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| There are 8077 News Items in 674 pages and you are on page number 35 |
| Vermont diocese took out a loan to pay victims - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-14-10 The Burlington diocese, hoping to finally put a painful clerical sexual abuse scandal to rest, paid out $17.6 million Thursday to settle 26 lawsuits alleging incidents of long-ago child molestation by priests in Vermont. In addition to the $17.65 million paid to the 26 victims, the diocese agreed to pay undisclosed amounts of money to settle the cases of three other former altar boys who won large damage awards at trial. Those cases were on appeal before the Vermont Supreme Court. (full story) |
| O'Malley agrees with Schoenborn - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-14-10 Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said he “definitely” agrees with a recent statement from one of his brother cardinals, effectively rebuking another for insensitivity on the sexual abuse crisis. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, told reporters in late April that comments comparing criticism of Pope Benedict to “petty gossip” by Cardinal Angelo Sodano – who was John Paul II’s Secretary of State for fifteen years, and still the dean of the College of Cardinals – did “massive harm” to victims. Schönborn also faulted Sodano for his role in blocking an investigation of sex abuse charges against his predecessor in Vienna, Cardinal Hans Hermann Gröer. O’Malley agreed, saying Schönborn has had a deep “pastoral experience” of the crisis. (full story) |
| No evidence Mixa sexually abused children - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-14-10 There is no proof that embattled German Bishop Walter Mixa sexually abused children, a prosecutor said Friday. However, new evidence has emerged relating to allegations that he physically beat children in his care in the past. Mixa, 69, who was Bishop of Augsburg, tended his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI last month, after admitting to having slapped teenagers in the face while he was a parish priest 20 to 30 years ago. He is also under investigation for having embezzled orphanage funds. (full story) |
| Please make a donation to support SNAP - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-13-10 SNAP responds within hours every time news breaks regarding sexual abuse by priests and other clergy. We continually use every opportunity to both reach out to survivors who still suffer alone in secrecy and shame and to point out the perspective of survivors. As stories of abuse by priests continue to make headlines across the globe we keep hearing from new survivors daily. We are working to set up new support groups across Europe while we continue to hold support group meetings in the United States. (full story) |
| Cardinal Sodano has to go - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-12-10 The dean of the College of Cardinals, he has been found too often on the edges of scandal. Never quite charged, never quite blamed, he has had his name in too long a series of depositions and court records and news accounts—an ongoing embarrassment to the Church he serves. The Vatican has been responding in a disorganized way to the frenzy of recent press stories about often thirty-year-old abuse cases. What it should do is put its own house in order, moving out the unhelpful remnants of the bureaucracy that allowed those scandals to fester for so long. (full story) |
| Seminarians in a time of crisis - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-14-10 This year, 440 men will be ordained in the United States. They will enter the Catholic Church at a time of need, amid a decades-long shortage of priests. Two dozen of them will come from Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, a town so rural it only recently acquired a second stoplight. (full story) |
| We don't have to abandon the church - Friday, May 14, 2010 5-13-10 We get a little shocked, I think, when we hear about dissention within our church today, but it was there from the beginning, and do you know why? It's because Jesus never gave a plan. I think many of us presume that the way we know the church today is something Jesus had designed and he set it all up this way, and all we had to do after Jesus left was to carry out his plan, but there was no plan. (full story) |
| Truly Terrifying - Thursday, May 13, 2010 5-12-10 Despite the fact that Scout masters, school teachers, youth minister and the like--not to mention ministers, rabbis and imams--have all been connected with sexual abuse, the institutions of which they are members simply have not demonstrated (so far) the obtuseness, stonewalling, defensiveness, instransigence and sinfulness that the Catholic church has on this matter. The institution of the church--and here I mean the hierarchy--particularly in its historic desire to shield itself from any and all critique by "outsiders," and its desire to avoid "scandal" made the problem of sexual abuse, which is probably just as rampant in other groups, infinitely worse. (full story) |
| Abuse victim gets $199,000 - Thursday, May 13, 2010 5-13-10 As a boy, he lived in the church; he was there so much they even gave him a key. He almost died there, too. While in his early 20s, he purposefully downed several handfuls of sleeping pills and painkillers and then walked into the church, lay down on the altar and waited to die. When he regained consciousness in the hospital, a doctor asked him, "Who is Harry Monroe?" (full story) |
| Interview with 'Abuse Tracker' editor Kathy Shaw - Thursday, May 13, 2010 5-12-10 I realized quite quickly that we were doing a service for a lot of people. The audience included reporters, survivors, interested Catholics, church workers and priests. I also know the tracker was read at the Vatican — by who I don’t know — but it circulates all over the world. I suspect bishops have also been readers but they don’t identify themselves. The tracker became a great source of information that people use for different reasons. (full story) |
| Struggle to keep viable parish open - Thursday, May 13, 2010 5-13-10 When they learned March 7 their church was to close by July 1, members of Sacred Heart Parish immediately took action, sending an appeal to Bishop Robert J. McManus, arguing that their church is financially solvent, in an area of Fitchburg [Mass.] that is seeing residential growth, which should translate into more parishioners, and has an active membership willing to carry many of the burdens of running a church. The church is also in sound condition and there is a trust fund parishioners have used to install a new boiler, keep the roof in tip-top condition and deal with any issue as it comes up. (full story) |
| Papal address in Portugal - Thursday, May 13, 2010 5-12-10 Among the highlights of Benedict’s address to the “world of culture” were: The urgency of constructive dialogue with secularism; moving beyond mere tolerance of other worldviews and value systems to being “enriched” by them; and praise of the Second Vatican Council for taking the Enlightenment and the Reformation seriously, and for laying the basis for a “civilization of love.” (full story) |
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