Legal Discussion

How independent is Catholic sex abuse probe?

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:35:11 +1100

Tag: netherlands

The investigation into sex abuse in the Dutch Catholic Church came up for discussion in parliament on Thursday. Former MP Wim Deetman is carrying out the probe on behalf of the Church. But is he independent enough? Or should there be a parliamentary inquiry?

Wim Deetman knew right from the start that he would be facing some critical MPs. He needed to come up with a success story, otherwise the cabinet might decide to step in. Luckily he did have some good news. In February Mr Deetman asked all the abusers to report to his commission, giving them until 4 April to do so.

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The result? Some abusers have already come forward. Maybe not as many as hoped, but it’s a start. Mr Deetman:

“I haven’t kept track of the exact figures, and I gave them until 4 April. And this is not the kind of thing that will cause a rush. So I expect more people to report themselves in the second half of this month. We just have to wait. But new abusers have come forward. I’m not saying anything about the numbers.”

Lack of trust
So according to Mr Deetman, there is reason for optimism. But not everyone shares this view. One of them is Ton Leerschool, once a victim of sex abuse in a Catholic institute, now a social worker. He is not happy with the Deetman commission and wants the government to intervene in the investigation. Ton Leerschool:

“Deetman is working for the Catholic Church. We don’t trust the Church because it has already let us down once. [...] The government should look into what happened to these Dutch citizens.”

Parliamentary inquiry
Martin de Witte, the lawyer acting for around 120 victims, agrees. He thinks there should be a parliamentary inquiry. Mr De Witte:

“It would be a good idea, because it’s important that cases like this are dealt with openly and transparently. And especially when an institute like the church is involved, this is important as they don’t like transparency. On the contrary, they make sure dossiers on abuse are destroyed.”

Truth commission
However, for the time being the cabinet is not interested in hard measures such as a parliamentary inquiry. MP Madeleine van Toorenburg of the Christian Democrats says:

“The question is whether parliament could do any better than Deetman. We all have the same interest at heart. This certainly isn’t a political issue. As parliament we would like to join forces in order to make sure we find out who is best suited to do this. And in the end the victims can only determine that when Deetman has finished. Then we should ask them: can you live with this?”

But the opposition party GreenLeft doesn’t want to wait for the outcome of the Deetman commission. In a press release the party has said there should be an independent truth commission for the victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/how...buse-probe ...

Sex abuse case against priest is dismissed

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:29:41 +1100

Tag: usa

A decades-old sexual abuse allegation against a Roman Catholic priest from Poland was dismissed today in Cook County Circuit Court.

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Rev. Chester Przybylo, 59, who for the last decade has been pastor of the Shrine of Christ the King in Winfield, had been accused of molesting a 13-year-old Polish immigrant while serving at Five Holy Martyrs in Chicago in the late 1980s.

Jeff Anderson, the plaintiff's attorney, blamed the dismissal on an Illinois Supreme Court ruling this year that clarified the time frame in which sexual abuse survivors must file lawsuits.

The Chicago Archdiocese settled with Przybylo's accuser for nearly $1.4 million.

--Manya A. Brachear

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/20...issed.html ...

Criminalize clergy sexual misconduct

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 05:03:55 +1100

Tag: usa

Should UMC support NOW call?
By the Rev. Darryl Stephens

Should The United Methodist Church (UMC) support the National Organization for Women (NOW) call to make clergy sexual misconduct a crime?

NOW urges state legislatures to make it illegal for a pastor to have sex with a congregant, just as a physician, psychiatrist or licensed counselor may be held criminally liable for “unlawful sexual relations” with those in their care.

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Sexual misconduct is an immoral act, a violation of the sacred trust of ministry. And religious institutions have been notoriously slow to hold their own clergy accountable for sexual misconduct. Regrettably, we need to admit that the UMC is not exempt from this situation.

The Church is in a much better position to respond to sexual misconduct among its clergy than the state, though. The state has a problem in regulating “clergy” because it is difficult to legally define the term. The UMC definition includes local pastors (2008 Book of Discipline 141).

In a denomination that takes seriously the ministry of all Christians, defining the scope of church policies pertaining to ministerial relationships is complicated. Consider, for example, who is clergy? Our Book of Discipline includes as clergy persons who are not ordained, such as a licensed local pastor (141).

Not all clergy are pastors for that matter: Ordained deacons are not pastors, as defined in 339.

Ambiguities exist with regard to ordained persons. Is a deacon serving in a secular setting also functioning as clergy? Certified Lay Ministers who provide “a care ministry to the congregation” (271) are not clergy. But should they be included in rules pertaining to ministerial misconduct?

What about the ministry of all baptized Christians (128)?

The UMC includes all these categories of leadership and more in its definition of misconduct and abuse.

Sexual misconduct is not an “affair.” Rather, it is a violation of the sacred trust of ministry. The clergyperson has a duty to act in the best interests of the parishioner, to maintain professional boundaries, and to refrain from using that relationship to personal advantage.

The UMC defines sexual abuse in ministry as “a form of sexual misconduct [that] occurs when a person within a ministerial role of leadership … engages in sexual contact or sexualized behavior with a congregant, client, employee, student, staff member, coworker, or volunteer)” (2008 Book of Resolutions).

The authority of the pastoral office creates a context in which meaningful consent by the parishioner is often impossible. Because of the parishioner’s emotional vulnerability, sexual contact within a ministerial relationship lacks true consent even if the parishioner agrees to it.

The Bible is replete with messages about misconduct and justice. King David exemplified the leader who misuses power for personal gratification (2 Samuel 11 and 12). Ezekiel brought sharp condemnation on so-called shepherds who would prey on their own flock (34:1-10). Paul counsels those in ministry, “Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other” (1 Corinthians 10:24).

The Old Testament’s predominant justice theme is protection of the vulnerable, those without power. The United Methodist General Commission on the Status & Role of Women shares NOW’s concern about clergy sexual misconduct. It is a matter of justice for the vulnerable, the vast majority of whom are adult women.

Confession of Sin

Historically, faith communities have been slow to respond to abuses by clergy. Twenty years ago, the UMC was silent on this issue. Predatory clergy routinely were given “geographic therapy” by being reappointed somewhere else in the hope that their misconduct would be kept quiet.

It has only been within the past 15 years that the UMC has explicitly addressed clergy sexual misconduct. General Conference, this denomination’s highest policy-making body, passed its first resolution addressing sexual abuse within pastoral relationships in 1996. The same year, “sexual misconduct” entered the UMC lexicon of chargeable clergy offenses.

Sexual misconduct remains a problem, nonetheless. Three percent of women attending church in the past month reported being sexually harassed or abused by a clergyperson at some point in their adult lives, according to a nationwide study. Ongoing news reports about clergy sexual misconduct should provide a sobering reminder to United Methodists to confront our own abuse crisis before it blows up in our faces.

The UMC averages between 140 and 500 known cases of clergy sexual misconduct annually in the United States alone. An accurate count of clergy misconduct involving adults is impossible to obtain in the UMC because no central reporting mechanism exists. Furthermore, many cases are still handled informally.

“Law enforcement authorities need to step up their investigations of sexual abuse in religious organizations,” asserts NOW President Terry O'Neill, “because it is apparent that many church officials will not act in a prompt and responsible manner.”

Government

NOW’s resolution would add clergy to existing state laws covering other counseling relationships. Nearly every state criminalizes sexual contact between secular counselors or “mental health professionals” and their clients. Only 13 states include clergy in these laws, which are based on legal concepts of fiduciary duty and professional standard of care. Only two states criminalize sexual contact between clergy and congregant outside of a formal counseling relationship.

From a legal standpoint, though, NOW’s approach may not be as effective as taking a different tack to avoid unnecessary entanglements between church and state. A statutory focus on lack of meaningful consent rather than fiduciary duty may provide the legal traction necessary for states to criminalize clergy misconduct.

Courts are hesitant to intervene in cases involving adult-to-adult relationships in religious institutions. The U.S. criminal justice system is constitutionally limited in its ability to address clergy misconduct due to separation of church and state. As a consequence, secular courts cannot rule on the standard of care appropriate to a pastoral counseling relationship.

Identifying the lack of consent within a relationship based on power and authority is within the court’s purview, though. This approach will protect the vulnerable party. It is similar to laws protecting minors, the mentally impaired, intoxicated persons or others whose consent might be easily coerced. It does not ask courts to rule on religious questions.

The Church does need to be called to accountability by the state. Intervention through state law has recent precedent. The UMC did not begin to address sexual harassment within its ranks until the 1980s, prompted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a U.S. Supreme Court case upholding EEOC guidelines and reporting mechanisms.

Only after secular law forced a cultural change did the UMC first take a stand against the sin of sexual harassment in 1988. Criminalization of clergy misconduct may have the positive effect of deterring would-be clergy sexual predators, protecting potential victims and promoting clarity about sexual activity as an abuse of power.

The Church

While state laws may provide some degree of public accountability, the church is much better situated than the state to protect the integrity of the ministerial relationship. Churches must clearly communicate appropriate boundaries, the differential in power inherent in a pastoral relationship and expectations of ministerial responsibilities.

Churches must also hold all persons in a ministerial role of leadership accountable to these standards. Lack of clarity about the nature of the pastoral relationship and lack of moral will to address the problem of clergy misconduct are at the root of the Church’s failure to provide justice for the vulnerable.

Perhaps state laws will catalyze the collective Christian conscience and prompt a more pro-active response by the UMC and other religious institutions.

The Church cannot delegate responsibility to the state for determining ethical standards for clergy, however. Where a clear professional relationship exists that restricts freedom of consent by a parishioner, abuse of pastoral power should be against the law.

Clergy and other leaders in the UMC engage in Christian conferencing with one another about healthy professional boundaries, including appropriateness of dating congregants. Protecting the vulnerable and maintaining the integrity of the ministerial relationship requires that the UMC clarify expectations for all ministerial leaders and the people they serve.
Editor’s note: The Rev. Darryl Stephens is assistant general secretary for advocacy and sexual ethics for the General Commission on the Status & Role of Women. He convenes the United Methodist Inter-agency Sexual Ethics Task Force, conducts trainings in misconduct prevention and response nationally, and is primary coordinator for the “Do No Harm 2011” event in January. A former faculty member of Candler School of Theology, he holds a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from Emory University and is an ordained Deacon in the Texas Annual Conference.
Resources
# United Methodist Sexual Ethics
# “United Methodists need to face abuse crisis,” Garlinda Burton, UMNS Commentary, June 14, 2010.
# “A Sacred Trust: Boundary Issues for Clergy & Spiritual Teachers,” Curriculum available from FaithTrust Institute.
# National Organization for Women:

1. Resolutions
2. Clergy Abuse Statement
3. Clergy Abuse: Unsafe.

# “Sexual Misconduct Within Ministerial Relationships,” #2044,
The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church, 2008.
# United Methodist Social Principles, ¶161 The Nurturing Community:
H) Sexual Abuse and I) Sexual Harassment. The Book of Discipline, 2008.
# “Sexual Misconduct of Clergypersons with Congregants or Parishioners – Civil & Criminal Liabilities & Responsibilities,” accessed Sept. 9, 2010. Bradley J.B. Toben and Helge Kris.
# Responding to Clergy Misconduct: A Handbook. Marie Fortune, FaithTrust Institute, 2009.
# Sex in the Parish. Karen Lebacqz and Ronald Barton. (Westminster/J. Knox Press, 1991).
# Preventing Sexual Abuse in Congregations : A Resource for Leaders. Karen McClintock, (Alban Institute, 2004.)
# "Justice, Not Charity: Social Work through the Eyes of Faith." Nicholas Wolterstorff, (Social Work & Christianity vol. 33, no. 2, 2006)

http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/apps/nln...ct=8799947 ...

Holding the Pope to Account for Catholic Child Abuse

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 01:31:45 +1100

Tag: australia
Tag: youtube

Q & A

Guests:
Geoffrey Robertson - Australian human rights lawyer.
Paul Kelly - Australian catholic and editor of right-wing newspaper.
Ratih Hardjono - Indonesian journalist.
Lenore Skenazy - Attractive New York columnist.
Tariq Ali - British-Pakistani novelist and commentator.

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http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/ ...

canon law

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:12:31 +1100

canon law Links

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CANON LAW CONFERENCE

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CANON LAW

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The Individualization of Crime in Medieval Canon Law

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ficulties they faced in terms of canon law by discussing the …

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Canon Law and the End of the Ordeal

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The Reception of Canon Law and Civil Law in the Common Law Courts …

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CANON LAW

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Library of Congress Classification – Draft of Subclass KBT (Canon …

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Library of Congress Classification – Draft of Subclass KBS (Canon …

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T he Institute of Medieval Canon Law is an independent, non …

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THE SCHOOL OF CANON LAW

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THE CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS AND THE SPIRIT OF CANON LAW

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Canon Law I. Faculty Administration II. Teaching Personnel …

Asselin, Anne, J.C.D. (Saint Paul), Ph.D. (Canon Law) (Ottawa). * Bellemare, Pierre, B.A. (Montreal), Ph.D. (Philosophy) (Montreal) … http://www.ustpaul.ca/canonlaw/docume...taff_e.pdf
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Saint Paul University received the authority to confer …

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CANON LAW SOCIETY OF AMERICA

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CANON LAW SOCIETY OF AMERICA

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MEDIEVAL MORAL THEOLOGY AM) CANON LAW: BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR STUDENTS …

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The perception of Jews in the canon law in the period of the first …

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SUMMARIES Intermarriage Between Christians and Jews in Medieval …

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Gospel of St. John and Canon Law among courses for CDU January session

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Code of Canon Law – IntraText ^

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THE MINISTRY OF CLERGY IN ANGLICAN AND ROMAN CATHOLIC CANON LAW: A …

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IDEALS AND CANON LAW LEGAL FRAMEWORK R. TORFS

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Theology Resources

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Canon Law

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MA CANON LAW 2009/10

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ROMAN CANON LAW IN REFORMATION ENGLAND

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APPENDIX xx Applicable Canon Law Canon 519 The pastor (parochus …

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UNIVERSITY OF MALTA FACULTY OF THEOLOGY Master of Arts in …

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Adult Faith Formation: Canon Law Saturdays: January 30 8:30 am to …

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Orthodox Canon Law

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Role of Priests and Pastors: Canon Law The Pastor as Teacher and …

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CFFC Canon Law No 2

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DECREE of the Congregation for Catholic Education revising the …

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Between Arles, Rome, atad Toledo: Cauje collectiotas of canon law …

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Lay Preaching and Canon Law

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Applying the Principles and Procedures of Civil Law to Canon Law …

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the Code of Canon Law

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THE CODE OF CANON LAW

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Canon law system is compromised

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Canon Law References

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http://fitripdf.com/books/canon-law.html ...

College Lecture Series Features Law Professor Timothy Lytton on Clergy Abuse Issue

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:13:29 +1000

Tag: usa

Albany Law School Professor Timothy Lytton, the author of Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse, will speak about this topic at Southern Vermont College on Monday, October 4, at 6 p.m. Part of the College’s themed series, Citizenship through Empowerment, Lytton’s lecture will be held in the Everett Theatre and is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the Burgdorff Gallery; copies of the book will be available for purchase and for signing.

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Lytton, an award-winning teacher and the Albert and Angela Farone Distinguished Professor of Law, is also the editor of Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle of the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts. In Holding Bishops Accountable, Lytton documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse as a result of private lawsuits. Available in English and Spanish, Lytton’s published works include many articles on torts, administrative laws, conflict resolution and jurisprudence.

The lecture series continues on February 10, 2011, with Paul Solomon, Professor of Psychology at Williams College and Clinical Director of the Memory Clinic. Solomon’s address is entitled Saving Six Million Minds: Recent Developments in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The lecture series will conclude on Tuesday, March 22, with Alexandria Peary, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Author of Fall Foliage Called Bathers & Dancers (2008) and the forthcoming Lid to the Shadow (2011), Peary’s address is entitled Peter Elbow, Walter Ong and Dorothy Sarnoff: A Discussion of Inner and Outer Rhetoric.

For more information on the lecture series, contact the Office of Communications at 802-447-6388 or e-mail communications@svc.edu.

http://www.svc.edu/pr/index.html?release_id=1123 ...

Can the principles of Restorative Justice be applied to the Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:00:13 +1000

Tag: usa

For most of the past week, this space has focused on What the Pope Knew, a CNN documentary that aired Saturday night on the subject of the Pope Benedict XVI's role in handling allegations of child sexual abuse by priests that came to his attention while (as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) heading Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the reign of John Paul II.

Several readers commented. This one from Muldoon was particularly interesting to me

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Restorative Justice is the only way for the church to move forward in dealing with the Clergy Sexual Abuse scandal. If the Pope would come clean, establish a world wide Restorative Justice action this scandal could truly be put behind us all in a matter of a few years.

Restorative Justice has been used all over the world to resolve injustice. In order for it to work the pope would have to admit that there was EVIL within his CHURCH.

I have been waiting 49 years for justice please help me find it in my life time. Tell the Pope we need Restorative Justice NOW."

Muldoon's comment caused me to look up the definition of the since it was a term I was not familiar with. I came across several definitions. One that appealed to me was found was, interestingly, found at a website promoting "green-collar jobs.". That site defines Restorative Justice this way: "A cost-effective criminal justice approach that is based on reconciliation, restoration, healing and rehabilitation. Restorative justice refers to a movement promoting humane, transformative and cost-effective alternatives to our current punitive, failed and costly system of mass incarceration."

Wikipedia, meanwhile, defines Restorative Justice as "an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims and offenders, instead of the need to satisfy the abstract principles of law or the need of the community to exact punishment."

In any event, Restorative Justice stresses the idea of promoting dialogue between victims and accused as opposed to a strict adversarial relationship. To work best it requires goodwill on all sides.

To his credit, I think, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of the "sin within the Church" but victims would like to see those words followed up with actions demonstrating the Church's sincerity in making things right. The Pope has also met with victims which is a good thing.

But the idea of some sort of ongoing dialogue between the Church and priestly sex abuse victims that is not adversarial and in which victims are actively engaged and empowered in building the path toward greater justice and healing seems like an idea worth trying.

Such a dialogue should not be aimed at either whitewashing or minimizing what actually happened or in exacting vengeance against the Church. For everyone's sake (especially the victims), I hope they can find forgiveness in their hearts. It is through contrition and forgiveness that healing flourishes.

Healing, not retribution or cover-up, needs to be the goal. It's tough. It's painful. But it can be done.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/catholicsme...z11ZUc2vCA ...

Clergy abuse in Delaware: For lawyers, representing victims takes its toll

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:58:40 +1000

Tag: usa

By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

BOSTON -- Attorney Ray Boucher helped secure a record $660 million settlement from the Los Angeles Archdiocese on behalf of more than 500 people molested by priests. Five days after the settlement was announced, his wife left him.

Eric MacLeish, the hard-charging lawyer whose work for victims helped spur the resignation of Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002, later suffered a breakdown, stopped practicing law and got divorced.

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And Steve Rubino, once such an observant Catholic he couldn't believe a priest would molest a child, lost his faith and eventually retired from the law.

"It moved me completely out of whatever religious context I was in -- completely," he said.

The sex scandal that rocked the nation's Roman Catholic Church took a fearsome personal toll on some of the top lawyers who dared to challenge the institution.

While many of them ultimately reaped large fees for their services, the all-consuming workload, the pressure of battling the church and the stress of listening to graphic accounts of children's suffering were debilitating.

Since taking his first such case in 2003, Delaware attorney Thomas S. Neuberger said Saturday, "the stresses have been immense."

He and his law partner/son Stephen J. Neuberger now have 98 cases against the Diocese of Wilmington, 14 claims against the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and three involving the Norbertine religious order that operates Archmere Academy.

The elder Neuberger said he went into the sex-scandal litigation as a veteran of intense government corruption and civil rights cases, suing entities from the Pentagon to the Delaware State Police, as well as administrative agencies, counties and municipalities, but, he said, "the difficulty of litigating against the Roman Catholic Church makes cases against the Pentagon look like Little Bo Peep.

"It is at a level of intensity and difficulty that everything else in my experience pales in comparison," he said. "These are the most difficult cases in my 36 years of experience."

Sylvia Demarest, a lawyer who helped win a $119.6 million verdict against the Diocese of Dallas in 1997 and later built a national database on clergy sex-abuse cases, said, "No one can handle these cases and come out of it the same."

Demarest, now semi- retired, said she grew frustrated with her inability to heal the wounds suffered by her clients. "What happens to kids when they're abused and what happens to their brains when they are abused is something that we don't know how to fix," she said.

The crisis exploded in Boston in 2002, after internal church documents released publicly showed that church leaders for decades had shuffled sexually abusive priests from parish to parish. The scandal spread across the country as thousands of lawsuits were filed by people who claimed they had been victimized.

Caring for people with the aftermath of such victimization weighs heavily on Neuberger.

The abuse survivors are people whose lives have been "ruined ... people with diagnoses of major depression, suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction, some already having taken their lives, people with a complex of emotional and psychiatric issues," Neuberger said. "The responsibility and burden of trying to hold those people together in the face of the onslaught, the slash-and-burn-delay, is almost overwhelming, almost overwhelming."

Emotionally rattled

For MacLeish, the clergy cases reawakened memories of being sexually abused as a child.

MacLeish and other lawyers won an $85 million settlement in Boston in 2003 for more than 500 victims. But in the months after the landmark settlement was announced, MacLeish began to unravel. He developed insomnia and nausea, lost 40 pounds and couldn't work.

He was rattled by the image of a 9-year-old boy who was repeatedly sodomized over nine hours by a priest. The boy buried his bloody underwear so his mother wouldn't find out.

"The idea of him going off into the woods and burying his underwear, that really got to me," MacLeish said.

MacLeish had been sexually abused by a family friend during a camping trip at 15. And he had memories of being molested at an English boarding school he attended as a boy.

"I began to realize why I had been doing this work and how much my own abuse had affected me," he said. He said his pursuit of the church "was absolutely never about money." He added: "The wealth I received was the knowledge that I had really helped my clients and helped to change the Catholic Church."

Rubino, who retired last year after more than 20 years of representing clergy sex-abuse victims, was incredulous after a family friend came to him in 1987 and said a priest had sexually assaulted her 14-year-old son.

"I said, 'Well, that's impossible. Priests are celibate. What are you talking about?' " recalled Rubino, who grew up in a large Italian Catholic family.

Rubino, whose law office was in Margate City, N.J., spent the next 15 years becoming a canon law expert. He traveled all over the U.S. and to Ireland, Canada and Australia to represent victims and help other lawyers. Story after story of abuse left Rubino disheartened about the Catholic Church.

"I was a true believer. I said my Hail Marys, my Act of Contrition, I learned Latin, I served Mass, I believed in God," he said. "I don't do any of that now."

At the height of the scandal, Rubino was working 16- to 20-hour days and traveling constantly. His wife and three children resented it. "While I was [home], I was never there," he said. "I was a second away from the next text, the next e-mail, the next phone call from a client."

Rubino's marriage survived, but Boucher's did not. Boucher's wife left him right after the 2007 settlement in Los Angeles.

"She just said, 'Look, you're on top of the world, the press is surrounding you, I haven't accomplished what I want to accomplish in life, and I just don't feel like I can stay with you,"' Boucher said.

Before that, Boucher had plowed through hundreds of cases in Los Angeles, and mostly managed to "box it up and store it away." But, at times, the enormity of the pain caused by the abuse was overwhelming.

In 2004, Boucher was editing DVDs of victims describing how they were raped or otherwise molested by a priest. He saw a pile of about 150 DVDs ready to be mailed to Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony. Each DVD cover had a picture of the victim as a child, as they were when they were assaulted.

"I was stunned. I looked at them, and I'm sure I started to cry," Boucher recalled. "I will never lose that image."

Few have regret, though

MacLeish's marriage also ended in divorce. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he began seeing a psychologist. Within two months, they were sleeping together and their affair led to his divorce, MacLeish said.

Neuberger, 63, said he feels lucky that instead of destroying his marriage, "the stress has done nothing but pull us together."

MacLeish, now a professor who teaches civil rights and criminal procedure at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, said he doesn't regret the work he did, despite the toll it took on him and his family.

"There is not one case that I've heard of since 2004 where a known pedophile has been placed by the church into an organization where he would be able to do it again," he said.

Rubino, 61, now spends time with his family and works as chief executive of a sports performance training center for kids. Rubino said it is a respite from the work he used to do.

"For the hundreds of damaged young lives I represented, the kids at [the center] are at the opposite end of the spectrum," he said.

Boucher, 53, continues to represent victims.

"I can't imagine walking away from people who are suffering from the isolation of sexual abuse," he said. "I don't know how -- no matter what the personal, emotional toll might be -- I don't know how you walk away from that."

Staff reporter robin brown contributed to this story.

http://www.sparkweekly.com/article/20...2/-1/TERMS ...

Nothing hypothetical about papal persecution

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 22:34:05 +1000

Tag: england

GEOFFREY Robertson has joined a vindictive campaign against the Pope and the church, says Julian Porteous.

GEOFFREY Robertson QC is a barrister of international standing and a capable media personality. On the basis of his public reputation, his new book, The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse, no doubt timed to coincide with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain for the beatification of John Henry Newman, deserves a response.

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The book exhibits many errors of fact and dramatic and false claims that need correcting. Robertson is known to be polemical in style but polemics cannot excuse inaccuracy.

Robertson claims: "While there can be no objection to an organisation disciplining members for a breach of arcane rules, there is every objection when those breaches amount to serious crimes and the organisation claims the right to deal with them internally without reporting them to the police"(The Sydney Morning Herald, September 9). This comment needs to be challenged.

First, does the church protect pedophile priests? No. In the church's first Code of Canon Law, published in 1917, sexual offences against children were considered crimes and the church provided processes to punish those crimes. Revision of the code in 1983 gave bishops the tools needed to deal with these crimes. In recent years, in light of the focus on sexual crimes committed by priests against children, the church has continued to issue laws designed to protect children and to punish offenders. One example is that the age of consent has been raised from 16 to 18. In other words, any sexual contact between a priest and anyone under the age of 18 is a crime. In 2002, pope John Paul II transferred the jurisdiction to prosecute these crimes from local bishops to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was then under the direction of Cardinal Ratzinger. This signalled a new commitment on the part of the church and Ratzinger to deal with this terrible crime and remove any offending priest from ministry.

Robertson's assertion regarding the church's response to these crimes, that the church "claims the right to deal with them internally without reporting them to the police", is a distortion of reality. The church deals with these crimes using its own laws and procedures, but it does not claim an exclusive jurisdiction. The church accepts that the state has competence to deal with the crimes of clerics when they breach civil law. The church's purpose in conducting its internal processes is to protect the community by removing the priest from his ministry; the state's purpose is also to protect the community but it will do so by imposing a sentence of imprisonment. From the church's perspective, both systems of law work together for the good of the community.

Does the church, however, protect clerics, as Robertson argues? Tragically, this may have happened in individual cases but for many years the church in countries such as Australia and the US has encouraged victims of clerical abuse to take the issue to civil authorities to have it investigated by the police and then brought before a civil court. Some victims, however, choose not to go to the police and ask the church to investigate the crime.

The church, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has affirmed the importance of crimes being reported to the police.

The church will continue to deal with the crimes of priests against children and young people internally so as to be able to remove offending priests from ministry for the protection of children and the good of the church. The church cannot impose the sorts of penalties that the state's criminal law provides for such crimes. It has very limited capacity to coerce an offending priest. The church can, for example, impose an order on a priest to live in a certain place but cannot compel him to do so.

Where a crime against a child has been established using the church's canon law, the case is referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that priest will be removed from the priesthood and will no longer be able to minister on behalf of the church. That is a very serious outcome for a priest, but it's quite different to a prison sentence that the state can impose. When Robertson states that this is "no punishment worthy of that name", he seems to have no understanding of just how serious this outcome is for a priest. In most cases the priest will also be dealt with and punished by civil law.

Robertson claims: "Canon law has no sex offenders' registry." Perhaps not in the way in which such registries exist in various civil jurisdictions, but the church co-operates with civil law in screening anyone who may be in touch with children at a parish or school level.

Robertson has joined a cacophony of shrill criticism of the Pope. This is embarrassing to some fellow secular humanists such as Brendan O'Neill. Writing on the Spiked website (September 7), he says he has no intention of holding a candle for the church, but adds: "These Pope-protesters threaten to drain the last drop of decency from old-fashioned humanism, turning a once principled outlook into little more than a requirement to hate religion."

Julian Porteous is Auxiliary Catholic Bishop of Sydney.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/...5928033159 ...

Catholic Church Legal Defenses?

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 02:44:42 +1000

Tag: usa

There have been many scandals in many different churches. The Church of Scientology is in the lime light for the alleged abuses (beatings actually) of adults by the head of the church. The fact that a high-ranking individual, who had been in the inner circle for 27 years, adds a lot of drama to the charges. However, it is the Catholic Church and the Pope that’s in the cross-hairs of many lawyers.

What makes the current mess so sticky for the Vatican is that the Pope is front and center. Dragged deeper than ever into the clerical sex abuse scandal, the Vatican is launching a legal defense that it hopes will shield the pope from a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to have him answer attorneys’ questions under oath.

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Vatican lawyers (it seems odd to add those two words together doesn’t it?) plan to argue that the pope has immunity as head of state, that American bishops who oversaw abusive priests weren’t employees of the Vatican, and that a 1962 document is not the “smoking gun” that provides proof of a cover-up. This all sounds too legalistic- too, well, too un-Christian!

But, what’s the Catholic Church to do in order to protect the Papa?

The Holy See is trying to fend off the first U.S. case to reach the stage of determining whether victims actually have a claim against the Vatican itself for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about Roman Catholic priests who molested children. The case was filed in 2004 in Kentucky by three men who claim they were abused by priests and claim negligence by the Vatican. Their attorney, William McMurry, is seeking class-action status for the case, saying there are thousands of victims across the country.

Class action stuff cost the Vatican dearly eight years ago!

“This case is the only case that has been ever been filed against the Vatican which has as its sole objective to hold the Vatican accountable for all the priest sex abuse ever committed in this country,” he said in a phone interview. “There is no other defendant. There’s no bishop, no priest.” The Vatican is seeking to dismiss the suit before Benedict XVI can be questioned or documents subpoenaed.

Plaintiffs in the Kentucky suit argue that U.S. diocesan bishops were employees of the Holy See, and that Rome was therefore responsible for their alleged wrongdoing in failing to report abuse. The Vatican’s strategy is to be formally filed in the coming weeks. Vatican officials declined to comment on Tuesday. It seems as though most of the higher-ups were busy with Holy Week. Ah, the irony of it all.

PS. Lawyers as far away as Australia have said they plan to use similar strategies.

http://lawyercapecod.com/catholic-chu...enses.html ...