ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
CBS – 60 Minutes

[Watch the segment]

(CBS News) An Irishman named Diarmuid Martin says the Catholic Church in Ireland has reached a breaking point, a crisis that he says results from the sexual abuse of children by priests and the cover-up by the Church. Martin has provided tens of thousands of pages of evidence against specific priests, and his words and actions carry extraordinary weight. That’s because Diarmuid Martin is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Bob Simon reports.

The following script is from “The Archbishop of Dublin” which aired on March 4, 2012. Bob Simon is the correspondent. Tom Anderson, producer.

The head of the Catholic Church may be in Rome, but its heart has always been in Ireland. From the early fifth century, when Saint Patrick was named a bishop and started converting the Irish, Catholicism has been more than a religion. It’s been a culture and a way of life.

But in recent years – the faith of the Irish has been sorely tested, not their faith in God necessarily, but their faith in the Church, after several damning investigations provided appalling detail on the sexual abuse of children by priests.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Irish Independent

Sunday March 04 2012

Did Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George mean to snub Enda Kenny? George denies it, but a report last weekend in Chicago’s Sun-Times suggested otherwise.

When Taoiseach Enda Kenny arrives in Chicago on March 16, he will be following in the footsteps of his party’s founder, WT Cosgrave. When Cosgrave made the first American trip of any serving Irish prime minister (then known as ‘President of the Executive’), he was met by massive crowds and addressed 5,000 guests at the venue where Kenny will speak next week.

Reporting the decision by Cardinal Francis George to attend a retreat instead of dining with Kenny, Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times speculated last weekend that his absence is part of an Ireland-Vatican tiff that has seen the Irish Government close its embassy to the Holy See.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

A priest at St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Whitfield was removed from his assignment after acknowledging he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman, according to the Diocese of Allentown.

Diocese officials said the relationship between the Rev. Cletus Onyegbule, 44, and the woman began when she was 18 years old.

Bishop John O. Barres announced the dismissal to the parish Saturday during the 5:30 p.m. Mass.

Onyegbule served as an assistant pastor at St. Ignatius since March 2009. He was ordained in 2002 and served at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven and Our Lady at Perpetual Help Church in Bethlehem Township before his assignment at St. Ignatius.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

By Matt Assad, Of The Morning Call

2:52 p.m. EST, March 4, 2012
The Allentown Catholic Diocese has removed a Berks County priest for having an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old woman.

Rev. Cletus Onyegbule, 44, was dismissed from his post at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Sinking Spring, where he’d been assistant pastor since 2009.

Onyegbule was ordained in 2002. He served at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bethlehem Township before his assignment to Sinking Spring.

Bishop John O. Barres announced his removal to the parish at the Saturday evening mass.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times

Sunday, March 04, 2012

By Express-Times staff

The Rev. Cletus Onyegbule, 44, who once served at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bethlehem Township, Pa., was removed from his assignment with a Berks County parish after he acknowledged an inappropriate relationship with a woman that began when she was 18, a spokesman for the Allentown Diocese announced today.

Onyegbule, a native of Nigeria, was serving as assistant pastor at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Sinking Spring. A church official said the matter was reported to the appropriate authorities and the priest is at a treatment facility.

Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said he would not release specifics about the circumstances “in respect for the parties involved.” He would not say which authorities were alerted about the relationship.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
WFMZ

Author: Gina Gasper, Web Producer

Published On: Mar 04 2012

ALLENTOWN, Pa. –
Officials with the Diocese of Allentown announced Sunday that a priest serving in Berks County has been removed from his assignment after having an inappropriate relationship with a woman.

Diocesan officials said Reverend Cletus Onyegbule, 44, was having an inappropriate relationship with a woman that began when the woman was 18.

Onyegbule was serving as assistant pastor at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Sinking Spring since March 2009.

Bishop John O. Barres made the announcement to parishioners at the 5:30 pm mass Saturday, officials said.

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UNITED STATES
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Robert Nemeth

The seemingly unending flow of stories of sexual abuse prompted me to make these comments. It all started on Jan. 2, 2002, when The Boston Globe published an article with revelations about priests abusing children and church leaders who failed to stop them. The story hinted at a coverup.

Dozens of other stories followed, and the expression “clerical abuse” became part of the vocabulary. The issue went global, and thousands of alleged abuse victims came forward. The stream of accusations created a lucrative compensation industry, with enterprising lawyers specializing in sex abuse cases, and professional victim organizations producing a steady supply of clients. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned and moved to the Vatican, where he remained the target of his detractors’ venom.

While few of the cases went to court, dioceses in America have paid about $3 billion in settlements and other costs related to more than 15,700 abuse claims. The Boston archdiocese settled 800 claims, training 300,000 children and 175,000 adults to spot and prevent abuse. It spent $7 million to provide counseling and medication for victims. Massive reparations depleted resources, causing the closing of several churches. The scandal undermined confidence in the church and caused many of the faithful to turn away.

Even though statistics show that most of the alleged abuses happened between the 1960s and 1980s — indicating that church authorities have dealt with the problem — the issue is being kept alive. Victim advocates held an event in Boston they called “The 10th Anniversary Celebration & Conference: Confronting the Crime & Cover-up of Sexual Abuse by the Boston Clergy.” It featured media and legal panels, workshops, lectures and a play, “For Pete’s Sake,” written and performed by alleged victims. Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer specializing in clergy abuse cases, announced that the pressure on the Boston archdiocese must continue because church reforms amount to “hollow gestures.”

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Brendan J. Lyons
Updated 07:33 a.m., Sunday, March 4, 2012

Fourteen district attorneys whose counties are within the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese have called on Bishop Howard J. Hubbard to reshape the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse complaints against clergy and other employees.

For the full story buy a copy of the Sunday Times Union at your favorite newsstand. It will appear later this week on timesunion.com.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Sunday, March 04, 2012

The Justice for Magdalenes group is holding an event at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin this afternoon to remember the women of the Magdalene Laundries.

‘Flowers for Magdalenes’ aims to remember every woman who passed through the laundries.

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TENNESSEE
The Tennessean

[Walter F. Roche and Brandon Gee contributed to this report.]

Written by
Bob Smietana
The Tennessean

The Wednesday noon Bible study at Mt. Zion Baptist Church drew 400 worshippers this week, most of them women, almost all with a Bible in one hand and an offering envelope in the other.

They’re drawn by their beloved pastor, Bishop Joseph Walker III, whose prosperity gospel message combines Bible verses and motivational slogans.

In a few weeks, Walker will celebrate 20 years as pastor of Mt. Zion. When he arrived as a 24-year-old Vanderbilt University Divinity School graduate, the church had 175 members. Today, it claims 25,000 members and holds eight services a week in three locations.

He and his wife of two years, Dr. Stephaine Walker, a Vanderbilt neonatologist, have a new book out called Becoming a Couple of Destiny. He also doles out advice as the “Relationship Doctor” on the syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show, broadcast on 21 radio stations across the country.

But after two decades of unmitigated success, Walker is facing controversy on two fronts.

Four former parishioners have filed suit, claiming Walker and other church leaders sexually abused them.

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ALLENTOWN/PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call

By Peter Hall and Matt Assad, Of The Morning Call

Nearly two decades ago, Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen was one of two or three high-ranking clergy present when the head of the Philadelphia Archdiocese ordered the shredding of a list of 35 priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a recent court filing in Philadelphia.

A copy of that list and a 1994 memo recording Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s instructions to destroy it has turned up in the case of Monsignor William Lynn, a former archdiocesan official charged with endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy for allegedly enabling priests to molest children.

Lynn’s attorneys have claimed the documents are proof of a conspiracy by Bevilacqua; Cullen, who was then the cardinal’s top aide; Cullen’s then assistant, Monsignor James Molloy; and Lynn’s then assistant, the Rev. Joseph Cistone, to hide sexual abuse allegations. They called for the dismissal of charges against Lynn, which were filed last year after the second of two Philadelphia grand jury investigations into allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

“This startling revelation raises clear issues as to whether Cardinal Bevilacqua, Bishops Cullen and Cistone and Monsignor Molloy obstructed justice in connection with grand jury I,” Lynn’s lawyers Jeff Lindy and Thomas Bergstrom wrote in a motion to dismiss the case.

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NEW YORK
Glens Falls Post-Star

Sexual abuse strikes deeply at children’s sense of the world and themselves, and can warp their personalities for the rest of their lives.

Many people endure these horrible attacks, usually at the hands of adults they know and trust, and many people find the strength to go on with constructive and, often, happy lives.

But that doesn’t mean victims of child sexual abuse talk about what happened to them, and if they do, it’s usually in the way of confiding in a spouse or sibling or best friend. Few have the confidence and resilience to come out in public and name and shame their accusers.

Because of the stigma of sexual abuse and because of the great interest society has in stopping abusers, New York should afford child victims every opportunity to have their accusers charged.

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SALINAS (CA)
Monterey Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureaumontereyherald.com

March 4, 2012

The claim forms are in the mail and the clock is ticking for Palma High School alumni who allege they were molested by someone affiliated with the school.

Sexual abuse victims have until Aug. 1 to file a claim as a “creditor” in the bankruptcy filed last year by the Irish Christian Brothers and the Christian Brothers Institute in New York in reaction to mounting molestation claims.

Palma High School has been identified as one of the schools where alleged perpetrators were employed and was required by the federal bankruptcy court to provide its alumni list for notification.

Jim Stang, the Los Angeles attorney appointed to represent the “unsecured creditors committee,” said some alumni will be confused by the packet of information.

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SALINAS (CA)
Monterey Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureaumontereyherald.com

March 4, 2012

A second man has reportedly come forward alleging sexual abuse by a priest at Palma High School, but details of both of the claims could remain out of the public eye.

Southern California attorney Mike Reck confirmed Friday that the second man contacted him after The Herald reported an initial claim involving the Rev. Gerald Funcheon, who was a chaplain and teacher at Palma from 1984-85.

Reck said he is about to file the first man’s claim, and will likely file another on behalf of the second man, in the bankruptcy case of the Irish Christian Brothers and the Christian Brothers Institute in New York. The two jointly filed Chapter 11 last year in the wake of mounting sex abuse allegations against its brothers.

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ILLINOIS
Christianity Today

Morgan Feddes

A Wheaton College professor noted for his work on the spiritual formation of children was arrested Thursday for allegedly possessing child pornography.

Donald Ratcliff, the Price-Lebar Professor of Christian Education at Wheaton, was charged after an investigation that tracked Web users trading child porn. Investigators say they found pornographic images of preteen children on at least six computers seized from Ratcliff’s home.

Police also seized two guns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition from his home. Ratcliff did not have a firearm owner’s identification card and faces charges for possession of the munitions. Ratcliff’s attorney told The Daily Herald the guns are “family heirlooms,” but added no further comment on the case.

Judge Elizabeth Sexton set Ratcliff’s bail at $750,000 Friday morning. Sexton also ordered that should he post bond, Ratcliff cannot have contact with anyone under 18 or use a computer or the Internet until his March 8 hearing. Ratcliff would have to post 10 percent of the bail to be released.

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ILLINOIS
The Courier-News

A Wheaton college professor who has authored 10 books on children’s spirituality had pornographic images of kids younger than 13 on computers police took from his suburban home, DuPage County authorities said Friday.

Donald Ratcliff, 60, remained jailed on $750,000 bail after his arrest Thursday on two counts of aggravated child pornography.

Ratcliff has taught Christian education since 2006 at the religious college best known as the alma mater of evangelist Billy Graham, but in a YouTube video Ratcliff describes teaching an online class in children’s spirituality.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Clifford Ward and Michelle Manchir, Chicago Tribune

March 4, 2012

A Wheaton College professor who taught a class and wrote books about children’s spirituality was ordered held in lieu of $750,000 bail Friday on possession of child pornography and weapons charges.

Donald Ratcliff, 60, was arrested Thursday by Carol Stream police after authorities learned his computer Internet address was associated with trading child pornography, including images of children younger than 13, DuPage County Assistant State’s Attorney Anne Therieau said.

Also, police found two handguns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition, Therieau said. He was charged with possession of a firearm without a valid FOID card and possession of ammunition without an FOID card.

Ratcliff’s attorney, Dan Collins, said the pistols were family heirlooms. He declined to comment further.

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ILLINOIS
Patch

By Charlotte Eriksen

A Wheaton College professor accused of possessing child porn, weapons and ammunition has a bond hearing this Thursday, March 8.

Donald Ratcliff, 60, was charged Thursday with:
•Two counts of aggravated possession of child pornography
•Two counts of possession of a firearm without a FOID card
•One count of possession of ammunition without a FOID card

Ratcliff teaches an online course in children’s spirituality. He was unable to post bond Friday morning.

Dan Collins, attorney for Ratcliff, requested next week’s hearing in front of DuPage County Judge Elizabeth Sexton Friday morning. Officials said Ratcliff had 1,600 rounds of ammunition and the weapons were pistols. Collins said Ratcliff’s weapons were “family heirlooms.”

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ILLINOIS
The Chronicle of Higher Education

March 3, 2012

A Christian education professor at Wheaton College was arrested Thursday on charges of possessing child pornography and weapons, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Police took six or seven computers from the home of the professor, Donald Ratcliff, and found two handguns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition, according to the report. College officials said that Mr. Ratcliff had been placed on administrative leave with pay.

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ILLINOIS
The New Civil Rights Movement

by David Badash on March 3, 2012

A married man and father of three children was arrested Thursday on charges of child pornography and illegal gun possession after Internet task force police raided his home and computers. Donald Ratcliff, 60, a Professor of Christian Education at Wheaton College in Illinois, and a Southern Baptist pastor, had bail set at $750,000, and was instructed to have no contact with anyone under 18, and not to use any computer.

“The Wheaton College professor charged with two counts of aggravated child pornography also faces charges for possession of two handguns and ammunition without a firearm owners identification card, prosecutors said Friday in DuPage County court,” The Daily Herald reports:

Assistant State’s Attorney Anne Therieau said investigators found two guns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in Ratcliff’s home.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Henry McDonald in Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 3 March 2012

Irish Catholicism is at “breaking point” over the child sex abuse scandals involving the clergy, the leader of Ireland’s largest Catholic diocese will say on Sunday.

The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, will also warn that the paedophile priest controversy is far from over for the Irish church.

In a frank admission of the church’s failings on American primetime TV , Martin will say: “There’s a real danger today of people saying: ‘the child abuse scandal is over, let’s bury it, let’s move on’.

“It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection of children is something which will go on for the rest of our lives and into the future because the problems are there.”

Regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers in the Irish Catholic church, Martin will appear on CBS’s top current affairs show 60 Minutes. He is one of the most senior Catholics to openly criticise the way the hierarchy has handled the abuse allegations.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin State Journal

Investigators optimistic after taking a new look at 1998 murder of Catholic priest

ROB SCHULTZ | Wisconsin State Journal | rschultz@madison.com | 608-252-6487 | Posted: Saturday, March 3, 2012

New technology and some potentially new leads have a Dane County Sheriff’s detective feeling optimistic that the mystery surrounding the 1998 slaying of a Catholic priest may soon be solved.

Veteran detective Mary Butler recently took over the case and said the state Crime Laboratory is providing a full-time analyst to take a new look at evidence that could shed light on the murder of the Rev. Alfred Kunz, pastor of St. Michael Church in Dane.

Sunday is the 14th anniversary of the murder of Kunz, 67, who was found with his throat slit in an adjoining parochial school. He had been pastor of the church for 32 years.

“Absolutely I think this case could get solved. If the right piece of information comes forward I feel confident we could move forward and charge somebody on this,” Butler said. “I think there’s somebody out there who knows something.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

[with video]

A local priest, father Patrick Mccormick, has been arrested for allegedly trying to pick up a prostitute.

Police announced today that it happened around 11pm on Thursday February 23rd. Mccormick tried to pick up a woman police officer who was posing as a prostitute.

The archdiocese says it learned of the alleged incident friday and released this statement calling it “deeply troubling.”

The statement reads in part, on Friday February 24th, father Mccormick informed the archdiocese that he had been arrested the day before, but that the charge was dui. Father Mccormick has been placed on administrative leave.

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NEW YORK
Adirondack Daily Enterprise

March 3, 2012

By CHRIS KNIGHT, Adirondack Daily Enterprise

SARANAC LAKE – The Rev. Christopher Courtwright-Cox was at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church when he realized that he no longer could be affiliated with it.

It was at the height of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal in 2004, and Cox was living in Vatican City. He had just completed his seminary training and been ordained as a priest.

“I had this growing sense of anxiety and depression while I was over there, and I couldn’t really articulate it,” said Cox. “But when (the sex abuse scandal) happened, to hear behind closed doors the amount of secretiveness and homophobia, and the amount of misogyny within the hierarchy of the church, it dawned on me why I was struggling so much. …

The term “Old Catholic Church” refers to a number of Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, primarily the belief that the pope can make infallible statements on church doctrine.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

A priest from a Northeast Philadelphia parish was arrested last week on charges that he tried to pick up a prostitute in Kensington, police said.

The Rev. Patrick McCormick, the parochial vicar of St. Timothy Church in Mayfair, allegedly approached a police officer posing as a prostitute as part of a citywide vice unit operation on Kensington Avenue near I Street about 11 p.m. on Feb. 23, police said. McCormick, 48, was charged with patronizing a prostitute and entered into the Accelerated Misdemeanor Program. He was ordered to perform 18 hours of community service and pay $200 in fines, according to court records.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
Courier Post

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested as part of a prostitution sting in Philadelphia.

Police said the Rev. Patrick McCormick approached a police officer posing as a prostitute during a vice unit undercover operation Thursday night and offered her money to perform a sex act.

Investigators said he was arrested on the spot and charged with patronizing a prostitute. He was ordered to perform 18 hours of community service and pay $200 in fines.

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NEW YORK
NewsLI

March 3, 2012

Co-sponsors legislation to extend statute of limitations for child-sex-abuse crimes

(Long Island, NY) Assemblyman Dean Murray speaks at a press conference for the Child Victims Act of New York while Assemblywoman Margaret Markey looks on.

Assemblyman Dean Murray (R, C – East Patchogue) joined Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D – Maspeth) and survivors of child abuse at a press conference on February 29. The press conference was held in support of Child Victims Act of New York legislation that Assemblyman Murray is co-sponsoring.

“Sexually abusing a child is the most heinous offense a person can commit,” said Murray. “For too long, past victims have had to suffer in silence while their offender has walked free. The legislation I am proudly co-sponsoring will extend the current statute of limitations for child-sex-abuse crime by five years, helping to expose older crimes and make it possible to identify previously hidden abusers and bring them to justice. I want to thank Assemblywoman Markey for taking a leadership role in this fight and her ongoing efforts to win passage of this bill.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

Friday, March 02, 2012, 9:00 PM

By John Simerman, The Times-Picayune

An Orleans Parish judge quashed a five-count indictment Friday against the 59-year-old spiritual head of a local Pentecostal church, ruling that the three purported victims waited too long to lodge their allegations against Bishop Charles E. Brown. Criminal District Judge Karen Herman ruled that the statute of limitations, as it was written when the alleged sexual attacks took place, had long ago run out.

Brown, the jurisdictional bishop for Greater New Orleans in the Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tenn., also was pastor of Full Gospel Church of God in Christ in New Orleans, though he spent much of his time leading a congregation in Houston. The Church of God in Christ suspended him after learning of the first allegation, which came to light in September.

Police booked Brown with aggravated rape on June 28, after an unidentified 39-year-old woman called the NOPD’s child abuse unit in March to report that he had molested her between the ages of 14 and 16.

Afterward, two other women came forward with accusations against him. One of them, now 47, claims Brown committed indecent behavior and sexual battery sometime between her 13th and 17th birthdays, according to the indictment. Identified only as “C.B.,” she reached 17 in 1981.

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PAKISTAN
Menschenhandel Heute

by Lea Mera

Missbrauch an Jungen: Ein Thema, bei welchem viele Menschen sofort an die Missbrauchsskandale in kirchlichen Institutionen denken. Geschlechtertrennung, Zölibat und Ablehnung des Weiblichen werden oft als Erklärung für die begangenen Verbrechen herangezogen. Doch wie sieht es in Ländern aus, in denen Geschlechtertrennung zum Alltag gehört und nicht auf wenige Enklaven beschränkt ist?

In Pakistan, wie auch in vielen anderen islamischen Ländern, stellt die Abschottung von Frauen, dort purdah, genannt, eine weit verbreitete Tatsache dar.[2] Diese Trennung von Männern und Frauen wird von vielen Organisationen und AutorInnen für ein anderes weit verbreitetes Phänomen des pakistanischen Alltagslebens verantwortlich gemacht: Für den geradezu institutionalisiert zu nennenden Missbrauch und/oder Zwangsprostitution von Jungen. Statistiken sind schwer zu erstellen. Laut

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ROM
Radio Vatikan

[mit Audio]

Einer der Höhepunkte auf der internationalen Konferenz zum Thema Missbrauch war der Vortrag des Psychologen Stephen Rossetti. Der Priester, Autor und Absolvent der „United States Air Force Academy“ in Colorado ist einer der bekanntesten Missbrauchs-Experten der USA; er unterrichtet unter anderem an der Katholischen Universität von Amerika in Washington. Vor seinen Zuhörern aus aller Welt berichtete er an der römischen Universität Gregoriana über seine Arbeit mit Missbrauchstätern.

„Sie haben doch womöglich alle in Ihrer Familie jemanden mit einem Alkohol- oder Drogenproblem. Und dann wissen Sie doch auch, wie schwierig es ist, diese Leute dazu zu bringen, dass sie überhaupt zugeben: Ja, ich habe da ein Problem. Es ist sehr schwer, da rational heranzugehen. Ich habe den Bischöfen gesagt: Die Täter von Kindesmissbrauch sind in dieser Hinsicht genauso – nur mit zehn multipliziert. Die sind groß im Lügen, im Manipulieren, die wissen ihr Gegenüber in der Regel völlig hinters Licht zu führen. Bischöfe sind eine leichte Beute für sie: Wenn ein Pfarrer vor seinem Bischof steht, und der fragt ihn: Hast du das wirklich getan?, dann schaut ihm ein solcher Priester direkt ins Gesicht und sagt: Nein, natürlich nicht. Die führen ja oft sogar Psychologen hinters Licht! Darum arbeiten wir an meinem Institut in der Regel mit drei Psychologen – alle drei zu täuschen, das gelingt denn doch keinem Täter. Den Täter also zu einem Eingeständnis zu bringen, ist wirklich schwer, aber auch der erste Schritt, um das Problem anzupacken.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
YouTube

Der sagt er hat sie nur lieb gehalten auch am Po und das wäre ja kein Sexueller- Missbrauch, was diese Kinderficker-Sekte sich alles erlauben zu dürfen.

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GERMANY
U.S. Catholic

Friday, March 2, 2012

By Catholic News Service

REGENSBURG, Germany (CNS) — The president of the German bishops’ conference welcomed progress in a national dialogue on the Catholic Church’s future, inaugurated in the wake of sexual abuse scandals.

“This process is on the right track — we’re all getting a chance to make our voices heard,” Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg said March 1, at a news conference marking the end of the bishops’ four-day meeting.

Archbishop Zollitsch said he hoped the dialogue would be advanced by the church’s Katholikentag festival in May and a national eucharistic congress in 2013.

The Dialogue on the State of the Church, launched in June by 30 German bishops and 300 invited clergy and lay representatives, is to run till 2015, with each year examining a church task, including liturgy and witness.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
RTE News

[video clip via CBS]

The Catholic Church in Ireland is at “a breaking point” over the child sexual abuse scandals, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has told America’s most popular news programme.

Dr Martin told of CBS’s “60 Minutes” programme, which will be broadcast on Sunday, that the crisis is not over.

“60 Minutes” asked Archbishop Martin whether the church here has reached its breaking point.

He responded that it is at a very difficult stage and that this is “enormously” due to the scandals.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Irish Examiner

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said that the scandal of clerical child sexual abuse is not over and that safeguards for children must remain in place.

“There is a real danger today of people saying: ‘The child abuse scandal is over. Let’s bury it. Let’s move on’,” he said in an interview to be broadcast on US network television tomorrow.

“It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection of children is something that will go on for the rest of our lives and into the future. Because the problems are there.”

In the interview with CBS television’s ’60 Minutes’ programme, Dr Martin said the Irish Catholic Church has reached “a breaking point” due to the scandals.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Irish Examiner

By Stephen Rogers

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has warned the Church is at a breaking point due to the sex abuse scandals — and said “problems” with child protection still remained.

In an interview which is to be broadcast to millions of Americans on Sunday night, Archbishop Martin tells the primetime CBS news programme, Sixty Minutes about the effect of the abuse revelations.

He is asked whether the Church has reached breaking point.

“It has reached a breaking point,” he said. “It is at a very difficult stage.”

He is then asked to what extent the crisis in the Church is due to the sexual scandals to which he replies: “Enormously.”

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

Saturday, March 3, 2012

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Three more people testified in the Michael Kelly civil sexual abuse trial Friday, with two of them saying that he touched children inappropriately.

However, there was no indication by witnesses whether any incidents were sexual in nature.

A man who grew up in Modesto, whose name was withheld by the court, testified about Kelly roughhousing in the family swimming pool and touching the man in an inappropriate location when the witness was a boy. The man was identified only as John C.D. Doe.

“It hurt a little bit,” the witness said. “It was a little bit rough, maybe too intimate.”

Kelly faces a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a 37-year-old man whose name was released in court on Thursday, but Judge Bob McNatt ruled on Friday that the plaintiff’s name not be released. Court records show the plaintiff’s name as John T.Z. Doe.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Daily News Staff Report
Philadelphia Daily News

A priest from a Northeast Philadelphia parish was arrested last week for allegedly trying to pick up a prostitute in Kensington.

Rev. Patrick McCormick, the parochial vicar of St. Timothy’s Church, allegedly approached a police officer posing as a prostitute as part of a citywide vice unit operation on Kensington Avenue near I Street around 11 p.m. on Feb. 23, police said.

After offering money in exchange for sexual favors, McCormick, 48, was arrested on the spot, according to police.

He was charged with patronizing a prostitute and entered into the Accelerated Misdemeanor Program. He was ordered to perform 18 hours of community service and pay $200 in fines, according to court records.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: March 02, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested as part of a prostitution sting in Philadelphia.

Police said the Rev. Patrick McCormick approached a police officer posing as a prostitute during a vice unit undercover operation Thursday night and offered her money to perform a sex act.

Investigators said he was arrested on the spot and charged with patronizing a prostitute. He was ordered to perform 18 hours of community service and pay $200 in fines.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in a written statement Friday, called the information “deeply troubling” and said McCormick has been placed on administrative leave.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

Friday, Mar 2, 2012

Police arrested a Northeast Philadelphia priest after he allegedly solicited sex and drugs from a female officer posing as a decoy.

Forty-eight-year-old Patrick McCormick, of the 3000 block of Levick Street, was charged with Patronizing a Prostitute on February 23rd.

The alleged incident happened around 11 p.m. on the 3300 block of Kensington Avenue.

Police say McCormick was arrested after for soliciting sex and drugs from a female officer posed as a “decoy”. McCormick saw the decoy on the street and offered her $50 to perform a sex act. Police say he also told her to bring a joint, according to investigators.

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UNITED STATES/IRELAND
SNAP Wisconsin

Archbishop of Dublin reaffirms statement on sex abuse crisis made in Milwaukee on “60 minutes” this Sunday

March 2, 2012

Archbishop of Dublin reaffirms statement on sex abuse crisis made in Milwaukee on “60 Minutes” this Sunday

It’s “not over” says reform Prelate at center of worldwide scandal

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT 414.336.8575

In a feature story appearing on the CBS news program “60 minutes” scheduled to air this Sunday, March 4th , the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin–the leading church reformer on the issue of clerical abuse and whose diocese is at the center of the worldwide scandal–will explain why he believes the child sexual assault crisis in the Catholic Church “isn’t over”.

Martin, who addressed an international conference on clergy sexual abuse in April at Marquette University will openly confront the publicly espoused views of many bishops, including Milwaukee’s Jerome Listecki, that it is time to “move on” from reports that thousands of children were raped and sexually assaulted while in the church’s care.

Listecki is currently at the center of the largest church bankruptcy resulting from sex abuse crimes of any organization in history. Last month, over 570 victims filed claims detailing at least 8,000 acts of criminal abuse spanning several decades by dozens of previously unnamed clerics. While most of the recorded crimes likely took place from the 1970’s into the 1990’s, most of these clerics have never faced justice, and their current status is unknown.

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MISSOURI
National Catholic Reporter

[the deposition]

Mar. 02, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The transcript of the court ordered deposition of the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests reveals that attorneys defending clergy accused of abuse cast a wide net in their inquiries, seeking information about how the group handles phone calls with clergy sex abuse victims to how it files its tax returns.

The transcript, which is a record of the Jan. 2 deposition of SNAP’s director David Clohessy, was made public by the victims’ advocacy group this morning (Friday).

Its release comes a week after news that attorneys defending an accused priest filed a motion requesting Clohessy be compelled to give more testimony and alleging that the group is not covered by confidentiality protections afforded to rape crisis centers.

While the transcript largely seems to confirm what Clohessy had said about the deposition in a Jan. 3 statement to NCR, it also sheds light on the lawyers’ line of questioning in the six-hour ordeal, and displays to what extent the SNAP leader refused to answer lawyers’ questions or submit requested documents.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, gave a deposition on Jan. 2 in the lawsuit John Doe, B.P., plaintiff, against Father Michael Tierney et al, defendants. This is the deposition.

Other links to court documents involving SNAP can be found here.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

March 2, 2012 11:53 am | Author: Jerry Berger
In January, five Catholic church defense lawyers grilled SNAP director David Clohessy for more than six hours. Now, SNAP is posting the transcript of that deposition on its website: SNAPnetwork.org. It shows that both sides got a little testy toward the end of the questioning. KC lawyer Gerry McGonagle represents Monsignor Thomas J. O’Brien,, an accused child molesting cleric. After Clohessy refused to answer several questions, McGonagle said “So just for the record, any questions I ask you about Monsignor O’Brien or about any of the alleged victims, you’re going to refuse to answer my questions; is that true? “No,” Clohessy replied. “I can’t speculate about what other questions you MIGHT ask me about Monsignor O’Brien. If you want to ask me if I think that he’s a dangerous serial predator, I’ll answer that question, I’ll say yes.” (For the record, O’Brien is Missouri’s most frequently accused pedophile priest. He has faced 29 civil lawsuits.

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National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Mar. 02, 2012 All Things Catholic

I realize this comes a little late, but if anybody’s still on the market for something to give up for Lent, I’d suggest that the following misconceptions about the Catholic church and about Christianity in general would be dandy bits of intellectual junk to cut loose in the spirit of the season.

Naturally, the venues where these three myths tend to be most deeply entrenched — the secular media, the academy, political circles and so on — are also places where the whole idea of Lenten sacrifice is sometimes a nonstarter. Yet they’re remarkably widespread inside the church too, among people who really ought to know better. If Catholics perpetuate these ideas, it’s hard to fault the outside world for being seduced by them.

Here are three popular fallacies, in the hope that Lent 2012 might mark the beginning of their expiration date.

1. Purple ecclesiology

“Purple ecclesiology” refers to the notion that the lead actors in the Catholic drama are the clergy, and in fact, the only activity that really counts as “Catholic” at all is that carried out by the church’s clerical caste, especially its bishops. You can always spot purple ecclesiology at work when you hear someone say “the church” when what they really mean is “the hierarchy.”

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Il Fatto Quotidiano

[con il documento]

L’ex arcivescovo di Milano scrive a Benedetto XVI per domandargli se sia stato lui a chiederne l’allontanamento dall’Istituto Toniolo

Beatissimo Padre,

sabato 26 marzo mattina per fax è arrivata alla mia attenzione, in qualità di Presidente dell’Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori, una lettera “riservata – personale” del Segretario di Stato, che mi induce (…) a sottoporre direttamente alla Sua persona alcune spiacevoli considerazioni. La lettera in oggetto prende le mosse dalla mia nomina a Presidente dell’Istituto nel 2003, pochi mesi dopo il mio ingresso a Milano, sostituendo il Sen. Emilio Colombo, dimissionario non tanto a causa di modifiche statutarie, come affermato nello scritto, ma per più consistenti ragioni legate alla sua condotta personale e pubblica (…) …
View more documents from ilfattoquotidiano.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Mar. 02, 2012 NCR Today

In the latest round of the Vatican leaks scandal, an Italian newspaper on Wednesday published two confidential letters documenting a failed 2011 effort by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s powerful Secretary of State, to take control of an important Italian Catholic university and hospital system.

Release of the documents is seen as another embarrassment for Bertone, whose effectiveness had already been called into question by the leaks scandal and other episodes since Benedict XVI named Bertone to the position in 2006.

The letters, and their aftermath, also document a case in which Pope Benedict XVI sided with local bishops against an attempt to centralize additional ecclesiastical power in the Vatican.

The tug-of war centers on the “Giuseppe Toniolo Institute of Superior Studies,” effectively the governing body for the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, a sprawling academic operation based in Milan but with outposts up and down Italy. Its affiliated institutions include the famed Gemelli Clinic in Rome, where a private suite of rooms is always reserved for the pope.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Thomas C. Fox on Mar. 02, 2012 NCR Today

Given our church’s anachronistic all male authority structure and its tenacious blindness to its lack of credibility, especially among women, on issues of reproduction and gender, can any of its members really understand the depth of alienation Catholic women feel today about our church?

Is this blindness not scandal?

I experience gender schism almost almost every time I speak with a woman – and I just returned from Rome and Africa. At the very least it is psychological; often more. And then so many more have simply walked away from our church.

Frankly, it continues to astonish me our church hierarchy carries on as it does seemingly impervious to what is so obvious to others. Can they not know of the gap growing between them and women who have taken their Catholic upbringings seriously and now uphold, as fundamental, Catholic teachings on human dignity, equality and liberation?

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Friday 2nd March 2012 in News By Ben Parsons

The Church of England has offered an “unreserved apology” for historic cases of child abuse by some members of its clergy.

Officials said it was a matter of “great sorrow and deep regret” and they recognised the harm caused to the victims.

The apology coincided with the publication of another critical report detailing how convicted paedophile Roy Cotton went on to be ordained as a priest.

Cotton was convicted of indecent behaviour with a child in 1954 aged 25 while in training for the priesthood. Further damaging allegations were made against him years later.

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ROCHESTER (MN)
The Post-Bulletin

Mar 02, 2012, 9:57 am
By Christina Killion Valdez
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

Former Catholic priest Thomas Adamson, who was removed from the priesthood after numerous accusations of pedophilia, recently moved from out of state back to Rochester, according to the Diocese of Winona.

Adamson has been accused of sexually abusing as many as 28 children during his 25 years in the priesthood. Adamson was never criminally charged, but he admitted sexual misconduct with boys in the Winona Diocese beginning in 1961 and in the Twin Cities archdiocese after his transfer there in 1975.

Adamson, now in his late 70s, was removed from the priesthood in 1984.

The Diocese of Winona recently released a statement of its position regarding Adamson’s return to the area. In it, the diocese said it notified all parishes and schools as soon as it found out about his return. “We communicated directly to Mr. Adamson that he is not welcome or permitted to enter onto the premises of any parishes or schools within the Diocese of Winona,” the statement said.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Irish Central

By
BERNIE MALONE,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, March 2, 2012

The Church is at a breaking point over the child sex abuse scandals says Dublin’s outspoken Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on Sunday’s “60 Minutes”, the most popular news show on television.

Martin tells CBS reporter Bob Simon that it is entirely due to the child sex abuse scandal. “Now is not the time to forget,” he says.

“There’s a real danger today of people saying, ‘The child abuse scandal is over. Let’s bury it. Let’s move on,’” he tells Simon.

“It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection of children is something that will go on…for the rest of our lives and into the future. Because the problems are there,” says the archbishop.

Bob Simon’s report looks at how the sexual abuse scandal in Ireland has transformed the way of life.

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MASSACHUSETTS
TheBostonChannel

BOSTON — A Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts is disputing claims by a former student who says the school refused her request for a new dorm room after she complained that her roommate was having too much sex feet away from her as she tried to sleep.

Lindsay Blankmeyer says in a lawsuit that she suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder before she enrolled at Stonehill, but was driven into a suicidal depression after school officials wouldn’t give her reasonable housing alternatives.

Blankmeyer says her roommate also had online sex in front of her.

Stonehill says Blankmeyer never told staff that her concerns involved her roommate’s sexual activity.

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MINNESOTA
MN SNAP

Welcome – Survivors/loving family members of sexual abuse by clergy or other religious

We have been meeting for over 10 years – let’s laugh and cry together. [If Bob says his tears are from the pizza peppers he’s probably pulling your leg]

Everything said in the group is confidential. We share feelings and experiences just as they are. There are no right or wrong statements. We make no judgments about anyone or anything. Everyone’s presence is appreciated and can be a source of healing for others. No one is required to speak during the meeting. Listening is a gift, too.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

A 52-year-old woman claims a Presbyterian pastor took advantage of his position as her counselor. But a judge says she sued after the statute of limitations expired. Meanwhile, she has sued another church for allegedly having security guards accost her.

By Peter Schelden

A lawsuit accusing a local church’s former pastor of a sexually manipulative extramarital relationship has been thrown out of court.

Carol Ann Carlson, 52, had sued The Presbyterian Church of the Master for negligence in hiring and supervising pastor Jack Loo, who resigned in December 2008 after an 11-year affair with Carlson, who had been one of his therapy clients.

But the case was dismissed and Carlson ordered to pay the church’s legal fees after an appeals court said the statute of limitations expired years ago.

Meanwhile, Carlson has a second lawsuit brewing against another church, this time alleging she was roughed up by security guards in 2010 (more on that case at the end of this story).

Carlson said she wouldn’t appeal the Presbyterian case ruling, which centered around allegations of sexual impropriety.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Motley Monk

It’s the contents of a mystery novel where the setting normally would be a medieval monastery, but it’s unfolding now in Common Pleas Court in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ostensibly, the trial focuses upon an alleged systematic cover-up of pedophile priests on the part of administrators of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Prosecutors allege that despite knowing or suspecting that they might sexually abuse children, the former Secretary for Clergy, Monsignor William J. Lynn, recommended priests for assignments. Lynn is first and highest-ranking church official indicted for covering up clerical sexual abuse.

However, Monsignor Lynn’s lawyers argue in a recent filing that new documents indicate Lynn was one of a few Archdiocesan officials who attempted to deal with the issue of clerical sexual abuse.

How?

According to the filing:

After being named Secretary for Clergy in 1992, Monsignor Lynn undertook an examination of the secret personnel files of hundreds of priests to gauge the scope of clerical sexual misconduct. Lynn examined the files because he “felt it was the right thing to do.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Verity Edwards
From:The Australian
March 03, 2012

ANGLICAN breakaway archbishop John Hepworth has been removed from his post as the global primate of the church at a meeting of bishops in South Africa.

Archbishop Hepworth, the Australian leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, last year claimed he was raped by three Catholic priests nearly 40 years ago.

He had planned to step down at Easter after bishops in several countries lost confidence in him and opposed his attempts to reunite with Rome.

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GHANA
Peace FM

The chief and elders of Anum Apapam in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District have given Kwamla Adjololo, a fetish priest, one month ultimatum to leave the town or face the wrath of the people.

Kwadwo Aboagye, an “Asafoatse”, told the Ghana News Agency that the decision was taken after an emergency meeting by 16 local chiefs, elders, a cross- section of the community and some religious leaders at Anum Apapam at the weekend.

He said the continued stay of Adjololo in the town was a threat to the community, especially children and the wives of people in the area.

According to Asafoatse Aboagye, Adjololo for several years was residing at Akorabo, near Suhum, but was expelled by the chiefs and elders of the community for indulging in social vices like kidnapping of school children, amorous relations with people’s wives and “Sakawa” among others.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

HAARLEM (RKnieuws.net) – Er is de laatste jaren gelukkig meer aandacht gekomen voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik. De Nederlandse bisschoppen hebben de onafhankelijke Commissie Deetman ingesteld om het misbruik in katholieke instellingen te laten onderzoeken. De Commissie heeft in december rapport uitgebracht en gaat nu nog een aanvullend onderzoek doen over misbruik van meisjes en over geweld. Mishandeling en misbruik zijn omvangrijke problemen in kerk en maatschappij.

Deetman verzuchtte bij de presentatie van het rapport van de Commissie: “Wat is er aan de hand met de Nederlandse samenleving?” ’Samen Kerk’ vroeg, mgr. J. Hendriks, hulpbisschop van het bisdom Haarlem-Amsterdam, in te gaan op feiten en achtergronden en op de vraag wat de katholieke kerk en het bisdom Haarlem-Amsterdam doen om misbruik te voorkomen.

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NEDERLAND
Omroep Brabant

Auteur: Sandra Kagie

UTRECHT – Ook volwassenen die slachtoffer zijn geworden van het misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk, krijgen compensatie van de kerk. Het gaat om zwakzinnige volwassenen. Dit heeft het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk donderdag bekendgemaakt.

Meerderjarigen die toen ze misbruikt werden in een weerloze toestand verkeerden, kunnen zich ook melden voor de compensatieregeling. De volwassen slachtoffers krijgen maximaal een bedrag van 25.000 euro.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Das Erste

[Video]

MoMa-Reporter: Die Kirche und ihre Missbrauchsopfer
Donnerstag, 01.03.201205:30 Uhr im Ersten.

Wie geht die katholische Kirche mit Missbrauchsopfern von Priestern und Ordensleuten um? Die MoMa-Reporter fragen im Bistum Regensburg nach.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope stands up for the Secretary of State. He has foibles but he’s staying

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“These are the documents to view and to show the world, whose historical truth strikes me”. This is how Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone replied to journalists’ questioning him about the poisonous climate caused by the “vatileaks”, as soon as he had arrived to the «Lux in Arcana», an exhibition of the documents kept in the Vatican Secret Archives. He feigned calm, surrounded by Vatican gendarmes who escort him everywhere. But if from the outside, during the recent interview with TG1 news and in many public engagements, the Vatican “prime minister” has appeared serene, from the inside the atmosphere in the Vatican has been very different as the search for the “mole” who has leaked confidential documents to the media continues.

These documents included the letters reporting corruption in the management of contract work that were written by the former Secretary General of the Governatorate, Carlo Maria Viganò, confidential documents on the IOR and the internal debate on the regulation against money laundering, an anonymous note reporting a presumed assassination attempt on the pope and a letter by the Secretary of State urging cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi to leave his office as president of the Toniolo Institute – the Catholic University’s “safe”- in favour of Giovanni Maria Flick who is supported by Bertone.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

“Papal Presidentialism” and an expanded conclave Galli Della Loggia’s proposal: all bishops should be Papal electors. Melloni’s reply: “This would distort his position as Bishop of Rome”

Andrea Tornielli
Rome

“The papacy is weak,” and it must be strengthened, in a presidentalist sense, broadening the electoral base of the conclave to include bishops and superiors of religious orders. This is the proposal of political scientist Ernesto Galli Della Loggia, in an article published in the latest issue of “La Lettura,” the cultural insert of the Corriere della Sera.

Galli Della Loggia starts by analyzing the “malicious rumors,” the “more or less controlled leaks,” and the unedifying “behind the scenes” drama that have recently characterized the Roman curia: elements that reveal “a fierce battle over the direction of the ecclesiastical institution” – a “clash of power” that ends up discrediting the Church. According to the political scientist, the Pope’s power only appears to be absolute, as in reality he must- even in nominations- consider “factions” and the “inevitable dominance of alliances and cliques over the careers of senior clergymen” as well as “exaggerated personal ambitions.”

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OREGON
Leagle

JOHN DOE 150, etc., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF PORTLAND IN OREGON, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 10-36126.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted February 7, 2012, Seattle, Washington.
Filed March 1, 2012.

Before: GOULD, SCHROEDER, Circuit Judges, and BEISTLINE,** Chief District Judge.

MEMORANDUM*

The undisputed facts of this case and the procedural history are known to the parties. Appellant, John Doe 150, appeals the United States District Court for the District of Oregon’s decision that, as a matter of law, delayed discovery of the causal connection between Doe’s known sexual abuse at the hands of a priest and the consequent harm to Doe was unreasonable. Doe claims that the district court committed two errors when it granted summary judgment in favor of Appellee, the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon. Doe argues that the district court: (1) usurped the role of the jury in determining the reasonableness of Doe’s delayed discovery as a question of law; and (2) ignored the compelling testimony of Doe’s expert concerning whether the nature of Doe’s harm might reasonably have masked the causal connection between his childhood abuse and the consequent harm. The district court found that no trier of fact could conclude that it was reasonable for Doe to fail to discover the causal connection between the abuse he suffered and his consequent harm prior to the bankruptcy court’s claims bar date of April 29, 2005, or prior to the applicable Oregon statute of limitations deadline of June 6, 2003. We affirm the lower court’s decision.

Standard of Review

We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment. Davis v. Las Vegas, 478 F.3d 1048, 1053 (9th Cir. 2007). The parties argue that we should use a clear error standard of review. The clear error standard applies to the mixed question of law and fact of whether a person should have discovered the existence and cause of their injuries. Colleen v. United States, 843 F.2d 329, 331 (9th Cir. 1987). That case was an appeal from the district court’s ruling on the merits, not an appeal from the grant of summary judgment. We decline to depart from our well-established precedent that we review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Under the de novo standard, a reviewing “`court should make an independent determination of the issues’ and should `not . . . give any special weight to the [prior] determination of'” a lower court. United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 690 (1980) (quoting United States v. First City Nat’l Bank of Houston, 386 U.S. 361, 368 (1967)).

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NEDERLAND
SGP

Rapport-Deetman
De commissie-Deetman heeft een gedegen en onafhankelijk onderzoek gedaan naar de afschuwelijke gevallen van kindermisbruik die onder meer in internaten hebben plaatsgevonden. Het rapport biedt goede handvatten voor preventie in de toekomst. Er zijn waardevolle aanbevelingen gedaan voor het hulp bieden en recht doen aan slachtoffers.

Het is heel belangrijk dat erkenning wordt geboden aan mensen die soms jarenlang hebben gezwegen – of er het zwijgen toe deden toen zij merkten dat hun pijnlijke boodschap niet serieus werd genomen. Velen van hen voelen nog dagelijks pijnlijk de littekens. Uit alle verhalen blijkt telkens weer: seksueel misbruik richt een onvoorstelbare, en vaak ook onherstelbare ravage aan in de levens van mensen.

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NEDERLAND
L1

Ook een groep meerderjarige slachtoffers van misbruik in de rooms-katholieke kerk kan een beroep doen op de compensatieregeling voor minderjarigen.

Het gaat dan bijvoorbeeld om verstandelijk gehandicapten die net als kinderen als weerloze slachtoffers moeten worden beschouwd. Dat heeft het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik in de rooms-katholieke kerk bekendgemaakt.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

UTRECHT (RKnieuws.net) – Vandaag wordt een compensatieregeling van kracht voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik gepleegd tijdens hun meerderjarigheid. Meerderjarigen die ten tijde van het seksueel misbruik golden als zwakzinnig of daaraan gelijk zijn te stellen en meerderjarigen die ten tijde van het seksueel misbruik in een weerloze toestand verkeerden kunnen een beroep doen op de Compensatieregeling voor minderjarigen. Die regeling kent hogere compensatie mogelijkheden.

Er zijn 3 categorieën:
1.In geval van seksueel getinte handelingen of uitlatingen waardoor de lichamelijke of geestelijke integriteit werd geschonden, incidentele betasting van intieme delen daaronderbegrepen, afhankelijk van zwaarte en bijkomende omstandigheden: compensatie tot € 5.000,-.

2.In geval van frequente betasting van intieme delen gedurende een langere periode of anderszins aanhoudende ongewenste seksuele intimiteiten: compensatie tot € 10.000,-.

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NEDERLAND
AD

Slachtoffers die als volwassene zijn misbruikt door een kerkelijk medewerker krijgen ook compensatie van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (RKK). Dat heeft het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK laten weten.

Het gaat om zwakzinnige volwassenen. Daarnaast kunnen mensen die in een weerloze toestand waren ten tijde van het misbruik zich eveneens aanmelden voor de regeling. ‘Het gaat niet om veel slachtoffers, maar ook deze mensen moet recht worden gedaan’, aldus een woordvoerder van het meldpunt.

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TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

SAN ANGELO — The West Texas judge who has presided over the investigation and trials of a polygamist sect has been replaced for this month’s bigamy trial of a former lieutenant to sect leader Warren Jeffs.

In a terse court order, the presiding judge of the 7th Administrative Judicial Region ordered senior Judge Robert Moore of Big Spring to replace state District Judge Barbara Walther for the trial of Wendell Loy Nielsen, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported.

The order gave no reason for the change, and Walther declined to comment, the newspaper reported.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Erie Times-News

SMETHPORT — A Catholic Diocese of Erie priest has been sentenced to two years of probation for having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy in McKean County.

The Rev. Samuel Slocum, 60, was sentenced Monday in McKean County Court, where he was convicted in January of concealment of the whereabouts of a child, the Bradford Era reported Tuesday.

Prosecutors accused Slocum of allowing the boy to visit his residence after the boy’s mother had forbidden it, and of lying to the mother when she asked if her son had gone to his residence.

Slocum was not accused of having sexual contact with the boy.

Testimony in earlier proceeding indicated Slocum had given the teen two iPhones, an iPod and an Apple laptop computer on which they secretly communicated using the parish Wi-Fi connection.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

SAM RIGNEY

02 Mar, 2012

Serial paedophile James Michael Brown was sentenced to six years behind bars in East Maitland District Court today.

Brown, 61, sexually abused 20 victims while he was a volunteer with the Anglican Church at Kurri Kurri between 1974 and 1995.

He pleaded guilty to a string of indecent and sexual assault charges in April last year.

He first went into custody in November last year after pleading guilty to further offences.

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UNITED STATES
The Media Report

Dave Pierre

*EXCLUSIVE* Deposition of SNAP’s Clohessy Revealed! Clohessy Evades Questions and Subverts Court Order While Lawyers Shred Clohessy’s Defense That SNAP is a ‘Rape Crisis Center’

Late today (3/1/12), TheMediaReport.com obtained a copy of the high-profile but carefully guarded deposition given by David Clohessy, the national director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), on January 2, 2012. The deposition was conducted in Clayton, Missouri, as part of an effort to determine the violation of a court-imposed gag order in the case of an accused Catholic priest.

[Click here to read the complete deposition]

The deposition exposes Clohessy as steadfastly refusing to answer many of the questions asked of him and declining to hand over important documents ordered by a judge. Clohessy did this despite losing a number of appeals before being forced to be deposed.

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CANADA
CTV

[with video]

CAMPBELL RIVER – The Federal Government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has made it’s way farther down Vancouver Island, today reaching Campbell River. The commission is crossing the country to hear stories from survivors of Canada’s Indian Residential School System.

More than 150,000 First Nations children are believed to have gone through the system, which removed young children out of the public school system and forced them into native-only facilities across the country.

The commission is hearing from thousands of presenters who are sharing their stories which often include accounts of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A new court filing says Saginaw Bishop Joseph Cistone witnessed the shredding of a document in Philadelphia that listed 35 Catholic priests suspected of sexually abusing children. The revelation prompted a victims advocacy group this week to call for Cistone to be investigated. He is not charged.

The allegations came out in a criminal case involving a possible cover-up of child abuse by Msgr. William Lynn of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where Cistone once worked. The court filing indicates that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died last month, had ordered his aides to destroy the list.

The list came to light last week after defense attorneys filed a 1994 handwritten memo from the late Msgr. James Molloy, an assistant to Bevilacqua, in which he informed the cardinal that the list was destroyed.

“On 3-22-94 at 10:45 AM I shredded, in the presence of Reverend Joseph R. Cistone, four copies of these lists from the secret archives,” Molloy wrote in the memo, according to a copy cited by CNN. “The action was taken on the basis of a directive I received from Cardinal Bevilacqua.” The memo was recently found in a locked safe in an archdiocesan office.

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TENNESSEE
Times News

By Kacie Breeding

Published March 1st, 2012

An Abingdon minister has been arrested for sex offenses allegedly committed against a juvenile female.

A Washington County, Virginia, Sheriff’s Office news release states John Wesley Price, 63, 206 Baugh Lane, Abingdon, Va., was arrested at noon Thursday on four counts of “animate object sexual penetration.”

Sheriff Fred Newman confirmed Price is the minister of Temple Baptist Church, 15157 Inspiration Dr.. He said the offenses allege Price sexually penetrated a former 17-year-old student of Temple Christian School.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

Updated March 02, 2012

Anglican Church officials in the New South Wales Hunter Valley have been accused of ignoring sexual abuse allegations against a former youth worker, who has been jailed today.

Sixty-two-year-old James Michael Brown, known as Brother Jim, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually abusing 20 boys.

Brown showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down.

He pleaded guilty to 27 offences, including indecent and sexual assault and buggery.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Journal

March 2, 2012

By Matt Armstrong, Journal Staff Writer, journal-news.net

CHARLES TOWN – A Harpers Ferry man was arrested earlier this week and arraigned on several felony sexual abuse charges in Jefferson County Magistrate Court, according to court records.

Brian Scott Whitehair, 47, was arrested following an investigation by the West Virginia State Police Charles Town Detachment and the Harpers Ferry Police Department. He was charged with six felony counts of first degree sexual abuse and one misdemeanor count of third degree sexual abuse of juveniles, records show.

Whitehair confessed to sexually abusing three victims officers previously had interviewed, in addition to two other victims.

Patrolman M.T. Schul, with the HFPD, was notified on Sunday of a sexual abuse complaint filed by the mother of a victim. The complaint alleged that, earlier in the day, at a Harpers Ferry church, Whitehair sexually abused the victim in a vacant room, records show.

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AUSTRALIA
The Maitland Mercury

02 Mar, 2012

A volunteer parish youth worker has been sentenced to 10 years jail with a non-paraole period of six years after being charged with a range of sexual offences in the Hunter during the 1970s and 80s.

James Michael Brown was sentenced at East Maitland District Court today.

He was found guilty of offences including homosexual intercourse with a male between 10 years and 18 years, indecent assault on a male, act of indecency, sexual assault, sexual intercourse without consent and buggery.

The Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, the Right Reverend Dr Brian Farran has expressed deep regret for the abuse perpetrated by Brown during his time as a parish youth worker.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

Friday, March 2, 2012

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

A Tracy man who was 13 years old at the time said he punched Father Michael Kelly in the face and apparently broke his jaw after Kelly allegedly tickled him too hard, according to testimony Thursday in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

Joe Bacchetti, 45, testified during Kelly’s civil trial that Kelly tickled him so hard during the 1979 incident that it began to hurt him.

Kelly didn’t stop tickling him even though Bacchetti said he asked him to stop, until Bacchetti finally punched the priest in the face.

Although Kelly continually tickled Bacchetti, the Tracy resident said he was never abused sexually, nor did he observe Kelly sexually abuse anyone else.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
CBS – 60 Minutes

(CBS News) The child sex abuse crisis and cover-up in the Catholic Church of Ireland has taken a devastating toll on one of the most Catholic countries in the world. Some parishes that once saw 90 percent Sunday Mass attendance are down to 2 percent. A country that once produced so many priests that they were considered an important export now doesn’t have enough for its own churches. And, despite the publication of the Murphy Commission’s report, a scathing analysis of the abuse and cover-up, the scandal is not over, says Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, one of the highest ranking church officials to openly criticize the Catholic Church. The archbishop speaks to Bob Simon for a “60 Minutes” report about the effects of the scandal on Ireland to be broadcast Sunday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

When Martin became archbishop, he provided the Murphy Commission with 65,000 files his predecessor had refused to turn over. In his sermons, he confronted the Church head-on for the behavior that caused the scandal. Now the church is at a breaking point; now is not the time to forget he says. “There’s a real danger today of people saying, ‘The child abuse scandal is over. Let’s bury it. Let’s move on,'” he tells Simon. “It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection of children is something that will go on…for the rest of our lives and into the future. Because the problems are there,” says the archbishop.

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Bertone has come under attack because of financial questions and the discontent aroused among diplomats. Among the names of potential substitutes for the post of Secretary of State, is Cardinal Leonardo Sandri

Marco Tosatti
Vatican City

Behind the Vatican Walls is a cunning old fox, which is very close to the upper echelons of the Vatican and told me what is going on in the world’s smallest state. It struck me as a plausible story so I will tell it to you now; bear in mind, however, that all that I was told may not be one hundred per cent true.

The objective of this series of revelations, pseudo-revelations, leaked news (which is mostly dated) and resentments, is to get rid of the Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who will turn 78 next December, and to substitute him with someone else. But with whom? Well, a candidate may have already been picked out; two in fact; but this I will go into at another moment. There are a number of different forces and sentiments that seem to be converging on this operation. Looking at the list of the figures that were described to me as the main characters of this anti-Bertonian environment, they could be defined as “diplomats of the Kabbalah”; obviously not all of the Pope’s diplomats. But some of them, either actively or passively.

The first person to become implicated was Carlo Maria Viganò. This occurred when the famous television programme case broke out following the letter he had addressed to the Pope (which was copied to Bertone). His cool feelings towards the current Secretary of State are due to a number of factors. Rumour has it that Bertone had dangled before him the prospect of a position in the Curia, a promise which he was then unable or unwilling to keep. Rightly or wrongly, Viganò holds him responsible for what he sees as an exile. Viganò had been head of staff in the Secretariat of State for ten years. In short, he knows everything about everyone. His enemies speak of a chest of letters that was supposedly sent to America, which is allegedly being guarded jealously. This could all be fantasy, but it still gives an idea of the climate in recent days. It must not be forgotten that one of his predecessors as Secretary of the Governorate has gone to Spoleto and the other to Loreto, two cities in Italy; or the fact that he could become Nuncio to Washington, the Pope’s most important embassy in the world. But word has it that Viganò wants to return to Rome and this is the reason why he has not given up his Vatican apartment.

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MINNESOTA
The Catholic Spirit

March 1, 2012

The following comments elaborate on the condensed financial statements of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011

By John F. Bierbaum

At June 30, 2011, the financial condition of the archdiocese is improved, and the financial result of activities in the fiscal year then ended resulted in a surplus of $3.4 million. The bulk of the surplus can be attributed to the insurance program ($1.1 million) and appreciation of investments ($1.9 million).

Revenues and gains

Total revenue for 2011 reached $39,951,000 as compared to $40,446,000 in 2010.

After significant increases in 2010, the primary sources of revenue, parish assessments and the Catholic Services Appeal (CSA) were down 6 percent and 7 percent respectively in 2011. The slight decrease in assessments is reflective of decreased contributions at parishes during the economic downturn in 2009 (base year for assessments).

CSA receipts, as reported, are after deductions for rebates to parishes and allowances. On a pre-deduction basis, the CSA generated $9.5 million, greater than goal and prior year by $200,000. Both speak to the generosity of the Catholic community despite the severe economic conditions and slow recovery.

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UNITED STATES
The Media Report

Dave Pierre

According to Al Jazeera opinion writer Rose Aguilar, United States Catholic bishops have been “given a pass on pedophilia” and “widespread child abuse scandals continue to this day.”

What has prompted Aguilar to unleash her venom against the Church? Does it really have anything to do with the awful abuse of children? Not really.

Aguilar does not like the fact that Catholic bishops have forcefully spoken out against the government’s recent attack on religious freedom that attempts to force them to provide contraceptives in health insurance. (Her article is entitled, “The birth control bishops,” if you can stomach it.)

Aguilar realized, however, that she could not attack the Church on her own. So she did what most slippery journalists do when an attack on the Church is in order, and facts and honesty are not all that important.

She went to the angry folks at SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and BishopAccountability.org for support.

First up for Aguilar was SNAP “Outreach Director” Barbara Dorris, who, according to Aguilar, “says the [Church abuse] cover-ups are still happening across the country, yet we rarely hear about them in the national dialogue … ‘Bishops have gotten away with moving these predators from place to place, allowing them to start fresh. They are far more dangerous than the predators,’ [said Dorris].” Uh-huh.

(By the way, the article relays an oft-told story by Dorris of her walking in on a priest in 1991 at her parish abusing a young girl. Dorris has claimed that she called the police and social services, yet the man remains in ministry to this day. Yet, most notably, she refuses to divulge the name of this allegedly abusive priest. Why? Who is “covering up” now?)

Then there was the crabby Terence McKiernan from BishopAccountability.org, who, without a shred of supporting documentation, actually claimed, “Over the course of our conversation, a priest is abusing a child.”

Really? …

The bottom line: Al Jazeera, SNAP, and BishopAccountability.org reveal – again – that honesty and truth are not important when attacking the Catholic Church.

(Thank you for the story tip, Matt!)

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WCNC

by Dave Wagner / NewsChannel 36

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — He is a Charlotte pastor who calls himself an “apostle” and is described by some as “charming” and “charismatic.” But former church members tell the I-Team, there is a darker side to this self-proclaimed disciple.

Pastor Clavon Leonard started the Church of Philadelphia in Charlotte’s Hidden Valley neighborhood. “We live by the word. People do by the word. It’s a church of love,” said Leonard.

But six former church leaders have come forward with accusations of spiritual, physical and sexual abuse. “I would describe him as barbaric,” said former minister of music Talitha Williams. Former church member Ayanna Armstrong described Leonard as a cult leader. “His whole being, that’s all he is, is mind control,” said Armstrong.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Published on Thursday 1 March 2012

*The Church of England has offered an “unreserved apology” for historic cases of child abuse by some members of its clergy.

Officials said it was a matter of “great sorrow and deep regret” and they recognised the harm caused to the victims.

The apology coincided with the publication of another critical report detailing how convicted paedophile Roy Cotton went on to be ordained as a priest.

Cotton was convicted of indecent behaviour with a child in 1954 aged 25 while in training for the priesthood and further damaging allegations were made against him years later.

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AUSTIN (TX)
RushPR

Austin, TX (RPRN) 03/01/12 — New lawsuit filed against Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin – Diocese yet to answer

Houston personal injury law firm Sutliff & Stout, PLLC filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court this week on behalf of a man who was sexually abused by a Catholic Priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in San Saba, Texas. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin is in charge of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The abuse occurred when the man was 11 years old and happened on many occasions until the man moved away from San Saba, Texas.

The lawsuit alleges, among other things, negligence on behalf of the Catholic Diocese in
addition to sexual assault charges against the priest in question.

When asked to comment on this lawsuit, Graham Sutliff was quoted as aying, “Unfortunately, our client’s lawsuit cannot undo the abuse that he suffered. But it can give our client, as well as other victims of sexual abuse, a voice. As a society, we have an obligation to bring these actions to light and hold the parties involved accountable for the abuse that occurred.”

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ISRAEL
YNet News

The Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court extended by six additional days the remand of Rabbi Yigal Krispel, a former principal of a haredi school for girls in Netanya who is suspected of sexually assaulting his students.

The court ruled there are evidence linking Krispel to many offences and said he is a danger to society. It is also feared the suspect will cause obstruction of justice. (Raanan Ben-Zur)

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ISRAEL
Press TV (Iran)

An Israeli rabbi has been charged with repeated sexual assault on students in a girls’ school in a city north of Tel Aviv where he used to work as principal.

Rabbi Yigal Krispel, 47, was arrested last week after two former students at a school for Haredi (Orthodox Jewish) girls filed complaints against him saying he had sexually assaulted them.

The Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court has extended the remand of the Netanya rabbi, who has also been accused of raping a young teacher.

The family of the 20-year-old teacher complained that Krispel had abused his power to have sexual relations with her.

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ITALIA
IVG

Savona. La richiesta di archiviazione per l’ex Vescovo di Savona, Monsignor Dante Lafranconi, indagato per violenza sessuale perché non avrebbe impedito ad alcuni sacerdoti della sua Diocesi di compiere atti di pedofilia, è arrivata sul tavolo del giudice per le indagini preliminari Fiorenza Giorgi. Già da qualche settimana era noto che il pubblico ministero Giovanni Battista Ferro avesse chiesto l’archiviazione dell’inchiesta in questione per prescrizione del reato.

Se non ci fosse stata un’opposizione all’archiviazione, presentata dall’associazione della Rete L’abuso, che tutela le vittime di preti pedofili ed è rappresentata da Francesco Zanardi, il gip avrebbe potuto decidere immediatamente se archiviare o meno. Davanti all’opposizione della Rete L’Abuso il giudice ha invece fissato un’udienza, prevista per i primi giorni di maggio (forse il 2), durante la quale verrà deciso se accogliere la richiesta del pm o meno.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

March 1, 2012

WHEELING – Wheeling Jesuit University spokeswoman Michelle Rejonis on Wednesday said the university is cooperating with federal investigators who seized records from the offices of J. Davitt McAteer, the school’s vice president for federally sponsored research programs.

The records were removed Feb. 15, but Rejonis said she didn’t know which federal agency was involved.

McAteer, a former head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, did not return calls seeking comment. University President Richard Beyer’s office referred all questions on the matter to Rejonis.

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ITALIA
Savona News

“Ci riteniamo soddisfatti di questo risultato in precedenza annunciato dai nostri legali, riteniamo anche che l’opposizione presentata insieme ad una nuova querela per violenza sessuale prolungata dal 1997 al 2003 cambi notevolmente le cose.

La richiesta di archiviazione era motivata nei confronti di diverse vittime tra le quali Francesco Zanardi per prescrizione.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Updated March 01, 2012

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Victoria are calling for a Royal Commission into the church.

Victims’ support groups say they’ve traced dozens of suicides among people molested by Catholic clergymen in the Ballarat area.

And in the wake of an inquiry into child protection, the Victorian Government is scrambling for the right response.

Hamish Fitzsimmons reports

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS, REPORTER: Victoria’s Community Services Minister is under pressure over comments comparing the rights of paedophiles to the rights of victims.

MARY WOOLDRIDGE, VICTORIAN MINISTER FOR COMMUNITY SERVICES (Fairfax Radio): We have to balance the rights of children and families…

NEIL MITCHELL, RADIO HOST: Against the rights of paedophiles.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Central

By
KERRY O’SHEA,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Thursday, March 1, 2012, 8:03 AM

A priest from Co. Down has been convicted for the fourth time of sexually abusing young boys. He has since been sentenced to four years in prison for his crimes.

BBC News reports that one of the victims of Fr. Daniel Curran’s abuse, a man who wishes to remain unidentified, has grappled with the trauma of the incidents that occurred between 1989 and 1994.

“It’s been very traumatic, because you would spend your life in doubt, you would spend your life in fear, you spend your whole life questioning yourself, doubting your ability, you feel dirty,” said the man, who also added that he’s had nightmares most of his life about Curran.

The victim admits that coming forth about his abuse was no easy feat.

“Back then, being a Catholic and having a strong religious background you would never be able to go and tell anyone because you knew that it was wrong,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

The Church of England has offered an “unreserved apology” for historic cases of child abuse by some members of its clergy, including one priest who was allowed to be a Scout leader.

Officials said it was a matter of “great sorrow and deep regret” and they recognised the harm caused to the victims.

The apology, released on Thursday, coincides with the publication of a report detailing how convicted paedophile Roy Cotton went on to be ordained as a priest.

Cotton was convicted of indecent behaviour with a child in 1954 aged 25 while in training for the priesthood and further damaging allegations were made against him years later.

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INDIA
DNA

The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights along with some NGOs and police rescued 42 children who had allegedly been abused at a children’s home in Challaghatta village near Marathahalli.

The home is run by an organisation called the Church of Christ.

The priest of the church, John Charles (42), is being interrogated. The police said that he admitted to having beaten some children for not doing their homework. Some girls have alleged that he also used to misbehave with them. Till the time of going to press, the police were interrogating Charles. A police officer said the children have been spoken to and, in some cases, bruise marks are fairly visible.

The police said that some girls told the rescue team that Charles used to misbehave with them in the kitchen.

They said that at times Charles used to spend the night at the premises. He lives in Cox Town with his family.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

By Chloé Fedio, Ottawa Citizen March 1, 2012

An Ottawa Valley priest faces several sexual assaults charges against pre-teenage boys and one man that date back to 1970, Ontario Provincial Police said Wednesday.

Daniel Miller, 67, was charged with three counts each of gross indecency and indecent assault for offences that occurred between 1970 and 1980.

Miller was ordained priest in the Pembroke diocese in May 1969. He served the Roman Catholic church in Eganville, Arnprior, Deep River and Petawawa prior to 1999, said Bruce Pappin, spokesman for the Pembroke diocese.

Miller currently lives in a residence at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Pembroke but does not serve as a priest for that congregation, Pap-pin said. “He has not been in active pastoral duty for over a decade. He’s living in the rectory at Lourdes church,” Pap-pin said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Examiner

Thursday, March 01, 2012 –

The Church of England has offered an “unreserved apology” for historic cases of child abuse by some members of its clergy.

Officials said it was a matter of “great sorrow and deep regret” and they recognised the harm caused to the victims.

The apology coincided with the publication of another critical report detailing how convicted paedophile Roy Cotton went on to be ordained as a priest.

Cotton was convicted of indecent behaviour with a child in 1954 aged 25 while in training for the priesthood and further damaging allegations were made against him years later.

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CANADA
CFRA

Kristi Soble with Lauren Davis
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Pembroke priest faces charges in relation to a historical sexual assault.

OPP say the man is accused of assaulting preteen boys and an adult man between 1970 and 1980.

Sixty-seven-year-old Daniel M. Miller has been charged with three counts of gross indecency and three counts of indecent assault.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Paul McDonald
March 1, 2012
Opinion

Improvements to child protection will not come cheaply but must be made.

THE figures are staggering: over the past 10 years, reports of child abuse and neglect in Victoria have risen by 45 per cent. Families under-capable and over-stressed, children traumatised by family violence, addictions creating chaotic routines for babies and erratic relationships have resulted in a stretched and struggling system.

There has been no shortage of reviews in this policy area: one every three years on average over the past three decades.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 1, 2012
Opinion

Will Spring Street finally take action to properly protect those at risk?

The Baillieu government should at the very least be congratulated for commissioning and promptly releasing the Cummins report on child protection. By any measure it is a landmark study, laying bare an issue that the previous Labor government shamefully squibbed.

Depending on how this government ultimately responds, the report will be held up as a glowing achievement of the Coalition’s first term or an emblem of yet more political inaction.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

John Ferguson, Victorian political editor
From:The Australian
February 29, 2012

A LOST generation of vulnerable Victorian children has been failed by governments and the legal system, but those responsible for overseeing the systemic departmental chaos will not be pursued by the Baillieu government.

The Cummins inquiry into child protection yesterday backed a ground-up overhaul of child services in Victoria as well as broad changes to the way the Children’s Court operates.

It found the growth in suspected child abuse and neglect was so great that almost one in every four children born last year would be the subject of at least one welfare protection report by their 18th birthday.

The inquiry has recommended greater reporting demands on the clergy, with exemptions for the rite of confession, and a whole-of-government response to the child welfare crisis. It has backed a new Commission for Children and Young People and accused Victorian governments over many years of having failed on crucial early-intervention procedures.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

March 01, 2012

STOCKTON – Witness testimony in a civil lawsuit alleging Lockeford’s the Rev. Michael Kelly sexually molested an altar boy began Wednesday in a courtroom full of the priest’s supporters.

Now a 37-year-old man, the plaintiff is seeking damages from Kelly and the Diocese of Stockton, saying he recovered repressed memories of him being molested by the priest.

The plaintiff was a student at Annunciation School during the mid-1980s and an altar boy at Cathedral of the Annunciation, where Kelly has served.

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