ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
WLS

July 4, 2013 (WEST DUNDEE, Ill.) (WLS) — A youth minister from a church in West Dundee appeared in bond court Thursday morning.

Chad Coe, 31, was arrested Tuesday night. He’s accused of having sexual contact with a minor.

The 31-year-old is the director of youth ministry at First Congregational Church of Dundee. Coe is charged with criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

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CANADA
Sun News

QMI AGENCY

MONTREAL – A $13-million settlement has been reached in the Holy Cross Congregation sexual abuse scandal.

Abused students who attended several schools run by the brothers, including the prestigious Montreal high school College Notre Dame, are entitled to payouts of between $10,000 and $250,000, depending on the degree of abuse suffered.

After nearly two years of litigation, the 206 victims can expect to receive their payment before the end of the month.

The victims of the Holy Cross Congregation have accused the church of unnecessarily prolonging the judicial process. Some have called the church’s legal tactics “sadistic.”

Eric Simard, lawyer for the congregation, blames the “colossal and complex” legal process for the delay in reaching a settlement. He says he hopes that once the victims get their settlement they’ll be able “to turn the page on these dramatic events.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
The Republic

By The Associated Press
July 05, 2013

MILWAUKEE — Documents released this week by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee provide some of the first details on settlements paid to clergy sex abuse victims in southeastern Wisconsin. They show a few victims received large sums, but most did not — and many received nothing.

Several victims spoke to The Associated Press about their quest for compensation for the abuse they suffered. Here are their stories:

Steven Geier, a 63-year-old retired carpenter who lives in Madison, was molested by Lawrence Murphy in 1964 while attending a school for the deaf in Milwaukee. He said he reported the abuse to several priests between 1965 and 1968 but nothing was done. He didn’t seek any compensation from the archdiocese until about 2005, when he learned that a friend who had suffered similar abuse had received $200,000.

Geier, whose settlement is not included in the files made public this week, said he received $80,000. He said he asked about the difference in payments and was told it was because the other man lived in Seattle, where the cost of living was much higher than Milwaukee.

“I told him that doesn’t make sense, we’re all victims,” Geier said in sign language translated by his daughter.

Several victims said that those who were abused by Murphy at the deaf school seem to have had a particularly tough time getting help from the archdiocese, in part because they were among the first to come forward and perhaps because of their disability. Geier said he was pressured to sign his deal during eight straight hours of mediation with no break, and he said he was told if he didn’t take it, there’d be no offer the next day.

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ICELAND
Pressan

Iceland: Bishop’s daughter: ‘Sexual assaulter once came to power – It can’t happen again’

Guðrún Ebba Ólafsdóttir – daughter of the late Ólafur Skúlason, previous bishop – wants that every preventative measure be taken to ensure that no sexual offender is able to reach the highest position of any church ever again. Guðrún has invited the Church council (“Kirkjuráð) – the highest executive authority of the Church in Iceland – to a meeting, after her request for a hearing.

As the newspaper DV has discussed in the previous week, Guðrún supported Sigríður Pálína Ingvarsdóttir’s claims, accusing bishop Ólafur of sexual abuse and a rape attempt.

Sigríður had a meeting with the Church Council and presented her side of the story. Guðrún requested to meet the bishop last Spring but never received a reply. She lobbied her claim to the entire Council this Spring and will be allowed another meeting this Fall.

Below is an excerpt of Guðrún’s letter to the Council a year ago. She confirms in a conversation with Pressan that the letter is real, but does not know how it was leaked:

“It is an important issue to me that the Church will attempt with all its capacities to ensure that this does not happen again; that sexual offenders cannot reach the highest positions of respect. I think it is necessary for the Icelandic national Church to take a clear position against sexual abuse and publicly condemn it as sin. The Church must side with the victims, and many of the victims are having religious difficulties – and feel that God has betrayed them. I also think it is important for priests, and everybody else working for the Church, to receive the necessary information about sexual abuse.”

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UNITED STATES
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Jul 5, 2013

A New York Times editorial has described as “shocking” revelations that the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, while archbishop of Milwaukee, moved $57 million off the archdiocesan books into a cemetery trust fund six years ago to prevent the money being paid to victims of clerical child sex abuse.

Cardinal Dolan is also president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The editorial said “newly released court documents make it clear that he sought and received fast approval from the Vatican to transfer the money just as the Wisconsin Supreme Court was about to open the door to damage suits by victims raped and abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy.”

It noted also that “the documents showed how the Vatican slowly took years to allow dioceses to defrock embarrassing priests. Yet the same bureaucracy approved Cardinal Dolan’s $57 million transfer just days after the Wisconsin court allowed victims’ damage suits.”

Vatican permission
Files released last Monday by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee revealed that in 2007 Cardinal Timothy Dolan requested permission from the Vatican to move almost $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the assets from victims of sexual abuse who were demanding compensation.

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MINNESOTA
Fairmont Sentinel

July 5, 2013
Jodelle Greiner – Staff Writer, Fairmont Sentinel

BLUE EARTH – Bob Schwiderski doesn’t believe that people abused by priests suffer more than other survivors of sexual abuse.

“Damage from sexual abuse affects all people,” said the Minnesota director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “Just because I was abused by a Catholic priest does not make me a special survivor.”

SNAP follows abuse cases and is aware of the one involving Father Leo Charles Koppala, a Catholic priest in Blue Earth who was accused of molesting an 11-year-old child in June.

Schwiderski praised the child, who told a trusted adult; the adult who immediately contacted police; and law enforcement, prosecutors and other officials who tackled the case so quickly.

“Silence is not golden when it comes to child abuse,” he said. “Silence is deadly when it comes to child abuse.”

Schwiderski was a child in Hector when he was abused by a Catholic priest, and he wasn’t the only one. He is critical of the Catholic Church, which moved the priests around instead of disciplining them, he said, and of the conspiracy of silence in the community that allowed the priests to continue to abuse.

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NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

CAMDEN — A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a parish priest in Hammonton more than 30 years ago has won a round in her lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden.

A federal judge in Camden rebuffed a request by the diocese to dismiss the suit, filed in May 2012 by Lisa Syvertson Shanahan of North Carolina.

An attorney for the diocese argued Shanahan waited too long to sue over alleged abuse in 1980-81 by the Rev. Thomas Harkins at St. Anthony of Padua parish in Hammonton. But U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman said Shanahan could pursue her suit under the state’s Child Sex Abuse Act, which can delay for decades the normal two-year statute of limitations.

Adam Horowitz, an attorney for Shanahan, called the ruling “a victory for all child sex abuse victims in New Jersey.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[with video]

[David Hanser]

July 4, 2013, by Mike Lowe

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — Over 6,000 pages revealing records of sexual misconduct by priests in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee were released on July 1st, blacking out all of the victim’s names to protect their identities.

“These files are showing people they were not mislead, they were directly lied to,” says John Pilmaier, one of the victims of the documented abuse.

Pilmaier made a decision to share his story in the hopes that other victims will know they’re not alone.
“One of the things survivors try to do is find out why this happened to them – what circumstances led to their abuse, what church officials knew about it, and what they did or didn’t do,” says Pilmaier.

Pilmaier recalls Associate Pastor David Hanser visiting his classroom when he was just eight-years-old.

“I was a second grade student at St. John Vianney grade school in Brookfield. Fr. David Hanser came to the door, knocked on it and asked for volunteers – if anyone would like to help him with some kind of project,” remembers Pilmaier. “Of course, all the kids raised their hands and, unfortunately, he picked mine.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[with video]

July 4, 2013, by Mike Lowe

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The release of 6,000 pages of documents revealing priest misconduct by the Archdioceses of Milwaukee has prompted state lawmakers to propose a bill temporarily lifting the statute of limitations.

John Pilmaier’s story is depicted in those documents. He was abused by Fr. David Hanser in the second grade and due to the statute of limitations, Hanser will never face justice. Pilmaier strongly believes laws should be changed to protect victims, not predators.

“He took me to the rectory and pulled my pants down and fondled me,” says Pilmaier. “He was able to elude justice because of the statute of limitations.”

State law requires child abuse victims to file their cases before they turn 35, but a group of Democratic lawmakers is hoping to change that.

“The clock shouldn’t be ticking when you’re a child and you’ve been victimized,” says Democratic State Senator Lena Taylor. “At the very least, we should want to make sure that people have a voice.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | Jul. 4, 2013 NCR Today

A fellow non Catholic had heard about the alleged though plainly documented charge that the cardinal archbishop of New York had won Vatican permission to hide $57 million to keep it out of the hands of victims of priest child abuse who had won their suits against the church. Noting that this kind of money scheme sounded to him a little like Apple Computer scheming to avoid paying taxes, he wonder whether it was any more likely than any of a long string of scandals to cause American Catholics to revolt.

It’s an Independence Day question or a sort. In the Declaration, the fired up patriots had had enough of double dealing and callous disregard of common decency by King George III. Though many colonists fiercely defended remaining within the British Empire, sentiment, Thomas Paine pamphlets and a visceral desire to run their own businesses eventually won the day.

American Catholics may feel their their faith based institution is demeaned by the spectacle of evidence that the cardinal manipulated money to deprive victims of funds they were apparently entitled to at the same time that he vowed to continue leading the “moral” charge against the Obama Administration’s insistence that church institutions provide contraceptives to employees who want them without having to pay a red cent for such services. It was earlier revealed that Dolan’s archdiocese has been supplying such services under a similar agreement with New York unions for many years.

But nowhere do Catholics in this country show the least inclination to assemble the fife and drum corps in the cause of breaking from Rome. They don’t have to, I theorized to my friend, because they already have. While they may feel a growing anger at the church in the wake of painful assaults on the image of the Catholic church, they have nothing to gain by marching away, though many have quit the church. Though millions of the laity care deeply about the round of moral and theological questions from birth control to the ordination of women, the bond of compliance has been largely broken and they have silently declared independence from their bishops. The moral and mental landscape has shifted toward a position where the old rewards and punishments have diminishing effect.

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UNITED STATES
The Kansas City Star

July 4

BY MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star

No servant can serve two masters.

Those are the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. And yet how imperfectly have his followers taken them to heart. Throughout the history of Christianity, some of the most painful moments have been when church leaders cocked their ear toward Mammon when godliness would have dictated otherwise.

Other, more recent painful moments, especially for Catholic Christians, came when church authorities put institutional prestige ahead of justice and consideration for victims of sexual abuse by clergy members.

The damage done by the clerical abuse scandals to the Catholic Church, and to countless millions of its faithful, has been profound and worldwide. Although Catholic bishops and the Vatican have sought to atone and to reform the institutional practices that enabled the abuse, those efforts have often been admixed with less upright impulses.

Consider the case of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who once served as its prelate. Some of the most notorious cases of abuse took place there — well before Dolan was archbishop — and, as a consequence of legal settlements with victims, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, after Dolan had left to become archbishop of New York.

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UNITED STATES
OpEd News

By Rev. Dan Vojir

New York Times:

“Files released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday reveal that in 2007, Cardinal Timothy F. Dolan, then the archbishop there, requested permission from the Vatican to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation.”

“These are old and discredited attacks”

Cardinal Dolan simply must learn to lie better than that, because one letter in the latest disclosure was not in the original accusatory documents in 2012:

“However, the files contain a 2007 letter to the Vatican in which he explains that by transferring the assets, “I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican approved the request in five weeks, the files show.”

The deposition that Dolan himself submitted to the public (media) on Monday is now under new scrutiny: if Dolan lied about not protecting funds from liability, what else could he have lied about? Certainly the new letter casts a shadow of doubt on Dolan’s rambling, confusing statement about payouts to child molesters willing to leave the priesthood:

“I would not call that a practice. I would not deny that that was done on occasion, but I would not call that a payoff or a settlement. But I would not deny that that was done, the fact that you mentioned. Was it a payoff, was it a settlement, was it an impetus, I wouldn’t say that, nor would I saw was it a normal practice, but it was done.”

Added to the incriminating letter, are some thousands of very descriptive instances of abuse for which the current archbishop, Jerome Listecki, warned parishioners: “Prepare to be shocked.” The cardinal’s protestations of “old and discredited attacks” may not be able to withstand a totally contradictory letter to the Vatican (approved by Benedict as then-Cardinal Ratzinger) and sexually graphic child abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Vatican finances presented to Economic Council of Cardinals

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
VATICAN CITY

On Tuesday Wednesday (July 2 and 3rd), the meeting of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See took place in Vatican City, presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone . Particularly noteworthy was the visit on Wednesday 3 by Pope Francis, who addressed the speakers and engaged in a brief dialogue, reiterating the aims and purpose of the Council and inviting the continuation of periodical meetings.

The following Cardinals participated in the meeting: Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Köln (Germany), Antonio María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid (Spain), Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-el-Salaam (Tanzania), Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of México (México), Wilfrid Fox Napier, o.f.m., archbishop of Durban (South Africa), Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan (Italy), Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi (India), George Pell, archbishop of Sydney (Australia), Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, John Tong Hon, bishop of Hong Kong (China), Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas (Venezuela), Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo (Brazil).

The Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See was represented by the president, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the secretary, Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, and the Accountant General, Stefano Fralleoni. Antonio Chiminello, director of the State Accounting Administration, spoke on behalf of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Thu Jul 4, 2013

* Probe launched after prelate arrested over smuggling
* Promises to “eradicate wrongdoing of clients”

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, July 4 (Reuters) – A preliminary inquiry by the Vatican bank after the arrest of a Vatican prelate on suspicion of trying to smuggle huge sums of money into Italy from Switzerland found “clear failings” at the institution, a source close to the bank said on Thursday.

The board of the bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), held a meeting on Thursday that also addressed the shock resignation of its two top managers on Monday. The meeting had not been made public.

At the meeting Ernst von Freyberg, the bank’s German president, told the other four board members of the preliminary results of an internal investigation.

It discovered “clear failings that should serve as stark reminder of the urgency of improving the IOR’s processes,” Freyberg told the board, the senior source told Reuters.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 5, 2013

Bishop Michael Malone gave paedophile James Fletcher access to hundreds of children when he doubled the size of the priest’s Lochinvar parish six weeks after he was accused of sexually abusing a boy, a Hunter church abuse inquiry heard on Thursday.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox told the special commission of inquiry that the former Maitland-Newcastle Diocese bishop “defied” his request to have Fletcher removed from the parish and placed in an “office role” during the investigation.

The former Maitland policeman, who was leading the 2003 investigation into Fletcher, said he told Bishop Malone: “I cannot force you to do that but I would ask you to give consideration to it.”

Chief Inspector Fox said Fletcher had access to two more schools when the Lochinvar and Branxton parishes were merged and he was concerned the priest was running private reading classes with children.

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UNITED STATES
USCC Blog

By Bishop R. Daniel Conlon

Sexual abuse of children by clerics stands as an international problem and the church is just beginning to approach it that way. Last year the Vatican backed an international symposium on the problem at the Gregorian University. This year, the U.S. and Sri Lankan bishops jointly sponsored what’s known as the Anglophone Conference.

Since 2000 the English-speaking Catholic episcopal conferences have met annually to help each other effectively respond to the sexual abuse. Held in Rome, this year’s conference, for the first time, was co-hosted by one episcopal conference from the developed world (USA) and one from the developing world (Sri Lanka). The partnership was successful and enriching. This year’s theme, “Youth Protection Going Global” was inspired by the Gregorian Symposium last February.

A record number of episcopal conferences were represented, thanks in part to a generous anonymous donor. Participation included 20 episcopal conferences, represented by 56 delegates, including 15 bishops. A major interest was in how episcopal conferences around the world have responded to the Circular Letter of May 2011 from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). The letter asked all episcopal conferences to develop guidelines for child abuse and protection. Father Robert Oliver, the new Promoter of Justice at CDF reported that more than 80 percent of the conferences have submitted guidelines.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

Representatives from the bishops’ conferences of 20 English-speaking countries gathered recently to discuss their response to clerical sexual abuse.

“A major interest was in how episcopal conferences around the world have responded to the Circular Letter of May 2011 from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF),” recounted Bishop Daniel Conlon of Joliet, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People. “The letter asked all episcopal conferences to develop guidelines for child abuse and protection. Father Robert Oliver, the new Promoter of Justice at CDF, reported that more than 80% of the conferences have submitted guidelines.”

“Participants found a contrast between episcopal conferences with highly developed protocols and those just beginning to develop them,” Bishop Conlon continued. “One representative from Africa said that every culture seems to have tribes that are sure it is the other tribes that are doing this horrible thing.”

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VATICAN CITY
Inquirer

AFP

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Thursday said it had a budget surplus of 2.2 million euros ($2.8 million) last year compared to a deficit of 14.9 million euros in 2011 but said cardinals should still cut costs.

The committee that approved the accounts said the biggest expenses were salaries for the Vatican’s 2,823 employees and the payment of a new property tax introduced by the Italian government.

Donations to the Vatican fell to $65.9 million from $69.7 million in 2011 and contributions from Catholic

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg

By Lorenzo Totaro – Jul 4, 2013

The Holy See, the Vatican’s central administration, generated a profit of 2.19 million euros ($2.83 million) last year even as donations from Catholics throughout the world declined.

Last year’s earnings compare with a 14.9 million-euro deficit in 2011, the Holy See said today in a statement. Contributions from Catholic individuals, institutes and foundations fell 7.5 percent.

The Catholic Church, which tries to supplement donations by investing in traded securities, benefited in the 1990s from booming stock markets, before plunging into the red for the first time in 2003. Last year, “the good performance in financial management” more than offset the costs of staff and taxes such as a new Italian property levy, according to the statement.

The Vatican, led by Pope Francis, is located in central Rome near the Tiber River. The Vatican Governorate, the institution that runs Vatican City and its support offices, had a surplus of 23.1 million euros last year, according to the statement.

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VATICAN CITY
Newsday

NICOLE WINFIELD (Associated Press)
VATICAN CITY – (AP) — The Vatican posted a 2.2 million euro ($2.85 million) budget surplus for 2012, an improvement from the previous year and some good news as it struggles to cope with a scandal involving its embattled bank.

In its annual financial statement Thursday, the Holy See said better management had helped it recover from one of its worst deficits a year earlier, when it booked a 14.9 million euro shortfall.

A 12 percent drop in donations from ordinary faithful, a 5 percent drop in offerings from religious orders and 5 million euros in new property taxes in 2012 prevented an even better result. Most of its expenses were for its 2,823 staff and the steep costs of running the Holy See’s global radio programming.

The Vatican City State, which runs the profit-making Vatican Museums, post office and supermarket, has a separate budget. Its profits were 23.08 million euros, up from 21.8 million euros in 2011. Fifty more people came to work in this branch of the Vatican in 2012, bringing its staffing up to 1,936.

The annual report, which was approved by a group of cardinals on Wednesday, followed one of the most convulsive weeks in the Vatican’s recent financial history: Last week, Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank, long the source of scandal for the Holy See. Two days later, a Vatican accountant was arrested in an elaborate 20 million euro smuggling plot. And on Monday, the Vatican bank’s two top managers resigned, apparently because they weren’t embracing the Holy See’s new push for financial transparency sufficiently.

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VATICAN CITY
The Economist

Pope Francis grapples with his bank—the first of many problems

Jul 6th 2013 | VATICAN CITY |From the print edition

IT IS in the Vatican, but neither an institution of the city-state, nor part of the Roman Curia, the Catholic church’s central administration. It is only half a bank (it takes deposits, but does not give loans). Yet the blandly named Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) has caused endless discomfort to recent popes.

The problems go back to at least 1982 when the IOR was involved in the fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano. In June of that year the Italian bank’s chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London. The latest scandal is less grisly, but equally bizarre. On July 1st the IOR’s director, Paolo Cipriani, and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, resigned three days after the Italian authorities arrested and jailed a Vatican cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano. He is accused of bribery as part of a plot to smuggle €20m ($26m) in cash into Italy from Switzerland on a private jet. He was claimed to have paid €400,000 to an alleged fellow-conspirator, a non-commissioned officer in the Carabinieri (the Italian gendarmerie) working with the domestic spy agency.

The intelligence officer and the other alleged member of the plot, a financial broker, were said to have met through a Catholic order of chivalry. Documents presented to a judge suggest Mr Tulli and Mr Cipriani helped clear transactions involved in the case. It is hard to imagine a story more likely to reinforce the sinister, esoteric image of the Vatican propagated by authors such as Dan Brown in “The Da Vinci Code”.

According to Italian prosecutors, the intelligence officer got to Switzerland, but returned empty-handed when the broker failed to deliver the cash, allegedly entrusted to him by a Neapolitan shipping family (which denies any suggestion of tax-dodging). Monsignor Scarano, a banker who came unusually late in life to holy orders, was already a suspect in a separate money-laundering investigation involving rich friends from his home town of Salerno. He has denied wrongdoing in that case, but his lawyer said he did not dispute the facts of the bribery investigation. He would, however, contest the prosecutors’ accusations on a point of law. The monsignor had been merely trying “to help out his friends”, he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Bolletino

COMUNICATO DEL CONSIGLIO DI CARDINALI PER LO STUDIO DEI PROBLEMI ORGANIZZATIVI ED ECONOMICI DELLA SANTA SEDE: BILANCIO CONSUNTIVO CONSOLIDATO DELLA SANTA SEDE E BILANCIO CONSUNTIVO DEL GOVERNATORATO DELLO STATO DELLA CITTÀ DEL VATICANO PER L’ANNO 2012

On Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 of the current month of July, the meeting of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See took place in Vatican City, presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone s.b.d.. Particularly noteworthy was the visit on Wednesday 3 by the Holy Father Francesco, who addressed the speakers and engaged in a brief dialogue, reiterating the aims and purpose of the Council and inviting the continuation of periodical meetings.

The following Cardinals participated in the meeting: Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Köln (Germany), Antonio María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid (Spain), Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-el-Salaam (Tanzania), Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of México (México), Wilfrid Fox Napier, o.f.m., archbishop of Durban (South Africa), Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan (Italy), Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi (India), George Pell, archbishop of Sydney (Australia), Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, John Tong Hon, bishop of Hong Kong (China), Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas (Venezuela), Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo (Brazil).

The Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See was represented by the president, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the secretary, Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, and the Accountant General, Stefano Fralleoni. Antonio Chiminello, director of the State Accounting Administration, spoke on behalf of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The Governorate of Vatican City State and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) were represented by: Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello and Msgr. Giuseppe Sciacca, president of the Commission of Cardinals for Vatican City State and the secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State respectively, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno and Msgr. Luigi Misto, president and secretary of APSA respectively.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 4 July 2013 (VIS) – On Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 July, a meeting was held of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See, presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. Particularly noteworthy was the visit on Wednesday 3 by the Holy Father Francesco, who addressed the speakers and engaged in a brief dialogue, reiterating the aims and purpose of the Council and inviting the continuation of periodical meetings.

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, presented before the Council first the report on the consolidated financial statement of the Holy See for the year 2012 and subsequently that of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The consolidated financial statement for the Holy See for the year 2012 closes with a profit of € 2,185,622, due mainly to good performance in financial management.

The most significant categories of expenditure are those regarding the cost of personnel,(2,823 persons), means of social communication considered in their entirety, and the new property taxes (IMU) which resulted in an increase in expenditure of € 5,000,000 compared to the previous year’s figures.

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

July 4, 2013

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican, embroiled in scandal involving its bank, released a rare bit of good news on its finances on Thursday, announcing that it had posted a $2.2 million budget surplus in 2012.

However, figures released showed donations to a fund for use by the pope dropped by nearly 12 percent in 2012.

The fall coincided with the year the Vatican was hit by a leaks scandal and the arrest of former Pope Benedict’s butler.

The Vatican bank, which has been the subject of scandals for decades, is currently under investigation by Italian magistrates for money laundering. The bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), denies the accusations.

A Vatican spokesman said he believed the worldwide economic crisis was responsible for a drop to $56.9 million from $69.7 million the year before in Peter’s Pence, a special collection taken up each year for use by the pope.

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COLORADO
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 3, 2013

CONTACT:
Karna Swanson, director of communications
karna.swanson@archden.org; 303-715-3230 or after office hours 303-945-9136

The Archdiocese of Denver has received notice of a pending lawsuit regarding allegations of misconduct on the part of Fr. Jose Sáenz. There is no allegation of any misconduct with a child or minor. The Archdiocese takes this and all allegations of misconduct seriously.

The allegation concerns an incident that took place two years ago. Since that time, the Archdiocese and Fr. Sáenz have cooperated fully with legal authorities in the matter. Father Sáenz was not charged with any crime by the authorities who fully investigated the matter. The Archdiocese disputes the plaintiff’s allegations.

The Archdiocese is unable to comment on the specifics of any legal matter. In this case, we have received notification of a pending lawsuit, but have not yet been served with the lawsuit.

The Archdiocese has no reason to believe that Fr. Sáenz is a threat to anyone. Fr. Sáenz has never been accused of any other acts of misconduct. However, in order to allow Fr. Sáenz to focus on these issues, and to limit distractions in the parish, the Archdiocese has requested that Fr. Sáenz step away from parish ministry until further notice, and he has agreed to do so.

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COLORADO
9 News

written by:
Tim Ryan

KUSA – The Archdiocese of Denver disputes allegations in a pending lawsuit that a priest engaged in improper behavior in 2011.

A news release from the archdiocese says Rev. Jose Saenz has agreed to “step away from parish ministry until further notice” due to the allegations, which the news release doesn’t describe in detail.

At the time of the alleged improper behavior Rev. Saenz was a priest at St. Mary of the Crown Mission in Carbondale. He then spent a year at Blessed Sacrament parish in Denver before transferred in June to St. Therese parish in Aurora.

The Archdiocese says the allegations don’t involve any underage children, and says it disputes the lawsuit’s allegations about an incident that occurred two years ago.

9Wants to Know located a record of a court filing in Denver District Court entitled: “Jane Doe No 34 Vs. Archdiocese Of Denver.” The lawsuit was filed on June 28.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

In her opening address to the second session of the NSW government enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese, Commissioner Ms Cunneen said: “The sexual abuse of children should no longer be a crime for which the conspiracy of silence continues to the grave. It has a devastating and long-lasting effect on victims and their families and on the community generally.” Ms Cunneen then encouraged anyone with information about such crimes to contact the commission.

Yesterday, proceedings were dominated by evidence from Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, whose revelations triggered the enquiry and the Royal Commission. In the first session last month, Mr Fox gave evidence and then was followed by several other NSW police officers who were critical of him (see previous posting). In the present session, the process was extended by a couple more officers.

Fortunately, Mr. Fox was afforded the dignity of another appearance to reply to some of the criticism and to expand on his previous testimony. This set back those who would wish that, in formation of public opinion, quantity would outweigh quality of evidence.

The two priests specifically referred to in the enquiry’s Terms of Reference were Fr. McAlinden (see yesterday’s posting) and Fr. James Fletcher. Detective Chief Inspector Fox focused on Fr. Fletcher in this appearance. In 2008 Fr Fletcher pleaded not guilty in the district court but a jury found him guilty of all nine charges. Two appeals against his conviction failed and Fr Fletcher died in jail.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The Castledare Boys’ Home was one of the notorious facilities operated by the Christian Brothers in Western Australia. Like the others (Bindoon,Tradum and Clontarf), it is worthy of renewed attention by the Royal Commission.

It was a destination for “child migrants” (see previous posting) from the U.K. and Malta. The Northern Ireland government is currently trying to contact Irish “child migrants” to these institutions (see previous posting). In 1994, the Parliament of Western Australia was presented a petition with 30,000 signatures calling for an enquiry into the Christian Brothers’ institutions.

Castledare was opened in 1929 to house what the Brothers then called “sub-normal boys”). Later it changed to a facility for boys who were state wards, orphans and child migrants. The abuses which occurred there were typical of the other Christian Brothers’ Homes in Western Australia. A very full account is given in the “Voices” organization’s submissions to the U.K. government and the 2004 Australian Senate’s enquiry (see references below).

U.K. Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, have both apologized to the “child migrants” sent to these Christian Brothers’ Homes. The Maltese Prime Minister, Mr.Gonzi, unveiled a memorial to Maltese “child migrants” to Australia. It is located in GrandHarbour, and notes that there were 310 such children.

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THAILAND
Telegraph (UK)

A Thai Buddhist monk who drew criticism after being pictured on a private jet surrounded by high-end fashion accessories has had his financial assets frozen over allegations of money-laundering and fraud.

By David Eimer, Bangkok 03 Jul 2013

The monk has been attracted attention ever since a video of him flying a private jet while wearing aviator sunglasses, carrying a Louis Vuitton bag went viral last month. A widely-circulated photograph of him lying next to an apparently naked woman caused further outrage in Thailand, which has the world’s largest Buddhist population, and where monks are supposed to be celibate.

The abbot has since been accused of fathering two children and having sexual relationships with at least eight women.

AMLO ordered that 16 bank accounts held by the monk and his associates be frozen after discovering that typical daily transactions involved around 200 million Baht (£4 million). 10 of the accounts are held in the abbot’s name.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

[Letters presented to the Special Commission of Inquiry – Newcastle Herald]

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 05, 2013

THE Catholic church continued to provide a pension to a pedophile priest after agreeing he would retire to England rather than have his victims go to the police, an inquiry has heard.

The arrangement is revealed in a series of letters tendered to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, which also detail how the priest, Denis McAlinden, attempted to manipulate his superiors’ response to his crimes.

In one 1993 letter sent to the church’s Sick Clergy Fund, the late bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Leo Clarke, stated that “Fr D McAlinden has retired from active priestly duty” and is living in Skegness. He should receive $12,158 per year, Clarke wrote, more than the minimum stipend paid to a parish priest.

In a May 1995 letter, Clarke said McAlinden had admitted to child abuse and “an agreement was reached by which Fr Denis was to return to England and . . . not to act as a priest”.

The letter shows that Clarke subsequently discovered the priest had in fact travelled to The Philippines and was again working in the church.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Tribune

On Wednesday, a former priest, who was also a Catholic boarding school director, was found guilty by a court in Steyr, an Austrian town. The report said that the same is the first conviction when it comes to an Austrian clergyman ever since the Catholic Church faced a wave of similar allegation in different nations in 2010.

The priest has been sentenced for a period of 12 years. He was charged of sexually abusing children. A total of 24 boys were abused by him, not only sexually, but physically as well.

Victims themselves reported that they had been abused by the 79-year old defendant, sexually. Also, they were kicked, hit and whipped by him. He pulled out their hair and even forced the fellow students to mob them.

It has been claimed by the attorney of the defendant that an appeal would be made by him. The accused priest admitted to the crimes, which occurred in the boarding school of the Kremsmuenster abbey, province of Upper Austria, in the 1970s, 80s as well as 90s.

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UNITED STATES
Edge on the Net

by Antoinette Weil
EDGE Contributor
Thursday Jul 4, 2013

News of a so-called “gay hookup site for priests” rocked the right-wing Catholic community last month and provided cause for discussion, if not outright mockery, for all the rest.

Italian press first broke the story of Venerabilis, the “Homosensible Roman Catholic Priests Fraternity,” which not only operates out of the Vatican on a public blogspot platform, but even has its own Twitter account. This controversy, combined with Pope Francis’ recent mention of a “gay lobby” within the Church, has prompted a media frenzy and a shocking look at the LGBT truth of the Roman Catholic Church.

Perhaps what is most shocking about all of this, is that for those close to the Vatican, it is not shocking at all.

“The first thing is you’ve got to know there is a great deal of sexual activity at every level, from the cardinals down,” said Richard Sipe, psychotherapist, sociologist, author, and leading expert in the field of sex, celibacy, and the Catholic Church. “Everyone that has been close to the Vatican knows about the sexual activity and homosexual activity going on.”

This flies in the face of the commonplace notions of celibacy and LGBT exclusion and intolerance in the Catholic Church, almost to a degree of disbelief. But Sipe is pretty convincing: A Benedictine Monk for 18 years, Sipe was trained and acted as counselor, dealing with the mental health issues of Roman Catholic Priests. During this period he conducted research for what became a 25-year ethnographic study of the celibate and sexual behavior of Catholic Priests. The 1990 publication is known as a “classic,” and a reputable reference on the subject.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

A judge refused Wednesday to exclude a former Woodland priest’s admissions of child molestation to church officials, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda — former parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding — is facing seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14 in Sacramento and Shasta counties. Ojeda also served as a priest at Woodland’s Holy Rosary Catholic Church from 2007 to 2009, when the counts allegedly took place.

Ojeda had tried to have the statements ruled inadmissable on grounds he made them under the protection of a clergy-penitent privilege, according to the Bee. Ojeda said it never crossed his mind that his discussions about his alleged misconduct might be turned over to police.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

07/04/2013

By AHARON WEXLER
It is my hope and prayer that the election this summer of new chief rabbis will be used as a opportunity to clean house.

The disturbing allegations against Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger have brought the rabbinate in Israel to a new low.

The rabbinate, an institution one would hope would serve as a bridge between Judaism and the state, has been one of the chief culprits in distancing Jews from their heritage and their God in heaven.

It used to be that Cyprus was the destination last resort for couples seeking to be married because one of them was not Jewish. Now, even fully kosher Jews are opting to be married abroad to escape the draconian scrutiny of the rabbis here in Israel. It is for this very reason that organizations such as Tzohar have found much success in the Israeli public for doing what the rabbinate has failed to do; namely create a welcoming environment for Jews to celebrate life-cycle events.

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IRELAND
RTE News

President Michael D Higgins has congratulated survivors of Magdelene Laundries for making society listen to the terrible wrongs done to them.

He told a group of the women at Áras an Uachtaráin that he was pleased the justice of their cause had led to public acknowledgement of the enormous wrong they suffered at the hands of the State and society.

A group of 39 so-called “Magdalene women” met President Higgins at the request of Steven O’Riordan, spokesman for the Magdalene Survivors Together group.

Ten travelled from Britain for the occasion which many said they could never have predicted even in their wildest dreams.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

04 JULY 2013

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins said the recognition by the State of its failures in the Magdalene Laundries was due to the “indefatigable efforts” of those incarcerated.

The President welcomed women detained in Magdalene Laundries to Aras an Uachtarain just days after they criticised a multi-million compensation package on offer from the State as part of a redress scheme. President Higgins said the story of the Magdalene women was a tale of a “terrible wrong” and a “failure” to respect the human rights and dignity of around 10,000 women and girls.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kritisches-Netzwerk

Von Wolfgang Blaschka

Ausgesuchte Knabenstimmen zum Engelsklang eines berühmten Chores zu verschmelzen war das eine. Das andere war das strenge Strafregime unserer sadistischen Präfekten und Direktoren. Die meisten waren Priester. Die Gottgeweihten bewirtschafteten einen quirligen Tümpel quakender Frösche. Das waren wir. Dann neigten sie sich herab, und siehe da: Im Spiegel der Wasserfläche wurden sie immer öfter zu giftigen Kröten. Wir hatten Angst vor ihnen. Manchmal wurden sie schwach und fischten im trüben Gewässer. Sie, die über uns standen, und die Rohrstöcke sausen ließen, um uns zu dirigieren und abzurichten. Und gelegentlich tauchten sie ein wie in einen Jungbrunnen. Die Opfer von damals sind heute Mitte Fünfzig. Sie befinden sich immer noch im Bann ihrer früheren Qualen.

Einen habe ich getroffen, einen Schauspieler, der im Gespräch beim Kaffeetrinken stotterte. Als ich nachfragte, wie das denn zusammengehe und woher das komme, meinte er nur lakonisch: „Domspatzen“. – „Was, Du auch?“ Und er erzählte mir von seiner Vergewaltigung im Arbeitszimmer des Direktors in Etterzhausen: „Er legte mich vornüber auf den Schreibtisch, zog mir die Hosen herunter und fi….e mich von hinten.“ Klare Aussage. Gar nicht gestottert. Das Stottern war auch nie auf der Bühne, vor Publikum, mit vorgegebener Rolle, nicht einmal bei den Proben. Nur im normalen Leben in privaten Gesprächen, wo er nie wusste, was der nächste Moment brächte und ihm abverlangte, da würde er ins Schlingern geraten. Eine echte Verdrehung im Verhalten, das die meisten genau andersrum an den Tag legten: Sie würden unsicher vor größeren Gruppen, vor einem Auditorium, vor der Öffentlichkeit.

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OSTERREICH
Osterreich.at

Er war wie der Teufel im Talar, seine Zöglinge nannten Pater Alfons M. (79) nur den Folterknecht. Über 20 Jahre unterhielt der Konviktsdirektor des Stiftes Kremsmünster ein wahres Terror-Regime. Seine Schüler wurden gequält, geschlagen und sexuell missbraucht. Mit zwölf Jahren Haft quittierten dies die Richter am Mittwoch im Landesgericht Steyr. Das Urteil ist nicht rechtskräftig, es gilt die Unschuldsvermutung.

Pater erklärte
 Buben für vogelfrei
Gewalt und sexuelle Übergriffe an 39 Zöglingen ermittelte die Staatsanwaltschaft, 24 davon mündeten schließlich in der Anklage. Unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit berichteten die Opfer von damals schließlich von Schlägen mit einer Ochsenpeitsche, von Fußtritten und dem Herausreißen von Haaren. Gelegentlich soll der Pater einen der Buben sogar für vogelfrei erklärt haben. Die Mitschüler seien ermuntert worden, den Betreffenden zu drangsalieren.

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VATIKAN
Zeit

Der neue Papst geht gegen Geldwäsche und Korruption vor, hartnäckiger als seine Vorgänger. Sein erstes Ziel: die Papstbank IOR.

Der Name klingt nach frommer, karitativer Arbeit. “Institut für religiöse Werke”, kurz IOR, nennt sich das Geldhaus, das seit mehr als 70 Jahren seine Geschäfte unter dem Dach des Vatikans betreibt. Seit Langem steht die päpstliche Bank unter dem Verdacht, dunkle Geschäfte zu betreiben: illegale Parteienfinanzierung, Geldwäsche, Korruption. Die Bank gilt als eines der mächtigsten und undurchsichtigsten Geldhäuser der Welt. Von jenen Bankern, denen Einblick in die Geschäfte des Instituts gewährt wurde, kamen mehrere auf ungeklärte Weise zu Tode – unter ihnen der Bankangestellte Roberto Calvi im Jahr 1982 und der Jurist Michele Sindona vier Jahre später.

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COLORADO
Denver Post

COLORADO SPRINGS — The Rev. Charles Robert “Bob” Manning was acquitted Wednesday evening of charges that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy and of child porn counts but found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The jury announced the verdict in the 4th Judicial District Court.

Formerly the pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs, Manning was accused of coaxing the boy into a series of sex acts during a booze- and pot-fueled encounter in the fall of 2011. He retired in May 2012 when the allegations became public, and after posting $10,000 bond, he obtained a judge’s permission to move into a home for retired priests in the St. Louis area.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

AFP

The Vatican on Wednesday said it had joined a global network of government agencies fighting against money laundering, as part of its efforts to reform its scandal-ridden finances.

The move was a recognition of the Vatican’s “systematic efforts in tracking and fighting money laundering,” said Rene Bruelhart, head of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority.

The Vatican said in a statement that the Egmont Group, which consists of more than 130 national financial intelligence units, had announced the move at a meeting in South Africa.

Membership of the network “facilitates the exchange of information in the fight against financial crime,” the statement said.

The Vatican is undertaking reforms in a bid to be included on a “white list” of countries combating money laundering compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Read the letter to one of his victims here

Read a letter to Reverand Pedro Bantigue here

Letters presented to the Special Commission of Inquiry

By JASON GORDON July 4, 2013

THESE are the letters that show how much the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese knew about the behaviour of paedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

For decades, the region’s most senior clergy knew about his offending, shared information among themselves, and became increasingly worried that victims would go to police.

They saw fit to ostracise McAlinden, pictured, strip him of his priestly duties and send him overseas, even warning senior international clergy of his tendencies, but they never took the information to police.

The letters are among dozens so far tendered to the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle. Commissioner Margaret Cunneen on Thursday agreed to them being made public.

In one, a psychiatrist hired to evaluate McAlinden’s state of mind said the priest admitted to becoming ‘‘a little over familiar with children’’.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 04, 2013

A NSW POLICE detective failed to pursue a line of inquiry about a pedophile priest that, a decade later, allowed other officers to uncover evidence suggesting the Catholic church knew about these crimes, an inquiry has heard.

In 2002, the NSW special commission of inquiry has heard, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox asked a retired bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Leo Clarke, if he had any knowledge of two alleged victims of the priest.

The late bishop Clarke replied “No, you would have to ask (the then bishop) Michael Malone about that.”

Detective Fox did not, however, subsequently ask Bishop Malone about the priest, Denis McAlinden, the inquiry heard. Nor did he do so during a formal police interview with the bishop the following year, in which they discussed a different pedophile priest.

During cross-examination of the policeman, Bishop Malone’s barrister, Simon Harben SC, asked “Here was a perfect opportunity for an investigator of your experience to pursue a line of inquiry, wasn’t it?”

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ITALY
Reuters

Thu Jul 4, 2013

By Philip Pullella

SALERNO, Italy (Reuters) – Even though he was known to like to live well, police said they were startled when they entered Monsignor Nunzio Scarano’s apartment after he called them one night in January to report a burglary.

The apartment, in one of Salerno’s most up-market neighborhoods in the city center, was huge, with art lining the walls and hallways divided by Roman-style columns.

Scarano, a Vatican official with close ties to the Vatican bank and who is now in Rome’s Queen of Heaven jail, had called police to report that thieves had stolen part of his art collection.

Interviews with two key chief investigators in different judicial and police departments in Salerno, in southern Italy, and police pictures of the apartment viewed by Reuters give the most detailed picture to date of Scarano’s wealth.

The investigators disclosed that the trove of stolen goods estimated to be worth up to 6 million euro ($7.82 million) included six works by Giorgio de Chirico, one by Renato Guttuso, one attributed to Marc Chagall and pieces of religious art.

“We asked ourselves how did this monsignor come to own this place and possess these expensive works of art,” said a senior investigator in the southern Italian city who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

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ILLINOIS
CBS Chicago

(CBS) – A youth minister at a West Dundee church has been charged with having sexual contact with a minor, according to a release from the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office.

Chad A. Coe, 31, of the 500 block of Dundee Avenue, Elgin, has been charged with one count of criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Coe is the Director of Youth Ministry at First Congregational Church of Dundee and had sexual contact with a minor at the church between June 10 and June 14, 2013.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Clifford Ward
Special to the Tribune
July 3, 2013

The youth minister of a West Dundee church has been accused of sexual contact with a minor at the church, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

Chad A. Coe, 31, of the 500 block of Dundee Avenue in Elgin, with criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, prosecutors said.

Coe, who authorities said is the director of the youth ministry at the First Congregational Church of Dundee, is accused of having sexual contact with a person younger than 18 at the church between June 10 and 14, according to a press release from the state’s attorney’s office.

Officials did not say whether the minor was a participant in one of Coe’s youth programs, but did say Coe was “in a position of trust and/or authority” over the alleged victim.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Elloise Farrow-Smith

An abuse survivor said the Royal Commission into child abuse had given him the chance to pour his heart out for the first time.

Richard ‘Tommy’ Campion said he was sexually and physically abused during the 14 years that he lived at the Church of England North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

He spoke with members of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for two hours yesterday at a Brisbane hotel.

Mr Campion has been battling for recognition from the Anglican Church for 8 years and said this was the first time his pain has had a hearing.

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UNITED STATES
Des Moines Register

Written by
TOM CARNEY

In light of the publicity in recent years about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, it’s fair to ask, “Is the Catholic Church doing any better in protecting children?”

It appears so.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which gathered data for an annual audit of U.S. Catholic dioceses, found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004.”

The Annual Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People says that all but one U.S. diocese — Lincoln, Neb. — are compliant with its 17-point charter. The charter is described as “a comprehensive set of procedures” established by American bishops in 2002 “for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.” It includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of acts of abuse.

Although one case is too many, it’s noteworthy that the incidence of sexual abuse by priests is mostly in the past, though we can expect a continuation of reporting of past incidents. The report notes that “68 percent of allegations made in 2011 were of incidents from 1960-1984,” and the most common period for allegations was 1975-1979. The report also found that most of the accused have died or been removed from ministry, and many had been accused previously.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

By Harry Hitzeman
A 31-year-old youth minister at a West Dundee church has been charged with having sex at the church with a minor.

Chad A. Coe, of Elgin, was arrested Tuesday night and faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. Coe, the director of youth ministry at First Congregational Church of Dundee, was arrested after the youth’s mother alerted authorities, according to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.

Coe, of the 500 block of Dundee Avenue, is charged with using his position of trust and authority to have sex with a minor between June 10 and 14, prosecutors said.

He is charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, authorities said. The youth is between 13 and 17 years old, according to court records.

Aaron James, the senior pastor at the church, 900 S. Eighth St., said Coe has been placed on administrative leave and the church is “cooperating fully with every aspect of the ongoing investigation.”

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NEW YORK
IrishCentral

By JAMES O’SHEA, IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Thursday, July 4, 2013

The New York Times has launched a strong attack on Cardinal TImothy Dolan over his alleged shifting of $57 million in funds when he ran the Milwaukee diocese to avoid paying off child abuse victims.

The New York Times editorial called the Cardinal’s actions “shocking” and stated Milwaukee “church officials kept criminal behavior secret from civil authority,”citing evidence newly available in 6,000 pages of documents.

The hard hitting editorial states “Tragic as the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church has been, it is shocking to discover that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, while archbishop of Milwaukee, moved $57 million off the archdiocesan books into a cemetery trust fund six years ago in order to protect the money from damage suits by victims of abuse by priests.”

Cardinal Dolan, has denied the allegation and described the charges as “old and discredited” allegation and “malarkey.”

However The Times says the new documents make clear “he sought and received fast approval from the Vatican to transfer the money just as the Wisconsin Supreme Court was about to open the door to damage suits by victims raped and abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy.”

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

[cemetery trust transfer]

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: July 3, 2013

Tragic as the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church has been, it is shocking to discover that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, while archbishop of Milwaukee, moved $57 million off the archdiocesan books into a cemetery trust fund six years ago in order to protect the money from damage suits by victims of abuse by priests.
Related

Cardinal Dolan, now the archbishop of New York, has denied shielding the funds as an “old and discredited” allegation and “malarkey.” But newly released court documents make it clear that he sought and received fast approval from the Vatican to transfer the money just as the Wisconsin Supreme Court was about to open the door to damage suits by victims raped and abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy.

“I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability,” Cardinal Dolan wrote rather cynically in his 2007 letter to the Vatican. The letter was released by the Milwaukee Archdiocese as part of a bankruptcy court fight with lawyers in 575 cases of damage claims. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011. The law bars a debtor from transferring funds in a way that protects one class of creditors over another.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Nic Rigby
BBC News

A former resident of a Catholic orphanage at the centre of historic child abuse allegations has waived his right to anonymity to urge others to contact the police.

Tony Walsh, 65, was sent to St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, Bedfordshire, in the 1950s.

He says he was sexually abused by Father John Ryan at the home.

His allegations led to the priest’s arrest in 2003 but he was released without charge and died in 2008.

Mr Walsh, who was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk but now lives in Spain, is the third man to inform the BBC he was sexually and physically abused by Father Ryan.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 4, 2013

The whistleblower cop at the centre of a Hunter sex abuse inquiry said he never believed Bishop Michael Malone’s claim that he did not intentionally forewarn a paedophile priest about a police investigation.

The Commission of Inquiry heard the former Newcastle and Maitland Bishop met with the priest James Fletcher at his Branxton presbytery in 2002 and told him there had been a formal complaint of child sexual abuse against him [Fletcher].

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told the inquiry, Bishop Malone told him the reason for his visit was to check the welfare of Fletcher who was upset.

In a statement to the Chief Inspector, Bishop Malone said Fletcher did not know about the investigation before their meeting.

“Why would he go out there and console him about something he didn’t know?” Chief Inspector Fox asked.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has released over 6000 documents pertaining to its clergy sex offenders. I commend Archbishop Jerome Listecki for his candor; he wrote (in part):

…Attorneys for abuse survivors have determined that these documents demonstrate how the archdiocese handled allegations of sexual abuse, responded to reports and dealt with offending priests. It will be painful on many levels. It may contribute to re-living the abuse of victims at the hands of priests. It will disturb the faithful who have placed trust and confidence in archdiocesan leadership. It will embarrass and shame the good priests who have offered their lives in service to the church.

Shortly after I announced the decision to release the documents related to diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, I offered an Atonement Mass at St. John Vianney Parish in Brookfield. A person approached me after Mass and expressed appreciation for the decision. The individual believed it would aid in the healing process of victim survivors. I pray that the release of the documents achieves that goal in some small way….

The documents can be viewed at the archdiocese’s website, www.archmil.org.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

An inquiry has heard a paedophile priest was allowed to continue running private reading classes at Catholic schools in the New South Wales Hunter Valley despite being accused of child sexual abuse.

The inquiry is investigating senior policeman Peter Fox’s claims the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese covered-up abuse by two priests, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Documents tendered this week show senior church officials knew about the abuse by both men but did not tell police.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox said all of the documents would have helped with his investigations.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A NSW inquiry has heard a paedophile priest was allowed to continue running private reading classes at Hunter Valley Catholic schools despite being accused of child sexual abuse.

The special commission of inquiry at Newcastle Supreme Court is investigating whistleblower police officer Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese covered up abuse by two priests, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Inspector Fox has told the commission that in 2003, the bishop of Maitland-Newcastle at the time, Michael Malone, “defied his suggestion” to have Fletcher stood down as a priest while the abuse investigation was underway.

Inspector Fox said he strongly suggested the priest have minimal contact with children by moving him to a diocesan office job.

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

COLORADO
Gazette

By Lance Benzel Published: July 3, 2013

A Colorado Springs priest whose attorneys painted him as a “prime target for false allegations” was acquitted Wednesday of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old altar boy.

But the Rev. Charles Robert “Bob” Manning, 78, didn’t walk on all counts.

Despite his acquittal on the sex assault counts and child pornography charges, the now-retired clergyman was found guilty of two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a felony alleging that he supplied the boy with pot and alcohol.

Manning could face two to six years in prison, but is eligible for probation. Sentencing is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sept. 26. He remains free on bond, and must report to the courthouse probation office Monday to begin requirements for a pre-sentencing report.

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

COLORADO
KRDO

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –
A former Colorado Springs priest has been found not guilty of sexual assault on a child.

Father Charles Manning, 78, used to be the pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church

Manning was accused of sexually assaulting a child who was interested in joining the Catholic Church in 2011.

During the trial, Manning’s former executive assistant said Manning gave the victim private classes, but said she never noticed anything inappropriate about the relationship.

A Catholic Victim’s Assistance coordinator testified that Manning forced the victim to dance and perform sex acts on him.

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

UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Peter Smith

Louisville pastor C.J. Mahaney — accused in a lawsuit of allegedly covering up sexual abuse by others in the denomination he once led — has withdrawn from the 2014 program of a prominent Louisville pastor’s conference that he founded along with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and two other pastors.

The Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference draws thousands to Louisville every two years, many of them men attracted to the revival of Calvinist doctrines related to the sovereignty of God and the authority of male leaders.

Mahaney said in a July 1 statement that his participation in the upcoming 2014 conference could create “a hindrance to this conference” due to his role in the lawsuit, but he said his withdrawal should not be seen as a reflection on the merits of the case itself.

A link to a statement of support for Mahaney issued by Mohler and the other two T4G founders in May no longer functions, nor does it appears on the T4G home page. The statement was already revised once to correct an inaccurate assertion that the lawsuit only targeted Mahaney because of his ministry work. (Excerpts from that statement are in a previous post.)

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

CHICAGO (IL)
WBEZ

July 3, 2013
By: Chip Mitchell

The case of a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who went to prison six years ago for sexually abusing boys is still dogging Chicago Cardinal Francis George. Attorneys for alleged victims of the priest got to grill George for a full day last week, sources close to the proceedings say.

That deposition, a secret session held June 25 at a law firm downtown, included about six hours of questioning by a half dozen lawyers. They represent boys and young men who claim to have been abused by Daniel McCormack, a former pastor of St. Agatha’s, a church on the city’s impoverished West Side.

The proceedings were part of a consolidated case before Cook County Circuit Court Judge Clare Elizabeth McWilliams. The case combines lawsuits brought by at least 15 alleged McCormack victims.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because McWilliams has ordered the proceedings and case files to remain confidential to protect the alleged victims.

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

COLORADO
Gazette

By Lance Benzel Modified: July 3, 2013

Rev. Charles Robert “Bob” Manning was acquitted Wednesday evening of charges that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy and of child porn counts but found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The jury announced the verdict in 4th Judicial District Court.

Formerly the pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs, Manning was accused of coaxing the boy into a series of sex acts during a booze and pot-fueled encounter in the fall of 2011. He retired in May 2012 when the allegations became public, and after posting $10,000 bond, he obtained a judge’s permission to move into a home for retired priests in the St. Louis, Mo., area.

An arrest affidavit alleges the boy came to Manning for advice on becoming a Catholic and the priest began giving him private lessons, during which he gave the boy alcohol and marijuana. Colorado Springs police also say Manning took the boy to get his nipples pierced, kissed the boy on the lips and engaged in other sexual acts, after which he thanked the boy.

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

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- The Santiago Office of the Prosecutor on Wednesday announced it awaits the Immigration Agency to specify whether catholic priest native of Poland, Wojciech (Alberto) Gil, accused of pedophilia by several families, left the country with another identity.

“We cannot get ahead of the investigation since it must be determined whether the priest managed to leave Dominican Republic with another identity, so we have to wait for Immigration to investigate,” said Santiago prosecutor Luisa Liranzo.

After the rape allegation at the mountain town of Janico burst to the spotlight, investigators determined that two of the minors from Juncalito managed to leave the country, possibility in the company of the priest.

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

WISCONSIN
Patch

[Daniel Budzynski]

Posted by Charles Gorney (Editor), July 3, 2013

A priest whose name appears on a list of priests removed or restricted from ministry because of substianted allegations of sexual abuse of minors worked in Greenfield in the 1990s, according to records released Monday.

The release, partly motivated by the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, includes about 6,000 pages of documents — from personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse to depositions of high-ranking archdiocese officials, including former archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Among the names listed is Daniel Budzynski, who was chaplain at Villa Clement Health Care Center from 1992 until 1994.

The documents were selected by the abuse survivor attorneys, archdiocese chief of staff Jerry Topczewski told Patch. Though the records were released as part of a bankruptcy agreement, Topczewski stressed that releasing the files can be part of the healing process for abuse survivors.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
The Guardian (UK)

[the documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

[the documents – Milwaukee archdiocese]

Sadhbh Walshe
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 July 2013

On Monday, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee released 6,000 pages of documents pertaining to the church’s handling of decades of allegations of child sex abuse by priests. In a blog post on his website, the current archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, said he hoped that by “voluntarily making the documents public” they will help abuse victims and their families to understand the past, review the present and allow the church to move forward. The documents certainly offer a unique insight into the past and present, but are far more likely to confirm what survivors have long suspected: that the church is far more interested in protecting its assets and reputation than it was or is in protecting them.

It would be nice to think that the disclosure indicates a new willingness by the church to be more transparent and open about its handling of sex abuse within its ranks, but Archbishop Listecki’s claim that the documents were released “voluntarily” appears to be something of a misrepresentation at best. According to Jeff Anderson, an attorney who has been working with many abuse survivors, the archdiocese only “volunteered” to release the documents (after years of fighting to keep them sealed) on the eve of a judicial hearing in bankruptcy court was likely to have compelled them to do so.

In 2011, facing 575 cases of abuse filed against them, the Milwaukee archdiocese initiated bankruptcy proceedings, prompting claims by victims’ lawyers that the move was simply an attempt to avoid having to pay compensation. Some explosive disclosures in the released documents add quite a bit of substance to these claims.

In 2007 Cardinal Tim Dolan, then acting archbishop of Milwaukee, wrote to the Vatican requesting permission to move over $56mn in assets to a cemetery trust fund. The letter included this nugget:

“By transferring these assets to the trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.”

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

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Huffington Post

A Roman Catholic Church cardinal referred to gay people as “faggots” during an interview about the nomination of an openly gay man for a U.S. ambassador position.

Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez was asked by a group of reporters on June 27 about Obama’s decision to nominate James “Wally” Brewster, who had been a top Obama campaign bundler, for the position of U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. “From the United States, we can expect anything,” Rodriguez replied, adding pointedly that the U.S. government was trying to “push forward its agenda” in selecting Brewster for the position, according to The Huffington Post’s translation of the Spanish-language video.

Rodriguez, who is also the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, the largest city in the country, was then asked about Haiti’s recent ban on Dominican poultry products.

“We jumped from faggots and lesbians then? We’re jumping to chickens now?” Rodriguez said.

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

IRELAND
Huffington Post

Craig Considine

Dear Pope Francis,

I have had the utmost admiration for you. Your new leadership in terms of interfaith relations, especially with Muslims, is such a breath of fresh air. You are such a welcoming leader. We can see it in your beautiful smile. We can see it in your everyday actions.

You have made us proud to be Catholic again. We love your warmth, your kindness. You have brought new life into our Church.

But there is just this one thing, Pope Francis.

You must take a firm stand against the continuing child sex abuse scandal.

This is an on-going scandal which is so gross, so against the most basic teachings of our Lord Savior, Jesus Christ.

How can we look up to our Church leaders if they are criminals?

How can we look up to our Priests if they are following such a misguided path?

We need leadership, Pope Francis!

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

1) According to BishopAccountability.org, there are 66 proven, admitted, and credibly accused predators within the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

(This number does not include the perhaps dozens of relative order predators who have lived or worked–or still live or work–in the Milwaukee Archdiocese now.)

Yet after decades of secrecy and years of legal wrangling, Milwaukee Archdiocese finally released some files yesterday on 42 accused priests.

That’s just 64% of the known child molesting clerics in the Archdiocese. (This of course doesn’t count any of the hundreds of child molesting clerics who are or have been in the archdiocese but who work for religious orders.)

2) At the same time, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki claims that “no organization in the world does more to combat sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church in the United States.”

Really? “No organization does more?”

Imagine a doctor saying “You’ve got cancer and I’ll surgically remove just 64% of it and let’s just see what happens.” Or a police department saying “We’ve arrested 64% of the members of a violent street gang, and we’re stopping here.”

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

AUSTRIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Wednesday, July 3

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

An Austrian court has charged Alfons August Mandorfer, a Catholic priest from Kremsmuenster, Austria, with sexually and physically abusing dozens of boys and has sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

We commend the brave victims who testified against Mandorfer leading to his conviction and disabling him from bringing harm to others.

We also hope it will encourage others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to come forward, expose predators, protect kids and start healing. It’s always tempting to keep quiet about child sex crimes – whether known or suspected. However, it’s also always irresponsible. Kids are only safe when adults are brave and caring enough to speak up.

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

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Saturday, July 3

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

We are grateful that a judge ruled today against a predator priest who claimed his abuse admission should not be heard as evidence in a criminal case.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon today rejected a motion by Fr. Uriel Ojeda that Ojeda’s acknowledgement of heinous crimes should be kept from jurors.

Time and time again, child molesting clerics admit their crimes to colleagues or police, then later claim they were coerced or that their admissions should be kept secret. Time and time again, Catholic officials abuse the ‘priest-penitent privilege’ to hide their hurtful deeds.

We are glad this judge didn’t buy the spurious claim that Fr. Ojeda expected his admission of child sex crimes should be kept private.

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

CALIFORNIA
Record Searchlight

SACRAMENTO — A suspended Redding priest charged with seven felony counts of child molestation lost his bid today to try to block statements he allegedly made to a Sacramento diocese official and a private investigator.

A Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled today that the statements made by the Rev. Uriel Ojeda to church officials can be used against him during his upcoming trial, the Sacramento Bee reported this morning.

Ojeda, 33, who was arrested Nov. 30, 2011, is accused of lewd and lascivious acts with a teenage girl over a two-year span — starting when she was 14 — in Sacramento and Shasta counties, according to the criminal complaint.

Ojeda, who is free of jail custody on $70,000 bail, was the assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Redding at the time of his arrest.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 4, 2013

Whistleblower Peter Fox knows of three Hunter sexual abuse victims who refuse to come forward to police because they fear retribution from the church.

The detective chief inspector told the special commission of inquiry yesterday that reprisals from members of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese not only extended to victims but church officials, including a Lochinvar nun whose order ostracised her because she gave evidence against paedophile priest James Fletcher.

The sister told Chief Inspector Fox she was asked to leave the order – St Joseph’s of Lochinvar – after her evidence assisted in the prosecution of the sexual predator in 2005.

During his second day in the witness box, the chief inspector said he knew of victims and their families who were no longer welcomed at church, whose cars had been vandalised and eggs thrown at their homes after reporting the abuse.

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

WISCONSIN
Patch

[William Effinger]

[Siegfried Widera]

Posted by Charles Gorney (Editor), July 3, 2013

Two priests whose names appear on a list of priests removed or restricted from ministry because of substianted allegations of sexual abuse of minors worked in Port Washington parishes in the 1970s, according to records released Monday.

The release, partly motivated by the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, includes about 6,000 pages of documents — from personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse to depositions of high-ranking archdiocese officials, including former archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Among the names listed are William Effinger, who was temporary administrator of St. Peter of Alcantara in 1979, and Siegfried Widera, who was an associate pastor at St. Mary’s Congregation in the early 1970s.

The documents were selected by the abuse survivor attorneys, archdiocese chief of staff Jerry Topczewski told Patch. Though the records were released as part of a bankruptcy agreement, Topczewski stressed that releasing the files can be part of the healing process for abuse survivors.

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

WISCONSIN
Patch

Posted by Charles Gorney (Editor), July 3, 2013

Six priests whose names appear on a list of priests removed or restricted from ministry because of substianted allegations of sexual abuse of minors worked in Menomonee Falls, according to records released Monday.

The release, partly motivated by the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, includes about 6,000 pages of documents — from personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse to depositions of high-ranking archdiocese officials, including former archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Among the names listed are:
Daniel Budzynski, assistant at St. Mary Parish, 1961-1962
Jerome Lanser, curate at St. Mary Parish, 1964-1969
Ronald Bandle, associate pastor at St. Mary Parish, 1974-1981
Daniel Massie, associate pastor at St. Mary Parish, 1980-1986
John Knotek, pastor at St. James Parish, 1968-1972
Andrew Doyle, associate pastor at St. Anthony Parish, 1984-1988

The documents were selected by the abuse survivor attorneys, archdiocese chief of staff Jerry Topczewski told Patch. Though the records were released as part of a bankruptcy agreement, Topczewski stressed that releasing the files can be part of the healing process for abuse survivors.

“Ultimately, we want them to know that the church loves them,” Topczewski said. “And the church owes them a debt of gratitude for having the courage to come forward.”

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

WISCONSIN
Patch

[Daniel Budzynski]

Posted by Charles Gorney (Editor), July 3, 2013

A priest whose name appears on a list of priests removed or restricted from ministry because of substianted allegations of sexual abuse of minors worked in Caledonia in the 1980s, according to records released Monday.

The release, partly motivated by the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, includes about 6,000 pages of documents — from personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse to depositions of high-ranking archdiocese officials, including former archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Among the names listed is Daniel Budzynski, who was pastor at St. Louis Parish from 1984 until 1987.

According to the Racine Journal Times, at least five of the priests named in the documents allegedly molested children in parishes in Racine County.

The documents were selected by the abuse survivor attorneys, archdiocese chief of staff Jerry Topczewski told Patch. Though the records were released as part of a bankruptcy agreement, Topczewski stressed that releasing the files can be part of the healing process for abuse survivors.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
PRI

[with audio]

Within the 6,000-plus pages of documents released by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee is evidence that Archbishop Timothy Dolan moved money that may have gone to victims of childhood sexual abuse into a fund for cemetery care. Dolan calls the charges “old and discredited attacks.”

Among the information in new documents released by the Milwaukee Archdiocese is evidence that Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, put $57 million in a trust fund for cemeteries out of concern it could be awarded to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Dolan, the current archbishop of New York and the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was considered a contender for the recent papal vacancy eventually filled by Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina. Dolan has long been regarded as one of the “good guys” of the Catholic Church for being an outspoken supporter of the victims of clergy sexual abuse scandals.

“When you think of what happened, both that a man who proposes to act in the name of God would have abused an innocent young person and that some bishops would have, in a way, countenanced that by reassigning abusers — that’s nothing less than hideous,” Dolan said on a 60 Minutes interview in 2011. “That’s nothing less than nauseating,”

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

CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

By Andy Furillo
afurrillo@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jul. 3, 2013

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon denied efforts by the Rev. Uriel Ojeda to exclude his alleged admissions of child molestation to Catholic Sacramento diocese officials at his upcoming trial.

Ojeda’s attorney, Jesse Ortiz, had argued that the young priest believed his statements to a church official and a private investigator were confidential and should be excluded.

Ojeda is accused in a seven-count complaint of molesting a girl younger than 14 while he worked at parishes in Woodland and Redding.

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

WISCONSIN
Patch

Six priests named in the sexual abuse files worked at three different churches in Waukesha from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Posted by Charles Gorney (Editor), July 3, 2013

Six priests whose names appear on a list of priests removed or restricted from ministry because of substianted allegations of sexual abuse of minors worked in Waukesha, according to records released Monday.

The release, partly motivated by the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, includes about 6,000 pages of documents — from personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse to depositions of high-ranking archdiocese officials, including former archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Among the names listed are:
David Hanser, faculty at Catholic Memorial High School, 1961-1970
Donald Peters, faculty at Catholic Memorial High School, 1967-1969
George Hopf, assistant at St. Mary Parish, 1962-1966
Ronald Bandle, pastoral team member at St. Mary Parish, 1983-1989
John Wagner, associate pastor at St. William Parish, 1973-1974
Franklyn Becker, associate pastor at St. William Parish, 1974-1975

The documents were selected by the abuse survivor attorneys, archdiocese chief of staff Jerry Topczewski told Patch. Though the records were released as part of a bankruptcy agreement, Topczewski stressed that releasing the files can be part of the healing process for abuse survivors.

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

ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, July 3 – Two men being probed together with disgraced Vatican prelate Msgr Nunzio Scarano denied Wednesday that 20 million euros in cash seized by police belonged to them. “Those 20 million euros are not ours,” Paolo and Cesare D’Amico, whose family was friendly with Scarano, told prosecutors. Their version of events does not correspond to what Scarano, who until recently led a key Vatican accounting unit, told prosecutors under continued questioning. Scarano has denied charges that he conspired with a former Italian spy and a financial broker to try to secretly repatriate 20 million euros of laundered money from Switzerland to Italy. Scarano, who is from the port city of Salerno near Naples, was suspended a month ago from his job as head of analytic accounts at the Holy See’s asset-management agency APSA when police started sifting through his assets because of his suspiciously large financial holdings and artistic trove.

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

ROME
Bloomberg Businessweek

July 03, 2013

ROME (AP) — An Italian shipping family denies any role in an alleged money-smuggling plot involving a Vatican accountant. The d’Amico family says the priest who was jailed in the affair, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, was their “spiritual” adviser.

A family lawyer, Vincenzo Cupri, spoke to reporters Wednesday as he left offices of Rome prosecutors who are investigating the alleged plot to spirit 20 million euros ($26 million) from Switzerland into Italy.

Scarano has been suspended by the Vatican from his accountant post. Prosecutors say they suspect the money belongs to the d’Amico family and was deposited in Switzerland to avoid Italian taxes.

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

ROME
Fox News

ROME, Italy (AFP) – A senior cleric arrested last week is suspected of acting as a front for suspicious payments made through the Vatican bank from Monaco, Italian newspapers reported on Wednesday, citing leaked documents.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano “is a real screen in front of the actual economic beneficiary of the operation and he interrupts the traceability of the money,” said one financial police document, quoted by the Corriere della Sera daily.

The investigators allege that Scarano had used Vatican bank accounts to make transfers on behalf of his friends, including an attempt to move 20 million euros ($26 million) on behalf of a Neapolitan shipowning family.

Scarano’s lawyers have rejected the charges.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Seattle PI

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Newly released financial statements show the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia had a whopping $39 million deficit last year.

However, church officials say their fiscal situation has improved dramatically since then. A spokesman for the archdiocese says the current deficit is about $6 million.

The church released full audited financial reports for the first time on Wednesday. Previously, the archdiocese had released only informal statements.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) wrote in his column last week that the fiscal problems stem mostly from years of overspending, not fraud or the priest sex-abuse scandal.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CatholicPhilly

See the full Archdiocesan financial report.

See the supplemental document to the report.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CatholicPhilly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

Archbishop Charles Chaput in his column last week on CatholicPhilly.com called the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s new financial report “very serious – and that’s an understatement.”

True to his word, a 37-page report released today shows an operating deficit of $39.1 million for the fiscal year spanning July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.

An accompanying supplemental document to the report, audited by the firm Grant Thornton, put the deficit in the context of new accounting procedures and one-time expenses and revenues during the period.

Those “non-recurring” items included revenues of $15.8 million from the sale of Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic high schools (closed in 2010) and expenses totaling $21.2 million. Considering those one-time adjustments, the “core” operating deficit for the year was $17.4 million.

Notable components of those expenses were a $13 million increase in the self-insurance reserve needed to pay insurance claims against the Archdiocese in areas such as workman’s compensation, liability and automobile insurance; and legal and professional fees of $11.9 million.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Harold Brubaker, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Wednesday reported a staggering $39.2 million loss for the year ended June 30, 2012, while disclosing unprecedented details about longterm financial deficits totaling $350 million.

Even after stripping away millions in unusual expenses, including $11.9 million for legal and professional services related to the priest sex-abuse scandal and other issues, the archdiocese said its cash expenses 2012 still exceeded revenue by $17.4 million.

“It’s not so simple to say our problems are related to the sexual-abuse crisis,” Timothy O’Shaughnessy, chief financial officer for the archdiocese, said. “That is a serious issue, a very serious issue that I believe the church is taking more seriously now.

“We’ve also had serious financial problems independent of the abuse crisis,” said O’Shaughnessy, who became CFO in April 2012. Somewhat more positive financial news could be on the horizon in the nation’s sixth-largest diocese, which covers the five counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and is home to nearly 1.5 million Catholics.

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WISCONSIN
Seattle PI

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Documents released by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on sexual abuse of children by priests show the incidents often occurred on overnight trips.

The Duluth News Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1aCqIFN ) that of 42 priest files released Monday, 22 contain references to molestation on camping trips, a cross-state bicycle ride and at least one Caribbean cruise.

The newspaper says geographic details aren’t always specific. Many incidents are noted vaguely as occurring “up north” — a generalization that sometimes refers to suburban Milwaukee, sometimes Wisconsin’s northern counties, but more often left unidentified.

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WISCONSIN
Patch

David Hanser was associate pastor at St. John Vianney Parish in the 1970s, and James Flynt, Vincent Silvestri, Charles Walter and Thomas Trepanier were associate pastors at St. Dominic Parish.

Posted by Charles Gorney (Editor), July 3, 2013

The release, partly motivated by the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, includes about 6,000 pages of documents — from personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse to depositions of high-ranking archdiocese officials, including former archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Among the names listed are:

David Hanser, associate pastor and temporary administrator at St. John Vianney Parish, 1972-1978
James Flynt, associate pastor at St. Dominic Parish, 1987-1989
Vincent Silvestri, associate pastor at St. Dominic, 1983-1993
Charles Walter, associate pastor at St. Dominic, 1984-1987
Thomas Trepanier, associate pastor at St. Dominic, 2000-2002

The documents were selected by the abuse survivor attorneys, archdiocese chief of staff Jerry Topczewski told Patch. Though the records were released as part of a bankruptcy agreement, Topczewski stressed that releasing the files can be part of the healing process for abuse survivors.

“Ultimately, we want them to know that the church loves them,” Topczewski said. “And the church owes them a debt of gratitude for having the courage to come forward.”

But according to press releases from SNAP Wisconsin, the local arm of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the documents have some major implications for the archdiocese.

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AUSTRIA
New Straits Times

VIENNA: An Austrian court has found a defrocked Roman Catholic priest guilty of sexually and physically abusing dozens of boys and has sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Alfons August Mandorfer was convicted Wednesday on charges arising from his time as a director of a school run by a monastery in the Upper Austrian town of Kremsmuenster. He held that position between 1973 and 1993.

Mandorfer was dismissed as a priest after several former pupils accused him several years ago of abuse.

Hundreds of alleged sexual victims of Catholic clergy in Austria have come forward in recent years as part of pedophilia accusations rocking the church internationally.

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN – Broadside

[with video]

July 2, 2013

(NECN) – New documents have shed light on the role of Cardinal Timothy Dolan in sexual abuse claims against the Milwaukee archdiocese.

Letters show that he tried to warn the Catholic Church that “the potential for true scandal is very real.” Victims also claim the documents show he transferred $57 million into a trust in an attempt to protect it from abuse lawsuits, and that he devised a plan to pay abusive priests to leave the church.

Abuse survivor advocates Gary Bergeron and Anne Barrett Doyle join Broadside to discuss these revelations and what it means for Dolan and the Church.

“What’s shocking is that he seems to have anticipation of this bankruptcy of the Archdiocese, to protect some funds so victims would not have access to it,” Doyle said.

Bergeron was less concerned with what it means for Dolan, focusing on the lack of prominence this issue has had at the federal level.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 04, 2013

THE Pope’s representative in Canberra, and potentially the Vatican itself, were involved in an attempt by senior Australian Catholic bishops to defrock a pedophile priest rather than report his crimes to police, an inquiry has heard.

Three successive bishops in Newcastle also had knowledge that Father Denis McAlinden was abusing children, while bishops in England, The Philippines and Papua New Guinea were warned of allegations against him.

In an exchange of letters with McAlinden during the 1990s, the late bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Leo Clarke asked him to petition the Holy See in Rome for a formal laicisation — effectively ending his career as a priest.

“Your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of this process,” Clarke wrote.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 4, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

The Pope’s representative in Australia knew of ”serious accusations” against the notorious priest Denis McAlinden from at least 1995, the inquiry into alleged cover-ups of paedophilia by two Hunter region priests has heard.

Leo Clarke, then bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, wrote to the Holy See’s diplomatic representative in Australia in 1995 seeking his help with a ”very delicate matter” relating to ”serious accusations concerning a priest of the diocese, McAlinden”, counsel assisting the inquiry Julia Lonergan, SC, said on Wednesday.

The letter referred to steps being taken to remove McAlinden from the priesthood. It said during an interview with Father Brian Lucas, that ”Father McAlinden admitted that the allegations were true”.

Former bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese: Leo Clarke. Photo: Supplied
The Manuka, ACT-based Apostolic Nuncio, as the papal ambassador is known, was also informed that McAlinden had agreed to seek counselling in England.

According to the evidence Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox asked Bishop Clarke, by then retired, about rumours he’d heard that the bishop might know about more victims of McAlinden. Bishop Clarke told him “no”, Chief Inspector Fox said.

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OSTERREICH
Kleine Zeitung

Der wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs und Misshandlung angeklagte ehemalige Konviktsdirektor des Stifts Kremsmünster ist am Landesgericht Steyr zu einer zwölfjährigen Haftstafe verurteilt worden. Das Urteil ist nicht rechtskräftig.

Der ehemalige Konviktsdirektor des oö. Stiftes Kremsmünster ist am Mittwoch von einem Schöffensenat im Landesgericht Steyr zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Der 79-Jährige, dem sexuelle und gewalttätige Übergriffe auf insgesamt 24 ehemalige Schüler vorgeworfen werden, reagierte stoisch. Das Urteil in dem Prozess, der weitgehend unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit stattfand, ist nicht rechtskräftig. Die Opfervertreter haben den 79-Jährigen und Unbekannte wegen der Vorgänge im Stift auch wegen Wiederbetätigung angezeigt.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The reckless operations of Monsignor: isolated case or general mechanism that does not work? Why was it not stopped sooner?

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

If the investigative elements that emerge from eavesdropping an investigation for corruption and fraud that led to the imprisonment of Monsignor Nuncio Scarano are confirmed, this time it will not be easy for the authorities of Oltretevere to argue that we are faced with the classic “rotten apple.”

From inside the Vatican, someone who obviously still does not realize what has happened, filters out this observation: “The errors of the individual do not question the institution. If anything they can question the way in which the institution takes on staff.” In other words: the system works, but we need to be more careful about who we hire … An applicable reference to the same Monsignor Scarano, as well as to the managers of the IOR who authorized his reckless transactions just as the Vatican undertook the process to comply with money laundering regulations.

The Holy See has assured full cooperation with the Italian judiciary, and therefore the bank accounts of the former robed banker one can probably figure out who has authorized the movement of large sums and why, which were used – according to the accusation – to do favours (reciprocated) for businessmen friends. A movement that, even without waiting for the entry into force of special anti-money laundering rules, should worry about the leadership of the bank. Instead this has not happened. No one noticed anything. No one seems to have worried. Thus, Scarano has been suspended as a precaution after the news of the investigation on him by the Italian judiciary, and not before. Perhaps it is not correct to speak of “system”, but of “cultural habit” yes. Something evidently rooted in time.

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COLORADO
Courthouse News Service

By SAM REY
DENVER (CN) – A grieving woman who sought consolation from a Catholic priest claims in court that he took her clothes off, “prayed over her naked body,” sprinkled her with holy water and then sexually assaulted her.

Jane Doe No. 34 sued the Archdiocese of Denver in Denver County Court. The Archdiocese is the only defendant, though all the allegations concern its employee, Father Jose Saenz.

Doe claims she met Saenz when he was a pastor at Saint Mary of the Crown Mission in Carbondale, Colo. Saenz performed the funeral service for one of Doe’s friends, whose death left her “severely depressed to the point where she was having suicidal thoughts,” she says in the complaint.

The depression lasted for more than three months, she says, until July 4, 2011, when she called Saenz on the phone “to discuss her suicidal feelings.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
U.S. Catholic

By Bryan Cones

The much-anticipated release of documents related to sex abuse has revealed–exactly what we have come to expect from the this whole sorry affair. The most sensational news will surely be that current New York Archbishop and Cardinal Timothy Dolan moved some $57 million from diocesan accounts to cemetary trust funds to protect them from lawsuits. (Dolan has disputed the purpose of the transfer, but his request to the Vatican to transfer the funds stated that the purpose of the transfer was to protect them from legal liability.) Coverage also notes $20,000 payments to priests who were convinced to resign their orders voluntarily.

An NCR story quotes former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland describing his dilemma regarding whether or when to make public allegations against priests: “There are a lot of things that when you make an assignment you don’t disclose,” he said, noting other problems such as alcohol abuse and financial troubles as other problems for some priests. Weakland also admitted treating priests accused of abuse differently from, say, a teacher: “There was a certain obligation that I had toward the priests that went beyond what I might have toward anyone else.”

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

3. Juli 2013

“Die Dauer und die Gleichgültigkeit des Angeklagten übersteigt für uns alles Dagewesene”, sagte der Richter – Urteil nicht rechtskräftig

Steyr/Kremsmünster – Der ehemalige Konviktsdirektor des oberösterreichischen Stiftes Kremsmünster ist am Mittwoch von einem Schöffensenat im Landesgericht Steyr zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Dem heute 79-Jährigen, der mittlerweile in den Laienstand zurückversetzt wurden, werden sexuelle und gewalttätige Übergriffe auf insgesamt 24 ehemalige Schüler vorgeworfen.

Der Prozess fand großteils unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit statt. Der Angeklagte hatte zwar ein Geständnis abgelegt und sich bei den Opfern entschuldigt, die Opferanwälte vermissten aber Reue. Der Verteidiger hatte einen Freispruch verlangt, weil die Taten verjährt seien.

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OSTERREICH
kathweb

Zwölf Jahre Haft für Sexual- und Gewaltdelikte – Stift: “Opfern wird auf diese Weise ein Stück Gerechtigkeit zuteil”

03.07.2013

Linz, 03.07.2013 (KAP) Ein 79-jähriger ehemaliger Pater des Stiftes Kremsmünster ist am Mittwoch wegen Missbrauch im Landesgericht Steyr zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Das Stift hat das Urteil in ein er Stellungnahme gegenüber “Kathpress” begrüßt. Dem ehemaligen Ordensgeistlichen, der mittlerweile in den Laienstand zurückversetzt ist, wurde eine Reihe von Delikten angelastet, darunter sexueller Missbrauch sowie andere Sexual- und Gewaltdelikte. Nach Ermittlungen in anfangs 39 Fällen sprach die Staatsanwaltschaft nun von 24 Opfern, davon 15 von sexuellen Handlungen.

Der am Mittwoch im Landesgericht Steyr beendete Prozess fand aus Rücksicht für die Opfer großteils unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit statt. Der Angeklagte hatte zwar ein Geständnis abgelegt und sich bei den Opfern entschuldigt, deren Anwälte vermissten aber Reue. Der Verteidiger hatte einen Freispruch verlangt, weil die Taten verjährt seien. Er meldete Nichtigkeitsbeschwerde und Berufung an. Das Urteil des Schöffensenats ist somit noch nicht rechtskräftig.

Stift: Opfern wird Gerechtigkeit zuteil

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DEUTSCHLAND
HPD

In einem sehr ausführlichen Artikel schildert das Evangelische Bayerische Sonntagsblatt einen gravierenden Dissens zwischen der Landeskirche in Bayern und der EKD über den Umgang mit Missbrauchstätern im Pfarrdienst.

In dienstlichen Zusammenhängen hat ein ordinierter evangelischer Theologe mindestens drei Frauen sexuell missbraucht. Als Pfarrer eine dreizehnjährige Konfirmandin, als Oberkirchenrat zwei Sekretärinnen.

Eine der Sekretärinnen hatten beim Landesbischof um Hilfe angefragt, die ihr aber nicht gewährt wurde.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sonntagsblatt

Ein Oberkirchenrat missbrauchte Frauen – das Urteil wird von einem EKD-Gerichtshof kassiert

Von Helmut Frank

Ein Pfarrer missbraucht eine Konfirmandin, als Oberkirchenrat missbraucht er später mehrere Mitarbeiterinnen im Landeskirchenamt. Eine der Frauen bittet den Bischof um Hilfe, aber es passiert nichts. Jahrzehnte später erst kommt es zu einem Disziplinarverfahren, der Ruhestands-Oberkirchenrat wird aus dem Dienst der bayerischen Landeskirche entfernt. Doch dieses Urteil hat nun ein Berufungsgericht der EKD kassiert – und damit eventuell einen Präzedenzfall geschaffen.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Deutsche Welle

Kardinal Timothy Dolan soll als Erzbischof von Milwaukee 57 Millionen Dollar in einen Friedhofsfonds gesteckt haben, damit das Geld nicht an Missbrauchsopfer geht. Das ergibt sich aus Bistumsdokumenten.

Die katholische Zeitschrift “National Catholic Reporter” berichtet unter Berufung auf die Dokumente des Bistums von Milwaukee in den USA, dass der damalige Erzbischof Timothy Dolan 57 Millionen Dollar in einen Friedhofsfonds geleitet haben, um das Geld vor den Entschädigungsansprüchen von Missbrauchsopfern zu sichern. Demnach hatte Dolan 2007 den kirchenrechtlichen Vorgaben entsprechend den Transfer vom Vatikan genehmigen lassen.

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