ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Bill Tammeus | Feb. 5, 2014 A small c catholic

Hans Küng has long been an important prophetic voice, primarily within Catholicism but more broadly within Christianity.

He continues in that role in his latest book, Can We Save the Catholic Church?, just now published in the U.S. In it, he offers the sorrowful but hopeful pleadings of a priest and theologian who has sought for decades to reform the church in the liberating spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

Küng’s battles with the church’s hierarchy are well known, and much of that gets retold in this book. But what especially struck me about this volume is that Küng’s familiar arguments to salvage Vatican II reforms are overshadowed by a different, more important call to the whole of Christianity, not just to Catholicism.

Here’s how Küng puts it: “The crucial question is always the same: Does one’s church faithfully incorporate and reflect the original Christian message, the Gospel, which to all intents and purposes is Jesus Christ himself, to whom each church appeals as its ultimate authority?” And again: “Without a concrete and consequent return to the historical Jesus Christ, to his message, his behavior and his fate … a Christian church — whatever its name — will have neither true Christian identity nor relevance for modern human beings and society.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Wednesday, February 05, 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 )

Yet again, as they’ve done for decades, today embattled Catholic officials make more promises about children – specifically, to “study” a new UN panel’s report. But their words contradict reality. They’ve made similar promises for years. Almost always, they refuse to keep these promises.

Just like they did last month in Geneva and have done for decades, Vatican officials again ignore the church’s continuing and well-documented cover ups of horrific child sex crimes worldwide. Again they try to deflect attention from their extraordinarily devastating actions and talk of “church teaching” instead of bishops’ behavior.

The UN panel says the Vatican should remove predator priests from ministry and report them to law enforcement That needs study? The panel says the Vatican should endorse, not oppose, reforming secular child safety laws. That needs study?

Bishops don’t move predators, shun victims, rebuff prosecutors, shred evidence, intimidate witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, dodge responsibility, fabricate alibis, and blame others for clergy sex crimes and cover ups because of inadequate “study.” It’s always been, and remains, a lack of courage by bishops, not a lack of information, that prevents them from acting responsibly about and working hard to prevent clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

The Associated Press points out today that “No Catholic bishop has ever been sanctioned by the Vatican for sheltering an abusive priest.” So why would bishops risk their precious clerical careers by doing anything different with child molesting clerics (priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and bishops) than any of their peers have ever done?

The vast bulk of the United Nations panel’s findings have nothing to do with birth control, homosexuality, abortion or doctrine. But the church hierarchy ignores this because deep down, they know they cannot defend the indefensible – their consistent, deliberate, and selfish decisions that safeguard their own reputations and hurt their own flocks.

It’s disingenuous for Catholic officials to trot out the “religious freedom” canard when confronted with uncontroverted evidence of massive wrongdoing.

The Vatican’s unrepentant 150 word response – which does not contain the words “abuse,” “crimes,” or “cover ups,” – is here:

[news.va]

Catholics deserve – and kids need – a better response than this.

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GENF/VATIKANSTADT
Spiegel

Genf/Rom – Auf die scharfe Kritik der Uno reagiert der Heilige Stuhl mit ebenso deutlichen Worten: Der Vatikan wirft dem Uno-Komitee für die Rechte des Kindes in einer Stellungnahme einen “versuchten Eingriff” in seine Lehre vor. Das betreffe einige Punkte, in denen es um die Lehre der katholischen Kirche zur Würde des Menschen und zur Ausübung der Religionsfreiheit gehe, teilte der Vatikan mit.

In einem in Genf vorgestellten Gutachten hatte der Uno-Ausschuss den Heiligen Stuhl unter anderem dazu aufgefordert, seine Einstellungen zu Homosexualität, Empfängnisverhütung und Abtreibung zu überdenken.

Außerdem rügte das Gremium den Vatikan erneut, es werde in der katholischen Kirche nicht mit aller Kraft gegen den Missbrauch von Kindern durch Geistliche vorgegangen. Der Ruf der katholischen Kirche sei systematisch über das Wohl von betroffenen Kindern gestellt worden. Dies verletze die Kinderrechtskonvention der Vereinten Nationen, sagte die Ausschussvorsitzende Kirsten Sandberg.

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GENF
Sueddeutsche

Deutliche Worte aus Genf: Der UN-Kinderrechtsausschuss fordert den Vatikan auf, Priester aus ihren Ämtern zu entfernen, sobald diese des Kindesmissbrauchs überführt sind. Noch immer stelle die katholische Kirche ihren Ruf über das Wohl der Kinder. Der Vatikan bedauert das Ergebnis, kritisiert jedoch die Einmischung.

Der UN-Ausschuss für die Rechte der Kinder hat dem Vatikan die Verletzung der Kinderrechtskonvention der Vereinten Nationen vorgeworfen. “Sie verletzen die Konvention”, sagte die Ausschussvorsitzende Kirsten Sandberg in Genf. Zur Begründung sagte sie, der Vatikan habe nicht genug getan, um Kindesmissbrauch in der katholischen Kirche zu unterbinden.

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VATIKANSTADT
Tiroler Tageszeitung (Osterreich)

Vatikanstadt/New York – Der UN-Ausschusses für die Rechte des Kindes in Genf hat den Vatikan wegen seines Umgangs mit pädophilen Priestern heftig kritisiert. In einem am Mittwoch veröffentlichten Bericht rief der Ausschuss den Vatikan auf, alle wegen Kindesmissbrauchs bekannten und verdächtigten Geistlichen ihrer Ämter zu entheben und der Justiz zu übergeben.

In dem Bericht heißt es, die katholische Kirche unternehme trotz entsprechender Zusagen nach wie vor nicht genug gegen den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Geistliche und Kirchenmitarbeiter, unter anderem in Schulen. Der Ausschuss erklärte sich zutiefst besorgt, dass der Heilige Stuhl das „Ausmaß der begangenen Verbrechen nicht anerkannt“ und die erforderlichen Maßnahmen nicht ergriffen habe, um die Kinder zu schützen. Stattdessen habe der Vatikan eine Politik und Praktiken verfolgt, die dazu führten, dass die Missbrauchsfälle andauerten und die Täter straflos ausgingen.

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UNITED STATES
Sound Cloud

Barbara Blaine, head of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), reacts to the UN’s scathing report on the Vatican’s child abuse record

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GENEVA
London South East

Geneva (Alliance News) – The Holy See’s handling of sex abuse cases has allowed perpetrators in the church to continue their crimes, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child charged Wednesday.

“The committee 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,” the UN panel of experts said.

It pointed to the practice of transferring alleged perpetrators to other parishes and a lack of cooperation with national legal authorities.

The Geneva-based committee criticized the Vatican for a lack of transparency in dealing with abuse cases and said in a list of recommendations it made to the Vatican that the findings of the Holy See’s commission on sex crimes, which was set up in December, should be made public.

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GENEVA
ABC News (US)

February 5, 2014 (AP)
By The Associated Press

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child published a report Wednesday on the Holy See’s compliance with a 1989 U.N. accord on child rights. The report focused heavily on the worldwide allegations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and the Vatican’s handling of the cases.

Here are some of the 67 recommendations made by the 18-member panel, which is based in Geneva and made up of independent child rights experts from around the world.

———

AMEND CHURCH LAW

The Vatican should bring its Canon Law in line with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the Holy See ratified in 1990, “in particular those (laws) relating to children’s rights to be protected against discrimination, violence and all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.” This includes any obligation for victims of crimes or those aware of them to remain silent.

———

PUT CHILDREN BEFORE THE CHURCH

The panel said that “in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.” It said church officials had in many cases blamed the victims or their families, sought to discredit and in some cases humiliated them.

———

END IMPUNITY

Despite the Vatican’s commitment to “hold inviolable the dignity and entire person of every child,” the panel expressed its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide.” It added: “The Committee 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.”

———

STOP IMPEDING INVESTIGATIONS

The panel urged the Vatican to stop the transfer of abusers and suspected abusers, a practice it said had been documented on numerous occasions and which amounted to covering up the crimes. A Vatican commission created last year should investigate “all cases of child sexual abuse as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them.” In doing so, it should consider bringing in independent human rights groups, publish the outcome of the investigations and allow its archives to be accessed by law enforcement authorities investigating alleged perpetrators and those who may have covered for them.

———

REMOVE PERPETRATORS

It called on the Vatican to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes.”

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CANADA
Catholic Register

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
Wednesday, 05 February 2014 09:33

OTTAWA – As part of its ongoing process of renewal and healing, Nova Scotia’s Antigonish diocese is promoting a program for parishioners based on Sr. Nuala Kenny’s book Healing in the Church: Diagnosing and Treating the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis.

In a Jan. 20 pastoral letter, Antigonish Bishop Joseph Dunn invited the faithful to join one of these study groups as part of an ongoing process of renewal and healing leading up to a planned Diocesan Reconciliation Service in June.

“This workbook provides a guide for groups who are seeking to understand how this crisis occurred by exploring such topics as: the lessons learned from the crisis, who we are as a Church, and how clergy and laity need to relate to each other,” Dunn wrote.

The diocese is also about to release a five-year pastoral plan entitled Rebuilding Trust and Hope that will be distributed to parishes and be uploaded to the diocesan website, said diocesan spokesman Fr. Don MacGillivray in a statement.

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GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

U.N. panel blasts Vatican handling of clergy sex abuse, church teachings on gays, abortion

By Anthony Faiola, Wednesday, February 5

BERLIN — A United Nations committee on Wednesday issued a scathing indictment of the Catholic Church’s handling of child sexual abuse cases involving clerics, releasing a report that went far beyond how the church managed abuse allegations to include criticism of its teachings on homosexuality, gender equality and abortion.

The scope of the report appeared to infuriate the Vatican — which had dispatched its top official on sexual abuse to appear before a U.N. committee in Geneva last month. Vatican officials said they were still studying the findings, but responded angrily to what they described as recommendations that were ideologically biased.

“Trying to ask the Holy See to change its teachings is not negotiable,” Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the United Nations in Geneva, told Vatican Radio.

At a time when the Vatican has been riding a wave of positive publicity surrounding Pope Francis, the report once again shone a spotlight on the single largest stain on the Catholic Church’s global image: Its handling of allegations of sexual abuse by clerics.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Free Press

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child continued to insist that the Vatican compile and publish detailed statistics on clerical sexual abuse of minors and that the pope, as head of the church, can and should order Catholic dioceses and religious orders around the world to implement all the policies of the U.N. Convention of the Rights of the Child.

The committee, which spent an entire day Jan. 16 questioning two Vatican representatives, also urged the Catholic Church to revise the Code of Canon Law to make it mandatory that bishops and religious superiors report suspected cases of sexual abuse to civil authorities, even in countries where civil law does not require such reporting.

The Vatican always has insisted that church law requires bishops and religious superiors to obey local laws on reporting suspected crimes; however, it also has said that where reporting is not mandatory and the victim does not want to go to the police, the victim’s wishes must be respected.

The “concluding observations” of the committee, which monitors compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the Holy See in 1990, were published Feb. 5.

A statement published by the Vatican press office the same day said, “The Holy See reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child, in line with the principles promoted by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and according to the moral and religious values offered by Catholic doctrine.”

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VATICAN CITY
Gazetta del Sud

Vatican City, February 5 – A new United Nations report condemning the Catholic Church’s handling of a worldwide sexual abuse scandal appears to have been written before Holy See representatives even had a chance to tell their side of the story, a senior Vatican official said Wednesday. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva, testified last month at a day-long hearing before the UN committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which issued a scathing report on Wednesday. The negative tone and conclusions of the report came as a “surprise,” said Tomasi. “It seems that had already been prepared before the meeting of the (UN) committee with the delegation of the Holy See,” said Tomasi. That suggests the report had a pre-determined “ideological line” that it followed in its findings, he added. The committee denounced the Vatican’s behavior in allegedly hiding decades of sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children by clergymen and urged the Church to make a full disclosure of its records so that culprits and “those who concealed their crimes” could face justice. In its wide-ranging and scathing report, the committee also called on the Holy See to “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The UN has accused the Vatican of “systematically” adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children.

Pope Francis has said that dealing with abuse is vital for the Church’s credibility, but the Church has been criticised over its inadequate response to some of the allegations.

When did the sex abuse scandals in the Church first come to light?

US priest John Geoghan was jailed for his crimes, and later killed in prison by another inmate
The sexual abuse of children was rarely discussed in public before the 1970s, and it was not until the 1980s that the first cases of molestation by priests came to light, in the United States and Canada.

In the 1990s, revelations began of widespread abuse in Ireland.

In the new century, more cases of abuse have been revealed in more than a dozen countries around the world.

What are the most salient cases of abuse?

Two major reports into Irish allegations of paedophilia in 2009 revealed the shocking extent of abuse, cover-ups and hierarchical failings involving thousands of victims, and stretching back decades.

In one, four Dublin archbishops were found to have in effect turned a blind eye to cases of abuse from 1975 to 2004.

A fresh scandal erupted in March 2010 when it emerged the head of the Irish Catholic Church, Cardinal Sean Brady, was present at meetings in 1975 where children signed vows of silence over complaints against a paedophile priest, Fr Brendan Smyth. This prompted Pope Benedict XVI to apologise to Irish victims.

In the US, the Boston Archdiocese has been worst hit, with the activities of two of its priests, Paul Shanley and John Geoghan, causing public outrage. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned over the scandal in 2002.

In Mexico, the founder of the Legion of Christ order, Marcial Maciel, long admired by Pope John Paul II, was disciplined by the Vatican in 2006 over the abuse of boys and young men over a period of 30 years. The Legion insisted his was an isolated case, but seven more priests of the order have been investigated.

The bishop of the Belgian city of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned in 2010 after admitting that he had sexually abused a boy for years.

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GENEVA
Irish Independent

05 FEBRUARY 2014

The Vatican “systematically” adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, a UN human rights committee said, urging it to open its files on paedophiles and bishops who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report hailed by victims, the UN committee severely criticised the Holy See for its attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should change its own canon law to ensure children’s rights and their access to healthcare are guaranteed. The Vatican promptly objected.

The report puts renewed pressure on Pope Francis to move decisively on the abuse front and make good on pledges to create a Vatican commission to study sex abuse and recommend best practices to fight it. The commission was announced on the spur of the moment in December, but few details have been released since then. …

It called for Francis’s nascent abuse commission to conduct an independent investigation of all cases of priestly abuse and the way the Catholic hierarchy has responded over time, and urged the Holy See to establish clear rules for the mandatory reporting of abuse to police and to support laws that allow victims to report crimes even after the statute of limitations has expired.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Carolan
Fri, Jan 31, 2014

The Sisters of Charity have asked the High Court to halt an action for damages brought against them by a woman who alleges she was raped and sexually assaulted over years by a groundsman employed in a Magdalene Laundry.

The woman claims she was so traumatised by the assaults that, to stop the groundsman accosting her on her way to and from school, she hammered her knee with a paperweight to such an extent she was hospitalised with a fractured knee and avoided going to school.

Her life has been severely affected by her experience. She changed from being a happy, normal child to one who became self-destructive, hated school, herself and people, left school early and developed alcohol, medication and relationship problems, it is claimed.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

The Holy See’s handling of the clerical sex abuse crisis that has rocked the Catholic Church for much of the last 20 years has come in for unprecedented criticism from the UN’s Geneva based Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In a report released today, following on a Vatican deposition in Geneva two weeks ago, the UN body says that the Church has failed to “acknowledge the extent of the crimes committed”.

Attempts to silence victims of abuse, the regular transferring of abuser priests from parish to parish and the “code of silence” imposed on clergy all form part of a corporate church culture which leads the committee to conclude:

“The Committee is particularly concerned that in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests, as observed by several national commissions of inquiry.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Raw Story

By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Vatican was denounced in a devastating UN report Wednesday for failing to stamp out child abuse and the church was urged to remove all clergy suspected of raping or molesting children.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said “tens of thousands of children worldwide” had been abused systemically for years within the Catholic church.

It urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes”.

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said the Roman Catholic Church was falling far short of its stated committment to stem abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

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VATICAN CITY
adnkronos

Rome, 5 February (AKI) – The Vatican said on Wednesday it regretted an attempt by the United Nations to “interfere” with Catholic teachings in a highly critical report on priests’ sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide.

In a statement, the Vatican said the newly issued report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child would be “submitted to a thorough study and examination,” saying it remained committed to protecting children.

“The Holy See does, however, regret to see in some points of the Concluding Observations an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of human person and in the exercise of religious freedom,” the statement noted.

In the report released Wednesday, the UN watchdog demanded that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and heavily criticised the Vatican’s stance on homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The United Nations has issued concluding observations on the reviewed reports of the Holy See and five States , Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It follows a hearing at the UN in Geneva attended by a group from Holy See last month. Heading the Vatican delegation at those discussions was Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva.

He gave his reaction to the report to Vatican Radio.

Q. What is the reaction of the Holy See to these harsh criticisms by the UN contained in this report?

The report in the concluding recommendations that the committee of the Convention on the Right of the Child that were released today point out a rather negative approach to what the Holy See has been doing and has already achieved in the area of the protection of children. The first impression is that the report in some ways is not up to date, not taking into account some of the clear and precise explanations that were given to the committee in the in the encounter that the delegation of the Holy See had with the committee three or four weeks ago. Second, I would say that there is a difficultly apparent in understanding the position of the Holy See that cannot certainly give up certain teachings that are part of their deep convictions and also an expression of freedom of religion and these are the values that in the tradition of the Catholic Church sustain the common good of society and therefore cannot be renounced, for example the committee asked for acceptance of abortion and this is a contradiction with the principle of life that the convention itself should support recommending that children be protected before and after birth. If a child is eliminated or killed we can no longer talk about rights for this person, so there is a need to calmly and in detail analyzing the recommendations proposed by the committee and provide an accurate response to the committee itself, so that there will be no misunderstanding on where we stand and the reason why we take certain positions and I would add that the practical remedies for preventing cases of abuse of children in forms of laws or decisions of Episcopal Conferences of directives for the formation of seminarians constitute a package of measures that is very difficult, I think, to find other institutions or even other states that have done so much specifically for the protection of children. So, my sense is that we have to continue to refine, to enact provisions that protect children in all their necessities so that they may grow and become productive adults in society and their dignity be constantly respected. And at the same time we have to keep in mind that even though there are so many millions, forty million cases of abuse a year regarding children and unfortunately some cases affect also Church personnel. We have to keep in mind that, we have to continue to combat this tragedy knowing that even a case of abuse of a child is a case too much.

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VATICAN CITY
New Tang Dynasty Television

Many of the Catholics attending the pope’s weekly audience at the Vatican agree with a hard-hitting U.N. report on children’s rights demanding the immediate removal of clergy who are known or suspected child sex abusers.

Dark clouds hung over the Vatican on Wednesday as the United Nations published a scathing report blaming the Catholic Church for not doing enough to prevent abuse against children.

Pope Francis was in St. Peter’s square on Wednesday greeting crowds ahead of his weekly general audience. He called on children during his speech to pilgrims, to make sure they worked hard to prepare themselves for their first communion.

“It is important that children prepare themselves well for their first communion and all children do this because it is the first strong, strong step towards Jesus Christ after baptism,” the pope said.

In the unprecedented report the United Nations demanded the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities.

The U.N. watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

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GENEVA
Scotsman

A UN human rights committee has denounced the Vatican for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the paedophiles and churchmen who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report, the UN committee also severely criticised the Holy See for its attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should review its policies to ensure children’s rights and their access to healthcare are guaranteed.

On sex abuse “the committee 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”, the report said.

It called for the sex abuse commission that Pope Francis announced in December to conduct an independent investigation of all cases of priestly abuse and the way the Catholic hierarchy has responded over time, and urged the Holy See to establish clear rules for the mandatory reporting of abuse to police.

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VATICAN CITY
New Tang Dynasty Television

VATICAN CITY, Feb 05, 2014 (AFP) –
The Vatican said Wednesday that it would study a damning UN report accusing it of failing to stamp out child abuse, but slammed criticism of its religious teachings as “interference”.

“The Holy See takes note of the concluding observations on its reports, which will be submitted to a thorough study and examination… according to international law and practice,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Church in its report of falling far short of its stated commitment to stem abuse by priests and lay employees and called on the Vatican to remove all those suspected of raping or molesting children.

The report followed a landmark hearing last month during which members of the committee — made up of 18 independent human rights experts from around the globe — grilled senior Churchmen and repeatedly questioned the Vatican’s resolve.

While agreeing to study the report on abuse, the Vatican reacted strongly to what it slammed as “interference” into Church teachings on abortion and homosexuality, after the UN called on the ancient institution to modernise and amend its attitudes.

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VATICAN CITY
ITV (UK)

The Vatican has said it will give “thorough study and examination” to a UN report that has accused the Catholic Church of failing to act on, and even covering up, child sex abuse.

The Holy See made no comment on its suggested culpability but said the Church remained committed to protecting children from abuse.

However, it accused the UN committee responsible for the report of interfering with its teachings on abortion and contraception after the report recommended a change in the approach to sexual education in Catholic schools.

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VATICAN CITY/GENEVA
Bloomberg

By Andrew Frye Feb 5, 2014

A United Nations committee decried the Vatican’s response to sexual abuse on children by its clergy, saying the Holy See allowed alleged predators to strike again because it was more concerned about its reputation than the victims.

“In dealing with child victims of different forms of abuse, the Holy See has systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims,” the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said in a report released today. The panel said it is concerned the Holy See “has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

The Vatican, in an English-language response sent by e-mail, said it is committed “to defending and protecting the rights of the child.” The Vatican also said, without further explanation, it saw in the committee’s report “an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.”

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VATICAN CITY
news.va

(Vatican Radio) At the end of its 65th session, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has published its Concluding Observations on the reviewed Reports of the Holy See and five States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Congo, Germany, Portugal, Russian Federation and Yemen).

Please find below a statement issued by the Holy See following the publishing of the U.N. reports:

According to the proper procedures forseen for the parties to the Convention, the Holy See takes note of the Concluding Observations on its Reports, which will be submitted to a thorough study and examination, in full respect of the Convention in the different areas presented by the Committee according to international law and practice, as well as taking into consideration the public interactive debate with the Committee, held on 16 January 2014.

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VATICAN CITY
The Journal (Ireland)

THE VATICAN HAS responded to a report by a United Nations committee which criticised its policies that allowed for systematic and continued abuse of children by its priests.

In a statement this afternoon, the Holy See reiterated its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of children “in line with the principles promoted by the Convention of the Rights of the Child and according to the moral and religious values offered by Catholic doctrine”.

It confirmed that it had taken note of the concluding observations in the report, adding that it will be thoroughly studied and examined.

However, it also said that it “regrets” that some of the observations by the committee on the rights of the child are an attempt to “interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the exercise of religious freedom”.

The report commented on the Church’s positions on homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Feb. 5, 2014 NCR Today

In an unprecedented report critical of the Catholic church’s handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the United Nations demanded Wednesday the Vatican immediately remove all clergy known or suspected to be child abusers, turn them over to civil authorities, and hold “those who concealed their crimes” accountable.

The report by the U.N. watchdog for children’s rights targets bishops for enabling the abuse over decades. Church child sex abuse watchdogs maintain many hundreds of bishops have enabled and covered up abuse but have never been held accountable by authorities inside or outside the church.

The UN report called on the Vatican to turn over tens of thousands of potentially incriminating documents held in its archives, according to various news reports.

It was the most far-reaching critique of the church hierarchy by the world body and followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

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GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
KOSU

Filed by KOSU .
February 5, 2014

The Vatican “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,” a U.N. human rights committee charged Wednesday.

The Associated Press adds that in the “devastating report,” the committee condemns the Vatican “for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the pedophiles and the churchmen who concealed their crimes.”

The Committee on the Rights of the Child “also severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should review its policies to ensure children’s rights and their access to health care are guaranteed,” the AP says.

From Rome, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli tells our Newscast Desk that “the report came after a day-long interrogation of Vatican officials on the Holy See’s handling of the global sex abuse scandals. … The officials were asked why church authorities repeatedly covered up cases of abuse of children by priests. The Vatican insists it is not responsible for abusive priests, saying local bishops are.”

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UNITED STATES
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse February 5, 2014

An advocacy group for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests called Wednesday for legal action after a devastating UN report denounced the Vatican for failing to stamp out the scourge.

The UN report “is a wake-up call, not to Catholic officials — who’ve known about and concealed abuse for decades and still do — but for secular officials, especially those in law enforcement,” the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said in a statement.

Law enforcers “can and should investigate Catholic abuses and coverups and prosecute the church supervisors who are still protecting predators and endangering children,” it said the statement by SNAP president Barbara Blaine.

“For the safety of children, we hope every head of state on the planet reads this and acts on it,” she added.

The reaction came after the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said “tens of thousands of children worldwide” had been abused systemically for years within the Catholic Church.

It called on the Church to remove all clergy suspected of raping or molesting children.

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GENEVA
CNN

By Mariano Castillo and Richard Greene, CNN
updated 8:58 AM EST, Wed February 5, 2014

(CNN) — In an unprecedented report, a United Nations committee slammed the Vatican’s handling of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and accused the church of protecting itself rather than the victims.

The Vatican should establish an “independent mechanism for monitoring children’s rights” to investigate complaints and work with law enforcement, according to the report, which was released Wednesday.

It calls for the church to immediately remove all known or suspected abusers from its ranks.

The report follows a hearing last month where Vatican officials were grilled over the church’s handling of child abuse allegations.

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VATICAN CITY
WAFB

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican “systematically” adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, a U.N. human rights committee said Wednesday, urging it to open its files on pedophiles and bishops who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report hailed by victims, the U.N. committee severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should change its own canon law to ensure children’s rights and their access to health care are guaranteed. The Vatican promptly objected.

The report puts renewed pressure on Pope Francis to move decisively on the abuse front and make good on pledges to create a Vatican commission to study sex abuse and recommend best practices to fight it. The commission was announced at the spur of the moment in December, but few details have been released since then.

The committee issued its recommendations after subjecting the Holy See to a daylong interrogation last month on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the key U.N. treaty on child protection, which the Holy See ratified in 1990. …

Austen Ivereigh, coordinator of Catholic Voices, a church advocacy group, said the report was a “shocking display of ignorance and high-handedness.”

He said it failed to acknowledge the progress that has been made in recent years and that the Catholic Church in many places is now considered a leader in safeguarding children. And he noted that the committee seemed unable to grasp the distinction between the responsibilities and jurisdiction of the Holy See, and local churches on the ground.

“It takes no account of the particularities of the Holy See, treating it as if it were the HQ of a multinational corporation,” he said in an email.

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GENEVA
Voice of America

Jerome Socolovsky
February 04, 2014

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child will issue recommendations on Wednesday following an investigation into the Vatican’s response to the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy. Although the recommendations are non-binding, it marks the first time the Holy See had to answer questions at an international hearing dedicated to the issue.

Priests have been convicted, and dioceses bankrupted by lawsuits. But last month’s hearing in Geneva was the first time the Vatican had to answer an international panel’s questions about pedophile priests.

The Vatican’s U.N. representative Archbishop Silvano Tomasi testified.

“The Holy See has carefully delineated policies and procedures designed to help eliminate such abuse,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014

Statement by Peter Isely of Milwaukee, board member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com )

It’s utterly tragic that a respected international panel of experts feels, in 2014, compelled to tell Catholic officials that they must “Immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution.”

That is, of course, common sense and common decency. That the church hierarchy must be told this is damning.

It’s striking that the United Nations panel stresses that the Vatican’ wrongdoing is on-going. Some Catholic officials and their public relations teams try very hard to pretend that they’re “reforming.” This report shows that’s largely deception.

Here are five of the panels’ most important findings

1) The Vatican “still places children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children.”

(This is, in our view, a dreadful understatement. Hundreds of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics still hold church jobs or are around kids. Only a tiny fraction of credibly accused and suspended child molesting priests, nuns, bishops, brothers and seminarians are monitored by church officials (and even then, not monitored well). An even smaller group are ever criminally prosecuted. So most sex offender clergy remain either on the job or unsupervised.)

2) The Vatican “has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests, as observed by several national commissions of inquiry.” and has “policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

3) On “numerous occasions,” the Vatican “has refused to cooperate with law enforcement authorities and to disclose information requested by prosecutors and national commissions of inquiry”

4) The Vatican “has signed treaties with certain States, notably Italy, which guarantee areas of immunity from prosecution to Vatican officials, including for bishops and priests accused of offences.”

5) The Vatican should “promote the reform of statute of limitations in countries where they impede victims of child sexual abuse from seeking justice.” (In reality, time and time again, Catholic officials have fought hard against this simple reform.)

The panel flatly rejected Vatican officials’ claims that:

– it doesn’t control priests across the planet (“child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 5 February 2014 (VIS) – This morning the Holy See Press Office issued a communique on the observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the full text of which is published below:

“At the end of its 65th session, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has published its Concluding Observations on the reviewed Reports of the Holy See and five States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Congo, Germany, Portugal, Russian Federation and Yemen).

According to the proper procedures foreseen for the parties to the Convention, the Holy See takes note of the Concluding Observations on its Reports, which will be submitted to a thorough study and examination, in full respect of the Convention in the different areas presented by the Committee according to international law and practice, as well as taking into consideration the public interactive debate with the Committee, held on 16 January 2014.

The Holy See does, however, regret to see in some points of the Concluding Observations an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.

The Holy See reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child, in line with the principles promoted by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and according to the moral and religious values offered by Catholic doctrine”.

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VATICAN CITY
The Star

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican, responding to a scathing U.N. report on sexual abuse of children by priests, said on Wednesday the Roman Catholic Church was committed to “defending and protecting the rights of the child”.

A statement said the Vatican would submit the U.N. report to “thorough study and examination”. But it also said the world body was interfering in Catholic moral teachings because the report criticised its positions on homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

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VATICAN CITY
World Bulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk

The Vatican, responding to a scathing U.N. report on sexual abuse of children by priests, said on Wednesday the Roman Catholic Church was committed to “defending and protecting the rights of the child”.

A statement said the Vatican would submit the U.N. report to “thorough study and examination”. But it also said the world body was interfering in Catholic moral teachings because the report criticised its positions on homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

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VATICAN CITY
Straits Times (Singapore)

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – The Vatican said on Wednesday that it “takes note” of a damning United Nations report accusing it of failing to stamp out child abuse, but slammed criticism of its attitude to abortion as interference.

“The Holy See takes note of the concluding observations on its reports… (but) does, however, regret to see… an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person… (and) reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child,” the Vatican said in a statement.

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VATICAN CITY
Mercury News

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
Posted: 02/05/2014

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican says it regrets what it calls the attempt by a U.N. committee to interfere with its teaching on abortion and contraception in a damning report on the priestly sex abuse scandal.

The U.N. report on Wednesday said the Vatican should change its rules on abortion and teach sexual education in Catholic schools to ensure children’s rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.

The Vatican said in a statement that it remains committed to defending and protecting the rights of children but that it regrets that the committee had attempted “to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of human person and in the exercise of religious freedom.”

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GENEVA
The Tablet (UK)

05 February 2014 12:40 by Abigail Frymann

The United Nations demanded that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected of having abused minors and report them to civil authorities.

The UN committee on Protection on Rights of the Child today issued a damning and wide-ranging 16-page report following the appearance of a Vatican delegation in Geneva three weeks ago.

The watchdog said the Holy See should also hand over its records on abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

“The Committee 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,” the report said.

It added: “The Committee is particularly concerned that in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.”

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GENF
N24 (Deutschland)

Die katholische Kirche steht wegen des sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester unter Beschuss. Die UNO wirft dem Vatikan vor, die Verbrechen vertuschen zu wollen und die Täter sogar zu schützen.
Der UN-Ausschuss für die Rechte der Kinder hat dem Vatikan die Verletzung der

Kinderrechtskonvention der Vereinten Nationen vorgeworfen. “Sie verletzen die Konvention”, sagte die Ausschussvorsitzende Kirsten Sandberg. Zur Begründung sagte sie, der Vatikan habe nicht genug getan, um Kindesmissbrauch in der katholischen Kirche zu unterbinden.

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GENEVA
RT

The UN Human Rights Committee has blamed the Vatican for indulging longstanding policies enabling priests to sexually abuse children, and called to open pedophile files and disclose the names of those clergymen who assisted in concealing such crimes.

A scathing UN report published on Wednesday accuses the Holy See of a systematic blackout concerning the molestation of children, claiming that tens of thousands of children have been raped by priests.

“The Committee 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 and the impunity of the perpetrators,” said the report.

The UN Committee recommended the Holy See to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child properly. It is the world’s most important international treaty protecting children’s rights. The UN also called for suspected clerics to be handed over to the police.

The report accuses the Catholic Church of putting the organization’s reputation ahead of the duty to protect children and ensure their access to health care.

The report followed a harsh interrogation in January of two high-ranking Catholic clerics on known cases of child sex abuse by clergy. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former chief prosecutor of sex abuse cases, were interrogated by an 18-member committee for many hours.

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GENEVA
Express (UK)

THE VATICAN has come under pressure from the United Nations to expose and ban all priests who are known and suspected child abusers.

By: Emily Fox
Published: Wed, February 5, 2014

The UN today denounced the Vatican for “systematically’ adopting policies which have allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children for decades.

In a damning report, the United Nations watchdog for children’s rights severely criticised the Holy See for its attitude toward child abusers, homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

Pope Francis had previously vowed to tackle child abuse within the Catholic Church, having set up a commission to fight preistly abuse.

But according to the UN, the commission had yet to go far enough.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

U.N. Expresses “Deepest Concern” over Widespread Sexual Abuse by Clergy, Finding Vatican Failed to Protect Children

Committee Calls for Overhaul of Policies to Enable Protection and Accountability, Full Disclosure of Clergy Sex Abuse Records

press@ccrjustice.org

February 5, 2014, New York – “The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests, as observed by several national commissions of inquiry,” wrote a United Nations Committee today. The Vatican must undertake a series of reforms to meet its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and disclose records on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergy around the world, according to concluding observations released today by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child. The U.N. Committee questioned Vatican representatives in a public hearing last month regarding the Vatican’s handling of the global crisis of sexual violence committed by Catholic clergy, including allegations that it enabled sexual violence against children by transferring pedophile priests to different parishes or destroying evidence in order to cover up their crimes. This was the first time Vatican officials have been directly questioned by an international body on this topic.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and their attorneys from the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which had submitted a joint report to the Committee, had been in attendance at the hearing in Geneva.

“We are so gratified that the U.N. has taken up this issue with such seriousness,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP. “The more international bodies and local governments step up, the sooner we can end the Vatican practices, including cover-ups, that continue to result in the rape of children and other vulnerable adults in the Church.”

The U.N Committee 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.” The Committee lamented the “code of silence” that has allowed both abusers and those who have covered it up to “escape judicial proceedings.” Among its many recommendations, the U.N. Committee called on the Vatican to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes.”

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GENEVA
Daily Mail (UK)

By JILL REILLY

The United Nations has demanded that the Vatican ‘immediately remove’ all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The U.N. watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as ‘those who concealed their crimes’, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

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VATICAN CITY
Lowell Sun

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A U.N. human rights committee denounced the Vatican on Wednesday for “systematically” adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the pedophiles and the bishops who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report, the U.N. committee also severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should change its own canon law to ensure children’s rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.

The U.N. blasted the “code of silence” that has long been used to keep victims quiet, saying the Holy See had “systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims.” It called on the Holy See to provide compensation to victims and hold accountable not just the abusers but also those who covered up their crimes. …

No Catholic bishop has ever been sanctioned for sheltering an abusive priest, and only in 2010 did the Holy See direct bishops to report abusers to police where law enforcement requires it. Vatican officials have acknowledged that bishop accountability remains a major problem and have suggested that under Pope Francis, things might begin to change.

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GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
Reuters

* Says Church put reputation before protection of children
* Seeks financial compensation for Ireland’s Magdalene scandal
* Vatican expected to respond later on Wednesday (Adds reaction of victims, Vatican official, more from document)

By Stephanie Nebehay and Philip Pullella

GENEVA/VATICAN CITY, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The United Nations demanded that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report on Wednesday.

Church officials had imposed a “code of silence” on clerics, to prevent them reporting attacks to police, and moved abusers from parish to parish “in an attempt to cover-up such crimes,” the U.N.’s Child Rights watchdog said.

The Holy See now needed to hand over an archive of evidence about the abuse of tens of thousands of children, and take measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were forced to work in church-run institutions, it added. …

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

“It’s a wake-up call …,” said Barbara Blaine of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “For the safety of children, we hope every head of state on the planet reads this and acts on it.”

Pope Francis has called sexual abuse of children “the shame of the Church” and has vowed to continue procedures put in place by his predecessor Benedict XVI.

The U.N. said a commission the pontiff created in December should invite outside experts and victims to participate in an investigation of abusers “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them.”

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GENEVA
Newser

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff
Posted Feb 5, 2014

(NEWSER) – The United Nations is hammering the Vatican for what a panel calls a failure to fully address sex abuse in the Catholic Church. “The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests,” the Committee on the Rights of the Child says, per the New York Times. The Vatican “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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GENEVA
Wall Street Journal

U.N. Panel Criticizes Vatican Over Child Abuse Scandals

By LIAM MOLONEY
Feb. 5, 2014

ROME—A United Nations panel Wednesday praised the Vatican’s commitment to change practices that resulted in clergy being able to sexually abuse children. It rejected, however, the Holy See’s main argument in its own defense: that it has limited jurisdiction to tackle such exploitation.

The rejection is a blow to the Catholic Church’s attempts to deal with a number of abuse scandals that have driven away many of the faithful.

The Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child, which ensures that signatories implement the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, said, in very strong terms, that Vatican policies, such as not reporting sexual abuse cases to local law enforcement agencies or transferring suspected perpetrators of sexual abuse to other parishes or abroad to avoid confronting the problem, lead to tens of thousands of children world-wide being molested. …

One of the Vatican’s main arguments as to why it hasn’t reported abuses to local authorities is that the convention applies only to the Vatican City State—the world’s smallest country and nestled in the center of Rome. The Vatican’s view is that abuses conducted by the clergy fall under the jurisdiction of the country where these were alleged to have been committed.

On Wednesday, however, the U.N. committee totally rejected this argument.

“While being fully conscious that bishops and major superiors of religious institutes do not act as representatives or delegates of the Roman Pontiff, the Committee nevertheless notes that subordinates in Catholic religious orders are bound by obedience to the Pope” under cannon law, it wrote.

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GENEVA
Irish Times

The United Nations demanded today that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month. …

A commission created by Pope Francis in December should investigate all cases of child sexual abuse “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them,” the report said.

Abusers had been moved from parish to parish or other countries “in an attempt to cover-up such crimes,” it said.

“Due to a code of silence imposed on all members of the clergy under penalty of excommunication, cases of child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported to the law enforcement authorities in the countries where such crimes occurred,” the UN body said.

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GENEVA
RTE News (Ireland)

A UN watchdog has called for an investigation of the Magdalene laundries so that those responsible for abusing children could be prosecuted and to allow “full compensation be paid to the victims and their families”.

The UN committee on the Rights of the Child said the Catholic Church had not yet taken measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as the Magdalene scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour.

In an unprecedented and scathing report, the UN also demanded the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities.

The committee said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper, the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body, followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee 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,” the report said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Wed, 05 Feb 2014

UN children’s body slates Vatican over child abuse

A United Nations committee has issued a scathing report accusing the Vatican of putting the reputation and interests of the Holy See above the interests of children who had been sexually abused by priests.

The report from the UN committee on the Rights of the Child again repeats the demand for the Vatican to hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The United Nations has also demanded the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The committee’s report, published today, said: “The Committee 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,” the report said.

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GENEVA
Telegraph (UK)

UN has demanded that the Vatican ‘immediately remove’ all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to police, in an unprecedented and scathing report

By Nick Squires, Rome 05 Feb 2014

The Catholic Church continues to harbour paedophile priests and should immediately turn them over to the authorities, the United Nations said in scathing report on the Vatican’s decades-long failure to tackle the scandal of predatory clergy.

In a damning critique of the Holy See’s attempts to shield abusive clergy from prosecution, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said that tens of thousands of children had been sexually exploited by priests and nuns in the past and that victims continue to be abused.

The committee of independent experts said it was “gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed…and has adopted policies and practises which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators.”

Abusive priests in many countries had simply been moved from one diocese to another, allowing “many priests to remain in contact with children and to continue to abuse them.”

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GENEVA
Rappler

BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
POSTED ON 02/05/2014

GENEVA, Switzerland – The Vatican must remove all child sexual abusers from their posts and turn them over to the police, the United Nations children’s rights watchdog said Wednesday, February 5.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes.”

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said that the Roman Catholic Church was still failing to do enough to live up to its stated commitment to stamp out child abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

It underlined its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide.”

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GENEVA
ITV (UK)

A scathing United Nations report has demanded the Vatican “immediatedly remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and hand them to the authorities.

In its most far-reaching criticism of the Church hierarchy to date, the UN watchdog for children’s rights said it is “gravely concerned” the Holy See “has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed”.

It accused the Vatican of adopting “policies and practices” which led to abuse continuing and ensured “the impunity of the perpetrators”.

The UN body said the Church must hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, can be held accountable.

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GENEVA
United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child

1. The Committee considered the second periodic report of the Holy See (CRC/C/VAT/2) at its 1852nd meeting (see CRC/C/SR.1852), held on 16 January 2013, and adopted, at its 1875th meeting, held on 31 January 2014, the following concluding observations.

I. Introduction

2. The Committee welcomes the submission of the second periodic report of the Holy See (CRC/C/VAT/2) and the written replies to its list of issues (CRC/C/VAT/Q/2/Add.1). The Committee however regrets that the second periodic report was submitted with a considerable delay, which prevented the Committee from reviewing the implementation of the Convention by the Holy See for 14 years.

3. The Committee welcomes the open and constructive dialogue with the multisectoral delegation of the Holy See, as well as the positive commitments made by its delegation during the interactive dialogue in numerous areas. In particular, the Committee notes as positive the willingness expressed by the delegation of the Holy See to change attitudes and practices and looks forward to the adoption of prompt and firm measures for the concrete implementation of its commitments.

4. The Committee reminds the Holy See that the present concluding observations should be read in conjunction with the concluding observations on the Holy See’s initial report under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/OPAC/VAT/CO/1) as well as those on the initial report under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/VAT/CO/1), adopted on 31 January 2014

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims push for more predator priest files
And they react to action by United Nations panel
SNAP testified about Chicago abuse case in Geneva
Group wants Cardinal George to release more records
“Opening the Fr. McCormack files is crucial,” victims say

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will push Chicago Catholic officials to

–release more records about predator priests, and
–ask a court to disclose files about Chicago’s most notorious child molesting cleric, Fr. Daniel McCormack.

They will also respond to a historic, just-released United Nations panel’s report on how the Vatican is dealing with clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

WHEN
Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 1:00 pm

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Chicago archdiocese chancery office, 835 N Rush, St, in Chicago

WHO
Four-five adults who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some were molested as kids; others are concerned Catholics. One, SNAP’s founder, has made two trips to Geneva in connection with the UN process and testified before the panel.

WHY
1) At 5:00 a.m. central time Wednesday, the Geneva-based United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will issue a much-awaited report on whether Vatican officials are complying with a treaty on children’s rights. ( It will likely be posted here: http://ccrjustice.org/ and herehttp://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx )

[SNAP]

US members of SNAP, including Chicago’s Barbara Blaine, testified before the UN panel and were in Geneva last month when Vatican officials did the same. SNAP also submitted a lengthy report

Both verbally and in writing, SNAP cited the troubling 2006 case of Chicago’s Fr. Daniel McCormack as one of many examples showing that Catholic officials still endanger kids, protect predators and hide information about known and suspected child sex crimes from police and prosecutors.

SNAP also cited a 2012 Chicago Tribune report about 32 proven, admitted or credibly accused US predator priests who have been sent or have gone overseas, sometimes to evade law enforcement.

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GENEVA
NEWS.com.au

Vatican must turn child abusers over to police, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says

THE Vatican must remove all child sexual abusers from their posts and turn them over to the police, the United Nations children’s rights watchdog has said.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes”.

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said that the Roman Catholic Church was still failing to do enough to live up to its stated commitment to stamp out child abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

It underlined its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

“The Committee 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,” it added.

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GENEVA
Voice of America

VOA News
February 05, 2014

A United Nations human rights committee has made an unprecedented demand that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy accused of child abuse and turn them over to civil authorities.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child on Wednesday called on the Holy See to acknowledge sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children and hand over its archives on the subject, adding that “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee 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,” the report said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

A UN panel has issued a report on how the Vatican handles clergy sexual abuse and cover up. The AP calls the report “devastating.” Reuters calls it “scathing.” We call it “on target.”

It’s a wakeup call, not to Catholic officials (who’ve known about and concealed abuse for decades and still do) but for secular officials, especially those in law enforcement, who can and should investigate Catholic abuses and cover ups and prosecute the church supervisors who are still protecting predators and endangering children.

For the safety of children, we hope every head of state on the planet reads this and acts on it.

The UN panel found that “child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported (by Catholic officials) to the law enforcement authorities.” And the panel rightly emphasized the need for effective prevention programs.

Of course, the quickest way to prevent child sexual violence by Catholic clerics is for Pope Francis to publicly remove all offenders from ministry and harshly punish their colleagues and supervisors who enabled their crimes. But like his predecessors, he has refused to take even tiny steps in this direction.

Bishops in developed nations will claim that they’re better than their colleagues in the developing world. That’s disingenuous. In developed nations, bishops have been forced – by brave victims, investigative journalists, determined police and skilled prosecutors – to address this crisis earlier than bishops in other nations. And instead of dealing with it honestly and compassionately, they’ve largely just learned to work harder and smarter to conceal it.

This report gives hope to the hundreds of thousands of deeply wounded and still suffering clergy sex abuse victims across the world. Now it’s up to secular officials to follow the UN’s lead and step in to safeguard the vulnerable because Catholic officials are either incapable or unwilling to do so.

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GENEVA
The News (Poland)

The United Nations has accused the Vatican of systematically allowing priests to rape thousands of children, in an unprecidented report released on Wednesday.

The report by the UN watchdog for children’s rights also demands that the Holy See “immediately removes” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers.

The report says the Vatican should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable, Reuters reports.

The damning report follows the Vatican’s refusal to extradite Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is wanted by both Domincan Republic and Poland’s police forces following accusations he sexually abused children on the carribean island.

The Vatican says it is investigating the allegations against Wesolowski, who was the Holy See’s representative in the Domican Republic. The UN report says that it fears the Vatican has not come to terms with the widespread accusations of child sex abuse by clergy.

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GENEVA
Deutsche Welle

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized the Vatican harshly in a report on Wednesday. The scathing review demanded the immediate removal of all known or suspected child abusers within the Church’s hierarchy.

It also called for the Holy See to disclose information on past abusers and those who helped them avoid prosecution.

The UN committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism.

“The committee is gravely concerned that the [Vatican] has not acknowledge the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases ofchild sexual abuse and to protect children,” the UN committee said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference, the committee’s chairperson, Kirsten Sandberg, said current policies had “led to the continuation” of abuse. She added that the Church had put the protection of perpetrators “above the children’s best interests.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP

Queensland police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid 1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says.

Retired assistant commissioner David Jefferies has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he received information a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a pedophile ring.

“This JA was certainly known as a millionaire and had, I believe, a construction business, and we certainly had received information about children actually going to his home,” Mr Jefferies said.

“We were aware that boys in state care and from some institutions had in fact been flown to Sydney.”

Mr Jefferies said he had a hazy recollection a chef was involved in the allegations, but could not speak to whether the man lived in the Sydney suburb of Paddington.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The child abuse royal commission has been told about a paedophile ring that operated in Queensland in the 1970s and that boys from the Salvation Army’s Alkira home were likely victims. A retired Queensland police officer has given evidence that a wealthy businessman was involved with three other alleged paedophiles who groomed and abused boys in the same neighbourhood as the Salvation Army’s Alkira boys home. The inquiry has also heard that that boys were flown to Sydney where they were sexually exploited by a ‘top chef’ in the city.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the Royal Commission into child abuse which has been hearing evidence about a paedophile ring that operated in Queensland in the 1970s.

A retired Queensland police officer told the commission that a wealthy businessman was involved with three other alleged paedophiles who groomed and abused boys and that the likely victims were boys from the Salvation Army homes in Indooroopilly.

The former assistant police commissioner also told the inquiry that some boys were flown to Sydney where they were sexually exploited by a person he described as a “top chef” in that city.

Emily Bourke has been monitoring the hearing and joins us now.

Emily, tell us a little more about this Queensland police witness and how he came to know about the boys who were in the Salvation Army’s care?

EMILY BOURKE: David Jefferies is a former assistant police commissioner in Queensland and in 1974/75 he was in what was known as the Juvenile Aid Bureau, which looked after young offenders and children who were in need of protection.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 05, 2014

QUEENSLAND police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid 1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says.

But while police and the state government believed a pedophile network was allegedly abusing boys in Brisbane during 1975, including at least one boy from a Salvation Army home, vulnerable children continued to be placed in the home, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

David Jefferies, a former assistant commissioner of Queensland Police, said he had investigated a number of alleged pedophiles said to be “grooming and offending against various boys”, possibly including those from the Indooroopilly home.

He said he had received information a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a pedophile ring.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014

Queensland police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid-1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says.

Retired assistant commissioner David Jefferies told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that he received information a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a paedophile ring.

“This JA was certainly known as a millionaire and had, I believe, a construction business, and we certainly had received information about children actually going to his home,” Jefferies said.

“We were aware that boys in state care and from some institutions had in fact been flown to Sydney.”

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GENEVA
Aljazeera

The UN has rejected the Vatican’s argument that it can not implement a children’s rights convention beyond its walls, saying the church has “placed the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s interests.”

The Vatican was denounced on Wednesday by a UN human rights committee for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children, and that these practices also allowed the abuse to continue once detected.

There was not, the committee said, adequate provision to ensure cases like Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour could not be repeated.

Offenders are moved around to new churches or locations, in order to protect them, while putting more children at risk of abuse, the report said while also condemning the “code of silence” imposed on child victims and the fact that those exposed almost always avoided prosecution.

“The Committee 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,” the report said.

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GENEVA
BBC News

The UN has denounced the Vatican for “systematically” adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See must “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers.

It heavily criticised the Vatican’s attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

The Vatican has set up a commission to fight child abuse in the Church.

It is expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

The committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism.

‘Offenders’ mobility’

In its report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the Holy See should open its files on members of the clergy who “concealed their crimes” so that they can be held accountable.

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GENEVA
Newstalk (Ireland)

The United Nations is criticising The Vatican for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest children. The UN Committee of the Rights of the Child is also demanding all archives be handed over so any culprits can be held to account.

The report was produced following the public questioning of Vatican officials last month.

The month-long investigation examined cases of clerics who have been “involved in the abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

The Committee has said it is “gravely concerned” that the Vatican has not acknowledged the “extent of crimes committed” regarding historical child abuse.

It said their investigation had shown the Holy See has adopted policies which has led to the continuation of abuse.

Kirsten Sandberg, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, said “It is a horrible thing that has been kept silent…the abuse has been going on and on”.

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GENEVA
Sydney Morning Herald

The Vatican must remove all child sexual abusers from their posts and turn them over to the police, the United Nations children’s rights watchdog said on Wednesday.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes”.

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said that the Roman Catholic Church was still failing to do enough to live up to its stated commitment to stamp out child abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

It underlined its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

“The Committee 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,” it added.

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GENEVA
NBC News

BY ALEXANDER SMITH

The United Nations heavily criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for what it said was a “systematic” adoption of policies allowing priests to rape and sexually abuse tens of thousands of children.

The devastating report published by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of a Child said the Vatican must “immediately remove” all known or suspected child abusers within the clergy, The Associated Press reported.

The U.N. report also denounced the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception, and abortion

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GENEVA
The Journal (Ireland)

THE UNITED NATIONS demanded today that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee 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,” the report said.

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later today.

The UN committee on the Rights of the Child said the Catholic Church had not yet taken measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour.

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GENEVA
The New York Times

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
FEB. 5, 2014

GENEVA — A United Nations panel sharply criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for putting the reputation and interests of the Holy See above the interests of children who had been sexually abused by priests, effectively allowing priests to continue abuse and escape prosecution.

In a series of hard-hitting observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child said 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.”

The panel expressed particular concern that “in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.”

The criticism came in the concluding observations of a U.N. panel that examined the Vatican’s compliance with the Convention of the Rights of the Child in a hearing last month attended by senior Vatican officials, including Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, who was the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse until 2012.

The panel noted the Holy See’s commitment to upholding the “inviolable” dignity of children but pointed out that it had moved priests well-known as child abusers to different parishes in an attempt to hide their crimes, allowing them and to remain in contact with children and to continue their abuse. In doing so, the Vatican “still places children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children,” it said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — Catholic clerics were surprised — but not shocked — to learn Monday that the diocese’s former top-ranking priest agreed to plead guilty to charges of stealing from the diocese, Catholic Medical Center and the estate of a fellow priest.

“The whole thing is tragic,” one diocesan priest said of the Rev. Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault III. The priest spoke on condition his name not be published.

“There was money taken from Catholic Medical Center and from the estate of Monsignor (John) Molan … His life is ruined,” the priest added.

The priest said he didn’t think the charges would affect other Catholic clerics in the Diocese of Manchester, which includes all of New Hampshire.

“I think most people will not think worse of their own parish priest,” he said.

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ALABAMA
WHNT

February 4, 2014, by Josh Voight

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) – Highland Park Baptist Church children’s minister Jeff Eddie has been charged with multiple sexual abuse crimes.

Eddie is charged with two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy, and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

Muscle Shoals Police Chief Robert Evans confirmed to WHNT News 19 Tuesday that Eddie has been arrested.

Eddie was picked up by Muscle Shoals Police Sunday and held for questioning until Tuesday when the charges were announced.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

VATICAN CITY February 5, 2014 (AP)
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

A U.N. human rights committee denounced the Vatican on Wednesday for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the pedophiles and the churchmen who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report, the U.N. committee also severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should review its policies to ensure children’s rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.

On sex abuse, “the committee 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,” the report said.

It called for the sex abuse commission that Pope Francis announced in December to conduct an independent investigation of all cases of priestly abuse and the way the Catholic hierarchy has responded over time, and urged the Holy See establish clear rules for the mandatory reporting of abuse to police.

The committee issued its recommendations after subjecting the Holy See to a daylong interrogation last month on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the main international treaty ensuring children’s rights. During that session, the committee’s independent experts grilled the Holy See on its protection of children, working from reports prepared by victims groups and human rights organizations.

The committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism. Rather, the U.N. asked the Vatican to implement the recommendations and report back by 2017. The Vatican was 14 years late submitting its most recent report.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

BishopAccountability.org submitted this letter and report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to assist in the CRC’s historic review of the Holy See’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In our submissions, we discuss the Holy See’s knowledge and management of cases of clergy sexual abuse worldwide, its continued refusal to require reporting to civil authorities, and Pope Francis’s problematic choice to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On January 16, 2014, in Geneva, Switzerland, Committee members closely questioned Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the UN. The Committee focused on the Holy See’s replies to the CRC’s July 2013 List of Issues.

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GENEVA
Reuters

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY
GENEVA Wed Feb 5, 2014

(Reuters) – The United Nations demanded on Wednesday that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The U.N. watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee 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,” the report said.

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

The U.N. committee on the Rights of the Child said the Catholic Church had not yet taken measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labor.

It called for an internal investigation of the laundries and similar institutions so that those who were responsible could be prosecuted and that “full compensation be paid to the victims and their families”.

A commission created by Pope Francis in December should investigate all cases of child sexual abuse “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them,” the report said.

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ALABAMA
Shoals Insider

H. Wayne Nix-Staff Writer • Tue, Feb 04, 2014
MUSCLE SHOALS, AL (WAFF) –

A Muscle Shoals children’s minister has been charged with multiple charges including sex abuse and sodomy.

Muscle Shoals Police Chief Robert Evans confirmed Tuesday night Jeffrey Dale Eddie has been charged with two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

Eddie is the children’s minister at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. The pastor of the church declined to comment about the case, but said their number one priority is protecting the children and helping them move forward.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

THE Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were money grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes for children.

Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations.

She was giving evidence at a royal commission hearing into how the Salvation Army Eastern Territory responded to allegations of child abuse at two homes in Queensland and two in NSW.

Mrs Randall and her husband were house parents at Alkira Home for Boys in Indooroopilly in Queensland from 1973 to 1975.

At the time, the young couple were shocked at what they saw – a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver in which children were brutalised.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 05, 2014

SALVATION Army officers believed child victims of sex abuse were “money-grabbing” when they started to come forward during the late 1990s to describe their treatment in boys’ homes run by the Christian organisation.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Salvation Army major Marina Randall described the reaction to such allegations among other senior officers in 1999.

“There was this feeling that was expressed more by a sigh or a look or maybe even a side word or two that these complaints couldn’t have been real and that they were just attempts at money-grabbing,” she said. The commission is investigating the widespread physical and sexual abuse of children at four Salvation Army-run institutions in Queensland and NSW between 1957 and 1975.

Ms Randall and her husband worked at one of these homes, Indooroopilly in Brisbane, during the early ’70s and did report mistreatment by some of the staff, the commission heard.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014

The Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were money-grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes for children, the royal commission into child abuse heard on Tuesday.

Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations.

She was giving evidence at a hearing into how the Salvation Army Eastern Territory responded to allegations of child abuse at two homes in Queensland and two in NSW.

Randall and her husband were house parents at Alkira Home for Boys in Indooroopilly in Queensland from 1973 to 1975.

The then young couple were shocked at what they witnessed – a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver in which children were brutalised.

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

AUSTRALIA
Goulburn Post

By LOUISE THROWER Feb. 5, 2014

A FORMER resident of the Gill Memorial Boys Home has alleged that it was not only Salvation Army officers that sexually abused residents.

Using the pseudonym, GH, a 52-year-old Canberra man told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was sexually assaulted by a boy as a seven or eight-yearold at the Home.

It allegedly happened in the locker room as both were getting changed after band practise.

“The older boy (who was tall and skinny and three or four years older than me) cornered me…in between two lockers where there was plenty of privacy,” GH said.

“All of a sudden he started hugging me and said: ‘I am not going to hurt you, just going to have cuddles.’”

“At first I did not think there was anything wrong with the hugs, but all of a sudden I did not know what was going on and I knew that what he was doing was not normal.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON
66 Brooks Drive
Braintree, Massachusetts 02184
TEL: (617) 746-5775 FAX: (617) 782-9416

Contact: Harry Pierre
617-391-9635

Archdiocese of Boston Places Rev. Joseph F. Byrne on Administrative Leave of Absence
(Braintree, Mass.) February 4, 2014 – The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Joseph F. Byrne on an administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a child. Fr. Byrne is a retired Senior Priest. The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early-1970s and was recently reported to the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint. Fr. Byrne will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Fr. Byrne on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Byrne’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

Fr. Byrne was the subject of a previous allegation made in 2012 relating to conduct alleged to have occurred in the 1970s. After a complete investigation into the initial allegations and an evaluation of those claims by the Archdiocesan Review Board, the allegations were found to be unsubstantiated and no criminal charges were filed.

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling 617-746-5985.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/04/2014

A Ramsey County judge has given the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis an extension on its deadline to disclose the names of priests accused of child sexual abuse since 2004.

District Judge John Van de North had previously set Wednesday as the deadline.

The decision was filed in the case of John Doe 1, who claims he was sexually abused by former priest Thomas Adamson in 1976 and 1977 while Adamson served at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in St. Paul Park. The plaintiff was a teenage altar boy.

As part of that case, Van de North ordered the archdiocese, as well as the Diocese of Winona, to release names of “credibly accused” priests from a 2004 study. Those were disclosed in December.

He gave the archdiocese and diocese until Wednesday to release names of priests accused after that study was done.

But the defendants have since argued that they have not had enough opportunity to argue their positions on the matter.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Aljazeera

[with video]

Laurence Lee

Sitting opposite me in a hotel room in the town where she was brought up, Katie Walmsley quietly described her childhood. Her parents were splitting up, a priest suggested to her dad that the best place for her would be a children’s home for girls. The nuns would keep her safe and well.

“I held on to my daddy’s trousers,” at the door of the big, imposing building, she said. The nuns pulled her in, and within ten minutes she was sitting with her sister in a bath mixed with jeyes fluid (a toxic industrial detergent people normally use nowadays to get congealed fat out of drains).

Head partly shaved to look like a boy. The terror in the eyes of her sister. These things have been seared into her consciousness.

Katie will give evidence to Britain’s biggest ever inquiry into systematic abuse next week. She will tell the inquiry what she told us here; that the congealed pig fat – slops, she called it – was scooped up in a tablespoon by the nun when she vomited it up and she was forced to eat it again.

That the nuns made her clean the excrement from toilet bowls with her bare hands, and pick bits off the walls with her fingernails.

That she was punished for wetting the bed in fear, and grew up believing bed wetting had led to her parents’ separation.

That she was told she didn’t deserve a doll for Christmas because she had been bad.

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

MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By John Fitzgerald

Mark Sommerhauser at the St. Cloud Daily Times attended a press conference Monday where sex-abuse victims and their lawyers said St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud aren’t doing enough to protect victims. The abbey, which shares the campus with St. John’s Preparatory School, houses 14 “credibly accused” sex-abuse offenders. “They disputed recent claims by St. Cloud Bishop Donald Kettler and St. John’s Abbott John Klassen, including their recent assertion that they’ve disclosed all known names of clergy members with credible accusations of abuse,” Sommerhauser wrote. They also said there should be public scrutiny of safety plans for alleged offenders. Peggy LaDue, the executive director of the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center, said she’d like to review the experts and sources used to develop those plans. For its part, the abbey released a statement saying it is confident it has named everyone with credible accusations of abusing minors and that its safety plans are effective.

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

AUSTRALIA
Goulburn post

By LOUISE THROWER Feb. 5, 2014

MARK Stiles was almost lost for words when asked this week the effect that years of alleged sexual abuse by Salvation Army officers had on his life.

“Where do I begin?” he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“Mistrust. Everyday not knowing whether I said or did the right things,” he said before breaking down.

“Fear, anger, I suffer severe hypertension and I’m on drugs to control that.”

In a statement to the Commission, Mr Stiles said the Salvation Army had taken away his ability to interact with the community, “stolen my foundational life skills and caused me to panic almost every day for over 40 years.”

Mr Stiles, a Canberra electronics technician was one of two former Gill Memorial Boys Home residents who gave evidence to the Commission on Wednesday. The Salvation Army operated the home on top of Auburn St from 1936 to 1980.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 4

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Tomorrow, at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time, a United Nations panel in Geneva is expected to release a formal report on whether Vatican officials are complying with a treaty on children’s rights.

It will likely be posted here:

And here: http://ccrjustice.org/ and here http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx

No matter what the panel does, this has already been a historic and helpful process for wounded victims and vulnerable kids.

We’re grateful to the panel for fulfilling their mission of making the children of the world safe from violence.

We are grateful for their calling the Vatican to give an accounting and hope this added scrutiny will deter church officials – and others in other institutions – from protecting those who commit and conceal heinous violent crimes against kids in the future.

We hope – and believe – it also will give hope to victims of child abuse all over the world and that the crimes they suffered will no longer go unnoticed. For decades victims of clergy abuse felt helpless. With the UN questioning of Vatican officials victims feel that when they find the courage to come forward that they will be heard and justice is possible.

We hope, in a tangible way, it will inspire those who have been sexually violated – in any setting – to step forward to seek justice, expose corruption and protect children.

At the same time, however, we doubt whether Catholic officials will make any real reforms. They seem fixated on internal policies and procedures that are largely public relations maneuvers. Last month in Geneva, they dodged questions by the UN panel and repeated the same tired, ridiculous claim that Vatican officials have little or no control over how this on-going crisis is dealt with across the globe.

[SNAP]

Real reform will come when more secular authorities – local, national and international – find the courage to investigate and pursue those who enable child molesting clerics to assault children and destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate victims, threaten whistleblowers, discredit witnesses and protect wrongdoers’s reputations instead of children’s safety.

To hasten this real reform, it’s crucial that those who see, suspect or suffer clergy sexual violence and cover ups continue to find the courage to speak up, expose wrongdoers, call police, protect kids and start healing.

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

ILLINOIS
Franklin Park Herald-Journal

By: Mark Lawton | mlawton@pioneerlocal.com | @reporterdude

A priest who served at St. Gertrude’s Church in the 1960s was accused multiple times of sexually abusing minors.

According to documents recently released by the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Rev. Raymond Francis Skriba was repeatedly accused of molesting minors, including at least two at St. Gertrude’s of Franklin Park.

Those documents — 208 pages worth just concerning Skriba — were released to the law firm of Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, who represented more than 50 people against the archdiocese. They may be viewed at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Skriba was ordained in 1957 and assigned as assistant pastor at Queen of the Universe on the South Side of Chicago for five years before being transferred to St. Gertrude’s on July 7, 1962.

According to a 2002 report from the Professional Responsibility Review Board for the Chicago Archdiocese, two women had told the archdiocese that they had been sexually abused by Skriba at St Gertrude’s while kids.

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

INDIA
Daily Mail (UK)

The chief priest of one of the holiest Hindu temples, Badrinath shrine, was arrested for molesting and wrongfully confining a 28-year-old pregnant woman inside a hotel at Chhatarpur area, the Delhi Police said on Tuesday.

Besides the Mukhya Rawal (chief priest), his cousin has also been held for his role in the incident.

According to the police, Keshawan Namboodiri, 38, and his cousin Vishnu Prakash, 33, are natives of Kerala.

Namboodiri is believed to have been associated with the temple for the past several years.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 4

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

Fr. Joseph Byrne, a Boston area priest, has been suspended. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Fr. Byrne has been removed. Now is not the time for complacency.

Byrne was removed in 2012 after claims of sexual abuse came forward. He was only reinstated in May of last year, apparently after a review board found allegations against him unsubstantiated. His removal again is a perfect example of why the Catholic Church – or any other institution- cannot be responsible for policing itself. Fr. Byrne was also put on probation for theft in 2005.

[CBS Boston]

It’s time the church stop protecting criminals and reputations and start protecting victims.

We hope Fr. Byrne’s suspension will give courage to victims to come forward and report abuse, to secular authorities.

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MARYLAND/NEW HAMPSHIRE
Washington Post

(Update) Priest who headed clergy addiction center is going to jail for fraud

By David Gibson | Religion News Service, Updated: Tuesday, February 4

A priest who headed a leading treatment center for clergy with sexual and addiction problems has agreed to plead guilty to charges of stealing money from his home diocese in New Hampshire and from a Catholic hospital and the estate of a deceased priest.

Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault, who resigned as head of the St. Luke Institute outside Washington, D.C., when the charges were revealed last year, will spend at least four years in a New Hampshire prison under a plea deal with prosecutors announced on Monday (Feb. 3).

For a decade, Arsenault held a number of senior positions in the Diocese of Manchester and was a top aide to former Bishop John McCormack, who came under intense criticism for his role in the clergy sexual abuse scandals.

In 2009, Arsenault took a $170,000-a-year position as CEO of St. Luke’s, a rehab center in Silver Spring, Md., that became known for treating priests who had sexually abused children. The center deals primarily with priests, nuns and brothers who have a range of other issues, such as depression, anxiety and addictive behaviors. St. Luke’s conducted an internal investigation and found no evidence of fraud while Arsenault was there.

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Feb. 4, 2014

VATICAN CITY
Reports from bishops’ conferences in Germany and Switzerland show a clear divergence between what the church teaches on marriage, sexuality and family life and what Catholics — even those active in parish life — personally believe.

The differences are seen “above all when it comes to pre-marital cohabitation, (the status of the) divorced and remarried, birth control and homosexuality,” said the German bishops’ report, posted Tuesday on their conference website in German, Italian and English. (Read the German bishops’ report here.)

The text is a summary of the official responses from all of Germany’s 27 dioceses and about 20 German Catholic organizations and institutions to a Vatican questionnaire published in preparation for October’s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family.

The Swiss bishops’ conference published an initial report Wednesday based on 25,000 responses, similar in most cases to those received by the German bishops.

“Most of the baptized have an image of the church that, on the one hand, is family friendly in its attitude, whilst at the same time considering her sexual morality to be unrealistic,” the German survey found.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

Priest placed on leave after allegation surfaces of child sex abuse in the 1970s

By Martin Finucane / Globe Staff / February 4, 2014

The archdiocese of Boston says it’s placing a priest on an administrative leave of absence after receiving an allegation of child sexual abuse.

The conduct by the Rev. Joseph F. Byrne, a retired senior priest, allegedly occurred in the early 1970s. It was only recently reported to the archdiocese, church officials said in a statement.

The archdiocese says it immediately notified law enforcement officials of the allegation. It has also initiated its own preliminary investigation.

Byrne was also the subject of another allegation in 2012, the archdiocese said. That conduct also allegedly occurred in the 1970s, the statement said. That allegation was found to be “unsubstantiated,” the statement said.

Byrne will not be allowed to minister to the public, pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation into the new allegation, the archdiocese said.

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

INDIA
The Hindu

The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee on Tuesday suspended Keshava Namboodiri from the post of ‘rawal’ (chief priest) of the Badrinath shrine after he was held in Delhi on the charge of molesting a woman.

Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee president Ganesh Godiyal said, “the committee has suspended Keshava Namboodiri from the post of chief priest.”

Keshava Namboodiri, from Kerala, was appointed ‘rawal’ in 2009.

“The responsibility now lies on Keshava Namboodiri to prove himself innocent. He will be reinstated if the court declares him innocent. However, he will be removed from the post only if the charges are proved,” Mr. Godiyal said.

V.C. Ishwara Prasad Namboodiri, the Naib-Rawal (deputy chief priest), would be given the responsibilities of the ‘rawal’ till then, he said.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
February 4, 2014

It was interesting reading to see the Minneapolis Tribune and MPR’s coverage of the hearing that took place a week ago Friday concerning additional names to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Archdiocese of Winona lists As the Tribune reported:

The judge rejected an archdiocese proposal to first allow the church 30 days to investigate an abuse claim. The archdiocese is not a neutral party for evaluating whether a claim is true or false, Van de North said, noting that it has failed to report cases of abuse in the past.

Likewise, the archdiocese’s criteria for evaluating sexual misconduct can be “fuzzy,” he said. The archdiocese, for example, said it suspended two priests for “boundary issues” — Rev. Joseph Gallatin of the Church of St. Peter in Mendota and Rev. Mark Wehmann of St. Boniface Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

“One person’s boundary violation is another person’s sexual abuse,” said Van de North.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WMUR

[with video]

By Adam Sexton, News Reporter

CONCORD, N.H. —The former leader of one of the nation’s top clergy treatment centers plans to plead guilty in New Hampshire to stealing at least $4,500 from a hospital, a deceased priest’s estate and the state’s Roman Catholic bishop, prosecutors said Monday.

Msgr. Edward Arsenault held several senior positions in New Hampshire from 1999 to 2009 before becoming president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Maryland. He resigned from that job in May when New Hampshire authorities said they were investigating allegations involving an inappropriate adult relationship and misuse of church funds.

The Attorney General’s Office said Monday that Arsenault had waived indictment and will plead guilty to three felony theft charges involving the bishop, the estate of a Manchester priest who died in 2010, and Manchester’s Catholic Medical Center, where Arsenault had done consulting work. Each theft exceeded $1,500.

The plea agreement calls for Arsenault to be sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 4-10 years in prison, with two years suspended from each because of his extensive cooperation. It will be considered by a judge at an April 23 hearing.

Arsenault’s lawyer, Cathy Green, declined to comment. Officials with the diocese and the hospital also declined to comment on the details of the allegations, and prosecutors provided little information other than saying each theft exceeded $1,500 and providing a timeframe for the thefts.

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

INDIA
Hindustan Times

The head priest of the Badrinath temple, one of the holiest Hindu shrines, was arrested on Monday for allegedly molesting a 28-year-old pregnant woman under the influence of alcohol in a south-Delhi hotel.

The 38-year-old priest, designated ‘Rawal’ Keshawan Namboodiri, and his cousin Vishnu Prakash were arrested for ‘wrongful confinement and outraging the modesty of a woman’ and were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Namboodiri has also been suspended by the shrine’s administration.

“The incident was reported from Mehrauli’s Delight hotel around 4:30 pm on Monday, shortly after Namboodiri invited the woman to the hotel for a ceremony,” said a senior police officer. The woman is believed to have known the priest through her father.

The woman initially declined Namboodiri’s offer to meet but relented when he sent his private vehicle to pick her up from her residence. She was then invited to the priest’s room, which had alcohol bottles and cigarette stubs strewn about, she claimed.

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UNITED STATES
A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

There was been great discussion in Rome, going back over a year, on the 300 page dossier on the antics of the local “gay lobby,” or “homosexual mafia,” in the priesthood there. It is felt by many that this dossier played a decisive role in Pope Benedict’s decision to abdicate.

Of course, this was a great scandal – as was Fr. Dariusz Oka’s unprecedented public analysis of the homosexual network among the Polish clergy. All this seems new to someone like me, who started getting really involved in the Faith about 8 or so years ago. But these kinds of revelations have been going on longer than that, going back over a decade, at least to the original outbreak of the “priest abuse crisis” that rocked the Church in this country in the early 2000s. There is a disturbing amount of data out there. Suffice it to say, sodomite penetration of the priesthood is a near-worldwide phenomenon.

In this vein, I have started reading Likoudis’ Amchurch Comes Out, and it makes for startling, frightening reading. This book was published in 2002, when the “sex abuse crisis” was at its height. But it seems, to me at least, that much of the data contained within has been lost in the creep of time. Before I excerpt a couple bits, here are some bullet points to always keep in mind:

1. Over 1000 priests were found guilty of abusing children, the vast majority of them pubescent boys
2. This scandal has affected every. single. diocese.
3. Homosexual priests staff – or staffed, at least well into the 2000s – some of the most sensitive, influential posts at the USCCB and in some of the most powerful archdioceses. That put their influence far out of proportion to their numbers.
4. Rational people do not upend a Church, or wage a war of oppression, over points of liturgical detail or ecumenical procedure. They wage such wars in order to squash institutional objections to certain kinds of behavior, especially sexual behavior.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014

For more information: Joelle Casteix 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com,
David Clohessy 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Accused pedophile priest has passed away
Cleric unsuccessfully sued a victim for slander
She received more than $1 million in settlement
Yet Catholic officials still kept him in a parish for years

A Napa Catholic priest who was accused of sexually assaulting a child, Msgr. Joseph Alzugaray, has passed away. A church lay panel recommended he be suspended and his victim received a $1+ million settlement, but Santa Rosa Catholic officials still kept him in parish ministry for years.

[Press Democrat]

[Treadway & Wigger]

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Santa Rosa’s Catholic Bishop Robert F. Vasa to “aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Msgr. Alzugaray’s crimes.”

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believe that others may have been molested by Msgr. Alzugaray but “may still be suffering in silence, intimidated by Msgr. Alzugaray’s mean-spirited defamation lawsuit and Bishop Walsh’s complicity and callousness.”

“We are relieved that Msgr. Alzugaray can never hurt another child, but for Santa Rosa’s bishop to do nothing now is irresponsible,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “Catholic officials in Los Angeles found one of his victims credible. One Catholic official in Santa Rosa did not. Justice demands a re-examination of this troubling case.”

“It’ll be tempting and easy for Bishop Vasa to duck and dodge and ‘pass the buck’ here,” said Joelle Casteix, SNAP’s western regional director. “But that’s wrong. Santa Rosa Catholics and citizens deserve to know more about how the Msgr. Alzugaray case was handled by diocesan officials.”

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