Cardinal Timothy Dolan alleges that Chubb is neglecting its contractual obligations despite receiving billions in premiums from the archdiocese over the years.

In a letter to the Catholic faithful, Cardinal Dolan explained that the archdiocese has already resolved over 500 cases without insurance coverage. However, approximately 1,400 additional cases remain unresolved.

The archdiocese wishes to settle these claims swiftly but says that Chubb is deliberately avoiding its duty to pay.

"It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims," the archbishop said.

"However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premiums by today's standards, are now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors."

Dolan harshly criticised Chubb. He claimed the company is falsely arguing that the abuse was "expected or intended" by the Catholic Church. Such a claim, if accurate, would nullify insurance coverage.

Dolan called that argument "false" and "outrageous" and said the insurer is merely trying "to protect their bottom line."

The lawsuit, filed under New York's General Business Law, alleges that Chubb's actions amount to deceptive business practice. It claims the company is failing both the archdiocese and abuse survivors.

Child abuse covered up

Chubb responded with a strong rebuttal and put the onus on the Archdiocese of New York.

"The Archdiocese of New York tolerated, concealed and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades" Chubb said in a company statement.

The company also accused the archdiocese of withholding financial information regarding what it knew about the abuse.

Chubb alleged that the archdiocese is attempting to "deflect, hide and avoid responsibility" for its actions and protect its financial resources. The insurer argues that the archdiocese has substantial wealth and is unwilling to provide adequate compensation to the victims.

Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)

In New Zealand, the situation involving sexual abuse claims and compensation differs significantly from that in the US. This is due to the no-fault accident insurance scheme managed by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

Under ACC, anyone who suffers an injury, including mental injury from sexual abuse or assault, can apply for compensation. Victims of sexual abuse do not need to sue individuals or organisations to receive compensation.

The financial burden of compensating victims would fall largely on ACC, not the Church or its insurers.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Crux Now

Additionally, a rector at another Catholic university called on him to reconsider the Church's prohibition on ordaining women as priests.

The visit underscored the Church's deep challenges in one of Europe's most secular societies.

The pope's day started with a formal meeting with Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, followed by a conversation with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

De Croo did not shy away from addressing the Catholic Church's handling of clerical abuse.

He highlighted Belgium's troubled history, particularly the case of former Bishop Roger Vangheluwe who admitted to abusing minors, including two of his nephews.

"We cannot ignore the painful wounds that exist in the Catholic community and in civil society" De Croo told the pope. "Numerous cases of sexual abuse and forced adoptions have undermined trust."

He acknowledged Pope Francis's efforts but emphasised that the Church's path to justice remains a long one.

"Victims must be heard and injustices must be recognised" he added. De Croo then insisted that the Church must fully confront its past to move forward.

Abuse being addressed firmly

Pope Francis responded by reaffirming the Church's commitment to addressing clerical sexual abuse.

The pontiff called the abuse "a scourge that the Church is addressing firmly and decisively by listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and by implementing a prevention programme throughout the world".

Catholic University distances itself from the Pope's comments on women

Francis then got into trouble "on home soil" at a Catholic university over his remarks about women.

"What characterises women, that which is truly feminine, is not stipulated by consensus or ideologies" he said, adding that dignity is "ensured not by laws written on paper, but by an original law written on our hearts" said Francis at Belgium's UCLouvain University.

"A woman … is a daughter, a sister, a mother, just as a man is a son, a brother, a father" the pope said, emphasising that the Church is not structured like a civil corporation.

Shortly after Francis' comments and in an unusual move, Professors and students at the Catholic university sharply criticised the Pope's remarks.

In a strongly worded statement of disapproval, the University described Francis' views as "deterministic and reductive".

The university said the pope's language did not align with its views on gender equality.

"UCLouvain expresses its incomprehension and disapproval of the position expressed by Pope Francis regarding the role of women in the Church and in society" the university said.

"UCLouvain can only express its disagreement with this deterministic and reductive position."

The university's response marked a rare public rebuke of the pope by a Catholic institution.

Women priests

The incident follows Belgian officials also urging the Church to address and reconsider its ban on ordaining women as priests.

The Louvain university's rector, Luc Sels, urged the pope to restore the Church's moral authority and reconsider its ban on women priests.

"Would the Church not be a warmer community if there was a prominent place for women, including in the priesthood?" Sels asked.

The pope did not respond directly and has not advanced the issue.

Francis defends comments on women

On the pope's return flight from Brussels to Rome on Sunday afternoon, Katholisch.de reports Pope Francis defended his remarks at the Catholic University of Louvain about the fundamental differences between men and women in the Church.

Francis said it was inhumane to "masculinise" women.

"The Church is feminine; she is the bride of Christ. Therefore, the feminine in the Church is more important than the masculine" the pope said.

"Anyone who does not understand this is not thinking hard enough and does not want to hear these words.

"The woman is equal to the man and, in the life of the Church, the woman is more important because the Church is feminine.

"The feminine mysticism is more important than the ministry of men."

He added that these views are not outdated, noting that exaggerated feminism is as ineffective as masculinism.

Climate Change

The 87-year-old pope visited UCLouvain as part of the university's 600th anniversary celebrations. Although his speech primarily addressed climate change, he also responded to a letter from students and professors asking about the Church's position on women.

Sources

Crux Now

Crux Now

Reuters

Katholisch.de (report translated by AI.)

CathNews New Zealand

A dawn service before the start of the 2023 academic year drew about 20 pupils, sexual abuse survivors and members of the public to witness the new era for the school.

Kavanagh College's name was officially changed on 1 January, following years of lobbying from abuse survivors.

The new name was chosen after an inquiry last year concluded the late Bishop John Kavanagh did not act on a complaint of abuse when he was Bishop of Dunedin from 1957 to 1985. The former Kavanagh College had been named after him.

At the dawn service, Dunedin' Catholic Bishop Michael Dooley said the early start was chosen to represent beginning in the dark and working your way into the light.

He noted the symbolism of that was very important to both Maori and Christians.

"We seek to have light shone in the darkness and our hope and prayer is that this school will be a place where the light will shine."

Dooley also acknowledged the sexual and physical abuse that had occurred at the school.

The Church "has not responded well to that", he said.

"That's a part of our history that we need to acknowledge honestly so that we can go forward."

Those at the service were then led around each part of the school and the school grounds as Dooley and Sr Sandra Winton OP blessed it with water from three significant sources: Wellers Rock, Toitu Stream and Lourdes, France.

Male Survivors Otago spokesman Michael Chamberlain said the ceremony marked the first time he had stepped foot inside his old school since 1976.

"One would hope that moving forward, things can only be better.

"We are very mindful that abuse is not a historical event of the past, and that everyone needs to be vigilant moving forward as well, as we know it still occurs today," he said.

Source

• ODT

Francis' widely expected choice was announced during the second day of the spring meeting of the conference. Zuppi, 66, is currently the archbishop of Bologna and has long been affiliated with the Sant'Egidio Community, a Catholic charity particularly close to Francis.

The Italian Catholic Church is one of the few in western Europe that has not opened its archives to independent researchers to establish the scope of abuse and cover-up in recent decades.

Read More

Its episcopal appointment process could also be altered so it is more open - it could save a lot of unnecessary distress, he says.

The clerical sexual abuse scandal shows the necessity for these changes, he wrote in a paper published in Studia Canonica.

Daly wrote the paper after analysing the 213 recommendations from the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made in 2017 about the Catholic Church.

His research also included analysing the Holy See's responses to the recommendations.

The Royal Commission's final report commented on the "lack of responsibility, transparency and accountability within the Catholic Church's practices and law", Daly wrote.

These findings show "the catastrophic failure of bishops and religious superiors to deal with the perpetrators, to protect victims and potential victims and to prevent abuse."

One Royal Commission recommendation was that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference ask Rome to establish a transparent process for appointing bishops. The process would include lay people's direct participation.

Another recommendation was that the criteria for appointing bishops be published.

The Holy See noted the documents and canonical provisions describing these criteria.

It also noted the current laity's involvement in the episcopal appointment process, stating child safety must be part of this.

The "massive failures in episcopal leadership" throughout the world raises the question of whether a different selection process would be a preventative measure, Daly said.

The job description of a bishop has changed and needs to be reflected in the qualities required of episcopal candidates.

The Royal Commission blamed "clericalism as a key cause of failures to deal with the sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church. This is part of the systemic failure that led to neglecting the input of laity," he wrote.

He suggested a true separation of powers and more allowance for laity in Church governance are needed.

Pope Francis believes Church renewal cannot be deferred [as] "the path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium".

It will result in better decisions in all areas of the Church's life, Daly said. Many painful crimes could have been prevented if canon law had been better appreciated and implemented.

A governance review of the Catholic Church in Australia recommended wider consultation with laity during the episcopal appointment process.

This includes "ensuring that candidates for the episcopacy have proven competence in dealing with sexual abuse cases".

Its recommendations also included:

• a national protocol on seminarian selection, training and ongoing formation
• each diocesan bishop (or dioceses in combination if appropriate) establishing a panel involving women and lay men for the selection process for entry of candidates into the seminary and discernment prior to ordination
• lay people take a critical role in the formation of seminarians and evaluations of suitability for ordination
• a requirement for each diocesan bishop to consult the panel before accepting a foreign priest.

Source

• NZ Catholic

Powerful, pandemic experiences and images have stimulated new respect for first responders who work selflessly to save others from harm, even at personal risk.

They have also shown the crucial need for research into the nature and causes of the harm so that prevention and treatment can be safe and effective.

These pandemic insights were vividly present to me as I participated in a panel called "National and International Experts Respond to Jean-Marc Sauvé".

The panel was part of a symposium titled "Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: Listening to the Voices of Survivors".

It was organised by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace,and World Affairs at Georgetown University and led by Father Gerard McGlone, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse.

The goal of our panel was to review international experience in order to discern imperatives and challenges in healing, reform and renewal.

Jean-Marc Sauvé, of course, was the man the Catholic bishops and leaders of religious orders in France asked to lead the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) in their country.

Its final report — "Sexual Violence in the Catholic Church: France 1950-2020" — focused on the experience of victim-survivors and intensive research into the staggering prevalence of such violence. The statistical analysis was complemented by identification of theological and ecclesial beliefs and practice fostering the abusive culture, particularly abuse of power, silence and secrecy.

The report was a media bombshell. While it was lauded by victims, members of the conservative Catholic Academy of France viciously criticised the report for making the numbers public and identifying fundamental theological and ecclesial issues.

Members of the CIASE were scheduled to meet Pope Francis and present the report to him. But the meeting was postponed, which only added to the controversy.

More recently a similar report was issued concerning clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich, which implicated Benedict XVI for mishandling certain cases when he headed the German archdiocese from 1977-1982.

This has only confirmed the urgency of addressing this ongoing crisis in the Catholic Church.

Old News, not the "Good News"

Tragically, for all those committed to healing and renewal in the Church, this horrific contradiction to Jesus's love and care for vulnerable children was old news.

Despite differences in the timing and authority of the reviews and reports, the methodology, focus and priority of addressing underlying issues are all part of the same very old story.

A study commissioned some years ago by the German Bishops' Conference looked at the frequency of child sexual abuse by priests and religious. It identified structures and dynamics that might foster abuse. And it placed abuse at the heart of their Synodal Way.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church explored the longstanding issue and elements of the Church's structures and its unique culture with particular attention to the role of secrecy and cover-up.

There is an entire library of reports on clergy sex abuse in the United States, including national and diocesan reviews that have been issued since 1992 when the US Bishops' Conference (USCCB) issued its Five Principles for responding to allegations.

Among the most extensive are the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Report for the USCCB, the National Review Board reports and highly publicised studies in places such as Boston and Philadelphia.

There is no national registry of clergy sexual abuse in Canada. As early as 1990, the St John's Newfoundland Archdiocesan Report on Clergy Sexual Abuse of Minors by Clergy identified underlying factors fostering abuse that needed urgent study: "power, education (of clergy and laity), sexuality, support of priests, management, and avoidance of scandal" (p16).

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) further refined these issues in From Pain to Hope (1992) and Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A Call to the Catholic Faithful in Canada for Healing, Reconciliation, and Transformation (2018).

Participants on the Berkley Center panel represented a small number of national experiences.

The Holy See Press Office has a twenty-six page "Timeline of the Church's Response both at the Local and Universal Level" covering 1984-2019. It covers reports from Ireland and Chile to Belarus and Kerala.

The similarity of responses in each and every place demonstrates an ecclesial culture that transcends national differences and is, in medical terms, endemic pathology. Distinct from a pandemic, endemic pathology is pervasive and intergenerational.

Affected communities have no real experience of health and believe their situation is normal. Help from outside the culture is necessary to reveal the pathology.

All studies and reports raise serious issues underlying the clergy abuse crisis and cry out for reform and renewal.

My reflections on the Berkley Center conference are dominated by my experience as a paediatrician who has cared for abused children and youth since the 1970s. My clear and compelling duty in the face of a credible risk of harm is action to prevent and protect.

The longstanding issue of sexual abuse by Church personnel (including priests and religious) has been handled internally in canon law.

The Church did not acknowledge clergy sexual abuse of minors because of ecclesial examination of conscience. Rather, it was forced to do so by civil and criminal cases and investigative journalism.

Reports have gradually recognised the profound physical, emotional and spiritual harm done to victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Responses have focused on necessary but not sufficient policies and protocols responding to allegations and safeguarding practices rather than personal and ecclesial conversion of mind and heart.

Recent reports have re-affirmed the role of the abuse of power, position and conscience, secrecy, silence and denial, avoidance of scandal, education of laity and clergy, the renewed morality of virtue and conscience, and the theology of sexuality.

Focusing obsessively on numbers can divert attention from the real issues. How much more do we need to know? How many children need to be harmed?

Challenges

We have a major challenge in restoring trust in Church leadership. There is a pervasive sense of futility in trying to bring about change because those in power are most affected by denial.

There are also deep divisions in interpreting the underlying pathology.

Everything that has fostered abuse of power against the most vulnerable must die so that conversion of mind and heart to "the mind of Christ" can occur.

We need to pray for resurrection and hope in new life where children are cherished and protected.

• Nuala Kenny is a Sister of Charity in Halifax, Nova Scotia and a pediatrician. An officer of the Order of Canada since 1999, she has published several books, including Healing the Church (Novalis, 2012) and Rediscovering the Art of Dying (2017). She is co-author of Still Unhealed: Treating the Pathology in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis (Novalis and Twenty-Third Publications, 2019). She has just published, A Post-Pandemic Church: Prophetic Possibilities (Novalis and Twenty-Third Publications, 2021).
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

It is not only the hierarchy that is now doing so, but all of France, Catholic and otherwise. Indeed, the world has taken shocked notice.

The Sauvé Report, an investigation commissioned by the French bishops in 2018 in the wake of a series of clerical sex abuse scandals, was issued on Oct. 5.

The tremors of disbelief, outrage and horror continue to reverberate.

The statistical tally is staggering: 216,000 people sexually abused by clerics since 1950, with an additional 114,000 abused by laypeople in ecclesiastical service. The number of accused priests is conservatively estimated at 3,000.

Jean-Marc Sauvé, a retired senior civil servant, judge and practising Catholic, berated the church for showing a "profound and total, even cruel, indifference to the victims," and acknowledged publicly that he sought out psychological help after listening to the experiences of some of the survivors.

His report was comprehensive, drawing on numerous experts in jurisprudence, history, theology, psychology and sociology.

More than 6,000 victims were canvassed for their input or interviewed.

Working closely with various polling bodies, Mr Sauvé and his commissioners took several years to do their work and then presented their findings to a church still capable of shock.

In commenting in La Croix International, the leading French Catholic publication, Jesuit theologian and university rector Ḗtienne Grieu anguished: "How is it that we did not dare to say out loud what we were witnessing in secret? And how is that we did not give credit to those who had the courage to alert us?"

Answering these questions has been a global dilemma for many Catholics.

How many times have we been in this place?

How many commissions and reports before Mr Sauvé's have asked the same things, probed similar pathologies, excoriated bishops for not exercising a Gospel-centered pastoral oversight by privileging errant clerics over suffering victims, and seeking, often vainly, to change the structures that enable such abuse to occur?

Before France, there was Germany, England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, the United States, Australia, Chile and on it goes. Before the Sauvé Commission Report there was the Winter (Canada), the Ryan (Ireland), the Nolan (England) and numerous others.

And the number of films (Fall), documentaries (Deliver Us from Evil), plays (Doubt), novels (The Bishop's Man) and scholarly studies (John Jay College of Criminal Justice) are legion.

The universally agreed upon diagnosis is multi-layered:

• a romanticized conception of priesthood that removed the priest from regular human commerce;
• a rampant clericalism that ensured a power imbalance that facilitated clerical predation;
• the subordination of victim needs to the higher priority of maintaining the church's good name;
• the failure of seminaries to nurture mature psychosexual growth.

For those Catholics who call out for meaningful and transparent reform - and their number is growing by the minute - patience for this often Sisyphean undertaking has been replaced by a crushing demoralization.

And it isn't just the laity who are demoralized. Continue reading

• Michael W. Higgins is principal/president of St. Mark's and Corpus Christi Colleges, University of British Columbia, Senior Fellow of Massey College, and co-author of Suffer the Children unto Me: An Open Inquiry into the Clerical Sex Abuse Crisis.

A spokesperson for the Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions, Liz Tonks, told RNZ that "victim-survivors were not hopeful because their experiences of churches is they have not been able to trust them in the past."

"They've known for a long time, they have never taken action.

"Survivors have been negotiating with them and telling them they need redress for decades and decades and they know the age of some of the survivors and they are likely to die without it if it's not given to them, so they have had plenty of chance to stand up and take action," she said.

Tonks told RNZ that the churches have not changed and suggests they are not likely to.

"It's irrefutable now. They say they are listening, they say they are learning. We think there is enough evidence that suggests they should have learnt by now."

Similarly, the newly formed survivor group in New Zealand, SNAP, is calling on churches to ‘own the truth'.

Spokesperson Christopher Longhurst, also a professional church theologian, accuses churches of a lack of action and is calling on the Royal Commission not to take church witnesses at face value.

"We hope that for example in assessing church protocols and church documents submitted to the hearing that the commission looks for signs of concrete action has (sic) taken place. For the application of what has been promised because we know from our experience that what the churches are promising, has promised, has not been delivered."

"Despite what the church are (sic) saying about listening to us and being compassionate, constantly time and time again members of our network have evidence to show the contrary, so we simply hope the Royal Commission will not take what these witnesses will present at face value", Longhurst told RNZ.

This week the Abuse in Care Royal Commission began the second part of a two week hearing into faith-based redress.

It follows, in late 2020, the Commission receiving shared personal testimonies and survivor experiences of being abused while in church care.

During this two week hearing, a select group of leaders from the Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian Churches and the Salvation Army, will appear in front of the Commission.

According to David Cohen writing on RNZ, the $78 million Royal Commission is the most expensive royal commission in New Zealand's history.

"To date, it (the $78 million) has mainly been a cash cow for the policy analysts, the consultants, the career-enhancing secondees and others among its 197 employees, rather than for anybody who actually suffered abuse in any of these old places between 1950 and 1999", writes Cohen.

Sources

• RNZ
• RNZ
• Tekupenga

Retired Archbishop Henryk Gulbinowicz was sanctioned by the Vatican last week after the 97-year-old was accused of sexually abusing a seminarian and of covering up abuse in another case.

Private Polish broadcaster TVN24 on Monday night aired a documentary suggesting that another well-respected churchman, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, covered up sex abuse by priests in Poland and elsewhere, including abuse of minors by the Mexican priest Marcial Meciel Degollado.

The head of Poland's Catholic episcopate, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, said in a statement Tuesday he hopes that "all doubts" presented in the documentary "Don Stanislao. The other face of Cardinal Dziwisz" will be "clarified by the appropriate commission of the Holy See."

Read More

In a statement Nov. 25, the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse said the number of children housed in the institutions was approximately 42,000, about a quarter of the 170,000 previously cited in the 2009 Ryan Report.

The commission was mandated to report on the extent of abuse in institutions supervised by the state but run by 18 religious congregations. It found that physical abuse was widespread and sexual abuse was endemic in many institutions for boys run by members of religious congregations. More than 1.4 billion euros has already been paid out in compensation to people who say they suffered abuse while living in the homes.

In a statement on the commission website, Justice Sean Ryan said, "The commission's report published in May 2009 contains a seriously erroneous statistic according to the general agreement of relevant experts and bodies." Continue reading

Priests Nicola Corradi and Horacio Corbacho were sentenced to 42 and 45 years in prison, respectively, while the school employee, Armando Gomez, got 18 years.

The sentencings by Judges Carlos Diaz, Mauricio Juan and Anibal Crivelli of the Collegiate Criminal Court No. 2 were live streamed in Argentina.

The sentences cannot be appealed. Continue reading

The legislation - called Vos Estis Lux Mundi - enacted what is known as the Metropolitan Model, in which archbishops would play a prominent role in policing those bishops in their ecclesiastical province.

This week, the first investigation into misconduct being carried out under the procedures set out in the new law was announced: Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis (pictured) will look into allegations that Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner of Crookston "carried out acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil or canonical investigations of clerical sexual misconduct."

In a statement on Wednesday, the archdiocese said law enforcement had also been notified of the allegations.

Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who has represented hundreds of survivors of clerical sexual abuse, told The Associated Press that the allegations against Hoeppner likely stem from lawsuits against the Crookston diocese that have been settled, including one by Ron Vasek, who was aspiring to be a deacon when, he alleged, Hoeppner blackmailed him into signing a letter in 2015 that essentially retracted his allegation that a popular priest had abused him when he was 16-years-old.

The present case would probably be held up as an example of the new legislation working as it should, with Hebda being noted as the best person to put the new law to the test.

After all, before becoming a bishop, Hebda served for over 20 years at the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, rising to become the office's undersecretary.

When he arrived in St. Paul-Minneapolis as apostolic administrator in 2015, Hebda's first responsibility was to clean up the mess left behind by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who was not only accused of mishandling abuse cases, but was also accused of personal sexual misconduct.

In other words, Hebda would be near the top of anyone's list of bishops to take Vos Estis Lux Mundi for a test drive.

In fact, some cynical observers might also note that the Vatican would probably want the first few investigations to be conducted in a place like Minnesota, which is far from the intense media scrutiny likely in other parts of the United States. Like New York, for example.

However, events might make such a media intensive investigation inevitable.

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo has been under fire for over a year, after his former secretary became a whistleblower, and leaked hundreds of pages of diocesan records alleging that Malone had allowed accused priests to stay on the job and that he has actively engaged in abuse cover-up.

This summer, the scandal took an almost farcical turn.

Two seminarians for the diocese quit, calling on Malone to quit over his handling of clergy misconduct.

One of them, Matthew Bojanowski, alleged that he was sexually harassed by Father Jeffrey Nowak, and that Malone failed to take action when it was reported.

Later, Malone's priest secretary — Father Ryszard Biernat - leaked secret recordings in which Malone voiced concerns that the Nowak scandal could force him to resign.

Biernat later accused the bishop of silencing him when he lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against yet another priest.

Then, in a soap opera twist, an incriminating 2016 letter began circulating. It was written by Biernat to Bojanowski, and by all appearances was romantic in nature.

Public records show the two men co-own a house.

The letter had been photographed by Nowak when he was in Bojanowski's room. Continue reading

Related

• Mandatory reporting of clerical sexual abuse
• Analysis: 'Vos estis' and 'vulnerability'
• Analysis: Is Pope Francis' new abuse plan the answer Catholics are looking for?

It also includes actions or omissions of bishops and religious superiors that in any way interfere with or fail to investigate abuse.

"The crimes of sexual abuse offend Our Lord, cause physical, psychological and spiritual damage to the victims and harm the community of the faithful.

"In order that these phenomena, in all their forms, never happen again, a continuous and profound conversion of hearts is needed, attested by concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church," Francis said in the document — technically a motu proprio, meaning a change to Church law under the pope's authority.

Titled Vos estis lux mundi, "You are the light of the world," the document opens with that phrase and completes a quote from the Gospel of Matthew: "A town built on a hill cannot be hidden."

The motu proprio, which applies to the whole Catholic Church, will come into effect June 1, 2019.

"It is good that procedures be universally adopted to prevent and combat these crimes that betray the trust of the faithful.

"I desire that this commitment be implemented in a fully ecclesial manner, so that it may express the communion that keeps us united, in mutual listening and open to the contributions of those who care deeply about this process of conversion," Pope Francis said.

The new law regulates how Church representatives are to respond with crimes against the sixth Commandment: forcing someone through violence or abuse of authority to

• perform sexual acts,
• performing sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person, and
• the production, exhibition, possession or distribution of child pornography.

It establishes new procedural rules to combat sexual abuse and to ensure that bishops and religious superiors are held accountable for their actions.

Every diocese must have a system that allows the public to submit reports easily.

Here is an abridged version of the editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication Andrea Tornielli's synopsis of the pope's document:

An 'office' for reporting in every diocese

Among the new indications given is the obligation for every Diocese in the world to set up, by June 2020, "one or more public, stable and easily accessible systems for submission of reports" concerning sexual abuse committed by clerics and religious, the use of child pornography, and cover-ups of the same abuse.

The obligation to report

The obligation for all clerics, and all men and women religious, to "report promptly" all accusations of abuse of which they become aware, as well as any omissions and cover-ups in the management of cases of abuse, to ecclesiastical authorities.

Though this obligation was formerly left up to individual consciences, it now becomes a universally established legal precept.

Not only child abuse

The document covers not only violence and abuse against children and vulnerable adults, but also sexual abuse and violence resulting from an abuse of authority as well.

This includes cases of violence against religious by clerics, as well as abuse committed against adult seminarians or novices.

Dealing with cover-ups

One of the most important elements is the identification, as a specific category, of so-called cover-ups, defined as "actions or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations, whether administrative or penal, against a cleric or a religious regarding the delicts" of sexual abuse.

The protection of vulnerable people

Vos estis lux mundi stresses the importance of protecting minors (anyone under 18) and vulnerable people.

The definition of a "vulnerable person" is broadened to include "any person in a state of infirmity, physical or mental deficiency, or deprivation of personal liberty which, in fact, even occasionally, limits their ability to understand or to want to otherwise resist the offense."

Respecting the laws of states

The obligation to report to the local Ordinary or Religious Superior does not interfere with, or change, any other reporting obligation that may exist in respective countries' legislation.

The norms "apply without prejudice to the rights and obligations established in each place by state laws, particularly those concerning any reporting obligations to the competent civil authorities."

The protection of victims and those reporting abuse

The sections dedicated to protecting those who come forward to report abuse are also significant.

According to the provisions of the motu proprio, someone reporting abuse cannot be subjected to "prejudice, retaliation or discrimination" because of what they report.

The problem of victims who in the past have been told to keep silent is also addressed."

The seal of confession remains absolute and inviolable and is in no way affected by this legislation.

The investigation of bishops

The motu proprio regulates the investigation of Bishops, Cardinals, Religious Superiors and all those who lead a Diocese, or another particular Church, in various capacities and even temporarily.

The rules apply not only in the case of these persons being investigated for having committed sexual abuse themselves, but also if they are accused of having "covered up," or of failing to pursue abuses of which they were aware, and which it was their duty to address.

The role of the Metropolitan

There are new indications regarding the role of the Metropolitan Archbishop in preliminary investigations: if the accused individual is a Bishop, the Metropolitan receives a mandate from the Holy See to investigate.

Involvement of the laity

The Metropolitan, in conducting the investigations, can avail himself of the help of "qualified persons", according to "the needs of the individual case and, in particular, taking into account the cooperation that can be offered by the lay faithful".

Presumption of innocence

The principle of presumption of innocence of the person under investigation is reaffirmed.

The accused will be informed of the investigation when requested to do so by the competent Dicastery. The accusation must be notified only if formal proceedings are opened.

Conclusion of the investigation

The motu proprio does not modify the penalties for crimes committed, but it does establish the procedures for reporting and carrying out the preliminary investigation.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the Metropolitan (or bishop) forwards the results to the competent Vatican dicastery. This completes his contribution.

The competent dicastery then proceeds "in accordance with the law provided for the specific case", acting on the basis of already existing canonical norms.

Based on the results of the preliminary investigation, the Holy See can immediately impose preventive and restrictive measures on the person under investigation.

Concrete commitment

With this new juridical instrument, the Catholic Church takes a further and incisive step in the prevention and fight against abuse, putting the emphasis on concrete actions.

• Image: ABSCBN News

It began, most recently, with

• accusations of abuse and harassment against the former cardinal-archbishop of Washington, D.C., Theodore McCarrick
• deepened with the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing 70 years of abuse in the Commonwealth and,
• intensified with the former Vatican nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's 11-page "testimony" accusing many high-ranking clerics, including Pope Francis, with covering up the crimes.

Catholics have a right to be angry at abusive clergy, at bishops who covered up their crimes and at the sclerotic clerical system that allowed the crimes and cover-ups to go unpunished for decades.

But the intensity of hate and level of anger directed at gay priests are unprecedented in my memory.

What I mean by "gay priests" is ordained priests with a homosexual orientation who are living their promises of celibacy (and in religious orders, their vows of chastity).

That it is necessary even to define the term "gay priest" points out the widespread misinformation about what has become perhaps the most incendiary topic in the current discussion.

A few commentators have even declared that the term "gay" implies that a priest must be sexually active.

As I use the term, a "gay priest" simply means an ordained priest who has a homosexual orientation.

The long-simmering rage against gay priests and the supposed "homosexual subculture" or "Lavender Mafia" has been fanned into a fire that threatens to engulf not only faithful gay priests but also, more broadly, L.G.B.T. people.

While the contempt directed at gay clergy is coming from just a handful of cardinals, bishops and priests, as well as a subset of Catholic commentators, it is as intense as it is dangerous.

"It is time to admit that there is a homosexual subculture within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that is wreaking great devastation in the vineyard of the Lord," wrote Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wis.

A Swiss bishop, Marian Eleganti, declared that the "networks" of gay priests in the church must be investigated before the "great purification" can begin.

A bishop in Kazakhstan, Athanasius Schneider, listing remedies for clergy abuse, began with this: "cleanse uncompromisingly the Roman Curia and the episcopate from homosexual cliques and networks."

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the influential former archbishop of St. Louis, said, "There is a homosexual culture, not only among the clergy but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root."

Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute, takes this to its inevitable conclusion, telling the Associated Press that what is needed is "a complete and thoroughgoing removal of all homosexual clergymen in the church." Continue reading

• Fr James Martin, SJ, is editor at large of America

An Otago Daily Times Insight investigation, as part of the ongoing "Marked by the Cross" series, has uncovered allegations of historic sexual abuse, dating back to the 1970s, levelled against two Christian Brothers. Continue reading

Wilson (67) has been convicted of concealing paedophile priest Jim Fletcher's abusive behaviour in the 1970s.

As Wilson was leaving the Newcastle Local Court after being sentenced on Tuesday, a group of victims was waiting for him.

Peter Gogarty, who was one of Fletcher's victims, asked Wilson to apologise.

"Philip, please, something - one word of contrition," he called, when it became obvious Wilson was not going to answer.

Instead, one of Wilson's supporters asked Gogarty why he'd waited 40 years to come forward.

The supporter is reported to have said, "I don't have time for rubbish like you, mate."

Gogarty then began yelling "you pig, you pig!"

He said he was "beside himself" because Wilson wouldn't apologise.

"The grace has shown no grace," Gogarty said.

"Will no one in the Catholic Church say sorry to me and others?"

Gogarty says he told Wilson of the abuse 40 years ago, because "40 years ago people opened their mouths to people like…[him]…who did absolutely nothing to help them."

In May Wilson was sentenced to a year's detention, of which six months is non-parole.

On Tuesday, Magistrate Robert Stone told the Newcastle Local Court Wilson was to begin serving his sentence immediately at his sister's home.

In Stone's opinion, Wilson is unlikely to offend again. He noted Wilson had expressed ‘no remorse or contrition,' instead he was primarily motivated to protect the church.

Wilson's lawyer says they would lodge an immediate appeal against Wilson's conviction.

Source

• BBC News
• ABC
• Image: The Tablet

All these years, McCarrick apparently knew he was a ticking time bomb, a man with an alleged history of sexual predation who had heretofore avoided the hammer.

At 87 years old, he'd almost made it too; he'd almost successfully run the gauntlet and avoided the reach of earthly justice.

That is, until the Review Board of the Archdiocese of New York deemed an almost 50-year-old accusation of assault against a minor not just credible but substantiated.

Compounding the news was the revelation from the archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, that there have been at least three accusations leveled in the past against McCarrick by adults, two of which were settled out of court (and perhaps contained clauses requiring the victims' silence).

Cardinal McCarrick has appealed the decision, but over the last week an increasing number of sordid stories about his sexual harassment of seminarians and other inappropriate actions have emerged.

Once again, the public's trust is shattered, the reputation of the Church is harmed, another respected name is reduced to ashes of shame.

Cardinal McCarrick joins the ever-growing litany of prominent and powerful men who have fallen from grace in recent years upon allegations that they committed or covered up sexual predation: Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Roger Ailes, Al Franken, Joe Paterno, Jimmy Savile, Marcel Maciel, Bernard Law.

Some of these men, like Cardinal McCarrick, first faced charges in the waning years of their lives. Others were at the peak of their careers when they were outed.

The extent of the crimes of some, such as British television personality Jimmy Savile, were not exposed until after their deaths.

And, as with so many of these men, the public may never know the full extent of their crimes.

One question that troubles me greatly is how many predators might there be who have not yet been exposed?

How many prominent priests, bishops, and cardinals are hiding sex crimes from their pasts and hoping to avoid the public shame of having them revealed?

There's a reason why Catholics have traditionally named buildings and institutions after saints.

In due time, the Archdiocese of Washington will rename the McCarrick Center (home to Catholic Charities and a Spanish-language mission) in Silver Spring.

At least no one has to worry about renaming McCarrick high school in New Jersey; it was already shut down in 2015. Continue reading

• Michael Lewis is one of a group of Catholics who have become increasingly concerned about the attacks from within the Church on Pope Francis and his teachings. He blogs at www.wherepeteris.com

Francis summoned them to the Vatican last month.

He wants to discuss short, medium and long-term reforms to the church.

Francis has admitted he made "grave errors in judgment" about Bishop Juan Barros's role in covering up sexual abuse perpetrated by Fr Fernando Karadima.

He blames a "lack of truthful and balanced information" for his errors.

The executive committee of the Chilean bishops conference says the bishops came to Rome in "humility and hope."

Their meeting with Francis includes examining the clerical sex abuse cover-up.

The bishops have praised Francis's recent meetings with three of Karadima's survivors, saying his example "showed us the path that the Chilean church is called to follow."

The survivors, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, stayed with Francis as his guests early this month so he could listen to their testimony.

He personally apologised to them for having discredited them in January.

At that time he said their accusations against Barros's role in covering up sexual abuse were "calumny."

He had also demanded they provide proof of Barros's wrongdoing.

However, after receiving a 2,300-page report compiled by top Vatican investigators who traveled to Chile and interviewed victims, priests and lay Catholics, Francis realised he had been misled.

Source

• Washington Post
• Vatican News
• Image: Prensa Latina