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  - Norwegian bishop and child abuser sent to Rome, is "sheltered by nuns;" superior threatens to shred evidence
    04/29/10
    A Norwegian bishop, Georg Müller, who resigned last summer after confessing to having sexually molested an underage boy, has been transferred to Rome where Norwegian news outlet The Foreigner reports that he "is being sheltered by nuns."
    
    Bernt Eidsvig, Müller's successor, i
  - Vatican chief inquisitor ignored pleas from victim's family of child abuse while archbishop of San Francisco
    04/29/10
    The Vatican's high-powered American lawyer says Vatican Inquisitor/boss William Levada handled a case of child molestation "properly by the era's norms."
    
    In 1995 the victim's aunt reported the molestation of her 13 year old nephew by a priest under Leveda's
  - Papal monarchy has outlived its service to evangelization, say advocates of sexual abuse survivors
    04/29/10
    Pope Benedict XVI is a good man. He has served the Church long and well. It takes nothing away from his goodness to suggest that he should resign his office. Nine of his predecessors have resigned, most for the good of the Church.[1] The clerical sex abuse crisis that now exposes a corrupt pattern a
  - Florida legislature passes bill to eliminate statute of limitations
    04/27/10
    The Florida legislature has sent a bill for the governor's signature that would lift statutes of limitations for pursuing criminal or civil sexual abuse cases in which victims are younger than 16 at the time of the abuse.
    Read the AP story in the Miami Herald ...Read SNAP response ...
  - "How do some of us stay in the Church?" Huffington Post commentator hopes "for the return of miracle"
    04/26/10
    "How do some of us stay in the Church? In grief, in sadness, with a resolve not to be shut out by those who say they are speaking in the name of the Father. We just don't believe them. The Church is not an institution; it is the people, people who are now wounded and scandalized, not only
  - One in four German Catholics expected to leave the church due to sex abuse by priests
    04/26/10
    British news outlet The Tablet reports today that a survey conducted in Germany shows a huge increase in the number of Catholics registering their decision to formally leave the Church due to what analysts are calling the worst scandal to hit the Roman hierarchy in history.
    "One in four Ge
  - Deaf survivor of Milwaukee priest sexual abuse joins SNAP in news conference
    04/26/10
    Arthur Budzinski, a deaf man who said he was sexually assaulted and raped by convicted Milwaukee priest Lawrence Murphy, stood with SNAP Midwest director Peter Isley at a news conference Thursday.
    "Fr. Murphey may have stolen our bodies, but the archbishops, the cardinals and the popes sto
  - Forbes portrays Vatican sex abuse crisis as worst in church history
    04/24/10
    An article published Saturday in Forbes quotes the National Catholic Reporter as having characterized the Roman Church as suffering its "largest institutional crisis in centuries."
    "The Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal has passed a media tipping point. Over the past three
  - Ex-priest says he reported Belgian bishop's sex abuse to church authorities "years ago"
    04/24/10
    In an Associated Press story filed this morning, a retired priest says he told church authorities years ago about allegations that Belgium's longest-serving bishop abused a boy. But bishop he was "stonewalled." The Belgian bishop was forced to resign Friday.
    
    An earlier stor
  - Belgian bishop quits over sex abuse
    04/23/10
    In a statement issued by the Vatican on Friday, Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the bishop of Bruges in Belgium since 1984, admitted to sexually abusing a young person in his "close entourage."
    
    In the prepared statement Vangheluwe said that he abused “a young man in my close entourage ...
  - Deaf victim's letter instrumental in federal lawsuit targeting top Vatican command for engineering coverup
    04/23/10
    Pamela Meyer (pictured) stands with members of SNAP outside the federal courthouse in Milwaukee yesterday where a federal law suit was filed accusing Pope Benedict XVI and senior Vatican officials of failing to defrock Rev. Lawrence Murphy, despite allegations he molested at least 200 deaf children
  - German bishop resigns due to charges that he personally abused minors and robbed orphanages
    04/22/10
    Embattled German Bishop Walter Mixa submitted an offer of resignation to the Vatican on Wednesday amid allegations that he physically abused children and misappropriated Church funds. German commentators welcome the move, saying it sparks hopes of greater transparency in the Catholic Church's a
  - Vatican accepts resignation of 3rd Irish bishop implicated in pedophile cover-up
    04/22/10
    The Irish Times, citing Vatican sources, confirmed yesterday that Benedict XVI is this morning expected to formally accept the resignation of Bishop Jim Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin.Read the story in today's Irish Times ...
    Read the story of the resignations in the Washington Post toda
  - Following protests by SNAP, Cardinal who praised cover-up bows out of 1st Latin Rite mass in DC in half a century
    04/22/10
    The former high-up Vatican official, Dario Castrillon-Hoyos, who officially praised a convicted bishop for protecting a rapist priest -- and claimed he was directed by the former pope to do so -- has canceled plans to celebrate a latin mass in Washington, DC after sharp pressure on the archbishop of
  - SNAP urges archbishop of Washington to forbid Vatican official who endorsed coverup from leading mass in DC
    04/21/10
    Dear Archbishop Wuerl:
    
    We urge you to forbid a controversial church official who clearly endorses law-breaking and irresponsible behavior from leading a mass in your archdiocese this weekend.
    
    You know all of the disturbing facts about Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a former V
  - Vatican official who praised felon bishop for obstructing justice for rapist-priest to lead US high mass honoring pope; SNAP protests
    04/20/10
    "I congratulate you for not denouncing (a convicted, rapist priest) to the civil administration." -- Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos
    According to a SNAP national press release issued earlier this morning, on April 24, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
  - European press reports priest who "took the fall" for Ratzinger was pressured; SNAP President responds
    04/19/10
    In a letter to a friend, seen by German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, Gerhard Gruber wrote that he was “begged” in numerous phone calls and after receiving a prepared statement by fax for him to sign. The magazine said Gruber expresses unhappiness in the letter at being given the sole blame in public
  - Church in "worst credibility crisis since the Reformation" says theologian Hans Küng in open letter to all RCC bishops
    04/18/10
    Legendary catholic theologian Hans Küng, in an open letter to the Roman bishops of the world published Friday, strongly indicts Benedict XVI for making worse just about everything that is wrong with the Roman Catholic Church.
    
    In Küng's open letter to the bishops of the world, he cla
  - German news reports that Ratzinger's German fall guy may be ready to reverse on taking blame for reassigning predator priest
    04/17/10
    In a report from Malta today, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, citing German news outlet Der Speigel, reports that Gerhard Gruber, the cleric who took blame away from then Munich Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger for reassigning a predator priest, may be ready to change his story.
    "
  - Cardinal claims John Paul II approved praising felon bishop for witholding rapist priest information from police
    04/17/10
    Cardinal Dario Hoyos, retired head of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy - the office in charge of priests and bishops in the Roman Catholic Church -- has claimed that Pope John Paul II approved a letter signed by Hoyos praising a French bishop convicted of shielding a convicted pedophile-rapis
  - Vatican confirms Congregation for Clergy official's letter praising bishop convicted for shielding priest rapist from justice
    04/17/10
    An Associated Press and Reuters story published yesterday reports that four days after a bishop was convicted for shielding a priest-rapist, the bishop was praised by a high ranking Vatican official in charge of priests and bishops.
    
    Priest Rene Bissey was sentenced to 18 years in prison
  - Abused people, animals find healing in each other at Gentle Barn Foundation
    04/16/10
    Ellie Laks, a lifelong lover of animals, founded the Gentle Barn Foundation a decade ago and has given a permanent home to over 14 species of animals that were rescued from abuse or neglect.
    
    After rehabilitating the animals, the Gentle Barn brings them together with abused and troubl
  - Pope speaks up on sex abuse: since church is "under attack from the world ... it is necessary to repent"; SNAP responds
    04/15/10
    An AP article in today's Washington Post reports that the pope, in an apparantly impromptu sermon, broke his silence on the worldwide outcry concerning sexual abuse by priests.
    "But now under attack from the world, which has been telling us about our sins ... we realize that it's
  - All 32 UK Catholic bishops denounce Vatican's Bertone for statement linking paedophilia to homosexuality
    04/15/10
    A statement from Marcus Stock, general secretary to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said there was no empirical data to conclude that paedophilia had anything to do with homosexuality. His statement bears the authority and approval of all 32 Catholic bishops in England an
  - AP investigation finds 30 more convicted or credibly accused priest molesters, transfered and still working for the church
    04/15/10
    Late yesterday, a shocking new Associated Press investigation found that 30 child molesting Catholic clerics are now working in new countries for the church, often near kids, despite having been convicted or having faced credible child sex allegations in a previous country.
    "A priest who
  - "Holy" See forgives "satanic" Beatles, "degenerate" homosexual Oscar Wilde, and "dangerous" heretic Galileo; maintains icey silence on Harry Potter
    04/15/10
    In the midst of global outrage at the true depth and breadth of the horrendous sexual abuse of children by priests, subsequent diabolical coverup by pope and bishops, and the violent verbal abuse of society and "the press" by the deeply corrupt Roman Catholic hierarchy under Joseph Ratzing
  - Government of France condemns Vatican for blaming sexual abuse by priests on homosexuality
    04/14/10
    According to AP and Reuters stories today, the French government has condemned remarks by a top Vatican official linking the pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church to homosexuality.
    
    French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero Wednesday said the remarks linking the abuse to homosexu
  - Connecticut Bishops aggessively oppose legislation to help victims of sexual abuse by priests
    04/13/10
    Connecticut Public Broadcasting has reported that Catholic Bishops sent a letter to parishioners statewide this weekend voicing their opposition to pending legislation that would help victims of sexual abuse by priests. "The passage of this legislation could potentially have a devastating finan
  - Atlantic columnist calls Ratzinger letter protecting pedophile priest instead of victims "The Third Strike"
    04/13/10
    "But it's clear that the age of the priest is of far more importance to Ratzinger than the age of the minors he raped. All the sympathy and concern is with the rapist, not the raped. This is a document about protecting the powerful even when they rape the powerless." -- The Atlantic,
  - Former priest, and author James Carroll calls for church rescue from Vatican "fundamentalist-in-chief" Joseph Ratzinger
    04/13/10
    "Vatican II was a step toward the democratizing of the Catholic Church, which is why Catholic fundamentalists have been seeking to undo it ever since. Fundamentalist-in-chief has been Joseph Ratzinger. ...
    
    An example of what must happen now came from the American nuns who recently d
  - Boston priest calls from pulpit for pope to resign; parishioners supportive
    04/13/10
    The Boston Globe reports today that priest James J. Scahill says the reaction to his Sunday sermon, in which he called for the pope to resign over his handling of clergy sexual abuse, has been "overwhelmingly supportive."
    
    Read the entire story in today's Boston Globe ...
  - SNAP President says "long secretive, convoluted policy" for defocking priests will change nothing by merely posting the already public document
    04/13/10
    "History and commonsense tell us that ancient, rigid, secretive cultures change very slowly, especially when the basic structure causing and sanctioning hurtful behaviors doesn’t change at all. A dictator abuses power because he can. He can promise reform, but if he remains a dictator, it’s naï
  - Italian bishop says Jews are Roman church's "natural enemies" and are behind public outcry against pope
    04/12/10
    According to a reporter for the Italian Roman Catholic website Pontifex who interviewed Italian Bishop Giacomo Babini, the bishop said during the interview that Jews “do not want the Church, they are its natural enemies”. He added: “Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are deicides [God killer
  - Vatican's "belligerent, resentful, paranoid response" to sex abuse by priests calls for radical change, say three Catholic authors
    04/11/10
    Three Catholic authors speak out on the urgent necessity of radically changing a Catholic Church government that has taken its moral codes and orthodoxy to hideous extremes, and with impunity.
    "The Vatican must realize that the church’s belligerent, resentful and paranoid response to the g
  - Vatican letter shows Ratzinger protecting the church, the pedophile and the hierarchy, while ignoring victims
    04/10/10
    Vatican spokesperson Ciro Benedettini, said a letter published in the NYTimes, signed by Ratzinger, and which clearly shows that Ratzinger delayed the defrocking of a pedophile priest for 2-6 years, showed no attempt at a cover-up, but merely showed "the need to study the case with more attenti
  - Vatican spins Ratzinger's protection of pedophile priest as not understanding "the context in which it was written"; Times publishes "the context"
    04/10/10
    Vatican spin specialist, Federico Lombardi, commenting on the report yesterday that documents confirm Ratzinger was directly involved in protecting a convicted pedophile priest, said it was wrong to draw conclusions based on one letter, without carefully understanding the context in which it was wri
  - Ratzinger delays defrocking of convicted pedophile priest for 2 years in signed letter; for" the good of the Universal Church"
    04/10/10
    In a signed 1985 letter received by the NY Times, Joseph Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, ordered delaying the defrocking of an Oakland, California priest convicted of pedophilia in 1978. The priest was finally defrocked in 1987. "Bishop Cummins had first petitioned the doctrinal office to defroc
  - Guardian commentator claims pope has no diplomatic immunity from prosecution for "crime against humanity"
    04/09/10
    A British news commentator, writing in the Guardian this week, claims that the Vatican, and the pope can no longer ignore international law, which now counts the widespread or systematic sexual abuse of children as a crime against humanity. Therefore, the claim of the Vatican to be a state – and of
  - German news publication details "Failed Papacy of Benedict XVI" in part 1 of 7
    04/08/10
    "The pope’s reluctance to take a firm stance on sexual abuse by priests is expanding into a crisis for the Catholic Church and fueling outrage over his papacy. Some Catholics are now even calling on Benedict, who has committed a series of gaffes since becoming pope in 2005, to resign." --
  - Priest given immunity in Rome following credible accusation of abuse of a minor
    04/07/10
    A theology teacher at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX has been sent to Rome following a "credible" accusation of sexual molestation of a minor woman.
    
    Read the whole story in the San Antonio Express-News.
  - Abuse victim who met with pope in 2008 re-examines the meaning of the meeting, calls it "a PR move"
    04/06/10
    Pope Benedict and the Vatican have come under growing criticism as allegations of clergy sex abuse have spread across Europe. Some of the cases have raised questions about whether Pope Benedict did enough to root out pedophile priests under his watch before he became pope.
    
    The renewed scr
  - Senior British lawyers question pope's immunity to prosecution; protests grow over $22 million cost to British taxpayers of pope's upcoming trip
    04/05/10
    Senior British lawyers are now examining whether the pope should have immunity as a head of state and whether he could be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction for an alleged systematic cover-up of sexual abuses by priests.
    
    Read the full story in today's Washington
  - Break ranks with corrupt, pope-centered clerical system, says Catholic author James Carroll
    04/04/10
    The Huffington Post reports today that in an Easter Sunday interview with Ian Masters on KPFK Los Angeles earlier today, Catholic author and former Paulist priest James Carroll (Practicing Catholic; Constantine's Sword; Toward A New Catholic Church) calls for all Catholics begin acting as if th
  - The pope, the church and sexual abuse: a perspective by Catholic canon lawyer Tom Doyle
    04/03/10
    by Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.
    Holy Thursday, April 1, 2010
    
    The reports that Pope Benedict had mishandled a clergy sex abuse case when he was archbishop of Munich have sharpened the focus of international attention on the Pope, the Vatican and the seemingly perpetual problem of
- March