ABUSE TRACKER

KROATIEN
Tiroler Tageszeitung

[Summary: The Catholic Church in Croatia has sentenced a priest after he faced allegations of sexually abusing children. The priest from Bibinje, Dalmatia, was the first priest to be sentenced under canon law in the country. According to Croatian civil law, the abusive acts were time-barred because they occurred from 1983 to 1991. The case became public two years ago when a victim went on Croatian television.]

Zagreb (APA) – Die katholische Kirche in Kroatien hat einen Priester nach Vorwürfen des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern verurteilt. Der Priester aus Bibinje in Dalmatien ist der erste Geistliche, der nach dem Kirchenrecht verurteilt wurde, berichteten kroatische Medien. Die Erzdiözese Zadar veröffentlichte in einer Pressekonferenz am Freitag jedoch nicht das Strafausmaß.

Laut dem kroatischen Gesetz sind die Taten des Priesters verjährt, da sie länger als 15 Jahre zurückliegen. Die Anzeigen, die bei der kroatischen Staatsanwaltschaft eintrafen, beziehen sich auf den Zeitraum von 1983 bis 1991. Der Fall wurde vor zwei Jahren publik, als ein Missbrauchsopfer im kroatischen Fernsehen seine Geschichte publik machte. Die Erzdiözese Zadar berichtete von drei Zeugen, die den Missbrauch bei der kirchlichen Stelle angezeigt hatten, worauf man Ermittlungen einleitete.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Last year, the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal collected nearly $10 million. Myers’ palace is estimated to cost $500,000, minus architectural costs, furnishings and landscaping. While the money for the mansion is not coming from the appeal, it is hypocritical for the archdiocese to ask parishioners to give generously when it is spending generously on luxuries for Myers.

The theme for the current appeal is: “When I called, you answered.”

Prospective donors should think twice about giving when Myers’ motto should read: “When I called, you paid for my hot tub.”

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

(Reuters) – Pope Francis elevated 19 prelates to the rank of cardinal on Saturday, his first appointments to the elite group of men who are his top aides around the world and who can one day elect his successor if they are under 80.

Sixteen of the new cardinals will have the right to vote to choose a successor. Three were made cardinal emeritus, without voting rights, for their service to the Church.

The following are cardinals with voting rights:

1. Archbishop Pietro Parolin, 59, Italian, Vatican Secretary of State.
2. Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, 73, Italian, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
3. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller, 66, German, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
4. Archbishop, Beniamino Stella, 72, Italian, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy.
5. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, 68, British, Archbishop of Westminster.
6. Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano, 64, Nicaraguan, Archbishop of Managua.
7. Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, 56, Canadian, Archbishop of Quebec.
8. Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa, 68, Ivorian, Archbishop of Abidjan.
9. Archbishop Orani João Tempesta, 63, Brazilian, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro.
10. Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti, 71, Italian, Archbishop of Perugia.
11. Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli, 66, Argentine, Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
12. Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung, 70, Korean, Archbishop of Seoul.
13. Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, 72, Chilean, Archbishop of Santiago.
14. Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo, 69, from Burkina Faso, Archbishop of Ouagadougou.
15. Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, 74, Filipino, Archbishop of Cotabato.
16. Archbishop Chibly Langlois, 55, Haitian, Archbishop of Les Cayes.

The following are cardinals emeritus, without voting rights:

1. Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, 98, Italian, who was secretary to Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958-1963 and called the Second Vatican Council. He was not able to attend the ceremony for health reasons.
2. Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, 84, Spanish, Archbishop emeritus of Pamplona.
3. Monsignor Kelvin Edward Felix, 81, from Saint Lucia, Archbishop emeritus of Castries.

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VATICAN CITY
WOI

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Retired Pope Benedict XVI joined Pope Francis at a ceremony Saturday creating the cardinals who will elect their successor in an unprecedented blending of papacies past, present and future.

Benedict discreetly entered St. Peter’s Basilica from a side entrance surrounded by a small entourage and was greeted with applause and tears from the stunned people in the pews. He smiled, waved and seemed genuinely happy to be there, taking his seat in the front row, off to the side, alongside the red-draped cardinals.

It was the first time Benedict and Francis have appeared together at a public liturgical ceremony since Benedict retired a year ago and became the first pope to step down in more than 600 years.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 22 February 2014 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., has issued a press release to report that the final session of the extraordinary consistory took place yesterday, Friday 21 February, from 4.30 to 6.45 p.m.

“Throughout the entire consistory, 69 cardinals spoke on a broad range of themes regarding the family. The assembly took place and concluded in an atmosphere of great serenity and satisfaction on the part of all those present for the breadth and depth of the presentations”.

“The Holy Father made a brief concluding address to thank all the participants and expressing his conviction that the Lord has led the Church to face the theme of the Gospel of the family, and will accompany her on the path she has undertaken with this important step in the Consistory and will continue with the Synod over the course of almost two years. He invited all those present to pray to the Lord for this intention and for him”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 22 February 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Vatican Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated an Ordinary Public Consistory during which he created nineteen new cardinals, to whom he imposed the biretta, consigned the ring and assigned the title or diaconate church.

The celebration was also attended by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whom Pope Francis embraced upon entering the basilica and who was also greeted by secretary of State Pietro Parolin in his address. Parolin was the first among the new cardinals and addressed some words of thanks to the Holy Father in the name of all the new cardinals. Bishop Loris Francesco Capovilla was not present, and the biretta will be consigned over the next few days to his residence in Sotto il Monte, in the Italian province of Bergamo.

Today’s ordinary public consistory was the first of Pope Francis’ pontificate; he began his allocution with the phrase from the Gospel of St. Mark, read on this occasion: “And Jesus went before them”.

“At this moment too, Jesus is walking ahead of us”, he said. “He is always before us. He goes ahead of us and leads the way. This is the source of our confidence and our joy: to be his disciples, to remain with him, to walk behind him, to follow him. When we joined with the cardinals to concelebrate the first Mass in the Sistine Chapel, the first word which the Lord proposed to us was to ‘walk’, to journey with him: to journey, and then to build and to profess. Today this same word is repeated, but now as an action, an action of Jesus which is ongoing: ‘Jesus was walking…’.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Feb 22, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis created his first batch of new cardinals on Saturday (Feb. 22) and used the ceremony – which featured the first public appearance by Pope Benedict XVI since his retirement last year – to launch a new appeal for peace amid the violence racking so many countries.

In his remarks, Francis focused on the plight of Christians in particular but in an extemporaneous addition to his prepared speech he also called on the church “to fight any discrimination” and “exclusion.”

“The Church needs your compassion, especially at this time of pain and suffering for so many countries throughout the world,” Francis told the 18 new cardinals who were present in St. Peter’s Basilica, along with hundreds of other cardinals and bishops whose colorful vestments and diverse origins offered a grand tableau of global Catholicism.

Adding to the drama of the day, Benedict was a surprise participant at the ceremony, his first public appearance at a Vatican event since he resigned the papacy on Feb. 28 last year — a stunning move that paved the way for the election of Francis two weeks later.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ginny Stein

The royal commission has rejected Catholic Church concerns about the timing of hearings into sex abuse in an Adelaide special needs school.

Next month the commission will look into how authorities responded to the abuse at St Ann’s school in the early 1990s.

Parents of the victims hope they will finally get answers about the paedophile bus driver who preyed on up to 30 children, most of whom could not speak.

Earlier this year, lawyers for the church’s insurers wrote to the commission, arguing that hearings could influence compensation settlements.

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INDIANA
WDTN

By Jill Drury
Published: Friday, February 21, 2014

CINCINNATI, Ohio (WDTN) – The Vatican took action Friday in the cases of two local priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Both were accused of child abuse.

The Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith permanently removed Daniel Prater from the priesthood.

The archdiocese says Pater was put on administrative leave in 2003 after admitting to sexually abusing a teenaged girl in the 1980s and 1990s.

It say although Pater remains a priest, he can never again celebrate a public Mass, administer other sacraments, wear clerical clothes or present himself as a priest. …

The Vatican restored Reverend David Reilly to active ministry. He was accused of inappropriate behavior in the 1970s, but the Church found there was not found guilty of committing any offenses.

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INDIANA
Cincinnati Enquirer

After admitting to sexually abusing a teenaged girl in the 1980s, Daniel Pater has been removed from ministry by the Vatican, according to an announcement from The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

In addition to Pater, CDF announced that Rev. David F. Reilly was restored to active ministry after a church court ruled that he was not guilty of inappropriate behavior with a minor.

Reilly was put on administrative leave from St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Shandon in August of 2006 after he was accused of engaging a minor in behavior with sexual overtones in the 1970s, according to CDF.

Pater, who has been on administrative leave since 2003, has been directed by the CDF to “lead a life of prayer and penance.” Pater will never again be permitted to celebrate Mass in public, administer the other sacraments, wear clerical garb or present himself as a priest.

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TEXAS/NEW JERSEY
Patch

Posted by Jason Koestenblatt (Editor) , February 21, 2014

A retired priest from Morris County has been charged with criminal sexual contact by local authorities but has not been taken into custody as he currently resides in Texas.

Morris County Acting Prosecutor Fredric Knapp announced today Reverend Phillip Briganti, 67, formerly of Randolph, was being charged with the fourth-degree crime for “acts involving an adult male.”

Briganti, living in El Paso, Texas, officiated a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park on Nov. 9, 2013, Knapp said. Following the wedding reception, Briganti was riding on a bus with the alleged victim en route to a hotel, Knapp said. It was then Briganti allegedly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with the victim.

The victim notified the Diocese of Paterson, which then alerted authorities in Morris, Passai, and Bergen counties, Knapp said.

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TEXAS/NEW JERSEY
El Diario de El Paso

Julio Antonio Molinet
El Diario de El Paso | 2014-02-21

Un sacerdote retirado de Nueva Jersey y que actualmente vive en la ciudad de El Paso, ha sido acusado de tener contacto sexual ilícito con un hombre tras haber oficiado una boda. El incidente, dado a conocer ayer, ocurrió el pasado nueve de noviembre en el poblado de Prospect Park, del Condado de Passaic.

Los fiscales del Condado de Morris dijeron que el padre Philip Briganti tuvo el supuesto contacto sexual mientras el sacerdote –de 67 años de edad– se encontraba en un autobús que viajaba rumbo a un hotel, después de la recepción de la boda.

Al contactar ayer a la canciller de la Diócesis de El Paso, Patricia Fierro, para una opinión de esa institución, este rotativo recibió un comunicado oficial con la rúbrica del vicario general de la Curia, reverendo Anthony C. Celino.

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CHILE
El Mostrador

[Summary: Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati will become a Cardinal today but amid controversy. Photos have photos emerged showing priest Fernando Karadima officiating at a Mass after the Vatican forbid him to do because of allegations of abuse. A victim of abuse by a Valdivia priest a few days ago filed a complaint against Ezzati allegeing that he obstructed an investigation and withheld information.]

por BERNARDITA GARCÍA JIMÉNEZ

Mientras el arzobispo Ricardo Ezzati se encuentra por estos días en el Vaticano, en Roma, a la espera de la ceremonia que se llevará a cabo este sábado a las 11:00 de la mañana, hora local, y en la que será investido cardenal Consistorio por el Papa Francisco, en Chile el Arzobispado de Santiago se convierte en blanco de críticas a raíz de las recientes eventualidades. El jueves, el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas que denunció abusos por parte del ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, divulgó una fotografía en la que figura este oficiando una misa el pasado 4 de diciembre de 2013 en la capilla del convento de las Siervas de Jesús de la Caridad, en el sector del Parque Bustamante de la comuna de Providencia.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Updated: Friday, February 21 2014

By: Maria Miller JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — There are new developments in the case involving a former Franciscan friar accused of sexually assaulting students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in the early ’90s.

On Friday, the Bishop McCort board of trusteesannounced its intent to file suit against a Greensburg attorney representing alleged victims in the case, saying she might be withholding vital information to its investigation.

The board said Attorney Susan Williams is making unsubstantiated and even slanderous claims on her website.

The board memberssaid if she really has knowledge of adults at the school, former or current, who knew anything about alleged abuse, they want and need to know in order to protect current students.

The statement on Williams’ website is hard to miss. It’s one of the first things you see on her home page and reads in part, “our office has been contacted by numerous individuals who were affected by the alleged actions of Brother Stephen Baker and the array of adults at Bishop McCort High School.”

The statement has been there since early last year, when she started representing former students. But the Bishop McCort board says her claim is unsubstantiated.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — The board of directors of Bishop McCort Catholic High School is going after a Greensburg attorney who is representing a handful of people who claim they were sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker.

Documents were filed this week on behalf of the school’s leaders in Westmoreland County court as the first step in a civil lawsuit against Susan Williams regarding assertions made on her Web page.

Additionally, Pittsburgh attorney Kathleen Gallagher, on behalf of Bishop McCort, filed what is termed notice of service of plaintiff’s first set of discovery.

It is seeking a response from Williams as the first step in gaining information from a plaintiff.

The website makes statements by Williams in relation to individuals she claims are still at Bishop McCort and makes reference to their relationships to Baker, the board maintains.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Early this week, Pope Francis met with his select group of cardinals mainly to review matters relating to the Vatican financial scandals. Over 180 cardinals then met in two closed sessions with Pope Francis this week to reconsider the Catholic Church’s rules on marriage and the family and the related sexual morality issues. Only cardinals attended these meetings. Also on Friday, US Cardinal Burke reportedly confirmed in the Vatican newspaper Pope Francis’ continuing opposition to gay marriage and abortion.

No consideration seemingly was given by Pope Francis to addressing with the world’s cardinals fully assembled the worldwide Church scandal of priest child abuse or related lack of bishop accountability.

Meanwhile a prominent US legal expert, Professor Marci Hamilton, called on President Obama to step up and address the epidemic of sexual abuse of children by religious institutions as noted here:

[Verdict]

And, Betty Clermont, the author of “The Neo-Catholics”, also called on President Obama to cancel his March 27 meeting with Pope Francis mainly in light of the recent UN report severely criticizing the Vatican’s policies relating to children and the Vatican’s evasive response to the UN report as noted here:

[Daily Kos]

These calls are in addition to my recent advice as a retired international lawyer to President Obama noted here:

[Christian Catholicism]

After a long presentation to the 180+ cardinals by highly regarded German Cardinal Walter Kasper on the topic of family life on Thursday morning, 43 other cardinals made responsive remarks. Among the key topics reportedly discussed were how to treat Catholics who divorce and remarry and still seek to receive the Catholic sacraments and how to simplify annulment procedures.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WYFF

GREENVILLE, S.C. —An Upstate pastor is taking Bob Jones University to task for its decision to terminate an investigation into campus sex abuse.

Pastor Ryan Ferguson, of North Hills Community Church in Greenville, uploaded a 20 minute video to YouTube, calling BJU’s termination of the GRACE Investigation “harmful to survivors of abuse.”

“You do not take responsibility in your communication about the past,” Ferguson said in the video. “Stated differently, you do not talk transparently.”

Ferguson told WYFF News 4 Investigates he believes the university has failed to provide a clear explanation of why the investigation was terminated.

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VIRGINIA
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • February 21, 2014

Let me be clear that I take no position on the allegations made about sexual assault at Patrick Henry College. I am not in a position to know what did or did not happen, or to do a proper investigation. I do like hearing from people who attend or who did attend PHC, and publishing their perspectives. Keep in mind as you read them that these are the opinions of individuals; they are not necessarily the whole truth.

That said, here is a counter-perspective from a recent PHU alumna who wrote me privately. She gave permission for me to post this, but asked me not to use her name, for fear of professional harm. She sent me information that allowed me to verify her identity, which I did. I can say that she is presently working in a job that gives her strong professional standing. Here is her letter:

I am a graduate of PHC’s class of 2010 and was there when many of the incidents described in Kiera Feldman’s article in the New Republic took place. Since you posted an email from a current sophomore, I wanted to respond.

Looking back on PHC, now that I’m four years older, married, and with professional experience outside the bubble of PHC, I have to say the sophomore has given you the wrong idea. It’s not surprising, as most of PHC’s students come from conservative, typically fundamentalist, Christian backgrounds. Their “normal” is very different from mainstream Christianity, let alone mainstream America. Patriarchal beliefs are “baked into” PHC culture and fundamentalist Christian culture so that what is startling for a liberal reporter from the New Republic is business as usual for current PHC students. Let me provide you with some examples.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Herald

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Abogados de una diócesis de Puerto Rico que expulsó a seis sacerdotes que enfrentan acusaciones de abuso sexual dijeron que se oponen a una investigación penal debido en parte a que la mayoría de los casos involucraron sexo consensual con las presuntas víctimas.

Los abogados señalaron que los sacerdotes fueron expulsados por violación al derecho canónico, no a leyes del derecho penal.

El argumento fue uno de varios presentados el viernes sin evidencia ante un juez que está revisando una demanda de la Diócesis de Arecibo presentada contra el secretario de Justicia de Puerto Rico. La diócesis asevera que no debería ser obligada a proporcionar a fiscales los nombres de las presuntas víctimas para proteger su confidencialidad.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

El juez Ángel Pagán Ocasio, del Tribunal de San Juan, aceptó hoy una petición para que una víctima de abuso sexual se una a la demanda incoada por la Diócesis de Arecibo, para que no se obligue a entregar al Departamento de Justicia los nombres de las personas involucradas en los casos de abuso sexual a menores que investigó la institución y que culminó con la expulsión de seis sacerdotes.

Durante una vista esta mañana para atender la petición de sentencia declaratoria de la Diócesis de Arecibo, el magistrado también concedió una moción presentada por los abogados de la Iglesia, Frank Torres Viada y José Andreu Fuentes, para garantizar la confidencialidad de los testigos que presentarán en el proceso.

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PUERTO RICO
12 News

February 21, 2014

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Attorneys for a Puerto Rico diocese that defrocked six priests facing sex abuse accusations say they oppose a criminal investigation in part because the majority of the cases involved consensual sex with the alleged victims.

Diocese attorneys say the priests were defrocked for violating canon law, not criminal laws.

The argument was one of several presented without evidence on Friday to a judge reviewing a lawsuit that the Diocese of Arecibo filed against Puerto Rico’s justice secretary. The diocese contends that it should not be forced to release the names of alleged victims to prosecutors in order to protect their confidentiality.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Adam Davies 22nd Feb 2014

THE head of the Catholic Education Office in Toowoomba has admitted there was no process in place requiring his delegates to advise him or his deputy of child sexual abuse allegations in the diocese.

Director John Borserio said there was also nothing in the student protection and risk management kit which required the diocese’s two student protection officers Ian Hunter or Christopher Fry to report any allegations to him either.

The student protection and risk management kit was the primary manual used to protect students at 32 schools across the diocese.

Mr Borserio told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday it was a deficiency in procedures he now regretted.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Adam Davies 22nd Feb 2014

A CATHOLIC school principal has told an inquiry there was a mentality and culture operating in the Toowoomba Diocese that the bishop must be protected at all costs.

Dan McMahon, the current principal of Shalom College in Bundaberg, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Friday that student protection did not come first.

“The phrase not to compromise the bishop was used regularly,” he said.

“It was a justification for diocesan processes on all sorts of things.

“When I, as a principal, would sometimes think or ask why do we have to go through so many hurdles to do something or to make a decision, often the reason was we did not want to compromise the bishop because he is the ultimate employer.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

February 21
BY JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese has settled two more lawsuits totaling $1.8 million involving a priest now serving prison time for producing child pornography.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jack Grate approved a $1.275 million settlement on Friday in a lawsuit filed by two parents on behalf of their minor daughter against the diocese, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn.

And on Wednesday, Circuit Judge Jim Kanatzar approved a $525,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed last year by two parents and their minor daughter. That suit also named the diocese, Ratigan and Finn as defendants.

In addition, Grate and Kanatzar each entered a $500,000 default judgment against Ratigan, who failed to respond to the lawsuits.

The settlements bring to $3.75 million the total the diocese has paid out so far in cases involving Ratigan.

“We hope that settlements of this kind will make the diocese place the safety of children first and foremost from here on out,” said Rebecca Randles, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in both cases.

A diocesan spokesman confirmed the settlements Friday and said they were funded by the diocese’s internal self-insurance fund and its external carrier, National Catholic Risk Retention Group.

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NEW JERSEY
NBC 10

Authorities say a retired New Jersey priest has been charged with engaging in unwanted sexual contact with a man after officiating at a wedding.

Morris County prosecutors say the Rev. Philip Briganti, who now lives in El Paso, Texas, returned to New Jersey to officiate at a wedding Nov. 9 in the town of Prospect Park.

Prosecutors say the alleged sexual contact occurred while the 67-year-old priest was on a bus trip to a hotel after the wedding reception.

They say they were notified of the allegation of by the Paterson Diocese, where Briganti had served before retiring. The diocese has suspended his right to perform ministerial duties.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Feb. 21, 2014

In every bankruptcy, there are winners and losers. Parties made whole and those who are paid a fraction of what they are owed by the debtor.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy is no different.

Among the losers that emerged in the archdiocese’s reorganization plan filed this month is St. Rose and St. Leo Catholic Urban Academy, one of the most impoverished schools in the state, which the archdiocese had promised to support when Messmer High School took it over in 2007.

Under the terms of the deal signed at the time, the archdiocese agreed to pay Messmer $5 million over 15 years — $2 million for capital improvements and $200,000 a year for operating expenses.

Those payments stopped when the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011, and under its reorganization plan, it would pay just $5,000 of the $3.4 million it still owes.

Messmer President Jim Piatt said the three-school system has been operating at a deficit since the money dried up. He said it has delayed needed repairs and improvements at the St. Rose and St. Leo building at 514 N. 31st St., and slowed academic initiatives that were planned there. But he said Messmer already is looking for alternative sources of funding.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican announced an immediate end to new hires, wage-increases and overtime in an effort to cut costs and offset budget shortfalls.

Pope Francis, with input from the Vatican’s central accounting office, also determined that volunteers could be used to help provide the labor needed to make up for the hiring freeze and eventual attrition.

Cardinal-designate Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent a letter, dated Feb. 13, to the heads of all Vatican offices, institutions and agencies.

He said the budget forecast for 2014 “necessitated the immediate adoption of some measures needed to contain” personnel costs. In its last published report, the Vatican said it had a slight budget surplus of $2.7 million in 2012 after experiencing one of its largest budget deficits of the past decade in 2011.

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UNITED STATES
The Times-Picayune

By Dave Walker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on February 21, 2014

Tuesday’s (Feb. 25) episode of PBS’ “Frontline” unravels “Secrets of the Vatican” in a spellbinding 90-minute episode airing at 8 p.m. on WYES. New Orleans author Jason Berry (“Lead Us Not Into Temptation,” “Vows of Silence,” “Render Unto Rome”) is co-producer of the episode, which details some of the issues — clergy sex abuse, corruption at the Vatican Bank, the Vatileaks corruption exposes — that scandalized Benedict XVI’s papacy.

It also paints a grim picture of the challenges facing Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis.

Berry’s investigative reporting of the Catholic Church dates to 1992’s “Lead Us Not Into Temptation,” the first extensive account of sexual abuse of children by priests. His 2004 book “Vows of Silence,” written with co-author Gerald Renner, explored the sexual abuses of Mexican priest and Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, and was also adapted into a documentary film of the same title. In 2011’s “Render Unto Rome,” Berry, a practicing Catholic, critically examined the church’s handling of its finances. Berry was also interviewed for Alex Gibney’s documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which detailed alleged sexual abuse by Lawrence Murphy, a priest at Milwaukee’s St. John’s School for the Deaf. “Mea Maxima Culpa” aired last year on HBO.

Here’s an edited email Q&A with Berry about Tuesday’s “Frontline: Secrets of the Vatican:”

Q: You’re credited as co-producer. What was your role? When did the work start? Was the final product what the project set out to be?

A: “Frontline” chose a renowned English director, Antony Thomas. One of the researchers contacted me about the time of the papal conclave last March. She’d seen an interview I did at St. Peter’s Square on the BBC, and had read my book “Render unto Rome.” She sent some questions, and we spoke by phone. Antony contacted me in early July and asked me to collaborate with him. He wanted my help on the sequence about Fr. Maciel and on episodes to film in the U.S. I sent a memo on that, outlining key American stories, how they connected to the Vatican episodes Antony’s team had researched.

I spent most of July and August going back and forth with him on research and scenario issues. We met in Boston in late August with the crew, filmed there, in Connecticut, New York and Milwaukee over several weeks. As Antony got into the editing several weeks later we had continuous emails and calls right up to the fine-cut edit last week. The film does closely track his treatment, though several strands had to be cut. This often happens in documentaries even with powerful material.

What’s new here? What’s new here for viewers familiar with your work and the coverage by others of these issues? What’s new here for people who haven’t followed the story?

Well, the film takes viewers into the Vatican’s baroque internal dynamics, and the infighting under Pope Benedict that exploded in the Vatican Bank and Vatileaks scandals. No TV network outside of Italy has covered those complex stories in much detail, and few newspapers in much depth. Viewers will get a clear story of the last pope betrayed by his own bureaucracy. Antony’s treatment of the gay priest culture in the Vatican — an explosive topic to be sure — is nuanced and even-handed, certainly not homophobic. The early episodes that deal with the Maciel case, and the Milwaukee archdiocesan bankruptcy, to stave off abuse victims’ claims, have gotten media attention as you note, but I think our handling of the people enmeshed in these numbing dramas will convey the scope of the crisis, all the way back to Rome. These issues are continuing, though daily media coverage tends to wax and wane.

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BOSTON (MA)
South Coast Today

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Martin Walsh wants Pope Francis to visit the city.

Walsh has asked the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Boston, Sean O’Malley, to hand deliver an invitation to the pontiff asking him to visit Boston during a possible visit to the U.S. next year.

O’Malley headed to the Vatican this week.

According to The Boston Globe, Walsh’s letter emphasizes the importance of the church in his own life as well as the importance of faith in the history of the city. He points out that the Boston Archdiocese is one of the largest in the U.S.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic Online

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The priest in question, Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, was accused in the sexual abuse of 26 altar boys. Detectives eventually got the names of the boys from parish families. According to the priest’s confidential archdiocese file and police records since made public by attorneys for the victims, 25 of the alleged victims were altar boys. The 26th was training with the priest to be one.

Plaintiff Attorney Anthony DeMarco says it’s not clear what impact Mahony’s action had on the investigation, although at the time police complained that the archdiocese wasn’t fully cooperating.

Mahony’s deposition has been released and is part of the evidence included in a settlement of abuse claims against Aguilar Rivera and four other priests. The archdiocese, the nation’s largest, agreed to pay $13 million to 17 victims.

The archdiocese, since 2006 has paid more than $700 million to settle clergy abuse lawsuits by hundreds of victims. Internal church files kept on priests accused of abuse were released last year under court order. Mahony, elevated to cardinal and retired in 2011, was shown to have maneuvered behind the scenes with his top aide, Monsignor Thomas Curry, to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners unaware.

Prosecutors say the cases fell outside the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of any church officials.

J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney with the archdiocese, said Mahony didn’t reveal a list of altar boys, also called altar servers, to police because he didn’t believe any of the alleged victims were among them. Mahony is in Rome and was unavailable for comment, Hennigan said.

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FLORIDA
Miami New Times

By Allie Conti Fri., Feb. 21 2014

Yesterday, Pope Francis tapped Peter Baldacchino of the Newark archdiocese for a promotion in Miami. During the 18 years he spent under the New Jersey bishop, the 53-year-old rose to become a chancellor serving the Turks and Caicos islands and learned to speak both Spanish and Haitian Creole.

But one advocacy group says Miami should beware Baldacchino. That’s because he was a member of the leadership in a troubled diocese where dozens of priests have been accused of molesting kids.

According to the site Bishop-Accountability.org, 42 priests in the Newark archdiocese have been publicly accused of molesting kids. John J. Myers, the archbishop there, told the Star-Ledger in 2002 that an internal investigation had found 51 credible accusations against his archdiocese from 1950 until then.

Still, he defended a personal policy of not naming the priests involved. The Star-Ledger also reported four instances in which Newark’s culture of secrecy helped cover up the molestation of three children and the assault of one woman.

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CROATIA
The New Age

The Catholic Church in Croatia has found one of its priests guilty of pedophilia, the Zadar diocese confirmed on Friday.

“After careful consideration … judges found significant (evidence) of punishable acts considering the major moral responsibility of the defendant,” the diocese said in a statement, which failed to specify the nature of the priest’s punishment.

The sentence marks the first time that the Catholic Church in Croatia has found one of its priests guilty of pedophilia.

The case emerged two years ago when three of Ivanov’s victims spoke out about abuse they had suffered as children in the priest’s congregation in Bibinje near Croatia’s Adriatic coast.

The church has informed Ivanov’s victims of the verdict, as well as offering them “special psychological and spiritual assistance.”

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 21, 2014

PORTLAND, Maine — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People following an audit, the diocese announced Friday.

The charter calls for an effective response from the diocese to any report of sexual abuse by church personnel, background checks on all diocesan employees and volunteers who work regularly with minors, special sexual abuse prevention training and other mandates for the protection of children.

The on-site audit in September by Stone Bridge Business Partners of Rochester, NY., reviewed the period from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013, according to the press release. It found that all diocesan employees and active clergy have had background checks. Auditors also reviewed the implementation of the “Think First/Stay Safe Prevention Program” for children in Catholic schools and those that participate in religious education offered through their parishes, as well as the implementation of the “Protecting God’s Children Program” for all those working and volunteering in the diocese.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

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

A retired Catholic priest who lives in El Paso and has worked at St. Raphael’s parish in El Paso has been charged with criminal sexual contact.

[The Record]

[KSWO]

[El Paso diocese]

Fr. Philip Briganti allegedly assaulted a man after a wedding in New Jersey.

We hope that this was an isolated incidence. We doubt that’s true. In 2005, according to the Observer-Tribune, Fr. Briganti suddenly left his Mendham, NJ parish after someone apparently tried to extort money from him for photos he sent over the internet, according to Mendham NJ police Lt. John Taylor.

Paterson Catholic officials claim they immediately called prosecutors when they learned about the recent charge. We hope that’s true.

And we hope that El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz and Paterson Bishop Arthur Joseph Serratelli will use their vast resources to reach out to anyone else who might have been hurt by Fr. Briganti. We encourage anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse to report to law enforcement, not to church officials.

We also hope that Bishop Seitz doesn’t “pass the buck” or split hairs, claiming that Fr. Briganti isn’t his responsibility. We strongly suspect that Fr. Briganti has used his title to gain access to kids in El Paso too and has at the very least performed priestly duties on a substitute basis in Texas.

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CHILE/VATICAN CITY
ABC News

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

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.

“It’s a very painful situation that shows that this priest continues to do as he pleases,” Cruz told The Associated Press. “It’s a slap in the face for the victims of his abuse. He should be in jail but instead he’s still being protected by the church.”

The Roman Catholic Church retains a firm grip on Chilean society, although in recent years its influence has waned after scandals in which priests have been accused of molesting children. Victims say Karadima began abusing them at his residence at the Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Santiago about 20 years ago, when they were between 14 and 17 years old.

The Vatican sanctioned Karadima by ordering him to a life of “penitence and prayer” in 2011. He was also barred from celebrating Mass in public, from hearing confessions or offering spiritual direction and from having contact with his ex-parishioners. A Chilean judge later dismissed a criminal case because the statute of limitations had expired, but she determined the abuse allegations were truthful.

The timing of the photos’ release appeared aimed at embarrassing both the current and former archbishops of Santiago, who were in Rome for Saturday’s ceremony to name current Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello a cardinal.

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CALIFORNIA
The New York Times

THE EDITORIAL BOARD
FEB. 20, 2014

Pope Francis has been meeting this week with eight cardinals he selected to shape proposals for reforming the Roman Catholic Church. It is too early to tell what will result from an agenda that will range from Vatican finances to the recruitment of new believers. But the deliberations surely cannot afford to overlook the shocking price tag announced as a final figure that the Los Angeles Archdiocese paid to victims of child sexual abuse by priests.

A decade of litigation, shameful denial and fierce resistance to civil authority has cost the archdiocese more than $740 million in monetary damages, with the spiritual toll far from tallied. Church lawyers said this was an end to litigation that saw more than 500 victims receive compensation, with the archdiocese taking out costly loans, selling property and even tapping into cemetery perpetual care funds to pay for it. In the process, the archdiocese was forced by the courts to release secret records that confirmed systematic cover-ups of priests’ crimes.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who led the archdiocese during the scandal years, reportedly is not expected to face criminal charges, despite records showing that he shielded abusers and ordered that evidence be withheld from criminal investigators. He retired in 2011 to his childhood parish in California and was ultimately rebuked by his successor, but that hardly brought an end to the problem, which Vatican reformers cannot duck.

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CANADA
CJAD

Former Deacon of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and West Islander William (Bill) Kokesch pleaded guilty to three child pornography charges in Montreal court Friday.

With his wife in the room, Crown Prosecutor Dominique Potvin read the evidence police acquired against him.

Nearly 100,000 images and 2,100 videos depicting children under 10 years old were found on the man’s hard drive.

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CANADA
CTV

Published Friday, February 21

A former Roman Catholic Deacon from the West Island has pleaded guilty to several child pornography charges.

William Kokesch entered the guilty plea in court Friday morning to the three crimes he was accused of: production, possession and distribution of child pornography.

He is facing anywhere from one to 10 years in prison.

Kokesch was arrested in December 2012 and was granted bail soon afterward, under the condition he refrained from using the internet and cameras, and avoided public areas where children were likely to gather.

Police initially said they seized more than 2,000 images from his home at the time of his arrest and records of chat messages on pedophilic websites.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL — William Kokesch, a former West Island deacon, had thousands of photos and videos on his computer of children being whipped and raped by adults, as well as sexual fantasy chats with fellow child pornographers.

On Friday, he sat in a Montreal courtroom beside his wife, who held his hand and whispered in his ear until Kokesch, 66, was called to stand before Quebec Court Judge Isabelle Rheault.

The former deacon at St. Edmund of Canterbury Church in Beaconsfield and former communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops pleaded guilty to possessing, producing and distributing child pornography between September 2011 and November 2012.

He will be back in court May 26 after undergoing a psycho-sexual evaluation for a pre-sentencing report.

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NEW JERSEY
Observer-Tribune

Former Mendham priest allegedly committed sex assault while passing through Randolph

MENDHAM — A Catholic priest who retired from St. Joseph Church under a cloud and who now lives in El Paso, Texas, has been charged with committing an act of criminal sexual contact while on a bus passing through Randolph Township.

Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Randolph Township Police Chief David Stokoe said in a joint statement Friday that the Rev. Philip Briganti, 67 years old, of El Paso, Texas, has been charged with one count of criminal sexual contact, a crime of the fourth degree, for acts involving an adult male.

Briganti is a retired Paterson Diocesan priest presently living in El Paso, according to police.

He had briefly returned to officiate a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park, on Nov. 9, police said.

Briganti had been the former pastor at St. Joseph Church in Mendham, before his resignation in 2005.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

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

A retired New Jersey priest has been charged with criminal sexual contact.

[The Record]

Fr. Philip Briganti allegedly assaulted a man after a wedding.

We hope, although are doubtful, that this was an isolated incidence. We doubt that’s true. In 2005, according to the Observer-Tribune, Fr. Briganti suddenly left his Mendham, NJ parish after someone apparently tried to extort money from him for photos he sent over the internet, according to Mendham police Lt. John Taylor.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Paterson Catholic officials claim they immediately called prosecutors when they learned about the recent charge. We hope that’s true.

And we hope that Bishop Arthur Joseph Serratelli will use his vast resources to reach out to anyone else who might have been hurt by Fr. Briganti during his tenure in Paterson. We encourage anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse to report to law enforcement.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Justin Zaremba/NJ.com
on February 21, 2014

RANDOLPH — A retired Paterson Diocesan priest is facing a criminal sexual contact charge after he allegedly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with another man while on a bus returning from a wedding he officiated this past November.

Rev. Philip Briganti, 67, of El Paso, Texas, had briefly returned to New Jersey to officiate a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park on Nov. 9, and, after the wedding reception, Briganti was on a bus traveling to a hotel when he engaged in unwanted sexual contact with the man, acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Randolph Township Police Chief David Stokoe said in a joint statement.

The Diocese of Paterson released a statement Friday saying the man notified the diocese of the incident, as he was not sure what county the bus was in at the time it occurred.

The diocese then “immediately called the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to report the information it had received,” according to the statement.

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CHILE
San Diego 6

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — 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 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, one of Karadima’s victims. Cruz says it’s “a slap in the face” to Karadima’s victims.

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NEW JERSEY
KSWO

Updated: Feb 21, 2014

PROSPECT PARK, N.J. (AP) – Authorities say a retired New Jersey priest has been charged with engaging in unwanted sexual contact with a man after officiating at a wedding.

Morris County prosecutors say the Rev. Philip Briganti, who now lives in El Paso, Texas, returned to New Jersey to officiate at a wedding Nov. 9 in the town of Prospect Park.

Prosecutors say the alleged sexual contact occurred while the 67-year-old priest was on a bus trip to a hotel after the wedding reception.

They say they were notified of the allegation of by the Paterson Diocese, where Briganti had served before retiring. The diocese has suspended his right to perform ministerial duties.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2014
BY MATTHEW MCGRATH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A Roman Catholic priest, who was formerly assigned to a Prospect Park parish, is accused of sexually assaulting a man on a shuttle bus after a wedding in Randolph, authorities said.

The Rev. Philip Briganti, 67, of El Paso, Texas, is facing one charge of criminal sexual contact, Acting Morris County Prosecutor Frederic M. Knapp said in a statement.

The priest was on a bus after the wedding reception with the victim on the way back to a hotel, Knapp said. Briganti “allegedly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with the victim,” Knapp said. The victim is an adult.

Briganti is a retired priest from the Paterson Diocese. He returned to New Jersey to perform a wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Prospect Park on Nov. 9, 2013.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, February 21, 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 )

A former Kansas City pastor pleaded guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct.

[The Kansas City Star]

George L. Spencer was the pastor at Greater Works CME Church in Kansas City. According to court records he abused a 13 year old girl while the girl’s mother and grandmother were attending bible study. This gross violation of trust is incredibly upsetting.

We are glad that, upon learning of the abuse, church officials immediately fired Spencer, but we are concerned that Spencer was arrested in New Orleans and had to extradited back to MO. We sincerely hope that he was not able to abuse any more children and urge church officials and law enforcement to reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspects, or suffered abuse by Spencer.

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ARGENTINA
Terra

[Summary: Priest Julio Cesar Grassi has against asked for his freedom before the supreme court after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a minor. His argument was rejected twice before and the most recent was last month.]

El cura Julio César Grassi volvió a pedir su libertad ante la Suprema Corte Bonaerense luego de haber sido condenado a 15 años de prisión por el abuso sexual de un menor.

Luego que fuese rechazado su planteo en dos instancias, la última en enero de este año por parte de la Cámara de Casación Bonaerense, el sacerdote pidió su libertad ante la Suprema Corte provincial por medio de un recurso extraordinario.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Rev. Bernard A. Harris, known as “Fr. Harry”, was a Jesuit of the Oregon Province ordained in 1947. Harris spent his career as an educator – initially at Bellarmine High School in Tacoma, WA, moving in the early 1950s to Loyola High School in Missoula, MT, where he taught until 1971 and, for several years, was principal. Harris also did parish work at St. Francis Xavier’s in Missoula. In the 2000s more than 20 people – male and female – have surfaced with claims that Harris sexually abused them as children. There is at least one claim that he molested a child at the Flathead Indian Reservation. Harris was the brother of the late Rev. James Harris, who has also been accused of child sexual abuse. Bernard Harris died Sept. 7, 1972.

Ordained: 1947
Died: Sept. 7, 1972

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

For immediate release: Friday, February 21, 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 )

Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Catholic officials disagree over whether or not 28 clergy who are accused of molesting kids should be publicly named. Here’s a simple compromise.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Bishop Piché and Bishop Cozzens, who now head the St. Paul/Minnesota archdiocese, should disclose when each of the allegations against these 28 clerics were made. That information violates no one’s privacy – neither the accused nor the accuser.

That information would, we suspect, show that Catholic officials drag their feet and take months or even years to determine whether an accusation is “not manifestly false or frivolous.”

We could be wrong. It could be that all 28 of these allegations were made to church officials in the last two or three months. In that case, we’ll gladly apologize. But we predict that these cases have languished for far too long in the self-serving church bureaucracy.

At the same time, Catholic officials should publicly admit what many of them have said privately for years – that few child sex reports against priests prove to be false.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Betty Clermont

Because there should be consequences.

Mr. President, please stand with the hundreds of thousands of children who have been raped, sodomized and sexually assaulted, the children now being similarly tortured and the potentially thousands more to come because no world leader will hold the Catholic Church accountable.

Please inform the Vatican that you are canceling your March 27 meeting with the Pope due to his officials’ egregious response to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child report. The subject of the 15-page document is the Vatican’s failure to adequately address its “systematic” responsibility for worldwide child sex abuse.

The Vatican still places children “at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders (who operate under the authority of the Holy See) are reported to still be in contact with children,” according to the report issued Feb. 5.

The Committee stated it is “gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

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ILLINOIS/KANSAS
State Journal-Register

By Chris Dettro
Staff Writer
Posted Feb. 20, 2014

A Springfield monsignor who has served several churches in the local Catholic diocese has been named the next bishop of the Wichita, Kan., diocese.

According to a news release from the Springfield diocese, Msgr. Carl Kemme was named by Pope Francis to be the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita. The appointment was announced Thursday in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

Kemme, 53, is vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield. He served as the diocese’s administrator between the terms of former Bishop George Lucas and current Bishop Thomas John Paprocki. …

A spokesman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Kemme’s promotion “disturbing.”

Barbara Dorris, outreach director of the St. Louis-based organization, said the Springfield diocesan staff “made a number of worrisome decisions” with Kemme in charge or as second-in-command.
Dorris said the diocese temporarily allowed the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand to resign from his posts rather than suspending him after he was accused of molesting children. It also allowed the Rev. Thomas Donovan to remain a priest in Alton after he was found by Springfield police wearing an orange jumpsuit and a leather bondage-type mask, SNAP said.

Dorris said SNAP ‘is not optimistic that he (Kemme) will take real steps to reform long-standing, deeply rooted patterns of irresponsible, self-serving behavior by bishops in this ongoing crisis.”
It urged him to post the names of all credibly accused child-molesting clerics on his diocesan website.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

February 20

BY MATT CAMPBELL
The Kansas City Star

A former pastor at a Kansas City church pleaded guilty Thursday to child molestation and sexual misconduct with a child.

George L. Spencer, 59, agreed to sentences totaling seven years for groping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl in February 2012.

Spencer was an associate pastor at Greater Works CME Church in south Kansas City. He took the girl to his office in the church while her mother and grandmother were attending Bible study upstairs.

The girl said Spencer groped her and made her take off her shirt and bra, according to court documents. He put his hands down her pants, sodomized her with his finger and exposed his genitals, the documents said. Spencer told the girl that he could get in a lot of trouble for his actions.

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MISSOURI
Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted: February 21, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A former Kansas City church pastor pleaded guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct involving a 13-year-old girl.

Fifty-nine-year-old George L. Spencer on Thursday was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison for groping and sodomizing the girl in February 2012.

Spencer was an associate pastor at Greater Works CME Church in south Kansas City. Court documents indicate he committed the crimes in his office while the girl’s mother and grandmother were attending Bible study at the church.

The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/1bRskOz ) the church’s pastor told Spencer the next day to turn in his keys and not return.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Feb 20, 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement late Wednesday criticizing an MPR News story on clergy accused of sexual abuse.

The MPR News story published Wednesday said the archdiocese has not disclosed a complete list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse. The story cited police reports, court records and the archdiocese’s internal files.

In its statement, the archdiocese said that it remains committed to disclosing “substantiated” claims of abuse. “The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,” the statement said. The archdiocese said that improperly identifying individuals “is irresponsible and does not serve victims, safety of children or the public good.”

The archdiocese has been working with Kinsale Management Consulting, a private firm, to review its clergy personnel files.

“With the engagement of the Kinsale team, the archdiocese continues to work on fulfilling the public promises we have made to create safe environments for children, care for victims, facilitate a healing process for our local church in order to restore trust with the Catholic faithful, and restore trust with clergy who are serving honorably,” the archdiocese’s statement said. “In the event any of the claims against 28 of the clergy members identified by MPR are substantiated, they will be disclosed on our website according to our policy.”

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

The Archdiocese seems to think it knows what the problem is … At MPR, Madeleine Baran writes: “The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement late Wednesday criticizing an MPR News story on clergy accused of sexual abuse. The MPR News story published Wednesday said the archdiocese has not disclosed a complete list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse. The story cited police reports, court records and the archdiocese’s internal files. In its statement, the archdiocese said that it remains committed to disclosing ‘substantiated’ claims of abuse. ‘The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,’ the statement said. The archdiocese said that improperly identifying individuals ‘is irresponsible and does not serve victims, safety of children or the public good.’ ” Which are clearly the archdiocese’s primary concerns.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date :Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

Consistent with the paramount goal of protecting children, the archdiocese has committed to the public disclosure of clergy members against whom claims of sexual abuse of a minor have been found to be substantiated.

The archdiocese has been clear and consistent in defining “credible” and “substantiated” claims of sexual abuse of a minor. Following the report made to appropriate law enforcement, the first step in our internal evaluation is to determine whether the claim is credible. A credible claim is one that is not manifestly false or frivolous. In other words, it is not blatantly false. Separate from our internal evaluation process, any claim whether credible or not, is immediately reported to police.

If the archdiocese determines that a credible claim exists, the archdiocese opens an investigation to determine whether a claim is substantiated. A substantiated claim is one for which sufficient evidence exists to establish reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged abuse occurred.

Following an initial disclosure of 30 clergy members in December 2013, the archdiocese publicly disclosed an additional 9 priests on February 17, 2014, following a comprehensive file review by Kinsale, an experienced outside national firm. Kinsale’s file review is ongoing and we will continue to make prudent and ongoing disclosures as we proceed forward.

In a February 19, 2014 on-line article, MPR states that the public disclosures made by the archdiocese are, to date, incomplete. In support of its position, MPR identifies a total of 28 clergy members who have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese and against whom MPR claims that it has “found allegations of child sexual abuse and other sexual improprieties.”

This statement is wrong and misleading. The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor. For context:

* The archdiocese has, to date, publicly disclosed 43 clergy members (39 of them having substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor). MPR incorrectly claims that an additional 28 clergy members should have been disclosed.

* At least 16 of the 28 clergy members identified by MPR were the subject of false, meritless or unsubstantiated accusations against them. And those accusations made known to the archdiocese after 2004 have been properly filed with Ramsey County District Court.

In addition to those individuals already disclosed to the Court, over 10 of the clergy identified by MPR are not from our archdiocese and the allegations against them concern alleged conduct that occurred outside of this archdiocese. In these cases, the accused clergy members are subject to the authority of other orders and dioceses and, consistent with the policy that we have previously announced to the public, the archdiocese does not have sufficient information or even jurisdiction to determine whether those foreign claims are credible or have been substantiated. As MPR correctly observes, several of these individuals have already been publicly disclosed by their respective dioceses and orders.

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MONTANA
ABA Journal

Posted Feb 18, 2014
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The U.S. Justice Department sees likely gender bias in a failure by the Missoula, Mont., County Attorney’s office to prosecute nonstranger rapes.

In a letter to Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, the Justice Department says its investigation found that his office declined to prosecute “nearly every case” involving nonstranger assaults on adult women who were intoxicated, or on adult women with a mental or physical diability. Mother Jones and the Missoulian have stories, while this press release summarizes the findings.

There are “strong indications” that the charging decisions in such cases are influenced by gender bias and gender stereotyping, the letter says.

“Women consistently told us that deputy county attorneys treated them with indifference or disrespect, and frequently made statements to women victims, advocates and the public diminishing the seriousness of sexual violence and minimizing the culpability of those who commit it,” the letter said.

In one instance, a prosecutor told the mother of a 5-year-old sexual assault victim that “boys will be boys.” The adolescent perpetrator was sentenced to only two years of community service. In another case, a deputy county attorney quoted religious passages to a woman who reported a sexual assault, leading her to believe that the prosecutor judged her negatively for making the report. In yet another case, one woman says a county attorney told her, “All you want is revenge,” as they discussed the office’s decision not to prosecute her alleged assailant.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, February 21, 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 )

The Missoula county attorney’s office has failed to prosecute “nearly every case” of non-stranger rapes.

[ABA Journal]

The US Justice Department reported that gender bias and stereotypes are the likely reason prosecutors failed to press charges, even in cases where they had a confession. Women in the county repeatedly told the Justice Department that they were treated with “indifference and disrespect”, they were told “boys will be boys” or had the bible quoted to them.

This level of ignorance and backwards thinking is appalling. The prosecutor’s office might as well have said “the victim was asking for it”. We are disappointed that the Missoula county attorney’s office seems to be stuck in the Middle Ages. We hope the Justice Department letter will knock some sense into Missoula officials and that victims and witnesses will not be discouraged to keep doing the right thing and working for justice.

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VATIKAN
General-Anzeiger

[Summary: Gerhard Mueller is regarded my many as doctrinal watchdog at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is considered to be a hardliner. Another view of Mueller, who will become Cardinal tomorrow, is of a man with a liberal spirit. As a simple priest Mueller regularly visited the slums in Peru’s capital of Lima and became friends with Gustavo Gutierrez. a founder of liberation theology.]

Von Julius Müller-Meiningen

ROM. Wenn Papst Franziskus am Samstag Gerhard Ludwig Müller zusammen mit 18 weiteren Bischöfen in den Kardinalsstand erhebt, dann prallen auch zwei Gedankenschulen aufeinander.

In der einen gilt der 66 Jahre alte Theologe als liberaler Geist, der lange als Seelsorger in den Armenvierteln Lateinamerikas unterwegs war. Dieses Bild haben viele im Vatikan von Müller. In der anderen ist Müller ein konservativer Hardliner, der als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation die katholische Doktrin gegen ihre angeblichen Feinde verteidigt. Auch gegen den Papst.

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CHILE
Katholisch

[Summary: A victim of abuse in the Catholic Church has filed a complaint claiming Santiago Archbishop Richardo Ezzati for obstructing investigations into abuse]

Wenige Tage vor der Kardinalserhebung ist gegen den chilenischen Erzbischof Ricardo Ezzati Strafanzeige in Zusammenhang mit Pädophiliefällen erstattet worden. Laut lokalen Medienberichten wirft ein Missbrauchsopfer eines katholischen Geistlichen dem heutigen Erzbischof von Santiago de Chile vor, Ermittlungen zu sexuellen Übergriffen in einer Salesianer-Einrichtung in den 1980er Jahren behindert zu haben.

Ezzati war den Berichten zufolge damals als Inspektor für die Kontrolle der Einrichtung Salesiano de Valdivia zuständig. Ezzati hatte zuletzt erklärt, er habe von den Missbrauchsfällen keine Kenntnis gehabt. Ein Anwalt des Klagestellers erklärte gegenüber chilenischen Medien, sein Mandant hoffe, dass durch Ermittlungen gegen Ezzati die Hintergründe der Fälle aufgeklärt würden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

KÖLN –
Die deutschen Bischöfe wollen auf ihrer Frühjahrsvollversammlung Mitte März in Münster ein leidiges Thema abräumen. Nach der 2013 gescheiterten Zusammenarbeit mit dem Hannoverschen Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer, der den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen durch Geistliche systematisch aufarbeiten sollte, steht dem Vernehmen nach die Entscheidung über ein Nachfolgeprojekt an.

Richten die Bischöfe dabei vornehmlich den Blick auf die Vergangenheit, um daraus Schlüsse für bessere Vorbeugung ziehen zu können, weitet das Erzbistum Köln schon jetzt die Perspektive – zeitlich und inhaltlich. Drei Kongresse in Köln sind dem Schutz Erwachsener gewidmet, die sich in Obhut der Kirche befinden, ob in Krankenhäusern, Seniorenheimen Einrichtungen der Behindertenhilfe.

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VATICAN CITY
IBN Live

Associated Press

Vatican City: No glitzy gold, no rich velvet, no regal fur. Pope Francis’ pared down papal wardrobe of sensible black shoes and a white cassock so thin you can see his black trousers through it is a perfect fit for his call for simplicity and humility among his clergy.

The pope’s personal style – which earned him Esquire magazine’s “Best Dressed Man of 2013” award – and his broader message of sobriety will be put to the test Saturday when he inducts 19 prelates into the College of Cardinals, placing the three-cornered red silk biretta on the heads of the new “princes of the church.”

For the festive occasion, cardinals are traditionally outfitted in scarlet from head to toe, from the silk skull cap to bright red socks, with a white lace embroidered surplice known as a rochet worn over the red cassock and underneath the mozzetta, or shoulder cape.

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NEW JERSEY
Talking Points Memo

TOM KLUDT – FEBRUARY 20, 2014

A spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese said on Thursday he had no interest in comparing the lavish house being built by his archbishop to the modest one lived in by the pope.

But he gets the criticism some have lodged at the archbishop’s house.

“Yes, I understand what people are saying,” Jim Goodness, the director of communications for the Newark Archdiocese, told TPM by phone on Thursday.

But Goodness refused to say if he thought a planned $500,000 expansion to a retirement home for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers contradicts the message of Pope Francis, who lives in a modest residence and has urged priests to steer clear of luxurious lifestyles.

“I’m not going to answer that question,” Goodness said. “I’m not taking any side on that at all.”

The renovations to the home, which Myers currently uses as a weekend residence, have come under a bit of scrutiny. The 3,000-square-foot expansion will include an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces and an elevator to be enjoyed by Myers in his future retirement.

Goodness went to great pains to make clear that much of the funding for the addition will come from the sale of other properties owned by the archdiocese. Any leftover money from the sale of those properties “will be returned to the diocese for use in ministry,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
KENW (New Mexico)

By RENA GARRETT

Pope Benedict made history when he announced his resignation, becoming the first pope to step down voluntarily in 600 years. In his wake, he left a bitterly divided Vatican mired in scandals. Is Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, taming the forces that helped destroy Benedict’s papacy? Is he succeeding in lifting the church out of crisis? Nearly a year in the making, this special two-hour FRONTLINE goes inside the Vatican — one of the world’s most revered and mysterious institutions — to unravel the remarkable series of events that led to the resignation that shook the world. Through interviews with those at the very heart of what happened — cardinals, priests, convicted criminals, police, prosecutors and whistle-blowers — FRONTLINE gives a first-hand account of the final days of Benedict’s papacy and the current battle to set the church on a new path under Francis.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Feb. 21, 2014 Faith and Justice

I spent so much time in the last couple of weeks talking to reporters about the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI that I did not have a chance to put my thoughts in writing.

Whenever a reporter asks me about Benedict, I first acknowledge that I have some history with him. One of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s last actions as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was to tell the Jesuit superior general that I needed to be replaced as editor of America magazine, so I cannot claim to be an indifferent observer. Perhaps this is another reason I did not meet my deadline. This was a painful period in my life, so I warn reporters (and readers) that my own experience can bias my views.

The temptation with any pope, even Francis, is to see them as black or white, all bad or all good. Nothing is that simple, especially human beings.

There is much to praise in the papacy of Pope Benedict. If for no other reason, he will be remembered for centuries as the pope who was not afraid to resign when he felt it was best for the church. Such humility, courage and trust in the Spirit are not easy virtues when everyone around you is telling you that you are indispensable.

The resignation caused former supporters to turn on him and former critics to praise him. John L. Allen Jr. reports in The Boston Globe that Antonio Socci, a high-profile Italian conservative, has floated the question of whether Benedict’s resignation was actually valid under church law. This kind of talk is very dangerous and could lead to schism, but they will get no support from Benedict for such nonsense. Likewise, those who feared Benedict would try to run things from behind the scenes have been proved paranoid.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 22, 2014

A CONFIDENTIAL Vatican inquiry that criticised an alleged victim of child sex abuse was conducted by three senior serving Australian priests, two of whom now say the man may have been motivated by money.

As revealed yesterday by The Australian, the three clerics were appointed by Cardinal George Pell after the alleged victim spent more than a decade lobbying church leaders to consider his case.

Their decree, which Cardinal Pell personally forwarded to the Vatican last month, describes the man as an “exaggerator” with

“a detailed dossier of these remembered events clogging his computer”.

“The credibility and reliability” of a second alleged victim was also questioned in the decree, despite the similarity of the two men’s descriptions of abuse by the same Vincentian priest at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, NSW, during the 1970s. The alleged victims’ claims ultimately were not upheld.

The decree’s authors are Kevin Matthews, judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Adelaide, Adrian Farrelly, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, and Anthony Kerin, episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

A Catholic education director says his staff had the knowledge to deal with sexual abuse claims against a Queensland teacher, but did not apply it.

A royal commission in Brisbane has heard two Catholic education officers and the principal of a Queensland school learned of abuse claims against a teacher in 2007, but failed to act.

That teacher, Gerard Byrnes, was eventually jailed in 2010 after pleading guilty to 44 child sex charges involving 13 young girls.

Byrnes was allowed to continue working at the school after the first complaints surfaced, and went on to abuse other pupils.

Catholic education director John Borserio gave evidence on Friday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Brad Ryan

A director of Catholic Education has admitted a systemic failure of child safety policies allowed a paedophile teacher to abuse students at a Queensland school over a two-year period.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is sitting in Brisbane this week to hear evidence about how teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes continued to molest students at a Catholic school in Toowoomba for more than a year after the allegations were first made.

Byrnes, the school’s child protection contact, molested 13 female students aged between nine and 10 at the school in 2007 and 2008.

Toowoomba’s director of Catholic Education, John Borserio, agreed on Friday with the assertion by counsel assisting Gail Furness that child safety policies in place at the time completely failed.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

A Catholic Education boss has told the child abuse Royal Commission that the wholesale systemic failure of child protection policies led to students being exposed to a paedophile teacher. John Borserio says those policies have been improved but without advice from experts outside the Catholic system.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: A Catholic Education boss has admitted that a wholesale systemic failure of child protection policies led to young girls being taught by a paedophile teacher.

John Borserio was the director of the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office when Gerard Byrnes sexually abused 13 girls in 2007 and 2008. Mr Borserio still holds that position.

He’s told the child abuse Royal Commission that he takes responsibility for failing to protect the students. He insists policies have since improved but without advice from experts outside the Catholic system.

Stephanie Smail reports.

STEPHANIE SMAIL: John Borserio had been the director of the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office for five years when Gerard Byrnes was arrested.

Today the Royal Commission heard the child protection policies Mr Borserio presided over failed in 2007 and 2008.

He acknowledged a complaint about Byrnes touching a student in 2007 wasn’t adequately investigated and other students were exposed to harm as a result.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Royal commission hearings into child sex abuse at St Ann’s special school to go ahead despite Catholic Church concern over timing

BY GINNY STEIN
February 21, 2014

The royal commission has rejected Catholic Church concerns about the timing of hearings into sex abuse in an Adelaide special needs school.

Next month the commission will look into how authorities responded to the abuse at St Ann’s school in the early 1990s.

Parents of the victims hope they will finally get answers about the paedophile bus driver who preyed on up to 30 children, most of whom could not speak.

Earlier this year, lawyers for the church’s insurers wrote to the commission, arguing that hearings could influence compensation settlements.

“If the commission’s investigation occurs before the hearing of the Civil Actions, the plaintiffs in the Civil Actions could have the benefit of seeing the School Entities’ statements, documents and evidence, and being able to plan their litigation strategy accordingly,” the church said in a letter.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

Pope Francis this morning opened a two-day discussion of cardinals on the family, saying the church’s pastoral response to modern problems must be marked by intelligence, courage and love.

Here’s the key quote from the pope’s talk to about 150 cardinals gathered at the Vatican:

Our reflections must keep before us the beauty of the family and marriage, the greatness of this human reality which is so simple and yet so rich, consisting of joys and hopes, of struggles and sufferings, as is the whole of life. We will seek to deepen the theology of the family and discern the pastoral practices which our present situation requires.

May we do so thoughtfully and without falling into “casuistry”, because this would inevitably diminish the quality of our work. Today, the family is looked down upon and mistreated. We are called to acknowledge how beautiful, true and good it is to start a family, to be a family today; and how indispensable the family is for the life of the world and for the future of humanity. We are called to make known God’s magnificent plan for the family and to help spouses joyfully experience this plan in their lives, as we accompany them amidst so many difficulties, including with a pastoral approach that is intelligent, courageous and full of love.

That last phrase about a courageous and compassionate pastoral policy was added extemporaneously by the pope.

Briefing reporters afterward, the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that in referring to “casuistry,” the pope meant that the cardinals should not “fragment” their discussion by focusing on particular situations over a more general vision.

Lombardi also summarized some key points made by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who delivered a two-hour-long address to introduce the themes of the discussion. Kasper spoke about the need to connect God’s design for the family in the order of creation to the reality of the family today. On one hand, the church has to be able to transmit the joy and the positive values of the family to society, and in this sense the family should be a privileged means of evangelizing, he said.

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

Abbi Smith

21 February 2014

What a sad day for the Roman Catholic Church when a priest of Pretoria was arrested after an accusation of alleged misconduct.

Yes, a priest is a symbol of Christianity, but so is the cross and so is the church. What a pity though that no one looks beyond what is symbolic to what is human and real. This priest is a man, as was Jesus of Nazareth, as is the Chancellor to the Archbishop, Fr. Mphiwe.

They are living human beings just like you and I. This man, the priest has been alleged to have made an indecent suggestion to a 17 year old young man. Not a “child”, as the emotive language of the accusers tends to describe him.

Do you happen to know the accused man? Do you happen to know that this slightly built Father has dedicated his life to God, his church and flock? Have you ever lost someone at three in the morning with your priest standing beside you in hospital, serving last rites to you loved one?
Have you ever heard this man pray?

Do you happen to know the accuser who, with the encouragement of Fr. Mphiwe, (News24: 2014-02-17) lodged his complaint with the South African Police? Have you happened to notice how politics infiltrate every aspect of human life?

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 20, 2014

Yesterday’s big settlement announcement raised a question for me: What about the wives?

One of the perpetrators who was a part of the settlement, Michael Nocita, has now been sued by four different women for sexual abuse. He was removed from ministry and laicized. The Archdiocese has paid out big money to his victims.

It’s also been reported that he is married.

Anton Smario, a former brother who admitted that he was often nude in front of young girls in the Native Alaskan villages where he taught religion classes, remained married after he was exposed in lawsuits and admitted his actions.

Thomas Hodgman—the man who admitted to abusing me and at least two other girls—is married with children. He also still hangs out on busses with girls (albeit not minor girls. This time).

I can’t help but wonder: What do the wives think? Do they not take their husband’s crimes seriously because the victims were girls?

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UNITED STATES
PBS – Frontline

[preview video]

FRONTLINE Presents
Secrets of the Vatican
Tuesday, February 25, 2014, at 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings)

A year ago, after receiving a confidential dossier on troubles in the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI became the first Pope in nearly 600 years to resign.

In Secrets of the Vatican, FRONTLINE exposes the threats and scandals that rocked Benedict’s papacy: a far-reaching clergy sex abuse crisis; money laundering and corruption at the Vatican Bank; and Vatileaks—the release of internal documents revealing cronyism, power struggles, and allegations of blackmail within the Holy See.

From award-winning director Antony Thomas, this special, 90-minute FRONTLINE presentation tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict Papacy—and illuminates the extraordinary challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.

Using undercover footage and interviews with Vatican insiders, as well as abuse victims, whistleblowers, and journalists, Secrets of the Vatican shows the deep sexual hypocrisy within the Catholic Church and the long legacy of clergy sexual abuse of children.

Drawing on firsthand accounts, the film shows how for years the Vatican supported the head of the powerful Legionaries of Christ order, Marcial Maciel, despite accusations he’d been sexually abusing boys and misappropriating money. Secrets of the Vatican also tells the story of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, where clergy sex abuse victims have accused the Church of covering up abusive priests and trying to shield millions of dollars from mounting legal claims. The archdiocese has filed for bankruptcy, but hundreds of victims are still seeking compensation.

Secrets of the Vatican also examines what is described as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture within the Vatican when it comes to priests’ sexual orientation and finds that some priests are embarking on illicit relationships despite vows of celibacy.

“Unless you spend some time inside this kind of culture, it’s very hard to believe that it could be like this,” journalist Robert Mickens tells FRONTLINE.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82211

I tweeted Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s update earlier but thought I’d elaborate on the topic a bit more here.

A couple days ago, Dolan released a curious letter noting that his name might be in the press again — and not in a good way.

“You know how I always try to alert you to any potentially negative publicity about the Church, or about me. Well, there could be some,” he wrote.

“My home archdiocese of St. Louis just complied with a court order to release the documents regarding cases there of sexual abuse of minors…

Anyway, since I was an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis for a year (2001-02), and vicar for priests for nine of those twelve months, I would anticipate that my name will again be highlighted in the press. I sure have nothing to hide…”

The reason it’s a bit peculiar Dolan should warn of bad publicity is because as the Post-Dispatch’s reporting has highlighted, the files he refers to are under court seal, available only to the judge and lawyers involved. And the trial date for the case that spurred the release of the files has been pushed back — to July.

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CHILE
Terra

[Summary: The Santiago archbishop has confirmed that priest Fernando Karadima is the priest who appears in a photograph made last December that shows him in the inner chapel of the house of the Servants of Jesus. Juan Carolos Cruz, one of the men who denounced the priest for abuse, made public the photographs and said he was officiating at Mass after the Vatican forbid him to so.]

El Arzobispado de Santiago confirmó que es el sacerdote Fernando Karadima quien aparece en una imagen captada en diciembre pasado en la capilla interior, de la casa de las Siervas de Jesús.

“La foto efectivamente corresponde al sacerdote Karadima y fue obtenida por un visitante al interior de la residencia”, manifestó el organismo católico.

Cabe señalar que Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los que denunció al religioso, dio a conocer imágenes de éste y afirmó que se encontraba oficiando una misa, pese a que se le prohibió hacerlo luego que el Vaticano, a través de Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, lo declarara culpable por el delito de abuso de menores.

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CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 20, 2014

Statement by Juan Carlos Cruz or SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 1+ 312 420 4301· jccruz1@aol.com )

A serial predator priest who has been ordered to live “a life of prayer and penance” is still saying mass in public, clearly violating restrictions put on him by his Catholic supervisors.

We are saddened but not shocked. Only under public pressure do bishops finally take some action against child molesting clerics. And when public attention subsides, it’s “back to business as usual.”

In other institutions – government, business, non-profits – there would now be harsh punishments – both for the predator priest, Fr. Fernando Karadima, and – more importantly – for his supervisors. But we doubt that will happen here. Even the most egregious child molesting clerics in the Catholic Church often get light penalties and continue to break the rules and do as they please, without fear of further sanction. And when their bishops are caught ignoring the very rules they put down, no higher church authority ever disciplines those bishops.

This is yet another reminder that real justice can best be sought through secular courts, not through church processes. We strongly urge anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups to contact police and prosecutors, not priests and bishops.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
These Stone Walls

BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE FEBRUARY 19, 2014

For Catholic priests, merely being accused is now evidence of guilt. A closer look at the prosecution of Fr Gordon MacRae opens a window onto a grave injustice.

Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part guest post by Ryan A. MacDonald.

“Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it represents.” (Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2013)

The above quote says it all. I wrote for These Stone Walls two weeks ago to announce a new federal appeal filed in the Father Gordon MacRae case. I mentioned my hope to write in more detail about the perversion of justice cited by Dorothy Rabinowitz in “The Trials of Father MacRae,” her third major article on the MacRae case in The Wall Street Journal.

The details of how such injustice is perpetrated are especially important in cases like Father MacRae’s because there was no evidence of guilt – not one scintilla of evidence – presented to the jury in his 1994 trial. I recently wrote “Justice and a Priest’s Right of Defense in the Diocese of Manchester,” an article with photographs of the exact location where the charges against this priest were claimed to have occurred. If you read it, you can judge for yourself whether those charges were even plausible.

The sexual assaults for which Father Gordon MacRae has served two decades in prison were to have taken place five times in as many weeks, all in the light of day in one of the busiest places in downtown Keene, New Hampshire. Yet no one saw anything. No one heard anything. Accuser Thomas Grover – almost age 16 when he says it happened, and age 26 when he first accused the priest – testified that he returned from week to week after each assault because he repressed the memory of it all while having a weekly “out- of- body experience.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing Monday 10 March 2014 into the response of the Catholic Church to:

(a) the complaint of child sexual abuse made by John Ellis under Towards Healing
(b) the review of the Towards Healing process in relation to John Ellis’ complaint
(c) the civil action commenced by John Ellis in relation to his complaint.

The hearing will also examine the experience of John Ellis in relation to:

(a) the Towards Healing process
(b) the review of the Towards Healing process in relation to his complaint
(c) the civil action commenced by him in relation to his complaint.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said this hearing will be the second case study examining the application of Towards Healing.

“This hearing will focus on the experiences of Mr Ellis whose claim of child sexual abuse, against a priest within the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, was dealt with through the Towards Healing process and in civil litigation.

“This hearing will be an opportunity for the Royal Commission to examine the response of the Catholic Church to Mr Ellis’ claim, including the application of Towards Healing and the circumstances in which the Catholic Church raised what is commonly referred to as the ‘Ellis defence’,” Ms Dines said.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the Scope and Purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by Wednesday 26 February 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse

A public hearing will commence in Adelaide on 17 March 2014 into the responses into the responses by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and the South Australia Police to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School.

Royal Commission CEO, Ms Janette Dines, says the scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

* The circumstances in which Brian Perkins gained his position of employment at St Ann’s Special School;
* The monitoring, supervision and oversight of Brian Perkins’s activities as an employee and as a volunteer at St Ann’s Special School;
* The response of the principal and the board of St Ann’s Special School to allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins including communication with the parents of the children said to have been sexually abused;
* The response, including internal review(s), to allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School, by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide (including the Catholic Education Office);
* The experience of the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School;
* The circumstances around, and the basis for the payment of monies by the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Adelaide to the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused;
* The nature of the investigation by the South Australia Police (“SAPOL”) into the allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School, including the circumstances in which Brian Perkins was able to leave the State of South Australia in or about 1993 and steps taken by SAPOL to have him return to South Australia; and
* The nature and extent of communications of the investigation and other related matters by SAPOL with the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused.
The venue for the hearing will be Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Court Building, 3 Angas Street, Adelaide.

Ms Dines said, “The Royal Commission has a national focus and in the first half of 2014 there will also be public hearings in NSW, Western Australia and the ACT.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The second public hearing into The Salvation Army by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will commence in Sydney on Monday, 24 March 2014.

The public hearing will inquire into the handling by The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) of claims of child sexual abuse between 1993 and 2014. The hearing – the tenth since the Royal Commission was established – is scheduled to run for up to two weeks. Royal Commission CEO, Ms Janette Dines, says the scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

* The policies, practices and procedures of The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory), between 1993 and 2014, for responding to claims of child sexual abuse at children’s homes it operated.
* The application and adequacy of these policies, practices and procedures between 1993 and 2014.
* The experience of people who made complaints to The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) between 1993 and 2014.
* The policies, practices and procedures between 1990 and 2014 concerning the disciplining of officers of The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) who were the subject of allegations of child sexual abuse.

Anyone who made a claim or complaint about child sexual abuse to The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) between 1993 and 2014 is encouraged to come forward.

“Every experience will help to inform the Royal Commission as to how The Salvation Army handled claims and complaints during this period and the effectiveness of the policies and procedures they had in place.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 21, 2014

Marty Silk

A culture of protecting the church existed in a diocese where a Catholic teacher raped and molested 13 girls, an inquiry has heard.

Teachers were repeatedly told not to compromise the bishop, but the culture of protection wasn’t sinister, a former principal told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Friday.

Two Catholic Education Office staff and the principal of a Toowoomba school learned of abuse claims against a teacher in 2007, but failed to act.

That teacher, Gerard Byrnes, was eventually jailed in 2010 after pleading guilty to 44 child sex charges involving 13 young girls.

Byrnes was allowed to continue working at the school after the first complaints surfaced, and went on to abuse other pupils.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Advertiser

An MP has stepped in to help former residents of a Catholic boys home who claim they were physically and sexually abused.

Justine Greening is also to ask the police about a potential link between the home and Jimmy Savile, which has been demonstrated.

Police have been investigating the claims, concerning St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, for more than 12 months.

It is the third time they have investigated the home.

Paperwork for the first two investigations, in 1998 and 2003, originally went missing but were subsequently found.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune Updated: February 20, 2014

A jury needed only two hours to convict ex-director of Salvation Army program of abusing a client living at homeless shelter.

The former director of a chemical treatment program for the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light homeless shelter was convicted Thursday of criminal sexual abuse of a client.

A jury of five men and one woman concluded that Amy Horsfield, 39, had engaged in sexual acts with Anthony Bishop, a sex offender who was living at the shelter in Minneapolis and attending the chemical dependency treatment program.

Horsfield put her hands to her face as Hennepin County District Judge Mark Wernick read the jury’s verdict.

He ordered Horsfield held in custody until her sentencing March 19.

Horsfield did not take the stand in her own defense, and the jurors deliberated for just two hours. Her attorney, Robert Paule, while aggressively cross-­examining prosecution witnesses, never called any defense witnesses.

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CANADA
Lethbridge Herald

Caroline Zentner
lethbridge herald
czentner@lethbridgeherald.com

As a school student Shelagh Rogers learned the English and the French were the founders of Canada.

Not until she was an adult did she learn the truth about the residential school system. And she’s learned more since she became an honorary witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“Reconciliation is an abstract concept but I think what we’re really talking about is partnership and relationship. We actually had that when Europeans first came to North America,” said Rogers, host of CBC Radio One’s “The Next Chapter” during her keynote speech at the South Western Alberta Teachers’ Convention Thursday morning at the University of Lethbridge.

That initial relationship fell apart and the residential school system affected thousands of aboriginal people directly and indirectly.

“The residential school era changed the shape of this country and not in a good way. I was 46 years old when I first heard the term ‘residential school.’ In my history books it never came up. I knew that there were schools on reserves and sometimes kids had to be moved away because the schools didn’t go all the way to Grade 12. But it was so much more than that,” she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Ham & High

Friday, February 14, 2014

A Catholic friar has been accused of possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children.

Friar Timothy Gardner, 41, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday where he faced 11 charges relating to 5,005 images.

Some were graded as level five – the most extreme content.

Gardner is based at St Dominic’s Priory in Southampton Road, Gospel Oak, and has taught philosophy and religious education at Maria Fidelis Catholic School, in Phoenix Road, Somers Town.

He will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on February 24.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

13 February 2014 by Christopher Lamb

The Catholic Education Service’s former Religious Education Adviser has appeared in court charged with possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children.

Fr Tim Gardner, 41, a Dominican, had taught Philosophy and Religious Education at Maria Fidelis Convent School, Camden in North London. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday to confirm his name at a brief hearing.

He is facing eleven allegations of possessing 5,005 images, some of which are graded at level five denoting the most extreme content and one of which shows bestiality.

Fr Tim’s case was referred to Southwark Crown Court where there will be a preliminary hearing on 24 February.

The priest’s lawyer did not indicate how the defendant would plead to the charges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
tes

Started by: StephenExley 15-2-2014

A teacher and former religious education adviser to the Catholic Education Service (CES) has been charged with possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children.

Father Tim Gardner, who also used to teach philosophy and RE at a North London convent school, appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court this week. He faces a total of 11 charges.

In his former role at the CES, Gardner was involved in lobbying the government about the importance of RE in schools.

Gardner, who used to teach at Maria Fidelis Convent School in Camden, also served as a governor at the independent Catholic girls school Rye St Antony in Oxford, The Tablet Catholic newspaper reported.

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IRELAND
Church Times

by Gregg Ryan, Ireland Correspondent
Posted: 21 Feb 2014

THE former head of the Roman Catholic Church’schild-safeguarding body in Ireland, Ian Elliott, has accused someelements in the Church of cutting funding to the National Board forthe Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland(NBSCCCI), to hinder further investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

CONCERN that a public hearing into an Adelaide special school where disabled children were sexually abused could prejudice civil proceedings is no reason to postpone the hearing, the royal commission into child sex abuse has said.

At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday, the Catholic Church insurer expressed concerns about the “potential effect on civil matters” of the timing of the commission’s hearing into child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

The commission has scheduled a hearing for March 17 in Adelaide.

In a letter to the commission, Catholic Church Insurance Limited (CCI) said it wished to state “unambiguously that it had no objection” to the commission’s review of the St Ann’s matters.

The letter sent on behalf of CCI by Kate Harrison of law firm Gilbert and Tobin, said it anticipated the commission’s investigations would potentially traverse a number of the same issues of fact.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
am (Mexico)

[Summary: Joaquin Aguilar, member of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, was one of 17 victims of sexual abuse who was compensated by the Los Angeles archdiocese. He said the damage is recognized and the victims never lied.]

NATALIA VITELA / Publicada el 20/02/2014

Joaquín Aguilar, miembro de la Red de Supervivientes de Personas que sufrieron abusos por Sacerdotes (Snap, por sus siglas en inglés), celebró que la Iglesia Católica de Los Ángeles, California, indemnice a 17 víctimas del sacerdote pederasta de origen mexicano, Nicolás Aguilar Rivera.

“Se está reconociendo un daño y que nunca hemos mentido. Con esto se sigue comprobando quién era Nicolás Aguilar y quiénes han sido los delincuentes que lo protegieron, como Norberto Rivera (Arzobispo Primado de México) y Roger Mahony (cardenal estadounidense)”.

Sin embargo, lamentó que Nicolás Aguilar Rivera no esté encarcelado y que no estén detrás de todos los curas pederastas.

“Lamentablemente Nicolás sigue libre, no hay procedimiento por el cual el señor esté siendo perseguido en este momento”, indicó.

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AUSTRALIA
Noosa News

Jessica Grewall 21st Feb 2014

THE royal commission is calling on anyone who complained of sexual abuse while under the care of the Salvation Army in the past 20 years, to come forward.

A second hearing into the handling of abuse claims by the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory, which takes in NSW and Queensland, will begin in Sydney on March 24.

The hearing, the 10th since the royal commission was established, will look at the treatment of children who complained of abuse at the army’s homes from 1993 until now.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said the hearing would give the panel a better understanding of how the Salvation Army handled complaints and effectiveness of the policies it had in place.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — In a letter issued just before he went to Rome this week, Timothy Cardinal Dolan warned that his name could be connected with some bad publicity regarding his home archdiocese of St. Louis.

Dolan said in a letter issued Tuesday that he tries to alert parishioners about “any potentially negative publicity about the Church, or about me,” and “there could be some.

“My home archdiocese of St. Louis just complied with a court order to release the documents regarding cases there of sexual abuse of minors. (Cardinal Egan already did that here a decade ago, sharing all of the information we had on abusive priests with proper district attorneys, something we continue to do today,)” Dolan wrote.

Dolan served as an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis for a year in 2001 and 2002, and as a vicar for priests for nine of those 12 months. Thus, he wrote: “I would anticipate that my name will again be highlighted in the press. I sure have nothing to hide, and am very much at peace with law enforcements officials reviewing the files. In fact, we already released all the documentation to them a dozen years ago!”

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MINNESOTA
LawFuel

A Minnesota lawyer has attacked the Catholic Church over their list of accused abusers provided by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released the names of nine priests Monday, saying none are now in the active ministry, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

Three are dead, and the others have been removed from ministry.

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer in St. Paul told the newspaper five of the priests are targets of lawsuits he has filed, and he knew about the other three. He accused the archdiocese of claiming to be transparent while providing information only under pressure.

“Until they are forced to make a full disclosure, the peril remains,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 20, 2014

Marty Silk

The Catholic Church has accused two of its former officers of colluding and lying to shift the blame about a pedophilia scandal.

The knives were out on the fourth day of a hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane.

Principal Terence Hayes was first told of allegations against pedophile teacher Gerard Byrnes in September 2007.

Mr Hayes told Catholic education officers, Christopher Fry and Ian Hunter, that Byrnes had allegedly touched a girl and made her feel uncomfortable, had a girl sit on his lap in class, gave children lollies and kissed a girl on the cheek.

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ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

An Alabama children’s minister charged with multiple sex crimes remains in jail after his lawyer withdrew a motion for reduced bond and waived a preliminary hearing on Feb. 18.

Attorney Billy Underwood had filed a motion on behalf of Jeff Eddie, longtime associate pastor for children and church administration at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., asking for his bond of $1.03 million to be reduced from $30,000 per count to $5,000 per count.

After conferring with prosecutors at a Tuesday morning hearing in Colbert County district court, however, Underwood advised his client to waive the preliminary hearing and allow the case to proceed to a grand jury in March.

“We didn’t want to inflame the public with what would come out from the preliminary hearing,” Underwood told the Times Daily in Florence, Ala. “And if the bond was lowered enough that he could get out, there might be more charges filed against him and he would be back in jail. So, nothing would be gained by reducing the bond today.”

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

By Ada Chong Published: Feb 20, 2014

YAKIMA, Wash. — The Diocese of Yakima is settling two lawsuits involving sexual abuse of children. Two victims claimed they were abused by staff members when they were kids.

One settlement will pay Michelle Duerre $40,000. The second will pay an unnamed victim $75,000. Both will be covered by insurance.

There are currently two other pending lawsuits against the Diocese of Yakima. Both are also alleged sexual abuse cases.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Tom Olsen, Duluth News Tribune

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis may have significantly underreported its list of priests “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse, Minnesota Public Radio News reported this week, prompting questions about the completeness of other lists, including one released by the Diocese of Duluth.

Verne Wagner, the northern Minnesota director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he was not surprised by MPR’s investigation, which found that the archdiocese has dealt with abuse accusations against at least 70 priests since the 1950s, more than twice the official count.

In Duluth, the diocese has listed 22 priests that have been considered “credibly accused.” Following the report on the Twin Cities archdiocese, Wagner says he has a hard time believing the Duluth list is complete.

“I’m looking at this saying, ‘Hey, what about here in Duluth?’ “ Wagner said. “I’ve had victims call me up and tell me they were abused by priests who were not on that list.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Catherine Clifford

A 60-year-old former Catholic priest, facing multiple child sex abuse charges dating back four decades, has re-appeared at Armidale Local Court.

The defrocked member of the clergy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is currently charged with 137 historic child sexual assault offences.

It’s alleged the offences were committed in the 1970s and 1980s against three girls and six boys at unspecified locations in Armidale, Moree, Narrabri and Inverell.

On Wednesday, at Armidale Local Court, Magistrate Karen Stafford expressed her frustration at delays occurring in the case, especially the fact that a plea is yet to be entered.

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POLAND
InSerbia

KRAKÓW, Poland – Police in the southern Polish city of Kraków have arrested a 36-year-old priest wanted on sexual abuse charges in the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic.

Priest Wojciech Gil, 36, is accused of sexually abusing at least seven children, all of whom are boys. The crimes are alleged to have taken place in the small, hilly town of Juncalito, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of the capital, Santo Domingo.

Gil, known as ‘Padre Gil,’ or ‘Father Gil,’ led a Catholic parish in the town of 1,300 for almost eight years.

He is expected to be officially charged with the crimes next week in Kraków. The charges he is facing include abuse of minors, sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography. Regarding the last charge, Dominican authorities said they found over 87,000 pictures and videos of child pornography on Gil’s computer that he used at the small chapel he headed.

In addition, authorities in Poland disclosed that the priest is accused of sexually abusing two Polish children in 2006 before he relocated to the Dominican Republic.

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