WELCOME – WHAT’S NEW
NOBLE and COURAGEOUS SURVIVORS,
THOSE KNOWN and UNKNOWN to US,
ON THIS DAY, WE OFFER YOU OUR HEARTFELT CONCERN and SOLIDARITY
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) extends its heartfelt concern to the survivors of clergy and nun sexual abuse today in profound recognition of the severity and callousness of the blow dealt to them by Pope Benedict’s refusal to accept the resignations of two Archdiocese of Dublin auxiliary Bishops named in the Murphy Report.
With intention, we do not limit our care and concern for the survivors of sexual abuse in Ireland. We extend it to all survivors and victims of sexual abuse and their families.
Especially on this day, we offer you our solidarity.
We know and quake at the thought of this unneeded, unnecessary and thoroughly preventable opening of the door to an unadorned staging ground for the potential of horrific flashbacks for those who endured rape and sodomy and ritual abuse by Roman Catholic priests and nuns.
We know that this stinging rebuke has the potential to unmercifully rip open deep wounds that riddle psyches and tip into darkness spirits that precariously live each day in uneasy battle with demons of despair.
We honor the very breaths that the survivors and victims take on this day.
Pope Benedict has the power as the ultimate authority in his Church to refuse to allow the horror of sexual abuse to go on for one hour more in his Church.
Instead he chose to flash the brightest of green lights to Bishops who cover up the crimes of sexual abuse by priests and nuns.
To say the least, this refusal of the resignations by Pope Benedict torpedoes his June promise at the end of the Year for Priests that “everything possible” would be done to end the crisis.
We have come to a watershed moment in the history of the crisis.
We have now moved into the era of the big wink.
We have a Pope who makes grand proclamations in St. Peter’s Square and then retreats to his Summer palace where eight months after they are tendered resignations that are part of the largest crisis in 500 years in the Church are turned down — and the very act of turning them down is deemed unworthy of papal words, let alone papal appearance.
The harsh slap of the refusal of the resignations carries its own sting but the cowardice of the Pope to allow the action to be revealed in the studied backhanded manner it was sinks to a new and dangerous low in the papacy’s dealing with this massive crisis.
Pope Benedict did not stand among the people of Ireland nor proclaim from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica that he would not accept the resignation of Bishops.
No, he allowed the refusal of the resignations to be revealed in the 17th paragraph of a 20 paragraph letter written by Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the celebration of the Sacraments in the parishes of the archdiocese.
The resignations that have been refusal are those of Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field.
It is these two Bishops who declared jointly last Christmas Eve that they had in that special evening of the year they had “ informed Archbishop Diarmuid Martin that we are offering our resignation to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, as Auxiliary Bishops to the Archbishop of Dublin.
The two Bishops said, “As we celebrate the Feast of Christmas, the Birth of our Saviour, the Prince of Peace, it is our hope that our action may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims/survivors of child sexual abuse. We again apologise to them. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence.“
What of these men now that their resignations have been refused?
Is the hope of ”the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ” to be rolled up like a dirty rug and cast off as though it was an embarrassment to offer their resignations in its name?
These two men need not look far for an example of courage to refuse the Pope’s refusal.
They need only look into the eyes of the hundreds upon hundreds of survivors and victims who bear the searing wounds inflicted by sexual abuse.
— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC)
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Healing and Spirituality
An Interview with National Survivor Advocates Coalition founding member Stephen Sheehan
Aug 5th, 2010 by Dr. Jaime Romo
Stephen Sheehan is a founding member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition and Publisher/Editor of NSAC News. He spoke to me from the recent Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests conference……………..
Plus information and linkage to Dr. Romo’s new book:
Healing the Sexually Abused Heart:
A Workbook for Survivors, Thrivers and Supporters
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, August 3
Three US based groups ask high-ranking Catholic official to step aside
Ex-Boston Cardinal Bernard Law will say prominent mass on Aug. 5
A powerful and controversial Catholic official is set to lead a special, high-profile mass on Thursday in Rome and three US-based groups that focus on the church’s sex scandal are objecting.
Cardinal Bernard Law, who once headed the Boston Archdiocese, will preside over ceremonies at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on August 5. The event has been described in the Boston Globe as “rich in pomp,” marking “the hot August night in 358 when, according to tradition, snow fell on the site that became home to the church.”
The Dayton Ohio-based National Survivors Advocates Coalition, the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and the Waltham MA-based BishopAccountability.org are urging Pope Benedict to prevent Law’s involvement in the mass or Law himself to step aside.
Statement by Kristine Ward of NSAC 937-272-0308/ www.nsacoalition.org
- We find Law’s leading role in the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows celebration at Mary Major Basilica, Rome, (August 5) exemplary of heaping insult upon injury for survivors, their families and Catholics who are appalled at the largest crisis in the Church’s history in a half a millennia.
The Basilica’s celebration includes the release of white flower petals from the church’s high ceilings in imitation of a snow fall that legend has it was a sign to a Roman patrician couple to donate their possessions for the building of a great church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
In the midst of massive revelations across Europe of growing numbers of sexual abuse victims, this display is a ‘bread and circuses’ approach to the crisis in the Church.
It smacks of feel good theater with none other than the heavy weight leader of the cover up of crimes in the United States in the lead role.
If Pope Benedict means what he says about doing “everything possible” to end the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church he should remove Cardinal Law on this feast from his positions of influence on eight major congregations in the Curia including and most especially his seat on the powerful Congregation for Bishops.
Pope Benedict can renew this feast by removing Cardinal Law from his position of prestige as Archpriest of one of the four major Basilicas in Rome.
This is a Church of sign and symbol. A powerful sign and symbol can be delivered by Pope Benedict in the removal of Cardinal Bernard Law.
Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP 314-503-0003/ SNAPdorris@gmail.com
- Normally, we push church officials to take practical steps to help protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. We’re less concerned with symbolic action that makes adults feel better and more concerned with tangible action that makes children be safer.
However, because Law has ignored, concealed and enabled so many clergy sex crimes, and because Benedict keeps posturing as a ‘reformer’ while doing so little to actually help, we feel compelled to speak out about the prominent role Law is continually given in top church affairs.
Giving more prominence and power to such a corrupt church official rubs salt into the already-deep and still-fresh wounds of millions of Catholics and thousands of victims. It sends a strong signal that, despite promises to the contrary, little is changing when it comes to clergy sex crimes and cover ups.
Benedict can’t have his cake and eat it too. He can’t profess to care about victims while tolerating and promoting a cleric who ignored, concealed and enabled crimes against them.
Statement by Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org 508-479-9304/ mckiernan1@comcast.net
- We urge Pope Benedict XVI to remove Cardinal Bernard Law from his position as archpriest of Saint Mary Major Basilica and from his membership in seven Vatican congregations and the Pontifical Council for Culture.
In the Maciel case, Benedict showed himself to be aware of the stakes and willing to act. He must do so now in the case of Cardinal Law. It is especially urgent that Benedict remove Law from the Congregation for Bishops. Law has long used his Vatican influence to reward with bishoprics the men who participated shamefully in the cover-up of sexual abuse crimes, including Bishop John McCormack of Manchester NH, Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre NY, Bishop now Emeritus Robert J. Banks of Green Bay WI, Bishop now Emeritus Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn NY, and Archbishop now Emeritus Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans LA.
Law’s continued power in Rome and his ongoing involvement in the selection of new bishops are an insult to survivors and all Catholics. Benedict must end the corruption and send Cardinal Law back to Boston, where his disgraceful performance as archbishop is well understood.
All three groups want the Pope to oust him from all church committees, especially the one which helps select new bishops across the world.
Controversy first erupted about Law’s role in the annual August ceremonies in 2004. According to the Boston Globe, that year was the first time Law “(stepped) into the public eye in the most significant capacity since he left Boston 19 months ago.”
Law resigned as Boston’s archbishop Dec. 13, 2002.
Basilica of Saint Mary Major
Via Liberiana, 27
Sacristy + 39 06 483195
Parish Office – Via Carlo Alberto, 47 +39.06.4465836
Reception – Via Liberiana, 27 +39.06.4814287
Mass Times:
Sunday: 7-8-9-10-11-12-18
Monday-Saturday: 7-8-9-10-11,15-12-18
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PRESS RELEASE
July 16, 2010
NSAC to VATICAN and BISHOP CUPICH:
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OKAY IF THE CHILD IS 14-18 YEARS of AGE?
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) responded to Bishop Blase Cupich’s comments on new Vatican regulations regarding the crime of child pornography and priests by asking if Bishop Cupich believes that “child pornography is a degradation of any child of God” why Pope Benedict and the Vatican have limited this section of the new norms to ” images of minors under the age of 14″ and the US Bishops haven’t objected?
Bishop Cupich is the chair of the US Bishops Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People. He is the Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota and the Bishop-designate of Spokane, Washington.
Because the pornography and priests issue was included in the Vatican document regarding extension of statute of limitations regarding sexual abuse by priests the impression is left that the Vatican is using the “under age 18″ description of a minor for the pornography and priests reference as it does in the statute of limitations extension section.
Neither the Vatican nor Bishop Cupich have chosen to emphasize the “under the age of 14″ description of a child in the pornography section letting the false impression stand.
It is yet another example of the disconnect between the hierarchy and the faithful. It is especially troubling because Bishop Cupich is the Chair of the US Bishops Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.
Ask any parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle and they will tell you that a child is not an adult at the age of 13 (under the age of 14, Vatican norms).
NSAC is a volunteer organization of practicing Catholics and men and women of goodwill working to educate and reform the Church and society about sexual abuse and its consequences.
Contact: Kristine Ward, www.nsacoalition.org
– - - From the USCCB Website www.usccb.org 7/15/10:
Bishops Welcome Update of Vatican Norms on Sexual Abuse
WASHINGTON-Bishop Blase Cupich, bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, and bishop-designate of Spokane, Washington, and Chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, welcomed the Vatican’s update of its 2001 norms dealing with clergy sexual abuse of minors in a July 15 statement. The new norms include the abuse of a mentally disabled adult and the downloading of child pornography in the same category as abusing a minor and also extend the Vatican’s statute of limitations for sexual abuse to 20 years after the victim turned 18.
The full text of Bishop Cupich’s statement follows:
The Vatican action is a welcome step forward as we deal with the terrible crime and sin of sexual abuse by a cleric. What we read today from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is heartening. The bishops in this country felt the support of the Holy See in 2002 with the establishment of the Essential Norms and we are strengthened even more as the measures outlined in this document build on and go beyond what has been particular law for the Church in the United States since then.
The seriousness with which the church views sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric cannot be understated. By putting child sexual abuse by clergy in the same context as the safeguarding of the sacraments, the Church is making it clear that such misconduct violates the core values of our faith and worship.
Today the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith notes that the abuse of the mentally impaired, no matter what the person’s age, is horrific. Abuse of someone who cannot defend himself or herself is craven, cowardly behavior.
Welcome, too, is the recognition that the crime of child pornography damages not just those who pursue it, but any child degraded in the making of it. Child pornography is a degradation of any child of God. A priest’s involvement with it is particularly offensive.
The document makes law of measures that have already been in use by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to facilitate handling of cases brought to the Vatican. This is an important step in the continuing effort to achieve justice for innocent people whose trust in a cleric was violated.
The adoption of these modifications to the original norms of the Apostolic Letter, The Safeguarding of the Sanctity of the Sacraments ( Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela) issued in April 2001, furthers our strong resolve to do all that is possible to see that children are protected and safe, especially in the Church. We apologize to those who have been hurt in the past. We are doing everything possible to prevent such harm in the future.
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Press Statement
July 15, 2010
NSAC APPALLED at VATICAN”S SHIRKING OF ITS DUTY in FAILING TO FILE UN REPORT on PROTECTING CHILDREN
VATICAN HAS LARYNGITIS in ITS MORAL VOICE on A DAY IT TOUTS A PUNY POLICY CHANGE
The Vatican is the only religion with the privilege of participating in the United Nation as a city state with a permanent observer.
Today we learned that the Vatican is 13 years overdue in filing a required report as a signatory on the UN’s 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. As a signer, the Vatican is required to submit regular reports on how it protects the rights of children.
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) is appalled at this dismissal of duty by the Vatican, an institution that has laid claim to be the strongest moral voice on the planet.
The Vatican has laryngitis in its moral voice and it is far from a cure when on a day it touts a puny extension of statute of limitations in its internal laws about sexual abuse it is found out as more than a slacker when it comes to meeting its international commitments.
If the Vatican needs more staff to get its work done, it could kill two birds with one stone: there are plenty of people unemployed in the United States, many within a subway’s ride of the UN headquarters.
NSAC is a volunteer organization of practicing Catholics and men and women of goodwill working to educate and reform the Church and society about sexual abuse and its consequences.
Contact: Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), 937-272-0308/c , www.nsacoalition.org
– - - UN: Vatican child rights report 13 years overdue
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVXpIdqtwNCWrNHwSiMtY3LCMNxAD9GVICLO0
By FRANK JORDANS (AP) – 7/15/10
GENEVA — The Vatican has failed to send the United Nations a report on child rights that is now almost 13 years overdue, the head of a U.N. panel has told The Associated Press.
Like all countries that have signed the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Vatican is required to submit regular reports on its efforts to safeguard child rights.
But the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, despite sending repeated reminders, has received no explanation from the Holy See for why it missed a 1997 deadline, according to the committee’s chairwoman Yanghee Lee. In the years since, the Vatican has come under intense scrutiny over its handling of child sex abuse allegations around the world and recently admitted that up to one in 20 priests may be implicated.
“I’ve made contact with the Holy See on several occasions,” Lee said in a recent telephone interview. “I haven’t received anything.”
Officials at the Vatican’s mission in Geneva declined comment Thursday, saying the Catholic city state’s envoy to the U.N., Silvano Tomasi, was unavailable.
Tomasi refused to discuss the report last month, saying he was “only the messenger,” not the author of the report.
A Vatican representative told the U.N. last year that the report was being “finalized as we speak.”
Appearing before the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in September, Hubertus Matheus Van Megen said “a paragraph will be dedicated to the problem of child abuse by Catholic clergy.”
The Vatican has faced claims that it has covered up clerical sex abuse around the world, such as by not investigating allegations or transferring accused priests to other duties without punishing them.
Van Megen told the Geneva-based council that the church was “very conscious of the seriousness of the problem” but insisted critics had misrepresented the situation.
“While many speak of child abuse as pedophilia, it would be more correct to speak of ephebophilia, being a homosexual attraction to adolescent males,” he told the rights council. “Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80-90 percent belong to this sexual orientation minority, which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the age of 11 and 17 years old.”
“From available research we know now that in the last 50 years somewhere between 1.5 and 5 percent of the Catholic clergy has been involved in sexual abuse cases,” he said.
While the Vatican delivered an initial report in 1995, the second, third and fourth reports are now overdue, according to Lee. This puts it on a par with the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Only five Pacific minnow states — the Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Tuvalu and Tonga — have failed to deliver any kind of report.
Mongolia, Senegal and Togo, which also had a 1997 deadline, have since filed their second reports.
Lothar Krappmann, another member of the committee, said many governments see the reports as a nuisance that has little impact on the way they protect child rights.
“Still, in many cases the reports aren’t pointless because they give non-governmental organizations the opportunity to pick up on themes and influence policy through public channels,” Krappmann told The AP.
Lee, the committee chairwoman, said the treaty contains no penalties for countries that fail to deliver their reports on time — or even at all.
Video of Vatican representative at U.N. Human Rights Council http://bit.ly/HolySee5pct
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Press Statement
July 15, 2010
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) responded to the Vatican’s release of new sexual abuse regulations with the following statement:
The Vatican’s extension of the statute of limitations to 20 years is a small step when measured against the vastness of the chaos and harm that sexual abuse produces still, a person dying of thirst is grateful for a few drops of water. It must be said, any measure that will give hope and comfort to a survivor of sexual abuse, even a small one, is welcomed.
That said, we sincerely hope that today’s Vatican document will turn on the fountain of compassionate care for victims of sexual abuse by priests and nuns but the document has a number of serious limitations, chief among them is its silence on action to place into Church law accountabilyt for the cover up by Bishops – once again allowing Bishops to get off scot free.
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) calls upon the Catholic faithful and all men and women of good will not to overlook these items in the Vatican’s document:
· the Vatican’s distinction in the age of minors in two different sections of today’s document: when sexual abuse is referenced the ages of a minor is “below the age of 18” when “pedophile pornography” is referenced, pornography is limited to ”pornographic images of minors under the age of 14“.
· the continued enforcement of the secrecy of trials for priests
It is important to remember that this small reform comes after massive news coverage on two continents and investigations by two civil governments, Ireland and Germany, in addition to a police raid in Belgium.
If Pope Benedict were serious about reform he would remove Cardinal Bernard Law from his numerous positions of influence on Curia congregations followed by the removal of all Bishops who covered up criminal activity.
In addition, we strongly urge all Bishops conferences throughout the world not to hastily adopt the US Bishops Charter on the Protection of Children and Young People. It contains many weaknesses chief among them no mention or method of holding Bishops accountable.
It is head shaking to say the least that today’s document which speaks to sexual abuse also includes defining the ordination of women as a crime. There is no comparison. Both do not belong in the same category. The Vatican knows the confusion that placing both together in a document will cause. This is an attempt on the Vatican’s part to deflect attention from the minimum steps it has taken today on sexual abuse.
Contact: Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), 937-272-0308/c, www.nsacoalition.org
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Press Release
June 30, 2010NATIONAL SURVIVOR ADVOCATES COALITION (NSAC) CALLS ON NEW HEAD OF VATICAN CONGREGATION for BISHOPS to REMOVE CARDINAL BERNARD LAW FROM THE CONGREGATION
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), a US based organization, issued the following statement today in regard to Pope Benedict’s appointment of Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec Canada as the new head of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops.
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) strongly urges Cardinal Marc Ouellet in his new position as head of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops to quickly remove Cardinal Bernard Law as a member of the Congregation.NSAC urges Cardinal Ouellet to take this step as an act of conviction and outward sign of desire for credibility in the Church and among Bishops.
Beginnings mark opportunities for endings. The beginning of Cardinal Ouellet’s tenure at the top of this powerful Congregation with far reaching consequences throughout the Church provides a clear opportunity to begin to take serious action to end the crisis. He can chose to set this Congregation on a new path and send the message that business as usual has ended and Bishops will not continue to be made in the image and likeness of Cardinal Bernard Law nor any other hierarch who participated in or covered up criminal acts against children.
Contact: Kristine Ward, 937-272-0308/ www.nsacoalition.org