MILWAUKEE (WI)
Courthouse News Service

By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN

CHICAGO (CN) – The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s $55 million cemetery trust fund is not off limits to claims filed by clergy sex abuse victims against the church’s bankruptcy estate, the 7th Circuit ruled.

The archdiocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011, declaring that it did not have the funds to pay the amounts sought by clergy sexual abuse victims in court.

It proposed a bankruptcy reorganization plan that would give 128 victims $4 million, but leave 450 other claimants with nothing.

However, the archdiocese transferred $55 million out of its general fund, and earmarked the money for the upkeep of cemeteries, claiming it was off-limits to creditors.

A creditors’ committee composed of abuse victims protested this move in court, asserting that this one-time transfer of $55 million was a blatant attempt to prevent victims from recovering money from the archdiocese.

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FLORIDA
Fox 13

LAKELAND (FOX 13) –
A former church youth minister has been arrested for having sex with a 15-year-old member of a local congregation.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested 30-year-old Phillip Kendrick II Tuesday on three counts of lewd battery and other charges after the current pastor of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church called and reported the relationship.

Investigators learned Kendrick and the young girl had sex at least three times and exchanged nude photos of one another over a course of three months, between October of 2014 and January of 2015.

Deputies said the church pastor told them that Kendrick stopped serving as a youth minister in October, but he still attended the church.

According to detectives, Kendrick met the 15-year-old victim in a church youth group during his time as a youth minister about four years ago.

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FLORIDA
Daily Ridge

On Tuesday, March 9, 2015, PCSO detectives charged 30-year-old Phillip Kendrick II of Lakeland with three counts of lewd battery, one count of transmitting material harmful to a minor, and one count of the use of a two-way communications device to commit felony.

On Monday, PCSO detectives were contacted by the pastor of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church. He told deputies a church member told him that the church’s former youth pastor, Kendrick, had sex with a 15-year-old girl sometime between November and January 2015. According to the church Pastor, Kendrick was no longer employed as a youth minister as of October, 2014, though he still attended the church.

During the investigation detectives learned the 15-year-old victim met Kendrick when he was a youth minister approximately four years ago while attending a youth group at the church. In an interview with deputies, the victim said she viewed Kendrick as a trusted source of support. Over the course of four years, the victim told deputies that the relationship between the two turned from a ministerial relationship to more of a personal friendship. In October 2014, Phillip told the victim he had “strong feelings” for her.

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FLORIDA
The Ledger

LAKELAND | Sheriff’s detectives arrested a former Lakeland youth pastor today on three counts of lewd battery for incidents involving a 15-year-old girl he met at church while he was a pastor.

Phillip Kendrick II, 4090 Knights Station Road, is accused of having sex with the girl between November and January, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Kendrick, 30, also is being held on felony counts of transmitting material harmful to a minor and using a two-way communication device to commit a felony.

Detectives started investigating about 9 p.m. Monday when Matthew Gilmore, pastor of Mount Tabor Baptist Church, told deputies that a church member had told him Kendrick was having sex with the 15-year-old girl.

Kendrick was the youth pastor at Mount Tabor Baptist Church until October, the Sheriff’s Office said. About that time, Kendrick told the girl he had “strong feelings” for her.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Tribune

A former youth pastor in Lakeland is being held without bond after deputies say he had sex with a 15-year-old girl on multiple occasions.

Deputies say 30-year-old Phillip Kendrick II, of Lakeland, had sex with the girl for two months starting in November 2014, one month after he stopped serving as youth minister at the Mt. Tabor Baptist Church.

According to deputies, the victim met Kendrick — who still attended the church — about four years ago while attending youth group.

Over those four years, the victim told deputies the relationship became more personal, and in October, Kendrick told her that he had “strong feelings” for her.

Detectives determined Kendrick had sex with the victim on three separate occasions, and they traded inappropriate pictures of each other.

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FLORIDA
WTSP

10 News Staff and Tammie Fields, WTSP

Lakeland, Florida — A former youth minister at a Lakeland church has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl sometime between November of last year and January.

On Monday, the pastor of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church told Polk Sheriff’s detectives a church member told him that Phillip Kendrick II had sex with a young church member he’d met four years ago at the church.

“I never believed something like this would ever happen,” said Pastor Matt Gilmore. “We’re saddened, shocked and we’re providing care to both his family and to the victim and her family as well.”

Pastor Gilmore says they have 80 to 100 members at the church. He says he’s known Kendrick for 11 years and served with him at two different churches, but not now.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Wollongong Catholic Education Office has apologised to victims of abuse after a priest was charged over an alleged historical event.

It’s alleged a 15 year old boy was assaulted at Holy Spirit College in Bellambi north of Wollongong in 1988.

In a statement the Director of Schools, Peter Turner says the Catholic Education Office has been fully co-operating with Police in regard to the matter.

Spokesperson Tim Gilmour says they are committed to the protection of young people and will investigate any allegations raised.

“Our director on behalf of the Bishop offers his most sincere apologies to any people who have suffered abuse by any particular person who was associated with the Diocese of Wollongong or Catholic schools in the name of the Diocese of Wollongong,” he said.

Mr Gilmour says the Catholic Education Office is committed to investigating any allegations raised against people associated with catholic schools in the region.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Shortly before 3 p.m. today the jury in the Father Andy sex abuse trial sent a note to the judge saying they were at an impasse and could not reconcile their differences.

When the jury assembled in front of Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright, she asked if there was any confusion in their minds about the law that she could address.

“I do not believe so,” the jury foreman said.

The judge asked if the jury were to continue deliberating was there any chance that they could reach a unanimous verdict?

“I would not believe so,” the foreman said.

The judge instructed the jury to try again.

She told them they had only been deliberating for a total of 14 hours over three days. But she cautioned the jurors not to do anything that would “do violence to their individual judgement” or force them to surrender their “honest convictions.”

So the jury filed out of the courtroom. Within the hour, the jury sent another note to the judge that said they had reached “the end of our discussion for today,” the judge said.

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BOSTON (MA)
NECN

A Boston minister who also worked at a city high school before he was charged with trying to a kill a 17-year-old student is now facing drug and gun charges.

Authorities on Monday charged the Reverend Shaun Harrison Jr. with cocaine, marijuana and gun offenses based on a search warrant executed at his home following the shooting last week. He faces a March 17 arraignment.

Authorities say the 55-year-old Harrison was leading a “double life,” as a youth minister and anti-violence activist, even as he was allegedly involved in the drug trade.

Harrison is being held on $250,000 bail. Prosecutors say he shot a 17-year-old boy he had enlisted to sell pot for him following a dispute.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

03/10/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Earlier today, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis circulated the attached response to Paul Blaschko’s article ‘Inside the Seminary‘. Although the response makes liberal use of the pluralis majestatis, the name that appears as author of the response is that of the current rector of Saint John Vianney Seminary, Father Michael Becker.

Father Becker was not the rector of Saint John Vianney during the time to which the Blaschko article refers. Moreover, Father Becker’s response does not dispute those aspects of formation that Paul wrote of. Instead, his response attempts to frame those incidents within a larger context.

Ironically, perhaps, that larger context is the formation program outlined in the Program for Priestly Formation (PPF). As I have mentioned before, the current edition of the PPF, which is in use at seminaries throughout the United States, was the ‘labor of love’ (his term, not mine) of none other than Archbishop John Nienstedt. In light of the ongoing, year-long investigation into the conduct of the Archbishop (which is at what stage now, exactly?), and especially in light of allegations uncovered during that investigation of inappropriate behavior towards seminarians under his authority (including seminarians in the Twin Cities), I think Father Becker’s response does little to refute the idea that there are very real reasons we we should be worried about priestly formation.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Lawyers for the State have told a jury that a garda on trial for allegedly forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was lying to the point of no return.

Wicklow Det Garda Catherine McGowan (48), who is based at Bray Garda station, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of forgery on January 15th, 2009 at Bray Garda station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda station and at Harcourt Street Garda station between June 21st and 22nd, 2011.

The instrument is alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP, dated January 14th, 2009, directing that there be no prosecution in a clerical child abuse case.

The letter read: “Dear Sir, I (illegible) to yours. In (illegible) the statement of the complainant…could not possibly form the basis of a prosecution given that the complainant’s allegation of rape is only conjecture.”

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ILLINOIS
State Journal-Register

By Chris Dettro
Staff Writer

Posted Mar. 10, 2015

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Springfield Catholic diocese on Tuesday defended its handling of sex abuse cases involving church personnel and said that a news conference held last week by two groups critical of the diocese caught him off guard.

Paprocki also said that the Litchfield phone number assigned to six priests withdrawn from their Chicago parishes that appeared in an Official Catholic Directory in the 1990s was apparently a clerical or computer-generated error. He said the priests were never assigned to the Springfield diocese nor were they ever licensed by the bishop for the ministry in this diocese.

He criticized the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) for its approach to what it considered a potential danger, saying he wasn’t contacted before the group’s news conference to explain the phone number.

“There was no advance notice of this press conference,” he said. “They did not ask for an explanation beforehand or at all.”

David Clohessy, director of SNAP, said the diocese wasn’t contacted beforehand because “typically and unfortunately, Bishop Paprocki previously has ignored our letters and wouldn’t respond to our requests.”

“What works is making direct, public appeals to victims,” Clohessy said.

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ZIMBABWE
Inquisitr

A church bishop in Zimbabwe, accused of raping a churchgoer under hypnosis, was brought to Harare’s Victim Friendly Court last week.

Danmore Magorimbo, 45, a bishop for the Abundant Life Global Ministries in Harare, reportedly approached the woman in the prayer room and offered his counsel. According to All Africa, Magorimbo told the churchgoer that her husband transmitted evil spirits to her through sex and that she must avoid coitus with him immediately.

“He told me that my husband was satanic and most times he would order me not to be intimate with him. I was to be cleansed of the evil spirits deposited by my husband in my womb but I had no idea how,” the alleged rape victim said in her testimony.

Shortly after Magorimbo denounced the woman’s “satanic” husband, the bishop, together with an accomplice, reportedly performed a ritual that allowed them to hypnotize her, making her less resistant to sexual advances. The woman said, “When Magorimbo touched my forehead during prayers I would lose control, dance or move with closed eyes but not hitting anything.”

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MALTA
Malta Today

Matthew Agius 10 March 2015

One of the clerical sex abuse victims who, yesterday had a request to have their case heard by another judge, only to have that request denied by the same judge whom they were accusing of having a conflict of interest, will be filing a Constitutional case.

This morning, judge Joseph R. Micallef ruled their request would result in an abuse of the judicial process under the guise of protecting the right to a fair hearing, pointing out that the test of impartiality, even as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights, requires an objective basis of verifiability.

In an exclusive account given to MaltaToday, a visibly distressed Lawrence Grech said he is certain that judge Joseph R. Micallef “had been against us since day one,” describing what he claimed to be an air of secrecy and intrigue surrounding the case.

“The Church had insisted that hearings be conducted behind closed doors as it would negatively affect children in Church care homes” said Grech. The ten plaintiffs had suggested that if public scandal was the issue, they could testify behind closed doors, but the Bishop and directors of St. Agatha testify in open court. The judge, he said, also refused this request.

“He was only interested in closing the case as quickly as possible and would often pass remarks to this effect, during sittings,” said Grech of the judge. This allegation could not be independently verified as the media and public had been barred from attending sittings, however.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

The judge presiding over the case filed by clerical sex abuse victims, who are claiming financial compensation from the Church, turned down the victims’ request to abstain from hearing the case because he is the president of the local Radio Maria Association.

Mr Justice Joseph R Micallef ruled there was no valid reason at law why he should step down from hearing the case.

Mr Justice Micallef, who is presiding over the victims’ case for financial compensation against the Church and two priests defrocked from the Missionary Society of St Paul, is the president of the local Radio Maria Association.

The association, which forms part of an international family spreading the five continents, promotes the “promulgation of the evangelical message of joy and hope… according to the teaching of the magisterium of the Catholic Church, with a clear and rich Marian spirituality”.

The case for compensation started in October 2013 after former priests Godwin Scerri, 77, and Charles Pulis, 68, were found guilty and sentenced to five and six years’ imprisonment respectively for abusing 11 boys in their care at St Joseph Home in Santa Venera in the 1980s and 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By BREE FULLER March 10, 2015

A former Holy Spirit College priest has been arrested after claims of abuse in the 1980s.

Father Patrick Kervin, 58, was arrested in Sydney on Monday afternoon and charged with one count of indecent assault.

Police allege the Catholic priest assaulted a 15-year-old boy while he was a chaplain at the Bellambi school in mid-1988.

Catholic Diocese of Wollongong director of schools Peter Turner said on Tuesday he was ‘‘deeply saddened’’ to hear of an alleged historical assault in one of the region’s Catholic schools.

‘‘The Catholic Education Office has been co-operating fully with the police and will continue to assist as needed to help bring this matter to a just resolution,’’ Mr Turner said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Superior Telegram

Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio

A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that a $58 million Catholic cemetery trust fund may have to go into a pool of money available to clergy abuse victims in Milwaukee.

The Chicago-based U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said that Milwaukee-based federal judge Rudolph Randa was wrong to keep the cemetery trust fund out of the four-year Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy case.

Peter Isely of the Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests said the appellate ruling is like hitting the reset button for the bankruptcy case.

“We’re hoping that this decision, and what’s going to come from it, is going to reverse the direction that we’ve seen so far, which has been very, very against survivors,” said Isely.

He said he also hopes the ruling will help shed more light on why New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Vatican set up the trust fund when Dolan was Milwaukee’s archbishop.

A lawyer representing the cemetery trust says the appellate decision casts a shadow over religious freedom.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor
@JohnLAllenJ

March 10, 2015

Every now and then a story comes along that perfectly captures a couple of aspects of the Vatican’s internal culture, points that often aren’t well understood, but that are essential to grasping what makes the place tick.

This week’s revelation that a former employee apparently is trying to ransom back a couple of stolen letters by Michelangelo is a classic example.

In a nutshell, a Roman newspaper reported over the weekend that a letter personally penned by Michelangelo had gone missing almost two decades ago, although that loss was never disclosed. Recently, someone approached a senior Vatican official to offer to return the stolen property for a payment of 100,000 Euro, or a little more than $100,000.

On Sunday, a Vatican official confirmed the story, adding that two letters were actually stolen, not just one, while insisting the Vatican has no intention of paying any ransom because taking the documents was a crime.

In brief, here are two elements of Vatican culture the story illustrates:

* Never air your dirty laundry in public.
* On the inside, the system traditionally has put much more emphasis on trust than vigilance.

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MISSOURI
Courthouse News Service

By JOE HARRIS

ST. LOUIS (CN) – Siding with protesters of the Catholic church, the 8th Circuit on Monday struck down Missouri’s restrictions on demonstrations near places of worship.

Missouri’s House of Worship Protection Act prohibits intentionally disturbing a “house of worship by using profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior … either within the house of worship or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the worship services.”

The law came under fire in 2012 from several protesters, including Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a group that often gathers outside of a Catholic friary in St. Louis that is home to a priest accused of child molestation.

SNAP and Call to Action, a group that wants the church to ordain women and accept gay parishioners, among other things, challenged Missouri’s law under the First Amendment.

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MISSOURI
Religion News Service

Brian Pellot | Mar 10, 2015

If America banned rudeness, most of New York would be behind bars.

The Midwest’s friendlier reputation doesn’t somehow give Missouri the right to ban rude or profane behavior outside houses of worship, a federal court rightly ruled on Monday.

The Washington Post’s Eugene Volokh breaks down the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Snap v. Joyce concerning Missouri’s somewhat sloppy House of Worship Protection Act, enacted in 2012.

The law criminalizes “intentionally and unreasonably” disturbing or disquieting houses of worship “by using profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior.” Nowhere in the Act are these vague and subjective adjectives defined.

Who determines what is profane, rude or indecent? The protester outside the church, mosque, temple or synagogue? The easily offended worshippers within? In any case, these restrictions are clearly based on the content of the expression, which raises a host of red flags when we’re talking about the First Amendment.

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MISSOURI
Riverfront Times

Protesters Can Use “Profane Speech” Near Worship Services, Says U.S. Court of Appeals

By Danny Wicentowski Tue., Mar. 10 2015

It takes a hell of a good reason to limit the First Amendment.

Flexible and elegant, its provisions uphold the rights of people praying to their preferred God in their preferred house of worship, while at the same time ensuring that a pack of blasphemers can picket on the sidewalk outside.

These broad powers of free speech work well most of the time, which is why regulating the First Amendment, as former Missouri GOP Representative Rob Meyer tried to do in 2012, can turn out to be very tricky business. Signed into the law at the time by Governor Jay Nixon, Meyer’s House of Worship Protection Act criminalized “using profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior…as to disturb the order and solemnity of the worship services.”

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that the law is too vague, too broad and too subjective — basically, it conflicts with the First Amendment. The decision follows legal challenges from ACLU of Missouri and SNAP, the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group that regularly protests outside churches.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

The new attorney for an Elgin cleric charged with aggravated battery and sexual abuse said he “anticipates a plea of not guilty to all the charges,” when his client is arraigned, possibly next month.

Prosecutors did not announce an indictment against Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, 75, during his appearance Tuesday in a Rolling Meadows courtroom. That will likely occur during Saleem’s next appearance March 19, providing a Cook County grand jury approves the indictment against Saleem, the founder and former head of the Institute of Islamic Education, an Elgin Islamic school for students in sixth through twelfth grades.

Saleem, a native of India and a naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged last month with sexually abusing a 22-year-old office employee at the school from October 2013 through April 14, 2014.

Saleem’s accuser claimed he repeatedly hugged her, touched and massaged her against her will in her office at the Elgin school.

The Muslim community continues to support the school and Saleem, said defense attorney Raymond Wigell. To that end, Saleem remains a leader at the mosque, Wigell said.

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ILLINOIS
NBC Chicago

An assistant Cook County State’s Attorney said he expects a grand jury to return an indictment against the head of a suburban Chicago Islamic school who is charged with sexual assault.

David Shin told the Chicago Tribune he will present evidence to a grand jury later this week in the case of 75-year-old Mohammad Abdullah Saleem of Gilberts.

Saleem appeared in a Rolling Meadows courtroom on Tuesday on charges of sex abuse and battery of a female school employee. Those charges were filed last month.

Saleem’s new attorney, Raymond Wigell, said his client was “doing fine.”

“We anticipate a plea of not guilty to all charges, all counts involved,” Wigell said.

The prominent Islamic scholar head of the popular Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin posted a $25,000 bond last month and was released. Wigell said he’s maintained a presence in the community.

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CONNECTICUT
CT pOST

Posted on March 10, 2015 | By Michael P. Mayko

FAIRFIELD-Voice of the Faithful will conduct their 13th annual conference March 14 and feature The director of Fairfield University’s Catholic studiespro gram

Paul Lakeland will speak on “A Place of Mercy Freely Given: the Church in the Vision of Pope Francis.

The event will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. In the Dolan School of Business.

Voice of the Faithful was formed in 2002 to address the crisis of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church. They offer support to the victims of pedophile priests and priests if integrity. The group also works to shape structural changes in the church.

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CANADA
Calgary Sun

High-profile Calgary Muslim cleric’s lawyer says his client disputes sexual assault charges out of the U.S.

BY BILL KAUFMANN, CALGARY SUN

Charged with sexual assault in the U.S., a high-profile Calgary Muslim cleric is ready to face the accusations but has been stymied, his lawyer said Monday.

Abdi Hersy, 46, is accused of fondling two female patients when he worked as a respiratory therapist in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in 2006.

He was stripped of his licence to practise in Minnesota and came to Calgary, where he’s operated the Abu Bakr Mussallah and been most visible as a spokesman for the Somali community.

But Hersy’s attempts to address the charges were foiled when he voluntarily returned to Minnesota in 2010 and was sent by U.S. authorities back to Canada, said his Calgary lawyer Raj Sharma.

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CANADA/UNITED STATES
Frontpage Mag

March 10, 2015 by Daniel Greenfield

Imam Hersy is not a very nice man.

The 46-year-old Somali national, who runs the Abu Bakr Mussallah place of worship in southeast Calgary, was charged with criminal sexual conduct after he spent time working at a hospital in the Twin Cities suburb of Woodbury, Minn.

Two female patients allege Hersy fondled them while they were recovering from medical procedures.

The second woman who came forward said Hersy fondled her under her gown, telling her it was part of a medical procedure, and said he “wanted to have sex with her,” according to documents obtained from the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice.

That is indeed part of medical practice… in Hersy’s native Somalia where they also use hyenas to treat mental patients. But due to the Islamophobia of the authorities… the Imam went to Canada where he fights “radicalization” and promotes Hitler.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Allison Dempster, CBC News

A prominent voice in Calgary’s Somali community is wanted in the United States on sexual assault charges, CBC News has learned..

Imam Abdi Hersy denies the allegations that he sexually assaulted two women while working as a respiratory therapist in the United States in 2006, but says he has not been able to clear his name because of immigration issues.

“In Canada, and in U.S.A., I am to be treated as being innocent until proven guilty,” Hersy said in a statement.

“Since being in Canada, he has become a pillar of his community, working with the [Calgary Police Service] and [Chief] Rick Hanson, to deal with criminalization and radicalization within his community,” said lawyer Raj Sharma, who represents Hersy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

In the hallway outside Courtroom 1102 at the Criminal Justice Center, a couple of nuns in full habit and some devout Catholics were praying the rosary with “Father Andy.”

While a jury deliberates the priest’s fate, Father Andrew McCormick and his loyal supporters maintained a prayer vigil, sending up plenty of Hail Marys.

Early today, it looked like Father Andy would need a miracle to stay out jail.

The jury came back with a question for the judge that sent panic through Father Andy’s supporters. The jury asked Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright if the testimony of the alleged victim alone would be sufficient to convict Father Andy of sex abuse charges. The judge responded that if the jury believed the alleged victim’s testimony beyond a reasonable doubt it would be sufficient to convict the defendant.

Defense lawyer Trevan Borum looked shaken as he left the courthouse but hovered at a hotel across the street in case the jury had any more bombshells to drop.

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VATIKAN
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Pope Francis from the beginning had the sympathy on his side. Then followed a gaffe after another.]

Papst Franziskus hatte von Anfang an die Sympathien auf seiner Seite. Dann folgte ein Ausrutscher nach dem anderen. Allmählich ahnen auch seine größten Fans, dass daran nicht zuletzt einer schuld ist. Er selbst.

10.03.2015, von MARKUS GÜNTHER

Die letzten Wochen im Vatikan sind vergleichsweise gut gelaufen: Ein Dementi und eine kleine Richtigstellung, eine scharf formulierte Protestnote des mexikanischen Außenministers und eine prompte Entschuldigung vom Heiligen Stuhl, schließlich ein versöhnlicher Brief des Kardinalstaatssekretärs und herzliche Grüße des Heiligen Vaters an das mexikanische Volk – aber sonst ist der Papst ganz gut durchgekommen. Das liegt auch daran, dass er zwischenzeitlich in Klausur war, in den jährlichen Exerzitien, zu denen sich der Papst traditionell zu Beginn der Fastenzeit gemeinsam mit den führenden Mitarbeitern der Kurie zurückzieht. Deshalb gab es zuletzt nur wenige öffentliche Äußerungen des Papstes

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CANADA
Global News

By Melissa Ramsay
Online Reporter

CALGARY – A Calgary imam wanted in the United States on outstanding criminal charges is denying the allegations.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Imam Abdi Hersy in connection to two alleged sexual assaults.

A search of his case records through the Minnesota Judicial Branch confirms six charges were laid against Hersy in 2006, including two charges of 4th degree criminal sexual conduct, two charges of criminal abuse and two charges of 5th degree criminal sexual conduct.

Abdi tells Global News he surrendered himself to the sheriff’s office in Minnesota but was deported back to Canada before being able to answer to the charges.

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CANADA
Huffington Post

By Rhianna Schmunk

Posted: 03/09/2015

A Calgary imam, who was granted refugee status in Canada, is denying allegations of sex assault in the United States.

Abdi Hersy, 46, is a high-profile imam who runs the Abu Bakr Mussallah place of worship in Calgary, and is often quoted as a representative of the Somali community in Calgary.

In 2006, Hersy was charged after allegations that came from his time working as a respiratory therapist in Woodbury, Minn., according to Global News.

Two women allege that Hersy groped them under their hospital gowns, saying it was part of the standard medical exam. One of the victims claimed that Hersy said he wanted to have sex with her, reported the Twin Cities News.

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ILLINOIS
WBEZ

[with audio]

March 10, 2015
By: Odette Yousef

As the criminal trial gets underway for a prominent Islamic scholar charged with sexual assault, some Chicago-area Muslims are calling for an investigation into what community leaders may have known about prior allegations of misconduct.

Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, 75, has been criminally charged with assaulting a female employee at the Institute for Islamic Education, a religious school he founded in west suburban Elgin, Ill. Additionally, Saleem has also been accused in a civil lawsuit of assaulting three other females who were students at the school.

“A lot of people depended upon his advice,” Dr. Mohammed Kaiseruddin said of Saleem. Kaiseruddin is chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, the largest coalition of Muslim institutions in Illinois. “So right now we are dealing with a dilemma that this person who is teaching the Quran to everybody was violating (the) Quran himself.”

When the allegations first surfaced in early December, a number of people both inside and outside the leadership ranks, called on the Council to act. After much back and forth between members of its House of Representatives, a body made up of leaders of its member organizations and former Council chairmen, it issued a statement.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 10

Statement by David Clohessy of SNAP ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

In his news conference today, we suspect that Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki will criticize our group for raising concerns about what he’ll call “old” cases.

If he does, we hope citizens and Catholics will ask him about these more recent cases:

–Why, just last week, did Paprocki try to evade responsibility for out-of-state predator priests who spent time in the Springfield diocese, and claim that other Catholic officials should be more forthcoming about these predators, not him?

[State Journal-Register]

–Why, 1.5 years ago, did Paprocki let a priest who’s accused of child sex crimes temporarily resign, instead of suspending him? (That’s what the US bishops pledged to do when credible child sex abuse reports surfaced. That’s what the US bishops’ official sex abuse policy mandates.)

–Why, 1.5 years ago, did Paprocki keep the allegations against that priest, Fr. Robert “Bud” DeGrand, secret for weeks, giving Fr. DeGrand plenty of time to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and even flee the country?

[State Journal-Register]

(Remember: Every day a child sex abuse report is kept hidden, a child sex abuser is free to keep abusing. Every day of secrecy and delay makes it harder for police and prosecutors to pursue child predators.)

–Why, 1.5 years ago, did Paprocki refuse to even respond to our pleas that he personally go to parishes in Jacksonville, Winchester, Bluffs, Granite City, and other places where Fr. DeGrand worked?

–Why in 2013 did Paprocki remove two thing from his diocesan website: a report on clergy sexual misconduct (and financial misdeeds) in the diocese by ex-U.S. attorney J. William Roberts and any hint that Bishop Daniel Ryan “engaged in illicit sex or otherwise did anything improper” which Roberts’ report had found?

[State Journal-Register]

–Why, that same year, did Paprocki not address allegations that the diocesan panel “that once screened candidates for the seminary is no longer active, according to one panel member.”

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By George Houde
Chicago Tribune

Grand jury indictments will be sought against the founder of an Islamic school in Elgin after he was arrested in February on charges he sexually abused a female employee, Cook County authorities said.

In a separate proceeding, Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, 75, is scheduled to appear in court in Rolling Meadows on Tuesday morning on the sex abuse and battery charges.

Assistant State’s Attorney David Shin said he will present evidence to the grand jury later this week.

Saleem, of Gilberts, was arrested after a 23-year-old woman told police he sexually abused her while she was working at the Institute of Islamic Education in April.

Shin said Saleem posted bond shortly after his arrest and was released from custody while he awaits trial. He was ordered not to have contacted with the alleged victim or anyone under age 18 and had to surrender his passport. Saleem’s attorney has denied the allegations.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

03/09/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

On December 12, 2013, Archbishop Nienstedt met with the priests of one of the geographic deaneries in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The purpose of the meeting was for the priests to be able to share with the Archbishop their thoughts on what was then a blossoming sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese. Unbeknownst to the Archbishop, or to Bishop Piche (who accompanied him to the meeting), the conversation was being secretly recorded. Within days the recording had made its way to the news media and to law enforcement, and the unguarded statements of the two bishops would become important pieces of information as various organizations attempted to put together who knew what and when. To this day, neither the transcript nor the full recording of that meeting has been made public.

Perhaps not surprising, one of the first questions that was raised by a member of the deanery at the meeting with the Archbishop had to do with the Kinsale file review. Priests, even at that particular moment, questioned what Kinsale was looking for in the files, and wanted to know what the mandate of the review team was. They also wanted to know what standards were being applied in terms of the credibility of accusations and the types of incidents that would be identified as concerns.

After defending the decision to hire Kinsale, the Archbishop made the following statement:

‘In terms of what they’re looking for, they have an eye for misconduct, and I think, I can’t say for sure because I do rely on Susan Mulharen and Joe Kueppers in terms of the kind of levels of misconduct they would be looking at, but my understanding is that anything that really stood out, they would bring that to my attention and I would have to weigh that. If it seems substantial, and I would be weighing that with Bishop Piche and Bishop Cozzens and Father Lachowitzer, and if it was of substance, then we would have to talk to the priest about it. If it had something to do with the Charter [for the Protection of Children and Young People], and I don’t believe that there… I think you saw the people who have violated the Charter in the disclosure that we did last week. If it had to do with other kind of misconduct, that would go to the Ministerial Standards Board which has been formed now. And then we would allow them to make a recommendation to me. But certainly the priest–. I mean, I am, I am on your side. And it hurts me whenever we have to take steps against a priest because I, like you, hold the priesthood in such esteem, but we’re just living in this atmosphere now that it’s, I think in order to re-establish credibility, we have to be able to say we don’t have anyone in ministry who is a danger to children or to vulnerable adults.’

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MISSOURI
Washington Post

Ban on profane, rude, or indecent speech that disturbs houses of worship violates the First Amendment

By Eugene Volokh March 9

So holds the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in today’s SNAP v. Joyce, a case in which the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic (which I run) filed an amicus brief. The statute, Missouri Revised Statutes § 574.035 (the Missouri House of Worship Protection Act), in relevant part, criminalized behavior that

1. “[i]ntentionally and unreasonably disturbs … or disquiets” a house of worship
2. through “profane discourse [and] rude or indecent behavior”
3. “so near [the house of worship] as to disturb the order and solemnity of the worship services.”

(The statute also prohibits excessive noise and physical intrusion into the church, but these provisions were not being challenged.) The court noted that the statute was potentially quite broad:

[C]ritical portrayals of Muhammad outside a mosque or of the Pope outside a Catholic Church might well be considered profane or indecent by their audiences. Others may find language using the name of holy figures as swear words not only disrespectful, but profane as well. Similar expressions in the near vicinity of a house of worship have the potential to disturb or disquiet those present for worship. The meaning of “profane,” or irreverence to the sacred, is not a well defined legislative term familiar to people of different faiths. Any silent demonstration outside a house of worship would likely be able to create a disturbance only by the content of its message. Even expression that may be perceived as offensive, rude, or disruptive remains protected by the First Amendment.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler0

Enlarge Photo

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and other groups looking to protest outside houses of worship have won a court battle against a state law aimed at curtailing such activity.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, ruled that the House of Worship Protection Act violates the First Amendment.

The law, which took effect in 2012, bars anyone from intentionally disturbing a “house of worship by using profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior … either within the house of worship or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the worship services.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed a lawsuit that same year on behalf of various groups pushing for change in the Roman Catholic Church. The groups argued that the First Amendment protects their freedom to recite prayers, hold signs and distribute literature outside houses of worship in an effort to communicate their messages to church leaders and parishioners.

At the time of the lawsuit, ACLU legal director Tony Rothert cited the severe sentences given to members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, for their political protest inside a Russian Orthodox Church.

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UTAH
Good4Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 Utah) House Bill 366, a bill that would extend the statue of limitations for sex offenses against children sailed through the House Monday.

Current law defines a child as under the age of 14 in relationships of special trust that would be with a family member, teacher, coach or church leader.

House Bill 366 would extend the age to 18 years old as long as the perpetrator is at least three years older.

Bill sponsor Ken Ivory says the window between 14 and 18 is when a lot of these crimes happen. He also says predators seek out these positions with the intent of finding victims. That’s what he wants to stop.

“What we are saying is when our children are in that setting, with a special trust, with an adult that has undue influence over them they are not going to be able to hide behind time if they sexually abuse those children,” said Ivory (R), West Jordan.

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UTAH
Fox 13

Sex abuse

The House unanimously passed a bill that eliminates the statute of limitations in certain sex abuse cases. The bill also increases the age for a victim from 14 to 18 in cases involving someone in a position of special trust. It now goes on to the Senate.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Brendan Kirby | bkirby@al.com
on March 09, 2015

Lawyers for a former St. Pius X School student who alleges that administrators failed to stop her severe bullying have asked a judge to hold Baldwin County’s district attorney in contempt for failing to appear at a deposition last week.

The judge in the case on Monday set a March 20 hearing to consider that and other motions.

The plaintiff’s lawyers subpoenaed Baldwin County District Attorney Hallie Dixon in order to ask her questions about a report she received regarding an allegation that the pastor had an improper relationship with a teenager when he was a priest in Baldwin County.

Dixon did not appear at the deposition. According to the request seeking sanctions, Chief Assistant District Attorney Rushing Payne sent an email nearly an hour after the scheduled start of the deposition informing lawyers that Dixon had a court hearing in a capital murder case and would not attend.

The attorneys wrote in their contempt motion that they offered to accommodate Dixon by rescheduling the deposition for later in the day. Payne sent a follow-up email indicating that Dixon did not intend to submit to the questioning.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
10/03/2015

Well-known Augustinian priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan has said he will “unquestioningly be voting yes” in May’s referendum on gay marriage.

He is the first priest to publicly admit he will disobey the Catholic hierarchy which is leading the opposition to the referendum proposal.

The Limerick-based cleric revealed his intention to the Irish Independent, as he criticised Bishop Kevin Doran’s comments on homosexuality.

He explained that he had no hesitation about supporting the introduction of gay marriage even as “an absolute believer in Catholic teaching on marriage”.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By: Jack Encarnacao

The city’s acting school chief said an incident in which the Rev. Shaun Harrison was alleged to have made sexual remarks to students at the Green Academy four years ago led to discipline but was not grounds for firing, while Boston’s top cop says complaints of drug activity on his street led to surveillance last year — but never turned up any actionable evidence.

Interim schools Superintendent John McDonough spoke to the press as he came out of a meeting with Mayor Martin J. Walshtoday on the arrest of Harrison in the attempted murder of a student prosecutors say he had put to work selling drugs.

McDonough offered no details on the complaint at Green Academy, but he said, “The incident at Green Academy, that was dealt with appropriately. It was recorded and it was documented and there was disciplinary action taken at the time, but that incident in and of itself was not grounds for termination.”

McDonough added that if “there are a number of behaviors and a progression of incidents that would indicate warranting more aggressive action be taken, it simply was not indicated in this case.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Nestor Ramos, John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan
GLOBE STAFF MARCH 09, 2015

The Rev. Shaun O. Harrison Sr. was set to be fired from his job as a dean at English High School for shoving a female student just hours before the minister and antiviolence activist allegedly shot a 17-year-old boy in the head, city officials disclosed Monday.

After his arrest last week for allegedly trying to murder a student who was dealing marijuana for him, school and police officials launched investigations into Harrison’s recent past.

On Monday, as prosecutors filed new drug and gun charges against Harrison, city, school, and police officials met to discuss the case. Police described a fruitless investigation into the minister’s activities last summer, and the city later released a timeline of his spotty Boston public schools career, including reprimands for his encounters with students.

However, although signs that something may have been amiss lay buried in the preacher’s recent past, evidence that would have unearthed what Mayor Martin J. Walsh called Harrison’s “double life” was hard to see, officials said.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

The case against Shaun Harrison, “dean of academy” at English High for more than four years, has become not so much about him but about how a possible dealer of drugs manages to fly under the radar screen of the police and the school department.

It’s a question Mayor Marty Walsh was also asking yesterday.

“It’s critical that, in addition to a criminal investigation, we take a thorough look at his employment within our public school system to ensure that we are taking the necessary steps to protect students throughout the city,” Walsh said in a statement.

Following Harrison’s arrest last week for the execution-style shooting of a 17-year-old, police searched his home and found two handguns, a rifle, ammunition and “trafficking weight” of cocaine and a large amount of marijuana.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By: Jack Encarnacao

Mayor Martin J. Walsh is meeting with school and police leaders this afternoon after launching an internal inquiry into the employment history of the Rev. Shaun Harrison, the Boston high school dean charged with trying to murder a student who was selling pot for him.

“The charges against Shaun Harrison are extremely disturbing and I am greatly concerned because of his role with students at English High School,” Walsh said Monday. “It’s critical that, in addition to a criminal investigation, we take a thorough look at his employment within our public school system to ensure that we are taking the necessary steps to protect students throughout the city.”

The city inquiry will involve interviews with school leaders and staff at schools where Harrison was employed, Walsh’s office said.

“An initial review of Mr. Harrison’s official records with Boston Public Schools shows no evidence that would have linked him to criminal activity in or out of school,” according to the mayor’s office.

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Catholic priest charged over alleged historical indecent assault near Wollongong

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

A Catholic priest has been charged following an alleged historical indecent assault in the Illawarra area.

It will be alleged the incident occurred mid-1988, at a school on Cawley Street, Bellambi, when a Chaplain at the time indecently assaulted a 15-year-old boy.

The matter was reported in 2011, and officers attached to Shoalhaven Local Area Command commenced investigations.

About 4.10pm yesterday (Monday 9 March 2015), a 58-year-old man was arrested and charged at Harbourside Police Station with one count of indecent assault.

He was granted conditional bail, to appear at Port Kembla Local Court on Wednesday 25 March 2015.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP
March 10, 2015

A 58-year-old Catholic priest has been charged over an indecent assault at a NSW school nearly three decades ago.

Police allege the then chaplain indecently assaulted a 15-year-old boy at the school in Wollongong’s north in 1988.

The charge comes four years after the matter was reported to police.

The priest was arrested on Monday afternoon and charged with one count of indecent assault.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Two years in, Pope Francis faces headwinds in reforming the Vatican. Here’s how he can prevail

By David Gibson | Religion News Service March 9

VATICAN CITY — One reason the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis two years ago on Friday (March 13) was a brief but powerful speech the Argentine cardinal made shortly before the conclave in which he denounced the “theological narcissism” of the Roman Catholic Church.

The church, Francis declared, was “sick” because it was closed in on itself and needed to go out “to the peripheries” and risk all by accompanying the shunned and marginalized.

In these past two years, Francis’ efforts to do just that have captivated the public’s imagination and inspired a wide swath of the Catholic spectrum with visions of a newly resurgent faith unshackled from years of scandal and stagnation.

But there was another big reason the cardinals voted for Bergoglio: They thought the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires was the one man with the administrative chops to finally rein in the dysfunctional papal bureaucracy, known as the Roman Curia, that was often at the root of the Catholic crisis.

Today, however, the reforms that Francis launched with vigor and near-evangelistic zeal are showing signs of a sophomore slump, bogged down in ponderous consultations and more infighting.

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CANADA
The London Free Press

By Debora Van Brenk, The London Free Press

Twenty years after Ontario’s last residential school for First Nations and Metis children closed, the echoes resound among survivors’ children and grandchildren.

“The impact of residential schools has been inter-­generational, so even young (aboriginal) people who haven’t been to residential schools have been directly impacted,” said Barb MacQuarrie, director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women.

“It broke down and fragmented people’s identity.”

MacQuarrie is an organizer of a conference in London Tuesday and Wednesday on what residential schools represented to aboriginal families.

The majority of the 250 attendees are teachers or teachers in training who learned a Euro-centric version of First Nations history, MacQuarrie said. “It’s our ignorance. It creates an unintentional racism a lot of times.”

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MISSOURI
Talk Radio News Service

[court document]

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Missouri law that makes it unlawful to disrupt a church service with profane language or indecent behavior violates the First Amendment because it is not content-neutral. The law was challenged by two organizations that make regular appearances at Catholic churches to protest sexual abuse by priests and to support the ordination of women priests. Missouri’s “House of Worship Protection Act,” which was enacted in 2012, requires authorities to examine the content of speech to determine if it rises to the level of a violation of the law.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

The Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA), the agency mandated to safeguard the rights and well being of children in Jamaica, is reporting a disturbing development in the church – that of reports of sexual abuse against children by senior members of the clergy.

“We have received reports in relation to deacons, elders and prayer warriors,” Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison told The Gleaner yesterday.

Asked what steps are being made by the OCA to crack down on the perpetrators of these alleged sexual crimes, Gordon Harrison said once the report seems credible and warrants an investigation, her agency conducts a probe.

However, the children’s advocate indicated that her office required alleged victims to submit recorded statements and such individuals are not willing to go all the way.

“The challenge that we have sometimes is that if you have people who are willing to disclose things and make a report, but not flesh it out, so that we can have statements recorded and people being held accountable, then sometimes it falters. Because unless you have credible statements then you cannot have a file that relates to any charge,” she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope Francis by Garry Wills review – a history of change in a timeless church

Kaya Oakes
Monday 9 March 2015

Just a few days before the second anniversary of his election, Pope Francis shows all the signs of being a cottage industry. A quick search on Amazon reveals 3,483 Pope Francis-related titles, ranging from the in-depth, such as Austen Ivereigh’s The Great Reformer, to a title somewhat jarring for a pope who is no friend to capitalism, Lead With Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis, doubtlessly intended to the more merciful among your CEO friends. Joining the growing pile is the latest book from historian and journalist Garry Wills, The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope Francis.

The title is misleading. Wills barely mentions the pope in the body of the book, only treating him seriously in the introduction. “Pope Francis heartens some Catholics and frightens others,” he writes, “both for the same reason, the prospect of change.” From there, Wills focuses neither on the pope nor on the future of the church, but rather on its history, and specifically on the many ways in which the church has erred, backtracked, prevaricated, and groaningly inched its way forward into the modern age. The church, Wills argues, may act like it never changes. But in the pages of this book, he shows us that it can.

Several of Wills’s previous books, particularly Why I Am a Catholic and Why Priests? A Failed Tradition, have explored similar territory. Wills’s historical chops are on vivid display in his new title: he can zip from the church’s distortion of the stories of early martyrs to contemporary battles over the use of Latin in liturgy. For those interested in Catholicism but lacking a theology degree, Wills’s work can serve as a decent introduction. He writes for a wide audience of sceptics, doubters, and questioners. However, those who the philosopher Charles Taylor recently referred to as “dwellers” – believers who disdain anyone disagreeing with church teaching – may not appreciate all of Wills’s zingers about the church’s history.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Crain’s Chicago Business

(Bloomberg) — A federal appeals court said the bankrupt Archdiocese of Milwaukee can’t defend the transfer of $55 million into a cemetery trust by invoking a 1993 religious- freedom statute.

The Milwaukee church filed for reorganization in June 2011 to resolve claims of clergy sexual abuse. The largest single potential asset for victims was the $55 million, which was moved to the cemetery trust before the bankruptcy filing.

An official creditors’ committee representing abuse victims sued to recover the money, saying it was improperly transferred. The bankruptcy judge let the case proceed, but U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa stopped it in July 2013, concluding that the trust was exempted from creditor claims by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA.

The creditors appealed.

A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals handed down a 38-page opinion Monday reinstating the suit. U.S. Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams, writing for the panel, disagreed with Randa on virtually every point.

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com
on March 09, 2015

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – It wasn’t always easy being Cardinal Edward Egan.

It was almost as if the former archbishop of New York, who died the other day at the age of 82, had one strike against him before he even set about his work for the archdiocese.

Cardinal Egan arrived as the head of the New York Archdiocese in 2000, following the death of Cardinal John O’Connor.

Those were some pretty big shoes to fill, and in the highest-profile archdiocese in the country, no less. …

In that way, Cardinal Egan has much in common with a pontiff who served during part of his tenure, Pope Benedict XVI, who succeeded the larger-than-life Pope John Paul II and who handed the keys to the kingdom to the gentler, more pastoral Pope Francis.

And, like Benedict, Cardinal Egan took hits for how he handled accusations of sexual abuse by priests, particularly during his tenure as archbishop of Bridgeport, Conn. That controversy will rightly be a part of Cardinal Dolan’s legacy.

When Cardinal Egan arrived in New York, demographic and economic shifts were hollowing out parts of the archdiocese. Parishes and schools were dying on the vine as the neighborhoods around them emptied out or changed. Attendance at some churches and schools plummeted.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

SEVENTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS RULES IN FAVOR OF SURVIVORS IN ARCHDIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE BANKRUPTCY CASE

Ruling Is A Major Victory For Survivors

(St. Paul) – Today, we received the long-awaited decision from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the cemetery trust litigation in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case.

The Seventh Circuit ruled in favor of the survivors and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and First Amendment do not preclude survivors from challenging the Archdiocese’s designation of approximately $55 million to the care of its cemeteries prior to filing bankruptcy. The decision allows survivors to go back to court to argue that the $55 million in assets the Archdiocese transferred to the Cemetery Trust should be available to compensate survivors in the bankruptcy case. This decision is a great victory for survivors, and gives them a day in court on the issue of fraudulent transfer by Archbishop Dolan.

“This is a highly momentous day for clergy sex abuse survivors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, who have suffered terribly since they were abused and have continued to suffer greatly as the Archdiocese has gone to great lengths to deny them justice,” said survivors’ attorney Jeff Anderson. “It is huge in decisively stating that bishops cannot use the First Amendment as a shield to protect themselves while using it as a club on the survivors.”

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.237.5143 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Finnegan: Office/651.237.5143 Mobile/612.205.5531

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MISSOURI
Constitutional Law Prof Blog

By Ruthann Robson

In its opinion today in Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, Inc. v. Joyce, the Eighth Circuit found that Missouri’s “House of Worship Protection Act,” Mo. Rev. Stat. § 574.035, violates the First Amendment.

The statute provides that a person commits the crime of disrupting a house of worship if he or she “[i]ntentionally and unreasonably disturbs, interrupts, or disquiets any house of worship by using profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior, or making noise either within the house of worship or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the worship services.”

The panel’s unanimous and relatively brief opinion, reversing the district judge, found fault with the statute as a content-based regulation, focusing as it does on “profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior.” The panel rejected the state’s argument that it was a mere time, place, or manner regulation subject to a lower level of scrutiny. Instead, the Eighth Circuit quoted the Court’s decision in McCullen v. Coakley last Term that a statute “would not be content neutral if it were concerned with undesirable effects that arise from ‘the direct impact of speech on its audience’ or ‘[l]isteners’ reactions to speech.'”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priest

In a major victory for Milwaukee clergy abuse survivors, 7th Circuit Federal Court rules against Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s transfer of $58 million dollars

Decision rejects first amendment argument, opens the door to determine if the Vatican and Dolan constituted the trust for purposes of fraud

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259
Or Mark Salmon, SNAP Milwaukee director 414.712.2092

In a major victory for some 575 victims of childhood rape and sexual assault by dozens of Milwaukee Roman Catholic clergy, the 7th Circuit Federal Court in Chicago ruled this afternoon in a strongly worded statement that a $58 million dollar “cemetery trust” constituted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York while he was Archbishop of Milwaukee is not protected by the first amendment. The ruling could have major consequences for Dolan and the Vatican, since the court can now determine if the trust was fraudulently created by him and the Vatican before the Archdiocese declared bankruptcy four years ago.

The 7th Circuit overturned a previous decision by controversial Federal Court Judge Rudolph Randa in Milwaukee. Randa had barred any examination of Dolan’s transfer of the money into a new “cemetery trust” before the archdiocese declared bankruptcy, essentially declaring that so called church “canon law” trumped US Federal Law in constituting the legality of the trust.

In a letter by Dolan to the Vatican seeking permission from the Pope to create the trust, Dolan states that, in part, the trust was being created in order to prevent US courts from compensating victims of clergy sex crimes. That means the trust was created for purposes of fraud, which would not only return the money back to the Archdiocese to be used to pay creditors in the current bankruptcy but also raises questions of criminal misconduct.

Finally, if Dolan had to seek permission from the Vatican and the Pope (then Benedict XVI) to create the trust, that clearly means that it is the Vatican, and not the Archdiocese of Milwaukee which is ultimately in charge of local church finances. The upcoming court examination, including the deposition one presumes of Dolan and, logically, top Vatican officials, even Benedict himself, could, for the first time, open the door to the long contested relationship between local bishops and the Vatican, most importantly, in matters of billions of dollars of church money and it’s deployment in the decades long cover up of abusive priests around the globe.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

9 March, 2015

The Royal Commission is holding a public hearing in Sydney commencing Wednesday 25 March2015 at 10:00am.

The purpose of the public hearing is to:

1. Enable invited persons and institutions to:

a. speak to their written submissions to the Royal Commission’s Consultation Paper on Redress and b. Civil Litigation and/or otherwise comment on the issues raised in the Consultation Paper, and
respond to questions asked by the Royal Commission.
c. Any related matters

2. Those invited to speak at the public hearing will not be asked to give sworn evidence.
For inquiries please contact redress@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

The public hearing will be streamed live to the public via webcast on the Royal Commission’s website at
www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au.

Interested individuals and organisations are encouraged to view the proceedings via the webcast.

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TEXAS
Texomas Homepage

A Jackson County judge rules there is probable cause to hold a trial for a former Altus pastor accused of sexually abusing a foster child.

Formal arraignment of 56-year-old Tommy Lynn Bailey is set for May 5th on a charge of sexual abuse of a child.

Bailey was arrested in Altus in December and is free on bond awaiting trial.

Condition of his bond include no contact the alleged victim and he also can not be in the presence of any minors without supervision.

Authorities allege the abuse began in 2007 when the girl was 14-years-old and was living in Bailey’s home.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Bruce Vielmetti and Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

In a blow to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in its ongoing bankruptcy, a federal appeals court on Monday put a $60 million cemetery trust fund back in play to potentially settle claims related to sexual abuse by priests.

The ruling from the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the church cannot use the First Amendment or a 1993 law aimed at protecting religious freedom to shield the funds.

The court also said the judge who put the money off limits, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa, should have disclosed the fact his parents and other relatives are buried in a cemetery maintained by the trust fund. The court remanded the case to a different district court judge.

The decision reinstated the lawsuit filed by the bankruptcy creditors committee to recover what was originally a nearly $57 million transfer of money by then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan from the Archdiocese to a trust for the perpetual care of the church’s cemeteries. The lawsuit claimed that the transfer was a fraudulent attempt to shield the money in anticipation of a bankruptcy filing.

The archdiocese created the Catholic Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust in 2007; the Vatican approved the transfer of funds into it the following year.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Ernst-Ulrich Franzen for the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board
March 9, 2015

Here’s what we said in August 2013 regarding U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa’s involvement in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case:

“Should it matter that close family members of a federal judge hearing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case are buried in archdiocesan cemeteries?

How about when this same judge ruled that the $50 million that the archdiocese holds in trust for its cemeteries was off limits in the bankruptcy case? It might matter. And that’s why U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa should have disclosed his connection to the archdiocese. It’s the judge’s responsibility to disclose potential conflicts, and on the face of it, this looks like a potential conflict.”

On Monday, a federal appeals court agreed, not only overturning Randa’s ruling that the cemetery trust fund was off limits, but arguing that Randa should have disclosed the fact that his own parents and other relatives are buried in a cemetery maintained by the fund.

Here’s what the court had to say: “The Committee argues that a reasonable person would question the judge’s impartiality because he would be emotionally attached to the well being of his family members’ resting places.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN
March 9, 2015

Hundreds of people who claim they were sexually abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy members won a major victory against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday when a federal appeals court struck down a lower court’s decision to shield a $55 million trust from their claims.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that a trust created to maintain the archdiocese’s cemeteries must be made available to the alleged abuse victims and other creditors, potentially freeing up a major funding source in a contentious Chapter 11 bankruptcy case that has stretched out over more than four years.

The archdiocese had argued using the funds to compensate victims would violate its constitutionally protected free exercise of religion. Monday’s ruling is a victory for the more than 500 abuse victims who challenged the archdiocese’s stance.

“I’m very pleased with the result,” said James Stang, a lawyer with Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP who has represented victims in all but two of the diocesan bankruptcies to date. “This decision has great significance for the case and also for all litigation in federal court regarding religious entities.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
ABC News

MADISON, Wis. — Mar 9, 2015
By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press

A federal judge made a mistake when he ruled a $55 million cemetery trust fund off-limits in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy case, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects religious organizations from government interference, doesn’t protect the money because creditors seeking a share of the fund aren’t the government.

Attorneys for clergy sexual abuse victims have accused New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan of creating the trust fund when he was archbishop of Milwaukee to hide money from their clients. Their lawsuit has potentially far-reaching consequences because many Roman Catholic dioceses hold money in trust, and the victory for victims in Milwaukee could pave the way for others elsewhere. The appeals court decision is likely to be appealed.

“This is a great decision that reverberates across the country,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney for 350 of the victims.

Tim Nixon, an attorney for the cemetery trust fund, said his firm will review its options and discuss them with the archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

Jurors weighing the sexual abuse case of suspended Roman Catholic priest Andrew McCormick ended their first full day of deliberations without reaching a verdict.

McCormick, 59, stands accused of assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 after luring him to his bedroom in the rectory of St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg. He has denied the allegation.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A group representing victims of sex abuse in Scotland says it is becoming “deeply suspicious” over the handling of a public inquiry into the issue.

The group says organisations which may ultimately face criticism at the end of the inquiry are being asked to help decide its remit in private meetings.

Chris Daly, a survivor of institutional abuse, said: “We have concerns here in Scotland that if the Scottish Government and those setting up this inquiry don’t shape it in the right way, we will end up in the same position as what happened down south where we have people appointed to chair the inquiry who are wholly unsuitable and not acceptable to survivors.

“We have concerns that the Scottish Government won’t listen to us in relation to that and we’ll have the totally wrong characteristics of a chair.

“We also have concerns that if the make-up of the inquiry was just one person, then we would have difficulty with that.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY MARK MORRIS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
03/09/2015

A Missouri law prohibiting “profane,” “rude” and “indecent” protests outside churches, synagogues and mosques is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

Ruling in favor of organizations and individuals who have protested outside Catholic churches and facilities, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Missouri House of Worship Protection Act violates the First Amendment because it seeks to restrict the content of the protesters’ speech.

The act, passed in 2012, prohibited intentionally disturbing a “house of worship by using profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior … either within the house of worship or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the worship services.”

Other so-called “content neutral” methods, such as noise regulations, exist for protecting religious services from unreasonable disruption, the panel noted.

“Disagreement with a message, even a profane or rude message, does not permit its suppression,” the judges found.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 9

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A three judge panel has agreed with us that legislators were wrong to pass a law severely limiting freedom of speech near churches.

[Kansas City Star]

For years, we have calmly and quietly handed out fliers to church-goers, either warning them about child molesting clerics or offering help to anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups. We’re grateful we will still be able to do this kind of outreach.

We’re glad to do our small part to protect freedom of speech. Lawmakers should make it easier, not harder, to warn parents, parishioners and the public about child molesters. They should worry less about the feelings of adults and more about the safety of kids.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

03/09/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

In November of 2013, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis announced that it had hired Kinsale Management Consulting to conduct a review of all its clergy files as part of its ‘ongoing efforts’ to ‘address the issue of clergy misconduct’. According to news reports at the time, the review was to begin in December of 2013 and would include all clergy in active ministry. Later reports indicated that the review was expanded to include all clergy active after 1970.

Some of the results of this review were quick to become public, and would have been unsurprising to those familiar with Archdiocesan personnel files. Less than a month after the review began, Fathers Joseph Gallatin and Mark Wehmann were placed on leave from their parish assignments. Father Ken LaVan, accused of sexual abuse of minor girls in the 1980s but permitted to remain in active ministry even after the adoption of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and after Archbishop Nienstedt had publicly declared in November of 2013 that no such priests remained in ministry, was finally removed and publicly named in February of 2014. In addition, as a result of the file review the Archdiocese’s list of priests with credible claims of sexual abuse of minors more than doubled from the 33 originally reported in court filings to include at least 69 priests, deacons, and religious. And, because of the file review and significant setbacks in court, the Archdiocese was forced to list additional cases of abuse that occurred or were reported after 2004, despite statements made in court by Archdiocesan attorneys claiming there was only one such case.

These were exactly the results that I was seeking when I called for an independent file review while I was employed at the Chancery and after my resignation. My colleagues and I were completely aware and informed of these situations, but I was never able to convince Archdiocesan leadership to take action to protect the faithful. Instead, my concerns were brushed aside. The file review, from my perspective, was directed towards forcing the Archdiocese into taking necessary actions that it had otherwise been unwilling to consider by bringing a fresh voice and perspective to the discussion.

Yet, while the Archdiocese has been fairly public with some of the results of the Kinsale file review (transparency, in the Archdiocesan lexicon, still seems to mean something different than it does to the rest of us), they have been largely quiet if not silent on the more unsettling results of Kinsale’s work. For, in addition to the publicly announced removals and leaves of absence, there have been a number of unpublicized ‘retirements’, ‘sabbaticals’, ‘transfers’,and other removals of priests from ministry that can be linked to the reevaluation of old accusations and/or concerns brought to light through the file review. In fact, according to multiple sources who have been involved in this process, the Kinsale review has resulted in nearly 250 clergy files being ‘flagged’ for issues of concern.

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GUAM
KUAM

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

KUAM News has confirmed that a teacher from a local private school has been terminated. It was last week when KUAM was provided information that a teacher was allegedly acting inappropriately with male students at St. Thomas Aquinas school and was terminated. School officials however referred us to the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery Office.

Monday evening KUAM received a statement from Deacon Larry Claros, the Archdiocese of Agana’s Sexual Abuse Response Coordinator, who confirmed an incident occurred in January involving a a student who complained of inappropriate behavior by a teacher. Claros stated that a male student informed school officials that a female teacher had text inappropriate image of herself to him. Claros says the school administration took proper and immediate action upon receiving the information, reporting the matter to police as required by law.

Officials from St. Thomas Aquinas also spoke with all parties involved and the teacher was terminated. Claros said “the Archdiocese of Agana takes the safety of all children very seriously and will not tolerate inappropriate behavior by any adults with whom our youth are entrusted.”

Press statement:

The Archdiocese of Agana confirms that it took disciplinary action against a teacher at one of its high schools, St. Thomas Aquinas, after a student complained of inappropriate behavior by the teacher.

The incident occurred in January and involved a male student who informed school authorities that a female teacher had texted inappropriate images of herself to him.

The school administration took proper and immediate action upon receiving the information, reporting the matter to the police as required by law. School officials also spoke with all parties involved, met with the student’s parents and also informed Chancery officials. The teacher was terminated.

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MISSOURI
Columbia Daily Tribune

Boone County sheriff’s detectives arrested a 42-year-old Columbia man Friday on suspicion of sexually assaulting a juvenile female and possessing child pornography.

Dale G. Johnson, 950 W. Akeman Bridge Road, was being held in the Boone County Jail awaiting bond to be set on two counts of first degree statutory sodomy and one count of possession of child pornography.

Johnson was the youth director at Parkade Baptist Church, 2102 N. Garth Ave., until he was placed on leave Feb. 11 when administrators found out about the investigation, Pastor Chris Cook said Saturday. Cook said Johnson later resigned. He could not provide more details.

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GUAM
Concerned Catholics of Guam

CCOG will be hosting a village meeting in Tamuning, on Thursday, March 12 at 6 pm at the Tamuning Senior Citizen Center (next to the gym).

The village meeting in Santa Rita is scheduled for Monday, March 16 at 6 pm at the Santa Rita Community Center.

Please invite your family and friends! We are in the process of organizing meeting in the other villages. Please stay tuned.

Also as a reminder, Teri U continues to pray at the entrance of the Chancery at 3 pm daily. Please join her. Parking is available near the apartments.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

Monday, March 9, 2015

By: Laurel J. Sweet, Antonio Planas

More than two years of police records released to the Herald yesterday appear to support Police Commissioner William B. Evans’ claim that the Rev. Shaun O. Harrison was not on his department’s radar before last week’s arrest on charges that he tried to murder a teenager who was selling pot for him.

In response to a Herald request made Thursday, police yesterday turned over a log of 77 calls for service from Pompeii Street in Roxbury — where Harrison, 55, shares a three-family home — made between Jan. 1, 2013, and his arrest Wednesday. None of the calls indicate drug activity, and responses specific to Harrison’s building, but not his apartment, are for a stolen cellphone and noise disturbances.

Police spokesman Lt. 
Michael McCarthy repeated Evans’ claim that police knew nothing, saying “there was no indication” of criminal activity by Harrison, who last week was fired as “dean of academy” — a parent-student coordinator’s job — at English High School in Jamaica Plain.

“The only time we became aware of anything was after the shooting, when we talked to the victim, nor did any of the neighbors let us know what was going on or call the cops about drugs on the street. We had no knowledge of anything going on with him,” McCarthy said. “We’re extremely shocked and disappointed, if the allegations are proven to be true. He was involved with youth, so he was certainly a faith-based resource that we could reach out to.”

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UNITED STATES
A Room with A Pew

Paul Fericano

“Irreverence is our only sacred cow.”
— Paul Krassner

Ever since I began to read, study and compose words as a young boy, poetry has spoken to me in a language as clear as anything in my life. It’s been a vital part of my personal healing and a great reconciler during times of distress. My first published writing was a four-line, rhyming poem that appeared in a national scholastic magazine when I was nine years old. Two brothers who lived up the street from me burned their house down after playing with matches in their basement. No one was hurt in the blaze, but I can remember watching the flames as the family huddled under blankets on the sidewalk. For several nights I had terrible dreams about what I had witnessed. Writing a poem about it helped me express my fears.

Like humor, which I’ve learned to use during times of emotional turmoil, poetry has encouraged me to grow into pain and suffering with perception and acceptance, even when explanations are difficult to grasp. Learning to mix satire with sentiment has gotten me in and out of trouble, some of it of my own making, but most of it the result of what often comes with the territory. Learning to decode the beginnings has helped me understand what the late poet and educator John Ciardi hinted at when he asked: “How does a poem mean?” …

Something That Required Subterfuge

In the fall of 1966, I returned as a sophomore to Saint Anthony’s, a Franciscan minor seminary in Santa Barbara, California. The year before, and all during the first half of my freshman year, I had been sexually assaulted by Mario Cimmarrusti, a priest on the faculty who served as the prefect of discipline. Mario was short in stature, gruff in manner, and had a quick temper. He was a feared and formidable presence on the campus with the authority to make life miserable for any boy he chose– and he usually did. His power and influence over decisions that shaped the lives of those under his control could never be underestimated. He was the only Franciscan in the school whom every student had to answer to on a daily basis.

During this period, many boys in my class were also being molested by Mario. No one ever spoke about it, at least not directly, and certainly not in a way we could understand and explain today. For me and a lot of others, the term, “sexual abuse” was as unfamiliar as sex itself. And yet, those of us who were being traumatized knew, instinctively, that things were bad in our world and in the world around us. It wasn’t until years later that many of us learned, some for the first time, how similar our fates had been.

In the evening, students would be summoned to Mario’s room from study hall, choir practice or the dormitories. During the day we might be yanked from class, football practice or other school activities. With no name for what I was experiencing, my anxiety and confusion only increased. The dreading was more than I cared to admit. It was not difficult to recognize in the faces of my classmates the same pain I saw in my own. The abuse made me feel humiliated, alone and isolated—something it was intended to do. And yet, in the middle of all this dismay I still looked for ways to cope.

One such way was with acts of rebellion.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger

[Pastor Winfried Jansen has apologized to victims of sexual abuse.]

Der Erftstädter Pfarrer Winfried Jansen hat sich bei den Betroffenen wegen der sexuellen Übergriffe entschuldigt. Täter, die an den dunkelsten Teil ihrer Lebensgeschichte vordringen, verdienen Respekt. Zuerst brauchen jedoch die Opfer Rückendeckung. Von Joachim Frank

Die Unterstützer des Erftstädter Priesters Winfried Jansen waren nicht einfach blauäugig oder gutgläubig, als sie ihren Pfarrer gegen die Anschuldigung sexuellen Missbrauchs in Schutz nahmen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein -Erft Rundschau

[Many people in Erstadt-Liblar are support Pastor Winfried Jansen despite allegations of boundary violations made against him.]

In Erftstadt-Liblar gibt es viele Aktionen zur Unterstützung des entpflichteten Pfarrers Winfried Jansen. Mit lila Armbändern zeigen sich viele Bürger solidarisch. Auch eine Unterschriftensammlung läuft. Von Patrik Reinartz

Erftstadt-Liblar.
Die Welle der Solidarität mit Pfarrer Winfried Jansen ebbt in Erftstadt nicht ab. Vor der Pfarrkirche St. Barbara in Liblar haben Gemeindemitglieder Kerzen, Blumen und Zettel mit Botschaften an den Geistlichen abgelegt, der wegen des Vorwurfs, vor 40 Jahren „sexuelle Grenzverletzungen“ begangen zu haben, entpflichtet worden war. Vor der Kirche liegen auch Unterschriftenlisten aus, ebenso an vielen anderen Orten in Liblar.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Jesus said in Mathew 23: “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses…but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.” Pope Francis is the official interpreter of Vatican religious laws and Roman Catholic Doctrines – but he does not practise what he preaches. Pope Francis crushes people with unbearable religious demands – especially on women and the poor – and he never lifts a finger to ease their burden.

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NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic

by MICHAEL OTTO

A leading canon lawyer has warned that it is only a matter of time before New Zealand’s legal protection of priest-penitent privilege comes under strong challenge.

Good Shepherd College principal Msgr Brendan Daly issued this warning at the launch of his book Canon Law In Action at the St Columba Centre in Ponsonby on February 15.

Speaking at the launch, Msgr Daly noted how the seal of confession has been the topic of strong recent comment in Australia at a royal commission and in courts in Louisiana in the United States.

In the latter instance, Baton Rouge diocese fears a civil lawsuit connected with sexual abuse of a minor could force a priest to violate the seal of confession, or else go to jail.

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SCITUATE
Wicked Local Scituate

By Jessica Trufant
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Mar. 8, 2015

SCITUATE — The Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini has hired legal counsel to represent them in civil litigation, which the Archdiocese of Boston has threatened to pursue if the parishioners don’t vacate the church by tomorrow.

On Sunday, the Friends of St. Frances announced at the Hood Road church that they hired attorney Mary Elizabeth Carmody after receiving a notice in February to vacate on or before March 9 from the Archdiocese of Boston.

St. Frances was among dozens of Boston-area churches pegged for closure in 2004 as part of a reconfiguration plan designed to shrink the archdiocese’s growing debt. Citing falling attendance, a priest shortage and financial problems, the archdiocese closed more than 60 churches.

But some parishioners refused to leave their churches, including parishioners of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, who in October celebrated 10 full years of holding a continuous vigil.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Homes of Leon Brittan and former armed forces chief ‘searched by police investigating child sex allegations’

By JENNIFER NEWTON FOR MAILONLINE

The homes of Leon Brittan and the former head of the armed forces have reportedly been searched by police investigating child sex allegations.

Officers raided two properties belonging to the former Home Secretary in London and North Yorkshire earlier this week, just six weeks after his death aged 75.

Meanwhile at the same time, a house in Surrey, owned by Lord Bramall, once the Army’s highest ranking officer, was also searched.

It came on the same day as police also targeted the home of former disgrced Tory MP Harvey Proctor, where detectives spent two days searching his grace-and-favour home at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire after a police team arrived on the estate on Wednesday.

The raids were conducted by officers from Operation Midland, which was set up by the Metropolitan Police in November to investigate claims of a VIP Westminster child sex abuse ring in the 1970s and 1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Mark Piggott
March 8, 2015

Police have raided a number of properties in connection with the investigation into an alleged paedophile sex ring, including the home of the late Sir Leon Brittan and Britain’s most decorated soldier, D-Day veteran Lord Bramall.

The dawn raids, which took place on Wednesday 4 March, took place at Sir Leon’s family homes in North Yorkshire and London, Lord Bramall’s home in Surrey, and the home of former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor near Grantham, Lincolnshire.

No arrests were made at any of the properties searched.

Officers connected with Operation Midland carried out the raids, which were reported in the Sunday Mirror and online news agency Exaro News.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By AARON BROWN

Officers raided properties in London and Wensleydale, in North Yorkshire, owned by the ex-Home Secretary on Wednesday this week.

Lord Brittan was previously accused of failing to act on a dossier detailing allegations of abuse within Westminster.

The raids on his properties come amid claims the Cabinet Office covered up infamous MP Cyril Smith’s abuse allegations before his knighthood.

Police searched the homes of Lord Brittan some six weeks since the 75-year-old Conservative politician died of cancer.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed raids had taken place in the past week. …

Operation Midland was set up in November to investigate claims of a child sex abuse ring hidden in Westminster during the 1970s and 1980s, conducted the raids at the homes of Lord Brittan.

“They are examining multiple leads. It’s fair to say they are being very thorough. They will go wherever the evidence might lead them,” a source close to the investigation told the Daily Mirror.

News of the raids comes amid evidence Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher knew of the child abuse allegations against Rochdale MP Cyril Smith BEFORE he was awarded his knighthood.

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UNITED STATES
It’s Just Movies

– by ELI COLON –

Last year, we heard about the drama “Spotlight,” the upcoming film from “Win Win” and “The Station Agent” director Tom McCarthy.

Co-written by McCarthy and “The West Wing” writer Josh Singer, the film focuses on the story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Bost Globe journalists who exposed the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of child molestation in Massaschusetts. And based on its stellar cast alone, “Spotlight” should be on everyone’s radar, as it includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James and Billy Crudup.

We really don’t get enough investigative journalism movies, and as the film’s press release notes, the film “points to the necessity of good, local journalism, the type of journalism that has been decimated over the past 15 years by the decline of the newspaper industry. ‘Spotlight’ explores the larger themes of complicity and deference, attempting to grapple with the question of how an evil so widespread could go undetected for so long.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

[Pastor Winfried will not come back. They know that in Erftstadt. They know that in Cologne. The priest Winfried even knows. For more than 35 years he was the pastor in the church Erftstadt-Ville near Cologne. Then it all came out: He had inappropriately approached a nine-year-old. The archdiocese spoke of sexual boundary violations. On learning of the allegations, two other victims came forward.]

VON RAOUL LÖBBERT

8. März 2015

Pfarrer Winfried kommt nicht wieder. Das weiß man in Erftstadt. Das weiß man in Köln. Das weiß sogar Pfarrer Winfried. Mehr als 35 Jahre war der Seelsorger in der Gemeinde Erftstadt-Ville bei Köln. Dann kam heraus: Als junger Mann hatte sich der 73-Jährige einer Neunjährigen unangemessen genähert. Das Erzbistum spricht von “sexuellen Grenzverletzungen”, von Zärtlichkeiten, die zwischen Liebenden selbstverständlich, zwischen einem Kind und einem Erwachsenen allerdings undenkbar seien. Nach Bekanntwerden der Vorwürfe meldeten sich zwei weitere Opfer. Auch zu ihnen war Pfarrer Winfried grenzverletzend zärtlich. Per schriftlicher Erklärung entschuldigte er sich deshalb bei Opfern und Gemeinde.

Für die Justiz ist der Fall damit erledigt: Die Zärtlichkeit des Geistlichen ist verjährt. Die katholische Kirche in Deutschland jedoch lässt Verjährungen nicht mehr ohne Weiteres gelten. Hunderte Missbrauchsfälle in katholischen Einrichtungen hatten vor fünf Jahren dem Ruf von Mutter Kirche langfristig geschadet. Jahrzehntelang hatte die Kirche geschwiegen, vertuscht und sich vor allem mit den Tätern solidarisch erklärt. Damit sollte nach 2010 Schluss sein: Man gab sich Leitlinien zum Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch. Man wollte künftig hart durchgreifen. Im Fall von Pfarrer Winfried wird ausgerechnet diese neue Härte für die Kirche und den als Hoffnungsträger geltenden Kölner Kardinal Woelki zum Problem. Die Erftstädter fragen sich: Ist, was den Richtlinien entspricht, auch richtig?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

8 March 2015 By Keir Mudie, Mark Watts

Cops have raided Tory Lord Leon ­Brittan’s homes over alleged child abuse – just SIX weeks after he died.

Detectives swooped on the former Home Secretary’s properties in London and North Yorkshire, the Sunday Mirror and news investigators Exaro can reveal

And in a dramatic development officers from Operation Midland – set up to ­investigate historic claims of child abuse by a group of powerful men – also searched the home of 91-year-old D-Day veteran Lord Bramall, once Britain’s highest-ranking Army officer.

The four raids were carried out at dawn on Wednesday at the same time officers swooped on the home of former Tory MP Harvey Proctor , 68.

Sources say the they were signed off by a “senior figure” in the Operation Midland team.

No arrests were made and there is no indication either Mr Proctor or Baron Bramall will have to give formal statements.

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ILLINOIS
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: James G. Gaynor was a priest of the diocese of Rockford IL, ordained in 1960. He assisted at several parishes and taught high school religion before becoming a hospital chaplain in 1967. In 1979 he was appointed pastor of a McHenry IL parish, a position he held until his death in 1991. In 2000 Gaynor was accused of having sexually abused a 4 to 5 year-old boy in the early 1960s in Aurora IL. The diocese said Gaynor died of AIDS in 1991 and offered Gaynor’s accuser money for counseling if he agreed to release the diocese from damages and liability. The man refused, saying he was seeking acknowledgement of the truth rather than financial gain.

Ordained: 1960
Died: June 1, 1991

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MISSOURI
Columbia Missourian

Saturday, March 7, 2015

BY ALYSSA SALELA

COLUMBIA – The former youth director at Parkade Baptist Church was arrested Friday on suspicion of first-degree statutory sodomy and possession of child pornography.

Dale G. Johnson, 42, turned himself in to Boone County Sheriff’s Department detectives at 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to a news release. His arrest followed an investigation that began when the Missouri Division of Children’s Services received a hotline call in early February.

Detectives suspect Johnson of assaulting a girl on multiple occasions, beginning in 2013. The victim was under the age of 14 at the time of at least one of the assaults. Johnson and the victim knew each other, according to the release.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MARCH 09, 2015

Natasha Robinson
Senior Writer
Sydney

LAWYERS for the church property trust that controls the assets of Knox Grammar were subjecting victims of sex abuse to drawn-out litigation and aggressive legal tactics in an attempt to limit damages payments even as the royal commission was investigating the elite Sydney independent school.

Solicitor Ross Koffel, a Knox old boy who also sent his son to the private school on Sydney’s north shore, is representing a host of claimants against Knox.

A large number of inquiries have been received by Sydney solic­itors following hearings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Last week, the commission wrapped up a fortnight of hearings examining how Knox responded to allegations of child sexual abuse by teachers employed at the school between 1970 and 2009.

Mr Koffel told The Australian that Knox Grammar, via the Uniting Church entity that controls its assets — the Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust — had fought sex-abuse victims’ compensation claims “in the most robust way possible”.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Pope Francis the Pharisee of the 21st century miraculously transforms the Vatican into a white-washed sepulchre

Many highly paid deceiving Vatican Pied Pipers – especially John Allen – members of the Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team – are releasing their books to brainwash Americans idiots Catholics for Pope Francis’ upcoming visit in September because stupid Americans are the biggest donors to the Vatican Mammon Beast and there are hundreds of billions of dollars of Vatican investments and properties in the USA handled in secret by American billionaires and millionaires and politicians.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

[with video]

Sunday, March 8, 2015

By: Lindsay Kalter

City officials are still mum on why Shaun O. Harrison, a reverend and Boston Public School employee accused of shooting a 17-year-old student execution-style Tuesday night, was allowed to work around youths despite what prosecutors say was apparent drug and gang activity at his home.

“Certainly this situation is very troubling to me,” Mayor Marty Walsh said yesterday. “We’re talking about some of the most vulnerable kids in our system, in our high schools, and somebody who’s supposed to be a mentor to them.”

He said an investigation is ongoing, and there will be “more to say once the investigation is complete.”

Harrison, 55, of Roxbury, an English High School “dean of academy,” was charged Thursday with assault with intent to murder, and police say more charges are expected after detectives searched his Pompeii Street home Friday night and found two handguns, a rifle, a shotgun, ammo, “trafficking weight” of cocaine and a large amount of marijuana.

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CANADA
Medicine Hat News

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS ON MARCH 5, 2015.

PEACE RIVER, Alta. – A Catholic priest has vehemently denied sexually touching a minor at a church in northwestern Alberta.

Abraham Azhakathu testified Thursday at his trial on charges of sexual assault and sexual touching.

The 60-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to both charges, stemming from allegations from between May and August in 2013 in Manning, Alta.

There is a publication ban on anything that would identify the complainant.

Azhakathu testified he helped the minor put on church garments once or twice, but strongly denied touching the minor’s private parts.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Danuta Kozaki

Australia’s Jewish community is undergoing a period of renewal following damaging revelations that emerged at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

After the royal commission examined allegations of child sexual abuse and cover-ups at Yeshivah colleges and centres in Melbourne and Sydney, several senior leaders in the ultra-Orthodox community resigned.

“Obviously there has been a problem in the past and I think right up to the present time with some religious leaders who have encouraged their members not to report child abuse and that’s just not on,” said Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Mr Wertheim said the community was shocked by the revelations and subsequent comments from some leaders following the commission.

The president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (ORA), Rabbi Selwyn Franklin, said his organisation aimed to make sure there was renewal within its ranks.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

7 March 2015 By Aimee Beveridge

IT took more than a year for an investigation into O’Brien to begin and, a year on, a report into him has still to be published.

ONE of shamed cardinal Keith O’Brien’s sex attack victims has slated the Catholic Church for
delaying a probe on him.

It took more than a year for an investigation into O’Brien to begin and, a year on, a report into him has still to be published.

O’Brien was forced to retire in February 2013 after five priests made a series of allegations of sexual misconduct.

Last April, the Vatican got Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to probe the allegations.

He conducted interviews in Edinburgh but despite the Church being presented with a report,
his findings have yet to be published.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Gerard DeGroot March 7

THE NUNS OF SANT’AMBROGIO
The True Story of a Convent in Scandal
By Hubert Wolf
Translated from the German by Ruth Martin
Knopf. 476 pp. $30

Sister Maria Luisa was the novice mistress at the Sant’Ambrogio convent in Rome. She was intelligent, charismatic and stunningly beautiful. She was also a sociopath, embezzler, false saint, sexual predator, pathological liar and murderer.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Had her crimes been committed outside the convent, the problem would have been easily solved. Maria Luisa would have been arrested, tried and quickly executed. But she was a nun, which meant that the real concern was not the victims she raped and murdered, but the threat she posed to the Catholic Church.

The jacket of “The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio” promises an “incredible story of how one woman was able to perpetrate deception, heresy, seduction and murder in the heart of the Church itself.” Given that jackets are designed to sell books, the hyperbole is entirely understandable. In fact, however, this astonishing book is much more than a true-crime thriller about murderous lesbian nuns. It’s also a very serious study of how the church deals with scandal. As Hubert Wolf points out, we aren’t supposed to know about this story.

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MALLORCA
Radio Aleman

[An investigation is underway at a Catholic Church of Sa Pobla in the wake of molestation charges against some senior clerics in Selva and Lluc. According to a Spanish newspaper, a former altar boy has accused the local priest of sexual assault.]

Nach den Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen teils führende Geistliche in Selva und Lluc ist nun auch die katholische Kirche in Sa Pobla auf Mallorca ins Visier der Ermittlungen geraten. Nach einem Bericht der spanischen Zeitung Ultima Hora beschuldigt ein ehemaliger Ministrant den dortigen Priester sexueller Übergriffe. Damit stehen derzeit insgesamt drei katholische Kirchengemeinden auf Mallorca im Zentrum von Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen ehemalige oder amtierende Geistliche.

Gegen mindestens drei Priester der Gemeinde Selva liegt dem Gericht in Inca bereits eine offizielle Anzeige eines früheren Ministranten vor.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara Independent

Sunday, March 8, 2015
by TYLER HAYDEN

The Carpinteria Community Church routinely ignored and covered up reports of sexual abuse committed by one of its youth ministers, a lawsuit filed Tuesday claims.

The lawsuit also alleges that the church’s corporate parents, including the Presbytery of Santa Barbara and Presbyterian Church USA, harbored another sexual predator who molested multiple victims over the course of 30 years as he was transferred to different parishes in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and around the country.

“The Presbyterian Church has always held itself as different from the Catholic Church,” said attorney Tim Hale about how the two institutions treat offenders within their ranks. “They say the right things, but this is a classic case of actions speaking louder than words.”

Hale is representing a single plaintiff in the civil complaint, a former member of the Carpinteria Community Church who says youth minister Louis Bristol preyed on her during religious retreats and when he counseled her about her parents’ divorce.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

STEVE LOWE looks back on 15 years of campaigning journalism with Bedfordshire on Sunday to bring the perpetrators of Shefford boys home’ abuse to justice…

BACK in the 1990s I received a call from someone who had ‘a big story’.

I was new to journalism so was quite excited but my more experienced, sceptical colleagues were unconvinced.

‘If it’s a cat up a tree, don’t offer to get it down for them,’ was the advice.

This was the first time I met Damian Chittock and heard the story of St Francis Boys’ Home, Shefford.

The home was run by the Catholic Church and the residents were mainly abandoned or orphaned boys between the ages of six and sixteen.

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MISSOURI
Maryville Daily Forum

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A former youth director at a Columbia church has been charged with sexually assaulting a girl.

Forty-two-year-old Dale G. Johnson, of Columbia, was charged Friday with first-degree statutory sodomy of a person younger than 14 years old, second-degree statutory sodomy and possession of child pornography. He is jailed on a $100,000 cash-only bond. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The Columbia Missourian (http://bit.ly/1MiJsu8 ) reports that his arrest followed an investigation that began when the Missouri Division of Children’s Services received a hotline call in early February.

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UNITED STATES
TribLive

By The Washington Post
Saturday, March 7, 2015

American religion is on the ropes, but it has a prayer.

A record-low share of Americans attend church regularly, affiliate with a religious faith and see themselves as religious, according to a major survey.

The findings mark a continuation of a decades-long departure from the pews along with a growing share who profess loyalty to no religion at all. But whatever Americans’ hang-ups with weekend services and denominational ties, they haven’t stopped praying on their own.

Fully 57 percent of respondents said they pray at least once a day, little different from 54 percent in 1983, when the question was first asked on the survey. Three-quarters of respondents said they pray at least once a week, and 1 in 4 pray less often or never.

The national survey is the broadest study of attitudes in the United States. It has been conducted at least every two years since 1972 by the independent research organization NORC, at the University of Chicago.

The stability of prayer contrasts sharply with erosion on other measures of religious commitment. Since 2006, the percentage of people describing themselves as “very” or “moderately” religious has declined eight percentage points, from 62 percent to 54 percent. The share affiliating with a particular faith has fallen from more than 90 percent in the 1980s and 1990s to 79 percent in 2014. About 4 in 10 report attending services at least once a month, down roughly 10 points from three decades ago. All are record lows.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

By Jonathan Pitts
The Baltimore Sun

Just over two months ago, when Heather Elizabeth Cook, a newly ordained Episcopal bishop, was involved in an accident that left a bicyclist dead, the tragedy made headlines around the world, while sparking controversy within and outside the church.

Cook — who was drunk at the time of the accident, according to Baltimore police and prosecutors — had been made a bishop despite an arrest on DUI charges four years earlier. The Dec. 27 crash raised questions about how the Episcopal Church, already split over dogma and facing steep membership declines, chooses its leaders.

And it has put the stewardship of the national church’s presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, in the spotlight.

Jefferts Schori, 60, has headed the 1.9 million-member national church since 2006. Her tenure has been a period of major schism, and she has drawn criticism for what some say is her overly litigious response to conservative Episcopalians who have broken with the church over its official support of same-sex marriage and gay clergy.

Jefferts Schori, who presided at Cook’s consecration Sept. 6, has faced criticism before — perhaps most notably when she welcomed a former Roman Catholic priest who was a pedophile into her home diocese without telling parishioners about his past.

Now, some Episcopalians in the Baltimore area have been asking how their diocese could have put forward a candidate it knew had a drunk-driving arrest without telling them. The selection committee that vetted Cook knew of the 2010 DUI on the Eastern Shore — though not all its details — and decided not to pass the information on to those who would vote in her election last May.

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INDIA
Daijiworld

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Mar 7: Dealing with cases involving sexual abuse of minors by priests and religious and implementation of anti-sexual harassment policy as well as child protection policy are new sections in the completely revised Pastoral Handbook of the Bengaluru Archdiocese, which is being implemented in the Archdiocese of Bengaluru with effect from this month.

The 736-page revised pastoral handbook since the publication of the first edition in 2009, according to the Archbishop Dr Bernard Moras, contains a few “new additions that are found to be essential for effective and better pastoral ministry.”

Some of the new additions and guidelines based on the Code of Canon Law and the latest thinking in the Catholic Church as enunciated by the present Pope Francis are certainly worth implantation in other dioceses as well.

The pastoral handbook has been “revised and updated to maintain currency and relevance,” the Archbishop said pointing out that the main objective was to “set the framework for the planning and designing of new ministries and upgrading the existing ones. The priestly character is the root of the specific action of the sacred minister, who acts in the person of Christ as his extension, on behalf of the local and universal community, he said.

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