ABUSE TRACKER

OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 6

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

A Catholic priest has lost his wrongful dismissal case against his bishop. This outcome helps explain why Catholic officials continue to endanger kids, move predators, and conceal evidence in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

[Bend Bulletin]

Fr. James Radloff lost his complaint with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries in September, which charged that Baker Bishop Liam Cary had engaged in unlawful conduct when he was dismissed. The ruling wasn’t based on the facts. It was based on the “ministerial exception” which essentially says that religious employees can’t take legal action against their church superiors.

So in essence Catholic employees are serfs and their bishops are lords, immune to being scrutinized or second-guessed by secular officials. That means that church workers are largely powerless even when their bishops are corrupt.

And that’s why clergy sex crimes and cover ups keep happening in the church – because bishops continue to have nearly unlimited power to demote, discipline, defrock and denounce their employees, especially those employees who ‘blow the whistle’ on clerics who commit or conceal sexual violence against kids.

The remedy: Anyone who sees, suspects or suffers clergy sex crimes or cover ups should contact police, prosecutors, journalists, and groups like ours, and fight very hard to expose the truth, even if they are denied their day in court. And secular authorities should fight very hard to expose, prosecute and convict church officials who protect predators and endanger kids, even though the legal obstacles they may face are considerable.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

BY DAVID WHITING / STAFF COLUMNIST

Bishop Kevin Vann, dressed in black priest’s clothing and sometimes called the Shepherd of Orange, walks through the Christ Cathedral campus discussing the meaning of Easter.

I can’t help but notice Vann is wearing cowboy boots. Could these be the bishop’s famous Our Lady of Guadalupe boots?

Vann grins. He spent the morning in San Juan Capistrano blessing the annual Portola horseback ride. The bishop who still sees himself as a simple parish priest lifts a pant leg.

Blue, yellow and red stitching appears.

Then Vann does something unexpected. He whips off a boot.

It turns out there are layers of meaning in that leather. …

The bishop also doesn’t shrink away from the molestation scandals. English, Spanish and Vietnamese leaflets sit in the administration building’s lobby detailing the diocese’s pledge, “To do everything possible to help the healing process of the victims of sexual abuse.”

So what’s all this have to do with Easter? As a lapsed Catholic – and it’s impossible not to re-evaluate one’s relationship to the church when talking to someone like Vann – I would suggest everything.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis and the Vatican recently made, and then compounded, a major blunder in Chile that seriously undermines the pope’s own already teetering sex abuse commission and his aimless Family Synod upcoming in several months. The Vatican, and an exhausted pope, are now desperately trying to change the subject to worldwide violent attacks by senseless terrorists, to Francis’ upcoming futile Family Synod and to pointless papal trips— anything but the subject of continuing senseless violent sexual attacks on children by priests too often protected by unaccountable bishops.

It is too late for such papal spin. This mistake will even likely lead to some protests during the pope’s upcoming visit to the USA and UN, as well as undercut some of his influence among US Latino voters for next year’s US Republican presidential candidate, likely Spanish speaker, Jeb Bush. This Bush is Catholic, has a Mexican wife and also has close ties to the neo-con Catholic establishment.

Yes, it is too late for the pope to try to spin past this mistake. By bypassing his own abuse commission as Francis just did, few will now take serious either his own illusory commission’s relevance or his futile Family Synod, that absurdly lacks family participants, especially women, as full participants. This Chilean bishop mistake, and the Vatican’s cowardly confirmation of it, are the last straws for many Catholics, especially parents, as should have been clear by the unprecedented near riot at Barros’ installation, see here .

Clearly, the outcry against Pope Francis’s appointment to Osorno of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, long associated with a notorious child abusing priest, has placed the pope’s already declining credibility, especially concerning his “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse, into further question, even among traditionally adamant papal supporters. This includes the US neo-conservative journal, “First Things”, a prime outlet often of key Catholic neo–cons like George Weigel. Mr. Weigel, who had been close to Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, reportedly has also had unusual access to Pope Francis, both currently as pope as well as when he was cardinal.

A usually supportive advocate of the dominant modern “infallible” papacy, William Doino, Jr., has indicated in First Things, fairly, correctly and pointedly, that the Vatican’s explanation of its Barros mistake is hardly persuasive. See “Pope Francis and Zero Tolerance“, where Doino perceptively criticizes the Vatican, here,

[First Things]

The Pope’s decision to appoint Barros as bishop of Osorno—even as Barros has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, and of being an eyewitness to the abuse—has been a source of consternation, not least among members of Francis’s own anti-abuse Commission, as Doino correctly points out.

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IRELAND
Yahoo! News

The names of five more children who died at the Bethany Home have been added to a memorial stone in Mount Jerome Cemetery.

That brings to 227 the number of children who were discovered to have been buried in unmarked graves in the Harolds Cross cemetery.

The news was announced by Bethany Home survivor and campaigner Derek Leinster, who said that the names were discovered in records.

Protestant home

Located on Dublin’s Orwell Road, the home was for unmarried mothers and was run by an evangelical Protestant group.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 6, 2015

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, davidgclohessy@gmail.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org ), Verne Wagner 218-340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com

Victims blast Crookston bishop
He’s hiding the name of two predators
One is a now-defrocked priest who was convicted of child porn
The other admitted sexual misdeeds & was sent to Twin Cities
But neither were mentioned when diocese released accused priests

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Crookston’s Catholic bishop for ignoring two diocesan priests who are “credibly accused” abusers when he released the names of abusive clerics weeks ago.

In January, Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner acknowledged that six northwestern Minnesota priests have faced “credible” allegations of child sexual abuse or crimes and disclosed their names.

[BishopAccountability.org]

But he neglected to name Fr. Rick Boyd, who was convicted in 1984 of “possessing hundreds of items, including about 20 magazines, plus photos and albums, of teenage boys younger than 18 engaged in sex,” in what one source called “the “largest collection of child pornography uncovered in the upper Midwest.” And he made no mention of Fr. Gerald K. “Jerry” Foley, who admitted to sexual misconduct in the 1970s and 1980s with women in his pastoral care, including one who was ‘as young as 17.’

[Daily Beast]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Yet Boyd worked in ministry until 2003, a year after the so-called “one-strike” policy was adopted by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. And Foley, despite his admitted sexual misconduct, was transferred in 1985 from the Diocese of Crookston to the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, where he was a chaplain at St Joseph Hospital in St Paul until about 2004.

SNAP discovered the Hoeppner’s omission of Boyd last week when a prominent Twin Cities Catholic whistleblower alluded to the case on her blog but did not name Boyd specifically. The whistleblower, Dr. Jennifer Haselberger, worked for the Crookston Diocese from 2006-2008, directing its “Safe Environment Program.” A canon lawyer, she also worked for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Fargo.

On her blog last week, Haselberger wrote of “a situation of which I was a part in 2005 and 2006, and which led to the ex officio dismissal of a priest for crimes involving sexual abuse of a minor.” She says the priest

–“was removed from ministry in 2005 as a result of charges to which he had previously pleaded guilty in civil court,”

–“was, at the time of his removal he was a ‘person of interest’ to the FBI because of an ongoing investigation into his more recent conduct,”

–“was sent to Saint Luke’s Institute (in Maryland) for an evaluation,”

–was deemed “a fairly high risk for reoffending,” and

–was urged to undergo “an extended period of inpatient therapy.”

But Haselberger writes that the cleric rejected that recommendation and “seemingly disappeared.”

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OREGON
Bend Bulletin

By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Published Apr 6, 2015

An employment complaint filed by a former Roman Catholic priest against the Diocese of Baker and Bishop Liam Cary has been dismissed.

James Radloff filed his complaint with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries in September, alleging Bishop Cary and the diocese had engaged in unlawful conduct when he was dismissed from his position with Bend’s St. Francis of Assisi parish in October 2013. Radloff claimed he and Cary had been at odds since months earlier, when he raised concerns over the bishop’s handling of a confession with a teenage boy.

Early last year, Radloff voluntarily left the Roman Catholic Church to start a new church in Bend, the Holy Communion Evangelical Catholic Church, a sect that borrows heavily from the ritual and doctrine of the Roman Catholics.

Radloff’s complaint detailed 29 allegations of mistreatment by Cary and the diocese, with Radloff claiming he was evicted from parish housing on four days’ notice and forbidden from traveling within the diocese, which covers nearly two-thirds of Oregon.

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SLOVAKIA
Celebtricity

Sister Ludovita stabs a 7-year-old schoolboy during R.E. lesson.

The Nun wanted to teach the class about Jesus, when she proceeded to stab the young boy in the arm with a needle. Leaving the whole class and the boy in shock.

Apparently she took the needle out of her handbag and rammed it into the poor boys arm. To show how Jesus suffered, and that the little boy would also suffer if he behaved badly.

The 7-year-old’s mum was horrified.

When Adam got home he had a wound on the back of his hand and when I asked him what had happened he told me the nun had done it. I was completely shocked. I mean, what on earth was she thinking?

And with Easter coming I began to worry about what she would do next – crucify one of the students or hammer a nail into their hands?

The school has responded to the mothers concern.

We strongly disapprove of this sort of teaching method. When I contacted the Sister she told me that the class had been learning about Jesus Christ and personal sin. She added that the children had been invited to voluntarily experience mild pain so they could empathise with the theme.

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CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

Posted Apr. 6, 2015

STOCKTON — Just outside the San Joaquin County Superior Court on Weber Avenue sits the historical Stockton Hotel.

“Have you seen the original ‘All the King’s Men?’ ” Judge Bob McNatt said of the 1949 film that won three Academy Awards. “It was filmed right there (at the hotel).”

For a juror, listening to hours of testimony in a courtroom can get stressful, maybe downright mind-numbing. But McNatt knows how to break up the tension and monotony by occasionally sharing bits of history in his courtroom.

He is known to be quite the trivia buff, just one of his many qualities that will be missed in Department 42 of the Stockton court branch.

McNatt, whose most infamous cases include the child sex abuse civil lawsuits involving then-priests Oliver O’Grady and Michael Kelley, officially retires on June 1. He has, however, already cleared out and technically is on vacation.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

by William Doino Jr.
4 . 6 . 15

he outcry against Pope Francis’s appointment of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, who was long associated with a child abusing priest-to the Diocese of Osorno, has placed the pope’s “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse into question.

As Pope, Francis has taken many decisive actions against sexual abuse. He created a special Vatican Commission to combat it, in all its forms, and soon thereafter met with a group of victims, expressing his pain over their suffering:

I feel the gaze of Jesus, and I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused innocent persons.

Francis has defrocked abusive clergymen, disciplined Catholic prelates believed to have covered up for them, and stripped an abusive Cardinal of all his authority. The Pope has also personally intervened in other abuse cases, ordering investigations and encouraging the public authorities to take strong action against evildoers.

Given these welcome acts, the Pope’s decision to appoint Barros as bishop of Osorno—even as Barros has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, and of being an eyewitness to the abuse—has been a source of consternation, not least among members of Francis’s own anti-abuse Commission.

Barros was a long-time colleague and supporter of Rev. Fernando Karadima, a notorious abuser in Argentina. After Karadima was first accused of sexual abuse, Barros publicly defended his friend and mentor, and reportedly “tried to discredit the victims—even after the Vatican ruled against him [Karadima]” in 2011. The Chilean Bishops Conference subsequently ordered Barros, and three other bishops who had defended Karadima, to apologize.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

KATE CRAWFORD MOSMAN DAILY APRIL 06, 2015

A FORMER Riverview teacher has written a disturbing play about sexual abuse at a Catholic boys’ school.

Playwright Melvyn Morrow of Mosman says the play has proved “tragically timely’’ in the light of the exposure recently of allegations that a former teacher at Riverview abused a boy more than 30 years ago.

Riverview principal Paul Hine contacted about 6500 former students after the allegation emerged, asking them to come forward if they knew of any similar allegations.

Morrow admits some audience members could be outraged by his play, Vice, which challenges assumptions about sexual abuse in schools.

It opens at the King Street Theatre in Newtown on April 21.

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VATICAN CITY
KCEN

(WFAA) VATICAN CITY — Tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square for Easter Mass in a cold, pouring rain Sunday to hear Pope Francis call for an end to global violence and the persecution of Christians by extremist groups.

Francis also expressed support for the Iran nuclear deal reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, saying he hoped it would be “a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world.”

Ominous gray clouds poured rain on crowds that started to gather hours before the pope’s traditional Easter “Urbi et Orbi” — Latin for “To the city and the world” — blessing.

The unseasonably cool weather kept crowds smaller than at previous major events Francis attended in recent months, but the enthusiasm that follows the pope wherever he goes was evident. …

Even those critical of the Vatican had praise for the pope’s message Sunday. Alvaro Romano, 23, a Rome native who was part of a small student group protesting the Vatican’s handling of sex abuse in the church, said the pope’s message of peace resonated with him.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Rockhampton commencing on Tuesday 14 April 2015 at 10:00am AEST.

The public hearing will inquire into the experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

Please note that the audio on the webcast may be frequently cut to protect the identify of people who have been granted a pseudonym in this hearing.

Live streaming times
The public hearing will be streamed live via this website between 10am and 4pm (AEST).

Join us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates.

Please be aware that the content of the public hearings can be distressing for viewers. Visit support services to find services near you, or for immediate support call the Royal Commission on 1800 099 340 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Location
The Rockhampton Court House, Virgil Power Building, 46 East Street, Rockhampton.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975;

2. The responses of:
a. the Sisters of Mercy
b. the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton, and
c. the Queensland state government
to complaints made by former residents of St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol of child sexual abuse by workers, priests and nuns at the Orphanage between 1993 and present.

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OSTERREICH
OOE@orf

[New allegations have been made against the ex-priest at Kremsmunster monastery.]

Gegen den rechtskräftig wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu zwölf Jahren verurteilten Ex-Pater des Stiftes Kremsmünster sind neue Vorwürfe aufgetaucht. Ein mutmaßliches Opfer wirft ihm in der Zeitung „Österreich“ vor, sich in Kärnten an ihm vergangen zu haben.

Die Vorfälle seien in der Anstalt des pädophilen und wegen Mordes verurteilten, mittlerweile verstorbenen Kinderpsychiaters Franz Wurst geschehen, so das Opfer. “Der Pater hat mich im Alter von sechs Jahren in der Anstalt von Dr. Wurst in Klagenfurt sexuell missbraucht.

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ESPANA
Vega Media Press

[A new victim of pedophilia, a new spot on the face of the Spanish Church, a new case of sexual abuse of a minor in the times of “zero tolerance” of Pope Francis. According to the complaint in the police court Cieza (Murcia), Ignacio (fictitious name) suffered “serious and continuous abuse and sexual assault” by the sexton of the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption when he was 12 and was altar boy. Today he is 28, still retains faith, but feels mistreated in his own religious house.]

En la denuncia, a la que ha tenido acceso la web Religion Digital, se cuenta que los abusos y agresiones, que comenzaron en 1999 y continuaron hasta 2003, se cometieron “bajo engaño y posición dominante” del sacristán, que “premiaba o castigaba a los niños, según fueran o no complacientes con sus aberraciones sexuales”.

El abusado detalla algunos de los abusos sexuales que sufrió: “Tocamientos, masturbaciones, eyaculaciones en el cuerpo, rozamientos desnudos, fotografías desnudas, etc, todo ello con el empleo de la fuerza por parte del sacristán”. A cambio, les daba “regalos y dinero” o les ofrecía “puestos de relevancia en el altar e invitaciones a su casa de la playa”.

Un sacristán, FJRP, con mando en plaza, como empleado contratado por la parroquia. Y es que, según relata la denuncia, “era el verdadero administrador de la parroquia, ya que él manejaba la economía de la misma, disponía de los cepillos y dirigía los grupos de laicos”. Mientras tanto, el párroco, AMC, “sólo participaba en los actos litúrgicos, dejando todo el movimiento de la parroquia en manos del sacristán”.

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SLOVAKIA
Irish Mirror

5 April 2015 By Sam Webb

Sister Ludovita had been giving RE classes when she told pupil Adam Celko, 7, to come to the front of the class

An over-zealous nun stabbed a schoolboy in the hand with a needle to show him how Jesus suffered.

Sister Ludovita, 30, had been giving RE classes at a school in the town of Kysucke Nove Mesto in northern Slovakia when she told unsuspecting pupil Adam Celko, 7, to come to the front of the class.

She then took a needle out of her handbag and rammed it into the boy’s hand in front of the horrified class, telling him that this was how Jesus suffered – and he would too if he behaved badly.

The boy’s outraged mum Helena, 30, said: “When Adam got home he had a wound on the back of his hand and when I asked him what had happened he told me the nun had done it.

“I was completely shocked. I mean, what on earth was she thinking?

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Editorial

What a kick in the guts the federal government administered to the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse when it bluntly opposed the establishment of a national redress scheme.

Over months of hearings and in many submissions, survivors and their representatives made clear to the royal commission they strongly supported a national approach as the one most likely to deliver justice, fairness and consistency.

And yet, despite bipartisan support for the establishment of the commission and its terms of reference suggesting all governments accept the need for effective redress, the Abbott government rejected their “ideal” model at the first opportunity.

Perhaps it is looking at examples such as the Irish Residential Institutions Redress Board. At its inception in 2002, the board was expected to deliver €200 million ($282.5 million) to 2000 survivors of abuse of all forms, be half funded by Catholic religious orders and take up to five years. At the start of 2014, 16,000 survivors had received €1.6 billion, mostly from state coffers.

The royal commission’s actuarial modelling estimates that 65,000 Australians might seek redress, but warns it’s impossible to predict numbers with any certainty. It estimates a scheme with an average payment of $65,000 would total $4.3 billion over 10 years, with government paying $1.9 billion.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Daniel Boffey Policy editor

Saturday 4 April 2015

The home secretary, Theresa May, has come under renewed criticism over the independent inquiry into child sex abuse as controversy rages over the issue of survivors being appointed to its advisory panel.

Michael Mansfield QC has lent his name to a campaign to force a U-turn on the proposed membership criteria. At one stage Mansfield was considered as a possible head of the inquiry.

More than 200 survivors, whistleblowers and child protection professionals have expressed dismay at the declaration by the inquiry’s new head, Lowell Goddard, that survivors lack sufficient objectivity to be full quasi-judicial members. In an open letter to May, they point out British law does not bar child abuse victims from acting as judges or jurors on abuse cases. They say stigmatisation of survivors for lacking objectivity, before the inquiry has even started work, could doom the inquiry to failure.

The last inquiry into child sex abuse was scrapped by May following a series of scandals, including links between two chosen heads and those publicly accused of being involved in abuse.

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WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald

BY LISA PEMBERTON
Staff writer
April 5, 2015

The steep decline in the number of monks at Saint Martin’s Abbey isn’t unusual for Roman Catholic monasteries.

“If you take a look at Catholic consecrated life across the United States, many congregations would say their numbers are down,” Owen Cummings of Mount Angel Seminary near Salem, Oregon, said.

Last year, there were 38,275 Catholic priests in the United States, more than 20,000 fewer than in 1965, according the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a Georgetown University-affiliated organization that studies trends in the Catholic Church.

The decline in “religious priests” — those who live in a priestly community such as a monastery — took an even sharper dive, falling to 12,010 from 22,707 in the same time frame.

Meantime, the number of “religious brothers,” which includes unordained monks, dropped to 4,318 from 12,271, according to the center.

Part of the decline in consecrated life stems from rules changed during Vatican II in the early 1960s, Cummings said. The new rules allowed lay people to perform some church duties that previously were exclusive to priests, nuns and monks.

Other theories for the decline include a fall in birth rates, a society more based on consumerism and the church dropping its ban on letting girls help priests during Mass in the early 1980s.

Some believe also it is tied to the sex and child abuse scandals that have rocked the church and led to congregation declines over the past three decades.

It continues to be a difficult situation for the church that has touched Saint Martin’s. Four men sued in 2008, alleging they were abused as boys during the 1950s by Father Leonard Feeney, who died in 1980.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Barbara Vitello

A Roman Catholic priest facing child pornography charges pleaded not guilty Friday, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Clovis Vilchez-Parra, 34, an associate pastor at Mission San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, was charged in February with possession of child pornography and reproduction of child pornography following a joint undercover investigation by the Cook County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Palatine, Bartlett and Chicago police departments. Prosecutors say the task force was investigating individuals searching for and downloading images of child exploitation.

In the wake of Vilchez-Parra’s arrest, Chicago Archdiocese officials removed him from ministry pending the outcome of the case.

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ILLINOIS
Newsburg

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. (AP) — A Catholic priest from suburban Chicago has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges.

Thirty-four-year-old Clovis Vilchez-Parra is an associate pastor at Mission San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights.

He was charged in February with felony possession and reproduction of child pornography
The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1avGZiO ) that he entered the plea Friday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mail on Sunday

63 police inquiries, 2,100 victims… the child abuse dossier that shames Britain after horrific explosion of historic sex cases since Savile

By MARTIN BECKFORD FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

The unprecedented scale of current police investigations into historic child abuse can be revealed for the first time today, as senior officers warn of the challenge of investigating alleged crimes that go back decades.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed that:

* Forces around Britain are carrying out more than 60 major investigations into sex attacks and beatings in schools, children’s homes and churches dating back to the 1950s.

* More than 2,000 people have come forward in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to say they were abused at institutions or by public figures, including prominent politicians.

* A staggering 1,200 of the alleged victims were inmates of just one institution, a northern borstal once visited by the late Home Secretary Leon Brittan and praised for its ‘short, sharp shock’ regime. He himself is now at the centre of a number of abuse claims.

* The first chairman of the troubled Government inquiry into historic abuse has warned of the ‘vast task’ of investigating the spiralling allegations.

The cases are putting police forces – already struggling to deal with 20 per cent budget cuts at the same time as an explosion in online crimes and a heightened terrorism threat – under huge strain as the operations are complex and evidence is difficult to find.

The investigations could expand further when victims give their testimony to the long-delayed public inquiry into historic abuse, which will finally begin in earnest next week as judge Lowell Goddard arrives from New Zealand.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Almost 2,500 bishops a half century ago, acting as a general council, the Catholic Church’s highest authority for almost 2,000 years, confirmed overwhelmingly in 1965 that the Church consists of all Catholics as the “People of God”. All were supposed to be entitled to have some say on important Church matters, as they often did in the earliest Church. Of course, this turned out to be a ruse.

As happened in 1789 with the short sighted French king, bishops and nobles, and the general populace, before the French Revolution, when the Second Vatican Council bishops left town, the Vatican bureaucracy and their carefully selected and elected papal monarchs generally disregarded the will of the People of God. Three years later in 1968, Pope Paul VI even rejected the will of his own birth control commission comprised of the People of God. Robert Blair Kaiser, a former Jesuit seminarian and top reporter for a half century, who just passed away on Holy Thursday, had vividly described this Vatican ruse in his classic book, republished as an e-book, that he made available as a free download as part of his permanent legacy.

Catholics seeking essential reforms now appear to have three choices: (1) accept this Synod, (2) leave the Church or (3) stay, resist and join the Vatican Revolution that just began in Chile. As to the first option, the Vatican since at least 1965 has operated, and still operates, as if it alone is the Church on all important matters. The Synod in October will be just more of the same, from most indications — just another ruse as discussed below.

The Synod agenda and participants were secretively “cherry picked” by the Vatican. For example, no families and certainly no women will vote on family matters. Moreover, the fundamental issue of bishop accountability, especially for their protection of priest child rapists, is absent from the agenda, see BishopAccountability.org . The reversal of the cruel contraception ban and Christian respect and acceptance of married gay Catholics have already, in effect, been rejected overwhelmingly at the initial Synod last October, it appears. Only the “money subsidy issue”, communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, appears to be up for any further discussion.

As to the second option, tens of millions of Catholics have already left the Church completely, while hundreds of millions more have reduced their participation and/or donations. As to the third option, a “Vatican Revolution”, Catholics are increasingly resisting and pushing back, some perhaps even violently. In Chile, Catholics recently protested vigorously in church, some even shoving their bishops. Significantly, one of the leaders of the ongoing Chilean opposition, top US communications executive, Juan Carlos Cruz, lives in Philadelphia. He may reasonably be expected with many others to greet the pope with similar peaceful protests when the pope visits Philadelphia this summer.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

04/04/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Less than three months after Pope Francis decried the costs attached to Catholic declarations of nullity of marriage, stating, ‘How I wish all marriage proceedings were free of charge!’, the Diocese of Pittsburgh announced that it was waiving all fees associated with processing requests for annulments.

The change, which was implemented immediately on Wednesday, was meant to encourage more Catholics to take advantage of the process. According to Bishop David Zubik, ‘For people who have not taken advantage of it in the past, either because of financial reasons or out of principle, my hope is that now this opens the door for them to give it some consideration.’

Here in the W.D.O.E, however, we are moving in the opposite direction. At a recent meeting of the Presbyteral Council our Judicial Vicar, Father Timothy Cloutier, instead floated the idea of the Tribunal receiving its $600 fee upfront, at the time the initial paperwork is filed. Under this scheme parishes would issue a check for $600 to be sent with the application to the Tribunal, and then parishes (rather than the Tribunal) would play the role of bill collector and receive the payments from their parishioners.

There is nothing that pastors like more than paying money to a bankrupt Chancery, unless it is trying to collect hard-to-justify administrative fees from their flock. Still, I am sure that the Tribunal is becoming desperate. One can imagine the reluctance of the faithful to write a check to the Archdiocese, and especially to the Tribunal, which has had its own role in the sexual abuse scandal. This reluctance is no doubt increased by the fact that, as the Star Tribune reported in November of 2014, ‘the chances of getting an annulment from the Twin Cities archdiocese are among the lowest in the nation, and the waits are among the highest.’

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

On this Holy Saturday, a statement by Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability to add to the ones about the revolt in the Chilean church over the episcopal appointment of Juan Barros that I cited on Thursday:

A Vatican spokesperson’s dismissive statement today defending Pope Francis’s appointment of Chilean bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid deepens the crisis of credibility that the pope is facing. What’s at stake here is nothing less than papal accountability. Francis has pledged to discipline bishops who fail to protect children, and the Chilean public, along with members of his own abuse commission, are determined to hold him to his promise.

Today’s statement is a disingenuous attempt to shift blame for this decision from the pope to the Congregation for Bishops. Pope Francis made the appointment and must own it. He should begin by explaining his deliberate choice to ignore multiple victims’ testimony that Barros witnessed their sexual abuse by Karadima. Concepción archbishop Fernando Chomalí Garib, who discussed Barros with Francis in person last month, told the New York Times that the pope knew about these serious allegations. “The pope told me he had analyzed the situation in detail and found no reason” to rescind the appointment, Chomalí Garib said.

This response evokes not the compassion and honesty of Pope Francis but the coldness and dismissiveness of Cardinal Bergoglio. As Buenos Aires archbishop, he ignored repeated requests by anguished victims for intervention in their cases. While his colleagues in the US and Europe issued apologies, implemented reforms, and met with victims, he stayed largely silent on the issue of clergy sex abuse, except to issue an implausible denial that he had ever handled an abusive priest.

His only known action was to commission a behind-the-scenes report to Argentine Supreme Court judges that impugned the credibility of victims of a criminally convicted priest – an action eerily consistent with the disregard the Pope has shown survivors’ witness in the Barros/Karadima case.

To regain public trust in his reforms, Pope Francis must explain why he chose Barros despite the victims’ testimony, and he must immediately rescind the appointment. Barros must be suspended from ministry while his alleged wrongdoing is investigated.

And here’s Peter Isely of SNAP Wisconsin commenting on Facebook:

I guess the tomb really is empty. It wasn’t that long ago that the Milwaukee Cathedral was standing room only on Palm Sunday. But you can sure see the impact of five years of bankruptcy, financial fraud, and tens of millions of dollars spent on fighting survivors in this embarrassing news footage from FOX 6 on Palm Sunday. Looks like a few more tumbled in after the opening bell, but not many. Some years ago, [Cardinal Timothy] Dolan [former archbishop of Milwaukee and then head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] stopped publishing archdiocesan yearly church attendance figures because the numbers were plummeting under our “rock star” archbishop and the facts contradicted the myth that he was bringing Catholics back to the pews or rounding up new ones (and having a rock star Pope hasn’t reversed any of this either). Probably the single most significant indicator of the health and future of any organization is the percentage of members who identify themselves as strongly committed to its mission and practice. The Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life has been tracking this number in the Catholic Church for almost four decades. That percentage is now the lowest it has ever been, with about only a quarter of Catholics considering themselves having a “strong” Catholic identity, down some 15 percentage points since the sexual abuse crisis began emerging into public awareness.

Interestingly, Protestant religious identity strength has been concomitantly rising, with over half (or double the Catholic figure) saying they have a strong religious identity. Maybe the weakness of Catholic identity helps explain why the church hierarchy has been so successful at keeping many of the key elements of the sexual abuse cover up in tact: Catholics simply don’t care enough about their church (as an organization at least) to hold their leaders accountable. In Mark’s Gospel, which has no actual resurrection account, when Mary and Mary Magdalene come to the tomb there is a young man who comically chides them about who they are looking for because the tomb is obviously empty? Maybe those are some of the same questions that need to be asked at the Cathedral over the next few days.

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UNITED STATES
OMG!

by David Timbs

If clericalism looms large in today’s church, it has had centuries to grow strong. David Timbs traces the roots of clericalism back to the end of the Apostolic age, at the end of the first century C.E. “By the early second century, “overseers” were assuming the role of apostle and began to exert authority over who would preside…” Modern clericalism gained traction at the Council of Trent, but Timbs highlghts today’s excesses in the power and prestige of the priesthood. “The Sacrament of Orders has assumed a de facto importance in Christian existence superior to that of Baptism. The consequent damage done to the dignity of Baptism cannot be underestimated. The ministry of Sacrificial Ritualism has been elevated to a status superior to the wider and more fundamental calls to discipleship, service and proclamation entrusted to all the Baptised.”

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UNITED STATES
Council on Foreign Relations

Description

Thomas J. Reese, senior analyst with the National Catholic Reporter, discusses Pope Francis’s work to date and his agenda for 2015, as part of CFR’s Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call series.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Oddly enough, two sentences from a Republican politician about discrimination help explain why Pope Francis’ latest choice for bishop is generating such distress and dispute.

Many in the US are wondering why debates over Religious Freedom and Restoration laws, which have quietly passed with little upset in more than 20 states, have suddenly become so heated.

The mystery was explained succinctly by Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas two days ago: “This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial. But these are not ordinary times.”

Hutchinson was referring to the dramatic and speedy shift in public opinion against discrimination against the LGBT community. (The clearest evidence of this sea change: In 1988, just 11 percent of US citizens backed legalizing same-sex marriage. Now, it’s up to 56 percent, an almost ten percent jump in the last two years.)

[Religion News Service]

Now look abroad and consider the unprecedented protests – literal and figurative – against Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, who was just picked by the pope to head a diocese in Chile.

I could be dead wrong, but I think the situations are analogous. I suspect journalist John Allen may be right about Francis being at “a tipping” point in the continuing crisis of clergy sexual violence and deceit.

Some Catholics – in Chile and elsewhere – seem to finally be fed up by church officials who keep concealing abuse while pledging “openness,” keep promising reform but delivering cover ups, keep saying “zero tolerance” while tolerating tons of hurtful and immoral behavior by bishops.

This “emotional whiplash” inflicted on Catholics by their church’s hierarchy takes a toll. Often, that toll is reflected in diminishing church attendance and participation. Sometimes, like in Chile recently, it’s reflected in protests.

And I believe that toll will increase as the gap between how Francis talks about abuse and what Francis does about abuse increases.

Some conervative US politicians are starting to understand that their support erodes when they practice discrimination. But few Catholic officials seem to understand that their suppor erodes when they practice hypocracy.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted on 3 April 2015)

Catholic priest David Edwin Rapson used computer games, soft drinks, alcohol and cigarettes to lure boys (as young as 12) into his office at a Catholic boarding school before he sexually abused them, a Melbourne court has been told. After two years of hearings which finished on 31 March 2015, Rapson (now aged 61) was convicted of serious child-sex crimes. Now he is locked up, awaiting his sentence.

Rapson, who was the school’s vice-principal at one stage, also gave some of his victims a drink of drug-laced chocolate-milk or lemonade to make them sleepy before he sexually abused them, the court was told.

However, if boys complained about Rapson’s abuse, they tended to merely tell Rapson’s colleagues and friends in the priesthood, some of whom might be offenders themselves. And the church does not arrest any priests or Brothers — only the police do this.

It was some of the victims, not the church authorities, who finally brought Rapson to justice.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

The Catholic Church harboured Father David Edwin Rapson for two decades, thus endangering boys in Catholic schools in Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales.

Rapson was born on 30 July 1953. He was recruited in the early 1970s as a trainee Catholic priest in Melbourne in a Catholic religious order, called the Salesians of Don Bosco. This is an Australia-wide order and subsequently Rapson ministered in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

The Salesian religious order was founded by “Saint” John Bosco in 1859 in Italy. Operating world-wide, the Salesians expanded to Australia in 1923. The order began developing several Australian schools for boys – notably in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. It also developed Boys Town (a home for troubled youths) in Engadine, south of Sydney.

In Melbourne (where they have their Australian headquarters), the Salesians operated three schools:
* Salesian College “Rupertswood”, at Sunbury in Melbourne’s outer north-west;
* Salesian College, Chadstone, in Mebourne’s south-east; and
* St Joseph’s College, Ferntree Gully, in Melbourne’s east.

In addition to these schools, the Salesians also had a residential training centre near Melbourne for their recruits into the priesthood. This centre (originally known as “Auxilium College”) is in a rural setting at Lysterfield (30 kilometres south-east of Melbourne). Nowadays, with the decline in the number of priests, the Lysterfield property is known as the Salesian Retreat Centre, used for Catholic schools for “spiritual retreats”. The centre has overnight accommodation for several dozen visitors. There have been complaints about students being sexually abused while visiting this Lysterfield property.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Scituate

By Jessica Trufant
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Apr. 2, 2015

DEDHAM – A lawsuit brought against parishioners occupying the closed St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate is scheduled to go to a bench trial May 5 after a Norfolk County Superior Court judge denied their requests for a jury trial and more time to develop a defense.

At a pretrial hearing Thursday morning, Judge Edward Leibensperger denied an emergency motion by Mary Elizabeth Carmody, a lawyer representing the parishioners, seeking a delay in the case for discovery.

“Discovery is absolutely necessary under these facts. …We haven’t had the opportunity to flesh out the case,” Carmody said. “There’s no emergency here. It’s been ongoing for more than 10 years.”

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston filed a civil suit against the Friends of St. Frances after the parishioners failed to meet a March 9 deadline for leaving the church. The parishioners filed a counterclaim, and have vowed to bring their fight to the state’s highest court.

St. Frances was among dozens of Boston-area churches pegged for closure in 2004 as part of a reconfiguration plan designed to shrink the archdiocese’s growing debt.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Friday 3 April 2015

A fourth Melbourne church in a week has been set alight in suspicious circumstances.

Police are investigating a fire at a church on Doncaster Road in Doncaster East after witnesses saw smoke coming from it at 2.30pm on Good Friday. The blaze was contained to a small area of the building.

Detectives have not determined the exact cause of the fire, but are treating it as suspicious.

Three other churches had fires this week, and all three were connected to notorious pedophiles.

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CHILE
El Sol

[Several famous entertainers have joined a social media campaign against Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up sexual abuse. Benjamín Vicuña, Gonzalo Valenzuela and Juanita Viale were among those who joined the initiative in repudiating the Vatican’s decision to appoint Barros.]

Un gran revuelo se armó en Chile por el nombramiento del sacerdote Juan Barros como obispo de Osorno, quien fue acusado de haber encubierto los abusos sexuales en los que incurrió Fernando Karadima.

El hecho no sólo generó la molestia en los creyentes quienes protestaron en la Catedral San Mateo de Osorno, sino que también en el mundo artístico y televisivo. Uno de los denunciantes del ex párroco comenzó una campaña a través de redes sociales en contra del sacerdote con la etiqueta #FueraBarros, segùn publica el sitio Biobiochile.cl.

Benjamín Vicuña, Gonzalo Valenzuela y Juanita Viale fueron algunos de los que se sumaron a la iniciativa, repudiando la decisión del Vaticano, desde donde se desecharon las críticas y lo ratificaron como obispo de Osorno.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A suspicious fire at a church in Doncaster East is not linked to three blazes at Melbourne Catholic churches historically connected to paedophile priests this week, police believe.

Emergency services were called to St David’s Anglican Church on Doncaster Road just after 2:30pm on Friday, after witnesses reported smoke coming from the building.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade said the fire started in a storage room and took 10 minutes to bring under control.

Police are investigating the cause of the blaze, which was contained to a small area of the building, and keen to speak to anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the area.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Apr. 3, 2015 NCR Today

Robert Blair Kaiser, journalist and inveterate church lover and critic, died at the age of 84 in a hospice center in Phoenix yesterday, on Holy Thursday, with daughter, sons, and grandchildren at his bedside.

Janet Hauter, co-chair of the American Catholic Council, a church reform group, today called Kaiser “a courageous man with the biggest heart of any (church) reformer I ever met; he was dauntless in pushing, prodding and confronting injustice in the church.”

Nearly a decade in the Jesuit order, Kaiser left to become a journalist, covering the Second Vatican Council for Time magazine, and going on to write a half dozen books about church post-conciliar life.

He became an outspoken critic of those he felt were trying to slow down or stop council’s reforms, most notably Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and the bishops they were appointing.

He pressed for reform to the last breaths of his life, a computer on his chest while hooked up to oxygen. In recent months he was finishing a book on Dominican Father Tom Doyle, who for forty years has been one of the church’s most outspoken critics of clergy sex abuse. I worked with him, writing an epilogue for that book, “Whistle: Tom Doyle’s Steadfast Witness for Victims of Clerical Sexual Abuse,” set to be published in June.

Kaiser, lecturer and author, found every vehicle he could to fan the flames of church reform. He was the editor of Just Good Company, an online journal of religion and culture, and co-founder of takebackourchurch.org, a web community of American Catholics whose stated mission was to seek “ownership and citizenship in the people’s church envisioned at Vatican II.” The group advocated the election of local bishops and the power to dismiss them. More recently, he co-founded Catholic Church Reform International, with which American Catholic Council, another church reform group, is associated.

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
April 3, 2015

One Saturday last month, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Ognissanti (All Saints’) Church in one of Rome’s working-class neighborhoods. Little known to tourists or art historians, Ognissanti was the site of a momentous event in the modern history of the Catholic Church: Exactly 50 years earlier, Pope Paul VI had gone there to celebrate the first papal mass in Italian rather than in the traditional Latin.

In marking that anniversary, Pope Francis made plain his view of the vernacular Mass, one of the most visible changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The practice still pains Catholic traditionalists who mourn the loss of churchwide unity that came with a common language.

Allowing Catholics to pray in their local languages “was truly a courageous act by the church to draw closer to the people of God,” Pope Francis told a crowd gathered outside. “This is important for us, to follow the Mass this way. And there is no going back…Whoever goes back is mistaken.”

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NEW YORK
The Record

APRIL 3, 2015

BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

A lawsuit alleging years of sexual abuse by a teacher at the Horace Mann school in the Bronx has been settled for an undisclosed amount, an attorney for the plaintiff said Friday.

The suit by Fort Lee attorney Rosemarie Arnold was the only one filed against the elite school after dozens of former students alleged that they were sexually abused by teachers and staff since the 1970s.

Most of the former students were unable to file lawsuits because of New York State’s restrictive statute of limitations, which requires alleged victims of child sex abuse to file suit by the time they turn 23.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Robert Blair Kaiser, journalist and inveterate church lover and critic, died in a Hospice center in Phoenix yesterday. Kaiser covered the Second Vatican Council for Time magazine and became recognized as commentator and lecturer on the post-Vatican II church. (Story developing.)

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

APRIL 3, 2015 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

WE NEED YOU! Please come out to support the legislators who are fighting to protect your children. Statute of Limitations Reform for Child Sex Abuse Lobby Day will be held on Wed., April 15 at the state capitol in Harrisburg. There will be a rally in the East Wing Rotunda from 1:30 to 2:30 pm. We need to show our politicians we care.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 3

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

We are grateful that the Waxahachie Police Department was making a grand jury referral for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and injury to a child in a case involving the Texas Baptist Home for Children. We hope others who may have seen, suspected or suffered abuse or cover ups by Home officials will call police and prosecutors immediately.

[WFAA]

We also praise Justin Cook for his courage and his family for standing by him through this ordeal. Few abused teens are able to summon the strength to speak up quickly and publicly when they are assaulted. Cook is a brave and resilient individual and we hope the justice system brings him healing and closure.

We hope the Ellis County District Attorney moves quickly and investigates thoroughly. And we hope that anyone who has information or suspicions about Baptist Home predators will come forward and help ensure that others are protected and that justice is done.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 3, 2015

In his Holy Thursday message, Pope Francis told priests to embrace a “good and healthy” tiredness by spending engaged time with the faithful and doing the “real work” of a priest.

From Reuters:

The faithful never leave us without something to do, unless we hide in our offices or go out in our cars wearing sun glasses. There is a good and healthy tiredness. It is the exhaustion of the priest who wears the smell of the sheep… but also smiles the smile of a father rejoicing in his children or grandchildren. (emphasis mine)

But what about the faithful in southern Chile, who are upset about the appointment of their new bishop—a man who has been accused of not only covering up abuse, but actually witnessing the sexual abuse of children?

That bishop, Juan Barros, according to the AP,

… is said by at least three victims to have witnessed the sexual molestation at the Sacred Heart of Jesus church, part of the El Bosque parish that serves an affluent neighborhood of Santiago.
Allegations are so bad (and include extensive cover-up of a serial molester priest), that Barros’ January appointment (he took office in March) has stirred international outrage. Anger is so great in Chile, that Chilean Catholics and government officials have begged Rome to rescind the appointment.

The sheep—in this case—smell a rat …

Rome has not responded.

Hear that? Pope Francis turned his back on Zero Tolerance.

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TEXAS
WFAA

Tanya Eiserer, WFAA April 2, 2015

Graphic pictures show black and blue bruises that covered Justin Cook’s body.

The 14-year-old teenager says he received those bruises at the hands of an 18-year-old who beat him, choked him and sexually assaulted him. He says the abuse happened at the Waxahachie foster home run by Texas Baptist Home for Children in 2013.

“They called me a liar and I was punished,” Cook said. “When I tried to report it, they wouldn’t believe me.”

For more than a year, Justin and his mother have been fighting to bring someone to justice for the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of another foster child.

On Wednesday, the family was notified via email that the Waxahachie Police Department was making a grand jury referral for aggravated sexual abuse of a child and injury to a child in the case. Police officials confirmed the cases were sent Thursday to the Ellis County District Attorney’s Office.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A fourth Melbourne church in a week has been set alight in suspicious circumstances.

Police are investigating a fire at a church on Doncaster Rd in Doncaster East after witnesses saw smoke coming from it at 2.30pm on Good Friday.

The blaze was contained to a small area of the building.

Detectives have not determined the exact cause of the fire, but are treating it as suspicious.

Three other churches had fires this week, with all three connected to notorious pedophiles.

St James Church in Brighton was destroyed, while St Mary’s in St Kilda East and St Mary’s Catholic Church in Dandenong had minor damage.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

A parish church in Australia is burned to ruins by arson, and its members, in general, celebrate.

“For the community here, it’s kind of the haunted house on the hill,” said one of them.

It was “hard going to this church” said another. “If the church is rebuilt after the fire, it would have served its punishment to some degree.”

These are normal Catholics saying this. Think about that for a moment. Normal suburban Catholics – the kind who, here in the States, grill in the backyard, go to the mall, watch their kids and grandkids play sports – normal suburban Catholics happy that an arsonist burned down their parish church.

Why?

Because one of its priests groomed and abused altar boys, some of whom later committed suicide.

“It’s always been a difficult building for us to drive past because there’s been so much tragedy and complicated feelings, I guess. We’ve all attended many funerals of boys that we now know were abused by [Father Ronald] Pickering … and other perpetrators in the parish – at the actual church that it occurred in.”

Meanwhile, in Chile, Pope Francis appoints as bishop of Osorno a notorious supporter of a known abuser and quasi-cult leader, this appointment causing a riot in the cathedral there. Jennifer Haselberger analyzes the situation and concludes that it would be literally impossible for the pope to appoint as bishops men who aren’t at least somewhat tainted by their participation in the Sex Scandal – either as having participated in it or as having condoned or enabled it. Haselberger saw the situation from the inside in the archdiocese of St. Paul and would, presumably, know what she’s talking about.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

With escalating stresses and strains that Pope Francis still faces at his advancing age, including the strongly reverberating bishop revolt in Chile (see here), the pope must call for a worldwide and open general council while he still can. Otherwise, he will have a failed papacy. He should make his prophetic call for a council at this joyful time of Easter, or as soon thereafter as practicable, before it is too late.

Pope John XXIII wisely, humbly and successfully did this a half century ago when faced with far fewer and less threatening crises than Francis increasingly faces. One of the heroes of the ongoing Chilean protests and revolt, top US communications executive, Juan Carlos Cruz, lives in Philadelphia. He can be expected with many others to greet the pope with similar protests when he visits the USA soon. This will undercut the pope’s “low tax, less regulation and least safety net” financial backers, in their US election efforts next year, that will depend critically on the pope’s charisma to try to swing essential US Latino voters.

The “family absent” Family Synods seem to be a futile public relations farces to preserve papal infallibility, to push baby breeding and to maximize German bishops’ subsidies. The Vatican’s own internal finances still remain untouched by independent auditors and are still under the ultimate control of a secretive and unaccountable monarch. The priest child abuse crisis is accelerating despite the pope’s dissembling rhetoric. Even the pope’s hand picked sex abuse commission lay members are regularly publicly criticizing his management mistakes. Moreover, the leading Jesuit expert on Vatican organization, Thomas Reese, has recently criticized convincingly the pope’s so-called reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. This all may have been a good try, perhaps, for the over-confident and elderly Pope Francis or just the latest Vatican ploy, but other than raising hopes briefly and preparing many Catholics to monitor closely the coming council, it has effected little of permanent value.

Please see the pertinent, “Vatican Defends Chilean Appointment“, by the informed and fair Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability, an independent charitable organization that boldly documents child abuse by the Catholic Church and other religious groups, here at,

[BishopAccountability.org]

Pope Francis may be heroic, but he is also imprudent, if not rash and arrogant as well. He may have been able as a young Jesuit provincial to save most of his confreres from military thugs, but at his age he cannot alone be expected to save 5,000 bishops and their wealth — these are his top priorities, it appears from most indications. Paradoxically, worldwide bishops and cardinals are more at risk now than when Pope Francis took over the bad hand the ex-pope dealt him, as the new UK and related investigations make evident. Once again. the key management truth prevails — modern media management can cover-up crises for awhile, but it cannot resolve them. That takes transparent and independent effort over a long period of time. In the final analysis, God cannot be “sold by slogans”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONE THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 04, 2015

Leading up to Easter, initiatives on opposite sides of the world underlined the value of effective church leadership.

In Sydney, Archbishop Anthony Fisher announced 100,000 Catholic school students and their teachers would pause at noon each school day to pray the Angelus, an ancient prayer recalling the events of the Annunciation, when Mary, visited by the angel Gabriel, said yes to becoming the mother of God.

As well as teaching children how to pray, the Angelus is a lesson in the Christian faith. For centuries it has been heralded by a bell, as depicted in Jean-Francois Millet’s famous painting in the Musee d’Orsay.

It was a chance, Fisher said, to pause briefly in “a wonderful act of solidarity and communion … as we reflect upon and celebrate the great mystery of God becoming one of us in the presence of Jesus”.

In Brisbane, Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge, a leading scripture scholar, master of 10 languages and a dynamic speaker, is playing to his strengths, delivering nine monthly lectures on Living Biblically in a Secular World. Unexpectedly, the first was so packed, with 430 attendees, mainly young people, that it generated its own exodus, from the designated room to the cathedral next door. Ninety minutes felt like 30.

In Rome, Pope Francis also has been proactive, welcoming 150 homeless people for an exclusive tour of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. He chatted with them and provided lunch. Similar thoughtful acts, such as the showers for the homeless near the Vatican, during the past two years have sent the Pope’s popularity soaring.

A few cracks and controversies are appearing, however. Francis is under fire from the Left and the Right over an episcopal appointment that would have produced deafening protests had it been made by Benedict XVI.

A fortnight ago, angry Catholics protested inside the cathedral at Osorno, a town of 150,000 in southern Chile, when Juan Barros, 58, was installed as bishop. Thirty priests, 1300 parishioners and 51 members of Chile’s 120-member congress had written to the Pope urging him to quash the appointment, but to no avail.

This is a tricky test case for Francis’s “zero tolerance’’ of child abuse by priests, a crime he has described as akin to “celebrating a black mass’’ and betraying “the Lord’s body’’.

Barros’s critics accuse him of witnessing and covering up the abuse of boys by one of his former mentors, the now notorious Father Fernando Karadima, in the 1980s and 90s. In 2011, the Vatican barred Karadima from saying mass in public and sentenced him to a life of “prayer and penance’’ after an investigation.

Pope Francis, as archbishop of Buenos Aires in neighbouring Argentina, would have been familiar with the controversy.

Recently, two of Karadima’s victims told CNN that Barros was in the room when they were abused, a claim the bishop denies emphatically: “I never had knowledge or imagined the serious abuses that this priest (Karadima) committed with his victims.’’

He is entitled to his good name and, arguably, career advancement. But a problem for the Pope was revealed this week when three of his hand-picked advisers on sex abuse, including two female psychiatrists, expressed “concern and incredulity’’ over the appointment. Yet again, they say, victims’ have been swept aside.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

April 3, 2015

Alana Schetzer

A church has gone up in flames on Good Friday, the fourth church fire this week.

Firefighters were called just after 2.30pm after at least one witness reported smoke coming from the building in Doncaster East.

The fire on Doncaster Road was contained to a small part of the building and extinguished. The cause has not been determined.

It is the fourth church fire that has occurred in Melbourne since Monday. St James Church in Brighton, St Mary’s in St Kilda East and St Mary’s Catholic Church in Dandenong have all experienced blazes over the past five days.

All three are connected to notorious paedophiles, including priests Kevin O’Donnell and Ronald Dennis Pickering. Police said they were treating the fires as suspicious but would not comment on whether the blazes could be linked.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

TOM MINEAR HERALD SUN APRIL 03, 2015

POLICE are investigating a fourth suspicious church fire in the week of Easter.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina 12

[Files for Rome. After 20 years, a young man decided to sue for “misconduct” by the former pastor of the Basilica of Hope. “We’re in the previous investigation, which is to be sent to the Holy See,” said the Archbishop of Santa Fe.]

Luego de 20 años, un joven decidió denunciar por “comportamientos indebidos” al ex párroco de la Basílica de Esperanza. “Estamos en la investigación previa, que es la que hay que enviar a la Santa Sede”, dijo el arzobispo de Santa Fe.

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ARGENTINA
Uno Santa Fe

I caso del muchacho que denunció al presbítero Luis Brizzio (expárroco de Esperanza) por abuso sexual ocurrido en la ciudad de Gálvez en 1994, cuando tenía 16 años tuvo esta semana un fuerte impacto en la comunidad santafesina y avizora más consternaciones. Es que lentamente, la historia vuelve a desandar uno de los caminos más escandalosos de la relación entre la Iglesia Católica y los feligreses locales, con un nuevo caso de abuso sexual en el que también estaría vinculado, como encubridor, el ya fallecido monseñor Edgardo Storni. Así lo confirmó ayer a Diario Uno el abogado mendocino, especializado en Derecho Canónico, Carlos Lombardi, quien representará al muchacho que denunció a Brizzio en la investigación canónica que se inició a principios de este año, en el Arzobispado de Santa Fe.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[Celebrities join social media campaign against Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno]

Polémica generó el nombramiento del sacerdote Juan Barros como obispo de Osorno, quien fue acusado de haber encubierto los abusos sexuales en los que incurrió Fernando Karadima.

El hecho no sólo generó la molestia en los creyentes quienes protestaron en la Catedral San Mateo de Osorno, sino que también en el mundo artístico y televisivo.

Esto porque uno de los denunciantes del ex párroco Juan Carlos Cruz, comenzó una campaña a través de redes sociales en contra del sacerdote con la etiqueta #FueraBarros.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

April 3, 2015

Aisha Dow

There was no Good Friday service held at the blackened ruins of St James Church in Brighton, but that did not stop dozens of locals making a quiet pilgrimage to the gutted building.

On the first day of the Easter holiday, they stood behind a safety fence and gazed at the place they and generations of their family had been baptised and married.

But few were truly shocked, and some were not truly sad.

Even before the fire on Monday morning, the crimes of paedophile Ronald Pickering – who served as the church’s parish priest for 15 years – had tainted many people’s feelings towards it.

One local couple who came to see the damage spent four decades as active members of St James. But they recently stopped going because of their deep disappointment with how the Catholic Church responded to child sexual abuse.

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CONNECTICUT
Fox CT

APRIL 2, 2015, BY SAMANTHA SCHOENFELD

CLINTON–A pastor was arrested on charges of sexual assault of two woman, one of which is a teenager.

On April 2 Pastor Francisco Moran, 57, of Clinton, was arrested on two outstanding warrants after a long investigation that revealed he had unwanted sexual contact with two parishioners. He is the pastor at The Good Samaritan Church in Old Lyme.

Allegedly, Moran sexually assaulted the two victims on separate occasions in the summer of 2014 in a private home in Clinton. Both victims recently came forward, separately, to disclose the assaults to Clinton Police. Apparently, Moran had threatened them with deportation if they talked about the assaults.

The specific charges against Moran are risk of injury/impairing the morals of a minor, two counts of sexual assault in the fourth degree and two counts of coercion.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

By Matt Buynak, WTNH.com Staff
Published: April 2, 2015

CLINTON, Conn. (WTNH) — The pastor of an Old Lyme church sexually assaulted two parishioners, one a juvenile girl, and threatened them with deportation if they spoke of the assaults, police say.

The Pastor of The Good Samaritan Church, 57-year-old Francisco Moran of Clinton, was arrested Thursday. Police say Moran sexually assaulted the teenage girl and an adult woman at a Clinton home on separate occasions last summer.

According to Clinton police, the victims separately reported the alleged assaults recently, and an investigation was started.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

By Nicholas Rondinone

CLINTON — A local pastor is being charged Thursday with sexually assaulting with an underage and an adult female who were members of his church, police said.

Francisco Moran, 57, of 40 West Main Street, was charged with two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, two counts of coercion and a single count of risk of injury to a minor, police said. Moran is the pastor at The Good Samaritan Church in Old Lyme.

One of the victim was an underage teenager and the other was an adult, police said.

According to police, the sexual assaults happened on separate occasions last summer in a private residence in Clinton.

Both victims told police that Moran threatened to have them deported if they talked about the sexual assaults, police said.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

A Clinton pastor has been arrested on sex assault charges after having “unwanted sexual contact” with a woman and teenage girl who attend the Good Samaritan Church in Old Lyme, according to police.

According to police, Francisco Moran, 57, sexually assaulted the female parishioners on two separate occasions at a home in Clinton during the summer of 2014. He threatened to deport them if they told anyone, police said.

Both victims reported the unwanted contact to Clinton police, who launched an investigation.

Moran was arrested Thursday on two warrants charging him with two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, two counts of coercion and one count of risk of injury to/impairing the morals of a minor.

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ILLINOIS
CI News

April 2, 2015

PEORIA, Ill. — A motion has been filed to dismiss one of the cases against a former Pekin youth pastor charged in sex crimes against children.

Nicholas Lawrence, 27, is charged with child porn in Peoria County.

He is accused of taking a photo of a naked girl under the age of 13 last May.

Lawrence’s attorney wants the porn charge thrown out because the material was found on his laptop in Tazewell County, where he lives.

If the judge approves the motion, the case will likely be re-opened in Tazewell.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for May 22.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As a follow-up to the previous items I’ve posted (here and here) on the revolt in the Chilean Catholic church after Pope Francis chose to ignore the pleas of many Catholics that he not appoint Juan Barros bishop of Osorno, Chile, when survivors of abuse report that Barros helped cover up the sex crimes of Father Fernando Karadima, some excerpts from recent articles worth reading:

Kristine Ward for National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC):

It is important to be clear here by making and letting this appointment of Bishop Barros stand Pope Francis is declaring that he is not going to take action against those who aided and abetted abusers. He is going to protect them.

We have Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph as a glaring example of that.
Now, Bishop Barros.

The problem of sexual abuse needs no other hand for its correction than Pope Francis’.
This appointment gives the back of it to survivors.

Barbara Dorris for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP):

Many times, a pontiff has pledged reform but done nothing.

This time, a pontiff has pledged reform but done just the opposite.

Here’s a question worth asking: By every indication, Fr. Karadima’s accusers have been consistent and been deemed credible by multiple sources. So if they are telling the truth about child sex abuse by Fr. Karadima, why would they lie about cover up allegations against Bishop Barros?

And a better question: Why won’t Pope Francis even listen to them or insist that his aides listen to them?

Jennifer Haselberger at her Canonical Consultation blog:

[T]his is the awful truth — this is the situation in which the Church finds itself. It is simply unable to impose, as anything more than a romantic ideal, the requirement that only those with an absolutely 100 percent record of child protection can hold positions of trust in the Church.

It should not come as a surprise to Marie Collins or others on the Pontifical Commission that this is the case. It is obvious to anyone paying attention to these issues that many of those currently in the episcopacy or other important leadership positions are far from meeting the 100% test, and that fact is extremely unlikely to change anytime in the near future. If this is unacceptable to Marie Collins, both she and other like-minded members of the Pontifical Commission may want to hand in their resignations now.

Jerry Slevin at his Christian Catholicism blog:

The Chile Church rebellion, and the pope’s continuing mishandling of it, makes clear that the pope’s top priority as absolute monarch is to protect his “noble bishops” at almost any cost, even risking innocent children. For shame!! Once again, a pope foolishly refuses to admit he made a mistake in transferring this bishop, likely in part since any admission of mistakes by popes undercuts papal claims to “infallible” power, the keystone of post-1870 papal power.

Grant Gallicho at the Commonweal blog:

Some had hoped that pressure brought by members of the pope’s new sexual-abuse commission—several of whom recently expressed grave reservations about the appointment—might persuade Francis to act, or Barros to resign. After all, just last month the pope said that “everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.” He even seemed to chide bishops who had used the excuse of not giving scandal to avoid addressing the issue. But yesterday the Holy See released a terse, curiously worded statement responding to the growing controversy: “Prior to the recent appointment of His Excellency Msgr. Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid as bishop of Osorno, Chile, the Congregation for Bishops carefully examined the prelate’s candidature and did not find objective reasons to preclude the appointment.” If this is Rome’s last word on Barros, then Francis should know that his decision has imperiled not only the Diocese of Osorno, but also his own reputation as a reformer.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Why won’t Pope Francis back down on an obviously and severely hurtful move: giving Bishop Juan Barros Madrid his own diocese.

The wise whistleblower of the Twin Cities, Jennifer Haselberger, puts her finger on precisely why. In essence, she says that if every cleric who ignored, concealed and enabled clergy sex crimes were deemed ineligible for promotion, there would be as many rudderless chancery offices as there are shuttered churches. (I suspect that, in fact, there would be more. . .)

Jennifer’s post on this is well worth reading: http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

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VATICAN CITY
The Times

Philip Willan Rome

During a Maundy Thursday mass in St Peter’s Basilica, the Pope said God was aware of how demanding was the priest’s task of anointing the faithful.

The Pope heightened speculation yesterday that he might step down early because of exhaustion.

His remarks came during a Maundy Thursday mass in St Peter’s Basilica during which priests renew their ordination vows. It follows reports that doctors had advised him to lose weight and his indication last month that he expected his pontificate to be brief.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Sharyn McCowen Catholic News Service | Apr. 2, 2015

Australian police are searching for an arsonist following suspicious fires at three Melbourne area churches with links to clerical sexual abuse.

Three blazes broke out in as many days, beginning in the suburb of Brighton with St. James Church, which was almost destroyed Monday. The church is included on the Australian National Heritage List.

St. Mary Church in St. Kilda East sustained minor damage from a fire believed to have been deliberately set around the same time.

The third incident was reported early Wednesday at St. Mary Church in Dandenong, where firefighters discovered separate fires at the altar and in a storeroom containing vestments. The church sustained more than $190,000 in damage, the fire department reported.

“At this stage, the fires are being investigated by the local crime investigation units,” said Sgt. Kris Hamilton, Victoria Police spokesman.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein April 2

An Episcopal bishop charged in the hit-and-run death of a bicyclist pleaded not guilty Thursday in Baltimore Circuit Court, where a judge set June 4 as the date for her manslaughter trial.

Heather Cook, who last year was installed as the Maryland Diocese’s first female bishop, is charged with driving while inebriated and texting when she struck and killed Thomas Palermo, 41, a father of two, last December.

Cook hasn’t spoken publicly since her arrest, and her lawyer, David Irwin, hasn’t commented except to say that she acknowledges she was involved in the crash and that she has been in a residential treatment center since the incident.

The collision, which police said happened after Cook veered into the bike lane, horrified Baltimore-area cyclists, who noted that she left the scene despite having a heavily broken windshield.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Apr 2, 2015

As Good Friday approaches, many hurting people deeply struggle with its meaning and its God. It is my hope that we will be challenged as we find hope and comfort in the words written by a dear friend. A friend who has so often been the ‘flash of light’ in my life that reflects the very real presence of God. The same God loves, pursues, and never lets go. May each of you encounter this amazing God during this special week. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

To the believer, Good Friday is the most difficult of days. From Gethsemane to Golgotha, the passion of Christ stirs enormous feeling and leaves behind an ache that can only be relieved by Easter. If not for the joy of that empty tomb, few of us could bear the road to the cross.

To the believer who is also a victim of child abuse, the commemoration of Good Friday can be particularly painful. Although the abuse of our Lord may remind a survivor of their own pain, there is often a deeper anguish, an anguish once taught to me by a woman I didn’t know, a woman I still don’t know.

On a Good Friday afternoon in my hometown, I made my way to the church of my childhood. Little did I know that I was being watched and my presence would impact a young woman and instill in me a lesson I will hold until my dying hour.

Several days after that service, a college student appeared in the doorway of my university office. She didn’t want to give me her name, didn’t want to tell me very much at all about her life, she simply wanted to thank me for getting her through Good Friday. As she spoke, tears filled her eyes and she held up one finger—letting me know that if I could hang on for just a minute, she would be able to collect herself and finish telling me what she had come to say.

When she regained control of her emotions, she told me she was a survivor of sexual abuse, and that she had been abused within the church. Like so many before and after her, she had made an outcry against a respected member of her faith community but she was met with disbelief from her family, her church, from everyone she loved, from everyone who professed to be a Christian.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

EDITORIAL

The question has to be asked.

It has to be asked of Pope Francis.

There is no better week to ask it than Holy Week.

No better words than those of the Lord’s.

Words wrung out in the ebbing away of life. Words labored and laden with anguish, pain, and abandonment.

It has to be the place where the Chilean victims and by extension all survivors of sexual abuse by priests and religious are today in the face of the brutal slap they have received from Pope Francis’ backing of the declaration of the Congregation for Bishops supporting Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid as the newly appointed and installed bishop of Osorno, Chile.

This is the Chilean bishop whose installation was interrupted by loud protestations within the cathedral. And how often has any Catholic seen that happen?

The Vatican’s press statement said this:

Prior to the recent appointment of His Excellency Msgr. Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid as bishop of Osorno, Chile, the Congregation for Bishops carefully examined the prelate’s candidature and did not find objective reasons to preclude the appointment.

For those who cannot bring themselves to think that Pope Francis does not back this appointment, please read on from the report in ZENIT:

Fr. (Ciro) Benedettini’s (Vice Director of the Holy See Press Office) statement echos those of Archbishop Fernando Chomali Garib of Concepcion, who in an interview with Chile’s El Sur newspaper on March 26th, stated that he spoke personally with Pope Francis regarding the appointment.

“All the documentation that I cited came to him (Pope Francis), whether through the nunciature or the Chilean Embassy to the Holy See. He was very much up to date on Bishop Barros’ situation, and in fact, a few days prior he had spoken with him,” Archbishop Chomali said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Family Law

Natasha Phillips

02 APR 2015

With scores of Inquiries already under its belt, and dozens more currently underway, Britain must break the mould with the nation’s inquiry into child abuse, and implement an investigation that is truly ground-breaking. If it does not, it will be consigned to history as an expensive exercise, which helped no one.

To date, there have been over 70 inquiries focusing on child abuse in the UK, 67 of which have taken place in England. Today, we have 18 working child abuse inquiries in the United Kingdom, the largest in scope being the nation’s Statutory Inquiry Into Child Abuse, which will be looking at historic and present day child sexual abuse in England and Wales. If we needed confirmation that cautionary tales and lessons highlighted by previous investigations have gone unheeded, the sheer number of predecessors to the nation’s Inquiry serves to remind us. The prevailing inadequacies of serious case reviews for child abuse scandals also paint a grim picture of justice and welfare systems that either don’t understand how to implement effective child protection policies, or don’t have the resources to do so. The latest research into departmental responses suggests that both are obstacles to prevention. And with children’s services departments around the country still struggling in the aftermath of scandal after scandal, progress is often slow at best and at worst, fleeting.

In some ways, the bar has been set low for the nation’s Inquiry – very little positive change on the ground means that any recommendations the Inquiry makes are likely to be well received, but they are in danger of being repetitive. Every Inquiry that has gone before it has made recommendations, and reading through them the similarities are at once encouraging, and disheartening. That there appears to be, still, a very limited understanding of how child sexual abuse prevails and a continued and worrying variance in the quality of response to this type of abuse within government departments highlights the questionable impact Inquiries have on improving the welfare of children at risk. Needless to say, tolerance levels for more of the same when it comes to Inquiries, is at an all time low. So it is not unreasonable for the public to ask what the Statutory Inquiry thinks its investigations can genuinely offer the many victims of child abuse, both past and present.

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IRELAND
RTE New

A monument to the residents and survivors of abuse at Ireland’s second largest industrial school has been erected in Glin in Co Limerick.

The move marks the resolution of a long-running dispute between the town’s development association and survivors’ representatives.

In a statement, leaders of the project which commissioned the sculpture, say they hope to bring past pupils to the town later this year for an unveiling ceremony.

Plans for a reunion there two years ago were abandoned after the dispute began.

The statement, the Glin Project said the monument to St Joseph’s Industrial School had been set in place for the town’s Heritage Park “with the support and goodwill of the vast majority of local people”.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
WBAL

[with video]

BALTIMORE —A trial date is set for the Maryland Episcopal bishop charged in a fatal drunken driving crash.

Bishop Heather Cook appeared in court Thursday morning, entered a not-guilty plea and received a trial date set for June 4.

Prosecutors said they have evidence that Cook did not apply the brakes on her Subaru during the crash that killed cyclist Tom Palermo in December. Cook’s blood-alcohol content was 0.22 — nearly three times the legal limit — and she was texting right before the crash, prosecutors said.

The 58-year-old is facing more than a dozen charges, including manslaughter, driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

During the brief court proceeding, Palermo’s family sat right behind Cook. No words were exchanged, though Cook’s lawyer spoke with a family representative later.

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ARIZONA
The Catholic Sun

FLAGSTAFF — In her poem “Healing,” Diane Vreuls writes, “They say the suffering unto health hurts less than suffering unto death. Those suffering don’t say this.”

In an effort to ease the suffering of victims of abuse, especially those abused by the clergy, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted celebrated Mass at San Francisco de Asís Parish in Flagstaff March 14, offering words of hope and healing.

It’s among a special set of liturgies hosted each year by the diocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection for survivors of abuse and their families. At the Mass, which came ahead of April being Child Abuse Prevention Month, the bishop reflected on the words of the first reading of the Mass: “Come, let us return to the Lord, … it is He who will heal us … he will bind our wounds” (Hosea 6:1).

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted encourages anyone who has been a victim of child sexual abuse by any employee of the Roman Catholic Church to please come forward by contacting the Office of Child and Youth Protection.

We are here because the love of Jesus prompts us, moves us, impels us,” Bishop Olmsted said. “We want whoever has been abused to know that Jesus loves them and that we love them and that they are not alone.”

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CHILE
Cooperativa

[Journalist Juan Carlos Cruz repudiated the “cowardice” of the head of the Episcopal Conference of Chile for publicly supporting Bishop Juan Barros. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, after supporting Barros inw writing, was absent from the controversial ceremony when Barros took over as bishop of Osorno on March 21.]

mritingbarros i that after ignore the criticisms of Juan Barros and publicly support it in writing , was absent from the controversial ceremony that took over as bishop of Osorno last March 21 .

El periodista Juan Carlos Cruz repudió la “cobardía” de la cúpula de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, que tras desoír las críticas a Juan Barros y respaldarlo públicamente por escrito, se ausentó de la polémica ceremonia en la que asumió como obispo de Osorno el pasado 21 de marzo.

“Fue triste para Barros ver que lo nombran obispo de Osorno y toda la jerarquía de la Conferencia Episcopal no va, inventa cosas, y eso es cobarde de parte de ellos también, porque cuando se vieron enfrentados a que no iban a estar de la parte popular, todos empezaron como 10 días antes a decir que estaban perplejos”, dijo Cruz a Cooperativa.

De cara a la ceremonia, “Ezzati inventó que tenía otros compromisos, (Alejandro) Goic inventó que tenía otro compromiso… No fue nadie, más que sus amigos de El Bosque: Tomislav Koljatic, Horacio Valenzuela, y me revolvió el estómago cuando los vi saliendo de ahí, porque ellos son guardias privados, especialmente Koljatic y Barros”, añadió el periodista aludiendo a los obispos de Linares y Talca, también formados por Fernando Karadima.

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POLAND
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse
Apr 1, 2015

A decade after his death, John Paul II is still revered in his native Poland with billboards, CDs and other collectibles underscoring his popularity, but experts say the church here is struggling without him.

During his epic 26-year pontificate the only Polish-born pontiff became a pillar of national unity in his homeland and reinforced the Church’s role in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.

As pontiff, John Paul II was the de facto leader of the Polish Church. But now without his firm hand, divisions abound.

“The Polish Church is divided into several streams and has never been so lacking in strong leadership,” Marcin Przeciszewski, editor-in-chief of the Catholic news agency KAI, told AFP.

Despite the crisis in its leadership, Poland’s church is popular compared to elsewhere in Europe, says Przeciszewski, noting that social secularisation has not taken the high toll it has exacted in other European countries such as France. …

Meanwhile several recent high-profile cases of paedophilia among clergy have compromised the credibility of the Polish Church like never before.

Priest paedophilia has long been a taboo topic in Poland but shot into the public spotlight with the case of Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is alleged to have had sex with boys while serving as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic.

Poland’s Catholic Church apologised in June 2014 for the paedophilia in its midst at a landmark ceremony attended by top clergy and abuse victims. But it has so far ruled out compensating victims, even as it faces its first civil lawsuit for damages.

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CALIFORNIA
Easy Reader

A Manhattan Beach mother is suing a priest at American Martyrs Church and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, alleging that the priest sexually harassed her and then was inappropriately transferred to another church after she complained.

Catherine Bergin, a lifelong church volunteer and married mother of three, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court last week against Father Nicholas Assi, who served as assistant pastor at American Martyrs from 2009 through last year, and the archdiocese.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said that they had not yet been served with the lawsuit, but provided a two-paragraph statement.

The statement said that after the district attorney declined to press charges, Assi, who had been placed on administrative leave, had been reinstated.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Former Canberra priest Edward Evans has been found not guilty of molesting a young girl in the 1990s.

Evans, 85, was facing six charges after the woman claimed he had committed acts of indecency when she was aged between 10 and 13 at the time.

Evans was alleged to have touched the girl inappropriately several times, mostly while at his home after church services, including when he was sitting beside her at the dining table.

During a police interview played to the jury during the trial, Evans conceded he had touched the girl on the bottom but said it was not sexual.

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UNITED STATES
Canonical Consultation

[with video]

04/01/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

There is a field of study in mathematics known as chaos theory. Students of ‘chaotic’ environments, which include natural systems such as weather and climate, note that even deterministic systems can produce unpredictable outcomes as a result of small differences in initial conditions. As a result, chaotic systems might appear predictable for a period of time, but then give way to uncertainty. Where meaningful predictions cannot be made, the system appears to be either random or ‘chaotic’.

Chaos theory might offer a helpful lens with which to consider the episcopal appointment of Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid, recently installed in a scene of utter chaos as the new bishop of Osorno, Chile (see the video above, in which protesters carrying black banners and balloons attempted to disrupt the liturgy and prevent the Bishop-elect from entering the Cathedral). Ordained an auxiliary bishop for the diocese of Valparaiso, Chile in 1995 (when he was just 38 years old), Bishop Barros had received new appointments in 2000 and 2004 without any apparent controversy. Not so, however, for the January 2015 decision, issued under Pope Francis, to appoint him as Bishop of Osorno.

Bishop Barros has not been accused of committing sexual abuse. Nor has he been accused of failing in his episcopal duties. Instead, the outcry over his appointment stems from accusations, which I have no reason to doubt, that he was complicit in abuse committed by another priest, Father Fernando Karadima. Some of the victims of Karadima, led by a fifty-one year old man named Juan Carlos Cruz, have made the following accusations against Barros, as reported in The New York Times.

Mr. Cruz and three other young men who were devoted followers of Father Karadima, and members of a Catholic youth movement he oversaw, accused him of sexually abusing them over two decades, starting when they were teenagers [other news reports indicate that the young men were between 14 and 17, so at least one was a minor given that the canonical age of majority at that time was 16]. Criminal charges were filed against the priest alleging abuse during the years 1980 to 1995, but a Chilean judge dismissed them in 2011, saying the statute of limitations had expired.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

BY JACOB BELTRAN, STAFF WRITER : APRIL 2, 2015

A Catholic priest was arrested Wednesday after police say he touched an officer’s crotch Wednesday afternoon on the North Side.

Rocky Henry Lee Grimard, 59, faces a charge of indecent exposure.

While working undercover, two park police covert unit officers were investigating illegal activities at Olmos Park, a police report stated.

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MINNESOTA
TribTown

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 01, 2015

NEW ULM, Minnesota — A judge has ruled that three people who claim they were sexually abused by priests can proceed with public nuisance claims against the Diocese of New Ulm in southern Minnesota.

Brown County District Judge Robert Docherty dismissed some counts in the two lawsuits in a ruling dated March 27. But he ruled that the public nuisance claims can go forward.

That’s significant because the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, successfully used the same novel legal strategy in other lawsuits against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to force Archbishop John Nienstedt and other officials to give sworn depositions and turn over documents.

New Ulm is the only Minnesota diocese that won’t release a full list of its priests that have been credibly accused of abuse, Finnegan said Wednesday. He pointed out that Nienstedt used to be its bishop.

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INDIA
The Hindu

The Puthenvelikkara police on Wednesday booked a priest for alleged sexual assault of a minor girl several times in the past few months. According to the police, the mother of a Class 9 student lodged a complaint against Fr. Edwin Figares, a priest with the Lourdes Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara.

“The mother, in her complaint, stated that the accused sexually assaulted her 15-year-old daughter several times over the past couple of months. A case has been registered and the probe has begun,” said sub inspector M.S. Shibu. According to the complaint, the girl revealed her ordeal to her mother on March 28. However, a spokesperson of the Verapoly diocese termed the charges “baseless and an act of revenge, done with an intent to tarnish the image of the priest who is well known for his service”. — Staff Reporter

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TEXAS
Fox 29

By JANICE CARPIO
Fox News San Antonio
Facebook: Janice Carpio
Twitter: @janicecarpio

SAN ANTONIO – Olmos Park police say 59 year old Reverand Rocky Grimard was arrested for allegedly exposing himself to an undercover officer.

“A park police officer was working undercover in plain clothes, the suspect approached the officer on a walking trail,” says Officer Misty Floyd, with the San Antonio Police Department.

Grimard is also an ordained priest and a chaplain for the Kennedy County Sheriff’s Office.

“He solicited sex after beginning a brief conversation, he also exposed himself and he grabbed the officer’s hand to make contact with himself,” says Floyd.

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INDIA
Kaumudi

KOCHI: A case of sexual abuse has been registered against a priest. The case has been registered against him for sexually abusing a ninth class student continuously for the past three months after inviting her to the parsonage of the church, where he was working as a priest.

The Puthenvelikkara police have registered a case against the priest identified as Fr Edwin Cigrace aged 41. The police were not able to trace him even after a search was conducted yesterday.

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GUAM
KUAM

By Jolene Toves

The leader of the island’s Catholic faithful addressed his flock last night, finally shedding light on his pastoral visit.

While he’s been noticeably silent on this and other controversies facing the church in recent history, he spoke from the pulpit and used his voice to call for unity from followers, reminding them of the virtue of forgiveness.

And the message seemed to be well received, as parishioners indicated a renewed sense of direction.

“In my pastoral visit, I have seen the suffering of our people and the longing to be healed and made whole again it is our strength. We are and must be supportive in this way and those who support us and work with us are here represented here today. I realize that many people are hurting and suffering and I myself have my share of pain this is our church and coming together which we must do allows us to get healed let us all help in the process we all make mistakes because we are all too human, but God is among us and always he is the one who can bring us together for healing.”

This was the message Archbishop Anthony Apuron shared with hundreds of the Catholic faithful who gathered Wednesday evening to participate in the Chrism Mass, an annual religious service in which the archbishop blesses the sacred oils for the catechumens, the oil for the sick and the oil of the chrism. As we have reported over the course of a year controversies have emerged from within the church to include the removal of Father Paul Gofigan as pastor of Santa Barbara Church in Dededo, and the removal of Monsignor James Benavente as rector of the Cathedral Basilica. But in last night’s the chrism mass both were present as the celebration which holds a special meaning.

Archbishop Apuron officiated jointly with all priests as a sign of their unity.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

[Journalist Juan Carlos Cruz launched a virtual campaign from the United States, where he lives, to demand the ouster of the new bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros. The bishop is accused of having covered up sexual abuse by priest Fernando Karadima. Connoted theater personalities, film and television made common cause with him around the message “Out Barros”.]

El periodista Juan Carlos Cruz inició una campaña virtual desde Estados Unidos, donde reside, para exigir la salida del nuevo obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros, al que acusa de haber encubierto los abusos sexuales del cura Fernando Karadima. Connotadas personalidades del teatro, el cine y la televisión hicieron causa común con él en torno al mensaje “Fuera Barros”.

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IRELAND
The Irish News

SINN Féin has urged anyone with information about the sexual abuse of children to contact police, after a deceased Catholic priest was accused of abusing “hundreds” of children in Newry.

The party was speaking after the Catholic Church confirmed that 11 allegations have been made against Fr Seamus Reid since 1997.

One person came forward before the priest, pictured right, died in 2001, with the rest of the claims being made since.

His case was also raised by Bishop John McAreavey during a report on the Diocese of Dromore carried out by the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children in 2011, although Fr Reid was not publicly named.

Claims have been made that some of the allegations relate to inappropriate touching, sometimes when children were attending confessions.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

April 2, 2015

Henry Belot
Canberra Times Reporter

A jury has found former Catholic priest Father Edward Evans, 85, not guilty of molesting a young girl in the kitchen of his Braddon home in the 1990s.

The verdict was delivered before Justice Richard Refshauge on the seventh day of an ACT Supreme Court trial, with jurors deliberating for more than eight hours.

The prosecution alleged Father Edward Evans put his hands down the girl’s pants to grab her bottom multiple times, and digitally penetrated her in his home.

He was also alleged to have touched her breast as they sat alone in a car outside a southside shopping centre, before pulling her on top of him into a straddling position.

Father Evans, who plead not guilty to the charges, was in his 60s at the time.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GARY MASON
VANCOUVER — Globe and Mail update (includes correction)
Published Tuesday, Mar. 31 2015

We may never understand the toll it took on John Furlong, but we can imagine. One minute you’re a hero, the toast of a country grateful and indebted for the role you played in orchestrating one of the greatest events ever to take place on Canadian soil. And then one day, you wake up to find yourself confronting the most odious allegation imaginable – that you sexually abused native children.

Mr. Furlong always denied the claims, but his protests of innocence played a bit part in the front-page stories and television reports that outlined the accusations of the plaintiffs. When three separate people file lawsuits against the same person, there has to be some truth to it, doesn’t there? Where there’s that much smoke, there’s always fire, no?

Except that, when the smoke cleared, all that was left was evidence that the damaging assertions made against the former CEO of the 2010 Winter Olympics were baseless.

On Monday, the third and final sexual-abuse case against Mr. Furlong was dismissed, as was a previous one. Another had already been dropped. By the end of the process, the lawyer who had been representing the three plaintiffs had withdrawn entirely. It was shown that one of the women was not even attending the school where Mr. Furlong was teaching in northern B.C. in 1969-70, when the incidents were said to have occurred. A second complainant simply abandoned her case. The last proceeding was dismissed after the accuser, a man with a criminal history of more than 50 convictions, failed to show up for the start of the trial.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THREE Catholic churches set alight in Melbourne in as many days were for decades the scenes of horrific sexual abuse inflicted on scores of children by notorious paedophile priests.

Police are investigating the cause of the string of suspicious blazes at buildings of worship as neighbouring churches increase security.

Early yesterday, emergency crews rushed to extinguish a blaze at St Mary’s in Dandenong a fire was lit on the church’s alter and another in the storeroom of the 151-year-old building.

The blaze is the third to be investigated at a historic Melbourne church in as many days, with St Mary’s Church in St Kilda East and St James’s Church in Brighton each gutted by flames after being set alight in the early hours of Monday morning.

Links to paedophiles at each of the Catholic churches have sparked suspicion of revenge attacks.

The Dandenong church, which sustained $250,000 worth of damages after firefighters battled for 90 minutes to extinguish the fire this morning, was presided over by convicted paedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell from 1958 to 1986.

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INDIA
Times of India

KOCHI: A case was registered against a priest for allegedly molesting a girl, police said on Wednesday.

The case against parish priest of Puthenvelikkara Lourdes Matha Church was registered based on a complaint by the mother of the class IX student.

Police said the priest, identified only by his first name Fr Edwin, was not arrested.

The girl’s mother alleged that the priest had been abusing the minor at the parish house since January.

“According to the complaint, the girl was called to the parish house several times between January and March. We have found that the girl used to go to the parish house. We are conducting further probe,” Puthenvelikkara police sub-inspector M S Shibu said.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho April 1, 2015

Episcopal installation Masses don’t usually involve teeming protesters, shouting matches, and popping balloons. But Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid’s did. Last Saturday, Barros was installed as bishop of Osorno, Chile, following allegations that he covered up for a sexually abusive priest who had been his mentor. “Barros, get out of the city!” chanted the demonstrators, waving black balloons. The bishop’s supporters tried to drown them out, brandishing white balloons. Some demonstrators attempted to climb the cathedral altar. The service was cut short, and Barros was escorted by police through a side door. Chile’s cardinals, along with most of its bishops, were not in attendance. Familiar with recent history, they knew it was going to be an ugly scene.

Four years ago, the Holy See found Fr. Fernando Karadima guilty of molesting minors, and ordered him to a life of “prayer and penance.” The Karadima case has been called the worst scandal ever to befall the Chilean Catholic Church. Karadima, now eighty-four, was once one of Chile’s most influential clerics. He ministered to the wealthy, and had strong ties to Chile’s elite. He developed a devoted following, molding the church’s future leaders. Four of his protégées, including Barros, later became bishops. Now, several of Karadima’s victims—once his devotees—say that Barros not only knew about the decades-old accusations and did nothing, but that he witnessed the abuse himself. Barros denies all of it, and refuses to resign.

After Barros’s appointment was announced in January, about thirteen hundred Chilean laypeople, including dozens of lawmakers, signed a petition seeking Barros’s removal. More than thirty clerics signed a letter asking the pope to reconsider his decision. Two Chilean bishops reportedly met with Francis to brief him on how difficult this has been for the local church. “The pope told me he had analyzed the situation in detail and found no reason” to remove Barros, the archbishop of Concepción, Fernando Chomalí, told the New York Times. Just before Barros’s installation service, the papal envoy to Chile announced that the bishop had his “confidence and support.”

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TEXAS
News 4

By JANICE CARPIO News 4 San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO – Olmos Park police say 59 year old Reverand Rocky Grimard was arrested for allegedly exposing himself to an undercover officer.

“A park police officer was working undercover in plain clothes, the suspect approached the officer on a walking trail,” says Officer Misty Floyd, with the San Antonio Police Department.

Grimard is also an ordained priest and a chaplain for the Kennedy County Sheriff’s Office “He solicited sex after beginning a brief conversation, he also exposed himself and he grabbed the officer’s hand to make contact with himself,” says Floyd.

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TEXAS
KENS

A priest was arrested in Olmos Park on allegations of indecent exposure Wednesday.

Rocky Grimard, 59, was arrested in Olmos Park.

According to the San Antonio Police Department, an on-duty park police officer in plain clothes was patrolling the park. The suspect approached the officer and made multiple sexual advances on the officer, both verbal and physical, according to police. The officer identified himself as a peace officer and the suspect was taken into custody.

SAPD would not confirm the name of the suspect until he was formally magistrated. The district clerk’s office confirms the man in the report is Grimard.

Grimard previously served as the director of the Oblate Renewal Center at Oblate School of Theology, according to the school. The school confirms he left two years ago and now works as at Lebh Shomea House of Prayer, a religious retreat center, in Sarita, Texas.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

NEW ULM, Minn. (AP) — A judge says three people who claim they were sexually abused by priests can proceed with public nuisance claims against the Diocese of New Ulm in southern Minnesota.

Brown County District Court Judge Robert Docherty dismissed some counts in the two lawsuits in a ruling dated March 27. But he ruled the public nuisance claims can go forward.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, successfully used the same strategy in other lawsuits against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to force top officials to give sworn depositions, including Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Finnegan says New Ulm is the only Minnesota diocese that won’t release a full list of its priests that have been credibly accused of child sex abuse. And Nienstedt used to the bishop in New Ulm.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

David Aaronovitch

Enoch Powell is the latest – conveniently dead – politician to be accused of awful crimes. This nonsense has to stop

As headlines go it was a belter. “Enoch Powell accused of satanic sex abuse,” the Mailreported at the weekend. “Bishop of Durham gave his name to Met detectives.”

Bishops are sedate and careful creatures, you might think, not given to being impulsive. If the Bishop of Durham (for it was he) passed on Enoch Powell’s name — along with those of Thatcher’s home secretary Willie Whitelaw and the Labour MP Leo Abse — to the authorities, then he must have had reason to do so.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: April 1, 2015

Judge ruled that diocese created ‘public nuisance’ by allowing suspected priests to serve parishes.

The Diocese of New Ulm must release its list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, under a ruling made by a Brown County judge last week.

New Ulm is the last diocese in the state to keep its list of priest offenders under wraps. The names were compiled in 2003, under a nationwide study by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, when now-archbishop John Nienstedt oversaw the diocese.

The ruling by Judge Robert Docherty came in response to lawsuits filed by attorney Jeff Anderson on behalf of alleged abuse victims of New Ulm priests. Docherty ruled the diocese created a “public nuisance” by allowing the priests to continue serving parishes even as it was aware of previous sexual misconduct that was not reported to police.

Anderson’s office soon will seek the diocese files and other documents related to the child sex offenders, said Mike Finnegan, an attorney with the Anderson law firm. The ruling will “have the same impact” as the decision by Judge John Van de North in Ramsey County in December 2013, which opened thousands of pages of clergy documents from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he said.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

4/1/2015

Court Rules That Survivors’ Public Nuisance Claims Against Diocese of New Ulm May Proceed

Order Will Help Protect Children, Expose Diocese’s Protection of Abusive Priests, and Scrutinize Archbishop Nienstedt’s Decisions Regarding Priest Information

(New Ulm) – Brown County District Court Judge Robert A. Docherty has ruled that three clergy sexual abuse survivors’ public nuisance claims against the Diocese of New Ulm can proceed. Judge Docherty’s March 27, 2015, order will help hold the Diocese of New Ulm accountable for protecting pedophile priests in the past and will help keep children safe in the future.

The Diocese of New Ulm is the only Minnesota diocese that has refused to release a full list of its priests that have been credibly accused of child sex abuse, or any documents regarding sexually abusive priests to the public.

“This order gives us the ability to uncover the dangerous practices of this diocese and make sure the community is better protected,” said Mike Finnegan, attorney for Doe 37, Doe 38 and Doe 10.

In 2014, Plaintiffs Doe 37 and Doe 38 filed suit against the Diocese of New Ulm, claiming that they were sexually abused as children by Father Michael Skoblik, a priest at St. Joseph’s Church in Silver Lake, Minn., in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while they were St. Joseph’s parishioners and altar boys. In a separate lawsuit filed in 2013, Plaintiff Doe 10 alleges that he was sexually abused as a child by Father Francis Markey, a priest at Church of St. Andrew in Granite Falls, Minn., in 1982, while he was a Church of St. Andrew parishioner. Both churches are in the Diocese of New Ulm. All three plaintiffs allege that the diocese created a public nuisance by concealing the histories of Fathers Skoblik and Markey, and other priest offenders, from the community.

In 2003-2004, then-Bishop of New Ulm John Nienstedt, current Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, compiled a list of 12 priests who had credible accusations of child sexual abuse, but refused to make the list public. Archbishop Nienstedt’s decisions surrounding that list and any clerics accused of abuse after the list was created will be scrutinized in these cases, Anderson said.

Contact: Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3523 Cell/612.205.5531
Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3523 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Bryant: Office/320.259.5414 Cell/800.359.0061

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Child sex abuse: Judges, MPs, media entertainers, actors, police and clergy implicated in Met Police corruption probe

LOULLA-MAE ELEFTHERIOU-SMITH Sunday 29 March 2015

The Metropolitan Police is being investigated over further allegations of corruption in relation to child sex offences dating back to the 1970s, including the claim that evidence gathered against MPs, judges, media entertainers, police, clergy and actors was dropped due to police intervention.

The fresh allegations are in addition to the 14 cases being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), revealed earlier this month, dating from the 1970s to the 2000s.

The three new investigations relate to allegations about police suppressing evidence, hindering or halting investigations, and covering up offences due to the involvement of members of parliament and police officers.

One case addressed the allegation that a child abuse investigation in central London, which gathered evidence against MPs, judges, media entertainers, police, actors, clergy, and others, was dropped. It has been claimed that two months after the file had been submitted to start proceedings against those identified, an officer was called in by a senior Met officer and told to drop the case.

The two further allegations relate to a child abuse investigation conducted in the 1980s, with one relating directly to police actions in the case.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

March 30, 2015 | Author: berger

There’s a new judge and a new prosecutor in the criminal child sex case against Fr. Joseph Jiang. Judge Dennis Schaumann has replaced Judge Jack Garvey, who recused himself. Prosecutor Molly Wayne has replaced Anne Kratky. Fr. Jiang, meanwhile, is still repped by Paul D’Agrosa, who’s come under fire for being part of the “old boys’ club,” a cozy group of lawyers who profit from “fixing tickets” and multiple overlapping roles as judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers in municipal courts. (D’Agrosa is a judge in Olivette and U. City and prosecutor in Arnold.)

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith posted Wednesday, 1 Apr 2015

The Vatican has made a huge unforced error and it doesn’t seem to realise it

What on earth is happening in the Diocese of Osorno, Chile? Quite a few observers are bewildered by the recent appointment of Bishop Juan Barros to the diocese.

Let us start with what happened when the newly appointed bishop was enthroned in his cathedral this Saturday last. A fight – yes, you read that correctly – broke out as His Lordship entered the cathedral, between the rival factions in the diocese, those who support the new bishop and those who oppose him.

This is hardly what you would expect to see in any church, let alone in a cathedral, let alone at the show of unity that the entry of a new bishop is supposed to be.

Moreover, one sees that no less than 30 priests and deacons of the diocese wrote to the papal nuncio to make clear to him that they did not want Bishop Barros as their bishop.

One thing is certainly clear: Bishop Barros, perhaps through no fault of his own, is a divisive figure. As bishop, he is meant to be the focus of unity. Even before he has started his time as bishop, he has failed. So, why was he appointed?

At this point things become murky. Bishop Barros was already Bishop of the Armed Forces, so this was a transfer, not a promotion. It seems he was a protégé of one Fr Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty of child abuse. While there is no suggestion that Mgr Barros is a child abuser, some allege that he was too close to Karadima and complicit in the cover up of Karadima’s crimes. He firmly denied this.

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BRAZIL
The Guardian (UK)

Jonathan Watts in Nova Friburgo and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Wednesday 1 April 2015

In a secluded monastery in south-eastern Brazil, a breakaway group of ultra-conservative Catholics gathered to participate in an act of rebellion against the pope.

The setting could hardly have been more tranquil: rolling green hills, purple-glory trees, palm leaves swaying in the wind and a temporary chapel made of breeze block walls and a tin roof left partially open to the elements.

But the 50 or so priests, Benedictine monks, nuns and other worshippers who file into Santa Cruz monastery on Saturday were no ordinary congregation. Hailing from Europe, the US and Latin America, they described themselves as a “resistance” movement against Vatican reforms.

In favour of Latin services – and fiercely opposed to ecumenism, freedom of religion and closer relations with Judaism – they had come to defy the authority of Rome with the ordination of a new priest by an excommunicated bishop, Jean-Michel Faure.

It was the second such ceremony in the past month: Faure was consecrated here without papal approval only two weeks ago by the Holocaust-denying British bishop Richard Williamson. In response, both clerics were automatically ejected from the church, but this has not stopped the group’s drive to build an unsanctioned clergy.

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BRAZIL
Reuters

Two renegade Catholic bishops plan to consecrate a new generation of bishops to spread their ultra-traditionalist movement called “The Resistance” in defiance of the Vatican, one of them said at a remote monastery in Brazil.

French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure, himself consecrated only two weeks ago by the Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson, said the new group rejected Pope Francis and what it called his “new religion” and would not engage in a dialogue with Rome until the Vatican turned back the clock.

Williamson and Faure, who were both excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church when the former made the latter a bishop without Vatican approval, are ex-members of a larger dissenting group that has been a thorn in Rome’s side for years.

Their splinter movement is tiny – Faure did not give an estimate of followers – but the fact they plan to consecrate bishops is important because it means their schism can continue as a rebel form of Catholicism.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 1

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

A controversial and archconservative Catholic group says it will grow in Brazil. We hope it doesn’t. And we urge citizens and Catholics to steer clear of this secretive and problematic group.

[Reuters]

Two ex-communicated and “traditionalist” Catholic bishops are trying to expand their sect, called “The Resistance” in Brazil. Its officials have a very troubling track record on children’s safety. Look no further than the disturbing case of Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity who was accused of sexually abusing at least four boys or young men in Pennsylvania between 2002-2004. At least two civil suits were filed and one of them was settled for $380,000. Until recently, Fr. Urrutigoity, of the Society of St. Pius X, was a high ranking church official in Paraguay.

[SNAP]

One of the prelates trying to recruit in Brazil is the Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson. The other is French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure. They’ve been associated with the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), “a larger ultra-traditionalist group that was excommunicated in 1988 when its founder consecrated four new bishops, including Williamson, despite warnings from the Vatican not to do so,” according to a Reuters news account.

[BishopAccountability.org]

We’re concerned about the behavior, not the beliefs, of Catholic officials. These bishops can think and feel however they like. They cannot, however, act however they like, especially if they endanger kids, help predators, and conceal crimes. That’s what we fear they have done, are doing and will do.

In our experience, the more rigid, hierarchical, male-dominated and secretive a religious institution is, the more likely it is that the safety of kids will be given a back seat while growth, reputations and careers will be given top priority.

Again, we beg parents to keep their kids away from this bunch. And we urge police and prosecutors to keep a close eye on them.

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INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 31

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com

The dispute over RFRA laws – in Indiana and elsewhere – involves more than adults with differing beliefs. It also involves innocent young kids and wounded adult victims who suffer when claims of “religious freedom” are used to protect clerics who commit and conceal heinous child sex crimes.

Time and time again, in civil courts across the US, unscrupulous church officials cite RFRA laws to block child sex abuse lawsuits and prevent records about child molesting clerics from being disclosed. These self-serving church officials – fixated on protecting their careers, comfort and reputations – exploit RFRA laws to make sure their reckless and callous decisions to hire, promote, transfer and protect child predators are not exposed or scrutinized.

We urge every lawmaker to resist pressure to vote for these bills. And we urge judges to help make sure that RFRA laws don’t help corrupt church officials keep hiding their complicity in child sex crimes.

Remember: In the US, we adults are free to believe whatever we want. But we’re not free to do whatever we want, especially when the safety of precious children and vulnerable adults is at stake.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

A century ago, Irish nationalists rebelled at Easter well aware they had a dominant Catholic Church behind them. Today, the Church in Ireland is in shambles. Significantly, a new rebellion emanating from Chile is now advancing on the Vatican. Catholic leaders and media flacks will dissemble and tout that 2/3rds of Chileans are Catholic (nominally). Yet a new poll indicates 3/4ths of Chileans have little trust in Catholic leaders and 9/10ths of them say Chileans have less trust now than they did a decade ago.

Pope Francis has had close personal and organizational ties to Chile for over a half century. Where will the Church there (and elsewhere) end up, even in the short term, under the pope’s current trajectory? As one informed observer noted, Chileans’ trust for their Church is in the basement and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Despite the pope’s artificially and transitory media star polling, the Vatican has a new crisis — the Latin American Church!

Yes, Pope Francis seems stuck in the basement and just keeps on digging, it appears. The illusory “vibrant Latino Church” is a myth. For much of the last few decades, Pope Francis and several of his clique of protégées of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, with their ties to right wing billionaires, have overseen its demise. And now right wing US billionaires are depending on Francis to deliver more of the US Latino vote next year for their “low tax/less regulation/least safety net” candidates like Jeb Bush. Good luck!

Francis is scrambling to find distractions from the Chile rebellion, including with over hyped Holy Week parades, and well timed government tax deals dictated mainly by prosecutorial pressures from Vatican financial scandals. The pope and a majority of his clerical picks will still control all Vatican finances. I had thought that Pope Francis’s “white” public relations’ balloon as the “happy pope” would float until this Christmas. By then, in the pope’s 80th year, it will have run out of air and he will have completed his fruitless and “family-less” Family Synods with little to show for it.

The Chilean rebellion (with its “black” balloons), that began in the Osorno Cathedral over the pope’s outrageous recent appointment of bishop Juan Barros, indicates that Pope Francis’ PR balloon may not make it to Christmas. He will be visiting the USA and the UN this summer and can now expect Osorno-like demonstrations there, perhaps led by Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of the sexual abuse that Cruz and others swear Barros condoned. Cruz now lives in Philadelphia where he is a key executive for a top global corporation.

Courageous UN leaders and political leaders in other nations like Australia, the UK, Chile, Ireland, et al., are already challenging the pope and his subordinates’ indefensible and ongoing records on protecting child abusers. By summer, USA leaders will likely be compelled to get on the bandwagon.

The sad, simple and undeniable truth is that Catholic bishops and priests worldwide will look at Barros’ promotion and now have clear confirmation that, despite all the pledges, policies, protocols, promises and panels, this pope is really no different than any who came before him, when the subject is protecting children, treating abuse survivors mercifully and holding bishops accountable for complicity on sexual abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.