Evergreene Digest A Journal of Progress for the Rest of Us

• The details of two cases come as other allegations emerge that Benedict — as a Vatican cardinal — was part of a culture of cover-up and confidentiality.
• Former Portland archbishop, now top Vatican official, defends not telling Oregon parishioners about the sex abuse allegations against a priest he restored to duty.

Matt Sedensky, Associated Press, in London Guardian | UK

The abuse cases of two priests in Arizona have cast further doubt on the Catholic church's insistence that Pope Benedict XVI played no role in shielding pedophiles before he became pope.

Documents reviewed by the Associated Press show that as a Vatican cardinal, the future pope took over the abuse case of Rev. Michael Teta of Tucson, Ariz., then let it languish at the Vatican for years despite repeated pleas from the bishop for the man to be removed from the priesthood.

In another Tucson case, that of Msgr. Robert Trupia, the bishop wrote to then-Cardinal Ratzinger, who would become pope in 2005. Bishop Manuel Moreno called Trupia "a major risk factor to the children, adolescents and adults that he many have contact with." There is no indication in the case files that Ratzinger responded.

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Related:

• Lawyers for US victims of abuse reveal letter of concern written to the then Pope
• The Roman Catholic church in Ireland has lost its credibility because of its mishandling of abuse by priests -- Archbishop of Canterbury

David Usborne, The London Independent | UK

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Marsha Aronson

Pope Benedict celebrates Mass in Rome yesterday (April 1). The Vatican was beset by fresh revelations that it was warned of sex abuse by US priests 50 years ago Reuters

A letter sent in 1963 to Pope Paul VI by a senior American priest who outlined the "problem of the problem priest" suggests that the Vatican was fully aware – or at least should have been aware – of the extent of sexual abuse within the US Catholic Church almost five decades ago.

The missive, unearthed and made public yesterday by lawyers representing victims of alleged sexual abuse in Los Angeles, argued even then that the best solution for dealing with priests found to have violated young men and boys was to defrock them, rather than shuffle them to other dioceses, as was the practice of the Catholic Church for so long.

• The governor's crusade to end homelessness has withered in proportion to the expansion of his national ambitions. With severe cuts to social services and welfare, billions in unallotments and his torpedoing of the General Assistance Medical Care program (forcing a rescue by DFLers who settled for an inferior replacement program), Pawlenty has worsened many of the problems that lead to homelessness.
• Vulnerable adults, kids: Here comes the budget ax
• Happy days are here again: Stadium No. 3 is on the horizon

Nick Coleman, Star Tribune | MN

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Will Shapira

Whenever I write about homelessness, I get avalanches of comments blaming the homeless for their situation. The homeless, I hear, "have made bad choices."

Although research shows that most of the problem is due to such things as lack of medical care, untreated mental illness and joblessness, it is true that some very bad choices have been made. But not by the poor. By the rich, by the powerful, and by the politicians whose policies, heartless budget-cutting and blind eye to the effects of their decisions have sent the numbers of needy people soaring.

4 New Items including:

• Dissident Catholic Bishop Calls for Pope to Resign over Sex Abuse Scandal
• Catholics find ties to the church tested by crisis

David Culver, ed., Evergreene Digest

Pat Bagley

E.J. Dionne: Where the church has gone wrong, E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post

• Yup, we need a Nope.
• A nun who is pope.

Maureen Dowd, New York Times

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell

Maureen Dowd/ Fred R. Conrad/New York Times

The Catholic Church can never recover as long as its Holy Shepherd is seen as a black sheep in the ever-darkening sex abuse scandal.

Now we learn the sickening news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, nicknamed "God's Rottweiler" when he was the church's enforcer on matters of faith and sin, ignored repeated warnings and looked away in the case of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, a Wisconsin priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys.

The church has been tone deaf and dumb on the scandal for so long that it's shocking, but not surprising, to learn from The New York Times' Laurie Goodstein that a group of deaf former students spent 30 years trying to get church leaders to pay attention.

"Victims give similar accounts of Father Murphy's pulling down their pants and touching them in his office, his car, his mother's country house, on class excursions and fundraising trips and in their dormitory beds at night," Goodstein wrote. "Arthur Budzinski said he was first molested when he went to Father Murphy for confession when he was about 12, in 1960."