The Menlo Church volunteer in question first told Senior Pastor John Ortberg about his feelings two years ago, though congregants weren't officially notified about the situation until January.

That the volunteer was the pastor's younger son, John "Johnny" Ortberg III, was kept secret until a whistleblower leaked the news late last month. Read more

In a recent interview, he recalled how one of his teachers "pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts." Dawkins went on to say, "I don't think he did any of us lasting harm."

Dawkins' point was that such situations must be seen in context, and that the cultural backdrop of his youth was sufficiently different from now as to make judgment more complicated and less warranted than it may seem.

"I am very conscious that you can't condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours," Dawkins said.

"Just as we don't look back at the 18th and 19th centuries and condemn people for racism in the same way as we would condemn a modern person for racism, I look back a few decades to my childhood and see things like caning, like mild pedophilia, and can't find it in me to condemn it by the same standards as I or anyone would today," he said.

Predictably, the backlash has been intense.

Peter Watt, director of child protection at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, called Dawkins' statement "a terrible slight" to victims of such abuse.

"Mr. Dawkins seems to think that because a crime was committed a long time ago we should judge it in a different way," Watt said.

"But we know that the victims of sexual abuse suffer the same effects whether it was 50 years ago or yesterday."

No, we don't know that. In fact, we don't know that any two people will "suffer the same effects" from the same experience in the here and now, much less in completely different contexts.

Bruce Rind, an expert on the study of "intergenerational sexuality," got himself in some hot water in the 1990s when he published controversial research demonstrating that the best predictor of subjective harm is whether or not the minor consented to the experience. Continue reading

Sources

• Christopher Ryan in Psychology Today
• Image: Hampton Trust

Christopher Ryan, Ph.D., is a psychologist, teacher, and author.

The Pope discussed the congregation's responsibilities for at least an hour on April 5 with its prefect, Archbishop Gerhard Muller, but the formal statement following the meeting referred only to dealing with sexual abuse.

The statement said the Holy Father "recommended in particular that the congregation continue the line desired by Benedict XVI of decisive action regarding cases of sexual abuse, primarily by promoting measures for child protection; help for the many who in the past have suffered such violence; due process against those who are guilty; the commitment of bishops' conferences in the formulation and implementation of the necessary directives in this area which is of great importance to the witness of the Church and its credibility".

The statement added that the Pope "assured that the victims of abuse and their suffering are especially present in his thoughts and prayers".

While he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future Pope Francis said in a book-length series of interviews that sexual abusers suffer from a "perversion of a psychological kind" that is not caused by or directly linked to celibacy.

"If a priest is a pedophile, he is so because he brought that perversion with him from before his ordination", and not even priestly celibacy would be able to "cure it", he said.

Because such a perversion would already be present in a candidate, "it's necessary to pay lots of attention to the choice of candidates to the priesthood".

He said the archdiocese of Buenos Aires had been very "rigorous" in vetting candidates for the priesthood, noting that only about 40 per cent were actually admitted into seminaries.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked episcopal conferences to submit by June 2012 guidelines for preventing sexual abuse and dealing with cases.

Earlier this year, more than 75 per cent of bishops' conferences worldwide had complied. The majority of those still working on the guidelines are in Africa.

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Vatican Radio

Zenit

Image: L'Osservatore Romano

McGrath voluntarily left Sri Lanka last week and arrived at Christchurch International Airport on Friday. Police deny he had fled to Sri Lanka, saying he was only there for a holiday.

He was allowed through immigration before being arrested in the city a few hours later.

After spending the weekend in police cells, McGrath appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Monday. Judge Farish granted him conditional bail and remanded him until December 17 to allow him time to study the new charges.

Australian police want McGrath extradited to face the new charges of abusing, molesting and raping boys and young adults at church-run institutions in New South Wales over several decades.

At his next hearing McGrath will either accept extradition or oppose the application.

In 2006, McGrath was jailed for five years for sexually abusing boys at Marylands School in Christchurch in the 1970s, and was paroled in 2008.

Source

• Huffington Post
• Radio Australia International
• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

Cornered by reporters at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York, after Mass on Sunday, Dolan accused the NY Times of inaccurate reporting.

Dolan was also of the view that the way he was treated by the NY Times was unfair.

"The New York Times does not have a reputation for fair and accurate reporting when it comes to this issue," Dolan said.

"So, to respond to charges like that — that are groundless and scurrilous — in my book it's useless and counterproductive."

Earlier in the week Dolan, through a spokesperson, told the NY Post there were no "payoffs" to pedophile priests, only "charity."

Dolan also denied that similar payments were being made in the New York Archdiocese.

"For anyone to assert that this money was a 'payoff' or occurred in exchange for Becker agreeing to leave the priesthood is completely false, preposterous and unjust.

"What this was, instead, was an act of charity, in line with Catholic social teaching."

"No, thank God. Cardinal Egan did a splendid job - that's all taken care of", Dolan said, referring to his predecessor Cardinal Edward Egan.

The Cardinal also did not spare a few words for the advocacy survivors group SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who accused him of making "secret deals" and giving abusive priests "incentives" to leave the ministry.

"SNAP has no credibility", Dolan fumed.

However SNAP director David Clohessy accused Dolan of not answering a simple question, and ad hominem arguments.

"It's sad that America's top Catholic official won't answer a simple question: How many predator priests got how much money to quietly move on . . . perhaps to molest again?" Clohessy said.

"This is a predictable tactic bishops use when forced to defend the indefensible - they attack the messenger."

Last week the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said in a statement that in 2002, the church "affirmed that priest offenders should no longer be functioning as priests in any capacity and having someone seek laicization voluntarily is faster and less expensive and it made sense to try and move these men out of the priesthood as quickly as possible."

Sources

• NY Post
• WNYC News
• NY Post
• RNS
• Image: Long Island Press

In a letter dated Tuesday a group of conservative leaders allege Huffington is "complicit in bigotry" for publishing columnist Larry Doyle's article about Rick Santorum's Catholic faith.

The letter claims "Larry Doyle's recent anti-Catholic screed in the Huffington Post, 'The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum,' (Catholic Republican US Presidential candidate) is bigoted and unacceptable, and a perfect example of 'flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric'" is what Huffington pledged to avoid when she launched the Huffington Post in 2005.

The group asked for the column to be removed from her website.

Describing Mass as a "barbaric ritual," satirist Doyle writes that "a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine, transfiguring it into the actual living flesh and blood of their Christ. Followers then line up to eat the Jesus meat and drink his holy blood in a cannibalistic reverie not often seen outside Cinemax."

Saying he's a former altar boy, Doyle, claims to have "seen behind the curtain" but escaped.

Doyle's column was roundly criticized and he wrote a follow-up on Tuesday saying he would not apologize and doesn't care if anyone is offended.

"My criticism took the form of a ridiculously over-the-top broadside against Roman Catholicism, a demonstration of the type of vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many so-called Christians, especially Santorum," he writes.

"I hope (Catholics who are offended) will now think twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or Muslims. I doubt they will."

As for Doyle's claim it was satire, the group writes that "intelligent readers and the millions of faithful Catholics" who read the article "don't buy such equivocating nonsense for a minute."

The group concludes that if Huffington doesn't delete Doyle's piece and issue an apology, "your so-called news outlet cannot be seen as anything but an anti-Catholic talking piece."

The letter is signed by Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center; Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage; Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List; Richard Viguerie chairman of ConservativeHQ.com; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Sources

• FoxNews
• Image: Are we aware yet

The new laws are an unprecedented display of tough action against the Catholic Church, in what was traditionally a Catholic country.

"The law of the land should not be stopped by a collar or a crozier," said Irish Prime Minister, Edna Kenny.

The Minister of Justice, Alan Shatter has warned that doctors too will be expected to abandon their Hippocratic oath when it relates to sexual abuse.

Shatter promises the legislation will have "no grey legal areas" around the investigation and prosecution of anybody, who conceals or fails to report to the police, sexual offenses against children or vulnerable adults.

The new law will not respect any internal rules of any organisation, faith, confessional seal or otherwise, Shatter said.

The move was about what the state expected of every person and organisation involved in child protection.

Children's Minister, Frances Fitzgerald said the report heralded the end of voluntary compliance over child protection measures and that all organisations, religious, sporting, educational or or medical will be treated the same in the state's eyes.

"There will be no exceptions, no exemptions," she said.

The new law is expected to be passed before Christmas.

Sources

• Belfast Telegraph
• Irish Times
• Image: Photobucket

Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, described former-Bishop Roger Vangheluwe's TV confession that he had sexually abused two of his nephews as "inappropriate and shocking".

During the interview Vangheluwe described the abuse with one of his nephews as "a kind of game".

Disturbed by Vangheluwe's detached and vacant tone, Archbishop Leonard said "He should not have spoken".

After the first scandal, the Vatican ordered Vangheluwe to seek "spiritual and psychological treatment" at a church community at La Ferte-Imbault in France, and to stay out of the public eye.

Following the interview, which outraged many in Belgium and drew a sharp denunciation from the Council of Bishops, there have been calls for him to be prosecuted.

He has since disappeared from his French religious community.

The case has plunged the Belgian Catholic Church into new turmoil, with several bishops asking the Vatican to act quickly.

Sources

• Image: InfoWars
• France 24

The head of the Brotherhood of Jerusalem, Mont-Saint Michel monastery said Vangheluwe had indicated on Saturday that he would leave shortly but could not say where he was going.

Vangheluwe, who resigned a year ago as bishop of Bruges after admitting that he had sexually abused one of his young nephews, confessed on TV that he also abused another nephew.

Vangheluwe viewed the abuse as a "game" and does not have an impression of himself being a pedophile.

After admitting the abuse of his first nephew, the Vatican ordered him to seek "spiritual and psychological treatment and to stay out of the public eye.

"The subsequent television interview outraged many and drew a sharp denunciation from the Council of Bishops.

"The interview is extremely offensive to the victims, their families and all who face the problem of sexual abuse.

"It is slap in the face to the faithful as well. Everyone, ourselves included, is undoubtedly upset and troubled.

"The tone of the interview is completely at odds with the efforts made in recent months to take the problem of sexual abuse seriously, listen to the victims and determine the appropriate measures to take," the Bishops said in a statement.

The case plunged the Belgian Catholic Church anew into turmoil, with several bishops asking the Vatican to act quickly to punish Vangheluwe.

Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, told reporters that the Vatican was "conscious of the gravity" of the matter and was preparing to launch an "in-depth evaluation."

A definitive decision on Vangheluwe's future will need the approval of the Pope he said.

Walter Van Steenbrugge, the lawyer for the nephew, denied Vangheluwe's claim that he paid the victim, now in his forties, €25,000 several times over.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• France 24
• Radio Netherlands