ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
WLS

A man has filed a lawsuit against a priest, a Midlothian church and the Archdiocese of Chicago accusing the priest of sexually abusing him more than 40 years ago.

David Kott filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday, alleging that the Rev. Daniel Collins sexually abused him at St. Christopher Catholic Church between 1971 and 1973, when Kott was 8 to 10 years old.

According to the suit, the alleged abuse included “extensive inappropriate touching, rubbing, groping and fondling of [Kott’s] genital area, oral sex, anal sex and other sexual acts.”

The nine-count suit charges Collins with assault and battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit also charges St. Christopher Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Chicago with negligent hiring, negligent retention/supervision, negligent entrustment and breach of fiduciary duty.

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LOUISIANA
San Antonio Express-News

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld former priest Mark Broussard’s bond in a writ released this week.

The 57-year-old Broussard is accused of molesting boys between 1986 and 1991 while a priest in Calcasieu Parish. He faces two counts of aggravated rape, one count of oral sexual battery, one count of aggravated oral sexual battery and one count of molestation of a juvenile. He was originally charged with 224 counts of child sexual abuse.

The American Press reports (http://bit.ly/cseYHv ) the 3rd Circuit’s rulings upheld the decision made by Judge David Ritchie.

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CHILE
El Dinamo

El ex párroco de El Bpsque será citado a declarar en calidad de testigo en el marco de la preparación de una demanda civil contra el Arzobispado de Santiago, el cual no indagó en forma oportuna los

Fernando Karadima fue citado a declarar este miércoles 17 de julio por el ministro Juan Manuel Muñoz como medida prejudicial probatoria interpuesta por tres de los denunciantes del sacerdote, los cuales preparan una demanda civil contra el Arzobispado de Santiago por su eventual responsabilidad en los abusos sexuales cometidos por el clérigo condenado por el Vaticano.

Juan Pablo Hermosilla, abogado de James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz y José Andrés Murillo, explicó a La Tercera que “(la declaración) permitiría concluir la fase preparatoria de la demanda y creemos que nos dejaría en un buen pie para poder presentar, en su debido tiempo, la demanda respectiva y pasar a la etapa de juicio”.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, July 12 – The Vatican on Friday froze two accounts held in the Vatican Bank by a top prelate and former accounting chief arrested in connection with a failed attempt to fly 20 million euros of laundered money back from Switzerland to Italy. A Vatican investigation into suspect transactions at the bank, whose official name is Institute for Religious Works (IOR), may be extended to other persons as well as Msgr Nunzio Scarano, Vatican Spokeman Federico Lombardi said. “The Vatican is determined to pursue a zero-tolerance policy on possible financial irregularities, whether by clertics or lay persons,” Lombardi said, citing a recent statement from IOR’s new head, Ernst von Freyberg. Scarano, who until recently led a key Vatican accounting unit, was refused release to house arrest this week in a probe claiming he conspired with a former Italian spy and a financial broker to try to secretly repatriate the cash, allegedly the fruit of tax evasion by a family close to the prelate.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By GIANLUCA MEZZOFIORE

The Vatican has frozen the assets of the cleric known as Monsignor 500 as the scandal involving the Pope’s bank continues to escalate.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was among three people arrested by Italian financial police for allegedly trying to bring €20m (£17m) in cash into the country from Switzerland aboard a government plane.

After suspending Scarano’s assets, the Holy See also warned that other people may be involved in the investigation.

Scarano, who was denied house arrest, worked as an accountant in the Vatican’s financial administration. He was already under investigation by magistrates in the southern Italian city of Salerno, his home town, for a suspected money-laundering plot involving the Vatican’s bank, the Institute of Religious Work (IOR). …

Missing €200,000 cheque

Monsignor Scarano – nicknamed Monsignor 500 for his habit of carrying 500 euros’ worth of cash in his pocket – was asked by some “friends” to work with Carinzo, the broker, to return €20m that they had given him to invest. The identity of these friends is still unknown, according to police sources.

Scarano persuaded Carinzo to return the money with the help of Italian secret agent Zito.

The agent went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard a government aicraft, in order to prevent any reporting of the mission in Italy. When the job was complete, Zito demanded his €400,000 commission. Scarano paid an initial €200,000 by cheque.

But in a clumsy attempt to prevent the second installment of the commission being deposited, the monsignor filed a report for a missing €200,000 cheque. It is unclear why he wished to prevent the deposit.

After filing the report, Scarano was arrested by Italian financial police.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See has given an update this morning about the ongoing investigations by the competent Vatican authorities on the case of Mons. Nunzio Scarano.

By court order on the 9th of July, the Vatican Promoter of Justice has frozen funds at the
IOR attributed to suspended Vatican employee Nunzio Scarano as part of an ongoing
investigation by the Vatican judicial authorities. The investigation was triggered by several
suspicious transaction reports filed with AIF and could be extended to additional individuals.
IOR commissioned an objective review by Promontory Financial Group of the facts and
circumstances of the accounts in question and is fully cooperating with the Vatican Financial
Intelligence Unit AIF and judicial authorities to bring full transparency in this matter.

The IOR is currently undergoing an outside review by Promontory Financial Group of all
client relationships and the anti-money-laundering procedures it has in place. In parallel, the
Institute is implementing appropriate improvements to its structures and procedures. This process
was initiated in May 2013 and is expected to be largely concluded by the end of 2013.

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VATICAN CITY
DFW Catholic

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2013 / 06:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced it has frozen the funds of a senior accountant who is accused of laundering money through the so-called Vatican bank.

“By court order on the 9th of July, the Vatican Promoter of Justice has frozen funds at the IOR attributed to suspended Vatican employee Nunzio Scarano as part of an ongoing investigation by the Vatican judicial authorities,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said July 11.

Fr. Lombardi also revealed that the bank, officially called the Institute for Religious Works, has hired the Promontory Financial Group to conduct “an objective review” of the “facts and circumstances of the accounts in question,” as well as “all client relationships and the anti-money-laundering procedures it has in place.”

Promontory will be the second outside firm brought into scrutinize the Vatican’s finances, since its books are audited by Price Waterhouse Coopers each year.

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Businessweek

By Andrew Frye

July 12, 2013

The Vatican may extend its probe of suspicious bank transactions to people beyond Nunzio Scarano, the prelate arrested last month by Italian authorities on charges of fraud and corruption, Ansa reported.

The Vatican froze Scarano’s funds at its bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion, or IOR, Ansa reported, citing Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

Scarano has denied accusations against him.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

(Reuters) – The Vatican said on Friday it had frozen funds belonging to a senior cleric at the center of a suspected money smuggling operation, and could open investigations into other individuals.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who has close links to the Vatican Bank, was arrested last month, accused of plotting to bring millions of euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland for rich friends.

The case was the latest in a series of scandals to tarnish the Catholic Church’s image.

Details of the investigations, including police wiretaps and allegations of plots to smuggle the cash past customs, were also seen as a particular embarrassment for Pope Francis who has focused on the Church’s duty to care for the poor since his election in March.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has frozen the assets of a monsignor who was arrested in a 20 million euro ($26 million) money smuggling plot and warned that other people may be caught up in the investigation.

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor froze the accounts at the Vatican bank of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was arrested by Italian authorities June 28 on accusations of corruption and slander for allegedly plotting to bring 20 million euro into Italy aboard a private jet to avoid declaring it at customs.

A judge has refused to grant him house arrest.

In a statement Friday, the Vatican said its own investigation into Scarano was triggered by several suspicious transactions reports filed with the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency. It said its probe “could be extended to additional individuals.”

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 12, 2013

Gasps echoed through the public gallery of a Hunter sexual abuse inquiry this morning as former Bishop of Maitland and Newcastle, Michael Malone, made a fumbling joke that he probably should have destroyed secret documents on paedophile priests.

Into his third day of cross-examination, Bishop Malone was being question about a Canon Law requirement that bishops destroy the secret documents of priests who had been found guilty of immoral criminal activity after their death.

“I didn’t destroy any documents during my time as bishop, perhaps I should have,” said the bishop whose comment stirred laughter from the full public gallery.

When counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, questioned the bishop whether that was his genuine belief or he was making a joke he said: “I wasn’t saying I should have … Only in so far as we wouldn’t be in this room now had I destroyed them.”

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published July 12, 2013, issue of July 19, 2013.

Boca Raton’s Jewish community is reeling after Richard Andron emerged as the latest alleged abuser in a widening sex abuse scandal tied to Yeshiva University.

Until now, only Rabbis George Finkelstein and Macy Gordon, both former staff members of Y.U.’s Manhattan high school for boys, have been named in a series of articles in the Forward.

Now, Andron, 67, a former youth volunteer who now lives in Florida, has been accused of abuse, along with Finkelstein and Gordon, in a lawsuit filed July 8 in U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y. by 19 former high school students.

The suit alleges that during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Andron, then in his thirties, was “allowed to roam the halls” of Y.U.’s high school dormitory, even though he had nothing to do with the school. The suit cites three men — a Y.U. college student and two Y.U. high school students — who say Andron invited them to stay over at his apartment where he attempted to touch or did touch their genitals.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 12, 2013

BISHOP Michael Malone has admitted to defying Church Canon law by not destroying secret priest files in accordance with an edict from Rome.

Resuming in the witness box on Friday Bishop Malone was again taken to his knowledge of events relating to paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher.

As has been the case for the past two days Bishop Malone has answered many questions from counsel assisting Julia Lonergan by saying he could not recall the details of events of the time.

Ms Lonergan asked Bishop Malone about Canon law requiring him to destroy confidential documents relating to criminal charges over moral matters after a period of 10 years or upon the death of the priest concerned.

Only a text of the “definitive judgment” and a summary of the facts was to be kept.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

Posted: Friday, July 12, 2013
By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

A priest who served on a temporary basis in Lodi has been held to trial on two misdemeanor charges in Yuba City. A trial readiness conference is scheduled for Aug. 16.

Father Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa, 43, was arrested on March 10 after a 16-year-old girl in Yuba City told authorities that Guarin-Sosa sexually abused her while he visited her family at their residence.

Guarin-Sosa was visiting Lodi’s St. Anne’s Catholic Church while filling in for his vacationing brother, Father Mario Guarin, when he was arrested in Yuba City. Stockton Diocese Bishop Stephen Blaire removed Guarin-Sosa as a priest within the diocese as soon as he was arrested.

Guarin-Sosa, a native of Colombia, faces two misdemeanor charges — touching an intimate part of another person against her will, and annoying or molesting a person under 18 years of age, Sutter County Superior Court records show.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

by Lynn Cox
lcox@thekmgroup.co.uk

A former altar boy abused by a Catholic priest has accused the church of covering up his crimes.

The victim, now in his 30s and with a family, said a bishop told him not to continue “his silly talk” when he originally complained 25 years ago.

That was despite the fact Malcolm McLennan already had convictions for gross indecency and had been the subject of complaints alleging he had abused boys at another parish before being moved to St Simon Stock Church in Walderslade.

McLennan, now 69, appeared at Medway Magistrates’ Court this week where he admitted indecent assault against a minor. He has been sent to the crown court to be sentenced.

He already has convictions dating back to the 1970s for indecency involving having sex with men in public toilets and in 2009 admitted indecent assaults involving three boys at another church.

He was jailed for 18 months and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Vatican judiciary has ordered that no documents relating to the Vatican bank are to be destoyed or tampered with

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“I am very naive about some things but there are certain other things that set my “alertometer” in action,” Jorge Mario Bergoglio once said back in the days when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. His comment was in reference to cases of corruption involving clerics. Francis’ “alertometer” has certainly been activated now. Various sources have said that last 4 July, the Vatican apparently issued a regulation which prohibits anyone from destroying or tampering with documents relating to the Vatican Bank (IOR). The decision to issue said regulation was taken independently, without prior approval from the Secretariat of State. This is indicative of a new willingness to deal with more thorny issues, without settling for comfortable cover-up operations.

Readers will recall that the director general of the IOR, Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, both handed in their resignations on Monday 1 July. The decision came after the embarrassing revelation of an inquiry into APSA prelare Mgr Nunzio Scarano’s illicit use of his Vatican bank accounts to carry out risky financial operations, all of which were approved by the IOR’s directors.

But in the days following the resignation, the two former managers under investigation were still to be found wandering through the bank’s corridors. Then a third person was added to the list of people under investigation: the lawyer Michele Briamonte. The presence of the two managers and the lawyer made the situation even more problematic. Briamonte, who is both the IOR and Cipriani’s lawyer, is being investigated for inside trading in the case involving Italian bank Monte dei Paschi. He was also involved in an accident which took place in recent months at Rome’s Ciampino airport, when the Guardia di Finanza, one of Italy’s law enforcement agencies, decided to search Briamonte’s luggage, just as he was getting out of his private jet, alongside one of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s secretaries. The check was not carried out in the end as Briamonte produced a Vatican diplomatic passport, claiming immunity from inspection.

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NEDERLAND
Gelderlander

BREDA – Wim Deetman zal volgende week niet getuigen in de rechtszaak die een oud-pupil tegen Huize Sint Jozef in Cadier en Keer heeft aangespannen.

De CDA-coryfee was wel door de rechtbank in Breda opgeroepen, maar heeft laten weten verhinderd te zijn.

Deetman zou volgens de nu 59-jarige man uit Coevorden meer kunnen verklaren over de ernstig fysieke mishandeling die hij naar eigen zeggen in de jaren ’60 binnen de muren van het Limburgse internaat heeft ondergaan. De oud-minister heeft in zijn onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de kerk ook bij Sint Jozef in het archief gekeken en gesproken met slachtoffers en daders.

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UNITED STATES
Notre Dame Magazine

Published: Summer 2013
Author: John Salveson, ’77, ’78M.A.

Sitting in Courtroom 304 of the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center last summer, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the defendant, Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn was secretary of clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 until 2004 and was on trial for two counts of child endangerment and one count of conspiracy.

The witness on the stand was Detective Joseph Walsh, a 35-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department who had spent the last decade of his career investigating one of the largest child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. He held a pile of confidential church records. Many, written in the monsignor’s own hand, revealed that Lynn had lied or misled others about the misconduct of a sexually abusive priest in his archdiocese — and ultimately had failed to protect children. As the detective read, the monsignor, red-faced, dropped his head and slowly shook it back and forth.

A few weeks later, on a sweltering summer day, I heard the news that Monsignor Lynn had been convicted of one count of child endangerment. It was the first time an American priest of the Roman Catholic Church had been convicted of a crime for covering up the sexual abuse perpetuated by a fellow priest. It was truly historic.

As I drove into Philadelphia to attend the district attorney’s press conference and give media interviews, I reflected on the enormity of the conviction — one that I had been fighting for these past 30 years.

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NORTHAMPTON (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette

By BOB DUNN
@BDGazette
Thursday, July 11, 2013
(Published in print: Friday, July 12, 2013)

NORTHAMPTON — A 20-year-old Chesterfield man has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, alleging he was sexually abused as a child by a priest.

Named as defendants in the suit are the Springfield Diocese, former Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, and a priest identified only as Father R. or Father Rick, who served at St. Patrick’s Parish in Chicopee. The alleged abuser is a priest who is now deceased.

The plaintiff is not identified by name in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Hampshire Superior Court. It alleges that over a four-year span beginning when the plaintiff was 13, he was abused “over 50 times” and at several locations, including at a Northampton home, St. Patrick’s Parish, and at the Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer, a religious retreat in Jamaica, Vt. …

The diocese issued a statement Thursday saying it had not seen the lawsuit.

“We are reviewing this matter,” the statement reads. “The Diocese of Springfield remains committed to the safety of our young people. We regularly conduct trainings and CORI background checks on all clergy, religious and lay, who work in the diocese, whether or not they have regular contact with younger persons. Furthermore, we have extensive abuse awareness training offered in our schools and religious education to educate our young people.”

David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement Thursday that reads: “It takes courage for victims to stand up to their abusers and we commend this brave man for coming forward, seeking justice and protecting others.”

In a telephone interview, Peter Pollard of the Springfield SNAP chapter said while he couldn’t comment on this case specifically, “We’re always inspired by someone who’s willing to come forward.”

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Jewish Standard

Larry Yudelson
Published: 12 July 2013

The head of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys is under fire for hosting a convicted child molester at his Teaneck synagogue and home as recently as February, even as the high school and the parent university was sued this week for $380 million for damages growing out of alleged sexual abuse at the high school three decades ago.

Rabbi Baruch Lanner is the former New Jersey director of the Orthodox NCSY youth group. In 2000, a Jewish Week report documenting his long history of emotional and sexual abuse finally ended his career at the Orthodox Union; in 2002 he was convicted of molesting two girls at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal. On Purim this year, Lanner was a guest at the home of Rabbi Michael Taubes, who is both the rosh yeshiva of the YU high school (or MTA, as it generally is called) and the spiritual leader of Congregation Zichron Mordechai in Teaneck.

Lanner was paroled in 2008 and has been seen at Zichron Mordechai since then.

David Cheifetz of Teaneck raised the issue publicly on June 30 in an address to the annual conference of the Rabbinical Council of America.

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VATICAN CITY
Think Progress

By Kumar Ramanathan, Guest Blogger on Jul 11, 2013

Pope Francis has created new laws criminalizing sexual abuse of children within the Vatican, in his first set of laws issued on Thursday. The legislation, which will take effect on September 1, only affects those who live or work in Vatican City.

The new laws create a broader definition of crimes against children, including sexual violence and sexual acts with children, the production and possession of child pornography, the sale of children, and child prostitution.

Under current Vatican criminal law, which is is primarily based on the 1889 Italian penal code, these acts are merely considered a violation of “good customs,” and carry a maximum punishment of 3 to 10 years. Under the new legislation, the crimes will be specifically and explicitly listed, and carry a slightly longer 5 to 10 year punishment with 12-year maximum if aggravating circumstances are involved, according to a Vatican spokesman.

The legislation comes two days after the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) announced that it would be asking the Vatican to hand over internal documents on its treatment of predatory priests and abuse victims worldwide, as part of an investigation into the city state’s adherence to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the Vatican is a signatory. The new laws will bring the Vatican closer to compliance with the Convention, although their scope is narrow and many more of the CRC’s questions remain answered. The CRC has requested a detailed report in reply to its questions before it convenes in January.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

By Luke Lavoie, llavoie@tribune.com
5:01 p.m. EDT, July 11, 2013

A former employee at the world headquarters for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Montgomery County was sentenced to 150 years in prison in Howard County Circuit Court this week for sexually abusing three girls between the ages of 5 and 8.

Joseph Edgar Davis, 40, formerly of the 9400 block of Vollmerhausen Drive in Columbia, also was found guilty of child pornography after lewd images of the girls were found on Davis’ work computer at the General Conference of the Seventh-day Aventist Church located in Silver Spring, according to State’s Attorney spokesman Wayne Kirwan.

According to the church, Davis, who worked in the church’s audio-visual department, was fired on March 5, 2012.

“The General Conference has a zero-tolerance practice as it relates to accessing pornographic websites on computers or other electronic devices,” the church said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A former Catholic bishop from the New South Wales Hunter Valley concedes he tried to protect the church’s reputation by playing down allegations of abuse by priests.

Former Maitland-Newcastle bishop Michael Malone has told the special commission of inquiry he was “coming to terms” with clergy sexual abuse allegations after taking on the top job in 1995.

The inquiry is examining Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims that the church covered up abuse by two paedophile priests, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

In giving evidence today, Bishop Malone said he was “caught up in the ethos of the church” and “there’s a tendency naturally to defend the organisation to which you belong”.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent

NICK SQUIRES IN ROME – 12 JULY 2013

Pope Francis has toughened up the Vatican city state’s laws on child sex abuse, in the latest demonstration of his determination to overhaul the Holy See after years of damaging intrigue and scandal.

But the measures were dismissed by anti-abuse campaigners as little more than administrative tinkering because they applied only to the tiny city state and would have no impact in protecting children in the rest of the world from predatory priests.

The new laws about the sexual abuse of minors came just two days after the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child demanded that the Vatican divulge documents about its treatment of abuse victims around the world and its leniency towards predatory priests.

The new laws represented “a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors, including the sale of children, child prostitution, the recruitment of children, sexual violence and sexual acts with children, and the production and possession of child pornography,” the Vatican said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 12, 2013

A CATHOLIC bishop has said he attempted to “play down” allegations his priests were sexually abusing children and did not fully cooperate with police for years in an attempt to defend the church.

Giving evidence to the NSW special commission of inquiry this morning, the former Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, said “there is a tendency to want to defend the organisation to which you belong.

“These issues of sexual abuse were impinging on the stability of the church. I regretted that and in my early time (as bishop) tried to prevent that causing damage … by trying to play it down a little.”

Asked if he had always assisted police, Bishop Malone said: “Certainly in latter years I have. In those early years, as the matters were first beginning to surface, it wasn’t an easy thing to do.”

When NSW Police asked his office for information about one priest, Denis McAlinden, in 2002, the inquiry heard they were given two addresses in the UK, despite Bishop Malone believing him to be living in Western Australia at the time.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WWLP

Published : Thursday, 11 Jul 2013

Elysia Rodriguez

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A Springfield priest who committed suicide in 2011 has now been named in a sexual abuse lawsuit.

Reverend Paul Archambault was ordained in 2005. The lawsuit alleging he abused a child was filed in Hampshire Superior Court Wednesday. However, the original lawsuit incorrectly named Jerry Archambault as the defendant.

Attorney John Stobierski contacted 22News stating that was a clerical error and that instances of abuse happened at the home of Jerry Archambault, but Paul Archambault was the perpetrator.

Springfield Diocese Spokesman Mark Dupont told 22News that the diocese has not received a copy of the complaint. In a statement, he said, “In light of today’s events, and the fact Fr. Archambault is deceased, we will withhold further comment and await the actual and correct civil action to review carefully.”

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

By Catherine Hornby, Reuters

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, acting to end years of scandals damaging the Catholic Church, overhauled Vatican law on Thursday to specify sexual violence against children as a crime and impose tough penalties for staff who leak confidential Vatican information.

Issuing a “Motu Proprio,” a decree of his own initiative, Francis also said he would renew the Holy See’s commitment to international conventions against organized crime and terrorism.

Under the changes, sexual violence and sexual acts with children, child prostitution and child pornography are cited in a broader definition of crimes against minors and punishable by up to 12 years

Francis, who succeeded Pope Benedict in March, inherited a Church struggling to restore its credibility after a spate of scandals including the molestation of children by priests in a number of countries and an investigation into suspected money-laundering at the Vatican’s bank.

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UNITED STATES
NBC Chicago

By Mary Ann Ahern | Thursday, Jul 11, 2013

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is asking the Vatican to provide complete details about every sexual abuse allegation against the church since 1995.

The UN is asking for specific information on what the Vatican has done to address discrimination between boys and girls in Catholic schools and if it still labels children born out of wedlock as “illegitimate”; and what the Vatican has done about whistle blowers.

At the same time, the Vatican Thursday announced new laws covering child prostitution and child pornography in an effort to bring its laws up to date. Pope Francis also made it a crime to leak information from the Vatican.

These acts were already crimes in Rome and other cities and states, but now they are specifically outlawed within the Vatican city-state. Pope Francis has broadened the scope and is including wording from the Geneva Conventions.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils..

Paris Arrow

In Argo the Oscars Best Picture movie, Ben Affleck goes to fictional producer Lester Siegel (played by Alan Arkin who won Best Supporting Actor) who makes this statement (which is ironically true): You want to set up a movie in one week. You want to lie to Hollywood, a town where everybody lies for a living…

Argo and John Paul II are products of Hollywood and Vatican lies, lies, and lies. “Saint” John Paul II is the biggest Catholic farce. Argo and John Paul II share one thing in common: they are made-up, mythical and fallacious legends. Hollywood and the Vatican are identical power cities that “lie for a living” through costumes and spectacle ceremonies. The Vatican lies best through spectacles at St. Peter’s Square and Basilica and in all Catholic churches while Hollywood lies in all cinemas and television, the Oscars, Golden Globe, Hollywood Walk of Fame, red carpets, etc. Hollywood lies best through its made-up interpretations of people and events in movies like Argo, while the Vatican lies best through papal ruse and manipulation of dead people as “saints” like John Paul II who’ll be the greatest papal myth.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan followed the recommendation of the archdiocesan finance council

By Mark G. Doll July 10, 2013

Journal Sentinel readers would benefit from some additional facts and perspective on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Cemetery Trust. I served as chairman of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Finance Council when the cemetery trust was created in 2007, and by that time the archdiocese already held funds in trust that were put aside over the decades with the specific purpose of providing perpetual care for the more than 500,000 departed loved ones who are buried in the eight Catholic cemeteries and seven mausoleums in Milwaukee County. All but one of these are in the city.

For many decades, the archdiocese told buyers of grave sites that it would put money aside to ensure perpetual care, and buyers of grave sites were assured that funds had been set aside specifically for that purpose. Similar to the process required by Wisconsin law for non-church cemeteries, the archdiocese put a portion of the money from cemetery lots sales into a separate account from the archdiocese’s general funds. There was a regular and separate audit of the trust fund each year by an independent auditor, and the money was invested by a different group of outside investment managers. Because these funds were held in trust, special attention was given to ensuring that they were independent of the general fund and that they would be there for their intended and pledged purpose — to care for the resting places of the departed.

In spring of 2007, the finance council as a group unanimously recommended that the archdiocese formalize the way it fulfills this church responsibility.

We recommended that the existing perpetual care funds, which already were held in trust in a separate account, be transferred to a new formal trust. Our committee made this recommendation to help ensure that the church honored the fundamental promise that all Catholic cemeteries make to our deceased loved ones and their families — that the church will preserve and maintain cemeteries as sacred places forever.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Fred Contrada, The Republican
on July 11, 2013

NORTHAMPTON – The Rev. Paul Archambault, whose suicide in 2011 drew crowds of mourners to his funeral Mass in Northampton, has been named in a law suit alleging he sexually abused a boy beginning when the boy was 13.

The plaintiff, a Chesterfield man who is now 20, said in the complaint that Archambault cultivated his friendship while the priest was assigned to St. Patrick’s Parish in Chicopee and sexually assaulted him for nearly four years in multiple locations, including the parish, a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Vermont and the Northampton home of the priest’s father. The alleged victim is not identified in the filing.

Archambault shot himself in the head in July of 2011 at Sacred Heart Parish rectory in Springfield. His body was found after he failed to appear for Sunday Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Hampden.

He had served as the chaplain for the Hampden Police Department. Officers from that department carried his casket out of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Northampton at the end of his funeral.

Archambault was also the chaplain at Baystate Medical Center. Some 50 priests and deacons and a color guard from the Knights of Columbus attended his funeral Mass, which was presided over by The Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

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CANADA
National Post

Ottawa thwarting residential school compensation claims from ‘electric chair’ victims, advocates say

Colin Perkel, Canadian Press | 13/07/11

TORONTO — The federal government is thwarting compensation attempts from students at a former Indian residential school who say they were victims of horrific child abuse, including some jolted in an electric chair, advocates say.

They accuse the government of hiding thousands of pages of documentary evidence — much of it from a criminal investigation of St. Anne’s in northern Ontario — that might support their claims.

“The federal government is turning its head and doing everything it can to keep the abuse from being uncovered,” said Fay Brunning, an Ottawa-based lawyer who acts for some of the claimants.

“(One client) said it feels the same as the past, when the Catholic church was pretending there was no abuse.”

Even within a system that has proven a dark stain on Canadian history, St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany was particularly ugly.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jul. 11, 2013 NCR Today

A former adviser to now-Cardinal Timothy Dolan has written to defend the prelate’s actions when he served as archbishop of Milwaukee, saying the shifting of some $57 million from the archdiocese’s treasury to a cemetery trust fund in 2007 was not an attempt to protect the money from lawsuits by sexual abuse survivors.

Instead, the head of the archdiocese’s finance council wrote Thursday, the decision was made following the unanimous recommendation of the council in order to “preserve and maintain cemeteries as sacred places forever.”

Shifting of the money has been a key point of discussion following the release July 1 of thousands of pages of records from the Milwaukee diocese regarding its handling of cases of sexual abuse by clergy. Abuse survivors have alleged that the transfer of the funds was done to protect the money from lawsuits of victims and impending bankruptcy proceedings.

Dolan, who was Milwaukee’s archbishop from 2002 to 2009 but now serves as the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, has repeatedly denied that claim. The Milwaukee archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 11, 2013

TRANSCRIPTS: Special Commission of Inquiry and court exhibits

BISHOP Michael Malone was terrified that priest Jim Fletcher was a paedophile, but he did not make inquiries at the time, the Special Commission of Inquiry sitting in Newcastle heard yesterday.

Nor did he warn the Lochinvar presbytery that allegations had been made against Fletcher, who was subsequently jailed on child sex abuse charges, even though he had added the area to Fletcher’s Branxton ministry against the express wishes of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Mr Fox had urged the then Catholic Church bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese to stand Fletcher aside from active duty.

Bishop Malone said he told the principal of the Branxton school – although counsel assisting the commission, Julia Lonergan, said this was contested – but he admitted not warning the Lochinvar school of the suspicions about Fletcher.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

The former Bishop of the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church says a priest accused of child sexual abuse was given a bigger parish because of a “staff shortage”.

The former Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone will continue giving evidence at the inquiry’s public hearings today.

It is investigating claims by senior policeman Peter Fox that the Church tried to protect two priests, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Bishop Malone told the Commission because of the serious allegations against Fletcher he warned the principal of a Branxton school that the priest should not have access to children.

But not long after that, Bishop Malone made Fletcher responsible for the nearby Lochinvar parish as well as another school, without warning the principal there.

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NORTHAMPTON (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette

By BOB DUNN @BDGazette
Thursday, July 11, 2013

NORTHAMPTON — A 20-year-old Chesterfield man has filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Hampshire Superior Court alleging he was sexually abused by a priest serving in Chicopee, and that church officials should have taken steps to protect the child.

Named as defendants in the suit are the Springfield Diocese, the former Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, and a priest identified only as Father R. or Father Rick, who served at St. Patrick’s Parish in Chicopee.

The alleged abuser is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The Diocese says there is no record of the man accused of the abuse ever serving as a priest in their organization.

Because of confusion over the identity of the allege abuser, the Gazette is not naming him at this time.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Hampshire Superior Court, alleges that over a four-year span beginning when the plaintiff was 13, he was abused “over 50 times” and at several locations, including at a Northampton home, St. Patrick’s Parish, and at the Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer, a religious retreat in Jamaica, Vt.

When reached by telephone Thursday morning, the attorney for the plaintiff, John J. Stobierski of Greenfield, said he isn’t prepared to comment on the case now, but plans to release a statement sometime in the future.

Mark Dupont, spokesman for the Diocese, said there is no record of a priest by the name of the one in the lawsuit within the Diocese.

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CANADA
Sun News

ALISON LANGLEY | QMI AGENCY

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — A catholic priest and former high school principal has been convicted of possession of child pornography.

Rheal LeBlanc, 77, was arrested in December and charged with one count of possession of child porn after a month-long investigation that included a search of his Welland, Ont., home.

LeBlanc pleaded guilty to the charge earlier this month, Det. Staff Sgt. Randy Bleich said.

LeBlanc was sentenced to 14 days in jail, to be served on weekends.

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VATICAN CITY
IOL

July 11 2013
By Steve Scherer

ROME – Pope Francis made it clear on Thursday that he would personally oversee reform of the troubled Vatican bank by attending the first meeting of an investigative commission he set up last month to shed light on its murky financial dealings.

“Francis wanted to be present to encourage the work of the commission,” the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano said, adding that the meeting had taken place a day earlier.

The bank’s German chairman, Ernst von Freyberg, also attended along with prelate Monsignor Battista Ricca, who was appointed last month as an intermediary between the bank and the Vatican, the paper said.

The problems of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), as the bank is formally known, have multiplied even in the short time since the pope created the commission on June 26.

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GENEVA
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

GENEVA (CNS) — A United Nations’ committee concerned with children’s rights is requesting that the Vatican provide complete details about every accusation it has ever received of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, published July 1 “a list of issues” it found lacking in the Vatican’s latest report on its compliance with the international obligations it accepted when it ratified the convention.

The Vatican is being asked to provide: “detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns”; how it has responded to victims and perpetrators of abuse; whether it ever investigated “complaints of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” of girls in the Magdalene laundries in Ireland; and how it dealt with allegations that young boys, who were part of the Legion of Christ, were being separated from their families.

The committee is also requesting information on: what the Vatican has done to address discrimination between boys and girls in Catholic schools, including removing sexual stereotypes in school textbooks; whether it has “clearly condemned” corporal punishment of children; if it still labels children born out of wedlock as “illegitimate”; and how it is working to prevent child abandonment and trace infants’ identities when church-run facilities receive unwanted children, including through so-called “baby boxes.”

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Alessandro Speciale | Jul 11, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Thursday (July 11) approved a major overhaul of the Vatican’s criminal laws, introducing specific offenses for child sexual abuse and leaking confidential documents.

Vatican laws against money laundering, corruption and the financing of terrorism were updated to respond to the recommendations of the European financial transparency watchdog Moneyval. The Vatican submitted to Moneyval oversight as part of its bid to use the euro as its currency.

The overhaul has been long awaited: the Vatican still uses an 1889 Italian criminal code adopted after the creation of the Vatican State in 1929. …

Nevertheless, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a sex abuse victims group, blasted the new norms, saying they will “foster the false impression of reform and will lead to more complacency.”

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CHILE
Cooperativa

El abogado defensor de Fernando Karadima, Cristián Muga, presentó un escrito al ministro de fuero Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo para que precise en que calidad será interrogado el sacerdote el próximo miércoles.

Esto en la causa civil que abrieron los querellantes para buscar la responsabilidad contractual del Arzobispado de Santiago en los abusos cometidos por el ex párroco de la Parroquia de El Bosque.

Muga se notificó este miércoles por la tarde de la decisión del juez Muñoz de citar al sacerdote en el marco de la acción civil previa presentada por James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz y José Andrés Murillo, quienes son representados por el abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla.

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CHILE
El Mostrador

El ministro de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo, decidió citar a declarar al ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, condenado por el Vaticano por abusos sexuales reiterados, informó esta tarde La Segunda.

Las víctimas del sacerdote -James Hamilton , José Andrés Murillo y Juan Carlos Cruz- presentaron en noviembre pasado una medida prejudicial probatoria ante los juzgados civiles, a modo de ‘fase previa’ a una demanda que presentarán por daños y perjuicios, en la que exigirán al Arzobispado de Santiago una indemnización económica.

En su cuenta en Twitter, Cruz escribió el siguiente mensaje: “Ministro llama a declarar a Karadima y otros x nuestra ‘pre-demanda. Se avanza. Me alegro de no tener que estar delante de ese monstruo esta vez”.

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CHILE
24 Horas

El ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, deberá declarar ante la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago en la fase previa de una demanda presenta por el médico, James Hamilton, el filósofo José Andrés Murillo y el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz.

El magistrado Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo decidió citar a declarar al sacerdote luego que en noviembre del año pasado las tres víctimas del sacerdote, que fue condenado por el Vaticano por abusos sexuales reiterados, presentaran una medida prejudicial probatoria ante los juzgados civiles, a modo de “fase previa” a una demanda que presentaron por daños y perjuicios, en la que exigen al Arzobispado una indemnización económica, según consignó La Segunda.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

OCD at the NYT? Times Now Publishes Three New Articles About Long Reported 2007 Transfer of Funds by Cardinal Dolan, Ignores Rampant Sex Abuse In NYC Public Schools Today

The New York Times is apparently suffering from withdrawal symptoms from the lack of any real news in the Catholic Church sex abuse story.

Always eager to smear its local bishop, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the Times recently ran three pieces attacking Dolan for merely transferring monies in 2007, when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, to a cemetery trust fund to ensure that the monies were going to be used as intended by the original donors: for the future care and maintenance of Catholic cemeteries.

In an article about the recent release of documents that are part of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy proceedings, the Times’ Laurie Goodstein (naturally) suggests that the $57 million transfer to a cemetery trust fund was a part of a diabolical plot by Dolan to “protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation” by moving the money away.

However, Goodstein makes no mention of the fact that the creation of the trust was actually “required by state law and mandated by the archdiocesan finance council” in order to provide sufficient funds for ongoing and future cemetery maintenance needs.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 12, 2013

The former Maitland and Newcastle Bishop, Michael Malone, said he was trying to trigger a confession from paedophile priest James Fletcher by warning him that police were investigating allegations he raped a boy in the Maitland area.

Bishop Malone said it never crossed his mind that he hindered Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s investigation and told the special commission of inquiry he thought he “may have been able to trigger a confession that might circumvent a police investigation”.

The bishop said he first heard of the allegation from the victim’s father after his son’s attempted suicide but the church did not investigate because there was insufficient evidence to take it further.

He said “based on an educated guess that AH (the victim) and Fletcher would have both denied it” neither were interviewed about the incident.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Kate Simmons | Jul. 11, 2013

Despite resistance from several dioceses, Austrian priest Fr. Helmut Schüller still will visit the 15 cities originally scheduled for his first American speaking tour this summer.
After being inspired by Schüller’s message of reform, 12 organizations are sponsoring his Catholic Tipping Point tour, which will begin July 16 and end Aug. 7.

Schüller famously led more than 400 priests in an “Appeal to Disobedience” in 2011, recommending women and married priests be ordained in response to the ongoing priest shortage. The appeal, published by the Austrian Priests Initiative, also called for laypeople to take a larger role in church leadership.

Progressive Catholic organizations and parishes are welcoming the tour, but some diocesan officials are less supportive. Expressing concern that Schüller’s message will “damage the unity” of the church, the Philadelphia archdiocese issued a statement prohibiting the Austrian priest from speaking at any parish or diocesan-related facility.

The tour’s Philadelphia venue, however, will not change its plans.

Chestnut Hill College, a Roman Catholic school with 2,318 students and fewer than 900 undergraduates, is not affiliated with the diocese, nor is it an official sponsor of the tour. Chestnut Hill is not turning Schüller away, even though Archbishop Charles Chaput communicated his concerns directly to the college.

While the college “fully respects” Chaput’s decision, it still will welcome Schüller to the campus “as part of the College’s continuing mission to encourage dialogue on issues of importance to society,” Chestnut Hill said in an email to NCR.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: July 11, 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 victim of sexual assault has filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield as well as against Bishop McDonnell and a former pastor for allowing abuse to occur for years.

It takes courage for victims to stand up to their abusers and we commend this brave man for coming forward, seeking justice and protecting others.

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UNITED STATES
Publishers Weekly

Michael D’Antonio will be on Tavis Talks for Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal (Thomas Dunne, 978-0312594893).

Due to the nature of live programming, scheduling is subject to change.

Booksellers can order these titles through Ingram at ipage.

To be included in the Authors on the Air compilation, email information–at least TWO days in advance, please–to ghabash@publishersweekly.com.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

Pope Francis toughened up the Vatican city state’s laws on child sex abuse on Thursday, in the latest demonstration of his determination to overhaul the Holy See after years of damaging intrigue and scandal.

By Nick Squires, Rome 11 Jul 2013

But the measures were dismissed by anti-abuse campaigners as little more than administrative tinkering because they applied only to the tiny city state and would have no impact in protecting children in the rest of the world from predatory priests.

The new laws about the sexual abuse of minors came just two days after the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child demanded that the Vatican divulge documents about its treatment of abuse victims around the world and its leniency towards predatory priests.

The new laws represented “a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors, including the sale of children, child prostitution, the recruitment of children, sexual violence and sexual acts with children, and the production and possession of child pornography,” the Vatican said.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has strengthened laws on child abuse that apply to clerics and lay people working in the Vatican.

The papal decree broadens the definition on crimes against minors to include sexual abuse of children.

Earlier this year, Pope Francis said that dealing with sex abuse was vital to the Church’s credibility.

The decree also increases the Vatican’s international co-operation in combating crimes, and raises penalties for those who leak official papers.

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VATICAN CITY
Aljazeera

Pope Francis has bolstered criminal legislation against child abuse in the Vatican in an overhaul of laws that apply to the clergy and lay people who work in the city state.

The Vatican said on Thursday in a statement that the pope’s decree included “a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors” including child prostitution, sexual acts with children and child pornography.

He also increased cooperation with other states against money laundering and terrorism in a continuation of reforms started by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, to get the Vatican in line with international legislation.

The new norms also increase criminal liability for people working in Vatican departments – a potentially radical change that would complement his plans to root out corruption from the scandal-ridden Vatican bureaucracy.

The laws will come into force on September 1.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Fred Contrada, The Republican
on July 11, 2013

NORTHAMPTON – A Chesterfield man has filed a suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell and a former pastor, charging them with negligence for allowing a priest at the former St. Patrick’s Parish in Chicopee to sexually assault him over a period of four years.

The plaintiff, referred to in the complaint only as “John Doe,” maintains he was 13 years old when Jerry Archambault, a priest in the Springfield diocese assigned to St. Patrick’s, began sexually assaulting him. The more than 50 assaults took place at multiple locations, the suit says, including St. Patrick’s Parish, Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer in Vermont and the Northampton home of Paul Archambault.

Also named as a defendant is “Father R,” the pastor at St. Patrick’s who was known to the congregation as “Father Rick,” the suit states. The most recent pastor at St. Patrick’s church was Rev. Richard Turner.

The plaintiff contends that the diocese, the bishop and “Father Rick” knew or should have known about the assaults and were negligent in failing to stop them.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on Pope Francis’ crackdown on sex abuse:

As Pope Francis proved today, he has no stomach for child exploitation, or for any type of sexual abuse. His decision to revise the norms affecting these crimes, complete with more stringent penalties, is a welcome tonic. However, he does not need to be congratulated for this initiative—he needs to be supported by those in a position to do so.

Child sexual abuse is a serious worldwide problem. It affects every secular and religious organization where there is sustained interaction between adults and children. In the West, it is aided and abetted by a sick culture bent on eroticizing youth. From advertisements in magazines and on billboards, to TV shows during the day and in the evening—to say nothing of music videos and the movie industry—we are inundated with hyper-sexualized portrayals and images, the result of which is a morally debased milieu.

When it comes to racial tensions, many are quick to point to the “root causes” of poverty and injustice. But these same persons show little or no interest in addressing the “root causes” of child sexual exploitation. As we recently saw in the debate over gun control, those who were screaming the loudest for stricter gun laws were typically silent on the role Hollywood plays in fostering violence in our culture. The same is true about sexual exploitation—there is a reluctance to get Hollywood to do something about its role in furthering this problem.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazetta del Sud

New York, July 11 – The leading US clerical abuse protest group on Thursday dismissed Pope Francis’s crackdown on crimes against kids, saying it was a “tiny tweak” which would in any case only apply within the small confines of the Vatican City. In a statement, David Clohessy, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said: “For the Vatican’s image, this is a successful move. For children’s safety, this is another setback. “It’s a setback because it will help foster the false impression of reform and will lead to more complacency.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: July 11, 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 )

For the Vatican’s image, this is a successful move. For children’s safety, this is another setback.

It’s a setback because it will help foster the false impression of reform and will lead to more complacency.

In the real world, this changes virtually nothing. It’s is precisely the kind of ‘feel good’ gesture that Vatican officials have long specialized in: tweaking often-ignored and ineffective internal church abuse guidelines to generate positive headlines but nothing more.

While the headlines may proclaim “Pope makes new church rules about abuse,” the fine print makes it clear that there’s just one rule, and it purportedly makes more child sexual violence illegal on the 0.2 square miles of Vatican property.

The church hierarchy doesn’t need new rules on abuse. It needs to follow long-established secular laws on abuse. And it needs to push for, not oppose, real reforms to archaic, predator-friendly secular laws (like the statute of limitations).

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The former Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, has admitted it would have been better if he had reported a paedophile priest directly to the police.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The former Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle has admitted it would have been better if he’d reported a paedophile priest directly to the police.

He was referring to Father Denis McAlinden.

The special commission of inquiry said the Church had evidence of his abuses over four decades.

Bishop Michael Malone conceded his early handling of abuse had been bumbling and said he had a lot of regrets. And Bishop Malone today contradicted evidence he gave yesterday when he said he’d never read or acquainted himself with the material in the priest’s personal file.

Suzie Smith reports from Maitland-Newcastle. The producer is Stephen Crittenden.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: It was day two of intensive cross-examination of the former bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, a role he held for 16 years until 2011.

Yesterday Michael Malone said that when he first became bishop, he only knew about two victims of Denis McAlinden, “AL” and “AK”.

He also said that as the bishop of a busy diocese, he didn’t have the luxury to read through McAlinden’s extensive file.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 12, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

Bishop Michael Malone admitted he was ”bumbling” in his first nine years of dealing with child sex abuse allegations against two priests in his Maitland-Newcastle diocese because he found ”the whole area … so distasteful” and ”very unpalatable”.

The bishop said it was not until 2004, nine years after he became bishop, that he had an ”epiphany” when an ombudsman’s report made it ”obvious that I was not adequately handling these matters”.

There were gasps and guffaws from the packed public gallery at Newcastle court on Thursday during Bishop Malone’s testimony at the state government inquiry into alleged police and church cover-ups of paedophile priest activity in the Hunter Valley.

He expressed regret for his actions several times and said he retired in 2011 because the matters he had to deal with had made him ”very tired”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 12, 2013

A CATHOLIC bishop told that a parish priest may have sexually abused a child chose not to speak to the victim or the priest and decided there was too little evidence to go to the police.

Giving evidence yesterday to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, the former bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, said he had been defensive of the church at the time and wanted to avoid scandal.

“I think the early years of my being bishop were fairly bumbling when it came to dealing with sexual abuse . . . I was not adequately handling these matters,” he said.

The former bishop, who retired in 2011, also appeared yesterday to contradict his earlier evidence about how much he knew about another pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

Bishop Malone had previously told the inquiry he did not read McAlinden’s personnel file and knew only of two local victims of the priest when he took over the diocese in 1995.

Yesterday, he said he had read some documents in the file, including internal church correspondence from decades earlier that said the priest had admitted to abusing children.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

by Barbie Latza Nadeau Jul 11, 2013

Faced with a demands for explanations from the U.N.’s body on children’s rights, Pope Francis expanded the Vatican’s legal system to allow broader prosecution of sex crimes.

After years of non-compliance, the Vatican is finally being taken to task by the United Nation’s Commission for the Rights of the Child about its dodgy record on child sex abuse. And it looks like Pope Francis is taking it serious.

The Holy See was given until January to submit a detailed report to the United Nations answering very specific questions and providing confidential records and documentation about how and why Catholic diocese moved predatory priests between dioceses like chess pieces. And on Thursday, Pope Francis issued a “motu proprio” extending the scope of the Vatican City legal system to bolster criminal legislation against child sex abuse, possession of child pornography and child prostitution on Vatican grounds by Vatican staff, seen as a shot across the bow to those in the Holy See who have harbored secrets of the sex abuse scandal. The extended scope of the legal system should pave the way to greater transparency and even prosecution of those who may have been the great enablers of the Church’s worst sinners.

The U.N.’s request, called the “List of Issues to be Taken Up in Connection with the Consideration of the Second Periodic Report of the Holy See” outlines a series of concerns the U.N.’s child protection arm wants addressed, including requests like “please indicate whether the Holy See still label children born outside wedlock as ‘illegitimate children’ and whether it has assessed the consequences of the use of such terminology on the rights of these children.”

The commission also asks the Holy See to clarify its procedure in investigation child sex abuse claims both regarding the recent pedophile priest scandal and the historical use of so-called “Magdalene’s laundries” as Catholic slave workhouses where women of ill repute were kept. These laundries, according to the U.N.’s accusations, were widely used in Europe and North American from the 18th to the 20th centuries, and still in use in Ireland until 1996. “Please indicate whether an investigation was conducted by the Holy see into the complaints of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and of subjection to force labor of girls held in Magdalene’s laundries run by Catholic Sisters in Ireland until 1996,” the report demands. The U.N. also wants a clear record on the number of babies taken from their mothers in the Magdalene’s laundries, and placed in Catholic orphanages or given for adoption.

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VATICAN CITY
Newser

By NICOLE WINFIELD | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pope Francis overhauled the laws that govern the Vatican City State on Thursday, criminalizing leaks of Vatican information and specifically listing sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography as crimes against children that can be punished by up to 12 years in prison.

The legislation covers clergy and lay people who live and work in Vatican City and is different from the canon law which covers the universal Catholic Church.

The bulk of the Vatican’s penal code is based on the 1889 Italian code. Many of the new provisions were necessary to bring the city state’s legal system up to date after the Holy See signed international treaties, such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Others were necessary to comply with international norms to fight money-laundering, part of the Vatican’s push toward financial transparency.

One new crime stands out, though, as an obvious response to the leaks of papal documents last year that represented one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.

Paolo Gabriele, the butler for then-Pope Benedict XVI, was tried and convicted by a Vatican court of stealing Benedict’s personal papers and giving them to an Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi.

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican unveiled changes to its law on Thursday that name the sexual abuse of children as a specific crime and aim to implement international anti-money laundering norms as the city state seeks to end years of scandal.

Under the changes, child prostitution, sexual violence and sexual acts with children and child pornography will be included in a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors, the Vatican said in a statement.

Issuing a “Motu Proprio,” a decree of his own initiative, Pope Francis also said he wanted to renew the Holy See’s commitment to international conventions against crimes such as money laundering and terrorism.

The reforms extend the criminal liability of officials and staff of the Roman Curia, making it possible to indict them even for crimes committed outside the Vatican city state.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 July 2013 (VIS) – Published below is the full text of a presentation given by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, on the laws approved by the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State:

“The laws approved by the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State bring about a broad-ranging normative change, necessary for the function that this State, entirely sui generis, is called upon to carry out for the benefit of the Apostolic See. The original and foundational aim of the Vatican, which consists of guaranteeing the freedom of the exercise of the Petrine ministry, indeed requires an institutional structure that, the limited dimensions of the territory notwithstanding, assumes a complexity in some respects similar to that of contemporary States.

“Established by the Lateran Pacts of 1929, the State adopted the judicial, civil and penal structures of the Kingdom of Italy in their entirety, in the conviction that this would be sufficient to regulate the legal relationships within a State whose reason for existence lies in the support of the spiritual mission of Peter’s Successor. The original penal system – constituted by the Italian Penal Code on 30 June 1889 and the Italian Penal Code of 27 February 1913, in force from 7 June 1929 – has seen only marginal modifications and even the new law on sources of law (No. 71 of 1 October 2008) confirms the criminal legislation of 1929, while awaiting an overall redefinition of the discipline.

“The most recently approved laws, while not constituting a radical reform of the penal system, revise some aspects and complete it in other areas, satisfying a number of requirements. On the one hand, these laws take up and develop the theme of the evolution of the Vatican judicial structure, continuing the action undertaken by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 to prevent and combat money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. In this regard, the provisions contained in the 2000 United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism, are to be implemented, along with other conventions defining and specifying terrorist activity.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 July 2013 (VIS) – The Holy See Press Office has today published the following communique regarding Pope Francis’ Motu Proprio on matters of criminal law in Vatican City State:

“Today His Holiness Pope Francis has issued a Motu proprio on criminal law matters. On this same date, the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State has adopted the following laws: Law No. VIII containing Supplementary Norms on Criminal Law Matters, Law No. IX containing Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, Law No. X containing General Provisions on Administrative Sanctions.

“The Motu proprio makes the criminal laws adopted by the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State applicable also within the Holy See. The criminal laws adopted today are a continuation of the efforts to update Vatican City State’s legal system, building upon the measures adopted since 2010 during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

“These laws, however, have a broader scope, since they incorporate into the Vatican legal system the provisions of numerous international conventions including: the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, on the conduct of war and war crimes; the 1965 Convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination; the 1984 Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the 1989 Convention on the rights of the child and its optional protocols of 2000.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 July 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis’ apostolic letter issued Motu proprio on the jurisdiction of the judicial authorities of Vatican City State in criminal matters was published this morning. The full text is given below:

“In our times, the common good is increasingly threatened by transnational organized crime, the improper use of the markets and of the economy, as well as by terrorism.

It is therefore necessary for the international community to adopt adequate legal instruments to prevent and counter criminal activities, by promoting international judicial cooperation on criminal matters.

In ratifying numerous international conventions in these areas, and acting also on behalf of Vatican City State, the Holy See has constantly maintained that such agreements are effective means to prevent criminal activities that threaten human dignity, the common good and peace.

With a view to renewing the Apostolic See’s commitment to cooperate to these ends, by means of this Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio, I establish that:

1. The competent Judicial Authorities of Vatican City State shall also exercise penal jurisdiction over:
a) crimes committed against the security, the fundamental interests or the patrimony of the Holy See;
b) crimes referred to:
– in Vatican City State Law No. VIII, of 11 July 2013, containing Supplementary Norms on Criminal Law Matters;
– in Vatican City State Law No. IX, of 11 July 2013, containing Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code;
when such crimes are committed by the persons referred to in paragraph 3 below, in the exercise of their functions;
c) any other crime whose prosecution is required by an international agreement ratified by the Holy See, if the perpetrator is physically present in the territory of Vatican City State and has not been extradited.

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CONNECTICUT
Minuteman News Center

By Meg Learson Grosso
mgrosso@fairfieldminuteman.com
Twitter: @mlearsongrosso

A $12 million settlement ended a lawsuit filed on behalf of 23 Haitians abused by a Fairfield University alumnus who founded and ran a school for destitute street children in Haiti. Attorney for the Haitians, Mitchell Garabedian, called it “a landmark case.”

The school, called Project Pierre Toussaint, was supported with donations often received through the help of the University’s charismatic chaplain, Fr. Paul Carrier. Over $2 million was raised for the project and Carrier held the checkbook and made frequent trips to Haiti.

The 1992 graduate, Douglas Perlitz, was the Fairfield University’s commencement speaker in 2002 and the University gave him an honorary degree.

Perlitz founded the school in 1997 and directed it until 2007, when the first tales of his sexually abusing boys came to the attention of those funding the school.

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By CHRISTOPHER EMSDEN

ROME— Pope Francis on Thursday proclaimed new laws governing conduct at the Vatican in a move that makes international agreements covering the sexual abuse of minors binding within the Holy See.

The pontiff personally signed what is known as a motu proprio—a directive whose name means “on his own impulse” in Latin and which has been used by pontiffs or Vatican administrative matters for more than 500 years—on criminal-law matters, making it clear they applied to all members of the Roman Curia.

The new rules mean the ecclesiastical city state is incorporating into its own legal system provisions from important conventions including one on the rights of children, another against cruel or degrading treatment as well as the Geneva protocols on proper conduct during wartime.

The motu proprio means that sexual acts with children are now a crime.

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VATICAN CITY
Focus

Vatican City. Pope Francis on Thursday bolstered criminal legislation against child abuse in the Vatican and increased criminal liability for employees of the tiny city state in a legislative overhaul, AFP reported.

The Vatican said in a statement that the pope’s decree included “a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors” including child prostitution, sexual acts with children and child pornography.
The new laws are part of an introduction of forms of crime indicated in international conventions that the Vatican has already ratified including against racism and war crimes and on children’s rights.

“While many of the specific criminal offences included in these laws are undeniably new, it would however be incorrect to assume that the forms of conduct thereby sanctioned were previously licit,” said Monsignor Dominique Mamberti, who is in charge of relations between the Holy See and other states.

“These were indeed punished, but as broader, more generic forms of criminal activity,” it added.

Francis also increased cooperation with other states against money laundering and terrorism in a continuation of reforms begun by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, to get the Vatican in line with international legislation.

The new norms also introduce the administrative responsibility of Vatican departments — a potentially radical change that would complement his plans to root out corruption from the scandal-ridden Vatican bureaucracy.

The pope’s reform “extends the reach of the legislation contained in these criminal laws to the members, officials and employees of the various bodies of the Roman Curia,” the central body of the Catholic Church, Mamberti said.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

From Hada Messia, CNN
updated 7:15 AM EDT, Thu July 11, 2013

Rome (CNN) — Pope Francis has laid down a law making it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds, the Holy See announced Thursday.

The acts were already crimes under church law, but are now specifically outlawed within the Vatican city-state, which is home to hundreds of people.

The legislation also covers child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.
But it has a “broader scope,” according to Radio Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 11, 2013

The former bishop of Maitland and Newcastle Michael Malone, who yesterday claimed he could not recall looking at paedophile priest Denis McAlinden’s file, this morning agreed under cross-examination that he did see the file.

Bishop Malone agreed with counsel assisting the special commission of inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, that he did look at the paedophile’s personnel file and told a victim it was: “So big you could not jump over it.”

When asked by Ms Lonergan asked why he was reluctant to reveal that he opened the file, Bishop Malone said that he didn’t look deeply into it and had “no idea” what he saw.

He said he knew about the abuse allegations in 1995 but did not contact police until 1999 through a professional standards committee, which acted as a church conduit.

“You must remember I was being torn by the knowledge [the two women] didn’t want police involved,” Bishop Malone said.

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MINNESOTA
Fairmont Sentinel

July 11, 2013
Jodelle Greiner – Staff Writer, Fairmont Sentinel

BLUE EARTH – Father Leo Charles Koppala has made bail and been released from the Faribault County Jail.

A jail spokesperson confirmed that Koppala was released Monday afternoon, after his $75,000 bail was posted by a bail bondsman.

Koppala, who had been serving as priest for Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Blue Earth, has been charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The charges stem from an incident June 7 in which Koppala allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with a child under 13 years of age, with the defendant being more than 36 months older than the child.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Express Milwaukee

By Joel McNally

You’d think lawyers suing a major religion that proclaims itself to be the guiding authority on moral behavior in every aspect of life would have the easiest job in the world.

Defendants wouldn’t even need to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They’ve already declared themselves the world’s foremost authorities on the truth.

So why have thousands of victims of sex crimes by Catholic priests around the country had to fight in the courts for years to get access to the facts about sexual predators and the church authorities who covered up their crimes?

It’s because the facts slowly emerging expose the completely false picture the church is still trying to present in court that puts protecting its enormous financial assets above accepting moral or legal responsibility for horrendous crimes.

This is after years of truly unholy, hardball legal tactics of lying and attacking victims, hiding behind legal loopholes and statutes of limitations and drawing out cases through endless legal stalling to intentionally bankrupt victims seeking compensation.

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NEW YORK
Rockland County Times

Brooklyn – Child sexual abuse is an infrequent but unfortunate and tragic occurrence in any community, but adding insult to injury by purposely ostracizing a child’s family almost seems too cruel to comprehend.

Still, for reporting sexual abuse of children, Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish families, also known as Haredi or ritually observant, often report strong ostracism from their community members up to and including exclusion from housing and having children booted from private schools.

“There is no nice way of saying it: Our community protects molesters,” Pearl Engelman, whose son reported he was fondled by a United Talmudical Academy teacher in Williamsburg, explained to the New York Times. “Other than that, we are wonderful.”

Such communities often prefer to handle problems internally through rabbinic authorities. According to the interpretation of many rabbis, informing on other Jews, or “mesirah,” is forbidden under Jewish law.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:30 by Keith Porteous Wood

Will the UN finally bring the Vatican to account for its child abuse crimes?
As a United Nations Committee on children’s rights confronts the Vatican on its abysmal record on clerical paedophilia and criminal cover-ups, Keith Porteous Wood describes his role in bringing the Holy See to account.

Hardly a month passes without a further scandal emerging of child rape and other sexual violence by clerics acting under the auspices of the Catholic Church.

In the first week of July (2013), as well as a scandal with the Vatican Bank that resulted in its top two executives being fired, there was the release of devastating court papers on the RC Diocese of Milwaukee in which countless boys in a Catholic school for the deaf were abused, presumably chosen because of their reduced capacity to communicate.

An attorney for some of the victims alleges that there were more than 8,000 cases of abuse by more than 100 staff. A harrowing film Mea Maxima Culpa has been made about this.

The diocese has declared itself bankrupt, limiting the funds available to victims of abuse. It transpires from the 6,000 pages of these court papers (just 10% of the total which the Church failed to have suppressed) that the then Archbishop, now the top US Cardinal Timothy Dolan, had transferred nearly $57 million shortly before the bankruptcy was declared to offer, in his words, “an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability”. The papers also show that the Vatican readily agreed to this transfer.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

Alison Winfield Burns

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) will investigate widespread sexual assault against children by Catholic clergy.

“We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life,” says Benedict XVI (Joseph Alois Ratzinger), in a traditional end-of-the year address to cardinals and bishops at the Vatican, 20 December 2010. He rushes to add that as late as the 1970s, pedophilia was not considered an absolute evil. Pedophilia, the sexual rape of children, was not a crime, says Pope Benedict XVI. He states that in 2010, rape allegations within the ranks of Catholic clergy have reached “unimaginable dimension.”

Benedict XVI’s Address to the Bishops, 20 December 2010:

In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos. It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a better than and a worse than. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstance and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist.

Benedict/Ratzinger is now yanked out of the fray, replaced by another man as pope. Ratzinger retired into seclusion. A popular Vatican tactic. A plethora of men come to mind.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Thursday bolstered criminal legislation against child abuse in the Vatican in an overhaul of laws that apply to the clergy and lay people who work in the tiny city state.

The Vatican said in a statement that the pope’s decree included “a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors” including child prostitution, sexual acts with children and child pornography.

He also increased cooperation with other states against money laundering and terrorism in a continuation of reforms started by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, to get the Vatican in line with international legislation.

The new norms also increase criminal liability for people working in Vatican departments — a potentially radical change that would complement his plans to root out corruption from the scandal-ridden Vatican bureaucracy.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published July 11, 2013, issue of July 19, 2013.

Six more former students have come forward with accusations against Yeshiva University, days after 19 former high school students filed a $380 million suit charging that Y.U. covered up decades of physical and sexual abuse.

Mike Reck, an attorney representing the six, said his clients are disappointed they have been unable to reach a settlement with Y.U. and are poised to file lawsuits.

If the impasse continues, “the survivors have no choice but to avail themselves of the court system,” said Reck, an attorney with the New York office of Jeff Anderson and Associates, a Minnesota firm that specializes in abuse cases.

So far, two former Y.U. high school staff members and a former Y.U. student have been accused of abuse in the lawsuit already filed. Reck says his clients’ suit could reveal three additional people as accused molesters.

His clients, the attorney said, include people who were abused by Rabbi George Finkelstein, a former principal of Y.U.’s Manhattan boys high school. Most say they were assaulted between 1969 and the early ’80s. But Reck says he also represents a woman who says she was abused by Finkelstein during the 1990s, when Finkelstein was dean of the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School, in Florida.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Adults who were abused in childhood suffer from more chronic health conditions and put far greater pressure on the health system than those who were not abused, according to new research from the University of Technology, Sydney.

The new research, conducted by by Rebecca Reeve and Kees van Gool from the University of Technology, Sydney and published in the journal Economic Record, highlight that long-term consequences of abuse should be considered when investing in health services to prevent abuse or assist survivors of child abuse.

The authors analysed data on 8,841 people aged 16 to 85, who were interviewed in private dwellings in all Australian states and territories as part of the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

The data showed that 15.5% of Australians aged 16 to 85 were physically and/or sexually abused as children, with the mean age of first abuse falling between eight and 11 years of age. In Australia, there are 17,000 substantial cases of physical and sexual child abuse each year, according to a 2010 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

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OKLAHOMA
KJRH

TULSA – A Tulsa pastor arrested last month for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old is now facing six felony counts of child sexual abuse.

Gregory Hawkins was charged Wednesday. He was a pastor at Zion Fellowship Ministries and owned a day care next door to the church on East 46th Street north between MLK Jr. Boulevard and North Peoria.

Police say Hawkins admitted having sex with the girl, a family member, and at the time of his arrest he said the teen was five months pregnant with his child. He was also recorded during two phone calls admitting having sex with the victim.

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AUSTRALIA
if.com

By Don Groves

Lynette Curran, Susie Porter, Gillian Jones and Lisa Hensley are attached to star in a 30-minute drama which tackles sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

A Priest in the Family is based on a short story by Irish writer Colm Tóibín about an elderly woman whose son, a parish priest, is accused of molesting his former students.

The producers aim to raise $40,000 via crowd-funding site Indiegogo (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-priest-in-the-family/x/2213312) by August 5, with plans to start shooting in the hamlet of Portland, near Lithgow, on September 28. Peter Humble wrote the screenplay and will share the directing duties with the producer Anni Finsterer.

“We are making a film that tells the emotional tale of how clergy sexual abuse affects not just individuals but also families and communities,” Anni said. “We want to make people more informed and thereby give them a voice.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 10, 2013

BISHOP Michael Malone says he never looked at confidential files about his priests despite the paedophilia controversy that raged during his 16 years in charge of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese of the Catholic Church.

In an extraordinary afternoon of evidence before the Special Commission of Inquiry sitting in Newcastle, the retired bishop agreed that some of his evidence “defied belief”.

But he insisted it was true, and repeatedly said he had never seen a trove of documents obtained by the commission’s investigators, even though they all came from the diocese headquarters and some came from filing cabinets in his own office.

Some of Bishop Malone’s early evidence yesterday about the circumstances of his taking over the diocese from Bishop Leo Clarke in 1995 drew sympathetic laughter from many in the 50-strong gallery.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 11, 2013

A LETTER tendered to today’s Special Commission of Inquiry hearings shows the Maitland-Newcastle diocese should have known police in two states were considering ‘‘misprision of felony’’ charges over the concealment of child sex offences by priests.

The letter, dating from January 1996, was addressed to senior diocese figure Monsignor Allan Hart.

Bishop Michael Malone, whose 16 years at the head of the diocese began the year before, agreed with counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan, that such a letter should have been drawn to his attention, but he ‘‘didn’t remember’’ seeing it before the current investigations.

This letter was one of a number tendered to the commission on Thursday that concerned the investigation of priests accused of child sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 11, 2013

A FORMER Catholic bishop has admitted his handling of child abuse committed by priests was “bumbling” and inadequate, and that he did not report one such pedophile to police despite believing he could reoffend.

Giving evidence to the NSW special commission of inquiry this morning, Bishop Michael Malone also appeared to contradict his earlier evidence about how much he knew about this priest, Denis McAlinden.

Bishop Malone yesterday told the inquiry he had not read McAlinden’s personnel file and only knew of two local victims of the priest when he took over the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, in NSW, in 1995.

However, today he said he was also aware at the time that McAlinden had previously been prosecuted for child abuse in Western Australia, although he was not convicted.

He also said he had read some documents within McAlinden’s file, including internal church correspondence from decades earlier that said the priest had admitted to abusing children.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Paul Maguire, AAP
July 11, 2013

A retired Catholic bishop has admitted that he found the area of child abuse so distasteful that he didn’t look at the files of priests under his care.

One of the files was so big that Bishop Michael Malone couldn’t jump over it, he told the special NSW government commission of inquiry.

The former Maitland-Newcastle bishop appeared before the inquiry for a second day of evidence on Thursday.

Barrister assisting the commission, Julia Lonergan SC, asked the bishop why he didn’t think child protection was his responsibility from 1995, when he started in his Hunter Valley diocese, to 2004, when he first took some action.

“I wasn’t fully aware of the extent of the issue, I was on a sharp learning curve,” he replied.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 10, 2013

Paul Maguire
AAP

Michael Malone’s first official duty as bishop of Newcastle was to strip Denis McAlinden of his priesthood for sexually abusing children.

Bishop Malone began giving evidence on Wednesday at a special NSW Government commission of inquiry into how the church and police handled child sexual abuse allegations against Fr Denis McAlinden and another priest, James Fletcher.

Bishop Malone was appointed in 1995 and retired in 2011, after dealing with a succession of child abuse by clergy in his diocese.

Bishop Malone admitted that the diocese had stored confidential documents dating back to the 1970s confirming McAlinden was a known pedophile, with allegations reaching as far back as the 1950s.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

The former Bishop of the Catholic Church in the NSW Hunter Valley says he knew a paedophile priest had a psychological condition that made him an ongoing threat to children.

Former Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone is giving evidence at the inquiry which was sparked by policeman Peter Fox.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox says the church covered up abuse by father James Fletcher and father Denis McAlinden.

Bishop Malone says he knew about the abuse but did not tell police because the victims did not want to press charges.

Bishop Malone told the public hearings today McAlinden “thought his tendency to sexual abuse was somehow controlled by prayer and the sacraments”.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Paul Maguire, AAP
July 11, 2013

A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a boy was given control of a second parish four months after a police investigation had begun.

The appointment of Branxton’s Father James Fletcher to also run the Lochinvar parish in October 2002 was one of numerous regrets Bishop Michael Malone expressed to a special NSW commission of inquiry on Thursday.

When asked by a barrister assisting the commission, Julia Lonergan, why Fr Fletcher was appointed to a parish that had a primary school and high school whose students had no knowledge of the allegations, Bishop Malone answered: “We had no-one else to put in.

“So it was better to appoint someone accused of paedophilia than no-one at all?” Ms Lonergan asked.

“I take your point,” Bishop Malone responded.

“I have a lot of regrets about this.

“In hindsight I wish I’d have acted with more determination in standing him aside and not informing him (Fr Fletcher that the police investigation was underway).

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

Bishop Michael Malone, speaking to the NSW government inquiry into clerical child sexual abuse in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese, said he asked his predecessor, Leo Clarke, what the skeletons in the closet were. Bishop Clarke pushed a wooden box across the table and told him to also look in a briefcase in the corner of the room. “I asked what’s in the briefcase and he said ‘oh well, you’ll find out’,” Bishop Malone said.

The skeletons were paedophile priests, notably Fletcher and McAlinden (see previous postings). The elephant in the room, which went un-noticed, was that they were being protected. Malone may have continued his predecessors practice. Only the fly on the wall could be sure. Perhaps, Malone was just reluctant to open the can of worms. In the end, he let sleeping dogs lie.

The public interest in Malone’s evidence was reflected in the public gallery, which was full to over-flowing.

Bishop Malone admitted that the diocese had stored confidential documents dating back to the 1970s confirming McAlinden was a known pedophile, with allegations reaching as far back as the 1950s. Although Bishop Clarke, had formally removed McAlinden’s right to practice as a priest in 1993, in mid-1995 he was still being paid by the diocese, had been traveling the world for some time and was in the Philippines masquerading as a priest and carrying out the work of a priest.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

By Valerie Chinn

Louisville, KY (WDRB) — Is a Louisville priest competent to stand trial? That’s the question both the defense and prosecution are hoping to get answered soon in the Father James Schook case.

Two boys who are now grown men say they were abused by Schook in the early 1970s. In 2011, he was charged with seven counts of sodomy.

Schook was supposed to be evaluated at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center, but the prosecution says because the facility didn’t think it could handle his medical needs, their doctors will now evaluate him at Atria Senior Living in St. Matthews, where is he currently staying.

The defense says Schook has terminal skin cancer and those records are now being looked at, as well.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Jon M. Sweeney

Right now, the United States government is doing all it can to capture a young man who leaked sensitive information that embarrassed it. They are probably justified in trying to capture Edward Snowden. But Catholics are still wondering why the U.S. government hasn’t insisted that the Vatican send Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston back to face charges for knowingly harboring and supporting a criminal priest who raped more than 150 boys in his archdiocese. After fleeing Boston in late 2002, Cardinal Law was appointed by Pope John Paul II to a prestigious position in Rome, where for a decade he recommended the appointment of new bishops and helped to investigate American nuns. Today, he sits in happy retirement behind the Vatican walls. Matthew Fox is angry about this sort of thing, as well he should be. So, too, are millions of Catholics.

It is from such a place of anger and frustration, but also hope for the future, that Fox’s Letters to Pope Francis: Rebuilding a Church with Justice and Compassion (July ’13, 152 pp, ebook and printed book editions) comes. Just published, the book is a welcome set of missives, echoing themes that are at once familiar and well argued. Surely, the new Pope will never read these letters, but one wishes that he would, particularly before planning what he will say to millions of Catholic youth in Rio de Janeiro later this month. (Look for millions of young people glued to the Pope’s every word, July 23-28.)

Fox reinvigorates a term from the Second Vatican Council, sensus fidelium, “sense of the faithful,” in these letters to Pope Francis. It is a beautiful phrase and a powerful reminder that the Catholic Church is larger–much larger–than the Chair of Saint Peter. The Second Vatican Council said that the Church was supposed to listen carefully to the sensus fidelium, and Fox makes the point that the performance and perspective of Pope Francis’s two predecessors shows that, not only hasn’t the Church done so, but it is actually in schism as a result. The last two popes have deliberately gone about undoing the reforms and teachings of Vatican II. Fox explains, “Quite simply, in Catholic theology a Council trumps a Pope but a Pope does not trump a Council.” What we’ve essentially had since 1978 is two popes turning their backs on reforms that were decided by a valid Council, leading to a schismatic Church.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune Updated: July 10, 2013

The Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis discovered in 1966 that a priest was engaging in sexual contact with boys, and that priest was assigned to four more parishes, according to documents.

The Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis discovered in 1966 that a Minnesota priest was engaging in sexual contact with boys, but the priest was nonetheless assigned to four more parishes over the next 25 years, according to Archdiocese documents and information made public Wednesday.

The accused priest, John Brown, 92, who retired in 1991, said in an interview with the Star Tribune at his assisted living apartment in Maplewood that he “very, very vaguely” recalls fondling some boys in a locker room.

He was asked if he was sorry.

“I have to be sorry,” he said. “Wouldn’t anybody be sorry?”

Asked about other accusations of molestation, Brown appeared to contradict himself, saying “I don’t recall actually molesting,” adding, “If it happened I’d have to have remorse.”

A parent complained about Brown’s behavior to Archbishop Leo Binz in 1966, according to a 1992 memorandum by Rev. Kevin McDonough, the vicar general of the archdiocese. Attorney Jeff Anderson made the document public at a news conference Wednesday.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

St. Paul attorneys and an alleged sexual abuse victim asked a Minnesota court Wednesday, July 10, to unseal a list of 33 priests in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, who have been accused of sexual abuse.

The alleged victim identified as David Pususta, of Waverly, Minn., also came forward regarding abuse he allegedly experienced by Rev. John Brown. Brown is retired and living in a nursing home, Pususta said.

Pususta said he was abused by Brown from 1961-1962 while the priest was working at St. Mary Catholic Church in Waverly, which is west of the Twin Cities. Pususta was between the ages of 10 and 13 during the abuse, he said.

“I came forward because, not only did he molest me, I know he molested other people in our small community,” Pususta said. He said Brown also molested children on Pususta’s basketball team.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Video: Abuse Survivor Requests Judge to Release List of 33 Accused Priests

Notice of intervention to unseal list

Memo of intervention to unseal list

Archdiocese’s 1992 letter regarding Fr. John Brown’s history

Father John T. Brown Timeline

JEFFREY R. ANDERSON

The courage of survivors such as David Pususta always inspires and amazes us. David came forward today to not only reveal publicly for the first time that he is a child sexual abuse survivor, but he also discussed his abuse and identified his abuser, who was never publicly named previously. David also filed court documents in Ramsey County District Court seeking to force the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to unseal and make public its secret list of 33 Archdiocesan priests credibly accused of child sex abuse.

David’s act of courage today is monumental. It will help hold the Catholic Church and the Archdiocese accountable. More importantly, it will help protect children from predator priests.

While a minor, David was sexually abused by Father John Brown, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. David is fearful for the safety of other children and wants to ensure that no other harm is inflicted on children as it was on him. He believes releasing this list of known priest offenders will help keep children safe. David was made aware of the Archdiocese’s secret list of offender priests by virtue of new lawsuits filed under the recently enacted Child Victims Act.

Only approximately 30 U.S. dioceses have released lists of credibly accused priests in their diocese. That is a sad and disturbingly low number. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ choice to keep its list secret is a choice to protect the Archdiocese and the credibly accused priests, instead of children. David didn’t have to come forward today – he chose to. His courageous act will help force the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and all other dioceses, to do the morally right thing.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Dan Cox

The former Bishop of the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church has told a New South Wales inquiry he did not take child sexual abuse allegations to police because it was not what the victims wanted.

Former Bishop Michael Malone is the first Church witness to come under examination at the inquiry.

He was the head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese from 1995 to 2011.

Senior policeman Peter Fox sparked the Special Commission with claims the Church protected two paedophile priests, Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

Bishop Malone will be back in the witness box this morning.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
July 10, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson called Wednesday for the Catholic Church to release information on all priests in Minnesota with “credible allegations” of child sex abuse.

The request comes after the passage of the Child Victims Act in May, a new state law that gives victims of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits. Anderson’s request also follows the release last week of thousands of pages of documents by the Milwaukee archdiocese about dozens of priests accused of sexually abusing children dating back decades.

Similar efforts by Anderson have failed in the past. However, the new state law may provide an opportunity to seek those names in court.

Anderson also announced that he has requested a Ramsey County District judge unseal a list of 33 priests that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has identified as having credible allegations of abuse lodged against them. The list of names is already in court files from a previous lawsuit, but a judge sealed it.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 11, 2013

The former head of the then Maitland Diocese denied knowledge of the existence of church letters that exposed paedophile priests as far back as the 1950s.

Bishop Michael Malone said he had never seen a series of letters filed in the diocese office that were found by the special ­commission of inquiry staff investigating ­concealment of child sex abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

“I’ve seen letters and statements in the last two weeks I’ve never seen before,” Bishop Malone told a packed gallery at yesterday’s inquiry.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, asked Bishop Malone why, in his 16 years overseeing the diocese between 1995 and 2011, he had never seen the documents on paedophile activities by priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

“I didn’t have time to go trawling through archives,” the bishop said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By John Brewer
jbrewer@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 07/10/2013

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson (Pioneer Press file photo: Ben Garvin)
The most powerful men in Waverly, Minn., in the 1960s were the banker and the parish priest.

That’s why when the Rev. John T. Brown told the parents of 10-year-old David Pususta to send him over to the rectory for sex education, they sent him.

It was on that summer night, Pususta, now of St. Paul, said Wednesday morning, that Brown first sexually abused him.

Pususta said that during Brown’s sex education, he stroked, gripped and tugged the boy’s private parts.

Pususta spoke at a news conference at the St. Paul offices of attorney Jeff Anderson, who, on Pususta’s behalf, filed a notice of intervention in Ramsey County District Court to unseal a list of 33 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Anderson, who first saw the list in 2009, said he couldn’t say whether Brown was included. But the public should know who is included, he and Pususta said, so no more children are put at risk and any abusers can be held accountable.

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OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday July 10, 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 Tulsa pastor, Rev. Gregory Hawkins, was charged with sexual abuse of a teenage girl. The 15-year-old girl is now five months pregnant with Hawkins’ child. Hawkins is also the owner of Zion Child Care & Learning Center.

We commend the young girl for informing details to the police leading to his arrest and disabling him from bringing harm to others.

We strongly urge other potential victims and witnesses who have more information to come forward to help keep this predator in jail where he belongs. We also encourage officials at Zion Plaza Church to inform their flock of this crime in order to spread awareness and provide support to other potential victims.

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VATICAN CITY
Pravda

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child wants the Vatican to expose information about all the crimes committed by the clergy against minors. The request is published on the official website of the committee.

In addition, the committee asked the Vatican to clarify the cases when church authorities tried to cover up the actions of pedophiles and indicate what measures had been taken to protect children from sexual predators in church robes.

The committee also wondered what measures were in effect to avoid discrimination in parochial schools. To crown it all, church official want to know if textbooks still contain articles that demean the rights of children born out of wedlock and instill intersexual stereotypes. Such articles, committee officials believe, should be withdrawn from textbooks.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Updated: Wednesday, July 10

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has been called to give detailed information on its record on child sexual abuse to a United Nations panel, a move that will show how Pope Francis wants to handle an issue that has deeply scarred the Catholic Church’s image in the past decade.

The Geneva-based U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked the Vatican to “provide detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns.”

The request comes ahead of the Vatican’s scheduled appearance in front of the committee in January 2014.

All countries that have ratified the 1990 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child must submit to a periodic evaluation of their performance on child protection. The Vatican was among the first countries to ratify the treaty.

According to the “List of Issues” submitted by the U.N. committee, the Vatican will have to explain the measures it has put in place to “ensure that no member of the clergy currently accused of sexual abuse be allowed to remain in contact with children.”

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AUSTRALIA
AD2000

Anne Lastman

Anne Lastman, BA (Psy/Rel Stds), Dip Ed, M Rel Ed, MA (Theol Stds) is a Member of the Australian Counsellors’ Association (Level 3), of the Federation of Victoria Counsellors and of the ACA College of Loss & Grief (Level 3). She is the founder of Victims of Abortion Trauma Counselling and Info Services (PO Box 6094, Vermont South, 3133).

A revised second edition of her book Redeeming Grief has just been published (see page 16).

There is a sense of shame which hovers over the Catholic Church at this moment. It’s a church limping towards Calvary, being spat upon, being vilified, despised. It’s the one church which is the focal point of child sexual abuse allegations by its ministers and others within its ranks. And yet I would suggest that there is more to what we are seeing. We are seeing the crucifixion of the Bride of Christ just like the crucifixion of her Groom. There is much pain, shame, guilt in this time, and enduring this can unhinge. Loss of faith is possible.

Defined, sexual abuse is the forceful intrusion or violation into the sacred space of sexuality in the life of a person, but in this instance, a child, in the context of one in whose trusting care the child or children were situated.

This is a very clinical explanation for sexual abuse, but behind these words there is an immensity of pain and distortion. However, there is still much more to the experience and more and more the voices of those who have lived with the experience report dimensions which had hitherto been unacknowledged.

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