ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A deacon has appeared in court over 41 counts of indecent assault following a historical sexual abuse investigation at a Greater Manchester school.

Reverend Alan Morris, 63, from Hale, who taught at St Ambrose RC College in Hale Barns, Altrincham, is accused of offences between 1972 and 1991.

He did not enter a plea at Manchester Magistrates Court and will appear at the city’s Crown Court on 15 August.

The Diocese of Shrewsbury said he had been “withdrawn from active ministry”.

The allegations involve 29 former pupils of the boys-only school, who were aged between 11 and 17 at the time.

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UNITED KINGDOM
MSN

Some of the biggest names in tech have pledged their allegiance to David Cameron’s big online porn crackdown – Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter are all-in. And although Google have promised to co-operate, a Government advisor has called for investors to sell their stakes in the search giant.

Accounts that are due to be published later this year will reveal that the Church’s pension fund has a £5.7 million investment in Google, prompting Cameron’s advisor on childhood – Claire Perry – to make her recommendation.

Speaking to The Telegraph Mrs Perry said: “It is quite clear that many companies, in particular British Internet Service Providers are finally now taking a really responsible approach to this. They are seeing that we want a level of social responsibility.

“There are others out there who have not got that attitude. The Prime Minister was saying Google have a responsibility, they are effectively helping people for which there can be no case made.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Cameron advisor urges Church of England to pull money out of Google to pressure search engine to block child porn

A Government aide has urged investors to sell their Google shares to try and pressure the internet giant into blocking child abuse images.

Conservative MP Claire Perry, an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron on preventing the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, urged the Church of England to cut ties with the search engine that they back.

Ms Perry told the Church to pull its money out of Google in a bid to force the company to take a stronger line over pornographic and abusive images widely available through its engine.

She told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It is quite clear that many companies, in particular British internet service providers, are finally now taking a really responsible approach to this. They are seeing that we want a level of social responsibility.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

Posted by Elyssa M. Millspaugh (Editor) , July 26, 2013

A local priest accused of sexually abusing a minor, and facing federal firearms charges, appeared before a judge Thursday for a detention hearing at Bridgeport Federal Court.

Father Paul Gotta, 55, former administrator of St. Philip in East Windsor and St. Catherine in Broad Brook, is charged with aiding and abetting the unlawful transport of a firearm in interstate commerce, and the purchase of a handgun by a juvenile in violation of federal law, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In federal custody since his arrest last Friday, a judge Thursday agreed to a plan for Rev. Gotta’s release to the custody of his sister, according to WFSB.

The terms of release include confinement to Rev. Gotta’s Bridgeport home, electronic monitoring, and the removal of legally owned weapons from his home, WFSB reports.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

A former teacher has appeared in court accused of abusing pupils at a top boys school over a period of 21 years.

Alan Morris, 63, who is also a church deacon, denies 47 counts of sexual abuse against 29 boys.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place at St Ambrose College in Hale near Altrincham between 1973 and 1994.

It is claimed that at the time all the pupils were under 16.

Rev Morris was given bail at Manchester city magistrates’ court.

The case was adjourned until August 15 when he will appear at Manchester Crown Court for a preliminary hearing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Nic Rigby
BBC News

A lawyer representing ex-residents of a Catholic orphanage – which is the centre of a police inquiry into abuse allegations – has already been contacted by 12 victims.

Tracey Emmott is representing a group of former residents of St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, Bedfordshire.

They allege they were physically or sexually abused at the home in the 1950s and 1960s.

The church regrets any possible harm but says the claims are not proven.

Ms Emmott, a specialist in cases of childhood sexual abuse, said that since new concerns about the abuse became public in May this year, she has been contacted by 12 ex-residents.

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OREGON
OPB

Two Lane County women are suing a Springfield church for more than $7 million each, alleging they were abused hundreds of times by a youth pastor in the 1970s.

The suits, filed in Lane County Circuit Court, name Bethel Assembly of God of Springfield, City of Destiny Church and the national and state Assemblies of God organizations as defendants. It also names the former youth pastor, Morrice H. Corley, as a defendant.

Corley, of Springfield, declined to comment on the suit. Calls to the local church and its state council were not immediately returned.

The Bethel Assembly of God of Springfield merged with the City of Destiny Church in 2005. City of Destiny is a newer congregation formed by a Springfield couple and was not in existence at the time of the alleged abuse.

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WISCONSIN/NEW JERSEY
HTR News

A Byzantine Catholic priest from New Jersey now living in Manitowoc, who once ran a wrestling website that critics likened to child pornography has been laicized — or expelled from the priesthood — following claims he sexually abused teen boys in New Jersey.

(The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., reported the story today. Read the full story here. )

The accused, Glenn Davidowich, responds to the HTR via email. Read his response, found at the bottom of this story.

Glenn Davidowich, 49, of Manitowoc, had been on leave from ministry since at least 2011, when the Eparchy of Passaic reached a $200,000 settlement with one of his alleged victims.

The eparchy, the equivalent of a diocese in the Roman Catholic church, announced in its monthly newspaper, Eastern Catholic Life, that Davidowich was removed from the priesthood April 2. His expulsion was approved in December by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Byzantine Catholic Church is autonomous from the Roman Catholic Church but remains under the auspices of the pope.

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MICHIGAN
WXYZ

[with video]

By: Anu Prakash

(WXYZ) – Rev. Helmut Schüller is the Catholic priest from Austria who is making headlines here in the US.

His views on the church have drawn support and criticism.

“We want the priesthood to become opened for married men … for women also .. so we want a discussion about it,” he says.

Rev. Schüller is challenging the church leadership and says lay people should get active in the church and make changes.

The Austrian priest is on a 15 city nationwide tour. He was most recently banned from speaking at a Catholic church in Boston, but his speeches have also been drawing crowds.
He was supposed to speak at SS Simon and Jude parish in Westland Friday night, but Detroit’s Archbishop Allen Vigneron banned him from speaking there. His address will be made at Wayne Memorial H.S. instead.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Helen McArdle
News Reporter

FRESH questions have been raised about how the Catholic Church in Scotland handles child sex-abuse cases.

It has emerged an Ayrshire priest who admitted abusing children almost 20 years ago is still being looked after by the Church.

Father Paul Moore, who is retired, reportedly confessed to the then Bishop of Galloway, Maurice Taylor, in 1996 that he had abused more than one boy.

Rather than reporting him to police, the bishop is understood to have sent him to a treatment clinic for child sex offenders in Canada, after which he was transferred to Fort Augustus Abbey.

However, the real reason for the priest’s departure from his parish in Prestwick was reportedly hushed up by the Church and the move described as a sabbatical.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

SATURDAY JULY 27, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The priest who failed to report inappropriate behavior by another priest now accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl was the pastor of the Passaic parish where the alleged incident took place, raising questions about how effectively the Catholic Church’s “zero tolerance” policy on clergy sex abuse is being followed.

A lawyer for the Diocese of Paterson on Friday condemned the Rev. Edgar Ruiz, the pastor of St. Mary’s of the Assumption, for not contacting church leaders or even confronting the priest, when a young girl told him in May that the Rev. Jose Lopez had taken her into his private living quarters months earlier for counseling.

“That was a major league mistake and violation of our policies, procedures and guidelines,” said the lawyer, Ken Mullaney.

In light of the clergy sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church for more than a decade, dioceses have adopted policies to guard against and detect sexual abuse, requiring clergy members to report any allegations to the authorities, or in the case of the Paterson Diocese, even hints of them.

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BRAZIL
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Jul. 26, 2013 NCR Today

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

If proof were ever required of how profoundly Francis has turned around public impressions of the Catholic church, consider this: He’s been in the global spotlight now for five consecutive days in Brazil, and no one brought up the church’s sexual abuse mess until, admittedly indirectly, he did so himself tonight.

Francis’s language was oblique, and it takes a bit of exegesis to connect the dots between what he actually said and the abuse crisis.

Tonight brought World Youth Day’s traditional Via Crucis procession, marking the Stations of the Cross. Francis offered a reflection at the end, which was largely a meditation on the meaning of the Cross.

At one stage the pope spoke about Jesus on the Cross being unified with everyone who suffers.

“Jesus, with his Cross, walks with us and takes upon himself our fears, our problems, and our sufferings, even those which are deepest and most painful,” the pope said.

That includes, Francis said, those who “have lost their faith in the church, or even in God, because of the lack of consistency of Christians and ministers of the Gospel.”

“How much Jesus suffers for this lack of consistency,” the pope said.

The category of “lack of consistency” obviously covers a lot of ground, and probably includes all the temptations Francis has repeatedly denounced since becoming pope – careerism, vanity, self-interest, and so on. Yet in the context of the last two decades of the church’s life, it will be difficult for most people not to hear an echo of the sex abuse scandals too.

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BRAZIL
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Jul. 26, 2013 NCR Today

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has spent the last two decades dealing with the church’s sexual abuse scandals, so when he speaks on the subject, people listen – presumably, up to and including Pope Francis himself.

In April, Francis named O’Malley as one of eight cardinals from around the world to help him govern the universal church and to reform the Vatican, in part, perhaps, because of his profile as a reformer on the abuse crisis.

In an interview today, O’Malley acknowledged that so far Francis hasn’t yet really engaged the issue, and suggested two steps he believes the pope could take that would make a difference:

• Prodding bishops’ conferences from around the world that haven’t yet finished their anti-abuse guidelines, offering whatever resources they need to get the job done.
• Implementing in the Vatican the same anti-abuse protocols that dioceses and other Catholic venues have adopted, including background checks and screening of all personnel, training in abuse prevention and detection, as well as training in how to handle accusations when they arise and how to conduct outreach to victims. Doing so, he said, would be a “powerful example.”

O’Malley made the comments in a July 26 interview in Rio de Janeiro, where he’s taking part in the July 22-28 World Youth Day.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Krystal Paco

Guam – The termination of Father Paul Gofigan has caught the attention of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group is asking Archbishop Anthony Apuron to stand by his decision to fire Father Gofigan, the Santa Barbara Church pastor. According to SNAP director David Clohessy, he says it’s outrageous that any individual would rather put his career before the safety of children, let alone a man who is supposed to be considered as a community representative and leader.

As we reported the archbishop replaced Father Gofigan at the Dededo church because he alleges he failed to follow a directive he issued two years ago to fire a sex offender employed there.

The archbishop expressed concerns that the church is near a school. Father Gofigan responds to the statements made by SNAP. “Well, I’m concerned in the purpose of SNAP to keep our children safe those are really meant for true sexual predators especially those who have committed grave crimes over a numerous period of time in the case of some of the clerical sexual abuse I mean we’ve found that they abused so many people,” he said.

Father Gofigan had said that he did in fact follow the directive and terminated the individual, but he was still active in the church as a volunteer. “This person was very young he was in his early twenties he was on drugs alcohol and this is what it does and he was very sorry for his crime and he repented and served his time,” he said.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian
on July 26, 2013

A controversial Catholic priest who was banned from speaking in a Catholic Church in Boston last month will speak at a Protestant church in Portland on Sunday, Aug. 4. The Rev. Helmut Schuller of Austria, a reformer concerned about the shortage of ordained Catholic clergy, will talk about possible solutions from 2 to 4 p.m. at Central Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland. A free-will offering will be collected.

Schuller, who was vicar general for Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn from 1995 to 1999, was dismissed because his views were at odds with church authorities. The Vatican stripped Schuller of his title of “monsignor” in 2012. He is pastor now of a small rural parish near Vienna. He was a founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative and their 2011 “Call to Disobedience.”

Schuller and members of the priests’ initiative oppose the consolidation of parishes, support a greater sacramental role for lay people and advocate new thinking on remarried Catholics and same sex couples. The reformers favor the ordination of women and married men and increased transparency within the hierarchy of the church.

“Priests are losing the chance to walk with members of their communities through their daily lives,” Schuller said in an interview this week in the National Catholic Reporter. “This is about more than compassion. It is about companionship and solidarity with laypeople.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Rose Vardell, The Plain Dealer
on July 26, 2013

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Female priests, married priests and same-sex marriage tolerance may not be compatible with the Roman Catholic church’s teachings, but these changes are what the outspoken Rev. Helmut Schuller is calling for.

The Austrian priest offered these reformations to church doctrine as possible solutions for the growing priest shortage during a Friday luncheon at the Cleveland City Club. It was his second talk in Cleveland this week and part of his three-week, 15-city tour in the United States called “The Catholic Tipping Point.”

Schuller said female priests were an essential contribution to the movement for a changed direction in the institutional church.

“A religion that says men and women are both made in the image of God must be reflected in the ministerial structure as well,” he said.

Schuller was banned from Catholic churches in Detroit and Boston during the tour. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said Schuller’s beliefs oppose the church’s doctrine.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Jul. 26, 2013 NCR Today

The cardinal who heads the Vatican’s Supreme Court has apparently called Catholics who focus on social justice ministry instead of ornate liturgies akin to communists.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a former archbishop of St. Louis known for a preference for Latin Mass and long robes during liturgies, makes the comments in an interview posted Thursday by the Catholic news agency ZENIT.

“Some argue the liturgy is mostly about aesthetics, and not as important as, say, good works done in faith,” the interviewer asks Burke. “What is your view of this argument that one often hears?”

“It’s a Communist misconception,” Burke responds. “First of all, the liturgy is about Christ. It’s Christ alive in his Church, the glorious Christ coming into our midst and acting on our behalf through sacramental signs to give us the gift of eternal life to save us.”

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

By Teresa Smith, Ottawa Citizen July 26, 2013

OTTAWA — Geraldine King, 33, has spent her life thinking about residential schools and how they’ve affected her family.

The Carleton University student says she is an “inter-generational survivor,” because, while she wasn’t a student herself, her grandmother and likely her grandfather lived with memories of abuse and loss of culture. Their experiences, says King, changed the way they treated their children and resulted in a cycle of abuse and alcoholism in her family.

On Thursday, King stood shoulder to shoulder with about 100 people in Ottawa and thousands more in 12 cities across the country to demand that Prime Minister Stephen Harper “honour the apology” he made in 2008 on behalf of all Canadians for the horrors experienced by more than 150,000 aboriginal people at residential schools.

They want the immediate release of all documents pertaining to the residential school era to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

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WASHINGTON (DC)
TheMediaReport

Lest there be any remaining doubt that the advocacy group SNAP is more about advancing a radical left-wing social agenda than providing actual helpful support for clergy abuse victims, this weekend’s annual conference for the group in Washington D.C. is headlining a speech by Eleanor Smeal, the rabid president of the abortion activist group Feminist Majority.

Smeal’s contempt for the Catholic Church cannot be overstated, as she has made it clear that the Catholic Church is her number one obstacle in advancing unfettered abortion-on-demand.

A few years ago, she told a pro-abortion gathering, “Opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and of the hierarchy is a major reason this issue (abortion) stays controversial. We’ve got to keep more pressure on this hierarchy [because] they’re vulnerable now [due to the clergy sex abuse scandals].”

Smeal’s appearance comes on the heels of last year’s headline speaker, Rev. Barry Lynn, the ringleader of the loopy Americans United for Separation of Church and State, whose speech consisted almost entirely of him railing against the Catholic Church for its opposition to the Obama administration’s healthcare mandate, thus providing more proof that SNAP really has another agenda at play.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Friday, July 26, 2013

BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

The case against a Passaic priest accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl was transferred to state court during his first appearance before a judge this morning.

The Rev. Jose Lopez Durango, a native of Colombia who is in the United States on a religious work visa, did not enter a plea on Friday. Prosecutors allege that in late January, while serving as an assistant priest at St. Mary’s Church of the Assumption, Durango put her on his lap and engaged in sexual contact with her at the church rectory after inviting the girl to this living quarters there.

During a seven-minute appearance in Passaic Municipal Court, the priest – wearing a blue polo shirt and slacks – answered questions from Judge Debbie Irwin through an interpreter and looked down at a podium he stood behind.

After Durango gave the address of the church as his residence, the judge stressed that he cannot live there as a condition of his bail. He then told the judge he was staying at a retirement home in Chester in Morris County.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

By Mark Daly
BBC Scotland Investigations Correspondent

A BBC investigation has revealed fresh concerns about the way the Catholic Church handles child sex abuse cases.

Retired Ayrshire priest Fr Paul Moore admitted abusing children to Bishop Maurice Taylor nearly 20 years ago, but the claims were initially covered up.

Fr Moore’s victim has spoken publicly for the first time about the abuse, and the BBC has learned the priest is still being looked after by the church.

Bishop Taylor accepted the diocese had bought Fr Moore a house to live in.

However, he said he had ordered him not to be involved in public ministry again.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News Magazine

The Catholic Church is at a critical juncture. Pope Francis needs to address the scandals troubling the Church over recent decades, but risks opening a door to modernisation that may be difficult to close, says Sarah Dunant.

When the first bibles were printed in the 15th Century not everyone rejoiced. Some felt that communicating the word of God was the church’s business and should be kept in its hands. While I’m not equating the Pope’s use of Twitter with the printing press it’s interesting how many people are upset by it. Of course an image of His Holiness hunched over his mobile stabbing in 140 characters feels ludicrous. But give it some thought. Social media has revolutionised the way we gather news. You can bemoan the death of serious journalism, but many celebrate the immediacy of Twitter – how, often sliding under the radar of state security, it has speed and gives a voice to the people, offering a window onto history being made. If the faithful believe in the power of the Pope, why shouldn’t he speak to them directly through their mobiles? It’s worth nothing that the ten commandments are all conveniently Twitter length.

So what should the Pope be saying to his millions of followers (an apt use of the term perhaps)? Well, it’s hard to know where to start.

Many, even among the faithful, think the Catholic Church is in a mess. While it may not be selling indulgences (though the recent suggestion that those following the Pope could knock time off in purgatory makes one wonder), decades of financial scandal and particularly sexual abuse have exposed a level of moral decay which, if it were a democratically elected government or even a global corporation, would see voters or shareholders expressing public revulsion and fury.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Robert McClory | Jul. 26, 2013

As Fr. Helmut Schüller travels the United States, the question that puzzles many is how he and other leaders of the “Appeal to Disobedience” movement escape condemnation if not excommunication by the bishops of Austria. Schüller, head of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, speaks candidly about the need for a “new image of the priesthood,” which would be open to women and married persons. He sees no reason to deny Communion to divorced and remarried persons and members of other Christian churches. And his organization advocates that every parish have a leader (man or woman, married or single) who would preside at the Eucharist in order to avoid the consolidation or closing of churches. Yet Schüller has so far escaped censure (except for the removal of his title as monsignor). He remains an active priest in good standing in his native Vienna diocese.

At a dinner sponsored by Call to Action the evening before his talk Wednesday in Chicago, Schüller provided some answers to the question. To understand Austrian Catholicism, he said, you have to go back to the turmoil of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Habsburg rulers imposed the Catholic faith on all Austrian citizens, forcing conversions and expelling non-Catholic clergy from the country.

“This experience of repression,” he said, “sowed a lack of confidence” in the hierarchy. “Suspicion and criticism” among the laity has remained a characteristic of the Austrian church to this day, he said.

“On the surface there may be peace and sweetness, but beneath, there is an historic burden we carry,” Schüller said.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Jul. 26, 2013All Things Catholic

Rio de Janeiro —
I’m in Rio de Janeiro this week, watching Francis wow Brazil. The trip has brought a little bit of everything: crowds so pumped up for the pope they created security nightmares, protestors pushed back with tear gas (they were mad at the government, not so much the pope), Francis at his pastoral best at the Marian shrine of Aparecida, and a powerful message of solidarity with the poor in a Rio slum.

You can find my daily reports from Rio on the NCR website.

All that would be enough to make the outing memorable, and the big finish hasn’t even happened. Francis will participate in the traditional Via Crucis procession for World Youth Day on Friday night, attend an evening vigil Saturday, and celebrate an open-air Mass for what’s expected to be as many as 2 million people Sunday.

The mere fact Francis is out of town, however, doesn’t mean his problems in Rome have taken a vacation.

In fact, while Francis is making his triumphant homecoming to Latin America, there are three fires burning back in Rome, one of which he learned of just before he left and two more that have erupted while he’s been away.
..
Taken together, these three situations illustrate that Francis will have his work cut out for him when he gets back. If nothing else, his decision not to head out for the traditional summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo during August and to stay on the job instead is starting to look like a good call.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A woman whose son was sexually abused by a Catholic priest has told an inquiry into clerical abuse in the Hunter Valley that she was ostracised for speaking out.

The special commission of inquiry has been examining claims the church covered up abuse by two priests in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Fletcher died in jail two years into a 10-year sentence for abusing a boy know to the inquiry as AH.

AH’s mother today told the inquiry she was subjected the prank phone calls, had eggs thrown at her house and was shunned in the street after the allegations were raised.

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CANADA
Courthouse News Service

By DARRYL GREER

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) – The head of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics sexually abused two girls long ago when he taught at a Catholic school in British Columbia, two women claim in separate lawsuits.

The women filed similar complaints against John Furlong, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, the Roman Catholic Prince George Diocese, and Catholic Independent Schools Diocese of Prince George, in British Columbia Supreme Court.

Beverly Mary Abraham and Grace Jessie West claims Furlong abused them in 1969 and 1970 when he was a gym teacher and they were students at Immaculata Roman Catholic Elementary School, in Burns Lake, B.C.

West claims Furlong kicked her in the butt, legs and back almost every day and called her a “dirty Indian” and a “squaw.”

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NEW JERSEY/WISCONSIN
Star Tribune

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — A Byzantine Catholic priest who was expelled following claims that he sexually abused boys in New Jersey is living in Wisconsin.

The Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic notified parishioners that 49-year-old Glenn Davidowich received and accepted notice removing him “from the clerical state” effective April 2.

He had been on leave since 2011, when the eparchy reached a $200,000 settlement with a 36-year-old Hopewell man who claimed he was abused.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian tells The Star-Ledger of Newark (http://bit.ly/169CLXw ) the eparchy settled a second lawsuit in June.

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AUSTRALIA
Cootamundra Herald

By Ian Kirkwood July 26, 2013

A SENIOR cleric, a victim’s mother and a Taree parish priest gave evidence yesterday to the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle.

The day began with the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Father Brian Lucas, resuming a period in the witness box begun on Wednesday.

Just before 12.30, a woman known as BJ – the mother of James Fletcher victim AH – took the stand, telling in emotional terms of a campaign of ostracisation she said followed AH’s decision to press charges against his long-time tormenter, who was also a close family friend.

The day finished with Taree priest Father Desmond Harrigan, who was mentioned in earlier evidence this month given by whistleblowing police officer Peter Fox in relation to the Fletcher investigation.

After application from Father Harrigan’s counsel, Elizabeth McLaughlin, supported by various other counsel, commissioner Margaret Cunneen granted a non-publication order over all of Father Harrigan’s evidence, which was given before a gallery of about 50 people.

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MICHIGAN
Greenwich Times

WESTLAND, Mich. (AP) — Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron (VIG’-neh-ron) has banned an Austrian priest from speaking at a parish because the priest advocates ordaining women and making celibacy for priests optional.

The Rev. Helmut Schuller was scheduled to speak at Ss. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in the Detroit suburb of Westland. Instead, the Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/18D4bp7 ) his appearance Friday night has been moved to Wayne Memorial High School.

Schuller has been banned from speaking at Catholic churches in other parts of the U.S., where he is taking part in a multi-city tour. Schuller says the bans in Detroit and elsewhere reflect “an old-fashioned system” where church leadership is out of touch.

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IRELAND
The Irish Post (UK)

By Niall O’Sullivan on July 26, 2013

SURVIVOR of clerical sex abuse has slammed crass gardaí who launched a ‘scurrilous’ campaign against him in the 1980s.

Cheshire-based Irishman James Moran revealed how police in Ireland pursued him with allegations of blackmail after he returned to Dublin in 1987 to confront the priest who abused him.

Details of the garda campaign against him were brought to light as the final chapter of the Murphy Report was released earlier this month.

Mr Moran also alleges a teacher abused him during the same period.

Originally from Co. Kildare, he is now demanding to know why officers went to extraordinary lengths to treat him as a “criminal” when he tried to expose the priest who abused him as a schoolboy.

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

Editorial: The archbishop should explain actions in case against accused priest

By the Editorial Board

In 2011, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson defended the way the archdiocese here handles child sexual abuse allegations. He promised to cooperate with law enforcement when asked and to remind adults of their right to contact enforcement authorities in cases of suspected abuse.

His remarks, in an interview with the Post-Dispatch, followed charges and a grand jury report lambasting the way the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, led by Cardinal Justin Rigali, the former archbishop of St. Louis, handled allegations of child sexual abuse in Philadelphia’s Catholic community.

Now comes the case of the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang and suggestions that Archbishop Carlson may not be keeping his pledges.

Father Jiang is a 30-year-old priest in the St. Louis Archdiocese who was charged with criminal child endangerment nearly a year ago after being accused of molesting a teenage girl in Lincoln County.

In a lawsuit filed July 12 by the parents of the girl, now 19, Archbishop Carlson is accused of trying to cover the priest’s tracks. The archbishop has not personally commented on the matter. He should.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

Byzantine Catholic priest who made sexually suggestive videos defrocked over abuse claims

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on July 26, 2013

A Byzantine Catholic priest who once ran a wrestling website that critics likened to child pornography has been laicized — or expelled from the priesthood — following claims that he sexually abused teenage boys in New Jersey.

Glenn Davidowich, 49, had been on leave from ministry since at least 2011, when the Eparchy of Passaic reached a $200,000 settlement with one of his alleged victims. Davidowich now lives in Manitowoc, Wis.

The eparchy, the equivalent of a diocese in the Roman Catholic church, announced in its monthly newspaper, Eastern Catholic Life, that Davidowich was removed from the priesthood April 2. His expulsion was approved in December by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Byzantine Catholic Church is autonomous from the Roman Catholic Church but remains under the auspices of the pope.

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UNITED KINGDOM
in-Cumbria

By Chris Story
Published at 10:55, Friday, 26 July 2013

A judge has been appointed to lead an independent inquiry into allegations of child abuse by a former Carlisle Cathedral canon.

Judge Sally Cahill QC will examine the church’s handling of historic claims made against the Very Rev Robert Waddington.

And the archbishop who has ordered the inquiry says the church is ready to face facts and acknowledge any failure in its work to protect children from sexual abuse.

Mr Waddington served as Residentiary Canon of Carlisle Cathedral and Bishop’s Adviser for Education from 1972 to 1977. He died in 2007, aged 79.

The claims allegedly involved an Australian schoolboy and a Manchester choirboy. The Diocese of Carlisle and Cumbria Police have previously confirmed the allegations do not relate to Mr Waddington’s time in Carlisle.

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ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 July 2013

Even as he tours the favelas and beaches of Brazil, Pope Francis may find it difficult to forget what is going on back home.

On Thursday, a prelate accused of attempting to smuggle €20m (£17m) into Italy from Switzerland appealed directly to the pontiff, insisting on his innocence and accusing his lay bosses in the Vatican’s asset management arm of abusive activities which he said were covered up by some cardinals.

In a letter written from the Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven) prison in Rome, where he has been detained since his arrest with two others on 28 June, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano told Francis: “I have never laundered dirty money; I have never stolen. I tried to help someone who asked for help.”

In the missive, written last week and released by his lawyers, he added: “The documentation in my possession proves my honesty and my battles against the abuse of my secular superiors, protected by some senior cardinals.”

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VATICAN CITY
The International News

VATICAN CITY: A senior cleric arrested on suspicion of corruption wrote to the pope on Thursday to accuse cardinals of covering up irregular financial activities carried out by his superiors in the Vatican.

“The documents in my possession are proof of my honesty and my fight against the misdeeds of my lay superiors, covered up by certain cardinals,” Nunzio Scarano said in a letter addressed to Pope Francis, cited by ANSA news agency.

The prelate, who was arrested on June 28 on suspicion of having acted as an intermediary for suspect transactions at the Vatican bank — otherwise known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) — proclaimed his innocence.

“I never laundered dirty money, I never stole, I tried to help someone who asked for help,” he wrote from behind bars in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison. Scarano, who worked for years as an accountant for APSA, an agency that manages Vatican assets, said he had documents which would prove his good faith and asked the pontiff permission to present them to him in person.

Financial police accuse Scarano of acting as a front for suspicious payments made through the Vatican bank and “interrupting the traceability of money.” The investigators allege that Scarano had used Vatican bank accounts to make transfers on behalf of his friends, including an attempt to move 20 million euros ($26 million) on behalf of a Neapolitan shipowning family.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Senior Catholic priest, Brian Lucas continues to have a poor memory, just like his colleagues. Ms Maria Gerace, a victims’ lawyer, challenged Lucas’ assertion that he could not remember anything about the McAlinden case. As she wryly noted, the single thing Lucas could recall was the one fact that meant he was not guilty of any offence in relation to misprision of felony or similar laws relating to the concealment of evidence or failure to report crime.

Mr. Lucas is a lawyer as well as a priest. In a 1996 speech, entitled “Are our Archives Safe? – An ecclesial view of search warrants”, distributed to church lawyers, Lucas gives a sub-heading reading :” To shred or not to shred – Is that the question?”. Perhaps, he could have added another sub-section headed: “To remember or not to remember – What was the question again?”

This is not the first time Lucas has had memory problems. In 1992, he was part of a committee investigating a “Father F” in the Armidale diocese. In his court hearing in 2004, “Father F” admitted in a meeting with Lucas he molested boys between 1982 and 1984. A letter written by Father Peters (a committee co-member with Lucas) to Bishop Kevin Manning of Armidale just eight days after the 1992 meeting with the priest describes in detail “Father F’s” admissions.

Despite the existence of this letter, Peters denied, in writing, to the ABC “Four Corners” program, that “Father F” had made the admissions. Peters has consistently refused to explain the discrepancy. Maybe, it was just a memory thing.

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IIRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Michael Kelly
Thursday, 25 July 2013

The four religious congregations who ran the Magdalene laundries have set their face against contributing to the Government’s compensation scheme. It’s highly unlikely that the distressed hand-wringing from politicians will change the decision not to contribute to the Magdalene laundries redress scheme. The shameful history of our country in this regard is a call to reflection, and honesty. If we’re willing to heed that call.

Of course, the fact that the sisters have maintained a steely silence on the latest controversy, choosing instead to refer to past statements, makes it largely impossible for the general public to understand where they’re coming from. And in the absence of public commentary from the nuns, a lazy narrative has taken over in the media. Most commentators have tended to fall into either of two camps: on the one hand, they argue that the nuns simply don’t want to pay the money. On the other hand, others argue that the sisters just don’t accept any responsibility for their role in running the laundries.

It’s frustrating that the sisters are unwilling to engage publicly on the issues. However, in private the nuns who were involved are more than willing to share their views. The report into the laundries by Senator Martin McAleese was seen by the orders as offering a comprehensive picture of the complex involvement between Church, State and the wider society that led to an appalling situation where thousands of women were committed to these institutions. And the opening line of the McAleese Report is one frequently cited by the nuns: “there is no single or simple story of the Magdalene laundries”.

This, the nuns argue, proves that the issues at stake are more nuanced than simply asking the orders to hand over half of the estimated €58m cost of the Government’s redress plans.

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AUSTRALIA
Camden Haven Courier

By Natasha Wallace July 26, 2013

Priests should be jailed for concealing evidence of sex abuse because they are effectively aiding and abetting a crime, a child protection campaigner has said.

The executive director of advocacy group Bravehearts, Hetty Johnston, was responding to testimony by high-ranking Catholic priest Father Brian Lucas that he did not take notes while interviewing about 35 priests from 1990-1996 who were accused of sex abuse, nor did he refer the matters to police. ”He should be jailed. That just aids and abets offenders to continue to offend and it is just as bad a crime, in my view, than committing the crimes itself,” Ms Johnston said.

”The person didn’t only not do their job but their moral obligation. It is absolutely the most appalling, atrocious response.”

Father Lucas is the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, which oversees the National Committee for Professional Standards responsible for procedures in dealing with abuse complaints. Retired psychologist Stephen Paull, who has 25 years of experience in child protection in the NSW education department, said it was ”absolutely grossly negligent” both legally and morally not to take notes at such meetings.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A woman whose son was sexually abused by a Catholic priest has told a NSW inquiry she was ostracised for speaking out.

A woman whose son was sexually abused by a Catholic priest has told an inquiry into clerical abuse in the Hunter Valley that she was ostracised for speaking out.

The special commission of inquiry has been examining claims the church covered up abuse by two priests in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Fletcher died in jail two years into a 10-year sentence for abusing a boy know to the inquiry as AH.

AH’s mother today told the inquiry she was subjected the prank phone calls, had eggs thrown at her house and was shunned in the street after the allegations were raised.

She described an altercation in a supermarket where a man rammed a shopping trolley into her leg because he was upset at the allegations levelled at Fletcher.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 26, 2013

THE mother of victim AH said it would have been unbearable if paedophile priest Jim Fletcher had not been convicted on her son’s evidence.

The woman, BJ, who gave evidence to the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle on Friday, finished her evidence after lunch by explaining to the commissioner, Margaret Cunneen, the toll that Fletcher’s crimes had taken on her son and her family.

Ms Cunneen said BJ had described the conviction as a “good result” and she asked what BJ would have felt had the trial resulted gone the other way.

BJ said her son had shown enormous courage to press charges and to continue with the trial despite the publicity and stress it put on him.

“The legal process didn’t let us down, the Catholic Church did,’’ BJ said.

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NEW JERSEY
NBC 10

A priest affiliated with two Passaic churches has been arrested on charges he had sexual contact with a minor who sought his counsel.

The Passaic County prosecutor’s office says charges against Father Jose Lopez include child luring and endangerment and criminal sexual contact.

A listing for Lopez’s attorney did not have an answering machine.

Prosecutors say Lopez lured a 14 year-old female parishioner to his private quarters at St. Mary’s Assumption church in Passaic, and allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with her.

The victim told authorities she’d gone to Lopez for counseling and he allegedly put her on his lap, kissed her and engaged in sexual contact.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyBurbs

By Crissa Shoemaker DeBree Staff writer
Posted on July 25, 2013

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has sold four unused properties, including a 49-acre parcel in Plumstead, for nearly $2 million.

Three properties were sold at auction Wednesday for a total of $875,000. Proceeds from those sales will go to the parishes in which the properties are located, including St. Hilary of Poitiers in Abington. A one-acre parcel belonging to the church was sold for $325,000 to a local developer who plans to build an estate home there.

Prior to auction, the archdiocese agreed to sell its land on Wismer Road in Plumstead for $850,000, archdiocesan spokesman Ken Gavin said. Proceeds from that sale will go toward general operating expenses at the archdiocese.

Gavin did not identify the buyer of the Plumstead property, but said the person does not plan on developing the site, farmland purchased for a future church.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

[with video]

Vernon Odom
Action News

PHILADELPHIA – July 24, 2013 (WPVI) — The financially crippled Archdiocese of Philadelphia continues to look for sources of revenue, and it found one Wednesday. It’s called the auction block.

For developers, the old St. Michael Business School building on North 2nd Street in Kensington is a piece of property with great potential.

It sits just a few blocks from the red-hot, ever-redeveloping Northern Liberties neighborhood. And this is a church structure extremely well-built.

“Obviously it’s dated, a little tired. But the other nice part is it has a great yard,” said developer John Ciliberto.

The St. Michael building is one of multiple school buildings, convents and parcels of land sold off Wednesday by the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — An auctioneer has helped the Archdiocese of Philadelphia unload some properties, as the church takes more steps to reduce its financial deficit. They include a former school and two convents in Philadelphia and a parcel of land in the suburbs.

The stout former St. Michael Business School on North Second Street in Old Kensington – with a stone facade and intricate woodwork on the inside – fetched $330,000, and is likely to be converted into condo use.

Kyle Piasecki helped his mother-in-law bid $118,000 on the former Our Lady of Hope Convent on North 19th Street.

“It’s three townhomes that were connected. The goal will be to break them down into three separate homes and flip them.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Patch

Posted by Mischa Arnosky (Editor) , July 25, 2013

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia sold four local properties at auction on Wednesday … including a plot in Abington.

According to a Phillyburbs.com story, the Archdiocese sold an unoccupied, 1-acre piece of property belonging to St. Hilary of Poitiers for $325,000 to a developer who will likely build a house there.

The money will go back into the St. Hilary parish.

Max Spann Real Estate and Auction Co. oversaw the sales, which also included a 49-acre piece of land in Plumstead (which sold for $2 million); and the former St. Bartholomew convent on Harbison Avenue in Philadelphia (which sold for $220,000). The archdiocese also agreed to sell land on Wismer Road in Plumstead for $850,000.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC 27

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has auctioned off some of its properties and raised $995,000.

Wednesday’s auction was part of a strategy to stop running deficits in day-to-day operations and fill some of its financial holes. Before the auction started, officials say the archdiocese itself reached a deal on 48 acres of land in Plumstead, Bucks County, for $850,000.

At auction, the former St. Michael Business School in the city’s Old Kensington section went for $330,000 and may be turned into condos. The former Our Lady of Hope Convent sold for $118,000. The former St. Bartholomew Convent went for $220,000.

The archdiocese sold a one-acre lot in Montgomery County, but rejected a $295,000 bid on a 29-acre lot in Harleysville, because it did not approach the appraised value of $625,000.

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CHILE
Terra

La Justicia chilena anunció hoy que procesará el próximo 27 de agosto al sacerdote de los Legionarios de Cristo John O’Reilly por las presuntas denuncias de abuso sexual que pesan en su contra.

Según fuentes judiciales, O’Reilly deberá comparecer ante el Cuarto Juzgado de garantía de Santiago, por la formalización (proceso) de un caso que afectó a una menor de seis años en el colegio, mientras se evalúa una segunda denuncia.

El sacerdote, legionario de Cristo de origen irlandés, declaró en diciembre pasado en el marco de la investigación de este caso, oportunidad en que alegó completa inocencia.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Publicado por Javier Cisterna | La Información es de María José Calderón

El Fiscal Nacional Sabas Chahuán respaldó la determinación de la Fiscalía Oriente de formalizar al sacerdote de los Legionarios de Cristo John O’Reilly por abuso sexual de dos niñas.

El Ministerio Público, además, defendió los peritajes realizados de la PDI.

Son dos hermanas, alumnas del Colegio Cumbres, quienes habrían sido abusadas sexualmente por el ex asesor espiritual del establecimiento, John O’Reilly, quien será formalizado por este delito el próximo 27 de agosto.

Esto se produce luego de más de un año de la denuncia de la menor, donde luego de diversas diligencias investigativas, la fiscalía Oriente decidió formalizar cargos en contra del ex capellán de los Legionarios de Cristo, sumando además una segunda denuncia de abuso sexual, realizada por la hermana de la primera supuesta víctima, hoy de 10 años de edad.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

Dalson Chen
Jul 25, 2013

If the Canadian government is truly sorry for the horrific Indian residential school system, it should reveal everything about that dark era, say local First Nations supporters.

On Thursday, a handful of people lit candles on Windsor’s riverfront as part of a country-wide rally to urge full disclosure of all documents concerning the schools that for decades forcibly assimilated the children of Canada’s aboriginal population.

Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008 formally apologized on behalf of the nation for the Indian residential school system, critics say the government is dishonouring the apology by holding back important historical information from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

“There’s been no meaningful action behind the apology,” said Lorena Shepley, a community organizer and ally of the CanAm Indian Friendship Centre of Windsor. “It’s just not enough.”

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CANADA
Leader-Post

BY KEVIN MENZ, THE STARPHOENIX, THE CANADIAN PRESS JULY 26, 2013

Erica Lee remembers Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2008 apology vividly.

She sat in a packed gymnasium at Saskatoon’s White Buffalo Youth Lodge, watching the television as Harper apologized from the House of Commons for abuse aboriginal people endured under the residential school system, for the Canadian government’s role in the system, and for separating children from their families. “It felt like closure. Now it’s been how many years and nothing has changed,” Lee said Thursday.

The 23-year-old University of Saskatchewan philosophy student, who is closely involved with the grassroots Idle No More movement, organized the Saskatoon leg of several Honour the Apology rallies across Canada on Thursday.

The rallies called on the federal government to release all documents on residential schools to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – a national commission investigating the residential schools legacy – after nutritional experiments performed on aboriginal people in the 1940s recently came to light.

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CANADA
CBC News

Dozens of people gathered in Saskatoon today to draw attention to the recent discovery that nutritional experiments were carried out on aboriginals during the 1940s and ’50s.

The rally took place at the Vimy Memorial Bandshell, where the crowd collected at noon to talk, pray and pressure the federal government to release documents that could reveal further abuses. Ottawa promised to release documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after its 2008 apology to residential school survivors.

Erica Lee, an organizer of the event, anticipates this is only the beginning.

“What we’re hoping is that it will kick off more pressure on the federal government to release residential school documentation that hasn’t been released and also to keep it fresh in the minds of Canadians that this is a legacy that we’ve all inherited as Canadians and we have to address it,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
Tablet Magazine

By Rachel Silberstein
July 26, 2013

In June 2011, shortly after Moshe Keller, a rabbi who ran an organization for wayward Chabad youth, was charged with molesting a local teenaged boy, an anonymous blog began to circulate in Crown Heights, the heart of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. In the blog’s initial post, its author, who first called the site Crown Heights Watch, later changing the name to Jewish Community Watch (JCW), claimed that Keller had been “sexually abusing children since his days in Israel, two decades ago.”

“He believes he can hide behind being a rabbi, since the Rabbonim (rabbis) of the Jewish communities have a track record of hiding such matters,” the post continued.

At first, only Keller’s photo was posted, along with a testimonial from an alleged victim and a call for additional victims to report abuse to the police. A month later, two more men, Yaacov Weiss, who pleaded guilty to child-endangerment charges in 2010, and a never-charged cantor were added to the blog’s “Wall of Shame.” People began to whisper, speculating about who could be behind the blog. The blogger, fearful of retribution, remained anonymous until the summer of 2012, when he revealed himself to be 23-year-old Meyer Seewald, a long-haired local with pale blue eyes, a stubborn jaw, and a dark tan.

Now 24, Seewald claims to have a database containing over 225 suspected sex offenders and a confidential eight-member advisory “board” made up of mental-health professionals, legal experts, and rabbis who, according to Seewald, refuse to acknowledge their roles publicly for fear of backlash. JCW’s Wall of Shame features 36 accused abusers, 21 of them arrested, according to the site, each added when the “board” has determined there is sufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Like other Jewish blogs dedicated to sex-abuse awareness, such as Mark Appell’s Voice of Justice or Vicky Pollin’s The Awareness Center, JCW aggregates related news and offers referrals for legal advice or counseling services, but Seewald takes the job a step further. When a victim who confides in Seewald is unwilling—or unable due to the statute of limitations—to press charges, Seewald conducts his own investigation, selectively exposing alleged abusers on his “Wall of Shame.”

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri and Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press Staff Writers

Detroit Catholic Archbishop Allen Vigneron has banned an Austrian priest from speaking at a Westland Catholic parish today because the Rev. Helmut Schüller advocates allowing women and married men to be priests, in opposition to current church teaching.

Schüller was scheduled to speak at SS. Simon and Jude parish in Westland. But instead, his address, which is free and open to the public, will be held at Wayne Memorial High School. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. talk.

Schüller was also banned from speaking in Catholic churches in other areas of the U.S.

Speaking to the Free Press on Thursday, Schüller criticized Catholic leaders in Detroit and other cities for banning him from church property, saying that it reflects the very problem he’s trying to highlight — a leadership out of touch with the people.

“It reflects an old-fashioned system,” Schüller said by phone from Cleveland, where he was to speak Thursday night. “It’s behavior I cannot understand.”

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ILLINOIS
Rockford Register Star

By Staff reports
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Jul 25, 2013

ROCKFORD — A Machesney Park man is still in jail this week after being charged with 17 counts of sexual assault and abuse of a child and one count of child pornography possession linked to a 13-year-old girl.

Charles M. Tucker, 45, was arrested July 15 by Winnebago County Sheriff’s Police and is at the Winnebago County Jail on $50,000 bond.

Tucker was employed by North Love Baptist Church in Rockford at the time of the arrest. He was a vehicle mechanic and not involved in church leadership.

Pastor Dan Outler said Tucker no longer works at the church.

“We are deeply grieved at the nature of the accusation and have worked closely with the Winnebago County Sheriff’s detectives and the Department of Children and Family Services to aid in their investigation,” a statement from the church reads. “This event comes as a devastating shock to all of us.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies

Posted: 26 Jul 2013

THE independent inquiry into the Church’s handling of reports ofalleged sexual abuse by a former Dean of Manchester will be led byHer Honour Judge Sally Cahill QC, the Archbishop of York announcedon Monday, writes Madeleine Davies.

Dr Sentamu first announced the inquiry in May, after a jointinvestigation by The Times in London and TheAustralian newspaper in Sydney revealed that allegations ofabuse perpetrated by the Very Revd Robert Waddington had been madein …

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 26, 2013

THE mother of AH – whose complaints led to the jailing of paedophile priest Jim Fletcher – has told the special commission of inquiry of being pushed into a wall in a court room toilet during the Fletcher trial.

In another incident, she said a man ‘‘rammed his supermarket trolley’’ into her legs at a supermarket checkout.

She said the man’s wife came back to them and apologised saying she had to understand because the man was ‘‘upset’’ about what had happened to ‘‘Father Jim’’.

‘‘I said, ‘He’s upset?,’ ’’ the mother, known by the pseudonym BJ, told the special commission of inquiry sitting in Newcastle.

BJ took the commission through what she described as a campaign of ‘‘escalating’’ isolation and ‘‘ostracisation’’ from the Catholic establishment once news that AH had gone to the police became known.

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NEW JERSEY
Irish Central

Tom Deignan

Daniel O’Toole had enough.

O’Toole, and other parishioners at St. Joseph’s Church in Oradell, New Jersey, part of the Archdiocese of Newark, have spent the past week up in arms. They have been handing out leaflets before and after Mass.

And on Wednesday, July 31, St. Joseph’s pastor, Reverend Thomas Iwanowski, will step down, following what Iwanowski has described as a series of disagreements over his leadership style.

However, O’Toole told the Bergen Record that there is just one reason it became necessary for Iwanowski to step down.

“The reason he was removed, as best as I can understand it, was because he was harboring a priest with a known history for sexual predation,” O’Toole said.

And so it goes.

Even prior to this latest allegation, their had been calls for the resignation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers. Earlier this month, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan also came under fire, accused of shielding church finances even as known abusers remained in the priesthood for years.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

By Harry Hitzeman

A West Dundee church youth director accused of having sex with a minor made his first court appearance Thursday and was granted permission from a judge to travel to Massachusetts for a family reunion next month.

Chad A. Coe, 31, of Elgin, was arrested earlier this month on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The most serious charge can send him to prison for up to 15 years and he would have to register as a sex offender.

Coe is accused of having sex in June with a girl between 13 and 17 years old, according to court records. He has been placed on paid administrative leave from his post as the First Congregational Church of Dundee’s Director of Youth Ministries until the case is over.

Coe was released on $10,000 bond, ordered not to have contact with his accuser, not to have contact with minors and to surrender his passport.

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OREGON
The Register-Guard

By Greg Bolt
The Register-Guard

Two Lane County women are suing a Springfield church for more than $7 million each, alleging they were abused hundreds of times by a youth pastor in the 1970s.

The suits, filed in Lane County Circuit Court, name Bethel Assembly of God of Springfield, City of Destiny Church and the national and state Assemblies of God organizations as defendants. It also names the former youth pastor, Morrice H. Corley, as a defendant.

Corley, of Springfield, declined to comment on the suit. Calls to the local church and its state council were not immediately returned.

The Bethel Assembly of God of Springfield merged with the City of Destiny Church in 2005. City of Destiny is a newer congregation formed by a Springfield couple and was not in existence at the time of the alleged abuse.

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CANADA
Oye! Times

Written by Sam Dixon

Two of the female former students of former Vancouver Olympics CEO, John Furlong, have filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse. The documents submitted in court on Wednesday, alleged that Beverly Abraham was a student at Immaculata Elementary in Burns Lake from 1969-1970, where it is mentioned that Furlong sexually harassed her more than 12 times over a seven-month period.

In the notice of civil claim, it was state that “the sexual touching consisted of grabbing her breasts and buttocks, touching her vagina and vaginal area, and attempting to put his tongue in her mouth.” It was explained in the lawsuit, that Abraham claims the touching took place in the school’s gym after Furlong’s physical education class, and sometimes in equipment room or mechanical closet. Additionally, Furlong is accused of having manipulated her “emotionally and psychologically” as he told her that it wasn’t wrong for him to touch her. The documents point out that Furlong told her that it wasn’t wrong for him to touch her, saying “You’re my beautiful Indian girl and my protégé,” and “You’re my favourite of all the girls.”

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ARIZONA
The Republic

[Marvin Knighton – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

By Michael Clancy
The Republic | azcentral.com
Thu Jul 25, 2013

A former Milwaukee priest who was thrown out of the clergy as a result of allegations that he sexually abused minors has been working as a faculty member in Mesa schools for the last six years.

Marvin Knighton, the former priest, had experience at several public schools in the Valley and good references, according to a Mesa Public Schools spokeswoman. The district is reviewing his status in light of newly available information.

Formal abuse allegations were filed against Knighton 11 years ago. He was acquitted in Milwaukee in 2003 of the abuse charges, involving a man who said he was about 15 at the time of the alleged incidents. Knighton was later convicted in a church trial and barred from the priesthood in 2011.

Details on the Knighton case were released July 1 as part of the recent bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The documents can be read in their entirety at the archdiocese’s website, archmil.org, or at the website of Anderson & Associates, the law firm representing a number of accusers in clergy-abuse cases, andersonadvocates.com.

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NEW JERSEY
Seattle PI

PASSAIC, N.J. (AP) — A priest affiliated with two Passaic churches has been arrested on charges he had sexual contact with a minor who sought his counsel.

The Passaic County prosecutor’s office says charges against Father Jose Lopez include child luring and endangerment and criminal sexual contact.

A listing for Lopez’s attorney did not have an answering machine.

Prosecutors say Lopez lured a 14 year-old female parishioner to his private quarters at St. Mary’s Assumption church in Passaic, and allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with her.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 26

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

A Paterson diocese Catholic priest has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a girl.

This is a tragic reminder that every day, clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Catholic church continue to happen, largely because the church hierarchy refuses to make real reforms. It’s also a painful reminder that – despite bishops’ claims that most victims are boys – girls are also hurt by Catholic predators.

We applaud this brave, strong girl for fighting the priest off and helping law enforcement officials pursue him. That takes real courage.

We beg Paterson’s bishop to personally visit every parish where this priest worked and strongly prod any others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Lopez’s crimes to call police immediately. The bishop should shove aside his defense lawyers and public relations professionals and act like a caring shepherd, not a cold-hearted CEO.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Guam- The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] has issued a statement backing Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s decision to dismiss Father Pual Gofigan as the Pastor of Dededo’s Santa Barbara Church.

David Clohessy, the St. Louis Director of SNAP, urges the Archbishop to stand by his decision to fire Father Gofigan. [see SNAP statement below]

Clohessy calls it “outrageous that any individual would rather put his career before the safety of children, let alone a man who is supposed to be considered as a community representative and leader.” And he also urges the parishioners of the Dededo Church to “speak out against Gofigan’s choice to endanger the safety of their children.”

The SNAP statement incorrectly asserts that Father Gofigan failed to fire the convicted sex offender from his maintenance position at the church. Father Gofigan says he did fire the man 3 years ago, as instructed by the Archbishop. However, the Archdiocese has charged that Father Gofigan allowed the man’s association with the Church to continue in a volunteer capacity.

In a July 16th letter to Father Gofigan, Archbishop Apuron demanded the priest’s immediate resignation accuses him of disobeying his orders to dismiss the man writing “you have in effect caused grave harm to the parish by allowing such an individual with a publicly known sex-offense record to work in the Church thus exposing him to your parishioners, especially the youth.”

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MEXICO
Independent European Daily Express

Thursday, July 25, 2013

MEXICO CITY, Jul 25 (IPS) – Human rights groups are calling for the Committee on the Rights of the Child to bring the Mexican state to account, as it has done in other countries, for failing to investigate widespread reports of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions.

Experts consulted by IPS said the lack of action by the Mexican authorities and justice system violated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the Unite Nations General Assembly in 1989 and went into effect in 1990.

“There is a high level of impunity,” Juan Martín Pérez, the head of the Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (REDIM – Network for Children’s Rights in Mexico), told IPS. “There is clear evidence of collusion between the authorities and the Catholic Church, so cases seldom wind up in court.

“The high-profile cases show the power of the church. It is one of the powers-that-be that is untouchable.

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CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

Heidi Schlumpf | Jul. 25, 2013

CHICAGO For the crowd of more than 500 at the talk in Chicago by the founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, Fr. Helmut Schüller probably didn’t say anything they hadn’t already heard. But the fact that a priest was not afraid to speak publicly and is networking with like-minded priests around the world gave many audience members hope that reform in the church is possible.

“We as priests try to do our best to support the people of the church in their desires for church reform,” Schüller said. “Let us bring hope and courage for the long march of change in our church.”

In the seventh stop on his 15-city “Catholic Tipping Point” tour, Schüller shared his experiences with the “Call to Disobedience” movement Wednesday at a charter high school in Chicago. The talk was sponsored by several reform organizations, including Call to Action, Women’s Ordination Conference, DignityUSA, FutureChurch, Voice of the Faithfu,l and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“After hearing Father Helmut, I’m encouraged,” said Joe Marren of Chicago, who added that he has worked for church reform for decades. “And I’m comforted that someone in the church is supporting us, the ‘lost generation.’ ”

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CONNECTICUT
NECN

July 25, 2013

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest arrested on federal firearm charges last week is being released from prison.

A detention hearing was held Thursday for the Rev. Paul Gotta, who was charged with aiding and abetting the unlawful transport of a firearm and the purchase of a handgun by a juvenile. The U.S. Attorney’s office says he will be released Friday on $500,000 bond and confined to his sister’s Bridgeport home.

Documents in the case were sealed.

A telephone message was left with Gotta’s attorney.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2013
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

PASSAIC — A priest assigned to St. Mary’s Assumption Church has been arrested on charges related to the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said Thursday.

The Rev. Jose Lopez allegedly asked the girl to come to his private living quarters in January to talk about some problems she was having, but then put her on his lap, began kissing her, and engaged in sexual contact with her, Valdes said in a statement.

The girl was able to escape when the priest fell to the floor during a struggle, according to Valdes. The priest had pulled the girl back several times when she tried to get up before he finally fell, Valdes said.

The priest, who also is affiliated with St. Nicholas Church in the city, has been charged with second-degree luring of a child, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact. His bail was set at $50,000 in Passaic municipal court.

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NEW JERSEY
WPIX

PASSAIC, New Jersey (PIX11) – A Passaic County priest is under arrest Thursday after he allegedly molested a 14-year-old parishioner, according to officials.

Father Jose Lopez, of St. Mary’s Assumption Church in Passaic, NJ, faces charges of luring a child, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal sexual contact after he allegedly brought a young girl to his private quarters for ‘counseling’ in January.

Lopez told the girl to sit on a couch so he could advise her on some personal problems, and while talking to her, had her sit on his lap, according to a prosecutor’s office news release.

He then allegedly began kissing her and “began to engage in sexual contact with her”, pulling her back each time she tried to get off the couch. She finally managed to escape after Father Lopez apparently fell off the couch and onto the floor.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By James Queally/The Star-Ledger
on July 25, 2013

PASSAIC — An assistant pastor at two Passaic County churches was arrested today and charged with luring a 14-year-old girl to his residence and trying to kiss her, officials said.

The Rev. Jose Lopez, 34, was charged with luring a child, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal sexual contact in connection with the January incident, according to Passaic County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Holmsen.

Lopez was a parochial vicar, essentially an assistant pastor, at St. Mary’s Assumption and St. Nicholas churches in Passaic, said Richard Sokerka, a spokesman for the Diocese of Paterson. A native of Colombia, Lopez was ordained in 2011, Sokerka said.

“The diocese is deeply saddened by these charges and offers its prayers to those who have come forward in this matter,” Sokerka said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

One of the country’s most senior Catholic Church officials admits it was Church protocol to deal with paedophile priests ‘secretly and discreetly’.

The Commission is examining claims the Church covered up abuse to protect two priests, Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

The inquiry’s heard father Brian Lucas’s job in the 1990s was to “encourage” paedophile priests to resign in a bid to restrict their access to children.

Maria Gerace is representing some of McAlinden’s victims at the inquiry.

Late yesterday she put to Father Lucas that Church protocol in 1993 “was a secret process that dealt with the allegations discreetly”.

She said it enabled the “scandal to be contained in the offices of the Church”.

Father Lucas replied, “To some extent, yes”

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BRAZIL
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jul. 24, 2013 NCR Today

RIO DE JANEIRO Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was among the 114 cardinals who elected Pope Francis in March, so he’s in a unique position to answer a fascinating question about the recent conclave and its aftermath.

The question is: Did the cardinals really know what they were getting in Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina? Or, have the first four and a half months of his papacy been as much of a revelation to them as to the rest of the world?

According to Dolan, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

The pope’s simplicity, humility and closeness to the people are no surprise, Dolan said, because the cardinals had heard all that — the only surprise is how well he seems to be pulling it off.

On the other hand, Dolan said, the cardinals also thought they were electing a dynamic manager, and so far the pace of change has been slower than some expected.

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GUAM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: July 25, 2013

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

A priest from the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Guam was fired for failing to remove a sex offender from the parish.

Father Paul Gofigan had been instructed by Archbishop Anthony Apuron to fire a predator who worked at the church but failed to do so believing the crime was too far in the past, therefore putting children in harm’s way. Gofigan now wishes to seek a canonical hearing in order to defend his careless decision and save his career.

We urge the Archbishop to stand by his decision of firing Father Gofigan. It is outrageous that any individual would rather put his career before the safety of children, let alone a man who is supposed to be considered as a community representative and leader. We also urge the parishioners of the Santa Barbara Catholic Church to speak out against Gofigan’s choice to endanger the safety of their children.

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BRAZIL
Vatican Insider

Cardinal Madariaga revealed this to Spanish newspaper “La Razón”

ANDREA TORNIELLI
RIO DE JANEIRO

Last Tuesday, when Francis was supposed to be resting after a long cross-Atlantic trip to Brazil, he decided to work on Curia reform amongst other things, Spanish newspaper La Razón reports. The revelation comes from Honduran cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga who coordinates the commission of eight cardinals that is helping the Pope revamp the Vatican’s structures. The cardinal met Bergoglio on Tuesday afternoon at the Sumaré residence and suggested the commission prepare an instrumentum laboris on Curia reform, gathering together all proposals from the bishops of the various continents, in order to make the group’s work easier and more fruitful.

“We want the ideas to come from the bottom and bishops are enthusiastic and very eager to strengthen collegiality,” Madariaga explained. Having an isntrumentum laboris that sets out bishops’ proposals would help the Pope in his decision-making, the cardinal explained.

“The goal is to ensure the Pope is better informed so as not to repeat the Vatileaks scenario under Benedict XVI. Information needs to be given directly without any middlemen,” Madariaga said. The cardinal referred again to the envisaged restructuring of the Secretariat of State and the importance of avoiding duplication. He mentioned the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation and the Evangelisation of Peoples as examples.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 26, 2013

One of the Australian Catholic Church’s most senior priests has spent a second day defending his decision not to report paedophile priests, including Denis McAlinden, to police on the basis it would betray victims’ trust.

Father Brian Lucas, a non-­practicing barrister and the general ­secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said he faced a constant dilemma when victims refused to go to police.

He told the special commission of inquiry, which is investigating how the Catholic Maitland-Newcastle Diocese dealt with paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher, it was his role to encourage offending priests to resign from ministry.

Father Lucas, who was also part of a committee that designed a protocol for bishops in dealing with allegations of criminal behaviour in the 1980s and 1990s, said he was “mostly ­successful” at persuading ­paedophiles to resign.

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NEW JERSEY
WABC

PASSAIC, N.J. (WABC) — A New Jersey priest has been arrested on charges of having sexual contact with a 14-year old female parishioner.

Father Jose Lopez of of St. Mary’s Assumption Church in Passaic is charged with Luring a Child, Endangering the Welfare of a Child, and Criminal Sexual Contact.

Authorities say Father Lopez lured the girl to his private living quarters in the rectory at St. Mary’s Church.

The alleged victim clamed that Lopez directed her to his couch, and began to counsel her about some personal problems she was having.

She went on to say that Lopez put her on his lap, kissed her and began to engage in sexual contact with her.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

July 26, 2013

Natasha Wallace

Priests should be jailed for concealing evidence of sex abuse because they are effectively aiding and abetting a crime, a child protection campaigner has said.

The executive director of advocacy group Bravehearts, Hetty Johnston, was responding to testimony by high-ranking Catholic priest Father Brian Lucas that he did not take notes while interviewing about 35 priests from 1990-1996 who were accused of sex abuse, nor did he refer the matters to police. ”He should be jailed. That just aids and abets offenders to continue to offend and it is just as bad a crime, in my view, than committing the crimes itself,” Ms Johnston said.

”The person didn’t only not do their job but their moral obligation. It is absolutely the most appalling, atrocious response.”

Father Brian is the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, which oversees the National Committee for Professional Standards responsible for procedures in dealing with abuse complaints. Retired psychologist Stephen Paull, who has 25 years of experience in child protection in the NSW education department, said it was ”absolutely grossly negligent” both legally and morally not to take notes at such meetings.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

To people unschooled in legal and canonical niceties, mounting evidence about the Catholic Church’s approach to child abuse surely beggars belief.

Australians will soon need to decide whether they still trust the church to do what is best to protect children or whether new laws are needed to ensure police and other investigators become involved whenever there is potential risk.

By placing so much weight on protecting its own reputation and respecting the privacy of victims, the church looks increasingly out of step with community expectations.

Those concerns have been raised by evidence to commission of inquiry into Hunter region paedophile priests from Brian Lucas, general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference since 2002, qualified lawyer and ordained priest.

During six years from about 1990, Lucas’s work with the Archdiocese of Sydney included dealing with about 35 priests accused of sex crimes.

Lucas admitted he had never taken notes during the meetings, in some instances ”so that a subsequent legal process that would compel production of them cannot be successful”.

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ROME
Chicago Tribune

Massimiliano Di Giorgio
Reuters
July 25, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – A Catholic prelate at the center of a suspected money-smuggling operation denied stealing and laundering cash in a letter he sent to Pope Francis from his jail cell which his lawyers released on Thursday.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who is the target of two Italian criminal investigations, also said in the letter he tried to fight abusive activities by lay superiors in the Vatican’s financial administration, which Francis wants to reform.

Scarano worked for years as a senior accountant at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA. Through APSA, he had access to the Vatican bank, where he had at least two accounts.

Though not directly implicated in the money smuggling investigation, the Vatican bank has faced growing criticism for its persistent failure to meet international transparency standards.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

NEWS ANALYSIS: Msgr. Battista Ricca is accused of homosexual scandal, but papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi calls the allegations ‘not credible.’

by EDWARD PENTIN 07/24/2013

VATICAN CITY — Conflicting reports surround allegations that a priest, appointed last month as an interim prelate of the institution colloquially known as the Vatican Bank, has ties with a “gay lobby” operating within the Holy See.

On July 3, respected Vatican analyst Sandro Magister alleged that Msgr. Battista Ricca had a relationship with another man — the “intimacy” of which was “so open as to scandalize numerous bishops, priests and laity” of Uruguay, where he served in the nunciature from 1999 to 2004.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi July 19 rejected the allegations as “not credible.”

Pope Francis appointed Msgr. Ricca, a 57-year-old Vatican diplomat, temporary prelate of the Vatican Bank — officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) — on June 15 in a bid to help reform the scandal-ridden institution. Until now, Msgr. Ricca had served as director of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the residence where the Pope currently lives.

Magister claims the Italian clergyman’s alleged dark past was hidden from the Holy Father in a bid to embarrass the Pope and hinder reform of the IOR, which is trying to meet international anti-fraud regulations.

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ITALY/VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Thu Jul 25, 2013

* Signing could be a matter of days -sources
* Italy wants access to more Vatican bank data
* More steps needed for normalisation of banking relations
* Italy-based banks de facto banned from dealing with IOR

By Lisa Jucca and Massimiliano Di Giorgio

ROME, July 25 (Reuters) – Italy and the Vatican are about to reach a deal allowing for the first time regular exchange of financial information between the two states to combat money laundering, several sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

The Vatican is pushing to reform its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), whose reputation has been tarnished by three decades of scandals. Such a pact would mark a first significant step towards normalising banking relations with Italy.

The deal will take the form of a memorandum of understanding between the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF) and its Italian equivalent, the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF).

The Vatican has already signed similar pacts with other jurisdictions, notably the United States, but the deal with Italy would be significant due to the large number of Vatican transactions going through the country.

Pope Francis has made cleaning up the Holy See a goal of his papacy. However, two of the sources, who declined to be named, said the Vatican must prove its willingness to cooperate with Italian authorities before the Bank of Italy can lift a de facto ban on transactions between the IOR and Italian-based banks.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 26, 2013

A SENIOR Catholic cleric was aware of evidence suggesting two priests acquitted of child abuse offences in court were in fact guilty of such crimes.

The men were among dozens of alleged pedophile priests interviewed by Brian Lucas, the general-secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, who did not report them to police.

Instead, Father Lucas told the NSW special commission of inquiry into church child abuse that he followed a “secret and discreet” policy of dealing with the men and would “take my chances” with the law as a result.

“I can think of one particular priest I interviewed who absolutely denied anything. He subsequently was charged, he was convicted by the jury, his conviction was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal and no retrial,” Father Lucas said.

“I did understand that there had been other families who had made representations to the bishop, with which I was not involved at all, suggesting he would have been guilty.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 26, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

Of more than 2000 complaints by clergy child-sex abuse victims in Victoria, only one has ever made it through the civil court process to a verdict, a researcher will tell a human rights conference on Friday. And that case failed.

The researcher and victims advocate, Judy Courtin, also says that more than half the victims associated with the secondary victims she interviewed are now prematurely dead, either through suicide or substance abuse.

She says the civil law’s statute of limitations and especially the Ellis defence – by which the Catholic Church successfully argued it was not an entity that could be sued – has deterred lawyers so that ”victims are stymied … a clear breach of a fundamental human right”.

Criminal proceedings are not much more successful, with about four victims in every 1000 finding their abuser convicted, she says.

Ms Courtin is addressing a high-profile human rights conference held by Monash University’s Castan Centre. Other speakers include Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, feminist Eva Cox, Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar, and Refugee Immigration Legal Centre director David Manne.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Thursday 25 July 2013
The announcement of Monsignor Leo Cushley as Archbishop-elect of St Andrews and Edinburgh is good news, both for the Archdiocese and for the Scottish Catholic Church.

The relative speed with which the matter of an appointment has been resolved is an indication of the seriousness with which Rome views the situation in Scotland.

Four of the eight dioceses have been vacant, and the fall of Cardinal O’Brien left bishops, clergy and laity shocked and shamed at the disgrace brought upon the Church. This was all the greater for the prominence that Archbishop O’Brien had enjoyed, following in a course previously laid out by Cardinal Winning.

Each in turn was described as leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, but there is no such position and neither Archbishop Tartaglia nor Archbishop-to-be Cushley will agree to be described as such. Rome has forgone the services of one of its few native English-speaking clergy, no less than the head of the English section of the Secretariat of State.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 25, 2013

COUNSEL for a victim of paedophile priest Denis McAlinden has asked why the only thing a senior Catholic cleric says he can remember about the matter is the one thing that would mean he did not have to go to police at the time.

Maria Gerace, counsel for various church victims including one known as ‘‘AJ’’, was cross-examining Father Brian Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and a major figure in forming the church’s response to priestly child sexual abuse from the late 1980s.

After almost two days of giving his evidence in chief before senior counsel assisting, Julia Lonergan, Father Lucas was asked by Ms Gerace about a number of matters from those days, including a media release issued by the Catholic welfare agency, Centacare, in March 1992.

Allowed to continue despite objections from Father Lucas’s counsel, Peter Skinner, Ms Gerace said the media release stated that priests accused of child sexual abuse would be stood down automatically from their duties and the allegations taken to civil authorities.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 25, 2013

FATHER Brian Lucas began his second day in the witness box in Newcastle confirming he’d had to supply more documents about his involvement in dealing with paedophile priests to the Special Commission of Inquiry.

He finished the day by rejecting a suggestion from victims’ counsel Maria Gerace that his evidence was ‘‘not true’’.

Ms Gerace said the only thing Father Lucas could recall for the commission about serial paedophile the late Denis McAlinden – that his victims did not want to go to the police – was the one thing that would stop Father Lucas being charged with concealing a crime.

In between, the evidence traversed such diverse areas as the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete – a New Mexico-based ministry that specialises in ministering to troubled priests, including paedophiles – and the failure of a Catholic ethicist, Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, to convince the Church to have paedophile allegations against priests automatically reported to police from as early as 1990.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 26, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

One of the leaders of the Catholic Church has admitted his way of dealing with claims of child sexual abuse against clergy was outside the church’s protocols of the time, that it gave priests an inducement to avoid police action and it helped the church contain any scandal.

In hindsight, it may have been better not to have done it his way, Father Brian Lucas said at the state government inquiry into alleged church and police cover-ups of paedophile priest activity in the Hunter Valley.

On his second day in the witness stand, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s conference, a barrister with particular legal expertise in issues of child protection and church confidentiality, came in for a grilling over the way he handled complaints against priests in the first half of the 1990s.

The credibility of his complete lack of recall of a crucial meeting with the disgraced serial child abuser Denis McAlinden in 1993 was repeatedly called into question.

From 1990 it was Father Brian’s role to interview NSW priests accused of child sexual abuse. He has asserted the most effective way of protecting children’s safety was to persuade offending priests to leave the ministry so they would not have intimate access to families.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

Statement of the nuncio in Montevideo. Confirmations and new background on the case of the prelate of the IOR. But another storm is already approaching. On a strange appointment (photo) at the newly created commission for the reorganization of the Vatican administrations

by Sandro Magister

ROME, July 25, 2013 – It is enough these days to enter the offices of the Institute for Works of Religion to understand how flimsy the argument is that has been advanced in defense of Monsignor Battista Ricca, the prelate of the IOR whose scandalous past has been revealed by L’Espresso:

> The Prelate of the Gay Lobby

Three floors below the window of the pope’s Angelus, in two rooms facing the colonnade of Saint Peter’s Square, across large monitors scroll movements of money, past and present, of the clients of the IOR, before the eyes of auditors hunting for suspicious operations. The team is led by Antonio Montaresi, with solid experience in the United States, the new Chief Risk Officer of the controversial Vatican “bank.”

Every operation of dubious regularity is brought to the attention of the Financial Information Authority directed by René Brülhart, vice-president of the international network of the Financial Intelligence Unit, which in turn informs its sister authorities in the countries involved and if necessary the Vatican magistracy.

“Bad management”: this is how the president of the IOR, Ernst von Freyberg, dismisses the conduct of the previous director, Paolo Cipriani, who was forced to resign together with his deputy last July 1.

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CANADA
Sudbury Star

Rallies are planned in seven Canadian cities Thursday — including Sudbury — in light of revelations the federal govern-ment starved and experimented on malnourished aboriginal children in residential schools in the 1940s.

“Canadians from many backgrounds have been shocked and hurt by these recent revelations and this is an opportunity to talk, reflect and do something about it,” co-organizer Wab Kinew said in a press release.

A University of Guelph report found 1,300 native children and adults were test subjects in nutritional experiments conducted by the government. Meal plans were altered to provide insufficient vitamins and minerals, and subjects were sometimes denied dental care to test the efficacy of supplements.

These revelations have sparked worry Canada may be covering up other past abuses.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Gippsland

By Celine Foenander

How hard will it be for people who grew up in orphanages and homes to make a submission to the Royal Commission?

Longford resident Ray Shingles says it will be tough but he plans on sharing his story.

“This is a big thing with the Royal Commission, this is our last gasp for them to get it right and I think they will get it right,” he says.

“I have a voice and in my community of Forgotten Australians, I will always have a voice and I will always barrack for the underprivileged in the Forgotten Australians.”

The Forgotten Australians, people who spent time in homes, orphanages and out of home care will be among those preparing submissions to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Thursday 25 July 2013

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

THE new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has pledged that all complaints from clergy and parishioners over the fallout of the Cardinal Keith O’Brien scandal will be fully investigated.

Monsignor Leo Cushley, who was yesterday unveiled as Cardinal O’Brien’s successor following the enforced resignation, said he would “work hard to get this business sorted out”, adding it was crucial any investigation had to be open and transparent.

Mgr Cushley, 52, is currently head of the English-language section of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and has been a close collaborator of both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Cardinal O’Brien resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh five months ago after admitting decades of sexual behaviour with other clerics and was exiled by the Vatican from Scotland in May. He remains a cardinal.

Asked of his intentions to ­investigate the scandal, Mgr Cushley said: “If there is an investigation it won’t be up to me. It will depend on the Holy See.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 25, 2013

FATHER Brian Lucas has finished giving his evidence in chief to the special commission of inquiry with a determined defence of the practices he used to deal with Denis McAlinden and other paedophile priests.

Father Lucas, the Canberra-based general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference since 2002, was previously with the Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Sydney and a key player in the Australian church’s formulation of early policies dealing with child sexual abuse by clergy.

As he did on Wednesday, Father Lucas defended his decision not to tell the police about McAlinden on the grounds that the victims who had come to him for help were adamant that they did not want the police involved.

In the commission’s pre-lunch session on Thursday, Father Lucas said this created a significant dilemma that was only solved in 1996 when the church began working more closely with police and developed a protocol to tell the civil authorities about allegations made against clergy without necessarily naming the victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 25, 2013

A SENIOR Catholic cleric may have been aware of evidence suggesting two priests acquitted of child abuse offences in court were in fact guilty of such crimes, an inquiry has heard.

Giving evidence to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into church child abuse, Brian Lucas also said he had not reported the men to police as many of their alleged victims did not want authorities involved.

Reverend Lucas said the men were among dozens of pedophile priests he personally interviewed during the early 1990s.

“I can think of one particular priest I interviewed who absolutely denied anything. He subsequently was charged, he was convicted by the jury, his conviction was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal and no retrial.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Stef Lach
Senior Reporter

SCOTLAND’S 
newest archbishop has the personal skills that will help him fill a difficult role, according to people who worked with him when he was a young priest.

Airdrie man Monsignor Leo Cushley was 
appointed Archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh by the Roman Catholic Church, 
replacing Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who left the post this year after admitting inappropriate sexual conduct.

In taking over from Cardinal O’Brien, Mgr Cushley, 52, is stepping into the role at a difficult time for the Catholic Church in Scotland.

People who knew him as a chaplain at three Lanarkshire schools in the 1980s and 1990s – St Aidan’s High in Wishaw, Our Lady’s High in Motherwell and St Margaret’s High in Airdrie – describe him as, “highly intelligent, kind and thoughtful, just decent” and add that “he can be very witty.”

Liz Leydon, editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer, said: “That personal touch bodes well for what lies 
ahead for the archbishop-elect.

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NEW YORK
Jersey Journal

By Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal
on July 25, 2013

Walking through Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on a hot July evening has the feel of an urban circus. Adults and children cool off in the fountain’s sprays, musicians entertain, and food vendors do a brisk business.

As I am about to exit, I notice the New York University Catholic Center’s modern looking building on the left but I’m headed to the historic Judson Memorial Church to hear an Austrian Catholic priest, Rev. Helmut Schuller, kick off a 15-city U.S. tour. I am not sure why the sponsors selected Judson instead of any Catholic setting; the Archbishops of Boston and Philadephia did ban Schuller from any Catholic property. That only boosted attendance on July 16 and required additional chairs to seat the 400 plus audience.

Schuller is a mild-mannered 60-year-old, who is every bit involved in the life of the Vienna, Austria Archdiocese. He was their Vicar General, the second highest position in the chancery, and still pastors the same parish he did when he had that job. He serves on their priests’ council and writes a weekly column for their archdiocesan newspaper.

So why all the hubbub?

Schuller organized 400 priests out of some 2,500 in the entire country to issue calls for reform back in 2006. The Austrian Priests’ Initiative addressed the “increasing shortage of priests forcing many Austrian parishes to close.”

But it also advocated for reform in the celebration of the sacraments, welcoming remarried Catholics to communion, ordination of women and married men and homosexual unions – none of which is approved by the universal church.

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INDIA
Hindustan Times

Two persons, including a priest and a pastor, were arrested on Tuesday night for allegedly sexually abusing a minor girl, an inmate of an orphanage, for the last three years.

Subsequently, their bail pleas were rejected and they were remanded in jail custody for 14 days.

Police said that the girl was rescued on Tuesday night with the help of an NGO.

The accused, identified as Father George Samuel (52) and Pastor Johnson ED (39), who have two children each, also used to take regular Bible classes at the orphanage.

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CHILE
Terra

La fiscalía de la zona oriente pidió formalizar por el presunto delito de abuso sexual al al sacerdote de los Legionarios de Cristo John O’Reilly.

La solicitud la realizó al Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía la fiscal de la zona oriente Lorena Parra, de acuerdo a lo señalado a Terra desde el Ministerio Público.

La petición fue presentada ayer y la audiencia se realizará el 27 de agosto próximo.

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CHILE
El Dinamo

24 de julio de 2013

El sacerdote fue suspendido el 25 de julio del año pasado de sus labores tras las denuncias, aunque el religioso se declaró inocente y aseguró que las afirmaciones en su contra constituyen “un lamentable error”.

La Justicia anunció hoy que procesará el próximo 27 de agosto al sacerdote de los Legionarios de Cristo John O’Reilly por denuncias de abuso sexual que pesan en su contra.

Según fuentes judiciales, O’Reilly deberá comparecer ante el Cuarto Juzgado de garantía de Santiago, por la formalización en un caso que afectó a una menor de seis años en el Colegio Cumbres de la capital, mientras se evalúa una segunda denuncia.

El sacerdote, legionario de Cristo de origen irlandés, declaró en diciembre pasado en el marco de la investigación de este caso, oportunidad en que alegó completa inocencia.

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AUSTRALIA
My Daily News

BANORA Point whistleblower Fiona Barnett will be Bravehearts’ local representative at the organisation’s annual White Balloon Day activities on September 6.

Ms Barnett last month appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to testify about the activities of a teacher she says was responsible for the abuse of at least 20 local children in the 1980s and 1990s.

She said she was then approached by Bravehearts to represent the group locally at its fundraising event that will involve hundreds of schools, day care centres, businesses, councils, sporting clubs, community groups and organisations around Australia.

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CANADA
APTN

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
The nutritional experiments conducted in First Nation communities and in Indian residential schools were not the only example where Canada’s Indigenous population faced treatment as “guinea pigs,” academic research shows.

First Nation infants were used for Saskatchewan trials of a tuberculosis vaccine that was mired in controversy at the time of the experiment in the 1930s.

The subject of nutritional experiments exploded last week after reports surfaced on a study by University of Guelph food historian Ian Mosby. The study found that experiments were conducted in six residential schools and communities in northern Ontario, northern Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia between 1942 and 1952.

Previous and ongoing academic research shows, however, that the nutritional experiments were part of a wider pattern in the medical and scientific community’s approach to Indigenous people at the time which included experimentation and the persistence of certain types of surgeries that were no longer conducted on non-Indigenous people.

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