ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Charlotte King

A Catholic bishop in regional Victoria has agreed to be sued for sex abuse claims dating back to the 1960s, standing in the place of his long-dead predecessor.

His stance means victims can bring the Ballarat diocese to court over the actions of the previous bishop who is alleged to have presided over child sex abuse.

On January 1 a new set of guidelines came into effect, agreed to by the nation’s 33 Catholic dioceses, and hundreds of religious orders.

They oblige all Church authorities to provide an entity for victims to sue, such as a trustee, even where the person responsible for overseeing the alleged abuse has since died.

In Ballarat, current bishop Paul Bird has volunteered to put himself forward as the defendant.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

COIMBATORE: A 61-year-old priest, who had faced two accusations of child sexual abuse in the USA, now roams free in Udhagamandalam, where the Catholic Church chose to remain blind to the excesses of Fr Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul.

On May 22, 2015, Jeyapaul had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while serving in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota.

The Roseau County District Court convicted him in June, but had to serve no time in prison beyond what he had done while waiting for court proceedings in the plea deal. He was then deported to India.

There was no conviction in the second case involving a 14-year-old girl in which Jeyapaul faced two counts of first-degree criminal sexual misconduct. The alleged misconduct was in 2004 and 2005.

Jeyapaul’s suspension from priestly duties, imposed in 2010, was lifted recently after consultations between the Ootacamund Diocese and the Vatican, church officials said.

Meanwhile, Jeyapaul is still “on leave” and travelling across the country, Ooty Diocese PRO Fr Sebastian Selvanathan told Express. “We will ask him to speak to you once he returns,” he added.

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MICHIGAN
Central Michigan Life

By Sydney Smith | Published 02/15/16

Before Father Denis Heames was removed from St. Mary’s University Parish, the Central Michigan University student he was having an affair with told a faculty member about their relationship.

That conversation launched a sexual harassment investigation through the Office of Civil Rights and Institutional Equity (OCRIE).

Though the office states it “endeavors to issue a determination” within 60 days of formally launching an investigation, its look into Heames’ behavior began in August 2015 and was completed last month.

Heames was named in a lawsuit filed Jan. 14 in Isabella County Court. Heames, along with St. Mary’s, the Diocese of Saginaw and his spiritual director, Trudy McCaffrey, are accused of battery, defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and negligent supervision and retention.

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ROME
Addicting Info

February 16, 2016

The Catholic Church has a decades long — and likely even longer than that — history of covering up child sexual abuse. They even looked the other way when child pornography was found within the walls of the Vatican itself. And now, despite Pope Francis’s declarations that he would put a stop to this, recent actions and statements by the Church strongly contradict that.

Times Live reports that a set of guidelines drawn up to train newly ordained bishops says the following:

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds.”

So, in other words, these people are telling their new bishops that they don’t have to go to the cops if they find out someone in their charge is molesting kids. That is in sharp contrast to Pope Francis’s earlier statement, which said:

“Everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse.”

Well, your words are high-minded, Pope Francis, but the guidelines regarding this issue are not. Nothing has changed. You people might be pretending to be concerned about the continued victimization of the children within your parishes and under the charge of your priests and bishops, but you aren’t, really. All you care about is the church’s image, and getting butts in the pews and cash in the collection plates.

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OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

An employee working with the outdoor education program that is a rite of passage for Portland sixth graders has been indicted on 54 counts of child sex abuse.

Jared White worked in the Outdoor School program from March 2014 through Oct. 22, 2015. He was a volunteer at Namanu, Sandy River and Arrah Wanna Outdoor School sites between September 2011 and April 2013. In addition, he was a student leader at the Adams Outdoor School site between September 2008 and May 2011.

He never worked at Camp Howard, the Catholic camp that also hosts Outdoor School.

Sixth graders from Catholic schools are part of the Outdoor School program.

The victims in the indictment were acquaintances and not students who attended Outdoor School. But authorities think there may be more victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

BALLARAT survivors of sexual abuse plan to travel to Rome to hear Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the royal commission into child sex abuse, as a result of a crowdfunding campaign.

Cardinal Pell will remain in Rome after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse accepted a doctor’s report that said he was too sick to return to testify in Australia.

Comedian Meshel Laurie and television presenter Gorgi Coghlan started a GoFundMe page to send 15 people, including representatives from the City of Ballarat, survivors and support people to Rome for the hearing.

The campaign exceeded its target of $55,000 after the fundraising page was shared more than 3,100 times on Facebook and Twitter.

On Wednesday morning it was nearing $75,000, including an anonymous donation of $10,000.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[Police in a progress report said priest John O’Reilly continues to deny abusing a minor. He was sentenced to four years probation.]

Este martes se dio a conocer un informe evolutivo realizado al sacerdote John O’Reilly, quien fue condenado a cuatro años de libertad vigilada por abuso sexual reiterado contra una menor cuando ésta era alumna del Colegio Cumbres.

Según publica Emol, Gendarmería concluyó que el sacerdote “mantiene la negación de la ejecución de las conductas ilícitas por las cuales fue condenado“.

El informe corresponde a la observación del condenado entre julio y diciembre del año pasado, documento que fue enviado el mes pasado al Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago. Allí se señala que O’Reilly ha manifestado “apertura a trabajar los contenidos que han sido planteados y que están orientados a identificar y evaluar los factores de riesgo asociados a conductas de transgresión”.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue points out that some in the media are still misreporting the Vatican’s policy on priestly sexual abuse:

Last week, several media outlets reported that the Vatican had adopted a new policy on sexual abuse, attributing the new position to Msgr. Tony Anatrella. The French priest was accurately quoted as saying that the clergy were not required to report suspected abuse cases to the authorities, but the media erred by not stating that this was simply his opinion. It was not, and is not, Vatican policy.

On February 11, we listed four media sources as misreporting this story: Newsweek, Time, UPI, and the Guardian (UK). We are happy to say that Newsweek quickly corrected its story.

Time and UPI have not printed a correction, even though Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, subsequently issued a statement insisting on the “moral and the ethical responsibility” of all clergymen to report suspected abuse cases to the civil authorities.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016

Statement by Judy Jones, Midwest Associate Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest 636-433-2511, SNAPJudy@gmail.com

Kalamazoo Catholic officials kept silent for weeks about the passing of an accused predator priest and made no mention of his alleged crimes in the very short obituary published in the diocesan newspaper.

In 1985, Fr. Carl Anthony Peltz was accused of forcing a 12 year old to drink whiskey and raping him.

In 1991, Fr. Peltz was sent to a treatment center for predator priests in Missouri.

In 1993, diocesan officials reached a $25,000 settlement with the alleged victim.

In 1997, Fr. Peltz was transferred to the Kalamazoo Diocese where he worked as recently as 2009 in at least eight towns (Parchment, Delton, Lacey, Berrien Springs, Decatur, Buchanan, Portage and Niles).
www.BishopAccountability.org

According to Fr. Peltz’s obituary, he died on Dec. 26 last year and was buried at St. Augustine Cathedral in Kalamazoo. But as best we can tell, Kalamazoo Bishop Paul J. Bradley told no one (except for a tiny, 21 word funeral mass notice on the diocesan website). Even if he had put notices in church publications, in the interest of transparency and healing, he should have notified the mainstream media of Fr. Peltz’ passing.

Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Montforton waited to make Fr. Peltz’ death public until Feb 11 (at the bottom of page 11 in a 12 page publication). http://www.lifestorynet.com/obituaries/fr-carl-f-peltz.110175

(Fr. Peltz had originally been ordained in Steubenville.)

We hope anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered, Fr. Peltz’ crimes, or cover ups by his church colleagues or supervisors, will call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

And we hope that, in the future, church officials in Kalamazoo will be more honest with police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public about accused child molesting clerics.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016

Statement by Joelle Casteix of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

We agree with the Vatican on one key fact: the recent disclosure that new bishops are told they need not call police about abuse reports is nothing new.

[The Guardian]

(Exact language: “The Vatican has emphasized that Anatrella’s involvement in the teaching of new bishops did not represent a departure on policy,” according to the Guardian.)

And let no one be misled by Catholic officials who substitute the word “cooperate” for “report.”

In our experience, when church bureaucrats are subpoenaed, and they respond, they call this “cooperation.” That happens sometimes.

But “reporting” is different. “Reporting is when church officials take the initiative and give abuse reports to police and prosecutors. That rarely happens. And that’s far more important.

Again, from the Guardian: “The Vatican has said since 2011 that it was ‘important’ to cooperate with civil authorities. But it still does not support across-the-board reporting of abuse in countries where such notification is not mandatory.”

Finally, Newsweek notes that “An unnamed Vatican source (said) that it was difficult to report abuse in some countries because of a ‘hostile’ relationship between church and state and places with corrupt police forces that did not ensure the presumption of innocence.”

Our message to Vatican officials: “Put up or shut up. Produce the list of those nations and we strongly suspect that victims and Catholics in those countries will be more understanding of church secrecy in child sex abuse and cover up cases. Until you do, this excuse will continue to ring hollow.”

(Laws about asking for donations also vary among nations. Are there countries in which Catholic officials don’t seek contributions? We don’t think so.)

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MINNESOTA
Bring Me The News

Victims of historic sexual abuse have 100 days left to come forward and file an action for damages before the claim window closes in Minnesota.

In 2013, the state lifted the statute of limitations for child sex abuse through the Minnesota Child Victims Act, giving victims a three-year window to file a civil lawsuit seeking damages for abuse that may have happened decades ago.

Previously, a victim of child abuse had to file a lawsuit by the time they were 24 years old, but a temporary window for people aged over 24 was opened after advocates argued it could take many years for victims to come to terms with their abuse.

This window for lawsuits will close on May 25.

The exception is claims against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the deadline for which was moved up to Aug. 3, 2015, by a bankruptcy judge in order to speed up the archdiocese’s financial reorganization.

Victims of sexual abuse from any other Catholic diocese or other institutions in Minnesota still have until May 25 to file.

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ROME
DFW Catholic

Rome, Italy, Feb 16, 2016 / 09:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After recent media reports suggested the Vatican is telling bishops to cover up sexual abuse, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has said that reporting abuse is not just a civil responsibility, but a moral one.

“The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the Church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all,” Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, president of the commission, said in a Feb. 15 statement, quoting Pope Francis.

On behalf of himself and the other members of the commission, the cardinal affirmed that “our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed.”

Even beyond these civil requirements, “we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society,” he said.

Cardinal O’Malley’s statement comes less than a week after some media reports falsely suggested that the Vatican is telling new bishops that they don’t have to report sexual abuse.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Vatican’s commission for the protection of minors has issued a strongly worded statement emphasising that there is a “moral and ethical responsibility” on relevant church authorities and others to report all suspected cases of child sexual abuse to civil authorities.

Commission President Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, said: “As Pope Francis has so clearly stated: ‘The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all’.”

The Cardinal continued “we, the president and the members of the commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society.”

He also said that “as the Holy Father’s advisory commission for the protection of minors, we recently shared with Pope Francis an overview of the commission’s extensive education efforts in local churches over the past two years and reiterated the members’ willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome, including to the annual training programme for new bishops and to the offices of the Roman Curia for their use in their own child protection efforts.”

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ROME/IRELAND
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew, Patsy McGarry

The Vatican has denied any change to its policy over the mandatory reporting of sex-abuse cases to civil authorities, after reports last week of a Vatican training document that advised newly appointed bishops it was “not necessarily” their duty to do so.

Responding to media reports that a Vatican consultant, Paris-based Msgr Tony Anatrella, had made the suggestion to a bishops seminar, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, said the church had a “moral and ethical responsibility” to report abuse.

“We, the president and the members of the commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society,” he said.

The 2010 Guide to Understanding Basic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Procedures Concerning Sexual Abuse Allegations states that “civil law concerning the reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed”. Cardinal O’Malley’s statement basically reaffirms this position.

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ROME
New York Times

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Pope Francis’ top adviser on clerical sex abuse says bishops have a “moral and ethical responsibility” to report all cases of suspected rape, molestation and other abuse to police — even where local laws don’t require it.

A statement released by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley goes beyond the Vatican’s current guidelines for bishops. Those 2010 guidelines say bishops and superiors must report suspected cases where civil reporting laws require it.

O’Malley, who heads the pope’s abuse advisory commission, issued the statement after a recent course for new Catholic bishops on handling abuse cases featured a French monsignor who reportedly said bishops don’t have to report cases. He said it is up to families and victims to do so.

The failure of bishops to turn suspected and known pedophiles over to police is one of the main reasons that the church’s abuse scandal grew to the extent it did, since bishops for decades moved rapists from parish to parish rather than hand them over to law enforcement.

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INDIA
The News Minute

Isn’t it a moral travesty?

Dhanya Rajendran| Tuesday, February 16, 2016

On August 24, 2005, the diocese of Crookton in Minnesota received an anonymous complaint stating that an Indian priest, Father Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, working at the church had sexually assaulted a minor.

A second victim later came forward. Another young girl who had wanted to become a nun had been sexually assaulted by Father Jeyapaul.

The man hailing from Tamil Nadu rushed back to India and after almost a decade of legal wrangles, he was convicted by the Minnesota court and sentenced to a year in prison in 2015.

After serving a shorter prison term, Jeyapaul returned to India a few months ago. And in a move that has shocked child right activists in the state; the Roman Catholic Church of Southern India has now lifted the suspension against him.

He was sentenced a shorter term in jail based on a plea bargain, with the condition that he does not get back to ministerial duties or get in contact with children.

While the international media had first reported on the lifting of the suspension, the Ootacamund Diocese in Tamil Nadu confirmed to The News Minute that the church was not averse to allotting a role to Father Jeyapaul in the church ministry.

Sebastian Selvanathan, Spokesperson, Ooty Diocese told TNM, “He was released from the prison in USA through a court order. His case was then referred to the Doctrine of Faith in Rome. According to the direction from there, the suspension was lifted. He has not been given ministry now, if he is given, it will be given with certain restrictions.”

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

[Cardinal O’Malley reiterates responsibility to report sex abuse – Vatican Radio]

Sexuelle Vergehen an Kindern durch Kleriker müssen nicht nur innerkirchlich angezeigt werden, sondern auch den zuständigen staatlichen Autoritäten gemeldet werden. Das hat an diesem Dienstag Kardinal Sean O´ Malley, Präsident der von Papst Franziskus eingerichteten päpstlichen Kinderschutzkommission, in einer Aussendung nochmals unterstrichen.

Wörtlich betont Kardinal O´Malley: „Wie Papst Franziskus so klar gesagt hat: ,Die Verbrechen und Sünden des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen dürfen nicht länger geheim gehalten werden.`Wir, Präsident und Mitglieder der Kinderschutzkommission, möchten nochmals darauf hinweisen, dass wir unseren durchs Zivilgesetz geregelten Pflichten nachkommen müssen, doch über diese Verpflichtungen hinaus tragen wir die moralische und ethische Verantwortung dafür, Verdachtsfälle von Kindesmissbrauch den zivilen Behörden zu melden, die mit dem Schutz unserer Gesellschaft betraut sind.“

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ROME
The Tablet (UK)

16 February 2016

The statement is in response to allegations in the media about a Vatican training course for new bishops

President of papal commission on sex abuse reminds clergy of obligation to report crimes
The president of the commission established by Pope Francis to advise him on child sex abuse in the Church has released a statement stressing the “moral and ethical responsibility” of clergy to report all suspected cases of abuse to the police.

The statement issued on Monday on behalf of the commission and all its members came in response to media allegations that a Vatican training course for new Catholic bishops featured a speech informing clergy they had no such obligation.

A French Monsignor and psychologist, Fr Tony Anatrella, allegedly told newly-ordained bishops in September 2015 that under Church law they were not required to report sex abuse of minors to public authorities, and that it was the decision of victims and their families.

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ROME
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Tuesday 16 February 2016

A battle is being waged within the Vatican over how senior clergy ought to handle accusations of sexual abuse amid signs that a special commission created by Pope Francis to handle the issue is being sidelined by senior church officials in Rome.

The rift was exposed following a report in the Guardian about a training course that was offered to new bishops last year in which a controversial French monsignor instructed new bishops that it was “not necessarily” their duty to report accusations of abuse to law enforcement authorities if local laws did not require it.

That stance was rejected this week by Pope Francis’s point man on abuse issues, Boston cardinal Seán O’Malley, who heads a special pontifical commission to protect minors.

“We, the president and the members of the commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society,” he said in a statement on Monday.

O’Malley also said that the special commission was committed to “extensive education efforts” within local churches since its founding two years ago, and that its members had reiterated their “willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome”, including at the training courses for new bishops and the offices of the Roman Curia – or bureaucracy.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR
[The Trier diocese has so far paid out 400,000 Euro to victims of sexual abuse.]

Das Bistum Trier hat bislang mehr als 400.000 Euro an Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester gezahlt. Das teilte ein Sprecher auf SWR-Anfrage mit. 90 Opfer hatten bis Ende des vergangenen Jahres Entschädigungsanträge gestellt, der größte Teil wurde laut Bistum bewilligt. Einige wenige seien noch in der Bearbeitung. Im Durchschnitt erhielten die Opfer 5.000 Euro, in Einzelfällen auch mehr. Seit Bekanntwerden der Missbrauchsvorwürfe haben sich insgesamt 125 Opfer beim Bistum gemeldet.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[with video]

February 17, 2016

Neelima Choahan

Comedian Tim Minchin wants Cardinal George Pell to “come home” and face the victims of sexual abuse in Ballarat.

And he doesn’t care if that visit comes even at the cost of getting sued by Australia’s most prominent Catholic.

On Tuesday, Minchin launched a new charity single, Come Home urging Cardinal Pell to “just get on a plane” and head on down to the inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Played on Tuesday on Network Ten’s The Project, the song begins quite innocuously.

“It’s lovely day in Ballarat, I am kicking back, thinking of you,” the song goes.

“I hear that you have been poorly, I am sorry that you are feeling blue.

Australian musical comedian Tim Minchin new charity song urging George Pell to Come Home has drawn strong reactions from …

“…But a lot of people here really miss you Georgy, we really think you ought to just get on a plane. I am sure they will make you feel welcome at the pub in ballart, they just want a beer and a chat.”

But then Minchin tells the Cardinal that he is not a “fan” of his religion, and believes that the clergyman is just being a “god-damn coward”.

“I mean with all due respect dude, I think you are scum and I reckon you should come home,” Minchin sings.

“You pompous buffoon, and I suggest you do it soon.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By CINDY TRAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Conservative TV personality Steve Price has come under fire for defending Cardinal George Pell, who is due to testify at the Royal Commission into the child sex abuse.

Appearing on Channel Ten’s The Project on Tuesday night, the radio host slammed comedian and musician Tim Minchin over his new expletive-filled song titled ‘Come Home, Cardinal Pell‘.

In the charity single, Mr Minchin labels Australia’s most senior Catholic ‘scum’ and a ‘god damn coward’ for not attending the hearing as it ‘stinks to the high heaven’.

However, Mr Price – who appeared on the panel alongside hosts Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar and Waleed Aly – criticised the tune as an ‘insult’ after it debuted on the Network Ten program.

‘Look, obviously, Tim Minchin feels really strongly about that but I just think it’s really disgusting the way he resorted to personal abuse there of George Pell,’ Mr Price said.
‘To write a song like that and use your talent to just simply abuse someone from a distance, I think is just pathetic.’

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Associated Press FEBRUARY 16, 2016

DULUTH, Minn. — The Diocese of Duluth and victims of clergy abuse have agreed to mediation.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in December, saying it needed to protect assets and pay the victims of abuse. Judge Robert Kressel encouraged the parties to work with a mediator and is expected to approve the appointment of Gregg Zive, a federal judge with experience in diocesan bankruptcy cases.

WDIO-TV (http://bit.ly/20XS04v ) reports a diocese official has testified the district has assets of more than $5 million and liabilities of more than $12 million. Mediation is expected to begin May 1 in Minneapolis if neither side objects to the appointment of Zire as mediator.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Breitbart

On Monday, the BBC aired a “documentary” called The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II, suggesting a possible lack of propriety in the revered late pontiff’s friendships with women over the years, and especially with a married colleague, the Polish philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.

The documentary by Edward Stourton, loosely based on a cache of letters from John Paul to Tymieniecka that convey a deep friendship but nothing even remotely sexual, has sparked a flurry of prurient speculation about the Pope, with steamy titles like “Did John Paul II Fall in Love with Married American Academic? BBC to Investigate” and “Did Pope John Paul II Have a Secret Lover?”

Despite talk of the late pope’s “secret relationships with women,” there is nothing in the documentary that is either new or secret, according to papal biographer George Weigel, who has called the frenzy spawned by the BBC a “tempest in a teapot.”

Weigel, who wrote the best-selling biography of John Paul, Witness to Hope, says that the BBC documentary reveals nothing really new about John Paul, but “it does tell us a something about the decline of the BBC as a source of serious television reporting.”

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Posted: Monday, February 15, 2016
KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ | STAFF WRITER

Fomer Catholic preist Dale Tacheny talks about the murder of Irene Garza at the Echo Motel February 28, 2014 in Edinburg. Tacheny claims former priest John Feit told him he killed Irene Garza. photo by joel martinez/ jmartinez@themonitor.com

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 16, 2016

Sean Nicholls
Sydney Morning Herald State Political Editor

NSW will scrap the time limit for civil claims by survivors of child sexual abuse against their abusers.

Attorney-general Gabrielle Upton will introduce legislation to the NSW Parliament on Tuesday which will allow survivors of child abuse claim for damages regardless of when it occurred.

There is currently a three-year limit on bringing civil actions against perpetrators or, if the person was a child at the time, three years after they turn 18.

Victoria scrapped the statute of limitations for civil action by child sexual abuse survivors a year ago.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP

The scrapping of time limits on child abuse compensation claims in NSW are long overdue, says a lawyer who was involved in the notorious Fairbridge school case.

The NSW government has announced new legislation which will remove the limitation period in civil claims, and let child abuse survivors claim for damages regardless of the date of the alleged abuse.

The change is one part of the government’s response to the child sex abuse royal commission’s recommendations.

Slater and Gordon lawyer Roop Sandhu acted for former residents of the Fairbridge Farm School at Molong in country NSW and says the move is a step in the right direction.

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AUSTRALIA
timminchin.com

[with music video]

Hi,
I do hope you enjoy my new song.

Proceeds from its sale will go into this fund: GoFundMe – Send Ballarat Survivors To Rome

You can buy it worldwide now on iTunes and you can
stream it here.

It will soon be up on various other digital music outlets.

It might be rather confusing for non-Australians. I’ll put some info below for yez.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tim Healy
PUBLISHED
16/02/2016

Three people sexually abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth want the Supreme Court to permit them to sue a Catholic bishop.

The case is over the Church’s alleged failure to act to prevent Smyth abusing children.

Michael Counihan, SC for the three, argued it is of significant public importance if the Church had kept “under wraps” facts that would have identified Smyth as being an abuser.

Last November the Court of Appeal granted Bishop Leo O’Reilly orders halting the three actions brought against him in his capacity as representative of the Kilmore diocese, over the Church’s alleged failure to move to stop Smyth’s abuse.

The three – a man, his sister and a cousin – settled Northern Ireland court actions over being sexually abused for years as children by Smyth for £25,000 damages each in 1998. Those cases were against Smyth himself, the Norbertine order and then Cardinal Cathal Daly as representative of the Catholic Church. The £25,000 payments were made by the Norbertines.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

THE former head of the Catholic Church’s defence force diocese is contemplating his future after being acquitted of child sex offences in Perth.

Bishop Max Leroy Davis, 70, went on trial in the West Australian District Court last week, charged with six counts of being grossly indecent with five boys under the age of 15 between 1969 and 1972 at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia.

After several hours of deliberations, the jury returned a not guilty verdict late on Monday.

The Catholic Diocese of the Australian Defence Force said in a statement on Tuesday that Davis, who stood aside while the matter was dealt with by the courts, would “take some time to decide whether to return to public ministry”.

“The Catholic Diocese of the Australian Defence Force strongly encourages any victim of abuse by clergy or staff within the Catholic Church, or any other agency or person, to report the matter to the police and to seek assistance through the dedicated legal and support services.” Davis, a Member of the Order of Australia, testified during the trial that he never thought of children sexually or committed a child sex offence, describing it as wrong and inappropriate. Defence counsel Seamus Rafferty suggested two alternative suspects, who are now dead, including Father Justin, who Davis had a role in removing as rector for inappropriate behaviour.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

The former head of the Catholic Church’s defence force diocese is contemplating his future after being acquitted of child sex offences in Perth.

Bishop Max Leroy Davis, 70, went on trial in the West Australian District Court last week, charged with six counts of being grossly indecent with five boys under the age of 15 between 1969 and 1972 at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia.

After several hours of deliberations, the jury returned a not guilty verdict late on Monday.

The Catholic Diocese of the Australian Defence Force said in a statement on Tuesday that Davis, who stood aside while the matter was dealt with by the courts, would “take some time to decide whether to return to public ministry”.

“The Catholic Diocese of the Australian Defence Force strongly encourages any victim of abuse by clergy or staff within the Catholic Church, or any other agency or person, to report the matter to the police and to seek assistance through the dedicated legal and support services.”

Davis, a Member of the Order of Australia, testified during the trial that he never thought of children sexually or committed a child sex offence, describing it as wrong and inappropriate.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Weber

The former head of the Australian Defence Force’s Catholic diocese is yet to decide if he will resume his role in the military, after being cleared of child sex allegations.

Bishop Max Davis was on trial last week charged with six counts of being grossly indecent with boys at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia between 1969 and 1972.

A jury found the 70-year-old not guilty on all charges, after about four hours of deliberation.

Bishop Davis was a dormitory master at St Benedict’s College.

He had always denied any wrongdoing and denied ever having a sexual interest in children.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Justin Wm. Moyer February 16

Saint Pope John Paul II was the 20th century’s towering super-pontiff. He survived the Nazi occupation of Poland and an assassination attempt. He helped end communism in Europe and, even when plagued by severe health problems, left his mark on the Catholic Church in a papacy that stretched over much of three decades. Metaphorically and physically, he climbed mountains.

This week, however, an unexpected glimpse of the man beneath the white hat came from the BBC. In a new report, the network has shined a light on “secret letters” from John Paul II to a married woman that show an intense, if not necessarily inappropriate, friendship.

The lasting connection between the man once known only as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, a Polish philosopher with three children, began in the 1970s. John Paul II died in 2005; Tymieniecka sold letters from him to her — letters not made public until now — to the National Library of Poland in 2008, and died in 2014.

And, whatever the nature of their acquaintance, John Paul II was extremely devoted to a woman he called “a gift from God.”

In 1976, he wrote to Tymieniecka: “God gave you to me and made you my vocation.” And: “You write about being torn apart … I could find no answer to these words.” And: “If I didn’t have this conviction, some moral certainty of grace, and of acting in obedience to it, I would not dare act like this.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

February 16, 2016

Christopher Knaus
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Former Marist students have urged the school to rename a student house that honours a brother who helped move and protect a known child sex offender in the late 1960s.

Marist College Canberra has faced private calls to change the name of Othmar House, a student house body that honours the former Marist Brother Othmar Weldon, who held the senior position of provincial leader within the organisation in the 1960s and 1970s.

Brother Weldon’s actions came under close scrutiny in the Canberra hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last year.

Damian De Marco, a victim of Brother Kostka, who was named ACT Local Hero of the Year in 2015 for campaigning to prevent child abuse Photo: Jamila Toderas

The royal commission found Brother Weldon had learnt of complaints that Brother John William Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, sexually abused a boy at a school in Lismore.
Brother Kostka admitted molesting the child, but the provincial council, chaired by Brother Weldon, simply issued him a “canonical warning”. He was then shifted to another school, where, disturbingly, he was promoted to principal.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

February 16, 2016

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

CROWDFUNDING has raised more than $55,000 to send victims of sexual abuse to Rome to watch George Pell give evidence to the child abuse royal commission.

But the Royal Commision into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has refused to comment on whether it will force Cardinal Pell to testify in public.

Members of the Ballarat and District Child Abuse Survivors group have called for the commission to ensure the Cardinal is forced to testify publicly, and want to be in Rome to witness it.

Donors have already contributed more than $22,800 just a day after a Go Fund Me site was set up by TV personalities Gorgi Coghlan and Meshel Laurie.

In just 24 hours, more than 340 people had donated to the fund, which is hoped will raise $55,000 to send 15 people to Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
UCA News

February 16, 2016

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued a statement stressing the “moral and ethical responsibility” to report all suspected cases of sexual abuse to the civil authorities.

“The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all,” the cardinal said in a Feb. 15 statement, Vatican Radio reported.

The statement also stressed the commission’s “extensive education efforts” within local churches over the past two years and reiterated the members’ willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome, “including to the annual training program for new bishops and to the offices of the Roman Curia for their use in their own child protection efforts.”

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ROME
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Gregorian University on Monday began its first Diploma Program on the Safeguarding of Minors.

The one-semester course is conducted under auspices of the Centre for Child Protection, as a unit of the University’s Institute of Psychology.

In a speech to the first class of the programme, the Rector of the Gregorian University Father François-Xavier Dumortier, S.J., said it was a “relevant part” of the academic structure of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

“Since 2011-2012, we did our best to confront the sad phenomenon of the sexual abuse of minors – especially within the Church,” Fr. Dumortier said. “Responding to Pope Benedict XVI’s and to Pope Francis’ call to root out this evil, we set up this Centre for Child Protection … In the face of situations and facts that wounded, so deeply, many people but also damaged the Church’s witness and credibility, there was a crucial need to address this challenge.”

The diploma course is designed for those presently working in the field of safeguarding, or who will be doing so in the future. This would include child protection officers for dioceses, religious congregations, and other institutions; as well as those who advise or offer training on the issue in educational institutions such as seminaries, formation houses, and schools.

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MISSISSIPPI
Sun Herald

BY ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.com Twitter: robincrimenews

GULFPORT — A former Stone County preacher is going to prison for 22 full years for molesting a girl over a three-year period, starting when she was 11 years old.

Carlos Smith, 55, of Saucier, was sentenced Monday in Harrison County Circuit Court in Gulfport.

Smith sexually abused the girl in church and in a family member’s home, according to testimony at his recent trial.

Judge Roger Clark ordered Smith to serve his prison term day for day without eligibility for probation or parole. Clark also ordered lifetime registration as a sex offender.

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

By Shane Worrell
Feb. 16, 2016

BENDIGO Bishop Andrew Curnow says he feels a “great sense of shame” about incidents of child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church and believes it faces a tough battle regaining credibility.

Bishop Curnow, head of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo, said the actions of clergymen across the country and the response from bishops aware of abuse had severely damaged the public’s view of the church.

Such actions have been recounted at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in recent weeks.

“I felt a great sense of shame to sit there and look at the way our church behaved,” he said.

“Not only the way it behaved but what appeared to me … to be the inability of the church to deal with it – the absolute mishmash the bishops at the time made of it by not acting decidedly and appropriately.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Review

Tim Minchin has penned a song in his ever so polite, succinct, and yet jaunty way imploring Cardinal George Pell to return to Australia to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Cardinal Pell is apparently too poorly to fly and can’t make it home to give evidence about what he knew, or otherwise, about sexual abuse in the 1980s by priests in the Ballarat diocese.

Minchin said Pell’s excuse to not attend the hearing “stinks to high heaven” and in his single Come Home (Cardinal Pell) asks one of the most powerful priests in the world to: “Come and face the music, Georgie/You owe it to the victims, Georgie”.

Proceeds from the sale of the the single will go to a gofundme.com campaign to help abuse survivors from Ballarat travel to Rome to observe Pell give video evidence to the Commission on February 29.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A financial consultant who had complained about a lack of transparency by a church-owned insurance group resigned last week from his role in the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Settlement talks in the 26-month-old bankruptcy case stalled last month after Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, a church-owned nonprofit, declined to turn over extensive financial records demanded by the consultant, Michael P. Murphy, the managing director of Michigan-based AlixPartners LLP.

Murphy was hired last year to represent the interests of sexual abuse victims who may file claims in the future.

Earlier this month, Murphy told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma of Albuquerque that he would view Catholic Mutual’s financial statement, then give the judge a “thumbs up or thumbs down” decision whether to oversee a future-claims trust fund to distribute money paid by Catholic Mutual.

Murphy gave Thuma a “thumbs down” last week and asked to be relieved as the future-claims representative.

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MINNESOTA
WDAY

By Dan Romano

The Diocese of Duluth and attorneys representing child sexual abuse victims have agreed to enter mediation for victim claims.

The Diocese of Duluth filed for bankruptcy in December, saying the move will allow them to protect assets and pay out what is due to victims. However, Judge Robert Kressel encouraged the Diocese and all parties involved to work with a mediator.

Gregg Zive, a federal judge with experience in diocesan bankruptcy cases, is expected to approved as mediator by Judge Kressel.

“He’s a federal bankruptcy judge out of Nevada, and he has mediated a number of cases like this in Catholic abuse cases across the country where the diocese or religious organization was in bankruptcy. He’s been very successful at that,” said Mike Finnegan, attorney from Jeff Anderson & Associates, the law firm representing a number of the victims in this case.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Tuesday 16 February 2016

Survivors of child sexual abuse are crowdfunding to send representatives to Rome to hear Australia’s most senior Catholic, cardinal George Pell, give evidence before a child sex abuse royal commission via video link from 29 February.

Earlier this month Pell was cleared to give evidence about child sex abuse that occurred within Ballarat parishes while he was an assistant priest at Ballarat East via video rather than in person. The chair of the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse, justice Peter McClellan, made the ruling.

Pell suffers from medical conditions related to hypertension and heart disease, which meant flying could be potentially dangerous, the commission heard.

The decision prompted the comedian and radio and television personality Meshel Laurie, who has spoken to survivors of child sexual abuse and their supporters, to launch a crowdfunding campaign.

She did so with support from Loud Fence, a support group for survivors of child sexual abuse in Ballarat religious institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Ballarat survivors of sexual abuse plan to travel to Rome to hear Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the royal commission into child sex abuse, as a result of a crowdfunding campaign.

Cardinal Pell will remain in Rome after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse accepted a doctor’s report that said he was too sick to return to testify in Australia.

Comedian Meshel Laurie and television presenter Gorgi Coghlan started a GoFundMe page to send 15 representatives from the City of Ballarat, survivors and support people to Rome for the hearing.

The campaign exceeded its target of $55,000 after the fundraising page was shared more than 3,100 times on Facebook and Twitter.

The campaign aimed to raise the funds before the hearing on February 29 and says “the opportunity to face Cardinal Pell is the least our community can do for these brave people who have bared their souls to ensure the world is a safer place for all children”.

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RUSSIA/ISRAEL
RAPSI

MOSCOW, February 16 (RAPSI) – The Supreme Court of Israel has ordered the extradition to Russia of Gleb Grozovsky, a priest from St. Petersburg who stands charged with sexual abuse of children, his lawyer Haim Azencott told RAPSI on Tuesday.

According to Russian investigators, Grozovsky committed sex crimes against several minors in 2011 and 2013.

In 2013, he fled to Israel where he applied for citizenship. However, his application was dismissed.

In April 2014, Grozovsky was put on the international wanted list. Israeli police arrested him in September. In January 2015, a court in Jerusalem ruled that the priest should be extradited to Russia pursuant to the European Convention on Extradition.

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AUSTRALIA
Church Militant

by Bradley Eli, M.Div., MA.Th. • ChurchMilitant.com • February 15, 2016

Australian Bishop Max Davis found not guilty of child abuse dating back to 1969

PERTH, Western Australia (ChurchMilitant.com) – Bishop of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Max Davis, accused of molesting boys almost 50 years ago, was exonerated Monday in the Perth District Court.

Davis, 70, stepped down from his duties as Catholic bishop of the ADF two years ago, when he was charged with six counts of indecent dealing with five male children dating back to events occurring between 1969 and 1972. At that time Davis was dormitory master at St. Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth in Western Australia.

The prosecution alleged that Davis, as dorm master, molested five boys aged 13 to 15 in residence at the college. One former student testified that he was sexually abused while being examined in the college’s first-aid room for a groin injury sustained while playing football. Another man testified he was abused while ill when he stayed in the dorm master’s bed and thought it was part of a medical examination.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, February 15, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, outreach director for SNAP (314 503 0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

A second member of a papal abuse panel is blasting Vatican officials for “great resistance” to child abuse reforms.

Marie Collins of Ireland said she was “horrified, absolutely horrified” to hear that new bishops were told they need not report known or suspected abuse to secular authorities. “It couldn’t be further from best practice if you tried to,” she told the Irish Times in a new interview.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/roman-curia-not-co-operating-with-child-abuse-commission-1.2534608

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/02/15/abuse-survivor-on-vatican-committee-accuses-roman-curia-of-blocking-reforms/

Another panel member, Peter Saunders of the UK, is also critical of the Vatican.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/208717/%E2%80%98on-child-abuse-there-is-no-sincerity-on-francis%E2%80%99-side%E2%80%99

Francis’ handling of the abuse crisis is coming under fire from others too:

—The Global Post: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/208717/%E2%80%98on-child-abuse-there-is-no-sincerity-on-francis%E2%80%99-side%E2%80%99

—The New York Times editorial board: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/opinion/tracing-the-bishops-culpability-in-the-child-abuse-scandal.html?_r=0

—John Allen of Crux: http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/02/07/what-new-catholic-bishops-are-and-arent-being-told-on-sex-abuse/

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Christina Tatu
Of The Morning Call

Marty Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post and a graduate of Lehigh University, will return to his alma-mater Thursday for a free screening and discussion of “Spotlight,” the Oscar Best Picture contender dramatizing the Boston Globe’s investigation into child sexual abuse by the Catholic priests.

As the Globe’s editor, Baron, 61, oversaw the paper’s 2002 investigation exposing the depth of child sexual abuse an and massive cover-up in the Boston Archdiocese.

The investigation earned a Pulitzer Prize, and the digging by the paper’s investigative Spotlight team – for which the movie is named – sparked similar investigations and shocking revelations in archdioceses all over the country.

Baron, whose career included stints at The Miami Herald, New York Times and Los Angeles Times, recently answered questions about the investigation, movie and his time at Lehigh. …

Q. What did you think about the movie’s portrayal of events?

A. I was very pleased with how the movie portrayed things. It was the overall outline of how the investigation unfolded…I think it’s important to recognize it is a movie and not a documentary, so there is some dramatic license.

Q. How much time did producers spend researching for the movie and how much were you involved in that research?

A. (Director Tom McCarthy and writer Josh Singer) interviewed all the journalists who are the central characters. They interviewed us for ‘hours on end,’ they looked at e-mails people had saved and every legal document that was available – and that’s lots and lots of them.

Liev Schreiber (the actor who portrays Baron) came to my office at The Washington Post and we talked for a bit less than two hours. I was able to review the screenplay a couple times and provide my commentary on it, and my colleagues in Boston were also able to review the movie.

Q. What did you think when you learned they wanted to make a movie about the Spotlight team?

A. I never went into this business with the expectation I would be portrayed in a movie, and frankly, I never expected this movie to be made…Even when I read the screenplay, I wasn’t sure it would get made. It was a very difficult movie to finance.

One, it deals with a very sensitive subject and a controversial subject. It doesn’t have any special effects or car chases, and there are no cartoons, none of the stuff that generally draws people to movies today…

Finally, it was at a time when the world got a new pope…The church finally acquired a new pope who was popular with the public, and I thought for sure that would kill off the movie…

Q. What did you think when you first saw the movie?

A. I first saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival (in September 2015). I had not seen it on the big screen until that point. It was a very emotional moment. There were 2,000 people in a gigantic theater (Princess of Wales Theatre). To see and hear the reaction of the audience affected me a lot.

It finally dawned on me that the whole world would know this story…

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UNTIED STATES
South China Morning Post

James Mottram
life@scmp.com

There are many shocking things about Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s new film about the discovery of widespread sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, but perhaps the most shocking thing of all comes at the end.

Fear not, this is not a spoiler. Before the credits roll on this Boston-set story, a caption lists hundreds of cities around the world where such crimes were subsequently uncovered. It will make you gasp with disbelief.

“It’s astounding!” admits Stanley Tucci, one of the stars of Spotlight. “But if you know it’s happening in Boston, you know it’s happening all over the place. If it’s that systemic in one city … the Catholic Church, it’s all connected. It’s all connected!”

He breaks off, aware that he’s beginning to sound like his character, eccentric lawyer Mitchell Garabedian. “It’s not like this is a new thing. It’s appalling. It’s disgusting.”

Spotlight doesn’t just examine how priests targeted children in their parishes. Set in the early 2000s, it showcases how the four-strong investigative team at The Boston Globe uncovered a widespread cover-up within the Catholic Church, as predatory priests were simply removed from one diocese, sent to a treatment centre and quietly reintegrated into another parish “where the abuse would continue”, as McCarthy puts it.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Seán O’Malley, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on Monday issued a statement stressing the “moral and ethical responsibility” to report all suspected cases of sexual abuse to the civil authorities.

Speaking on behalf of all the Commission members, the cardinal said: “The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the Church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all”.

The statement also stressed the Commission’s “extensive education efforts” within local Churches over the past two years and reiterated the members’ willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome, “including to the annual training program for new bishops and to the offices of the Roman Curia for their use in their own child protection efforts”.

Please see below the full statement from Cardinal Seán O’Malley, President of the the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, together with all the Commission Members, issued today the following statement on the obligation to report suspected sexual abuse to civil authorities:

“As Pope Francis has so clearly stated: ‘The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the Church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all’. We, the President and the Members of the Commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society”.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Irene Garza’s family said they are overwhelmed with the news of John Feit’s arrest last week in connection with the rape and murder of their 25-year-old cousin in 1960.

Garza’s first cousin, Lynda de la Viña, broke the family’s silence Sunday with their first official statement. Below is the statement in it’s entirety:

STATEMENT OF IRENE GARZA FAMILY

Statement by Dr. Lynda Y. de la Viña, first cousin of Irene Garza on behalf of the Garza and Cisneros Families (Josie Cavazos, sister; and Nick and Ciro Cavazos, nephews; John de la Viña, first cousin; and the Cisneros first cousins):

“We were overwhelmed with the news of John Feit’s arrest and we continue to stand united after 56 years in the pursuit of justice for Irene. Proverbs 25:2 (King James Bible) says It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. In other words, nothing can be hidden from God, but it is the honour of rulers, to bring to light hidden works of darkness. We express our deep appreciation to the McAllen Police Department, The Texas Rangers, and the District Attorney’s office for their focused and relentless pursuit of justice for Irene.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

When abuse victim Marie Collins claims the Roman Curia is frustrating efforts to implement decisions which will make the church a safer place for children, we must take notice

A feature of the clerical child abuse scandals that emerged in Ireland over recent decades has been the central role women played in bringing them to light. As pertinent has been the male-determined legalistic mindset they’ve had to deal with in response. The latter has consistently favoured structure over the suffering of children and its prevention.

Next Monday will mark the 20th anniversary of the broadcasting by RTÉ of Dear Daughter, the documentary wherein the late Christine Buckley and other women detailed their experiences as children in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage. What was intended as a feel-good story of orphan girl meeting long-lost father became something more explosive at the insistence of Ms Buckley; then also lobbying politicians to help all who had been in such institutions as children.

Then too the late Mary Raftery, with Sheila Ahern, was at work on her ground-breaking States of Fear series which recounted the horrors of what had been going on in those same residential institutions for children. In 2002 her Cardinal Secrets programme exposed the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese.

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MISSOURI
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – An ex priest, John Feit faces murder charges from a 1960 Texas case, and he has ties to St. Louis.

Last week, Feit was charged with killing Irene Garza. Evidence linked him to the case years ago, but the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP’s David Clohessy, says he was moved to St. Louis and Ava Missouri.

Clohessy says “It’s going to be tough for prosecutors to resolve a 56 year old murder case. Every single victim, or witness, or whistleblower, or anybody who was hurt by Father Feit or who might have information about his crimes really needs to come forward. It’s possible that Father Feit might have hurt a woman while he was here in St. Louis.”

Feit also pleaded no contest to assaulting another young woman in Texas, just days before Irene Garza was killed.

A former monk, says Feit confessed to the murder during counseling sessions in the 1960’s, after being sent to an Ava Missouri Monastery, following the murder.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Ed Stourton
BBC News

Pope John Paul II was one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century, revered by millions and made a saint in record time, just nine years after he died. The BBC has seen letters he wrote to a married woman, the Polish-born philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, that shed new light on his emotional life.

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka was a great hoarder, and she seems to have kept everything relating to her 32-year friendship with Saint John Paul. After her death, a huge cache of photographs was found among her possessions. We are used to seeing John Paul in formal papal clothing amid the grandeur of the Vatican, and yet here he is on the ski slopes, wearing shorts on a lake-side camping trip, and, in old age, entertaining privately in his rather sparse-looking living quarters.

Even more revealing is the archive of letters that Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka sold to the National Library of Poland in 2008. These were kept away from public view until they were shown to the BBC.

When the two met in 1973, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla – as he then was – was the Archbishop of Krakow. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka was Polish by birth, and, like him, had endured the searing experience of the Nazi occupation during World War Two. After the war she left to study abroad and eventually pursued an academic career as a philosopher in the United States, where she married and had three children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II – video which can only be seen in the UK.]

Hundreds of letters and photographs that tell the story of Pope John Paul II’s close relationship with a married woman, which lasted more than 30 years, have been shown to the BBC.

The letters to Polish-born American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka had been kept away from public view in the National Library of Poland for years.

The documents reveal a rarely seen side of the pontiff, who died in 2005.

There is no suggestion the Pope broke his vow of celibacy.

The friendship began in 1973 when Ms Tymieniecka contacted the future Pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Krakow, about a book on philosophy that he had written.

The then 50-year-old travelled from the US to Poland to discuss the work.

Shortly afterwards, the pair began to correspond. At first the cardinal’s letters were formal, but as their friendship grew, they become more intimate.

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UNITED STATES
Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Open Road just got this testimonial for Spotlight from Carl Bernstein, who with Spotlight posterBob Woodward led the Washington Post investigation that traced the Watergate burglary all the way to the Nixon White House and was immortalized in All The President’s Men. They’d been trying to get him to see the movie, and finally he rang up producer Michael Sugar with this quote: “Spotlight is a film that demonstrates finally, in the era of Twitter, why we need great reporting: more than ever—and shows how real journalism is done, with all its difficulty and complexity and, especially, the moral ambiguities and choices a truly free press must deal with. Ultimately, as Spotlight makes clear, the press remains our last chance at holding institutions accountable through the best obtainable version of the truth.”

What is intriguing about this endorsement during the Best Picture voting week is that, the whole time director Tom McCarthy, his co-writer Josh Singer and the entire cast were out promoting Spotlight, they assiduously steered clear of trying to compare themselves to All The President’s Men, the 1976 Alan J. Pakula-directed film about the Woodward-Bernstein Washington Post triumph that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. That reticence is understandable, given that All The President’s Men is considered one of the best American pictures ever made. But there are valid grounds for comparisons: Both are journalistic procedural story lines; Watergate was a local story for the Washington Post, just the way that the Catholic Church pedophile-priest scandal was a local story for the Boston Globe‘s Spotlight team. In both cases, taking on a dominant institution in town — the White House and the Catholic Church — would have ended careers had the reporters not nailed each story to the tree and forced historic reforms.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 15, 2016

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

An ex-priest who was just charged with raping and murdering a beauty queen spent time in St. Louis, a daily newspaper disclosed yesterday. We fear he may have hurt a woman in here too.

[The Monitor]

We urge Missouri Catholic officials, especially St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson, to

— disclose where in St. Louis Feit was, and

— aggressively beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward to law enforcement so the full truth about this heinous crime can be uncovered.

Last week, John Feit was arrested in Phoenix for killing a 25 year old parishioner in McAllen, Texas in 1960. Two years later, he pled “no contest” to assaulting another young woman.

[The Monitor]

After Irene Garza’s murder, Catholic officials quietly moved Feit several places including St. Louis and Ava Missouri, according to The McAllen Monitor. In Ava, he reportedly admitted, in detail, several times, how he killed Garza.

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IRELAND
Catholic Herald (UK)

by David V Barrett posted Monday, 15 Feb 2016

Marie Collins said the Curia has shown ‘great resistance’ to proposals made by the the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors

The Curia is blocking improvements in the handling of abuse cases, according to a member of the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Marie Collins, who was abused when she was 13 by the chaplain at Dublin’s Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin in 1960, has been a member of the abuse commission for two years.

In an interview with the Irish Times, she has expressed her frustration that little is being done by the Curia to push through proposals made by the commission, despite Pope Francis’s support for action.

A Vatican tribunal was set up last year to hold bishops to account on the handling of abuse cases, but Collins says it’s implementation has been slow to materialise.

“We as a commission put forward the proposal. It went to the Council of Cardinals, they approved it. It went forward to the Pope. He approved it. It was announced in the press, then it went to be implemented and that’s where the brick wall is. The implementation is the problem,” Collins said.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

L’association “La parole libérée”, qui regroupe les victimes du prêtre Bernard Preynat, accusé de pédophilie sur des scouts mineurs qu’il avait en charge entre 1986 et 1991 dans la région lyonnaise, a décidé de porter plainte contre l’Archévêque de Lyon, annonce aujourd’hui FranceTVinfo.

L’association met en cause directement Monseigneur Barbarin pour n’avoir pas dénoncé à la justice les actes de pédophilie dont il a eu connaissance “vers 2007-2008”, selon ses dires sans La Croix la semaine dernière.

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FRANCE
Europe 1

[The association called La parole liberee (liberated speech), which includes victims of Bernard Preynat, criticized the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon for not acting when he learned the crimes of pedophile priest. The associated said it intends to file a complaint against Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon.]

L’association “La parole libérée“, qui regroupe les victimes de Bernard Preynat, reproche à l’archevêque de Lyon de ne pas avoir agi lorsqu’il a appris les crimes du prêtre pédophile.

Cette fois, c’est l’institution qui est en cause. L’association “La parole libérée”, qui regroupe les victimes du prêtre auteur d’actes pédophiles Bernard Preynat, a manifesté son intention de déposer une plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon, Philippe Barbarin. Le prélat se voit reprocher de ne pas avoir alerté la justice des exactions de l’ancien prêtre du diocèse de Lyon, mis en examen depuis fin janvier pour “agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de moins de 15 ans par personne ayant autorité”.

“Des faits anciens pour lesquels il n’y avait jamais eu de plainte”. Dans un entretien accordé à La Croix, le cardinal Barbarin dit avoir été mis au courant des crimes du père Preynat “vers 2007-2008”. Il explique s’être alors expliqué avec le prêtre pédophile, qui le convainc de son innocence. “Il s’agissait de faits anciens pour lesquels il n’y avait jamais eu de plainte, ni aucun indice de récidive”, ajoute-t-il, précisant avoir recueilli en 2014 un premier témoignage de victime. “Ma seule préoccupation est qu’aucun mal ne soit plus jamais commis.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

The Roman Catholic church has lifted the suspension of a Tamil Nadu priest convicted last year of sexually assaulting a 14 year-old girl in the US more than a decade ago.

The suspension of Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, above, was lifted after the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in Tamil Nadu consulted with church authorities at the Vatican, said Rev Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese.

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund (Ooty) had referred Jeyapaul’s case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the suspension was lifted on the church body’s advice, he added.

The Vatican declined immediate comment.

Jeyapaul was sent to Minnesota in 2004. He was suspended in 2010 after being charged with sexually assaulting two girls who were both 14 at the time.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Stephen Moss
@StephenMossGdn
Monday 15 February 2016

‘More smoke than fire,” says the Vatican of Panorama’s programme about The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II. For once, it’s hard not to agree with the cardinals. For more than three decades, Pope John Paul – the Polish pontiff who oversaw the Catholic world for 27 years and is being fast-tracked to sainthood – carried on an intense correspondence with Polish-born American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka. They met frequently, collaborated on books, wrote each other what were to all intents and purposes love letters, but it seems they never … how can I put this … actually did it. John Paul’s vow of celibacy remained intact – as far as we know, anyway.

If that is the case, it would seem to strengthen the case for sainthood, rather than weaken it. Clearly, they loved each other; they had plenty of opportunity – numerous meetings à deux, not least while Tymieniecka was translating John Paul’s book The Acting Person (her translation is controversial and the real story may be that she screwed up the book). But we are led to believe that nothing ever happened. Certainly, Panorama could find no evidence. It’s a miracle.

The personal lives of modern popes are largely dull – hence the interest in these letters. If a cardinal had a love child, the rest of the conclave would almost certainly know about it and his chances of election would be minimal. More fire than smoke. The Vatican may be secretive, but it’s not stupid, and papal candidates are expected not to have too much personal baggage.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Now

Monday 15th of February 2016

An Executive agreement to set up a working group to make recommendations on a proposed inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes/Magdalene Laundries has been welcomed by Sinn Fein MLA Maeve McLaughlin.

An inter-departmental working group led by the Department of Health has been set up to make recommendations on the scope of any proposed inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene laundries.

The working group will bring its recommendations to the Executive within six months.

Welcoming the announcement, Miss McLaughlin (pictured), the chairperson of the Stormont Health Committee, said the move was a “step forward” for all those who had suffered “greatly” in such homes.

She added: “Last week my party colleague Jennifer McCann met with a number of individuals and groups who were directly affected by the abuse they suffered in Mother and Baby Homes and listened to their experiences.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Rachel Baxendale
Reporter
Melbourne

Catholic Church sex abuse victims say that if Cardinal George Pell will not travel to Australia to give evidence at the child abuse royal commission, they will go to Rome to watch him testify.

Earlier this month, commissioner Peter McClellan accepted the evidence from the cardinal’s lawyers that a worsening heart condition would prevent the 74-year-old attending a third public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat, which is due to begin in Sydney at the end of the month.

Cardinal Pell will instead give evidence via videolink from Rome, where he manages the Vatican’s finances.

A group of victims, including Andrew Collins, Anthony and Chrissie Foster, Paul Levey, Maureen Hatcher, David Ridsdale and Stephen Woods, yesterday called on the commission to ensure Cardinal Pell gives evidence under conditions as close as possible to an Australian court setting.

“While it was always preferable that Cardinal Pell appear in person, we accept the ruling of the commission and seek to move forward in the most equitable fashion possible,” the group said.

“Attending in person was an opportunity for the cardinal to ­ensure the evidence given was unambiguous and within a courtroom setting.

“It was also an opportunity to provide direct ­responses to the survivors of the crimes committed under the auspices of the Catholic Church.”

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IOWA
KWQC

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KWQC) – An ex-priest who was arrested last week and charged with raping and murdering a beauty queen in Texas over 55 years ago also spent time in Dubuque. David Clohessy, Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says the group fears he may have hurt a woman in Iowa too.

Last week, John Feit was arrested in Phoenix for killing a 25-year-old parishioner in McAllen, Texas in 1960. Two years later, he pleaded “no contest” to assaulting another young woman.

After Irene Garza’s murder, SNAP says Catholic officials quietly moved Feit several places including “a monastery in Dubuque, Iowa,” according to a 7,100 word investigative report on the case in Texas Monthly.

SNAP argures that even though Feit’s time in Iowa was allegedly “brief,” it takes just seconds to assault a vulnerable person. They say even if he did not hurt a single Iowa woman, “the prudent, caring move now would be for Iowa Catholic bishops to use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to urge anyone with information or suspicions about Feit to call secular authorities.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Matt Sepic · Feb 15, 2016

Advocates for clergy abuse victims are criticizing a decision by Catholic church officials in India to reinstate a priest convicted of sexual assault in Minnesota.

After he was extradited to the U.S., the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul pleaded guilty last year to assaulting a 16-year-old girl in Greenbush, Minn., in 2005.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Ootacamund told The Associated Press that Jeyapaul’s suspension was lifted following approval from the Vatican.

David Clohessy of the victims group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests says Jeyapaul should have been banned from ministry permanently.

“I think this convicted predator is being put back on the job for the same reason that bishops continue to conceal child sex crimes all across the globe,” Clohessy said, “simply because they can.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Aodhan O’Faolain
PUBLISHED
15/02/2016

Three people sexually abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth want the Supreme Court to permit them sue a Catholic Bishop here over the church’s alleged failure to act to prevent Smyth abusing children.

If the church kept “under wraps” facts that would have identified Smyth as being an abuser of children, that is a matter of “significant public importance” entitling his side to appeal to the Supreme Court, Michael Counihan SC, for the three, said.

The Court of Appeal last November granted Bishop Leo O’Reilly orders halting the three actions brought here against him, in his capacity as representative of the Kilmore diocese, over the church’s alleged failure to move to stop Smyth’s abuse.

The three – a man, his sister and a cousin – settled Northern Ireland court actions in 1998 for Stg £25,000 damages each over being sexually abused over years as children by Smyth.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Marie Collins is tired, not surprisingly. Dealing with the grinding, mechanical mindset she has encountered again and again at senior levels in the Catholic Church would have long since killed off the determination of a lesser person.

In her seventh decade, she has spent the last three of those focused on one thing – making the Catholic Church a safer place for children. In her own young life she knew it to be otherwise. She later discovered the lengths to which it would go to protect itself, even if that meant further violation of the innocent.

She was aged 13 in 1960 when she was sexually abused by the then chaplain at Dublin’s Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. He has since been convicted of the crime and of the abuse of other children.

In the 1980s, while receiving counselling for her abuse, she was advised to report it to church authorities. The priest she approached refused to take details and implied the abuse was her fault. “Shattered”, she returned to silence for 10 more years.

Prompted by the furore following the jailing of Fr Brendan Smyth in Belfast, after a 40-year career of abusing children, and fearful that her own abuser might still be active, she went to Dublin church authorities in 1995.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor February 15, 2016

One could have an argument about this, I suppose, but I’m going to state the claim baldly anyway: There’s no public figure in the world today with an image defined by a more misleading soundbite than Pope Francis, whose signature line from almost three years ago remains, “Who am I to judge?”

Uttered in connection with his attitude toward gay people, that celebrated phrase has been taken to suggest an accepting and laid-back sort of pontiff, more or less “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” in a white cassock.

Reality couldn’t be more different.

In truth, Francis is one of the most “judgmental” figures around, in the sense of never pulling punches when he thinks something is wrong. We’ve had several stinging reminders during his current trip to Mexico, from his thundering denunciation of drug dealers with their “hands drenched in blood” to his strong pleas for justice for immigrants and indigenous persons.

There’s yet another constituency in Mexico right now feeling rather thoroughly judged by the pontiff, and, for the record, found not altogether up to snuff: the country’s roughly 170 Catholic bishops.

In a remarkable 4,500-word address to the bishops on Saturday, one of the most developed and detailed speeches of his papacy, Francis laid out a vision of the kind of prelate he believes the Church needs today — and left little doubt that it’s not always the kind of shepherd it actually has.

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FRANCE
Liberation

[Cardinal Philippes Barbarin has been accused of not reporting a suspect pedophile priest.]

Par Bernadette Sauvaget — 12 février 2016

Le cardinal Barbarin accusé de non-dénonciation de pédophilie

Relativement épargnée ces dernières années par le scandale de la pédophilie, l’Eglise catholique en France est à la veille d’une grande tempête. En cause, l’un des plus puissants et médiatiques évêques de l’Hexagone : le cardinal-archevêque de Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, grand pourfendeur du mariage pour tous.

«Dans les prochains jours, des plaintes vont être déposées contre lui pour non-dénonciation de faits de pédophilie», indique à Libération François Devaux, le président de l’association La Parole libérée. Fondée en décembre, elle regroupe les personnes qui auraient été victimes du père Bernard Preynat, un prêtre du diocèse de Lyon, mis en examen le 27 janvier pour «agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de moins de 15 ans par personne ayant autorité».

Les faits (reconnus par l’accusé) se seraient produits entre 1986 et 1991 dans le cadre d’un groupe de scouts d’une paroisse de Sainte Foy-lès-Lyon. «L’affaire Preynat est désormais dans les mains de la justice. En revanche, l’attitude de l’évêque de Lyon a été déplorable. Il l’a laissé en poste jusqu’en août 2015 et au contact des enfants, un prêtre dont il connaissait les agissements», souligne le président. Il précise que les faits ne sont pas prescrits.

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FRANCE
La Vie

[The case grows. While the diocese of Lyon announced in October 2015 that one of its priests was impeached and indicted for sexual abuse of minors, a victims association was constituted and put into question the silence the diocese and Cardinal Barbarin.]

LAURENCE FAURE
CRÉÉ LE 12/02/2016

L’affaire prend de l’ampleur. Alors que le diocèse de Lyon a annoncé en octobre 2015 qu’un de ses prêtres était destitué et mis en cause pour abus sexuels sur mineurs remontant à plus de 25 ans, une association de victimes s’est constituée, mettant notamment en cause le silence du diocèse et du cardinal Barbarin.

De quoi s’agit-il ?

Le père Bernard Preynat, septuagénaire, prêtre du diocèse de Lyon, est soupçonné d’avoir commis des attouchements sexuels dans les années 1980, sur des scouts âgés de 7 à 11 ans, dans le cadre des activités paroissiales de la paroisse Saint-Luc à Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, où il était vicaire de 1972 à 1990. Quatre plaintes ont été déposées en mai 2015, et certainement « plusieurs autres à venir », prévient François Devaux, ancienne victime (en 1990, à l’âge de 11 ans), joint par téléphone, qui rappelle que « techniquement », toutes ne sont pas « victimes » au sens juridique du terme « car il y a prescription » – celle-ci s’appliquant 20 ans à compter de la majorité de la victime.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Priest Diego Rota is arrested and charged with sex with minors.]

Solza, Arrestato Don Diego Rota: Sesso Con Minori, Le Intercettazioni

Lombardia
redazione web – 13 febbraio 2016

Le intercettazioni telefoniche tra il prete di Solza, don Diego Rota, e le sue due vittime minorenni: uno smartphone in regalo in cambio di sesso. Gli incontri avvenivano spesso al cimitero di Seriate

Stupore, sgomento e profondo dolore. Confidiamo nella giustizia, vogliamo che tutto il cuore che la verità si affermi”. Questa la nota con cui la curia bergamasca ha replicato alla notizia dell’arresto di Diego Rota, giovane parroco – ha 45 anni – di Solza, piccolo Comune di meno di 2000 abitato che si trova nell’Isola, ad una quindicina di chilometri dal capoluogo.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[More and more people have stopped believing because of the pedophilia problem in the Catholic Church. They see pedophilia as the Anti-Christ.]

Sempre più persone smettono di credere. La pedofilia nella Chiesa è l’Anticristo, una piaga che va sanata con denunce immediate.

“Troppi preti pedofili, basta! Smetto di credere in Dio”, capita spesso di sentire questa frase lanciata tra i passanti, per le strade del centro o in metropolitana. Ormai, la gente è sfiduciata, ha smesso di credere nella figura del sacerdote e di conseguenza ha deposto anche la fede. Nulla di più sbagliato. La religione è una pratica, ma la fede è un sentire. Cosa ha a che fare con i preti pedofili? Dietro l’abito talare si nasconde sempre un uomo con pregi e difetti umani, questo non va mai dimenticato.

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MEXICO
El Pais

[The curia does not smell of sheep. This morning, the shadowy figure of the Archbishop Primate of Mexico Norberto Rivera in the back seat of the popemobile was moving portrait of the uneasy relationship between Francis and the conservative Mexican hierarchy; and especially with the wing of Rivera, who at the time of John Paul II was powerful but in the last ten years has been declining, especially for an ominous reason: The way in which he defended to the hilt, the Mexican and founder the multimillion congregation of the Legionaries of Christ Marcial Maciel Degollado, icon of the Church pedophilia.]

Esta mañana, la figura sombría del Arzobispo Primado de México Norberto Rivera en el asiento de atrás del papamóvil era el retrato en movimiento de la incómoda relación entre Francisco y la conservadora jerarquía mexicana; y muy especialmente con el ala de Rivera, que en tiempos de Juan Pablo II fue poderosísimo pero en los últimos diez años ha ido menguando, sobre todo por una razón ominosa: la manera en que defendió, a capa y espada, al mexicano y fundador de la multimillonaria congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo Marcial Maciel Degollado, icono de la pederastia eclesial.

La curia que no huele a oveja Norberto Rivera, el cardenal que no quiso escuchar a las víctimas

“Norberto fue un cachorro de Maciel. Cuando fue ungido cardenal hizo su fiesta en la casa de la Legión de Cristo en Roma. Y aunque sigue manejando la arquidiócesis más grande del mundo, ahora todos saben que es un mariscal de la derrota”, afirma el antropólogo experto en religión Elio Masferrer.

Sobre el cardenal Rivera pende la sospecha de haber encubierto a lóbregos curas como Carlos López Valdés y Nicolás Aguilar, acusado de actos como convencer a un niño de que si no le hacía sexo oral su madre podría morirse o violar a otro en la rectoría mientras se escuchaba oficiar misa en el templo. Otros casos –estos ajenos a la incumbencia de Rivera– son los del sacerdote Eduardo Córdova, que se calcula que abusó al menos de 20 menores y está prófugo, y el de Gerardo Silvestre, supuesto violador de niños indígenas. “México tiene a los pederastas más crueles de la Iglesia”, ha dicho Alberto Athié, un exsacerdote de la propia Arquidiócesis de México convertido en valeroso catalizador de denuncias de víctimas, y que exige que el Vaticano entregue a los violadores a la justicia civi

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FRANCE
BFM TV

[avec video]

[Cardinal Barbarin could be prosecuted for “non denunciation of pedophilia”. One of the victims of sexual assault by Father Preynat father in the 90s decided to press charges against the Archbishop of Lyon, one of the heads of the Catholic Church in France. He said the cardinal has maintained the priest in his post despite the allegations.]

TEMOIGNAGE BFMTV – L’une des victimes d’agressions sexuelles du père Preynat dans les années 90 a décidé de porter plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon, l’une des têtes de l’église catholique en France. A travers son association la Parole libérée, il dénonce le fait que le cardinal ait maintenu le prêtre pédophile dans ses fonctions en dépit de son passé. BFMTV l’a rencontré.

François Devaux a été victime d’agression sexuelle en 1990 par le père Bernard Preynat alors qu’il était jeune scout. A l’époque, ses parents avertissent l’Eglise, le curé est alors affecté à d’autres fonctions. L’histoire aurait pu s’arrêter là mais il y a quelques mois, le jeune père de famille découvre ce qu’est devenu son agresseur.

“Doyen jusqu’en août 2015”

“Pour la première fois de ma vie, j’ai tapé sur Google le père Bernard Preynat et j’ai vu qu’il était doyen jusqu’en août 2015 et qu’il donnait des cours de catéchisme à des petits enfants”, rapporte-t-il.

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FRANCE
Riposte Catholique

[Victims of Father Preynat wish to file a complaint against the Archbishop of Lyon for failure to report a statutory rape offense.]

Une affaire compliquée qui n’est pas sans rappeler l’affaire Mgr Picon. Sans diminuer les manquements des prélats dans cette affaire, il est difficile de ne pas comparer le profil dérangeant de ceux que l’on voudrait mettre en accusation.

Des victimes du P. Preynat souhaitent porter plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon pour non-dénonciation d’infraction sexuelle sur mineur

Alors que le cardinal Philippe Barbarin dit avoir été mis au courant « vers 2007-2008 », des « comportements » d’un prêtre lyonnais mis en examen pour des agressions sexuelles sur de jeunes scouts entre 1986 et 1991, des victimes de ce prêtre, le P. Bernard Preynat, pourraient porter plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon pour non-dénonciation d’infraction sexuelle sur mineur.

« Nous porterons plainte pour non-dénonciation de faits de pédophilie en fin de semaine prochaine ou début de semaine suivante », explique François Devaux, président de l’association La Parole libérée, fondée en décembre pour regrouper les victimes du P. Preynat.

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MEXICO
La Jornada

[Outraged by the presence of Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera with Pope Francis on his arrival in Mexico, Juan Carlos Cruz Chellew, victim of sexual abuse of Catholic clergy and one of the most important Latin American complainants to the Holy See, said he is very disappointed the pope . The presence of Cardinal Rivera is a symbol that the Pope does not take importance the victims of priestly pedophila. He said the cardinal has protected Mexican priests and abusers.]

Sanjuana Martínez
Especial para La Jornada
Periódico La Jornada
Domingo 14 de febrero de 2016, p. 8

Indignado por la presencia del cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera junto al papa Francisco a su llegada a México, Juan Carlos Cruz Chellew, víctima de abusos sexuales del clero católico y uno de los más importantes denunciantes latinoamericanos ante la Santa Sede, dice sentirse muy decepcionado del pontífice.

“La presencia del cardenal Rivera es símbolo de que al Papa no le importamos las víctimas de pederastia sacerdotal. El cardenal es un monstruo para todos nosotros porque ha protegido a los curas mexicanos abusadores, y pasearse con él en el papamóvil y verlos juntos como grandes amigos me produce repulsión y un dolor enorme. Ambos se burlan en nuestras caras. Al Papa se le cayó su máscara de sacerdote bondadoso; no le interesan las víctimas de pederastia clerical”.

Desde hace 20 años, el cardenal Rivera Carrera ha sido denunciado ante el Vaticano por víctimas de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes. Lo acusan de no solamente proteger a los perpetradores con sotana, sino de ser cómplice de sus crímenes.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[BBC documentary: Pope John Paul II is said to have close links to women.]

Über Jahrzehnte soll Papst Johannes Paul II. in engem Kontakt mit einer verheirateten Frau gestanden haben. Das berichtet die BBC. Es soll gemeinsame Skiferien und Campingausflüge gegeben haben.

Papst Johannes Paul II. soll laut einem Bericht der BBC über viele Jahre eine enge Verbindung zu einer verheirateten Frau gehabt haben. Demnach war die Beziehung mit der Philosophin Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka rein platonisch; es gebe keinerlei Hinweis darauf, dass der spätere Papst das Zölibat gebrochen habe. Die BBC-Doku, die im deutschsprachigen Fernsehen am Dienstagabend auf Arte ausgestrahlt wird, stützt sich auf Hunderte Briefe und Fotos, die die jahrzehntelange Beziehung dokumentieren.

Der spätere Papst und Tymieniecka lernten sich demnach 1973 kennen; die Frau hatte sich nach einem Buch erkundigt, das er geschrieben hatte. In den folgenden Jahren hätten sich die Frau und der damalige Erzbischof von Krakau öfter getroffen und häufig Briefe geschrieben. Es soll gemeinsame Spaziergänge, Skiferien und Campingausflüge gegeben haben. Ein Foto zeigt die beiden vor einem Zelt stehen, der spätere Papst in kurzer Hose und T-Shirt.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Tim Clarke
February 15, 2016

The Catholic Bishop to Australia’s Defence Forces has been found not guilty of sexually molesting five boys while he as teaching at a Benedictine boarding school in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Max Leroy Davis had denied six charges of gross indecency relating to five different boys aged between 12 and 15 at the time they say they were all assaulted while pupils at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia.

The five victims, who are all now in their 50s, alleged remarkably similar abuse while boarding at the school – and all say it was Mr Davis who abused them.

But after four hours deliberation following a week-long trial, the jury at Perth District acquitted him of all charges, after hearing Mr Davis categorically deny it had been him who had abused them.

The 70-year-old was at the time a Dorm Master, and dean of discipline at the school, which was run under the Benedictine order of monks who still reside in the town north of Perth.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The head of the Australian Defence Force’s Catholic diocese has been found not guilty of sexually abusing five students more than 40 years ago.

Catholic bishop Max Davis, 70, was on trial in the Perth District Court accused of six counts of indecent dealings with male children between 1969 and 1972, when he was dormitory master at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, north east of Perth.

He stood aside from his duties as Catholic Bishop of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) when he was charged two years ago.

The prosecution alleged Bishop Davis performed indecent acts on five students aged between 13 and 15 years old.

One former student testified he was sexually abused while he was being examined in the first-aid room because he had injured his groin playing football.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Herald (UK)

The director and co-writer of Spotlight, the Hollywood film about the Boston Globe’s investigation into the cover-up of clerical abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston, paid tribute to British abuse survivor Peter Saunders while accepting an award at the Baftas ceremony.

Tom McCarthy and his co-writer Josh Singer, who was not in attendance, won the Bafta for best original screenplay.

During his acceptance speech, McCarthy said Saunders, who recently refused a request to “take a leave of absence” from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors after a vote of confidence, was “an inspiration”.

In his short speech, McCarthy commended “the courageous survivors (of abuse) who came forward and shared their stories with us and the world.”

“They continue to do that now, continue to put pressure for change,” he said.

“I’ll give a shout out to Peter Saunders, a UK citizen and survivor and the great work he is doing now in this country and at the Vatican. You are an in inspiration to us all, quite truly.”

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INDIA
Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Roman Catholic church has lifted the suspension of a Tamil Nadu priest convicted last year of sexually assaulting a 14 year-old girl in the US more than a decade ago, a spokesman said on Saturday .

The suspension of Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was lifted last month after the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in Tamil Nadu consulted with church authorities at the Vatican, said Rev. Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese.

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund (Ooty) had referred Jeyapaul’s case to the Vatican’s ‘congregation for the doctrine of the faith’, and the suspension was lifted on the church body’s advice, he added. The Vatican office of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith declined immediate comment.

Jeyapaul was sent to Minnesota in 2004. He was suspended in 2010 after being charged with sexually assaulting two girls who were both 14 at the time.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Kathy Sundstrom | 15th Feb 2016

FATHER Joe Duffy admits he feels embarrassed by the extent of the abuse which has been revealed in the Catholic Church.

The Maroochydore Parish Priest was ordained during the dark period of history when priests were abusing children and getting away with it.

But he said if he was to blame for anything within the church in the 1950s to 1980s, it was that he was “naive and unaware” of what was going on.

“I grew up in a decent, good family and child abuse just wasn’t talked about,” he said.

“I had no personal experience of this type of thing and in the 1950s, it was either a taboo topic or wasn’t mentioned.

“We can’t excuse ourselves on that basis any more than we can excuse ourselves for buying a ticket on a plane that crashed.”

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

February 14, 2016 Joelle Casteix

The first step to transparency is being, well … transparent. And when your former bishop is a three-time-accused (that we know of) predator, that makes transparency even more important.

Victims to Hawai’i Bishop: Make all predators’ names public
Thirty other dioceses have exposed accused clerics
Seattle list included abuser in hiding in Honolulu
Former bishop should also be on list, group says
Releasing names is public safety imperative, SNAP says

Victims of sex abuse are demanding that the Catholic Bishop of Hawai’i publicly release the names of all clerics, employees, and volunteers who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.

In a letter to Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), say that releasing the list is an “important step for transparency, healing, and child protection.”

More than 30 other dioceses have released the names of accused clerics, and a recent list released by the Archdiocese of Seattle exposed a 50-time accused former Irish Christian Brother who is living “under the radar” in Hawai’i.

The group fears that Hawai’i’s credibly accused predator clerics could be living in local neighbors where they have unfettered access to children.

“How many credibly accused predators are living ‘under the radar’ here and elsewhere, where they can continue to prey on children?” the letter said. “Releasing these names is a public safety imperative.”

The letter also stresses the importance of releasing names of all of the accused, living and deceased. For example, former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario has been publicly accused of sexual abuse by at least three men. The first came forward in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

15 February, 2016

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing on Tuesday 15 March 2016 at 10.00am AEDT.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The experiences of survivors of child sexual abuse in an institutional context in the criminal justice system as complainants against an accused who was the subject of allegations by more than one complainant.

2. The admissibility and use of evidence variously described as:

a. tendency and coincidence evidence
b. propensity and similar fact evidence
c. evidence of discreditable conduct, and
d. evidence of bad character,

and the law and practice concerning when charges in relation to multiple complainants of child sexual abuse in an institutional context against a single accused may be tried together in a joint trial.

3. The experiences of survivors, particularly young children and people with disability, in reporting child sexual abuse in an institutional context to police and in being complainants in prosecutions.

4. How the requirements of the criminal justice system, including in relation to oral evidence and cross examination, affect the investigation and prosecution of allegations of child sexual abuse in an institutional context, particularly where the complainant is a young child or a person with disability.

5. Any related matters.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 1 March 2016.

Applications for leave to appear should be made using the form available on the Royal Commission website.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2016

KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ | STAFF WRITER

The news that former Sacred Heart priest John Feit was arrested last week in connection to the 1960 homicide of Irene Garza did not come as a surprise to Dale Tacheny.

For 52 years, Tacheny has believed Feit, now 83 years old, killed the young Texas beauty queen the night before Easter, because he said he heard about the crime from Feit himself.

Tacheny also believed that the pastor of Sacred Heart at the time worked in concert with McAllen police to cover up Feit’s involvement in the murder that was to become perhaps McAllen’s most notorious unsolved crime ever.

“He mentioned he had heard the (sacrament of) confession of Irene Garza and after hearing her confession he assaulted her, bound her, and gagged her,” Tacheny told The Monitor last week.

“He removed her clothing from the waist up and fondled her.”

Tacheny, now 86 years old, recalled Feit’s words Wednesday afternoon from his office in Oklahoma City, where he works as a tax preparer.

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UNITED STATES
Patch

By LORRAINE SWANSON (Patch Staff) – February 15, 2016

An ex-Catholic brother and teacher who left a trail of sex abuse complaints from New York to Chicago to Seattle, has surfaced in Hawaii.

Throughout his three decades as a member of the Irish Christian Brothers, Br. Edward Courtney was badgered by allegations that he had sexually abused children, including students at Chicago’s Brother Rice High School and St. Laurence High School in Burbank.

in 2013, 80 alumni of Brother Rice, St. Laurence and Leo High Schools, were part of a $16.5 million settlement with over 400 accusers nationwide during a bankruptcy reorganization between creditors and the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North American Province, known as the Irish Christian Brothers.

The order also agreed to enforce a no-tolerance policy for brothers accused of sexual abuse.

Courtney, among others, were named in a lawsuit against the order for allowing the men to continue teaching despite allegations that they had sexually abused children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Paul Vallely

Even by Vatican standards the timing is spectacularly inept. The six Oscar nominations for the movie Spotlight have refocused the attention of the world on the issue of paedophile priests inside the Catholic church – almost certainly the biggest scandal to plague the institution in the past century. And yet, with disdain or disregard for world opinion, just two weeks before the Oscars the most outspoken member of the pope’s commission to combat sex abuse has been sacked.

Pope Francis is busy elsewhere. After Friday’s historic meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church – the first for almost 1,000 years – he has been about his usual business: visiting prisoners, migrants, indigenous people and the families of victims of the violence of drug traffickers, this time in Mexico.

But in his absence a hidden civil war inside the Vatican continues. On one side are reformers who want public accountability for abuser priests and the bishops who have overseen them. On the other is the recidivist Roman old guard whose instinct for cover-up continues.

Two years ago Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. It is made up of clerics, theologians, psychiatrists, therapists and – most significantly – two survivors of priestly sex abuse. The most vocal member was Peter Saunders, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, one of the world’s most forthright anti-abuse campaigners.

His sacking last weekend is a signal that, behind the scenes, the Catholic church is reverting to its old bad habits.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Chris Elliott

Two recent complaints about the Guardian’s reporting of historical sexual abuse allegations illustrate the difficulties and pitfalls facing journalists writing about such cases. The first concerned the settlement by the Church of England of a civil claim brought against George Bell, the late bishop of Chichester, who died 57 years ago.

The story, headlined “Church’s ‘deep sorrow’ over abuse by bishop”, published on 23 October 2015 said: “The bishop abused a young child, whose identity and gender has not been disclosed, in the 1940s and 50s. The survivor first came forward 20 years ago, but the matter was not investigated or referred to police at the time.”

There was also an online story published on 22 October with the headline “Church of England Bishop George Bell abused young child”.

Peter Hitchens, a newspaper columnist, complained to the readers’ editor that both the headlines are inaccurate; as neither makes clear that the claims of abuse were allegations, not tested in a criminal court.

I rejected the complaint on the basis that the church had settled the civil claim and accepted his guilt. A statement by the church in October 2015 said: “A formal claim for compensation was submitted in April 2014 and was settled in late September of this year. The settlement followed a thorough pre-litigation process during which further investigations into the claim took place including the commissioning of expert independent reports. None of those reports found any reason to doubt the veracity of the claim.”

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MARYLAND
Washingtonian

By Tiffany Stanley on February 14, 2016

Pam Palmer was at a barbecue when she heard the news.

It was 2011, five years after her family had left Covenant Life Church. But the Gaithersburg congregation and its founder, C.J. Mahaney, remained on her mind. Now one of her relatives was telling her that amid controversy Mahaney had surrendered the top post at the organization he had built into an international empire. “Literally,” Pam says, “that moment changed my life.”

Pam had been one of the church’s early followers back in the 1980s. And she’d given 22 years of her life to the megachurch, in the all-in manner that many members embraced. Early on, her husband, Dominic Palmer, whom she’d met there, led one of the small fellowship groups that underscore church life, and she dutifully assisted him. When the couple had children, Pam homeschooled them, as so many women in the church did. Every step of the way, a foundational principle of the church was reinforced—that Christian men knew best.

But in the years since the Palmers left Covenant Life, Pam had come to see its culture as toxic.

After the barbecue, she went online to find out more about the revolt inside Sovereign Grace Ministries, the religious conglomerate that Covenant Life had grown into. A few years earlier, a pair of disillusioned followers had launched a blog called SGM Survivors. It was like a public square, and an increasingly crowded one at that, where former congregants of Sovereign Grace churches—there were roughly 90 at the time—gathered to vent.

Pam had visited the blog before. But this time, she encountered a whole new narrative. Parents were reporting that their children had been sexually abused by other church members. And they were sharing stories, saying they were mistreated by churches when they spoke up. Until that moment, Pam had no idea there were other families out there just like hers.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen on Feb 14, 2016

The Diocese of Duluth and attorneys representing dozens of child sexual abuse victims have agreed to enter mediation talks ahead of a May deadline for filing claims, according to documents filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Gregg Zive, a federal bankruptcy judge in Arizona with experience in diocesan bankruptcy cases, is expected to assist in negotiations between the parties.

His appointment, which was requested by the diocese, is subject to approval by Judge Robert Kressel, who previously encouraged mediation. Attorneys have said they expect to reach an amicable agreement — as has been the case in all 14 previous diocese and religious order bankruptcies in the United States.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after being hit with a $4.9 million verdict in the first case to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which opened the way for victims of sexual abuse to file lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by statutes of limitation.

With an annual budget of about $3.3 million — and facing dozens of additional claims — diocese officials stated that bankruptcy was the only way they could fairly compensate all victims while maintaining essential church operations.

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UNITED STATES
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Phil Bronstein / February 14, 2016

Those of us who report and publish the news always notice that we rank somewhere south of head lice in public opinion polls. So only a journalist who’s delusional would spend Feb. 14 waiting for the inbox to fill with hearts, candy and flowers.

But this year, we’ve got “Spotlight,” a giant, ongoing Valentine’s Day gift to the power, efficacy and necessity in our society of investigative journalism. This is extra sweet at a time when that kind of expensive, hard reporting is seriously threatened by failing business models, failure of imagination and the media world’s obsession with substance-free, adrenalized news bursts.

The film is now well known as the story of The Boston Globe team that uncovered the scope and virulence of the Catholic Church’s pedophile priest problem and the accompanying massive cover-up.

What’s less known – despite the previously inconceivable fact that members of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors sat down in Rome just last week and watched “Spotlight” before engaging in a panel on clerical sex abuse – is that this is a Valentine’s gift that keeps on giving.

The film came out in November. But since then, the church has released names of accused priests in Yakima, Washington, and files on delinquent clergy in Minneapolis. Well over a dozen dioceses and archdioceses from Chicago to Seattle; Albany, New York, to St. Petersburg, Florida; Raleigh, North Carolina, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, have issued statements citing “Spotlight” in recommitting themselves to vigilantly weeding out the guilty and comforting and supporting victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By Melissa Cunningham
Feb. 15, 2016

Clergy abuse survivors are pushing to fly to Rome to front Australia’s most senior Catholic in person when he gives evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this month.

On Monday morning survivors released a public statement outlining a request to the inquiry to allow them to travel overseas to face Cardinal George Pell. They also pushed for his evidence to be given outside of the walls of the Vatican.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Pell succeeded in a bid to remain in Rome after the inquiry accepted a doctor’s report which said he was too sick to return to Australia to testify. He is scheduled to give evidence on February 29.

Speaking on behalf of survivors, David Ridsdale, victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale said the conditions of his evidence must replicate an Australian court setting.

“(Evidence) should be given in the Australian embassy or somewhere with broadcast quality connection to ensure there are no technical difficulties,” he said. “As the commission hearings are open to the public we request the ability for interested parties to travel to Rome and attend the evidence in person.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[fundraising link]

February 15, 2016

Melissa Cunningham

Clerical abuse survivors are pushing to fly to Rome to be present when Cardinal George Pell gives evidence via videolink to a Royal Commission this month.

On Monday morning, survivors released a public statement outlining a request to the inquiry to allow them to travel overseas to face Cardinal Pell, the Ballarat Courier reports.

They also pushed for his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to be given outside of the walls of the Vatican.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Pell succeeded in a bid to remain in Rome after the inquiry accepted a doctor’s report which said he was too sick to return to Australia to testify.

He is scheduled to give evidence on February 29.

Speaking on behalf of survivors, David Ridsdale, victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale said the conditions of his evidence must replicate an Australian court setting.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

February 14, 2016

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

VICTIMS of child sexual abuse are planning to confront George Pell in Rome when he gives evidence to the child abuse royal commission.

The Cardinal is due to testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via videolink from the Vatican from February 29.

He was excused from personally attending the Ballart hearing because of ill health.

Questions have been raised about the 74-year-old’s sudden decline in health, with sceptics accusing him of trying to avoid coming face to face with victims.

But he could still be forced to testify in front of victims, with a delegation planning a trip to Rome.

Members of the Ballarat and District Child Abuse Survivors group have called for the commission to ensure the Cardinal is forced to testify publicly.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2016

An arrest is made more than five decades after perhaps the most notorious crime to befall the Rio Grande Valley. But as some celebrate the shocking development in the Irene Garza murder case, the question must be asked: how hard will it be to prosecute former priest John Feit, who has been charged with murder?

Join us at noon on Tuesday for an online MonitorChat, a Live Stream discussion about the challenges of prosecuting this crime nearly 56 years after it happened.

The Monitor will be joined by renowned defense lawyer Rolando Garza, who is board certified in criminal law and criminal appellate law, to discuss the legal complexities of this case.

Readers are encourage to send in their own questions by emailing news@themonitor.com or by tweeting #monitorchat.

Remember to join us at noon on Tuesday at www.themonitor.com

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Monica Tan
@m_onicatan
Friday 12 February 2016

Tim Minchin has written a song about Cardinal George Pell, in which he lambasts Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric over the fact he won’t be returning from Rome to testify at the royal commission into institutional child abuse.

“It’s a really nice song, the chorus just goes ‘come home, Cardinal Pell / we hear you’re not feeling well’,” Minchin said at a press conference in Perth on Friday. “There’s also a bit where I call him a fucking coward.”

Pell is due to appear via video link at a royal commission to give evidence about child sex abuse that occurred within his parishes. Victims were hoping Pell’s medical condition would improve so he could appear in person, but on Monday were told he was still too unwell to make the flight from Rome to Melbourne.

Minchin made the comments while promoting the Perth International Arts festival’s outdoor extravaganza, Home.

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INDIA/UNITED STATES
Independent (UK)

Chloe Farand

An Indian priest convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the United States more than 10 years ago has had his suspension lifted by the Roman Catholic church.

Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61, had the suspension lifted by the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state after he was instructed to do so by authorities at the Vatican, spokesman for the diocese Rev Sebastian Selvanathan told CBS News.

“After Jeyapaul’s release from the United States and his return to India, this matter was referred to Rome, and according to the guidelines of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the suspension against Jeyapaul was removed,” Rev Selvanathan said.

The Vatican office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declined ito comment, when approached by CBS News.

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

By Richard Townley
Herald Staff

Sex abuse survivor expresses frustration at Vatican, Francis’ reluctance to tackle child molestation

The Catholic Church has lost “all moral responsibility” for tackling ongoing child abuse by its clergymen, a member of a papal panel appointed to deal with the issue has told the Herald, adding that he feels he has been personally “deceived” by Pope Francis. “The Church is failing in the protection of children”, Peter Saunders said.

Peter Saunders, an outspoken member of Francis’ commission set up to tackle child abuse, was at the centre of war of words last week after he was controversially told to take “a leave of absence” from the panel. He has refused, saying only Francis can dismiss him, and has renewed his criticism of both the Church and the pontiff for lacking the resolve to tackle the issue.

“On child abuse, I now fear, there is little or no sincerity on his (Francis’) part to effectively make change,” said Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child.

Just a year after the Argentine-born pontiff was ordained head of the Catholic Church, Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to address the endemic sexual abuse of children.

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