SYRACUSE (NY)

The Post-Standard

by Hart Seely/The Post-Standard

Saturday June 20, 2009, 3:50 PM

About 170 people from parishes throughout Central New York came together today in Syracuse to formally petition the Syracuse Catholic Diocese to reconsider its plans for consolidating and closing local churches.

The group will pass petitions and make a direct appeal to new Bishop Robert J. Cunningham, asking him to call a moratorium on the reconfiguration program, until the decision-making process has been reviewed.

Today's meeting at the Bishop Harrison Center on Lancaster Avenue brought speakers from several parishes that have been consolidated or face imminent closure. Some spoke of frustration with the system and the negative impacts they believe it has had on the church.

SYRACUSE (NY)

News 10 Now

[with video]

06/20/2009 06:44 PM

By: Tamara Lindstrom

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- About 100 people gathered in Syracuse Saturday in an effort to stop the Catholic Diocese from closing more churches.

"What we object to in the strongest terms is shutting down a vibrant, financially strong Catholic community because we see that as a continuation of a retreat which Catholicism is now engaged in," said Peter Borre, chair of the Council of Parishes located in Boston. Borre has fought reconfiguration in Boston for five years, and was brought in to give the parishioners advice.

The Syracuse diocese has closed dozens of churches in the last three years, and more mergers and closings are in the works.

KENYA

Saturday Nation

By GITAU WARIGI, gwarigi@nation.co.kePosted Saturday, June 20 2009 at 18:10

Perverts have had a bad time this past week, which is just as well. They are a creeping menace. I am told they are considered the lowest of the low by even hardcore convicts. They are terribly humiliated by fellow inmates when they are sent to Kamiti or Shimo la Tewa prisons.

One of them was arrested recently when he foolishly presented himself at a Nairobi studio to collect photographs from a film he had sent to be developed. It contained pictures of naked women and – hello – children. I am on the prudish side, but I know very well that there is a thriving underground market for such pornographic enterprise in this country and beyond; it is something akin to the market for hard drugs.

No question about it: the Internet has been a revolutionary purveyor of every bit of information one can think of. This also means it can be used to transmit every kind of smut imaginable. ...

The august institution called the Catholic Church has been caught up in this messy mix. The

allegations affect a missionary and former columnist for this newspaper, Fr Renato Kizito. Simultaneously, the controversy over priests who have chosen to break with the church because of mandatory celibacy rules has been getting wide play.

As far as I know, a Catholic priest takes certain vows, one of which is celibacy. Nobody drags him into it. If along the way he loses the vision, it is quite hilarious to blame the church.

ASHEVILLE (NC)

Citizen-Times

Staff Reports • June 20, 2009 12:15 AM

ASHEVILLE — A court hearing for a former priest accused of deleting hundreds of child pornographic images from the home computer of his music minister has been continued until August.

The Rev. John Schneider is scheduled to have a probable cause hearing Aug. 14 on a felony charge of obstruction of justice. Schneider, 56, resigned from St. Eugene Catholic Church following his June 9 arrest.

A warrant states that Schneider entered the North Ridge Drive apartment of former music minister Paul Lawrence Berrell on May 18 and deleted hundreds of pornographic images of children “in secret and with malice” during a criminal investigation of Berrell.

KENYA

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Written By: Wangari Kanyongo, Posted: Sat, Jun 20, 2009

Beneficiaries of Kivuli Rehabilitation Centre ran by a Catholic Church priest at the centre of a child abuse scandal have come out to strongly defend their benefactor.

The beneficiaries under the umbrella of the Kivuli Old Boys Welfare Association (KOBWA) say the centre's founder Father Renato Kizito is being framed by his detractors.

The old boys who were joined by the children from the centre say that their image has been tarnished by reports that their benefactor has been sexually abusing some of them.

IRELAND

The Sunday Times (Philippines)

By Fr. Shay Cullen

It was not so much a “march of misery” than one of memories. There was plenty of both as many as five thousand people walked silently through the streets of the capital Dublin to the seat of the Irish government, Dail Eireann, to remember the thousands of children who suffered abuse in the more that 216 Irish institutions run by religious orders for 70 years until they were closed down in the late 1970s. I marched with them to remember and walk in solidarity and to join my voice to those who have vowed to defend children’s rights without compromise.

There were survivors on the march, the relatives of the victims and thousands of supporters. It was dignified and yet emotional. Christine Buckley, a survivor and campaigner for justice for victims of clerical abuse, spoke powerfully of the 10 years of struggle to have their voices heard, their suffering acknowledged and just recompense made. “This was the day they were all striving for,” she said. The long awaited Ryan Report on the history of child abuse in the Church-run industrial schools finally exposed the extent and severity of the physical, psychological, emotional and sexual abuse they suffered.

VATICAN CITY

Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(20 June 09 - RV) On Saturday Pope Benedict made a series of appointments.

He named Monsignor Damiano Marzotto Caotorta, under secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Msgr. Caotorta replaces Archbishop-elect Di Noia who has gone to fill the post of under secretary at the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

Also Saturday the Holy Father appointed Indian Divine Word Missionary Alex Thomas KALIYANIL Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bulawayo Zimbabwe.

The Archdiocese has been without a pastoral leader since the resignation of Archbishop Pius Ncube in 2007.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe Guardian

Nancy Pasipanodya

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:13:00 +0000

POPE BENEDICT XVI has appointed Indian Divine Word Missionary Alex Thomas Kaliyanil Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bulawayo Zimbabwe, replacing disgraced Archbishop Pius Ncube who stepped down in 2007.

The Archdiocese has been without a pastoral leader since Ncube's resignation. A fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, Ncube was forced to step down after he was accused of having an affair and fathering a son with a Ms Rosemary Sibanda.

The Archbishop elect, who was born in the Archeparchy of Changanacherry in India, has served as a missionary priest in Zimbabwe since 1987 when he was solemnly professed as a Divine Mercy Missionary. He was ordained a priest in 1988.

MISSOURI

Columbia Daily Tribune

A Moberly pastor was acquitted Tuesday in Boone County Circuit Court on a charge of second-degree child molestation.

James M. Wilson, 42, of Renick still faces a Sept. 14 trial in Randolph County on a kidnapping charge. Wilson, who is also the principal of Terrill Road Christian Academy in Moberly, was found not guilty by Associate Circuit Judge Larry Bryson on the molestation charge.

Wilson’s 16-year-old accuser told authorities Wilson took her in May 2008 from Moberly to a Columbia hotel, where she claimed that he fondled her. Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Scholz said Bryson determined certain aspects of the girl’s testimony were not credible.

LOS ANGELES (CA)

Los Angeles Times

By Duke Helfand

June 19, 2009

A former altar boy sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging that he was sexually abused by a priest in 1987 shortly before the priest fled to his native Mexico to avoid criminal prosecution over other molestation allegations.

The plaintiff, now 32, alleges that when he was 9 or 10, Father Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera molested him repeatedly at a Catholic church near downtown Los Angeles.

The lawsuit asserts that an official with the archdiocese later encouraged Aguilar-Rivera to leave Los Angeles after parents of several children from the parish reported similar abuse to church officials.

NEW YORK

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

By Howard Campbell

Associated Press

and Ryan Thompson

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A Brooklyn-based Pentecostal faith healer who has led crusades around the world was charged last week with sexually abusing a teenage girl in his native Jamaica.

Paul Lewis, of the The Messengers for Christ World Healing Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was charged with carnal abuse and indecent assault in an incident involving a 15-year-old girl in the western Jamaican city of Negril, police said.

Lewis, 45, made an initial court appearance on the charges but did not enter a plea. A judge ordered him held without bail.

VIRGINIA BEACH (VA)

The Virginian-Pilot

The Virginian-Pilot

June 19, 2009

By Ricardo Lopez

Virginia Beach police arrested a Sunday school teaching assistant Friday after reports of sexual abuse by a child in his class, police said in a news release.

Shea Mathew Huffman, 18, has been charged with custodial indecent liberties and forcible sodomy. Huffman worked at Calvary Assembly of God at 4925 Providence Road. The alleged abuse occurred from January 2008 until June 2009, police said.

NETHERLANDS

Expatica Netherlands

More than 400 cases of sexual abuse by clergy have been reported in the Netherlands since 1995

The Netherlands - The allegations were made on Friday night by television programme Zembla.

Among the victims are people who sought council from both Catholic priests and Protestant ministers.

The offenders include clergy holding a variety of functions and ranks.

VATICAN CITY

Catholic News Service

By John Thavis

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Formally opening the Year for Priests, Pope Benedict urged all priests to strive for holiness and said the ordained ministry was indispensable for the church and the world.

"The church needs priests who are holy, ministers who help the faithful experience the merciful love of the Lord and who are convinced witnesses of that love," the pope said at a prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica June 19.

At the same time, in an apparent reference to cases of priestly sex abuse, he warned of the "terrible risk of damaging those we are obliged to save."

NEW YORK

New York Daily News

BY Alison Gendar

DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

Saturday, June 20th 2009, 4:00 AM

A Brooklyn pastor was busted in his native Jamaica for having sex with a 15-year-old girl while a 14-year-old watched, authorities said yesterday.

The Rev. Paul Lewis, founder of the Messengers for Christ Ministries World Healing Center, was held without bail on charges of carnal abuse and indecent assault, Jamaican police said.

The Bedford-Stuyvesant evangelist was arrested Wednesday after witnesses saw him hanging out with the girls and then taking them to a hotel, police said. Lewis, 45, who was on the island for a crusade at a local church, is accused of offering the girls between $30 and $60 for the romp.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

Why is it that child sex abuse was more prevalent in Irish Catholicism than elsewhere? To answer that question it is necessary to go back to the Famine and examine how sex became a taboo, writes PATSY McGARRY

YOU MIGHT have seen that report on the RTÉ TV news last Monday from Charlie Bird in Mendham, New Jersey. There, they erected the first monument in the world to victims of clerical child sex abuse.

It is a 180kg basalt stone, in the shape of a millstone, with a chain running through it. An inscription attached reads, in those unequivocal words of Jesus from Matthew’s gospel, concerning those who would harm the young: “It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”.

The monument was inspired by a suicide, in October 12th, 2003, of 37-year-old James Kelly, who had been sexually abused as a child by a priest in Mendham. His abuser was Fr James Hanley, who had served at St Joseph’s parish in Mendham.

IRELAND

Irish Examiner

By Ryle Dwyer

Saturday, June 20, 2009

WHILE Eamon de Valera was dreaming of comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, young boys were being flogged and buggered by a sordid assortment of perverted clergy and depraved Christian Brothers.

He should have known what was going on, but he chose to ignore it, just as we are ignoring things now.

Edward J Flanagan, who was born near the Galway village of Ballymoe in 1886, emigrated to the United States in 1904. He studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1912 and went to minister in Nebraska. In 1917 he founded a home for homeless boys in Omaha, and later set up Boys Town about 10 miles outside the city in 1921.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

BRIAN KAVANAGH

CHURCH OF Ireland Primate Archbishop Alan Harper welcomed an audit report of church work with young people as good news for Irish children and those who work with them, at a time when the country is still reeling from the fallout of the Ryan report on child abuse in industrial schools.“It is important to say that there is a great amount of good news out there, a lot of positive things that need to be said, and it would be an enormous pity if the good news was, so to speak, blocked out by the enormous furore of the negative,” the archbishop said.

“That is not to minimise the negative experiences of those who have suffered in the past, except to say that isn’t the whole story, its only part of the story,” he added.

The archbishop was joined by Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews and representatives from youth agencies at the report launch in Church of Ireland House in Dublin yesterday.

UNITED STATES

The Irish Times

KEVIN CULLEN in Boston

AN AMERICAN watchdog group says it is preparing an American version of the Ryan report to document the abuse of children and young adults in institutions run by religious orders in the United States.

It says it is also building a pair of databases that will name Irish priests and religious who abused minors in Ireland.

Officials at BishopAccountability.org, the Boston-based group that grew out of the scandal of the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by priests that rocked the US Catholic Church seven years ago, said they were inspired to compile evidence of institutional abuse at some 1,000 institutions across the United States after reading the Ryan report.

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, said the Catholic Church in the US was modelled on the Irish Catholic Church. Indeed, at the turn of the 20th century, the vast majority of priests in the US were Irish. To this day, about two-thirds of American bishops are of Irish descent.

CANADA

Catholic Culture

June 19, 2009

The former webmaster of the northern Canadian Diocese of Mackenzie-Ft. Smith has pled guilty to internet child-pornography charges. Charles McGee-- who was also an attorney-- had been convicted twice for sexually assaulting young girls.

“When he was hired with us a year and a half ago, it was felt that it was a second-chance opportunity in a totally safe setting in terms of no contact with minors,” said Bishop Murray Chatlain, who apologized last month for the systemic abuse of Native American children in residential schools.

VATICAN CITY

Catholic Culture

June 19, 2009

This week's extraordinary meeting at the Vatican, in which the Pope and leaders of the Roman Curia conferred with a delegation of Austrian bishops, was called because the Pontiff is "upset over how [the Austrian bishops] have allowed rebellions and abuses to run free," reports Sandro Magister of L'Espresso. "The statement released at the end of the meeting didn't say so, but for two days in a row the Austrian bishops faced severe criticism," Magister continues.

KENYA

Daily Nation

By DOMINIC WABALA

Posted Friday, June 19 2009 at 20:14

Investigations into claims of sexual abuse of four boys by a Catholic priest entered their second day on Friday with one of the boys allegedly failing to implicate the cleric.

A senior police officer said that one of the boys claimed he could not recall being abused by the priest, Father Renato Kizito.

The three other boys are reported to have accused the priest, who runs a home for destitute boys, of sexually abusing them. But a police doctor’s medical examination of the four did not find any conclusive evidence that they had been sexually abused.

The alleged victims, aged 11, 17, 24 and 25 years, were scheduled to be examined again yesterday.

FLORIDA

ABC Action News

Reported by: Carly Timmons

Email: ctimmons@abcactionnews.com

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL -- A Tampa Pastor was arrested for lewd & lascivious molestation from a March 2007 incident.

In March 2007, Jose Dossantos unlawfully touched a 12-year-old female victim without her consent.

Dossantos was 40-years-old at the time and a church pastor.

UNITED STATES

Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

Friday, June 19, 2009

LIBERTY, Mo. (ABP) -- Southern Baptist ministers in three states facing molestation charges had recent days in court.

FLORIDA

TBO

TBO.com Staff

Published: June 19, 2009

A church pastor has been charged with lewd and lascivious molestation in connection with a March 2007 incident involving a 12-year-old girl.

Jose A. Dossantos, 42, of 7013 Early Gold Lane, Riverview, was arrested Thursday and released from jail today after posting a surety bond.

Jail records indicate Dossantos is the pastor of Potters House Church.

KENYA

allAfrica

Comboni Missionaries, the religious congregation of a priest accused of child molestation, has said it expects justice to prevail in the matter.

"We Comboni Missionaries are shocked and saddened by the accusations against one of our own priests, Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana. Fr. Kizito has been involved in many humanitarian projects for the good of the people of this country," the congregation said in a statement signed by the Provincial Superior, Fr. Mariano Tibaldo.

"We totally submit to the law of the country but we underline that no one is guilty until proven so. So let justice prevail. We likewise want to submit to the indications of the Holy See. In this difficult moment let Fr. Kizito feel we are near him with brotherly care.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE POPE has deplored acts of infidelity by priests and has called for “a frank and complete acknowledgment” of the Catholic Church’s weakness.

In what is being interpreted as an indirect response to the Ryan report, as well as to clerical sex abuse generally, he said yesterday that there had been “situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the church herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers”. ...

However one US victims’ group said yesterday that his words of sorrow “ring hollow”.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, said: “It’s tiresome again to see verbal Vatican posturing about clergy sex crimes devoid of any action whatsoever or any admission that the real issue remains: callous bishops who continue to recklessly and deceptively transfer sexually troubled priests to unsuspecting parishes.”

ARKANSAS

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

BY CHARLIE FRAGO

Posted on Friday, June 19, 2009

A 44-year-old Little Rock man should be allowed to revive a civil suit contending that he was abused more than three decades ago, his attorney argued before the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.

Paul Barre's suit against a former scoutmaster, the Boy Scouts of America and Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church was dismissed in 2007 by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Ellen Brantley because the three-year statute of limitations had run out.

Barre said he didn't remember the abuse he blamed on Charles Emmett "Chick" Hoffman Jr. until 2003, after work with a therapist allowed him to recover the repressed memory of being fondled and receiving oral sex at age 12 by Hoffman at a Scout camp.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor

THE RYAN Commission Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Institutions might not have been necessary if freedom of information legislation existed, according to Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly.

Speaking at a conference on the Freedom of Information Act organised by Public Affairs Ireland, she asked: “What might have been the outcome if 30 years ago, FoI legislation had allowed the public to rip away the secretive bureaucratic veils that hid the industrial schools and other institutions from clear view and exposed the practices therein?

“Leaving aside the abuse itself, a money trail might have uncovered the commercial exploitation of the children and the mismatch between State funding and the actual amounts parcelled out to the children by way of food, clothing and education.

IRELAND

Irish Independent

By D Vincent Twomey

Friday June 19 2009

Another by-product is the way politicians and secular commentators are using the present outrage to promote their own agenda

The media, including the Irish Independent, gave full coverage to my reference to the perpetrators of abuse in Catholic-run institutions as the "dregs of society" (in fact I added "of a certain kind"). This was when I took part in a lively debate on Radio Ulster about an article I had written. I regret very much this slip of the tongue, which has, understandably, caused offence. What was not reported was what I added almost immediately: "Don't forget, there were many other thousands of Religious who were doing extraordinary good work looking after the sick and educating a country that had been abandoned by [the British] government for 200 years."

The original article, together with the subsequent radio discussion, was an initial attempt to understand how such evil could become endemic in the institutions mentioned in the Ryan report and be tolerated by the society of the time.

SAN ANTONIO (TX)

Express-News

By Abe Levy on Jun 18, 09 12:51 PM

As the national body of Catholic bishops launched its spring meeting at a River Walk hotel Wednesday, a handful of protesters were denied access to deliver a letter of concern about pedophile priests in Ireland, a problem they believe the bishops have so far ignored.

Addressed to Cardinal Francis George, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the letter asks the bishops to condemn the child sex abuse scandal recently made public in an Irish government report -- and reveal any ties to the U.S. Catholic Church.

The letter questions specifically whether pedophile priests from Catholic orphanages, boarding schools and other residential programs in Ireland were sent to similar institutions in the United States only to contribute to the pedophile priest scandal here, which became widely known in 2001.

IRELAND

CathNews

Ryan Commission Report on abuse in institutions, Christian Brothers congregational leader, Br Philip Pinto, has called on the brothers to become "more human and compassionate" and to "seek forgiveness" from victims.

The 2,600 page report found that for decades rape was "endemic" in more than 250 Irish Catholic institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and that the Church protected pedophiles in its ranks from arrest.

In a letter sent to Christian Brothers throughout the world, Br Pinto said the report was "very critical" of many institutions, including those run by the Christian Brothers, and the findings "leave us all ashamed and humbled".

UNITED STATES

United Press International

Published: June 18, 2009 at 9:00 PM

WALTHAM, Mass., June 18 (UPI) -- Catholic schools in the United States may have had the same pattern of abuse revealed by the Ryan Report in Ireland, a Massachusetts group says.

BishopAccountability.org, based in Waltham, posted a list on its Web site of 12 Roman Catholic schools where teachers or other staff members have already faced charges of molesting children, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.

The Ryan Report documented years of sexual and physical abuse of boys and girls in institutions run by the Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy and other Catholic religious orders. While most of the abuse occurred years ago, the report has sparked a call to end the church's dominant role in education.

IRELAND

Irish Independent

By Brendan Keenan

Friday June 19 2009

AFTER the twin scandals of Anglo-Irish Bank and the Ryan report into institutional abuse, Ireland needs to restore its damaged international reputation by applying high standards of governance, a major cross-border economic conference heard yesterday.

Frances Ruane, director of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said it was an "unfortunate coincidence" that the evidence of wrongdoing at Anglo and the Ryan report came so close together.

"There is a real issue about restoring our reputation," she told the conference organised by InterTrade Ireland, the cross-border development body.

CALIFORNIA

City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling

Creator, City of Angels Blog

Plaintiffs claim new evidence shows defendant frequently received reports of molestation which were either never documented or the documentation was ‘lost.’ (- Judge granting new trial in Fresno this week)

Plaintiffs also question: If this new witness and his mother reported pedophile behavior in 1967, why is there nothing about the report in the files defendants turned over before the first trial?

A date for new trial should be set at a status conference in Fresno July 15th.

Trying to prevent the new trial, Defendant the Bishop of Fresno claimed since they turned over the name of this new witness during pretrial discovery, his testimony is hardly new evidence. Defendants say plaintiffs had plenty of time to find him and interview him before the March 2009 trial.

MIAMI (FL)

Miami Herald

Now that ex-priest Alberto Cutié is a married man, a honeymoon should be in the making for him and his bride Ruhama Buni Canellis.

Instead, the couple will battle in court with the bride's ex-boyfriend, who says they owe him $15,000 and that the newlyweds conspired with Biscayne Park cops to kick him out of the picture.

In a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Maxi Paulus Ratunuman, 44, says Biscayne Park police arrested him without cause on June 6 while he was installing floor tiles in a customer's house on Griffing Boulevard.

JAMAICA

Go Jamaica

Attorney-at-law Michael Erskine, who is one of the lawyers representing the international pastor arrested on allegations of engaging in sexual activities with two teenaged girls in Jamaica, says he will be seeking bail for his client.

Reverend Dr. Paul Lewis was remanded yesterday when he appeared in the Sav-la-mar Resident Magistrates Court in Westmoreland.

Mr. Esrkine says he will be making a bail application in the Supreme Court next week.

COUNCIL BLUFFS (IA)

KETV

COUNCIL Bluffs, Iowa. -- A pastor in Council Bluffs has been accused of sexually assaulting at least two women and one girl during the past six years.

An affidavit out of Pottawattamie County details allegations against Efrain Umana.

Umana was arrested in Lincoln and paid bond Thursday to be released from Pottawattamie County Jail, said Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilbur

JAMAICA

Dominica News

BY CMC

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - A United States-based Pentecostal pastor has been charged for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage girl in Jamaica.

Paul Lewis, 45, was questioned in the presence of his attorney Michael Erskine Wednesday and later charged with carnal abuse and indecent assault for an alleged incident involving a 15-year-old girl.

The pastor is accused of carrying out the act at a hotel in the western city of Negril.

Lewis, who was born in Jamaica but lives in New York, was arrested on Sunday just as he was about to preach at a crusade.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)

San Francisco Bay Guardian

By Rachel Buhner

The highly anticipated showdown between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the San Francisco Assessor-Recorders Office came to head June 16th in the Atrium conference room located at One South Van Ness. At stake is millions of dollars in revenue to the city, and perhaps the question of whether the Catholic Church will be able to hide hundreds of millions in assets from sexual abuse victims and other litigants.

Arguing in front of the Transfer Tax Review Board, the legal counsel for both the RCA and the Assessor-Recorder’s Office presented their respective cases with minimal theatrics. However, with the city estimating the total property values of the transferred parcels ranging anywhere from $210 million to $1.25 billion, and the potential transfer tax payout to be somewhere between $3 and $15 million – on top of increased property taxes as the properties are reassessed -- there was clearly at a lot at stake for both parties.

Each side began by offering arguments for and against the payment of the transfer taxes, with little new information being offered beyond previous filings. Using PowerPoint presentations, intricate graphs and convoluted Canon Law citations, the counsels presented their reasoning as to why the taxes are owed, or why the RCA should be exempt.

READING (PA)

Reading Eagle

They are more than naked, the girls lined up side by side while nuns taunt them about the most intimate parts of their bodies. Charity and mercy are missing in this asylum for girls caught kissing boys, for being raped or in some cases, for simply being too pretty.

While the nuns throw their taunts like so many darts, some of the girls cry; some stare through their tormentors, numb to the mistreatment.

In Peter Mullan's shattering film from 2002, "The Magdalene Sisters," scene follows scene in which the nuns humiliate, abuse and otherwise deny the humanity of a sampling of the 30,000 girls believed to have been persecuted in these Irish asylums over a century. The last Magdalene Asylum closed in 1996.

AUSTRALIA

Sydney Morning Herald

Paul Osborne

June 19, 2009 - 4:29PM

Anglican leader Archbishop Phillip Aspinall has called on all states to make it easier for child sexual abuse victims to sue churches.

Archbishop Aspinall's call comes in the wake of an independent report commissioned by his church which found it took on average 23 years for a victim of sexual abuse to report their abuse.

All states set a time limit, known as the statute of limitations, for abuse victims to bring their cases to court.

IRELAND

An Phoblacht

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

ONE of the most emotional demonstrations ever seen on the streets of Dublin was witnessed in Ireland and beyond these shores last week. Thousands of people who had been abused as children in institutions run by Catholic religious orders and by the state walked from Parnell Square to Leinster House on the eve of the Dáil debate on the Ryan Report.

The Ryan Report has documented a catalogue of horrific abuse of children stretching over decades and cover-up of that abuse by church and state. It has reopened the debate on the flawed 2002 deal between the Fianna Fáil/PD Government and the religious orders and it has led to calls for more support for the victims and action to aid children at risk today. Further revelations are expected in the forthcoming report on clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin diocese.

Speaking in the Dáil debate on the Ryan Report, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called for the establishment of an independent international audit of the assets of the religious orders responsible for systematic child abuse.

WASHINGTON (DC)

The Examiner

By: Maria Schmitt

Special to The Examiner

06/18/09 8:21 PM EDT

Three men have alleged in lawsuits that they were sexually abused decades ago by a Washington-area priest.

One of the alleged victims, George Thompson, now lives in Arizona. He said in his lawsuit that Joseph Dooley sexually abused him while Dooley was monsignor at St. John the Baptist Church in Silver Spring and Thompson was a teenage parishioner.

Thompson alleges the attacks occurred between 1963 and 1967.

Two other men, who do not want their names to be made public, allege in another suit that Dooley abused them while they were young parishioners of Dooley’s in the late 1950s through the mid-’60s at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Bethesda and Annunciation Catholic Church in Northwest Washington. One of the men says he served as an altar boy and was only 9 years old when the abuse started.

VATICAN CITY

The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: June 18, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI called on Thursday for a “frank and complete acknowledgment” of the “weaknesses” of priests and denounced those who did not honor their vows. It was the pope’s first statement on such matters since a state-appointed commission in Ireland last month reported “endemic” sexual and physical abuse in church-run residential schools there from the 1930s to the 1990s, when the last of the institutions closed.

AUSTRALIA

Sydney Morning Herald

June 19, 2009 - 10:44AM

Anglican leader Archbishop Phillip Aspinall has been called on to drop the time-limit defence blocking child sex victims from suing for abuse in church schools and parishes.

Brisbane priest, the Reverend Peter Shayler-Webb, will move a motion at this weekend's Brisbane Anglican synod calling for the church not to invoke the statute of limitations.

The motion says that the legal defence "works great injustice to victims of child sexual abuse by preventing them bringing cases, whether they have merit or not".

NEW YORK

The New York Times

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: June 18, 2009

ALBANY — The political education of Beth McCabe began a few years ago, when she took her turn at the microphone here during a Senate committee hearing on childhood sexual abuse.

As Ms. McCabe, a consultant for nonprofit groups, testified about being abused as a 10-year-old, and saw the pained reaction of elected officials in the hushed room, she had a kind of epiphany, she said: that maybe her personal story — painful and private for so many years — would have the power to change public policy.

It was a moment of pure insight, common to many of the volunteer advocates who have been trawling the Capitol hallways for months, lobbying for a bill that would permit adults to file suit over childhood sexual abuse that may have occurred long ago.

PENNSYLVANIA

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Friday, June 19, 2009

By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A veteran Catholic priest recently accused of a long-ago sexual assault was abruptly told to pack his belongings and leave his parish in short order, the pastor's lawyer said yesterday.

John P. Liekar Jr. said the Rev. David F. Dzermejko told him that a priest from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh "met with him, made the allegation and told him to get out. He had one hour to gather what he could and he had to get out on the street."

The diocese on Monday placed Father Dzermejko, 61, on administrative leave from Mary, Mother of the Church parish in Charleroi while an internal inquiry runs its course.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)

Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O'Reilly

Inquirer Staff Writer

A nephew of the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor says he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest while a student at Father Judge High School in Northeast Philadelphia.

Attorneys for Rich Green, O'Connor's 31-year-old nephew, announced yesterday that they were filing a lawsuit in Delaware against the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, whose Wilmington-Philadelphia Province dispatches teachers to schools from Boston to Florida.

The suit alleges that the late Rev. John M. McDevitt, an Oblate, abused Green in the early 1990s when Green was a 14-year-old freshman at Judge and McDevitt was his religion teacher.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)

Philadelphia Daily News

By ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH

Philadelphia Daily News

sbarned-smith@phillynews.com 215-854-5926

When Jack McDevitt made his farewell speech to Philadelphia City Council in June 1962 before beginning his studies for the priesthood, his mother cried tears of happiness.

"He was destined to be a priest since he was an infant," she said in a Daily News article at the time.

And a fellow councilman said: "I've never seen him angry. . . . I know he'll be a very fine priest."

But John M. McDevitt Jr.'s legacy became clouded yesterday when a Salem County, N.J., man filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, molestation and physical abuse by the priest, who died in 1999 at age 75.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)

RTÉ News, Six One News

June 15, 2009

By Charlie Bird

[With photos of the monument. A BishopAccountability.org transcript of RTÉ News report.]

Sharon Ní Bheoláin: The Catholic church in the United States has paid out billions of dollars in compensation to the survivors of child abuse. One town, Mendham in New Jersey, where a local priest abused over 20 children back in the early 80s. Our Washington correspondent, Charlie Bird, reports from Mendham, where the local people have built a memorial to the survivors.

Charlie Bird: This is the picturesque town of Mendham in New Jersey, about an hour from New York. In the early 80s the community of 5,000 people was rocked by one of the biggest abuse scandals to hit the Catholic church in the United States. It emerged that a local priest, Father James Hanley, had been abusing children in his care for years.

“It will be better [for] that person to have a millstone hung around his neck and thrown into the depth of the sea.”

Pat Serrano: That’s correct, and it’s true, I wish we had some millstones. I will say, we did have forget-me-nots here, the day of the dedication, and we want to show all victims that we will not forget them.

Bird: Pat Serrano’s son Mark was the first to break his silence on the abuse. In October 2003, another abuse victim, Jim Kelly, took his own life, and as a result of his death, some of the survivors and their families decided to erect a memorial in the form of a millstone.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)

RTÉ Radio 1, Morning Ireland

June 15, 2009

By Charlie Bird

[BishopAccountability.org transcript of RTÉ Radio 1 report.]

Aoife Kavanagh: One of the recommendations of the recent Ryan report on child abuse was that some consideration should be given to an appropriate memorial here. Well, in Mendham, New Jersey, in the U.S. they have their own tribute to the victims who suffered at the hands of Catholic priests. Our Washington correspondent, Charlie Bird, has been to Mendham to see the memorial.

Charlie Bird: Pat Serrano, we’re here at St. Joseph’s in Mendham in New Jersey. We’re looking at a millstone, and it says, the dedication says, this millstone is dedicated to victims of sexual abuse at St. Joseph’s and everywhere as a tribute to their survival, a mark of our deep respect, and as a symbol of our commitment to their healing. Jesus said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will refresh you. Tell me about the significance of this millstone.

Pat Serrano: This church, St. Joseph’s in Mendham, had many many boys who were abused by a pastor between 1972 and ’82. My son Mark was abused from age 9 to 16 by Father James Hanley, and Mark went through many many troubled years, as they do, but in 2002, his story was in the New York Times, which brought out many many of the other survivors. In October of 2003, Jim Kelly, one of three brothers who were abused by James Hanley, went under a train in Morristown. And at the funeral, Bill Crane, from Oregon, another survivor, wanted a tribute, and he thought of the millstone, and it was made in Oregon from a piece of basalt, brought here, and put here at St. Joseph’s, thanks to Father Ken Lasch, who was the pastor at the time. And it is a great symbol to survivors who can make it through the horrors of their childhood abuse, and they stole their souls when they were children. But this millstone brought this hunting grounds of Hanley to a healing place, and finally, a hallowed place.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)

KYW

by KYW's David Madden

A lawsuit has been filed in Delaware on behalf of a former student at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia who alleges a priest molested him while in his freshman year in 1991.

The suit contends the late Father John McDevitt coerced then-14-year-old Richard Green -- a nephew of deceased New York Cardinal John O’Connor -- in the 1990-91 school year. Green,now 31, is represented by attorney Michael Reck. As for McDevitt:

"He threatened him with low grades in his religion class in order to entice him into private tutoring sessions, and during the private tutoring sessions, he proceeded to sexually abuse the plaintiff."

MILWAUKEE (WI)

Today's TMJ4

Mick Trevey

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Archdiocese publicly lists Father Joseph Collova as a likely sexual abuser and removed him from ministry. Now, a different church plans to ordain Collova a bishop.

In the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Collova was removed from ministry over the abuse allegations. He was eventually excommunicated from the Catholic Church. This weekend, the Chicago-based American Apostolic Church plans to install Collova as a bishop in Milwaukee.

Collova maintains he did not abuse anyone. He was not convicted in court.

However, the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests is upset over Collova's upcoming ordination. "It’s extremely disturbing," said Peter Isely. who is a local leader of the Network. "What he did was so heinous that they will never ever allow him to be a Catholic priest and around children and families in parishes ever again," Isely said.

MIAMI (FL)

Virtue Onlinei

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue

www.virtueonline.org

6/17/2009

The frenetic media attention surrounding telegenic former Roman Catholic priest Fr. Alberto Cutie's flight from his church to The Episcopal Church and thus breaking his vows, the church's rule of celibacy and then marrying his divorced girlfriend, missed the real story.

Cutie is not the first priest to leave the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of celibacy. He certainly won't be the last, but he is certainly one of the first to leave it so publicly while acknowledging an affair with a formerly married woman and then being accepted into another Christian denomination - The Episcopal Church - where he has been made more welcome than the Prodigal Son.

Over the years, thousands of priests have left the Catholic Church unable to handle celibacy, but they did so quietly without causing scandal, giving no offense to their superiors, and choosing to be laicized while still remaining faithful Roman Catholics. I have met quite a number and they are embarrassed and angry by Alberto Cutie's behavior. His celebrity status has only aggravated the situation.

Cutie's sudden reception into The Episcopal Church by the ultra-liberal Episcopal Bishop of Southeast Florida, The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, is the real scandal.

TROY (OH)

Dayton Daily News

By Nancy Bowman

Staff Writer

Updated 3:43 PM Thursday, June 18, 2009

TROY— A Tipp City area man charged this week with rape and gross sexual imposition for alleged acts against a girl under age 13 served as a youth leader and director of children’s church at Vandalia Baptist Temple, a Miami County sheriff’s detective said.

Shawn P. Rickert, 38, is being held in the county jail on $105,000 bail set Tuesday, June 16, in county Municipal Court.

He faces one felony charge of rape and eight felony charges of gross sexual imposition. He is accused of sexual conduct and sexual contact with the child beginning in 2005, when she was under age 13, according to investigative reports.

MIAMI (FL)

Miami Herald

BY JAWEED KALEEM

jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com

A man who says he is the ex-boyfriend of Ruhama Buni Canellis, the newlywed wife of former priest Alberto Cutié, is suing the couple and the Biscayne Park Police Department.

In a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Maxi Paulus Ratunuman, 44, says Biscayne Park police arrested him without cause on June 6 while he was installing floor tiles in a customer's house on Griffing Boulevard in Biscayne Park. The reason: Ratunuman, who the lawsuit says lived with Canellis in the Biscayne Park area for three years and helped raise her teenage son, had information ''that would bode badly'' for the her and Cutié, who wanted to get him out of the picture.

County records show that Biscayne Park police Officer Antonio Sanchez, named in the suit along with Officer Raimundo Atesiano, arrested Ratunuman on trespassing charges.

DELAWARE

Examiner

Trina Hoaks

Atheism Examiner

Richard Green, a 31-year-old man, is claiming that he was "repeatedly" sexually abused by a priest when he 14. According to an Associated Press report, Green, who is the nephew of the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor, filed suit in Delaware on Thursday.

Green said that he was molested by the now deceased priest Rev. John McDevitt. Reportedly, he was blackmailed to submit to sessions of time spent alone with the priest under the guise of tutoring. McDevitt supposedly knew that Green was the nephew of the late cardinal and threatened to give him a low grade in religion if he did not attend the "tutoring" sessions.

Green was attending Father Judge High School in Philadelphia when the alleged abuse is said to have occurred.

KENYA

Daily Nation

By LUCAS BARASA

Posted Thursday, June 18 2009 at 22:30

Two employees of an organisation linked to embattled Catholic priest Renato Kizito were sacked on Thursday as police confirmed receiving complaints against him. In an advertisement in the Nation, Koinoina Community announced that it had severed ties with Mr Michael Ochieng’ and Mr Michael Omondi Owiso.

“We wish to advise all our esteemed partners and the public in general that the following persons are no longer trustees and/or employees of Koinoina community and are therefore not authorised to transact any business on behalf of the community or using the name of the community,” the advert said.

The two are suspected to have blown the whistle on the priest’s alleged sexual abuses. Yesterday, deputy police spokesman Charles Wahong’o, who on Wednesday denied that there were any complaints against Fr Kizito, made an about-turn, saying CID headquarters at Mazingira House had recorded reports.

KENYA

nuovi sacerdoti: l'informazione libera

(ASCA-AFP) - Nairobi, 17 giu - La polizia kenyana ha annunciato l'apertura di un'inchiesta su accuse di pedofilia nei confronti di un prete cattolico italiano residente da piu' di 20 anni nel Paese africano e che smentisce categoricamente tali accuse.

Il caso e' stato provocato dalla trasmissione lunedi' di un reportage su un canale televisivo kenyano contenente testimonianze di presunte vittime di padre Renato ''Kizito'' Sesana, personaggio assai conosciuto in Kenya per le sue attivita' di missionario.

''Abbiamo sentito parlare di questo caso nei media. E' stata aperta un'inchiesta per verificare le accuse. E' un caso grave'', ha detto ai giornalisti il vice portavoce della polizia del Paese africano, Charles Owino Wahongo, precisando di non avere ancora ricevuto alcuna denuncia.

[translation]

Kenya: an Italian priest is being investigated for pedophilia

(ASCA-AFP) - Nairobi, June 17 - The Kenyan police have announced the

opening of an investigation after a catholic priest, who has been a resident there for more than 20 years, was accused of pedophilia. The priest denies categorically the truthfulness of those accusations.

Everything started when in a Kenyan TV reportage on Monday were heard the alleged victims of Father Renato "Kizito" Sesana, a very known figure in Kenya for his missionary activities.

''We heard about this case through the media. We opened an investigation to verify if the accusations are true. It's a very grave case", the vice spokesman of the Police in that African

country, Charles Owino Wahongo, said to the reporters, specifying that no formal charges had been received, yet.

The missionary. a former journalist about sixty-years-old, has disdainfully denied the truthfulness of the accusations made yesterday during a press conference.

''I never sodomized any child, neither in Kenya nor anywhere" he said. In his opinion, those charges were invented by "people who want to smear my name.These people want to get my property and my possessions".

KENYA

The Standard

By Lucianne Limo and Cyrus Ombati

Five boys who have accused Catholic priest Fr Renato Kizito Sesana of sexual abuse have recorded statements with police.

Consequently, police are expected to summon Kizito.

The boys recorded statements at CID headquarters last week, in the company of their lawyer Stephen Kibunja.

KENYA

Kenya Broadcasting Corportation

Written By:Naisula Lesuuda/Rose Kamau , Posted: Thu, Jun 18, 2009

The Catholic Church faithful in Kenya have come out to strongly defend the integrity of the church and to support Archbishop Cardinal John Njue on the church's stand on celibacy.

This comes amidst allegations of sexual abuse facing a member of the church's clergy.

The lay people have expressed their displeasure at negative reports about the Catholic Church, which they say are diverting the church's energy and resources from evangelization.

KENYA

Voice of America

By Derek Kilner

Nairobi

18 June 2009

Kenya's powerful Catholic church has been rocked by allegations that an Italian priest long active in the country molested children for which his organization was responsible. The priest denies the charges, saying he is a victim of extortionists.

Kenyan Deputy Police Spokesman Charles Owino says investigations will begin into allegations that Renato Sesana, an Italian Roman Catholic priest known as Father Kizito, sexually abused boys staying at homes for street children that the priest operates in the country.

The allegations, made by alleged victims and their relatives on the KTN television channel, have dominated the week's headlines in the deeply religious country. However, Owino says that no formal complaints had yet been made.

NEW YORK

The Wall Street Journal

By SUZANNE SATALINE

A man who says in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that he is the nephew of Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor, the former head of the New York archdiocese, states in the suit that he was molested by a priest while attending a Catholic high school in the early 1990s.

Richard F. Green, 31 years old, and a resident of New Jersey, says in the complaint, filed in Superior Court in Wilmington, Del., that the priest knew he was related to the cardinal and used that information to intimidate the teen.

Mr. Green filed the complaint under a window, created by the Delaware legislature, that lifted the statute of limitations on civil suits and allowed alleged victims of childhood abuse two years to sue. More than 60 suits had been filed as of last week. New York state lawmakers are considering creating a one-year window.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Valley Independent

By Michael Hasch, For The Valley Independent

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Last updated: 12:39 pm

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has placed the longtime pastor of a Charleroi parish on administrative leave while it investigates allegations that he sexually abused a minor more than 20 years ago.

The Rev. David Dzermejko, 61, who has served for 18 years at Mary, Mother of the Church, was placed on leave Monday after the diocese determined there was "some semblance of truth" in the allegations, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese.

Dzermejko, who has denied the allegations, remains pastor but will not perform any pastoral duties until a full investigation by the diocese has been completed, Lengwin said Wednesday.

MENDHAM (NJ)

Recorder

“For Pete’s Sake,” a 75 minute presentation of the life of Joseph Capozzi, who wrote the play about his experiences, will be performed at 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, at the Grace Lutheran Church, 65 East Main Street, Mendham. This one-act play is about the effects of clergy sexual abuse on a victim. A donation of $20 is requested and all proceeds will benefit Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey. For advance tickets or more information, call Rev. Robert Hoatson at (862) 368-2860.

UNITED STATES

BishopAccountability.org

This webpage provides a sample of Catholic residential institutions in the United States where sexual abuse of minors has been alleged. Many aspects of the allegations in these cases will be familiar from the Ryan report on abuse in Irish institutions. For example:

• In Washington State, the Christian Brothers of Ireland settled with two dozen alleged victims in a single residential school.

• In Wisconsin, the director of a school for the deaf admitted to sexually abusing at least 30 boys and may have molested 200 or more.

• In Vermont, church officials settled with 75 men and women alleging physical and sexual abuse of shocking brutality at an orphanage.

• In Kentucky, an order of nuns settled with 45 men and women alleging physical and sexual abuse at another orphanage.

The large numbers of alleged victims, the horrific nature of the abuse, and the advantage taken of entirely vulnerable children in 24-hour care, all link these U.S. cases unmistakably with the Irish situation. Ireland’s system of Catholic residential institutions for children was centralized and state-financed, whereas in the United States, almost every diocese had its orphanages, residential schools for the handicapped, and minor seminaries. Both systems endured into the 1980s.

DELAWARE

WDEL

By Peter MacArthur

The nephew of former New York Cardinal John O'Connor is in Delaware, claiming he was abused by a priest and ready to sue under Delaware law.

Rich Green says he was molested by Father John McDevitt while a student at a Pennsylvania Catholic high school. Delaware law allows Green to sue here because he claims Delaware church leaders knew McDevitt was a child molester from his time working at Salesianum High School in Wilmington.

That same law leaves open the window for alleged victims to sue no matter when they were abused.

VATICAN CITY

Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Posted By: Damian Thompson

Pope Benedict XVI today called for a "full and complete acknowledgment" of the sins of the clergy, in a letter to priests which recognises that nothing less will enable the Church to restore its battered reputation.

Here's a good summary of its contents, by Cindy Wooden of the Catholic News Service. Some critics will no doubt complain that the Pope has balanced his reference to bad priests by defending "the great majority of priests". But why shouldn't he?

The majority of priests are innocent, good men. One of the many terrible consequences of the crimes of sexually incontinent clergy is that they cast a shadow over virtuous colleagues. There are times to thank priests for their sacrificial ministry, and this is one of them.

TRENTON (PA)

Bucks County Courier Times

By: DANIELLE CAMILLI

Bucks County Courier Times

TRENTON - A former priest and teacher was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison Wednesday for possessing child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said.

Joseph E. Macanga, 55, of Lumberton, was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release upon the completion of his prison term. U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper allowed Macanga to remain free on a $100,000 bond, pending his surrender to U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials on a date to be determined by prison authorities.

Macanga served as a priest and teacher at the Church of St. Andrew in Newtown and Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia among others in Pennsylvania and New Jersey including Lumberton Middle School.

SAN ANTONIO (TX)

KSAT

SAN ANTONIO -- Protesters were out in full force today at a downtown hotel, where hundreds of Catholic bishops are holding their annual summer meeting. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, held a demonstration outside of the downtown Hyatt Regency Wednesday afternoon.

Members of SNAP talked about the turmoil that is currently going on in Ireland, over a Government report that details decades of abuse in church-run orphanages there. ...

Another group, BishopAccountability.org, also released a list of what they call "troubled U.S. Catholic orphanages." The Saint Anthony High School Seminary, located here in San Antonio, is on that list.

VATICAN CITY

Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church must acknowledge that some priests have done great harm to others, but it also must thank God for the gifts the majority of priests have given to the church and the world, Pope Benedict XVI said.

In the face of scandal, "what is most helpful to the church ... is not only a frank and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of her ministers, but also a joyful and renewed realization of the greatness of God's gift" of the priesthood, the pope said in his letter for the Year for Priests.

Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests, the yearlong focus on priestly ministry was to begin June 19.

VATICAN CITY

Ireland Online

18/06/2009 - 12:18:58

Pope Benedict XVI has deplored acts of infidelity by priests and has called for a “frank and complete acknowledgement” of the Catholic Church’s weakness.

Benedict didn’t specify the clerical sex abuse scandal that has convulsed the church in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere.

But in a letter today to priests marking the start of the Vatican’s Year of the Priest, Pope Benedict said the church had suffered greatly from the actions of some priests and that many around the world had found reason to reject the church as a result.

PENNSYLVANIA

Tribune-Review

By Michael Hasch

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has placed the longtime pastor of a Washington County parish on administrative leave while it investigates allegations that he sexually abused a minor more than 20 years ago.

The Rev. David Dzermejko, 61, who has served for 18 years at Mary, Mother of the Church parish in Charleroi, was placed on leave Monday after the diocese determined there was "some semblance of truth" in the allegations, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese.

Dzermejko, who has denied the allegations, remains pastor but will not perform any pastoral duties until a full investigation by the diocese has been completed, Lengwin said Wednesday.

VATICAN CITY

Vatican Radio

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Proclaiming a Year for Priests

on the 150th Anniversary of the Dies Natalis

of the Curé of Ars

Dear Brother Priests,

On the forthcoming Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19 June 2009 – a day traditionally devoted to prayer for the sanctification of the clergy –, I have decided to inaugurate a “Year for Priests” in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the “dies natalis” of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests worldwide. This Year, meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world, will conclude on the same Solemnity in 2010. The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”, the saintly Curé of Ars would often say. This touching expression makes us reflect, first of all, with heartfelt gratitude on the immense gift which priests represent, not only for the Church, but also for humanity itself. I think of all those priests who quietly present Christ’s words and actions each day to the faithful and to the whole world, striving to be one with the Lord in their thoughts and their will, their sentiments and their style of life. How can I not pay tribute to their apostolic labours, their tireless and hidden service, their universal charity? And how can I not praise the courageous fidelity of so many priests who, even amid difficulties and incomprehension, remain faithful to their vocation as “friends of Christ”, whom he has called by name, chosen and sent?

I still treasure the memory of the first parish priest at whose side I exercised my ministry as a young priest: he left me an example of unreserved devotion to his pastoral duties, even to meeting death in the act of bringing viaticum to a gravely ill person. I also recall the countless confreres whom I have met and continue to meet, not least in my pastoral visits to different countries: men generously dedicated to the daily exercise of their priestly ministry. Yet the expression of Saint John Mary also makes us think of Christ’s pierced Heart and the crown of thorns which surrounds it. I am also led to think, therefore, of the countless situations of suffering endured by many priests, either because they themselves share in the manifold human experience of pain or because they encounter misunderstanding from the very persons to whom they minister. How can we not also think of all those priests who are offended in their dignity, obstructed in their mission and persecuted, even at times to offering the supreme testimony of their own blood?

There are also, sad to say, situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the Church herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers. Then it is the world which finds grounds for scandal and rejection. What is most helpful to the Church in such cases is not only a frank and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of her ministers, but also a joyful and renewed realization of the greatness of God’s gift, embodied in the splendid example of generous pastors, religious afire with love for God and for souls, and insightful, patient spiritual guides. Here the teaching and example of Saint John Mary Vianney can serve as a significant point of reference for us all. The Curé of Ars was quite humble, yet as a priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people: “A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy”.

VATICAN CITY

The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI deplored priests who were unfaithful to their vows and called Thursday for a "frank and complete acknowledgment" of the Catholic Church's weakness in a letter to priests around the globe.

The letter was the first public statement from Benedict since an independent commission in Ireland issued a report last month detailing "endemic" molestation and rape at church-run boys' facilities and ritualized beatings at girls' schools from the 1930s to the 1990s.

Benedict didn't specifically address the clerical sex abuse scandal that has convulsed the church in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere. But he was clearly referring to the scandal in saying there had been "situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the church herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers."

IRELAND

Herald

By Claire Byrne

Thursday June 18 2009

It was April 2005 and I was in Rome covering the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II as a television reporter. Over the course of a number of evenings, I interviewed a man of the Church for the live broadcasts which were beamed back to Ireland.

It was clear that he was a learned man and one who knew the business end of the workings of the Catholic Church inside and out. He had spent a great deal of his early working career in the Vatican and although he was living back in Ireland then, it was clear that he was at home in Rome and at the centre of its inner circle.

Burden

I have asked myself since, did Archbishop Diarmuid Martin know at that time, the burden, that four years later, would be visited upon him? Was he aware as we stood under the television lights at the Vatican that in 2009, the very future of the Catholic Church in Ireland would rest very firmly on his shoulders?

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen

Globe Columnist / June 18, 2009

She lives in a city north of Boston but grew up in Ireland, when it wasn’t green as much as it was black and white.

When she was 7, her mother died, and the father she knew as warm and kind grew cold and mean.

When she was 14, her father put her on his bicycle and pedaled 25 miles, to a convent.

“The nuns were nice until my father left,’’ she said. “I don’t remember saying goodbye to my father.’’

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen

Globe Columnist / June 18, 2009

She lives in a city north of Boston but grew up in Ireland, when it wasn’t green as much as it was black and white.

When she was 7, her mother died, and the father she knew as warm and kind grew cold and mean.

When she was 14, her father put her on his bicycle and pedaled 25 miles, to a convent.

“The nuns were nice until my father left,’’ she said. “I don’t remember saying goodbye to my father.’’

PENNSYLVANIA

New York Post

By DAN MANGAN and CATHY BURKE

A nephew of the late John Cardinal O'Connor was abused by a perverted priest who targeted him when he was a teen attending a Catholic high school, an explosive new lawsuit claims.

Richard Green says his nightmare unfolded when he was a 14-year-old freshman at the Philadelphia school.

The suit charges the abuse continued even as school and church officials engaged in a "conspiracy of silence" to cover up the sick history of the Rev. John M. McDevitt, a religion teacher.

Worse, McDevitt used Green's close relationship to O'Connor "to get power over him," forcing the teen into accepting his tutoring, lawyer J. Michael Reck said.

CANADA

Winnipeg Free Press

By: Staff Writer

THE Catholic Church in Canada is partnering with First Nations to raise millions of dollars to help survivors of residential schools.

The Moving Forward Together campaign announced this week is co-chaired by Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber and Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

They aim to raise $25 million over the next five years to develop various educational and healing programs on reserves across the country.

ARIZONA

AZ Family

PRESCOTT - The following is a release from the Prescott Police Department:

On June 16, 2009 Prescott Police Detectives arrested 20-year old Kingman resident Patrick West-Owens for three counts of Sexual Assault, three counts of Sexual Abuse and one count of Indecent Exposure.

West-Owens accompanied a church group from Kingman to an event at the Camp Yavapines located at 2999 Iron Springs Rd. While at the Camp, he spent the night in a cabin with a Kingman family he has known. While the family slept, he lured an 8-year old female into his bunk where he coaxed her into various sex acts.

Upon the family learning the following morning of what transpired from the 8-year old girl, they transported West-Owens back to Kingman and returned to the Prescott camp where police learned of this incident. After further investigation, detectives went to Kingman where they located West-Owens and interviewed him about this incident. After the interview, they placed him under arrest and transported him the Yavapai County Camp Verde Jail where he was booked.

PRESCOTT (AZ)

ABC 15

PRESCOTT, AZ -- Prescott police detectives arrested a 20-year-old Kingman man Tuesday for allegedly engaging in sexual acts with an 8-year-old girl during a church camping event.

According to a Prescott Police Department press release, Patrick West-Owens was charged with three counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual abuse and one count of indecent exposure.

Police said the suspect accompanied a church group from Kingman to an event at Camp Yavapines located in the 2900 block of Iron Springs Road in Prescott.

AUSTRALIA

The Age

Larine Statham

June 18, 2009 - 4:09PM

A serial pedophile could be jailed indefinitely if prosecutors can convince an Adelaide court he remains unable to control his sexual urges.

Colin Charles Humphrys is awaiting sentencing over a two-year sexual relationship he formed with a 14-year-old boy he met in a toilet block in 2001. ...

The court was told Humphrys had recently been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, having himself been the victim of childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by church leaders and politicians.

"This opens up an entirely different approach for treatment," his lawyer Nick Vadasz said.

MINNESOTA

Winona Post

By Cynthya Porter

McKinley Methodist Church and former pastor Donald Budd, 65, are both named in a civil suit filed this week by Samantha Beach, the woman with whom Budd was convicted of inappropriate sexual involvement.

In May of 2009 Budd was sentenced to 15 years of probation for two felony counts of sexual abuse stemming from two years of counseling sessions that turned sexual with Beach, a parishioner.

The law prohibits clergy from engaging in such behavior with individuals seeking comfort, advice or aid from them in their role as a religious leader.

WACO (TX)

KXXV

by Patrick Tolbert

WACO - A McLennan County Grand Jury indicted a former Bellmead pastor on four counts of indecency with a child by contact and four counts of aggravated sexual assault.

William Frank Brown was indicted for the incidents which began about four years ago in another state. There, Brown is accused of molesting girls aged 9 or 10. When he moved to Texas, Police say Brown assaulted a victim as well. Police say the alleged sexual assaults took place hundreds of time, some of which were in Robinson, Harris Creek and in Waco.

JAMAICA

Radio Jamaica

A crowd of anxious supporters gathered outside a Savanna-La-Mar courtroom in Westmoreland Wednesday to hear the fate of popular Jamaican-born American evangelist Paul Lewis.

Pastor Lewis, who is accused of sexually assaulting two teen girls, was ordered remanded until July 7.

Lewis, the head of Paul Lewis Ministries was charged Wednesday with carnal abuse and indecent assault of two teenagers.

Mr. Lewis was questioned Wednesday morning in the presence of his attorney Michael Erskine.

JAMAICA

The Gleaner

The Jamaican-born international pastor, who allegedly gave two teenage girls money in exchange for sexual favours, was remanded when he appeared in the Savanna-la-mar Resident Magistrate's Court late yesterday afternoon.

He has been remanded until July 7.

The police yesterday afternoon charged the accused, Reverend Dr Paul Lewis, with carnal abuse and indecent assault following an interrogation which lasted more than two hours.

UNITED STATES

Boston Globe

By Michael Paulson

Globe Staff / June 18, 2009

Five weeks after an Irish commission released a devastating report about abuse at Catholic children’s institutions there, a Waltham-based organization is starting an effort to compile evidence about what it believes was a similar pattern of abuse at Catholic institutions in the United States.

BishopAccountability.org, an organization that maintains an Internet-based archive about clergy sexual abuse, published on its website yesterday a list of twelve Catholic institutions whose faculty or staff have faced allegations of child sexual abuse.

Organizers are hoping to rapidly expand that list, including schools in and around Boston.

Many of the schools where the abuse allegedly took place were run by religious orders, not dioceses, and are no longer open. Many such allegations are already public through lawsuits or media coverage, but organizers of the new archive expect more accusers to emerge as a result of the effort.

PENNSYLVANIA

My Fox New York

MYFOXNY.COM - Fox 5 has learned that the nephew of the late New York Cardinal O'Connor said he was a victim of clergy sex abuse and is filing a lawsuit.

On Thursday afternoon, Rich Green is expected to announce his lawsuit against the priest who allegedly molested him at a high school in Pennsylvania.

PENNSYLVANIA

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Thursday, June 18, 2009

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Catholic pastor has been placed on leave from a Charleroi parish due to an accusation that he sexually abused a minor more than a decade ago.

The Rev. David Dzermejko, 61, "was placed on administrative leave because of an allegation that we received and deemed to have some semblance of truth," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

He declined to give any details of the allegation or the person who made it, other than to say that "it does not involve Mary Mother of the Church parish" in Charleroi, where he has served for 18 years.

PENNSYLVANIA

New York Daily News

BY Bill Hutchinson

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, June 18th 2009, 4:00 AM

The nephew of the late John Cardinal O'Connor will file a civil suit Thursday claiming he was repeatedly molested as a child by a priest who taught his religion class, his lawyer said Wednesday night.

Rich Green claims he was sexually assaulted by the Rev. John McDevitt while he was a 14-year-old freshman at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Pa.

Green, now 31, claims McDevitt, who died in 1999, targeted him because he was O'Connor's nephew.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Morning Call

By Darryl R. Isherwood | OF THE MORNING CALL

June 18, 2009

A nephew of the late Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York plans to file suit today in a Delaware court, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest while a high school student in Philadelphia.

Rich Green, who attended Father Judge High School in the early 1990s, claims he was abused by the Rev. John M. McDevitt, who was a teacher at the school, according to an attorney for Green.

McDevitt was a Philadelphia city councilman from 1958 to 1962 and a member of the Oblates of St. Francis DeSales, a religious order headquartered in Washington, D.C. He died in 1999.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

IN A thought-provoking speech this week, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, reflected on the future shape of Catholic education. His comments were timely in the context of the Ryan report which raised awkward questions for the church, and for wider society, about Catholic management of schools.

As Dr Martin acknowledges, the current virtual Catholic monopoly of school management is a “historical hangover” which does not reflect current realities. At present, some 92 per cent of primary schools are controlled by the Catholic Church; most of the remainder by the Church of Ireland. Teachers are employed by a board of management chaired by a representative of the patron, usually the local parish priest, or the local rector in the case of the Church of Ireland, but salaries are paid by government – ie the taxpayer. The patron has an input into the appointment of all teachers and, critically, he convenes the interview panel for vacancies at school principal level.

Even without the Ryan report, it is clear that the governance structures of our schools must be modernised and changed. The scathing Department of Education report on the Muslim school in north Dublin points to the need for more professional management of such schools, along with full transparency and accountability.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

PATSY MCGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

AN INDEPENDENT audit of the assets of 18 religious congregations which were party to the controversial 2002 redress agreement with the State is to be presented to the Government next Wednesday.

The congregations, whose management of residential institutions for children led to the recent Ryan report, agreed to the audit at a meeting in Government Buildings on June 5th last with Taoiseach Brian Cowen and senior Ministers.

The congregations agreed at that meeting to contribute to a trust the Taoiseach proposed be set up, so that further financial and other supports can be provided to people who had been in the institutions as children. They also committed themselves to identifying resources, “both financial and other, within a transparent process with a view to delivering upon commitments made today.”

IRELAND

The Irish Times

OPINION: SYMPATHY FOR priests and nuns is thin on the ground at present but spare a thought for those thousands of members of religious congregations who bore no direct responsibility for the abuse that took place in residential institutions, writes JOE HUMPHREYS

The anecdotes I’ve heard are as tragic as they are numerous: stories of frail, elderly men and women – whose only sin was to share the same clothing as their betrayers – afraid to go outside their front doors in case they are spat upon, literally or metaphorically, by the public.

Some priests have stopped wearing the collar. Others speak of sleepless nights as they try to come to terms with the detail of the Ryan report. I had this week arranged to meet a nun to discuss some important charity work in which she was involved but she called off the appointment, expressing concern about raising her head above the parapet.

IRELAND

The Irish Times

OPINION: Sexual violence is at the heart of Christian Brother thinking and practice. Sadly, the Ryan report fails to draw obvious conclusions, writes JIM BERESFORD

REFERRING TO the beating and humiliation of child prisoners described in the Ryan report, theologian Mary Condren (Opinion and Analysis, June 13th) says it was well known that “many religious congregations used the discipline, small whips, every week on their own naked flesh . . . Others actively practised public humiliation.” I thank Condren for breaking a taboo.

Indeed the Christian Brothers used self-flagellation to punish the sexual impulse, hoping thereby to preserve the vow of chastity. Novices as young as 15 at their Marino novitiate were issued with the “discipline” and instructed to use it whenever they fell into sexual sin by thought or deed. As one novice informed me: “we were told to whip our bottom while saying Hail Marys”.

Self-flagellation is not an aberration of Christianity; it is a form of mortification at least as old as western monasticism and is still practised by many Christians today. Many of the famous saints were self-flagellants and proud of it. A whipping is thought to purify the body of sexual sin – though in truth it often has the opposite effect. Although modern psychology regards the practice as an expression of psycho-sexual pathology, self-flagellation was an essential part of the religious formation of Christian Brother novices until the 1960s.

BELLMEAD (TX)

Waco Tribune-Herald

By Tommy Witherspoon | Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 05:09 PM

The former pastor of Bellmead First Baptist Church was indicted today multiple counts of sexual abuse of a child.

William Frank Brown, 45, was indicted on four counts of sexual assault of a child and four counts of indecency with a child.

remained in the McLennan County Jail late Wednesday, held in lieu of $200,000 bond.

AUSTRALIA

The Age

Barney Zwartz

June 18, 2009

THE Anglican Church in Australia is set to overhaul its rules for how clergy and church workers interact with adolescents after an independent report revealed the extent of sexual abuse within the church.

The report, released yesterday, showed the church averaged nearly a complaint a month between 1990 and 2008, that boys between 10 and 15 were most at risk, and that most victims took more than two decades to complain.

In a study the researchers believe is the second of its type worldwide, University of Sydney professors Patrick Parkinson and Kim Oates examined every completed report of child sexual abuse — 191 by 135 abusers.

AUSTRALIA

ABC Local

The Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower says the Anglican Church is committed to stamping out child sexual abuse within its ranks.

He has welcomed a national report by University of Sydney academics who looked into 191 cases of abuse across the country between 1990 and last year.

The report makes eight recommendations, seven of which are already in place in Tasmania.

The oustanding matter, developing a standardised way to record abuse, will be enacted over time.

BENTON (AR)

Stop Baptist Predators

Remember the “what’s wrong with this picture” feature in Highlights magazine? As a kid, I would huddle in a library corner, studying the two seemingly identical pictures and trying to figure out what was wrong with the second one. Sometimes I’d spot a rabbit in the bushes that wasn’t in the first picture, or maybe an additional squirrel scurrying up a tree. Sometimes, the second picture would erase things instead of add things. I’d count the stripes on a girl’s skirt because there might be 8 stripes in the first picture, and only 7 in the second. Or maybe a boy’s hat would have vanished. You had to look at everything very closely.

That’s how I feel whenever I see news on the Arkansas case involving the prominent First Baptist Church of Benton. There is something wrong with the picture.

On Friday, April 24th, Sheriff Bruce Pennington announced the arrest of Southern Baptist music minister David Pierce on one count of sexual indecency with a child. The sheriff himself made the arrest. The sheriff is a member of the church. That was the first thing that didn’t look quite right.

IRELAND

Catholic Culture

June 17, 2009

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said that Church control of the Irish schools is a "historical hangover that doesn't reflect the realities of the times." In light of the country's increasing religious diversity, he said, it is unrealistic to have the Catholic Church run over 90% of the nation's primary schools. The archbishop has suggested a nationwide forum to discuss new approaches to public education.