Examining the Abuse Crisis in the Church: NCR Review

It’s been a while now since I wrote anything at all about the problems of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. That is not because I’ve lost interest, and still less because the problem has gone away – quite the contrary. I just reached a point, especially after the papal response to the Irish bishops, that there seemed so much to say, but also so much being written elsewhere, that the issue was in danger of becoming all-consuming, and with it, a risk of becoming contaminated with what my colleague Jayden Cameron calls “psychic poison”.  I needed to take a step back, and get some of the perspective that comes with distance.

With that advantage, I now want to make a regular return to the topic, not with my own thoughts, but by drawing to your attention some of the better commentary I have seen elsewhere – with the emphasis on commentary, not the gory details. I am also no longer particularly interested in analysing the causes, (except  where there is something fresh being said), as much of these have been discussed endlessly, both here,  at Queering the Church, and elsewhere. I am now more interested in writing about the likely long-term impact on the church (as I began to discuss here).

(As Andrew Sullivan observes, "One imagines that this 1973 design for the Catholic Church's Archdiocesan Youth Commission would not make the cut today")

To kick this off, I wiant to draw your attention to what has become an impressive continuous series on the subject at National Catholic Reporter, some of which I will be discussing later in more detail.

Vatican asked to investigate Chilean priest sex abuse accusations

Santiago, Chile (CNN) -- The archbishop of Santiago has asked the Vatican to investigate a priest accused of sexually abusing four minors, a church official said.

Archbishop Francisco Javier Errazuriz decided to ask the Vatican to intercede after learning of the grave accusations against the Rev. Fernando Karadima, the church official said in a statement broadcast Friday on CNN Chile, CNN's partner network in the nation, and on the Chilean church's website.

"The strong accusations, their painful airing on television, the scandal they have provoked and the investigative process have produced in our community sentiments of suffering, disorder and lack of faith," Errazuriz said.

The archbishop also asked the Vatican to lift the statute of limitations on any possible infractions because some of the accusations date back many years, Errazuriz said.

Karadima has denied the accusations and said he welcomes the investigation, published reports said.

(Read the full report at CNN)

Italian priest charged with molesting youngsters

A high-profile former Roman Catholic priest in Italy has been charged with sexual abuse.
Pierino Gelmini, 85, is alleged to have abused 12 young people at a drug rehabilitation centre he had founded.
He denies the charges. Mr Gelmini left the priesthood two years ago to defend himself.

The Comunita Incontro, which runs drug rehabilitation centres worldwide, has enjoyed the support of powerful figures in Italian politics.

In 2005, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gave $6m (£4m) to his organisation.

Mr Gelmini set up the Communita Incontro in 1963 in the Umbrian town of Amelia. It has more than 200 centres in Italy - and others in France, Spain, the US, Brazil and Thailand.
The allegations against him surfaced in 2008 when nine young men said he had sexually abused them. Another three went to police later.

The first hearing of his trial is due on 29 March 2011.

(Read the full report at the BBC)

German Prosecutors Charge the Head of the Church

Catholic abuse scandal hits head of German Church

(Reuters) - The growing scandal over sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests threatened Germany's top bishop who was charged on Wednesday with aiding and abetting a known abuser by allowing him to get a new job in a German parish.

Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops' Conference and archbishop of Freiburg, was accused by prosecutors in Freiburg in southwest Germany of permitting a priest accused of child abuse in the 1960s to be reappointed to a parish job in 1987.

The church in Freiburg accused the prosecutors and media of "sensationalism" by talking of charges of "aiding and abetting sexual abuse" against the 71-year-old archbishop and denied that the appointment was his direct responsibility.

(Full report at Reuters)

Priest Arrested in Brazil

For the third time in two months, Brazilian authorities have initiated prosecutions against Catholic priests. In Aoril, three priests were taken into custody in a heavily publicised case after video footage of them with a former altar boy was screened on television. Also last month, another priest was charged by prosecutors with sexually molesting several altar boys. Now, in a third incident, another priest has been arrested.  

Priest Arrested in Brazil on Charges of Sexually Abusing Boy

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The authorities in Rio de Janeiro said Sunday that they had arrested a Polish priest and charged him with sexually abusing a 16-year-old former altar boy.

The judge who issued the arrest warrant said the priest, Father Marcin Michael Strachanowski, 44, had used his parish’s rectory as an “erotic dungeon” to carry out sex acts with boys.

The police in Rio de Janeiro State said that Father Strachanowski, who was arrested late Friday, was being held at a police station awaiting court proceedings. He is accused of handcuffing the 16-year-old to a bed “to satisfy his sexual whims,” according to state prosecutors.

It is the third case of sexual abuse involving a priest in Brazil, which has the world’s biggest Roman Catholic population, in the last two months.

(Read the full report at the New York Times)

Brazilian Church Acknowledges "Crime" of Abuse

The Brazilian Roman Catholic Church said Thursday that cases of child abuse committed by clergymen are crimes that should not be covered up and must be investigated right away.

Wrapping up its annual meeting in the world's largest Catholic country, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops also said it did not condone sending priests accused of abuse to other locations, a practice that has helped some alleged abusers escape prosecution.

The Associated Press recently reported 30 cases around the world of priests accused of abuse who were transferred or moved abroad, and some escaped police investigations. Many had access to children in other countries, and some abused again. The probe spanned 21 nations across six continents.

Conference president Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha called child abuse a sin for which the church must show "forgiveness and mercy," but also a crime that must be dealt with to the full extent of civil and canon law.

"Should a candidate for the priesthood show any sign that he may go down the wrong path in this area, he must be barred from entering the seminary," Rocha said.

A statement released by the bishops said clergymen accused of child abuse should be banned from the priesthood.

Sex abuse scandals involving the church have mushroomed around the world recently, and some of the accused priests have surfaced in Brazil.

Late last month, prosecutors charged the Rev. Jose Afonso with abusing altar boys ranging in ages from 12 to 16. Prosecutors said the alleged abuses took place this year, in 2009 and in 2001 in Franca, in Sao Paulo state.

Also last month, 83-year-old Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa was detained in northeastern Brazil for allegedly abusing at least three boys after being caught on videotape having sex with a young man, a former altar boy. Barbosa is under house arrest while authorities investigate. Two other priests in the same archdiocese are also accused of abuses.

The bishops' conference announced earlier this week that it would prepare a manual with guidelines to help bishops combat child-abuse cases.

Associated Press

Abuse Dominates German "Kirchentag"

Although more than 3,000 displays fought for the attention of hundreds of thousands of German Christians for five days, the topic that got the most attention was the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Even Pope Benedict XVI addressed the issue in his message to the second ecumenical "Kirchentag," or church days, in Munich May 12-16.

The Kirchentag focused on the theme of hope, and the pope said that at a time when the world's people are in need of hope, some people are asking if the church really is a place to find it.

"In the past few months, we repeatedly have had to face news that could attempt to remove the joy from the church, news that obscures it as a place of hope," he said.

Using the words of a Bible parable, the pope said that people might be tempted to ask God whether he sowed the seeds of his Gospel in good earth.

"Weeds exist even in the heart of the church and among those whom the Lord has welcomed into his service in a special way. But the light of God has not set, the good grain has not been suffocated by the seed of evil," the pope said.

The church continues to be a place of hope, he said, because it is the place where people hear the word of God, "which purifies us and shows us the path of faith."

A clergy sex abuse scandal that emerged at a Catholic school in Berlin in January has widened not only to the rest of Germany but to other European countries. Several speakers at the Kirchentag called for an examination of the celibate priesthood, and Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg received applause when he said the laity, especially women, must be more active in church affairs.

At the opening of the program, German President Horst Kohler addressed the assembly and told participants, "We should not forget how much good is done through the churches." However, he also called for "full disclosure and a focus on the victims."

Alois Gluck, president of the Central Council of German Catholics, told the assembly, "We hope this crisis will lead to new cooperation in partnership among lay people, priests and bishops."

The Central Council of German Catholics teamed up with the Protestant organization Kirchentag to sponsor the event. Topics ranged from church teaching, praying, education and involvement in areas like fair trade, health care or the environment to presentations by human rights activists, the police force, the military and Christian organizations of homosexuals or wives of priests.

Topics went beyond church-related themes; organizations represented at the Kirchentag mirrored Germany's pluralistic society. Political parties tried hard to explain their affinity with Christian values, regardless of their emphasis on separation of church and state.

"There is simply too much," noted more than one visitor trying to find his way through the displays in the Munich exhibition center.

Some Kirchentag speakers also addressed the issue of Germany's role in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Since 2002, German forces have been part of the International Security Assistance Force to help rebuild the country.

With more than 5,300 German soldiers and police serving in Afghanistan, Germany has the third-largest contingent in the country, after the United States and Britain. In recent months, as casualties have mounted, some troops and those at home have questioned Germany's role.

At Christmas time, Margot Kaessmann, former head of Germany's Protestant Church, said Germany should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. At the Kirchentag, Bishop Heinz Algermissen of Fulda called for more public resistance against the German policy in Afghanistan.

"The electorate should press their representatives that the Bundestag develops a mandatory perspective to withdraw," he said May 15.

However, some politicians warned of the human disaster that an early withdrawal might cause.

Reinhard Eroes, a former German military officer who runs the nongovernmental organization "Kinderhilfe (Kids Help) Afghanistan," called for more respect for the Afghan population.


Catholic News Service

Irish Church 'took nine years to reveal abuse case'

From the "Newsletter"

THE Catholic Church in Ireland waited nine years before disclosing a case of alleged child abuse, the News Letter has found.

In March 2006, then Archbishop Sean Brady stated publicly that the Church had disclosed all allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy to the police.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has told the News Letter that the Church had been aware of at least one of those cases of alleged abuse for nine years before Cardinal Brady led moves to disclose it.

A spokesman for the PPS told the News Letter that the complaint in question "was made to the Catholic Church in 1997 – the Catholic Church reported the matter to police by way of letter dated 7th March, 2006".

A spokesman for Cardinal Brady said they did not know what case the News Letter was asking about and that the PPS had refused to discuss it with the Church for data protection reasons.

"As a result we are unable to identify the specific cases listed in your letter and therefore to provide you with an accurate response to your query," said the Church spokesman.

The News Letter asked the PPS why the Church was not investigated for potentially withholding information on child abuse for over nine years.

A PPS spokesman responded that it is the PSNI's responsibility to investigate and that the complainant had asked for no further action to be taken.

The PSNI declined to make any specific comment on the apparent nine-year delay in reporting the case.

Instead, the News Letter was directed to a PSNI statement which affirmed that the PSNI would take its lead from the Northern Ireland Executive in supporting any inter-departmental response to clerical child abuse. A new dedicated PSNI team under the Serious Crime Branch was to take over clerical child sex abuse investigations from the start of this month.

The Northern Ireland Executive asked Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to take the lead on such abuse last year. In December, he announced he would submit a paper to his ministerial colleagues about the way forward.

A spokeswoman for Mr McGimpsey said yesterday that the Executive was still considering the paper.

"Zero Tollerance": Has it Applied to Bishops?

Over the  past few weeks, there has been a spate of bishops' resignations tendered or accepted by Pope Benedict, some remarkably quickly. This might appear to represent a new spirit of accountability, but Rachel Zoll, writing for the Canadian Press, argues that there have still been far too few:#

Catholic Church's 'zero tolerance' doesn't apply to bishops 

who left abusers in ministry

NEW YORK, N.Y. — In the latest Roman Catholic sex abuse scandals in Europe and beyond, more bishops already have resigned for failing to protect children than ever stepped down during the U.S. abuse crisis.

American bishops point to their repeated apologies to victims and millions of dollars spent on child protection since 2002, when they enacted a stricter discipline policy. Yet critics say the focus of those reforms remains on reining in guilty clergy, ignoring the role of leaders who enabled the abuse.

Only a tiny number of prelates overall have stepped down for keeping predators in ministry. Experts say the push for resignation must come from the Vatican itself.

"A bishop would never resign unless it would be seen as in the service of the church," said R. Scott Appleby, a University of Notre Dame historian and expert on American Catholicism. "If he doesn't get signals from his superior in Rome that this is the appropriate thing to do, then he would not consider it the appropriate thing to do."

Four bishops in Ireland have resigned since the results of a government-ordered inquiry into the Archdiocese of Dublin were published last year, although the Vatican has only accepted two of the resignations so far. The investigation found church leaders had shielded more than 170 sexually abusive priests from the law. A fifth Irish bishop resigned in March after a separate inquiry found he was continuing to hide abuse claims from civil authorities.

While some bishops in the U.S. and elsewhere have resigned over their own sexual misconduct, only one U.S. prelate, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, has ever stepped down for mishandling cases of guilty priests. This, despite national studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops that found priests accused of abuse were moved from parish to parish without warnings to parents or police.

(Read the full report)

Bishop Martin in Attack on "Dark Forces" Hiding the Truth

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has been a shining beacon to his colleagues in his response to clerical abuse, in sharp contrast to his predecessors in Dublin, and to so  many bishops elsewehere. So, his thoughts on the bigger picture are worth taking seriously - and they are not optimistic. The Irish Times reports that he believes there are powerful "dark forces" within the Church that are working to prevent the full truth becoming known.

AN emotional Diarmuid Martin claimed last night that "strong forces" in the Catholic Church wanted the truth about clerical sex abuse scandals to remain hidden.

The Archbishop of Dublin revealed he had never felt so disheartened and dejected since assuming the post six years ago.

His remarks could be interpreted as a broadside at the Vaticanand Irish hierarchy.

In a deeply personal but sombre address, the 65-year-old church leader indirectly hit out at Cardinal Sean Brady and other bishops for failures to fully protect children from paedophile clerics.

Dr Martin was speaking at Ely Place in Dublin, the headquarters of the archly conservative church group the Knights of Columbanus, on 'The Future of the Catholic Church in Ireland'.

Almost six months after the publication of the Murphy Report on abuse cover-ups in the Dublin diocese, Dr Martin revealed the most obvious reason for his discouragement was "the drip-by-drip never-ending revelation about child sexual abuse and the disastrous way it was handled".

"There are still strong forces which would prefer that the truth did not emerge," he said.

(Read the full report)

Pope Meets Belgian Bishops

Belgium's Catholic church has been rocked by recent allegations of abuse by paedophile priests and clumsy, slow handling of the cases by the bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI met at the Vatican with Belgian's bishops on Saturday, telling them their church was "tried by sin in these times," over the minor's abuse scandals.

Belgium's Catholic church has been rocked by recent allegations of abuse by paedophile priests and clumsy, slow handling of the cases by the bishops.

Belgians are stunned by recent revelations that Roger Vangheluwe, the bishop of the Belgian city of Bruges, 73, abused a boy for years.

There were also contentions by a retired Belgian priest, named Rik Deville, that he told Belgium's then highest-ranking prelate, now Cardinal Godfried Danneels over a decade ago, about the abuse but that no action was taken.

(Read more, at eitb.com)

New Accusations Against Cardinal Mixa

Last month, the German Cardinal Mixa resigned, after admissions that he had (physically) assaulted schoolchildren in his care some decades ago. Now there are allegations that the abuse goes further: German police are investigating charges that he was also guilty of sexual assaults on minors.

Sydney Morning Herald:
 

Leading bishop accused of abuse  

GERMANY'S Catholic Church is in turmoil after prosecutors said they were investigating paedophilia claims against a leading bishop who had offered his resignation after admitting beating orphans.

Prosecutors in the southern city of Augsburg said they had opened a preliminary probe into Walter Mixa after he was accused of sexually abusing a boy while bishop of Eichstaett between 1996 and 2005. Bishop Mixa has rejected the accusations.

The diocese of Augsburg said it had alerted prosecutors to the accusations in line with new German Bishops' Conference guidelines.

Brazilian Priest Arrested

When news broke last month that Brazilian priests had been recorded on video footage having sex with underage boys, it was the first major report of clerical sexual abuse reaching South America.  As the footage was broadcast to the nation on television, it is hardly surprising that the widespread international publicity should have attracted the attention of the authorities.  In a sequel to the publicity, the first arrest has followed.    

Priest, 83, arrested in abuse case

BRAZIL -- An 83-year-old Roman Catholic priest has been arrested on suspicion of abusing boys as young as 12. The scandal erupted when Brazilian television network SBT broadcast a tape last month of Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa in bed with a 19-year-old; it was widely distributed on the Internet. Barbosa was detained late Sunday. His lawyer plans to seek his release from detention, citing his advanced age and arguing that he has a fixed address and does not pose a flight risk, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported Tuesday.

Read more at from Associated Press at Fort Worth Star Telegram)): 

Accountability: Benedict Accepts a Bishop's Resignation

It has taken a while, but Pope Benedict is expected to accept a further Irish bishop's resignation.

From BBC News:

Pope accepts Bishop Moriarty's resignation

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to accept the resignation of the Bishop of Kildare on Thursday.

Bishop James Moriarty offered to resign in December following publication of the Murphy Report into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Bishop Moriarty, who served as an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1991-2002, was barely criticised in the Murphy Report.

He said, however, that he "should have challenged the prevailing culture".

Bishop Moriarty told the Irish Catholic newspaper he did not anticipate resigning when he first read the Murphy Report because he was not directly criticised.

New beginning

"However, renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past," he said.

(Read the full report)

Ratzinger & Munich: Where was the Blame?

When the story first broke last month that a convicted child molester had been allowed to return to active ministry in Munich, while Ratzinger was heading the archdiocese as Archbishop, the blame was accepted by the man who was then the vicar-general. Gerhard Gruber said then that it was a "serious mistake", but one for which he accepted full responsibility:  that Ratzinger had not been involved (even though written correspondence about the matter addressed to Ratzinger also came to light). At the time, there were eyebrows raised, as the man at the top can freely delegate authority - but not the responsibility for mistakes.

Now it seems that the situation is rather more serious than that.  Der Spiegel magazine is in possession of a a letter from Fr Gruber which shows that he made that statement exonerating Ratzinger only after coming under enormous pressure from unnamed persons in the church.  In effect, he has repudiated the original statement, and does not believe after all, that he should be held solely responsible.

Altogether then, one more time.  The buck stops......way over there

(Cartoon is a screenshot from the excellent video by Mark Fiore)

From IrishTimes.com:

A FORMER vicar-general in the archdiocese of Munich has claimed that he was pressurised last month into taking the blame for a mistake made 30 years ago by the then Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), concerning the case of a paedophile priest.

Fr Gerhard Gruber has now said he did so only after coming under huge pressure from unnamed Catholic Church sources to take responsibility, so as to “take the pope out of the firing line”.

(Read the  full report here)

Chilean Priest Facing Criminal Charges

Chile priest charged with abusing daughter, others

SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean priest has been charged with eight cases of sexually abusing minors, including his own daughter, and his diocese says he was suspended from his duties in the Roman Catholic Church early this year.

Ricardo Munoz Quinteros, 55, is accused of paying young girls for sex. State television broadcast video Tuesday night that it said shows the priest entering a motel with a young girl he paid for her services.

Prosecutors in Curacavi, on the outskirts of Santiago, formally charged Munoz on Tuesday with crimes dating back five years, expanding the initial sex abuse charges for which he was jailed in January.

Prosecutor Cristian Caceres said investigators are looking at whether the diocese tried to cover up for Munoz's activities, noting a series of transfers of the priest among four parishes in a few years, according to Radio Bio-Bio.

According to the charges, the priest abused girls between 16 and 18 years old, as well as his own daughter who was 5 years old at the time.

(Read the full report)

What About the Women?

One of the few features of the Vatican responses to the abuse scandal that I can agree with, is that it is incorrect to speak of widespread "pedophilia", or "child" abuse. They point out, quite correctly, that much of the abuse is not against young children, but against adolescents, and so is more correctly described as "ephebophilia". Here, though, I part company with the Vatican apologists:  the higher age makes he allegations different, but still indefensible. Abuse remains abuse, whatever the age of the victim, and to take sexual advantage of another from a position of power remains abuse, even if there has been nominal consent.  But it doesn't stop even there.  The victims of abuse are not just young and adolescent boys, or young boys and girls, but also include many adults, especially religious women and male seminarians. I have written on this before, but have been disappointed that in the present close attention to the worldwide problems of abuse, little has been written elsewhere about the widespread abuse of adults. We should remember that one the accusations against one of the of the most notorious alleged miscreants, Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado of the Legionnaries of Christ, was that he abused both women (with whom he fathered children), and male seminarians, as well as his own children. Before the current uproar led to the resignations of a handful of Irish bishops, the few other bishops to have resigned over abuse were some who had themselves been found to have had sexual affairs, invited or otherwise,  with adults. There have also been numerous reports that some leaders of female religious houses, especially in Africa, have pleadedd wiht their local bishops for protection from predatory priests, usually meeting with little success.

Marcial Maciel Degollado with his patron and protector, JPII

Now, a worthwhile piece by Angelina Bonavoglio at Huffington Post goes some way to correct that imbalance.  This deals only with the adult women, not the seminarians, but it's a start.

Abuse allegations in Kenya

Just days ago, Bishop Buthi Thlagale of my home diocese, Johannesburg, warned that Africa had not been spared  the problems of abuse troubling the rest of the world - just the publicity and the subsequent public discontent.  Now Kenya is being caught up, too:

As the report notes, there is no evidence that the specific allegations are true.  The issue here, rather is that the  inaction by the church when the accusations were first made, and the apparent lack of concern.

From Associated Press:

Abuse charge against Catholic priest roils Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya — After three young men and a boy told police last June an Italian priest had been sexually molesting them for years at a shelter for poor children, the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Kenya announced the church would investigate thoroughly.

Global Abuse: Chile, India.

First, the problem of sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy was seen as just an American problem, then just the Americans, and those priest-ridden Irish. Earlier this year, the world began to realise that it was also a more widespread European problem, with rapidly increasing reports also from Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Poland…

The truth of course is that this is no more than just a European problem, any more than it was ever just an American issue. This was just where the news broke first.  There is every reason to suppose that comparable stories wills till emerge from the countries of the South. I have already reported on the first stories emerging from Brazil and a single instance (concerning child pornography) from Chile.  Now, we have more reports from Chile, and one from India.

The first report from Chile concerned a  Spanish teacher, rather than a priest, who was arrested in Chile on charges of filming the sexual abuse of boys. Now, the Catholic archbishop of Santiago has admitted that the Chilean church is investigating “a few”, cases involving paedophilia and the clergy.  He says there are “just a few” cases, for which he thanks God.  So do I – if it remains just a few. The experience from elsewhere, however, is that “just a few”” cases which are known initially, have a habit of growing to a few more as more victims are emboldened to speak up- and the growing trickle then becomes a flood. (Initial reports from Germany were of fewer than a hundred cases. When the hotline opened last week, it handled thousands of calls within the first few days.)

From the Strib:

Roman Catholic archbishop in Chile says 'a few' cases of paedophilia are being investigated

SANTIAGO, Chile - The archbishop of Santiago says the Roman Catholic Church is investigating "a few" cases of pedophilia involving priests in Chile, an issue church leaders long sought to play down. 

"There is something to these pedophilia abuses — just a few, thank God," Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz said in an interview on state television Sunday evening. 

Errazuriz did not say how many cases or whether they had been reported to police. Press representatives of the Santiago diocese told the Associated Press on Monday that they didn't know how many pedophilia cases were under investigation.

(Read the full report )

Meanwhile, the first report from India does not concern abuse in India, but an Indian priest who is wanted in the USA to face trial over allegations concerning actions when he was based in Minnesota.  The interesting feature about the Indian hierarchy, concerns their response ( or lack of response) to calls for extradition – and how it has changed dramatically in the face of publicity.

When news first broke last week that Fr Joseph Jeyapaul, now working back in India, was wanted to face criminal charges in Minnesota for allegations dating back to 2004 and 2005, there were conflicting claims from the Vatican, which said it had “warned” the Indian Church authorities about Fr Jeyapaul. and from his current diocese, which claimed there was no case to answer, and so there were no plans for him to return to the US.

From the Modesto Bee:

Bishop Victor Balke of the Diocese of Crookston tried three times to alert superiors about a visiting priest accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in 2005. The Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, a native of India who served in the diocese in 2004 and 2005, returned to India before legal charges were filed. Roseau County authorities are seeking to have him returned to Minnesota to face rape charges. 

Balke wrote his first letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office charged with disciplining priests, in December 2005. 

"I cannot in good conscience allow this matter to be passed over because the cleric has left my territory," he said. "In my mind, that would be a shameful act of betrayal towards the women and girls in India to whom Fr. Jeyapaul could at present pose a serious risk."

Five months later, the office responded to Balke that Jeyapaul was being monitored.

"Do you know what being monitored means?" Anderson asked rhetorically. "It means nothing. They are doing nothing.

(Read the full report):

From the Wall Street Journal

Father Jeyapaul said a 2007 internal church investigation into his 28 years as a pastor in India didn't produce any allegations of sexual abuse. 

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of the Ootacamund diocese, which conducted the investigation, confirmed that the report contained no allegations, and said in an interview that the Vatican had contacted him in late 2006 and 2007 seeking information on Father Jeyapaul after learning of the allegations in Minnesota. Bishop Amalraj said he sent a report from the inquiry to the Vatican in early 2008.

(Read the full report )

From Ksax TV Eyewitness News

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Vatican officials warned church officials in India to monitor a Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota, but four years later he continues to work in his home diocese. 

In a 2006 letter to the bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, Archbishop Angelo Amato wrote that the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul would be watched in his home diocese "so that he does not constitute a risk to minors and does not create scandal."

Jeyapaul denies the charges and has no plans to return to the U.S. to face the courts. His current bishop says Jeyapaul has a paperwork job in his office and does not work with children.

(Read the full report )

Latest reports, show that the publicity has made a difference.  four years after the Minnesota bishop first wrote to the CDF, years in which the Vatican wheels moved with typical Vatican speed (i.e., near inaction), suddenly Fr Jeyapaul will, after all, return to the US to face his accusers.  The lessons are plain:  even when the Vatican does indeed “act” to ensure that accused paedophiles  face proper investigation and possible trials, the procedures that they follow are glacially slow.

However, when faced with the full force of publicity, things can change very suddenly. The intense public scrutiny the media are now applying to the Vatican may not be popular with the oligarchy, but it is clearly bringing results, and must continue.

NY Times:

Priest in India Says He’ll Go to U.S. to Face Sex Charges

NEW DELHI — A Roman Catholic priest in southern India charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Minnesota in 2004 said Tuesday that he would return to face the charges, though he and his supervising bishop in India said they did not know about the criminal charges until reporters contacted them.

 (Read the full report )

(If they “did not know” until reporters contacted them, how effective was the Vatican scrutiny? Or has somebody here, either the CDF or the diocese, been somewhat economical with the truth?  )

Arizona: How Canon Law Protected Convicted Abusers

A report from Arizona tells how the late Tucson Bishop manual D Moreno struggled to get authorization from then Cardinal Ratzinger at the CDF to defrock a convicted abusive priest. 

The late Bishop Manuel D. Moreno pleaded with the future pope for help.

In one case, Moreno pleaded with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, for help in removing the Rev. Michael Teta, who was convicted by the church in 1997 of five crimes including sexual solicitation in the confessional.

"I make this plea to you to assist me in every way you can to expedite this case, because the accused was a priest in whom I had great confidence at one time, but who, unfortunately, worked among our former seminarians, and, terrible to say, evidently corrupted many of them," Moreno wrote in an April 1997 letter to Ratzinger.

The report as published presents yet another case where Pope Benedict, as head of the CDF, was clearly involved in dealing with a clear case of abuse by a convicted priest, but did no intervene to remove him from presenting a continuing danger to children, in spite of pleading and warnings of future abuse from the local ordinary.