ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Does Pope Francis Understand What “Reform” Means ?

Jerry Slevin

The optimistic hopes of many Catholics about the upcoming meetings next week of Pope Francis and his eight man Cardinals’ reform committee are beginning to fade. Various new Vatican reports, leaks, etc., are playing down the meetings as very preliminary, only advisory and mostly secret. So what else is new?

Pope Francis has little time left to reform the Catholic Church. He cannot afford to procrastinate, in my considered view as an international lawyer. If he fails now , he also will likely be compelled to resign like his predecessor, ex-Pope Benedict, ignominousily had to. The Vatican’s “house of cards”, as Francis realistically described it, will then probably collapse. If that happens, Cardinal Rigali’s Secretary, Monsignor Lynn, may have some hierarchical company in prison before his sentence is completed. It’s that bad. Some hierarchs from outside Pennsylvania will likely find accomodations at their local jails.

Francis must promptly make the Church’s leaders accountable to the faithful, the Gospels and civil law, especially with respect to protecting defenseless children. He must initiate and enforce specific and effective policies to do this, before government prosecutors from Australia, Ireland, the Dominican Republic, the USA, Peru, Chile, Argentina, the Phillipines, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, or from dozens of other countries, do so for him.

Prosecutors dictated to Kansas City’s criminal, but continuing, Bishop Finn the specific policies he must follow, as nearby Federal prosecutors buried Finn’s protected pedophile priest with a 50 year prison term. Prosecutors eventually can be expected to dictate to other bishops and even to Francis himself, no matter what Francis may be advised otherwise. Government regulators are already dictating to Francis how he must manage the hierarchy’s finances. Government lawyers can, and I expect soon will, dictate to him how he must manage the hierarchy’s approach to predatory priests, if Francis fails to get effective control of the bishops’ flawed approach first. Priests may not be the pope’s “employees”; but bishops are another story.

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TRENTON (NJ)
Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery, Inc.
P.O. Box 279
Livingston, NJ 07039
roberthoatson@gmail.com

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Trenton, New Jersey, Bishop Had Information for a Year Regarding a Sexting Priest and Did Not Inform Unsuspecting Parish and Public
Trenton Bishop Kept Minors at Risk of Sexual Abuse Due to His Negligence
Trenton Bishop Must Resign or be Removed

What: A demonstration and leafleting calling for the resignation or removal of Trenton,
New Jersey, Bishop David O’Connell.

When: Tuesday, October 1, 2013 from 10:00 AM until Noon.

Where: On the sidewalk outside the headquarters of the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey,
701 Lawrenceville Road, Trenton, NJ 08648

Who: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including the co-founder and President of Road
to Recovery, Inc., a New Jersey-based non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse, and supporters.

Why: Bishop David O’Connell proved recently that he is not fit to be the bishop of the
Diocese of Trenton and must resign or be removed. Since 2011, Bishop O’Connell had information that Fr. Matthew Riedlinger of St. Aloysius Church, Jackson, NJ, had been sexually inappropriate with young males over the internet. In addition, O’Connell removed Riedlinger from ministry in 2012, drove him to a facility for treatment, but never informed the parish or the public about the allegations against Fr. Riedlinger. It wasn’t until September, 2013, that Bishop O’Connell had a letter read to the parishioners of St. Aloysius Parish regarding Fr. Riedlinger. However, the letter never referenced the fact that Fr. Riedlinger had sent sex messages to someone whom he believed to be 16 years of age. O’Connell’s actions were outrageous, dangerous, and in violation of the promise of the United States Catholic Bishops to be honest and transparent about all cases of sexual abuse by priests. Bishop O’Connell must resign or be removed for covering up Fr. Riedlinger’s actions and making the Trenton unsafe for children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

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VATICAN CITY
First Post

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Eight cardinals will begin closed-door meetings with Pope Francis on Tuesday to help him reform the Vatican’s troubled administration and map out possible changes in the worldwide Church.

Francis, who has brought a new style of openness, simplicity and a conciliatory tone to the papacy, wants to consult more with Church officials around the world before making decisions affecting the life of the 1.2-billion-member Church.

Some of the topics expected to be discussed are how to give women a greater role in the Church short of the priesthood, financial reform, the position of divorced Catholics, and the continued fallout from the worldwide sexual abuse crisis.

Francis announced the papal advisory board of cardinals, revolutionary for a Church steeped in hierarchical tradition, a month after his election as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years and the first from Latin America.

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NEW JERSEY
Ocean Signal

JACKSON-Last week, the Diocese of Trenton issued a statement regarding complaints lodged against Father Matthew Riedlinger, a priest formerly serving at the St. Aloysius Church here.

Riedlinger was ordained a priest in the diocese on June 5, 2010. He was a student at St. Peter Parish in Sandusky, Ohio before attending the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he studied philosophy.

Prior to his time at St. Aloysius, he served seminarian assignments at St. Margaret in Spring Lake and St. Barnabas in Bayville.

Questions have recently been asked of the Diocese concerning the status of Father Matthew Riedlinger and his ministry as a priest. Father Riedlinger had been the subject of two complaints to the Diocese over the past few years regarding his participation in inappropriate cell phone text communication over a period of some years with adults. There was no sexual contact, assault or abuse referenced in the complaints.

Upon receiving these complaints, the Diocese immediately turned the information over to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. In both cases, law enforcement investigated and advised that no minors were involved and no criminal acts were committed.

From first being made aware of these charges, the Diocese addressed the misconduct with Father Riedlinger, arranging for him to receive outpatient counseling. When we learned that the conduct had persisted, he was immediately removed from his parish assignment and placed in a residential, in-patient treatment program.

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CANADA
insideToronto

Scarborough Mirror
By Andrew Palamarchuk

A Scarborough priest who was charged with sexual assault on Sept. 11 now faces more charges.

On Sept. 3, a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted at All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church at 545 Danforth Rd.

A couple who entered the church interrupted the assault, police alleged.

Police arrested and charged Rev. Ioan Pop, 54, on Sept. 11.

Det. Const. Teresa Curtis of the sex crimes unit said “several complainants” came forward with allegations after police issued a news release Sept. 13.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Vatican City
The Guardian, Monday 30 September 2013

The eight cardinals picked by Pope Francis to advise him on reform of the Roman curia and the governance of the Catholic church are preparing to meet the pontiff for the first time on Tuesday, in an unprecedented three-day meeting likened to a “papal G8”.

In a move already billed as a potentially critical moment for Francis’s six-month-old papacy, the multinational group of “outsider” cardinals is flying in to Rome from all corners of the globe to present him with ideas for how to reform the Vatican and the church worldwide.

The panel – officially named the Council of Cardinals – was hailed as a revolutionary move when it was formed in April shortly after Francis’s election. One observer said that, in its apparent embrace of a more collegial style of church governance, it was the “most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries”.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Sep. 30, 2013 NCR Today

The International We are Church reform organization, which counts chapters in 20 countries, released the following statement this morning

Not all the People of God agree about canonisation of J.P. II .
The opinion of the International Movement We Are Church

Today Pope Francis has announced in Concistoro the day of canonisation of Pope John Paul II on April 27, 2014 – together with John Pope XXIII.

The decision concerning Pope John Paul II is not agreed from all in the Catholic Church. The International Movement We Are Church has expressed its opinion already in a press release on 16 January 2011.

Pope John Paul II was a pope of great contradiction. His tragedy lies in the discrepancy between his commitment to reform and dialogue in the world and his return to authoritarianism within the church.

It was his penchant for spiritual authoritarianism that contributed to the greatest tragedy of his tenure as pope: the sexual abuse of thousands of children globally. By holding church hierarchy paramount above the needs of the people, John Paul II perpetuated a toxic environment in which priests were permitted, often repeatedly, to sexually abuse children as long as the criminal behaviour was kept secret, preserving the public image of untarnished leadership.

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UNITED STATES
Peter Borre

‘Everything’s up to date in Vatican City
they gone about as fer as they can go’

(apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein)

[9.30.2013]

Foreword

Remember when your mom took you to the dentist who said, this is not going to hurt?

And then it hurt a lot, but when you squawked the dentist said, it’s necessary!

This blogpost is about the Vatican’s financial institutions, and ‘it’s not going to hurt’. But it’s essential for an understanding of what will be happening this week in Rome when recommendations come to Papa Francesco from the Gang of Eight Cardinals; and later this fall from two ad hoc commissions tasked to review the bank (IOR) and the Vatican’s accounting practices – bringing onto center stage the financial institutions of the Vatican.

Overview

“If you cannot be trusted in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” (Luke, Chapter 16 Verse 11)

Today’s Italian media report that the financial results of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) will be released for the first time ever, tomorrow. As a teaser, it is mentioned that a profit of €87 million (almost $120 million) will have been realized for the 12 months ending on July 31, 2013.

That is warp speed for reporting financial results, two months after the books closed. For context, the Archdiocese of Boston releases its audited financials 7-9 months after the fact, usually on a quiet Friday afternoon.

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COLOMBIA
Semana

Por Daniel Coronell

OPINIÓNUno de los anuncios del padre Jaime, cuando asumió su curul, fue que tramitaría una ley para castigar con 25 años a los curas pederastas. Tres años después no ha presentado el proyecto.

En medio de la pobreza se las arreglaba para ser feliz. Cuenta Francisco que sus problemas arrancaron cuando ya había cumplido 13 años. Su mamá, acosada por las necesidades, fue a pedir ayuda a una institución de la Iglesia en San José del Guaviare. El director de la Pastoral Social en el pueblo era un amable sacerdote llamado Jaime Alonso Vásquez Bustamante.

Según Francisco, el padre Jaime y su hermano, el también cura Carlos Fernando Vásquez Bustamante, han abusado de él por 16 años.

Todo empezó cuando el padre Jaime convenció a la mamá de Francisco para que el niño fuera a ayudarle en la oficina en las tardes, después de las clases. Pronto se integró a un grupo de acólitos que trabajaba para el religioso en la iglesia del Divino Niño.

Una de esas tardes, de acuerdo con la narración de Francisco, el padre Jaime le pidió que le ayudara a mover unas cajas de una habitación. Antes le ofreció un jugo que lo hizo sentir mareado. En la habitación no había cajas. El padre Jaime le dijo a Francisco que quería confesarlo. No hace falta entrar en detalles. Según Francisco, ese día el padre lo violó por primera vez.

El niño llegó llorando a su casa. Sangrando. No sabía si él era la víctima o el culpable. Si ese adulto, amable hasta hace unas horas, cumplía la voluntad de Dios o se aprovechaba de su inocencia. Incapaz de contar la verdad y ocultando la sangre, le dijo a su mamá que se había peleado con otros niños y que el padre Jaime lo había regañado.

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COLOMBIA
Semana

El sacerdote y congresista Jaime Alonso Vásquez Bustamante está en la boca del lobo. En su última columna, Daniel Coronell narra la historia de un joven que asegura que ha sido violado durante 16 años por dos sacerdotes de San José del Guaviare, uno de los cuales es el representante a la Cámara y el otro es su hermano Carlos Fernando.

Francisco Javier Bohórquez Franco, el joven que ahora tiene 29 años, asegura que denunció al sacerdote ante la Fiscalía y entregó pruebas de las presuntas relaciones sexuales no consensuadas, que se realizaban desde que él tenía 13 años, como le explicó a Coronell.

Este lunes, el representante dio la cara. En una extensa entrevista en BluRadio, el congresista Vásquez indicó él es simplemente un amigo al que acude Francisco Javier cuando este tiene necesidades.

“Ha habido una amistad que cuando nos llama se le ha escuchado. Muchas veces no lo he atendido, pero él es muy insistente. Ha llegado como adulto, entonces que no diga nada como menor de edad. Estoy seguro de que él no tiene ninguna prueba de abuso sexual y de violación”, afirmó el religioso.

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COLOMBIA
El Pais

Durante la inuguración del VI Congreso Nacional de Reconciliación, organizado por la Iglesia Católica de Colombia, el arzobispo de Bogotá, monseñor Rubén Salazar se refirió a las denuncias presentadas en contra del representante a la Cámara por Guaviare y sacerdote católico, Jaime Alonso Vásquez Bustamante por supuesto abuso sexual contra un menor residente en la capital de ese departamento.

La denuncia fue presentada ente la Fiscalía por Francisco Javier Bohórquez, de 29 años de edad, quien afirma que, desde que tenía trece años, había sido abusado por el entonces sacerdote Jaime Alonso Vásquez y su hermano, el también sacerdote, Carlos Fernando Vázquez Bustamante.

Según la víctima, la razón por la que no denunciaba nada ante su familia fueron las amenazas que el representante Vázquez le hacía, para que guardara silencio.

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COLOMBIA
El Nuevo Herald

BY BY CESAR GARCIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Summary: Gardinal Ruben Salazar, president of the Columbia Episcopal Conference, said Monday that the Catholic Church has a zero tolerance policy for child abuse. In cases of clergy sexual abuse, the church has intervened immediately to punish the guilty, he said. Neither the cardinal nor the CEC keeps track of how many of the 8,000 Colombian priests have been the subject of abuse complaints.

His latest remarks came as legislator Jaime Alonso Vazquez, who was a priest, has been accused of child sexual abuse. Vasquez is now a legislator. According to journalist Daniel Coronell in the latest edition of Semana magazine, Vazquez before coming to Congress in 2010 is alleged to have molested a child under age 13 when he was a priest in the late 1990s in San Jose de Guaviare. The community is in the south of Colombia. He has denied the allegation. The alleged victim, now 29, recently went to the attorney general with the allegation.]

BY POR CESAR GARCIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOGOTA, Colombia — La Iglesia Católica colombiana tiene tolerancia cero con la pederastia, destacó el lunes el cardenal Rubén Salazar, presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Colombiana, al conocerse una nueva denuncia sobre un presunto abuso sexual.

“La posición de la Iglesia es perfectamente clara: es tolerancia cero y por lo tanto en casos concretos de abusos sexuales de parte de sacerdotes, la Iglesia inmediatamente ha intervenido para iniciar procesos que lleguen al castigo del culpable”, dijo el cardenal a la prensa durante un foro multisectorial sobre reconciliación nacional.

Ni el cardenal ni la CEC llevan un registro de cuántos de los 8.000 curas colombianos han sido objeto de denuncias de abusos.

El más reciente señalamiento surgió en contra del legislador Jaime Alonso Vásquez, quien fue sacerdote y está suspendido debido a su participación en política.

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UNITED STATES
Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Earlier this year I wrote that the credibly of the new Pope may depend on how he lives up to his claim of having a zero tolerance policy regarding child sex abuse

What measure of tolerance shall we say that the Pope is giving to Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted over a year ago of failing to report suspected child abuse by a priest under his authority and still leads the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri? A federal judge deemed the child porn charges of which pedophile priest Fr. Shawn Ratigan was convicted to be so serious that he sentenced Ratigan to 50 years in prison.

I am one of those Catholics who has been cheered by the new pope’s refreshing tone and his embracing of tolerance and humility. Indeed, his recent comments about the Church’s recent obsession with culture war issues may have pulled the rug out from under the Republican Party Auxiliary we generally call the Catholic Right. His recent statements clearly indicate that he may lead the Church to an approach to economic and social justice that transcends Roman Catholicism and embraces the entire world.

But the longer he waits to act on the problem of sex abuse in the Church, the greater the risk that the good will he had earned, and the hope he has given to many millions of Catholics (and non-Catholics) will be lost.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

September 30, 2013

Dear Archbishop Nienstedt:

You and your top staff have acted recklessly, callously, deceptively and secretively in the case of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer. These hurtful acts cannot be “un-done.” But you can – and should – act now to prevent more irresponsible and harmful behavior by your staff in the future, by

—disciplining at least three church employees over how they handled Fr. Wehmeyer and

—holding an open meeting to answer questions from parishioners and the public about this case.

In your heart of hearts, Archbishop, we believe you know that Fr. Kevin McDonough, Deacon John Vomastek and Greta Sawyer have all acted in ways that protect Fr. Wehmeyer, themselves and you, ways that were and are at best in appropriate and at worst very damaging to innocent children, wounded victims and trusting parishioners.

Fr. McDonough knew of Fr. Wehmeyer’s sexual misdeeds in 2004. Yet in 2011, he urged that the allegations against Fr. Wehmeyer be kept secret (despite years of bishops’ pledges to be “open” in clergy sex cases). And in 2012, when police knew about the accusations, before they arrived, McDonough – along with Deacon John Vomastek – took one of Fr. Wehmeyer’s computers.

We believe this could amount to tampering with evidence. But regardless of whether either man is criminally charged, you know it’s wrong for church staff to take evidence in a criminal case.

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Speaking to a room full of journalists yesterday in Austin, Texas, Liberty University law professor Boz Tchividjian said evangelicals are “worse” than Catholics when it comes to responding to clergy sex abuse.

Frowning on transparency and accountability, too many evangelicals have “sacrificed the souls” of young victims, said Tchividjian, who is the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham.

Now before some of you Southern Baptist readers start mentally dismissing this guy because he’s currently a university professor – as in “aren’t they all a bunch of liberals?” – let me just point out that Liberty University was founded by Jerry Falwell and has been ranked as one of the top ten most conservative colleges in the country. With over 100,000 residential and online students, it is the largest private evangelical university in the world.

Moreover, Tchividjian previously worked as a sex crimes prosecutor in Florida, and he is the founder of a firm called G.R.A.C.E. (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), which conducts independent investigations of clergy abuse allegations.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

A Detroit predator priest was recently ousted. Archbishop Allen Vigneron made a formal announcement. It implied this was the first allegation against the priest.

But it wasn’t.

Each time this happens, we are outraged that so-called “men of God” deceive parents, parishioners and the public. Each time this happens, we seek out ways in which to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Each time this happens, we try our best to get our message out to new ears and eyes, hoping that the awareness will prevent a repeat of this complicity. Each time this happens, we remind people of the pledge America’s bishops have repeatedly made: to be “open and transparent” in clergy child sex abuse cases.

But the deceit keeps happening, again and again.

About a week ago, we received a private archdiocesan memo showing that Fr. Louis Grandpre, who was ousted last week because of credible child sex abuse allegations, was also accused of sexual harassment 15 years ago.

In a one page memo, dated September of 1997, a high ranking Detroit archdiocesan official writes to two colleagues that “we have lost the mediation process” arising from accusations that Fr. Grandpre sexually harassed an individual. The memo indicates the mediator “recommended (a) settlement of about $160,000.00”

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 ·

Audacious is a word I don’t use often. But it leapt to mind this morning when I read that a child molesting cleric at a New York archdiocesan parish is being ousted from ministry.

“Audacious” is the best way I can describe Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s letter to the flock at Church of the Holy Name of Mary parish in Croton-on-Hudson.

Here’s how the dictionary defines “audacious” – “extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless” or “recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.”

Both definitions fit Dolan’s actions in the troubling case of Deacon Al Mazza.

In a letter to parishioners, Dolan claims he suspended Mazza months ago. But we see

–no evidence that this was done,

–no evidence that anyone was notified, and

–Mazza’s name in the parish bulletin three times in the last month, and

–Mazza’s name on the parish website even now.

That’s pretty audacious, isn’t it? To claim you ousted a credibly accused child molester without giving any proof it? And in the face of proof that suggests he hasn’t been ousted at all?

Let’s assume that Dolan did, in fact, suspend Mazza months ago. A simple internet search shows that if this happened, it was done with little or no public notice. That’s pretty audacious too: to claim (as Dolan has, time and time again) to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes while suspending a credibly accused cleric very quietly.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

September 29, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 29, 2013

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, has written a letter to the parishioners of Holy Name of Mary Parish in Croton-on-Hudson, informing them that Deacon Albert Mazza, a permanent deacon serving in their parish, had been removed from ministry, following allegations that, many years ago, he had abused minors. Father Edward Weber, the director of priest personnel for the Archdiocese of New York, read the letter from the Cardinal at Masses today.

Deacon Mazza had served as a permanent deacon since 1996.

In his letter, the Cardinal noted that the archdiocese had been notified of the allegations by the Westchester district attorney’s office, and had immediately put Deacon Mazza on administrative leave while the matter was investigated. Last week, the archdiocesan review board recommended that Deacon Mazza be permanently removed from ministry, a recommendation that the Cardinal accepted.

The Cardinal told the parishioners of Holy Name of Mary that the archdiocese wanted to be upfront, and transparent with the people, even about bad news. He wrote, “As you know, the Church learned a painful lesson in not communicating the abuse of minors to the faithful as soon as it became aware of it. Now, the Church leads the way with action and transparency, with this sad situation here at this parish serving as an example.”

The full text of the Cardinal’s letter is attached. 

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NEW YORK
The Daily Voice

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — A deacon from Croton-on-Hudson’s Church of the Holy Name of Mary has been dismissed after allegations of sexual abuse of minors from years ago recently came to light, Catholic officials said in a story in The Journal News.

Deacon Al Mazza has been accused of engaging in immoral and illegal conduct with minors prior to becoming a deacon in 1996, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan told parishioners via a letter Sunday, the newspaper reported. The incident is the third time an ordained minister has faced such allegations in the Croton parish, the newspaper reported.

The allegations against Mazza were unrelated to his activities at the church, archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said in The Journal News story.

A deacon is an ordained minister who works with the pastor and parish staff but can have a job outside the church. Mazza could not be reached for commen, the newspaper reported.

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GHANA
Ghana Web

A 50-Year-old fetish priest is languishing in the cells of the Prampram Police for sodomizing a 14-year-old Junior High School (JHS) student at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.

Nii Martey, the suspect, was apprehended shortly before the Tema Circuit Court ‘A’ sentenced a 32-year pastor, Prince Mark Amoah alias Marvin Brown to 25 years’ imprisonment for sodomizing and infecting a 14-year-old boy with HIV/AIDS.

Narrating what led to the arrest of the fetish priest, a police source told DAILY GUIDE that in May 2013, the victim, a resident of Prampram visited his friend who is a nephew to the fetish priest.

The fetish priest, who saw the victim around his house, invited him and proposed love to him, but the boy turned him down.

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CANADA
Caledon Enterprise

Brampton Guardian
TORONTO – Toronto police say a Romanian Orthodox priest is facing seven more sexual assault charges in addition to one laid earlier this month.

Ioan Pop, 54, of Toronto was arrested in early September and charged with one count of sexual assault after a woman was allegedly assaulted at All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church in the city’s east end.

At the time police released a photograph and said they believed there may be more victims.

Det. Teresa Curtis of the sex crimes unit says several more women have since come forward with allegations against Pop, who is now charged with eight counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.

She says the new charges relate to alleged incidents that happened between 2005 and 2011 and that the additional seven complainants were between 24 and 43 years old at the time of the alleged offences.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

BY TERRY DAVIDSON
TORONTO SUN

FIRST POSTED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

A Toronto priest, already accused of sexually assaulting a parishioner, is facing new charges.

Rev. Ioan Pop, 54, now faces a total of 8 sexual assault charges after more complainants came forward.

Pop turned himself in to officers at 41 Division that morning early Monday, Toronto Police said.

Pop was first accused of sexually assaulting a female parishioner inside the All Saints Roman Orthodox church at Birchmount and Danforth Aves. on Sept. 3.

Investigators said a married couple walked in during the alleged assault.

Pop, a man police said is influential within the area’s Roman Orthodox community, was arrested and charged with one count of sexual assault.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Jodee Brown Staff Reporter, Published on Mon Sep 30 2013

A Toronto priest charged with sexual assault earlier this month now faces additional charges, police said Monday.

Ioan Pop, 54, was arrested Sept.11 in connection with an assault on a woman in All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church, where he was the parish priest.

On Monday, he was charged with seven more counts of sexual assault and one of forcible confinement.

Police said those incidents allegedly occurred between 2005 and 2011.

Det.-Const. Teresa Curtis said seven additional complainants came forward to police following Pop’s
The assaults are alleged to have taken place inside All Saints church and at residences in Durham Region and Toronto.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Pope Francis rebuke of the Curia for its “inappropriate behaviour” in the censuring of priests, his wish that issues of discipline be dealt with at local church level, and his dramatic re-definition of the phrase ‘sentire cum ecclesiae’ have created a new landscape for dealing with people who have been, in various ways, punished for what the CDF has previously considered ‘unorthodox’ views.

It may, or may not, be a coincidence that the six priests whom we know to have felt the ire of the CDF here in Ireland are all members of religious congregations. And the Irish bishops have made it clear to the Association of Catholic Priests that they do not wish to have any involvement in this matter. That does not surprise me, since I do not tend to expect courageous action from our hierarchy.

But religious congregations have traditionally seen themselves as being positioned more to the edge of the Church, with something of a prophetic role. I am suggesting that the particular congregations whose members are included among these ‘censored’ priests have now got a great opportunity to act prophetically.

I don’t think any reasonable person would regard Eoin O’Sullivan, Iggy O’Donovan, Gerry Moloney, Brian D’Arcy or Sean Fagan as remotely heretical or a danger to the faith, and even less a cause of scandal. (I will leave my own case to be judged by others). It surely makes no sense to have censors appointed to monitor the writings of Eoin, Brian and Gerry. And surely it is also time that these ‘censors’ stopped co-operating with oppressive power structures and refused to accept the role.

So I call on the five congregations, the Augustinians, the Capuchins, the Passionists, the Marists and the Redemptorists to come together and to lift all restrictions on the six of us.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Tim O’Brien

Mon, Sep 30, 2013

Efforts by the Catholic church to preach justice and equality are being stymied because of a failure to address these issues internally, more than 100 Catholic groups – including three from Ireland – have told Pope Francis.

In response to the pope’s call for dialogue within the church , the groups who claim to represent four million Catholics around the world, have co-signed a letter to Pope Francis urging widespread reform including shared decision making among all baptised members of the church, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

The Irish groups which are signatories to the letter include the Association of Catholic Priests, the Association of Catholics in Ireland and We are the Church Ireland.

The letter , which was sent in advance of a key meeting of Cardinals tomorrow to examine church governance makes five points.

These are:

That the Roman Catholic Church’s commitment to justice is compromised “and is often viewed as hypocritical” because injustice exists within the church itself.

“That dialogue urged by Pope Francis is incompatible with the censorship or sanctioning of ordained members of the church.

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CANADA
National Post

Diana Hall | 30/09/13

A Toronto Romanian Orthodox priest charged earlier this month with an in-church sexual assault is

Rev. Ioan Pop, 54, turned himself in to 41 Division on Monday. The original charge stemmed from an alleged sexual assault at All Saints, a Romanian Orthodox Church in the Birchmount Road and Danforth Road area, on Sept. 3. That alleged assault was interrupted by a couple entering the church, police say.

Det. Teresa Curtis of the sex crimes unit told a Monday press conference that members of the community came forward with complaints against Rev. Pop after police released his photo.

“I think that people came forward because they felt more comfortable,” Det. Curtis said at a Monday news conference. “There’s no [timeframe] for bringing forward these types of allegations. As you know, sexual assaults are under-reported.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 30 September 2013 (VIS) – The first of three meetings between Pope Francis and the Council of Cardinals, instituted by the Holy Father’s Chirograph of 28 September, will take place tomorrow, 1 October.

The council is composed of Cardinals Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State; Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Chile; Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India; Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Sean Patrick O’Malley O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Boston, USA; George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the role of coordinator; and Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy, in the role of secretary.

During the three days the Council will meet in the private library of the third loggia in the papal apartment, and the working sessions will take place in the morning and in the evening. The Holy Father will participate, except on Wednesday morning during the general audience, explained the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., who went on to clarify that the conversations will be private, so no communication is to be given at the end. He also emphasised that, as stated in the Chirograph published today, the Pope reserves the faculty of configuring the Council in the most suitable form, and may therefore increase the number of members.

He also observed that all the members of the Council, with the exception of the Secretary and Cardinal Bertello (who represents the Curia) are archbishops with large dioceses and in most cases with broad pastoral experience. “The institution of the Council of Cardinals”, he said, “is a further enrichment provided by the Pope to the governance of the Church”, and recalled that during his pontificate Francis has frequently made use of consultation, as is demonstrated by the case of the meeting with the heads of the dicasteries and his interest in reviving the working method of the Synod.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 30 September 2013 (VIS) – We publish below the full text of the Chirograph by by which the Holy Father institutes a Council of Cardinals to assist him in the governance of the universal Church and to draw up a project for the revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus on the Roman Curia.

“Among the suggestions that emerged from the General Congregations of Cardinals prior to the Conclave, mention was made of the expediency of instituting a limited group of Members of the Episcopate, from various parts of the world, with whom the Holy Father could consult, individually or collectively, on specific matters. Once elected to the See of Rome, I have had the opportunity to reflect on this issue on a number of occasions, and consider that such an initiative would be of significant use in fulfilling the pastoral ministry of Peter’s Successor entrusted to me by my brother cardinals.

“For this reason, on 13 April I announced the constitution of the aforementioned group, at the same time indicating the names of those who had been called to participate. Now, following reflection, I consider it opportune that such a group, by means of the present Chirograph, be instituted as a ‘Council of Cardinals’, with the task of assisting me in the governance of the universal Church and drawing up a project for the revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus on the Roman Curia. It will be composed of the same persons previously nominated, who may be called upon, both in Council and singly, on matters that I will from time to time consider worthy of attention. The aforementioned Council which, with regard to the number of members, I will compose in the most appropriate way, will constitute a further expression of Episcopal communion and of the aid to the munus petrinum that the Episcopate, disseminated throughout the world, may offer”.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, September 30, 2013

Statement by NJ SNAP director Mark Crawford (732-632-7687, mecrawf@comcast.net)

For months, Trenton’s Catholic bishop has kept hidden the fact that one of his priests sent 1,200 inappropriate sexual text messages to what he thought was a teenaged boy and had sexually harassed at least five teenagers and young men, some of whom were seminarians.

[News Archive.

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Sept. 30, 2013

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

Cardinal Tim Dolan has apparently kept silent for months about an accused child molesting cleric. And instead of urging people to call police, Dolan is makes the same self-serving but hurtful plea bishops have made for decades – asking those with information about child sex crimes to call church officials, not police or prosecutors.

Shame on him.

[The News Journal]

Deacon Al Mazza has been dismissed from his duties at Church of the Holy Name of Mary Croton-on-Hudson has been “permanently removed from ministry.”

1) Dolan claims he suspended Mazza months ago, but we see no evidence that he made this public in any way. That’s reckless and irresponsible.

Dolan is a media-savvy guy with an efficient public relations team. He knows how to get attention. But he refuses to bring attention quickly on a credibly accused child molesting cleric. Instead, he waits months to warn parents, parishioners and the public about Mazza.

The accusations against Mazza should have been announced – far and wide – when they were made. Or they should have been announced – far and wide – when he was allegedly suspended months ago.

(And if he was allegedly suspended months ago, why is Mazza’s name still on the parish bulletin September 8 and 15 and 22?)

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

St. Louis cleric is accused of molesting a teenage girl

For immediate release: Monday, Sept. 30

For more information: David Clohessy (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Dorris (314) 862 7688, SNAPdorris@gmail.com

A St. Louis priest who allegedly molested a teenage girl last year is set to go to trial tomorrow.

The accused is Fr. Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang who was criminally charged with fondling a teenage girl (under 17) on four occasions as recently as last summer. Evidence in the case reportedly includes text messages from the victim’s phone and a recorded voice mail from Fr. Jiang.

He faces of “witness tampering” and “endangering a child.” Both are felonies.

The “tampering” charge is based on an allegation that Fr. Jiang left the girl’s parents a $20,000 check after he reportedly admitted his crimes to the girl’s parents. The following day, according to a civil lawsuit, Archbishop Robert Carlson asked if the parents would give the check to him. But they had already given it to prosecutors.

Fr. Jiang was ordained a priest by at the Cathedral in May 2010. Before that, he was a deacon at the Cathedral. He has a bedroom in the archbishop’s residence.

Fr. Jiang’s trial was originally to take place in Lincoln County last spring but it has since been moved to Bowling Green in Pike County.

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VATICAN CITY
The Baltimore Sun

Lisa Jucca and Philip Pullella
Reuters
12:04 p.m. EDT, September 30, 2013

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican bank is likely to close all accounts held by foreign embassies, following concerns about large cash deposits and withdrawals by the missions of Iran, Iraq and Indonesia, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The Vatican’s financial watchdog, which examined the transactions in 2011, believed the embassies’ justifications for the transactions were too vague or disproportionate to the amounts — up to 500,000 euros at a time — these people said. In one case, a large cash withdrawal was said to be for “refurbishment”, one person added.

Now the bank and the watchdog want to reduce the possibility that the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), as the bank is called, could be an unwitting vehicle for money laundering and other illicit finances.

Four people with knowledge of the matter said the closure of the accounts was likely to be a key recommendation of a broad review that Pope Francis has ordered of the bank, whose scandal-tainted history has long been an embarrassment for the Holy See.

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UNITED STATES
Association of Religion Data Archives

By David Briggs

For generations, Catholic women have been the foundation of the church, filling the pews, doing much of the volunteer work that keeps parishes running and passing on the faith to future generations.

But the day of reckoning for a church that excludes women from the priesthood and has alienated many with its emphasis on rules governing sexual morality may finally have come.

What once was a large gender gap in church attendance is gone, and the latest research indicates Catholic women may be no less likely than Catholic men to say the church is among the most important parts of their lives or that they would never leave the church.

“It’s troubling,” said Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. “The difference between men and women is just gone.”

And it may get worse, some researchers say.

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CANADA
CBC News

A major exhibition about residential schools begins today at Laurentian University in Sudbury.

The exhibit features archival photographs and has already been staged at more than a dozen cities across Canada.

The manager of Aboriginal student affairs at Laurentian said the school has more than 1,000 students who identify as First Nations.

The issue of residential schools is one of the most talked about on campus, Denise Gauthier-Frohlick said, because so many survivors are coming forward.

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NEVADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

He’s accused of sexually abusing kids
And he headed two Las Vegas churches
Minister belonged to controversial denomination
Several of its clergy & staff are alleged child molesters

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will

— disclose that minister who has headed two Las Vegas churches faces a trial soon on multiple child sex abuse charges, and

— prod officials and members at his church to reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes.

WHEN
TODAY, Monday, Sept. 30 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Las Vegas Valley Christian Church, 3140 S. Durango Dr., Las Vegas, NV (702) 644-9435

WHO
Two members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a Chicago woman who is the organization’s founder and long time president

WHY
In December 2012, Rev. Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Morales of Las Vegas was indicted on four counts of sex abuse and six counts of sex offense. At that time, Morales pastored Las Vegas Valley Christian Church in Las Vegas, according to a police report. He also reportedly headed the Open Door Community Church in Las Vegas.

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POLAND
Warsaw Business Journal

30th September 2013

Representatives of the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church in Poland apologized to the victims of child abuse by Catholic priests. “‘We apologize’ is the least we can say,” Bishop Wojciech Polak said at a press conference called in connection with a recently revealed case of Polish priests suspected of pedophilia in the Dominican Republic.

Bishop Polak added that the Church in Poland treats child abuse cases seriously and that it is determined to punish those priests who are guilty of the offense.

Last week, the investigative authorities of the Dominican Republic asked Interpol for assistance in the priests’ pedophilia case. The Polish prosecution has started an investigation of its own, though it has so far not been asked for help by the Dominican Republic’s prosecutors.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Sep. 30, 2013 NCR Today

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis has formalized the structure of the group of cardinals advising him on reforming the Roman Catholic church, organizing them as a kind of royal council asked to give counsel but not make decisions.

The group, now formally known as the “council of cardinals,” will assist in reorganization of the Vatican bureaucracy and will “help me with governance of the universal church,” the pope stated in a formal letter outlining the structure.

The pope signed the letter, officially known as a chirograph, Saturday but announced it at a Vatican press briefing Monday.

During the briefing, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi stated several times that the cardinals’ group was to offer advice, but all decisions would be left to the pope.

“It’s only a council, it’s not a decision-making group,” Lombardi said. “I would not speak of collegial governance in this group. It’s a new form of consultation.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

This is an important week for the Catholic church: as Fr. Thomas Reese explains in this recent National Catholic Reporter article, this week the eight cardinals Pope Francis has appointed to advise him about the needs of the church and reform of the Vatican will meet in Rome. As Reese also notes, it’s not clear that the “gang of eight” will actually do anything beyond listening and talking. And this poses a danger, given the pope’s advanced age, the urgent need for reform–the need, precisely, that something be done. Immediately.

Reese envisages a best-case scenario in which the eight cardinals spark what he calls “comprehensive reform” rather than better management of a badly faltering institution in need of more than more adroit management. Reese’s prescription for (part of) such comprehensive reform:

• Stop making Vatican officials bishops or cardinals
• Remove all curial officials from the committees (congregations and councils) that oversee curial offices and replace them with diocesan cardinals and bishops nominated by the synod of bishops and/or bishops’ conferences
• Remove all curial officials from the synod of bishops and have it meet at least once every five years.

As Reese concludes,

On the other hand, his [i.e., the pope’s] attempts to change attitudes need to be supported by structural reforms in the Roman Curia. We have been waiting and preparing for change since Vatican II, where the foundations for change were laid. Will the gang of eight produce a plan? Let’s hope so.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

And group wants archbishop to hold open public meeting
In sharply worded letter, SNAP blasts “recklessness, callousness and deceit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Bob Schwiderski of Wayzata 952-471-3422, skibrs@q.com

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is writing Minnesota’s top Catholic bishop urging him to discipline at least three church employees over how they handled the case of a priest who was convicted for molesting two children. The group also wants church officials to hold an open meeting to answer questions from parishioners and the public about the case.

A lengthy Minnesota Public Radio story details how high-ranking staff of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese kept Fr. Curtis C. Wehmeyer on the job despite “repeated troubling actions by and allegations against” the priest. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2013/09/clergy-abuse/

Last year, Fr. Wehmeyer pled guilty to 20 charges related to criminal sexual conduct against two St. Paul boys and possession of child pornography.

But years before, top archdiocesan staffers knew that Fr. Wehmeyer had “engaged in troubling sexual encounters — that he had approached young men for sex at a bookstore and cruised nearby parks” where anonymous sexual encounters often took place. In 2009, he was arrested on – and later pled guilty to – charges of drunk driving. Police said he was asking young men, ages 18-21, if they wanted to party with him at a state park,” according to MPR.

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COLOMBIA
Terra

[Summary: Former priest Jaime Alonso Vasques, a current legislator, has denied allegations of sexual abuse.]

El sacerdote y representante a la Cámara por el departamento del Guaviare, Jaime Alonso Vásquez, negó las acusaciones en su contra que lo señalan de haber abusado sexualmente de un joven en los últimos 16 años y aseguró que tras dichos señalamientos hay intereses políticos.

“Es una calumnia total decir que soy un violador…Francisco tiene 29 años y dice que eso fue hace 13 años por qué no acudió en su momento a interponer la denuncia”, dijo el parlamentario sobre el joven que lo acusa.

Así, Vásquez desmintió la versión de Francisco Javier Bohórquez Franco, el joven de 29 años que en los últimos días interpuso una demanda ante la Fiscalía y entregó las supuestas pruebas del más reciente encuentro sexual, que habría ocurrido hace dos semanas.

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NEW JERSEY
USA Today

JACKSON, N.J. — A Catholic priest who once ministered to a congregation here has taken a leave of absence following a sexting scandal with a man he reportedly thought was a 16-year-old boy.

The Rev. Matthew Riedlinger preached at St. Aloysius Church until August 2012, when he entered counseling following complaints of inappropriate cellphone text conversations with other adults, according to church leadership.

While in out-patient treatment, Riedlinger continued having sexual conversations, prompting the Diocese of Trenton to remove him from his parish. Last week, the diocese announced that Riedlinger had taken a leave of absence from the priesthood.

In 2011, Timothy Schmalz, 23, of Washington complained to the diocese in 2011 about Riedlinger’s behavior, saying the priest sexually harassed him, according to The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. To expose Riedlinger, Schmalz pretended online to be a 16-year-old boy, recorded text message conversations last year between Riedlinger and himself, and later forwarded them onto the diocese, according to the newspaper.

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NEW JERSEY
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Let me begin by saying that “sexting” (sending lewd comments and naked photos of yourself via text), though sinful, is far from the worst thing one adult can do to another. Sexting someone you think is a 16-year-old boy … well, that’s another story

But which is worse? A priest sexting someone he thinks is a 16-year-old boy, but isn’t – or a pastor refusing to tell parishioners about this and bullying them into not asking questions when the priest is removed from their parish for this very reason?

The priest intended to abuse a minor, but didn’t. The pastor intended to bully his parishioners, and did.

From The Star Ledger (emphasis mine) …

The text messages read as if they’ve been ripped from a pornographic novel.

Matthew Riedlinger quizzed his texting partner about sex videos, pressed for details about intimate liaisons, described sexual acts and encouraged mutual masturbation.

He also repeatedly asked to meet.

“Promise me you will never breath (sic) a word of this to anyone — ok?” he wrote.

Riedlinger had good reason for discretion.

He is a priest of the Diocese of Trenton, and while exchanging more than 1,200 text messages over four weeks last year, he thought was he talking to a 16-year-old boy.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 30 September 2013

THE Catholic cleric appointed in the wake of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s departure has warned of a “drift” within the Church unless the Vatican moves to address a vacuum within the senior clergy in Scotland.

Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh Leo Cushley said he would be delighted if Pope Francis considered the appointment of new Scottish bishops in the short term to fill a number of vacancies.

Of the eight dioceses in Scotland, currently only four have full-time bishops not waiting to leave – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Argyll and the Isles.

“There are a couple of good lads out there. I thought one of them would get this job. And hopefully that means one of them is now free to go somewhere else,” Archbishop Cushley said.

“I think we all have a fair idea of who these candidates might be but that’s something done in its own way. It may take a while.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent

TOM KINGTON IN ROME – 30 SEPTEMBER 2013

A ROMAN Catholic cardinal has said that a group of senior church figures handpicked by the Pope to shake up the Vatican’s murky and autocratic bureaucracy would “rip up and rewrite” the constitution which apportions power at the Holy See.

The eight cardinals, who were appointed by Pope Francis in April, have been briefed to revise the constitution, known as Pastor Bonus and drawn up in 1988 by Pope John Paul, in a bid to give greater voice to bishops around the world.

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the group’s leader, said that at tomorrow’s meeting they would go much further than just change “this and that”.

“No, that constitution is over,” he said in a television interview. “Now, it is something different. We need to write something different,” he added.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

Pope Francis Concealed His Actions Against Two Prelates. Now Both “Whereabouts are Unknown.”

by Betty Clermont

A “dossier” accusing papal nuncio Archbishop Josef Wesolowski of sex abuse of minors was sent to Pope Francis sometime in July by Santo Domingo Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez. The pope found the information credible enough to dismiss Wesolowski, nuncio to both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, on Aug. 21 via confidential letter N.2706/PR to the bishops of both countries.

Neither the civil authorities nor the public knew about Wesolowski until a local TV program did an expose’ on Aug. 31. The result of a year-long investigation, the broadcast contained testimony from residents of the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo that Wesolowski paid minors for sex.

Three days after the TV broadcast, a local bishop confirmed that Wesolowski had been recalled for sexually abusing minors.

Wesolowski reportedly had left the country only a few days before. There were accusations that the pope allowed his nuncio to escape and speculation that Wesolowski fled to Haiti where children are even more desperately poor.

On Sept. 23, the Dominican Republic’s Justice Ministry confirmed there was evidence of pedophilia against Wesolowski. A deacon confessed to “pimping” minors for the prelate who allegedly waited in his vehicle nearby. The deacon, Francisco Javier Occi Reyes, who is being held in pretrial prison on pedophilia charges, was arrested when one of Wesolowski’s alleged victims alerted a police officer. The deacon said on that occasion Wesolwski left but said nothing because he thought the Church’s influence would get him out of prison.

The Deputy Procurator and the case’s lead investigator, Bolivar Sanchez, noted that Wesolowski cannot be extradited because of his diplomatic status. He said the minors interviewed admitted to masturbating for, and of taking part in oral sex with the bishop as he filmed them with a cell phone. Another witness affirmed seeing child pornography on Wesoloski’s laptop at the Vatican embassy. Sanchez confirmed that when the local Catholic Church submitted the evidence to the Vatican, the Justice Ministry was unaware of the case but has received full cooperation after the investigation was launched.

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NEW YORK
ABC News

[with video]

Sept. 29, 2013
By GILLIAN MOHNEY

The Archdiocese of New York has removed a deacon from the church over allegations that he abused minors.

Albert Mazza was removed from the Holy Name of Mary Parish in Croton-on-Hudson, NY., after an investigation by police revealed that there was evidence he had allegedly abused minors, according to a statement from church officials.

The announcement was made by Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan in a letter to the parishioners of Mazza’s church. The letter was read during Sunday mass by Father Edward Weber, the director of priest personnel for the Archdiocese of New York.

According to Dolan’s letter, an investigation by the Westchester district attorney found credible evidence of abuse, but prosecutors were “precluded by state law” from bringing charges.

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NEW YORK
PIX 11

FRESH MEADOWS (PIX11) – In a lawsuit claiming negligent supervision, Felicia Mooradian, said the administration at Saint Francis Prep failed to protect her and she wants to make sure they don’t fail others. In a lengthy complaint against St. Francis Prep in Queens a young woman, identified initially as simply Jane Doe, is now stepping out of the shadows. Felicia Mooradian, now in her 20′sj, said she will never forget what happened to her during her time at Saint Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows Queens.

Mooradian said what started out as favoritism and merely extra attention in the spring of 2006 from her high school Spanish teacher, Brother Ben O’Reilly, ended with a scared teenager forced to confront a man she said sexually harassed her .

“He kept inviting me to come back to his classroom during lunch periods and I was really feeling funny about that. Too many lingering glances. Too many shoulder squeezes. Too much with the neck rubbing,” said Mooradian.

And it didn’t just end there. Mooradian alleged Brother Ben, a trusted, fun loving member of the St Francis staff, made a number of inappropriate comments before the young teen had had enough.

“The first comment that really struck me was when he said you can be on a diet but you can still look at the menu. Another time he said to me you know Felicia my goal in life is to give you pleasure,” said Mooradian.

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NEW YORK
CBS News York

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — The deacon of the Holy Name of Mary Parish in Westchester County has been removed from ministry amid allegations of sexual abuse several years ago.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan announced Sunday that he has issued a letter to parishioners of the church, in Croton-on-Hudson, informing them of the dismissal of Deacon Albert Mazza. The Rev. Edward Weber, direct of priest personnel for the New York Archdiocese, read the letter at Sunday masses.

Mazza’s dismissal comes after two other pastors at Holy Name of Mary Parish were also dismissed from the priesthood for sexual abuse allegations.

In the letter, Dolan noted that the Westchester County District Attorney’s office had notified the Archdiocese of the allegations against Mazza, and the deacon was immediately put on leave for an investigation. Last week, the archdiocesan review board recommended that Mazza be removed from the ministry permanently.

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.

NEW YORK
News 12

WESTCHESTER – A popular religious leader in Croton has been removed from his parish after decades-old sex abuse allegations have come to light.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan sent a letter to Holy Name of Mary Parish this morning stating that their deacon of 17 years, Albert Mazza, was removed due to credible and substantial allegations of the sexual abuse of minors up to 30 years ago.

The Archdiocese says the allegations against Mazza predate his time at the Croton-on-Hudson church. Father Brian Brennan says the deacon did interact with minors during his time at the parish.

The Westchester District Attorney told News 12 that Mazza will not face criminal charges because of the statute of limitations. According to the church, he will go to Rome to plead his case to the Vatican.

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NEW YORK
NorthJersey.com

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (AP) — The Archbishop of New York has permanently removed from ministry the deacon of a suburban New York parish following sexual abuse allegations.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a letter read Sunday in the Holy Name of Mary Parish in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., that Deacon Albert Mazza was removed after law enforcement referred allegations he’d abused minors years ago. Mazza has served as permanent deacon since 1996.

Dolan described the allegations as substantiated and credible.

He said the Westchester County district attorney’s office referred the claims to the archdiocese several months ago but criminal charges were precluded by state law. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said the statute of limitations had run out.

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AUSTRALIA
Parramatta Sun

Read the letter here

JULIA Gillard revealed on Monday night why she devoted some of her last minutes as prime minister to writing a letter to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

Ms McCarthy’s work in chronicling sexual abuse of the Catholic Church as part of the Herald’s Shine The Light campaign has been credited with leading to a state inquiry and a federal royal commission.

Ms Gillard said Ms McCarthy’s efforts in uncovering clergy abuse within the Maitland-Newcastle diocese was on her mind before she announced the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

‘‘Everything that was happening in Newcastle was at the forefront of my thinking as we decided to move to the stage of having a national royal commission,’’ Ms Gillard said.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Written by
Hoa Nguyen

CROTON-ON-HUDSON — A deacon has been dismissed from his duties at Church of the Holy Name of Mary after allegations of sexual abuse of minors from years ago recently surfaced, Catholic officials said.

Deacon Al Mazza has been accused of engaging in immoral and illegal conduct with minors prior to becoming a deacon in 1996, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan told parishioners via a letter on Sunday. The incident is the third time an ordained minister has faced such allegations in the Croton parish.

Dolan’s letter, read to parishioners at Sunday Masses, said the action was taken due to “credible and substantiated allegations of the abuse of minors.”

In Mazza’s case, the allegations were unrelated to his activities at the church, archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said.

A deacon is an ordained minister who works with the pastor and parish staff but can have a job outside the church. Mazza owns a construction company. He could not be reached for comment.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

by William Verity

The Catholic Church in Wollongong is facing fresh allegations that it failed to follow up sex abuse crimes by its priests.

Former Catholic school principal Jim Walsh intends to tell the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he suspects two former priests from the Illawarra, who were never investigated by police or charged.

”It is my belief that there are still some who haven’t been unearthed,” he said.

His testimony will raise the possibility the Church protected priests by moving them away from their parishes to avoid investigation.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santiago.- The hearings to decide on whether to indict catholic priest Juan Manuel de Jesús Mota (Johnny) on sexual assault charges has become a witch-hunt against the accusers, according to the lawyers of the seven victims.

During the first hearing, Constanza prosecutor Juana María Castillo said a mob led by the former mayor Ernesto Joaquín Gómez (Chito) pushed and shoved two of the women who filed complaints.

“What’s happening here is that even I have bee threatened and these poor girls, fans of the cure have been manhandled,” said Castle in a telephone interviews by newspaper El Caribe.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

[Will Pope Francis Be Ready For His Reform Meetings With Cardinals?]

Jerry Slevin

Is Pope Francis in reality like a clone of ex-Pope Benedict, but just a better spiritual salesman? That is an important and unanswered question . Wishful thinking Catholics hope Francis really is different in more than his smoother speech. Many Catholics basically gave Francis a free six month pass, when Francis became new pope. He at the time appointed 8 Cardinals to tell him by October 1 how to reform the Curia. Six months seemed like a reasonable time, at least to come up with a specific vision of a reform agenda. Francis and the Cardinals were then , and still are, quite familar with the Church’s problems.

Of course, the eight Cardinals included some of the “usual suspects” who had been part of the clique that either caused the current mess or looked the other way as the ex-pope fiddled while Rome burned.

The group’s chairman, Cardinal Rodriguez of Honduras, had earlier shamefully suggested that the Jewish owners of the New York Times, parent company of the Boston Globe, were mainly behind the bad press Cardinal Law got in the Boston priest abuse scandals. Rodriguez reportedly supported the ex-pope’s ban on condoms for AIDS victims and excommunication of women who had an abortion. And he just suggested the Holy Spirit is guiding his current efforts to help Francis “reform” the Church. Really? Who guided his seemingly anti-Semitic remarks earlier?

As an international lawyer, it is becoming increasingly simpler to assess all of this now. Francis and his Cardinals’ group must either “put up” real reforms soon or else. The “or else” are government prosecutors. Australian prosecutors are currently breathing down the neck of Cardinal Pell, also one of the eight Cardinals. The ex-pope, or even Pope Francis, could well be next. And prosecutors in many other nations, including in Latin America, are stepping up their pace.

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ARGENTINA
La Plata YA

17 de septiembre de 2013

[Summary: Several alleged victims of priest Richard Gimenez, who was charged and convicted of child abuse, marched through Los Hornos. He was removed 10 days ago as pastor of his parish.]

La marcha fue organizada por varias victimas de Ricardo Gimenez quien esta acusado y condenado por abuso de menores. El mismo fue separado hace 10 días de su cargo como párroco de la Iglesia del Hospital San Juan de dios. El escrache se llevo adelante en 66 y 152 donde vive actual el denunciado.

El cura fue condenado por el abuso de cinco menores en 1996, pero luego la Cámara Penal de Apelaciones le concedió la excarcelación extraordinaria bajo caución juratoria.

Julieta Añazco una de las victimas aseguro a LAPLATAYA.COM que: “Hace 3 meses desperté después de 30 años de no poder hablar y ahora este señor no se va a poder esconder más. Ahora sabemos que seguramente se fue de su casa para no ser mas humillado, pero no lo voy a encontrar hasta abajo de la tierra.”

En sus fundamentos, el dictamen de los jueces Raúl Delbés y Horacio Piombo decía que se concedía al sacerdote el recurso por la “dignidad eclesiástica, la buena conducta y la falta de antecedentes del sacerdote”.

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ARGENTINA
El Intransigente

[Detailed Summary of Case of Julio César Grassi, Drawn from Media Coverage and Public Reports – BishopAccountability.org]

[Summary: Carlos Irisarri, who represents priest Julio Cesar Grassi, confirmed that they plan an extraordinary appeal before the national supreme court. Grassi has until Wednesday to appeal the to the inter-american human rights group.]

BUENOS AIRES.- Carlos Irisarri, patrocinante de la defensa del sacerdote Julio César Grassi, confirmó hoy que trabajaba “contrarreloj” para elevar un recurso extraordinario ante la Corte Suprema nacional dado que tiene plazo hasta el miércoles para apelar la condena por abuso sexual y corrupción de menores que ratificó el máximo tribunal bonaerense.

“El fallo último de la Corte de la Provincia, que lo dan cuatro jueces sobre siete, creo honestamente que es otra muestra de arbitrariedad. No entran en las cuestiones, es lo que yo le voy a plantear en la Corte de la Nación”, sostuvo el letrado de Julio César Grassi.

En tanto, adelantó que “si nos va mal en la Corte de la Nación, voy a plantearlo en la Interamericana de Derechos Humanos”.

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NEW JERSEY
UPI

Published: Sept. 29, 2013

TRENTON, N.J., Sept. 29 (UPI) — The Roman Catholic diocese in Trenton, N.J., has issued a statement confirming that a priest had been removed from his parish due to lurid text messages.

The statement released last week said the priest, Matthew Riedlinger, had indeed engaged in inappropriate communications with adults and that no sexual contact had taken place.

The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger said Sunday Riedlinger was the subject of complaints to the diocese since 2011, including from one of the young men, who said he and Rieldlinger exchanged some 1,200 graphic texts while Riedlinger was under the impression his text partner was a 16-year-old boy.

The text partner was actually Timothy Schmalz, a 23-year-old college student who said he set up his own sting with Riedlinger because the Jackson, N.J. priest had been sexually harassing him since he was a teenager.

The newspaper said Schmalz was one of five young men Riedlinger allegedly engaged in lurid communications. He was removed from his parish and later granted a leave of absence from the priesthood. No criminal charges have been filed.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Amanda Oglesby
@OglesbyAPP

JACKSON — A Catholic priest who once ministered to a congregation in Jackson has taken a leave of absence following a sexting scandal with a man he reportedly thought was a 16-year-old boy.

Father Matthew Riedlinger preached at St. Aloysius Church in Jackson until August of 2012, when he entered counseling following complaints of inappropriate cell phone text conversations with other adults, according to church leadership.

While in out-patient treatment, Riedlinger continued having sexual conversations, prompting the Diocese of Trenton to remove him from St. Aloysius Church.

Timothy Schmalz, 23, of Washington D.C. complained to the Diocese in 2011 about Riedlinger’s behavior, saying the priest sexually harassed him, according to The Star-Ledger. To expose Riedlinger, Schmalz pretended online to be a 16-year-old boy and recorded text message conversations between himself and Riedlinger, and later forwarded them onto the Diocese, according to the newspaper. Schmalz declined an interview with the Asbury Park Press.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Summary: The first class air flight by Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst along with his authoritarian style have caused a large number of people to leave the church in the Limburg diocese. According to information obtained by Spiegel, about 25,000 Catholics have left since he took office in 2008 through the end of last year. The number of church resignations in 2012 was more than twice as high as in 2004 when Tebartz van Elst was not in office.]

Der Protzbau, der Erste-Klasse-Flug, der autoritäre Führungsstil: Viele Katholiken haben genug vom umstrittenen Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst. Nach SPIEGEL-Informationen ist die Zahl der Kirchenaustritte in seinem Bistum erheblich gestiegen.

Einsam, einsamer, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst: Erst distanzierten sich ranghohe Kirchenleute von dem Bischof. Jetzt laufen ihm auch noch seine Schäfchen davon: Nach Informationen des SPIEGEL hat die Zahl der Kirchenaustritte im Bistum Limburg angesichts des anhaltenden Skandals um den Bischof erheblich zugenommen; das zeigen die Zahlen mehrerer Amtsgerichte. Insgesamt haben seit seinem Amtsantritt zum Jahresbeginn 2008 bis Ende vergangenen Jahres rund 25.000 Katholiken die Limburger Kirche verlassen.

So war die Zahl der Austritte beim Amtsgericht Limburg im Jahr 2012 mehr als doppelt so hoch wie 2004, als Tebartz-van Elst noch nicht im Amt war. Eigentlich müssen Katholiken ihren Austritt aus der Kirche nicht begründen und dennoch tun es manche: Sie stören sich demnach am “Protzbau” des Bischofs, an seinem autoritären Führungsstil, an seinem Erste-Klasse-Flug nach Indien.

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LOUISIANA/FRANCE
The Advertiser

[with video]

Written by
Evan Moore

On clear mornings he can see the steeple.

It rises from a little russet-stone Catholic church in the village in southern France where Ray Mouton, former Louisiana lawyer-turned-expatriate-American author, now lives.

The view from Mouton’s terrace focuses squarely on that steeple as it cuts a vertical line through the horizon, reaching heavenward against a backdrop of the Pyrenees Mountains, a symbol of solace, hope and inspiration to man.

But not to Mouton.

Mouton has never been to Mass in that church. He has never heard a sermon there.

Mouton no longer attends church services. Not since the case of Father Gilbert Gauthe, whose horrific crimes against children in the Diocese of Lafayette set off a wave of scandal in 1985 that reached from southern Louisiana throughout the nation. Not since that wave rolled across the ocean to Europe, all the way to the Vatican.

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ARGENTINA
El Siglo

[Summary – In an interview with Radio LT10 of the city of Santa Fe , Marcelo Baridon , lawyer of one of the victims of the priest Justo José Ilarraz , said the priest was confessor and spiritual guide to the father of one victims. Illarraz is accused of more than 50 instances of sexual abuse.]

28/09/2013 11:14 PM | SANTA FE.- En diálogo con la radio LT10 de la ciudad de Santa Fe, Marcelo Baridón, abogado de una de las víctimas del cura Justo José Ilarraz, quien fue acusado por más de 50 casos de abusos sexuales, expresó que “en este delito se produce un caso paradigmático porque los delitos sexuales fueron cometidos en un seminario”.

“Ilarraz oficiaba de confesor, de guía espiritual y hasta de padre de una de las víctimas. Este hombre enjuagaba su práctica sexual en conceptos que los jóvenes no tenían. Ilarraz les hablaba de amistad y confusión”, dijo el letrado.

Además, Marcelo Baridón agregó que “efectivamente, la causa del cura Grassi influyó. La primera denuncia fue casual. La madre estaba mirando televisión y no salía de su asombro ante la causa Grassi y en ese momento su hijo rompe a llorar y le cuenta que lo ocurrió algo similar”.

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UNITED STATES
Whispers in the Loggia

Two years ago, Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga was licking his wounds on the Roman scene.

After a power play orchestrated by the Roman Curia, the Honduran cardinal’s top collaborator at Caritas Internationalis – the charity confederation’s secretary-general, Lesley Anne Knight – had been denied a second term by the Vatican, for reasons that the Caritas board wouldn’t disclose, but greeted with stated “incomprehension.” Widely seen as the most formidable laywoman in a global-level church post, Knight’s allies later portrayed the British-Zimbabwean chief’s black-balling in the context of her gender, lack of orders and outspokenness at high levels in defending her agency’s work.

Yet now, as only a transition of Popes can bring about, it’s suddenly a new world: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Salesian confrere with whom Rodriguez shared little else in common, is 17 days from retiring… and this week, the Honduran’s restoration to center stage (and then some) completes itself as Don Óscar takes the principal place alongside Pope Francis at the first summit of Bergoglio’s advisory commission of eight cardinals as the group’s designated “coordinator.”

Believed to have been the key driver behind the Latin American bloc that put the Argentine on this Conclave’s map in the first ballot, it’s not a stretch to say that Rodríguez, 70 – a dynamic polyglot with three decades’ experience on the global stage – now enjoys the role of papal “shadow,” and the near-limitless portfolio that comes with it, which in times past had been the province of the Secretary of State. Indeed, unburdened with the minutiae of running a dicastery as he cris-crosses the globe, perhaps it isn’t even too much to cast the first of the “Super-Cardinals” as Francis’ “Vice-Pope”… at least, with one key difference from before: unlike the Benedict-Bertone tag-team, the new Pope has no qualms about being his own linebacker.

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ROME
Rome Reports

[with video]

September 28, 2013. (Romereports.com) Before the start of the conclave earlier this year, when asked where the next Pope would come from, Australian Cardinal George Pell ventured to guess that the most likely probability was Europe.

But then he added:

CARD. GEORGE PELL
Archbishop of Sydney (March 6, 2013)
“We will certainly see a South American Pope in the next 50 to 100 years, perhaps many of them.”

It turns out he didn’t have to wait years, but rather days, to see the the first South American pontiff. His fellow cardinals elected Pope Francis in five rounds of voting.

From the onset it was clear what Cardinal Pell expected from the next Pope, and it seems, so far, he’s getting what he wanted.

CARD. GEORGE PELL
Archbishop of Sydney (March 6, 2013)
“We’ve got to have a Pope who is able to speak to the world, to modern communications and I think this time we’re gonna have a pastoral pope who can encourage the Vatican Curia to lift their game.”

The Archbishop of Sydney will also have an important role in getting the Curia to lift their game. He was one of eight cardinals from around the world Pope Francis appointed to advise him on reform to the Church and Curia.

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ARGENTINA
Contexto National

[Detailed Summary of Case of Julio César Grassi, Drawn from Media Coverage and Public Reports – BishopAccountability.org]

[Summary: The first days in prison are the hardest and the longest. Priest Julio Cesar Grassi, 58, has had to adapt. His first days have included a series of interviews with psychologists and psychiatrists to map out a profile and define a strategy. He was visited the first four days by two of his four brothers and spoke with the chaplain. According to sources, the priest is housed in Unit 41 which currently has about 500 prisoners along with 30 other detainees. Many have been charged with sex crimes. One of his peers is priest Jose Antonio Mercau, sentenced to 14 years in prison for abusing four minors. Mercau, 57, belongs to the San Isidro diocese.]

Los primeros días en prisión son los más difíciles. Los más duros. Y los más largos. El cura Julio César Grassi (59) atraviesa la etapa de adaptación, que incluye una serie de entrevistas con psicólogos y psiquiatras que tienen como objetivo trazar su perfil y definir la estrategia para que el período de iniciación carcelaria no sea tan violento.

Por estas horas, Grassi ocupa parte de su tiempo en cuestiones de rutina. No obstante, en estos primeros cuatro días recibió a dos de sus cuatro hermanos y habló personalmente con el capellán de Campana, quien estará a su lado mientras dure su estadía en prisión.

Según fuentes consultadas, el cura fue alojado en el pabellón seis de la Unidad Penitenciaria N° 41 –que actualmente alberga a cerca de 500 presos– junto a otros treinta detenidos más, muchos de ellos acusados por delitos contra la integridad sexual. El dato es que uno de sus compañeros es otro cura de la Iglesia Católica: el párroco José Antonio Mercau, condenado a catorce años de prisión por abusar de cuatro menores.

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

Pope Francis will have his hands full, no doubt; the clergy abuse scandal still isn’t over.

Several cases have made the news in recent days.

Father Curtis Wehmeyer.
Father Robert Poandl.
Father William Paulish.
Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski.
Father Wojciech Gil.
Father Julio Cesar Grassi.
Bishop Gabino Miranda.
Father Louis Grandpre.
Father Robert Brennan.

On a related note, Billy Graham’s grandson is sounding the alarm about abuse among evangelicals.

According to a Sept. 26 story at Religion News Service:

The Christian mission field is a ‘magnet’ for sexual abusers, Boz Tchividjian, a Liberty University law professor who investigates abuse said Thursday (Sept. 26) to a room of journalists.

While comparing evangelicals to Catholics on abuse response, ‘I think we are worse,’ he said at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, saying too many evangelicals had ‘sacrificed the souls’ of young victims….

Click here to read the full article.

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PERU
La Republica

Impacto profundo. Para el ex presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal del Perú, monseñor Luis Bambarén, el Opus Dei se ha lavado las manos y se ha apartado del caso del expectorado sacerdote Gabino Miranda, no obstante que fue formado por ellos.

Doris Aguirre.

Por algo será.

Antes que el cardenal Juan Luis Cipriani se pronunciara sobre el caso del defenestrado ex obispo auxiliar de Ayacucho, Gabino Miranda Melgarejo, lo hizo la Oficina de Información del Opus Dei en el Perú, el 20 de septiembre. Aclaró que el sacerdote no era uno de sus miembros sino que formaba parte de la Sociedad Sacerdotal de la Santa Cruz, una organización que pertenece al Opus Dei. Era una forma elegante de apartarlo del círculo del Opus Dei.

Recién al día siguiente, el 21 de septiembre, desde Roma y por teléfono Cipriani demandó comprender y no condenar a Gabino Miranda y pidió que se le permita “el derecho a defenderse”, como si el ex sacerdote hubiera sido víctima de una injusticia. Demasiada agua tibia para un caso que remeció la fe de los católicos.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Jane Gargas / Yakima Herald-Republic
jgargas@yakimaherald.com

As he leaves Yakima behind, Robert Fontana, who headed the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, remains at odds with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima over the naming of clergy accused of sexual abuse.

Fontana argues that the diocese should publish the names of all diocesan clergy on its website who have faced credible allegations of sexual abuse, where they served and when.

A spokesman for the diocese vociferously disagrees, saying that school districts and Scout organizations don’t publish names of the accused on their websites.

Listing names on diocesan websites is not unheard of, but it’s not common, either. Of the 195 dioceses in the United States, only 34 publish names of accused clerics on their websites. In Washington, just the Spokane Diocese does so. Yakima and Seattle do not.

According to the U.S. Conference of Bishops, a credible allegation is “one which has a semblance of truth to it following an initial examination of the facts and circumstances surrounding the allegation.”

While Fontana believes that victims would find it less intimidating to come forward if they thought that a clergy member may have abused others, Monsignor Robert Siler, diocese chief of staff, takes a different view.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Jane Gargas / Yakima Herald-Republic
jgargas@yakimaherald.com

Some will say, emphatically, “good riddance.”

Others will lament his leaving.

But all will acknowledge his imprint here.

Robert Fontana, who has been a leading advocate for major reforms in the Catholic Church, recently moved away from Yakima.

Fontana and his wife, Lori, are relocating to Seattle, where he will train as a marriage and family therapist at Seattle University, and she will substitute teach.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on September 29, 2013

[statement from the diocese]

The text messages read as if they’ve been ripped from a pornographic novel.

Matthew Riedlinger quizzed his texting partner about sex videos, pressed for details about intimate liaisons, described sexual acts and encouraged mutual masturbation.

He also repeatedly asked to meet.

“Promise me you will never breath (sic) a word of this to anyone — ok?” he wrote.

Riedlinger had good reason for discretion.

He is a priest of the Diocese of Trenton, and while exchanging more than 1,200 text messages over four weeks last year, he thought was he talking to a 16-year-old boy.

Riedlinger, at the time an assistant pastor at St. Aloysius Church in Jackson and a sex-education teacher at the parish school, was the target of an elaborate sting by a Catholic University of America graduate who says the priest sexually harassed him for years.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The optimistic hopes of many Catholics about the upcoming meetings next week of Pope Francis and his eight man Cardinals’ reform committee are beginning to fade. Various new Vatican reports, leaks, etc., are playing down the meetings as very preliminary, only advisory and mostly secret. So what else is new?

Pope Francis has little time left to reform the Catholic Church. He cannot afford to procrastinate, in my considered view as an international lawyer. If he fails now , he also will likely be compelled to resign like his predecessor, ex-Pope Benedict, ignominousily had to. The Vatican’s “house of cards”, as Francis realistically described it, will then probably collapse. If that happens, Cardinal Rigali’s Secretary, Monsignor Lynn, may have some hierarchical company in prison before his sentence is completed. It’s that bad. Some hierarchs from outside Pennsylvania will likely find accomodations at their local jails.

Francis must promptly make the Church’s leaders accountable to the faithful, the Gospels and civil law, especially with respect to protecting defenseless children. He must initiate and enforce specific and effective policies to do this, before government prosecutors from Australia, Ireland, the Dominican Republic, the USA, Peru, Chile, Argentina, the Phillipines, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, or from dozens of other countries, do so for him.

Prosecutors dictated to Kansas City’s criminal, but continuing, Bishop Finn the specific policies he must follow, as nearby Federal prosecutors buried Finn’s protected pedophile priest with a 50 year prison term. Prosecutors eventually can be expected to dictate to other bishops and even to Francis himself, no matter what Francis may be advised otherwise. Government regulators are already dictating to Francis how he must manage the hierarchy’s finances. Government lawyers can, and I expect soon will, dictate to him how he must manage the hierarchy’s approach to predatory priests, if Francis fails to get effective control of the bishops’ flawed approach first. Priests may not be the pope’s “employees”; but bishops are another story.

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ARGENTINA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary

Grassi was a Salesian until 1991, when he became a priest of the Morón diocese. In 1993, he founded Fundacion Felices los Niños (the Happy Children Foundation), aimed at rescuing street children. According to a news article, the foundation cared for 6,300 children in 17 homes nationwide from 1993 to 2002.

On 11/29/2000, an anonymous complaint filed in the Juvenile Court of Morón accused Grassi of corrupting minors. The case lay dormant until 10/23/2002, when Telenoche Investiga,an investigative news show on Argentina’s Channel 13, aired a program alleging Grassi’s sexual abuse of five boys, ages 11 to 17. It included an interview with a young man, his face obscured, who said that Grassi performed oral sex on him in 1998, when he was 15. Within days, Grassi was arrested and charged with 17 counts of abuse of three boys, who were 9, 13, and 17 when the alleged incidents occurred. Grassi denied all the allegations.

In November 2002, the executive committee of the Argentine bishops’ conference issued a statement denouncing a “campaign” intended to “blur the image” of the Catholic Church and “cause society to lose its trust” in the institution. It warned against making “condemning judgments about individuals or institutions before a fair trial.” Although the statement did not refer to a specific attack, some news analysts interpreted it as the bishops’ response to public uproar about Grassi and the recently arrested Archbishop Storni. The Executive Committee was headed by Archbishop Karlic of Parana and his first and second vice-presidents, Monsignor Miras of Rosario and Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.

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CALIFORNIA
Ms. Magazine

September 27, 2013 by Melissa McGlensey

California Senate Bill 131, otherwise known as the The Child Victims Act, was passed by the state Legislature earlier this year–but it’s still sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. He has until October 13 to sign the bill, veto it or let it pass into law without signing.

The governor, a former Jesuit seminarian, is under pressure to veto the bill from Catholic dioceses and other Church officials, as well as from organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America and USA Swimming–all entities that could face lawsuits if the bill is passed into law.

The Child Victims Act would expand the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to seek monetary damages in civil courts. If the bill becomes law, victims would be able to sue institutions that failed to adequately protect them from sexual predators.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

Catholic Church faces more claims of abuse at former home which was visited by Jimmy Savile

Written by STEVE LOWE

ANOTHER former boy of a Catholic boys home has spoken of the abuse he suffered.

He, who we have agreed not to name for legal reasons, was a resident of St Francis Boys Home, Shefford, in the 1960s. He states that former priest Father Hammond groomed boys for sexual purposes.

He also remembers the brutality of Father Ryan (pictured) who was twice arrested by Bedfordshire Police but never charged. The police are still looking for the paperwork of those arrests, as it has gone missing.

He also states that the boys were sexually abused by the nuns and that one nun, Mother Xavier, punished boys by making them put their hands in scalding water.

And yet another former boy remembers Jimmy Savile visiting the home in the 1960s.

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UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Billy Graham’s grandson has declared “evangelicals” worse than Catholics on child sex abuse. See article here. Whether or not that’s true is irrelevant. What does matter is protecting children from predators in general and specifically those who hide behind God. The latter steal a victim’s spirituality along with their childhood. The term “soul murder” is very appropriate.

The Catholic Church, whether better or worse than others, has a responsibility to be a leader in the solution. Yet, I suspect the Catholic Church outspends other faiths in blocking legislation that would protect all children – regardless of faith.

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POLSKA
Gazeta Wyborcza

[Summary: Bishops said they want to tackle the issue of pedophilia. The comment was made as a response from bishops regarding allegations of child sexual abuse made against Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski and priest Wojciech Gil in the Dominican Republic. The meeting was a precedent since reporters have found it difficult to get comments from the Polish church.]

Katarzyna Wiśniewska 28.09.2013

“Chcemy przeciwdziałać zjawisku pedofilii” – to odzew ze strony Episkopatu na głośny od tygodnia skandal w Kościele z udziałem polskich duchownych na Dominikanie. Abp Józef Wesołowski, były nuncjusz papieski, i ks. Wojciech Gil z zakonu michalitów są podejrzewani o molestowanie seksualne nieletnich chłopców.

Biskupi zareagowali na to konferencją prasową, na której szczegółowo mówili o tym, jak Kościół zamierza radzić sobie z podobnymi problemami. Takie spotkanie to precedens. Zwykle dziennikarzom trudno było doprosić się o komentarz, gdy ujawniano kolejne przypadki molestowania w polskim Kościele. Dobrze, że Kościół poczuwa się do odpowiedzialności za czyny swoich księży. Bo nie mniejszym problemem niż samo molestowanie było przez lata ukrywanie przestępczych czynów przez kościelnych przełożonych. Proboszcza z Tylawy, który przez 30 lat wykorzystywał dziewczynki, bronił abp Michalik. Kilka lat temu “Gazeta” opisała historię mężczyzn, którzy twierdzili, że kilkanaście lat wcześniej byli przez ks. Andrzeja ze Szczecina wykorzystywani seksualnie. O sprawie wiedziało kilku biskupów i nic z tym nie zrobili.

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PORTUGAL
Porta da Estrela

[Summary: The former vice rector at the Fundao seminary is facing 19 charges of sexual abuse of minors and the court has begun deliberations in private. The decision to close the trial to the public, including journalists, is because the abuse involved minors. According to the indictment the president abused six children between ages 13 and 15. Five of the students were boarding at the seminary where the alleged crimes were committed.]

Padre foi ordenado na Igreja Nova em São RomãoO Tribunal do Fundão começou a julgar à porta fechada o padre de 37 anos, ex-vice reitor do Seminário do Fundão, que está acusado de 19 crimes de abuso sexual de menores.

A decisão de fechar o julgamento ao público, incluindo jornalistas, prende-se com o facto de o processo ter vítimas sexuais menores e já era esperada, pelo que no local havia poucas pessoas com intenção de assistir.

De acordo com a acusação, o padre terá abusado de seis crianças entre os 13 e os 15 anos, cinco das quais alunos em regime de internato no Seminário do Fundão, local aonde alegadamente os crimes foram cometidos.

A acusação refere que Luís Mendes terá agido sempre com menores que considerava «mais fracos emocional ou familiarmente e sobre quem tinha forte ascendente».

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IRELAND
98 FM

A research project focusing on the events in Magdalene Laundries is being launched today.

Transcripts and archival material relating to the Laundries, will be made available through UCD archives.

Around 5,000 pages of documents are contained in the research.

Over 11 hundred women are thought to have suffered in the Laundries over the decades.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A research project focussing on the events in Magdalene Laundries is being launched today.

Titled Magdalene Institutions: Recording an Oral and Archival History, the project was funded by the Irish Research Council and conducted at UCD Women’s Studies Centre.

Transcripts and archival material relating to the Laundries will be made available through UCD archives.

Around 5,000 pages of documents are contained in the research.

“The overall objective of this project is to contribute towards a better understanding of the system of Magdalene Institutions that existed in Ireland through the gathering of archival material and oral history accounts from survivors who worked and lived in the Magdalene Laundries, as well as relatives, members of the Religious Orders, key informants (such as paid hands and GPs), and anyone else who has a story to tell that relates to these institutions,” according to project coordinator Dr Katherine O’Donnell.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

25 September 2013

An international group of Catholic reformers has written to the Pope pressing for a decision-making voice for laity in the Church.

In their open letter the group, which represents 100 church organisations, backed by over four million Catholics worldwide, seek an audience with the Pope to discuss church governance. Supporters of the letter include several British groups including Catholics for a Changing Church, Catholic Women’s Ordination, We Are Church UK and Quest.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Sep. 27, 2013 Distinctly Catholic

The cardinals who comprise the special commission to advise the Pope, the G-8, begin arriving in Rome today for preparatory meetings. Next Tuesday, they begin meeting with Pope Francis for three days of discussions, followed by a visit to Assisi. There has been a great deal of analysis about what we should expect, much of it very good, much of it published here at NCR. I believe the most important reform to come from the G-8 meeting will be simple and far-reaching: They are going to re-arrange the furniture.

My colleague Fr. Tom Reese, S.J., has already noted that in addition to the relatively simple managerial reforms, there needs to be a deeper reform of how the curia works and how it relates to the universal Church. There is talk about merging several Pontifical Councils into a large dicastry, perhaps even putting a layperson at its head. That would be great. Already, the G-8 will serve as a kind of check on the curia, a sounding board for the pope to see if the work of the curia is more of a burden or a blessing for local churches.

Some people advocate a wholesale change of doctrine, and I suspect they will be disappointed. Doctrine does not change, it develops. Those who invoke human dignity to promote this or that agenda item should always be mindful of the fact that there are few indignities greater than being a child of one’s own age. Conversely, those who insist that “nothing changes” need to hit the library. The Church’s teaching developed on usury and mandatory clerical celibacy in the middle ages, it developed on papal infallibility in the nineteenth century and on Church-State relations in the twentieth. The teaching on usury is especially instructive. In a pre-modern economy, the charging of interest under any circumstances would exploit the poor. As a commercial economy developed, the need for credit emerged and the prohibition on all usury was likely to exploit the poor. The teaching on usury, then, changed in order that the fundamental, evangelical value, not exploiting the poor, could remain the same. The doctrine did not change. The ambient circumstances changed, so the doctrine needed to develop in order to stay true to its deepest meaning.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Sep. 27, 2013 NCR Today

The chair of the committee of cardinals charged with reforming the Vatican curia said that the current system is over, and it is time for something different. As a result, the reform will not come quickly but will require “long discussion and long discernment.”

Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga responded to questions about the curial reform process in a wide-ranging interview with Basilian Father Thomas Rosica of Salt and Light Television in Canada earlier this week. Cardinal Rodríguez is chair of the committee of eight cardinals who were appointed by Pope Francis to advise him on reforming the curia. The cardinals will meet in Rome for the first time October 1-3.

Cardinal Rodríguez also revealed that, within four days of his election, the pope had already decided on Archbishop Pietro Parolin as his secretary of state even though the announcement did not come until the end of August.

Cardinal Rodríguez said that his committee has received suggestions from all over the world, 80 pages of suggestions from Latin American alone. “We have put them together around the main themes,” he reports. “There is convergence in many of the main subjects so we can say that it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not ours. You cannot have millions of Catholics in the world suggesting the same unless the Holy Spirit is inspiring.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

Criticism from victim advocates about the way the latest case of alleged sex abuse by a Philadelphia-area priest.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

by Anne Sheridan
Published on the 28 September 2013

DROGHEDA priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan has insisted he has not been “exiled” to Limerick, but his removal from his post in Louth has been heavily criticised by Limerick priest who has also been ‘silenced’ by the Vatican.

The uproar centres around a complaint that Fr O’Donovan, an outspoken Augustinian, allowed godparents to pour water on a baby’s head during a baptism, which contributed to him being removed from his parish.

The complaint, which was made without the knowledge of the parents, who later said that they fully support Fr O’Donovan, was addressed to Cardinal Sean Brady and subsequently forwarded to Rome.

The baby was baptised for a second time, after another priest in the diocese approached the parents and told them the baby would have to be baptised again – but not by Fr O’Donovan, who has now left Drogheda for a year-long sabbatical in Limerick on the orders of his superiors.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

I am now of the strong view as an international lawyer that Pope Francis has little time left to reform the Catholic Church. If he fails, likely he also will be compelled to resign like his predecessor, ex-Pope Benedict, ignominousily had to. The Vatican’s “house of cards”, as Francis realistically described it, will then probably collapse. If that happens, Cardinal Rigali’s Secretary, Monsignor Lynn, may have some hierarchical company in prison before his sentence is completed. It’s that bad.

Francis must make the Church’s leaders accountable to the faithful, the Gospels and civil law, especially with respect to protecting defenseless children. He must initiate and enforce specific and effective policies to do this, before government prosecutors from Australia, Ireland, the Dominican Republic, the USA, Peru, Chile, Argentina, the Phillipines, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, or from dozens of other countries, do so for him.

Prosecutors dictated to Kansas City’s criminal, but continuing, Bishop Finn the specific policies he must follow, as nearby Federal prosecutors buried Finn’s protected pedophile priest with a 50 year prison term. Prosecutors eventually can be expected to dictate to other bishops and even to Francis himself, no matter what Francis may be advised otherwise. Government regulators are already dictating to Francis how he must manage the hierarchy’s finances. Government lawyers can, and I expect soon will, dictate to him how he must manage the hierarchy’s approach to predatory priests, if Francis fails to get effective control of the bishops’ flawed approach first. Priests may not be the pope’s “employees”; but bishops are another story.

Francis can no longer just hope to finess, spin and/or avoid addressing authentically, directly and effectively the obscenity of priest child abusers and bishops, like Finn and many others, who protected them. Francis seemed to have used this spin approach to some extent in Argentina and to have continued doing this mostly in his first six months as pope. He is almost out of time to be proactive, before he will likely be forced by civil and criminal laws to be reactive.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 28 September 2013

FOR SCOTLAND’S newest ­archbishop, you could say it is a question of the Catholic Church in Scotland getting back to basics.

Described by church insiders as “a world-class operator”, ­Archbishop Leo Cushley – who last week succeeded Cardinal O’Brien as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh – worked closely with both Popes Benedict and Francis and was chosen in the hope his diplomatic service skillset would help the church move on from the O’Brien scandal.

Already he has been touted as the frontman for the church in Scotland, with his counterpart in the Glasgow Archdiocese, Philip Tartaglia, keeping a much lower than expected profile following his appointment last year.

Now Archbishop Cushley has signalled his ­intention to change the damaged church’s approach, amid hypocrisy claims following its vocal ­opposition to same-sex marriage and subsequent revelations about the Cardinal, and to adopt the approach the Pontiff has taken in his six months in the Vatican.

After the turmoil surrounding Cardinal Keith O’Brien, it is ­glaringly apparent to Archbishop Cushley many of the church’s traditional interests have been neglected – namely the needy.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: An ex-seminarian reported witnessing homosexual encounters within the Arecibo diocese and that the misconduct was masked by high officials in the Catholic Church. Daniel Collazo Rivera, was at Seminario Jesús Maestro from August 2007 to Oct. 22, 2009.

He said he left the church after reporting irregularities and seeing that nothing was done with priests living a life contrary to the dogmas of the church. He believes that a “mafia” exists within the church. He complained along with other seminarians to the Vatican of instances of homosexuality, pedophilia and theft at the seminary. He then received death threats and attempts were made to intimidate him. The allegations are contained in several affidavits and depositions, he said. Collazo Rivera reported that priests at the seminary had made sexual advances to seminarians and homosexual relationships were established.

He added that nuncio Joseph Wesolowski and Inaki Mallona knew of the situation and covered-up. When leaving seminary in 2009, he met with Monsignor Mallona and told him the reasons he was leaving. He asked the seminarian to keep quiet. At the end of that year and early 2010, Collazo Rivera and six seminarians wrote to the Vatican detailing the irregularities they had witnessed in the Arecibo diocese and the Vatican responded by sending three researchers.]

Por Limarys Suárez Torres / lsuarez1@elnuevodia.com

Arecibo – Un exseminarista denunció ayer haber sido testigo de encuentros homosexuales dentro de la Diócesis de Arecibo y aseguró que todos fueron encubiertos por altos oficiales de la Iglesia Católica.

Daniel Collazo Rivera, quien estuvo desde agosto de 2007 al 22 de octubre de 2009 en el clausurado Seminario Jesús Maestro, señaló que dejó la Iglesia Católica tras denunciar las irregularidades y observar que nada se hacía con los sacerdotes que vivían una vida contraria a las dogmas de la iglesia.

“Dentro de la Iglesia Católica hay una mafia. Hice una denuncia con otros seminaristas ante El Vaticano de varios casos de homosexualismo, pedofilia y robo, y después de eso recibí amenazas de muerte y se paraban frente a mi casa carros con tintes oscuros para intimidarme”, dijo Collazo Rivera, cuyas alegaciones constan en varias declaraciones juradas y deposiciones.

El hombre relató que en el Seminario Jesús Maestro varios sacerdotes tenían acercamientos sexuales hacia los seminaristas y otros tenían relaciones homosexuales establecidas.

“El nuncio Josef Wesolowski y el monseñor Iñaki Mallona conocían de estos actos y ellos los encubrieron. Cuando salí del seminario me reuní con monseñor Iñaki, le comenté sobre las razones por las que abandoné mi formación vocacional, y él lo que hizo fue agradecerme por haber estado en el seminario y me pidió que me quedara callado”, relató.The ex-seminarian said that frustration and disappointment he experienced in the Diocese of Arecibo caused her to leave the Catholic Church.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[con video]

Por Israel Rodríguez Sánchez / israel.rodriguez@elnuevodia.com

La Diócesis de Arecibo es foco de una investigación de la Iglesia Católica por escándalos sexuales que involucran a sacerdotes y seminaristas, muchos de ellos ya destituidos o suspendidos por las autoridades eclesiásticas.

La situación se había mantenido en silencio hasta que se supo de la fulminante destitución del exnuncio apostólico para República Dominicana y Puerto Rico, Josef Wesolowski, quien es investigado por las autoridades del vecino país y del Vaticano por abuso sexual de menores.

Wesolowski visitaba con frecuencia a Puerto Rico y llegó a pernoctar en la Diócesis de Arecibo, según contaron a este diario feligreses de la Iglesia San Martín de Porres en esa ciudad.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

[Summary: The former nuncio of the Dominican Republic, Joseph Wesolowski, allegedly hindered investigations of pedophilia against more than a dozen priests in the Arecibo diocese. The most shocking case was that of priest Jose Colon Otero, who allegedly was caught seducing a choirboy. It is alleged that Colon Otero was a friend of Wesolowski and the nuncio stayed with the priest every time he came to Puerto Rico. The information was made known by Dominican journalist Adis Burgos of Código Calle who came to investigate in Puerto Rico.]

El destituido nuncio Josef Wesolowski supuestamente obstaculizó investigaciones de pederastía contra más de una decena de sacerdotes de la diócesis de Arecibo en Puerto Rico.

Se dice que uno de los casos más impactantes fue el del sacerdote José Colón Otero, quien se alega fue sorprendido seduciendo a un monaguillo.

Se alega que Wesolowski era amigo de Colón Otero e inclusive se hospedaba con el sacerdote cada vez que venía de visita a Puerto Rico.

La información la dio a conocer la periodista Adis Burgos, del programa Código Calle, que se trasladó a Puerto Rico para hacer la investigación.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

[Summary: Priest Jose Colon Otero, who is accused of child abuse, challenged his accusers to show evidence and prove that he committed those acts. He said it seems unfair that after 11 years of service that he would be subjected to vicious attacks.]

El sacerdote José Colón Otero, quien es señalado como uno de los involucrados en una investigación que realiza la Iglesia Católica por presuntos actos de abuso infantil, retó hoy a que quienes lo acusan muestren pruebas que evidencien que cometió los actos.

“Me parece muy injusto que a esta altura de la vida a un sacerdote después de 11 años de servicios se le ataque vilmente sin ni siquiera tener una prueba fehaciente o una acusación seria sobre un niño sobre una cosa como esta”, declaró Colón Otero en una conferencia de prensa en el Pabellón de la Paz del Parque Luis Muñoz Rivera.

Añadió que a cinco años de las denuncias no se ha probado nada y pidió a las personas que lo acusa a que presenten pruebas y que “sean responsables tanto eclesiásticamente como civilmente”.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

Por Ricardo Cortés Chico / rcortes@elnuevodia.com

El arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, aceptó ayer que la Iglesia Católica ha “cometido errores” en el manejo de imputaciones de abuso sexual contra sacerdotes, pero aseguró que se están enmendando.

Las expresiones de González Nieves se dieron en reacción a las informaciones de que varios sacerdotes de la Diócesis de Arecibo han sido suspendidos por conductas sexuales impropias, para miembros del clero, y por abuso sexual de menores.

Según González Nieves, el obispo de Arecibo, Daniel Fernández, ha manejado de manera adecuada la situación en su diócesis. Pero admitió que en el pasado no siempre ha sido así.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Herald

[Summary: San Juan Archbishop Robert Gonzalez Nieves on Friday rejected allegations of cover-up of alleged sexual scandals within the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico and in particular the Arecibo diocese, a district on the north coast of the island. He said Bishop Daniel Fernandez of Arecibo has handled the issue properly and with agreement of the Vatican.

His press conference follows a report in El Nuevo Dia stating that the Arecibo diocese is focus of a church investigation because of sex scandals involving priests and seminarians. The newspaper said some of those involved were dismissed or suspended..

González recalled that in the 14 years he has been San Juan archbishop, 32 local priests have been expelled for misconduct or sexual situations. He noted that every bishop in Puerto Rico has had to deal with such situations. He asked Catholics to pray for the Arecibo diocese.]

EFE
SAN JUAN — El arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, rechazó el viernes que se trate de encubrir supuestos escándalos sexuales dentro de la Iglesia Católica de Puerto Rico y en concreto en la Diócesis de Arecibo, distrito de la costa norte de la isla.

González Nieves, cabeza de la Iglesia Católica en Puerto Rico, señaló en conferencia de prensa que conoce de la situación de la Diócesis de Arecibo y que el obispo de esa demarcación, Daniel Fernández, ha manejado correctamente el asunto en consenso con el Vaticano.

Las aclaraciones de González Nieves siguen a una información aparecida el viernes en el diario sanjuanero El Nuevo Día en la que se señala que la Diócesis de Arecibo es foco de una investigación de la Iglesia Católica a causa de unos supuestos escándalos sexuales que involucran a sacerdotes y a seminaristas.

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PUERTO RICO
Prensa Latina

[Summary: Roberto Gonzalez, metropolitan archbishop of San Juan, denied the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico was involved in a conspiracy to cover-up sexual abuse by clergy. He acknowledged, however, that mistakes were made in dealing with pedophilia allegations. He spoke out at a press conference because the Arecibo diocese is immersed in a scandal after it become known that priest Jose Colon is being investigated for pedophilia.

Gonzalez said in recent years 32 priests have been expelled from the church for misconduct or sexual situations. He urged victims of sexual abuse to contact civil authorities.

The situation in the Arecibo diocese has ramifications with removal of Josef Wesolowski, apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic, who allegedly abused minors in the Dominican Republic. Wesolowski often visited Puerto Rico and stayed overnight in the Arecibo diocese, according to parishioners of St. Martin de Porres. Gonzalez said Daniel Fernandez, bishop of Arecibo, properly handled the issue and has advised the Vatican of the situation.

The Arecibo diocese is being investigated by the church because of allegations of sexual activities involving priests and seminarians. Newspaper reports claim that at least four bishops were deposed and nine seminarians were expelled from Seminario Jesús Maestro.]

San Juan, 27 sep (PL) El arzobispo metropolitano de San Juan, Roberto González, rechazó hoy que en la Iglesia católica puertorriqueña exista contubernio para encubrir los casos de abuso sexual en que incurren miembros de la curia.

El prelado reconoció, sin embargo, que se han cometido errores en la atención de denuncias de casos de pedofilia en los que han estado involucrados sacerdotes.

Las expresiones de González se produjeron en una rueda de prensa en el Arzobispado de San Juan, luego de que saliera a la luz pública que la Diócesis de Arecibo, en el norte del país, se encuentra inmersa en un escándalo luego que se conociera que el sacerdote José Colón es investigado por pedofilia.

Aseguró que desde que se encuentra al frente del Arzobispado metropolitano de San Juan, hace 14 años, se han expulsado 32 sacerdotes de la Iglesia católica por mala conducta o situaciones de naturaleza sexual.

González instó a las víctimas de abuso sexual a acudir a las autoridades civiles para que se investiguen criminalmente los casos.

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POLONIA
Hoy

VARSOVIA. AFP. La Iglesia de Polonia, país muy católico, enfrenta un escándalo de pedofilia después de que el papa Francisco destituyera de sus funciones al nuncio del Vaticano en República Dominicana, el polaco Josef Wesolowski, acusado junto a otro cura de la misma nacionalidad en misión en el país caribeño de abuso sexual a menores.

A pesar de que en los últimos años han salido a la luz varios casos de pedofilia en este país europeo, ninguno ha provocado un verdadero escándalo, al contrario de países como Estados Unidos o Irlanda, en donde casos de este tipo han sido ampliamente mediatizados y condenados.

El Secretario General del Episcopado polaco, monseñor Wojciech Polak, calificó el viernes a este caso de “doloroso y difícil”.

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Filmweb

El tema de los abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes católicos divide a la opinión pública, generando indignación y hasta incredulidad en quienes profesan una de las religiones con más adeptos en el mundo.

Retratar este hecho tiene sus retos, como le ocurrió al cineasta norteamericano Alex Gibney, quien desafiando un sistema plagado de intereses y corrupción, se aventuró a dirigir el polémico documental “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silencio en la casa de Dios”.

Durante 107 minutos, el realizador evidencia las faltas cometidas por el sacerdote Lawrence Murphy, a quien se le acusó de abusar sexualmente de casi 200 niños sordos en una escuela que estaba bajo su control.

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PERU
Trome

[Summary: Archbishop Salvador Pineiro of Ayacucho confirmed that former Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Miranda was removed from office for “impure acts” by decision of Pope Francis. The abuse of the 14-year-old boy is said to have occurred in the confessional.]

El arzobispo de Ayacucho, monseñor Salvador Piñeiro, confirmó que la decisión del Vaticano de destituir de su cargo al obispo auxiliar de esa región, Gabino Miranda, se debió a “actos impuros” cometidos por el exsacerdote.

Piñeiro explicó que, por decisión del Papa Francisco, el pasado 5 de julio, Miranda recibió la máxima sanción para un cura: la pérdida total del estado clerical. Empero, no dio más detalles sobre la dimisión.

Cabe recordar, sin embargo, que ayer la revista Caretas informó que sería un monaguillo de 14 años oriundo de Huanta quien denunció a Miranda, el año pasado, por tocamientos indebidos durante un acto de confesión, hecho que habría sido denunciado por Piñeiro ante el Vaticano.

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PERU
La Republica

[Summary: Marco Arana, former priest and now leader of the Tierra y Libertad political party, said former Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Miranda should be punished with life imprisonment. He called for investigation of Miranda, who has been accused of abusing a minor in the confessional.]

Arequipa.

Para el exsacerdote y ahora dirigente del partido político Tierra y Libertad, Marco Arana, el delito imputado al obispo auxiliar de Ayacucho, Gabino Miranda, debería ser sancionado con cadena perpetua.

“Aparentemente hubo una conducta delincuencial que repudio totalmente”, sentenció. A decir de Arana, ninguna persona puede ampararse en su institución para quedar libre de la justicia luego de cometer abusos sexuales contra menores de edad. En este caso, exigió que se investigue a profundidad el caso de Gabino Miranda para determinar la sanción que le corresponda.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Sep. 28, 2013 NCR Today

Rome – Steamy magazine exposés are rarely good news for the people or institutions featured in them. That’s probably especially true for the troubled Vatican bank, which over the years has been the church’s premier magnet for conspiracy theories and scandals of every imaginable sort.

On Friday, however, the bank finally caught a break.

There was yet another gossipy piece in an Italian newsmagazine, in this case l’Espresso, featuring ominous storm cloud art, which was full of unnamed sources describing an “earthquake” related to the bank. (The place is technically the “Institute for the Works of Religion,” often referred to by the Italian acronym IOR.)

Immediately after it appeared, the piece had phone lines buzzing inside the Vatican, in part because after last summer’s leaks scandal, the perception that insiders are spilling the beans to reporters usually means going to Defcon 1.

Yet despite the melodramatic flourishes in the piece, its overall effect is probably to burnish, rather than erode, the bank’s new image.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

[Summary: The Julio Cesar Grassi story began on Oct. 23, 2002 after he was arrested and accused of corrupting minors at the Happy Children Foundation. ]
POR JORGE LANATA

28/09/13

Esta historia tiene casi once años: comenzó el 23 de octubre de 2002 cuando, después de un informe de Telenoche Investiga, la Justicia ordenó la captura del sacerdote Julio César Grassi por corrupción de menores a su cuidado en la Fundación Felices los Niños.

Un Tribunal Oral, la Cámara de Apelaciones, la Cámara de Casación y la Suprema Corte bonaerense fallaron contra Grassi, pero hasta hace algunos días siempre pudo evitar ir a la cárcel. Sólo estuvo preso unos cuatro meses al principio del caso: un mes en una comisaría (entre el 24 de octubre y el 29 de noviembre de 2002) y tres en su casa.

En el juicio que comenzó el 20 de agosto de 2008 declararon más de 130 personas durante nueve meses. La querella y la Fiscalía pidieron entre 37 y 30 años. El 10 de junio de 2009 fue condenado a 15 años de prisión por el Tribunal Oral Número 1 de Morón, culpable de abuso sexual agravado en dos de los 17 hechos que se le adjudicaban. La condena fue por haber abusado de Gabriel, uno de los tres menores denunciantes, entre noviembre y diciembre de 1996. Pero deciden no encarcelarlo hasta que la condena quede firme. El 14 de septiembre de 2010 la Cámara de Casación bonaerense ratifica su culpabilidad,

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ARGENTINA
Perfil

[Summary: The fate of priest Julio Cesar Grassi at both judicial and ecclesiastical levels is a real mystery. While his defense is trying to get him free from prison, lawyers for alleged victims “Luis” and “Eziekiel” are trying to get his 15-year sentence increased to 37. The maximum penalty in church action would be expulsion from the priesthood. A canonical penal process would be independent of the civil process.]

Por Marcelo Androetto / L.N. | 28/09/2013

La suerte de Julio César Grassi, tanto a nivel judicial como eclesiástico, es una verdadera incógnita. Mientras su defensa define una estrategia para reclamar su libertad, la querella anunció que irá por más.

Según adelantaron los abogados de “Luis” y “Ezequiel” –dos supuestas víctimas–, en los próximos días presentarán un recurso ante la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación, para que amplíe a 37 años la condena a Julio Grassi con la inclusión de esos dos casos que no fueron tenidos en cuenta en tres instancias anteriores.

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