References cont. (34) — Clergy Child Molesters
• Secrecy demand in Vatican paper.
WASHINGTON: A confidential Vatican document drafted more than 40 years ago set out a policy that demanded total secrecy in cases of sex abuse by priests, according to a news report.
The policy was written in 1962 by Cardinal Alfred Ottaviani and said that anyone who spoke out about sexual abuse could be kicked out of the Church, CBS News in the United States reported on Wednesday [Aug 6].
The document dealt with what it called the "worst crime" -- sexual assault committed by a priest or "attempted by him with youths of either sex or with brute animals", the CBS News report said.
The document called on bishops to pursue such cases "in the most secretive way . . . restrained by a perpetual silence . . . and everyone (including the alleged victim) . . . is to observe the strictest secret, which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office . . . under the penalty of excommunication".
A spokesman for the US Conference of Bishops, Monseigneur ["Monsignor" is usual Church spelling] Francis Maniscalco, said the text was being taken out of context and that it was meant to deal only with religious crimes and to shield Church members from any scandal.
"This is a system of law which is complete in itself and is not telling the bishops in any way about how to handle these crimes when they are considered as civil crimes," he told CBS.
But Larry Drivon, a lawyer who represents alleged victims of sexual abuse, told CBS: "It's an instruction manual on how to deceive and how to protect paedophiles."
Church records indicate that the document was the basis of the Church's sex abuse policy, until US bishops drafted a new policy last year.
US bishops say that at least 400 priests have been dismissed over sex abuse charges since the new policy was written.
-- The West Australian, "Secrecy demand in Vatican paper," Agence France-Presse, Fri Aug 8 03, p 30
[COMMENT: Like most news media reports, this one does not mention that the secret document is dealing with using Confession (Penance) as a cloak to solicit sex. However, commentators like Larry Drivon are correct about the apparent deception in the Church. There is an error of implication in the above newsitem: Cardinal Ottaviani is unlikely to have personally written the document. His name is on it as the "prefect" or head of the "congregation" or Vatican department that composed the document, probably Crimen Sollicitationis or
"The Crime of Solicitation" (see below) of March 16, 1962. For previous newsitems, read from July 29 2003. COMMENT ENDS.]
Aug 8 03
References: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Most newsitems are from
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46
• Voice of the Faithful. AUSTRALIA: VOTF branches were formed in Sydney and Melbourne. (check) Jul or Aug 03
• VIEW THE ALLEGED SEX-CRIME SECRECY DOCUMENT IN LATIN. ROME: Crimen Sollicitationis, or Causis de Crimine Sollicitationis "Cases of the Crime of Solicitation" to sexual impurity, connected with Confession (Penance), is at
www.rentapriest.com/crimenlatinfull.pdf , (PDF format, Requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™), 54 pages, Warning: 1.8 Megabytes.
Sections 67-69 order the Church authorities to report priests found guilty to the Vatican Holy Office and/or their Religious Superior-General, and to tell the other bishop if a guilty priest shifts to or wishes to preach in his territory.
[COMMENT: Contrast this principle with the multiplicity of transfers of U.S. sex-abusing priests, and the fact that a U.S. diocese is suing Boston for sending serial offenders to them as "priests in good standing." See also another Vatican document reported in The West Australian, "Sex priests scandal draws in the Vatican," Friday, December 13 2002, p 32. COMMENT ENDS]
The statement that it is promulgated in the name of Pope John XXIII (23rd) is on page 21 of the PDF version, which is page 24 of the original,
dated "Romae ... 16 Martii 1962"; printer's date MCMLXII.
If you don't use Frames, but do have Acrobat® Reader™, you might prefer to go direct to criminelatin.pdf
• SEE ENGLISH TRANSLATION "The Crime of Solicitation" Crimen Sollicitationis or "Cases of the Crime of Solicitation"
Causis de Crimine Sollicitationis at
www.rentapriest.com/criminales.pdf , (PDF format), 39 pages, Warning: 1.7 Megabytes, (promulgation and Pope's name on page 16 of the PDF), dated "Rome ... March 16, 1962".
If you do not use Frames, but have Acrobat® Reader™, you can go direct to crimineenglish.pdf .
• ENGLISH TRANSLATION, EXTRACTS. Selected extracts from the above flawed English translation "Cases of the Crime of Solicitation"
of the supposed Vatican document Causis de Crimine Sollicitationis. The secrecy provisions can be seen in sections 11, 13, and 70, and in Formula A for taking the oath of secrecy, which cannot be broken even for the most urgent and most serious causes.
Only 90 kb -- read this to save bandwidth
!!!: Cajoled mother allowed minister's sex with daughter. WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A Christian Minister convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl -- with her mother in the same bed -- believed his acts were essential therapy for the victim.
The Court of Appeal at Wellington dismissed Martin August Middleton's appeal against convictions for rape, sexual violation and indecent assault.
The court said it was alleged Middleton used his powerful personality and claims to a divine connection with God to cajole the mother into submitting to his violations of the girl.
Middleton was jailed for 10 years.
-- The West Australian, "Abuser loses appeal," Fri Aug 8 03, p 30
•
Linda Long, brave survivor, in ASCA.
AUSTRALIA: Tonight ACA talks to a woman who, after speaking out publicly against child abuse, is now piecing her life back together by involving herself with a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping adult men and women come to terms with their childhood trauma.
With statistics on child abuse indicating that an astonishing one in four girls and one in eight boys have been abused, it’s little wonder there has been the emergence of support groups such as
Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse (ASCA).
Linda Long was only four when her mother’s de facto boyfriend began preying on her - with her mother’s knowledge. Indeed, few could be more qualified to talk about suffering sexual and physical abuse than Linda.
She was not only locked up in her own home, but Linda and her mother were also constantly beaten. As a child her only safe haven was primary school, which she adored.
***
Her response was dramatic - she bravely ran away with the three children and went straight to the police with her tragic story. Police issued a warrant for the arrest of her paedophile step-father, who disappeared and has never been seen since.
Linda’s story is a remarkable one - she not only raised her children while working as a group leader helping other victims of child abuse - but she’s now studying at TAFE to become a full-time counsellor in child abuse.
Liz Mullinar, founder of ASCA, praises Linda’s tenacity and strength through the difficult healing process and says her ability to grow and more on from it as best she can, despite suffering so much pain in her life, is an inspiring example for others
-- TV Channel 9, Australia, A Current Affair programme,
http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/1020.asp
Reporter: Mike Munro, "Child abuse: support among survivors,"
Aug 9 03
• "Episcopal Church Plays Russian Roulette on the Gay Issue."
WASHINGTON (DC), USA: The Episcopal Church's confirmation last week of the openly gay Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire was hailed as a victory for the forces of inclusiveness and diversity. That may be, but it was also another step in the church's prolonged ecclesiastical suicide.
Since the late 1960s, the Episcopal Church has served as a laboratory for the proposition that Christianity must liberalize -- jettison its more demanding traditional teachings and get in step with the times -- to survive. The Episcopalians have done it all: allowed women clergy, dropped sanctions against divorce, made belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ optional. Now their bishops, who met last week in Minneapolis, have confirmed a bishop who will share the bishop's house with a male partner and have tacitly approved leaving decisions on blessing same-sex unions to local priests. During these 30-odd years of early adoption of whatever mores the avant-garde of secular society has embraced, there has been only one snag: The Episcopal Church has declined precipitously in both membership and influence. The treatment has been successful, but the patient, if not quite dead yet, looks to be dying.
. . .
Both the Old Testament and the letters of Paul of Tarsus condemn sexual activity (including homosexual activity) outside of marriage, and Jesus denounces fornication -- and even lustful thinking -- in the Gospels. Jesus also makes it clear that marriage can exist only between a man and a woman.
The Anglican bishops of Africa have staunchly defended traditional Christian teaching on sexuality. Their votes, along with those of other Third World bishops, led to the Anglican Communion's condemnation of homosexual activity in 1998 as "incompatible with Scripture." Jenkins notes that in many parts of Africa, Christianity competes for converts with militant Islam, which means that Christians there feel compelled to dissociate themselves from any whiff of the Western decadence that Muslims decry. From the ravages of AIDS, Africans also know firsthand the consequences of sexual promiscuity. (etc.)
-- Los Angeles Times,
http://www.latimes.com/ ,
By Charlotte Allen (Charlotte Allen is the author of The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus),
Aug 10 03
• Nearly two years to get rid of accused priest.
TASMANIA, Australia: Tasmania's Catholic Church is embroiled in new allegations of child abuse with a senior parish priest standing down.
The row centres on claims by former Hobart man Derrum Kearns, 32, now of Melbourne.
Correspondence between Mr Kearns and the church shows he first told the Archbishop of Hobart, the Most Reverend Adrian Doyle, in mid-2001 of his alleged abuse at the hands of a Hobart priest as a teenager.
But it took almost two years -- including a face-to-face meeting between Mr Kearns and the Archbishop, a series of letters and, finally, the threat of legal proceedings -- before the priest stepped aside from front-line religious duties just months ago.
The allegations have been handed to Tasmania Police.
Mr Kearns has called on Archbishop Doyle to resign over the issue, saying there has never been a denial by the church about the allegations.
"The Archbishop has never once said to me -- either in correspondence or personally -- that this did not happen," Mr Kearns said. -- The Advertiser, "New church abuse claim,"
www.news.com.au ,
By Danny Rose, August 11, 2003
(Poynter, Aug 11 03)
• Vatican's condemnation of homosexual practice brings infallibility into the equation.
UNITED STATES: The Vatican document, "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons," introduces no new moral teaching, but intensifies Rome's resolve to get into the political fray on sexual issues.
It is a call to Catholics to refuse to cooperate with any measures that suggest any analogy between same-sex unions and traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Meanwhile, the document will likely be remembered less for what it says than how it says it. Same sex unions are cast as the product of "deviant behavior." These words were quickly picked up in the media and are reminiscent of two other words used in a 1986 Vatican declaration on homosexuality that termed it a "objectively disordered" state. . . .
At the core, the Vatican condemns sexual intimacy between two men or two women because they counter traditional, natural law-based teachings on sexual morality. These teachings go back centuries and evolved out of a time when sex was viewed as having one purpose alone, procreation. This view gave way in the second half of the 20th century to a wider view of marital intimacy that made room for mutual psychological support.
Official church teachings on sexuality leave gays and lesbians with no moral recourse to sexual intimacy. With modern science generally concurring that genetics play a significant role in determining sexual orientation, one can reasonably ask why the Creator has placed such special burdens on a large portion of the human family. Finally, the church's teachings on sexuality have become bound up with issues of authority. This will require great discernment in the years ahead. Reconsidering any official utterance on sexuality would require admitting the church is capable of error.
This, in turn, would require another examination of claims to infallibility. Much work for another day.
-- National Catholic Reporter, Kansas City USA,
"Another Vatican sex disconnect,"
www.natcath.com ,
Aug 15 03
• South African priests apologise to nuns. SOUTH AFRICA:
As we went to press, a story of a stunning apology by black South African priests for often treating black nuns as if they were children came across the desk.
The full story, by Catholic News Service, can be found on the Web site, www.ncronline.org .
On March 16, 2001, NCR broke a story noting that several reports written by senior members of women’s religious orders and by an American priest disclosed a serious problem of sexual abuse by priests, including rape, especially in Africa.
The Vatican soon confirmed the reports but made no further comment.
According to the recent report, the priests apologized after extended dialogue with the nuns. "We have treated our African sisters with some degree of contempt," said Fr. Dabula Mpako.
In their statement, the priests painted a culture in which the nuns lived in almost total subservience to priests and in which nuns "are discriminated against in terms of sex, race and class." According to the report, nuns impregnated by priests would have to leave religious life, while the priests were allowed to continue their ministry.
-- National Catholic Reporter,
www.natcath.com , by Tom Roberts, Aug 15 03
• Australian Salvos apologise for child abuse. MELBOURNE: The Salvation Army today apologised for abuse suffered by children in its care.
Some children under the care of the Salvation Army in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s have received financial compensation for abuse which included cases of physical and sexual abuse.
One man spoke of how he was punched on the side of his head and dragged to an office while another man said he had become a paedophile after being abused as a child.
"I remember I started enjoying some of the stuff that was happening to me when I was 13," he told ABC Radio [and "Four Corners" programme "The Homies"].
[Sodomising and oral sex were reported at some Salvation Army homes.]
Salvation Army communications director John Dalziel said the Salvation Army had betrayed its trust, and apologised for the damage done to victims.
-- The Age, Melbourne, "Salvos apologise for child abuse,"
www.theage.com.au , AAP (by courtesy of MAKO),
Aug 18 03
• "Four Corners" explores how the childhood experience of "the homies" (former Salvation Army homes children) continues to intensely affect their lives. AUSTRALIA: Some homes were well-run. In others, abuse turned children into angry, sometimes criminal, adults.
John Dalziel of the Salvation Army: That trust has been betrayed and to the Australian public now, I apologise. Regarding the confidentiality bonds, he said: No, we're not trying to muzzle the victims. We are doing it for their own benefit.
-- "Four Corners," Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), "The Homies,"
www.abc.net.au/4corners , reporter: Quentin McDermott, Aug 18 03
• Former Tasmanian Anglican minister extradited.
ADELAIDE: Hawkins, former Tasmanian Anglican minister, was arrested today in South Australia on charges of rape, etc. in connection with the CEBS (Church of England Boys' Society). The Murray Bridge court ordered his extradition to Tasmania. He will be taken to Adelaide, to fly out on Thursday.
-- ABC TV News, 10.45pm WST, Tue 19 Aug 2003
• Private school's teacher charged with sexually penetrating female
student. [2002] PERTH: A 24-year-old Heathridge teacher has been dismissed by a northern suburbs private school, and appeared in Perth Magistrate's Court yesterday on 13 child sex charges.
Police allege that between August and December last year he sexually penetrated a female child aged 13 to 16 and had indecent dealing with a child 13 to 16.
Bail of $5000 was set for him to appear in court again on September 3.
-- The West Australian, "Sacked teacher on child-sex counts," Aug 20 03 p 20,
word "male" amended to "female" by newsitem "Teacher sex charges," Aug 21 03, p 32
• Sexual abuse trial against priest opens. [1986 on]
MILWAUKEE (Wisconsin): Brian Flynn, a 29-year-old youth counselor, said he remembers precisely the first time Father Marvin Knighton touched him inappropriately.
Testifying Tuesday in Knighton's trial on charges of second-degree sexual assault, Flynn said it was Oct. 27, 1986, the day Flynn's mother died. Flynn, who grew up in Wauwatosa and now lives in Milwaukee, had been asked to leave his mother's room at what was then Mount Sinai Hospital as she neared death. Knighton, who had been counseling Flynn's mother through her battle with cancer, approached Flynn and his sister in front of the hospital, he said.
"He walked up, put his arms around me, kissed me on the lips and said that everything would be OK," Flynn said. "I felt it was awkward - I really didn't question it that much."
After that, he spent nights at the priest's home.
-- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
Sexual abuse trial against priest opens,
www.jsonline.com ,
By Reid J. Epstein,
repstein@journalsentinel.com , Aug 21, 2003
• New Zealand Salvation Army children's homes accused.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: The Salvation Army says it is going through "a thorough, careful, and sensitive" investigation of claims that children were abused in its New Zealand homes.
On Monday the Salvation Army in Australia apologised for abuse suffered by children in its care in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Some people have received financial compensation for abuse, which included cases of physical and sexual abuse.
Two years ago, Kapiti woman Jan Lowe began organising New Zealand claimants for possible legal action against the religious charity.
Yesterday, the Salvation Army's Major Alistair Herring said the army was still investigating Ms Lowe's claims.
. . .
It is estimated the Salvation Army cared for between 6000 and 8000 children at the 15 centres it operated in this country between 1903 and 1993.
-- The New Zealand Herald,
"Salvation Army investigates claims,"
www.nzherald.co.nz , Aug 22 03, and see The West Australian, "Salvos abuse claims cross Tasman," Aug 22 03 p 24
• Suspended sentence though fourth time in court.
MELBOURNE, Australia: A retired Catholic priest yesterday admitted indecently assaulting an altar boy almost 45 years ago.
Desmond Lawrence Gannon, 74, of Box Hill, was given a suspended three-month jail term for fondling the boy, then 14, at Carnegie in 1958-59.
The County Court heard the boy told his parents of the incident but they accused him of lying. He told police in 2000 after Gannon was sentenced for similar crimes.
Prosecutor Andrew Tinney said the victim's relationship with his parents was never the same. They died before knowing his allegations were true.
It is the fourth time Gannon has been in court for sexually abusing boys in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
-- Herald Sun, Melbourne, Molester priest back in court,
www.heraldsun.news.com.au ,
By Philip Cullen, Aug 22 03.
[FOOTNOTE: In Gannon's first court appearance, in 1995, he was given a 12-months jail term. More victims then contacted police. In his second and third court appearances, in the late 1990s, Gannon was again given jail sentences but these were suspended in view of the fact that he had already served the original 12-months term. -- Broken Rites. FOOTNOTE ENDS] Aug 22 03
• Brisbane Anglican Bishop Aspinall denies accusation.
BRISBANE (Queensland), Australia: The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane revealed today he was the latest senior Australian cleric to be accused of sexual abuse, describing the allegations as "distressing, damaging and false".
In a late press conference, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall said one of the allegations had been circulating for more than 18 months and another had surfaced in June.
Aspinall said the allegations related to events 20 years ago when he was a church youth group leader who stayed overnight with other young adults at a house in Tasmania.
He said a young male, whose age he did not reveal, claimed he was sexually abused by the priest, who lived in the house after Aspinall had arranged for him to share the priest's bed.
. . .
Reading from a lengthy statement, Aspinall said he had independent witnesses who verify his innocence.
-- The Courier-Mail Breaking News, "Brisbane bishop faces sex claims,"
www.thecouriermail.news.com.au ,
Aug 22 03
• Accused remains a priest, although sex problems in 1980s.
CINCINNATI (OH): A former hospital chaplain and teacher at Elder High School remains a priest in good standing despite a substantiated allegation that he fondled a boy more than 20 years ago, church officials said Thursday.
The priest, David Kelley, is still in active ministry but has been without a job assignment in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati since last year.
Church officials said Kelley received counseling in 1987 at a treatment facility in New Mexico for alcoholism and "sexual issues."
-- The Cincinnati Enquirer, "Accused remains a priest," www.enquirer.com ,
By Dan Horn, Aug 22 03
• Death wish of sex shame priest.
BRITAIN: A sex shame vicar who was found hanged in the garage of his home, had tried to kill himself THREE times before, an inquest was told.
Rev Terence Reginald King had twice slashed his wrists, and had also swallowed 50 aspirin and 50 paracetamol in failed bids to end his own life.
But in November, the YEP exclusively revealed that on the day Rev King was found hanged, he had been due to be questioned again about child sex charges.
York Coroner's Court heard that the 69-year-old, who was Vicar of St Mary the Virgin Church in Dewsbury Road, Woodkirk, near Morley, for 22 years, was admitted to a religious retreat after a third suicide attempt at his family home.
But after telling a psychiatrist that he wanted to kill himself to save his family from "any more distress", he walked out of the Quaker-run hospital in York.
-- York Evening Post, "Leeds Today," "Death wish of sex shame priest,"
www.leedstoday.net ,
By Charles Heslett, August 22 03
• Church increases its offer to $65m.
BOSTON (MA): Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley yesterday increased the Archdiocese of Boston's settlement offer to alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse from $55 million to $65 million, a figure far less than the 542 plaintiffs requested last week but still the largest ever offered in this country to settle such claims, according to people involved in the settlement talks.
-- Boston Globe,
Church increases its offer to $65m, www.boston.com ,
By Ralph Ranalli, Aug 22 03
• Anglican archbishop Aspinall denies abuse claim; Garth Hawkins charged; Louis Daniels previously convicted. [1974-84]
The Weekend Australian, "Archbishop denies sex abuse claim," by Carol Altmann, Aug 23-24 03, pp 1 and 2
AUSTRALIA: The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, who launched the child sex abuse inquiry that led to the resignation of former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth, is himself embroiled in sexual abuse allegations.
In an extraordinary move, Dr Aspinall yesterday issued a lengthy statement denying explosive claims that he arranged for a priest to share the bed of a young Tasmanian man, whom the priest then allegedly sexually abused. . . .
The denials followed the appearance in a Hobart court yesterday of the man accused of the sex crimes, former Tasmanian priest, Garth Stephen Hawkins.
Mr Hawkins, 58, has been charged with 13 counts of rape, 11 counts of indecent assault and two counts of aggravated sexual assault arising from incidents in Tasmania between 1974 and 1984.
All but two of the rape charges related to boys under the age of 17. . . .
Mr Hawkins, who was a priest in regional Tasmania in the 1980s, was defrocked by the Tasmanian Anglican Church last year after being found guilty by a church tribunal of child sexual abuse.
. . .
Dr Aspinall's connections to Mr Hawkins, and convicted pedophile and former priest Louis Victor Daniels, have been under scrutiny since Dr Aspinall launched the investigation into Dr Hollingworth's handling of child sex abuse claims within the clergy. . . .
Hetty Johnston, of victim-support group Bravehearts described Dr Aspinall's statement yesterday as "bizarre" and said it underscored the need for a royal commission [judicial inquiry] into child sexual abuse. . . .
Mr Hawkins . . . will reappear in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Monday.
• Pope eyes Pell for top Vatican job.
EUROPE: George Pell's imminent promotion to cardinal in the Catholic church could see the Archbishop of Sydney summoned to a senior post in the Vatican.
The conservative Australian is widely seen as one of the Pope's favourite bishops and many senior priests and Vatican-watchers expect him to be called to Rome for a top job.
At 62, the former Australian Rules footballer and muscular defender of traditional Catholic doctrines is well-placed to eventually become the most influential Australian ever to serve in the Vatican.
Ian Ker, a professor of theology at Oxford University, said Dr Pell has already been mentioned as a possible replacement for the 76-year-old Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the Pope's doctrinal enforcer, responsible for defending Church orthodoxy.
However, other observers, like David Quinn, editor of Ireland's weekly newspaper The Irish Catholic, say Pope John Paul II considers Dr Pell "a model bishop" and may prefer to leave him to exert his influence in Sydney for several more years.
The Pope is expected to name a new batch of cardinals soon, perhaps in February next year, and Dr Pell is certain to be on the list.
John Allen, the Vatican correspondent of the US publication The National Catholic Reporter, ranks Dr Pell as the single most likely bishop to be on the list of new cardinals.
(Picture: Taking a stand: Dr Pell relaxes at Saint Christopher's Cathedral in Munuka, Canberra. Picture: John Feder.)
-- The Weekend Australian, "Pope eyes Pell for top Vatican job," (Online heading: "Pell tipped for top Vatican job"),
www.theaustralian.news.com.au ,
By Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent, August 23-24, 2003, p 2
[COMMENT: Besides Dr Pell's less than candid performance in the famous Australian "60 Minutes" "Loss of Faith" show, broadcast by Channel 9 on June 2 2002, he tried to have the televising stopped, and for 10 days from May 30 to June 9 2002 stoutly maintained that the Catholic Church was not paying money to sex-abuse victims with the strict condition that they keep quiet about it all. Dr Pell continued his denials
even after Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on June 3 admitting the silence condition was still being included in agreements with victims.
Dr Pell and the new Archbishop of Melbourne even spent approx. $100,000 on newspaper advertisements denying the silence condition while apologising to the victims.
A newspaper said it had proof of a $15,000 compensation deal, authorised by a NSW country bishop the previous month, which "contradicts Sydney Archbishop George Pell's statements that victims were not prevented from discussing such abuse," and the article also reported similar "silencing" from Melbourne, Brisbane, Tasmania and Ballarat (Victoria): see The Sun-Herald , "The clause that contradicts Pell", Jun 9 02.
The "gag" was in defiance of a Church policy "Towards Healing" publicly announced in 2000 that silence would not be imposed (section 41.4). An article "Healing touch" in Catholics Today of December 2002 stated that the "gag" condition was still being removed from Church legal documents. In the light of all this, critics will treat any promotion of Dr Pell as approval of the Church's sex-abuse practices which have harmed so many thousands of lives, plus the officially-sanctioned secrecy. COMMENT ENDS]
Aug 23-24 03
• PEDOPHILE JOHN GEOGHAN IS KILLED IN PRISON. Former Priest and Convicted Child Molester John Geoghan Dies After Massachusetts Prison Attack.
American Broadcasting Corporation, "Pedophile Ex-Priest Is Killed in Prison," http://abcnews.go.com , The Associated Press, Aug 23, 2003
BOSTON (MA) Aug. 23: Former priest John Geoghan, the convicted child molester whose prosecution sparked the sex abuse scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church nationwide, died Saturday after being attacked in prison. Preliminary indications are that Geoghan, 68, was strangled, Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte said. An autopsy will be conducted Monday.
Conte said fellow inmate Joseph L. Druce, 37, attacked Geoghan shortly before noon Saturday. Geoghan died at 1:17 p.m., shortly after he was taken to UMass Memorial Health Alliance, Leominster Campus, Conte said.
Druce, who received a life sentence in 1989 for murder, armed robbery and other counts, was placed in isolation and will face murder charges in Geoghan's death, Conte said. In 2001, Druce was charged with mailing a threatening letter containing white powder and indicating it was contaminated with anthrax. (AP Picture)
• Paedophile priest John Geoghan killed in jail.
British Broadcasting Corp., "Paedophile priest killed in jail,"
http://news.bbc.co.uk ,
00:49 GMT 01:49 UK, Sunday, August 24, 2003
BOSTON (MA): A former priest convicted of child sex abuse has been killed in prison in the United States.
John Geoghan, a central figure in the Catholic Church's abuse scandal in Boston, was injured in an incident with another inmate at the Souza-Baranowski Correction Center, in Shirley, Massachusetts, according to jail officials.
He died shortly after being taken to Leominster Hospital.
Department of Correction spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said Geoghan had been held in protective custody to shield him from the general prison population, but he still had some contact with other inmates.
The BBC's Jane Standley in New York said the accusations against Geoghan went back more than three decades and documents which were revealed in court sparked the scandal which has shrouded the Roman Catholic Church.
They showed that his superiors knew of the complaints against him, but they covered them up and moved him repeatedly to new parishes in the Boston area.
He was believed to have attacked more than 130 children over the last three decades. (AP Picture)
•The BBC's Juliet Dunlop about John Geoghan -- See and Hear BBC Video: "He was a serial paedophile but for 30 years the Catholic Church in Boston chose to ignore his crimes" http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/ , Aug 24 03
• Solicitor seeking damages for former child migrants.
MELBOURNE (Victoria) Australia: Adrian Joel is the solicitor who is preparing a case against the Commonwealth Government under Equity Law in regard to lack of AFTERCARE for former child migrants.
He works from 225 Crown Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010 Australia. GPO Box 4813. Australia Tel: (02) 9361 6213
-- e-mail of Aug 26 03
• Vatican official still doesn't "get it," talks of "sullying the image".
National Catholic Reporter,
"Vatican official comments on Geoghan murder,"
http://nationalcatholicreporter.org ,
By John L. Allen Jr., Rome, August 25, 2003
ROME, Italy: Emphasis on pedophilia by priests in the United States seems like a means of "sullying the image of the Church," as if "someone wants to take away its moral force," according to a senior Vatican official.
The comments from Archbishop Julian Herranz, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, have been the only reaction to date from the Vatican to the murder of ex-priest John
Geoghan on August 23.
Herranz granted an interview to the Roman daily La Repubblica August 25. A member of Opus Dei, Herranz, 73, is in effect the Vatican's attorney general.
John Geoghan, a former Boston priest convicted of sexual abuse who was forcibly laicized in 1998, was bound, gagged and strangled Aug. 23 in his cell on the protective-custody unit of a Massachusetts state prison. He was serving a 10-year sentence on a sexual molestation charge and had been accused of abusing more than 130 children.
Herranz referred to the death as a "painful" incident. "As soon as I heard, I prayed for his soul and for his aggressor," he said.
Asked what lesson the Church might draw from the episode, Herranz replied, "That there is always the reality of sin in the world, in this case the sin of homicide. What caused this we don't know. We can't judge. Now all
is in the hands of God, the Supreme Judge: only he knows how to judge because he knows that even the most persistent sinner in the end can repent. Maybe Geoghan in prison had already begun to repent for the evil
he did."
• Is Vatican "Solicitation" document a conspiracy to obstruct justice?
WASHINGTON (DC): Plaintiffs' attorneys in sex abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church are brandishing a new weapon -- or, actually, a rather old one: a 1962 Vatican document that some say is the "smoking gun" in a conspiracy to cover up sex crimes by priests.
Not so, say church lawyers. They contend that the document, which fills 60 pages in the original Latin, mainly tells church officials how to conduct a fair investigation in one rare and complex situation: when a priest is accused of "soliciting" a sexual sin during confession.
Both sides agree that the document demands "perpetual silence . . . under penalty of excommunication" from all Catholics involved in such investigations, including the alleged victim and any witnesses.
They also agree that the document itself was marked confidential, circulated only to bishops and deposited in the church's secret archives until a lawyer for sex abuse victims obtained a copy last month.
But there the agreement ends.
Suddenly, attorneys in courtrooms from Massachusetts to Utah are arguing over such Latin phrases as de crimine pessimo ("on the worst crime") and whether the 1962 document was superseded by the church's 1983 Code of Canon Law -- arcane matters, yet carrying high stakes for the church's reputation and multimillion-dollar lawsuits.
Houston-based attorney Dan Shea, who unearthed the document, maintains that it is "not just a smoking gun, but a nuclear bombshell."
It "shows that the Vatican has been providing instruction to all the bishops in the United States to obstruct justice," he said. "That's called criminal conspiracy."
Shea, 59, a former Catholic deacon who holds a graduate degree in theology, said he first noticed a reference to the document on the Vatican's Latin Web site in January and spent months trying to get it.
Finally, he said, he obtained the text in late July from the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, an Air Force chaplain in Germany who has been a consultant to many sex abuse victims in lawsuits against the church.
-- Washington Post, "Vatican Memo Cited In Sex Abuse Cases,"
www.washingtonpost.com ,
By Alan Cooperman, Page A03, Monday, August 25, 2003
•
Passing out leaflets outside the cathedral.
GREEN BAY (WI): They call themselves S.N.A.P.-- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. They stood outside the downtown Green Bay cathedral Sunday asking for support from fellow Catholics.
Two men who say they were abused as boys want new laws that will protect victims. Judith Shauer was among several Catholics passing out information about upcoming legislation.
"Victims of sexual abuse by clergy, under law, have a different standard. They are second-class citizens. Other victims of sexual abuse have more rights," Peter Isely contends.
Isely and David Schauer both say they were abused as children by clergy. Mr. Schauer explains, "The current bill proposes that it will extend the statute of limitations and that it will allow any future victims to bring
a cause of action against any religious organization."
-- WBAY, "Victims of Priest Abuse Campaign to Help Others,"
www.wbay.com ,
By Becky Freemal,
(Posted by Kathy Shaw 9:55:03 AM, Aug 26 03)
•
2 plaintiffs object to plan for dividing abuse settlement.
LOUISVILLE (KY): Some of the 243 people involved in a $25.7million abuse-case settlement
with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville are objecting to a plan
for dividing the money.
Jefferson Circuit Judge James M. Shake set an Oct. 9 hearing for any of
the 243 plaintiffs to voice their objections to the plan, drafted earlier
this month by Cincinnati lawyer Matt Garretson.
Garretson, who was appointed by Shake to oversee the division of the
funds, proposed that plaintiffs be placed in one of three categories,
based on how severely each was abused. Payments would range from $15,333 t
o $175,000, with variations in each case based on such factors as the age
of the victim, the number of times the person was abused and whether the
abuser plied his victim with drugs, alcohol or pornography.
-- The Courier-Journal,
www.courier-journal.com ,
By Peter Smith,
psmith@courier-journal.com ,
Aug 26 03
• Internet search unearthed the secret Vatican order -- like nuclear weapon.
IRELAND: A secret 40 year-old Vatican document recently unearthed, claims to have
instructed Catholic Bishops to cover up cases of sexual abuse or face excommunication.
It is understood the secret order, written in Latin, was sent from the Vatican in 1962 and reveals the Catholic Church's procedure for handling allegations of sex abuse by priests at that time.
American lawyer Daniel Shea, who represents several of the alleged victims, uncovered the document through a letter he found on the Internet, in Latin, which referred to the 'Crimen sollicitationis' or 'Crime of Solicitation'. [NOTE: This is another variant on who first unearthed the document -- Faith Purification Programme, 28 Aug 03. NOTE ENDS.]
The letter, by Cardinal Ratzinger and dated May 18 2001, was proof to Mr Shea that the Catholic Church adhered to the document at that time.
Mr Shea claimed the document was 'like a nuclear weapon' exposing a conspiracy of silence in the Church.
Protection guidelines.
Reacting to the news, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Communications Office, in Maynooth, Co Kildare, told 'the Strabane Chronicle' that since 1996 the Irish Bishops' Conference had put in place a series of child protection guidelines.
'They have been in place since then. They were adopted by all 26 dioceses and recommended mandatory reporting.'
-- Strabane Chronicle,
"Old Vatican document like nuclear weapon,"
http://strabanechronicle.com/news7.htm ,
By Jacqueline Courtney,
(Poynter, 7:37:21 AM Posted by Kathy Shaw, Aug 27 03)
[COMMENT: The Republic of Ireland bishops had their compulsory reporting since 1996 ! And the Australian bishops had their "no silence clause" since the year 2000 ! In both countries these glossy policies were defied with impunity. Do we set the foxes to keep the foxes out? Read the Vatican orders of 18 May 2001. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Secrecy letter in LATIN of 18 May 2001 quoting Vatican secrecy document Crimen sollicitationis or "Crime of Solicitation": VATICAN CITY: The Epistula or "Letter" was issued by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. (see above Irish newsitem). Its heading is: "Epistula a Congregatione pro Doctrina Fidei missa
ad totius Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopos aliosque Ordinarios et Hierarchas interesse habentes:
DE DELICTIS GRAVIORIBUS
eidem Congregationi pro Doctrina Fidei reservatis".
It would assist understanding if this, the second paragraph, was translated:
Eodem fere tempore Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei per Commissionem ad hoc ipsum institutam operam dabat diligenti canonum de delictis studio, sive Codicis Iuris Canonici, sive Codicis Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium, ad determinanda ‹‹graviora delicta tum contra mores tum in sacramentorum celebratione››, ad perficiendas quoque normas processuales speciales ‹‹ad canonicas sanctiones declarandas aut irrogandas››, quia Instructio Crimen sollicitationis hucusque vigens, a Suprema Sacra Congregatione Sancti Officii edita die 16 mensis martii anno 1962,[3] recognoscenda erat novis Codicibus canonicis promulgatis.
-- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents , die 18 maii 2001 (May 18th, 2001)
• Catholic archbishop blamed, and police search Anglican headquarters for evidence about Lou Daniels.
The Mercury, "Quit call to archbishop,"
www.themercury.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,7108188,00.html ,
By Ellen Whinnett, Chief Reporter, August 30 2003
HOBART (Tasmania) Australia: The Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, Adrian Doyle, should resign over his handling of sex abuse allegations, a lobby group says. Only talk of a court case led the archbishop to remove an alleged sex-abuser.
The Coalition for Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse said Archbishop Doyle had mishandled abuse allegations levelled at a senior Catholic priest. The Mercury revealed the abuse allegations on August 11, when former Hobart man Derrum Kearns, 32, alleged he had been sexually assaulted by a senior Catholic figure almost 20 years ago.
Also yesterday, detectives investigating allegations of sexual abuse against former Anglican Church priest Lou Victor Daniels raided the Anglican Church headquarters in Hobart's Macquarie St.
Police seized documents and correspondence between the church and people who had complained to the church about Daniels' behaviour.
FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEAN-UP IS NEEDED
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