National Survivor Advocates Coalition

7.  Four archbishops under spotlight – IRELAND – Irish Independent

CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic Culture

July 22, 2009
Bishop Raymond Goedert, a retired auxiliary bishop of Chicago, admitted in a court deposition that he concealed evidence of sexual abuse by more than a score of priests. The bishop’s deposition– released as part of a settlement with a group of abuse victims, to whom the archdiocese also agreed to pay $3.9 million in damages– indicated that he was well aware of laws against molesting children, but thought Church law took precedence and required confidentiality.

OREGON
City of Angels

“We want to stop child abuse, domestic violence, rape, and clergy abuse by getting people to talk about it. Abuse happens when we remain silent,” says Virginia Jones who started the Walk Across Oregon and Compassionate Gathering Dot Org after hearing about the crimes of pedophile priest Franciscan Gus Krumm at her church in Portland.

“We don’t carry signs, just wear t-shirts that identify what we’re doing,” said Jones, who sent the pictures featured in this post, which make me want to jump on the road and go north. The group will walk through the small towns of rural Oregon where Jones has set up meetings in advance with organizations dealing with child abuse and local media. Then the weekend of August 22-23, they have a whole agenda of events in Portland’s city streets and parks, including a meeting at Powell’s Book Store, which is four-stories high and covers an entire block.

The t-shirts are yellow or turquoise. They read: Stop Child Abuse, Heal the Wounds.

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

What:
Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, concerned Catholics and clergy sex abuse victims will blast Cardinal Francis George for concealing 49 pages of a crucial deposition of his #2 aide

They’ll also urge George to
– put a note urging parishioners to read the deposition (and a link to it) in every parish bulletin this weekend, and
– re-name a church building that honors the aide, despite his repeated deceiving of parishioners about pedophile priests, and his refusal to call police about dozens of admitted and credibly accused predator priests

When:
Wednesday, July 22, 1:00 p.m.

Where:
Outside the Chicago Archdiocese headquarters (835 N Rush Street, just North of Chicago Ave)

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[the deposition]

July 22, 2009

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com
The former No. 2 official of the Catholic church in Chicago admitted that he knew 25 priests broke the law by sexually abusing children but did not report them, according to depositions made public Tuesday.

Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Raymond E. Goedert’s statements show “the lengths they went to to protect their reputation and the priest at the peril of the child,” said attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents men who have sued the archdiocese over alleged childhood molestation.

“I knew the civil law considered it a crime,” Goedert said in the deposition. “But I’m not a civil lawyer. I think we just relied on — a lot on our — we knew it was wrong, what was done. And we used our common sense and prudence with the help of people — expert in the field to assist us in resolving these cases.”

Guardian (United Kingdom)

Hugh O’Shaughnessy guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 July 2009

The Holy See, with scapel in hand, is turning to Mexico and Central America where it needs to carry out urgent and comprehensive surgery.

Last week Rome announced the membership of the five-man committee charged with a worldwide investigation of the the congregation of the Legionaires of Christ, a group founded by the Mexican cleric Marcial Maciel Degollado who died last year at the age of 88 in an odour of something short of sanctity. As far as Maciel was concerned a new form of Legionaires’ Disease consisted of a crushing diet of authoritarianism imposed by a priest who had a daughter of 20 from a long-term relationship with a lover and who was protected by some of the most senior people in the Vatican.

Founded in 1941, the congregation has grown rapidly, becoming a source of scandal and embarrassment. In 1970 it had 68 priests in its ranks. Today it has more than eleven times that number, not to speak of 2,500 men studying to be priests and 65,000 lay members in its offshoot Regnum Christi, the Kingdom of Christ. Members include two Dubliners called Farrell who have risen high. Kevin is now in the US as bishop of Dallas and the other, Brian, incredible as it might appear, is in the Vatican as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Long ago the council had been distinguished by the presence of such theological giants such as the Jesuit Cardinal Bea, the Dominican Cardinal Hamer and the Archbishop of Utrecht Cardinal Willibrands, none of whom, happily, was accused of any connection to the Legionaires.

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GERMANY
Earth Times

Mainz, Germany – Pope Benedict XVI has removed a paedophile German priest from office after the man admitting that he molested boarding-school boys in the 1970s, his order said Wednesday. At least 16 men have come forward to say they were forced into sexual acts as boys at the school, near Bad Neustadt an der Saale, 110 kilometres east of Frankfurt.

The incidents happened between 1972 and 1976, too long ago to be prosecuted as crimes under German law. The school closed in 1978. The alleged perpetrator applied in December to the pope to leave the priesthood.

The Mainz-based Missionaries of the Holy Family expressed regret to the victims in a statement and said the man, 71, would remain with the order as a simple brother instead of a more highly ranked priest.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Cooney

Wednesday July 22 2009

A TOTAL of 19 bishops have been investigated in the report of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

Immense spiritual and political power over the lives of ordinary Catholics and their children was exercised by four archbishops and 15 assistant bishops in the nation’s biggest and most important diocese during the period in question.

The four archbishops at the centre of the inquiry by the commission are Cardinal Desmond Connell, 1988-2004; Kevin McNamara, 1985-87; Dermot Ryan, 1972-1984, and John Charles McQuaid, 1940-1972. Of these four prelates, only Cardinal Connell, now aged 83, is alive and living in retirement in Glasnevin on Dublin’s northside.

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NEEDHAM (MA)
Needham Times

By Steven Ryan/ GateHouse News Service
GateHouse News Service
Posted Jul 21, 2009 @ 04:04 PM

Needham — After it appeared the Voice of the Faithful might have to close its national headquarters in Needham due to a financial downturn, the organization is now likely to keep its office open after raising $63,000 in a week, the organization announced today, July 21.

“We are deeply grateful to our many generous donors and encouraged by their sentiments of support,” said Bill Casey, chairman of the Board of Trustees, in a statement. “Now we begin to build a stable base of predictable income to sustain our ongoing operations.”

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The true number of victims of clerical sex abuse within the Dublin archdiocese is likely to number in the thousands — not the 450 cited in a new report drawn up by the Irish Government-appointed Commission of Investigation, it was claimed last night.

“We believe there’s a large number of people who were abused in the Dublin diocese who haven’t come forward,” the executive director of victims’ group One in Four Maeve Lewis said.

One in Four and other support groups for victims of clerical sex abuse are now urging the Dublin government to delay publication of the report to prepare for the anticipated onslaught of victims who will be coming to terms with its explosive findings. The Commission of Investigation into the handling of clerical sex abuse in the diocese was expected to hand over its long-awaited report to the Republic’s Justice Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday.

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