Towson University, where he was an associate professor.

Just hours after the news about Freundel broke, a Towson University student wrote to a school administrator that she’d been to Kesher Israel

“I am inquiring to see if I was at risk by being there,” she wrote.

Another wrote, “I went there on a field trip to his synagogue that included this ritual bathing (mikvah) as a cultural experience. I believe he has been taking students on these field trips for quite some time.”

Emails sent among Towson University administrators — obtained by the I-Team under the Freedom of Information Act — revealed how the school’s top brass responded to their employee’s arrest.
Claim: Rabbi Accused of Voyeurism Took Students to Bath

The emails show administrators asked staff to conduct a midnight search of the ladies bathrooms inside the school’s College of Liberal Arts Building for cameras and that none was found.

One administrator wrote to another, “Have the night shift personnel check all the ladies rooms in campus (excluding residence halls) during the midnight shift so we can confirm that we checked all publicly accessible ones and found nothing. As a parent that is something I would want done.”

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MONTANA
Montana Standard

Angela Brandt angela.brandt@mtstandard.com

A court hearing scheduled for this week and the federal lawsuit of a former teacher against Butte Central Catholic Schools have been postponed pending bankruptcy hearings for the Diocese of Helena.

Shaela Evenson filed the suit in August alleging discrimination. She has already filed documents in the case alleging gender and pregnancy discrimination. She is asking for $500,000 in that claim.

Evenson contends the district breached its contract with her and discriminated against her because she was pregnant and because she is female. This broke both federal and state laws, her suit claims.

The case could be subject to the pending bankruptcy of the Diocese of Helena, her attorneys wrote in a request for the delay. Evenson plans to add the diocese to the lawsuit once the bankruptcy is resolved.

As a result of the firing, Evenson says she has incurred damages including lost wages, benefits and emotional distress. She is asking for back pay, compensatory and punitive damages — and a jury trial.

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UTAH
Standard-Examiner

Ben Lockhart
Multimedia Reporter

WASHINGTON TERRACE — A registered sex offender used an alias without permission while holding leadership positions and working with minors in his LDS ward, police say.

51-year-old Adam Wolfe, who formerly went by the legal name of David Michael Blackner, is charged with two counts of violating his sex offender registry, both third-degree felonies. An investigation by the Weber County Sheriff’s Office led to Wolfe’s arrest Oct. 27. He posted $10,000 bondable bail the next day.

Wolfe legally changed his name in December 2011, shortly after his 10-year sex offender status expired. But he violated the terms of his sex offender status, according to court documents, when he started using the alias Adam Wolfe in his local congregation in 2007 without telling authorities.

That was the year Wolfe was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to police. He quickly gained leadership positions in his new church, sheriff’s office Lt. Lane Findlay told the Standard-Examiner. Wolfe reportedly began working with teenagers in 2008 as part of his church responsibilities.

“While in that (ward), he was involved in several programs where he had access to minors,” Findlay said. “Because this person had access to children, there’s some concern there may be victims out there that haven’t been identified.”

Findlay is asking anyone with knowledge about Wolfe’s possible involvement with minors to call sheriff’s Sgt. Stephanie Tatton at 801-778-6639. Tatton is the detective who headed up the investigation into Wolfe’s alleged deception.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

By Tom Hillen and 24 Hour News 8 web staff

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — A Muskegon County man is accused of sexually assaulting several boys three decades ago.

A 24 Hour News 8 crew was in court Friday morning as 60-year-old Randall Doctor was brought in.

24 Hour News 8’s sources say Doctor met his alleged victims as the leader of the Cadets program at Fifth Reformed Church. He may have molested anywhere from five to 10 boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Doctor is not currently facing sexual assault charges — but rather manufacturing marijuana charges. As police executed a search warrant in the sexual assault investigation, they found pot plants at Doctor’s home.

Doctor’s defense attorney told 24 Hour News 8 his client cannot be charged with the alleged sexual assaults because the statute of limitations has run out.

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MICHIGAN
WZZM

Jon Mills, WZZM November 7, 2014

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) — Michigan State Police are investigating a Muskegon County man who may have molested five to 10 boys he meet through his position as a volunteer church youth leader.

Detectives began investigating Randall Doctor, 60, in August after a man, who is now in his 40s, reported the alleged sexual abuse. The man told detectives he was in his teens at the time.

Doctor was a volunteer youth leader at a church police have not yet identified. He has not been affiliated with the church for 25 years.

When investigators searched Doctors’ Muskegon area home looking for possible evidence of the sexual assault, they found a marijuana grow operation. Friday morning Doctor was in court for a hearing on the manufacturing marijuana charge. He has not been charged with sexual assault.

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MASSACHUSETTS
TribTown

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: November 07, 2014

ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts — The former assistant pastor of an Attleboro church who was also the principal of the church school has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing a student.

The Sun Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1orKb4D ) reports that The Rev. Jeffrey Nichols was sentenced Thursday in Fall River Superior Court.

Prosecutors say the 48-year-old Nichols was assistant pastor of Grace Baptist Church and principal of Grace Baptist Christian Academy sexually molested a seventh-grade student beginning in 2008 when she was 13. The abuse continued until the end of the school year in June 2013.

Authorities say Nichols inappropriately touched the girl and also made sexual comments to her. He asked her to expose herself to him and exposed himself to her.

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

The former assistant pastor of an Attleboro church who was also the principal of the church school has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing a student.

The Sun Chronicle reports that The Rev. Jeffrey Nichols was sentenced Thursday in Fall River Superior Court.

Prosecutors say the 48-year-old Nichols was assistant pastor of Grace Baptist Church and principal of Grace Baptist Christian Academy sexually molested a seventh-grade student beginning in 2008 when she was 13. The abuse continued until the end of the school year in June 2013.

Authorities say Nichols inappropriately touched the girl and also made sexual comments to her. He asked her to expose herself to him and exposed himself to her.

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TENNESSEE
Jackson Sun

David Thomas, dgthomas@jacksonsun.com November 8, 2014

A St. Louis organization is seeking an investigation into discrepancies in statements made by Mark McSwain, the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Bemis, during a sex abuse case involving the church.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said Friday at a news conference in Jackson that McSwain should possibly be charged with filing a false report with the Jackson Police Department.

“Nobody should be able to lie to the police,” Clohessy said. “(McSwain) either lied the first time or the second time, and he should not get away with that.”

Clohessy held his news conference inside the lobby of the office building at 225 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where District Attorney General Jerry Woodall has his office.

Asked about Clohessy’s statements, Woodall said, “I’m not in position to comment on something I need to refresh myself on.”

Neither McSwain, who is not listed with the past ministers on First Baptist Bemis’ website, nor associate pastor John Norvell could be reached for comment.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Juncalito, Dominican Republic.- Residents in the highland community of Juncalito, central Santiago province, are happy with the decision by the authorities in Warsaw, Poland, to indict the priest Wojciech Gil (Padre) Alberto of several crimes, including for the alleged sexual abuse of six boys.

“Finally it seems justice will be served,” said Pedro Tomas Espinal, who worked in Juncalito’s church of when Gil was the priest in the town near Jánico.

Espinal, who accompanied Gil twice to Poland, said everyone in Juncalito was shocked and outraged when the scandal erupted.

“The one who does it has to pay and we’re glad that Poland wants to make justice to the priest for sex abuse against minors committed here and in his country,” he said quoted by listin.com.do.

He revealed that before Gil arrived the parish had only eight altar boys, but then rose to 177, all teenagers at masses had to dress formally and that the priest would give them the garments. “While he was in the parish we never realized his actions because he was very reserved, it seems he did his thing with great discretion.”

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ILLINOIS
Suburban Life

By SUBURBAN LIFE MEDIA

The Archdiocese of Chicago released additional documents Thursday detailing cases of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

The documents come in addition to those released in January by the Archdiocese that detailed sexual misconduct with minors by 30 priests. The documents released Thursday name 36 Archdiocesan priests who had at least one substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to a statement on the Archdiocese’s website. At least some of them have previously been named by the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese said they withheld documents related to two additional priests – former Rev. Daniel J. McCormack and Rev. Edward J. Malohney – due to “ongoing processes that do not permit release.

All of the named priests are no longer serving, according to the release.

Within the documents released today are 18 priests who served in Suburban Life communities at the time of the allegations, or at some time before or after.

Full documents on each priest listed below and more details can before online at docinfo.archchicago.org.

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ILLINOIS
Suburban Life

By SUBURBAN LIFE MEDIA

LEMONT – The Archdiocese of Chicago this week released documents related to priests accused of sexual misconduct, including one who worked at a Lemont parish for six months.

Rev. John Hefferan served as parochial administrator for St. Alphonsus Parish in Lemont from July 2002 to January 2003 while the parish was in between pastors.

The documents show official meetings and discussions the archdiocese and review boards had about the accused priests. None of the accused priests whose documents were released are currently in the ministry. Several of the accused priests live in a facility for retired priests in Lemont.

Hefferan was first accused of sexual misconduct in 1993, stemming from an incident that allegedly took place between 1977 and 1978 while at St. Vianney Parish in Northlake.

A review board allowed him to stay in the ministry under observation and later discontinued the monitoring because it believed he was unlikely to repeat the sexual misconduct.

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UNITED STATES
Aleteia

GREG DALY

When the “silenced” Irish Redemptorist Father Tony Flannery set out in January on a speaking tour of his homeland, he said he would be “deliberately staying away from Church premises, so as not to cause embarrassment to anyone.”

As recent events in Minneapolis have shown, it seems this was a prudent decision. Father Flannery’s sole engagement on Church property in his current 18-city speaking tour of the United States led to his host, Father Michael Tegeder, being personally asked by Archbishop John Nienstedt to change the location of Wednesday’s talk so as “not to cause scandal.”

After Father Tegeder refused to comply, the archbishop wrote to him, stating that Father Flannery, keynote speaker at this weekend’s Call to Action National Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, “attacks the teaching of the Church.” Pointing out how he had stipulated that Father Flannery “not be permitted to speak on any Catholic premises in the archdiocese,” he asked that it be made clear that Father Flannery’s visit was not supported by the Church. Father Tegeder agreed “to announce this publicly.”

Born in County Galway in 1948, Father Flannery entered the Redemptorists’ minor seminary in Limerick when he was 12 years old, going to the major seminary at 17 and being ordained in 1974. The author of several books, in September 2010 he and a handful of others founded Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which now boasts more than 1,000 members.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Two members of staff at St Ambrose College have been suspended over allegations they knew about abuse by former teacher Alan Morris.

Following allegations from a former pupil that two members of staff may have been aware of Alan Morris’s activities, on the advice of the police and local authority the school has suspended those two members of staff pending an independent inquiry.

– ST AMBROSE COLLEGE SPOKESPERSON

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Christy Gutowski, Cynthia Dizikes, Todd Lighty,
Chicago Tribune

The release Thursday of once-secret files of priests accused of child sex abuse offered a chance for victims like David Lasley to finally learn how the Archdiocese of Chicago had handled their allegations.

Lasley was a 12-year-old altar boy at St. Ailbe’s Catholic Church on the South Side in the 1970s when he says John Calicott, the church’s popular associate pastor, sexually abused him. He first reported the abuse to the church in 1994, having kept it secret for years out of shame and fear that no one would believe him.

Now 51, Lasley said he planned to read all 2,398 pages in Calicott’s file.

“The truth is always better in the light,” Lasley said. “It’s because of the courage of the victims who came forward that this day has come. We know we have to immortalize this history in some way.”

Lasley and victims’ advocates said the release of the files was long overdue.

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UNITED STATES
Seattle PI

By Joel Connelly

He is the supreme pontiff and ultimate authority in the Roman Catholic Church, but Pope Francis has formalized his firing power.

Under a new Vatican edict, when he considers it “necessary,” the pope can ask a bishop to resign.

Pope Francis has already removed bishop.

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst was sent packing from his post in Limberg, Germany, after spending millions in luxury renovations to his residence and diocesan headquarters. He was nicknamed the “bishop of Bling.”

Paraguayan Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano was removed after offering a pastoral home to a Pennsylvania priest accused of sexual abuse and delivering personal denunciations of his fellow bishops in the South American nation.

Francis has also taken ultraconservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke off the Congregation of Bishops, which recommends new appointments to the hierarchy and is apparently getting ready to send Burke packing from his job as head of the Vatican’s highest court.

Burke has fired back with critical statements. “At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the church is like a ship without a rudder,” he said last month.

In Vatican-ese, the new edict defines the Holy See’s firing power:

“In some particular circumstances, the competent authority can consider it necessary to ask a bishop to present his resignation from pastoral office, after having made known the reasons for the request and listening carefully to the reasons, in fraternal dialogues.”

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho
November 7, 2014

The main story on the Daily Beast right now has a headline worthy of a supermarket checkout lane: “Chicago Priests Raped & Pillaged for 50 Years.” The author, Barbie Latza Nadeau, gives the impression that she has examined a good portion of the fifteen thousand pages of files released by the Archdiocese of Chicago yesterday morning. She has read all about “accusations against perverted priests.” She’s seen “handwritten letters penned by worried mothers,” and “emails sent decades after the abuses occurred.” She’s squinted at “letters so old the mimeographed typewriting is smudged.” She’s even read “emails so recent, they call into question just how much of the clerical abuse is still going on.” This careful research has provided Nadeau with the following insight:

The allegations include accusations of priests plying young victims with alcohol and cigarettes, of fondling, masturbating, and performing oral sex on minors, and a strong current of denial and well-documented coverup by the church that can be traced all the way to Rome.

Her proof? “Take the case of Father Gregory Miller, whose 275-page dossier is filled with congratulatory letters of advancement within the archdiocese,” Nadeau writes, noting that the file is also “dotted with frequent warnings of misconduct.” She details the first accusation, then reports, “A few years later, Miller’s assignment as a parish priest was renewed.” And “in 2012,” according to Nadeau, “a new complainant wrote an email to Leah McCluskey of the Chicago Archdiocese’s abuse committee.” She continues: “More disturbing still, despite what were clearly repeat allegations, the archdiocese’s vicar general, John Canary, wrote the errant priest to tell him that he was not to be alone with anyone under age 18, seemingly apologizing for the trouble.”

It all sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? Victims’ alegations falling on deaf ears. Church officials protecting, even promoting, priests they knew posed a threat to children. Tone-deaf churchmen praising a man who deserved jail time instead of congratulations. And this story would certainly merit the outrage it is meant to inspire, if Nadeau’s narrative were true. But, as a review of the Miller file makes clear, her version of events is about as valuable as the paper it isn’t printed on.

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TENNESEE
WCMA

By Nick Kenney

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) –
A former Mid-South preacher was sentenced to five years in prison for knowingly spreading HIV. One day after the sentencing, Rodney Carr filed a motion for a new trial.

For the pastor who, while spreading the good word, was also spreading a potentially deadly virus, was his sentence tough enough?

“I believe he should be severely punished for hurting people’s lives,” said Frederick Delbridge, who lives in Memphis. “You don’t never do bad when you got a chance and an opportunity to do good. You know, that was very evil of him and selfish.”

Carr was once an ordained minister at Fellowship of Believers in Christ Church. He was notified he had HIV in 2005, but during a relationship in 2010 and 2011, he never told his girlfriend. She, as a result, is also HIV positive.

After his 2012 arrest, prosecutors say he set up a profile on an online dating website.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Sex abuse victims blast Baptist ministers
They “change their tune” in child abuse case
Group says they should be investigated & charged
It says one preacher “clearly filed false police report”
SNAP: “Now law enforcement must act to deter deceit”
In new court document, minister radically contradicts himself & police

WHAT
Holding a sign and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a nationally-known clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will

–disclose a new 15 page court record of sworn answers by a Jackson area minister,
— urge law enforcement to investigate and prosecute he and an ex-pastor, and
— prod anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by a convicted sex offender and church member who is accused of more crimes to call police, protect others, expose wrongdoers, deter deceit and start healing.”

WHEN
TODAY, Friday, Nov. 7 at 2:45 pm

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Madison County DA’s office, 225 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., Jackson, TN

WHO
A Missouri man who is the long-time leader of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). He and his brothers were molested as a child by a priest. One of them grew up to become a priest and molested children himself.

WHY
In an unusual and controversial move, three years after he reported suspected child sex crimes by a church volunteer to police, a Jackson minister went back and tried to “water down” his formal report. SNAP calls the move “an apparent, clumsy and likely illegal effort to protect himself and his congregation from a civil child sex abuse and cover up case” which was filed against him and his church weeks earlier.” …

SNAP is urging Madison County DA Jerry Woodall to investigate the two very different accounts and possibly charge the minister for making a false police report.

(Read the police report here:

[police report]

In 2006, Pastor Mark McSwain of First Church in Bemis reported to police that a church volunteer, Chad Lutrell, was inappropriately touching young girls and kissing one on the mouth. He also said that Lutrell was stalking and harassing adult women.

Three years later, however, in 2009, McSwain backtracked from his original statement. McSwain approached police again, this time telling an officer that Lutrell kissed a child on the cheek, not on the mouth. McSwain also denied that Lutrell had inappropriately touched children, and claimed that Lutrell only sent one adult woman an inappropriate email and follower her home.

“It seems suspicious that Rev. McSwain changed his tune so dramatically, especially after three years, and in such self-serving ways,” said David Clohessy director of SNAP. “We hope prosecutors will consider filing charges against McSwain for making a false police report.”

“The pastor clearly is trying hard to protect his reputation and his church’s reputation from negative news coverage and civil lawsuits,” said Clohessy. “There’s really no other possible explanation for his bizarre behavior.”

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ARKANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Group challenges bishop on abuse
They’re worried about recently ousted priest
SNAP: Catholic officials should seek out other victims
Predator’s whereabouts should be disclosed, group says
And victims want diocese to post predators’ names on websites

What:
Holding signs and children’s photos at a sidewalk news conference, leaders of a support group for clergy sex abuse victims will prod Arkansas’ top Catholic official to take more action about a recently-ousted priest who engaged in sexual misconduct. Specifically, the group wants Arkansas’ bishop to use church resources to

— more aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered the cleric’s misdeeds,
— warn prospective employers and others about him,
— educate parishioners about adult clergy sexual misconduct, and
— permanently post on his church websites the names of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics.

When:
Saturday, November 8, at 2:00 p.m.

Where:
On the sidewalk outside the Little Rock Catholic diocese headquarters (“chancery office”), 2500 N. Tyler St. (near Hawthorne Road) in Little Rock (501-664-0340)

Who:
Two-three members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri man who is the organization’s long time director. (He and his brothers were molested as a child by a priest. One of them grew up to become a priest and molested children himself.)

Visuals:
Copies of a bishop’s message about the case & an Arkansas Democrat story about it will be available.

Why:
Five weeks ago, Arkansas’ top Catholic official disclosed that a priest would be permanently defrocked because he committed “predatory” sexual misconduct with several adults and violated the sanctity of the confessional.

[Arkansas Catholic]

On Sept. 27-28, at churches in Russellville, Dardanelle and Danville, Bishop Anthony Taylor announced that Fr. James Melnick would be “laicized” or kicked out of the priesthood. Taylor said that Fr. faces “credible allegations of sexual misconduct” by “multiple adult victims” and that his actions seem “predatory.”

But that’s not enough, SNAP says. Taylor should give more details about when abuse reports first surfaced against Fr. Melnick, so parishioners and the public know whether church officials addressed the matter promptly or tried to keep it quiet for weeks or months, the group says.

And Taylor should disclose where Fr. Melnick is now, SNAP says. Since he has not yet been defrocked, church law and practice dictates that Taylor must keep paying Fr. Melnick, the group asserts, so Taylor knows where Fr. Melnick is now and should make that information public.

In 17 states, it’s illegal for any clergy to have any sexual contact with congregants (adults or children). If Fr. Melnick cannot be criminally charged, SNAP says it’s possible that other Catholic employees might be prosecuted on charges of witness tampering, destruction of evidence, intimidation of victims, obstruction of justice, etc.

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CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Nov. 7, 2014

The Chicago archdiocese on Thursday voluntarily released nearly 15,000 pages of documents related to 36 priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors brought against them.

All 36 priests are no longer active in ministry and had been listed on the archdiocese’s website prior to the release; 14 have died and nine have been laicized. The archdiocese stated in a press release that 92 percent of the cases predate 1988 and that no priests with a substantiated allegation of child sexual abuse is currently in ministry. The files are available on its website.

Jan Slattery, director of the archdiocese’s Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, told NCR that the release of the files was important because it provides “a full story.”

“We didn’t do everything perfectly. It got better as you come through time,” she said. She said she anticipates the documents will encourage additional victims to come forward “and to try to reach some healing and some appropriate settlement within themselves.”

The Thursday release comes roughly nine months since the archdiocese made public 6,000 pages of documents related to another 30 priests. Those files came as part of a 2008 settlement with alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse. Slattery said the January release led survivors of sexual abuse to come forward, but they named no priests not already listed by the archdiocese. …

Despite the release coming without legal force, as did the January disclosure, it nonetheless garnered criticism.

“I’m comforted that they put some information out. I’m disturbed that they chose not to engage us in the process so we could be sure it’s all it has to be and should be,” attorney Jeff Anderson told NCR. “And having reviewed it, it raises more questions than it does give answers.”

Anderson, who represented claims in the settlement that brought the January release, said “at that time, it was our intention to continue that process” that brought about the first 30 disclosures, but that they were ultimately denied access. He attributed that in part to critical statements he made about George’s handling of the McCormack case.

John O’Malley, director of legal services for the archdiocese, told NCR that while Anderson, following the January release, made known his interest in being a part of further disclosures, “we never, ever told him that we were entertaining that thought or that that was a possibility, as far as I know.”

“I’m frankly disappointed that he’s making these points because I would have hoped he would have supported our decision to do this voluntarily, on our own, because he’s been calling for that for a long time,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | Nov. 7, 2014

EDITORIAL

It is difficult to imagine why any pope would want to engage in the synodal process if it were not to discuss compelling issues of the day. It is equally difficult to imagine a gathering of bishops called to discuss important issues of the day with the expectation that they would not pose difficult questions or generate disagreement among themselves.

Perhaps it is because the Catholic world has come to presume the unreasonable — that discussions can occur with no “dissenting” positions permitted and no forbidden questions allowed — that the most recent phase of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family would cause such strong reactions across the spectrum of expectations.

For more than 30 years and two papacies, Catholics have been conditioned to accept, many grudgingly, that it had become an unalterable fact of life that discussion of certain topics, certain pastoral approaches, certain questions related to contemporary life and, especially, to sexuality were forever forbidden in the community and would surely never occur among church leaders.

And then along came Pope Francis. He said those rules and presumptions no longer apply, that discussion was not to be censored, that no topics or questions were to be off the table. He wanted full, robust debate. The bishops of the world apparently delivered. The debate was worth the effort, if only so that Catholics can understand their leaders actually do disagree on important matters. However, it is essential to keep in mind that it is still a discussion among a tiny sampling of humanity, removed from the ordinary circumstances of life, and exclusively male and celibate.

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WISCONSIN
Post-Bulletin

Posted: Friday, November 7, 2014
Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com

BARRON, Wis. — Jack Krough, a former priest in Rochester and one of the priests from the Winona Diocese who was accused of molesting children, has died.

A death notice for Krough, 65, appeared on an Eau Claire, Wis., funeral home website, stating his date of death was Oct. 12, and that arrangements were pending. No further information has been published.

Krough served several parishes in the area, including: St. Pius X, Lourdes High School and St. Francis of Assisi, Assisi Heights in Rochester; St. Augustine, Pacelli High School and St. Edward in Austin; Brownsdale’s Our Lady of Loretto; and Winona Cotter High School.

In 1993, he was confronted with the discovery of a photo of a naked child found in his residence. He admitted taking the photo in about 1978, when the boy was 16, but denied other actions.

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POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

English – scroll down

Powstała około pięciu lat temu jako grupa terapeutyczna, prowadzona przez dwóch psychologów, a następnie przekształciła się w grupę samopomocową. Jej liderką jest nasza niezastąpiona wolontariuszka i Ocalona – Agnieszka Popławska.

/ It has been created five years ago as a therapeutic group lead by two psychologists. Then it turned into a self-help group. Its leader is an irreplaceable volunteer and Survivor – Agnieszka Popławska.

Agnieszka tłumaczy mi, że wyróżniamy dwa rodzaje grup pomocowych dla Ocalonych:

1. Grupy terapeutyczne – tu mentorem jest psycholog oraz

2. Grupy wsparcia (samopomocowe), w których każdy Ocalony jest równy i ma swój wkład w rozwój grupy. Liderem takiej grupy wsparcia jest osoba, która taką grupę organizuje, ale już podczas samych spotkań nie ma liderów.

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VATIKAN
Vatican History

[The pope has approved new rules regarding resignation of bishops.]

Leiter von vatikanischen Kurienbehörden sind ab sofort gehalten, mit dem Erreichen des 75. Lebensjahres dem Papst ihren Rücktritt anzubieten. Diese Regelung ist Teil einer Neugestaltung des Rechtes zu Bischofs- und Kardinalsrücktritten, die der Vatikan an diesem Mittwoch veröffentlicht hat. Im Allgemeinen wird darin die im Kirchenrecht festgelegte Praxis bestätigt, dass Ortsbischöfe mit 75 Jahren ihren Rücktritt anbieten müssen. Es wird aber ein Artikel angefügt, der besagt, dass es unter besonderen Umständen der zuständigen Autorität – in der lateinischen Kirche also dem Papst – erlaubt ist, einen Bischof zum Einreichen der Rücktrittsbitte aufzufordern.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kritisches Netzwek

[Documentation Sexual violence in the Catholic Church]

Wir sind Frauen, die in der Kindheit, Jugend oder im Erwachsenenalter Gewalt erlebt haben. Diese Gewalt erfuhren wir körperlich, seelisch, sexuell oder als Kombination dieser Gewaltformen. Sie war einmalig, mehrmalig oder auch langjährig. Sie konnte in der Familie, einer Beziehung oder Ehe, in einer Schule, in der Jugendarbeit, aber auch in Therapie oder Seelsorge geschehen. Sie ging von Menschen aus.

Jede von uns hat ihre eigene Geschichte und ihre eigenen Bewältigungsstrategien. Von unserer Verschiedenheit können wir lernen – die Gemeinsamkeit der Traumatisierung jedoch ist es, die uns verbinden kann.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Andrea Gagliarducci

Vatican City, Nov 6, 2014 / 09:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s new financial management policies focused on accountability are described in a handbook delivered by the Secretariat for the Economy last week, an internal bulletin of the secretariat announced on Wednesday.

“Having sound and consistent financial management practices and reporting helps provide a clear framework of accountability for all those entrusted with the resources of the Church,” said Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, according to the Nov. 5 bulletin.

The new policies will come into effect Jan. 1, 2015. In the run-up, the Secretariat for the Economy will provide training and support to Vatican and Holy See offices to help implement the new policies.

The manual on the new policies was endorsed by the Council for the Economy, and approved by Pope Francis. Its delivery was accompanied with a leader bearing headings from both the Secretariat and the Council for the Economy.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Nov 6 (Reuters) – The Vatican has issued staff with a manual on economic ethics and accountability, as part of Pope Francis’ effort to clean up the Holy See’s finances after a rash of scandals.

The 45-page Financial Management Policies was sent to all Vatican departments this week by the Secretariat for the Economy, a special unit set up earlier this year, according to an internal cover letter seen by Reuters.

The letter, signed by two cardinals, said the manual contained guidelines “that are an essential first step in the reforms of the economic and administrative practices of the Holy See, being requested by the Holy Father”.

From Jan. 1, all departments will have to enact “sound and efficient financial management policies” and prepare financial information and reports in a “consistent and transparent manner” that adhere to international accounting standards.

The manual provides “a clear framework for accountability of those entrusted with the resources of the church,” the letter declares.

The letter, and a separate, internal announcement from the Secretariat of the Economy, both say that each department’s financial statements will be reviewed by one of the world’s major international auditing firms.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Australia’s Cardinal George Pell has made the first significant move in Pope Francis’s drive to clean up the Vatican’s finances, issuing a financial management manual to church officials.

The rule book, which will be binding on all members of the Vatican bureaucracy from 1 January, is part of Pell’s work to bring the church’s financial management into line with international accounting standards.

The manual was sent to all Vatican departments this week by the secretariat for the economy, a special unit set up earlier this year, according to an internal cover letter seen by Reuters.

The letter said the manual contained guidelines “that are an essential first step in the reforms of the economic and administrative practices of the Holy See, being requested by the Holy Father”.

All departments will have to enact “sound and efficient financial management policies” and prepare financial information and reports in a “consistent and transparent manner” that adheres to international accounting standards.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Charles Keeshan

It was a high-profile scandal involving a college football coach that brought an end to the 40-year ministry of former Catholic priest Gary Miller over sex abuse allegations.

Days after former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky went to trial in June 2012 on 52 charges of sex crimes against children, the Archdiocese of Chicago received an email from a man who said he had “a story to tell” about what occurred at a parish in West suburban Berwyn. The email’s writer said he came forward “after having watched, and been wrenched” by the Sandusky case, according to a 275-page report released Thursday by the archdiocese.

The man later told church investigators that in 1973 or 1974, when he was 13 or 14 years old, he was molested by a young priest named Gary Miller at St. Leonard Parish in Berwyn. According to church documents, the boy reported that after serving Mass as an altar boy, Miller invited him back to his residence, where the priest removed his clothes, told him to undress and touched him.

The boy wouldn’t report the allegations until nearly 40 years later, by which time Miller had moved on to five other city and suburban parishes, including Queen of the Rosary in Elk Grove Village between 1983 and 1988. When the man did come forward, Miller was pastor at St. Bernadette Parish in Evergreen Park.

Unlike many accused priests, Miller chose not to fight the allegations. Instead, he agreed to leave active ministry in July 2012 and then, in September of that year, wrote a letter to Cardinal Francis George asking for early retirement.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

Jack Keough left the priesthood in the 1980s to marry an airline stewardess in Las Vegas, and has been living in the Seattle area since then.

It wasn’t until 2002 that child sex abuse allegations surfaced from his tenure as associate pastor at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Des Plaines, according to documents released Thursday.

The victim wrote in a letter to Cardinal Francis George that during frequent visits to the rectory in the 1960s, Keough kissed and fondled her as early as age 11, and that led to sex after she graduated high school. In a letter the victim provided the archdiocese, he expresses his love to her.

The victim said she reported the abuse to another priest, but documents show archdiocese officials were unable to locate that priest during an investigation.

The archdiocese’s review board found there to be “reasonable cause” to the allegations in 2003.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Core operational deficit shrinks by $1.8 million as compared to fiscal year 2013.
Significant progress is being made in regard to balance sheet liabilities.

Contextual Background

In December 2013, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia published audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013. Those financial statements disclosed a $4.9 million core operating deficit for that period exclusive of non-recurring credits and charges. That figure compared very favorably to the $17.6 million core operating deficit experienced for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012. Additionally, several very significant and ongoing balance sheet liabilities that measure in the hundreds of millions of dollars were detailed.

These financial statements were for the entity designated as the “Office for Financial Services (OFS),” which is the official title for the majority of administrative offices and ministries located at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center. OFS provides administrative and programmatic support to the parishes, schools and other related ecclesiastical entities of the Archdiocese. For financial reporting purposes, it is considered a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Archdiocese.

Comparative Operating Results: Fiscal Year 2014 Versus Fiscal Year 2013

The analysis presented below compares the “Change in Net Assets Before Other Items” for fiscal years 2014 and 2013. The “as reported” deficit of $ .7 million in FY 2014 compares to an “as reported” surplus of $3.9 million in FY 2013. These amounts can be found in the Statements of Activities and Changes in Net Assets under the caption “Change in Net Assets Before Other Items” in the “Unrestricted” column. This analysis provides a meaningful comparison of each fiscal year after adjusting for the impact of items that are non-recurring in nature. All figures are in millions of dollars. Endnotes are provided with additional information on selected line items.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Reading Eagle

Harold Brubaker, The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)

It’s too soon to say that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has recovered from the deep financial distress it was mired in three years ago, but financial statements released Thursday show positive momentum continued in the fiscal year ended June 30.

On an operating basis, the archdiocese’s central financial office posted a loss of $3.1 million in fiscal 2014, down from $4.9 million the year before and well below the $17.6 million loss in fiscal 2012.

That was when Archbishop Charles J. Chaput arrived to find the finances of the Catholic Church in Southeastern Pennsylvania in shambles after years of mismanagement, compelling him to embark on a major campaign to convert assets into cash.

In one sign of progress, the archdiocese collected 94 percent of parish assessments due in fiscal 2014, up from an estimated 88 percent or 89 percent the previous year. Parish assessments yield money that the Office of Financial Services uses to pay for its operations and certain archdiocese-wide programs

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

AARON CARTER, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER CARTERA@PHILLYNEWS.COM
POSTED: Friday, November 7, 2014

THE CARDINAL O’HARA football program will be without its interim head coach today when the Lions face top-seeded Archbishop Wood in the Catholic League AAA semifinals.

Paul Strus, who took over after longtime O’Hara coach Danny Algeo died from a heart attack in July, has been placed on administrative leave, according to an email sent to the Daily News from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“The interim head football coach at Cardinal O’Hara High School was placed on leave based on concerns that were voiced to school administration regarding his professional behavior,” Ken Gavin, director of communications for the Archdiocese wrote in an email. “That matter is being looked into at this time and his status is pending the outcome.”

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By SHANNON TONKIN Nov. 7, 2014

A former teacher at Bellambi’s Holy Spirit College sacked after sexually abusing a student in the early 1990s has pleaded guilty to molestation charges involving another student years earlier.

Gregory Allan Cain’s seven-year employment at the school as a sports and physical education teacher was terminated in August 1992 after allegations emerged he had sexually and indecently assaulted a 15-year-old student a few months earlier.

Cain avoided jail at the time, instead being ordered to perform 500 hours of community service.

However, in Campbelltown District Court on Friday, Cain admitted that the student was not the first he had interfered with, confessing to having sexually abused a male student who slept over at his house on three occasions in the 1980s.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

Bishop John Keating already had concerns with former priest Bob Friese before Friese was hired to work with at-risk youths at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.

When he learned years later of his hiring, Keating, the archdiocese’s chancellor, “hit the ceiling,” according to an internal memo contained in a 161-page file detailing sex abuse allegations involving Friese.

In 1984, Friese, then 33, was charged with sexually abusing a teen whom he met at Maryville, but the teen later ran away. The victim, who was 13 when he met Friese, testified in court the abuse occurred from 1982 to 1984 and involved genital fondling and oral sex.

Friese, who formally resigned from the priesthood in 1985, was convicted and sentenced to probation by a Cook County judge.

A 1985 archdiocese memo reveals that Keating believed Friese was a “severely disturbed individual,” even though Keating emphasized there was no evidence of pedophilia when he spoke with him in 1980.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina 12

[A priest who was prosecuted for corruption of minors was removed from the church of San Juan Bautista, in Tigre in 2005. Now, his replacement was denounced in court for sexual abuse.]

Por Carlos Rodríguez

Una nueva denuncia, por supuesto abuso sexual, involucra al sacerdote que está al frente de la parroquia San Juan Bautista, del barrio Ricardo Rojas, en General Pacheco, partido de Tigre. La iglesia, que depende del Obispado de San Isidro, había tenido un primer caso de abuso que salió a la luz en mayo de 2005, cuando fue separado de su cargo el entonces párroco José Antonio Mercau, ahora procesado por los delitos de “corrupción de menores reiterada, en concurso real con abuso sexual mediante acceso carnal agravado”. Mercau había sido acusado por cuatro adolescentes que tenían entonces entre 14 y 17 años. Ahora se presentó ante la Justicia uno de esos chicos, que ya tiene 18 años, para asegurar que había sido víctima de abuso sexual por parte del actual párroco, Mario Yulan, según informó a Página/12 el abogado Tomás Ojea Quintana, que representa al joven que hizo la imputación. La causa fue presentada ante el juez de San Isidro Rafael Sal Lari. Se adjuntaron cartas de puño y letra, más algunos mensajes vía e-mail (ver nota aparte), que habrían sido dirigidos al joven por el sacerdote, con expresiones de amor exaltado, aunque sin alusiones explícitas de índole sexual.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Christian Brother will spend his first night behind bars for indecently assaulting four boys at NSW schools more than 30 years ago.

Desmond Eric Richards had his bail revoked at the Downing Centre District Court on Friday ahead of his sentencing on November 27.

The 75-year-old has pleaded guilty to abusing four boys between 1972 and 1982 in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west.

Although the court was told that Richards claimed to have no memory of the incidents, the former brother had said he was “very concerned” about the impact his behaviour has had.

In arguing against a jail sentence, his lawyer Greg Walsh said his client had admitted his wrongdoing as far back as 1997.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Hrald

Ex- Christian Brothers headmaster Desmond Richards taken into custody pending likely jail term for assaulting boys

November 7, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A former Chistian Brothers headmaster has been taken into custody ahead of a likely jail sentence for indecent assaulting young boys in the 1970s and ’80s.

Desmond Eric Richards, also known as Brother Neil Richards, pleaded guilty this year to assaulting four young boys aged between 11 and 13 while working at Christian Brothers schools in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Strathfield.

During a sentencing hearing on Friday, the District Court heard that, after assaulting the boys, Richards, now 75, whipped them repeatedly with a strap.

This was an attempt to “dominate and control” the victims to ensure they did not talk about what had happened to them, the court heard.

“This matter needs to be considered in light of the violence shown to the victims at the time,” sentencing Judge Peter Zahra said.

“They needed to go to school – they had no alternative. But when they did go they were subjected not only to sexual but also physical abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

A Christian Brother who pleaded guilty to assaulting boys at schools across New South Wales has had his bail revoked in a Sydney court.

Desmond Eric Richards, also known as Brother Neil, taught at numerous schools run by the Christian Brothers Catholic order.

He spent the later years of his career at the Vatican, but was arrested when he visited Australia a year ago.

Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting four boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

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ILLINOIS
Lake County News-Sun

The Archdiocese of Chicago has released thousands of pages of internal documents pertaining to how it dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by 36 priests going back decades.

The archdiocese posted the documents on its website Thursday. They’re in addition to records related to 32 other abusive priests that it released as part of a legal settlement in January, when the archdiocese revealed it had concealed the abuse for decades.

Together with documents released in January, the new files represent the archdiocese’s fullest public accounting of 68 priests, who church officials found abused at least 352 children since 1950, according to the Chicago Tribune. Of those 68, two had no documents released; Rev. Daniel J. McCormack and Rev. Edward J. Maloney, are not included, “due to ongoing processes that do not permit release,” according to the Archdiocese.

Based on a comparison, these additional files pertain to priests already named in the January release. No new priests were named in Thursday’s documents.

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ILLINOIS
The Doings La Grange

The Archdiocese of Chicago has released thousands of pages of internal documents pertaining to how it dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by 36 priests going back decades.

The archdiocese posted the documents on its website Thursday, Nov. 6. Based on a comparison, these additional files pertain to priests already named in the January release. No new priests were named in Thursday’s documents.

They’re in addition to records related to other abusive priests that it released as part of a legal settlement in January, when the archdiocese revealed it had concealed the abuse for decades.

Together with documents released in January, the new files represent the archdiocese’s fullest public accounting of 68 priests, who church officials found abused 352 children since 1950, according to the Chicago Tribune. Of those 68, two had no documents released; Rev. Daniel J. McCormack and Rev. Edward J. Maloney, are not included, “due to ongoing processes that do not permit release,” according to the Archdiocese.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer
November 7, 2014

A review into how the Home Office handled allegations of historical child abuse has not been able to recover missing documents said to include the names of paedophiles with links to the British establishment.

The secret files, named the Dickens Dossier, were passed on to the then Home Secretary Leon Brittan by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.

The review of how the government handled these allegations, set up and by led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless, was called after the Home office revealed they had “lost or destroyed” 114 documents concerning child abuse allegations.

It is believed the documents handed onto Brittan contained the names of politicians and senior policemen who were suspected of being child abusers

A source close to the Wanless report told BBC’s Newsnight they have not been able to find the documents despite looking “inside and behind every single cupboard in the department”.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 7 November 2014)

Helped by Broken Rites, victims of Christian Brother “Neil” Richards have achieved justice. On 7 November 2014, a Sydney court ordered Richards to be taken into custody to await his sentence for indecently assaulting young boys in the 1970s and ’80s. The church had known for years about Richards offending but the crimes were concealed from the police (and from the public) — until now.

Brother “Neil” Richards has had a long career as a Christian Brother, including as a headmaster, in Catholic schools in New South Wales.

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 more victims.

In 2013 the detectives learned that Richards was working at the Catholic Church headquarters in Rome. When he re-visited Australia, police arrested him in November 2013.

During early and mid-2014, Richards appeared in court, charged (under his birth name, Desmond Eric Richards), regarding four victims who had spoken to the police. The court was told that, after the boys had been sexually assaulted by Brother Richards, they were regularly beaten with a strap.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Sun Chronicle

BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

ATTLEBORO – The former assistant pastor of Grace Baptist Church and principal of Grace Baptist Christian Academy was sentenced to prison Thursday after pleading guilty to molesting one of his female students.

The Rev. Jeffrey A. Nichols, 48, was sentenced to a maximum five years in prison after pleading guilty in Fall River Superior Court, according to a spokeswoman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

Nichols, who was a trusted assistant to church Pastor Jeff Bailey for 23 years, admitted to molesting one of his seventh-grade students beginning in 2008 when she was 13. The abuse continued until the end of the school year in June 2013.

Nichols repeatedly indecently touched the girl and also made sexual comments to her. He asked her to expose herself to him and exposed himself to her, prosecutors said after his arrest.

His arrest shocked Bailey and the church, where Nichols had been a respected married father of three children. His wife was also a teacher at the school.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WUWM

[with audio]

By DAVID SCHAPER
Originally published on Thu November 6, 2014

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Chicago’s Catholic Archdiocese released thousands of pages of documents today detailing allegations of sexual abuse by three dozen priests. It is the second group of such documents the church in Chicago has made public this year. It fulfills a pledge by Chicago Cardinal Francis George to do so before he retires in two weeks. From Chicago, NPR’s David Schaper reports.

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: The newly released documents contain the stories of victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back to the 1950s and continuing into the 1990s. They show how 36 priests in the Chicago Archdiocese took advantage of children in their parishes and the trust of their parents. The documents show how higher-ups in the Chicago Archdiocese – bishops, vicars and even cardinals – often mishandled the allegations – sometimes ignoring the accusers, often just shuttling predatory priests to other parishes where they could abuse again.

JAN SLATTERY: We acknowledge that what has happened is – it’s horrible.

SCHAPER: Jan Slattery is director of the Chicago Archdiocese Office for the Protection of Children and Youth. And she says, the church cannot change the sins of the past.

SLATTERY: All we can do now is work to rebuild trust, and we’re doing that through what we hope is – with you – honest dialogue. We’re trying to establish the truths so that we can begin to move forward in healing and reconciliation.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The New York Times

By MITCH SMITH and MICHAEL PAULSON
NOV. 6, 2014

CHICAGO — The Roman Catholic archdiocese here released thousands of internal documents on Thursday that detailed decades of sexual abuse by its priests, a disclosure timed just days before the retirement of the current archbishop.

The files, some of which show past church leaders permitting clergy accused of abuse to continue working, describe complaints against 36 priests, many of whom are now dead and none of whom remain in active ministry. Nearly all of the alleged abuse occurred decades ago, though in several cases the accusers waited years to come forward.

Cardinal Francis E. George, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s current leader, had promised to make the documents public. That pledge became more urgent when Pope Francis accepted the cardinal’s retirement and appointed Blase Cupich, currently the bishop of Spokane, Wash., to replace him later this month.

The priests whose personnel files were posted online Thursday have long been publicly identified by the Chicago archdiocese as having credible complaints of sexual misconduct against them.

In a statement, David Clohessy, the director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, criticized the archdiocese for not releasing the documents earlier. The roughly 15,000 pages published Thursday included graphic descriptions of abuse and, in some cases, evidence of a less-than-swift response from church leaders.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Pilot

CHICAGO (CNS) — The Archdiocese of Chicago Nov. 6 released approximately 15,000 pages of documents related to 36 archdiocesan priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors.

The documents are posted on the archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org.

All of the records pertain to incidents that took place years or decades ago, and the names of all of the priests involved have been posted on the website for years. Fourteen of the 36 priests have died; none of them are in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

John O’Malley, special counsel to the archbishop for misconduct issues, said the documents answer several questions: what the abuse was and when it happened; when the archdiocese learned about it; and what the archdiocese did about it.

The archdiocese released similar records pertaining to 30 other priests in January. The two sets of documents released cover all of the archdiocesan priests with substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors who are identified on the archdiocesan website except for two, who have ongoing civil or canonical legal cases.

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NEW MEXICO
KRQE

By Tina Jensen
Published: November 6, 2014

GALLUP, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico priest has bolted from his parish. Now people have questions: Where did he go, and did he take some of the church’s money with him?

When Father Ravi Kiran transferred from a Catholic Diocese in India to the Gallup Diocese in 2009, he started making changes to Saint Anthony Zuni Mission and School.

Parishoners said he upgraded the parsonage, school and convent, which were all in desperate need of repair.

“Father Ravi was a wonderful priest,” said parishoner Joseph Sweeney. “He increased church attendance. He’s improved the campus tremendously.”

Sources tell KRQE News 13 the way he spent money divided the congregation and some left altogether.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Walter Edward Huppenbauer
Daniel Peter Buck
David Francis Braun

Doug T. Graham

Three priests who served at St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Church in Palatine were among the 36 named Thursday in documents released Thursday detailing sex abuse claims against members of the clergy.

St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Church in Palatine was home from 1984 to 1994 to three priests against whom allegations of sexually abusing children were revealed in archdiocese documents Thursday.

Details of the accusations against the three men — who have since died or been removed from ministry — were revealed in the thousands of documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago. In each case, the alleged abuses happened before the priests worked at the Palatine parish.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Daily Item

Posted: Friday, November 7, 2014

By Thor Jourgensen / The Daily Item

LYNN — The Rev. James E. Gaudreau’s resignation from St. Joseph’s Church saddened and angered parishioners who said they have remained faithful to their pastor two years after an allegation of sexual abuse of a child surfaced against him.

“We will miss him, the church without him will not be the same,” said parishioner Paula Reyes.

Archdiocese of Boston spokesman Terrence Donilon confirmed Rev. Gaudreau’s resignation but declined to provide details. “We generally do not comment beyond statements we have issued,” he said.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office in September 2013 said it did not plan to file criminal charges against Gaudreau. Donilon said Thursday Gaudreau remains on administrative leave.

“Because there is an ongoing canonical process, I am not going to be able to comment further,” Donilon said.

Attempts to reach Gaudreau Thursday were unsuccessful. The Rev. Israel J. Rodriguez is St. Joseph’s current administrator.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

In a disturbing document dump outlining lurid clerical abuse and a trail of coverups, retiring Cardinal Francis George tries to clear his conscience.

Some of the accusations against perverted priests are handwritten letters penned by worried mothers. Others are emails sent decades after the abuses occurred. There are letters so old the mimeographed typewriting is smudged and difficult to read. There are emails so recent, they call into question just how much of the clerical abuse is still going on. In all, more than 15,000 pages from the secret archives of the Chicago Archdiocese’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review have been released on the Chicago Archdiocese website relating to hundreds of lurid sexual-abuse crimes by 36 perverted priests dating back to the 1950s. The most recent documents are only a year old.

The disturbing document dump was released Thursday as the retiring Cardinal Francis George prepares to leave the post he has held since 1997. They follow a similar gesture last January when the archdiocese released 6,000 pages of documents pertaining to 30 pedophilic priests as part of a legal settlement brokered by Chicago attorney Jeff Anderson. The Chicago Archdiocese has paid more than $130 million in abuse-victim settlements. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue,” George said in a statement on the eve of the document release. “Child abuse is a crime and a sin.”

While the document trove is impressive, many of the names and an abundance of detail has been blackened out, no doubt for privacy issues. Records on two of Chicago’s most notorious pedophile priests were not released because of ongoing legal action. The cases involving Daniel McCormack, who is accused of molesting three young boys, including an 8-year-old he allegedly molested on Christmas Eve, and Edward Maloney are not included because McCormack’s records have been sealed by a judge as part of his admission; Maloney is appealing his laicization with the Vatican in Rome.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Charles Keeshan

The Rev. John Hefferan served 11 Catholic parishes from the far South suburbs to the northernmost reaches of Lake County during his more than four decades as a priest.

In at least three of those stops, according to a 311-page report released by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday, parishioners accused Hefferan of sexual misconduct.

The first accusation surfaced in March 1993, when a woman called church officials to report that Hefferan had kissed and touched her inappropriately in the late 1970s at St. John Vianney in Northlake, when she was 12 years old. Hefferan was assigned to St. Vianney in 1975 after serving two years at St. John the Evangelist in Streamwood.

Hefferan, who was at an Oak Lawn parish in 1993, denied the claims when meeting with a church investigator the next day, but the Archdiocese found the report credible enough to restrict him from being alone with minors. Those restrictions were lifted four months later, however.

More allegations surfaced in 2002 and 2003. In the first case, the archdiocese received an email from a person who claimed to have been “sexually exploited” by Hefferan from 1964-67 at St. Anastasia Parish in Waukegan. Because the person declined repeated requests to file a formal complaint, the archdiocese did not pursue the allegation further.

However, a formal complaint was filed about six months later by a woman who told church officials Hefferan had fondled her breasts in the late 1960s when she was a junior high school student at a parish in South suburban Flossmoor.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Danielle Krout

JOHNSTOWN, CAMBRIA COUNTY— Father Joseph Maurizio will remain in the county jail until a second federal judge makes a ruling if he should be released while he awaits trial.

“The government wants to detain him and we want him to remain free,” said Steven Passarello, Attorney. “The government has decided to appeal which is apart of the process.”

Thursday was third detention hearing for the priest. The US Attorney had two witnesses testified including an expert specialist for the IRS and a special agent with Homeland Security.

The IRS agent testified that there were a number of checks made to Maurizio as a refund for cash items he allegedly paid for but didn’t provide a receipt. He also allegedly made cash withdrawal of $9,700 the same day federal agents raided his home and church, according to prosecutors that money has never been found. US Attorney says Maurizio failed to disclose to the government more than $1 million that was in his personal accounts.

The agent went on to testify that Maurizio’s salary was in the $20,000- $25,000 range, and the cash, credit, and deposits didn’t add up. All of the money essentially ties back to Maurizio even through his charitable organizations, which the defense said they’ve agreed to freeze. A family member or the one witness who testified for the defense had to provide a second signature if Maurizio would access the money from several of his accounts or the church’s. The defense has claimed their client has made ‘wise investments over the years.’ Maurizio was also reimbursed by Our Lady Queen of Angels Church for all of his travel expenses which he paid for with his own cash. The government said Maurizio wired more than $10,000 to a priest in Honduras. Passarello said that was for food to feed starving kids in the orphanage.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Editorial

Sift through the thousands of pages of secret documents on 36 abusive priests released by the Archdiocese of Chicago Thursday and you find the story of the Rev. Michael Weston.

And what a distressing tale it is.

The redacted documents, published online, show how Weston repeatedly abused boys as he moved from parish to parish over more than a decade, until he resigned in 1993. Although allegations were recorded as far back as the late 1970s, no action was taken until 2003. One frustrated priest who spoke up early lamented that “nothing would be done” unless photos of the abuse were produced. And there was little chance of that happening.

The trail of tragedy disclosed in Thursday’s documents release mirrors stories unearthed in a similar release on about 30 priests in January. The appalling extent of the human tragedy over 60 years no longer is in dispute, nor is the church’s shameful history of sweeping allegations under the rug and allowing offending priests to continue their predations against hundreds of minors. The real question today is whether the archdiocese has finally come to grips with the depth of the scandal, rather than simply react to public pressure. We believe it has. The proof is not in anything the archdiocese might say, but in the hard numbers.

That the numbers of complaints are down and that known offenders are out of the ministry tells us the archdiocese has put an effective, pro-active program in place to prevent abuse. The statistics since 1992 have moved sharply in the right direction as the number of new allegations has dropped dramatically. Ninety-eight percent of the abuse took place before 1992.

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WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Today, the Federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that evidence the Archdiocese deliberately provided false information to procure a liability release in a case brought by one of the deaf victims of childhood sexual assault by the notorious Fr. Lawrence Murphy, cannot be heard in court because of Wisconsin’s “immunity law” on corporate mediation.

Before signing his legal release, the deaf victim in this case was told by church officials during mediation, according to his affidavit, that Murphy was not known to have a history of criminal sexual conduct against before he was assaulted as a child by him. Church documents obtained after the settlement now show that to be false and prove the Archdiocese knowingly lied to induce a mediation settlement. But under Wisconsin law, mediated settlements, even those procured under false or fraudulent premises, cannot be reopened or reexamined by any court.

The ruling could have implications for several dozen of the 575 victims who filed into the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy, now headed for its fourth year.

Unfortunately, this means that the voluminous evidence that Dolan and church officials had designed the mediation program prior to the bankruptcy to deliberately defraud victims and cover up knowledge of child sex crimes will likely never be brought before a judge or jury.

A second ruling by the 7th Circuit concerning Dolan’s establishment of a “cemetery trust” to hide $57 million dollars from sexual abuse victims is expected to be ruled on in the future.

The bigger picture, however, that is being constantly obscured by the endless maneuvering, motions, and the literally millions of pages of legal minutia, is the enormous toll the unprecedented bankruptcy itself is taking on the hundreds of victims who have been seeking justice. Each month it drags miserably forward, any actual hope for justice dims.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Bob Susnjara

Newly released Archdiocese of Chicago documents include sexual abuse claims against a former associate pastor at Queen of the Rosary Parish in Elk Grove Village from when he served at another church.

Onetime secret files about former priest John A. Robinson, 68, were released by the archdiocese Thursday. He was Queen of the Rosary’s associate pastor from 1994 to 2003.

Documents show a complaint that Robinson sexually abused a boy was made with the archdiocese in October 2002. Robinson was accused of molesting the 14-year-old boy in the 1970s while associate pastor at St. Priscilla Parish in Chicago.

“John Robinson acknowledged seeing the boy … and utilizing bare-buttocks spanking as a disciplinary procedure, although he cannot recall the issues for which the boy was being punished,” an internal archdiocese document states. “John Robinson does not acknowledge any sexual contact.”

Robinson had a brief stop at St. Emily Parish in Mount Prospect in 1979. He then went to churches in Oak Forest and Chicago from 1979 to 1994 before his assignment in Elk Grove Village.

He had been living with other priests accused of sexual misconduct at Cardinal Stritch Retreat House in Mundelein, but documents indicate that no longer is the case. Robinson’s most recent living arrangement was blacked out in a file for a reporting period from January 2012 to May 2013 and he couldn’t be located for comment.

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ARGENTINA
Star Tribune

Article by: ALMUDENA CALATRAVA , Associated Press Updated: November 6, 2014

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Pope Francis has excommunicated a pedophile Argentine priest, a move applauded by advocates for victims of clerical abuse.

Jose Mercau was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2011 after admitting to sexually abusing four teenagers. He spent 15 days in jail and was then held in a monastery in Buenos Aires province until he was released last March.

The pope’s decision was made public Wednesday by the bishopric of San Isidro on the outskirts of the Argentine capital.

Many welcomed the news, but victims and advocates of clergy sex abuse said the Roman Catholic Church still needs to be more determined, effective and severe when it comes to punishing such crimes in Argentina.

“The church still has a long way to go,” said Sebastian Cuattromo, director of an advocacy group called Adultxs for the Rights of Infancy.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 6, 2014

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Catholic priest in Somerset County under indictment in connection with the sexual abuse of orphans in Honduras will remain jailed pending an appeal of an order to let him out until his trial.

U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto, presiding in Johnstown, today ruled that the Rev. Joseph Maurizio could be released on home detention as long his bank accounts are frozen and he has no access to substantial church funds that federal prosecutors are worried he may use to flee.

But the magistrate also said the order will be stayed while the U.S. attorney’s office appeals the release to a federal judge in the hopes of keeping him locked up in the Cambria County Jail.

Prosecutors say he’s both a risk to run and a danger to the community.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Courthouse News Service

By LORRAINE BAILEY

CHICAGO (CN) – A Milwaukee victim of priest sex abuse who received $80,000 in mediation cannot seek additional compensation, the 7th Circuit ruled.

The Rev. Lawrence Murphy sexually abused the boy in question, identified only as John Doe, in 1974 while he attended St. John’s School for the Deaf.

Doe participated in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s voluntary mediation program in 2007, and received an $80,000 settlement on all his claims “arising from any sexual abuse of [Doe] by Murphy.”

As part of the settlement, Doe signed a confidentiality clause stating that he could not introduce admissions made during the mediation as evidence in a later proceeding.

But when the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy four years later, Doe filed a claim in the proceeding based on the same sexual-abuse allegations and sought to introduce the evidence presented in mediation.

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NEW YORK
Press & Sun-Bulletin

Anthony Borrelli, aborrelli@pressconnects.com | @PSBABorrelli November 6, 2014

Robert Ours, who admitted to six counts of child pornography, was a former teacher at Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton, but the charges are unrelated to his time there.

A former Binghamton-area priest will spend 10 years on probation after pleading guilty to six felony child pornography charges.

Robert Ours, 65, was sentenced Wednesday by Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey. Ours was a former teacher at Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton, but the charges were unrelated to his time there, according to the Syracuse Catholic Diocese.

Officials with the Syracuse diocese reported the child porn allegations against Ours to the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office earlier this year. When Ours pleaded guilty, prosecutors said, he admitted to having six illegal images of children under the age of 16 on his computer in August 2013.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor November 6, 2014

Because Pope Francis is perceived as a maverick, almost everything he says or does is taken as a break with the past even when it clearly isn’t. His rhetoric on the economy, for instance, or his recent comments on evolution, are both utterly consistent with established papal teaching, and yet both have been trumpeted as groundbreaking.

There’s at least one case, however, in which the exact opposite is true – something revolutionary actually is happening, but is rarely perceived as the complete earthquake it actually represents.

It’s the financial reform of the Vatican, launched by Francis and spearheaded by Australian Cardinal George Pell, whose audacious aim is to convert the Vatican from a cautionary tale when it comes to money management into a role model of best practices.

That campaign took another step forward yesterday with release of a new handbook for all Vatican departments prepared by Pell’s Secretariat of the Economy and approved in forma specifica by the pope Oct. 24, meaning it has his personal blessing.

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ILLINOIS
Wilmette Life

Kevin Bargnes
News Editor | kbargnes@pioneerlocal.com
Nov. 6

A Catholic priest who served Wilmette’s St. Francis Xavier church from 1974 to 1984 became embroiled in multiple sex abuse allegations after he retired from the church in 1992, according to documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The documents detail four abuse allegations made against Father David Braun while he was a Chicago pastor and at least one while he served in Wilmette.

Braun was first ordained in 1954, serving parishes in Chicago and Oak Lawn. In 1963, while at St. Linus in Oak Lawn, documents allege that Braun picked up a 14-year-old hitchhiker and “attempted immorality” with the young boy.

Police and the boy’s father agreed not to press charges if the church would handle the matter.

In the documents, Braun admits to the church he had taken part in sexual acts with young boys as early as 1956, and that “he could not begin to count the occasions of his sins.” Braun blamed his problems with alcohol for many of the incidents, which typically involved him picking up boys after school.

“[Braun] claims that he can tell by the way they dress and walk, that they are willing subjects,” a document dated November of 1963 reads. “After a brief conversation in the car the arrangements are made. The sinning occurs in the Forest Preserves, or in Fr. B’s car in the wintertime. He is the agressor [sic] and it is sodomy.”

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Bob Susnjara

Documents released by the Archdiocese of Chicago show a now-deceased priest who was pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Lake Villa molested and took nude photographs of a boy.

Although the archdiocese announced in 2002 that sexual abuse accusations were made against the Rev. Richard Fassbinder, who was 75 at the time, the previously secret files that became available Thursday provided additional details.

For example, the new documents show Fassbinder served another 2½ years as Prince of Peace’s pastor emeritus after acknowledging the sexual relationship, but claiming he didn’t know the boy was a minor when it began in 1974. He lived in a Fox Lake retirement community as pastor emeritus until he died in May 2004.

Archdiocese documents state Fassbinder admitted taking nude photographs of the boy and bringing him to Wisconsin for an overnight trip. However, Fassbinder said in 2001 he destroyed the pictures “years ago.”

Documents show the boy was 16 when Fassbinder started the sexual abuse. Fassbinder said the sexual contact continued for 15 years.

“Father Fassbinder now owns the stupidity this type of behavior manifests,” according to an internal archdiocese report from December 2001 that became public Thursday. “He claims that (the boy) is the only person with whom he had relations.”

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Bob Susnjara

Complaints about a former suburban priest’s sexual abuse of children have been periodically received by the Archdiocese of Chicago since initial allegations became public in 2002, according to documents released Thursday.

Previously secret files on the Rev. James Ray show the most recent claim about him molesting a boy was received by the archdiocese last January. The document states the possible abuse occurred while Ray was associate pastor at Transfiguration Parish in Wauconda from 1989 to 1991.

Other accusations about sexual abuse by Ray against three minors were lodged with the archdiocese in 2013 and 2009. Ray was laicized in January 2012 and no longer is a priest, according to the fresh files.

In 2002, the archdiocese announced Ray was under investigation for sexual misconduct while associate pastor at St. Peter Damian Parish in Bartlett from 1982 to 1989. In 1991, Wauconda parishioners were told Ray was removed because of misconduct at St. Peter Damian.

But the new documents show Ray also was accused of sexually attacking two boys when he was associate pastor at St. Anastasia Parish in Waukegan from 1975 to 1982. Ray was accused of starting the abuse when the boys were 10 and 11 years old.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

The Rev. Peter Bowman, one-time beloved pastor of St. James Parish in Arlington Heights, faced at least nine allegations of sexual abuse of minors over the course of more than five decades as a priest.

Details of the accusations — of which seven were substantiated by the archdiocese’s review board — were revealed in a 941-page file released Thursday by the archdiocese.

Bowman’s file was one of 36 made available involving priests who have faced “substantiated” allegations of child sexual abuse, according to the archdiocese. Documents on 30 other priests were released in January.

Most of the accusations against Bowman arose after he had been removed from public ministry in 2002. That’s when archdiocese officials first learned of allegations of sexual misconduct with a teenage boy more than 45 years before.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Almost 170 pages of long-secret records about Fr. Edward F. Beutner were made available online yesterday at AndersonAdvocates.com. He’s a serial predator priest who worked at St. Louis University in the early 1970s. They show that another alleged victim of his reported abuse just last year. And this morning, thousands of pages of documents on Chicago predator priests are being made available. More than 20 of the clerics involved are still alive. .

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CHICAGO (IL)
El Nuevo Herald

BY POR DON BABWIN Y TAMMY WEBBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/06/2014

CHICAGO
Meses después que documentos mostrasen que había ocultado el abuso sexual de niños por sacerdotes durante decenios, la arquidiócesis de Chicago dio a conocer el jueves nueva información sobre una treintena más de clérigos abusadores, en cumplimiento de una promesa del cardenal Francis George de hacerlo antes de retirarse.

“No podemos cambiar el pasado, pero esperamos poder reconstruir la confianza por medio de un diálogo honesto y abierto”, dijo George en una declaración. “El abuso infantil es un crimen y un pecado”.

La arquidiócesis dio a conocer los documentos sobre 30 clérigos abusadores en enero como parte de un acuerdo legal, y el jueves colocó en su portal en internet documentos internos relacionados con otros 35.

En su conjunto, las 15.000 páginas muestran cómo la arquidiócesis lidió con acusaciones de abusos desde inicios de la década de los 1950 hasta recientemente. Los documentos solamente cubren casos en los que la iglesia corroboró las acusaciones de abuso, y no incluyen aquellos en los que el sacerdote falleció antes de que su acusador hablase.

“El cardenal George quería finalizar esto bajo su supervisión”, dijo John O’Malley, asesor legal del arzobispo para asuntos de conducta. O’Malley dijo que George no quería que el obispo Blase Cupich tuviese que lidiar con el asunto cuando asuma el liderato de la tercera mayor arquidiócesis del país este mes.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Nov 06, 2014 By Victoria McMahon

Billy McConville, 48, said the predatory sex beast attacked him twice and threatened to “bury him in the woods” if he told anyone

A son of Disappeared victim Jean McConville has spoken of his hell at being abused by notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Billy McConville, 48, said the predatory sex beast attacked him twice and threatened to “bury him in the woods” if he told anyone.

The evil child rapist was known to visit Rubane boys’ home in Kircubbin, Co Down and carry out his sick fantasies on terrified victims there.

Mr McConville was sent to the home at the age of six when he was orphaned after his mother Jean McConville had been abducted, killed and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972.

He told the Mirror: “He (Brendan Smyth) got me down the farmyard so he did. He interfered with me down there. I didn’t like it.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

The son of Disappeared victim Jean McConville has waived his right to anonymity to tell the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry about his time at Rubane House.

The boys home in Kircubbin, Co Down, ran by the De La Salle order, is currently being investigated by the abuse Inquiry.

Mrs McConville, a 37-year-old widow and mother of 10 children, was abducted in December 1972 from her flat in the Divis area of west Belfast and shot by the IRA, becoming one of the Disappeared. Her body was recovered on a beach in Co Louth in August 2003.

Her disappearance left the children orphaned, and caused the break-up of the McConville family.

Six-year-old Billy McConville ended up at Rubane House in Kircubbin.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

The son of an IRA murder victim has claimed he suffered sexual and physical abuse in care.

Jean McConville was taken from her home in Divis Flats in Belfast in 1972 before being murdered and secretly buried on a beach in County Louth by the IRA.

Her son Billy told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry he was abused by some De La Salle Brothers and physically abused by a lay teacher in Rubane House in County Down.

He spoke to BBC News NI’s Kevin Sharkey.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Guardian (UK)

Mark Guarino in Chicago
Thursday 6 November 2014

The archdiocese of Chicago released about 15,000 pages of previously secret files online Thursday in an attempt to provide fuller transparency related to sexual abuse cases by clergy going back several decades.

The documents detail interpersonal communications between victims, the priests and top ranking archdiocese officials. Combined with a first set of files released in January, they represent the most complete picture to date of how the archdiocese handled reports of sexual abuse of minors by 66 of its priests since 1952.

“We are committed to transparency with the people we serve. We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue. Child abuse is a crime and a sin,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who added the archdiocese is “concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims”.

The new documents involve 36 priests, all but 14 of whom are still living and removed from the priesthood. Ninety-two percent of the abuse detailed took place prior to 1988. Half the incidents took place before 1978. The archdiocese says it is aware of 352 incidents of known abuse since 1952.

The documents released in January were made public as part of a settlement agreement with victims. Cardinal George announced then that for the full sake of transparency, he wanted all remaining documents released voluntarily by the end of the year.

Because the statute of limitations has run out for the majority of these incidents, most of the priests who are alive are protected from criminal prosecution. The church however has paid about $130m to settle victim claims using money raised primarily by selling church land. Most of the cases came to light after 2000, as media reports brought national attention on clergy abuse, leading to increased oversight within the church. The Chicago archdiocese points out that it had already developed a system for handling sexual abuse allegations a decade prior.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Would have escaped ‘nightmare’ of abuse if IRA had not killed his mother, says Billy McConville

Gerry Moriarty

Thu, Nov 6, 2014

One of Jean McConville’s sons has told the North’s Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry that he was sexually abused while in care by the notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Billy McConville, who today waived his right to anonymity, also told the inquiry that he was sexually and physically abused by some De La Salle brothers and also physically abused by a lay teacher in Rubane House in Co Down.

Mr McConville with other members of his family was put into care after his mother was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972. One of the ‘Disappeared’ her remains were discovered on a beach in Co Louth in 2003.

Billy McConville said the IRA must also bear responsibility for the “nightmare” of abuse he said he suffered. He told the BBC that if “the IRA hadn’t killed our mother” he wouldn’t have ended up in care and subjected to abuse.

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WISCONSIN
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Nov. 6, 2014

In a ruling likely to affect scores of other sex abuse claims in the Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy case, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday threw out a claim by a deaf man who said he was assaulted as a teenager because he had agreed earlier to a settlement in mediation.

Lawyers for the man, identified only as John Doe, said the archdiocese had provided false information in getting the man to agree to an $80,000 settlement in 2007. Specifically, he says he was told that his alleged abuser — Fr. Lawrence Murphy, a man accused of abusing hundreds of children over the years — was not known to have a history of sexual misconduct. Later, church documents showed that to be false.

Under Wisconsin law, mediated settlements cannot be reopened by a court even if the settlement was procured based on false statements.

“Although one might contend it is unjust that a person like Doe cannot recover if he was in fact fraudulently induced into signing a settlement agreement, our task is to apply the Wisconsin statute as it is written,” said Ann Claire Williams, writing for the three-judge panel who heard the case.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Charles Keeshan

For nearly 25 years, Rev. William Lupo administered to the religious needs of Catholics in Des Plaines, Arlington Heights and Bartlett.

But according to documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago, he spent several of those years under restrictions and monitoring by church leadership, the result of accusations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls and young women from his time at St. Mary Parish in Des Plaines.

Lupo admitted appearing at least partially nude in front of one girl accidentally, and kissing and hugging others, according to the documents, but repeatedly denied any ill intentions in his behavior.

“I came to understand how my casual attitude toward touch and embracing could be misconstrued,” he wrote in a 1995 letter to church leaders during his time as pastor of St. Peter Damian Parish in Bartlett.

“Believe me, it was never my intention to cause them any harm, but now I know that my behavior was detrimental to them. I deeply regret these behaviors and the hurt I have caused,” he wrote.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

In July 1985, Tom Ventura, vicar of priests for the Archdiocese of Chicago, received a phone call from a young man claiming that as a high school student about five years earlier he had been sexually abused by two priests in the rectory of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.

Ventura, according to documents released Thursday by the Archdiocese of Chicago, confronted one of the priests, James Flosi, about the allegations. Flosi, records state, vigorously denied the claims, and the matter was not pursued any further.

It wasn’t until 1991, after Flosi had taken a church-funded sabbatical, served at three other parishes and was blocked from a fourth amid rumors of him being gay, that more accusations surfaced and the Archdiocese took a second look.

What they found, according to church documents, were several allegations of sexual abuse against Flosi dating back more than two decades, including his years at St. Hubert Parish in Hoffman Estates.

By the time the Archdiocese substantiated the accusations in 2006, Flosi had been gone from the priesthood 14 years, declaring in a 1992 letter of resignation that “this is the only way I can continue to share my talents and gifts freely, and accomplish the many goals I have set for myself and to which I still feel called.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent November 6, 2014

ROME — An Argentinian diocese announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has defrocked a priest who was criminally convicted of sexually abusing five minors in the country from 2000 to 2005.

The step is seen as significant not only as a sign of the pontiff’s overall resolve with regard to clerical abuse, but also because he’s faced criticism in the past for his response to charges against clergy in his native country.

José Mercau, the now ex-priest who’s serving a 14-year sentence on charges of abuse of minors, had been pastor of the St. John the Baptist Church in the San Isidro diocese on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He also ran a home for destitute children.

Minors aged 11 to 14 went to the police in 2005 to denounce Mercau, after reporting him to a teacher. After an investigation, Mercau was charged with persistent corruption of minors and indecent assault and rape, and was released pending trial on the condition that he remain in a Benedictine monastery.

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LUXEMBURG
Katholische Kirche

[Complaints, findings and recommendations]

Vom 6. April bis zum 16. Juli 2010 konnten Opfer sexueller und physischer Gewalt die Dienste einer vom Erzbistum Luxemburg eingerichteten Kontaktstelle in Anspruch nehmen. 138 Personen nutzten das Gesprächsangebot, 100 davon klagten über erlittene oder beobachtete Gewalt im Umfeld der Kirche.

Der Abschlussbericht, den die Koordinatoren der Kontaktstelle, Simone und Mill Majerus-Schmit, dem Erzbischof und dem Generalstaatsanwalt am 10. November zukommen ließen, gibt Aufschluss über die Arbeit der Kontaktstelle und liefert Antworten auf Fragen wie: Wer sind die Opfer der Gewalt im kirchlichen Umfeld? Wer hat ihnen Gewalt angetan? Was haben sie erlebt? Wie gehen Sie heute mit dem Erlebten um? Die Auswertung der Gespräche macht etwa die Hälfte des Abschlussberichts aus. Daneben liefert das 141-seitige Dokument u.a. psychologische und juristische Fachbeiträge zum Thema Missbrauch, Auszüge aus den Gesprächsprotokollen und Empfehlungen des Leitungsteams an Kirche und Gesellschaft.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Linz – Der Oberste Gerichtshof (OGH) hat die Nichtigkeitsbeschwerde des ehemaligen Konviktsdirektors des Stiftes Kremsmünster zurückgewiesen. Der heute 81-Jährige Pater A. war im Sommer 2013 wegen gewalttätiger und sexueller Übergriffe auf Zöglinge zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Nun liegt es am Oberlandesgericht Linz endgültig über die Strafhöhe zu entscheiden. Aber auch darüber, ob der 81-Jährige den Privatbeteiligten Schadenersatz bezahlen muss. Sie waren in erster Instanz auf den Zivilrechtsweg verwiesen worden.

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POLONIA
Vatican Insider

[The government of Poland has notified prosecutors in the Dominican Republic of their findings against former Polish priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil, who is accusing of abusing children in both countries.]

Avrebbe abusato di sette ragazzi. Il suo caso è legato a quello dell’ex-nunzio apostolico in Repubblica Dominicana Wesolowski

REDAZIONE
ROMA

Il governo della Polonia ha notificato ai pubblici ministeri della Repubblica Dominicana le conclusioni dell’inchiesta nei confronti dell’ex-sacerdote polacco Wojciech Waldemar Gil, accusato di pedofilia in entrambi i paesi. Lo hanno riferito oggi le autorità dominicane, secondo quanto riferiscono i media locali.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Bustle

LAUREN BARBATO @LAUREN_BARBATO

In an effort to maintain some transparency, the Chicago Archdiocese released files on priest sex abuse on Thursday — the second batch of documents detailing clergy abuse released by the archdiocese this year. The trove of documents contains information on 36 priests who allegedly committed at least one sexual act against a minor. According to the Chicago Archdiocese, the allegations stem as far back as the 1950s, with 98 percent of the crimes occurring before 1992. The archdiocese is calling these “historical claims,” but acknowledges that, yes, allegations of clergy sex abuse are still emerging in Chicago.

The thousands of documents, organized by each clergy, range from court documents and investigation reports to personal letters and work logs. Allegations include forcing a minor to undress in front of a cleric (in the case of former priest Joseph Thomas); making “inappropriate” gestures and advances (former priest Russell Romano); and forcing a male minor to “act out pornographic acts” with a female minor (former priest William Cloutier).

In one particularly disturbing file, a note to Chicago Bishop Raymond Goedert staunchly defended accused priest Thomas Swade, who was defrocked in 1992 after six victims came forward, allegedly they were molested by the priest as minors. Swade was almost reinstated by the archdiocese in the late ’90s.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicagoist

In one of his final acts as the leader of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George announced the public release of over 15,000 internal files pertaining to sex abuse allegations against 36 Archdiocesan priests.

George previously ordered the release of more documents in January related to 30 other priests and covers all but two priests who still have ongoing processes that do not permit the release of files. All of the priests listed are out of the ministry—14 are dead—and 92 percent of the incidents revealed in the documents happened prior to 1988.

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CHICAGO (IL)
ABC News

By DON BABWIN and TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press

Months after documents showed it had concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades, the Archdiocese of Chicago released files Thursday on three dozen more abusive clergy members to fulfill Cardinal Francis George’s pledge to do so before he retires.

“We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue,” George said in a statement released overnight. “Child abuse is a crime and a sin.”

The archdiocese released the files on 30 abusive priests in January as part of a legal settlement, and it posted on its website Thursday the internal records related to 36 others.

Altogether, the 15,000 pages of records show how the archdiocese treated abuse allegations from the early 1950s until recently. They only cover cases in which the archdiocese substantiated the abuse accusations, and don’t include those in which a priest died before his accuser came forward.

“Cardinal George wanted it finished on his watch,” said John O’Malley, special counsel to the archbishop for misconduct issues. O’Malley said George didn’t want Bishop Blase Cupich to have to deal with the issue when he assumes leadership of the nation’s third largest archdiocese later this month.

A report provided by the archdiocese to The Associated Press and other media this week suggested that the documents released Thursday would be similar to those made public in January. Those records described how the archdiocese hid the histories of abusive priests moving between parishes, did not swiftly remove the men from the priesthood, and in some cases helped them remain priests for years after allegations against them were deemed credible.

In one case, for example, a priest who was removed from the ministry after admitting to sexually molesting two boys 19 years earlier was reinstated in 1995 under a set of strict guidelines by then-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Bernardin said the priest, John Calicott, posed “no significant risk to children” if he continued therapy.

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