"More broadly, the norms adopted by Rome indicate the right direction, but we currently have no mechanism to monitor their implementation."

Zollner, director of the Institute of Anthropology at Rome's Gregorian University, believes the summit Pope Francis called in 2019 to deal with abuse was a major step in the right direction.

The problem is that the rules and procedures the Church adopted after the summit aren't being applied sufficiently or evenly at the local level, he says.

At the universal level, several norms have been established. They apply to the whole church Zollner says.

One is the Vox estis lux mundi (you are the light of the world) motu proprio by Pope Francis.

Promulgated in May 2019, it established new procedural norms that have since been consolidated to combat sexual abuse and ensure that bishops and religious superiors are held accountable for their actions.

It also expects all clerics, and men and women religious, to report to their superiors any sexual and spiritual abuse they become aware of.

Zollner notes the law is not perfect in any institution, and improvements to the current regulations could be made - to canon law, for instance.

He says canonical processes must become more transparent, and procedures and systems must be applied appropriately everywhere.

"If we want new legislation to have a lasting and profound effect, it must be accompanied by a change in attitude" he says.

Transparency needed

Like Zollner, a woman who says she suffered spiritual and sexual abuse by a priest wants the new anti-abuse protocols to be properly implemented and monitored.

Gloria Branciani is demanding transparency from the Vatican and a full accounting of the hierarchs who for 30 years covered for her much-exalted abuser.

Branciani, who was a consecrated member of the Loyola Community, has detailed the alleged abuses of the celebrated Jesuit artist Marko Rupnik.

He had a fondness for three-way sex "in the image of the Trinity" Branciani says.

If this is found to be the case, it could constitute a grave perversion of Catholic doctrine known as false mysticism.

Another former Loyola Community member, Mirjam Kovac, spoke of the "spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience" Rupnik forced upon her.

The two former nuns said they hope now to obtain truth and justice, without any "personal revenge".

Vatican response

The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has contacted several institutions to obtain documentation related to Rupnik.

Last October, Pope Francis entrusted the DDF with the task of examining the case after deciding to "waive the statute of limitations to allow the proceedings to take place".

His decision followed PCPM reports last September detailing "serious problems" in the handling of the Rupnik case and "the lack of closeness to the victims".

"After expanding the search ... it will now be necessary to study the acquired documentation in order to identify which procedures can and should be implemented" the Vatican Press Office says.

• La Croix
• AP News
• Vatican News

The facts run counter to a scandalous allegation to the contrary, says a statement from the Catholic Church.

Recent news reports allege the Church has refused to hand the Vatican report to the Police.

The Conference has responded firmly, denying the allegations.

It confirmed in the statement that a copy of a report about the former Bishop of Broome's alleged sexually abusive behaviour is in the possession Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner Allan Adams.

Just why the Police don't seem to have a record of the report is not known.

But the Catholic Church takes its reporting obligations seriously, the bishops' statement continues.

"The Church and Western Australia Police remain in ongoing and collaborative contact in relation to this matter," the statement said, adding that "the Church will continue to offer full transparency and cooperation with the WA Police."

West Australia politicians mistaken

The Bishops Conference statement says that the politicians' "unfounded allegations" that the Catholic Church failed to abide by the state's mandatory reporting laws are wrong.

The politicians have somehow assumed - without justification - that the Church is keeping the report from the WA Police.

The WA politicians' misinformation has led some MPs to wonder if prosecuting the Catholic Church is possible.

Some think it might be appropriate to charge the Church for "failing to adhere to mandatory reporting laws".

The politicians' assumptions are like a made-up story. They couldn't be further from the truth.

The Conference points out the report was handed over to the Police before any ideas about their "failing to adhere to mandatory reporting laws" were raised.

"The Church understands and takes seriously its mandatory reporting obligations under West Australian law.

"Despite unfounded allegations to the contrary, there has been no breach of the Children and Community Services Act 2004, which applies only to children. None of the potential victims were under the age of 18."

The statement also noted that the Catholic Church "continues to encourage anyone who has experienced abuse, or suspects abuse within the community, to come forward and report it to police."

In addition, the Conference statement says: "It is important to note that there were no new potential victims identified in the Church's internal investigations. Western Australia Police already held the list of all potential victims."

Source

• Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

"The sexual abuse of minors by clergy and its poor handling by Church leaders has been one of the greatest challenges for the Church in our time.

"Now is the time to repair the damage done to previous generations and to those who continue to suffer."

It also undermines the Church's ability "to fully embrace and bear witness to God's liberating presence."

This "has sullied our witness to God's love," he said.

The new law

To address the Church's failure to act properly, Francis confirmed the decree "Vos Estis Lux Mundi" is now a universal law of the Catholic Church.

Among other things, it requires every diocese to "set aside places for receiving accusations and caring for those who report that they have been harmed.

"No one today can honestly claim to be unaffected by the reality of sexual abuse in the church," Francis told the Commission.

Three reparation principles

Francis asked the Commission to bear in mind three principles and to "consider them as part of a spirituality of reparation."

First: Keep in mind God's creative power

"Where harm was done ... we are called to keep in mind God's creative power to make hope emerge from despair and life from death. The terrible sense of loss ... as a result of abuse can sometimes seem a burden too heavy to bear.

"Church leaders who share a sense of shame for their failure to act, have suffered a loss of credibility, and our very ability to preach the Gospel has been damaged.

"Persevere and keep moving forward!"

Second: Heal the broken

"Our lives are not meant to remain divided. What is broken must not stay broken."

Abuse survivors have told him being "heard and believed" helped restore their sense of hope.

He asked the Commission to "help put pieces back together, in the hope that what is broken can be repaired."

Third: Mirror God

Francis encouraged the Commission "to cultivate an approach that mirrors the respect and kindness of God himself.

"Be gentle in your actions, bearing one another's burdens (cf. Gal 6:1-2), without complaining, but considering that this moment of reparation for the Church will give way to a further moment in the history of salvation."

Respect for everyone's dignity, for right conduct and a sound way of life must become a universal rule, independent of people's culture, economic and social condition, Francis said.

"All the Church's ministers must respect this rule in the way they serve the faithful, and they in turn must be treated with respect and dignity by those who lead the community.

"A culture of safeguarding will take root only if there is a pastoral conversion in this regard among the Church's leaders."

Addressing inequality

Francis encouraged the Commission's "plans for addressing inequalities within the Church through training and assistance to victims in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

"In these, the Church must seek to be a model of acceptance and good practice," he said.

Source

• America Magazine

After finding members of the Portuguese Catholic Church had sexually abused over 400 children, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa indicated the number didn't seem significant.

"Having 400 cases doesn't seem to me to be a lot, because in other countries investigating shorter time periods there were thousands of cases," he said.

The President's remark has drawn widespread criticism. Some critics accuse him of lacking compassion.

Several hours after making the comments, a statement on the President's website sought to explain what his remark meant.

President de Sousa "regrets that not more people have come forward, because the total so far doesn't seem particularly high considering the probable sad truth, both in Portugal and in the rest of the world," the website reported.

The President wants investigations to continue and any evidence sent to the attorney general's office, the post continued.

Fallout from de Sousa's initial statement is still causing ructions, involving late night live interviews with two national broadcasters. He made it clear on both these occasions that the cases are "very serious."

Prime Minister Antonio Costa has come to the President's aid, explaining the President's initial comments had been misinterpreted.

Meanwhile, the Church investigating committee, which started work last January, is still urging victims to come forward.

Pedro Strecht, a psychiatrist who heads Portugal's Independent Committee for the Study of Child Abuse in the Catholic Church, said his panel has compiled a list of 424 alleged victims.

Before the committee started its work, senior church officials claimed there had only been a handful of abuse cases.

The panel, which was created by the Portuguese Bishops Conference, is looking into alleged abuse cases from 1950 to the present involving minors aged two to 17.

It is due to publish a report on 31 January 2023.

So far indications are that "a significant number" of Catholic Church priests and members have allegedly committed sex abuses.

"The problem not only existed, it also became widespread," Strecht said.

The further back in time his panel went, it found "serious situations that lasted for decades (and) in some places reached truly endemic proportions."

Some alleged abusers were named by more than one victim. Hundreds of abusers have been identified, Strecht said.

Portugal's statute of limitations has expired on most of the allegations. However, 17 complaints have been forwarded to the Portuguese attorney general's office and another 30 may still be sent, Strecht said.

All information about the victims and alleged abusers is being kept under wraps at present.

The panel's final report will include a confidential annex of all the names of alleged abusers. Copies will be sent to the Portuguese Bishops Conference and the police.

Strecht said the panel had no information about any abuses committed by foreign priests.

All of Portugal's bishops have been interviewed. Strecht praised the Portuguese Bishops Conference for showing "pioneering courage" in setting up the study.

Source

• ABC

The allegations come from a time Fr Johannes Rivoire (93) was working for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada's northern regions.

The Inuit group's trip to France comes hard on the heels of Pope Francis's July visit to Canada. He made the visit to apologise for the Church's role in abusing indigenous children at government residential schools.

Several Inuit took the opportunity to ask Francis to use his influence to return Rivoire from his residence in Lyon, France. Canadian police had laid a sexual assault charge against him in February.

Inuit organisation Nunavut Tunngavik Inc (NTI) arranged this week's trip.

One of the NTI delegation members is Tanya Tungilik, whose late father Marius Tungilik said Rivoire and other clergy sexually abused him.

She said she has written to Macron and other government officials requesting meetings.

The NTI also hopes to speak with Rivoire.

"It means a lot for me and my family to get closure," Tungilik said. "He ruined our family."

News outlets in July reported Rivoire as saying he would not return to Canada.

Canada has asked France to extradite Rivoire, who has both French and Canadian citizenship. The countries' extradition treaty, however, says neither country is bound to extradite its own nationals.

France's prime minister and justice ministry have not responded to media requests for comment.

Police laid three sex-related charges against Rivoire in 1998. He had already left for France, however.

Canada's Justice Department dropped those charges in 2017 concluding there was little chance of conviction given Rivoire's departure from the country.

Father Vincent Gruber, who leads France's Oblates, has not responded to media requests for comment. He has, however, previously said the Oblates want Rivoire to deal with the charges.

Source

• The Globe and Mail

A more thorough investigation will have to be undertaken first in relation to the 1680 recorded instances of alleged abuse reported since 1950 - of which 592 alleged abusers were identified.

Many of the complaints were upheld at the time they were made, but it is not known how many resulted in a police investigation.

The church's investigation into historic abuse was released ahead of the next stage of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into State Abuse.

One historic abuse victim, Darryl Smith, says he still suffers from the abuse, sleeps with the light on and scrubs himself raw in the bath.

Smith, who appeared before the Royal Commission yesterday, says he feels the state is as responsible as the church for his abuse.

Under the condition the former Department of Social Welfare monitor the situation, on the advice of the Ministry of Education, Smith was sent to Marylands School by his parents at age 6 because he had been running away from home.

After a police investigation in the 2000s, Smith received total compensation of $150,000 from St John of God, which he described as "rubbish".

In 2012, the NZ and Australian governments apologised to him and he received $30,000 as part of the NZ Confidential Listening and Assistance Service.

Assisted by the Bishop of Dunedin, Smith also travelled to the Vatican to speak on behalf of abuse victims.

But Smith also wants St John of God to be held fully accountable and for proper redress for survivors, including adequate payouts, long-term mental health support, and housing.

"It's not a money grab," Smith said.

"It is what we are entitled to. You rape a child, you take their childhood away from them. Some of us have never worked because we have been so ill, or got in trouble with police. Why should we have to miss out?"

Although two St John brothers were convicted for the abuse of boys at Marylands, the criminal prosecution focused on individual wrongdoing, and little scrutiny has been applied to the roles of the church and state in the case - something which the Commission aims to rectify.

Victim advocates, who say the inquiry likely covered a fraction of overall abuse, are questioning what would be done with the new findings which followed a two-year inquiry.

"There's still a lot not clear from our analysis about how many of the allegations were upheld," Cardinal John Dew says.

"Most of them have been. But considerable research is still needed to be done to see how many have been upheld, and that is something we're continuing to work on".

Dew, New Zealand's most senior representative of the church, says the information had not been centralised until now and had been spread across dioceses and congregations.

Further analysis would show what had happened to the perpetrators and what redress had been made to the complainant, he says.

Asked what would be done with upheld complaints that had not yet been referred to police, a spokesman for the church noted that many of the alleged abusers had died. The spokesman reiterated that more work was needed before any action was taken.

A change in church protocol in 1993 required complaints of illegal acts to be referred to police and for the appointment of an independent investigator.

This was partly in response to concerns that serious abuse cases had been dealt with in-house or were covered up.

The first independent investigator was former Police Commissioner John Jamieson.

The former Police Commissioner was followed by a former UK Catholic priest, Mr Bill Kilgallon, later a manager and chief executive of three social agencies in the UK.

Kilgallon was succeeded by the present head of the National Office of Professional Standards, Virginia Noonan, a lawyer.

In a media statement, SNAP Aotearoa NZ wants the names of all accused perpetrators released into the public square. "Names of those against whom creditable complaints have been made, and those again whom complaints have not been upheld, ought be made available to the public, with reasons for the latter".

Sources

• NZ Herald
• Stuff
• Child Abuser Royal Commission Australia (PDF)
• NZ Catholic
• SNAP NZ - supplied
• Image: Stuff

Frail and 91, former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was arraigned last week on charges that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy at Wellesley College in the 1970s.

As startling and historic as that event may be, it's years too late for those he's accused of having abused — and for a church that still struggles to put the clergy sex abuse scandal behind it.

It probably never will, at least under the current generation of church leaders — not until there are no more victims, and no more clerics to hold accountable.

"The Catholic Church has run out of rugs to sweep things under," said Jack Connors, a prominent Catholic and business leader who played a major role in calling out church leaders — specifically the late Cardinal Bernard Law — when the Globe Spotlight team first broke news of a massive cover-up of clergy sex abuse some 20 years ago.

While the church under Pope Francis has tried to address the scandal, the underlying problem, said Connors, persists: "There are still too many people around in power that created their own set of rules."

McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., entered three not-guilty pleas.

As reported by the Globe, the accuser told investigators that McCarrick was a family friend who began molesting him when he was a boy.

On June 8, 1974, the victim, then 16, said he was at his brother's wedding reception when McCarrick led him into a small room, closed the blinds, and fondled his genitals while "saying prayers to make me feel holy."

The victim also told investigators about later incidents of the alleged abuse.

Several other men have also filed civil lawsuits in New York and New Jersey against McCarrick. In 2018, the Vatican removed McCarrick from public ministry, citing credible allegations that he sexually abused an altar boy in the 1970s in New York.

With McCarrick's arraignment, "there's a new face of accountability," said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a group that tracks allegations against priests.

But that new accountability, she said, "is mostly coming from outside the church. Prosecutors are more willing to bring charges. Legislators are more willing to pass laws to empower victims. The news media are more willing to talk about predatory behaviour."

The church itself has taken "small steps forward," she said, such as setting up an investigative procedure that's controlled by the hierarchy.

That set-up probably explains why McCarrick is the only US bishop to have lost his clerical status, although she said 45 others have been publicly accused of sexual abuse.

"McCarrick by no means represents a new willingness by the church to be severe.

He is an outlier," said Barrett Doyle.

While he now looks helpless, no one should forget the allegations describe "an insatiable predator," she said. Continue reading

The video featured someone resembling and purporting to be the bishop.

Sao Paulo's Bishop Tomé Ferreira da Silva's name has already been connected with a number of serious accusations. Among these are reports that he had been investigated by the Vatican for allegedly ignoring reports of sexual abuse in his diocese.

Although the Vatican and the Church in Brazil have confirmed Ferreira's resignation, they are tight-lipped as to whether he was the man in the video or what was behind his departure.

A local paper says Ferreira has confirmed it is his image, without providing further detail.

Although the Church isn't speaking about investigations into Ferreira's behaviour, the speed with which Francis accepted the bishop's resignation after the video surfaced suggests that it was the final straw.

Although unconfirmed by the Church, media sources have pieced together a number of accusations muddying the bishop's name that reach back several years.

In 2018 for example, Ferreira's Sao Jose do Rio Preto diocese was the target of a Vatican investigation into whether he ignored reports of abuse, and had exchanged sexual messages with an adolescent. At the time, he cited personal reasons while stepping down as regional coordinator of the archdiocese, of which his diocese forms part, and where he remained bishop.

Earlier, in 2015, he was reportedly accused of taking a large amount of money from the church and giving it to his driver, with whom he allegedly had a romantic relationship. The Vatican reportedly launched an investigation at the time. He denied the claims.

News reports say the fact Ferreira had reportedly been previously investigated and left in his position, matches evidence cited repeatedly by survivors of clergy sexual abuse: that the Vatican for decades refused to take action against bishops accused of misconduct. Pope Francis's decisive action in accepting Ferreira's resignation indicates this is changing.

Source

• AP News
• USNews
• Image: Italy24News

The Court of Cassation agreed with an appeals court that ruled the nine victims who filed suit against Barbarin some five years ago could have directly filed a complaint against the now-defrocked priest, Bernard Preynat.

The victims, all then adults who were abused as children, took their case to the highest court after losing their appeal in January 2020.

The appeals court in Lyon said it found no intent by Barbarin to cover up Preynat's abuse.

The charges against the cardinal put the Catholic Church's past responses to clergy abuse under scrutiny around the world.

Barbarin was initially convicted in March 2019 of failing to report the predator priest and handed a six-month suspended sentence.

The former cardinal of Lyon has faced years of accusations, convictions and overturned decisions.

He was first made aware of former French Catholic priest Bernard Preynat's predatory behaviour in 2010 after he summoned Preynat to explain years of rumours.

The cardinal testified at Preynat's trial that the priest told him he had not touched a child since 1990, but he himself "lacked the courage" to take action.

In 2014 one of the victims, by then an adult, met with Barbarin to divulge the abuse he and others had suffered with Preynat.

In 2019 the court ruled that from July 2014 to June 2015 Barbarin covered up allegations of the predator priest's sex abuse of boy scouts in the 1980s and early 1990s.

A subsequent court ruling found Lyon's former cardinal not guilty of failing to report clerical sexual abuse.

The former priest responsible for the crimes against the boys, Preynat, is now 75 years old and ailing. He has acknowledged abusing more than 75 boys for decades.

Preynat was removed from the priesthood in 2019.

Source

• US News
• AP News
• NCR
• Image: The Times

Are you Catholic?"

Anne Barrett Doyle smiled at me expectantly with kind, sea-green eyes.

It was months before the pandemic hit, and Barrett Doyle had invited me over to the Boston loft she and her husband moved into after the last of their four kids left for college.

A crucifix hung on the wall, and a Jesus statuette prayed from a wooden desk. Several Bibles lined the bookshelf. We sat side by side on a plush beige couch.

Barrett Doyle, small and soft-spoken, with shoulder-length auburn hair and rosy cheeks, folded her hands politely and crossed her ankles.

As co-director of Bishop Accountability, an archive documenting the sexual abuse problems of the Catholic Church, Barrett Doyle has devoted her life to chronicling the prosecution of priests who have sexually abused and assaulted children and teenagers.

Barrett Doyle is one of just a handful of women fighting to expose clergy predation, both hailed as a hero by survivors and denounced as apostate by some within the Church.

She is also an ardent, unapologetic Catholic.

For some of the 1.3 billion other Catholics in the world, these last couple of decades have made her question a tough one to answer.

Am I Catholic?

Let's see: In second-grade, I was baptized in a cream-colored gown recycled from flower-girl duties at a family friend's wedding.

Mass felt special back then. We sang pretty songs, chanted important things, and wished peace upon strangers.

Sitting in the pews with my parents was like an invitation to the grown-up table.

I wore fancy dresses—and the shoes! Black patent-leather Mary Janes, paired with white tights. Plus a padded headband, usually red.

When it got boring, my younger brother and I thumb-warred through homilies.

Afterward, we ate cheese enchiladas and drank Cokes at the Tex-Mex restaurant nearby. I never gave much thought to why I was Catholic; I just liked being a part of something that felt familial.

Now, as an adult, it's hard to relate to a religion that mostly excludes women from power, and whose leaders have gone to great lengths to cover up heinous crimes against children. I go to Mass once a year at Christmastime, and the only part I really enjoy are the enchiladas.

So, am I Catholic?

In Barrett Doyle's living room, I settled on: "It's complicated."

She nodded. "Some of my closest friends are survivors [of abuse], and they would say I'm supporting a corrupt and evil hierarchy," she told me.

"I don't attempt to defend it, and I can't even explain it. I just know that I am a Catholic to my core. Part of my motivation is to be an agent of change in the Church."

But the 62-year-old Boston native is more than just a force for good.

She is one of the most feared and respected members of the Catholic Church; a steward of the world's largest trove of documents holding accountable powerful men who have committed unforgivable acts—and unimaginable sin.

Barrett Doyle's life mission began the morning of January 6, 2002.

At 6 a.m., she poured herself a cup of black coffee, and tucked into the Boston Globe, savoring a peaceful moment alone before everyone woke up. She stared at the front-page feature: "Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years."

The story reported, in excruciating detail, how Boston Cardinal Bernard Law moved an abusive priest from parish to parish after finding out he was molesting young boys.

For years, Barrett Doyle had taken pride not only in her role as a nurturing Catholic mother, but in the ritual of walking into church each Sunday with her children trailing behind like little ducklings. But this—this news rocked her.

How could she lead her family through the doors of their beloved St. Agnes Parish now?

She didn't.

Instead of going to Mass, Barrett Doyle and her husband, Bill Doyle, loaded the kids into their minivan and drove to the cardinal's downtown offices, where protesters had started gathering with signs reading, "Speaking Out Is Holy," "Keep the Faith, Change the Church," and "Full Disclosure: Release the Files."

What do you do when something you love so much goes so terribly, inconceivably wrong?

When the institution that breathes life into your days—when your very belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, which for you is akin to believing in food or air—is threatened? Continue reading

It's been more than a year since Pope Francis published "Vos Est Lux Mundi (You are the light of the world)" - a document that ushered in a new wave of transparency and accountability for abuse cases in the Catholic Church.

This enforced the clergy's obligation to report cases of sexual abuse to church authorities. It also applied norms for bishop accountability and strengthened channels for listening to victim reports.

Scicluna, who is the adjunct secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says to empower victims the Church needs to provide them with ways to communicate safely.

But to really help victims come forward, there must also be a spiritual accompaniment, he says. Many victims live with a "sense of guilt" due to the abuse and trying to free them of it "is also very important."

"We talk about communicating with victims, but we really need to listen to them."

Scicluna's comments are based on years of work as the Promoter of Justice at the Vatican, where he improved minor protection and accountability norms. Among the cases he investigated was that of Marcial Maciel, a pedophile who founded the Legionaries of Christ.

In 2018, Francis sent him to investigate sexual abuse allegations against Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros in Chile. This year he is looking into the clerical abuse crisis in Mexico.

Scicluna stresses not only the importance of "getting the facts right, but also of letting the victim provide the narrative that is valid and effective in an investigation," when investigating abuse cases.

The main themes when it comes to communicating with victims of sexual abuse are "dignity and respect," he says.

The Catholic community must truly engage "with these persons who have been hurt by ministers of the church."

The church is called not only to listen to abuse victims and survivors. It must also "listen to them existentially, using brain matter but also emotional intelligence," Scicluna says.

For this to happen, there must be a "constant dialogue with victims," and the Church must take on the responsibility of facilitating the "quest for justice."

This is particularly important in canonical cases where clergy accused of sexual abuse are tried by a Church tribunal.

Formerly, canonical procedures and the "pontifical secret," contributed to alienating victims from the Vatican judicial system. Secrecy is no longer an option for the accused, however.

Francis released an edict last December, removing pontifical secrecy for cases of sexual abuse and cover-up, so lawful authorities could access reports, testimonies and documents. The edict is considered the beginning of a new era for the Church regarding cases of clergy abuse.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Image: Clipart Art

The journey follows the Court of Appeal's split 2-1 decision handed down by Chief Justice Anne Ferguson.

Both she and Justice Chris Maxwell experienced no doubt about Pell's guilt.

"The Chief Justice and Justice Maxwell accepted the prosecution's submission that the complainant was a very compelling witness, was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth," the summary said.

The dissenting judge, Justice Mark Weinberg, found discrepancies and inadequacies in the choirboy's evidence meaning the victim's account should have been impossible for a jury to accept.

Pell's lawyers had put forward 13 reasons why he should have been freed.

One of these reasons was the question of whether Pell's layers of liturgical vestments could be moved in a way the complainant said.

After inspecting similar vestments Ferguson and Maxwell concluded the jury made the correct conclusion.

The judges were however unanimous in dismissing the legal procedural arguments advanced by Pell's defence.

In full agreement, they dismissed the grounds that Pell's arraignment did not follow protocol and agreed with trial judge Peter Kidd that Pell's defence should not have seen an animation of the cathedral where Pell abused the choir boys.

The judges watched more than 30 hours of video testimony and read more than 2000 pages of transcript.

They also visited St Patrick's Cathedral and the sacristy where 23 years ago two boys were sexually assaulted by the then Archbishop of Melbourne.

Victims' pleased

The victim of Pell's sexual abuse, known as J, says he is relieved.

He hoped the matter ends today.

J rejects he acted for personal gain or to bring down the Catholic Church.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I have risked my privacy, my health, my wellbeing, my family. I have not instructed any solicitor in relation to a claim for compensation. This is not about money and never has been.

"Although my faith has taken a battering, it is still a part of my life, and part of the lives of my loved ones.

"I am not an advocate. You wouldn't know my name. I am not a champion for the cause of sexual abuse survivors, although I am glad those advocates are out there. But that is not my path", the victim said in a statement.

"I appreciate that the criminal process has afforded Pell every opportunity to challenge the charges and every opportunity to be heard. I am glad he has had the best legal representation that money can buy. There are a lot of checks and balances in the criminal justice system and the appeals process is one of them. I just hope that it is all over now."

Child sexual abuse advocate Chrissie Foster described the Pell appeal verdict as "an outstanding example of justice".

"It's a rare thing, and so many victims will be encouraged and propped up by this," she said outside Victoria's Supreme Court.

"It's just astounding; we're not used to this."

Appeal possible

Not long after verdict's delivery Pell's spokesperson, Katrina Lee issued a statement expressing disappointment with the judges' decision.

"Cardinal Pell is obviously disappointed with the decision today".

"However, his legal team will thoroughly examine the judgment in order to determine a special leave application to the High Court.

"While noting the 2-1 split decision, Cardinal Pell maintains his innocence. We thank his many supporters."

Respect the decision

Peter Comensoli, the Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, issued a separate statement saying he respected the court's decision and encouraged everyone to do the same.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the man who brought this matter before the courts. I humbly acknowledge it has been a challenging time for him, and I stand ready to offer pastoral care and spiritual help, should he seek it.

"In Christian charity, I will ensure that Cardinal Pell is provided pastoral and spiritual support while he serves the remainder of his sentence, according to the teaching and example of Jesus to visit those in prison.

Comensoli says he and the Archdiocese are committed to a culture that listens, that seeks to bring justice and healing, and that protects children and vulnerable people.

Honours stripped

In 2005, Pell received the Order of Australia for his service to the Catholic Church.

Following the unsuccessful appeal, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says that Pell will likely be stripped of his Australian honour.

"The courts have done their job, they've rendered their verdict," he said. "That's the system of justice in the country that must be respected."

It is unlikely the Australian Governor-General will take any action to revoke his honour until resolution of a possible appeal to the High Court.

Pell is not allowed to celebrate Mass in prison and will be eligible to apply for parole after he has served 3 years 8 months of his sentence.

Appeal

The Vatican has acknowledged the Australian judicial system.

It recalls Pell has always maintained his innocence throughout the judicial process, which includes his right to appeal to the High Court.

He has 28 days to file what would be a final appeal.

Pope Francis' response

In what has been labelled a criptic comment, Pope Francis has broken his silence on Pell's unsuccessful appeal.

"It takes more strength to repair than to build, to start anew than to begin, to be reconciled than to get along. This is the strength that God gives us," Francis, last evening, wrote on Twitter.

On February 27, 2019, the Vatican announced the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would conduct its canonical investigation.

Sources

• SMH
• The Age
• The Australian
• ABC News
• Vatican News
• Image: Alex Coppel

They want the USCCB to ask for all the relevant documents and the results of diocesan and archdiocesan investigations about McCarrick to be released.

Both the National Advisory Council to the US Bishops (NAC) and the National Review Board (NRB), a lay advisory group to the US bishops on protecting minors from abuse, urged the bishops to press for the release of the documentation.

The "salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church," they said.

"Care for your people must be at the forefront when dealing with this issue."

The 13-member NRB was constituted by the USCCB in 2002, after revelations of the sexual abuse of minors by clerics that spanned decades and which occurred around the country.

The board advises the USCCB Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The NAC meets ahead of the bishops' biannual meetings and considers their agenda for the meetings, offering support or criticism of each agenda item.

Besides calling for the publication of the McCarrick documents, both advisory bodies expressed concern over the proposed USCCB directives for implementing Pope Francis's motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi (You are the light of the world) as a response to the abuse crisis.

In particular, the Chair of the NAC said the motu proprio directives encourage the involvement of the laity by metropolitans when investigating sex abuse allegations of bishops, but do not require such involvement of lay experts.

Besides the possibility of leaving out qualified experts from investigations, it would give the "perception of bishops investigating bishops," Raines said.

The Chair of the NRB had similar concerns.

"While the NRB commends the Holy See for taking such a strong step forward in terms of holding all clerics accountable for abuse, the Chair said the board "remains uncomfortable" with the model of metropolitans overseeing the investigations of abuse allegations against other bishops.

"Lay involvement is key to restoring the credibility of the Church," he emphasized. Leaving them out of the investigation process "would signal a continuation of a culture of self-preservation that would suggest complicity."

The NRB also wants the audit process contained in the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (2002) to be improved and expanded.

The Charter was drafted as a response to the national revelations of sexual abuse of minors by clerics.

The annual audit measures compliance with the charter's protective and preventative measures.

"Now is the time to raise the bar on compliance to ensure the mistakes of the past are not completed," the NRB Chair said.

Historically, bishops have expressed concerns about the expansion of the audit process, warning that "audit creep" could pose privacy risks and step on their authority as bishops to oversee the implementation of the charter.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• Image: The Times of Israel

They are holding rites without priests outside churches and suspending voluntary church work and ministries in 50 parishes in protest over the male-only priesthood, celibacy and the church's slow response to sex scandals.

Masses and committees will be unattended, parish housework and liturgical readings - tasks left typically to regular churchgoing women - will be left aside.

The central protest will be outdoors in Münster on Sunday.

One of the strike's initiators, Andrea Voss-Frick, says the Maria 2.0 movement (named for Our Lady) began this year at a women's parish bible meeting.

She says in the women's opinion, the Vatican's pronouncements and church teachings of hope "didn't come across at all" amid abuse and cover-ups.

On Friday, two nationwide groups - the Catholic German Women's League (KDFB) and the Catholic Women's Community of Germany (KfD) - described the strike call as an "important signal" and urged bishops not to ignore it.

The KDFB says abuse cases and cover-ups by priests have slid the church into deep crisis and credibility loss.

They say the striking women want to show how much the church and its evangelical "gospel" means to them.

Thomas Steinberg, president of the Central Council of German Catholics (ZdK) came out in support of the women at the Council's lay convention in Mainz on Friday.

"Without the women nothing happens," he said.

The ZdK says it voted to pursue a "synodic path" at talks with the German Catholic Bishops' Conference to tackle the decades of pent-up frustration over a lack of reforms on power structures and sexual mores.

In Steinberg's view changes are unavoidable. He thinks women will at least be licensed to become deaconesses and married men priests.

"Never before have I experienced a situation in which indignation extended so far into the core of our churches," Steinberg says.

Source

• Deutsche Welle
• La Croix

The committee is composed of two cardinals, Blase Cupich (Chicago) and Oswald Gracias (Bombay, India), and two of the church's experts in the field: Archbishop Charles Scicluna (Malta), and Father Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit and president of the Center for Child Protection and Director and professor of psychology at the Gregorian University in Rome, who will serve as coordinator. The Vatican announced, November 23.

In this exclusive interview with America, Archbishop Scicluna, whom the pope recently appointed as adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and who is also the president of its tribunal for appeals, speaks about the significance and goals of the February meeting, and how it will be conducted.

He described it as "a synodal meeting, the first ever of its kind to address the issue of the sexual abuse of minors in the church."

It is "quite significant" because it brings together the presidents of over 100 bishops conferences from around the world, and the heads of all the Eastern-rite Catholic churches.

Moreover, it is "a very important sign of what we call in technical terms ‘affective collegiality,' which means the bringing together of bishops from around the world with the Holy Father to discuss important issues and to get them to be on the same page with the Holy Father."

He said Pope Francis called this summit meeting because "he realizes that this issue," namely the protection of children and the prevention and addressing of sexual abuse by clergy in the church, "has to be top on the church's agenda."

The pope realizes that "this is a global issue, it is not a case of geographical or cultural criteria, rather it is a global issue which the church would want to approach with a united front, with respect for the different cultures but with a united resolve and with people being on the same page on it."

While acknowledging that it is only four days long (Feb. 21-24) and "is certainly not going to solve everything,"

Archbishop Scicluna emphasized that "it is a very important start of a global process which will take quite some time to perfect."

As a result of this process he hopes that "a number of initiatives on a continental level will start to happen that will re-create the atmosphere of resolve, determination but also purpose which I hope will mark the Rome meeting," and will help "to address the issues in a different number of cultures, that have their own restraints, their own important positive aspects but also deficits that have to be discussed on a continental but also local level." Continue reading

• Image: YouTube

The move by the parish priest of St Mary of the Angels, Fr Kevin Conroy SM, came after helpful conversations with Liz Tonks, an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse, and a further conversation with Catholic Church media advisor Dame Lyndsay Freer.

Initially, Conroy was uncertain about what the ribbons meant, so he cut them down.

"People dump pamphlets without permission, people put rubbish in our gardens, glass, vomit, whatever. And so we're forever trying to keep the place looking like it should", he told Dr Murray Heasley in a covertly recorded conversation.

Heasley is a spokesman for the Network of Survivors in Faith-based Institutions.

Freer told Stuff that the initial removal of the ribbons "does not mean the church is in any way lacking in empathy for the victims of abuse."

She said Conroy had a think about it and was now happy to see the ribbons reinstated.

Freer said Conroy explained at Mass the significance of the ribbons to parishioners, included a prayer for survivors of sexual abuse, invited parishioners to add to the collection of ribbons and added his own.

The St Mary of the Angels ribbon protest was part of the 'Loud Fence' movement which began last year in Australia as a response to the Australian Royal Commission.

In Wellington, the ribbons were placed on the church fence to acknowledge historic sexual abuse of children in the Wellington Diocese, particularly at St Patrick's Colleges in Silverstream and Wellington City, and at St Bernard's College in Lower Hutt.

In October, the movement reached Dunedin where sexual abuse survivors tied ribbons to the gates of St Joseph's Cathedral.

On that occasion, Dunedin Bishop Michael Dooley and others from the city's Diocese were on hand for the event to offer their support.

Talking to Stuff, an unnamed abuse survivor called the initial ribbon removal 'an outrage.'

"For the priests to take our ribbons down, rather than - as happened in Dunedin - joining the survivors and their supporters in acknowledgement of what happened and advocating [for] it be addressed ... is insulting, devastating and an attempt to silence survivors."

Sources

• Stuff
• ODT

His family suspect foul play. However, local medical staff said he had a series of health problems.

Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, 67, was found dead inside his room a week after Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar was granted bail by the state court in Kerala and went back to his diocese. Read more

Every crisis demands the same, including the sex abuse crisis.

So, while it is always a mistake to try and figure out what the crazies at Church Militant will do or say, it is important that we monitor what is being said by seemingly responsible people to make sure we are all keeping each other honest.

In a recent essay at The Weekly Standard, Mary Eberstadt wrote "The Elephant in the Sacristy, Revisted," a kind of reprise of an article she first wrote in 2002.

"Back then, like today, the plain facts of the scandals were submerged in what we now call whataboutism," she writes.

"According to these evasive maneuvers, the wrongdoing was supposedly explained by reference to clericalism, celibacy, sexual immaturity, and other attributes invoked to avoid the obvious."

And, for her, then as now, the key to understanding the scandal was:

A cluster of facts too enormous to ignore, though many labor mightily to avert their eyes. Call it the elephant in the sacristy. One fact is that the offender was himself molested as a child or adolescent. Another is that some seminaries seem to have had more future molesters among their students than others. A third fact is that this crisis involving minors—this ongoing institutionalized horror—is almost entirely about man-boy sex.

First, it is always an honor to be mentioned alongside Frs. Spadaro and Martin, as well as Professor Faggioli.

But, while I can't presume to speak for them, I can assure Ms. Eberstadt that the reason I called Vigano's filthy lies a "putsch" attempt was because he not only mixed just enough truth amidst the lies to tantalize many journalists for a week, and apparently still has her believing him, but he called for the pope to resign.

In the face of the fact that Francis is the only pope who ever really took action against McCarrick, this call for his resignation was self-evidently an attempt at triggering a putsch, the modern day ecclesial equivalent of the shot fired by the cruiser Aurora to trigger the October Revolution in 1917.

This is what Viganò and his crowd of admirers want, for Francis to go.

"The Catholic laity is far from blameless in this hour.

"The scandals might have been reduced long ago if the laity's rejection of church teaching on birth control hadn't led to collusion of mutual misuse," Eberstadt writes.

"Many priests winked at the laity's breaking the law against contraception and many laity tacitly returned the favor by not worrying overmuch about their priest and some of his friends."

She is actually on to something important here.

It is true that a sense of unreality and deceit surrounds the subject of sexual ethics within the Catholic Church, but that is a consequence of the deeper problem, namely, that the church's teaching on sex has been for too long presented in the language of neo-scholasticism and with no apparent connection to the Gospel.

And, at least in the Anglo-Saxon world, and precisely among writers like Eberstadt, sexual ethics has been the primary focus of Catholic identity, giving the subject an outsized importance within the church.

Eberstadt is not alone.

In a column at First Things, and distributed through syndication, George Weigel takes a swipe at Cardinal Blase Cupich, albeit without naming him.

Weigel mistakenly compares a Cupich interview with a press conference given by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, then-prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, in 2002.

Cupich did not say, as Castrillon Hoyos did, that the pope had better things to worry about than sex abuse.

The Chicago cardinal said the pope had better things to worry about than the self-serving, score-settling "testimony" offered by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a man Weigel had previously dubbed the best nuncio to the U.S. ever.

Weigel then goes on to quote at length and approvingly from a letter issued by Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair to his priests and seminarians. Blair wrote:

The anger and disillusionment of our Catholic people is only matched by my own, and no doubt yours as well. After all the massive effort that has been made since 2002 to rid the Church of this evil and to try to bring healing to victim survivors, how is it possible that we find ourselves confronting the same perception of the Church, and of us as priests and bishops, as if nothing has changed?

But, why, then, if he is so angry and disillusioned, and so resolved to do what it takes to eradicate this evil, why has not Archbishop Blair taken the simple step of publishing the names of those priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse against a minor?

Why does Weigel attend to his words and not his deeds?

And why should anyone think Weigel — defender of serial molester Fr. Marcial Maciel, friend of enabler Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, biographer of the pope who set the pattern of dismissing victims and covering up crimes — credible on this subject?

You can spend time checking to see which essayists quote which bishops, and whether those bishops have actually done anything to put the sex abuse scandal behind us.

You can examine their arguments and decide whether they make sense to you or not.

But, here is a shortcut, a quick way to tell if they are serious: Do they even mention St. Pope John Paul II ?

He was the one who not only set the pattern for ignoring victims, but who led the Vatican in the '80s and '90s, when bishops were routinely told to reinstate priests, not to be too tough on "poor father."

He was the one who promoted Theodore McCarrick not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times. Continue reading

• Image: Indian Express

It included an in-depth look at some of the most notorious clergy abuse cases of the time.

Back then, like today, the plain facts of the scandals were submerged in what we now call whataboutism.

According to these evasive maneuvers, the wrongdoing was supposedly explained by reference to clericalism, celibacy, sexual immaturity, and other attributes invoked to avoid the obvious.

I examined and dismissed those analyses, offered up an alternative, and made several recommendations for cleaning up the Catholic church of the future. The scandals, I wrote, were:

a cluster of facts too enormous to ignore, though many labor mightily to avert their eyes.

Call it the elephant in the sacristy.

One fact is that the offender was himself molested as a child or adolescent. Another is that some seminaries seem to have had more future molesters among their students than others.

A third fact is that this crisis involving minors—this ongoing institutionalized horror—is almost entirely about man-boy sex.

Like most people, I could hardly bear to read what needed to be read about the cases.

As well, anyone back then who described the facts in unadorned English was guaranteed vituperation, and got it.

But I wrote it anyway because of the conviction that "the most important mission facing the bishops and, indeed, all other Catholics . . . is the responsibility of doing everything in one's power to prevent this current history, meaning the rape and abuse of innocents by Catholic priests, from ever being repeated."

That was then, here we are now

Seen one way, this moment looks like a catastrophically familiar place, with more clergy sex scandals revealed not only in the United States but around the world.

Viewed more widely, though, we are in a far better place than we were 16 years ago.

First, same-sex marriage has triumphed, and ironic though this outcome may be for the Catholic faithful, that victory has removed one of the chief obstacles to truth-telling about the scandals.

Yesterday's secular advocates for same-sex marriage shouted down anyone who suggested that homosexuality had something to do with the abuse, because they feared the connection would harm their political cause.

Having prevailed, their attentiveness to the church is now much diminished.

Accordingly, and very much unlike yesterday, today the fact that the scandals revolve for the most part around homosexual coercion by older men of younger men and boys is widely acknowledged, even in the secular press.

Second, the Catholic laity, at least in the United States, is in a dramatically different frame of mind following the revelations about former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

In 2002, the laity's main reaction to the scandals was handwringing and protestations of shock.

Within the sadder but wiser laity of 2018, action is being demanded of religious leaders, from individual parishes to St. Peter's Square.

The pewsitters of yesterday asked the clergy to fight for them by cleaning up the church.

Today, they are fighting for a holier church themselves.

Third, the same information tsunami swamping the world with pornography and cat videos is also working an unexpected miracle for the church: It has made the scandals inescapable and undeniable.

The Internet has empowered the laity to connect factual dots and share information.

It's been suggested by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago that for the sake of the church's broader mission, Catholics should not go down the "rabbit hole" of accusations.

To the contrary.

Every rabbit hole needs inspection in order to see what's hiding in it.

We need tools, workers, and light.

Language forms reality

The first area of improvement concerns the language we use in speaking about the scandals.

If we're going to clean up the church, we must first sharpen the vocabulary that we use to chip away the dirt.

What's more obvious now than 16 years ago, for example, is that anyone who cares about accuracy should use the word gay with the greatest caution, if at all.

There may be instances when gay is unavoidable as an adjective, a necessary shorthand.

But as a noun, it is a word that Christians qua Christians should avoid.

Why?

The label is spiritually vague and antagonizes people unnecessarily.

The phrase "gays in the priesthood," for example, fails to distinguish between those who remain celibate and those who do not.

It also inadvertently gives rise to the incorrect accusation, "You're saying all gays are pedophiles!" which no one is claiming.

In the interest of removing unnecessary red flags wherever possible, we shouldn't use it.

The word gay and related terms like LGBTQ should be avoided for a deeper reason.

They are insufficiently respectful of the human beings who are described in this way.

Such identifiers sell humanity short by suggesting that sexual desire amounts to the most important fact about an individual.

However well-intentioned (or not), these terms advance a reductionist view of men and women incommensurate with the reality that we are infinitely rich and complicated beings, created in the image of God.

It is bad enough when the wider culture, interested in exploiting carnal desires for commercial or prurient reasons, objectifies human beings in this way.

When religious authorities do the same, the damage is worse.

I'm reminded of Fr. Arne Panula, a prominent Washington, D.C., priest of manifest goodness and wisdom who died last year.

In one of our last conversations, he mentioned meeting a friend-of-a-friend in Italy.

This friend felt compelled to tell him, "Fr. Arne, I'm gay."

To which the priest replied, "No, you're not. You're a child of God."

Fr. Arne was making the point that the most important fact about this man was not his erotic leanings.

Another word that continues to cloud rather than illuminate is homophobe, and its related variants, homophobia and homophobic.

Inside parts of the church, and ubiquitously outside it, homophobe has become an automatic smear deployed for partisan purposes.

We see this clearly by observing that related teachings of the church are not similarly made into epithets. Do people speak of contracept-ophobes, to criticize church teaching against contraception?

Do they decry klepto-phobes or forni-phobes?

The fact that those other words aren't in circulation shows that homophobe is meant to shame, intimidate, and sideline apologists for the magisterium.

Homophobe, like gay, has become a political term, not a spiritual one.

It's an epithet, not an argument.

Words matter

Words are never a matter of indifference.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn insisted, we aren't obliged to participate or even to acquiesce in false accounts of reality.

If we can't speak clearly and plainly, we can't think clearly and plainly.

And if we can't think clearly and plainly, we will never be able to reduce the damage being done in the house of God by the pachyderm trying to wreck it from within.

Some critics might object that people should call themselves whatever they like; what's the harm in using this noun or that one?

But as Daniel Mattson argued in Why I Don't Call Myself Gay, identities and proclivities are different, and efforts to prove that sexuality belongs in the former category are problematic.

Taken to its logical conclusion, labeling ourselves whatever we like can be subversive of reality itself.

We have to start calling things by their proper names, beginning with refusing to participate in the dominant ideology of secularism, which celebrates what the catechism calls sin and reduces the human person to evanescent erotic desires in defiance of Christian teaching.

A further aspect of the scandals both past and present also concerns language.

Just as unthinking use of phrases imported from secular postmodernism has obfuscated rather than clarified reality within the church, so has the resort to the language of therapy.

Today's throwback invocations of the supposedly scientific distinctions between pedophile and ephebophile are empirically problematic. Continue reading

• Image: Crisis Magazine
• Mary Eberstadt is a senior research fellow at the Faith & Reason Institute.

This would help prevent future sex abuse, says Ouellet the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

He also thinks bishops should also be chosen more carefully.

"We are facing a crisis in the life of the church... and also to a certain extent a rebellion," Ouellet says.

"This [the sex abuse scandal] is a very serious matter that has to be dealt with in a spiritual way, not only in a political way."

He also says direct attacks against Pope Francis over the scandals were "unjust."

Ouellet's comments come amid a string of revelations regarding allegations of sexual abuse and cover-up by clergy in several regions of the world.

The pope has met with numerous victims of abuse and many clergy since disclosure of abuse has been brought into the open.

Several senior members of the clergy have resigned as a result.

In late July, Francis accepted the resignation of retired Washington DC Archbishop Theodore McCarrick from the College of Cardinals and suspended him from the exercise of any public ministry, amid allegations of sexual abuse and coercion.

Francis has just met US bishops and cardinals to discuss the Vatican's response after McCarrick was accused of sexually abusing a teenager while working as a priest in New York in the early 1970s.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• GeoTV
• The BC Catholic
• Image: Catholic Herald