IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Wed, Mar 12, 2014

Those who insist that history is about movements not individuals might reflect on the achievements of Christine Buckley.

Her story is history as driven by one person. She was an original, a pioneer in exposing how badly this State “cherished” many of its children, whatever their age, throughout most of the 20th century, up to 1996 when the last Magdalene laundry closed. If a high point of much of her work was then taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s 1999 apology on behalf of the State to all who had been in residential institutions as children, as well as his announcement then of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Ryan Commission) and the setting up of the Residential Institutions Redress Board, it was not all.

It is no exaggeration to claim that such huge shift in the cultural axis of Ireland, made possible by Christine Buckley, paved the way for the Murphy Commission which investigated the handling of clerical sexual abuse allegations in Dublin and Cloyne dioceses, as well as the McAleese committee which investigated the Magdalene laundries. All were of piece

She was not alone in bringing these about but she was among the very first, the most consistent and most persistent in her determination that such truths should out so that survivors be helped. She ploughed through denial, denunciation and obfuscation to expose the rotten story of what went on in this State’s residential institutions for children.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

The Associated Press

The head of Maine’s Roman Catholics is holding a day of prayer and penance for victims of sexual abuse in the church.

Diocese of Portland Bishop Robert Deeley is having Mass on Wednesday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland and encouraging clergy members to join in asking for forgiveness.

Deeley says by repenting, he hopes the church can be involved in healing the wounds caused by past scandals and prevent future abuse.

The annual Mass was first held in 2002.

The bishop continues to emphasize the church’s policy of encouraging past victims of sexual abuse to contact the diocese’s Office of Professional Responsibility or police.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

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

YAKIMA, Wash. — Testimony is expected to resume in U.S. District Court this morning by a man who says he was raped in 1999 by a deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima.

In testimony that began Monday, the man, identified in court as John Doe, said he was 17 years old when Deacon Aaron Ramirez invited him to a Zillah church building to learn how to play the guitar and talk about the Bible, but instead got him drunk and then repeatedly had sex with him.

“He just kept doing it,” a tearful Doe told the court. “It seemed like it was going on for days.”

Doe is suing the diocese for $3.1 million, arguing that the diocese failed to properly check Ramirez’s background before accepting him as a candidate for the priesthood and didn’t properly supervise him.

The diocese says it had no prior warnings that Ramirez had problems with young boys, and that Doe’s accounts of the incident were inconsistent.

Tuesday marked the second day in a nonjury trial before federal Judge Edward Shea that is expected to last into next week.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 12, 2014

CATHOLIC Church officials decided it was not possible to establish whether an allegation of child abuse by a priest was true or false because they were unable to ask the priest himself if the alleged abuse took place.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Cardinal George Pell was repeatedly briefed on the process of dealing with the claim, brought by former altar boy John Ellis.

Mr Ellis contacted the church in May 2002 to say he had been sexually abused by a Sydney priest over several years during the 1970s. By the time of the complaint, the priest in question, Aidan Duggan, had dementia and was never questioned over the allegations.

In December 2002 the church’s Director of Professional Standards, John Davoren, wrote to the then-Archbishop of Sydney, saying, “It is now clear the facts of this case can never be satisfactorily clarified.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 12, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

Cardinal George Pell had an “unusual” and close early involvement in handling the complaint by a former altar boy which eventually led to a court decision insulating the Catholic church in Australia against liability in cases of sexual abuse by priests, the child sex abuse Royal Commission has heard.

John Ellis was 13 years old in 1974 when Father Aidan Duggan of Bass Hill parish seduced him into a sexual relationship which continued for 13 years. By the time Mr Ellis recognised the relationship was abusive it was the mid 1990s and he was a husband and father.

As Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell was informed of Ellis’s complaint within a month of it being made in 2002. Documents tendered to the Commission reveal that from then on the Cardinal actively participated in a bumbling and insensitive process which defied the church’s own “Towards Healing” protocol. The result was an “absence of justice” for Mr Ellis according to an internal Archdiocesan review.

Cardinal Pell was then and still is a member of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference which set up the Towards Healing protocol with the warning that “if we do not follow the process and procedures of this document we will have failed our own criteria.”

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PUERTO RICO
Leader-Herald

March 12, 2014
Associated Press

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico (AP) — First, the Catholic Church announced it had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse in the Puerto Rican town of Arecibo. Then, local prosecutors disclosed that at least 11 other priests on the island were under investigation for similar accusations.

Now, as U.S. authorities acknowledge that they, too, are looking into abuse allegations by priests on this devoutly Catholic island, many are reeling from revelations of abuse involving some of the U.S. territory’s most beloved clerics.

Puerto Ricans had largely been spared the lurid accounts of sex abuse involving the Catholic Church, and many had come to believe they were immune. But Barbara Dorris, a director with the U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the new reports mean it’s likely the problem is much worse than previously imagined.

“In general, these things tend to snowball because victims are afraid to come forward,” Dorris said. “If the priests have been on this island for a while, it probably means that it’s dozens upon dozens of victims out there.”

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GlobalPost

Jean MacKenzie
March 12, 2014

It’s official: Pope Francis is a rock star.

Rounding off a remarkable first year this month atop the Catholic Church, the man once called Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has gone from a relatively obscure Argentine cleric to one of the most recognizable brands on the planet.

In addition to taking his place in the Rolling Stone magazine’s pantheon of pop-culture icons he was named Time’s Person of the Year and now features prominently in Rome’s graffiti as Super Pope, the White-Caped Crusader.

“He brings a spirit of hope,” says Sister Simone Campbell, head of Network, a US Catholic social justice lobbying group. “Hope and change.” …

But that may not be enough to calm the critics.

A recent report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child took the Vatican to task for its slow and flawed response to the Church’s sex-abuse scandal. Priests have molested thousands of children over decades, their actions covered up by the clergy hierarchy.

“The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” reads the report.

In other words, the UN sees little change from the early days of the sex abuse scandal, which was exposed by The Boston Globe in 2002.

As the Globe put it: “For decades church leaders kept horrific tales of abuse out of the public eye through an elaborate culture of secrecy, deception, and intimidation. Victims who came forward with abuse claims were ignored or paid off, while accused priests were quietly transferred from parish to parish or sent for brief periods of psychological counseling.”

Despite Francis’ more open attitudes, very little progress has been made in the area of predatory priests, insists Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors’ Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“The Church only ever did the right thing when it was forced to by external circumstances,” she said in a phone interview. “They cared much more for the reputation of predators than for the welfare of children.”

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MINNESOTA
Faribault County Register

March 11, 2014
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Archbishop John Nienstedt will not face criminal charges in connection with an allegation that he inappropriately touched a boy during a public photo shoot in 2009, authorities announced Tuesday.

Nienstedt, who had strongly denied the allegation but stepped down from public ministry while police investigated, said Tuesday he will now resume all of his public duties.

“I look forward to returning to public ministry during this Lenten season, especially during Holy Week and the great feast of Easter,” Nienstedt said in a statement. “I continue to offer my prayers for all … who have been harmed by clergy sexual abuse. I once again offer my apology to all who have been affected by these terrible offenses.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said Tuesday’s announcement resolves this specific case against Nienstedt, but other investigations into allegations of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are ongoing.

Police say there are currently eight other open investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

EDITORIAL: Cardinal George Pell’s change of heart proves Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission’s worth

THE abuse case brought against the Catholic Church by former altar boy John Ellis was by any measure a travesty of justice.

Mr Ellis was abused as an altar boy by a Benedictine monk, priest Aidan Duggan, on leave from Scotland, in the late 1970s. Mr Ellis was aged between 13 and 17 when the abuse took place.

Mr Ellis asked for compensation from the church as part of its Towards Healing process but the Sydney Archdiocese’s lawyers fought against a cash settlement, arguing the Catholic Church was not a legal entity which could be sued and the church’s priests and officials bore no responsibility for the actions of their brethren.

Mr Ellis’s bid for an acknowledgment of culpability from the church and compensation was dashed in 2007 when the New South Wales Court of Appeal agreed with the Catholic legal team – setting a precedent which continues to be used today. Cardinal George Pell, then archbishop of Sydney, agreed to this defence being run but later disowned it, claiming he was unaware of all aspects of the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An offer of $25,000 to a victim of long-term sex abuse was not enough, the man who heads the Catholic Church’s response office says.

Michael Salmon, the director of the Catholic Church’s Professional Standards Office (PSO) for NSW and the ACT, has told a royal commission that he always thought the Archdiocese of Sydney’s offer to John Ellis was not enough.

Mr Salmon organised the Towards Healing facilitation for Mr Ellis who was abused by Father Aidan Duggan when he was a teenaged altar boy in Bass Hill, from 1974 to 1979.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse is examining the church’s actions during Towards Healing and a court case brought by Mr Ellis.

Mr Salmon said several times on Wednesday he had ‘a firm belief’ Mr Ellis was telling the truth about abuse by Fr Duggan.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Jack Quann
Tuesday 11 March 2014

Tributes are being paid to campaigner Christine Buckley who has died at the age of 67. She passed away in a Dublin hospital early this morning.

She had been battling cancer for a number of years.

Buckley was a former resident of the Goldenbridge Institution. She was conferred with a Doctor in Laws (LL.D) from Trinity College last December.

As one of the first people to go public about her experience of abuse, she campaigned tirelessly for more than 25 years on behalf of other survivors of institutional abuse.

She was a co-founder and director of the Aislinn Centre in Dublin, which provides educational and support services for survivors.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Alison Healy

Politicians and supporters of abuse survivors have been paying tribute to campaigner Christine Buckley following her death this morning.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said Christine Buckley was a courageous and consistent campaigner for child protection and children’s rights. “As a survivor of institutional abuse, Christine led the charge to lift the veil on Ireland’s dark past and shameful legacy of child abuse,” she said.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said Ms Buckley would have a lasting place in Irish history as someone whose bravery and commitment to justice led to significant and permanent change.

“As Minister for Education, I had the privilege of working closely with Christine and other survivors from Goldenbridge,” he said. “They made a personal impact on me that remains with me to this day. Her unwavering courage and her singular determination to uncover institutional abuse was a catalyst in my decision to establish the Laffoy — Ryan Commission.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Christine Buckley’s husband: ‘She was a warrior against injustice and for people’s rights and dignity’

UPDATED 11 MARCH 2014

Christine Buckley, the courageous campaigner for victims of institutional abuse, has passed away after a long illness.

This morning, her husband said his beloved wife’s proudest achievement was her work with the Aislinn Centre.

Christine campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 25 years.

Donal Buckley told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny that Mrs Buckley helped many people to gain a basic – or in some cases third level – education through the centre, which she co-founded.

“From the people that attended the Aislinn Centre, she could see how so many of them were able to turn their lives around,” Mr Buckley told Pat Kenny.

“Some of them were so grateful for the support she had given them in getting proper homes, for some cases, going onto university education in a couple of cases, and basic literary skills in other cases because people weren’t able to read and write.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

FRANK SHOULDICE – PUBLISHED IN THE IRISH INDEPENDENT ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1996 – PUBLISHED 11 MARCH 2014

Amid general shock and outrage over China’s so-called ‘Dying Rooms’, the focus of shame draws uncomfortably closer to home tomorrow evening when RTE broadcasts ‘Dear Daughter,’ a harrowing documentary about Christine Buckley, for 13 years a ward of the Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin.

Louis Lentin’s one-hour programme retraces Christine Buckley’s difficult life. Abandoned after just three weeks, she passed from one orphanage to another for four years before entering Goldenbridge.

Her account of systematic humiliation and abuse, of deprivation, beatings and scaldings, suggests that for over a decade this Sisters of Mercy house ran on a form of discipline closer to sadism than charity.

“We got to the stage that it was so horrific we couldn’t believe it was happening,” she says. “It was the only way we could survive.”

Like over 100 other children who went into care there, her own name became taboo on admission. All individuality — including personal clothes and effects — was plucked away.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

BRIAN HUTTON – PUBLISHED 11 MARCH 2014

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has led a chorus of tributes to institutional abuse campaigner Christine Buckley, who has died aged 67.

Ms Buckley, who co-founded the Aislinn Centre for abuse survivors, died at St Vincent’s Hospital following a long battle with cancer.

She was a woman of courage and dignity who had helped to make Ireland a better place, said Mr Gilmore.

“Christine suffered greatly as a child growing up in the industrial school system in the Ireland of the 1950s,” he said.

“But as an adult she played a pivotal role in shining a light on the abuse suffered by children in the industrial schools and in campaigning on behalf of the many survivors of institutional abuse.”

Ms Buckley featured in the landmark Dear Daughter documentary broadcast on RTE in 1996 which recounted the horror of her time as a child in the Sisters of Mercy-run orphanage in Goldenbridge, Dublin.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Mar 11, 2014 By David Coleman

Tributes have been pouring in for abuse campaigner Christine Buckley.

The internet has been awash with messages of praise from grieving web users.

Stay with us for the very latest as the country mourns the loss of an inspirational figure.

An emotional Facebook post put up by Christine Buckley’s son Conor has revealed the Brian O’Driscoll visited his mum before she passed away.

It read: “We all know how good Brian O’Driscoll is on the pitch.

“But the true mark of this legend is what he does for others.

“He dedicates so much time to Temple Street hospital and other charities.

“Last night summed him up for me. He heard my mum was in hospital and he rang her up to cheer her up.

“Four months ago he surprised her and called up to our house to have a cup of tea and a chat. Both these gestures completely transformed my mum’s spirits.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

MELANIE FINN – UPDATED 11 MARCH 2014

Conor Buckley, the son of Christine Buckley, the courageous campaigner for victims of institutional abuse, thanked Brian O’Driscoll for lifting his mother’s spirits during her long-term illness.

Mrs Buckley campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 25 years.

She passed away this morning from cancer.

Earlier this week, her son Conor wrote a poignant Facebook post thanking O’ Driscoll for his kindness to his mother during the late stages of her illness over the last seven months.

“We all know how good Brian O’Driscoll is on the pitch,” he began.

“But the true mark of this legend is what he does for others.

“He dedicates so much time to Temple Street hospital and other charities.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Aine Hegarty

How do you measure someone’s life? Have you given a voice to those who cannot speak?

Have you bravely taken on Church and State and won? Have you been instrumental in getting laws changed and changing the course of history?

Not many people can say yes to those things but Christine Buckley did all of them during her 67 years.

She exposed the horrors that were inflicted on innocent children in Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin.

Christine herself suffered unimaginable abuse from the age of three when she was sent there by a judge as she was found “wandering” the streets.

The daughter of a 31-year-old married woman and a 20-year-old Nigerian student, she was just three weeks old when she was fostered.

In 1950, her world would never be the same again after she was sent to Goldenbridge where she found herself in the care of the Sisters of Mercy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

The jury in the Father Andrew McCormick sex abuse case asked for a read back on the alleged victim’s direct testimony, as well as his cross-examination.

On their third day of deliberations, the jury also asked for a third time to have the judge read the charges against “Father Andy.”

The victim’s testimony amounted to some 100 pages from his hour on the witness stand. Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp volunteered to read the testimony to the jury, but defense attorney William J. Brennan didn’t think that was such a great idea.

“I think we would have an objection on that,” Brennan told Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright.

After a visit to the judge’s chambers, the lawyers agreed to have the court stenographer do the reading beginning tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

After the court stenographer gets through reading the alleged victim’s testimony, the judge will read the charges against Father Andy. The 57-year-old priest has five charges against him: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault of a child, and corrupting the morals of a minor.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

David Marr
theguardian.com, Tuesday 11 March 2014

Don’t start ringing the bells. The Catholic church is a long way from letting itself be sued like any other church. It knows it can no longer defend a privilege that has saved hundreds of millions of dollars since the child abuse scandal broke decades ago. But it isn’t planning to open its wallet.

One of the great powers of a royal commission is to embarrass. Cardinal Pell and the bishops can see terrible embarrassment looming as the royal commission into institutional response to child sexual abuse turns its sights on the privileged protection of the Catholic church from the courts.

As the gaunt figure of John Ellis took the stand at the commission this week, Pell and the bishops expressed regret once more for past mistakes and made vague undertakings to do things better now. Pell won sympathetic headlines by disowning the ordeal he put Ellis through: “My own view is that the church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind.”

Ellis had been abused for years as a boy and young man. He had been willing to settle for $100,000 but Pell called in his Melbourne lawyers and $1.5m was spent on fees to block Ellis and confirm the Catholic church in this country doesn’t exist in law, doesn’t employ its priests, isn’t responsible for their crimes and has successfully locked its assets away from victims.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

The allegation against Archbishop John Neinstedt sounds pretty implausible from the start. Still, we believe law enforcement should take virtually every child sex abuse report seriously, especially when the accused is a cleric, and we’re grateful that police apparently did investigate this thoroughly.

Having Neinstedt back on the job won’t make any real difference, because when Bishop Piche was in charge, church officials continued to act secretively, just like Neinstedt and his colleagues have done for years.

Now that this is behind him, he has no reason to evade police questioning about archdiocesan cover ups. And he should insist that his long-time second-in-command, Fr. Kevin McDonough, also sit for questioning by police.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis appreciates today’s announcement by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office that they have declined to file charges against Archbishop Nienstedt. As a result of today’s announcement, the archbishop will now resume all of his public ministry duties.

“I am thankful to the Saint Paul Police for their thorough investigation, as well as to the Ramsey County Attorney’s office for their professional work regarding this matter. I look forward to returning to public ministry during this Lenten season, especially during Holy Week and the great feast of Easter,” Archbishop Nienstedt said. “While I look forward to my return to public ministry, I remain committed to the ongoing work needed to provide safe environments for all children and youth. I continue to offer my prayers for all victims, their families and their communities, as well as to all who have been harmed by clergy sexual abuse. I once again offer my apology to all who have been affected by these terrible offenses.”

If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual abuse in Church ministry, you are urged to call the police or other civil authorities. You are also invited to call the archdiocese’s Director of Advocacy and Victim Assistance at 651-291-4497.

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NEW YORK
Newsday

Updated: March 11, 2014
By BART JONES bart.jones@newsday.com

The Diocese of Rockville Centre, one of the largest employers on Long Island, is eliminating its defined benefit pension plan in favor of a 401(k)-style retirement plan for workers with less than 30 years service, church officials said.

The move, which will subject workers’ plans to fluctuations on Wall Street, affects thousands of teachers, parish workers, Catholic Charities employees and others who work in the diocese. The new 403(b) plan — the equivalent of a 401(k) for nonprofits — takes effect Jan. 1, 2015, said diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan.

“It’s something most companies have already done,” Dolan said. “We think we have done everything we can to try to be more compassionate . . . than many companies.”

He said employees who have worked for 30 years or more for the diocese will be able to fully continue with their defined benefit pension plan, in which the diocese pays them a fixed monthly sum from retirement until death.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Charges will not be filed against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection with an alleged groping incident involving a boy.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office says St. Paul Police conducted an “extensive investigation” surrounding the allegation that Nienstedt inappropriately touched a boy during a photo session at a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 5, 2009.

According to the investigation, following the ceremony, the boy told his mother that Nienstedt touched his buttocks. At a later date, the mother told a friend, who happened to be a priest, about the alleged incident. The priest then reported the incident to the Archdiocese and later the police on Dec. 16, 2013.

In a later interview with police, the accuser said that during the photograph session Nienstedt’s hand had moved down his back to his buttocks, and that he thought it was “creepy,” but did not feel violated.

After locating the photograph of the accuser with Nienstedt, police observed that the group is arranged on the stairs and the Archbishop is standing one step higher than the accuser. So, it appeared that Nienstedt would have to bend to reach the boy’s buttocks and any such action would likely be witnessed by others present.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 03/11/2014

Prosecutors declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in an incident in which he allegedly touched a child inappropriately on the buttocks, the Ramsey County attorney’s office said Tuesday.

“St. Paul police conducted an extensive investigation surrounding (the) allegation … Based on the investigative file presented by police, the Ramsey County attorney’s office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Archbishop Nienstedt,” the office said in a news release.

In a declination memo by Richard Dusterhoft, director of the county attorney’s criminal division, the incident was described this way:

A juvenile male was confirmed at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 5, 2009. He later told his mother that “following the ceremony and while photographs were being taken, Archbishop John Nienstedt touched his buttocks.”

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office has declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection to an alleged groping incident.

Police conducted an extensive investigation surrounding an allegation that Nienstedt inappropriately touched a boy during a photo session at a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 5, 2009.

On Tuesday, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Nienstedt.

In the investigation, the boy told police that Nienstedt moved his hand down his back and to his buttocks. He said that he thought it was “creepy,” but he said he did not feel violated.The boy told police that he was concerned about the attention the incident was receiving and he did not believe it was significant.

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MINNESOTA
Office of the Ramsey County Attorney

NEWS RELEASE

March 12, 2014 Contact: Dennis Gerhardstein, 651 266-3074
(Cell) 651 600-1830

Insufficient evidence to charge Archbishop John Nienstedt in alleged groping incident reported by priest

Saint Paul – The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office today declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection with a police report filed by a priest on December 16, 2013.

Saint Paul Police conducted an extensive investigation surrounding an allegation that Archbishop Nienstedt inappropriately touched a juvenile male during a photo session at a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint Paul on May 5, 2009. Based upon the investigative file presented by police, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Archbishop Nienstedt.

A detailed declination memo written by Assistant Ramsey County Richard Dusterhoft (Criminal Division Director) summarizes the police investigation and articulates the reasons why there is insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution in this case. A copy of that declination memo is being provided to the public and is attached to this media release.

Today’s announcement only involves one specific prosecutorial decision by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and is limited in scope to this investigative file that was presented by police. The broader police investigation of child sex abuse allegations within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis along with other related allegations remains active and ongoing. By their very nature, these investigations are complex and can often take more time than most law enforcement investigations to complete. As ministers of justice, we will allow the facts to lead the way as the law allows and do what justice requires.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Mar 11, 2014

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt, who in December was accused of groping a boy several years ago at a public event.

Choi’s office cited “insufficient evidence” of a crime, according to a news release Tuesday.

• News release: From the Ramsey Co. Attorney’s Office

Nienstedt, leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since 2008, voluntarily stepped aside from public ministry while police investigated the allegation that he touched a boy on the buttocks during a group confirmation photo session in 2009.

The St. Paul Police Department launched its investigation into the allegation in December after an unnamed priest contacted police.

Investigators located a photograph of Nienstedt with the confirmation class, according to a March 11 memo to Choi from Richard Dusterhoft, criminal division director for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart
Attorneys for Ramsey County have decided not to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection to an alleged groping incident that was reported last December.

The decision has led to Nienstedt resuming his public ministry duties after he stepped aside the day after the report was filed, the archdiocese announced Tuesday.

The report, filed Dec. 16, 2013, alleged Nienstedt touched the rear end of a child with his hand in May 2009 while taking a group picture during the child’s confirmation.

The alleged victim, who was a minor at the time, told his mom about the incident after the ceremony, the report said.

The mother later told a priest, who then reported it to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the report said.

When interviewed by police after the report was filed, the victim, who is now a grown man, said while he thought the situation was “creepy,” he did not believe it was significant and was concerned about the attention the incident was receiving.

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MINNESOTA
WJON

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities say Archbishop John Nienstedt will not face criminal charges in an incident in which he was accused of inappropriately touching a boy during a public photo shoot.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office says Tuesday there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Nienstedt.

Nienstedt announced Dec. 17 that he had been accused of touching a boy on the buttocks during a photo following a confirmation ceremony in 2009. He denied the allegation, but stepped down from public ministry while police investigated.

In a statement Tuesday, Nienstedt thanked authorities and said he will now return to public ministry. He says he continues to pray for those harmed by clergy sexual abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: March 11, 2014

Attorney’s office memo said it ‘seems unlikely’ that Archbishop John Nienstedt would have touched the boy during a 2009 confirmation photo session.

Archbishop John Nienstedt will not be charged in connection with allegations that he touched a boy’s buttocks following a confirmation ceremony in 2009.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office said Tuesday that it won’t charge Nienstedt because there is “insufficient evidence.”

It “seems unlikely” that Nienstedt would choose that moment to “sexually touch a random boy openly in front of another clergy member, a deacon, and numerous other confirmands while the confirmands’ family members were preparing to document the moment in photographs,” read a memo written by Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Richard Dusterhoft, the office’s criminal division director.

“This case was reviewed by an Assistant County Attorney with many years of experience prosecuting child sex abuse cases,” Duesterhoft’s memo read. “It is that attorney’s experienced and considered opinion that based upon the evidence as presented by police this case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and should not be charged.

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –
In just more than a month, a window for child abuse victims to file civil suits will expire. Joining Steve this morning is Joelle Casteix with SNAP: the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Jeff Anderson, who is an attourney for sex abuse victims.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 11, 2014
CONTACT: Jerry Zufelt, Office for Communications, 724-834-4010, Ext. 1445

GREENSBURG — After a series of investigations that began more than three years ago, Father Emil S. Payer, pastor of Seven Dolors Parish, Yukon, in the Diocese of Greensburg has been charged with theft.

Father Payer was arraigned March 11 before District Magistrate Charles D. Moore in Scottdale and charged with theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, theft by receiving stolen property and theft by misappropriation of entrusted property.

Father Payer, who has been on administrative leave from the parish since Aug. 11, 2011, was released on a non-monetary bond.

The charges stem from an investigation that began when parishioners of Seven Dolors Parish approached officials of the Diocese of Greensburg in early 2011 with concerns about parish finances. As a result of that meeting, the diocese immediately began a review of parish finances with an independent auditing firm. Subsequently, diocesan officials held a meeting on April 6, 2011, with the Parish Pastoral Council and Parish Finance Council of Seven Dolors Parish and informed council members of the review.

At that point, all parish financial activity was placed under the responsibility of Father Kenneth G. Zaccagnini, pastor of St. Barbara Parish, Harrison City, and dean of Deanery 3, while Father Payer continued to handle pastoral duties.

The diocese had the independent auditing firm conduct a comprehensive financial review of parish finances. The review examined every expenditure in two parish accounts, one of which was an unauthorized account established several years earlier contrary to diocesan financial policies and therefore beyond any diocesan reviews. A third account was reviewed for specific activity. The review examined transactions as far back as fiscal year 2005-06 in the unauthorized account and as far back as fiscal year 2008-09 in the other two accounts.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE

GREENSBURG, Pa. —A priest who has been on leave from the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg for nearly three years was arraigned Tuesday on charges related to a suspected theft at his home parish.

The diocese said the Rev. Emil Payer, of Seven Dolors Parish in Yukon, was released on a non-monetary bond after his arraignment by Scottdale District Judge Charles Moore on charges of theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, theft by receiving stolen property and theft by misappropriation of entrusted property.

The diocese has not said exactly what it believes was taken, or how much.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John F. Hurley was ordained a priest of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province in 1945. In 1947 he began his life-long career at Gonzaga Preparatory High School in Spokane. He died in 1998. Hurley’s name was included on a 2007 list of priests working in the Spokane diocese who were ” admitted, proven or credibly accused perpetrators of sexual abuse.” Details of accusations against him were not provided.

Ordained: 1945
Died: October 1998

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NEW YORK
New Haven Register

By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register
POSTED: 03/11/14

A retired cardinal accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests will celebrate a Mass with 200 youthful choir members on Saturday.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests would like that not to happen.

Cardinal Edward M. Egan will celebrate at the Pueri Cantores Children’s Choir Festival, held at St. Ignatius of Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan. According to the church’s bulletin, more than 200 choristers “from the tri-state area” will take part.

Egan has been accused of failing to remove priests accused of sexual abuse when he was bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport from 1988 to 2000. He was appointed archbishop of New York and retired in 2009.

SNAP is calling for Cardinal Timothy Dolan to cancel Egan’s appearance. Egan “continues to enjoy a position of honor and prominence” and “when you essentially honor (him) and ignore wrongdoing you encourage more wrongdoing,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | Mar. 11, 2014 NCR Today

NCR’s admirable reporting startlingly concludes that roughly two-thirds of U.S. bishops haven’t broadly sought opinions from lay Catholics on family-related issues prior to the Synod on that subject later this year. The Vatican had promoted the idea by preparing a survey for that purpose, but, as NCR found, most didn’t follow through.

Why not if it had Rome’s endorsement?

Reasons vary, of course, but the question might as well be, why should they?

First, the bishops were asked to submit a report that could include survey results but didn’t have to. What would presumably be the advantage of distributing questions on birth control, divorced and remarried Catholics, marriage, etc., either on the Internet, as some did, or in parish settings? More information, certainly, but the information would be numbingly predictable. For decades, reliable polls have charted Catholic views toward the church’s cluster of teachings on sexual ethics. Rejection of those teachings, most starkly against the church’s prohibition of artificial birth control, has become an accepted fact. However well intended, the Vatican’s survey repeats the exercise and produces the same results. Catholics remain just as opposed to artificial contraception and to forbidding non-annulled, remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments as they have been all along as measured by Pew, Gallup and others.

The church survey therefore confirms the obvious. Any bishop who hasn’t been confined to a space capsule for the past 25 years understands this dissent whether or not he admits it. If he is among the few who want change, such findings might bolster his cause. But most don’t. Were I among them, why would I stir up a new round of protest?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Westminster Faith Debates

Tina Beattie

After a year in office, Pope Francis’s popularity shows no sign of waning. A weekly Italian fanzine called Il Mio Papa (‘My Pope’) has just been launched by Silvio Berlusconi’s publishing company, though Francis says he finds such adulation ‘offensive’. His response to a journalist’s question about gays – ‘who am I to judge?’ – has earned him cult status, including his appearance on the cover of LGBT magazine, The Advocate, as their 2013 Man of the Year.

Francis has transformed the style of the papacy, but to discern the substance of his theological vision one must trawl through a wide range of homilies and interviews, off-the-cuff remarks and more considered theological reflections such as his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospels’). He speaks of wanting a ‘messy’ Church, a Church which takes risks, which expresses radical solidarity with the poor, and which avoids being ‘obsessed’ with issues such as same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion. He makes clear that his intention is not to change Church teaching, but to offer a pastoral response that is sensitive to the situations in which people find themselves. His experience in Argentina will undoubtedly stand him in good stead when it comes to dealing with the sometimes Machiavellian politics of the Vatican, but however politically astute he might be, it is clear that he is motivated by the conviction that the joy and freedom of Christ are the heart and soul of the Church’s mission, and this finds its most truthful expression in service to the poor. He has condemned the tyranny of the global economic system in language that is reminiscent of liberation theology. …

He has also disappointed many people by his failure to address the ongoing scandal of sex abuse in the Church. With new cases still being regularly reported, he shows little real appreciation of the extent of the problem or the ongoing challenge it poses to the credibility and reputation of the Church.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Renatta Signorini

Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest on leave from a Diocese of Greensburg church allegedly stole thousands of dollars from parish coffers, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday morning.

The Rev. Emil Stephen Payer, 69, of Unity is accused of taking about $124,000 from the Church of the Seven Dolors in South Huntingdon during a nearly three-year period while he was in charge of the parish, county detectives said in an affidavit of probable cause.

Payer was arraigned and is free on a signature bond. He turned himself in Tuesday morning.
The diocese announced in April 2011 that the church was being audited after several parishioners raised concerns about several accounts. Payer continued to handle pastoral duties at that point, but duties related to church business were administered by another priest.

Four months later, Payer was placed on leave from the South Huntingdon church and a criminal investigation was launched.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, outreach director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Current and former Helena Catholic officials are getting a “free pass” because Helena’s bishop is hiding behind chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

[Montana Standard]

None of them will be forced to testify under oath about their role in hiding clergy sex crimes. So for the sake of justice and healing, we call on them to voluntarily and publicly discuss what they did and didn’t do to protect kids and expose wrongdoers.

Specifically, we call on retired bishops Raymond Hunthausen (the bishop from 1962-1975) and Elden Curtiss (who was bishop from 1976-1993) to voluntarily step up now and disclose how much they knew about and how little they did about child molesting Montana clerics and the current or former church employees who also hid their crimes. It’s the very least they can do, in light of the hundreds of men and women who have been sexually violated over the past few decades by Montana Catholic priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians and brothers.

According to a recent newspaper article, Hunthausen lives in a Helena nursing home and Curtiss is a retired archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska.

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TEXAS
Fox 26

By Kathryn Yglecias, Senior Web Producer –

HOUSTON (FOX 26) –

Houston Police investigators are looking for clues after it appears someone broke into a safe at Lakewood Church and walked away with nearly 6-hundred thousand dollars in donations. Two hundred thousands of it is believed to be cash.

The donations were from services on Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th.

The heist wasn’t discovered until 8:30 a.m. Monday morning when an employee of Lakewood Church and an off duty Harris County Sheriff’s Officer working security noticed the break in.

Right now investigators think the heist happened sometime between 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning when it was discovered.

The donations were from services PM Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th and included donations made by checks and credit cards along with the cash donations.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Craig Hlavaty | March 11, 2014 | Updated: March 11, 2014

A grand total of $600,000 in cash and checks – along with written credit card information – was stolen from Houston’s Lakewood Church on Sunday, according to a statement that church leaders emailed to the church’s members on Monday.

Someone allegedly broke into the church’s safe Sunday evening, which was discovered by an employee Monday morning, taking cash, checks and envelopes containing written credit card information with them.

Joel Osteen’s mega church sent the note to members of the church to alert them that funds contributed on March 8 and 9 were taken. Lakewood encouraged those who made contributions to the church on those days to monitor their accounts closely for fraud and to notify their financial institutions if they see anything out of sorts.

The statement reiterated that this was not an electronic data breach, and was only limited to donations made during those services. Further, if a church member put their offering in a drop box, gave online or through other electronic means, they are not affected.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Mar. 11, 2014 NCR Today

What did the Vatican want when it sent a 39-question survey about family issues to the world’s bishops in October? When NCR first reported the release of the document, we quoted a letter from Archbishop (now Cardinal) Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops, that asked the national bishops’ conferences to distribute the questionnaire “immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received.”

Now, we at NCR assumed that meant getting the question to the people in the pews, you know, the people who live in families, and ask them about contraception, same-sex marriage, cohabitation, marriage preparation and divorce, but we soon discovered that these instructions could and would be interpreted in various ways.

Famously, the bishops of England and Wales almost immediately posted the questionnaire online. The Canadian and U.S. bishops told the media they would follow the “usual process” for soliciting information as “Rome asks for this kind of consultation on a regular basis.”

The “usual process”? A spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops told NCR: “It will be up to each bishop to determine what would be the most useful way of gathering information to provide to Rome.”

So when I asked Michael O’Loughlin to look into how the U.S. bishops had responded to the Vatican’s invitation, I really had no idea what he would find, but I wasn’t too surprised when I read his story. I had thought that we would be reporting on what bishops found when they took these questions to people in their dioceses. You will find that in O’Loughlin’s report, but you’ll also find something missing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

11 March 2014 13:02 by Liz Dodd

The head of London’s Metropolitan Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, will attend a forthcoming Vatican conference on human trafficking which will be chaired by Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

Nichols, the cardinal-archbishop of Westminster, told BBC News yesterday that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner would be one of at least 20 senior police officers from around the world to attend the event in Rome on 9-10 April.

The conference is the second international human trafficking conference to be hosted by the Vatican but will differ from 2012’s “academic” conference by focusing on ways to build practical links between the police and the Church, Nichols added.

He said that religious congregations could form an international “counter-network” to help tackle trafficking.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Pat Perriello | Mar. 11, 2014 NCR Today

It was inevitable, and the time has come. I need to write my first critical blog post on Pope Francis. It turns out that the Vatican guesthouse, Domus Sanctae Marthae, does not appear to be far enough away from the apostolic palace. Francis is unfortunately starting to sound too much like a pope. The powers that be may be getting to him even at his current residence.

I speak of his one-year anniversary interview with Italian daily Corriere Della Sera. The most troublesome part of that interview is his comments on the issue of child abuse by priests. It is the first time I have ever heard him sound as if he is merely spouting Vatican talking points. Perhaps he was annoyed that the United Nations came out so strongly against the church when he felt they had been trying to cooperate with the ­U.N. investigation.

In any event, he felt the need to defend Vatican actions and repeat the tired old positions we have been hearing for too long: The church has been transparent; child abuse happens more often among families; and only the church is being attacked. Playing the victim is so unlike Francis. His willingness to downplay the harm priests have done to children in their care is disturbing. He is likely, however, to experience considerable pressure to address the abuse issue more forcefully in the coming months.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Catholic bishop responsible for the Geraldton area has removed a priest from the ministry pending the outcome of a criminal case.

Father Roger Pronovost, 56, was recently charged by provincial police with two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation, in connection with incidents that allegedly occurred in the 1980s, when Pronovost was assigned to a church in Longlac, Ont.

The Bishop of Hearst, Vincent Cadieux, said in this kind of case, it is standard procedure to withdraw a priest from the ministry.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11, 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)

Once again, Philadelphia’s archbishop has given his flock another reason to be ashamed of him.

[Arizona Daily Star]

Under fire for continuing cover ups of clergy sex crimes, Catholic officials quietly started to give free parochial school tuition to some victims. But they refused to tell all victims about this option, and then they quietly reversed themselves (relenting in one case only because a persistent journalist kept questioning them). And for months, they rebuffed one parent’s repeated requests to plead his case. Finally, adding insult to injury, Archbishop Charles Chaput, through one of his public relations staff, claims that an exception he’s finally made “is another clear signal of the archbishop’s commitment to victims of clergy sexual abuse.”

It’s not. It is, in fact, another clear signs that Chaput, like many of his brother bishops, acts irresponsibly and insensitively, often responding to abuse victims only when pressured and even then, acting capriciously.

This latest Philly scandal is typical of the callousness, deceit, cynicism and self-promotion of so many Catholic officials.

–It’s callous because it’s stingy and potentially disrupts kids’ educations.

–It’s deceitful because some victims, likely most of them, were never told about the option.

–It’s cynical because it was adopted when Philly Catholic officials were in the glare of negative publicity and was quietly shelved when that publicity began to wane.

–It’s self-promoting because even now, Chaput desperately tries to “spin” this betrayal as a “signal” of his “commitment to victims.”

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Retired Cardinal to preside at special mass
Victims want him ousted from upcoming event
He hid child sex crimes but denies all wrongdoing

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging New York’s top Catholic official to stop his predecessor from saying a special mass this weekend featuring children’s choirs.

This Saturday, retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan is to preside over a children’s choir mass featuring 200 youngsters at St. Ignatius Loyola parish in Manhattan. Egan has been widely criticized for allegedly hiding clergy sex crimes during his long tenure in the Bridgeport diocese and the New York archdiocese.

Because of that, and because Egan continues to deny any wrongdoing, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, want Cardinal Timothy Dolan to oust Egan from the upcoming event.

As recently as 2012, discussing the abuse and cover up crisis, Egan said “I don’t think we did anything wrong,” “I’m very proud of how this thing was handled,” “I believe the sex abuse thing was incredibly good,” “There really wasn’t much . . . hidden” and “I do think it’s time to get off this subject.”

[Connecticut Magazine]

“This isn’t just a slap in the face to suffering victims and betrayed Catholics,” said Mary Caplan of Manhattan, SNAP’s New York director. “It’s rubbing salt into their wounds and telling other Catholic officials that ‘no matter how much you endanger kids and protect predators, your Catholic colleagues will always honor you.’”

“Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Jesuits at this parish are smart men. They must know this is a very hurtful move,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “Dolan should make Egan stay home and insist that no other priest in the archdiocese gives Egan – or others who have covered up clergy child sexual crimes – any prominent role in church functions, least of all at an event featuring children.”

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FLORIDA
Tampa Tribune

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Senate passed a package of bills Tuesday that will lock up child rapists longer, force sexual offenders to disclose more information and close loopholes that allow the most dangerous predators to avoid civil commitment after they’re punished for their crimes.

All four bills were approved unanimously and without debate on the first day of the 60-day legislative session. The Senate wanted to send a clear message that protecting people from sexual predators was its top priority. That message will be repeated in the House next week when it is expected to send the bills to Gov. Rick Scott at the first opportunity.

The mother of Somer Thompson, a 7-year-old Jacksonville-area girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed and her body dumped in a trash bin, was in tears in the Senate gallery as each of the bills passed. Just before the vote on the final bill, Republican Sen. Rob Bradley said, “This is for Somer.”

The wide-ranging package would make released sexual offenders list all cars registered to their address and double the mandatory minimum sentence for child rapists and sexually dangerous offenders to 50 years in prison. They will also strengthen the Jimmy Ryce Act, which allows for the civil commitment of sexual predators once they finish their prison terms. The law named for a 9-year-old boy who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Miami-Dade County, is designed to keep the most violent sefaxual predators locked up.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

We’re glad Florida lawmakers are toughening the state’s child safety laws. We hope they will include a measure to create a new statewide database of adults who have been found guilty in civil trials of child sex crimes.

[Tampa Tribune]

The existing registry – for those criminally convicted – is good. But because many predators are shrewd and many police and prosecutors are overworked and under-funded, many child sex offenders are never criminally charged or convicted.

Some of them ARE found guilty, however, in civil trials. Legislators would make it easier for citizens and employers to know who these offenders are too.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 12, 2014

LAWYERS acting for Cardinal George Pell privately told his office they had won a “conclusive victory” against a victim of child sex abuse, which placed “a number of significant obstacles” ahead of others seeking to sue the Catholic Church.

The 2007 briefing note is one of several confidential documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse relating to the case of former altar boy John Ellis, who was abused by a Sydney priest.

They show the church’s lawyers, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, recommended “a media campaign” to “capitalise on this result” and ensure other lawyers considering action against the church were aware of the court’s findings.

Several of the documents also appear to contradict Mr Ellis’s account of a 2009 meeting with Cardinal Pell, where the then-archbishop of Sydney claimed not to have known how his lawyers were handling the case.

“I left the meeting with the impression that Cardinal Pell was completely out of the loop on all that decision-making,” Mr Ellis told the commission. “He looked me in the eye and told me had no idea about the earlier offers (to settle the case) and that he had no idea we had offered to meet the lawyers for the archdiocese before the proceedings got under way.”

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 10 March 2014)

Australia’s national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining a 2007 civil legal case, in which Cardinal George Pell’s legal team crushed one of the church’s Sydney victims, former altar-boy John Ellis. This Pell victory (known as “the Ellis Defence”) later helped the Catholic Church to avoid paying proper compensation to victims throughout Australia. But now, as Pell departs Australia for a top job at the Vatican, he admits that Australian victims should be allowed to sue the church.

On Monday 10 March 2014, the Commission was told that Pell has submitted a written statement, suggesting that the church might have to surrender, allowing victims to sue the church after all.

The Royal Commission is examining the original complaint made by John Ellis under the church’s internal Towards Healing process “and the circumstances in which the Catholic Church raised what is commonly referred to as the ‘Ellis Defence”’.

The Sydney victim, John Ellis, had been a 14-year-old altar boy in a suburban parish in 1975, when he was sexually abused by a serial pedophile, Father Aidan Duggan. The abuse (and the church’s breach of trust) seriously damaged John Ellis’s adolescence and his later personal and working life when he was practising as a solicitor during his twenties and thirties.

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GERMANY
The Tablet (UK)

11 March 2014 by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

A senior German Cardinal has called on national churches to speak up more courageously in their dialogue with Rome, claiming that their lack of courage has made Rome “over-powerful”.

Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, the former president of the German bishops’ conference, said in an interview with the Cologne-based daily Kölner Stadtanzeiger: “We need to be more courageous in dialogue within the Church. We complain that Rome is over-powerful but the reason why Rome is so strong is because we are too weak,” Lehmann.

He also cautioned against expecting all church renewal to come from the Pope. “I get very annoyed when we expect everything from the Pope as far as church renewal is concerned but do nothing towards renewal ourselves, or just remain silent.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

CHRISTINE BUCKLEY, AN abuse survivor who went on to found the Aislinn Centre, has passed away.

Today, a member of staff at the Aislinn Centre told TheJournal.ie: “We are all devastated. It’s a huge loss.”

She said they are in “shock” over Christine’s death after a battle with cancer:

Christine was brought up in Goldenbridge industrial school, after being born to a Nigerian medical student and a married Irish woman.

At the industrial school, she was subjected to physical and mental abuse. Christine went on to campaign on behalf of others who had survived institutional abuse.

She also co-founded the Aislinn Education and Support Centre, for survivors of abuse and their families.
Her story was told in the 1996 RTÉ documentary Dear Daughter.

Christine passed away just after 6am this morning after having been in hospital for a short period of time.

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IRELAND
BBC News

A well-known campaigner and survivor of institutional abuse has died following a long illness.

Christine Buckley, 67, the co-founder of the Aislinn Centre, died on Tuesday morning.

She passed away at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. She had been suffering from cancer.

Ms Buckley was the main subject of a 1996 RTÉ drama documentary, Dear Daughter, which gave her account of life in a Dublin orphanage.

She had lived as a child in the Goldenbridge orphanage, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy.

Her story created the first major controversy around institutional child abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland but was disputed by the Sisters of Mercy.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Institutional abuse campaigner Christine Buckley has passed away this morning aged 67.

The Aislinn Centre co-founder died following a long cancer battle in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

Christine Buckley was abandoned at three weeks of age and was raised in the Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin, run by the Sisters of Mercy.

Her life there was the subject of a 1996 RTE documentary that caused one of the first controversies around institutional abuse from the Catholic Church in Ireland.

She is survived by her husband, Donal, and three children.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Christine Buckley, an institutional abuse survivor who co-founded the Aislinn foundation, has died.

She passed away in a Dublin hospital early this morning after a battle with cancer.

Christine, who passed away just after 6am this morning after a brief period in hospital, is survived by her husband Donal and three children.

Christine was brought up in Goldenbridge industrial school where she was subjected to physical and mental abuse.

She campaigned on behalf of others who suffered the same abuse and was a co-founder of the Aislinn Education and Support Centre for survivors of abuse and their families.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

UPDATED 11 MARCH 2014

Christine Buckley, the courageous campaigner for victims of institutional abuse, has passed away after a long illness.

Christine was the director of the Aislinn support and education group for survivors of Industrial Schools in Ireland.

Her husband Donal Buckley told independent.ie: “She was a warrior for people’s rights, a warrior for education, a warrior for people trying to trace their parents. She was a warrior against injustice.”

Christine campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 25 years.

From the age of just three weeks, she was placed in care, and raised in St. Vincent’s Industrial School, in Goldenbridge.

She spoke privately about her own personal experiences in 1984, and then went public in 1992.

She is herself a survivor of several types of institutional abuse.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

PUBLISHED 11 MARCH 2014

Outspoken abuse campaigner Christine Buckley has written to the Pope expressing her outrage at his “apparently apathetic approach to heinous acts of depravity” carried out by members of the clergy.

In 2009, Mrs Buckley, who was named European Volunteer of the Year, called on Pope Benedict to visit Ireland and spend seven days in repentance here.

In an open letter, the director of the Aislinn centre said that while in Ireland the Pope should help Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in a “major spring-cleaning” of the Catholic Church here.

She told him he should invite abuse survivors to tell him “their harrowing tales in the presence of those responsible for their suffering or the leaders of those organisations that were responsible”.

Mrs Buckley spent part of her childhood in the notorious Goldenbridge orphanage in Inchicore, Dublin.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 12:28

Christine Buckley, who co-founded the Aislin Centre, has died this morning after a long battle with cancer.

She died at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin this morning.

She was a long-time campaigner for survivors of institutional abuse and was one of the first former residents to go public on her experiences.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Jane Lee
LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER FOR THE AGE

The Catholic Church continues to rely on the legal argument that it is incapable of being sued in negotiations with alleged child abuse victims, a day after Cardinal George Pell acknowledged they should be able to sue the church, a lawyer says.

Melbourne lawyer Dr Vivian Waller said she had acted on behalf of victims in two pre-arranged settlement discussions with lawyers for two Catholic orders on Tuesday.

She said the lawyers indicated, in relation to three separate victims’ abuse claims, that they may still rely on a NSW Court of Appeal decision, which is often called the Ellis defence. The court held in 2007 that the church’s property trust – its only legal entity – could not be held liable for the actions of priests.

”They’ve said they are not making a decision to abandon the Ellis defence,” Dr Waller said.

She put to them Cardinal Pell’s statement at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse on Monday. The statement, read by senior counsel Gail Furness, said that in Cardinal Pell’s view, ”the church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind”. This marked a dramatic departure from Cardinal Pell’s previous approach to victims who pursued legal action against the church.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

A local priest acquitted two years ago of sexual assault charges against a teenage girl is to return to ministry in the Derry diocese.

Fr Eugene Boland, a parish priest in Cappagh, County Tyrone, stepped aside four years ago while the allegations were investigated.

The administrator of the diocese said both the legal proceedings and Church processes have now been completed.

Fr Boland will resume his duties during a Mass in his parish this Saturday night.

Fr Francis Bradley, Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Derry, said: “I am glad the civil and canonical processes in respect of Fr Eugene Boland have drawn to a close.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

On the one year anniversary of the pope’s election, Francis is the darling of the globe—but he does have his critics from liberals and reformers to hard-core Catholics.
No one can dispute the fact that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has had an extraordinary year since being elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church last March. Every gesture, from his choice of the name Francis to his penchant for cold-calling parishioners, has endeared him with a most unusual fanclub, including atheists and gays. He has been on the cover of the Advocate and Rolling Stone and he was voted Time’s Man of the Year. He also attracts tens of thousands of Catholics and curious onlookers to his weekly Sunday blessings and Wednesday audiences in St. Peter’s square—something that hasn’t been seen in Rome since the early days of John Paul II. He even has his own fanzine and smartphone app.

But just as the Pope’s pedestrian popularity grows, bolstered no doubt by a savvy public relations move from within the Vatican to get the ‘good news’ message out to the mainstream press, there are a growing number of dissident voices from deep within the Catholic community who aren’t exactly impressed with the so-called “Francis effect” on the church as a whole. …

Another perceived weak spot in the Francis papacy for many is his kid-glove approach to the horrific child sex-abuse scandal the church is still dealing with. He has not yet met publicly with any victims of priest abuse like his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI did, and he has persistently avoided making a public apology as Pope. In December, he did announce the formation of a special commission to deal with the issue of predatory priests and child sex-abuse cases, but he has yet to name the commission, meaning that their work has not yet begun. That is especially painful to victims of priest abuse like David Clohessy, head of SNAP—Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Clohessy says that Francis needs to immediately take tangible steps to remove predatory priests from the parishes and to punish bishops who continue to cover up their offenses.

“Policies, pledges, apologies, meetings with victims won’t work. they’ve all been said and done before. They are public relations placebos,” Clohessy told The Daily Beast. “They don’t safeguard a single child, expose a single predator or deter a single cover up. Symbolic moves are actually hurtful because they cause complacency instead of vigilance and give people false hope that real reform will follow, when it hasn’t followed and isn’t following.”

Clohessy isn’t holding out hope that the Pope’s abuse commission will make any difference. “A ‘carrot only’approach won’t work and he knows it. He must find the courage to wield a “stick” and he shows little or no sign of being strong and brave enough to do this.”

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TEXAS
Valley Central

[with video]

by Ashly Custer
Posted: 03.10.2014

District Attorney Elect Ricardo Rodriguez responded in a written letter to Rene Guerra’s request to appoint him as the special prosecutor in the Irene Garza case that he has decided to turn down the offer.

Ricardo Rodriguez personally delivered his written response to the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s office Monday afternoon.

The letter explains that he will revisit the Irene Garza case, but not until he officially takes office in January 2015.

Relatives of Irene Garza said they wholeheartedly support Rodriguez’s decision to do so.

“Actually, at first, I thought it was a joke,” said Irene Garza’s cousin Noemi Siegler.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By MICHAEL POWELL
March 10, 2014

To walk the streets free of the shadow of indictment, to hear a Brooklyn prosecutor last Friday describe the extortion case against him as a tree rotted through, Samuel Kellner might be expected to speak of vindication and hope.

Except this voluble, gray-bearded man cannot summon happiness.

Five years ago, Mr. Kellner, a 52-year-old Hasidic Jew, chose to step off a cultural cliff. He spoke out about the sexual abuse of his 16-year-old son by a prominent Hasidic cantor. And he helped a police detective ferret out other victims of this cantor, whose connections ran to the most powerful reaches of the Satmar community.

Retribution became daily fare for Mr. Kellner. His rabbi denounced him as a traitor. Yeshivas locked out his sons. He pawned his silverware.

Then the former Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, who had proved a most considerate ally of Hasidic leaders, drove a stake into Mr. Kellner’s heart. After gaining a conviction of the cantor, Baruch Lebovits, Brooklyn prosecutors turned around and indicted Mr. Kellner. Basing their case on the questionable testimony of a prominent Satmar supporter of the cantor, they accused Mr. Kellner of trying to shake down Mr. Lebovits.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

[Summary: Archbishop Robert Zollitsch talks about the successes and failures of his tenure as chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference. A number of controversial issues and scandals fell during his tenure, including sexual abuse. He said that the cases of sexual abuse of minors were a deep abyss into which the bishops had to look.]

Von JOACHIM FRANK

Erzbischof Robert Zollitsch spricht im Interview über Erfolge und Misserfolge seiner Amtszeit als Vorsitzender der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Tebartz-van Elst habe sich nicht zur Frühjahrsvollversammlung angemeldet, erzählt er. Seine Teilnahme wäre aber offiziell möglich.

Herr Erzbischof, die Liste der Reizthemen und Skandale, die in Ihre Amtszeit fielen, ist lang: sexueller Missbrauch, Vorwürfe Bischof Mixa, Kirchenfinanzen, die Limburger Bischofsresidenz, Kritik an Papst Benedikt zum Beispiel wegen der Piusbrüder und des Holocaust-Leugners Williamson… Wie sehr haben Sie mit dem Tag gehadert, an dem Ihre Mitbrüder Sie zum Vorsitzenden der Bischofskonferenz und damit zu Gesicht und Stimme des deutschen Episkopats gewählt haben?

Ich habe mir dieses Amt vor sechs Jahren nicht gesucht, sondern wurde von zahlreichen Mitbrüdern gedrängt, die Aufgabe des Vorsitzenden nicht abzulehnen. Vielleicht es gut, dass man im Vorfeld nicht weiß, was auf einem zukommt. Denn es gab zweifellos viele Probleme und Krisen, mehr als in den Jahren zuvor. Und diesen Herausforderungen, gilt es sich zu stellen, um nicht überrollt zu werden. Das kostet Kraft, ist aber um des Evangeliums willen notwendig. Gott sei Dank gab es auch viel Positives, das nicht schlagzeilenträchtig ist, das aber das Leben der Kirche ausmacht. Ich erinnere mich an zahlreiche Begegnungen und bin dankbar zu wissen, wie viele Gläubige mich durch ihr Vertrauen und Ihr Gebet mitgetragen haben. Besonders in Erinnerung sind mir natürlich der Besuch von Papst Benedikt 2011 und der Katholikentag in Mannheim 2012.

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SCHWEIZ
swissinfo

[Summary: Victims of sexual abuse by priests in Switzerland said the church is not doing enough to combat sexual assault. The new prevention guidelines of the Swiss Catholic Church, which were adopted as a result of the worldwide scandal, cannot eliminate the abuse, they said. Gerard Falcioni of Bramois asked where are the Swiss priests accused of abuse. He was abused at age 5 from a priest in the region. He was one of the few victims who have testified in public about their own abuse. According to data from the Swiss Episcopal Conference reported by 2009-2012 a total of 193 victims have reported abuse in Swiss dioceses since 1960. The abuse was perpetrated by 172 priests and laity.]

Von Simon Bradley, swissinfo.ch
11. März 2014

Die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester in der Schweiz kritisieren, dass nicht genug unternommen werde, um gegen Übergriffe vorzugehen. Die neuen Präventionsrichtlinien der Katholischen Kirche der Schweiz, die infolge des weltweiten Skandals erlassen wurden, können die Bedenken nicht beseitigen.

“Wo sind all die Schweizer Priester, die angeklagt wurden”, fragt Gérard Falcioni, Skilehrer und Hirte aus dem Dorf Bramois im Kanton Wallis.

Er war im Alter von fünf Jahren selber von einem Priester in der Region missbraucht worden. Gérard Falcioni gehört zu den wenigen Opfern, die in der Öffentlichkeit über ihre eigene Misshandlung ausgesagt und die Kirche angeklagt haben. Über seine Geschichte hat er zwei Bücher geschrieben und vielen Medien Auskunft gegeben. Aber jetzt hat er genug.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: Let’s go now to the latest from the child abuse Royal Commission, which today heard intriguing details about how the Sydney Archbishop George Pell handled the complaint of child sexual abuse by John Ellis.

John Ellis attempted to sue the Church a decade ago but, in what’s become known as the Ellis Defence, the court found that the Church could not be sued.

The Royal Commission has now been told that the Church’s lawyers may have not given the full facts of the case to George Pell and that this may have contributed to the long, vigorous and expensive legal action.

Our correspondent Emily Bourke has been monitoring the hearings in Sydney and she joins us now.

Emily, John Ellis was giving evidence again today. What did he say about how this litigation process affected him?

EMILY BOURKE: Well, John Ellis came forward to the Church in 2002 but the wheels of the Towards Healing process moved very slowly in this case and there had been scathing internal reviews about what actually occurred as this process unfolded.

In the end, there was no resolution from Towards Healing and so civil action commenced in earnest in 2004. But by 2007 all legal avenues had been exhausted. The claim was rejected and Mr Ellis was now about to be pursued for the hefty legal costs incurred by the Church.

He told the inquiry today that this set of circumstances had a deep psychological impact and he slipped into a severe depression.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Joanna Woodburn

A victim of child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest was told by Cardinal George Pell that he had also suffered “legal abuse” in his attempts to seek justice, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining allegations made by John Ellis, who failed in his attempt to sue the Catholic Church in 2007.

Mr Ellis was abused by Father Aidan Duggan in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Giving evidence to the royal commission, Mr Ellis recalled a meeting with the former Archbishop of Sydney and Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal Pell, in February 2009.

Mr Ellis said he was surprised that Cardinal Pell had believed Mr Ellis was seeking millions of dollars, which would need to be defended, rather than an ex-gratia payment of $100,000.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 11 March 2014

A survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest has told a royal commission he felt “beset” by the church’s response to his litigation.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has also heard the former head of the church’s NSW Professional Standards Office delayed appointing an independent assessor to examine the abuse claims despite church protocols stating otherwise.

The commission is examining the treatment of John Ellis, who unsuccessfully pursued civil litigation against the church and Sydney archbishop Cardinal Pell for the abuse he suffered at the hands of Bass Hill priest Father Aidan Duggan as an altar boy.

During a meeting in February 2009 with Pell and John Usher, chancellor of the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney, Ellis said Pell used the term “legal abuse” to describe the treatment of his litigation.

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UNITED STATES
Toledo Blade

BY KEITH C. BURRIS
COLUMNIST FOR THE BLADE

Thomas Gumbleton is 84. Officially, he is the “emeritus,” auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Detroit. He is to be addressed as “the most reverend.” But that’s not the kind of bishop this man is. Tom Gumbleton is a soft-spoken renegade. Like St. Paul, he shuns respectability and walks among the outcasts.

He is the only American bishop to be arrested for protesting the war in Iraq.

He founded Pax Christi, the Christian peace group that has long taken “thou shalt not kill” literally.

Bishop Gumbleton remembers when Pope Paul VI went to the United Nations and said: “No more war.” “Americans,” the bishop told me, “still call World War II ‘the good war.’” But Pope Paul VI called the bombings of civilians in Japan and Germany “butchery.” Pope Paul said our example should be Gandhi.

Nonviolence works, said Bishop Gumbleton, sitting across from me in his small office in Detroit. Skilled linguists and area scholars at the State Department also would help.

Bishop Gumbleton recalls that, during the Iran hostage crisis, there were only two people in the U.S. embassy who knew Farsi. He discovered that when he went to Iran with other U.S. clergymen, one month after the hostages were taken in 1979. Together they saw all but two of the 52 hostages, including the only two women. In groups of three or four the bishop met hostages and celebrated Mass with them. The first group was three Catholics and a Jew. The two women were Lutheran and Episcopalian. He held a Eucharist with them too. The bishop is still in touch with some of the hostages today.

Bishop Gumbleton is also the only American bishop to speak out on the Church’s sex abuse scandals. He says that confession and forgiveness are key, but so is truth, treatment, and justice. He came to Columbus a few years ago to testify before the legislature — to urge that a “window” be opened in the statute of limitations so that some abusers who escaped the law might be brought before it. He said the church’s methods had not brought healing.

And he said something else: It happened to me.

He had been assaulted by a priest. He said he didn’t want to dramatize it — that when it happened he was 15 and able to defend himself. But he hoped that legislators would listen to one who had been victimized.

They listened but did not act.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

By Natalie Eucce Published: Mar 10, 2014

YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash.– A John Doe against a would-be priest. The trial against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima started today. It’s the first case of its kind to go to trial. The case stems from an alleged child rape.

Foster kid, high school student, and athlete. A man known only as John Doe was once all those things when he says he was raped by a deacon candidate. The alleged victim is suing the diocese for $3 million.

The man says Aaron Ramirez was working for Resurrection Parish in Zillah when he raped the then 17-year-old.

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MONTANA
Billings Gazette

Christians last week marked the beginning of Lent, a time for spiritual reflection and contemplating a broken world in need of salvation.

As Lent begins, the two Montana Roman Catholic dioceses proceed at different points with lawsuits which allege sexual abuse and cover-up by authorities years ago. It’s purely coincidental that news of these lawsuits and a bankruptcy by the Diocese of Helena come on the heels of Lent.

And yet coincidence is indeed beautiful in its timing.

Not enough can be written and not enough damning words can be said about the alleged abuse that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, where priests and institutions may have permitted sexual predators license to prey upon the most vulnerable in the church, the children. Of all the things Jesus made clear in the New Testament, few words were more pointed or unequivocal than those he spoke against those who would harm children.

Yet, this is not an editorial adding our condemnation for a stiff-necked church unwilling to admit its role in unspeakable crimes. It wasn’t just institutional indifference, it went beyond that.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael O’Loughlin | Mar. 11, 2014

Lay Catholics who were given the chance to respond to a Vatican questionnaire on family-related issues greeted the opportunity with relish, but it may be that laypeople in just over a third of the nearly 200 Catholic dioceses in the U.S. were given that opportunity.

NCR scoured websites and publications of U.S. dioceses looking for signs of how dioceses invited Catholics to respond to Pope Francis’s October 2013 request to distribute “immediately” and “as widely as possible” a questionnaire on issues such as contraception, same-sex marriage, and divorce. The results from dioceses around the world will become input for the Synod of Bishops on the family in Rome in October.

NCR found 78 dioceses with clear, easily accessible information about what the survey was and how Catholics could participate, either through online surveys, direct consultations (a bishop in Alaska hosted a town hall meeting) or parish input. Some bishops announced they would be consulting priest councils or other diocesan structures to gather responses to the questionnaire.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 11, 2014

CARDINAL George Pell told a victim of child sex abuse by a Catholic priest that his treatment at the hands of church lawyers was “legal abuse”, despite the court case effectively preventing other victims taking action against the church

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 11, 2014

CARDINAL George Pell was “completely out of the loop” during the running of a highly controversial legal case against him, which effectively established that the Catholic Church in Australia cannot be sued for child sex abuse committed by a priest.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the former Archbishop of Sydney was given misleading information about the case, which was brought by a former Sydney altar boy, John Ellis.

The case was ultimately decided by the NSW Court of Appeal in 2007, which found that neither the archbishop nor the trustees of the archdiocese could be sued over abuse committed by a priest.

During a subsequent private meeting in 2009, Cardinal Pell apologised to Mr Ellis for the way the case was handled, saying he did not know Mr Ellis had previously offered to settle for a fraction of the amount the archdiocese ultimately spent on the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Lawyers acting for the Catholic Church and Cardinal George Pell offered to waive $500,000 in legal costs if a survivor of child sexual abuse agreed not to appeal against a court ruling.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining the experiences of John Ellis, who unsuccessfully pursued civil litigation against the church and Sydney Archbishop Cardinal Pell for the abuse he suffered an altar boy.

Mr Ellis told the commission he understood the church had accepted as fact his abuse at the hands of Father Aidan Duggan at Christ the King’s Church in Bass Hill, Sydney from 1974 to 1979.

But when the matter reached court, church lawyers questioned his honesty.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

A JURY IS SET to return today for a fourth day of deliberations in a Philadelphia priest’s sexual-assault trial.

The Rev. Andrew McCormick is accused of molesting a 10-year-old altar boy in a rectory bedroom in 1997.

The jury deliberated for the day yesterday without reaching a verdict on the five counts.

McCormick, 57, is the latest in a string of Philadelphia priests charged with child sexual assault. City prosecutors have been investigating the Roman Catholic church’s handling of abuse complaints since 2002.

McCormick denies molesting anyone during his 30-year church career. He concedes that he was twice reprimanded by the Archdiocese for his behavior around children.

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CANADA
CBC

By Alison Smith, CBC News Posted: Mar 11, 2014

From the moment he stepped onto the Vatican balcony high above St. Peter’s Square, it was clear there was something different about him.

He wore a plain white robe, a simple cross and offered a casual “Good evening.”

“Buona sera,” he said, and the crowd roared its approval.

In the year since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, that roar has hardly diminished.

“Rock star Pope takes the world by storm,” says longtime Vatican journalist John Allen. “That’s become the dominant narrative.”

As Allen, who writes for the Boston Globe and works regularly in Rome, points out, the story of the Catholic Church a year ago was scandal — pedophile priests, Vatican bank corruption and gay conspiracies in the Vatican.

Those stories haven’t gone away, Allen say, but Pope Francis now dominates headlines about the Catholic Church. …

But on perhaps the most important issue, the one that has struck at the very heart of the church’s moral authority, Pope Francis has yet to take significant steps.

Late last year, Francis announced a special commission would be set up to deal with the sexual abuse of children by priests. No one has been named to that commission, nor has its mandate been established.

‘Why me?’

Brenda Brunelle, who lives in Windsor, Ont., was abused by a local priest when she was just 13 years old.

A devoted Catholic, she lived with the shame and anger all of her adult life.

“All I wanted to know was: ‘Why me?’ ” she says.

When finally as a grown woman she asked for a meeting with her abuser to help her heal, she was rebuffed.

“And the last statement made to me,” she says, “was that when this particular priest dies, the Vicar General will walk with me to his graveside and assist me with closure at that time.”

That was five years ago and Brunelle hasn’t been back to church since. Closure for her now, she says can only come with real reform.

Children in the church to this day, she argues, are not safe.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will end its eight-year practice of providing parochial school tuition to children of clergy sex-abuse victims at the end of this school year, citing low participation and a desire to refocus its spending on efforts that directly aid the abused.

The news, quietly announced to participants last spring, has drawn the ire of beneficiaries who count the decision as yet another betrayal by church officials. And it has come as a surprise to people who were potentially eligible for help but say they were never told about the program.

“It was the least they could do for me,” said Matthew Woodruff, 49, who testified before a Philadelphia jury in 2012 about his childhood abuse at the hands of his parish priest in Bucks County. “I never got a nickel or an apology for what happened to me as a kid.”

Since 2010, Woodruff’s 15-year-old son and daughter have attended parochial schools in Levittown, most recently Conwell-Egan Catholic High School – a school he says he never could have afforded without the tuition assistance offered to victims.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

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

YAKIMA, Wash. — Missing records, disputed accounts of an event 15 years ago and its aftereffects all surfaced Monday on the opening day of hearings in a $3 million lawsuit by a man who said he was raped by a deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima.

In opening arguments in U.S. District Court, attorney Bryan D. Smith said his client had been a teenager with a promising academic and athletic future before reporting he’d been raped by church deacon Aaron Ramirez in a trailer on the grounds of Zillah’s Resurrection Catholic Church.

Smith said the man, identified in court records as John Doe, was 17 years old and had overcome childhood physical and sexual abuse, was a star wrestler, a cross-country runner and second in command of his high school’s junior ROTC.

But Smith said the 1999 incident started a downward spiral into addiction as the young man lost interest in school and athletics, became suicidal and was later discharged from Marine Corps boot camp for medical reasons.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

At 10:15 a.m. this morning in Courtroom 1102, Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright read the details of the sex crimes that Father Andrew McCormick is charged with.

The jury, beginning their second day of deliberations, had asked the judge for a read back on the charges.

Judge Bright began with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, which in this case involved oral sex with a minor. “The slightest degree of penetration is sufficient,” the judge told the jury. She went on for ten minutes to detail the elements of that crime, along with four other charges against the priest: sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault of a child, and corrupting the morals of a minor.

In the second row of the courtroom, four nuns in full habits weren’t listening to the gory details. Instead, they had their heads bowed, they held their rosary beads while they silently prayed for “Father Andy.”

“It’s atrocious to have it associated with him,” Sister Jacinta Miryam Hanley said of the sex crimes that Father Andy is accused of. The alleged victim in this case is a former 10-year-old altar boy who said that 17 years ago, Father Andy assaulted him in the rectory of St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg.

When the jury left the courtroom to deliberate, the nuns continued their prayer vigil outside in the hallway with Father Andy on the 11th floor of the Criminal Justice Center. The nuns, who were saying the rosary, were joined by other supporters of the priest.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A priest who was acquitted in 2012 of sexual assault charges against a teenage girl is to return to ministry in the Diocese of Derry.

Fr Eugene Boland, a parish priest in Cappagh, County Tyrone, stepped aside four years ago while the allegations were investigated.

The administrator of the diocese said both the legal proceedings and Church processes have now been completed.

Fr Boland will resume his duties during a Mass in his parish on Saturday night.

Fr Francis Bradley, Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Derry, said: “I am glad the civil and canonical processes in respect of Fr Eugene Boland have drawn to a close.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Posted: Monday, March 10, 2014
Jacob Fischler | The Monitor

EDINBURG — District Attorney-elect Ricardo Rodriguez today declined an appointment by the current occupant of the office to act as special prosecutor on the 54-year-old Irene Garza murder case.

In a three-paragraph letter he delivered personally to Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra’s office just before 2:30 p.m., Rodriguez rebuffed the appointment Guerra sent him Friday. In the letter, Rodriguez took issue with Guerra’s public and private conduct since election night and questioned his motives and authority to make the appointment.

“If however you are offering to hire me under your administration, I decline. I do not wish to work for you,” he wrote.

The unsolved case of the 1960 murder of Garza — a 25-year-old McAllen beauty queen — murder resurfaced during the campaign between Rodriguez and Guerra, which ended with Rodriguez winning 64 percent of the countywide vote to 36 percent for Guerra.

The case garnered more attention in the campaign’s closing weeks when Garza’s relatives and others at campaign events publicly questioned Guerra’s handling of the 2004 reopening of the case. CBS ran an hour-long 48 Hours episode profiling the case — that Guerra said portrayed him unfavorably — two days before Election Day. CNN also ran an hour-long show about the case in May.

But it is unclear how much the case affected the race’s outcome, as the early voting — that concluded before the 48 Hours episode ran — broke heavily for Rodriguez.

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KANSAS
Dodge City Daily Globe

By Nancy Calderon
Dodge City Daily Globe
Posted Mar. 7, 2014

DODGE CITY
Longtime Ford County resident and Pastor Dr. Jerrold W. Ketner, 79, was arrested Friday, March 7, in connection with rape allegations.

Dr. Ketner is being charged with seven counts:

Count one, rape, with a potential jail sentence of up to 653 months; count two, attempted criminal sodomy, with a potential jail sentence of up to 247 months; count three, aggravated sexual battery, with a potential jail sentence of up to 136 months; count four, attempted rape, with a potential jail sentence of up to 247 months; count five, attempted criminal sodomy, with a potential jail sentence of up to 247 months; count six, aggravated criminal sexual battery, with a potential jail sentence of up to 136 months and count seven, blackmail, with a potential jail sentence of up to 34 months.

According to the Dodge City Police Department the sexual assault investigation involving a 33 year-old female victim began at noon on March 6.

Dr. Ketner’s $100,000 bond was modified to a $10,000 cash bond at his first appearance via video Friday, March 7, in Ford County District Court.

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KANSAS
The Raw Story

By Tom Boggioni
Monday, March 10, 2014

A longtime Dodge City resident and pastor, aged 79, was arrested Friday, in connection with multiple rape and sexual assault allegations.

According to the Dodge Globe, Pastor Dr. Jerrold W. Ketner has been charged with seven counts of rape and sexual assault in the case, involving a 33 year-old female victim.

Charges against the pastor include: rape, two counts of attempted criminal sodomy, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, attempted rape, and one count of blackmail.

The Dodge City Police Department opened the sexual assault investigation on the pastor of New Hope on the Plains church on March 6.

On March 7, Ketner’s $100,000 bond was modified to a $10,000 cash bond in Ford County District Court with District Judge Ann L. Dixon ordering the defendant to be placed under immediate house arrest if he should post bond

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CANADA
The Telegram

The RNC confirmed today it has received a complaint regarding a member of a parish in St. John’s.

The RNC’s criminal investigation division is conducting an investigation, however, police are unable to discuss any evidence gathered at this point.

The name of the person of interest or suspect will be withheld and will only be released if charges are laid.

While the RNC would not name a person of interest, or the parish, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s announced Saturday it has removed Father Wayne Dohey from his position as parish priest of St. Patrick’s Parish.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury will resume deliberations Tuesday in the sex-assault trial of Rev. Andrew McCormick, a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at a Northeast church in 1997.

The jury of nine women and three men ended a second full day of deliberations Monday without a verdict. The jurors began their day having Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright reinstruct them in the law.

McCormick, 57, is charged in five counts involving sexual assault, child endangerment, and corrupting minors in an incident that allegedly occurred when McCormick was a priest at St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A Tyrone-based parish priest who was acquitted of indecent assault is to return to his role in the ministry.

The Diocese of Derry has confirmed Father Eugene Boland will resume his ministry at a vigil mass this Saturday.

Fr Boland stepped aside on 15 August 2010 on foot of allegations made against him.

Two years later Fr Boland was found not guilty of five charges of indecent assault.

In a statement the diocese said legal proceedings in both the civil courts and in a Church canonical process have been completed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Westport News

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia jury is set to return Tuesday for a fourth day of deliberations in a priest’s sexual-assault trial.

The Rev. Andrew McCormick is accused of molesting a 10-year-old altar boy in a rectory bedroom in 1997.

The jury deliberated for the day Monday without reaching a verdict on the five counts.

The 57-year-old McCormick is the latest in a string of Philadelphia priests charged with child sexual assault. City prosecutors have been investigating the Roman Catholic church’s handling of abuse complaints since 2002.

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WASHINGTON
The Raw Story

By Scott Kaufman
Monday, March 10, 2014

According to documents obtained by WORLD, a Seattle pastor spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars of his church’s money to put his book on The New York Times bestseller list.

The documents indicate that Mark Driscoll, the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church, and one of the church’s elders, John Sutton Turner, paid ResultSource Inc. (RSI) $210,000 “to conduct a bestseller campaign for your book, Real Marriage on the week of January 2, 2012. The bestseller campaign is intended to place Real Marriage on The New York Times bestseller list for the Advice How-To list.”

WORLD reporter Warren Cole Smith told KOMO News that “[t]he idea was to make it look like all of these books were spontaneously bought by individuals.”

Smith added that “[a]ll the major bestseller lists discourage the practice and they put safeguards in place to prevent people buying their way onto the New York Times bestseller list.”

The contract signed by church elder Turner — obtained by Warren Throckmorton — states that RSI needed the church “to provide a minimum of 90 different addresses for shipping the books to the author’s clients for the bulk purchases. The addresses need to be spread around the country with no more than 3 addresses per state [because] the NYT bestseller list requires a minimum of 90 geographically disperse addresses.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Francis W. “Frank” Callan was ordained a priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in 1946. He was transferred often over the next three decades, from the diocese of Spokane to Great Falls, Boise City, Baker, Gallup, Tucson and Portland OR, working in parishes and schools. In the early 1970s he was assigned to a chaplaincy at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, where he stayed until his death in 1991. Callan’s name was included in 2011 on a list of members of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province identified as perpetrators of sexual abuse. The Province agreed to make the list public as part of a bankruptcy reorganization plan. Details of accusations against Callan were not provided.

Ordained: 1946
Died: April 19, 1991

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

[Summary: In Munster, the German Bishops’ Conference is seeking a successor for Robert Zollitsch. Christian Weisner of We Are Church said it’s a difficult talk because of credibility and disruption of the Catholic Church.]

In Münster sucht die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz einen Nachfolger für Robert Zollitsch. Der Neue habe die schwierige Aufgabe, Glaubwürdigkeit und Zerrissenheit der katholischen Kirche wiederherzustellen, sagte Christian Weisner von “Wir sind Kirche” im DLF.

Dirk-Oliver Heckmann: Robert Zollitsch, er war in den vergangenen sechs Jahren das Gesicht der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland. Es waren keine einfachen Jahre, fiel in seine Amtszeit die Aufdeckung des Missbrauchsskandals ebenso wie die Affäre um den Limburger Bischof Tebartz-van Elst. Die Glaubwürdigkeit der katholischen Kirche zumindest in Ansätzen wieder herzustellen, eine gewaltige Aufgabe für den Vorsitzenden der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, und auch eine Aufgabe für seinen Nachfolger wird das sein, denn Robert Zollitsch scheidet mit 75 Jahren altersbedingt aus. In Münster auf der Frühjahrsvollversammlung der Bischofskonferenz, suchen die katholischen Würdenträger ab heute einen Nachfolger.

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

New York’s Archbishop and Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave an interview to Meet the Press yesterday that covered many of the changes in the Catholic Church seen since the beginning of Pope Francis’s papacy. He spent much of the interview batting back public perceptions of Francis’s radicalism, as well as being generally “uncomfortable” about the gays.

According to Dolan, Francis’s public statements (like his seeming indifference towards gay civil unions or his lefty first Apostolic Exhortation) are simply “part of his shrewd strategy…We’ve all had good teachers that almost tease us, you know, to say, ‘Oh, I wonder what he meant. I hope he comes back to that. I hope he clarifies, gets us asking questions and probing.’ I think that’s part of his strategy.” Calling the Pope a “bridge builder,” Dolan argued that there was no “bristling among the conservatives,” who he said were instead “rejoicing in…the evangelical fervor, the good interest in the life of the church.” …

In addition to civil unions, Dolan commented on the sex abuse crisis that has gripped the Church and deeply shaken its moral authority. In the same interview in which Pope Francis mused about civil unions, he called the Catholic church “the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility” in regards to responding to sex abuse cases. Dolan added to this narrative of an innocent Church under attack, arguing that Catholics are angry “that bishops… have not reacted with the rigor and the scrupulous action that was necessary.” But Catholics are also angry that the church keeps “being picked on.”

Not to pick on Dolan, but the Irish government found that Catholic authorities were attempting to frustrate civil investigations into sex abuse in Ireland as recently as 2008. Additionally, Dolan was allegedly caught paying off abusers and shielding money from victims at his most recent posting in Milwaukee.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Lauren Boyle

Within the last year, the Catholic Church has garnered a bounty of something it hasn’t seen in decades: positive attention.

The man responsible for the change in the Church’s public reputation is Pope Francis, a candid Jesuit who seems a world away from his traditionalist predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. His effect on the Church seems so palpable that it has a name: the Francis effect — the idea that that he has brought change to the Church and, by doing so, can call the world’s wayward Catholics back to Mass in droves.

Recently, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll that revealed the promise — and the shortcomings — of the Francis effect. According to the poll, over 80 percent of Catholics view him as the leader in a favorable change for the Church, a new direction for a centuries-old institution not exactly notorious for changing its mind on anything. Francis’ popularity ratings hearken back to the days of Pope John Paul II, whose emphasis on interfaith dialogue and the importance of young Catholics won huge approval from believers and non-believers alike.

However, the results of the poll also suggested that regular Mass attendance, volunteer service and attendance at the sacrament of Reconciliation have not significantly increased since Pope Francis stepped into the Vatican. Now, people are asking, “Why?”

The answer is because one man, no matter how revolutionary or wonderful, cannot save a Church damaged by decades of indiscretion and abuse in one year.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

As Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput prepares to take his delegation of corporate executives to the Vatican March 24 to prepare for the World Meeting of Families in September 2015 in the City of Brotherly Love, there is a crucial item that should be included on his agenda.

He should ensure that the issue of children’s safety is a high priority when planning this international event with Pope Francis.

The meeting, designed to “emphasize the good news of the family and highlight its intrinsic value to the good of society,” would be the ideal time for the pontiff to publicly condemn clerical sexual abuse and its deleterious effects on children — and, subsequently, their families.

It would be the perfect occasion for the Holy Father to define decisive actions to bring to justice any pedophiles still among church ranks and make accountable their superiors who have permitted them continued access to children.

After decades of the hierarchy protecting pedophile priests, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was forced to take a stand in 2002 when the molestation conviction of a Boston priest opened a Pandora’s Box of clerical sexual abuse allegations across the country. The bishops formulated a policy requiring all reports of suspected child abuse within the U.S. church community be turned over to civil authorities. Since then the abuse scandal has exploded worldwide.

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CANADA
Beacon News

A 59-year old Catholic Priest who was practising in the Manning area in 2013, is facing sex-related charges after a minor reported to police he was sexually assaulted by the accused.

Abraham Azhakathu has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference. He was arrested on Friday, Mar. 8 and released from police custody late Saturday after a judicial interim release hearing.

Cpl. Carol McKinley of the RCMP says “The charges are as a result of a minor reporting the assaults that occurred during 2013, to RCMP in Manning”. She adds that as the matter is now before the courts, no further information will be released.

“Protection of the minor’s identity is paramount, and therefore, age and sex will not be released”, says McKinley.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Reporter

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia jury is reviewing legal instructions on the third day of deliberations in a priest’s sexual-assault trial.

The Rev. Andrew McCormick is accused of molesting a 10-year-old altar boy in a rectory bedroom in 1997.

McCormick is the latest in a string of Philadelphia priests charged with child sexual assault. City prosecutors have been investigating the Roman Catholic church’s handling of abuse complaints since 2002.

A change in Pennsylvania law has given them more time to pursue criminal charges in child-victim cases.

McCormick denies molesting anyone during his 30-year church career. He concedes that he was twice reprimanded by the archdiocese for his behavior around children.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 10, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

The Pope’s insensitivity to child sex abuse victims continues. He tapped three prelates for his Council on Economy whose words and deeds regarding clergy sex crimes and cover ups deeply trouble us.

[Vatican Information Service]

Two of them (Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston and Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City) have terrible histories of concealing child sex crimes.

[SNAP]

[SNAP]

A third (Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa) said, less than a year ago, that sexual abuse by pedophiles was not a criminal condition (and was forced by the public uproar to apologize).

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 10, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

In a savvy public relations move before he testifies to a government panel, Cardinal George Pell now conveniently claims he’s OK with Catholic officials being sued when they ignore or conceal clergy sex crimes. He’s being disingenuous.

[The Guardian]

We disagree with those who claim Pell’s carefully-crafted statement “marked a significant shift.” Words don’t protect kids and help victims. Actions do. And only decisive action by Pell and his colleagues can even begin to un-do a tiny bit of the horrific harm they’ve caused hundreds.

And remember: no matter what Pell claims or promises or recommends about Australia, he’ll soon be in Italy. He will have no real ability to follow up on his words.

Pell also claims that Catholic officials are devising some “church mechanism” that would enable victims to sue the hierarchy. We are highly skeptical.

Victims don’t need yet another internal, biased secretive church process. Victims need Catholic officials to either stop fighting victims in the secular justice system or to at least fight fair.

Pell shamelessly tries to distance himself and his complicit colleagues from mean-spirited and selfish legal tactics by blaming attorneys: “Whatever position was taken by the lawyers during the litigation, or by lawyers or individuals within the archdiocese following the litigation. . .”

That’s deceitful. They lawyers didn’t make these decisions. Callous church officials like Pell did.

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