If a bishop, priest or deacon is convicted of a criminal offence against children and is sentenced to serve a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more, then it would normally be right to initiate the process of laicisation. Failure to do so would need to be justified. Initiation of the process of laicisation may also be appropriate in other circumstances.
(Nolan, 2001, 3.5.32, p44).

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Friday, January 31, 2014

St Bede's abuse victim: 'Nothing can make up for what happened to me at school'

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25987513 for Rick Merrin's harrowing interview regarding the impact of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Monsignor Thomas Duggan and other priests at St Bede's.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

UN condemns Vatican over handling of clerical sex abuse of children

Will action now be taken against bishops "who failed to do the right thing"? 

Associated Press report:: (See http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/vatican-un-committee-clerical-sex-abuse-paedophile-priests )

"A UN panel has condemned the Vatican's handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal during a hearing in which representatives of the Holy See were questioned in public for the first over allegations that it protected clerics at the expense of their young victims.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's former sex crimes prosecutor, acknowledged on Thursday that the Holy See had been slow to face the crisis but said it was now committed to doing so.
"The Holy See gets it," he told the UN committee. "Let's not say too late or not. But there are certain things that need to be done differently."
Scicluna added that prosecutors across the world should take action anyone, clerical or lay, who obstructs justice.
He was responding to questioning over claims that the Vatican had repeatedly failed to abide by terms of the UN convention on the rights of the child, which calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to keep the young from harm. Critics allege the Catholic church enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting paedophile priests to defend its reputation.
The committee's main human rights investigator, Sara Oviedo, pressed Scicluna and other Vatican representatives before the hearing on how abusive priests were transferred rather than reported to the police. Given the church's "zero tolerance" policy, she asked, why were there "efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases".
Another committee member, Maria Rita Parsi, an Italian psychologist and psychotherapist, asked: "If these events continue to be hidden and covered up, to what extent will children be affected?"
The Holy See ratified the convention in 1990 and submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it failed to submit a progress report until 2012 following criticism over a plethora of clerical sex abuse cases that emerged two years early.
Victims groups and human rights organisations have pressed the UN committee to challenge the Vatican over its record of handling priests who sexually abuse children, providing written testimony from the abused and evidence outlining the global scale of the problem.
Their reports cite case studies in Mexico and Britain, grand jury investigations in the US, and government fact-finding inquiries from Canada to Ireland to Australia that detail how the Vatican's policies, its culture of secrecy and fear of scandal contributed to the problem.
The Holy See has long insisted that it was not responsible for the crimes of Catholic clerics committed around the world, saying priests are not employees of the Vatican but citizens of countries where they reside and subject to local law enforcement. It has maintained that bishops were responsible for the priests in their care, not the pope.
But victims groups and human rights organisations provided the UN committee with Vatican documentation showing how the Holy See discouraged bishops from reporting abusers to police.
Committee member Jorge Cardona Llorens, a Spanish international law professor, asked how the Vatican would create "specific criteria" for putting children's interests first, because there were none yet in place.
Scicluna said the Holy See wanted to be a model for how to protect children and care for victims. "I think the international community looks up to the Holy See for such guidance. But it's not only words, it has to be commitment on the ground."
He added: "The states who are cognisant of obstruction of justice need to take action against citizens of their countries who obstruct justice."
Scicluna, a Maltese bishop, has previous said prelate who failed to do the right thing with paedophile priests must be held accountable."




Vatican now confirms that 384 priests were laicised in 2011 and 2012 for sexual abuse.

Do they include William Green? (see  http://caads.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/still-waiting-for-openess-and.html )
John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter (see http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/retraction-vat-now-confirms-almost-400-priests-defrocked-sex-abuse ) reports:

"In spite of an earlier Vatican statement denying an Associated Press story that almost 400 priests had been defrocked for the sexual abuse of minors during 2011/2012, a bishop with knowledge of the statistics says the AP story was correct.
The Vatican spokesman also confirmed the AP story in response to an NCR inquiry.
Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who served for 10 years as the Vatican's top sex abuse prosecutor and who represented the Vatican during a Jan. 16 hearing of the U.N.'s Committee of the Rights of the Child, told NCR that in 2011 and 2012, 384 priests were either voluntarily dismissed from the clerical state or had laicization imposed as a penalty in cases related to sexual abuse.
Scicluna spoke to NCR Jan. 17 by phone.
Based on information provided in the published volume "Activity of the Holy See," according to Scicluna, there were 135 priests in 2011 who voluntarily requested dismissal from the clerical state and 125 for whom laicization was imposed as a penalty.
For 2012, the numbers were 67 voluntary dismissals and 57 cases in which laicization was imposed.
In total, that comes to 384 clergy over the two year period who were removed from the priesthood in cases related to the sexual abuse of minors.
Earlier this evening, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi initially denied that report, saying that it was based on confusion between cases reported to the Vatican and the end result of those cases.
Lombardi later told NCR, however, that the AP report was "correct" and not based on "a confusion with reported cases.""

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Six more women contact police in latest case in Diocese of Salford

See http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/six-more-women-contact-police-6503926

Another six women have made allegations of sexual abuse against Canon Mortimer Stanley, 82, who retired from St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale who was interviewed by police under caution last month.

Originally three women claimed they were indecently assaulted and sexually abused while pupils at nearby St Vincent's Primary School.
The women were aged under 11 when it is alleged the offences happened between 1980 and 2000.
Richard Scorer, a specialist in abuse cases at Manchester solicitors Pannone and author of a new book ‘Betrayed – The English Catholic Church and the sex abuse crisis’, said: “His alleged victims have had to live with the memories of what happened and only now have they felt able to come forward to police with their allegations.”
Anyone with information can call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.