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?

The 147-page grand jury report came uncovered a "secret archive" of evidence stuffed into boxes and filing cabinets in a church office in the central Pennsylvania diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Handwritten notes, letters and documents detail children being abused by members of the church, and show that Bishop James Hogan, who died in 2005, and his successor Bishop Joseph Adamec, 80, knew of the allegations and intervened to stop predatory priests from being arrested.

Pennsylvania state attorney general Kathleen Kane said the bishops' conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed predators to abuse even more victims.

Among the 115,042 documents impounded by investigators were handwritten notes by Hogan, documents sent to Adamec, statements from victims and correspondence with offending priests.

Hogan was bishop of the diocese from 1966 to 1986, when he was succeeded by Adamec, 80, who retired in 2011.

"These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe," Kane said in a statement.

"Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades."

No criminal charges are being filed in the case because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired and, in some cases, victims are too traumatized to testify, she said.

Sources

AP/The Guardian
AFP/The Daily Star
Image: Reuters/The Guardian

A group of priests and deacons in Osorno have complained to the apostolic nuncio for Chile about Bishop Juan Barros Madrid.

The priests and deacons allege the bishop covered up for Fr Fernando Karadima, who sexually abused altar servers.

Bishop Barros was appointed to his latest post by Pope Francis in January.

In 2000, he was appointed Bishop of Iquique and four years later he became the military ordinary for Chile.

Initially a priest of Santiago archdiocese, Bishop Barros was made auxiliary bishop in Valparaiso in 1995.

Victims have said Fr Karadima began abusing them at his residence in Santiago about 20 years ago, when they were teenagers.

The Vatican ordered Fr Karadima to a life of "penitence and prayer" in 2011.

A Chilean judge later dismissed a criminal case because the statute of limitations had expired, but she determined the abuse allegations were truthful.

About 50 Chilean lawmakers signed a petition last week asking the Vatican for the resignation of Bishop Barros, who was known to be close to Fr Karadima.

More than 1000 residents of Osorno have signed a similar petition protesting his nomination.

Early last week, the Pope's point man for clerical sexual abuse, American Cardinal Sean O'Malley, spoke on the need for accountability.

Cardinal O'Malley said the failure of the Church to punish bishops who covered up for abusers had seriously harmed its credibility.

He said canon lawyers and theologians were reviewing proposals to present to the Pope on holding bishops and religious superiors accountable.

The proposals were developed by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Cardinal O'Malley chairs.

The commission includes two survivors of sexual abuse.

The cardinal said the sex abuse scandal had "seriously diminished" the Church's credibility in its core spheres of defending human rights, the unborn and immigrants.

Sources

• Huffington Post
• Yahoo News
• Catholic Hierarchy
• Image: CathNewsUSA

Accused cleric Monsignor Nunzio Scarano wrote to the Pope from Rome's Regina Caeli prison, where he is detained on charges of planning to bring €20 million in cash ($NZ33.5 million) into Italy illegally.

Scarano was arrested on that charge in June, after already having been suspended from his post at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See because he was being investigated on separate money-laundering charges.

"I never laundered dirty money, I never stole," he insisted in the letter to the Pope dated July 20. "I tried to help someone who asked for help."

Scarano, a senior accountant who headed the office that oversees Vatican property and investments, declared: "I have documentation that proves my honesty and my battles against the abuse of my secular superiors, covered up by some senior cardinals."

He also claimed these unnamed cardinals had "skeletons in the closets" and were "well blackmailed".

Scarano said that he had brought the financial misconduct to the attention of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was secretary to Pope John Paul II and is now Archbishop of Krakow.

He also said he had contacted Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals and former Secretary of State. Neither prelate helped him, he said.

Police allege that Scarano and an associate set up a private jet to fly the cash for three Salerno-based shipowner brothers, the D'Amicos, whose family was friendly with Scarano.

Magistrates who asked a judge to order his arrest said Scarano offered his friends "a series of services ... in the area of financial transactions, in particular when there was a need or a request for them to remain secret".

They said the prelate carried out "a series of illegal activities by unscrupulously using his network of contacts in different areas, including businessmen, clergy who looked the other way, secret service agents and Vatican Nank personnel".

Sources:

ANSA

National Catholic Reporter

Reuters

Image: Sydney Morning Herald

The film centres around the sexual abuse committed by Father Lawrence Murphy.

The New Zealand Herald reviewer Peter Calder says "The church would always say it was an American problem or an isolated problem or a few bad apples. This film gives the lie to that excuse: this was systematic and the cover-up was handled in the Vatican."

Sean Murphy, (not related) writing on the Catholic Education Resource website suggests and alternative point of view. He says that the Vatican was not involved in a cover up. "The cover up of Murphy's crimes was the work of Milwaukee Archbishop William Cousins. Weakland, his successor, continued to conceal them for some time and let him function as a priest until almost a year after his retirement with virtually no restrictions."

Murphy does not critique the film as a whole, but "its misrepresentations of the Murphy story, which Mr. Gibney could have told with much greater effect had he paid attention to the evidence, and allowed the evidence to guide his film-making." He then proceeds to examine that evidence.

Sean Murphy is a Catholic layman. He retired from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2009 after almost 35 years' police service. While not a specialist in sexual assault, during the course of his service he was responsible for the investigation of current and historical sex crimes against children and adults (including false allegations), leading, in one case, to the conviction of a Catholic priest.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Catholic Education.org
• Image: Lostinthemultiplex.com

"No. Never," the Sydney cardinal told the inquiry. He said the offending had largely escaped the view of Church officials who didn't know what a "mess" they were presiding over.

Cardinal Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 till 2001, and responsible for establishing the Melbourne Response to deal with victims of child sexual abuse.

An overflow crowd heard him reject claims that there had been a "culture of abuse" among priests.

"I think the bigger fault was nobody would talk about it, nobody would mention it," he said. He admitted his predecessor as Melbourne archbishop, Archbishop Frank Little, had "mishandled" one abuse case by destroying documents.

Cardinal Pell agreed under questioning that the fear of scandal led to a cover-up.

"The primary motivation would have been to respect the reputation of the Church," he said. "There was a fear of scandal."

He said the Church had been the victim of years of "intermittent hostility from the press" but he said this had helped uncover some of the Church's failings.

In its submission to the inquiry, the Catholic Church said at least 620 Victorian children had been abused by its clergy in the past 80 years.

The cardinal, who was the last of 160 witnesses before the inquiry, said many in the Church did not understand "just what damage was being done to the victims".

"If we'd been gossips, which we weren't ... we would have realised earlier just how widespread this business was," he said.

He agreed that the Church had been slow to address the anguish of the victims.

"I'm certainly totally committed to improving the situation. I know the Holy Father is too," he told the inquiry.

Cardinal Pell admitted that priestly celibacy "might have been a factor in some cases", though paedophilia was also perpetrated by married people in the community.

In the middle of last century, he said, the screening process for seminarians was "much too loose".

Sources:

The Australian

ABC News

The Age

The Australian

Image: The Age

Troy Grant, a former police officer who is now a member of the state Parliament, said the nun visited his home and ‘‘provided me with false evidence and tipped off a priest''.

Grant told a special commission of inquiry in Newcastle that he was aware of collusion within the Church to hide serious sex offences as far back as 1974.

"There were individuals who acted completely inappropriately, commensurate with their pastoral care. I believe they acted illegally," he said.

"Their level of culpability has never been tested in the court system, they've never been questioned or put before their peers to answer for what they did," he said.

"What they did in 1974, 1975, 1981 and then 1995 meant that a lot of (church abuse) victims need not have been victims — that's where the tragedy is."

Grant was a strong lobbyist for the royal commission that is currently inquiring into the handling of child sex abuse claims, and has publicly called for the resignation of Cardinal George Pell of Sydney over his personal handling of cases.

Earlier, whistleblower cop Peter Fox — whose allegations of Church cover-ups sparked the NSW inquiry — gave evidence that Troy Grant had warned him about a "Catholic mafia" within the police force.

But speaking to media after giving evidence, Grant said he had never encountered a "Catholic mafia" within the police.

The commission will examine the extent to which Catholic Church officials co-operated with police, including whether any investigation was hindered by failure to report criminal offences.

Three senior clergy will testify — current Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson, who held senior positions in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1980s and early 90s, retired Bishop Michael Malone, and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference secretary Father Brian Lucas.

Sources:

The Australian

Newcastle Star

Sydney Morning Herald

Image: Newcastle Star