News Archive

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

April 22, 2014

Abusers say they never existed…

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Abusers say they never existed: Congregation of Christian Brothers ‘never in Australia’

JANET FIFE-YOEMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 23, 2014

THE child sex abuse royal commission is being urged to investigate why the Congregation of Christian Brothers has claimed it never existed in ­Australia, as it looks into shocking abuse at four of its orphanages.

The commission is expected to hear from child migrants who, as young boys, were raped and physically ­assaulted by Christian Brothers at the notorious homes when it starts its ­latest inquiry in Perth next week.

Sydney solicitor Adrian Joel is urging the commission to look into the Christian Brothers’ response to a test case for the thousands of former child migrants shipped to Australia as cheap labour in mass migration schemes of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

Lawyers frustrated at the legal walls erected by the Christian Brothers in Australia launched the case in New York, under an old international law, arguing that it exists as an international order. A judge ruled against the case on a number of points including that they had sued the “wrong” Christian Brothers. Despite being a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, the Christian Brothers claims it is constituted differently in different countries and never existed in Australia as the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

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.

Deposition of ARCHBISHOP JOHN NIENSTEDT

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Deposition of ARCHBISHOP JOHN NIENSTEDT, taken pursuant to Notice of Taking Deposition, and taken before Gary W. Hermes, a Notary Public in and for the County of Ramsey, State of Minnesota, on the 2nd day of April, 2014, at 30 East 7th Street, St. Paul, Minnesota, commencing at approximately 9:05 o’clock a.m.

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.

Archbishop Nienstedt deposition video, transcript released

MINNESOTA
Fox 9

by Mike Durkin

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
The transcript and video clips from the deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt were released Tuesday by St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson.

PDF: Deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt

In 4 hours of testimony on April 2, Nienstedt gave a statement and answered questions about how officials in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

“It really reflects, in real time, the problem that exists at it is today,” Anderson said a news conference Tuesday. “This is not about what has been in the past. This captured a harsh reality that the promises and the pledges made by this archbishop and his predecessor were broken…We’re alarmed, we’re sad and we’re scared, the more we hear and the more we see.”

ABRUPT ENDING

Anderson said Nienstedt ended the deposition abruptly by walking out when asked the following question: “Why not just turn over these files that you know to be credibly accused to the professionals, to law enforcement?”

A spokesperson for the archdiocese explained that Nienstedt did not “walk out of the deposition,” as Anderson claimed, but that the deposition had simply run past its 4-hour time budget.

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.

Archbishop Deposition on Abuse to be Made Public

MINNESOTA
KAAL

[live stream of Jeff Anderson’s press conference]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Attorneys for victims of alleged sexual abuse by priests are releasing the deposition of Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Nienstedt is head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. On April 2, he testified about the church’s response to sexual abuse allegations. It was the first time since Nienstedt became archbishop six years ago that he has had to answer these questions under oath.

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.

Vatican denies ‘personal involvement’ of John Paul II in Maciel cases

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 22, 2014

VATICAN CITY The priest who has guided the Vatican’s sainthood process for Pope John Paul II responded vaguely Tuesday when questioned publicly about the late pope’s response to clergy sexual abuse and his handling of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ and a serial sexual abuser.

When Msgr. Sławomir Oder was asked whether those investigating the saintliness of John Paul II considered if the late pope had sufficiently handled Maciel, who by the late 1990s was the subject of substantial investigative reporting, Oder said the investigations were carried out “with the real desire to clear things up and confront all the problems.”

“Even concerning the specific question that you mention, an investigation was carried out, documents were studied, [documents] which are available, and the response was very clear,” Oder said. “There is no sign of a personal involvement of the Holy Father in this matter.”

Oder, a Polish native who serves as a vicar in the Rome diocese, is the postulator of the cause of sainthood for John Paul II and was responsible for organizing the official investigations into the late pontiff’s sanctity and virtues for the official Vatican process to have John Paul II declared a saint.

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.

Unsteady Halo: The Canonization of Pope John Paul II

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Charles J. Reid, Jr.

Santo subito! — “Sainthood now!” That was the urgent plea of the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square in April, 2005, as Pope John Paul II lay dying. If the crowd had had its way, he would have been proclaimed a saint the very moment he died. And in truth, the canonization process has been extremely brisk. John Paul II has been dead only nine years and the Church stands ready to canonize him on April 27.

The passage of years, however, has allowed for a more sober assessment of his pontificate. For sure, John Paul II did things that make him worthy of canonization. There is no question that he was a deeply prayerful man who authored profound reflections on the meaning of Jesus and his mission. He provided a great witness to courage, first when he was shot in May, 1981, and then, two decades later, as an elderly victim of Parkinson’s. He rallied Poland and Eastern Europe in the Cold War. Where others might have been intemperate, his messages always encouraged resolute, peaceful, non-violent resistance.

Still, the perspective of time allows us to realize that his pontificate had the effect not of strengthening but rather of weakening the Church in a number of crucial respects. And we would be a friend to history — and to the Church — if we acknowledged these flaws, for they are not insignificant.

First, there was the priestly pedophilia crisis. It was in the middle 1980s when the public first began to get a sense of its enormity. In 1983, the national media highlighted the serial abuse committed by a priest of the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, Fr. Gilbert Gauthe. And two years later, in a report to the American Bishops’ Conference, Fr. Thomas Doyle detailed the depth of the problem and predicted that the pedophilia crisis might be the largest disaster to confront the Church “in centuries.”

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.

Pope John Paul II Canonization Marred By Link To Sex Abuse Scandal: 4 Fast Facts About Involvement With Marcial Maciel

VATICAN CITY
Latin Times

By Susmita Baral | Apr 22 2014

Pope John Paul II (né Karol Józef Wojtyła) and Pope John XXIII (né Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) are scheduled to be declared saints by the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, Apr. 27, 2014 in Rome. The canonization process will be led by the current pontiff, Pope Francis, at the Catholic capital, which is estimated to receive 3 million visitors to celebrate the occasion.

Many have said that Pope John Paul II–the Polish pontiff led the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005–was the obvious choice for sainthood but there is more to being declared a saint than winning a popularity contest. According to the church, a pontiff must have two church-verified miracles attributed to him in order to be considered for sainthood.

For Pope John Paul II, the two miracles attributed were a French nun claiming to be cured from Parkinson’s and a Costa Rican woman being cured from a fatal brain aneurysm. Even Pope Francis gave testimony, in 2005, to support the sainthood of Pope John Paul II. “John Paul II taught us, by hiding nothing from others, to suffer and to die, and that, in my opinion, is heroic,” said Pope Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Pope John Paul II’s legacy is not all miracles and words of praise from Pope Francis, as his involvement with Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican-born Roman Catholic priest and the founder of Christ’s Legionaries, has proven to be controversial, to say the least. The allegations against Pope John Paul II is that he, and his papacy, ignored the credible claims that late Maciel was a pedophile, drug addict, con artist, and religious fraud.

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.

Prelate exonerates John Paul of turning blind eye to abuse case

VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Catholic prelate who led the campaign to make the late Pope John Paul a saint exonerated the pontiff on Tuesday against accusations he turned a blind eye to one of the Church’s biggest sexual abuse scandals.

Victims of sexual abuse quickly criticized the prelate’s defense of John Paul, who died in 2005 and will be made a saint at a ceremony this weekend along with Pope John XXII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963.

While the late Polish pope is almost universally hailed for his role in helping bring about the fall of communism, his critics say he was slow to grasp the seriousness of the sexual abuse crisis that emerged towards the end of his pontificate.

Specifically, critics have been pressing the Vatican over what the pope knew about sexual abuse by Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of a disgraced Catholic religious order, the Legionaries of Christ.

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.

WV- ‘warlock’ arrested for sexually assaulting children, SNAP responds

WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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

A Bluefield man, who claims to be a “warlock,” was arrested for sexually assaulting children. Our heart aches for the innocent kids who were hurt and their families.

[Bluefield Daily Telegraph]

James Irvin allegedly used his spiritual beliefs to lure the children to him. He claimed that in order for their mother to be healed, they needed to be sexually assaulted by him. It is always appalling when children are abused, but even more so when spiritual beliefs are used as an excuse.

We are grateful for the detective on this case for reaching out to potential victims in Texas, where Irvin lived before moving to West Virginia.

We hope anyone who saw, suspected or suffered abuse by Irvin will immediately call law enforcement and start healing.

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.

Rome- Victims blast Polish priest who defends JPII on Maciel

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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

Canonizing Pope John Paul II is an extraordinarily hurtful move. Now, the pain is being made worse by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who insists that the now-deceased pope had “no personal involvement” in the horrific, decades-long Fr. Marcial Maciel scandal.

[The Republic]

First, a leader of an institution is responsible for what happens in that institution. This is especially true in an ancient, rigid monarchy like the Catholic Church. So popes can’t wield massive power yet evade responsibility for massive wrongdoing just because his aides may have carefully shielded him from the gory details.

Second, the Maciel case is just one case out of many in which John Paul II ignored or helped conceal horrific sexual violence against kids. In the rare instances where the pontiff took action, it was hurtful, not helpful (like his decision to water down an already weak US bishops sex abuse policy).

Oder got what he wanted: his idol is being idolized. Has he no decency? Can’t he stop here, and resist the temptation to revise history and exacerbate wounds?

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.

NE- Former youth pastor faces 40 years in prison, victims respond

NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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

A former youth pastor from Kearney was sentenced to 17-40 years in prison for sexually assaulting 3 boys. We are grateful to the brave victims who spoke up and to the judge for a strict sentence.

[Kearney Hub]

It is always extremely troublesome and disappointing when some entrusted by the community to guide children exploits this trust and abuses children. We hope that church officials where Thomas A. Jones worked will aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered child sexual abuse and encourage them to call police.

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.

Police arrest ‘warlock’: Bluefield man charged with sexual assault, abuse of 3 juveniles

WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By CHARLES OWENS

BLUEFIELD — Police say a Bluefield man claiming to be a “warlock” used a promise of magical spells to lure children into committing sexual acts with him.

James “Jim” Irvin, 57, of Bluefield, was arraigned Monday before Mercer County Magistrate Susan Honaker on five counts of sexual assault and 10 counts of sexual abuse involving juveniles. The victims in the case were 3, 9 and 13 years of age at the time of the alleged abuse, according to Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department.

Honaker set bond for Irvin at $100,000. Irvin told the court he had no money, and couldn’t afford an attorney. The man avoided eye contact with the news media as he was escorted in and out of the courtroom.

“I can’t come up with $100, not much less $100,000,” Irvin told Honaker.

The man was remanded to the custody of the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver following his arraignment on the charges. Honaker told Irvin that, if convicted, he faces a sentence of 15 to 35 years in prison on each of the sexual assault charges and five to 25 years in prison on each of the sexual abuse charges.

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.

‘Magical warlock’ sexually abused girls as young as 3 years old: police

WEST VIRGINIA
New York Daily News

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Monday, April 21, 2014

A sicko calling himself a “magical warlock” allegedly sexually abused several children, authorities in West Virginia said, using his Wiccan religion to trick the youngsters into sexual acts.

James Irvin, 57, of Bluefield, abused children as young as 3, 9 and 13, according to court documents, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.

He was arraigned on five counts of sexual assault and 10 counts of sexual abuse.

The practicing Pagan/Wiccan pervert, police said, used his religion to get close to the children, two of whom lived in Irvin’s home with their parents in 2007 when the abuse occurred, WVVA-TV reported.

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.

Archbishop Deposition on Alleged Abuse to be Released Tuesday

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Jennie Olson

Details on what Archbishop John Nienstedt said when he testified under oath earlier this month will be released Tuesday, including a transcript and video, Attorney Jeff Anderson announced Monday.

It was the first time Nienstedt has had to answer questions under oath regarding the alleged sexual abuse of children by priests. Church lawyers tried for months to block the deposition on the grounds it is not relevant to a case that will go to trial in September, but a Ramsey County judge and the Minnesota Court of Appeals disagreed.

A statement from the Archdiocese released April 2 said the Archbishop expressed regret for mistakes that were made in the past and assumed responsibility for mistakes that have been made since he became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in 2008, according to the statement.

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WA- Yakima Catholic bishop “splits hairs”

WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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

Yakima’s Catholic bishop is desperately trying to evade responsibility for a child molesting cleric by stressing that the cleric’s crimes happened during guitar lessons that weren’t “church-sanctioned.” That is disgusting hair-splitting. Deacon Aaron Ramirez would likely never have been trusted by this boy or his parents had Yakima’s bishop not irresponsibly held Ramirez out to be a holy, celibate man when he clearly wasn’t.

[Yakima Herald-Republic]

For decades, Catholic officials have said almost anything to avoid any accountability for their reckless, callous and deceptive wrongdoing in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

(In one notorious case, then-Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco argued in court filings that one of his priests shouldn’t have to pay support for the child he fathered because the woman should have used birth control, which of course the Catholic hierarchy insists is immoral.)

Catholic bishops have shown a remarkable ability to sound pastoral in public, but fight viciously in court. We hope Yakima jurors won’t reward more of this legalistic, self-serving hair-splitting.

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John Paul’s saint-maker says documents show no “personal involvement” in Legion scandal

VATICAN CITY
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 22, 2014

VATICAN CITY — The Polish priest who has spearheaded the case to make Pope John Paul II a saint says there is no documentation that he had any “personal involvement” in the scandal of the Legion of Christ religious order.

John Paul and his closest advisers had held up the Legion and its late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, as a model for the faithful, even though the Vatican for decades had documentation with credible allegations that Maciel was a pedophile and drug addict with a questionable spiritual life.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder said Tuesday that based on documentation available for the saint-making investigation, “There is no sign of personal involvement of the Holy Father in this case.”

Oder didn’t mention John Paul’s closest advisers, who were among Maciel’s staunchest supporters.

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.

Archbishop Nienstedt’s testimony in clergy abuse case to be released

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Archbishop John Nienstedt’s sworn testimony about his handling of sexual abuse allegations in the Twin Cities Catholic church will be released Tuesday, according to a St. Paul victims’ attorney.

The four-hour deposition took place April 2. It is part of a lawsuit brought by a man who says he was sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas Adamson in the mid-1970s. The lawsuit claims the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by refusing for decades to release information about abusive priests. It says that the actions of top church officials continue to put children at risk.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing the plaintiff in the case and conducted the four-hour deposition, said questioning ended heatedly when he asked the archbishop to turn over the files of offending priests to police. Anderson will release video of the questioning, along with a transcript, at a Tuesday morning news conference.

The deposition marked the first time Nienstedt has had to answer questions under oath about clergy sexual abuse in the Twin Cities since he was appointed to lead the archdiocese six years ago. In 2006, he testified under oath in a lawsuit involving the Diocese of New Ulm, where he served as bishop before coming to the Twin Cities.

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Priest rapes minor on temple premises

INDIA
Times of India

KENDRAPADA: A priest of Madhukeshari Temple allegedly raped a 16-year-old girl on its premises at Chakoda village under Dharmasala police limits in Jajpur district on Monday.

The survivor’s motherlodged an FIR, alleging that Rabindra Panda, 35, raped her minor daughter.

According to IIC of Dharmasala police station Sudrashan Dash, Panda raped the girl when she went to the temple to have prasad.

The girl was taken to community health centre at Dharmasala where doctors after medical examination told police that she was raped. Doctors said there were injury marks on her person and private parts. The girl was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after her condition deteriorated.

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.

IL- 2nd man reports abuse by Fr. O’Connell

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

I knew Father Mike O’Connell, but I didn’t know he was a priest because of all the steroids at a gym where I was a member.

I was a teenager and I knew then that Mike O’Connell was dangerous, especially to kids. I stepped in and helped another kid that he was abusing, which is why I’m speaking out now.

I want to help other kids that are in danger now as well as survivors that are still hiding in shame. I also want to support the brave victim that came forward and reported Father O’Connell.

Based on my interactions with Father O’Connell I’m not surprised at all that a survivor has stepped forward. I hope many more will. I hope that by speaking out now I can help survivors in the same way I was able to help the kid at the gym that was being abused.

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.

Archbishop Dolan: Pope Francis is in Touch with Church’s Needs

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

Maria Keena
April 21, 2014

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The Catholic Church has reason to celebrate findings of a CBS poll that shows more people than ever feel the Church is in touch with their needs.

Timothy Dolan, a St. Louis native and the Archbishop of New York, says that’s good news. He credits the Pope for being so genuine and sincere.

But there are still lingering questions about real reform in the Church regarding predator priests and sex abuse.

“Those 10 days before we actually sealed ourselves in the Sistine Chapel, the College of Cardinals met in confidence every day,” he says. “We spoke our mind, and Jorge Bergoglio [Pope Francis], who was there, listened intently. And now we know it for sure, because he’s doing a lot of the stuff.”
Pope Francis still has not met with victims, but Dolan believes that he will.

“I think he should and I think that he will, Pope Benedict did,” says Dolan. “We’ve got to give him some time, he knows that it’s a towering problem.”

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Assignment Record – Rev. William J. “Bill” Spine, s.j.

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Chicago Province Jesuit ordained in 1973, Fr. Bill Spine worked in Peru, Brooklyn NY, Moline IL, Chicago, and Lexington KY. He was a teacher, parish assistant and pastor, and associate director of a diocesan hispanic ministry office. Spine was removed from active ministry in February 2006, several months after the Jesuits received what they called a credible allegation that the priest sexually abused a teenage boy while assigned to Peru in the mid-1970s. The boy was Spine’s student. The Official Catholic Directory shows that Spine lived in Rome from 2007 to at least 2010.

Ordained: 1973

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Nuevas acusaciones contra sacerdote

CHICAGO (IL)
Telemundo Chicago

Después de haberse reincorporado la semana pasada como pastor de la “Parroquía San Alfonso”, de Lakeview, ahora surgen nuevas acusaciones en contra del Reverendo Michael O’Connell.

Según reportes, el padre O’Connell aceptó renunciar en Diciembre del 2013, cuando presentaron una denuncia oficial por supuesta conducta inapropiada. En esta querella, se acusó al religioso de un presunto abuso sexual de un jovencito que ocurrió hace 20 años, cuando estaba a cargo de la “Parroquía Lady of Woods” de Orland Park.

De acuerdo a la Arquidiócesis de Chicago, las alegaciones fueron investigadas por el Dpto. de Servicios para Familias y Niños de Illinois, la fiscalía del Condado Cook y la oficina del alguacil del Condado Cook. Al parecer, se concluyó que las acusaciones no tenían fundamento.

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Supporting abuse victims to tell their story

AUSTRALIA
Whyalla News

By KAYLEIGH BRUCE April 22, 2014

Local service providers were recently provided with information to aid people who may wish to tell their story to the Royal Commission into the Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse.

Currently the Royal Commission is hearing from people across Australia to look at how institutions have managed and responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.

Any child sexual abuse survivors can share their story as part of the commission to show what happened in the past to help build child safe organisations in the future.

Victim Support Service facilitated the information session in conjunction with Know More – an independent legal service offering free legal assistance to people considering making a submission.

Victim Support Service Royal Commission Support Services counsellor Dianne Newton said the aim of the local session was to educate service providers to let community members know that the royal commission was interested in their story.

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New sex abuse lawsuits filed as filing deadline nears

HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

[with video]

By Tim Sakahara

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –
There are just three days left for Hawaii child sex abuse victims to seek justice against their attackers even if the statute of limitations has expired. The deadline is prompting a slew of last-minute lawsuits.

The state passed a law allowing child sex abuse victims to sue their perpetrator even if the crime happened decades ago. However it was a two year window. That window closes this Thursday which is why some lawyers are in for a busy week.

Mark Gallagher may be wearing a path in the courthouse floor. He has already filed 38 child sexual abuse cases and counting.

“I probably have about eight, nine maybe even ten more back at the office to be filed this week,” said Mark Gallagher, Attorney.

Gallagher is one of the attorneys on various advertisements looking for more victims to step forward. There is a sense of urgency because this Thursday April 24 is the deadline, not just to call but to have an actual lawsuit filed with the clerk’s office before it closes at 4:15.

“If you’re going to act tomorrow there is enough time, Wednesday there is enough time, Thursday it’s going to be a little bit tight,” said Gallagher.

The defendants are against various churches, private school groups and individuals. There is a big case against Kamehameha Schools involving 28 alleged victims. There are about 30 different cases against the Catholic Church in Hawaii.

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Man faces up to 40 years for sex assault of boys

NEBRASKA
Kearney Hub

KIM SCHMIDT Hub Staff Writer

KEARNEY — A former church youth leader has been sentenced to 17 to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting three boys during a span of seven years.

Thomas A. Jones, 37, was sentenced Monday morning in Buffalo County District Court on two counts of felony sexual assault of a child, two counts of felony third-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of femoly attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child.

The incidents took place in Kearney between 1999 and 2006. In each case, Jones either exposed himself to the boys, touched their private parts or was involved in oral sex with them.

With good time, Jones could be eligible for parole in 8½ years. Judge John Icenogle gave him credit for 27 days already served in prison.

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Former Kearney pastor sentenced for sexual assault

NEBRASKA
Press & Dakotan

Associated Press

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A former Kearney church youth pastor faces up to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting three boys.

The Kearney Hub reports (http://bit.ly/1rgAXU0 ) that 37-year-old Thomas A. Jones was sentenced Monday in Buffalo County District Court. Jones was convicted of two counts of felony sexual assault of child, two counts of felony third-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child.

Prosecutors say the incidents took place in Kearney between 1999 and 2006. In each case, Jones exposed himself to the boys, touched their private parts or was involved in oral sex with them.

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Reverend nixes plea deal in sex abuse case

NEW YORK
Niagara Gazette

By Howard Balaban
Niagara Gazette

ALBION — A local pastor accused of sex crimes against children declined a plea deal Monday in Orleans County Court.

Roy Harriger Sr., 70, of Middleport, faces three charges of course of sexual conduct against a child and three charges of incest, in connection with incidents that allegedly took place during 2000-2001 while he was the pastor of a Lyndonville church.

Harriger, now of Community Fellowship Church in Hartland, declined Monday to accept a plea deal involving three counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct, with sentences to run concurrently.

Instead, Harriger’s attorney filed a motion relating to the language of the statute under which Harriger was indicted by a grand jury in early Febuary. The attorney also asked Orleans County Judge James Punch to lift an order of protection that directs Harriger to avoid any contact or communication with any child under the age of 18. Punch said no.

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Attorneys present closing arguments in Yakima Diocese sex abuse trial

WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

By Samina Engel Published: Apr 21, 2014

YAKIMA, Wash. — Attorneys for both sides made their final pitch in a sex abuse case against the Yakima Diocese. The case is being heard in federal court.

The anonymous plaintiff says he was raped by a Yakima deacon almost 15 years ago. He’s suing the diocese for more than $3 million in damages.

His attorneys say the Yakima Diocese should have protected the teenager and argued there was a “campaign of silence and secrets” to cover up the abuse.

A lawyer for the diocese questioned the plaintiff’s credibility, highlighting inconsistencies in his testimony.

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Lawyer in church rape case asks for bigger award for alleged victim

WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — A man who alleges he was raped as a teen by a deacon with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima deserves more than the $3.1 million originally sought, his attorney argued in federal court Monday.

Attorney Bryan Smith urged U.S. District Judge Edward Shea to use his discretion to award more, suggesting $8.6 million instead.

“How much is it worth to have your soul ripped from you, or think that it will never come back?” Smith asked during closing arguments in the abuse case.

But an attorney for the diocese argued the lawsuit should be thrown out, saying the man, known in court papers as John Doe, has not proven his case.

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Suit: Man abused by convicted priest suing archdiocese

CHICAGO (IL)
Voices

By LeeAnn Shelton

A man filed a lawsuit Friday against the Archdiocese of Chicago, claiming he was sexually abused by convicted former Catholic priest Daniel McCormack at a West Side parish in 2005.

The plaintiff, listed in the lawsuit as John C. Doe, was 12 when McCormack began abusing him in the spring of 2005, he claims in the suit, which was filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.

The boy lived across the street from St. Agatha’s Parish, where McCormack was a pastor, teacher and coach, the suit said. McCormack would ask him to help with chores around the parish in exchange for the boy playing pick-up basketball games.

The plaintiff, who is now in his early 20s, alleges the sexual abuse continued through late fall of 2005, according to the suit.

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Abuse Allegations Made Against Recently-Cleared Priest

CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

By Rob Elgas | Monday, Apr 21, 2014

A witness has come forward with new allegations against a Chicago priest who was reinstated to his parish just last week.

Father Michael O’Connell, of St. Alphonsus Church, was cleared of any wrongdoing in a previous case, but now the Cook County Sheriff’s Department have decided to reopen the case.

An Arizona man claims he saw O’Connell sexually abuse a young man 15 years ago. He says it happened in a Gold’s Gym in the south suburbs when a man he only knew as “Mike,” inappropriately touch the teenager.

“Now, I feel with this victim coming forward and people are starting to question him, then maybe my story is more believable,” said the man, who know lives in Arizona and asked that his identity not be revealed for fear of retaliation.

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Archives show Vatican closed eyes to fraud

VATICAN CITY
Portland Press Herald

By Nicole Winfield
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II is rightly credited with having helped bring down communism, of inspiring a new generation of Catholics with a globe-trotting papacy and of explaining church teaching on a range of hot-button issues as Christianity entered its third millennium.

But the sexual abuse scandal that festered under his watch remains a stain on his legacy.

John Paul and his top advisers failed to grasp the severity of the abuse problem until very late in his 26-year papacy, even though U.S. bishops had been petitioning the Holy See since the late-1980s for a faster way to defrock pedophile priests.

The experience of John Paul in Poland under communist and Nazi rule, where innocent priests were often discredited by trumped-up accusations, is believed to have influenced his general defensiveness of the clergy. The exodus of clergy after the turbulent 1960s similarly made him want to hold onto the priests he still had.

Pope Francis has inherited John Paul’s most notorious failure on the sex abuse front – the Legion of Christ order, which John Paul and his top advisers held up as a model. Francis, who will canonize John Paul on Sunday, must decide whether to sign off on the Vatican’s three-year reform project, imposed after the Legion admitted that its late founder sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children.

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Cook County Sheriff reopens investigation of priest

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[with video]

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter April 21, 2014

The Cook County Sheriff’s office said Monday it has resumed investigating a Catholic priest just days after the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that a sexual abuse allegation against the priest was unfounded.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell was reinstated last week to active ministry as pastor of St. Alphonsus on the North Side.

The sheriff’s office declined to say what prompted the new investigation but it comes as a former Illinois resident appeared at a news conference Monday. The man, who refused to identify himself, alleged he witnessed O’Connell behaving improperly at a south suburban gym years ago.

The man said he reported the incident to authorities Monday but did not tell police or the archdiocese at the time.

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FOCUS – Dissenters voice doubt over John Paul II sainthood – By Dario Thubuurn

VATICAN CITY
Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

VATICAN CITY, April 22, 2014 (AFP) – A much-loved pope will be declared a saint on Sunday but not everyone in the Catholic Church agrees.

John Paul II also alienated many left-wing Catholics and has been blamed for hushing up child sex crimes.

“Not all the people of God agree about canonisation,” the International Movement We Are Church said in a statement ahead of the canonisation ceremony in St Peter’s for John Paul II and his Italian predecessor John XXIII.

The group accused the late pope of “spiritual authoritarianism” and of putting too much emphasis on “hierarchical control” — two traits it said left little room for victims and investigations of abuses.

“Pope John Paul II was a pope of great contradiction. His tragedy lies in the discrepancy between his commitment to reform and dialogue in the world and his return to authoritarianism,” it said.

The pontiff credited with helping to bring down Communism in Eastern Europe was accused of backing right-wing dictators in Latin America including Augusto Pinochet in Chile during the Cold War.

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Archbishop Nienstedt’s court deposition on clergy abuse to be released Tuesday

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: April 21, 2014

Archbishop’s statements in abuse case to be made public by an attorney for alleged victim.

The contentious deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt in a child sexual abuse suit will be made public Tuesday, attorneys for the alleged abuse victim said.

A judge ordered the deposition over the objection of attorneys for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Nienstedt testified under oath for four hours April 2 about the way church officials have responded to allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The archdiocese was strongly criticized last week by a church-appointed panel investigating those issues.

“We’re releasing these now because we believe it is important for the public to be able to read the archbishops’s testimony,” said attorney Mike Finnegan. “We believe all information on child sex abuse in the archdiocese should be made public.”

The archdiocese released a statement immediately after the deposition, stating that Nienstedt had explained that children’s safety was the archdiocese’s highest priority. The statement said he “expressed regret for mistakes that were made in the past,” and that he would follow recommendations by the panel reviewing how the archdiocese handled abuse complaints.

However, attorneys for the alleged abuse victim said Nienstedt had ended his testimony abruptly and “heatedly” when asked to give police investigators more church files about credibly accused priests.

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Archbishop deposition on abuse to be released

MINNESOTA
Faribault County Register

April 22, 2014
Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Attorneys for an alleged sexual abuse victim plan Tuesday to release St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt’s deposition.

Nienstedt testified under oath for four hours April 2 about the way church officials have responded to allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Attorney Mike Finnegan, who represents a man who says he was sexually abused by a priest in the 1970s, tells the Star Tribune (http://strib.mn/1h8I4N4) it’s important for the public to be able to read the archbishop’s testimony.

Church lawyers tried for months to block the deposition on the grounds it is not relevant to the case. But a Ramsey County judge and the Minnesota Court of Appeals disagreed.

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Witness to Alleged Priest Sex Abuse: ‘Did I Help That Kid Enough’

CHICAGO (IL)
Patch

Posted by Lorraine Swanson (Editor) , April 22, 2014

Less than a week after he was reinstated to his position as pastor of a Chicago parish, another witness has stepped forward with a new allegation of child sex abuse against Rev. Michael W. O’Connell.

O’Connell returned to his post at St. Alphonsus Church on April 17, after taking a leave of absence from his current parish after he was accused in December 2013 of sexual misconduct with a minor while serving at Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park, 20 years ago.

An investigation by the Cook County Sheriff’s office, working with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, was unable to find enough evidence to support the charges, Barbara Blaine said, president of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Now, another former south suburban man has stepped forward, stating that he witnessed O’Connell abusing a young male teen at an Orland Park fitness center sometime in 1999 or 2000.

The witness, now 33 and living in Nevada, contacted SNAP in Chicago after learning that the Archdiocese had allowed O’Connell to return to ministry.

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April 21, 2014

Deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt to be Publicly Released Tomorrow

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

What: At a news conference Tuesday attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will:

• Release video clips and the deposition transcript of Archbishop John Nienstedt taken on April 2, 2014 as part of a civil lawsuit.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 11:00 AM CDT

WHERE: Law Office of Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson Street Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

Notes: All attendees will be provided with copies of the video testimony and deposition transcripts. Clips of the testimony and the transcript will be posted tomorrow morning on our website www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.318.2650
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531 Office: 651.318.2650

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Police Investigating New Abuse Accusation Against Reinstated Priest

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

(CBS) — Police are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against a Chicago priest who was just re-instated at his north side parish.

Fr. Michael O’Connell returned to St. Alphonsus Church last week after a four-month investigation into an allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the 1990′s. Investigators couldn’t find enough evidence for criminal charges.

The new allegation also dates from the 1990′s, when O’Connell was pastor at Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park. A witness says he saw Fr. O’Connell molest a teenager at a south suburban gym.

“He claims that he saw Fr. O’Connell bring a youngster to the gym and said he saw him touching him inappropriately and it caused him a great deal of concern,” said Barbara Blaine SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Cook County Sheriff’s police have interviewed the witness. They confirm they’ve re-opened their investigation into Fr. O’Connell.

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Pope puts Catholic rebirth at risk: Column

UNITED STATES
USA Today

Brett M. Decker
April 21, 2014

This Sunday, one week after Easter, Pope Francis is scheduled to canonize two of his predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII. Few moves could so quickly undo his popular efforts to make the Roman Catholic Church more sensitive to the values of modern churchgoers.

Francis has concentrated much of his 13-month papacy on making symbolic gestures. To great news media fanfare, he wears black boots with his clerical robes instead of more formal, traditional slippers, and he sleeps in a hotel built for cardinals rather than the papal apartment in the Vatican palace.

Church knew

The impact of the Argentine pontiff raising two popes to sainthood after their failures to address the globe-spanning clergy sex abuse scandal would be far more than symbolic. The scandal damaged thousands of innocent lives and cost the church billions of dollars in legal damages as well as its moral standing.

John XXIII, pope from 1958 to 1963, and John Paul II, pope from 1978 to 2005, both held their positions after the widespread abuse, stretching back deep into the 20th century, was known to the Vatican.

The strict hierarchical structure of the Roman church means accountability goes straight to the top. The buck stops at the pope’s desk, for good or for ill.

Canonizing pontiffs from the era of abuse is not only tone deaf but also exposes a continuing, stubborn refusal to acknowledge the institutional coverup that occurred for decades and that those at the highest levels — including popes — didn’t do enough to prevent the crimes, enabling the crisis to continue.

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Note to bishops: It’s time to ditch the luxury lifestyle

UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

By Scott Alessi

This story is starting to get almost comically repetitive: Yet another high ranking church official has caused a stir by opting for a lavish living arrangement instead of looking for more humble housing. This time it is Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former Vatican secretary of state, who is moving in to a newly renovated 6,500-square-foot apartment, which was actually created for him by merging two smaller apartments. And Pope Francis, according to news reports, is not happy.

For those following the news, this has been a trend for bishops in recent months. Germany’s Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst will now forever be known as the “Bishop of Bling” for the $43 million in renovations to his residence, which included a $300,000 fish tank, $2.38 million for bronze window frames, and a $20,000 bath tub. The news earned him a meeting with Pope Francis about his extravagant lifestyle and Tebartz-van Elst ended up being replaced as bishop of his diocese.

Here in the United States, Newark, New Jersey Archbishop John Myers came under fire recently for a half-million dollar, 3,000-square-foot addition to the house which will serve as his retirement home. Then it was Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory building himself a $2.2 million residence, although Gregory at least apologized after the fact and has decided not to live in the house after all. Meanwhile the pope is living in the simple Vatican guesthouse rather than the traditional–and more upscale–papal apartments.

I really don’t see the argument for bishops living in luxury housing. I understand they may need space to house guests or to have meetings, or that certain accommodations may be necessary in their older age. But it is hard for people to see their bishop as an example of Christ when he’s living a lifestyle that the vast majority of Catholics in his own diocese can’t afford.

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Week after being cleared, Chicago preist faces new sex abuse allegation

CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

by Sean Lewis
Anchor/Reporter

A Chicago priest, accused in December of sexual abuse, faces a new allegation today from a man who says he witnessed another incident of abuse 15 years ago.

Father Michael O’Connell stepped down as pastor at St Alphonsus Parish in Lakeview when the original allegations were made in December. And just last week, after an investigation, O’Connell was reinstated by the archdiocese when the Cook County Sheriff called the allegations unfounded.

But now the Cook County Sheriff’s Dept says it has now reopened their investigation.

Today new allegations came from a 33-year-old man who claims that he witnessed Father O’Connell sexually abuse a young teenage boy in the locker room of a south suburban gym in 1999. O’Connell, he says, had his hand down the front of the other boy’s pants.

At the time, O’Connell was priest at Our Lady of the Woods parish in Orland Park.

Priest accused of sexual misconduct cleared, resumes role at churchThe man now lives out of state but came forward because he say he believes Father O’Connell to be dangerous.

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IL- Second man accuses priest

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Second man accuses priest
Cleric was put back on the job just last week
Church officials didn’t believe first allegation
SNAP: “Suspend alleged predator immediately”
“Don’t keep endangering children,” support group says

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will disclose that

– a second accuser is reporting that he was assaulted by a just-reinstated priest, and
– he’s meeting today with police and archdiocesan officials.

They will also urge Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George to
– suspend the credibly accused child molesting cleric immediately,
– put him in a treatment center, and
– aggressively seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered the priests crimes or misdeeds and encourage them to call police or prosecutors, not Catholic officials.

WHEN
Monday, April 21 at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the archdiocesan headquarters/chancery office, 835 N. Rush St (corner of Chestnut) Chicago, IL

WHO
Three-four victims of clergy sex crimes who belong to an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s long time president

WHY
Last week, Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George put an accused predator priest back on the job in a parish. Today, a second man who reports having been assaulted by Fr. Michael O’Connell will file a police report, meet with church officials and speak publicly about his experiences.

Last December, because of child sex abuse allegations, Fr. O’Connell stepped down from his post at St. Alphonsus Catholic parish (1429 W. Wellington Ave., 773 525 0709) in Lakeview. He was accused of molesting a boy when he worked at Our Lady of the Woods Parish (708 361 4754) in Orland Park (1997-2012).

But on April 15, archdiocesan officials announced that they consider the abuse allegations against Fr. O’Connell be “unfounded.”

Now a second man is reporting that he too was hurt by Fr. O’Connell, in a one-time incident in the 1990s at a gym. The man, who was an older teen at the time, has not disclosed this before to either secular or church authorities.

SNAP says in dozens of cases across the country, Catholic officials have reinstated an accused child molesting cleric only to later oust him permanently. Cardinal George has done that at least three times in the past few years regarding Fr Bennett, Fr McCormick and Fr. Klein.

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Archbishop deposition transcript to be released Tuesday

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Lawyer

By: Elizabeth Ahlin April 21, 2014

Attorneys for a man suing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis plan to release a deposition transcript and video clips from the deposition of Archbishop Nienstedt Tuesday at 11 a.m. The plaintiff in the suit has alleged abuse at the hands of a priest in the 1970s.

After the four-hour deposition earlier this month, attorney Jeff Anderson accused Nienstedt of leaving early and refusing to cooperate fully. A spokesman for the archdiocese disputed that allegation.

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Bill would extend window for justice on abuse cases

NEW YORK
The Legislative Gazette

By Tiffany Brooks
Staff Writer

April 21, 2014

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey is renewing her push for legislation that would give sexual assault victims more time to file criminal and civil complaints against their abusers.

Markey’s Child Victims Act (A.1771-a/ S.06367) would eliminate completely the statute of limitation on reporting criminal charges of sexual assault, erasing the current five year limitation on reporting an incident after a victim turns 18. The bill would also suspend the civil statute of limitations for one year in order to help expose older crimes and allow for possible identification of hidden abusers through the court discovery process.

“Research consistently shows that survivors of childhood sexual abuse do not come to terms with what happened to them until later in life, often not until middle age,” said Markey, D-Maspeth. “Providing more time for them to come forward not only provides justice for those who have been victimized, but will also expose pedophiles who remain hidden because of current law.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 percent of men and 18 percent of women have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Thirty-five percent of female victims were assaulted as minors and 28 percent of male victims were assaulted under the age of 10.

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Assignment Record – Rev. Edmund J. Robinson, s.j.

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Edmund J. Robinson was ordained a priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in 1955. He spent the bulk of his career working at Indian missions across the province in Montana, Washington state and Idaho. Robinson was accused in 2011 of raping a 5-year-old Native American girl in 1963 in Arlee, Montana. In 2012 his name was included in a lawsuit as a perpetrator of past child sexual abuse in Hays, Montana. Robinson was known in 2012 to have been residing since 1993 in a Jesuit community in Spokane.

Ordained: 1955

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SNAP Leaders Honored

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Two weeks ago, New Jersey’s attorney general honored our state director Mark Crawford for his tireless work and ceaseless compassion for sex abuse victims. Crawford received the Ronald W. Reagan Award, which is the first of its kind given by the attorney general’s office.

Earlier this month, the Harvard Divinity School honored our Midwest director Peter Isley for his never-ending work for clergy sex abuse victims. Isley received the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Honors, which was established last year to honor alumni whose “excellence in life, work and service pays homage to the mission and values of Harvard Divinity School.”

Next month our western regional director Joelle Castiex will receive the Susan Laufer Award for Outstanding Contribution to Support Group Awareness from SHARE! Joelle has contributed selflessly and tirelessly to help survivors of sexual abuse find help and healing.

We’re proud of our brave and dedicated leaders, who selflessly volunteer their time and energy to help victims all over the world. Without them we would not be able to do what we do. Countless victims have been helped and future abuses have been prevented because of what they do every day.

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La prelatura de Cancún, gran empresa de la Legión de Cristo

MéRIDA (MEXICO)
La Jornada [Mexico City, Mexico]

April 21, 2014

By Blanche Petrich

Read original article

Recauda millones de dólares al año, pero no hay un solo dispensario ni escuelas

Marcial Maciel percibió el potencial de Quintana Roo y pidió a Pablo VI esa zona de misiones, pero era falso que se interesara por los pobres, dice el obispo Pablo Pérez Guajardo en entrevista

La prelatura de Cancún es, para la gran empresa que constituye la congregación de los legionarios de Cristo, una especie de Siberia verde, según la definición del presbítero sin parroquia Pablo Pérez Guajardo, una oveja negra en el Regnum Cristi.

En ese territorio eclesial bajo el dominio del obispo Pedro Pablo Elizondo se recluyen, para su protección o aislamiento, según sea el caso, los casos incómodos o los innombrables dentro de la orden religiosa. También los indeseables, los legionarios que se rebelan contra la línea de privilegiar el trabajo con los estratos adinerados, omitiendo la atención a las clases populares.

Algunos son curas acusados de pederastia. Pérez Guajardo los enumera: “Padre Eduardo Lucatero Álvarez, ex director del Instituto Cumbres en la segunda mitad de los años 80. Fue arrestado por breve tiempo, después fue trasladado a Brasil y finalmente a Cancún, donde vive bajo la protección del obispo. Padre Fernando Martínez, otro de los encausados por el asunto del Instituto Cumbres. Como directivo del mismo colegio en su anexo de Cancún volvió a delinquir. Fue trasladado al noviciado de los legionarios en Salamanca, España.

El más reciente es el del sacerdote canadiense Raul Leblanc, capellán de Mano Amiga en la Ciudad de la Alegría de Cancún, quien abusó sexualmente de una alumna. La familia de la chica recibió una fuerte suma de dinero a cambio de su silencio. El cura fue retirado de la vida eclesial, pero vive protegido en su país.

Otro es el australiano Brendan Hurley, capellán del Instituto Oxford de la ciudad de México. Solía vacacionar en el rancho equinoturístico Loma Bonita, adonde llevaba niños de barrios pobres. Fue denunciado por los trabajadores del centro ante el párroco Fernando Rodríguez (hoy ocupa el lugar del sacerdote Pérez Guajardo, en Playa del Carmen), pero en lugar de llevarlo ante la justicia reprendió a los denunciantes por hablar mal de los sacerdotes.

Pérez Guajardo describió estos cuatro casos en una carta que dirigió a su superior, el prelado Elizondo, con copia al entonces superior de la Legión, Álvaro Corcuera; al director del área territorial para México y Centroamérica, Mayagoitia, y al obispo Ghirlanda, encargado del proceso de reforma emprendido por la congregación.

Eso le valió la sanción que hoy, a los 58 años, lo margina de la práctica pastoral en la parroquia en la que estaba adscrito.

Algunos legionarios ya ancianos, que en su juventud fueron víctimas de abusos sexuales del fundador de la orden, Marcial Maciel, como Jesús Martínez Penilla y Ramiro Fernández, también están ahí.

Una anomalía de interés financiero

La prelatura de Cancún-Chetumal –dice en entrevista el sacerdote Pablo Pérez Guajardo, quien aún porta alzacuello– es un estado de excepción dentro de la Iglesia.

Para él, el simple hecho de que la región de Quintana Roo sea una prelatura, y no una diócesis, es ya una anomalía marcada por el interés financiero, agrega.

Cuando Quintana Roo aún era territorio, el papa Pablo VI encargó a los legionarios de Cristo Quintana Roo, entonces una región escasamente poblada y pobre. “¿Por qué? Porque Maciel ya había percibido el potencial de la región. Se había hecho gran amigo de Luis Echeverría Álvarez desde 1988.

Echeverría le anticipa el proyecto que tenía en mente para Cancún. Maciel se adelanta y pide a Pablo VI esa zona de misiones. Pero era falso que le interesaran las misiones para los pobres, mucho menos la zona maya y Chetumal.

Lo prueba, dice, el hecho de que el primer obispo legionario, Jorge Bernal, empezó casi inmediatamente el trámite para trasladar la prelatura a Cancún. Cuando cumplió los 75 años prescritos por la ley de la Iglesia para renunciar, en 2004, Maciel volvió a mover ficha. Consiguió esta vez como regalo del 60 aniversario de su ordenación que le concedieran un nuevo obispo legionario: Pedro Pablo Elizondo Cárdenas, uno de sus preferidos. Por cierto, su nombre de bautizo es Rosalío. Maciel le cambió el nombre. (Y Rosalío es, dicho sea de paso, el nombre del protagonista de la película sobre los legionarios Obediencia perfecta, próxima a estrenarse.)

Pablo Pérez Guajardo se pregunta por qué en Quintana Roo no se procedió como en la sierra Tarahumara, donde por el aislamiento de la región hubo una prelatura jesuita. Cuando se consideró que la región chihuahuense había llegado a su madurez, se reconvirtió en diócesis, en 1993.

La pregunta es: ¿qué tiene la Tarahumara que no tenga Cancún para ser diócesis? ¿Acaso Cancún, que tiene un aeropuerto internacional que recibe una cantidad de vuelos mayor que la propia capital, es un lugar pobre, despoblado, precario? Creo que la respuesta es muy clara: es un gran negocio para la Legión de Cristo.

–En 2004, cuando se decidió dejar la prelatura en manos de su orden religiosa, ya estaban plenamente documentados los casos de pederastia de Maciel.

–Así es. Pero es que las acusaciones en su contra, o en contra de cualquier otro religioso, no han tenido ninguna consecuencia.

El silencio. ¿Para qué me meto en problemas?

En diciembre del año pasado, la Legión de Cristo tuvo que admitir que hay 35 sacerdotes de la orden acusados de abusar sexualmente de menores de 18 años de 1940 a la fecha. Nueve fueron encontrados culpables, 14 exonerados y su comportamiento sólo fue calificado como imprudente, y dos más fueron declarados no aptos para investigación.

Explica el párroco sancionado: Uno de ellos es el padre Guillermo Izquierdo, profesor e instructor de novicios de los legionarios y abusador pederasta. No se le va a hacer nada por su avanzada edad y porque padece demencia senil.

Pero con todo este cúmulo de denuncias, la Legión de Cristo no ha sufrido ni un rasguño en lo que más le importa: su estructura financiera.

No tienen una sola sanción. No se les quitó ninguna obra pontificia, mucho menos la prelatura de Cancún.

–¿Los niños que fueron víctimas de los curas protegidos en Cancún, o los padres de familia del Instituto Cumbres no levantan la voz ante este despliegue de impunidad?

–El obispo Pedro Pablo Elizondo dice que no hay ninguna denuncia y es verdad. Entre esas familias ricas pesa mucho el prejuicio, el estigma.

–Si no denunciaron las víctimas, ¿cómo se ha corroborado la información?

–Las familias de acercaron a mí. Por eso yo hice la denuncia. Hay una idea muy equivocada de proteger a la víctima de lo que los padres entienden como desprestigio.

–¿Hay disposición de otros hombres de Iglesia, como usted, de dar un paso al frente y denunciar?

–Es una conducta todavía minoritaria en la Iglesia, pero más aún en el contexto de los legionarios. La actitud es ¿para qué me meto en problemas? ¿Para qué me gano enemistades?

–¿Ve posibilidades de una sacudida en la prelatura de Quintana Roo?

–Es donde menos. Es un gran negocio. Los legionarios recaudan ahí cada año millones de dólares para las misiones. Y son un fraude. Vaya a la región maya. No va a encontrar ni un proyecto parroquial ni dispensarios ni escuelas. Por eso Quintana Roo es el estado menos católico de México. Las mayorías han migrado hacia las religiones evangélicas. ¿Pero qué tal lo que se recauda en la industria de las bodas en la zona turística? ¿Qué tal la Catedral del Mar que está promoviendo el obispo y que va a costar 150 millones de pesos?

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Cruz e informe de la ONU: En Chile…

CHILE
ADN radio

[Summary: Juan Carlos Cruz, who has said he was abused by priest Fernando Karadima, has complained to the United National Committee on Torture that Cardinals Francisco Javier Errazuriz and Ricardo Ezzati acted to cover-up abuse by Karadima.]

Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los denunciantes de Fernando Karadima, se refirió en ADN al informe de la Comisión de Tortura de Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU), que critica la responsabilidad de los cardenales Francisco Javier Errázuriz y Ricardo Ezzati, por no actuar y encubrir los casos de abusos sexual por parte del exparróco de El Bosque.

“El vaticano tiene que comparecer, porque están cuestionando ciertas cosas, va a comparecer de nuevo en Ginebra en la Comisión Contra la Tortura. Lo más impresionante es que Chile está destacado, porque se nombra con nombre y apellido a Cardenales de la iglesia chilena y esto ha sido gracias a los medios de todo el mundo”, explicó.

Además destacó que en el primer informe que entregó la ONU, “no se alcanzó a incluir a Chile, y salió el informe que fue bastante duro contra el Vaticano, ahora ellos fueron llamados ante la Comisión de Tortura y se específica lo que ha pasado en otros países y ahí se nombra a los cardenales por la contradicción de que ocupen cargos importantes”.

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MO- SNAP says Carlson violates privacy of Fr. Jiang’s second victim

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 21, 2014

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

We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to heal the wounded and protect the vulnerable. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we help anyone who was hurt in any institutional setting.

We have two key concerns – what Archbishop Robert Carlson is saying about the Fr. Joseph Jiang case and what Archbishop Carlson is doing about the Fr. Jiang case.

What he’s SAYING about the case is deceptive, self-serving and cruel.

There are 52 publicly accused St. Louis child molesting Catholic clerics. Archbishop Robert Carlson has been involved in clergy sex cases since 1984. And Carlson is a smart man, surrounded by plenty of smart lawyers and smart public relations people.

So Carlson knows how to respond when allegations of clergy sex crimes surface. But when his close pal Fr. Joseph Jiang was arrested Friday on a second set of criminal child sex charges, Carlson chose to publicly cast doubt on and violate the privacy of the second alleged victim’s family. Shame on him and on every person on his staff who played a role in this callous, self-serving statement.

Carlson publicly cast doubt on this courageous family when, on Friday, he issued a statement claiming that the second victim’s family supposedly didn’t mention child sex abuse until this week.

[St. Louis archdiocese]

Everyone knows that the overwhelming majority of child sex abuse victims can’t understand and disclose their trauma until decades later. So delays in reporting child sex crimes are not unusual or relevant at all.

But by mentioning the alleged delay, Carlson is deliberately casting doubt on the victim’s family.

(What’s ironic here is that in many cases, Carlson and other Catholic officials question and criticize victims who step forward decades after their abuse. Now, a victim reports promptly, while he is still a child, and Carlson attacks him too for his timing. When exactly does Carlson feel it’s appropriate for those who are raped, sodomized or fondled by priests to speak up?)

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YOUR OCCASIONAL POPE

UNITED STATES
Esquire

By Charles P. Pierce on April 21, 2014

Holy Mother Church is making saints again, and what a fine hash it is, too.

On April 27, Papa Francis is going to canonize both John Paul II and John XXIII. This is a very shrewd move, because there are a lot of people — like me — who consider JP The Deuce as a world-historical figure who deserves more credit for ending the Cold War than does, say, Ronald Reagan, but who also consider him a terrible pope — a theological reactionary and bully who was tougher on theology professors than he ever was on clerical rapists. He got fast-tracked onto the calendar of saints so that Peggy Noonan would not cry bitter tears into her Grey Goose. And, of course, now, all kinds of embarrassing chickens are coming home to roost.

Letter from John Paul’s personal secretary, Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, to the prefect of the Congregation for Religious, with the pope’s approval of the Legion’s constitutions, despite Vatican reservations that they include too many rules.

The process of John Paul’s canonization began before Francis’s watch began. But it was the latter’s decision to include John XXIII, good Pope John, in the festivities, thereby throwing bones — Not literally. This isn’t the Middle Ages — to both wings of the Church. (Alas for all concerned, Maciel was quite the perv going back decades, including the brief papacy of John XXIII.) The politics of it are deft. The theology of it, less so,

Pope Francis decided to waive John XXIII’s second miracle so he could canonize both popes together, which has caused speculation about just what Francis hopes to get out of the deal. “Pope Francis made a calculated political decision on canonizing the two popes, trying to bring some unity to a fractured church,” says Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome, who has written extensively on the Catholic Church.

What I am already worrying about is that Good Pope John is going to get buried under an avalanche of rightist nostalgia for John Paul II, during which the sexual abuse scandal is likely not to be mentioned. John is a figure of ancient history now. John Paul was a media superstar. This is the kind of thing I’m already dreading.

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More accusations against Brandon priest in sex abuse case

FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

Anna M. Phillips, Times Staff Writer
Monday, April 21, 2014

TAMPA — Another teenage girl has come forward to accuse Brandon pastor Francisco Rios of sexually abusing her, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office officials said Monday.

Already facing three charges of lewd and lascivious molestation for incidents involving a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old in his congregation, Rios will now be charged a fourth time, officials said, for inappropriately touching another 15-year-old. Arrested in early April, Rios is the pastor of the Spanish-language evangelical church Casa de Amor.

A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office said detectives had known about and tried to contact the girl, but in the year since the alleged incident she had left Florida and couldn’t be reached until recently.

At a court hearing Monday, sheriff’s Detective Chris Seaton said the girls told similar stories of being alone with Rios in his office at the church on Windhorst Road. The 12-year-old said there had been multiple times when Rios slapped her behind, kissed her and touched her inappropriately, Seaton said. The first 15-year-old to come forward told the detective that Rios began touching her several years ago, but in 2013, his actions escalated.

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Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Filed Against Patriarchal Christian Group

UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by JULIE INGERSOLL

As I reported last Fall, Doug Phillips resigned from Vision Forum Ministries in what seemed like a sudden confession of a lengthy inappropriate relationship with a woman but with whom he denied having sex. As details trickled out it became clear the woman was the family’s nanny, a member of the church where Phillips was a leading elder (but had resigned months earlier when the church learned of his misconduct), and an employee of Vision Forum.

The details from a lawsuit filed last week against Phillips by Lourdes Torres-Manteufel only underscore the reality that this and the recent sex scandal at Bill Gothard’s Institute in Biblical Life Principles (IBLP) are more than isolated events—they shine a light on a darker side to Protestant fundamentalism that facilitates abuse.

While distinctly different, these two “ministries” share elements that facilitated the abuse, and a growing number of “alumni” are raising concerns.

Gothard has staffed the headquarters of his $95 million nonprofit with young home school volunteers, some of whom (now adults) recently started sharing stories of his behavior toward them when they were teens, away from home serving the ministry on the website Recovering Grace. A groundswell developed and Gothard was forced to resign; he’s now under investigation and on April 18th he released a statement admitting to many of the accusations but insisting they were not sexual.

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Catholic cleric sued for £5m over pension fund shortfall

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

Monday 21 April 2014

A PROMINENT Catholic cleric is being sued by Scotland’s largest local authority for almost £5 million after a church-run approved school closed with major pension liabilities.

Monsignor Peter Smith, currently a Vatican attache at the United Nations in New York, is being held personally responsible for the gaping hole left in the pension pot caused by the closure of Springboig St John’s School in Glasgow almost four years ago.

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How to get promoted in the Southern Baptist Convention

UNITED STATES
Watch Keep

Step 1: Cover for an admitted child sex offender.

Step 2: Refuse to speak with police and prosecutors about private meetings with said admitted child sex offender, claiming priest-penitent privilege, forcing prosecutors to issue subpoenas to obtain said information.

Step 3: Exert political influence and put pressure on the admitted sex offender to take the plea deal so you don’t have to comply with the subpoena to testify at the trial about the information shared with you by said admitted child sex offender.

Step 4: Remain silent on sexual abuse.

Exhibit A: Greg Belser and Philip Gunn

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Pope John Paul II fast-tracked for sainthood as documents reveal he knew about sex crisis

UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

By Scott Kaufman
Monday, April 21, 2014

As the Catholic Church prepares for the canonization of the late popes John Paul II and John XXIII in what is being called a “Popapalooza” on April 27, concern that it may be too soon to elevate John Paul II — given his role in the ongoing child sex abuse scandal — is growing.

On Monday, the Associated Press published excerpts from 212 Vatican documents exposed in the book The Will to Not Know. They mostly concern the Reverend Marcial Maciel, leader of the troubled Order of the Legion of Christ, who possessed “a certain moral lassitude” and lived a life that “wasn’t very pious and at the same time quite comfortable.”

According to the documents, the Vatican knew about Rev. Maciel’s weaknesses beginning in 1948, and was complicit in hiding his crimes from the general public. An October 20, 1976 letter from Rev. Juan Vaca described the “disgrace and moral torment” that began when Rev. Maciel abused him one night in 1949 and listed 20 other Legion of Christ seminarians that Rev. Maciel also sexually abused.

A December 24, 1978 affidavit from another priest, Felix Alarcon, backed Rev. Vaca’s story, and added that “the fact that the drug-related and homosexual activity of the founder could occur for such a long period of time without correction is only a signal of the deeper problem of the congregation itself. The congregation is a ‘cult’ of regimented and indoctrinated followers dependent slavishly on a central dependent-figure.”

As Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome, told The Daily Beast, what John Paul II “did to the Church internally is a sadder story, most strikingly in his failure on the abuse crisis. Sheltering Maciel was an act of blind hubris. By elevating [John Paul II] to the same status as ‘good Pope John,’ Francis will draw groans from both sides of the Catholic divide.”

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FBI alleges Troy priest fraudulently purchased Florida condo

MICHIGAN
ClickOnDetroit

Author: The Associated Press

TROY, Mich. –
Federal authorities are accusing a Detroit-area priest of fraud in the purchase of a condominium in Florida.

The government filed a lawsuit in Detroit federal court Monday to seize the Rev. Edward Belczak’s condo in Wellington, Fla. The FBI says the $110,000 down payment came from a bank account belonging to St. Thomas More parish in Troy.

The Associated Press left a message seeking Belczak’s current contact information from the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Belczak was removed from the church last year. He hasn’t been changed with a crime, but the request to take control of property means there’s a criminal investigation.

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The church covered up for “Father F” for 30 years

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 14 April 2014)

Research by Broken Rites has demonstrated how Catholic Church leaders kept quiet about a certain Australian priest, “Father F”, for THIRTY years until the matter was finally revealed by the media (not by the church) in 2012. Church leaders now need to explain why they remained silent for so long.

Father F spent his priestly career in New South Wales. The Catholic Church in New South Wales is divided into eleven dioceses, with each diocese being responsible for recruiting its priests and assigning them to various parishes or other postings. Father F belonged to the Armidale diocese (comprising two dozen parishes) in northern New South Wales, extending along the New England Highway to the Queensland border.

Father F’s first parish (from November 1981 to about April 1984) was the town of Moree (St Francis Xavier parish), where he assisted the Parish Priest, Monsignor Frank Ryan. Thus, Father F’s first full year in Moree was 1982 — and this is when the 30-year silence began.

Ten years later, in 1993, the newly-established Broken Rites victim support group announced its Australia-wide telephone hotline. One of the first incoming calls was from a former altar boy of Father F at Moree, recalling certain things that allegedly happened in this parish in 1982-84. Soon, Broken Rites had similar phone chats with other Moree families.

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St. Louis Priest Accused of Abuse Released on Bond

ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A 31-year-old St. Louis priest accused of sexually abusing a grade school student has been released on bail.

The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang is charged with two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy involving a boy younger than 14. He’s accused of sexually abusing a male student at St. Louis Cathedral School. His lawyer has said Jiang denies the allegations.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Jiang was released on bail Friday from the city jail. Bill Hannegan, a friend of Jiang’s, said another supporter posted the $150,000 bond but declined to identify the person who provided the bail money.

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Ex cura acusado de abuso dice no poder asistir al juicio

ARGENTINA
Tiempo del San Juan

[Summary: When everything seemed to be on track to finally reach a trial of sexual abuse of his own step-daughter, former priest and former provincial deputy Juan Carlos Icazatti, 76, got a medical certificate citing health problems. He declined to go to the trial which is scheduled for April 22.]

Por Gustavo Martínez Puga

Cuando parecía estar todo encaminado para que finalmente le llegara la hora del juicio por el abuso sexual en contra de su propia hijastra, el ex sacerdote y ex diputado provincial Juan Carlos Icazatti (76) metió un certificado médico aduciendo problemas de salud y pidió no ir al debate.

Eso ocurrió una semana antes de la fecha del juicio, previsto para el próximo martes 22 de abril, a las 9 de la mañana.

Según fuentes de la Sala III de la Cámara Penal, el certificado médico que llevaron los abogados defensores a la Mesa de Entrada tiene una letra ilegible en la que sólo se alcanza a leer con precisión que “no puede movilizarse por sus propios medios”.

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El excura y exdiputado acusado de abuso asegura estar mal de salud y busca no asistir al juicio

ARGENTINA
Diario de Cuyo

08:55 | San Juan, 21 de abril.- La defensa de Juan Carlos Icazatti presentó un certificado médico asegurando que tiene problemas de salud y no podrá asistir al juicio en su contra que comienza mañana. El excura y exdiputado provincial que fue denunciado hace 7 años por abusar y someter a supuestas perversiones sexuales a la hija de su pareja.

Desde la Sala III de la Cámara Penal confirmaron a Diario de Cuyo Online que el escrito llegó al juzgado el pasado miércoles y el acusado ya fue revisado por el perito médico para constatar la veracidad del certificado. Se aguarda que el informe llegue hoy.

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New Sex Abuse Charges Filed Against Catholic Priest Xiuhui Joseph Jiang

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Lindsay Toler Mon., Apr. 21 2014

Rev. Xiuhui “Joseph” Jiang faces new charges of sexually abusing a Catholic school child five months after a judge dismissed a different case with similar allegations.

Jiang, 31, faces two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy for having sexual conduct with a boy younger than 14 at the St. Louis Cathedral School, in the 4400 block of Maryland Avenue. The boy told investigators Jiang abused him twice in a school bathroom between July 2011 and August 2012, according to court documents.

Jiang voluntarily surrendered to police Thursday, and the Archdiocese of St. Louis revoked his canonical privileges while he faces the charges.

The boy’s family reported the abuse through the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline, according to the archdiocese. The family has claimed for the past year that their child was bullied by other students but only raised sexual abuse allegations against Jiang this week.

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‘Kerk niet netjes met afhandeling misbruik’

NEDERLAND
kerknieuws

[Summary: The Catholic church is still not properly handling allegations of sexual abuse by priests and brothers according to three victims’ organizationS. They are outraged that the church has unilaterally terminated mediation and victim assistance.]

De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk werkt nog steeds niet mee aan een goede afhandeling van misbruik door priesters en broeders. Dat zeggen de drie slachtofferorganisaties.

Zij zijn woedend dat de kerk eenzijdig de drieluiksbemiddeling heeft opgezegd, waarbij kerk en slachtoffer met hulp van een bemiddelaar de zaak afhandelen. De kerk vindt de methode te duur, denken de slachtofferorganisaties. Respectloos van de kerk, zeggen ze, die zelfs tijdens hoorzittingen bewezen misbruik nog in twijfel trekt en weigert mee te werken aan genoegdoening en compensatie voor de slachtoffers.

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Katholieke Kerk stopt met Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik

NEDERLAND
RTV Utrecht

[Summary: The reporting of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church will stop after July 1.]

UTRECHT – Het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik van de Katholieke Kerk stopt. Na 1 juli kunnen bij de organisatie in Utrecht geen meldingen meer worden gedaan.

De afgelopen tijd konden slachtoffers er terecht voor erkenning en compensatie voor zaken die verjaard zijn. Mensen die dat willen, kunnen na 1 juli nog wel hun verhaal doen, maar dan zonder vervolgstappen.

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Bill Gothard Releases Statement on Sexual Harassment Scandal

UNITED STATES
Republic of Gilead

Bill Gothard, founder of the Basic Life Principles ministry and a supporter of Christian homeschooling, is embrolied in a sexual harassment scandal. Recovering Grace, a website dedicated to helping those who have been negatively impacted by Bill Gothard’s teachings, has posted statements from multiple women accusing Gothard of sexual harassment. Last month, Religion News Service reported that Gothard had resigned from the Institute of Basic Life Principles, a week after he had been placed on administrative leave.

Gothard’s ministry was popular among Quiverfull Christians and respected by the Duggar family, according to Religion News Service and No Longer Quivering. Radar Online reports that Megan Lind, one of the women who accused Gothard of sexual harassment, wrote an open letter to the Duggars urging them to reconsider their endorsement of Gothard’s ministry.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) expressed concern over allegations that Bob Jones University officials helped Bill Gothard cover up sexual harassment allegations against Gothard’s brother. In a March 27th statement, SNAP urged Bob Jones University to hire an outside firm to investigate these claims, arguing that “it’s best to err on the side of protecting the vulnerable and wounded, not the accused and the powerful.”

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Attleboro area’s Catholics are fans of Francis

MASSACHUSETTS
Attleboro Sun Chronicle

BY EMILY O’DONNELL SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

He cracks jokes. He rides the bus. He tweets.

With the election of Jorge Bergoglio as the 266th leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the College of Cardinals looked to the New World for the first time in choosing the 77-year-old former Jesuit cardinal from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but it’s paying off – certainly, in the Americas.

Pope Francis, whose papal name was taken from beloved Francis of Assisi (patron saint of the animals), is riding a wave of popularity barely a year after his ascension to the Throne of Saint Peter.
Thomas Boffa of Attleboro praised Francis for making the Catholic Church seem more welcoming. …

Members of the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, criticized the pope and the Vatican for doing too little to punish priests who have sexually abused children.

In a speech earlier this month, Francis condemned the sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and said perpetrators will be punished. But, Barbara Dorris, SNAP’s outreach director, said the promise was “all talk.”

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Poet laureate confronts his childhood abuse by priest

INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Will Higgins, will.higgins@indystar.com 10:12 p.m. EDT April 20, 2014

Norbert Krapf, Indiana’s poet laureate from 2008 to 2010, kept a secret for a half-century: As a boy in Jasper, in Southern Indiana, he had been molested by his parish priest, Monsignor Othmar Schroeder.

He told only his wife, Katherine, providing no details, and afterward the couple rarely spoke of it.

Krapf didn’t want the abuse to take over his life. “I wanted a career and a family, and for a long time I was able to put the abuse aside and focus on living,” he said. Norbert and Katherine Krapf (pronounced Cropf) have been married since 1970 and have two children. They spent their working lives in education in New York. She taught middle school English; he taught English at Long Island University and directed the C.W. Post Poetry Center.

He left teaching in 2004 and with his family moved back to his native Indiana to concentrate on his poetry.

Soon, for multiple reasons, childhood memories came flooding back. Indiana was the scene of the crimes, for one thing; and in 2006, Krapf read an Indianapolis newspaper account of a Catholic priest named Harry Monroe, who had abused boys throughout Indiana before being drummed out of the priesthood. Also, Krapf was aging — people often get reflective as they age. (Sting, 62, talked about this at the last TED conference; he said he recently overcame writer’s block by revisiting his old haunts.)

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Vatican knew for decades about Legion problem

VATICAN CITY
Journal Review

[note: The link cited in this story does not appear to be operational.]

Associated Press

Posted: Monday, April 21, 2014

The late Pope John Paul II and his top advisers failed to grasp the severity of the sexual abuse problem until late in his 26-year papacy, especially concerns about the troubled Legion of Christ order and its leader, the Rev. Marcial Maciel. But the Legion’s troubles were not news to the Vatican, according to a trove of 212 Vatican documents exposed in the 2012 book “The Will to Not Know” and placed online at www.lavoluntuddenosaber.com . Here’s a look at some of the more pointed criticism about Maciel from the archive, which also included plenty of letters from bishops and Vatican officials praising him and his order.
___

June 8, 1948:
—The Vatican’s envoy to Spain sends the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious an investigator’s report to determine if Maciel’s new association should be approved as a religious order. The investigator, the Jesuit Rev. Lucio Rodrigo, reports violations of the confessional seal, that Maciel falsified documents, demonstrates “a certain moral lassitude,” and lives a life that “wasn’t very pious and at the same time quite comfortable.”
___
May 28, 1962:
—The Congregation for Religious summarizes the mounting accusations against Maciel: Suspended as superior by the Vatican from 1956-1958, he was ordered to get medical help to cure his morphine “abuse.” Maciel also exhibits “dubious moral conduct,” makes personal use of “copious amounts of money” without identifying its origins, gives “dangerous” spiritual direction to others with regards to priests’ vow of chastity and demands priests in his order vow not to criticize their superiors.
That vow, which the Legion only officially removed in 2007, was key to Maciel’s success in preventing his priests from coming forward with allegations against him.

“Given the nature of the accusations … the moment has come to take definitive measures concerning Father Maciel, also to prevent great public scandal from arising,” the summary reads. The congregation recommends removing him as superior, naming a new superior and a Vatican investigator, or placing the Legion in the hands of the archbishop of Mexico City.
Nothing was done.

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Court to hear St William’s child abuse compensation claims

UNITED KINGDOM
Hull Daily Mail

HUNDREDS of men who claim to have been abused at a notorious children’s home could have their compensation claims settled next year. A number of trials will be heard next year to determine how much compensation the men abused at the St William’s home in Market Weighton will receive.

More than 200 men are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle Brotherhood, who ran the home before in closed in 1992.

Judge Mark Gosnell has ruled that several lead cases will be heard next year at the High Court in Leeds, which should influence the amount of compensation most men will receive.

Christine Sands, head of personal injury at Jordans Solicitors, said: “The ruling is positive news for all of those affected by the abuse at St William’s.

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John Paul’s legacy tainted by child abuse

VATICAN CITY
eNCA

Monday 21 April 2014

VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul II is rightly credited with having helped bring down communism, of inspiring a new generation of Catholics with a globe-trotting papacy and of explaining church teaching on a range of hot-button issues as Christianity entered its third millennium.

But the sexual abuse scandal that festered under his watch remains a stain on his legacy.

John Paul and his top advisers failed to grasp the severity of the abuse problem until very late in his 26-year papacy, even though U.S. bishops had been petitioning the Holy See since the late-1980s for a faster way to defrock pedophile priests.

The experience of John Paul in Poland under communist and Nazi rule, where innocent priests were often discredited by trumped-up accusations, is believed to have influenced his general defensiveness of the clergy. The exodus of clergy after the turbulent 1960s similarly made him want to hold onto the priests he still had.

Pope Francis has inherited John Paul’s most notorious failure on the sex abuse front – the Legion of Christ order that John Paul and his top advisers held up as a model. Francis, who will canonise John Paul on Sunday, must decide whether to sign off on the Vatican’s three-year reform project, imposed after the Legion admitted that its late founder sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children.

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Latest allegations against St. Louis priest test the faithful Easter weeken

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • The Roman Catholic Church was rocked by the clergy sex scandal in the United States more than a decade ago.

Church officials have been forced to acknowledge they moved known abusive priests from parish to parish, enabling them to claim even more victims. Tears have been shed and millions of dollars in settlements spent, along with vows that necessary reforms are in place to protect children.

And so over this Easter weekend in St. Louis, members of the region’s many Catholic parishes could be excused if they expressed both concern and fatigue as they faced news of the latest allegation of abuse by a young priest.

On Good Friday, criminal charges were brought against the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, 31, said to be a close friend of Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, over allegations that Jiang sexually abused a young boy. The molestation is alleged to have taken place on two separate occasions at St. Louis the King School, the elementary school at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica.

Police said the unnamed boy told detectives and a forensic interviewer that sometime between July 1, 2011, and August 1, 2012, Jiang molested him in the school’s bathroom. The archdiocese has suspended the priest from his duties while the case is investigated.

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April 20, 2014

Cardinal’s vast luxury apartment in Vatican angers Pope

VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

Former Vatican secretary of state is combining two apartments for a 6,500 square foot residence just as Francis urges clergy to adopt a more modest lifestyle

By Josephine McKenna, Rome 20 Apr 2014

The Vatican’s former secretary of state has reportedly angered Pope Francis with his plans to move into a luxury 6,500 square foot apartment as the pope urges clergy to adopt a more modest lifestyle.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, 79, was secretary of state from 2006 to 2013 and briefly in charge of the Holy See and its administration when Pope Benedict XVI suddenly resigned last February.

After his election Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Pietro Parolin to replace him as secretary of state.

According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, Cardinal Bertone’s lavish restructure of an apartment in the San Carlo Palace inside the walls of the Vatican is causing unease.

The flat is located next door to St Martha’s Residence – the simple Vatican hotel where Francis has made his home after spurning the ostentatious Apostolic Palace where popes usually live on the other side of St.Peter’s Square.

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St. Louis priest accused of abuse released on bond

ST. LOUIS (MO)
ABC 17

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 31-year-old St. Louis priest accused of sexually abusing a grade school student has been released on bail.

The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang is charged with two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy involving a boy younger than 14. He’s accused of sexually abusing a male student at St. Louis Cathedral School. His lawyer has said Jiang denies the allegations.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Jiang was released on bail Friday from the city jail. Bill Hannegan, a friend of Jiang’s, said another supporter posted the $150,000 bond but declined to identify the person who provided the bail money.

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St. Louis priest out on bond

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

by Adam McDonald, KMOV.com staff
Posted on April 20, 2014 at 8:04 PM

(KMOV) — A St. Louis priest accused of sexually abusing a grade school student is out of jail after a supporter posted bond.

The Reverend Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang is charged with two counts of first degree statutory sodomy involving a boy younger than 14 at the St. Louis Cathedral School.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis suspended Jiang from duties pending the case.

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L’ira di Francesco per il mega-attico del cardinale Bertone

VITTA DEL VATICANO
La Repubblica

di MARCO ANSALDO

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO – Papa Francesco abita a Casa Santa Marta in un bilocale di circa 70 metri quadrati. Il cardinale Tarcisio Bertone, da 6 mesi non più Segretario di Stato, inaugurerà presto il suo attico a Palazzo San Carlo, la cui ampiezza viene data di poco inferiore ai 700 metri quadrati. Circa 10 volte in più, comunque, di Sua Santità.

In Vaticano, entrando dalla Porta del Perugino, la Domus Sanctae Marthae e il Palazzo San Carlo sono edifici vicini. La prima di dimensioni ridotte, il secondo imponente. Quando Bergoglio, dopo aver osservato i complessi lavori di ristrutturazione nella struttura a fianco, è stato informato su chi sarebbe stato il suo vicino di casa, si è arrabbiato non poco. Ora non può certo cacciare di casa l’inquilino. Ma la sua ira su chi in Curia ancora resiste al suo titanico tentativo di cambiamento non è passata inosservata il Giovedì santo prima di Pasqua quando, davanti al clero riunito in San Pietro, si è scagliato contro i preti “untuosi, sontuosi e presuntuosi”, che devono avere invece “come sorella la povertà”.

La casa dove presto, prima dell’estate, il cardinale Bertone si trasferirà, ha dimensioni sontuose perché unisce due appartamenti: quello un tempo assegnato a Camillo Cibin, capo della Gendarmeria per tutto il pontificato di Karol Wojtyla, fra i 300 e i 400 metri, da cui è stata infine sloggiata la vedova; e quello di monsignor Bruno Bertagna, vicepresidente del Pontificio Consiglio per i Testi legislativi, deceduto alla fine del 2013, di metratura intorno ai 200. A questi metri interni vanno però aggiunti circa 100 di terrazzo

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Unease in Vatican over cardinal’s luxury flat

VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

An Italian cardinal is moving into a 600-square-metre (6,500 square foot) Vatican apartment in apparent contradiction with Pope Francis’s call for a “poor Church”, Italian daily La Repubblica reported on Sunday.

Tarcisio Bertone is the Vatican’s former Secretary of State, a role equivalent to prime minister, and the report said his luxury lodgings were stirring unease as Francis has pushed for clergymen to be more humble.

The flat also has a 100-square-metre roof terrace and is next to St Martha’s Residence — a Vatican hotel where Francis has taken up home, spurning the grander Apostolic Palace where popes usually live.

La Repubblica said that Bertone’s flat would be about 10 times bigger than the apartment where Francis is living and that he was planning to move in before the summer after extensive building work.

It said the house combined an apartment of up to 400 square metres formerly inhabited by the head of the gendarmerie under John Paul II and the roughly 200-square metre flat where a Vatican monsignor lived.

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What the canonizations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II tell us

UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF APRIL 19, 2014

Every spring in Rome, the big production is normally the Easter Mass celebrated by the pope. This year Easter remains the spiritual linchpin, but in popular terms it’s more like a warm-up act for next Sunday’s double-play canonizations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.

This will be the first time two popes have been declared saints in the same ceremony, and although projections vary, well over a million people could turn out in Rome to watch history being made, with millions more following the event on TV or over the Internet.

Here are five things to know about the biggest Vatican happening of early 2014.

First, putting these two popes together amounts to a call for unity between the church’s liberal and conservative wings.

In the Catholic street, John XXIII is an icon of the left, remembered as the pope who launched the reforming Second Vatican Council and opened the Church to the modern world. John Paul II is a hero to the right, the pope who brought down Communism, who fought what he called a “culture of death” behind liberalizing currents on abortion and other life issues, and who insisted on strong Catholic identity vis-à-vis secular pressures to water down the faith.

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Saint by numbers…

UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe

Next week’s double pope canonization extravaganza is creating a lot of sainthood “buzz” in the air right now. Therefore, I thought I’d offer some tips for sainthood.

First, Catholic dogma says the Communion of Saints includes official canonized and beatified saints, anybody in heaven, and all believers on earth. So, if you believe in Jesus, congratulations, you’re already a saint! You can stop reading now and go do something more productive.

However, this common, garden-variety sainthood does not land people on religious trading cards and rarely results in statues being erected in your honor, or churches, schools, and ritzy vacation spots being named after you. If you’re going for that high-profile, high-revenue type of sainthood, then keep reading.

I’ve been plowing through saint records and building a database to catalog demographic information for well over 10% of the canonized and beatified folks. If my calculations are correct, the sampling I’ve done so far yields statistics with a 3.5% margin of error for projections across the full canonized / beatified population. Good news, some of these statistics are so skewed, the 3.5% margin of error is kitten’s play.

My advice if you want to be an officially recognized saint:

1. Be male. Based on my sample set, 84% of canonized and beatified people were male. You might scratch your head in confusion since 80% of the church’s work is done by women, and women are over 50% of the world’s population. This might seem backwards to you. No, no…I beg of you; don’t let facts, equity and reality confuse you. If you insist on logic and equity, you probably should stop reading now before you injure your brain or sense of righteousness. That statistic simply reflects church hierarchical members’ value system and helps us quantify it. They see men as being over five times more virtuous and holy than women…end of story.

2. Be a priest, monk, or religious brother. About 60% of all official saints were ordained or religious males. If we look at only the male saints…that tiny 84% majority of all saints…the number jumps to around 70% who were ordained or religious. So if you’re going to be male, be a priest too, to up your odds.

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Prayers…

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Prayers for ‘a way forward’

ROSIE LEWIS THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 21, 2014

THE prospect of finding a path forward, personal transformation and a “better church for all” were the central themes of yesterday’s Easter Sunday service given by the Bishop of Parramatta Anthony Fisher.

Speaking after leading a packed morning mass, Bishop Fisher, who is considered among the frontrunners to replace Cardinal George Pell as Archbishop of Sydney, said he had been praying for “a way forward” in the wake of the child sex abuse inquiry.

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Guilty of breaching publication ban

CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

A number of people have been asking me what happened at the trial at which I testified in Victoria, BC on 12 March of this year.

I didn’t have a clue. I was there for one day. There was no media coverage. I was in the dark.

Well, the following article appeared in yesterday’s Victoria Times Colonist:

15 April 2014: Blogger found guilty of violating judge’s publication ban

Gregory Hartnell has been found guilty of breaching the publication ban on the Father Phil Jacobs preliminary hearing. And, yes, the breach entailed comments he blogged on Sylvia’s Site. I thought there was more to the charges than that, but, as I found out when I arrived in Victoria to testify, the charges related solely to comments he posted on Sylvia’s Site.

The message to one and all is loud and clear: please please take care one and all on reporting what happens in court during preliminary hearings. There is virtually always a publication ban on all testimony at preliminary hearings. And there is generally always a publication ban on the identity of victims at both preliminary hearings and at trial.

As you see, there was also a publication ban on the Hartnell trial. I wasn’t aware of that until now. Thankfully, for a variety of reasons, I didn’t blog a word 🙂 What an absolute comedy of errors that would have been!

Anyway, the verdict for Gregory Hartnell is guilty. Sentencing is yet to come. But, as you see, Hartnell is first challenging the constitutionality of Section 539. (1) of the Criminal Code of Canada. If that section is struck down Hartnell will not be convicted. I would guess that this is a Charter challenge claiming right to freedom of speech?

Here is the wording of Section 539 (1) of the Criminal Code:

539. [1] Prior to commencement of the taking of evidence at a preliminary inquiry, the justice holding the inquiry

[a] may, if application therefor is made by the prosecutor, and
[b] shall, if application therefor is made by any of the accused,
make an order directing that the evidence taken at the inquiry shall not be published in any newspaper or broadcast before such time as, in respect of each of the accused,

[c] he is discharged; or
[d] if he is ordered to stand trial, the trial is ended.
I don’t know when the next court date is. I will do what I can next week to find out. I am certainly interested.

The judges’ Reasons for Judgement (for the guilty verdict) should be posted within the next week or so. Perhaps that will be put on hold pending the outcome of the challenge? if not I will post for the benefit of all. It is good for all of us to know.

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Die spirituellen Fallschirmjäger des Vatikan

DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

VON KAI BIERMANN

20. April 2014
Manche reisen nach dem Abitur in die Welt, manche suchen sich eine Lehrstelle, viele studieren. Klara geht ins Kloster. Es ist das Jahr 2003. Der Krieg im Irak hat gerade begonnen, in Österreich regiert zum zweiten Mal die FPÖ mit, Arnold Schwarzenegger wird Gouverneur in Kalifornien. Für Klara ist das alles fernes Rauschen. Viel lauter ist eine Stimme in ihr, die sagt, sie sei berufen. Klara ist neunzehn Jahre alt.

Sie ist in Süddeutschland aufgewachsen, mit sechs Geschwistern und der Überzeugung, dass die Kirche Halt und Trost gibt. “Seit ich sechzehn war, wollte ich Nonne werden”, sagt sie. Heute will sie davon erzählen, um andere zu warnen. Es war ein Wunsch, an dem sie fast zugrunde ging.

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Ex-Bischof Mixa vergleicht Tebartz-van Elst mit Jesus

DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

Horrende Baukosten haben den Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst sein Amt gekostet, sein ausschweifender Stil ließ ihn als Protz-Bischof bekannt werden. Der ehemalige Augsburger Bischof Walter Mixa, selbst höchst umstritten, findet nun tröstende Worte.

Der ehe­ma­li­ge Augs­bur­ger Bi­schof Wal­ter Mixa (72) hält die ak­tu­el­le Si­tua­ti­on des Franz-Peter Te­bartz van Elst (54) aus Lim­burg mit der von Jesus für ver­gleich­bar: “Ich kann mir gut vor­stel­len, dass sich mein bi­schöf­li­cher Mit­bru­der ganz ak­tu­ell in einem Ge­müts­zu­stand gro­ßer Ver­las­sen­heit und Trau­rig­keit be­fin­det. Da hilft der Glau­be und das Wis­sen darum, dass Jesus Chris­tus selbst, der ohne Sünde ge­we­sen ist, den­noch un­ge­rech­tem Ur­teil und dem Spott der Menge aus­ge­setzt war,” sagte Mixa in einem In­ter­view mit “Bild am Sonntag”

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Mixa zieht Vergleich von Jesus und Tebartz-van Elst

DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

[Summary: Former Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa feels great compassion for his colleague Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst. He said he can well imagine the former Limburg bishops is feeling desolation and sadness. Pope Francis accepted Tebartz van Elst’s resignation after a scandal where he spent more than 30 million euros on his official residence.]

Der ehemalige Augsburger katholische Bischof Walter Mixa, 72, empfindet großes Mitleid mit seinem Amtsbruder Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, 54. “Ich kann mir gut vorstellen, dass sich mein bischöflicher Mitbruder ganz aktuell in einem Gemütszustand großer Verlassenheit und Traurigkeit befindet”, sagte Mixa mit Blick auf den früheren Limburger Bischof in einem Interview der “Bild am Sonntag”.

Da helfe der Glaube und das Wissen darum, dass “Jesus Christus selbst, der ohne Sünde gewesen ist, dennoch ungerechtem Urteil und dem Spott der Menge ausgesetzt war”, sagte Mixa.

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An archbishop covered up the crimes of Father Billy Baker

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 16 April 2014)

The Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese knew that Father Wilfred James Baker was committing crimes against children but it allowed him to continue in the priesthood, thereby inflicting him on more victims. This cover-up was finally exposed by Broken Rites and Baker was jailed. After he finished this jail term, more of his earlier victims came forward. But, in February 2014, Baker he died before the courts could sentence him again.

Broken Rites first heard about Father Baker after Broken Rites launched its Australia-wide telephone hotline in late 1993. Broken Rites advised these callers that victims should contact the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit. As a result, detectives eventually charged Baker with child-sex crimes.

During Baker’s court proceedings in 1999, the court learned that one of Australia’s most prominent Catholic leaders, Archbishop Frank Little, had ignored complaints about Father Baker’s child-sex crimes.

In the Melbourne County Court on 8 June 1999, Father Wilfred James Baker (then aged 62) was sentenced to four years’ jail, with parole after two years. A Broken Rites researcher was present in court.

What the judge said

In a pre-sentence hearing on 7 June 1999, Judge Russell Lewis told the court that, at the Gladstone Park parish (in Melbourne’s north-west) in 1978, a family complained to the church that Father Billy Baker was misbehaving towards their young son. The judge said Melbourne’s Archbishop Frank Little was made aware of the complaint. Despite this (said the judge) Baker was then transferred from the Gladstone parish to Eltham (in Melbourne’s north-east).

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The priest and the schoolgirl: A cover-up is revealed

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

A Sydney woman (who will be referred to by Broken Rites as “Mandy”) has revealed that a Catholic priest (Father Kevin Cox) sexually abused her for six years from the age of eleven. Furthermore, the sexual abuse resulted in a pregnancy at age 17 — and then the priest paid for an abortion.

After these six years, Father Cox reluctantly apologised to the family for his sexual abuse of the girl. He also reluctantly admitted the sexual abuse to his bishop. However, the diocese granted him a transfer to another parish and allowed him to continue working as a priest for the next 15 years, until Mandy finally reported the sexual abuse to the police when she was nearly 32.

After the police charged Father Cox in court with his earliest sexual crimes against the child (at the age of 11 to 13), his supporters in the church sprang to his defence. After a jury convicted him of these crimes, church leaders and priests wrote “good-character” references for him, asking the court for a lenient sentence. A judge gave Cox a part-time jail sentence but church lawyers appealed to a higher court against the criminal conviction and won an acquittal for the priest.

Privately, a church leader apologised to Mandy’s mother, acknowledging that the priest had broken his priestly vows in doing what he did to Mandy.

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A priest, already in jail, is facing another police investigation

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites reseacher (article updated 18 April 2014)

Australians may soon learn more about how the Catholic Church protected the paedophile priest Terrence Pidoto for 25 years while he committed crimes against boys in his parishes. Pidoto, who is in jail, will be interviewed by police again in 2014 because more of his alleged victims have come forward. This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about the Pidoto cover-up.

In 2014 Pidoto is reaching the end of a seven-year jail sentence for crimes that he committed durng his priestly career in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese.

On 17 April 2014, a Melbourne magistrate granted permission to detectives from the Victoria Police sex crime squad to interview Pidoto in jail for four hours about some new allegations.

The detectives are from a special unit, Taskforce Sano, which was established to investigate historical and new allegations that have emanated from the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.

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Bishops follow Francis’ example, renouncing mansions for parsonages

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

A bishop in Scotland and another in the US have renounced lavish living in exchange for simpler lifestyles

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

Clerics have been changing their ways since the scandal involving the Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who was forced to leave his German diocese after faithful protested against the exorbitant sum he spent on his new residence complex, a whopping thirty million Euros. In recent weeks, Atlanta’s archbishop, Wilton Gregory admitted that he authorized an excessively expensive restructuring project for his residence, a mansion that was donated to him. The project cost two million dollars. Now, the newly appointed bishop of Paisley, John Keenan, has announced he wants to live in a parsonage in a low-income housing estate.

The Francis effect is taking root it seems. The Pope has not asked any bishop to copy him: it is a well-known fact that Francis never lived in the apartment reserved for him as archbishop and cardinal, preferring instead to take a simple room in the Curia building. In the Vatican he chooses to reside at St. Martha’s House instead of the Apostolic Palace, “for psychological reasons”, because he likes having people around him. He has spoken about the poverty and sobriety of men of the Church on many occasions but his example is not becoming contagious.

In an interview with The Herald, the prelate said Francis and himself dreamt of a Church that went out into the street and got dirty instead of clinging onto safety. “When people see a church not just giving to the poor and the excluded but being among them and living with them joyfully, then they will really begin to believe there is a way out of the vicious cycle of living for yourself in your own little bubble.”

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Comment on Irish Times Cartoon

IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Despite the fact that protests about criticism in the media of Catholic priests in Ireland can sometimes be self-serving and counter-productive, and despite the fact that cartoons of their nature tend to be edgy and provocative, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) believes that the publication of the Martyn Turner cartoon in The Irish Times (April 16th, 2014) is gratuitously insulting to Irish Catholic priests, many of whom are readers of that paper.

The cartoon’s resonances of sectarianism and bigotry have no place in the pages of a newspaper which prides itself, as it does, on fairness and high standards in its coverage, not least its awareness of the bigger picture. It would be difficult to imagine a similar publication of such an offensive cartoon in regard to the clergy of any other denomination or faith.

On behalf of our 1000-plus members and other Catholic priests, the ACP protests in the strongest possible terms at this unacceptable slur on the Irish priesthood.

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Priest is released on bond

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim O’Neil

The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, who is charged with sexually abusing a young male student at St. Louis Cathedral School, was released on bail Friday from the city jail, a friend said.

Bill Hannegan, a friend of Jiang’s, said another supporter posted the $150,000 bond set by a St. Louis circuit judge. Hannegan declined to identify the person who made bond for the Catholic priest.

Jiang, 31, of the 3400 block of Lafayette Avenue, was charged with two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy involving a boy younger than 14.

The charges allege he had sexual contact with the boy twice in a school bathroom between July 1, 2011, and Aug. 1, 2012.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis suspended him from duties pending the case. He previously had been accused in Lincoln County of contact with a teenage girl, but that case was dismissed.

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Survivors and the sufferings of Jesus

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | Apr 18, 2014

This week I have found myself moved by how the sufferings of Jesus are tragically similar to the sufferings of so many who have been abused. These similarities are no coincidence and for some reason they have been a source of comfort to me during this important week in the Christian faith. Perhaps, you may find some comfort as well.

Failed promises: Survivors are frequently promised support from those who never follow through. In fact, it is often those same people who end up asking the hurting survivor, “Can’t you just move on?” Just hours before he denies even knowing Jesus, Peter promises Jesus, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus understands.

Betrayed: Over 90% of victims are abused by someone they know and trust. Someone who has spent a lot time with the victim and shared many life experiences. Someone who nobody expects would betray and abuse. Judas spent three years with Jesus and had shared some amazing moments with him and the other disciples. Nobody expected Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus understands.

Abandoned: Survivors are often abandoned when those they hope will walk alongside them fall asleep or flee. This leaves them alone and all too often in the hands of those who will inflict more pain. On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus asked three of his closest disciples to come with him to pray. Instead of praying, they fell asleep. When Jesus needed them most, they were focused on themselves. If that wasn’t bad enough, a few hours later they ran away from Jesus when Judas arrived with the soldiers. Jesus understands.

Abused and mocked by the Church: I have encountered too many survivors who have been dehumanized by a Church that mocks them and demands their silence. After being arrested, Jesus was immediately taken before Caiaphas the high priest. In the place where one might hope that the Son of God would be loved and served, Jesus was mocked, slapped, spit upon and silenced. Jesus understands.

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Irish Times apologises for controversial priest cartoon

IRELAND
RTE News

The Irish Times has apologised for publishing a controversial cartoon by its contributor Martyn Turner, calling it “an editorial lapse”.

The cartoon, published on Wednesday, dealt with mandatory reporting requirements for priests on child abuse and portrayed a priest saying he “would do anything for children, but not that”.

An editorial in this morning’s newspaper said things sometimes “flew under the editorial radar”.

The editorial said the cartoon had taken an unfortunate and unjustified “sideswipe at all priests”, suggesting that none of them could be trusted by with children.

The cartoon had caused considerable offence, the paper said, and it regretted and apologised for the hurt.

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Case Study 11, April 2014, Perth

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Perth from Monday 28 April 2014. The hearing will look into the experiences of a number of men who were resident at Christian Brothers’ residences in Western Australia and the responses of the Christian Brothers and relevant Western Australian State authorities to allegations of child sexual abuse at the residences.

The public hearing will be held at:

Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission
111 St Georges Terrace
Perth WA 6000

All those attending the hearing must go through security which will include screening of bags. People attending the hearing are advised where possible, to minimise what they take with them.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:
1. The experiences of a number of men who were resident at one or more of the residences operated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers (the Christian Brothers) in Western Australia: Castledare Junior Orphanage, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf, St Mary’s Agricultural School Tardun and Bindoon Farm School (the Christian Brothers’ institutions).
2. The response of the former Christian Brothers’ Province of Western Australia and South Australia and the current Province of Oceania and relevant Western Australian State authorities to complaints made about any member of the Christian Brothers who was engaged in teaching or other activities at each of the Christian Brothers’ institutions.
3. The conduct of the claims made through Towards Healing, Redress WA, civil action and/or directly to the Christian Brothers for compensation or assistance by each of the residents and the experience of each in the relevant process
4. The evidence and findings of other inquiries relating to the Christian Brothers’ institutions.
Any other related matters.

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The Vatican’s Shocking Easter Nest Egg

VATICAN CITY
Go Banking Rates

By Christina Lavingia

In recent years, the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), often referred to as the Vatican Bank, has come under scrutiny for its lack of transparency and use of funds. With a history of accusations tying the Vatican Bank to everything from money-laundering to connections with the Mafia to, most recently, the funneling of tens of millions of dollars toward legal settlements surrounding priest sex-abuse scandals, many are calling for the Vatican Bank to be more upfront about where its money comes from — and goes.

Recent Years of Controversy for the Vatican Bank

According to CNBC, in 2010, the Italian government began investigating the Vatican Bank after the Bank of Italy notified the authorities about two transactions it made totaling $30 million, from Credito Artigianato to JPMorgan Chase and Banca del Fucino. The Vatican violated Italian law by not stating the origin of the money, but denied any wrongdoing; the matter was eventually dropped.

The Vatican Bank officially operates as a financial institution designed to support charitable work, meaning it can avoid typical banking governance. However, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI tried to get the Vatican on the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development’s “white list” in 2010, designated for countries that uphold international banking standards.

At the end of that year, Benedict created the Financial Information Authority as an independent agency to oversee the Vatican Bank and other Vatican-related institutions in regard to their financial activities.

However, the 2012 “Vatileaks” affair, in which Benedict’s former butler leaked documents disclosing transfers made to the American church to cover its more than $3 billion in sex-abuse settlements, made it clear that the Vatican Bank was still struggling with corruption.

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Why protection of vulnerable children …

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Why protection of vulnerable children must always take precedence over the seal of the confessional

EILIS O’HANLON – PUBLISHED 20 APRIL 2014

HISTORY is full of pioneers who stood up bravely against unjust laws and brought about change. Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. The abseiling lesbians who famously stormed the House of Lords and later broke into the studio live on air as Sue Lawley read the BBC News.

To that illustrious list can now be added a new name, that of Fr Gearoid O Donnchu, who last week told Newstalk that he wouldn’t co-operate with new laws on the reporting of child abuse. Truly, the spirit of principled civil disobedience fostered by Mahatma Gandhi lives on.

Meanwhile, back in the real world …

Fr O Donnchu was responding to the publication of the Children First Bill, which makes it mandatory for certain professions and holders of official posts to report their suspicions of child abuse to the Child and Family Agency. This includes doctors, nurses, teachers, guards, social workers, psychologists, childcare workers, as well as priests. But of course, it’s the clergy who’ve been hogging the headlines with their concerns about the new system and its impact on the sanctity of the confessional.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, retired parish priest O Donnchu practically painted himself as a martyr to the cause, telling Chris O’Donoghue: “The seal of confession takes precedence over everything – even my own safety.” In his own mind, no doubt he was the heir to Montgomery Clift in Hitchcock’s I Confess, who was willing to stand trial for a murder he didn’t commit rather than tell the police that the real killer had admitted all in the confession box. To the rest of us, he just came across as a man who needs to rethink his priorities.

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Irish cartoon shows duplicity of priests.

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Updated April 19, 2014

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil i.e. the Vatican Mammon Beast – – is for (enough) good men and good women – to do and say (write and draw) nothing.

The mission of the singing Irish priests cartoon by Martyn Turner is ‘for the pen is mightier than the sword’ to sever the Octopus Dei Beast. It’s similar to the non-violence method of Gandhi in India that brought down the mighty British Empire from the rising to the setting of the sun that rose in the east and set in the west covering the globe which the Vatican Mammon Beast now occupies. Read the Vatican Mammon Beast a.k.a. Opus Dei Beast http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/2014/02/mark-of-vatican-mammon-beast-aka-opus.html

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April 19, 2014

MO–Victims blast archbishop for his claims re 2nd victim’s family

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 18

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

Our deepest sympathies go out to both families whose children have been sexually violated by Fr. Joseph Jiang.

Because of the first criminal charges against him, Fr. Jiang was suspended from his parish in June 2012. Carlson assured his flock that Fr. Jiang would be kept away from kids. Evidently, Carlson didn’t honor his promise, because Fr. Jiang is now charged with molesting a different child just two months later (in August 2012).

We especially feel sorry for these brave families because Archbishop Robert Carlson continues to play mean-spirited legal hardball to protect his close pal, Fr. Jiang.

Today, through one of his public relations staff, Carlson released a statement impugning the honesty and motives of the family of the second child who has reportedly been sexually assaulted by Fr. Jiang.

[St. Louis archdiocese]

Neither Carlson, his lawyers nor his professional public relations people are stupid. They desperately want to prevent embarrassing lawsuits. They know that it helps to quickly scare others who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Jiang’s crimes into keeping silent. And they know that one good way to ensure silence is to quickly and publicly question the honesty of those who speak up. We believe that’s why Carlson claims that this victim’s family 1) supposedly raised concerns about bullying in their parochial school and 2) supposedly didn’t mention child sex abuse until this week.

Shame on Carlson, his lawyers and his PR team. Neither of those allegations – even if they are true – have any bearing whatsoever on whether these new criminal charges are valid.

Both of those claims might well discourage others with information about predator priests from stepping forward. We believe that’s Carlson’s motive here. What other reason could there be for Carlson to publicly make these allegations – or any allegations – about a victim or his or her family?

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Why No Resume Is Needed From a Southern Seminary Grad

UNITED STATES
The Wartburg Watch

We live in a hurried world and constantly search for time savers. Today, TWW presents a time saver for pastoral search committees all over the world. We know how much time and effort goes into reading resumes of pastoral candidates. This is followed by phone conversations and visits to the candidate’s current church. Then there is the candidate visit in which people quiz him in order to figure out if he is a good fit. The process can take months. Here is one way to save time in that exhaustive search if you have a candidate who is a recent graduate of SBTS.

This week, Al Mohler announced big changes in faculty retention at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship seminary of the SBC. Some might view the changes in a negative light. However, time saving experts should hail the changes. Al Mohler has clarified, front and center, the carefully honed belief structure of the seminary and the internalized gospel © playbook will be part and parcel of the graduates of this seminary.

In a post written for Southern News (a publication of SBTS so they should have gotten this right) Southern Seminary Trustees Update Faculty Hiring Policies, ‘Unify’ Faculty, we are told what is in the future of SBTS.

For the sake of brevity, I will focus on a few items. We urge you to read the full article.

* In order to continue to “attract and retain a first-class academic faculty,
* All actions of the board were unanimous.
* Under new employment policies, all elected faculty will serve under a “simple academic instructional contract” rather than a tenure-based contract.
* we have returned to making the election of faculty by the board of trustees the most important issue,
* (Tenure) no longer ensures academic quality, but actually is a major impediment to it.”
* Tenure is a “ticking fiscal time-bomb”

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Vatican delegation with U.S. cardinals delayed church reform says archbishop

IRELAND
Irish Central

Patrick Counihan @irishcentral April 19, 2014

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has accused the Vatican of delaying church reform in Ireland in the wake of clerical sex abuse scandals.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has told the Irish Times that delegation sent by Rome in the wake of Murphy and Ryan reports on abuse effectively held up reform of the church in Ireland.

The delegation which included leading Irish American prelates Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Cardinal Timothy Dolan were sent to Ireland by the Vatican following the publication of the reports in 2009 to establish what went wrong in the Irish church.

Dr Martin believes the apostolic visitation delayed real reform.

He said: “The visits froze the Irish church at a particular moment and actually, in some ways, delayed reforms in the Irish church.

“My comments are not a criticism of those who carried out the visitation, but maybe a criticism of those who planned it.”

He added: “The visitation from Rome set expectations it was never going to realise and I think there are lessons to be learned for future events of that kind.

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Atlanta residents object to planned priests’ home

GEORGIA
Mercury News

The Associated Press
POSTED: 04/18/2014

ATLANTA (AP) — Residents are objecting to the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s plans to renovate a house in the city’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood so it can be a home for a group of priests in the latest dust-up involving the home.

The dispute involves Atlanta Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s former residence, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported (http://bit.ly/19h2mCB ). Earlier this month, Gregory said he would sell a $2.2 million mansion after parishioners complained it wasn’t in line with the tone of austerity Pope Francis has set. Gregory still lives in the mansion but plans to move.

Attorney Hakim Hilliard, who represents some residents near the house, said the planned renovation would create a dormitory for a half-dozen priests in a historic neighborhood zoned for single-family homes. Hilliard said the parish is trying to create a church annex in a neighborhood where such structures are not allowed, and that it should have obtained a special-use permit but did not.

Plans for the project include a chapel, bar, exercise room and other amenities, and the initial estimate for the improvements is $292,000, the Atlanta newspaper reported.

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Church ‘Revisting’ Plans To Move Priests, Still Intends To Move Forward

GEORGIA
WABE

[with audio]

By MICHELL ELOY

There’s a new controversy involving the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and housing, after some Buckhead residents say they oppose a plan to move some priests into a house previously inhabited by Archbishop Wilton Gregory.

Christ the King Catholic Church spokesperson Dave Fitzgerald said the church is taking a second look at its plans to move six of its priests into the home, but said the church still intends to move forward.

“We’re convinced that everything we plan to do to the property is in accordance with all city codes,” Fitzgerald said,” adding later that new attention to the issue prompted the church to “revisit” its plans.

But some area residents disagree.

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