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Survivors: Bishops Must Deliver on Final Day of Conference

November 14, 2018. President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, began the week by announcing that per the Vatican, no vote would be taken on measures to reform the process of the investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct against bishops or the bishops’ negligence in responding to allegations.

The bishops are expected today to present concrete working proposals that describe how they intend to repair their irrevocably damaged credibility, now considerably worsened by their inaction so far this week.

U.S. bishops have demonstrated that they cannot act to protect U.S. children and hold themselves accountable to U.S. laws.

Both the reporting system and the Special Commission described in yesterday’s meeting are accountable to no one but the Vatican. The results of the investigations will […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-14T19:27:26+00:00November 14th, 2018|0 Comments

Bishops’ New Procedures Fail to Produce Abuse Investigations Independent from Vatican

November 13, 2018. At this morning’s USCCB Assembly, Vice President Most Reverend José H. Gomez unveiled a third party reporting system for clergy sex abuse claims that had been approved by a leadership committee in September, telling the conference it was not an actionable item requiring their vote.

He went on to describe the system – a toll-free number and internet link intended to gather and transmit claims of sexual abuse of minors, sexual harassment and misconduct with adults, and mishandling of complaints by bishops and cardinals. It was made clear that this system would not investigate the claims, but simply gather information. The investigations will be conducted by a special commission.

Saying “some people think you should […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-13T22:16:18+00:00November 13th, 2018|0 Comments

Cardinal DiNardo Announces Plan to Halt Vote to Impose Measures of Accountability for U.S. Bishops

November 12, 2018. President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Cardinal Daniel DiNardo opened the general assembly this morning with an announcement that per order of the Holy See, no vote would be taken on procedural measures posed to stem the growing clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

His announcement was followed by a message from the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. In his message the Cardinal expressed that “the only way of reforming the Church is to suffer for her. The only way of reforming the visible […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-12T19:17:43+00:00November 12th, 2018|0 Comments

Bishops’ Proposal Designed to Prevent U.S. Justice System Oversight

RNS photo by Jack Jenkins.

November 11, 2018. This weekend, the Washington Post reported on several proposals from the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to curb the child sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has gained prominence in international press.

The bishops’ early proposals make no mention of compliance with the October 9th letter from the Department of Justice mandating that all documents related to clergy sex abuse by every American bishop must be “preserved in their current format and condition” by dioceses. Evidence shows that some bishops have shredded criminal evidence of abuse in the past, including several who will be attending the conference. Last week, survivors wrote to U.S. […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-11T19:21:59+00:00November 11th, 2018|0 Comments

Gingrich must get Vatican assurances that bishops will comply with DOJ directive to not destroy abuse files, groups says.

Just days before American bishops meet, survivors urging U.S. Ambassador to intervene with Pope Francis.

Also seeking public release of all Vatican and U.S. State Department correspondences on clergy abuse.

U.S victims and advocates requesting meeting with Gingrich.

Link to ECA 11-5-18 letter to U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

A global group of prominent clergy abuse survivors and human rights activists today is urging the United States ambassador to the Vatican, Callista Gingrich, to publicly address the sexual abuse crisis and intervene with Pope Francis on behalf of all U.S. victims of abusive priests.

The group is also requesting all correspondences concerning the United States and the Vatican related to sexual abuse by clergy, including those by former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-05T17:47:09+00:00November 5th, 2018|0 Comments

ECA 11-5-18 Letter to US Ambassador to the Holy See

November 5, 2018

The Honorable Callista Gingrich
United States Ambassador to the Holy See
United States Embassy to the Holy See
Via Sallustiana, 49
00187 Rome, Italy

Re: Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse and the U.S. Response to the Vatican

Dear Honorable Ambassador,

We are writing to you as survivors of clergy sexual abuse and human rights advocates from the United States and around the world.

On November 12, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will be convening in Baltimore to address the crisis of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

The meeting takes place in the wake of an unprecedented formal notification by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) directing every Catholic diocese to “not destroy, discard, dispose of, delete, or alter any” documents related to the sexual abuse […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-05T17:49:33+00:00November 5th, 2018|0 Comments

Global group of activists and survivors of sexual abuse in France and elsewhere stand with Vignon

(Photo credit: John Leicester, File/Associated Press)

Statement by Nadia Debbache, ECA Assembly Member and Lead Counsel for La Parole Libérée.

November 4. 2018. French priest Pierre Vignon, a judge of the Officiality or Ecclesiasticel Court of Lyon (France) has just been sanctioned for publicly asking for the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon.

Barbarin will be on trial at the criminal court in Lyon in January 2019 for failing to report the sexual abuse of more than 70 children by Fr Bernard Preynat in the 1980s and 1990s.

Last August Vignon launched an online petition calling for the resignation of Barbarin. The petition collected more than 105,000 signatures.

Under the pretext of a technicality in church law, and designed to punish Vigonon for his […]

SAVE100child!2018-11-04T22:22:11+00:00November 4th, 2018|0 Comments

US DOJ orders all US bishops not to destroy abuse documents, but in previous post Pennsylvania bishop did just that.

October 26, 2018. Today it was learned that the U.S. Department of Justice has put every US diocese under notice to “not destroy, discard, dispose of, delete, or alter any” documents related to the sexual abuse of children as they investigate “possible violations of federal law.” The letter, addressed to Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is significant because it covers not only the state of Pennsylvania, where the D.O.J. has officially launched a federal probe, but the entire U.S.

One Pennsylvania bishop likely at the center of the current federal investigation is Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh. Zubik has a long history in Pittsburgh. According to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar of Clergy under […]

SAVE100child!2018-10-27T00:13:29+00:00October 26th, 2018|0 Comments

Survivors from around the globe welcome US federal investigation of Pennsylvania dioceses but inquiry needs to be nationwide

US justice officials are well behind Australia and other countries.

October 18, 2018. Today it was learned that the US Justice Department has finally launched an investigation into the sex abuse of children and the cover up of those crimes in the dioceses of Pennsylvania. This is a long overdue and significant development. It should lead to a nationwide probe of every diocese and religious order in the US, especially where the documentation and evidence is similar, if not more damning, than Pennsylvania. This includes several states where nearly full sets of church documents have been court ordered released through civil courts and church bankruptcies. There are now over a million pages of abuse files that have been made public across the […]

SAVE100child!2018-10-19T05:09:19+00:00October 19th, 2018|0 Comments

Protest in Warsaw to demand investigation of pedophilia in Poland’s church

Warsaw protest to demand investigation of pedophilia in Poland’s church.

Reported by Donald Snyder NCR online. October 4, 2018.

Childrens’ shoes are seen Aug. 26 on the fence of the Church of Saint Florian in Krakow, Poland, for victims of pedophilia in that diocese. (Jakub Porzycki/Agenja Gazeta).

Child sexual abuse survivor and victims’ advocate Marek Lisinski is leading a march Oct. 7 in Warsaw to protest pedophilia in Poland’s Catholic Church. Lisinski, 50, is president of Don’t Be Afraid Foundation, an organization that counsels and operates a hotline for survivors of sexual abuse.

The Oct. 7 protest will demand the establishment of a government commission to evaluate the extent of pedophilia in the church and to aggressively prosecute sex offenders. […]

SAVE100child!2018-10-06T16:36:17+00:00October 6th, 2018|0 Comments

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