ABUSE TRACKER

ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Mail

The ongoing trial of RGM Independent End Time Message church leader Martin Gumbura appears to have opened a can of worms as an increasing number of women are coming forward to report cases of sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of men of the cloth.

The Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ), a grouping of churches, last week disclosed that they have since handed over cases of suspected sexual abuse, spanning more than 10 churches, to the police for further investigations.

ACCZ president Archbishop Johannes Ndanga a loyalists of President Mugabe’s Zanu PF said the sudden increase in abuse cases that are being reported to his organisation shows that a number of women have for long been suffering in silence.

“Pastors from more than 10 churches stand accused of rape and sexual abuse. In some cases, the pastors are accused of acts such as drug abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Vatican Bank closes thousand accounts/criminal transactions BURNT to leave no trail of crimes further/future investigations…drowned by loud Francis-maniacs at St. Peter’s Square

Updated December 22, 2013

Pope Francis and his Vatican Titanic Deceits Empire of PR media stunts army are doing a “feel-good” Hollywood strategy by making non-stop political photo-ops of Pope Francis with children and the sick so that robotic Catholic Francis-maniacs will continue to flock to St. Peter’s Square and chant, “Francesco, humble Francesco”…….and therefore, those over a thousand lay accounts holders won’t be noticed as they slip in and out circumspectly of the Vatican to close their personal accounts at the Vatican IOR Bank! He was even named Person of the Year by Time Magazine to segue Americans’ attentions away from Vatican crimes of money-launderings with drug lords and terrorism, read our analysis in FRANCIS UPDATES

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INDIA
Gulf Times

A Roman Catholic priest accused of raping a teenage girl surrendered in Tirunelveli last week.

Police had been searching for Gnanapragasam Selvan, of St Antony’s church in Pettai. The victim’s parents had alleged Selvan raped their daughter who was a member of the church choir. When she became pregnant he arranged for her abortion through a local doctor and buried the foetus in the church cemetery.

The police are now on the lookout for the female doctor.

Meanwhile the church diocese has distanced itself from the controversy saying the police have not informed them.

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ALASKA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Andrew Eordogh was a Jesuit priest of the Hungarian Province, ordained in 1958. He worked in Alaska in the late 1960s-early 1970s. In a 2006 lawsuit Eordogh was accused, along with another Jesuit, of sexually abusing a young Alaskan boy, when the boy was 4 to 7 years-old. At the time of the lawsuit Eordogh was living in a retirement home for priests in Hungary. His last known U.S. address was in Chicago.

Ordained: 1958

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OHIO
Vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a self help group for men and women who were abused by clergy, will have a confidential support meeting in Youngstown, at a site to be announced, from 1 to 3 p.m. Dec. 28.

“Victims, family members, and supporters are welcome and encouraged to attend,” said Judy Jones of St. Louis, SNAP’s Midwest associate director. “Getting together in a private setting, with others who know your pain, is helpful to start the healing of anyone who has been abused as a child or exploited as an adult.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
skipshea

Skip Shea

Lisa,

I’m a survivor of clergy sexual abuse from the Diocese of Worcester. At one point in my life the objective reporting on the church and clergy sexual abuse scandal by the Boston Globe is what prompted me to turn my life around. A life filled with drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal ideation and worse.

This morning’s piece, Catholics in the Age of Francis Speak Out, brought me back to the days prior to 2002, when nothing could be said objectively about the church.

I am no longer Catholic so perhaps my view doesn’t fit the story you were trying to tell. It wouldn’t have been positive. Just the opposite. And clearly the point of the story was to find people who would discuss how positive Francis makes them feel. A nice PR piece.

And so far that’s all this is. In an opinion column for Al Jazeera America, Michael Tracey writes that the Vatican PR campaign is “…headed by former Fox News reporter Greg Burke. A member of the ascetic Opus Dei order, Burke is wedded to lifelong celibacy and professional communications services.”

Part of that campaign is the appearance that Francis lives a more humble life. Tracey writes. “Burke correctly surmised that in an era of austerity and continued economic misery, a leader who takes on austere appearances would win favor with the public — no major doctrinal alterations necessary. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book: former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for instance, stripped his office of fine Persian carpets to secure a few favorable headlines. Most important, it works.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness | GLOBE STAFF DECEMBER 22, 2013

A year ago, it would have been impossible to imagine: A pope who dresses simply, who lives in a Vatican guesthouse, who calls for a “poor church for the poor.”

Who speaks warmly about gay people. Who poses for selfies with young fans.

Who says church leaders have become too preoccupied with contraception, homosexuality, and abortion.

After one of the worst decades in Roman Catholic church history, marked by a devastating sexual abuse scandal, internecine turf battles at the Vatican, and a widening chasm between the hierarchy and the people, Pope Francis is changing the conversation about Catholicism around the world — and here at home.

Interviews with a dozen local Catholics offer a sense of how New Englanders have been absorbing the pope’s words and gestures, considering their meaning for the church and for their own spiritual lives.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Aljazeera America

by Amel Ahmed @amelscript December 20, 2013

Students from Eastside Catholic School in the Seattle suburb of Sammamish protested outside the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle Friday following news that their vice principal was forced to resign for marrying his same-sex partner.

The demonstration followed a Thursday sit-in and subsequent walk-out at the school, which has middle school and high school students, after students learned that Mark Zmuda, 38, would have to leave his position.

Caelan Colburn, a student organizer at the Friday protest, told Al Jazeera that about 150 students from various Catholic schools in the area convened in front of the archdiocese in support.

The Eastside Catholic School announced Thursday that classes would be canceled Friday due to forecast snow “and in light of the difficult day” the school had experienced when hundreds of students staged the sit-in.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

Could five little words uttered in 2013 change the course of the Catholic Church?

Pope Francis — also known as Time’s Person of the Year and Twitter’s #bestpopeever — has done a lot of talking since he was installed on the throne of St. Peter in March, tackling everything from luxury cars to income inequality in a series of interviews, sermons and written exhortations.

But for veteran Vatican watcher John Thavis, the pontiff’s most significant pontificating came July 29 when he gave a press conference on a flight back from Brazil.

“Who am I to judge?” he asked.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

By John Higgins
Seattle Times education reporter

Condemnation of Eastside Catholic School’s dismissal of its gay vice principal for marrying his partner — ignited by student protests Thursday — grew louder Friday with demonstrations in Sammamish and downtown Seattle.

Disapproval has spread far wider over social media, especially among Eastside’s far-flung alumni. Many are returning to the Seattle area for the holidays and reunions with classmates.

So far, at least, the voices of anger over the school’s dismissal of vice principal Mark Zmuda have been louder than the voices of those who may support the school’s decision.

Either way, there were no signs Friday that the issue would die down during the Christmas break.

“I’m getting texts from all over the country and all over the globe. I’ve got somebody in Thailand who is upset about it,” said Mary Kopczynski, a 1996 Eastside Catholic graduate and CEO of a financial-consulting firm in New York City, who is coming home for Christmas week. “This is not small, and this is just the beginning.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Joe Soucheray
jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/21/2013

It was an additional and surprising revelation that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was not cooperating with St. Paul police concerning investigations into alleged sexual improprieties by clergy, but now they are. Rather than send only lawyers into the front parlor to meet with investigators, the archdiocese this past week sent its vicar general, the Rev. Charles Lachowitzer, to meet with police. Yes. Lachowitzer was accompanied by one of the lawyers, but at least there was a high-ranking collar in the room.

That is progress. Progress seems to have been jump-started by the allegation made last week by an unnamed male that Archbishop John Nienstedt inappropriately touched the fellow on the butt during a photo session following a confirmation ceremony in 2009. Confirmations are, in their aftermaths, clamorous affairs because everybody has a camera these days and everybody wants a chance to get a photo or a bit of video stream with an archbishop posed with a new young soldier of the faith.

It might be foolhardy to say that I am not buying it — the alleged touching — because we have been surprised at nearly every turn, including Nienstedt’s apology last week when he delivered sermons at Our Lady of Grace in Edina. Here, again, we simply had a failure of modern public relations.

Nienstedt said he failed to pay close enough attention because he said he was told upon his arrival as archbishop in 2008 that sexual abuse by clergy had been contained and taken care of. That was a ridiculous position for him to take. It wasn’t exactly a non-apology apology, so common today in America’s cultural swoon, but it did not meet the standards expected of a boss.

No less ridiculous is the suggestion that Nienstedt did what he is alleged to have done. Come forward, young man, and tell us exactly what you mean when you charge that the archbishop inappropriately touched you. What exactly is an inappropriate touching of the butt — a pat, a slap, a brushing against? A brushing against is entirely plausible giving the clamorous nature of the post-confirmation excitement.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Herald News

By Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Dec 21, 2013

Pope Francis has invited homeless men for dinner and embraced physically handicapped people in St. Peter’s Square.

But Robert M. Hoatson said the pope has yet to connect with victims of clergy sex abuse.

“What greater population of need is there than people who have been abused by their own clergy?” said Hoatson, a survivor of clergy sex abuse and co-founder and president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey-based nonprofit that advocates for sex abuse victims.

Hoatson, along with nine other high-profile Catholic whistleblowers on clergy sex abuse, signed an open letter on Dec. 9 to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and a member of Pope Francis’ panel of cardinals that advises him on church governance and reform.

The letter called upon Cardinal O’Malley, the former bishop of Fall River, to appoint Hoatson and two other victim advocates to the new commission that Pope Francis is creating to advise him on protecting children and counseling victims of sex abuse.

Hoatson, whose organization has advocated for sex abuse victims in the Diocese of Fall River, said the new Vatican commission needs to focus on providing victims with legal, juridical and psychological services, not just pastoral initiatives.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — A former church youth volunteer and child mentor charged with 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges has waived the time limit for his preliminary hearing.

Timothy Probert, 55, was taken into custody by Sgt. M.D. Clemons, with the Crimes Against Children Unit of the West Virginia State Police, earlier this month. He was scheduled to appear this morning before Mercer County Magistrate Jim Dent for a preliminary hearing, but waived the time limit. A new preliminary hearing date for Probert will be set sometime in January, according to court officials.

The alleged crimes stem from incidents that occurred when Probert was a youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield and a volunteer with the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program.

Probert is charged with 22 counts of sexual abuse by a custodian; six counts of first-degree sexual abuse; seven counts of third-degree sexual assault; one count of distribution and display of obscene matter to a minor; one count of use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor; and one count of use of a minor to produce obscene matter or to assist in doing sexually explicit conduct.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Jeff Anderson statement of erroneous depiction of priest on “Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ List of 34”

Firm issues public apology to Father Patrick J. Ryan

(St. Paul, MN) – Jeff Anderson and Associates sincerely apologizes for the incorrect depiction of Father Patrick J. Ryan at its Press Conference on December 5, 2013. At the conference and included in the media kit, our firm depicted Father Patrick J. Ryan on “The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ List of 34.” The image of Father Patrick J. Ryan was mistakenly confirmed as the Father Patrick Joseph Ryan contained on the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ List. There are no known allegations of sexual abuse against the Father Patrick J. Ryan pictured on December 5, 2013.

When told of the potential mistake, we immediately alerted all media personnel present at the press conference.

We are not aware of any media running that picture individually. There were two stations that we are aware of that posted a picture of the survivors at the press conference with the background of the Archdiocese List of 34 which included several pictures, including the mistaken picture of Fr. Ryan. We immediately called the two stations that posted those pictures the same night to let them know so that the photo would be removed.

Jeff Anderson personally telephoned Father Patrick J. Ryan that evening to apologize profusely for the inaccuracy and issued an apology letter the following day.

Jeff Anderson and Associates expresses our heartfelt regret for the inadvertent depiction of Father Patrick J. Ryan as a priest on the Archdiocese’s list of 34.

The apology letter to Father Ryan can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Mobile/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Mobile/612.205.5531

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OHIO
The Plain Dealer

By Tom Feran, The Plain Dealer
on December 21, 2013

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Rev. James McGonegal, the 68-year-old priest indicted on a felony charge in October for soliciting sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park, has been replaced as pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch Church in Cleveland.

Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese accepted McGonegal’s resignation as pastor on submission. Lennon then appointed the Rev. Michael Troha as the church’s new leader. Troha was pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Willoughby since 2004.

The change was effective Dec. 10.

The announcement was made in Friday’s edition of the biweekly Catholic Universe Bulletin, the diocesan newspaper.

Troha’s official installation as pastor will be at a 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday, Jan. 25, at St. Ignatius of Antioch, with Lennon presiding.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Source:Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis greatly appreciates the comments by St. Paul Police Chief Smith today. We affirm that we received his letter and answered within the two-day span requested. In our response, we asked for an opportunity to meet with members of the St. Paul Police.

Our hope was that, through this meeting, which the police set for tomorrow, we could better understand the requests for information in greater detail.

We look forward to the meeting, which will include not only an attorney but also our new Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, Fr. Charles Lachowitzer, as was requested by Chief Smith. Although we cannot speak for Fr. McDonough and his choice not to speak with the police, as we have stated repeatedly, the archdiocese seeks to cooperate with the police and all civil authorities.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Thursday, December 19, 2013

Source:Jim Accurso

A media report was published today regarding Harry Walsh, a former member of the Redemptorists religious order in Ireland, and a former priest who ministered in the Archdiocese of Detroit and who later moved to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Walsh agreed to resign from priestly ministry in 2005 and was subsequently permanently removed from the priesthood (laicized) in 2012.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is committed to disclosure because it can be an important means of assisting victims of abuse in their healing process. Our sorrow for all acts of abuse by clergy can never be communicated enough. Our new disclosure practices began on December 5 and are ongoing. This is a process that has just begun and will take some time in order to proceed thoroughly and factually.

As we continue that work with a genuine sense of urgency, we want to provide the following facts regarding a number of assertions made in today’s media report regarding Walsh.

The Archbishop did not know of the allegations relating to Walsh’s alleged sexual abuse of a minor until 2010. The Archbishop informed Walsh (who was then no longer in active ministry) that he could either choose to request a dispensation from the obligations of Holy Orders, or the archdiocese would seek his dismissal through the appropriate canonical process. Walsh chose to request a dispensation and he was subsequently laicized.

Minnesota law and the archdiocese’s policies at the time did not obligate the archdiocese to report these dated allegations to police. In accordance with our present policy, we will report all past and present credible claims of sexual abuse of minors to the police as our file review continues.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Whatever the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse uncovers in its up-coming hearings on Salvation Army Children’s Homes, history will always remember the abuses committed by Salvation Army officers and staff in their Children’s Homes, due to one person who no longer lives.

The Salvation Army ran an orphanage in the suburb of Woolton in the U.K. city of Liverpool, from 1936 to 2005. It has been listed by www.abuselaw.co.uk as having complaints of child sexual abuse.

One victim’s statement alleges that he was in this Children’s Home “from 1987 – 1992. I witnessed abuse, and was victim to it also. It was physical, sexual, mental and psychological abuse. My sister was abused, and she took the abuser to court, yet he got away with it, it was brushed under the carpet. She was moved to another Home, and the abuser stayed, allowing him to carry on abusing more victims, including myself. That is my story.”

There was a boy who lived around the corner from the Home. As a child in the 1950s, he squeezed through the Home’s tall, wrought iron gates and played on the grounds with some of the orphans who lived there. He felt a kinship with them after he was abandoned by his father and sent by his mother to live with his Aunt. He played with childhood friends in the trees behind the orphanage when he was a boy, and always attended an annual fete there, with his Aunt.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

Pope Francis’ meeting today with officials of the Roman Curia was important for what was said and what wasn’t said.

The annual Christmas encounter between the pope and his bureaucratic support system is often a time for “big” speeches that outline papal agendas, and what better occasion for Pope Francis to explain his big project of Curia reform?

That didn’t happen. Instead, in a short speech, the pope made three points that, while offering some praise for the performance of the Roman Curia, also seemed to challenge the reigning attitudes there.

First, the pope spoke of the need for professional skill and competence. “When professionalism is lacking, there is a slow slide toward the area of mediocrity,” he said. Tasks become routine and communication closed, while awareness of the bigger picture is lost.

Incompetence and lack of communication, of course, have been two of the biggest criticisms of the Roman Curia in recent years – criticisms that were aired in the cardinals’ meetings that took place ahead of last spring’s conclave.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/20/2013

After the St. Paul police said in October that they wanted to hear from victims of clergy sexual abuse, a former White Bear Lake woman picked up the phone.

She called an investigator in that north suburban city, saying she had been abused by the Rev. Ambrose Filbin at St. Pius X in the 1960s, while she was in grade school there.

“He caught me in a (school supply) room and just started kissing me, French kissing,” said the woman, who will be referred to as “Donna” for this report. It is not her real name. “And as I struggled to get away, he said, ‘Coward.’ ”

She was 14.

Donna said Filbin followed up the kissing with fondling. She said the abuse lasted six years.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran · St. Paul, Minn. · Dec 20, 2013

An internal church memo from 2002 names three priests with “known abuse histories” who weren’t on the list of “credibly accused” priests released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis earlier this month.

The three priests are: the Rev. Tom Gillespie, the Rev. Harold Whittet, and the Rev. Ambrose Filbin. Gillespie, a Benedictine monk, was identified by St. John’s Abbey on Dec. 9 as a cleric “likely to have offended against minors.” Whittet and Filbin are dead.

The Aug. 12, 2002, memo obtained by MPR News provides further evidence that the archdiocese has not released the names of all priests it believes sexually abused children.

Archbishop John Nienstedt has said the archdiocese will update its public list if it “learns of additional credible claims of abuse by a minor by a member of the clergy.” However, Nienstedt won’t say why he hasn’t disclosed the names of several priests identified in the 2002 memo as known abusers.

A spokesman for the archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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UNITED STATES
GoodTherapy.org

For those who experience abuse—physical, sexual, or emotional—the consequences can be devastating, and the road to recovery may be a long and challenging one. Some survivors of childhood abuse may repress memories until later in life; others may carry the memories with them their entire lives.

Abuse affects several facets of a person’s well-being, from the ability to cope with stress to the ability to hold down a job, maintain intimacy in relationships, and handle the many emotional ups and downs of life. Depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, sleep disturbances, panic, sexual dysfunction, and issues with self-esteem are just a few of the challenges someone who has survived abuse may experience on a regular basis. Support and guidance during the healing and recovery process is essential to move forward and find peace amid the inner chaos.

We’ve compiled a list of the 10 best websites for survivors of abuse in 2013—GoodTherapy.org excluded. As with our previous top 10 lists, our selections are based on quality and depth of content, presentation, and functionality.

Joyful Heart Foundation: The mission of the Joyful Heart Foundation is “to heal, educate, and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues.” The site focuses its resources and information on healing and wellness, education and awareness, and policy and advocacy. Its approach centers on mind-body-spirit healing, and it offers an assortment of day and multiday retreat programs for survivors as well as a “Heal the Healers” program and training workshops for health professionals who work closely with survivors.

ASCA: Adult Survivors of Child Abuse: Created by the Norma J. Morris Center for healing from child abuse, the ASCA program was designed to offer self-help support and resources for adult survivors of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect as a child. The site encourages victims to make the shift “from survivor to thriver” with the help of workbooks and support groups.

MaleSurvivor: This not-for-profit organization caters to boys and men who have been sexually abused or victimized. It emphasizes that although the male experience of abuse does not receive a great deal of attention, statistics indicate that one in six men endures sexual abuse before the age of 16. To facilitate hope and healing for male survivors of various ages, the organization provides resources and information, support group links, weekend recovery programs, discussion forums, personal stories of recovery, and a national program called Dare to Dream. Educational materials also are available for parents and professionals working with survivors.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By: Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio News

Joe Schmidt’s church can count on him this year for a Christmas donation. His generosity, however, won’t reach the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

He plans to send only $1 to Archbishop John Nienstedt’s annual Catholic Services Appeal, which helps run the archdiocese. The dollar will come with a message of frustration over allegations that archdiocese leaders for decades covered up sexual abuse by priests.

“I give them a nominal amount just to say I considered it, but I’m going in a different direction,” said Schmidt, a parishioner at Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis. The dollar “sends the message that I’m no longer going to support the administration.”

Church leaders across the metro are bracing for similar reactions from Catholics across the Twin Cities.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Lauren Markoe Religion News Service | Dec. 18, 2013

Clergy used to rank near the top in polls asking Americans to rate the honesty and ethics of people in various professions. This year, for the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 1977, fewer than half of those polled said clergy have “high” or “very high” moral standards.

But opinions on clergy differed markedly by party, with Republicans viewing them far more favorably than Democrats.

Overall, 47 percent of respondents to the survey gave clergy “high” or “very high” ratings, a sharp drop in confidence from the 67 percent of Americans who viewed them this way in 1985.

Among Republicans, 63 percent gave clergy one of the two top ratings for ethics, compared with 40 percent of Democrats.

In a piece accompanying the poll, Gallup Senior Editor Jeffrey M. Jones wrote that Republicans might think more highly of clergy, police and military officers “because those people work in traditional institutions in American society, which Republicans may hold in greater esteem because of their generally conservative ideology.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 22, 2013

Paul McGeough
Chief foreign correspondent

And so another rock star is born. Welcome Francis – that’s Pope Francis.

Just as the Norwegian Nobel Committee rushed to sanctify Barack Obama by awarding him the 2009 peace prize, even before he’d done unpacking at the White House, there’s a rush by the world’s news media to canonise Pope Francis, even before he’s warmed the papal throne at the Vatican.

As a new world figure Francis is a sensation, to be sure. One of the more endearing welcomes came from MSNBC’s cool and bespectacled young commentator Chris Hayes: ”Given the constraints of what being Pope is, you can operate in one of two ways: you can be a jerk about it, or you can be awesome – and this guy is choosing to be awesome.”

The Huffington Post is in raptures: ”We love him.” At Gawker, Francis is ”our cool new Pope” and Time magazine has named him its 2013 Person of the Year. Out with Benedict, the theology professor; in with Francis, the former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher.

These days we just can’t help ourselves. The insatiable appetite of a 24/7 news machine means we must constantly feed the beast, so we race ahead of the news and, in this case, serve notice that the hapless Francis must live up to our expectations as reformer extraordinaire.

As an institution, the church is in a bad way. Think child sex abuse on an industrial scale and money laundering, graft and homosexual blackmail at the Vatican. And will we ever forget the Bishop of Bling and the bathtub that cost $20,000 in the $42 million renovation of his palace at Lindberg, Germany?

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Daily News

JULIE SHAW, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER SHAWJ@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-2592
POSTED: Sunday, December 22, 2013

ARTHUR BASELICE Jr. is a lost soul, a man destroyed by the Catholic Church.

His son, Arthur Baselice III, died at age 28 of a drug overdose, and the father has blamed Charles Newman, the Franciscan friar and former president of Archbishop Ryan High School, for his death.

Newman was convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school and his religious order. He was sentenced in May 2009 to three to six years in state prison, followed by 10 years’ probation.

On Monday, he is scheduled to be released on parole and sent to the Self-Help Movement community correction center – a halfway house – on Southampton Road in the Far Northeast, according to a letter by the Office of the Victim Advocate, provided to the Daily News by Baselice Jr.

The fact that Newman could soon be free to walk the streets outrages Baselice Jr.

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INDIA
Hindustan Times

A temple priest was arrested late in the evening on Saturday for sodomising a minor in Lehnu village in Trikri area of Udhampur. According to reports, a well known ‘mahant’ of a temple situated at village Lehnu on the Jammu-Srinagar highway was arrested by the police on allegations of sexual assault of a minor boy who is under treatment at Government Medical College, Jammu.

As per the police, a few members of a Jammu-based NGO filed an FIR at Tikri police station demanding the arrest of mahant Kamal Giri alleging that he had sexually assaulted a minor boy in his ashram for several days.

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UNITED STATES
Whispers in the Loggia

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2013

Over the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the traditional “Christmas greeting” to the Roman Curia became one of the year’s most anticipated speeches as the now Pope-emeritus both recapped the closing cycle and mused on topics of his interest. Among the group, perhaps the emblematic talks are 2005’s watershed address on the interpretation of Vatican II, which aimed to lay the groundwork for one of his most controversial projects – the reintegration of the SSPX – and 2010’s reflection on clergy sex-abuse in the wake of that year’s European outbreak of the scandals, which a media frenzy attempted to drive right up to Joseph Ratzinger’s doorstep.

Like so much else this time around, it was unclear what Pope Francis would do with his first turn at the speech today… but given the Argentine pontiff’s habit for dropping rhetorical bombs at any time – especially when top officials are present – most observers went into this morning’s appointment expecting more, not less. While the result was much briefer than Benedict’s elegant, detail-rich meditations in years past, the new Pope’s usual “three words” on this occasion still packed a considerable punch. (Above, Francis is shown high-fiving young members of Italy’s influential Catholic Action, who he received in an audience last night.)

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

A PRIEST accused of sexually abusing three altar boys is now “likely” to be facing charges against four more alleged victims.

Francis Paul Cullen, who spent 18 years working at Christ the King Catholic Church, on the Mackworth Estate, was extradited this summer from Tenerife, where he had been living.

The 85-year-old had been detained on a European arrest warrant issued by Britain.

He appeared at Derby Crown Court yesterday, wearing a khaki-coloured T-shirt over a short-sleeved shirt and beige trousers, for a plea and case management hearing.

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CHILE
El Universal

La Iglesia católica chilena anunció este viernes la expulsión de estado clerical del sacerdote, René Benavides, tras ser hallado culpable del delito de abuso sexual a tres menores, por un tribunal canónico.

“En fallo definitivo e inapelable de un tribunal canónico de segunda instancia, la Iglesia ha confirmado la sentencia que condena al presbítero René Benavides Rives como culpable del delito de abuso sexual contra tres menores de edad”, dijo un comunicado de la Iglesia chilena.

“El tribunal ha impuesto al sacerdote la pena expiatoria perpetua de expulsión del estado clerical, que es la máxima sanción dispuesta por el ordenamiento jurídico de la Iglesia”, agregó.

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CHILE
El Diario

By: Andrés Alburquerque Fuschini

POSTED: DEC 20, 2013

Santiago de Chile – En fallo definitivo e inapelable, el Tribunal Canónico de Segunda Instancia de la Iglesia católica chilena condenó al presbítero René Benavides Rives a la perpetua expulsión del estado clerical, tras ser hallado culpable de abuso sexual contra tres menores de edad.

Así lo confirmó esta mañana el Obispado de San Felipe, que detalla que el tribunal impuso al sacerdote la máxima sanción dispuesta por el ordenamiento jurídico de la Iglesia.

“Esto significa que el señor Benavides no conserva el ejercicio del ministerio sacerdotal: no puede administrar sacramentos ni ejercer los derechos propios de dicho estado, como tampoco puede desarrollar otros encargos o actividades en parroquias, colegios u otras instituciones católicas”, explicó la institución en un comunicado.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

The Diocese of Gallup obtained two loans totaling $229,000 from neighboring dioceses to help pay for professional services related to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a church official said this week.

The loans included $29,000 from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and $200,000 from the Diocese of Phoenix, according to court records the Gallup diocese filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque.

The loans were obtained shortly before the Diocese of Gallup filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 12, to help pay for legal and financial services, Gallup Bishop James Wall said Thursday at a creditors’ meeting in Albuquerque.

Wall did not specify the date or terms of the loans, which are listed as unsecured nonpriority claims in the diocese’s court filings.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

Bishop John Quinn spoke of “a very long and painful road” to forgiveness when discussing the 14 priests from the Winona Diocese who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

We’ve long believed that public disclosure is a necessary step for the Catholic Church to restore its credibility after decades of stonewalling on child-abuse allegations. However, it took a court order to force the church to release the names after a lawsuit was filed against the Winona Diocese in 2008.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

EBENSBURG — With a potential criminal investigation waiting in the wings, Bishop McCort High School appears to be cleaning house of those who may have or should have known that Brother Stephen Baker was sexually abusing students for years.

The Tribune-Democrat has learned from multiple unnamed sources that longtime math teacher Carol Grove was dismissed from her post at the school earlier this month, and word is that others may be dismissed.

“It sounds like guilt by association,” said one former Bishop McCort student. “I think the McCort graduates and others need to know what is going on.”

Grove, who is listed on the school’s website as a math teacher, was also Key Club moderator and overseer of Mu Alpha Theta, a school-based math club.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

(CNN) — Pope Francis put the ideals of professionalism, service and holiness to the fore Saturday in his first Christmas message to the Curia, the Roman Catholic Church’s governing body.

The Roman Curia, which includes Vatican staff, priests and cardinals, gathered in the ornate Clementine Hall. The pope praised those who have worked in the Vatican for “many years with immense dedication, hidden from the eyes of the world.”

The church needs “people who work with competence, precision and self sacrifice in the fulfillment of their daily duties,” he said.

Without professionalism, Francis warned, “there is a slow drift downwards towards mediocrity” and “dossiers become full of trite and lifeless information” that fail to inspire.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, December 21

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis warned Vatican administrators Saturday that their work can take a downward spiral into mediocrity, gossip and bureaucratic squabbling if they forget that theirs is a professional vocation of service to the church.

Francis made the comments in his Christmas address to the Vatican Curia, the bureaucracy that forms the central government of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. The speech was eagerly anticipated given that Francis was elected in March on a mandate to overhaul the antiquated and oftentimes dysfunctional Vatican administration.

Already, heads have started to roll: Just last week, Francis reshuffled the advisory body of the powerful Congregation for Bishops, the office that vets all the world’s bishop nominations. He removed the arch-conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a key figure in the U.S. culture wars over abortion and gay marriage, and also nixed the head of Italy’s bishops’ conference and another hardline Italian, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, earlier axed as head of the Vatican office responsible for priests.

Other changes are on the horizon: In the coming weeks Francis will name his first batch of cardinals and in February will preside over the third summit of his “Group of Eight” cardinal advisers, who are expected to put forward a first round of proposals for revamping the Holy See bureaucracy.

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CHICAGO (IL)
New York Daily News

BY CAROL KURUVILLA / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2013

A middle school teacher in Chicago has reportedly been hiding a sickening secret for nearly twenty years.

Two women are accusing teacher Cherie Carlson of using her status as a spiritual mentor in the 1990s to sexually abuse young girls at a church camp owned by Chicago’s North Side Gospel Center.

“She said she was showing me God’s love,” said one survivor, who spoke to NBC Chicago under the pseudonym “Jane Doe.”

Jane Doe has filed a lawsuit against Carlson, accusing her of forced oral sex and penetration between 1996 and 1997. The lawsuit also accuses the church of not doing enough to stop the abuse.

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OHIO
Canton Repository

YOUNGSTOWN
SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, will host a confidential support meeting in Youngstown from 1 to 3 p.m. on Dec. 28.

“Victims, family members and supporters are welcome and encouraged to attend,” said Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest Associate Director. “Getting together in a private setting, with others who know your pain, is helpful to start the healing of anyone who has been abused as a child or exploited as an adult.”

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Predator priest now lives in Dallas
Catholic officials say he’s “credibly accused”
He was “outed” for first time last week in Minnesota
And he supposedly faces a church defrocking trial this month

For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 20, 2013

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging a Texas bishop to warn his flock about an abusive priest who has reportedly moved to the Dallas area.

Last week, a Minnesota judge ordered the Winona diocese to release a list of credibly accused predator priests. One of them is Fr. Joseph C. Cashman.

It was the first time Fr. Cashman was publicly accused of molesting kids. Church officials are trying to defrock him.

“We believe that Fr. Cashman is still dangerous and belongs behind bars,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “But this predator will probably continue to escape consequences for his crimes unless bishops in Dallas and Minnesota start acting with real compassion and decisiveness.”

“Bishops recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train, transfer and shield predator priests,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “So when credible abuse reports surface, they must warn the public and take active steps to help police investigate the allegations and help parents safeguard their kids.”

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CHILE
GlobalPost

Chile’s Roman Catholic Church said Friday it has defrocked a priest after finding him guilty of sexually abusing three minors.

A church tribunal found that Rene Benavides committed the abuse while serving as a priest in the city of Los Andes in the 1990s.

“The tribunal has imposed on the priest the perpetual punishment of expulsion from the clerical state, which is the maximum sanction available under church law,” the Chilean church said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 20, 2013

SYDNEY The papal nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, claimed diplomatic immunity in response to repeated requests for archival documentation that might assist a prosecutor with her inquiry into sex abuse, copies of correspondence released this week show.

In the end, though, Gallagher decided to turn over documents sought as part of the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday, Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, said Gallagher told him the Apostolic Nunciature had handed over the documents Dec. 6.

The Truth Justice and Healing Council was established early this year to coordinate the church’s response to the royal commission. Sullivan said when he took on the role he had made it clear that the church would cooperate fully with the commission. “That was the instruction from the church leadership and the same applies to other inquiries.”

“Although we’re very clear that the relationship between Australia and the Vatican is conducted through the appropriate diplomatic channels, we’ll produce the documents the inquiry needs,” Sullivan said.

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INDIA
The Hindu

The priest who is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl surrendered before Judicial Magistrate (Uthamapalayam) Geetha, who remanded him in judicial custody for 15 days.

He has been lodged in Madurai Central Prisons, according to a report from Theni.

Parish priest of St. Antony’s Church, Pettai, Fr. Gnanapragasam Selvan allegedly raped the girl, who became pregnant.

Hunt on for doctor

When the priest’s efforts to pacify the girl’s poor parents failed, he approached doctor S. Meenakshi from Tirunelveli Town, who surgically removed the foetus, according to police.

It was buried in the graveyard under the control of St. Antony’s Church administration.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

Dave Battagello
Dec 20, 2013

A decision will be handed down in Sarnia’s Superior Court in February following the conclusion of a trial this week of a former Windsor priest who was said in court to have sexually abused at least a dozen early-adolescent girls in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Gabriele Del Bianco is facing 18 counts of sexual assault-related offences for his alleged involvement with young girls.

Final submissions by both Crown and defence lawyers were made on Wednesday and concluded Thursday to Justice Joseph Donohue. He indicated his judgement will be handed down on Feb. 24 at 10 a.m. in Sarnia’s Superior Court, said assistant Crown attorney Aniko Coughlan, who is handling the case.

The trial began in October with four of Del Bianco’s alleged victims testifying in court.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Catholic Defense League

(St. Paul, MN) The Minnesota Catholic Defense League called on Minnesota Public Radio to immediately release all pertinent and credible information they have regarding any sexual abuse scandals.

“It has become clear that Minnesota Public Radio is in possession of information that might be relevant in preventing potential child abuse,” said David Strom, spokesman for the League.

“Over the last four months, Minnesota Public Radio has released a steady stream of stories about allegations of priest abuse,” said Strom.

“We find it disturbing and completely hypocritical for MPR to criticize the church for withholding information when, in fact, they appear to be holding back information to benefit their editorial schedule.”

The CDL pointed to a December 19th story involving a former Catholic priest accused of abuse. His name and possible misconduct was previously unknown to the public. CDL officials questioned why MPR waited until yesterday to release this story.

The accused former priest, Harry Walsh, is currently employed by Wright County as a sex education teacher, and has regular contact with vulnerable youth.

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MINNESOTA
Patch

Posted by James Warden (Editor) , December 20, 2013

After weeks of cover-up accusations against the Catholic Church, church supporters are now making cover-up allegations of their own … against the news organization that’s largely responsible for breaking the story on clergy sex abuse.

A Friday statement from the Catholic Defense League of Minnesota said Minnesota Public Radio appeared to be withholding information on clergy sex abuse in order to benefit their editorial schedule.

MPR has played a significant part in driving coverage of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Its coverage included information from a church official who left in frustration after she thought the church didn’t respond adequately to abuse allegations.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had originally won court approval to seal a 2004 list of priests who had been “credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors in the archdiocese.” But the growing uproar convinced the church to reverse course. It released a list of accused priests Dec. 5.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat.

December 20, 2013 1:42 pm | Author: Jerry Berger

Last week was tough for St. Louis priests who became bishops with a notable exception. As reported here first (and became a tipsheet for the Post-Dispatch and television stations) Pope Francis dissed Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal Justin Rigali , knocking them off a key church panel that taps new bishops. And Memphis Bishop Terry Steib was criticized for keeping silent about a Tennessee priest, Fr. James Murphy, who allegedly molested kids in clergy sex orgies.

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ROME
Catholic News Agency

Rome, Italy, Dec 20, 2013 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Velasio de Paolis told 31 new priests of Legionaries of Christ that their perseverance shows “the love of Christ” that can overcome the past scandals of their congregation and purify and renew it.

“You have suffered, and you have realized the suffering that other Legionaries – beginning with the founder – have caused in the lives of others. And the suffering of others has helped you to understand and carry your own suffering,” the cardinal said in his homily before the priestly ordinations Dec. 14 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

“By your decision and by your faithfulness, by your suffering and by bearing the shame of other Legionaries’ sins, you have enabled the purification and renewal of the congregation itself, and you have made it more beautiful in its service to Regnum Christi and to the Church,” he said, referring to the congregation’s lay association.

In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI removed the Legion of Christ’s founder Father Marcial Maciel from ministry and ordered him to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance. The priest has been the subject of accusations that he sexually abused seminarians. He was also revealed to have led a double life in which he fathered children and allegedly abused some of them as well. Fr. Maciel died in 2008.

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GlobalPost

Jason Berry

In November 2012, on assignment for GlobalPost and National Catholic Reporter, I traveled to the University of Tübingen in Germany to interview Professor Hans Küng about the Vatican investigation of the main leadership group of American nuns.

Küng, along with Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), are the most renowned Catholic theologians of the last half-century. Their conflicts, which date back several decades, mirror a divided church.

In the early 1960s, when the shy, bookish Ratzinger taught at Tübingen, he had no driver’s license, and bicycled up steep hills of the medieval town. Küng drove a convertible and sometimes gave him rides. Both priests were liberal advisors at the reform-driven Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In 1968, when student protestors disrupted Ratzinger’s class, he began a steady move to the right. In 1979, as a Vatican cardinal, he revoked Küng’s license to teach theology for challenging papal infallibility.

Küng, with tenure, shifted his teaching focus but escalated his criticism of a monarchical papacy; he accused John Paul of reducing bishops to yes-men, undercutting Vatican II reforms. Later, he called Ratzinger “the Grand Inquisitor” after the cardinal who scorns Jesus, while persecuting heretics in The Brothers Karamazov.

With a ceaseless tide of books, speeches and interviews, Küng became an international figure, and as founder of Global Ethic Foundation, has drawn international leaders into dialogue on ethical norms for peaceful world development.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 20, 2013

Statement by Frank Meuers, Minnesota SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Phone: 952-334-5180 Email: frankameuers@gmail.com)

Today, like yesterday, Minnesota citizens and Catholics learned the names of accused predator priests. And today, like yesterday, the information was made public by responsible news outlets, not by church officials.

Minnesota parents and parishioners should thank the Star-Tribune for revealing Fr. Ambrose Filbin and Fr. Harold Whittet are accused of sexual misconduct and Minnesota Public Radio for revealing that Fr. Harry Walsh is a credibly accused child molester.

[Star Tribune]

And that’s just in the last two days. Such revelations have been steadily trickling out in the Twin Cities for months.

And virtually every new name of a proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting cleric has been made public despite, not because of, Catholic officials.

Minnesota parents and parishioners should also be outraged that Twin Cities Catholic officials kept the credible allegations against Fr. Whittet and Fr. Filbin secret for more than 11 years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

First In a Series

By Kathy Kane

We tell them “to tell.” This generation of children and young people are taught to tell a trusted adult if someone speaks to them inappropriately, touches them inappropriately. There are books from when they are young that describe the areas of their body which are private. We have background checks for all who interact with them at school and on sports teams. They have been more informed and educated than the generations before them and they trust that as adults we would never put them in harm’s way. As adults we would do as we instruct them, we would ‘tell.” We would never withhold information from them even if there was just the possibility of a person being a threat to them.

When the news broke that Fr Paul had been allowed to stay at Our lady of Calvary for many months while being investigated, my immediate thoughts went to the children of the school and parish. Not just their physical safety but their psychological well being. Keeping information from children concerning their safety flies in the face of all that they have been taught and that we hope to instill in them should they face an abusive situation in their young life. Tell someone…don’t keep a secret…don’t hide it.

This could have happened at any parish as we are all part of one large system. A system that has spent countless time and money over the past few years with high priced consultants and pages of new documents. The best scenario this all produced was to keep a priest at a parish while he was being investigated and withhold this information from the parents. Oh how far we have not come.

I have seen the reactions of children when a predator was exposed…I can’t imagine the reaction when it is revealed that trusted adults had information and kept it from them and their parents. Even the most remote possibility that a person in their life could have harmed children…the remote possibility and this information was kept from them.

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IRELAND
Sydney Morning Herald

For decades, “bad” Irish girls were sent away to convent-run laundries, where they worked for no pay in awful conditions for years on end. Now, writes Jane Wheatley, survivors are finally getting compensation.

Martina Keogh was 16, selling newspapers outside a Dublin cinema, when a fight broke out on the street beside her. She was arrested along with the girls involved, sent to court and convicted of disorderly conduct. Her punishment would be two years’ incarceration and unpaid labour in a convent laundry run by nuns.

It was 1964, the year the Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton married for the first time and 5000 more American troops were sent to fight in Vietnam, but Martina would know nothing of all this. Instead, she would spend her days washing and ironing and her nights in a locked dormitory with bars on the windows.

On a hot, sunny day earlier this northern summer, Keogh takes me back to the convent in Dublin’s Sean McDermott Street, an imposing four-storey brick building now silent and empty of life. Set into a panel of the big, wooden, double-entrance doors is a small, eye-level grille. Keogh recalls being escorted there by a garda (policeman): “The shutter across the grille slid back and I could just see eyes looking out,” she says. “The garda said, ‘Got another one for you here, Sister.’ ”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Dec. 20, 2013 All Things Catholic

Not so long ago, the yuletide season at the Vatican meant calm. The pope and the Curia went into semi-hibernation while hearing Advent sermons from the Preacher of the Papal Household while the system was on a basic hiatus, with no real drama rolling out of Rome until well into January.
In the Francis era, however, there’s no “off” switch, which makes me very glad I’ve been in Rome this week.

The pope marked the period around his 77th birthday on Tuesday with a series of decisions and gestures that collectively amounted to another important chapter in the “Francis revolution.” A tick-tock of notable developments includes the following.

* On Sunday, the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa published another blockbuster interview with Francis, this one featuring comments from the pope on conservative American criticism that his economic ideas are Marxist and a rare definitive papal response to speculation about what he might do, in this case a firm “no” to the idea of women cardinals.

* On Monday, Francis announced an earthquake at the Vatican’s all-important Congregation for Bishops, in effect steering the body away from a hard-line position on the culture wars and toward a more centrist stance. For Americans, the most notable change was bringing in Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and taking away Cardinal Raymond Burke.

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DETROIT (MI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, December 19, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Yesterday, Archbishop Allen Vigneron’s public relations mouthpiece admitted that three times, a brave victim urged Detroit Catholic officials to take action against the priest who molested her but was still on the job.

The third time, Detroit Catholic officials took action: they offered her therapy.

That is incredibly irresponsible.

Three times, Detroit Catholic officials acted selfishly, callously, recklessly and deceitfully. Three times, they opted to protect a predator priest, and their own reputations and wealth, instead of protecting vulnerable kids.

Shame on every single Detroit archbishop, bishop, priest, defense lawyer and public relations staffer who helped Fr. Harry Walsh stay in ministry around unsuspecting families.

A special shame on archdiocesan public relations man Ned McGrath who told the Detroit Free Press yesterday that he and his church colleagues and supervisors “could have done better to follow up if anything was done” by St. Paul-Minneapolis Catholic officials to address the accusations against Walsh.

That’s baloney. McGrath knows better. But he – like thousands of other corrupt Catholic officials across the world – pretend that their reckless secrecy is somehow a “goof” or a “slip up.” It’s not. It’s part of an ancient, deliberate pattern of protecting the church hierarchy from embarrassment and lawsuits and prosecution, and letting parents and families and kids essentially fend for themselves.

Adding insult to injury, McGrath also said that “Detroit Catholic officials are reviewing their procedures now,” implying that something may be wrong with the formal abuse policies of the archdiocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 20 December 2013)

Child-abuser Father Finian Egan was supported by the Catholic Church and powerful friends but he was finally brought to justice by three of his victims, with help from Broken Rites.

Egan, who sexually assaulted children from his parishes on multiple occasions during his long career in Sydney, has been sentenced to at least four years’ jail.

Three women who were sexually abused as children by Egan have slammed the Catholic Church for harbouring him in the priesthood for five decades.

Egan had been found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to attacks on these three girls, who were aged 10 to 17, in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in Sydney and on the New South Wales central coast.

Egan was sentenced on 20 December 2013.

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DETROIT (MI)
Deadline Detroit

The sex scandals in the Catholic church are not over.

Patricia Montemurri of the Detroit Free Press reports that the Detroit Arcdiocese conceded on Thursday it could have done more to track former priest Harry Walsh after a woman repeatedly complained to them in 1993, 2002 and 2011 about being molested at age 15 by the priest while he was at the Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit Detroit in 1965-67.

“We could have done better to follow up if anything was done” by St. Paul-Minneapolis Catholic officials to address the accusations against Walsh, Detroit Archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath told the Freep. He said Detroit Catholic officials are reviewing their procedures .

Minnesota Public Radio first reported on this matter this week after obtaining church documents.

Montemurri writes:

Walsh has worked mostly at Minnesota parishes since 1969. He is no longer a priest, and was dismissed from the priesthood by the Vatican in 2012. He works as a sex education counselor for young people in the Minneapolis area. He denied he abused the Detroit woman, according to the radio report.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013
For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

He worked in Davenport parish
But bishops told no one about him
SNAP: Catholic officials still “endanger kids”
Their “continued secrecy” violates church policies
Those who “saw, suspected or suffered abuse must speak up,” group says

A twice accused predator priest, who worked at a Davenport parish, now teaches sex education to youngsters in Minnesota. Until today, Catholic officials in several dioceses succeeded in keeping the allegations against him secret.

According to a lengthy Minnesota Public Radio investigation, Fr. Harry Walsh worked at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Davenport from 1963 to 1965.

He also worked in the 1960s in Detroit, “where he would later be accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl. She reported the abuse to the Diocese of Detroit in 1994.”

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Later, in Minnesota, Fr. Walsh was accused of molesting a boy.

He now “teaches sex education to troubled teenagers and vulnerable adults in Wright County, an hour west of the Twin Cities.”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Davenport’s Catholic bishop to “aggressively reach out” to any others Fr. Walsh may have hurt in Iowa.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say that Fr. Walsh “likely can be put behind bars” for his crimes, but little will happen “unless Catholic officials in Davenport, Detroit and St. Paul act responsibly and shout from the rooftops about this dangerous man and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police right away.”

“Davenport Catholic officials let Fr. Walsh work there and have access to kids there and hid his crimes there,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “Now, they have a civic duty to help police see if he can be prosecuted and kept away from kids. And they have a moral duty to seek out others Fr. Walsh may have assaulted and offer them help.”

“The odds are that there’s at least one person in Iowa who was wounded by Fr. Walsh,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “That person may well be struggling today with suicidal thoughts, addictions, shame, isolation, depression or self-blame. He or she needs to be found and helped and reassured that the abuse wasn’t their fault and that healing is possible.”

St. Paul/Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt told the Vatican in March 2012 that the alleged abuse of the Detroit girl included “kissing, sexual touching, and simulated sexual intercourse.”

MPR reports that “Fr. Walsh was ordained a priest in Ireland in 1960 by a Catholic religious order called the Redemptorists.”

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ROME
Vanity Fair

By Michael Joseph Gross

Despite headlines about a powerful “gay lobby” within the Vatican, and a new Pope promising reform, the Catholic Church’s gay cardinals, monks, and other clergy inhabit a hidden netherworld. In Rome, the author learns how they navigate the dangerous paradox of their lives.

Naked but for the towel around his waist, a man of a certain age sat by himself, bent slightly forward as if praying, in a corner of the sauna at a gym in central Rome. I had not met this man before, but as I entered the sauna, I thought I recognized him from photographs. He looked like a priest with whom I’d corresponded after mutual friends put us in touch, a man I had wanted to consult about gay clerics in the Vatican Curia. My friends told me that this priest was gay, politically savvy, and well connected to the gay Church hierarchy in Rome.

But this couldn’t be that priest. He had told me that he’d be away and couldn’t meet. Yet as I looked at the man more closely, I saw that it was definitely him. When we were alone, I spoke his name, telling him mine. “I thought you were out of the country,” I said. “How lucky for me: you’re here!” Startled, the priest talked fast. Yes, his plans had changed, he said, but he was leaving again the next day and would return only after I was gone.

During the previous few days, I had heard a lot about this man. I had heard that he is a gossip, a social operator whose calendar is a blur of drinks and dinners with cardinals and archbishops, principessas and personal trainers. Supposedly, he loves to dish male colleagues with campy female nicknames. But I would never have the experience firsthand. The priest was embarrassed: to have been chanced upon at this place; to have had his small evasions revealed. The encounter was awkward. No, he did not wish to discuss the subject I was interested in. No, he did not think the subject worthwhile. These things he made clear. We left the sauna and, after further conversation, civil but stilted, went our separate ways.

I could understand his discomfort. But in Rome these days the topic of gay priests in the upper reaches of the Holy See is hard to avoid. In February of this year, not long before the College of Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave to choose the 266th Pope, the largest Italian daily newspaper, La Repubblica, reported that a “gay lobby”—a more or less unified cabal of homosexual power brokers—might be operating inside the Vatican. According to the newspaper, the possible existence of this gay lobby was among the many secrets described in a two-volume, 300-page report bound in red and presented to Pope Benedict XVI by three cardinals he had appointed to investigate the affair known as “VatiLeaks.” That scandal, which raised fresh suspicions of endemic corruption within the Curia, had broken the previous year after Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler, made off with some of Benedict’s private papers and leaked them to the press.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Ruben Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/19/2013

Little Charles Vincent Lachowitzer believed nuns had no legs and were celestial beings who could fly like angels.

He was sure Sister Mary Timothy would just grab him and float up in the air as the then-second-grader mightily bolted one day toward her for safety to escape a boy chasing him in the playground of St. Pascal Baylon Catholic School on St. Paul’s East Side.

So he was shocked when he ran to her at full tilt and knocked her on her butt, revealing stocking-covered gams under the ground-hugging habit skirt.

“You have legs!” he cried out.

Sister Mary Timothy patiently explained after she got up that priests and nuns are human, like him, except that they dedicated their lives in obedience and servitude to the Lord.

That’s the day he decided that he wanted to become a priest.

That resolute pledge, though, would take a decidedly varied and unconventional detour that would first lead to jobs as an educator and superintendent, logger and fisher of fish before he became a fisher of men.

Now, five decades later and long removed from that playground discovery, Lachowitzer finds himself chief deputy of the embattled Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He is squarely thrust, whether he likes it or not, in the middle of a simmering, publicly embarrassing clergy sex abuse scandal that shows no signs of letup.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

A PRIEST accused of sexually abusing three altar boys now faces charges against four more alleged victims.

Francis Paul Cullen, who was extradited from Spain on a European arrest warrant, appeared at Derby Crown Court today.

None of the charges have yet been put to him in court.

Prosecutor Sarah Knight said: “We are aware of four further complainants and there are likely to be further charges.”

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INDIA
The Hindu

P. SUDAKAR

Police are on the lookout for a Roman Catholic priest in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl student here. They are also searching for a doctor, S. Meenakshi of Tirunelveli Town, who reportedly conducted the termination of pregnancy.

Police said the parish priest of St. Antony’s Church in Pettai, Fr. Gnanapragasam Selvan, hailing from Kailasapuram near Puliyampatti in Tuticorin, allegedly committed the crime. When the girl’s parents came to know of her pregnancy, they took up the issue with the priest, who reportedly promised to give “adequate compensation,” besides taking care of the medical expenses of her mother, a cancer patient.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

MINNEAPOLIS – As news develops about the handling of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the men who take to the pulpit on a regular basis are caught in the middle.

“Some have lost a lot of confidence in our church leadership,” said Father Mike Tegeder, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Church in Minneapolis. “You feel kind of betrayed.”

Tegeder is no stranger to voicing his critique about the church leadership over the years. Recently he has said Archbishop John Neinstedt should resign.

“There comes a point where you really have to express your deep concerns,” he said.

But he’s not alone in his critique of the current leadership. A number of other priests have made headlines over the last several weeks publicly voicing their critiques of the archbishop.

“It is highly unusual to have a level of priestly resistance we’re seeing here,” said Charles Reid, University of St. Thomas professor and expert in Canon law.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Blade

BY TK BARGER
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

An associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Sylvania has been named the diocesan administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo and was introduced Thursday morning at a news conference at the Catholic Center.

The Rev. Charles F. Ritter’s duty as administrator will be to lead the diocese during an interim when there is no bishop. The former diocesan bishop, Leonard Blair, was installed as archbishop of the Hartford, Conn., archdiocese on Monday.

Father Ritter takes up the bishop’s appointment schedule, to a degree, to represent the diocese within its territory and in the larger church, but he does not have the same responsibilities as a bishop.

Father Ritter described his new responsibility by using a nautical analogy.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, December 20, 2013 – The motu proprio canonizations of John XXIII and the Jesuit Peter Faber on the one hand, and the incisive and determined interventions in the organizational structure of the Roman curia on the other are the most demanding juridical actions taken by Pope Francis during the first nine months of his pontificate.

Among these latter a prominent place belongs to the shakeup in the leadership of the congregation for bishops, the crucial dicastery that works most closely with the pope in the appointment of Latin bishops in much of the world: Europeans, Americans, Australians, and Filipinos (the appointment of prelates for missionary territories in Asia and Africa are overseen by Propaganda Fide).

After personally selecting the new secretary of the congregation in the person of the Brazilian Ilson de Jesus Montanari, his old acquaintance as a neighbor at the Roman residence on Via della Scrofa, and after ordering his personal secretary Fr. Fabián Pedacchio Leániz to continue spending his mornings working in that dicastery, where he has been an official for a few years, the pope confirmed last Monday as prefect the Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Not only that. But as he has already done at the congregation for Catholic education, here as well he has reshuffled the members of the dicastery. With confirmations, new appointments, and removals.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Adam Davies 20th Dec 2013

CONVICTED paedophile priest Finian Egan has been sentenced to at least four years jail for child sex crimes committed in New South Wales more than three decades ago.

A jury found Egan, 78, guilty last month in the Sydney District Court of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape between 1961 and 1987.

He committed the crimes while he worked as a Catholic priest at Leichhardt and Carlingford in Sydney and The Entrance on the Central Coast.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 20, 2013

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A prominent Sydney Catholic priest who sexually assaulted young girls from his parishes on multiple ocassions during a 40-year career, has been sentenced to at least four years’ jail, with a judge describing his acts as a “flagrant and gross breach of trust” against those he had power over.

One of Father Finian Egan’s victims wept quietly as the 78-year-old was sentenced to a maximum of eight years jail with a non-patole period of four years in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday, while another expressed elation at the result.

Earlier this year the 40-year church veteran was found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to attacks on girls aged 10 to 17 in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Many of the attacks occurred on church grounds against girls whose families the priest had befriended.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Father Finian Egan had escaped punishment for sexually abusing young girls for more than 50 years.

But now the frail and elderly Catholic priest has been jailed for at least four years for abusing three young NSW girls over the course of three decades.

Egan’s victims, whose lives were irrevocably damaged by the abuse inflicted on them, stood in the District Court in Sydney on Friday and watched as he was falteringly led away to spend his first night in jail.

He will be 83 years of age by the time he is eligible for release.

Egan enjoyed a position of power and privilege as a Catholic priest at a time when, among religious communities, priests were considered among the elite of society.

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SCOTLAND
Inverness Courier

Three men have been reported to the Crown office and the procurator fiscal in relation to the investigation into historical physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey.

Police Scotland say it is still an ongoing investigation, initiated by Highland and Islands Division in March, and has extended to liaison with a number of law enforcement agencies both across and out with the UK.

“We understand that it is very difficult for victims of abuse to speak about their experiences and a helpline run by Children 1st is available to provide support and advice to those who may be affected by the investigation,” said a spokeswoman.

“These call takers, who are trained to provide advice and guidance, can refer callers or forward any relevant information to the police, or to the appropriate agency to provide further support locally.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Three men have been reported to prosecutors in connection with alleged abuse at a former Catholic boarding school in the Highlands.

Police Scotland said they had spoken to a number of victims and witnesses in relation to reports of historic abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey school.

They said officers had also worked with law enforcement agencies abroad.

In September, a man was charged in relation to claims of physical and sexual abuse at the former school.

Fort Augustus Abbey school on the banks of Loch Ness was run by Benedictine monks but closed down in the 1990s.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Three men have been reported to prosecutors in connection with allegations of historic sexual and physical abuse at a former Catholic boarding school.

The police investigation concerns monks who taught at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands in the 1960s and 70s. It has since closed.

Police said they had been investigating since March following a report from a former pupil and further allegations from a BBC documentary.

Charity Children 1st has set up a dedicated support line for anyone affected.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

By Mark Daly
BBC Scotland Investigations Correspondent

The Catholic Church in Scotland has been criticised for its handling of reports of historic abuse at two prestigious catholic boarding schools.

Former pupils of Fort Augustus Abbey school and its preparatory school Carlekemp claimed no senior clergy had sought out victims to offer support.

A BBC Scotland investigation into claims of abuse at the schools was broadcast in July.

After the story escalated, bishop Hugh Gilbert promised victims help.

The Catholic church’s initial reaction to the Fort Augustus scandal was to direct attention to the Benedictines – the religious order which ran the schools in the Highlands and East Lothian.

Dom Richard Yeo, the Abbot President of English Benedictine Congregation, which unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns, apologised and admitted his organisation made mistakes in dealing with allegations of child abuse.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

COMMENTARY

by TOM HOOPES 12/19/2013

Is the Legion of Christ reformed? What would reform even look like? A historic meeting in Rome that begins Jan. 8 hopes to provide some of those answers.

They are a long time coming. It has been five years since members of the Legion of Christ, founded in 1941, began privately admitting that their late founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had not been the saintly man they made him out to be: He had fathered children and was “probably” guilty of abusing seminarians.

I was executive editor of the Register (as well as a member of the Legion’s closely associated lay movement Regnum Christi) when the news broke. I stopped attending Regnum Christi meetings immediately and told any Legionary who would listen that I was done with the movement.
Not many would listen.

The culture in the Legion of Christ made it very hard for Legionaries to simply admit that the founder was as bad as the facts showed him to be. Publicly, the Legion was only saying, “We can confirm that there are aspects of his life that weren’t appropriate for a Catholic priest,” and there was an effort to sum up what he had done as “misdeeds.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 20, 2013

THE Catholic Church has won a NSW Supreme Court bid to deny two alleged victims of child sex abuse access to records about their alleged abuser, a member of the Marist Brothers order at the centre of the current royal commission hearing.

The decision comes just days after the church’s barrister, Peter Gray SC, told the commission it was committed “to ensure that nothing is concealed or covered up in respect of what church personnel did or failed to do”.

Court documents seen by The Australian reveal the church’s national committee responsible for caring for those who suffer child abuse itself challenged the victims’ request to seek documents about the late Edward Hosey.

Both alleged victims, who cannot be named, claim they were sexually abused by Hosey at two Marist Brothers’ schools in Sydney during the 1960s and 1970s.

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ALABAMA
Alabama 13

HOOVER, AL – Six more charges have been filed against a Hoover man who was arrested last week in connection with the sexual abuse of a child.

The Hoover Police Department reports that in addition to charges in Shelby County, Jason Hankins has been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, production of child pornography, first-degree sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years of age and electronic solicitation of a child.

The Hoover Police Department says the additional charges involve the same victim, and a higher bond was secured due to the “horrific nature of the offenses, the age of the victim and the need to protect the community and other potential victims.”

They report he recently resigned from his job at the Family Life Center at Shades Crest Baptist Church.

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ILLINOIS
The Regional News

Written by Tim Hadac

Archdiocesan officials confirmed this week that they are investigating an allegation of sexual misconduct made against the Rev. Michael W. O’Connell, 56, who served as pastor of Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park from 1997-2012.

  At issue is behavior that allegedly occurred nearly two decades ago at Our Lady of the Woods, officials said.

  O’Connell previously served at St. Michael Parish in Orland Park from 1983-89, where he was part of a team that helped establish Our Lady of the Woods.

  He currently is on leave as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Chicago’s North Side. According to the Rev. Shawn Gould, administrator of that parish, O’Connell “denies this allegation.”

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TENNESSEE
Christian Post

BY NICOLA MENZIE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
December 19, 2013

A Memphis, Tenn., pastor is being held on a $1 million bond for allegedly sexually molesting a young family member for years. When the 16-year-old reported the alleged abuse to her mother early on, the woman chose to pray for God to end the abuse instead of reporting the alleged crime to earthly authorities.

Michael Bryant, 48, pastor of Hour of Restoration Church of God in Christ for the past three years and previously an elder at Greater Community Temple COGIC, is accused of taking advantage of the woman’s work schedule to abuse her teenage daughter.

For the last two years, Bryant would enter the girl’s bedroom whenever her mother was at work or asleep and expose his genitals and fondle her, WREG-TV reports investigators as saying.

When the girl turned to her mother for help, Bryant admitted to fondling her. However, the teen’s mother prayed that God would remove “these thoughts” from Bryant’s mind, instead of taking her daughter’s story to the authorities. It was not immediately known how Bryant and the girl were related.

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TENNESSEE
WREG

[with video]

(Memphis) Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich wouldn’t confirm if others could be charged in a sexual assault case against a Memphis COGIC Pastor.

Michael Bryant was charged Wednesday for Sexual Battery by an Authority Figure after police said he fondled and exposed himself to an underage family member.

In the affidavit, investigators reported that the victim told her mother about the abuse a year ago.

However, the affidavit said the mother never turned the information “ over to authorities because both Pastor Bryant and the mother decided they would pray that the Lord remove these thoughts from his head.”

“In the state of Tennessee, every adult has the duty under the law if they suspect that a child is being abused,” said General Weirich.

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TENNESSEE
14 News

[with video]

MEMPHIS, TN –
(WMC-TV) – A pastor is under arrest, accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old on and off for the past two years.

Michael Bryant, 48, was taken into custody at a gas station on Hickory Hill Road and Knight Arnold Road after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Bryant is the pastor at Hour of Restoration COGIC.

According to the police affidavit, the teen said Bryant has been touching her inappropriately at least two to three times a week for the last two years. The affidavit says that the last time she says Bryant touched her was Monday, which is the same day the abuse was reported to police.

Police say in the affidavit that the alleged victim told an adult about the abuse a year ago, but it went unreported until Monday. They didn’t go to authorities with the case because both the pastor and the teen’s mother decided they would pray that the lord would remove these thoughts from Bryant’s head.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An elderly NSW priest who sexually preyed on young girls for three decades has been jailed for at least four years.

Father Finian Egan, who ‘escaped punishment for 50 years’, will be 83 when he is eligible for parole, Judge Robyn Tupman ruled in the District Court in Sydney on Friday.

Egan, who sat with one hand on his face during the sentencing, made no reaction as it was handed down.

His victims stood and watched in silence as he was taken away to jail for the first time.

The Catholic priest sexually abused three girls between the ages of 10 and 17 while he worked in various dioceses in Sydney and the Central Coast in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: December 19, 2013

But they were named in internal archdiocesan memo on parishes with history of clergy sex abuse.

Five priests named in a 2002 archdiocesan internal memo about parishes with “some connection to a history of clergy sexual abuse” were not on the list published earlier this month by Archbishop John Nienstedt.

One of the men in the 2002 memo but excluded from Nienstedt’s list is former cleric Harry Walsh, a native of Ireland who has left the priesthood and now teaches sex education for Wright County.

Nienstedt said Thursday evening in a statement that the list he issued Dec. 5 “was not intended to be complete or final.” He didn’t explain why Walsh’s name was not on the list or been added since its initial release. Nienstedt said reviews of three other priests have not yet been done. A review of the fifth priest, who is still active in ministry at an east metro church, concluded there was “no credible or substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor.”

The August 2002 memo names 17 men as “priests with known abuse histories.” Two of those 17 are missing from Nienstedt’s list: the late Revs. Ambrose Filbin and Harold Whittet.

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AUSTRALIA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Michael Madigan
Posted: 12/20/2013

BRISBANE — That the whimsical, sweet-natured, self-defeating comic creation Charlie Brown could be used by a pedophile to lure his victims is not the worst piece of evidence to come out of Australia’s Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse.

A predator priest’s creation of his own little “Brown family” has provided one of the more poignant parables for a crime that so ruthlessly sabotages childhoods.

But the six-person royal commission, appointed by Australia’s Gov. Gen. Quentin Bryce in January, will hear much worse before the task is completed in 2015.

A priest calling himself Fred Brown allegedly developed a cult-like following among a group of teenage girls way back in the 1960s.

The testimony of one of those long-ago girls, Joan Isaacs, now 60, drew audible gasps from the public gallery last week as she told the commission how one member of the group had “Fred Brown’s” child.

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CANADA
Sarnia Observer

By Neil Bowen, Sarnia Observer
Thursday, December 19, 2013

The verdict in the sexual abuse trial of former priest Gabriele DelBianco is set for Feb. 24.

Crown and defence lawyer submissions to Justice Joseph Donahue wrapped up Thursday

The key issues are possible consent to sexual activity and the reliability of the evidence.

DelBianco pleaded not guilty to 16 offences involving four teenage girls during the 1980s.

The trial started Oct. 16 and testimony from four women, now in their 40s, ended in October. DelBianco chose not to testify.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A onetime priest at Detroit’s Holy Redeemer parish is at the center of a another priest sex abuse controversy involving the embattled Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

Documents obtained by Minnesota Public Radio reveal that a woman contacted the Archdiocese of Detroit in the early 1990s to complain that the Rev. Harry Walsh molested her when she was 15. Walsh was posted at Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit in 1965-’67.

An Archdiocese of Detroit spokesman said today that Detroit Catholic officials should have done more to track the former Holy Redeemer parish priest after they received the same complaint in 1993, 2002 and 2011.

“We could have done better to follow up if anything was done” by St. Paul-Minneapolis Catholic officials to address the accusations against Walsh, Ned McGrath said, adding that Detroit Catholic officials are reviewing their procedures now.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Thursday, December 19, 2013

A privacy advocate on Wednesday told Congress that she had discovered that it was common practice for data brokers to sell the names of rape victims and HIV patients for about 7.9 cents each.

Speaking to members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, World Privacy Forum Executive Director Pam Dixon described herself as a “moderate” when it came to data brokers, but shocking research convinced her that the industry was in need of regulation.

“The data broker industry as it is today, does not have constraints and it does not have shame,” she explained. “It will sell any information about any person regardless of sensitivity for 7.9 cents a name, which is the price of a list of rape sufferers which was recently sold.”

“Lists of rape sufferers, victims of domestic violence, police officers’ home addresses, people who suffer from genetic illnesses,” Dixon continued. “Complete with names, home addresses, ethnicity, gender and many other factors. This is what’s being sold and circulated today.”

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TENNESSEE
WBBJ

Statement from Eddie Mallonee, Pastor Accused of Plotting to Poison Wife

UNION CITY, Tenn. — A former Union City pastor accused of plotting to kill his wife along with his mistress released a statement, Friday morning.

Former Second Baptist Church Pastor Eddie Mallonee and church member Shelly Moran were placed on supervised probation after a plea bargain.

The pair are accused of planning for two years to poison his wife Cathy while on a mission trip to Honduras.

Despite the alleged attempt on her life, Cathy, Mallonee’s wife of more than 34 years, has been by her husband’s side during court proceedings.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on December 19, 2013 by lewisblayse

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had a wasted day today. Commissioner McClellan spent most of the time questioning Lismore bishop, Geoffrey Jarrett (see previous posting) about the Pope Benedict ruling in 2001 that bishops should report paedophile priests to the Vatican.

Jarrett had been recalled for this purpose. Jarrett Lismore had not observed this directive from the Pope because he was not aware of it until 2006, following a conference on canon law. “Directives can come to the bishop who – they go to the chancery and they will remain there on the file and perhaps not be remembered or acted upon,” Jarrett said.

McClellan put the obvious proposition to Jarrett that “So if the protocol is observed, relatively fewer cases would end up being reported to Rome, wouldn’t they,” with Jarrett giving the obviously expected reply that “I suppose so. But the evidence is that, nonetheless, there have still been many cases reported.”

One of the three cases Jarrett had reported to the Vatican took two years for a reply to be sent that the offender offer a Mass for his victims on Fridays. That priest is now retired and living in the presbytery with other priests in Lismore. Jarrett has not opted to remove his priestly faculties. However, he said he would have written to the priest in 2004 to tell him he was not allowed to have contact with children, but couldn’t recall whether he had written to remind him of it since then.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

Harry Walsh wasn’t on the list of 30 priests but church documents obtained by MPR show he’d been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – When the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released of a list of priests accused of sexually abusing minors, it prompted complaints from victims’ groups that it was incomplete.

Harry Walsh wasn’t on the list of 30 priests. But church documents obtained by Minnesota Public Radio show he’d been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier. The archdiocese contributed to a financial settlement for the girl. Nonetheless, two archbishops allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011.

Walsh tells MPR he never abused children.

Archbishop John Nienstedt asked Pope Benedict last year to defrock Walsh when he learned of the abuse allegations, and Walsh agreed to leave.

Archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso wouldn’t say why Walsh wasn’t on the public list.

KARE 11 editorial partner Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reports that Walsh now teaches sex education to troubled teenagers and vulnerable adults in Wright County. He signed a new two-year, $1,508 a month contract earlier this year, according to public records, to provide “medically accurate sexuality education, pregnancy prevention and STI prevention to high risk youth or adults.”

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on December 19, 2013

One brother is Obama’s chief of staff. The other is an embattled former top deputy to St. Paul’s Archbishop, charged with covering up sex abuse and refusing to cooperate with the police. Put together, the McDonough brothers show how bad timing and bad moral decisions may push two former “superstars” into very public and very embarrassing falls from grace.

Denis the Politician
Appointed White House Chief of Staff in January 2013 after a career as a foreign policy advisor, “hard-charging” Denis has been called one of the most efficient chiefs of staff in recent memory. Insiders on both sides of the political spectrum say that the White House “has never worked better.”
Unfortunately, that may be not enough to save him. According to the New York Times:

Mr. McDonough’s failure to head off the health care problems surprised those who see him as a man of discipline and attention to detail. But current and former administration officials say that after 10 months on the job, one problem may have been that he stretched himself too thin and tried to do too much himself. …

Kevin the Priest Older brother Kevin is facing a fall from grace of his own. But unlike Denis, this fall is of his own making—what many are calling his “insidious and criminal” cover-up of child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Now, he’s refusing to cooperate with the police. For 17 years, Kevin was top-deputy to the archbishop, one of the most powerful jobs in the archdiocese.

As Vicar General, McDonough was. according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “revered for his work with the poor” and “charmed legislators as chaplain of the Minnesota Senate.”

But while he was charming cops and politicians alike, recently exposed documents show that he was actively covering up for child sex offenders in the priesthood. Although McDonough was the chief child protection officer in the Archdiocese, he, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “had a key role in at least three cases of alleged priest sexual misconduct that, combined, have resulted in a lawsuit against the archdiocese, a priest in jail, the resignation of a top archdiocesan official and calls for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.“

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery, Inc.
P.O. Box 279
Livingston, NJ 07039
862-368-2800
roberthoatson@gmail.com

December 19-20, 2013

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is using Catholic League resources and lobbying in order to publicly identify a minor child who has alleged sexual touching by a Catholic clergy member

The minor child’s allegation has led to the “stepping down” of Archbishop of Minneapolis/St. Paul, John Nienstedt, while the allegation is investigated

It is time for Cardinal Timothy Dolan to intervene and stop the Catholic League’s violation of the letter and spirit of the United States Bishops’ Conference Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

What: A leafleting and press conference calling on Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop
of New York, to prevent the Catholic League, headquartered in the Archdiocese of New York, from pursuing and releasing publicly the identity of the minor child who has alleged an act of sexual touching by the Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

When: Saturday, December 21, 2013 from 4:30 PM until the conclusion of the 5:30 PM Mass.

Where: In front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets,
Manhattan.

Who: The co-founder of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New
Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families; survivors of clergy sexual abuse; advocates, and supporters.

Why: Since a child came forward recently in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul,
MN, to allege that Archbishop John Nienstedt touched him in a sexual manner during a group photo shoot, Catholic League President, Bill Donohue, has called for anyone with video or audio recordings of the event to contact him. Donohue wants to publicly identify, demean, and embarrass the victim, pressuring him to retract or withdraw his allegation. Donohue’s bullying tactics are injurious to the child victim. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the leader of the Archdiocese, needs to intervene and instruct Donohue to:

1) Cease and desist regarding his intention to publicly identify the victim;
2) Stop attacking victims and their families, advocates, and supporters;
3) Abide by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
“Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in both letter and spirit.

Contact: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

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MINNESOTA
Marshall Independent

December 19, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — When the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released of a list of priests accused of sexually abusing minors, it prompted complaints from victims’ groups that it was incomplete.

Harry Walsh wasn’t on the list of 30 priests. But church documents obtained by Minnesota Public Radio (http://bit.ly/1fImo8k ) show he’d been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier. The archdiocese contributed to a financial settlement for the girl. Nonetheless, two archbishops allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011.

Walsh tells MPR he never abused children.

Archbishop John Nienstedt asked Pope Benedict last year to defrock Walsh when he learned of the abuse allegations, and Walsh agreed to leave.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Journal

December 17, 2013, 05:00 AM Daily Journal Staff Report

The former finance director of a Menlo Park seminary and university and her secretary will stand trial in April for allegedly taking more than $200,000 and stealing a donated Mercedes Benz.

Jennifer Margaret Morris, 58, is charged with four counts of felony embezzlement. Her former secretary, Evelyn D. Vallacqua, 45, is charged with three embezzlement counts for allegedly helping issue several improper reimbursement checks to her boss and accepted unauthorized severance payments from St. Patrick’s Seminary and University.

Both women pleaded not guilty to all charges and were scheduled for trial April 7.

The seminary launched an audit after learning Morris used her personal credit card for reimbursed work purchases to accumulate airline miles. The audit reportedly uncovered that, between October 2006 and 2012, Morris made $166,000 worth of unauthorized personal purchases for which she also reimbursed herself from seminary funds and overpaid herself at least $36,000 from 2011 to 2012.

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ISRAEL
The Jewish Press

Following Rav Elon’s conviction, Rabbi Chaim Druckman invited him to teach at Yeshivat Or Etzion.

By: David Morris Published: December 19th, 2013

Rav Motty Elon was sentenced today to six months community service and a 15 month prison sentence on probation for three years.

He was also fined 10,000 NIS as compensation for the victim. Rav Elon was convicted in August on two counts of sexual assault on a minor.

Rav Elon’s response, outside the court, was to call the allegations/charges/conviction “lies” – and he said he welcomes the community service order – ”I’ve been doing community service for 40 years, and I would love to do so until I’m 120.”

This was the culmination of a public process which started on 15th February 2010, with an announcement censuring Rav Elon on the Takana website; the ‘private’ process, within Forum Takana, began several years previously.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 19, 2013

SYDNEY A diplomatic standoff appears to have developed in recent months between the Vatican and the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry into sex abuse, chaired by Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen.

Copies of correspondence released by the Special Commission this week show the papal nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, claimed diplomatic immunity in response to repeated requests for archival documentation that might assist Cunneen with her inquiry.

The inquiry was established in November 2012 to investigate sexual abuse by two priests of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, Fr. Denis McAlinden and Fr. James Fletcher (both deceased), following allegations made by a senior New South Wales police whistleblower, Chief Inspector Peter Fox. The commission continues to inquire into and report on matters relating to the police investigation of the diocese.

The New South Wales Crown Solicitor’s Office made the request on Cunneen’s behalf Aug. 30 and again Oct. 22, asking for copies of any relevant documents held in the archives of the Apostolic Nunciature in Canberra or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.

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UNITED STATES
Truthdig

By Sonali Kolhatkar

At first glance, Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” Pope Francis, is a mess of contradictions. On the one hand, he has vehemently denounced the evils of global capitalism, calling it “a new tyranny.” However, as pontiff, he heads the Catholic Church, which has been characterized as “probably the wealthiest institution in the entire world.” And, although the pope has championed the importance of women in the Catholic Church, saying in an interview, “The woman is essential for the church. … The feminine genius is needed whenever we make important decisions,” he continues to oppose as strongly as any pope before him the ordination of women, and considers abortion to be evil. How do we make sense of Pope Francis’ views?

It turns out that his critique of capitalism is actually nothing new. According to human rights activist Blase Bonpane, a former Maryknoll priest and adherent of “liberation theology,” “It’s been going on for a long time. If we take the 19th century, we had Pope Leo XIII who gave us the encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum,’ which followed directly from ‘The Communist Manifesto.’ The pope agreed with practically everything in the ‘Manifesto’ by talking about how people go into the factories and are ruined, whereas materials come out of the factory ennobled. And that was followed by another encyclical by Pius XI called ‘Quadragesimo Anno’ in the 1930s, 40 years after Leo XIII’s encyclical. These were anti-capitalist documents.” In fact, according to Bonpane, “Pius XI called for a living wage and defined it very well as ‘one worker in the family, time for vacation, an ability to save money, to have a decent life, to pay for all of your needs.’ So we have not always complied with what the popes are talking about but they have had many anti-capitalist statements going back to John the Baptist who said, ‘If someone has two pairs of shoes, give one to someone who doesn’t have any.’ So [this sentiment] has been in the history of the church despite its opulence.”

In that sense, Pope Francis represents a break not from the long-term tradition of the church, but from his immediate predecessors. Bonpane said, “I think it’s a dramatic change for him to focus on the liberation theology elements [of Catholicism], which is to downplay dogma.” In addition to his recent statements denouncing the ills of modern global capitalism, there are reports of the pope quietly stepping out of the halls of the Vatican at night to help poor and homeless people. If that’s not enough to cement his progressive economic policy credentials, Pope Francis has also provoked the ire of right-wing shock jock Rush Limbaugh, who accused him of “ripping capitalism” and being a Marxist.

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ILLINOIS
The Raw Story

By David Ferguson
Thursday, December 19, 2013

A middle school teacher in Buffalo Grove, Illinois is accused by two women of sexual impropriety years ago when she mentored them at a Christian camp in Wisconsin. According to NBC News, the second woman came forward this week to corroborate accusations that Cherie Carlson engaged in sexually predatory behavior when she was a teenage camp counselor.

On Wednesday, Rob Stafford of Chicago’s NBC Channel 5 spoke with Monika Ebly, who was 16 in 1996, when she says she witnessed Carlson molesting a camper.

Ebly says she observed Carslon and a girl who NBC is calling Jane Doe lying under a blanket while Carlson visibly fondled the girl’s genitals.

“Cherie had her hand under the blanket and was fondling Jane’s genitalia,” said Ebly.

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PORTUGAL
Sol

O pároco da Golegã suspeito de abuso sexual de duas crianças ficou hoje obrigado a pagar uma caução de 3.500 euros e a entregar o passaporte, estando proibido de sair da área de residência e de se aproximar de menores.

As medidas de coação foram lidas aos jornalistas depois de quase quatro horas de interrogatório no Tribunal da Golegã, onde o padre chegou cerca das 14:30 acompanhado por dois agentes da Polícia Judiciária.

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PORTUGAL
A Bola

«A PJ identificou mais uma alegada vítima, a segunda, e deteve o padre António Júlio Santos, por abuso sexual de criança. E poderão surgir mais raparigas queixosas.»

«Fonte da Polícia Judiciária de Leiria, que investiga o caso, confirmou a notícia avançada pelo JN na edição de dia 7, onde se adiantava que a PJ acreditava que existiam “mais vítimas”. A primeira queixa chegou de uma escuteira da Golegã, de 12 anos, e a outra terá a ver com uma menor associada a uma instituição ligada também à igreja da Golegã, crimes concretizados no espaço de um mês.»

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PORTUGAL
TVI24

[Summary: A priest from Golega, suspect of sexually abusing two children, was required to pay a deposit of 3,500 euros and surrender his passport. He cannot leave the residence area or approach minors.]

O pároco da Golegã suspeito de abuso sexual de duas crianças ficou esta quarta-feira obrigado a pagar uma caução de 3.500 euros e a entregar o passaporte, está proibido de sair da área de residência e de se aproximar de menores.

As medidas de coação foram lidas aos jornalistas depois de quase quatro horas de interrogatório no Tribunal da Golegã, onde o padre chegou cerca das 14:30 acompanhado por dois agentes da Polícia Judiciária.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013

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 credibly accused predator priest now teaches sex education for Wright County (according to Minnesota Public Radio). We call on county officials to immediately fire him. And we call on St. Paul/Minneapolis Catholic officials to explain why they continue to keep silent about the allegations against him.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Fr. Harry Walsh reportedly molested at least two kids. A settlement was paid to one of them. He studied to become a “sexologist” and had a lengthy “affair” with a married parishioner (such conduct is now illegal in Minnesota).

Yet until a brave church whistleblower pushed him, St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt did nothing. And until MPR’s report this morning, no one knew that Fr. Walsh shouldn’t be around kids.

For nine years after Nienstedt, Archbishop Harry Flynn and nearly 200 US Catholic bishops pledged “zero tolerance,” Minnesota Catholic officials endangered kids, broke their promises and hid the accusations against Fr. Walsh, letting him work in a parish and giving sex education.

Shame on these two men, on Fr. Kevin McDonough, and on every single Catholic employee who aided and abetted this predator and knowingly put children in harm’s way.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 20, 2013

Gay Alcorn
Columnist

So fraught has any discussion of rape and sexual assault become, so enmeshed in gender politics, so prevalent – from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, to the Stephen Milne rape saga, even Julian Assange’s refusal to travel to Sweden to face rape allegations – that it seems any crime involving a sexual element is highly charged.

The reason why sex offences are so emotional is understandable given how we have grappled with them historically. The notion that rape was a property crime against a father or husband was not fully abandoned until marital rape was outlawed in Australia in the 1980s.

And whatever the law says, conversations in offices and pubs will still mention a woman’s sobriety or short skirt if she later claims she was raped, particularly by someone she knows.

The law has been reformed in the past 30 years, and the attitudes of the police and courts to victims transformed. Maximum jail sentences have increased, and the definitions of what constitutes rape changed, all to emphasise the seriousness of sex crimes and to make it easier for victims to seek justice. And none of it has budged conviction rates; the Office of Public Prosecutions says that just 45.1 per cent of all sex cases last year that went to trial led to a conviction, down from 54.8 per cent in 2004.

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is Local London

By Clare Buchanan

A former boss of a Richmond care home and a priest have denied 14 charges of child sex offences dating back to the 1970s.

John Stingemore, 71, of Stonehouse Drive, St Leonard’s on Sea, East Sussex, appeared at Southwark Crown Court today, along with 66-year-old Father Anthony McSweeney.

Mr Stingemore, who managed Grafton Close care home, pleaded not guilty to five counts of indecent assault, one of taking indecent images of a child and one of indecency with a child.

Mr McSweeney, of Old Brighton Road North, Pease Pottage, pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault, one of taking indecent images of a child, three of making indecent images of a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child.

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