CALL FOR THREE CARDINALS TO BE REMOVED FROM WMOF

Survivors claim each has questions to answer about known clerical child abusers

Patsy McGarry IRISH TIMES

     

A group representing clerical child sex survivors worldwide has written an open letter to Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin seeking the removal of three cardinals from World Meeting of Families (WMOF) events in Dublin later this month.

Archbishop Martin is chairing the WMOF board.

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Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) represents survivors in 15 countries and aims to hold the Vatican to account over clerical abuse of minors.

FARRELL

It says the three cardinals – Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life which has overall responsibility for the World Meeting of Families, Cardinal Óscar Maradiaga of Honduras and a member of Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinals, and Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl should be “investigated, not honoured”.

MARADIAGA

The organisation claims they have covered up for clergy who abused minors, something denied by the three cardinals.

WUERL

“Any bishop who covers up for another bishop should not be trusted to safeguard Catholic families, much less preach to the world about the sacred and intrinsic dignity and meaning of family life. We are deeply troubled that three cardinals who may have protected abusive brother bishops are playing significant roles at the World Meeting of Families,” it said.

Sexually abused minors

They noted how recently former US cardinal Theodore McCarrick in the US was removed from ministry following accusations that he had sexually abused minors as well as seminarians and young priests.

Cardinal Wuerl succeeded McCarrick as Archbishop of Washington in 2006 “around the time New Jersey dioceses were settling with McCarrick’s victims.”

Last month it emerged that Cardinal Maradiaga’s close associate and auxiliary bishop in Honduras, Bishop Juan Jose Pineda, was removed because of sexually abusing seminarians.

Cardinal Farrell was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Washington in 2002 by then Archbishop McCarrick and served as vicar general.

“I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him,” Cardinal Farrell said last month, referring to former Cardinal McCarrick and the allegations against him. He had “no indication, none whatsoever”.

From Drimnagh in Dublin, Cardinal Farrell and his brother Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Vatican’s Council for Promoting Christian Unity, began their clerical careers as members of the controversial Legionaries of Christ.

Bishop Farrell remains a member while Cardinal Farrell left them in 1981.

Serial sex abuser

Legionaries of Christ founder Fr Marcial Maciel, who died in 2008, was exposed as a serial sex abuser of boys and young men and father of six children by multiple women and was removed from ministry in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI.

In 2016, when asked by The Irish Times what he had known about Fr Maciel’s activities as a sexual predator, Cardinal Farrell said: “I never knew anything back then. I worked in Monterrey, and maybe I would have met Maciel once or twice, but I never suspected anything . . . I left the Legionaries because I had intellectual differences with them.”

The survivors want the pope to acknowledge and meet publicly with survivor leaders of Irelandduring his visit and to announce that the next WMOF will be dedicated to the impact and prevention of sexual violence, particularly clergy sexual violence, on families.

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Dublin priest stands aside for investigation

A spokesman said the fact that Fr Herren has stood aside is no indication of the truth or otherwise of the allegations against him

By Colman O'Sullivan

A parish priest in south Dublin has stood aside from his duties while historical allegations are investigated.

A spokesman for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told parishioners at masses in Foxrock this morning that the accusation against Father Frank Herren relates to several decades ago and there is no connection with his work in Foxrock.

The spokesman said the fact that Fr Herren has stood aside is no indication of the truth or otherwise of the allegations against him.

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TOM DENNIHAN - BISHOP ELECT OF MEATH

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KEVIN MC ELROY - EX SEMINARIAN OF DOWN AND CONNOR

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Richard Sipe’s Letter to Bishop Robert McElroy

MC ELROY

A.W.Richard Sipe

2825 Ridgegate Row /La Jolla /CA 92037

July 28,2016

Bishop McElroy:

I received your note postmarked July 19.

It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial,

that you had no interest in any further personal contact. It was only after

that I sent you a letter copied to my contacts in DC and Rome.

The new Nuncio, Archbishop Pierre, told my colleague he is interested in

the care of and reaction to victims of clergy assault: and I am assured that

the Papal Commission for the Prevention of Abuse is also dedicated to this

aspect of the crisis.

I will as I was asked, put my observations in the form of a report. Your

office made it clear that you have no time in your schedule either now or “in

the foreseeable future” to have the meeting that they suggested.

Bishop, I have been at the study and research of the problem of clergy

abuse since 1960. In 1986 I wrote to Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk,

president of the USCCB at the time, with my preliminary conclusions. His

response was negligible, although he passed the substance onto the

USCCB office who gave my figures to a NEWSWEEK reporter.

In 1990 before my study A Secret World; Sexuality and the Search for

Celibacy was published I agreed to meet with the entire staff at their DC

offices.

Institutional resistance is understandable, if surprising to me. So much of

my work has been validated and in many quarters now taken for granted.

2

The number of priests and bishops having sex with minors was not the

primary or central focus of the study. But my calculation of 6% (six percent)

clergy abusers as a base line has held up very well. [ the most recent

validation is between 6 ½ and 9% in the U.S. Some dioceses have

registered 23%. Some religious houses have recorded 25%.]

Sexual violation within the RC clergy is systemic. I say that on the basis of

observation and scientific conclusion. And I say that with empathy and

concern.

Now that aspect of the sexual crisis is well known around the world. The

crisis behind the scandal will be the next phase of reality with which to

come to terms: Namely: the broad range and frequency of sexual behaviors

registered in the clerical system. “At any one time no more than 50% of

priests are practicing celibacy.”

That was the hypothesis and thrust of A Secret World (1990) and repeated

in Celibacy in Crisis (2003)

In May 1993 at the Vatican International Conference on Celibacy in Rome

Cardinal Jose Sanchez then Chairman of the Dicastery on Clergy fielded

questions about my study and conclusions and a similar sociological

statistical report by Fr. Victor Kotze of South Africa. Father Kotze concluded

that in any three-year period only 45% of priests were practicing celibacy.

When asked directly by reporter Mark Dowd, and a reporter recording for

the BBC TV what the Cardinal thought of those studies he said, “I have no

reason to doubt the accuracy of those figures”.

II

During the first National Survivors Conference in Chicago, October 1992, I

addressed the group with these words: “The crisis we are facing today—

sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy—is the tip of an iceberg. And if

we follow it to its foundations it will lead to the highest corridors of the

Vatican.”

3

Sooner or later it will become broadly obvious that there is a systemic

connection between the sexual activity by, among and between clerics in

positions of authority and control, and the abuse of children.

When men in authority—cardinals, bishops, rectors, abbots, confessors,

professors—are having or have had an unacknowledged-secret-active-sexlife

under the guise of celibacy an atmosphere of tolerance of behaviors

within the system is made operative.

Many of the sexual patterns are set up during seminary years or in early

years after ordination when sexual experimentation is initiated or sustained.

The 2009 Vatican Report (in English) on American seminaries invented a

new term—transitional homosexuality. I believe this is due to the

awareness of the frequent activity in the homosocial structure of seminary

and religious life.

I was on the staff of three major seminaries, one Pontifical, from 1967 to

1984. I served as a consultant for seminaries from 1966 to 1996. That gave

me a broad contact with several other seminaries, their Rectors and staffs.

I was aware, from information shared by their partners, that a number of

rectors (at least three) and also some staff members, were having periodic

sex with students.

At one seminary fully one-fourth of the professors had ongoing sexual

contacts with men or women in more or less consensual arrangements.

It is credibly established that thirty percent (30%) of U.S. bishops have a

homosexual orientation. This is not a condemnation nor an allegation of

malfeasance. The list of homosexual Popes and saints is long and

illustrious. [This is obviously false.  Homosexuality, even the inclination, is diametrically opposed to sanctity in every sense. -AB]

A serious conflict arises when bishops who have had or are having sexually

active lives with men or women defend their behavior with denial, cover up,

and public pronouncements against those same behaviors in others.

Their own behavior threatens scandal of exposure when they try to curtail

or discipline other clerics about their behavior even when it is criminal as in

the case with rape and abuse of minors, rape, or power plays against the

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vulnerable. (Archbishops Harry Flynn, Eugene Marino, Robert Sanchez,

Manuel Moreno, Francis Green, etc.)

III

I will record instances that demonstrate the systemic dynamic that forms

and fosters sexual violations among the clerical culture. All of this

information is culled from records (civil or church). In addition, I have 50

years’ participation or contact with the clerical culture of the RCC.

I have reviewed several hundred thousands of pages of records of clerical

sexual activity and been involved as a consultant or expert witness in 250

civil legal actions against clergy offenders.

None of the following information is secret. It is reviewed here in an effort to

demonstrate how the sexual system works in the clerical culture.

Archbishop John Neinstedt (1947—) I reviewed the 138-page report of

the Ramsay County MN Attorney’s report on the sexual activity of

Neinstedt.

I have interviewed priests from the Detroit Archdiocese who had personal

contact there with Neinstedt and had first-hand knowledge of his presence

at gay bars. The affidavits in the report speak for themselves.

Bishop Thomas Lyons (1923-88) priest of Baltimore and auxiliary bishop

of Washington, D.C. I have personally interviewed adult men who claim that

they were sexually abused by Lyons when he was a priest in Baltimore and

a monsignor and pastor in D.C.

One of the reporters was on probation for abusing minor members of his

own family. He claimed that Lyons abused him from the time he was seven

to seventeen years old. Also Lyons himself said that this happened to him

(by a priest) when he was growing up and that “it was natural.”

One important element in this behavior is the three generational pattern of

sexual abuse of minors involved: Priest abuser of child who becomes a

priest and child abuser. Behavior is justified as natural. This is a pattern

seen often and termed the genealogy of clerical sexual abuse.

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Bishop Raymond J. Boland (1932-2014) was a priest and pastor also in

Washington, D.C. until 1988 when he was appointed bishop of Birmingham

AL, and subsequently, in1993 bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

I was involved for several years in advocating for several victims that

Boland violated when he was a pastor. The accounts of the victims are

among the most horrendous from the point of view that exemplifies how

deeply sex even with minors is integrated within the clerical culture.

Cardinal James Hickey and bishop William Lori fought with particular fury

the allegations that ended in the suspension of several priests and a

financial settlement with some victims.

The victim quoted here from his report to the Archdiocese refused the

settlement offered by the Archdiocese. The whole process from 1994 to

2004 spanned the reigns of Hickey, Mc Carrick and Wuerl.

Fr. Frank Swift (+1974) and Fr. Aldo PetrinI (+late 1980s) were named as

abusers.

Msgr. Paul Lavin was named as an abuser of several minor victims and

was finally removed from the ministry by Cardinal McCarrick in 2002.

These D.C. priests formed a coterie of sexually active clerics from the

seminary to connections with officials in Vatican offices.

Some of the victims were assaulted together. Two victims refused financial

settlements. Others were constricted by confidentiality clauses.

This tangle of clerical sexual abusers demonstrates the operation that

infests the systemic operation of sexual activity from top to bottom.

Many more facts about this group are on record.

Following are quotes from the reports in files submitted to the offices of the

D.C. Archbishops and their lawyers:

A 10-year-old boy at Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Forestville, MD in

1967 was sodomized by Fr. Raymond J. Boland and then deacon Paul

Levin.

6

The boy asked Boland why they were doing this and he responded, “God

makes special boys and girls for pleasure, and you are certainly one of

them.” When he saw the erect penises of his abusers he was told, “See

what you have done”.

They said they were going to make him a “big boy” and show him how

much God loved him. And breathlessly told him that it was, “the ultimate

sign of love when a man ‘came’ with a special boy; that gave him, “the seed

of life”.

Lavin said, “when I was 12-years-old that I would be taken on retreats were

spiritual bonding between older men and younger boys took place.”

They assured him the pain would go away, gave warnings to keep secret

and delivered threats of dire consequences if he told anyone. (He did tell

his mother who slapped him and told him never to talk that way about a

priest or nun.)

He made a first suicide attempt with aspirin.

Three weeks after the assault by Boland this boy contacted a priest in his

home parish—Fr. Perkinson. (who was ultimately a patient at St. Luke’s

Institute Suitland, MD.)

When he told the priest his name Fr. Perkinson said, “Oh, you’re the

special little boy Fr. Boland told me about.” He said he had been in the

military and “sex between two guys was normal”.

The priest then proceeded to expose his penis and forced it into the boy’s

mouth. “He told me to lick it like a popsicle and swallow the precious gift he

was going to give me.” He added later how special a boy I was and

encouraged me to swallow the semen that was “the seed of Christ and the

source of all life-—and a sin” to refuse. “God loves you and so do I.”

[This victim spent several years in the major seminary where he

experienced and recorded the sexual connections between seminary,

parish priests, chancery and Rome. The string of abusers was reported to

Cardinal Hickey. Some were retired or left the area.]

7

While this assault was in progress the pastor opened the door, simply

looked and closed it. (this behavior by other priests is reported in other

instances—e.g. Gaboury, litigated in Fall River, MA; in a case litigated in

D.C. the pastor seeing the boy bound and being sodomized simply said,

“you will have to repair that wall”. (The victim had punched a hole in the

wall while bound and thrashing around.)

Boland’s victim made a second suicidal attempt and was treated in a

hospital.

This is by no means the most horrendous of the records I have reviewed,

but its elements of seduction, assault, sexualizing spirituality, and selfjustification

under a “celibate” mantle and cover up are paradigmatic of a

system of behaviors in the Catholic clerical culture.

The record of one priest abuser relates how he anointed the foreheads of

his boy victims with his semen.

Another priest who was having sex with a13-yer-old of girl touched her

genitals with what he said was a consecrated host to show her “how much

God loves you”.

The credibility of the documents is unquestionable and recorded in church

and legal documents. The reporter in Boland’s case is a respected

professor.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been reported by numerous

seminarians and priests of sexual advances and activity. A settlement with

one priest was effected by Stephen Rubino, Esq.

In that record the operation of McCarrick in sexual activity with three priests

is described. Correspondence from “Uncle Ted” as he asked to be called, is

included. One of the principals is now a lawyer who left the priesthood, two

men remain in the priesthood, but refuse to speak publicly despite the fact

that the settlement document is open. One priest was told by the chancery

office, “if you speak with the press we will crush you”.

Priests or seminarians who speak up about a sexually active superior are

threatened with the loss of everything—employment, status, etc. Those

8

who report are greeted with disbelief or even derision if they know but were

not personally involved. If they were a partner in the sexual activity and

“come out” they become a pariah and labeled a traitor.

I have interviewed twelve seminarians and priests who attest to

propositions, harassment, or sex with McCarrick, who has stated, “I do not

like to sleep alone”.

One priest incardinated in McCarrick’s Archdiocese of Newark was taken to

bed for sex and was told, “this is how priests do it in the U.S.”. None so far

has found the ability to speak openly at the risk of reputation and

retaliation.

The system protects its impenetrability with intimidation, secrecy and

threat. Clergy and laity are complicit.

Abbot John Eidenschink, O.S.B. (1914-2004) I knew John Eidenschink

from the time I was a student in Prep school (1946) until the time of his

death. He served me as a theology professor, confessor for six years,

superior, and traveling companion in Europe (summer 1956), and principal

speaker at my first mass in 1959. I served with him as an assistant master

of ceremonies.

It was only in 1970 that monks and former monks came forward to tell me

about how Fr. John, under the guise of offering instructions how to make

them more comfortable with their body, and that during spiritual guidance,

had them stretch out nude on his bed while he touched them; he

penetrated some.

At least two of these men sought legal advice and received substantial

financial settlements from the abbey. At least five men reported this

behavior. Others who remained in the monastery did not publicize their

encounters.

I have heard this manner and mode of relationship described in other

religious houses and seminaries.

Like many other members of dioceses and religious communities I was

blind to these and other sexual activities among the group. This is not an

excuse. Lack of vigilance, adequate sexual education and simple ignorance

9

contributed to the blindness instilled by institutional absorption and

dependency.

On record maintained by a former victim of the system recorded sixty

members of the St. John’s community who were sexual violators and 260

“known victims”. (Patrick Marker [Behindthepinecurtin.com])

John Eidenschink was a prominent and productive member of the

community. He influenced every segment of this large institution. His

sexual conditioning was formed and fostered in the two years of his

novitiate under the tutelage of Fr. Basil Stegmann, O.S.B. who repeatedly

took novice John on his lap while instructing him.

John was an orphan and lived with relatives near the campus of the abbey.

His sexual identity and his remarkable talents were conditioned and

fostered by the total institution. The homosocial structure of the abbey and

schools influenced his adjustment.

The homoerotic component in Roman Catholic theology and in the social

construct of training and in the power associations fosters sexual

expression as “natural” in ordinary male relationships. This is in direct

contradiction to the official teaching that homosexuality is “unnatural” and

“intrinsically disordered”.

I observed similar constructs in Vatican contacts with confreres when I was

a student in Rome. I could only register facts that I could not put together at

the time.

Students with some ambition would make contact with secretaries of

various Vatican officials, usually a Monsignore. This could assure them an

invitation to “tea” or some reception. Those who made the cut had social

access to a certain group of minor officials with prospects of wider and

more exalted contacts. (The book I Millinari written by 5 Vatican officials

also records variations on this pattern.)

Sexual liaisons become common for men conditioned to homosexually in

the system when women become available for social contact usually after

ordination. The Vatican term “transitional homosexuality” (2009) I

believe is based on the observation that a portion of priests pass through a

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phase of sexual bonding with men (or even boys) before setting into

heterosexual behaviors.

Bishop Robert H. Brom: I have talked with the man who made allegations

of misconduct against Brom and with whom he made a $120,000

settlement. The history is well recorded by several responsible reporters.

(http://www.awrsipe.com/brom/bishop_brom.htm)

Significant here is the operation of the National Conference of Bishops who

in their 2002 Dallas Charter made provision for “zero tolerance” of clergy

abusing minors but neglected to address violations by bishops. Instead

they appointed Brom, when allegations were known, to make “Fraternal

Correction” to other bishops accused.

This type of operation is typical of the pattern of cover up from the top of

the institution. (Reflected in the destruction of documents by the Papal

Nuncio in the Neinstedt case. Cf. Documentation provided by the Ramsey

County District Attorney)

Cardinal Roger Mahony. I have served as an expert witness in a sufficient

number of abuse cases in the LA Archdiocese to conclude it is not

outlandish to ask if Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is a criminal for

“knowingly endangering the children he was supposed to defend.”

There is ample evidence already in the public forum that Mahony has

known of priests who abused minors, reassigned them and allowed them to

minister only to abuse other minors. He has not informed parishioners or

even parish staffs, that the priests he was assigning had a record of abuse.

Mahony who has a Masters in Social Work did not report known priest

abusers to social services even though he was obligated to do so by civil

law and by reason of the profession’s Code of Ethics. All of this vast

evidence is recorded in countless depositions on record from litigations1 of

abuse cases and from Mahony’s own testimony under oath.2

1 Depositions by Bishop Curry and Judge Byrne are illustrative of how priests were assigned and the

oversight board operated.

2 Mahony depositions, January 25, 2010; November 23, 2004; also Cf. Mahony trial testimony Fresno,

CA March 17, 2009.

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I received reports from two men about Mahony’s sexual life and orientation;

one a former (St. John, Camarillo) seminarian who was dying of HIV

related complications; the other a long time LA church employee. The men

were credible reporters unwilling to go public or draw on corroboration.

I have served as an expert on a number of cases of confirmed sexual

abuse by priests of the LA Archdiocese from 2002 onward. Several are

remarkable: (i.e. the case of Lopez y Lopez and the controversy between

Mahony and the Cardinal of Mexico City. One of the principals in the latter

had to be lying.)

Judge Jim Byrne touted by the cardinal as a poster boy for the integrity of

the sexual abuse review board said in deposition that in all the years he

served on the Board he “never thought” of helping the victims.

Lawyer, Larry Drivon, who has litigated many California cases of clergy

abuse stated that there was sufficient evidence to charge Mahony with

perjury after letters he signed when he was bishop of Stockton, were

produced in his 2004 deposition and showed—black on white—that he had

clear knowledge of events that he denied under oath in deposition and on

the witness stand in the 1998 trial of Fr. Oliver O’Grady.3

I attended the Nov. 2004 deposition of Mahony and know the history of the

O’Grady trial. I saw Mahony’s signed letters. As a layperson I witnessed the

cardinal lying. His lawyer claimed, as did the cardinal that “he forgot.” (in 2

depositions and on the witness stand)

Three Los Angeles Grand Juries have been impaneled over nine years to

determine the real picture of abusing priests in the Archdiocese of Los

Angeles. Their problem is not the lack of evidence, but the monumental

legal impediments and roadblocks the cardinal has sponsored to obstruct

the investigation and the release of documents needed to pinpoint facts of

the cardinal’s knowledge and involvement in complicity and obstruction.

California law does not allow Grand Jury reports to be made public unless

indictments result.

3 Don Lattin. December 11, 2004. The San Francisco Chronicle.

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Mahony claimed that communications between him and his priests have a

special privilege, not unlike that of confessional secrets. His claim was

included as the central argument advanced by his attorneys for refusing to

disclose files ordered by the courts. His arguments were rejected by the

appeal court, the California Supreme Court. Not deterred he had his

lawyers even try to have the case reversed by the United States Supreme

Court. The highest court in the land could not swallow his theory. His

obstructionism seems unbounded.

He claimed that he was a member of the therapeutic team treating priest

abusers and therefore documents involving him enjoyed a privilege of

medical confidentiality. In actuality he was never a member of any

therapeutic teams for several reasons not the least of which is the fact that

he is not qualified.

It has not yet been revealed how many millions the cardinal spent in

pursuing facetious claims. He has employed for his defense not merely

several lawyers but several law firms as well as Sitrick and Company, a

public relation firm used by Enron, the Tobacco industry and the Keating

Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980’s. Fortune magazine called the

company’s founder “one of the most accomplished practitioners of the

dark arts of public relations. The Financial Times called him, “The spin

doctor’s spin doctor.” Should any Catholic entity much less an

archdiocese take any pride in resorting to the services of such an

organization? Truth and transparency seem secondary if important at all.

These and myriad other stories are to be told from documents and records.

These records show Mahony’s, and other bishops pattern and practice that

reflect institutional defenses of its ministers’ sexual behaviors.

I will not belabor the more than 250 abuse cases of clergy abuse I have

served on as an expert witness or consultant.

I served the Attorney General of Massachusetts in the formation of their

Grand Jury investigation of clergy abuse in that State (2002). And I was an

expert witness to the first of three Grand Juries empaneled in Philadelphia

and I reviewed 135 clergy abuse files then. Since that time I have been

able to follow the working and operation of the Archdiocesan offices’

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dealing with victims of clergy abuse. That is a paradigm of the malfunction

of the American church in response to clergy.

You are well aware that your diocese has settled with many victims (144 in

2007 alone).

I have tried to help the Church understand and heal the wounds of sexual

abuse by clergy. My services have not been welcomed.

My appeal to you has been for pastoral attention to victims of abuse and

the long term consequences of that violation. This includes the effects of

suicidal attempts.

Only a bishop can minister to these wounds.

Enclosed you will find a list of bishops who have been found wanting in

their duties to the people of God.

Respectfully

A.W.Richard Sipe

August 30, 2016

(Hand Delivered)

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