ABUSE TRACKER

VATIKAN
Religion@orf

Das UNO-Kinderrechtskomitee (UNCRC) will am 16. Jänner den Schutz von Minderjährigen durch den Vatikan untersuchen. Dabei gehe es auch um Kinderpornografie, teilte das UNO-Menschenrechtsbüro mit.

Ergebnisse des Gremiums von 18 unabhängigen Experten werde man am 5. Februar vorstellen, hieß es am Dienstag aus Genf. Es handelt sich um eine turnusmäßige Prüfung, der sich alle 193 Unterzeichnerstaaten der UNO-Kinderrechtskonvention zu unterziehen haben, jedoch ist es der erste derartige Check für den Vatikan. Bei der Sitzung des Komitees vom 13. bis 31. Jänner wird auch die Lage für Kinder in der Republik Kongo, dem Jemen, Portugal, Russland und Deutschland erörtert.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

[with video]

Ben Bradley

January 7, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The Archdiocese of Chicago is preparing a PR war of sorts, trying to get its story out before another round of unflattering information emerges about the handling of priest sex abuse allegations. The cases are not new, but the details are– and they’re expected to reopen old wounds of a church crisis that is yet to pass.

In a letter to be included in church bulletins this weekend, Francis Cardinal George writes: “Publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level. It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”

Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson is one of the attorneys that reached a settlement with the Archdiocese requiring the church to turn over the information. He says it includes internal church documents on 30 accused priests, detailing the claims of dozens of victims, and also church communications detailing transfers of suspected priests.

“What they really do is reveal a systemic pattern of choices being made by top officials to protect reputations, the image of the Archdiocese and to choose to protect offenders at the peril of many children,” said Anderson.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

CAMPAIGNERS have handed over a 1300-name petition to the acting Bishop of Motherwell calling for the return of their suspended parish priest.

Father Matthew Despard has been suspended since November last year, when Bishop Joseph Toal, Acting Bishop of Motherwell, removed him after he published a book alleging a culture of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Larry Celona, Jamie Schram and Aaron ShortJanuary 5, 2014

The millionaire Hasidic slumlord found burned and suffocated in a Nassau County dumpster — his body still smoldering from the waist down — had so many enemies that investigators say they almost don’t know where to start looking.

“Any number of people wanted to kill this guy,” one law-enforcement source said of Menachem “Max” Stark, 39, describing the father of eight as embroiled in several “shady” real-estate transactions and being up to his tuchus in debt. …

“He was involved in shady business deals, was known to carry around a lot of money and had a sealed arrest for forcible touching” in his past, one law-enforcement source told The Post.

The alleged victim was a young teen girl, said the source, declining to give further details.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Bolton News

Exclusive By Joanne Rowe, Reporter

A CHOIRMASTER has been jailed after admitting abusing young children in the vestry at a Farnworth church.

Peter Williams was in charge of two choirs and was organist at St James’ CE Church, Farnworth, in the 1970s, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Rachel White, prosecuting, told how he preyed on an 11-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy, using his position of trust in the church to sexually assault them.

Judge Timothy Clayson sentenced 60-year-old Williams to 28 months in prison adding that, had he committed his crimes more recently than the 1970s, he would have been facing a much longer sentenc

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WEST VIRGINIA
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
January 7, 2014

A West Virginia pastor pleaded guilty on Jan. 6 to sexually abusing a 14-year-old, female family member.

Johnnie Winnell, 60, who formerly pastored United Gospel Mission in Elkview, W.Va., was arrested in April last year and charged with three counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian, reported The WV Gazette.

Winnell admitted to investigators last year that there were three separate occurrences when he molested the girl while she slept in his home.

According to The Charleston Daily Mail, Winnell told investigators he touched the victim “once under her clothes while she was lying on the couch with him” when he believed she was asleep. The second time, “he took her hand and ‘swiped it across his crotch’ over his clothes.” In the last act, Winnell said that the victim had been sleeping in bed with him and his wife when he “touched her over her clothes.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter January 7, 2014

Details of sexual abuse by priests, along with information about church officials who may have covered up the abuse, will be turned over next week to attorneys suing the Archdiocese of Chicago and will be made public shortly afterward.

Cardinal Francis George announced the move in a letter to priests that will be printed in church bulletins this Sunday.

The church files, sought for nearly seven years by plaintiffs’ attorneys, will be handed over Jan. 15 under terms of a court settlement. But they will not become public for at least another week in order to remove victims’ information, according to Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney involved in the suit.

Anderson, who has reviewed the documents, said they contain “not just the histories of the offenders but those who made the choice to protect them . . . top officials current and past.” The files contain information on cases involving 30 priests, most of them already named on an archdiocese website listing priests with substantiated allegations against them.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

[with video]

Jay Levine

CHICAGO (CBS) — A letter from Francis Cardinal George on sex abuse cases by Chicago area priests will appear in church bulletins throughout the Archdiocese on Sunday.

The letter contains an apology and a plea from Francis Cardinal George to Chicago area parishioners as attorneys prepare to release documents detailing sexual abuse by 30 priests.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine has obtained the letter to be read at mass this week.

The names of nearly all 30 priests guilty of sexual misconduct have been listed on the Archdiocese website for years. Just three of them, who’d died before allegations against them surfaced, are new, as is the Cardinal’s most complete explanation yet, a personal defense of the one which occurred on his watch.

It’s the case of Daniel McCormack, now defrocked and in state custody for molesting young parishioners on the West Side. McCormack was allowed to return to his parish after being arrested in 2005 because, the Cardinal writes, “various offices involved did not consistently share what they knew with each other or with me.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 01/07/2014

When the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said late last month that it had placed two priests on leave because of inappropriate conduct with minors, they said the conduct was not sexual abuse.

Instead, it labeled the actions “boundary violations,” and did not elaborate.

Rev. Mark Wehmann of St. Boniface Catholic Church in Minneapolis had several incidents, some of which were reported to law enforcement, the archdiocese said in its Dec. 29 statement. Rev. Joseph Gallatin of the Church of St. Peter in Mendota was also placed on leave.

One incident reported to law enforcement involving Wehmann was a 2006 Anoka County case, the Pioneer Press has learned. The sheriff’s office investigated after the children’s parents reported it to Epiphany Catholic School in Coon Rapids. Law enforcement declined to seek charges, and the case was closed.

What happened was this, according to the sheriff’s report:

Wehmann, who did not serve at the Coon Rapids parish, became friends with a family who had two children under age 10. On a couple of occasions, while visiting their home, he gave them what he called “root beer barrel kisses,” in which two people place their cheeks together and stick their tongues toward the cheeks, the children’s father told Detective Bryon Fuerst.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2014

A year after a spiritual adviser in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community was convicted of sex abuse at trial, the young woman he molested is taking him to court again.

The teenage victim of Nechemya Weberman is suing her imprisoned former tormentor for emotional distress. Her civil suit, filed last month in Brooklyn Supreme Court, requests unspecified damages, and also names as a defendant the United Talmudic Academy, the yeshiva in Williamsburg where educators referred her to Weberman for violations of personal conduct standards.

During Weberman’s headline-making criminal trial in 2012, the victim testified for four days about how the spiritual adviser forced himself on her and made her reenact porn-movie scenes during disturbing counseling sessions that began when she was just 12 years-old. The abuse spanned a period of about three years between 2007 and 2010.

The victim, who is now 19 and enrolled in college, “will continue to suffer depression, anxiety, emotional distress, anguish and ridicule, embarrassment, humiliation and degradation,” according to papers filed in connection with her civil suit.

The Daily News could not reach the victim for comment, and is withholding her name due to the nature of the abuse she suffered.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Posted By State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, Community Contributor
4:00 p.m. CST, January 7, 2014

Legislation supported by state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, allowing prosecutors to bring charges against suspected sex offenders at any time by removing statutes of limitation, took effect at the beginning of the year.

“Sex abuse is one of the most horrific crimes that can be committed against a child, and our laws need to be strong enough to give victims the ability and the time to fight back,” Kifowit said. “Just as the effects of sexual abuse continue past a victim’s 18th birthday, so should the ability of our justice system to prosecute abusers.”

House Bill 1063 removes the statute of limitations for aggravated or predatory sexual offenses or criminal sexual abuse, in cases where the victim was under 18 at the time of the offense. Prosecutors will now be able to file charges anytime if there is corroborating physical evidence of the crime, or in cases where an individual who is required to report the sex offence at issue failed to do so. Previously, most sexual offenses had to be prosecuted within three years of the victim turning 18 years old.

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CANADA
CBC News

New documents released to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) may shed some light on the number of children in British Columbia who died in residential schools.

The TRC was recently given over 4,000 documents, including death certificates for aboriginal children aged four to 19 who died between 1917-56 in British Columbia. It is unclear how many of them were residential school students.

The commission previously reported that at least 4,100 children died in 130 schools across the country, but that number could grow as more federal and provincial documents are analyzed.

“What we need to do is we need to take those names and cross reference them to the list of students who were in the various residential schools during that period of time to see if we can start matching names,” said TRC chair Justice Murray Sinclair.

Sonny McHalsie is a researcher for the Sto:lo First Nation near Chilliwack. He hopes the list of names supplied by B.C.’s coroner and vital statistics department may eventually identify some of the children in unmarked graves located close to Coqualeetza residential school.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jan. 7, 2014 NCR Today

I am preparing a longer response to reactions I have received since NCR suspended the commenting feature of our website yesterday. I have a newspaper to get to the printer before I can do that, so for now, let me offer this for your reflection. It addresses well the quandary we face.

First, let me correct two things that some people are misreporting:

1) We have suspended the comments, not closed them down completely. I wrote yesterday: “NCR editors will explore options that will allow commenting to return in a way that respects our writers, the subjects of our stories, and our readers.” Yes, I did write the suspension is “indefinite,” because we don’t know how long the evaluation will take.

2) We are not reacting to “irreverent comments.” The words I used to describe the comments were “malicious,” “abusive” and “vile.” An NCR contributor called me and asked me to read some of the comments over the phone to him, and I declined. That’s how vile they were.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jan. 7, 2014 NCR Today

The Boston Globe, which is exploring the launch of a free-standing publication devoted to Catholicism, has announced that John L. Allen Jr., a reporter with NCR since 1997, will be joining the newspaper as an associate editor.

John’s new job begins Feb. 1. Until then, he’ll keep reporting for NCR, including coverage from Rome later this month.

We will miss John and the contributions he has made to NCR over the years. You know John as a journalist or a speaker, but we also know John as a colleague and a friend. While we regret that he will no longer be reporting for NCR, we also recognize on a professional level that this is an important career move for him.

We wish him well in his new challenges.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

[Thanks to those who read my rave yesterday about why I want to appear before the Royal Commission, and also to those who are contacting the commission on my behalf. I hope I have not caused readers pain – but this is a turning point for me and I had to make a clear statement about why I should appear at the hearings. I will resume normal postings from tomorrow and not dwell on my own case any longer. As the e-mail exchanges from today indicate, the ball is firmly in the commission’s court. I will respond in my own way at the appropriate time and need not bother the reader with further details.]

This is the email I received from the commission (Fran):

Tuesday 8:27 AM – Attention:Mr Blayse

Lewis, thank you for your email. I understand your concern. I am currently in Brisbane for work commitments. I have forwarded your email to my Director for immediate attention. I hope to have a response before close of business this afternoon.

Once I have that response I will notify you.

Kind Regards Fran Ralph

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MINNESOTA
Pine and Lakes

By Kate Perkins
Staff Writer

On Dec. 31, the Diocese of Duluth released a list of clergy whom were credibly accused of sexual abuse of young persons while serving or residing in the Duluth Diocese. A former lakes area priest is on that list.

The Rev. Kirby Blanchard, who is deceased, served at three lakes area churches from 1969-1971. The Diocese of Duluth news release states that he served as pastor at St. Christopher’s Church in Nisswa, St. Alice Church in Pequot Lakes and Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Pine River, from Feb. 27, 1969, to March 17, 1971.

The list also states that Blanchard was chaplain at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Brainerd from Sept. 1, 1976, to Dec. 5, 1993. He was removed from ministry on Dec. 27, 1995, and died Aug. 11, 2006. He served in numerous other cities as well, including Duluth, Garrison, Deerwood, Cohasset and Deer River. His career with the church spanned from 1953 to 1993.

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ROMA
Milenio (Mexico)

ROBERTA GARZA
07/01/14

A partir de mañana, bajo la conducción del ornamental Velasio de Paolis, se llevará a cabo el largamente esperado capítulo general extraordinario de la Legión de Cristo. Allí deberán redactarse las nuevas constituciones y darse la elección del futuro director general, puesto vacante desde que a Álvaro Corcuera, sucesor de Maciel desde su retiro forzado a inicios del 2005, le fuera diagnosticado un tumor cerebral hace cerca de un año.

No puede esperarse demasiado. La mayoría de los 65 delegados legionarios son quienes siempre le fueron fieles a Maciel, a pesar de conocer sus trapacerías. La precisión no es especulativa: en la deposición del juicio que los herederos de Gabrielle Mee tienen en Connecticut contra la Legión por haber copado los últimos años —y con ellos la herencia— de la señora, bajo juramento, altos directivos de la orden afirmaron saber de la “doble vida” del fundador desde el 2006 —aunque desde 2005 el Vaticano lo investigara abiertamente; por algo se relevó entonces al antes inamovible director y fundador—, sin mencionar las décadas anteriores cuando ya se hablaba de los muchos dolores físicos que el pobrecito santo debía paliar con morfina, de sus desapariciones recurrentes que se explicaban con misiones místicas y remotas para salvar almas y de las infames llamadas a la enfermería. Maciel murió a principios de 2008, pero no fue hasta tres o cuatro años después cuando fue reconocido su pecado por la Legión, que hasta entonces siguió ordenándole a sus seguidores estudiar sus textos con fervor, rezarle al fundador como si fuera santo y llamarlo “nuestro padre”. Dicho de otra manera, la mayoría de quienes decidirán a partir de mañana el futuro de la orden lo sabían todo, cuando menos desde 2006, y cada uno de ellos decidió seguir mintiendo.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
El Nuevo Herald

BY POR NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO — La orden religiosa Legión de Cristo elige nueva conducción por primera vez desde que su fundador fue revelado como un pedófilo y un fraude. El proceso que comenzará el miércoles pondrá oficialmente fin al movimiento de rehabilitación iniciado hace tres años por el Vaticano, una reforma que la Legión considera un éxito y sus detractores una patraña.

La Legión fue considerada otrora como un modelo por el Vaticano, que desvió la mirada ante las tropelías del reverendo Marciel Maciel mientras la orden fue una de las congregaciones de más rápido crecimiento en la Iglesia católica y atrajo millones en donaciones. Tras tres años de reformas impuestas por el Vaticano, sigue habiendo interrogantes sobre cómo puede existir la Legión cuando su fundador era un fraude y su misión fundamental sigue siendo incierta.

La Legión espera que tras el encuentro de un mes, el papa Francisco apruebe una nueva constitución que explique la misión, jerarquía y normas de la orden y permita a la Legión continuar sin más supervisión vaticana. Los supriores de la Legión y 42 sacerdotes elegidos como representantes —incluyendo muchos allegados a Maciel— terminarán de elaborar la constitución y elegirán entonces una nueva conducción.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
El Golfo

Ciudad del Vaticano.- Primero, una de las más altas autoridades de la Legión de Cristo renunció abruptamente a la orden debido a la lentitud con que se procesan los cambios. Después, los sacerdotes facultaron a los protegidos y socios del fundador caído en desgracia, Marcial Maciel, para que eligieran el nuevo líder.

Durante el mes pasado hubo varios retrocesos en el proceso de la legión para reformarse mediante la elección de un nuevo dirigente, con lo que terminará la supervisión del Vaticano que duró tres años. Pero aunque la Legión quiere mostrar una nueva cara, sus más altos directivos siguen hablando con nostalgia y veneración de Maciel, quien violó a varios seminaristas, tenía tres hijos y fue definido como alguien “carente de escrúpulos y auténtica vocación religiosa” por los investigadores designados por el Vaticano para indagar los abusos de los que se le acusaba.

Eso significa que se reducen las posibilidades de éxito para una reforma drástica de la Legión como lo desea el Vaticano y plantean el interrogante de qué hará el pontífice con la otrora poderosa y acaudalada congregación una vez que termine el mandato del enviado papal.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Elizabeth Baier · Rochester, Minn. · Jan 6, 2014

Lawyers for a victim of clergy sexual abuse have asked Brown County Court Judge Robert Docherty to order the Diocese of New Ulm to release a list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents victims of clergy sexual abuse, said he is alarmed that the New Ulm diocese has not released its list.

“It begs the question ‘Why do they continue to adhere to this secret list and not choose to voluntary release it so the community can know and the children can be protected?'” Anderson said.

A lawsuit Anderson filed last month seeks the release of a list of 12 priests in the diocese. The suit alleges the New Ulm diocese and the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order, neglected to supervise the Rev. Francis Markey, who worked in the diocese in the mid-1980s. The plaintiff alleged that Markey sexually abused him at St. Andrew parish in Granite Falls, Minn., in 1982, when he was 8 years old.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

[Doe 18_Opposition to the Diocese of New Ulm’s Motion to Dismiss via Jeff Anderson & Associates].
[Doe 6 and 7_Opposition to the Diocese of New Ulm’s Motion to Dismiss]

By Brian Lambert

The New Ulm Diocese can’t quite get its head around why it should release a list of problem priests. Elizabeth Baier of MPR reports: “During a hearing on Monday, officials from the Diocese of New Ulm told the judge that the list should remain secret. They moved to dismiss a nuisance claim that demands the diocese disclose the names. In a statement, diocese officials said two of the people named on the list believe the sexual abuse allegations made against them are false and their names should therefore not be made public.” And how would that play in your average criminal proceeding?

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TEXAS
Southeast Texas Record

January 7, 2014
By MARILYN TENNISSEN

The Catholic Diocese of Beaumont recently settled a civil suit alleging a priest abused young boys for 30 years.

The suit was filed April 12, 2012, against the diocese and Bishop Curtis Guillory. It alleges the Rev. Ronald Bollich abused six boys in at least three parishes over three decades. Diocese of beaumont crest

Guillory and the diocese were accused of negligence for keeping Bollich on staff when it “knew or should have known he had a propensity to molest boys,” the suit states.

The details of the settlement, reached Dec. 11, are not disclosed.

Bollich was a priest from 1964 until his death in April 1996. He worked parishes in Jefferson County, Orange County and Nacogdoches County, according to the final petition in the case, filed Nov. 15, 2013. His duties took him to churches in Beaumont, Bridge City, Port Arthur, Groves, Silsbee, Buna, Moral, Nacogdoches and Chireno, the petition reads.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014

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

It’s distasteful to see Chicago’s top Catholic official plays the “blame game” about a serial pedophile priest, Fr. Daniel McCormack, who severely hurt perhaps dozens of innocent childrenbut would have been stopped much sooner if only Cardinal Francis George and his staff hadn’t covered up.

[NBC Chicago]

First, George blames his deceased predecessor.

Then he blames nameless “people” who might have “been more wary.”

Then, he blames his own priests (for electing McCormack to a position).

Then, he blames nameless “offices” involved the investigation of this serial pedophile priests that allegedly “did not consistently share what they knew with each other or with me.”

Then, instead of stepping up and taking responsibility, he conveniently uses the vague third person to say “The response, in retrospect, was not always adequate.”

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

Legion of Christ begins Extraordinary General Chapter tomorrow, January 8, 2014

Rome, Italy — Culminating a three-year renewal process, the General Chapter for the Legion of Christ begins tomorrow, January 8, 2014.

The opening Mass of the Extraordinary General Chapter will take place at 6:30 p.m., (Roman time) Wednesday, January 8, 2014, in the Center for Higher Studies of the Legionaries of Christ. The concelebrated Mass will be presided over by Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, C.S., Pontifical Delegate for the Legion of Christ, who will deliver the homily.

The text of the homily and photos will be available for viewing on the new General Chapter’s website: http://capitulogeneral.legionariosdecristo.org/index.php/en/.

Regnum Christi members are asked to go to the special segment on the website to join the Legion in prayer for the success of the General Assembly: http://capitulogeneral.legionariosdecristo.org/index.php/en/home/pray-with-us

The website will also offer links to the following:

Day by day developments: http://capitulogeneral.legionariosdecristo.org/index.php/en/day-by-day

A section with all the latest press releases: http://capitulogeneral.legionariosdecristo.org/index.php/en/news/press-releases
Photos, videos and other multimedia content: http://capitulogeneral.legionariosdecristo.org/index.php/en/home/media

All official messages and decrees, and documents from the Papal Delegate and the General Director about the Chapter: http://capitulogeneral.legionariosdecristo.org/index.php/en/info

The extraordinary General Chapter is an important milestone in the revision of the order’s constitutions and of the congregation’s life, a journey begun more than 3 years ago under the guidance of Pope Benedict XVI, who entrusted Cardinal Velasio with the task of governing the Legion and the Regnum Christi Movement in his name (appointment letter).

The General Chapter will have its first formal meeting the morning of January 9 at the Legion’s General Directorate. Only the Presidency of the Chapter (the Pontifical Delegate and two of his personal councilors) and the Chapter fathers will participate in the sessions of the Chapter. Representatives of the consecrated men, consecrated women and lay members of Regnum Christi have been also invited to participate.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 7, 2014

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

As the embattled and controversial Legion of Christ picks new leaders, some question whether it’s reforming or not. It’s a dreadfully premature and naive question.

[ABC News]

Until the Legion takes clear, proven steps that protect kids and “out” wrongdoers, this question shouldn’t even be asked.

Some of the Legion’s trouble stems from questionable finances and its cult-like atmosphere. But most of it stems from clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

And very specific “reform” steps can be taken in clergy sex cases – measurable moves that actually safeguard kids by exposing those who commit and conceal sexual violence against kids.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

By Mary Ann Ahern | Tuesday, Jan 7, 2014

Next week the Chicago Archdiocese will release the names and details of 30 priests involved in sexual misconduct, and the information will grace the bulletins for thousands of Catholics this weekend.The disclosures are part of a settlement agreement ongoing for years.

Cardinal Francis George has written a letter to all priests under his supervision, and requested that his letter be published in this Sunday’s parish bulletins, hoping to get in front of what he explains will be the “the actual records of these crimes.”

“It will be helpful, we pray, for some,” George said. “But painful for many.”

The Cardinal’s letter is titled “Accountability and Transparency”. In it, he makes clear that so far as can be known there is no priest in public ministry known to have sexually abused a child.

But, the case that poses the most difficulty for Cardinal George is former priest Daniel McCormack.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

By MARY E. HUNT

Will Pope Francis be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated engaging in “spiritual exercises” in next month’s issue?

Given the spate of media attention he has received in the U.S. market, I will not be surprised by anything. Just to head off distractions, let me stipulate that I do have a heart, and approve of the personal direction of this pope: a simple lifestyle, a commitment to the poor, a soft touch with those who are young or ill, all indicate a fine human being, indeed what Christianity would hold up as a model.

I note only that his predecessor popes and some of their episcopal sycophants gave the job such a bad name that the bar is low. Undoing their structures and policies, especially regarding criminal sexual scandals and Vatican finances, will take longer than these first nine months of the Francis papacy.

The phenomenon of a pope becoming a pop culture icon is fascinating, troubling, and not a little confusing. Here are a few of the puzzles I’m struggling with as I try to make sense of the current Catholic religious scene.

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SCOTLAND
Motherwell Times

by Mike McQuaid
motherwell.times@jnscotland.co.uk
Published on the 07 January

A petition backing a priest who has been suspended from his duties was handed to the office of the Bishop of Motherwell today.

Supporters of Fr Matthew Despard, who is from Motherwell, have gathered around 1,300 signatures and are demanding he be allowed back into the pulpit.

Fr Despard angered fellow priests and the church authorities last year when he published a book alleging a culture of sexual misconduct within the priesthood.

The book prompted threats of legal action from priests who claimed they had been defamed.

In November Bishop Joseph Toal, acting Bishop of Motherwell Diocese, suspended Fr Despard from his post as parish priest at St John Ogilvie in Blantyre pending an investigatio

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 7, 2014

WASHINGTON A popular U.S. Catholic priest and author known for his peace writings and some 75 arrests for civil disobedience actions across the country has been dismissed from the international Jesuit religious order, which says he was “obstinately disobedient” to its directives.
Removal of Fr. John Dear caps 32 years in the order for the priest, who has been known for protesting a wide range of issues, including U.S. policies on Latin America, nuclear weapons development, and the cooperation of Jesuit educational institutions with American military recruiting programs such as the ROTC.

The dismissal also raises the specter of Pope Francis, the first head of the Catholic church to belong to the Jesuit order, having to confirm the dismissal of one of the order’s members.

Dear, a longtime NCR columnist, writes about the dismissal in his weekly column, posted Tuesday. He writes that he is leaving “with a heavy heart … because the Society of Jesus in the U.S. has changed so much since I entered in 1982 and because my Jesuit superiors have tried so hard over the decades to stop my work for peace.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News

VATICAN CITY January 7, 2014 (AP)

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

The troubled Legion of Christ religious order is electing new leadership for the first time since its founder was revealed to have been a pedophile and a fraud. The process starting Wednesday will formally end the Vatican’s three-year rehabilitation of the movement, a reform the Legion is touting as a success and critics have dismissed as a sham.

The Legion was once held up as a model by the Vatican, which turned a blind eye to the Rev. Marciel Maciel’s misdeeds as the order became one of the fastest-growing congregations in the Catholic Church and brought in millions in donations. After three years of Vatican-imposed reform though, questions still remain as to how the Legion can exist when its founder was a fraud and its core mission remains unclear.

The Legion’s hope is that following the monthlong meeting, Pope Francis will approve a new constitution that explains the order’s mission, hierarchy and rules and will allow the Legion to move on without any more Vatican oversight. The Legions top superiors and 42 priests elected as representatives — including many close to Maciel — will finalize the constitution and then elect new leadership.

But several former Legion priests have urged the pontiff not to fall for the order’s “supposed reform,” saying the rehabilitation process ignored its core dysfunction: financial duplicity, lack of an authentic religious identity and continued cover-up of the people who facilitated the founder’s crimes.

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UNITED STATES
I Should Be Laughing

What’s this; another sex scandal brewing for the already scandal-plagued Catholic Church? Yup, only this time it isn’t about priests raping children and the Church lying and covering it up with new jobs out of town and payoffs to the victims. No, this particular sex scandal is right in Papa’s house, The Vatican, where a former member of the Swiss Guard has claimed that he was regularly propositioned for sex by the ALLEGED ‘gay lobby’ of high-ranking clergy in the Vatican.

The man, who was responsible for the Pope’s security and for now remains unnamed — which doesn’t help with his credibility, I will say that — says that Cardinals, bishops, priests and other officials regularly tried to coerce him into illicit sex acts inside the Vatican.

The former guard said he received up to 20 ‘unambiguous requests’ from members of the clergy and that he was asked for sex by a dignitary close to Pope John Paul II; he also swears that a senior official fondled him and that a bishop left a bottle of whisky on his bed with a visiting card placed next to it. And one other incident occurred when a priest invited the guard to dinner saying that the guard would be “served” after for dessert.

Now, this is all hearsay and innuendo and rumor and gossip, but the fact remains that they are many closeted gay men within the clergy, inside and outside the Vatican, and because they must remain closeted the idea of trying to procure a sexual relationship with an employee of sorts is not that far-fetched.

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NEW MEXICO
The Worthy Adversary

Joelle Casteix

This week, The Gallup Independent published a scathing editorial about the bankruptcy proceedings in the Catholic Diocese of Gallup.

From the editorial:

[Bishop James] Wall and his bankruptcy attorneys — who are billing the diocese hundreds of dollars per hour — are already dragging the process out in an unjust, inequitable and unmerciful manner by trying to sell Judge David T. Thuma and the Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee program a bogus bill of goods. They are trying to convince federal officials that its priests aren’t really its employees, that its parishes aren’t really part of the diocese, and that its three main nonprofit organizations, the Catholic Peoples Foundation, Southwest Indian Foundation, and Catholic Charities of Gallup, don’t really raise money to benefit programs in the diocese.

It’s not the first time we have seen editorials like this.

Seems to me that if I attended a church where the leaders—who claim to carry the cross and message of Jesus Christ—repeatedly attempt to lie, cheat and swindle the court system, I’d find a new church. You know, a moral one.

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BRAZIL
Catholic Herald (United Kingdom)

By LISE ALVES on Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Pope Francis has pledged a donation of almost $5 million to help pay part of the debt incurred by the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, said the Local Organising Committee.

A statement from the committee said the Pope recognised “the great effort made by the Local Organising Committee to hold World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro and demonstrated his intention to financially help pay off part of the investments made” for the event.

An independent audit of the event, conducted by Ernst & Young, confirmed that on August 31, World Youth Day had an accumulated debt of $38.4 million. After renegotiating with suppliers and selling a property, the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro was able to reduce the debt to a little over $18 million.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 January 2014 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father appointed Rev. Christian Riesbeck as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Ottawa (area 5,818, population 882,000, Catholics 423,000, priests 301, permanent deacons 87, religious 775), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Montreal, Canada in 1970 and was ordained a priest in 1996. Since 2003 he has been incardinated in the priestly association “Companions of the Cross”. He studied political sciences at the University of Ottawa and holds a licentiate in canon law from the St. Paul University of Ottowa, Canada. He served as vicar and subsequently priest of the parish of Queen of Peace, Houston, U.S.A. He is currently chancellor of the archdiocese of Ottowa and judge of the regional tribunal.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Another (necessarily) first person piece today:

The Salvation Army Algate Boys’ Home was to be the topic for today’s blog, but another matter has arisen, so I will cover Algate soon. This is a very long posting, but I do hope some people will read it through to the end.

The next hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will cover four Boys’ Homes which were operated by the Salvation Army. One of those Homes will be the Indooroopilly Boys’ Home (“Alkira”) in Brisbane, Queensland State.

I was in that Home at the time when serious abuses occurred, and when two of the principal Salvation Army officers to be investigated by the Commission were there – Bennett and Wilson. I feel very strongly that I have a right to present a submission, and to appear at the hearing to give oral evidence.

Apparently, this is beginning to look unlikely. Consequently, I will place some things on the record in this blog.

I have been informed by a Commission representative, Francine Ralph, that my case falls within the terms of reference of the enquiry. Unfortunately, this was over the phone, so no record exists (I was not informed the conversation was being recorded).

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

It was a dog and pony show that was over in a few minutes.

A noticeably slimmer Msgr. William J. Lynn made a totally unnecessary appearance this afternoon in the courtroom of Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to review conditions of his bail.

Lynn, who lost 80 pounds in jail, was released Friday after his conviction on one count of child endangerment was reversed by the state Superior Court.

The judge told Lynn his appearance was required to “personally have addressed you to make sure you understand what the conditions of your release are.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Lynn replied.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

National Catholic Reporter Suspends Comments After Weekend of “Vile and Demeaning” Discourse in Some Threads

A brief footnote to my posting last Friday about the “food for worms” response to a eulogy of Father Bob Nugent of New Ways Ministry:

Significant conversation continued all weekend here, in the thread that developed following the posting to which I link above (see the first link). By Saturday evening and then throughout Sunday, folks logging in here were reporting that the conversation in the NCR thread had degenerated into sewer discourse. I revisited the thread last evening, and was frankly shocked at what I saw–the filth of some of the remarks, the hatefulness, the pathological ideas being freely spread about regarding gay folks.

As I noted in my response last evening to several readers who made comments here, though American Catholicism has made important strides in recent years (well, among the laity as distinguished from the hierarchy) in beginning to understand and support those who are gay, there continues to be an underbelly within our church (and let’s be honest: it’s in other national Catholic churches, as well) when gay people, their humanity, and their rights are under discussion.

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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh Evening News

SHAMED Cardinal Keith O’Brien has been urged to tell his life story to help gay people in all walks of life who have felt the need to pretend to be heterosexual.

Former Irish President Mary McAleese, said the Catholic Church had been in denial over homosexuality for decades and that it was “not so much the elephant in the room but a herd of elephants”.

She told the Royal Society of Edinburgh: “I would have thought Cardinal Keith O’Brien, in telling the story of his life – if he was willing to do that – could have been of great assistance to gay people, not just in the Church but elsewhere, who felt over many, many years constrained to pretend to be heterosexual while at the same time acting a different life.”

Mrs McAleese said that, like so many closet homosexuals, Keith O’Brien hoped to divert attention from himself by raising his voice “in the most homophobic way”.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 7 January 2014

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien has been urged to tell his life story to help gay people in all walks of life who have felt the need to pretend to be heterosexual.

The call came from former Irish President Mary McAleese, who said the Catholic Church had been in denial over homosexuality for decades and that it was “not so much the elephant in the room but a herd of elephants”.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Gallup Independent Editorial
Published Jan. 2, 2014

It’s the start of a new year, and Bishop James S. Wall of the Diocese of Gallup is faced with a choice. It’s the same choice each one of us has every new year, every new day, every minute. It’s the choice to do the right thing.

When Wall was appointed bishop nearly five years ago, he promised to conduct a thorough review of all the diocesan personnel files, make the results public, and identify all the clergy sex abusers.

Wall has failed to do that.

When Wall announced the Diocese of Gallup would file a Chapter 11 petition, he promised to be “open and transparent” in the process. “It is very important to me that you all understand that I have not taken this step to avoid responsibility for what happened or to hide anything,” he said.

Yet within a month, Wall, along with the Rev. Alfred Tachias, would not submit to an Arizona court deposition without insisting the testimony remain sealed from the public. And in November, when four more depositions were scheduled and a legal dispute was brewing over the sealed depositions, Wall had his bankruptcy attorneys file the Chapter 11 petition, which halted all the Arizona court activity.

When the Gallup Diocese had to release the personnel file of Gallup abuser James Burns to comply with the terms of a California court settlement, its attorneys managed to keep more than 200 pages sealed — more than one-third of the file — through questionable redactions.

“We fully realize our responsibility to heal the hurt of those who were abused,” the bishop said in his Chapter 11 announcement. In addition, Wall said, he had “explored the alternatives” that would allow the diocese to treat abuse survivors “in a just, equitable and more than merciful manner,” and he expressed the hope that everyone involved in the bankruptcy process could “work cooperatively for an early resolution.”

Yet Wall and his bankruptcy attorneys — who are billing the diocese hundreds of dollars per hour — are already dragging the process out in an unjust, inequitable and unmerciful manner by trying to sell Judge David T. Thuma and the Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee program a bogus bill of goods.

They are trying to convince federal officials that its priests aren’t really its employees, that its parishes aren’t really part of the diocese, and that its three main nonprofit organizations, the Catholic Peoples Foundation, Southwest Indian Foundation, and Catholic Charities of Gallup, don’t really raise money to benefit programs in the diocese.

It’s all legal smoke and mirrors, and it’s all about protecting diocesan assets. The end result will be a long drawn-out bankruptcy process with only Wall’s high priced bankruptcy attorneys profiting from the delays.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The time is always right to do the right thing.” It’s time for the Gallup bishop to start doing the right thing. Wall needs to stop talking about being open and transparent, and actually start being open and transparent. He needs to unseal his Arizona court deposition, release the names of all abusive Gallup clergy, fully release all abusive clergy personnel files, and stop playing semantic games in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

If the bishop fails to do these things, the diocese won’t be the only thing that is bankrupt.

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CHILE
Terra

Así lo confirmó el abogado de las víctimas, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, quien explicó que de no aceptar la oferta del Arzobispado de Santiago, se continuará con la demanda civil.

Los demandantes de Fernando Karadima determinarán el próximo cinco de marzo si acogen o no la propuesta hecha este lunes por el Arzobispado de Santiago en una audiencia de conciliación en la Corte de Apelaciones, en el marco por la demanda por $450 millones de pesos interpuesta por las víctimas del ex párroco de El Bosque.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

El arzobispado de Santiago entregó una propuesta en que no reconoce su responsabilidad al ministro Juan Manuel Muñoz, por el juicio civil que interpusieron los demandantes del sacerdote Fernando Karadima en contra de la Iglesia para obtener una indemnización.

A través de un comunicado, el arzobispado señaló que efectuadas las denuncias en contra del sacerdote, “éstas fueron investigadas acuciosamente y, habiéndose comprobado los delitos, se condenó a Fernando Karadima a las penas más graves que contempla el ordenamiento canónico”.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

January 7, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will turn its focus to Western Australia in April.

The commission released a draft schedule of activity for the first half of 2014 on Tuesday.

The schedule includes private sessions, public hearings and roundtable discussions across Australia.

Public hearings into a local case study are to be heard in WA between April 28 and May 9.

Details of this case study, known as ‘case study 14’ are yet to be released, but will be made available on the commission’s website closer to the date of the hearing.

A venue has yet to be determined.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

By Dan Nienaber
dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

NEW ULM — Two men on a list naming 12 Diocese of New Ulm priests who have faced credible allegations of molesting children have filed court motions saying their names should be removed because the allegations against them are false.

Both priests, one retired and one still working in the diocese, said their names are on the list because the diocese made a confidential cash payment to a person who accused them of sexually assaulting him or her in 1971. The allegations came to light in 1991 during a therapy session through a “recovered memory,” the motions said.

The priests, who are only identified in their motions as Priest No. 1 and Former Priest No. 2, both said the allegations against them involve a “15 minute incident in a church basement.”

The priest who is still working said he was made aware of the allegations when he was called in 1991 by William O’Connor, an attorney for the diocese who died in 2008. After meeting with O’Connor, the priest said he was given the impression the claim was without merit and nothing further would be done, according to his motion.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

MENSAH M. DEAN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER DEANM@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-568-8278
POSTED: Tuesday, January 7, 2014

MONSIGNOR William Lynn left court yesterday afternoon swarmed by reporters and a few hecklers, the latter shouting “pedophile,” saying he should “burn in hell” and telling him to stay away from their children.

Stern-faced and 80 pounds thinner than when he was sent to prison, Lynn, 63, ignored both the reporters and the hecklers as he and his supporters walked quickly across Filbert Street.

Lynn, accused of moving pedophile priests from parish to parish, was convicted in 2012 on one count of child endangerment. But last month the state Superior Court overturned that conviction, leading to his release last week.

By then, he had served 18 months of a three- to six-year prison sentence for his role in the city’s clergy-child-abuse case.

District Attorney Seth Williams, who vowed to appeal, has criticized the Superior Court decision and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for paying Lynn’s bail. Lynn was the Archdiocese secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 7 January 2014

CAMPAIGNERS are today planning to hand over a 1300-name petition to the acting Bishop of Motherwell calling for the return of their suspended parish priest.

Parishioners from St John Ogilvie’s RC church in High Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, are divided over whether Father Matthew Despard should be allowed to return to his job.

Local resident Helen Ann Hawkins started a petition to remove the suspension, and more than 1300 signatures have been added in support of his return.

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UNITED STATES
CBN

[with video]

By Heather Sells
CBN News Reporter

Monday, January 06, 2014

Church should be the last place that parents worry about taking their children. But instead of a sanctuary, child sexual abuse experts say it can be dangerous for kids and can provide a friendly environment for predators.

Studies show that one out of four Americans are survivors of child sexual abuse. That poses a daunting challenge for churches trying to help the adult victims while also protecting potential victims.

“We so focus on issues of forgiveness and grace – offenders are drawn to these places. They’re drawn to places where if they get caught, they simply need to cry and say they’re sorry. And the church many times embraces them and places them back where they were,” child sexual abuse expert Boz Tchvidjian said.

“Churches are also in great need of volunteers. I’ve never been to a church that was not in need of a volunteer. And churches are very trusting,” he added.

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ALABAMA
WAAY

LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. (WAAY) – A former youth minister, music director charged with sexual abuse has been released from jail.

79 year old Oliver Brazelle was arrested on Monday by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation.

According to the Times Daily, Brazelle is accused of abusing a teenage boy, who was a member of his church.

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ALABAMA
WAFF

COLBERT COUNTY, AL (WAFF) –
A former Colbert County church leader faces sex abuse charges.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation arrested Oliver Brazelle Monday. Brazelle is the former minister of music at First United Methodist Church in Sheffield.

The church conducted an internal investigation and reportedly discovered inappropriate behavior between Brazelle and three male victims. Church leaders turned their findings over to police.

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ALABAMA
Times Daily

By Tom Smith Senior Staff Writer

FLORENCE — A former music and youth minister of First United Methodist Church of Sheffield was arrested Monday, charged with second-degree sexual abuse and one-count of second-degree sodomy, officials said.

Oliver Brazelle, 79, 311 Meadow Hill Road, Sheffield, was arrested Monday afternoon by agents with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, officials said.

Authorities said Brazelle is accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy who was a member of his youth group at the church. The accusation is that the abuse took place in the mid-1990s.

According to the accusations, the sexual abuse occurred at Brazelle’s Shoals Creek residence on Lauderdale 322, near Happy Hollow.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A local church pastor and former Kanawha County Schools employee pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.

Johnnie Franklin Winnell, 60, of Gypsum Lane, pleaded guilty in front of Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky to a single count of sexual abuse by a guardian. Winnell had originally been charged with sexual abuse by a guardian and first-degree sexual abuse.

The 14-year-old girl told authorities last year that Winnell had touched her sexually on at least two occasions while the girl was at Winnell’s home. Winnell is pastor at United Gospel Mission on Charleston’s West Side and worked for the Kanawha County Schools transportation office.

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

January 7, 2014
By Fritz Busch – Staff Writer , The Journal

NEW ULM – An attorney for the Diocese of New Ulm asked for the dismissal of a nuisance claim in a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct involving two female minors by deceased diocese priest the Rev. David Roney Monday in Brown County District Court.

The nuisance claim, part of a lawsuit filed Sept. 12, 2013 by attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, demands disclosure of the names of priests of the diocese who have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors reported to the John Jay Report, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, based on surveys done by Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States from 1950 to 2002.

Hearing arguments for and against dismissal of the nuisance motion filed by Anderson, Judge Robert Docherty said he would rule on the case as soon as possible.

Waite Park attorney Thomas Wieser, representing the Diocese of New Ulm, said case law suggests the accusation that the Diocese of New Ulm’s inability to notify the public of the names of two priests whose names were reported to the John Jay Study “didn’t satisfy the burden of proof.” He did not list the names of priests accused of molesting children at the hearing.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY ASHLEIGH MCDONALD – 07 JANUARY 2014

A former priest of St Matthew’s Catholic Church in the Short Strand area of Belfast has denied sexually abusing a young female parishioner in the 1980s.

Peter Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, appeared in the dock of Belfast Crown Court yesterday accused of sexually assaulting the girl in the parochial house of the church over a period spanning from July 1982 to August 1987.

The 71-year-old has been charged with six counts of indecently assaulting the girl, and a further charge of gross indecency with a child. The pensioner denies all seven charges against him.

Opening the case against Donnelly, Crown prosecutor Kate McKay told a jury that the alleged abuse was carried out when the victim was aged around 10, up until her early teens.

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UNITED STATES
The Deacon’s Bench

January 6, 2014 By Deacon Greg Kandra

Around the blogosphere, there’s been some interesting reaction to the much-reported move by Pope Francis.

From a monsignor, Charles Pope:

Somehow, we have lost the ability in our culture to confer honors, and bestow rewards without others taking offense. Yes, I fear that we, as a wider culture, have lost the important ability to bestow honor and have sunk into cynicism and some degree of envy when it comes to the practice of recognizing achievement.

It will be admitted, that no culture or institution bestows honors perfectly. Sometimes people are genuinely overlooked who should be honored. Sometimes certain individuals are honored for more political purposes, than due to genuine achievement or honor. But as a general rule, bestowing honors and awards on those who work hard and have excelled, should be seen a good thing.

The bestowal of the title “Monsignor” has traditionally been seen as a way for a Bishop to give special honors to priests who have, for various reasons excelled in some work for the diocese. It is a true fact that not all priests can be honored, some Priest are overlooked, and yes, in certain situations, the title was given for less than stellar reasons. As a general rule however, most priests who are so honored, are honored for good reasons.

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MAINE
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Rev. Christian Roy was ordained a priest of the Portland, ME diocese in 1975. He served as an assistant at parishes in Augusta, Biddeford and Sanford, pastored parishes in Rockland and Belfast, and was a chaplain at Maine State Prison. Roy was also the diocese’s Catholic Scouting chaplain from 1981-1993. In 1993 Roy was removed from active ministry after an allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a minor form 1983-1990. In 1994 he was sued by a woman who claimed Roy had a sexual relationship with her husband during the time the couple was seeing Roy for marriage counseling. Roy was laicized in 2006.

Ordained: 1975

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NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Written by
Phil Dunn
Courier-Post

A historic Woodbury mansion once home to the past president of Rowan University has been sold to the Camden Diocese for $500,000.

Diocesan spokesman Peter Feuerherd said the 7,000-square-foot mansion will now be home to Bishop Dennis Sullivan, who took over leadership of the diocese after Bishop Joseph Galante retired in 2012.

The purchase was finalized Dec. 23.

Feuerherd said Sullivan currently lives in an apartment situated off the St. Pius X Retreat House in Blackwood. He has sought a new home to hold meetings with church donors and dignitaries.

The diocese also is nearing final sale of the Blackwood home where both Galante and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio resided during their time with the diocese. The sale price is $400,000, Feuerherd said.

“Bishop Sullivan felt the apartment was not a large enough to meet the needs of potential donors, benefactors or for workspace,” he added. “It’s analogous to the reasons Rowan bought the property.”

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NEW MEXICO
NECN

January 6, 2014

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe has incorporated dozens of its parishes as nonprofits, a move that an attorney who has represented victims of clerical sexual abuse says could be an attempt to protect church assets.

“If they are separately incorporated entities, the parish can say they have no responsibility for abuses at another parish,” said the attorney, James Stang of Los Angeles.

Incorporation of most of the archdiocese’s 92 parishes follows similar steps by several other dioceses in the region, including those in Las Cruces, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., the Albuquerque Journal ( ) reported.

Diocese of Tucson officials said its 2005 incorporation of parishes provided them with “protection from liability for the acts of the diocese or for the acts of the other parishes.”

Incorporation makes parishes legally distinct from the diocese, according to the Tucson diocese’s website. “Thus, the parishes will not pay for the debts or shortcomings of the diocese or its bishop.”

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MINNESOTA
KEYC

By Tyler Utzka, Reporter

The Catholic church abuse scandal continues with every diocese in the state releasing its list of credibly accused priests, except one.

This morning was the first court hearing concerning the battle of releasing the list for the Diocese of New Ulm.

In Brown County District Court this morning, attorneys met before District court judge Robert Docherty.

The Diocese of New Ulm requested the dismissal of a nuisance claim alleging sexual misconduct with two minors by a deceased priest.

This nuisance claim demands the list of names– compiled 10 years ago– be made public.

Attorney, Michael Bryant says, “One of the arguments they made was that they had an intervention, meaning we’ve got two attorneys here that are arguing that certain priests names shouldn’t be disclosed in the list.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Pope Francis will name a Spanish prelate, Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, to chair the commission of cardinals supervising the work of the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former Secretary of State, has been chairing the supervisory commission. When he stepped down as Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone asked to remain in his post with the IRS commission until the completion of a report by European banking inspectors, which was delivered in December.

Pope Francis is expected to announce a complete overhaul of the supervisory commission within the next few days, according to Corriere della Sera.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 6, 2014 NCR Today

Following his first weekend as a free man in 18 months, Msgr. William J. Lynn returned to a Philadelphia courtroom Monday to learn the terms of his release.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina informed Lynn that he must wear an electronic monitor as part of his parole, as well as remain in the area and report weekly to a probation officer, or face a return to prison.

The noticeably slimmer, 62-year-old monsignor (several media reports indicated he lost 80 pounds while serving his sentence) actually left a Philadelphia prison Friday morning. A Superior Court decision Dec. 26 overturned the June 2012 ruling that convicted him on one count of child endangerment and sentenced him to three to six years in prison. Lynn, the Philadelphia archdiocese’s secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, was the first U.S. church official convicted for his handling of abuse claims.

In an unanimous, 43-page decision, the three-judge panel ruled that a 2007 amendment to the state’s endangerment of the welfare of a child, or EWOC, law did not apply to Lynn, and that the interpretation of the law by Sarmina, who presided over the three-month trial, was “fundamentally flawed.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

[with video]

By Geoff Mulvihill | Monday, Jan 6, 2014

A judge on Monday told a Roman Catholic church official that she already has signed an arrest warrant that she would issue if he violates the term of his release on electronic monitoring following the reversal of his conviction in the priest sex-abuse scandal.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina also told 63-year-old Monsignor William Lynn to report to a probation officer weekly.

Monday’s brief court hearing was the first public appearance for Lynn since he was released from prison on Friday after serving 18 months of a three- to six-year prison term for felony child endangerment.

The pre-signed arrest warrant is standard for defendants released on bail.

Several supporters were there to see the priest, who lost 80 pounds during his time in prison.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

By Dan Nienaber
dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

NEW ULM — Attorneys leading a statewide effort to have lists of priests credibly accused of molesting children released were asking why the Diocese of New Ulm is fighting to keep its list secret after a court hearing Monday.

The diocese is the only diocese in the state that hasn’t released a list that was provided to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City in 2004. The lists were created for a study, started by Catholic bishops, to determine the scope of child sexual abuse by priests in the United States.

Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney, and his law firm have been filing lawsuits in several Minnesota District Courts, including Brown County, on behalf of victims claiming they were sexually abused by priests. Many of those lawsuits included motions to have the lists released to the public.

Similar lists created by dioceses in Minneapolis and St. Paul, St. Cloud, Winona, Duluth and Crookston were released by court order or voluntarily after the motions were filed. During Monday’s hearing, Thomas Wieser, an attorney for the Diocese of New Ulm, argued to keep the New Ulm list secret.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, January 6, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-503-0003 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

We are grateful that Rev. Johnnie Winnell of Kanawha County has admitted molesting a girl and will likely be imprisoned. That’s the best way to protect kids – locking up child predators.

[WSAZ]

We are also grateful to the brave girl and her family. It’s crucial that victims find the courage and strength to call police and cooperate with prosecutors.

We hope that every current and former member and employee at United Methodist Gospel Church in Charleston will aggressively seek out others who Rev. Winnell may have hurt and beg them to call law enforcement. It’s possible that Rev. Winnell could face more charges. And it’s possible others at the church could be charged with ignoring or concealing his crimes.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, January 6, 2014

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

A former member of the Swiss Guard says that he was fondled by a high ranking Catholic official in Rome and that cardinals, bishops and other clergy made sexual advances towards him roughly two dozen times.

[Daily Mail]

We’re saddened but not surprised by this. We feel sorry for this man and the abuse and harassment he had to endure. And we are grateful he’s joined the tens of thousands of brave victims who are exposing the corruption in the Catholic hierarchy.

We encourage him – and others who were sexually exploited, harassed or exploited by clergy, whether as kids or adults – to get professional help and keep speaking up so that others might be protected from predatory church officials.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

ALLISON STEELE, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Monday, January 6, 2014

Msgr. William J. Lynn left a Philadelphia court Monday afternoon, free on bail after spending more than 18 months behind bars for a now-overturned conviction.

Surrounded by supporters, a noticeably slimmer Lynn smiled and embraced relatives after the brief court hearing before Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, who had called him to court to explain the conditions of his release on bail.

Lynn, 63, declined to comment on anything but his 80-pound weight loss. Asked how he lost the weight during his prison stint, he responded: “Taking care of myself and exercising.”

It was the first public appearance for the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia administrator since his sentencing last year on child endangerment charges.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Free on bail pending an appeal by the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, Monsignor William Lynn today walked out of the Criminal Justice Center to the delight of friends and relatives.

Lynn was greeted warmly by those friends and relatives before the hearing, which lasted just a few moments before Judge Teresa Sarmina, who reminded him that if he violated any condition of his release, back to prison he would go.

As he left the courtroom, Msgr. Lynn said nothing as he walked a gauntlet of reporters and photographers — along with a few hecklers.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is putting Lynn up at St. Williams Parish, in the Lawncrest section of the city, while he is on house arrest.

“This particular parish does not have a school — it’s a large rectory. He has access to two floors — that’s it,” says Thomas Bergstrom, Lynn’s attorney.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press
January 06, 2014

PHILADELPHIA — A judge on Monday told a Roman Catholic church official that she already has signed an arrest warrant that she would issue if he violates the term of his release on electronic monitoring following the reversal of his conviction in the priest sex-abuse scandal.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina also told 63-year-old Monsignor William Lynn to report to a probation officer weekly.

Monday’s brief court hearing was the first public appearance for Lynn since he was released from prison on Friday after serving 18 months of a three- to six-year prison term for felony child endangerment.

The pre-signed arrest warrant is standard for defendants released on bail.

Several supporters were there to see the priest, who lost 80 pounds during his time in prison.

Lynn was the first U.S. church official ever convicted in the handling of abuse complaints. But a state appeals court ruled Dec. 26 that the state’s child-endangerment law in the late 1990s did not apply to supervisors like Lynn.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

A QUEENSLAND church has been accused of covering up a parishioner’s alleged sexual abuse of children, with a victim’s father threatened with death if he went to the police.

Police believe senior members of the evangelical church, including a pastor, have been actively influencing parents and the child victims not to report sexual abuse to authorities over the past year.

Allegations of the cover-up emerged after a Brisbane Magistrates Court bail hearing for the accused abuser, who was involved with the church’s youth choir and is facing 11 charges, including rape and indecent treatment of a child.

The Courier-Mail is prevented from naming the accused, who allegedly sexually abused four girls between 2010 and 2012, or identifying the church for legal reasons.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WSAZ

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A Kanawha County pastor has admitted to sexually abusing a little girl.

Johnnie Winnell pleaded guilty in the case Monday morning.

Winnell was arrested in April of last year after confessing to abusing a young girl.

He groped a girl three times while she was sleeping at his home in Elkview, according to investigators.

Investigators say the abuse happened during several years.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegram

BY ASHLEIGH MCDONALD – 06 JANUARY 2014

The former priest of St Matthew’s Catholic Church in the Short Strand area of Belfast has denied sexually abusing a young female parishioner in the 1980s.

71-year old Peter Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, appeared in the dock of Belfast Crown Court on Monday, accused of sexually assaulting the girl in the parochial house of the church over a period spanning from July 1982 to August 1987.

Donnelly has been charged with six counts of indecently assaulting the girl, and a further charge of gross indecency with a child. The pensioner denies all seven charges against him.

Opening the case against Donnelly, Crown prosecutor Kate McKay told a jury that the alleged abuse was carried out when the victim was aged around 10, up until her early teens.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph

By Nick Squires, Rome
06 Jan 2014

A former Swiss Guard has claimed that he received sexual advances from cardinals, bishops and other clergy while serving in the elite corps, the Pope’s personal bodyguard.

The ex-soldier claimed that he received 20 to 25 explicit sexual advances, including on one occasion from a cardinal who invited him up to his rooms in the Vatican.

The former Swiss Guard, who insisted on remaining anonymous, made the allegations to a Swiss newspaper, Schweiz am Sonntag, which published them on its front page on Sunday.

The unnamed soldier served in the Swiss Guard during the papacy of John Paul II, which lasted from 1978 until 2005, and it was not clear why he had only now decided to come forward with the claims.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former Belfast priest has denied sexually abusing a girl while she was member of his parish in the 1980s.

Peter Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, County Down, is a former priest at St Matthew’s Catholic church in east Belfast.

The 71-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting the girl in the parochial house of the church over a period spanning from July 1982 to August 1987.

At Belfast Crown Court, the pensioner denies all seven charges against him.

He has been charged with six counts of indecently assaulting the girl, and a further charge of gross indecency with a child

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SCHWEIZ
Schweiz am Sonntag

Von Henry Habegger und Beat Kraushaar
Samstag, 04. Januar 2014

Ein Ex-Gardist packt über die Schwulen-Lobby im Vatikan aus. Die päpstliche Schweizergarde sieht darin kein Problem

Nun gerät auch die Schweizergarde in den Dunstkreis der Schwulen-Lobby im Vatikan. Ein Ex-Gardist erzählt erstmals, dass die Schweizer Schutztruppe des Papstes zu ihren bevorzugten Zielen gehört.

.Der junge Schweizer gibt an, dass er Objekt der Begierde einer ganzen Reihe von Gottesleuten geworden sei. Dazu gehört auch ein hoher Würdenträger, der im Innern des Machtzentrums des Vatikans sass. Detailliert schildert der Ex-Gardist, wie er nach dem Ausgang um Mitternacht von der Person auf sein Handy angerufen wurde und ihn auf sein Zimmer einlud. Die Person wird von Insidern in direkten Zusammenhang mit dem ominösen Schwulen-Netzwerk gebracht und logierte im Papstpalast, in der Nähe vom Heiligen Vater.

Der Schweizergardist erzählt davon, dass dies kein Einzelfall war. In seiner Dienstzeit habe er von bis zu 20 Geistlichen unzweideutige Angebote erhalten. Dazu gehören Bischöfe, Kardinäle, Priester und Pater.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Former member of the Swiss Guard says he was regularly asked for sex by ‘gay lobby’ of bishops, cardinals and priests while serving at the Vatican

By TOM GARDNER
PUBLISHED: 05:28 EST, 6 January 2014

A former Swiss Guard has claimed he was regularly asked for sex by a ‘gay lobby’ of high-ranking clergy in the Vatican.

Cardinals, bishops, priests and other officials in the Vatican had regularly attempted to engage the unnamed man, who was responsible for the Pope’s security, in illicit rendezvous, according to new claims.

The former guard said he received up to 20 ‘unambiguous requests’ from members of the clergy and was asked for sex by a dignitary close to Pope John Paul II, a Swiss weekly newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag reported.

In the latest sex scandal to engulf the Catholic church, the security guard said a senior official fondled him. He also claimed a bishop left a bottle of whisky on his bed with a visiting card placed next to it.

During another incident a priest had invited him to dinner saying that the guard would be served after for dessert.

He also claimed that he reported the harassment to officials in the Vatican who offered him no support and attacked the Church’s ‘hypocrisy’ of opposing sex outside of marriage and supporting the excommunication of divorcees.

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VATICAN CITY
Gay Star News

06 JANUARY 2014 | BY JOE MORGAN

One of the Pope’s former personal bodyguards has claimed he received several sexual advances from priests while serving at the Vatican.

He claims he received 20 to 25 explicit sexual advances from cardinals, bishops and other members of the clergy.

On one occasion, a cardinal even invited him up to his rooms in the Vatican.

The unnamed soldier served in the Swiss Guard during the papacy of John Paul II, which lasted from 1978 until 2005.

‘One night, sometime after midnight, I received a call on my mobile phone. The person on the other end said he was a cardinal and asked me to come to his room,’ he told Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag.

In the latest sex scandal involving the Catholic Church, the security guard also claimed a bishop left a bottle of whisky on his bed with a visiting card placed next to it.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jan. 6, 2014

ANALYSIS
Next month, Pope Francis will create at least 14 cardinals, an action that will not only impact his papacy and the church today, but will also determine the direction of the church after his papacy. One of these cardinals may even be the next pope.

Because of the cardinals’ role in the church, their creation is one of the most important actions of a pope. Cardinals fulfill three important functions in the church.

First, cardinals provide leadership in their own countries. Although canonically they do not have any power over other bishops, they tend to head the largest archdioceses and have great influence in their episcopal conferences. They also get more attention in the media; people in red hats tend to stand out in a crowd.

Second, cardinals help the pope in the governance of the universal church. Not only are cardinals the heads of major offices in the Roman Curia; diocesan cardinals also serve as members of Vatican congregations and councils advising these offices and the pope. They are also more likely to be chosen to attend Synods of Bishops.

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UNITED STATES
Tom’s Blog

Thomas Hampson

Any time a politician wants to raise taxes or start some new program the simplest way to gain acceptance is to claim “it’s for the children.” We all want to be on the side of the children. At least we want to say we’re on the side of the children. But what does that mean? Are we nurturing and raising our children toward a healthy, responsible, happy adulthood? We can gain some insight into this by looking at the issue of child sexual abuse.

There are 60 million adult survivors of child sexual abuse in the United States today. Some experts report that one in four women and one in six men were sexually abused before they turned 18. That’s a staggering number.

While some sources report these figures as fact, in reality there is little agreement on the actual numbers of children who are sexually abused every year. Some experts claim the problem is growing. Others that it is decreasing. Regardless, just about everyone agrees that the problem is very serious and involves significant numbers.

One reason there is so little agreement on the size and scope of the problem is that most victims of this kind of abuse never tell anyone about it. They keep it a secret. Sometimes they remain silent out of fear, sometimes because of shame or guilt, sometimes it’s because they believe they engaged in the activity willingly and enthusiastically. Sometimes the victims don’t even know what happened to them.

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ITALY
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

By AFP 30 Dec 2013

An Italian high court has overturned the conviction of a 60-year-old man for having sex with an 11-year-old girl, because the verdict failed to take into account their “amorous relationship”.

Pietro Lamberti, a social services worker in Catanzaro in southern Italy, was convicted in February 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison for sexual acts with a minor.

The verdict was later upheld by an appeals court.

But the Italian supreme court ruled that the verdict did not sufficiently consider “the ‘consensus’, the existence of an amorous relationship, the absence of physical force, the girl’s feelings of love”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JOHN FERGUSON, VICTORIAN POLITICAL EDITOR THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 07, 2014

ONE of the nation’s most respected Catholics has lashed out at Victoria Police’s conduct during the state’s parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse, singling out for criticism a former high-ranking member of the now defunct Office of Police Integrity.

Father Frank Brennan called into question the behaviour by now Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton and accused the force of mounting a campaign of spin as part of unfair and false attacks on the church. He dismissed as “bunkum” key elements of Mr Ashton’s commentary.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, January 6, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-503-0003 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

New Mexico Catholic officials are taking steps to protect their wealth from clergy sex abuse victims who are seeking justice by restructuring their diocese and parishes.

[ABQ Journal]

This is a disgusting, self-serving legal maneuver that goes against everything that Pope Francis has said over the past year. New Mexico Catholics officials should be ashamed of themselves. And New Mexico Catholics should donate elsewhere until the church hierarchy reverses this callous move.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014

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

In a rare move, yesterday a judge sanctioned St. Louis’ archbishop and ordered to turn over possibly dozens and dozens of names of victims and child molesting clerics – over two decades – to a 20 year old woman and her attorney. Both parts of the ruling are unusual and significant.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Sadly, it’s not that unusual for Catholic officials to repeatedly break a judge’s orders and claim special status that allegedly exempts them from honoring the rules and responsibilities that govern other people’s behavior. But it IS unusual when Catholic officials so severely and repeatedly try a judge’s patience and violate a judge’s orders that a judge formally sanctions them for their egregious and arrogant wrongdoing.

That’s what’s happened here. St. Louis City Judge Robert Dierker harshly criticized that Archbishop Robert Carlson’s conduct in the case of “Jane Doe v. Fr. Joseph D. Ross and the St. Louis Archdiocese,” writing that “the archdiocese’s dogged refusal to comply with court orders has inflicted unnecessary trouble and expense on the plaintiff, manifestly interfered with trial preparations, and borders on if not actually (amounts) to contempt.”

He also criticized the archdiocese for “insisting that an archbishop does not have the control of records of the various parishes as an excuse” for not producing the required information.

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ITALY
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

By Nick Squires, Rome 04 Jan 2014

Dioceses across Italy, as well as in countries such as Spain, are increasing the number of priests schooled in administering the rite of exorcism, fabled to rid people of possession by the Devil.

The rise in demonic cases is a result of more people dabbling in practices such as black magic, paganism, Satanic rites and Ouija boards, often exploring the dark arts with the help of information readily found on the internet, the Church said.

The increase in the number of priests being trained to tackle the phenomenon is also an effort by the Church to sideline unauthorised, self-proclaimed exorcists, and its tacit recognition that belief in Satan, once regarded by Catholic progressives as an embarrassment, is still very much alive. …

During the papacy of Benedict XVI he said that the sex abuse scandals which engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Australia and other countries were proof that the Antichrist was waging a war against the Holy See.

The Church insists that the majority of people who claim to be possessed by the Devil are suffering from a variety of mental health issues, from paranoia to depression. Priests generally advise them to seek medical help.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Monsignor William Lynn is due in court Monday for the first time since his conviction in the priest sex-abuse scandal was reversed.

The Roman Catholic church official is not quite a free man. He must remain under electronic monitoring while prosecutors try to restore the conviction.

Lynn served 18 months in prison for felony child-endangerment. He was the first U.S. church official ever convicted over his handling of abuse complaints.

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UNITED STATES
Whispers in the Loggia

Indeed, this Saturday’s cycle has been topped by word of a “Purple Drought” of Apocalyptic proportions: after a ten-month moratorium on the naming of monsignori while studying the practice’s future, the Pope has reportedly restricted future awards of the honorary prelature to priests over age 65, and then only to the juniormost rank of Chaplain of His Holiness, which entitles the recipient to the black cassock with violet sash and piping for choir and non-liturgical use alike.

According to the initial report by Turin’s La Stampa, all current monsignors retain their rank and privileges as conferred.

Having spanned some 15 degrees of varying titles, vesture and perks before Vatican II – including some which lasted only for the lifetime of the Pope who conferred them – the last major reform to the monsignorial honors came in 1968, when Paul VI folded the classes into three grades, all given for life, restricting all but a handful of Vatican officials to the simplified style of “Reverend Monsignor.” In the late 1990s – after perceived abuses of the system by bishops in the US and Western Europe – the Holy See restricted the honorees to comprising no more than ten percent of a diocesan presbyterate at any one time, as well as ending the then-common practice of allowing younger priests to become purple-cassocked Prelates of Honor without at least several years as Chaplains first.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission Into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Please note that the schedule below may change at short notice.

Details of the subject matter to be covered at public hearings, including the scope and purpose of each case study, will be published on the Royal Commission’s website closer to the date of each hearing.

Date Planned Activity

January 2014

Tue 21 – Fri 31 Private sessions in capital cities
Tue 22 Public hearing: Case Study 4 Towards Healing (continued)
Tue 28 – Fri 31 Public hearing: Case Study 5 Salvation Army (Eastern Territory)
Sydney

February 2014

Mon 3 – Fri 7 Public hearing: Case Study 5 Salvation Army (Eastern Territory)
Sydney
Mon 3 – Fri 28 Private sessions in capital cities
Wed 12 – Fri 14 Private sessions in regional areas
Mon 17 – Fri 28 Public hearing: Case Study 6
Queensland
Mon 24 – Fri 28 Public hearing: Case Study 7
Sydney

March 2014

Mon 3 – Fri 7 Private sessions in capital cities and regional areas
Wed 5 Roundtable Discussion* – Out-of-home care
Tue 11 – Fri 21 Public hearing: Case Study 8
South Australia
Mon 10 – Fri 14 Public hearing: Case Study 9
Sydney
Mon 17 – Mon 31 Private sessions in capital cities
Wed 19 – Fri 21 Private sessions in regional areas
Mon 24 – Fri 28 Public hearing: Case Study 10
Sydney
Mon 24 – Fri 28 Public hearing: Case Study 11
Sydney

April 2014

Mon 31 Mar – Fri 17 Public hearing: Case Study 12
Sydney
Tues 1 – Wed 30 Private sessions in capital cities
Wed 16 Roundtable Discussion* – Working with Children Check
Wed 23 – Fri 2 May Public hearing: Case Study 13
Sydney
Mon 28 – Wed 30 Public hearing: Case Study 14
Western Australia

May 2014

Thu 1 – Fri 9 Public hearing: Case Study 14
Western Australia
Mon 5 – Fri 30 Private sessions in capital cities
Wed 14 – Thu 15 Public hearing: Case Study 15
Sydney
Thu 15 Roundtable Discussion* (topic to be advised)
Mon 19 – Fri 30 Public hearing: Case Study 16
Sydney
Mon 19 – Fri 23 Private sessions in regional areas
Mon 26 – Fri 30 Public hearing: Case Study 17
Sydney

June 2014

Mon 2 – Wed 11 Public hearing: Case Study 18
ACT
Mon 2 – Fri 27 Private sessions in capital cities
Wed 11 Roundtable Discussion* (topic to be advised)
Mon 16 – Mon 30 Public hearing: Case Study 19
Sydney

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

06 JANUARY 2014

SIX Catholic religious orders were placed on a list of “politically exposed” investors who entrusted more than €250m to Anglo Irish Bank’s private wealth management division.

The orders were placed on a list of “sensitive” investors along with a retired senior judge, an RTE star, an insolvency expert, a bestselling novelist and a member of the Seanad.

Lawyers, journalists and some of the country’s leading pension funds as well as high net worth business people were also placed on Anglo’s politically exposed persons (PEP) investor list.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Record

JIMMY Savile’s victims are calling for one, judge-led inquiry into how the former DJ was able to evade justice for so many years.

Alan Collins, a lawyer representing around 60 victims of the disgraced TV presenter said he feared an opportunity could be “missed” by all the other investigations into Savile.

He said there should be one inquiry led by a High Court judge with “considerable” experience in criminal law who would have access to all the work undertaken by the other investigations.

He told BBC Breakfast: “We have a number of inquiries under way at the moment – there must be at least a dozen – we have got the BBC being investigated, the NHS, various hospitals, and… we have the police and Crown Prosecution Service.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A man who says he was abused by Jimmy Savile at a recording of Top of the Pops in 1964 has called for there to be a single inquiry into the activities of the former DJ.

There are currently 32 separate investigations into abuse at NHS institutions and another one being carried out at the BBC.

A significant number of Savile’s victims say they are dissatisfied with the way in which those investigations are being run and are now demanding more action.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Another Prediction for 2014: Talk of the Dying of Catholicism Even as Lay-Led Catholic Movements Flourish

Another prediction I’d be willing to go out onto a limb and make as the new year begins: we will be hearing more in this year about the death of the Catholic church in this culture and that culture–though counter-indicators in many of these cultures will indicate that Catholicism is alive and well within the culture. But the Catholicism that is flourishing in these cultures is often a new (and simultaneously old) expression of the Catholic tradition.

What is dying in many Catholic cultures is the clericalized notion of Catholicism that dominated the Catholic imagination from the Counter-Reformation period up to Vatican II.

I’ve been thinking a lot about these themes since news broke of the meeting of Pope Francis with the Dutch bishops this last December. One of the themes of that meeting is that perhaps two-thirds of Catholic parishes in the Netherlands will soon have to be closed, because churches are empty. “The Catholic church is dying in the Netherlands,” many news outlets stated following Francis’s meeting with the Dutch bishops.

And yet this comment at a recent National Catholic Reporter thread by a Dutch lay Catholic, as well as many articles I’ve read in the past decade or so, suggest to me that Catholicism remains alive and well in the Netherlands even as parishes close. It remains alive and well as a lay phenomenon with lay leadership.

What has begun to die–what is rapidly dying or now all but dead–in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Catholic Europe (and parts of the U.S.) is a clericalized understanding of the Catholic faith that hinges everything on the presence of an ordained man as the leader of each local Catholic community of faith, dispensing sacraments available only at the hands of that man, and indispensable for the salvation of the members of the community of faith.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

Graeme Green Monday 6 Jan 2014

A few weeks ago, Pope Francis delivered his first ever Christmas Day speech to thousands of followers in St Peter’s Square.

He highlighted the lives ‘shattered’ in Syria, Iraq and the Israel-Palestine conflict and called for an end to ‘further suffering’. But simply wishing for ‘world peace’ is for Miss World contestants; the leader of one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bodies has the power to make real change.

On January 16, a Vatican delegation is due to appear before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child at a hearing in Geneva as part of an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy around the world and an alleged system of cover-ups by the Holy See. Pope Francis and the Catholic Church have a clear opportunity to help victims whose lives have been ‘shattered’ by child abuse and help prevent ‘further suffering’, campaigners say.

‘This is the first time the Holy See’s been pressed on child sexual abuse by the world’s children’s rights body and that’s of international significance,’ said Veronica Yates, director of Child Rights International Network (CRIN). ‘We know child abuse happens in other closed institutions, but what’s unique about the Catholic Church is the Holy See is a UN State that’s voluntarily signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a legally binding document that includes, among others, a child’s right to protection from violence and sexual abuse.’

She added: ‘Child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is a global problem affecting thousands of children. Some of the “techniques” employed by the church indicate its disregard for children’s rights and the law. An example is the “geographical cure”, designed to relocate, forget and sweep under the rug cases of child abuse to protect the institution. There are numerous examples of priests accused of abuse being transferred, usually from Europe or North America to Africa or Latin America. The Holy See’s given no indication these practices have stopped.’

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

Monday 06 January 2014

The Catholic bishop of Roermond has suggested a Limburg church official who was murdered in China in 1937 could be declared the patron saint of sexual abuse victims.

Frans Schraven, who was bishop of Zhengding at the time, refused to hand several hundred Chinese women over to the Japanese occupiers to work as prostitutes.

The women were under the protection of the Catholic authorities at the time. The Japanese authorities left the women alone but Schraven and eight other Catholics were then executed.

Vatican

This weekend, the Dutch Catholic church’s documentation on Schraven was taken to the Vatican where pope Francis will decide if he should be beatified.

Roermond bishop Franz Wiertz, who supports the beatification drive, suggested in a sermon on Friday that Schraven could eventually become the patron saint of abuse victims.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
January 5, 2014

Hearing Monday at 10 AM in New Ulm Regarding Release of Secret List of Priests with Credible Allegations of Sexual Abuse

Diocese of New Ulm denying survivor’s request to make public its list of accused priests; is one of two MN dioceses yet to release list

What: Hearing on release of Diocese of New Ulm priests list

When: Monday, January 6, 2014, at 10:00 a.m.

Where: Brown County Courthouse, 14 South State Street, New Ulm, MN 56073, before the Honorable Judge Robert A. Docherty.

Tomorrow at 10 a.m. in a Brown County courtroom, a courageous sexual abuse survivor, along with her attorneys, will request the public release of a secret list possessed and maintained by the Diocese of New Ulm that contains the names of several priests who have credible allegations of sexual abuse. The Diocese of New Ulm and the Diocese of Crookston are the only two Minnesota dioceses that have refused to release the lists.

In a lawsuit filed in 2013 in Brown County, the survivor claims the Diocese of New Ulm was negligent in allowing the now-deceased Father David Roney continued access to children. Father Roney is suspected of abusing several children in Minnesota while he was a priest. The survivor and the survivor’s attorneys are also seeking the public release of the list maintained by the Diocese of New Ulm. Similar efforts have resulted in the release of the lists held by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, the Diocese of Duluth, the Diocese of St. Cloud and St. John’s Abbey.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe has incorporated most of its 92 parishes as nonprofits over the past year – a strategy used by some U.S. dioceses seeking legal protection from sexual abuse lawsuits.

The archdiocese’s action follows those of neighboring dioceses that have incorporated parishes in recent years, including the Diocese of Las Cruces, and the Arizona dioceses of Phoenix and Tucson.

Officials with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe have said the incorporations are an attempt to “describe each parish as a unique civil entity,” but have provided little information about the purpose of the action.

James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented victims of clerical sexual abuse in bankruptcies filed by six U.S. dioceses, said some dioceses have incorporated parishes in an attempt to shield parish assets from claimants in sex abuse lawsuits.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 6 January 2014

A CONGREGATION has been divided over the treatment of a parish priest who was suspended over his claims that there is a culture of homosexual bullying in the Catholic Church.

Parishioners turning up at John Ogilvie RC church in High Blantyre yesterday were given copies of a letter by Bishop Joseph Toal, who is in temporary charge of Motherwell diocese and suspended Father Matthew Despard last November. That action followed the allegations made by Father Despard in a self-published book.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 11

KIEL – A retired Catholic priest serving in Kiel has been removed from active ministry.

Rev. Loren Nys is leaving Saints Peter and Paul Parish, in light of allegations made more than 40 years ago.

The allegations were discovered during a recent review of Nys’ personnel files, which including the letters from two parents.

The letters indicate Nys engaged in inappropriate conduct with children.

The Salvatorian order, which Nys is a part of, says the conduct did not involve the touching of private parts. However, the order did conclude the touching was inappropriate.

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VATICAN CITY
Addicting Info

Pope Francis wasted no time kicking off the New Year by labeling priestly pedophiles as “little monsters” according to a just released report of a meeting held in November.

Sex abuse scandals have plagued the Catholic Church for decades (centuries?) and the lack of action on the part of church officials has been a source of anger across the world. Rather than immediately handing known pedophiles over to the police, the “little monsters” were simply shuffled off to a new city or even country. There, they would continue to abuse children. It has been suggested that one of the reasons the Catholic Church has so many degenerates in it is because it shields, even enables, predators.

Because of this, the reputation of the Church has been seriously damaged over the years and the Pope has taken great strides to repair it. Pope Francis has already shaken the comfortable world of the religious right by openly condemning the pursuit of wealth and the harassment of homosexuals. He’s also taken on financial corruption. If he is serious about fixing the Church’s sexual abuse problem and not just fixing its public relations problem, Pope Francis may go down in history as the man who restored the Church’s moral clarity.
The phrase “little monsters” is likely to rub some people the wrong way. More specifically, the parents and victims of the hundreds (thousands?) of pious predators. Lady Gaga will surely not be amused.

To be fair, Pope Francis was not only referring to sexual predators but also “clericalism.” This is when a person enters the church for the purpose of rising through the ranks as a career instead of a calling. The church is quite wealthy and a high ranking official, like the “Bishop of Bling,” can live like a king. Further in his defense, the Pope was not mincing words:

In his remarks to the superiors, Francis flagged as a risk the “huge problem” of accepting into the seminary someone who has already been asked to leave another religious institute, and cited Pope Benedict XVI’s tough line on priests who commit sexual abuse.

“I am not speaking about people who recognize that they are sinners: we are all sinners, but we are all not corrupt,” Francis said. “Sinners are accepted, but not people who are corrupt.”

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WISCONSIN
Sheboygan Press

A retired priest serving in Kiel has been removed from active ministry after a review of personnel files from 43 years ago found accounts of inappropriate physical contact between him and minors, the priest’s order announced in a press release.

According to the press release from Salvatorian provincialate, Rev. Loren Nys of Saints Peter and Paul Parish, will move to Milwaukee to live with other retired Salvatorian priests and brothers under the supervision of the provincialate.

During a file review, two letters were found from parents indicating inappropriate conduct with youth by Fr. Loren Nys, the press release said.

“Though the physical conduct did not involve private parts, it was inappropriate. The situation was handled by the Salvatorians at the time and was noted in his personnel file. There have been no other allegations made against Fr. Nys in the 43 years since,” the press release said.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Priest’s removal raises more questions than it answers
Kiel parish priest permanently suspended by Milwaukee based religious order

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

The permanent removal yesterday from ministry of Rev. Loren Nys, a Salvatorian priest serving at Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Kiel, while an indication that the Milwaukee based religious order is finally taking steps to reverse their recent documented history of mismanaging and covering up for abusive clergy, still leaves far too many questions unanswered.

The action taken against Nys means that he has committed a criminal or professional act of misconduct or abuse against a child so serious he can never conduct or present himself as a priest again and never should have been allowed to professionally practice for decades.

The Salvatorians, in a press release yesterday, state that the allegations against Nys were proven years ago. Yet, the order kept him working with children and families. And that’s the problem. The Salvatorians have publically and repeatedly claimed for years, including last year when it was proven that current and ongoing revelations of a string of reports of child abuse to church officials against Wauwatosa priest Robert Marsicek were never forwarded to police, that they conduct complete reviews of all reports and files concerning abuse against children by priests. With no criminal justice and independent review of all church abuse files and reports by law enforcement officials or the Wisconsin Attorney General of dioceses and religious orders operating in the state, parents and the public are simply left with what church officials want to tell them in one or two paragraph Saturday press releases.

The biggest question concerning Nys is what could he possibly have done to warrant such serious punitive action? Church officials will only say that it didn’t involve a child’s “private parts”, whatever that means. What professional board of credentialed and licensed occupations working with children in civil society—teachers, social workers or doctors—could possibly issue a ruling against a member like this without describing exactly what the professional and criminal misconduct was and why the license is now being permanently revoked?

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
January 5, 2014

Earlier in the week, Archbishop John Nienstedt was dealing with the release of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis list of accused priests. The list is already under fire as being incomplete and possibly including names of priests who are currently active or at least still in the public. He took to the pulpit and preached. In a homily that was released a day early and reported by the Minneapolis Tribune he wrote:

“The negative news reports about past incidents of clerical sexual abuse in this local church have rightly been met with shame, embarrassment and outrage that such heinous acts could be perpetrated by men who had taken priestly vows as well as bishops who failed to remove them from ministry,”

He followed the appearances with public comments where the Tribune reported that he said:

“When I arrived here seven years ago, one of the first things I was told was that this whole issue of clerical sex abuse had been taken care of and I didn’t have to worry about it,” he told reporters. “Unfortunately I believed that. … And so my biggest apology today is to say I overlooked this. I should have investigated it a lot more than I did. When the story started to break at the end of September, I was as surprised as anyone else.”

The early release was a good way to get the message out to many more than would be sitting in the church in Edina. However, concerning the comments after raise some additional questions because he was previously the Bishop in the New Ulm Dioceses, their list has not yet been released. Will he be surprised about that one also? If the Minneapolis St Paul list hadn’t been released yet, how was he told it was taken care of? Was the real way it was taken care of that they had been successfully defending the cases with the statute of limitations?

Then later in the week, he was forced to take a leave because he had been accused of inappropriately touching a boy. There are differing opinions on how much cooperation there has been with the police in the investigation. We will continue to watch as the story unfolds.

The one pattern which is emerging is that the more current the issue, the less forthcoming the Church seems to be. The LA Times looked at the problems Archbishop Roger Mahony has dealt with and the effect his inaction has had.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 5, 2014 NCR Today

Pope Francis has reportedly abolished the practice of granting priests the honorary title of “monsignor,” and has communicated the decision through Vatican ambassadors around the world.

From now on, only diocesan priests over the age of 65 will be eligible to receive the title, according to a report Saturday at the Italian newspaper La Stampa’s website Vatican Insider.

The title monsignor is an honorific of sorts normally granted to priests as a reward for service to the church or as a sign of some special function they serve in church governance. The title had usually been granted by the pope on the recommendation of the priest’s local bishop.

Some have criticized the practice, saying it leads to an air of careerism in the church.

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