ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ANDREW FAGAN

RITE & REASON: The courage of the abused is helping the church put preventative measures in place

MEASURES TAKEN by the church in Ireland to make it a safer place for children are showing their effect. The most recent publication of statistics by its Child Safeguarding and Protection Service show a marked decline in alleged child sexual abuse incidents by priests reported to the Archdiocese of Dublin from a peak in the 1980s.

This does not mean that the story of child abuse by priests can be laid aside as history. We all need constant reminding of the devastation caused by the abuse of hundreds of children by a small but by no means insignificant number of priests in Dublin over many years. Sadly, a number of them were serial child abusers who wreaked havoc and destroyed the lives of children and families – havoc and hurt compounded by the stunning failure to address these crimes.

Over the past two decades, since revelations of child abuse by priests came into the public domain, the archdiocese, together with other dioceses and religious congregations, has persisted in implementing quality programmes of child safeguarding.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

by Pat Ciarrocchi

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Tuesday morning, 61 year old Monsignor William Lynn will be back on the witness stand at the Criminal Justice Center testifying in his own defense.

Lynn, a priest for 36 years and the one time Secretary of the Clergy, is the highest ranking Catholic Church administrator to be tried for his handling of clergy sex abuse.

“There are some hard questions he’s got to answer,” says John White of Downingtown. On Thursday, White had traveled to Philadelphia and spent the day in Courtroom 304, praying for his pastor.

“We’re very concerned about how he is being treated. He’s probably the nicest gentleman I’ve ever known and I think that will come out in the end.”

The jury, which begins its tenth week on duty, won’t be judging nice.

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CANADA
Brandon Sun

BRANTFORD, Ont. – A former Catholic priest who served in parishes throughout southern Ontario has been sentenced to 15 months in jail.

James Boudreau was convicted on one count of sexual assault involving a teenager, dating back to 1984.

Boudreau was also sentenced to six months on a second charge after another person came forward regarding an incident in 1983.

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CANADA
Guelph Mercury

GUELPH — Former priest James Boudreau nodded to a handful of supporters as he was led out of a courtroom Monday to begin jail terms for two historic sexual assaults.

One jail term is 15 months in length. The second sentence is for a six-month term. It will run concurrently with the longer one.

“I believe it was on the harsh side,” defense attorney Roger Yachetti said, in a brief interview outside the Ontario Court of Justice room. He’ll seek instruction from Boudreau, but doubted an appeal will be launched.

Crown prosecutor Steve Hamilton termed Justice Gary Hearn’s decision “well reasoned” and “appropriate.”

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 28, 2012

Talking to your teen about sexual abuse? Don’t worry. Just take a deep breath and keep reading.

If your kids are younger, start here.

Usually, teen victims will reach out to their peers—friends who have no training, few skills and lack the maturity to properly report the abuse to the cops and get the victim help. Many times, the victim will swear the friend to secrecy. The friend, seeing how the victim has already been hurt and betrayed, will readily keep the secret. If the abuser is a teacher of someone the friend knows, the peer will keep the secret out of fear.

It’s a lose-lose: We have another teen who is suffering from vicarious trauma, fear and stress because they are forced to “keep the secret.” This happened in my own case, and the long-term wounds that many of my high school classmates suffered were just as deep and long-lasting as my own. Teen victims are also more likely to be blamed for the abuse (“Why did you keep going back?” “Why didn’t you just punch the guy?” “You must have wanted it.”), so the lifetime effects of the abuse can be more debilitating and shameful for everyone involved.

You’re a parent of a teenager. What the hell do you do now?

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Justice for Magdalenes campaign group has discovered that women were transferred from State-funded mother and baby homes to Magdalene laundries, where they were held against their will and without their children.

The group said the evidence strengthens the case for an immediate State apology and compensation to former detainees.

Last year the UN Committee Against Torture strongly criticised the Government’s failure to apologise to and compensate former detainees of the State’s 10 Catholic-run Magdalene laundries.

Today some 500 pages of testimony – gathered in recent months from 13 survivors – was given to the McAleese Committee, which was established by the Government in response to the UN’s criticisms.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Colin Campbell
BBC South East Home Affairs Correspondent

The Church of England has carried out a investigation into a former Sussex bishop, the BBC has learnt.

The Right Reverend Bishop Peter Ball resigned in 1993 after receiving a police caution for committing an act of gross indecency against a teenager.

Files kept at Lambeth Palace about the former Bishop of Lewes are being scrutinised by police.

A Church of England spokesman said the church had instigated a review of the files and could not comment further.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Anna Patty
May 29, 2012

“With the accused priest either penniless or deceased, and the church itself not being a legal entity able to be sued in its own right, victims of sexual abused are left with no legal remedy” … Greens MP David Shoebridge. Photo: Nick Moir

VICTIMS of alleged sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests claim they have been denied adequate compensation because the church has its assets locked up in property trusts.

The NSW Greens released a draft bill yesterday that aims to hold the Catholic Church financially responsible for such abuse.

The Greens MP David Shoebridge said the NSW Court of Appeal held, in a landmark 2007 case, that the church’s assets, controlled by property trusts, could not be accessed by victims of sexual abuse.

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CITTA DEL VATICAN
Il Messaggero

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO – Al di là di Porta Sant’Anna tutto scorre come se apparentemente non stesse capitando niente di speciale. Frotte di turisti che vanno e vengono, le guardie svizzere che si fannofotografare dai giapponesi, il solito traffico di auto targate Scv che entrano ed escono dal confine. Eppure lassù, nell’Appartamento, quello con la A maiuscola, tutti gli sviluppi, anche minimi che stanno emergendo dalla più grave inchiesta che sia mai capitata in tempi recenti vengono seguiti con estrema attenzione.

Per ora in carcere c’è solo Paolo Gabriele, un uomo semplice sul quale pesano sospetti terribili. E’ il bandolo della matassa, il terminale, magari inconsapevole, di una filiera che porta in alto. A questo punto gli inquirenti non escludono nemmeno un cardinale. Per questo gli sforzi investigativi sono concentrati sul maggiordomo, sul suo passato, si passano a setaccio i suoi conti correnti e quelli dei familiari. Si cerca di capire a chi era diretta quella miniera di carte sottratte al Papa, pazientemente riprodotte e meticolosamente catalogate dopo che erano transitate su una delle scrivanie ritenute più sicure al mondo. E pensare che in pochissimi sono ammessi in quella stanza dall’atmosfera rarefatta.

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

AFP
May 29, 2012

An UNNAMED cardinal is suspected of being a leading mole behind a series of embarrassing leaks of confidential papal documents, the Italian media reported yesterday.

“A cardinal led the crow,” read the headline in Il Messaggero, referring to the Pope’s personal butler Paolo Gabriele, who was arrested last week in the “Vatileaks” scandal after secret papers were found in his home.

“The real brains are the cardinals. Then there are the monsignors, secretaries and smaller fry,” according to one source quoted by La Repubblica.

Gabriele, who has worked at the Vatican since 2006 and was one of a select few with access to the Pope’s private quarters, was arrested a month after the Pope set up a special commission of cardinals to probe the leaks.

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ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

MILANO – «Non c’è nessun cardinale italiano o straniero sospettato, né nessuna donna è indagata». Lo ha affermato il portavoce della Santa Sede, padre Federico Lombardi. «Tutto questo – ha detto padre Lombardi – lo smentisco in modo totale». «Faccio presente – ha spiegato il portavoce – che la Commissione nominata dal Papa sente diverse persone fra cui cardinali, ma questo non significa che siano sospettati». Ed è falso anche, ha assicurato, che «ci sia qualche donna indagata». Insomma, ha scandito, «è pura fantasia quanto afferma una presunta intervista pubblicata su un quotidiano».

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Corriere della Sera

[con il video]

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO – Che nell’indagine sui corvi si facesse sul serio lo si era capito già il mese scorso, quando Benedetto XVI istituì la commissione cardinalizia con pieni poteri presieduta dal porporato dell’Opus Dei Julián Herranz e con il prefetto emerito di Propaganda Fide Jozef Tomko e Salvatore De Giorgi, già arcivescovo di Palermo. In apparenza poteva sembrare pletorica, da settimane erano già in corso l’indagine penale del Tribunale vaticano e quella amministrativa della Segreteria di Stato. Ma una commissione simile ha due caratteristiche fondamentali: risponde direttamente al Papa e, con piena autorità, può indagare su chiunque. Gia allora si era messo in conto che l’inchiesta sulla fuga di notizie, al di là della manovalanza, potesse toccare livelli più alti, fino al Collegio cardinalizio: «Agirà in forza del mandato pontificio a tutti i livelli».

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

VATICAN CITY | Mon May 28, 2012

(Reuters) – The faith of Roman Catholics in their Church has been damaged by a scandal over leaked documents in which the pope’s butler has been arrested, the Vatican said on Monday.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The IOR events divide the cardinals. Thursday the lay governing council of the ‘Vatican bank’ fired its president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi with a series of accusations. But most people know that the ‘pope’s strongbox’ is looked after by a double management. Above the lay-supervisory council is the cardinals’ commssion which met on Friday, but was unable to release a statement.This was an unprecedented event and a sign that an agreement has not yet been reached. the committee includes cardinals Attilio Nicora, Jean-Louis Tauran, Telesphore Placidus Toppo and Odilo Pedro Scherer, led by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone . Apparently Nicora and Tauran criticised Bertone over his management of Gotti Tedeschi’s dismissal and the issue of the negotiation which would lead the Holy See to finally join Ocse’s ‘white list’ , a record of financially virtuous countries”.

The experts from Moneyval, the European Council group that deals with rating countries’ measures against money laundering and terror funding are still monitoring the Vatican’s regulations and procedures. Moreover Nicora resents Bertone for taking power away from the Aif, the Vatican internal information authority that he leads, slowing down the journey towards financial transparency. It is hard to tell if the clash within the cardinals’commission involves the evaluation of Gotti Tedeschi’s work. But there are no doubts that this will have repercussions on the nomination of the new president. At the moment the favourite to succeed Gotti Tedeschi is vice-president Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz, a banker from Piacenza. But the there are many theories. The ideal candidate is the former leader of Bundesbank, Hans Tietmeyer, from Germany, who would be a welcome choice for the pope, but he is very old. Now within the cardinals’commission there are two distinct currents. On one side those (Nicora, Tauran) who believe that transparency, the need to comply with international standard to be included in the ‘white list’ is paramount, on the other those who like Bertone believe that this line of action must be followed with moderation, since the Vatican is unqiue and cannot be compared with other sovreign states. Apparently Moneyval concluded, after the first inspection, last November, that the new regulation was ‘too vague’ . It therefore went through quite substantial changes.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

A lay functionary under scrutiny: he could be arrested

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Interrogations of the lay officials of the Secretariat of State, a hunt for the possible mastermind behind the infiltrators, internal ‘governance’ in anguish. Scandals even graver than this (such as the Calvi case) occurred in the Wotyla papcy, but today the media coverage is multiplied. Vatican investigators seek evidence, proof, and possible “higher level” accomplices, in fact, Vatican public prosecutor Nicola Picardi’s “initial investigation” has already been closed, and the phase of “formal investigation”, conducted by Judge Piero Antonio Bonnet, has already begun.

Yesterday the Pope mentioned the Gospel: “the wind shakes the House of God, but it does not fall”. No direct reference to the Vatileaks scandal, though the reference does mention clouds that are gathering of the skies of the present. The transition to the formal stage, said spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, has made it possible to officially release the name of the arrested individual; furthermore, it involves a real arrest to all effects, given that in the Vatican, the practice taking a suspect into “custody” does not exist. The investigation has been proceeding swiftly thanks to the fact that it’s entirely within the Vatican’s jurisdiction: Gabriele is a Vatican citizen, and lives next to the Gendarmerie, and it was in his home were the “confidential documents were discovered.” Full-court investigations, which don’t exclude “other acts”; for this reason, the length of the investigation could even lengthen. Again in the afternoon, Fr. Lombardi intervened to explain that “the judiciary has now charged Paolo Gabriele simply with the crime of aggravated theft: we are at a very early stage of criminal proceedings, therefore the high estimates regarding an eventual prison sentence printed by some newspapers have absolutely no justification”. A clarification with respect to some reports, according to which Gabriele would have been charged with crimes such as a violation of the correspondence of a head of state, and thus an attack on state security, with a penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The statement of the director of the Vatican Press Office following developments in the saga of the papal butler’s arrest

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The director of the Vatican Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi has confirmed that “there are no Italian or foreign cardinals being investigated” in light of the arrest of the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele.

“This is a painful situation for many people, because of their acquaintance and closeness to Paolo and because of the negative light in which it may portray the Church and the Holy See,” the Jesuit priest and Vatican spokesman recalled. He then said that “the Pope is informed about and aware of the situation and is maintaining his faith and moral superiority.”

The Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was recently arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential Vatican documents, “will collaborate fully” in the investigations, his lawyer, Carlo Fusco confirmed, in a communiqué issued by the Vatican Press Office.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

A source close to the butler “ He has either gone crazy or has been framed”

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock”. Benedict XVI exhausted, grieved, but still smiling yesterday reminded believers of Rinnovamento dello Spirito (Renewal of the Spirit) of Jesus’ words. Even though the Vatican was founded on the rock, its foundations keep shaking after the unexpected turn of events with the arrest of Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, on suspicion of leaking hundred of confidential documents which he would have taken from the pope’s private desk.

In the Sacred palaces, yesterday morning, there was a sense of annoyance for the articles spreading doubts over the accusations and describing the shock of many people in the Vatican at the possibility that someone like ‘little Paolo’ could be a mole. “ the documents that were found in his possession and which he should not have had are incontrovertible evidence of his guilt” said the Secretariat of State.

After the disbelief and shock, faced with the fact that the pope’s butler was illegally in possession of various documents, many in and outside the Vatican pondered about the butler’s motives and the people behind him.

An old priest with a long experience of vatican trials invited people to be cautious “ The arrest took place Wednesday evening, the butler’s home was searched in that occasion and the documents were found. But a serious enquiry, worthy of its name, before labelling him a ‘mole’ would have to find elements proving how those documents exchanged hands”. The cleric added “ we all feel embarassed and sad, Paolo’s family is crushed. Whoever pushed him to do such things is guiltier than him, because he used a naive person…”

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

THREE DAYS after the sensational arrest of Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, and four days after the dismissal of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of Vatican bank IOR, the Holy See remains in crisis.

In a climate that smells of a witch hunt, further arrests are predicted as Vatican police attempt to solve “Vatileaks”, the leaking of private documentation from the papal apartment.

In an audience with the Renewal in the Holy Spirit movement on Saturday, Pope Benedict appeared to make reference to the current difficulty when quoting St Matthew: “And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

With the ex-butler Mr Gabriele still in detention (in a Vatican gendarmerie holding room, since there is no Vatican prison), those winds continue to blow. Furthermore, as the international clamour makes itself more manifest, there were all the indications powerful figures in the Holy See were busily engaged in a Stalinist-style rewrite of history.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 26 May 2012 (VIS) – Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. today made the following declaration concerning investigations taking place in the Vatican on the leaking of reserved documents.

“I can confirm that the individual arrested on Wednesday evening for illegal possession of reserved documents, which were found in his domicile located within Vatican territory, is Mr. Paolo Gabriele, who is still being held in detention.

“The first phase of the ‘summary investigation’ under the direction of Nicola Picardi, promoter of justice, has come to an end and given way to the phase of ‘formal investigation’, which is being conducted by Piero Antonio Bonnet, investigating magistrate.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

For those wishing to be involved in planning a gathering in the West similar to what we had in Dublin a few weeks ago, a meeting is planned for Wednesday next, 30 May. it will be held in the MacWilliam Hotel, Claremorris at 8.00pm on Wednesday, May 30th. Anyone interested — lay, religious or priest — is welcome.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Why exactly does the Catholic magisterium seek to prevent Catholic priests from questioning magisterial positions, even on merely disciplinary matters?

The only good reason surely must be to strengthen the authority of those positions, to persuade us that those positions are the only correct ones.

However, I have to say that for this particular Irish Catholic the action recently taken against six Irish priests has had precisely the opposite effect. I strongly believe that the authority of the magisterium itself, and of all clergy who expressly support its positions on controversial disciplinary issues, has never been more seriously undermined in Ireland than by this action.

The reason is that in Ireland we tend to give authority to teachers in proportion to their disinterestedness – the degree to which they obviously derive no personal benefit from what they teach. So, the few Catholic clergy who disregarded the Irish penal laws of the period 1691-1750 gained authority from the fact that they had nothing to gain and everything to lose by staying in Ireland and proclaiming what they taught.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

It was billed as the prosecution’s smoking gun — a worn gray folder of documents passed out to the jury, just before the prosecution rested its case.

Inside the folder were several typed and handwritten documents compiled by Monsignor William J. Lynn that were ordered shredded by Cardinal Bevilacqua in 1994, but 18 years later, those documents mysteriously reappeared in a locked safe at archdiocese headquarters.

The most famous document in the folder was the list of 35 then-active priests compiled by Lynn who had been either convicted or accused of sexual abuse of minors. The smoking gun was supposed to be proof of a conspiracy to protect the Catholic Church and keep its shameful sexual abuse of children hidden at all costs.

But last week, as the defense presented its case, the smoking gun took on another meaning. The way the defense spun it, that worn gray folder was proof that Msgr. Lynn had done his best to expose sexually abusive priests in the ministry, and put his bosses on notice about all of them. The story of how Lynn’s superiors handled those documents, as well as their author, was proof that the monsignor was out of the real power loop in the archdiocese.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Interrogations of the lay officials of the Secretariat of State, a hunt for the possible mastermind behind the infiltrators, internal ‘governance’ in anguish. Scandals even graver than this (such as the Calvi case) occurred in the Wotyla papcy, but today the media coverage is multiplied. Vatican investigators seek evidence, proof, and possible “higher level” accomplices, in fact, Vatican public prosecutor Nicola Picardi’s “initial investigation” has already been closed, and the phase of “formal investigation”, conducted by Judge Piero Antonio Bonnet, has already begun.

Yesterday the Pope mentioned the Gospel: “the wind shakes the House of God, but it does not fall”. No direct reference to the Vatileaks scandal, though the reference does mention clouds that are gathering of the skies of the present. The transition to the formal stage, said spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, has made it possible to officially release the name of the arrested individual; furthermore, it involves a real arrest to all effects, given that in the Vatican, the practice taking a suspect into “custody” does not exist. The investigation has been proceeding swiftly thanks to the fact that it’s entirely within the Vatican’s jurisdiction: Gabriele is a Vatican citizen, and lives next to the Gendarmerie, and it was in his home were the “confidential documents were discovered.” Full-court investigations, which don’t exclude “other acts”; for this reason, the length of the investigation could even lengthen. Again in the afternoon, Fr. Lombardi intervened to explain that “the judiciary has now charged Paolo Gabriele simply with the crime of aggravated theft: we are at a very early stage of criminal proceedings, therefore the high estimates regarding an eventual prison sentence printed by some newspapers have absolutely no justification”. A clarification with respect to some reports, according to which Gabriele would have been charged with crimes such as a violation of the correspondence of a head of state, and thus an attack on state security, with a penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

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ROME
La Repubblica

by MARCO ANSALDO

ROME – Who are the Vatican whistleblowers? “There isn’t just one brain behind the operation, there are several. There are cardinals, private secretaries, monsignors and the small fry. Men and women, priests and laypeople. The whistleblowers even include cardinals. But the Vatican Secretary of State cannot admit that and has the small fry arrested, like “Paoletto” (as Paolo Gabriele is affectionately known), the Pope’s valet. Who has got nothing to do with it apart from having passed on some letters.”

A suburb in the north of Rome, a table in a bar, traffic passing by. It is lunchtime on a now limpid Sunday morning and one of those behind the flow of confidential letters from the Holy See 1 is explaining how the operation works.
“Those doing it are acting to protect the Pope.”

The Pope? Why?
“Because the whistleblower – or rather whistleblowers, because there are more than one of them – want to reveal the corruption inside the church in recent years, since 2009-2010.”

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ROMA
La Repubblica

di MARCO ANSALDO

ROMA – Chi sono i “corvi” del Vaticano? “La mente dell’operazione non è una sola, ma sono più persone”. “Ci sono i cardinali, i loro segretari personali, i monsignori e i pesci piccoli. Donne e uomini, prelati e laici. Tra i “corvi” ci sono anche le Eminenze. Ma la Segreteria di Stato non può dirlo, e fa arrestare la manovalanza, “Paoletto” appunto, il maggiordomo del Papa. Che non c’entra nulla se non per aver recapitato delle lettere su richiesta”. Un quartiere alto di Roma nord, un tavolino di un bar, sempre un po’ di traffico intorno. All’ora di pranzo di una domenica mattina finalmente tersa uno dei “corvi”, gli autori della fuoriuscita di lettere segrete dalla Santa Sede, spiega i dettagli dell’operazione. “Chi lo fa – dice subito – agisce in favore del Papa”.

Per il Papa? E perché?
“Perché lo scopo del “corvo”, o meglio dei “corvi”, perché qui si tratta di più persone, è quello di far emergere il marcio che c’è dentro la Chiesa in questi ultimi anni, a partire dal 2009-2010″.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

FOLLOWING THE Toward an Assembly of the Catholic Church gathering in Dublin’s Regency Hotel three weeks ago, which was attended by over 1,000 Catholic laity, priests and nuns calling for dialogue in the Irish church, two further events are planned for this coming week.

A meeting will take place in All Hallows College, Dublin at 8pm on Wednesday, May 30th. It will discuss the formation of an umbrella group to represent laity interested in supporting reform and renewal in the church.

“We feel that an umbrella organisation will bring greater focus and cohesion to the ‘lay voice’ calling for dialogue,” said Noel McCann, one of the organisers of Wednesday’s meeting.

“Our aim would be to establish the organisation in the mainstream, and with the moral authority coming from a significant membership [so that it can] become relevant to the debate on the future reform and renewal of our church,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

Pope Benedict’s butler Paolo Gabriele has been charged with illegal possession of secret documents that revealed cronyism and corruption in Vatican contracts.

The documents revealed allegations of corruption, mismanagement and cronyism in the awarding of contracts for work in the Vatican and internal disagreement on the management of the Vatican bank.

Press TV has interviewed Gerard O’Connell, a Vatican Affairs analyst in Rome about the ramifications of the leaked information of the internal conduct of the Catholic Church and the investigations that have been opened regarding the matter. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV : Documents that allege corruption in the Vatican contracts with Italian firms… they’ve now hit the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church with the arrest of the Pope’s personal butler.

How sensitive do you think this has become when we speak of it becoming nearer or closer to the Vatican doors?

O’Connell: Well, it’s certainly dramatic. It’s certainly serious. What you are seeing here is the revelation of private correspondence at the heart of government.

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VATICAN CITY
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

The Catholic Church has always had a long history of involvement in illegal activities such as child sex abuse, always covered up by the heads of the Church.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Randy Short, with the Dignity, Human Rights and Peace organization from Washington to further discuss the issue.

The video also offers opinions of two additional guests, the Vatican affairs analyst, Gerard O’Connell from Rome and also, Reverend Dr. Stephen Sizer from the capital city of Tehran. The following is a rough transcript of the interview.

Press TV: The Vatican’s own newspaper for one has ignored the story we have been seeing the Pope himself he has not commented on this in the public appearances that he has made up until now. Do you think that this is an appropriate way to handle the scandal?

Short: Well, for the personas that are in the employ of the Holy See, it would not make a lot of sense for you to do exposes on the persons that sign the cheques that you receive pay from.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

Given intense interest in the arrest of a papal butler charged with being at least one of the moles responsible for the Vatican leaks scandal, I’ll list below the five most common questions I’ve fielded, along with my best stab at a response.

1. Who is this guy?

Paolo Gabriele is a 46-year-old Italian layman, with a wife and three children, who’s worked in the papal apartment since 1998. Gabriele was hired by the personal secretary of Pope John Paul II, Stanislaw Dziwisz, today the cardinal of Krakow. Gabriele’s role was mostly to see to the pope’s clothing, to serve his meals, and to be on hand for other personal needs. He performed the same functions for John Paul and Benedict when they were on the road, travelling on the papal plane.

As such, Gabriele was one of just a handful of people who enjoy direct daily access to the pope, along with Benedict’s two priest-secretaries and the four consecrated lay women belonging to the Memores Domini community who do most of the cooking and cleaning. Benedict XVI, who puts great emphasis on fostering a family spirit among his closest aides, would doubtless see Gabriele as a member of his personal family.

Gabriele, known around the Vatican as “Paoletto” (“little Paul”), has the reputation of being a devout and fairly simple person, not someone who would ordinarily be suspected of involvement in high intrigue.

2. What’s the evidence against him?

Officials familiar with the case say it’s almost a slam-dunk, given that a search of Gabriele’s Vatican apartment turned up stacks of confidential documents along with equipment for making reproductions. Because the Vatican doesn’t have a jail, Gabriele has been detained in one of three secure rooms in the offices of the Vatican gendarmes, a space more often used to accommodate pick-pockets arrested for fleecing the large crowds of tourists on Vatican grounds before they’re turned over to Italian authorities.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on May. 27, 2012 NCR Today

Yesterday the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published an internal memorandum from the Supervisory Council of the Institute for the Works of Religion, popularly known as the “Vatican Bank,” outlining why the council unanimously expressed no confidence in the institute’s president, Italian economist and banker Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

The memo was written in English, the usual working language for council meetings, and was signed by Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus and secretary of the Supervisory Council.

The memo can be found here:

When Gotti Tedeschi was named president of the Institute for the Works of Religion in 2009, he was widely touted as a reformer, the captain of internal financial reforms desired by Pope Benedict XVI. In the years since, however, complaints have repeatedly circulated that Gotti Tedeschi acted as a sort of absentee landlord, taking greater interest in his work with Italian banks and his own speaking and writing rather than his Vatican commitments.

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VATICAN CITY
AsiaOne

Monday, May 28, 2012

ROME – An unnamed cardinal is suspected of being a leading mole behind a series of embarrassing leaks of confidential papal documents, the Italian media reported on Monday.

“A cardinal led the crow,” read the headline in Il Messaggero, referring to Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler Paolo Gabriele who was arrested last week in the “Vatileaks” scandal after secret papers were found in his home.

“The real brains are the cardinals. Then there are the monsignors, secretaries and smaller fry,” according to one source quoted by La Repubblica.

Gabriele, who has worked at the Vatican since 2006 and was one of a select few with access to the pope’s private quarters, was arrested a month after the pope set up a special commission of cardinals to probe the leaks.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (United States)

[with video]

By JEFFREY KOFMAN (@JeffreyKofman) and PHOEBE NATANSON

May 28, 2012

He is always at the Pope Benedict XVI’s side.

Butler Paolo Gabriele, helps the Pope dress in the morning and serves him his meals through the day.

But now the Pope’s loyal butler is under arrest, accused of betraying the man he serves by leaking embarrassing confidential Vatican documents to the Italian media.

The arrest has stunned the Vatican, a place very familiar with intrigue, but not public betrayal by someone so close to Pope.

“The fact that this came from somebody who was in the papal apartment and a member of the papal family is great cause for a crisis of consciousness,” said John Allen, with the U.S. National Catholic Reporter.

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VATICAN CITY
CBC News

The Associated Press

Posted: May 28, 2012

One of the Vatican’s biggest scandals in decades appears to be widening with reports that an Italian cardinal may be involved in a power struggle involving leaked documents, corruption and intrigue.

Leading Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Messaggero reported Monday that the pope’s butler — arrested three days ago for allegedly feeding documents to Italian journalists — clearly did not act alone, and that an unidentified cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the scandal.

The Holy See had no immediate comment, but was planning to brief reporters on the latest developments.

The Vatican’s investigation into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the butler, who reportedly kept a treasure trove of documents in his Vatican apartment.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Mon May 28, 2012

(Reuters) – The worst crisis in Pope Benedict’s pontificate deepened on Monday when Italian media said at least one cardinal was among those suspected of leaking sensitive documents as part of a power struggle at the top of the Church.

The scandal exploded last week when within a few days the pope’s butler was arrested for leaking documents, the head of the Vatican’s own bank was abruptly dismissed and a book was published alleging conspiracies among the cardinals or “princes of the Church”.

Newspapers, quoting insiders who had themselves leaked documents, said the arrested butler was merely a scapegoat doing the bidding of more powerful figures in the scandal, which has been dubbed “Vatileaks”.

Documents passed to Italian journalists accuse Vatican insiders of cronyism and corruption in contracts with Italian companies. La Stampa daily quoted one of the alleged leakers as saying the goal was to help the pope root out corruption.

On Saturday, Paolo Gabriele, 46, Pope Benedict’s personal butler, was formally charged with stealing confidential papal documents. But leakers quoted by La Stampa, La Repubblica and other media said the leaking plot went much wider.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Sun May 27, 2012

(Reuters) – The Vatican faces a widening scandal that in one short week has seen Pope Benedict’s butler arrested, the president of its bank unceremoniously dismissed and the publication of a new book alleging conspiracies among cardinals.

It was a poisonous Pentecost Sunday for the pope, who likely had the tumultuous events of the past week on his mind as he celebrated a mass in St Peter’s Basilica on the day regarded as the birthday of the Church.

On Saturday his personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, 46, was formally charged with stealing confidential papal documents in the scandal that has come to be known as “Vatileaks”. Some of the documents allege cronyism and corruption in contracts with Italian companies.

One prominent cardinal, illustrating the growing emotion of the debate in Vatican circles, wrote in an Italian newspaper that the pope had been betrayed just as Jesus was betrayed 2,000 years ago.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Justice for Magdalenes group said today that survivors of abuse are still waiting for an apology, one year on from a UN reccommendation.

Women who were affected by abuse at the Magdalene laundries are also yet to receive any redress or reparation.

The support group is today submitting its NGO follow-up to the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva.

As part of this process, the Irish State is required to report back on measures taken to put last June’s recommendations in place.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

[with audio]

The Catholic Church has been in the public spotlight a lot this year. The issues of contraception and gay marriage have been part of the presidential campaign and church leaders have weighed in. There have also been new revelations in a case involving leaked Vatican documents, and it may actually be a case where the butler did it. Host Rachel Martin speaks with John Allen, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

For more on the potential impact of this case and the overall state of the U.S. Catholic Church right now, we’re joined by John Allen. He is senior correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter. He joins us on the line.

Thanks so much for being with us, John.

JOHN ALLEN: Rachel, it’s a pleasure.

MARTIN: We just heard Barbara Bradley Hagerty outline the gist of this case against Monsignor Lynn. What are the implications? What does this trial mean for the Catholic Church?

ALLEN: Well, on one level it is a sad confirmation of the narrative that is already terribly familiar, which is that there was a pattern in the church of when accusations of sexual abuse against personnel would be brought forward, not to report them to police and prosecutors; to try to handle them internally and, in some cases, to sweep them under the rug.

But the new element here is that for the first time, we have a senior church official who’s been criminally indicted, not for the abuse itself but for the cover-up. And what that does is send a powerful signal to other administrators in the church that if they engage in the same kind of conduct, they could pay the same price.

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SPOKANE (WA)
KHQ

Posted: May 28, 2012

by Katie Steiner, KHQ Reporter

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Diocese of Spokane handed out a letter to all of its parishioners Sunday. This letter was written by Bishop Blase Cupich announcing that they had reached a settlement with the victims of the Morning Star Boys Ranch case. The Bishop told KHQ that he was very happy that the diocese did not have to close any churches. This case has been in mediation since October of 2010. In his letter, the Bishop said that the settlement met all four of the diocese’s goals. No parish will be foreclosed, all appeals will be withdrawn, the church will pay 1.5 million dollars in claims cases and mediation expenses, and Federal Judge Michael Hogal will be the Tort Claim Reviewer and will be in charge of any new future claims in the next four years. The Bishop also wrote “This is an important and significant turning point in a very sad chapter of our diocesan history. We can never forget the harm done to children, who deserved better from the Church and her ministers. Once again, I apologize to the survivors of the sexual abuse by clergy and to the families of survivors.”

The attorney for 26 of the victims in this settlement, Tim Kosnoff, talked to KHQ and he said that this settlement “obtained some justice. I wish it could have been more, but it is validation, and it’s closure for them, and compensation and I hope that they can put this chapter behind them and move on with their lives,” Kosnoff said. He said that he was happy that this process is over, but was not thrilled with the outcome. “It was reasonable under the circumstances…this was not a victory, but it was not a defeat, we salvaged a case out of a very difficult situation.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

SEX abuse victims of priests in NSW may receive vastly higher compensation payments under a Greens proposal to let victims sue the Catholic Church directly.

Greens MP David Shoebridge says victims are missing out on potentially large payouts because they have to rely on mediation with the church.

They cannot sue the Catholic Church directly in NSW – unlike the Anglican Church – because of a 1936 state law that separated the church’s property trust from its pastoral duties, he says.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

May 28, 2012
By Elizabeth Fiedler

The landmark priest sexual abuse trial is set to resume in Philadelphia Tuesday. While the criminal trial continues, a flurry of lawsuits by alleged abuse victims are on hold.

Marci Hamilton is co-counsel in seven cases brought against the Catholic church by alleged abuse survivors.

“It’s standard operating procedure for civil attorneys to stay out of the way of the prosecutors and to make sure the criminal trials go forward first,” said Hamilton.

At the criminal trial, jurors have heard emotional testimony from an alleged victim, as well as testimony from Monsignor William Lynn — who defended himself against allegations that he endangered children by helping re-assign priests accused of sexual abuse.

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ITALY
Joey Piscitelli

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Joey Piscitelli

It’s absolutely no surprise that the Vatican is once again inundated with scandal and corruption, concerning the Popes new nightmare – the Vatican “leaks”.

Yes, we all know about the proverbial mystery movie; and this time the butler really did it. Nice work, Paolo Gabriele. An oscar is forthcoming to your Vatican prison cell. I caution you to watch your back in Vatican prison; you know the stories about the prison showers – and also the “alleged” stories about the Catholic Clergy.

You’re definitely in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In my defense for that last dubious remark- I’m only repeating information quoted in countless articles on Catholic clergy abuse in the last 10 years, by news reporters in virtually every country on this planet.

However, let me get to the real point. I was apparently on the brink of fainting today when I read the statement by Alberto Melloni, the Vatican historian that was quoted as saying this:

“Never has the sense of disorientation in the Catholic Church reached these levels. But now there is something more, a sense of systematic disorder”.

Yes… he said that.

The educated, famous Vatican historian Alberto Melloni actually said that there has never been a sense of disorientation, and systematic disorder in the Catholic church such as there is now.

As a clergy abuse victim myself, I can’t help but ask this uber-obvious question:

“Where the hell have you been for the last 20 years Melloni?”

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CANADA
The Cape Breton Post

Published on May 27, 2012
Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Four Sydney area Catholic churches are slated for closure over the next two years following an announcement by the Diocese of Antigonish, Sunday.

St. Anthony Daniel Church on Alexandra Street and Sacred Heart Church on George Street will close in June 2014. St. Joseph’s Church on Cabot Street will remain open and will absorb the congregations from those two churches.

In a letter by Bishop Brian Dunn to parishioners, the rationale for this change has to do with the fact St. Joseph’s is the newest of the three buildings, it’s large enough to accommodate the two other parishes, and it has level access, plenty of parking and office space in the church.

Next year, Immaculate Heart Church on Mira Road will close and Sunday services at St. Anne’s Church in Membertou will be discontinued. Those parishioners will relocate to the three operational Sydney churches before St. Anthony Daniel and Sacred Heart are shut down in 2014.

As a result of the amalgamation, St. Joseph’s parish will be renamed, said Rev. Donald MacGillivray, spokesperson for the diocese’s planning committee.

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ROME
MSN (New Zealand)

Dozens of people have protested at the Vatican against Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to show interest in the case of Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of an ex-Vatican employee missing since 1983.

“Shame, shame,” cried the protesters at Saint Peter’s Square, reproaching the Pope for not mentioning her name after Sunday’s Angelus prayers, when the pontiff often greets pilgrim groups and mentions topical issues.

“We came from all over Italy to hear the Pope say the name of Emanuela but we are once again leaving disappointed. There is something wrong here,” one protester said.

The protest was organised by the missing 15-year-old schoolgirl’s brother, Pietro, who has been leading a decades-long campaign to find out what happened to her. He has also accused the Vatican of silence and even complicity in the case.

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ROME
CNN

By Livia Borghese, for CNN

updated 2:10 PM EDT, Sun May 27, 2012

Rome (CNN) — The brother of an Italian girl missing for nearly 30 years urged the Vatican to investigate her case as several hundred demonstrators carrying pictures of her marched to St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.

The march came a day after Italian prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo told CNN that a priest who used to run a church in Rome is under investigation on suspicion of complicity in the abduction of Emanuela Orlandi.

Msgr. Piero Vergari, the former rector of Sant’Apollinare, is being investigated along with four members of a criminal gang, Capaldo said Saturday.

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CANADA
CBC News

Six Cape Breton Roman Catholic church buildings will close over the next few years, Sydney churchgoers learned Sunday.

In a letter from Brian Dunn, Bishop of Antigonish, parishioners were told the diocese was consolidating several city parishes into one.

“The reality experienced in many of our parishes makes us aware that we need some changes so that this pastoral care can be more effective, especially in light of the challenges within our diocese, including a declining number of priests, a declining and aging number of parishioners who regularly attend church, a declining financial support and an increase in the cost for goods and services associated with each parish,” Dunn wrote.

He said the pastoral planning committee has decided to close several churches.
St. Augustine’s on Grand Lake Road will close in July of this year
St. Nicholas in Whitney Pier will close in July of this year
Immaculate Heart on Mira Road will close in June 2013
St. Anne’s in Membertou will no longer hold Sunday services as of June 2013
St. Anthony Daniel will close in June 2014
Sacred Heart in Sydney will close in June 2014

Dunn said after consulting with parishioners, it has been decided that a new parish with a new name will be established in Sydney next summer.

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UNITED STATES
Meadville Tribune

James Drane
Meadville Tribune

MEADVILLE — For Catholics who remained faithful throughout the pedophile priest scandal, this has been a dark and painful period. Every new revelation of abuse, every testimony by victims of a life ruined, is like another punch in the jaw or kick in the gut. The pain continues and we can expect an added shock. This time it will be a bishop scandal.

The awful things done by emotionally compromised pedophile priests raised all kinds of questions. Pedophilia, however, is a pathology not even well-understood in psychiatry. The word pedophile did not even appear in much of early 20th-century psychiatric literature. When it finally made it into the textbooks and dictionaries, it was called a paraphilia and listed with disorders like exhibitionism and voyeurism.

Freud recognized pedophilia as a sexual deviation. He thought that most male pedophiles were weak and impotent. He also emphasized what he thought was the seductive role of children. Little to no attention, however, was paid to the damage done to the children involved in this secretive and repetitive pathological behavior.

If understanding of pedophilic behavior was weak in psychiatry, imagine the level of understanding that existed in the church hierarchy. For bishops, the concept of sin alone was used to understand the acts of pedophile priests. For this reason, many bishops thought that confessing the sin, followed by a serious penance like a retreat, would solve the problem. After confession and penance, a pedophile priest would be considered forgiven and could then be returned to parish work. Like every sin which was confessed, a priest’s pedophile behavior had to be kept secret.

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VATICAN CITY
OpEd News

By
Rev. Dan Vojir

THE BUTLER DID NOT DO IT

A tell-all book, leaked documents, billions in favorable contracts, money laundering, sexual terrorism … and possibly murder. With St. Peter’s in the background, it all sounds like a Dan Brown thriller. But in this mystery, the butler did not do it. At least not to the extent that a papal investigation would have it.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, who has worked as Benedict’s butler since 2006, was reportedly taken into custody after investigators found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children.

The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of Opus dei, a full “pontifical mandate” to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks.

Gabriele is now languishing in a Vatican prison cell (yes, the Vatican does have a prison) and for now it seems that his only crime was the same as that of Pvt. Bradley Manning (wikileaks) – leaking the juiciest anti-Vatican documents in history.

Sources close to Gabriele, however, say that he would not have masterminded a leak and that his possession of the documents proves very little: no motive has been proffered and apparently no money was offered for the documents.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

[video]

By Pat Ciarrocchi

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)

– In Philadelphia’s landmark clergy sex abuse trial, Defendant Monsignor William Lynn returns to the stand on Tuesday morning, entering a seventh hour of cross-examination.

Lynn’s defending himself against charges that he endangered children, while in his role as Secretary of the Clergy from 1992 to 2004 — while working for the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

Prosecutors have built their case around documents and testimony they believe proves that Lynn kept in ministry, priests who were known to sexually abuse children.

Just as the jury listens to Lynn’s defense which opened on Tuesday, observers in the courtroom are weighing the evidence too.

“No doubt about it, there are tough questions that he has to answer,” said John White, a parishioner from Monsignor Lynn’s Downingtown parish. He and 14 others traveled from Chester County to Philadelphia to give him moral support.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Following yesterday’s resignation from the IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi said he did not wish to make any comment lest he upset the Pope. His resignation comes after three years of service and the accumulation of a number of enemies

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“I prefer not to speak, as all I would do is curse. Bear with me.” “I am still torn between a yearning to explain the truth and my concern for upsetting the Holy Father with these explanations. My love for the Pope prevails over every other sentiment, even the defence of my own reputation which is infamously being questioned.”

The mistrust that led to Ettore Gotti Tedeschi’s resignation from his post as President of the IOR, after less that three years in office, came as a shock but the banker had been considering the possibility for months. Gotti Tedeschi had decided to collaborate directly with Roman magistrates after they began an inquiry into money movements being made in certain IOR accounts by Italian and German banks. This marked the beginning of the misunderstandings between him and the Institute’s director general, Paolo Cipriani. At the time, Gotti Tedeschi who having been placed under investigation by public prosecutors received the public support of Benedict XVI who greeted him and his wife after one of his Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo. “We need to act as examples,” the Pope had reiterated. The new president, chosen by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, had continued the process towards renewal and a greater transparency which had already begun, closing dormant current accounts that were registered under names of figureheads.

One of the people Gotti Tedeschi was at loggerheads with, was Marco Simeon, the current director of RAI Vaticano, one of the offices of Italy’s largest television company RAI, who is linked to wheeler-dealer, Luigi Bisignani. Last summer, the IOR was involved in the rescue operation to salvage Milan’s Saint Rafael hospital, called for by Cardinal Bertone and supported by a number of Milanese businessmen and politicians. Gotti Tedeschi was initially in favour of the operation but then changed his mind, considering it a risky venture. This led to fall outs with Giuseppe Profiti, manager of Rome’s Bambino Gesù hospital and Bertone’s number one man in the field of healthcare. Meanwhile, Gotti Tedeschi’s relations with the Cardinal Secretary of State had also begun to cool, although they had improved recently.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Interview with Piero Orlandi on the eve of the March for Emanuela scheduled in Rome. The exorcist had talked about seedy parties and grooming instances involving a policeman

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Pietro Orlandi, on Sunday you will lead a march to ask for the truth concerning the disappearance of your sister Emanuela. What schedule will the demonstration follow?

We will meet Sunday 27th in Campidoglio square at 9.30. A giant poster of Emanuela will be hung on the front of Campidoglio Palace and after talks by various speakers, among which Alemanno, Zingaretti and Veltroni, the march will start. The itinerary will take us to St. Peter basilica. We will walk in silence for Emanuela and for all the people who do not get justice. The presence of many municipalities from all over Italy demonstrates that there is a part of this country that is honest and has a great sense of justice, a part of this country, which believes that values like truth, justice and respect for life are crucial in a civilized society. I believe that even a simple march might mark the beginning of a change in the conscience of those who govern and in our Church.”

Rome’s Prosecutor Office investigated the former director of the St. Apollinare basilica, Mgr. Piero Vergari and is interrogating people who knew about the facts. How do you rate the new elements of the enquiry?

Positively. I hope that this collaboration between magistrates and Vatican, requested by my family for years because it can be decisive to uncover the truth, is prompted by a sincere and transparent will to clarify the matter”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The most authoritative Vatican analyst in the United States shares his thoughts on the Vatican leak crisis

Paolo Mastrolilli
New York correspondent

“I can’t help but wonder whether this whole affair can really be ascribed to the Pope’s butler alone, or if someone else is pulling strings behind the scenes.”

John Allen is sceptical. The most authoritative Vatican analyst in the United States has trouble believing that the entire secret document affair, which has emerged in the past few months from the innermost offices of the Holy See, will end with the arrest of Paolo Gabriele.

Why doesn’t this version of the facts convince you?

“I’ve read the opinions of those who put forward the suspicion that the Pope’s butler may simply be a scapegoat and I share that view. I can’t help but think that ‘Vatileaks’ can’t simply be traced to one butler but to some high-ranking ecclesiastical figure who has remained behind the scenes. It’s a question that remains unanswered, but I don’t find the answer given so far, Gabriele’s arrest that is, entirely convincing.”

Couldn’t he have stolen these documents for personal reasons?

“From what I’ve heard, this butler is a very down-to-earth, religious person. I don’t know him personally, but the description of him that is going round does not match the profile of the alleged spy.”

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VATICAN CITY
Business Insider

Michael Brendan Dougherty|May 27, 2012

The Pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, 46 was arrested last week in connection with the leaking of letters from the Vatican, including many personal ones to and from Pope Benedict himself.

The story has all the elements of a punchline, or a 19th century potboiler. A Butler being held in the Vatican’s own rarely-used jail, spying on the Holy Father.

The truth can be better than fiction and it usually is.

But there is something a little off about this story – at least to this Vatican-watcher. …

Earlier this year, it was reported that the leaked letters contained the correspondence of an American prelate, Carlo Maria Vigano, working in Rome who told the Holy Father about corruption in the Vatican’s money-management. Vignano pleaded with Benedict to hold onto his post so that he could continue the Holy Father’s mission of cleaning house, but Vigano was transferred back to the States.

However, there is something about this story that makes little sense. Gabriele is the guy who helps the Pope get dressed, and handles things in the papal apartment. He was also appointed to his role under John Paul II. He absolutely would have access to some of the letters that have been leaked.

But many of the leaks out of the Vatican over the past two years have not been of personal letters to and from the pope, they’ve been out of the offices of the Vatican’s secretary of state. There is not a chance that Gabriele could have access to them.

It would be as if the Obama’s personal babysitter suddenly got access to files at the Pentagon. The butler may be guilty. And he may be the one chiefly responsible for the letters published later this month.

But it just isn’t plausible that he is the only leaker. The most humiliating leaks have come from inside the curial offices, that is from another high-ranking Cardinal. Perhaps someone who could even become the next Pope.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Father Alberto Cutie

The news that Father Alavaro Corcuera (General Director of the Legionaries of Christ) apologized on May 22, 1012 for keeping secret the situation surrounding Father Thomas Williams may have come as a surprise to most people familiar with The Legionaries and Regnum Christi.

Be assured that Father Corcuera is not solely responsible for not revealing this, or any other case, sooner. For years there have been many people in authority above him – including members of the present and past Vatican Curia – who were repeatedly made aware of the struggles and difficulties surrounding the abusive behavior of the founder and other dysfunctions in the Legionaries.

For a variety of reasons, which you can read below, they chose to ignore it and even dismiss and ridicule those who came forward. A visit to the website connected to the new book “La Voluntad de No Saber” (authored by victims of abuse Father Alberto Athie, Jose Barba – along with a historian – Jose M. Gonzalez) will provide you with all the documentation regarding this issue, dating back to1944.

An excerpt from my personal memoir Dilemma: A Priest’s Struggle between Faith and Love

“Since the 1970s, rumors had abounded about Father Maciel (founder of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement) working his connections in the Vatican and using money received from the wealthy benefactors of his various movements to buy his way into top Church circles. The Legionaries had become known as “the Millionaires of Christ” even by their own colleagues and supporters in the Vatican. Many clergy criticized them for having fancy air-conditioned buses and for wearing immaculate double-breasted suits, which probably made them the best-dressed religious order on the planet.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

RTE’s managing director of radio, Clare Duignan, let fly at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications when senators and deputies had a go at RTE.

RTE has angered the public by making unfounded accusations against a Catholic priest. An opinion poll conducted last week for the Sunday Independent shows that most people want the station’s chairman, Tom Savage, to resign at this point.

But Duignan is putting distance between those responsible for the debacle and others. Like many RTE programme-makers she is embarrassed by the Prime Time Investigates mess. She herself is the former director of television programmes at RTE.

She reacted fiercely last week when Senator John Whelan referred to “the systematic failures, poor morale, low standards and, in certain quarters, group-think culture which has been spawned by a cult of the clique and cronyism that is alive and well in Montrose and over which he presides”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KUNC

By Barbara Bradley Hagerty

A clergy sex-abuse trial in is reaching a crescendo in a Philadelphia courtroom. One defendant is James Brennan, a priest accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.

What’s drawing attention is the second defendant, Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn is first high-level Catholic official to be criminally prosecuted — not for abusing minors himself, but for failing to protect children from predator priests.

Failure To Protect?

So far, it’s been a brutal trial for Lynn. He served as the archdiocese’s secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, and it was his job to investigate sex abuse claims and protect children.

For eight weeks, prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence — nearly 2,000 documents and some 50 witnesses — that Lynn put the priests and the church ahead of abused children.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Barbie Nadeau, for CNN

Rome (CNN) — Pope Benedict’s butler has been arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential documents to an Italian journalist, the Vatican said Saturday.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, was arrested Wednesday for illegal possession of confidential documents, found in his apartment in Vatican territory, the Vatican said in a statement issued three days later.

Gabriele, who has worked as the papal butler since 2006, is one of only a handful of people with access to the pontiff’s private desk.

His job included handing out rosaries to dignitaries and riding in the front seat of the “Popemobile,” a vehicle used for public papal appearances, as seen in many photographs showing Gabriele with the pope.

Last month, the Vatican gave Cardinal Julian Herranz a “pontifical mandate” to uncover the source of hundreds of personal letters and confidential documents that have been released to Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist and author of “Sua Santita,” a book that translates to “His Holiness” and includes the documents.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

Vince Fumo and Msgr. William Lynn have little but Catholicism in common. So why did I keep thinking about the former millionaire state senator as I sat in a Common Pleas courtroom last week watching a priest try to explain away his troubles?

Like Fumo, Lynn gambled on taking the stand in a criminal case involving arrogance, lies, and the shattering of public trust. Both men believed the sound of their voices would sway jurors contemplating sordid tales and exhaustive evidence. Both misjudged their magnetism.

Fumo put on a risky, though riveting, show during his sweeping 2009 corruption trial. He bragged about having a James Brown work ethic. He embraced audacious acts and champagne tastes befitting a man of his political appetite. He now resides in federal prison.

Lynn, by contrast, shuffles to the witness stand wearing a humble collar and the haggard resignation of a middle manager who knows he’s been scapegoated. But as gentle direct questioning segued into a crushing cross-examination, the monsignor’s calculation proved just as costly as Fumo’s.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Post

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

Apologist and author Josh McDowell launched Just1ClickAway.org, a new website to raise awareness about online pornography which he says is a problem big enough to cause the downfall of the church.

“The downfall of the church will not come from a lack of apologetic teaching; it will come from disintegration of the families in the church,” says a video posted on the website, which was launched this week, just in time for summer vacation when students’ media consumption significantly increases.

“The greatest threat to the cause of Christ is pervasive sexuality and pornography,” McDowell, known as an articulate speaker, said in a statement Thursday. “Today we have, by and large, lost control of the controls because an intrusive immorality is just one click away from our children. With just one keystroke on a smartphone, iPad, or laptop, a child can open up some of the worst pornography and sexually graphic content you can imagine. There’s never been such access in history. ”

McDowell, who has written or co-authored 120 books since 1960, backs his claims with stunning statistics about the destructive impact of pornography on the Christian family.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

Posted: May 27, 2012

Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, under increasing pressure over his office’s handling of child sexual-abuse cases involving the Orthodox Jewish community, has finally taken some positive steps.

Unfortunately, not all those steps are fully in the right direction.

Yes, he publicly warned that rabbis who insist on deciding whether abuse allegations should be reported to police now risk prosecution themselves.

That was aimed directly at Agudath Israel of America, a politically powerful Orthodox group that has demanded such rabbinical pre-clearance in certain cases.

According to The Jewish Week, Hynes informed the group “that it was a mistake to advise someone with information about child abuse to first speak with a rabbi.”

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UNITED STATES
Salisbury Post

Sunday, May 27, 2012

By Francis Koster
www.TheOptimisticFuturist.com

As a futurist, I write about emerging threats, and the need for successful interventions to address them. In that spirit, today I bring good news about something bad.

The United States has begun to turn the tide on how we deal with child abuse. I am not saying the problem is solved — but progress, compared to where we started decades ago, is being made.

The term “child abuse” covers much ground, from lack of food and hygiene to emotional abuse, battery and sexual abuse. Using that big definition, it appears that out of the roughly 75 million Americans under the age of 17, more than 1 million American children are victims of child abuse each year. More than half of the abused are reported to suffer from “neglect”; they were not physically attacked, but they were not fed or supported in ways that their little bodies and minds require. Of the remaining group, about 300,000 suffer physical abuse, about 150,000 suffer emotional abuse, and around 135,000 suffer sexual abuse. Hard to believe these numbers represent progress, but they do.

In 1873, a church volunteer doing a home visit found a 9-year-old girl chained to a bed, malnourished and beaten. The volunteer’s first efforts to rescue the child failed because the law and custom of the day made such behavior within a household a private matter. Local officials ignored the reports, and when an investigation was finally begun, the community leaders failed to follow up. In desperation, the church worker turned to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for help because animals were protected under a better set of laws than children were. ASPCA sued the officials, arguing that humans were animals, too. The resulting publicity successfully rescued the child.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Beast

May 27, 2012

Marci A. Hamilton

Which side are you on? The parallel sex-abuse trials of Msgr. William Lynn and former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky are revealing deep differences among those who once revered both men, writes Marci Hamilton.

It’s been a bad year for Pennsylvania’s most revered institutions. Well-known members of both Penn State University and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been charged with committing or covering up the sexual abuse of children. Just as the unprecedented, months-long trial of Monsignor William Lynn is finishing, Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky is getting ready to face a jury—and each case raises the same core issue: How is an important figure at a high-profile institution able to abuse not one, but a series of children, and not be stopped?

In both cases, public reaction has divided in two, as Penn State fans and Pennsylvania Catholics experience a blend of betrayal, anger, and confusion. Everyone trusted these men.

(Full disclosure: I’m a Penn State graduate, I’m married to a lifelong Philly Catholic, and I serve as co-counsel to victims of both the Philadelphia priests and of Jerry Sandusky—although my clients are not involved in the criminal trials, so I am not subject to the gag orders.)

For three months, Philadelphia prosecutors have been trying Msgr. Lynn on charges that he deliberately and callously endangered children by letting predator priests continue in the ministry.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
The Record

A Mahwah minister was convicted Thursday of having sex with an underage member of his church almost a decade ago.

Jurors in state Superior Court in Hackensack returned after less than two days of deliberations to find the Reverend Curtis Franklin guilty of second-degree sexual assault.

Franklin looked down and shook his head when the jury forewoman announced the verdict. He was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom after Judge Edward Jerejian revoked his $200,000 bail, ordering him held at the Bergen County Jail pending his Sept. 14 sentencing, when he faces five to 10 years in prison.

Defense attorney Miles Feinstein said he was disappointed with the verdict and that he will file an appeal.

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NEW JERSEY
WHTM

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) – A Mahwah pastor has been convicted of having sex with an underage member of his church.

A Bergen County jury convicted the Rev. Curtis Franklin on Thursday after less than two days of deliberations.

Authorities told jurors during a trial that lasted three weeks that Franklin, who was then the pastor at Mahwah Full Gospel Church, began a sexual relationship with a parishioner in 2002 when she was 15 and the relationship lasted until she was 19.

Franklin is 22 years older than the victim.

Franklin’s wife and other family members and friends cried as he was led away by sheriff’s officers Thursday, according to The Record (http://bit.ly/KT9vr7 ).

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
Published: 5/26/2012

The Rev. Bob Yandian, pastor for 32 years of Grace Church, one of Tulsa’s largest churches, announced he will step down in one year and that his son will take over the church.

Yandian has deep roots in the Tulsa charismatic/Pentecostal community, where he has a reputation as an excellent Bible teacher.

“I’m not retiring from ministry. I’m retiring from pastoring Grace,” Yandian said from the pulpit Sunday. …

Grace was plunged into a nearly decade-long period of challenges and difficulties in 1992 when one of its teachers was arrested for molesting young boys.

“It was the hardest time we’ve ever known as a church,” Yandian said.

Aaron Thompson is serving a 25-year prison sentence for molesting nine boys over a five-year period.

“It was devastating,” Yandian said. “He was the most popular teacher we had.”

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JAMAICA
Sunday Observer

BY NADINE WILSON Sunday Observer reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, May 27, 2012

THE wave of reports of childhood sexual abuse by persons entrusted with their care has prompted church leaders to implement a screening policy for Sunday school teachers and others employed to supervise children.

Two weeks ago, over 30 pastors representing a cross-section of churches across the country, held an emergency summit at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (CGST) in Kingston to review policies and implement measures to protect children in the care of church employees.

College president Dr Las Newman said the churches were very troubled by the increasing reports of sexual abuse of children and felt they should play their part in ensuring that children entrusted to their care are protected from sexual predators.

The introduction of the screening policy was accepted as one of the ways to address what many church leaders termed, “the crisis facing the nation.”

The policy, Dr Newman said, will apply to pastors, church elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers and youth workers, and will “look at the matter of recruitment and admission, background checks of people, police records and evaluation of people’s mental health, and people’s emotional health, and people’s past relationships with children.”

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Saturday, May 26, 2012

County Sligo Circuit Court has heard that the trial of the Irish nun facing 87 charges of sexual abuse will take place over two weeks next year.

The court heard that a number of disclosures had been given to the defense by the prosecution. The case initially came before the courts this March.

Judge Anthony Hunt told the court he hopes the hearing will take place in January or February, the Irish Times reports.

A number of the alleged victims of the nun were present in court on Tuesday.

The alleged offenses date back to the 1970s. The case was transferred from another county following legal action against the nun. Neither she nor her victims can be identified due to legal reasons.

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle PI

NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

Updated 05:10 p.m., Saturday, May 26, 2012

VATICAN CITY (AP) — An already sordid scandal over leaked Vatican documents took a Hollywood-like turn Saturday with confirmation that the pope’s own butler had been arrested after documents he had no business having were found in his Vatican City apartment.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it’s serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents detailing power struggles, political intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI’s own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff’s No. 2.

“If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn’t believe it,” said Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the tumult with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. “No editor would let you put it in a novel.”

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NEDERLAND
Omroep Brabant

ALMELO – Een uit Best afkomstige voormalig pastoor moet tien maanden de cel in. Ook kreeg hij tbs met dwangverpleging. De rechtbank in Almelo heeft dit bepaald.

Volgens de rechter is er genoeg bewijs dat de man vorig jaar zomer een 12-jarige jongen uit Oldenzaal seksueel heeft misbruikt. Dit was op een camping in Frankrijk. De officier van justitie sprak eerder van een pedofiel, die bewust op zoek is naar jongens rond de twaalf jaar.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

By Joshua J. McElwee on May. 26, 2012 NCR Today

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In what seems to be a sign that the first bishop criminally charged in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis is acknowledging his legal defense may create a conflict of interest with his role as leader of his diocese, Bishop Robert Finn announced Friday creation of a new episcopal vicar with “decision-making” power over the diocese’s own legal options.

Both Finn and his Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese face trial this September in Jackson County, Mo., over separate criminal charges of failure to report suspect child abuse concerning their actions regarding a priest arrested last year for possession of child pornography.

The new role, quietly announced Friday afternoon on the website of the diocesan paper, seems to indicate that the diocese and bishop are for the first time publicly recognizing that legal decisions made by one could negatively impact the other.

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UNITED STATES
Richard Sipe

Gerald T. Slevin

MACHIAVELLI BACK IN ROME? …. The straightforward advice to lie, steal and punish that Machiavelli craftily gave a papally related Prince a half millenium ago is apparently followed today in the Vatican at times more diligently than the Gospel message. This imperial pope is a highly disciplined and demanding World War II veteran who has appointed an obedient and subservient officer corp. He brooks no disobedience or dissent. The increasingly evident corrupt conspiracy that Joseph Ratzinger, the current pope, has effectively overseen for decades in Rome has many branch offices, as we are learning daily, throughout the worldwide Church, including in the US as well as Mexico.

It is important that Catholics see some of the bigger picture so vividly encapsulated locally in Mexico in the sordid Maciel story that has been reported so well by Jason Berry. Incidentally, Canon “L”aw, like “T”radition and “M”agisterium, is mostly whatever the pope in Rome at the time says it is, regardless of Canon Law’s (and Tradition’s and the Magisterium’s) often obvious conflict with the Gospel message and authentic church history. Most clerical scholars appear fearful understandably of pointing out these conflicts.

The Maciel crime story even has a current American connection to, and some parallels with, the currently exploding Philadelphia Archdiocese’s priest abuse cover-up scandal.

As Jason Berry reported in his “Vows of Silence” book, a former Mexican seminarian’s early report on Maciel’s crimes was made in a detailed official letter sent in 1976, almost four decades ago, by Msgr. John Alesandro, then the Chancellor of the Rockville Centre Diocese
on Long Island, NY. The Mexican priest was then resident in the LI Diocese. This Diocese is now run by Bishop Murphy, a long time accomplice of one of the pope’s favorite overseers of priest predators, Boston’s fugitive Cardinal Law.

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UNITED STATES
Richard Sipe

Santa Clara University
May 11, 2012

Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.

I want to begin by sharing the nature of my involvement in the phenomenon of sexual abuse by Catholic Clergy. I chose the word “phenomenon” intentionally because I do not believe any of the commonly used descriptors — “crisis,” “scandal,” “problem,” come even close to naming what this has been and what it is today.

My name is Tom Doyle. I was ordained a Dominican priest in 1970, forty two years ago. I received my doctorate in Canon Law in 1978. I first became involved in the issue of sexual abuse of minors when I had a position at the Vatican embassy in Washington. My initial experiences involved not former Father Gilbert Gauthe from Louisiana, but two bishops, both of whom are now deceased. The year was 1982 but my most intense involvement, shared with Fr. Dr. Michael Peterson and attorney Ray Mouton, began in 1984 and has not ended.
I would like to begin by stating my conclusion. Since 2002 the revelations of widespread sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and religious men and women have spread to Europe, Latin America and to some Asian countries. In the US the Catholic bishops have created a number of programs and policies and have aggressively implemented their “Zero Tolerance” policy. In spite of these policies and the expensive public relations efforts they have implemented, the attitude of the bishops as a collective group has not only not changed but it has gotten worse.

Their disdain for the victims has become more and more obvious. The true measure of their understanding of the horrific nature of the issue and their commitment to change is not the programs, policies, documents or speeches they generate but their unqualified attitude of compassion toward the victims and this is scandalously lacking. The bishops simply don’t get it or if they do get it, they don’t care.

I have been directly and intimately involved in most dimensions of this travesty. I have been asked by accused priests to help with canonical and fraternal support. I have given workshops and seminars to groups of diocesan and religious priests. I have been an expert witness and a consultant in over a thousand civil and criminal cases throughout the United States, in Canada, Ireland, England, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. I have been a consultant to or expert witness for several of the grand jury investigations in the U.S. including the Philadelphia grand juries of 2005 and 2011 and most recently I testified at the criminal trial in Philadelphia. I have served as a consultant or expert witness for the government commissions in Ireland beginning with the Ferns Commission and for the Cornwall Inquiry in Canada.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

After months of equivocal statements about Agudath Israel’s longstanding position that — with very limited exception — child sexual abuse allegations must first be investigated by rabbis, the Brooklyn district attorney has issued a clear warning to the haredi umbrella organization that its policy puts rabbis at risk of running afoul of the law.

According to a spokesman for Charles Hynes, “DA Hynes told Dovid Zwiebel [Agudah’s executive vice president] that it was a mistake to advise someone with information about child abuse to first speak with a rabbi.” In doing so, the spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, continued, “Zwiebel … risks having the rabbi prosecuted for obstructing a law enforcement investigation.”

When asked by The Jewish Week to clarify what someone should do if he or she had information about allegations — rather than “information” — about abuse, Schmetterer said the individual should “report [the allegations] to authorities for investigation.”
James A. Cohen, associate professor of law and the director of the Trial Advocacy Program & External Affairs at Fordham University School of Law, concurs with the district attorney’s position. “Encouraging delay in reporting a crime, particularly a crime against a child, is obstructing justice,” Cohen told The Jewish Week.

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HAWAII
Damon Tucker: Hawaii News and Island Information

The first of what may be dozens of child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits was filed yesterday under an unusual new Hawaii law.

That measure lets adults who were molested as kids take legal action even decades after the violations took place.

An Oahu resident and former Damien Memorial High School student sued the Diocese of Honolulu charging that he was sexually assaulted as a child by Fr. Gerald Funcheon, a Crosier priest and former Damien chaplain in 1983 and 1984. The alleged crimes happened on an overnight retreat with the cleric on the Oahu eastern shore when the victim was 13 years old.

According to public documents and the lawsuit, church officials already knew that Funcheon was abusing prescription drugs and alcohol and had allegations of inappropriate behavior with children well before he was sent to Damien

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ITALY
Vatican Insider

Michele Brambilla
Lonato (Brescia)

“I’ve spent my life studying the history of the Church and attending Church, though more sparingly. I’m hardly going to be shocked.” Vittorio Messori is in the abbey of Maguzzano, a wonder nestled between the Moraine hills and Garda Lake, a place that the history of the Church has crisscrossed for 15 centuries, from St. Benedict to St John Calabria. Here, Messori has set up a study where he can take refuge when he is under pressure: like now, when he has only a few weeks before he has to deliver a book on Lourdes to Italian publisher Mondadori, a project that is very dear to his heart. Its title is Bernadette did not deceive us.

Is someone in the Vatican deceiving us instead? I ask Messori what a practicing Catholic may feel when hearing of how cardinals fight each other tooth and nail, when hearing of files slipped to journalists, of letters stolen from the Pope, of bank intrigues, murderers buried with state honours. “The Roman Curia,” he answers, “has always been a viper’s nest. However, in the past at least, it was the most efficient state organisation in the world. It ran an empire the sun never set on and it had an unparalleled diplomatic corps. What is left of that today?”

Strolling along the cloisters and then among the olive trees, this is how Messori describes the decadence: “The priests in the Roman Curia used to enlist the best people from all the dioceses in the world. Bishops had plenty of clergy around them and had no problem letting them go. Today seminaries have either closed or they’re half empty. So if a bishop has a good priest to hand, he keeps hold of him. And the Pope is like Charles V, who had to run a vast empire and cried out in a depopulated Spain: ‘Give me men’.” But in Africa, I try to object… “The boom in vocations? I’m not kidding myself. In Africa men enter the seminary for the same reasons they did here when we were dying of hunger. It’s a way of making a living. And apart from that, celibacy is incomprehensible for African culture so the Church – let’s put it this way – turns a blind eye. Many priests have wives and children. What are you going to do, send them to Rome? To be bishops?”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The confessor of the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, springs to his defence: “He is in love with the Church and adores the Pope”

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The voice of the elderly priest – who wished to remain anonymous – sounded broken from all the crying, as he spoke to Italian newspaper La Stampa, from his home in the Vatican. During the telephone interview he described what he knew about Benedict XVI’s 46 year old butler, Paolo Gabriele, husband and father of three, who was arrested after he was found in “illegal possession of confidential documents.” Like many in the Holy See, the monsignor is scared and still in shock after yesterday’s events.

“I have known Paolo for many years; – he confided – if the accusations against him prove to be true, there will be no one left to trust any more. I still remember when, some years back, he used to arrive at the Secretariat of State’s offices with his black apron, to clean the floors.”

The prelate recounted how at one time he had been the confessor of this man who eventually left his clearing apron behind, replacing it with an immaculate black suit as he went on to become the papal butler, the lay person closet to the Pope, the man who serves the Pope at his table every day. “I was his confessor at one time and I can say in all faith that the impression he has always given me is that of a man who is in love with the Church and deeply devoted to the Pope, first to John Paul II and now to Benedict XVI,” he added. The person who helped the young “Paoletto” to enter to serve in the Vatican is the rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, just a stone throw away from Via della Conciliazione and St. Peter’s Square. The Church is dedicated to the worship of the Divine Mercy of St. Faustina Kowalska and is very dear to the Poles.”

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

[with video]

Philip Pullella
Reuters

11:06 a.m. CDT, May 26, 2012

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Paolo Gabriele was always a reserved, almost shy man, as his position required. He had access to the most private rooms in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace – Pope Benedict’s apartment.

But what could have prompted the pope’s butler, who was formally charged by Vatican magistrates on Saturday with illegal possession of secret documents, to betray the man who trusted him?

Was it money? Probably not.

Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who revealed some of the leaked documents alleging corruption in the Vatican and internal conflict over the role of the Vatican bank, declines to reveal his sources but insists he gave no money to them.

Nuzzi, a respected journalist with a good track record whose book “His Holiness” contains some of the allegations, says those who gave him the documents were devout people “genuinely concerned about the Catholic Church” who wanted to expose corruption.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican confirmed on Saturday that the pope’s butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to a sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.

Paolo Gabriele, a layman and member of the papal household, was arrested Wednesday after secret documents were found in his Vatican City apartment and was continuing to be held Saturday, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

Gabriele is often seen by Pope Benedict XVI’s side in public, riding in the front seat of his open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the pontiff from the rain. He has been the pope’s personal butler since 2006, one of the few members of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff’s private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

His arrest followed another stunning development at the Vatican this week, the ouster of the president of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, by his board. Sources close to the investigation said he, too, was found to have leaked documents, though the official reason for his ouster was that he simply failed to do his job.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Confermo che la persona arrestata mercoledì sera per possesso illecito di documenti riservati, rinvenuti nella sua abitazione in territorio vaticano, è il Sig. Paolo Gabriele, che rimane tuttora in stato di detenzione.

Si è conclusa la prima fase di “istruttoria sommaria” sotto la direzione del Promotore di Giustizia, prof. Nicola Picardi, e si è avviata la fase di “istruttoria formale” condotta dal Giudice istruttore, prof. Piero Antonio Bonnet.

L’imputato ha nominato due avvocati di sua fiducia, abilitati ad agire presso il Tribunale vaticano, e ha avuto la possibilità di incontrarli. Essi potranno assisterlo nelle successive fasi del procedimento. Egli gode di tutte le garanzie giuridiche previste dai codici penale e di procedura penale in vigore nello Stato della Città del Vaticano.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

Published: Saturday, May 26, 2012

By MAUREEN PAUL TURLISH
Times Guest Columnist

One of the most egregious and telling examples of what has been happening in the institutional Roman Catholic Church worldwide is what has been happening in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since the Boston, Mass., Archdiocese imploded in 2002.

In an article, “The crisis of credibility in Philadelphia,” published in the National Catholic Reporter on 10/28/2005.

I quoted Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s words to a CNN reporter. Bevilacqua said, “We are all agreed that no priest guilty of even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will function in any ecclesial ministry or any capacity in our diocese.”

Events following that April 2002 statement have shown in excruciating detail that Cardinal Bevilacqua’s words did not accurately describe the actions of the Philadelphia hierarchy then or during the ten years that followed.

Events since 2002 include:

— Three grand juries being convened to investigate the Archdiocese of Philadelphia resulting in reports published in 2005 and again in 2011,

— The release of depositions given by Cardinal Bevilacqua and some of his auxiliary bishops,

— Denials by Cardinal Justin Rigali shortly after the second grand jury was released in February 2011 that no suspected, credibly accused of known sexual predators were in ministry,

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UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

•by Gary Stewart, Liverpool Echo
•May 26 2012

A MERSEYSIDE priest was told he is facing a lengthy jail sentence after admitting having sex with an underage boy.

Father Peter Hooper from St Luke’s Church in Bebington, Wirral, pleaded guilty to ten charges involving sexual activity with the teenager and inciting him to engage in such activity.

The offences are alleged to have take place at the St Luke the Physician diocese house in Church Road, Bebington, where regular masses are held in a small chapel.

The charges, involving the boy when he was aged 14 and 15, span a six month period ending on May 5 this year.

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CALIFORNIA
The Modesto Bee

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

The Legionaries of Christ are withdrawing from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, ending the prominent Catholic religious order’s presence in the Sacramento region.

The change, effective July 1, follows the order’s decision last year to close two schools here.

The Legionaries have endured controversy and scandal in the past decade involving some of their best-known leaders.

Local officials say the local withdrawal is a product of the order shrinking and re-evaluating where to focus its priests.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said he would not publicly back the Primate of All-Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady in the wake of further allegations that he failed to disclose information about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church during the 1970s.

Martin said the challenges facing the Catholic Church in Ireland were not solely about one person.

Speaking at the annual child protection update of the Archdiocese of Dublin he told the press: “Cardinal Brady has said that he is staying and that he has lots of support from people; I’ve never commented and I don’t know anything of those details… made no comments on other bishops.”

Earlier this month Martin has said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on Brady’s position.

Brady has kept a low profile following the airing of a BBC documentary “This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church.” The documentary raised concerns over the fact that Brady had failed to warn the church, parents and victims about notorious paedophile Father

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta

Friday, May 25, 2012

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) has hit out at the Government’s failure to provide redress and an independent investigation into the abuse carried out in Magdalene Laundries.

The group made the criticisms after issuing a summary of its submissions to the inter-departmental committee set up to “clarify” any state involvement in the Magdalene Laundries.

In a comprehensive document, complete with Magdalene survivor testimony and clear examples, JFM outline “clear evidence” of state involvement in the operation of Magdalene Laundries in three main respects:

* The state was involved in sending women and young girls to the institutions and ensuring they remained there. This was done to deal with social problems;

* The state also provided the religious orders with direct and indirect financial support: direct financial support from “capitation” (per head) grants for certain of the women and girls incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries; and indirect financial support in terms of valuable state contracts for the cleaning laundry;

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle PI

A butler in the Apostolic Palace of Pope Benedict XVI has been arrested by Vatican security on suspicion that he is the “Deep Throat” who leaked documents on the Vatican’s internal strife to Italian newspapers earlier this year.

The arrest came on the same day that Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican Bank was forced out by its directors for “failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office.”

John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, summed up the situation by writing: “Perhaps, it would be more accurate, albeit a bit crude, to say all Hell is breaking loose in the Holy See.”

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

You may have seen pictures of Paolo Gabriele, the 46-year-old, impeccably dressed black-suited Italian arrested on suspicion of stealing secret Vatican correspondence, without recognising who he is.

He is the Pope’s closest private servant – his valet or, if you prefer a conventional English title, his butler.

He lives in the Pope’s shadow and has always been at hand to smooth the pontiff’s path through his multiple official duties – in public and in private.

Each morning he helps Pope Benedict to dress, and attends his early morning private mass. He usually serves the Pope’s meals, and sometimes is invited to sit at the Pope’s table.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 25, 2012

“A bishop. A priest. A woman. A boy.”

My friend Steve Julian‘s play Altarcations will debut in June at the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. I met Steve (whom some of you may recognize as the morning host of KPCC‘s Morning Edition) after I “outed” one of his former high school teachers as an admitted perpetrator in the New York Times. When he told me about this play, I flipped (in a very good way). I’ve been lucky enough to see early drafts and talk to him about the progression of the play and the growth of the characters.

It’s going to be an amazing production.

Then I found out the play had been accepting into the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I flipped again.

The play runs from June 8 to 14 at The Actors Circle Theater. Tickets are a VERY AFFORDABLE $10 to $15. You need to go. And then you need to tell your friends to go. You can buy tickets here.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Legal Tribune

Köln ermittelt, Tatort soll Essen sein: Ein Kaplan soll geplaudert haben. Über sexuelle Vorlieben, seinen ehemaligen Vorgesetzen und homosexuelle Kontaktbörsen. Die Kenntnisse von diesen Gerüchten soll er aus dem Beichtstuhl haben. Norbert Diel über kirchenrechtliche Konsequenzen des Verrats von Geheimnissen zwischen Mensch und Gott.

Im Bistum Essen werden schwerwiegende Vorwürfe gegen einen Kaplan erhoben: Er soll einen Beichtenden gezielt nach sexuellen Vorlieben seines ehemaligen Vorgesetzten, des inzwischen versetzten Pfarrers der Gemeinde, ausgehorcht und diese Informationen nachher genutzt haben, um den Geistlichen, aber auch andere Personen direkt damit zu konfrontieren.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirchen Site

Berlin. Internationale Experten fordern einen besseren Schutz von Kindern vor sexuellem Missbrauch im Internet. Wie eine in Berlin vorgestellte qualitative Studie im Auftrag der EU-Kommission ergab, experimentieren Kinder und Jugendliche leichtfertig mit der Selbstdarstellung im Netz und probieren häufig online aus, wie sie auf andere Personen reagieren.

Je jünger Kinder online agierten, umso größer sei die Gefahr, Opfer sexueller Übergriffe zu werden. Mädchen seien gefährdeter als Jungen – ebenso wie unsichere, weniger selbstbewusste Kinder. Für die Studie wurden gut 200 Jugendliche aus sechs Ländern im Alter von 12 bis 18 Jahren befragt, darunter auch Missbrauchsopfer, sowie Onlinetäter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirke Heute

Sein Brief an potenzielle Betroffene sexueller Übergriffe im Berliner Canisius-Kolleg löste im Januar 2010 eine Lawine aus. Letzte Woche sprach Jesuitenpater Klaus Mertes in Basel zu «Macht, Sexualität und Kirche» und beklagte die Herz- und Sprachlosigkeit der Kirche, wenn es um das Thema Sexualität geht.

Es begann am 14. Januar 2010 mit dem Besuch dreier ehemaliger Schüler des Berliner Jesuitengymnasium Canisius-Kolleg, die Klaus Mertes, dem damaligen Rektor, vom sexuellen Missbrauch durch zwei frühere Lehrkräfte berichteten. Am 20. Januar 2010 wandte sich Mertes mit einem Brief an rund 600 Schüler der potenziell betroffenen Jahrgänge. Es kam, wie es kommen musste: Der Brief gelangte an die Öffentlichkeit, und mit der Publikation am 28. Januar 2010 in der Berliner Morgenpost brach der Sturm los. Zweck des Briefs sei es gewesen, den möglichen Betroffenen Ansprechbarkeit zu signalisieren, sagte Mertes in seinem Vortrag in der Veranstaltungsreihe «Uni.Sex» der Katholischen Universitätsgemeinde Basel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HNA

Fritzlar. Hansjörg L, der wegen des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern in 155 Fällen verurteilt worden ist, ist kein Priester mehr. Er gehört auch dem Orden der Prämonstratenser nicht mehr an, sagte der Abt des Ordens, Michael K. Proházka o.praem., auf Anfrage der HNA.

Die Entlassung aus dem Priesterstand und der Rauswurf aus dem Orden sind aus kirchenrechtlicher Sicht die härtesten Strafen. Der Betroffene verliert damit alle Rechte des geistlichen Standes. Möglich wären im Kirchenrecht auch Geldstrafen und diverse Auflagen gewesen. Von einem weltlichen Gericht war der ehemalige Fritzlarer Priester zu sieben Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Er war unter anderem für die Ministranten zuständig gewesen.

Für die Jahre, in denen Hansjörg L., dessen Ordensname Herr Michael war, Mitglied des Ordens der Prämonstratenser war, werde Geld in die Sozialkasse eingezahlt, erläuterte Abt Proházka.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Rev. Charles M. Abdelahad, longtime pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, was sentenced to serve 90 days of a two-year jail term yesterday after being found guilty of physically assaulting a female parishioner during counseling sessions.

The 56-year-old priest, now on a leave of absence, was accused of physically and sexually abusing the 45-year-old woman during about three years’ worth of counseling sessions at the church on Anna Street. The sessions began in 2007 and were aimed at treating the victim’s eating disorder.

Judge Andrew M. D’Angelo, who presided over the priest’s jury-waived trial in Central District Court, found Rev. Abdelahad guilty of one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) for kicking the woman and one count of assault and battery for biting her.

Judge D’Angelo acquitted Rev. Abdelahad on charges of indecent assault and battery, four additional counts of assault and battery and three additional counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The judge sentenced Rev. Abdelahad to two years in the House of Correction, with 90 days to be served, on the assault and battery charge. The balance of the sentence was suspended for three years with probation. Judge D’Angelo imposed a concurrent term of three years’ probation on the assault and battery charge.

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
WAFB

By WAFB Staff

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –
Governor Bobby Jindal signed legislation Friday requires eyewitnesses of sexual abuse to report the abuse to authorities. This law will toughen penalties for those who don’t report the abuse.

The legislation – HB 577 by Representative Joseph Lopinto – is part of the Governor’s 2012 legislative package.

In a news release Friday, Governor Jindal said, “We have a moral duty to protect our children. This new law will ensure that suspected cases of abuse are reported to the proper authorities and will punish those who fail to report these monstrous acts.”

The new law penalizes any adult eyewitness to sexual abuse who fails to report to authorities. The failure to report would be a felony, with imprisonment up to five years and/or a fine of up to ten thousand dollars.

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NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

By Alli Sofer

May 25, 2012
Spotlighting childhood sexual abuse, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey hosted a roundtable discussion on the importance of the Child Victims’ Act of New York, a bill that would extend the statute of limitations in cases of childhood sexual assault.

Roundtable speakers included Markey, D-Maspeth; moderator Melissa Breger, professor at Albany Law School; Marci Hamilton, professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Shannon Sarfoh, assistant district attorney and bureau chief of the special victims unit; and Carmen Durso, a member of the Massachusetts bar.

Markey has been pushing legislation (A.5488) to create a one-year window in which any victim of sexual abuse, regardless of when the abuse occurred, can file a civil suit against their abuser. Markey’s bill also extends the criminal and civil statute of limitations by five years. The current statute is five years after the attack or five years after the victim turns age 18, giving them until age 23 to file a claim. Markey’s legislation would begin the statute at age 23 and end at age 28.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Published: May 25

LOS ANGELES — In a story May 22 about internal files of nine Franciscan priests that were released as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit settlement in California, The Associated Press incorrectly spelled the name of the attorney for the Roman Catholic order. His name is Brian Brosnahan.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on May 25, 2012

We are members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Our mission is to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. That’s why we’re here today outside the Catholic Center offices in Albuquerque.

Next month, America’s Catholic bishops will puff out their chests and brag about their massive public relations moves – the policies, panels and procedures they belatedly set up a decade ago when facing unprecedented pressure for ignoring and concealing horrific child sex crimes for decades. But what’s sorely missing is real action, especially simple, proven action to:

• -Help warn parishioners and the public about predators, and
• – Remove priests who pose a danger from ministry and monitor them to ensure they don’t hurt more kids.
-That’s why we’re here today – to warn Catholics and citizens about two child molesting clerics and to seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered their crimes. Specifically, we’re here to urge New Mexico’s Catholic bishops to
• -Use their vast resources to more aggressively seek out others who may have been hurt by two New Mexico clerics, and
• -Permanently post on their websites the names of all credibly accused predator priests.

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NEW MEXICO
KOAT

By Todd Unger

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –
SNAP, a leading group of sexual abuse victims and advocates, says it wants more transparency from officials in the Catholic church.

Protesting outside of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on Friday afternoon, the group’s president Barbara Blaine said it was time for Archbishop Michael Sheehan to take a more active role.

Specifically, Blaine said he should publish the name of credibly accused priests on the archdiocese website. She also wants to see rewards handed out to parishioners who expose abuse.

The archdiocese didn’t respond to requests for comment about the protest, but over the past decade it has routinely said it’s committed to stomping out abuse throughout the state.

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ITALY
Belfast Telegraph

Saturday, 26 May 2012

The Italian Bishop’s Conference (CIE) has issued guidelines on child protection that inform its bishops that they are ‘not obliged to report illicit facts’ of child abuse to the police.

The new guidelines were released recently after the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith advised every Bishop Conference to create a document covering Child Protection if they did not already have one.

One of the conferences that was void of such documentation was the CEI which works under Pope Benedict XVI.

In their new five page document which advised Italian Bishops on how to deal with paedophilia they failed to focus on one of the most important and obvious means of combating the crime – informing police authorities.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech will go to the Vatican tomorrow to report on the state of their dioceses. They do so in accordance with Church law that lays down that, every five years, a diocesan bishop must make a report to the Supreme Pontiff on the state of the diocese entrusted to him.

The ad limina apostolorum, as these visits are known in Church language, is primarily a manifestation and a means of communion between the bishops and the Chair of Peter. It is an occasion that has three principal moments, each one of them having its own proper meaning. …

The problems are not limited to the traumatic experiences caused by certain high-profile issues, such as the scandals of the sexual abuse of minors within the Church’s fold, the impact of the divorce referendum result and the controversies involving Church teaching regarding IVF and same-sex unions.

There are, of course, other problems that need to be addressed, including that of people distancing themselves from the Church for personal reasons. These vary from religious indifference or a lukewarm spirit to a feeling that, in certain areas, Catholicism is merely “a collection of prohibitions”.

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

[the lawsuit]

[documents]

HONOLULU (AP) – Attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man alleging sexual abuse by a priest at a Honolulu all-boys Catholic school in the 1980s.

The lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Honolulu Thursday claims the then-13-year-old boy was abused during an overnight retreat by Rev. Gerald Funcheon, a former chaplain and teacher Damien Memorial School.

The lawsuit doesn’t name the plaintiff, now an adult living in Honolulu.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says this is the first lawsuit under a new Hawaii law providing a 2-year window for claims of sexual abuse against minors to be made, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New York Daily News

By Rheana Murray / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, May 25, 2012

A Catholic priest removed from the ministry ten years ago for sexually abusing young girls has found another job — with the TSA.

Thomas Harkins, once a priest at churches throughout South Jersey, now works as a TSA supervisor at the Philadelphia International Airport, CBS Philly reports.

He was forced to leave the church in 2002, when the Diocese of Camden found him guilty of sexually abusing two young girls.

Now, a third alleged victim has come forward, according to the station.

In a new lawsuit, Harkins is accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl as many as 15 times between 1980 and 1981. One of the alleged incidents occurred in Harkins’ bedroom at the rectory of Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Hammonton, N.J, where Harkins worked at the time.

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