Response missed the point

In response to “‘The rest of the story’ on Catholicism” (letter to the editor, April 25): You missed the main point of my letter. No matter that you believe that you’re God’s appointed representatives here on earth. Not everyone believes in your God and not all Christians are Catholic. But you believe you have the God-given right to impose your religious doctrines on everybody else. The fault with the Catholic Church concerning sexual abuse of children isn’t that other people did it, it’s that it continued to happen even though it was a known secret among the church hierarchy, who instead of getting rid of the offenders simply moved them someplace else, until it was exposed in the press.

http://www.nptelegraph.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/response-missed-the-point/article_c73b8b7a-5017-11e8-8bef-dfde4defe7b1.html 

Calls for child victims of sexual offences to have intermediaries

The recent article (‘Ineffective’ system sees sexually abused children re-traumatised) has shone a light on a persistent issue in the criminal justice system: how children give evidence. It is now well accepted in our legal system that the evidence of children is not inherently less reliable than the evidence of adults. Indeed a case I recently took to the High Court, The Queen v GW, was an important development in that area. The High Court held that unsworn evidence (which generally means evidence given by children) is not any less reliable than sworn evidence.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/calls-for-child-victims-of-sexual-offences-to-have-intermediaries-20180503-p4zd4j.html 

Priest accused in 124 Guam sex abuse cases ages quietly, alone

Statues of the Virgin Mary and portraits of Jesus loom over Louis Brouillard in his small apartment. He lives alone, two blocks from Pine City Elementary School and across the street from St. Mary’s Catholic preschool – close enough to hear children’s laughter when they play at recess. The retired priest no longer wears a collar, but the people in this small town an hour north of Minnesota’s Twin Cities still call him "Father." He is 96 years old. Brouillard's peaceful life stands in stark contrast to the torment of 122 men and two women – all middle-aged or retired now – who accuse him of sexually molesting them as children on the island of Guam. They have broken long-held silences and filed lawsuits. Some have protested and begged for justice. Some have left the church.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/nation-now/priest-accused-in-124-guam-sex-abuse-cases-ages-quietly-alone/465-21fcd73d-a792-4dde-b669-9af4460a818e 

7 Ways John Paul II revolutionized the Rosary

Even Pope Francis became a devotee from JPII's example. If it wasn’t for St. John Paul II, I wouldn’t have spent the last 17 years saying a daily Rosary with my family. I’m not alone, either. As I explain in my new book, The Rosary of Saint John Paul II, there are many, many people who can say the same thing. How did John Paul do it?
1: St. John Paul made the Rosary new and exciting again. As I tell students in my class at Benedictine College in Kansas, John Paul II was a mastermind of strategy who knew how to get big things done in the Church. He didn’t just say, “Young people, come back to Church!” — he created World Youth Days. He didn’t just say, “Be faithful to Catholic doctrine” — he created the Catechism. He didn’t just invite Catholics to return to Jesus — he created the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. He also didn’t just urge people to pray the Rosary — he added five new mysteries to pique our interest and created a Year of the Rosary to insure the whole Church joined in.

https://aleteia.org/2018/04/30/7-ways-john-paul-ii-revolutionized-the-rosary/ 

Parliament to ask Pope Francis to visit Canada, apologize for church’s role in residential schools

Parliament will ask Pope Francis to visit Canada and apologize on behalf of his church for the abuses committed against children by Roman Catholic priests, nuns and other officials at this country’s former Indian residential schools. The invitation comes after the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday in favour of a motion tabled by MP Charlie Angus, a New Democrat from Northern Ontario who is himself a Catholic. It was supported by all members of the Liberal government, the MPs who were elected as members of the Bloc Québécois, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and all but 10 Conservatives.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-parliament-to-ask-pope-francis-to-visit-canada-apologize-for-churchs/ 

CARDINAL SIN Why Won’t Pope Francis Quit Cardinal Pell, His Sketchy No. 3?

ROME—Cardinal George Pell, the 76-year-old head of the Vatican’s Secretariat of the Economy, will stand trial in Melbourne, Australia, for criminal sexual abuse he is alleged to have inflicted on young boys in his home country during the 1970s and ’90s. Exact details of the charges have not been made public due to victim privacy laws, but one of the alleged incidents apparently took place over a 12-month period with a child from St. Joseph’s Boys Home, according to reporters in Australia. Another is purported to have occurred at various times with the same victim in a local swimming pool frequented by a Catholic youth group under Pell’s supervision.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-wont-pope-francis-quit-george-pell-his-sketchy-no-3 

Pope aide Pell to stand trial on multiple sex abuse charges

POPE'S AIDE. Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell speaks to the media at the Quirinale hotel in Rome on March 3, 2016. File photo by Andreas Solaro/AFP Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell became the highest-ranked Catholic ever to be sent to trial over historic sex offenses Tuesday, May 1, with the elderly priest vowing to fight the charges. The 76-year-old was impassive throughout the hearing in Melbourne that ordered him to face a jury on "multiple" charges, although at least half of the allegations against him, including some of the most serious, were thrown out. "Not guilty," the top aide to Pope Francis said loudly and without hesitation when asked his plea, a stance he has taken since first being charged last year. Melbourne magistrate Belinda Wallington said she was "satisfied" there was enough evidence for a conviction on "multiple" charges with a directions hearing due on Wednesday, May 2, to discuss a trial date.

https://www.rappler.com/world/regions/asia-pacific/201485-vatican-cardinal-george-pell-trial 

Cardinal George Pell to Stand Trial on Historical Sex Offenses

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s third-highest-ranking official, must stand trial on several charges of sexual abuse, an Australian court ruled on Tuesday, promising to prolong a case that has already dragged on for months, and which many see as a moment of reckoning for a church racked by scandal. Belinda Wallington, a Melbourne magistrate, found there was sufficient evidence for prosecutors to bring the cardinal’s case to trial, ending a two-month pretrial hearing, in which witnesses described abuse they said took place decades ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/world/australia/cardinal-george-pell-trial-sexual-abuse.html 

Father Lee's argument is deeply flawed

This is in response to two articles by Father Brendan Lee. The first, “Sexual abuse not a church only concern” (April 13) criticised Adrian Piccoli for his mockery of the seal of confession in relation to child sexual abuse, and his hypocrisy in light of abuse in NSW schools. The second, “Protection of children up to everyone” (April 20) defended confession and stressed its importance. I feel it’s necessary to preface this – this isn’t an attack on Father Lee. I don’t believe I’ve met him, but based on his writing he seems very moral, with deep convictions. Nor am I attacking Catholicism. I’m not religious, I don’t have any enmity toward it. To be honest, it’s just a response to a flawed argument.

https://www.areanews.com.au/story/5363437/fathers-argument-flawed/ 

We need a public inquiry into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church

IN 1976 in North Ayrshire the destinies of two children briefly kissed one afternoon and then spun off into different universes. A little clutch of infants from a Dreghorn nursery had been taken out to marvel at the huge papier mache shark displayed in a shop window to mark the arrival of Jaws at the local cinema. One of them would become the most powerful person in Scotland; the other would encounter a childhood and youth of unimaginable physical and sexual abuse by priests of the Catholic Church.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16174941.Kevin_McKenna__Catholic_leadership__39_s_great_betrayal_over_shocking_sex_abuse_of_children/ 

Vatican sex abuse envoy returns with more than he expected

The Vatican's leading expert on clerical sex abuse wrapped up his fact-finding mission to Chile on Thursday and headed to Rome to brief the pope, concluding one of the most extraordinary months in the Catholic Church's long-running saga of coming to terms with priests who rape children and the church hierarchy that protects them. The Vatican's leading expert on clerical sex abuse wrapped up his fact-finding mission to Chile on Thursday and headed to Rome to brief the pope, concluding one of the most extraordinary months in the Catholic Church's long-running saga of coming to terms with priests who rape children and the church hierarchy that protects them.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/vatican-sex-abuse-envoy-returns-with-more-than-he-expected/709298737 

Accused Predator Prelate Gets Slap on the Wrist

Rome (ChurchMilitant.com) - Vatican watchers are scratching their heads after the Holy See delivered a slap on the wrist to an accused predator prelate. On March 16, a five-judge panel of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) found Guam Abp. Anthony Apuron guilty of certain unspecified abuses. The CDF removed Apuron from his office as archbishop and ordered him not to return to Guam — a mild rebuke amounting to early retirement.

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/accused-predator-prelate-dodges-defrocking 

Deadline for input into abuse inquiry scope ends tonight 30.4.2018

I am a broken women and this has torn me apart... we have no justice for the rape and abuse... which was done to us men and women... of the churches in New Zealand... we are just walked all over... as if we are the dirt they walk upon... 
it is the getting up which is so hard... the fall is so easy... you just let go and yet knowing that... you don't only see yourself fall... you see your friends holding on to that last thread... you then feel that it is you... who is about to brake that thread... you say to yourself... you must not let go Ann... just a little while longer then we will be free... but it doesn't work that way... you hear the word sorry so often... knowing that it does not mean anything... to the church nuns and priest... to them it is just another meaningless word... to use when or where ever they feel... that people will believe that they just might... have a a bit of heart or feelings in them... but they have always missed out... what we are shouting to them to hear... ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO THE ABUSE... that is what we want most of all... then that will resort some faith back into our souls... 
Why do they NOT take any notice when we tell them... about the lost of our faith in god... that is what we have lost... and they do not answer that question... they turn the other way... and do not hear or see us... we are the lost children of god... not from our own doing... it has being caused by the servants and brides of Jesus Christ... nuns and priest... and that they will have to answer to gods for... Why do they not hear us?... as a child we would of given our lives to Jesus... and some of us now still would... but they do not see our hearts weeping for that lost... which we held so dear to our hearts... the pain of the rape and the abuse as children... by these men and women of god... was like to us... the devil with his pitchfork... just like they thrashed into us every day and night... pushing us into the fires of hell... and that is where we are today... living a life in hell on earth...   Ann

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The deadline for public input about the Terms of Reference for the inquiry into historic abuse in state care ends midnight. The draft Terms of Reference covers physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect with a key focus being the impact for Māori. Royal Commission Chairman Sir Anan Satyanand expects more submissions about the scope of the inquiry. "The number of submissions we've received it's north of 200, by the end of tonight, I'm thinking we'll be around the 300 mark," says Satyanand.

https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/politics/deadline-input-abuse-inquiry-scope-ends-tonight