Accuser unleashes fury at Catholic Church, priest admitted to sleepover

Pa. accuser unleashes fury at Catholic Church
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press – 4/30/12

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 47-year-old man unleashed his fury Monday at the Roman Catholic Church, staring down a church official in a Philadelphia courtroom as he described being forced as a child to engage in sex acts with a priest.

The man glared Monday at Monsignor William Lynn at the defense table and complained that only one church representative, a priest friend, had ever apologized.

“It always felt wrong. A man should not touch a child,” said the man, the ninth of 10 children in his Levittown family.

Testifying in the sixth week of a clergy abuse trial focusing on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the man broke down when he recalled telling his mother in 1998 about being abused by defrocked priest David Sicoli in the late 1970s….

The 61-year-old Lynn is charged with endangering children by keeping accused priests in ministry after reviewing abuse complaints kept in secret archives when he served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. His lawyers argue that he took orders from the cardinal.

Lynn is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, who is charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old in 1996, when Brennan was on voluntary leave and the boy slept over at his West Chester apartment.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXSVeSETzVINRai6wU34yvHjy9Ww?docId=97b8c0852a9944e3a5c89dba3a673266

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Pa-accuser-unleashes-fury-at-Catholic-Church-3521684.php

Testimony: In 2008, priest admitted to sleepover, letting teen look at porn
By Sarah Hoye, CNN  Mon April 30, 2012

Philadelphia (CNN) — One of the two Philadelphia priests on trial in a landmark child sexual abuse and conspiracy case admitted in 2008 that he allowed a 14-year-old to view pornography and sleep in the same bed with him during an overnight visit in 1996, according to testimony given to church investigators.

Monsignor Kevin Quirk, the presiding priest over the 2008 canonical trial of Rev. James Brennan, read Brennan’s testimony into the court record on Monday. Brennan is accused of attempted rape in the 1996 incident and is currently standing trial in criminal court.

“Did I allow it happen? Yes. I take full responsibility for it,” Brennan testified in 2008, adding that the behavior was “borderline” inappropriate. Brennan denied touching the 14-year-old or exposing himself, according to the 2008 testimony that Quirk recounted for the court on Monday….

Also on trial is Monsignor William Lynn, the first high-ranking church figure charged with child endangerment. He’s accused of knowingly transferring priests from parish to parish despite allegations of sexual abuse of minors, including Brennan.

Both have pleaded not guilty….

Two grand jury reports accused the archdiocese of failing to investigate claims of sexual abuse of children by priests.

The 2011 report led to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office criminally charging four Philadelphia priests and a parochial school teacher with raping and assaulting boys in their care, while Lynn was accused of allowing the abusive priests to have access to children.

Days before the trial began March 26, defrocked priest Edward Avery of the Philadelphia Archdiocese pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and conspiracy to endanger the welfare of child after admitting that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy during the 1998-1999 school year.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/30/justice/pennsylvania-church-abuse-trial/index.html

Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case, Belgian sex abuse tapes

Shanley clergy abuse recovered memory case
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/

Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case (AP) – 8/28/10
BRUSSELS — Roman Catholic Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium offered to keep a sexual molestation case against a bishop secret until the bishop retired, an official said Saturday. Toon Osaer, Danneels’ spokesman, confirmed a report in Saturday’s De Standaard newspaper about a secretly taped meeting that Danneels held on April 8 with Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe and the bishop’s sexual abuse victim.

Osaer told the VRT television and radio network that Danneels told the victim the case against Vangheluwe could be kept quiet until the bishop retired as scheduled a year later. In the end, Vangheluwe resigned two weeks after the meeting, expressing sorrow for having abused the victim as a youngster for years, both while serving as a priest and a bishop. Danneels retired as head of the Belgian Catholic church in January. But police later questioned him as a potential witness in the case and raided his home and office, confiscating documents and a personal computer. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jELcVrb_-jrRarOc1Ps2E7AmKY8wD9HSJ4FG0

Belgian sex abuse tapes amplify Catholic scandals Sun Aug 29, 2010
PARIS (Reuters) – Leaked tapes of Belgium’s Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a victim not to reveal he was sexually abused by a bishop are some of the most damaging documents to emerge in the scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church.

The tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers on Saturday, show the former primate of Belgium exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public.
Their meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases by priests in other countries and shocking abuse claims dominated the news in several European states.

A spokesman for Danneels denied the once popular archbishop of Brussels wanted to cover up the case, which led to the sudden resignation of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, 73, later that month, but the tapes show him arguing firmly for silence.
Belgian Church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed to Reuters that the transcripts in the Flemish dailies De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad were genuine.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67S11920100829

Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up, controversial priest promoted

also:
Cavan religious order to be sued by American victims of paedophile priest (paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth)

Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
June 29, 2010 Vatican City – The Vatican on Monday issued an unprecedented rebuke of a top cardinal who had accused the retired Vatican No. 2 of blocking clerical sex abuse investigations, publicly dressing down a man who had been praised for his criticism of church abuse cover-ups. The silencing of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna and long considered a papal contender, drew heated criticism from clerical abuse victims. They said the Vatican should be honoring Schoenborn, not publicly humiliating him, for his calls for greater transparency and demands for a crackdown on priests who rape and sodomize children. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/06/29/MNRF1E68UI.DTL

Vatican promotes controversial Quebec priest Wed Jun 30, By The Canadian Press
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has promoted Canada’s highest-ranking Catholic priest despite recent controversy over his response to the church sex-abuse scandal. Marc Cardinal Ouellet has been named chief of the Vatican’s powerful Congregations for Bishops, which vets bishop appointments around the world. Sixty-six year old Ouellet is the Archbishop of Quebec and the Roman Catholic Primate of Canada, the church’s top official in the country. Earlier this month, a victims’ group said Ouellet had refused to apologize for crimes committed within the church. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100630/national/crime_priest_ouellet

Cavan religious order to be sued by American victims of paedophile priest Ali Bracken, Crime Correspondent 6/27/10 THE NORBertine order in Co Cavan that deceased paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth was attached to is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the US as two of his victims are suing over the sexual abuse he inflicted….Jeff Thomas was just seven years old in 1968 when Smyth began to abuse him in Rhode Island. Helen McGonigle was six years old when she was first assaulted by the priest in 1967. The abuse continued for three years. McGonigle’s family, of Irish descent, were members of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and it was here that they came into contact with Smyth.

A master manipulator, he infiltrated her family’s daily life. He also sexually abused her older sister Kathleen under the pretence of preparing her for the sacrament of penance. Kathleen and her brother Gerard both died from drug overdoses as a result of the abuse Smyth perpetrated against them. Her mother also spent time in a mental institution. In 1994, Smyth was convicted of 17 counts of sexual abuse in a Belfast court. Three years later in Dublin, he pleaded guilty to another 74 counts of abuse. In 1997, Smyth died in prison.
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jun/27/cavan-religious-order-to-be-sued-by-american-victi/

neuroscience – brain of a serial killer; Rare Memo, Vatican Rebukes Cardinal

A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret by Barbara Bradley Hagerty June 29, 2010

….Fallon set out to see whether anyone in his family possesses the brain of a serial killer. Because he has studied the brains of dozens of psychopaths, he knew precisely what to look for. To demonstrate, he opened his laptop and called up an image of a brain on his computer screen. “Here is a brain that’s not normal,” he says. There are patches of yellow and red. Then he points to another section of the brain, in the front part of the brain, just behind the eyes. “Look at that — there’s almost nothing here,” Fallon says. This is the orbital cortex, the area that Fallon and other scientists believe is involved with ethical behavior, moral decision-making and impulse control. “People with low activity [in the orbital cortex] are either free-wheeling types or sociopaths,” he says.

Fallon’s Scans
He’s clearly oversimplifying, but Fallon says the orbital cortex puts a brake on another part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved with aggression and appetites. But in some people, there’s an imbalance — the orbital cortex isn’t doing its job — perhaps because the person had a brain injury or was born that way. “What’s left? What takes over?” he asks. “The area of the brain that drives your id-type behaviors, which is rage, violence, eating, sex, drinking.”

….Along with brain scans, Fallon also tested each family member’s DNA for genes that are associated with violence. He looked at 12 genes related to aggression and violence and zeroed in on the MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the “warrior gene” because it regulates serotonin in the brain. Serotonin affects your mood — think Prozac — and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won’t respond to the calming effects of serotonin.

….according to scientists who study this area. They believe that brain patterns and genetic makeup are not enough to make anyone a psychopath. You need a third ingredient: abuse or violence in one’s childhood. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127888976

In Rare Memo, Vatican Rebukes Cardinal By RACHEL DONADIO June 28, 2010
ROME — The Vatican  drew aside, for a brief and puzzling moment, the thick veil that covers its internal business. It issued an extraordinary communiqué on Monday chastising a powerful cardinal who had criticized another powerful cardinal — proof of a battle inside the Vatican walls that mirrors the anger over sexual abuse raging outside them….On its face, the communiqué is a public rebuke to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna. In April, he had implicitly criticized Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 82, the current dean of the College of Cardinals and Pope John Paul II’s last secretary of state, for blocking an investigation into an Austrian archbishop accused in the mid-1990s of abusing minors. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29pope.html

Cardinal Sean Brady refuses to quit, Spain Catholic sex abuse claims

Abuse victims’ fury as Cardinal Sean Brady refuses to quit From Times Online
May 18, 2010 Survivors of clerical child sexual abuse called on Irish Roman Catholics to make their voices heard today after Cardinal Sean Brady ended months of speculation about his future by saying he would not resign. The cardinal, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is under pressure to stand down after it emerged that he took part in a secret canonical tribunal in 1975 at which two minors were made to swear oaths of silence about their allegations against the paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth. Smyth went on to rape hundreds more children across Ireland, the UK and the United States before he died in prison in 1997.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7129779.ece

Spain struggles with new Catholic sex abuse claims
18 May 2010 By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Cordoba
For almost 50 years, the Franciscan Brothers of the White Cross have run care homes across Spain, looking after the sick and the needy. Now the Catholic order and its centre in Cordoba are the focus of allegations of sex abuse that have shocked the city….Since 2001, Spain has reported 14 confirmed cases of clerical sex abuse to the Vatican. But this month brought two fresh accusations: one against a Carmelite monk in eastern Spain, the other against Franciscan brothers in the south.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10122305.stm

Clergy abuse lawsuit against Pope, Cardinal praises cover up, clergy abuse Chile and Belgium

“I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration,” the Colombian (Cardinal) wrote to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux.

New Lawsuit Shows Letters to Vatican on Sexual Abuse Earlier Than Previously Thought By LAURIE GOODSTEIN April 22, 2010 Documents released in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Pope Benedict XVI show that the Vatican was informed more than a year earlier than previously thought about the case of a priest who molested deaf boys for two decades at a boarding school in Wisconsin.
One victim of the priest wrote two letters to the Vatican’s secretary of state in 1995 asking Pope John Paul II himself to read his anguished letters and “excommunicate” the priest, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

Father Murphy, who died in 1998, admitted to a psychologist hired by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that he had molested 34 children when he worked at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wis., from 1952 to 1974. Church officials concluded that there might have been as many as 200 victims.
The Vatican had previously said that the first notice it had about Father Murphy was when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — received a letter about the case in 1996 from Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee.

The letter writer, whose name was excised, is now the unnamed plaintiff in the latest lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Anderson, a lawyer who has brought hundreds of sexual abuse cases against the Roman Catholic Church. The victim said he never received a response.
What makes this lawsuit unusual is that it names as defendants Pope Benedict; the Vatican’s current secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone; a former secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano; and the Holy See.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/us/23priest.html

Pride and wickedness Embattled and arrogant to the last, a Colombian cardinal implicates Pope John Paul II in the cover-up     Austen Ivereigh        Wednesday 21 April 2010
Cardinal Castrillón was no ordinary official. From 1996 to 2006, he headed the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, the department which safeguards the interests and rights of priests. In September 2001, he wrote to a French bishop to praise him for refusing to turn over an abusive priest to the police. The letter  could not have been clearer or more damning.

“I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration,” the Colombian wrote to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux. “You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest.”

The last was a reference to the fact that Bishop Pican had received a suspended three-month sentence for refusing to report the crimes of Fr René Bissey, claiming that to do so would have violated the confessional (in fact, he had learned of the abuse from one of the victim’s mothers).  Nor, when Cardinal Castrillón wrote the letter, could he have been in any doubt about the priest’s guilt. He had been jailed the year before for 18 years for the sexual abuse of 11 boys.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/21/religion-castrillon-coverup-johnpaul2

Chilean priest allegedly abused 5 young men AP Apr 22, 2010 SANTIAGO, Chile – A Chilean prosecutor on Thursday announced a criminal investigation of a popular retired priest accused of sexually abusing five young men in his parish residence.
The allegations were lodged late last year and confirmed by the archbishop of Santiago only this week, as Chile’s Roman Catholic leadership appealed publicly for forgiveness for alleged abuses involving 20 clergy members. Five of them have been convicted and 15 others are under investigation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_church_abuse

Belgium’s Catholic bishop of Bruges quits over abuse 4/23/10  The bishop of the Belgian city of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, has resigned after admitting sexual abuse of a boy earlier in his career. Bishop Vangheluwe, 73, said the abuse had happened when he was a simple priest and continued when he started as a bishop, a Vatican statement said. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8639253.stm

polygamy cult movie, Cardinal Hailed Bishop for Hiding Predator Priest

Cardinal Hailed Bishop for Hiding Predator Priest: Report By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
April 15, 2010 VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A Vatican cardinal in charge of clergy around the world congratulated a French bishop in a 2001 letter for not denouncing a sexually abusive priest to the police, according to a French website on Thursday. The letter posted by Golias, a critical lay Roman Catholic magazine based in Lyon, is the most explicit of a wave of recently published internal church  documents in showing past Vatican encouragement to cover up sexual abuse by priests. In the letter dated Sept 8, 2001, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos backed French Bishop Pierre Pican’s decision not to denounce a priest who was later sentenced to 18 years in jail for repeated rape of a boy and sexual assaults on 10 others.

Under fire in recent weeks for its secretive handling of abuse cases, the Vatican has insisted the fact that other published documents did not explicitly instruct bishops to inform police of abuse did not prove it told them to hide it….Pican, who received a suspended three-month jail sentence for not denouncing sexual abuse of minors, admitted in court he had kept Rev. Rene Bissey in parish work despite the fact the priest had privately admitted committing pedophile acts.

The case shocked France and prompted its bishops to declare that all abuse cases must be reported to civil authorities. “I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration,” Castrillon Hoyos said. “You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest.”  http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=10388243

Follow the Prophet – A controversial thriller about a young girl’s escape from a polygamy cult http://www.followtheprophetmovie.com/

Clergy who conceal abuse, Vatican lifts veil of secrecy, child abuse traumatic

Clergy who conceal abuse should be dismissed: cardinal – Silvia Aloisi ROME Apr 11, 2010 (Reuters) – The powerful head of Italy’s bishops, responding to mounting pressure on the Vatican, said on Sunday those in the Church who mishandled, minimized and covered up sexual abuse of children should be dismissed. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said in a newspaper interview that pedophilia was a “heinous crime” and even more serious when committed by members of the Church.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63A0X620100411

Vatican lifts veil of secrecy on abuse cases – As two more cover-ups are revealed, a simple online guide to the canonical procedures for dealing with accused priests is launched  By Nicole Winfield in The Vatican 11 April 2010 The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the office once known as the Inquisition – has long epitomised the secrecy of the Vatican, with responsibility for banning books and meting out punishments as severe as excommunication and burning at the stake. Now, as the office’s handling of child-molesting priests comes increasingly under fire, the Vatican is starting to open up. Tomorrow, it will release online a concise guide for the layman on how the congregation handles sex abuse allegations.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-lifts-veil-of-secrecy-on-abuse-cases-1941264.html

Child Sexual Abuse: A Risk Factor for Pregnancy, Study Finds ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2010) — A new study carried out by researchers at the University of Haifa and Soroka Hospital has found that women who were victims of sexual abuse in childhood reported higher levels of depression and symptoms of post-trauma during pregnancy. Sexual abuse in childhood increases the chances of high-risk pregnancy, according to the new study, which was conducted by Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Head of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies at the University of Haifa, Lee Yampolsky and Dr. Tzachi Ben Zion, Deputy Director of Soroka Hospital….The current study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Advanced Nursing (January 2011), examined the possibility of sexual abuse experienced in childhood triggering retraumatization during wanted pregnancy.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406073255.htm

Pope John Paul ‘ignored abuse of 2,000 boys’ , US cardinal protected priest

Late Pope ‘covered up’ sexual abuse scandal 04 Apr 2010 The plight of the Vatican continues to draw worldwide attention as revelations surface that the late pope John Paul II had allegedly blocked an investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests….According to Schonborn, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI, had tried to investigate the allegations of sexual abuse by clergies as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His efforts, Schonborn claimed, had nevertheless been blocked by “the Vatican”, an apparent reference to John Paul…..This comes as John Paul also faced criticism last week from his home country of Poland for protecting Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, who was accused of abusing trainee priests.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122423&sectionid=3510212

How a Molesting Case Emerged Decades Later – Wilfried Fesselmann recently told his story of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest in 1979. The priest was transferred, but not formally suspended until last month. By NICHOLAS KULISH April 1, 2010 ESSEN, Germany — The case that has raised questions about the future pope’s handling of a pedophile priest in Germany came to light three decades after it occurred, and then almost by chance. It happened when Wilfried Fesselmann, an early victim, said he stumbled on Internet photographs of the priest who sexually abused him, still working with children….Father Hullermann went on to molest other boys and was not formally suspended until last month, after the German church acknowledged that “bad mistakes”  were made in the handling of his case. The church said the decision to allow the priest to resume his duties in 1980 was made solely by Cardinal Ratzinger’s top aide at the time, but church officials also said the future pope was sent a memo about the reassignment. While the church has acknowledged Father Hullermann’s extensive history of sexual abuse, there have been no court proceedings on Mr. Fesselmann’s claims.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/world/europe/02church.html

US cardinal protected child abusing priest: court documents By Lucile Malandain (AFP) 4/3/10  WASHINGTON — A staunch defender of Pope Benedict XVI in pedophile scandals now gripping the Vatican reassigned a US priest and alleged child molester in the 1990s without warning parishioners, court documents showed. In sworn testimony in 2006 about his time as Archbishop of Portland, Oregon (1986-1995), US Cardinal William Levada said he decided to reassign the offending priest after he underwent therapy. “The abuse in question had happened 20 years before, or so… the recommendation of the therapy was that he was not at risk for re-abusing and that it would be prudent to reassign him… and prudent also to put conditions that would make sure that he would not be overstressed to do some inappropriate behavior,” Levada testified….In the testimony, Levada was asked if he had warned parishioners about the Oregon priest’s past — inappropriate sexual behavior with teenagers in the 1970s. He answered that he had not. “I took what I believe to be the prudent step of giving complete information to the pastor of the parish… and assigning him as the supervisor to (the priest) who (would) have weekly or regular meetings with him and so forth,” the cardinal said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h8k6tKDnB1OKPdrFRhfD6L8kS3uA

Belgian bishop denounces silence on sex abuses 4/4/10 Belgium’s top Roman Catholic bishop has denounced the “guilty silence” of church officials in the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked much of Europe and the US. Archbishop of Brussels, Andre Joseph Leonard, has criticized the church for often worrying more about the reputation of priests and “savagely exploiting the abused children.” http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122393&sectionid=351020606

John Paul ‘ignored abuse of 2,000 boys’ Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer abused an estimated 2,000 boys for decades without sanction Bojan Pancevski in Vienna and John Follain in Rome 4/4/10 Allegations that the late pontiff blocked an inquiry into a paedophile cardinal, promoted senior church figures despite accusations that they had molested boys and covered up innumerable cases of abuse during his 26-year papacy have cast a cloud over his path to sainthood. The most serious claims related to Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, an Austrian friend of John Paul’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Groer’s successor, criticised the handling of that scandal and other abuse cases last week after holding a special service in St Stephen’s cathedral, Vienna, entitled “Admitting our guilt”.

Schönborn condemned the “sinful structures” within the church and the patterns of “silencing” victims and “looking away”….The Groer affair became public in 1995 when former pupils of an elite Catholic school accused him of sexual abuse. After an outcry, Groer was replaced and made the prior of a convent. He was never punished and issued only a vague apology in 1998 before retreating to a nunnery where he lived until his death in 2003. Some of his victims were offered “hush money” from the church….John Paul also faced criticism last week from Poland for protecting Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, who was accused of abusing trainee priests. Letters detailing the charges were sent to John Paul’s office and to Ratzinger in 2000 but were ignored. Paetz resigned in 2002 when the allegations became public….John Paul was also accused of ignoring controversy over John Magee, a former private secretary to three popes including the Polish pontiff, who named him Bishop of Cloyne in 1987. Late last month Magee was forced to resign after an independent report found that his diocese in Ireland had put children at risk. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7086738.ece

Pope’s immunity could be challenged in Britain 4/4/10 By PAISLEY DODDS  LONDON (AP) – Protests are growing against Pope Benedict XVI’s planned trip to Britain, where some lawyers question whether the Vatican’s implicit statehood status should shield the pope from prosecution over sex crimes by pedophile priests….Although Benedict has not been accused of any crime, senior British lawyers are now examining whether the pope should have immunity as a head of state and whether he could be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction for an alleged systematic cover-up of sexual abuses by priests. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_POPE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-04-04-07-17-26