References cont. (4) — Clergy Child Molesters
SOME of the NEWSITEM HEADLINES below have been CHANGED to amplify the meaning
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP PELL TALKS OF STOPPING TV EXPOSÉ BEING BROADCAST, DENIES OFFERING MONEY FOR SILENCE, cont.
• "Archbishop in sex abuse bribes row;" RCC.
The West Australian, p 16,
Sat June 1, 2002
AUSTRALIA: Victims were offered hush money, house and car, says "60 Minutes";
Sydney R.C. Archbishop George Pell was considering legal action to stop a TV programme being telecast. He claims he was "ambushed" by Richard Carleton of "60 Minutes" and the interview with him had been obtained by false pretences. Mr Carleton said, "He made no complaint whatsoever at the time the interview was recorded." Another family had given him a letter from solicitors saying they acted for Archbishop Pell and offering them "$50,000 to shut up," he said.
• "Pell lawyers $50,000 offer to abuse family;"
AUSTRALIA: (R.Cs.) Television reporter Richard Carleton made the claim in response to denials by Dr George Pell that he offered a bribe to a sex abuse victim in return for his silence in the early 1990s. Dr Pell had called a news conference on Thursday to declare that the claim was "unfounded and untrue and is anathema to me."
The Weekend Australian, Jun 1-2 02, "The Nation" p 3
Series starts:
www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Visit
www.ncrnews.org/abuse
• "Probe all churches -- victim;"
MELBOURNE (Vic) Australia: Ballarat carpenter Robert Walsh, 41, called for a royal commission because of the large number of victims and clergy involved. Federal Opposition leader Simon Crean wanted the Church itself to come forward and clear the air.
The R.C. Church has denied that the Nine Network has documents to prove that Archbishop Pell tried to bribe victims. Pell had shared a house with Fr Gerald Ridsdale, who was sexually abusing children at an R.C. school in East Ballarat. By
Mirand Korzy, The Sunday Times, Perth W. Aust., Sun Jun 2 02, p 19
• "Loss of Faith" and Part 2, Television Channel 9, "60 Minutes," Catholic "silence money." AUSTRALIA:
• David Ridsdale said he had telephoned Catholic Bishop Pell about being assaulted by his uncle Fr Gerald Ridsdale. Pell had said: "I want to know what it would take to keep you quiet." When Fr Ridsdale was in court, Bishop Pell was there by his side. Carleton: "Did David Ridsdale tell you that Fr Ridsdale had been abusing him?" Four denials before he admitted it. And he asked Dr Pell if he had offered money to keep quiet about it. Pell: "Didn't happen." Then Dr Pell admitted that David had had spoken to David Ridsdale at various times, and later still he was even more forthcoming.
• Stephen Woods spoke about Brother Best of St Alipius's Primary School in Victoria. At St Pat's College he was abused by Br Dowlan. When he went to a presbytery to talk about it, he was put into the hands of Fr Ridsdale, who raped him within an hour.
• Two girls were abused from the age of 5 by a Father Kevin O'Donnell (who died in 1997 shortly after being released from gaol). A complaint about him had been received in 1958. The girls' parents said that Bishop Pell had treated them in a legalistic way. The girls' lives were ruined, according to the parents. They had shown him a Confirmation picture of an abused daughter and a later picture of her slashed wrists. He sat there with a stony face, "Oh, she's changed". Carleton: "You offered them 50 grand [$50,000] to be quiet."
GEORGE PELL: "I offered them 50 grand in compensation according to the publicly acknowledged procedures."
-- "60 Minutes," TV Channel 9, "Loss of Faith,"
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2002_06_02/story_602.asp
and Part 2,
interviewer Richard Carleton, June 2 02
• [Pell contradicting his own admission, while Brisbane archbishop admits to secrecy clause.]
SYDNEY (NSW) Australia: (ABC version)
Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell claims he made an honest mistake on Sixty Minutes last night about the confidentiality required of child sex abuse victims compensated by the church.
Archbishop Pell told the program that two girls abused by a paedophile priest in Victoria were offered compensation that required them not to publicly disclose the details of their abuse.
However, at a media conference in Sydney today, Archbishop Pell says he was unprepared for the questioning and has denied the victims were expected to keep quiet under the terms of the payment
...
BRISBANE: The Catholic Church in Queensland has revealed it has paid compensation to victims of child abuse in the past who have signed a secrecy clause. ...
Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby, says confidentiality is sometimes at the request of victims.
"It's not often there's a secrecy clause also as a part of that payment and not always does that come from the church's side," Archbishop Bathersby said.
-- ABC News Online http://abc.net.au/news/2002/06/item20020603100306_1.htm , "Pell acknowledges 'honest mistake'"
11:36 PM AEST,
Mon, Jun 3 2002
• "Pell admits to sex abuse hush money;"
AUSTRALIA: (Newspaper version) Archbishop Pell initially told "60 Minutes"
that he offered nothing at all to the parents of two girls who had been abused by their local priest for six years from 1987. Dr Pell had been an auxiliary bishop in their area at the time. On being shown the letter from lawyers offering $50,000 in compensation for the abuse of the older daughter, on condition they kept silence, he admitted an offer had been made. Also, victim David Ridsdale told the programme that Dr Pell tried to buy his silence about his abuse at the hands of his priest uncle Gerald Ridsdale.
-- The West Australian, Mon Jun 3 02, p 5
• Archbishop admits money offer, (BBC version);
SYDNEY (NSW) Australia: Just days after angrily denying that he tried to cover up sexual abuse of children by priests, Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell has been forced to admit offering victims thousands of dollars, in a programme aired on Australian television on Sunday night.
Dr Pell was presented with a copy of a letter sent on his behalf offering nearly $30,000 (50,000 Australian dollars) to the family of two women who had been sexually abused as children by a priest.
Initially he denied that allegation, however later admitted an offer had been made.
The parents were warned that if they did not accept it, any legal action they might take would be "strenuously defended" by the Church, the Associated Press news agency reported.
-- British Broadcasting Corporation, "Bishop admits abuse money offer,"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2022620.stm
,
Mon June 3, 2002
• [Bishop ignored aide Sister Catherine Mulkerrin's requests to warn of predator priests.] [Shanley, Herek]
MANCHESTER, N.H.: Bishop John B. McCormack ignored requests from his top aide that he warn Boston parishes about several priests who had been accused of molesting children, a lawyer for three alleged victims said Monday.
The lawyer for Father Shanley's alleged victims, Roderick MacLeish, confirmed a Boston Herald report Monday that said Sister Catherine Mulkerrin, Bishop McCormack's top aide in Boston, had written memos advising him to contact members of parishes where Father Shanley and other accused priests had served.
At least 225 priests of more than 46,000 across the country have either been dismissed from their duties or resigned since the scandal began.
In other developments, the mother of a former altar boy in Omaha, Nebraska, burst into tears Monday as she told a jury that she had trusted the archdiocese, the Church and the Rev. Daniel Herek to be good influences on her son.
Instead, she said, her son was sexually abused at age 14 and the archdiocese did nothing to prevent it.
-- The Cincinnati Enquirer,
http://enquirer.com
"Bishop grilled about handling of sex abuse allegations in Boston," By J.M. Hirsch,
The Associated Press, Tuesday, June 4, 2002
ARCHBISHOP PELL SAYS HE HAD BEEN 'AMBUSHED', AND THERE WAS NO 'HUSH MONEY'
• R.C. Archbishop Pell (Sydney) said he had been "ambushed" by the television show "60 Minutes"; ABC news, June 3 02
• "Pell denial deepens Church sex storm": AUSTRALIA: Archbishop not ambushed, says TV producer" R.C. Sydney Archbishop Pell held a news conference at St Mary's Cathedral yesterday denying he offered victims hush money, a day after admitting on television that he had. He conceded that he had been wrong to accompany sex-abuser Gerald Ridsdale to court, but denied he had made offers to his nephew-victim David Ridsdale to buy his silence. Pauline Gill, of Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse (A.S.C.A.) said the Church's poor handling of sex abuse cases further traumatised victims.
"60 Minutes" John Westacott denied yesterday that Dr Pell had been ambushed, telling of a prior backstage meeting and a telephone call going through a list of questions.
-- The West Australian, (with AAP), Tue Jun 4 02, p 5
• "MP urges big abuse probe;" PERTH (WA) Australia: Democrats Senator Andrew Murray has called for a royal commission in the wake of the scandal engulfing R.C. Archbishop Pell. Prime Minister John Howard had rejected a similar call at the height of the sex-abuse row surrounding the former Anglican Archbishop Hollingworth. The West had reported in May that there had been no complaints of current sexual abuse of children in the Perth Catholic Archdiocese. But for past events, nine of the 15 payments related to the Christian Brothers.
The West Australian, Wed Jun 5 02, p 9
• Is it hush money? (R.Cs.) PERTH: It certainly sounds as though someone hoped it would be. ... victims ... keep up the pressure. Letter from Roger Andrews, Boyup Brook,
The West Australian, Wed Jun 5 02, p 16
• "Sex abuse case 'needs royal commission';" LONDON: Living now in London, David Ridsdale whose uncle Fr Gerald Ridsdale is serving 18 years gaol for abusing him and 20 others as children, has called for a royal commission. The R.C. Dr Pell said this week that the allegations he "attempted to silence anyone are totally unfounded and untrue." PM Howard said he had enormous respect for Dr Pell. Baptist Union Australian head Tim Costello backed Dr Pell.
The West Australian, Thu Jun 6 02, p 4
• "Methodists hit he-she pastor poser" and Catholic Bishops to Vote on Priest Sex-Abuse Policy: UNITED STATES:
• Methodists, U.S.A.: The Baltimore-Washington Methodist Conference today will debate the re-appointment of sex-change person Rebecca Steen, formerly the Rev. Richard Zamostny.
• Catholic bishops, U.S.A., yesterday called for unprecedented national safeguards to protect minors from sexual abuse by priests, but stopped short of an across-the-board zero-tolerance policy. Since the start of the year, several bishops have been forced to resign, at least 225 of the nation's 46,000 Catholic priests have been dismissed or quit, and civil suits for millions of dollars in damages have been filed.
-- The West Australian, Thur June 6 02, p 25
• Catholic newspaper reacts to "60 Minutes":
PERTH:
• "Pell responds" p 1: Archbishop George Pell of Sydney (formerly of Melbourne) in a press conference and press release stated that there was no requirement that people accepting compensation remain silent, and he repeated that he had made no attempt to buy David Ridsdale's silence.
• "60 Minutes and the truth" p 7: Editorial saying that the gravest charges in this case lie against Richard Carleton, 60 Minutes and Channel 9. A letter he had shown on the programme had not held victims to be silent. The ABC TV news on Monday night reported an involved family as saying that they had not regarded the offer of compensation as hush money. The "7.30 Report" the same evening reported Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley saying "claims of hush money are misguided."
• "Media has no perspective" p 7: Arnold Jago of Mildura, letter, criticising the news media, and stating that less than 1 per cent of Catholic priests are sex-abusers. However, in the 1990s, 600 Victorian schoolteachers were removed for misconduct; the Australian Labor Party has a policy of allowing boys as young as 16 to be involved by adults of any age in homosexual acts.
• "Priests, boys and structures of deceit": (R.C.C.)
UNITED STATES: "The Church's trouble with paedophilia is more about dishonesty than about sex;" This is a referenced article by Garry Wills delving into learned explanations of various same-sex relationships, including clergy child-abuse in the United States, Cardinal Law, etc.
"Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles had latterly been boasting about a comprehensive plan he instituted last year for investigating and exposing paedophilia. He neglects to mention that this detailed 11-point plan was forced on a reluctant diocese by one priest's victim who made it a condition of settling his suit." (Refer William Lobdell, Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2002.)
A book by Michael Rose is quoted, stating that the U.S. R.C. priesthood is being dismantled by homosexual priests who were admitted in the 1960s and were turning away from seminaries good faithful men. [Other evidence suggests that clergy child abuse was recorded a lot earlier than that!]
A strong point is that the current scandal is a dishonesty scandal. In his book Papal Sin two years ago Garry Wills had used the phrase "structures of deceit." The Church leaders had to come clean to themselves, the faithful, and the world. They run a structure honeycombed with pretence, hypocrisy and evasion. (This is the second of two articles.)
-- Garry Wills, The Australian Financial Review, Fri June 7, 2002, pp 6-7
SECOND ARCHBISHOP DRAWN INTO DENYING HUSH MONEY, while apologising for the actual sex abuse.
• "Catholic leaders say sorry to sex victims" and deny hush money: SYDNEY and MELBOURNE: Dr George Pell, Sydney R.C. Archbishop, and Denis Hart, his Melbourne counterpart, apologised to victims. They denied they had tried to buy the silence of victims. David Ridsdale had stated that when Dr Pell was auxiliary bishop of Ballarat in the 1990s he had tried to buy his silence by offering him a house or a car. Gerald Ridsdale had been gaoled for 18 years in 1994 after pleading guilty to 46 charges involving 21 children.
-- The West Australian, p 5, Fri June 7 02
MONEY TIED TO SILENCE IN PELL'S STATE, HIS FORMER STATE, and TASMANIA
• Exposed: The clause that contradicts Pell. AUSTRALIA: A disabled woman who said she became pregnant after being raped by a Catholic priest had to sign a secrecy clause before the Church would pay her $15,000 compensation.
The deal, authorised by a NSW country bishop last month, contradicts Sydney Archbishop George Pell's statements that victims were not prevented from discussing such abuse. . . .
Yesterday, the Church spent about $100,000 on advertisements in newspapers across Australia apologising to sex abuse victims.
In the ad, Dr Pell and Melbourne's Archbishop Denis Hart said compensation payouts were not an attempt to buy silence.
"Victims are not silenced as a condition for receiving counselling or compensation," they said. . . .
Documents obtained by The Sun-Herald reveal that the Catholic Church offered the woman assistance soon after she became pregnant in 1983.
She said she had been raped by a priest and had become pregnant. . . .
Dr Pell tried all week to backtrack on his comment on TV last Sunday that there was a requirement that victims did not talk once a payment was made. He said victims did not want the publicity and "it was shameful for the Church". . . .
Although bishops sign off on compensation deals in their own diocese, Dr Pell is responsible for implementation of Church policy across NSW.
The head of the Towards Healing program, Sister Angela Ryan, was angry that a secrecy provision was forced on the NSW woman. "It is totally against the spirit of 'Towards Healing'," she said.
The article went on to quote reports that similar contractual wording was used for victims in Melbourne (priest made her pregnant), Brisbane (torture in Neerkol nuns' orphanage, Rockhampton), Tasmania (and Hobart's Archbishop Adrian Doyle said the Church gave convicted pedophile and now retired priest Paul Anthony Connolly, 66, a Toyota Camry sedan last year after he served part of an eight-month jail term), and another Victorian case (the Bishop of Ballarat awarded a man $50,000 last year with a silence clause.
He was a victim of Christian Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan, a pedophile jailed for almost 10 years after pleading guilty to 16 charges of indecently assaulting 11 boys aged nine to 13 from 1971 to 1982.)
-- The Sun-Herald , "The clause that contradicts Pell,"
www.smh.com. au/articles/ 2002/06/08/ 1022982 785386.html ,
By Frank Walker, Jun 9 02
• "Angry showing for G-G;" - Anglican.
PERTH (WA) Australia -- A hostile reception was planned for G-G Hollingworth when he delivers a speech titled "These are our Children," the Sir Wallace Kyle Oration, at the University of WA this week. Three Labor MPs declined to attend.
The Sunday Times, Perth Sun Jun 9 02, p 3
• "Church abuse apology;" (R.C.)
AUSTRALIA: The Catholic Archbishops of Sydney and Melbourne, George Pell and Denis Hart, in advertisements in those cities have apologised for the evil of clergy sex abuse. Broken Rites president Chris MacIsaac criticised the statement for not giving the telephone number of the police sexual offences unit or of any non-Catholic agency.
The Sunday Times, Perth Sun Jun 9 02, p 28
• Zero tolerance, and more lay involvement recommended. "Compass", Geraldine Doogue: AUSTRALIA: The RCs in the UK have announced a virtually zero tolerance policy, Ireland has held a state inquiry, and in the U.S.A. there are serious doubts about the bishops' policies. A discussion about Catholicism followed with theologian Dr Marie McDonald, Very Rev. Pat Power, auxiliary bishop of Canberra-Goulburn, Mr Chris Geraghty a former priest, Dr Michael Whelan, a Marist priest. Dr McDonald said the sex-abuse issue was an opportunity for renewal in the Church. A speaker said the Church was the biggest employer in Australia. Dr Whelan spoke of an "imperial" form of Catholicism from the 5th century. The U.S. cardinals had been "rolled" during their recent Rome visit. There should be more lay involvement, and less appointments of bishops "out of the air."
-- "Compass", ABC, TV June 9 02
MORE EVIDENCE OF MONEY TIED TO SILENCE -- AUSTRALIAN PRIEST'S ABUSE DATING BACK TO 1961 -- AND A PRIEST UNAVAILINGLY TOLD BISHOP OF SEX-ABUSE FROM 1978 FOR YEARS AND YEARS
• AUSTRALIA: "60 Minutes" interviews AUSTRALIAN R.C. priest who first reported Church sex-abuse in 1978 for years to no avail, and gives more examples of silence tied to compensation money (This is a follow-up to the big reaction, and new information following, "Loss of Faith" of June 2):
• Geoff Fitzpatrick (see below) on his third day in a Catholic orphanage aged 11 was interfered with by a Brother. Charges against the Brother some years later were dropped. He was offered $20,000, and later $50,000 if he signed a document to say nothing.
• Father Ridsdale case: Richard Carleton talked of a statutory declaration. The first time the case was in the news media was 5 February 1993. A police man and a police woman travelled from Melbourne to Ballarat to investigate, but he was not available. They got a list of the parishes he had been working in. In February 1993 they charged him with indecent assault, and he was sentenced to three months gaol. Later there were more charges dating back to 1961 and he received more gaol. (A letter-writer said Fr Ridsdale was serving 15 years [? 18 years] for paedophilia.)
• Repeated reporting: Mr Phil O'Donnell, for 24 years a priest, had first alerted the Church authorities to child sex abuse in 1978. The perpetrator kept doing it, and Fr O'Donnell kept alerting the Church authorities. More kids got abused. The Church had a strategy of denial and rejection, he said. PHIL O'DONNELL: "It is horrifying to think of the number of young boys and girls who have been subsequently abused because the strategy of the church was to deny the reality. It was to turn against the victim, it was to blame the victim, it was to make those supporting the victim uncomfortable." Mr O'Donnell claimed it was a collective responsibility. He thought the Church now would stop a priest from abusing children.
• PHIL O'DONNELL: "I think anyone in authority would have known it was going on. Anyone who was a bishop in the Catholic Church through the '70s and '80s and '90s had to be aware of the volume of victims who were coming forward telling their stories. It beggars belief that anybody in a position of authority through the '70s, '80s and '90s was not aware of this as a very major crisis in the Catholic Church."
• Richard Carleton took Mr Geoff Fitzpatrick (see above) to the Christian Brothers' establishment where the Christian Brother he alleges had repeatedly raped him still serves. Mr Carleton asked the brother for an apology.
GEOFF FITZPATRICK: "Remember St Augustine's, 1969? Do you remember? I do! ..."
BROTHER WILLIAM HOUSTON: "Please leave the premises as you have been requested."
-- "60 Minutes," Richard Carleton, TV Channel 9, http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/ 2002_06_09/ story_610.asp , Sun June 9 02
CATHOLIC CHURCH FINALLY STOPS DENYING THE SILENCE REQUIREMENT through a layman, not Dr Pell -- AND THE SILENCE CLAUSE WAS STILL BEING IMPOSED IN MAY 2002 (AND STILL BEING REMOVED FROM DOCUMENTS IN DECEMBER 2002)
• The "gag" admitted -- actual text,
AUSTRALIA: Admission by John McCarthy QC, President of the St Thomas More Society, Guild of Catholic lawyers. "... any party will be relieved of any obligation of silence which may have been mistakenly imposed" in the archdiocese. -- Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney,
http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/html/statements/JohnMcCarthy_090602.htm ,
June 9 2002
• Catholic Church lay spokesman admits hush edict (again) after Dr Pell's 10 days of denials!
AUSTRALIA: Guild of Catholic Lawyers president John McCarthy QC said it had been discovered yesterday that the Church had kept clauses in compensation contracts that forced victims to keep silent. Professionals had disobeyed the directives of the R.C. "Towards Healing" charter. [Sydney R.C. Archbishop George Pell had been denying the hush money since about May 30-31.] Mr McCarthy said that Pell had authorised him to say that all such Sydney compensation agreements would be remedied.
• Geoff Fitzpatrick had told "60 Minutes" that he had been silenced when he received $50,000 for sexual and physical abuse.
• A woman who was allegedly raped by a priest in 1983 -- and became pregnant -- was last month given $15,000 from the Church on condition she kept quiet about the matter.
• That came only a day after a joint denial by Dr Pell and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart in newspapers.
• Dr Pell had at first told Sixty Minutes that victims were in fact required to keep quiet if they accepted compensation, then denied it. Afterwards he said he had been "ambushed" in the interview.
• Phil O'Donnell, former priest, told 60 Minutes last night the Church had a strategy of denial and rejection.
-- The West Australian, "Church admits hush edict," Mon June 10 02, p 3
• Ballarat and Lismore (pregnant woman hush-up for $15,000!) discovered imposing the "gag" which Pell and Hart denied was being imposed.
AUSTRALIA: "The Catholic Church was first alerted to individual Catholic dioceses' failure to follow national sex abuse protocols in September 1999, by one of the church's senior bishops, Geoffrey Robinson.
Yet nothing was done to address the problem. ...
On Sunday Sydney QC John McCarthy, speaking on behalf of Sydney's archbishop, the Most Rev George Pell, admitted that some bishops were still including secrecy clauses in compensation settlements to victims of sex abuse by church employees. The practice was, he said, "completely at variance with what church leaders, including Archbishop Pell, believed was happening under the church's current process."
(Biography and picture of Mr McCarthy at http://www.stms.f2s.com/john_mccarthy.htm )
" ... On Sunday, Mr McCarthy tried to deflect criticism away from individual diocesan bishops, such as retired Bishop of Lismore, the Most Rev John Satterthwaite, and his successor, the Most Rev Geoffrey Jarrett, who signed off on a confidentiality agreement last month. It prevented a physically disabled woman who had been paid $15,000 compensation from going public with her story over how she became pregnant to a priest in the Lismore diocese."
-- Sydney Morning Herald,
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2002/06/10/1022982819880.htm ,
"Church fails its own sex abuse rules," By Kelly Burke, Religious Affairs Writer,
June 11 2002
• 'Tyranny of distance' led to silence clause.
AUSTRALIA: Confusion in the Catholic Church over confidentiality clauses in compensation agreements with abuse victims appeared to be the result of "tyranny of distance problems", according to Catholic barrister John McCarthy QC.
Mr McCarthy confirmed that in some parts of the country the church had required victims to keep silent about their claims as a condition of a payment.
This was at odds with a national church policy and reassurances given by Sydney Archbishop George Pell, who has said that he cannot speak for bishops outside Sydney.
-- CathNews, www.cathnews.com/news/206/41.php
"'Tyranny of distance' led to silence clause," source
The Australian www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,4488704%5E2702,00.html , Jun 11 2002
[COMMENT: Distance was no bar to the early Christians knowing what was going on at a distance, if The Acts 9:11 and ll:28 are accurate. Transmitting decisions of ruling people has been carried on for thousands of years, even in societies where there was no system of writing. Churches have whole systems devoted to sending out instructions and advice. It is sophistry to imply otherwise. -- FPP 29 Jan 04. COMMENT ENDS.]
• Letters to the editor, criticising Archbishop Pell and Church cover-ups:
PERTH:
• George Pell's chickens have come home to roost. Inquiry is needed into all Churches' child abuse. Mike Chester, Waterford.
• Just how far back in time does clerical abuse against defenceless children worldwide extend? It is a vile pattern over centuries. Jim Smith, Bentley.
• The Archbishop of Melbourne's claim he was ambushed by Sixty Minutes is utter drivel. The sexual molestation of two young girls over a number of years by someone they called Father was what I would call an ambush. Roy Allen, Nedlands.
-- The West Australian, Tue June 11 02, pp 15-17
• James McCarthy, auxiliary to Cardinal Edward Egan, had affairs, resigns.
NEW YORK: A New York auxiliary bishop has become the fourth American bishop to resign this year -- and the second in one day -- as a result of sex-related charges.
Bishop James McCarthy, an auxiliary of the New York archdiocese, tendered his resignation after archdiocesan officials received information that the bishop had been involved in affairs with women over the course of several years.
-- Catholic World News,
"New York Auxiliary Is Latest Bishop to Resign,"
www.cwnews.com/Browse/2002/06/18341.htm ,
Jun 11 02
• "Sexual abuse favours priests:" (R.C.)
PERTH: "Onus falls on victim to report clergy;"
Priests in Catholic schools who are accused of sexually abusing students can not be dealt with by the Church in the same way as teachers. If the misconduct allegation is against a teacher, the Church Towards Healing guidelines say the matter must be reported to the police. But if a priest was involved, unless the State had mandatory reporting laws, the Church was only obliged to tell the victims they had a right to report the matter to the police, said WA Catholic Education Office assistant director Terry Wilson.
-- Susan Hewitt, The West Australian, Wed June 12 02, p 14
• "Catholic bishop resigns;" (R.C.)
VATICAN CITY: Bishop Kendrick Williams of Lexington, Kentucky, accused in two sex abuse cases, resigned yesterday, the Vatican said. He is the third [sic] bishop brought down in the scandal rocking the Church. [see also
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/US/06/11/bishop.resignation/ CNN, "Kentucky bishop resigns amid abuse allegations, " June 12, 2002]
-- The West Australian, Wed June 12 02, p 33
ANGLICAN HOLLINGWORTH WHO 'COVERED UP' COMING TO PERTH TO HELP W.A. DO BETTER!
• "Sex groups snub Hollingworth." (Anglican)
PERTH: "Labor MPs claim Governor-General's speech in bad taste;" Child abuse activists will protest at the University of WA during a speech by G-G Peter Hollingworth. Queensland-based Hetty Johnston, who has led calls nationally for Dr Hollingworth to stand down, is in Perth to launch a WA wing of the organisation she leads, called Bravehearts. She will campaign here with the Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse [A.S.C.A.] and others. UWA's Institute of Advanced Studies and the Rotary Club of Perth co-ordinate the university event.
-- By Kate Gauntlett, The West Australian, Wed June 12 02, p 39
• [Two articles about protests against Dr Hollinworth's Perth visit.] (Anglican):
PERTH:
• "Sex storm haunts G-G;"
Dr Hollingworth attended a session where medical students teach children about sex. He had been invited by the Balga Senior High School with the approval of the Parents and Citizens' Association by the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association. The G-G left by the back door, while AMA WA president Bernard Pearn-Rowe confronted visiting Queensland activist Hetty Johnston. Three Labor MPs accompanied Ms Johnston. She said she was shocked and gobsmacked that a man like the G-G could be invited to talk about sex education and drugs. By Susan Hewitt.
• "Hollingworth speech upsets abuse lobby"
Fourteen people chanted "Shame" as audience members filed into a University of WA hall last night. They held white balloons and turned their backs to him. All left when he began talking about children and institutions. Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse [ASCA] spokeswoman Michelle Stubbs said her group did not protest, but would call on Dr Hollingworth to stand down only if that was the wish of the victims at the centre of claims he had handled.
By Kate Gauntlett.
-- The West Australian, Thur Jun 13 02, p 6
• "Church to pay out $3.6m:" (R.C.C.)
MELBOURNE (Vic) Australia: In Victoria the St John of God Brothers have agreed to pay 24 sex-abuse victims ranging from $100,000 to $400,000 each, totalling $3.6 million. The abuse took place between 1968 and 1994 at the order's Cheltenham, Lilydale and Greensborough homes. Some had mental disabilities. The brothers and lawyers Slater and Gordon issued a joint statement. Two years earlier, another Catholic order made a $400,000 payout to a man abused at one of its schools in Melbourne. Dr Pell, who ought to have been in Rome, had instead stayed in Sydney, having called 140 priests to the Church headquarters there.
-- The West Australian, Thu Jun 13, 2002, p 36
• "We'll go bankrupt to help victims;" (R.C.)
MELBOURNE (Vic) Australia: New Melbourne auxiliary bishop Mark Coleridge, 53, fresh from some years in Rome. He is in charge of 70 parishes in Melbourne's western suburbs and Geelong.
The Record, Perth, June 13 02, pp 1-2
• Connecticut courts abetted Church moves to delay, coerce victims to promise secrecy. CONNECTICUT:
A Connecticut Superior Court judge accused his state's judiciary this week of longstanding complicity in the Diocese of Bridgeport's efforts to keep hidden from the public the extent of clergy sexual abuse, including a church "cover-up," which the judge said is "at the heart of the scandal."
In a written opinion released late Wednesday, Judge Robert F. McWeeny criticized what he called "a judicial model of cooperation with the Diocese in endlessly delaying litigation, sealing files and coercing victims into non-disclosure settlements."
In extraordinary language aimed at the Connecticut Appellate Court, which has delayed his order that seven boxes of secret documents be made public, McWeeny declared that it is "indefensible morally as well as legally" to keep the documents under court seal. Even the delay, he said, "precludes any timely vindication of any public right to access this compelling information."
In this week's opinion, and in a May 8 order that the records of 23 settled lawsuits become public, McWeeny hinted that the documents will be damaging to the church. If his order is upheld, then the records may cause further problems for Cardinal Edward F. Egan, who headed the Bridgeport Diocese for 12 years until he was elevated to archbishop of New York in 2000.
Boston Globe, "Conn. courts helped hide abuse, judge says," by Walter V. Robinson June 14 2002
• "Victims of abuse confront bishops;" (R.C.C.) DALLAS: Actually, by invitation in Dallas, a committee of U.S. Catholic bishops heard from some representatives of two groups of victims of sexual abuse by priests. This was held the day before the bishops were to hold a meeting about dealing with sex abuse. The groups were S.N.A.P. and the Survivors of Clergy Abuse Linkup.
-- The West Australian, June 14 02, p 26
• Greatest ever destruction of the Church in western civilization -- Abp Wilson.
ROME: A widening sexual abuse crisis within the country’s Catholic church has generated a media uproar, as senior bishops are accused of cover-ups and lies. Tough bishops’ conference policies on sex abuse, unveiled to much fanfare years ago, are revealed to have been more honored in the breach than the observance.
The country described above is not the United States, but Australia.
The U.S. bishops invited one of their Australian counterparts, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, to join them in Dallas. Known as "the healing bishop" for his deft handling of a spate of sex abuse scandals in his former diocese of Wollongong, Wilson is the first Australian prelate ever invited to address the U.S. conference.
In April Wilson gave an address in which he said, "I believe we are dealing with a firestorm that, unless it's brought under control and dealt with, is going to be really destructive, perhaps the greatest ever destruction of the church in western civilization."
In 1993, about 200 former residents of Australian schools run by the Christian Brothers, an Irish teaching order known for its harsh discipline, filed suit alleging they were repeatedly raped and beaten by brothers. The Catholic church in 1996 settled out of court for $2.6 million, a deal that left victims with $2,000 to $7,500 each.
A revision of policy in 2000 made clear that victims were not to be constrained to secrecy as a condition of getting help from the church. (The text is on-line at www.catholic.org. au/statements/ sexual_abuse_th 2001_1.htm ) .
When the report first appeared the then-Archbishop of Melbourne George Pell publicly broke ranks with the conference and developed his own diocesan approach. Pell, who has since gone on to become archbishop if Sydney and is likely to be made a cardinal when John Paul II next holds a consistory, nevertheless vowed that his program would uphold more or less the same principles. The Jesuits in Australia also adopted their own rules.
In recent weeks, the sexual abuse crisis has broken open anew, this time over revelations that victims have indeed been required to maintain secrecy in settlements negotiated by church lawyers, even after the provisions of Towards Healing supposedly took effect.
On June 2, an Australian [Channel 9] TV program called "60 Minutes" painted Pell in especially negative hues, alleging that he had attempted to buy the silence in 1993 of a sex abuse victim.
The charge suffered a setback, however, when it emerged that the victim had given a different account of events to a gay magazine in Melbourne in 1997.
The "60 Minutes" program also suggested that Pell had known about the sexual abuse carried out by an Australian priest and personal friend named Gerald Ridsdale but failed to intervene.
Paul Collins, a former Sacred Heart priest, said:
"Pell has been rather unfairly treated. He has actually been quite proactive on this issue." Collins, a progressive church historian, left his religious order under the weight of a Vatican investigation that many Australians believe was instigated by Pell.
"The bishops here have generally been a lot more proactive than their colleagues in the United States," Collins told NCR.
Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the Australian bishops’ conference had to ruefully admit that church lawyers had never been informed of the provisions of Towards Healing governing confidentiality agreements.
Pell and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart took out newspaper advertisements in early June apologizing to victims for the "evil of sexual abuse" by clergy, but insisted the church had never tried to silence victims - a statement that in light of later admissions now seems disingenuous.
-- National Catholic Reporter,
"Church in Australia also struggles with sex abuse scandal,"
www.nationalcatholicreporter. org/dallas/ allen2.htm ,
by John L. Allen Jr., jallen@natcath.org ,
Jun 14 02
• Letters to the editor, regarding the Hollingworth visit:
PERTH:
• As a survivor of child abuse, I was ashamed to see the treatment of the Governor-General. ... inappropriate ... I am a member of A.S.C.A. Estelle Thomas, Bedford.
• I strongly object to the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association's support of the G-G's visit to Balga SHS. Greg Smith, Scarborough.
-- The West Australian, Sat June 15 02, p 18
• "Bishops say sorry to abuse scandal victims." DALLAS:
At a two-day summit in Dallas, Texas, U.S. Catholic bishops (nearly 300) heard their leader apologise to paedophile priests' victims. Victims and Catholic scholars chastised them for allowing predatory priests to hurt children, and begged them to adopt a firmer policy against abuse. Theologian Scott Applebee said the bishops ought to name the protection of abuse priests as a sin born of the arrogance of power. Internal documents had shown that bishops moved sex-abuse priests from parish to parish without warning the people.
-- (Reuters) The West Australian, Sat June 15 02, p 32
• "Threats denied over Debarl health chief." (Aboriginal community)
PERTH: Ted Wilkes, who was an advocate of exposing child sex abuse among Aboriginal communities, was dismissed by the aboriginal Debarl Yerrigan Health Service committee in January, supposedly because there was a big operating deficit. But he has since been cleared of improper financial dealings. It is alleged that senior Federal and State health funding bodies had told the committee they must be represented on the selection panel to choose a new director. A spokesperson, Diana Downs-Stoney, said that the indigenous community should be the only voice in the selection process.
-- By Ann Buggins The West Australian, Sat June 15 02, p 48
• Galway bishop Eamonn Casey a father. IRELAND: R.B. bishop Casey had fathered a child by an American divorcee, and fled into hiding in Ecuador. Working for the Sunday Tribune, journalist Veronica Guerin Turley tracked him there and scored a scoop. [She was murdered by Irish gangsters on June 26 1996.] In the article "Guerin's War," By Dani Cooper in Dublin,
The Weekend Australian, June 15-16 02, "Review" p 5
• "Loss of Faith" on "60 Minutes": (R.Cs.)
AUSTRALIA: Michael Pike was an altar boy. The Courier Mail published a newsitem about how he was one of those sexually abused by a priest. When he was 16 he had summoned the courage to confront him. A secret video was shown of the offending priest, who at one stage said: "They didn't resist. To some extent they wanted it." He said that between 3 and 10 children were affected. He was transferred. Bishop Heenan of Rockhampton had been told of the sex abuse, but nothing seemed to happen. On the secret video the priest was asked what ought to have happened. Priest: "I suppose I should have been stood down from ministry."
-- "60 Minutes," Richard Carleton, TV Channel 9, June 16 02
• "Pell defends abuse response:" (R.C.) "Tougher rules for priests in US fail to placate victims and reformists;"
• Denial of hush money: Dr Pell defended the Church's processes for investigating sex abuse, and said the past few weeks had been difficult especially for the overwhelming majority of good priests. He again denied covering up sexual abuse. He again denied that he had tried to buy his silence by offering victim David Ridsdale a house and a car.
• Banned but not dismissed: In the U.S., the bishops voted to bar sexually abusive priests from work in a parish, school or charity, publicly saying Mass, wearing clerical garb or representing themselves as priests, even for one offence. Paul Baier, of the Voice of the Faithful, said his group was disappointed. "There still seems to be a lot of wiggle room for past offences," he said. Victims' advocates said that clerics who abused minors must be ousted from the priesthood.
-- (AAP) The West Australian, Mon June 17 02, p 7
• Two inquiries, but no action to bring abusers to justice.
PERTH: In the recent uproar over claims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and religious orders it angers me and many other former British child migrants who also suffered such abuses while in institutional "care" that we have been forgotten by the Australian public.
This is despite two inquiries -- House of Commons Health Committee Report (1998) and the Australian Senate Report (2001) which found there was credibility in our claims of gross physical and sexual abuse. Yet no action has been taken by the authorities to bring our abusers to justice.
We too made strident calls for a royal commission and or a judicial inquiry. Alas, to no avail. As long as John Howard is Prime Minister we will never get justice.
[inserted, thanks to Mrs Josie Leeden of South Perth, 01 May 03.]
-- The West Australian, "Inaction on abuse," letter from Geoffrey M. P. Gray, Mt Lawley, Jun 17 02
• "Children: Sexual Assault."
CANBERRA: In the Australian Senate, Senator Andrew Murray (Aust. Dem., W.A.) said that some Church leaders whose subordinates had sexually abused minors had been rightly accused (but not charged) with aiding and abetting, being an accessory after the fact, obstructing the administration of justice, compounding a felony, and criminal conspiracy. -- Senate Hansard, June 19 2002, p 2061
• "Sins of the Fathers" on "Foreign Correspondent", U.S.A. Catholic sex abuse crisis:
• UNITED STATES: An interviewee said it was as serious as the Protestant Reformation. Women carrying placards pictured. Evan Williams said the rage was now focussing on the hierarchy for not stopping the abuse, and paying hush money. Interviewee: "The cardinal suggested that a six-year-old son was somehow responsible for a known paedophile priest molesting him." Cardinal Law had been receiving reports since he came to Boston in 1984. A woman said a priest gave her a French kiss at age 11, and fondling went on for three years.
• Between 13 and 18 monks at St Clout, Minnesota, were alleged to have been guilty of sex abuse.
• Bishop John Kinney said that a Church committee around 1993 recommended steps to stop child abuse. The bishops "seemed to agree with everything we were recommending, but went home and did nothing."
• A layman said that a high official in the Vatican could not understand why the Church in the U.S.A. could not control the police and the courts.
• In Boston, where about half the people are Catholics, The Boston Globe got a court ruling to open the Church files. For years they moved paedophile priest around, and paid off the victims.
• Newspaperman: The cardinals and monsignors for years have been covering up the paedophilia. There was no mention of the kids.
• Spokesperson for Archbishop of Boston: We protected the Church. We are not mandatory reporters of sex abuse.
• Protester: The key issue, is what to do about the bishops who knowingly allowed this to go on.
• Film of protest in front of the cathedral. The Voice of the Faithful seem to be greyheaded revolutionaries. They control the money, and they are afraid only of God.
• Patrick said that the best studies showed that 6% of priests were having illegal sex.
• Richard Sipe, author of Sex, Priests and Power, said that 50 per cent of priests kept their celibacy vows -- 50% did not. Heterosexual sex was winked at, he said. A newspaper man said that the Church had been winking at this sort of thing for centuries. Sipe said that he had said in 1991 that the sexual abuse of minors was the tip of the iceberg. Following the trail would lead to the highest corridors in the Vatican.
• Film of protesters was shown. "This is moving outside the church, and into the streets."
• Father Christopher Coyne said it was unclear what Cardinal Law (Boston) knew. Some documents point to the possibility that he did know.
• Newspaperman: Perverts in the Church make the little children to suffer. It was the great betrayal of the Church.
-- "Foreign Correspondent," ABC, June 19 02
• "Migrants eye legal action:" (non-sectarian) "Canadian launches $700m law suit against Barnardo's." CANADA: Harold Vennell, 84, in Canada yesterday launched a law suit against the British charity Barnardo's, on behalf of 30,000 poor children who were sent to Canada between 1870 and 1939. The class action states that Barnardo's did not screen or monitor employers to ensure that the children were not abused and mistreated.
In Australia, Norman Johnston of Perth, spokesperson of the International Association of Former Child Migrants, said his association would closely watch, in case it would attain justice for child migrants in Australia, who had similar experiences to those in Canada.
-- (Reuters) The West Australian, Thur June 20 02, p 21
• "Day of fast and prayer for US bishops" (R.C.) AND "Victims share their stories of abuse;" news from the U.S. bishops special summit on clerical child sex-abuse;
The Record, Thur June 20 02, p 10
• "US abusers will not return"; (R.C.) UNITED STATES:
The U.S. bishops voted 239-13 for a document that says no priest or deacon can return to any form of ordained ministry if he has ever sexually abused a minor. The policy is that whenever a diocese receives a complaint involving someone who is still a minor, they must immediately report the matter to civil authorities. The bishops expressed "great sorrow and profound regret" for the "enormous pain, anger and confusion" caused by sexually abusive priests and the bishops' failures to week out predatory priests and keep children safe in the past.
By Jerry Filteau, The Record, Thur June 20 02, p 13
• Entrenched beyound accountability; remorseless inaction. Open letter to the Australian Catholic bishops, by Sydney solicitor and attorney Geoff Cahill. SYDNEY: "The 'Protocol' has been waved incessantly as if it is the answer to every new complaint. As if it washes the hands of moral culpability, and of remorseless inaction. It is just not believable anymore. The public perception is that the Protocol is simply not being applied. This kind of lip service only deepens the distrust. And it will not go away.
"The public fall out has caused a serious loss of creditability [sic] in the Church. In any commercial corporation the answer would be to simply change the management and prosecute any culpable directors. The Church establishment is entrenched beyond accountability, and immune from recall, by the Faithful. But this ensures that the damage goes much deeper. It attacks the fabric of the Faith espoused by the organised Church. It causes doubt and confusion. It impedes the real purpose of the Church.
"Something more is needed. Something positive and substantial. Urgently. It warrants a complete review or renewal of the Church in Australia. The root cause of the problem is not sexual abuse, per se, it is the unaccountable lack of understanding of who comprise the Church, the nature of participation in the Church and its future direction."
He asked that a National Compliance Agency (NCA) be set up, with a uniform national approach, and that alleged offenders be all reported to the police. He has provided legal services to more than 50 victims.
-- CathNews,
www.cathnews.com/ news/206/625 cah.html ,
June 20, 2002
• Books webpage about carnal child abuse etc. by Church priests, brothers, etc. PERTH, Western Australia: The first books entered were two by Bruce Blyth of Perth 1997 and 1999 and one by Dr Barry M. Coldrey 2001 of Melbourne, formerly of Perth.
Other authors represented include Marie Fortune 1989, Americans Jason Berry 1992 and Paul Likoudis 2002, and Australians Neil and Thea Ormerod 1995, and Patrick Parkinson 2003.
First entries done Jun 20 02
• Canon law does not require RC Church to tell police about sex abuse
FindLaw, "Subject To The Approval Of The Vatican,"
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20020620.html ,
By Marci Hamilton, hamilton02@aol.com , Thursday, Jun. 20, 2002
UNITED STATES: There is some little-remarked fine print in the United States Conference of Conference of Catholic Bishops' proposal as to how to address the Church's problems with child abuse by clergy. It reads: "subject to the approval of the Vatican."
From this side of the Atlantic, it is hard to imagine the Church hierarchy impeding the bishops' attempts to put the church here back on its own two feet, but one fears it looks different on the other side.
Disturbing ground was being prepared for the "Vatican approval" aspect of the proposal in the days leading up to the Dallas meeting of the bishops. Two Church legal experts close to the Vatican, including one who may be the Pope's successor, announced that canon law does not require the Church to give information about clergy sexual abuse to legal authorities.
Then Cardinal Avery Dulles closed an op-ed in the New York Times with the following: "If [the bishops] yield too much to the present atmosphere of panic, the Holy See can be relied upon to safeguard the theological and canonical tradition." While this may have been intended to be reassuring, it ought to have had the opposite effect.
If the Vatican is planning to veto the bishops' proposal to work with legal authorities in the prosecution of crimes against children, as these indications suggest, it should understand the severe consequences that will follow. In the United States, the refusal to abide by the rule of law -- especially when children are at stake -- would be disastrous for the Church.
Thus, if the Vatican sticks with the "canon law, and canon law alone" position, there will be only two options for the United States Roman Catholic Church: schism from Rome, or marginalization.
[FOOTNOTE, COMMENTS: Distributed by Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse on January 22, 2004; yes, this June 20 2002 item has been found and disseminated in 2004, for which we thank CSAT (ref. 000748).
This newsitem confirms the contention that the Vatican has a well-entrenched policy of secrecy in such matters, although it denied this. A top-secret document was exposed in the USA on July 29 2003, and the Vatican denial was refuted by a August 27 2003 Irish report. Links to the main documents about this sad saga are at "Crime of Solicitation, Extracts" on this website.
Ab omni peccato, libera nos, Domine. -- FPP, Jan 25 2004. FOOTNOTE, COMMENTS, END]
[Article: Jun. 20, 2002]
• No offenders to remain in Anglican ministry. ABC News:
BRISBANE (Qld) Australia: Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane said the priorities were to help the victims, and that no offenders were to remain in the ministry. He hoped to soon make an announcement about the Church's independent inquiry.
-- Australian Broadcasting Commission, Sat. June 22 02
• Bishop Gumbleton exposes Church's inaction after 1971 reports that priests were immature; Church in Crisis
National Catholic Reporter,
"Church in Crisis,"
http://www.natcath.com/crisis/gumbleton.htm , spoken by Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton,
on May 25, 2002,
posted June 17, 2002
LEXINGTON ( MA): . . .
The crisis is described in the media almost exclusively as a “sex” scandal, a “sex” crisis. And it certainly is that. It is of major proportions. We have not previously experienced anything like it in the Catholic Church in the United States. But if we are really going to understand this crisis, and if we’re going to find the right way to bring about a resolution of it, to restore credibility to the Church, to bring healing to the victims, to curtail insofar as humanly possible any further incidents of sexual abuse, then we have to see this crisis not just as a sex scandal, but as a crisis of leadership within the Catholic Church…a crisis that revolves around the leadership of the Catholic bishops. In many contacts that I’ve had throughout the country, conversations that I’ve had with various people, it has become more and more clear to me that what upsets people most of all is the failure of the bishops to provide the leadership that our Church needs, and the people of the Church have a right to.
One person who wrote to me from Virginia Beach, VA says, ...
I see only one way to salvage any piece of the Catholic Church at this point, and that is for the hierarchy, the bishops to collectively repent, ask for forgiveness and vow never to allow this kind of thing to happen again. But my fear is that they will not be able to bend their knees to that, and so will cause the wholesale ‘slaughter’ of the Church.”
A third letter comes from a victim. . . .
“I call no human Shepherd. . . .
Any shepherd of mine would have stood in harm’s way during the recent summit in Rome, and not allowed the whining about the good priests being victims to become so loud as to overshadow the condolences that are owed to those abused.”
And even more deplorable has been what has taken place sometimes -- a kind of cover-up. Bishops allowing perpetrators to remain within our midst and moving them from one place to another. And settlements that have been made in secret without the Catholic people knowing what the resources that they have contributed to the Church are being used for.
...
This is a clear lack of leadership in our Church. Some of it perhaps due to ignorance many years ago. But that ignorance was overcome when we in the Catholic Conference of Bishops were fully informed about the nature of the problems we were dealing with and how intractable many of these problems are. And yet the cover-ups and the collusion and the lack of response to the victims went on.
There has been a deeper and more profound kind of failure on the part of the Catholic bishops in the United States and perhaps in other parts of the world in allowing a situation to develop where such a large number of priests seem so susceptible of becoming perpetrators of these kinds of crimes.
Over 30 years ago, the Catholic Bishops of the United States authorized a five-part study of the priesthood in the United States. We paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for this study. It was completed, most of it, by 1971. The study included a historical study of the US priesthood, a spirituality study, a theological study of what the US priesthood means in a post-Vatican II Church in the United States. And then even more pertinent to our current problems, there was a very thorough sociological study and an equally thorough psychological study of the US priesthood. I can remember very clearly the meeting we held in 1971 when the chief authors of the sociological and psychological studies made a presentation to the Catholic bishops. That psychological study should have been an exceptionally helpful eye opener for the Catholic bishops. It categorized, from a psychological development perspective, what the priesthood in the United States looked like. At one end of the spectrum are maldeveloped priests. And according to the study, there were about 7 or 8% of the priests in the United States who were seriously maldeveloped. Then there was a very large category -- 65-66% of the priests in the United States who were described as underdeveloped. And then another category of about 13-14% or so that were developing persons. At the other end of the spectrum about 7 or 8% of priests who would be termed developed persons.
...
And that means that bishops must begin to say, “I made a mistake”, not “Mistakes have been made.” Bishops must be willing to say, “I have made this mistake, and if this mistake is of such serious consequence that I should resign, I will resign.”
...
Obviously, priests or bishops who have been involved must be removed from ministry -- and helped to overcome their problems. It will require a great amount of courage and humility for us to be willing to put out in the open all that has happened.
...
My fifth suggestion regarding the crisis of leadership in the Church concerns, perhaps, the most fundamental change of all. We must improve in a major way how the Church identifies and calls priests to be bishops/leaders.
Most important of all, there must be an open process. This means every adult member of the Church should have an opportunity to know how it is done and to participate in the process in some significant way.
At the present time there are criteria for naming bishops which have never been made known to the whole community. It is my conviction that these criteria eliminate priests who would be most qualified to be leaders. ...
Speech on May 25, 2002 (so a note of it is inserted at that date); Apologies for not recording this sooner -jcm 25 Jan 04;
posted June 17, 2002
• "Pupils 'exploit sex scandal'." - Anglican.
BRISBANE (Qld) Australia: Two former East Brisbane teachers have been in court recently on child sexual abuse charges. However, some students, such as those who regularly forget their homework, are using the scandal rocking the Church to undermine teachers' authority, the head of Anglican Church Grammar School said. The Church's parliament at the weekend had removed a time limit of two years, and given a tribunal stronger powers to investigate complaints against clergy, leading to possible defrocking.
The West Australian, Mon June 24 02 p 7
• Christian carers also hurt Australian wards.
PERTH (WA) Australia: Letter to the editor, saying Australian State wards suffered in institutions like child migrants and stolen Aboriginal children, often by supposed Christian carers. They deserve a royal commission.
-- The West Australian, Letters, Peter Bent, Cannington, p 15, Mon June 24 02
• [Don't move them around, throw them out.] - RCC. Letters to the editor, regarding Archbishop George Pell's re-assigning abuser priests.
AUSTRALIA:
• "Naive solution:" How anyone could be naive enough to think that by moving these priests around from parish to parish they would be cured is beyond my comprehension. (p 15) B.Kozak, East Fremantle.
• How any sane person ... can imagine that society will agree to them just barring these deviants to non-priestly duties is beyond me. These priests should be thrown out ... and given to police to charge ... (p 16) Susan Keogh, Busselton.
-- Letters, The West Australian, Tue June 25 02
• "In Dallas, Bishops Fail To Name The Source of Troubles;" DALLAS: The U.S. bishops' refusal to allow the subject of homosexuals in the priesthood and the episcopacy, seminaries and religious orders, to be openly discussed during their June 13-15 meeting on paedophilia, shows how deeply they are committed to modern, atheist-inspired psychological theories and therapies that do not classify homosexuality as a mental illness or moral failure and, indeed, helped create the modern 'culture of abuse' in which the Church is but one player. ... They did not promise to come clean about how much of their money has been spent on scandal-related payments, or to establish a mechanism for transparency and accountability. They didn't commit themselves to whistleblower protection ... They didn't put teeth in the lay-oversight committees ... And they didn't promise to knock off the pit-bull legal tactics with victims and their families. --
The Wanderer, U.S. national Catholic weekly, founded 1867, St Paul, Minnesota,
www.thewandererpress.com/june27.pdf (ACROBAT READER required)
June 27 2002, page 1
• "PRIEST CHECKS: Clergy must have police clearance." - Anglican.
PERTH: Anglican Bunbury Bishop David McCall has told 30 ministers from Mandurah to Albany that they must get police clearances. Also, all new clergy, and Church members who deal with children, must have such checks. In the Perth archdiocese all new clergy have to have police clearance. In Queensland, there was a Commissioner for Children, and anyone seeking to work with children in any field had to be checked and given a plastic card. Bishop McCall said: "The Christian Church has traditionally said that if there was a case of child abuse and the person was sincerely repentant then they should be forgiven and given another chance," he said.
"The sad reality is that a small percentage of priests who were child abusers were offending again and again," he said.
-- The West Australian, Thu June 27 02 p 1
• PERTH: Cartoon showing inside of a church, with some bishops in mitres in the seats, a detective and a uniformed policeman standing at the entrance, and a bishop reading from a book "... and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ... and from the coppers if the fingerprints match!"
-- Alston, The West Australian, Thu June 27 02 p 19
• "Church challenge:" - RCC. PERTH: As a Roman Catholic from birth, I find it difficult to put into words my intense sadness at the sexual predator-like behaviour of what appears to be an increasing number of our clergy. ... The church must ... co-operate with the proper authorities to punish those responsible for breaking those laws. -- Letter to Editor, Jim Cummins, Bunbury.
The West Australian, Thu June 27 02 p 19
• "Anglican Church to probe sex abuse complaints;"
- Anglican.
AUSTRALIA: The Anglican Church in Brisbane has begun an independent inquiry into past handling of sexual abuse complaints in its Brisbane Diocese.
A Queen's Council and an academic were announced today as the Board of Inquiry. It will focus not on all complaints of sexual abuse in the Anglican Church in Brisbane, but on the Church's handling of past complaints.
It's an issue that reaches to the highest office holder in the land, the Governor-General. Dr Peter Hollingworth was under intense scrutiny this year over what he did and didn't do to support sexual abuse victims at an Anglican School while he was Brisbane's Anglican Archbishop.
-- Google archive from http://www.abc.net.au/pm/s593032.htm , "PM,"
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Thur June 27 02
• Anglican inquiry will occur. - Anglican.
AUSTRALIA: Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane announced the appointment of a QC to lead the inquiry into sex-abuse clergy. ABC, "Lateline," Thur June 27, 2002
• "Sexual misconduct in the Church,"
AUSTRALIA:
Peter Westmore, News Weekly www.newsweekly. com.au ,
nw@newsweekly. com.au ,
582 Queensberry St, North Melbourne, Vic, 3051, Australia,
June 29 2002, p 24
ANCHOR LIST (After reading an article, use Browser's "Back" button to return to Anchor List)
* 000748 = RC Church laws do not require RC Church to tell police about sex abuse. FindLaw, "Subject To The Approval Of The Vatican,"
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20020620.html , By Marci Hamilton,
hamilton02@aol.com , Thursday, Jun. 20, 2002. UNITED STATES:
Canon law does not require the RC Church to tell police about sex abuse. "Subject to the approval of the Vatican" was in the documents discussed by the US RC bishops' meeting, and Cardinal Avery Dulles told the bishops the Vatican would safeguard the old traditions. These allowed the clergy so much licence that some readers refuse to believe the newsitems and convictions. Jun. 20, 2002
* Adverts = The RC Church spent about $100,000 on advertisements in newspapers across AUSTRALIA yesterday, apologising to sex abuse victims. In the ad, Dr Pell and Melbourne's Archbishop Denis Hart said "Victims are not silenced as a condition for receiving counselling or compensation."
The head of the Towards Healing program, Sister Angela
Ryan, was angry that a secrecy provision was forced on a NSW woman who had become pregnant after a priest raped her. "It is totally against the spirit of 'Towards Healing'," she said.
-- The Sun-Herald , "The clause that contradicts Pell," www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/08/1022982785386.html , By
Frank Walker, Jun 9 02
* Bathersby = Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby, says confidentiality is sometimes at the request of victims. AUSTRALIA:
-- ABC News Online, http://abc.net.au/news/2002/06/item20020603100306_1.htm , "Pell acknowledges 'honest mistake'" Mon, Jun 3 2002
* Denial = "Pell denial deepens Church sex storm": AUSTRALIA: "60 Minutes" John Westacott denied yesterday that Dr Pell had been ambushed, telling of a prior
backstage meeting and a telephone call going through a list of questions. -- The West Australian, (with AAP), Tue Jun 4 02
* Entrenched = The Church establishment is entrenched beyond accountability, and immune from recall, by the Faithful. SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA:
Open letter to the Australian Catholic bishops, by Sydney solicitor and attorney Geoff Cahill. The 'Protocol' has been waved incessantly as if it is the answer to every new complaint. As if it washes the hands of moral culpability, and of remorseless inaction. -- CathNews, www.cathnews.com/news/206/625cah.html , June 20 2002
* Gumbleton = Bishop Gumbleton exposes Church's inaction after 1971 reports that priests were immature; Church in Crisis. UNITED STATES:
National Catholic Reporter, "Church in Crisis," www.natcath.com/crisis/gumbleton.htm , speech by Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, in LEXINGTON, USA, on May 25, 2002, posted June 17, 2002
* Record = "60 Minutes and the truth." AUSTRALIA: The Record. Editorial saying that the gravest charges in this case lie against Richard Carleton, 60 Minutes and Channel 9. June 6 02
* Row = Archbishop in sex abuse bribes row;" AUSTRALIA: (R.Cs.) Victims were offered hush money, house and car, says "60 Minutes"; Sydney
R.C. Archbishop George Pell was considering legal action to stop a TV programme being telecast. He claims he was "ambushed" by Richard Carleton of "60 Minutes".
The West Australian, Sat Jun 1 02
* Sun Herald = Exposed: The clause that contradicts Pell. AUSTRALIA: A disabled woman who said she became pregnant after being raped by a Catholic priest had to sign a secrecy clause before the Church would pay her $15,000 compensation.
The deal, authorised by a NSW country bishop last month, contradicts Sydney Archbishop George Pell's statements that victims were not prevented from discussing such abuse. . . . The Sun-Herald, "The clause that contradicts Pell," www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/08/1022982785386.html , By Frank Walker, Jun 9 02
Originally hived off with Microsoft® Notepad© on 02 March 2002, to WWW 04 Mar 02, spellchecked with Ms Word© 08 Aug 02 (and 06 & 28 Jan 03), divided 30 Sep 02, renumbered from 3 to 4 on 14 Jan 03,
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