ABUSE TRACKER

MICHIGAN
Midland Daily News

Sunday, March 16, 2014

By Nancy Janoch, Nancy Rivet, Susan Dusseau and Harry Grether

This year, the local Catholic organization, Mid-Michigan Voice of the Faithful will be 10 years old.

Formed in the Tri-City area in 2004, this group is an affiliate of the organization that began in 2002 in Massachusetts as a response to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Since then, it has grown to more than 30,000 members in the United States and in 21 countries. If many have never even heard of this group in the past years, some may ask how this is relevant to Catholics here in the Tri-City area?

When the first people joined together for VOTF, they were shocked, hurt and upset. They saw the great injustice of the sexual abuse by clergy and the following cover-up, and they demanded that changes begin in our church. VOTF became committed to a mission to provide a prayerful, Spirit-filled way for all Catholics to actively participate in the guidance and governance of the present-day Church. This follows Canon Law, which states that the laity “have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.” (Canon 212 §3)

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

MARCH 16, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

The Philadelphia Archdiocese was a topic this morning on “Inside Story,” a local news show on ABC. The panel discussed the recent move by the Archdiocese to discontinue tuition-free education at archdiocesan schools for the children of clergy sex abuse victims. They uniformly agreed that it was mishandled – especially on the communications front. The “best case study of bad public relations,” said journalist Larry Platt. Sadly, the public relations response mirrors the pastoral response to victims. No one was buying the cost cutting argument, either. Renee Amore pointed out that the archdiocese paid for priests’ legal fees.

They went on to discuss the March 22 Healing Mass. When panel moderator Tamala Edwards asked communications strategist Jeff Jubelirer what he thought, his response was – And? Mass is nice, but what else? Panelists agreed that archdiocesan efforts are falling far short of expectations. Larry Platt commented on the lack of an ongoing archdiocesan program. That reminded me of the “Honesty, Healing and Hope in Christ: Confronting Sexual Violence in Our Archdiocese,” program Archbishop Chaput rolled out in May of 2012. The program was supposed to take place at the parish level and consist of four phases over six months. That went well. I’m sure it made an especially huge difference at Our Lady of Calvary as parents were left uninformed about their pastor Father John Paul.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: James E. Jacobson was ordained a priest of the Portland Province of the Society of Jesus in 1959. He lived and worked in remote Alaskan villages until 1976, when he went to Berkeley, California for what was to be a year-long sabbatical. His stay in the area was extended another three years, during which time he did community organizing in Oakland. He returned to Alaska in 1979 intending to organize native Alaskans, but was soon assigned to a chaplaincy at the state penitentiary in Salem, Oregon. His role there lasted until he was removed in 2005. Documents show that Jacobson’s superior and a Fairbanks bishop knew of “serious moral concerns” about Jacobson in 1967, including that he had fathered two children. Neither Jacobson, the Jesuits nor the diocese took responsibility for Jacobson’s offspring. In 2005 he was accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting two native Alaskan women, one in 1965 and the other in 1975. Both women gave birth to sons. DNA tests showed in 2005 that the children were Jacobson’s. He was subsequently removed from ministry and sent to live in a Jesuit residence in Spokane. In a 2006 lawsuit Jacobson was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in 1967, in a remote Alaskan village. His accuser said she told two Jesuits at the time of the abuse, who did nothing in response. In 2007 Jacobson admitted to fathering four children, sexual involvement with seven Alaskan village women, and to visiting prostitutes during trips to Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Ordained: 1959

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 17, 2014

THE Catholic Church spent years disputing the account of an altar boy who claimed to have been sexually abused by a Sydney priest, despite having been told almost two decades earlier that the priest had abused another child.

The case, currently being investigated by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, sparked widespread controversy after the victim, John Ellis, lost his bid to sue the church in 2007.

Church documents tendered to the commission also show the priest, Aidan Duggan, worked as a chaplain in Sydney’s Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children and as “controller of a flourishing childcare centre” years after the first report of his abuse.

The Archdiocese of Sydney spent years contesting Mr Ellis’s claim to have been sexually abused during the 1970s on the basis that Duggan was too infirm to be interviewed and there was no record of any other allegation against him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 17, 2014

Frank Brennan

Cardinal George Pell is about to appear before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He will face a detailed cross-examination under oath by Justice Peter McClellan and counsel assisting Gail Furness, SC. They will focus on the archdiocese of Sydney’s handling of the John Ellis case. But they will also take the opportunity to question Pell about the history of the Australian Catholic Church’s handling of abuse allegations.

Pell has often expressed his disgust and regret at the sexual abuse of children by church workers, especially priests. Since 1996, when he was appointed archbishop of Melbourne, Pell has worked hard to reduce the prospect of such abuse and to set in place procedures for helping victims and weeding out perpetrators. Initially, he decided to establish his own process in Melbourne, rather than working with the other bishops and religious leaders who were developing the Towards Healing protocol.

Pell has already faced the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse. Having been auxiliary bishop in Melbourne between 1987 and 1996, he told that inquiry: ”As an auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Little, I did not have the authority to handle these matters and had only some general impressions about the response that was being made at that time but this was sufficient to make it clear to me that this was an issue which needed urgent attention and that we needed to do much better in our response.”

The Victorian inquiry was critical of Frank Little and the Catholic Church processes before 1996. Many people inside and outside the church were left wondering if Archbishop Little didn’t respond adequately between 1987 and 1996, why didn’t his auxiliary bishop, Pell, do something? And if the archbishop knew during those nine years, why didn’t his auxiliary?

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY March 16, 2014

MAITLAND-Newcastle Catholic Bishop Bill Wright has stunned parishioners by urging a community to forgive a ‘‘repentant’’ priest because ‘‘there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than 99 just people’’.

Bishop Wright, named as a possible replacement for Cardinal George Pell in the Sydney archdiocese, reinstated Father Des Harrigan to Taree in September last year despite noting the likelihood of ‘‘concern and distress’’ among some parishioners about the priest’s conduct.

In a letter of ‘‘reinstatement and support for Father Des Harrigan’’ read out at all Taree church services in September, the bishop asked parishioners to ‘‘look at these matters not with the mind of those who demand nothing less than perfection from anyone professing to be Christian, but according to the mind of Christ who teaches us there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than 99 just people’’.

‘‘Where people fail to live up to the expectations of their position but are forthright in acknowledging their responsibilities and truly repentant, our faith tells us there is forgiveness and we are given second chances,’’ Bishop Wright wrote.

In a statement last week, the diocese noted Father Harrigan ‘‘chose to refrain from entering schools and giving homilies’’ after his evidence to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry in July about owning adult male pornography. The diocese confirmed he had also been the subject of complaints about his ‘‘temperament and style’’. Father Harrigan has not been the subject of any child sexual abuse allegations.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Ruben Vives
March 14, 2014

A Riverside County pastor has been arrested on suspicion of rape, and authorities are searching for other possible victims.

Jerome Anthony Clay Sr. — who is pastor of Compassion Church in Perris — was arrested Thursday after a search warrant was served at his home in the 400 block of Perris Boulevard, just around the corner from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators also searched Compassion Church at 190 E. 5th Street, according to the Sheriff’s Department, which is under contract to provide policing services for the city of Perris.

Clay, 41, is being held at the South West Detention Center in Murrieta in leiu of $55,000 bail.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

MARCH 13, 2014 BY MICHAEL WATANABE

A Perris pastor has been arrested on suspicion of rape, and Riverside County sheriff’s officials believe there are more victims.

Jerome Anthony Clay Sr., 41, of Perris, was arrested at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 13, at his home in the 400 block of South Perris Boulevard in Perris after sheriff’s officials served search warrants at the residence and at Compassion Church at 190 E. 5th St. in Perris, according to a sheriff’s news release.

He was booked into the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley on suspicion of rape, oral copulation with a person under 16, and sexual penetration by force, booking records show. He is being held in lieu of $110,000 bail.

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CALIFORNIA
KABC

By Abc7.com staff

PERRIS, Calif. (KABC) — A pastor in Riverside County has been arrested for rape and other sex crimes, and investigators say there may be more victims.

Jerome Anthony Clay Sr., a pastor at Compassion Church in Perris, is charged with raping a person under the age of 16. Authorities did not say whether the victim was a church member.

Clay, 41, was taken into custody Thursday after search warrants were served at his church and his home in the 400 block of Perris Boulevard. He is being held on $110,000 bail and is expected in court on March 17.

Perris residents had mixed reactions to the news.

“There was a lot of bad stuff that goes on at this church, they say it doesn’t, but it does,” Jordan Egbert said.

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PERU
La Republica

[Summary: Actor Jason Day has ratified his statements that a priest attempted to sexually abuse him when he was a child. He said he has told his story publicly to support other victims. Day said he family was aware of the attempted abuse but chose not to report it.]

Y cuenta detalles sobre iniciativa que emprende para apoyar a otras víctimas.
Mañana, en el diario La República, usted podrá leer una entrevista al actor Jason Day donde ratifica que un sacerdote intentó abusar sexualmente de él cuando era niño.

Day revela que su familia sí estaba enterada del hecho, pero optó por no denunciarlo. Además, asegura que el sacerdote involucrado conocía a sus parientes.

“El cura de mi primera comunión no solo me conocía a mí, sino a mis dos hermanos y a mi primo. No se acuerda de mí, ¿pero sí de los demás?”, cuestionó.

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GEORGIA
Action News Jax

[with video]

DARIEN, Ga. — A middle school band director has been arrested on child molestation charges, and police are investigating whether there are more potential victims.

James Ray Clark Jr. is being held at the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office on charges of aggravated child molestation and criminal attempt to commit statutory rape after two people claim he sexually assaulted them decades ago.

The Darien Police Department said the investigation began when a person came forward to say they had been assaulted by Clark in 2000-2001 while he worked as a youth minister at the Loganville First United Methodist Church.

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GEORGIA
Florida Times-Union

By Terry Dickson

A Darien man who was working until Tuesday as a middle school band director in Glynn County has been arrested on charges of child molestation and attempt to commit statutory rape, the Darien police said.

The Darien Police Department initiated an investigation after receiving a call from someone who said they had been sexually assaulted between 2000 and 2001 in Loganville, Ga., while the suspect was working there as a Methodist youth minister, Darien police Lt. Nick Roundtree said in a prepared release.

The 26-year-old man who said he is a victim said he contacted police in Darien, where he learned the man was living, because he heard the man was working as a band director at Jane Macon Middle School in Glynn County, Roundtree said.

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GEORGIA
Walton Tribune

By Robbie Schwartz

A former youth pastor at Loganville United Methodist Church is behind bars after his arrest Tuesday on charges of aggravated child molestation and criminal attempt to commit statutory rape. The investigation began with an alleged victim from Loganville.

The incidents reportedly took place between 2000-2001 and involved James Ray Clark Jr., 48, now a resident of Darien, and Chris Childs, 27, who was 13 years old when the alleged sexual assaults began. He went public with the incidents in a story in the Mayport (Fla.) Mirror.

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ARIZONA
Case Grande Dispatch

The attorney for a Casa Grande man accused of two counts of sexual abuse has asked that the two cases be severed.

Tempe attorney J. Scott Halverson filed a motion to sever the two charges against Florentino Tarango. Tarango was charged in connection with incidents related to his position as a deacon at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.

In his Feb. 21 motion, Halverson wrote that the two counts should be separated because one incident is alleged to have occurred in the fall of 2009 and the second allegedly occurred in May 2013. And, he wrote, the 2009 incident wasn’t reported to police until after the 2013 incident had been reported.

Tarango has a right to sever, Halverson wrote, because evidence from the 2009 allegation would not be admissible in the trial of the 2013 alleged incident if the first offense had been reported earlier and a trial held.

The Pinal County Attorney’s Office responded in another motion, asking that the judge deny the motion to sever the cases.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

EAMON DELANEY – PUBLISHED 16 MARCH 2014

Christine Buckley was one of those who lifted the covers on an ugly chapter in Ireland’s history and forced the country to confront the reality of its reputation as a Republic which protected children and the vulnerable.

The physical and sexual abuse of children supposedly in care in religious and state institutions had been known for decades, but the abuse was either ignored or denied by the authorities. Christine was determined to put this right and to tell the world about her own torment and that of countless others.

In 1992, she did an RTE radio interview with Gay Byrne in which she first publicly described how she was physically abused as a child in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orph- anage, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy.

The early Nineties were a time of momentous change and confrontation in Irish society in these areas and in matters of Catholic and state conservatism. 1992 was also the year of the X Case, in a divided State in which family planning, divorce and homosexuality were all illegal. The fact that the religious ethos that informed such conservatism was also harbouring a pattern of secretive, systematic abuse was especially strange and galling.

In 1996, Christine’s story featured in Louis Lentin’s ground-breaking drama documentary Dear Daughter which shocked the nation with its detailed account of the abuses at Goldenbridge. In one incident a kettle of boiling water was poured over the legs of a 10-year-old Christine. On another occasion, she had to get almost 100 stitches in her leg, after being beaten so badly by an unidentified nun.

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UNITED STATES
Pocono Record

March 16, 2014

“When you go in through those doors, it is supposed to be a spiritual, wholesome place. .. You don’t know who you’re listening to anymore … It’s like using the word of God for other purposes.” — Roman Catholic Jose Soto, 44, talking to Fox News in Arecito, Puerto Rico

Pope Francis and the American Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently expressed puzzlement as to why the Roman Catholic Church has been singled out by ongoing criticism over child sex abuse.

The pope told an Italian newspaper that the Catholic Church “is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility” to ferret out abusers and address the problem. “No one has done more,” the pope said, “and yet the church is the only one to have been attacked.” Later on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the cardinal said he cheered the pope’s words. Then, claiming to speak for lay Catholics, he said Catholics, too, wonder why the church is being picked on when in recent years it’s been “an example of what to do.”

Surely these two highly educated, distinguished scholars and leaders of the Catholic faith understand all too well why the church continues to be singled out for criticism. Yes, child sexual abuse occurs across society, but when it’s discovered, the perpetrators are prosecuted. That wasn’t true for many, many decades in the Catholic Church, as reports of long-ago, ignored child sex abuse show

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

There are many needed reform actions Pope Francis has failed even to initiate after one year. The worst failure has been his avoiding making cardinals and bishops accountable for aiding predatory priests who hurt defenseless children. Kissing dozens of babies and washing prisoners’ feet make great photo ops, but fail to protect one defenseless child or comfort one abuse survivor.

President Obama will meet for the first time in less than two weeks on March 27 with Pope Francis. Obama can be expected to address this failure directly in private. Obama also needs to try to focus Francis on Russia’s President Putin. Francis recently, and perhaps naively, enhanced Putin’s prestige by welcoming him to the Vatican in a well publicized photo op. With Russia’s virtual invasion of Ukraine, Francis’ approach to Putin warrants a close review, as Germany’s concerned Chancellor Merkel would likely as well encourage Francis to undertake. She even may already have done so privately.

Please see my related recent Advice to President Obama on Pope Francis’ strategy here

[Christian Catholicism]

While it may be debatable who has been the worst of the Catholic Church’s predator protecting hierarchs, Los Angeles’ Cardinal Mahony arguably tops the list. Almost a billion dollars of LA Catholics’ contributions have been needlessly expended so far on settling claims related to abusive priests that Mahony should, and in many cases probably could, have curtailed. He also seemingly wasted almost another 200 million dollars on an unnecessary new LA cathedral, the so called “Raj Mahal”, apparently mainly to satisfy his “edifice complex”.

On the day the UN Committee recently blasted the Vatican on its decades of child abuse prevention failures, Pope Francis said Mass with Mahony and then met privately with him. They discussed US Latino politically related issues, but not the priest child abuse scandal, per Mahony’s own personal website. Then again, who is the Pope to judge?

When the LA abuse scandal uproar was being widely reported a year ago as damning documents were then revealed about Mahony’s extensive complicity, LA’s Archbishop Gomez went through a well publicized “distancing” of the LA Archdiocese from any further active ministry for Mahony. So what’s the “good Cardinal” up to now?

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MISSOURI
KMBC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is not considering bankruptcy, despite having paid millions of dollars for legal fees and settlements in sexual abuse cases involving priests in recent years, a diocese spokesman said.

The diocese has paid $6 million in settlements on sex abuse cases since May, as well as $7 million on legal fees for sex abuse cases in the last two fiscal years. And it still faces more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits and a breach-of-contract case filed by plaintiffs who settled with the diocese for $10 million in 2008, The Kansas City Star reported.

Those costs have raised concerns about possible bankruptcy among parishioners, including a group that has petitioned Pope Francis to remove Bishop Robert Finn for his handling of the sexual abuse allegations.

“Among the active and retired clergy, there is a genuine and sincere concern of diocesan bankruptcy,” said Jeff Weis, a Kansas City Catholic who started a petition drive seeking Finn’s removal. “There’s a fear that this diocese is being driven into the ground financially.”

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UNITED STATES
Pope Francis the CON Christ.

Paris Arrow

Puerto Ricans must stop calling priests “Padre” and reserve this title only to their husbands and fathers of their children

Children must call “Father” – only their own biological fathers oradoptive fathers – and they must not give away this unique paternal title and allegiance to other men on earth.

Children must call “Father” – only their own biological fathers oradoptive fathers – because these lay men alone deserve this unique title which they have rightfully earned through their daily labour and lifetime dedication.

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By John M. Annese/Staten Island Advance
on March 13, 2014

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A “spiritual reader” from Port Richmond is accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl by rubbing her body with raw steak and molesting her during a supposed ritual to ward off evil spirits.

Rafael Paulino, 42, conducted what he described to detectives as a “spiritual cleansing” inside an apartment on Scribner Avenue in New Brighton, authorities allege.

Paulino, who lives on Bryson Avenue, has a business card with the name Omi Chango’, an image of Christ, and the words “priest” and “spiritual leader” printed on it, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case.

The source couldn’t say if “Omi Chango'” was meant to be an assumed name, or a reference to “Chango,” a deity worshiped by followers of Santeria.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

Two lawsuits were filed in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday against the Archdiocese of Chicago, accusing two priests of sexual abuse at parish schools.

One suit was filed by a man claiming he was molested by a priest nine or ten times between 1971 and 1973 while he was a student at Resurrection Grammar School on the city’s West Side.

The suit claims the priest inappropriately touched and fondled the boy when he was alone with him in the church rectory, often calling him into the rectory and separating him from other students under the guise of disciplining him for misbehavior.

The man claims he was afraid to talk about the abuse at the time because the priest was in a position of authority and respect in the community, according to the suit.

He subsequently repressed memories of the abuse but recalled the incidents in September 2013 and connected them to a number of emotional and mental issues stemming from the abuse, the suit claims.

The second suit was filed by a different man claiming he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a student at Our Lady Gate of Heaven School, 2338 E. 99th St. The suit claims the priest rubbed the boy’s genitals and sodomized him multiple times from late 1990 to early 1991.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, March 15

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

The child sex crimes and secrecy in Bishop Robert Finn’s Catholic diocese of Kansas City continue as two school teachers have been recently accused of allegedly molesting students. One of them was apparently quietly removed and the teacher who replaced him is now charged with child sex crimes.

[KCTV]

In the less-troubling case, Jackson County prosecutors filed charges on Friday against St. Thomas More elementary school teacher Tod. A. Barnard, 53, of Independence who allegedly repeatedly groped an 11-year-old girl.

In the more-troubling case, Catholic school officials admit they were informed on March 3 that the Independence Police Department was investigating an allegation of suspicious conduct by a school employee but apparently choose secrecy over openness twice. First, they kept that information hidden from parents and the public until two days ago. Second, they apparently quietly suspended the accused and kept that information hidden from parents and the public until two days ago too.

Shame on them.

Why the continuing delays and secrecy? If they suspended a teacher for alleged abuse, why did they not tell parents and the public? And if they learned of abuse allegations on March 3, why did KC Catholic officials conceal them until March 13?

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SCRANTON (PA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton

On March 14, 2014, a story was published in the Pocono Record newspaper regarding the status of Reverend Carlos Urrutigoity (the story is included at the end of this statement). That story, which has since been referenced by other media outlets and websites, contained an inaccurate statement whereby Bishop Joseph F. Martino, former bishop of the Diocese of Scranton, allowed Reverend Carlos Urrutigoity to transfer to the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. The following statement clarifies how the Diocese of Scranton handled this matter:

Diocese of Scranton

Statement Regarding the Status of Reverend Carlos Urrutigoity

In response to a local media report concerning the status of Reverend Carlos Urrutigoity and the Diocese of Scranton, it is documented that during his time as Bishop of Scranton, the Most Reverend Joseph Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D. took the necessary steps to suppress the Society of Saint John and to deal with the priests of the extinguished Society. Father Urrutigoity was a member of the now suppressed Society. In so doing, the Diocese reported its serious concerns about this cleric to appropriate church officials, including Bishop Rogelio Livieres, Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; the Apostolic Nuncio to Paraguay; and the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

In every instance, Bishop Martino clearly expressed his reservations concerning Father Urrutigoity, who was identified as posing a serious threat to young people. Bishop Martino also carefully and consistently expressed his grave doubts about this cleric’s suitability for priestly ministry and cautioned the Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay to not allow Father Urrutigoity to incardinate into his diocese. Despite these serious cautions, Bishop Rogelio Livieres informed the Diocese of Scranton that he was allowing Father Urrutigoity to incardinate into his Paraguay diocese.

While the Diocese of Scranton continues its commitment to report accusations of child sexual abuse to appropriate law enforcement and governmental entities and to create safe environments for children and young people, it also recognizes the responsibility of the Universal Church to respond to such accusations responsibly, transparently and with expediency. To this end, the Diocese of Scranton continues to reiterate its efforts in this particular matter despite what appears to be a lack of reciprocity in this particular case. In acknowledging the frustration brought about by this case, the Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L., Bishop of Scranton, commented, “Every case of sexual abuse is appalling and leaves profound wounds. Cases such as this demand the promise of every diocese, parish and school throughout the Church to do all we can to learn from the mistakes of the past and establish safeguards for the future.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono Record

March 15, 2014

In response to a local media report concerning the status of Reverend Carlos Urrutigoity and the Diocese of Scranton, it is documented that during his time as Bishop of Scranton, the Most Reverend Joseph Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D. took the necessary steps to suppress the Society of Saint John and to deal with the priests of the extinguished Society.

Father Urrutigoity was a member of the now suppressed Society. In so doing, the Diocese reported its serious concerns about this cleric to appropriate church officials, including Bishop Rogelio Livieres, Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; the Apostolic Nuncio to Paraguay; and the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

In every instance, Bishop Martino clearly expressed his reservations concerning Father Urrutigoity, who was identified as posing a serious threat to young people. Bishop Martino also carefully and consistently expressed his grave doubts about this cleric’s suitability for priestly ministry and cautioned the Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay to not allow Father Urrutigoity to incardinate into his diocese. Despite these serious cautions, Bishop Rogelio Livieres informed the Diocese of Scranton that he was allowing Father Urrutigoity to incardinate into his Paraguay diocese.

While the Diocese of Scranton continues its commitment to report accusations of child sexual abuse to appropriate law enforcement and governmental entities and to create safe environments for children and young people, it also recognizes the responsibility of the Universal Church to respond to such accusations responsibly, transparently and with expediency.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

By Christopher Placek

Archdiocese of Chicago officials say they will release more documents later this year that detail instances of child sex abuse by 35 priests that go back decades.

The files represent about 25 percent of the 349 abuse cases — going back to the early 1950s — that the archdiocese says are “substantiated” allegations of child sexual abuse.

Information on the other 75 percent of the cases — comprising some 6,000 pages of internal communications regarding 30 abusive priests — was publicly released in January.

On Friday, archdiocese officials told the Daily Herald Editorial Board they will release the additional documents voluntarily and “in the name of transparency,” once information has been redacted that could possibly harm the victims.

“We will do all that’s possible that this (abuse) will never happen again,” said Bishop Francis Kane, the archdiocese’s vicar general. “I am horrified by the abuse that has occurred. I had the terrible responsibility of looking through so many of these files.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Event Date:April 08, 2014
Time:7:00 PM
Occurring:April 08, 2014

Description

Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki will celebrate a Mass of Atonement at Lumen Christi Catholic Church, Mequon.

The Mass of Atonement acknowledges the wrongs of archdiocesan clergy and laity, both past and present, in relation to the abuse of our most vulnerable throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Protecting our children and loved ones with special needs remains a top priority. At this Mass, we offer victims and their families our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ. Open to the public, we encourage victims of abuse to attend.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Citizens Voice

BY JOSEPH KOHUT (STAFF WRITER)
Published: March 15, 2014

A former Diocese of Scranton priest, accused more than a decade ago of abusing local children in a federal sexual abuse lawsuit, is now second-in-command of a diocese in Paraguay.

Monsignor Carlos Urrutigoity was described as vicar general of the Diócesis de Ciudad del Este in a database of accused priests recently released by BishopAccountability.org, which seeks to hold U.S. bishops accountable to “civil, criminal and cannon law” by acting as a cache of documents detailing abuse.

Urrutigoity has been vicar general since February, the website states. A review of the Paraguayan diocese website confirms the leadership position.

An email to Urrutigoity in Paraguay was not returned.

Urrutigoity was a member of the Society of St. John, which was housed in the former St. Gregory’s Academy in Elmhurst before relocating to Shohola, Pike County. In 2002, a former academy student filed a federal suit against the then Revs. Urrutigoity and Eric Ensey claiming abuse. The Lackawanna County district attorney’s office began a criminal investigation that same year, but decided that the statute of limitations periods had expired for filing a criminal case against them.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Ulster Herald

A PACKED congregation is being anticipated in St Mary’s Church, Killyclogher tonight (Saturday) for the Vigil Mass to mark the resumption of duties by Fr Eugene Boland.

The Parish Priest of Cappagh stepped aside from the exercise of his Ministry on August 15, 2010, following allegations of indecent assault which were made against him. A series of legal proceedings took place over the coming two years.

Fr Boland was found not guilty of all charges after a trial in Derry Crown Court in 2012 and a Church canonical process has also now been completed and totally exonerated him. T

he chief celebrant at the Vigil Mass, which is at 7.30pm, will be the Derry Diocese administrator, Fr Francis Bradley. He welcomed Fr Boland’s return to the parish and spoke of his gladness that the various processes had been completed.

“The result now is that Fr Boland can return to the role from which he stepped aside until these matters were carefully and completely investigated,” Fr Bradley said. – See more at:

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UNITED STATES
CounterPunch

by NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES

Dedicated to Jack Kernaghan, SJ.

There are sins and there are mortal sins. There are crimes and there are heinous crimes. Finally, there are abominations, sins so violent and godless that they cried out to heaven for vengeance–or so I was taught in catechism class in Brooklyn in the 1950s.

Today some of those abominations would fall under the secular judicial category of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, we were told, all human transgressions, even the most heinous and abominable, can be forgiven by God. This is the solid bedrock of Roman Catholic doctrine on the question of sin, confession and forgiveness. It would be vainglorious and prideful to assume that any human act, no matter how egregious, could trump or surpass the absolute and limitless Divine Mercy of God. But there are conditions to be met. First, the penitent must make a full, detailed, and complete confession. No dirty little secrets can be held back in the confessional.

(“Bless me father for I have sinned”). This includes an admission of personal guilt and responsibility (“Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” — it was my fault, my most grievous fault). The confession must be followed by a sincere act of contrition. (“I am sorry for these sins because they offend Thee, my God, and Your infinite goodness”). Lastly, absolution and forgiveness requires the expression of firm resolve to sin no more and to resist the temptations to do evil.

Thus, even the most heinous crimes against humanity committed by the generals and their henchmen during the Argentine Dirty War (1973-1982) could technically be forgiven and erased. The Proceso de Reorganización (the military dictatorship’s name for the war) turned ordinary people into enemies of the state and waged a war through the process of limpieza, a political cleansing of dangerous and dirty elements, subversives, beginning with leftist guerrillas, those suspected of supporting the left, union leaders, university students, artists, writers, journalists, psychoanalysts, nuns and priests who lived and worked with the poor, and then going after the politically neutral, the unaligned, until finally the crazy generals went after the merely ‘indifferent’.

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UNITED STATES
VICE News

By Keegan Hamilton
March 14, 2014

From the moment he christened himself Pope Francis, the charismatic Argentine Jorge Bergoglio reinvigorated an office that under his predecessors had often been accused of hypocrisy, greed, and the championing of conservative dogma. Over the course of his first year as pope, Francis has spoken out against homophobia, attacked corruption within the Vatican, pushed for a peaceful end to the conflict in Syria, and even amassed millions of followers on Twitter.

But mostly lost amid the fanfare over Bergoglio’s one-year anniversary as pontiff yesterday was a new report that raises troubling questions about his complicity in the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church for more than a decade.

Earlier this week, BishopAccountability.org released a report entitled “Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina.” The report focuses on Bergoglio’s stint as archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013, and includes a database with links to public documents and media reports about 42 priests in Argentina previously accused of sexual misconduct. Specifically, the report focuses on five cases of sexual abuse by priests in which it alleges that “Bergoglio knowingly or unwittingly slowed victims in their fight to expose and prosecute their assailants.”

The principal researcher behind the report is Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org. In an interview with VICE News, Doyle described herself as a devout Catholic who was inside the Vatican last year during the papal conclave that elected Bergoglio pope. Doyle co-founded BishopAccountability.org in 2002 amid revelations of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, and eventually made her work with the non-profit her full-time job. Prior to focusing on Argentina, the organization published a similar database of priests accused of molestation in America.

“We try to aggregate all public information about the sexual abuse crisis,” Doyle said. “When we suddenly had a pope from Argentina, the first or second question that occurred to us was: How did he manage the sex abuse crisis when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires? He was there 15 years. He was the most powerful Catholic bishop in Argentina.”

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UNITED STATES
Slacktivist

March 14, 2014 By Fred Clark

Tamara Rice, who blogs at Hope. Fully. Known, grew up in another part of the fundamentalist bubble — as a missionary kid in the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.

ABWE, like so many other fundamentalist institutions steeped in authoritarian patriarchy and purity culture, is dealing with a sex-abuse scandal. Or, rather, it seems to be doing everything it can not to deal with its sex-abuse scandal. It’s another iteration of the same pattern we’ve seen at other fundie institutions, including Pensacola Christian College and Bob Jones University. So Rice has been following these stories closely.

ABWE initially hired the abuse-investigation group GRACE (or “G.R.A.C.E.,” which stands for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to help them clean house. Then, earlier this year, they fired GRACE, apparently because the group was actually intent on cleaning house.

Bob Jones University did the same thing with GRACE — hiring them to investigate alleged abuse, then firing them when they seemed to have confirmed the allegations. After that blew up in their face a few weeks later, BJU changed its mind, again, and re-hired GRACE to finish its investigation.

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CALIFORNIA
KESQ

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif. –
A 54 year old pastor of Muscoy United Methodist Church in San Bernardino has been arrested after being accused of child molestation.

Authorities said Stephen Howard was taken into custody on Thursday evening on multiple charges of lewd acts with a child. The abuse allegedly took place in San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana.

The victims are 14 and 23 years old and previously attended the Muscoy Methodist Church, where Howard has been the lead pastor since 2001, police said in a statement.

The 23 year old victim told police the abuse began when he was nine years old and continued into adulthood. Both victims said Howard was sexually abusing them in exchange for money.

The Crimes Against Children Detail was brought in to assume the investigation on March 10th. Howard was booked at the Central Detention Center and is being held on $250,000 bond.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

The Associated Press
March 14, 2014

SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF. — A Southern California pastor has been arrested on suspicion of molesting two boys — one of them for years.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department says 54-year-old Stephen Howard was arrested Thursday.

He remains jailed on $250,000 bail.

Howard has been lead pastor at Muscoy United Methodist Church in San Bernardino since 2001. He was youth director at a United Methodist Church in Ontario from 1989 to 2001.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

MARCH 14, 2014 BY BRADLEE LOCKE

A Fontana man who serves as lead pastor at a Muscoy church has been arrested on suspicion of molesting two boys who had attended his church and giving them money in exchange, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said.

Stephen Howard, 54, lead pastor at Muscoy United Methodist Church, was arrested Thursday, March 13, five days after sheriff’s officials first received a report of a child molestation occurring in San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, according to a Sheriff’s Department news release.

Howard has been the lead pastor at Muscoy United Methodist Church since 2001, and before that was a youth director at a United Methodist Church in Ontario from 1989-2001.

No one from the Muscoy church could be reached after hours Friday evening.

Officials said two males, ages 14 and 23 and both residents of Rancho Cucamonga, used to attend the church in Muscoy, an unincorporated area northwest of San Bernardino. The 23-year-old said his abuse began when he was 9 years old and continued into adulthood.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA.com) — A 54-year-old pastor in San Bernardino has been accused of sexually abusing two male victims.

Stephen Howard, the pastor of Muscoy United Methodist Church, was arrested and charged with lewd acts with a child under 14, oral copulation with a person under 18 and sodomy with a person under 18. He’s being held on $250,000 bail.

On March 8, deputies responded to a report of child molestation occurring in the cities of San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana.

An investigation, led by the sheriff’s Crimes Against Children Detail, revealed that the alleged victims, ages 14 and 23, previously attended Muscoy Methodist Church.

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MISSOURI
KMBZ

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – A part-time band teacher and a band assistant at St. Thomas More School have been suspended after allegations of “suspicious behavior” surfaced.

A letter from the principal to parents did not detail the allegations.

According to Principal Brian Borgmeyer, Independence police notified the school that they were investigating the teacher as of March 3. The school got a separate complaint on March 6 about the assistant.

The police investigation ended without charges being filed against the instructor, but the school is doing their own internal investigation.

Kansas City police are still reviewing the allegations against the assistant.

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MISSOURI
Fox 4

[with video]

March 13, 2014, by Michelle Pekarsky and Robert Townsend

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An assistant band teacher who worked at St. Thomas More Elementary School, 11800 Holmes Rd., has been charged in Jackson County with two misdemeanor counts of child molestation in the 2nd degree and two 3rd degree assault counts.

FOX 4 was first to report on Thursday the allegations against Tod A. Barnard, 53, after an 11-year-old girl said he inappropriately and repeatedly touched her breast.

Barnard was taken into police custody and charges were filed on Friday.

According to the police report, the girls’ parents became concerned when she expressed anxiety about her band class and said she no longer wanted to participate in band.

Her parents called the principal last Thursday, March 6, who then brought in the counselor. During the meeting, the girl told the counselor that the assistant in her band class had touched her breast several times, beginning in December 2013. She said he started doing it about once a week.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
A 53-year-old Catholic school teacher is in police custody after he allegedly groped a student’s breast on multiple occasions.

In a letter to families, St. Thomas More Elementary Principal Brian Borgmeyer said that a second person at the school is on leave after a separate incident. No charges have been filed.

However, charges were filed by the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office on Friday after an 11-year-old student said she had been groped. Tod. A. Barnard, 53, of Independence was charged after being questioned by police.

Barnard is charged with two counts of second-degree child molestation and two counts of third-degree assault. These are misdemeanors.

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said Barnard was not paid by the diocese, but paid by the man who is on paid leave because of the second incident. Barnard was assistant band teacher at St. Thomas More where he taught percussion.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Diocese of St Cloud Adds 4 Names to List of Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Minors

Posted by Mike Bryant
March 14, 2014

The Diocese of St Cloud released a list today of 4 additional priests accused of sexually abusing minors. The release adds to their previous list of 33. Along with the list the Bishop of St Cloud, Rev. Donald J. Kettler released a statement.

The List :

• Neal Emon, who worked at St. Peter Parish in St. Cloud. He lives in Phoenix.

• Gerald Funcheon, a former St. Cloud Cathedral High School employee. He lives in Missouri.

• Justin Weger, St. Therese Parish, Vineland. He is deceased.

• James Moeglein, Cathedral of St. Mary. He lives in Onamia.

According to the St Cloud Times the statement included:

St. Cloud Bishop Donald Kettler said in a written statement that the names are being released after they appeared on abuse lists released by other religious communities.

Let’s guess that the community is the list that last week was released by the Crosiers. On that list were six that had worked in St Cloud. The disclosre today left out:

That Emon also worked as weekend priest/spiritual director, Central Minnesota TEC Program, 1978–88

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CONNECITCUT
CT Post

Keila Torres Ocasio
Published 11:40 pm, Friday, March 14, 2014

NORWALK — In what Jamie Dance, Voice of the Faithful chairwoman, called a “historic occasion,” Bishop Frank Caggiano met with the organization for what he said was the beginning of a conversation.

Several people noted the group was started to seek reform within the Catholic Church and to support those sexually assaulted by priests, but Caggiano was not asked to formally address the topic nor did he volunteer an opinion during the nearly two-hour meeting.

The question-and-answer session, punctuated by many moments of humor provided by the Brooklyn, N.Y., transplant, was held Thursday night on Pope Francis’ first anniversary as leader of the church.

And like the pope, Caggiano has already proven to be very different from his predecessor.

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CANADA
CBC – The Passionate Eye

[with video]

As Pope Francis marks his one-year anniversary, Holy Money investigates the financial scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church and the efforts of the new Pope to clean up its multi-billion-dollar business dealings amid allegations of money laundering, corruption and embezzlement of funds.

Today, the Pope leads a church with more than one billion Catholics but also a business empire of global dimensions. The Catholic Church is the world’s richest religious institution with vast real estate holdings and its own Vatican Bank.

Pope Francis has made it his mission to get the Vatican’s financial house in order but there are stumbling blocks on the road to his newly announced reforms and the stakes are sky high for everyone involved.

Led by University College London Historian John Dickie, a leading expert in Italian history, the documentary deconstructs the mechanisms by which the Church administers and invests its money. It reveals the inner workings of the Vatican Bank, and tells the story of a priest known as Father 500 Euros, charged in January, 2014 with money laundering millions of Euros through Vatican Bank accounts.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

JOHN DOYLE
The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, Mar. 15 2014

Is it drama that you want? Is it, perchance, stories of seediness, mobsters and corruption in high places? How high the place? Well, there’s the Vatican.

Few dramas airing right now can match the story told in Holy Money (Sunday, CBC NN 10 p.m., on The Passionate Eye). Oh sure, the current Pope has the image of an awesome guy – for a Pope, anyways. Man of the people, sensible guy with old-fashioned values and an appetite for change. He is swiftly remaking the image of the Papacy.

But image is surface. What’s really going on in the Vatican is a high-stakes battle over money and power. Pope Francis, we’re told, wants to shift the institution away from a culture of crime and crookedness.

Such as? “Priests charged with corruption, donations diverted to pay for sex, dioceses in bankruptcy, money-laundering inquiries and, at the core of it all, the dirty dealings of the Vatican Bank,” according to promotional material for Holy Money. “The foundations of the Holy See are being rocked by one financial scandal after the other and, despite the appearances, Pope Francis faces an uphill struggle.”

In the doc, the man asserting all this is not some tabloid reporter: He’s an expert on the Italian Mob. That’s John Dickie, a University College of London historian and the author of the book Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

HAROLD BRUBAKER, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Friday, March 14, 2014

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia delivered some relatively positive financial news Friday.

Catholic Health Care Services, for example, which operates six nursing homes and a retirement home, had an operating profit of $3.9 million in the year ended June 30.

Results at the facilities, which have been for sale since last summer, improved significantly from a loss of $497,454 the previous year, according to an audited financial statement released Friday.

The nursing-home report was one of 16 published by the Archdiocese, covering the Catholic Church’s diverse operations locally, including cemeteries, high schools, and homes for the disabled.

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CANADA
The Province

BY KEITH FRASER, THE PROVINCE MARCH 14, 2014

An aboriginal man who alleges he was sexually and physically abused more than 40 years ago when he was placed into foster care by a society with links to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver will get his day in court.

The man, a member of the Squamish Indian Band who is only identified by the initials N.J. in a court ruling, was in the care of William and Mary Aitken, both of whom are now deceased, from 1956 to 1971.

He claims that he was sexually assaulted by William Aitken more than 100 times, from age five onward.

It’s alleged that the Archdiocese knew or ought to have known that Aitken was a pedophile with a history of abusing children in his care.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

John XXIII knew.

Paul VI knew.

John Paul II knew.

Benedict XVI knew.

The story told in the recent RTÉ documentary about Marcial Maciel and the Legion of Christ won’t be new to many of us who watch it. Even so, it’s exceedingly painful to watch–even when one already knows the story of who Maciel was, what he did.

And of how one pope after another from John XXIII forward covered for him, blessed him, assisted him in expanding the power and privilege of the money-generating machine of a religious community he founded, until Benedict XVI found it impossible to continue with this travesty as people everywhere became critically aware of the facts of Maciel’s story. I watch the documentary, and hear its drumbeat of insistence–“John XXIII and John Paul II knew, they ignored pleas to stop Maciel’s abuse of seminarians, and they’ll be canonized in a few weeks”–and feel absolutely crushed.

By the end of the video, I’m where Marita La Palm tells us she has ended up after spending her entire childhood and young womanhood in the Legion of Christ’s lay branch Regnum Christi: How is it possible to continue any connection to a church whose top leaders all knew and did nothing? Aren’t they responsible, too?

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CONNECTICUT
The Hour – Voice of the Faithful

By FRANCIS X. FAY JR.
Hour Senior Staff Writer | Posted: Friday, March 14, 2014

NORWALK — Bishop Frank Caggiano, the new leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, proved as appealing in his first formal meeting with the Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) on Thursday night as his his boss, Pope Francis, has proven to international audiences.

The short, spare native of the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, N.Y., who came to the priesthood via the unconventional path of Yale College graduate and book salesman before entering the seminary, gave 160 attending the historic meeting in the First Congregational Church on the Green the hope that their dialogue would continue.

Quite a contrast to his predecessor, Bishop William E. Lori, who shunned the organization and even prohibited its use of church property for meetings or the diocesan newspaper for announcements.

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NEW YORK
New Haven Register

By Register Staff
POSTED: 03/14/14

Cardinal Edward Egan has canceled his appearance at a celebration featuring a chorus of 200 youths from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Egan, retired archbishop of New York, drew a protest from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Egan has been accused of failing to remove priests accused of sexual abuse when he was bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport from 1988 to 2000. He retired in 2009.

A notice on St. Ignatius of Loyola Church’s website says, “We had hoped to have Cardinal Egan here to celebrate Mass on Saturday evening. Unfortunately, he is not free. We look forward to inviting him on another occasion.”

The Mass was part of the Pueri Cantores Children’s Choir Festival.

In a statement, SNAP said, “We know this decision will be a relief to some suffering victims and caring Catholics. We hope this decision will deter other managers — inside and outside the Catholic church — from concealing heinous child sex crimes in the future.

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ALABAMA
The Raw Story

By Scott Kaufman
Friday, March 14, 2014

On Thursday, a pastor in Muscle Shoals, Alabama pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sodomy, three counts of sexually abusing a child under 12-years-old, and one count of child pornography.

Jeffrey Dale Eddie, also known as “Brother Jeff,” had served as the children’s pastor at Highland Park Baptist Church since 1998. He was first discovered molesting a young boy on January 22, 2014, however, it was not until four days later that church leaders notified police of the abuse, which is a clear violation of Alabama law.

Alabama has a mandatory reporting statute that requires “[a]ll hospitals, clinics, sanitariums, doctors, physicians, surgeons, medical examiners, coroners, dentists, osteopaths, optometrists, chiropractors, podiatrists, nurses, school teachers and officials, peace officers, law enforcement officials, pharmacists, social workers, day care workers or employees, mental health professionals, members of the clergy” to report cases of child abuse or neglect.

According to court documents obtained by WAFF, Eddie confessed to performing acts of oral sex on many of the youths in his charge. When police asked how many youths he may have molested, Eddie said that there were “so many that [he] advised he cannot remember.”

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UNITED STATES
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

This is from CM:

Pope Francis was visited by George Weigel last week, so it is no surpise that his statements yesterday on the abuse crisis mimick Weigel’s ideological views of the crisis: holiness is what was lacking; abuse is greater among the laity; we are getting blamed unjustly for a common problem; Benedict was at the forefront of the reform.

You, Leon, and so many other reformers have rebutted these false notions with hard facts, which continue to get pushed under the tide of high rhetoric.
Yes, there are slightly more pedophiles among laity than priests but pederasty (abuse of adolescent boys) by priests, which is the main problem, has been at a rate Sipe proved to be between 9% and up to 40% in some urban settings.

Sadly, Pope Benedict only acted under pressure, and after years of knowing the truth, and allowing, for example, Maciel to continue to abuse. I believe his brave stepping aside was in recognition of his failure and the moral impossibility of his leading any reform. It is example all must follow who betrayed children. It will be Francis’ fate if he does not act decisively. …
Francis is a fixer. Whenever a parish or diocese experience a disaster, a fixer is sent in, as O’Malley was to Boston. Francis is the papal fixer. He is changing the subject from sexual abuse by his charm, hominess, and willingness to let people indulge their minor vices without a censoring voice from the clergy.

A fixer differs from a reformer in that a fixer does not address the roots; he is not radical. He merely papers over the problem, merely puts a poultice on the cancer.

Karadima is a terribly abusive priest in Chile. The archbishop of Santiago told him to stop saying mass in Public. Karadima ignored the order, and photos of him saying mass were tweeted to tens of thousands of people.

A prominent Chilean priest who was ordered by the Vatican to never again celebrate a public Mass as punishment for sexually abusing altar boys has been photographed apparently defying the order.

Chile’s top church leaders confirmed the Rev. Fernando Karadima’s act of insubordination Friday and sent the case to the Vatican for investigation. The photos were taken Dec. 4, but they were only released this week by Juan Carlos Cruz, a journalist and one of Karadima’s victims.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

The former head of a suppressed Pennsylvania religious community is now serving as vicar general of a Paraguayan diocese. In 2005, Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton suppressed the Society of St. John– which had been known for its promotion of the extraordinary form of the Mass, but also criticized for reports of lavish spending– following accusations of sexual abuse against its founder, Father Carlos Urrutigoity. Bishop Martino’s predecessor, Bishop James Timlin, had suspended the priest’s faculties after a diocesan review board found an abuse allegation credible. Father Urrutigoity was subsequently incardinated in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and named a monsignor.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Rachel Marie Stone | Mar 14, 2014

After being raped and repeatedly sexual abused by her pastor, Samantha Nelson was suicidal; her husband Steve Nelson returned home “countless times” just in time to save her life after she’d attempted to take it.

Stories of religious leaders abusing children or minors are more common: conservative Christian Bill Gothard, for example, recently resigned from the organization he founded, Institute in Basic Life Principles after many stories detailing his sexual harassment and abuse of young women and girls came to light.

Less commonly — but no less devastatingly — sexual harassment and abuse is perpetuated by clergy on adult women. That’s what happened to Samantha Nelson.

With the support of her husband, Samantha eventually found healing and grace. She went on to earn credentials in Christian counseling and to found a ministry — The Hope of Survivors — that raises awareness of clergy sexual abuse and offers help to survivors.

In a telephone interview in 2012, Nelson told me, “the devastation of this abuse is that it is so poorly understood, and survivors are subject to all kinds of insensitive behavior — such as being asked, ‘didn’t you like it?’ But because of the power imbalance, this kind of thing can never be a consensual relationship.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
RT1

[Summary: The Unterthurheimer priest who was suspended last year was apparently obsessed with child and adolescent pornography. According to a media report, the Augsburg district court has fined him and he has accepted the sentence. The 65-year-old priest was put on leave last summer by the Augsburg diocese on suspicion of sexual abuse.]

Der Unterthürheimer Pfarrer, der im letzten Jahr vom Dienst suspendiert worden ist, hat offenbar Kinder- und Jugendpornos besessen. Laut einem Medienbericht hat ihn das Augsburger Amtsgericht jetzt deswegen zu einer Geldstrafe von 90 Tagessätzen verurteilt. Weiter heißt es, der Geistliche habe das Urteil bereits angenommen. Der 65-Jährige war im letzten Sommer wegen des Verdachts des sexuellen Mißbrauchs vom Bistum Augsburg beurlaubt worden. Er soll sich als Ordensmann der Benediktiner in den 80-er Jahren in Österreich an einem Jugendlichen vergangen haben. Sein Anwalt Nikolaus Fackler sagte uns damals, man könne man nicht nachvollziehen, wie die Vorwürfe zustande kommen.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart

The Diocese of St. Cloud is continuing its release of names of priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

The first list was released Jan. 3. Of the 33 names, 21 of them were dead.

Bishop Donald Kettler said he has been reviewing reports from previous diocese records maintained by bishops and clergy before him to determine the names that should be released.

Kettler said since releasing the list, four more names have come to his attention that were not previously documented.

Neil Emon, OSC (Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (Crosiers)): Saint Peter Parish, Saint Cloud, MN. Currently residing in Phoenix, AZ

Gerald Funcheon, OSC: No official Diocesan assignment but was hired by Cathedral High School, Saint Cloud, MN, as a teacher/spiritual director. Currently residing in Missouri.

Justin Weger, OSC: Saint Therese Parish, Vineland, MN. Deceased.

James Moeglein, OSC: Cathedral of Saint Mary, St. Cloud, MN. Currently residing in Onamia, MN

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 14, 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 )

Only a quarter of respondents in a new poll say Pope Francis’ is doing enough about the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse crisis.

[Beacon News]

The survey of citizens – Catholic and non-Catholic – was taken in USA, Canada and the UK.

For months, we’ve been saying that Pope Francis is making progress on church finances and governance, but he’s done nothing – literally nothing – that protects a single child, exposes a single predator or prevents a single cover up. Sadly, that remains true even as the pontiff marks his first full year on the job.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

St. Cloud Diocese has added four names to the list of priests who are believed to have abused children.

The names come to light after they appeared on abuse lists released by other religious communities, St. Cloud Bishop Donald Kettler said in a written statement released Friday.

The names are:

• Neal Emon, who worked at St. Peter Parish in St. Cloud. He lives in Phoenix.

• Gerald Funcheon, a former St. Cloud Cathedral employee as a teacher or spiritual director. He lives in Missouri.

• Justin Weger, St. Therese Parish, Vineland. He is deceased.

• James Moeglein, Cathedral of St. Mary. He lives in Onamia.

The diocese originally released the names Jan. 3 of more than 33 clergy who were believed to have abused children. St. Cloud is one of several diocese and religious organizations that have recently released names of clergy suspected of abusing children.

“I want to assure the public that there was nothing in the records maintained by my predecessor bishops or me which contained any alleged abuse by these clergy while serving in ministry in our diocese,” Kettler said in the statement.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Mar. 14, 2014 Faith and Justice

During his first year in office, Pope Francis has been such a whirlwind of activity and surprises that it is difficult to know what to say. I have already written extensively about him, so I was uncertain what to write on the anniversary of his election. During the last two weeks, scores of reporters have been calling me with questions about Pope Francis, so I thought I would share with you the most common questions and my responses.

What is the most important achievement of Pope Francis?

The most important achievement of Pope Francis is that he has rebranded Catholicism and the papacy. Prior to Francis, if you asked someone on the street, “What is the Catholic church all about? What does the pope stand for?” the response would be, “They are against abortion, gay marriage and birth control.” Certainly in the media, that was what was portrayed, along with clerical sexual abuse.

Today, the response would be different. “He is concerned about compassion, love, especially for the poor.” He has even won over the media. As one religion reporter told me, “It’s nice to be off the crime beat and back to religion.” The church is making the front page for something other than criminal activity and scandal. Pope Francis has made it fun to be a religion reporter again. …

The second area where he needs to improve is in responding to the sex abuse crisis. He believes that Pope Benedict got it right with zero tolerance of abuse by priests. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he sounded defensive in talking about how the church was much better at responding to abuse than society at large. While this may be true, for people who feel they were betrayed by bishops who simply moved priests around, such comments are like a cheating husband telling his wife that the other men in the neighborhood cheat more. The only proper response is “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry.” Regaining trust is going to take a lifetime.

As the National Catholic Reporter editorialized, he needs to meet with survivors of sexual abuse by priests. Listening to their stories will affect him as nothing else can. He also needs to take action against bishops who are not responding appropriately to abuse by priests. If a bishop in Germany can be forced to resign because of a financial scandal, why can bishops who scandalize the faithful by not protecting children remain in office? Is money more important than children?

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Cardinal George Pell has already said that he is deeply sorry for the Catholic Church’s failings in responding to the rape of children by priests.

In the corporate blue and grey surrounds of the child sex abuse royal commission’s 17th floor hearing rooms in Sydney’s CBD next week he may repeat his undertaking to keep striving to make things better. He may declare himself on the side of the victims.

There is much to regret in the church’s handling of child sex abuse claims, and no doubt Cardinal Pell feels that deeply. A decade ago he and victim John Ellis were on opposite sides of the notorious court case in which the former Baker and McKenzie partner sought damages for sexual abuse by the priest Aidan Duggan which started when he was a 13-year-old altar boy in the Bass Hill parish.

The case set a legal precedent that has allowed the Catholic Church in Australia to successfully block victims’ damages claims at court since. It established that the church was not a legal entity that could be sued, and that the archbishop could not be sued because he was not in charge of the archdiocese at the time of the abuse.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 14, 2014

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

After criticism from outraged victims and concerned Catholics, Cardinal Edward Egan will NOT appear at an upcoming event at Manhattan’s St. Ignatius parish.

[SNAP]

[SNAP]

We learned of this via a short announcement on the parish’s website:

[St. Ignatius Loyola parish]

We know this decision will be a relief to some suffering victims and caring Catholics.

We hope this decision will deter other managers – inside and outside the Catholic church – from concealing heinous child sex crimes in the future.

Obviously, New York Catholics deserve to know who played roles in planning and in cancelling Egan’s appearance. But we doubt that even one church official – Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Egan, the local Jesuit provincial or St. Ignatius staffers – will break the deeply-rooted culture of secrecy in the church around child sex crimes, cover-ups and controversies to share this information.

We are grateful to our supporters at the Voice of the Faithful (the national group and its Bridgeport affiliate) and the National Survivors Advocate Coalition for helping to prevent more pain for already struggling survivors and concerned Catholics.

And we’re especially grateful to the compassionate St. Ignatius parishioners who alerted us to this potentially hurtful move.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MARCH 14, 2014

Almost exactly a decade ago, the case of Fr. Alex Anderson was resolved in the St. Louis archdiocese. Remember this case the next time Pope Francis claims the church gets “picked on” over how it deals with child sex crimes.

Three men, who don’t know each other, accused Fr. Anderson of molesting them when they were kids.

When Fr. Anderson was accused in 2002 of abusing one of them at a boys’ home, then-Bishop Timothy Dolan believed Anderson’s denial “on the spot” because Anderson “said it with a lot of peace.”

[BishopAccountability.org]

According to the New York Times, “The same day that he met with the priest, (Dolan) reviewed the allegations with three (abuse panel) members and Archbishop Justin Rigali, and gave his opinion: Father Anderson was telling the truth.”

The Times reported that “there is no evidence that during this time the archdiocese sought witnesses to any abuse; Bishop Dolan later testified that he was unaware of an earlier abuse complaint against Fr. Anderson that had been withdrawn.”

But when deposed later, Dolan said that Fr. Anderson acknowledged that during summers at St. Joseph’s, he had invited boys to sleep in his study, allegedly because it was air-conditioned.

So how did all of this get resolved?

Archdiocesan officials claim one accuser recanted. Another accuser, they said, was “not credible.” However, they ended up paying one of the victims $22,500.

Yet to this day, Fr. Alex Anderson remains pastor of a St. Louis area parish.

And every top archdiocesan officials involved – Dolan, Rigali, his successor Archbishop Raymond Burke, and then-vicar general Fr. Richard Stika – has since been promoted at least once.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Francis the CON Christ.

Updated March 13, 2014

Paris Arrow

It is a coincident or God-incident that as Pope Francis celebrates his first year anniversary as Pope and prepares to canonize his “Holy father of Lies” John Paul II next month, the tiny village of Arecibo is reeling with JP2 Pedophile priests. When Benedict XVI, Francis other gay “Holy Father of Lies” first announced that John Paul II will be waived the usual 5-years wait after his death before qualifying for beatification, 7 theologians in Europe wrote him a letter of protest citing 7 reasons why John Paul II is not qualified to be a saint whatsoever. One of their reasons was the “plague of sexual abuse of children in South America”, read our related article The Beatification of John-Paul II: Appeal for Clarity.” http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2006/08/john-paul-ii-7-capital-sins.html

Puerto Rico is 80% Catholic and we’d like to share an article, John Paul II Catholic Traditions http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2006_10_01_archive.html that might help break the Catholic fanaticism because if they want to be liberated from their poverty, they must first be freed from the Vatican Concordats that usurp their taxes, read here Abolition of Vatican Concordat in Dominican Republic

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

Some KC Catholics fear Bishop Robert Finn will soon seek bankruptcy protection for the diocese. We think he will and we predicted it a year ago:

[SNAP]

[Kansas City Star]

Chapter 11 enables a bishop to protect what he cares about most: his own reputation, comfort and secrets. It stops depositions and discovery in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. So it means top Catholic officials won’t have to put their hands on a Bible, swear to be honest, and answer tough questions about their roles in concealing heinous crimes against kids.

And if there’s one Catholic official who wants to avoid this, it’s Bishop Finn. What’s known now about the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case is awful. But we believe that if a Ratigan case would go to trial, or Finn and other church staff were deposed about their actions, even more shocking facts would come to light. And we believe Finn will do everything he possibly can to prevent this from happening.

Chapter 11 also enables Catholic officials to change the subject from “Which priests and bishops put kids in harms’ way” to “How are we going to divide up church funds?” The names and reckless, callous and deceitful actions of those who intimidated victims, stonewalled police, threatened whistleblowers, discredited witnesses, and deceived parishioners will not be revealed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 15, 2014

CHRISSIE and Anthony Foster have sat neatly in the front row of the public gallery throughout each day of this week’s royal commission hearing in Sydney.

The Melbourne couple have travelled at their own expense. Two of their three daughters were raped by a Catholic priest. For them, the hearing represents a chance to see, behind closed doors, into the inner workings of the church.

Asked what, particularly, they are here to see, Mrs Foster replies: “George Pell, of course.” So, too, is everybody else. The first half of this two-week hearing has been dominated by the man who has, to date, not entered the commission room. The former Catholic archbishop of Sydney, recently appointed to a senior Vatican role, is unlikely to appear before he gives evidence in person at the end of next week.

Even in his absence, the evidence before the commission is drawing a close outline of the man and his actions throughout a long and bitterly sad chapter in the history of his church.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is at present investigating the church’s handling of a complaint brought by a former altar boy, John Ellis, who was sexually abused by a Sydney priest.

Ellis first formally approached the church in June 2002, saying he had been abused by Father Aidan Duggan over several years from 1974 while at the Bass Hill parish in Sydney’s west. His case, the commission hears, was badly handled under the church’s internal Towards Healing process for dealing with such claims.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 14, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is not considering bankruptcy, despite having paid millions of dollars for legal fees and settlements in sexual abuse cases involving priests in recent years, a diocese spokesman said.

The diocese has paid $6 million in settlements on sex abuse cases since May, as well as $7 million on legal fees for sex abuse cases in the last two fiscal years. And it still faces more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits and a breach-of-contract case filed by plaintiffs who settled with the diocese for $10 million in 2008, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1iJj2Tc ).

Those costs have raised concerns about possible bankruptcy among parishioners, including a group that has petitioned Pope Francis to remove Bishop Robert Finn for his handling of the sexual abuse allegations.

“Among the active and retired clergy, there is a genuine and sincere concern of diocesan bankruptcy,” said Jeff Weis, a Kansas City Catholic who started a petition drive seeking Finn’s removal. “There’s a fear that this diocese is being driven into the ground financially.”

A diocesan spokesman said those concerns are unfounded.

“The diocese is not contemplating or in a position requiring bankruptcy,” said spokesman Jack Smith, adding the diocese’s insurance carrier covered the costs of the settlements.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 14, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Controversial cardinal to speak at event
He’s accused of covering up child sex crimes
Victims feel his visit to KY “sends the wrong message”
“It encourages future cover ups & hurts victims,” they say
SNAP to Lexington diocese: “Tell your complicit prelate to stay home”

A controversial church official will address a Catholic event in Kentucky later this month and a support group for clergy sex abuse victims wants him to be disinvited.

On Saturday, March 22, retired Philadelphia Archbishop Cardinal Rigali is to be a featured speaker at the Catholic Men Servant Leaders annual conference in Lexington.

Rigali headed the Philadelphia archdiocese when prosecutors there released a lengthy grand jury report that harshly criticized the church hierarchy’s role in concealing clergy sex crimes.

In 2011, the New York Times reported that a “cloud hangs over Cardinal Rigali’s legacy — his mishandling of the abuse scandal,” noting that “the scope of crimes committed by priests — including rape, as described graphically by a grand jury in February — had shocked many because it had all been described before, by another grand jury in 2005.”

[New York Times]

At one point, “Cardinal Rigali said there were no priests in active ministry who had been accused of abuse,” but a month later, “he reversed field and suspended 21 of them in one day, prompting criticism that he should have alerted prosecutors sooner,” the Times said.

Because of that, leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests want Lexington Catholic officials to oust Rigali from the upcoming event.

[Lexington diocese]

“Welcoming and honoring Rigali sends precisely the wrong message and hurts already suffering victims and betrayed Catholics,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, outreach director of SNAP. “It encourages future cover ups by saying ‘no matter how much you endanger children you can still be rewarded.”

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MARYLAND
SoMdNews

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has confirmed that it contacted St. Mary’s prosecutors last year after a routine financial examination at St. Francis Xavier Church in Compton revealed losses, estimated by local authorities to be at least $300,000.

A spokesperson for the archdiocese said that the review of the church’s finances followed the retirement of the Rev. John Mattingly, and was performed by his successor.

The ongoing investigation, initially reported in last week’s edition of The County Times, followed the Rev. Brian Sanderfoot’s discovery of “some financial irregularities,” according to Chieko Noguchi, the archdiocese’s director of media and public relations.

The information was forwarded to the archdiocese, resulting in the inquiry into possible “improper handling of parishioner contributions by Father John Mattingly, the former pastor,” according to Noguchi.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes&Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Most crystal clear definition of Pope Francis

This is the most crystal clear definition of Pope Francis and all his priests : Pope Francis is the CON Christ, Pretender & Imposter of Jesus, Merlin priest hoax who cannot clone Jesus or dogs. Normal persons will immediately understand this truthful statement and see the CON-Christ beneath the unique white Emperor’s Clothes papal façade who has conquered the social-media and reached the same low moral hype of 20 year old porn singer Miley Cyrus and fickle Justin Bieber rolling in the covers of Rolling Stone…proving that Hollywood and the Vatican are twin cities that “lie for a living”, read our related article, Argo &“saint” John Paul II are make-believe legends of Hollywood and the Vatican: the twin-cities that “lie for a living”

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WORCESTER (MA)
MassLive

By John F. Hill | john.hill@masslive.com
on March 13, 2014

A lawsuit that claims the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester refused to sell a Northbridge mansion to a gay couple who wanted to host weddings at the property has received the support of the Massachusetts Attorney General.

Martha Coakley’s office said it filed a brief Thursday in Worcester District Court, arguing that anti-discrimination laws should apply to religious institutions.

“Our laws provide important protections for religious organizations and people of faith,” Coakley said in a statement. “These laws also strike a balance between religious freedoms and the rights of individuals to be free from discrimination. In this case, we believe that this family was unfairly discriminated against by the Diocese when it refused to sell them property based on their sexual orientation.”

The case was filed in 2012 by James Fairbanks and Alain Beret, a married couple from Sutton. The pair were looking for a venue in which to run an inn and host weddings, and wanted to buy the historic Oakhurst mansion in Northbridge, according to a Boston Globe story on the lawsuit.

The property was owned by House of Affirmation, Inc., an affiliate of the Worcester Diocese. After the diocese accepted an initial offer for the 26 acre property, the deal fell apart during negotiations, according to the lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

The country is waiting to hear from Cardinal George Pell what he really meant when he said victims should be able to sue the church in abuse cases.

Is it all incense and mirrors or has the veteran Catholic warhorse George Pell dropped the drawbridge to let thousands of abuse victims storm the legal battlements of the church?

The cardinal takes the stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse sometime next week, but commission counsel Gail Furness SC has already given a brief insight into what he’ll say.

Ms Furness this week read a few lines from a 23-page opening statement, stating that Dr Pell held the view victims in cases “of this kind” should be able to sue the church in Australia grabbed attention.

Ms Furness was laying out the facts for a two-week hearing into how the Archdiocese of Sydney under Dr Pell handled complaints by John Ellis in 2002 that he had been abused as an altar boy by a priest in Bass Hill, Sydney, about 28 years earlier.

Dr Pell’s apparent “backflip”, “change of heart” and “volte face” stole the headlines and led to speculation the church would change its structure to make itself a legal entity that could be sued.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
scroteau@telegram.com

WORCESTER — Attorney General Martha Coakley is supporting a gay couple’s legal battle against the Diocese of Worcester after the pair was allegedly denied the right to buy a church-owned mansion in Northbridge.

Two Sutton men, James E. Fairbanks and Alain J. Beret, a married gay couple, filed a civil suit in Worcester Superior Court in 2012 against the diocese and its real estate agent after their offer to buy the Oakhurst Conference and Retreat Center, a 44-bedroom mansion in the Whitinsville section of Northbridge, was rejected by the Diocese of Worcester.

The lawsuit contends the diocese ended the deal because the men are gay and might hold same-sex weddings on the property.

“In this case, we believe that this family was unfairly discriminated against by the Diocese when it refused to sell them property based on their sexual orientation,” Ms. Coakley said in a written statement.

The diocese has denied the allegations.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

Leslie C. Griffin

I am disappointed to see my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, leading the litigation charge against the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The mandate requires employer health care plans to contain preventive care coverage that includes FDA-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures. The ACA originally exempted purely religious employers like houses of worship from its requirements, but otherwise applied the contraceptive regulations to religious employers like Notre Dame.

The uproar against the Obama Administration about that original rule was equally vigorous and ridiculous. The Catholic bishops and other religious employers like Notre Dame accused the Administration of conducting a war on religious freedom, even though there is no constitutional rule that excuses religious employers from compliance with the law. Amish employers, for example, have long been required to pay Social Security taxes, and fundamentalist Christian employers to pay men and women equally. As the Catholic Church should have learned from its child abuse crisis, moreover, bishop employers are expected to obey the criminal laws and civil reporting statutes even when their rules against public scandal tell them not to. Notre Dame should have obeyed the original law and provided coverage to its 5000 full and part-time employees and 11,500 graduate and undergraduate students, who include Catholics who obey or disobey their church’s teaching, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists and others whose use of contraceptives is their own constitutionally-protected business.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-5903
POSTED: Friday, March 14, 2014

AS IT TRIES to move past the clergy sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced earlier this week that it will host its first Mass for survivors of abuse.

The Mass for Healing, which will take place March 22 at Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, will be led by Archbishop Charles Chaput and focus on prayers for the victims, the healing of the church and all those affected by the abuse.

The Archdiocese said some survivors have been invited and are expected to attend the 5:15 p.m. Mass, which will also be broadcast via a live stream on the Internet.

“The purpose of the Mass is to promote healing through prayer for the victims of clergy sexual abuse and for all who have been affected by clergy sexual abuse,” spokesman Ken Gavin said in an email.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono Record

By Beth Brelje
Pocono Record Writer
March 14, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest who was accused of molesting boys in Shohola and Moscow, Pa., has been promoted to the No. 2 position in his diocese in Paraguay.

That is according to a database released this week, listing Catholic clergy from Argentina involved in sex abuse cases. The database was compiled by BishopAccountability.org, an organization that aims to keep a record of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

Former Bishop Joseph Martino of the Diocese of Scranton allowed the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity to transfer to a parish in the South American country of Paraguay after multiple witness statements in several court cases claimed that Urrutigoity routinely slept in bed with and had sex with boys in his care, calling it spiritual guidance.

Currently, Urrutigoity is vicar general of the Ciudad del Este diocese in Paraguay. That makes him the second in command, just under the bishop there. Part of his job is to investigate any claim of sexual abuse that might come to the diocese.

“Now he is in a position of power. I’m concerned for the children of Paraguay. From everything I’ve learned, Father Carlos has not stopped. This is a basic child protection issue,” said Patrick Wall, a former priest who is now a Minnesota-based advocate for victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

YAKIMA, Wash. — More testimony was heard in the lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima Thursday. A mental health counselor and the plaintiff’s foster sister were the latest witnesses in federal court.

The counselor was used as an expert. He told the court he didn’t think the diocese had proper oversight on the deacon candidate accused of raping a man known as John Doe.

That man says the crime happened when he was a teenager. He’s suing the Yakima Diocese for more than $3 million. The trial is adjourned until Tuesday.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH MACDONALD – PUBLISHED 14 MARCH 2014

IRISH Catholics have told the Vatican that the church is out of touch on sex, divorce, homosexuality and family planning.

In their responses to the Vatican’s questionnaire on the family, the Irish faithful made it clear that the church’s teachings are disconnected from real life.

The survey is part of a sounding out of the global church on these issues ahead of a synod on the family called by Pope Francis for October in Rome.

According to the Irish bishops, on the basis of the answers they collated from the country’s 26 dioceses, Catholics in Ireland feel the church’s teaching is often not experienced as “realistic, compassionate, or life-enhancing”.

On Thursday, the bishops revealed that some Irish Catholics see the church’s teaching that contraception is intrinsically wrong or that the divorced and remarried cannot receive communion, as disconnected from real-life experience.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

IAN DUNN meets with US writer Dawn Eden, an abuse survivor, who was invited by Bishop Hugh Gilbert to speak to Catholics in his diocese and who also spoke in Glasgow during her time in Scotland

US author Dawn Eden was visiting Scotland last week, on a very important mission. She was speaking in Aberdeen and Glasgow about her book My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints, which details how the lives of the saints have given her hope and aided her journey of spiritual healing after childhood sexual abuse. Her path to Catholicism is not a conventional one, having being raised as a Jew and being a former rock journalist, but as a victim of childhood abuse herself her book has helped thousands of people all over the world.

On the invitation of Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, she spoke across the diocese including in Fort Augustus, where revelations of sexual abuse at a former Benedictine school there had left deep wounds.

“This whole trip has been so blessed,” she said. “Everyone has been so friendly. Since writing My Peace I Give You, I have felt this is my missionary work, and it is a real joy to me.”

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

Annette Blackwell, AAP

A senior Catholic official had to be released from a vow of secrecy before he could freely give evidence to the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Monsignor Brian Rayner was chancellor and vicar-general in the Archdiocese of Sydney when abuse victim John Ellis sought redress for abuse suffered when he was an altar boy at Bass Hill, in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Monsignor Rayner told counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, that he had gone to the Papal Nuncio to be released from a vow of secrecy he took when he held the chancellor’s position in Sydney.

The nuncio, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Pope’s diplomat in Australia, is based in Canberra.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

An expert on sex abuse within the Catholic Church testified Thursday that the Diocese of Yakima failed to properly supervise a deacon accused of raping a man when he was a teen in 1999.

“(The supervision) wasn’t there,” said psychotherapist Richard Sipe. “They didn’t know what was going on, and they didn’t require accountability.”

But an attorney representing the diocese challenged Sipe’s credibility, producing documents showing that then-Bishop Carlos Sevilla advised an Episcopal bishop in Mexico that former Deacon Aaron Ramirez had sexually abused a 17-year-old in Zillah.

“Your statement that Bishop Sevilla failed to provide information is not accurate,” attorney Ted Buck said in one of the trial’s more testy exchanges.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY March 14, 2014

IN 1989 a couple travelled to an isolated farmhouse in the southern highlands for time alone.

The mood was strained.

For the previous year the woman had been recovering from major surgery to correct a serious physical disability involving her hips and legs.

The man was distracted and aloof. Although that had been a feature of their relationship since he first suddenly and forcefully kissed her in her parents’ house in 1976 when she was 22 and he was 30, and a few months later had sex with her, the woman sensed there was something more as they settled in for their four-day getaway.

They had sex over that four days, despite the discomfort that was a consequence of the surgery. But he had never let her discomfort stop him from having sex, she said in a statement to her lawyers many years later.

On the last day the woman tried to break through his distraction.

‘‘Was something wrong?’’ she asked.

There was, he said. The relationship was over. He could not continue to carry on with ‘‘a public and a private life’’.

The man was Catholic priest Father Tom Knowles. The woman was Jennifer Herrick. In 1989 he was 42 and she was 35. He was on his way to becoming Australian head of his order, the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

March 13
BY JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Six years after a massive settlement closed the curtain on a dark era of priest sexual abuse scandals, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is spending millions on a new crop of cases.

Settlements last month with two families whose minor daughters were victims of a priest convicted of producing child pornography brought to $6 million the total the diocese has paid out since last May. That doesn’t include $7 million the diocese has spent on legal costs involving those and other sex abuse cases the past two fiscal years.

And the end may not be in sight. With more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits pending, along with a breach-of-contract case filed by plaintiffs who settled with the diocese for $10 million in 2008, a number of Catholics are wondering:

Is bankruptcy on the horizon?

“Among the active and retired clergy, there is a genuine and sincere concern of diocesan bankruptcy,” said Jeff Weis, a lifelong Kansas City Catholic who initiated a petition drive seeking the removal of Bishop Robert Finn. “There’s a fear that this diocese is being driven into the ground financially.”

A diocesan spokesman said bankruptcy is not under consideration.

“The diocese is not contemplating or in a position requiring bankruptcy,” said communications director Jack Smith.

That’s not the case in other dioceses across the country. In the past decade, 11 U.S. dioceses and two religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection, three of them since November.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

Papal anniversary: top marks for warmth but now get to work on abuse record, curial reform and the role of women – poll

12 March 2014 by Abigail Frymann

Developing the role of women, reforming the Vatican bureaucracy and improving the Church’s record on abuse are the three areas Pope Francis must most urgently address, according to a survey conducted by The Tablet.

Some 73 per cent said Pope Francis must prioritise developing the role of women, 72 per cent highlighted the need to press ahead with curial reform and 68 per cent said they wanted him to focus on “child protection, the censure of clergy who have abused or covered up abuse, and care for victims”.

More than 1,400 people completed an online poll on The Tablet’s website between 19 February and 4 March. Every continent was represented, with one third of respondents from the UK and one third from the US. One fifth were clergy.

Of the 1,208 of the respondents who said they were Mass-going Catholics, almost two-thirds also wanted Pope Francis to prioritise making the Church more transparent. These priorities were closely followed by communicating Christ and the Gospel, involving the laity in decision-making and discussing Communion for remarried divorcees.

The 299 clergy who took part in the poll listed curial reform as top priority (78 per cent). While 63 per cent highlighted improving the Church’s response to abuse, this priority emerged as seventh, behind developing the role of women, communicating Christ and the Gospel, improving transparency and collegiality and involving the laity more in decision-making.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Pam Cohen | Mar. 13, 2014 NCR Today

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reached out to the Vatican on behalf of House and Senate leaders on Thursday to invite Pope Francis to speak to both houses of Congress should he come to the United States next year, The Washington Post reports.

A copy of the letter:

It is with reverence and admiration that I have invited Pope Francis, as head of state of the Holy See and the first Pope to hail from the Americas, to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.
Pope Francis has inspired millions of Americans with his pastoral manner and servant leadership, challenging all people to lead lives of mercy, forgiveness, solidarity, and humble service.

His tireless call for the protection of the most vulnerable among us — the ailing, the disadvantaged, the unemployed, the impoverished, the unborn — has awakened hearts on every continent.

His social teachings, rooted in ‘the joy of the gospel,’ have prompted careful reflection and vigorous dialogue among people of all ideologies and religious views in the United States and throughout a rapidly changing world, particularly among those who champion human dignity, freedom, and social justice.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Commonwealth Magazine

BY: JACK SULLIVAN
March 13, 2014

ATTORNEY GENERAL MARTHA COAKLEY thrust her office into the middle of a civil suit against the Worcester Diocese, saying the church’s refusal to sell property it owns in Oxford to a married gay couple is discrimination not protected by any right to religious freedom.

Coakley’s office on Thursday filed an amicus brief in Worcester Superior Court saying the Worcester Diocese violated state law by refusing to sell a former Whitinsville home used for pedophile priests to Alain Beret and James Fairbanks after Bishop Robert McManus learned the couple was gay and planned to turn the home into a function center for a variety of events, including gay weddings.

“[The church’s] interpretation of the law is incorrect and, in the context of this case, the rights of religious freedom do not entitle the Diocesan defendants to discriminate against plaintiffs on the basis of sexual orientation,” the brief states.

Beret and Fairbanks had made an agreement in 2012 to purchase the property, called Oakhurst, for $1 million, paying a $75,000 deposit and contracting for a home inspection. But, after the inspection, they learned they would have to buy a sprinkler system for nearly $250,000 in order to make the 44-bedroom mansion into a bed and breakfast and function hall. After consulting with the realtor, they submitted a revised offer to purchase only the mansion and a smaller portion of the 24-acre property. The following day, the realtor sent the couple an email stating the diocese was pulling out of the deal because they had “other plans” for the property.

Though diocesan officials told a Telegram & Gazette columnist they killed the deal over concern about the couple’s finances, the message the couple received from the realtor inadvertently included a copy of an email sent to her from Monsignor Thomas Sullivan, one of McManus’s top aides.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

A YEAR ago, the world was introduced to the former archbishop of Buenos Aires on a balcony in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Pope Francis asked the crowds to bless him. It was an act of humility, the first of many.

Pope Francis is an unlikely media rock star, but that is what he has become. Millions of people have found hope in his humble manner. From shunning the official papal apartment to driving around in a Ford Focus, the pontiff is changing the tone of the Catholic Church.

He made headlines when asked about gay clergy by responding, “Who am I to judge?” Some interpret that as a hint that the church’s views on homosexuality will change. That is unlikely.

The pope is not signaling that Catholic teaching will change, but rather that the Vatican’s priorities will. He wants to focus on the needs of the poor and the disenfranchised in society. He also wants his bishops to live simpler lives.

Here in North Jersey, the pope has left his mark with the appointment of Coadjutor Archbishop Bernard Hebda, the presumed replacement for Newark Archbishop John Myers. Myers has been embroiled in controversy over his handling of a priest who violated a legal agreement never to minister to children. Myers also is enlarging his already lavish retirement home.

This stark contrast to the lifestyle embraced by Pope Francis shows the challenges the pontiff faces – internally and externally. In his early years as pontiff, Pope John Paul II was a vigorous force on the world stage challenging autocratic governments and empowering democratic movements. Yet he failed at challenging the autocracy that is the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s governing body.

Pope Francis must reform the Curia before he can attempt to transform a secular world focused on power and money into something more altruistic. Many people are listening to what he says and are heartened by his humility. But the Catholic Church is a large ship that does not change direction quickly. The pontiff rides in a Ford Focus, while Myers plans to retire to a 7,500-square-foot mansion with an indoor exercise pool.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Christine Buckley’s son choked back tears as he described his mother as “my best friend, my hero, my first love” at her funeral yesterday.

Hundreds packed into the Church of St Therese in Mount Merrion, South Dublin, to say farewell to the brave woman who spoke out about the institutional abuse she suffered.

Mourners heard how the 67-year-old played a pivotal role in exposing the horror endured by thousands of children across the country at the hands of religious orders.

And her son Conor took to the altar to tell the world about his courageous mother who battled every day of her life.

Detailing how special a woman she was, he said Christine will leave a lasting impression on him for the rest of his life.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE FUNERAL MASS of institutional abuse campaigner Christine Buckley was held in Dublin this morning.

Survived by her husband Donal and their adult children Conor, Darragh and Cliona, the 67-year-old passed away on Tuesday from cancer.

President Michael D Higgins was among the mourners at today’s funeral at the church of St Therese in Mount Merrion.

The Taoiseach was represented by his aide de camp as he is out of the country. Health Minister James Reilly also attended, as well as Senator Jillian Van Turnhout and former Minister of State for Children and current CEO of Goal, Barry Andrews.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Christine Buckley was “a woman of extraordinary courage,” President Michael D Higgins said after her funeral in Dublin this morning.

Speaking after the service at the Church of St Therese in Dublin’s Mount Merrion, which he attended, the president said: “it was appropriate to pay tribute to a figure of such moral strength and purpose.”
He had attended the funeral “to honour her courage”, recalling “the darkness she broke open with the light of her own experience.”

On arrival at the church earlier her remains were received by Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, President of Blackrock College, Fr Cormac Ó Brolcháin, and parish administrator Fr Tony Coote.

Archbishop Martin welcomed “our great friend Christine Buckley, her immediate family and the huge family she helped.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

NEARLY €9 MILLION has been paid out to survivors of the Magdalene Laundries with the 250 women who have accepted offers sharing an average of €34,800.

The Department of Justice has told the Public Accounts Committee today that 724 applications have been made to the compensation scheme set up on foot of a report by the former senator Martin McAleese into the controversial laundries.

The department’s secretary general Brian Purcell told the committee that progress on compensation has been “broadly in line with expectations” with 250 women accepting offers and €8.7 million paid out.
However, he acknowledged delays in amending current legislation to provide the affected women with healthcare.

The department set aside €23 million for the compensation fund which was set up following a report by Justice Quirke, President of the Law Reform Commission, on the establishment of an ex-gratia scheme and supports for the hundreds of women affected.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox News Latino

Is Congress turning to divine intervention to lift it out of bipartisan bickering and legislative gridlock?

Perhaps.

House Speaker John Boehner wants Pope Francis to come to Washington D.C. and address the entire Congress. It would mark the first time the head of the Catholic Church personally spoke before Congress.

“Pope Francis has inspired millions of Americans with his pastoral manner and servant leadership, challenging all people to lead lives of mercy, forgiveness, solidarity, and humble service,” Boehner said in an email announcing that he had invited the Holy Father. “His tireless call for the protection of the most vulnerable among us – the ailing, the disadvantaged, the unemployed, the impoverished, the unborn – has awakened hearts on every continent.”

Boehner, an Ohio Republican who is Catholic, expressed admiration for the Pope’s success in getting people in the United States from all ideological and religious walks of life to examine human rights and social justice.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — The foster sister of a man suing the Diocese of Yakima said Thursday that the man, identified as John Doe, was a popular high school athlete before he was reportedly attacked by a church deacon in 1999.

But after the July 29 incident, in which Doe alleges Deacon Aaron Ramirez plied him with alcohol and repeatedly raped him in a trailer at Resurrection Catholic Church in Zillah, he became withdrawn, started drinking and became suicidal. Doe was 17 at the time.

“John Doe looked like someone had torn his soul from him,” the foster sister said, describing when she first saw Doe at the Zillah Police Department after the attack. “He did not look like the John Doe who was my best friend.”

Doe, now 32, is suing the diocese for $3.1 million, claiming that church officials failed to properly check Ramirez’s background when he applied to be a candidate for the priesthood, and failed to supervise him when he served as a deacon in the diocese.

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NEW YORK
Voice of the Faithful

March 13, 2014

Voice of the Faithful®, a movement of Catholics gravely concerned about the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal and Church structures that permit it, said today that Cardinal Edward Egan’s prominent role this Saturday in a celebration featuring a children’s choir is ill-advised considering controversial involvement in that scandal.

Cardinal Egan is scheduled to preside at a Mass following a festival featuring the Pueri Cantores Children’s Choir, with more than 200 children from New York and surrounding communities participating. The festival takes place at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in New York City.

The juxtaposition of Egan’s statements and attitude about the clergy sexual abuse scandal with a liturgical celebration featuring children is at least insensitive.

Secret Church documents, since made public, show Egan hid clergy sexual abuse crimes during his long tenure in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was accused of doing the same as archbishop of New York. Many of these transgressions are detailed at BishopAccountablity.org.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the latest left-wing attack on the pope:

BishopAccountability.org purports to be an abuse watchdog, but in reality its only real agenda is to discredit the Catholic Church. Its latest stab at Pope Francis brings further discredit to its reputation. Indeed, as will be demonstrated, its report on the pope is pure McCarthyism.

Yesterday, it published a report on Pope Francis’ record with priests accused of abuse in Argentina when he was Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The report accuses Bergoglio of not having addressed abusive priests during his tenure as Auxiliary and Archbishop of Buenos Aires (1992-1998 Auxiliary; 1998-2013 Archbishop) or as president of the Argentine Bishops Conference (2005-2011).

The report is so seriously flawed that even a high school dropout could shoot holes in it. To read our analysis of it, click here. The heads of every diocese in the U.S. are being sent a copy of our analysis, along with a statement about our previous research on BishopAccountability.org.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

[Via BishopAccountability.org:
Pope’s record on abuse in Argentina is posted online
Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina
El papa Francisco y los abusos sexuales del clero en Argentina]

March 13, 2014 by Bill

Filed under Special Reports

According to BishopAccountability.org, “He [the pope when he was a bishop in Argentina] released no documents, no names of accused priests, no tallies of accused priests, no policy for handling abuse, not even an apology to victims.”

The report excerpts a quote from a 2010 interview where Archbishop Bergoglio was asked about pedophilia. In part, he responded by saying, “in my diocese it never happened to me.” What the report left out was his condemnation of pedophilia, and his criticism of the way some bishops handled the problem of sexual abuse.

BishopAccountability highlights five cases where Bergoglio may have had knowledge of abuse allegations, but it is clear that it has no evidence that he knew about any of these cases. Moreover, only one of the priests was an archdiocesan priest from Buenos Aires (more on him below); two were religious order priests and two were from other dioceses.

The report estimates that between 1950 and 2013, “more than 100 Buenos Aires archdiocesan priests offended against children.” Again, the report cites no evidence for this claim. It further undermines its credibility when it makes a strained analogy: it compares the size of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires to the number of priests accused in the dioceses of Manchester, Providence, and Los Angeles. Even a high school dropout would have chosen a Latin American analogy.

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DEUTSCHLAND
n-tv

[Summary: With a scientific research project, the Catholic Church wants to reappraise the abuse scandal in their own ranks. The bishops decided at their spring general assembly in Munster to have such a research study and to cooperate with new partners. A first attempt failed a year ago.]

Mit einem wissenschaftlichen Forschungsprojekt will die katholische Kirche den Missbrauchsskandal in ihren eigenen Reihen aufarbeiten. In Münster beschlossen die Bischöfe bei ihrer Frühjahrsvollversammlung einen Forschungsplan sowie die Zusammenarbeit mit neuen Partnern. Ein erster Anlauf dazu war vor einem Jahr gescheitert.

Ziel ist, die sexuellen Übergriffe von Priestern und anderen Geistlichen an Minderjährigen von 1945 bis heute zu analysieren, um künftig Missbrauch zu verhindern. “Das Thema liegt uns sehr am Herzen und ist von großer Bedeutung”, erklärte der bisherige Vorsitzende der Bischofskonferenz, Robert Zollitsch. Deshalb werde der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, der für die Aufarbeitung des Skandals verantwortlich ist, das Projekt “in den kommenden Wochen und in jedem Fall vor Ostern” auf einer eigenen Pressekonferenz mit dem neuen Partner vorstellen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskongerenz

[Summary: The spring plenary meeting of the German Bishops’ Conference, held in Munster, has ended. The bishops since Monday have consulted on a variety of issues and tasks. Discussions included debate on the situation of the church in Germany and the challenges facing the conference.]

PRESSEBERICHT DES SCHEIDENDEN VORSITZENDEN DER DEUTSCHEN BISCHOFSKONFERENZ, ERZBISCHOF DR. ROBERT ZOLLITSCH

Die Frühjahrs-Vollversammlung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz ist heute (13. März 2014) in Münster zu Ende gegangen. Seit Montag haben die Mitglieder der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz über vielfältige Fragen und Aufgaben beraten.

62 anwesende und wahlberechtigte Mitglieder der Vollversammlung haben am Mittwoch, den 12. März 2014, Kardinal Reinhard Marx, den Erzbischof von München und Freising zu ihrem neuen Vorsitzenden gewählt.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 13, 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 )

What a sad irony: Today is the international Rights of the Child Day and the anniversary of a pope who has done literally nothing to safeguard even one child.

For a year now, Pope Francis has headed a global monarchy that has long been – and still is – mired in well-documented and horrific crisis involving the hiding of clergy sex crimes.

But has refused to take a single step that protects a single child, unveils a single cover up or disciplines a single bishop or deters a single act of recklessness, callousness and deceit. Instead, he has rebuffed

–a United Nations panel’s request for information (and ignored its recommendations),

–parishioners urging that a convicted Missouri bishop be disciplined, and

–prosecutors who want an accused child molesting Polish archbishop extradited.

Instead, he has deemed symbolic gestures and battling Vatican theft, mismanagement and inefficiency higher priorities. And he has made recent comments that exacerbate the wounds of suffering victims and betrayed Catholics and that encourages blame-shifting and self-centered posturing.

More than a year ago, we recommended these steps to the next pope. As best we can tell, Francis has taken none of them. We still hope that he will.

There’s speculation that Francis will soon meet with abuse victims. We hope he does not – until he takes steps like these that will make a tangible impact on children’s safety.

SNAP 20 child safety steps for the new pope’s first “100 days”

Here are 20 simple steps the next pope could and should promptly take with little effort or real controversy. Based on our 25 years of dealing with this crisis, we are convinced these moves will make children much safer by exposing and deterring wrongdoing in child sex cases by church staff.

—Ordering bishops to set up and finance “whistleblower funds” to reward church staff whose actions lead to the criminal charging or conviction of current or former abusive clerics.

—Removing child sex abuse from the CDF’s jurisdiction so that all church officials will clearly see that clergy sex abuse and cover up is a crime, not a sin, and a matter of discipline not of doctrine.

—- Insisting that priests immediately give their passports to their bishops when abuse accusations arise (so they can’t flee overseas).

—-Demanding that bishops hire independent corrections staff to house and monitor child molesting clerics (who cannot be criminally charged) in remote, secure facilities so they will be kept away from children.

—-Instructing bishops to use only licensed therapists (not priests or nuns) to deal with abuse victims.

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ALABAMA
Baptist Press

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (BP) — A Baptist children’s pastor in Alabama has pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 and one count of child pornography.

Jeffrey Dale Eddie, the children’s pastor and administrator of Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, was arrested Feb. 4. Eddie, who was released from his duties upon arrest, had served on the Highland Park staff for 16 years.

Eddie was charged with two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, according to The Alabama Baptist newspaper.

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CANADA
CBC News

A commemorative marker to survivors of residential schools, which is coming to more than 100 communities across Canada, was unveiled at Ottawa’s Wabano Centre on Wednesday night.

The circular piece of art has braids on the outside and imagery from different Indigenous cultures on the inside, a collaboration between five artists from different parts of Canada.

Once cast in bronze, they will be placed at or near 139 sites of former residential schools.

“It’s very much part of healing to us, to all of us who had experiences in residential schools,” said Ovilu Goo-Doyle, one of 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children taken from their families and forced into residential schools.

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MONTANA
Montana Standard

Christians last week marked the beginning of Lent, a time for spiritual reflection and contemplating a broken world in need of salvation.

As Lent begins, the two Montana Roman Catholic dioceses proceed at different points with lawsuits which allege sexual abuse and cover-up by authorities years ago. It’s purely coincidental that news of these lawsuits and a bankruptcy by the Diocese of Helena come on the heels of Lent.

And yet coincidence is indeed beautiful in its timing.

Not enough can be written and not enough damning words can be said about the alleged abuse that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, where priests and institutions may have permitted sexual predators license to prey upon the most vulnerable in the church, the children. Of all the things Jesus made clear in the New Testament, few words were more pointed or unequivocal than those he spoke against those who would harm children.

Yet, this is not an editorial adding our condemnation for a stiff-necked church unwilling to admit its role in unspeakable crimes. It wasn’t just institutional indifference, it went beyond that.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 13, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

We applaud Philly prosecutors for pledging to re-try Fr. Andrew McCormick on child sex abuse charges. We’re saddened but not surprised by the mistrial, because predator priests are often shrewd and well-educated and get top notch defense lawyers, while their victims, traumatized as kids, don’t often have perfect recall or make the absolute most convincing witnesses.

[Philadelphia Daily News]

Often, when a child molesting cleric is arrested or charged, others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes choose to be silent, complacently assuming that now justice will be done and kids will be protected. While that approach is tempting, it’s wrong. It’s a violation of our moral and civic duty to safeguard the vulnerable.

So now more than ever, it’s crucial that people step forward with knowledge about or suspicions of crimes or misdeeds by Fr. McCormick.

Here in St. Louis, a decade ago, Fr. Bryan Kuchar’s criminal trial ended in a deadlocked jury. Prosecutors pledged to retry him. And in the next few months, they found a priest, a nun and a lay church employee who all acknowledged that Fr. Kuchar had admitted his crimes to them. Fr. Kuchar was convicted in a second trial.

We suspect the same thing can happen in this case. But it takes individuals who are courageous and compassionate and willing to buck the dangerous and irresponsible culture of self-protection in the church.

Let’s hope that current and former archdiocesan employees who can shed light on Fr. McCormick will search their consciences, pick up their phones, and call police and prosecutors so that horrific crimes against kids will be prevented.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 13, 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 )

Now that Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt is back on the job, he should immediately stop the destruction of church abuse records and fire – or at least publicly denounce – the staffer who recently admitted doing it or others who have done likewise.

[New York Times]

In an MPR report just over two weeks ago (in paragraph 11 of a 13 paragraph story), an archdiocesan official made a disturbing revelation:

Setter, who carried out investigations of priests for the archdiocese for more than a decade, told police that he had a policy of destroying records after five years and therefore no longer had his final report summarizing the investigation. Setter also said that he recently changed his policy and now destroys records after two years.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

For ten years, this man, Richard Setter, has done ‘investigations’ of child sex abuse reports for the archdiocese. It’s not clear to us whether he’s still with the archdiocese. If he is, he should be fired. If he is not, Nienstedt should still publicly denounce him.

We hope Nienstedt will take strong, clear and public steps to stop the destruction of abuse documents and publicly instruct other church staff and volunteers to stop doing it.

Children are safer and justice is possible when records are preserved, not destroyed.

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