ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: March 25, 2014

Facing a key court hearing Thursday, the Twin Cities archdiocese has asked the court to give it more time to turn over its church files on sexually abusive priests and to limit the files’ public disclosure.

“This is an exhaustive, time consuming and extremely expensive and burdensome process,” said a memorandum filed Monday by archdiocese attorneys in Ramsey County District Court.

The archdiocese was ordered in February to give the court its records on about 40 priests who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children from 1970 to the present. It was given a March 31 deadline.

The church has asked Judge John Van de North to extend the deadline by 90 days. On Thursday, Van de North will hear their arguments in court, along with renewed requests to seal the sworn testimonies of Archbishop John Nienstedt and former vicar general Kevin McDonough, the archdiocese’s point person on abuse for decades.

Meanwhile, Van de North on Tuesday appointed retired Judge Robert H. Schumacher as a special master for the case, to address disputes over the likely hundreds of documents and depositions, as well as to make recommendations about unsealing information. Schumacher served 12 years in Hennepin County District Court and 18 years on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

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NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Written by
Jim Walsh
Courier-Post

A federal judge won’t change his ruling in favor of a woman alleging childhood sex abuse by a South Jersey priest.

U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman Friday denied a request for reconsideration by the Diocese of Camden, which is being sued over alleged abuse by a former priest, Thomas Harkins.

The suit was filed by Lisa Syvertson Shanahan, a North Carolina woman who says she was molested in the early 1980s by Harkins, then her parish priest at St. Anthony of Padua in Hammonton.

Hillman initially ruled in June 2013 the lawsuit could continue under the state’s Child Sex Abuse Act, which can delay for decades the normal two-year statute of limitations.

He accepted Shanahan’s argument the clock began ticking on her claim in October 2009, when she says she realized she had a legal basis for a lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

BY PETER TRUTE
March 26, 2014

Cardinal George Pell insists he acted truthfully when he instructed lawyers to vigorously dispute the claims of a sexually abused former altar boy in court, even though he knew the claims were true.

Dr Pell, appearing before the royal commission into child sexual abuse, admitted the Catholic church did not deal fairly with victim John Ellis “from a Christian point of view”, but in a legal sense it did nothing improper.

He said he defended the Ellis case vigorously to discourage other complainants from going to court, revealing he was worried that payments for abuse cases in the US sent some churches bankrupt and he wanted to ensure similar situations could not occur in Australia.

At the end of his second day of evidence to the commission, Dr Pell’s admissions were condemned by victims’ families.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

26 MARCH 2014

A former Church of England priest jailed for child sex abuse dating back more than 25 years has been banned from ministerial practice for life.

The Diocese of Chichester in West Sussex confirmed it had imposed the most severe sanction on 78-year-old Keith Wilkie Denford.

He was jailed for 18 months after prosecutors said he used the respectability of the cassock to groom and abuse two boys over an 18-month period from when they were around 13.

On one occasion he got into a bath with one of the boys while aroused. On another he pressed himself up against a boy intimately with the words: “How nice it is to have a cuddle.”

Denford, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham-by-Sea, was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault against two boys between January 1987 and January 1990.

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GERMANY
Irish Times

Derek Scally

German bishops have launched a second attempt to investigate clerical sex abuse allegations after the original effort collapsed last year.

Researchers walked away from the project in January 2013, alleging the Catholic Church was trying to influence their research and censor their findings – claims the church denied.

Four new research institutes have come on board the project to investigate what Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, appointed by his peers as official abuse commissioner, called “this dark side of our church”.

Bishop Ackermann said the research effort, set to take more than three years with a budget of €1 million, would explore the prevalence of sexual and physical abuse committed by clergy towards young people.

“This is for the sake of the victims but also in order to see the mistakes for ourselves,” said Bishop Ackermann. “We must do everything we can to ensure this is not repeated.”

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IRELAND
International Business Times

By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | March 26, 2014

It’s a systematic cover-up, Irish activist and sex abuse survivor Marie Collins said of the rampant sex abuse cases proliferating within the confines of the walls of the Catholic church. But she highly believed child sex abuse cases would not have multiplied and priests would not have summoned the courage to continue doing it had their bishops immediately sanctioned them against it.

For the evil custom to end, Ms Collins said bishops should also be made accountable when they decide to sanction their priest or not.

“There’s no point in my mind of having gold-plated child-protection programs in place if there’s no sanction for a bishop who decides to ignore them,” Ms Collins told AP. The Irish activist was just recently named to be included in an eight-people commission who will advise Pope Francis on church policy regarding sex abuse.

Ms Collins, sick at 13 years old, was abused by a chaplain at Crumlin hospital in Dublin in the 1960s.

“The reason everyone is so angry is not because they have abusers in their ranks. Abusers are in every rank of society. It’s because of the systemic cover-up.”

The commission, according to Hans Zollner, vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Chair of the Centre for Child Protection at the University’s Institute of Psychology and one of the members of the panel, will aim to put the victims first.

“The commission will look into the legislation of the Church, the Canon Law and will try to find out whether this is effective or not and then recommend to the Holy See if there is something to change and what to change,” Fr Zollner told Vatican Radio.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An inquiry has heard Cardinal George Pell was worried by sexual abuse case payouts that had bankrupted some US churches and wanted to prevent similar payouts in Australia.

The former archbishop of Sydney has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse he’d been concerned by US court decisions that had sent some dioceses broke.

But he denied he wanted sexual abuse victims to go through the Catholic church’s internal system, Towards Healing, rather than the courts, so the church could control the size of payouts.

The commission was shown a 2007 letter to the archdiocese from its lawyers that described a court ruling that the church’s trustees could not be sued as a significant and favourable outcome.

The lawyers said the court’s ruling “places a significant number of obstacles” that would have to be overcome by claimants pursuing abuse cases through the courts rather than through Towards Healing.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Digital Journal

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) March 26, 2014

Mark A. Brown, an attorney at Lane & Lane, LLC, has reached a settlement with the Chicago Archdiocese in a sexual abuse case involving a now 24-year-old male and a former priest and school teacher (1). As stated in the case, the victim was a student at Our Lady of the Westside School where the former priest, Father Daniel McCormack, was a teacher during the 2000–2001 school year (1). Now 24 years old, the “John Doe” client received between $1.68 and $2.1 million in a settlement that was reached before the case could go to trial in September 2014 (1).

Father McCormack served as pastor of Saint Agatha’s Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Westside School from 2000-2006 (2). However, the lawsuit alleged that the Archdiocese was aware of McCormack’s past history of sexual misconduct stemming back to his time in seminary years before–yet still chose to place him in ministry service among youth (1).

In 2007, McCormack pleaded guilty to sexually molesting five other boys, and served time in prison for those crimes (3). He continues to be confined while a petition to keep him committed to state custody under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act is considered by a Cook County judge (4).

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CANADA
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • March 26, 2014, 6:29 AM

A Canadian court has convicted a Canadian Orthodox archbishop in a 30-year-old child molestation case. I was a little skeptical of a case brought so many years after the fact, but this testimony is not quite what you would call exculpatory:

Storheim admits he talked to the 11-year-old twin boys about puberty and body development, which included specific comments about ejaculation and pubic hair. He said the topic only came up during Bible study when the boys began asking questions. He said he regrets not quickly changing the subject.

He admits writing a letter of apology to the family years later in which he said, “I probably stepped over a pastoral line.” But he claims those remarks were for the talk about puberty and nothing more sinister.

He accidentally walked around naked during slumber parties with the boys? What kind of sane, reasonable, innocent priest sleeps naked when little boys are spending the night at their house? “I overstepped a sense of compassion,” he says. Hoo boy.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Cardinal George Pell says the Catholic church didn’t deal fairly with the victim of a pedophile priest ‘from a Christian point of view’, but in a legal sense it did nothing improper.

The church’s most senior cleric in Australia has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that while mistakes were made in defending a court case brought by former altar boy John Ellis, he was consoled by a legal ruling protecting the church’s property trustees from being sued.

‘From a Christian point of view, leaving aside the legal dominion, I don’t think we did deal fairly,’ the former Archbishop of Sydney told the commission in Sydney on Wednesday.

‘One of the few consolations, if that’s what I’ve got from this sorry mess, is that the court of appeal unanimously endorsed the view that the trustees were not responsible in this case.’

The commission has heard the archdiocese of Sydney has property and cash worth $1.2 billion.

Mr Ellis was abused by a priest from the age of 13-to-17.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Cardinal George Pell tells Royal Commission he never told church lawyers to deny sex abuse of altar boy John Ellis

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MARCH 26, 2014

WHAT is the difference between disputing and denying? Quite a lot, according to Cardinal George Pell today.

He said that he had never told the church’s lawyers to deny that former altar boy John Ellis has been sexually abused by a priest when he sued the Sydney Archdiocese. He only accepted legal advice that they make Mr Elllis “prove” it.

Cardinal Pell said he had already accepted a Catholic Church report that Mr Ellis was telling the truth about his abuse as a teenager but Mr Ellis was questioned for four days about it during the case in 2004.

The cardinal said it had been a legal strategy suggested to him by the church’s lawyers, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, to “put Mr Ellis to the proof” of his claims of sexual abuse.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness SC, said: “The effect of disputing the abuse occurred was precisely the same on Mr Ellis, was it not, as denying the abuse occurred?”

Cardinal Pell: “I would not draw that conclusion.”

Ms Furness; “You are making a distinction, are you, between disputing that something occurred and denying it?”

Cardinal Pell: “Yes, very definitely.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 26, 2014
Catherine Armitage

Cardinal George Pell’s morality has come under sustained challenge at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

Pell said his instructions to “vigorously” and “strenuously” defend claims by John Ellis that he was abused were intended to discourage claimants, so they would “think clearly” before litigating against the church.

The Cardinal has defended disputing in court whether Mr Ellis was really abused. Pell said his lawyers assured him it was a “proper” legal tactic and Mr Ellis was a senior lawyer who would have understood he was not disbelieved.

Pell admitted he accepted Mr Ellis’ allegations, just as the church’s own review had done, but even so he gave the instructions which resulted in Mr Ellis being subject to four days of gruelling cross-examination in court on whether and how he had been abused.

Gail Furness, SC, counsel for the Royal Commission, asked: “Do you understand now the impact it had on John Ellis, to have the very church that he had gone back to … to dispute that he had been abused?”

“I do”, Cardinal Pell responded.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

CARDINAL George Pell personally endorsed his lawyers’ decision to dispute in court that a child victim had been sexually abused by a priest, despite himself believing the abuse had taken place, a royal commission has heard.

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the former Archbishop of Sydney said the decision was a legal “tactic” that he had been told was appropriate at the time.

The commission is currently investigating the case of a former altar boy, John Ellis, who unsuccessfully attempted to sue the church over his sexual abuse at the hands of a Sydney priest.

By defending the case, Cardinal Pell said he had wanted to discourage other abuse victims from taking legal action against the church’s trustees, which control much of the church’s wealth.

“So by having a vigorous defence, that would slow potential plaintiffs that they should think twice before litigating against the church?” senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, asked.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric has told the child abuse Royal Commission that, from what he called a “Christian point of view”, the Church did not deal fairly with former altar boy and abuse victim, John Ellis.

Cardinal George Pell conceded that it was a mistake to not enter into mediation at the start of the legal process which was so damaging for Mr Ellis, but he maintained he was not responsible for making that decision.

The World Today’s Emily Bourke has been monitoring the hearing and joins us now.

Emily, it’s the second day in the witness box for Cardinal Pell. What was the focus of the counsel assisting’s questioning today?

EMILY BOURKE: Well the inquiry is really drilling down into just how closely involved Cardinal Pell was in directing the course of the litigation when Mr Ellis tried to sue the Church.

While Cardinal Pell endorsed the overall strategy, he says he wasn’t involved in each and every legal manoeuvre.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 26, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

Cardinal George Pell has admitted he wanted to avoid big damages verdicts such as those made against the Catholic Church in America when he set up the Melbourne Response to deal with child sex abuse complaints with a $50,000 cap on payouts in the 1990s.

The Melbourne Response gave the church control over how much compensation a victim could receive when its liability could not be established, the Cardinal agreed.

In response to a succession of questions from the chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, Pell said he had not wanted the church in Australia to be subject to damages higher than other Australian institutions. He said he had set up the Melbourne Response in 1996 after the Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, told him “Now you clean this thing up and there won’t be a Royal Commission”.

The Cardinal’s moral choices in dealing with sex abuse cases have come under sustained challenge at the Royal Commission.

Pell said his instructions to “vigorously” and “strenuously” defend claims by John Ellis that he was abused were intended to discourage claimants, so they would “think clearly” before litigating against the church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

Cardinal George Pell says that from a “Christian point of view”, the Church did not deal fairly with former altar boy and sex abuse victim John Ellis.

Mr Ellis was abused by a priest in the 1970s, but lost a legal battle in 2007 when the Court of Appeal ruled the Catholic Church was not an entity that could be sued.

Cardinal Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, is giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

He said although lawyers never acted improperly, he had “moral doubts” and believed the case was mishandled from a spiritual perspective.

“Any reservations I might have about particular stands of our lawyers, I would not want to suggest that they did anything improper,” he told the hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Tuesday 25 March 2014

The “vigorous” defence against abuse victim John Ellis was seen as an opportunity to show future claimants they should think twice before litigating against the Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell has admitted.

Ellis’s claim was an “attack” on the trustees of the Catholic Church by people who were not “entirely reasonable”, Pell told the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Ellis was treated differently to other claimants because he was a “brilliant” lawyer.

Pell is appearing before the commission’s eighth public hearing for a second day of questioning on the handling of the Ellis case. Ellis was sexually abused by a priest, Father Aiden Duggan, beginning when Ellis was a 13-year-old altar boy. The church won the civil case brought against it in 2007, establishing the so called “Ellis Defence” that the church as an entity cannot be sued.

Law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth ran a “vigorous” defence against Ellis’s claims, which Pell said was simply putting Ellis’s claims “to the proof” rather than denying the truthfulness of them. Ellis, as a lawyer, should have been able to make the distinction, said Pell.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Cardinal George Pell was worried by sexual abuse case payouts that had bankrupted some US churches and wanted to prevent similar payouts in Australia, an inquiry has heard.

Dr Pell, the former archbishop of Sydney, told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that he had been concerned by verdicts in US courts where large payouts to victims had bankrupted some dioceses.

He denied, however, that he wanted sexual abuse victims to go through the Catholic church’s internal system, Towards Healing, rather than the courts, so that the church could control the size of payouts.

Under questioning from Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan, Dr Pell agreed that, since his time as archbishop of Melbourne, he had been concerned about the US payouts to victims.

He did not want a similar situation in Australia because ‘Australia is not America’ where there are ‘an enormous number of lawyers’.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | March 26, 2014

Australian Cardinal George Pell, who is set to become Vatican’s keeper of finances, on Wednesday admitted limiting compensation to victims of sex abuse because of fears the Archdiocese of Sydney will go bankrupt.

Since creating the Melbourne Response in the 1990s, a victim may only receive a compensation of a maximum $50,000. That was the Australian church’s cap on payouts.

He said he does not want the Australian Catholic church suffering the fate of dioceses in America because “Australia is not America” where there are “an enormous number of lawyers.”

Cardinal Pell also said he could not accept that the church will issue payouts to its victims more than any other institution in Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By CATHERINE ARMITAGE March 26, 2014

Sydney’s Catholic archdiocese has been forced to open its books for the first time, revealing assets worth more than $1 billion and raising questions about why it has failed to spend more on compensating victims of church sex abuse.

WATCH CARDINAL PELL AT THE COMMISSION

Accounts tendered to the child sex abuse royal commission on Tuesday show the archdiocese’s total assets have nearly doubled since 2004 to more than $1 billion at the end of last year. Over the same period, its net assets grew from $137 million to $192 million.

The healthy annual net surpluses caught the attention of commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan as he quizzed archdiocesan business manager Danny Casey on payouts to victims since 2001 of just less than $8 million.

Justice McClellan described the accounts as ”commendable from your point of view” because of the surpluses that ran as high as $44 million in 2007. Last year, the net surplus was $9 million.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 25, 2014

Just when I thought things couldn’t get stranger, this happened:

The leading hench(wo)man in the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Orange may be a judicial nominee.

When I first got word that California Governor Jerry Brown had thrown Maria Rullo Schinderle’s name in the hat of potential nominees for superior court judge, I was floored. Directly on the heels of his church-influenced veto of SB 131, Brown is nominating one of the most questionable Catholic church attorneys in California for a judgeship.

Victims and those who support victims should be outraged.

This woman must never become a judge

Let’s go through some of the reason why Brown should immediately remove Schinderle’s name from consideration:

1) She’s actively escaping her own bad press
In nominating forms, Schinderle is listed by her bar name “Maria M. Rullo.” In her workings with the Diocese of Orange, including all of her work fighting victims and acting as a spokesperson, she goes by her married name, “Maria R. Schinderle.” That is reason enough to question her veracity.
Her bar information also lists her as a member of the Busch Law Firm, but there is no listing of her on their website. The Diocese of Orange lists her as General Counsel under the name Maria Rullo Schinderle. So I have to ask: What is her name and where exactly does she work?

Perhaps her name interchangeability is due to the fact that a Google search of Maria Rullo is far more sanitized than the scandalous information that a search for “Maria Schinderle” unearths.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas P. Doyle | Mar. 25, 2014 Examining the Crisis

The countless victims of clergy sex abuse have been waiting for 30 years for the Vatican to show it really understands the depth of the problem and is willing to do something real about it. Judging by the latest move, naming members of a pontifical commission, victims will have to keep on waiting. Those who have been deeply involved in this issue for the long haul had little hope the promised commission would make a difference, and we probably won’t be disappointed.

Putting Marie Collins on the commission was a brilliant decision. She is probably the only one with true credibility among the victims, who are clearly the most important people in this equation, not the bishops. She is also probably the only member who is independent and courageous enough to call out the real issues. Child protection in the future and seminary training are peripheral. Compassionate care for the countless victims should be the foremost concern, followed by drawing up an expeditious plan to fire the more egregious offenders from among the cardinals, archbishops and bishops who have enabled and continue to enable perpetrators.

While it is not totally clear what the commission’s mission is, a recent interview with Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, one of the members, gives some clues. He said some nice things about putting victims first, but the victims have been hearing that from the last pope and from cardinals and bishops for years. They still aren’t first. In fact, they aren’t even in the lineup.

However, later in the interview, Zollner said the commission will look into church law to see what has worked then make recommendations. That says it all. The pope and the commission could save a lot of time and effort because this has already been figured out, and the answer is short: Not much has worked. Elsewhere, media stories said the commission will advise the church on best policies to protect children and keep abusers out of the clergy. So it seems that to avoid having to confront and do something about the real issues facing the church, the commission will be asked to reinvent the wheel.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus ordained in 1951, Leary spent his career in higher education, founding several schools and establishing a reputation as a brilliant and charismatic innovator. Allegations that he was sexually abusing boys and young men began to surface in 1965 or 1966. Leary was president of Gonzaga University at the time; he was allowed to keep his post. In 1969 Spokane police were receiving reports of Leary’s sexual abuse. They went to the Jesuits with the offer that Leary would be spared arrest if he left town within 24 hours; Leary was quietly sent away to a Jesuit boys’ school in Lenox, MA to “recuperate.” He went on to live and work in Logan, UT, Santa Clara, CA, San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Reno, NV and Portland, OR. The Oregon Province Jesuits in 2006 claimed they didn’t learn the details of allegations against Leary until 2006; they said documents show he may have abused “as many as” 12 youths.

Ordained: 1951
Died: Dec. 21, 1993

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Church of England priest who was jailed for 18 months for abusing teenage boys has been banned from ministerial practice for life.

Keith Wilkie Denford, of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, was found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage boys in April 2013 after a trial.

Police were alerted in 2012 when one of Denford’s victims discovered he was still in contact with children.

The Diocese of Chichester said the most severe sanction possible was imposed.

Denford had denied abusing the boys between 1987 and 1990, while he was vicar at St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

[with video]

Royal commission into child sex abuse told of incredible wealth of Sydney’s Catholic Church, but no cash for alleged victims of sex abuse

THE Catholic Church’s Sydney Archdiocese controls an incredible $1.238 billion in funds — most of it tax free.

It was the first time the wealth of the church has been revealed as the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse delved into its finances and examined the church’s response to victims.

The archdiocese’s cash reserves are $321 million and the church has been making a profit of up to $43 million a year through investments since 2001.

But the commission has been told that, instead of settling former altar boy John Ellis’s sexual abuse claim for the $100,000 he asked for, it offered him just $30,000 and then spent $1.5 million fighting him in court. Most claims are settled for between $50,000 and $70,000.

The money maze was unveiled as the archdiocese’s business manager, Danny Casey, gave evidence to the commission yesterday.

The funds are ultimately controlled by the archbishop, who since 2001 has been Cardinal George Pell.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 26, 2014

Kieran Tapsell

Remember Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Ebenezer Scrooge is a cantankerous miser who thinks Christmas is all humbug. He is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, and, as a result of a series of apparitions, he has a change of heart. He decides to spend the rest of his life being generous.

Cardinal George Pell never thought that the claims of clergy sexual abuse victims were humbug, although a number of his colleagues in the Vatican certainly did. In October 1996, as archbishop of Melbourne, Pell set up the Melbourne Response for dealing with the victims of sexual abuse by clergy and others. It provided for an independent tribunal to determine the amount payable to victims, but it had a cap of $50,000. The other scheme, Towards Healing, set up by his fellow bishops, had a provision for negotiating and mediating compensation, but with no cap. In 2001, Pell became the archbishop of Sydney, where he decided to continue the Towards Healing system.

John Ellis was an altar boy at the Bass Hill parish where he was sexually abused from the age of 13 by Father Aidan Duggan. Ellis became a gifted lawyer and a partner in a prestigious Sydney law firm. As a result of psychological problems, he lost his job, and in 2002 he approached the Sydney Archdiocese through its Towards Healing program about his difficulties. An assessor, Michael Eccleston, was appointed to look into the claim, and in a report that Justice Peter McLellan, heading the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, described as ”legally perfect”, Eccleston found that on the balance of probabilities, Ellis had been abused by Duggan, and his psychological difficulties could be traced to the abuse.

Ellis offered to settle the claim for $100,000 in the Towards Healing process, but that was rejected.

He started proceedings to extend the limitation period, naming Pell, the trustees of the archdiocese and Duggan as defendants. He made a formal offer to settle for $750,000, which was also rejected. Duggan in the meantime died, and the case against the other two went all the way to the High Court. Pell and the trustees of the archdiocese won the case – after spending $756,000 on lawyers’ fees – with findings that the ”Catholic Church” did not exist in law, that Pell was not liable for any negligence of his predecessors, and as the trustees had no role in the appointment of priests, they were not liable either. Ellis was ordered to pay costs, estimated on a party/party basis at $500,000.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

The Chancellor of the Sydney Archdiocese of the Catholic Church has told the Royal Commission into the institutional response to child abuse that the Archdiocese controls 1.2 billion dollars and turns a multi-million dollar profit every year.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard that the Catholic Church in Sydney is worth more than $1.2 billion. The Commission also learned that the Church spent more than $1 million fighting a man molested as a child by his local priest. It was a decision that was today described by a senior Church official as a case of defending the institution before the victim.

Lucy Carter reports.

LUCY CARTER, REPORTER: Reverend Monsignor John Joseph Usher has been trying to mend the Church’s ways since he took over as chancellor of the Sydney archdiocese.

JOHN JOSEPH USHER: We’re very clear about the fact that the victim is the one we should be most concerned about.

LUCY CARTER: He streamlined the way victims’ access pastoral and financial help and won back the trust of abuse survivor John Ellis.

JOHN JOSEPH USHER: The victim is the prime responsibility of the Church, not the good name of the Church and certainly not the perpetrator.

LUCY CARTER: Monsignor Usher’s new approach is a stark contrast to what the Church has done in the past. A former altar boy, Mr Ellis was abused by his local priest, then he endured years of aggressive litigation when he tried to sue the Church. A legal technicality saw his claim thrown out and for three years he was threatened with paying the Church’s legal costs.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, March 19, 2014

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

ALBUQUERQUE — It’s been more than four months since the Diocese of Gallup filed its petition for Chapter 11 reorganization, and the case is beginning to move toward establishing a deadline for claims filed by victims of clergy sex abuse.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David T. Thuma ruled last week, allowing the Gallup Diocese to extend its exclusive period to file a plan of reorganization an additional 180 days. The new deadline is Sept. 8. Thuma is expected to rule in April on a motion to set a bar date for claims against the Gallup Diocese.
“The purpose of a bar date is to provide a definitive cut-off date, so that the total number and amount of claims against a debtor’s estate can be calculated, the estate divided, and the debts discharged,” the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney Susan G. Boswell said in her motion requesting the court set the claims deadline.

In Boswell’s motion, which also includes proposed claims forms for abuse victims and other claimants, public notice plans, and press releases, the Diocese of Gallup is requesting Thuma set a 120-period for claimants to file. In addition to clergy sex abuse survivors, possible claimants include trade creditors, vendors and other persons or businesses that provided the diocese with goods or services.

The Gallup Diocese proposes to publicize the bar date and give notice across New Mexico and Arizona by submitting public service announcements, press releases and paid advertisements to newspapers and radio stations in both states. It also proposes to publicize the bar date through notices at Catholic parishes, post offices, federal public health centers, other federal agencies, Navajo chapter houses and Native American cultural centers.

An important provision of the proposed claim form also includes a penalty for filing a fraudulent claim against the diocese: a fine of up to $500,000 or imprisonment for five years, or both.

According to Boswell, the diocese is “attempting to reach as many potential claimants as possible, taking into account the unique issues and challenges with the geographic area” of the Diocese of Gallup. The diocese includes parishes in six counties in western New Mexico, three counties in Arizona and seven Native American reservations. The majority of Catholics in the diocese are Hispanic or Anglo, and the majority of abuse survivors known to the media are Hispanic.

The diocese is also proposing to work with the Unsecured Creditors Committee, which represents the interests of clergy abuse survivors, to set up a toll free number for abuse claimants to call and access a translator who speaks Spanish or Navajo. Although the diocese has parishes that serve Native Catholics who are members of the White Mountain Apache, Jicarilla Apache, Acoma, Hopi, Laguna and Zuni tribes, Boswell said the diocese has not been successful finding translators in those languages.

The deadline to file objections to the diocese’s motion is March 31, and a hearing on the matter is scheduled for April 9.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 25

For more information: David Clohessy 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Victims challenge Scranton bishop
They want him to disclose records
His predecessor says he warned others about predator
But support group is skeptical and wants “proof” of this
Accused priest is still on the job & has been promoted

Clergy sex abuse victims are challenging Scranton’s Catholic bishop to release documents about a priest who allegedly molested Pennsylvania youngsters but has since been promoted and is now second in command at a South American diocese.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to Bishop Joseph Bambera about Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity who was accused of sexually abusing at least four youngsters in the Scranton diocese. At least two civil suits were filed and one of them was settled for $454,550.

But last week, a Boston-based research group called BishopAccountability.org disclosed that Fr. Urrutigoity is now in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and is its Vicar General.

“What could be more reckless and callous than quietly sending another credibly accused child molesting Catholic cleric overseas to live and work among unsuspecting families?” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “We strongly suspect that Fr. Urrutigoity would be behind bars now had the Scranton colleagues acted appropriately. Scranton’s bishop must take action now to protect kids in Paraguay.”

“Ignoring warnings about predator priests is dreadfully irresponsible but sadly, nothing new,” said, Barbara Dorris, SNAP’s outreach director. “It is a dangerous and self-serving practice that puts unsuspecting families and children at great risk.”

SNAP wants Bambera to publicly release any correspondence between current or former Scranton Catholic officials and church officials elsewhere about Fr. Urrutigoity. The group also wants him to use parish websites, church bulletins and pulpit announcements to seek out others who “saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Urrutigoity’s crimes” and urge them to call police.

And they want Bambera to write Pope Francis insisting that the priest be defrocked or at least suspended.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 25, 2014

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

A Maplewood priest, who was charged in November with sexual misconduct, faces more charges. We are glad Father Mark Huberty is being charged with additional crimes. It’s virtually always hurtful – and often illegal – for clerics to have any sexual contact with a congregant.

[Pioneer Press]

This is an encouraging move. It is additional evidence that when a priest engages in sexual contact with a parishioner, a very serious moral and legal line has been crossed. Consent can never truly be given when the difference in power is so great. In Minnesota, it is also a felony.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes – by Fr. Huberty or others, as adults or as children – will speak up. Keeping quiet only helps predators and endangers others.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

March 25, 2014

When Vatican initiatives involve clergy sexual abuse, Catholic Church reform-minded, survivor-supporting movements like Voice of the Faithful® react with guarded optimism. This is the case once again regarding the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which was instituted this past Saturday, Mar. 22, having been originally announced Dec. 5, 2013.

A major reason for optimism this time is the commission’s initial composition. Five of the eight members are lay people, and four of those are women. One, notably, is an outspoken, internationally known clergy sexual abuse survivor, Ireland’s Marie Collins. In addition, the sole American on the commission, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston has one of the better records on clergy sexual abuse among the Church’s hierarchy. He also has considerable experience supervising settlements and trying to clean up dioceses damaged when the extent of clergy sex abuse was revealed.

According to the Vatican, the eight newly named members of the Pontifical Commission are to prepare its statutes and define its tasks and “competencies.” From VOTF’s point of view, the principal tasks of the commission must include full transparency, a reckoning of all those involved in the scandal. Also, the commission’s statutes must guard against future secrecy and provide discipline for offending hierarchy.

VOTF has been working to accomplish these goals for 12 years; SNAP, the international abuse survivor group, has called for justice for the past 25 years; and canon lawyer and survivor supporter Fr. Thomas Doyle presented his first report on clergy sexual abuse from his position in the Vatican embassy as long ago as 1984. Announcement of this new Vatican commission is long past due.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 26, 2014

Bryan Keon-Cohen, Joseph Poznanski

The absolute confidentiality of the Catholic Church’s confessional puts vulnerable children at risk.

Comment

While the Catholic Church appears willing to accept the Victorian parliamentary committee’s recommendations in its report Betrayal of Trust, the church hierarchy rejects the application of a mandatory reporting regime to the sacrament of Penance, that is, the Confessional.

The report also declined to extend mandatory reporting to compel priests, in appropriate circumstances, to break the Seal of the Confessional. COIN (Commission of Inquiry Now) disagrees.

One of the seven sacraments, this rite dates to the early Middle Ages and remains an integral part of Catholic faith. All Catholics who have attained the age of discretion are required to confess their sins through the Confessional. Basically, it is an article of faith: no more, no less.

The Victorian inquiry had broad terms of reference and dealt with religious and non-religious institutions throughout Victoria. Yet according to the report, the overwhelming majority of criminal acts perpetrated against vulnerable children were committed by Catholic priests. Despite this appalling record, the church hierarchy insists that, on the grounds of religious right, the Confessional should remain exempt from mandatory reporting. If a penitent reveals during the Confession that he or she has been sexually abused by anybody, the priest must not disclose that information.

For Catholic priests, the confidentiality of such statements is absolute – even under threat of their own death or that of others. Canon Law states that a priest who breaches the Seal of the Confessional, incurs latae sententiae – i.e. automatic – excommunication. Paradoxically, a priest who commits an indictable criminal offence, such as sexual abuse of a minor, does not incur the same penalty. Instead, the evidence shows, usually his bishop quietly transfers the offender to another parish and rejects any complaints from aggrieved parents.

Further, no formally established code of practice, code of ethics, or specific practice guidelines at all exist for a priest when administering the Confessional.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MARK SCHLIEBS THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 26, 2014

CATHOLIC Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson did not refer to his dealings with abuse allegations at the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle at a royal commission because he only wanted to detail his work as a bishop, the church says.

During the final day of a public hearing in Adelaide on Monday, Archbishop Wilson had a long witness statement tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that outlined his involvement in dealing with such allegations.

He said in the statement that he began implementing the church’s Towards Healing processes soon after being appointed Bishop of Wollongong in 1996, and was a member of a bishops’ professional standards committee. He also said he was prepared to resign as bishop in 2001 if the Pope allowed a priest acquitted of child sexual abuse charges to continue his service with the church.

But only four paragraphs in the 22-page statement mention his time at the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in NSW, with no mention of any abuse allegations from that region. The NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse received evidence that identified him as one of several subjects of a police investigation into the alleged cover-up of crimes committed by serial pedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)/ROME
Religion News Service

Mary Beth McCauley | Mar 25, 2014

PHILADELPHIA (RNS) If the pope were pitched visits the way cities pitch the Olympics, Philadelphia would not be in the running.

Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of Philadelphia, with Pope Francis in Rome in September 2013. Photo courtesy of Vatican Information Services/Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput’s Facebook page
This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

The Roman Catholic archdiocese is financially teetering and wholly demoralized. Parishes and schools have closed, real estate has been sold, the lavish archbishop’s residence unloaded.

It’s been the subject of two separate grand juries investigating priest sexual abuse, and home to the first senior church official to be indicted on charges of failing to protect children.

Yet despite these troubles, an elite delegation consisting of the archbishop, the city’s mayor, the governor and several top CEOs arrived in Rome on Monday (March 24) to invite the pope to visit Philadelphia.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 25, 2014

For more information: Melanie Jula Sakoda ( 925-708-6175 cell, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com ), Cappy Larson (cappy@rlarson.com), David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Victims’ group blasts Orthodox Church officials
Synod of bishops “retires” convicted archbishop
He was accused of molesting two 11 year old boys
“Retiring is what happens to an older person,” victims say
SNAP: “Censuring, punishing, denouncing is what should happen to a criminal”

Members of an abuse survivors’ group are angry that Orthodox Church officials are refusing to defrock Canada’s highest ranking archbishop who was found guilty of molesting a child in January.

[Winnipeg Free Press]

Last week, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, wrote to the Synod of Bishops begging them to defrock the convicted cleric. Instead, at a meeting late last week, Orthodox Church in America (OCA) officials opted to ‘retire’ the child molesting archbishop.

[SNAP]

[Orthodox Church in America]

SNAP leaders believe the OCA’s sexual misconduct policy calls for the church hierarchy to permanently oust Archbishop Seraphim Storheim from ministry. The guidelines, approved by the OCA’s synod at their Fall 2013 meeting, state that “Any clergy … found to have committed child sexual abuse … shall be deposed by the Holy Synod of Bishops, and shall be permanently prohibited from exercising any functions or responsibilities of parish ministry. …”

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BRASIL
Correio de Uberlandia

[Summary: In a press release, the Diocese of Uberlandia has suspended from priestly dutires the 48-year-old priest who has been charged by prosecutors with suspicion of sexual abuse and solicitation of a minor that is said to have happened last week in Araguari. The priest headed St. Jude Thaddeus parish in that city. According to the diocese, the church is not responsible for private acts of its members but priests must fully accepted the consequences.]

Em nota à imprensa, a Diocese de Uberlândia, a qual pertence o padre, de 48 anos, preso, suspeito de abuso sexual e aliciamento de menor, informou o afastamento do pároco das “funções sacerdotais”. Ele teria oferecido R$ 20 a um garoto, de 12 anos, para fazer sexo oral na criança. O menino contou à mãe e ela chamou a polícia. A ocorrência aconteceu na rua Sebastião Vogado, bairro Goiás, em Araguari, no Triângulo Mineiro. O sacerdote estava à frente da Paróquia São Judas Tadeu naquela cidade.

Segundo a Diocese, a Igreja não é responsável por atos particulares de seus membros e que aquele que infringir a Lei Moral e Cível deve assumir integralmente as consequências previstas em lei. Na nota, o Bispo Diocesano, Dom Paulo Francisco Machado, disse ter tomado as devidas providências determinadas pelas leis da Igreja Católica, afastando o padre de imediato. “A Igreja, Mãe e Mestra, não pode aceitar qualquer tipo de comportamento contrário aos princípios da moral e ética cristãs, destinados ao correto modo de viver de todos os seus filhos e filhas, chamados a um contínuo processo de conversão de todo tipo de pecado.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
SRF

Papst Franziskus hat die ersten Mitglieder der Kommission gegen Kindsmissbrauch in der römisch-katholischen Kirche ernannt. Die Hälfte davon sind Frauen – eine von ihnen war selbst Opfer priesterlicher Übergriffe.

Er werde eine Kommission zum Schutz von Kindern vor pädophilen Priestern ins Leben rufen. Das hatte Papst Franziskus im Dezember angekündigt. Ganze drei Monate später nun gibt er die ersten Mitglieder bekannt und sorgt damit für eine Überraschung: Die Hälfte der acht Experten und Würdenträger sind Frauen.

Eine von ihnen ist die Irin Marie Collins – selbst ein Opfer. Ein Geistlicher hatte sie als 13-Jährige in den 1960er-Jahren missbraucht. Später setzte sie sich für den Schutz von Kindern ein und versuchte, Missbrauchsopfern pädophiler Kleriker rechtliches Gehör zu verschaffen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz hat heute in Bonn das interdisziplinäre Forschungsverbundprojekt „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“ vorgestellt. Dabei konnte Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann (Trier), der Beauftragte der Bischofskonferenz für Fragen sexuellen Missbrauchs, das Forschungskonsortium präsentieren.

Das Forschungskonsortium wird von Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing vom Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim als Verbundkoordinator geleitet. Neben dem Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit Mannheim (Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Salize) sind das Kriminologische Institut der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dieter Dölling, Prof. Dr. Dieter Hermann), das Institut für Gerontologie der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Kruse, Prof. Dr. Eric Schmitt) und der Lehrstuhl für Kriminologie der Universität Gießen (Prof. Dr. Britta Bannenberg) Mitglieder des Forschungskonsortiums.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bank Kaufmann

Ravensburg (ots) – Für keinen anderen Skandal in ihrer Kirche schämen sich die deutschen Katholiken so sehr fremd wie für den Missbrauchsskandal. Dass katholische Priester sich an Kindern und Jugendlichen vergangen haben, überstieg die Vorstellungskraft. Der massenhafte Missbrauch durch Männer, die besonderes Vertrauen genossen, dieses Vertrauen dann aber ausnutzten und damit
unermesslichen Schaden an Kinderseelen anrichteten, zerstörte auch das Vertrauen derer, die bis dahin treu zu ihrer Kirche standen. Erstneulich zweifelten die Vereinten Nationen den Willen zurAufklärung an.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

[Summary: The new church study on sexual abuse is nothing more than a show, according to victim advocate Norbert Denef. The first project, announced in 2011, failed in 2013. Denef said he does not see how the new study will show any meaninful results and is nothing more than theater.]

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz startete am 24. März 2014 das II. Forschungsprojekt zum Thema “Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen”.

Das I. Forschungsprojekt, welches im Juni 2011 bundesweit angekündigt worden war, ist im Januar 2013 gescheitert.

Norbert Denef
Opferverband “netzwerkB”:

“Wir haben Recht behalten, dass die Studie 2013 gescheitert ist und wir sagen jetzt wieder: Ein neue Studie ist nicht möglich – die Aktenarchiv Lager sind doch gesäubert. Daran zu glauben, das jetzt irgendwo, noch irgendwas zu finden wäre, das ist nichts weiter als nur Theater.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Missbrauchsopfer-Jesephinum-Redemptoristen

24.03.2014 Forschungsdesign der Missbrauchsstudie der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz enttäuscht auf der ganzen Linie. Opfer von Ordenspriestern, Internatsschüler und Heimkinder fast vollständig ausge

[Summary: The research design of the study of sexual abuse in the Germany Catholic Church is a disappointment. It’s to go on for four years and the researchers do not have free access to the documents. The earliest time for publication is 2018 and there will be no information until then.]

Vier Jahre hat es gedauert- und herausgekommen ist wenig, allenfalls etwas, was man Feigenblatt nennt.

· Da erhalten renommierte Experten einen Forschungsauftrag und akzeptieren, dass sie keinen freien Zugang zu den Unterlagen haben.

· Da wird ein frühester Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung mit 2018 genannt. Und bis dahin gibt es keine Information mehr mit dem Hinweis auf eine laufende Untersuchung. Wie geschickt, wenn ich nicht an Aufarbeitung interessiert bin.

· Da verkündet die Bischofskonferenz groß eine einmalige Studie und beschränkt sie gleichzeitig auf wenige Jahre: zu untersuchender Zeitraum 27 Bistümer mal 68 (1946-2014) Jahre = 2322 Jahre. Tatsächlich untersuchter Zeitraum: 9 Bistümer á 68 Jahre (612) + 18 Bistümer á 14 Jahre (252) = 864 Jahre tatsächlich untersuchter Zeitraum = 37 %.

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VATICAN CITY
Ledger-Enquirer

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
March 25, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Marie Collins is not your ordinary papal adviser.

Sexually assaulted as a child by a hospital chaplain, Collins went onto become a leading Irish activist demanding justice for the victims of priestly abuse and a fierce critic of the Catholic Church’s handling of the scandal.

Now she has been named to Pope Francis’ commission on setting sex abuse policy, one of eight people — half of them women — who will help craft the panel’s scope and advise the church on best practices to protect children.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Collins said her top priority was for the Vatican to punish those bishops who have covered up for priests who raped children.

“There’s no point in my mind of having gold-plated child-protection programs in place if there’s no sanction for a bishop who decides to ignore them,” Collins said by telephone from her home in Dublin.

“The reason everyone is so angry is not because they have abusers in their ranks. Abusers are in every rank of society. It’s because of the systemic cover-up.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

‘Yours was a calling from the Devil… I hope you get to meet your maker’.

And so say all of us to the sentiment expressed by a victim of former Derby Roman Catholic priest Francis Cullen.

A 15-year prison sentence, imposed at Derby Crown Court yesterday, ought to ensure that Cullen never emerges into society again – though you can never be absolutely sure with our legal procedures and pressure on prison places.

Even after the passage of all these years, it still took courage for those who suffered unimaginably at the hands of this disgrace to the cloth to come forward with statements.

Their descriptions of their ongoing feelings of humiliation and low self-worth, and the damage this did to their own prospects of a happy family life, should dismiss once and for all any suggestion that these are experiences which are easily shrugged off by youngsters.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC 10

By Karen Araiza | Tuesday, Mar 25, 2014

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput briefly addressed the priest sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese today in his remarks at the Vatican.

“The Church in Philadelphia is also very much a community in need of renewal in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis of the past decade. In that sense, Philadelphia is a snapshot of the Church globally. We have a duty to help abuse victims and their families to heal, and to protect children and young people from harm in the years ahead,” Chaput said as he read from a statement of prepared remarks.

Archbishop Chaput made his remarks in a press conference following a meeting with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council of Families about the 2015 World Meeting of Familes which will be held in Philadelphia.

The Archishop has led a delegation of high-powered political and civic leaders here to help plan for the event, which runs next year from September 22 – 27. Pope Francis is expected to say mass at the event and a visit by the popular pontiff could draw a global crowd that planners say could swell to two million.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Revealed for the first time: Royal Commission into child sex abuse told of incredible wealth of Sydney’s Catholic Church

* Sydney Archdiocese controls $1.236b funds
* Church makes $43 million profit a year
* Spent $1.5m fighting $100,000 abuse claim

THE Catholic Church’s Sydney Archdiocese controls funds of an incredible $1.236 billion and that doesn’t include its schools and aged care homes.

It is the first time that the massive wealth of the church has been revealed as the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse delves into its finances as it looks at the church’s response to victims.

The archdiocese’s cash reserves are $320 million alone and the church has been making a profit of up to $43 million a year since 2001.

But the commission has been told that instead of settling former altar boy John Ellis’s sexual abuse claim for the $100,000 he requested, it spent $1.5 million fighting him in court. Most claims are settled for between $50,000 and $70,000.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

BY DAVID LANGTRY, THE LEADER-POST MARCH 24, 2014

Later this week I will be an honourary witness in Edmonton at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final national gathering of survivors of Indian Residential Schools. It promises to be an emotionally painful, but also healing, experience.

The TRC was set up as part of a class-action settlement, the largest in Canadian history, of a lawsuit brought on behalf of tens of thousands of survivors of the schools. They are called “survivors” because the horrific physical and sexual abuse so many endured didn’t kill them. The TRC’s mandate is to uncover these uncomfortable truths and help us move toward reconciliation with aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Over the past five years, the TRC has heard from thousands of survivors. They have spoken tearfully, angrily, wrenchingly, about being forcibly taken from their families to be crowded into spartan boarding schools plagued by hunger, abuse, disease, and death.

There are more residential school survivors living here in Saskatchewan than anywhere else. Of the estimated 80,000 survivors alive today, roughly 19,000 live in this province.

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CANADA
Kenora Online

It was a day to remember and commemorate those who lived through the residential schools across the Treaty 3 area. Members of First Nations communities and survivors gathered at the Best Western Lakeside Inn Monday, where a commemoration was held, which focused on all of the residential schools in the area.

Organizer Richard Green noted the major focus of the event was to educate the public on the issues, as well as providing a chance for those who attended the schools to share their stories.

“One reason is internal to the students themselves that survived this ordeal, this era of residential schools. The other part is it get the public to come to terms with all of the things that happened. Children were removed from their homes. They were made to speak a different language and take on a different culture. I think Canada and its citizens need to realize that every language, every culture and every nation is sacred,” he said.

He also notes that while the residential schools have closed down, there’s still a lasting effect.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 25, 2014

THE Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney controls funds with combined assets of over $1.2 billion dollars that provide the church with multi-million dollar profits every year, the royal commission has heard.

The evidence, tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning, represents the first time the books of Australia’s wealthiest church organisation have been made public.

Daniel Casey, the archdiocese’s business manager, said the funds were “ultimately owned and controlled by, if you like, the archbishop of the day … the archbishop controls these funds.”

Most of the money is controlled by two funds, the commission heard, the Catholic Development Fund and the Procuration Fund, which last year held gross assets of $810 million and $426 million respectively.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 25, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

Sydney’s Catholic Archdiocese, thought to be the richest in the country, controls funds with assets of $1.24 billion and generates annual multimillion-dollar surpluses, according to evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission.

As the commission explores the church’s handling of sex abuse claims, an unprecedented glimpse of the books was provided by the archdiocese’s business manager, Danny Casey, who said the funds are “ultimately controlled by – owned by, if you like – the archbishop of the day”.

The funds are ‘ultimately controlled by – owned by, if you like – the archbishop of the day’.

Since George Pell’s appointment as archbishop in 2001, the archdiocese has received 204 claims and paid out just under $8 million to victims of child sexual assault, the commission has been told. Payments to “non-school victims” were $5.4 million. This included $740,000 for “boundary issues with adults”.

The commission heard the archdiocesan funds have generated annual surpluses including $43.95 million (2007), $19.6 million (2006) and $9.1 million last year.

The royal commission was shown accounts revealing that the Catholic Development Fund held $810 million, including $321 million in cash at the end of 2013. The procuration fund from which sexual abuse claims are made held $426 million, including real estate assets of $207 million. This included buildings and land used “substantially” for church purposes.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

Catholic Faith and Sex Abuse: Royal Commission Confirms Sydney Catholic Archdiocese is Rich, Has $1.24B Worth of Assets Plus More

By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | March 25, 2014

The books of Australia’s wealthiest church organisation, the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, have been made public for the first time. And according to what the child sex abuse royal commission heard on Tuesday, the Archdiocese has $1.24 billion worth of assets, plus annual multimillion-dollar surpluses.

All these, according to Danny Casey, the archdiocese’s business manager, are “ultimately controlled by – owned by, if you like – the archbishop of the day.”

Between 2004 and 2007, Mr Casey told the commission the Sydney archdiocese earned surpluses of between $7.7 million and $44 million. It has cash reserves amounting to $320 million alone. Annually, the church has been earning up to $43 million a year since 2001, the year George Pell was appointed as archbishop.

Victims of sexual abuse by priests of the Sydney archdiocese receive payments from a $426 million “procuration fund,” one of two funds that control the money. The other is the Catholic Development Fund which has gross assets of $810 million, including $321 million in cash at the end of 2013.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY PETER TRUTE AAP MARCH 25, 2014

THE Sydney Catholic archdiocese controls funds worth more than $1.2 billion and has regularly made multi-million dollar tax-free profits.

The royal commission into child sex abuse heard the archdiocese banked surpluses of between $7.7 million and $44 million between 2004 and 2007, a period during which the Catholic church was aggressively defending a claim for $100,000 brought against it by former altar boy John Ellis.

Mr Ellis was abused by a pedophile priest from the age of 13 to 17 during the 1970s.

The church ultimately spent $1.5 million defending the case, winning in 2007 then pursuing Mr Ellis for costs before abandoning the claim and paying him $570,000 for counselling, a holiday and renovations.

Sydney Archdiocese business manager Danny Casey told the commission on Tuesday that the church’s funds, worth $1.24 billion, included extensive property holdings and cash and were ultimately controlled by the archbishop.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

By Lindsey Arceci
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Monday, March 24, 2014
(Published in print: Tuesday, March 25, 2014)

ANTRIM — The family that housed registered sex offender Max Wilson in Antrim may have withheld information about Wilson’s past convictions from the alleged victim’s family, according to Merrimack County Attorney Catherine Ruffle.

Wilson, 69, of Antrim awaits trial for misdemeanor sexual assault charges out of Antrim, and has had two prior convictions for sexual assault-related cases in other states, Ruffle said.

Antrim police arrested Wilson on Jan. 30 at his residence on Concord Street and charged him with three misdemeanor counts of sexual assault, each of which represents separate incidents that took place in Antrim and Concord in early January involving a 14-year-old boy from Hopkinton. Wilson is also awaiting trial in Concord Superior Court for alleged sexual assaults that took place in Concord and Hopkinton, according to Concord police reports, involving the same juvenile. Det. Jason Lepine of the Antrim police said Monday that the boy from Hopkinton told his parents that Wilson had been “hugging him, kissing him and holding his hand.” …

Although a trial has yet to be scheduled, details about Wilson’s past show a trend in sexual assault crimes involving juvenile boys. Based on court documents, Ruffle confirmed that Wilson’s first conviction was in Washington, Penn., in 1981, when Wilson was working as the pastor of a church. Wilson met his first victim in his congregation, another juvenile boy, Ruffle said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 25, 2014

Josh Gordon
State political editor for The Age.

People in positions of responsibility in churches, schools, sporting clubs, youth clubs or the government who fail to report potential paedophiles to the police will face up to five years in prison.
New laws being introduced to Parliament on Tuesday will also make it an offence, carrying a maximum three-year jail term, for a person who fails to provide relevant information to police if they know or believe a child has been sexually abused.

But under the tough new laws, which stem from the Victorian Parliament’s Betrayal of Trust report on child sexual abuse, priests will be shielded if information comes to light during confession.

Premier Denis Napthine said the new laws would make it clear that people who know or believe that a child has been sexually abused cannot stay silent.

“This sends a clear, unambiguous message to the Victorian community: if you are aware of child sexual abuse you must speak up, you must report it to the police,” Dr Napthine said. “The era of cover up and silence is over.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

By Martin Naylor

THE harrowing words of the victims of paedophile priest Francis Paul Cullen were heard for the first time as he was jailed for 15 years for the sexual abuse of seven children.

“You used to say when you joined the priesthood you had a calling from God.

“You were correct, you had a calling, but it was a calling from the Devil.

“I hope you get to meet your maker.”

The words, from a hand-written note by a Derby man, described in court as Victim M of “predatory paedophile” Cullen were read to a silent courtroom at Derby Crown Court.

Penned by a man now aged 58, but who was abused in Mackworth for six years between the ages of eight and 14, the full impact of the statement did not stop there.

“I have never married or had children,” it continued.

“Because of what you did to me I felt I was damaged goods, worthless as a potential father and husband. I was eight years old and you took my innocence away from me. One of the proudest things I have done in my life is to help bring you to justice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

Sentencing Francis Paul Cullen to 15 years at Derby Crown Court, Judge Jonathan Gosling told him:

“Francis Cullen, you are now 85 years old. You were ordained a Catholic priest in 1953.

You were assigned to the parish of Mackworth very shortly afterwards. You soon began sexually abusing boys as young as seven years old.

The abuse continued throughout your ministry, spanning a period of no less than 34 years, in your successive parishes of Mackworth, then Buxton, and finally in Nottingham.
f anyone were ignorant of the irrevocable damage which sexual crimes by an adult – more particularly by a man in your position – how fully they would be informed by hearing the victim impact statements in this case.

You carried on the abuse, undeterred by the gossip and rumour you were beginning to generate.

As early as 1964, you were challenged by the parents of one of your victims, S. That complaint was reported to the diocesan hierarchy. A senior member of the clergy had a meeting with the boy’s parents. Nothing was done to remove you from the parish.

You went on to commit, in the same parish, the most serious forms of abuse against your principal victim, M.

You were able to continue getting away with your crimes for two reasons. First, because of the position you held. In the years that you practised in the Catholic ministry, devout parishioners revered the priest, and trusted him without question.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 25 March 2014

Victorians who fail to report suspected child sexual abuse and workers who cover it up will face jail.

The premier, Denis Napthine, declared the era of cover-up and silence over. “Every adult in Victoria who is aware of child sexual abuse must report it to police,” he said.

“No more cover-ups, no more hiding, no more sweeping these things under the carpet, no more shifting alleged perpetrators from one part of an organisation to another.”

Under the new laws, adults who fail to report suspected child sexual abuse will face up to three years’ jail.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

(Putting together Chapter 2, this sidebar produced itself)

For a time in 1961 every day after school I ran in the house panting straight to the TV, not wanting to miss a second of Johnny Carson. I had such a crush at age twelve on the comedian, it was more than a crush, it was an obsession. One afternoon my dad was home from work for some reason when I ran in the door, and he stared in awe as I gazed in adoration at the TV set. “Every day after school she does this?” he asked, and my mom nodded. She was as shocked seeing it then again as my dad was seeing it for the first time. They stared at me, and I was aroused.

The other day I still wondered why I had such an extreme crush on Johnny Carson when I was so young, so I took a moment to track down pictures from the time he was doing Who Do You Trust 1956-63, and I GOt ChILLs when I saw him and compared pictures of the two men.

My perp priest Father Thomas Barry Horne and Johnny Carson looked almost exactly alike. Now decades later I realized, that resemblance must have been one of my dad’s first clues that the priest molesting his two little girls in the early 1950s might have an effect on us as we got older after all. See for yourself how much Carson looked like Horne-y in the pics below.

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AUSTRALIA
Whitsunday Times

Owen Jacques 25th Mar 2014

UNDER questioning by the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell could not avoid being defensive.

He was quizzed on the rules of the church’s own “Towards Healing” program, a project designed to right the wrongs perpetrated by predators within the clergy.

Towards Healing was nothing but a pleasant-sounding title for John Ellis.

His years of abuse as a teenager left scars open for decades.

After a lifetime of denial, his brave confrontation with the church was rewarded with a tersely-worded letter saying it would not believe his story.

There would be no help, no support and no apology.

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Mar 24, 2014

It’s not surprising that long-time victims’ advocates have been less than blown away by the naming of eight members to the new papal commission on sexual abuse in the church. Whatever progress has been made in resolving the biggest crisis in Catholicism since the Reformation, there remains much work to do.

Here’s how Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi described the commission’s assignment:

Certain that the Church has a critical role to play in this field, and looking to the future without forgetting the past, the Commission will take a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection, including: education regarding the exploitation of children; discipline of offenders; civil and canonical duties and responsibilities; and the development of best practices as they have emerged in society at large.

I would suggest to Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the big dog on the commission, that the key item on this list is “civil and canonical duties and responsibilities.” In the U.S.and many other places around the world, there’s been plenty of attention to education and the discipline of abusers, to say nothing of symbolic acts of ecclesiastical apology. What’s needed are binding and enforceable legal procedures.

In the Middle Ages, church leaders emphasized the need to teach verbo et exemplo – not only by word but also by example. Just last week, a judge had to order the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to turn over documents related to its priests credibly accused of child abuse. The archdiocese had argued that it didn’t have to do so because they involved constitutionally protected ”internal policies of the Roman Catholic Church,” but the judge said it didn’t have a legal leg to stand on.

Bogus and hardball legal tactics do not constitute “best practices.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Cardinal George Pell ‘more likely to admit mistakes’ in wake of royal commission, child sex abuse hearing told

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MARCH 25, 2014

CARDINAL George Pell was more likely to admit he had made mistakes as a result of the work of the royal commission into child sex abuse and the publicity surrounding it, his right-hand man said today.

Monsignor John Usher, who has been chancellor of the Sydney Archdiocese since 2005, said he had noticed that the Cardinal’s attitude had changed “considerably”.

“What changes have you seen in Cardinal Pell’s attitude?” commission chair Justice Peter McClellan asked.

Monsignor Usher: “To admit he made mistakes.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 03/24/2014

Prosecutors have charged the former pastor of Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood with an additional count of criminal sexual conduct.

Mark Andrew Huberty, 43, was charged Friday with fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a gross misdemeanor. A Nov. 19 charge of felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct stands.

The updated criminal complaint contains the same description of alleged events, and concerns the same alleged adult victim, with two changes:

During a visit to the woman’s home Jan. 7, 2013, Huberty fondled her buttocks “without the victim’s consent,” the complaint said. On other occasions, the woman “agreed” to touch the priest sexually, the complaint said.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Fiscalía cierra investigación contra sacerdote John O’Reilly y anuncia acusación por abusos sexuales

[Summary: The investigation of priest John O’Reilly has been completed the prosecutor has prepared an indictment alleging that the priest abused two school children at Cumbres de Las Condes. The defense said the prosecution has not evidence to charge O’Reilly.]

La Fiscalía Oriente comunicó el cierre de la investigación en contra del sacerdote John O’Reilly, y anunció que prepara la acusación por los abusos sexuales que el cura habría cometido en contra de dos menores del colegio Cumbres de Las Condes.

La defensa aseguró el Ministerio Público no posee pruebas para inculpar al religioso y pese a ello, intentarán derribar la presunción de inocencia.

Y fue la defensa del cura John O’Reilly -encabezada por el abogado Luis Hermosilla-, que solicitó al Ministerio Público que cerrara la investigación en torno a los supuesto abusos que el acusado habría cometido en contra de dos menores del colegio Cumbres de Las Condes.

Solicitud que hoy la Fiscalía de Las Condes realizó comunicando el cierre de las diligencias ante el Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago, luego que culminara el último plazo otorgado correspondiente a 50 días.

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ROME
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 24, 2014

Pope Francis on Saturday named eight people with reputations as reformers in the fight against child sexual abuse as members of a new “Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors,” a line-up that includes German Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, who’s long been on the front lines of the church’s recovery efforts.

Born in the Bavarian city of Regensburg, more or less the hometown of Pope Benedict XVI, Zollner serves as the academic vice-rector of the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome and head of its Institute of Psychology. He holds degrees in philosophy and theology, and was licensed as a psychologist and psychotherapist in 2004.

In 2010 and 2011 he served as a member of the scientific working group of the “Round Table on Child Abuse” created by Germany’s federal government. Zollner has studied the church’s rocky history on the abuse issue at length, publishing the 2010 book, “The Church and Pedophilia – An Open Wound: A Psychological and Pastoral Approach along with fellow Jesuit Fr. Giovanni Cucci.”

In 2012, Zollner was chair of the organizing committee for a major international summit on the sex abuse crisis held at the Gregorian, and co-sponsored by several Vatican departments. Among other things, that summit marked the debut of a “Center for Child Protection” and an e-learning curriculum for church practitioners, intended to distill “best practices” in preventing abuse, detecting it when it occurs, responding to it in terms of civil and canon law, and reaching out to victims.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

Providence Diocese says clergy-victim group’s allegations against Smithfield priest unfounded

MARK REYNOLDS
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE — A news conference given Monday by members of a victims group prompted the Diocese of Providence to publicly declare that a diocesan investigation had cleared a Smithfield pastor and that the allegation against him “was deemed to lack any credibility.”

The priest, whom the diocese named, “is an exemplary pastor and continues to enjoy the total confidence and support of the Diocese of Providence,” says the statement issued late Monday afternoon.

The statement says allegations against the priest were reported to state police and “carefully investigated” by the Diocesan Review Board.

Hours before, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) had called on Bishop Thomas J. Tobin to give a full explanation of allegations that the diocese had related to the Rhode Island State Police in an April 2012 letter.

SNAP’s founder and president, Barbara Blaine, who has traveled from Chicago to visit New England, handed out copies of that letter, which the organization had printed from the website of Channel 10.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014

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

A Dayton pastor has failed in his bid to persuade an Iowa judge to avoid jailing a child molester. We’re glad the pastor lost and think he should be ashamed for his effort.

The pastor wrote to a Des Moines judge who was handing Ryan McKelvey’s child molestation case. He asked that McKelvey’s sentence be suspended so he could move back to Ohio. The pastor is apparently close to McKelvey’s father.

[Des Moines Register]

Kids are safest when predators are imprisoned. During and after a molester’s incarceration, pastors can and should provide support. But they should not intervene in judicial proceedings and seek special favors for their congregants or colleagues, especially special favors that leave children at risk for being sexually assaulted.

No matter what the relationship, it is wrong to ask that an admitted sexual predator be given special treatment. He belongs in prison where he has no chance to hurt another child. It is especially wrong for the pastor of a church to make a request like this. His concern should be the safety of children, not the comfort of a predator.

The pastor should apologize for his irresponsible behavior.

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GERMANY
IOL (South Africa)

March 24 2014
By SAPA

Berlin – Germany’s Roman Catholic Church on Monday launched a new study into sexual abuse by clergy after a first attempt involving criminologists ended in acrimony last year.

The probe will be carried out by four research institutes, the German Bishops’ Conference said, with the aim of shedding light on a scandal that has shaken the Church to its foundations.

The Conference’s commissioner for investigating abuse cases, the bishop of the western city of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, said the study sought “clarity and transparency about this dark side of our Church”.

He told reporters that the attempt to understand the prevalence of sexual abuse of youths by clergy was “for the sake of the victims but also in order to see the mistakes for ourselves and do everything we can to ensure they are not repeated.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014

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

An Asheville Baptist church is behind reports of “suspicious activity” directed at teenage girls. SNAP calls on church officials to use common sense and better train their volunteers on how to interact with kids.

[Citizen Times]

As part of an effort to boost church attendance, several “well dressed men” tried to lure young girls to their cars. Most parents in America teach their children to never get into a car with a stranger, so to have a church group attempt to get congregants by baiting minors to approach strange cars is appalling.

The pastor, Rev. Keith Shelton of Gospel Baptist Church, said they would “review their policies” on interacting with children, but that’s too little too late. Church officials should apologize to the community, post clear guidelines on such “outreach” on their website and harshly discipline any church employees or members who do this in the future.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

When confronted with tough questions about why they endanger kids and protect predators, many Catholic officials often sadly follow a predictable pattern. First, they blame their underlings. And if that doesn’t work, they blame their superiors.

Cardinal George Pell did both today.

First, he blamed John Davoren, his own Professional Standards Director, as “a muddler” who “wasn’t logical.”

[The Guardian]

Then he “accused the Vatican of downplaying” the abuse crisis. (according to the AP)

[Huffington Post]

This is pure posturing. It’s a self-serving way for Pell to try and shift the focus off of his irresponsible, mean-spirited mishandling of clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

This finger pointing at others goes right to the top. Just days ago, the Pope himself tried – in a clumsy and unconvincing way – to blame the media for the church’s on-going abuse and cover up scandal.

Maybe someday, we’ll hear a Catholic official say “We are still ignoring and mistreating victims, shielding and moving predators, and it’s not the fault of police, prosecutors, journalists, whistleblowers or anti-Catholic bigots.” But over the past quarter century, we’ve heard almost nothing like this. And we believe that if officials can’t honestly name a crisis and who’s causing it, they sure can’t honestly fix it.

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GERMANY
GMA News (Philippines)

March 25, 2014

BERLIN – Germany’s Roman Catholic Church on Monday launched a new study into sexual abuse by clergy after a first attempt involving criminologists ended in acrimony last year.

The probe will be carried out by four research institutes, the German Bishops’ Conference said, with the aim of shedding light on a scandal that has shaken the Church to its foundations.

The Conference’s commissioner for investigating abuse cases, the bishop of the western city of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, said the study sought “clarity and transparency about this dark side of our Church”.

He told reporters that the attempt to understand the prevalence of sexual abuse of youths by clergy was “for the sake of the victims but also in order to see the mistakes for ourselves and do everything we can to ensure they are not repeated.”

The head of the research consortium, Harald Dressing, said the report would take three and a half years to complete and was budgeted at about one million euros ($1.4 million).

He said the group aimed to learn whether “specific structures and dynamics” within the Church had fostered sexual abuse.

Dressing added that abuse victims would serve as advisors to the probe, from the development of the inquiry methods to the interpretation of the findings.

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UNITED STATES
Crisis Magazine

MARCH 24, 2014

by Anne Hendershott

If it is true, as novelist Don DeLillo once wrote, “The future belongs to crowds,” then the future of the Catholic Church might once have belonged to activist groups critical of the Church, like Boston-bred Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), and the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). With savvy leaders who have been able to manipulate a media that is desperate for sensational stories of priestly misconduct, these organizations continue to stage well-publicized demonstrations and protests throughout the country in order to demand changes in the Church. But, the question remains, does anyone—beyond the media—take them seriously any more?

In their most recent attempt to humiliate Church leaders, Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP teamed with a few local members of the Bridgeport, CT chapter of VOTF to organize a protest—replete with the same professionally printed signs they have used for more than a decade—outside the offices of Bishop Frank Caggiano, the new Bishop of the Bridgeport Diocese. Receiving front page coverage—replete with photos of a handful of protestors holding the now-faded protest signs—in the Connecticut Post on Thursday, March 20, 2014, the headline blared, “Victims Groups Demand Investigation Into Priests.” It is difficult to take them seriously.

But, we must take them seriously because these groups continue to enlist the media as partners in persuading others that the Church is a site of secrecy and deviance. Working cooperatively with an eager media ever hungry for scandal—even if the cases occurred several decades ago—these groups are determined to continue to denigrate Church leaders who have done everything they possibly can to ensure that the clergy abuse of the past can never happen again.

The most recent target of the dissident groups is Bridgeport’s Bishop Caggiano, who in a spirit of reconciliation and good will just a month before, offered to begin a conversation with the local chapter of VOTF. At the time he announced his intention to meet with the group last month, the Bishop was heralded as a courageous visionary of the Church. The Connecticut Post published a laudatory article on February 12, 2014, praising what the reporter called his “unprecedented” decision to meet with members of VOTF. Decrying Bishop William Lori’s decision to bar VOTF from meeting in diocesan churches, the Connecticut Post quoted Jamie Dance, a member of VOTF, complaining that Bishop Lori “was secretive … [he] never answered a letter or a phone call … so it was a rather dramatic turn when we found a welcoming bishop in Frank Caggiano…. It’s practically historic.”

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IOWA
WHO

A former metro youth pastor was sentenced Monday morning for sexual abuse.

Twenty-seven-year old Ryan McKelvey asked the judge for a suspended sentence and apologized to his victims.

“I hate what I did, I hate the situations that I was in, I hate how I used pain and hard times to rationalize and justify my actions,” McKelvey told the judge.

Mckelvey was found guilty of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by a counselor.

Police say McKelvey had inappropriate sexual relations with two teenage girls during his time as a youth pastor at Heritage Assembly of God Church in Des Moines.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

A former Des Moines youth pastor who pleaded guilty to sex abuse was sentenced to 15 years in prison this morning, despite his emotional pleas for the judge to suspend his sentence.

Polk County District Court Judge Karen Romano gave Ryan Matthew McKelvey, 27, the sentence this morning after telling him that she believed he was a “predator” who used his status in a Des Moines church to abuse two teenage females.

McKelvey was a youth pastor at the Heritage Assembly Church, 5051 N.E. Fifth St., until he lost his job sometime last summer. Church leaders had become aware that McKelvey had violated church policy by being alone with female juveniles, according to a statement from the church last year.

In August, a 16-year-old girl reported to police that she’d kissed McKelvey and that he made her touch his genitals, according to court papers. Through their investigation, police found another teenage female who also reported abuse.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014

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

We’re glad McKelvey is going to prison. Now the focus shifts to his church colleagues. They must take aggressive steps to find and help others who may have been hurt by this predator. And they must turn over to law enforcement the names of any current or former church staff or members who may have seen or suspected or concealed McKelvey’s crimes.

[Des Moines Register]

It’s irresponsible for church officials to give a minister access to kids and then do little or nothing when he’s caught violating youngsters. They must taken proven and public steps to seek out others who may be struggling in shame, silence and self blame.

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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014

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

Today, we are disclosing – for the first time in the Seattle area, we believe – the names of three credibly accused predator priests who worked in this archdiocese.

One was deemed “unsuitable for the priesthood” by a church abuse panel. A second admits fathering four kids, visiting prostitutes and exploiting 7 Alaskan village women. A third was “outed” by church officials and was transferred often throughout five states.

Two of them still live in Washington (Seattle & Spokane) and none have been defrocked.

We’re most worried about Fr. Harold Francis Quigg. A decade ago, a church panel deemed him “unsuitable for the priesthood” because of credible allegations of his “egregious” sexual abuse of a then-17 year old in Washington. But for a decade, Seattle archdiocesan officials kept the accusations against Fr. Quigg hidden from the public and let him stay among unsuspecting parishioners.

It’s very possible that Fr. Quigg molested another child last night, last month, or last year, enabled by the callous secrecy of Archbishop Peter Sartain and his top aides. (We all know most victims speak up decades after they’re assaulted.) How will the archbishop and his top aides explain their irresponsible actions to their flock if this has happened?

A decade is a long time to give a predator to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and keep molesting.

Seattle church officials rationalize this reckless and callous and deceitful behavior in a curiously legalistic, hair-splitting way. They claim that the time of Fr. Quigg’s offenses, church rules said that 16 year olds were considered adults. (The ‘age of consent’ has since been raised to age 18.)

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AUSTRALIA
Gazzetta del Sud

Sydney, March 24 – A Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday questioned the archbishop of Sydney and newly appointed Vatican finance minister, Cardinal George Pell, about his handling of the case of a former choirboy who tried to sue the Catholic Church after reporting he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a child. Pell, who on February 25 was appointed prefect of Pope Francis’ newly created Economy Secretariat, told the commission that until the 1990s, the Church was skeptical of complaints of abuse and gave accused molesters “the benefit of the doubt”. According to legal experts, Pell saved the Catholic Church millions of dollars in potential damages with his handling of Ellis, who charged he was sexually abused by the late Father Aidan Duggan from 1974 to 1979. Ellis lost his case in 2007, when an Australian court accepted the Vatican’s argument that the Catholic Church is not liable for damages because it does not exist as a legal entity.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A paedophile priest who abused children for more than 30 years had a calling that came “from the devil”, one of his victim’s said.

Francis Paul Cullen was jailed for 15 years for abusing five boys and two girls during his Catholic priesthood in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Derby Crown Court heard his victims struggled to deal with what happened and one tried to take their own life.

The court heard Cullen abused the youngsters at home and in his caravan.

Cullen, 85, then went on the run in 1991 and evaded justice for 20 years, before he was caught living on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Radio Vatikan

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz gibt erneut eine Erforschung von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Kleriker in Auftrag. Bei einer Pressekonferenz in Bonn stellte der Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, das Projekt vor. Der Auftrag geht wie angekündigt an einen interdisziplinären Forschungsverbund, dem unter anderem Mediziner, Psychiater, Sozialwissenschaftkler und Kriminologen angehören, man wolle Sachverstand aus den verschiedensten Bereichen, so Bischof Ackermann. Geleitet wird das Projekt von Harald Dreßling vom Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim als Koordinator. Drei wesenliche Punkte wolle man erreichen, so Bischof Ackermann:

„Erstens geht es uns um eine Erhebung quantitativer Daten zur Auftretenshäufigkeit und zum Umgang mit sexuellen Missbrauchshandlungen an Minderjährigen im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Es soll zweitens neben der quantitativen auch eine qualitative Analyse institutioneller Einflüsse im Sinne einer Täter-Opfer-Institutionen-Dynamik geben, das heißt wir wollen eine vertiefte Einsicht in das Vorgehen der Täter und über das Verhalten von Kirchenverantwortlichen in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten erhalten. Und schließlich soll es drittens eine Zusammenführung bereits vorliegender nationaler und internationaler empirischer Befunde und Studienergebnisse mit den in unserem Projekt gewonnenen Erkenntnissen geben. Es gibt ja eine Reihe von Ergebnissen, die schon da sind, und ich glaube, dass es interessant ist, wenn man das miteinander vergleichen kann.“

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GERMANY
Independent Record

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Roman Catholic Church says it has set up a new research project to investigate sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

Bishop Stephan Ackermann said Monday an interdisciplinary group from different German universities would try to bring more transparency into the issue for both the victims and the public.

The group will collect and analyze data from past decades about the frequency of sexual abuse. The study, being conducted over the next 3 ½ years, will also focus on how church officials dealt with abuse accusations. It is part of an effort to address the international scandal triggered by revelations of abuse in Germany in 2010.

An earlier investigation into the abuse was called off by the church in 2013 over disagreements with the institute that led the study.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH)– The Catholic Church in Connecticut is headed for a show-down in the State Supreme Court over when victims of priest sex abuse in the past can report their crimes.

At the center of this case is the church’s legal challenge to a state law, which allows victims to report the crimes up to 30 years after their 18th birthday.

Two women, who say they were child victims of sex abuse by priests, say Church resources should not be spent trying to overturn this law.

News 8 has learned that within the next six weeks, the State’s highest court will hear the appeal of the first civil case ever tried against the Archdiocese of Hartford for damages due to sexual abuse by a priest.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) Media headlines across the globe carry the news that Pope Francis has instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors whose task will be to advise the Holy Father on ways to prevent abuse and provide pastoral care for victims and their families.

One of the members of the commission is Hans Zollner, vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Chair of the Centre for Child Protection at the University’s Institute of Psychology.

He spoke with Vatican Radio’s Mario Galgano about the objectives of this commission.

The Pope has made it clear that this is an absolute priority for him, that we continue the line that was established by Benedict XVI, that this is something very important for the life of the church and that we must in an unwavering effort put victims first and we as a Church have to really tackle the issue on an international level. So it has been made clear by the establishment of such a Commission in the Vatican, that the Church leadership here is really willing to work on this in a mid and long term effort because such a commission certainly will have the goal to promote the safeguarding of children, but this is not something that can be done in some months or a few years, this is certainly something that will have to be seen in a long-term perspective.

So, the Pope is willing to do this. He has listened to cardinals, bishops and experts in the field, and has decided to go forward. He has decided to appoint a number of people who have a certain expertise in the field that is quite different among them; there are people from the political field like the former ambassador and former prime minister of Poland Shuckocha, there is a canon lawyer, there are psychiatrists and psychotherapists, and most importantly there is Marie Collins, herself a victim of child sexual abuse by a priest when she was 14 years old. In 2012, when held the symposium on child sexual abuse in the Church here at the Gregorian she told her story of abuse and victimization to 110 bishops and 35 general superiors. So this is a clear sign that the victim’s voices will be heard and they will have their say in this Commission.

Q: What are the goals of this Commission exactly? Only to erect new Church laws or will also be investigating pedophile priests?

A: I don’t think either of those things will be within the scope of the commission. I personally do not think the commission will have any legislative power, I think there are Church offices here in Rome that are competent for this. What the c probably will do is to look into the legislation of the Church, the Canon Law and will try to find out whether this is effective or not and then recommend to the Holy See if there is something to change and what to change. But certainly the Commission itself will not have that power. Secondly I believe the Commission won’t be able to look much into the past, I believe it is meant to be pro-active in work of prevention. The scope of the Commission as I read it, and if you read the statement published, it is very clear that in the first place it is mentioned that education and formation, so I believe that in the Commission’s area there will be the effort to promote sensitivity, to promote awareness around the3 globe for issues that are connected with abuse and information programmes for seminarians, for theologians, for parish workers, for priests, for teachers in catholic schools. I have just talked to Poland and probably the only institution in Poland that does anything in regard to systematic formation programmes for teachers, is not the State, but it’s the Catholic Church, and the same would be true for many other areas in the world. So what the Commission certainly will do is to connect different areas and different sectors in the Church where you have a lot of best practices already put in place but for strange reasons we don’t communicate much between one place to the other, one institution and the other, so I hope that this Commission can also facilitate that exchange of information and that exchange of policy and therefore I believe we can do a great job with this Commission in terms of opening those communication channels.

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AUSTRALIA
Huffington Post

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s new No. 3 has accused Holy See officials of downplaying the clerical sex abuse scandal in the 1990s, saying they were generally skeptical of victims and often considered them “enemies of the church.”

Cardinal George Pell made the comments Monday testifying before Australia’s federal inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse in state and religious institutions. Next week he takes up his new job as prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat of the Economy, Pope Francis’ new finance ministry.

Pell said the Australian church by 1995 was far ahead of the Vatican in dealing with abuse: “The attitude of some people in the Vatican was that if accusations were being made against priests, they were made exclusively or at least predominantly by enemies of the church to make trouble.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

[Summary: Federal government Commissioner Johannes Wilhelm Rorig said the Catholic Church has confirmed a strong commitment to prevention of child sexual about with the pope’s new child protection commission and the German bishops new study of sexual abuse in the church.]

Papst Franziskus hat eine Kinderschutzkommission eingesetzt, die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz will den sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche wissenschaftlich erforschen. Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung lobt dieses Engagement.

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, hat der katholischen Kirche ein großes Engagement bei der Präventionsarbeit im Bereich Missbrauch bescheinigt. So sei die Einsetzung einer Kinderschutzkommission durch Papst Franziskus ein wichtiges Signal, sagte Rörig am Montag dem ARD-Morgenmagazin. Er hoffe, dass es vor allem bei denjenigen positiv aufgenommen werde, die sich bislang beim Schutz von Minderjährigen in ihren Einrichtungen eher zurückhaltend gezeigt hätten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
EANN

[Summary: The German Bishops’ Conference has begun a new study on sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons and male member of religious orders within the sphere of the bishops conference. Bishop Stephan Ackermann said he hopes to see some good data collection of instances of sexual abuse]

Interdisziplinäres Forschungskonsortium führt Studie zum Thema „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen“ durch

[Bonn] Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz hat heute in Bonn das interdisziplinäre Forschungsverbundprojekt „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“ vorgestellt. Dabei konnte Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann (Trier), der Beauftragte der Bischofskonferenz für Fragen sexuellen Missbrauchs, das Forschungskonsortium präsentieren.

Das Forschungskonsortium wird von Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing vom Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim als Verbundkoordinator geleitet. Neben dem Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit Mannheim (Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Salize) sind das Kriminologische Institut der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dieter Dölling, Prof. Dr. Dieter Hermann), das Institut für Gerontologie der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Kruse, Prof. Dr. Eric Schmitt) und der Lehrstuhl für Kriminologie der Universität Gießen (Prof. Dr. Britta Bannenberg) Mitglieder des Forschungskonsortiums.

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BRASIL
Correio de Uberlandia

[Summary: A priest was taken to the Araguari precint by military police for suspected abuse and grooming a minor. According to reports, the suspected last Friday offtered R$ 20,00 to a 12-year-old boy in exchange for sex. The act was no consummated and the boy told his mother who triggered the investigation The incident allegedly happened in the Independence neighborhood.]

Um padre foi conduzido à delegacia de Araguari pela Polícia Militar (PM) suspeito de abuso e aliciamento de menor no bairro Independência. Segundo informações, na última sexta-feira (21), o suspeito ofereceu R$ 20,00 a um menino, de 12 anos, em troca de sexo. O ato não foi consumado e o menor contou para a mãe que acionou a polícia.

O padre é pároco na Paróquia São Judas Tadeu e já responde inquérito sobre a mesma acusação.

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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims challenge archbishop on three priests
All are “credibly accused” child molesters, they say
None of them have been exposed before in Seattle
Two of them still live in the state; one is deceased
One fathered four kids with Alaskan native women
Another was deemed “unsuitable for the priesthood”
But church officials tell no one about him, group charges
SNAP: “Archbishop should come clean and post all predators’ names”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose – for the first time in the Seattle area – the names of three credibly accused predator priests who worked in the Seattle Catholic archdiocese, including

–one who was deemed “unsuitable for the priesthood” by a church abuse panel,
–one who admits fathering four kids, visiting prostitutes and exploiting 7 Alaskan village women, and
–a third who was “outed” by church officials & was transferred often throughout five states.

Two of them still live in Washington (Seattle & Spokane) and none have been defrocked.

The group will also prod Seattle’s archbishop to

–explain why he’s kept silent about the three alleged predators, and
–permanently post on his church websites the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of ALL the child molesting clerics who have worked in the Seattle archdiocese.

WHEN
Monday, March 24 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Seattle Catholic archdiocesan headquarters (“chancery”) 710 9th Ave (corner of Cherry St.) in downtown Seattle

WHO
Three-four members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a Missouri woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director

WHY
SNAP is worried about three credibly accused predator priests who worked in the Seattle archdiocese but have not been locally identified as alleged molesters. Two of them are alive.

1) In 2004, a Seattle archdiocesan abuse panel found Fr. Harold Francis Quigg “unsuitable for the priesthood” because of credible allegations of his “egregious” sexual abuse of a then-17 year old in Washington. But for a decade, Seattle archdiocesan officials kept the accusations against Fr. Quigg hidden from the public and let him stay among unsuspecting parishioners.

Their rationalization at the time of his offense was, church rules said that 16 year olds were considered adults. (The ‘age of consent’ has since been raised to age 18.) But the abuse panel said it “would have found that there was sufficient evidence to support the allegation that this priest was involved in the sexual abuse of a minor if the current age of consent law (18 years old) was in place at that time of this event.”

(Copies of the church report will be provided.” Archdiocesan chancellor Dennis O’Leary is familiar with the case. Members of the abuse panel include Lucy Berliner (of the Harborview Center), Joan Cole Duffell (of the Seattle-based Committee for Children), Deacon Michael Riggio (of the Catholic Seafarer’s Center), Mary Ellen Stone, and Fr. Michael Tyrrell.

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GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014

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

The Archdiocese of Atlanta is spending millions on renovating clergy housing. We believe this excessive spending could have been used for better purposes.

[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

It is not uncommon for Catholic bishops to lavishly spend money on extravagant housing. Newark Archbishop John Myers is building himself an opulent home. This week, bishops in Germany will reportedly disclose the fate of the “Bishop of Bling” who is spending a fortune on his home too.

We believe this money can be better spent on helping to better protect kids from predator priests.

While we believe Pope Francis has a lot of ground to cover when it comes to the clergy sex abuse scandal, he is right when he criticizes his fellow Catholic officials for living extravagantly.

Remember these outrageous purchases the next time you hear bishops’ claiming that they don’t have the funds to compensate deeply sounded and still suffering clergy sex abuse victims.

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Mark Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Cathedral of Christ the King in Buckhead hopes to begin renovations next month on a newly acquired rectory for its parish priests at a cost, including purchase of the property, of $2.2 million.

The residence once housed Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who heads the Archdiocese of Atlanta, but he recently moved into a new, 6,196-square-foot home on Habersham Road in Buckhead. The archdiocese built that home at an additional cost of $2.2 million.

The money for these expenditures came from a $15 million bequest from Joseph Mitchell, nephew “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell. How that cash was used has touched off debate within the parish and archdiocese.

Some parishioners think Joseph Mitchell’s wealth should have been used for schools and the poor – that clergy leadership needed to follow the example of Pope Francis, who’s made international headlines with his admonitions to Catholics to live simpler, more frugal lives.

Gregory and the rector, Rev. Monsignor Frank McNamee, said the expenditures were necessary for their living arrangements. The new home, said Gregory, also allows him to “smell like the flock” – to have a place where he can more easily mingle with church members.

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GEORGIA
Talking Points Memo

IGOR BOBIC – MARCH 24, 2014

An archdiocese in the suburbs of Atlanta has sparked debate amongst its parishioners over the purchases of two residences valued at $2.2 million each, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Cathedral of Christ the King in Buckhead recently acquired a rectory for its parish priests which it hopes to renovate next month. That residence once housed Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who has moved into a new, 6,196-square-foot mansion nearby. A $15 million bequest from Joseph Mitchell, the nephew of “Gone With the Wind” author and Pulitzer Prize winner Margaret Mitchell, was used to finance both homes.

According to the Journal-Constitution, some parishioners think the archdiocese should have followed the example of Pope Francis, who has urged priests to avoid an extravagant lifestyle. They say Mitchell’s wealth would have been better spent on schools and the poor.

But Archbishop Gregory and Rev. Monsignor Frank McNamee, the rector, explained that the expenditures were necessary for their living arrangements. Gregory believes the new $2.2 million mansion will allow him to “smell like the flock,” as he put it, and provide a space where he can host church goers.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 25, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

The federal government should set up an independent body to assess what damages should be paid to child sex abuse victims and priests should be insured against being sued for sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell has told the royal commission on child sexual abuse.

The Church’s Towards Healing protocol for dealing with sex abuse victims failed to meet the church’s moral responsibility towards victims, and so did the Melbourne Response he set up, Cardinal Pell admitted under questioning from the royal commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan.

The Cardinal expressed concern the church was held to a higher standard of accountability for sex abuse than other institutions or individuals, such as sporting groups and Scouts. He said there were ‘‘exact parallels’’ with sporting groups, rugby league clubs, the Scouts and other institutions.

”We have Cardinal Pell, whose evidence will continue on Wednesday, admitted to multiple failings in handling the case of John Ellis who was a 13-year-old altar boy when Father Aidan Duggan of Bass Hill parish began sexually abusing him. But he said those closest to him – the archdiocesan chancellor, his private secretary and the director of the Office of Professional Standards which handled Towards Healing complaints – erred in saying he was consulted on reparations payments to be made to victims under Towards Healing.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, four women — including a survivor of clerical sex abuse — two Jesuit priests and an Italian lawyer are the first eight members of the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Pope Francis established the commission in December; announcing the first members March 22, the Vatican said they would help define the tasks and competencies of the commission and help identify other potential members.

Cardinal O’Malley is also one of eight members of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on the reform of the Roman Curia and governance of the church. When the child protection commission was announced, Cardinal O’Malley told reporters it would take a pastoral approach to helping victims and preventing abuse, given that much of the Vatican’s attention thus far had been on implementing policies and legal procedures for investigating allegations of abuse and punishing guilty priests.

The cardinal said the commission would look at programs to educate pastoral workers in signs of abuse, identify means of psychological testing and other ways of screening candidates for the priesthood, and make recommendations regarding church officials’ “cooperation with the civil authorities, the reporting of crimes.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 22, 2014

Pope Francis on Saturday announced eight members of a new commission in the Catholic church’s central bureaucracy tasked with advising the pontiff on safeguarding children from sex abuse and working pastorally with abuse victims.

Among the members are Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, four laywomen, one Italian professor, and two priests.

One of the laywomen, Marie Collins, is herself a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. An Irishwoman who has campaigned for more thorough investigation of clergy accused of abuse, Collins struggled for years to bring her own abuser to justice. …

During that summit, Collins detailed her own abuse by a priest at the age of 13 and said there must be “acknowledgement and accountability for the harm and destruction that has been done to the life of victims and their families.”

Collins said then she had decided to report the abuse at the age of 47 to a parish priest, who refused to take her name or even make a report of the accusation. She said she then turned to the archbishop of the Dublin, at the time Cardinal Desmond Connell, with no better results.

“The priest who had sexually assaulted me was protected by his superiors from prosecution,” she said in 2012. “He was left for months in his parish ministry which included mentoring children preparing for confirmation — the safety of those children ignored by his superiors.”

The priest was later convicted, Collins said in 2012, for assaulting another young girl.

Collins’ experience with Connell may raise the question inside the commission of whether it will respond to bishops who do not act when informed of inappropriate conduct by one of their priests.

That question has been raised many times in the U.S., where several bishops are accused of mishandling priests accused of abuse. Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., Bishop Robert Finn, for example, was convicted in 2012 of a misdemeanor count of failing to report suspected child abuse in the case of a local priest who had been known to be in possession of lewd images of children.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

NICOLA ANDERSON – UPDATED 24 MARCH 2014

CLERICAL abuse survivor Marie Collins has vowed to use her position on the Vatican commission on child protection to press for bishops to be sanctioned if they fail to implement church rules.

The Dublin mother of one said that she would speak out as she had always done and would not be “overawed” by high-ranking titles when she attends the first meeting of the commission in the Vatican next month.

Ms Collins – who was abused by a chaplain while ill in hospital at the age of 13 back in the 1960s – became aware that she had been appointed to the commission last Friday when she received a call from a high-ranking official in the Vatican.

“It was someone who kicked off the call with: ‘I’m calling on behalf of His holiness’ – I picked myself up off the floor. It was a huge surprise,” Marie, inset, told the Irish Independent.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, Mar 24, 2014

Abuse survivor Marie Collins, who has been appointed to the Vatican’s new Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors, is daunted at the opportunity offered by Pope Francis but also recognises the opportunity offered to her.

Ms Collins was invited to become a member in a phone call from Rome last Friday afternoon. She was “gobsmacked”, she said.

Ms Collins feels it is “a huge responsibility where all abuse survivors are concerned and I don’t want to let them down. But then I just want to get in there and speak up for what I believe to be right. It’s an opportunity not to be missed,” she said last night. She met the new council’s chairman, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, twice when he led an apostolic visitation to Dublin three years ago, following publication of the Murphy report. “I told him exactly what was wrong and what I felt should be done” on the abuse issue, she said.

She attended a Vatican symposium on the matter in Rome two years ago with two other members of the new council, Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, head of psychology at Rome’s Gregorian University, and psychiatrist Baroness Sheila Hollins from the Archdiocese of Westminster. Ms Collins accompanied then Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor when he led the apostolic visitation to Armagh archdiocese in 2011.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Mar. 24, 2014 Distinctly Catholic

This Thursday, President Obama will visit Pope Francis. The pictures alone will set certain conservative hearts on edge and make liberal Catholics swoon. But, will the visit yield more than a photo-op for a president struggling with low poll numbers? Can we expect anything of substance to emerge from the meeting, or at least for some seeds to be planted that might yield a harvest later on?

The visit can be looked at from a variety of angles. The first thing to note is that both men will be fully briefed and, therefore, fully aware that the American bishops who are most aggressively hostile to Obama are also the American bishops who have been most resistant to Pope Francis. Archbishop Chaput famously accused the University of Notre Dame of prostituting its Catholic identity by inviting Obama to give a graduation speech in 2009 and it was also Archbishop Chaput who felt the urge to republish emails complaining about Pope Francis last summer, accompanied by a tepid defense of the new pope. Bishop Morlino of Madison did everything but wear a “Romney/Ryan” button on his miter in 2012, and he recently gave an interview about Pope Francis that was equal parts grudging and condescending towards the pope.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

CARDINAL George Pell says he knew nothing about ‘‘grotesque’’ compensation offers made by the Catholic Church to the victim of a paedophile priest and he blames staff for the aggressive handling of the case.

On his first day before the royal commission into child sexual abuse, Dr Pell said that if former altar boy John Ellis had been paid $100,000 to settle his abuse case it would have been ‘‘an excellent outcome’’.

The church eventually spent $1.5million aggressively defending the 2004 case brought by Mr Ellis, who was sexually abused by Bass Hill priest Father Aidan Duggan in the 1970s, from the ages of 13 to 17.

Dr Pell, the former Archbishop of Sydney, repeatedly denied knowing Mr Ellis had sought $100,000 in compensation, contradicting the evidence previously given to the commission by former key advisers.

He said Professional Standards Office director John Davoren was ‘‘muddled’’ and the former vicar-general and chancellor of the Sydney Archdiocese, Monsignor Brian Rayner, had ‘‘continually got hold of the wrong end of the stick’’.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

Dear Pope Francis, To Know Is Not The Same As To Do

By ROD DREHER • March 24, 2014

Pope Francis has named his top-level panel to deal with the sexual abuse crisis among the Catholic clergy. Excerpt:

Pope Francis on Saturday made his first appointments to a special commission intended to signal the Vatican’s new resolve in tackling the clerical sexual abuse problem, a group that includes an equal number of women and men, more laypeople than clergy and an outspoken Irish activist who was abused by a priest as a child.

In recent months, Francis has been criticized by advocacy groups for abuse victims, especially after an interview in which he strongly defended the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of the sexual abuse crisis. Last month, a United Nations commission issued a stinging report on the church’s handling of abuse cases, and some advocacy groups have considered the pope’s appointments to the commission a telling signal of his commitment to combating the problem.

This is tentatively good news; John Allen is certainly excited by it. But this is a key point:

Abuse victims and their advocates ranged in their reactions from hope to skepticism. They noted that previous panels appointed by bishops to showcase the participation of lay experts on sexual abuse ultimately had no ability to carry out the recommendations they made. …

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group founded in the United States that has now become international, said the panel “perpetuates the self-serving myth that Catholic officials need more information about abuse and cover-ups.” It added: “They don’t. They need courage. They know what’s right” already.

Exactly. That cannot be said often enough.

Still, maybe this time something will change. Here’s something for Pope Francis and his panel to look at: Fr. Carlos Urritigoity, a priest who left the US in disgrace after the then-Bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania, suppressed the corrupt religious order he led, is now rising in power and influence in a Latin American diocese. Here’s the latest from a local Pennsylvania newspaper:

A Roman Catholic priest who was accused of molesting boys in Shohola and Moscow, Pa., has been promoted to the No. 2 position in his diocese in Paraguay.

Former Bishop Joseph Martino of the Diocese of Scranton allowed the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity to transfer to a parish in the South American country of Paraguay after multiple witness statements in several court cases claimed that Urrutigoity routinely slept in bed with and had sex with boys in his care, calling it spiritual guidance.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell disputes evidence of his closest advisers at the inquiry at the royal commission into child sex abuse

CARDINAL George Pell said he was not the kind of person who blamed others — but he was right and his closest advisers were wrong.

The former Sydney Archbishop said three senior members of the church and his private secretary were incorrect on eight occasions when they gave evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission on his involvement and knowledge of the controversial case of former altar boy John Ellis.

His personal secretary Dr Michael Casey, who worked with the Cardinal in Melbourne before moving with him to Sydney in 2001 when Cardinal Pell was appointed archbishop, was in that job until last week.

Counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness SC asked Cardinal Pell: “He would know your arrangements very well, would he not cardinal?”

The Cardinal replied: “Not. He is completely honest and completely reliable but he’s not the archbishop and he knows what he knows and there are some things he didn’t know.”

At times angry, Cardinal Pell accused one of his former right-hand men, Monsignor Brian Rayner, of giving “grotesque” evidence about him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

By Martin Naylor

A FORMER Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused altar boys in Derby has been sentenced to a total of 15 years.

Francis Paul Cullen’s seven victims included four boys when he was the parish priest at Christ the King, in Mackworth, between 1957 and 1974.

Cullen, aged 85, had previously admitted 21 counts of child sex abuse.

Of these, 13 took place when he was in Mackworth. They involved four former altar boys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

By Martin Naylor

VICTIMS of former Derby priest Francis Paul Cullen – due to be sentenced today for child sex offences – have been making their voices heard in court.

The 85-year-old, who was parish priest at Christ the King, in Mackworth, from 1960 to 1978, has pleaded guilty to 21 sexual abuse offences in February.

Four of his victims were altar boys during his time in Derby and he will be sentenced at Derby Crown Court today.

Sarah Knight, prosecuting, has this morning spent more than an hour outlining the case.

After the full details of what Cullen did to his seven victims was given out out in court, Miss Knight read “victim impact statements” from each of them.

One of his Mackworth victims, a man who is now 61, said in his statement: “I can forgive but I can never forget.”

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