Royal commission into child sex abuse about restoring faith

I can only remember four words of a conversation with Justice Peter McClellan after the final day of evidence in Newcastle about the Hunter region's tragic history of child sexual abuse involving churches.
It was September 8 last year, and we were standing outside Newcastle Courthouse. For more than a month the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard devastating evidence of abuse in the Catholic and Anglican churches, of cover-ups and the appalling treatment of survivors.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/royal-commission-into-child-sex-abuse-about-restoring-faith-20170331-gvatfb.html 

British campaigner who was ousted from Vatican child abuse commission accuses Catholic church of treating victims with 'contempt'

A British campaigner who has been ousted from a Vatican child abuse commission has accused the Catholic Church of treating child sex abuse victims with contempt. Peter Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child, said he had lost faith in Pope Francis after learning that the only other abuse victim on the commission had resigned because of a lack of progress.
The father of two, who was last year forced to take ‘leave of absence’ from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, believes that he will shortly be officially dismissed from his role after clashing with other members of the inquiry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4371648/Campaigner-s-fury-Vatican-contempt-abuse-victims.html

Judge grants retired bishop’s 2nd request in abuse case

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Joaquin V.E. Manibusan granted a second request from retired Saipan Bishop Tomas A. Camacho to have more time to respond to a former altar boy’s lawsuit, alleging the former Guam priest raped and sexually abused him from about 1971 to 1974.
The judge gave Camacho, represented by Attorney William M. Fitzgerald, until April 10 to respond to Melvin Duenas' lawsuit. The deadline was supposed to be March 31.

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/04/01/judge-grants-retired-bishops-2nd-request-abuse-case/99813580/ 

Child abuse inquiry will quiz charities and church groups will be asked to admit abuses

CHARITIES and faith-based groups will be asked whether they admit overseeing the abuse of children, during the first public hearings of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.
The Inquiry has announced 10 Christian organisations and three charities will appear during seven weeks of hearings, beginning on May 31 as it takes evidence in public for the first time.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15196988.Child_abuse_inquiry_will_quiz_charities_and_church_groups_will_be_asked_to_admit_abuses/ 

Letters need humble response, say abuse survivors

In this Feb. 7, 2012 file photo, Marie Collins, right, who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland, attends a press conference at a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse, in Rome. Collins quit in frustration her post on a Vatican commission advising Pope Francis about how to fight abuse of minors.

After the controversy following Marie Collins stepping down from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, other survivors of clergy sex abuse urge the Vatican to acknowledge and answer letters and treat victims with respect. 

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/03/27/letters-need-humble-response-say-abuse-survivors/ 

Francis’s words about women: What does he really think?

“When ordination is rightly understood, according to Pope Francis, women’s gifts for leadership can be shared within the church. Women can engage in decision-making for the church. He seems to be saying that ordination is simply less important than baptism in the grand scheme of things. And in any clerically-dominated church, that is saying a mouthful—for women and for men.”
 The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers some sage advice on how to take someone else’s words. In article 2478, it says: “To avoid rash judgment, everyone ought to be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbors’ thoughts, words, and deeds, in a favorable way.

https://voicefaithful.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/franciss-words-about-women-what-does-he-really-think-commonweal/ 

Parishioners were left in the dark for years over reasons for Father Michael Higginbottom's absence

PARISHIONERS were left in the dark over why their priest had been suddenly suspended – and the wall of silence went on for several years.
In 1998, Father Michael Higginbottom arrived in Darlington and, as priest of St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, quickly became popular with parishioners, establishing a reputation as a respectable and hard-working man.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/15220805.Years_of_secrecy_and_silence_surrounded_reasons_for_Darlington_priest__39_s_suspension/ 

New lawsuit accuses Capuchin friar of sexual abuse

“The lawsuit against the Capuchins marks a new chapter in the Guam Catholic clergy abuse crisis." – Michael Pfau, attorney Allegations of sexual abuse have been raised against a former priest on Guam who is credited with having established the altar boy program at Mount Carmel Catholic Church in the early 1970s.

A civil lawsuit, filed by an individual with the initials “J.M.,” alleges Father Sigmund Hafemann sexually abused the plaintiff while he was a parishioner at the Agat church.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/new-lawsuit-accuses-capuchin-friar-of-sexual-abuse/article_020b6d2e-1f3b-11e7-8c26-1f99c72c36f7.html 

Chrism Mass: Archbishop Coleridge says God “will not fail” to raise men for the priesthood despite Royal Commission sorrow

PRIESTLY vocations might be fewer in number and “chastened” by the Royal Commission’s hearings into abuse in the Catholic Church but “the gift of priesthood will remain”, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said.
The Archbishop reiterated the anointed call of men to the priesthood during the Chrism Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral on April 6, where priests of Brisbane archdiocese renewed their vows publicly and oils used throughout the liturgical year were blessed.

http://catholicleader.com.au/news/chrism-mass-archbishop-coleridge-says-god-will-not-fail-to-raise-men-for-the-priesthood-despite-royal-commission-sorrow 

‘We created the abuse’: Church official leading response to child sexual abuse tells priests its time to listen to the community

AN official leading the Church response to child sex abuse has told priests in Brisbane, “we created the abuse”, now it is time for parish priests to listen to their communities, including people who have been abused and are angry with the Church.
“We created the abuse. That is the harsh reality,” chief executive of the Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council Francis Sullivan said, addressing about 180 priests from the Archdiocese of Brisbane attending an annual convocation.

http://catholicleader.com.au/news/we-created-the-abuse-church-official-leading-response-to-child-sexual-abuse-tells-priests-its-time-to-listen-to-the-community 

Seares: Catholic Church will endure. But.

MAYBE President Duterte was sweeping and vague when last March 30, going into Lent, he said the Catholic Church would be irrelevant in 30 years. He used the word “passe” but that didn’t tell what he exactly meant. “Passe” may just mean “outdated” or “old-fashioned.” And what are the benchmarks of irrelevance? 

What he meant Did Duterte refer to a collapse of the church, not just in the Philippines but worldwide with its 1.2 billion members fleeing to other religions or abandoning faith altogether?

 

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/opinion/2017/04/10/seares-catholic-church-will-endure-536036 

Victim of Fr Brendan Smyth calls church changes ‘window dressing’

A woman who was sexually abused by serial paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth has criticised the Catholic Church for its “disturbing” failure to change its ways.

“It’s all nothing more than window-dressing to me. They haven’t taken real action. Release the files, prosecute the predators and compensate the victims.”  Helen McGonigle was raped and sexually assaulted by Smyth in Rhode Island in the US in the 1960s, when she was aged between six and nine years old

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/victim-of-fr-brendan-smyth-calls-church-changes-window-dressing-1.3037879 

Advocates for victims of clergy abuse say the church is focused on looking after itself

ADVOCATES for sexual assault victims say recent comments by the Catholic Bishop of Ballarat demonstrate the church’s focus is on protecting itself rather than the crimes committed on south-west children.
Bishop Paul Bird refuted calls to remove plaques which include the name of disgraced bishop Ronald Mulkearns. He told The Standard it was important to accurately record historical events where the community had gathered to celebrate with Bishop Mulkearns.

http://www.standard.net.au/story/4577668/church-priority-is-not-victims/

Priest left trail of abused and broken children’

A former priest who worked in Guam and Hawaii “left a trail of abused and broken children” everywhere the Church sent him, said attorneys representing two former altar boys who allege they were sexually abused between 1986 and 1987 by Father Andrew “Andy” Mannetta.
Mannetta, 61, is named for the first time in civil lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of Guam by a team of attorneys, including Attorney Anthony C. Perez, the James, Vernon and Weeks law firm in Washington, and Attorney Randall Rosenberg in Hawaii.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/attorneys-priest-left-trail-of-abused-and-broken-children/article_549cf370-19c1-11e7-833a-77f38d4d0e34.html 

Renegade Catholic order in UK 'harbours clergy accused of sexual abuse'

A British Catholic priest who has been excommunicated twice by different popes is allegedly harbouring clergy accused of sexual abuse in his renegade religious order.
Richard Williamson, who was illicitly ordained as a bishop in 1988 by an ultra-conservative group, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), and later convicted of Holocaust denial by a German court, is now head of the “SSPX Resistance”, based in Broadstairs, Kent.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/catholic-sspx-resistance-uk-harbours-clergy-accused-sexual-abuse-richard-williamson