Catholic order to be overhauled after founder's abuse

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05/01/2010

Pope Benedict XVI is to appoint an envoy to overhaul a conservative Roman Catholic order whose Mexican founder abused young children over many years.

Marcial Maciel's actions were "immoral" and the Legionaries of Christ order had to be "purified", the Vatican said.

Maciel, who died in 2008, fathered a daughter with a mistress as well as sexually abusing many boys and young men over a period of 30 years.

He had enjoyed the support of the previous pope, John Paul II.

In 2006, Father Maciel was banned from exercising his ministry in public and told to retire to a life of prayer and penitence.

The priest - who founded the conservative order in 1941 - had always denied any wrongdoing. He died in January 2008 at the age of 87.

'Unscrupulous'

The Vatican statement came after the Pope met five bishops who investigated the order.
It said Fr Maciel had led a double life "devoid of scruples and authentic religious sentiment".

"By pushing away and casting doubt upon all those who questioned his behaviour, and the false belief that he wasn't doing harm to the good of the Legion, he created around him a defence mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life," the Vatican statement said.

The Catholic Church has been hit by a wave of allegations that Church authorities in Europe and North and South America failed to deal properly with priests accused of paedophilia, sometimes just moving them to new parishes where more children were put at risk.

The Pope himself has been accused of being part of a culture of secrecy, and of not taking strong enough steps against paedophiles when he had that responsibility as a cardinal in Rome.
However, his supporters say he has been the most pro-active pope yet in confronting abuse.

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fourth witness in priests abuse case

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05/01/2010

A fourth witness has come forward in the case of a Catholic priest accused of child sex abuse offences, a court has heard.

Prosecutors made the disclosure as Father James Donaghy appeared in the dock on 15 charges, including multiple counts of indecent assault and threats to kill.

The offences are alleged to have been committed by the former Bangor parish priest between 1983 and 2000.

Donaghy, 52, and from Lady Wallace Drive, Lisburn, Co Antrim, has stood down from clerical duties but is still regarded as a member of the Catholic clergy.

He is reported to have been working for an airline handling agent at Belfast International Airport prior to being charged earlier this year.

The offences he is charged with also include buggery and attempted buggery with a boy aged under 16, and gross indecency.

Following an earlier hearing he appeared again before Belfast Magistrates Court on Friday for an update on the case.

He wore a grey suit, white shirt and pink and blue tie for the brief hearing.

A representative from the Public Prosecution Service told the court that all statements have not yet been received from police.

It was revealed that a fourth witness from the Irish Republic has now come forward, but have yet to give their statement.

The court also heard that an officer in the case is dealing with 16 interviews.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall granted an application for a six week adjournment in the case.
Donaghy was released on continuing bail to appear again in June.

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Pedophile priest victim feels pain of justice denied

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05/01/2010

A NEWCASTLE woman, whose statement to future Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson about pedophile priest Denis McAlinden prompted an attempted secret defrocking of McAlinden in 1995, has lodged a formal complaint with police.

"On behalf of all of the victims of Denis McAlinden, I am seeking justice," the woman wrote to Lake Macquarie Detective Inspector Dave Waddell yesterday.

He is reviewing documents indicating Church knowledge that McAlinden's behaviour represented "grave problems for the community", with a forced attempted secret defrocking protecting his "good name" for the "good of the church".

"To date, the Catholic Church has been able to claim that pedophilia was a crime limited to the behaviour of a few priests and that there was no conspiracy of silence within the Church," she wrote in her complaint.

The Church's documents raised questions that needed answering, she said.

The woman has asked for a full investigation of the Church's handling of allegations about the priest.

The woman noted retired NSW Police assistant commissioner John Ure's statement to The Herald that if the McAlinden allegations were brought to police attention in 1995, as they were investigating and charging pedophile priest Vince Ryan, they would have been investigated.

She also noted Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone's apology in 2007 to McAlinden's victims who suffered "distress and lifelong impact" from his offending.

Retired detective John Mooney, who arrested Vince Ryan in 1995, backed the woman's call for a full police investigation and said McAlinden's victims had been denied justice by the Church's silence.

Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Dr Andrew Morrison, SC, said the potential for criminal prosecution of senior Catholic Church members was "a possibility".

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Tainted German priest stopped from working in SA - Catholic Church

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04/30/2010


A Johannesburg-based German Catholic priest accused of molesting boys in his home country has been suspended.

The minister was sent to South Africa after claims he had sexual relations with young boys.
He allegedly also used alcohol and drugs and filmed the acts.

But instead of dealing with the claims, his diocese in Germany moved him to this country.
The South African Catholic Bishop’s Conference (SACBC) says they view the allegations in a very serious light.

The SACBC’s Father Chris Townsend says police are investigating."The priest that is being featured is not functioning as a priest in South Africa at all until the details of a South African criminal case are sorted out."

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More ripples appear for Catholic Church

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04/29/2010
THE paedophile priests scandal shredding the Catholic Church’s reputation worldwide has been especially savage in Latin America, where half the religion’s faithful live.
Ecclesiastical authorities from the region have either been begging for forgiveness as they tried to reassure their nervous flock – or echoing the Holy See’s line that the Catholic Church was being persecuted by some mysterious forces.
Colombian cardinal Dario Castrillon, for instance, said he would “never” regret his support for a French bishop who did not denounce a pederast priest, and claimed Freemasonry was behind a smear campaign.
“I’m not afraid to say that in some cases there are, within the Masons, enemies united against the Church,” said the cardinal, who was appointed by the late Pope John Paul II.
“It is a shame there are such idiots working up this type of persecution,” he added, in comments from Rome to Radio RCN in Bogota.
With the polemic swirling around him for voicing his views, Castrillon was replaced in a Mass that he was to have led in Washington celebrating the fifth year of the reign of Pope Benedict XVI.
But a Peruvian cardinal who is also Lima’s archbishop, Juan Luis Cipriani, also stepped up to defend the Church’s claim to victimhood in the scandal.


“This is the work of the devil, even if that makes journalists laugh,” said Cipriani, who is also a high-ranking Opus Dei figure in Latin America.

Last month, the Latin American Bishops’ Council accused the media of peddling “false” and “defamatory” accounts about Pope Benedict’s actions in the past when confronted with instances of child abuse by the clergy.

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Austrian Church victims call for government investigation

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04/29/2010

Vienna - Austrian victims of abuse by Catholic clergy called on the government Thursday to start its own investigation of the hundreds of alleged cases that have surfaced in the past weeks.

So far, the Church has established an independent commission, and prosecutors are looking into specific incidents, but the state has not got involved in the scandal centred on physical and sexual abuse.

"Those affected feel abandoned by the state. Most of them call for an investigation by the government that takes place independently of the Church," said Philipp Schwaerzler, a psychologist who is part of a newly-formed panel of victims and experts.

Arguing for a state commission, Schwaerzler said that it had been Austrian regional authorities who had placed children in the care of Church-run welfare institutions.

The new panel provides psychological and legal advice on possible damage claims. Its victim hotline has received some 260 calls in the past four weeks.

Over 560 callers had contacted hotlines operated by the Church by the end of March. Not all of the callers at such service lines are themselves victims.

As the abuse scandal has swept from Germany to Austria in the past months, an abbot has resigned after admitting to sexual abuse of a boy, while several priests were reportedly suspended or quit.

Bishop Elmar Fischer of the Feldkirch Church province is under investigation for allegedly injuring pupils by hitting them in the 1960s

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Austrian group records jump in church abuse claims

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04/29/2010

An Austrian group says 260 people have called its hot line since March 23 to report incidents of alleged abuse by clergy or employees of institutions run by the Catholic church.

The Platform Of Those Affected By Church Violence says 70 percent of the callers were men and 30 percent were women. It says 58 percent of male callers and 40 percent of female callers reported sexual abuse, with the rest reporting physical or verbal abuse.

The group says it's tough to quantify the actual number of incidents since most callers _ aged 54 on average _ often reported being repeatedly abused during their childhood.

The group released the statistics Thursday after calling for a state-run commission to probe the alleged abuse during a closed-door meeting with Austrian parliamentarians.

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Diocese responds to sexual abuse lawsuit involving St. Francis Xavier priest

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04/29/2010

The Diocese of Venice released the following statement regarding the allegations against the Rev. Thomas Anglim:

“In August 2008 Mr. Jimmy Wilkins approached the Diocese of Venice in Florida with an allegation against Father Thomas Anglim which is alleged to have taken place in 1967 at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Fort Myers.

Immediately the allegation was presented to the Diocesan Review Board. The Review Board is a consulting body for the Bishop which deals with cases of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults and consists of laypersons and one member of the clergy. The Review Board spoke with Mr. Wilkins during a formal review of the information available. The Diocese then offered Mr. Wilkins counseling and pastoral care which was accepted by Mr. Wilkins.

At the time of the allegation, Father Anglim was in retirement which he had entered on Oct. 15, 2004. Further, at the time he was no longer physically capable of caring for himself, nor was he any longer able to speak. Father Anglim died Jan. 19, 2010.

Throughout this period, to the present time, the Diocese of Venice has supported the counseling for Mr. Wilkins.

Before the allegation was made by Mr. Wilkins in 2008, and since that time, the Diocese of Venice has not received any claims against Father Anglim. However, in late 2008 a letter was read at all Masses at St. Francis Xavier Parish which included the following: “Anyone who believes that he or she has been sexually abused by any other person connected with the Diocese of Venice in Florida or any organization should either contact law enforcement officials or the individual responsible for victim assistance in the Diocese of Venice in Florida.”

The Diocese has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct against minors and has a system in place to ensure a safe environment in churches, schools and other Diocesan entities. This policy conforms to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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Guest column: Church hierarchy should come clean

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04/29/2010

At the heart of the Roman Catholic sexual abuse crisis, the real issue is the cover-up. It's not unreasonable to hold religious leaders to a higher standard than people in other professions, but we all know there are people from every walk of life who do really bad things. Sex crimes in the Catholic Church are big news not so much because of the clergy who abused parishioners, but because of the organized, systematic nature of the cover-up.

When I began to deal with the fact that I had been sexually assaulted by a priest, I was able through my attorney to speak with several of his other victims. Through our conversations, it became clear this priest was a serial offender, well known to hierarchy and law enforcement alike. It became apparent to me that the church in which I grew up had placed me in the hands of a known predator.

That realization brought an overwhelming sense of betrayal, almost worse than the initial attack. I was baptized and raised in the Catholic Church, attended Catholic schools, joined the Legion of Mary. Coming to terms with the fact that this church failed to protect me and so many others from priests who were known to be sexually abusive was excruciating.

Until recently, sexual abuse was shrouded in secrecy throughout all of society. With the abuse in the Catholic Church, however, that secrecy was clothed in sacred garments; "telling" was not only unacceptable, but a sin. Theologians argue about whether or not that secrecy was encoded in a Vatican edict entitled "Crimen Sollicitationis," a document then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) reissued in 2001 instructing bishops to follow certain protocol for dealing with sexual assaults by clergy. According to a BBC documentary, "Sex Crimes and the Vatican," this missive ordered victims, witnesses and perpetrators to keep quiet about the abuse under the penalty of excommunication. For a Catholic, excommunication means not only the loss of church membership, but the loss of salvation. The family of one of the other victims I spoke with was threatened by the bishop's office with excommunication if they told anybody else about the attack, and the resultant secrecy contributed to more people being victimized. Including me.

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Brazil: Priest charged with 8 abusing boys

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04/28/2010

RIO DE JANEIRO — A Roman Catholic priest in Brazil is facing charges he abused eight boys in cases dating back to 1995, prosecutors said Wednesday, adding to a growing list of allegations against clergy in Latin America.

Father Jose Afonso, 74, is accused of abusing altar boys between the ages of 12 and 16, Sao Paulo state prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement.

Prosecutors said the reported abuses occurred this year, in 2009 and in 2001 in the city of Franca, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Sao Paulo city. At least one case was reported in 1995 in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais.

Afonso remains free while a judge decides if he should be jailed.

Calls to the Franca diocese rang unanswered. After-hours of calls to the offices of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops were not returned.

The case is the latest to hit Brazil, which has more Catholics than any other nation, and Latin America as a whole.

Earlier this month, 83-year-old Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa was detained in northeastern Brazil for allegedly abusing at least three boys after being caught on video tape having sex with a young man, a former alter boy.

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Report: Austrian cardinal accused of sex abuse stayed a member of Vatican congregations

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04/28/2010

VIENNA (AP) - A newspaper is reporting that a deceased Austrian cardinal remained on the rosters of Vatican congregations even after he stepped down in 1995 following sex abuse allegations.

Der Standard reported Wednesday that Hans Hermann Groer - who was Vienna archbishop from 1986 to 1995 - was listed in the 1999 directory of the Roman Catholic Church as a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The Groer scandal broke in 1995 when a 37-year-old former student at a boy's seminary in the town of Hollabrunn alleged that he abused him repeatedly in the early 1970s. Other accusations followed. Groer stepped down shortly after the first allegations surfaced - officially due to old age. He died in 2003 but never admitted any guilt.

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Brazilian priest on pedophilia charge

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04/28/2010

BRAZILIAN authorities overnight charged a 74-year-old Catholic priest with pedophilia after eight children in his church choir accused him of sexual abuse.

Father Jose Afonso De is being prosecuted for allegedly assaulting children aged 12 to 16, Sao Paulo state's public prosecutor's office said.

He has denied the allegations but has been suspended by his diocese.

The indictment adds another smear to the Catholic Church's reputation worldwide as it struggles with a series of pedophile accusations against its priests in the Americas and Europe.

The lead prosecutor in the Brazilian case, Jose Lourenco Alves, said the priest's role as mentor and authority over the children could increase the gravity of the charges.

The police chief who conducted the investigation sparked by an anonymous tip-off made a month ago, Graciela de Lourdes Ambrosio, has said she had no doubt that the minors "were sexually molested" by Father De.

The choir children said the priest invited them into his home on the pretext of Bible studies and to drink tea, but once inside he forced them to kiss him on the mouth and touch his genitals.

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Vatican official left abusive priest in pastor job

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04/28/2010

The pope's hand-picked replacement to oversee abuse cases at the Vatican did nothing to restrict a California priest after learning in 1995 that the priest had molested a 13-year-old boy a decade earlier.

Cardinal William Levada, then archbishop of San Francisco, said in a 2005 deposition obtained by The Associated Press that he did nothing and didn't contact police because he trusted the Rev. Milton Walsh would not re-offend and his predecessor handled the case adequately.

There were no known allegations of later abuse by the priest and a Vatican attorney says Levada acted appropriately under standards of the time.

When Levada learned of the abuse, Walsh had been pastor for six years at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, a parish of about 1,000 people. He remained there for two more years and was removed from active ministry in 2002, when U.S. bishops passed a "zero tolerance" policy on sex abuse and police started investigating.

Levada is now the highest-ranking American at the Vatican and head of the office that defrocks pedophile priests. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger held the post before he became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

The Vatican's lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, says Levada handled the case properly by the era's norms, which have evolved significantly in recent years. The Holy See told bishops this month they should report abuse to police rather than keep cases quiet as had been the practice for decades.

"One thing the law teaches: it is fundamentally unfair to apply standards of conduct retroactively," Lena said. "And yet, even if one were to do so, it must be acknowledged there was no re-offense by the priest. So in this case, the old approach did work."

Levada's critics say it's an example of his disregard for abused children.

"When it comes right down to it, he absolutely never reached out in this clear-cut case. I think that's typical of Levada and that's perhaps why he's in the position he's in," said Diane Josephs, the attorney for Walsh's victim, Jay Seaman.

Levada's involvement with the San Francisco case began shortly after he left his post as archbishop of the Diocese of Portland, Ore., in the fall of 1995.

The victim's aunt wrote Levada to say Walsh molested her nephew in 1984 and complained he was still a minister at St. Mary's. She begged him not to "not let this man slip through the cracks," according to a copy of the Sept. 20, 1995, letter provided by Seaman's attorney.

Levada consulted his predecessor, Archbishop John Quinn, who encouraged Levada to speak with the priest, according to Levada's 2005 deposition to attorneys for alleged clergy abuse victims.

Walsh confirmed he fondled the boy's genitals when staying with the family but he stopped when the boy objected and returned to his own bed, Levada said.

Letters among the family, Quinn and Walsh show Seaman's parents — who were devout Catholics — decided not to go to the police, but instead sought spiritual guidance. Quinn told them he would make sure Walsh received therapy and with time, "the boy will forget."

Walsh soon returned to Rome, where he was studying for his doctorate in theology. He returned the following year and spent four years teaching seminary before being promoted to pastor of the San Francisco cathedral.

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Pedophile priest victim calls for church inquiry

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04/28/2010

A PROMINENT Hunter businesswoman sexually abused by notorious Hunter pedophile priest Denis McAlinden had one message yesterday for the Catholic Church that knew of the offending but failed to alert authorities.

"I hope they rot in hell," she said after The Herald revealed documents showing "the good of the church" and McAlinden's "good name" were priorities as the church tried to force him from the priesthood, while the welfare of his child victims did not rate a word.

"It's unbelievable. I'm just dumbfounded. What did they feel, if anything, for the victims?" the woman said.

Other victims, victims' rights groups, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance called for a police investigation into why the Church did not report the "many allegations" about McAlinden to police, and for a broader national inquiry into the Church's handling of child sex abuse cases.

Others questioned whether revelations about his role in the secret attempt to defrock McAlinden would hasten Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone's early retirement. Bishop Malone did not respond to Herald inquiries yesterday.

Lake Macquarie Police Detective Inspector Dave Waddell said police were reviewing The Herald's documents and "if there's an investigation or alleged offence that needs to be pursued, it will be".

Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Dr Andrew Morrison SC said his group strongly supported an inquiry.

Anyone who knew of serious crimes by clergy but failed to report them to police should be held accountable, he said.

Church abuse victim support group Broken Rites said the case showed the need for a government-appointed judicial inquiry because "McAlinden was no Robinson Crusoe".

"Broken Rites has researched many cases around Australia in which Church authorities harboured known offenders for many years," spokesman Dr Bernard Barrett said.

Survivors' group Crusaders NSW likewise supported calls for an independent, transparent investigation with powers to subpoena documents and call witnesses.

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A new type of terror approaches

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04/28/2010
There are terrorists among us.

Not terrorists like those who attacked us on Sept. 11, but ones just as dangerous.

Terrorists who destroy lives, skirt the law and prey on the innocent. These terrorists aren’t just among us here in America either. They are a multi-national force that has been around for thousands of years.

These terrorists are the Catholic Church – and they need to be stopped.

We’re all familiar with the scandal; so much so, in fact, that all one has to do is mention “Catholic priest,” and people instantly know to what scandal you refer.

Recently, the Associated Press reported that a letter surfaced from 2001 in which the current pope, Pope Benedict XVI, praised a French bishop for his cover up of a pedophile priest in his parish.
So why does the Pope, and vicariously the Catholic Church, condone such horrid behavior?
Some cite economical and time restraints, saying it takes a lot of time and money to train a Catholic priest.

That’s fine, I’ll accept that it takes a lot to become a priest. Catholics have lots of posturing, unnecessary rituals that I’m sure a priest must learn. Also, I understand that demand for careers in the clergy is on the decline. Would you want a job boasting low pay, forbids you from having sex and has a one of the worst reputations imaginable?

What I can’t accept is the Catholic Church using its power to hide and protect these child molesters. If the priest in question had a drinking problem or got caught stealing money or maybe got caught with a woman over 18, then I have no problem with the church covering it up and moving the priest somewhere else.

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Convicted Irish priest active in the Netherlands

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04/27/2010

Oliver O'Grady, who was defrocked after his conviction, helped as a deacon at masses at the Church of the Holy Heart in Schiedam. He also volunteered at a women's shelter and worked as an organiser of children's parties, according to a report in the Irish newspaper the Sunday Tribune.


O'Grady was at the centre of one of the biggest paedophilia cases in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1993, he was convicted of raping two underage brothers. He was accused of abusing over 20 boys and girls, including a baby. After having served half of his 14 year sentence, he was deported to Ireland in 2000.

O'Grady came to the Netherlands in 2008 and volunteered at the church, which serves the expatriate community in Rotterdam, under his second name, Francis. Parishioners of the Christ our Savior community recognised him in the documentary Deliver us from evil that was broadcast on Dutch public television earlier this month. In the acclaimed film, for which director Amy Berg received an Oscar nomination, O'Grady told how he molested 25, often very young, children in different parishes in California from the 1970s until the 1990s.

Father Avin Kunnekkadan, a priest at the Roman Catholic church, said he had not known about O'Grady's background. A spokesperson for the church said 'Francis' was there from 2008 until February 2010. "The man came to our parish, came to the services and helped out with the music. He kept to himself. He was in no way in contact with children nor did he seek contact with them. He did work with nuns at a shelter for the homeless, but all he did was help feed people. He just wanted to go to church," the spokesperson said.

The ex-priest had already left the Schiedam church when the news broke. He is said to live in a hostel in Dublin, where he was served a civil action suit by Californian attorneys representing his victims last week, according to the Sunday Tribune.

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Cardinal Suspends Investigation of Abuse Allegation

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0426/2010

A Cardinal in Chile has recently come under scrutiny after suspending the investigation of a now retired priest that has been accused of sexual abuse.

The priest, Rev. Fernando Karadima, has been accused of molesting at least three boys, with the abuse spanning a time period of at least two decades. An additional man has stepped forward making allegations that sexual abuse took place when he was a young adult. One of the claims states that the abuse occurred for over 20 years. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz suspended the investigation after deciding that deeper investigation needed to be performed, particularly to look for evidence that might lay proof to the claims.

The Catholic church has been under immense gunfire throughout the year. Pope Benedict XVI himself has also been publicly scrutinized and accused of refusing to acknowledge that previous allegations of abuse have been covered by members of the clergy for years.

Although accusations of sexual abuse by the hands of clergy is neither new or unheard of, there has been a recent surge in the amount of accusations gone public. There have been accusations from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Ireland, and Germany, stemming as far back as 1970.

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Scandal again challenges Catholic Church

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04/26/2010

The word Catholic means universal or worldwide. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has claimed to be the only true, worldwide church of Christ, and the pope to be Christ's sovereign on the earth.

How sad then that the most widely discussed characteristic of the Catholic Church of late has been the charges coming, literally, from all parts of the world of the sexual abuse of minors, most often young boys, by priests who have used their cassock and collar to camouflage their identity as pedophiles and child molesters.

Are all Catholic priests child molesters or pedophiles? Absolutely not. In fact, the great majority are good men who have dedicated their lives to serving God by helping humanity. That being said, there is good reason for alarm in the Catholic world.

In the past few months, reports of predatory sexual behavior by priests have surfaced around the world, first from Germany, then from Ireland and Australia, then from the United States, then from the island of Malta, and most recently from Brazil, Chile and other Latin American countries.

We're hearing more and more accusations of the mishandling of these cases from the victims who have carried mental, spiritual and emotional scars inside themselves for years, and often decades, as we now learn that one case after another has been dismissed as "past the statute of limitations," or "irrelevant because the priest involved is dead," or "is old and weak and retired now," or "he's been rehabilitated," or "he has repented."

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Rome priest on trial for abuse in Vatican backyard

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04/26/2010

ROME -- The bishop responsible for a politically connected priest accused of molesting seven boys has admitted in court papers obtained by The Associated Press that he knew of the allegations for two years but didn't remove the priest from working with children.

The case of Rev. Ruggero Conti, who once advised Rome's mayor on family policy issues, resumes in court on Tuesday after a several-week break as attention increasingly turns to clerical sex abuse in the Vatican's backyard.

A week after Pope Benedict XVI wept with victims of clerical sex abuse in Malta and promised everything in the church's power to protect children and bring abusers to justice, Italian victims are now seeking a papal audience.

And Benedict on Sunday indirectly acknowledged that Italy has had its fair share of cases by praising the work of an Italian anti-pedophilia group headed by a Sicilian priest, Don Fortunato di Noto. The pope said he wanted to "encourage all those who are dedicated to prevention and education."

But casting a harsher spotlight on abusive priests in Italy is the court date Tuesday for Conti, who is on trial in Rome for allegedly molesting seven young boys at the Nativita' di Santa Maria Santissima parish in a working class neighborhood of the capital.

Conti has denied in court that he abused any of the boys. But he has admitted that he was fond of them, saying that he would cuddle or pat them - using the Italian word "coccole," which implies paternal affection.

"I can only think that these boys had a distorted interpretation, that their stories have crossed," Conti said during a 2008 hearing.

In police interrogations, the boys - some as young as 13 at the time of the alleged abuse - said that Conti would masturbate them and force them to perform oral sex on him in his home where he frequently invited them to eat dinner and watch movies.

Conti's bishop, Monsignor Gino Reali, admitted in a prosecutors' interrogation obtained by the AP that he knew of vague accusations two years before Conti was arrested by police, yet didn't remove him from pastoral work or otherwise report him to authorities.

Conti was arrested June 30, 2008 - as he prepared to travel with youths from his parish to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia - and is on trial on charges of sexual violence and prostitution.

The Conti trial is being closely watched as the clerical abuse scandal swirls around the Vatican since it involves a priest who was so well regarded that he served as a family policy adviser to Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno during his 2008 mayoral election campaign.

The Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, has acknowledged he learned about the case in July 2007, a year before the arrest, when an anti-pedophilia group met with him seeking advice on how to proceed against him. Scicluna has said he advised the group, Caramella Buona ("the good candy"), to go to police, which they did.

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Pedophile priest was volunteer in Dutch church

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04/26/2010


AMSTERDAM -- The Dutch Catholic Church rejected criticism Monday for failing to check the background of a volunteer who had served a seven-year prison sentence in the U.S. for child abuse.

Defrocked Irish priest Oliver O'Grady did volunteer work for a church in Rotterdam for less than two years, and left the Netherlands in February before his identity became known.

O'Grady was the subject of an award-winning 2006 documentary, "Deliver Us from Evil," in which he spoke openly of abusing more than 20 children and acknowledged that he was allowed to remain a priest after confessing to his bishop about the molestation.

A statement from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in the U.S. said the Dutch church "should be severely disciplined for failing to do even the most simple background check on this dangerous predator."

Peter Kohnen, spokesman for the Dutch Bishop's Conference, said the community was "shocked" when Dutch television aired the documentary earlier this month and some parishioners recognized O'Grady.

But Kohnen said the diocese had no reason to investigate him, since he was a volunteer and did not seek any official function.

Kohnen said O'Grady helped at a Rotterdam church that catered to expatriates, mainly by selecting the music. No one knew who he was, and he was using a different name.

"If they had checked, they wouldn't have found anything," he said.

O'Grady had a job in Rotterdam working for a fast food restaurant, Kohnen said.

O'Grady was deported to Ireland in 2001 after serving his sentence in a California state prison for molesting two brothers. Since then, the Diocese of Stockton has faced several lawsuits from alleged victims.

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Sweden's Catholic leader takes blame for abuse silence

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04/26/2010

Filed Under: child abuse, scandal
STOCKHOLM—The head of Sweden's Catholics said Sunday he takes full responsibility for the failure to probe the alleged abuse of two sisters by a pedophile priest, first reported to the Church in 1990.

On Sunday, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily published an interview with one of the alleged victims, who claims the Church kept quiet on her case for the past two decades despite repeated attempts to obtain justice.

"As a bishop I take full responsibility for that and am prepared to face the consequences," Anders Arborelius, the bishop of Stockholm, Sweden's only Catholic diocese, said in a statement.
He called for "a thorough investigation of this tragic case."

The woman, now in her 60s, told DN she contacted the previous Stockholm bishop, Hubertus Brandenburg, in 1990 to report claims of abuse she and her sister suffered in the late 1950s and 1960s.

"The answer I got was in essence 'We'll do our own investigation within the Church, and it's not something we will talk about'," the woman, who was not identified, told DN.

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