Vatican Denies Pope Was Involved in Sex Abuse Cover Up
THE TELEGRAPH: The Vatican has denied claims that Pope Benedict XVI failed to defrock a US priest who was accused of molesting up to 200 deaf boys over several years.

A Vatican newspaper editorial said the claims were an "ignoble" attack on the Pope and that there was no "cover-up", the BBC reports.

Archbishops had complained about Fr Lawrence Murphy in the 1990s to a Vatican office led by the future pope, but apparently received no response.

But the Pope's spokesman defended him, saying the Vatican department which the future pontiff was in charge of had not been informed of these latest allegations until 1996 - 20 years after the priest's victims first informed the police. >>> | Friday, March 26, 2010

Related:

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys >>> Laurie Goodstein | Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Pédophilie: le pape au cœur du scandale
LE TEMPS: Joseph Ratzinger, lorsqu’il était cardinal, n’a pris aucune sanction contre un prêtre américain ayant avoué quelque 200 abus sexuels sur des enfants sourds

Le scandale des abus sexuels éclabousse toujours davantage le sommet de l’Eglise. Le New York Times a révélé, preuves à l’appui, que Joseph Ratzinger, alors qu’il était en charge de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi (CDF), n’a pas relevé de ses fonctions un prêtre américain qui avait commis des abus sexuels sur au moins 200 enfants malentendants. Et cela bien qu’un évêque ait personnellement adressé au futur pape un courrier en 1996 présentant la gravité des faits. Courrier auquel Joseph Ratzinger n’aurait jamais répondu. En revanche, il a été sensible à une lettre du prêtre abuseur, qui l’implorait de le laisser en paix.

Le New York Times a eu accès à des documents confidentiels grâce à deux avocats, Jeff Anderson et Mike Finnegan, représentant cinq hommes qui ont intenté quatre actions en justice contre l’archidiocèse de Milwaukee, où se sont déroulés les abus. Ces documents comprennent la correspondance entre différents évêques et le Vatican, les déclarations sous serment des victimes, les notes écrites d’un expert des troubles sexuels ayant examiné le prêtre abuseur, ainsi que les notes d’une rencontre finale au Vatican concernant ce cas. >>> Patricia Briel | Vendredi 26 Mars 2010

Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys
The Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, with hands together, at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin in 1960. Photograph: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.

The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.

The documents emerge as Pope Benedict is facing other accusations that he and direct subordinates often did not alert civilian authorities or discipline priests involved in sexual abuse when he served as an archbishop in Germany and as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal enforcer.

The Wisconsin case involved an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger. It is still the office that decides whether accused priests should be given full canonical trials and defrocked.

In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from Rembert G. Weakland, Milwaukee’s archbishop at the time. After eight months, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican’s secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to Father Murphy’s dismissal.

But Cardinal Bertone halted the process after Father Murphy personally wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger protesting that he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was in poor health and that the case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations.

“I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood,” Father Murphy wrote near the end of his life to Cardinal Ratzinger. “I ask your kind assistance in this matter.” The files contain no response from Cardinal Ratzinger. >>> Laurie Goodstein | Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Blackout: The Great MPs' Expenses Cover-up
THE TELEGRAPH: MPs face universal condemnation over “disgraceful” censorship of their expenses claims.

MPs expenses: What data published by the Telegraph shows.
Party leaders struggled to explain the decision to publish heavily blacked-out versions of MPs’ claims as public anger mounted.

Despite a pledge from Gordon Brown that “transparency” was the only way to restore public faith in democracy, the files released by the Commons authorities withheld details that would have exposed the worst abuses of the expenses system.

The parliamentary expenses files do not expose MPs who have “flipped” their designated second homes and many of the most controversial claims have been completely blacked out in the documents.

Details that would have allowed the public to identify interest claimed on so-called “phantom mortgages” — such as in the case of Elliot Morley, the former environment minister — or MPs who were able to avoid paying capital gains tax on the sale of properties — such as Kitty Ussher, the Treasury minister forced to resign — were also excluded.

Controversial claims by Tory MPs for the cleaning of a moat and the purchase of a floating duck island were also omitted. >>> By Robert Winnett and James Kirkup | Thursday, June 18, 2009

MAIL Online: As the Nation Fumes at Expenses 'Blackwash' Scandal MPs Are Rewarded with £10,000 Pay Rise

Shameless MPs are set to provoke fresh public anger by pocketing a staggering £10,000-a-year pay rise.

The salary hike comes as MPs faced a backlash today over their blatant attempt to cover up expenses scams.

After weeks of public fury at leaked details, Commons officials unlocked their files yesterday - with crucial details covered in thick black ink.

It meant MPs who 'flipped' homes to claim on different properties - or charged for services such as moat-cleaning - were spared further embarrassment.

Despite growing fury among voters, it has now been revealed that they are to be rewarded for their greed with a £10,000 pay rise.

The head of the body that will now set their pay said they were underpaid by '10 to 15 per cent'.

The astonishing rise - up to five times the rate of inflation - comes as millions of workers across Britain face the threat of redundancy, salary freezes and even pay cuts. >>> By James Chapman | Friday, June 19, 2009