HAWAII
SF Gate

HONOLULU (AP) — Another lawsuit against the Catholic Church in Hawaii claims that a former Bishop sexually abused a boy who went to him to report he had been abused by another priest.

Attorneys for the 59-year-old Honolulu man filed the suit last week claiming that now-deceased Rev. Joseph Ferrario sexually abused him in the 1960s. The same attorneys filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of a Los Angeles man who claimed Ferrario did the same to him in the 1970s.

The lawsuits are filed under a Hawaii law providing a two-year window for claims of sexual abuse against minors to be made, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed. The window closes April 24.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

[Summary: Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda expressed satisfaction with the verdict issued by Judge Angel Pagan Ocasio which directs the Arecibo diocese to deliver within 15 days all information related to cases of sexual abuse by priests in the diocese. The judge’s decision is not only correct from the point of law but is also compatible with the public outcry that supports safety of children in Puerto Rico.]

El secretario de Justicia, César Miranda, expresó su satisfacción con el veredicto emitido por el juez Ángel Pagán Ocasio del Tribunal de San Juan, en el cual ordena a la Diócesis de Arecibo de la Iglesia Católica la entrega en un plazo de 15 días de todas la información relacionada con los casos de abuso sexual en los que hayan estado involucrados sacerdotes de la mencionada región eclesiástica del país.

“Esta decisión del juez Pagán Ocasio no sólo es correcta desde el punto de vista de derecho, sino que también resulta compatible con el clamor público de que todos unemos esfuerzos para salvaguardar la seguridad de los niños y niñas de Puerto Rico, esto sobre cualquier otra consideración. En este caso, prevaleció el interés del Estado de proteger a nuestros menores de edad de posibles ataques sexuales por parte de pederastas”, indicó Miranda en comunicado de prensa.

El titular del DJ destacó que, en su sentencia, el referido magistrado hizo un “enérgico llamado a la cooperación a las partes para erradicar el terrible mal del abuso sexual contra menores que tan devastador daño ha hecho a la Iglesia y al Estado”. A tono con la orden judicial, los líderes diocesanos arecibeños, tienen que cumplir con los requisitos de información hechos por el Departamento de Justicia (DJ), mediante subpoenas, sobre los abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes, sin importar la fecha en que éstos hayan sido cometidos.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

La Diócesis de Arecibo deberá entregar a la Justicia en un plazo de 15 días los documentos confidenciales que tratan sobre los casos de abuso sexual perpetrados por sacerdotes en contra de menores de edad. Así lo determinó esta tarde el juez Ángel Pagán Ocasio, quien falló en contra de la solicitud de ese distrito eclesiástico.

En su fallo, el magistrado señala que son constitucionalmente válidos los requerimientos del Departamento de Justicia, luego de que la Diócesis en cuestión solicitase el “cese y desista” contra Justicia que impediría la entrega de los citados documentos.

En una sentencia de 70 páginas, Pagán Ocasio concluye que “procede la entrega de los documentos allí solicitados, exceptuando lo que se obtuvo mediante el sacramento de la confesión, al estar protegidos. Por lo que se ordena a la parte demandante la entrega a los demandados de lo solicitado en los subpoenas (medios de prueba tangibles), en el término de 15 días a partir de la notificación de la sentencia”.

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PUERTO RICO
Boston.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A judge in Puerto Rico has ordered a diocese to provide state prosecutors with all confidential documents related to an ongoing sexual abuse probe.

The ruling issued Monday resolves a lawsuit that the Diocese of Arecibo recently filed against the island’s justice secretary arguing that it should not have to release additional information to prosecutors. The diocese had said it sought to protect the identity of those who made the allegations and that it had already provided sufficient information.

The diocese has defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse, and prosecutors are investigating at least 11 other priests in the U.S. territory facing similar accusations. At least four dioceses are being investigated.

The ruling gives the diocese two weeks to turn over the information.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

PADRAIC MURPHY HERALD SUN APRIL 08, 2014

A PRIEST who allegedly witnessed predatory pedophile Gerald Ridsdale raping a young girl 40 years ago has been slammed by a judge, but the clergyman’s identity has been withheld from the public.

The Chief Judge of the County Court criticised the alleged witness priest — whose identity is known by the victim, court, Office of Police Prosecutions and Ridsdale’s lawyers.

But the judge refused a Herald Sun application for access to documents in which he is believed to be named.

In sentencing one of Australia’s most notorious pedophile priests to eight years in jail, Judge Michael Rozenes said: “Although it does not directly involve you, Mr Ridsdale, there is a further disturbing aspect to this incident, namely that this complainant believes another priest was present for a short time while you were sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene.

“I raise this merely to make an observation: namely that this behaviour appears to be demonstrative of the church’s approach to sexual abuse at the time which ultimately — and unfortunately, for your victims — allowed your criminal behaviour to go unchecked for so long.’’

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ITALY
New York Daily News

BY LEE MORAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, April 8, 2014

An Italian priest stole cash from a group of nuns to pay a young Moroccan man for sex, police said.

The holy man, who has not been named, allegedly swiped money entrusted to him by the local convent in Feltre, Belluno.

He then reportedly used it to pay his lover — with whom it is believed he had a “long-standing relationship.”

The amount of money he is accused of stealing has not yet been revealed, but some sources suggest it was into the thousands of euros.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 8, 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)

A blogger reports that a “hero’s welcome” is being given to a Hassidic man who was convicted of attempting to buy the silence of a victim of sexual abuse.

[Jerusalem Post]

If this is true, it is utterly heart-breaking. And it will lead to, we sadly predict, even more child sex crimes and cover ups in religious communities. When wrongdoing is rewarded, wrongdoing will be repeated. And innocent children will suffer.

According to the Jerusalem Post, “Abraham Rubin, 50, a member of the Satmar hassidic (ultra-Orthodox) sect in Brooklyn, offered over half-a-million dollars to buy the silence of the unnamed victim. The minor’s testimony regarding repeated instances of sexual abuse helped secure the conviction of unlicensed therapist Nehemia Weberman.”

The blogger wrote that “Not only was (Rubin) welcomed with singing, dancing and a festive meal, he was also an honored guest in the home of his rebbe.”

Rubin clearly broke a secular law designed to help our justice system operate with integrity. Worse, he deliberately took steps to protect a child molester.

He should be shunned, not praised. Those who honor and welcome him are dishonoring child sex abuse victims and helping to ensure that there will be more child sex abuse victims. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 8, 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)

New Jersey’s attorney general is honoring the work of a wonderful, tireless volunteer who heads the state’s chapter of our organization. We are grateful for Mark Crawford’s ceaseless compassion and courage. His efforts over the past decade have helped expose dangerous clergy predators and corrupt church officials. And his work has deterred cover ups of child sex crimes while also consoling those who have been sexually assaulted.

[The Star-Ledger]

Mark has also spent countless hours helping to bring legislative reform to sometimes archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly state laws so that kids can better be protected.

Many victims of heinous child sex crimes struggle mightily to recover. Relatively few, however, are able to turn their pain into a positive source of healing and prevention for others. Mark is one of these few. We are thrilled that he’s a part of our movement.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 8, 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 )

In the wake of yesterday’s decision in the Fr. Christopher Wenthe case, we call on Minnesota lawmakers to clarify the state law criminalizing the sexual exploitation of adult congregants by clergy.

[Pioneer Press]

Something is dreadfully wrong when a powerful, persuasive cleric who allegedly is Christ’s representative on earth gets “off the hook” because (according to the Pioneer Press) “jurors must agree on which particular meeting between priest and victim was the one in which she sought or received spiritual advice or aid” and because “the state must prove (a cleric) knew the woman sought or received spiritual advice during the sexually infused meeting.”

These laws – making it illegal for religious figures to have sexual contact with congregants who seek their help – are relatively new. So it’s not surprising that there may be loopholes. But those loopholes should be fixed quickly. Clerics are often among the most charismatic, clever and well-educated sexual predators. We must do all we can to prevent them from abusing their power, prestige and positions. And tightening up these laws would be a good start.

We are grateful that Fr. Wenthe failed in his bid to completely overturn this crucial law that helps prevent adults from being sexually abused and exploited. But we hope this setback will give lawmakers the clarity and incentive to improve this crucial law.

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OKLAHOMA
9 News

Posted: Apr 07, 2014

Lisa Monahan, News 9

A Logan County pastor pleads guilty to lewd acts with a child, and it’s not his first time.

True Life Ministries Pastor, David Moore was convicted of the sex crime early Monday morning.
As a convicted sex offender, Moore was restricted from interacting with children, but court papers indicated he dismissed those regulations and went even further.

A 12-year-old girl told investigators Moore rubbed her feet and legs, made her and another girl watch pornography and stay at his Guthrie home last month.

He was also accused of getting the girls drunk. The child said it made her feel uncomfortable.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

MELISSA IARIA
April 8, 2014

A Catholic priest who sexually abused 15 schoolboys has become a sorry and shameful pariah, known wherever he goes as “the pedophile priest”, a court has heard.

Frank Gerard Klep, 70, abused the boys at Salesian College Rupertswood from 1973 to 1984.

In the aftermath, he endured a spectacular fall from grace, the Victorian County Court heard on Tuesday.

Defence barrister Julie Sutherland says Klep’s remorse was heartfelt and real, having told a friend he was “profoundly sorry and ashamed”.

After his crimes surfaced, he was demoted, forbidden to work with children and stripped of his priesthood duties.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Libido-suppressing drug Zoladex should be on PBS to treat sex offenders, psychiatrist Danny Sullivan says

BY LOUISE MILLIGAN
April 8, 2014

One of Australia’s leading forensic psychiatrists is pushing for a libido-suppressing drug to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat serial sex offenders.

Dr Danny Sullivan of Forensicare has worked with some of the most notorious rapists, paedophiles and killers in the Victorian criminal justice system.

Dr Sullivan says the drug, clinically known as an LHRH agonist and marketed as Zoladex, has been successful in reducing recidivism rates of sex offenders overseas, particularly in the US state of Oregon.

“In Oregon, the Government passed legislation in the early 1990s that all sexual offenders leaving prison would be assessed for medication to reduce their sexual drive,” Dr Sullivan has told the ABC’s 7.30 program.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Chris McGreal
theguardian.com, Tuesday 8 April 2014

There is a Roman Catholic priest at a medieval church an hour’s drive from Paris who has been indicted by a United Nations court for genocide, extermination, murder and rape in Rwanda.

Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka was notorious during the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis for wearing a gun on his hip and colluding with the Hutu militia that murdered hundreds of people sheltering in his church. A Rwandan court convicted the priest of genocide and sentenced him in absentia to life in prison. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda spent years trying to bring him to trial.

But the Catholic church in France does not see any of this as a bar to serving as a priest and has gone out of its way to defend Munyeshyaka.

It’s not an isolated case. After the genocide, a network of clergy and church organisations brought priests and nuns with blood on their hands in Rwanda to Europe and sheltered them. They included Father Athanase Seromba who ordered the bulldozing of his church with 2,000 Tutsis inside and had the survivors shot. Catholic monks helped him get to Italy, change his name and become a parish priest in Florence.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

JOEL CRESSWELL
April 8, 2014

To serial pedophile Gerald Francis Ridsdale, violating children was “the Lord’s work”.

That’s what he told one of his 53 victims as he assaulted the nine-year-old altar boy.

Ridsdale began befriending, isolating and preying on vulnerable children almost as soon as he was ordained as a priest in 1961.

It was not until 1993 that his atrocities caught up with him, with his first jail stint.

He has remained in jail since 1994 and the 79-year-old is almost certain to die in prison after Victorian County Court Chief Judge Michael Rozenes sentenced him for another eight years on the latest charges on Tuesday.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY GEORGE JACKSON

A retired priest has pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court in Derry to stealing almost £1,800 of church funds.

John Irwin (72) from Garvagh Road in Dungiven, admitted stealing £1,440 of collection money from St Patrick’s Church in Pennyburn between May 2011 and October 2012. He also pleaded guilty to stealing £300 belonging to the Derry Diocesan Fund between December 2009 and May 2011.

Defence solicitor Michael McGee told District Judge Barney McElholm that Irwin has repaid the £300 in relation to the second charge as well as compensation of £700 to the diocesan authorities.

He said it was Irwin’s intention to repay in full the £1,440 of collection money he stole and he also intended to pay compensation to the diocesan authorities in relation to that amount.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Clergy sexual assault survivors to hold memorial vigil outside of Archbishop Listecki’s “Mass of Atonement”

Clergy sexual assault survivors to hold memorial vigil outside of Archbishop Listecki’s “Mass of Atonement”
Survivors say that Listecki’s bankruptcy reorganization plan is “profoundly unrepentant” for criminal acts and cover ups and “no act of atonement”

WHAT
Victim/survivors of childhood rape, sexual assault, and abuse by clergy of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will hold a memorial vigil for suicide victims of predator priests outside of Lumen Christi Catholic Church where Archbishop Jerome Listecki will be conducting a “Mass of Atonement” for clergy sexual abuse. After displaying childhood photos and candles in the makeshift memorial, survivors will discuss how Listecki’s recent plan filed in federal bankruptcy court is a clear sign that he and the archdiocese is “unrepentant” for its decades long history of criminal acts against children and cover-ups. Listecki’s plan calls for paying a handful of church and creditors lawyers in excess of $12.5 million dollars, compensate all survivors as a group with only $4 million dollars, while excluding 80 percent of the 575 victims who filed cases. The plan also would keep secret over 100 yet to be identified clergy and ministers who are alleged to have assaulted children in the archdiocese over the past 50 years.

WHERE
Outside of Lumen Christi Catholic Church, 2700 W. Mequon Road, Mequon

WHEN
Tuesday, April 8, 6:30 p.m. Remarks by victims will be at 6:45 p.m. Mass of Atonement will begin at 7:00 p.m.

CONTACT
Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, 414.429.7259
John Pilmaier, 414.336.8575
Mike Sneesby, SNAP Milwaukee Director, 414.915.4374

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UNITED KINGDOM/IRELAND
Legal Futures

Leading civil liberties practice Hodge Jones & Allen (HJA) has received a full apology and damages from The Times newspaper over an article which accused the firm of misleading victims of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland.

The settlement came nearly a year since the original article was printed and with the London firm on the point of issuing a claim for libel.

The article – published under the headline “Law firms accused of misleading Magdalene victims” – reported an Irish government statement which suggested that HJA had falsely claimed in an advert to have drafted government proposals for a compensation scheme which was about to go live.

The advert aimed to inform the victims of the laundries of the scheme. The laundries, the last of which only closed in 1996, were run by religious orders; workers were held against their will and worked without pay to literally wash away their sins – usually the ‘sin’ of having a child outside wedlock.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A Vatican submission last December to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) made three significant statements of fact that are inaccurate.

One such statement, as reported in this newspaper last week, was its claim the four religious congregations which ran Magdalene laundries in Ireland were willing to pay part of a compensation scheme developed by the State for women who had been in the laundries.

Compensation scheme

This was untrue, but prompted Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to write to Rome seeking clarification. Since then, two of the congregations, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity, have repeated their refusal to contribute. All four, including the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, said last summer they would not be doing so.

However, it has emerged it was inaccurate of the Vatican to say it didn’t use the term “illegitimate” when referring to children and didn’t promote the corporal punishment of children. The 1983 Code of Canon Law for the Catholic Church states (Canon 1137) “children conceived or born of a valid or putative marriage are legitimate”. Canon 1138.2 states “children born at least 180 days after the day when the marriage was celebrated or within 300 days from the day of the dissolution of conjugal life are presumed to be legitimate”.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

The Salvation Army lied about their mistakes to two women raped by a paedophile royal commission told

THE Salvation Army was lying about their mistakes up to five years ago to two women raped and sexually abused by a paedophile at a Sunday school, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told.

The evidence emerged as the Salvos eastern territorial commander, James Condon, clashed with counsel assisting the commission in a heated exchange.

The women had wanted to know why nothing was done when they first reported John Lane, who taught at the Fortitude Valley corps in Brisbane, in 1992 to Colonel Stan Everitt, then the Salvos commander for that region.

The women, one of whom was only four when she was abused by Lane, went to police in 1996 and Lane was convicted and jailed. He has since died.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, March 31, 2014

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP — When Bishop James S. Wall announced the Diocese of Gallup was filing for Chapter 11, he promised to be “open and transparent” during the reorganization process.

“In the coming weeks, the process of Chapter 11 will open our Diocese to unprecedented public scrutiny,” Wall stated in his announcement released over the Labor Day Weekend. “I believe that is a good thing. We will be open and transparent in this process, and I will do my best to keep you informed as the process continues. I invite you to e-mail and write me to share your reactions to this decision and the process all along the way.”

Since then, Wall has posted a small number of legal documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on the Diocese of Gallup’s website, but members of the public are left to their own devices to wade through the documents’ legalese to try to understand their content.

Wall and his bankruptcy attorneys have not been answering questions from the media, however.

In late January, an extensive list of questions was submitted to Wall. The bishop then transferred the questions to Susan G. Boswell, the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney, to answer.

“While I appreciate you raising these matters, I want you to know that it is our policy that we do not comment in the press on the matters that are before the Court or that may come before the Court,” Boswell replied in a letter.

Although she didn’t provide answers, Boswell instructed all future media questions about the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 case be directed to her rather than to Wall and the diocese.

Deacon Hoy’s house

A variety of subjects were raised, including questions about the accuracy of the list of confidential claimants compiled by the Gallup Diocese, the possible legal liability of other Catholic dioceses and religious orders, the reported underfunding of the Priests’ Retirement Fund/Pension Plan, and property reportedly owned by the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte. A number of other questions pertained to real estate transactions involving the Gallup Diocese.

Several questions concerned a house recently owned by Deacon James P. Hoy, the diocese’s former chief financial officer who resigned two months before Wall’s Chapter 11 announcement. In the diocese’s first Monthly Operating Report to U.S. Bankruptcy Court, submitted for the period of Nov. 13-30, 2013, two documents indicated the Gallup Diocese might have been paying the insurance on Hoy’s personal home, listed with his address as “clergy housing.”

A subsequent records search of the property at the McKinley County Courthouse indicated real estate transactions involving that particular property, Hoy and the Gallup Diocese. A more in-depth title search and report offered information. According to the report:

-Hoy and his wife obtained the house, which had been offered for sale by another couple. The transaction is documented in a joint tenancy warranty deed dated Nov. 18, 1999. However, there is no record of the Hoys obtaining a mortgage to finance the purchase of the house.

-Less than four months later, on March 2, 2000, the Hoys transferred the property over to the “Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Gallup” with a quitclaim deed. The quitclaim deed was notarized by longtime Gallup chancery staffer Anna DiGregorio.

-The following year, on Nov. 30, 2001, the Gallup Diocese transferred the property back to the Hoys with a joint tenancy special warranty deed, signed by Bishop Pelotte. For this real estate deal, the Hoys did obtain a 30-year mortgage for $133,200.

-The Hoys sold the property to another couple in July 2013, after Hoy resigned from the diocese. However, in the Nov. 13-30, 2013, Monthly Operating Report filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the property is included as “clergy housing” in what appears to be a list of diocesan property insured with the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America.

The Gallup Diocese was asked a number of questions about these unusual real estate and insurance transactions involving its former chief financial officer. Boswell declined to answer any of the questions, citing the policy not to comment in the press on matters that may come before bankruptcy court.

Bishop’s private residence

Other questions concerned the Gallup property where the bishop’s private residence, his private chapel and the diocese’s “House of Discernment” are located.

In documents submitted to U.S. Bankruptcy Court, those pieces of property were not included in a list of property owned by the Diocese of Gallup. In December 2013, in testimony given at the Creditors Committee meeting, Wall stated his private residence is owned by the Catholic Peoples Foundation, a nonprofit fundraising organization of the diocese, and Wall stated the diocese owes back rent to the Foundation for his residence’s rent.

Again, a records search of the property at the McKinley County Courthouse indicated more real estate transactions. According to courthouse records:

-The property used to be owned by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrow of Oregon.

-The Southwest Indian Foundation gave the Franciscan Missionary Sisters a grant of $250,000 in 1984 to improve a girls’ group home on the property. The Sisters agreed “the residence, real estate and proposed improvements” would revert to the Gallup Diocese if the Sisters ever abandoned their girls’ group home, which they later did.

-On Jan. 23, 2009, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, then the temporary apostolic administrator for the diocese, transferred the property over to the Catholic Peoples Foundation with a quitclaim deed.

-On April 15, 2009, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters signed an identical quitclaim deed

-On Oct. 7, 2009, the Sisters transferred additional neighboring property to the Catholic Peoples Foundation with a quitclaim deed, rather than allow the property to revert to the Gallup Diocese.

Because part of the Chapter 11 process involves identifying assets of the Diocese of Gallup, the diocese was asked why property that was supposed to revert to diocesan ownership was transferred to the Catholic Peoples Foundation, and why the diocese signed a lease to rent property for the bishop’s residence that it once had a legal right to own.

Boswell declined to answer questions for this story.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Times Leader

April 07. 2014

By Mark Guydish – mguydish@civitasmedia.com

WILKES-BARRE — The Rev. Phillip Altavilla, a graduate of Bishop Hoban High School, now Holy Redeemer, is the fourth diocesan priest to face a judge on sexual misconduct charges in the last decade.

Altavilla’s hearing on three charges related to an alleged incident with a 13-year-old girl in 1998 is set for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday before Lackawanna County District Judge Laura Turlip.

While the number may be disheartening to members of the faith, it may also demonstrate the difference in how the Catholic Church has handled such cases since the national scandals at the turn of the millennium that prompted sweeping changes.

Police charged Altavilla last week with one count each of indecent assault, corruption of minors and criminal attempt of indecent assault, all allegedly occurring Christmas morning with a 13-year-old girl who had served midnight Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Scranton, where Altavilla was pastor at the time.

Altavilla was immediately suspended from priestly duties, including his position as pastor of St. Peter’s Cathedral. According to police, the girl called him while they listened in and Altavilla admitted he plied the girl with alcohol, fondled her feet and moved his hands up her legs.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN APRIL 08, 2014

A PREDATOR priest who abused 15 boys across two decades should not die in jail because he has “so much to give” the community, his lawyer says.

Frank Klep’s crimes were so sick he was banned from working with children, stripped of his priestly duties and ultimately laicised by the Catholic Church.

But seeking mercy on his behalf today, Julie Sutherland, SC, told County Court judge Frank Gucciardo her 70-year-old client was a valuable member of the community.

“He clearly has so much to give. There are people in the community who could benefit by the help (and) comfort of this man,” she said.

Ms Sutherland said he had worked tirelessly for the community, fundraising for charity, and supporting drug addicts and victims of sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

More than half a century after he started sexually abusing the sons and daughters of his parishioners, Australia’s worst pedophile priest has learnt he is likely to die in jail.

Gerald Francis Ridsdale, 79, was given an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to 30 new charges against 14 boys and girls between 1961 and 1980, conduct described by the judge as “evil hypocrisy.”

But the notorious pedophile, already serving time for a campaign of abuse dating back to 1961 when he was ordained, will not be eligible for parole until April 2019.

The protection of the Catholic church, which moved him from parish to parish throughout his career, meant his offending spanned three decades.

He abused 53 children in that time.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

[Summary: During the ’50s and ’60s some pedophile priests found shelter in the psychiatric hospital in Heiloo, North Holland. One priest was on the run from the Belgian courts.]

In de jaren vijftig en zestig vonden minstens enkele pedofiele priesters onderdak in de psychiatrische inrichting in Heiloo, Noord-Holland. Een van hen was op de vlucht voor de Belgische justitie. Die beschouwde Heiloo als een ‘schuiloord’. De psychiaters konden zijn uitlevering tegenhouden.

Op de loop voor de Belgische justitie vond de pedofiele priester André B. in de jaren zestig onderdak in Nederland. Hij was in ons land twee keer veroordeeld voor zedenfeiten met minderjarige jongens en moest daarvoor nog een deel van zijn straf uitzitten, maar toen het tweede vonnis werd geveld, was hij al uit België vertrokken. Met hulp van de bisschop van Brugge kon hij zich als patiënt in de Sint-Willibrordusstichting in Heiloo inschrijven. Daar werd hij anderhalf jaar behandeld.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

[A priest in the Trier diocese has commented on allegations against him. He said he has made no admission of guilt.]

“Meine Damen und Herren, liebe Freunde,

die Ereignisse der letzten Tage zwingen mich zur folgenden Stellungnahme: Bis heute, Freitag, dem 28.03.2014, 21.00h, habe ich kein Schreiben in der Hand, in dem von einer Geldauflage, noch von der Höhe derselben, die Rede ist.

Ich habe es diese Woche in der Zeitung und im Videotext gelesen. Normalerweise schickt die Staatsanwaltschaft zu dem Rechtsanwalt des Verdächtigen, um die Richtigkeit der Erklärung zu überprüfen und seinen Mandanten auf die öffentliche Bekanntmachung vorzubereiten.

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ROM
Tabula Rasa

[Summary: The Catholic Church has learned quit a bit with the abuse scandal but not everywhere. The Vatican is completely overloaded with processing the offenses by clerics who have abused children and adolescents, according to Jesuit priest Hans Zollner.]

Nach den Missbrauchsskandalen der vergangenen Jahre hat die katholische Kirche einiges dazugelernt. Aber nicht überall. Und der Vatikan ist mit der Bearbeitung der Vergehen von Klerikern an Kindern und Jugendlichen völlig überlastet.

von Guido Horst

In seiner Ansprache vor der Vollversammlung der Glaubenskongregation am 31. Januar hat Papst Franziskus von einer besonderen Kinderschutzkommission des Vatikans gesprochen, die er sich unter dem Dach dieser Kongregation vorstellen kann. Und eine Woche später musste das Presseamt des Vatikans einen Bericht des Kinderschutzkomitees der Vereinten Nationen teilweise zurückweisen, der einige richtige Aussagen zum Kinderschutz durch die katholische Kirche und die römische Kurie mit unhaltbaren Anklagen und Aufforderungen verbunden hatte. Es gibt in Rom einen deutschen Experten für Kinderschutz, den Jesuiten Hans Zollner, der das Institut für Psychologie der Päpstlichen Hochschule Gregoriana leitet und in München bereits ein Kinderschutzzentrum gegründet hat. Wir fragten ihn, wie es in Rom und in der Weltkirche beim Thema Kinderschutz weitergegangen ist, nachdem die Missbrauchsskandale die Öffentlichkeit nicht nur in Deutschland oder Irland beziehungsweise in den Vereinigten Staaten erschüttert haben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Markische Allgemeine

[Summary: Abuse victims are disappointed in the church. Stefan Luttke of Potsdam was abused in 1997 as a 15-year-old by the then chaplain of Sts. Peter and Paul church. The priest was later a pastor in Berlin. He acknowledged the abuse but has not been officially charged because he signed no confession.]

Der Potsdamer Stefan Lüttke wurde 1997 als 15-Jähriger vom damaligen Kaplan von St. Peter und Paul, Stefan M., missbraucht. Obwohl M. – später Pfarrer in einer Berliner Gemeinde – die Tat bei der Befragung einräumte, wurde er offiziell nicht belastet. Der Grund: Er habe kein Geständnis unterschrieben.

Potsdam. MAZ: Eigentlich arbeiten Sie ja als Psychologe an der Universität in Tübingen, sind jetzt aber für einen Abstecher nach Potsdam gekommen. Nur unweit von unserem Treffpunkt ist die Gemeinde St. Peter und Paul, deren damaliger Kaplan Sie missbraucht hat. Was empfinden Sie so in direkter Nähe der Kirchengemeinde?

Stefan Lüttke: Menschen machen Fehler, dafür sollten wir sie nicht verurteilen. Sollte der Missbrauch durch eine psychische Störung bedingt worden sein, würde ich mich freuen, wenn der Betreffende professionelle Unterstützung erhalten würde, auch vom Bistum. Das muss aber ein psychiatrisches Gutachten feststellen, von außen kann man dies nicht bewerten. Ich kann den Missbrauch mittlerweile mit professionellem Abstand sehen. Vom Erzbistum bin ich jeddoch enttäuscht und wütend über seinen Umgang mit dem Fall.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

In order to never forget the suffering, the dying and seeking for recognition and resurrection, the victims and survivors of sexual abuse and abuse of power by the Roman Catholic Church commemorate this year on Silent Saturday at 3 p.m.

They light a candle at home or wherever they are, not for themselves, but for fellow sufferers, locally and around the world.

This year, Silent Saturday falls on April 19.

Individuals or groups wishing to join this action put a burning candle in a symbolic place, or in their church next to the 13th station of the Way of the Cross, with the text “Esse est percipi, to be is being perceived, survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.”

For more information or to inform us that you want to participate in this action, as a group or as a church congregation, please contact us at:

International initiative, Memory Day for survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church: mensenrechtenindekerk@gmail.com

Rik Devillé
Belgium

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CANADA
Niagara Falls Review

By Rob Gowan, Sun Times, Owen Sound
Monday, April 7, 2014

Criminal charges have been laid against the leader of a church in the Township of Chatsworth, but his whereabouts are unknown.

Grey County OPP announced Monday that a total of 31 charges – some dating back about 35 years – have been laid against the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored, Frederick Madison King, 55, and his brother, Judson William King, 59.

Frederick King hasn’t been seen since allegations of physical and sexual assault against him came forward and police began investigating in late 2012, according to an OPP news release. A warrent has been issued for his arrest.

“We can’t speculate on where he would be. We don’t know,” said OPP Sgt. Dave Rektor. “If we did we would certainly have him in custody.”

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

ROB GOWAN, QMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: MONDAY, APRIL 07, 2014

OWEN SOUND, Ont. — Two brothers whose cloistered Ontario church has been accused of being a polygamist cult by former members, have been charged with 31 sex and assault charges.

The charges come as a result of a 16-month police investigation.

The charges come from the claims of seven alleged victims — all members of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored at the time — and some allegations date back to 1978.

Judson William King has been arrested in Oakville, Ont. He faces charges of assault with a weapon, uttering death threats and four counts of assault, and is to appear in court in Owen Sound, Ont., on May 15.

The whereabouts of Frederick Madison King is unknown. He hasn’t been seen since 2012.

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CANADA
CTV

Katherine Ward, CTV Barrie
Published Monday, April 7, 2014

Allegations of physical and sexual abuse by leaders of a religious sect have led the OPP to lay multiple charges against two men. And the allegation first came to light in a documentary done by CTV’s investigative program, W5.

The charges come after a sixteen month police investigation. The church the two men belong to is called the Church of Jesus Christ Restored and it is located near Chatsworth.

Police say there are seven victims and all were member of the church when the alleged offences happened. Some go back as far as the late 1970’s.

Fifty-nine year old Judson William King has been arrested and charged with assault, assault with a weapon and uttering a death threat.

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ROME
Catholic News Agency

By Jean Boudet

When it concluded on February 25, the Extraordinary General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ, meeting in Rome to complete the drafting of new Constitutions and elect new leadership, issued eleven documents that represent the Congregation’s future. The Legionaries, once again autonomous, have emerged from a period of “examination and renewal” that began five years ago in 2009 with their public acknowledgment of their Founder’s scandalous double life and continued with an Apostolic Visitation (2009-10) and three and a half years of supervision under a Pontifical Delegate, Cardinal Velasio de Paolis (2010-14). The Constitutions, now awaiting Vatican approval, was the principal work of the Chapter, but these eleven communiqués and decrees, innovative in several respects, address generally a series of topics that widely concerned Legionaries during their self-examination and express the goals the Constitutions will legislate. The Chapter documents both apologize for past deficiencies and convey optimism for a productive future.

(The eleven documents, including a presentation letter and two attachments, comprising some 120 pages, have recently all been made available in English translation of their original Spanish here)

In its May 2010 report, the Visitation saw the “need to redefine the charism… preserving its true nucleus.” So most pressing on the Legionaries was to reformulate and to insist on the validity of their charism. The charism of a religious community, to use John Paul II’s words in Vita Consecrata (1996), expresses a “specific spirituality, that is, a concrete program of relations with God and one’s surroundings, marked by specific spiritual emphases and choices of apostolate, which accentuate and re-present one or another aspect of the one mystery of Christ.” But, first, could a valid charism have been conveyed by a criminal Founder?

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Elizabeth Eisenstadt-Evans | Apr. 7, 2014

PHILADELPHIA After a course correction impelled by decades of often secretive financial management decisions and an embezzlement crisis, the Philadelphia archdiocese is making progress toward tackling a chronic operating deficit and meeting its financial obligations.
In one sign of contrast with prior administrations, the archdiocese has begun to provide public, audited financial statements that reveal the magnitude of the task facing its chief financial officer.

“I think we’re in the process of turning the corner, but it’s a big corner,” said CFO Tim O’Shaughnessy, who came on board in April 2012. Archbishop Charles Chaput, who arrived in 2011, has charged O’Shaughnessy with getting the archdiocese’s financial house in order after former CFO Anita Guzzardi was charged with embezzling more than $900,000. In August 2012, she was sentenced to serve two to seven years in state prison for the theft.

In the fiscal year 2013, the Office of Financial Services, which provides administrative and program support for parishes, schools and other archdiocesan-related groups, incurred a $4.9 million recurring loss. That’s a substantial reduction from the previous year, when the “core deficit” (a number that doesn’t take into account one-time income and expenses) was $17.6 million.

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UNITED STATES
West

by Michela Maisti – 04.08.2014

Almost $3 billion is what allegations of child sex abuse has cost the American church, between 2004 and 2013. The data was released in the 11th annual report from the US episcopal conference on progress in the implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People. The costs include the settlements, therapy and psychological care for victims and legal fees. The analysis conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners particularly looked at 127 diocese for the period from July 2012 to 30 June 2013.

During this time, there were 857 victims of sexual abuse and more than 900 complaints against the church. However, not all the cases of abuse had sufficient evidence to launch a lawsuit against the members of the clergy accused of paedophilia. In fact, 472 cases couldn’t be proved, 78 had insufficient evidence, while 136 cases were verified for legal action. Another 223 cases were still being assessed.

However, it’s not just these legal issues that are pushing up costs for the American dioceses but also assistance programmes through which the church offers more support to victims. The projects are mainly preventative and include the establishment of clear rules within the context of the church. They also have removal procedures for those who commit abuses and those who are suspected of criminal practices against children. The risky behaviour as defined by the American church includes the “acquisition, possession or distribution by a cleric of child pornography”. The rules are therefore becoming increasingly strict, so as to prevent the recurrence of child abuse.

These measures are a necessity supported by data that lays bare a situation with serious connotations. The report states that, between 2012 and 2013, 730 clergy were accused of paedophilia, including priests and deacons. But often the complaints involve ‘unknown’ people because the victims, due to the trauma and their age, aren’t able to identify or name the offender. In other cases, the accused is deceased. However, the number of cases in which the guilty party is removed from the church ministry shows that things are moving in the right direction.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By MARK RUSSELL, The Age April 8, 2014

GERALD Ridsdale, one of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests who admitted abusing at least 53 children between 1961 to 1982, has been sentenced to eight years in jail.

County Court Chief Judge Michael Rozenes said Ridsdale’s “unfettered sexual deviance” had been a blatant breach of the trust existing between priests and parishioners.

Judge Rozenes said Ridsdale had preyed on his vulnerable victims under the guise of being the ‘friendly priest’.

Ridsdale’s position in the church involved a high degree of trust and some degree of power and his offending had had a devastating impact on his young victims.

The Catholic Church had unfortunately allowed Ridsdale’s criminal behaviour to go unchecked for so long, Judge Rozenes said when jailing Ridsdale for eight years with a non-parole period of five years.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale has been sentenced to eight years in jail with a minimum non-parole period of five years for the abuse of 14 children.

The offences came to light last year following the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse and span almost three decades.

The 80-year-old pleaded guilty to the most recent charges, which included raping and abusing children as young as four.

In sentencing Judge Michael Rozenes said Ridsdale’s crimes were abhorrent and had caused his victims ongoing pain and suffering.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Tue, Apr 8, 2014

‘Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again . . .”

You’ve been on my mind for four weeks now, like “a vision softly creeping . . .” Since Christine Buckley died.

I’ve been surprised. Perhaps I should not be. At her funeral, President Michael D Higgins spoke of you. He referred to “the darkness she broke open with the light of her own experience”.

She who had been, as Fr Tony Coote put it in the funeral Mass homily, “a tiny voice amid the clamour of denial and recrimination”. She of whom he said, “perhaps belief is her greatest legacy”. You have been graceless since she died. You and your cuttlefish friends. Your silence since March 11th has been eloquent.

Not a word for her family or friends. Nor for those tens of thousands on whom she bestowed a priceless gift, credibility. Immediately after Dear Daughter – broadcast by RTÉ again last night and dealing with Christine’s days in the Goldenbridge orphanage – was first broadcast in February 1996, your cuttlefish friends got to work, generating doubt. As they do.

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VATICAN CITY
CT Post

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
Updated 4:01 pm, Monday, April 7, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is sending its former sex crimes prosecutor to Scotland this week to investigate “recent serious allegations of misconduct” surrounding disgraced Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned last year after admitting to sexual misdeeds.

The Vatican and the Scottish church said Bishop Charles Scicluna will report on the situation.

O’Brien, once Britain’s highest-ranking Catholic leader, resigned in disgrace as the archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh in 2013 and recused himself from the conclave that elected Francis as pope in 2013 after unidentified priests alleged in British newspaper reports that he acted inappropriately toward them.

The men said they had complained to church authorities about O’Brien’s conduct but that the church had failed to respond. None of the men are believed to have been minors at the time of the purported misconduct.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on April 07, 2014

Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, will be honored by the state Attorney General’s Office Wednesday. He is seen here in 2011.
Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal

An advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse and a prosecutor who handled one of Essex County’s most high-profile murder cases will be recognized Wednesday by the state attorney general for their service to crime victims.

Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and Romesh Sukhdeo, an assistant prosecutor in Essex County, will receive awards during a morning ceremony at the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton.

“Through their relentless efforts, the men being honored at this week’s ceremony change the landscape every day within their own communities and throughout New Jersey,” acting Attorney General John Hoffman said in a statement today.

The awards, the first of their kind bestowed by the attorney general’s office, coincide with Crime Victims’ Rights Week and the 30th anniversary of the Victims of Crimes Act.

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NEW YORK
Jerusalem Post

By SAM SOKOL
04/07/2014

Member of ultra-Orthodox sect in New York is released from jail after serving sentence for attempting to buy silence of sexual abuse victim.

A hassidic man convicted of attempting to buy the silence of a victim of sexual abuse was given a hero’s welcome by the Satmar rabbi, the Failed Messiah blog reported.

Abraham Rubin, 50, a member of the Satmar hassidic (ultra-Orthodox) sect in Brooklyn, offered over half-a-million dollars to buy the silence of the unnamed victim. The minor’s testimony regarding repeated instances of sexual abuse helped secure the conviction of unlicensed therapist Nehemia Weberman.

The girl’s parents had sent her to Weberman for therapy sessions at the recommendation of her school.

According to the New York Daily News, the girl was referred to him for not meeting her sect’s strict modesty guidelines regarding dress code and for asking questions about the existence of God.

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NEW JERSEY
Office of the Attorney General

TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced today that an Essex County Assistant Prosecutor and a Middlesex County sexual abuse survivor who became a victim advocate will be honored at a statewide Crime Victims’ Rights Week event this week for their dedication to providing outstanding services to victims of crime.

According to Acting Attorney General Hoffman, Romesh Sukhdeo, of Montclair, and Mark Crawford, of Avenel, will receive the first-ever Office of Attorney General Excellence Awards for Victims’ Justice at a statewide program celebrating Crime Victims’ Rights Week. The program is held annually to reaffirm New Jersey’s commitment to enforce victims’ rights and address their needs. The event is co-sponsored by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, the Victims of Crime Compensation Office and the State Office of Victim-Witness Advocacy.

“This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Victims of Crime Act, which changed the landscape of victim rights and services nationwide,” Acting Attorney General Hoffman said. “Through their relentless efforts, the men being honored at this week’s ceremony change the landscape every day within their own communities and throughout New Jersey.” …

Crawford will receive the Ronald W. Reagan Award. Crawford was chosen for his long-term commitment to victims’ rights and services, extraordinary efforts on behalf of victims, delivery of compassionate services to victims and advocacy for victims via legislation, policies and other measures.

Crawford is a survivor of sexual abuse as a child who is currently the New Jersey State Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. In nominating Crawford, Senator Joseph Vitale wrote, “In 2005, Mark was appointed New Jersey State Director of SNAP, a position he still holds today. Mark receives contacts weekly from sexual abuse victims throughout the country, and spends time listening and educating victims who are often in a raw emotional state.” Senator Vitale continued, “Because of Mark’s efforts, many individuals, after living in years of silence and shame, learned of their predators crimes and came forward themselves, finally getting help and holding their offender accountable.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A man who had cigarette butts put out between his toes when he was a child in the care of The Salvation Army was given $10,000 compensation, an inquiry into child abuse has heard.

The army had a system by which it measured what it offered abuse victims who came forward, the royal commission hearing in Sydney was told.

Daphne Cox, a major who met with abuse victims and reported back to the army’s Personal Injuries Complaints Committee (PICC), said she always believed victims.

‘We accepted what we were told. The fact that it hadn’t been proven didn’t indicate how much we offered,’ she said on Monday.

A hearing held in February heard that EF, who was seven when he was placed in the Indooroopilly Boy’s Home in Queensland in 1966, was violently punished and raped by Major Victor Bennett, who was the home’s manager.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

THE top ranks of the Salvation Army gave a self-confessed child abuser a “guiding hand” to keep his behaviour secret, its territorial commander James Condon admitted yesterday.

Colin Haggar had sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl but although he was dismissed from the Salvos, he was allowed to give his own reasons to both his colleagues and his congregation in the western NSW town where he had been based, the child sex abuse royal commission heard yesterday.

In a letter to the “family and friends” in the town, Haggar and his wife, also a Salvation Army officer, wrote: “We are taking a break from duties of office so we can spend time on our own spiritual growth and thus hopefully be of more use to Him when we resume our service. All we can say is to keep your eyes on Jesus. We may not understand the whys and wherefores of His actions and timing …”

Haggar had told the girl’s parents: “It wasn’t that serious. I only fingered her”.

This is the second hearing by the commission into the Salvation Army and how it handled claims of sex abuse. The organisation dismissed Haggar in 1990 but moved him to a lay job and provided the couple with accommodation. In 1993, he was reinstated and became a lieutenant colonel.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 08, 2014

THE international general of the Salvation Army promoted a self-confessed child abuser to a senior rank within the church, despite a church commander in Sydney arguing against the appointment, the royal commission has heard.

The officer, Colin Haggar, had been dismissed from the charity in 1990, after confessing to having sexually molested an eight-year-old girl in regional NSW, before being readmitted three years later.

Giving evidence yesterday, Salvation Army commissioner James Condon said Mr Haggar was most recently promoted, to the rank of lieutenant colonel, because his wife, Kerry, had been appointed to a senior “cabinet” position within the church.

“There’s correspondence … where I raised it with the general, the international leader of the Salvation Army and I said, ‘I do not want to promote Colin to the rank of lieutenant colonel’,’’ Mr Condon said.

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ITALIA
Il Messaggero

FELTRE – Un nuovo scandalo esce dalle volte sacre delle chiese, tanto che il sacerdote è stato allontanato in fretta e furia dal vescovo di Belluno-Feltre. La giustificazione dell’improvvisa assenza fu annunciata come “problemi di salute”.

Il parroco del feltrino è finito sotto inchiesta per estorsione nei confronti di un giovane marocchino con il quale avrebbe intrattenuto da tempo una relazione. Ma non si trattava di amore né prestazioni date o effettuate sotto minaccia, bensì di sesso a pagamento. E per pagare quel giovane magrebino il reverendo usava i soldi che le suore del vicino asilo gli affidavano.

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ITALY
The Local

A priest from Feltre, a hillside town in the northern Italian province of Belluno, is under investigation for allegedly paying a Moroccan man for sex, and with cash from the local convent.

The priest, who was immediately dismissed by the bishop of the diocese as the scandal surfaced, but for “health reasons”, allegedly used money from a nearby convent to pay for sex with the young Moroccan, Il Gazzettino reported.

The pair had a “long-standing relationship”, the newspaper said.

In September last year, an Italian priest from Turin admitted paying a Romanian woman €350,000 after she threatened to expose him for having sex with her, La Repubblica reported.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

Salvation Army commissioner James Condon says he opposed the promotion of an officer with a history of sex abuse.

Salvation Army commissioner James Condon says he already had a process in train to remove an officer with a sex abuse record before a whistleblower contacted authorities.

Mr Condon, the territorial commander of the Salvation Army in NSW, Queensland and ACT, told a hearing in Sydney on Monday that his absence due to a meeting in London in early 2013 had probably contributed to a delay in removing Colin Haggar as director of a crisis shelter for women and children.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Mr Haggar confessed to indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl in 1989, and was dismissed from the Salvos, but was re-admitted in 1993 and subsequently promoted.

Additional allegations were made against him in 2013.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart

The Minnesota Appeals Court is reversing a sexual misconduct conviction and ordering a new trial for a St. Paul priest accused of having sex with a woman seeking spiritual advice.

The Appeals Court says the lower court made several errors during Christopher Wenthe’s trial.

Wenthe was convicted in 2011 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after a woman reported a relationship with the priest that happened years earlier.

The Appeals Court says the trial judge should have told jurors they had to unanimously agree on a single meeting during which the crime occurred. In addition, prosecutors had to prove Wenthe knew the meeting had a religious purpose.

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HAWAII
Jeff Anderson & Associates

News Release
April 7, 2014

[the lawsuit]

Sex abuse lawsuit filed against diocese, former bishop
New Hawaii predator priest exposed
Deadline to come forward, use courts is April 24

(Honolulu, HI) – Less than three weeks before a legal deadline, a Honolulu man has come forward and filed a lawsuit charging that he was sexually abused by Catholic priests and a former Catholic bishop.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, says that the victim, John Roe 27, was sexually abused at St. Stephen’s Seminary and Damien Memorial School. The boy was a 14-year-old student at St. Stephen’s in 1968 when Fr. William Queenan began sexually abusing him. Queenan, who is being exposed for the first time, was a member of the Sulpician order and a teacher at the school. Soon after the abuse, the lawsuit says, the victim came forward to then-priest, later-Bishop Joseph Ferrario. Ferrario used the disclosure against the boy and began abusing him as well.

In 1970, the victim transferred to Damien Memorial School. Because of family turmoil, he lived in the residence reserved for the Irish Christian Brothers, who ran the school. As a result of the trauma of the abuse he had already suffered, the victim was immediately targeted and sexually abused by Br. Robert Brouillette and Br. Thomas Ford, two notorious predators who lived and worked at the school.

An attorney for the victim says that stories of abuse like this are tragic and common.

“As we get closer and closer to the legal deadline, more brave victims like this are coming forward to tell their stories and get justice,” said Mark Gallagher, a Kailua-based attorney for the victim. “For decades, this boy and others like him thought they were all alone and that no one would believe them. Now, we can see that they were victims of patterns of abuse across Oahu.”

Brouillette has been named as an abuser by dozens of children in Hawaii and across the mainland. In 2000, Ford was convicted of the violent abuse of abandoned children for crimes he committed at the Mt. Cashel Orphanage in Canada. Ferrario has been accused of abuse by at least five boys.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 04/07/2014

The criminal sexual conduct conviction of a former Nativity of Our Lord priest has been reversed and the case sent back to the lower court for retrial.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in a decision published Monday that a lower court judge made errors in the case of Rev. Christopher Wenthe.

Wenthe was convicted in 2011 on one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He had a sexual relationship with an adult woman from his St. Paul parish during a meeting in which she “sought or received religious or spiritual advice, aid or comfort” in private, the jury found.

But, agreeing with Wenthe’s defense, a three-judge panel of the appeals court determined that Judge Margaret Marrinan made several errors by: failing to tell jurors they must agree on which particular meeting between priest and victim was the one in which she sought or received spiritual advice or aid; failing to instruct the jury that the state must prove Wenthe knew the woman sought or received spiritual advice during the sexually infused meeting; prohibiting evidence about the woman’s sexual history from being presented by the defense after the state “opened the door” to it by eliciting testimony of her sexual inexperience.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: ROCHELLE OLSON , Star Tribune Updated: April 7, 2014

Court of Appeals found multiple errors in pastor’s Ramsey County District Court trial.

A Catholic priest from a St. Paul parish saw his conviction overturned Monday for sexual misconduct in a case involving a 21-year-old parishioner in 2003.

The state Court of Appeals sent the case of Christopher Thomas Wenthe back to Ramsey County District Court — possibly for a new trial, depending on what County Attorney John Choi decides.

The Court of Appeals ruled that Wenthe’s first trial in 2011 had three significant errors.

The 22-page ruling said that in sexual misconduct cases, the jury must unanimously agree that each incident occurred. Also, in cases of clergy sex abuse, prosecutors must prove that the defendant knew of the “religious or spiritual purpose of the meeting,” according to the decision written for a three-judge panel by Judge Gary Crippen.

More specific to this case, the court said Wenthe should have been able to question the alleged victim about her sexual history, despite rape-shield laws, because the woman portrayed herself through her own testimony as sexually inexperienced.

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MINNESOTA
KTTC

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Minnesota Appeals Court is reversing a sexual misconduct conviction and ordering a new trial for a St. Paul priest accused of having sex with a woman seeking spiritual advice.

The Appeals Court says the lower court made several errors during Christopher Wenthe’s trial.

Wenthe was convicted in 2011 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after a woman reported a relationship with the priest that happened years earlier.

The Appeals Court says the trial judge should have told jurors they had to unanimously agree on a single meeting during which the crime occurred. In addition, prosecutors had to prove Wenthe knew the meeting had a religious purpose.

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MISSISSIPPI
Cottonmouth

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Yesterday, House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) participated in a charity run to help victims of child abuse and human trafficking. Let the irony sink in for a moment.

This is the same Philip Gunn who back in 2011 led the task of hushing any discussion of alleged child abuse that took place at Gunn’s Morrison Heights Baptist Church. This went so far as to discourage people from talking with the police about reports of criminal activity against a child.

To recap:

1. In 2011, Gunn claimed a secrecy provision to keep members of his church from talking to the police and county prosecutors about alleged child abuse.
2. Yesterday, Gunn has the nerve to participate in a race to help victims of crimes he once tried to ignore and silence.
3. For the next 22 months, he will be a top Republican leader in Mississippi as he serves as Speaker of the House while professing to uphold family values.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A nun in charge of a Londonderry children’s home in the 1970s was “very caring”, an ex-social worker has said.

She was giving evidence to the Historical Abuse Inquiry about the former St Joseph’s Catholic children’s home in Termonbacca.

The inquiry is examining claims of abuse at 13 homes and training centres in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

The woman said Termonbacca was in large grounds with a high gate and could seem “intimidating” to young children.

She said she believed children were well fed and well dressed as well as having a roof over their heads.

But, she said: “They were very institutionalised. I would have been concerned for their emotional welfare”.

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GEORGIA
Belleville News-Democrat

The following editorial appeared in the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer on Thursday, April 3:

The outrage over Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s Buckhead mansion has been headline news all over the country for most of the last week. And the fallout has not been limited to Catholics whose faith offerings paid for it.

Nor should it be. Because the humbling of Archbishop Gregory ought to be an object lesson of universal relevance.

The basics of the story are now familiar: Gregory built a 6,000-square-foot, $2.2 million mansion in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood on land bequeathed by heirs of “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell. As word of the cleric’s lavish new digs got around, so did some intense resentment.

He got the message: He announced he would sell the mansion and relocate, and issued a public apology which acknowledged that “we are called to live more simply, more humbly, and more like Jesus Christ who challenges us to be in the world and not of the world … I failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services.”

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 07, 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 Florida megachurch leader has resigned due to “moral failings.” We are glad that he will not be in ministry anymore, but believe he should be investigated.

[Sun Sentinel]

[Christian Post]

Bob Coy, who founded the Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale 30 years ago, admitted to having a problem with pornography and to multiple “affairs.”

In many states, it is illegal for ministers to have any kind of sexual contact with or to sexually exploit their congregants in any way. (We believe it should be illegal in every state.)

We hope that church leaders and parishioners will be diligent and reach out to anyone who may have been hurt by Coy.

With his resignation, we hope anyone who saw, suspected, or suffered abuse will find the courage to speak up and report to law enforcement.

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CONNECTICUT
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Apr 7, 2014

Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) held its annual Assembly in Hartford on Saturday, and I can report that the mood of the liberal Catholic organization was pretty chipper. It was, pretty clearly, yet another manifestation of the Francis Effect.

Established in Massachusetts a dozen years ago in the wake of the Boston Globe‘s revelations of Cardinal Bernard Law’s cover-up of sexual abuse, VOTF dedicated itself to promoting “structural change in the church” — i.e. an increased role for the laity. Now, thanks to the new pope’s declaration of war on clericalism, it looks like this might actually be happening.

The 200-plus members — mostly from the Northeast but including a few from as far away as Texas and Montana – gathered in the Connecticut Convention Center to hear presentations on the State of the Papacy from North America’s leading Vatican reporter, John Allen, and from North America’s leading Vaticanologist, Thomas Reese, S.J.

Recently translated from the National Catholic Reporter to the Boston Globe, Allen can easily be mistaken for an apologist for whoever happens to be pope. He’s now fully aboard the Good Ship Francis, and he treated the assemblage to a fast-paced overview of the annus mirabilis franciscanus. Bottom line: the new papacy is all about 1) leadership as service; 2) a missionary church; and 3) a re-balancing of mercy and justice in favor of mercy.

From the audience came the question: Would the pope be bringing to justice bishops engaged in covering up clergy sexual abuse as well as showing them mercy? Allen’s answer was that the new Vatican abuse commission was half women, and that everyone on it was only too aware of the need to hold bishops accountable. For all that, he acknowledged that Francis was “not fully understanding of the crisis.”

Taking his turn at the podium, Reese agreed, calculating that because the crisis has been muted in Latin America, “Francis is about 10 years behind us on this issue.” He took his fellow Jesuit to task for inaccuracy and defensiveness in characterizing the church’s handling of the crisis in an interview with an Italian newspaper last month.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

John Hooper in Rome
theguardian.com, Monday 7 April 2014

The Vatican bank is to stay in business despite speculation Pope Francis might close down the scandal-plagued institution. After months of investigation and consultation, the Vatican announced the pope had opted for a reform plan instead.

The bank, officially called the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), has as its core business the management of cash deposited by Catholic religious institutions and members of the clergy. But its offshore status has been central to a string of scandals and controversies.

The statement said the IOR would continue to “serve with prudence”. It added that strict regulatory supervision and improvements in compliance and transparency were critical for the institute’s future.

But it said Francis recognised “the importance of the IOR’s mission for the good of the Catholic church, the Holy See and the Vatican city state”.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

April 6, 2014|By Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE — Thousands of parishioners attending a special Sunday afternoon meeting at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale were stunned to learn that the megachurch’s popular founder and leader, Pastor Bob Coy, had abruptly resigned.

The reason given by church elders: “a moral failing.”

“Most people were shocked,” said congregant Robert Milne, of Wilton Manors, who attended the standing room-only meeting that drew an estimated 7,500 parishioners. “A lot of people were hurt, a lot of people are disappointed.”

Coy, 58, and his wife Diane founded the Fort Lauderdale church nearly 30 years ago. Today, it consists of the main campus and six affiliated churches in Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, West Boca, Plantation, Hollywood and the Keys.

Pastors read a letter from Coy at the special meeting saying he was sorry for his transgressions and that the church will continue to flourish. Coy did not return calls to his cellphone Sunday night.

Church elders said Coy was not present Sunday at the main church, which occupies a large tract in the 2400 block of Cypress Creek Road in Fort Lauderdale.

“Of course I forgive him,” said Milne. “We’re all sinners and we’ve all slipped here and there.”

In a statement released Sunday, church elders said Coy, of Coral Springs, resigned Thursday as senior pastor of the 20,000-member church “after confessing to a moral failing in his life which disqualifies him from continuing his leadership role.”

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FORT LAUDERDALE (FL)
Calvary Chapel

Posted on Sun, Apr 6, 2014

Media Statement – April 6, 2014

On April 3, 2014, Bob Coy resigned as Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, effective immediately, after confessing to a moral failing in his life which disqualifies him from continuing his leadership role at the church he has led since its founding in 1985. The media ministry of the Active Word that distributes his Bible teachings through radio, television, and digital media has also been suspended.

Pastor Bob will be focusing his full attention on his personal relationship with God and with his family. The governing board of the church is providing counselors and ministers who will help guide him through the process of full repentance, cleansing and restoration.

Trusting in God’s providence, protection, provision and direction, the staff of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale will continue our mission to “make disciples,” through regular services at all campuses and through a myriad of other ministries the church has established over the years. A team of assistant pastors already on staff will maintain their usual rotating schedule as teaching pastors for all services.

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Many parishioners attending a special meeting Sunday at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale were surprised by the news of the senior pastor’s resignation.

Pastor Bob Coy, who has led the church since its founding in 1985, was not in attendance but, according to the Sun Sentinel, pastors read a letter from Coy at the meeting which said he was sorry for his transgressions and that the church will continue to flourish.

The church released a statement Sunday that read in part that Coy’s resignation comes “after confessing to a moral failing in his life which disqualifies him from continuing his leadership role,” according to the paper.

“Most people were shocked,” Wilton Manors resident Robert Milne, a congregant who attended the standing-room-only meeting told the Sentinel.

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FLORIDA
Daily Mail (UK)

By ALEX GREIG
6 April 2014

The pastor of a Florida megachurch with a congregation in excess of 20,000 has resigned over a ‘moral failing.’

Church elders announced to an estimated 7,500 parishioners attending a special Sunday meeting of the Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale that Pastor Bob Coy, 58, had resigned.

In a statement released Sunday, church elders said Coy, of Coral Springs, resigned Thursday as senior pastor of the 20,000-member Calvary Church ‘after confessing to a moral failing in his life which disqualifies him from continuing his leadership role.’

Coy’s Active Word ministry on radio, television and digital media has also been suspended, the church said.

‘Most people were shocked,’ congregant Robert Milne told the Sun-Sentinel. ‘A lot of people were hurt, a lot of people are disappointed.’

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AUSTRALIA
Haaretz

A defamation suit launched by a senior Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi has been settled following a public apology by the founder of a victims’ advocate group.

Rabbi Abraham Glick was questioned by police in December 2013 regarding claims he sexually abused a student in the 1970s when he was deputy principal of Yeshivah College in Melbourne.

Glick vehemently denied the allegations but was suspended from his position pending the inquiry. In February, police closed the case, saying they could not authorize charges due to “insufficient evidence.”

As part of Friday’s settlement, Manny Waks, the chief executive of Tzedek, the advocacy group for Jewish victims, apologized “unreservedly” for posting comments on the Internet.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

A public hearing will commence in Perth on 28 April 2014 into the experiences of a number of men who were resident at Christian Brothers’ residences in Western Australia. The hearing will investigate 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 examine:

* The experiences of residents at Castledare Junior Orphanage, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf, St Mary’s Agricultural School Tardun and Bindoon Farm School in Western Australia.
* The response of the Christian Brothers and relevant WA State authorities to complaints made about members of the Christian Brothers who were engaged in teaching or other activities at these Christian Brothers’ institutions.
* Claims made through Towards Healing, Redress WA, civil action and/or directly to the Christian Brothers for compensation or assistance by residents and their experiences with these processes.
* The evidence and findings of other inquiries relating to the Christian Brothers’ institutions.

The hearing will be held at the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission, 111 St Georges Terrace, Perth.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the Scope and Purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by Monday 14 April 2014.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano Mon., Apr. 7 2014

We’ve never had a chance to truly beat down Lawrence Baird, longtime pedo-priest apologist for the Diocese of Orange, because he was before our time. But his claims to infamy are legion: from calling notorious boy-lover Michael Harris “an icon to the priesthood” to living in a multimillion-dollar Balboa Island home to suing a sex-abuse victim for defamation (and losing. And having to pay her legal bill. And getting caught trying to shut up her free speech), Baird is just an overall asshole–and that’s what makes him so esteemed among Orange County Catholics and fools. I mean, what other reason would a new restaurant ask him to bless their grand opening?

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

One of Australia’s worst child sex predators, pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, is expected to die in prison.

The former Catholic priest will be sentenced on Tuesday for abusing 14 children at parishes in Victoria’s western district, between 1961 and 1980.

He has now admitted his guilt in assaulting 53 children in abuse that spanned three decades.

Ridsdale’s latest charges include grooming a four-year-old victim by calling her ‘God’s little angel’ and telling an altar boy he was doing ‘the Lord’s work’ as he abused him.

One victim told Ridsdale’s Victorian County Court plea hearing in March he had hidden behind the Catholic Church as he abused children.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Salvation Army Major put cigarettes out on boy, 7, and threw him in a pool with bricks tied to his legs

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 07, 2014

A SALVATION Army major put out cigarette butts between the toes of a seven-year-old boy, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told.

It happened at the organisation’s Indooroopilly Boys’ Home in Queensland where Major Victor Bennett also woke the boy up in the middle of the night, stripped him naked, tied bricks to his legs and threw in him the swimming pool.

Major Bennett has since died but it is the latest shocking evidence of violence in Salvation Army homes to be revealed in the royal commission sitting in Sydney.

When the man, who was also raped by Bennett in the home in 1966 as a seven-year-old, finally told the Salvation Army what had happened, his file was marked “not proved” next to the claims of the cigarettes and the swimming pool.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

The Holy Father has approved a proposal on the future of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR), reaffirming the importance of the IOR’s mission for the good of the Catholic Church, the Holy See and the Vatican City State.

The proposal has been jointly developed by representatives of the Pontifical Referring Commission to the IOR (CRIOR), the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic- Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA), the IOR’s Commission of Cardinals and the IOR Board of Superintendence and presented to the Holy Father by the Cardinal-Prefect for the Secretariat for the Economy with the consent of Cardinal Santos Abril Y Castelló, President of the IOR’s Commission of Cardinals. It is drawn from information on the legal status of the IOR and its operations gathered by and presented to the Holy Father and his Council of Cardinals by CRIOR in February 2014.

The IOR will continue to serve with prudence and provide specialized financial services to the Catholic Church worldwide. The valuable services that can be offered by the Institute assist the Holy Father in his mission as universal pastor and also aid those institutions and individuals who collaborate with him in his ministry.

With the confirmation of the IOR’s mission and at the request of Cardinal-Prefect Pell, the President of the Board of Superintendence, Ernst von Freyberg, and the management of the IOR, will finalize their plan to ensure that the IOR can fulfil its mission as part of the new financial structures of the Holy See/Vatican City State. The plan will be presented to the Holy Father’s Council of Cardinals and the Council for the Economy.

The activities of the IOR will continue to fall under the regulatory supervision of AIF (Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria), the competent authority within the Holy See and Vatican City State. In compliance with Motu Proprios of August 8th, 2013 and November 15th, 2013, as well as Law No XVIII on transparency, supervision and financial information which came into force on October 8th, 2013, a comprehensive legal and institutional framework has been introduced to regulate financial activities within the Holy See and Vatican City State. In that respect, the Cardinal-Prefect Pell has confirmed the importance of a sustainable systematic alignment of the legal and regulatory framework of the Holy See/Vatican City State with regulatory international best practice. Strict regulatory supervision and improvements in compliance, transparency and operations initiated in 2012 and substantially accelerated in 2013 are critical for the Institute’s future.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, April 7 – Pope Francis approved the new mission of the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), better known as the Vatican Bank, as it aims to improve transparency, the Vatican said Monday. The pontiff’s green light marks a critical vote of confidence for IOR management in its ongoing, wide-ranging efforts improve transparency and compliance at the bank. The image of the bank has been hit by a series of scandals over the years. The pope’s support reaffirms “the importance of the mission of IOR for the good of the Catholic Church, the Holy See and the Vatican,” said a Vatican statement.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has approved a reform proposal keeping the Vatican bank operative, ending a year of speculation over whether the pontiff would close the institution that has embarrassed the Church for decades.

The bank’s stated purpose is to manage funds for Roman Catholic orders of priests and nuns, charitable institutions and Vatican employees and retirees. But it has been dogged by episodes of malpractice by people authorised to hold accounts there and murky dealings with Italian financial institutions.

“The IOR will continue to serve with prudence and provide specialised financial services to the Catholic Church worldwide,” the Vatican said on Monday in a statement annoucing that Francis had approved recommendations for the future of the bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a former senior Vatican accountant

who had close ties to the IOR, is currently on trial accused of plotting to smuggle millions of dollars into Italy from Switzerland as part of a scheme to help rich friends avoid taxes.

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VATICAN CITY
Star News Online

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has given his backing to the Vatican Bank to keep operating as it strives to improve compliance with international best banking practices.

The bank, which has been caught up in money-laundering probes, is also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).

In a statement Monday, the Vatican said “the valuable services that can be offered by the Institute assist the Holy Father in his mission as universal pastor.”

Referring to reforms sparked by the probes, the Vatican said the bank’s executives and managers will finalize plans to ensure the institute can fulfill its mission “as part of the Holy See’s new financial structures.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Mick Forgey | Apr. 7, 2014

Catholics in Newark, N.J., were outraged to learn that Archbishop John Myers had spent $500,000 for an extension on his retirement home. Catholics in Atlanta questioned the acceptability of Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s building a $2.2 million residence for himself (see story).

For many, these actions raised the questions: What is acceptable compensation for a sitting bishop and for a retired bishop? Who determines what’s acceptable?

NCR’s interviews with bishops and experts who monitor church finances found that no hard and fast rules govern this issue. National guidelines exist, and seem to be widely followed, but specifics on local implementation are hard to come by.

The average bishop’s salary seems to be in line with that of priests within his diocese.

“Most dioceses use the compensation levels for their clergy as the reference point,” said Frank Butler, principal and founder of Drexel Philanthropic Advisors. “So, we do know what that is. Typically, across the country, average priests’ salaries go from anywhere from $15,000 to $18,000, maybe a little bit higher than that.” Butler is also former president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA).

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Jason Stein, Patrick Marley and Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel
April 4, 2014

Madison — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, his chief of staff and a Waukesha County GOP official were all told three years ago of allegations that a then-aide to the senator had been sexually assaulted by state Rep. Bill Kramer, but none of them took the matter to the police or Assembly leaders.

The woman told her supervisor in Johnson’s office and a number of other people, but decided at the time to have her attorney send a letter to Kramer rather than go to the police, records show. Last month — nearly three years after the alleged assault outside a Muskego bar — the woman learned of Kramer’s alleged mistreatment of other women and filed a complaint with Muskego police that has resulted in two felony charges of second-degree sexual assault.

In the meantime, Kramer’s Assembly colleagues elected him last fall to the job of majority leader, the No. 2 position in that house. Before that vote, some Republicans in the Assembly who opposed Kramer’s bid raised concerns about his behavior.

But neither Johnson nor anyone from his office contacted Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), who has led that body since January 2013, or Jeff Fitzgerald, who served as speaker at the time of the alleged 2011 assault.

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WISCONSIN
Blue Cheddar

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has a history of protecting institutions where sex assault is concerned

As of this weekend the public knows that Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson did know – or at least he suspected – that his aide was sexually assaulted by Wisconsin Rep. Bill Kramer. By now the public knows that Johnson held that knowledge for three years without contacting either police or leadership in the Wisconsin Assembly about the matter.

Ron Johnson has told Politico the victim asked him to stay quiet about it. I hope we’ll get to hear what she says about the matter.

Right now she is quiet and anonymous.

Before this situation, there was an episode that informed us Sen. Johnson places the reputation and finances of institutions above the welfare of sexual abuse victims.

In January 2010, Ron Johnson testified in a state senate committee AGAINST a proposed Wisconsin Child Victims Act [text of SB319, Record of SB319 Committee Proceeding].

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NEW YORK
Courthouse News Service

By NICK DIVITO

BROOKLYN (CN) – A man named Lemon Juice wants to force Twitter and Blackberry to reveal a user’s identity after he was falsely accused of posting a picture of a molestation victim testifying against her convicted attacker, who was a high-ranking official in a conservative Orthodox Jewish community.

Juice was charged with contempt in November 2012 after a photo of the teen witness was allegedly taken after the judge had ordered audience members to not take pictures during the criminal case against Nechemya Weberman, a religious leader in the orthodox Jewish community who was later convicted on 59 counts of sex-related crimes.

According to his complaint in Kings County Supreme Court, Juice, Yoana Weissman and Joseph Fried were arrested and jointly hit with misdemeanor charges alleging that an informant saw Weissman with a camera and Fried was spotted nudging him when the informant approached.

“To stress, Mr. Juice was charged for allegedly posting a photograph on his Twitter account,” the lawsuit states.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, April 6, 2014

A Brooklyn man named Lemon Juice is putting the squeeze on Twitter and Blackberry.

The 32-year-old with the odd appellation is seeking a court order compelling the social media network and the smartphone maker to disclose the identity of the person who operated a Twitter account in his name in 2012.

That’s when Lemon Juice was arrested and charged with contempt for tweeting a photo of a sex-abuse victim testifying in court during a high-profile trial.

Prosecutors dropped the case against Juice last month after evidence emerged that someone else was operating the account. Juice suspects a man named Moses Klein of the frame-up.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Josh Saul and Selim Algar
April 7, 2014

Lemon Juice is putting the squeeze on Twitter and BlackBerry.

The oddly named man is trying to force both companies to reveal the identity of a user who posted a teen molestation victim’s photo under his name and caused his arrest, court papers show.

Juice was busted after the photo was posted amid the 2012 sex-abuse trial of the young woman’s abuser, Rabbi Nechemya Weberman.

Juice was charged with contempt of court because the presiding judge had prohibited taking any pictures of the woman during the trial. The photo was taken with a BlackBerry.

He was eventually cleared of all charges after 14 court appearances.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

Abuse victim sues Church for £300,000, arguing archbishops ‘vicariously liable’ for priest

07 April 2014 11:30 by Christopher Lamb

A former altar boy who was sexually abused by a priest in the Archdiocese of Birmingham has launched a £300,000 compensation claim.

Eamonn Flanagan, 51, has started a legal action against the “personal representatives” of the late Archbishops George Dwyer and Maurice Couve de Murville. The claim has been put in the care of the current Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley.

Mr Flanagan was abused by Fr Samuel Penney between 1975 and 1986 and argues that the deceased archbishops are “vicariously liable” for the priest’s actions. Back in 2012 the Diocese of Portsmouth unsuccessfully argued in the High Court that a diocese should not automatically be held liable for an abusive priest. This ruling has opened the Church up to claims for damages.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Child abuse victim raped, burned, held underwater by Salvation Army major Victor Bennett

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 07, 2014

A SALVATION Army officer put out cigarettes on the body of a seven-year-old boy, who was also thrown into a swimming pool with bricks tied to his feet, the royal commission has heard.

The boy, who cannot be named, was repeatedly raped by the officer, Major Victor Bennett, at a Salvation Army-run home in Queensland but was later offered only $10,000 in compensation by the church.

In a formal statement sent to the Salvation Army in 2007 and subsequently tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the victim said “Major Bennett put out cigarette butts on me and even between my toes.

“I was stripped naked and bricks were tied to my feet then I was thrown in the pool by Major Bennett. I managed to get my feet loose but when I tried to get out, he pushed me back in,” the statement said.

A separate internal report, drawn up by another Salvation Army officer who interviewed the victim, said he “has terrible memories of his experiences, waking at night screaming at his wife.”

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

04 April 2014 15:50 by Christopher Lamb

A top Vatican investigator has been appointed to examine claims of sexual misconduct in the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, where Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned amid scandal last year.

Bishop Charles Scicluna, who has a reputation for forensic investigations into sexual abuse, has been asked to listen to and report the testimony of past and present clergy in the archdiocese.

Cardinal O’Brien resigned last February after being accused of sexual misconduct by five men, four of them priests.

He later admitted that his sexual conduct had fallen short of that expected of priest, archbishop and cardinal.

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GEORGIA
El Paso Inc.

Posted: Sunday, April 6, 2014

By Michael Paulson New York Times

The archbishop of Atlanta had a plan to resolve the space crunch at his cathedral: He would move out of his residence so priests could move in, and then he would build himself a new house with donated money and land.

It wasn’t just any house. It was a $2.2 million, 6,000-square-foot mansion, with plenty of room to host and entertain, on land bequeathed by Joseph Mitchell, a wealthy nephew of the author of “Gone With the Wind,” Margaret Mitchell.

But as Pope Francis seeks “a church which is poor and for the poor,” expectations for Catholic leaders are changing rapidly.

So last Monday night, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory apologized, saying that lay people had told him they were unhappy with his new house and promising to seek guidance from priests and lay people and to follow their advice about whether to sell it.

“What we didn’t stop to consider, and that oversight rests with me and me alone, was that the world and the church have changed,” he wrote in the archdiocesan newspaper, The Georgia Bulletin.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Old Gold and Black

Posted by Austin Cook on Apr 6, 2014

With revelations of sexual abuse and subsequent cover-ups still surfacing and a crisis of faith spreading throughout the world, the Catholic Church faces many challenges in the years to come that are already shaking the institution to its core.

Despite signs of reform under the new leadership of Pope Francis, the Church is at a true crossroads, and few people are as insightful into this topic that journalist Jason Berry, who spoke to an audience on campus April 2 in Farrell Hall.

“This is one of the great stories of our times,” Berry said, referencing the stark challenges that the Pope faces both within the Vatican and throughout the world. “The guy parachuted into a vipers nest.”

Berry, originally a journalist from New Orleans, has pioneered investigative reporting into the sex abuse scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church for decades. Hailing from a culturally diverse and fascinating part of the country, Barry began his career covering New Orleans’s deep Cajun roots—but it took an unexpected turn when he started looking into allegations of sexual abuse by a local priest.

When he published a series of stories exposing the abuse in local papers, Berry faced a backlash from the local Catholic community of which he himself was a member. But despite the criticism he faced, Berry continued his reporting. “You can attack the messenger all you want,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Betty Clermont

Opus Dei, an official institution of the Catholic Church, at the top is a secret society of international bankers, financiers, businessmen and their supporters. Their goal is the same as other plutocrats – unbridled power – except they use the influence of the Catholic Church and its worldwide network of institutions exempt from both taxes and financial reporting to advance rightwing parties and governments.

A year after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s elevation as head of the Church and his many appointments, the dust has settled. Three cardinals have emerged as the most powerful in this papacy; all have close ties to Opus Dei. Two now control all Vatican finance.

Still the most exhaustively researched book written about “The Work” as it is referred to by its members, Their Kingdom Come (1997, 2006) by Robert Hutchison, a Canadian financial journalist, traces the growth of Opus Dei financial power “by all available means” – deception, dirty tricks, even “physical muscle” like poisonings which mimic heart attacks. “What gives Opus Dei its importance is the influence it wields and also that it deploys its immense financial resources…Opus Dei knows very well that money rules the world,” Javier Sainz Moreno, professor of Law at Madrid University, told Hutchison. One of their goals was to control the Vatican’s wealth, now closer than ever to being realized.

Like many religious cults, the members at the bottom are sincere believers that Opus Dei the path to personal holiness. Many are “numeraries,” men and women vowed to celibacy who live in communal residences and hand over their earnings to the organization. This creates workers totally dedicated to their assigned tasks, assures a steady stream of revenue and makes it difficult for members to leave. “Supernumeraries” are married and live independently but are still required to make large contributions and send their children to Opus Dei schools if available. At all levels, the names of the lay members are secret unless self-disclosed. Opus Dei also has an order of publicly identified priests and prelates.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

In the UK, there is a currently a vigorous and growing protest movement against the Workfare program. It’s been led by the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty. The name of the campaign is Boycott Workfare (www.boycottworkfare.org). Australians would use the phrase “Work for the Dole” to describe Workfare. Many would use the expression “slave labour.”

Boycott Workfare describes its mission as follows:

“Boycott Workfare is a UK-wide campaign to end forced unpaid work for people who receive welfare. Workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst threatening the poor by taking away welfare rights if people refuse to work without a living wage. We are a grassroots campaign, formed in 2010 by people with experience of workfare and those concerned about its impact. We expose and take action against companies and organisations profiting from workfare; encourage organisations to pledge to boycott it; and actively inform people of their rights.”

Boycott Workfare names some of the failings of the Workfare program as including that it replaces jobs and undermines wages, which gives the campaign great relevance not just to those who are caught up in the scheme, but all people in the UK. Other problems include that the program does not include only those people classed as unemployed, but sick and disabled people too. …

In the UK, the Salvation Army is a leading participant in and beneficiary of Workfare (the YMCA is also heavily involved – see previous postings about the YMCA and the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse). This involvement by the Salvation Army is not particularly surprising, even if disappointing. The organisation has a long history of exploiting unpaid labour, including child labour. The latter was common practice in the children’s homes it ran in Australia, where children in Salvation Army children’s homes report being sent out to work to private individuals and some businesses as unpaid (well, it was the children who were unpaid, anyway) domestics and farm workers, amongst other things. Molestation by people who received child workers into their homes and properties was not uncommon. The author does not know whether money changed hands when adults were allowed to enter some children’s homes and rape children in Salvation Army children’s homes. Media reports, however, have used the phrase “rented out” to describe the practice occurring in the Salvation Army Bexley Boys’ Home in Sydney.

Should Work for the Dole come back, the first question that must be asked is whether the Salvation Army will jump at the chance to increase its vast riches with a new army of unpaid workers who must do exactly what the Salvation Army tells them to do or lose their benefits? Or whether it will do the right thing and refuse to participate in the scheme, as other Australian organisations with greater social consciences will do. This is a pressing moral issue for the Salvation Army. It will have an opportunity to resist the temptation to get in on the action and make some more profits from disadvantaged people in our society and demonstrate to Australian society that it puts people and principles above profits. It deserves to be judged harshly if it does not.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Neil P. McLaughlin was ordained a Jesuit of the Maryland Province in 1959. He spent the bulk of his ministry in the Scranton, PA diocese, as a Scranton Preparatory School science teacher and later as a campus minister and alumni club administrator at the University of Scranton. He was sent to a Highland Park, NJ parish for a year or so in 1964, then returned to Scranton. From the mid-1960s to the early 1980s McLaughlin spent summers as a Georgetown University Hospital chaplain. He also helped out at Scranton area parishes throughout the years. In 2006 McLaughlin was removed from ministry by the Jesuits after a review of his personnel file revealed an allegation of child sexual abuse from “much earlier.” In 2008 a woman reported to the province what they deemed a credible allegation that McLaughlin sexually abused her in 1963 in Scranton, when she was a young girl. The allegations weren’t made public until 2010, after McLaughlin told his order that “there may be other victims” in Scranton. McLaughlin was known in 2010 to be living in a Jesuit Community in Baltimore.

Ordained: 1959

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

It’s not Roman Catholic Church anymore. Pope Francis Bishop of Rome “is not a public official” with duties of “public service”: says Italian church norms

Paris Arrow

Updated April 5, 2014

One of the reasons why the Catholic Church must be called Vatican Catholic Church is that Catholics owe their allegiance to the Pope and to the Vatican “country”. Catholics have no loyalty to Rome or Italy whatsoever. Catholics are not Romans. Catholics are Vaticanites (rhymes like Canaanites)

The old tradition of saying Roman Catholic Church is obsolete, false, and not based on truth of today. To keep saying Roman Catholic Church is to steal the identity of the people of Rome.

We have been saying that Rome is a secular city where the pope has no power whatsoever. And today, the Italian bishops conference who published the new first Italian church norms – confirmed our reasons. It says that bishops “are exonerated” from releasing to the state documents in their possession about sexual abuse because a bishop is not a public official and is not charged with duties of “public service, he does not have the juridical obligation — save for a moral duty to contribute to the common good — to report to civil judicial authorities news he has received concerning illicit matters” of sex abuse. (That phrase of “save for a moral duty to contribute to the common good” is applicable to all persons be they citizens of Rome or not).

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NORTH CAROLINA
The Pendulum

by Stephanie Lamm on April 6, 2014

On April 4, Elon’s Society of Professional Journalists, the School of Communications, and the Truitt Center hosted Nicole Winfield, Vatican correspondent for the Associated Press. Winfield discussed the balance between critical and delicate coverage when reporting on religious figures as well as the stories she covered in her years at the Vatican.

The night opened with a somber reminder of the sacrifices journalists make to preserve freedom of the press. Two of Winfield’s AP colleagues, Anja Niedringhaus and Kathy Gannon, were killed last week while covering the conflict in Afghanistan.

“I have a pretty low risk assignment, but there is another side of reporting. Religious reporting can be particularly dangerous,” said Winfield. “Religion matters to people; they take it very seriously.” …

“Don’t let Francis’ positive appeal mislead you; he’s a conservative Catholic,” said Winfield. “He doesn’t care for a lot of ‘small minded rules,’ but there are some rules that form the core of church doctrine. Those won’t change. He is still against abortion and gay marriage.”

Several students who attended the lecture remarked that they did not know Francis’ comment had been misconstrued.

“I was surprised to hear her say Pope Francis is a conservative pope,” said sophomore Shelby Lewis. “You always hear the media frame him as a champion of social justice. It’s interesting to hear that many of his quotes have been taken out of context.” …

Winfield called her reporting style “informed, critical coverage.” Having reported on the sex abuse scandal, tense interfaith relations and Pope Benedict XVI’s controversial stance on condom use, Winfield said covering the Vatican is not a always a comfortable job.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

April 7, 2014

Jane Lee
Legal Affairs Reporter for The Age

Barry Wilson does not have long to tell his story.

Six weeks ago, he was told he was dying of liver cancer. In five days, he shed about 16 kilograms.

Barry, who is 59, is not expected to live beyond next week, let alone long enough to see the end of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

So on Tuesday, the royal commission will send representatives to his hospital bed in the northern Victorian town Kerang to hear him testify about the sexual abuse he suffered.

Barry says the pain comes and goes. His brother Peter, who is a year older than Barry, asks him if he wants him to leave the room. Barry says he can stay.

Slowly, Barry begins revealing as many details as he can. When he was about eight or nine, he was abused while in the care of the Christian Brothers at St Augustine’s Orphanage in Highton, Geelong.

Barry and Peter were both sexually abused by the same people when they were children. But they chose never to speak about it to each other. They probably never will.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MARK SCHLIEBS THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 07, 2014

THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide warned that a government inquiry into the abuse of ­intellectually disabled children at an archdiocese school could jeopardise police attempts to convict a pedophile, a letter tendered to a royal commission has revealed.

Three months before the sexual abuse of several children between 1986 and 1991 at the St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide was revealed publicly, Archbishop Philip Wilson wrote to South Australia’s then education minister in 2001 about private calls for an inquiry.

Archbishop Wilson said that the church was prepared to “co-operate fully” if an inquiry was held but added that other parties would be concerned, according to the letter dated December 17, 2001.

“Our advice from the Police Department (sic), however, is to avoid taking any action that might jeopardise or inadvertently undermine their attempts to investigate (pedophile Brian) Perkins and have this matter ­resolved in the judicial system,” Archbishop Wilson said in the letter.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

APRIL 6, 2014

BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

One of loneliest places in church these days is the confession line. The act of confessing one’s sins, a requirement for Catholics, has sharply fallen over several decades with evolving views on sin, penance and the stature of the priesthood.

But now Pope Francis and church leaders, in a push to draw people back to confession, are highlighting what clergy say are the healing, uplifting aspects of the sacrament and focusing less on themes like punishment and condemnation.

A penance service in Dumont. Many Catholics remember when making confession meant waiting in long lines.

The Paterson Diocese and Newark Archdiocese are using websites, newspaper ads and highway billboards to get the message out. Under diocesan guidance, local churches have also added one extra day a week to hear confession during Lent, the period before Easter when penance is considered a Catholic duty. And the pope, in an image seen and talked about around the world, confessed to a priest last week in public view.

But will these efforts change attitudes among Catholics, many of whom believe confession no longer is a necessary part of the faith?

“It’s not something I look at as something I need to do to be a good Catholic, but I always know it’s there if I feel a need to go,” said Keith Ahearn, a churchgoer who lives in Oakland. …

The sex-abuse scandals that erupted in the church during the 1980s and ’90s made it less appealing to confess sins to priests, whose own sins and flaws were being exposed, especially amid reports that confession was used in some cases to groom victims.

“I think that does play into it. It’s what broke the image that priests are infallible,” Ahearn said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of Salvation Army officers says an apology from the organisation means nothing to him, while another witness has urged Australians to think twice about donating to the charity.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday heard from two men who survived abuse at different Salvation Army schools.

One man, FE, was raped repeatedly by guards at the Gill Memorial School in Goulburn in the early 1970s.

He said he was offered a $60,000 ex gratia payment by the Salvos in 2006, but was not told how that amount was calculated.

‘The way I saw it, it was hush money,’ FE said.

‘It’s an insult to be quite honest. It means nothing unless it’s sincere.’

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GEORGIA
AL.com

By Cassie Fambro | cfambro@al.com
on April 06, 2014

ATLANTA, Georgia– Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory decided to sell his new $2.2 million mansion after the people in the pews voiced concerns over its excess, according to the LA Times.

Pope Francis has recently called for frugality, and followers of the Catholic faith believed that such a mansion wasn’t in line with that standard.

Gregory moved into the mansion earlier this year. The 6,000 square foot home was built at the site of a house donated to the archdiocese.

The house was paid for by a donation as well, according to the Associated Press.

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FLORIDA
10 News

Brandon, Florida- The church congregation arrived en mass. The assistant pastor identified herself, and we asked for comment.

“Not at this time,” she said.

As they walked in, none of the members said a word about Francisco Rios, pastor of Case de Amor, a name which means House of Love in Spanish.

It’s an ironic name, considering the charges Rios is facing and was arrested for Friday. Police say since 2011, Rios repeatedly touched a 17-year-old girl inappropriately, and told her it was because he loved her as a pastor.

He’s also accused of touching a 12-year-old-girl, and then an adult female, telling her it was to cure a medical condition.

The response to that allegation was swift.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

Abuse claims at four WA Christian Brothers’ school to be investigated by Royal Commission

EMILY MOULTON LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER PERTHNOW APRIL 06, 2014

CLAIMS of widespread child sex abuse at four Christian Brothers-run WA boarding schools will be investigated as part of a nationwide inquiry.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold its first WA public hearing at the end of this month.

It will hear from dozens of former boarders who spent time as young boys at Castledare Junior Orphanage in Wilson, St Vincent’s Orphanage in Clontarf, St Mary’s Agricultural School in Tardun, and Bindoon Farm School.

The inquiry will be one of the biggest investigations into claims of child sex abuse ever held in WA, with not only the Catholic Church under the spotlight but also successive WA governments.

It is understood the victims claim they were tortured, raped and degraded by Catholic priests while they were living at the residences run by the Christian Brothers.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

JIM CUSACK – PUBLISHED 06 APRIL 2014

MURDERED Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin was told her phone conversations with a garda about paedophile priest Sean Fortune were bugged by the same recording system which is only now coming under scrutiny.

She also believed that gardai were tipping off members of the hierarchy about her efforts to expose the cover-up of Fortune’s rape and abuse of teenage boys.

The concerns that Veronica had stemmed from an apparent tip-off she received from a senior garda source in Dublin who told her that her conversations with a garda source in Wexford had been recorded. One of her sources for the story about the priest was local activist Billy Moroney, a former Labour Party member who, along with Fethard-on-Sea farmer Sean Cloney has since died, had built up files on Sean Fortune and other clerical abusers in the south east.

The whole abuse scandal stemmed from the work these men started and the publicity generated by Veronica and other journalists.

Mr Moroney said that as part of her investigations, Veronica had been in touch with a garda who was also concerned about Fortune, who was effectively being shielded by the church.

He told the Sunday Independent: “She (Veronica) rang me early on a Sunday morning, around 7.30pm, and told me to contact (the garda) and tell him their conversations had been bugged. She had been at a social function in Dublin on the Saturday night and some senior garda had told her about it. She was catching a flight to Manchester for a match in Old Trafford on the Sunday morning. She was adamant that I talk to (the garda) face to face.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 6 April 2014)

In a written statement issued on 4 April 2014, the Catholic Church archdiocese of Melbourne says it will “revisit” its system of compensating church-abuse victims in the Melbourne-Geelong area, with a view to either increasing or removing the current maximum of $75,000 per victim. At present, most Melbourne victims are lucky to receive half that amount, or less, even if the church-abuse has devastated a family’s life.

The statement, issued on behalf of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, promised that the archdiocese would seek input from victims “into how compensation should be awarded in the future and how past cases should be reviewed”.

Limitations

The following analysis from Broken Rites demonstrates that Archbishop Hart’s promise has some limitations:

* Australia is divided into 30 or so Catholic diocese (seven of these dioceses have the prefix “arch-“). The Melbourne archdiocese has a compensation system called the “Melbourne Response”, which operates only in the Melbourne region. Apart from Melbourne, all of Australia’s other dioceses a have a different compensation system, called “Towards Healing”.

* Geographically, the Melbourne archdiocese is confined to the Melbourne metropolitan area (plus the city of Geelong and a few small towns near Melbourne). This archdiocese does not cover the remainder of the state of Victoria. Victoria’s country areas are covered by three other dioceses – one for western Victoria (which has a cathedral at Ballarat), one for northern Victoria (with a cathedral at Bendigo) and one for eastern Victoria (with a cathedral at Sale).

* The Melbourne Response does not cover all priests in Melbourne — but only those priests who officially belong to this archdiocese. The Melbourne Response does not cover the many priests in Melbourne who belong to religious orders (such as Jesuits, Franciscans, Salesians and so on), as each of these religious orders has its own national leader (who is not a bishop). For example, priests in Melbourne from the Salesian religious order would be covered by Towards Healing, not by the Melbourne Response.

* And the Melbourne Response does not cover religious Brothers (such as the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers or the De La Salle Brothers), or nuns (such as the Sisters of Mercy, etc), as each of these orders has its own Australian national leader.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Observer

Chris McGreal
The Observer, Saturday 5 April 2014

A former Anglican archbishop of Rwanda has challenged a claim by the Church of England that he endorsed the appointment of a priest in Worcestershire who is under investigation over accusations that he was complicit in the 1994 genocide.

As Rwanda prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the start of the genocide tomorrow, the church said that Bishop Jonathan Ruhumuliza has been suspended while it looks into “disturbing” accusations, brought to its attention by the Observer in February, that he was a propagandist for the regime responsible for the murder of 800,000 Tutsis and was implicated in killings.

The Church of England has defended Ruhumuliza’s appointment as a priest at St Mary and All Saints church in Hampton Lovett, Worcestershire, in 2005 by saying that it conducted “extensive checks” into his background and found no evidence of involvement in the genocide. It said the bishop was “commended” to it by the then archbishop of Rwanda, Emmanuel Kolini.

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GEORGIA
Neighbor Newspapers

by Staff Reports

April 05, 2014

After being criticized for living in a $2.2 million home in Buckhead, Atlanta Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory announced Saturday he will vacate his residence in early May and move into another available Archdiocesan property.

Gregory was criticized for living lavishly despite Pope Francis’ call to live more frugally. The archdiocese recently received $15 million from the estate of Joseph Mitchell, nephew of “Gone with the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell, and chose to spend some of it for Gregory’s home.

“After consultation with the members who were available to attend from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, Archdiocesan Finance Council, and the Council of Priests and hundreds of well-meaning parishioners of differing points of view some who sent written observations, as well as my own personal reflection and prayer, I have decided to sell the Habersham [Road] property and invest the proceeds from that sale into the needs of the Catholic community,” Gregory said in a statement. “In early May, I will vacate the house. At this time we are considering a number of locations including another Archdiocesan property excluding the former residence.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ

New Vatican PR stunt of the day! by Opus Dei PR Deceits Team: “Pope Francis imposes austerity and Vatican officials complain of SOCIALISM”. Vatican claptrap!

Paris Arrow

Updated April 5, 2014

The Vatican has been deceiving mankind for 2,000 years and it is time for it to stop. And it must be stopped – now.

The Vatican City, the 0.2 square miles, is the apex of the 1% of the world’s wealthiest people. To comprehend the Vatican’s “Two thousand years of accumulated wealth from Cesar to the Space Age”, read the book Vatican Billions with highlights here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html Everyone who has read this book say that they will never believe again what Pope Francis say is the total assets of the Vatican Bank or Vatican finances, or what cardinals and bishops say is the wealth of their dioceses. Pope Francis and his cardinals and bishops are all masters of deceits and secrets especially when it comes to money. They have lots of practise because they can keep secret all the sins and crimes they hear in the Sacrament of Confession where they are cold-blooded and callous as they set criminals scot-free even while their victims suffer – many for a lifetime. Popes, cardinals, bishops and priests have no qualms about the consequences of those criminals who sins/crimes they have forgiven i.e. rape and forced pregnancy of victims, theft and loss of millions of dollars of victims, pedophilia and a lifetime of “living Hell” torture of victims.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

[with video]

DENVER (CBS4)- Construction is underway on a multi-million dollar meeting facility that will include living quarters for Denver Arch Bishop Samul Aquila. Some are asking questions about how that money is being spent.

Pope Francis wants the Catholic church “Of the poor, for the poor” and big spending in other locations has caused some concern among the church.

The Pope has chosen to live the life of the messages he preaches, living in a modest guest house. He fired an Archbishop in Germany over living in a multi-million dollar home.

In Atlanta the Archbishop there apologized after moving into a $2.2 million home. He said he is putting that property up for sale.

University of Denver Religious Studies professor Carl Raschke said the Pope’s message is clear, “If you really want to get in tune with what Jesus was preaching, humble yourself. Don’t become this ‘bling-bling’ notion.”

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