ABUSE TRACKER

WEST VIRGINIA
WTOV

By NEWS9

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston bishop issued a statement Thursday stating he never sexually abused anyone.

The statement comes a day after a man testified during a clergy sex-abuse trial in Philadelphia that he was raped at a home owned by current Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield. The witness also testified he was told the bishop also sexually abused a boy.

The 48-year-old witness said he saw Bransfield bring several boys to a farm owned by now-defrocked priest Stanley Gana. The witness says Gana told him Bransfield was having sex with one of them.

The man said Gana raped him for years, including at Bransfield’s beach house. The Associated Press does not generally identify people who say they were sexually abused.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Intelligencer

April 19, 2012

By HEATHER ZIEGLER – Associate City Editor , With AP Dispatches

PHILADELPHIA- A man testified Wednesday in a clergy abuse trial that a priest raped him in the 1970s at a beach house owned by the Most Rev. Michael J. Bransfield and that he was told that Bransfield, who currently serves as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, also sexually abused a boy.

Today, Bransfield issued a statement denying all allegations.

“I have been deeply saddened by the priest child abuse scandal that has been connected to a handful of my former colleagues and friends from St. Charles Seminary. Over the years, I have felt devastation for both the victims and the church as I learned about the terrible actions they took with innocent victims.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

I have been deeply saddened by the priest child abuse scandal that has been connected to a handful of my former colleagues and friends from St. Charles Seminary. Over the years, I have felt devastation for both the victims and the church as I learned about the terrible actions they took with innocent victims.

To now be unfairly included in that group and to hear the horrific allegations that are being made of me is unbelievable and shocking. As a native of Roxboro, I consider Philadelphia my home. I have openly been an advocate for the eradication of the abusive behavior of priests in every diocese, and have demonstrated this in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, where I now live and serve.

I have never sexually abused anyone.

I understand that I am a public figure and therefore subject to public criticism. The nature of these statements and the manner in which they were released however go way beyond any sense of fairness and propriety. This case has gone on for seven years or more and simple facts like whether I own, or owned, a farm in the Scranton area were easily determinable. Contrary to the statements, I do not own, and never owned a farm in the Scranton area, upstate New York, or anywhere else for that matter.

The statement that a former seminarian of mine, Stanley Gana, abused a minor at a home which I owned on the shore and at which I permitted numerous friends and priests to use is misleading. What did not get released was additional information available to the Prosecutor that I was not aware of the incident and was not present at the house at the time. Gana has confirmed those facts in prior reports.

I was in Rome attending meetings at the Vatican when this false story about me was publicly released by the media without my knowledge or input. To say I was shocked and saddened would be an understatement.

I ask you to pray for me and the parishioners of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston as well as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. At the same time, please join me in prayer for all those who have been affected by sexual abuse.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

UTRECHT (RKnieuws.net) – Gisteren hield de vaste commissie voor Veiligheid en Justitie van de Tweede Kamer een rondetafelgesprek met onder meer vertegenwoordigers van slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik en de Katholieke Kerk. Als vertegenwoordiger van Katholieke Kerk was mr. J. Bakker uitgenodigd om aan het gesprek deel te nemen. J. Bakker is econoom van het Bisdom Rotterdam, voorzitter van het Economencollege van de Nederlandse Kerkprovincie, lid van de Contactgroep inzake seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen.

Bakker lichtte voor de leden van de vaste commissie voor Veiligheid en Justitie toe hoe de Katholieke Kerk, hoewel feiten niet ongedaan kunnen worden gemaakt, probeert te werken aan herstel van vertrouwen. “De aanbevelingen van de Onderzoekscommissie onder leiding van de heer Deetman zijn en worden geïmplementeerd. Het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK kent vier pijlers: melding, klacht, hulp, compensatie.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBit

[Heiliges Höschen, erhöre uns! – Spiegel]

Nein, liebe Leni. Du hast nicht das Kleid von Jesus gesehen: Man hat dich verarscht!

Das Kleid von Jesus ist nämlich nicht wirklich das Kleid von Jesus Christus.
Aber Bischof Ackermann hat dir das leider nicht erklären können. Er war ja schließlich nicht dabei, an dem Tag an dem du in Trier warst, sondern er hatte wichtigeres zu tun.

Was kümmern ihn die kleinen Kinder? Und die Wahrheit?

Liebe Leni,

lass es mich dir so erklären:

Der Heilige Rock ist nur dann echt, wenn ein Trierer Bischof dies so haben möchte. Genauer gesagt, betrifft diese Echtheit auch nicht den ganzen Rock, sondern nur ein Fragment, das bedeutet, nur ein klitzekleines Stückchen von dem Stück Stoff, dass du dir da angeschaut hast. Und ob dieses klitzekleine Stückchen echt ist, nun ja, also das hängt – wie gesagt – vom jeweiligen Bischof ab. Quasi, wie er gerade gelaunt ist. Oder anders ausgedrückt: Sobald der Bischof merkt, dass er ganz viel Geld dafür bekommt, ändert er seine Meinung. Nur einmal als Beispiel: Jahrelang hieß es, der Rock sei echt. Doch heute darf er nicht mehr echt sein. Dann kämen nämlich die Evangelischen nicht mehr den Rock anschauen und der Bischof würde nicht so viel an der Wallfahrt verdienen. Das Recht darf sich ein Bischof seiner Meinung nach nehmen. Viele Leute sagen: “Ey Bischof! Wieso veräppelst du uns eigentlich?” Aber dann versucht dir der Bischof entweder eine Geschichte von einem Pferd zu erzählen und die Frage der Leute auf diese Weise zu beantworten, oder aber der Bischof hat plötzlich gaaaanz starke Ohrenschmerzen und kann – auf dem einen Ohr zumindest – gar nichts mehr hören. Aber keine Angst, der Bischof sagt natürlich nur, er habe Ohrenschmerzen.

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BELGIEN
De Redactie

Die Katholische Kirche in Belgien hat mit Dutzenden der Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Geistliche auf direktem Wege Abkommen geschlossen. Dadurch erhalten die Opfer eine Entschädigung, wenn sie keine juristischen Schritte gegen die Kirche einleiten.

Zwar besteht seit Anfang des Jahres eine Kommission, die zwischen den Opfern von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Geistliche und der Katholischen Kirche in Belgien vermittelt, doch daneben trifft diese Kirche auch eigene direkte Abmachungen mit Geschädigten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Wenn ein erwachsener Mann den Kopf eines Kindes zwischen die Beine nimmt, stöhnend seinen Penis am Genick des Kindes reibt, während er ihm gleichzeitig auf den nackten Hintern schlägt, dann ist das kein sexueller Missbrauch. Das Stöhnen kann nämlich von der Anstrengung beim Verprügeln kommen.

Absurd? Grotesk? Bizarr? Mag sein – aber so sieht es das Bistum Regensburg, bzw. ein vom Bistum beauftragter Nürnberger Rechtsanwalt.

Am gestrigen Mittwoch hat das BR-Magazin „Kontrovers“ unseren Bericht zum Serienbrief der Diözese an mehrere Missbrauchsopfer aufgegriffen (Video hier abrufbar) und tatsächlich hat das Bistum dabei so etwas wie eine Stellungnahme abgegeben.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Labour’s spokespersons for justice and home affairs have blamed the lack of investment in beefing up the office of the Attorney General for a court decision Wednesday that turned down the prosecutor’s request to charge a priest with child rape.

The court of criminal appeal threw out the Attorney General’s request to have defrocked priest Godwin Scerri – jailed for five years for sexually abusing minors in his care – found guilty of rape, after a technical error was discovered in the original charge sheet, showing the crime happening in a place when it actually had happened in another.

The court upheld the objections raised by defence counsel Giannella de Marco who argued, through case law, that the prosecution had “ample time” to correct its own mistake on the charge sheet, but did not.

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UNITED STATES
CBS Chicago

NEW YORK (CBS) — The Vatican has ordered a crackdown on a group that represents most Catholic nuns in the United States, and the former Bishop of Joliet is coming in to keep the group in line.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, the Vatican says there is serious concern about the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group that represents 55,000 American Catholic nuns. …

Bishops Thomas J. Paprocki and Leonard Blair will assist Sartrain in overseeing the group, the New York Times reported. They will have up to five years to revise the group’s rules, and will approve of every speaker brought in for the group’s public programs and replace a handbook that had been used to facilitate discussions on matters that are considered doctrine and should not be challenged, the New York Times reported.

Sartrain has headed the archdiocese in Seattle since 2010. His appointment that year stirred controversy after his diocese ordained a priest who ended up being charged with sex abuse.

The priest, Alejandro Flores, pleaded guilty in September 2010 to sexually abusing a young west suburban boy over a five-year period starting in 2005, when he was a seminarian. The year before, Flores’ ordination had been delayed twice – first when he said he himself had been sexually abused in a Bolivian orphanage as a boy, and again when it was discovered that he had looked at male pornography on a church computer, the Chicago Tribune reported.

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DORCHESTER (MA)
St. Brendan Parish

[letter to parishioners from Rev. John J. Connolly Jr., pastor]

As we, the parish family of Saint Brendan, struggle to deal with the recently publicized allegation against our former Pastor, Father Jim Lane, we recognize that in the midst of the pain, sorrow, anger, confusion and so many other feelings that have been stirred up in us, it is good for us to come together in prayer and for support.

The Friends of Father Lane invite you to a Mass to be celebrated this coming Thursday evening, April 19, 2012 at 6:30 at Saint Brendan Church. Mass will be followed by a reception downstairs in Father Lane Hall.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Apr. 19, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

The largest leadership organization for U.S. women religious says it was “stunned” by announcement Wednesday that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had ordered it to reform its statutes and had appointed an archbishop to oversee its revision.

“The presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was stunned by the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment of LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” the group says in a press statement this morning.

“Because the leadership of LCWR has the custom of meeting annually with the staff of CDF in Rome and because the conference follows canonically-approved statutes, we were taken by surprise.”

On Wednesday, the Vatican announced it had appointed Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain to oversee the LCWR, which has been the subject of a “doctrinal assessment” by the Vatican congregation since 2009.

The group sent an email earlier this morning to the heads of each of the congregations it represents, explaining how the group initially became aware of the news.

That email, which was obtained by NCR, says that LCWR leadership was in Rome to meet with members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith yesterday regarding the doctrinal assessment. When the leaders came to the meeting, the email says the congregation had already communicated with the U.S. bishops’ conference news of Sartain’s appointment.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

DAVID MARR
April 20, 2012

THE former priest Brian Spillane has been sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for a series of sexual assaults on young girls – attacks described as “serious, planned and callous” by Judge Michael Finnane of the NSW District Court.

“The offender used his position as a priest to gain access to the homes in which each of his victims lived,” said the judge. “He was very trusted and the parents of each of the victims readily gave him access to their daughters because of that trust and the esteem in which he was held.”

The assaults began in the late 1970s when Spillane was on the staff of St Stanislaus College, a boys’ boarding school in Bathurst. They continued when he became a parish priest in Sydney. He later returned to St Stanislaus as school chaplain.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

The Labour spokesman on justice, Jose’ Herrera, said today that political responsibility has to be shouldered for the fact that a former priest was acquitted of raping a child because of a mistake in the charge sheet.

(see story)

Speaking at a press conference outside the law courts, Dr Herrera said that then Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had known about a shortage of staff at the Attorney General’s Office, but had not invested enough in the office at the time.

Although some recruitment of lawyers had since been made, staff shortages were still being felt.

He said that the AG’s office has to deal with all prosecutions while also representing the government in court and assisting in the drafting of laws.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Irish Central

[Read the story here]

Patrick Roberts

The case of Father Michael Kelly who fled to Ireland from California this week after a civil suit against him for molesting a child was successful is more complicated than it may seem.

Kelly passed two lie detector tests, and the diocese of Stockton in California believed him not guilty after an intensive inquiry.

Hundreds of his parishioners still stand with him and he was clearly a very popular priest. The pages of local newspapers are filled with testimonials to his work by former parishioners.

Even after the verdict and before he fled to Ireland hundreds of parishioners showed up in the parish hall to support him.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Daily Mail

by From staff and wire reports
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A witness in a clergy sex-abuse trial in Philadelphia testified that he was sexually assaulted in a home owned by West Virginia’s highest-ranking Catholic official, Bishop Michael Bransfield, and said he was told by his abuser that Bransfield had assaulted another boy.

The 48-year-old witness was on the stand Wednesday when he gave the testimony about Bransfield.

The man was testifying in a criminal trial against Monsignor William Lynn, who is accused of covering up sex abuse allegations for the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

Bransfield has not been charged with a crime.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 19, 2012

By Paula Reed Ward / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Swissvale priest will spend seven years on probation and must pay back more than $140,000 he admitted to stealing from the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The Rev. Francis Drabiska on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one count of theft in exchange for the plea deal. The former pastor at the Word of God parish admitted to taking $143,240 from the church between 1999 and 2009 to “live a lifestyle beyond his means.”

During his hearing before Common Pleas Judge Kathleen Durkin, Father Drabiska spoke briefly.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The autocratic approach of Pope Benedict has brought the Catholic Church in Ireland to the brink of schism, argues Malachi O’Doherty

Thursday, 19 April 2012

A revolution is brewing within the Catholic Church in Ireland. It is coming from the only stratum of the Church that has the power to affect radical change: the priests. The question is: will they have the numbers, the coherence, or the energy to force major change?
They know what has to be done, because they have already recognised the difference between the character of the Church in Ireland and the kind of church Rome wants it to be.

Last week, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) published the findings of its own research, which found that most Catholics think that the Church is somewhat, or completely, subservient to Rome.

A majority called for bishops to be appointed on fixed terms. Most lay people and nearly half of priests said they wanted to be involved in the appointment of bishops. Even larger majorities said they thought women should be ordained and that priests should be allowed to marry.

This report describes a local Irish church that is so much out of step with Rome that tensions are inevitable.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A mistake that led to a defrocked priest being cleared of rape could have been corrected during proceedings, a judge ruled yesterday as he threw out an appeal by the Attorney General.

The mistake emerged when, in the beginning of last August, Magistrate Saviour Demicoli acquitted Godwin Scerri, 75, of raping a boy because the victim testified that it happened in Sta Venera in 1992 when the charge sheet said it had taken place in Marfa.

Mr Scerri was convicted of abusing boys about 20 years ago and was sentenced for five years in jail.

Another priest who was also defrocked, Carmel Pulis, 64, was sentenced to six years in jail also for abusing boys.

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MALTA
The Malta Independent

An appeal by the attorney general on the acquittal of a priest raping a boy, was rejected yesterday in the court of criminal appeal – Mr Justice David Scicluna confirmed the decision by Magistrate Saviour Demicoli clearing Godwin Scerri, who has since been defrocked.

The lower court had found that from the evidence produced, one of the charges against Scerri, that of violent rape, had not been committed in Marfa, as the charge sheet said, but at St Joseph Institute, so Scerri could not be found guilty of this charge.

The attorney general disagreed with the decision and said that in spite of everything, the rape had been committed, and the victim was aware of it, as was Scerri himself, who had defended himself against the charge. Once the rape had been committed, Scerri should be found guilty, the attorney general argued.

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Jennie Guzman

One might look at the title of the above post and think, “What do all of these subjects have in common?” Please allow me to explain:

As most know, who have been following the news out of Ireland, Father Flannery and Fr. Fagan have both met with enough Vatican disapproval that they have been “invited” to pray and consider why the Vatican is censoring them. Just after the Pope finished his visit to Cuba, where he was encouraging the good, fine, upstanding Catholics, the Castro Brothers, to consider allowing more, “Free Speech,” the Vatican censors the above to priests, believing of course that the head of the CDF, Levada, had an anointed mandate from God to do so. Unfortunately, many bets are on that the above two priests will meet the same fate as the much-beloved Bishop Morris of Toowoomba, Australia, who had the unmitigated veracity to suggest that women might be ordained, one day! He was permanently removed from his bishopric after a Vatican Inquisition was led by Archbishop Chaput, formerly of Denver. The official reason given for removing him was never really outlined, but we were officially told, “It was for the good of all concerned!”

With the above being said, I would like to move on to the topic of an outdated, Hierarchical Clerical Culture in the world. In every country, these men parade around like Medieval monarchs, with retinues of priest, who possess the Shakespearian, “Lean and Hungry Look,” ready to jump at their ever beck and call. Members of their retinues will even go as far as breaking the law for them by shredding sensitive documents regarding the rape, molestation and sodomy of young children and teens, as openly evidenced in the current trial of Monsignor Lynn, who was Cardinal Bevilacqua’s “Go to Man,” for shuffling Pedophile Priests from parish to parish. Members of the Hierarchy are paid the undeserved deference given them, because of their out-dated roles in society. After all, or supposedly at least, they are assumed to be “Men of God” and followers of Jesus Christ. We have been told for centuries, “They are our present day apostles!” Members of the Hierarchy are purposely unapproachable. Can one imagine how the original apostles would have been accepted by the men, women and children of their day, had they paraded themselves around in the costly garments of kings and if they had worn three story crowns or miters (on their pointed heads)?

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BOSTON (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

By Kristen Grieco Elworthy
Boston Globe
April 17, 2012

As a Boston College alumna, I was disgusted to read the front-page story about the Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer, a member of the school’s board of trustees, who failed to oversee a Chicago priest now imprisoned for child sexual abuse (“For the Jesuits, a long road to accountability,” April 15).

I was a student when the clergy abuse scandal broke, and it affected me deeply as both a young woman and, at the time, a practicing Catholic.

I admired the way BC handled itself in the crisis, seeming to take on a leadership role in righting the wrongs of the church as described in Michael Rezendes’s story.

I am shocked and saddened to see that, even after the despicable actions and consequences of Schaeffer’s poor decision-making have been brought to light by numerous reliable sources, BC has not only neglected to take action, but has praised Schaeffer’s contribution to the university.

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NEDERLAND
De Morgen (Belgie)

Op het parket in Den Bosch, in Nederland, is maandag een pakket informatie aangetroffen over tientallen zedenzaken die hebben gespeeld tegen functionarissen van de katholieke Kerk in de jaren ’50 en ’60. Dat zei Han Moraal van het college van procureurs-generaal vandaag tijdens een hoorzitting in de Nederlandse Tweede Kamer. Het zijn geen strafdossiers, maar correspondentie waaruit het een en ander af te leiden valt.

Er is volgens Moraal in de stukken sprake van stevige veroordelingen tot cel en terbeschikkingstelling. De vondst is gemeld bij het ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie. De informatie moet nog verder “geduid” worden, aldus Moraal.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

[SNAP Director files response to motion to compel]

Apr. 17, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lawyers’ attempts to force the director of a national clergy abuse support group to submit to a second deposition and turn over more internal documents is “simply an attempt to harass” the organization, leadership of the group has said in a court filing.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, was forced to give a deposition Jan. 2 in the case of a Kansas City priest accused of child sexual abuse, the first time a SNAP leader has been forced to testify. Seven lawyers deposed Clohessy for six hours, and he turned over documents in two of eight requested categories.

Two months ago, the defense lawyers asked the court to compel Clohessy to testify again and to hand over more documents from SNAP’s 23 years of records, correspondence and email. That filing also alleged that Missouri confidentiality protections for rape crisis centers should not cover the group.

SNAP’s response, which was filed with the court April 6 and posted to its website last week, refutes the latter claims and says any more attempts to depose Clohessy would amount to a “true fishing expedition.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Maureen Fiedler on Apr. 18, 2012 NCR Today

Last Saturday evening, I was privileged to attend the 40th Anniversary dinner of NETWORK, the Catholic Social Justice Lobby founded by nuns 40 years ago. Since 1972, this organization has done stellar work on the Hill advocating for social justice, the needs of the poor, world peace and the earth itself.

It was a wonderful gathering, and LCWR leaders were very visible and vocal in their praise of NETWORK and well they might be. Here was a gathering of the REAL LEADERS of our church for the future: members of religious communities… nuns, co-members, associates, and wonderful friends.

Now today we get news from the Vatican, appointing an archbishop to lead what they dare to call “renewal” of LCWR. When you look at the specifics, it’s more like dismantling, if LCWR actually does any of it.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WTOV

By NEWS9

A man has testified during a clergy sex-abuse trial that he was raped at a home owned by the current West Virginia bishop and that he was told the bishop also sexually abused a boy. The testimony came at the trial of the Rev. James Brennan.

The 48-year-old witness made the statements Wednesday in Philadelphia about Michael Bransfield, bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston diocese.

He said he saw Bransfield bring several boys to a farm owned by now-defrocked priest Stanley Gana.

The witness said Gana told him Bransfield was having sex with one of them.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Interview | Stefan Hayden, 18. April 2012

Die Theologen Paul Zulehner und David Berger über Sexualmoral und den rechten Rand der Kirche

Die Entscheidung von Kardinal Christoph Schönborn, die Wahl eines homosexuellen Gemeinderats in Niederösterreich zu bestätigen, hat zu einer neuen Debatte über die Sexualmoral der römisch-katholischen Kirche geführt. Während die offizielle Kirche sich zu keinem klaren fortschrittlichen Standpunkt in der Frage der Homosexualität durchringen kann, wird auf Fundamentalisten-Treffpunkten wie kreuz.net selbst die Einzelentscheidung Schönborns diffamiert.

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OSTERREICH
News

Erhitzte Situation! So bezeichnet die Erzdiözese Wien die “Causa Stützenhofen”. Die Auseinandersetzungen in der katholischen Kirche Österreichs werden auch weiter vom Vatikan scharf beobachtet. Am Dienstag verlautete aus informierten Kreisen in Rom, der Kardinal könnte die Bitte erhalten, “die Sache Stützenhofen dem Heiligen Stuhl näher zu erklären”. Ebenso, wie es mit Helmut Schüllers “aufmüpfiger Pfarrer-Initiative” weitergehen soll, die offenbar keine Chance auf ein persönliches Gespräch mit dem Papst hat. Was im NEWS-Gespräch auch Christoph Kardinal Schönborn durchblicken lässt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Als Symbol der Anerkennung soll Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs eine Entschädigung gezahlt werden. So hat es die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz vor einem Jahr versprochen. Mehrere Diözesen haben bereits offengelegt, wie viele Anträge positiv beschieden wurden. Nicht so Regensburg. Das Bistum schweigt. Zu Wort melden sich Opfer, die sich von der Kirche verraten fühlen. Zum zweiten Mal.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article updated 17 February 2012

This is a classic case-study in how the Catholic Church authorities in Australia harboured a priest, despite complaints about him being a danger to children.

In one parish of the Armidale diocese in northern New South Wales in the 1980s, altar boys complained that they were being sexually abused by a certain priest (let us call him Father XYZ). But the two leaders of this diocese — Bishop Henry Kennedy and Monsignor Frank Ryan — protected this priest, helping him to avoid a criminal conviction.

Privately, Father XYZ admitted that he had indeed been committing sexual acts upon children. Later the church was forced to begin paying compensation to some of these former altar boys.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article posted on 14 April 2012

In 2011 the Catholic religious order of De La Salle Brothers agreed to offer an out-of-court settlement to a former pupil (let’s call him “Zachary” — not his real name), who lived at BoysTown, a Catholic institution in Beaudesert, Queensland, for a part of the 1960s.

This institution, to which disadvantaged boys were sent in their early teens, was established in 1961 by Monsignor Owen Steele, who was the parish priest in charge of St Mary’s parish at Beaudesert, south of Brisbane.

The institution was staffed by De La Salle Brothers, assisted by some lay employees. In the 1960s, the senior De La Salle Brother at BoysTown was Brother Alban Dwyer. Later, other members of De La Salle Brothers took over as the administrator and as assistants. The institution closed in 2001.

In 2010, “Zachary” served a civil demand on the De La Salle headquarters (in Sydney) regarding certain actions which he alleged were inflicted on him at BoysTown in the 1960s.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

(Article updated 18 April 2012)

Broken Rites Australia has researched a paedophile priest, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who was harboured in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese for 36 years, while he committed sexual crimes against many boys in his parishes. Certain colleagues (including within the church hierarchy) knew about Pickering’s criminal behaviour but they discreetly remained silent.

When Broken Rites established its Australia-wide telephone hotline in late 1993, one of the first calls received was about Father Pickering. Broken Rites advised this caller (and also some subsequent callers) about strategies to obtain justice regarding Pickering’s abuse.

Some victims consulted the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (SOCA) unit of the Victoria Police about Pickering.

Meanwhile, at least one other victim contacted the church authorities, instead of the police. Church sources then alerted Pickering about this. Therefore, in late 1993, Pickering suddenly vanished from his parish and fled to England, out of reach of the Australian police.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

(Article updated 18 April 2012)

Broken Rites research has revealed how the Catholic Church authorities harboured Father Paul David Ryan, a sexually abusive Australian priest. This cover-up should be investigated by a public inquiry.

When Ryan was charged (and convicted) in an Australian criminal court, Broken Rites examined the prosecution file. This article is based on that research, plus numerous Broken Rites interviews.

Ryan has admitted guilt.

One of his Australian victims ended up committing suicide — and this boy’s mother (Mrs Helen Watson) has finally forced the church to apologise.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article posted on 19 April 2012

Broken Rites Australia has researched the career of Catholic priest Brian Joseph Spillane, who was sentenced to jail in Sydney on 19 April 2012.

Brian Spillane, C.M., has spent most of his working life as a Catholic priest in the Vincentian religious order (also called the Congregation of the Mission — hence the intials “C.M.” after his name).

A part of his career was spent as a priest working at St Stanislaus College — a Catholic day and boarding secondary school for boys, located at Bathurst, in the central west of New South Wales.

Father Spillane also ministered in Catholic parishes in Sydney and Queensland and he toured other states in Australia, visiting various parishes.

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CHILE
Publimetro

Parte de las víctimas de los abusos sexuales que cometió el ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, reaccionaron indignados tras las declaraciones del arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, quien señaló desde Punta de Tralca que este caso “es un tema cerrado” para la Iglesia.

Lo dicho por la autoridad eclesiástica generó inmediata reacción en el filósofo José Andrés Murillo , el médico James Hamilton y el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz , tres de los cuatro denunciantes de Karadima -Fernando Batlle no firma el documento-, quienes, a través de una carta abierta que hicieron llegar a “La Segunda”, respondieron a Ezzati.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Judy Jones on April 18, 2012

A man has given sworn courtroom testimony in Philadelphia today that West Virginia’s bishop, Michael Bransfield, took boys to a beach cabin, and a Philly priest told him Bransfield was abusing one of them.

And years ago, the friendship between the Philly priest and the West Virginia bishop was noted in a grand jury report. (As best we can tell, Bransfield never tried to refute the report.)

Philadelphia Grand Jury Report and Criminal Charges
Compared with Previous Agreements of Law Enforcement Regarding Other Dioceses

In light of this, we believe that Bransfield – not his lawyer or his PR man – should address these allegations, immediately and directly, and take questions about them. (Remember bishops have repeatedly promised for a decade to be “open and transparent” in clergy child sex abuse and cover up cases.)

This isn’t rocket science. For starters, there are three simple questions Bransfield should answer:

Did or does he own a house with Philly’s Fr. Gana? If so, did he take boys there? And did he molest any of them?

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

By Meghan Murphy-Gill

Were you under the impression that the Vatican investigation of U.S. women religious had just blown over? News on that front had been quiet for nearly three years. Well, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and USCCB announced today an initiative to “renew” the Leadership Conference of Women Religious following an “assessment” from the CDF. Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain will be the new Archbishop Delegate for organization, the main organizing body for women religious in the U.S., assisted by Bishops Leonard Blair and Thomas John Paprocki.

The assessment names three things Cardinal William Levada found problematic in the investigation, but remains extremely vague and relies on what seem to have become buzz words for “out of line”: “addresses at the LCWR assemblies” (naming Sister Laurie Brink, OP, a former US Catholic interviewee), “policies of corporate dissent,” and “radical feminism.” (Ironically, the document makes a point earlier of the usage of the word “radical” to mean “the roots,” but fails to do so in this case, thus relying on the whole “feminism is scary” trope.)

Likewise, “The doctrinal assessment criticized positions espoused at LCWR annual assemblies and in its literature as well as the absence of support from LCWR for Church teaching on women’s ordination and homosexuality” and that the LCWR isn’t doing enough to promote “the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality.”

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UNITED STATES
The Telegraph (Australia)

Vatican busts nuns for focusing on poverty – says they should target gay marriage, abortion

A GROUP of Catholic nuns has been reprimanded by the Vatican for focusing too much on poverty and not enough on fighting gay marriage and abortion.

A male bishop has been appointed to bring to heel the US’ most influential group of Catholic Nuns, The Leadership Conference of Women religious, after the Vatican announced it would be completely overhauling the group, reported The New York Times.

The Vatican has been secretly investigating the group since 2008 because of its support for health care reform and after it questioned the Church’s position on homosexuality.

An assessment report released yesterday found the group had “radical feminist themes” incompatible with the Catholic Church.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

BY DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

The Vatican has called on Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo to help lead reform of an organization representing 80 percent of American nuns, saying the “doctrinal and pastoral situation” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious “is grave and a matter of serious concern.”

The appointment announced Wednesday follows Bishop Blair’s lead role in a two-year “doctrinal assessment” of the nuns’ group, which included reviewing a decade’s worth of the nuns group’s annual conferences, keynote speeches, and documents and publications. The assessment, released Wednesday, found the group’s teachings to be “problematic” in certain areas, citing concerns over the organization’s position on homosexuality and the ordination of women and its “silence” on some foundational Catholic doctrines such as the right to life.

The Vatican said Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle will lead the new reform initiative, assisted by Bishop Blair and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and working with nuns in the group’s leadership.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has called for reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and named Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its Archbishop Delegate for the initiative.

The Archbishop Delegate’s role is to provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work of the LCWR.”

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: April 18, 2012

The Vatican has appointed an American bishop to rein in the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States, saying that an investigation found that the group had “serious doctrinal problems.”

The Vatican’s assessment, issued on Wednesday, said that members of the group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, had challenged church teaching on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood, and promoted “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

The sisters were also reprimanded for making public statements that “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.” During the debate over the health care overhaul in 2010, American bishops came out in opposition to the health plan, but dozens of sisters, many of whom belong to the Leadership Conference, signed a statement supporting it — support that provided crucial cover for the Obama administration in the battle over health care.

The conference is an umbrella organization of women’s religious communities, and claims 1,500 members who represent 80 percent of the Catholic sisters in the United States. It was formed in 1956 at the Vatican’s request, and answers to the Vatican, said Sister Annmarie Sanders, the group’s communications director.

Word of the Vatican’s action took the group completely by surprise, Sister Sanders said. She said that the group’s leaders were in Rome on Wednesday for what they thought was a routine annual visit to the Vatican when they were informed of the outcome of the investigation, which began in 2008.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle PI

[Congregatio Pro Doctrina Fidei]

By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

The Vatican on Wednesday gave Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain the job of imposing discipline and adherence to dogma on America’s largest organization of Catholic nuns, making it toe the line to “the teachings and discipline of the Church.”

A Vatican document praised the women religjous for promoting social justice, but said they have not spoken out on issues of abortion and human sexuality.

In an eight-page “Assessment” from the Congregration for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican said that it found “serious doctrinal problems,” instances of disagreement with the Church’s bishops, and charged nuns with promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

The target of the Vatican’s probe was the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which includes leaders of Catholic women’s religious orders in the United States representing more than 80 percent of America’s 57,000 nuns.

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UNITED STATES
BBC News

The Vatican has ordered a crackdown on a group of American nuns that it considers too radical.

It says the group is undermining Roman Catholic teaching on homosexuality and is promoting “feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith”.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is the largest organisation of Catholic nuns in the US.

An archbishop has been appointed to oversee its reform to ensure that it conforms to Catholic prayer and ritual.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Annenberg TV News

By Jerome Campbell

The student claims school administrators and officials in the Los Angeles Archdiocese could have prevented the 2006 incident.

The plaintiff, identified as John Doe, filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against his former high school teacher, John Malburg, and the Archdiocese, which owned the school. The plaintiff’s suit alleges sexual battery and negligence.

The plaintiff said he was coerced into appearing in a series of pornographic videos produced by his teacher at Daniel Murphy Catholic High while church officials tried to cover up the allegation as early as 2005.

A spokesman of the archdiocese disputed accusations of negligence and said Malburg was removed quickly when information surfaced.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Central Victoria

By ABC Bendigo

Former Victoria police detective Dennis Ryan spoke to Central, Western and North Western Victoria Mornings presenter Nicole Chvastek about the state government parliamentary inquiry into clergy sexual abuse.

Days after the state government announced an inquiry into clergy sexual abuse, former Mildura police officer Dennis Ryan says a parliamentary inquiry isn’t equipped to investigate the issue.

The inquiry was announced after dozens of suicides were linked to abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.

“A royal commission without a doubt would be best of all but that would never ever be agreed upon because the depth of a royal commission would be such that it would tarnish many people.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

A national inquiry into sexual abuse in religious institutions is needed, the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) says.

The ALA says the Victorian government’s parliamentary inquiry into abuse, announced on Tuesday, will be “manifestly inadequate” as it will miss widespread cases of abuse across the rest of Australia.

A spokesman for the alliance’s NSW branch, Andrew Morrison SC, said many cases in the state had not been properly investigated.

Dr Morrison singled out the Catholic Church, saying while many other religious institutions also had problems, the church was infamous for failing to comply with legal obligations to report abuse by priests under the Crimes Act.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers Echo

The Victorian Government has announced it is going to hold a year-long parliamentary inquiry into the Catholic Church and its handling of criminal abuse cases against children.

Good.

There were many people calling for a Royal Commission, which would have greater powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and to elicit documentary and electronic information, but at least there are moves to call the Church to account for one of the great unspeakable atrocities in our society.

For years we have heard reports of how Catholic priests and brothers have committed horrible acts against children, with Church authorities denying, covering-up or blaming “a few bad apples” when the number of cases seems to suggest a culture that is absolutely rotten to its core.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Heights

By Heights Editorial Board

Published: Thursday, April 19, 2012

A recent Boston Globe article has revealed that Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer, S.J., current member of Boston College’s Board of Trustees, allegedly failed to investigate or contact the police after receiving complaints regarding then-popular Donald J. McGuire’s behavior with young boys. Instead, Schaeffer, leader of the Jesuits in the Chicago area during the early ’90s, sent McGuire to treatment for a sexual disorder—treatment he later acknowledged did not go well. He reportedly knew about McGuire’s repeated abuse for over 30 years.

According to the article, following the treatment, McGuire allegedly continued to molest boys until at least 2003, six years after Schaeffer left Chicago. McGuire is now serving 25 years in a federal prison for child sex abuse while the Jesuits face a lawsuit for their failure to protect one of McGuire’s alleged victims. The Jesuits did not expel McGuire from the order until 2007, nearly 40 years after the first serious allegation against him.

Though Schaeffer, now 62, is planning to retire from BC later this year, The Heights feels the University should take action immediately, and we urge the Board of Trustees to remove him from their membership. While we acknowledge the fact that the University had no knowledge of Schaeffer’s role in the McGuire case when he was elected to the board, The Heights feels that inaction in this case would endanger the school’s reputation as one of the most prestigious Catholic institutions in the country.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Brian Lennon, s.j.

Pope Benedict in his Holy Thursday Chrism Mass sermon rightly called on Catholics to obey the teaching of the Church. Processes exist to establish what that teaching is. There is, however, a major problem with some of these processes and that in turn raises questions about the reliability of the answers they reach about some truth questions.

Over 25 years ago, as editor of Studies, the Irish Jesuit review, I phoned Fr Richard McCormick, s.j., then a leading Catholic moral theologian, to ask him to write an article on family issues. He was unable to do so because his views were unacceptable to the Vatican. Instead he referred me to one of his former students who kindly agreed to write the article.

While there is a need for the magisterium, it is also the case that the magisterium has grounds to be cautious, given that its predecessors silenced many, including Karl Rahner and Henri de Lubac, who subsequently became periti or experts at Vatican II, and whose views were adopted by the Council. It seemed extraordinary to me then that such a leading theologian should be silenced. The issue has a particular relevance in Ireland today, given the silencing of Frs Tony Flannery and Gerard Moloney.

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IRELAND
The Southern Star

By Editor
Saturday April 21st, 2012

THE findings of a survey, entitled Contemporary Catholic Perspectives, which was commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests, could be deemed facile, given that the recent report of the Apostolic Visitation group from the Holy See declared that people who profess to be members of the Roman Catholic Church must be prepared to fully abide by its teachings and rules, which are quite clear and unambiguous

Much has been made in the survey – carried out among 1,000 Catholics throughout the island of Ireland over a two-week period in February – of people’s preferences for various changes in the institution that could make it more relevant in the modern world and also more palatable to them. In restaurant parlance, the majority of those surveyed would ideally like to be à la carte catholics, just picking the bits they like and adding some tempting side orders, but the reality is that this option is off and they can only avail of the set menu.

The dictat from the Vatican could be interpreted on the one hand as the church being out of touch with its members, who – albeit perhaps naïvely – expect the institution to react to the concerns of members and fulfill their wishes. However, as history has shown down through the centuries, the church regards itself as the single-minded guardian of its core beliefs and sticks rigidly to its rules, yielding little or nothing to those who question them.

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NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

The Roman Catholic church actively encouraged the castration of homosexual boys and men in the 1950s and ’60s, according to scholars who testified to the Dutch parliament. Medical historian Mart van Lieburg told parliament that a Dutch bishop ordered surgeons to perform castrations.

Professor Van Lieburg was speaking at a hearing called to clarify reports of castrations in Roman Catholic psychiatric care. He declined to name the bishop or the surgeons who had made the allegations. Another historian, Marnix Koolhaas, told parliament that several pastors sent boys to a doctor with orders to have them castrated.

Further research neeeded
Christian Democrat parliamentarian Madeleine van Toorenburg is now calling for new scholarly research into castrations. She told Dutch broadcaster NOS she wants to know whether they were performed on minors, or on anyone without consent. She stopped short of demanding a parliamentary inquiry.

The Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad reported last month that Henk Heithuis, a minor, had been forcibly castrated as a punishment for blowing the whistle on sexual abuse by a Catholic brother in 1956. The incident was reported in 2010 to the Deetman Commission which was investigating sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church. The church-installed commission did not investigate the case and made no mention of it in its final report last December.

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AUSTRIA
New Europe

Two years ago a commission in charge of investigating allegations of misconduct sexual and abuse by Catholic clergy was established in Austria and finally they unveiled the results.

The commission dedicated €8 million from a compensation fund set up by the Austrian Catholic Church for compensating victims in cases they found to be merited.

Some 702 cases, sometimes dating back to 1960s, were examined, and out of 1,244 complainants, nearly two thirds alleged sexual abuse and four out of five victims were younger than 13, nearly a third younger than 10 at the time when abuses were conducted. More than three quarters of all claimants were men and on average the abuse lasted for four years.

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COLORADO
Craig Daily Press

By Matt Stensland

Steamboat Springs — A former Steamboat Springs private school teacher and pastor has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting one or more children in Routt County.

John Holland Brothers Jr., 43, was booked into Routt County Jail on Tuesday night after being arrested in Louisiana last week. He was booked on 27 felony charges. Among them: eight counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, four counts of sexual assault on a child, seven counts of sexual assault and eight counts of first-degree burglary.

An arrest warrant outlining the details of the allegations has been sealed by a judge. The location of the incidents has been redacted in the list of charges filed in Routt County District Court, but the charges state the crimes Brothers is accused of committing took place from April 1, 2006, to May 31, 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

BY NEELIMA CHOAHAN

19 Apr, 2012

A STATE government inquiry into the child sexual abuse by religious and non-government organisations is a first step in a very important process, a leading social justice expert has said.

Former Ballarat academic Professor S. Caroline Taylor, now at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, said the inquiry would help acknowledge a very serious and entrenched problem in society.

“Whilst some people are critical because they believe the government hasn’t gone far enough in establishing a royal commission … I think (it is) a first step in a very important process of acknowledging the very serious and entrenched problems in society,” Professor Taylor said.

The year-long inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu and Attorney-General Robert Clark on Tuesday, is to be conducted by a state parliament committee rather than as a royal commission and will report by April 30, 2013.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

Marci A. Hamilton

Last week, the California Catholic Conference (the lobbyist for the California bishops) sent a one-page letter opposing AB1628, a bill that contains a short extension of the child-sex-abuse statutes of limitations, and requires more rigorous background checks for employees and volunteers who work closely with children. This is a letter worth a closer look, because the bishops are opposing legislation to protect children from predators in many states.

In child-sex-abuse cases involving their employees, the bishops routinely argue that the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses protect them from liability for child sex abuse. Roughly half of the states, at this point, have flatly rejected this argument, with a very persuasive opinion recently issued by the Tennessee Supreme Court in the Redwing decision. But Wisconsin, Missouri, and Utah have—unconscionably—wrapped religious organizations in a First Amendment mantle in child-sex-abuse cases.

On a parallel track, the bishops are lobbying in many states to block legal reform that would protect children from sex abuse. The most recent example of that lobbying is the letter that was sent by the California Catholic Conference in opposition to AB1628.

There are three major arenas in which legal reform is needed if we are to better protect our children. First, we must eliminate the statutes of limitations for these heinous crimes and for the tort actions needed by victims—a type of reform that I discuss in my book Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children. Second, we must improve the reporting of child sex abuse to the authorities. Third, we must improve background check requirements for employees who will, or may, have contact with children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hull Daily Mail

CHILD abuse by members of the clergy should be subjected to a public inquiry, a campaigner has said.

Solicitor David Greenwood, who is representing more than 150 victims of abuse at a Market Weighton care home for boys, is launching the campaign for an inquiry.

Mr Greenwood, of Jordan’s Solicitors, is fighting for compensation for the men who suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of staff at the now-demolished St William’s through the 1960s to the 1990s.

Mr Greenwood said: “The Church is responsible for covering up sexual abuse by members of the clergy up and down the country.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

A Philadelphia man testified Wednesday that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest who allegedly sexually abused him for years starting the late 1970s had said a colleague – now a bishop in West Virginia – also had sex with teenage boys.

The 48-year-old witness, identified only as “John” in the 2005 report of the Philadelphia County grand jury, described a meeting one summer while in high school when he spent summers at the Rev. Stanley Gana’s 110-acre farm in northeastern Pennsylvania.

He said he was building a flagstone wall when a car pulled up driven by then-Rev. Michael J. Bransfield and containing several teenage boys.

Bransfield is now bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
Washington Examiner

An Arlington priest has been placed on leave while authorities investigate allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a teenage boy in the 1990s, church and police officials said Wednesday.

The Diocese of Arlington said the investigation into Rev. Terry Specht is in its initial phase and no determination about the alleged misconduct has been made.

The Fairfax County Police Department is also investigating the case. No charges had been filed against Specht as of Wednesday, police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said.

Specht, who was a pastor and administrator at Holy Spirit Church in Annandale until he was placed on administrative leave, denies the allegation, according to a statement from the diocese.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
Imperfect Parent

April 18th, 2012 by Ella Desrosiers

The Rev. Terry W. Specht, a prominent priest in the diocese that oversees Northern Virginia, is being investegated following accusations of sexual misconduct with a minor boy which allegedly occurred during the late 1990s while he was a parochial vicar at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax.

According to the Washington Post, Specht was director from 2004 to 2011 of the Office of Child Protection and Safety, which handles outreach to child abuse victims, training on abuse for church employees and volunteers and monitoring of youth activities “to ensure that all contact with young people is appropriate,” its Web site says. Specht also served as chaplain and assistant principal from 2000 to 2004 at Paul VI Catholic High School and has been pastor of Holy Spirit Church in Annandale since 2007.

“Any allegation of abuse deepens the pain felt by all Catholics and particularly survivors of abuse,” Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde said in a report by NBC Washington. “We are committed to full cooperation with law enforcement regarding this allegation, and I have directed an independent investigator to review the actions and decisions made by Father Specht during his tenure as director of child protection.”

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ARLINGTON (VA)
The Washington Times

By Meredith Somers
The Washington Times

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Catholic priest formerly in charge of the Diocese of Arlington’s child protection and safety office was placed on administrative leave while police investigate whether he was involved in sexual misconduct with a boy in the late 1990s, officials said Wednesday.

The Rev. Terry W. Specht, a priest at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, denied the accusation, according to a statement released by the diocese.

Fairfax County police are investigating the claim, but no charges have been filed.

Bishop Paul S. Loverde said in the statement that he directed the investigation “to review the actions and decisions made by Fr. Specht during his tenure as Director of Child Protection.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

April 18, 2012 | By Ashley Myers-Turner with Paige Osburn

Members of a group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse accused the L.A. Archdiocese on Wednesday of covering up a sexual abuse scandal at Daniel Murphy High School.

Joelle Casteix and other members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) allege that a former staffer at Daniel Murphy High School abused children and produced child pornography — something they say church officials have been aware of since 2005.

“That’s why the civil process is so important,” said Casteix at Wednesday’s news conference. “Because people will be deposed and documents will be released. And we’ll see just who knew what and when.”

Casteix also claims that parents whose kids were enrolled in Daniel Murphy were not informed when John Malburg, the former dean of students, was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison. Parents were also reportedly left in the dark about the allegations themselves.

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.

WEST VIRGINIA
WSAZ

[with video]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Roman Catholics in West Virginia are reacting with disbelief and shock after a witness at a clergy-abuse trial in Philadelphia testified the leader of West Virginia’s Catholics committed sexual abuse.

A man testified Wednesday that a priest raped him at a home owned by Bishop Michael Bransfield and that his accused abuser told him the bishop also sexually abused a boy. The testimony came at the trial of the Rev. James Brennan.

Monsignor Edward Sadie, rector of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Charleston, says he finds the allegations against Bransfield “impossible to believe.”

Margery Webb of Charleston was shocked by the news as she arrived at a Morgantown church for Mass but said she hadn’t heard anything about it.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

A FORMER Catholic priest has been jailed for at least five years for sexually abusing girls as young as eight.

Brian Spillane, 69, was convicted today of eight charges of indecent assault on a female younger than 16 and one count of indecently assaulting a female aged 16 years or more.

The charges relate to abuses during the 1970s and 1980s when Spillane was a priest working in both Sydney and country areas of New South Wales.

In sentencing Spillane, Judge Michael Finnane called each assault “serious, planned and callous”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Eimear Ni Bhraonain

Thursday April 19 2012

AN Irish priest who fled the US after a civil jury found him guilty of molesting an altar boy last night insisted on his innocence after absconding from the trial.

Fr Michael Kelly, from Ballingarry, Co Tipperary, yesterday said that he was in Ireland on “health grounds”.

The 62-year-old cleric has protested his innocence since he was first accused in 2008 of sexually abusing a student in the mid-1980s.

However, his actions this week have stunned even his own legal team as he flew to Ireland the day before he was due to give evidence in the second phase of his sexual abuse civil trial.

His friends in Ballingarry yesterday expressed shock and disbelief that he didn’t “stay and stand his ground”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
News and Sentinel

April 19, 2012

By HEATHER ZIEGLER , The Wheeling Intelligencer

PHILADELPHIA – A man testified Wednesday in a clergy abuse trial that a priest raped him in the 1970s at a beach house owned by the Most Rev. Michael J. Bransfield and that he was told that Bransfield, who currently serves as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, also sexually abused a boy.

The 48-year-old man also testified that he saw Bransfield with a car full of boys at a farm owned by his accused abuser, the Rev. Stanley Gana. The witness said that Gana told him Bransfield was having sex with the boy who was in the front seat.

Another man has testified that Bransfield had a lewd conversation with him. …

Bransfield is not charged with any crimes in the case and has never been charged with sexually abusing children.

“The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is learning of media reports originating from legal proceedings under way in Philadelphia, and Bishop Michael Bransfield’s name was brought up in court today. Until such time that the facts and issues surrounding this testimony are made fully known to the Diocese, we cannot comment at this time,” diocesan spokesman Bryan Minor said Wednesday. “However, this is certainly an opportunity for us – as a church – to remember all victims of sexual abuse and to pray for them and their families.”

The local diocese called the trial “a circus” and said Philadelphia prosecutors are trying to smear people never charged with a crime.

“They seem to want to bludgeon witnesses, smear individuals not on trial, anything to bolster their persecution of the church,” the diocese said in a separate statement. “The trial appears to be evolving into a circus with no rules and boundaries.”

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ARLINGTON (VA)
WUSA

Rev. Terry W. Specht of Arlington, Va. Diocese, placed on leave pending investigation of sexual misconduct allegation

ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA) – A priest with the Diocese of Arlington has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a male minor in the late 1990s, according to a statement by the Diocese.

Rev. Terry W. Specht denies the accusation. The statement indicates that the investigation is in its initial phase. No final determination has yet been made regarding the allegation.

The Diocese has received no other allegations of misconduct against Rev. Specht. According to the statement, Specht, like all priests, diocesan employees and volunteers who work with children, underwent an official background check early in his tenure.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sun Daily

Posted on 19 April 2012

SYDNEY (April 19, 2012): An Australian court jailed a former Catholic priest for at least five years on Thursday for sexually abusing girls as young as eight in what the judge called “a major breach of trust”.

Brian Spillane, 69, was convicted of nine charges of indecent assault relating to abuses during the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a priest in both Sydney and rural areas of New South Wales state.

Jailing Spillane, Judge Michael Finnane said he had used his position to gain the trust of the families of young girls and access to their homes.

He called each assault “serious, planned and callous” and described Spillane as a “violent bully and coward”.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

Diocese cuts off pay, benefits after flight to Ireland

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

April 19, 2012

STOCKTON – Jury members must decide for themselves if the sudden departure of Catholic priest Michael Kelly, found liable of sexually assaulting a former altar boy, is an attempt to limit evidence against the Diocese of Stockton, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt told a jury Wednesday in a civil case filed against the priest and the church.

Kelly left the United States on Sunday for his native Ireland just two days before he was scheduled to testify in the civil trial. A former altar boy who said he was molested by Kelly more than 20 years ago is seeking damages from Kelly and the diocese.

This jury already found Kelly liable and is now determining whether the diocese is also to blame.

The diocese, which continued paying Kelly a salary and benefits until church officials learned he left for Ireland, stopped his compensation, defense attorney Jim Goodman confirmed Wednesday.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

A former Catholic priest has been jailed for at least five years for sexually abusing girls as young as six.

Media reports say the judge presiding over the case described the assaults as “serious, planned and callous”.

Brian Spillane, 69, has been convicted of abusing girls in the 1970s and 1980s when he worked in Sydney and country areas of New South Wales.

It is understood that Spillane worked at St Stanislaus’ College, Bathurst, where he became close with the family of two boys at the school, later abusing their 11-year-old sister.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A group comprised of child sexual abuse victims and their supporters alleged on Wednesday that officials with the Los Angeles Archdiocese tried to cover up allegations that a former staffer had abused and videotaped a Catholic high school student.

KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reports John Malburg was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2009 after pleading guilty to sexually molesting a male student and videotaping another one for commercial purposes.

Malburg, 43, was dean of students at now-closed Daniel Murphy Catholic High, which was closed by the Archdiocese in 2007 in an effort to help pay for its share of a $660 million settlement with families of abuse victims.

But now a complaint filed on behalf of former Daniel Murphy Catholic High School student John Doe TD against the archdiocese and John Malburg alleges sexual battery, negligence and fraudulent conveyance and claims church officials tried to cover up the allegations as early as 2005.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WTRF

By D.K. Wright, Digital Journalist

The Board of Trustees at Wheeling Jesuit University has provided a 2008 independent investigation to the U.S. Attorney.

According to a news release from the University, the board authorized the release of an independent, special counsel investigative report addressing the University’s cost allocation method used by its technology centers to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District.

In the past week, Wheeling Jesuit University has been in the news as the result of the release of an affidavit related to a federal investigation of the University’s cost allocation methods for its technology centers.

“The University has always been and always will be completely transparent with regards to its cost allocation methods of its technology centers,” said WJU President Rick Beyer. “Once the affidavit was reviewed, the Board of Trustees decided to release a report of an independent investigation regarding this issue, which was originally addressed by the University in 2008.”

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WEST VIRGINIA
CBS News

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The president of Wheeling Jesuit University says an independent investigation in 2008 found billing practices now under investigation by federal prosecutors violated no laws.

President Rick Beyer says the Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to give the special counsel’s report to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He says Wheeling Jesuit has been and will remain transparent about its cost-allocation methods.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether the school and vice president Davitt McAteer conspired to use millions of grant dollars from NASA and other federal agencies for personal gain and the school’s benefit.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Washington Post

Wheeling Jesuit president: 2008 independent review found no problem in federal grant billings

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, April 18

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — An independent investigation of Wheeling Jesuit University’s billing practices for federal grants and programs in 2008 found no violations of laws or regulations, the school’s president said Wednesday.

President Rick Beyer said the Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to turn that report over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wheeling, adding that the Northern Panhandle Catholic school is cooperating in the investigation.

Federal investigators are looking into whether the university and a vice president, former Mine Safety and Health Administration chief J. Davitt McAteer, conspired to use millions of federal grant and program dollars from NASA and other federal agenices for personal gain.

Some of the allegations against the school and one of the world’s foremost experts on mine safety are contained in an affidavit filed by an agent in the NASA Office of Inspector General.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 18, 2012

From today’s Stockton Record:

From left, Bishop Stephen Blaire, consultant Michael Heenan and Monsignor Richard J. Ryan walk down a hallway inside the San Joaquin County Courthouse on Tuesday morning, when jurors in Michael Kelly’s trial were sent home for the day. (emphasis mine)

Consultant?

As a PR person myself, I don’t fault Heenan for doing his job. But trial watchers say that he has been in court every day. That gets pretty spendy. Especially at an hourly rate.

Between lawyers’ and public relations consultants’ fees to cover the tracks of Fr. Michael Kelly, the priest found liable for abuse—and who then absconded from the country—the Stockton diocese should also be held to account for misleading parishioners about how their hard-earned contributions are spent.

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STOCKTON (CA)
KCRA

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — The civil trial against the San Joaquin County priest who has apparently fled the country continued Wednesday in a Stockton courtroom.

Father Michael Kelly, in a letter to Bishop Stephen Blaire, said he returned to his native Ireland to be with family due to health concerns.

The civil case was put on hold Tuesday due to Kelly’s absence.

Judge Bob McNatt told the jurors they would hear from Kelly’s earlier deposition, and can consider Kelly’s departure when evaluating the case.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WSLS

By: MARYCLAIRE DALE | Associated Press
Published: April 18, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) A man who spoke of “an emptiness where my soul should be” following years of sexual abuse testified Wednesday that a priest raped him at a home owned by the current West Virginia bishop and that he was told the bishop also sexually abused a boy.

The 48-year-old man also testified in a landmark clergy abuse trial that he saw the bishop, Michael Bransfield, with a car full of boys. The man said his abuser told him Bransfield was having sex with the boy in the front seat.

Bransfield’s diocese called the trial “a circus” and said Philadelphia prosecutors are trying to smear people never charged with a crime.

“They seem to want to bludgeon witnesses, smear individuals not on trial, anything to bolster their persecution of the church,” the Wheeling-Charleston diocese said in a statement. “The trial appears to be evolving into a circus with no rules and boundaries.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)/CHARLESTON (WV)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 18, 2012

Shame on West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield. In a blatant rebuke to a judge and prosecutors, Bransfield is refusing to send one of his top aides to a criminal child sex abuse and cover up trial in Philadelphia. (Reportedly, Bransfield claims the trial appears to be evolving into a circus.)

The official is Fr. Kevin Quirk, who supposedly was involved in child sex allegations against a Philly priest.

Quirk’s been asked to testify in the high profile case involving Msgr. William Lynn, whose unprecedented trial is happening now. (Lynn’s accused of endangering kids by ignoring and concealing known and suspected clergy child sex crimes. It’s the first time in the US that a high-ranking member of the Catholic hierarchy has faced such charges and could wind up in prison)

So remember this situation when you next hear bishops, in child sex cases, pledging that they’ve “learned” and are “reforming.” A sitting US bishop is arrogantly rebuffing efforts by a judge and prosecutors to resolve a pending criminal trial.

In addition, according to CBS news in Philly, “another witness is expected to testify Wednesday that Bransfield also brought boys to an infamous farm where (a Philly priest) allegedly raped multiple boys. And the prosecutor says they have been notified of another incident of fondling by Bransfield.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 18, 2012

Today the Vatican has announced a new “reform effort,” coming in the form of the renewal of the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR). The Vatican has tapped Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain to lead this effort. We argue that Archbishop Sartain is a poor choice.

Before coming to Seattle, Sartain was the bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, IL, where he had a terrible record on clergy sex abuse.

In one especially egregious case, Sartain hid allegations against two Joliet priests for five months, and only disclosed the allegations and suspended the priests after SNAP publicly “outed” them. Months after the priests were suspended, Sartain kept silent on their fate and refused to disclose to his parishioners and the public the results of the investigation.

He also ordained Fr. Alejandro Flores despite Flores having been caught with young porn. Yet barely six months after he was ordained, Flores was accused by parents of molesting their son for five years, dating back to when Flores was in seminary. Flores was later found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
CBS DC

ARLINGTON, Va. (CBSDC/AP) — A Catholic priest from Fairfax County who served as director of his diocese’s Office of Child Protection and Safety has been placed on leave after he was accused of sexual misconduct in the 1990s involving an underage boy.

The priest, Rev. Terry Specht, denies the allegation, the Diocese of Arlington said. Specht has been pastor at Holy Spirit Church on Woodland Way in Annandale since 2007.

He also served as chaplain and assistant principal at Paul VI Catholic High School from 2000 to 2004 and was director of the child-protection office from 2004 through 2011. Among other duties, that office conducted background checks on diocese employees who could come into contact with children and provided training to diocese workers.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
NECN

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Roman Catholics in West Virginia are reacting with disbelief and shock after a witness at a clergy-abuse trial in Philadelphia testified the leader of West Virginia’s Catholics committed sexual abuse.

A man testified Wednesday that a priest raped him at a home owned by Bishop Michael Bransfield and that his accused abuser told him the bishop also sexually abused a boy. The testimony came at the trial of the Rev. James Brennan.

Monsignor Edward Sadie, rector of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Charleston, says he finds the allegations against Bransfield “impossible to believe.”

Margery Webb of Charleston was shocked by the news as she arrived at a Morgantown church for Mass but said she hadn’t heard anything about it.

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VIRGINIA
NBC Washington

A Catholic priest from Fairfax County who served as director of his diocese’s Office of Child Protection and Safety was placed on leave after he was accused of sexual misconduct involving an underage boy in the late 1990s.

The priest, Rev. Terry Specht, denies the allegation, according to the Diocese of Arlington. Specht has been pastor at Holy Spirit Church in Annandale, Va., since 2007. He also served as chaplain and assistant principal at Paul VI Catholic High School from 2000 to 2004. He was director of the child-protection office from 2004 through 2011.

“Any allegation of abuse deepens the pain felt by all Catholics and particularly survivors of abuse,” Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde said. “We are committed to full cooperation with law enforcement regarding this allegation, and I have directed an independent investigator to review the actions and decisions made by Father Specht during his tenure as director of child protection.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Beaver County Times

Associated Press

A man has testified during a clergy sex-abuse trial that he was raped at a home owned by the current West Virginia bishop and that he was told the bishop also sexually abused a boy.

The 48-year-old witness made the statements Wednesday in Philadelphia about Michael Bransfield, bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston diocese.

He says he saw Bransfield bring several boys to a farm owned by now-defrocked priest Stanley Gana. The witness says Gana told him Bransfield was having sex with one of them.

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WEST VIRGINIA
MetroNews

Staff
Charleston

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston says it has no comment at this time in connection with testimony Wednesday in a clergy sex-abuse trial taking place in Philadelphia that mentioned Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield.

A witness in the trial testified that he was raped by another priest in a beach house owned by Bransfield.

The 48-year-old man also told the jury he was told by Stanley Gana, a now defrocked priest, that Bransfield was having sex with another boy he saw at the Philadelphia area farm years ago.

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston released the following statement Wednesday:

“The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is learning of media reports originating from legal proceedings underway in Philadelphia, and Bishop Michael Bransfield’s name was brought up in court today. Until such time that the facts and issues surrounding this testimony are made fully known to the Diocese, we cannot comment at this time.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Globe

By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press / April 18, 2012

PHILADELPHIA—A man who spoke of “an emptiness where my soul should be” following years of sexual abuse testified Wednesday that a priest raped him at a home owned by the current West Virginia bishop and that he was told the bishop also sexually abused a boy.

The 48-year-old man also testified in a clergy-abuse trial that he saw the bishop, Michael Bransfield, with a car full of “fair-haired” boys. He said that his abuser told him Bransfield was having sex with the boy in the front seat.

Another man has testified that Bransfield had a lewd conversation with him.

Bransfield’s diocese called the trial “a circus” and said Philadelphia prosecutors are trying to smear people never charged with a crime.

“They seem to want to bludgeon witnesses, smear individuals not on trial, anything to bolster their persecution of the church,” the Wheeling-Charleston diocese said in a statement. “The trial appears to be evolving into a circus with no rules and boundaries.”

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BROOKLINE (MA)
Wicked Local Brookline

By Teddy Applebaum/tapplebaum@wickedlocal.com
Wicked Local Brookline

Posted Apr 18, 2012

Brookline —

A deceased cleric who ended his career at a friary in Brookline nearly 60 years ago was one of six church leaders accused of sexual abuse last week.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said the Rev. Leonard Walsh, who worked at the friary on Rawson Road from 1950-54, abused his client, a 9-year-old Brookline boy, for four months in 1953.

Garabedian said the Franciscans agreed to pay an unspecified six-figure settlement to the man, who still lives in Massachusetts.

Before he came to Brookline, Walsh worked in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. He died in 1954.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington

2012-04-18
(ARLINGTON, VA) – Rev. Terry W. Specht, a priest of the Diocese of Arlington, has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a male minor in the late 1990s. The investigation is in its initial phase, and no final determination has yet been made regarding the allegation.

Rev. Specht denies the accusation. The Diocese of Arlington has received no other allegations of misconduct against Rev. Specht. Like all priests, diocesan employees and volunteers who work with children, he underwent an official background check early in his tenure.

Pursuant to the Diocese of Arlington’s child protection policy, the Fairfax County Police Department was notified when the diocese received the allegation, and the diocese is cooperating fully with law enforcement.

The majority lay-person Diocesan Review Board, which advises Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde and reviews allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clerics, has been advised of the allegation and will continue to review the information that is gathered during the investigation. Under diocesan policy, any priest with an allegation of abuse or misconduct with a minor that reaches a final determination of credibility is permanently removed from ministry.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
WJLA

A priest of the Diocese of Arlington has been placed on leave while allegations of a sexual relationship between him and a boy are investigated, the church said Wednesday.

The investigation into the relationship between Rev. Terry W. Specht and a male minor is in its initial phase, the diocese says.

Specht denies all accusations. It is the only one levied against the priest.

Church officials say that Specht undertook and passed a background check early in his tenure. The abuse is alleged to have taken place in the late 1990s.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein, Wednesday, April 18, 3:13 PM

The priest who until last year headed the Arlington Catholic diocese’s office responsible for protecting children from sexual abuse was placed on administrative leave Wednesday while he is investigated for alleged sexual misconduct with a youth.

The Rev. Terry W. Specht, a prominent priest in the diocese that oversees Northern Virginia, denies the allegation of misconduct involving a male minor in the late 1990s. Specht was a parochial vicar at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax at the time.

Specht was director from 2004 to 2011 of the Office of Child Protection and Safety, which handles outreach to child abuse victims, training on abuse for church employees and volunteers and monitoring of youth activities “to ensure that all contact with young people is appropriate,” its Web site says.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Citing “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life,” the Vatican announced a major reform of an association of women’s religious congregations in the U.S. to ensure their fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle will provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Vatican announced April 18. The archbishop will be assisted by Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and draw on the advice of fellow bishops, women religious and other experts.

The LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women’s communities as members, represents about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 women religious.

The announcement from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith came in an eight-page “doctrinal assessment,” based on an investigation that Bishop Blair began on behalf of the Vatican in April 2008. That investigation led the doctrinal congregation to conclude, in January 2011, that “the current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern, also given the influence the LCWR exercises on religious congregation in other parts of the world.”

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VATICAN CITY
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Statement of Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR

The findings of the doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) released today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are aimed at fostering a patient and collaborative renewal of this conference of major superiors in order to provide a stronger doctrinal foundation for its many laudable initiatives and activities.

The first step in the implementation of the findings of the doctrinal Assessment consists, therefore, in a personal meeting between the Superiors of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Officers of the LCWR. Such a personal encounter allows for the opportunity to review the document together in a spirit of mutual respect and collaboration, hopefully thereby avoiding possible misunderstandings of the document’s intent and scope. In this sense, I also express my gratitude to the Officers of the LCWR for their openness and participation in the doctrinal Assessment since 2008 when I first communicated to them the
Congregation’s intention to undertake this project.

In his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei announcing the Year of Faith which will begin in October, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that it is the Church’s faith that sustains and animates Christian life and witness: “The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us.”1 This is all the more true for those who offer the Church and the world the most eloquent witness of religious consecration.

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VATICAN CITY
Congregation for the Doctine of the Faith

Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious

I. Introduction
The context in which the current doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States of America is best situated is articulated by Pope
John Paul II in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata of 1996.

Commenting on the genius of the charism of religious life in the Church, Pope John Paul says: “In founders and foundresses we see a constant and lively sense of the Church, which
they manifest by their full participation in all aspects of the Church’s life, and in their ready obedience to the Bishops and especially to the Roman Pontiff. Against this background of
love towards Holy Church ‘the pillar and bulwark of truth’ (1 Tim 3:15), we readily understand…the full ecclesial communion which the Saints, founders and foundresses, have
shared in diverse and often difficult times and circumstances. They are examples which consecrated persons need constantly to recall if they are to resist the particularly strong centrifugal and disruptive forces at work today. A distinctive aspect of ecclesial communion
is allegiance of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops, an allegiance which must
be lived honestly and clearly testified to before the People of God by all consecrated persons,
especially those involved in theological research, teaching, publishing, catechesis and the use
of the means of social communication. Because consecrated persons have a special place in
the Church, their attitude in this regard is of immense importance for the whole People of
God” (n. 46).

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

April 18, 2012

WASHINGTON—The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has called for reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and named Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its Archbishop Delegate for the initiative.Bishop Leonard Blair and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki also were also named to assist in this effort.

The CDF outlined the call in a “Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious” (http://www.usccb.org/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=55544), released April 18. The document outlines findings of the 2008 CDF-initiated doctrinal assessment of LCWR, conducted by Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, which included his findings and an LCWR response submitted at the end of 2009, as well as a subsequent report from Bishop Blair in 2010.

A statement by Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is also available at

http://www.usccb.org/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=55673

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Jamie L Manson on Apr. 18, 2012 NCR Today

The Vatican investigation into U.S. women religious, which began in 2009, is finally bearing its first toxic fruit.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Wednesday it has named Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain to lead a five-year reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The reforms include a revision of the LCWR’s statutes, a review of its programs (including, in all likelihood, Vatican approval of topics and speakers at their annual general assembly) and reviews of their liturgical norms and relationship with NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby.

Sartain has made headlines in recent months for his recommendation that parishes in his diocese collect signatures for petitions supporting Washington state’s referendum against same-sex marriage.

This “doctrinal assessment” has been initiated by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Their greatest concern about LCWR’s programming? You guessed it: They’re not explicitly anti-gay and anti-women’s ordination. The USCCB’s press release states:

“CDF said that the documentation ‘reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States. Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.'”

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UNITED STATES
The Sacramento Bee

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer

Published: Wednesday, Apr. 18, 2012

The Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog announced Wednesday a full-scale overhaul of a group representing most U.S. nuns and named an American archbishop to oversee the reform.

The Vatican agency cited the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest umbrella group for Roman Catholic religious sisters in the United States, for using materials that “do not promote church teaching” on family life and sexuality, for sometimes taking positions in opposition to the nation’s bishops and for being “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”

Representatives for the women’s group, based in Silver Spring, Md., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain will manage the five-year reform, which will include rewriting the group’s statutes, reviewing all its plans and programs – including approving speakers – and ensuring the group properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual.

The report specifically cites a social justice group associated with the conference called NETWORK, which played a key role in supporting the Obama administration’s health care overhaul despite the bishops’ objections. The announcement Wednesday made no direct mention of President Barack Obama’s health care law, but said Sartain will review the Leadership Conference’s ties with NETWORK.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTRF

By Amy Wadas

According to KYW-TV in Philadelphia, the Bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, Michael J. Bransfield, is being accused of being linked to an alleged predator priest and child abuse in the early 1980’s.

A witness brought this all out in the open in a Philadelphia courtroom. He told a jury he was raped by Father Stanley Gana.

KYW reports that the witness testified that Gana put him on the phone with then Father Michael J. Bransfield, who allegedly said he was going to have the boy sent to him.

The Philadelphia Inquirer also reports that another witness told the jury on Wednesday, that Bransfield actually had sex with teenage boys. That witness told the judge that Bransfield brought multiple boys to a farm where Gana allegedly raped them.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A Philadelphia man told a jury today that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest who allegedly sexually abused him for years starting the late 1970s had said a colleague who is now a bishop in West Virginia also had sex with teenage boys.

The 48-year-old witness, identified only as “John” in the 2005 report of the Philadelphia County grand jury, described a meeting one summer in high school where he spent summers at the Rev. Stanley Gana’s 110-acre farm in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

He said he was building a flagstone wall when a car pulled up driven by then-Rev. Michael J. Bransfield and containing several teenage boys.

Bransfield is now bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

“They’re his fair-haired boys,” the witness said Gana told him after the brief visit ended. “The one in the front seat he is having sex with.”

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UNITED STATES
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Virginia Jones

I have been holding back, but I decided to give into the temptation to write about my favorite celebrity, as well as my daughter, who inspires me in so many ways.

My daughter discovered the world of K-Pop (Korean popular music) last summer and ever since then has been obsessed with the Korean boy band, Big Bang. The band recently won the award Best Worldwide Act at MTV’s European Music Awards.

During the televised interviews before the awards ceremony, they briefly hung out with American singer, Katy Perry, who towered over them in her high heels. G-Dragon, the Big Bang lead singer, is about 5’7” or 5’8” without heels.

I saw that interview they did with Katy Perry a dozen times or so because my daughter is a fan of both Katy Perry and Big Bang, and she watches every interview with Big Bang available on the internet several times over.

Katy Perry said to Big Bang, “You boys are so cute.”

Apparently there is a subculture of Big Bang “Fan Girls” in the US.

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ROM
Nachrichten (Osterreich)

ROM. Eine Aussprache mit dem Papst wird Helmut Schüller, Sprecher der reformorientierten Pfarrer-Initiative, wohl so bald nicht haben. Denn seine Hoffnung, nach der Erwähnung des „Aufrufs zum Ungehorsam“ am Gründonnerstag durch den Papst einen direkten Kontakt zu Benedikt XVI. zu bekommen, wird von Insidern in Rom als unbegründet gesehen.

Auch die jüngste Kritik an der Pfarrer-Initiative von Kurienkardinal Kurt Koch ändert daran nichts.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Kolumne | Hans Rauscher, 17. April 2012

Über “Realitätsverlust” in der Kirchenführung

Unter der großen Halle des Petersdoms in Rom befindet sich das Grab des Apostels Petrus, umgeben von den Grabstätten etlicher Päpste und einer Reihe von Kapellen. Eine solche unterirdische Kapelle wählte der steirische Diözesanbischof Egon Kapellari, zugleich Medienbischof, um in einer Frühmesse in der Predigt vor Teilnehmern einer Informationsreise in den Vatikan, auch die Situation der österreichischen Kirche klar anzusprechen: “Wir sind gefährdet. Wir werden weniger und es besteht die Gefahr einer Implosion. Wir dürfen aber weder depressiv werden, noch aggressiv – im Sinne eines Rückzugs auf eine stolze, kleine Elite”.

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OSTERREICH
tagblatt

Wien/Rom Der Schweizer Herbert-Haag-Stiftung ist die rebellische österreichische Pfarrer-Initiative eine Auszeichnung wert. Papst Benedikt XVI. bedenkt die 400 Pfarrer, die sich seit dem vergangenen Juni dem “Aufruf zum Ungehorsam” angeschlossen haben, in der Karwoche dagegen mit Tadel: Die aufmüpfigen Geistlichen, die weder im Zwangszölibat noch im Predigtverbot für Laien einen tiefen Sinn erkennen mögen, versuchten die Kirche nach ihren Ideen auszurichten, so die Kritik aus Rom. Vorwurfsvolle Fragen gibt der Pontifex den reformwilligen Geistlichen auf den Weg. Doch ob er auch die Antworten hören will?

Anfragen für einen Austausch prallen seit Jahren an der Kirchenleitung ab. Nicht Sprechen sei das Gebot der Stunde, sondern Gehorsamkeit gegenüber Rom, betonen österreichische Bischöfe, zuletzt Egon Kapellari aus Graz.

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NEDERLAND
NRC Handelsblad

door Joep Dohmen

De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk heeft in de jaren vijftig en zestig bij chirurgen aangedrongen op castratie van om homoseksuele jongens en mannen. Dat blijkt uit verklaringen van wetenschappers die vanmorgen gehoord zijn door de Tweede Kamer.

Hoogleraar medische geschiedenis Mart van Lieburg meldde dat hij met twee chirurgen had gesproken. Zij bevestigden dat ze van een bisschop rechtstreeks opdrachten tot castratie kregen. Om welke bisschop het gaat zei Van Lieburg niet. Na afloop van de hoorzitting nuanceerde Van Lieburg zijn verklaring: “Ik sprak met twee chirurgen. Van een van hen hoorde ik dat de bisschop, die overigens nog leeft, had aangedrongen op castratie van een homoseksuele man.”

Historicus Marnix Koolhaas meldde dat ook pastoors die als biechtvader optraden, homoseksuele jongens rechtstreeks doorverwezen naar chirurgen. Om welke aantallen het gaat, weet Koolhaas niet. “Maar het kan een praktijk zijn geweest die niet ongebruikelijk was”, aldus Koolhaas.

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