News

St. Paul lawyer’s attacks on church show increasingly international reach

In a groundbreaking decision, a Federal judge in California today denied a motion by attorneys for the Catholic Church to dismiss a lawsuit based on a unique international law against two Cardinals and a priest for their roles in the sexual abuse of a Mexican man as a boy in 1997, saying the plaintiff has sufficiently plead rape and sexual abuse of children as “…cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” and crimes against humanity.

In 1983, Jeff Anderson was just another lawyer working in St Paul, Minnesota. Then, by chance, the 35-year-old’s career — and life — changed forever when a man walked into his office saying he had been abused by a priest.Soon after taking on the case, Anderson realised the problem was much greater than he had first imagined. It wasn’t just a paedophile priest who was culpable, but also senior bishops who had conspired to cover up the abuse. He promptly sued the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St Paul.The bishops responded with $1m to settle the matter out of court, but Anderson’s client…

An attorney for victims of clergy sex abuse suggested Friday that the
Archdiocese of Milwaukee moved as much as $75 million off its books over
the last six years in an effort to shield it from sex abuse settlements
– allegations denied by the archdiocese.

Dozens of people have come forward since the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
filed for bankruptcy protection last month alleging they were sexually
abused by priests as children, attorneys for victims said Thursday.

On February 10, 2011, a
Philadelphia Grand Jury released a report and a presentment following an
investigation into allegations that two priests and a teacher sexually abused a
10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish in Philadelphia, and that another priest
assigned to St. Jerome sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has provided a rare look at its finances with a federal bankruptcy court filing.

Financial statements filed Monday show the archdiocese has nearly $41
million in assets and $24 million in liabilities. The archdiocese filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January after it failed to
reach a settlement with two dozen victims of sexual abuse by Catholic
clergy.

The Journal Sentinel says the court will determine what assets are
available to compensate victims and creditors. Then it will oversee a
reorganization plan to keep the…

A Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse
by priests for $77 million, a spokesman for the diocese said
Thursday.
The settlement by the Wilmington diocese is roughly $3 million more than the
diocese proposed in mid-January, when it said payouts would likely range from
$75,000 to $3 million per victim, depending on the severity of the alleged
abuse.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2009 due to mounting sex abuse claims
dating as far back as the 1950s.
In the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some
$2 bill…

Headlines around the world this week have reported that Irish broadcaster RTE
obtained a 1997 letter from the Vatican that instructed Irish bishops not to
report child sex abuse by priests to the police. According to the letter, “the
situation of ‘mandatory reporting’ gives rise to serious reservations of both a
moral and a canonical nature.”
Survivors are calling this the “smoking gun” that proves the Vatican’s
complicity in the abuse cover-up. They are right, but that is not the whole
story with this letter.
Absolutely no one should be surprised by this direct expression of …

MINNEAPOLIS – An old letter from the Vatican has surfaced that many say is the smoking gun, the strongest indication yet the Church tried to cover up the crimes of pedophile priests.As an altar boy, Bob Swiderski was repeatedly sexually abused by a priest in Hector, Minnesota in the early 1960s. Now, he believes there’s proof the Catholic Church tried to cover up the crimes of pedophile priests.”What I’ve been saying for 20-plus years is that they’re not telling the truth,” Swiderski said. “They are creating hurdles and this just comes back and proves what my thoughts and my voice has been say…