ABUSE TRACKER

MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

Archbishop Emeritus of Hartford, CT, and former Bishop of Fall River, MA, Daniel A. Cronin to be deposed on October 21, 2015, as part of a Massachusetts Superior Court Civil Complaint alleging negligent supervision by two clergy sexual abuse victims of Msgr. Maurice Souza of the Diocese of Fall River, MA

Fall River, MA priest Msgr. Maurice Souza sexually abused minor children in CT, MA and numerous other states over the course of years

What
A press conference announcing that Archbishop Emeritus of Hartford, CT, and former Bishop of Fall River, MA, Daniel A. Cronin will be deposed on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 by attorneys for two men who have alleged that they were sexually abused by a Fall River, MA diocesan priest, Msgr. Maurice Souza, and that Msgr. Souza was negligently supervised by former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin. According to the Civil Complaint, the two plaintiffs are represented by Attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, MA.

When
Tuesday, October 20, 2015 at 11:00 am

Where
On the public sidewalk in front of the headquarters of the Diocese of Fall River, MA near 423 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720 – 508-675-1311

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, and advocate for the plaintiffs in this case

Why
In June, 2015, a Civil Complaint was filed in Middlesex (MA) Superior Court on behalf of two Massachusetts men who allege that they were sexually abused in CT, MA, and numerous other states over the course of years by Msgr. Maurice Souza, a now deceased priest of the Diocese of Fall River, MA. The two plaintiffs allege that between approximately 1977 and 1986, when they were altar boys at St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth, MA on Cape Cod, Msgr. Maurice Souza sexually abused them as minor children. The two plaintiffs allege that they were approximately 9-17 years of age when they were sexually abused by Msgr. Maurice Souza. The bishop of the Fall River, MA, Diocese from approximately 1970 until 1991 was Daniel A. Cronin who was the supervisor of Fall River diocesan priest Msgr. Maurice Souza when he was assigned to St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth, MA. The two victims were taken as minor children to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and several other states to attend athletic and other events. Archbishop Emeritus of Hartford, CT, Daniel A. Cronin, when he was Bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, is accused of negligent hiring, retention, direction, and supervision, among other things. Attorneys for the plaintiffs will depose Archbishop Emeritus of Hartford, CT, and former Diocese of Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin on Wednesday, October 21, 2015.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., Livingston, NJ – 862-368-2800

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Leonard Colston was ordained for the Duluth MN diocese in 1980, at age 54. He served in parishes in Brainerd, Floodweed, Meadowlands and Elmer MN before transferring in 1984 to the New Ulm MN diocese where he worked in Nicollet, Hutchinson, Ortonville and Olivia parishes. Per Duluth diocesan officials, Colston resigned September 6, 1986. His whereabouts after that are unclear. He died November 4, 2004. Colston’s name was included on the Duluth diocese’s December 2013 list of clergy who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse of young persons while serving in the diocese.

Born: October 10, 1936
Ordained: 1980
Died: November 4, 2004

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Oct. 19, 2015

ROME
The discussions at the ongoing Synod of Bishops have shown a clear difference in mindsets between the prelates considering issues of family life and ordinary Catholics looking to the gathering in hopes for changes in church pastoral practice, one of the non-voting participants in the event has said.

U.S. Sacred Heart of Mary Sr. Maureen Kelleher — who is taking part in the Oct. 4-25 synod as one of 32 women serving in non-voting roles alongside the 270 prelate-members — said there is a clear cultural divide between bishops’ and laypersons’ points of view.

“There’s such a culture here and a common background,” said Kelleher, speaking in an NCR interview. “These men have all pretty much studied together through formation and onward — [and] are very steeped in the magisterium and the canons and the different papal documents that have come out and have formed them.”

“And they’re very, very — well, they’re in pain I think to deal with the pastoral situation and reaching for particularly the remarried after divorce in a way that would be accompanying them … and yet being faithful to their understanding of Jesus’ sentences on divorce and its consequences,” she continued.

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ROME
Religion News Service

David Gibson | October 19, 2015

ROME (RNS) The eight American bishops taking part in a Vatican summit on family life stay at a huge seminary built high on a hill overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica and the rest of the Eternal City.

It’s a lovely place with spacious apartments for each bishop and any amenity they might need.

But for all that, it may be getting a tad uncomfortable.

In the latest installment of an increasingly sharp exchange conducted via the media, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput on Monday (Oct. 19) rejected what he took as a swipe at him by Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, also a member of the U.S. delegation at this gathering of global bishops.

Chaput, who hosted Francis for the final two days of the papal visit to the U.S. last month, didn’t like what he saw as Wuerl’s attempt to lump him in with the conservative opposition to the pope at the gathering, called a synod.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired priest accused of indecent assault told a court he spent 40 years “in denial” of his homosexual feelings.

Vickery House, 69, of West Sussex also said he had a sexual relationship with a man while at theological college.

Mr House, of Brighton Road, Handcross kept the relationship secret and married his childhood sweetheart.

At the Old Bailey, the retired Church of England priest denies eight charges of indecent assault against six males aged 15 to 34, between 1970 and 1986.

The court heard that Mr House, who has been married for 47 years and has two children, was aged 18 when he had his first sexual encounter with a male.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A suspected paedophile Anglican priest has been found dead in his Hunter home while awaiting a hearing into child sex abuse allegations.

Reverend Campbell Brown was accused of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home dating back more than 50 years.

Evidence of the abuse was recently heard by the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.

It is understood Brown was awaiting a Diocesan Professional Standards hearing but was found dead in his Hunter home on Sunday.

Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson has sent a letter to Members of the Synod saying “the burdens people carry can lead to awful consequences”.

He says people should be mindful of those who bear great struggles of mind and spirit and how important it is to share the burden with others.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

BY PATRICIA MILLER OCTOBER 19, 2015

t’s official—with Ross Douthat’s conspiracy-drenched Sunday column, the idea that the synod is somehow a “plot to change Catholicism” has leapt from the far-right Catholic fringe to the conservative Catholic mainstream.

Conservatives have been pushing the idea for months that the synod isn’t just a meeting of bishops to discuss how the church’s teachings on the family can be made more relevant for Catholics, but a Machiavellian plot by Pope Francis and his allies to change church doctrine. As evidence, as per Douthat, they offer the fact that Francis has changed the synod procedures to allow for actual discussion about issues like the pastoral treatment of divorced and remarried Catholics or gay Catholics:

The documents guiding the synod have been written with that in mind. The pope has made appointments to the synod’s ranks with that goal in mind. … The churchmen charged with writing the final synod report have been selected with that goal in mind.

As Douthat himself notes, with the “ranks of Catholic bishops includ[ing] so many Benedict XVI and John Paul II-appointed conservatives,” it would have been fundamentally pointless to hold a purely “democratic” synod in which the majority of the existing bishops drafted the synod document and controlled the discussion and final report.

The result would have been a synod like any of the other synods over the past 35 years: the bishops would assemble and give their pre-written “interventions” affirming current church policy, agree that current church policy was awesome, eat some fabulous meals in Rome, and then go home. (And for the record, conservatives have argued for years that the church isn’t a democracy.)

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VATICAN CITY
Tidewater Review

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
October 19, 2015

VATICAN CITY—
It’s now quite certain that Pope Francis’ big summit on family issues won’t endorse any changes to church doctrine on the church’s teaching about homosexuality or whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.

And yet, it seems, everything has changed.

From the crucial role African bishops have played in the debate, to calls to remove “intrinsically disordered” from the church’s language on gays, to the freedom bishops now enjoy to speak their minds on once-taboo issues, Francis’ synod on the family has at the very least shaken up the church for years to come.

And if Francis has his way, there’s more ahead.

Francis delivered a sleeper bombshell of a speech over the weekend kicking off the final week of the synod in which he called for nothing less than a revolution in the concept of the Catholic Church itself. He said it’s not a top-down organization with the pope in charge but rather an inverted pyramid where the summit — the pope — is underneath and in service to the “holy faithful people of God” who are its base.

He called for a “healthy decentralization” of authority on certain problems from Rome to local bishops’ conferences, and said the papacy itself should be rethought, with the pope guiding the church but really just one bishop among many, one Catholic among many.

“It’s a very delicate moment, where you realize that the relationship between the church and the world is at stake,” the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit close to Francis, said as the synod entered its third and crucial week.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Oct. 16, 2015

At the beginning of the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 case, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma said he was going to keep the proceedings as transparent as possible. And up until recently, Thuma has kept his word.

However, the public should be aware that much of what transpires in a bankruptcy case actually happens during behind-the-scenes negotiations between attorneys for the different parties. The public and the media are shut out of those deals and will remain forever in the dark once the case concludes.

In a flagrant violation of Thuma’s desire to keep the case as transparent as possible, the public and the media were recently shut out of the Diocese of Gallup’s property auctions. As a result, the public does not know how well attended — or how poorly attended — the auctions were. The public does not know if the bidding on diocesan property was vigorous — or weak. The public does not know the identities of the successful bidders.

During the Hearing on the Order to Show Cause, Thuma admitted he intended the auctions to be open to the public — in the sense that the non-bidding public and media could attend and observe. And though we have found Thuma to be a thoughtful and fair-minded judge up until this point, he made the following extremely illogical statement: “There’s no question in my mind that if the press had come to me before the auction and said, ‘Can I attend, I won’t disrupt, I just want to observe,’ I would clearly have let them do that. And I’m sorry that didn’t happen.”

How would a member of the media even think to contact the judge to ask permission to attend an auction that had appeared to be advertised as open to the public? And how would a member of the public, such as the doctoral student doing research, know to contact the judge in advance to ask permission to attend an auction that appeared to be open to the public? Perhaps Thuma thinks the media and the public should have the ability to read minds or foretell the future?

Or perhaps Thuma should have just stuck to his principles and sanctioned the Diocese of Gallup and the auctioneer in some meaningful way.

We understand Thuma was between a rock and a hard place. Thuma said if he could invalidate the most recent auction with little or no expense and order a new auction, he would. However, he noted that a second auction might result in even lower bid prices, which Thuma described as “kind of imponderable.”

We find the bargain basement sales prices of the first auctions kind of imponderable, which is why we raised the issue of the extremely lackluster marketing campaign that cost the Gallup Diocese $45,000.

And what were the results of that marketing campaign? Diocesan attorneys proudly pointed out one positive news article in one Tucson newspaper — unfortunately, the diocese wasn’t selling any property anywhere near Tucson.

Where is the evidence of real marketing efforts in the communities actually near the property for sale: Arizona communities like Winslow, Holbrook, Show Low, Snowflake, St. Johns and Springerville, and New Mexico communities like Gallup, Farmington, Taos, Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, Belen, Los Lunas, Las Cruces and Deming?

The Diocese of Gallup got taken for a ride, as did Judge Thuma. But we have to hand it to Todd Good, the owner of a California real estate marketing company that conducted the property auctions. Like all slick salesmen, Good has the ability to peddle some very dubious things to buyers who apparently think they are getting the real deal.

In the case of the Gallup Diocese officials, they shelled out $45,000 for a dubious marketing campaign. In the case of Thuma, he bought Good’s very dubious explanation about why he barred the public and the media from the Albuquerque auction. In a written statement that Good signed under the penalty of perjury, he pledged to the judge that it was his “custom and practice” not to admit non-bidders to his auctions. He pledged it was his “standard procedure” during 33 years of conducting auctions.

Well, contrary to Good’s sworn declaration, media reports out of Tucson in 2005 and Phoenix in 2008 don’t back up Good’s story. According to those reports, at least two newspapers and one television station have been allowed to send journalists into Good’s auctions.

Thuma needs to keep in mind the Diocese of Gallup landed in his bankruptcy courtroom because of decades of secrecy surrounding the sexual abuse of children. Thuma’s gentle rebuke to diocesan officials just supports their pattern of secrecy and their determination to keep the public unaware, ill-informed and in the dark.

In the future, Judge Thuma needs to stick to his promise of transparency, he needs to stick to his principles, and he needs to stop buying dubious deals peddled by snake oil salesmen.

In this space only does the opinion of the opinion of the Gallup Independent Editorial Board appear.

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UNITED STATES/CANADA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Family ordained in 1973, Chateauvert worked in parishes and a hospital in Los Angeles CA archdiocese, Ottowa Canada, and in the dioceses of Springfield IL and Duluth MN. In December 1992 he was arrested on suspicion of the sexual abuse over a three-year period of two Duluth MN teenage boys. He was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. Chateauvert died March 3, 1999. His name was included on the Duluth diocese’s list released in December 2013 of clergy who had been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of young persons while serving in the diocese.

Born: May 25, 1919
Ordained: September 25, 1973
Died: March 3, 1999

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UNITED STATES
Watch Keep

[with videos]

via Crime Watch Daily

Sammy Nuckolls, a man of God, preyed on his parishioners in the sickest of ways. As cops would uncover, the pastor’s own home was exposed as a sex trap.

Peeping preacher’s prison sentence stands

Prosecutor Steven Jubera suggested Nuckolls’ aims were not altruistic but driven by the same “narcissistic tendencies” that got him in trouble in the first place.

“House arrest is really not going to prevent him from doing what he did in his own home in the first place,” Jubera said.

Chatham said he was pleased to hear that Nuckolls is doing good work and adjusting well to prison. “Perhaps that is your calling,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

Incriminating video that three years ago helped land a former Southern Baptist evangelist in prison for video voyeurism aired on national television Oct. 15.

Thursday’s installment of Crime Watch Daily, a syndicated investigative news magazine series that debuted in the United States and Canada on Sept. 14, opened with the story of Sammy Nuckolls, a once-popular speaker at youth events including LifeWay Christian Resources’ FUGE summer camps. He is now serving 10 years in prison for planting hidden cameras to spy on women in a bathroom at his home in Olive Branch, Miss.

The broadcast, shown in two parts, includes clips shown at his sentencing hearing in September 2012 of Nuckolls setting up spy cameras to capture video of female houseguests as they got undressed to shower. Victims testified to feeling shame and violation of trust with descriptions including “video rape.”

“From the first time that I ever entered their home, that was his objective of our friendship,” Ashley Fisher, one of a few of Nuckolls’ victims who has spoken publicly about the crimes, told Crime Watch Daily.

Her husband, Adam Fisher, a youth pastor and worship leader who once looked up to Nuckolls as a role model and mentor, said he had to put their friendship aside when confronted with the revelation that they and other couples like them were being manipulated and abused.

“Looking back, I see there were a lot of different red flags I could have noticed but just kind of threw to the side, because he was a traveling evangelist,” Fisher admitted. “I mean, you can trust those guys.”

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ROME
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho
October 19, 2015

ROME—Hoping to see a resolution to the most neuralgic issues being debated at the Synod of the Family by the time it ends next weekend? Don’t hold your breath. That’s the message that came through during today’s briefing at the Holy See Press Office. While “there is confidence” among the synod fathers that “something can emerge from this process of fermentation,” according to Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia, there is no consensus on questions related to Communion for the divorced and remarried, homosexuality, and others living in “irregular relationships.”

That makes it highly unlikely that the final summary document, which synod fathers will vote on—paragraph by paragraph—later this week, will include definitive language on any of the contested issues. That doesn’t mean Pope Francis won’t step in at some point—my money is on a post-synodal study commission—and it certainly doesn’t mean that these three weeks of discernment have been a waste. To the contrary, as Francis made clear in his remarks commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the synod on Saturday, the synodality established by this meeting of bishops is a preview of what he wants to see from the whole church. “A synodal church is a listening church, aware that listening is more than hearing.” He continued: “It is a reciprocal listening in which each one has something to learn.”

Synoding is hard work—this has been a constant refrain of all the synod fathers who have appeared at the press conferences. And who could doubt it? It’s not unusual for participants to put in twelve-hour days. Coleridge spoke of a sense of “weariness” among the synod fathers. “I have a strong sense that we wonder how we’re going to get through to Sunday morning [when the synod concludes]—how we’re going to write a final document.”

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ROME
The Salt Lake Tribune

By ROSIE SCAMMELL Religion News Service

Vatican City • Bishops participating in the Vatican’s synod on the family have admitted that they don’t know much about sex — and that they need the help of laypeople to fully understand marital intimacy.

Laypeople play an important part in the discussions at their synod on the family, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, English-language assistant to the Vatican press office, said Friday.

“At the heart of the synod is human sexuality. And oftentimes it’s muted and we don’t know how to talk about it, because most of us in the room are male celibates,” he said, citing comments of unnamed bishops.

Fourteen married couples and other laypeople have been brought in to fill in the gaps in the churchmen’s knowledge, advising the 270 bishops as they discuss family issues.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, cited bishops who said it is essential to grasp “the importance of sexuality in spouses’ lives.”

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

The Synod on the Family is now beginning its third and final week at the Vatican – does it matter?

Most reporting has focused on 13 dissident prelates, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, who complained in a leaked letter to Pope Francis that the synod procedures seemed “designed to facilitate predetermined results” on the issue of “Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried” – the “Plot to Change Catholicism,” Ross Douthat calls it at the Times.

Meanwhile, judging from the reports of small groups and the interventions (three-minute speeches to the plenary), participants have mostly been toiling on amendments (so-called modi) to make the synodal work plan sing. This would seem to be a lost cause.

Churchspeak and a Phrase Unspoken

In all the synod’s waffly churchspeak, as Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge calls it, one phrase remains unspoken – the sexual abuse of children by clergy.

Why is this?

Billions of dollars have been spent on the problem in the United States, where more than 6,427 clerics are accused of sexually assaulting more than 17,259 victims. Government inquiries are being conducted in Australia and Northern Ireland, and in the Republic of Ireland, church attendance has plunged in the wake of the Ryan, Murphy, and Cloyne reports. The installation of a tainted Chilean bishop caused a near-riot, and serious questions have been raised about the Pope’s own performance in Argentina. Francis has removed three U.S. bishops for criminal mismanagement of abuse cases (1, 2&3), and he has named a Pontifical Commission to advise him on the whole mess.

Yet the many thousands of damaged and destroyed families behind those headlines merit no attention whatsoever at the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops: The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World.

The one honorable exception is Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, who said in his little-noticed intervention, “We know only too well the horrific impact of sins and crimes of abuse in the Church family: the betrayal of trust, the violation of dignity, the shame – both public and private, the anger and alienation, the wound that never seems to heal.”

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ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 19, 2015

ROME – Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz famously said that war is the “continuation of politics by other means.” In similar fashion, one could say that a mounting debate at the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family over decentralization is the continuation of arguments over the “Kasper proposal” under another guise.

Named for German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the proposal would allow some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to return to Communion. It generated both strong support and strong opposition at the synod last year, and although it’s really only coming into focus this week, those divisions appear to run through the current summit as well.

This year’s synod, which ends Sunday, is entering the home stretch, with bishops scheduled to take up the most contentious issues, including the Kasper proposal.

Perhaps despairing of finding consensus, some bishops have suggested allowing the question to be resolved at the level of national bishops’ conferences or local bishops.

That position may have gotten a boost over the weekend from a talk by Pope Francis on Saturday at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, in which he called for greater reflection on “intermediate types of collegiality” — basically, code for decentralization.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Legal News

Two panel members have been appointed to Scotland’s Historic Child Abuse Inquiry by Education Secretary Angela Constance today.

Glenn Houston and Professor Michael Lamb will undertake the work of the inquiry, alongside the chair, Susan O’Brien QC.

Mr Houston is chief executive of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority of Northern Ireland and Professor Lamb is a professor of psychology and Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, the University of Cambridge.

The inquiry formally began on October 1, 2015 with Ms O’Brien calling for those who believe they have information to share with the Inquiry to make initial contact with the Inquiry team.

Ms Constance said: “Following the launch of the Inquiry, the naming of its counsel and the launch of the Inquiry website at the start of this month, I am pleased to be able to announce the appointment of two panel members to support the chair.

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SCOTLAND
The Extra

A leading social worker and an expert on child abuse have been appointed to Scotland’s public inquiry into the historical abuse of children in care.

Panel members Glenn Houston and Professor Michael Lamb will help chair Susan O’Brien QC with the work of the inquiry, which formally began at the start of the month.

Mr Houston is the chief executive of Northern Ireland’s independent health and social care regulator, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority, and has more than 30 years’ experience working in the field.

Mr Lamb is a professor of psychology at the University of Cambridge and headed a research unit at the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Washington DC for 17 years.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Joelle Casteix

When I was between the ages of 15 and 17, I was sexually abused by one of my high school teachers in Orange County. By the time the abuse ended, I was pregnant and had a sexually transmitted disease.

It took me years to understand the extent of my abuse and recover enough to come forward, but by that time, the criminal and civil statutes of limitations had expired. Even though I had evidence that my choir director had sexually assaulted me, there was nothing I could do to stop him from targeting other vulnerable teens.

California has abysmally complicated sex crime statutes. Child victims abused before Jan. 1, 2015, have until age 28 to file criminal charges and 26 to use the civil courts (with some exceptions for those who meet a high burden of proof). Minors abused after that date (or who didn’t hit the time limit by that date) have until 40 to file criminal charges and 26 for civil charges, again with exceptions.

For adult sexual assault victims, there is no limit for aggravated sexual assault — that is, when the assailant uses a weapon or there are multiple assailants. For “normal” sexual assault, adult victims usually have 10 years to file criminal charges, unless there is DNA evidence, which can give victims more time. The limit for sexual assault civil cases is two years from the date of the occurrence.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 17 October 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Msgr. Francesco Manenti as bishop of Senigallia, (area 580, population 130,012, Catholics 121,260, priests 86, permanent deacons 11, religious 110), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Sergnano, Italy in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1975. He holds a licentiate in theology from the theological faculty of northern Italy in Milan, and has served in a number of pastoral roles in the diocese of Crema, including parish vicar at the Cathedral, chaplain, spiritual director of the episcopal seminary, teacher at the “Dante Alighieri” diocesan school, head of the diocesan centre for spirituality and diocesan director of the family office. He is currently vicar general of the diocese of Crema, parish priest, lecturer in theology and member of the Commission for the permanent formation of the clergy. He succeeds Bishop Giuseppe Orlandoni, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

– Msgr. José Melitón Chávez as bishop of Añatuya (area 68,000, population 155,800, Catholics 138,000, priests 43, religious 110), Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Romera Pozo in Argentina in 1957, and was ordained a priest in 1985. He has served in various roles in the archdiocese of Tucumán, including parish vicar, pastor, vicar forane, formator, vice rector and rector of the major seminary of Tucumán, assessor for Catholic Action, vicar general, episcopal vicar for soliarity and member of the pastoral council and college of consultors. He is currently pastor of the El Salvador parish.

– Msgr. José Luis Henao Cadavid as bishop of Libano – Honda (area 3,477, population 257,049, Catholics 238,710, priests 48, religious 83), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Andes, Colombia in 1954 and was ordained a priest in 1979. He holds a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, and has served in a number of roles, including parish vicar, pastor, rector of the minor seminary, defender of the bond, judge in the ecclesiastical tribunal of Medellin, diocesan delegate for social and lay pastoral ministry, diocesan vicar for pastoral ministry and pastor of the Cathedral. He is currently pastor of the “Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes” parish in Andes.

– Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, archbishop of Santo Domingo, as his special envoy to the celebration of the fifth centenary of the city of Cumana, Venezuela, origin of the evangelisation of South America, scheduled for 27 November 2015.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Synod of Bishops on the family moves into its third and final week on Monday with participants meeting in small language groups to discuss further changes they’d like to see in the concluding document.

Over the first two weeks the Church leaders have been seeking to resolve tensions between two different visions of family life and ministry, one focused more on the traditional teaching of the Church and the other searching for new ways of engaging with people in relationships or situations that do not conform to Catholic doctrine.

To find out about how the Church leaders are hoping to reconcile these two visions, Philippa Hitchen spoke to the bishop of Northampton in central England, Peter Doyle…..

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NEW JERSEY
The Tidings

By Kevin J. Jones

October 17, 2015 – Catholic News Agency

A memo from the Archbishop of Newark to his priests on the reception of the Eucharist aimed to provide guidance amid the challenges of modern life, but was “taken wildly out of context” in media reports.

James Goodness, the Newark archdiocese’s communications director, told CNA Oct. 15 that the memo is about principles, not rules or particular law. He said these principles aim to call on priests to “walk with the people” in their situations and “to cherish and welcome them to participate as they can, according to the faith.”

“This direction is very much in line with the thinking and actions of Pope Francis,” Goodness said.

He added that the Pope is “reminding priests today that Church teaching will not change, but that we are all called to help people to understand the teaching, resolve differences, and bring about conversion.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News

Monday, October 19, 2015

The latest edition of the ‘Church’s Book of Statistics’ was released to coincide with World Mission Sunday yesterday. The book details members of the Church, church structures, healthcare, welfare and education. Increases or decreases, emerging from comparison with last year’s figures, are marked increase + or decrease – in brackets.

World population

To 31 December 2013 the world population was 7.093.798.000 with an increase of 70.421.000 compared with the previous year. Population growth was registered on every continent above all in Asia and Africa followed by America ; Europe and Oceania.

Catholics

On the same date Catholics in the world numbered 1.253.926,000 with an overall increase of 25,305,000 more than the previous year. The increase affects all continents especially America and Africa followed by Asia ; Europe and Oceania.

The world percentage of Catholics increased by 0.09 %, settling at 17.68%. By continent: increases were registered in Africa, America, Asia, Europe. A slight decrease was shown in Oceania.

Persons and Catholics per priest

This year the number of persons per priest in the world increased by 180 units, average 13.752. The distribution by continent: increase in America; Europe and Oceania; decrease in Africa; Asia.

The number of Catholics per priest in the world increased by 54 units, average 3.019. There are increases in America; Europe and Oceania; decrease in Asia and Africa.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ralph Riegel

PUBLISHED
19/10/2015

The priest at the centre of the Cloyne Report is pursuing a challenge under canonical law to his dismissal from the clergy.

The priest, referred to in the Cloyne Report as ‘Fr Ronat’ and ‘Fr B’, has vowed to clear his name with a full legal challenge to Rome.

The Irish Independent understands that a central element of the challenge will be the church’s decision to issue an apology and offer compensation to those who had levelled allegations against him while the disciplinary process was still ongoing.

The cleric’s legal team has argued that this stance was taken despite the fact that the cleric was acquitted in two criminal trials. He has consistently protested his innocence.

The dismissal of ‘Fr Ronat’ from the clerical state was recommended by an Irish canonical court almost two years ago. This was ratified by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of Rome’s highest clerical courts, despite an appeal from Fr Ronat.

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MARYLAND
Haaretz

A Cleveland-area rabbi will serve 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a minor.

Rabbi Frederick (Ephraim) Karp, 51, was sentenced Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court in Maryland, the home county of the victims, all females. He had been scheduled to go on trial later this month.

Karp, the former director of spiritual living at Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, Ohio, was sentenced to 35 years, with 13 years suspended, plus five years of supervised probation after he is released, the Cleveland Jewish News reported.

The abuse reportedly took place when family friends visited the Karp’s suburban Cleveland home, and also when he visited the family, over a five-year period that ended last December. The victims lived in Baltimore County at the time of the incidents. Two of the three were under the age of 18.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/jewish-world-news/1.681146

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NEW YORK
The Flemingsburg Gazette

Brittany Kelley | 19 October 2015

Bruce Leonard, 65, and his wife, Deborah Leonard, 59, were in court a few feet from Irwin on Friday. Four other members of the church, including the victim’s sister, are being charged with assault for their roles in the deadly attack.

“I anticipate, when we go to the grand jury, we will ask the grand jury to consider these charges and other charges against these individuals and other individuals”, McNamara stated. David and Linda Morey were recently released on $50,000 bond a piece.

A witness at a probable cause hearing told a judge the counseling session lasted 14 hours, beginning Sunday night and ending Monday morning. Details emerged in court of the cult-like Word of Life Christian Church in New Hartford, N.Y., which adheres to fundamentalist principles and a literal interpretation of the Bible, and supposedly fostered an increasingly violent environment spearheaded by its preacher, based on witness accounts.

“The victim expressed a desire to leave the church and this is what may have initiated the session”.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Exponent Telegram

Associated Press

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (AP) — An attorney for a church volunteer in Bluefield accused of sexually molesting children is arguing that the pastor of the church violated his priest-penitent privilege when he brought his concerns about the volunteer to police.

The Bluefield Daily-Telegraph (http://bit.ly/1M0oqUP ) reports that the attorney argues in pre-trial motions that the charges against Timothy Probert of Mercer County should be dismissed.

The state counters that the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church was following the state’s mandatory reporting law.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

In his America article, “The Media Ministry”, Jesuit priest James Martin (we do not call priests “Father” because of many reason, more on that later) (intentionally?) omits the Los Angeles Times regarding the “sexual abuse crisis” (he does not mention “priests and clergy” or who committed the abuse). Martin wrote, “Boston Globe ran its extensive series of articles on the sexual abuse crisis in the early 2000s…The National Catholic Reporter ran a remarkable series of articles on abuse in the 1990s….” James Martin knows his colleagues the Jesuits contemporary history very well – and he knows that it was the Los Angeles Times and NOT the Boston Globe or NCR — who were the first investigative reporters on clergy sexual abuse.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Kirby Blanchard was ordained for the Duluth diocese in 1953. He was an assistant at the Cathedral in Duluth for 12 years, then pastored parishes in Garrison, Deerwood, Deer River, Cohasset, Nisswa, Pequot Lakes, Pine River, and Duluth until 1976. He was a hospital chaplain in Duluth from 1976 until his retirement in 1993. Blanchard was removed from active ministry in December 1995. He died August 11, 2006. Blanchard’s name was included on a list released by the Duluth diocese in December 2013 of priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse of young persons while serving in the diocese.

Born: November 16, 1928
Ordained: May 30, 1953
Died: August 11, 2006

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick McLaren

The victim in an alleged Wollongong historic child abuse case has repeatedly rejected claims in court he made up the allegations.

The alleged abuse involved former priest Father Patrick Kervin at Holy Spirit College in Bellambi.

The student was aged 15 when the alleged abuse occurred in the 1980s.

Now aged in his 40’s, the student who cannot be named, told the court Kervin called him to his office to console him as his mother was ill.

He described how Kervin put his hand on his knee then slid his hand up his leg, touching his genitals as he leaned in to kiss him.

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ROME
American Magazine

Gerard O’Connell | Oct 18 2015

Cardinal Donald Wuerl has flatly denied the allegations by some of his fellow cardinals and bishops that the fathers attending the synod are “somehow” being manipulated by the pope and the synod structure that Francis approved. He wonders whether the underlying reason why they are suggesting or saying such things is because “they just don’t like this pope,” and find the church that he is calling for “somewhat threatening.”

In this interview with America on Oct. 18, the cardinal archbishop of Washington charged that a number of his brother cardinals and bishops have their own position and think that some questions now on the synod agenda should not even be discussed. He said some of these people “are speaking, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes half-way implying, then backing off and then twisting around” and in this way they have “tainted” the synod process in the public eye with their groundless allegations of manipulation, and so cast a cloud over its outcome.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Louis Brouillard was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Guam in 1948, where he worked in parishes and schools until 1981. There are several gaps in his work history during those years, including a sick leave 1966-68. In 1981 Brouillard was transferred as an extern priest to Diocese of Duluth, MN. He was Temporary Administrator of St. Joseph’s in Beroun for a year, then Pastor of both St. Mary’s in Keewatin and St. Anne’s in Kelly Lake until 1985. Bouillard was removed from active ministry in November 1985. His whereabouts 1985-1987 are unclear. He retired in 1987 to Pine City, MN, with another sick leave 1988-89. Brouillard’s name was included on a list released by the Duluth diocese in December 2013 of priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse of young persons while serving in the diocese.

Born: July 27, 1921
Ordained: December 17, 1948

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ROME
Boston Herald

Sunday, October 18, 2015

By: Brian Dowling

Pope Francis has put Vatican insiders on notice in a speech to bishops, envisioning a church that draws its power from the people instead of a stodgy, disconnected hierarchy — a move to shift the church’s center of gravity that experts say brings it back to its roots.

“The centralization of all authority in Rome is in fact a modern idea, and basically Pope Francis wants to move us back to a pattern that was more typical of the early church,” said Thomas H. Groome, a professor and director of Boston College’s Church of the 21st Century Center.

Pope Francis told bishops yesterday at a Vatican synod on family issues that “walking together” as a church of lay people, bishops and a pope “is an easy concept to put into words, but not so easy to put into practice.”

But having a church that gives everyone a say would be a great example to the world that “often hands over the destiny of entire populations into the greedy hands of restricted groups of the powerful,” Francis said.

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ROME
The New Yorker

OCTOBER 16, 2015

BY ALEXANDER STILLE

The honeymoon for Pope Francis is over—at least in Rome. The first two weeks of the Synod on the Family have been characterized by open rebellion, corridor intrigue, leaked documents, accusations of lack of transparency, and sharp divisions among the bishops and cardinals. In the first real crisis of his papacy, Francis finds himself in the position of enjoying a rare degree of popularity among the public but facing an unusual degree of dissent within an institution generally so respectful of hierarchy.

There was some inkling of this during the Pope’s triumphant visit to the U.S. “If a conclave were to be held today, Francis would be lucky to get ten votes,” a Vatican source told me at the time. “He gets an A-plus on public relations, but an F on all the rest.” This statement was certainly an exaggeration, but it reflected genuine unease within the Roman curia. An obvious sign of trouble came when the papal nuncio in Washington arranged for the pope to meet Kim Davis, the Kentucky state employee who refused to grant (or to delegate others to grant) marriage licenses to gay couples. The move—by a monsignor who is no stranger to Vatican intrigue and power politics—embarrassed the Pope and scored a couple of points for Church conservatives on the eve of the synod.

Traditionalists in the Church were alarmed by some of the developments at the first session of the Synod, held last fall. Progressive cardinals and bishops—drawing on the work of the German theologian Walter Kasper—pushed an agenda that included the possibility of allowing divorced Catholics who had remarried to take communion, and a more open attitude toward both homosexuals and couples who lived together without marrying. They reintroduced the concept of “graduality,” so that unmarried, previously divorced, and gay couples, by demonstrating love and fidelity toward one another, could be seen as moving toward the gospel rather than simply “living in sin.” As the German cardinal Reinhard Marx put it, “Take the case of two homosexuals who have been living together for thirty-five years and taking care of each other, even in the last phases of their lives… How can I say that this has no value?”

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VATICAN CITY
HeraldNet

Associated Press
Published: Sunday, October 18, 2015

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called Saturday for a Catholic Church that is far more decentralized, where the laity play a greater role, bishops conferences take care of certain problems and even the papacy is rethought.

Francis issued the call during a ceremony Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, a consultative body formed during the Second Vatican Council that was intended precisely to encourage more collegiality in the running of the church by inviting bishops to offer their advice to Rome.

Over the past five decades, the synod has been little more than a talk-fest. But Francis has sought to re-energize it, and the contentious meeting under way at the Vatican, in which conservative and progressive bishops are squaring off over ministering to families, has been the result.

Francis noted that he launched the family synod process two years ago by sending out a questionnaire to Catholic families around the world asking for their input — a strong sign that ordinary lay Catholics have an important role to play in the governance of the church and spreading the faith.

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VATICAN CITY
America Magazine

Gerard O’Connell | Oct 17 2015

“The synod journey culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome, (who is) called to speak authoritatively as ‘the Pastor and Teacher of all Christians,'” Pope Francis stated on October 17, on the eve of the final week of the synod on the family.

In a keynote talk of the utmost importance delivered at the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the synod of bishops, Francis spoke about “synodality in the church,” the synod’s place within this, the relation between the synod and the Successor of Peter, and reminded the synod fathers that he has the last word.

He emphasized the need to give new life to structures of synodality in the local churches worldwide, and confirmed his intention to promote greater “decentralization” in the Catholic Church and to bring about “a conversion of the papacy.”

Pope Francis began by recalling that ever since he became Bishop of Rome, “I wanted to give value to the Synod, which constitutes one of the most precious inheritances of the last council gathering.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Spectator

Damian Thompson

Pope Francis yesterday gave an address to the profoundly divided Synod on the Family in which he confirmed his plans to decentralise the Catholic Church – giving local bishops’ conferences more freedom to work out their own solutions to the problems of divorce and homosexuality.

This is the nightmare of conservative Catholic cardinals, including – unsurprisingly – those in the Vatican. They thought they had a sufficient majority in the synod to stop the lifting of the ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving communion, or any softening on the Church’s attitude to gay couples.

But in yesterday’s keynote speech, delivered as the synod enters its last week, Francis told them that the decentralisation will be imposed from above.

While deliberately referring to himself as ‘Bishop of Rome’, to underline his solidarity with local bishops everywhere (as opposed to the Roman Curia – i.e., ‘the Vatican’), he invoked the power of the Supreme Pontiff to overrule mere cardinals. ‘The synod journey culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome, called to speak authoritatively as the Pastor and Teacher of all Christians,’ he said. This is more authoritarian language than I can remember Benedict XVI using as pope. It means: I call the shots. In the end, you listen to me, not the other way around.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Westdeutsche Zeitung

Von Peter Korall

Bekommen die Opfer aus Südafrika jetzt eine Entschädigung? Das Bistum zeigt sich zurückhaltend.

Willich. Es hat Jahre gedauert, bis die Straftaten des aus Willich stammenden Pfarrers Georg K. vor Gericht landeten. Im Februar wurde er wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt. Sein Verteidiger hatte Revision beim Bundesgerichtshof eingelegt. Die ist jetzt nach Informationen der WZ gescheitert. Was bedeutet: Strafrechtlich ist das Verfahren beendet.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein
October 18, 2015

He’s also a heretic: The kinky Greek Orthodox priest allegedly asked his mistress to abort their baby.

Ethel Bouzalas told Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, the chancellor of the Greek Orthodox church in the United States, that her lover wanted her to get an abortion, according to an interview with the bishop in The National Herald, a Greek-American daily.

But Andonios said Father George Passias denied he made the abortion request and said he wasn’t sure if the unborn child was his.

Abortion is against the teachings of the Greek Orthodox Church.

The affair between Bouzalas, the former principal of the St. Spyridon Parochial School in Washington Heights, and Passias, the church pastor, rocked the Greek Orthodox world when it was revealed last month by The Post.

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ROME
Crux

By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter October 17, 2015

As 270 Catholic bishops from around the world debate issues related to the family inside the Vatican’s Synod Hall from Oct. 4-25, activists, advocacy groups, and ordinary people with a cause to promote or a question to raise have descended on Rome to be active on the sidelines of the event, representing views across the spectrum. Crux is offering periodic snapshots of this “synod outside the synod,” profiling people and their causes.

ROME — Christian Weisner grew up in Germany in a Catholic family that was profoundly shaped by the Second Vatican Council. In Pope Francis, he sees an opportunity for that historic moment in the Church to be fully realized.

“In many ways, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, who was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 23 years before he became pope, really worked against the Council,” he said. Francis, in contrast, is bringing “the ideas, the principles of the Council, back to Rome, back to our Church.”

It’s that feeling of possibility, Weisner said, that brought him from his home outside Munich to Rome to observe the Synod of Bishops as it deliberates issues important the international movement he helps lead, We Are Church.

The group was formed in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal involving the late Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, who was accused in 1995 of molesting several seminarians. Today, We Are Church says it has members in 20 countries. It promotes admitting women to the priesthood, allowing priests to marry, and upending the Church’s hierarchical structure.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen on Oct 17, 2015

The Diocese of Duluth is slated to go before a jury Monday to face child sexual abuse claims in a potential landmark case.

Barring a late settlement or other legal action, the lawsuit would become the first to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, a 2013 law that opened a window for victims of decades-old abuse to file suit in cases that otherwise would be barred by statutes of limitation.

The trial, which could last up to two weeks, is set to begin Monday morning before Judge John Guthmann in Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul.

The Catholic diocese is facing negligence claims made by an unidentified man known in court papers only as Doe 30. The alleged victim filed suit in February 2014, claiming he was sexually abused by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald in the 1970s.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Samantha Perry

BLUEFIELD — Did a pastor’s disclosure to police about reported sexual acts by a church elder on young boys violate the priest-penitent privilege, or was he simply following the state’s mandatory reporting law?

That is the question being argued in pre-trial motions filed in the Timothy Probert case.

Probert, 57, of Mercer County, is facing 50 charges related to alleged sexual abuse of children stemming from his time spent as a volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield and for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program.

In a pre-trial motion filed in the case, Probert’s counsel is seeking to have the charges dismissed on the basis that his pastor, Jonathan Rockness, violated the priest-penitent privilege when he told a West Virginia State Police investigator about disclosures involving Probert’s actions with young boys.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Pope Francis called on Saturday for “healthy decentralization” of power in the Roman Catholic Church, including changes in the papacy and greater decision-making authority for local bishops.

Francis made his comments at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Synod of Bishops, a worldwide gathering that occasionally advises the pope on a host of issues.

Over the years, many bishops have complained that the synod, which meets at the Vatican every few years, has become a weak and ineffective rubber-stamping body.

The Argentine pope said the type of collegiality – the papal governing of the Church in collaboration with bishops – envisaged by the reforming 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council still had not been achieved.

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UNITED STATES
Crisis Magazine

AUSTIN RUSE

Kim Davis is an innocent victim both of cowardice of churchmen and the smug eagerness of certain priests to put her in her place.

First, a few largely uncontested facts: it was Vatican personnel who invited Davis to meet the pope in Washington DC. Neither Kim Davis nor anyone connected to her requested the meeting.

What’s more, Kim Davis met privately with the pope. Whether you call it an audience or an encounter or any other thing, it took place in private. To put an even finer point on it, she was not on a rope line to shake his passing hand, neither was she in a line of people to meet him one by one.

Lastly, while Vatican personnel wanted the meeting to be private, Davis was told at the meeting, the secrecy of the meeting was to last only until the pope left the country.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Ross Douthat

THE Vatican always seems to have the secrets and intrigues of a Renaissance court — which, in a way, is what it still remains. The ostentatious humility of Pope Francis, his scoldings of high-ranking prelates, have changed this not at all; if anything, the pontiff’s ambitions have encouraged plotters and counterplotters to work with greater vigor.

And right now the chief plotter is the pope himself.

Francis’s purpose is simple: He favors the proposal, put forward by the church’s liberal cardinals, that would allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion without having their first marriage declared null.

Thanks to the pope’s tacit support, this proposal became a central controversy in last year’s synod on the family and the larger follow-up, ongoing in Rome right now..

But if his purpose is clear, his path is decidedly murky. Procedurally, the pope’s powers are near-absolute: If Francis decided tomorrow to endorse communion for the remarried, there is no Catholic Supreme Court that could strike his ruling down.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

WRITTEN BY TINA SFONDELES POSTED: 10/17/2015

Four years ago, James Richter – a childhood clergy sexual abuse survivor — couldn’t look at the faces of those who sat in the pews of Holy Family Parish for a Mass promoting healing for victims of sexual abuse.

On Saturday, he rose his head high — looking into the faces of those sitting in those pews – and spoke about the great hope and faith that has returned to his life.

“It’s very, very nice to see your faces. I wasn’t able to say that four years ago when I went to my first Mass because the tears of shame and abuse, of loneliness, of sorrow, of isolation, they would have prevented me from seeing your face,” Richter said.

Richter joined about five other survivors in the Archdiocese of Chicago service aimed at promoting recovery for survivors and for their families, as well as calling on the Catholic community and society to protect children.

“Who are we gathered today? We are laity, priests, deacons, young and old, men and women.

We are victims, survivors, friends, caregivers. We are counselors and assistants. We are the church. We are the children of God,” said the Rev. Ronald Hicks, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Both Richter and Mike Hoffman, another survivor, are part of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Healing Garden Committee. The garden, next to Holy Family church is a place where survivors can go to look for a safe place to cope.

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OHIO
YouTube

Helen tells her story of her son’s childhood sexual abuse by two religious brothers in the Steubenville diocese and the experiences her family has endured in the aftermath and with the Diocese officials.

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VATICAN CITY
The Weekly Standard

BY JONATHAN V. LAST

Everyone talks about “chaos” in Congress just because Republicans haven’t chosen a new speaker of the House. If you want to see real chaos, look at Rome, where Pope Francis’s synod on the family has been a shambling disaster since the moment it started.

Check that—the meltdown started before the synod convened. The day before Francis kicked off the assembly, Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa made quite a stir. Charamsa is not just a normal priest, but a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—the division of the Church tasked with keeping track of doctrine and orthodoxy. (You may remember them from such films as The Inquisition!)

Anyway, Charamsa, it turns out, is gay. And not just theoretically gay, but practically so, having taken a gay lover. (Or rather, a “partner,” per news accounts.) This might sound like a small doctrinal problem for a fellow whose portfolio is overseeing doctrine, since the Church teaches that (1) homosexual acts are not rightly ordered; (2) sex outside of marriage is sinful; and (3) priests make a vow of celibacy. So Charamsa was 0-for-3.

But even that wasn’t the big problem. On October 3, Charamsa was removed from his post not because he was a priest engaged in an adulterous, homosexual affair in contradiction to his vows. No, Charamsa was removed because he was planning to lead a demonstration with a group of gay activists outside the Vatican as the synod convened in order to protest the Church’s “homophobia”—his word—and advocate that the synod recognize beautiful, healthy relationships like his. After all, as the Holy Father has said on the subject, “Who am I to judge?”

This may sound like an inauspicious start to Pope Francis’s great synod on the family. It might even sound as though certain factions have viewed the synod as a chance to re-write the Church’s teachings about the nature of marriage, family, and sexuality. But don’t worry, it’s much worse than that.

Two weeks after Charamsa was sacked, the pope’s supporters—the very ones who want to change Church doctrine—started leaking to the press that l’affaire Charamsa had been a conservative scheme to weaken Francis. Leonardo Boff, a theologian close to the pope, claimed that Charamsa’s protest was “a trap set by those on the right of the church who oppose the pope. . . . Because he didn’t do it in a simple way. But in a provocative way in order to create problems for the Synod and for Francis.”

Now that’s chaos.

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NEW YORK
Philipstown.info

October 17, 2015
Author will detail strategies for parents

Joelle Casteix will share age-specific strategies from her newly published book, The Well-Armored Child: A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Sexual Abuse, when she speaks at the Howland Public Library in Beacon at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Casteix, herself a survivor of abuse, is the volunteer western regional director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and conducts training sessions for families, churches and community groups on how to protect children from predators.

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MARYLAND
Fox 8

[with video]

BY JEN STEER

BALTIMORE- A Cleveland-area rabbi will serve prison time after pleading guilty to sex offenses.

Frederick Martin Karp, the spiritual living director at the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, was arrested earlier this year at JFK Airport in New York following a criminal investigation. Investigators said he molested a child in Maryland from 2009 to 2014.

According to the Baltimore County Circuit Court, Karp pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor on Thursday.

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MARYLAND
Reuters

An Ohio rabbi has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty in Maryland to sexually abusing an underage girl, court documents showed.

Rabbi Frederick Karp, 51, of Beachwood, Ohio, was sentenced by a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge on Thursday. His sentence includes five years of supervised probation after release.

Karp pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor and a third-degree sex offense, court filings showed. He was arrested in New York in January.

Baltimore County prosecutor Lisa Dever told the Cleveland Jewish News that the plea included charges from Cleveland based on events that allegedly occurred at Karp’s home. She said the three victims lived in Baltimore County at the time of the events.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Nuevo Dia

AP

SANTO DOMINGO — El gobierno de Polonia notificó a las autoridades dominicanas sobre el inminente envío de indemnizaciones económicas para los seis monaguillos que fueron víctimas de abuso sexual por parte del sacerdote polaco Wojciech Gil, informó el viernes la Procuraduría general.

La institución dijo en un comunicado que recibió la información a través del departamento de Cooperación Jurídica Internacional de la fiscalía de Varsovia. Se abstuvo de precisar los detalles del pago de las indemnizaciones.

Luisa Liranzo, fiscal de la ciudad de Santiago y quien estuvo a cargo del proceso contra Gil en el país, indicó citada por la Procuraduría que se reunió con los representantes de las víctimas para informales sobre las indemnizaciones.

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Examiner

A FORMER bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton has been removed from holy orders on the recommendation of an independent Professional Standards Board.

Keith Slater had been Bishop of Grafton for 10 years until his resignation in May, 2013.

The deposition means Mr Slater no longer holds any ordained position, role or status within the Anglican Church of Australia and returns to being a lay member of the church.

The recommendation follows a hearing by the Board, headed by former Supreme Court judge, the Hon. Mr Moreton Rolfe QC.

The hearing related to the diocesan response to allegations of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore during the period 1940-1980 and claims for compensation.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santiago.- Polish judicial authorities on Friday notified Dominican Republic´s Justice Ministry on the monetary compensation from the conviction of Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto), whose sexual abuse victims hail from the highland town of Juncalito (central).

The local authorities were notified through a statement from the International Legal Cooperation Dept of Warsaw Province Office of the Prosecutor.

Once notified Santiago Judicial District prosecutor Luisa Liranzo met with the victims’ representatives to discuss the details of how to receive their compensation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Christian Today

Czarina Ong 17 October 2015

Ronald Paquin was freed from jail after two medical specialists determined he does not currently meet the legal criteria for sexual dangerousness, despite his history, officials said.

Boston archbishop Cardinal Sean O’Malley has expressed dismay at the report that Ronald Paquin, a 72-year-old former Massachusetts priest who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old child, has been released from prison.

“We are disappointed in today’s ruling, particularly with concern for Ronald Paquin’s victims and all others who have experienced the reprehensible crime of the sexual abuse of minors,” he said.

O’Malley urged Paquin’s victims to come forward so that new cases could be filed for him to remain locked up in jail.

Paquin was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison, and he completed his sentence in May, officials said.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Oct 16, 2015

In the past years, we have heard many faith-based institutions announce the launching of independent investigations to address issues of past sexual abuse that have publicly surfaced. Whether it’s academic institutions, mission organizations, churches, or denominations, the term “independent investigation” has become almost fashionable.

When an organization is confronted with public allegations of child sexual abuse within their ranks, it finds itself under a bright spotlight as the watching world waits to see how it will respond.

All too often, the overriding institutional concern has very little to do with caring for the victims, but everything to do with protecting its reputation by doing everything it can to shut off the spotlight. This is often accomplished by announcing that the institution will launch an “independent” investigation. The organization proceeds to hire a private investigative group or law firm to investigate the matter with the hope that this process will calm everyone down and eventually turn off the spotlight. Because the motivation for this process can be based upon institutional self-preservation, many investigations labeled as “independent” are nothing more than “internal” investigations in disguise. An internal investigation allows the institution being investigated to stay in the driver’s seat, while an independent investigation requires that they get into the backseat with everyone else.

Institutions faced with this critical decision have to decide what is the ultimate aim of such an investigation. While an internal investigation offers an institution the opportunity for self-protection, an independent investigation offer an institution something far more profound. It offers the institution an opportunity to understand where it failed in order to demonstrate authentic repentance to those who have been hurt, and to make the necessary changes so that the same offenses are never repeated.

It is up to the watching public to make sure that these institutions are not misleading victims, witnesses, and other interested parties regarding the true nature of the investigation. Disguising an internal investigation as independent ultimately exploits and hurts abuse survivors who are told they are engaging in a particular type of process only to learn when it’s too late that they have unwittingly participated in something that will be used to protect the institution.

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MISSISSIPPI
Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Maureen Smith

Fr. Paul Madden began work with the Catholic Diocese of Jackson in 1970. Beginning in January 1984, Fr. Paul Madden began his assignment with the St. James Society, an international organization of diocesan missionary priests who volunteer their priestly lives to serve in Peru and Ecuador.

The Diocese became aware in December 1993 that Madden had abused a minor in the 1970s.

The Diocese informed the Society of St. James of the abuse. In February 2002, Fr. Madden resigned from the Society of St. James and began working in the Diocese of Chimpote, Peru.

The Diocese of Jackson informed the Bishop of Chimpote, Peru of the reported abuse. In July 2002, pursuant to the mandates of the “Dallas Charter” and the Diocese of Jackson’s of Jackson’s Protection of Children policies, the Diocese suspended the faculties of Fr. Paul Madden.

After the suspension, Fr. Madden sought incardination from the Bishop of Chimpote Diocese. In response to the Chimpote’s inquiries, the Diocese of Jackson again informed the Bishop of Chimpote of the abuse, as well as actions taken by the Diocese of Jackson, namely the suspension of his faculties.

A copy of the Dallas Charter in Spanish was sent to the Bishop of Chimpote. In April of 2004 the Bishop of Chimbote incardinated Paul Madden into the Diocese of Chimpote.

Other than the report of December 1993, the Diocese of Jackson has not received any additional complaints about Fr. Madden.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Star

By Jeremy Culley / Published 16th October 2015

Roberto Calvi was initially thought to have committed suicide after he was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge On June 18, 1982.

Private investigators and journalists have claimed there was more to Calvi’s death than meets the eye.

It is alleged that he was profiting from vast sums of money being laundered by the Mafia and the Vatican.

The Vatican ran the only unregulated bank in the world. It is claimed this meant money in it could be invested, and the profits would not be subject to tax laws because Italian regulators could not see it.

The theory being put forward by Channel 5 show Murder at the Vatican – Conspiracy, which airs on Friday at 8pm, is that the Vatican needed Calvi to siphon Mafia money from its bank to a network of global companies so it would be free of Mafia association.

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MARYLAND
Cleveland Jewish News

Posted: Friday, October 16, 2015

ED WITTENBERG | STAFF REPORTER
ewittenberg@cjn.org

Rabbi Ephraim (Frederick) Karp was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and five years of supervised probation upon his release, after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a minor and a third-degree sex offense Oct. 15 in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr. sentenced Karp to 35 years, with all but 22 suspended.

Karp, 51, is former director of spiritual living at Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood.

Baltimore County Prosecutor Lisa Dever, chief of the sex offense and child abuse division in the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office, said the state was asking for a 35-year sentence for Karp, with all but five to be served in prison.

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ROME
International Movement We Are Church

To date more than 50 international Catholic organisations have signed an ‘Appeal to the Synodal Bishops’ due to meet in Rome in October 2015 to address major issues related to Catholic family life.

In a spirit of dialogue as urged by Pope Francis and motivated by the Spirit of God all of these organisations are calling on the bishops to listen attentively to what they are saying so as to make our Church a more compassionate family.

The outcomes from this Synod will have a critical bearing of the relevance of Catholicism to the needs of our time.

The Appeal outlines the fundamental problems experienced by Catholic families throughout the world:

The social and economic problems of the family should be widely discussed by the Synod, particularly those affecting the most vulnerable, children and women.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Oct. 14, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE — When U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma made his decision not to invalidate the Diocese of Gallup’s property auction in Albuquerque after the public and media were barred from attending, Thuma said he based his decision partly on the written declarations of the auctioneer and one of the diocesan attorneys.

But were those declarations true?

On Oct. 6, the evening before Thuma held a hearing for diocesan attorneys to explain why the public and media were excluded, auctioneer Todd Good, the CEO and president of Accelerated Marketing Group, submitted a five page declaration to the court, signed under the penalty of perjury, stating that it was, and had been, Good’s custom and practice not to admit non-bidders to his property auctions in the past 33 years.

“This is because non-bidders do not increase bid prices,” Good stated in his declaration. “Rather, they have the potential to distract legitimate potential buyers, disrupt the auction, or chill bidding.”

Susan Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the Diocese of Gallup, also filed a written declaration under the penalty of perjury in support of Good’s actions.

“He informed me that this was his usual policy and procedure for the numerous court-ordered and bankruptcy auctions he had conducted in the past,” Boswell wrote of Good.

Public event

However, Arizona media reports about the Diocese of Tucson’s property auction challenge Good and Boswell’s statements to the court. In 2005, Boswell was also the lead bankruptcy attorney for the Tucson Diocese. As with the Diocese of Gallup bankruptcy case, Good was hired along with George H. “Hank” Amos III, CEO and president of Tucson Realty & Trust Co., to publicize and conduct a property auction for the Diocese of Tucson.

According to Tucson media reports, non-bidders, such as the press, were welcomed into the diocese auction.

A KOLD News 13 television news report, which is still posted online, was aired the day of the auction, May 21, 2005. The news story includes a photo of Good conducting the auction at his podium, which features a sign with Good’s company logo. The news report also includes quotes from three bidders the television reporter interviewed at the auction.

The next day the Arizona Daily Star featured a Sunday front page story about the event, complete with a news photograph focused on one man with his hand raised up to make a bid, sitting among rows of bidders. Reporter Carol Ann Alaimo, who confirmed in an email that she attended the auction, described in her article a festive scene with “merry strains of fiddle music and frenzied shouts of bidders.”

Alaimo also kept a running tally of the winning bids during the auction.

“An unofficial tally compiled by the Arizona Daily Star shows Saturday’s winning bids totaled at least $2.4 million,” she wrote. “That does not include a trio of sealed bids that could raise another million or more.”

Stephanie Innes was the Tucson newspaper’s religion reporter in 2005.

“We did not have a problem getting a reporter or photographer into the auction and it was clear from the start that this was a public event,” Innes said in an email Oct. 8. “I remember that we didn’t have to go to any particular extra effort to get in either, I worked with the diocese spokesman and he was fine with us going.”

First Amendment concerns

A third media report from Phoenix indicates Good allowed the press to attend a property auction in Mesa, Arizona. In an online news article dated March 17, 2008, a reporter for the Arizona Republic covered a property auction that attracted more than 400 people interested in bidding on 14 condominiums.

The article features a news photo of a family from Mesa sitting among rows of potential buyers, waiting for the auction to begin. In addition to interviewing three property buyers, the reporter also interviewed Good at the conclusion of the auction.

Contrary to these media reports, diocesan attorney Lori Winkelman reiterated Good’s declaration statements in comments she made to Thuma in court Oct. 7. Winkelman told the judge it was Good’s “customary practice” to never allow any non-bidder into his auctions.

“And it is his customary practice,” Winkelman said. “Mr. Good has been doing this over 30 years, he’s conducted thousands of sales. It is his practice to only admit qualified bidders. The reason for that is not nefarious or selective in anyway, it is simply that the goal is to maximize the recovery, and having anybody there who is not there to participate in the sale could potentially harm the recovery.”

Based on the media reports from Tucson and Phoenix, the Gallup Independent has written a letter of complaint to Thuma about the truthfulness of Good’s statements in his declaration. Although contacted by email Tuesday, Good, Boswell and Winkelman did not respond to requests for comment.

Susan Boe, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, has been following media reports about the Diocese of Gallup’s property auction.

“Although the Gallup Diocese is not a public body, its bankruptcy is a matter of public concern, and all proceedings, including auctions, need to be conducted before the public,” Boe said in an email Tuesday. “The exclusion of the press from the auction raises significant First Amendment concerns, especially when journalists reportedly were allowed to attend earlier auction sales conducted by the same auctioneer and law firm. Secrecy always raises questions about fairness and insider dealing.”

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MALTA
Malta Independent

A 44-year-old priest today was charged with defiling three boys, participating in sexual acts with minors and being in possession of child pornography.

Fr Donald Bellizzi, who is the airport chaplain, denied the charges and was remanded in custody

The priest, who lives in a Rabat convent, was arraigned before Magistrate Josette Demicoli. The court heard how he allegedly defiled the children between 2010 and 2013. The alleged victims are now between 18 and 19 years old.

Inspector Joseph Busuttil said the children were entrusted in his care and attended a vocation group. Five boys attended the group but only three made complaints about him.

Lawyer Giannella de Marco, appearing for the accused, said Fr Bellizzi was strongly contesting the charges being brought against him. Dr de Marco made a request for bail but the prosecution objected, arguing about the vulnerability of the witnesses. The alleged victims, they said, all lived in the vicinity of Rabat and there were other witnesses who were priests living at the same convent.

Dr de Marco said her client was prepared to move out of the convent to live with his parents in Gzira until the case was heard. The prosecution however objected, saying that until last week Fr Bellizzi was speaking to the family of one of the youths. The prosecution said the priest had sent a number of text messages to the mother asking why they had suddenly stopped speaking to him. His sister had also sent similar messages.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

16 October

On Friday 16 October 2015 Peter McKelvie resigned from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s Victims’ and Survivors Consultative Panel.

Statement from Peter McKelvie
I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it would not be appropriate for me to continue in my role as a member of the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel VSCP on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). I have today been advised that I am likely to be required as a witness in the Inquiry’s investigations, and that the Inquiry may need to examine my work in pursuing allegations of CSA. In those circumstances it would not be right for me to continue to act in a consultative capacity, providing advice to the Chair and the Inquiry Panel.

Statement from Hon. Lowell Goddard DNZM
I have accepted Peter McKelvie’s resignation as a member of the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel (VSCP) on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. I recognise and thank him for his contribution as part of the VSCP. I would also like to take this opportunity to stress that allegations concerning child sexual abuse related to Westminster are only one component of the Inquiry’s work. As I said in my opening statement the Inquiry’s terms of reference go far broader than this and encompass all institutions within England and Wales. This important work continues.

Statement from the Victims’ and Survivors’ Consultative Panel (VSCP)
Peter McKelvie has offered his resignation as a member of the VSCP based on his likely inclusion as a witness in the investigative work of the inquiry. We wish to express our gratitude to Peter for his enormous contribution to the work of our group and for his commitment over the last 30 years to protecting vulnerable children and victims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Ex-child protection officer Peter McKelvie has resigned as an advisor to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the inquiry says.

Mr McKelvie said he left after being told he may be required as a witness during the inquiry’s investigations.

His information had led to Labour MP Tom Watson raising concerns over whether a minister had links to a past paedophile ring.

It was later reported that the police had found no evidence for such a claim.

The IICSA inquiry, sparked by claims of paedophiles operating in Westminster in the 1980s, will investigate whether “state and non-state institutions have failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation” in England and Wales.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Channel 4

Former child protection officer Peter McKelvie has resigned from his role as an adviser to the Goddard child abuse inquiry.

Mr McKelvie is seen as a key figure in the events leading up to the launch of the controversial police investigation into allegations of a Westminster paedophile ring.

He claimed last year that at least 20 prominent paedophiles, including former MPs and government ministers, abused children for “decades”.

In 2012, he contacted Labour MP Tom Watson, now deputy leader of the party, with his concerns. Mr Watson subsequently told the Commons that the police should investigate “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and No. 10”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer
October 16, 2015

Peter McKelvie, a former child protection officer who acted as a “whistle-blower” to Labour MP Tom Watson when he first put forward allegations of a paedophile ring linked to Westminster, has resigned from the troubled inquiry into child abuse over after “conflict of interest” concerns.

Labour’s deputy leader Watson made the explosive allegations in the House of Commons in 2012 which claimed evidence had been seized in the 1990s containing “clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring” whose members had “links to a senior aide of a former prime minister”.

However, it recently emerged following an investigation by BBC’s Panorama the Met Police dropped the case just two months after Watson made the claims as there was “no evidence of offending linked to [the minister] held within the files”.

Watson’s allegations were based on information fed to him by McKelvie who had a “long experience of working in social work and child protection”. Despite being told the minister in question was cleared of the claims in 2012, McKelvie wrote to the prime minister to give his reasons for contacting Watson in 2012, and also to Lord Goddard, head of the abuse inquiry, to describe his appointment to government as “utter contempt for the survivors of child sexual abuse”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

DAVID MURRAY THE COURIER-MAIL OCTOBER 17, 2015

IN MAY, 2000, three police officers were shot in a pre-dawn ambush at Chermside in Brisbane’s north. Miraculously, the officers survived. But the aftermath would change hundreds more lives when it emerged the gunman, Nigel Parodi, had gone off the rails after being sexually abused as a student at elite private school Brisbane Grammar.

Parodi’s abuser was the school’s revered former counsellor, Kevin Lynch, and it soon emerged scores of other boys had fallen victim at Grammar and his subsequent workplace, St Paul’s School at Bald Hills.

Fifteen years later, another damaged man lashed out last week over events connected to the same two schools, again with deadly consequences. On this occasion the weapon used was not a rifle. It was a blog.

For some time a former unionist and talented Brisbane writer, Brenden Sheehan, had written a controversial blog under the pseudonym, Archie Butterfly. His prolific, take-no-prisoners posts gave his often scathing take on politics, sport and current affairs. But on Tuesday, October 6, Sheehan used the blog to publish a searing personal story of being drugged and sexually abused when he was a teenager.

His post followed a public announcement by The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that it would next month hold hearings into the abuse of children at Brisbane Grammar and St Paul’s from the 1970s to 1990s.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

October 26, 2015 Issue
James Martin, S.J.

I try not to write too often about working with the media because it can sound like “Look at me, I’m on TV.” It is also a threat to humility, an occupational hazard for anyone who has ever appeared in print or on television. Nonetheless, part of our ministry at America is helping the so-called secular media. In the words of John Courtney Murray, S.J. (or Pedro Arrupe, S.J, or Daniel Lord, S.J., or St. Ignatius Loyola, depending on your “sourcing”), one way to understand the work of Jesuits and our colleagues is that we help explain the church to the world and the world to the church.

During Pope Francis’ visit to the United States last month, then, many of us at America spent time assisting the secular media. For me, it was a great grace to follow the pope from Washington to New York to Philadelphia, and I also had a delightful time working with the mainstream media—mainly ABC News.

At the same time, in every city I heard comments from fellow Catholics that reminded me that not everyone thinks as positively as I do about the media. So I thought I’d share with you, based on 15 years’ experience, reflections on the most common complaints.

The media is anti-Catholic. Now, I have occasionally run into journalists in print, online, on the radio and on television (as well as editors of newspapers, magazines and websites, and producers of news programs) who have an antipathy to our church. Nonetheless, the vast majority do not and simply want to get the story right. And when it comes to religion reporters, I can say categorically that I’ve never met a single one who is anti-Catholic. By contrast, as a result of years of reporting, religion reporters have encountered so many inspiring bishops, priests, brothers, sisters and lay Catholics that they usually have an abiding affection for the church. Indeed, non-Catholic religion reporters may know more about the Catholic Church than the average Catholic. For they have met sisters who work in the slums, priests who spend long hours in the confessional, brothers who teach patiently in classrooms and committed lay leaders dedicated to helping others.

Also, it’s important to distinguish between attacks on the church and critiques of it. When The Boston Globe ran its extensive series of articles on the sexual abuse crisis in the early 2000s, for example, Cardinal Bernard Law, then archbishop of Boston, said he “called down the power of God on the Boston media…particularly The Globe.” But although The National Catholic Reporter ran a remarkable series of articles on abuse in the 1990s, and some of the pieces that ran in The Globe were unfair, their coverage overall was not only fair; but it is in large part because of The Globe that the church in the United States was forced to confront the abuse crisis. The church both deserved criticism and benefited by it.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 17, 2015

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

At least seven former pupils of a Catholic boarding school in northern NSW have killed themselves amid allegations of sexual abuse by staff that have led to one former teacher being convicted this month, while another will face court next week.

The school’s former discipline master, Richard O’Connor, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for a series of often brutal sexual ­assaults during the late 1970s and 80s, including on one boy who was raped, then caned while lying on the bed. Another former teacher at St John’s College, James Sampson Doran, will face Lismore District Court on Wednesday after being charged with about 40 offences, including sexual and indecent assaults on 10 former pupils of the school.

Mr Doran later became principal of a Catholic boarding school in Abergowrie, in far north Queensland, where many of the pupils came from remote Aboriginal communities across the state. While in that role, he employed a former pupil from St John’s College, who was himself subsequently charged with sexual abuse.

At the time both teachers were working at St John’s College, in Woodlawn near Lismore, northern NSW, it was run by the Marist Fathers Catholic order and provided boarding places to several hundred high-school boys from rural communities.

Seven former pupils who were taught there during the period O’Connor was offending have since committed suicide, with friends, family and police linking at least three of these deaths ­directly to his abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Oct. 15, 2015

VATICAN CITY
The synod on the family has created a lot of interest in the church and spilled a lot of ink (or electrons) in the media, but there are five reasons that it was doomed to fail before the bishops even gathered in Rome Oct. 4. Perhaps Pope Francis can perform a miracle and save it, but the odds are against him.

First, the topic of the synod, “the family,” is too broad.

The family touches everything and is touched by everything. Anything bad in the world affects families, and any problems in families affect the societies in which they live.

Social and economic factors impact families: unemployment, housing, war, terrorism, climate change, interreligious differences, consumerism, social media, education, and on and on. Every problem in the world has an impact on families, from addictions to political corruption.

Scores of moral issues surround the family, everything from the sexual act itself to fidelity, abortion, contraception, surrogate mothers, homosexuality, divorce, gender equality, child abuse, spousal violence, and so on.

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LATIN AMERICA
GlobalPost

Will Carless on Oct 16, 2015

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — One month ago, GlobalPost published a lengthy investigation into Catholic clergy who have been accused of sexual abuse in the United States or Europe, yet continue to work as priests in remote South American dioceses.

Two of the priests have been suspended from their posts since our reporting. Another appears to have moved to a different country, and an admitted child molester continues to work at a church in Peru. A fifth priest we investigated had already left the church for personal reasons when GlobalPost caught up with him.

We still haven’t received any response from either the Vatican or Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who heads up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Here’s our one-month update on the status of the fugitive fathers featured in our report:

Jan Van Dael, in Fortaleza, Brazil
Status: Suspended

According to the Diocese of Fortaleza’s website, Belgian priest Jan Van Dael was suspended shortly after GlobalPost started asking questions about him on a reporting trip to Fortaleza earlier this year.

Miguel Brandao, the archdiocese’s pastoral secretary, confirmed in a phone interview that Van Dael has had his faculties removed and may no longer celebrate mass at local churches.
“He can attend church, just like any Catholic, but he cannot celebrate mass or participate in any way as a priest,” Brandao said. “He does not have any parish here in Fortaleza.”

Federico Fernandez Baeza, in Cartagena, Colombia
Status: Suspended

Colombian priest Federico Fernandez Baeza was working at a university in Cartagena when GlobalPost attempted to confront and film him earlier this year. Fernandez avoided our cameras, but we did speak with various university officials and filmed interviews with students in front of the university.

After GlobalPost revealed Fernandez’s past to university officials, the university immediately suspended him, said Hector Eduardo Lugo, the most senior Franciscan official in Colombia.

“We ordered him to leave the university,” Lugo said in a phone interview. “We didn’t know about his past. We weren’t his superiors at the time he returned to Colombia.”

Lugo said Fernandez is also currently being investigated internally by church lawyers in Colombia, who will, in turn, send a report to the Vatican. For the time being, Fernandez is being housed in a treatment facility for sick priests outside the city of Medellin, Lugo said.

GlobalPost called Fernandez at the treatment center. When a reporter introduced himself, the priest hung up the phone.

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ROME
Commonweal

Robert Mickens
October 14, 201

It has been known for quite some time that a number of cardinals and bishops, both in Rome and abroad, are—to put it mildly—uncomfortable with the way Pope Francis’s pontificate is unfolding.

Well, this week it all spilled out into the open when it was unveiled that several cardinals—including three top Vatican officials (Cardinals Pell, Müller and Sarah)—wrote a letter to the Pope that basically criticized the way he is running the Synod of Bishops.

One should be magnanimous and give these birds credit for being honest with the Pope and telling him their concerns. (They were not happy that the public found out, which is another story.) But one should also be aware that, at least some of these prelates, are active ringleaders of an opposition to Francis.

As the Vatican II-minded theologian, Enzo Bianchi, noted this week in the Rome daily, La Repubblica, they have at times waged a fierce battle.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton has been stripped of any standing within the church over his handling of allegations of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home.

Keith Slater was Bishop of Grafton for 10 years until his resignation in May of 2013.

He quit the post after admitting he put the finances of the church ahead of the interests of 40 victims.

They were men and women who had been sexually, physically and or psychologically abused at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore between the 1940s and the 1980s.

A compensation battle was settled in 2007 for 38 of the victims.

They received varying amounts ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 after a drawn-out process which some described as traumatic.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

October 16, 2015

Michael Koziol
Journalist

Pope Francis is dealing with a Rats in the Ranks-style mutiny aboard the good ship Vatican. The right faction, led in this case by Australia’s penny-counting Cardinal George Pell, is rebelling against a perceived shift to the liberal left during a three-week meeting of theologians in Rome.

The Synod of Bishops, which is to determine the church’s policy and rhetoric on familial matters, is particularly vexed about whether to grant Communion to divorced Catholics who have remarried.

Punishing divorcees might be considered something of a breach of taste in some circles, but for conservative Catholics it is an article of faith. And like a disgruntled backbench, the cardinals weren’t content to sit around and watch history pass them by. So they reached for the oldest trick in the book – a polite but firm ultimatum to their leader, duly leaked to the media.

Veteran Vatican-watcher Sandro Magister reported that 13 cardinals had signed the letter to Pope Francis, including Pell, who delivered it. A version of the text, which may not have been the final composition, was published by the Italian magazine L’espresso, revealing that the disaffected group felt the synod lacked “openness and genuine collegiality”.

“A number of fathers feel the new process seems designed to facilitate predetermined results on important disputed questions,” they wrote. The fathers did not fail to note the “collapse of liberal Protestant churches” that had jettisoned too many hard-core Christian beliefs.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | October 16, 2015

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Ever since a Vatican summit last year opened a debate making the church more open to those whose lives may not mirror the Catholic ideal, conservative foes have waged an intense campaign to block any reforms from being adopted at a follow-up meeting that Pope Francis convened this month.

Yet as the three-week meeting, called a synod, has progressed, the enthusiasm of the traditionalists may be overwhelming their tactical judgment, and by overplaying their hand they may have weakened what was once considered a strong position.

The most public, and embarrassing, episode came this week with the leak of a private letter to the pope from 13 conservative cardinals.

In the letter, the senior churchmen complained that Francis had set up this meeting of 270 bishops from around the world in a way that would favor reformers who want, for example, to adopt a new approach to gays and lesbians or find a way that divorced and remarried Catholics could receive Communion.

Several cardinals quickly denied signing the letter, and others said the letter they signed was a bit different from the leaked version, though they did not say how.

That sent synod delegates and Vatican-watching media into a frenzy of speculation, until it was reported that there were in fact 13 signers, only some of them were different from those originally claimed.

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ITALIA
la Repubblica

[Priest Don Mauro Inzoli has been accused of abusing five minors and has sought a plea bargain.]

di MATTEO PUCCIARELLI

Aveva chiesto il patteggiamento, ma il gip non l’ha formalizzato: per don Mauro Inzoli nei prossimi giorni verrà fissata l’udienza preliminare che dovrà decidere sul suo rinvio a giudizio. Le accuse erano note e sono gravissime: l’ex numero uno di Comunione e Liberazione in Lombardia avrebbe abusato sessualmente di cinque minori tra il 2004 e il 2008, in tutto otto episodi contestati; mentre altri quindici sono caduti in prescrizione. Rischia 12 anni di reclusione.

Don Inzoli all’epoca dei fatti era rettore del liceo linguistico Shakespeare di Crema, parroco della Santissima Trinità della stessa cittadina nonché presidente del Banco Alimentare. Proprio grazie a questi ruoli che lo rendevano un “idolo meritevole di venerazione” (ha raccontato uno dei giovani) don Inzoli avrebbe avuto la capacità di assoggettare i minori.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By RICHARD SPILLETT

Information provided by victims to the independent child abuse inquiry has been deleted, it emerged today.

The inquiry admitted that, due to a change in its website address, any submissions through an online form between September 14 and October 2 was ‘instantly and permanently deleted’ before it reached staff.

The information erased in the blunder had been given to the ‘share your experience’ section of the website.

The website was set up for victims and survivors wanting to share their experiences with officials working on the probe.

Those who provided details between the two dates have now been asked to resubmit their information.

The inquiry apologised for the incident and stressed that no material was at risk of disclosure.

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NEW YORK
New York Times

By BENJAMIN MUELLER
OCT. 16, 2015

The founder and longtime pastor at Word of Life Christian Church shamed congregants from the pulpit, dredging up old sins and recounting them at Sunday services in humiliating detail, a former member said.

He demanded they redo the floors and fix the plumbing in his living quarters, day after day for hours, until they felt numb from sleep deprivation. Members who raised questions were put on church discipline and forbidden to speak to others.

And the founder, Jerry Irwin, taught hate, using racial slurs during sermons, according to the former member, Chadwick Handville.

In the aftermath of the brutal beating at Word of Life Christian Church in central New York that left one teenage congregant dead and his younger brother seriously injured this week, investigators have been trying to understand how that violent episode may have grown out of what some described as a church culture of secrecy and isolation.

Mr. Handville, who defected from the church in 2000 after a decade of praying and working there and who now lives in Phoenix, offered the first detailed public account since the teenager’s death of what happened behind the church’s locked gates and thick row of hedges.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By Philip A. Vanno Posted Oct. 15, 2015

For the past 15 years, Chadwick M. Handville has done everything he could to forget the time he spent as a member, worship leader and trustee at the Word of Life Christian Church in Chadwicks.

But despite his best efforts, which have included everything from seeking spiritual healing to moving clear across the country to Phoenix, the 46-year-old has not been able to escape the damage that 10 years of living in a “Hollywood nightmare” has wrought on his life.

“It was horrible,” said Handville, who has divorced his wife — whom he met at the Church — and lost touch with his stepchildren since leaving the church in June 2000. “There was constant manipulation, intimidation, fear and lies. And seeing what has happened now all over the news, it’s bringing it all back to the surface.”

Tragedy struck the church this week with the death of 19-year-old Lucas Leonard and the beating of his 17-year-old brother Christopher Leonard. The boys’ parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard of Clayville, have been charged with manslaughter in Lucas’ death.

Four other members of the church — Joseph Irwin, 26, of Chadwicks; David Morey, 26, and Linda Morey, 54, both of Utica; and the Leonards’ daughter Sarah Ferguson, 33, also of Clayville — are charged with felony second-degree assault in what officials have labeled as a counseling session that went terribly wrong.

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NEW YORK
Seattle Times

By Rick Rojas
BENJAMIN MUELLER
The New York Times

CLAYVILLE, N.Y. — The pastor of a secretive church in central New York was holding a meeting to address concerns that a young congregant wanted to defect when other church members began to beat him in an attack that eventually stretched over 10 hours, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The congregant, Lucas Leonard, 19, later died, and his younger brother, Christopher Leonard, 17, remained hospitalized Thursday with serious injuries inflicted during the beating, which, authorities said, started after Sunday services and lasted until early Monday. The brothers’ parents were charged with manslaughter in the death. Four other adults, including the victims’ half-sister, are charged with assault in the younger brother’s beating.

A police spokesman said counseling sessions like the one that preceded Lucas Leonard’s death were routine at Word of Life Church in New Hartford and were meant to deal with questions about adherents’ spiritual standing. The spokesman said investigators had no indication the sessions had led to beatings before.

Defense lawyers for the brothers’ parents, Bruce Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, offered a different account of the meeting, describing it as a family gathering to discuss the brothers’ behavior toward relatives and church members. A lawyer for Deborah Leonard, Devin Garramone, said, “It had something to do with the boys maybe touching some of the other children in the church.”

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CHILE
24 Horas

[The Supreme Court of Chile has approved a request that the Vatican be asked to turn over information on the canonical investigation of priest Fernando Karadima.]

Por Marian Basso

Este jueves mediante un escrito redactado por el ministro de fuero subrogante Mauricio Silva que lleva el juicio civil en contra del arzobispado se solicitó al Vaticano la entrega de antecedentes relativos a la indagatoria realizada en 2011 a Fernando Karadima por abusos sexuales.

La petición inicial de estos informes fue realizada el pasado 1 de octubre por la defensa del arzobispado liderada por Nicolás Luco. En el escrito, el abogado indica que esta información es relevante para el punto cinco de la demanda que refiere a la “actitud del arzobispado de Santiago al tomar noticia de las efectuadas por los demandantes ante los abusos de que fueron objeto”.

La Corte Suprema deberá solicitar estos antecedentes a través de un exhorto internacional a la Santa Sede. El abogado de las víctimas de Karadima, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, se mostró conforme con la petición del arzobispado.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Child sex abuse victims have been asked to resubmit information to an inquiry after it was accidentally deleted.

Online forms were deleted due to a “change in our website address”, the Goddard Inquiry into historical abuse said on its website.

Forms submitted to the inquiry’s “share you experience” page from 14 September to 2 October had been lost, it said.

It apologised for “any inconvenience or distress”, but said no information was “at risk of disclosure”.

The statement does not indicate how many submissions were deleted – or whether the number is known by inquiry staff.

The inquiry, sparked by claims of paedophiles operating in Westminster in the 1980s, will investigate whether “state and non-state institutions have failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation” in England and Wales.

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UNITED STATES
Stetson University Today

October 14, 2015

No one wanted to think about it.

Tasked with the job of prosecuting perpetrators of the unthinkable, Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian BA ’90 watched his peers do what they could to avoid handling cases of child sexual abuse.

But as a young assistant state attorney handling a variety of criminal cases, Tchividjian couldn’t ignore the horror of those that violated children. When he volunteered to aggressively prosecute all of the 7th Judicial Circuit’s child sex abuse cases, the state attorney approved and established a sex-crimes unit that handled hundreds of cases, a third of them involving children.
It was the start of a lifelong passion for fighting child sexual abuse.

“As I was prosecuting, you really see the cases up close,” says Tchividjian. “You see the victims, the families, the devastation, but you also deal with the offenders. You see common characteristics and behaviors, and get a comprehensive picture of this offense.”

The issue remained heavy on his heart as he went into private practice in 2001. “What do I do with all of this information that I learned in the trenches?” Tchividjian asked himself.

It wasn’t until a Wisconsin newspaper reporter called his law office that his calling became clear.

According to the reporter, five years earlier a Milwaukee father had reported to his church pastor that his young daughter was sexually abused by another congregation member. The pastor invited the father to meet with the offender, who cried, asked for forgiveness, and confessed gratefulness that he had been caught. Convinced of his repentance, the pastor asked the father to forgive the offender and not report the matter to police. The father agreed.

By the time the journalist contacted Tchividjian, the offender had since abused at least six more children in the church since the original incident. That was the moment Boz decided to educate Christians on how to protect its youngest members from such abuse.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

[with video]

By Allison Pohle @AllisonPohle Video by Ryan Breslin
Boston.com Staff | 10.15.15

Nancy Shilts looked beyond the open doors of St. Frances X Cabrini Church Wednesday afternoon during her vigil shift. Dark clouds hung in the sky, but she couldn’t stop searching for what she called a “sign from heaven,” that something good was going to happen.

It never came.

When she left the Scituate church that night, the sky was still dark. She had just heard the news that she and the other parishioners of the church had lost their appeal. The state appeals court ruled that the parishioners of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church were trespassing, and would need to leave.

They haven’t.

About 100 parishioners—known as the “Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini”—have kept a 24-7 vigil inside their beloved church for nearly 11 years. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston decided to shutter the church in 2004 as part of its reorganization plan, but the group had other ideas. They’ve made sure at least one member of the church is inside at all times to prevent the archdiocese from closing it. …

St. Frances X Cabrini was one of many churches the archdiocese decided to close in 2004. Carmody said this was directly tied to the clergy sexual abuse scandal, when scores of Catholics left the church and the parishes didn’t have enough funds to keep the doors open.

Carmody said two priests accused of sexual abuse have ties to the church. Thomas Forry was defrocked, and she said another unnamed priest left the church and reached a settlement with the victim’s family.

“The archdiocese will have you believe this is a separate issue, but it really isn’t,” Rogers said.

“The closing of the church is in a lineage of reactions. We here want to make sure there are no more victims and that churches are not sold off to repay the cost of sexual abuse. You don’t get to abuse children and then steal our church to pay for your sins.”

The clergy sexual abuse scandal is directly tied to the devotion the parishioners have for their church, he said.

“We ask: When does the pain stop?” Rogers said. “The pain the families have gone through is only exacerbated by the fact that you want to tear down this church. That’s where our inner anger comes from. That’s why we’re still here.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

SCITUATE, Mass. —Scituate parishioners who have kept their closed church open for years are vowing to continue their fight after their appeal was denied.

Margy O’Brien, 85, is trespassing. She doesn’t mince words speaking about how she feels about the archdiocese.

“Dismayed, disrespected but by golly, we are going to fight this,” she said.

Parishioners of St Frances X. Cabrini have stayed in the church 24/7. Vigils have held off the closure of the church for 11 years — that’s more than 4,000 days of defiance.

The group was dealt a legal blow Wednesday when the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that they are trespassers and that the Boston Archdiocese may order them to leave.

The group said the church sex abuse crisis motivates them to keep fighting.

“I wonder if (Cardinal Sean) O’Malley knows how many priests assigned to St. Frances were abusers?” attorney Mary Elizabeth Carmody said.

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MASSACHUSETTS
CBS Boston

SCITUATE (CBS/AP) – A group of the parishioners who have held a vigil at their closed church for more than a decade is asking for mercy from Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed a judge’s ruling Wednesday that parishioners at St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate are trespassing on property owned by the Archdiocese of Boston.

The archdiocese shut down the church in 2004 as part of a reorganization effort to pay financial settlements in the priest sex abuse crisis. The parishioners have fought the closing by occupying it for 24 hours a day for the last 11 years.

Legally they can continue their fight with a petition that must be filed in the next two weeks.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Reuters

SCITUATE, MASS. | BY SCOTT MALONE

Parishioners who have occupied their Massachusetts church for 11 years to prevent the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston from closing it vowed on Thursday to continue their vigil despite a ruling by the state’s top court that they are trespassing.

A group of parishioners of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate said they would keep up their 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week vigil, the last and longest-running of a half dozen mounted by Boston-area parishes targeted for closure early in the Church’s sexual abuse crisis.

“We’re disappointed,” said Jon Rogers, a leader of the vigil, in response to Wednesday’s decision by Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that the group has no legal standing to remain in the brick building constructed in the 1960s.

“There’s a lot of anger in this room,” he said, standing in front of a stained-glass window in the church with about a dozen fellow parishioners, most in their 60s and 70s. “There’s still a lot of commitment here.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
WGBH

[with audio]

By CRAIG LEMOULT

Parishioners at a shuttered Catholic church in Scituate say they will continue their 11 year vigil there, despite an Appeals Court ruling this week that said they’re trespassing.

The parishioners leading the vigil to keep open St. Francis Cabrini were undaunted by this week’s ruling. They say they plan to file for a rehearing with the Appeals Court, as well as filing a petition the state Supreme Judicial Court. And if those don’t go their way, they say they’re willing to bring their case to federal courts. The Archdiocese of Boston announced plans to close St. Francis in 2004 because of declining attendance, too few priests, and financial problems compounded by settlements from the clergy sex-abuse scandal.In a press conference, members of the parish said it’s wrong to close their church to pay for those settlements. In a statement, the Archdiocese asked the parishioners to respect the court’s decision and conclude the vigil.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Scituate

By Ruth Thompson
rthompson@wickedlocal.com

Posted Oct. 15, 2015

SCITUATE

The Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini, Inc. are reaching out to Cardinal Sean O’Malley for mercy after the state Appeals Court upheld a ruling stating parishioners are trespassing.

“Pope Francis has introduced the year of mercy,” said Maryellen Rogers, a spokesperson for the Friends along with her husband, Jon. “Mercy is very dear to the Pope. We ask Cardinal O’Malley for mercy. This church is very important. The people of this community have dedicated their hearts and souls.”

On Oct. 14 a ruling by the Norfolk Superior Court was upheld by the state appeals court stating the Friends, who have been holding vigil at the Hood Street property since 2004 when the Archdiocese of Boston closed the church as part of its reorganization plan, were trespassing.

Maryellen called the Oct. 14 decision “heartbreaking.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Laura Crimaldi and Andy Rosen GLOBE STAFF OCTOBER 15, 2015

SCITUATE — A group of Roman Catholic parishioners called on Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley Thursday to reverse plans to close the church where they’ve held a vigil for nearly 11 years.

The statements from members of Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini came at a news conference a day after the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that they are trespassers and the Boston Archdiocese, as the owner of the property, has the right to order them to leave.

The group, which members say numbers around 100, is still considering its legal options. An attorney said members could seek further review by the appeals court or ask the Supreme Judicial Court to hear an appeal.

The group also called on O’Malley, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in Boston, to visit the church and reconsider the closure.

“We’re disappointed. I can say there’s a lot of anger in this room,” vigil leader Jon Rogers said Thursday. “Everyone believes that this is self-centered. Indeed it is not.”

Members of the vigil say O’Malley has not spoken to them about the clergy sex abuse scandal, which they say affected their parish.

“You don’t get to abuse children and then steal our church to pay for your sins,” Rogers said Thursday.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Anglican Diocese of Newcastle has revealed a now dead priest, who once worked across the Hunter region, was a paedophile.

Bishop Greg Thompson released a statement overnight saying the Diocesan Professional Standards Office had verified information the late Hunter Valley reverend Michael Cooper had engaged in sexual abuse of children.

Before he died in 2007, he worked in the parishes of East Maitland, Telarah/Rutherford, Mount Vincent/Weston, Cessnock/Wollombi, Hamilton and Waratah.

Bishop Thompson said, as well as the abuse, Cooper supplied alcohol and prohibited drugs to minors.

A private meeting was held in Rutherford overnight where parishioners were informed of the revelation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent

The Goddard Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse has apologised after information provided by survivors was destroyed before it was even looked at.

A website glitch was blamed for the error, which was described as “unacceptable” by campaigners and people who had been abused.

The inquiry, which is only just getting under way, is led by New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard and will examine institutional failings over child sexual abuse over many decades.

A statement on the Goddard Inquiry website said: “Due to a change in our website address to www.iicsa.org.uk on 14 September, any information submitted to the inquiry between 14 September and 2 October through the online form on the ‘share your experience’ page of our website was instantly and permanently deleted before it reached our engagement team.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

15 October

Due to a change in our website address to www.iicsa.org.uk on 14 September, any information submitted to the Inquiry between 14 September and 2 October through the online form on the “Share your experience” page of our website, was instantly and permanently deleted before it reached our engagement team.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience or distress this will cause and would like to reassure you that no information was put at risk of disclosure or unauthorised access. Due to the security measures on our website, your information cannot be found or viewed by anyone else as it was immediately and permanently destroyed.

We would like to apologise again to anyone who submitted details to the Inquiry during this time and to ask you to please resubmit your information through the online form. Alternatively you can call the Inquiry helpline on 0800 917 1000 to submit your information over the phone, or email our team at contact@iicsa.org.uk.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Rajeev Syal
Thursday 15 October 2015

Information provided by alleged child abuse victims to the overarching inquiry set up by Theresa May has been deleted due to a blunder, it has emerged.

Submissions sent through an online form to the inquiry between 14 September and 2 October were “instantly and permanently deleted” on Thursday before it reached staff.

The information had been sent to the “share your experience” section of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) website, set up for victims and survivors wanting to share their experiences with officials working on the probe.

Those who provided details between the two dates have now been asked to resubmit their information. The inquiry apologised for the incident and stressed that no material was at risk of disclosure.

The inquiry – set up last July following claims of a high-level cover-up of abuse – has been beset by delays following the resignation of two previous chairwomen, Lady Butler-Sloss and and Fiona Woolf.

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ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 15, 2015

ROME — Crux owes Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa, an apology. Although it’s coming later than it should, this piece is intended to deliver it.

Although it largely got lost amid a bigger controversy this week over a letter signed by several cardinals objecting to elements of the process at the 2015 Synod of Bishops, a smaller row broke out Tuesday over a Crux piece published the day before in which Napier was quoted as saying he shared concerns over a drafting committee for the synod’s final document, “challenging Pope Francis’ right to choose them.”

The interview was conducted by my Crux colleague, Inés San Martín, on Monday, who recorded it on her smartphone and then transcribed it. I listened to the recording and confirmed the transcript. What both of us heard was the following:

“One of the concerns was, and this I really would share, is the choice of the people that are drawing up the document, challenging Pope Francis’ right to choose them. If we’re going to get a fair expression of what the synod is about, what the Church in Africa really would like to see happening, we wouldn’t like to see the same kind of people on that committee that were there the last time, that caused us the grief that we had.”

At about 9 a.m. Tuesday, Napier called San Martín to say he had not challenged the pope’s right to make the appointments. Since that part of the recording was a bit unclear, we removed the line from the story.

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ROME
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Oct 15, 2015

Dublin abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she is satisfied that attempts by Chilean Catholic Church leaders to prevent another survivor becoming a member of the Vatican’s commission for the protection of minors was not a factor in him not being appointed. The commission met at the Vatican last week.

It emerged from leaked emails published in the Chilean media last month that Archbishop of Santiago Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello and his predecessor Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Osso attempted to block survivor Juan Carlos Cruz from being appointed to the commission. The church in Chile confirmed the emails were authentic.

Mr Cruz, an active child protection campaigner in Chile, had accused Cardinal Errazuriz of covering up the crimes of the priest who abused him. The cardinal, one of Pope Francis’s nine-member Council of Cardinals, acknowledged in court that he failed to act on abuse allegations against the relevant priest because he believed them to be untrue.

Ms Collins had proposed Mr Cruz for membership of the Vatican Commission but he was not appointed. When the leaked emails between the two cardinals were published in Chile’s El Mostrador newspaper she said she was personally “disgusted at the attitude displayed by these leaders in the church to the pontifical commission and to a survivor of abuse”. …

Disappointment

On a separate matter she repeated her disappointment in Pope Francis after it emerged he had defended his appointment of another Chilean bishop accused of covering-up child abuse involving the same priest who abused Mr Cruz.

Mr Cruz alleged Bishop Juan Barros, appointed by the pope to the diocese of Osorno in Chile last March, had actually witnessed abuse by the priest.

In a video filmed in St Peter’s Square last May, the pope defended the appointment when asked by Chilean pilgrims.

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ROME
National Post

Alice Philipson, The Telegraph | October 15, 2015

Conservatives within the Catholic Church are trying to lay “poisoned bait” for Pope Francis, it has been claimed, just days after he faced a rebellion from Vatican cardinals opposed to his more liberal stance.

With the Pope mid-way through a family summit dogged by scandal and rumours of plotting, Italian newspapers reported on schemes to destabilise Francis. Nello Scavo, a journalist at Avvenire, a daily linked to the Church, told La Repubblica there was a concerted move to “weaken the character and the strength of Pope Francis.”

“There is an ideological battle, it is true,” said Scavo, the author of a new book entitled The Enemies of Francis. “There have also been some inside the curia who have tried to lay poisoned bait for Francis.”

He cited the example of Krzysztof Charamsa, a senior Vatican official and Polish priest, who came out publicly as gay just a day before the summit began, criticising what he called “institutionalised homophobia in the Church.”

Charamsa also claimed that a majority of priests were gay, after which he was sacked.

Leonardo Boff, a theologian who has close ties with the Pope, told Oggi magazine it was “a trap set by those on the Right of the Church who oppose the Pope.”

“Because he [Charamsa] didn’t do it in a simple way,” he added. “But in a provocative way in order to create problems for the Synod and for Francis.”

On Monday the three-week debate — tackling issues such as homosexuality and divorce — was thrown into chaos as a rebellious letter to Pope Francis signed by 13 cardinals was leaked to Italy’s L’Espresso magazine.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

At the midway point of one of the most significant Vatican meetings since the Second Vatican Council half a century ago uncertainty reigns among the nearly 300 participants – most of them celibate male clerics – about what it will or can accomplish.

Pope Francis is being challenged by some powerful cardinals holding key posts inside the Vatican who fear for their careers, as a smaller group of clerics who support his reforms are pushing for change.

The Pope has been warning darkly against unspecified “conspiracies” and “scandals” by lobbies who are playing a new role in Church politics. The existence of a so called “gay lobby” inside the Vatican has been confirmed by the outing of a gay priest who decided to go public on the eve of the opening of the Synod, causing shock and embarrassment to the organisers.

Pope Francis is the first Pope ever to utter the word “gay” in public.

Hitherto, a deep taboo has prevailed on the subject of homosexuality and homophobia. Pope Francis is recommending a more merciful and less judgmental attitude towards gays who want to remain inside the church.

One synod participant, the Archbishop of Brisbane in Australia, Mark Coleridge, has been blogging throughout the conference giving a refreshingly candid view of the discussions.

He has complained, however, about “lack of focus” and a tendency towards “Church-speak”, which he admits “may seem wondrous to us, but communicates little or nothing to most people”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Sando Magister, the Italian journalist who became a focus of attention at the Synod of Bishops after publishing a letter from 13 cardinals to Pope Francis, has pointed out that the existence of that letter had already been reported.

Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa had reported on the cardinals’ letter to the Pontiff on October 8, and provided an accurate summary of the letter’s contents Magister observes. Tornielli’s report briefly appeared on the Vatican Insider web site, but then was removed; a print version was published by La Stampa.

Magister published a text of the letter– later revealed to contain some inaccuracies– on October 12.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

BY PATRICIA MILLER OCTOBER 14, 2015

While most reactions to the 13 conservative cardinals who sent a letter to Pope Francis complaining that the outcome of the family synod was rigged in favor of progressives focused on the intrigue over the letter’s content and (supposed) signers, another significant element has flown largely under the radar.

Rather than highlight doctrine, tradition, or more direct social harms, the dissenters couched their concerns in terms of the effect of any reforms of marriage practice on the church, warning that it risked going the way of shrinking liberal Protestant denominations if it abandoned “key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of pastoral adaptation.”

This is a long-standing contention of conservatives, as voiced most famously by Ross Douthat, who offers as proof the Episcopal Church, which aggressively adopted a host of progressive reforms to stay relevant, “[y]et instead of attracting a younger, more open-minded demographic with these changes, the Episcopal Church’s dying has proceeded apace.”

It’s true that the Episcopal Church did go in a progressive direction, from being the first Christian church to approve the use of birth control in 1930, to consecrating women priests, to electing the first openly-gay bishop. And it’s also true that the church has seen a rapid decline in the US, but there’s no proof of cause-and-effect here. Some note that the culprit many be a “sharp decline in the birth rate among those descended from the British Isles or Northern Europe,” as well as the paucity of Episcopalians among the many immigrant groups who populate the U.S. The demographic picture for the Catholic Church wouldn’t look nearly as rosy if it weren’t for the fact that Hispanic immigrants to the U.S. are overwhelmingly Catholic.

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