Vatican Punishes Bishop who Abused Nephew

Vatican sanctions Belgian bishop who abused nephew


By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

37 mins ago

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has sanctioned a Belgian bishop who resigned last year after admitting he had sexually abused his nephew, saying he can no longer act as a priest in public and may risk further church sanctions.

The Vatican on Tuesday clarified the punishment against the former Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe after Belgian bishops reported over the weekend that he had merely been sent outside Belgium for spiritual and psychological counseling, a seemingly cushy punishment given the seriousness of the crime.

The decision was the first known application of the Vatican's new sex abuse norms approved last year giving the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith jurisdiction to investigate and punish bishops — not just priests — who abuse minors. The ultimate possible penalty: defrocking, or laicization in church-speak.

Previously, when bishops committed canonical crimes the pope dealt with them by delegating the cases to various Vatican offices or the Roman Rota, a Vatican court.

The Vatican has long been accused by sex abuse victims of having let off the hook those bishops who themselves molested minors or helped cover up the crimes of priests who did. The change in the norms was designed at least in theory to let the Congregation more easily go after abusive bishops and cardinals.

The pope, however, has the final say on Vangheluwe's punishment.

In a statement, the Vatican's press office said Pope Benedict XVI would eventually decide on a sentence based on Vangheluwe's diagnosis and prognosis from the psychological treatment he is receiving in exile, and also take into account "the suffering of the victims and the need for justice."

It said that while Vangheluwe is being treated, he isn't allowed to work publicly as a priest or bishop.

Vangheluwe, 74, resigned a year ago this month as Belgium's longest-serving bishop after admitting he had abused a boy for years as a priest and even after becoming a bishop in 1984. It later was established that the victim, who is now in his early 40s, was his nephew.

Revelations of Vangheluwe's abuse came amid the 2010 global eruption of the sex abuse scandal, when thousands of people came forward in Europe and beyond with reports of priests who had abused them, bishops who covered up for the prelates and Vatican officials who ignored the crimes for decades.

The crisis was particularly acute in Belgium, where in the weeks following Vangheluwe's resignation a church-appointed commission reported that hundreds of people had come forward with tales of abuse that had led to at least 13 suicides.

The revelations prompted Belgian police to raid the home and offices of Belgium's former top churchmen, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, and open the tombs of two archbishops north of Brussels in a search for hidden documents — moves that drew the stern condemnation of the Vatican.

The decision by the Congregation to go after Vangheluwe and prosecute bishops for canonical abuse crimes comes as prosecutors in criminal courts are for the first time targeting bishops and high-ranking churchmen for sex-abuse related crimes and cover-ups.

Philadelphia has been rocked by the indictment of a high-ranking church official on child-endangerment charges for having moved known abusers around. Monsignor William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia archdiocese, faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted. His defense lawyers have said Lynn didn't have any children under his care and never thought any children were being put at risk.

And next month, a federal court in Ottawa is due to put Bishop Raymond Lahey on trial on child pornography charges. Lahey resigned as bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 2009, after authorities conducting a random search of his laptop computer at Ottawa's airport said they found child pornography.

Vatican officials said the Congregation is awaiting the results of the Ottawa trial before proceeding with its own case against Lahey. Under the same May 2010 revision of the Vatican's sex abuse norms, acquiring, possessing and distributing pornography of children under age 14 years is considered to be an equally serious canonical crime that is dealt with by the Congregation.

There are several other bishops in the United States and Europe who have resigned in recent years after they were accused of abuse, including Norwegian Bishop Georg Mueller, whose 2009 resignation was made public during the height of last year's scandal.

Beyond Lahey, Vatican officials declined to say which other bishops might come before the Congregation for abuse-related canonical punishments.

One of the highest-ranking churchmen to resign because he himself was an abuser was the late Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer. He was forced to resign as archbishop of Vienna in 1995 over claims he had molested youths at a monastery in the 1970s.

The Christian Brother who Abused me

I used a small pen knife to open the mail today: a slim Swiss, white cross on black background; a gift from a lady with a liking for sleek steel.


I can still see Bro. McNamee paring his nails with one like that  in class 3B at St. Vincent’s Christian Brothers’ School, Glasnevin, Dublin fifty-eight years ago; I was nine. His fingers were well-manicured for a man of the cloth. Instinctively I found that a bit repugnant: too spruce or effeminate; maybe even gross.

Mammy told us never to perform our toilette in public. Another thought zeroing in after fifty-odd years: after our weekly ritual Saturday evening bath, as she dried us, for no particular reason she would intone:“Friday cut nails and Sunday cut corns; it were better for man if he never was born.” Was there a message there or did she, like most Dubliners, just like the rhyme?

And there was something sinister and repugnant about his self-absorbed gaze through those blue-tinted wire-rimmed glasses as he bent over me.

After that I would always be wary of men with blue-tinted glasses . They might do what he did to me... That.

Police Bust Large International Pedophile Ring

reported today on yahoo

Senator Brown reveals Childhood Sexual Abuse

A testimony of honesty, courage, and resiliance from Senator Brown of Mass

Cult, A Love Story by Alexandra Amor

Allow me to introduce you to Canadian cult survivor, Alexandra Amor, and her award winning memoir.
----
About


My name is Alexandra Amor and I am the author of Cult, A Love Story. I belonged to a quasi-Eastern New Age cult in Vancouver, Canada from 1989 to 2000. The road of recovery from cult mind control is a long and arduous one and a discovery I made early on was that it is often a very lonely journey. For that reason I wrote this book to say to other cult survivors, “You are not alone. There are others who understand how you feel.”

I also wrote this book for the families and friends of all those who are involved in a cult. It is so difficult to imagine why anyone would put themselves in a situation as abusive and soul destroying as a cult. If you have a loved one who is involved with a cult, I’m sure you’ve asked yourself a thousand times how it is possible that the intelligent, sensible person you know cannot see that they are being manipulated. In the book I chronicle my personal descent as a model of how one gradually becomes coerced into believing that a guru is telling the truth, even when it causes personal pain and loss and the erosion of one’s spirit.

I’ve chosen the title of my book very deliberately to highlight the tragic, abominable paradox of cults: it is often love that is the lever that gurus use to seduce their victims and then to keep them in line and in their sway.

Writing the Book

It took me a year and half to write Cult, A Love Story, but it took me almost a decade to be ready to write it.

I began writing a mystery novel in late 2007, but during the early stages of that book I noticed that the subject of cults kept trying to insert itself into the plot I was trying to devise. I tried to push it away but it returned, persistently. After weeks of wrestling with this I realized that I needed to write my story of being in a cult. I needed to get that story off my chest and out of my body before I would be able to focus on writing fiction.

From January to September 2008 I worked half-time and wrote the book the rest of the time. Then, in September 2008, I closed down my home-based business completely and wrote full-time until April 2009, when the book was complete. Throughout the writing process, my biggest challenge was to clearly explain how one can be persuaded to believe in and follow a manipulative guru. It is an almost unutterably complex series of mental processes that a disciple goes through and I found it very difficult to express this in a way that potential readers who have never been subjected to thought reform would understand.

I’m often asked if it was painful and/or emotionally wrenching to revisit the events and experiences of my time in the cult. For the most part it was not; I had done a tremendous amount of personal healing work (including therapy and thousands of hours of journaling) before I began writing, so more often I felt challenged by the task of communicating in a clear yet hopefully interesting way. But there were moments when I found myself writing about a particular event that I hadn’t thought of for a long time, particularly if it involved the loved one I left behind in the cult, when I would have to stop typing and simply sit and allow myself to weep over my keyboard. When the pressure of that emotion eased up I would wipe my eyes and nose and keep writing. But later I might have to stop and cry again. I felt comfortable that this happened occasionally. It felt healing.

Writing this book has been a powerful and beautiful journey for me. It taught me several things I did not yet know about myself and about the impact the cult had on my life. It brought me closer to my family, because I was able to share for the first time some of the painful and debilitating experiences I’d had. It gave me a voice, something all cult members are robbed of. It taught me how to be a writer, something I’d been trying to learn for years. And it reinforced in me how passionate I am about helping others who are cult survivors.

In May 2010, I was the proud recipient of an Independently Published Book Award (IPPY) for Cult, A Love Story in the category of Autobiography/Memoir

Half a Million Dollars average to compensate 142 Victims from Dioces of Delaware

Fr Maciel applauds from the other side

Diocese of Delaware just settled with 142 victims for an average of $500,000.00

77 million for 146 victims

Catholic lobby wants to limit statue of limitations for abuse suits

Catholic lobby wants to limit statue of limitations for abuse suits


By Brandon Shulleeta Published: January 19, 2011

Catholic Church leaders hope to soften Virginia legislation that could open the church to new lawsuits claiming child molestation by priests.

The state Senate is considering a bill that would give child molestation victims a longer window of time to file civil lawsuits against both their perpetrators and organizations complicit in the abuse.

Companion bills had been filed in the House of Delegates and the Senate, but the House Courts of Justice Subcommittee last week amended the proposed 25-year limitation to eight years - after being lobbied by Virginia Catholic Conference Executive Director Jeff Caruso.

Caruso said in an interview that he told state lawmakers that many states have far lower statutes of limitations than 25 years.

Caruso, a spokesman for Virginia's two Catholic dioceses' bishops, said the bishops support a "reasonable" expansion of the time period in which child abuse victims can file lawsuits beyond the state's current two-year limit.

"I think the key word is 'reasonable,'" Caruso said.

Some child protection lobbyists believe the Catholic Church is fighting to limit its financial liabilities at the detriment of child molestation victims.

"It's a sad day when pedophiles and their enablers have paid lobbyists and victims have to beg for justice," said Grier Weeks, executive director of the National Association to Protect Children. "The last thing we want is to make this anything about the church. ... They inserted themselves into this."
The Catholic Church has faced global scrutiny in recent years in the face of revelations of some priests being transferred to different parishes after molesting children, where some have sexually abused a new set of children.

Now the Catholic Church is trying to restore its image, with Pope John Paul II having issued new guidelines for dealing with accusations of sexual abuse.

In recent years, Catholic Church lobbyists have worked to block attempts in other states to lengthen the period in which victims can file lawsuits against predators and the church.

In 2009, Maryland legislators voted down a bill that would have given child sex abuse victims until age 50 to file a lawsuit against the perpetrator and complicit organizations after the Maryland Catholic Conference put up a vigorous defense, claiming the legislation would have discouraged prompt reporting of child abuse.

In Virginia, victims of child molestation currently have two years to file a lawsuit after either turning 18 or discovering personal damage, whichever comes later. Experts say some child molestation victims experience memory repression and memories of the crimes don't resurface until many years later. Corporations and nonprofits, including churches, can also be held liable if deemed to have been complicit in the abuse.

"When you have third-party defendants that are involved, I think that's where you get into the issue of recognizing that there has to be a reasonable length of time," Caruso said, arguing that the church might have a difficult time defending itself against claims of abuse that occurred long ago. "Again, memories fade and witnesses have died or they can't be located, and at that point, it's very difficult to present evidence in a defense."

But Weeks argues that the church leaders' argument "doesn't wash."

"I've met hundreds of survivors of child sexual abuse and talked with them at length - every imaginable tragedy you can think of. And most of them, even the strongest, are still struggling to come to terms with this decades later," Weeks said, adding that lost or aged evidence works in favor of the defense. "Nobody can or should win a lawsuit without evidence."

Weeks argues that extending the statute of limitations to eight years is far better than two, but doesn't go far enough. Weeks said that he believes the civil statute of limitations should be lifted altogether in Virginia.
"Shouldn't we let victims pursue justice when they want to? Isn't that in our interest? More predators will be exposed. More collaborators will be exposed. It makes the entire society safe," Weeks said.
"Eight years is not enough," Weeks said. "This is not decency to force these people into court and say 'now or never,' because the reality is that many of them are going to come to terms with this much later [in life]."

Mark McAllister, 40, of Roanoke County, received a settlement of $600,000 from the Catholic Church after filing a lawsuit in Missouri alleging a priest sexually abused him regularly for five years, beginning at the age of 13.

But McAllister didn't file the suit until after coming to terms with the abuse at the age of 37, he said in an interview. McAllister said that he had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and had repressed memory of the incident.

The Rev. Carmine Sita of St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City, N.J., had previously been sentenced to five years of probation connected to an alleged case of child sex abuse. After being sent to a treatment center, he had his name changed to Gerald Howard and was transferred to a small parish in Missouri - where McAllister says the priest sexually abused him.

Howard is awaiting trial for numerous felonies, including multiple counts of forcible sodomy.

McAllister, who plans to testify in front of the Virginia Senate, said that at the age of 37 he began having nightmares and uncontrollable thoughts that "all sort of centered around this individual and what happened between us, and initially I wasn't even sure it was real."

McAllister, the Western Virginia director of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, argues that it's unreasonable to expect all child sexual abuse victims to come forward at a young age.
"It's a huge amount of shame and guilt that goes along with it. The perpetrators are very good making the victim feel responsible that they in some manner contributed to it, that they were an equal or willing participant," McAllister said. "Denial is so much of an easier route to take for a lot of the victims. ... Until they realize how deeply it affects their lives, it's just simply an easier route to take. Some victims, on the other hand, simply eliminate it from memory."

Caruso said Catholic Church leaders in Virginia don't plan to point to a specific year as an appropriate civil statute of limitations. However, he noted that about 30 states have a civil statute of limitations of two to five years for child sex abuse cases.

"There's only six states that have a statute of limitations of 25 years or greater, and of the remainder, the majority of those fall in the seven to 10 years range," Caruso said. "Rather than pointing to a specific number, I think that this survey of what other states do in this area really kind of presents a reasonable context."

Caruso said that the Richmond and Arlington dioceses have implemented mandatory background checks for employees and volunteers. There's also been "safe environment" training, and there's a requirement to report abuse to law enforcement.

Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, filed the House bill to extend the civil statute of limitations to 25 years. However, he said that Caruso presented a compelling case for a smaller window.

"They're probably right," Albo said. "If it was 25 years it creates a problem, because what if you discovered it when you were 40? And then you have 25 more years? You'd be trialing a case 55 years after the event happened. And witnesses pass away. People forget [things]."

"I kind of wished it was more than eight, but you know, politics is the art of the possible," Albo said. "We took the higher end of what most states do."

Albo noted that there is no criminal statute of limitations for felony child sex abuse cases in Virginia, contending that perpetrators could still be locked up for crimes that aren't reported until much later.

Attempts to interview Bishop Francis Xavier DiLorenzo of the Richmond Diocese were unsuccessful. Caruso said he speaks on behalf of Arlington Diocese Bishop Paul S. Loverde and DiLorenzo. Aides said Wednesday that DiLorenzo's schedule was booked and a follow-up email to DiLorenzo requesting an interview had not been responded to as of press time.

It was also unclear, as of press time, when the Senate plans to discuss the companion statute of limitations bill