News/International

SYDNEY - The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion said he left the Catholic priesthood years ago after being sexually abused as a seminarian and young priest in the 1960s and 1970s.

Archbishop John Hepworth, leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a breakaway group of Anglicans seeking membership in the Anglican ordinariate established by Pope Benedict XVI, told The Australian newspaper about his ordeal after he said his complaint against the one surviving alleged abuser was not investigated by the archdiocese of Adelaide.

Similar complaints filed against two now-deceased priests in the archdiocese of Melbourne led to a compensation payment to Hepworth, the newspaper reported.

The case became embroiled in controversy after an Australian senator publicly identified the accused living priest, despite privacy and legal concerns raised by Church officials.

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney joined the debate when he said that public confidence in the integrity of the Catholic Church's procedures in handling reports of clergy sex abuse is vital in obtaining justice for victims and all concerned parties.

Hepworth told The Australian that he filed a six-page formal complaint with Church officials in Adelaide in March 2008 and followed it up with several other detailed statements. When he inquired about the status of his case earlier this year, Hepworth said he was told the inquiry was still in a "preliminary stage" because he had not filed a formal complaint.

Hepworth, 67, said the abuse started in 1960, when he was 15 and enrolled at St. Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide, and continued for 12 years. He said two priests and a seminarian who went on to become ordained committed the abuse.

Despite his ordeal, Hepworth was ordained a Catholic priest and stayed with the Church until 1972, when he moved to England. He became an Anglican and then a priest in the Anglican Church, rising to his current position in the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion.

Sen. Nick Xenophon fueled the story by naming the sole living priest as Msgr. Ian Dempsey, a parish priest in Brighton in the Adelaide archdiocese. Dempsey has denied the abuse claim.

Xenophon said he revealed the priest's name because the Adelaide archdiocese had refused to place Dempsey under administrative leave pending the outcome of its investigation.

The archdiocese, headed by Archbishop Philip Wilson, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, had asked the senator to refrain from naming the priest in the interest of justice. The archdiocese said in a statement after the priest was identified that it was "surprised and disappointed" by Xenophon's action.

"The fact that the senator has taken this action is a matter of grave concern to us because it has the potential to interfere with the orderly process of what is already a very difficult and complex matter," the statement said.

"In our view it is inappropriate and unfair for these matters to be aired in public whilst our investigation remains on foot and when the priest concerned has categorically denied the allegation."

Dempsey said in his own statement that he was aware of Hepworth's allegation, which he called unsubstantiated.

"I have made it clear in writing to the inquiry that I categorically deny the allegations, which I note are said to relate to events that occurred some 45 years ago and have nothing at all to do with underage people," he said.

In an earlier statement, the Adelaide archdiocese rejected "any suggestions that there has been no investigation, or a delayed investigation, of allegations made by Archbishop Hepworth."

"Contrary to suggestions made by Archbishop Hepworth, the process, which has been under way for some time, was specifically designed to cater (to) Archbishop Hepworth's understandable emotional sensitivity concerning this matter," a spokeswoman said.

In Sydney, Pell said he was "deeply sorry for his (Hepworth's) suffering and appalled at what he has experienced."

"The task now is to ensure that the complaint he has made to the Adelaide archdiocese is carried forward expeditiously according to the Church's Towards Healing protocol and the demands of natural justice. The public needs to be assured that the matter is being handled appropriately," he said.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has given the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X a formal "doctrinal preamble" listing several principles they must agree with in order to move toward full reconciliation with church.

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave the statement to Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society, Sept. 14 during a meeting at the Vatican that lasted more than two hours.

Although the Vatican did not give the society a deadline, in order to move toward full reconciliation, leaders are expected to study and sign the preamble "within a few months," said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Several victims of clerical sexual abuse, a U.S.-based organization for survivors and a U.S.-based human rights organization formally asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials on charges they bear a responsibility for the abuse of children by Catholic priests around the world.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and their attorneys from the Centre for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based organization, presented their petition to the court Sept. 13, they announced in a press release.

The Vatican press office declined comment.

VATICAN CITY - Praying in the midst of suffering, Christians must remember how God has loved them all their lives and will rescue them, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Holding his weekly general audience Sept. 14 in the Vatican audience hall, Pope Benedict continued teaching about prayer and used Psalm 22, "one of the most prayed and studied psalms," as an example of how to cry out to the Lord from a basic position of trust.

The pope returned to the Vatican by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo to hold the audience with about 8,000 pilgrims and visitors -- too many to be accommodated at the papal summer villa, but few enough to fit in the air-conditioned audience hall.

ANCONA, Italy - Remembering the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to government leaders and all people of good will to work toward a future marked by solidarity and peace.

The pope marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States after celebrating the closing Mass for the Italian National Eucharistic Congress in Ancona, on Italy's Adriatic coast.

Before leading the midday Angelus prayer with about 80,000 people gathered at a shipyard, the pope recalled the anniversary.

"In commending to the Lord the lives of the victims of the attacks carried out that day and their families, I ask leaders of nations and people of good will always to refuse violence as a solution to problems, to resist the temptation of hatred and to work in society, drawing inspiration from the principles of solidarity, justice and peace," the pope said.

VATICAN CITY - In the days leading to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to his homeland Sept. 22-25, German media were asking whether the pope would feel at home in the country he left 30 years ago.

Obviously, he visited Germany frequently while serving in Rome and kept up with friends and colleagues and with developments in church life, theology and politics. As pope, he traveled to Germany in 2005 to celebrate World Youth Day in Cologne and again in 2006 to visit Bavaria, the region where he was born and raised and served as a theology professor and bishop.

After interviewing key Germans involved in planning the upcoming papal trip, Vatican Radio's German program in early September said there's a bit of a sense that the pope and Germans are strangers to each other.

The country was still divided into East and West Germany when he moved to Rome as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and while the communists in the East had succeeded to a large extent in severely limiting Christian life and practice, church activity in the West still was lively.

DUBLIN - The Irish government has stood by comments by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who charged that the Vatican attempted to "frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago."

In a one-page statement issued late Sept. 8, five days after the Vatican refuted the, the government also welcomed the Vatican's expression of regret over the suffering of abuse victims.

The government struck a less conciliatory note in its defense of Kenny, saying his comments in July "accurately reflect the public anger of the overwhelming majority of Irish people at the failure of the Catholic Church and the Holy See to deal adequately with clerical child sexual abuse and those who committed such an appalling act."

The government also reiterated that a 1997 letter to Irish bishops from Archbishop Luciano Storero, the apostolic nuncio at the time, "provided a pretext for some members of the clergy to evade full cooperation with the Irish civil authorities in regard to the abuse of minors."

WASHINGTON - A decade after the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, led to a backlash against Muslims, many Americans are still uncomfortable with followers of Islam and think its teachings are at odds with American values.

Slim majorities of the people polled this summer by the Public Religion Research Institute say Muslims are an important part of the U.S. religious community and that they are comfortable with Muslim women wearing burqas or Muslim men praying in public in an airport. Those majorities were less than 55 percent in each category.

The report released Sept. 6 by the Brookings Institution, which partnered with the religion institute for the study, noted similarities to how Catholics and Mormons were treated in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

"Throughout American history... immigrants professing faiths outside the existing mainstream have tested the commitment to religious liberty," said the report, "What It Means To Be An American."

It noted that Mormons' endorsement of polygamy was seen as an affront to marriage and a threat to democracy, leading to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints being "hounded" to "the brink of legal extinction by the 1890s."

WASHINGTON - Pope Benedict XVI offered his blessings to U.S. Catholics as they prepared to observe the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In a message to Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. bishops, the pope said, "I join you in commending the thousands of victims to the infinite mercy of Almighty God and in asking our heavenly Father to continue to console those who mourn the loss of loved ones."

Pope Benedict told Archbishop Dolan, "I extend my most affectionate greetings to you, your brother bishops and all those entrusted to your pastoral care, and I gladly impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of peace and serenity in the Lord."

The message, dated Sept. 11, was released Sept. 9 in Washington.

JUBA, South Sudan - Recognizing the difficulties facing the people of South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference called upon citizens to join with government leaders to build a country through reconciliation and nonviolence.

The bishops, concluding a three-day meeting Sept. 8, said in a statement that by working together, the people of South Sudan must be "one nation from every tribe, tongue and people."

South Sudan became independent July 9, six months after citizens voted overwhelmingly to secede from Sudan following decades of war.

"We encourage all citizens of South Sudan, with their faith communities, civil society and political parties, to participate in building a new, prosperous and peaceful nation," the bishops said. "We encourage a culture of hard work rather than entitlement or dependency."