AUSTRALIA
BBC News

By Marie McInerney
Melbourne, Victoria

For decades, Peter Blenkiron remained silent about the abuse he had suffered at age 11 at the hands of his Catholic Christian Brother teacher.

Earlier this year, Mr Blenkiron relived the horror of his school days, telling an inquiry into child abuse about how he would be pressed against the wall at the back of the classroom while his teacher physically and sexually abused him, with the other students ordered to look away.

“If there was no sexual abuse after the belting, then you knew you’d had a good day,” the 53-year-old told a hearing of Australia’s landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Giving testimony from his hometown Ballarat, in regional Victoria, and hearing harrowing stories from other survivors of child abuse brought back the pain, Mr Blenkiron told the BBC.

“I was a mess for about two months,” he says.

But he was determined to shine a light on the abuse that has claimed the lives of many of his peers, through suicide and substance abuse, and that turned him into “a ticking time bomb”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Sep. 27, 2015

PHILADELPHIA
For only the second time in his two-and-a-half year papacy, Pope Francis has met with survivors of clergy sexual abuse during his trip to the U.S. and has told them he is “profoundly sorry” for their suffering.

The Vatican announced the meeting in a brief press bulletin Sunday, saying Francis had met with five survivors of abuse that morning while staying at the St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Philadelphia.

The pontiff met with the survivors as a group and then one-by-one, praying with them and promising a renewed commitment to prevent abuse and provide accountability for those who covered up crimes, the Vatican said.

“Words cannot express my sorrow for the abuse you suffered,” the pope told the survivors, according a text of his remarks for the meeting released by the U.S. bishops’ conference.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Sept. 27

Statement by Becky Ianni of Virginia, SNAP Virginia State leader (703-801-6044 cell, SNAPVirginia@cox.net)

The AP reports that including incest victims in the papal meeting today is an effort to “redirect the discussion.”

[US News]

We hope that’s not true. If true, that’s incredibly cynical. It’s pathetic when wrongdoers claim “someone else is even worse.” It was hurtful to victims and Catholics alike when Francis said this in 2010.

[BishopAccountability.org]

It’s hurtful every time a Catholic official makes this self-serving dodge. Almost always, bishops mention incest to shift the focus onto predators and away from their own continuing complicity.

Regardless, however of church officials’ intent, we feel that every victim needs and deserves all the support and validation possible. Our hearts ache for them.

Sadly, by opposing secular reforms of child safety laws, Catholic officials hurt both clergy abuse victims AND incest victims, denying all of us the chance to protect kids by exposing predators in court.

Finally, this morning in Philadelphia, Francis said “I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable.” We are sick and tired of these promises by Catholic officials. We’re heard them literally tens of thousands of times.

From 1969 until 1992, Francis was a priest.

From 1992 until 2001, he was a bishop.

From 2001 until 2013, he was a cardinal.

Is there a single shred of evidence that he took even a single step to protect a single child?

And from 2013 until now, he’s talked, promised and gestured but refuses to take simple, proven steps to protect kids, expose predators, punish enablers and deter wrongdoing.

He set up a church study panel. He says he’ll set up a church tribunal. But he continues to keep secret every file about every predator and every enabler. His bishops across the world are hiding even more evidence. These hundreds of thousands of pages about crimes should be in the hands of law enforcement. But under Francis, as best we can tell, not one page has been voluntarily provided to one police officer or prosecutor or government official anywhere.

Francis continues to conceal thousands of names of proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests. He continues to tolerate thousands of complicit church officials. And he continues to promote dozens of complicit bishops (like Barros in Chile).

We hope the next time Francis talks about this crisis, it’s to announce tangible prevention steps. And we hope he calls it a continuing crisis, not “difficult moments.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Pope Francis met with victims of child sexual abuse Sunday on the final day of his U.S. visit and promised to hold accountable those responsible for the scandal in the church, delivering a powerful warning to American bishops accused of covering up for pedophile priests instead of reporting them to police.

In a gesture of reconciliation just hours before he was to return to Rome, the pontiff praised the victims as “true heralds of mercy” who deserve the church’s gratitude for helping to bring the truth to light.

“God weeps, for the sexual abuse of children cannot be maintained in secret, and I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable,” Francis said in Spanish while in the City of Brotherly Love for a big festival on the Catholic family.

It was Francis’ second such meeting: He met with sexual abuse victims at the Vatican in July 2014.

But in a move that signaled a new effort by the church to reshape the discussion, the Vatican said not all five of the victims at Sunday’s meeting were abused by members of the clergy; some of the three women and two men had been victimized by family members or educators.

“I was so touched by his statement to the survivors,” said Allentown Bishop John O. Barres, who attended the pope’s visit to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on Sunday morning and was among the concelebrants of Sunday afternoon’s Mass in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
6 ABC

PHILADELPHIA — Read the full text of Pope Francis’ remarks to Bishops taking part in the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Angelus – The Tidings

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — Pope Francis met with a group of victims of sexual abuse Sept. 27 and later told bishops that he was overwhelmed by a sense of embarrassment and was committed to holding accountable those who harmed children.

In a meeting with cardinals, bishops, priests and seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo, the pope prefaced his address on the importance of the family by saying that he had met with the group as arranged by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. The Vatican said the 30-minute meeting, with three women and two men abused by members of the clergy or their families or their teachers, was held at the seminary shortly before the pope addressed the bishops.

“It is engraved in my heart, the stories, suffering and pain of the children abused by priests,” the pope said. “I continue to feel an overwhelming sense of embarrassment because of those who had in their care the little ones and caused them great harm.

“I am deeply sorry. God cries,” he said.

He said that “the crimes and sin of sexual abuse of children can no longer remain secret” and that he “committed the close vigilance of the church to protect the children, and I promise that all responsible will be held accountable.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse (FACSA)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2015
Contact: John Salveson at 215-870-0680 salveson@abolishsexabuse.org

BRYN MAWR, PA – John Salveson, President of FACSA, (Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse) released the following statement regarding Pope Francis’ comments in a speech to a group of bishops in Philadelphia today regarding the ongoing clergy sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.

“This morning Pope Francis committed to ‘careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable’ when addressing the clergy sex abuse crisis.

The truth is that the survivor community has been asking the church to take several simple steps to protect children and hold perpetrators and enablers accountable for years, but the Church has refused to take these actions. If Pope Francis wishes to take effective action to back up his words he could take these steps immediately:

• Require that every diocese in the world immediately report all past and present allegations of clergy sex abuse to civil authorities when it is suspected or discovered. Today, only the Church in the United States of America has been given this direction.
• Require that every diocese in the world immediately disclose the identities of those who have been accused of child sex abuse so that children can be protected from them.
• Instruct the Vatican to immediately disclose the identities of the hundreds of priests who have been defrocked because of their sexual abuse of children so that children can be protected from them.
• Instruct every diocese and Catholic advocacy organization, such as the Catholic Conferences of every state in America, to immediately drop their relentless lobbying against the reform of criminal and civil statutes of limitations in place today, which protect abusers and enablers at the expense of children.

Most importantly, we implore the U.S. Department of Justice and the Attorneys General of each state in America to investigate the criminal behavior of the Roman Catholic Church in America and take the steps necessary to hold them accountable for their despicable actions.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — While speaking to bishops and archbishops at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Pope Francis touched on a number of topics, including sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

He said, “In my heart, the suffering of those youth that were sexually abused, and it continues to be on my mind. The people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones violated that trust and caused them great pain.”

Pope Francis continued, “God weeps for the sexual abuse of children. These cannot be maintained in secret. I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable.”

“Those that have survived this abuse have become true heralds of mercy. Humbly, we owe each of them our gratitude for their great value, as they have had to suffer with terrible abuse, sexual abuse, of minors. I say this, I would like to express my gratitude to the archbishop, and I felt it very important that I share this with you today. And I am very happy to share these moments of pastoral reflection with you amid the joyful celebration of this World Meeting of Families.”

“For the church, the family, is not first and foremost a cause for concern, but rather a … of god’s blessing upon the masterpiece of creation. Every day, all over the world, the church can rejoice in the Lord’s gift of so many families, who even amid difficult trials, maintain faithful to their promise and keep the faith.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Evidently moved by his meeting with abuse survivors on Sunday, the pope departed from his official script to excoriate American bishops for their failures.

ROME—On the last day of his historic visit to the United States, Pope Francis excoriated American bishops and cardinals with him in Philadelphia for their handling of child sex abuse by clergy, one of the most damaging issues the American Catholic Church has ever faced.

Earlier Sunday morning, Francis had gone to St. Charles Borromeo seminary, where he received five adult survivors—three women and two men—who were sexually abused as minors, and his unscripted remarks to the bishops were fraught with emotion.

“I have in my heart these stories of suffering of those youth who were sexually abused,” he said. “And it continues to be on my mind. The people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones violated that trust and caused them great pain. God weeps for the sexual abuse of children.”

While the television cameras did not focus on the faces of any of the bishops in the audience, there were several there, including Cardinal Justin Rigali the retired archbishop of Philadelphia, who retired in 2011 amid accusations about his mishandling of known pedophile priests in his parishes. Also in attendance was Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, who was stripped of his duties in 2013 for his role covering up abuse allegations.

Francis was absolutely steadfast in his criticism of the American clerical crimes. “For the sexual abuse of children,” he said, “these cannot be maintained in secret. And I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and all responsible will be held accountable,” he said. “Those who have survived this abuse have become true heralds of mercy…. we owe each of them our gratitude for their great value.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post

As released by the Vatican.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you for receiving me and giving me the opportunity to be here with you and to share this time in your lives. It is a difficult time, one full of struggles. I know it is a painful time not only for you, but also for your families and for all of society. Any society, any family, which cannot share or take seriously the pain of its children, and views that pain as something normal or to be expected, is a society “condemned” to remain a hostage to itself, prey to the very things which cause that pain. I am here as a pastor, but above all as a brother, to share your situation and to make it my own. I have come so that we can pray together and offer our God everything that causes us pain, but also everything that gives us hope, so that we can receive from him the power of the resurrection.

I think of the Gospel scene where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. This was something his disciples found hard to accept. Even Peter refused, and told him: “You will never wash my feet” (Jn 13:8).

In those days, it was the custom to wash someone’s feet when they came to your home. That was how they welcomed people. The roads were not paved, they were covered with dust, and little stones would get stuck in your sandals. Everyone walked those roads, which left their feet dusty, bruised or cut from those stones. That is why we see Jesus washing feet, our feet, the feet of his disciples, then and now.

Life is a journey, along different roads, different paths, which leave their mark on us.

We know in faith that Jesus seeks us out. He wants to heal our wounds, to soothe our feet which hurt from travelling alone, to wash each of us clean of the dust from our journey. He doesn’t ask us where we have been, he doesn’t question us what about we have done. Rather, he tells us: “Unless I wash your feet, you have no share with me” (Jn 13:8). Unless I wash your feet, I will not be able to give you the life which the Father always dreamed of, the life for which he created you. Jesus comes to meet us, so that he can restore our dignity as children of God. He wants to help us to set out again, to resume our journey, to recover our hope, to restore our faith and trust. He wants us to keep walking along the paths of life, to realize that we have a mission, and that confinement is not the same thing as exclusion

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

By Emma Brown and Frances Stead Sellers September 27

PHILADELPHIA — On the final day of his visit to the United States, Pope Francis met Sunday morning with five victims of clergy sexual abuse at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary — a much anticipated event in a city still scarred by the scandal.

“God weeps,” Francis told a gathering of bishops afterwards, departing from his prepared speech. “I commit to a careful oversight of the church to ensure that youth are protected, and I promise that all those responsible will be held accountable.”

Pope Francis met later Sunday morning with about 100 inmates at the largest of Philadelphia’s six prisons, telling them “all of us need to be cleansed, to be washed.” He waded into the audience of prisoners clad in light blue uniforms, grasping their hands and touching their heads and hugging at least one.

The two meetings served as a reminder of the great tension that surrounds the U.S. Catholic Church: Its handling of sexual abuse remains one of its most profound failings, but its message of redemption and forgiveness displays its enduring moral power.

“I am profoundly sorry that your innocence was violated by those who you trusted,” Francis told the sex abuse victims, according to his prepared remarks that were released by the Vatican. “We promise to support your continued healing and to always be vigilant to protect the children of today and tomorrow.” …

Kevin Waldrip, 64, who was abused on his 13th birthday by “a priest who was one of the first to be convicted,” was unmoved by the pope’s meeting and by his statement afterwards.

“God may weep,” he said, “but [the pope] certainly doesn’t and the church doesn’t. They’ve proven it again and again.”

The pope’s meeting with sexual abuse victims came hours before he is scheduled to celebrate an outdoor Mass before a crowd that could swell into the hundreds of thousands.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Abby Ohlheiser and Terrence McCoy September 27

PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis told U.S. bishops and seminarians on Sunday that he had met with sex abuse survivors. “God weeps,” he said in remarks ahead of a prepared speech on the family.

Five adults who were abused as minors – three women and two men – were at the meeting along with their families, according to the Vatican’s press office. The survivors were abused by clergy, family members, or their teachers.

“I have in my heart, the stories of suffering and pain of the minors who were sexually abused by priests. And, it continues to overwhelm me with shame that the people who were charged with taking care of these tender ones violated that trust and caused them a profound pain. God weeps.” Pope Francis said at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, according to a translation of the Spanish remarks by The Washington Post.

“The crimes and sins of sexual abuse of minors cannot be kept in secret any longer.” he continued.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Wall Street Journal

By DEBORAH BALL and SCOTT CALVERT
Sept. 27, 2015

PHILADELPHIA—The pope met with victims of sex abuse by priests on Sunday morning, expressing his “solidarity” for their suffering and assuring them the guilty will be punished.

The Vatican confirmed that the pope met at 8 a.m. Sunday morning at the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary with five adults—three women and two men—who suffered abuse by priests as minors. The group was accompanied by Boston Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, who is the chair of a papal committee for the protection of minors and has been leading the effort at the Vatican to establish new ways of dealing with the problem.

During a speech to bishops following the meeting, the pope said “God weeps” for abuse victims.

“I hold the stories and the suffering and the sorrow of children who were sexually abused by priests deep in my heart,” he said. “I remain overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm. I am profoundly sorry…. The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.”

The Vatican said the pope listened to each of the victim’s stories, prayed with them and “expressed his solidarity” for their suffering. The pope also expressed “his own pain and shame especially in the case of injury caused them by clergy or church workers,” said a Vatican statement. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Atlantic

MARINA KOREN

Pope Francis addressed the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal on Sunday.

“I hold the stories and the suffering and the sorry of children who were sexually abused by priests deep in my heart. I remain overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm,” he said in unscripted remarks before a speech in Philadelphia. “I am profoundly sorry. God weeps.”

Francis said that “the crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret,” according to a transcript provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all,” he said.

This weekend, Francis met privately with three women and two men who suffered sex abuse as minors, according to the Vatican’s English language press representative. They were accompanied by several clergy members, including Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, whom Francis named to a Vatican anti-abuse commission last spring. More on the meeting from the representative:

The Pope spoke with visitors, listening to their stories and offering them a few words together as a group and later listening to each one individually. He then prayed with them and expressed his solidarity in sharing their suffering, as well as his own pain and shame in especially in the case of injury caused them by clergy or church workers.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Star Tribune

By NICOLE WINFIELD and RACHEL ZOLL Associated Press
SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis met with victims of child sexual abuse Sunday on the final day of his U.S. visit and promised to hold accountable those responsible for the scandal in the church, delivering a powerful warning to American bishops accused of covering up for pedophile priests instead of reporting them to police.

In a gesture of reconciliation just hours before he was to return to Rome, the pontiff praised the victims as “true heralds of mercy” who deserve the church’s gratitude for helping to bring the truth to light.

“God weeps, for the sexual abuse of children cannot be maintained in secret, and I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable,” Francis said in Spanish while in the City of Brotherly Love for a big festival on the Catholic family.

It was Francis’ second such meeting: He met with sexual abuse victims at the Vatican in July 2014.

But in a move that signaled a new effort by the church to reshape the discussion, the Vatican said not all five of the victims at Sunday’s meeting were abused by members of the clergy; some of the three women and two men had been victimized by family members or educators.

Later Sunday, Francis visited a Philadelphia jail to give hope and encouragement to about 100 inmates, included suspected killers, rapists and mobsters. He greeted the men one by one, along with their families, telling them to spend their time behind bars getting their lives back on track. …

But in an apparent effort by the church to reshape the discussion, the Vatican said not all five of the victims on Sunday were abused by members of the clergy; some of the three women and two men had been victimized by relatives or educators.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsweek

Updated | PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Pope Francis met on Sunday with five adults who were abused by Catholic clergy when they were children and vowed to hold responsible all involved in the crime or cover-ups.

While the pope has met with victims of sexual abuse in Rome, this was his first meeting with them on a foreign tour. Philadelphia has been the most publicly scarred in the U.S. Church abuse scandal out of any of the cities visited by Francis, who ends his six-day U.S. tour later in the day.

“I have in my heart these stories of suffering of those youth that were sexually abused,” Francis told bishops.

“The people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones violated that trust and caused them great pain. God weeps for the sexual abuse of children.”

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that at the morning meeting in Philadelphia’s seminary the pope “expressed participation in their suffering and pain and shame.”

“He renewed the Church’s commitment to listen to victims and treat them with justice, to punish the guilty and that crimes of abuse would be fought with an effective program of prevention in the Church and in society,” the spokesman said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR

Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET

Pope Francis, in a previously unannounced stop, met with victims of clergy sex abuse in Philadelphia, as the pontiff is wrapping up a six-day visit to the U.S. that will culminate with a huge Mass this afternoon.

Meeting with 300 bishops, Francis said he had met with the sex abuse survivor group Sunday morning.

“It continues to be on my mind that the people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones, violated that trust and caused them great pain,” he said, adding “God weeps.”

The pope added that the abuse “cannot be maintained in secret. And I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected.”

The Vatican, in a statement, says Francis met with three women and two men who had been abused as children. It said that each was accompanied by a family member or someone close and that the pope listened and expressed solidarity in sharing in their suffering.

“He renewed the commitment of the Church to the effort that all victims are heard and treated with justice, that the guilty be punished and that the crimes of abuse be combated with an effective prevention activity in the Church and in society,” the statement said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Sept. 27

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

Is a child anywhere on earth safer now that a pope, for maybe the seventh or eighth time or ninth time, has briefly chatted with abuse victims? No.

A smart public relations move. That’s what this meeting is. Nothing more.

It fits church officials’ carefully-crafted narrative. Years ago, prelates pretended the abuse and cover up weren’t happening. That no longer works. So now they pretend it’s not happening NOW, that it’s all “in the past” and only healing remains to be done. They know, however, this is deceptive and dangerous.

To give some perspective, let’s assume that roughly the same percentage of priests molest the same percentage of kids across the globe. In the US, in 2012, two church experts estimate 100,000 kids in the US.

[National Catholic Reporter]

The US is about 6% of the world’s population. If you do the math, that means there are more than 1.5 million men and women on this planet who have been raped, sodomized or molested by Catholic priests.

(And remember, we’re basing this on estimates from church officials which are, of course, notoriously low. More than 20 years ago, sociologist and author Fr. Andrew Greeley made the same estimate – 100,000 US victims of predator priests – in the Jesuit magazine America.)

[BishopAccountability.org]

And literally countless kids are now vulnerable to abuse by clerics today. That’s where Francis should focus: stopping abuse and cover up now and in the future, not conveniently implying that only healing is needed now. He could meet with a thousand victims. But that wouldn’t safeguard a single child.

A doctor’s first rule is to do no harm. That should be a pope’s first rule too. Stop current sexual violence and cover ups now. Prevent future ones. Then worry about ‘healing.’ Symbolic gestures can come years down the road.

We noted before that Bernie McDaid of Boston, a survivor who met with Pope Benedict, now feels deeply disappointed and betrayed. calling the meeting “self-serving.” (see below)

Yesterday, we heard from an abuse survivor who met with Francis last year, Mark Vincent Healy of Ireland. He told us, in an email, that “since my meeting with Francis last July 2014, nothing has been delivered on in any substantive program in response to the life-long suffering and enormous distress which is inflicted mentally, physically, socially and economically.”

The first time Francis met with survivors, his top spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi said “The most important thing the Pope hopes to come out of this occasion, is that the victims themselves felt welcomed and listened to.” Francis is a charming man and superb communicator. He’ll accomplish this in the US too. But let us not forget that by doing so, he helps no children at all.

[CNN]

In Argentina, over the years, some brave victims have stepped forward. They are the ones Francis could have helped most. But he rebuffed them. (As best we can tell, and based on research from BishopAccountability.org, he refused to meet with victims during the entire time he headed the Buenos Aires archdiocese.)

[BishopAccountability.org]

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

By Emma Brown,, Julie Zauzmer and Pam Constable September 27

PHILADELPHIA — On the final day of his visit to the United States, Pope Francis told a gathering of bishops that he has met with victims of clergy sexual abuse.

“God weeps for sexual abuse of children,” Francis said. “I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable.”

His remarks came Sunday morning at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, hours before he is scheduled to celebrate an outdoor Mass before a crowd that could swell into the hundreds of thousands.

The afternoon Mass is the climax of a historic six-day journey to Washington, New York and Philadelphia that has riveted Americans’ attention, giving Francis a broad audience for his messages about serving the poor, bolstering families, caring for the environment and welcoming newcomers to the country.

“Viva, Papa!” jubilant crowds have shouted everywhere the Argentine pope has gone. “Pray for me” has been his frequent refrain.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Today

PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis told bishops in Philadelphia that he had met with victims of clerical sexual abuse, adding that “God weeps” for them.

“God weeps for sexual abuse of children,” the 78-year-old pontiff said. “Youth are protected and … all responsible will be held accountable.”

The reports of abuse and the cover-up first became big news in 2002. Victims’ groups say the church has not done enough. As many as 100,000 U.S. children may have been the victims of clerical sex abuse, insurance experts said in a paper presented at a Vatican conference in 2012. REUTERS

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and DANIEL J. WAKIN
SEPT. 27, 2015

PHILADELPHIA — Speaking to hundreds of bishops and seminarians, Pope Francis on Sunday said he met in private with a group of victims of sexual abuse and he pledged that “all responsible will be held accountable.”

“God weeps,” he said.

The pope, speaking on the last day of his trip to the United States, delivered his words before his prepared speech. He said abuse survivors “have become true heralds of mercy. Humbly, we owe each of them our gratitude for their value as they have had to suffer terrible abuse.”

His first reference to the scandal, at a prayer service with bishops in Washington on Wednesday, drew criticism from advocates for survivors of abuse for not going far enough. He told the bishops he was “conscious of courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history of the Church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

WYNNEWOOD, Pa. (AP) — Latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. All times local:

9:15 a.m.

Pope Francis has met with survivors of clerical sex abuse and has promised to hold accountable those responsible.

Francis announced that he had met with a group Sunday, his final day in the United States.

Speaking to U.S. bishops, Francis said sexual abuse can no longer be kept a secret. He says he promised to “zealously” protect young people and that “all those responsible are held accuontable.”

Francis has decided to create a new Vatican tribunal to prosecute bishops who failed to protect their flock by covering up for pedophile priests rather than reporting them to police.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held a private meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse in Philadelphia on Sunday (27th September) and told bishops afterwards that such crimes “must no longer be held in secret” and promised on behalf of the Church “the accountability of all.” The Pope said he remained “overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm. I am profoundly sorry. God weeps.” He thanked the bishops for all they have down to “shine the light of Christ” on the “evil” of the sexual abuse of children. The Pope’s remarks came during an address with bishops attending the World Meeting of Families on the final day of his pastoral visit to the U.S.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC New York

[with video]

By David Chang, Jim Iovino and Vince Lattanzio

Pope Francis met with victims of clergy sex abuse Sunday morning and vowed “careful oversight” of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church to ensure “all responsible will be held accountable.”

Francis held a private meeting with survivors of clergy sexual abuse shortly before speaking candidly with hundreds of bishops and seminarians about the issue that has rocked the Catholic Church.

Officials say the meeting happened at the pope’s request and was held on the seminary grounds where he is staying.

“God weeps for the sexual abuse of children,” he said during his speech to about 300 bishops at a Philadelphia-area seminary. “This cannot be maintained in secret, and I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and all responsible will be held accountable.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Guardian (UK)

This was already a packed speech – Francis was expected to speak about the importance of family and the church’s view on marriage – instead, he met with victims of sex abuse this morning and came into the chapel with a message of justice for victims of sex abuse at the hands of priests, and has gone on to speak about the problems with young people putting off marriage.

He’s still going off script and we’re trying to keep up!

21m ago
09:22
Pope Francis appears to have met with victims of sexual abuse this morning.

Father Thomas Rosica, above, is the English-language spokesperson for the Holy See’s press office.

This is a surprise – Vatican spokesperson Father Federico Lombardi said yesterday he could not confirm whether the Holy Father would meet with the victims of abuse, because he said it could not be a “media” event.

27m ago
09:16
Pope Francis in off-script child sex abuse remarks: “God weeps.”

Pope Francis just went off script unexpectedly to address child sex abuse in the church:

[It] continues to be on my mind that people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones [children] violated that trust and caused them great pain.

God weeps for the sexual abuse of children. These cannot be maintained in secret, and I commit to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and all responsible will be held accountable.

Those who have survived this abuse have become true heralds of mercy – humbly, we owe each of them our gratitude for their great value as they have had to suffer this terrible abuse sexual abuse of minors.
…

I would like to express my gratitude to the archbishop, and I felt it very important that I shared this message with you today, and I am very happy to be able to share these moments of pastoral reflection with you amid the joyful celebrations of this World Meeting of Families.”

Francis said these remarks before a prepared speech to bishops at the St Charles Borromeo seminary. He went off script in Spanish, this is the translation of the interpreter for the official papal live stream.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 27 September 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Kaga-Bandoro, Central African Republic, presented by Bishop Albert Vanbuel, S.D.B., upon reaching the age limit.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPTZ

(CNN) — Pope Francis will meet with victims of clergy sexual abuse Sunday, according to two American Catholic leaders.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

[A week before the family synod begins in Rome, reformed-minded people from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia have appealed to Catholic ardinals and bishops for changed in doctrines and pastoral approaches to sexuality. One of the biggest opponents is Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, former bishop of Regensburg.]

Eine Woche vor Beginn der Familiensynode in Rom richten Reforminitiativen aus Europa, Nord- und Südamerika, Afrika und Australien einen Appell an die katholischen Kardinäle und Bischöfe und rufen zu Änderungen der Sexuallehre und Pastoral auf. Einer der größten Gegner ist der frühere Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller.

In Rom trifft sich ab 4. Oktober die Weltkirche zur außerordentlichen Familiensynode. Für die deutsche Kirche ist beispielsweise der Münchner Kardinal Reinhard Marx mit dabei, der ein Verfechter für eine Öffnung der Kirche in Fragen der strengen Moral ist. Bereits im letzten Jahr hatten sich die Synodenväter getroffen, damals kam es sogar zu einer Kampfabstimmung zwischen Konservativen und Liberalen. Jetzt heißt es im Vorfeld der Synode, die Konservativen hätten den Schock vom letzten Jahr verdaut, den man bekommen hatte, als plötzlich klar war, dass auch Lockerungen etwa im Umgang mit homosexuellen Paaren oder wiederverheirateten Geschiedenen mehrheitsfähig sein könnten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
All-In

[A worldwide network of Catholic lay movements, including the German reform initiative We Are Church has called on the participants of the forthcoming Vatican Synod to liberalize the Church’s sexual teaching.]

Ein weltweites Netzwerk katholischer Laienbewegungen um die deutsche Reforminitiative “Wir sind Kirche” hat die Teilnehmer der bevorstehenden Vatikansynode zu einer Liberalisierung der kirchlichen Sexuallehre aufgerufen.

“Wir sind in großer Sorge über die ständig wachsende Diskrepanz zwischen Glaube und Gewissen bei der großen Mehrheit der Mitglieder der katholischen Kirche einerseits und in der Doktrin und der pastoralen Praxis des kirchlichen Lehramts andererseits”, heißt es in dem internationalen “Appell an die Synodenbischöfe”, der in der kommenden Woche veröffentlicht werden soll. Dem Appell schlossen sich unter anderem die “Wir sind Kirche”-Gruppen aus Deutschland, den USA, Irland, Italien, Schweden, Chile, Südafrika und Großbritannien an. Am 4. Oktober treffen sich rund 400 Kardinäle, Bischöfe, Ordensleute und Laien in Rom, um unter der Leitung von Papst Franziskus über die katholische Familienethik zu beraten. Die Zeit sei reif “für eine stärkere Rückbindung der kirchlichen Lehre an das Evangelium”, schreiben die Verfasser des Appells.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Times

Maureen Dowd

Washington — AFTER attending a canonization Mass at Catholic University with the pope who rails against the excesses of capitalism, I walked off campus to a festival of capitalism.

Vendors were hawking pope bracelets, buttons and T-shirts.

Excited by seeing the humble black Fiat in person and infused with Papa’s warning against the numbing effects of the “culture of prosperity,” I resisted all sales pitches. Until I got to the last guy.

He was selling blue-and-white T-shirts for $10 with the declaration “Coolest Pope Ever.”

Francis is undeniably cool. He once worked as a nightclub bouncer in Buenos Aires. He got a serenade to “Frank, baby,” from his fan Stephen Colbert. He spurred nuns to have a tailgating party at Catholic U. before his Mass, inspired the Internet to erupt in photos of dogs sporting miters and persuaded a blubbering John Boehner that he would never have a day that good again. …

Pope Francis would be the perfect pontiff — if he lived in the 19th century. But how, in 2015, can he continue to condone the idea that women should have no voice in church decisions?

In a scandal that cascaded for decades with abuses and cover-ups, the church was revealed to be monstrously warped in its attitudes about sex and its sense of right and wrong.

Yet shortly after he was elected, Francis flatly rejected the idea that the institution could benefit from opening itself to the hearts and minds of women. Asked about the issue of female priests, he replied, “The church has spoken and says no,” adding, “That door is closed.”

Francis preaches against the elites while keeping the church an elite boys’ club.

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UNITED STATES
John Thavis

Well, that was interesting.

At the official “religious freedom” event during his U.S. visit, Pope Francis never mentioned the U.S. bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” campaigns, nor their battles over alleged religious discrimination on Obamacare provisions and conscience protection issues.

The bishops have certainly made this a priority. Here was Archbishop William E. Lori last June asking the faithful to support their efforts:

“Religious institutions in the United States are in danger of losing their freedom to hire for mission and their freedom to defend the family…. Endangered is the freedom of church ministries to provide employee benefits and to provide adoptions and refugee services in accord with the church’s teaching on faith and morals. It is one thing for others to disagree with the church’s teaching but quite another to discriminate against the rights of believers to practice our faith, not just in word but in the way we conduct our daily life, ministry and business.”

Perhaps a detailed analysis of these matters was never in the cards for Pope Francis. At the White House the other day, he did offer generic backing for the bishops, encouraging the defense of religious freedom from “everything that would threaten or compromise it.” And he made a brief, symbolic stop at the Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious order that is suing over the Obamacare provisions on contraception coverage.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

Homily of Pope Francis at Mass with Bishops, Clergy and Religious, Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015

This morning I learned something about the history of this beautiful Cathedral: the story behind its high walls and windows. I would like to think, though, that the history of the Church in this city and state is really a story not about building walls, but about breaking them down. It is a story about generation after generation of committed Catholics going out to the peripheries, and building communities of worship, education, charity and service to the larger society.

That story is seen in the many shrines which dot this city, and the many parish churches whose towers and steeples speak of God’s presence in the midst of our communities. It is seen in the efforts of all those dedicated priests, religious and laity who for over two centuries have ministered to the spiritual needs of the poor, the immigrant, the sick and those in prison. And it is seen in the hundreds of schools where religious brothers and sisters trained children to read and write, to love God and neighbor, and to contribute as good citizens to the life of American society. All of this is a great legacy which you have received, and which you have been called to enrich and pass on.

Most of you know the story of Saint Katharine Drexel, one of the great saints raised up by this local Church. When she spoke to Pope Leo XIII of the needs of the missions, the Pope – he was a very wise Pope! – asked her pointedly: “What about you? What are you going to do?”. Those words changed Katharine’s life, because they reminded her that, in the end, every Christian man and woman, by virtue of baptism, has received a mission. Each one of us has to respond, as best we can, to the Lord’s call to build up his Body, the Church.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

John A. Coleman

A Still and Quiet Conscience
John A. McCoy
Orbis Books. 288p $26

John McCoy, an excellent writer, tells an insider’s account of the public humiliation of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle. I met Hunthausen on a number of occasions. I always came away with the image of a humble, deeply pastoral and collegial bishop. He was one of my heroes. Bishop William McManus of Fort Wayne told Seattle’s Msgr. Michael Ryan: “Stay with this man and continue to back him. The American hierarchy has produced very few great men. He is one of them!”

McCoy, a former reporter for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and director of public affairs for the Archdiocese of Seattle (in Hunthausen’s last years and also under Hunthausen’s successor), gathered copious interviews and notes on Hunthausen’s pastoral presence as bishop and on the Roman investigation under Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Pio Laghi, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States. He then let his proposed book on Hunthausen lie fallow in reams of notes on his computer for many years.

Finally, the person of Pope Francis led him to complete his biography. As he says of Francis: “He reminds me in many ways of Hunthausen. He’s humble, kind, compassionate, plain-spoken and unpretentious. He has a Vatican II vision of the church, of a church that is inclusive, loving, transformative, of a church with a heart for the poor and the oppressed.” The Vatican seemed unimpressed that, under Hunthausen’s leadership, Seattle exceeded the national average on Mass attendance, adult conversions to the church and monetary contributions by some 20 percent.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New York Times

By DANIEL J. WAKIN
SEPT. 27, 2015

The American marathon is nearing its end.

Pope Francis on Sunday has one day left on a journey that began in Cuba on Sept. 19 and took him to Washington, New York and Philadelphia, his 10th foreign trip as pontiff and the first to this country. He will spend it with bishops, prison inmates and hundreds of thousands of followers attending a final Mass.

The trip has been rich with weighty speeches, encounters with world leaders, and kissed babies — a hallmark of this pontiff, who readily receives little ones passed to his open-sided popemobile by security officials.

In the morning, Francis will stop by St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to meet with bishops who had come to the city for the World Meeting of Families, a Vatican-sponsored festival that drew 18,000 people, organizers said. His comments are likely to focus on the nature of family in a modern secular society — a frequent theme of the visit, along with immigration, religious freedom and social justice.

He will then head to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, mainly an intake jail, which has roughly 2,800 inmates and is one of six jails in Philadelphia’s system. Some of the inmates have made Francis a hand-carved chair.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Francis CON-artist & Vicar of Plutocrats

Paris Arrow

Never accept or believe what Pope Francis says at face-value because there are always some conniving ulterior motives beneath his sugar-coated papal speeches and charismatic papal appearances. Pope Francis is the greatest Jesuit Master of Deceits and with his Vatican Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team, Vatican paid mainstream media Pied Pipers, and shrewd Catholic blabbermouth bullies like Bill Donohue in Catholic League, they are all first-class pathological liars. Their conniving manipulation and the-end-justify-the- means Catholic Luciferian means – including the Eucharist – everything they do always lead to one final end, to satiate the Vatican Mammon Evil Beast.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
YouTube

Published on Sep 22, 2015

A man has spent 17 years outside the Vatican’s U.S. embassy protesting the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

DANI GARAVELLI
Sunday 27 September 2015

POLICE Scotland’s new national child sex abuse unit has been involved in 65 investigations across the country since it began work in January, it has been revealed.

Its 48 specialist officers, based in Livingston, Inverness, Aberdeen and Dalmarnock, have lent their expertise to inquiries involving abuse carried out in institutions and elsewhere, as well as to operations into child sexual exploitation (CSE). Their work has spanned both historical and recent allegations.

The child sex abuse unit was set up after the report into failings in the investigation of CSE in Rotherham found 1,400 children had been abused between 1997 and 2013.

Its officers – who have specialist training in areas such as interviewing vulnerable witnesses, crime scene management and digital technology – are drafted in to give short-term support to divisional officers involved in complex, protracted or cross-border investigations or those which involve people who are well-known or in positions of trust. Twelve of the 65 inquiries were led by senior investigating officers from the unit.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

27 SEP 2015
BY JAMES WARD

A Magdalene survivor whose mother is buried in a mass grave had the door slammed in her face on a visit to the Department of Justice.

In July, we revealed Mary Collins’ Traveller mum Angela was snatched from the side of the road and forced into the hated laundries for 27 years, only to die after not receiving proper medical treatment.

She was buried in a mass grave alongside 72 other women, where she remains today.

In her ongoing campaign for justice, Mary arranged for a meeting with the Justice Department to deliver a letter about her family’s plight, only for the doors to be locked upon her arrival.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

By ALAN ZAREMBO AND MATT PEARCE

Pope Francis in his first trip to the United States has spoken boldly about the need for change — in the way we treat the environment, immigrants and the poorest among us.

With messages that resonated beyond those of his faith, he seemed well aware that the future of Roman Catholicism may depend less on bringing people to church than on bringing the church to the people.

Societal values in the U.S. and elsewhere are changing rapidly. Public opinion on same-sex marriage, for example, now affirmed in this country as a constitutional right, increasingly splits along generational lines.

Polls indicate that more than half of the 72 million Americans who identify as Catholic now reject church views on same-sex marriage and abortion. The ban on divorce is routinely violated.

The pope’s response has not been to change the rules of the church but to change its focus, embracing a standard more human than saintly. …

Andrea Leon-Grossmann was watching the news one day when a story came on about yet another priest accused of molesting a boy.

The case stood out for her: She recognized this priest. She had taken communion from him.

And the alleged victim was in the Los Angeles juvenile detention center where she volunteered as a mentor.

It was not the only time her faith in church leadership would waver.

Leon-Grossmann was born into Catholicism, with two nuns and a priest in her family tree. Growing up in Mexico City, she hewed closely to its teachings. Even after she moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to study art, she attended church each Sunday.

Her religion’s focus on service spoke to her most forcefully. She started volunteering at the jail and joined demonstrations supporting undocumented immigrants.

Yet she was painfully aware of the ways the church seemed to function in opposition to her vision of Catholicism.

During Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, she said, the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus came to her church to urge congregants to vote against him — and support Proposition 8, the ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage.

“I couldn’t stand it,” Leon-Grossmann said. “In my faith, God tells me that I need to love everyone.”

She stopped attending church regularly and threw herself into activism.

In 2013, she and other activists brought a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to the residence of Roger Mahony, the L.A. cardinal who had helped conceal sexual abuse by priests. They urged him not to go to Rome to help choose the next pope.

Mahony went. But Leon-Grossmann, a 42-year-old art director, was encouraged by the papal enclave’s outcome.

“Something the pope said that resonated deeply with me this morning: ‘A good Catholic meddles in politics,'” Leon-Grossmann said Thursday. “I completely agree.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Reuters

PHILADELPHIA | BY PHILIP PULLELLA AND SCOTT MALONE

Pope Francis, speaking in America’s birthplace on Saturday, offered stout words of support to Hispanic and other immigrants in the United States, telling them not to be discouraged at a time when some prominent politicians are directing hostility toward them.

The 78-year-old Argentine pontiff toured Independence Hall in Philadelphia before addressing a crowd estimated at more than 40,000 outside the 18th century red brick building where basic American liberties were proclaimed and where independence from Britain was declared.

“Do not be discouraged by whatever challenges and hardships you face,” the pope told the many Hispanics and other recent immigrants to the United States in the crowd, adding that he felt “particular affection” toward them.

During his first visit to the United States, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics on Thursday had urged Americans in a historic speech to Congress to reject “a mindset of hostility” toward immigrants. He expanded on that issue in his Philadelphia speech, delivered in Spanish.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By JIM YARDLEY and DANIEL J. WAKIN
SEPT. 26, 2015

PHILADELPHIA — Standing near Independence Hall, where America’s founding documents were signed, Pope Francis on Saturday called religious freedom a “fundamental right” and laid out a broad and tolerant vision of what it should be, but also warned about its perversion “as a pretext for hatred and brutality.”

On the final leg of his first trip to the United States, Francis arrived in Philadelphia and went straight to the city’s Roman Catholic basilica, exhorting ordinary Catholics to bolster their role in sustaining the church. After a Mass before 2,400 people and a long midday rest, he traveled to Independence Mall and broadened his canvas: addressing the place of faith in a nation.

Religious freedom means the right to worship God, “as our consciences dictate,” Francis said. And, he went on, the principle goes beyond temples and the private sphere: Religion also serves society, especially as a bulwark “in the face of every claim to absolute power.”

Francis emerged from Independence Hall to the strains of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” He stood at the lectern used by Abraham Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address, and in his own address, Francis extolled the principles of the country’s founding fathers embodied by the Declaration of Independence signed in the building behind him.​

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, September 26, 2015

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, SNAP president (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

Today, Pope Francis con-celebrated mass with the disgraced former head of the Philadelphia archdiocese, Cardinal Justin Rigali. The other day, Francis brought with him to the White House the disgraced former head of the Los Angeles archdiocese, Cardinal Roger Mahony.

[CBS Los Angeles]

Seen at the papal festivities a few days ago was the disgraced Archbishop John Neinstedt. The St. Paul/Minneapolis archdiocese, which he headed for years, faces criminal prosecution for endangering kids.

The “take away” here is this: No matter how much you enable or hide predator priests, if you’re a bishop, you’ll always be welcome in and by the Catholic hierarchy. Never mind if your visibility rubs salt into deep wounds. Never mind if your grandstanding discourages others from reporting crimes. Once you’ve been let into our esteemed ranks, you’ll always be a part of this exclusive club and enjoy the many benefits such membership confers.

In 2011, nine years after bishops promised to “reform,” Rigali, under pressure, was forced to suspend 21 accused Philly priests on one day. These suspensions took place exactly one month after Rigali wrote his flock assuring them that there were no credibly-accused priests remaining within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. In 2005, Rigali kept silent as his lawyer blasted prosecutors as “anti-Catholic” in the wake of a second scathing report about widespread clergy sex crimes and cover ups in his archdiocese.

At least Bishop Robert Finn, the only US bishop to be convicted of withholding evidence of child sex crimes from police, isn’t jumping on the papal bandwagon. (He’s in Spain now, probably at the urging of church public relations officials.)

Despite this callous behavior, we beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to keep speaking up, exposing wrongdoers, protecting kids, calling police, deterring cover ups and getting help.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Fiscal Times

By Sebastien Malo and Philip Pullella and Laila Kearney, Reuters

September 26, 2015

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – In a dense crowd gathered in central Philadelphia waiting for the arrival of Pope Francis on Saturday, lapsed Catholic Becky Ianni stood somberly with an oversized photo of herself at age nine, when she says a priest began sexually abusing her.

The U.S. Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, which catapulted into public view in 2002, has continued to be an open wound for victims, who say the Church has not made the changes needed to protect children and punish offenders.

“Victims this week are really hurting and they need to know that we’re out here and they’re not alone,” said Ianni, 58, the Washington and Virginia chapter director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The pontiff’s arrival in Philadelphia came amid suggestions from a high-ranking Church official that Francis could meet with abuse victims while in the city.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said at a news conference that if Francis met with victims, it would be a private encounter to protect victim privacy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

By Karen Heller, Frances Stead Sellers and Michael E. Ruane
September 26

PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis made his way through a jubilant crowd here Saturday afternoon to the symbolic birthplace of the United States, and challenged the country to rededicate itself to the solemn promises of its past, including its commitment to religious liberty.

After being driven through the throng, with the popemobile stopping several times for Francis to kiss babies, the 78-year-old pontiff arrived at Independence Hall, where the U.S. Consitution and the Declaration of Independence were signed. “It was here,” Francis said, “that the freedoms which define this country were first proclaimed.”

Introduced by Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” the pope stood at a wooden lectern used by Abraham Lincoln for his Gettysbrg Address, and told the crowd assembled on Independence Mall that “history also shows that these or any truths must constantly be reaffirmed, re-appropriated and defended.” …

Yet not everyone shared in the joy of the pope’s presence. The placard outside the basilica about the sex abuse scandal was stenciled by Robert Hoatson, a 63-year-old former priest whose group, Road to Recovery, works with victims of the clergy sexual abuse scandal and who says he is a victim himself.

Hoatson, who lives in West Orange, N.J., said he followed the pope to Washington, New York and now Philadelphia with his message of holding the church “accountable” for the scandal.

It is not clear whether Francis will meet with survivors before he leaves for Rome Sunday. Earlier this week at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in the District, he praised the “courage” and pain” of U.S. bishops in dealing with the scandal. That prompted rebukes from some victims’ advocates, who criticized the pope for offering comfort and symphathy to the bishops, while saying little to address the suffering of clergy sex abuse survivors.

“It’s a tough week to be a victim,” said Barbara Dorris, spokesperson for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “They feel like once again they’ve been forgotten.”

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By Jason Berry

PHILADELPHIA, WASHINGTON and NEW YORK — Maintaining a tireless pace, Pope Francis kept on point Saturday as he arrived in Philadelphia and celebrated a midday Mass while large, fervent crowds waited outside, entertained by Latin American music and white-clad dancers, before a papal address in the evening at historic Independence Hall.

Anticipation of a different kind was building among people who struggle in the role of church outcasts: victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

The Associated Press reported that Francis was expected to “talk privately with abuse victims this weekend.”

The Philadelphia archdiocese has been hit hard with prosecutions, grand jury investigations and civil cases involving more than three dozen alleged clergy perpetrators, and one monsignor who spent time in prison for complicity.

The flood of benevolent media coverage for Francis would seem a form of respite to the beleaguered archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, who has closed parishes in dealing with deficits from scandal-driven legal bills.

But for David Clohessy, director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), the prospects of Francis meeting with survivors held scant hope.

“The seven or eight previous meetings between popes [Benedict and Francis] have given short-term comfort for a handful of survivors and long-term feelings of betrayal,” Clohessy told GroundTruth before any confirmation of a meeting.

“It will reinforce the convenient narrative that abuse cover-ups are over and only healing is needed,” he said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Magazine

By Joel Mathis | September 26, 2015

A Vatican spokesman was coy Saturday afternoon when asked if Pope Francis will meet with survivors of clergy sex abuse while in Philadelphia.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi noted that Pope Francis had met with abuse survivors on previous trips abroad, but the meetings had never been pre-publicized. He made the comments during a media briefing Saturday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

“These meetings have never been announced before,” he said, adding that the pope would seek a “personal encounter” and not a “media sensation” in the event of a meeting with abuse survivors. News of a meeting would emerge afterward, he suggested, but he declined to confirm or deny any such meetings in advance.

There are good reasons to think Pope Francis would seek such a meeting here, however. Vatican observers — including Philadelphia Vatican reporter Rocco Palmo, have suggested this trip to Philadelphia was meant in large part to try to reverse the damage and pain from a decade of sex scandals in the archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
USA Today

John Bacon, USA TODAY September 26, 2015

PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis is expected to hammer home his recurring themes of family and a welcoming church when he meets with bishops from around the globe Sunday at the World Meeting of Families.

That message may not sound too different from his speeches and homilies in Washington and New York this week, but the headline will be “more than selfies,” said Father James Bretzky, a theology professor at Boston College.

“It will be, in a certain sense, a collective reaffirmation of the importance of families,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

by Kristine Ward, September 26, 2015

Today, NSAC feels the need to present more images in a welcoming place that we hope will console the survivors and their families and combat the onslaught of images streaming across television screens of Pope Francis.

We place the images of Judy Jones, Steve Spaner, John Pilmaier, Peter Isley, Joelle Casteix, Sister Maureen Turlish, Becky Ianni, David Lorenz all of whom have taken to the streets in strong and determined witness of the truth. To speak for survivors. To banish the sought after “it’s history” approach of the hierarchy and its pontiff.

There are more images today because we believe there is more need for comfort for the survivors, particularly in light of Pope Francis’ second expansive praising of priests and religious sisters who the Pope said, “have suffered greatly” during the sexual abuse scandal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religion News Service

Taylor Nakagawa and Corie Wilkins | September 26, 2015

PHILADELPHIA (RNS) It’s been a frustrating week here for Barbara Dorris and Becky Ianni.

On Friday night (Sept. 25), the two co-directors of SNAP: Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, kept a lonely vigil, trying vainly to attract attention to their cause — recognition for clergy sex-abuse victims — outside the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, the site of Pope Francis’ Mass on Saturday morning.

Yet only a block away, several groups taking to the streets to fight for economic equality, an issue dear to the current pope, were able to bring together at least 300 marchers.

“We are here because it’s going to be a very difficult week for victims,” said Ianni, who was holding a photo taken of her at 9 years old, when she says she was abused by a priest. “Many victims have felt abandoned by their church, and whenever they turn on their TV this weekend they’re gonna see something about the pope.”

Ianni thinks her fight for awareness hasn’t received much attention this week because of Francis’ enormous popularity, both within the Catholic Church and outside of it.

“This pope is so well-liked that we are the negative side of that and it’s hard for people to say they think about abuse when so many people love this pope,” Ianni said.

Standing at Ianni’s side, Dorris said she wants to raise awareness about clergy sex abuse and call attention to what she sees as Francis’ lack of recognition of its victims. Earlier this week, Francis addressed bishops in Washington, D.C., on the issue and generally commended them for their handling of the years-long crisis.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP RELIGION REPORTER
NEW YORK — Sep 26, 2015

U.S. Catholic bishops have called the scandal over clergy sex abuse the worst crisis ever to hit the church in America.

To restore public trust, church leaders have overhauled how they handled the cases, paid multimillion-dollar settlements to victims and apologized repeatedly for failing to protect children. Still, the scandal persists. A handful of dioceses remain in bankruptcy court, one diocese faces criminal prosecution, and advocates for victims are pressing lawmakers in several states to lift time limits so more people who were molested can be compensated.

Here’s a look at how the abuse scandal played out in the United States:

HISTORY OF SCANDAL: Clergy sex abuse first drew public attention in the 1980s, with the case of a pedophile priest in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. Over the next two decades, scandals arose in several dioceses. But it wasn’t until 2002, when The Boston Globe persuaded a judge to unseal personnel files in the Archdiocese of Boston, that a full-blown national crisis erupted. Revelations about bishops moving guilty priests among parishes without warning parents or police caused an uproar so intense that every American diocese was compelled to take an inventory of how they had dealt with abusers and treated victims going back decades.

BISHOPS RESPOND: Under enormous public pressure, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted sweeping reforms in 2002 meant to safeguard children and restore trust in the church. The bishops created a streamlined process for removing any cleric who molested a child. Dioceses conducted background checks on priests and employees, trained teachers and volunteers on identifying abuse and set up programs meant to help victims. The bishops say they have spent tens of millions of dollars on child safety over the last decade. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, along with other advocates, say bishops often still treat victims as enemies, and note most dioceses have not released the names of perpetrators, which advocates say would help give other victims the courage to come forward.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Nancy Fornasiero

During his high-profile visit to the United States this week, Pope Francis is receiving an overwhelmingly warm welcome — from Catholics and non-Catholics alike. And rightly so. Whether through his views on environmental stewardship, his tough-love critiques of excessively capitalist societies, or his compassion for the poor and marginalized, he has become the darling of liberals of all stripes.

And yet, there is still one extremely large group of “God’s people” who are not on the receiving end of Pope’s insistence for equality and justice. Despite the undeniable facts (half of the world’s Catholics are female; most Sunday pews are occupied by women; the vast majority of North American Catholics support the idea of women’s ordination) Pope Francis’ 2013 assertion that the “door is closed” to women in the priesthood has remained unchanged.

As Lisa Miller, in her thoughtful overview of Pope Francis’s track record on the status Catholic women, puts it: “Francis, for all his forward thinking, entirely supports this professional sidelining of females.”

Case in point: Just this past Saturday, on September 20 2105, Fr. Jack McClure was told by the Archbishop of his diocese that he would no longer be permitted to minister to his parish. Why? During a panel held in Philadelphia, PA at the Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference he publicly supported the idea that qualified Catholic women should be allowed to be priests.

Roy Bourgeois, a former Catholic priest excommunicated for his refusal to tow the Church’s party line of discrimination against women, is no stranger to the personal sacrifices that accompany following one’s own conscience on this issue. Bourgeois, author of My Journey from Silence to Solidarity, has issued the following respectful yet pointed letter to Pope Francis just in time for his historic visit.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Hours before the pope’s visit to Independence Mall, people have been steadily streaming along barricades toward the entrances to the event.

There were nuns in habits, children in strollers, visitors in lanyards, a little boy in suit and tie, middle-aged women in shirts that read: “This girl loves Pope Francis.” They walked past metal fencing with signs noting that drones are prohibited, where every so many feet orange-clad volunteers stand giving directions.

Volunteers and siblings Justin and Maryrose Owens arrived at their corner around 6:30 a.m., and said they have seen a steady stream of people since then. Pope Francis himself is scheduled to visit at 4:45 p.m.

“Everybody is in a very good mood,” he said. …

As for the more recent history of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pope Francis did not speak of the crisis of sexual abuse here. Grand jury reports in 2005 and 2011 revealed numerous cases of abusive priests whose superiors knew of their offenses but kept them in ministry. A priest in the archdiocese’s hierarchy is behind bars for his conviction for keeping a known abuser in a parish setting where he could and did molest again.

Francis has made only brief references to the abuse scandals in the church during his United States visit, telling bishops they had made great progress in reforming their responses and commending priests for enduring “the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members.”

Bishops have said they expect Francis, like Pope Benedict XVI before him, will meet privately with sexual-abuse survivors before the end of his trip on Sunday.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

DAVID MURRAY THE SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

PREDATOR school counsellor Kevin Lynch used a remote control at his desk to lock his office door so he could sexually abuse students in total privacy.

Lynch’s reign of terror at St Paul’s School at Bald Hills and prestigious Brisbane Grammar School from the 1970s to 1990s will be aired at the child sex abuse royal commission.

A nine-day public hearing was announced on Friday, with past and present school principals expected to give evidence about their handling of historic and current abuse.

An appalling cover-up followed Lynch’s abuse, with both schools failing to check on the welfare of students he counselled after becoming aware of serious allegations against the counsellor.

Lynch counselled thousands of boys at Brisbane Grammar from 1972 to 1988 and then at St Paul’s from 1989 until his death in 1997.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

Here is the full homily Pope Francis was slated to give at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, as translated by the Holy See:

This morning I learned something about the history of this beautiful Cathedral: the story behind its high walls and windows. I would like to think, though, that the history of the Church in this city and state is really a story not about building walls, but about breaking them down. It is a story about generation after generation of committed Catholics going out to the peripheries, and building communities of worship, education, charity and service to the larger society.

That story is seen in the many shrines which dot this city, and the many parish churches whose towers and steeples speak of God’s presence in the midst of our communities. It is seen in the efforts of all those dedicated priests, religious and laity who for over two centuries have ministered to the spiritual needs of the poor, the immigrant, the sick and those in prison. And it is seen in the hundreds of schools where religious brothers and sisters trained children to read and write, to love God and neighbor, and to contribute as good citizens to the life of American society. All of this is a great legacy which you have received, and which you have been called to enrich and pass on.

Most of you know the story of Saint Katharine Drexel, one of the great saints raised up by this local Church. When she spoke to Pope Leo XIII of the needs of the missions, the Pope – he was a very wise Pope! – asked her pointedly: “What about you? What are you going to do?”. Those words changed Katharine’s life, because they reminded her that, in the end, every Christian man and woman, by virtue of baptism, has received a mission. Each one of us has to respond, as best we can, to the Lord’s call to build up his Body, the Church.

“What about you?” I would like to dwell on two aspects of these words in the context of our particular mission to transmit the joy of the Gospel and to build up the Church, whether as priests, deacons, or members of institutes of consecrated life.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS News

PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis arrived in the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday for the final leg of his U.S. visit – a festive weekend devoted to celebrating Catholic families – and immediately called for the church to place greater value on women.

The pontiff’s plane touched down at the Philadelphia airport after takeoff from New York, bringing him to a city of blocked-off streets, sidewalks lined with portable potties, and checkpoints manned by police, National Guardsmen and border agents.

After speeches to Congress and the United Nations earlier this week aimed at spurring world leaders toward bold action on immigration and the environment, he is expected to focus more heavily on ordinary Catholics during his two days in Philadelphia.

On Friday night in New York, about 20,000 of the faithful packed into Madison Square Garden to witness the pope’s message about faith in the city, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New York Times

Sep 26, 2015

Jon Hurdle

Pope Francis arrived at the west door of the basilica at 10:17 and was greeted by applause and some cheers by more than 2,000 clergy members and lay Catholics who had been waiting for more than two hours in a side chapel.

He walked in a procession with other church leaders up the nave, as many clergy took photos of him. He raised his hand to greet them.

After briefly moving to a side room, the pope reappeared wearing a mitre and carrying a crucifix, accompanied by bishops.

The pope ascended to the altar and kissed a white-covered table before unsteadily descending several steps, held on both sides by church officials.

Speaking in heavily accented English, Pope Francis gave a blessing, and then delivered his homily in Spanish, pausing regularly for an English interpreter.

He called for a “much more active engagement on the part of the laity.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New Zealand Herald

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ” Latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. All times local:

12:15 p.m.

Pope Francis has finished celebrating a Mass, stopping to bless children in wheelchairs before leaving the cathedral in downtown Philadelphia.

Francis walked through a chapel adjacent to the main room in the cathedral on Saturday to greet ill and disabled parishioners, along with other visitors. He blessed the children and gave them a kiss on the head.

Francis delivered a homily in Spanish in front of about 1,600 people. He says the future of the church depends on an increased role for the laity and valuing the “immense contribution” of women.

He will spend a few hours at a seminary just outside of the city before giving a speech Saturday afternoon on religious freedom and immigration.
___

Noon

The former Archbishop of Philadelphia who retired in 2011 amid a scandal over clergy sex abuse is celebrating Mass with Pope Francis.

Cardinal Justin Rigali joined Francis and other bishops at the Mass Saturday on the pope’s first stop in Philadelphia.

Rigali’s successor, Archbishop Charles Chaput, also was on the altar in front of about 1,600 people at the main cathedral in downtown Philadelphia.

Rigali retired to the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, months after a grand jury accused the Philadelphia archdiocese of sheltering more than three dozen credibly accused priests and lying about it to victims and others.

Later Saturday, Francis will give a speech on religious freedom and immigration and then join in the final night of the World Meeting of Families.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyVoice

BY CHRISTINA LOBRUTTO
PhillyVoice Staff

As Pope Francis came to Philadelphia to deliver his message of peace and justice Saturday, Robert M. Hoatson stood in the Ben Franklin Parkway with a message of his own.

A former priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, he said he was hoping to get the pope to address prior sexual abuse by members of the clergy. He said he appreciates the pope’s pontifical commission to prevent new abuse, but said he has to address abuse in the past. Hoatson is the co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, a nonprofit in Livingston, New Jersey, that supports survivors of sexual abuse.

In a speech on Wednesday, the pope called America’s cardinals “courageous” in handling sex abuse cases.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor September 26, 2015

PHILADELPHIA – To be sure, Pope Francis did not come to the United States primarily to deliver a political message but to act as a pastor, encouraging Catholics to hold on to their faith and to put it into action. Like a mantra, he has told them over and over, “Go forth!”

Equally surely, however, politics has been part of the mix.

From his remarks on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday to his addresses to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday and the United Nations on Friday, the pope has presented a bushel basket full of policy concerns, ranging from immigration and climate change to arms trafficking and the death penalty.

Francis has already changed the political landscape by apparently giving House Speaker John Boehner, second in the order of succession to the presidency, the interior peace to decide to resign.

As the trip enters the final stretch this weekend in Philadelphia, however, it’s possible that the most important long-term political subtext is still to come.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 26 September 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Archbishop Paolo Rocco Gualtieri, apostolic nuncio in Madagascar, as apostolic nuncio in the Seychelles.

– Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A., as bishop of Chiclayo (area 15,647, population 1,275,215, Catholics 1,132,202, priests 113, religious 171), Peru. Bishop Prevost is currently apostolic administrator of the same diocese.

– appointed Fr. Zbigniew Zielinski as auxiliary of Gdansk, (area 2,500, population 965,077, Catholics 900,608, priests 748, religious 689), Poland. The bishop-elect was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1991. He holds a doctorate in pastoral theology from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University of Warsaw and has served in a number of pastoral and academic roles, pastor of the St. Michael parish and of the Cathedral of Gdansk-Oliwa and lecturer in sociology of religion at the state University of Gdansk. He is currently pastor of the con-Cathedral, lecturer in pastoral theology in the major seminary, and member of the Commission for canonical visits in the parishes, the presbyteral council, and the college of consultors. In 2007 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness.

– appointed Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, metropolitan archbishop of Bologna, and Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

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GERMANY
LifeSite News

REGENSBURG, Germany, September 8, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — In a move that is making headlines in Germany, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has said German bishops are leading the Church to a schism.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller is warning that the tendency of German bishops to divide doctrine from pastoral practice is not unlike the abuses surrounding the Protestant split in 1517. One should “be very vigilant and not forget the lesson of Church history,” he said.

Last week, in a speech at the release of the German version of Cardinal Robert Sarah’s new book God or Nothing in Regensburg, Germany, Cardinal Mueller criticized “a climate of the German claim to leadership for the Universal Church.” According to the German newspaper Die Tagespost, Mueller said that he is frequently asked why German bishops claim to be leaders of the Catholic Church — while flouting teachings on marriage and sexuality — despite overseeing dramatic reductions in church attendance, shrinking numbers of seminarians, and a drop in vocations to religious orders.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC News

by Alastair Jamieson, Katie Primm and Kasie Hunt

Crowds began to gather at dawn Saturday in Philadelphia as Pope Francis prepared to promote religious freedom in the birthplace of American independence.

The city awoke to eight-foot tall mesh fences, concrete barriers and bike racks lining the streets as airport-style security – including TSA agents – was installed for the pontiff’s visit.
Image: A nun being checked by a TSA agent in Philadelphia early Saturday.
A nun is checked by a TSA agent in Philadelphia Saturday. Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner / NBC News

Every few blocks along the Ben Franklin Parkway parade route, white tents have food for sale and official merchandise.

Outside the site of Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution were adopted, crowds began to form at 7 a.m. – but they will have to wait until 4 p.m. to see the pontiff.

The 78-year-old Argentine is expected to hold a rally there with Hispanic and other immigrants on the theme of religious freedom. The event combines two issues about which Francis is most concerned: the plight of immigrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families, and the freedom to practice religion.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

By Karen Heller and , Frances Stead Sellers and Joe Heim September 26

PHILADELPHIA — America’s birthplace of liberty has opened its arms for Pope Francis’s weekend visit by closing almost everything.

The 78-year-old pontiff is scheduled to arrive at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Philadelphia International Airport, the final leg of his first visit to the United States. Over two days, he’ll celebrate two Masses, deliver a speech on religious liberty at Independence Hall, participate in two papal parades, and be serenaded by Aretha Franklin and Andrea Bocelli at a festival to cap the church’s World Meeting of Families, which began Tuesday.

On Saturday morning, with a huge swath of the city closed to traffic, an eerie quiet created a vague post-apocalyptic sense. On normally beeping, bustling Chestnut street the only audible sound was the hum of a cranky air conditioner and the quiet slap of a runner’s feet on the pavement.

Philadelphians who griped over the many inconveniences of hosting Francis have fled the city or settled in to watch the scenes unfolding on their doorsteps from the comfort of their sofas. On Saturday morning, the city’s streets began to swell with a chorus of more positive voices. Popetimism, some are calling it.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Francis CON-artist & Vicar of Plutocrats

Paris Arrow

Pope Francis is desperate to latch on to the fame of 9/11 because he knows the Vatican Titanic is sunken deep in the ocean of moral bankruptcy as a consequence of the Vatican crimes against humanity’s children during half-the-20th century – committed by the bestial JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – in almost all dioceses across the USA. Pope Francis has no business meeting with 9/11 victims’ families – (3,000 victims were attacked by 19 Muslims) – because his first and foremost priority as Roman Pontiff should be spending time with Catholic victims raped by criminal heinous Catholic priests and punishing all evil bishops who aided and abetted them for decades. Francis should be spending time with SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who represent 100,000 victims of more than 6,500 pedophile priests in the USA alone. Why is Pope Francis embracing the victims’ families of 19 Muslims attackers but he doesn’t give a damn to victims of his own church – those bestial Catholic JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army named aptly after the pope who reigned the longest but said nothing and did nothing to save and protect children.

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TEXAS
Palestine Herald-Press

By Gary E. Lindsley

A Greenville, Texas minister, facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit alleging he sexually abused a teenager while at his former church in the 1990s, has resigned.

Billy Bob Burge, a minister at Grace Community Church, resigned on Thursday, according to Lead Pastor Adam Brind.

Burge is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing John Jeremy Sweet-Gomez when he attended First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas as a teenager.

Sweet-Gomez, according to the lawsuit filed against Burge and First Baptist Church of Rockwall by his parents, Carla Sweet and Ed Gomez, committed suicide in January 2015.

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UNITED STATES
KUOW

By JEANNIE YANDEL & AMINA AL-SADI

Jeannie Yandel talks to Mary Dispenza, author and director of the Northwest branch of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, about Pope Francis’ visit to the United States.

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UNITED STATES
Valley News

Randall Balmer
For the Valley News
Saturday, September 26, 2015

Pope Francis’ triumphant visit to Cuba and the United States this week calls to mind the visit of John Paul II to America early in his papacy. In 1979, the charismatic new pontiff celebrated a Mass at Living History Farms outside of Des Moines, Iowa, and utterly charmed his audience, estimated at 350,000. “You’ve got a pope,” an Iowa farmer said to his Catholic neighbor, “who really knows how to pope.”

Despite the inevitable parallels between Francis and John Paul — the charisma, the disarming candor, the vigor that contrasted with their predecessors — a more accurate comparison, in my view, is with John XXIII. The cardinals chose both men, John XXIII and Francis, to be caretakers of the papacy. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the primate of Venice, was elected to the papacy in 1958 on the 12th ballot and took the name John XXIII. His fellow cardinals figured that this mild-mannered prelate wouldn’t make a lot of waves and, considering his age, 76, they could revisit the matter of church leadership in a few years. …

Francis has a full agenda. Some studies suggest that fully 10 percent of Americans identify themselves as former Catholics, and a shortage of clergy here in the U.S. and around the world raises questions about clerical celibacy, which has been a requirement for only a millennium or so — a relative short duration for an institution that marks time in centuries. Regarding the ordination of women, the pontiff apparently feels blocked by the statements of his immediate predecessors. So far he has said, “That door is closed,” although the Irish Times has reported that Francis was considering the appointment of Mary McAleese, the former president of Ireland who has studied theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, to the College of Cardinals. (There is no gender-specific requirement for cardinal; the appointment is the pope’s alone, and apparently John Paul II once considered naming Mother Teresa to the College.)

The mention of McAleese brings us, finally, to the pope’s most pressing issue: the pedophilia scandal. When McAleese, then the president of Ireland, stopped in Boston during a state visit to the United States in 1998, she was browbeaten for her support for the ordination of women by none other than Bernard Law. The archbishop of Boston, McAleese recounted later, told her that he was “sorry for Catholic Ireland to have you as president.”

Law, however, was even then shielding pedophile priests in his archdiocese, shuffling them from one assignment to another. According to Spotlight, the recently released motion picture on the scandal, 294 priests under Law’s care have been identified as pedophiles. The tally of their victims now tops a thousand, and the archdiocese so far has doled out more than $85 million in settlements.

Law was forced to resign in 2002, whereupon he was named head of Santa Marie Maggiore, one of the most significant basilicas in Rome. He retired from that post in 2011 and, according to WGBH in Boston, lives a very comfortable life within the confines of the Vatican.

In 2012, Robert Finn, the bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, was found guilty and sentenced to two years’ probation for failing to report one of his pedophile priests to the authorities. The Vatican allowed Bishop Finn to continue in his post until his resignation from the diocese earlier this year. He remains a bishop.

Francis has begun to address the issue. He appointed a 17-member commission early in his papacy and established a Vatican tribunal in June. Still, as the very existence of the tribunal itself suggests, the Vatican clearly prefers to handle matters of sexual abuse internally rather turn them over to secular authorities.

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NEW YORK
The New Yorker

BY ADAM GOPNIK

New Yorkers personalize everything, and the shutdown of traffic around town this week was put personally on the head of our visitor, Pope Francis. A certain amount of the normal exasperation felt at out-of-towners was directed at the pontiff, as though the Pope were one of those tourists trying to stuff a dollar bill into the Metrocard slot. (God, or somebody, forbid he should try to work the new Rube Goldberg contraption for the crosstown bus.)

Yet given how disruptive he was to normal life, the tone of his visit was astonishingly welcoming, not least because this particular Pope lit up people who aren’t normally crazy about the papacy, while—and this is part of what brought joy to the first group—driving round the bend people who normally are more Catholic than he is. And yet this Pope is no more a “liberal” Pope than he is a secret Muslim Pope—he’s the Pope. His historic role, which he is playing, is to be a very well-dressed critic of the liberal state in all its forms. The trick about this Pope is not that he is a secret liberal but that he is such a thoroughgoing critic of liberalism and its dispensations that his assault takes in parts of our experience parochially described as conservative.

It would, to be sure, be a saintly liberal who didn’t feel a little schadenfreude on hearing the Pope contradict certain shibboleths of the self-described religious right. The very people—including members of the Catholic hierarchy—who, when it comes to women’s rights to make intimate reproductive decisions for themselves, have been most passionately devoted to the idea that one can’t be a “cafeteria Catholic,” picking and choosing doctrine as you like, are now loudly determined to, well, pick and choose among papal doctrines just as they like. Making metaphysical decisions about the status of embryos for women is one thing; being asked to condemn killing criminals and torturing prisoners and poisoning the Earth, these are, apparently, different—moral options on which man must be free to exercise his own conscience as he sees fit.

The pleasure one can’t help but feel is moderated, though, tempered by the truth that the extension of his causes and the reordering of his priorities does not alter Francis’s core beliefs. Nor should it be expected to do so. The Pope is still clearly against women’s reproductive rights, and as yet no friend to their ordination. Nor has he really addressed the sexual-abuse crisis, which has done so much to diminish the Church in America; his remarks on the subject in Washington were, as one survivor of priestly abuse said, in the Washington Post, “bizarre,” more devoted to praising the mostly invisible moral courage of the hierarchy that participated in the coverup than in addressing the evil done to the abused. A leader of SNAP, the victims’ organization, called Francis’s remarks “a slap in the face to all the victims, that we’re going to worry about how the poor bishop feels.” (It is a sign of the special moral exemption the Catholic Church receives that, had any other organization in the world engaged in the same activity, many of its leaders would be in prison.)

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Betty Clermont

Today, Pope Francis heads to Philadelphia to lead the World Meeting of Families. Before leaving for this trip to Cuba and the US, he said, “The family, as God wants it, composed of a man and a woman for the good of the spouses … is deformed by powerful contrary projects.”

The Catechism states that homosexual acts are a “grave depravity.” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later Pope Benedict XVI – added in 1997 that even the homosexual “inclination” is “objectively disordered.”

So Pope Francis can change this anytime he wants, but he won’t.

The pope said in February 2015, “Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings. Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory that does not recognize the order of creation.”

“The ‘gender theory’ Francis is denigrating is the medically and anthropologically supported concept that gender is a construct imposed by society. It is commonly cited in defense of transgender rights, since it shows gender can vary despite society’s expectations.”

Shortly after he became pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio said “Who am I to judge” in defense of his appointment of Msgr. Battista Ricca as his watchdog at the Vatican Bank. Ricca had been outed for making a public display of his relationship with another male. The pope was responding to the question: “I would like to know, Holiness, what do you intend to do about this question of Msgr. Ricca and of the news of his private life?” No further questions were allowed.

Nevertheless, in this year alone:

Same-sex marriage “threatens to disfigure God’s plan,” the pope said. “The movement in many countries to accept same-sex marriage is an ‘ideological colonization that we have to be careful about that is trying to destroy the family,’” he continued.

After telling reporters about a public service officer who, in order to receive a loan to build schools, had to include a book on “gender theory” in her curriculum, the pope said: “Clever girl, she said ‘yes.’ And, as a result the goal of the financiers was achieved. This is ideological colonization.” (emphasis mine)

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Pope Francis’ whirlwind tour of New York comes to an end this morning when he heads to Kennedy Airport to leave for Philadelphia, the final stop on his first-ever visit to the United States.

A few hundred people were seen waiting at JFK to say goodbye to the pope Friday morning, including a group of nuns holding white roses for the pontiff, CBS2’s Andrea Grymes reported.

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NEW YORK
News LI

by Nia Hamm

NEW YORK – The historic U.S. visit of Pope Francis has refocused attention on the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal. Although the pontiff has vowed to root out child sex predators from the Church, which has cost billions in legal expenses, victims of clergy sexual abuse want the pope to do more.

In New York, Michael Mack, 58, who says he was abused by a priest when he was 11, hopes to bring more attention to the issue this week. He has written a one-man play, “Conversations with My Molester.”

“I truly believe that his intention is to heal around this process,” Mack said. “And since this play of mine really is all about healing – about my own personal healing journey, but also the journeys that it reflects for so many survivors – that it seemed like the timing was a natural.”

Mack, who began practicing Catholicism again about seven years ago, said reform efforts such as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission would give church sexual-abuse victims a true chance to heal. Mack’s play opened in New York City on Thursday, the same day Pope Francis arrived in the city.

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NEW YORK
Rome Reports

[with video]

The first stop during the Pope’s visit to New York was St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He presided over Vespers with priests and religious.

He first offered words of affection and closeness for the Muslims who were killed during a tragic stampede in Mecca. More than 700 are believed to have died.

His second message was one of gratitude. He thanked the American Catholics who stood by the Church, despite the sexual abuse scandal that shook the Church in recent years.

POPE FRANCIS

“You suffered greatly in the not distant past by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members…I accompany you at this time of pain and difficulty.”

Giving thanks to the religious for their sacrifice, he asked them to not forget strength of their vocation. He told them not to turn off their love for God.

The Pope also wanted to send a more concrete message of support to specific audience: female religious. In 2008, the Vatican began a review of 341 female religious orders after complaints from some North American priests and bishops.

Last December, the Vatican announced the conclusions of the examination: It included a list of suggestions and, overall, was very positive in its message.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A man who ran a Sunday school has been jailed for 16 years for historical sexual abuse against girls.

Alan Dawson, 64, of Newcroft Road, Urmston, was convicted of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape at Manchester Crown Court.

He was part of the congregation at Mauldeth Road Gospel Hall, Withington.

Police said he abused four girls between the 1960s and the 1980s, who were than aged between 11 and 16.

The abuse took place at Dawson’s home in Didsbury and at the homes of the girls.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis arrives in Philadelphia on Saturday, the final stop on his 10-day pastoral visit to Cuba and the United States. After meeting with Church leaders, visiting a high-security prison and greeting the city’s immigrant community, he’ll take part in a vigil and celebrate a concluding Mass for the 8th World Meeting of Families.

The city of Philadelphia has been preparing for this international gathering for the past three years since the venue was announced at the last World Meeting of Families in Milan in 2012. David O’Reilly is a veteran religion writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is travelling on the papal plane throughout the Pope’s visit. Just ahead of the trip, he sat down with Philippa Hitchen to talk about the way preparations for the Meeting has transformed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

O’Reilly says for the past 10 years the city has had “a cloud over it of the most awful kind” following two grand jury investigations into the sexual abuse crisis. Those investigations revealed not only “extensive abuse of minors but also rather dreadful cover-ups by the leadership” which made “being Catholic in this city a sort of glum, dark thing for a lot of people”.

When Archbishop Chaput arrived in the city, O’Reilly continues, he also discovered all sorts of financial difficulties, including pension debts and a Catholic education system unable to support itself. O’Reilly recalls that the archbishop admitted publically “I’m not very happy to be here” and was unprepared for the announcement three years ago that his city would be the next site for the World Meeting of Families.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Register

BY CNA/EWTN NEWS 09/24/2015

NEW YORK CITY — In his first address in New York, Pope Francis lamented the suffering caused by the sexual-abuse scandal in the United States — not only for the trauma inflicted on the Church’s most vulnerable members, but also for the shame it has brought to priests and religious in general.

“I know that, as a presbyterate in the midst of God’s people, you suffered greatly in the not-distant past by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members,” he said addressing clergy and religious gathered for Evening Prayer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City Sept. 24.

“I accompany you at this time of pain and difficulty, and I thank God for your faithful service to his people,” he said, adding they have “come forth from the great tribulation.”

Despite these difficulties, Pope Francis said, “Our vocation is to be lived in joy.”

New York is the second of three cities the Holy Father will stop in during his Sept. 22-27 visit to the United States. In his first leg of his trip, the Holy Father addressed a joint session of Congress and met briefly with President Obama in Washington. While in New York City, Pope Francis will address the United Nations, before heading to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families.

During his remarks Thursday evening, the Pope also took a moment to express his “esteem and gratitude” for women religious in America, calling them the “front line” of evangelization. “To you, religious women, sisters and mothers of this people, I wish to say ‘thank you,’ a big thank you, and to tell you that I love you very much,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Hedley Thomas
National Chief Correspondent
Brisbane

A child-sex abuse scandal and ensuing cover-up at two elite Brisbane schools that contributed to Australia’s governor-general quit­ting 12 years ago is being re­investigated by the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Some 100 boys were abused over many years by a counsellor, Kevin “Skippy” Lynch, at Brisbane Grammar and, subsequently, St Paul’s. The wrongdoing was shielded from public scrutiny because leaders in both the Anglican diocese and the schools at the time kept the matters quiet.

The scandal was exposed by investigative reporting in Brisbane in the early 2000s, which showed senior figures including Brisbane’s Anglican Archbishop, Peter Hollingworth, were aware of evidence of the abuse, before Dr Hollingworth was appointed governor-general. He resigned in 2003 over his handling of a series of sex-abuse scandals.

The abuse was not reported or acknowledged by the church or the school until after a former Grammar student suspected of having been one of Lynch’s victims, Nigel Parodi, shot three people in a rampage that ended with the loner’s death in a police shootout in Brisbane.

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UNITED STATES
Aleteia

ZOE ROMANOWSKY SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Archbishop William E. Lori was appointed the 16th Archbishop of Baltimore, the premier see of the Church in the United States, by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. He spoke to Aleteia’s Zoe Romanowsky about the significance of Pope Francis’ visit and what the Holy Father’s message means for bishops and for all of the faithful. …

The pope’s talk to the U.S. bishops yesterday at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in D.C. was quite moving and there was a lot to unpack there. What struck you the most about his message?

Several things. First, as a bishop sitting there, I felt very, very encouraged. He thanked us for our service to the poor and immigrants and there was wonderful encouragement about our Catholic schools. He understood how difficult it’s been to deal with the tragic situation of clergy sexual abuse. In many ways I felt the Holy Father was expressing a great brotherly solidarity with us, as bishops. And I think it was important that he do so because sometimes people like to create a lot of tension between the pope and the bishops. But this was the opposite — fraternal solidarity.

At the same time, I think the Holy Father recognizes that operating in any culture, including our own, involves a lot of challenges, and as he has done in the other places, he encouraged us be pastors, with the deepest respect for our roots, to deal with our problems with creativity and dialogue, trying to understand people who differ with us.

So, there’s a lot to unpack. It was kind of a mini-summary of what the Church has been saying to bishops — very effective and very moving.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A victim of child sexual abuse says he is hopeful Adelaide’s Archbishop will ultimately be forced to defend a charge of concealing abuse against children.

Philip Wilson, the Archbishop of Adelaide, is the most senior catholic official in the world accused of concealing child sexual abuse.

He pleaded not guilty at Newcastle Local Court yesterday with Wilson’s legal team calling for a permanent stay of proceedings.

The charge relates to when Wilson was an assistant parish priest in East Maitland in the 1970s and worked with paedophile priest James Fletcher.

The magistrate has set a date for a one-day hearing in December to hear the legal argument from both sides, with no witnesses to be called.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By JOE MORGENSTERN
Sept. 24, 2015

As horror upon horror unfolds in “Prophet’s Prey,” Amy Berg’s shocking documentary about the mad polygamist Warren Jeffs and his followers, one may marvel, in horror, at the elaborate forms that deviancy can take. The half-educated son of a crackpot father who ran a splinter group calling itself the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), Mr. Jeffs took over the church on his father’s death, declared himself a prophet, promoted polygamy that frequently involved underage girls, set up isolated communities throughout the vastness of the Southwest and reigned supreme over thousands of believers as a veritable godhead, All the while, the film contends persuasively, Mr. Jeffs’s rogue church was, fundamentally, a crime syndicate built by and for sexual predators.

Was, and by all accounts in “Prophet’s Prey,” still is—that’s the most shocking part. Mr. Jeffs is in prison for the rest of his life, having been captured in 2006 during a traffic stop near Las Vegas, and convicted, in 2007, of two felony counts of child assault. And some of the child victims were freed by authorities from what amounted to imprisonment and enslavement in FLDS compounds, thanks in large measure to an activist attorney general in Utah. (The Church of Latter-Day Saints renounced the doctrine of polygamy in 1890.)

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

SNAP: “Prelates fight secular child safety bills”
Battles are being waged in places Francis visits: PA, DC & NY
“Chaput uses flock’s donations to protect predators,” group says
It begs church-goers: “Donate elsewhere until real change happens”
SNAP: “As Francis talks of ‘protecting families,’ bishops ‘fight them in court’”

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos, after Francis’ mass, clergy sex abuse victims will

–urge the pope to make his bishops, in PA & elsewhere, stop blocking better child safety laws,
–urge lawmakers, in PA and elsewhere, to ignore bishops’ “self-serving” lobbying efforts, and
–urge Catholics to donate elsewhere until their church officials push for, not against, better laws that protect kids, expose predators and punish enablers.

(Such legislative struggles are pending in each place Francis is visiting: Pennsylvania, New York and DC.)

The victims will also urge all victims, witnesses and whistleblowers – in every institution that serves kids – to

–report everything they know, see or suspect to law enforcement,
–seek help from independent sources (not church, school, camp or coaching staff), and
–join the growing movement to end or extend archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations.

When:
Saturday, Sept. 26 at 1:30 p.m.

Where:
Outside St. Patrick Church, 242. S. 20th, in center city Philadelphia, PA (where a predator priest worked)

Who:
Three-four members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director

Why:
While clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuits attract considerable media attention, most victims of pedophile priests can’t seek justice in court because bishops exploit archaic, predator-friendly deadlines called “statutes of limitations.” Worse, SNAP says, US bishops are spending “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on “high-priced lobbyists” to block moves to reform these rigid statutes that “give wrongdoers incentives to intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, destroy evidence and ‘run out the clock’ on child sex crimes and cover ups.”

In PA, a bill has been introduced that would give child sex abuse victims more time to file lawsuits. Catholic officials have fought hard and successfully against measures like this in Harrisburg and in every other state capitol where the issue has been raised, SNAP says.

SNAP wants Pope Francis to forbid such “reckless, callous expenditures” that “save bishops’ reputations but enable abuse and cover up to continue.” The group also wants state lawmakers to pass civil “window” laws that “make it easier for struggling victims to protect others, expose predators, deter cover ups and seek justice.”

(Four states have enacted civil “window” laws. As a result, hundreds of adults who committed and concealed child sex crimes have been exposed, fired, demoted or otherwise punished and dozens of criminal prosecutions have taken place that likely would not have, SNAP maintains. The group says “windows” are “the single quickest, safest and cheapest way to expose predators, safeguard kids and end cover ups of child sexual assaults.”)

Because bishops exploit tight statues of limitations, very few victims are able to “out” their perpetrators in court. That, in turn, helps predators continue molesting children, SNAP charges.

Catholic officials disingenuously claim “window” measures “unfairly target” churches, SNAP says. But they are “neutral” bills that usually include all private non-profits where child sex crimes are most often covered up. Bishops say over time “witnesses die, memories fade and evidence is lost.” SNAP says these factors just make it harder on victims, who face the burden of proof in such cases.

“By opposing these bills, Catholic officials are “putting more kids in harm’s way in all kinds of institutions, secular and religious,” says SNAP director David Clohessy. “And they contradict all the nice-sounding things Francis says about safeguarding the vulnerable and healing the wounded.”

The Hawaii and Minnesota windows are still “open.” The California and Delaware ones have closed. They range from one year (California) to three years (Minnesota).

Sponsors of the SOL window measure in PA include Reps. Mark Rizzo of Berks County (610-921-8921) and Louise Bishop (D-Philadelphia).

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

By Sarah M. Wojcik
Of The Morning Call

Diocese of Allentown, Pius X, priest not liable for sexual abuse of S. Korean student, judge rules
The Diocese of Allentown is not liable for the sexual abuse of a South Korean exchange student inside a private dormitory where she stayed while attending Pius X High School, according to a ruling by Northampton County Judge Michael Koury Jr.

While the attorney representing the diocese praised Koury’s decision, Howard Myerowitz, representing the victim in the sex abuse case, voiced his deep disappointment.

“I have a lot of respect for Judge Koury, but I think he got it wrong. It shouldn’t have gone on,” Myerowitz said of the abuse endured by his client. “This was one of those strange cases where there was a disclosure (of the abuse), but it continued. And that’s what bothers me so much about it.”

The decision, handed down Thursday, exonerates the diocese, Pius X High School, Inc. and a priest identified only as Father Tom Doe, from liability, but the case against the owners of the dormitory and the abuser, Richard Kim, is still poised to move forward.

The victim was 14 when she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by 37-year-old Kim at the now-shuttered ACE Academy in Pen Argyl, where he was working as a tutor. At the time, the teenage girl was attending Pius X High School, which has since closed its doors due to lack of enrollment.

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UNITED STATES
Truthout

Friday, 25 September 2015

By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed

So this guy in white robes showed up at the Capitol Building in Washington DC on Thursday, and the freak-out was comprehensive. Some 5,000 law enforcement officials were brought to bear in the name of “security” for the visit by Pope Francis, a number that sits in the shade of the 7,000 law enforcement officials prepared for his arrival in New York City. Both towns are effectively shut down; fences up, fences everywhere.

The pope’s speech before a joint session of congress was riveting television. The crowds outside were huge, and hugely enthusiastic. The cameras flashed to various crowd shots, one including Senator Ted Cruz looking like an extra from “Grease,” with Chris Matthews on MSNBC claiming that suddenly-retiring and very weepy House Speaker John Boehner “wanted personal help from the pope” at one notable point. Ponder that a moment.

The only person Francis personally greeted when he entered the chamber was John Kerry. When the pontiff assumed the podium, Speaker Boehner shook his hand and said, “Good luck.” It was not a jocular statement; Boehner delivered it in the tones of a World War I officer ordering a doughboy over the side of a trench and into machine-gun fire.

Pope Francis defended working people and retired people, invoked Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, defended religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms while denouncing the “simplistic reductionism that sees only good or evil,” defended immigrants and immigration, made a stout argument in favor of the reality of climate change, described the profits made from weapons sales as “money drenched in blood,” and kicked the death penalty square in the ass.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Joan Chittister to Pope Francis: “It Is Impossible, Holy Father, to Be Serious about Doing Anything for the Poor and at the Same Time Do Little or Nothing for Women”

Because I do remain a bit muzzy in the head due to my recent tooth issues (and, above all, the difficulty one has in sleeping as she/he deals with pain in the night), I don’t think I can write anything of great substance or length right now. (Lucky you, right?)

But I’ll share a few top-of-head thoughts with you. Much of value is being written in the past several days about what Pope Francis has been saying and doing in the U.S. I can’t give you a comprehensive report of everything that catches my eye.

I do, though, want to zero in on the following section of Tom Roberts’s National Catholic Reporter commentary on the pope’s remarks to U.S. bishops two days ago: Roberts writes that “Francis laid out an insistent call for dialogue – with everyone and in all directions,” as he emphasized:

The dialogue should be with everyone – among bishops, in their presbyterates, with lay persons, families and with society. “I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly,” he said.

I want to zero in not only on this observation, but on the word everyone: Francis encouraged the bishops, according to Roberts, to build within the U.S. Catholic church dialogues that include everyone.

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CHILE
24 Horas

[Former pastor reveals details on possible negligence by the archbishop in the Fernando Karadima case.The former pastor of La Moneda, Percival Cowley, implicated Ricardo Ezzati and Francisco Javier Errazuriz as being possibly negligent.]

El ex párroco de La Moneda, Percival Cowley, reveló detalles que demostrarían la posible negligencia de Ricardo Ezzati y Francisco Javier Errázuriz sobre el caso Karadima.

Mediante las declaraciones por la demanda de las víctimas de Fernando Karadima -a las cuales tuvo acceso The Clinic- Cowley expresó que la cúpula católica omitió durante un tiempo los antecedentes que podrían haber acelerado la investigación.

Según el religioso, el mismo James Hamilton -víctima del otrora cura de El Bosque- le narró lo sucedido en 2003, por lo que prometió que se lo iba a comunicar el entonces obispo auxiliar de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzti.

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CANADA
Niagara Falls Review

By Alison Langley, Niagara Falls Review
Friday, September 25, 2015

A lawyer who represented three altar boys who were molested by Donald Grecco says he’s not surprised the defrocked Catholic priest now faces new sex-related charges involving young boys.

“It didn’t surprise me at all,” Rob Talach, of Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers, a London, Ont., law firm, said Friday.

“I sensed there were more (victims). This is a confirmation of where my gut was all along.”

The Haldimand detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police this week arrested 75-year-old Grecco following an investigation into sexual abuse complaints involving two boys dating back almost 40 years.

Police allege the incidents occurred between 1977 and 1982 involving two boys ages 10 and 14 at locations in Niagara Falls, Haldimand County and the United States.

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CANADA
CTV

A former priest with the Roman Catholic Church faces new accusations of historical sexual assault involving two young boys.

Donald Grecco spent time in jail earlier this decade after being found guilty of sexual assaults involving altar boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Haldimand County OPP say new allegations against Grecco came to light several months ago, prompting another investigation.

Grecco now faces new charges of gross indecency and indecent assault.

Police say the allegations relate to incidents that occurred between 19777 and 1982, in locations around Haldimand County, Niagara Region and the United States.

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CANADA
The Square

(MISSISSAUGA, ON) – The OPP have charged a 75 year-old former Catholic priest with several sex offences after conducting an historical sexual assault investigation in the Haldimand County and Niagara Region areas.

Over the past several months police have been investigating a series of sexual assaults which had occurred between 1977 and 1982. They involved a then 10 year-old and 14 year-old boys. The assaults occurred at locations in Niagara Region, Haldimand County, and the United States.

As a result, Donald Grecco, 75, of Peel Region, has been charged with two counts each of Gross Indecency and Indecent Assault on a Male. Grecco will appear in Provincial Court in Cayuga on December 8, at 2:00 pm.

The incidents occurred while Grecco was a priest at St Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church, in Cayuga, at St Kevin’s Roman Catholic Church, in Welland, and at St Thomas More Roman Catholic Church, in Niagara Falls.

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

As released by the Vatican.

Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for your kind words. Once again, following a tradition by which I feel honored, the Secretary General of the United Nations has invited the Pope to address this distinguished assembly of nations. In my own name, and that of the entire Catholic community, I wish to express to you, Mr Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude. I greet the Heads of State and Heads of Government present, as well as the ambassadors, diplomats and political and technical officials accompanying them, the personnel of the United Nations engaged in this 70th Session of the General Assembly, the personnel of the various programs and agencies of the United Nations family, and all those who, in one way or another, take part in this meeting. Through you, I also greet the citizens of all the nations represented in this hall. I thank you, each and all, for your efforts in the service of mankind.

This is the fifth time that a Pope has visited the United Nations. I follow in the footsteps of my predecessors Paul VI, in1965, John Paul II, in 1979 and 1995, and my most recent predecessor, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in 2008. All of them expressed their great esteem for the Organization, which they considered the appropriate juridical and political response to this present moment of history, marked by our technical ability to overcome distances and frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all natural limits to the exercise of power. An essential response, inasmuch as technological power, in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies, is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities. I can only reiterate the appreciation expressed by my predecessors, in reaffirming the importance which the Catholic Church attaches to this Institution and the hope which she places in its activities.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 25

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

Twice in two days, Pope Francis has made vague and brief references to the on-going abuse and cover up crisis, mentioning the pain of church staff but not the pain of abused children and betrayed parishioners. He refuses to even call the scandal by its name.

[New York Times]

[Kern Golden Empire]

“In his homily before a crowd of priests and nuns,” reported CNN, Francis said “You suffered greatly in the not distant past by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members,” and referred to a time of “pain and difficulty.”

Today’s Washington Post reports “At a news conference in New York, the Rev. Federico Lombardi was asked why the pope had spoken twice now — Wednesday to bishops and Thursday to seminarians and religious sisters, among others — about the abuse crisis, but never named it explicitly and focused on encouraging the clergy without speaking first about victims.”

[Washington Post]

And today’s New York Times noted the same troubling pattern – talking about how clergy child sex crimes and cover ups impact other clergy.

[New York Times]

Francis has made similar disturbing comments about the crisis before, claiming last year that “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have moved with transparency and accountability” on abuse “Yet the Church is the only one to be attacked

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NEW YORK
Al Jazeera America

In rare public support group meeting, victims called Francis a ‘tranquilizer’ on issue of Catholic clergy sex abuse

September 25, 2015

by Renee Lewis @Renee5Lewis55

Pope Francis has been warmly welcomed by political leaders and thousands of ordinary people since arriving in New York City, but many survivors of sexual abuse by priests have had a different reaction.

“It’s been very difficult for Pope Francis to be in my backyard,” said Megan, a member of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “There’s still so much hurt.”

She and other survivors spoke to Al Jazeera at a rare public support group meeting in New York City on Tuesday, sharing their anger and frustration about what they say is a lack of substantive action by the Catholic Church to hold the priests who abused them accountable. All of them asked to be identified only by their first names.

For some survivors, the visit has triggered flashbacks. Peter said he was abused by a priest in his seminary boarding school starting from the age of 13. During the “kiss of peace” section of the service, the priest would come down from the altar to hug him, Peter said. When Pope Francis was met by President Barack Obama with a hug when he landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Tuesday, Peter said those memories came flooding back.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

“NOT TO BE LOST IN POMP & CIRCUMSTANCE OF POPE FRANCIS’ first visit to Washington is the reality that the Catholic Church he oversees has become one of the largest recipients of federal largesse in America,” reports Kelly Riddell. “The church and related Catholic charities and schools have collected more than $1.6 billion since 2012 in U.S. contracts and grants in a far-reaching relationship that spans from school lunches for grammar school students to contracts across the globe to care for the poor and needy at the expense of Uncle Sam,” a Washington Times review of federal spending records shows.

MEANWHILE, our town’s Barbara Dorris of SNAP is dogging the pontiff, leading support group meetings, leafleting events and news conferences in D.C. and Philly while SNAP prez Barbara Blaine, a SLU alum, does the same in NYC.

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UNITED STATES
The Free Thinker (UK)

Pope Francis has been accused of grossly misrepresenting the Catholic Church’s reaction to clerical abuse in the US when he addressed hundreds of bishops at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington on Wednesday.

According to this report, he told the bishops that he was:

Conscious of the courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history of the church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.
He continued:

I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.

John Salveson, a 59-year-old Philadelphia businessman who was abused as a child by a priest, said:

The people he was talking to are the people who moved the pedophiles around to prey on kids. If you gave me 100 years to pick a word to describe the US bishops’ reaction to this crisis, ‘generous’ would never make the list.

Terry McKiernan, who runs BishopAccountability.org, a non-profit group that tracks the abuse scandal, said Francis failed to acknowledge that most dioceses across the country have not disclosed the names of abusers and continue to lobby against reforming statute of limitations laws that shield priests from prosecution for crimes committed many years ago.

It would be a shame if the Pope’s words were taken as encouragement by the bishops to continue that behavior.

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UNITED STATES
Ms. Magazine

In a statement released Wednesday by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), president Barbara Blaine blasted Pope Francis for his praise of US bishops’ “courage,” accusing the pontiff of doing “little if anything” to meaningfully address the Catholic Church’s decades-long sex abuse crisis.

Pope Francis, in a homily delivered at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., one of several stops on his first US tour, told the nearly 300 bishops in attendance that he was “conscious of the courage with which you have faced difficulty moments in the recent history of the Church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.”

Blaine, who founded SNAP in 1988 as a self-help organization for victims of clergy sexual abuse, wasted no time in challenging the pope’s characterization of the Church’s disastrous handling of the scandals, noting no clergy have been “defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even publicly denounced” despite the revelation of at least 100,000 victims over the course of 30 years of known abuse.

“What sacrifice?,” questioned Blaine. “What bishop takes fewer vacations, drives a smaller car, does his own laundry or has been passed over for promotion because he’s shielding predators and endangering kids? None.”

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversry

Posted by Joelle Casteix on September 25, 2015

You can listen to our discussion about sex abuse and cover-up, Roger Mahony, and protecting whistle-blowers here.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

by Kristine Ward, September 25, 2015

On this day, when Pope Francis will address the United Nations in New York, we present the images of courageous people who have preceded him in dealings with this international body.

See in the faces of leaders in the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Mary Caplan and Megan Peterson the nobility of rising from the hopelessness that molestation can impose as rigid bondage to the conquering of fear and rising to a summit place knowing that the foundation for the rise is truth. megan peterson

See in the face of Pamela Spees, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, the combination of steel determination for justice and the honing of intellect to bring to bear on a world power, one which claims to be a moral guide for the planet, no less than accountability for what has happened and continues to happen to children by men and women in its ranks.

We place these images in our pages today in the hope that we may give strength and comfort to the survivors of sexual abuse who have been so cruelly treated by the pontiff by his choosing to pay tribute to the bishops of the United States in their handling of the sexual abuse crisis and to characterize them as being men of courage. Men, he said, who are selfless in divesting themselves of all unessentials in order to right the wrongs of the scandal.mary caplan

Nothing could be further from the truth.

With his words, the Pope abandoned the survivors to the barrios of inconsequentiality – the very place into which he reaches to lift all others up and to encourage and urge others to follow him.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Times

By Kelly Riddell – The Washington Times – Thursday, September 24, 2015

Not to be lost in the pomp and circumstance of Pope Francis’ first visit to Washington is the reality that the Catholic Church he oversees has become one of the largest recipients of federal largesse in America.

The Church and related Catholic charities and schools have collected more than $1.6 billion since 2012 in U.S. contracts and grants in a far-reaching relationship that spans from school lunches for grammar school students to contracts across the globe to care for the poor and needy at the expense of Uncle Sam, a Washington Times review of federal spending records shows.

Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York once famously noted in 1980 that the government funded 50 percent of Catholic Charities‘ budget, commenting “private institutions really aren’t private anymore.” Today, those estimates remain about the same, according to Leslie Lenkowsky, who served as the chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service under George W. Bush.

Catholic Charities USA, the largest charitable organization run by the church, receives about 65 percent of its annual budget from state and federal governments, making it an arm of the federal welfare state, said Brian Anderson, a researcher with the Manhattan Institute.

The federal government came to increasingly rely on the church to help it with Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” and the charities “imbued with their new faith in the government’s potential to solve social problems, eagerly accepted government money,” Mr. Anderson wrote in an essay for the Manhattan Institute.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

Betty Clermont

Today, Pope Francis is leading a multi-religious service at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

“Pope Francis’ decision that during the Jubilee Year of Mercy the faithful can receive absolution from priests of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is the most recent attempt at reconciliation with the priestly society [and] can be seen in the context of a hope for full reconciliation.”

In June 2012, the Simon Wiesenthal Center named SSPX as influential within the French far-right, anti-Semitic party.

In January 2012, it was noted that British fascism posed a “real danger” and “might draw strength from the assiduous networking” of the SSPX. “Further connections are being built among the elite of British fascism, where far-right Catholics associated with the Society of St Pius X are increasingly active.”

When the fascist leader of the SSPX, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II in 1988, the illicit consecration resulted in the excommunication of the five bishops. The excommunications were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI amid a media outcry because one of the bishops was a Holocaust-denier.

In Buenos Aires, Catholics, Jews and Protestants hold an annual ceremony in the Metropolitan Cathedral “to mark Kristallnacht, the Nazi-led mob violence in 1938 when about 1,000 Jewish synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews were forced into concentration camps, launching the genocide that killed 6 million Jews.” SSPX members disrupted the Nov. 13, 2013, ceremony by shouting the rosary and the “Our Father” and distributed pamphlets stating, “followers of false gods must be kept out of the sacred temple.” Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, leader of the SSPX in South America, said his organization had the right to feel outraged when rabbis preside over a ceremony in a Catholic cathedral.

Talks between the SSPX and the Vatican resumed in 2014 at the direction of Pope Francis.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Councilmember At-Large David Grosso

Today, at 2:30pm, Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) will join victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests at a rally in front of the Wilson Building. In advance of the rally, Grosso released the following statement:

“In his prayer meeting with U.S. bishops yesterday, Pope Francis spoke of a ‘generous commitment to bring healing’- this stance must extend to those who have suffered sexual abuse. I am calling on the Pope to hold the bishops of the Catholic Church accountable for abuse committed on their watch. It is past time for the Church to support better laws that protect children, expose predators, and punish enablers.

Earlier this year I introduced the ‘Childhood Protection Against Sexual Abuse Amendment Act’ to give child victims of sexual abuse more time to file a civil lawsuit against perpetrators. Our current laws unjustly protect predators, and too often the Church has opposed legal reform. If the Catholic Church is truly committed to healing and forgiveness, then it will support this legislation and efforts to protect children from harm.”

Today, at 2:30pm, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will rally in support of Grosso’s legislation on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. The Childhood Protection Against Sexual Abuse Amendment Act, introduced by Grosso in March 2015, would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for recovery of damages arising out of child sexual abuse claims. Additionally, the bill creates a two-year window for individuals whose claims of child sexual abuse were previously time-barred, enabling victims to begin the long road to recovery. The legislation is currently awaiting a hearing in the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary.

Councilmember At-Large David Grosso
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 402
Washington, D.C. 20004
Office: 202-724-8194
http://www.davidgrosso.org/

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UNITED STATES
Pope Francis CON-artist & Vicar of Plutocrats

Paris Arrow

Below are our rebuttals on the pope’s speech in congress. But first we’d like to point out some related matters. In his speech before 300 bishops yesterday, Pope Francis cold-heartedly ignored and insulted SNAP and thousands of victims of pedophile priests – by praising the bishops — who battled against these victims via expensive lawyers and deprived them of justice. We wrote that, “This time Pope Francis proved how out-of-touch with reality (VA) Vatican Autocracy is in his tiny fake country”. With today’s events at Capitol Hill and canonization of Junipero Serra, we realize that — it isn’t that the Vatican and Pope Francis are out-of-touch with reality – but rather – they can astutely manipulate, tamper, corrupt and distort reality – and they disingenuously make what is evil look good – and what is false appear like truth. Francis made those evil bishops look good as he lauded them for their “courage” and for their “without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice” – which are all false because they protected bestial predator priests for decades.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Press

Some survivors of abuse by Catholic priests say the pope should be doing more to confront child abuse within the church. (Sept. 24)

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