Critic of Vatican refuses to step down from sex abuse commission

File under:  No Surprise Here!

 Peter Saunders poses before a news conference in Rome, Italy February 6, 2016.
Peter Saunders poses before a news conference in Rome, Italy February 6, 2016.

A prominent and outspoken British member of a papal advisory commission on sexual abuse by the clergy on Saturday refused to step down despite a no-confidence vote, and said only Pope Francis could dismiss him.

A Vatican statement issued earlier said that “it was decided” at a commission meeting that Peter Saunders would take a leave of absence. Saunders, head of Britain’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood, would now “consider how he might best support the commission’s work”, it said.

But Saunders, who as a child was abused by two priests, told a hastily called news conference: “I have not left and I am not leaving my position … the only person who can remove me is the person who appointed me, the pope.”

Saunders said he had not been aware of the Vatican’s statement until after it was issued.

Saunders had been publicly critical of the commission, which was set up in 2014. Made up of clerics and lay people from around the world, its task is to help Pope Francis establish “best practices” in dioceses around the world to root out sex abuse in the Church. Eight of its 17 members are women and two are themselves victims of abuse by clerics.

Saunders said that on Saturday morning the commission had taken a near-unanimous vote of no-confidence against him, accusing him of being hard to work with and a “campaigner”, and of talking too much to the media.

“A DISGRACE”

“For me, as a survivor, the commission is a disgrace,” Saunders said. “They believe that child abuse is behind us, but it is in no way behind us …

“I made it clear that I would not be a member of a public relations exercise. The protection of our children is much more important than that.”

Another commission member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was “deeply committed to the protection of children”, but that its brief was to advise and not investigate or judge.

In a worldwide sex abuse scandal, which first became prominent in Boston in 2001, abusers were shunted from parish to parish instead of being defrocked and handed over to authorities.

A year ago, Saunders criticized Francis for appearing to endorse parents who spanked their children in order to discipline them.

And in April, Saunders and three other lay commission members met with a top Vatican official to complain about the appointment of a bishop in Chile who had been accused of covering up abuse by a priest.

Saunders said on Saturday that the pope should dismiss Juan Barros as bishop of Osorno, as a test of his “seriousness on stopping child sex abuse”. Barros denies having known that abuse took place.

Complete Article HERE!

Former student priest arrested on suspicion of trying to pay to rape babies

Joel Wright, 23, detained at San Diego airport while carrying baby clothes and $2,000 in cash

By Tom Brooks-Pollock

joel-wright

A former student priest has been arrested on suspicion of trying to pay to rape a baby and a young girl, following an undercover sting operation by American authorities.

Joel Wright, 23, was carrying baby clothes and a bottle in his luggage, and $2,000 (£1,400) in cash when he was detained as he got off a plane in San Diego, California on Friday.

The US Department of Immigration said Mr Wright had previously travelled to Tijuana, Mexico, in an unsuccessful attempt to adopt a child, and reportedly spelled out in explicit online messages that he hoped to have sex with an infant and a four-year-old girl.

According to the criminal complaint, Mr Wright, who was expelled from Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, tried to adopt a child in Mexico in 2014.

After receiving a tip-off, an undercover agent posed as a tour guide based in Mexico and started chatting with Wright.

Asked in an email if he had previously had sex with infants, Wright allegedly responded: “I have not gone all the way before but I have made it very close in the past so I do have experance [sic].”

Wright is charged with travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and aggravated sexual abuse of a child. He will appear in court on Monday.

His mother, Teresa Wright Poquette, who lives in Vermont where Wright grew up, said she did not believe the allegations.

The Rev John Allen, vice president at Pontifical College Josephinum, said Wright began attending the seminary last autumn and had undergone a battery of psychological tests, interviews and a background check before being accepted.

Complete Article HERE!

Irish priest punished by Florida bishop for informing on pedophile colleague

By Cathy Hayes

Young christian priest in cassock arrested and handcuffed
Tyrone priest, Fr John A Gallagher is being punished by unresponsive bishops and Vatican for doing the “right thing,” and having Indian pedophile, Fr Jose Palimatton, investigated by police.

A priest, originally from County Tyrone and now based in the United States, claims he has been “frozen out” of the Catholic Church after calling the police to investigate a fellow clergyman who had shown child-porn images to 14-year-old parishioner.

Fr John A Gallagher (48), from Strabane, Co Tyrone, is now living in a holiday home belonging to one of his friends and parishioners. He says the locks on his parochial house were changed and he was placed on medical leave by his bishop in the Diocese of Palm Beach, FL. Gallagher says he was told by the Catholic Church to put a pedophile priest on a plane back to India rather than cooperate with the police.

Gallagher has been living in the United States since 2000. Prior to this he served in the Long Tower parish in Derry. He is well-known in the Catholic community in the US and has made several religious music records and TV appearances. In 2012 he received a personal note from Pope Benedict XVI thanking him for his work, but Gallagher said this was little comfort as he felt “the wrath” of the Church in the past year.

Father John A Gallagher, from Strabane, County Tyrone.
Father John A Gallagher, from Strabane, County Tyrone.

A local police chief in Palm Beach has also voiced his concern over the treatment of Gallagher and wrote to the Church to complain.

The incident took place in January 2015. Gallagher, who has remained silent on the matter until now, has written to bishops and cardinals in Ireland and America as well as the Vatican but has been unable to locate the Indian clergyman in question. He said he has not received a satisfactory response from the Catholic Church.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that Fr Jose Palimattom, who had been at the parish of the Holy Name of Jesus Christ in West Palm Beach for just one month, approached a 14-year-old boy after Mass. The priest showed the boy as many as 40 images of naked boys. According to ABC news, the tag words in the images included “little boys,” and “young boys 10-18 yoa.”

Palimattom (48), a priest of the Franciscan Province of St Thomas the Apostle in India, was serving a two-year residency at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in West Palm Beach from December 2014.

Fr Jose Palimatton. Photo: Facebook.
Fr Jose Palimatton.

Police say he was in the first stages of grooming the boy.

The night after Palimattom had shown the young boy the photos he sent him a Facebook message which read “Good night. Sweet dreams.”

The young boy told a friend who reported this to the Church choirmaster, who immediately informed Fr Gallagher.

The Irish priest says that on the night he found out he was told by a Florida Church official, “We need to make him go away, put on a plane.”

He had been instructed to put Fr Palimattom on a plane to Bangalore. Gallagher was also told “do not keep written notes,” by the same official.

All of this has been recorded in documents, filed with the Vatican, by a specialist Canon Lawyer on behalf of Gallagher. These were sent to Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in Rome.

Rather than following the Church’s instruction to “make him go away,” Gallagher interviewed Fr Palimattom along with one of his parishioners, a retired police officer. The parishioner took notes at the meeting.

Palimattom admitted to showing nude pictures of boys to the teen. He also admitted that he had sexually assaulted boys in India before arriving in the US. A few hours later he repeated this confession to detectives from the specialist unit of the West Palm Beach Police.

Gallagher contacted the police, following the rules the Catholic Church had set down after hundreds of cases of sexual abuse carried out by the clergy on children.

At the time the Palm Beach diocese released a statement saying that despite prior investigation they had no knowledge of Palimattom’s previous assaults in India.

They said, “As part of its due diligence, the diocese completed a background screening which also included a screening in India, and received a Certificate of Aptitude from the Minister Provincial in India. During this background process, no prior misconduct was revealed.”

Palimattom admitted, ABC news reported, that the prior assaults were not on record as they had not been reported to police. It was also claimed by the media that Palimattom was under orders from the Church to avoid being in the company of minors without other adults in attendance.

Having reported Palimattom’s actions to the police, and despite the fact that he was following the Catholic Church’s own rules, it was made clear to Gallagher that his actions were not approved of.

He said, “It was made clear to me that what I had done (co-operating with the police) wasn’t what I should have done.

“It was a very distressing time for me and the parish. But we had a special Mass and I told the congregation what had happened. I told them it was now in the hands of the rightful authorities, the police.

“Palimattom was on the local TV news as his arrest became public. I did the right thing.”

He was arrested and his bail set at $10,000. The Catholic Church dealt with the victim’s family through lawyers and an out-of-court settlement was made. Palimattom has been sent back to India to an undisclosed location.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In late April 2015 Gallagher was called to meet with the Bishop of Palm Beach, Gerald Barbarito. Three other Church officials were in attendance. Gallagher was in line to be promoted and was surprised to receive a phone call the day after their meeting telling him he was being demoted.

The Irish priest said, “No reason was given. I asked if I could meet with him again and this was refused. He said if I didn’t wish to be demoted and moved to another parish, I should leave the priesthood.”

Four weeks later Gallagher was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. He had become unwell while hearing Confession.

Gallagher said Bishop Barbarito visited him in the hospital but did not anoint him or bring him Communion.

Six days later Gallagher asked Dominican nun, Sister Ann Monahan, to retrieve files on the Palimattom scandal from his office at the Holy Name of Jesus Christ church. She retrieved the files but later when she returned a church official stopped her and took the keys to the building from her. The 84-year-old nun has now been officially retired.

When Gallagher got out of the hospital he found the locks on the parochial house had been changed and a new priest appointed to his parish. Under the bishop’s orders Gallagher was due to leave one month later, in July.

Gallagher said, “I was in shock. I had just suffered a suspected heart attack and wanted to return to my home to recover. Instead, I was homeless.”

In a letter the Bishop suggested that Gallagher needed “treatment” for his mental health. An all-expenses paid trip was offered to him, to a clinic in Pennsylvania. Gallagher refused and has been on paid leave since.

When the police, who were investigating the Palimattom case, learned of Gallagher’s absence they wrote to Church leaders, including Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the head of the Pontifical Commission for Child Protection, a group established by Pope Francis in 2014.

Chief Deputy in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office Michael Gauger, who has been a cop for 44 years, said this was not the first time that the Church has impeded investigations.

He wrote, “Due to Fr Gallagher’s co-operation the case was swiftly resolved and the opportunity for additional crimes was diminished.

“Educated in the pattern of behavior by those engaged in this inappropriate behavior, the crime could have escalated to something physical which would have been devastating to the victim as well as the Catholic Church.”

Chief Deputy Gauger urged Cardinal O’Malley to ensure the Irish priest received “accolades for his compliance with criminal investigators.”

Another detective working on the case had written a memo to Gauger on May 5, 2015, before Gallagher’s heart attack. Detective Debi Phillips also said she had been hindered by the Church in the past and expected to face the same opposition in Gallagher’s case. However, she was wrong.

She wrote, “Reverend Gallagher and his staff provided timely evidence that was needed to arrest and ultimately convict Jose Palimattom for the felony charge of Showing Obscene Material to a Child.

“If it wasn’t for the co-operation … other children would have also been victimized.”

Gallagher communicates with his Bishop, Gerald Barbarito, only through his canon lawyer.

Gallagher did receive a response from Dublin’s Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, who wrote back to him and left a voice message. Gallagher now believes that the Church in Ireland can help “break the wall of silence over here (in Florida).”

He continued, “Because of the structure of the Church, each diocese is run separately from the other, so there is no broad church.

“This is now 2016 and this is what happens to whistleblowers in the Catholic Church.

“Pope Francis speaks of ridding our church of the crimes of sexual abuse and being open and honest about doing it. I haven’t seen that in Pope Francis’s Church yet.”

When contacted, none of the parties – from Gallagher’s Palm Beach Diocese, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in Rome, or Palimattom’s order in India, the Franciscans Province of St Thomas The Apostle – was available for comment, at the time of this report’s publication.

Complete Article HERE!

Church child abuse scandals ‘tip of iceberg’ say real-life stars of Oscar-tipped film

L-R: Journalists Ben Bradlee, Jr., Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Walter Robinson attend a special screening of Open Road Films' "Spotlight" at The DGA Theater on November 3, 2015 in Los Angeles, California
L-R: Journalists Ben Bradlee, Jr., Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Walter Robinson attend a special screening of Open Road Films’ “Spotlight” at The DGA Theater on November 3, 2015 in Los Angeles, California

By Fiachra Gibbons

The child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church are only the tip of the iceberg, the journalists who exposed one of the hierarchy’s biggest cover-ups said Wednesday. Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering how the Church had hushed up the activities of nearly 90 paedophile priests in Boston, told AFP that thousands more have escaped justice in the United States alone.

With the Hollywood film “Spotlight” about their painstaking probe of the scandal for the Boston Globe newspaper nominated for six Oscars and a slew of other prizes, they said research showed between six and 10 percent of priests have abused children.

Robinson, who led the newspaper’s Spotlight investigative team, said they found that around one in 10 priests in Boston were molesters after “the Church was forced to make its records public.

“In many other places the numbers reported by the Church are very small because they have not been forced to tell the truth,” Robinson said.

“That is true in France and many other countries, and parts of the US also.” ‘Six percent are child abusers’

Experts at the University of Toronto and Royal Ottawa Healthcare group believe between 0.5 and 1 percent of the general population are paedophiles, although studies carried out in Germany, Norway and Finland have estimated that as many as five percent of men have had sexual thoughts about children.

A leading authority on clerical abuse, Richard Sipe — a former Benedictine monk — found around six percent of priests were abusers after a 25-year study into celibacy.

His book “Sex, Priests and Power” is cited in the film, which was voted best film at the Los Angeles Critics’ Choice Awards earlier this week — a reliable pointer to Oscar success.

Pope Francis said the Church itself estimates two percent of priests are paedophiles, according a private conversation he had in 2014 with an Italian journalist, details of which the Vatican later contested.

“This figure should calm me, but I must tell you it does not calm me at all,” the pope was quoted as telling the veteran founder of La Repubblica daily, Eugenio Scalfari.

While the Church’s attitude to such cases has changed radically since the election of Francis, who has vowed to root out abuse, Robinson and Rezendes suspect the culture of secrecy still runs deep.

“There have been big changes in how the Church deals with this in Boston,” said Robinson. “There are even classes for children in how to recognise molesters. But not so much (has been done) in other dioceses and around the world.”

Rezendes said the real problem was Church’s attitude to sex and its insistence on a celibate clergy.

“Because priests are people, many — maybe most — are having sex with women and men, and some with children. Because all sex is illegal in the eyes of the Church it is kept secret.

– Teachings on sex –

“A priest who is having sex with a woman or a man is not going to tell on a priest who is having sex with a child. Because all of it is wrong in the eyes of the Church, they protect one another,” he said.

Robinson — who is played by Michael Keaton in the film — admitted that part of the blame lay with the press for not holding the Church to account earlier.

He himself failed to follow through on a story about clerical abuse in Boston years before his Spotlight team launched their major inquiry in 2002.

“Our generation of editors were too deferential to the power and supposed moral standing of the Church. Clearly we missed clues,” he said.

“It was unthinkable that such an moral authority would allow and then cover up the crimes of thousands of priests for so many decades, and never care about what happened to the children.”

All four of the journalists who carried out the months-long inquiry are lapsed Catholics, and Robinson said it had shaken their confidence in the institution, if not his own faith.

The story also took a toll on the reporters and their families.

“It was very emotionally draining for us to listen to the stories of so many people whose lives were ruined as children. It was horrible. We carried this burden.

“My wife, who is a nurse, believes we had a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder. We were brought to tears by what many of the victims had to say.”

The Catholic Church, including Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, has broadly praised the film, with Vatican Radio calling it “honest and compelling”.

It said the Boston Globe reporters were “examples of their most pure vocation to find the facts” and demand that justice be done.

The Chilean film “The Club”, which handles the same sensitive subject, narrowly missed out on a Golden Globe earlier this month after winning the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Complete Article HERE!

Archdiocese of Seattle publishes names of child-sex abusers

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Archdiocese of Seattle

 

The Archdiocese of Seattle has published a list of 77 child-sex abusers who served or lived in Western Washington over the past several decades.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain on Friday apologized for the actions by clergy and religious brothers and sisters who abused minors. He said in a letter that he is disclosing the names “in the interest of further transparency and accountability” and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

The list includes cases where allegations of child sex abuse have been admitted, established or determined to be credible. The list took nearly two years to develop with the help of independent consultants and a review board of professionals who advise the archbishop on child sex abuse.

The 77 named in the list lived or served in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.

“Most of the individuals on the list were past the statute of limitations,” said Greg Magnoni, Archdiocese of Seattle. “Although, they were all reported to law enforcement.”

“Bringing it out in the open is one giant step to help diminish the number and to hold predators accountable and to help keep children safe,” said Mary Dispenza, spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“People want to think that this crisis of priest abuse is over. It isn’t. And there have been some gains and we need to celebrate those. But it would be a great big failing to think everything’s just fine now,” Dispenza added.

Sartain said the archdiocese has made efforts to respond to victims since the mid-1980s and thanked abuse survivors who have come forward.

The Archdiocese of Seattle asks anyone who has knowledge of sexual abuse or misconduct by a member of the clergy to call the archdiocesan hotline at 1-800-446-7762.

Complete Article HERE!