ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Mark Piggott
July 19, 2014

When Pope Francis was elected he promised to make the Catholic Church a “poor church for the poor”, eschewing expensive perks and – allegedly – driving round the Vatican in a Ford Focus.

“It hurts my heart when I see a priest with the latest model car,” the Pope told trainee priests. “If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world.”

Yet 2,000 years of accumulating wealth and making canny investments means the “poor” church is actually sitting on vast wealth in securities, property, works of art and other assets.

A report in Italy’s L’Espresso claims the Vatican is worth €9-10 billion (£7-8 billion). London assets include shops on New Bond Street including the jewellers Bulgari and a property in St James’s Square.

Other international assets – funded by a huge donation by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as a thank you for recognising his regime – include places in Switzerland and a home belonging to former French President Francois Mitterrand.

Even the figure of €9-10 billion is believed to be an under-estimate – the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples is said to have holdings of €7 billion.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . Earlier this week, Archbishop Robert Carlson was criticized for keeping secret about the identities of 63 credibly accused child molesting clerics. (The number comes from the church records disgorged in the recent civil suit against the now-defrocked Fr. Joseph Ross.) And in a new editorial this week, Carlson’s St. Louis Catholic Review opines (evidently with no irony) that “All of us in the Church (must) continue the crusade against abuse assertively and transparently.” The prelate is upset about controversial Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that is attracting national attention and that he says threatens “the sanctity of the confessional.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by FATHER C. JOHN MCCLOSKEY
07/19/2014

An Anxious Age
The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America
By Joseph Bottom
320 pages, $25 (hardcover)
Image Books, 2014
To order: imagecatholicbooks.com

Joseph Bottum, the former editor of First Things magazine and a top-flight observer of the American religious scene, has written an intriguing book entitled An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America.

This book is not an easy read, but worth the trouble in order to understand the collapse of America as a largely Protestant country with a Catholic minority. In its place, we see a nation that seems to be following the once largely Christian Europe into what one can call practical atheism, i.e., people may believe in God, but he plays no important role in day-to-day living in worship or morality.

The first part of the book details how all of this happened, mostly by tracing the thought and effects of various intellectuals such as Walter Rauschenbusch and William James, who began the process that turned traditional Protestant religion into a quest for social justice rather primarily worship of the Creator, moral living and personal witness and evangelization.

Bottum intersperses his history (to my mind, unnecessarily) with descriptions of people he knows to show how they are affected in the present day by the teachings of these Protestant revolutionizers of the 1800s and early 1900s in the United States.

For Catholic readers, however, Bottum hits his stride when giving a masterly brief history of American Catholicism from the 1940s up to the present. In Chapter 10, he focuses on arguably our nation’s greatest Catholic theologian, the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, a Jesuit.

Cardinal Dulles, who converted to Catholicism (as a student at Harvard), was born into one of those old blue-blood Protestant families who reared their children in lessons of leadership and noblesse obliged (reinforced by prep schools and Ivy League colleges) to steer organizations, hold political office and in general rule the country.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A campaigner for victims of institutional abuse has called on Peter Robinson to retract his statement that an abuse inquiry is at risk.

On Friday, the first minister said the Historical Abuse Inquiry (HAI) may have to be suspended due to a dispute over Stormont finances.

Mr Robinson accused Sinn Féin of “foot-dragging” over the latest financial monitoring round.

Campaigner Margaret McGuckin said the inquiry should not be endangered.

“I ask Peter Robinson to retract this statement,” she said.

“He can think of other ways, the two parties, or all the parties up there, can come together.

“Please do not play games, silly games, with the victims. They’re playing one against the other and I find it very shameful and quite abusive.”

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

July 3, 2014

The little girl was weeping as she recounted to the police officer her history of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. When it was all over, when she had told all that she remembered, the police officer asked her if she had any questions for him. The child froze for a moment, and then began to play with her hair and stare at her toes. Slowly, nearly inaudibly, she asked “am I still a virgin in God’s eyes?”

This account, based on a real case, is not isolated. There is a large and growing body of research documenting that many abused children are not only impacted physically and emotionally but also spiritually. This may happen because a religious theme is used in the abuse of the child. In this particular case, the abusive father specifically told the girl she was no longer a virgin and, if she ever told, she could never wear white at her wedding. In other instances, a child simply has spiritual questions about the abuse. Many children, for example, may be hurt or angry that God did not answer their prayers to stop the abuse.

Although the spiritual impact of abuse can be devastating, research also documents that spirituality can be a source of resiliency for many children and that those who are able to cope spiritually, also do a better job of coping emotionally and physically. In this blog, I summarize the research on spiritual injuries, and offer some thoughts on improving our abilities to address this aspect of child abuse.

The spiritual impact of child abuse

There a dozens of studies, involving more than 19,000 children, detailing the spiritual impact of child abuse (Walker 2009). For example, a study of 527 victims of child abuse (physical, sexual or emotional) found a significant “spiritual injury” such as feelings of guilt, anger, grief, despair, doubt, fear of death, and belief that God is unfair (Lawson 1998).

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RHODE ISLAND
The Professorial Shock-Jock

[with video]

Early last November, the Rev. Father Bernard A. Healey, present pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, posted photos on the parish web site of the church sign, with its trademark crimson outline with gold lettering, blown face down by a wind gust.

Located in the affluent, bayside town of East Greenwich, a suburb minutes south of Providence via I-95 and Route 4, Our Lady of Mercy (O.L.M.) Church is the spiritual home to over 2,000 area households. Its adjacent Our Lady of Mercy School educates students, grades K-8, from the parish and surrounding communities.

Having lived on either side of town of East Greenwich, R.I. for almost my entire life, I was a parishioner at O.L.M. for 15 years, from 1997 to 2012. Long before then, I attended the O.L.M. parish regional grammar school for grades one and two, from fall 1985 through spring 1987. By my late youth in the late 1990’s, I was attracted by the comparatively solemn, traditional-styled liturgies and choir music that the parish had adopted in its liturgies (this would become one of the church’s “selling points” among area congregations). While never featuring the totally traditional, altar-pushed-back, pre-Second Vatican Council Mass entirely in Latin, its celebrations occasionally included rituals and customs somewhat uncommon in post-1960s Catholicism, leading me to a deeper level of fascination with the faith. For most of my years at O.L.M., I never quite fathomed what else this seeming spiritual hamlet – in some ways apparently so removed from the wicked, everyday world with all of its celebratory beauty and splendor – truly represented.

The church’s trademark sign being blown over by gusts of wind indicated that a choppy storm was upon this parish, very soon.

At some point in either 2010 or 2011, I was curious about the why the pastor, the late Rev. Monsignor John W. Lolio had still not set up a parish web page. Most other parishes had begun doing so in the late 90s, and O.L.M., a particularly large parish, and the spiritual home of the sitting Rhode Island governor in the 2000s, Donald Carcieri, was unfamiliar to even many lifelong Catholics from either end of this very small state. So I performed a google search for “Our Lady of Mercy, East Greenwich, R.I.”

The search instantly revealed the stories of Helen McGonigle and Jeff Thomas. As two O.L.M. grammar school students in the late 1960s, both were molested and repeatedly raped by the Irish missionary priest, Father Brendan Smyth. Formerly assigned to O.L.M. parish from the mid to late 1960s, Smyth had long garnered international notoriety. The following Northern Irish Television Network broadcast — which clearly features the Rhode Island church — demonstrates this:

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republic

By The Republican Editorials
on July 18, 2014

Victims of child sexual abuse now have until they reach the age of 53 to sue the perpetrators of this heinous and all too common crime.

The law, signed by Gov. Deval Patrick last week, extends the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits by three decades. Until last week the statute of limitations expired at the age of 21.

This change will mean that those who are traumatized will have additional time to decide whether to pursue civil litigation, which can be harrowing and difficult at best, traumatizing at worst.

The criminal statute of limitations was extended in 2006 from 15 years after a victim’s 16th birthday to 27 years.

Kathy Picard, of Ludlow, worked for a dozen years to get the law changed, and last week she stood with Gov. Deval Patrick as he signed the bill.

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GUAM
Jungle Watch

In October of 2013, speaking about his getting rid of Fr. Paul Gofigan in front of thirty members of the clergy, Archbishop Apuron bragged:

“…even S.N.A.P. heard about this and applauded me for doing this on this priest and hope that I do not reinstate him because of that…”

S.N.A.P. stand for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. I was particularly angered when I heard about what Archbishop Apuron had said because in 2010, when SNAP was on Guam investigating the Archbishop, I was asked to publicly go on the offensive against SNAP in order to defend him. And so I did. I learned later that I had been lied to and that SNAP’s visit had been a close call for the Archbishop.

I kept quiet about it because I didn’t know all the details but I was shocked to hear the Archbishop bragging about SNAP supporting his decision against Fr. Paul when I had been used as cannon fodder to protect him only a couple of years earlier. Well, Archbishop, now it’s your turn to protect yourself. Don’t call me.

And Fr. Wadeson…really? Too bad you didn’t keep to yourself your “deep concern and hurt” (your words) about us lay people learning about the content of your Monday meeting with the Apostolic Delegate. Otherwise no one would have even known you were here. (Of course given what we learned about what was said at both meetings, we can see why you didn’t want us to know.) But since you let us know WHERE you are, now you can let us know WHO you are:

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By David Harris, Orlando Sentinel
7:37 p.m. EDT, July 18, 2014

A Seminole County pastor was arrested Thursday for not reporting to law enforcement that a man was sexually abusing three girls, officials said.

Pastor Cesar Chin knew about the abuse for at least a year, but said nothing to authorities, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Both the victims and the suspect confided in Chin, and he was acting as a counselor, deputies said.

“That’s a year that went by without us being able to go in there and stop this and to provide the victims services,” said Kim Cannaday, spokeswoman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. “They were allowed to be re-victimized.”

The alleged abuser, Normail Reynoso Perez, is facing abuse charges. His wife, Irma Gallegos Torres, also is facing charges for not reporting the alleged abuse. She even walked in on it once, deputies said. …

David Clohessy, director of the St. Louis-based of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he was “extremely disappointed” by Chin and Gallegos Torres.

“They did nothing [and] let an innocent child suffer needlessly. Shame on them,” he said in a statement.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Guam – The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] has posted a statement on their website calling attention to a Los Angeles priest now working on Guam who, SNAP says, has been “accused twice of molesting children.”

The statement, issued by SNAP Spokeswoman Joelle Casteix, names the priest as Father John Wadeson.

[St. Dorothy Church]

Casteix says Wadeson “has been named in LA archdiocese records and in news reports as a twice accused predator priest” and “because those allegations were deemed ‘credible’ by church officials, he is not allowed to present himself as a priest anywhere in the Archdiocese of LA.”

Casteix expresses shock that Wadeson now works as a priest on Guam. And while she notes that Father Wadeson has not been convicted of abuse, “the fact that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has banned him from ministry is just cause for” Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron “to immediate remove Fr. Wadeson from ministry.”

“We fear that Apuron is putting Guam’s children at direct risk,” states Casteix, “and protecting a credibly accused predator instead of protecting his flock.”

PNC News has emailed Archdiocese Spokesperson Msgr. David C. Quitugua requesting comment but we have not yet received a response.

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FLORIDA
WPTV

Brian Entin
4:10 PM, Jul 18, 2014

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Fifty nine child pornography charges have been dropped against a former Rosarian Academy teacher accused of sexual activity with two fourth-grade students.

Palm County State Attorney spokesman Mike Edmondson says their office dropped the charges against Stephen Budd because of “facts that arose during the investigation of the case.”

According to Budd’s defense attorney, West Palm Beach police violated Budd’s constitutional rights by doing an improper search of his car to find a hard drive.

Budd is not off the hook.

Two former students allege that Budd had engaged in sexual activity with them during the 2006-2007 school year.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Historical abuse inquiry could be axed because of spending row at Stormont, says Peter Robinson

BY LIAM CLARKE – 19 JULY 2014

A state inquiry into historic institutional abuse in Northern Ireland is under threat because of a stand-off at Stormont over spending, the First Minister has warned.

Peter Robinson said there would be “catastrophic” consequences if he and Martin McGuinness cannot agree a series of emergency cuts early next week.

They are needed because our budget has been reduced by London to reflect the fact that we are now overspending on welfare payments compared to England and Wales.

Things came to a head in the June monitoring round, a review of budgets in which cuts must be made in spending budgets. Some £80m in capital spending must also be allocated or else handed back to the treasury.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Damian Thompson

Today’s front-page splash in The Catholic Herald reads: ‘Vatican in a spin as Pope Francis grants an explosive new interview’. That interview, with La Repubblica, quoted Francis as saying that his advisors had told him that two per cent of clergy were paedophiles – including ‘bishops and cardinals’. The Independent ran with the headline: ‘Pope Francis: “One in 50” Catholic priests, bishops and cardinals is a paedophile’.

What fascinates me is the reaction of the Vatican Press Office, which has gone into full L/Cpl Jones ‘Don’t Panic!’ mode. Fr Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s hapless press officer, has been pointing out that La Repubblica’s interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, (a) didn’t use a tape recorder, (b) didn’t take notes but relied on his memory and (c) is 90 years old.

All of which is true. But it was also true last September, when Francis gave an earlier interview to Scalfari – an atheist, incidentally – under exactly the same conditions. That produced lurid headlines: Francis supposedly called the Vatican court ‘the leprosy of the papacy’, and poor Lombardi had to run around saying, hang on, there were no notes, Scalfari is ancient, etc.

So why did Francis go back to Scalfari? I reckon the uncheckability of the quotes suits him fine. He can express his views that the Vatican is crawling with fawning backstabbers and that sexual perverts are over-represented among the clergy right up to the level of cardinal – yet leave himself diplomatic legroom by allowing for the possibility that he’s been misquoted. He is a Jesuit, after all. So is Lombardi, but it’s obvious who is being more Jesuitical here.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Music

By Chris Willman
Yahoo Music

Tom Petty doesn’t have a reputation for being a political activist in his music, but with a song set to be released next week, he implicitly takes on the Catholic Church for “covering up” the clergy sex abuse scandals, according to a new cover story in Billboard.

“Playing Dumb,” which appears as a bonus track on the Blu-ray and two-LP vinyl editions of his new album, Hypnotic Eye, includes such lyrics as: “For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils.”

Billboard writer Fred Schruers notes that Petty “arches an eyebrow at the digital recorder before him,” when asked about “Playing Dumb.” But the singer didn’t hold back.
.
“Catholics, don’t write me,” Petty tells the magazine. “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years… If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club.” He says he “felt that I was being asked to play dumb” and believe “that ‘OK, well, they paid some money, so it’s all over.’ I don’t trust that.”

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UNITED STATES
Noise 11

by MUSIC-NEWS.COM on JULY 19, 2014

Tom Petty has slammed the Catholic Church in a song about child abuse on the new Heartbreakers album ‘Hypnotic Eye’.

This week’s Billboard cover story features Tom Petty, who opens up about his ​new track “Playing Dumb.” The song addresses​ ​the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy and criticizes Catholic Church .​

Tom Petty blasts the Catholic Church, saying: “[Religion] can’t tell anybody it’s okay to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY July 19, 2014

RAHAM Rundle was seven when he became a number, in the quiet outside a storeroom at a Salvation Army boys home in the Adelaide Hills.

44. It was the number he would carry for eight years.

The only witness was a Salvation Army sergeant, a man who, nearly 50 years later, would scream hysterically after a jury convicted him of violently raping four boys at the home, including the child known as 44.

Sergeant William Keith Ellis was 27 on Rundle’s first day at Eden Park boys home in 1960.

Rundle was a bewildered child taken to Eden Park by his father on the promise of a two or three week ‘‘holiday’’ with other children, after problems with his stepmother.

When his father left that day ‘‘he tapped me on the head, walked to his truck and started it up, and he didn’t look at me again’’.

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iILLINOIS
Peoria Journa -Star

By Michael Smothers of GateHouse Media Illinois
Posted Jul. 18, 2014

PEKIN — Tazewell County prosecutors believe they put two child sexual molesters behind bars this week, including one who allegedly found his victims through a Pekin church’s youth activities.

The other, already convicted and on probation for sexual abuse of a minor, is “potentially violent” and indicated he could molest a child at any time, according to court records.

Cody Brown, 21, and Judah Blunier, 19, both of Morton, were jailed on bonds of $75,000 in their unrelated cases this week.

Brown was charged Wednesday with one count of criminal sexual assault and two of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He’ll next appear in court Aug. 7.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
La Repubblica

di PAOLO RODARI

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO – Dice che la misericordia di Dio c’è per tutti ma, insieme, “occorre pentirsi del male che si fa”. E, a maggior ragione, debbono pentirsi i preti pedofili perché coi loro atti “hanno profanato il corpo di Cristo”. Promotore di giustizia alla Dottrina della Fede (Cdf) durante il pontificato di Benedetto XVI, Charles Scicluna è ora vescovo ausiliare a Malta. Pochi come lui conoscono i dossier del Vaticano sui cosiddetti delicta graviora, fra questi “gli atti impuri” commessi da un prete con un minore.

Monsignore, partiamo dai numeri: il Papa nel colloquio con Eugenio Scalfari ha detto che il due per cento del totale dei pedofili nel mondo sono preti. Le segnalazioni giunte all’ex Sant’Uffizio negli ultimi anni sembrano essere minori. È possibile fare chiarezza?

“Sono stato promotore di giustizia presso la Cdf dal 2002 fino al 2012. Abbiamo studiato e deciso centinaia di casi, ma non abbiamo mai fatto studi di natura statistica… Purtroppo le percentuali per il clero cattolico sembrano essere allo stesso livello di altre professioni e categorie. Il condizionale è qui d’obbligo perché mancano degli studi scientifici ad ampio raggio”.

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VATICAN CITY
Malta Independent

In an interview carried by yesterday’s edition of La Repubblica, Auxiliary Bishop Mgr Charles Scicluna says that the paedophile tragedy inside the Catholic Church ‘could have been avoided’.

Mgr Scicluna was asked about a remark reportedly made by Pope Francis in a discussion with the paper’s editor Eugenio Scalfari that 2% of all paedophiles in the world are priests. Mgr Scicluna who was Promotor of Justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith between 2002 and 2012, said that while he has examined hundreds of cases, he did not carry out a statistical study.

Asked why to report such cases is not obligatory in the Church, Mgr Scicluna replied that the church always insisted on following domestic law and in any case one must not hinder the victim from reporting the case.

He admitted there has been a recent improvement in the theological understanding of sexual abuse of minors by clerics in the church. Pope Francis has said that violating a minor is equal to profaning the Eucharist.

Mgr Scicluna was asked whether Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have covered up for abuse but the Vatican always replied it is the local bishops who were responsible. Mgr Scicluna seems to agree with this latter interpretation and said that if bishops had followed the Church’s law, many tragedies may have been avoided.

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ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A longtime administrative assistant at a Southern Baptist church in Alabama is accused of using a church credit card to make unauthorized personal purchases totaling more than $129,000 in a grand jury indictment alleging theft and fraud.

Deborah “Debbie” Mansell, 63, was arrested July 16. Mansell, until recently ministry assistant to the administration pastor at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., faces charges of first-degree theft of property and 20 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card.

According to the Times Daily newspaper in Florence, Ala., an investigation was launched after an internal audit found discrepancies in financial records among more than 2,200 transactions that Mansell made from July 2011 until April 2014. Police said the investigation goes back only to 2011 due to a statute of limitations.

According to a web page archived last November, Mansell has been a member of Highland Park Baptist Church for 46 years and worked at the church for 23 years. She was described as a widow and mother of two with three grandchildren who “loves the Lord, HPBC and music.”

Highland Park lead pastor Brett Pitman told the Times Daily the church is “wounded and hurt” by Mansell’s alleged actions.

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CALIFORNIA
Visalia Times-Delta

My name is Larry Drivon and I was the lead plaintiff’s attorney in the case of Rocha vs the Diocese of Fresno and Rev. Eric Swearingen.

I have seen the piece that you wrote on his elevation to a new position in Visalia (“Visalia’s new pastor,” published July 11). There are a few more facts that were not included in your article.

Juan Rocha was, after his early problem with the Marine Corps, able to not only join the U.S. Army, but achieved the rank of E-7 in only seven years. That is a very rare accomplishment. His status, standing and rank in the Army was attested to his Command Sgt. Major who was one of the highest ranking enlisted men in the U.S. Army. He testified that not only would he trust his life to Sgt. Rocha, but he had. It was established that Sgt. Rocha was a member of an elite Army group which could not be further identified. To question Sgt. Rocha’s integrity, honesty or commitment to his country is an abomination, and to suggest that he was decorated with fraudulent awards is to accuse him of a federal crime which would have been a salacious fact at the time if it had been true. To suggest that now is the act of a coward. Juan Rocha is an American Hero, and that fact was confirmed by his commanding officer who testified. I will not sit by and allow his honesty or veracity to come into question. The jury came down on his side.

Next, the jury did not find that it was “likely” that the abuse happened, the jury determined with their verdict that the abuse had occurred. It was not unanimous, but under our system of justice it need not be. The fact was established. Following the verdict, the Bishop suggested that binding arbitration would be his preferred next step.

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FLORIDA
WESH

[with video]

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —A Winter Springs pastor has been arrested and charged with failing to report child sexual abuse.

Two members of his church are charged in connection with the sexual abuse of three young girls that allegedly went on for seven years.

According to deputies, one of the victims told Fellowship Church Pastor Cesar Chin that she was being sexually abused. Chin provided counseling but never reported it to police, deputies said.

The lead pastor of the church, Roger Diaz, says when Chin told him about ongoing child sex abuse among members of his following, he knew what reporting it would bring.

“This was an incredible weight on me because here goes an entire family, completely decimated,” said Diaz.

But Diaz knew the law required Chin to stop covering for the suspect.

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CANADA
Durham Region

By David Lea
A 28-year-old former Oakville youth pastor has been charged in an alleged sexual assault of a teen.

The Halton police Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Unit received a complaint from the Meeting House, a 2700 Bristol Circle church, in early July that prompted an investigation into a male employee.

An arrest was made on July 11.

Halton police Sgt. Chantal Corner said the alleged victim is a 17-year-old girl.

Corner would not comment on the details of when or where the alleged assault took place.

Sandra Neufeld, communications director with The Meeting House, confirmed this morning the accused is no longer working at the church.

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IOWA
Journal-Express

Steve Woodhouse
Journal-Express

Des Moines — The Supreme Court of Iowa issued a ruling today which affirms a District Court ruling that sent a former Pella pastor to prison.

Patrick Edouard was charged with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse and four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. He allegedly had forced sexual contact on at least three women while serving as a minister from 2003-10. Charges were filed in March 2011.

In August 2012, a Dallas County jury found Edouard not guilty on all three charges of sexual abuse, but found the former pastor guilty on all four of the sexual exploitation charges – including an additional charge of entering into a pattern/scheme/practice to engage in sexual exploitation as a counselor or therapist, a Class D felony. The last charge came as a result of being found guilty of two or more of the original sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist charges in which he violated law banning sex between people who provide “mental health services” and those who come to seek guidance from them.

Edouard was sentenced to one year in prison for each of the sexual exploitation charges and five years for the ongoing charge in October 2012. He apologized for his actions during the sentencing. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office placed him in handcuffs and intended to take him to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale to begin serving his sentence.

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COLORADO
Daily Camera

By Alex Burness, Camera Staff Writer
POSTED: 07/18/2014

A Boulder District Court judge sentenced youth pastor Jason Roberson to two years in prison Friday on a conviction stemming from a seven-year relationship he initiated with a 15-year-old congregant.

Following his prison stay, Roberson, 35, will serve a 30-day sentence either in the Boulder County Jail or under a work-release program, depending on whether the latter has any openings.

And after his release, Roberson will enter into 10 years of intensive sex-offender probation.

Roberson pleaded guilty in April to sexually exploiting and stalking Danielle DesGeorges, now 24, while he was employed by Vinelife Church, located at 79th Street and Lookout Road between Niwot and Gunbarrel.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped charges including sexual assault on a child in a position of trust and unlawful sexual contact.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) – A former youth pastor was sentenced to two years in jail and 10 years of sex offender probation on Friday.

Jason Roberson, 35, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children and stalking in May.

He admitted to an inappropriate relationship over several years with a girl, then 15, who attended the Vinelife Church in Longmont.

The victim, now 23, was in court Friday and began crying at one point. Roberson’s wife approached the victim and apologized on her husband’s behalf.

Prosecutors said Roberson manipulated the family to get close to the woman.

“It’s one thing to be sexually abused. It’s another thing to be sexually abuse by somebody that you’ve invited into your home, that you’ve made a part of your family, that you’ve trusted and that your parents trust,” prosecutor Adrienne Van Nic told CBS4. “And who do you turn to when the person who’s abusing you is someone who your parents have put in a position of authority with respect to you?”

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

Cecile Miller
Published on July 18, 2014Share

An update on the implementation of the diocesan five-year plan

How can trust and hope be rebuilt in a diocese which is struggling with the sexual abuse by clergy and the victimization of so many?

In October 2013, a diocesan renewal congress, “Renewing My People the Church,” was held at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre.

Three hundred delegates from parishes across the Diocese of Antigonish approved a five-year diocesan plan for renewal. In December 2013, Bishop Brian Dunn announced the formation of an implementation committee of 20 members — two representatives from each of the seven deaneries of the diocese plus five members-at-large to work with him to implement the strategies and work at “rebuilding trust and hope” in the diocese. Two members, Fr. Andrew Boyd and Cecile Miller, agreed to be co-chairs. The committee has met once a month since December.

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AUSTRALIA
Dubbo Photo News

Saturday, 19 July 2014 15:58 Written by Tony Webber

The thoroughly appalling revelations of child sexual abuse seem endless.

The Rolf Harris case was world news, and followed on the heels of other high profile UK entertainment figures being prosecuted, all of which emerged from the revolting allegations against the late mega-celebrity, Jimmy Saville.

The torrent of information in Australia has resulted in a recent request for a two-year extension to the Royal commission into the institutional response to child sexual abuse.

Churches, non-government organisations, children’s homes, schools, charities – from the Salvation Army, through the Police Boys’ Clubs and now Swimming Australia – all have had their names ruined through association with the endemic abuse of children.

Of course none compare to the atrocious record of the Catholic Church in not only committing these crimes on a horrendous scale, but concealing them from not only the authorities but also the vulnerable young parishioners of the diocese to which the pious predator was relocated.

The Pope recently went as far as estimating that two per cent of the clergy worldwide are paedophiles, and I suppose it is unlikely he estimated on the upper end of the scale.

That is truly astonishing, yet it is a reflection of the degree to which Catholic priests have, to be brutally blunt, become synonymous with raping children, that the Pope’s announcement scarcely caused a ripple, even though it must amount to thousands of men who are authority figures with close proximity to children.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • July 18, 2014

In a must-read column, Damon Linker explores the role that the Internet plays in undermining the authority of the Catholic Church (and by extension, all hierarchical, authoritative religions). Excerpt:

What matters is that, regardless of whether faithful members of traditionalist churches should be working to conceal scandalous facts, today’s technologies of publicity render such efforts effectively impossible.

Consider: Church attendance is already in decline. How long will the remaining parishioners keep returning to the pews when they’re confronted by a persistent drip of scandal implicating people at all levels of the institution?

Damon puts his finger on a profound truth, one that I see little evidence is understood by contemporary religious leaders. The reason the US Catholic Church was upended by the sex abuse scandals that began to be unraveled in 2002 was not because the scandals were new. It was because those revelations happened in the age of the Internet, when it was possible for everyone to know virtually everything. When Judge Constance Sweeney, presiding over the abuse trial of Boston priest John Geoghan, declined the Archdiocese’s request to seal the trial record, and instead made it public, those documents hit the Internet, and the Catholic world had crossed the Rubicon. Everyone, anywhere in the world, could read the Boston Globe’s excellent reporting. Everyone could read what ordinary Catholics were saying about the scandal. Reporters in newsrooms across the country saw what was happening in Boston, and wondered if it might be happening in their own backyards — and went looking for it.

Here we are 12 years later, and there are still bishops and church leaders who think they can do what they want, and keep everything quiet. And some can — but it is an extremely reckless bet. From the NYT’s report this week about the hot mess Minneapolis Archbishop Nienstedt finds himself in:

Ms. Haselberger, a canon lawyer who has worked in other dioceses, said that in her more than five years as chancellor for canonical affairs in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Nienstedt and his top deputies disregarded warnings about priests accused of inappropriate contact with children or with vulnerable female parishioners; declined to report suspected abusers to civil authorities; failed to monitor sex offenders in the clergy; and in various ways violated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY MARILOU JOHANEK
BLADE COLUMNIST

When the worldwide scandal of pedophile priests tore a hole in the robes of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, hypocrisy was starkly exposed. The perception that the church cared more about its clerics and institutional preservation than the mortals it was meant to serve and save was reinforced.

The church tried desperately to keep a lid on the sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests. Victims were not a priority.

Accused clerics frequently were reassigned by diocesan dictate. Their alleged sins remained secret until they abused again.

The scars they left are lasting. The shame of that chapter in church history is still being written.

But the church is still protecting its brotherhood of priests, still reluctant to condemn its own for molestation and even murder. Last week, the Toledo Catholic Diocese buried a convicted murderer who wore a Roman collar for most of his adult life.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ann O’Loughlin

A 54-year-old man’s claim against the Redemptorist Order for damages over sex abuse he says he suffered more than 40 years ago as an altar boy has been dismissed by the High Court.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said there would be “patent unfairness” if he allowed the case to proceed because of substantial prejudice to the Redemptorists as a result of the delay in bringing the case.

The man claims he suffered regular and continuous abuse at the hands of a since deceased Brother in Limerick between 1965 and 1970, when he was aged between seven and 11.

He claims that as a result, his personal development suffered, he attempted to take his own life at the age of 21, and developed a problem with alcohol. He says the abuse also damaged his relationships with women, including his marriage which broke up in 1999.

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ALABAMA
Opelika-Auburn News

Jul 18, 2014

Sara Falligant | Opelika-Auburn News

A former Auburn pastor has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a minor, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday.

John Sluder, 63, of Opelika was arrested for first-degree sexual abuse on May 8 after an investigation that began in April. Jackson said Sluder turned himself in. According to Sheriff Jay Jones, Sluder was an associate pastor at Believers Church in Auburn.

“The investigation revealed that there was a report of inappropriate sexual contact with a victim underage,” Capt. Van Jackson said. “It appears that there was more than one victim.”

The alleged abuse reportedly occurred about 14 years ago at Sluder’s residence near the Marvyn community in the south end of Lee County, Jones said. The report involved two individuals who were approximately 8 years old at the time. According to a release by the LCSO, there was evidence discovered through the investigation that led to warrants being issued against Sluder.

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ALABAMA
WTVM

[with video]

By Elizabeth White

AUBURN, AL (WTVM) –
A longtime associate pastor at Believers Church in Auburn has been arrested on child sex abuse charges.

His arrest in May got him kicked out of the church where he had been for 30 years. Lee County Sheriff’s detectives say the two adult victims came forward in April to report they were abused in the early 1990’s.

Every Sunday, for nearly 30 years at Believers Church on Moore’s Mill Road, 53-year-old John Sluder, an associate pastor, would play guitar during services.

“People have shed tears because of what he appeared to be, a gentle old man. So yes, we were very shocked,” said attorney Ben Hand.

Hand represents Believers Church where his father is the pastor. Hand says the church was stunned, then angry, when Sluder was arrested by Lee County, after two adult victims revealed Sluder had molested them on several occasions in the early 1990’s when they were 8 and 9 years old.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By David Harris, Orlando Sentinel
7:37 p.m. EDT, July 18, 2014

A Seminole County pastor was arrested Thursday for not reporting to law enforcement that a man was sexually abusing three girls, officials said.

Pastor Cesar Chin knew about the abuse for at least a year, but said nothing to authorities, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Both the victims and the suspect confided in Chin, and he was acting as a counselor, deputies said.

“That’s a year that went by without us being able to go in there and stop this and to provide the victims services,” said Kim Cannaday, spokeswoman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. “They were allowed to be re-victimized.”

The alleged abuser, Normail Reynoso Perez, is facing abuse charges. His wife, Irma Gallegos Torres, also is facing charges for not reporting the alleged abuse. She even walked in on it once, deputies said.

The abuse of the girls may have been going on for at least seven years and would occur weekly, deputies said in the arrest affidavit.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Ramsey County Hearing Scheduled for 1:30PM Monday, July 21, 2014

(St. Paul, MN) – On Monday, July 21, 2014, at 1:30PM in Ramsey County District Court, Judge John Van de North will hear oral arguments pertaining to numerous legal issues in the Doe 1 vs. Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona civil lawsuit.

One of the issues the Archdiocese and Diocese of Winona seek to dismiss is the public nuisance legal claim. The Archdiocese also contends it did not know of then-priest Father Thomas Adamson’s history of sexually abusing children before he was placed at St. Thomas Aquinas parish where he abused Doe 1.

• The original Doe 1 complaint and additional information can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.205.5531

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WISCONSIN
WISN

MILWAUKEE —The third time was the charm for the priest accused of embezzling six figures from his former Milwaukee church.

Father James Dokos appeared in court Friday afternoon after missing two earlier hearings.

Dokos missed his first court appearance because his car broke down, and the second because he was in the hospital. The court commissioner warned if he failed to show up Friday, he would be headed to the jail.

Dokos’ attorney wouldn’t answer any questions before the hearing.

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CALIFORNIA
Visalia Times-Delta

Editor’s note:This page is devoted to the reaction within the community of the installation of the Rev. Eric Swearingen as the new pastor of The Catholic Church of Visalia. Following are letters to the editor received over the past week. Previous stories can be accessed at our website at www.visaliatimesdelta.com.

The installation last weekend of Visalia’s newest Catholic pastor, the Reverend Eric Swearingen, was met with an outpouring of joy from the Catholic community.

The Catholic Church of Visalia was welcoming home one of its sons who had attended George McCann school and graduated from Redwood High School in the heart of a community brimming with hometown pride.

The installation and mass at St. Mary’s Church in downtown Visalia on Sunday was held in front of a standing-room only crowd.

But a pall was cast on Fr. Swearingen’s installation by a long-ago but lingering allegation of molestation from a former altar boy when Swearingen was conducting ministry in the Fresno diocese — and the larger, unceasing scandal within the Catholic church of sexual molestation of youth.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Dominican Republic has the key to freedom from the Vatican Concordats if they would only use it and holler to the world and gather viral attention that their papal nuncio was a criminal pedophile for years and who left the country like a thief in the night last August 2013. He is now defrocked but it took a year before the Vatican laicised him because the Vatican needed his signature for all the billions of dollars he looted from the country via the Vatican Concordat. With his commission of millions of dollars, he is the wealthiest and savviest criminal member of the JP2 Army, thus one of the most dangerous predator of young boys. Read our article, Defrocked ex-Vatican ambassador must be jailed. Vatican must return all his loot of billions of dollars back to Dominican people.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

[Pope Francis Met With the Head of the Family – the Secretive, Powerful Politicians Based in a Wash. DC Townhouse – Betty Clermont]

Paris Arrow

Last June, Pope Francis flew in at the expense of the Vatican Foundation, all the most influential American evangelicals in the USA, Joel Osteen, Doug Coe, Kenneth Copeland et al, but he refused to meet with the American director, president and founder of SNAP, David Clohessy and Barbara Blaine – free of Vatican expense – they went to Rome at their own expense. Clohessy was already in Rome during the papal conclave waiting for a papal appointment with the new pope. Barbara Blaine was in Rome to protest the canonization of John Paul II. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is the largest organization of victims founded in the USA with members now worldwide but Pope Francis ignored them completely. Instead he met and said his hypocritical apology in a papal Eucharist Satanic Mass with 6 handpicked survivors who are idiot Catholics from Europe who were brainwashed and trained to say and write only what the Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team have brainwashed them to do.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Rubén Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/18/2014

I picked up a summer must-read this past week. It has drama, conflict, intrigue and zips along at 107 pages.

No. It’s not “Invisible” by James Patterson, though I really wish it were fiction. This read has a decidedly boring title: “Affidavit of Jennifer M. Haselberger.”

It should be retitled “The Archdiocese That Forgot Christ,” for this is really what it is: a scathing account of how top church officials from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis put kids and adults at risk.

It is the best argument yet, since the local clergy abuse and mismanagement scandal broke months ago, that Archbishop John Nienstedt should step down or if he refuses, be removed from his post.

I’m not saying this lightly. He is, as Haselberger told me, “my archbishop.” But he needs to go for the good of the church and the good people in it. Now.

A turning point for me, as it was for Haselberger, who served as chancellor for canonical affairs from 2008 to April 2013, were statements Nienstedt made after he celebrated Mass at a church in Edina last December. This was two months after Haselberger, reportedly rebuffed at every attempt to expose alleged cover-ups or mishandling of abusive and misbehaving priests, contacted Minnesota Public Radio and publicly bared the goings-on.

Nienstedt told reporters that he believed the issue of clergy abuse had been taken care of by the time he became archbishop in 2008 and that he was surprised when the news stories broke. Given that he had indeed reviewed recent clergy abuse files and that a priest was convicted the summer before of abusing two children, Haselberger almost fell out of her chair.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Bob Shaw
bshaw@pioneerpress.com

Everyone tries to sound so casual.

“People will ask how it’s going,” said Tim Marx, chief executive of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “They are asking the question without asking The Question.”

The Question is how he and other Catholics are coping with the scandal from hell, the revelations of the decades of priests abusing children and the church covering it up. They are asking about the crisis that is partly responsible for a 9 percent drop in 10 years in the number of Minnesotans who are registered Catholic.

The Question hasn’t changed. But lately, some of the answers have.

Many Minnesota Catholics are optimistic that the church is bouncing back. There may be more accusations to come — just last week, an affidavit was filed from a former official in the Twin Cities archdiocese accusing its leaders of covering up abuse cases and blaming victims — but some Catholics think the worst of them have been exposed.

“I don’t want to say we won’t see these things again, but I think it is changing,” said Bob Kennedy, chairman of the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas University.

“We are coming back stronger. That is the nature of any kind of trial — you are stronger when you come out the other side,” said Joseph Grodahl of Richfield, a law school student who converted to Catholicism in 2009.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Jul. 18, 2014

It is time for Archbishop John Nienstedt to go.

Reading the affidavit of Jennifer Haselberger, the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, is grim. Caveat: A lawyer friend told me that a good defense attorney could drive several trucks through the document and that may be true. But, even if a quarter of what is asserted in that document is true, it is obvious that the Archdiocese of St. Paul has failed to live up to the bishops’ own requirements regarding the protection of children. Instances of suspected child abuse were not reported to the civil authorities. Clergy were not removed from active ministry as required by the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children. Almost every page of Haselberger’s affidavit illustrates a clerical culture that, when confronted with evidence of proven or potential sexual abuse of a minor, instinctively reacted with the thought, “poor Father.”

Archbishop Nienstedt is not the first bishop to be found ignoring or ameliorating the bishops’ own guidelines for child protection. The grand jury reports from Philadelphia showed a similar willful disregard for the Dallas norms. We all know that Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph remains the bishop of that diocese even though he could not be hired to teach Sunday school because of his prior conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse. Each of these cases damages the credibility of the entire episcopacy. Each of these cases evidences a lack of accountability. Each of these cases gives the lie to the claim, repeated again and again since Dallas, that the bishops have cleaned up the mess, that the Catholic Church is now the safest place in the world for children, that the whole sordid clergy sex abuse mess is in the rear view mirror.

It is important to draw a distinction here. There is no excusing what happened before Dallas, the systematic re-assignment of predators, the cover-ups, the failure to abide by civil law to say nothing of the moral law. But, at Dallas, the bishops of the United States recognized the problems were systemic and adopted a systematic approach to those problems, a nationwide set of standards that they applied to themselves, and establishing a system of audits to assure compliance. There really are no excuses now. One of the most damning parts of the Haselberger affidavit is the section that shows how easily the authorities in St. Paul misrepresented their compliance with the Dallas Charter.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Michael Sean Winters wants St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt to resign. It is he who should resign.

Winters admits that the affidavit of Jennifer Haselberger, the person most responsible for hurling accusations at Nienstedt, is so blemished that “a good defense attorney could drive several trucks through the document.” That would be enough to make any reasonable person reject her testimony on anything. But Winters is not reasonable—he is irrational.

Regarding charges that Nienstedt “engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior” with adults—which the archbishop denies—Winters says he does “not really care” if this is true. I do. Why doesn’t Winters? It’s time he spoke with candor about his reasoning. He says he is concerned about whether Nienstedt violated the Dallas Charter. Fine. And what evidence does Winters offer? Nothing.

So what is Winters’ beef? He accuses Nienstedt of being “aloof” and “deeply conflicted.” If aloofness demands resignation, then Obama should have quit a long time ago, but no one at the National Catholic Reporter is about to call for his resignation. Winters says Nienstedt is conflicted about homosexuality (he has the shoe on the wrong foot), and takes him to task for once condemning the “wanton anal sex” in the film “Brokeback Mountain.” Such graphic words bother Winters. Yet it was the Reporter, in its quest to destroy a Republican operative who once had a one-night stand with a coed, that wrote the book on graphic sex. What it did was so vile it would have made Larry Flynt blush. The hypocrisy is stunning.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

18.07.2014: Flyer „Eckdaten des Kirchlichen Lebens in den Bistümern Deutschlands 2013“

Die aktuelle Kirchenstatistik der katholischen Kirche 2013 ist ab sofort online abrufbar. Mit den „Eckdaten des Kirchlichen Lebens in den Bistümern Deutschlands“ sowie der Militärseelsorge sind heute die statistischen Daten des vergangenen Jahres veröffentlicht worden.

Mit 24.170.754 Kirchenmitgliedern machen die Katholiken 29,9 Prozent der Bevölkerung in Deutschland aus (2012: 30,3 Prozent). Aufgrund struktureller Veränderungen in den Bistümern hat sich die Zahl der Pfarreien von 11.222 auf 11.085 verringert. Insgesamt haben die Sakramentenspendungen der katholischen Kirche wie auch in den vergangenen Jahren leicht abgenommen. 2013 gab es 164.664 Taufen (2012: 167.505) und 43.728 Trauungen (2012: 47.161). Die Zahl der Eintritte in die katholische Kirche liegt bei 3.062, die Zahl der Wiederaufnahmen bei 6.980 Personen.

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GERMANY
Daily American

Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The German Bishops’ Conference says the number of Germans leaving the Roman Catholic church jumped sharply last year, an apparent result of an uproar over a bishop’s lavish new residence.

The conference said Friday that 178,805 people formally left the church in 2013, compared with 118,335 the previous year. The figure was just short of the 181,000 people who quit the church in 2010 amid a scandal over sexual abuse by clergy.

Pope Francis permanently removed Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst as Limburg bishop in March, months after an outcry erupted over his residence’s 31 million-euro ($42-million) price tag.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A man’s action seeking damages against the Redemptorist Order over sexual abuse allegedly suffered more than 40 years ago as an altar boy has been halted by the president of the High Court.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said allowing the case to proceed would involve “patent unfairness”, as the Order had been substantially prejudiced as a result of delay in bringing the case.

The man claimed that when aged between seven and 11 years he suffered regular and continuous abuse by a deceased Redemptorist Brother while an altar boy in Limerick between 1965 and 1970.

As a result, his personal development suffered, he attempted suicide when aged 21, developed an alcohol problem and his relationships with women were damaged, including his marriage, which broke up in 1999, he claimed.

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WISCONSIN/ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch
Tribune reporter
12:00 p.m. CDT, July 18, 2014

A Glenview Greek Orthodox priest who faces a felony theft charge appeared in the Milwaukee County courthouse this afternoon after missing two previous hearings. The hearing is still ongoing.

The Rev. James Dokos, 62, is accused of improperly spending more than $100,000 from a trust fund that was intended primarily to benefit Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, where Dokos long served as pastor before he was moved to Glenview in 2012.

Dokos, who is pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview, had been scheduled to make his first appearance in court initially on July 10, but couldn’t make it because of car trouble, his attorney Patrick Knight said. Dokos missed the rescheduled court hearing on July 14 because he was admitted into a hospital due to an emergency, Knight said.

Authorities allege that Dokos used money from the trust fund to cover items including personal credit card bills and gifts to other Greek Orthodox church officials.

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UNITED STATES
Billboard

By Joe Lynch | July 18, 2014

In the latest Billboard cover story, Tom Petty discusses the passion, outrage and drive — he’s not wasting any energy on partying these days — that birthed the latest entry in his classic catalog. Check out five things we learned about the legendary rocker. …

PETTY WROTE A DAMNING SONG ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX SCANDAL. Although it didn’t fit into the album, he wrote a song about the victims of the Catholic clergy called “Playing Dumb,” which is included as a bonus cut on the vinyl release of “Hypnotic Eye.” Petty tells Billboard he doesn’t mean to attack Catholics – “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have” – but explains his reaction to the scandal. “If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club. And I wouldn’t give them any more money.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies

Posted: 18 Jul 2014

A MAN who was abused as a choirboy, Phil Johnson, has added his voice to the criticism of Baroness Butler-Sloss, who resigned on Monday from chairing the Government’s inquiry into historical allegations of child-abuse in institutions.

Mr Johnson met Lady Butler-Sloss at the House of Lords in 2011, after she had been appointed by the diocese of Chichester to review its handling of abuse allegations. That review centred on abuse perpetrated by two priests: Roy Cotton and Colin Pritchard. Mr Cotton died in 2006, and Mr Pritchard was jailed for five years in 2008 (News, 1 August 2008).

On Friday, Mr Johnson told the BBC that he had also made allegations about a former Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Revd Peter Ball. He alleged that Lady Butler-Sloss had told him that, if she included the Bishop’s name in her report, it would distract from the more serious abuse by the two priests. But he also stated that she “didn’t want to generate any excessive negative publicity for the Church. . . She expressed that by saying that ‘the press would love a bishop’, and she didn’t want to give the press that trophy.”

He said: “She told me that she cared very much about the Church, and seemed to be wanting to protect the Church’s image.”

He accepts that she did pass on his allegations about Bishop Ball.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 18, 2014

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

A Florida pastor has been charged in relation to child sexual abuse. We are extremely disappointed in the two adults in this case who knew about a child sexual assault and did not alert law enforcement.

Caesar Chin was told about the horrific sexual abuse of a child by a witness and even counseled the victim for a year. At no point during this time did he or the witness follow the law or common sense and report what they knew to law enforcement. Instead they did nothing and let an innocent child suffer needlessly. Shame on them.

We applaud law enforcement for investigating not just the man responsible for the abuse, but the 2 other adults that did nothing to stop it. Those who do nothing about known child sex crimes play just as much of a roll in hurting innocent children. We also beg anyone who saw, suspects or suffered cover ups by Normail Perez to call police right away and help protect other potential victims.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the latest attacks against Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis:

Not until a Minneapolis law firm finishes its investigation of Archbishop Nienstedt will we be able to know the answers to important questions, but it is not too early to condemn the rush to judgment that is being orchestrated by familiar foes of the archbishop. Here are some fast facts.

The war against Nienstedt began before he assumed his current post in 2008. Leading the charge were gay activists, dissident Catholics, and ex-Catholics. Last December, out of the blue, emerged an unidentified man who claimed Nienstedt touched his behind in 2009 while the archbishop was posing for a group picture. Nienstedt denied the charge and did something no leader would ever do: he stepped down. Not surprisingly, after the police investigated, the case was dismissed.

After a former archdiocesan employee, who had been suspended for failing to deal expeditiously with a complaint, made accusations that the archdiocese had failed to act expeditiously with molesting priests, Nienstedt convened a task force. It found “shortcomings.”

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FLORIDA
News 13

By Amanda McKenzie, Seminole County Reporter
Last Updated: Friday, July 18, 2014

SEMINOLE COUNTY —
A disturbing story out of Seminole County where three people have been arrested on charges related to the sexual abuse of three young girls.

One of those charged is a pastor.

It’s a sad story involving three girls under the age of 12 that officials say were sexually abused by a man they knew and trusted.

What’s worse is that the girls’ family pastor knew about the alleged abuse and did not report it to law enforcement.

Normail Perez is the man accused of sexually assaulting three young girls over the past seven years. According to investigators he was even caught in the act by Irma Torres, who has also been arrested.

Torres told investigators the girls went to her multiple times saying that Perez was touching them inappropriately, but never reported it to law enforcement, instead, Torres went to the family’s pastor, Cesar Chin.

When Chin was questioned he told investigators that he knew something was going on but he did not have any proof at that time.

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CANADA
Inside Halton

Oakville Beaver
By David Lea

A 28-year-old former Oakville youth pastor has been charged in an alleged sexual assault of a teen.

The Halton police Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Unit received a complaint from the Meeting House, a 2700 Bristol Circle church, in early July that prompted an investigation into a male employee.

An arrest was made on July 11.

Halton police Sgt. Chantal Corner said the alleged victim is a 17-year-old girl.

Corner would not comment on the details of when or where the alleged assault took place.

Sandra Neufeld, communications director with The Meeting House, confirmed this morning the accused is no longer working at the church.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

An inquiry into institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland could be suspended due to a lack of funds.

Splits within the power sharing government at Stormont over spending have been blamed by First Minister Peter Robinson for the threat, which he branded an “outrage”.

The inquiry was to focus on the treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers.

It also was to investigate houses run by nuns, brothers or the state.

The child abuse inquiry is being chaired by a retired High Court judge in Banbridge, Co Down, and was ordered by ministers.

The panel is considering cases between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Todd Robert Murphy July 18, 2014

The brick pavers surrounding the Eiffel Tower were made in the small town of Patton, Pa. The city of Patton was at one time the largest manufacturer of bricks in the world. A young novitiate from Patton would walk on his hometown pavers many times throughout his life. He would make his solemn profession as a Benedictine monk a little more than an hour away from post-war Paris in 1949 at the Solesmes Benedictine Abbey. He would take the name Rembert.

That was the beginning of a long and circuitous road for this future prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, Rembert Weakland. His passage would be flecked with accomplishment, controversy, disappointment and self-doubt. There would be times of great exhilaration, deep despair and loneliness. But one thing was indisputable from the very beginning: Weakland was a very gifted and holy man with a shining future in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1977, Pope Paul VI elevated Weakland to archbishop of Milwaukee. At the time, many of the Catholic faithful were confused by the choice of Weakland, given his reputation as a church intellectual. Most thought it would be a only few years before he was given a red cap signifying him a cardinal of the church and moved on. That might have been in the back of his mind, too.

He was a cultural misfit in Milwaukee, and in his early tenure he was seen as a bit aloof by some. The Milwaukee Archdiocese, for lack of a better description, is a blue-collar, conservative Catholic community, and he was a progressive in the church. In his 2009 biography, he acknowledged his lack of comfort and feeling of isolation when he relocated to a town best known for beer, bowling and the TV show “Laverne & Shirley.”

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ROME
National Catholic Register

by EDWARD PENTIN
07/18/2014

Legionary Father Eduardo Robles Gil, a native of Mexico, was elected general director of the Legion of Christ in February this year. At that time, the religious congregation, founded in 1941, had just concluded its first Extraordinary General Chapter meeting to draft and revise its constitutions, bringing to a close the Vatican-supervised reform and returning the Legion to self-governance. .

In this wide-ranging interview with the Register in early July, he discusses the health of the religious congregation after its general chapter and the implementation of a program of reform.

The Legion and its lay movement, Regnum Christi, were thrown into turmoil in the late 2000s, after revelations came to light of grave misconduct by the congregation’s founder, Father Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), which the Legionary leadership acknowledged, denounced and apologized for in 2010.
Earlier this month, the Vatican appointed Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda as pontifical adviser to advance the renewal and reform of the religious congregation.

In this July 4 interview, Father Robles Gil also explains the congregation’s precise charism, provides details on the new pontifical assistant’s role as a consulter and shares the methodology behind the congregation’s recruitment techniques. He also sheds light on the revised constitutions.

What are your overall hopes and plans for the Legion of Christ?

Right now, our plans are to make the corrections requested to obtain the approval of our constitutions. We need to write our secondary rules and other regulations and updated formation plans. That’s one of our main jobs right now. Then we have to work on the unity and cooperation in the mission with all the other realities in Regnum Christi.

We have consecrated lay women, consecrated lay men and lay members, both married and single, as well as some diocesan priests. We have to figure out a canonical structure, so that, also juridically, we can reflect the communion we strive to live every day. So that’s one of our main tasks for this year. We are still working on that. I also want to visit all the Legionaries in the places where they serve. I have started visiting some places.

In the next months, I will be traveling a lot, so I can understand the reality of the Regnum Christi movement and of the Legion of Christ in each place. That’s very important for good government.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jul. 18, 2014 Faith and Justice

Ever since Jesus appointed Judas to take care of the purse, the church has had problems with finances. The church may have been founded by Jesus, but it is run by men. Will the recent reforms of the Vatican bank end these problems? Probably not, but that does not mean the Vatican will be operating with business as usual.

As with many problems in the church, the problems with Vatican bank find their roots in clericalism and secrecy.

No one enters the seminary with the desire to someday be in charge of church finances. Rather, seminarians want to become pastors. Seminaries also do not do a good job training their students to handle church finances. Priests who do develop expertise in church finances do so on the job. It would be extremely rare to find a priest who took an accounting course, let alone one who has an MBA.

As a result, most priests do not understand basic financial practices. They don’t know the right questions, let alone the right answers. At the same time, clericalism means that they have to be in charge of everything. Even if they want to delegate these financial responsibilities to laypeople, they do not know enough to appoint competent people. The temptation is to appoint someone who is deferential or appears pious and trustworthy.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HR Online

[Summary: After the scandal regarding the expensive bishopric, the Limburg diocese disclosed its assets today. It has 909 million euros on the books, much of it in securities. Gordon Sobbeck, diocesan finance head, told journalists that the diocese has many resources.]

Nach dem Skandal um den teuren Bischofssitz hat das Bistum Limburg am Freitag sein Vermögen offengelegt. Demnach stehen 909 Millionen Euro in den Büchern, vor allem Wertpapiere. Der Dom macht die Bilanz dagegen nicht fett.

“Das Bistum verfügt sicherlich über viele Mittel”, sagte der Finanzdezernent des Bistums, Gordon Sobbeck, vor Journalisten. Die Bilanz des Bistums Limburg weist demnach eine Summe von 909 Millionen Euro aus. Mit 811 Millionen Euro ist der größte Teil im Anlagevermögen gebunden, davon 703 Millionen Euro in Wertpapieren. “Diese Anlagen erfolgen risikobewusst, sind über mehrere Anlageklassen hinweg gestreut und berücksichtigen Nachhaltigkeitskriterien”, sagte Sobbeck.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Erzbistum Freiburg

18.07.2014 – Erzbistum Freiburg: Dokumentation für Forschungsprojekt

Freiburg / Mannheim / Heidelberg. Das Erzbistum Freiburg ist entschlossen, alle Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch aufzuklären und weitere Taten zu verhindern. Deshalb hatte das Erzbistum entschieden, sämtliche Missbrauchs-Vorwürfe aus der Zeit von 1942 bis 2013 aufzuarbeiten. Jetzt liegt die Auswertung vor: Sie erfolgte in der Kanzlei der externen unabhängigen Beauftragten der Erzdiözese zur Prüfung des Vorwurfs von sexuellem Missbrauch Minderjähriger (Dr. Angelika Musella / Freiburg) – in Zusammenarbeit mit einem ehemaligen Mitarbeiter des Max-Planck-Instituts für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht in Freiburg.

Akten unter der Lupe externer Strafrechtsexperten

Wie das Erzbischöfliche Ordinariat dazu am Freitag (18. Juli) in Freiburg weiter mitteilte, wird diese Auswertung nun einem interdisziplinären Forschungsprojekt zur Verfügung gestellt, das den sexuellen Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und Ordensangehörige im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz genauer untersucht. Das Forschungskonsortium wird von Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing vom Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim als Verbundkoordinator geleitet. Neben dem Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit Mannheim sind das Kriminologische Institut der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dieter Dölling, Prof. Dr. Dieter Hermann), das Institut für Gerontologie der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Kruse, Prof. Dr. Eric Schmitt) und der Lehrstuhl für Kriminologie der Universität Gießen (Prof. Dr. Britta Bannenberg) Mitglieder des Forschungskonsortiums.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Summary: The Freiburg archdiocese issued a report today regarding a thorough investigation of cases of sexual abuse within the church between 1942 and 2013. They found 119 abuse offenders and 185 victims. A total of 102 cases involved harassment or humiliation but no direct sexual attack. Freiburg lawyer Angelika Musella, who represented the diocese, said they suspect the actual number of unreported cases in much higher.]

Das Erzbistum Freiburg hat am Freitag einen Bericht über die Aufarbeitung von Missbrauchsfällen im kirchlichen Raum vorgelegt. Die Statistik führt alle Taten auf, die von der unabhängigen Missbrauchsbeauftragten, der Freiburger Rechtsanwältin Angelika Musella, im Auftrag der Diözese untersucht wurden. Zwischen 1942 und 2013 missbrauchten demnach 119 Täter 185 Opfer.

In 102 Fällen handelte es sich um Übergriffe ohne sexuellen Bezug, etwa Schikanen oder Demütigungen. Eine besondere Gruppe stellen die sogenannten Heimkinder da: Hier verzeichnet der Bericht vor allem für die 60er und 70er Jahre Übergriffe gegen 72 Kinder, die in kirchlich geführten Heimen lebten.

“Wir sind nach ausführlichem Aktenstudium allen Hinweisen nachgegangen. Schwerpunkt meiner Arbeit war die Sorge um die Opfer. Die meisten Opfer meldeten sich bei uns im Zuge der Diskussion um sexuellen Missbrauch im kirchlichen Raum ab dem Jahr 2010”, sagte Musella in Freiburg: “Zugleich bin ich leider sicher, dass die Dunkelziffer erheblich höher liegt. In alten Personalakten gibt es nur selten Hinweise auf Missbrauchstaten durch Priester, ein Umdenken zu Transparenz und klarer Sanktionierung setzte erst 2002 ein, als die katholische Kirche einheitliche Leitlinien zum Umgang mit Missbrauch beschloss.”

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 18, 2014

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

A Florida man who has been charged with producing and distributing child porn has links to the Boy Scouts, a church and an elementary school. We are deeply concerned about the possible number of victims suffering in silence and self-blame.

Matthew Graziotti was a volunteer scout leader, a volunteer working with children at Edgewater Church and a 5th grade teacher at Warner Christian Academy. We urge officials at all three of these organizations to immediately reach out to all current and former members/students and beg anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered child sex crimes to come forward and report to police. They should also review their child protection policies and make any necessary changes to ensure children are kept safe.

We hope anyone who was hurt by Graziotti will find the courage to come forward, call police and start healing.

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CALIFORNIA/GUAM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 18, 2014

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA, 949-322-7434 cell, jcasteix@gmail.com

We are shocked to learn that a Los Angeles priest from Los Angeles – accused twice of molesting children – now works as a priest on Guam. We strongly urge Guam Catholic officials to oust him.

Fr. John Wadeson, has been named in LA archdiocese records and in news reports as a twice accused predator priest. Because those allegations were deemed “credible” by church officials, he is not allowed to present himself as a priest anywhere in the Archdiocese of LA.

Despite this, Guam Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron is letting Fr. Wadesono work and act as a priest. Apuron also lets Fr. Wadeson travel to other dioceses, including Honolulu.

Although Fr. Wadeson has not been convicted of abuse, the fact that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has banned him from ministry is just cause for Apuron to remove the cleric immediately. We fear that Apuron is putting Guam’s children at direct risk and protecting a credibly accused predator instead of protecting his flock.

We urge Apuron to immediate remove Fr. Wadeson from ministry and make public announcements about Fr. Wadeson at every parish where he has worked or celebrated Mass, begging anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Wadeson to step forward, get help, call police, protect others and start healing.

We also want Apuron to explain to parishioners that Fr. Wadeson has been accused of abuse by two children and is banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

We also beg Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez to immediately tell Apuron about the risks that Fr. Wadeson poses. As a powerful Archbishop, Gomez can easily use his power and influence to ensure that Fr. Wadeson can never work as a priest again.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Hi there,

In my last post, I talked about a couple of things that I’m yet to follow through on by writing on this blog. One was the quest for the Salvation Army’s new restorative justice principles, and the other was the matter of my meeting with the Salvation Army’s handling of the Blayse family in a meeting I had in Sydney a little while back with several people from the Salvation Army. Work continues on both fronts, and I’ll provide updates on this site as soon as I can. For those curious to know what’s happening now, though, the short answers are:

(a) Restorative justice: the Salvation Army has provided quite a lot of information, but I am still trying to make sense of it in such a way as to be able to write intelligently about it.

(b) Justice for Lewis Blayse: In the air, but the Salvation Army are at least ‘at the table’. I can’t really say more than that at this stage, other than that I am now cautiously optimistic that there will be a better outcome than the disgusting way my Dad’s family has been treated to date.

For now though, there’s something slightly more important / pressing that I’d like to get out to readers. And this is an upcoming protest that commences today at 4 pm in Sydney and will run right through until the end of the month.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Juno McEnroe
Political Correspondent

Infant mortality rates, burial practices and the issue of forced labour in institutions need to be included in the forthcoming mother-and-baby home inquiry, the Government has been told.

Minister for Children James Reilly faces pressure to have an all-inclusive inquiry and yesterday accepted it would be counterproductive to exclude any group from the investigation. But any decision will depend on the possible costs and length of the probe, he told the Dáil.

Dr Reilly said the commission of investigation into mother-and-baby homes may examine the role the State and Church played and how homes were managed.

TDs debated the terms for the pending inquiry, which will now not be known until the autumn.

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Newsday

By CAROL MATROO Friday, July 18 2014

A WOMAN is calling on the authorities to shut down the St Michael’s Home for Boys in the wake of allegations of rampant abuse, including sexual assault, being meted out to inmates of the Home.

The woman, who gave her name as Sherry Goddard said her 14-year-old son, who is not her biological child, was sent to St Michael’s on the order of a magistrate when she (Goddard) brought him up in court two years ago for unruly and uncontrollable behaviour.

“It was the worst thing the courts could have ordered…sending him to that ‘house of horrors’. I put him in court when he began to act out after I told him he was not my biological son. He is not from my belly, but I fed him, clothed him and sheltered him. For all intents and purposes, he is my son,” Goddard said.

After being released from St Michael’s, Goddard said her son who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) returned to court for a status report on his behaviour and the magistrate ordered him to be sent back to the Home.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

Fri, Jul 18, 2014
by Rich Barlow

Anyone who paid any attention in the last decade to the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal knows that one of the bishops’ biggest bungles was secrecy in dealing with predator priests. As recently as May, the United Nations condemned surreptitious transfers of molesters to new parishes. The moral? Cover-ups harm the cover-uppers, too  .

One might think that universities, those repositories of PhDs, might grasp this lesson of recent history. Yet recent headlines about colleges grappling with sexual assaults on campus suggest that the culture of secrecy that permitted abuse in the rectory may have its counterpart in the Ivory Tower.

Circumstances differ, of course. Pedophile priests used positions of moral authority and their followers’ inherent trust in them to turn powerless children into prey, while the alleged perpetrators on college campuses have been fellow students of the alleged victims. In spite of these differences, what unites the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal and the current campus rape crisis is the flimsy claim of confidentiality upon which both institutions have based their feeble responses. (I work for Boston University, and the opinions in this column are solely mine.)

Catholic bishops’ claims of confidentiality ranged from due process for the accused, which is a reasonable claim, to the need to shield the reputation of God’s minions on earth, which is not one. Universities’ confidentiality claims are rooted in a Nixon-era law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which was enacted to keep student grades confidential, not to provide a smokescreen to obscure the facts in cases of on-campus rape.

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FLORIDA
News-Journal

By Frank Fernandez
frank.fernandez@news-jrnl.com
Published: Thursday, July 17, 2014
.
The Cub Scouts are the latest organization connected to Matthew Graziotti, charged earlier this week with production and distribution of child pornography.

Bill Gosselin, director of operations and chief operating officer for the Boy Scouts of America Central Florida Council, said Thursday that Graziotti was an “adult volunteer leader” with a Scouting program. The group has provided records to the FBI about Graziotti and “immediately revoked” his membership.

Also, an Edgewater church confirmed Thursday that Graziotti volunteered with children there. Graziotti helped to supervise children in ministries at the Edgewater Alliance Church, lead Pastor David Lane said. He was not employed by the church and his church membership was suspended Tuesday, Lane said.

Graziotti’s employer, Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona, where he taught fifth grade, announced it would host a community forum on Monday to discuss ways to protect children.

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Guardian

Published:
Friday, July 18, 2014

Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard is reviewing the file on allegations of negligence, gross misconduct and sexual impropriety at the St Michael’s School for Boys, Diego Martin, where teenager Brandon Hargreaves died. Hargreaves, 14, died on April 8 after hitting his head on the concrete floor of his dormitory, reportedly while trying to dropkick another child. He had been sent to the school by the court. The findings of the report were disclosed in the Senate on Tuesday by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan who said details of the claims were discovered during a probe into the death of Hargreaves.

During the inquiry into the operations of the school, several issues were discovered, including money laundering, racketeering, illicit sexual liaisons between staff members and the boys, theft, negligence and abuse. It was ordered by the Ministry of Gender Affairs, Youth and Child Development. Ramlogan promised the report would be forwarded to the DPP and acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams. In a telephone interview yesterday, Gaspard said it was “still receiving my active consideration and it might very well be that it warrants a police investigation.”
Williams could not be reached yesterday to find out if a police investigation had been launched, as calls to his cellphone went unanswered.

Calls to the chairman of the Children’s Authority, Stephanie Daly, and chairman of the Child Protection Task Force, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, also went unanswered. The Anglican Diocese shares responsibility for St Michael’s with the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development. In an interview on Wednesday, Anglican Bishop Clyde Berkley said he would seek a meeting with the school board to address the matter. Calls to Berkley’s cellphone went unanswered yesterday.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
JULY 17, 2014

When Pope Francis met earlier this month with victims of rape and sexual abuse by priests, he vowed to hold bishops accountable for covering up the scandal instead of confronting it.

A good place to start is with the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, where calls are mounting for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt, a warrior against same-sex marriage who, it turns out, is facing accusations that he indulged in improper sexual conduct in the past with priests, seminarians and other men.

The archbishop has denied the accusations as “entirely false,” saying they date back over 10 years and do not involve minors or criminal conduct. But he felt obliged to hire a law firm to investigate them.

Meanwhile, his handling of the pedophilia scandal is under fire from all sides. This week, an affidavit from Jennifer Haselberger, the former canon law chancellor for the archdiocese, accused the archbishop and his ranking prelates of systematically ignoring warnings about abusers in a five-year period, while failing to inform civil authorities of possible criminal acts.

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UNITED STATES
The Week

By Damon Linker

Have you heard the news about Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis? It seems he’s been accused of conducting numerous sexual affairs with men while also leading his archdiocese’s fight against same-sex marriage and regularly denouncing homosexuality in the most uncompromising terms possible. Nienstedt and his predecessor, Archbishop Harry Flynn, have also been credibly accused of covering up and showing indifference toward the sexual abuse of children by priests in the archdiocese.

I heard about both charges from blog posts by Rod Dreher, a conservative Christian friend, who learned of the first scandal from an article on the website of Commonweal, the liberal Catholic magazine, and was tipped off about the second one by a loyal reader who sent Dreher (in PDF form) the text of a sworn affidavit by Jennifer Haselberger, the former chief canon lawyer for the archdiocese, who gave her damning testimony in a civil lawsuit. The day after Dreher’s post on the testimony appeared, The New York Times ran a substantial story about both scandals and the rising calls for Nienstedt’s resignation.

So let’s just say that if you hadn’t heard the news before you started reading this column, you would have heard about it elsewhere before long.

And that is a big problem for the churches, especially the conservative churches that seek to uphold and promulgate traditionalist views of morality and doctrine. Indeed, it’s a far bigger and potentially more ruinous problem than the one posed by dogmatic liberals using government regulations to impinge on the freedom of certain believers to practice and live their faith.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The one-year swift Vatican Bank’s “peaceful transition” (by closing despots’ accounts and transferring them to secret Vatican Swiss Banks) is like a man who murders someone, then swiftly rolls his victim in a carpet, go dig a grave and bury him in a faraway field so that (relatives and) the police will never find his victim and never trace his crime. He also cleans up the murder scene and now he acts normally – as if nothing ever happened. He then goes to Confession and feels-good that the priest will keep his crime secret with the Seal of Confession and he feels relieved that his crime/sin is absolved with his 3 Hail Mary penance and he is guaranteed forgiveness and salvation to Heaven and can eat as much flesh-and-blood of Christ in the Eucharist Satanic Mass.

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WISCONSIN
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Scott Cooper Williams and Patti Zarling 5:27 p.m. CDT July 17, 2014

ALLOUEZ – A former Catholic priest and convicted sex offender has been relocated from an apartment he rented one block away from his victim’s grandmother.

State corrections officials said they were unaware for several months that Donald Buzanowski was living so close to his victim’s family.

The situation has prompted Allouez village leaders to consider new local restrictions and neighborhood alert procedures whenever a sex offender seeks to move into the community.

Joy Staab, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said Buzanowski was relocated effective Thursday to a state-run facility for criminal offenders on Green Bay’s west side.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Pitch

Posted By Steve Vockrodt on Thu, Jul 17, 2014

A former pastoral associate at St. Francis Xavier Church sued the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and its bishop, Robert Finn, on Thursday, alleging that she was fired after The Kansas City Star published an article that referenced her same-sex marriage.

Colleen Simon says priests at St. Francis Xavier knew about her 2012 marriage in Iowa to the Rev. Donna Simon, of St. Mark Hope and Peace Lutheran Church, when she was hired there, only to then use the relationship later as a justification for firing her.

A lawsuit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court asks to get her job back and receive back pay and other damages. Simon ran the church’s food pantry located near Rockhurst University, a role that seemed to fit a larger Catholic scripture that calls on members to assist the needy.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal

By PEG BRICKLEY

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has been running a tab when it comes to professionals working on its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, and lawyers for unsecured creditors—chiefly survivors of sexual abuse—say it’s time to pay the bills.

Court records show the archdiocese has stacked up more cash than it projected back in January 2013, when it petitioned the bankruptcy court to suspend monthly professional fee payments on the grounds money was tight, according to papers filed by creditor lawyers led by James Stang. Mr. Stang represents the official committee of unsecured creditors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee case. With a few exceptions, bankruptcy professionals have not been paid in 17 months, court papers say.

As of the end of June, the archdiocese reported it had run up $5.8 million worth of fees, court records show. Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C., the lead lawyer for the archdiocese, is owed the most, $2.9 million. Lead creditor firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones is owed $1.9 million, court records show. Lawyers for survivors contend that the archdiocese has the money, and it should pay.

“The Debtor can and should be required to play by the rules and pay for its operating expenses, including professional fees during the bankruptcy process. After all, through that process and by its plan, it is seeking to obtain extraordinary relief,” such as getting out from under litigation over alleged clergy sexual abuse, creditors’ attorneys wrote.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick McLaren

The Catholic Bishop of Wollongong, Peter Ingham, is celebrating 50 years as a priest with a letter from the Pope.

The letter from Pope Francis, in Latin, conveyed his good wishes and blessing upon Bishop Ingham, the clergy and the people of the Diocese of Wollongong.

Bishop Ingham was ordained into the priesthood in 1964 at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and installed as the fourth Bishop of Wollongong in 2001.

He says becoming a priest was simply a matter of determining priorities. …

Meanwhile Bishop Ingham has spoken again of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He says the response to the Gerard Nestor case in Wollongong shows that he and Bishop Philip Wilson were able to hold the line and keep children safe.

Bishop Ingham says this was achieved by keeping Nestor out of the ministry while the case was dealt with by Roman and Australian authorities.

“On the local level our procedures are very good and we worked at that in recent years really to ensure that people are respected and listened to and believed so that people can move forward,” he said.

It took nearly 20 years for the Vatican to dismiss Father John Nestor.

He was convicted then acquitted of indecently assaulting a Wollongong alter boy in 1996.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Matthias Gafni
Contra Costa Times
POSTED: 07/17/2014

Anyone abused by a priest or other Stockton Catholic diocese employee, and who wants to sue has less than a month to file a claim as part of a bankruptcy deadline established for the religious organization that claims abuse settlements and judgments have emptied church coffers.

A priest abuse survivor’s group held a news conference Wednesday outside the Stockton diocese headquarters to draw attention to the Aug. 15 deadline and push the diocese to increase public outreach of the upcoming date.

The Stockton diocese, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, is the 10th Catholic diocese across the country to file for such protections. The Stockton diocese has already paid out $14 million over the past two decades to settle abuse cases, and the diocese in May established a phone hotline for additional abuse victims to call for information on claims.

Attorney James Stang, whose law firm has been hired to man the hotline, said he’s received about 10 calls, meaning the organization could be hit with additional claims.

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LOUISIANA
St. Louis Review

SUBMITTED ON JULY 16, 2014

Last week Catholic news organizations, including the St. Louis Review, published a troubling story about the Louisiana Supreme Court attempting to compel a priest to break the seal of confession.

At issue was a lawsuit filed by the parents of a girl who claimed that, in 2008 at the age of 14, she told a priest that she had been abused by a now-deceased parishioner. The parents claim that the priest was negligent in not reporting the abuse. The girl claimed she told the priest of this in the confessional.

Louisiana’s mandatory reporter law provides an exception for members of clergy who receive reports in confidential communication, such as confession. And under canon law, a priest may not, under any circumstances, reveal anything about a confession to anyone. Not what was confessed. Not who confessed. Not ever. To violate the seal of confession would be to incur automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

In this case, the Louisiana Court of Appeals for the First Circuit had ruled that the seal of confession pre-empted the court from ordering the priest to testify as to the nature of a confession. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that case be returned to district court to determine whether or not there was a confession, which, by canon law, the priest is not permitted to reveal.

So now the priest, Father Jeff Bayhi of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, finds himself in a difficult position. If he follows the court directive and testifies as to whether there was a confession, he excommunicates himself from the Church. If he follows Church law — as he should — he could find himself in jail for contempt of court.

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ALABAMA
The North Jefferson News

By Robert Carter
North Jefferson News

BIRMINGHAM — A hearing in the case of Jay Strickland, the former associate pastor charged with three sex crimes, has been rescheduled for August.

After a brief hearing Thursday morning in the court of Jefferson County Circuit Judge Shelly Watkins, prosecutors and defense agreed to continue the case because of a procedural matter until August 21.

Strickland, a Morris resident who was an associate pastor at Sharon Heights Baptist Church in Brookside and also a member of the Warrior Fire Department, is charged with two counts of sexual abuse and one count of sodomy in two incidents which are alleged to have occurred several years ago. The alleged victims, one male and one female, were minors at the time; they have since become adults and moved out of state, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Richard Jaffe, the attorney representing Strickland, told reporters after the hearing that additional time is needed to review the details of the allegations.

“We are exploring every aspect of this case, and we just don’t have enough information now to make good legal decisions that make sense, so we need more time. Both sides need more time,” Jaffe said. “We are intensely exploring and investigating the matter… It’s very difficult to investigate allegations of this nature that are historical.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/17/2014

A Maplewood preacher was convicted Thursday afternoon of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving girls he had raped and molested for years.

Ramsey County jurors returned their verdicts on Jacoby Kindred Sr. after more than six hours of deliberation over two days.

Kindred, 61, removed his watch, wallet and money clip and set them on the courtroom table upon hearing the verdicts, county attorney’s spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein said. Sheriff’s deputies took him into custody immediately. He had been out of jail during the trial.

Kindred’s family, including his wife, declined comment after the sentencing.

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ALABAMA
Alabama’s 13

By Sarah Killian

BIRMINGHAM, AL –
A former pastor charged with sex crimes appeared in a Jefferson County courtroom Thursday morning.

Jay Strickland is charged with sex abuse and sodomy after two adults told police he molested them as children.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, investigators began looking into Strickland in April after a man came forward and said the pastor molested him as a child. A woman also said she was abused by Strickland when she was a child.

Strickland served as Administrative Pastor at Sharon Heights Baptist Church in Jefferson County. After his arrest last month, the church severed all ties with him.

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ITALY
The Times (UK)

Philip Willan Rome

Pope Francis has urged Catholic priests to reach out to sinners living on the margins of society, but one cleric appears to have taken it too far after he was arrested at a rowdy cocaine party.

Father Stefano Maria Cavalletti was detained in Milan last week when a drug-fuelled party he was attending got out of hand. Police were called by a neighbour after one of the revellers flew into a rage.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

July 14, 2014

Paris Arrow

The Opus Dei Beast PR Stunt of the Day is Pope Francis saying there are (only) “2% of pedophile priests and cardinals and bishops and they are like leprosy in the church” in an interview with famous journalist Eugenio Scalfari published in La Repubblica. But soon after, Vatican (Jesuit) spokesman, Mr. Federico Lombardi refuted that “it is important to notice that the words Mr. Scalfari attributes to the Pope, ‘in quotations’ come from the expert journalist Scalfari’s own memory of what the Pope said and is not an exact transcription of a recording nor a review of such a transcript by the Pope himself to whom the words are attributed”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

BARRY DUKE, EDITOR

MANY thought that O’Brien, former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, had crept off to some monastery, there to repent for his predatory sexual behaviour. But it’s just been revealed that the man who won a “Bigot of the Year” award for his vicious homophobia is living in a £208,750 bungalow – bought by Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh Leo Cushley – in a Northumberland village.

O’Brien, 76, refused this week to explain his situation, saying only:

I’m not speaking to anyone at the moment.

The disgraced churchman has been staying in the former pit village of Ellington, Northumberland, since January.

The house was purchased in the same month by Cushley – who succeeded O’Brien as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh – and two other leading churchmen in their capacity as trustees of the archdiocese.

O’Brien would not answer questions yesterday about why he was living on the other side of England from Cumbria, where he was understood to be undertaking a religious retreat.

When pressed on the house ownership, he replied:

You’ll need to check that with the diocese. I’m not talking about it, I’m not allowed to talk about it.

O’Brien was brought down after being accused of hypocrisy over his continual condemnation of homosexuality. He called it a “moral degradation” and described gay marriage as “harmful”.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Anonymous comments on my post The Nature of the Problem …

Now it was a grave sin what those priests and Bishops did decades ago, but it is time to stop acting like what happened then is still happening now. The Church has taken many steps to prevent sexual abuse from happening.

But these are steps that are not being followed, at least in St. Paul, Kansas City and St. Louis. The enabling of sexual abuse by bishops is still going on. The sexual abuse is still happening.

Read the recent affidavit by Jennifer Haselberger. You can tell yourself that she’s a flaming liberal in it for the money – but at one point she says she had high hopes for Archbishop Nienstedt because he was “doctrinally pure”. So that won’t wash.

And most of what she describes is backed up by documentary evidence, and it rings very true.

A friend of mine says the bishops have been behaving with “knavish imbecility”. It’s a great phrase, and it comes from Hilaire Belloc, who speaks of the Church as …

… an institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 17, 2014

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

A Canadian Orthodox archbishop, who was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 8 months in jail last week, has been released on bail. We are disappointed the judge granted this request.

Archbishop Seraphim Storheim was found criminally guilty of sexually abusing a child. Child abuse victims rarely report their abuse lightly and Storheim has two victims speaking publically. Child molesters rarely abuse only once or change their ways. We hope no other children will be hurt while he walks free.

It is not too late to report what you know to police. If you were abused or you know someone who was abused by Storheim please contact law enforcement and get help. We also urge the Orthodox Church of America to alert parishioners that Storheim has been released and is still a convicted child molester.

NOTE – in an earlier statement, we wrote “The OCA opposes his release.” We meant to say “The OCA should oppose his release.” We regret the error.

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CANADA
Global News

By Chinta Puxley The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG – A former Orthodox priest convicted of sexually assaulting an altar boy spent just over a week behind bars before being freed on bail until his appeal is heard.

Seraphim Storheim was convicted of sexual assault early this year and sentenced last week to eight months in jail for an assault dating back almost 30 years. His lawyer Jeff Gindin immediately appealed the conviction and sentence, arguing the judge came to the wrong conclusion when he didn’t find Storheim’s account credible.

Gindin argued Thursday his client should be released on bail until the appeal is heard because he poses no threat to society. If Storheim had not been granted bail, Gindin said it’s possible he would have served the bulk of his sentence before his appeal was heard.

Justice Diana Cameron of Manitoba’s Court of Appeal agreed that was likely — even if the appeal moves quickly.

“It’s entirely conceivable he would have served out his sentence before a decision was rendered by this court,” she said.

Storheim, now 68, showed no emotion as he was granted bail and told he could not be alone with a child under the age of 18 as a condition of his release.

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MINNESOTA
Friendly Atheist

July 17, 2014 By Hemant Mehta

Twin Cities (Minnesota) Archbishop John Nienstedt (below) spent years arguing against LGBT rights. In 2007, he wrote that “those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts… formally cooperate in a grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin.” He condemned Brokeback Mountain when it came out. And he spent $650,000 of the Church’s money trying to convince Minnesota voters to pass an amendment banning same-sex marriage — an amendment that ultimately failed.

It’s hardly surprisingly, then, to learn that Nienstedt was under investigation for having sex with other priests. More importantly, he retaliated against anyone who didn’t respond in kind or questioned what he was doing. He denies all of these allegations, of course.

But it gets worse. One of the men promoted by Nienstedt to become a pastor, Curtis Wehmeyer, ended up molesting kids while in that role. It was discovered that Nienstedt knew about Wehmeyer’s criminal history when he promoted him to that position.

It’s just astonishing how any of this could have happened. And we haven’t scraped the bottom of the barrel yet, since Nienstedt’s “archivist and top adviser on Roman Catholic church law” Jennifer Haselberger is finally speaking out against the cover-ups that took place while she was there:

Haselberger said that when she started examining records in 2008 of clergy under restrictions over sex misconduct with adults and children she found “nearly 20″ of the 48 men still in ministry. She said she repeatedly warned Nienstedt and his aides about the risk of these placements, but they took action only in one case. As a result of raising alarms, she said she was eventually shut out of meetings about priest misconduct. She resigned last year.
…
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens said in a statement that Haselberger’s “recollections are not always shared by others within the archdiocese.” He said the archdiocese was taking steps toward “greater transparency and accountability.”

Well, that’s convenient. The recollections may not be shared, but the Church is known for just dismissing things that make it look bad. They love sweeping naughty/molest-y clergy members under the rug.

You can read Haselberger’s full affidavit here. It’s more than 100 pages of information the Church doesn’t want you to hear. Haselberger deserves a lot of credit for shining a light on this information. It’s an incredibly courageous move, given the size and influence of the institution she’s up against.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic News Agency

Minneapolis, Minn., Jul 17, 2014 / 01:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An auxiliary bishop of the Saint Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese says the affidavit of a former chancellor on the handling of sex abuse allegations is not necessarily consistent the view of others involved.

“Her recollections are not always shared by others within the archdiocese,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens said July 15 of the affidavit filed by Jennifer Haselberger – who was chancellor of the archdiocese from 2008-2013.

Her sworn statement in a lawsuit concerning sexual abuse by a former priest was filed July 7, and charged that while she was employed there, the Saint Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese had a pattern of failing to deal appropriately with allegations made against clergy of sex abuse.

The lawsuit is filed by a man, known as Doe 1, who claims to have been abused as a minor by Thomas Adamson, then a priest, in 1976 and 1977. The suit had been filed against Adamson, as well as the Saint Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona.

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UNITED STATES
Deseret News

Compiled by Kelsey Dallas
For the Deseret News
Published: Thursday, July 17 2014

Pope Francis spoke openly about clergy sexual abuse in a recent interview with an Italian newspaper. But instead of celebrating his willingness to address the issue, some Catholics, including officials at the Vatican, worry that his comments may do more harm than good.

On Sunday, La Repubblica published its account of a conversation between the paper’s founder, Eugenio Scalfari, and Pope Francis. In it, the pope addresses clergy sexual abuse, calling pedophilia a “leprosy in our house.”

“Many of my collaborators who fight with me (against pedophilia) reassure me with reliable statistics that … the level of pedophilia in the church is at about 2 percent. … This data should hearten me but I have to tell you that it does not hearten me at all. In fact, I think that it is very grave,” Francis said to Scalfari. Reuters published the translated excerpt.

Reaction to the interview ranged from difficulty proving the accuracy of the pope’s 2 percent figure to disputes over how far up in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy abusers can be found. …

“The question of the percentage of pedophiles in the priesthood is not easily answered, even in the United States, where bishops release some data on surveys and survivors have collected significant information over the years through litigation,” Michelle Boorstein wrote for the Post. “Figures vary among church leaders and outside analysts. The question in most other parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, seems completely unanswered. However, survivor advocates said two percent sounds low.”

SNAP, the survivors network of those abused by priests, issued a statement about the pope’s comments, expressing frustration with Francis’ affinity for speaking about clergy sexual abuse rather than acting to end it.

“No one benefits when the world’s top Catholic official mischaracterizes the crisis, by talking often about abuse and rarely about cover up. No one benefits when he minimizes the crisis by low-balling estimates of child-molesting clerics,” the statement explained.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 17, 2014

Statement by Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga, California, Orthodox Director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com )

A Canadian archbishop, who was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 8 months in jail last week, has appealed his conviction and requested to be released on bail. We hope the judge denies this request.

Archbishop Seraphim Storheim was found criminally guilty of sexually abusing a child. While locked up, he cannot hurt any more children. We disagree with Storheim’s attorney, who claims the archbishop poses no threat to society. Child molesters rarely abuse only once or change their ways.

The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) opposes his release and now more than ever should reach out to anyone else who was hurt by the archbishop and might be suffering in silence and self-blame.

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NIGERIA
Y Naija

by S’ola Filani

A middle‑aged pastor of one of the Pentecostal churches in Ile‑Oluji area of Ondo State, Peter Etim, has been arrested for child abuse – inflicting serious body injuries on two of his male children.

He was arrested by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ondo State Command, on Wednesday.

For stealing his N180, and selling some wares in his shop on credit without his permission, the pastor inflicted the injuries on his boys – Elijah (10) and Hope (8), by using electric wire to beat them.

Briefing journalists, the command image maker, Mr. Kayode Balogun, advised parents and guardians to be careful about the way they treat their children.

Balogun said children have some rights which needed to be protected under the Child Rights Act of Ondo State and the federation.

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NEBRASKA
National Catholic Reporter

Robert McClory | Jun. 18, 2014

CRISIS OF CATHOLIC AUTHORITY: FAITH AND POWER IN THE DIOCESE OF LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
By Rachel Pokora
Published by Paragon House, $19.95

Crisis of Catholic Authority is a kind of ecclesiastical horror story. It relates what can happen when an autocratic hierarch chooses to exercise his supreme, punitive power over some of his subjects. No one on this earth will restrain him, neither the priests of his diocese, nor his fellow bishops in the U.S., nor the high authorities in Rome, not even the pope himself. And like some ancient gothic curse, this awesome penalty has acquired a life of its own, continuing in full force for 18 years, outliving the resignation of the bishop who pronounced it, still in effect to this day and into the foreseeable future.

The bishop is Fabian Bruskewitz, who ruled the diocese of Lincoln, Neb., from 1992 to 2012. Those immediately affected by excommunication in 1996 were some 45 members of the Nebraska chapter of the Call to Action organization who happened to live in the Lincoln diocese. They were given one month to resign from the accursed group, at which time the penalty would automatically go into effect. Also presumably affected were any other Call to Action members who would move to Lincoln in the future without renouncing their membership.

It should be noted that no other U.S. bishop has followed Bruskewitz’s lead in all these years, though the bishop himself has become a kind of folk hero to supporters of Mother Angelica’s EWTN television station and other far-right conservative Catholic organizations.

Author Rachel Pokora narrates the story clearly, without rancor or bitterness. She is a professor of communications at Nebraska Wesleyan University who moved to Lincoln after Bruskewitz struck. She chose to join CTA’s Nebraska chapter after experiencing the rigidity and extreme conservatism that marked parish life in the diocese, and she later served for several years as the chapter’s president.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

There’s tons of truth in the axiom “Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.”

Yet when a pope is picked, many predict – based solely on hope and ignoring considerable evidence – that he’ll “be better” on abuse than his predecessor.

That’s why we are so grateful to the amazing researchers at BA.org [BishopAccountability.org] who dug deep into how Pope Francis dealt with clergy sex abuse and cover up cases in Argentina. What they found is very disturbing.

And their work, though seemingly ignored at first, is finally gaining traction.

In the past few weeks, more and more news outlets and bloggers are citing this important research.

The Guardian

The Washington Post

The Telegraph

The American Conservative

The New York Times

The Global Post

Let this be a reminder to all of us: when our efforts don’t seem to bear fruit, it’s best to be patient and fight pessimism. It may take weeks or months or sometimes years. But usually, our hard work is noticed and effective.

Congrats & thanks to BA.org

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LOUISIANA
WWNO

By JIM ENGSTER

David Clohessy, the Executive Director of the Snap Network (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) joins Jim for the first part of today’s show to discuss the Louisiana Supreme Court’s 6-1 ruling against seal of confessional in a recent case against a Baton Rouge Priest. Also, Attorney Michael Wolf joins the conversation in studio to discuss the recent court decision and explain the legal action taken.

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CANADA
Metro

By Staff
The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG – A former Orthodox priest convicted of sexually assaulting an altar boy will hear today if he will be granted bail pending an appeal.

Seraphim Storheim was convicted last week and sentenced to eight months in jail for an incident dating back almost 30 years.

Jeff Gindin, his lawyer, immediately appealed the conviction and the sentence.

Gindin says his client should be released on bail until the appeal is heard because he poses no threat to society.

He told a judge Thursday that if Storheim is not granted bail, it’s possible he will have to serve out the bulk of his sentence before his appeal is heard.

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VATICAN CITY
Christian Post

BY NICOLA MENZIE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
June 7, 2014

Joel Osteen, bestselling motivational author and evangelical pastor of America’s fastest-growing megachurch, was among a small group that included Mormon Sen. Mike Lee, to meet privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome, this week.

Osteen said he was honored to meet with Pope Francis, who leads the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

“I like the fact that this pope is trying to make the church larger, not smaller. He’s not pushing people out but making the church more inclusive. That resonated with me,” Osteen told the Houston Chronicle.

The megachurch pastor, who ministers to 52,000 worshippers weekly and reaches millions through his books and television broadcasts, added that the group’s meeting with Francis was cut short due to the death of a cardinal, Simon Lourdusamy. Osteen added, however, that the pope asked the group to pray for peace in the Middle East as well as for him.

According to Deseret News, the meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday was “part of a multiday, unofficial visit to Italy to promote ecumenical prayer and interfaith understanding.”

In addition to Sen. Lee’s and Osteen’s presence, the publication reports that others in attendance included Tim Timmons, a pastor and author based in Newport Beach, Calif., and Gayle D. Beebe, president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The Fellowship, or The International Foundation, reportedly organized the trip. The Fellowship is led by evangelical Christian minister Douglas Coe, who was noted by the Vatican Information Services as one of many guests received by Pope Francis on Thursday, cited simply as: “Doug Coe of the National Prayer Breakfast, U.S.A., and entourage.” The Fellowship is the main organizer behind the annual National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C.

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ROME
Christian News

July 3, 2014

ROME – Two controversial TV preachers recently met Pope Francis in an effort to work toward tearing down the ‘walls of division’ between Catholics and Protestants.

Kenneth Copeland and James Robison are two religious leaders in northeast Texas known for drawing huge crowds to their services and events, and who were a part of leading the group identifying as a “delegation of Evangelical Christian leaders” in its meeting with the Roman Catholic pontiff late last month.

Copeland heads Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Eagle Mountain International Church, while Robison is an “apostolic elder” at Gateway Church and co-hosts the Life Today TV program.

In 2008, CBS News released a detailed report on Kenneth Copeland Ministries, saying an investigation “raises serious questions about the Copeland’s religious empire.” For example, according to the report, the “ministry” operates private jets which are often used for vacation trips.

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VATICAN CITY
Worthy News

Monday, June 30, 2014

VATICAN CITY (Worthy News)– A delegation of evangelicals led by televangelists Kenneth Copeland and James Robison met with Pope Francis for three hours last week at the Vatican.

The meeting was set up by Bishop Tony Palmer, a bishop of the Anglican Episcopal Church in the United Kingdom. Last January, Palmer addressed a Kenneth Copeland pastor’s conference calling for unity between Catholics and Protestants.

“This meeting was a miracle,” Robison told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “This is something God has done. God wants his arms around the world. And he wants Christians to put his arms around the world by working together.”

Over the past few years, Robison has led several conferences with evangelicals and Catholics working toward an ecumenical understanding. Robison along with Catholic philosopher Jay W. Richards wrote a book entitled, “Indivisible.”

Earlier this month, mega-church speaker Joel Osteen, also met with the Pope saying, “I love the fact that’s he’s made the Church more inclusive, not trying to make it smaller, but to try to make it larger — to take everybody in. So, that just resonates with me.”

However, critics have expressed concerns about the recent ecumenical gatherings, stating that ecumenicism is far from biblical and point to the understanding that the last religious ruler termed the “False Prophet” by many will gather the world into a false “one world religion.”

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