ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
9 News

Pope Francis’s financial hatchet man, Australian Cardinal George Pell, has issued Vatican officials with a money managment manual as part of a drive to clean up church finances.

All members of the Vatican bureaucracy will be required to observe the rulebook by January 1.

Pell was brought in by Pope Francis to bring the church’s financial management into line with international accounting standards.

In a letter to staff, Pell wrote that the introduction of the manual would be accompanied by a training program for employees and auditing by external consultants, according to the religious news agency I-media on Thursday.

Francis signalled his determination to make the Vatican’s finances more transparent and less vulnerable to abuse by handing Pell wide-ranging powers as the head of a newly-created Secretariat for the Economy earlier this year.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In 2011 José Mercau was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was found guilty of repeatedly corrupting and sexually abusing minors

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

Pope Francis has expelled an Argentinian priest sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing minors when he was parish priest at a church in the Diocese of San Isidro, in northern Buenos Aires. The diocese announced the news in an official statement.

In 2011, Fr. José Mercau was found guilty of repeatedly corrupting and sexually abusing minors after admitting to these crimes and after he was reported by a number of his victims. In 2005 these victims were aged between 11 and 14 years old and lived in Hogar San Juan Diego, a centre for disadvantaged young people in the El Talar area of Buenos Aires.

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CHICAGO (IL)
GlobalPost

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago released on Thursday internal files of 36 priests who church officials found had sexually abused children.

The files, which were released online, and other documents released in January show how the archdiocese dealt with abuse allegations during the past six decades, including the practice of moving priests accused of abuse to new parishes.

As part of a mediation agreement, the archdiocese in January released files on 30 former priests accused of abusing minors. Lawyers for victims had said at the time they wanted the archdiocese to release documents on more than 30 other priests.

Thursday’s release, which comes less than two weeks before the retirement of Cardinal Francis George, is the latest in a series of such abuse disclosures by Midwest church officials.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” George said in the statement. “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. The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Paul Peirce
Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014

A Somerset County priest accused of sexually abusing an orphaned boy in Honduras will remain in jail while a federal prosecutor appeals a magistrate’s ruling that would allow the suspended priest to await trial under home detention.

U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto ruled in Johnstown Thursday that the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, the suspended priest from Our Lady Queen of Angels in Central City, Somerset County, could be released from the Cambria County Jail to await trial.

But Maurizio will stay there for now because Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines said she would appeal Pesto’s decision to U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in an effort to detain the suspect.

A federal indictment accuses Maurizio of traveling to Honduras between Feb. 26 and March 13, 2009, to have sex with an underage boy. He is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

The indictment alleges he had at least one image of child pornography in his possession on Sept. 12, the day federal agents executed search warrants at his Windber home and his parish rectory.

Pesto ruled that Maurizio could await trial under home detention if all his personal bank accounts were frozen and his access was cut off from church accounts. The suspended priest, who owns a farm, would have been denied Internet access.

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CHILE
National Catholic Reporter

Melinda Henneberger | Nov. 6, 2014

SANTIAGO, CHILE Officials in Santiago, Chile, are investigating a series of cases in which newborn babies were purportedly stolen from the poor and given to the rich over many years’ time, mostly in the 1970s through the ’90s. At least half a dozen Catholic sisters and one of the country’s most popular priests have been implicated in these long-hidden crimes. The following article is the second in a three-part series that looks at how this appropriation of children happened, and how it stayed secret for so long. Read part one.

Today, 77-year-old Fr. Gerardo Joannon lives in semi-seclusion, suspended from his parish work and expected to refrain from speaking publicly while the state investigates possible charges against him under human rights law that has no statute of limitations.

His order, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart, has already concluded, according to a statement issued by its provincial, that in 1975 and 1983, he helped arrange illegal adoptions for teenage girls from prominent families. He led the girls, his provincial said, to believe that their newborn children had died.

The probe also found that Joannon had said a funeral Mass for one of those children, and a Mass in her memory every year for 25 years. The order also said he had had an “inappropriate relationship” with that child’s mother.

Finally, it concluded that his stated motivation — to “prevent abortions” — doesn’t hold up. Initially, his superiors wanted to ship him off to Spain for two years of prayer and reflection, but civil authorities thought that sounded a little too much like a vacation, or an escape route, and barred him from leaving the country for now.

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Though Joannon has denied all wrongdoing, his provincial, Alex Vigueras Cherres, apologized not only to the families involved, but to the faithful, “because we didn’t act when we had the first evidence, because we doubted the truth of the evidence and because our mistake profoundly deepened and prolonged their pain.”

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IOWA
The Catholic Globe

By JOANNE FOX
joannef@scdiocese.org

Investigating the compliance of a diocese with practices that will prevent child abuse is probably not a job with a lot of warm fuzzies.

But Greg Simmons and Jim Leisner from Rochester, N.Y., insist their Catholic faith has been enhanced and empowered by their findings.

The two auditors from StoneBridge Business Partners – the business firm the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has chosen to perform safe environment audits – visited the Diocese of Sioux City from Oct. 28-30.

The two men conducted on-site interviews with several parishes, schools, Diocesan Review Board members (the committee which investigates abuse claims) and Bishop Walker Nickless to insure compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Dallas Charter).

According to Colleen Sulsberger, coordinator of the Office of Safe Environment for the diocese, what’s unusual about this is Bishop Nickless is one of only 26 U.S. bishops who have authorized parish and school audits this year.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 6 2014

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

Every time clergy sex crimes and cover ups are discussed, kids are safer. But for an institution to hide these records for decades or years – leaving police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public in the dark, and leaving kids in harms’ way – is stunningly irresponsible.

This information could and should have been revealed years ago. Lives could have been saved. Crimes could have been prevented. Families could have been preserved. Instead, Cardinal Francis George and dozens of his clerical colleagues have, for years, opted to put their reputations and comfort

It’s as if Catholic officials thought, for years, that “Our job is to protect ourselves from lawsuits. So we’ll yank these dangerous men from parishes. But that’s all we’ll do. And whoever they molest next, that’s not our concern.”

Today’s belated, grudging and partial disclosure should be seen in this context.

Church officials harp on healing. But healing is secondary. Prevention is primary. Yet Catholic officials never talk about prevention. They want us to believe that all of this is “in the past.” It’s not.

Of these 36 men, 21 who are too dangerous to have in Catholic parishes now live among unsuspecting neighbors. Some of them babysat kids last night or tutored kids this morning or will coach kids this afternoon.

But Catholic officials are apparently content with this. Otherwise, they would release the addresses of these men, provide their photos and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police and prosecutors.

But they’d rather lull us all into believing the threat has passed. It hasn’t.

The issue now is what will Cupich and George do about these 21 living offenders: Richard B. Bartz, Leonard A. Bogdan, Daniel P. Buck, John W. Calicott, Walter G. DeRoeck, James V. Flosi, Robert D. Friese, Jesus P. Garza, John E. Hefferan, James Hoder, Michael J. Hogan, Walter E. Huppenbauer, Robert L. Kealy, John J. Keehan, John J. Keough, William L. Lupo, Robert J. McDonald, Peter J. McNamara, Gary M. Miller, James M. Ray, John A. Robinson, and John F. Rohrich.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Raphael Vassallo 6 November 2014

Reading reports of the situation involving Fr Charles Fenech reminds me of the South American soap operas to which my late grandmother was addicted – ‘Quando Si Ama’, ‘Sentieri’, that sort of thing – only with an added dose of Miley Cyrus-style pornography that my late grandmother would certainly not have appreciated one tiny bit.

In fact, I sometimes wonder how people like her would react to the details now emerging from this case. My grandparents – all four of whom were nothing if not totally devoted to the Catholic Church – all passed away long before the first scandal rocked that institution to its foundations.

They were not around to see the aftermath of the Dar San Guzepp scandal, which resulted in two priests incarcerated in 2011 for abuse of minors. They also missed out on the divorce referendum in the same year, which – though unrelated to any particular scandal – graphically underscored a chasm that had opened up between their beloved Church and the rest of the population.

But surely there must still be people out there – many thousands, in fact – whose attitude towards the Church and all that it represents is identical to that of my grandparents’ entire generation. It was an attitude which regarded obedience to the Church as a virtue in itself, and which (as I discovered on the rare attempts I bothered trying) would brook absolutely no question of the same Church’s moral authority in all matters: be they spiritual or temporal.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet

Published on November 06, 2014

A St. John’s lawyer representing a Newfoundland and Labrador woman will be in court Friday to seek permission to proceed with a Jane Doe sex-abuse case against a former minister and his one-time employer, the United Church of Canada.

The woman — who is seeking the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador’s permission to keep her name and small community from being identified in the proceedings — was not among the 11 children involved in criminal cases against Stephen James Collins, who was a minister and later doctor in various communities and was convicted in the 1980s.

The woman’s lawyer, William Hiscock of Budden and Associates, said after she contacted the United Church about what she claims happened, she felt the only way to get a sense of justice and closure was to launch a civil action.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hartlepool Mail

A Roman Catholic official has expressed regret and sorrow that a primary school teacher from County Durham was able to sexually abuse children for more than a decade.

Several parents and one of his young victims made complaints about Ronald Wotton’s behaviour in classes to the head teacher of the Roman Catholic primary school, but they were not believed.

The head explained the behaviour was just the paedophile teacher’s way of being “friendly”, and the girl who came forward was told she had to apologise to him, in class.

Wotton was allowed to retire when a new head took over in 1980, following a discussion with the parish priest, amid concerns about the mounting allegations. He was able to claim his deafness was the reason for leaving.

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CHICAGO (IL)
San Francisco Chronicle

DON BABWIN AND TAMMY WEBBER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago has released thousands of pages of internal documents pertaining to how it dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by 35 priests going back decades.

The archdiocese posted the documents on its website Thursday. They’re in addition to records related to 30 other abusive priests that it released as part of a legal settlement in January, when the archdiocese revealed it had concealed the abuse decades.

Cardinal Francis George had pledged to release the records before he retires later this month. His office says he didn’t want to leave the matter to his successor, Bishop Blase Cupich (BLAYZ’ SOO’-pihch).

The documents detail more than 350 incidents of abuse since 1952. Most occurred decades ago and none involved active priests.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

The Archdiocese of Chicago released documents Thursday morning relating to 36 priests with substantiated sexual abuse allegations against them.

The documents, comprising about 15,000 pages of information about the 36 priests, were posted to the archdiocese website at 9 a.m.

RELATED: Documents on Archdiocese of Chicago website

Thursday’s release, in addition to documents about 30 other priests that were released in January, will cover all but two priests currently listed on the archdiocese website as having substantiated sex abuse allegations against them, the archdiocese said. The two priests not included are involved in ongoing processes that do not permit the release of documents.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” Cardinal Francis George said in the statement. “We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue.”

The archdiocese followed a document review process designed to protect victim privacy to determine which documents could be released, according to the statement.

All of the priests detailed in the documents are out of ministry, and 14 of them are deceased, according to the archdiocese. Most of the cases included in the documents involve incidents before 1988.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Christine Schenk | Nov. 6, 2014

As I sat listening to Jennifer Haselberger accept FutureChurch’s Fr. Louis J. Trivison Award on Sept. 19, I couldn’t help but reflect how proud Father Louie would have been.

Jennifer is a canon lawyer and the whistleblowing former chancellor of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese. She resigned in 2013 after Archbishop John Nienstedt refused to take seriously her findings of an intentional cover-up of clergy sex abuse by archdiocesan officials. She hoped her resignation would “prompt an external investigation and lead to internal changes.” When that failed to materialize, she collaborated with Minnesota Public Radio in a pivotal, and unprecedented, exposé of the archdiocese’s callous mishandling of sexual misconduct by clergy.

“For me, the decision to go public was an easy one,” she said. “After years of feeling embarrassed by the contradictions between the archdiocese’s external positions and internal actions, I wanted to be able to look the people in my community in the eye again.”

As Jennifer spoke of the horrendous events still unfolding in St. Paul-Minneapolis, I recognized the all-too-familiar gut-punch Minnesota Catholics are now enduring as they cope with daily reports of betrayal by bishops and priests they had formerly admired.

We went through this in Cleveland beginning in 2002. Father Louie, along with many other Cleveland priests, was devastated when news of our own diocese’s cover-up of clergy sex abuse came to light. To address the crisis, Louie helped organize a special diocesewide accountability coalition of lay leaders that met regularly for over two years. He rarely missed a meeting.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CLTV

The Chicago Archdiocese opened the books on sexual abuse by 36 priests Monday morning.

At 9 a.m., decades of internal church files were posted on the archdiocese website.

They involve the confirmed abuse of hundreds of children since 1950.

The document release comes, less than two weeks before the retirement of Francis Cardinal George.

Files on 27 other local priests were released in January.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

2014 Document Publication

The Archdiocese of Chicago has voluntarily released documents related to 36 Archdiocesan priests who have at least one substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor. These documents are in addition to those released in January on 30 other priests. This release, together with the January release, covers priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors identified on the Archdiocese’s website as of November 2014. Documents pertaining to two priests, former Rev. Daniel J. McCormack and Rev. Edward J. Maloney, are not included, due to ongoing processes that do not permit release.

A thorough document review process was used to prepare documents for release. It was designed to protect victim privacy, comply with legal restrictions against publishing mental health and medical information and protect the privacy of third parties mentioned in the documents but not involved in the abuse. Nothing was redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers.

None of these priests are currently in ministry. Explanatory materials concerning the long term record of the Archdiocese in responding to priest sexual abuse may be found here.

Inquiries may be directed to the Office of the Protection of Children and Youth, Archdiocese of Chicago, PO Box 1979, Chicago, IL 60690; (312) 534-5254.

Name

Baranowski, Alexander Sylvester
Bartz, Richard Barry
Becker, Robert Charles
Bennett, Joseph R.
Bogdan, Leonard Adolph
Bowman, Robert Peter
Braun, David Francis
Brigham, Kenneth
Buck, Daniel Peter
Burns, Eugene Patrick
Calicott, John Walter
Cloutier, William J.
Craig, Robert
Curran, John William
Czajka, Norman J.
DeRoeck, Walter George
Dilla, Francis Emil
Fassbinder, Richard Wayne
Fitzharris, Joseph L.
Flosi, James Vincent
Friese, Robert
Garza, Jesus P.
Hagan, James Craig
Hefferan, John Edward
Hoder, James
Hogan, Michael J.
Holihan, Daniel Mark
Huppenbauer, Walter Edward
Job, Thomas
Kealy, Robert Louis
Keehan, John James
Kelly, Thomas
Keough, John Joseph
Kissane, Joseph Patrick
Kmak, Leonard Paul
Lupo, William L.
Maday, Norbert J.
Maloney, Edward
Mayer, Robert E.
McCaffrey, Vincent
McCormack, Daniel J.
McDonald, Robert Joseph
McNamara, Peter John
Miller, Gary M.
Mulsoff, Donald John
O’Brien, William John
Owens, Joseph
Pallikunnen, Emmanuel
Ray, James M.
Robinson, John Allen
Rohrich, John F.
Romano, Russell Lawrence
Ruge, Kenneth Charles
Savage, Joseph E.
Skriba, Raymond Francis
Snieg, Marion Joseph
Steel, James R.
Stewart, Victor E.
Strand, Ralph S.
Swade, Thomas J.
Swider, Henry Peter
Tanghal, Albert
Theisen, Richard Gregory
Thomas, Joseph S.
Turlo, Walter Joseph
Ulatowski, Donald Francis
Vader, Anthony Joseph
Weston, Michael Howard

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | Nov 05, 2014

“Does Pope Francis have an enemies list?” That’s the eye-catching headline on John Allen’s column for the Crux site. Allen notes that three bishops have recently placed under scrutiny by the Vatican: Bishops Rogelio Livieres Plano in Paraguay, Mario Oliveri in Italy, and Robert Finn in Kansas City. (He might have added Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who was denounced as the “bishop of bling” and hurried into resignation in Germany.) Is it a coincidence that the bishops who are under the gun are all distinctly conservative?

Add the disciplinary crackdown on the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and the unmistakable loss of influence by two prominent prelates in the Roman Curia (Cardinals Mauro Piacenza and Raymond Burke), and an overall trend seems clear.

There are two logical explanations for this trend, Allen remarks. One is that the Vatican under Pope Francis is conducting a sort of purge of conservative bishops. The other is that the Pope is determined to carry out a program of reform, and “is responding to reported breakdowns as they occur without really paying attention to the politics of the people involved.” But if it’s the latter, Allen writes, the Holy Father might want to explain, and in the process reassure conservatives who now feel nervous about the Pope’s intentions.

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AUSTRIA
The local

Austria’s High Court has rejected an appeal by the former head of a Catholic boarding school run by Kremsmünster Abbey who was found guilty of child abuse.

The defrocked priest, 81-year-old August Mandorfer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2013 for 24 cases of child abuse and sexual violence at the school in Upper Austria.

Mandorfer, known as Father Alfons, was charged with sexually abusing 15 children whilst head of the school. He was also accused of torturing and neglecting young boys under his care between 1973 and 1993.

A search at the monastery in 2010 revealed that Mandorfer owned a pump-action shotgun amongst other weapons.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago was scheduled to release thousands of pages of internal documents tied to 36 priests who sexually abused children.

It will be the second time this year the church has made public secret files regarding substantiated allegations of sex abuse by clergy. In January, the archdiocese released approximately 6,000 pages of documents detailing what it knows about decades of sex abuse allegations against 30 other priests.

At 9 a.m., the church will release 15,000 more pages of documents, showing how it handled allegations against 36 priests. The vast majority of the cases happened before 1988, according to the archdiocese. In some cases, the allegations date back more than 60 years. The documents will be posted on the Archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” Cardinal Francis George said in a written statement. “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. The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

Documents Related to 36 Priests will be Posted on Archdiocesan Website at 9 a.m. on November 6
Chicago, November 5, 2014 – The Archdiocese of Chicago will release documents on Thursday, November 6, at 9 a.m., related to 36 Archdiocesan priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, all of whom have been listed on the Archdiocese’s website for years. The documents will be posted on the Archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org.

The documents are in addition to those released in January related to 30 other priests. The release, in combination with the January release, covers all the priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors identified on the Archdiocese’s website, with the exception of two priests where ongoing processes do not permit release. All of the documents relate to incidents that date back many years, and in many cases, decades. No priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago today.

“As we said in January, we are committed to transparency with the people we serve,” said Francis Cardinal George, OMI. “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. The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with bringing healing to abuse victims.”

The Archdiocese followed a thorough document review process to determine which documents could be released. It was designed to protect victim privacy, comply with legal restrictions against publishing mental health and medical information and protect the privacy of third parties mentioned in the documents, but not involved in the abuse. Nothing was redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers. This process resulted in the release of approximately 15,000 pages of material on the 36 priests.

Ninety-two percent of the cases included in the documents occurred prior to 1988. Additionally, all of the priests involved in this document release are out of ministry and 14 are deceased.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. The Charter requires that no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor can serve in public ministry. The Archdiocese of Chicago refers all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s Independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the Archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.

The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website at www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/protection.shtm.

About the Document Release

The documents, which will be posted on the Archdiocese’s website at 9 a.m. on November 6, concern the following priests, all of whom are out of ministry and 14 are deceased:

Alexander S. Baranowski*
Richard B. Bartz
Leonard A. Bogdan
R. Peter Bowman*
David F. Braun*
Daniel P. Buck
Eugene P. Burns*
John W. Calicott
Norman J. Czajka*
Walter G. DeRoeck
Francis E. Dilla*
Richard W. Fassbinder*
James V. Flosi
Robert D. Friese
Jesus P. Garza
John E. Hefferan
James Hoder
Michael J. Hogan
Walter E. Huppenbauer
Robert L. Kealy
John J. Keehan
John J. Keough
Leonard P. Kmak*
William L. Lupo
Robert J. McDonald
Peter J. McNamara
Gary M. Miller
Donald J. Mulsoff*
James M. Ray
John A. Robinson
John F. Rohrich
Joseph E. Savage*
Albert(o) Tanghal*
Richard G. Theisen*
Joseph S. Thomas*
Anthony J. Vader*
*Deceased

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

By Luciana Bertoia
Herald Staff

Grandmothers president says organization was wrong to question role during dictatorship

The years of mistrust between the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and Jorge Bergoglio — now Pope Francis — seem to be a thing of the past now.

On a visit to the Vatican alongside her recently-recovered grandson, Grandmothers leader Estela Barnes de Carlotto said that “Francis’ tenure in the Vatican has proven that reports against him for his role during the dictatorship were mistaken.”

The head of the association founded in 1977 also seemed to want to bury the hatchet: “ We rectify ourselves.”

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MINNESOTA
The Tablet (UK)

06 November 2014 by Sarah Mac Donald

An American parish priest has refused a request from his archbishop to cancel or change the venue of a talk by the pro-reform Irish priest, Fr Tony Flannery.

Fr Mike Tegeder of the parish of St Frances Cabrini in central Minneapolis was summoned to a meeting by Archbishop John Nienstedt of St Paul and Minneapolis, who asked that the venue of Fr Flannery’s talk be changed from the parish to a non-Catholic location.

Writing on the parish website, Fr Tegeder said the archbishop wanted a change of venue so as “not to cause scandal”. He also said that Archbishop Nienstedt described the Irish priest as “not a Catholic”.

During the 30-minute meeting with the archbishop, Fr Tegeder said he pointed out that Fr Flannery is a Catholic of good standing and has been, and remains, a member of the Redemptorist order for more than 40 years.

“To say he is not Catholic is to suggest he has been excommunicated, which is not the case, and in fact is a defamatory statement,” Fr Tegeder said, adding that he queried what scandal could be caused by adult Catholics having a discussion about “needed church reform”.

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MINNESOTA
St. Frances Cabrini Church

November 2, 2014

A MESS IN OUR ARCHDIOCESE With CTA-MN and CCCR we are preparing for Redemptorist Tony Flannery’s visit here this Wednesday, November 5. I invite you to the 7 pm gathering with Tony. You might want to google his name to read about his faith journey. Also, as we will have visitors, could Cabriniites please park in the overflow parking lot on Franklin.

Actually, last Wednesday I met with Archbishop Nienstedt over Tony’s visit. At the meeting the Archbishop requested that we change Tony’s venue to a non-Catholic location. It was amazing that in the week when Minnesota Public Radio had two stories on the Archbishop’s own doubtful statements in his deposition about sexual abuse, he is now trying to prevent adult Catholics from openly discussing the need for reform in our church. Thank God for Pope Francis who, in a speech at the closing of the recent Synod on the Family, said “Personally I would have been very worried and saddened if there hadn’t been these … animated discussions … or if everyone had been in agreement or silent in a false and acquiescent peace.”

My meeting with the Archbishop lasted about 30 minutes. The interesting thing was that with the marriage amendment two years ago he ordered me to stop publicly opposing it or he would take away my faculties to function as a priest and remove me from the parish, and in the past when I invited speakers co-sponsored by CTA-MN (Call to Action Minnesota) or CCCR (Catholics Concerned for Church Reform), I was told not to have any association with them or, again, be removed from ministry. But today he only asked that I change the venue of the talk. I guess it is kosher to associate with Flannery, just not on Archdiocesan property. This is progress.

He wanted the change of venue so as “not to cause scandal” but he was not able to explain the scandal of adult Catholics having a discussion about needed church reform. Indeed, I pointed out that the very issues Flannery raises are those discussed by the bishops and Cardinals at the Synod on the Family last week: if these issues can be raised in the Vatican, they can be talked about in a small, little parish in south Minneapolis.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Marcus Waters
Lecturer, School of Humanities at Griffith University

I have seen firsthand how child sexual abuse is rife in every part of the Australian community – but only sometimes is that abuse reported in full colour.

It probably won’t surprise you if I say that I’ve had to deal with significant sexual violence and trauma within my Aboriginal family. But that’s also been true within my non-Indigenous family.

So why is it so common to see headlines about “Indigenous sex abuse” – and so rare to see the same language used about white abusers?

A common face of abuse

The Royal Commission on institutionalised child sex abuse is shining a light on dark corners of systematic abuse of Australian kids over many generations. In the vast majority of the terrible cases we’ve heard about, the perpetrators and those who protected them have been seemingly upstanding, often senior, male community leaders.

Old white men, in other words.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Suzanne Moore

Child abuse used to happen in the past. It is terrible. We should investigate it. But we can’t find anyone to be in charge of such an investigation who doesn’t know some of the people who could be possibly be accused of it.

Does this make sense to anyone? It is neither true, nor justifiable in any way whatsoever, but this is the nub of what Theresa May told the House of Commons this week. May appears to have a massive deflection shield. She escaped much criticism for the fact that the passport office was in a complete mess, though she had been warned about it. And now, having announced in July an inquiry into the allegations of historic sex abuse, both of those chosen to lead the inquiry have had to resign: Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf.

Butler–Sloss is the sister of Sir Michael Havers, who was the attorney general at the time both the police and CPS failed to investigate allegations of serious abuse. Fiona Woolf (pictured) was then appointed – but she hangs out with Leon Brittan, who it is said did not act when given the dossier about alleged child abuse.

So the inquiry, which is wide-reaching, is as useful as a headless chicken while survivors complain they are still not being listened to.

The key thing May said in her “apology” is that the public is concerned that in the 1980s, the Home Office did not act on allegations of sexual abuse. How concerned are we if nothing is happening? We are talking about institutional failure on a grand scale here, and what we are witnessing is the establishment telling us it is virtually impossible to find one person, professionally qualified, to lead an inquiry who is not already connected to the institution or individuals being investigated.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: November 5, 2014

The historic settlement in October has not applied to other dioceses in the state.
l
A landmark settlement last month in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit that set protocols for disclosure of claims hasn’t ended all the legal battles over the public release and publication of church information.

The settlement between Doe 1 and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona didn’t include other dioceses, which continue to face clergy sex abuse lawsuits in courtrooms across Minnesota.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of New Ulm, the Diocese of Duluth and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate asked Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann to grant a protective order to keep some of an accused priest’s personal information from public view.

The defendants, who are named in a suit filed by Doe 30, a former altar boy, said they aren’t trying to keep Doe 30’s attorneys from obtaining the information; they said some sensitive information — medical and financial details, among others — should be kept from publication on the attorney’s website and from being disclosed to the media.

“There’s nothing they can’t do with the file for the purpose of this litigation,” said Andrew Shern, an attorney for the Oblates.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

Judge lowers cash bail to $50,000 for suspended Bangor priest charged with possession of child pornography

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Nov. 05, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — The suspended Greek Orthodox priest arrested in September on charges that he allegedly possessed child pornography and surreptitiously photographed a woman taking a shower in his bathroom remained Wednesday night at the Penobscot County Jail even though a judge lowered his bail earlier in the day.

Superior Court Justice Ann Murray set bail for Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor at $50,000 cash or $100,000 surety, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office. In September, District Court Judge John Lucy set bail at $100,000 cash or surety.

Murray lowered the amount of cash bail at the request of Metropoulos’ attorney, Marvin Glazier of Bangor.

Metropoulos owns property in the Millinocket area, according to a previously published report.

Metropoulos has been held at the jail in Bangor since his arrest Sept. 15, when he was charged with one count each of possession of sexually explicit material, a Class C crime, and violation of privacy, a Class D crime.

He has not entered pleas to those charges because he has not yet been indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury.

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CANADA
The Record

KINGSTON, Ont. — Police in Kingston, Ont., say a retired priest is facing fresh charges related to alleged sexual assaults stretching back to the 1980s.

They say Robin Gwyn, 66, was arrested in his home province of Nova Scotia on Sept. 18 and transported to Kingston four days later.

He was originally charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to a case involving one victim.

But, police say after Gwyn was granted bail, detectives had a second alleged victim come forward providing police with reasonable grounds to believe further historic offences had occurred.

On Wednesday, nine additional counts of sexual assault were laid, but Gwyn’s bail was extended by the court on strict conditions.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

Months after revealing it had concealed for decades the sexual abuse of children by local priests, the Archdiocese of Chicago said it will on Thursday release files about dozens more abusive clergy to fulfill Cardinal Francis George’s vow to make them public before he retires.

The 15,000 pages of documents outline how the archdiocese dealt with priests against whom allegations of abuse were substantiated over the last six decades, including 30 priests whose files were opened in January. Files about the remaining 36 priests are scheduled to be put on the archdiocese website at 9 a.m. Thursday.

“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.

All of the priests named in the upcoming documents are out of the ministry. Fourteen of them have passed away.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Christy Gutowski and Todd Lighty,
Chicago Tribune

The Archdiocese of Chicago was set to release Thursday internal files of 36 priests who church officials determined had sexually abused children, a move Cardinal Francis George hopes will show he has been transparent about one of the most disturbing chapters in the Roman Catholic Church’s history.

The release of the once-secret priest files is one of George’s last acts as he prepares for retirement in less than two weeks and is part of an effort by the archdiocese to put the long-running scandal behind it.

Together with documents on more than two dozen priests released in January, the new files represent the archdiocese’s fullest public accounting of 63 of its priests who church officials found abused 352 children since 1950. The archdiocese has paid about $130 million to settle claims by victims, money raised largely through borrowing and selling church land.

The January files, made public as part of a settlement with victims, provided fresh details into how, for decades, the nation’s third-largest archdiocese quietly transferred accused priests from parish to parish, and how church officials failed to tell law enforcement about accusations that priests had sexually abused boys and girls.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WSAZ

CHARLESTON, W.Va (WSAZ) — A child molester has been sentenced to 2 to 10 years in prison.

Christopher Winnell was sentenced Wednesday on several counts of sexual abuse by a parent.

Winnell plead guilty back in August to molesting three boys who were close family members.

The abuse happened more than 25 years ago in Sissonville.

Winnell has been a pastor at several churches in the area.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

NEW ULM — Six priests who worked in the Diocese of New Ulm are among 24 whose files were released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Wednesday because they had substantiated claims of child sexual abuse against them.

Any files those six priests have in New Ulm are not included in the release because the Diocese of New Ulm is the only one in the state that has refused to release its list of priests credibly acused of molestation. The lists were created during an investigation the Catholic Church was doing related to abusive priests.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn.

Nov 5, 2014

Church documents released Wednesday show that Archbishop John Nienstedt gave a false statement under oath about his knowledge of the Rev. Michael Stevens’ criminal conviction for sexually assaulting a child.

Nienstedt had testified as part of a lawsuit in April that he did not know that Stevens had pleaded guilty in the 1980s to child sex abuse while an associate priest at the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids. However, documents from the archdiocese’s file on Stevens show that a chancery official reminded Nienstedt of Stevens’ criminal history every year. They include five documents signed by Nienstedt from 2009 to 2013 that indicated he received yearly reports on Stevens and that he approved of the priest’s monitoring plan.

MPR News has previously reported that Nienstedt made two other false statements during the April 2, 2014 deposition. Nienstedt testified falsely that he had only recently learned of the criminal conviction of the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson.

He also testified inaccurately that he did not know until recently that the Rev. Kenneth LaVan had remained in ministry. LaVan has been accused of sexually abusing children, a charge he denies.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Warsaw’s Regional Office of the Prosecutor communicated the conclusion of the investigation against Polish national Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) to its Dominican counterpart, with the indictment unsealed by Wolomin First Instance Court.

Gil is charged in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of at least six boys in the highland town Juncalito, northern Santiago province.

Santiago province prosecutor Luisa Liranzo remitted a missive from Warsaw deputy prosecutor Malgorzata Adamajtys, to Dominican Justice minister Francisco Dominguez, noting that Gil was charged with violating Polish laws.

The Polish authorities said they’ll soon inform Dominican officials of the date and place of the hearing against the accused.

The Dominican and Polish governments have affirmed that they’ll work to obtain a conviction based on the Principle of International Legal Cooperation, despite the absence of an extradition treaty.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — It’s been more than three decades, but the memories still come in what a prosecutor described as sharp little pieces: the sudden, unexpected kiss during a visit to the priest’s office, the nights he was woken and led to an office and forced to sit on the priest’s lap, the physical pain and emotional confusion.

The Rev. Richard McCormick told the boy that it was all an expression of love, his accuser told a Lawrence Superior Court jury Wednesday. The man he knew only as “Father Dick” told him “the church loves you, I love you, we’re one big family,” his accuser, now a 44-year-old man, testified.

McCormick, 73, is charged with five counts of child rape in incidents dating back to the early 1980s, though the timeline has grown muddy, partly due to the way the accuser now recalls the incidents, out of sequence in short vignettes, and partly due to confusion stemming from a therapist’s notes that suggested the abuse started as early as 1979.

It’s that confusion over the timeline — whether the abuse started in 1979, when the accuser was 9, or in 1981, when he was 11 — that McCormick’s lawyer is pointing to when urging a jury to conclude that it was not McCormick who abused the boy.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

Christopher Placek

The archdiocese of Chicago is set to release documents this morning that detail instances of child sex abuse by 36 priests going back decades.

The documents are expected to reveal information tied to at least a dozen priests who were assigned to parishes throughout the suburbs of Cook and Lake counties. In some cases, the instances of abuse took place at those parishes; in others, priests were assigned to parishes years after the abuse occurred.

The files represent about a quarter of the 352 abuse cases — going back to the early 1950s — that the archdiocese says are “substantiated” allegations of child sexual abuse.

The documents will be available online at 9 a.m. at the archdiocese’s website, archchicago.org.

The release of the files follows the archdiocese’s earlier release of more than 6,000 pages of internal communications in January involving 30 priests accused of sexually abusing children. Those files were made available to the public pursuant to a 2006 mediation agreement with attorney Jeff Anderson, who has represented victims abused by priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hartlepool Mail

Primary school pupils in County Durham made themselves sick with washing up liquid to try to avoid lessons with a teacher who sexually abused them in front of the whole class, a court has heard.

When one child complained about Ronald Wotton, the headteacher at the Roman Catholic school did not believe the allegation and made the pupil apologise to the abuser.

Judge Howard Crowson, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, jailed the terminally-ill 73-year-old for five years.

Wotton, who uses a wheelchair, admitted 17 counts of indecent assault, three counts of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child over a 12-year period from the late 1960s.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Thursday, November 6, 2014, 00:01 by Caroline Muscat

The provincial of the Maltese Dominican friars is refusing to answer Times of Malta questions on allegations of sexual abuse by one of its priests, Fr Charles Fenech. This newspaper has been chasing Fr Frans Micallef since last Friday, after the Order issued a statement saying it had repeatedly “warned” him and taken “steps” against Fr Fenech.

Fr Micallef’s curt reply was that he expected the statement he made last week to be published in full, and as it was not, he had nothing else to add. The statement was published on the front page of Times of Malta last Friday.

He said yesterday: “On October 30, I released an official statement on behalf of the Maltese Dominican friars about the case. I expected everyone to publish it as it was, in its entirety.

“Instead, everyone [the media] took what they wanted, twisted it and gave it their own interpretation. Considering this behaviour by the media, I am refusing to answer questions or add anything else.”

In the statement, the Order named Fr Fenech, 54, as the priest from Rabat at the centre of the allegations, saying it wanted to tell the public that he had been stopped from practising as a priest and had been removed as director of the Kerygma Movement.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Thu, Nov 6, 2014

Spanish priest Fr Pablo d’Ors, a consultant to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, yesterday said he was “absolutely” in favour of opening up the priesthood to women.

Speaking in a candid tone that appears to take its cue from the frank debate at the recent Synod of Bishops, Fr d’Ors told Italian daily La Repubblica: “Am I in favour [of the ordination of women]?

Absolutely, and I am not the only one. The reasoning which claims that women cannot become priests because Jesus was a man and because he chose only men [as his apostles] is very weak. That is a cultural consideration not a metaphysical one.”

Were it not for the fact that Fr D’Ors is one of 30 consultants due to report to a meeting of the Pontifical Council for Culture (PCC) in February, his comments might have little significance.

However, the PCC’s meeting in the Vatican will be focussed on the role of women in the Catholic Church today.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Victims of a sexualy abusive teacher feigned illness, and in one case swallowed washing up liquid in order to avoid him, a court has been told.

Ronald Wotton pleaded guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault, three of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child.

The 73-year-old, of Park Lane, Murton, Seaham, was jailed for five years.

Teesside Crown Court heard the offences took place at a Roman Catholic school between 1969 and 1980.

Judge Howard Crowson said: “You were sadly operating at a time when, to most of the adult public, it was inconceivable for this type of offending to be committed by a teacher.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAPwisconsin.com

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.

How right Charles Dickens was when he said that the purpose of the law is to make business for itself. It was reported in court last week that lawyers’ fees are now surpassing $18 million dollars, while the entire proposed restitution being offered to 575 victims of childhood sexual assault by the archdiocese is $4 million dollars. Who can argue with him?

The victim in this case, including all the victims of Fr. Murphy and the dozens of his clerical sex offender colleagues from the Milwaukee Archdiocese can, at least, take solace in what Plato taught us that it “it is infinitely better to be the victim of injustice than the cause of it.” The survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault have tried to keep faith, as best we can, with the saving truth Plato speaks of and for which his master, Socrates, who one can argue prefigured the story of Christ, was executed.

Every case brought by a victim before the law, even if the law is blind to see it or deaf to hear it, is precious because it is a witness to an indomitable belief by survivors that, regardless of its perversion, the law was meant to serve justice, and that justice was meant to serve the weak, the vulnerable and the vanquished. That is why justice, especially for childhood victims of the powerful and the perverse, is in the interest of everyone not just the few who can pay for it. Lawyers were meant to serve justice. Justice was not meant to serve lawyers. And it should not be bought or sold, even for $18 million dollars.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Associated Press

A man who was abused by a priest while attending a school for deaf children cannot set aside a settlement with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to pursue a claim in bankruptcy court, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The man identified in court documents as John Doe settled with the archdiocese for $80,000 in 2007, after participating in mediation set up by the church.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying it wouldn’t be able to pay if lawsuits filed by other victims went against it. Doe and hundreds of victims then filed claims in federal bankruptcy court.

Doe’s attorneys said archdiocese officials deceived him by telling him $80,000 was all he could get, when some others received $100,000 to $200,000. Doe also did not realize the extent of the archdiocese’s knowledge about abuse he and other students suffered or that the church was paying some priests to leave, the attorneys said in court documents.

A bankruptcy judge and then a district court judge said Wisconsin law doesn’t allow statements made in mediation to be used as evidence in court, and therefore, Doe could not pursue his claim. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

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WASHINGTON
Inlander

By Scott A. Leadingham

It’s a chilly, late-October night, and Blase Cupich is clearly interested in one thing: a hearty meal.

“I’ll take the chili,” he says.

That, and engaging in good conversation with a crowd of eager 20- and 30-something Catholics.

With that dinner order, he sounds like any other person at Jack and Dan’s bar and grill. And even though it’s a Gonzaga University mainstay, where priests can often be found downing a pint, the man dressed in the unmistakable white collar is far from a regular patron.

He is, after all, among the most famous Catholic leaders in America at the moment, and the most in-demand for news media interviews. Little more than a month ago, most people, rank-and-file Catholics included, didn’t know his name, let alone how to pronounce it. (For the record: SOO-pitch.)

On this night, he’s bishop of the Spokane diocese. But in a few short weeks he’ll lead the third-largest Catholic diocese in the U.S. as archbishop of Chicago. …

Appointed in 2010 to lead the Spokane diocese out of a bankruptcy brought on by sexual abuse lawsuits, Cupich is generally seen as an administrator in the mold of Pope Francis: able to insist on change where it’s needed, and capable of coming into a negative situation and managing with skill and grace.

At the time, the Spokane diocese was close to selling off parishes to pay debts to victims, and Cupich considers the fact that no parishes were closed among his top accomplishments in Spokane. He says he didn’t even know about the diocese’s deep legal woes until after he arrived.

“The first two years here were very, very hard. Just to make sure that we would not be in a situation where parishes would collapse because they would be confiscated,” he says. “I was very concerned about that. I knew it wasn’t just about the closing of buildings and the confiscation of property, it was about the real destruction of communities.”
It’s not over

The figurative destruction of communities is one thing, but the very real harm brought about by sexual abuse is something of which he says he is very much aware. Late last month, it was reported that Cupich had removed a retired priest, Rev. Dan Wetzler, from the ministry after “credible allegations” surfaced. It was the second time Wetzler had been accused; he had previously been exonerated after a church investigation.

That move, and Cupich’s appointment in Chicago, was criticized by the victims’ rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“He’s doing the absolute bare, legalistic minimum. Pretty much because he has to,” SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy says of Cupich.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL (WFLA) –
A Wimauma pastor is charged with capital sexual battery after investigators say he admitted to performing sex acts on a girl under the age of eleven, thirty to forty years ago.

Patrick H. Shiver, 72, is a practicing Pastor at the Casa De Dios church in Wimauma and has been a pastor at numerous churches in Hillsborough County, according to investigators.

During a controlled telephone call between the victim and Patrick Shiver, Shiver admitted to performing sexual acts with the victim while she was under the age of eleven and sexual intercourse while she was between the ages of fourteen and seventeen years old. Detectives say the alleged acts happened in Hillsborough County.

Later during interviews with detectives, Patrick Shiver admitted to the allegations.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Tribune

Tribune staff

Published: November 5, 2014

Deputies arrested a Wimauma pastor today after he admitted to having sex with an 11-year-old girl several decades ago.

Patrick H. Shiver, 72, admitted to having sex with the girl “30 to 40 years ago” during a recent controlled telephone call, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Shiver, who is currently a pastor at the Casa De Dios church in Wimauma, confessed again to deputies during later interviews.

He said he had sex with the girl multiple times while she was under the age of 11, and again when she was between the ages of 14 and 17, deputies said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Northern Echo

by Graeme Hetherington

A FORMER teacher, who systematically abused children in his classroom at a Catholic primary school, has been jailed for five years for his ‘reprehensible’ crimes.

Ronald Wotton carried out a prolonged series of abuse on a number of pupils at the east Durham school between 1968 and 1980 – his reign of intimidation and sexual abuse coming to an end following a series of complaints.

A court heard how pupils would feign illness and some had resorted to drinking washing up liquid to make themselves sick, rather than attend school and face the possibility of being sexually abused in front of their classmates.

The 73-year-old of Park Lane, Murton, Seaham, County Durham, pleaded guilty to 21 charges, including 17 of indecent assault, three of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child.

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CHICAGO (IL)
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho

November 5, 2014

The Archdiocese of Chicago is poised to release the files of thirty-six priests accused of sexual abuse over the past fifty years. In January, the archdiocese released six thousand pages of documents related to another thirty accused clerics, as part of a settlement with plaintiffs who alleged abuse. The archdiocese chose to release the new batch of files, which will total about fifteen thousand pages, on its own. Sources with knowledge of the January settlement say the documents could be released as early as tomorrow, less than a week before Blase Cupich will be installed as the ninth archbishop of Chicago.

The archdiocese is “voluntarily” releasing these documents, according to a letter signed by auxiliary Bishop Francis Kane, which accompanied a memo sent to Catholic school administrators. This release, in combination with the January’s documents, “covers all the priests who have substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors”–except for two “where ongoing processes do not permit release,” Kane wrote.

One of those men is Daniel McCormack, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to molesting five children. In June he was charged again with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in a 2005 incident involving a minor. Last month two more men who say McCormack abused them filed a joint lawsuit against the archdiocese and Cardinal Francis George–seeking $400,000 in damages. In 2006, it came to light that George allowed McCormack to return to ministry after he was arrested and released without charges, even though his sexual-abuse review board recommended that the priest be removed from ministry. The case brought scandal to a diocese that for decades had been seen as having a model policy for dealing with clerics accused of abuse. Audits commissioned by the archdiocese following the McCormack scandal showed that was not necessarily the case.

“We followed a thourough document review process to determine which documents could be released,” according to the diocesan memo. That process was designed to “protect victim privacy,” abide by laws restricting the release of mental-health and medical information, and maintain the privacy of third parties mentioned in the documentation. “Nothing was redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers,” the memo explains.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 5, 2014

Pope Francis has codified his ability to effectively fire Catholic bishops, saying that in some circumstances, he “can consider it necessary” to ask them to resign their offices.

The move, which the Vatican announced Wednesday, seems to be an attempt by Francis to clear up any ambiguity about the pontiff’s power to replace prelates around the world. While Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, have effectively removed bishops in the past, their power to do so was not previously so explicit in the church’s laws.

Wednesday’s change comes in a short edict approved Monday by Francis at the request of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state. Composed of seven short articles, the edict addresses the resignation of diocesan bishops and papal appointees.

Concerning resignations at the pope’s request, the edict states: “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 dialogue.”

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CANADA
The Daily Courier

KINGSTON, Ont. – Police in Kingston, Ont., say a retired priest is facing fresh charges related to alleged sexual assaults stretching back to the 1980s.

They say Robin Gwyn, 66, was arrested in his home province of Nova Scotia on Sept. 18 and transported to Kingston four days later.

He was originally charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to a case involving one victim.

But, police say after Gwyn was granted bail, detectives had a second alleged victim come forward providing police with reasonable grounds to believe further historic offences had occurred.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

11/05/14
Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

Sol Wachtler wasn’t a big fan of The Jewish Week’s coverage of the bribery and extortion prosecution of chasidic child abuse whistleblower Sam Kellner.

Or at least that’s how the former chief judge of New York’s highest court made it sound to his close friend, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes, back in January of 2013, a week after the paper published the first story in what would become a multi-part series on the case.

“[I] forgot to mention the Jewish Week piece,” Wachtler wrote in an e-mail to Hynes, one of many obtained recently by The Jewish Week through a Freedom of Information Law request; in the email, Wachtler addresses Hynes as “Yos,” a Yiddish-y version of Joe.

“I read it twice, and I swear I cannot follow what the hell she’s talking about. …The only people who will have the patience to read and attempt to follow the story are the Hasids, and all but a handful will disagree with her conclusions (whatever they are). I would make three recommendations: 1) They send the story to Guantanamo and have it be read in lieu of water boarding, 2) Bennett Gershman [an ethics expert quoted in the story] be encouraged to retire, and 3) The Jewish Week Investigative Journalism Fund [which supported the reporting of the story] should get its money back.”

The story was indeed byzantine, with a plot even a sharp legal mind like Wachtler’s could not be expected to wrap itself around easily.

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ARGENTINA
AICA

[The diocese of San Isidro said Pope Francis has sanctioned priest Jose Francisco Mercau with dismissal from the clerical state. He was convicted of sexual abuse. The information was made public through a press release distributed to the diocese spokesman.]

San Isidro (Buenos Aires) (AICA): El obispado de San Isidro informó que el papa Francisco sancionó al Pbro. José Mercau con la dimisión del estado clerical, y por lo tanto la pérdida automática de los derechos propios del estado clerical, quedando privado de todo el ejercicio del ministerio sacerdotal.

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LOUISIANA/MASSACHUSETTS
The Times-Picayune

By Andrea Shaw, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on November 05, 2014

A former Roman Catholic priest who taught at a Marrero school in the 1970s has settled a lawsuit alleging that he later sexually abused a 14-year-old student student in Boston, the former student’s attorney said Wednesday. Sean Leo Rooney served on the faculty at Archbishop Shaw High School from 1975 until 1979.

The lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, said the former student disclosed Rooney’s abuse in August 2012. The acts occurred in Boston and New York. Rooney was a teacher at Goshen Junior Seminary in New York from 1979 through 1981, where he befriended the boy and encouraged the youth’s interest in photography, Garabedian said.

The student, now 48, said Rooney fondled and masturbated him while traveling on a bus for a school trip in Massachusetts. Rooney also was accused of removing the boy’s clothes, touching his buttocks and genitals and masturbating on the victim while at the seminary in New York, according to the lawsuit.

Garabedian said the case was settled for “six figures.” The student also suffered abuse by two other priests, the attorney said.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests announced the settlement Wednesday and asked the Archdiocese of New Orleans to issue a public call for information about anyone who may have been harmed by Rooney. The settlement also was published on the BishopAccountability.org website.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[with photos]

New files released as part of the Doe 1 settlement and child protection action plan

The files of 24 priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis were publicly released November 5, 2014. This disclosure of files was agreed upon as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 civil lawsuit and is an early step in the child protection action plan announced October 13, 2014.

At least six of the priests* whose files were released worked in the Diocese of New Ulm. To date, the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to release their list and documents pertaining to clerics credibly accused of child sexual abuse. In a hearing today at 3:00PM in Ramsey County, the Diocese of New Ulm and Diocese of Duluth will seek a protective order in a sexual abuse case involving Fr. Vincent Fitzgerald. The list of files released today includes the following priests:

“This release brings more sunshine and disinfectant to a long standing problem,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “Today’s disclosure was possible because of the courage of Doe 1 and all the survivors who came before him. Because this information has been made public, our children and communities are now safer.”

PRIEST FILES

• John Brown
• Edward Beutner
• Robert Clark *
• Thomas Ericksen
• Ambrose Filbin *
• Kenneth Gansmann
• Ralph Goniea
• Rudolph Henrich *
• Reginald Krakovsky *
• Harry Majerus *
• William Marks *
• James Nickel
• Paul Palmitessa
• Joseph Pinkosh
• Charles Potocki
• Robert Ruglovsky
• James Stark
• Michael Stevens
• Robert Thurner
• Roger Vaughn
• Clarence Vavra
• Raymond Walter
• Adalbert Wolski
• Francis Zachman

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The names and files of 24 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were released Wednesday, as part of the recent settlement of a lawsuit.

At least six of the priests whose files were released also worked at one time in the Diocese of New Ulm. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents a number of victims of clergy sex abuse, says the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to release their list and documents pertaining to clerics credibly accused of child sexual abuse.

“This release brings more sunshine and disinfectant to a long standing problem,” said Anderson in a written release. “Today’s disclosure was possible because of the courage of Doe 1 and all the survivors who came before him. Because this information has been made public, our children and communities are now safer.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Pupils drank washing up liquid to make themselves sick to avoid teacher who sexually abused them in front of the whole class

Primary school pupils made themselves sick with washing up liquid to try to avoid lessons with a teacher who sexually abused them in front of the whole class, a court has heard.

When one child complained about Ronald Wotton, the headmaster at the Roman Catholic school did not believe that the allegation and made the pupil apologise to the abuser.

Judge Howard Crowson, sitting at Teesside Magistrates Court, jailed the terminally-ill 73-year-old for five years.

Wotton who sometimes uses a wheelchair admitted 17 counts of indecent assault, three counts of indecency with a male and one of indecency with a child over a 12-year period from the late 1960s.
He was allowed to retire in 1980 when a new headmaster, who could not ignore the mounting allegations against the teacher, took over.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications
From Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Auxiliary Bishop

Documents from the priest files of 24 men given to the court by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis earlier this year were released today by Jeff Anderson and Associates. This release is in the interest of public disclosure and transparency.

Most of these 24 men were assigned as priests in this archdiocese in the past; all are the subject of substantiated claims of the sexual abuse of a minor either here or in another diocese. A claim is substantiated when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported abuse occurred. All of these men have previously had their names disclosed for substantiated claims of abuse by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and all have been permanently removed from ministry in this archdiocese. All but two have not been in ministry here for at least a decade. Fifteen are deceased.

Documents from these men’s files were released today:

Edward Beutner
John Brown
Robert Clark
Thomas Ericksen
Ambrose Filbin
Kenneth Gansmann
Ralph Goniea
Rudolph Henrich
Reginald Krakovsky
Harry Majerus
William Marks
James Nickel
Paul Palmitessa
Joseph Pinkosh
Charles Potocki
Robert Ruglovsky
James P. Stark
Michael Stevens
Robert Thurner
Roger Vaughn
Clarence Vavra
Raymond Walter
Adalbert Wolski
Francis Zachman

For general information about these men, including assignment history, visit SafeCatholicSPM.org.
If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, please call law enforcement.

Archbishop John Nienstedt, I and all other archdiocesan leaders are committed to doing everything we can to prevent abuse of the young and the vulnerable and to help abuse victims/survivors and their loved ones heal. I apologize for the grave harm caused by clergy sexual abuse to victims/survivors, their families and their communities.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Jennie Olson

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has released the names of another 24 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The priests include: John Brown, Ralph Goniea, Paul Palmitessa, Robert Thurner, Edward Beutner, Rudolph Henrich, Joseph Pinkosh, Roger Vaughn, Robert Clark, Reginald Krakovsky, Charles Potocki, Clarence Vavra, Thomas Erickson, Harry Majerus, Robert Ruglovsky, Raymond Walter, Ambrose Filbin, William Marks, James Stark, Adalbert Wolski, Kenneth Gansmann, James Nickel, Michael Stevens and Francis Zachman.

At least six of the priests worked in the Diocese of New Ulm: Clark, Filbin, Henrich, Krakovsky, Majerus and Marks.

The disclosure is part of the archdiocese’s historic settlement and subsequent action plan, which was announced Oct. 13. The case accused Catholic church leaders in Minnesota of creating a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about an abusive priest.

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NEW YORK
The Post-Standard

By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com
on November 05, 2014

Syracuse, NY — A retired priest living in Syracuse will spend 10 years on probation for viewing child pornography on a nun’s office computer at a home for retired priests, a prosecutor said today.

Robert Ours, 65, apologized in court today for what he described as an addiction to porn that ruined his ministry after retiring from leading churches in the Southern Tier.

Prosecutor Jeremy Cali wanted Ours to spend 1 to 3 years in prison. But County Court Judge Joseph Fahey agreed to sentence Ours to probation instead. The priest was also forced to register as a Level 1 sex offender, meaning he is the lowest risk of re-offending.

That was possible because Ours pleaded guilty to all six counts in the indictment, allowing him to negotiate a plea deal directly with the judge.

Cali called all child porn awful, but said there was a range based on the age of the victim, the violence used in the abuse and other factors. The images Ours possessed were not at the worst end of the spectrum, Cali said.

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CANADA
Cornwall Free News

After a lengthy investigation commencing in early 2014 detectives from the Kingston Police Sexual Crimes Unit have charged a former Kingston priest with a number of historic sexual offences dating back to the 1980’s and up to a period in the early 2000’s.

Based on the strength of a Kingston Police arrest warrant 66-year-old Robin Quintin GWYN was originally arrested in his home province of Nova Scotia on September 18th, 2014 and transported to the jurisdiction of Kingston on September 22nd, where he was charged with the offences of Sexual Assault, Sexual Interference and Invitation to Sexual Touching.

After GWYN was granted bail detectives had a second victim come forward providing police with reasonable grounds to believe further historic offences had occurred. On November 5th GWYN returned to Kingston where nine counts of Sexual Assault were additionally laid. His bail was further extended by the court and he was placed on numerous conditions, including those intended to protect children and the public from harm, and to reside at a court-approved address out of province.

Detectives believe GWYN was ordained as a priest in 1988 and began serving in the Kingston community at that time. He additionally had chaplaincy duties with the Frontenac-Lennox and Addington County Roman Catholic Separate School Board and had some related work in Brockville.

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

SYRACUSE — A priest in the Syracuse Diocese who pleaded guilty to six counts of possessing child pornography will spend the next decade on probation.

Father Robert Ours avoided jail time in a plea deal in exchange for a guilty plea.

The 65-year-old will also register as a sex offender, according to the District Attorney’s office.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

News Release

November 5, 2014

New files released as part of the Doe 1 settlement and child protection action plan

(St. Paul, MN) – The files of 24 priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis were publicly released today. This disclosure of files was agreed upon as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 civil lawsuit and is an early step in the child protection action plan announced October 13, 2014.

At least six of the priests* whose files were released worked in the Diocese of New Ulm. To date, the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to release their list and documents pertaining to clerics credibly accused of child sexual abuse. In a hearing today at 3:00PM in Ramsey County, the Diocese of New Ulm and Diocese of Duluth will seek a protective order in a sexual abuse case involving Fr. Vincent Fitzgerald.

The list of files released today includes the following priests:

John Brown Ralph Goniea Paul Palmitessa Robert Thurner

Edward Beutner *Rudolph Henrich Joseph Pinkosh Roger Vaughn

*Robert Clark *Reginald Krakovsky Charles Potocki Clarence Vavra

Thomas Erickson *Harry Majerus Robert Ruglovsky Raymond Walter

*Ambrose Filbin *William Marks James Stark Adalbert Wolski

Kenneth Gansmann James Nickel Michael Stevens Francis Zachman

“This release brings more sunshine and disinfectant to a long standing problem,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “Today’s disclosure was possible because of the courage of Doe 1 and all the survivors who came before him. Because this information has been made public, our children and communities are now safer.”

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope pointed out that some processes are too “long and weighty” for ordinary people and warned against the Church annulment process being treated like a business. He also told the story of someone he knew who sold court sentences

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

In a meeting held with participants of a course offered by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota before the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Francis spoke out against business-like court processes and public scandals. He also told a story about an exchange he had with someone who sold court sentences, when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Francis repeated a proposal presented during the course of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family held this October: that is to make annulment processes free of charge. Francis advised “streamlining procedures in the interest of Justice” because some processes are “so long and so weighty” that they discourage ordinary people.

The Pope reminded course participants that he created a commission to look into simplifying marriage annulments and appointed the Dean of the Roman Rota, Pio Vinto Pinto – present at today’s Audience – as its head.

“I have not prepared a speech, I just wanted to greet you,” Francis said in an off-the-cuff address to the 300 participants attending a course on “Instructing a Case for the Dispensation of a Marriage ‘Super rato et non consumato’”. “In the Extraordinary Synod [on the Family], There was talk about procedures, processes, and there was a preoccupation for streamlining the procedures, in the interest of Justice,” the Pope said. “Justice: For decisions must be just, and because there must be justice for the people who are waiting.” Some processes are “so long and so weighty” that people become “discouraged” and leave.” “For this reason, even before the Synod, I set up a commission to help prepare various paths in this area, a path of justice, and one of charity, because there are so many people who need a word from the Church about their marriage situation – be it a yes or a no – as long as it is just.” “But it must rule and tell them, so that it is possible to go forward without this doubt, this darkness in the soul.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Queensland priest once accused of child sexual assault has attempted to gain access to the recorded police interview with the alleged victim so he could sue her for defamation.

The man, who was never charged after an investigation 15 years ago, used freedom-of-information laws to apply for access to two cassette tape recordings and a 99-page police report, Fairfax News reports.

His request was denied late last year on the grounds that disclosure was against the public interest.

Last month the Office of the Information Commissioner upheld his appeal against that decision.

The former priest told the OIC he was pursuing defamation action against the complainant as well as appealing a decision made by the Catholic Church to remove him from active ministry and placed in early retirement.

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CONNECTICUT
Fairfield Mirror

JESSICA DELAHUNT

The Bishop of Bridgeport, the most Reverend Frank J. Caggiano, shared his dreams for the future of his diocese in a lecture at the Regina A. Quick Center on Tuesday evening.

In the lecture titled “On Calling a Diocesan Synod: Hopes and Dreams,” Caggiano invited attendees to participate in a tradition that has dated back to the earliest years of the Catholic Church: the Synod.

Described by Caggiano as “a sacred journey of God’s people to discern his will,” Tuesday’s lecture was part of a four-year process that involves him and all pastors, clerical religious administrators and clergy within the diocese assembling to deal with matters facing the modern-day Church. …

The next question posed to Caggiano regarded the clergy’s infamous sex abuse scandals. After sharing that her son-in-law had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a clergy member when he was young, a female audience member asked Caggiano his opinions on the matter.

“Terrible mistakes were made,” said Caggiano regarding the way in which Church leaders handled the issue, adding “I cannot speak to the intentions of those individuals.

“It’s a wound in the life of the Church,” he concluded.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Nov. 5

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

Though he has demoted no bishop for hiding abuse, Pope Francis said today that he sacked a Catholic official for selling marriage annulments.

[Gazzetta del Sud]

Some lay Catholics will be encouraged by this news. To us, it’s discouraging. It suggests that Frances cares more about financial reform that children’s safety.

Hundreds of bishops are hiding predators and endangering kids. One – Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City – has been criminally convicted of recently protecting Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a notorious serial predator priest who has also been criminally convicted. Yet Finn remains in office and Francis stays silent.

And hundreds of other bishops have done and are doing what Finn has done. But they haven’t been caught yet. And again, Francis stays silent.

Is an alleged $10,000 theft of greater concern to the Pope than the physical and emotional safety and well-being of thousands of children?

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Kelly Catholic News Service | Nov. 4, 2014

DUBLIN Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin decried comments from clerics and others who said Pope Francis caused confusion in his calls for an open discussion on how the church should reach out to those who are marginalized, hurt and wounded in their lives during the recent Synod of Bishops on the family.

Martin said he was “quite surprised at the remarks of some commentators within church circles about the recent Synod of Bishops, often making accusations of confusion where such confusion did not exist and so actually fomenting confusion.”

He did not identify specific comments Tuesday during a Mass marking the refurbishment of a church at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, has been among those who described some discussions during the synod as causing confusion. The cardinal also warned that it “could even induce the faithful into error with regard to the teaching about marriage and other teachings.”

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, November 5 – Pope Francis revealed Wednesday that he had dismissed a Church official for selling marriage annulments. “I had to dismiss a person from the tribunal who some time ago said: ‘$10,000 and I’ll do both the civil and ecclesiastical procedure,” Francis told a group of people taking part in a course at the Roman Rota tribunal. The Rota is the highest appeals tribunal of the Catholic Church. He described the event as a “public scandal” and did not give further details about where or when the sacking occurred during his off-the-cuff comments in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican. But he said the process of annulling a marriage should be streamlined. That was a significant topic during last month’s extraordinary synod of bishops from around the world discussing issues confronting modern families, the pope noted.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The world’s bishops are called to be servants and shepherds who use their position to care for people and the faith, not to seek power and boost their pride, Pope Francis said.

The church has no place for men with a “worldly mentality” who are seeking a career, he said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 5.

“It’s sad when you see a man who seeks this office and who does so much to get there and when he makes it, he doesn’t serve, but struts like a peacock, living only for his own vanity,” the pope said.

The pope continued a series of talks on the nature of the church, focusing on the Holy Spirit’s gift of the ordained ministries, especially the role of the bishop.

The catechesis began with a reading from St. Paul’s Letter to Titus (1:5-9) in which the apostle lists the virtues the bishop must hold and the vices he must avoid, such as arrogance, irritability and greed.

“We all heard that, right?” the pope said, looking around him with a smile at the bishops who were attending the audience.

“It’s not easy” to live up to St. Paul’s advice “because we are sinners, but we trust in your prayers so at least we can move closer” to these ideals, he told the other pilgrims and visitors.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

05 November 2014 by Christopher Lamb

A document authorised by Pope Francis has decreed that non-Cardinal heads of Vatican departments and officials automatically lose office when they reach 75.

A “rescriptum” on the resignation of bishops and those appointed to positions by the Pope came into effect on Wednesday and takes on board recommendations of the Council of Cardinals, the group advising Francis on the reform of the Roman Curia also known as the “C9”.

It states that cardinals who lead a curial department and diocesan bishops must offer their resignation on turning 75, although the document praises bishops who do so earlier due to ill health or another reason.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 5 November 2014 (VIS) – The Rescriptum modifying the presentation and acceptance of resignation from pastoral ministry by diocesan bishops and offices of the Roman Curia by pontifical appointment came into effect today.

The text is as follows:

Art. 1: The current discipline in the Latin Church and in the “sui iuris” Oriental Churches, by which diocesan and eparchal Bishops, and those held to be of equivalent office in accordance with canons 381 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law and 313 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, as well as coadjutor and auxiliary Bishops, are invited to present the resignation from their pastoral office upon reaching the age of seventy-five years, is confirmed.

Art. 2: Resignation from the aforementioned pastoral offices is effective only from the moment in which it is accepted by the legitimate Authorities.

Art .3: With the acceptance of the resignation from the aforementioned offices, the interested parties cease to hold any other office at national level conferred for a period determined in concomitance with the aforementioned pastoral office.

Art. 4: The gesture of a Bishop who, by motives of love or the wish to offer a better service to the community, considers it necessary to resign from the role of Pastor before reaching the age of seventy-five on account of illness or other serious reasons, is to be deemed worthy of ecclesial appreciation. In such cases, the faithful are requested to demonstrate solidarity and understanding for their former Pastor, providing punctual assistance consistent with the principles of charity and justice, in accordance with canon 402 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Nov. 5

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

A Catholic priest who spent the last two decades of his life working in Alabama has been exposed – for the first time – as a credibly accused child molester. We call on Alabama Catholic officials to warn parents, parishioners and the public about him and to beg anyone with information or suspicions about him to call law enforcement immediately.

[WWLP]

From 1983 to 2003, Fr. Sean Leo Rooney worked at St. John Bosco parish in Birmingham and Holy Rosary parish in Birmingham (Gate City). In 2013, Fr. Rooney was accused in a lawsuit of having sexually abused a 14-year-old junior seminary student at least twice.

Last week, a Boston attorney disclosed that he settled a child sex abuse and cover up case against Fr. Rooney and his church supervisors. That attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, has posted Fr. Rooney’s name on his website as one of dozens of accused priests against whom Garabedian has won settlements.

[Garabedian Law]

We applaud Fr. Rooney’s victim for having the strength to come forward, file suit, endure delays and win some measure of justice and expose Catholic officials who have committed and concealed child sex crimes.

And we denounce Catholic officials in every state where he worked who apparently have kept silent about the accusations against Fr. Rooney for months or years.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 6, 2014

Amy Remeikis
Queensland state political reporter

A Queensland priest at the centre of a sexual assault investigation attempted to gain access to the police investigation against him, including the recorded interview with the alleged child victim, so he could appeal a decision made against him by the Catholic Church and sue the complainant.

The man, who had no charges laid against him as a result of the investigation 15 years ago, applied for access to 99 pages and two cassette tape recordings relating to the police investigation under the Right to Information Act.

He said he was entitled to the information because they contained his personal information and because “there is a strong public interest in QPS being accountable for the way it conducts its investigations”.

His request was denied late last year on the grounds it was contrary to public interest.

The man appealed his decision to the Office of the Information Commissioner [OIC] which reviewed the decision last month.

“The applicant states that he is seeking information to include in an application for review of findings made against him in the [Catholic Church’s] Towards Healing process and also considers that the information will assist him in commencing a defamation action against the complainant,” The Assistant Information Commissioner reported.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

11/05/14
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer

Last Thursday night, a meeting at Drisha Institute, a local program of advanced Jewish textual study for women, attracted an eclectic crowd of 45 community members, clergymen and women rabbinical students. The topic du jour was boundaries on rabbinic authority, and the mood was upbeat.

“There’s been an implosion in our community thanks to one bad egg,” said one attendee, referring to Rabbi Barry Freundel, the Orthodox rabbi from Washington, D.C., who allegedly planted video cameras in the local mikvah to watch women bathe in the nude. He asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The scandal has prompted a whirlwind of responses and already led to what some are calling unprecedented changes. The most significant one is a decision by the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the largest council of Orthodox rabbis worldwide, which has established a committee to review its conversion process. It consists of six men and five women whose professions include an attorney, educator, psychotherapist and a Yoetzet Halacha, who advises women on family purity laws.

The change represents the largest appointment of women to an RCA committee in the group’s 80-year history, according to Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, a former RCA president and rabbi in Englewood, N.J., who will chair the committee. The group will review the Beit Din of America’s Geirus Protocol and Standards (GPS), which Rabbi Freundel played a key role in creating, and will suggest safeguards against possible future abuses.

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BELGIE
Katholieke Actie Vlaanderen

Vangheluwe nam op 23 april ontslag als bisschop van Brugge, toen uitlekte dat hij dertien jaar lang zijn neef had misbruikt. Hij kreeg dezelfde dag nog onderdak bij de paters-trappisten in Westvleteren. Toen Jozef De Kesel in juni benoemd werd tot nieuwe bisschop van Brugge, werd Vangheluwe gevraagd zijn persoonlijke spullen op te halen. Dat waren enkele boeken en een paar meubeltjes. Vangheluwe deed wat hem gevraagd werd, maar tot ieders verbijstering deed hij dat geflankeerd door de wegens zedenfeiten geschorste priester Tom Flamez. Vangheluwe en zijn vriend laadden de spullen op en vertrokken, zonder veel te zeggen tegen hun ex-collega’s.

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POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

Pisaliśmy już o sytuacjach, w których polscy księża, dopuszczający się nadużyć seksualnych na dzieciach dostają niskie wyroki lub wyroki w zawieszeniu – dzięki czemu cieszą się wolnością.

Podobna sytuacja miała miejsce w tym tygodniu – ksiądz katecheta z jednej z parafii spod Tarnowa za dopuszczenie się innej czynności seksualnej został skazany na zaledwie dwa lata w zawieszeniu na pięć. Teoretycznie nie pójdzie więc do więzienia.

/ We have already written about situations in which Polish priests who abuse children get light or suspended sentences – therefore they enjoy their freedom.

This week a similar situation has occurred – a priest and also a catechist from the parish near Tarnow got a two-year sentence up to five years on probation for sexual abuse.

Oprawca przyznał się do winy i wykazał skruchę.

Warto zauważyć, że w tym wypadku 31-letni ksiądz Mateusz G. musi poddać się przymusowemu leczeniu. Ma też dożywotni zakaz zbliżania się do dziewczynki i zakaz kontaktowania się z nią, a także dożywotni zakaz pracy z dziećmi w charakterze nauczyciela i pedagoga. Jeśli nie dopełni któregoś z tych warunków, trafi za kratki.

Ksiądz został zawieszony w obowiązkach duszpasterskich, a przeciwko niemu ruszyły postępowania kanoniczne.

Chcieliśmy prosić o gorące brawa dla poszkodowanej dziewczynki, która zgłosiła sprawę – jesteś dzielna!
———————

Consequently, in theory he will not go to jail. The abuser pleaded guilty and showed remorse.

Also, it is important to note that in the above-mentioned case, a 31-year-old priest Mateusz G., must undergo compulsory treatment. Besides, the priest got a lifelong restraining order not to approach

the girl as well as contact her. Additionally, he cannot work with children as a teacher or a pedagogue

for a lifetime. If he does not meet these conditions, he will be put behind bars.

The abuser was suspended from his priestly duties and canonical proceedings against him have already been initiated.

Let’s have a warm round of applause for the abused girl who reported the case – you are brave!

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MEXIKO
Finanzen

[Reporters Without Borders stands with Mexican reporter Sanjuana Martinez as Journalist of the Year 2014. She was endured harassment and death threats as she reported stories of sexual abuse of women and children, the illegal drug trade in Mexico, and clergy abuse.]

Reporter ohne Grenzen (ROG) zeichnet die mexikanische Reporterin Sanjuana Martinez als Journalistin des Jahres 2014 aus “Trotz Drangsalierungen und Todesdrohungen lässt sich Martinez nicht davon abbringen, Themen wie den sexuellen Missbrauch von Frauen und Kindern oder Details über den illegalen Drogenhandel in Mexiko ans Licht zu bringen”, sagt ROG-Geschäftsführer Christian Mihr in Berlin. “Sie ist beispielhaft für all jene Journalisten, die sich trotz massiver Repressionen nicht einschüchtern lassen.” Als Medium des Jahres würdigt ROG die Tageszeitung Frontpage Africa aus Liberia. Der 32-Jährige Informationsaktivist Raef Badawi aus Saudi-Arabien wird als Netizen des Jahres ausgezeichnet.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

by Aaron Taylor
11 . 5 . 14

ope Francis recently gave a speech to the International Association of Penal Law advocating for the improvement of prison conditions and reiterating pleas made by his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI for an end to the death penalty.

Francis, however, went further than either of his predecessors by extending Catholic critiques of capital punishment to life sentences, which he condemned as the “death penalty in disguise.” His comments have reopened debates in Italy about life sentences (nearby countries such as Spain and Portugal have abolished them) and prompted Catholic bishops in the Philippines to denounce life sentencing as “inhuman.”

Those of us who lean conservatively where criminal justice is concerned would do well to take to heart the Pope’s critique of the “vengeful trend which permeates society” and reflect on how our attitudes toward convicts line up with the teaching of Scripture. “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them,” the author of the Letter to the Hebrews exhorts us (Heb 13:3). …

In his Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI highlighted—among the causes of the sexual abuse crisis in the Irish Church—a loss of respect for the role that punishment plays in safeguarding the common good:

In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings.

Time and again, extremely serious sex crimes committed by clergy went unpunished. The prevailing attitude in the 1970s was that as long as clergy went through therapy programs that were believed to counteract the physical threat they might pose to the safety of children, expiatory punishment such as turning them over to civil authorities, removing them from the clerical state, or banishing them to monasteries, served no useful purpose.

One of the reasons that isolated cases of sex abuse eventually turned into full-blown national crises was that although ecclesiastical authorities did have some (largely inadequate) regard to the need to defend children from abuse, they had no regard for the need to punish those who perpetrated the abuse. For the 1970s generation, the entire concept of “punishment”—whether relating to the theology of the atonement, the concept of the Eucharist as a propitiatory Sacrifice, or to holding clergy accountable for violations of moral and canon law—was something to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Catholics should think very carefully before we ask the civil community to apply to itself a philosophy of punishment that has borne such bitter fruit within the Church.

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NEW YORK
Real Estate Weekly

[Via New York archdiocese:
Parish List 1 – Masses and Sacraments celebrated at both churches
Parish List 2 – Masses and Sacraments to be celebrated at the designated parish church; the other church may be used on special occasions.]

By Dan Orlando

The announcement that 112 parishes within the realm of the Archdiocese of New York will merge means that over 30 physical churches in the area will soon stand vacant.

On Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced that 112 parishes will condense to form 55 by August 1, 2015.

As the move is in large-part a cost-saving measure, it is expected that the empty properties will be sold.

“Most of the time, property that is occupied by a church has a tremendous amount of unused FAR associated with it,” said Bob Knakal, noting that Floor Area Ratio means the potential to develop more dense properties in their place.

“Usually, they’re good development sites, provided the church is not landmarked.”

The unique architecture and multitude of available space can potentially earn a hefty asking price for a church that hits the market. But will the flood of available property dilute the structures’ worth?
Knakal does not foresee the supply outweighing the demand.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

BY ANGUS LIVINGSTON AAP NOVEMBER 05, 2014

THE Catholic Church should pay for legal advice to pedophile priest victims seeking compensation, a victim’s father says.

A REVIEW of the Melbourne Response compensation scheme is under way after victims said it re-traumatised them and their capped payouts were too low.

The scheme was set up in 1996 to handle allegations of clergy sex abuse in the Melbourne archdiocese, but was criticised for protecting the interests of the church.

Anthony Foster, whose two daughters were raped by notorious abuser Father Kevin O’Donnell, said independent legal advice should have been available to all those who sought compensation.

“I think that given the scheme is run and managed by the very highly skilled, high-powered legal team on behalf of the archdiocese, victims should have access to legal advice right through that process,” Mr Foster told AAP on Wednesday.

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CALIFORNIA
Jewish Journal

by Ryan Torok

The scandal surrounding the Washington D.C. rabbi who was arrested and charged for allegedly secretly filming women while they were using a mikveh dressing room has prompted assurances from the Mikvah Society of Los Angeles that its own mikveh “continues to be a safe and secure environment.”

The statement appeared in an Oct. 28 letter that local modern Orthodox synagogues are distributing on behalf of the mikveh society.

“The dedicated individuals who are involved in our Mikvah are motivated to ensure a sanctified place for performing the Mitzvah of Taharat ha-Mishpacha (family purity) and facilitating conversions,” the letter reads. “As a community Mikvah, we are not affiliated with any particular shul or rabbi, and are guided by the Rabbinic Board of the Mikvah for halachic standard setting and consultation.” The letter is signed by Vivian Lurie, Mikvah Society of Los Angeles president.

Rabbi Barry Freundel of the Washington D.C.-based congregation Kesher Israel was arrested on Oct. 14 and has been charged with six counts of voyeurism.

The Rabbinic Council of America (RCA) also directly addressed Freundel’s actions, including by naming Rabbi Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Congregation to a commission to review the practices of conversions in the Orthodox community. The commission includes women who have converted, as well as rabbis and others.

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MINNESOTA
Daily Mail (UK)

College student speaks out for the first time about being sexually abused by female gym teacher at Catholic high school

By LOUISE BOYLE FOR MAILONLINE

A former high school football captain has revealed for the first time how being abused by a female teacher shattered his dreams of playing at college level and changed his future.

Cameron Clarkson, 22, attended Catholic Cretin-Derham Hall in St Paul, Minnesota for four years where he eventually led the state-title winning Raiders football team.

However Mr Clarkson’s dreams of going on to play at college came crashing down when he was targeted at the age of 16 by substitute teacher and weight room supervisor Gail Gagne.

Mr Clarkson is now suing the school for not doing more to protect him from the 25-year-old teacher. Gagne is also facing a lawsuit.

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NEW YORK
Crain’s New York Business

Real estate investors are likely to cast a longing eye on 19 churches that the Catholic Archdiocese plans to shutter, only a handful of which are encumbered with landmarking restrictions.

BY JOE ANUTA
NOVEMBER 4, 2014

The Archdiocese of New York’s plan to consolidate 37 parishes in the city could prove a boon for real estate developers—especially since most of the properties set to be vacated are not landmarked.

As part of a large-scale restructuring that first came to light late last month, the archdiocese will cease services at 19 churches in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island and will integrate those parishes with 18 others in the city.

Those individual parishes will decide what to do with the unused buildings in the short term, according to the archdiocese, but both the archdiocese and the parishes will likely decide to sell at least some of the parcels eventually.

As of now, there would be little impediment to their development. Only two of the churches set for closure are landmarked, with one more calendared for consideration. That means it is protected until the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission makes a decision.

In some cases, the church has campaigned against the landmarking of archdiocese property. Take the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District for example. A number of representatives from Catholic churches and organizations opposed the inclusion of the Church of the Nativity at 44 Second Ave. in the historic district. In the end the commission voted to do just that, neatly carving the property out of the district.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Facebook page calls for removal of Gieh ir-Repubblika honour awarded to Fr Charles Fenech

A Facebook page has been launched calling upon the authorities to remove the honour of Gieh ir-Repubblika awarded to Fr Charles Fenech.

Fr Fenech, who was awarded in honour in 2001, is being charged with sexually abusing a number of women. After he missed the first three court sittings, citing illness, the case is due to continue on 17 December.

The Facebook page also speaks about a petition that has been launched for the government to remove the honour the priest was given.

The Gieh ir-Repubblika was given to Fr Fenech at the time he was provincial of the Dominican Friars as well as the founder and director of the Kerygma movement. The citation read that “for 16 years (Fr Fenech) organised the National Campaign Solidarity through sport, in which hundreds of youths and helpers participate in the annual volleyball marathon. This has become an important occasion in the Maltese calendar and raises substantial funds for deserving institutions in Malta.

“His dedication to helping those in need does not impinge on his pastoral work, especially among youths, where through Kerygma’s activities he preaches by example”.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com November 5, 2014

RAMAPO – Cracking a sexual or physical abuse case within an insular religious community is filled with pitfalls, with law enforcement often dealing with victims and witnesses who fear retaliation from community leaders.

Rockland law enforcement and prosecutors say they have encountered such cases here. On Thursday, they will hear from investigators who worked a case under similar circumstances in Arizona.

Rockland STOP F.E.A.R. Coalition’s 17th annual criminal justice conference at Rockland Community College on Thursday will hear from Chandler, Arizona, detective Sgt. Chris Perez and Pinal County prosecutor Matthew Long about the investigation and prosecution of Susan Brock.

Brock, the former wife of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock and a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, sexually molested a teenage boy for more than three years, starting in 2006 when the boy was 11. She ultimately was sentenced to 13 years in prison in April 2011. Her daughter, then 17, also was implicated.

Advocates hope the seminar will become a general teaching model for prosecutors and police.

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UNITED STATES
Aleteia

PHILIP JENKINS

Thirty years ago, churches began to recognize the scale and gravity of child abuse by clergy. Now, though, we are on the verge of some critically important findings about what does, and does not, cause that heinous crime. In particular, new investigations teach us a great deal about the impact of mandatory clerical celibacy.

As I have written before, the abuse crisis is most notorious in the context of the Roman Catholic church. In the United States between 1950 and 2002, some 4.2 percent of Catholic clergy were plausibly accused of abusive actions, whether or not these charges might have stood up in court. Making comparative statements all but impossible, that quantitative statement is not possible for literally any other denomination or profession. Yes, we hear charges against individual Baptists or Lutherans or Jews, but such evidence is anecdotal. Hence, activists and campaigners of various shades feel free to assign the causes of clergy abuse as they wish, chiefly identifying features attributed to the Catholic priesthood — factors such as mandatory celibacy, the de facto toleration of clerical homosexuality, the exclusion of women priests, and so on. (Obvious comment: I am citing these explanations, not endorsing them).

Now matters are changing, in that we are finally about to have concrete data about abuse in another church, allowing serious and effective comparison. In best social scientific style, variables can be tested and excluded.

For years now, clergy of the Church of England have faced repeated scandals for offenses very much like those of the celebrated Catholic cases — abusive priests allowed to continue unchecked in their crimes, senior administrators turning a blind eye, victims’ protests unheard. These horror stories have become so grave as to provoke a sweeping and systematic investigation of abuse by Anglican clergy over the past 60 years, and the initial revelations are ghastly.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Raw Story

DAVID FERGUSON
04 NOV 2014

A 49-year-old Philadelphia pastor is accused of inappropriately fondling his mentally challenged 15-year-old niece in the church that he runs.

According to Philly.com, Rev. Albert A. Young of Total Deliverance Ministries is charged with using his position as head of the church to gain access to his 15-year-old niece and sexually abuse her.

Officials reported that Young was taken into custody last week after he was accused of enticing the girl into his lap in his office in the church on the night of Aug. 12. Once the girl was on top of him, Young reportedly touched her sexually, “putting his hands inside the girl’s pants, fondling her buttocks and kissing her neck.”

A police affidavit about the alleged assault states that Young continued to touch and fondle the girl, pressing his genitals against her and guiding her hand to his penis.

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MICHIGAN
Holland Sentinel

By Staff report
Posted Nov. 4, 2014

Holland, Mich.
A part time youth minister at the St. Francis Xavier Parish in northern Ottawa County has been arrested and charged with criminal sexual conduct, according to a statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.

William Miller worked at the St. Francis Parish Xavier Parish in Conklin and the St. Catherine Parish in Ravenna.

Police have charged Miller with criminal sexual conduct of a young person, according to the diocese. The incident occurred about a decade ago off of church property and was not associated with a church activity, according to the diocese.

“We ask you to pray for healing for all of those people whose lives and families will be deeply impacted by these events,” the diocese said in a statement.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. (WOOD) — A youth minister at two parishes in West Michigan has been arrested and charged with criminal sexual conduct with a young person, according to a statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.

William Miller, 61, was serving as a part-time youth minister at St. Catherine Parish in Ravenna, which is in Muskegon County and St. Francis Xavier Parish in Conklin, which is in Ottawa County.

He was arrested on October 28 and arraigned the following day on one count of first degree criminal sexual conduct.

The charges stem from an incident believed to have occurred about 10 years ago, away from church property and unrelated to church activities, the statement from the diocese read. It’s unclear how old the victim was at the time of the alleged incident.

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MICHIGAN
Grand Haven Tribune

A part-time youth minister for St. Catherine Parish in Ravenna and St. Francis Xavier Paris in Conklin has been charged with criminal sexual conduct with a young person.

BECKY VARGO
GRAND RAPIDS
NOV 4, 2014

William Miller was suspended from all ministerial activities once the allegations and arrest became known, said Carl Appel, director of Communications for the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.

The incident is believed to have happened approximately 10 years ago, away from church property and unassociated with church activities, Appel said.

An announcement was read at parish Masses on Sunday and a letter were sent to parents who had children in the youth ministry and school programs.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

Posted: Tuesday, November 4, 2014

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — The trial of a Roman Catholic priest who ran a summer camp for disadvantaged boys in Ipswich decades ago is expected to get underway with opening statements Wednesday morning in Lawrence Superior Court.

Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of the Rev. Richard J. McCormick, 73, a high-ranking member of the Salesian Society of Don Bosco of North America, the order that ran the summer camp at what was then known as the Sacred Heart retreat in the late 1970s and 1980s. The site is now the headquarters of New England Biolabs.

The trial is the first of two that involve allegations brought by men who recalled being sexually abused at the camp by McCormick when they were boys.

In the trial now underway, McCormick is charged with five counts of child rape, involving a boy who attended the camp from the age of 9 to 12, prosecutors allege.

McCormick’s lawyer, Stephen Neyman, said his client denies abusing the boy, suggesting that the accuser has identified the wrong culprit for his abuse.

But prosecutors say that the victim was able to positively identify the man he knew as “Father Dick” decades later when he found a photo of him online, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said during arguments on several pretrial motions Tuesday, prior to the start of jury selection.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Religion News Service | By David Gibson

(RNS) Many conservative Catholics have long viewed Pope Francis with suspicion thanks to his effort to shift the church’s focus away from a culture war agenda and toward a more welcoming approach and a greater emphasis on serving the poor.

But last month’s controversial Vatican summit on the modern family, with the push by Francis and his allies to translate that inclusive view into concrete policies on gays and divorced and remarried Catholics, for example, seems to have marked a tipping point, with some on the right raising the specter of a schism — a formal split that is viewed as the “nuclear option” for dissenters.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a Catholic and a conservative, crystallized the peril in an Oct. 25 column warning the pope not to “break the church” to promote his goals, saying that if Francis continues to alienate conservative Catholics it could lead to “a real schism.”

Douthat had raised the possibility of “an outright schism” earlier this year, as well, and his warnings have been echoed by a number of other church leaders and commentators. The anxiety on the right has also drawn increasing media speculation about the possibility of conservatives splintering off.

So is a schism, with its echoes of medieval debates and heretics burning at the stake, a realistic possibility? And can an independent Catholic church be successful in the modern world?

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JON TEVLIN , Star Tribune Updated: November 4, 2014

A south Minneapolis church plans to bring in controversial Irish Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery to speak on Wednesday, despite warnings from Archbishop John Nienstedt. And the church’s pastor is using the words of a powerful church leader to justify it: Pope Francis.

Father Mike Tegeder, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Church, has been intent on bringing in Flannery, who is on a speaking tour of the country. But the Cabrini visit will be the only time he speaks on Catholic Church property.

Flannery, author of several books on religion, holds controversial positions on birth control, homosexuality and the ordination of women. He was silenced by the Vatican in 2012 and told he would be allowed to return to ministry only if he signed a statement denouncing beliefs that don’t agree with current church doctrine. He has refused.

Tegeder, long an outspoken priest who has repeatedly tangled with Nienstedt, met with him late last week to discuss the issue.

“We didn’t have a meeting of the minds,” said Tegeder. “He listened to me, and I’m thankful for that. But I pounded the table, as I’m prone to do, and said this is nonnegotiable. I told him, ‘you could throw my ass right out of here, but I’m throwing myself in your mercy.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

By ERICA SMITH

This interview will be on “St. Louis on the Air” at noon Wednesday; this story will be updated after the show. You can listen live.

In 2012, Tony Flannery found out the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican watchdog group, was displeased with some of his writings about the church.

Flannery, a Redemptorist from Ireland, was suspended and forbidden to return to ministry unless he agreed to publish a statement saying he accepted the moral teachings of the church and that women should not be ordained priests. After a year of back-and-forth with the Vatican, Flannery went public with the matter in January 2013. A few months later he wrote about the experience in a book, “A Question of Conscience.”

Flannery will be in St. Louis this month for an event sponsored by the Catholic Action Network for Social Justice. On Wednesday, “St. Louis on the Air” will talk to Flannery about his faith and his book. Do you have a question for our guest? Email us at talk@stlpublicradio.org, or tweet us at @STLonAir.

Related Event

People of Conscience: A Conversation with Father Tony Flannery

When: 7 p.m. Nov. 13, 2014
Where: St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, 1413 N. 20th St., St. Louis

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New York Daily News

BY MARC WEINREICH

A Philadelphia pastor was arrested last week after his 15-year-old mentally challenged niece ratted him out for allegedly molesting her inside the ministry office this summer.

Albert A.Young, 49, described in the Philadelphia Daily News as a “wolf disguised as a sheep,” was charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a child.

In a police affidavit cited in the report, the self-described “apostle” of Total Deliverance Ministries in North Philadelphia allegedly made the teen sit in his lap and put his hands inside her pants, touched her buttocks and kissed her neck on the night of Aug. 12. He allegedly forced his clothed genitals onto her and made her touch him sexually.

When he was done, he warned her not to tell anyone — but she went ahead anyway and an investigation subsequently led to his arrest at his rowhouse last week.

He posted 10% of his $50,000 bail last Friday.

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IDAHO
National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service | Nov. 4, 2014

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael Driscoll of Boise, Idaho, and appointed Bishop Peter Christensen of Superior, Wis., to succeed him.

Driscoll, who has headed the statewide diocese since 1999, is 75, the age at which bishops are required by canon law to turn in their resignation to the pope.

Christensen, 61, has headed the Superior diocese since 2007.

The changes were announced Tuesday in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Christensen will be installed in Boise at a Dec. 17 Mass in St. John Cathedral. Until then, Driscoll will continue to oversee the daily governance of the diocese.

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

Even if you’ve been following the deeply disturbing story of Sam Kellner, the ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn man whose life was destroyed after informing police about a serial child molester who abused his son, you’ll want to read The New Yorker’s in-depth report on the scandal. It’s a fascinating look at how the Hasidic community in Brooklyn enables sex offenders through intimidation, bribery, and their history of voting as a bloc, which gives them significant sway over elected officials like former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes.

New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv lays out all the facts of Kellner’s ordeal, describing how he needed permission from a rabbi before even reporting his allegation to secular authorities, and how he became a pariah in the community for doing so. “Kellner’s behavior was seriously threatening to the community’s power structure,” one observer tells her, and it appears that power structure was only emboldened by Hynes’s handling of the case against Baruch Lebovits, a prominent cantor.

Despite very flimsy evidence, Kellner was charged with trying to extort money from Lebovits, supposedly in exchange for getting his son to recant “false” allegations. In fact, the Lebovits family tried to bribe Kellner repeatedly with large sums of hush money (something that apparently worked with another accuser), but Kellner refused. “What would I say to my son?” Kellner asks The New Yorker. “That I took money so he could be used as a prostitute?”

Perhaps the most incendiary allegation to emerge from The New Yorker’s story is that senior Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione went after Kellner as a favor to Arthur Aidala, an attorney who represented Lebovits and happened to be a close friend of both Vecchione and Hynes. Six weeks after Lebovits was convicted of molesting a boy (“Aron,” not Kellner’s son) in 2010, Aidala met with Vecchione.

From The New Yorker:

Initially, Aidala didn’t focus on Kellner. He spoke about a case that was easier to substantiate: he said that, days before, a friend of Kellner’s named Simon Taub had extorted the Lebovits family. Taub had said that his son had been molested and threatened to go to the police unless he was compensated by the family. A few weeks later, in a sting operation, detectives from the rackets bureau wired Chaim Lebovits, a businessman who had made a fortune in oil and diamonds. Chaim went to Taub’s home and caught him on tape accepting money.

After he was arrested, Taub said that prosecutors told him, “If you coöperate with us, you will be home in an hour.” They pushed him to implicate Kellner in an extortion plot. Taub said that he didn’t have the information that the prosecutors wanted. “To coöperate, I had to lie,” he told me. Instead, he pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and was sentenced to probation. The alleged abuse of his son was never investigated.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Stephen M. Garrity was ordained a priest of the Jesuits’ Maryland Province in 1970. He was assigned to high schools in Washington DC, Philadelphia PA, Baltimore MD and Scranton PA. He served also as the Province’s vocations director, as director and rector of a Faulkner MD retreat house and as a college chaplain and parish pastor in Durham NC. Garrity was placed on leave in 2007 after admitting to having had “inappropriate sexual contact” with five young adults, ages 18-23, during his time in Baltimore and Philadelphia in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2012 he was accused of having molested a male high school student in in the 1970s in Philadelphia. Garrity is last known to have been living in a Jesuit community in PA.

Ordained: 1970

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MINNESOTA
Fox 10

[with video]

by Maury Glover

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
By his own account, Cameron Clarkson’s senior year at Cretin-Derham Hall should have been the best of his life. He was captain of the football team, and with players like Seantrell Henderson, the Raiders won their second state title in 10 years. However, the All-American teenager was carrying a devastating secret, one that would eventually derail his dreams of playing college football and test his faith, both in the institution that was his home for 4 years, and in himself.

Clarkson went to the Catholic high school because it was supposed to be a safe and spiritual place to learn, but it put him on a collision course with another Cretin grad who abused her position as a substitute teacher and weight room supervisor to have a sex with the then 16-year-old boy. Gail Gagne is the granddaughter of legendary Minnesota wrestler, Vern Gagne, and the daughter of his equally famous tag team partner and son, Greg, but to the boys at Cretin, she was a young, hot teacher.

In never-before-seen depositions, Gagne describes how the two began bonding over their sometimes absent fathers. They would talk as she gave Clarkson rides home from the weight room where he worked the summer before his junior year.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

Associated Press

POSTED: 11/04/2014

A former student is suing a Minnesota high school, saying it failed to provide a safe environment after he was sexually abused by a teacher while in his teens.

Cameron Clarkson was abused by Gail Gagne when he was a 16-year-old high school student and football player at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul. Clarkson said the abuse lasted two months during his sophomore year. Gagne was 25 at the time and working as a supervisor in the school’s weight room.

Gagne was fired and eventually convicted of having sex with a student and ordered to register as a sex offender. Clarkson’s name wasn’t released and was only mentioned as C.L.C. in court documents because he was a juvenile.

Clarkson, who’s now 22 and a senior in college, told WCCO-TV (http://cbsloc.al/1phPGn3) he decided to come forward so the public knows what happened.

“That’s a fact that has been swept under the rug by Cretin-Derham Hall for the past five years,” he said. “They have a saying that says, ‘All are welcome.’ But it’s not only a statement about what they value, but also a statement about who they don’t value.”

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

John Lauritsen

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – For the first time, a former Cretin-Derham Hall student is telling his story about being sexually abused by a teacher.

Cameron Clarkson said he was 16 when he was abused by Gail Gagne.

She was 25 at the time, working as a supervisor in the school’s weight room.

She was fired by the school and later convicted of fifth-degree sexual conduct for having sex with a student.

“It’s time to tell the truth on a very basic level,” Clarkson said.

Because he was 16 and a juvenile when he was abused by Gagne, Clarkson’s name could not be released.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Susan Madrak
An ex-journalist keeps a jaundiced eye on the media

As a fallen-away “cradle Catholic,” one who used to love arguing with my religion teachers about things like reincarnation, or women priests (“But if only men can be priests because Jesus only picked male apostles, shouldn’t priests have to be Jewish, too?”), I get a kick out of Pope Francis. He reminds me of that all-too-brief reign of Pope John XXIII, the last “people’s Pope.” He is a compassionate man who radiates the best qualities of the Church — namely, a strong foundation in social justice and mercy.

He hasn’t gone as far in liberalizing the Church as I’d like, but he shows signs that he’s getting there.

But the same Catholic conservatives who were so eager to snuggle under the covers with the worst elements of the right wing have learned a thing or two from U.S. politics — basically, how to undercut and erode the authority of a duly-elected leader. This is actually serious, and I’m only slightly kidding when I say I fervently hope this pope avoids small planes.

Matters came to a head last week when Pope Francis removed the extremely conservative U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke from his influential post as head of the church’s highest court, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. (Think of him as Tony Scalia, making distorted pronouncements about “original intent.”) Burke proclaims his version of what the Pope can or can’t do, and Pope Francis is supposed to fall into a worshipful crouch in front of Burke’s embroidered slippers.

It’s not working out that way. Pope Francis has his own ideas, and when a recent report indicated that an upcoming church synod might loosen church policies on divorce and gay marriage, conservatives led by Cardinal Burke went on the attack. German Cardinal Walter Kasper hit back:

In an interview this week, Kasper expressed confidence that bishops at the back-to-back synods would ultimately back some change, and he hit back at critics like Burke, saying they are engaged in political maneuverings. He said they are afraid that any changes would lead to a “domino effect.”

“This is all linked to ideology, an ideological understanding of the gospel that the gospel is like a penal code,” Kasper, who is retired from a curial job but lives in Rome, told America magazine.

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