6 I FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2010 Suit against pope, Vatican details U.S. abuse case By Dinesh Ramde and Eric Gorski ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS MILWAUKEE The case of a priest accused of preying on boys at a school for the deaf was pre sented to the Vatican by one of the victims a year earlier than previ ously thought, according to docu ments revealed Thursday in another lawsuit aimed at the high est levels of the Roman Catholic Church. A man identified in the lawsuit as "John Doe 16" of Illinois wrote a March 5, 1995, letter to then- Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano alleging that the Rev. Lawrence Murphy molested him for a number of years. Previously, it was believed that the Vatican first learned of the allegations against Murphy in a July 1996 let ter from Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland. Murphy, who died in 1998, is accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the school from 1950 to 1974. His case drew renewed scrutiny after the recent release of documents suggesting that a Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger now the pope US Coast Guard 'Associated Press Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on Wednesday. Eleven workers are missing since the explosion occurred. Oil rig sinks, may cause spill By Holbrook Mohr and Kevin McGill ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS NEW ORLEANS A deepwater oil platform that burned for more than day after a massive explosion sank into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, creating the potential for a major spill as it underscored the slim chances that the 11 workers still missing survived. ,The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, which burned violently until the gulf itself extinguished the fire, could unleash more than 300,000 of gallons of crude a day into the water. The environmental hazards would be greatest if the spill were to reach the Louisiana coast, some 50 miles away. Crews searched by air and water for the missing workers, hoping they had man aged to reach a lifeboat, but one relative said family members have been told it's unlikely any of the missing survived Tuesday night's blast. More than 100 work ers escaped the explosion and fire; four were critically injured. Carolyn Kemp of Monterey, La., said her grandson, Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, was among the missing. She said he would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded. "They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard." A fleet of supply vessels had shot water into the rig to try to control the fire enough to keep it afloat and keep crude oil and diesel fuel out of the water. Officials had previously said the environmental damage appeared minimal, but new challenges have arisen now that the platform has sunk The well could be spilling up to 336,000 Who loves ya, baby? failed to aggressively discipline Murphy. Doe 16's letter was released by his attorney, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minnesota, who provided a copy of a receipt showing the registered letter had reached the Vatican. The man wrote Sodano again and got no response, according to Anderson. The Vatican dismissed the law suit as a publicity stunt that is entirely without merit and rehash es theories already rejected by U.S. courts. Jeffrey Lena, a U.S. attorney for the Vatican, said in a statement that Murphy's victims deserve sympathy, but the Vatican knew nothing of the crimes until decades later and isn't responsible for the abuse. Lena said the lawsuit "is simply the latest attempt by certain U.S. lawyers to use the judicial process as a tool of media relations." A Vatican spokesman has previ ously said the church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was only informed of the Murphy case some 20 years after the diocese knew of the allega tions and after civil authorities decided to drop their investiga tion. The congregation suggested gallons of crude oil a day, Coast Guard Petty Officer Katherine McNamara said. She said she didn't know whether the crude oil was spilling into the gulf. The rig also carried 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel, but that would likely evaporate if the fire didn't consume it. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said crews saw a 1-mile-by-5-mile sheen of what appeared to be a crude oil mix on the surface of the water. She said there wasn't any evidence crude oil was coming out after the rig sank, but officials also aren't sure what's going on underwater. They have dispatched a vessel to check. The oil will do much less damage at sea than it would if it hits the shore, said Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network "If it gets landward, it could be a disaster in the making," Sarthou said. Doug Helton, incident operations coordi nator for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's office of response and restoration, said the spill is not expected to come onshore in next three to four days. "But if the winds were to change, it could come ashore more rapid ly- he said. At the worst-case figure of 336,000 gal lons a day, it would take more than a month for the amount of crude oil spilled to equal the 11 million gallons spilled from the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound. The well will need to be capped off underwater. Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashley Butler said crews were prepared for the platform to sink and had the equipment at the site to limit the environmental damage. kTION & WORLO that the Wisconsin bishops restrict his ministry rather than stage a full-blown canonical trial, which it had earlier supported. The lawsuit seeks the release of confidential Vatican files detailing clergy abuse allegations, as well as unspecified monetary dam ages. It also seeks a jury trial. The lawsuit says Sodano, Ratzinger and fellow Vatican offi cial Tarcisio Bertone all knew about the allegations against Murphy and conspired to keep them secret. The lawsuit says the claims are based on "information and belief" but doesn't offer proof. "Ratzinger and Bertone each knew that their inaction and delay would cause harm to Plaintiff and other former deaf students," the lawsuit states. The court document suggests that the Vatican failed to discipline Murphy because he was a prolific fundraiser. The defendants are Ratzinger, Bertone, Sodano and the Holy See, identified as the state of the Vatican City. Cardinal Bertone was Ratzinger's deputy at the time of the investigation and is now the Vatican's secretary of state. Morry Gash/Associated Press Pamela Meyer holds a picture outside the federal courthouse for the lawsuit filed against Pope Benedict XVI and senior Vatican officials. Earth Day now mainstream By Frederic J. Frommer ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER WASHINGTON There was no 'Green Movement" yet and little talk of global warming. Instead, the original Earth Day 40 years ago emphasized "ecology - and goals like cleaning up pollution and litter along with a more anti-establishment vibe than today. "Welcome, sulfur dioxide, hello, carbon monoxide," a woman sang front the o;: countercultural Broadway hit, - Flair - at a rally in Philadelphia that day. Across. the country, activists donned gas masks or spread out in grassy parks to hear .speech es about overpopulation. smog and dirty rivers. "It was brand new on the scene. t\ - € were basically using a new vocabulary' . recalled Denis Hayes, who was the 25- year-old national coordinator for that rirs , t Earth Day. "So it was all fresh. "In 1969, most Americans couldn't e\ define the word environment," Hayes said. "By the end of 1970, a huge fraction of them thought of themselves as environmental ists." The movement capitalized on the exile rience and passion of activists who had organized anti-war civil rights and femi nist rallies in the 19605. Today, the environ mental cause is far more sophisticated. with thousands of environmental lawyers and advocates with advanced degrees and corporations rushing to advertise - green: . products. "But some of that passion that we had in 1970 has faded," Hayes said. Collegian Presents The Collegian Chronicles: Hundreds of pages of fun, sports, history and photos of Penn State. Looking for a truly unique gift? Check out The Collegian Chronicles! The Chronicles is a lively look hack at the history of Penn State as seen through the pages of The Daily Collegian from 1887 on. We cover national championships. the Reisman Trophy, panty raids, campus unrest and eN erything in between. Come along for the ride and help Support Collegian scholarships! Find The Collegian Chronicles at All proceeds go to the Collegian Alumni Interest Group Scholarship Fund. 101 E. Beaver Ave The original Earth Day was the brain child of the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D- Wis.. who called for a nationwide teach-in on the environment in a speech in Seattle in September 1969. llis daughter, Tia Nelson, said he decid ed to launch it after a major oil spill in California. and wrote the speech on air plane napkins. Forty years ago Thursday, the youth-driven movement sparked par ticipation of about 2,000 college campuses and 10.000 elementary and high schools. Congress adjourned so members could e speeches. tens of thousands of people filled Fifth Avenue in New York City ,o 'licit was closed to traffic and millions took part across the country in activities like leash removal and bicycle rides. Many people used the word "ecology" to describe the cause "a shorthand way to ay we need to think more holistically," ,alO, Adam Rome, an environmental histo riaii at Penn State who is writing a book on the first Earth Day - A lot of people were beginning to ques tion our affluence, the huge environmental eosts of the way we lived, and technologi ,ll progress, - he said. - Ecology" went out of fashion later because it had a "a hippie-ish, countercul tural feel. Rome said, as the movement worked to cultivate an image of profession alism and legal expertise. Although politi cians took part in the first Earth Day, organizers stiff-armed the Nixon adminis tration Haves declined a White House invitation for a meeting before the event, and President Richard Nixon himself did not participate in any Earth Day activities. Old State Clothing Co. Only $l9. OLDSTATE.COM OLD STATE CLOTHING THE DAILY COLLEGIAN 814-234-1415
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