http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/sports/ncaafootball/tribute-to-paterno-includes-a-few-strong-words.html

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Strong Words Resound at Tribute to Paterno

By MARK VIERA

Published: January 26, 2012

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State concluded its weeklong goodbye to the former football coach Joe Paterno with a memorial Thursday at a packed arena that featured remembrances from a player from each of the six decades in which he coached, videos of him with the team and an emotional closing eulogy from his son Jay.

Jason Plotkin/York Daily Record, via Associated Press

The memorial service for Joe Paterno at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center featured remembrances from several of his players. More Photos »

Multimedia

Slide Show

Joe Paterno, the Face of Penn State

The service mirrored the reverential tenor of the other ceremonies that have honored the contribution that Paterno, who died from lung cancer on Sunday at 85, made in transforming Penn State and its football program. The speakers mostly avoided the child sexual-abuse scandal that led to Paterno’s firing Nov. 9.

The exception was the speech given by Phil Knight, the chairman of Nike, who was a close friend of Paterno’s. In the memorial’s most riveting moment, Knight lambasted Penn State’s board of trustees for firing Paterno, the coach from 1966 until 2011, because he did not report to the police what he knew about a suspected 2002 sexual assault by the former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno, who wore black Nikes on the sideline, reported the allegations to two university officials, but apparently did not follow up.

“It turns out he gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chain to the head of the campus police and the president of the school,” Knight said. “The matter was in the hands of a world-class university and a president with an outstanding national reputation. Whatever the details of the investigation are, this much is clear to me: if there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno.”

Knight’s comments drew an explosion from the crowd of about 12,000, followed by a sustained standing ovation, with Paterno’s widow, Sue, and his family members rising to their feet.

Other speakers referred indirectly to Paterno’s firing, but Knight addressed the matter directly, seeming to give voice to the crowd’s frustration over the topic.

Knight’s admiration for Paterno was similar to that of many mourners here. Despite the stunning end to his career, Paterno remains beloved by many Penn State fans in part for his success on the field — he won the most games by a Division I football coach — and for donating more than $4 million to the university.

“Joe’s success and his impact didn’t end Sunday when he died,” said Todd Blackledge, the quarterback of the national championship team in the 1982 season. “And it didn’t end yesterday when we all said goodbye to him. It will live on in this place, Penn State. And it will live on the lives and hearts of all the people here for many years to come.”

Set at a filled Bryce Jordan Center on Penn State’s campus, Thursday’s mostly somber two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, titled “A Memorial for Joe,” attracted alumni and fans, as well as dozens of former Nittany Lions players and luminaries.

There was a great demand for tickets, which were free and ran out quickly on Tuesday.

Among the former players who spoke were Charlie Pittman, who was a member of Paterno’s first recruiting class as coach, and Michael Robinson, who led Penn State to an 11-1 record and an Orange Bowl victory in the 2005 season.

Toward the end of the memorial, Jay Paterno offered closing remarks that recalled his father’s final days, detailing his last conversations with him while he lay in the hospital bed, weakened from chemotherapy.

Jay, one of Paterno’s five children (he also had 17 grandchildren) and a former quarterbacks coach at Penn State, said his father died with a clear conscience, a reference to the Sandusky case.

“Among the things he accomplished in his life, it was the games he won that counted the least,” Jay Paterno said. “His impact reached to men who worked for him, to Penn State students, to people he never met. One mourner told me Wednesday: ‘Your family’s not very good at math. Your father has millions of children and grandchildren.’ ”

The ceremony ended with chants of “We are … Penn State.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0117/1224310361337.html

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Thank you Rick Springer, for spotting this opinion piece by Jason Berry in the Irish Times.

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Cardinal’s profit mission and an FBI investigation into sale of church property

January 17, 2012

JASON BERRY

RITE AND REASON: IN 2005 parishioners of St James in the farm belt town of Kansas, Ohio, recoiled when Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair, facing a tight budget, closed the parish, steering them to one several miles away. They filed an appeal to the Vatican. It failed.

Then they sued in a local county court, arguing that the bishop was a trustee but parishioners owned the property. The state sided with the bishop. “We spent $100,000 in legal fees,” said parishioner Virginia Hull. “Bishop Blair paid his lawyers with $77,957 from our parish account.” Blair had the church demolished.

Canon law says a parish is “a juridic person”. But that “person”, like an olden slave, does not own itself. The bishop does. Nevertheless, a federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts barred the bishop there from razing a church deemed a historic landmark. Parish ownership is unresolved in American law.

A US Catholic parish has closed on average once a week for the last 20 years. Many bishops have sold churches to plug deficits, or pay for abuse cases caused by their negligence or their predecessors’.

The idea that each bishop stands in a lineage going back to Jesus’s disciples renders them immune from prosecution for recycling abuse predators or selling churches to cover mistakes. Since 2005 at least 95 parishes from 21 US dioceses have appealed to Vatican courts. At least 12 closures won partial reprieves in the Syracuse, Buffalo, and Allentown, Pennsylvania dioceses.

The Apostolic Signatura (Vatican supreme court), in a split-the-baby ruling, decided that the protesting parishes were “sacred” property not to be sold, but would not restore them as active churches. Juridic “persons” slumber in the folds of legal farce.

In July 2003 Boston’s then new archbishop Cardinal Seán O’Malley visited Rome seeking financial help to resolve 552 abuse cases. He met Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, then in charge of the Congregation for the Clergy, which oversees the liquidation of diocesan assets.

They gave O’Malley carte blanche to sell properties. In Boston, parish sit-ins ignited bad press and a deep slide in donations.

Cardinal Sodano saw profit horizons. He installed an under-secretary at the Vatican who fed information on closing churches to a New York company, the Follieri Group. Its vice-president was Andrea Sodano, a building engineer in Italy and a nephew of the cardinal. The cardinal greeted potential investors at a New York launch party.

The Follieri website promoted its ties to Vatican officials. Its business plan: find churches, buy low, sell high. When an investor sued Follieri for profligate spending, the FBI investigated.

Follieri had wired $387,000 to the Vatican Bank account of a lay staffer in cahoots with Andrea Sodano. Cardinal Sodano’s nephew’s invoices netted more than $800,000 for work the FBI deemed worthless. Raffaello Follieri today is in prison for fraud and money laundering.

Nepotism, from the Italian “nipote”, means nephew. The FBI considers Andrea Sodano, the Vatican under-secretary and a lay staffer there to be “unindicted co-conspirators”. It helps to have an uncle in robes.

Pope Benedict should empanel constitutional scholars to create a court system for criminal issues and church property. But first, he should sack Cardinal Sodano – now Dean of the College of Cardinals and who will oversee the election of the next Pope.

It would give some sign of papal belief that St Augustine was correct: justice is a virtue.

Jason Berry is a multi award-winning journalist in the US for his pioneering work on clergy child abuse. His latest book is the newly-released Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money In the Catholic Church.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-26/news/ct-met-archdiocese-bonds-20120126_1_bond-sale-parish-collections-archdiocese-plans

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Thank you Rick Springer, for bringing this story to my attention.

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Archdiocese of Chicago considers bond sale

January 26, 2012|By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter

Seeking to replenish coffers that have covered the costs of construction, clergy misconduct and parish operations, the Archdiocese of Chicago is exploring a number of options to raise more money, including the sale of private bonds to investors.

Though no church official will confirm that the archdiocese plans to sell bonds, the Moody’s rating service on Wednesday night gave the Archdiocese of Chicago its top rating for a proposed sale of $151.5 million, the typical precursor to issuing bonds.

But Moody’s also says a sale is not guaranteed, and church officials insist no decision has been made. If the archdiocese proceeds with a bond sale, it would be the first time since Cardinal George Mundelein sold bonds to finance a construction boom in the early 20^th century.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Francis George announced that staff and advisory councils had begun to explore ways “to take advantage of historically low interest rates and the good creditworthiness of the Archdiocese of Chicago.”

“In the last several years, there has been a greater and greater accumulation of debts that put tremendous strain on the archdiocesan bank,” George said in an interview last month with the Tribune. “There’s a conversation going on about whether or not the archdiocese should at this time do something. We’re still talking about that. No final decision has been made.”

Though the church’s 2011 financial report is not expected to be released until March, the cost of sex abuse settlements since 2001 is estimated to have exceeded $120 million, said Kevin Marzalik, director of finance for the archdiocese.

Fulfilling a promise not to compensate victims of clergy sex abuse with ordinary parish collections, most of those costs have been covered by the sale of undeveloped property, insurance proceeds and other reserves.

But the economic downturn and sharp decline in real estate values have made finding alternative sources of funding a challenge for the church. A fundraising campaign would enable the archdiocese to refinance loans taken out to pay abuse claims and legal fees until real estate values rebound, Marzalik said.

“You use whatever vehicles you have in place to make the timing work out,” he said. “It’s not coming from the annual Catholic Appeal or the parish collections.”

mbrachear@tribune.com

Twitter: @TribSeeker

Received by email from the author, Micheal Sweatt, and published with his permission.

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Public or Official Statements of Support for Sexual Predators, Child Pornographers or Others

Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse of Children

There is much discussion within and about the survivor support community regarding the appropriateness of advocates of victims of child sexual abuse lending official or public testimony or support to perpetrators or accused perpetrators, following public disclosure that an effective, respected, long-time, very hard-working victims’ advocate had written a letter of support for a victims’ advocate who had, at the time, been accused of possessing child pornography.

Some advocates prefer to turn the other way, sweep it under the rug, focus only on the future and ignore that a mistake has been made.   Others become nonresponsive to fellow advocates even from those within their own organization.  Some want to adhere to a conspiracy theory that outside forces are intent on bringing their organization down.  Others want to wait for the right time to make a statement. Still others have the notion that since they are the leaders and in charge, they answer to no one.  Some say, “This was so long ago, just leave it alone.”

So what is wrong with these approaches? Everything!

All of these maneuvers are exactly the same ones deployed by bishop after bishop and cardinal after cardinal.  It is the same approach used by Pew Catholics who choose to support accused priests when they have been removed from ministry even to the point of fundraising for them.  It is these tactics and lack of responses which, when used by bishops, fuel press release after press release admonishing bishops and others who choose to ignore the warnings and continue to demonstrate support for the admitted, convicted or accused, all to the detriment of the victims.

Advocates should not deploy these methods.  We must maintain a consistent message always erring on the side of protecting children and supporting victims.  That is our mission.  Our mission is not about the institution; it is about the victims and children.

We must always tell the truth.  We must always stand with victims and protect children. We must speak out against injustice. We must NEVER cause victims, especially those who are currently locked in silence, to questions that our support is other than 100%, consistent and unwavering.  We must not, certainly in any official capacity, issue letters of support or provide testimony of support for the predators or the accused predators or the accused possessor of child pornography.  For it is such testimonies or statements of support which drive victims underground to live lives of guilt.

If others think the predator or accused predator is a great person or done great things (especially when statements are delivered by victims’ advocates), victims think they caused the abuse; “it must be my fault!”  Must we also hear of such accolades for the accused and predators coming from advocates of victims of clergy sexual abuse?

How about a solution?  How do we move forward?  When we have made a mistake or done wrong, let’s admit the mistake and apologize.  Let’s also promise to initiate policies which can prevent the mistake from recurring. Such policies must include sanity checks from others within our own organization.

Let’s set an example for bishops, cardinals and Pew Catholics as to how best to support the abused and assist their healing.

Michael Sweatt

Victims’ Advocate

Jesuit Cheverus High School, 1972 Charles Malia Victim

mjsweatt@aol.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/world/europe/archbishop-viganos-transfer-hints-at-vatican-power-struggle.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

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Transfer of Vatican Official Who Exposed Corruption Hints at Power Struggle

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

VATICAN CITY — An Italian television program about the transfer of a whistle-blowing Roman Catholic prelate has caused consternation at the Vatican and prompted speculation about a power struggle among senior clerics in the church.

Broadcast Wednesday evening on the private network La7, the program centered on confidential allegations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò that he had made enemies within the Curia and beyond after rooting out corruption and financial mismanagement in the Vatican City administration.

The program showed several confidential letters written by Archbishop Viganò early last year to Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. In the letters, Archbishop Viganò, who was then the second-ranking official in the part of the Curia that administers Vatican City, asked to be allowed to continue cleaning up the Holy See’s financial affairs.

Instead, he was removed from his post and named the papal nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States.

The host of the television program, Gianluigi Nuzzi, said in an interview: “I’ve never heard of a top cleric who reveals episodes of corruption directly to the pope; it’s a first. And what happens? He is stopped from pursuing his objectives and gets sent away from the Holy See.”

But the Vatican dismissed the program as “superficial and biased,” and the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said that the choice of Archbishop Viganò for the post in Washington, “one of the most important roles in Vatican diplomacy, given the importance of the country and of the Catholic Church there, is proof of unquestionable respect and trust.”

Beyond the content of Archbishop Viganò’s letters, in which he said he was working to correct “corruption, private interests and dysfunction that are widespread in various departments,” experts on the Vatican were intrigued that the letters had become public at all. (In his statement about the program, Father Lombardi expressed “disappointment at the revelation of reserved documents,” signaling that the letters were authentic.)

Marco Politi, a Vatican correspondent for the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano and the author of a book about the pope, said in an interview that there were signs that “discontent is growing” with Cardinal Bertone’s administration.

“This shows once again that Bertone does not know how to manage the Vatican machine,” Mr. Politi said. “It also shows that there is tension within the Curia, because that’s how the letters got out.”

Paolo Rodari, who writes about the Vatican for the newspaper Il Foglio, said the episode depicted “a widening contraposition happening in the Vatican between Bertone and different clerics who do not like his politics.”

In his statement, Father Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, dismissed talk of “arguments, divisions and power struggles” in the Curia as “disinformation.”

Archbishop Viganò appeared to have been making headway in cutting costs and controlling spending. Mr. Nuzzi said during the program that he turned the Vatican City’s budget deficit into a surplus in a year by cutting costs, including bringing down the price tag for the elaborate Christmas Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square by nearly half.

But “Viganò’s new controls produced backlash among administrators of individual departments, such as the Vatican museums and Vatican gardens, long accustomed to operating in semiautonomous fashion,” John L. Allen Jr. wrote on Thursday in the National Catholic Reporter.

The letters that were broadcast on Wednesday spoke of deeper frustrations. In them, the archbishop wrote of nepotism and corruption, price gouging and waste, and he leveled accusations that some bankers who assist the Vatican with its finances were acting more in their own interest than in the church’s.

A message sent to the Vatican Embassy in Washington seeking comment from Archbishop Viganò was not answered.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 27, 2012, on pageA8 of the New York edition with the headline: Transfer of Vatican Official Who Exposed Corruption Hints at Power Struggle.

Received by email from Paul Kendrick, the author.

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January 26, 2012

Richard W. Petersen
President & CEO
Maine Medical Center
22 Bramhall Street
Portland, Maine

Dear Mr. Petersen,

At a recent meeting of the Cheverus Board of Trustees, you raised your hand and voted to deny   reasonable and just reparations to the former Cheverus students who were sexually abused by former Cheverus teacher and coach, Charles Malia.

It only took five minutes out of your busy schedule to dismiss these abuse victims from the moral and ethical obligations of Cheverus High School.

How could you do this?

You have never met any of the victims.

You’ve not sat face to face with each of them and listened to the disgusting, horrific and painful details of their abuse.

You’ve not taken time to examine the lifelong harms and injuries inflicted upon these men as a direct result of their abuse.

You’ve not acknowledged that Cheverus officials failed to protect these children who were entrusted to their care.

In January 2003, Cheverus officials, the Jesuits and B.C High officials provided compensatory damages to those who were sexually abused by Rev. James Talbot, S.J. at Cheverus and B.C. High.

The attorney representing Cheverus bragged at the time that although one of the cases fell outside the civil statute of limitations, Cheverus officials wanted to do the right thing to help the man move on and, therefore, did not deny him restitution for his injuries.

In 2001, Gov. Angus King and the Maine Legislature established the Baxter School Authority to provide compensatory damages to the former students who were sexually abused at the Baxter School for the Deaf in Falmouth.

Although state law prevented the victims from filing a law suit, legislators voted to do the right thing by providing compensation to the former students for their harms and injuries, no matter when the abuse occurred.

I am hoping, Mr. Petersen, you will have the courage to look the victims square in the eye and explain to them, one by one, how it is that you did the right thing by voting to deny them reparations for their harms, injuries, pain and suffering.

Sincerely,
Paul Kendrick
Cheverus ‘68
207-838-1319

www.mmc.org/mmc_body.cfm?id=5294

www.cheverus.org/page.aspx?pid=573

http://www.bobfelton.com/?p=16450

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Thank you, Dick Regan, for spotting this piece.

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The end of the mystique

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Bob Felton

A Philadelphia prosecutor has decisively — and good for him — ended 2000-years of unwarranted deference to the Catholic Church.

Prosecutors on Monday accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of being an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a clergy sex abuse case and said the Roman Catholic Church fed predators a steady supply of children.

Everybody willing to know the truth has known the truth for a long time: The Catholic Church has masterminded a global criminal conspiracy centered on the sexual abuse of children for a long time.

What is so striking is that now a state prosecutor is saying so, too, instead of a few hundred cranky bloggers. However naturally this may follow from the past decade of revelations, however easily it may be overlooked in the cataracts of abuse stories, this is a milestone.

And it might be that the pews are at last waking-up, too. Notice this comment at Andrew Sullivan’s blog:

It’s funny that you linked to the story regarding the Catholic Church’s position on the birth control under the health care insurance rules. My wife, daughter and I went to mass on Long Island on Saturday night at 5PM, a mass that tends to be an older crowd though some families are mixed in. Our pastor was the celebrant and his sermon amounted to him yelling for 15 minutes about abortion, the administration’s anti-religious attacks, and contraception. He was particularly upset about the contraception rules – yelling about taking money out of his insurance premiums to subsidy the pill – to the point that he took the Lord’s name in vain as he walked in front of the altar. When he was screaming about the money, the only thought that went through my mind was the amount of money I’ve put into the collection box that was used by the Church to cover up pedophile priest cases.

This is the tipping point. Prosecutors will no longer go after just a single priest, but those who protected him, too. And they’re not going to have to worry any longer about public blowback, either.