ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

Created: 04/02/2014

By: Jennie Olson

The leader of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is facing tough questions on Wednesday.

Archbishop John Nienstedt will have to explain what he knew about allegations of sexual abuse by his priests. Nienstedt’s deposition will not be sealed, much to the disappointment of the archdiocese. We could soon learn what Nienstedt has to say under oath during the four-hour deposition.

The deposition is part of a lawsuit in Ramsey County District Court. A victim has sued the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, and former priest Tom Adamson, who allegedly abused the victim in the 1970s.

A judge ordered the archdiocese to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents on about 40 priests who have been credibly accused of abusing children from 1970 to today. All 60,000 documents have to be turned in to the Ramsey County judge by Nienstedt’s deposition Wednesday. The documents are sealed, but the victim’s attorney plans to ask the judge to reveal as much as he can through the deposition process.

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

CHILE
Puranoticia

[Summary: The prosecution today asked that priest John O’Reilly be imprisoned for 20 years for alleged abuse of female children ages 7 and 11.]

La Fiscalía Oriente presentará hoy ante el 4° Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago la acusación por presuntos abusos sexuales en contra del sacerdote John O’Reilly.

Según publicó hoy El Mercurio, fuentes vinculadas al caso informaron que el Ministerio Público solicitaría ante la justicia que el religioso sea condenado a dos penas de 10 años y un día de presidio efectivo.

Luego de siete meses de investigación, y el análisis de toda la prueba recopilada, la Unidad de Delitos Sexuales -junto a las fiscales Lorena Parra y Carmen Gloria Guevara- decidieron llevar a juicio a O’Reilly como presunto autor del delito de abuso sexual impropio reiterado en contra de dos hermanas de 7 y 11 años.

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

ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 2, 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 )

Another person who was sexually assaulted by Belleville’s Fr. Robert J. Vonnahmen has filed a civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against Catholic officials.

[Madison-St. Clair Record]

Vonnahmen is one of Illinois’ worst child molesting clerics. And like so many of his abusive associates, he walks free today with no supervision thanks to dozens of current and former Belleville Catholic church staff and members who, for decades, ignored or hid his crimes.

We applaud this brave victim and hope his legal action brings him some degree of healing. We know it will help ease the burdens of others who were violated by Belleville priests. We hope it will inspire even one church employee – past or present – to show courage and become a whistleblower. And we hope it will deter one employer, secular or religious, from concealing heinous crimes against kids.

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

GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 2, 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 )

Gregory’s “apology” about his extravagant spending rings hollow.

The test of whether an apology is sincere is simple: Are the remorseful words followed by different deeds? In this case, at best, it’s too early to tell, because Gregory refuses to reverse himself.

If you apologize for something, you express regret for having done something and you stop doing it. But Gregory wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to say “I’m sorry” without having to say “I’ll change.”

Most of who Gregory will allegedly “consult” will be clerics who have pledged to obey him. So how meaningful and authentic will their feedback be?

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

[Summary: Former Limburg Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst can look forward to a good pension.]

Der ehemalige Limburger Bischof Tebartz-van Elst darf sich auf eine üppige Pension und womöglich eine angenehme Aufgabe freuen. Auch wenn in Rom der Einfluss seiner Unterstützer schwindet. Von Christian Eckl

Eigentlich kann man die katholische Kirche ganz gut mit einem weltweit agierenden Konzern vergleichen. Strauchelt ein kleiner Mitarbeiter, so wird er eben entlassen. Strauchelt einer aus der mittleren Führungsebene, so weiß er oft zu viel. Nur so ist es zu erklären, dass Bischöfe, die zum Rücktritt gezwungen werden, zumindest in Deutschland weich fallen.

Einfachen Priestern droht bei Verfehlungen oft die Laisierung. Im Falle von Priestern, die Kinder missbrauchen, ist das durchaus verständlich – doch auch wenn ein Priester zu einem von ihm gezeugten Kind öffentlich steht, droht ihm Liebesentzug durch seine Kirche.

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

UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

In a newly released annual audit of abuse by independent experts, it was reported that there were only ten contemporaneous abuse allegations made against priests even deemed “credible” in all of 2013 (out of some 40,000 active priests) and that the “fewest allegations and victims” ever were tabulated since annual reports were first compiled in 2004.

This is obviously good news. But predictably, the mainstream media is notably silent about this very positive report, even though in years past when the numbers were less encouraging, the media fell over themselves to breathlessly report any unflattering statistics which they could dig up.

A search of news coverage about the Church’s new annual report found that not a single secular news outlet (e.g., the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune etc.) reported on the study.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

As a monument is unveiled today to the 222 children who died at a Protestant children’s home and were buried in unmarked graves, survivors of the home have pledged to continue their fight for justice.

The Department of Justice offered the Bethany Survivor’s Group up to €25,000 towards their memorial, but has refused to include them in the redress scheme that was offered to the survivors of Magdalene laundries.

“To help fund the memorial was the right step on the behalf of the Department, but we want them to know it is only the first step. The State had a duty of care to us, yet we suffered enormous abuse and that must be acknowledged,” said Derek Leinster, chairman of the Bethany Survivor’s Group.

A Church of Ireland service at Mount Jerome Chapel will precede the unveiling of the six foot sculpture at the adjoining cemetery at Harold’s Cross, Dublin, today.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew, Patsy McGarry

Wed, Apr 2, 2014

Claims made by the Vatican in a submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) last December were so inaccurate, it prompted Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to write to Rome seeking clarification, The Irish Times has learned.

The Vatican asserted to the UNCRC that the four religious congregations that ran Magdalene laundries in Ireland were willing to pay part of a compensation scheme developed by the State for women who had been in the laundries.

However, two of the religious congregations concerned have since repeated their unwillingness to contribute to any compensation scheme for the women.

Criticism
When the UNCRC issued its final report on the Vatican’s child protection record last February, Rome came in for unprecedented worldwide criticism.

In its response, the Vatican said it was “heartened by the openness of the religious sisters to engage in discussions about issues of compensation and their willingness to pay a part of a compensation package developed by state authorities”.

But the four congregations involved have all publicly declined to contribute to the proposed compensation scheme.

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

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Andrew Hamilton | 02 April 2014

Cardinal Pell was often described as the leader of the Australian Church. What he said and did was taken to represent the Australian Catholic Church. That sometimes annoyed Catholics from other states who saw their church as superior to the Sydney variety, and certainly did not recognise the Cardinal as their leader.

It does explain why his appearance at the Royal Commission was awaited with such interest and received such publicity. But in the event the hearings on the treatment of John Ellis were of far deeper significance than for what they revealed of the Cardinal’s own role. It exposed a set of priorities and strategies until recently adopted by many Australian bishops, church bodies and leaders of religious congregations. They reflected an unwitting subscription to neoliberal ideology at the expense of the Christian Gospel.

In the Catholic Church, bishops and, in a more limited sphere, other religious leaders have three interlocking responsibilities. They are teachers of their people, encouraging them to appropriate the Gospel deeply and faithfully, and helping them reflect on its significance today. They are pastors of their people, providing for their spiritual needs and reaching out to the needy and the lost. They also administer the patrimony of the Church, ensuring that its personal and financial resources serve its mission.

These responsibilities are complex and rich in their scope, but can readily be reduced to something more manageable. Teaching can be reduced to enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy; pastoring, to maintaining order; administering the patrimony, to protecting and extending financial reserves. And the rich relationships involved in these responsibilities can be reduced to control, that unlovely amalgam of fear and power.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

By Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
8:17 p.m. EDT, April 1, 2014

Through sobs, a 21-year-old man told a Broward jury Tuesday how he really feels about the man accused of raping him repeatedly as a teenager.

“I still love him.”

The accuser, whose name is being withheld because of the nature of the accusations, had just finished telling the jury that he was initiated into years of sexual abuse by former youth mentor Jeffery London, 50, who is being tried for 27 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and sexual battery on a minor.

London, who lived in Lauderdale Lakes when he was arrested, faces life in prison if convicted. The charges involve four separate accusers, one of whom took the stand Tuesday. London, who served as a mentor at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale and as dean of students at Eagle Charter Academy in Lauderdale Lakes from 2003-09, was arrested in 2012 when abuse allegations came to light.

Since then, at least 10 men have accused him of molestation, all while the men were as young as pre-teens through their teenage years.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Neil Ormerod | 02 April 2014

sMost of us who have worked in or near church institutions get used to a certain level of dysfunctionality: poor lines of communication, under-developed personal skills, the arbitrary use of power, the no-talk rule about controversial issues, lack of accountability and transparency, people rising above the level of their competence, and so on. In general we learn to tolerate it and work around it as best we can. At times, however, it comes together as a ‘perfect storm’ of dysfunctionality leading to incredibly damaging consequences for all concerned.

After listening to several hours of the Royal Commission into sexual abuse on the John Ellis case I would see this as one such occasion.

There was enormous damage done to John Ellis (pictured) in his attempts to get the Church to respond as the presence of Christ in the world. Despite repeated failures by Church authorities to deal adequately with his plight he continued to seek pastoral care, spiritual direction and finally legal mediation. It seems he wasn’t recognised as a victim but as an adversary whom the Church needed to crush, a well-to-do lawyer after a pot of money. His was to be the corpse hanging outside the city gates as a warning to all who would attempt similar actions.

Damage was done to the reputations of various bit-players: John Davoran and Monsignor Brian Rayner who clearly did not have Cardinal Pell’s confidence; the Cardinal’s secretary Dr Michael Casey who was forced by the Commission to admit that the Church’s actions were unjust; the solicitors from the Cardinal’s legal team Coors who would have heard clearly the warning of Justice McClellan that saying they were following their client’s instructions would be no defence. Many who faced the Commission’s scrutiny emerged diminished persons.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE GREAT THING about whistleblowers now is they have more access to information than ever, according to the editor of The Observer John Mulholland.

The Dublin-born editor believes the role of the whistleblower within Irish society has been vital in uncovering the “misbehavior” of institutions such as the Catholic church.

“Look at the Catholic church: should whistleblowers over the last 20, 30 years not have come forward and given their story of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests?

“Well of course there were people in Ireland who wish they hadn’t, who had a loyalty to the Catholic church, but there is no rational reason for you to believe that they shouldn’t have came forward and told their stories.

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

CANADA
Lethbridge Herald

BY LETHBRIDGE HERALD OPINON ON APRIL 2, 2014.

Four years of public hearings have come to an end.

Sunday in Edmonton, the commission tasked with exploring the history of Canada’s residential schools system, and its impact on the county’s aboriginal population, wrapped up its work.

In all, thousands of victims shared their experiences, as stories of the cruelty and abuse were captured on video. It created a video history of what will go down as one of Canada’s biggest blunders, a dark chapter in our history.

For some, including many here in southern Alberta, the opportunity to have their story heard was only one part of the process. Many have commented over the years how it was all part of the healing process while for others, it simply brought back memories they likely wished to keep buried.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made visits to over 300 communities, and started in Winnipeg back in June of 2010. Since then, about 6,500 statements were collected, as survivors spoke about what they went through during their time in residential schools.

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MINNESOTA
Mille Lacs Messenger

Posted: Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Special to the Messenger

An updated list of Crosier priests and brothers with one or more credible claims of sexual abuse of minors has been released by the community from its province headquarters in Phoenix. The list includes Crosiers previously disclosed in 2002 following a third-party investigation as well as current, former and deceased Crosiers who have credible allegations against them, according to a news release from the order.

In the St. Cloud Diocese, those accused were assigned at one or more of the following ministries: Crosier Seminary and Priory, Onamia; St. Peter Parish, St. Cloud; St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Cloud; St. Therese Parish, Vineland; Cathedral High School, St. Cloud; Central Minnesota TEC.

The province website lists all assignments of the accused: www.crosier.org.

Crosier Prior Provincial Thomas Enneking said in the statement, “It is our hope that this will bring healing, peace and comfort to the victims and their families. Even though the last occurrence of abuse took place more than 20 years ago, the stigma remains for all of us. We pray for forgiveness and the opportunity to strengthen our ministry and service to everyone in need.”

The statement added the Crosiers “are saddened and ashamed to acknowledge this part of our history. We apologize to all victims, families and communalities who have been hurt by the actions of Crosiers who were supposed to be instruments of Christ’s love and healing mercy. … We are very concerned for the well-being of those who have been hurt because of sexual abuse by a Crosier.”

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FLORIDA
Local 10

[with video]

Author: Victor Oquendo, Reporter, voquendo@Local10.com
John Turchin, Crime Specialist, jturchin@local10.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. –
It was a difficult day in court Tuesday as four of Jeffery London’s alleged victims testified, taking everyone through the abuse and describing what it’s been like since they lived with London.

“He’s the gentleman right there,” said one alleged victim. When asked how old he was when the abuse allegedly began, he said, “I was 14.”

Years after the young men said London sexually abused and beat them, the wounds are still fresh.

“I thought, ‘Why would God allow this?’ But at the same time I thought it was right because he was blessed,” another alleged victim said.

On the surface, London was a pillar of the community — a pastor, a counselor at the Boys & Girls Club, dean of students at a local charter school and he would even take homeless and troubled boys into his home.

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

FLORIDA
NBC Miami

[with video]

By Gilma Avalos | Wednesday, Apr 2, 2014

Now 25-years-old, a witness took the stand Tuesday against the man who allegedly sexually abused him for almost a decade when he was a child.

The victim didn’t want to look at Jeffery London, 50, a former youth pastor. London, who was a mentor at the Bible Church of God and dean of students at Eagle Charter Academy, is being tried for 27 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and sexual battery on a minor, according to the Sun Sentinel.

“I don’t want to look at him,” the victim said on the stand.

“Let me ask the question. Do you see the person in the courtroom here today who sexually abused you from the age of 11 to 18?” prosecutors asked.

“Yes,” he responded.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Tim Wallace | 02 April 2014

In late 2004, two years into the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney’s botched handling of a sexual abuse complaint against priest Aidan Duggan, the executive director of the Catholic Church’s National Committee for Professional Standards, Julian McDonald, did something extraordinary. He inquired into whether Duggan, prior to joining the Sydney Archdiocese in 1974, had form.

This would not have been within McDonald’s usual ambit, but Duggan’s accuser, John Ellis, had requested the NCPS review the archdiocese’s handling of his case — a process stymied early on the basis the archdiocese had no record of other allegations against Duggan, deemed too senile to answer the allegations.

In October 2004, McDonald emailed the Child Protection Office of the Catholic Church in Ireland. A month later he emailed John Mone, the recently retired bishop of Paisley in Scotland. Then, in mid-January 2005, he emailed the director of St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society, a voluntary adoption agency in Glasgow.

He asked that records be checked for any allegations against Duggan, ‘who was born in Scotland and became a Cistercian monk, ministering in Scotland for some years before leaving the Cistercians and coming to Australia where he was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Sydney’.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By MICHAEL PAULSON

APRIL 1, 2014

The archbishop of Atlanta had a plan to resolve the space crunch at his cathedral: He would move out of his residence so priests could move in, and then he would build himself a new house with donated money and land.

It was not just any house. It was a $2.2 million, 6,000-square-foot mansion, with plenty of room to host and entertain, on land bequeathed by Joseph Mitchell, a wealthy nephew of the author of “Gone With the Wind,” Margaret Mitchell.

But as Pope Francis seeks “a church which is poor and for the poor,” expectations for Catholic leaders are changing rapidly. So on Monday night, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory apologized, saying that laypeople had told him they were unhappy with his new house, and promising to seek guidance from priests and laypeople and to follow their advice about whether to sell it.

“What we didn’t stop to consider, and that oversight rests with me and me alone, was that the world and the church have changed,” he wrote in the archdiocesan newspaper, The Georgia Bulletin. He added, “The example of the Holy Father, and the way people of every sector of our society have responded to his message of gentle joy and compassion without pretense, has set the bar for every Catholic and even for many who don’t share our communion.”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on April 1, 2014

Proceedings continued yesterday on the Case Study 10 hearings by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse into the Salvation Army (Eastern Territory), with a focus mainly on how the Salvation Army responded to abuse allegations, to put things rather simply.

As has been covered in the media, it was another day of shocking abuse claims against the Salvation Army, including a heartbreaking account of his experiences by the witness known as ‘FE’.

Rather than repeat what has already been quite adequately covered in the Australian press, the author shall merely provide a series of links to relevant articles (see ‘Read more here’ below) and a brief mention of a few of the things that were reported as having been said by witnesses in yesterday’s hearings.

The reader will forgive the author for omission of some of the more explicit accounts of abuse, the author being unable yesterday to have done more than bear witness to the telling of some of them, still finding herself unable right now to dwell too much of these matters, they being still a little too ‘close to home’.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Oxford Mail

A priest and former private school governor has received a suspended jail sentence after admitting making hundreds of indecent images of children.

Father Timothy Gardner, 42, pictured, was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years at Southwark Crown Court yesterday.

He also received a five-year sexual offences prevention order and will be on the sex offender register for ten years. He is a former governor of Rye St Antony, the Catholic independent school for girls, in Pullen’s Lane, Oxford.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Alleged abuse victims who give evidence at an inquiry into children’s homes in NI have no legal right to copies of their statements, a judge has ruled.

The High Court judge said the records were the property of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

His verdict came in a legal challenge by a woman who claims she was subjected to physical and psychological abuse.

The abuse was alleged to have taken place at Nazareth House care home in Belfast between 1971-1976.

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

ILLINOIS
Madison-St. Clair Record

March 31, 2014
By RECORD NEWS

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville finds itself at the center of another lawsuit as one of its priests is being accused of fondling a boy in the 1970s.

J. Christ filed a lawsuit March 17 in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville.

In his complaint, Christ alleges he was attending a summer camp at Camp Ondessonk in Ozark, during the summers of 1970 and 1971 when the alleged incidents occurred. Christ says one of the priests at the camp, Father Robert J. Vonnahmen, inappropriately touched him while he was attending the camp.

This conduct included but was not limited to urging the plaintiff and other children to go skinny-dipping, then coming up behind the plaintiff with his own pants off and rubbing on the plaintiff’s behind, fondling the plaintiff, rubbing his genitalia on the plaintiff, causing the plaintiff to put the plaintiff’s hand on his penis, penetrating the plaintiff’s anus with his penis during a sleepover in Father Vonnahmen’s room, coaxing the plaintiff to bend over to reach into a trunk for an arrow-head patch, then taking his pants down and rubbing on plaintiff’s behind and coming to a private golf-course pool in the plaintiff’s home town, watching the plaintiff and leaving pornographic material depicting grown men with young boys on the plaintiff’s path home for plaintiff to find, the suit states.

Christ claims he was too afraid to talk to anyone about the incidents. Instead, he repressed the memories, causing him severe psychological harm, the complaint says. It was not until December 2013 that Christ remembered what had happened and could connect them with the emotional and mental issues he had endured, he claims.

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

ILLINOIS
Belleville News-Democrat

BY DANIEL KELLEY
News-Democrat
April 1, 2014

A Breese man has filed a lawsuit against the Belleville Catholic diocese alleging a priest sexually abused him when he was a boy attending church camp in the early 1970s.

The man, referred to as J. Christ in court documents, alleges former priest Robert J. Vonnahmen abused him at Camp Ondessonk in Ozark, Ill., in the summers of 1970 and 1971. The name appeared as J. Christ in court documents to provide anonymity.

Vonnahmen and representatives of the Belleville diocese could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The abuse allegedly happened while Vonnahmen was a priest and supervisor of the camp. The Catholic youth camp was co-founded by Vonnahmen in 1959.

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

UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Apr 1, 2014

In Italy, the bishops don’t think so. Or at least, they’re happy to claim the discretion provided by Italian law to withhold information on abuse in order to protect victims’ sensibilities.

As Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa said over the weekend in explaining his conference’s position, “We priests have to be very careful to respect the privacy, discretion and sense of reserve [of victims], we’ve got to be sensitive to the trauma of victims who do not want to be thrust into the public eye.”

Meanwhile, in Australia, where a full-blown abuse scandal has resulted in a slew of newly proposed legislation, the church is supporting mandatory reporting, but with a comparable reservation.

”[The church told the child abuse] inquiry that we wanted to be in a position to report all complaints we received but that we wanted to be able to protect the privacy of victims who did not want to be identified in that process,” church spokesman Father Shane McKinlay said.

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

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the data published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that were collected by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA):

The annual report by CARA on sexual abuse allegations confirms what we have known for a long time: the Church is largely free of this problem.

A total of ten credible accusations were made against priests or deacons involving minors in 2013.

As usual, 8 in 10 involved male-on-male sex. As usual, the most common time period for allegations reported in 2013—including all years, past or present—was the first half of the 1970s.

Homosexuality was implicated once again, though political correctness inhibits an honest discussion.

To be explicit, most of the male-on-male sex involved postpubescent boys. Regarding the timeline, it is hardly surprising that the 1970s proved (once again) to be the most common period when the alleged abuse occurred. Though the ideological roots of the sexual revolution are traceable to the 1960s, its rotten fruit was not reaped until the 1970s.

It was not the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality, which stresses the virtue of restraint, that brought about the sexual revolution; rather, it was the frontal assault on that virtue that gave birth to this mess. Yet those responsible, many of whom are intellectuals, continue to dodge responsibility for their destructive contribution to American culture.

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

VATICAN CITY
U.S. Catholic

After ‘Bishop Bling’ scandal, Vatican silent on Atlanta archbishop’s $2.2 million mansion

By Josephine McKenna
NEWS VATICAN
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Days after Pope Francis summoned a controversial German bishop for talks on his luxurious lifestyle, the Vatican is facing an embarrassing new scandal about the lavish spending of Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory.

Gregory on Monday (March 31) apologized for a lapse in judgment after he built a plush $2.2 million mansion for himself in the heart of Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead district.

His extravagant investment has provoked an outcry from some local Catholics, forcing the 66-year-old archbishop to “apologize sincerely and from my heart” in a statement published in The Georgia Bulletin, a Catholic newspaper.

“I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia,” the archbishop said.

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

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Apr 1, 2014

(RNS) Bye-bye, “Bishop Bling.” So long, “Pastor Perks.” The so-called “Francis Effect” may be real, at least when it comes to clerical housing, and could be coming to a church near you.

Pope Francis famously eschewed the trappings of the papal office, including deluxe digs in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, and the pressure of his example seems to be making itself felt.

Last week, the pontiff accepted the resignation of the most ostentatious offender, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg in Germany, a.k.a. “Bishop Bling” who spent a cool $43 million on a swank new residence and office complex while cutting staff.

Now Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta is the latest to feel the peer pressure. On Monday (March 31), Gregory responded to anger over his decision to move into a new $2.2 million home by repeatedly apologizing in a letter to his flock and saying he would explore the possibility of selling the mansion and moving into simpler digs.

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

UNITED STATES
catholic church abuse: criminal nuns and priests

Under all the “bread and circuses” and smiling face of Pope Francis is his true nature: he doesn’t care if the child rapists in the church keep raping and never get punished.

The Italian Bishops’ Conference, with the Pope’s blessing has once again embraced the policy that states they are not obliged to inform police officers if they suspect a child has been molested. If I, you, or anyone with humanity knew of a child rapist running loose we would report them to the police and they would be locked up. Are priests above the law? For the past 2,000 years they have been above the law or they were the law – isn’t it time to stop them?

David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said, “With the blessing of the Vatican, Italy’s bishops have formally declared they have no duty to call police if they suspect that a child is being sodomized or raped. The stunning, depressing and irresponsible contradiction between what Vatican officials say about abuse and do about abuse continues. And the tragic consequences for kids continue too. This policy – which codifies the long-standing and heartless practice of most Catholic bishops on the plan – will mean that more innocent children will be sexually assaulted.”

The Italian Bishops’ Conference said the policy reflected suggestions from the Vatican’s office that handles sex abuse investigations. Any “suggestion” coming out of the Vatican has the Pope’s stamp of approval. So less than a week after Pope Francis appointed a new commission to help the Catholic Church put an end to clerical sexual abuse and a few weeks after the United Nation’s report blasted what it called the Vatican’s code of silence” around abusive priests – the church is right back to its old criminal tricks.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 1, 2014

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

Long secret records about a San Diego predator priest have been released in Minnesota where he molested before he moved to California.

[10 News]

Catholic Church officials were told about allegations against Fr. Paul Palmitessa in the 1990s. One of Palmitessa’s victims later murdered his wife and committed suicide.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul claims that they informed the Diocese of San Diego as soon as they learned of the allegations. Why then did it take more than a decade for Palmitessa’s name to appear on any public lists of child molesting clerics? Why was Palmitessa allowed to continue to work all the way up until 2012?

[Star Tribune]

These kinds of dangerous and self serving practices are unfortunately nothing new. We hope Catholic officials in San Diego and the Twin Cities will do the responsible thing now, and aggressively reach out to anyone who many have seen, suspected or suffered abuse by Palmitessa, using church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements

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UNITED STATES
The Presbyterian Outlook

November 4, 2013 by Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter

Caution to readers: This story contains details of sexual abuse allegations taken from an administrative commission’s report.

194-24-4Five men’s accusations against a former Presbyterian pastor have prompted the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta to seek tighter rules from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) regarding ministers and sexual abuse.

Four men who formerly attended churches where Jeffrey D. Peterson-Davis had worked in California and in Atlanta had filed complaints in the church system accusing him of sexual abuse. A fifth accuser was identified in the settlement of a civil suit filed against Peterson-Davis in California.

All the complainants were minors at the time of the alleged abusive incidents – one was only 8. Their complaints against Peterson-Davis describe incidents over an 11-year span, beginning in 1984.

In October 2012, facing judicial proceedings in a church court in the Presbytery of Western Reserve in Ohio, where he was then working as a minister, Peterson-Davis renounced the jurisdiction of the PC(USA) rather than stand trial. Not wanting the inquiry to end there, Greater Atlanta Presbytery created an administrative commission in February 2013 to determine whether there was truth to the charges brought against him.

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

[with video]

FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Emotions ran high during testimony Tuesday morning in the trial of a former youth pastor who is accused of molesting children.

The first to take the stand in the trial of Jeffrey London was one of his alleged victims.

The man said he first met London at a Boys and Girls Club when he was seven years old. He testified that London sexually abused him from the time he was 11-years old until he turned 18. He said his grandmother trusted London and allowed him to move in with the pastor because she thought he would be safe with him.

The 25-year old man said the abuse started about a month after he moved in with London.

The man sobbed as he described the abuse he endured and said he felt powerless to make it stop.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 1, 2014

WASHINGTON The yearly audit of U.S. Catholic dioceses’ compliance with national measures to report and prevent clergy sexual abuse found a decline in the number of reported cases of abuse from July 2012 to June 2013 but also cited concerns about the limited scope of the auditors’ abilities.

Of particular concern are four dioceses that would not allow any audits to take place and the fact that “most” dioceses do not allow or conduct audits of parishes or schools, where most reporting of abuse is thought to occur, the auditors write.

During the finding period — July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 — 857 survivors of clergy sexual abuse reported 936 allegations of abuse in 191 dioceses, the audit reports, a decline from the 921 survivors who reported abuse in the previous audit period.

In the recent report, 472 allegations were deemed by the audit “unable to be proven”; 223 had an investigation ongoing; 136 were deemed “substantiated”; 78 “unsubstantiated”; and 27 had not yet been investigated. Abuse allegations were dated from the 1920s to the present.

The yearly audit for abuse reporting was released Friday by the U.S. bishops’ conference. It includes reports on the matter from the national firm conducting the audits, the bishops’ Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection, and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), an institute at Georgetown University that conducts annual surveys of the dioceses separate from the audit.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 02, 2014

CHURCHES will be barred from offering “easy access” bank-style accounts to their ­parishioners amid tough new ­restrictions proposed by the ­national regulator in a crackdown on more than $1 billion in investments held in unregulated church-run funds.

The changes, to come into ­effect in June, follow the revelation in The Australian some Catholic Church-run funds are effectively making a profit from investing the billions of dollars they receive each year in government grants for schools.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority initially proposed to end the exemption for religious charitable development funds from the need to be regulated under the Banking Act, but revised this after discussions with church groups.

A number of the 59 such funds nationwide, which control more than $7bn in assets between them, have recently been aggressively pursuing retail investors, including children and families, offering at-call deposit accounts at shopfront ­offices in regional towns.

These investors typically pay no fees and receive a guaranteed return, often below market rate, while the church pools their money with other assets invested with commercial banks at a higher rate, ultimately generating multi-million-dollar tax-free surpluses every year.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: April 1, 2014

In one of the cases, the victim later killed his wife and then himself.

Local Catholic church officials have released new details about a pair of abusive priests showing that one priest was accused of sexually abusing a brain-injured woman and another sexually abused a boy who did not want his community to know what happened.

That victim later killed himself and his wife in a murder-suicide, the church said.

The disclosures are part of a lawsuit in Ramsey County Court that is also compelling Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough to testify under oath about a wide range of cases over decades where the archdiocese learned of abuses by priests and reinstalled them into ministry without warning parishioners.

“This release is the first of several that will happen in the coming weeks,’’ the archdiocese said in a statement Monday night.

The new details center on incidents that happened decades ago involving the Rev. Paul Palmitessa and the Rev. Kenneth LaVan. The archdiocese also released documents pertaining to previously reported abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer and the Rev. John Michael Stevens.

In August 1990, an adult male reported to the archdiocese that Palmitessa had sexually abused him in 1982, when he was a boy. The statement said the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office investigated the abuse when it occurred, but that the victim chose not to pursue charges or tell the archdiocese “because he did not want his community to know about the abuse.’’

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

[with video]

By Jim Schaefer and Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writers

Someone has been very good to Detroit’s poor people.

That someone — and he is a man, that much was confirmed — has donated $17 million since 2005 to help less fortunate people through the Archdiocese of Detroit and the “Angel Fund.” This person’s money paid for necessities like rent, medicine and overdue utility bills for those who cannot afford such things.

If someone donated $17 million to a local college, that person might well have a stadium named after him.

But the “Angel” does not want to be known.

“It’s an anonymous donor,” said Msgr. Michael Bugarin, an archdiocesan official, adding that the donor’s philanthropy was known to his family. “It’s extraordinary, the level of generosity this family has gone through since the inception of the Angel Fund.”

But now, just several weeks after the Angel Fund’s existence was publicly revealed because of alleged fraud by a Detroit priest, the Free Press has learned the fund is ending April 30.

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MICHIGAN
TribTown

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 01, 2014

DETROIT — A once-secret fund that allowed an anonymous donor to give $17 million since 2005 to help poor people in the Detroit area is ending April 30.

The Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/1gK49So ) that the “Angel Fund,” which is run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and funded by a single donor, is ending April 30. Msgr. Michael Bugarin says in an email the donor indicated that his family’s philanthropic plans shifted.

The fund paid for necessities such as rent, medicine and overdue utility bills for people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. Details of the fund were made public earlier this year after a Roman Catholic priest and an acquaintance were charged with stealing money from the fund.

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GEORGIA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Apr. 1, 2014 NCR Today

Apologetic for failing to consider the pastoral implications of the construction of a $2.2 million residence, Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory is re-evaluating his recent move.

In a column Monday for the archdiocesan newspaper the Georgia Bulletin, he said he failed to consider the impression the new home sent to area Catholics who give to the church while struggling to pay their own bills and the example he set for what it means to follow Jesus’ example. As a result, he said he will meet with his various councils for guidance; if they advise him to sell the home, he will seek a new residence elsewhere.

“As the Shepherd of this local Church, a responsibility I hold more dear than any other, certainly more than any configuration of brick and mortar, I am disappointed that, while my advisors and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia,” Gregory wrote.

“To all of you, I apologize sincerely and from my heart,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by PATRICIA MILLER

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has removed Father Jerry Zawada, a well known Franciscan peace activist, from public life as a priest for celebrating mass with a woman.

The 76-year-old Zawada has been ordered to a “life of prayer and penance” within the Wisconsin friary of his order for saying mass with Janice Sevre-Duszynska in 2011. Sevre-Duszynska was ordained a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, a dissent women’s ordination movement in the Catholic Church that has ordained some 160 women as priests since 2002, when seven women were ordained in a ceremony on the Danube River.

The Vatican moved aggressively to tamp down any enthusiasm for break-away women’s ordination movements after the Danube River ordination received widespread media coverage. It said that any woman who claims to be ordained is automatically excommunicated and in 2010 declared women’s ordination a grave offense on par with pedophilia.

The Vatican’s equivocation of women’s ordination and pedophilia, and the relative speed with which it has disciplined dissenters, is ironic given its less-than-rapid response to actual pedophiles and the bishops who covered up their actions.

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VATICAN CITY
The Pilot

ON: 3/31/2014, BY CAROL GLATZ

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis confirmed the head of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and named among its new members Australian Cardinal George Pell, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis.

The Vatican announced March 29 that the pope confirmed Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz as prefect of the congregation, the Vatican office that oversees the world’s religious orders.

The new members also include: Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City; Luis Tagle of Manila; Bishop John Corriveau of Nelson, British Columbia; and Bishop Kieran O’Reilly of Killaloe, Ireland.

Pope Francis also reappointed 11 members to another five-year term, including: Cardinals Francis E. George of Chicago; Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa; Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and Jesuit Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Jesuits worldwide.

The pope also confirmed French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as president and Comboni Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Last updated Tue 1 Apr 2014

Advertisements are to be placed in newspapers later this month alerting victims of sex abuse by Jimmy Savile to the availability of compensation, a High Court heard today.

Notices would be placed in the Daily Mirror, The Times and some local newspapers to meet legal requirements, Mr Justice Sales was told today at a High Court hearing in London.

The judge had approved the placement of advertisements at a hearing in February – saying it was important that anyone who thought that they had a claim came forward.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 1, 2014

Relax, Archbishop Gregory.

Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory: Oops! I didn’t mean to buy that house!

You need to stop apologizing for that cherry $2.2 million house you just built in Atlanta. Sure, Georgia’s Catholics are rightfully angry. Of course it’s an ostentatious show of wealth that goes against the spirit and the words of the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

We understand: You had to show up Newark Archbishop Myers, who just put $500,000 of what critics are calling “vulgar” additions on his house. Right?

So stop apologizing. OC Bishop Kevin Vann has got your back!

Almost ten years ago, the OC Weekly ran the blockbuster piece Lifestyles of the Rich and Pious, where Gustavo Arellano listed the property values for some of the most expensive homes owned by the Diocese of Orange. Since the story ran, little has changed, except property values.

Wilton Gregory paid $2.2 million for a mansion—how about a beach cottage now valued at more than $2.5 million?

When the OC diocese bought this Newport Beach property in 2000 for $1.15 million, they handed the keys over to Msgr Lawrence Baird, who was its sole resident in 2004, when Gustavo’s story ran. Now, similar properties (according to Redfin) are going for anywhere between $2.5 and $3 million.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 02, 2014

SOME victims cannot bear to see the Salvation Army uniform, branding them “Gestapo.” Others refuse to enter their offices.

Yesterday Allan Anderson, who was abused by the Salvos in the Bexley Boys Home along with his little brother John, urged the public to think twice before donating to them.

“Boys and girls’ lives were damaged and any compensation should come from the organisation’s pockets, not the public’s,” Mr Anderson, 59, told the child sex abuse royal commission.

“Let me suggest to the public … think twice before you put your hand in your pocket when the Salvation Army Red Shield ­Appeal comes around, for you should not give so generously.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

BY ANTONETTE COLLINS
April 1, 2014

A former resident of the Bexley Boys’ Home in Sydney has urged the public not to give money to the Salvation Army because children have been damaged by child abuse under its care.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse has been examining the response of the Salvation Army to claims by abuse victims.

Allan Anderson and his brother, who resided at the Bexley Boys’ Home from 1966 to 1971, were physically and emotionally abused during this time.

Mr Anderson was recently offered a $70,000 ex-gratia payment by the Salvation Army but rejected it because he did not believe there was a proper process in deciding on that figure.

Mr Anderson told the commission on Tuesday he was unhappy with how his claim was processed and urged the public not to give money to the organisation.

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

Melbourne [AAP]

The royal commission into child sexual abuse is receiving about 40 requests by abuse survivors for private sessions each week.

After about 12 months of private and public hearings, the royal commission chairman Peter McClellan says the demand for private hearings with a commissioner is not abating.

Almost 1500 private sessions with sex abuse survivors have been held since the commission started and more than 1000 people are waiting to be heard.

‘I still cannot identify how many people will ultimately want to come and talk,” Justice McClellan said in Melbourne at a conference on Monday.

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SCOTLAND
YouTube

BBC Scotland Broadcast 29 July 2013

The shocking truth of physical and sexual abuse in one of Scotland’s most prestigious Catholic boarding schools.

Mark Daly uncovers the hidden story of Fort Augustus Abbey, the Catholic monks who ran it, and exposes those who turned a blind eye to the horrors within. He hears of stories of abuse that spanned decades and took him to the other side of the world to confront those responsible.

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Mark Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Bowing to critics, the Archbishop of Atlanta on Monday apologized for a lapse in judgment that made him proceed with a new, $2.2 million home for himself and said he may sell his Buckhead mansion if clerical bodies within the church recommend he do so.

Noting that the “world and church have changed,” Archbishop Wilton Gregory said he “failed” parishioners when he didn’t fully consider the implications of his decision to move into the new home, made possible by a bequest from Margaret Mitchell’s nephew. Gregory, the leader of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, made his comments in the Georgia Bulletin, a Catholic newspaper.

“I am disappointed that, while my advisors and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia,” Gregory wrote.

Gregory earlier this year left his old home on West Wesley Road in favor of a new house on Habersham Road. The house, which cost $2.2 million to build, was funded by money left by Joseph Mitchell.

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GEORGIA
The Georgia Bulletin

By ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY, Commentary | Published March 31, 2014

“We are disturbed and disappointed to see our church leaders not setting the example of a simple life as Pope Francis calls for. How can we instill this in our children when they see their archdiocesan leadership living extravagantly? We ask you to rethink these decisions and understand the role model the clergy must serve so the youth of our society can answer Jesus’ call. Neither our 18- or 14-year-old sons understand the message you are portraying.”

So went just one of many of the heartfelt, genuine and candidly rebuking letters, emails and telephone messages I have received in the past week from people of faith throughout our own Archdiocese and beyond. Their passionate indictments of me as a Bishop of the Catholic Church and as an example to them and their children are stinging and sincere. And I should have seen them coming.

Please understand that I had no desire to move; however, the Cathedral Parish has a problem, albeit a happy one. The Cathedral of Christ the King is one of our largest, most vibrant and fastest growing parishes—but it is landlocked. The site of the current rectory could be used for expansion if the priests could be moved to a new rectory nearby. Because of the proximity of the Archbishop’s house to the Cathedral and the way it is configured with separate apartments and common space, the rector of Christ the King one day summoned the courage to ask me if I would give some thought to letting the parish purchase the residence from the Archdiocese to repurpose it for its rectory. It made more sense for them to be in walking distance to the Cathedral than I, so I said yes, knowing full well that literally left the Archbishop without a place to live.

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GEORGIA
The Raw Story

By Reuters
Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta has apologized for building a $2.2 million mansion to use as his home, a move that made him the object of derision and complaint, and said he may sell it.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory said he took his “eye off the ball” after the archdiocese received a $15 million donation from the estate of Joseph Mitchell, a nephew “Gone With The Wind” author, Margaret Mitchell.

Pope Francis has been urging Roman Catholic officials to live simpler lives and has renounced the papal apartments in the Vatican palace for modest quarters in a Church guest house.

The Vatican removed a German bishop — dubbed the “bishop of bling” — last month from his job because he spent $43 million on a residence where fittings included a bath that cost 15,000 euros and 2.9-million-euro private chapel.

In Monday’s edition of The Georgia Bulletin, the newspaper for the Atlanta archdiocese, Gregory wrote: “While my advisors and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia.”

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GEORGIA
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho April 1, 2014

Last week I pointed out that Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta had recently moved into a $2.2-million, 6,200-square-foot home–an expense made possible by a $15-million bequest. Gregory had been living at the cathedral rectory, but apparently that parish is growing rapidly. The rector of the cathedral asked Gregory whether the parish could purchase the property from the archdiocese, and Gregory agreed. That’s why he built the new residence. But in January, Gregory met with parishioners who weren’t happy with that plan. They wanted him to sell the new building, move into the old one, and use the money to help the poor.

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this month, Gregory and McNamee said the expenditures were necessary for their living arrangements and that it was too late to reverse course. They also noted the plans had been approved by governing bodies within their respective institutions.

“To undo what has been publicly announced for two years wouldn’t be a prudent use of archdiocese resources,” Gregory said.

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CONNECTICUT
TribTown

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 01, 2014

ENFIELD, Connecticut — A suspended Connecticut priest charged in a federal firearms and explosives case has been arrested on allegations he sexually assaulted a minor.

The Rev. Paul Gotta was arrested Monday by East Windsor police on seven sexual assault charges. Police say the assaults took place over the span of a year beginning in January 2012.

Gotta is detained on $100,000 bail. His lawyer didn’t immediately return a message Tuesday.

Gotta was administrator of St. Philip and St. Catherine churches in East Windsor when the Archdiocese of Hartford suspended him last year when the sexual assault allegations surfaced.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Herald (UK)

An American archbishop has said sorry for building a $2.2 million mansion for himself, after complaints from Catholics that it contradicted Pope Francis’s call for austerity.

According to the Associated Press, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, who was president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2001 to 2004, recently moved into a home measuring nearly 6,400 sq ft. The property was built after a donation from the estate of Joseph Mitchell, nephew of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With The Wind. When Mitchell died in 2011, he left more than $15 million to the archdiocese on the condition it be used for “general religious and charitable purposes.”

“I am disappointed that, while my advisers and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia,” Gregory wrote in a column for The Georgia Bulletin.

“I failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the Archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services.”

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Monday, March 31, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

Today, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis provided clergy file documents in a Ramsey County District Court civil case. This release is the first of several that will happen in the coming weeks, and pertains to four men who were previously disclosed on the archdiocesan website in December and February with substantiated claims of sexual abuse. This information was gathered through clergy file documents provided to the court.

* Paul Palmitessa, who, in October 1988, roughly two years before the archdiocese had received any allegation of sexual misconduct, changed his residence and the location of his priestly ministry from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and became an active priest in the Diocese of San Diego. In August 1990, an adult male reported to the archdiocese that Palmitessa had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with him in 1982, when he was a minor. The archdiocese later learned that the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department had learned of and investigated these allegations in August 1982, but that victim chose not to pursue charges or report the allegations to the archdiocese because he did not want his community to know about the abuse. As soon as we were advised of the alleged abuse we communicated the allegations to the Diocese of San Diego. Tragically, in May 1999 the victim of Palmitessa’s abuse killed his wife and committed suicide. The archdiocese has received reports that Palmitessa may have abused others. Palmitessa was removed from ministry by the Diocese of San Diego.

* Kenneth LaVan, about whom the archdiocese received reports in 1988 that he had abused two girls between 1958 and 1970. In 1989 and 1992, the archdiocese settled civil suits brought by the two victims. The archdiocese removed LaVan from ministry in early 1989 and required him to undergo treatment. After completion of treatment he was returned to parish ministry at St. Joseph in Lino Lakes with monitoring. LaVan retired in January 1998, but continued to provide limited assistance at St. Olaf in Minneapolis (and other parishes as requested) until December 2013. LaVan has also been accused of inappropriate sexual relationships with adult women, including a woman who suffered from mental illness and a brain injury. Further questions and concerns are unable to be determined by a review of the file.

* John Michael Stevens, was removed from public ministry in August 1987, after the archdiocese learned from the victim’s mother that Stevens had sexually abused her son, a mentally challenged minor. With the encouragement of the archdiocese, in October 1987, the mother authorized the reporting of the allegation to the Anoka County Sheriff’s Department. Stevens was charged and pled guilty to fourth degree criminal sexual conduct in December 1987. Stevens was not returned to parish ministry and participates in monitoring and ongoing therapy. Documents in Stevens’ file dated after the 1987 abuse incident reveal that Stevens has struggled with attraction to grade school age boys, social isolation and other issues. Stevens was permanently prohibited from all priestly ministry in 2002 as was reported in the media at the time. He subsequently worked as an archdiocesan IT consultant until November 2013.

* Curtis Wehmeyer, who, as has been publicly reported by the archdiocese and the media, pleaded guilty to all charges of criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography brought against him in 2012. He is currently in prison and is prohibited from all priestly ministry. Subsequent to his appointment as pastor in 2009, Wehmeyer showed personal behavioral issues, including drug and alcohol use, anger management and personality struggles, as well as sexual impropriety not involving minors. In June 2012, the archdiocese was informed of accusations of sexual abuse of a minor made against Wehmeyer and timely reported this information to St. Paul police. The archdiocese cooperated with the police investigation, and Wehmeyer was immediately removed from all public ministry. The archdiocese has provided and continues to provide financial support for counseling for Wehmeyer’s victims and their family.

The archdiocese deeply regrets the egregious acts of these men and the unimaginable harm suffered by victims, their families and their communities. We will never cease our apologies to all affected.

As we continue this disclosure process, we aim to reach out to all affected parties to continue to promote the protection of children, the healing of victims and the restoration of trust of the faithful and our clergy who are serving our communities nobly and with honor.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan AM
Chair
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

On 10 April 1874, the New York Times carried an account of the evidence given by a nine year old girl in the Supreme Court of New York on the previous day. It was the chilling story of the mistreatment of an orphan who had been placed into the care of people by the name of Connolly. Mrs Connolly, who the child was required to call Mamma, was later convicted of her felonious assault.

The nine year old was Mary Ellen Wilson. She was giving evidence in a case brought by Henry Bergh, who happened to be the president of the “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”. Bergh had been approached for help by a concerned Methodist mission worker who became aware of Mary Ellen’s circumstances.

One suspects that Mary Ellen’s circumstances were not unique although perhaps unusually harsh. In 19th century America and indeed in many societies children were afforded no rights. They were treated as the property of their parents and guardians. Many suffered great deprivation.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

April 1, 2014

Eoin Blackwell

A survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of Salvation Army officers says an apology from the organisation means nothing to him, while another has urged Australians to think twice about donating to the charity.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday heard from two men who survived abuse at different Salvation Army schools.

One man, FE, was raped repeatedly by guards at the Gill Memorial School in Goulburn in the early 1970s.

He said he was offered a $60,000 ex gratia payment by the Salvos in 2006, but was not told how that amount was calculated.

“The way I saw it, it was hush money,” FE said.

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CANADA
Manitoulin Expositor

OTTAWA – Victims of Residential Schools will no longer be able to turn to special services designed specifically to match their needs now that Health Canada is cutting the Resolution Health Support Program, according to NDP Aboriginal Health Critic, Carol Hughes.

The Resolution Health Support Program provided Cultural and emotional support as well as professional counselling and assisted with transportation when necessary. Hughes was echoing the concerns of Justice Murray Sinclair, who headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that these services are being terminated while there is still a strong need for them.

“The Conservatives are preparing to cut the program that provided mental health support to former students of Indian Residential Schools,” Said Hughes. This does nothing to support reconciliation.”
Hughes said the Prime Minister promised honest reconciliation as part of the historic 2008 Residential School Apology but has changed his tune and is now leaving individuals to fend for themselves.

The MP for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing notes that the need for special support services will persist despite the line in the sand drawn by Health Canada and feels the government owes it to survivors, especially those who testified at hearings, to ensure the support is available to match that need.

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CANADA
Brantford Expositor

By Michelle Ruby, Brantford Expositor

A $5-million fundraising campaign soon will be launched to renovate the deteriorating Mohawk Institute, a former Indian residential school on Mohawk Street.

The Saving the Evidence campaign was kicked off Sunday by Six Nations Elected Chief Coun. Ava Hill.

The Anglican Church ran the former Mohawk Institute, now the Woodland Cultural Centre, from the 1830s until 1970, housing children from Six Nations, along with some from reserves including New Credit, Moraviantown, Sarnia, Walpole Island, Muncey, Scugog, Stoney Point, Saugeen, Bay of Quinte, and Kahnawake.

In an effort to assimilate them, about 150,000 aboriginal children were forced to leave their communities to attend residential schools across the country, which were funded by the Department of Indian Affairs.

Many former students have described suffering physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the school. Many died while attending the schools. The poor quality of food served to students at the Mohawk Institute led to the school’s nickname, the Mush Hole.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

April 1, 2014

Michael Pascoe

Cardinal George Pell is not normally mentioned in the same breath as Julia Gillard – it’s the other side of politics that has been much closer to him – but the departed Prime Minister and departing Archbishop of Sydney have something in common that should stand as a stark governance warning to every board and CEO in the nation: they’ve been incalculably damaged by abandoning principles.

Both were seduced by the siren call of the ends supposedly justifying the means, and therefore were prepared to do wrong that inevitably has come back to haunt them and damage the very institutions they were trying to protect.

For Pell, preserving the church’s assets justified the persecution of a damaged man, as detailed by royal commission hearings last week and masterfully summarised by David Marr. The final result is that the church sustained greater damage, its machinations exposed for ridicule, never mind blowing $1.5 million on the case. Pell leaves for Rome a permanently diminished figure.

For Gillard, hanging on to the Treasury benches and her position justified standing by Craig Thomson and running soft on union corruption long after the stench of Thomson’s actions put him beyond the pale. The Peter Slipper deal was done as a means of betraying a commitment to poker machine reform. And there was the little matter of a carbon tax.

And how did all that play out for her? Dumped by her party as leader, regarded as compromised by the majority of the electorate, Labor lost government without being able to cement its headline reforms, their future already uncertain, and left an opening for a royal commission that will prolong the labour movement’s woes.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MARK SCHLIEBS THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 01, 2014

A ROYAL commission has taken the extraordinary step of removing more than a thousand pieces of evidence from public view because of concerns raised by the state government.

It is understood that lawyers acting for South Australia last week expressed concern that the royal commission may have published information regarding pedophilia investigations that was subject to suppression ­orders, with several tendered documents removed from the website before the weekend.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

[with video]

By: Josh Rosenthal

Monday night the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis started handing over what will eventually add up to more than 60,000 documents related to priests accused of sexual abuse. They’re part of a court case scheduled to go to trial in September.

“This represents a real turning point in this process. We’re beginning to see real action,” explained University of St. Thomas Professor of Law Charles Reid. He says the documents tell a story, but it’ll be up to the plaintiff’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, to connect the dots.

“I think what we’ll see is a tug of war,” Reid said. That’ll start Wednesday, when Archbishop John Neinstedt will be deposed. That in itself is a very big deal. Think of Neinstedt as the CEO of the Twin Cities branch of the Catholic Church.

“This is a big position,” Reid said. “It carries great power, great weight, great gravity, and obtaining his testimony is a huge step in this case.”

It means the general public could start hearing more details soon too. Last week Anderson said he believes the church knows of offenders who have not been named publicly. He said he’d ask the judge for permission to name them.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WFDD

[with audio]

By KERI BROWN

The Catholic Church continues to struggle with issues including cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests and a decline in the number of priests and nuns in several religious orders.

Jason Berry gained prominence for his pioneering investigative reporting into sexual abuse in the priesthood, his coverage of the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and his reporting on the Vatican’s investigation of American nuns accused of “radical feminism.”

For the past 25 years, investigative journalist and author Jason Berry has been covering the Catholic Church and its myriad scandals and crisis. Earlier this year, he co-produced of PBS Frontline documentary called Secrets of the Vatican.

Berry is the author of Render Unto to Rome: The Secret Life and Money in the Catholic Church and co-author of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II.

On Wednesday, Berry will be the guest speaker at Wake Forest University as part of the schools journalism program and its affiliation with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington D.C.

He recently spoke with WFDD’s Keri Brown by phone from his home in New Orleans to talk about Pope Francis and the future of the Catholic Church.

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VIRGINIA
Christian Post

BY JESSICA MARTINEZ, CP REPORTER
March 31, 2014

The Richmond Outreach Center announced that a youth pastor from Atlanta will lead the Virginia megachurch after nearly a year-long, nationwide search.

Joe Donahue will replace Geronimo Aguilar, the ROC’s former senior pastor who was arrested in May 2013 on sexual abuse charges. Prior to his new assignment, Donahue was serving as teaching pastor at First Redeemer Church for the past six years.

“Pastor Joe has a heart to lead, strengthen, and equip the church through solid biblical teaching, authenticity, transparency, and his love for Jesus,” according to a statement on the church’s website.

Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va. and a consultant for the ROC, introduced Donahue and his wife Kristy to the congregation on Saturday night. While speaking about the church’s struggle to remain intact during Aguilar’s sex scandal, Falwell noted that Donahue is the man “God has raised up” to lead the ministry towards a new beginning.

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FLORIDA
Local 10

[with video]

Author: Terrell Forney, Reporter, tforney@Local10.com

MIAMI –
A criminal trial is underway against a youth minister accused of raping young boys.

Jeffrey London 50, appeared in a Broward County courtroom Monday as the first of several accusers took the witness stand.

One of the alleged victims, now 20 years old, claims London sexually assaulted him during a period of 10 years. The boy, between 5 and 6 years old at the time, moved in with London because his mother was having financial difficulties. London was a trusted member of the community because he was a minister at a Fort Lauderdale area church and a youth counselor with the Boys & Girls Club.

London was arrested in 2012 after the molestation accusations came to light from one young man. Since then, nine victims have stepped forward.

Prosecutors went into great detail about the abuse and talked about incriminating text messages in front of jurors.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON April 1, 2014

BALLARAT Catholic diocese vicar-general Father Justin Driscoll firmly believes in the “Francis Effect”.

Since the election of Pope Francis in March 2013, Fr Driscoll believes people are finding their “humility to listen”.

So the Ballarat Diocese Foundation has joined forces with world-renowned sexual abuse expert Professor Caroline Taylor to host a community gathering on child sexual abuse.

It will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral Hall at 7pm today.

Fr Driscoll and Professor Taylor said it was aimed at creating community awareness and understanding of abuse and its impact on victims.

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CONNECTICUT
WFSB

[with video]

By Joseph Wenzel IV, News Editor
By Kate Rayner

EAST WINDSOR, CT (WFSB) –
A priest, who is currently on leave from his church, was arraigned Monday afternoon on multiple charges of sexual assault.

Father Paul Gotta, 55, was arrested and charged with two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

According to court documents, the alleged assaults involved a minor and took place in South Windsor over the course of about a year. The assaults started in January 2012.

Gotta is the same priest connected to an investigation into an alleged threat against a school by a local teenager.

Gotta was connected to 18-year-old Kyle Bass, who allegedly made threats against the Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield.

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MONTANA
Ravalli Republic

By MATT VOLZ Associated Press

HELENA – A federal judge ruled that 95 people can pursue sex abuse claims in state court against an order of nuns during bankruptcy proceedings involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena.

The Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province aren’t covered by an automatic stay in civil proceedings that was granted to the diocese when it filed for Chapter 11 protection, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers said in a Friday order.

A combined 362 plaintiffs filed two lawsuits claiming abuse by the diocese and the Ursulines between the 1940s and 1970s, when the plaintiffs were children.

The lawsuit against the order alleges that nuns and priests at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius abused dozens of Native American children. The diocese is accused of covering up widespread abuse across its territory.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a settlement with most of the plaintiffs, which prompted the automatic stay in state court.

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UNITED STATES
Watch Keep

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests held a media event last week at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina urging BJU officials to release the identities of all sex offenders (proven, admitted and credibly accused) who have worked at or attended the university and post them permanently on the school’s web page. This would help prevent future crimes.

Statement by Cathy Winterfield of SNAP:

We are urging Bob Jones University officials to
–launch an independent investigation into alleged cover-ups of child sex crimes and/or sexual harassment accusations that have surfaced recently against a nationally-known minister, and
–permanently post the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused sex offenders who are or have been at the university on the school’s website.

Earlier this month, a prominent Illinois-based Protestant minister, Rev. Bill Gothard, was put on administrative leave after as many as 34 women said that he sexually harassed them. At least four women said that he molested them as youngsters. And Gothard also allegedly hid sexual harassment by his brother, along with Bob Jones officials, according to a recent Washington Post article.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Religion and Ethics

Scott Stephens

Prior to entering the conclave that would elect him as Bishop of Rome, Jorge Mario Bergoglio took the opportunity to warn his brother Cardinals against succumbing to an “evil which is so grave” – that of spiritual worldliness. This admittedly strange term was not Bergoglio’s at all, but rather comes from the remarkable final meditation of Henri de Lubac’s book, The Splendour of the Church.

In his chapter on “The Church and Our Lady,” de Lubac points to Mary as “the perfect worshipper,” as the “consummation of the religion of the humble” and, as such, she is “the ideal figure of the Church” and “the mirror in which the whole Church is reflected.” What makes her such is that, in her humility, she directs all people toward the glory of God: “Soli Deo gloria – everything in Mary proclaims that.” For de Lubac, the opposite of this Marian disposition – a disposition which, he insists, belongs to the Church’s “very principle” – is the tendency of the Church to conduct its affairs in a manner that effectively renders it opaque, that arrogates glory to itself by becoming the focus and end of its own activities.

This, according to de Lubac, is a form of “spiritual worldliness” which feigns the appearance of a kind of “other-worldly” orientation but behaves as though God did not exist. De Lubac is here deeply indebted to the English Benedictine Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast Abbey, who writes in his book, The Spirit and the Bride:

“To become worldly is a peril that is never absent; when we say that worldliness is [the Church’s] snare we mean by worldliness a more subtle thing than is usually meant by this expression. We generally understand by worldliness the love of wealth and luxury amongst the Church’s dignitaries; this is, of course, an evil, but it is not the principal evil. Worldliness of the mind, if it were ever to overtake her, would be much more disastrous for the Church than worldliness of apparel. By worldliness of mind we understand the practical relinquishing of other-worldliness, so that moral and even spiritual standards should be based, not on what is the glory of the Lord, but on what is the profit of man …”

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

A former Diocese of Winona priest will be deported after admitting he fondled a girl while attending dinner at her grandmother’s home.

The Rev. Leo Koppala was taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security after his sentencing Monday and will be held until his deportation proceedings, according to the diocese.

Online court records show Koppala was sentenced to 25 years of supervised probation and ordered to register as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty March 17 to second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim younger than 13. He fondled a girl while he was attending dinner at her grandmother’s home, according to court records.

The 47-year-old Koppala was assigned in 2009 to the Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Blue Earth and to St. Mary’s in Winnebago. He did not serve in the Winona area.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX AND JUSTINE FERRARI THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 01, 2014

CHILD sex abuse victims are being compensated out of interest the Catholic Church earns from investing the billions of dollars it receives in government grants for schools.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has received evidence from a church whistleblower suggesting at least one Catholic diocese ultimately profits from interest received on state and commonwealth government education grants.

The Australian has also confirmed that the practice, under which the grants are compulsorily invested in accounts held within each diocese’s “internal treasury” or development fund, also takes place elsewhere across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

Each diocese’s development fund acts like a bank, repaying an agreed rate of interest on the education funds they hold to the schools. They also pool this money with other assets invested with commercial banks at a higher rate of interest, often generating multi-million-dollar, tax-free surpluses each year.

Part of this money is, in turn, transferred to special funds under the direct control of each bishop and at least one regional diocese is understood to have transferred more than $1 million in this way last year. In some dioceses, these discretionary funds are then used to pay for the lawyers and compensation payments involved in abuse cases brought against the church. Details of the church’s ­finances are rarely made public and the existence of this money trail has been criticised, including by those who have received compensation payments for such

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MINNESOTA
KEYC

By Ashley Hanley, Reporter

A Blue Earth priest has been sentenced after pleading guilty to criminal sexual conduct with an 11 year old girl.

In a packed courtroom in the Faribault County Courthouse, Father Leo Charles Koppala, formerly of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Blue Earth, was sentenced to a 36–month probationary period with credit for time served after entering a guilty plea for second–degree criminal sexual conduct with an 11–year–old female.

Faribault County Attorney Troy Timmerman says, “Basically that means that given his criminal history and the severity of the offense, he will be placed on probation with a prison sentence hanging over his head so if he violates his probationary terms then the prison sentence could be imposed.”

Some of those conditions include registering as a predatory offender and not having contact with females under the age of 18, among others.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on March 31, 2014 by lewisblayse

Hi.

Peter Farthing from the Salvation Army has replied to my request for a meeting, but is attempting to have me agree to have this meeting after the current Case Study 10 hearings are over and at my home.

This is not acceptable.

I hope my email reply just sent to Mr Farthing demonstrates why. If it doesn’t, I’m happy to elaborate upon my reasons and to explain further why I insist on meeting when and how I have specified – this week, in Sydney, with my representatives (who are in Sydney) present.

“Nice try, Peter.

I’m not as bright as my father was, but I’m not that stupid.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota SNAP

This page is dedicated to those that have died from the injuries and soul murder inflicted by Marks. Shame on the people, organizations, and institutions that repeatedly put him in locations without warnings to families and children.

The courthouse doors are now open to those injured with lifelong damages and burdens from childhood sexual abuse. The Minnesota Child Victims Act was established for those previously denied civil justice.

This open, honest, and transparent presentation displays how I can easily walk through courthouse doors not as a victim but as a ‘Victor’ with head raised and not burdened with shame, guilt or other confusions.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

Associated Press
POSTED: 03/31/2014

WINONA, Minn. — A Minnesota priest was taken into custody at his Monday sentencing and will be deported after admitting he fondled a girl while attending dinner at her grandmother’s home.

The Rev. Leo Koppala will be held by the Department of Homeland Security until his deportation proceedings and likely sent back to his native India, according to a statement from the Diocese of Winona said.

Koppala pleaded guilty March 17 to second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim younger than 13. He was sentenced to 25 years of supervised probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.

The Diocese of Winona said the 47-year-old Koppala was assigned in 2009 to the Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Blue Earth and to St. Mary’s in Winnebago.

He was placed on leave in June 2013. The diocese said it had permanently removed Koppala from ministry and dismissed him from employment as of Monday.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

BY HILDA MUÑOZ, hmunoz@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
4:22 p.m. EDT, March 31, 2014

ENFIELD — An East Windsor priest who was indicted on federal firearms charges in February is now facing sexual assault charges.

Rev. Paul Gotta, 55, was arraigned Monday at Superior Court in Enfield on two counts of second-degree sexual assault and five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

His bail was set at $100,000. His next court date is scheduled on April 14.

Gotta’s arrest warrant is sealed and details of the sexual assault case are not being released at this time, police said.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By Charles Gazaway

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – Jury selection has begun in the trial of a Louisville priest charged with sexually abusing two teens more than 30 years ago.

Rev. James Schook, 65, is charged with sodomy after being indicted in 2011.

Schook, who has terminal skin cancer, was deemed fit to stand trial after he was examined by a state doctor.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A local church reform group is criticizing last week’s trip to Rome by a Philadelphia delegation hoping to get Pope Francis to come to the city for a world families event in 2015.

Catholics 4 Change claim the expense was extravagant and unnecessary.

Susan Matthews of Philadelphia-based Catholics 4 Change says there’s been a lot of activity among local Catholics on social media about last week’s trip.

“There’s a lot of questions about the cost. There’s a lot of questions about was it necessary for this? Is this a publicity stunt to distract us away from the clergy sex abuse scandal? Is this a publicity stunt to distract us away from the financial difficulties?” Matthews says even though the trip was paid by funds raised by a separate non-profit organization set up for the World Families meeting, it doesn’t fit the example Pope Francis is trying to set for the church.

“This isn’t a pope of politicians and wealthy delegates. This a pope of the people and he’s made that clear,” Matthews says she and others would love to see the pope come here. But a more austere approach for a local church still in crisis would have been better.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

VON WOLFGANG THIELMANN

Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst ist vergangene Woche zurückgetreten und kehrt nicht zurück nach Limburg. Er hatte die Baukosten für den neuen Bischofssitz durch teils seltsame Umbauten massiv überzogen. Wie seltsam, sehen Sie hier in einer langen Liste:

Nachdem der Mariengarten fertiggestellt war, wurde er wieder abgebrochen und zum sogenannten Garten der Stille wieder aufgebaut. Mehrkosten brutto: ca. 667.000 Euro.

Anfang 2013 war bereits die Mehrzahl aller elektrischen Schalter im Projekt eingebaut. Diese wurden durch ein anderes Modell (Sensortaster) ausgetauscht. Hierbei entstanden Elektroarbeiten, die brutto etwa 20.000 Euro gekostet haben.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

A Connecticut priest who was suspended last year has been arrested on several sexual assault charges.

Rev. Paul Gotta, 55, of Bridgeport, was charged with five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

Police said Gotta has been accused of sexual misconduct and the arrest comes after a joint investigation by the East Windsor Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Gotta had been the administrator of St. Philip Church in East Windsor and St. Catherine Church in Broad Brook but was placed on administrative leave after being accused of sexual abuse, according to the Archdiocese of Hartford.

In July, officials from the Archdiocese of Hartford said the Department of Children and Families was investigating a complaint of sexual abuse of a minor against Rev. Paul Gotta.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

PIA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 01, 2014

INSTITUTIONS should review all payments made to children in their care that had been sexually abused, according to the head of the royal commission examining the organisations’ responses.

Judge Peter McClellan, who is chairing the royal commission, yesterday told a child protection workers’ conference that the question of whether a national redress scheme should be set up for abuse survivors was challenging but some institutions had already taken “significant” steps.

He pointed to a Salvation Army commitment to review all payments made to abuse victims to ensure they were fair, and a similar “opinion” from Cardinal George Pell regarding people abused within the Sydney Archdiocese.

“I suspect, and the Commissioners are hopeful, that as a result of the Royal Commission’s focus on this issue other institutions will respond in a similar manner,” Justice McClellan said.

“It is apparent from the work we have already undertaken that designing a fair redress scheme, assuming that one should be created, raises significant and difficult questions.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

ALMOST 150 paedophiles have been reported to police by the royal commission into child sex abuse as it investigates 13 ­institutions and more than 30 victims have come forward.

The commission has been so overwhelmed with reports of sexual abuse that it will be impossible to look into all of them, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said yesterday.

There are 168 institutions, including orphanages and residential schools, where five or more victims have spoken to the commission. It said 62 per cent of complaints involved abuse in a religious ­institution, most of them Catholic.

“Although the royal commission has been given significant resources they could never be sufficient to allow the examination of more than a relatively small selection of the institutions in which we are aware there have been problems,” Justice McClellan said. “I am sorry many people will be disappointed their particular institution and their own story will not be publicly examined.”

The commission has referred 141 matters to police throughout Australia, including the former superintendent of Parramatta Girls Training School, Frank Valentine, who was accused of raping a girl, 13, in the school’s “dungeon” in the early 1970s. He vehemently denies the claims.

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UNITED STATES
New Statesman

BY MARK LAWSON PUBLISHED 31 MARCH, 2014

Heroic bankers and altruistic politicians are – for obvious recent reasons – rarely to be found as characters in modern culture. And, given the scale of the revelations of the occurrence and covering-up of sexual abuse by priests, you might assume that the same would be true of sincere and celibate Roman Catholic clergy.

Yet, in these bad times for the Vatican, good priests are surprisingly in evidence on-screen. Father James Lavelle, played by Brendan Gleeson in Calvary (released on 11 April), is as unimpeachably true to his vocation as that other high-profile representative of the Catholic priesthood in BBC1’s recent Father Brown, adapted from G K Chesterton’s ecclesiastical detective stories.

As Father Brown is a period piece, set before the paedophile scandals, the ordained investigator is free from suspicion. But, in Calvary, the writer-director John Michael McDonagh employs a deliberate strategy of tempting the audience to think the worst of Gleeson’s character. When Father Lavelle is alone with an altar boy or chats to a young girl in a country lane, we are ready to damn him but his intentions are always innocent.

Admittedly, the character is a compromised compliment to Catholicism. McDonagh’s motivation is more artistic than propagandistic. Such is the reputation of Roman Catholic clergy that a good priest – like a good Nazi in war films – wrong-foots the audience. There is also the advantage of putting clear holy water between his work and that of his brother, Martin McDonagh, whose In Bruges (2008) begins with the botched murder, in a confession box, of a paedophile priest.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Diesseits

Die Politik tut nicht genug, um sexualisierte Gewalt an Minderjährigen zu verhindern, sagt Norbert Denef. Der Gründer von netzwerkB bezeichnet es als „unerträglich“, dass der Unabhängige Beauftragte der Bundesregierung zum Thema im Amt bestätigt wurde. Aus seiner Sicht steht für den Gesetzgeber weiterhin der Täterschutz im Vordergrund.

ARIK PLATZEK
Montag, 31. März 2014

Herr Denef, am vergangenen Montag hat die Katholische Kirche ein zweites Forschungsprojekt zum Thema „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“ vorgestellt. Was halten Sie davon?

Ein Narr ist, wer daran glaubt, dass nach vier Jahren Akten-Aufräumzeit wissenschaftliche Forschungsarbeit noch möglich sei.

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AUSTRALIEN
Neue Zurcher Zeitung

Heidi Gmür, Sydney Heute, 31. März 2014

Der australische Kardinal George Pell tritt im Vatikan seine neue Stelle als Präfekt des neuen Wirtschaftsministerium an. Vor der Abreise nach Rom hatte er noch eine letzte, bittere Pflicht in Sydney zu erfüllen.

Mit drei Verhören und zwei öffentlichen Entschuldigungen hat Kardinal George Pells 13-jährige Amtszeit als Erzbischof von Sydney geendet, bevor er am Montag im Vatikan seine neue Stelle als Präfekt des neu geschaffenen Wirtschaftsministeriums angetreten hat. An drei Tagen musste er als Zeuge vor der Royal Commission erscheinen. Die Kommission war Ende 2012 einberufen worden und ist mit Sonderbefugnissen ähnlich einem Gericht ausgestattet, um landesweit den Kindsmissbrauch in kirchlichen, staatlichen und privaten Institutionen zu untersuchen.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

by Elise Harris

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2014 / 06:28 am (CNA/Europa Press).- A German psychologist recently appointed to the new Vatican commission for the protection of minors has stated that the initiative demonstrates Pope Francis’ concern regarding the immediacy of the issue.

“I believe that people realize that this is an issue that Pope Francis has put on his agenda and with a priority” Fr. Hans Zollner J.S. told CNA in a March 25 interview.

Fr. Zollner is psychologist and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and was recently named one of the initial eight members of the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

According to Fr. Zollner, “the Commission is…an initial group of eight people who are named to find out who else could be members of a larger commission, including other members from other continents and countries.”

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

March 31, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter

Survivors of institutional child sexual abuse in the Kimberley region who wish to share their story with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will be encouraged to come forward this week.

Staff from the Royal Commission are in the region this week.

In its second visit to the Kimberley, Royal Commission staff are meeting with Aboriginal and other community organisations and service providers in Broome and Kununurra from March 31 to April 11.

Royal Commission chief executive Janette Dines said the visit would provide an opportunity to share information about the work of the Royal Commission.

“We strongly encourage all survivors who wish to share their story, particularly in a private session with a Commissioner, to register their interest with the Royal Commission,” Ms Dines said.

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By The Jersey Journal
on March 31, 2014

John Burns Jr., the owner of Burns Brothers Memorials on Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City, has filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Newark, in his capacity as president of the monument builders trade association.

At issue is the archdiocese’s decision to get into the lucrative headstone and mausoleum business, according a story in yesterday’s Star-Ledger.

A New Jersey law prohibits cemeteries from selling the objects. The Garden State is one of few states in the nation with such a ban.

The archdiocese claims however that it is not selling the objects, but rather leasing to families the right to use the space and the objects, and selling “inscription rights” to allow buyers to personalize them.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Burns told The Ledger. “As time goes on, they’re going to perfect this. Their sales force is going to be better educated. They will monopolize the industry. And we will cease to exist.”

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

video report by Jonathan Choe

SAVAGE, Minn. (KMSP) –
A children’s pastor serving at a church in Savage, Minn., has been arrested on suspicion of soliciting a minor through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct.

According to the Pope County Sheriff’s Department, 24-year-old Matthew Boos was arrested on Friday afternoon. Boos remains in custody at the Douglas County Jail awaiting formal charges.

More information on the arrest is expected to be released on Monday, but the pastor of River Valley Church insisted that the case does not involve a child from the congregation there.

Executive Pastor Darin Poli only agreed to speak with Fox 9 News by phone until he has all the facts, but he said the church is cooperating with authorities and has placed Boos on indefinite administrative leave pending the investigation.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY AMANDA FERGUSON – 31 MARCH 2014

A priest acquitted of child sex abuse has shocked parishioners after stepping down from his post days after returning to ministry.

Fr Eugene Boland resumed his role as parish priest of Cappagh in the Diocese of Derry on March 15 after being found not guilty of indecent assault in 2012.

There were jubilant scenes in St Mary’s Chapel as more than 900 parishioners applauded Fr Boland as he made an emotional return to public life just days after being granted permission from the Vatican.

The smiling priest appeared delighted to be back with his flock.

“What I have missed most was not being able to celebrate Holy Mass or administer the sacraments,” he said.

“My priestly ministry has been on hold since 2010.

“Tonight is like a new dawn, a new beginning; it’s like a day of resurrection.”

As he spoke applause rang out and there were cheers in the balconies.

But there was surprise at Saturday night mass when it emerged that the Donegal-born priest had now resigned.

It is thought the stress of the last few years has taken its toll.

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THAILAND
UCA News

Michael Kelly SJ, Bangkok

March 31, 2014

You could be forgiven for not knowing where the buck stops in the Catholic Church these days. In any society, organization or Church community, it is important to know who is ultimately responsible in decision making; otherwise, chaos or worse would prevail.

In an unprecedented (for a cardinal) cross examination in court last week, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney seemed confused about responsibility in the Sydney Church. He was speaking for the Archdiocese of Sydney which he led from 2001 until his transfer to a job at the Vatican, appearing before the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in institutions, including the Church’s, across Australia.

The Cardinal blamed various mistakes on his hand-picked lieutenants, “couldn’t recall” the details of instructions being given on his behalf to his lawyers and claimed his legal representatives had gone beyond what was acceptable to any Christian in defending a case brought against the archdiocese by a child abuse victim, John Ellis.

The same was true at a global level in February when the Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, ducked criticism from the United Nations committee investigating the Church’s compliance with a UN protocol it signed on the rights of children.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Marie Collins

Mon, Mar 31, 2014

I have been disappointed and let down often in my hopes for change in the way the Catholic Church handles the child abuse issue. At times I have despaired to the point where I wanted nothing more to do with the church. This was particularly true after my participation in the church’s failed Lynnott Committee, tasked with writing child protection guidelines in Ireland in 2003. Why then accept the appointment to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors?

I have asked myself the same question. Am I an incurable optimist or a fool? I hope I am neither. I have accepted for the same reason I decided to take up the invitation to speak at the Vatican’s Towards Healing and Renewal seminar on child abuse in Rome in 2012 – saving children from abuse is more important than any personal fear of hurt or humiliation. If there is the slightest chance that this commission can bring in change within the church that will lead to children being better protected and survivors being better treated then I cannot turn my back on it.

I have no doubt there will be many who will criticise my participation. Those who feel the commission is just a smoke screen or that the church is incapable of sincerity on this issue. They may feel I am, by participating, letting survivors down, colluding and betraying their fight for justice. I understand the feelings and respect those people’s right to their views. Since the day I reported my priest abuser I have followed my heart and instincts on how to fight the fight for justice. I have adhered to my principles and have always spoken the truth. I have accepted this appointment not to hurt anyone but to take the opportunity to carry forward the fight to the heart of the church itself. If I am wrong and in the future it is shown to have been a mistake I will not try to hide the fact: I will come forward and admit it.

Destructive treatment

At the Vatican symposium two years ago I spoke to bishops and congregational leaders from around the world. I spoke in clear terms of my personal experience of clerical sexual abuse. I talked also of the devastating effect it had on my life and family and of the destructive treatment later by the servants of the church, when trying to bring my abuser to justice. I spoke of what I felt was needed in the church in change of attitude and in practical terms to ensure others did not have the same experiences. My hope was that if even a small percentage learned something from my words and it influenced their child protection policies or how they interacted with survivors it was worth doing.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

The clerical abuse scandal cost American dioceses $108,954,109 in 2013, according to a report released on March 28 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Only 62% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($61.1 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($6.1 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($28.9 million), support for offenders ($10.4 million), and other costs ($2.4 million), according to the 2013 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”

The clerical abuse scandal cost religious institutes an additional $14,411,168 in 2013. These expenses brought the total cost of the clerical abuse scandal to American dioceses and religious institutes between 2004 and 2012 to $2,744,881,843: $2,351,903,157 for dioceses and eparchies, and $392,978,686 for religious institutes.

The report added that dioceses, eparchies, and religious orders spent $41,721,675 for child protection efforts in 2013.

During the 2013 audit period, “370 new credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor” were lodged by 365 persons– nine of them minors, the rest of them adults who said they were abused when they were minors. “These allegations were made by 365 individuals against 290 priests or deacons,” the report stated. 56% of them “had already been identified in prior allegations,” and 73% “are deceased, already removed from ministry, already laicized, or missing.”

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ITALY
International Business Times

By Ludovica Iaccino March 31, 2014

A leading Italian cleric says the Vatican’s decision to exempt bishops from being required to report cases of suspected child sex abuse is partly to protect victims.

Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference and once considered as a future pope, told reporters that although the Vatican requires national laws to be respected, the decision to adopt the policy has been taken in part to protect victims who may not want to press charges.

“What is important is to respect the will of the victims and their relatives, who may not want to report the abuse, for personal reasons,” he said. “We need to be careful that we, in the clergy, do not undermine the right to privacy, discretion and confidentiality, and the right of the victims to not be ‘exposed’ in the public square.”

According to the new guidelines, clergy are under no obligation to inform the authorities about suspected abuse but have a “moral duty” to act to protect the vulnerable and “contribute to the common good”.

The new policy has sparked fury among victim support groups, which condemned the “stunning, depressing and irresponsible contradiction between what Vatican officials say about abuse, and do about abuse,” AFP reported.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Journal

A PARISH PRIEST who was cleared in 2012 of allegations of child sex abuse has resigned just two weeks after he returned to public ministry in his Omagh parish.

Father Eugene Boland returned to his parish in Cappagh, Omagh on 15 March after a three and a half year leave of absence following the allegations. He had been accused of assaulting a 14-year-old girl but was cleared of all charges by a jury in 2012.

A statement about the priest’s resignation today said he engaged in therapy to “help him cope with what he was experiencing and to prepare him properly for a return to public ministry and interaction with the people again”.

His return to ministry followed professional advice that he was ready for this. All too quickly, however, it has become clear to Father Boland and diocesan authorities that he is not ready. For that reason, Father Boland now needs more time for help and guidance in this regard and has been granted leave of absence from ministry.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

A local priest acquitted of sexual assault charges two years ago has resigned from ministry in the Diocese of Derry.

Moville-born Fr Eugene Boland, a parish priest in Cappagh, County Tyrone, stepped aside four years ago while allegations were investigated.

He had resumed his duties just two weeks ago after it was confirmed legal proceedings and church processes had been completed.

The priest’s resignation was announced in a statement issued by the Diocese at the weekend.

The statement said Fr Boland had offered his resignation and that a new parish priest would be appointed in “due course”.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Cardinal George Pell and Catholic bishops have seriously overdrawn their moral credit

March 29, 2014

Jack Waterford
Editor-at-large, The Canberra Times

Cardinal George Pell, former archbishop of Sydney, has departed for Rome to take charge of Vatican finances. His last acts in Sydney involved rationalising the contradictions in his leadership style caused by the chasm between moral and spiritual leadership of his community, and legal and fiduciary management of its assets and finances. For 30 years his has been the authoritarian, cold, unfeeling, and arrogant face of the church corporate in Australia.

His brother bishops, and the heads of most Australian religious orders, will be glad to see him go. He has never been very popular with his brothers – something exemplified by the fact few have ever voted for him to be chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Colleagues think the negative publicity he engenders has been disastrous for the reputation of the church.

But a good many of those bishops rose from the ranks by exactly the same processes as Pell, and are themselves distant from their flocks for having chosen, primarily out of ambition, to be the local representatives of Rome, rather than to Rome.

Pell is on a tough management job in Rome. In business terms he may do it well, but, if he does, it will be by behaving in much the same manner that has made him so ineffective as a pastor, but so powerful as a cleric, in Australia. He will not be preaching, or exemplifying a gospel of love, but being autocratic, driven and unaccountable to those below him.

This week he copied that strange, modern ministerial style of accepting responsibility – as the person at the top – while blaming everyone else and refusing to be actually accountable.

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ITALY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Mon, Mar 31, 2014

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, this weekend defended conference guidelines on child protection which state an Italian bishop has “no juridical obligation” to report “illegal doings” to the state judiciary.

The guidelines, called for by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in May 2011, were issued last week in a revised version which stated: “Given that in the Italian penal code, a bishop is neither a public official nor is he in charge of a public entity, then he has no juridical obligation to report to state judicial authorities any information he may have with regard to illegal doings”.

Victims’ rights

Speaking in Genoa on Saturday, Cardinal Bagnasco argued the guidelines did not represent a “no” to mandatory reporting; rather they were the expression of concern for the victims’ right to privacy, adding:

“We priests have to be very careful to respect the privacy, discretion and sense of reserve [of victims], we’ve got to be sensitive to the trauma of victims who do not want to be thrust into the public eye . . .”

Cardinal Bagnasco said the church’s moral obligation towards victims counts for much more than its juridical obligations. The guidelines were criticised by clerical sex abuse victims’ lobbies, such as US group Snap, which have always called for “mandatory reporting” of clerical sex offenders.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

Updated: Mar 30, 2014
By Dalton Main

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The trial of a local priest, charged in connection with the sexual abuse of two teens in the 1970’s, is expected to begin Monday.

Reverend James Schook is charged with sodomy. The 65-year-old has terminal skin cancer, but was deemed fit to stand trial by a state doctor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Cash-strapped child protection agencies are now acting as little more than an emergency service following a surge of reports of abuse in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, the NSPCC has warned.

The charity said in its annual report on child safety that record numbers of people coming forward coupled with tough economic times meant struggling children’s social services are only able to focus on the worst cases.

To tackle the problem, it called for all professionals who come into contact with children to take responsibility for detecting and preventing abuse and neglect.

The number of sexual abuse victims calling charity helplines has increased dramatically since the abuse carried out by Leeds-born DJ Savile over 40 years emerged in 2012.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Retro Report
By CLYDE HABERMAN

Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the former Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, is in no way the principal face of the sexual abuse scandals that have buffeted the church and its priesthood almost without pause for three decades. But he embodies a certain mind-set among some in the highest clerical ranks. It is an attitude that has led critics, who of late include the authors of a scathing United Nations committee report, to wonder about the depth of the church’s commitment to atone for past predations and to ensure that those sins of the fathers are visited on no one else.

In 2002, with the scandal in crescendo and the American Catholic Church knocked back on its heels, Cardinal Egan reacted with obvious ambivalence to accounts of priestly abuses that occurred in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., which he had led before moving to New York. “If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry,” he said in a letter to parishioners.

The conditional nature of the apology, a style favored by innumerable politicians caught with hands in the till, was not lost on many listeners. Nor was the cardinal’s use of “mistakes” to describe a pattern routinely described by district attorneys as a cover-up. As if that were not enough, the reluctant penitent turned thoroughly unrepentant a decade later. By then retired, he withdrew his apology. “I never should have said that,” the cardinal told Connecticut magazine in 2012. “I did say if we did anything wrong, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we did anything wrong.”

That sort of unyielding stance amid institutional promises of change continues to bedevil the American church, the Holy See in Rome and, no doubt, many among the faithful. This issue shapes the latest installment of Retro Report, a weekly series of documentary videos, with this one reaching back to the mid-1980s to explore clergymen who prey.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Ulster Herald

PARISHIONERS in Cappagh have been left shocked following news that Fr Eugene Boland has resigned as Parish Priest and is to take leave of absence from ministry.

It is just two weeks since Fr Boland returned to work in the parish after an absence of four years. He was acquitted of charges of indecent assault in 2012. The announcement was made at Masses in the parish yesterday by Fr Kevin McElhennon.

In a statement, Fr Francis Bradley, the Diocesan Administrator for the Derry Diocese said that Fr Boland ‘needed more time’ for help and guidance in returning to ministry and that his resignation had been accepted.

“Over a protacted period of time, Fr Boland engaged in therapy to help him cope with what he was experiencing and to prepare him properly for a return to public ministry and interaction with the people again,” Fr Bradley said.

“However, it has all too quickly become clear to Fr Boland and diocesan authorities that he is not ready.

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