NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory
January 20, 2015

Diocese of Rockville Centre Sued for Hiding Sexual Offenders and Creating a Dangerous Public Nuisance

Identities and Locations of Credibly Accused Sexually Abusive Clerics Sought
Alleged Perpetrator Still Allowed to Minister in New York

What: At a press conference Wednesday, January 21, 2015 on Long Island, attorneys Jeff Anderson and J. Michael Reck of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:

Announce the filing of a complaint on behalf of a 20 year-old woman naming the Diocese of Rockville Centre, St. Francis Assisi Parish and Father Gregory Yacyshyn as defendants. Yacyshyn is alleged to have abused the woman when she was a young child and parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi in Greenlawn, New York. He remains in ministry at St. Jude in Mastic Beach, NY.

Discuss the public nuisance claim alleged in the lawsuit for the Diocese’s failure to implement proper child protection safety measures and for their continued refusal to release the identities and internal church documents on known offenders in spite of previous Grand Jury investigations.

Encourage other sexual abuse survivors to come forward and demand the diocese remove Father Yacyshyn and release the identities and names of known clerical offenders.
Photos and written statement from the survivor will be provided.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 1:30PM EST

WHERE: Long Island Marriott
101 James Doolittle Blvd.
Long Island University Room
Uniondale, NY 11553

Notes: Copies of the complaint will be available at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.318.2650
Mike Reck: Cell: 714.742.6593 Office: 646.649.4960

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Case of bishop accused in bicyclist death opens debate about theology of addiction

By Michelle Boorstein January 20

The case of a high-ranking Episcopal bishop charged with drinking and texting before fatally hitting a bicyclist has raised questions about everything from church politics to bike lanes. But no debate about Bishop Heather Cook has been as intense as that about the theology of addiction.

Is it a sin? Does it qualify for forgiveness? Or are addicts blameless victims of disease, inculpable?

And how did these topics impact the leaders of the dioceses’ of Easton and Maryland – Cook’s last two places of employment – first when she was arrested for drunk-driving in 2010, and then last year when she was selected despite that to become Maryland’s first female bishop?

In small church discussion groups, in sermons and on Christian listservs, the ways Episcopal officials handled Cook have fueled debate about how Christianity really sees addicts.

“Right now in the addictions community there is a lot of reaction to people who want to see addiction as a moral failing,” said the Rev. Joe Stewart-Sicking, a priest in Cook’s diocese who teaches pastoral counseling at Loyola University Maryland. “Sin is something we are all wrapped up in, and when you start delineating sin, we miss out that we are all interrelated. It’s not just her role that led to the suffering. Obviously other people are involved, we ourselves are involved, even if it’s making a society that someone can’t come out and get help they need.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 20

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

Why is New Ulm the only Minnesota diocese still refusing to disclose names of predator priests? Because for six key years (2001-2007), when the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis exploded into an international scandal, John Nienstedt headed that diocese.

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

We believe that current New Ulm officials – including Bishop John M. LeVoir – are protecting themselves and their reputations AND the reputation and career of the embattled Nienstedt.

So we hope that this continuing reckless and hurtful secrecy will backfire. We hope the recalcitrance of New Ulm Catholic officials will prod even more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers in that diocese to speak up, regardless of what courts do or don’t do to force disclosures by these irresponsible “shepherds.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

And another King-day-themed posting: at his Christian Catholicism site, Jerry Slevin comments on Pope Francis’s encounter in the Philippines with a street child who poured out her anguish to him immediately before the pope gave a homily reasserting the papal ban on the use of contraception:

In “dreaming” about the pope’s encounter in the Philippines with the young “street child” on the eve of Martin Luther King’s US holiday, I had a dream! I dreamed that the pope told the young former street girl what the Vatican’s real strategy was. If he told her, I dreamed it would go something like this. Pope Francis would have said:

(1) I was elected by frightened cardinals to keep them out of jail for crimes related to child abuse cover-ups and financial corruption;

(2) My priority is protecting bishops, all 5,000 of them, while maximizing their wealth in their unaccountable lifetime positions; …

And, of course, as I read Jerry’s commentary, I think of his repeated warnings to those of us who may be inclined to view Pope Francis as a kind of Santa Claus, which, in turn, echo Sister Teresa Forcades’s observation (I cited it this morning) that Catholics need to ditch the notion of a “Pope Messiah,” and I become more convinced than ever that effective change of the Catholic church will come from the bottom of the church and not the top, from its margins and not from its (corrupt) center.

And certainly not from the media that dance so beautifully to the choreography presented to the media by that corrupt center . . . .

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

[Supreme Court document]

By Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on January 20, 2015

The Supreme Court of the United States will not hear a petition by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge regarding a civil lawsuit the diocese says threatens the confidentiality of the confession, according to the SCOTUS blog.

The petition seeks to block a child from testifying in a civil suit against the church and priest about what she said in confession. The live blog, which reports on orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, reported Tuesday (Jan. 20) morning that the high court denied writ of certiorari to hear the case.

The Louisiana Supreme Court’s ruling, rendered in May 2014, laid out arguments that priests should be subject to mandatory reporting laws regarding abuse of minors if the person who makes the confession waives confidentiality. Normally, priests are exempt as mandatory reporters in the setting of confessions. The decision by the state’s high court stated confidentially is intended to protect the person who made the confessions, not the person who receives them.

The original case involves a then-minor girl who alleges she confessed during the sacrament of Reconciliation to Baton Rouge priest Father George Bayhi that a fellow church parishioner had molested her.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
ABC News

The Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit to proceed against a Louisiana Roman Catholic church and a priest over allegations that a teen was kissed and fondled by an adult church parishioner.

The justices did not comment Tuesday in rejecting an appeal from the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the priest of a state Supreme Court decision. That earlier ruling revived the lawsuit that contends the teen told the priest what had happened to her and that the priest should have reported the allegations.

The church and the priest argued that allowing the lawsuit to go forward could lead to the priest being called to testify about information that was disclosed during private confessions.

The case is Roman Catholic Diocese v. Mayeux, 14-220.

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ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor January 20, 2015

ROME — When Pope Francis arrived in the Philippines Jan. 15, both his mind and his heart were focused on the people he was coming to see. His primary motive was to comfort the survivors of an almost apocalyptic 2013 super-typhoon, but he also knew the entire nation would be ecstatic that the pope — any pope, really — was in town.

The Philippines — 81% Catholic — arguably represent the greatest home court advantage for a pope on the face of the planet, and Francis wanted to return the favor.

Yet popes, like politicians, tend to craft their messages for multiple audiences. Although Francis’ principal concentration may have been on the Filipinos who defied a tropical storm to turn out in the millions, he simultaneously seemed to be speaking to a much smaller group, one that wasn’t even physically present.

In effect, Francis appeared to be talking to the roughly 300 bishops and other Church leaders who will make up the next Synod of Bishops on the Family in October.

One way to read what the pope was trying to accomplish is as a reboot of the synod debate, reassuring conservatives that whatever happens in October, the basics of Catholic teaching on sexuality and the family are not at risk.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis is following his own advice and “creating a mess” over contraception. He was provoked by seeing in the Philippines the horrors of 1.5 million “street children”, many forced to work in Manila’s key “industry”, the child sex trade, that became inescapably evident on his recent trip. Since two modern popes condemned contraception, Francis is also undermining the increasingly incredible Vatican claim since 1870 that popes are infallible.

* This infallibility claim is the cornerstone of modern papal power. Is the pope intentionally trying to curtail future papal power? Whatever his intent, the more he pushes for his contraception ban in the face of overwhelming scientific and social evidence, the clearer it becomes that claiming personal infallibility makes popes appear weaker, not stronger. This is evident in the Pope Francis’ rambling and evasive answers to reporters on his return flight to Rome. By comparison to the mishandling of contraception, Pope Francis is making the condemnation of Galileo four centuries ago seem like a minor matter.

* Understandably, a visibly tired and frustrated Pope Francis said yesterday (1/19/15) in response to a reporter’s question that good Roman Catholics do not need to breed like “rabbits”, but should practice “responsible” parenting instead. The full question and answer is below. To see the pope’s evident frustration , please watch

* [BBC]

* The day before (1/18/15) I had e-mailed key Vatican reporters (and posted on my blog) this: “And yes, … , Pope Francis, as expected, continued to push the papal “Rabbit Rule” (Breed & Breed More!) of Popes Pius XI (1930) and Paul VI (1968), and all popes thereafter. As discussed below, this is tied to protecting the papal “power of infallibility” and appears still to be the cornerstone of the Vatican’s key moral ‘doctrine of procreative sex, ONLY’ “. This repeated my earlier statement on the Rabbitt Rule at Francis’ Breeding Policy Fails Kids, Women & Gay

* The pope, of course, is revisiting the classic struggle of twenty years ago of Hillary Clinton and Francis’ current top female adviser, Mary Ann Glendon. The pope and Mary Ann Glendon appear to be gearing up to take Hillary Clinton on again in the upcoming US presidential election. Please see Hillary Clinton vs. Pope Francis in 2015 ? If the pope reverses the ban on contraception, the “infallibility” dogma is likely finished for all practical purposes. If the pope fails to reverse the ban, the Vatican will likely lose many millions of more Catholics who leave the Church, especially women.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

January 20, 2014

Survivors, advocates pursue transparency, disclosure from the only Minnesota diocese yet to disclose the identities of clerics accused of child sexual abuse

(New Ulm, MN) – At a hearing today at 3:00PM in New Ulm at the Brown County Courthouse, attorneys will argue on behalf of sexual abuse survivors to allow public nuisance claims to move forward that were alleged in several lawsuits filed against the New Ulm Diocese. Five lawsuits have been filed on behalf of seven survivors alleging the diocese created a public nuisance by not disclosing the names and files on clerics accused of child sexual abuse.

The Diocese of New Ulm is the only Minnesota diocese yet to disclose this information.

At least 12 priests have been accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of New Ulm. The lawsuits filed to-date involve claims of child sexual abuse involving Father Michael Skoblik, Father David Roney, Father James Fitzgerald, and Father Francis Markey.

Note: Copies of the complaints filed can be found at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact: Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531
Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665

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DEUTSCHLAND
Morgenweb

[An Interview with Harald Dressing, a psychiatrist who is leading an interdisciplinary study of sexual abuse within the German Catholic church.

It is known that the Freiburg diocese paid 736,000 euros to 130 victims. There are 185 documented victims, including children in care.

The Speyer diocese has reported 53 cases of sexual abuse. In 33 cases, the victims have received material benefits and 15 cases were closed without resolution and four are still in process. Overall, the diocese so far has paid 223,000 euros.

In the Mainz diocese, 277,000 have been paid. Forty-two victims submitted applications and three were rejected. Two applications are still being examined.]

MANNHEIM. Vor fünf Jahren kam der sexuelle Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche ans Licht. Der Mannheimer Psychiater Harald Dreßing leitet die interdisziplinäre Studie, die die Kirche in Auftrag gegeben hat: “Wir sind völlig unabhängig”, sagt er, das stehe so im Vertrag. Die Studie läuft seit einem halben Jahr, Ergebnisse sollen Ende 2017 vorliegen.

Was tragen Sie zur Studie bei?

Harald Dreßing: Unsere Aufgabe besteht unter anderem darin zu beschreiben, wie die Akten in den Bistümern geführt werden, wie groß das Ausmaß des Missbrauchs ist, aber auch wie das Thema Sexualität in der Priesterausbildung verankert ist.

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CANADA
CBC News

The sentencing hearing for former Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger will continue in Iqaluit Tuesday.

Dejaeger is being sentenced for 32 sex crimes. He pleaded guilty to eight charges at the start of his trial last year and was found guilty on 24 other charges.

He was convicted of 24 counts of indecent assault, one of unlawful confinement, two of buggery, three of unlawful sexual intercourse, one of sexual assault and one of bestiality.

Most of the crimes were committed against children in Igloolik, Nunavut, more than 30 years ago.

Crown prosecutor Barry Nordin says he expects between 16 and 18 people will give victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sorcha Pollak

Diane Croghan was 13 years old when she climbed inside a laundry van to escape the Sisters of Mercy Training School in Summerhill, Co Wexford.

After more than three years of isolation, hard work and abuse at the Magdalene laundry at Summerhill, Diane decided to run away to Dublin.

“It was dreadful, we weren’t allowed to speak with one another,” she says. “I think we worked from 7am-7pm but I’m not sure. We didn’t know the time, we had nothing to show us what time it was.”
The entrance to the former Magdalene laundry on Stanhope Street, Dublin.

After Diane escaped she found work as a domestic servant in Ballsbridge in Dublin. She later worked as a waitress in the Shelbourne hotel.

Diane’s testimony of the three years she spent working at Summerhill has been rejected by the Department of Justice reparation scheme for former residents of Magdalene laundries.

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UNITED STATES
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Virginia Jones

I have four memories before I was sexually abused at age four during the summer of 1963.

My very first memory took place when I was about 17 months old. I remember standing by my Dad’s plant building where my family first lived when we came to Colusa County, California, in 1960. I remember the white painted siding of the building and the outfit I was wearing, probably a hand-me-down from my brother — greyish baggy pants and greyish baby t-shirt. There is nothing more to the memory. I have no idea why I remember such a dull and minor incident, but I do.

My next memory was much more upsetting. It took place the following October. My heavily pregnant mother was walking from the house to the garage by the plant building near our rural home. It was raining and the the dirt road that led from the house to the garage was pockmarked with rained filled potholes. I had trouble walking around these holes and felt abandoned. I wanted and needed help that never came. I started to cry. Looking back I guess my mother had carried me up from house to car up until then and then stopped because it was too challenging to carry a toddler while 8 months pregnant.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Emma-Jane Hade
PUBLISHED
20/01/2015

A survivor of the Magdalene laundries who is now battling lung cancer has said the Government must deliver on its promises for redress in full.

Dubliner Martina Keogh spent almost two years in two different Magdalene laundry homes when she was a young woman.

She is supporting a coalition of groups who are calling on the Government to fully implement all the recommendations made by Mr Justice John Quirke in the restorative redress scheme, particularly in relation to healthcare.

The group, which includes Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International, claims the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill is an “unacceptable paring back of what the Government promised”.

Maeve O’Rourke, from JFMR, said the bill promises little more than the regular medical card, “which most of the women already have.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakots Public Broadcasting

[with audio]

By CHARLES MICHAEL RAY

The group called SNAP–Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests–is critical of the Sioux Falls Diocese for naming a homeless shelter after a bishop who was accused of sex abuse by three separate individuals.

Bishop Paul Dudley who died in 2006 at the age of 79 was cleared after an internal church investigation. Dudley was not brought before law enforcement as the statute of limitations had expired.

You can hear this story by clicking play below.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Abendzeitung

[He was a priest and educator at the venerable Upper Bavaria school called Ettal and he had a relationship of trust with children and young people. He is alleged to have exploited that trust by sexually abusing children. Five years after the discovery of excesses of violence at the Benedictine monastery, the monk must answer before the Munich District Court.]

Munich / Ettal – by profession priest, educator boarding school in the venerable Upper Bavaria Ettal – but his relationship of trust with children and young people a religious to years of sexual abuse have exploited. Five years after the discovery of the excesses of violence in the Benedictine monastery, a monk from this Thursday (January 22) has to answer before the Munich District Court. The prosecution now accuses the prior 44-year-olds to have passed between 2001 and 2005 at two boys in two other cases he tried.

Er war eine Vertrauensperson – und soll dies bei Kindern schamlos ausgenützt haben. Jahrelang habe sich der Pater sexuell an Internatsschülern vergangen, so die Anklage. Die Fälle liegen zehn Jahre und länger zurück. Jetzt muss der 44-Jährige vor Gericht.

München/Ettal – Von Beruf Priester, Erzieher von Internatsschülern im altehrwürdigen oberbayerischen Kloster Ettal – doch sein Vertrauensverhältnis zu Kindern und Jugendlichen soll ein Ordensmann jahrelang für sexuellen Missbrauch ausgenutzt haben. Fünf Jahre nach Bekanntwerden der Gewaltexzesse in dem Benediktinerkloster muss sich ein Mönch von diesem Donnerstag (22. Januar) an vor dem Münchner Landgericht verantworten. Die Anklagebehörde wirft dem nun 44-Jährigen vor, sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 an zwei Jungen vergangen zu haben, in zwei weiteren Fällen habe er es versucht.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

The Press Association

Experts involved in the Government’s troubled child sexual abuse inquiry will appear before MPs today while councils hold a summit looking at how to protect youngsters.

The inquiry set up by Home Secretary Theresa May has stalled following the resignations of the two people appointed to chair it and uncertainty about how it will be granted extra powers.

Two members of the inquiry panel and the body’s expert adviser Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote the damning report on sexual exploitation in Rotherham, will appear before the home affairs select committee.

Mrs May revealed in a letter last month that she was considering standing down the panel in favour of a royal commission or a new inquiry on statutory terms.

As well as Prof Jay, the MPs will hear from panel members D rusilla Sharpling and Professor Jenny Pearce as part of their investigation into the inquiry, which is without a chairman following the resignations of Baroness Butler-Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf after each became entangled in allegations of conflict of interest.

Meanwhile the Local Government Association (LGA) is holding a high-level summit to take stock of issues highlighted over the past few months, review progress in tackling historic weaknesses and determine what further action is required to protect children in future.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Members of a team carrying out an inquiry into child sexual abuse are due to appear before MPs.

The inquiry was announced in July but still has no chairman, following the resignations of the government’s first two choices, and doubts remain over plans to give it extra powers.

Two members and adviser Prof Alexis Jay will face the Home Affairs Committee.

Meanwhile, the Local Government Association will hold a summit on improving child protection measures.

The inquiry, announced on 7 July by Home Secretary Theresa May, was sparked by claims of paedophiles operating in Westminster in the 1980s.

At the committee meeting later, panel members Drusilla Sharpling and Prof Jenny Pearce – along with Prof Jay – will face questions from MPs.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Eoin English
Irish Examiner Reporter

One of the country’s most notorious mother and baby homes is set to get a new lease of life as a specialist suicide support and prevention centre.

Suicide charity Console has acquired Bessborough House in Cork City and plans to convert the Georgian mansion into its largest support, training and education facility.

“Bessborough House has such a sad history but we hope to turn it into something positive and life-giving — this is a positive story,” Console founder Paul Kelly said.

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NEW YORK
Daily Gazette

Editorial

They didn’t help women and children last year. What’s going to be their excuse this year?

Two major pieces of legislation that the state Legislature failed to pass last year would have helped victims of child and sex abuse get justice, helped women attain comparable wages and protection from sexual harassment in the workplace, tightened laws on human trafficking that most often affects children and adult females, and helped protect domestic violence victims from discrimination.

One of the bills, the Child Victims Crime Bill, is being held up in the state Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. Essentially, it would eliminate the statute of limitations on new sex crimes (essentially giving traumatized victims an unlimited time to come forward and bring charges) and provide a one-year window for past victims to come forward. Religious organizations oppose all or part of the bill, fearing they will have to pay to settle age-old allegations that are difficult to prove or disprove.

On the other side, the Democrat-controlled Assembly is holding up passage of the Women’s Equality Act, a package of nine bills designed to protect women. The Senate has already passed eight of the nine bills individually this session, leaving the controversial ninth bill on abortion rights for another time.

The Assembly, as it did last year, insists on considering the bills as an all-or-nothing deal, meaning the abortion part of the bill is holding up the other eight bills related to domestic violence victims, child abuse and the other issues that have nothing to do with abortion.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

Posted On 20 Jan 2015
By : Frank le Duc

A trial date has been set for retired bishop Peter Ball and a fellow former Brighton priest Vickery House.

The pair have been charged with child sex abuse and were the subject of a hearing at the Central Criminal Court – better known as the Old Bailey – in London last week.

Ball, 82, of Langport, Somerset, is scheduled to face a jury on Monday 5 October alongside Vickery House, the former vicar of St Bartholomew’s Church in Brighton. No venue has been selected yet.

Ball was Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992 during which time he is accused of indecently assaulting a 12 or 13-year-old boy.

He also faces charges of misconduct in public office and indecently assaulting a 19 or 20-year-old man.

The misconduct charge accuses Ball of misusing his position and authority to manipulate and prevail upon others for his own sexual gratification.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

A former priest and school principal has had his appeal against conviction for sexually abusing a pupil rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Con Desmond, (79), with an address as Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, had pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of indecently assaulting a boy at St Stephen’s De La Salle National School in Waterford between 1978 and June 1980.

He was found guilty by a jury at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court and sentenced to two years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently by Judge Donagh McDonagh on February 19 2013.

Desmond’s appeal against conviction, on grounds of delay and conflicting evidence, was rejected by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Giving background to the case President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said the first incident occurred sometime in January 1978 when the boy who was aged eight at the time had gotten very wet cycling to school.

The evidence was that his teacher, a Brother Aengus, had sent him to the principal’s office possibly with a view to getting him dried off or sending him home because he was soaked, the judge said.

He was sexually abused by Desmond on that occasion and had given extensive details about the precise events that happened, Mr Justice Ryan said. “It undoubtedly constituted serious sexual abuse”.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Pope will speak @ United Nations; SNAP responds

For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 19

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( +1 312 399 4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org )

Pope Francis confirmed today that he’ll speak to the United Nations in NYC later this year.

[Chicago Sun-Times]

When he does, we urge him to directly address the two UN panel reports that are highly critical of how top Catholic officials still endanger kids, move predators and maintain secrecy around clergy sex crimes.

Francis has basically ignored these compelling reports while defensive underlings ducked, dodged and denied the solid evidence in them and attacked the motives of the dedicated volunteers who wrote them.

While making progress on church morale, finances and governance, Francis has made minimal gestures on abuse and cover ups. He must do more. We strongly urge diplomats and UN staff to prod the pope to take tangible action to expose crimes, punish enablers, help prosecutors, deter cover ups and make kids safer right now by ousting and revealing both clerics who commit and conceal sexual violence.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

von JÜRGEN KAUBE

Wer die Mutter von Jorge Mario Bergoglio beleidigt, weiß jetzt, womit er zu rechnen hat. Wir formulieren „er“, weil wir mal nicht annehmen möchten, dass der Bischof von Rom eine Frau schlagen würde. Und wir sprechen seinen bürgerlichen Namen an, um dogmatische Komplikationen zu vermeiden, die sich aus der Wendung „Mutter des Papstes“ ergeben könnten. Auch als Papst Franziskus I. genießt Herr Bergoglio Meinungsfreiheit. Sie wird nicht eingeschränkt, wenn man feststellt, dass nicht recht durchdacht ist, was er gesprächsweise mitgeteilt hat. Wäre törichte Kommunikation nicht geschützt, brauchten wir deutlich mehr Richter.

Dennoch muss angesichts des Papstes, der bei todernstem Anlass nicht einmal ein neckisches Augenzwinkern scheut, offenbar nicht nur die Sache mit der anderen Wange in Erinnerung gerufen werden, sondern auch, wie es sich mit der rechtsstaatlichen Ordnung verhält. Denn in ihr, der aufgegeben ist, die Meinungsfreiheit zu sichern, hat nicht, wie er sagt, „jede Religion“ eine Würde, von der sie auch gleich noch selbst feststellen dürfte, wodurch sie verletzt wird. Sondern jedes Individuum. Darin steckt mehr Christentum als in familiären Ehrbegriffen. Und selbst wenn die Mütter von Individuen beleidigt werden – der Papst mag sich an den berühmten Fall Zidane erinnert haben –, fliegt mindestens vom Platz, wer daraus ein Recht zur Selbstjustiz zieht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Welle

[It was five years ago that the Berlin Jesuit Klaus Mertes drew attention to the religious school run by him and how he was found multiple cases of abuse at Canisius College. When this became know, more victims had – “survivors”, as they say often – turned to him. The advance and the courage of these stakeholders and the new cases that become known rocked the Catholic Church in Germany in their marrow. It took until the bishops came from a defensive moment to honest work-up.]

Es war eine der bewegenden Szenen der Philippinen-Reise von Papst Franziskus: Da stand ihm die kleine Glyzelle Palomar gegenüber und sollte dem Gast berichten von ihrem früheren Leben – von Drogen, Prostitution, der Zeit als Straßenkind. Drogen, Prostitution… – zwölf ist das Kind! Und es wird wohl für sein Leben zu tragen haben. Bald brachen dem Mädchen unter Tränen die Worte weg, es kam nur noch ein “Warum lässt Gott das zu?” Tröstend nahm Franziskus sie in den Arm und ermutigte sie im Weinen. Ja, ein rührender Moment. Ein Bild auch für die Kameras.

Man kann durchaus an diese Szene denken, wenn in diesen Tagen die katholische Kirche in Deutschland auf das Bekanntwerden von hunderten und tausenden Missbrauchsfällen in Einrichtungen der Kirche zurückblickt. Hunderte Millionen, vielleicht Milliarden Menschen weltweit sahen in ihren Fernseh-Nachrichten diese Szene. Die ehrliche Anteilnahme des Papstes an einem unschuldigen Opfer, einem Kind. Bei der sexuellen Gewalt von Klerikern oder Kirchenmitarbeitern waren es vielfach auch Kinder, die zu Opfern wurden. Aber als sie endlich an die Öffentlichkeit gingen, waren es laute Erwachsene, die ihr Recht, die Anteilnahme einforderten, ihr Schicksal beklagten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SR

{The Trier diocese is still conducting investigations against nine priests who are suspected of sexual abuse of children and adolescents, according to Bishop Stephan Ackermann.]

Im Bistum Trier laufen derzeit noch gegen neun Priester kircheninterne Ermittlungen wegen des Verdachts des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Das sagte Bischof Ackermann am Montag in Trier. Vor fünf Jahren waren die ersten Missbrauchsfälle öffentlich bekannt geworden.

(19.01.2015) Es war ein Erdbeben als vor fünf Jahren die ersten Missbrauchsfälle innerhalb der katholischen Kirche öffentlich bekannt geworden waren. Seitdem versucht die Kirche, das für sie schwierige Thema aufzuarbeiten. Am Montag zog Bischof Stephan Ackermann Bilanz. Ackermann sagte, für die katholische Kirche seien die letzten fünf Jahre ein schmerzhafter Lernprozess gewesen.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – There’s a smell that brings it all back.

One whiff, and once again he’s a little boy being raped by a priest in a dank furnace room at the Catholic mission in Igloolik, Nunavut.

“Whenever I smell moldy wood, it takes me back to that place,” the man told a court in Iqaluit on Monday during the sentencing hearing for his onetime tormentor. “It makes me angry.”

Eric Dejaeger, a defrocked Oblate priest, was convicted last fall for 32 sex crimes ranging from indecent assault to bestiality against Inuit children. A long lineup of his former victims, who were children between 1978 and 1982 when the assaults occurred, are finally getting their chance to tell Dejaeger what he did to them in a two-day hearing which began under heavy security.

More than a dozen people were expected to testify on Monday, including the man haunted by that odour.

Dejaeger left him with lingering medical and mental problems, he said. He said he lost his job in Igloolik last year because Dejaeger’s trial upset him so much he couldn’t function.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

JIM BELL

After waiting nearly four decades, more than two dozen middle-aged Inuit sexual abuse victims from Igloolik and Kugaaruk filed into an Iqaluit courtroom Jan. 19 to begin describing how ex-priest Eric Dejaeger scarred their hearts and deformed their lives.

“Sometimes I would take showers to get the dirt off, the shame and dirty feelings, but I couldn’t get it off me,” one woman told the court, weeping as she spoke.

Dejaeger, 67, a former Oblate missionary, is guilty of 32 sex crimes against Inuit children he molested between 1976 and 1982

He entered guilty pleas to eight of those in November 2013. Following a long trial that ran from Nov. 18, 2013 until May 28, 2014, Justice Robert Kilpatrick of the Nunavut Court Justice found him guilty on 24 charges.

That included many counts of indecent assault on boys and girls, four counts of buggery, one count of bestiality with a dog, one count of forcible confinement, and one count of sexual assault.

Lawyers returned to court this week to start a lengthy sentencing hearing that began with numerous victim impact statements, most of them from Igloolik residents who flew to Iqaluit.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Former priest and school principal has appeal against conviction for sexually abusing boy rejected by Court of Appeal

Ruaidhrí Giblin
PUBLISHED
19/01/2015

A former priest and school principal has had his appeal against conviction for sexually abusing a pupil rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Con Desmond, (79), with an address as Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, had pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of indecently assaulting a boy at St Stephen’s De La Salle National School in Waterford between 1978 and June 1980.

He was found guilty by a jury at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court and sentenced to two years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently by Judge Donagh McDonagh on February 19 2013.

Desmond’s appeal against conviction, on grounds of delay and conflicting evidence, was rejected by the Court of Appeal today.

Giving background to the case President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said the first incident occurred sometime in January 1978 when the boy who was aged eight at the time had gotten very wet cycling to school.

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CANADA
Bay Today

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut — A sentencing hearing for a defrocked priest convicted of dozens of horrific sex crimes against Inuit children has started under heavy security.

Observers at the hearing for Eric Dejaeger must pass through a metal detector and have their bags searched if they want to enter the courtroom, a highly unusual move for Iqaluit courts.

Victim impacts statements are expected to take two days.

Dejaeger was convicted on 32 counts of various child sex-abuse crimes ranging from indecent assault to bestiality dating back to the 1970s and ’80s in Igloolik, Nunavut.

Victims are blaming Dejaeger for a wide variety of lingering physical and mental scars.

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IRELAND
Yahoo! News

By Aoife Barry | TheJournal.ie

The government has been accused of paring back what was promised to survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Amnesty International (Ireland) have come together today to call on the government to implement all of Mr Justice John Quirke’s recommendations for a Magdalene restorative justice scheme.

Criticism

Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to Magdalene survivors on 19 February 2013.

Criticising the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014, Maeve O’Rourke of JFMR described it as ”an obvious and unacceptable paring back of what the government promised as part of the women’s redress package”.

She said that the Bill “promises little more than the regular medical card, which most of the women already have”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, Jan 19, 2015

The draft legislation to assist survivors of Magdalene laundries has been described as unacceptable, unfair and full of broken promises” by advocacy groups.

Advocates for the women say the Bill published last month represents an unacceptable paring back of what the Government promised as part of the women’s redress package.

After Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology to the Magdalene women last year, Mr Justice John Quirke was tasked with designing a restorative justice scheme, which the Government accepted.

The Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill, published last month, proposes the women be entitled to GP care, prescription medicines, nursing and home-help as well as dental, ophthalmic, aural, counselling, chiropody and physiotherapy services provided by the HSE.

‘Paring back’

This was described at the press conference as “an obvious and unacceptable paring back” on what Justice Quirke recommended, as well as possibly being open to legal challenge.

It was also claimed that of approximately €60 million allocated for spending on redress for the woman, just €18 million had been spent so far.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Following the news that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has filed for bankruptcy, dozens of parishes across the Twin Cities are now bracing for the worst.

Archbishop John Nienstedt made the announcement on Friday. He claimed filing for Chapter 11 reorganization would not hurt local churches.

About 50 have hired bankruptcy attorneys.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in the face of dozens of claims of clergy sexual abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Peter Cox St. Paul, Minn. Jan 19, 2015

Two days after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection, Twin Cities Catholics attended Sunday Masses, many wondering what happens next.

Hundreds of people streamed in to fill the pews for the 11 a.m. service at the Church of the Assumption in downtown St. Paul.

Among them was Melissa Corbo, 46, a lifelong Catholic. She said the bankruptcy won’t change how she gives or whether she attends mass.

“Hopefully it won’t affect church closings and things like that, because that’s sad,” she said. “But hopefully they’ll get through it and keep going.”

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, a step taken, church leaders said, out of concerns about the costs of current and possible future clergy abuse lawsuits.

The filing gives the archdiocese time to reorganize its finances. It may have to sell off assets to pay debts. But the archdiocese has said that the nearly 200 Twin Cities parishes, as well as community foundations, chartiies and other Catholic organizations would be protected in bankruptcy.

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CANADA
CBC News

Nine victims spoke at a sentencing hearing today in Iqaluit for Eric Dejaeger, the former Roman Catholic priest convicted last fall of 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back three decades in Igloolik, Nunavut.

The victims, who were children at the time of the abuse, are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s. They and their families filled the Nunavut Court of Justice’s largest courtroom this morning.

The sentencing hearing gives them an opportunity to voice what emotional, physical and financial impact the crimes have had on their lives.

Dozens of complainants came forward over the course of the trial. Half were male, half female. So far today, six women and three men have submitted victim impact statements. Some read their statements themselves. Others had a family member, court officer or Crown prosecutor read a statement on their behalf.

Many victims cited ongoing anger issues and depression. One said she did not finish school and attempted suicide because of the sexual abuse she suffered as a girl. Another said he wants the Vatican held responsible. One asked that Dejaeger be put away for a long time, saying he never received or wanted financial compensation, just for it all to be over.

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ISRAEL/RUSSIA
The Moscow Times

A Jerusalem court has held that a disgraced Russian Orthodox priest accused in his home country of several counts of pedophilia should be extradited, his sister announced via VKontakte on Monday.

Priest Gleb Grozovsky stands accused of having sexually assaulted two young girls — aged 9 and 12 at the time — at an Orthodox summer camp in Greece in 2013, according to the Times of Israel website. Investigators have reportedly claimed to have evidence that he committed a string of related crimes in and around St. Petersburg.

He maintains that the charges against him are false, and were politically motivated.

Lyubov Grozovskaya said on VKontakte that her brother will appeal the ruling to a higher court, and will also file a claim with the European Court of Human Rights.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Martin Luther King, a true Christian, dared to dream. One wishes Pope Francis would dream similarly more often. As I observed Pope Francis on his overly scripted public relations trip to the Philippines, I had a dream as well. It was triggered while observing Pope Francis outrageously lobby, in his homily at a massive outdoor Mass a few hours after hugging a twelve year old former “street child”. The pope’s lobbying was, in effect, his real response to the innocent young girl and to the world. The pope in the presence of the leaders of the Philippines amazingly called for an end to the government’s long overdue help to poor couples who want to plan their families. Is Pope Francis really serious? Why does he want to prevent couples worldwide from planning their families? This is cruel and hypocritical, no? Who speaks for the children, Pope Francis, if not you?

* In “dreaming” about the pope’s encounter in the Philippines with the young “street child” on the eve of Martin Luther King’s US holiday, yes, I had a dream! I dreamed that the pope told the young former street girl what the Vatican’s real strategy was. If he had told her the “real deal”, I dreamed it would go something like this. Pope Francis would have said:

* (1) I was elected by frightened cardinals to keep them out of jail for crimes related to child abuse cover-ups and financial corruption;

* (2) My priority is protecting bishops, all 5,000 of them, while maximizing their wealth in their unaccountable lifetime positions;

* (3) I need to preserve the Vatican’s “richest markets” , especially in the USA and Germany, and among the billionaires of the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, et al. In the USA, I need in 2016 to get a friendly Republican, like the Bushes were, in the White House (God forbid Hillary Clinton gets elected!), now that low tax/low regulatory Republicans control the US Congress and, in effect, the US Supreme Court. Our US billionaire donors like that;

* (4) In the USA, I must also appeal to fundamentalist and Latino voters with a muddled mix of anti-abortion/contraception and anti-gay marriage crusades, and frequent appeals to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Junipero Serra and Oscar Romero, and of course, constant references to the devil;

* (5) In Germany, I must protect the bishops $6 billion annual governmental subsidy, including by getting divorced and remarried Catholics from taking their families and pro rata subsidies out of the Church;

* (6) I must push with my contraception ban to pump up the Catholic birth rate everywhere, especially in light of the high birth rate among our Muslim competitors; and

* (7) If after taking care of my bishops, obedient priests, opportunistic politicians, “scholars” and media supporters and, of course, our 24/7 insatiable civil, criminal and and bankruptcy lawyers, I, as pope, would use the rest of the donations, if any remains, to “trickle down ” what remains to the poor, and to those priest abuse survivors who keep silent.

And then I awoke from my dream.

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MISSOURI/MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 19

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

Roughly 150 pages of long-secret Catholic church records about a predator priest who molested at least one Kansas City child have been released. He worked at parishes and high schools in at least four cities, was a military chaplain for three decades, and was active nationally in black Catholic organizations.

[Jeff Anderson & Associates]

Until 2006, Fr. Thaddeus Posey worked as a professor at a Catholic university in Minnesota. But he also worked in as a chaplain at various institutions in Parsons KS and Kansas City KS from 1977-1990. He received an MBA from Rockhurst College.

We beg Bishop Robert Finn and Archbishop Joseph Naumann to show some compassion for those Fr. Posey hurt. We urge them to use their parish bulletins, church websites, pulpit announcements and public relations staffers to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Posey’s crimes.

Fr. Posey also worked in St. Louis, at Cardinal Ritter Prep, as a ‘guardian’ at St. Patrick Friary (1986-1990), director of the St. Charles Lwanga Center (1980-1981), and as a theology professor at St. Louis University (1982-1990) where he also began his doctoral studies.

In 2004, Posey and three other priests (Fr. Michael Barry, Fr. Chester Gaiter and Fr. James Theil.) were sued for allegedly molesting Charles Spearman in St. Louis. Spearman’s case settled out of court in 2007.

The documents show that church officials sent Posey to treatment at least twice – once at the St. Michael’s Center in St. Louis and once in Washington DC. (page 51).

They also show that Posey’s victim reported the incident to the St. Louis superintendent of schools.” (page 53) That’s especially worrisome because it suggests he may have had access to city school kids.

We hope that those with information or suspicions about Fr. Posey’s crimes will speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing. And we hope that every single current and former Catholic employee in the Kansas City area will share what they know or suspect about Fr. Posey with the public, police and prosecutors.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Erzbistum Berlin

19. Januar 2015 Stefan Förner Pressesprecher

Bis zum 31. Dezember 2014 wurden im Erzbistum Berlin 31 Kleriker, vom Erzbischof beauftragte Ordensangehörige sowie Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im kirchlichen Dienst des sexuellen Missbrauchs an Minderjährigen und erwachsenen Schutzbefohlenen beschuldigt. Im Jahr 2014 wurden drei neue Vorwürfe erhoben. Insgesamt gehen die Vorwürfe bis auf das Jahr 1947 zurück, die Beschuldigten sind zum Teil verstorben. Seit dem Jahr 2002 werden Verdachtsfälle des sexuellen Missbrauchs systematisch erfasst.

In 5 (Vorjahr: 7) Fällen läuft derzeit ein staatliches bzw. kirchliches Ermittlungsverfahren. Drei Verfahren wurden im Jahr 2014 abgeschlossen, ein neues aufgenommen.
Es wurden im Jahr 2014 drei weitere Anträge gestellt auf Leistungen in Anerkennung des Leids, das Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs zugefügt wurde, insgesamt also 17 Anträge. Davon wurden 16 bereits bewilligt. Es wurden insgesamt 77.000 € gezahlt.

Die Erstattungssumme für psychotherapeutische Leistungen betrug 13.099 €.

In diesem Bericht sind nicht erfasst die Verdachtsfälle, die bei Orden im Bereich des Erzbistums Berlin eingegangen sind.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Berlin Online

[The Berlin archdiocese said today that it has identified 31 priests who were accused of sexual abuse. The time period is from 1947 to December 2014. Some of the accused priests are dead. Three new charges were brught in 2014 and by cases are being investigated by the church judiciary.]

Berlin (dpa/bb) – Im katholischen Erzbistum Berlin sind bis Ende Dezember 2014 insgesamt 31 Geistliche, vom Erzbischof beauftragte Ordensangehörige sowie Mitarbeiter im Kirchendienst des sexuellen Missbrauchs beschuldigt worden.

Die Vorwürfe gingen bis zum Jahr 1947 zurück, einige Beschuldigte seien bereits gestorben, heißt es in einem am Montag veröffentlichten Bericht des Erzbistums. Im Jahr 2014 seien drei neue Vorwürfe erhoben worden. In fünf Fällen werde von der Justiz beziehungsweise von der Kirche ermittelt.

Bislang wurden den Angaben zufolge für 16 Opfer wegen des erfahrenen Leids Geld bewilligt. Insgesamt seien dabei 77.000 Euro gezahlt worden. Nicht erfasst seien in dem Bericht Verdachtsfälle, die bei religiösen Orden im Erzbistum eingingen.

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CHICAGO (IL)
ABC 7

[with video]

Archbishop Blase Cupich joined the Guatemalan community for Mass at St. Alphonsus church on West Wellington in Chicago.

That parish is where Fr. Michael O’Connell leads the congregation.

Father O’Connell was under investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a boy while serving at a different church, but investigators cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Outside the church, protesters from S.N.A.P. – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – handed out fliers.

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CANADA
CBC News

The sentencing hearing began today in Iqaluit for Eric Dejaeger, the Roman Catholic priest convicted last fall on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back three decades in Igloolik, Nunavut.

This morning his defence lawyer, Malcolm Kempt, told the court that victim impact statements could take two days.

Justice Robert Kilpatrick is expected to issue his sentence after that.

The CBC’s Peter Worden is tweeting from the courtroom. Follow him right here or on Twitter: @wordenCBC.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Government has been challenged to honour its promise to provide survivors of Magdalene laundries with the healthcare services recommended in the Quirke report 18 months ago.

Advocates for the women say new draft legislation represents an unacceptable paring back of what the Government promised as part of the women’s redress package.

It is almost two years since Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised emotionally to the 10,000-plus women who he said had been incarcerated and socially suffocated in Magdalene laundries in Ireland since 1922.

Mr Justice John Quirke was then tasked with designing a restorative justice scheme, which the Government accepted.

It included a special medical card which had originally been designed to help survivors of the Hepatitis-C scandal.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Cahir O’Doherty @randomirish January 19,2015

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Irish life is caution. We have learned to tread carefully everywhere. It’s probably a legacy of 800 years of colonialism, which have shown us that you can’t be too careful in a small country.

It’s caution about what might take its place that prevents much needed social and political reforms from happening in Ireland at the pace they do on the European continent. We seem to prefer being stuck with a host of familiar problems in preference to tackling a host of new ones.

All that abundance of caution has a price: paralysis.

Paralysis was the word James Joyce used to describe the state of turn of the century Ireland, and it is suddenly in vogue again. The social and political fault lines that Joyce discerned in “The Dead” have altered, but the tentative, halting Irish response to the challenges of the present is as familiar now as it was then.

Joyce ended his story with a strikingly beautiful image of the nation being carpeted by snow. It’s both a shroud and a spiritual awakening.

The question then was the question now – if we are to escape the prison of our colonial past, don’t we have to confront its challenges head on?

We are now halfway through the third decade of the abuse crisis that has stunned and transformed our society. In the 1990s, when allegations against abusive clerics began as a trickle that eventually became a damn burst, the initial response was so meek, so tempered that it was ineffectual.

It was still possible, as late as the 1990s, for senior church figures to transfer controversial clerics to other parishes or to stonewall their responses in the press. At the time it still seemed possible to brazen it out in the hope that it would all blow over.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Mike Barnicle

Pope Francis demoted the reactionary Burke, but that hasn’t stopped him popping off about how the Church panders to radical feminism.

Cardinal Raymond Burke is a 66-year-old guy who lives in Rome, dresses like Queen Elizabeth, and talks like someone who majored in misogyny at some bogus, backwoods, Bible-banging tent school. Until Pope Francis stripped him of the powerful Vatican post Pope Benedict had handed him, Burke behaved like the Catholic Church’s version of Ted Cruz, operating with an ego and an attitude that proclaimed him to always be right on matters of doctrine and dogma.

Burke’s new post makes him the equivalent of a head waiter at the annual Knights of Malta Communion breakfast, but the demotion has only emboldened him. A few days ago the former archbishop of St. Louis was interviewed by some pamphlet geared to restoring guy-talk in Catholicism, and Burke did not disappoint.

“Unfortunately, the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men,” Burke told the correspondent from a pamphlet called (get this) The New Emangelization.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regenburg-Digital

[People who say they suffered sexual abuse as children in the Regensburg cathedral choir have responded to the Regensburg diocese with an open letter.]

Das Bistum Regensburg hat angekündigt, seinen Fall neu aufrollen zu wollen: Jetzt antwortet der ehemalige Domspatz Georg Auer (hier schildern wir seinen Fall ausführlich) darauf in einem offenen Brief und erklärt, warum er überhaupt den schweren Weg in die Öffentlichkeit gewagt hat. Wir veröffentlichen ihn in kompletter Länge. Post vom Bistum Regensburg hat Auer übrigens schon letzte Woche bekommen: Zwei Jahre nach seinem Kirchenaustritt fordert das Katholische Kirchensteueramt eine Nachzahlung von 7,27 Euro.

Offener Brief an die Leitung des bischöflichen Ordinariats Regensburg

Sehr geehrter Bistumssprecher Clemens Neck und Generalvikar Michael Fuchs,

laut den letzten Medienberichten will das Bistum Regensburg auf die Ausstrahlung der ARD-Dokumentation „Sünden an den Sängerknaben“ meinen Missbrauchsfall bei den Regensburger Domspatzen neu prüfen und neu bewerten, ob nun doch eine Opferentschädigung in meinem Falle infrage kommt. Des Weiteren sprach man davon, dass die Leitung des Bistums in dieser Angelegenheit mit meiner Person erneut Kontakt aufnehmen will.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Ex-priest, convicted molester and Oblate Eric Dejaeger is due in court in Iqaluit tomorrow for his sentencing hearing.

18 January 2015: Arctic hamlet readies for mental health fallout from priest sex abuse sentencing

It’s good to hear that counselling services and extra staff will be available for victims in both Igloolik and Iqaluit. The day will be extremely difficult for the victims and/or family members who plan to deliver a Victim Impact Statement either in person, by videolink, or in writing to be read into the record on their behalf. It will also be difficult for previous victims, and, yes, for the many “complainants” who unfortunately did not see their charges translate into a conviction, and for the complainants in Alberta whose charges will hopefully be dealt with as soon as Dejaeger is sentenced in Nunavut .

I doubt that the hearing will wrap up tomorrow. There may be quite a few statements, plus both the Crown and defence will probably want to argue why Dejaeger is or is not a threat to children, and why he should or should not spend more time behind bars.

Once that is all done, it is up to the judge to decide if he, the judge, is ready to sentence Dejaeger. Sometime sentencing is done on the heels of the sentencing hearing. Sometimes a new date some days or weeks downstream is set.

We shall see…

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein January 18

The committee planning Pope Francis’s fall trip to the United States is considering having him land Sept. 22 in Washington and visit the White House, address Congress and then head to New York for a possible stop at Ground Zero, a member of the committee reportedly said.

The comments made Sunday by Archbishop Bernardito Auza — the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations — are the most detailed thus far about the possible arc of Francis’s trip, which centers on a major meeting in Philadelphia on family issues. Auza spoke to a reporter who works for two Catholic news organizations with close ties to the Vatican: Catholic News Agency and EWTN.

Late Sunday, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, an English-speaking spokesman for the Vatican, declined to comment, other than to say “there is no official confirmation” of anything but the Philadelphia leg.

There have been rumors for months about which other cities, besides Philadelphia, Francis would visit on his trip. John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi — both Catholic — formally invited him in March to speak to Congress. If he does, he will be the first. Other popes, including Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, have visited the White House.

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OREGON
KAJO

Medford Police report the arrest of 36-year-old Jacksonville resident Donald Courtney Biggs on two charges of privacy invasion and a single charge of second degree burglary.

Biggs was an Administrative Pastor at Mountain Church in Medford and oversaw the youth program there. Medford Police began investigating Biggs November 29th after allegations arose about his inappropriate texting with a 14-year-old girl. The Church placed Biggs on administrative leave during the investigation. He has since resigned.

The investigation confirmed the initial suspicions and revealed that Biggs was responsible for secretly video-recording a woman undressing at his home, as well.

Biggs was also questioned after police responded to a burglary alarm at the church on January 12th. That interview prompted the issue of a search warrant for Biggs’ Jacksonville home. Investigators were able to determine that Biggs was responsible for the church burglary aimed at stealing computer hard drives.

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PHILIPPINES
Rappler

Aries Rufo

Jan 19, 2015

AT A GLANCE

* Veteran Vaticanista John Allen cited Tagle’s 3 strong points: “an effective communicator and missionary,” as the face of the “dramatic growth of Catholicism outside the West” and “pastoral experience” as administrator of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila

* Tagle’s “social capital” was enhanced with the papal visit, and its success is sure to catch the attention of Church leaders worldwide

* But it takes more than popularity, even among peers, to be elected pope

MANILA, Philippines – Then there was that hug that ignited the imagination of many Filipinos: Pope Francis embracing his Asian equivalent, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, at the tarmac.

This was shortly after the Holy Father arrived at the Villamor Airbase tarmac for a 5-day visit.

Uncannily, that embrace between the 78-year-old Pontiff and the 57-year-old Archbishop of Manila resembled the special set of stamps issued by Philpost to immortalize the historic papal visit.

It lasted only a few seconds but it electrified many, including local members of the Church hierarchy – as if they were witnessing the present and the future of the papacy.

The prophetic scene would be replayed during the Pope’s first Eucharistic celebration at the Manila Cathedral.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A group representing survivors of Magdalene Laundries will today give their reaction to the inquiry into Mother-and-Baby homes.

The Justice For Magdalenes group says they are not satisfied with the terms of reference of the inquiry, which were announced by the Children’s Minister James Reilly less than two weeks ago.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Council for Civil Liberties, and Amnesty International will also participate in today’s event.

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IRELAND
Justice for Magdalenes

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International (Ireland) today called on the government to honour the promise it made to Magdalene survivors in June 2013, to implement all of Mr Justice John Quirke’s recommendations for a Magdalene restorative justice scheme.

Criticising the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014, Maeve O’Rourke of JFMR said: “This draft legislation does not meet Judge Quirke’s recommendation on healthcare for Magdalene women. It is an obvious and unacceptable paring back of what the government promised as part of the women’s redress package.

Judge Quirke could not have been clearer in recommending that each woman should receive a card entitling her to the full range of health services provided to state-infected Hepatitis-C survivors under the HAA card scheme. Instead, the Bill promises little more than the regular medical card, which most of the women already have.”

Ms O’Rourke’s criticism comes exactly 23 months after Enda Kenny’s emotional apology to Magdalene survivors on 19th February 2013.

Dr Katherine O’Donnell of JFMR said: “The women who have received their lump sum compensation and pensions have promised not to sue the State in exchange for the full redress package recommended by Judge Quirke. However, this legislation is in clear breach of the women’s legitimate expectations and puts those waivers on shaky ground.”

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Caoimhseach Connolly

Monday 19 January 2015

A group representing survivors of Magdalene Laundries will today give their reaction to the inquiry into mother and baby homes.

The Justice For Magdalenes group says they are not satisfied with the terms of reference of the inquiry, which were announced by the Children’s Minister James Reilly just under two weeks ago.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), and Amnesty International will also participate in the event.

The group will also call on the government to implement all recommendations for a restorative justice programme for Magdalene survivors.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: January 18, 2015

Catholic parishes take steps to limit impact from archdiocese’s bankruptcy in wake of clergy abuse.

Twin Cities Catholics going to mass this weekend saw something waiting for them along with the bulletins and hymnals — fliers explaining their church’s bankruptcy.

The incongruous fact sheets were a stark outline of the reckoning that has come to the spiritual home of 850,000 Minnesota Catholics after decades of sexual abuse by priests, a scandal that has rocked the faith of some believers and the patience of all.

Reflective and questioning, those coming to mass were still coming to terms with a step that their archbishop said Friday had been made necessary by the damage done to victims and to the church.

Some believers, like Amy Holtan of Maple Grove, kept the news firmly within the framework of their faith.

“We have sinners who lead the church: We’re all sinners,” said Holtan, who attended St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis shortly after the bankruptcy announcement. “But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. God is in the midst of this.”

Other Catholics, like Mary Schrankler of Woodbury, aren’t planning to set foot in a church anytime soon.

“We need to understand better why this decision was made now,” Schrankler said. “Was it in the best interest of the people abused, or in the best interest of the archdiocese?”

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

(KSTP) — Allen Young walked with fellow parishioner Peter Minwegen. Young says he has come to terms with the archdiocese filing for bankruptcy.

“It was their decision to make and what more can I say, we have to go along with the archbishop,” he said.

Archbishop John Nienstedt said Friday that parishes would not be affected by the bankruptcy. The archbishop went on to say filing for bankruptcy protection is the best way for the archdiocese to fairly address victims of sexual abuse. Young thinks it was a smart move.

“I just, think that it’s ok that they did this and now the money is cut off,” Young said.

The trial for any other pending or future cases will never happen because of Friday’s bankruptcy filing in Federal Court. Plaintiffs become creditors. Church officials will not testify.

Peter Minwegen says it’s not that he’s oblivious to the filing, but he’s more angry over the fact that the statutes of limitations was removed.

“Because a lot of the accused are dead and they can no longer even defend themselves. And that’s the reason for having a statutes of limitations,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

Rebecca Kimitch

POSTED: 01/18/2015

In March 2011, Danny Wooten stood in an old dialysis center on the corner of Garey Avenue and Grevillia Street in Pomona, and amid the 150 dialysis stations and old nursing area, he envisioned a church.

Moved by the voice of God, Wooten, 51, embarked upon a massive and costly renovation of the 13,000-square-foot building. Six months later, New Covenant Christian Fellowship Center, Church of God in Christ opened its doors, . And just beyond those doors, a giant portrait of Pastor Wooten was hung.

Now, barely three years later, the church’s founder is behind bars, accused of embezzling $6.4 million from the city of Pasadena, where he was employed as a management analyst in the Public Works Department.

And the church can’t seem to survive without him, or his money. New Covenant is behind in its rent and “members are aware they are going to have to leave the property soon,” said Bishop Christopher Milton, head of the Southern California Evangelistic Jurisdiction, New Covenant’s parent organization.

Wooten allegedly directed more than $700,000 of the stolen funds to an account bearing the church’s name. The embezzlement scheme, revealed last month when Wooten and two others were arrested and charged on a 60-count felony complaint, involved an obscure fund intended to pay for placing Pasadena’s utility wires underground. Using fake invoices, more than two-thirds of the fund’s total payments were stolen over the course of a decade, according to an audit of the fund.

In addition to New Covenant, Wooten also allegedly directed $2.1 million to the Southern California Evangelistic Jurisdiction Center. Despite its similarity in name to New Covenant’s parent organization, Bishop Milton says they are not related. He said the two churches named in the embezzlement scheme are “affiliated with Pastor Wooten alone.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: EMMA NELSON , Star Tribune Updated: January 18, 2015

Bankruptcy halts clergy abuse cases, with victims watching for signs of change.

After nearly four decades, Bob Rich can still draw a map of the room where it happened.

He was 12 years old when a priest who was a visiting speaker at his school took him to lunch, sneaked him into an R-rated movie and then drove him back to the rectory and sexually abused him. The abuse continued until the summer before Rich left for college, all within a few miles of the Minnetonka neighborhood where he grew up.

After years spent away from Minnesota, a recent return has brought with it the flashbacks that Rich has tried for years to escape. He calls them “land mines,” and they’re everywhere: the wooded road where it happened for the last time, inside a parked car. News stories detailing the latest abuse revelations. The sound of church bells.

“You cannot escape it,” he said. “It’s like breathing air.”

Rich and other survivors of clergy sexual abuse across the nation are watching events unfold in the Twin Cities, with reactions to Friday’s bankruptcy filing ranging from hope to frustration.

“I believe very strongly that we are positioned in a way today to make sure the survivors are treated fairly and equitably,” said Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul attorney handling most of the Twin Cities clergy sexual abuse cases, at a news conference Friday.

But some survivors who have already gone through the legal process, either in Minnesota or elsewhere, say they’re apprehensive about what will happen here.

“What that does is it puts a stop to everything,” said Joelle Casteix, Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “These diocese … always pitch it as a very humane way to treat everyone fairly, but their No. 1 goal is to keep their secrets hidden.”

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MINNESOTA
WJON

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Some Twin Cities-area parishes are fearful about their financial futures after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy.

While Archbishop John Nienstedt said Friday that parishes would not be affected by the filing for Chapter 11 reorganization, dozens of parishes are taking steps to protect themselves.

Reports say 50 parishes have hired White Bear Lake bankruptcy attorney Mary Jo Jensen-Carter.
Others have hired their own attorneys or are considering joining the larger group.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy Friday in the face of dozens of claims of clergy sexual abuse. Archdiocese leaders say the reorganization will allow the church to compensate victims equitably, while still continuing its mission.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo! News

Washington (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron defended the right to speech that gives offense to others’ religious beliefs, in a rebuttal to Pope Francis who said there should be limits.

In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, Cameron said the West must show that its values, like free speech, are stronger than those of Islamist extremists pursuing a “poisonous death cult narrative.”

“I think in a free society, there is a right to cause offense about someone’s religion. I’m a Christian. If someone says something offensive about Jesus, I might find that offensive but in a free society I don’t have a right to wreak my vengeance upon them,” Cameron said.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
16 JAN 2015

Former CNN host Piers Morgan accused Pope Francis on Thursday of promoting aggression against anyone who criticizes religion.

“Here was my Holy Father, supposedly a man who espouses the philosophy of turning the other cheek, telling us all to whack someone in the face if they insult us,” Morgan wrote in the Daily Mail. “Well, isn’t that exactly what Al Qaida did in Paris, metaphorically speaking? They claimed the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists had insulted their religion, and reacted with physical aggression. Albeit aggression of a deadly, despicable varity.”

Morgan’s column was published a day after the Pope condemned the mass shooting that killed 12 Charlie Hebdo staff members, while saying that “there are limits” to freedom of speech and comparing insulting a person’s faith to insulting his mother.

“If my good friend Dr. [Alberto] Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, then a punch awaits him,” the Pope said, using his trip organizer as an example. “It’s normal. One cannot provoke. One cannot insult the faith of others. One cannot make fun of faith.”

While Pope Francis has emerged as “the biggest breath of fresh air since John Paul II,” Morgan argued, his remarks effectively “endorsed violence” against Charlie Hebdo, since their content — which mocked the Islamic Prophet Mohammad, among other religious figures — could lead to them being seen as “provocateurs.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis’ well scripted trip to the Philippines began and ended with unscripted injections of reality about street children. The trip began with shocking revelations that young street children were being rounded up by Manila officials and held in horrible conditions to clear the streets for Pope Francis’ visit, as reported by the UK Daily Mail here: [Daily Mail]

* The pope’s last full day in the Philippines began with an emotional youth gathering where he faced a tough question from one of the street children.

* Pope Francis concluded his trip in open-air Mass. In his homily, the pope took another swipe at the Philippines’ government’s new program to make effective family planning options accessible to, and affordable by, the countries poor, saying the family was under threat from “insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred.”

* Children can be seen living on the streets of the Philippine capital, as they often do in many poor Asian, Latin American and African countries, surviving by begging and picking through garbage in vast dumps.The United Nations reportedly says 1.2 million children live on the streets in the Philippines. According to the Child Protection Network Foundation, 35 percent of Filipino children were living in poverty in 2009, the last year such data was available. Nearly one third of Filipinos live in slums

* At an emotional youth gathering at a Catholic university in Manila this morning (1/18/15), the pope had to face a question posed by a 12-year-old girl who had been abandoned. “Many children are abandoned by their parents. Many of them became victims and bad things have happened to them, like drug addiction and prostitution. Why does God allow this to happen, even if the children are not at fault? Why is it that only a few people help us?” the girl, Glyzelle Iris Palomar, asked him. The girl, who was rescued and found shelter in a Church-run community, broke down in tears and could not finish her prepared welcome. The pope hugged her and later put aside most of his own prepared speech to respond. “Why do children suffer?” the pope reportedly replied, but really had no apt answer.(My emphasis)

* Nevertheless, Pope Francis lobbied a few hours later in his homily for an end to the government’s long overdue help to poor couples who want to plan their families. Is he serious?

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CANADA
CFRA

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – Extra mental-health workers have been flown to a remote Arctic hamlet as a defrocked priest who sexually abused many of its children is expected to face a sentencing hearing Monday.

“Mental-health support and counselling support are available for the people involved with this hearing,” said William Qamukaq, a community justice worker in Igloolik, Nunavut.

Eric Dejaeger, a 67-year-old former Oblate priest, will face the opening day of a sentencing hearing on 32 counts of child sexual abuse between 1978 and 1982 when he lived in Igloolik on the northern tip of the Melville Peninsula in central Nunavut.

His crimes, which range from indecent assault to bestiality, were so vile that the written judgment from the Nunavut Court of Justice began with a warning about disturbing content.

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MINNESOTA
WXOW

WINONA, Minn. (KTTC) — – After the Archdiocese of St. Paul Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy there was slight concern other diocese involved in the clergy sex abuse cases may do the same. The Diocese of Winona was rumored to be considering filing for bankruptcy in the past but Winona Bishop John Quinn said no steps have been taken to date.

The Diocese of Winona has listed the names of 15 priests who have served local parishes with “credible” claims of sexual abuse against them.

Back in March, Bishop Quinn wrote a letter to the Vatican explaining the diocese anticipated more than just those 15 claims and was considering bankruptcy.

“At this time, there are no plans for the Diocese of Winona to file for bankruptcy. However, there are still a number of months which lawsuits can be filed. We need to find that out and perhaps actions may be necessary but, we at this time are not prepared or thinking about bankruptcy,” said Bishop Quinn.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandradio

[An interview with Fr. Klaus Mertes, who opened discussion five years ago on sexual abuse of clergy in the Catholic church.]

Mit der Bekanntmachung der Missbrauchsfälle im Berliner Canisius-Kollegs stieß Pater Klaus Mertes vor fünf Jahren die Aufklärung in der Katholischen Kirche an. Seitdem sei viel passiert, mittlerweile fragen ihn auch staatliche Schulleiter nach präventiven Maßnahmen an.

Philipp Gessler: Die katholische Kirche hat sich verändert, in Deutschland und weltweit. Letzteres liegt vor allem an dem neuen Papst Franziskus, sicherlich. Die Veränderung der katholischen Kirche hierzulande wurde in erster Linie angestoßen durch die Aufdeckung des tausendfachen Missbrauchs junger Menschen durch Priester in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten. Etwas mehr Demut und Nachdenklichkeit ist eingezogen in die Kirche. Angestoßen hat die Aufklärung hierzulande Pater Klaus Mertes, der vor fünf Jahren Leiter des renommierten Canisius-Kollegs war, eines Jesuiten-Gymnasiums in Berlin.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandradio

[Hans Zollner, president of the Center for Child Protection, provided the scientific expertise to deal with the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. That priests have just abused the trust has left the deepest wounds in those who were affected.]

Hans Zollner, Präsident des Zentrums für Kinderschutz, lieferte die wissenschaftliche Expertise, um mit dem Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche umzugehen. Dass Priester gerade das Vertrauen missbraucht haben, habe bei Betroffenen mit die tiefsten Wunden hinterlassen, ist sein Fazit.

Philipp Gessler: Wir wollen das Thema Missbrauch noch einmal vertiefen. Am Donnerstag hatte ich die Chance, mit Prof. Hans Zollner zu sprechen. Der Jesuit ist Präsident des Zentrums für Kinderschutz und des Instituts für Psychologie der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom – er liefert, so kann man das wohl zusammenfassen, für die Weltkirche die wissenschaftliche Expertise, um noch intensiver mit dem Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche umzugehen. Denn der Skandal ist ja noch lange nicht vorbei. Zunächst stellte ich ihm eine der ersten Fragen, die sich schon vor fünf Jahren aufdrängte: Hat der Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche, nach fünf Jahren der Forschung und Erfahrung, wirklich nichts mit dem Zölibat zu tun, was damals gerade katholische Würdenträger sehr schnell behauptet haben?

Hans Zollner: Sexueller Missbrauch, sexualisierte Gewalt kommt in der ganzen Welt vor und die kommt in allen Berufsgruppen, sie kommt in allen familiären Zusammenhängen vor, die man sich vorstellen kann. Es gibt sicherlich katholische Elemente in dem Missbrauch, den katholische Priester oder Bischöfe verüben.

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SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

[Zurich, 18/01/15 (kath.ch) The Catholic Church in Germany has processed approximately 1,500 Indemnity claims of victims. Ninety-five percent of the applications received positive decision.]

Zürich, 18.1.15 (kath.ch) Die katholische Kirche in Deutschland hat rund 1.500 Entschädigungs-Anträge von Opfern bearbeitet, 95 Prozent der Anträge erhielten positiven Bescheid, wie diese Woche bekannt wurde. Auch in der Schweiz nimmt die Frage nach einer materiellen Entschädigung Formen an.

Sylvia Stam

Um wie viele Fälle es in der Schweiz geht, lässt sich so nicht sagen, weil es bislang keine nationale Meldestelle gibt, erklärt Joseph Bonnemain, Sekretär des Fachgremiums «Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld» der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK), gegenüber kath.ch. Die Fälle wurden jeweils von den einzelnen Bistümern gesammelt. Dennoch hat das Fachgremium für die bereits verjährten Fälle nach kurzen Wegen für eine Entschädigung gesucht:

«Wir haben ein Modell entwickelt, wie wir für die Opfer der verjährten Fälle materiell ein Zeichen setzen können», sagt Giorgio Prestele, Präsident des bischöflichen Fachgremiums, gegenüber kath.ch. Im Idealfall stünden bis Ende Jahr eine Struktur und ein Konto für einen Fonds, in den man Geld einzahlen könne.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 18 January 2015)

Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission has been told how the Catholic Church allowed a priest, Father Martin Newbold, to commit sex-crimes against young girls. The church concealed his crimes from the police and transferred him from one Australian state to another to protect him. Thus the church inflicted this criminal on more victims in new parishes.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Father Martin Newbold (real name Thomas Parker Newbold) was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1928. In his teens he was recruited as a priest for Western Australia’s Perth diocese and he was ordained as a priest on 28 July 1951, aged 23, using the name Father “Martin” Newbold.

Broken Rites has searched through 30 annual editions of the printed Australian Catholic Directory. This research indicates that, originally, from 1951 onwards, Newbold officially belonged to the Perth diocese, where his early parishes included Northam, Wagin and Belmont.

Normally, a diocesan spends his career in one diocese. In the mid-1950s, however, Newbolt was transferred, on loan, from the Perth Diocese to the Bunbury diocese, which covers WA’s south-west.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Jan 18, 2015 By Nigel Nelson

The Sunday People today launches the the May-o-meter to shame the Home Secretary into action before the General Election in May

Today marks 196 days since Theresa May announced her inquiry into historic child sex abuse – and the nation is STILL waiting for it.

The Home Secretary now has the choice of 100 candidates to chair the inquiry after two she appointed slipped through her fingers.

But Mrs May is still dithering over who it should be.

Last week we put six crucial questions to her which she declined to answer.

So today the Sunday People launches the May-o-meter to monitor how long survivors of abuse are to be denied justice.

We want to shame the Home Secretary into pulling her finger out before the General Election in May.

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MEXICO
am

[The letter of apology from Pope]

Cuando Jesús Romero Colín abrió el sobre, sus manos temblaban y el corazón le latía rápidamente. Sentado en una banca sobre Avenida de los Insurgentes, al sur de la Ciudad de México, comenzó a leer la carta que le envió el Papa Francisco. Era la respuesta a una misiva que el mexicano le escribió tres semanas antes.

“Sr. Jesús Romero Colín: Tengo recibida su carta. Con dolor, vergüenza, la releí y también con los mismos sentimientos la respondo. Perdón en nombre de la Iglesia, así con sencillez se lo pido. No me sale otra palabra. Rezo por Usted y por todos los que pasaron por ese martirio. Quiero estar cercano. En Usted, y en los que han sufrido lo mismo, veo la cara de Cristo ultrajada. Estoy a su lado y, por favor, le pido que rece por mí. Que Jesús lo bendiga y la Virgen Santa lo cuide. Fraternalmente, Francisco”.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

[with video]

By: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER Updated: January 16, 2015

2013

May 23: A change in Minnesota law creates a three-year window for filing sex abuse lawsuits previously barred by statute of limitations, triggering a wave of lawsuits against the archdiocese seeking millions of dollars in damages.

May 29:The first lawsuit is filed, by a John Doe 1, in Ramsey District Court.

September 23: Former archdiocese canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger reveals evidence that church officials overlooked sexual misconduct.

October 13: A task force is formed to investigate clergy sexual misconduct.

October 14: A Twin Cities woman sues a priest for sexual contact.

October 17: St. Paul police ask abuse victims to come forward.

November 12: Archbishop John Nienstedt says he will release a partial list of accused priests.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

[with video]

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: January 17, 2015

Move halts suits; archbishop, lead attorney for victims say step is necessary

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, becoming the 12th in the nation to say its treasury cannot withstand the unprecedented wave of lawsuits from clergy abuse victims.

The move freezes lawsuits against the church, protecting the archdiocese from creditors while allowing it to develop a reorganization plan. It also halts three abuse trials scheduled to begin Jan. 26.

The archdiocese is facing more than 20 lawsuits, with another 100 pending. The bankruptcy filing didn’t provide precise financial figures, but showed estimated liabilities of $50 million to $100 million, estimated assets of $10 million to $50 million, and estimated creditors of 200 to 999.

“Reorganization will allow the finite resources of the archdiocese to be distributed equitably among all victims/survivors,” said Archbishop John Nienstedt. “It will also permit the archdiocese to provide essential services required to continue its mission.”

The bankruptcy filing will allow the archdiocese to continue its daily operations while giving it time to reorganize its finances as a judge determines how much victims may be entitled to receive.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: January 18, 2015

Catholic parishes take steps to limit fallout from archdiocese’s bankruptcy in wake of clergy abuse

Twin Cities Catholics going to mass this weekend saw something waiting for them along with the bulletins and hymnals — fliers explaining their church’s bankruptcy.

The incongruous fact sheets were a stark outline of the reckoning that has come to the spiritual home of 850,000 Minnesota Catholics after decades of sexual abuse by priests, a scandal that has rocked the faith of some believers and the patience of all.

Reflective and questioning, those coming to mass were still coming to terms with a step that their archbishop said Friday had been made necessary by the damage done to victims and to the church.

Some believers, like Amy Holtan of Maple Grove, kept the news firmly within the framework of their faith.

“We have sinners who lead the church: We’re all sinners,” said Holtan, who attended St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis shortly after the bankruptcy announcement. “But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. God is in the midst of this.”

Other Catholics, like Mary Schrankler of Woodbury, aren’t planning to set foot in a church anytime soon.

“We need to understand better why this decision was made now,” Schrankler said. “Was it in the best interest of the people abused, or in the best interest of the archdiocese?”

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UNITED STATES
Winona Daily News

Leslie Hittner

I am appalled! Employees of the Catholic Church all over this country are being told that if they express their beliefs with respect to same-sex marriage, artificial birth control, abortion and other politically sensitive issues that the Catholic Church has a position on — and if those statements are not in accordance with the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church — they will be fired.

So much for free speech in the United States. Are similar threats being made elsewhere in the world — Rome, for instance?

One has to wonder when one of the Church’s worldwide leaders, Raymond Cardinal Burke, former bishop of La Crosse and former Archbishop of St. Louis, can make preposterous and outrageous statements about Catholic men and women and still retain his position as patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta — itself a demotion from his previous position in the elite Roman Curia.

But then, maybe his statements are in accordance with the beliefs of the church. Maybe he has not overstepped his bounds. Yes, maybe his statements reflect the culture of the vast majority of men in positions of power in the Catholic Church — in Rome and elsewhere around the world.
What did Burke say, do you ask? I will not go into a lot of detail, but feel free to check the Jan. 9 La Crosse Tribune or the Jan. 7 National Catholic Reporter.
In a nutshell — and I mean that literally — Burke asserts that the Catholic Church has suffered a shortage of priests, endured much priestly sexual abuse and experienced a feminization of the church in general because of — get this — the feminist movement in the last half of the 20th century.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Catholics have come to expect papal pageantry and scripted settings from its papacy that still operates often in a medieval manner. But Pope Francis’ trip to the Philippines seems to have taken things to a darker side. First, there were the shocking revelations that young street children were being rounded up by Manila officials and held in horrible conditions to clear the streets for Pope Francis’ visit, as reported here:

* [Daily Mail]

* Now there is a significant short Reuters’ video of Manila’s police preventing peaceful Filipino protesters trying to be visible to the pope from doing so, as seen here:

* [Reuters]

* Of course,if Pope Francis really wants to understand what the street children are facing, he should view the PBS report about Fr. Shay Cullen. This prophetic priest had earlier in 2012 discussed his work, over several decades with thousands of sexually abused Filipino children, on USA PBS-TV’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, indicating that even then, that the Filipino Catholic hierarchy appeared more concerned with curtailing contraception then with curtailing child sex trafficking and abuse. It is inexplicable why Francis did not meet with Fr. Cullen, as appears to be the case. Fr, Cullen has testified as an expert about child sexual exploitation before a an international relations committee of the US Congress.. Please see Fr. Cullen with some of the street children here:

* [PBS]

* And if Francis wants to get a quick view of life for the many Manila poor, he might also watch the 2008 video showing some of the harsh conditions in the Tondo/Manila slum shown here:

* [YouTube]

* This seemingly carefully planned “image management” of Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines is disturbing, especially in view of Francis’ recent remarks about limiting free speech reported here:

* [National Catholic Reporter]

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WORCESTER (MA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester

January 15, 2015, WORCESTER, MA — Following a complete audit of its financial accounting, the Diocese of Worcester has issued online Financial Statements and online and printed editions of the Annual Report on Financial Activities for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2014.

In his letter, the Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, S.T.D., Bishop of Worcester, wrote that the reports continue to demonstrate good stewardship of donations received throughout the year. The Combined Statements of Activities showed an operating surplus of $1,276,057 after expenses totaling $25,271,377 for 2014 compared to a surplus of $122,418 the previous year on expenses totaling $24,750,617.

Bishop McManus wrote that even with a subsidy of $550,000 from Partners in Charity, retirement programs for clergy operated at expenses over revenues by $993,535, up from the previous year’s difference of $715,325. He expressed his gratitude “to the committee that came together last year to begin the task of raising awareness of this critical need in our diocese” including the Celebrate Priesthood event held in the fall of 2014 which will benefit the 2015 fiscal year. The total expenses incurred for retired priests care were 3.6% higher than the previous year.

The other area which he noted as a challenge is the need to service outstanding debt, which cost Central Administration $995,956. He thanked the parish and diocesan staff and volunteers who participated in workshops on parish finances this past year and noted that dedicated assistance to help parishes with their goal of balanced budgets will begin in 2015.

The Diocesan Expansion Fund, which provides “a safe and secure resource for parish and diocesan savings while providing for the borrowing needs of our parishes,” ended the year on a positive note at $1,782,652 including unrealized gains of $839,486. This gain contributed significantly to the overall 1,276,057 increase in unrestricted net assets reported on the combined statement of activities.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

01/17/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Charles Dickens was quick to note that ‘the dense fog is densest’ and the mud is ‘muddiest’ at ‘the very heart of the fog’, which he identified as the High Court of Chancery. ‘Chancery’, in his sense and in mine, becomes somewhat of a double entendre. For, I think that anyone who watched the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis press conference yesterday afternoon (filmed from the Saint Paul Chancery) will agree that there was ‘fog everywhere’, and very little sun.

Neither the press conferences nor the documents filed as part of the Archdiocese’s petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection shed much light on the current situation of the Archdiocese- financially, morally, or otherwise. However, a close reading of the documents, and in particular the ‘Application of the Debtor to Employ Chapter 11 Counsel’ does raise some interesting questions.

1). How much has it cost?

Per the ‘Verified Statement of Richard D Anderson’, included as page 9 of 42 in the PDF file ‘Application by Debtor‘, as of the date of petition (January 16, 2015) the Archdiocese has been billed by Briggs and Morgan for $900,224.11 in fees and $3281 in expenses. The billings began with the filing of an initial retainer of $300,000 on April 29, 2014, which has been periodically refreshed to maintain a minimum trust balance of $250,000. On January 13, 2015, in advance of filing the petition, the Archdiocese deposited an additional $750,000 into the trust account.

The ‘Verified Statement’ indicates that Briggs and Morgan billed, from this account, ‘for any matter arguably related to a potential bankruptcy filing’. However, it also specifies that ‘any matter’ does not include fees and expenses incurred in connection with:

1. the ‘voluminous’ review of clergy files
2. analyses of insurance issues
‘3. voluntary’ public disclosures of accused clergy
4. police reporting
5. insurance coverage litigation
6. development of child protection policies and protocols

According to the ‘Verified Statement’, payments from the Archdiocese have been made out of its general operating fund, which goes a long way towards explaining the $9.1 million deficit that was announced in November of 2014. At that time the Archdiocese suggested that $4.1 million of that amount went towards addressing allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

2). What happened to Brian Wenger?

In bankruptcy proceedings, the proposed attorney for the debtor (in this case the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis) must list any potential conflicts of interest (again see the Verified Statement of Richard D. Anderson). An interesting aspect to the disclosure filed yesterday has to do with the former Chair of Briggs and Morgan, Brian Wenger. Throughout my tenure as Chancellor in the Archdiocese, Brian Wenger was an influential adviser and friend to Archbishop Nienstedt (at least to the extent that anyone could be considered a friend of the Archbishop). Wenger served as Chair of the Archdiocese Finance Council for a number of years, and was active in drawing up a plan for the reorganization of Chancery departments following the embezzlement scandal (a reorganization plan that did not include, interestingly, a Chancellors’ department). The normally reclusive Archbishop would even, on occasion, have the Wenger family at his residence- a circumstance almost unheard of in other contexts. So great was Wenger’s influence, in fact, the the CFO and my co-Chancellor often griped about the extent to which Wenger’s advice was sought and accepted over theirs.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Updated January 17, 2015

Pope Francis said, ‘If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,’

In reaction to the Charlie Hebdo event in Paris, on the plane to the Philippines, Pope Francis told journalists that, ‘If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,’ Francis said, throwing a pretend punch his way. ‘It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.’ If Pope Francis’ mother had autocratic powers (like he does) and she covered-up and protected criminals like pedophile priests for decades and she abused her powers in limitless ways (like the Vatican had done centuries after centuries) sometimes the only way to expose her crimes is by satire – for the pen is mightier than the sword – see Charlie Hebdo cartoons below. Read also the rebuttal to those who say, “I am not Charlie” below.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Cupich has been in office for a month now
Group has twice invited him to a town hall meeting
Victims are disappointed that he refuses to respond
On anniversary of his installation they’ll leaflet outside church
SNAP: Cleric is still in a parish despite two child sex accusations
Group will hand fliers to mass-goers inviting them to attend an open meeting

WHAT:
On the one month anniversary of the new archbishop’s installation, clergy sex abuse victims and concerned Catholics will hand fliers to church-goers urging them – and him – to come to a “town hall meeting” about a twice-accused predator priest who is still on the job.

WHEN:
Sunday, January 18, 2015 at11:30 a.m.

WHERE:
Outside St Alphonsus Church (1429 West Wellington Avenue, Chicago)

WHO:
Four to five members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

WHY:
Twice SNAP has invited new Archbishop Blase Cupich to a town-hall meeting to educate and warn church-goers about a twice-accused priest working in their parish. The event will be held Thursday, January 22, regardless of whether Cupich responds or not.

[SNAP]

SNAP also wants Cupich to:

1) Suspend Fr. Michael W. O’Connell from his post at St. Alphonsus, and

2) Personally visit St. Alphonsus and Our Lady of the Woods (Orland Park) and beg anyone who may have information or suspicions about crimes or misdeeds by Fr. O’Connell to call police.

Fr. O’Connell was the subject of a criminal child sex abuse investigation and is accused of abusing two boys, in separate incidents.

Fr. O’Connell was temporarily suspended in December 2013 after the archdiocese received an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a boy at Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park years earlier. In April of this year, Cardinal Francis George reinstated Fr. O’Connell even though the Cook County Sheriff’s Department never closed the criminal case.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Weeks later, new allegations surfaced involving alleged abuse of a different boy in the 1990s. Authorities have put the investigation on and archdiocesan officials are keeping Fr. O’Connell on the job. Catholic officials claim O’Connell is to avoid the parish school and will not be alone with a child, a contention that SNAP calls “ludicrous and dangerous.”

[BishopAccountability.org]

The “town hall meeting” will be this Thu, Jan 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Belmont Public Library (659 West Melrose Street, 312 744 0166).

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis and I are both children of immigrants who lived through the Great Depression and the Second World War. I would have loved him as my pastor in our earlier years. As a “senior citizen beginner” world leader, however, the pope concerns me, especially in light of my long experience as as international lawyer and as a parent. While Francis appears to try to speak humbly at times, he often seems to act arrogantly, as discussed below.

* Pope Francis admitted here [Francis Admits Popes’ Mistakes. Will He Fix Them? ] that he and other popes made mistakes. Fine, yet he seems to operate often, too often, as if he believes that he is “infallible” on complex family, political and economic issues, not just on “faith and morals”. A few examples of this from the pope’s Philippines trip and elsewhere follow.

* Pope Francis is clearly a first rate salesman, but he seems, to me at least, to be at best a second rate manager, and a third rate strategist. He relies too often on secrecy and rhetoric, and on a narrow and opportunistic group of billionaire and clerical advisers, almost all men — “Yes Men”. He frequently pontificates on social, political and economic issues either with insufficient regard for some pertinent factual data or with a lack of direct experience on the issues, or both.. Since he has over a billion followers, and most in the media so often accept as “Gospel” whatever he says, Pope Francis concerns me deeply, more each day.

* Several examples from his trip to the Philippines follow. One example involves politics and economics and another, contraception and confession, and a third, free political speech, and are reported here:

* [National Catholic Reporter]

* [National Catholic Reporter]

* [National Catholic Reporter]

* Two other good examples involve Pope Francis’ serious missteps in international politics. One was his ill advised Vatican welcome of Russia’s President Putin before the Ukraine invasion, as reported here:

* [Daily Kos]

* And the other was on August 18 when Francis ratcheted up the Holy See’s demands for “action” — including a new invasion of Iraq — by the international community, as reported here:

* [National Catholic Register]

* On his current Asian trip, Pope Francis has called on the Philippines’ President Aquino to root out widespread corruption there, indicating “…, it is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good,” Francis told the President that his country needed to reform social structures “which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor.” adding “I hope that this prophetic summons will challenge everyone, at all levels of society, to reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor, … ”

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ITALY
Daily Mail (UK)

Lesbian sex, seduction and murder… by NUNS in a Catholic convent: Incredible tale of debauchery that was exposed by a princess whistleblower is unearthed in secret Vatican archive

By JENNY STANTON FOR MAILONLINE

A sordid tale of lesbian sex, murder and seduction in a Catholic convent in 19th-century Rome has been discovered in a secret Vatican archive.

The Sant’Ambrogio scandal involves a beautiful young sister who convinced the nuns she was experiencing visions and visits from heaven – then made them engage in rampant sexual activity.

Herbert Wolf, a leading scholar of the Catholic Church, learned of the Sant’Ambrogio scandal when he became one of the first allowed into the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The naughty nun also entered into an erotic relationship with a theologian on the pretense he was possessed, and is thought to have murdered three other sisters.

But when a German princess fled the convent in disgust, a sex scandal hidden behind a habit for many years was unveiled.

Wolf, a professor of ecclesiastical his­tory at University of Muenster, Germany, made the discovery and has retold it in his book The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio.

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DEUTSCHLAND
WDR

[An accusted pastor does not want to testify at it trial. Now the victim must described the deeds again on the witness stand. The priest is said to have abused his godson and his brother for several years.]

Obwohl er es zunächst angekündigt hatte, wird ein wegen mehrfachen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern angeklagter Pfarrer aus dem Bistum Aachen nicht vor Gericht aussagen. Das hat sein Verteidiger mitgeteilt. Nun müssen die Opfer erneut in den Zeugenstand und die Taten schildern. Der Pfarrer soll sein Patenkind und dessen Bruder über mehrere Jahre missbraucht haben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

[Five years ago the abuse scandal at the Ettal monastery become public. Father G. allegedly abused four minors. As of Thursday he must stand trial.]

Ettal/München – Vor fünf Jahren wurde der Missbrauchsskandal im Kloster Ettal publik. Pater G. soll sich an vier Minderjährigen vergriffen haben. Ab Donnerstag muss er sich vor Gericht verantworten.

Der älteste Fall spielt im Jahr 2001, der jüngste vier Jahre später. Damals war Pater G. Religionslehrer und Präfekt in der Klosterschule Ettal (Kreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen), ein Vertrauensmann für die Schüler.

Er soll dieses Vertrauen missbraucht und sich an vier Schülern vergangen haben. Wie nun feststeht, beginnt der Prozess gegen den Ordensmann am Donnerstag vor dem Landgericht München II.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digitial

[After the ARD documentation of sexual violence in the Regensburg cathedral choir, the Regensburg diocese will take another look at the situation. Clemens Neck, spokesman for the bishop, said there are new allegations.]

Von Stefan Aigner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Nach der ARD-Dokumentation zur sexuellen Gewalt bei den Regensburger Domspatzen will das Bistum Regensburg einen Fall „neu aufrollen“. Bischofssprecher Clemens Neck spricht von „neuen Vorwürfen“, die bisher gegenüber dem Bistum nicht geäußert worden seien. Mit der Wahrheit hat das nur wenig zu tun. Die Schwester des Betroffenen sagt: „Es ist jetzt acht Jahre her, seit sich mein Bruder an das Bistum gewandt hat. Seitdem ist dort alles ganz genau bekannt und dokumentiert.“

Am späten Donnerstagnachmittag wurde die Meldung über die Katholische Nachrichtenagentur (KNA) verbreitet: Nach der ARD-Dokumentation „Sünden an den Sängerknaben“ wolle das Bistum Regensburg den Fall des ehemaligen Domspatzen Georg Auer erneut prüfen. Rechtsanwalt Geedo Paprotta, der die Anträge an das Bistum Regensburg juristisch prüft, habe die Initiative ergriffen, heißt es, weil sich „signifikant neue Details“ ergeben hätten. Er, Paprotta, sei mit dem Fall bislang „überhaupt nicht befasst gewesen“, wird berichtet. Nach der Dokumentation hätten sich „neue Vorwürfe“ ergeben, behauptet der bischöfliche Pressesprecher Clemens Neck und bittet andere Opfer, sich doch weiter an die Diözese zu wenden. Ein durchsichtiger Versuch der Schadensbegrenzung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der Tagesspiegel

[Harald Dressing, a Mannheim psychologist, said it is still unclear how many minors were sexually abuse by Catholic clergy in Germany and presumably a quantitatives and representative study is not possible.]

von Claudia Keller

Kritik an der katholischen Kirche: Sie kann nicht sagen, wie vielen Kindern und Jugendlichen in der Vergangenheit durch Geistliche und andere Kirchenmitarbeiter sexuelle Gewalt angetan wurde. Das ist wissenschaftlich seriös auch nicht möglich herauszufinden, sagen nun Forscher.

Vor fünf Jahren wurde bekannt, dass am Berliner Canisius-Kolleg in den 70er und 80er Jahren systematisch Jugendliche von Jesuitenpatres sexuell missbraucht wurden. Doch nach wie vor ist nicht klar, wie viele Minderjährige insgesamt im Bereich der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland so etwas erleben mussten. Vermutlich wird es eine solche Statistik nie geben. „Eine quantitative, repräsentative Studie ist nicht möglich“, sagte der Mannheimer Psychologe Harald Dreßing am Donnerstag in Berlin.

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MINNESOTA
Wonkette

by Dan Weber
Jan 16

Minnesota isn’t all Lutherans, though if we’re being honest, yeah, it’s mostly Lutherans. Today, those sola scriptura Scandinavians scored a major victory in their long-running war with Minnesota’s Roman Catholics (shut up, it was too a thing that was happening). The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is filing for bankruptcy, because it turns out that child sexual abuse cases can be rather expensive!

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, saying it’s the best way for the church to get as many resources as possible to victims of clergy sexual abuse.

“We’re doing the right thing,” the Rev. Charles Lachowitzer told The Associated Press in an interview in advance of Friday’s filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. “This decision reflects the end of a process of putting victims first.”[…]

The filing estimated the archdiocese’s assets between $10 million and $50 million, with liabilities between $50 million and $100 million. It estimated 200 and 300 creditors.

Is the Archdiocese actually doing the right thing, for the children? Or is this another use of the shield of bankruptcy as a weapon, y’know, like they did in the movie 300 and also in Milwaukee? Probably too soon to tell, but we assure you that Yr recovering Roman Catholic Wonket will be ON IT like a cassock on a boner.

Yr Wonket attended Catholic schools in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese. We sang in Catholic choirs growing up, and this past summer, we watched our wonderful sister get married in Minneapolis’ gorgeous Beaux-Arts Basilica of St. Mary. We are still in touch with the nuns who educated us, and our pastor growing up, Fr. John Bauer, remains one of the finest men we have ever met. Really! He played a bit part in our middle school’s production of Oliver! and everything.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan , Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn.

With three clergy abuse lawsuits nearing trial and concerns mounting over the cost of future claims, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Friday filed for bankruptcy protection.

• Documents: Explore the filing

Betrayed By Silence: An MPR News investigation
Explore the full investigation Clergy abuse, cover-up and crisis in the Twin Cities Catholic church

The Chapter 11 filing buys the archdiocese time to reorganize its troubled finances as it faces huge potential costs tied to clergy sex abuse. Instead of handling claims through civil suits, alleged victims will likely need to file claims in federal court as creditors of the archdiocese.

The shift into bankruptcy court also stops the coming civil trials, which were set to begin Jan. 26.

The move allows the “finite resources” of the archdiocese to go equitably to clergy abuse victims while letting the institution continue its mission, Archbishop John Nienstedt said at an afternoon press conference.

The archdiocese reported assets of $10 million to $50 million — and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million.

Ultimately, the archdiocese may have to sell some assets to pay its debts, Nienstedt said.

He added that he does not intend to resign.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Jay Olstad, KARE January 16, 2015

MINNEAPOLIS – For months people have been predicting the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis would file for bankruptcy. Friday, that prediction became official.

“I’m not surprised. I think it was inevitable,” said Charles Reid, a University of St. Thomas Law professor.

Reid, who is also an expert in Cannon law, was one those who predicted this day.

“They have huge outstanding obligations, they don’t know the amounts,” he said of the Archdiocese. “They don’t know the dollar amounts, but they know the implications are very large.”

Those obligations come from dozens of lawsuits and pending lawsuits over clergy sex abuse.

Church officials reassured parishes and schools they would not be impacted, saying parishes and the Archdiocese have been separate under a religious corporation statute since the 1800’s.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC Washington

[with video]

By James Doubek and Chris Gordon

Jewish women demonstrated Friday outside the D.C. courthouse where an Orthodox rabbi accused of secretly videotaping women taking a ritual bath was appearing, as prosecutors sought to scour his computers for more possible victims.

Barry Freundel, 63, is charged with misdemeanor voyeurism involving six women. Prosecutors say Freundel secretly videotaped women as they undressed to prepare for a ritual bath in the National Capital Mikvah in Georgetown.

A group of demonstrators stood in front of D.C. Superior Court to support women the rabbi is accused of recording. Some carried signs reading “#SAFEMIKVEH” and “#NoPleaDeal.”

“It’s crucial that everyone, Jewish or not, stand up and say, ‘These people need to be treated with respect and with dignity,'” said Carly Pildis, 29, one of the organizers of the demonstration. “I’m Jewish, and if you hurt converts, I’m going to come after you.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger  hopfen@startribune.com

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, becoming the 12th in the nation to say its treasury cannot withstand the unprecedented wave of lawsuits from clergy abuse victims.

The move freezes lawsuits against the church, protecting the archdiocese from creditors while allowing it to develop a reorganization plan. It also halts three abuse trials scheduled to begin Jan. 26.

The archdiocese is facing more than 20 lawsuits, with another 100 pending. The bankruptcy filing didn’t provide precise financial figures, but showed estimated liabilities of $50 to $100 million, estimated assets of $10 to $50 million, and estimated creditors of 200 to 999.

“Reorganization will allow the finite resources of the archdiocese to be distributed equitably among all victims/survivors,” said Archbishop John Nienstedt. “It will also permit the archdiocese to provide essential services required to continue its mission.”

The bankruptcy filing will allow the archdiocese to continue its daily operations while giving it time to reorganize its finances as a judge determines how much victims may be entitled to receive. …

Not everyone welcomed the move, including Twin Cities victims’ attorney Patrick Noaker, whose client’s lawsuit against the Rev. Thomas Stitts was to go to trial Jan. 26. He said he was disappointed “the archdiocese chose to file bankruptcy rather than have the facts exposed at trial.”

“Bankruptcies do not protect kids,” said Noaker in a written statement. “Trials and disclosures help protect kids. The Archdiocese’s bankruptcy filing just one week before officials would have to testify in a public court with television cameras is not the conduct of an organization committed to transparency and protecting kids.”

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

[with video]

By: Joe Augustine

The Archbishop says filing for bankruptcy protection is the best way for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to fairly address victims of sexual abuse. An attorney representing more than a hundred alleged victims says filing for bankruptcy is a necessity.

Patrick Noaker says bankruptcy allows the church to keep its failures in the shadows.

“I don’t know if this process is going to be good for victims,” Noaker said Friday, shortly after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Noaker represents John Doe 104, a 54-year-old man from Minneapolis who claims he was sexually abused by Rev. Thomas Stitts from 1972 to 1974.

Doe 104 would have been the first alleged victim of sexual abuse to go to trial since the Minnesota Child Victim’s Act made cases like this possible.

The law was passed by the state legislature in May 2013. It established a three year window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil claims outside the old statute of limitations. The window closes May 24, 2016.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

FORMER residents of Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast have issued legal proceedings against the secretary of state over her refusal to have the abuse they suffered investigated as part of the Westminster inquiry into historical sexual crime.

In October, Theresa Villiers announced that Kincora would not form part of the Home Office Independent Panel into sexual abuse and would instead be included in the ongoing Sir Anthony Hart inquiry into church and state abuse currently hearing evidence in Banbridge.

There had been calls for Kincora to come under the Westminster probe as it will have greater powers to compel former security and intelligence service personnel to give evidence.

This is amid allegations from whistle blower Colin Wallace that British army intelligence was aware boys at the home were being abused but that members of the RUC and senior political figures conspired to cover up a paedophile ring that included senior members of the establishment.

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UNITED STATES
Winnipeg Free Press

By: John Longhurst

Four years ago, while visiting Elkhart, Ind., on business, my hosts decided to take me on a tour. We saw historic downtown buildings, the river walk, gardens and magnificent old houses. The tour concluded with a visit to the grave of Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder.

It wasn’t surprising that they wanted to take me there; Yoder, who died in 1997, was possibly the most prominent North American Mennonite theologian of the 20th century. He was best known for his book The Politics of Jesus, for decades a standard text in many seminaries and Christian universities.
Through that book, and his many other works, Yoder influenced millions with his thoughtful and energetic promotion of Christian pacifism and non-violence — including me. He changed the way I viewed how Christians should interact with the world.

So it came as a shock last week when the results of an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse against him were published.

The allegations go back to the 1970s and 1980s, when Yoder was as a professor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart. Confronted about his conduct in 1992, Yoder acknowledged that he had behaved inappropriately, but maintained he never meant any harm.

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MINNESOTA
KTTC

[with video]

Bishop Quinn weighs in on bankruptcy rumors; assures parishioners they are not filing at this time

By Alanna Martella, Reporter

WINONA, Minn. (KTTC) — After the Archdiocese of St. Paul Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy there was slight concern other diocese involved in the clergy sex abuse cases may do the same. The Diocese of Winona was rumored to be considering filing for bankruptcy in the past but Winona Bishop Quinn said no steps have been taken to date.

The Diocese of Winona has listed the names of 15 priests who have served local parishes with “credible” claims of sexual abuse against them.

Back in March, Bishop Quinn wrote a letter to the Vatican explaining the diocese anticipated more than just those 15 claims and was considering bankruptcy.

“At this time, there are no plans for the Diocese of Winona to file for bankruptcy. However, there are still a number of months which lawsuits can be filed. We need to find that out and perhaps actions may be necessary but, we at this time are not prepared or thinking about bankruptcy,” said Bishop Quinn.

There is still 18 months remaining for victims to report cases of past sexual abuse by priests as stated in the Minnesota Child Victims Act.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY EDWARD D. MURPHY STAFF WRITER
emurphy@pressherald.com | 207-791-6465

A Catholic priest who was disciplined in 2000 for running a sexually explicit website for gay clergy has been removed from the priesthood after Maine church officials said they substantiated an allegation that he had sexually abused a minor in the early 1980s.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said it got word from the Vatican on Friday that its findings against John E. Harris had been upheld and the former priest was “dismissed … from the clerical state.”

Harris, now 59, voluntarily separated himself from a public ministry in 2003 after having served in five Maine parishes over 19 years, said Dave Guthro, the diocese’s spokesman. Guthro said Harris, who now lives in Canada, had waived his right to challenge the accusation of abuse.

The Vatican finding can’t be appealed, Guthro said.

In 2000, Harris was disciplined by the church for setting up the website as part of a gay priests’ online discussion group. The site included photos of the discussion group’s members and pictures of naked men.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 16, 2015

Editor’s Note: ​This story was last updated at 3:10 p.m., central time.

The St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese filed for bankruptcy Friday morning in response to pending lawsuits related to the sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

The Associated Press first reported the development, long expected in a region gripped for more than a year by a sexual abuse scandal that has seen trust deteriorate in the local church. It is the 12th U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy.

The filing of Chapter 11 reorganization came in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the District of Minnesota. The archdiocese pointedly stated its current situation is “because of the scourge of sexual abuse of minors.”

The archdiocese described bankruptcy as “the fairest way” to resolve existing and future claims of sexual abuse while at the same time continuing its ministries within the local church.

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In its court filing, the archdiocese estimated assets between $10 million and $50 million, and liabilities between $50 million and $100 million. It listed its number of creditors between 200 and 1,000, with clients of attorney Jeff Anderson representing 17 of the 28 largest claimants.

In November, the archdiocese released its 2014 fiscal year financial statements that showed a $9 million deficit in operating activities, net assets down $8.9 million and total cash dropping 60 percent, from $9.5 million to $3.8 million.

At the time, Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt repeatedly used the word “trouble” to describe what the documents detailed. His chief financial officer also allowed for the possibility of bankruptcy as one possible path.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

John Lauritsen

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul has filed for bankruptcy amid lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by some of their clergy members.

Archbishop John Nienstedt said declaring bankruptcy is the “fairest” way to help the victims of sexual abuse.

He said it will also allow the archdiocese to continue the work it does for the more than 800,000 Catholics in the Twin Cities.

Since 2013, the archdiocese has been sued about two dozen times due to sex abuse claims. …

The move by the Archdiocese will likely not impact Catholic churches and schools, but at St. Olaf’s in Minneapolis Friday, long-time Catholics said it’s only one step in recovering from clergy sex abuse allegations.

“That’s not the center of our faith,” one parishioner said. “I think when people lose faith in their center, that’s when they leave the church.”

Others said filing for bankruptcy gives the archdiocese a chance to do the right thing.

“I empathize,” another churchgoer said. “Whatever has to be, they have good administrators, and I think they are doing the best they can.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* It has been a very tough 24 hours for a weary Pope Francis. He is a 78 year old celibate bachelor, yet he seems to like to pontificate, with little or no input from female advisers, as if he is also “infallible” about families He also claims to care about innocent children, yet he often seems almost oblivious, if not indifferent, about them. The pope, in effect, just indicated to 1,000 families to keep having more Catholic babies in overpopulated and impoverished Manila, and, for good measure, also to frown on same sex marriages. What is really up here?

* Meanwhile, an Irish priest prophet, Fr. Shay Cullen, in effect, just pointed the finger on worldwide CNN at Manila’s Catholic hierarchy for failing to protect street children, including those reportedly horribly locked up to make sure they were off camera during the pope’s Manila visit.

* Fr. Cullen had earlier in 2012 discussed his work, over several decades with thousands of sexually abused Filipino children, on USA PBS-TV’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, indicating even then that the Filipino Catholic hierarchy appeared more concerned with curtailing contraception then with curtailing child sex trafficking and abuse. It is inexplicable why Francis did not meet with Fr. Cullen ,who has testified as an expert about child sexual exploitation before a an international relations committee of the US Congress.. Please see:

* [PBS]

* As expected, Manila’s Cardinal Tagle took Francis for a tour of a showpiece center for street children next to Manila’s lavish Cathedral, unlike the harsher centers that many of the estimated 500,000 Filipino street children may be confined to when not living on the street. In a statement issued after the visit, the center said that by taking the time to meet “many children who faced horrors of the street like begging, violence, drugs (and) prostitution,” Pope Francis demonstrated “that he is the Pope of the forgotten.” Really? What about the street children Fr. Cullen brought up on CNN yesterday and in the [Daily Mail] ? How is Pope Francis’ by banning contraception helping these children and their families? What is he thinking?

* And Archbishop John Nienstedt just had his Minneapolis Archdiocese file for bankruptcy, surely with Vatican concurrence. This will likely assure delays in, if not denials of, the delivery of overdue justice for numerous survivors of priest child sexual abuse. It also helps Nienstedt and his colleagues, conveniently, avoid having to testify under oath soon in some messy child abuse trials.

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MINNESOTA
GlobalPost

AFP

A US archdiocese said Friday it is filing for bankruptcy to compensate victims of sexual abuse, the 12th Roman Catholic district to do so in a years-long scandal that has rocked the Church.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is filing for bankruptcy for the “reorganization of the archdiocese corporation,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a letter posted on its website.

“I believe it is the fairest and most helpful recourse for those victims/survivors who have made claims against us,” he wrote.

“Reorganization will allow the finite resources of the archdiocese to be distributed equitably among all victims/ survivors.”

He insisted that the diocese’s mission would not be affected and that it will continue to provide “essential services” to the community.

It is the 12th diocese in the United States to declare bankruptcy in the past decade in order to free assets to repay victims of sexual abuse.

Nienstedt said the church assumes full responsibility for any abuses committed and that it supported victims.

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MAINE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 16

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

A man too dangerous to be a Catholic priest has been formally expelled by the Vatican. But no one seems to know where he is. Maine’s bishop must do more to protect children from him.

[Bangor Daily News]

In 1999, Fr. John E. Harris was disciplined for launching a sexually explicit website. In 2003, after an accusation of nude swimming and boating with youths, he was suspended.

Now, finally, Catholic officials in Rome have finally defrocked Fr. Harris from the priesthood. Why has it taken, at best, a dozen years?

Maine’s bishop should now hold a news conference to warn parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public about Harris. The only decent move would be to alert as many people as possible about his crimes.

It’s irresponsible for bishops to recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train, transfer and protect predators like Harris and then – when they’re finally exposed – cut them loose on society with little or no warning.

The Vatican doesn’t defrock priests willy-nilly. It’s a long process. It’s usually not done unless the cleric’s crimes are many or very well-documented. So once Rome has defrocked a priest, it’s very clear he is in fact guilty of molesting children.

We beg Maine Catholic officials to use their vast diocesan resources – parish bulletins, church web sites, and pulpit announcements – to protect kids and warn parents about a potentially dangerous child predator.

And we beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Harris – or cover ups by his supervisors or his colleagues – to speak up, call police, protect others, expose wrongdoers and start healing.

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UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe

I spoke with a bishop friend this week and asked him to explain to me just exactly what a, “radical feminist” is. He said he didn’t have the foggiest.

Since I wrote my last blog article, I’ve been thinking a lot about poor Cardinal Ray Burke. He would have been a young adult during the Second Vatican Council when Catholics’ proverbial cheese was moved. Being from Wisconsin where people take their cheese seriously enough to adorn their heads with it during sporting events, I realized that cheese moving is no easy thing for poor Ray. So, on this whole “respect women” and “women’s equality” thing, he’s just stuck – culturally incapable of moving his cheese. After all, there’s a Green Bay Packers game this Sunday and that cheese needs to be firmly affixed to his head, like for any good Wisconsin native.

In all seriousness, Ray’s father died when he was very young. I have to wonder how that loss was handled and how all that impacted his development, including his views on gender roles. He speaks of the importance of manly male fathers forming their children properly, yet it seems his own father was gone long before Ray hit adolescence. Could he be projecting his romanticized notions of fathers (and mothers) upon the world as ideal based upon a void from his own life? His words certainly seem to come from an alternate reality than the one I know, but then my father is still with me. I do not have to imagine what it’s like to have a father; I just experience it.

Nonetheless, sometimes when you so insistently remain in one place as Ray tries to do, you wind up moving in comparison to others. If they move forward, you move backward in comparison. Similarly one’s actions or inaction can result in unintended consequences.

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