Pedophile scandal engulfs Church in Latin America

Brazil, the largest country in Latin America and by extension the country with the biggest Catholic population in the world, has been shocked by the pedophile scandal in recent weeks.

A hidden-camera video broadcast on television -- and now being sold illicitly on the streets -- shows one 84-year-old priest in northeastern Brazil, Luiz Marques Barbosa, receiving oral sex from a former choir boy in front of an altar.

Two other priests were implicated in the video, in which three former choir boys said they were sexually abused as minors by them. The video has triggered a parliamentary inquiry and Barbosa's arrest.

The local bishop in charge of the three priests, Valerio Breda, wrote to parishoners pleading for "forgiveness in the name of the Church."

Other Church officials in Latin America have done likewise.

"There is no place for a priest who abuses children. There is no excuse that can justify this crime," the head of Chile's bishops' conference, Alejandro Goic, told a news conference.

"We ask forgiveness, and we appeal for these acts to be communicated to us," he said, adding that the Church was committed to ensuring "these grave crimes are never repeated."

So far, 20 known cases of pedophile priests have been revealed in Chile, five of whom have been convicted.

The Mexican Bishops Conference a week early also asked for pardon for the crimes, including those perpetrated by the late founder of the Legion of Christ order.

The bishops pledged to allow civilian authorities to intervene "to carry out the law" in current and past pedophile cases.

Although the scandal has galvanized and revolted many in recent months, pedophilia is not new in the Church's activities in Latin America.

In 2002, five Argentine priests were convicted to eight to 24 years in prison for sexual abuse, while a bishop had to step down after being implicated in sexual impropriety.

A more recent case, in December 2009, saw an Argentine former archbishop, Edgardo Storni, given an eight-year prison term for abusing a seminarist in 1992.

Last year, a priest, Julio César Grassi, was also convicted and sentenced to 15 years for sexual abuse and corruption of a minor in a foundation for vulnerable children.

Costa Rica was shaken by a priest, Enrique Delgado, famous for presenting a popular religious television program, who was sent behind bars in 2005 for 12 years for abusing three minors.

Also in 2005, orphans accused an Italian priest, Marcos Dessi, of sexually abusing them while he ran a Nicaraguan orphanage, earning him a 12-year prison sentence in Italy.

In Paraguay, ex-members of the parish blasted a local bishop, Rogelio Livieres, for covering up a priest's alleged abuse of an adolescent.

In Venezuela, where no predatory behaviour has come to light, Caracas Bishop Luis Armando Tineo told AFP that while he rejected such crimes and found them unjustifiable, "we can't fall into the impression that there's an epidemic." (By Ana Ines Cibils/ AFP)

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/38103

Clerical Abuse - in Africa

MAKANKA, Sierra Leone — A rutted red dirt track leads to the "bar," a couple of homemade wood benches in the shade of an old tree dripping with wild mangoes. Within easy reach, there's a yellow plastic jerry can of the fiery palm wine the American priest loved.

A 40-year-old schoolteacher now charges that the Rev. James Tully gave the palm wine to teenage boys to make them more susceptible to his advances.

This faraway corner of West Africa — with no electricity or piped water — is where the Roman Catholic Church sent Tully, twice. The teacher told The Associated Press that Tully abused him and other boys repeatedly during his first stint in Sierra Leone, from 1979 to 1985. After a conviction in the U.S. for giving minors alcohol and groping them, the church sent Tully back to Sierra Leone for a second stint from 1994 to 1998.

Tully's story is an example of how the church transferred abusive priests from country to country, in a scandal now emerging worldwide. But it also shows the deep reluctance to come out against a Catholic priest in many parts of Africa.

Catholic Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg cautioned this month that the scandals in the church were not particular to the United States and Europe.

"It simply means that the misbehavior of priests in Africa has not been exposed to the same glare of the media as in other parts of the world," Tlhagale said.

-Associated Press

Parish priest accused of rape by his 18-year-old helper

An 18-year-old woman has filed a complaint with public prosecutors in Agusan del Norte that a parish priest whom she had served as a domestic helper repeatedly raped her earlier this year.

The priest, Fr. Raul Cabonce, has reportedly sought refuge in the Bishop's residence in Butuan City and could not be reached for comment, but has previously denied the allegations.

The complainant said in her affidavit filed last Thursday that Father Cabonce had offered her a scholarship in exchange for her services as a "convent girl" who would serve his household needs.

Hired in her hometown of Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte where Cabonce was then parish priest, the alleged victim was brought to the town of Tubay last year when Cabonce was reassigned"

 - GMA News, Philippines: "

Coulm Kenny: It is the truly faithful who are aghast at the Church

Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe sees the Catholic Church "attacked from the outside by the arrows of a secular and godless culture: rocked from the inside by the sins and crimes of priests and consecrated people".

Missing from his blame equation last week were non-criminal acts and omissions of the hierarchy and other Church authorities. These have contributed mightily to the decline of the Irish Catholic Church and to the despair of its faithful.

Bishop Boyce was speaking at Knock, Ireland's major shrine for the traditionally devout. It is a place where the truly afflicted go for comfort. Yet Bishop Boyce seemed to equate their personal problems with those of the institutional Church that is itself largely to blame for its own current troubles.

Last week too, Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel and Emly, tried again to distance himself from the handling of child abuse complaints in Cloyne. But mere words will not redress the harm done for decades by a hierarchy that was unable or unwilling to change its Church's thinking and structures to meet modern needs."

 - Colum Kenny, Independent.ie

Former Chicago priest sued for sex abuse - Houston Chronicle

 "A lawsuit has been filed by a Chicago teenager who claims he was a victim of a former Roman Catholic priest.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court accuses Daniel McCormack, the former priest at St. Agatha Catholic Church, of abusing the boy between 2004 and 2006."

- Houston Chronicle

Another lawsuit accuses former priest of sex abuse - Chicago Tribune

"Another person who says he was a victim of Daniel McCormack filed a lawsuit against the former St. Agatha Catholic Church priest today in Cook County Circuit Court accusing him of sexual abuse.

After McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually abusing five boys and was sentenced to 5 years in prison, numerous other alleged victims came forward with similar stories of abuse.

The latest is an unidentified Chicago teenager who says he was sexually abused by McCormack between 2004 and 2006 in the West Side church’s rectory and school buildings, according to the lawsuit. The alleged victim was 11 or 12 when the abuse began."

 - Chicago Tribune

Catholic Officials in US Release List of Accused Priests

"Roman Catholic officials in Boston have released a list of priests accused of child sex abuse.

The Archdiocese of Boston says the publication of the names is part of an effort to protect children and “rebuild trust” in the wake of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley said in a statement accompanying the posting that the effort is to ensure the “tragedy of sexual abuse is never repeated.”

The list contains the names of 157 priests and two deacons in cases over the last several decades. O'Malley did not include the names of 91 people, including dead priests who were never publicly accused and were never investigated by the Church."

 -VOA