ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

18 Apr, 2012

The Victorian government has come under fire for ordering a parliamentary inquiry to investigate child sex abuse by the clergy, rather than a royal commission.
Convicted former priests Gerald Ridsdale, Bryan Coffey and Paul Ryan and former CBC brother Robert Best all served in the south-west. Victims from the region are among those who committed suicide because of Catholic clergy sexual abuse.

There are concerns a royal commission would have had a better chance of getting to the bottom of the issue than a six-member committee of inexperienced politicians working part-time.

The inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu yesterday following revelations that at least 40 victims of the Catholic clergy had committed suicide, is to be conducted by State Parliament’s existing Family and Community Development Committee. “We regard child abuse as abhorrent and we will endeavour to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and indeed bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice,” Mr Baillieu told reporters.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Roman Catholic priest Rev. Paul Abbass has broken his silence over a police investigation that concluded there was no basis for criminal charges against him.

Abbass said although he plans to return to ministry he has to take some personal time for healing.

“I know everyone will understand my need for reflection and healing,” he said while also noting he won’t be doing any media interviews at this time.

The Cape Breton Regional Police said last week they have dropped their investigation into a former employee of Talbot House and have no basis to pursue any criminal charges. Abbass confirmed in an email that he was the person being investigated.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

PITTSBURGH — A priest for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been accused of sexually abusing a minor.

The Rev. James Graham, 72, has been placed on administrative leave while the allegation is investigated, according to diocese spokesman the Rev. Ronald Lengwin.

The Allegheny County district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday it is also investigating.

“We did receive a letter from the diocese yesterday concerning (Graham) and we will be attempting to gather any facts associated with the allegation,” district attorney’s office spokesman Mike Manko said in an email response to Channel 4 Action News.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Globe

By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press / April 17, 2012

PHILADELPHIA—A Philadelphia jury heard Tuesday about Catholic schoolboys who said they had to strip before a priest and endure whippings as they played Christ in a Passion play.

Prosecutors pursuing a child-endangerment case against a church official said the Rev. Thomas J. Smith remained in ministry despite those 2002 accusations. Church officials and an in-house review board didn’t think Smith was seeking sexual gratification when he allegedly had boys undress or get naked with him in a hot tub.

Smith was removed in 2005, after another accuser said Smith had taken several boys to a motel in the late 1970s, put ice down their pants and made them remove their underwear so it would dry. The accuser said he awoke to find a naked Smith rubbing his body against the naked boy.

Smith, now 64, was defrocked in 2007. The Associated Press could not immediately determine his current whereabouts. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia cannot comment because of a gag order imposed in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Jo Chandler
April 18, 2012

HINDSIGHT and maternal intuition mean Helen Watson can pinpoint precisely the moment when life for her 15-year-old son began to unravel. There’s no consolation in the memory.

She can summon up the scene, see it, smell it – the ”absolutely reeking” stench of alcohol wafting from the young priest, and the strange discomfort in her boy’s demeanour when he arrived back at the family farmhouse that morning.

What she can’t do is fix it, though she has devoted many years since to retrieving whatever justice, amends or lessons she might find in the moment.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Fresno Bee

The Associated Press

Tuesday, Apr. 17, 2012

STOCKTON, Calif. — A Central Valley Catholic priest found liable in a civil trial of molesting an altar boy has left the country as the trial continues.

The Diocese of Stockton said it received a letter from Michael Kelly on Monday in which the priest said he had returned to his native Ireland. Kelly cited health problems from the stress of the trial.

A civil jury found Kelly liable earlier this month of abusing the boy, now 37. The alleged victim said Kelley abused him in the 1980s when Kelly was a priest at Cathedral of Annunciation in Stockton. Kelly has called the allegation false.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Los Angeles Times

April 17, 2012

A Catholic priest from outside Stockton has reportedly fled the country for his native Ireland after being found liable of sexual misconduct.

Father Michael Kelly, from Lockeford, Calif., is in the middle of a trial in which the victim is seeking damages for the misconduct. Before he fled, Kelly penned a letter to Diocese of Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire telling him the stress of the trial was taking too high a toll on his health, the Stockton Record reported.

“This afternoon, I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr. Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland in the midst of the civil trial in which he is a defendant,” Blaire said in a written statement.

In the letter, Kelly wrote that he was averaging only an hour of sleep a night, was losing weight and had chronic bowel problems, the newspaper reported.

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STOCKTON (CA)
KMJ

KMJ News

A Stockton diocese priest has fled the country.

Prompting father Michael Kelly’s sudden departure to Ireland was his alleged involvement in a child molestation case.

Kelly was found liable in a civil trial on April 6th of three counts of child sex abuse involving a former altar boy in the mid-1980’s.

In a separate case, Kelly has been under criminal investigation since last September on allegations he molested an altar boy in a different diocese in the early 2000’s.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Part 5 of 5 parts. The March 1993 broadcast of the Phil Donahue Show, focusing on the unfolding issue of child sexual abuse by Catholic Priests. Guests include Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests; author and investigative reporter Jason Berry, and Fr. Andrew Greeley, a sociologist whose research and writing had contributed to an early understanding of the dimensions of the problem in dioceses across the United States.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Josh Gordon and Barney Zwartz
April 18, 2012

THE historic decision by the Baillieu government to launch an inquiry into the handling by churches of clergy sex abuse allegations was undermined last night when a key member of the committee appointed to run the inquiry said it was the wrong body for the task.

Labor MP Frank McGuire, deputy chairman of State Parliament’s family and community development committee, said the obvious choice would have been former Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins, who headed the government’s recent inquiry into child welfare.

The committee is inexperienced, with four of its six members having been in Parliament less than 18 months.

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ROM
der Standard

17. April 2012 09:15

Österreichs katholische Problemzonen sind in der Weltkirche derzeit in aller Munde – Kapellari ortet “spirituellen Bankrott”

Rom – Der Vatikan lehnt einen direkten Dialog zwischen der österreichischen Pfarrerinitiative und Papst Benedikt XVI. ab. Laut Vatikan-Sprecher Federico Lombardi handle es sich um ein “Pastoralproblem”, und es sei Aufgabe der österreichischen Bischöfe und Bischofskonferenz, diesen Dialog zu führen. “Das ist der normale Weg”, sagte Lombardi vor österreichischen Journalisten in Rom. Der Papst hatte am Gründonnerstag Kritik an der Pfarrerinitiative und deren “Aufruf zum Ungehorsam” geübt. “Ist Ungehorsam wirklich ein Weg?”, so der Papst. Von Kirchenrebell Helmut Schüller war dies als Aufforderung zum Dialog missverstanden worden.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Benedikt Steinschulte zeigt keine Scheu vor Fürstenthronen. Ein Satz des zweithöchsten Mannes im Vatikan vor zwei Jahren empört ihn bis heute. „Schluss mit dem Geschwätz”, kommentierte 2010 die rechte Hand des Papstes, Kardinal Angelo Sodano, die neue Enthüllungswelle an Missbrauchsfällen in der Kirche. „Das ist Realitätsverweigerung, der Kardinal sollte bußschweigen.”

Steinschulte steht als PR-Fachmann seit 27 Jahren für den Vatikan an der Medienfront. Wenn aber die Rede auf Helmut Schüller kommt, gefriert der lockere Plauderton. Im besten Fall ist das nur ein Sprachproblem: Der Aufruf zum „Ungehorsam”, den 400 Pfarrer in Österreich mittragen, könne auch als Aufruf zum „zivilen Ungehorsam” gelesen werden – der sei im deutschen Sprachraum mehrfach geadelt. Hier in Rom klingt das aber nach „offener Rebellion” – ein absolutes No-go. Erst heute sei in einer römischen Pfarre für die Pfarrerinitiative gebetet worden, erzählt er: Nicht für deren Anliegen – von der Freigabe der Lebensform für Kleriker bis zum Frauenpriestertum –, sondern für die Bekehrung der aufsässigen Pfarrer.

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OSTERREICH
Radio Vatikan

Aus der päpstlichen Antwort auf die Pfarrerinitiative dürfe auf keinen Fall die Einladung abgeleitet werden, auf dem Weg des Ungehorsams fortzufahren. Das betonte der Grazer Bischof Egon Kapellari vor Journalisten in Rom. Benedikt XVI. war im Rahmen seiner Predigt am Gründonnerstag auf diese Initiative eingegangen. Der in der Bischofskonferenz für Medienfragen zuständige Bischof verstand – wie er sagte – die kritischen Äußerungen des Papstes zum priesterlichen Ungehorsam zwar als „moderat” – Benedikt XVI. habe „keine Türen zugeschlagen”.

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MISSISSIPPI
Watch Keep

The criminal trial of confessed child molesting minister John Langworthy, originally set for April 2, has been scheduled for July 30 in Hinds County in Jackson, Mississippi. He is charged with 8 felony counts of gratification of lust for 5 victims, boys between the ages of 8-12. This abuse took place in Clinton and Jackson, MS while he served at 2 area Baptist churches, First Baptist Jackson and Daniel Memorial Baptist Church, while he was attending Mississippi College.

Langworthy confessed these crimes of child sexual abuse from the pulpit of Morrison Heights Baptist Church on August 7, 2011. He was arrested and indicted in September. In addition to the child sex crimes for which he is indicted, Langworthy also confessed to molesting minor boys at his previous employer, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Though the executive staff, including then and current head pastor, Dr. Jack Graham, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, heard him confess to this molestation in 1989, they did not report these crimes to the police as required by state law.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has placed the Rev. James Graham on administrative leave while it investigates an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

Father Graham, 72, pastor of the St. Lawrence O’Toole parish in Garfield, was scheduled to retire on April 30. A letter announcing the allegation and the decision to place him on leave was read to parishioners at weekend Masses. The parish is scheduled to merge into a new parish, St. Maria Goretti, in June.

The allegation “involved a minor a number of years ago. Though the allegation concerns events from many years ago, the length of time makes no difference,” Bishop David Zubik wrote to parishioners. “The allegation has been judged to have what we call a ‘semblance of truth’ — that the timing and circumstances surrounding the allegation fit the facts that are known. It does not mean, however, that a definite judgment has been reached.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Josh Gordon, Barney Zwartz
April 18, 2012

A WIDE-RANGING inquiry has been launched into sexual abuse in religious organisations after revelations some 40 alleged victims committed suicide.

The 40 were allegedly abused by members of the Catholic Church in Victoria but the inquiry will also look at misconduct in other churches, as well as Jewish organisations.

The Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, yesterday insisted the inquiry would be given sufficient powers and resources, including power to compel witnesses and evidence.

”We regard child abuse as abhorrent” … Ted Baillieu. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

”We regard child abuse as abhorrent and we will endeavour to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and indeed bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice,” Mr Baillieu said.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Akron Beacon Journal

By Colette M. Jenkins
Beacon Journal religion writer
Published: April 17, 2012

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Bishop Richard G. Lennon announced that he will reopen 12 churches in response to Vatican rulings that upheld appeals from parishioners challenging his orders to close those parishes.

The decision means St. John the Baptist and St. Mary’s parishes in Akron will be reopening.

“For peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland, I will not appeal,” Lennon said. “Doing so would prolong the process and create more uncertainty.”

Lennon announced his decision at a news conference Tuesday at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland.

No timetable has been set for the reopenings. But Lennon said they could happen within “a couple of months.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon this morning announced that he will reopen 12 churches whose closings were reversed by the Vatican last month.

The 12 parishes had filed appeals with the Vatican after Lennon, between 2009 and 2010, closed 50 churches in the eight-county diocese, citing changes in demographics and shortages of priests and cash.

Originally, reports indicated that there were 13 churches that had won appeals. But Lennon said this morning that only 12 had appealed.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

April 17, 2012, by Dan Jovic

The head of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, Bishop Richard Lennon, announced on Tuesday that he is not appealing a decree issued by the Vatican that reopened 12 area parishes closed in 2009 and 2010 as part of a consolidation plan.

Lennon had the chance to appeal to the Catholic Apostolic Signatura, but ultimately chose not to.

At a press conference Lennon declared that, “It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland.”

Lennon stated that the appeal process would have been painstaking.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Times Reporter

CantonRep.com staff report
Posted Apr 17, 2012

CLEVELAND —

Twelve closed Roman Catholic churches spared by the Vatican in the Cleveland Diocese will be reopened, the bishop announced Tuesday.

The action was a response to last month’s extraordinary Vatican decision overruling his decision to close the 12 parishes, a rare instance in which Rome reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon had ordered the churches closed over the past several years because of declining numbers of priests and parishioners and financial issues.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy ruled Lennon failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland

Bishop will reopen 12 parishes, will not appeal Vatican rulings

Declaring that “It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland,” Bishop Richard G. Lennon announced today that he will reopen 12 area parishes that were closed in 2009 and 2010 as part of a comprehensive reconfiguration plan.

Lennon said during a news conference at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist that he will not pursue a process provided under Canon (church) law that would have allowed him to appeal recent decrees by the Congregation for the Clergy that reversed the closing of the parishes.

Click here to read the entire news release.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon announced at a Tuesday morning news conference that the Diocese will reopen a dozen closed churches.

The move comes after an analysis of Vatican decrees which determined that the bishop failed to follow church law in the closings.

Bishop Lennon had the option to reopen the churches or appeal further. He says the decision to reopen the churches was made to prevent prolonging the process and to allow the Diocese to unite. An additional appeal could have taken years.

He made clear that the parishes that appealed the closings had every right to do so under canon law and that he supported the process.

The impacted churches are:
•St. Mary (Akron)
•St. John the Baptist (Akron)
•St. Mary (Bedford)
•St. Adalbert (Cleveland)
•St. Barbara (Cleveland)
•St. Casimir (Cleveland)
•St. Emeric (Cleveland)
•St. Patrick (Cleveland)
•St. Peter (Cleveland)
•St. Wendelin (Cleveland)
•St. James (Lakewood)
•St. Mary (Lorain)

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Crain’s Cleveland Business

By JOEL HAMMOND
10:35 am, April 17, 2012

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon announced Tuesday that he’d reopen 12 closed Catholic parishes that he closed in 2009 and 2010 as part of a wide-ranging restructuring of the diocese.

“It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland,” he said in a news release.

Citing cash and priest crunches, Bishop Lennon closed 50 churches across the diocese over a two-year period. Activists fought the closings, and last month the Vatican overturned the closings and ordered the parishes reopened.

Bishop Lennon could have appealed that decision, but instead made Tuesday’s announcement.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
ABC News

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN Associated Press

CLEVELAND April 17, 2012 (AP)

Twelve of 13 closed Roman Catholic churches spared by the Vatican in the Cleveland Diocese will be reopened, the bishop announced Tuesday.

The action was a response to last month’s extraordinary Vatican decision overruling his decision to close the 13 parishes, a rare instance in which Rome reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon had ordered the churches closed over the past several years because of declining numbers of priests and parishioners and financial issues.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy ruled Lennon failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings.

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Tango

Introduction
In recent years there has been an increased attention towards the Catholic Church and the sex scandals and child abuse cases that has been going on behind closed doors. To name a few of those incidents, there is the case where a Priest from Ireland abused an 8 year old child, and thereafter the Priest, with permission from the Bishop, paid her family a lump sum so they would not mention it. Another case is a German scandal, where a Priest sexually harassed kids, and Bishops knew about it without taking immediate action. This case is particularly interesting because the current pope was acting Arch Bishop in that period.

The Catholic Sex Scandal is and has been a big conflict for a long time, and the way that the church has handled it bears the marks of trying to avoid the conflict by suppressing it. We will illustrate and analyze this from the perspectives of Trust, Knowledge Management, Culture, Image Restoration and Crisis Management.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 17/04/2012

Reporter: James Bennett

A parliamentary inquiry in Victoria will look at how the Church handles complaints about abuse by members of clergy.

Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The long and sorry saga over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has prompted the Victorian Government to launch a parliamentary inquiry. After decades of accusations, pressure on the Baillieu Government to act intensified after a leaked police report linked dozen of suicides to abuse, but the decision not to call for a Royal Commission is already under fire. James Bennett reports.

JAMES BENNETT, REPORTER: Anthony and Christine Foster are all too familiar with the trauma caused by sex abuses within the Catholic community. Two of their young daughters became regular victims of parish priest Father Kevin O’Donnell during their early years of primary school.

CHRISTINE FOSTER, MOTHER OF VICTIMS: Emma has died, Katie has been disabled forever and Amy suffers as well. All this because they didn’t remove a priest who was sexually assaulting children, and it should have happened and it didn’t happen.

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STOCKTON (CA)
News10

[with video]

Written by
C. Johnson

STOCKTON, CA – A Diocese of Stockton priest recently found guilty of three counts of child molestation and under investigation for a separate alleged similar crime has gone back to Ireland.

Father Michael Kelly, who served at St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford, was found liable in a civil trial on April 6 of three counts of child sex abuse involving a former altar boy at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton in the mid-1980s.

With the judgment, Kelly, who had continued to serve at St. Joachim Catholic Parish in Lockeford, was removed from his duties by Stockton Bishop Stephen E. Blaire.

Anttorney Rebecca Rhoads, who represents the now 37year old altar boy Kelly was found to have molested said she is not sure how the second half of the civil trial will proceed.

“The jury in this case returned a verdict against Father Kelly on all claims, essentially finding that Father Kelly viciously sexually abused my client,” said Rhoads, adding, “he’s just running away.”

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 8:34 AM

Irish priests are at war with the Vatican again after attempts to silence a second rebel cleric.

Veteran Marist priest Fr Sean Fagan has been ordered to stop writing and commentating in public.

The 84-year-old has been reprimanded by the church after he had called for an inquiry into clerical sexual abuse in all Irish dioceses.

His order has also bought all remaining copies of a theological book written by Fr Fagan who was required to give an undertaking not to write again.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTAM

Carmen Angelo, Newsradio WTAM 1100

(Cleveland) – Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon will address the media Tuesday morning on actions he will take in light of Vatican decrees to reopen 13 closed churches in the Diocese.

No word how many, if any, churches will be reopened by the Bishop. He closed 52 churches in recent years citing dwindling membership and a shortage of priests among other issues. Newsradio WTAM 1100 will have a reporter at the 10am news conference.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
newsnet5

•By: Carrie Nagorka, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Catholic Diocese will make an announcement Tuesday morning regarding the future of many local Catholic churches.

Bishop Richard Lennon will address the media on the actions he will take with regard to recent decrees from the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome.

The announcement will take place at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on Superior Avenue in Cleveland at 10 a.m.

You can watch a live stream of the announcement on newsnet5.com or using the newsnet5 app.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

Written by
Amanda Barren

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon will address the media at 10 o’clock Tuesday morning regarding the church closings that have deeply divided Cleveland’s Catholic faithful now for several years.

According to a news release from the Cleveland Catholic Diocese he will discuss the action he will take following the orders from the Congregation for thr Clergy in Rome.

A few weeks ago the Vatican handed down a ruling that the churches closed by Bishop Lennon should be reopened.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland will hold a press conference ar 10 a.m. to discuss his next move in the controversial closing of churches in the parish.

The news conference will take place at the Cathedral of St. John, 1007 Superior Avenue.

Parishioners of 13 churches — among 50 churches Lennon closed between 2009 and 2010 as part of a financially driven downsizing of the diocese — appealed their closings to Rome, arguing that they were self-sustaining parishes that should not have been closed.

Last month, a Vatican tribunal ruled in favor of the parishioners, saying Lennon had violated procedures and church law when he padlocked the 13 sanctuaries and dissolved or merged their parishes.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

Posted on: 7:40 am, April 17, 2012, by Ted Achladis

CLEVELAND — A spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland tells Fox 8 News that Bishop Richard Lennon will today address “the actions he will take with regard to recent decrees from the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome.”

Robert Tayek, the diocese’s director of media and public relations, says that a 10 a.m. news conference has been scheduled. It will take place at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist located at 1007 Superior Avenue in Cleveland.

Last month, the Vatican issued a decree concerning 13 Catholic churches in northeast Ohio that had been closed by Lennon. The decree said that the churches should not have been shut down, and should be restored.

Despite appeals to the bishop and the diocese to comply with the Vatican’s ruling, no action has yet been taken.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

MODESTO — In a stunning development, the Stockton Diocese announced Monday afternoon that the Rev. Michael Kelly had flown to Ireland on the eve of testifying in the second phase of his sexual abuse civil trial.

He told his attorney he is very ill and wants to “die with his family.”

On April 6, a San Joaquin County jury found Kelly liable of sexual misconduct against an unidentified plaintiff when he was a Stockton parish school student more than 25 years ago. The second phase, against Bishop Stephen Blaire and the Stockton Diocese over its handling of the complaint against Kelly, was to resume in Stockton this morning.

In a letter dated Sunday and hand-delivered to the bishop Monday, Kelly wrote that he was leaving the country because of his poor health. He again insisted on his innocence against “vicious false allegations” and said he had “lost everything” because of them.

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LOUISIANA
The Ind

Written by Leslie Turk
Monday, April 16, 2012

On Saturday, April 14, Lafayette lost a man who for two decades was one its most powerful and influential political figures. Former District Attorney Nathan Stansbury died at the age of 77.

Survivors include his son, Craig Stansbury (Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department spokesman), and his wife Nicole; three grandchildren, Derek Stansbury, Sydney Stansbury and Kennedy Stansbury; one sister, Ann Redlich, and her husband Ted; one brother, Howard Stansbury Jr., and his wife Alice; one niece, Lisa Stansbury; and two nephews, Jeff Bennett and Stephen Bennett. …

Nathan successfully prosecuted Gilbert Gauthier, the parish priest convicted of child molestation, when there were many in the community who hoped to make what happened quietly go away without a visible trial.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 16, 2012

…that he skipped the country, just to make sure that the cops never find him.

I hope his supporters (like the ones who tried to tamper with the jury) finally realized that he just flipped them the bird.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Hoy comenzó la Asamblea Plenaria número 103 de obispos de la Conferencia Episcopal en Punta de Tralca, que estará marcada tras el cierre de la Unión Sacerdotal, asociación liderada por Fernando Karadima.

Hasta el 20 de abril estarán reunidos 31 obispos en ejercicio, para realizar un discernimiento colegiado en torno al caminar de la Iglesia en Chile, con sus dificultades, fortalezas y desafíos. En esta oportunidad no se cuenta con la presencia de monseñor Andrés Arteaga, quien no pudo participar por razón de salud.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

Zwei Jahre Klasnic-Kommission. Die Opferschutzanwaltschaft entschied bisher 613 Fälle positiv. Etwa zwei Drittel der Opfer waren mit sexuellem Missbrauch konfrontiert.

Die vor zwei Jahren von Kardinal Christoph Schönborn eingesetzte “Unabhängige Opferschutzanwaltschaft” hat von Missbrauch Betroffenen bisher insgesamt acht Millionen Euro finanzielle Hilfe zuerkannt. 613 Fälle habe man positiv entscheiden können, zog die Vorsitzende Waltraud Klasnic am Dienstag in einer Pressekonferenz Bilanz. Bis Ende des Jahres wolle man den Großteil der Meldungen entschieden haben.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

Die Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt erhebt schwere Vorwürfe.

Man kann es drehen und wenden, wie man will: Maßgebliche Stellen der katholische Kirche haben über lange Zeit bei sexueller Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche, begangen durch Priester, Ordensbrüder, Präfekten, Nonnen,… weggeschaut. Oder Vergehen vertuscht und durch bloßes Versetzen von Tätern neues Leid über neue Opfer gebracht. In Rom wie in vielen Diözesen wurden nach dem Auffliegen der Praktiken die Konsequenzen gezogen. Manche mögen es halbherzig nennen, kann sein. Aber auch und gerade in Österreich, wo unter der Führung von Kardinal Christoph Schönborn international gelobter Umgang mit dem Thema etabliert wurde, nun so zu tun, als ob alles falsch wäre, geht an der Realität vorbei.

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OSTERREICH
betroffen

Die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ kritisiert weiterhin die ihrer Meinung nach mangelnde Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Derzeit seien rund 40 beschuldigte Priester im Amt, sagte Sepp Rothwangl von der Plattform heute.

Nicht nur die Opferschutzanwaltschaft, der die ehemalige steirische Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic vorsitzt, wurde vor zwei Jahren im Auftrag der katholischen Kirche gegründet. Auch die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ startete damals ihre Tätigkeit und kritisiert seitdem die „Klasnic-Kommission“ als von der Kirche abhängig.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Jutta Berger, 28. März 2012

Mutter Kirche beweist im Umgang mit straffällig gewordenen Söhnen Langmut. Nach Missbrauch ist in Klöstern Versetzungspolitik und Intransparenz üblich, wie zwei Fälle aus der Abtei Mehrerau zeigen

Bregenz – Über Fragen des Daseins lange nachzudenken, ist eine der Aufgaben von Kirchenmännern. Die Frage, wann und wie lange ein wegen Missbrauchs verurteilter Priester suspendiert wurde, scheint zu den ganz kniffligen zu gehören. Kassian Lauterer, Altabt der Bregenzer Abtei Mehrerau, brauchte zur Beantwortung neun Tage. Am 19. März teilte er den Medien mit, er habe “Pater J.” 1982, nachdem er von den Eltern eines missbrauchten Schülers informiert worden war, “sofort aus dem Schuldienst entfernt, als Priester suspendiert und versetzt”. Wie lange die Suspension dauerte, wollte er nicht sagen.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Martin Kaltenbrunner

Zwei Jahre nach Bekanntwerden der Missbrauchsfälle im Stift Kremsmünster – Zwischenbilanz eines Konvikt-Absolventen

Zwei Jahre ist es nun her, seit ein ehemaliger Schüler des Stiftsgymnasiums Kremsmünster das Schweigen gebrochen hat. Zwei Jahre ist es nun auch her, seit Abt Ambros Ebhart nach anfänglichem Zögern eine umfassende Aufklärung der Missbrauchs- und Gewaltfälle im Stift Kremsmünster angekündigt hat.

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OSTERREICH
Humanistischer Pressedienst

WIEN. (hpd) Die katholische Kirche tut wenig bis gar nichts, um die jahrzehntelange Gewalt an Kindern in ihren Einrichtungen aufzuklären. Zu diesem Befund kommt die österreichische Plattform Betroffene Kirchlicher Gewalt bei einer Pressekonferenz in Wien. Auch der Staat tue wenig.

Mindestens 40 Priester und Ordensleute, die sich körperlich, psychisch oder sexuell an Kindern vergangen haben, sind nach wie vor für die katholische Kirche in Österreich tätig. Das allein sei ein Zeichen, wie wenig die katholische Kirche tue, um mit der eigenen Verantwortung als Organisation zu Recht zu kommen, sagt Sepp Rothwangl, Sprecher der Plattform Betroffene Kirchlicher Gewalt: „In keinem der uns bekannten Fälle ist ein Beschuldigter, aber auch kein verurteilter römisch-katholischer Geistlicher laisiert, also aus dem Priesterstand entfernt, worden.“ Und das zwei Jahre, nachdem der Skandal um vor allem sexuelle Gewalt an Kindern in Österreich einen nie dagewesenen Höhepunkt erreichte und kaum ein Monat vergangen ist, in dem nicht neue Vorwürfe bekannt wurden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MSN

Braunschweig, 26. Januar (dpa) – Ein katholischer Pfarrer aus Salzgitter muss wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von drei Jungen für sechs Jahre hinter Gitter.

Das Braunschweiger Landgericht verurteilte den Mann am Donnerstag wegen 36-fachen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen und 214 Fällen schweren Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen. «Er hat bei allen Eltern geplant einen Vertrauensvorschuss ausgenutzt», sagte Richter Manfred Teiwes.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Tony, It can hardly be true that they´re building a hermitage for you in Esker! I just wanted to offer prayerful support at this difficult time for you and Gerry and the ACP. I´m sure the many fine tributes pouring in from people you´ve deeply touched in your priestly ministry is very heartening. I feel privileged to be part of that immense group of people who have contributed their opinions on this site over the past while. The richness, profundity, and diversity of opinions expressed, surely shows how important and beneficial it is to be promoting a process of dialogue on all the burning issues of the day for our church and society. I get a feeling that there is something bigger than all of us going on here. What a pity to see fear taking over and trying to artificially hinder this effort.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Among the comments on the posting ‘A Tuam priest reacts to the treatment of Tony Flannery’, Joan Molloy writes that she is deeply troubled by the Vatican threat to Fr. Sean Fagan, and wonders if it can possibly be true? Yes Joan, sadly it is true. The silencing of Sean, after a lifetime of service to the Church, was even more painful because if any word of this action demanded by the CDF got into the media, he would be immediately be prohibited from exercising his priestly faculties.

Sean, whom I am privileged to call my friend, loves our Catholic Church. In his own words: “I am passionately in love with the Church which brings me so much of the endless compassion of Christ; the kind strong gentleness of Mary the Mother of Jesus; the consolation of God himself to help us through the many dark nights of the soul.” ‘Does Morality Change? (2003; 230-231).

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE MARIST priest and theologian Fr Seán Fagan has been advised by Rome that if any word of their latest action against him reached the media he would be stripped of his priesthood.

According to Mary Cunningham, a friend of Fr Fagan’s, “the silencing of Seán, after a lifetime of service to the church, was even more painful because if any word of this action demanded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith got into the media, he would immediately be prohibited from exercising his priestly faculties.”

Writing on the Association of Catholic Priests website, and confirmed to The Irish Times last night, Ms Cunningham continued: “Seán, whom I am privileged to call my friend, loves our Catholic Church.”

Fr Brendan Hoban of the priest’s association, described the Vatican’s treatment of Fr Fagan as “very disturbing” and “so extreme it highlights the inadequacy of the approach of closing down debate”.

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MASSACHUSETTS
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Consider this: Just a few months ago, Boston Public Schools leveled a two-week suspension on a school principal for not reporting a case of suspected sex abuse by a special education aide. After the principal failed to report him to the police, the aide transferred to another school, where he reportedly was busted in the act of abusing a special needs student.

The Boston Globe did not feel this repugnant story was worthy of any front-page coverage even though this was a clear example of abuse and institutional cover-up taking place today. Neither has the paper bothered to follow up on this stomach-turning story, nor has it investigated how Boston Public Schools handles abusive teachers system-wide.

Indeed, the suspended school principal has even since returned to her school without any media notice!

Catholic Church abuse from years ago: Always front and center at the Globe

Meanwhile, the Globe has plastered a top-of-the-front page, 2,500-word article – with a prominent color photo – about the nearly decade-old case of a former Jesuit priest from Chicago, the abusive Donald McGuire.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The newly released annual audit of abuse in the Catholic Church reports that only seven credible abuse allegations were made against Catholic priests by current minors in all of 2011.

Yet nationally syndicated articles from the Associated Press’ Rachel Zoll and Reuters’ Andrew Stern might have you believe that child abuse is currently a major problem infecting the Catholic Church.

Both journalists are trumpeting the fact that decades-old abuse claims increased in 2011, but not bothering to mention the status of current allegations.

In truth, the number of credible accusations alleging abuse by a Catholic priest against a current minor went down. For 2010, the number of such allegations was eight. For 2011, the number went down to seven. (If there are roughly 41,406 Catholic priests in the United States, seven credibly accused priests would represent .000169 (or 0.0169%) of all U.S. priests.)

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer

By The Intelligencer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

The sooner a federal investigator’s allegations involving Wheeling Jesuit University can be resolved, the better. The institution has accomplished too much good and is too important to languish under the current cloud of very serious accusations.

As we have reported, the NASA Office of Inspector General has made a variety of allegations involving alleged misuse of federal funds at the university, from 2005 through 2011. Documents in the case appear to focus nearly all the complaints against J. Davitt McAteer, who is chief executive officer of the Center for Educational Technologies and the National Technology Transfer Center at WJU. McAteer, a nationally known expert on mine safety, served as director of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration for a time.

No formal charges have been filed against anyone at WJU, including McAteer.

Still, documents including those filed to obtain a search warrant for documents in McAteer’s possession leave no doubt of the seriousness of the federal agency’s accusations. Clearly, if taxpayers’ money was misused as the NASA Office of Inspector General maintains, the federal government is obligated to take serious action, possibly involving criminal prosecution, in the situation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JOHN FERGUSON
From:The Australian
April 17, 2012

THE head of the Catholic Church in Victoria has cleared the way to cooperate fully with any inquiry into child sex abuse.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart today vowed to cooperate fully with any independent child sex abuse inquiry, which is seen as increasingly likely to be set up.

There was speculation today that the Baillieu government would soon back an inquiry, which could be wider than just offences committed in the Catholic Church.

This followed reports of dozens of suicides linked with old sex abuse cases involving a small number of Catholic priests, although it is acknowledged that other religions have been infected by child sex offenders.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JOHN FERGUSON
From:The Australian
April 17, 2012

A WIDE-ranging inquiry into the handling of criminal abuse by religious organisations has been announced by the Baillieu government.

But the government rejected a royal commission and opted for a parliamentary investigation.

The terms of reference include whether there needs to be a legal overhaul to improve reporting processes and to better protect children.

The inquiry does not isolate the Catholic Church but includes all religions and also other non-government organisations.

The inquiry will have powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Ashley Gardiner
From:Herald Sun
April 17, 2012

UPDATE: THE Victorian Government has come under fire for ordering a parliamentary inquiry to investigate child sex abuse by the clergy, rather than a royal commission.

Premier Ted Baillieu and Attorney-General Robert Clark made the announcement at Parliament House at 1.15pm.

An inquiry was one of the key recommendations of an earlier inquiry into child protection by retired judge Phillip Cummins.

It also follows reports of a police investigation that has linked a number of suicides with sex abuse by priests.

The Cummins inquiry recommended that “a formal investigation should be conducted into the processes by which religious organisations response to the criminal abuse of children by religious personnel within their organisations.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

Josh Gordon
April 17, 2012

The Catholic Church and “religious organisations” are to be subjected to a year-long parliamentary inquiry into the handling of criminal abuse of children.

Premier Ted Baillieu today said the inquiry will have powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and to elicit documentary and electronic information and will be conducted by the bipartisan Family and Community Development Committee of Parliament. It is to report to Parliament by April 30 next year.

The Government has come under pressure to hold an independent inquiry virtually since it took office, but the pressure intensified enormously over the past week with revelations in The Age about dozens of suicides linked to sexual abuse by priests.

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AUSTRALIA
774 ABC Melbourne

By state political reporter Alison Savage

Updated April 17, 2012

The Victorian Government has announced a parliamentary inquiry into the way religious organisations handle sexual abuse complaints.

The inquiry comes after police revealed dozens of suicides across Victoria could be linked to abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.

It was also highlighted in the Cummins report on child protection released earlier this year.

Many victims’ groups wanted a royal commission into the matter.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The Victorian government has been criticised for giving the task of an inquiry into child sex abuse in the church to politicians.

But the mother of one abuse victim says she is happy the government is finally dealing with the issue.

The inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu on Tuesday, will be conducted by state parliament’s existing Family and Community Development Committee.

‘We regard child abuse as abhorrent and we will endeavour to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and indeed bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice,’ Mr Baillieu told reporters.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: The Victorian Government has announced a Parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the criminal abuse of children by religious and other organisations.

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy have been calling for an inquiry for years.

But recent revelations that the church’s handling of complaints could be linked to as many as 40 suicides, put more pressure on the Baillieu Government.

Even now, victims and their families are concerned that the inquiry may not go far enough.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Melbourne man Stephen Woods says that between the ages of 11 and 14 he was repeatedly raped and bashed by three Catholic clergy in the Victorian town of Ballarat.

He says he’s overjoyed by news of the inquiry.

STEPHEN WOODS: It’s wonderful. We’ve, many of us have argued and many of us have been knocking our heads against the walls of bureaucratic walls to try and get some sort of satisfaction, some sort of hearing on the truth.

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STOCKTON (CA)
CBS 13

[with video]

STOCKTON (CBS13) – A Catholic priest who was held liable in a civil trial earlier this month of sexually molesting an altar boy in the 1980s has fled the country, according to the Stockton Diocese.

Father Michael Kelly informed Bishop Stephen E. Blaire in a letter that Kelly had returned to Ireland to be with his family, citing his declining health after he was found liable in the civil trial on three counts of sexually assaulting a now 37-year-old Bay Area man.

The second phase of the civil trial, to determine if the Diocese of Stockton took appropriate action with Kelly when it learned about allegations against him, is still ongoing.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Modesto Bee

Dear Bishop Blaire,

By the time you read this letter I will be in Ireland with my family. I am sorry for any difficulty this may cause the Diocese, but my health can’t take it anymore. I have sat back and listened to the vicious false allegations that have been spread about me for the past 4 ½ years, and my health has suffered greatly because of it. I have spent the last 39 years of my life serving God and the people of the various parishes of the Diocese of Stockton. Now I have not only lost my ministry, but this whole thing has taken its toll on my very being. I have lost everything I have worked for because of these false allegations.

I am mentally and physically spent. The stress of it all is causing my health to decline daily. Since the verdict I am on two kinds of medication for my stomach, I am having chronic bowel problems, I am getting an average of one hour of sleep a night, and I am losing weight at an alarming rate.

I hope you will understand that right now I need to be with my family, whose support and love for me is unconditional. I also feel at this juncture that I need to begin the healing process in an environment where I can get the medical care I need with my family nearby. Your faith in me has been unwavering, and for that I will be eternally grateful. I will have the same e-mail address for purposes of continued communication.

Yours in Christ,
Michael Kelly

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STOCKTON (CA)
Fox 40

Ian McDonald
FOX40 News

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY—
Father Michael Kelly, a Catholic priest from Lockford, has left the county in the middle of a civil trial over molestation accusations, according to Bishop Stephen Blaire.

“This afternoon, I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr. Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland in the midst of the civil trial in which he is a defendant,” said Bishop Blaire, in a written statement.

In Kelly’s letter, he says the accusations have taken a physical and mental toll.

“I have sat back and listened to the vicious false allegations that have been spread about me for the past 4 ½ years, and my health has suffered greatly because of it,” Kelly writes. “I am mentally and physically spent. The stress of it all is causing my health to decline daily.”

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

Statement from Bishop Stephen E. Blaire

This afternoon, I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr. Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland in the midst of the civil trial in which he is a defendant.

We notified opposing counsel in the civil trial as well as law enforcement authorities in Calaveras County, where a criminal investigation has been underway since September.

I have tried to reach Fr. Kelly by email and by phone to implore him to return and see the trial through to its completion.

The letter I received is below.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Dear Bishop Blaire,

By the time you read this letter I will be in Ireland with my family. I am sorry for any difficulty this may cause the Diocese, but my health can’t take it anymore.

I have sat back and listened to the vicious false allegations that have been spread about me for the past four and a half years, and my health has suffered greatly because of it.

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STOCKTON (CA)
News 10

Father Michael Kelly, who served at St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford, was found liable in a civil trial on April 6 of three counts of child sex abuse.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

By LAURA ARMSTRONG, The Ottawa Citizen
April 16, 2012

OTTAWA — A former priest from Eganville was handed a nine-month conditional sentence last week after being charged with indecently assaulting a local teen more than 30 years ago.

Monsignor Robert Borne, 63, will serve the first five months under house arrest, with the latter four months to be served within the community, Justice Julianne Parfett said at Msgr. Borne’s sentencing hearing Tuesday, April 10th at the Pembroke courthouse.

Msgr. Borne was found guilty last November of assaulting a teenage boy while the two were on an overnight trip in Griffith, Ontario in 1979. During the trial, the court heard the priest and the boy were sharing a bed when Msgr. Borne began kissing the then 16-year-old before performing oral sex on him.

He met the boy through the boy’s older brother, Msgr. Borne testified during his trial. Although mutual groping occurred between himself and the teenager, Msgr. Borne denied the relations were non-consentual. He also denied Assistant Crown Attorney John Pepper’s suggestion that a sexual encounter with the boy was always Msgr. Borne’s intention.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Almost 30 years ago the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared. Now Italian authorities want to know if she’s buried with a Mafia don on the grounds of a Vatican church—and how much Holy See officials know about her disappearance.

The faint smell of incense and candle wax permeates the church of Sant’Apollinare near Rome’s famous Piazza Navona. The basilica is one of a handful of churches outside the walls of Vatican City owned by the Holy See. It is used primarily by members of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei prelature for special masses for student priests and for celebrations of marriage and baptism of those affiliated with the sect. Behind a side door near the back of the basilica is a small courtyard that’s closed to the public. There, in an external crypt near the ornate sarcophaguses of bishops and cardinals, is the curious tomb of Enrico “Renatino” De Pedis, a prominent member of the infamous Magliana organized-crime gang who was ambushed and murdered by rival gang members in 1990.

Why a known-mobster like De Pedis is buried on the grounds of a Vatican church has been the object of much speculation since 1997, when a church maid revealed the tomb’s existence to an inquisitive journalist. The Vatican was always cagey about why the mobster was buried in one of its churches, and ultimately, the church’s silence spurred countless conspiracy theories. Now, thanks to shocking Vatican letters leaked in the Vatileaks scandal that is rocking the Holy See, the Italian police are less interested in why he’s buried there. Instead, they want to open the tomb to see if the remains of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi are interred with those of the mobster.

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BELGIE
Knack

Het Hof van Cassatie verbreekt gedeeltelijk het laatste arrest van de Brusselse Kamer van Inbeschuldigingstelling over het materiaal dat in beslag genomen werd tijdens Operatie Kelk.

Het laatste arrest dat de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) heeft uitgesproken over de huiszoekingen op 24 juni 2010 in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis en in de kantoren en de privéwoning van kardinaal Danneels, is gedeeltelijk verbroken omdat het Hof van Cassatie oordeelde dat de uitspraak van de KI niet voldoende gemotiveerd was met betrekking tot de verwijdering van de in beslag genomen stukken uit het onderzoeksdossier.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

April 17, 2012 by J-Wire Staff

Manny Waks, himself an alleged victim of sexual abuse as a pupil at the Melbourne Yeshiva, has welcomed a Victorian parliamentary investigation into criminal abuse by all religious entities.

Premier Ted Baillieu told media that “we regard child abuse as abhorrent”. The investigation will cover all religions and will be given the power to make the availability of evidence compulsory.

Waks told J-Wire: “As a former victim of sexual abuse within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, I welcome the Baillieu Government’s decision to launch a wide-ranging inquiry into how religious organisations in Victoria have handled child abuse allegations.

While over the years, based on a range of reports, the Catholic Church has been the major public culprit in the way they have handled sexual abuse allegations, clearly they are not the only ones within the religious sphere. From my own experience and knowledge I can testify that there has been widespread sexual abuse against many children within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Victoria, which was practically common knowledge to both community members and its leaders.

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LOUISIANA
The News Star

Written by
Scott Rogers

West Monroe Police assisted Colorado authorities Friday in the arrest of a former Kentucky youth pastor wanted in Colorado on multiple burglary and sexual assault on a child charges.

West Monroe Police Cpl. Jade Gabb said police assisted Routt County Sheriff’s deputies from Steamboat Springs, Colo. in arresting John H. Brothers Jr., 43, on Friday.

Brothers was arrested at 1001 Otis St. in West Monroe without incident and was taken to Ouachita Correctional Center where he awaits extradition to Colorado.

Routt County Sheriff Garrett Wiggins expects Brothers will be transported to Colorado by Tuesday night.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JOSEPH SLOBODZIAN

Thomas P. Doyle is a Dominican priest with a bachelor’s and five master’s degrees, a canonical lawyer with a doctorate in canon law and a veteran expert witness on Catholic theology and the church.

He has also worked to understand the institutional and moral failures behind the abuse of minors by priests since 1984, when the scandal first erupted in the United States in Louisiana.

Doyle appeared in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court last Thursday at the trial of two Catholic priests involving the sexual abuse of children by some priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington wanted Doyle to explain to the jury some of the more esoteric elements of Catholic theology.

Doyle was parsing the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church and discussing the significance of baptism, the ceremony in which the priest welcomes an infant into the church and washes away “original sin” – Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden – that Catholics believe all people are born with.

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STOCKTON (CA)
KCRA

STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA) — A priest in a middle of a civil suit in an alleged molestation of a boy in the 1980, has fled the country, the Diocese of Stockton said Monday.

“This afternoon, I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr. Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland,” Stephen E. Blaire of the diocese said in news release.

In the letter, Kelley told Blaire that by the time he read the letter, he’d be with his family in Ireland.

“I am sorry for any difficulty this may cause the Diocese, but my health can’t take it anymore,” Kelly wrote in the letter, according to the diocese.

“I was stunned … ”

– Stephen E. Blaire

“I have sat back and listened to the vicious false allegations that have been spread about me for the past 4½ years, and my health has suffered greatly because of it,” he wrote.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star

The headline on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reads like good news: “Child Protection Audits Find Nearly All Dioceses Compliant.”

What they were complying with, as the accompanying press release explained, was a set of zero-tolerance policies the bishops conference put in place a decade ago in response to the unfolding scandal involving the sexual abuse of children by clergy members.

The view from Kansas City is far less consoling. In September, their bishop will stand trial in criminal court for failing to report suspected child sexual abuse. Bishop Robert Finn will be the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official to be tried on such charges. The case stems from how the bishop handled the case of a priest now charged with possessing and producing pornographic photos of young girls, some of which were taken around churches and schools.

Many outraged Catholics in Kansas City are wondering how this could have happened. The church has argued — and, indeed, it does so in the just-released annual audit report — that the worst of its child sexual abuse problem is in the past. New allegations of abuse are made each year, but three-fourths of the credible new allegations made in 2011 were from adults reporting incidents long ago, from 1960 to 1984.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

Blogger Kristen Byrne is in the courtroom at the Philadelphia Archdiocese priest-abuse trial.

Today marked the beginning of the fourth week in a landmark priest-abuse trial with the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Prosecutors brought in multiple victims to testify on their alleged abuse and discuss the steps taken by the archdiocese in a case against Monsignor William Lynn.

The primary witness was a former priest himself, and discussed his sexual abuse at the hand of former Rev. Stanley Gana. The abuse began when the victim was 13-years-old in 1980, and lasted until he was a first year seminarian around 1985. Yet, Gana was not defrocked until 2006.

The man said he and his family met Gana at their parish, Our Lady of Calvary, in northeast Philadelphia. When Gana asked the victim to come up to his farm near Scranton, the victim’s family didn’t hesitate.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Bellingham Herald

By SUE NOWICKI – McClatchy Newspapers

MODESTO, Calif – MODESTO, Calif. – The Stockton Diocese announced Monday afternoon that the Rev. Michael Kelly had flown to Ireland on the eve of testifying in the second phase of his sexual abuse civil trial. He told his attorney he is very ill and wants to “die with his family.”

On April 6, a San Joaquin County jury found Kelly liable of sexual misconduct against an unidentified plaintiff when he was a Stockton parish school student more than 25 years ago. The second phase, against Bishop Stephen Blaire and the Stockton Diocese over its handling of the complaint against Kelly, was to resume in Stockton Tuesday morning.

In a letter dated Sunday and hand-delivered to the bishop Monday, Kelly wrote that he was leaving the country because of his poor health. He again insisted on his innocence against “vicious false allegations” and said he had “lost everything” because of them.

“I have spent the last 39 years of my life serving God and the people of the various parishes of the Diocese of Stockton,” Kelly wrote. “Now I have not only lost my ministry, but this whole thing has taken its toll on my very being.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Melissa Jenkins and Melissa Iaria
April 17, 2012

AAP

The Victorian government has come under fire for ordering a parliamentary inquiry to investigate child sex abuse by the clergy, not a royal commission.

There are concerns a royal commission would have had a better chance of addressing the issue than a six-member committee of inexperienced politicians working part-time.

The inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu on Tuesday following revelations that at least 40 victims of the Catholic clergy had committed suicide, will be conducted by state parliament’s existing Family and Community Development Committee.

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AUSTRALIA
Waverley Leader

THE State Government has launched an investigation into child sexual abuse within religious and non-government organisations.

Premier Ted Baillieu and Attorney-General Robert Clark announced the inquiry today following a police investigation that launched several suicides to sexual assaults by priests.

“It is clear that there have been a substantial number of established complaints of sexual abuse of children by those who have taken advantage of positions of authority,” Mr Clark said.

“This abuse has had traumatic consequences for victims and their families.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Inquirer Staff Writer

HIS WAS the typical Philadelphia Catholic family, the witness said. Mom and Dad were regulars at Mass. He and his sister helped out at the rectory. And they held no one in higher esteem than a priest.

“We were raised with the belief that a priest never did anything wrong,” he told a Common Pleas jury.

In that sense, the man, now 45 and a priest himself, echoed other alleged abuse victims at the landmark conspiracy and child-sex abuse trial for two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests. But as the trial entered a fourth week Monday, he offered a deeper account.

He detailed how the Rev. Stanley Gana first raped him when he was 13 and testified that after he became a priest, he spent a decade trying to get church officials to remove Gana.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Guardian

By Joe Curtis

A former priest bailed on suspicion of historic child sex abuse cases has been rearrested over four fresh allegations.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, of Eastbourne, was arrested and bailed in March on suspicion of abusing nine young people in areas including Barkingside.

The alleged assaults are meant to have taken place between 1965 and 1972 and the retired Anglican priest was rearrested yesterday (April 16) over allegations of four different sexual abuse cases from the same period that have now come to light.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Shortly before court opened Monday, defense lawyer Jeff Lindy was trying to make a point with the judge before the jury entered the courtroom.

“The archdiocese isn’t on trial, the monsignor is on trial,” Lindy asserted.

At issue was whether the prosecution was justified in treating current employees of the archdiocese as hostile witnesses, as was the case last week when Bishop Robert P. Maginnis testified. The retired 78-year-old bishop, the former vicar of Montgomery County, didn’t seem to have much of a memory on the witness stand. He told prosecutors he couldn’t recall many details about a 1985 incident where the feds raided a rectory in Montgomery County, and arrested a priest, Father Edward DePaoli, after they found $15,000 worth of foreign kiddie porn under his bed.

You’d think an incident like that would stick in your mind. The bishop, however, said he couldn’t remember; the prosecution thought he was stonewalling.

“The archdiocese is not a hostile party, the archdiocese is not a party,” Lindy argued. He was talking about the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William J. Lynn, Edward V. Avery and James Brennan, now playing in Courtroom 304 of the Criminal Justice Center.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

April 17, 2012

STOCKTON – Michael Kelly, the former Catholic priest found liable of sexual misconduct against a former altar boy, has left the United States for his native Ireland, according to the Diocese of Stockton.

In the midst of a civil trial in which the victim seeks damages, Kelly said in a letter to Bishop Stephen Blaire that the stress of the trial is causing health problems.

“By the time you read this letter I will be in Ireland with my family,” Kelly said in the letter dated April 15 and received by the diocese Monday. “I am sorry for any difficulty this may cause the Diocese, but my health can’t take it anymore.”

A civil jury on April 6 unanimously found Kelly liable of actions related to sexual assault, and Kelly was scheduled to testify today in the phase of the trial that focuses the diocese’s handling of Kelly.

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AUSTRALIA
3AW

UPDATE: Premier Ted Baillieu and Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark have announced a parliamentary inquiry following allegations poor handling of claims sexual abuse and suicides within the Catholic Church.

Mr Clark said the inquiry will investigate the practices, policies and protocols of religious and non-government organisations for the handling of allegations of criminal abuse of children by staff within their organisation.

The government decided upon a parliamentary inquiry over a Royal Commission in order for the process to be less intrusive and legalisic.

EARLIER: The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne has denied the church have been covering up incidences of sexual abuse after last week’s astonishing claim from the Victoria Police.

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AUSTRALIA
3AW

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 17 April, 2012

It took six seconds today to sum up what has been wrong with the Catholic Church for decades over the treatment of victims of sexual assault and the protection of paedophile priests by their Church leaders.

Six agonizingly long, damningly silent, seconds that took me back 25 years to when I went to jail for campaigning against one of those paedophile priests.

Those seconds ticked by in an interview that Neil Mitchell did with Archbishop Denis Hart on 3AW this morning. And the drawn-out silence occurred when Mitchell asked the Church leader if he knew of any paedophile priests still out there in the community.

Men who had been protected by the Church. Criminal offenders against children whom the Church had counseled, removed from the Ministry (as the Archbishop kept reminding us) but kept in other jobs and protected from any Police investigation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
London 24

by Zjan Shirinian
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A retired priest bailed after being questioned in relation to a string of alleged sexual assaults, including in Barkingside, has been re-arrested over fresh allegations.

He was due to answer police bail tomorrow after being arrested on March 6 on suspicion of sexual assaults on nine young people at locations in Crawley, Barkingside and Middle Wallop in Hampshire between 1965 and 1972.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Wayne Independent

By Josh Wengler
Wayne Independent

Posted Apr 16, 2012

Carbondale, Pa. —

— The pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was suspended from the ministry late last week pending the results of an investigation of sexual abuse charges from an unnamed Wayne County resident.

According to a press release from the Diocese of Scranton, Rev. Russell E. Motsay was removed from his ministerial duties following the Wednesday, April 11 allegation that he had been involved in sexual misconduct with his accuser in Wayne County when the claimant was a minor.

Having served as pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Carbondale since 1996, Motsay’s prior appointments included serving as pastor at St. Juliana in Rock Lake and at St. James in Pleasant Mount.

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WISCONSIN
Channel 3000

By Bill Wineke
Special to Channel 3000

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops seem to be going all out in their effort to force President Obama to jettison birth control coverage as part of national health care reform.

They’re now calling for national demonstrations in a “Fortnight for Freedom” initiative in late June and promise a campaign of civil disobedience if employers aren’t free to deny birth contraceptive coverage as part of health care coverage.

They equated their potential plight to the murders of John the Baptist by King Herod and Sir Thomas More by King Henry VIII.

John the Baptist?

Really?

Do these guys really expect us to take them seriously? And is this really the most important issue facing the Catholic Church in America?

Personally, I think they are lying. I realize that’s kind of an arrogant thing to say about the men who lead the nation’s largest religious body, but then, these are arrogant men. …

My own guess – and I obviously have nothing more than a guess to go on – is that the bishops have seen their reputations as moral leaders so tarnished by the ongoing sexual abuse scandal – we now have one bishop under indictment – and by the continued falling away of the Catholic population – if fallen-away Catholics were their own denomination, they’d be the second-largest denomination in the country – that they are seeking some way to regain influence.

By any serious criteria, the nation’s bishops have been truly bad at their jobs. They have covered up crimes and have squandered the offerings of the faithful.

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UNITED STATES
Weekly Citizen

By Shayne Looper
GateHouse News Service
Posted Apr 16, 2012

When I brought in the mail last week and saw the cover of Newsweek’s Easter edition, I thought, I’m going to hate this.

The cover art featured a contemporary, white-Anglo-Saxon Jesus walking through the streets of New York in a plaid cotton shirt, a blue jacket and a crown of thorns. The title read: “Forget the Church, Follow Jesus.”

As someone who believes the Church and Jesus are inseparable, I was ready to dislike Andrew Sullivan’s feature article before I opened the magazine. Tina Brown’s commentary, “Holy Smoke! God save us from the godly,” didn’t exactly help.

Yet, I appreciated Sullivan’s article –– and Sullivan, himself, for that matter. I appreciated the inside look the article provides into its author — a man who believes in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection and has pondered the incarnation all his life. He reads theology and grapples with what it means to be both God and human. …

Sullivan’s condemnation of Catholics and Evangelicals is scathing. He accuses the Catholic Church of “an international conspiracy to abuse and rape countless youths and children.” Evangelicals are anti-intellectuals obsessed with wealth and characterized by fear — indeed, panic — over the future.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Anglican priest who was bailed on suspicion of child sex abuse has been rearrested over four fresh allegations.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, of Eastbourne, was arrested and bailed in March on suspicion of abusing nine young people between 1965 and 1972.

He has been rearrested over a further four alleged sexual assaults in the same period.

The alleged assaults took place in Sussex, Hampshire and London.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michelle Somerville

“God’s Rottweiler” seized an opportunity during Holy Week to growl, whimper and call upon Roman Catholic dissidents to choose “radical obedience” to the Magisterium over fidelity to such causes as women’s ordination, compulsory celibacy for priests and divorce. Two years ago Joseph Ratzinger declared the discussion of women’s ordination over. Is the pontiff changing his tune? According to the The New York Times the group at whom Ratzinger’s snapping is aimed is an Austrian group called Preachers’ Initiative.

The initiative was started in 2006 by the Rev. Helmut Schüller, the former director of a Catholic aid agency, Caritas Austria, to combat a shortage of priests. Since then, more than 400 Austrian priests have endorsed him, according to news media reports, as well as priests in the United States and across Europe.

The Vatican fears that the initiative could cause a schism in the church. Father Schüller has called the Vatican an “absolutist monarchy” and said that the church’s resistance to change might lead to rupture anyway.

Does Ratzinger really fear a schism? It is hard to know. An old man fighting a losing battle, Don Quixote-style, Ratzinger may be too out of touch to genuinely fear a schism. Even so, he must be quaking even if just a little in those scarlet shoes because when it comes to selling “radical obedience” (to the Magisterium) to most Roman Catholics, Ratzinger hasn’t a prayer! “Radical disobedience” is fast becoming the norm in the church Ratzinger is said to lead. Whole religious orders and individual priests are thumbing their noses at this pontificate in increasing numbers.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The jury in the Philadelphia clergy abuse case heard today from more alleged victims — one, a boy who later became a priest and another who, penknife in hand on the witness stand, told the jury he was ready to kill his priest attacker at the time of his molestation.

One victim testified that Father Stanley Gana raped and sexually abused him several times a week for years. He says he didn’t dare tell his parents then, and he never told them before died — he says it would have broken their hearts.

But the witness, who later became a priest, says he confronted Father Gana while in the seminary, around 1985, and also informed church officials.

Gana was never charged with a crime and remained in active ministry for many years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By MARYCLAIRE DALE

Monday, Apr 16, 2012

A college administrator testified Monday that a Philadelphia priest sexually assaulted him several times a week throughout high school.

The witness, a one-time priest, said he told church supervisors in the early 1990s that the Rev. Stanley Gana had abused him from 1980 to 1984. Yet Gana was not defrocked until 2006.

The man testified at the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. diocesan official charged with child endangerment for allegedly burying abuse complaints in secret files.

The witness said he never told his late parents of the abuse because they believed priests could do no wrong.

“They loved the church so tremendously that I could not break their hearts,” said the 45-year-old, who said he left the priesthood because of the pain the church had caused him. He now works at a college in Illinois.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Jane Lee and Barney Zwartz
April 17, 2012

MOST of Melbourne’s Catholic clergy and parishioners would support a government inquiry into how the church has dealt with victims of sexual abuse, according to a senior priest.

Father Kevin Dillon, of St Mary of the Angels in Geelong, believes about 70 per cent would now favour an inquiry in the wake of recent widespread publicity given to victims’ stories.

While conceding he had not talked to every priest – ”nobody could” – Father Dillon, a long-time advocate for victims of abuse, said: ”Most ordinary priests are just overwhelmed by the fact that this is continuing.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Christliches Forum

Die “Mißbrauchs-Lawine” und ihr Mißbrauch für antikirchliche Zwecke

Der Berliner Jesuitenpater Klaus Mertes wurde jetzt mit dem Gustav-Heinemann-Bürgerpreises der SPD ausgezeichnet. Die SPD begründet diese Würdigung damit, daß Mertes als Leiter des Berliner Canisius-Kollegs ehem. Schüler über die Mißbrauchsfälle informiert und damit zur Aufklärung des Skandals beigetragen habe.

Was die SPD freilich verschwieg:

Der modernistische Geistliche wußte bereits vier bis fünf Jahre vorher Bescheid über diese verheerenden Vorgänge in der Jesuitenschule, hat sie aber erst im Januar 2010 “aufgedeckt”, wobei er diese Aktion mit dem Versuch verknüpfte, eine grundsätzliche Kirchenkritik loszutreten, was natürlich im Blätterwald bestens ankam. Besonders die kirchliche Sexualmoral bewarf er mit scharfen Vorwürfen, was ihm noch mehr Beifall einbrachte.

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OSTERREICH
ORF

Die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ kritisiert weiterhin die ihrer Meinung nach mangelnde Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Zwei Jahre nachdem Kardinal Christoph Schönborn die Opferschutzanwaltschaft eingesetzt hat, seien rund 40 beschuldigte Priester im Amt, so Sepp Rothwangl am Montag in einer Pressekonferenz.

Die Plattform schlägt der Kirche vor, Klagen auch zivilrechtlich prüfen zu lassen, da hier andere Verjährungsfristen gelten würden. Nicht nur die Opferschutzanwaltschaft, der die ehemalige steirische Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic vorsitzt, wurde vor zwei Jahren gegründet. Auch die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ startete damals ihre Tätigkeit und kritisiert seitdem die „Klasnic-Kommission“ als von der Kirche abhängig.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

Die “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” kritisiert zwei Jahre nach dem Einsatz der “Klasnic-Kommission” die mangelnde Aufarbeitung der Kirche.

Erneut gibt es Kritik an der mangelnden Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in Österreichs römisch-katholischer Kirche. Zwei Jahre nachdem Kardinal Christoph Schönborn die Opferschutzanwaltschaft eingesetzt hat, seien rund 40 beschuldigte Priester im Amt. Das kritisiert Sepp Rothwangl von der “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” am Montag. Die Plattform schlägt der Kirche vor, Klagen auch zivilrechtlich prüfen zu lassen, da hier andere Verjährungsfristen gelten würden.

Nicht nur die Opferschutzanwaltschaft, der die ehemalige steirische Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic vorsitzt, wurde vor zwei Jahren gegründet. Auch die “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” startete damals ihre Tätigkeit und kritisiert seitdem, dass die “Klasnic-Kommission” von der Kirche zu abhängig sei.

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UNITED STATES
The Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

Published: Monday, Apr. 16, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won’t let a woman sue a Maryland church for retaliation after she complained of sexual harassment from its pastor.

The high court refused to hear an appeal from Mary Linklater, who had sued the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, in Gaithersburg, Md., for sexual harassment and retaliation after allegedly being harassed by its pastor, Rufus Lusk III.

The Court of Appeals of Maryland threw out her retaliation complaint under the ministerial exception clause because she was the church’s minister of music. The First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches and their operations from the reach of some protective laws when religious employees are involved.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox News

Published April 16, 2012

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – A college administrator has testified in a clergy-abuse trial that a Philadelphia priest sexually assaulted him throughout high school.

The witness, a one-time priest, says he told his church supervisors in the early 1990s that the Rev. Stanley Gana had abused him from 1980 to 1984. He says he never told his late parents because they believed priests could do no wrong.

The 45-year-old man was forced out of the Philadelphia seminary over suspected homosexual conduct, but later ordained in Connecticut. He now works at an Illinois college.

The man is testifying at the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, a former archdiocesan official charged with child endangerment.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

17 Apr, 2012

The push for a comprehensive and thorough investigation into abuse within the Catholic church has gained significant momentum in recent months.

While the human tragedy of multiple suicides has added to the clamour about the issue in the public arena, it is the weighty recommendations of the Cummins report into child protection that must guide this inquiry. That a possible set of terms of reference for such an inquiry have been developed should be considered a major step forward. Guiding terms of reference were what the Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart had rightfully requested in the hope of pushing toward a just outcome.

These may not be the only or the best terms for such an inquiry, but the response of the state and the church should be of commensurate seriousness to ensure progress is made.

This newspaper supports a public inquiry in the belief that its ultimate course must be about protection and prevention.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Philadelphia Catholic clergy sex-abuse trial began its fourth week this morning with testimony by a former Philadelphia man who told of being plied with liquor and sexually molested by his parish priest in a King of Prussia hotel room.

The 50-year-old man, who grew up in Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Andorra, told the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury about an incident when he was in the seventh grade.

The Rev. Thomas J. Smith had offered to take him and another boy on a trip to Hershey Park, driving a recreational vehicle borrowed from the second boy’s parents.

But the RV got no farther than King of Prussia, the man testified, when Smith said the vehicle had mechanical problems and they would have to stay overnight in a nearby Holiday Inn.

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NEW YORK
WNYT

[with video]

CAIRO – The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese has placed Father Jeremiah Nunan on administrative leave from ministry, after allegations that he sexually abused a minor.

Father Nunan was also on leave six years ago, when he faced similar accusations, before he was restored to ministry.

Seventy-four-year-old Jeremiah Nunan is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham.

The diocese placed him on administrative leave, after a civil lawsuit claimed that Nunan sexually abused a child between 1996 and 2003, and then between 2007 and last year when that person was an adult.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Jerry Slevin continues to be vigilant about what’s happening with Catholic church officials and the child abuse cover-up, from a legal standpoint. He has just sent another outstanding statement, this one about SNAP’s filing last week of new charges updating their previous filing of criminal charges against the Vatican with the International Criminal Court, for the Vatican’s internationally orchestrated cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.

Here’s Jerry’s statement:

SNAP, the international victims advocacy network, filed on April 11, 2012 with the International Criminal Court (ICC) a 19 page letter (“New Charges”), plus supporting documentation, updating SNAP’s prior September 2011 original charges ( “Original Charges”).

The New Charges, include additional evidence supporting SNAP’s allegations against Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) and three top Vatican subordinates, Cardinals Bertone, Levada and Sodano. SNAP alleges this Vatican clique for years has been, and still is, orchestrating a worldwide criminal cover-up by Catholic bishops of priest child sexual abuse, including acts involving systemic rape, sexual violence and torture, of hundreds of thousands of defenseless children. These collectively would constitute “crimes against humanity” under the ICC treaty.

After SNAP filed the Original Charges, almost 500 additional victims from over 60 countries contacted SNAP with new allegations that SNAP has added to the Original Charges. The New Charges (accessible by clicking here) also contain brief and clear updates, with citation links, concerning other recent relevant developments since the Original Charges, including:

(1) September 2011: The issuance of the scathing and devasting report, “In Plain Sight”, by Amnesty International Ireland, concerning the recent history of priest sexual abuse of children in Ireland and of the Irish government’s “hands off” approach until recently to the Catholic Church hierarchy’s and priests’ appalling misdeeds;

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MISSOURI
Injury Board Blog Network

Posted by Mike Bryant
April 16, 2012

I’ve been following the stories concerning the Catholic Church’s attacks on The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Missouri. Basically, they are using the discovery process in sexual abuse cases to request depositions of the SNAP leadership and document requests to obtain files on the survivors of sexual abuse. SNAP is maintaining that these documents are covered by Missouri Rape Shield laws.

A good look at the argument is provided by Joe Saunders with Gotham’s Cowardly Lion

Ms. Magazine also noted :

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal adamantly spoke out against the outrageous attempts to intimidate SNAP and compel the release of its records: “The bishops are playing hardball with survivors of priest abuse, but the bishops are not playing hardball with priest predators. The Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to focus on stopping cleric sexual abuse and the hierarchy’s cover-ups.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Newsworks

April 16, 2012
By Shannon McDonald

Fresh off a series of mergers and closures by the Blue Ribbon Commission, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced yesterday that a dozen parishes around Northwest Philadelphia and Chester County will merge as part of a “pastoral planning initiative” for restructuring.

As of July 1,
Our Lady of the Rosary Parish and Saint Cecilia Parish in Coatesville will merge at the location and keep the name of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish.
Saint Joseph Parish and Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Coatesville will merge at the location and keep the name of Saint Joseph Parish.
Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Vincent de Paul Parish in Germantown will merge at the location and keep the name of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish.
Saint Athanasius Parish and Saint Raymond of Peñafort Parish in West Oak Lane/East Mount Airy will remain as free-standing parishes.
Saint Lucy Parish and Holy Family Parish in Manayunk will merge at the location and keep the name of Holy Family Parish.
Saint John the Baptist Parish, Saint Josaphat Parish and Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Manayunk will merge at the location and keep the name of Saint John the Baptist Parish.

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