ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

An indictment published by the Vatican on Monday indicates that a computer technician may have protected the pope’s former butler, who stands accused of leaking papal documents.

The pope’s erstwhile butler—Paolo Gabriele—will not be pardoned, the Vatican said on Monday, and instead will face a three-judge Vatican tribunal for allegedly stealing papal documents and leaking them to an Italian journalist. Yet in a surprise twist, in a 60-page indictment, which the Holy See published on Monday, the Vatican accused a second man–Claudio Sciarpelletti, a 48-year old computer technician–of aiding Gabriele by obstructing justice.

The two will be codefendants some time this fall. The date of the trial, which the Vatican says will be open to the press, will be set after September 20, when the Vatican’s judicial offices reopen following a summer recess, though a Vatican spokesman speculated that it will begin in October and last just a few days.

The surprise announcement in what’s known as the Vatileaks scandal underscores the Holy See’s ongoing ability to keep a secret, despite apparent fractures in the church’s once-impenetrable shield. For months, the Italian press has speculated that bishops, cardinals and nuns had served as Gabriele’s alleged accomplices. But no one had even heard of Sciarpelletti until Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announced his alleged involvement at a press briefing on Monday.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 15, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — An imprisoned Roman Catholic monsignor is again seeking bail while he appeals what defense lawyers call his novel and controversial child-endangerment conviction.

The lawyers say Monsignor William Lynn has a good chance of having his landmark case overturned because of alleged trial errors.

In a Superior Court petition filed Wednesday, they complain the judge let in weeks of evidence about accused priests not on trial.

And they say Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina botched jury instructions.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Gloria.tv

(gloria.tv/ KNA) Der Botschafter des Papstes in Deutschland hat die Position des konservativen «Netzwerks katholischer Priester» bei der Bewältigung des Missbrauchsskandals scharf kritisiert. Das Netzwerk hatte sich gegen die Auswertung personenbezogener Daten von Priestern für die Missbrauchs-Studie der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz ausgesprochen. Die Datenerhebung setze die Mehrheit der Priester, Diakone und Ordensleute «einem öffentlichen Generalverdacht im Hinblick auf sexuellen Missbrauch» aus, lautete das Hauptargument des Netzwerks.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Wenn Eure Exzellenz die Inhalte der Drohbriefe an Pfarrer Ittmann duldet und keinerlei Konsequenzen zieht, dann schäme ich mich für Eure Exzellenz, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann

Zugegeben: Dass Bischof Ackermann verzweifelt versucht, sich medial in Szene zu setzen, um von den traurigen Fakten in seinem Bistum abzulenken, sind wir gewohnt. Dies betrifft sowohl den innerhalb weniger Stunden inszenierten Auftritt im Schwulen- und Lesbenzentrum in Trier , die Einweihung der “Fachstelle für Kinder- und Jugendschutz in Trier” , die angeblich neue Information, dass nun auch Pressesprecher Stephan Kronenburg das Bistum verlässt (nachdem bereits der Kommunikationsdirektor Stefan Wahl, und Generalvikar Georg Holkenbrink – tja, wie soll man das jetzt formulieren – versetzt wurden? Ausgetauscht wurden? Ihr bisheriges Tätigkeitsfeld aufgaben? – nun gut, nachdem sich bereits schon diese beiden Herren neuen beruflichen Herausforderungen zugewandt haben.) – Fakt ist: Sobald eine neue Meldung über das Vergehen eines Priesters aus dem Bistum Trier publik wird, setzen Eure Exzellenz, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann sich innerhalb weniger Stunden in Szene, um offensichtlich verzweifelt zu versuchen, zu retten, was überhaupt noch zu retten ist…

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OSTERREICH
Nachrichten

WIEN. Die Vorwürfe gegen 35 Priester auf einem internen Papier reichen von sexueller Nötigung im Beichtstuhl über Kindesmissbrauch im Knabenseminar bis zu Übergriffen an Ministranten. Die Kirche findet eine Amtsenthebung trotz schwerster Vorwürfe “nicht zielführend”.

Die geheime Liste der Sex-Täter im Talar wurde den Bezirksblättern Niederösterreich zugespielt.

35 Missbrauchspriester sollen in Österreich noch Dienst versehen. Dies behauptet zumindest ein Mitglied der Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt gegenüber den Bezirksblättern Niederösterreich. Der Experte legte auch eine namentliche Liste der Verdächtigen vor. Darunter ein ehemaliger Rektor eines Knabenseminars, ein Pfarrer, der bereits wegen Kindesmissbrauchs zu zwei Jahren Haft verurteilt wurde und ein Ordensmann, der allerdings vorübergehend verschwunden ist. Es gibt Priester, die sich durch sexuelle Gewalt im Rahmen der Ministrantenbetreuung schuldig gemacht haben sollen. Ein Mitglied des Opus Dei soll behinderte Frauen im Beichtstuhl bedrängt, ein anderer Geistlicher einem Ratsuchenden Alkohol eingeflößt haben, um ihn anschließend sexuell zu nötigen. Auch ein Prälat soll unter den einschlägig tätig Gewordenen sein. Die Namen der Verdächtigen liegen der Redaktion vor. Es gilt die Unschuldsvermutung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

Der Trierer Bischof Ackermann hat erstmals einen Priester wegen des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Das ist die kirchenrechtliche Höchststrafe. Die Ermittlungen ins Rollen gebracht hat Benedikt Maria Trappen, der Neffe des von Ackermann gefeuerten Priesters.

Als Vierzehnjähriger wurde er sexuell missbraucht. Der Täter: Sein Onkel, ein katholischer Priester und angesehener Theologieprofessor, dem auch noch andere Missbrauchsfälle vorgeworfen werden. Über das Erlebte konnte Trappen lange Zeit nicht öffentlich reden, aus Angst vor dem mächtigen Kirchenmann und aus Rücksichtnahme auf seine strenggläubigen Eltern.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

BY JOANNE MCCARTHY

16 Aug, 2012

A crusading American Catholic priest has urged the Hunter Region to “do all you can to get a royal commission” into the Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse.

Dominican Order priest and canon law expert Father Tom Doyle joined Hunter civic leaders yesterday in backing a royal commission, and criticising politicians for their timidity on the issue.

“In the US the grand juries are the equivalent of royal commissions and in Ireland the statutory commissions are the equivalent,” Father Doyle said.

“They have proven to be the best way to get at the truth.”

Governments had to act because in the past 30 years the only change within the church had been the result of “media exposure, public outrage and pressure from the civil court system. What the institutional Church has done, it was forced to do.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn on Wednesday asked an appeals court to do what his trial judge would not: free the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official on bail while he fights his child-endangerment conviction.

In a motion filed in Superior Court, the lawyers renewed their claims that the 61-year-old cleric poses no public danger or flight risk, has deep local roots, and a better-than-average chance to win his appeal.

“It would be a manifest injustice for Appellant Lynn to serve much, if not all, of his prison term, where there is a substantial possibility of reversal,” lawyers Thomas Bergstrom, Allison Khaskelis and Alan Tauber wrote in their brief. “The chance of unjust incarceration is simply too great not to grant bail.”

The filing marked the first salvo in a battle the lawyers have long said will be won or lost in the higher courts.

The archdiocese is paying Bergstrom and Khaskelis, of the Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney law firm, to lead the appeal. Tauber and his partner, Jeffrey Lindy, were part of the monsignor’s defense team during his landmark trial earlier this year.

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MISSOURI
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on August 15, 2012

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that the Catholic Church can go on a fishing expedition in the archives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The judges let stand a lower court order that SNAP comply with a subpoena associated with the civil suit filed against Father Michael Tierney. The priest has been accused of molesting a minor in the early 1970′s. He denies the allegation.

SNAP and other victims-rights groups have fought the subpoena stating that it jeopardizes the privacy of alleged victims. They also have stated that this would allow church attorneys to use these confidential files to obstruct the work of victims’ rights groups. Certainly it would intimidate people into not wanting to come forward.

Lawyers for Tierney, who is no longer active in the Church, feel that the files could explain how the alleged victims have recovered repressed memories of abuse. The lawyers have not asked specifically for the files in the case of Tierney, nor have they apparently requested to interview the accuser, but rather they have requested access to all of SNAP’s files.

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MEXICO
MSN

The story of an influential Mexican priest accused of rampant child sex abuse will be featured in a new movie — secretly filmed in Mexico this summer.

Marcial Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ over six decades ago. It is now active in 22 countries, and in particular at schools and universities.

But starting in 1997, a number of students began to come forward to accuse the high-profile priest of molesting them.

After years of denials, the Vatican finally opened an investigation in 2004, culminating two years later with Maciel’s resignation from the top post at the Legionaries.

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NEW YORK
YNN

[with video]

By: Alexandra Weishaupt

SOUTH FALLSBURG, N.Y. — “The camp takes what happened extremely seriously,” said Attorney Y. David Scharf, camp spokesperson.

It’s a case of alleged sex abuse at Camp Shalva, an Orthodox summer camp in South Fallsburg, according to the New York Post.

“The age of the kids who are at camp range from grade through middle school,” said Scharf.

The paper says in the early hours Wednesday morning, it was one particular group that was singled-out by an alleged registered sex offender.

“He showed up at the camp on a particular morning and was out of the camp relatively quickly,” said Scharf.

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NEW YORK
Forward

By Simi Lampert

Published August 14, 2012.

New York State Police are investigating a possible case of sexual abuse at a camp for Orthodox Jewish boys in upstate Monticello, N.Y.

A kosher food truck driver has been captured on camera sneaking onto campus of Camp Shalva early on the morning of August 8 and entering bunkhouses of 13-to-14 year old boys, according to JTA.

The campers reported the incident later the morning to camp supervisors, and were told not to tell their parents immediately, the New York Post reported.

Three days later, the camp contacted a prosecutor, and he put them in touch with the district attorney and state police.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

JTA

New York State Police are investigating allegations of sexual abuse by a truck driver making a delivery to a Jewish camp, The New York Post reported.

Surveillance video captured footage of a kosher-food truck driver entering bunks for seventh-and eighth-grade boys at Camp Shalva near South Fallsburg, N.Y., early on Aug. 8, according to the newspaper. The suspect is accused of molesting several of the campers.

Unnamed sources told the Post that the boys reported the incidents in the morning to supervisors of the Orthodox Jewish camp but were told not to tell their parents.

The 5 Towns Jewish Times reported that the alleged intruder is Golden Taste employee Yoel Oberlander, a convicted molester and registered sex offender from Monsey, N.Y., who pleaded guilty to molesting an 11-year-old girl in 2002. He was sentenced to six years of probation.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

Statement by Bishop Keith Elford, of The Free Methodist Church in Canada, regarding Criminal Charges against Rev. Kris Gowdy

“The Free Methodist Church in Canada and its member congregations were shocked and deeply grieved to learn through media reports of the recent criminal charges brought against Rev. Kris Gowdy.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are committed to seek justice, love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. We wish to affirm our desire for truth and justice to be known and served. We want our congregations and communities to be safe and healthy places for all ages. This is why we insist that all congregations have child and youth protection plans in place. Our congregations have been asked to use the “Plan to Protect” program provided by Winning Kids Inc.

The Free Methodist Church in Canada and its member congregations have zero tolerance for any activity related to sexual abuse. Any complaints of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of minors are to be reported to the police immediately.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
August 16, 2012

A CATHOLIC priest may have abused up to 80 young girls in a lifetime of assaults dating back to the 1950s, according to evidence collected by church officials who, for decades, failed to report the alleged offences to police.

Church records confirm the existence of about 20 alleged victims of the former priest, Denis McAlinden, and contain anecdotal evidence that there may have been up to 60 more.

The late John Toohey, then bishop of Maitland, in the NSW Hunter Valley, spoke to McAlinden about the allegations in 1956, but it is understood the diocese did not officially contact the police until 2003.

Other alleged victims — from Western Australia, South Australia and NSW — have recently contacted detectives investigating what police describe as “alleged cover-ups by current and former serving senior members of the Catholic Church” relating to McAlinden.

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MISSOURI
The Chronicle of Philanthropy

August 15, 2012

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a support group for alleged victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy must turn over more than two decades of records to attorneys for an accused priest in Kansas City, The Wall Street Journal writes.

The judges let stand a lower-court order for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, to comply with a wide-ranging subpoena in connection with a civil suit against the Rev. Michael Tierney, who has been accused of molesting a minor in the early 1970s. He denies the allegations.

SNAP, with backing from other victims-rights groups, has fought the subpoena, saying it jeopardizes the privacy of alleged victims of abuse and is a pretext for church attorneys to use the organization’s confidential files to obstruct the work of bringing abuse cases to light.

Nearly two dozen groups, including the National Organization for Women Foundation and the National Center for Victims of Crime, said jointly in an amicus brief that the subpoena “has the capacity to set the survivor community back a minimum of 10, if not 20, years.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

A gold nugget and a cheque for 100,000 euros made payable to “His Holiness” were found in his house

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican City

He may not have been after money, but his home was like a “branch” of the Vatican archive or an extension of the Vatican Museums. What with the gifts taken from the pope and the documents stolen from the Apostolic Palace, Paolo Gabriele’s apartment in the Curia had become a warehouse for precious secret objects. International Catholic institutions and groups of Italian followers had sent presents and money towards papal charitable activities, but on the way, from the sender to the receiver, there was an unexpected obstacle: the butler.

In the Vatican however people do not believe that the actions of the former butler were inspired by “greed”. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said: “No one mentioned money as a motive, not even the magistrates”. Beside the three items found in the butler’s abode (a cheque for 100,000 euros, a gold nugget and a sixteenth century copy of the Aeneid that were all presents for the pope from South America and Italy), there has been no mention, in any of the documents released by the Holy See yesterday, of any profit that might have been gained from the theft. Fr. Lombardi pointed out that one could perhaps glimpse a “moral” purpose, but definitely nothing pointing towards a “financial interest”. In fact, the former aide declared: “ I didn’t even know I had a cheque for 100,000 euros payable to the pope at home”.

And what about Benedict XVI’ s stolen presents? The butler defended himself: “In my degenerating chaos, such instances might have occurred”. He described in detail his everyday life: “ I was in charge of taking some of these presents to storage and some to the office. Some were used for the charity prize -draws of the Gendarmerie, of the Swiss Guard and other charity events”. In another (disarming) declaration to the examining magistrate Gabriele described “ his special passion for books”. As far as the copy of the Aeneid is concerned he said “ I remember that since my son had started studying that poem, I asked Fr. Georg if I could show that book to my son’s teacher, he said yes and the book remained at mine waiting to be returned”. He then admitted that he lost some of his “self restraint” and chose to cause a scandal “to bring the Church back on the right track.”

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CANADA
Global Saskatoon

David Giles, Global News : Monday, August 13, 2012

Lakeview church has brought in counselors after a former youth pastor was arrested last week in Ontario.

Kris Gowdy, 42, was arrested by Durham Regional Police and charged with trying to lure a child online and attempted aggravated assault.

Gowdy is also HIV-positive and police fear there could be more victims.

On Friday, church leaders told families with youth about the arrest and the rest of the congregation was informed of the news during Sunday’s service.

Gowdy worked at the church as a youth pastor until July 22nd.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

By Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix August 14, 2012

Free Methodist Church leaders were “in shock” and “deeply concerned” after learning a youth pastor, who recently worked in Saskatoon, is charged in Ontario with attempted aggravated sexual assault and luring a child by means of computer.

Kris Allan Gowdy, 42, now of Newcastle, Ont., was arrested Thursday at a residence after allegedly making arrangements on a social media forum to meet a 15-year-old male for a sexual encounter.

Investigators with the OPP Internet child exploitation unit had posed as a teen in an online sting.

Durham Regional Police also reported Gowdy was diagnosed with HIV in 2009.

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NEW YORK/CANADA
Democrat and Chronicle

Written by
David Andreatta
Staff writer

An HIV-positive former youth pastor at New Hope Free Methodist Church in Rochester has been accused by Canadian authorities of luring what he believed was a teenage boy online for a sexual tryst.

Kris Allan Gowdy, 42, now a youth pastor with a church 40 miles east of Toronto, allegedly used the profile name “collegetoy2003” in various Internet chat rooms and befriended an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old boy, according to Durham Regional Police.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Nancy Van Rooy said investigators apprehended Gowdy at a pre-arranged meeting spot last Thursday and charged him with luring a child via computer and attempted aggravated sexual assault. Gowdy is in custody and will face a bail hearing later this week.

Van Rooy said investigators suspect there are underage victims. She said Gowdy lived in Rochester from 2003 to 2005, but that there was no evidence that he was visiting Internet chat rooms at that time.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

By Ella Ide (AFP)

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has hailed its report on the decision to put the pope’s butler on trial as proof of its transparency, but critics suspect the secretive state of diverting attention from its scandals.

The Church has been plagued by controversy in recent years, from allegations of money laundering and criminal associations to child sex abuse, and has been repeatedly accused by critics of covering up its sins to protect insiders.

To prove its commitment to openness, the Vatican marked its decision to charge butler Paolo Gabriele for leaking secret papers to the media by releasing the full statements made by the magistrate and others concerned.

Details were also revealed about another Holy See employee, who has been charged with aiding and abetting Gabriele. Only the names of the witnesses who were interrogated during the inquiry were obscured for the sake of due process.

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ARKANSAS
KAIT

CHEROKEE VILLAGE, AR (KAIT) – A youth pastor, charged with sexually assaulting a teenager, appeared in court Monday.

According to Prosecutor Henry Boyce’s Office, Paul Kevin Hendrix pleaded not guilty and had his pre-trial court date set for October 4 with a tentative trial date set for October 15.

According to an arrest affidavit in Sharp County, , Hendrix who serves as youth pastor at First Baptist Church of Cherokee Village, touched a 14-year old girl in a room used for youth services after church June 27.

The teen told police Hendrix touched her breast and between her legs.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

By Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix August 15, 2012

The Free Methodist Church in Canada never received any complaints about its ordained minister, Kris Gowdy, prior to his being charged Thursday in Ontario with Internet luring and attempted aggravated sexual assault, Bishop Keith Elford said in a statement Tuesday.

Gowdy, 42, worked at Saskatoon’s Lakeview Church for 14 months until leaving for another job in July. He was visiting Newcastle, Ont., when he was arrested at a residence after allegedly making arrangements on a social media forum to meet a 15-year-old male for a sexual encounter.

Investigators with the OPP Internet child exploitation unit had posed as a teen in an online sting.

“The Free Methodist Church in Canada and its member congregations have zero tolerance for any activity related to sexual abuse. Any complaints of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of minors are to be reported to the police immediately,” Elford said in the statement.

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IOWA
KCCI

[with video]

ADEL, Iowa –
The first witness took the stand Tuesday in the trial of a former Pella pastor charged with sexual abuse.

Patrick Edouard is charged with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse and four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist, school employee or clergy.

A woman accusing Edouard of sexual abuse was the first witness called by prosecutors.

The woman said she went to Edouard for help with her family life and sorrow.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh-Post Gazette

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Benedictine priest who was once a popular retreat leader and professor at Saint Vincent College has been permanently banned from ministry due to child pornography and other materials found on his computer.

The Rev. Mark Gruber, 57, maintains his innocence but acknowledged the church’s authority in an email.

“My innocence of the charges made by my abbot is no longer the issue. There is a whole theology of the Office of St. Peter that I have always upheld. I won’t disparage it now simply because it operates to my disadvantage. Those who have supported me in prayer I remain to them grateful to the end. But the other matter of faith and community life impeded by these troubles must go on. I only hope for my family some relief from the pressures of media coverage,” he wrote.

The decision appears to bring the tortuous case to an end. Father Gruber taught anthropology at the Benedictine college in Latrobe for 23 years, while establishing a national reputation as a spiritual writer and retreat leader. But he was suddenly removed from his position in August 2009, after technicians found pornography on the computer in his office.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

[Woodburn police department report]

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian

It was close to midnight Sunday when Woodburn resident James Curths saw the 12-year-old boy running down the street toward him. Curths said the child, panting and out of breath, begged for help, telling him a man was chasing him.

Moments later, a man rounded the corner wearing only underwear. He stood a short distance away, trying to wave the boy over as Curths and his sister-in-law prepared to drive the boy to relatives.

“He was staring at us,” said Heather Rodriguez, 28, Curths’ sister-in-law, who was also outside. “Then he stood there with his hands on his hips like, ‘You’re really not going to give him to me?'”

Rodriguez and Curths, 35, told the man they were calling the police. Only then, they said, did the man jog away.

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OREGON
KPTV

[with video]

[Woodburn police department report – The Oregonian]

By Natalie Brand

WOODBURN, OR (KPTV) –
The Archdiocese of Portland called the sex abuse allegations at a Woodburn church tragic and sad when reached for comment by FOX 12 on Tuesday.

Father Angel Perez, the head priest at St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Woodburn, is accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old child. The alleged victim called police at 1:30 a.m. Monday to report the inappropriate contact.

Detectives investigated the complaint and then arrested Perez on Monday.

“It’s sad; it’s surprising to a lot of people,” said parishioner Nancy Guerrero. “He was well known in the community. He was liked by a lot of people.”

According to court documents filed by Woodburn police, the alleged victim told detectives he was spending the night at the priest’s home in Woodburn and woke up to flashes, possibly from a cell phone camera.

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MISSOURI
KMBZ

A group that advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse has lost an effort in Missouri to shield some documents from lawyers for an accused priest. The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Jackson County judge’s order for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to release some records.

The issue stemmed from lawsuits against a Roman Catholic priest by accusers who say they repressed memories of begin abused decades ago. The defense argued that documents held by SNAP could raise doubts about such memories and whether a gag order was violated.

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MISSOURI
The Wall Street Journal

By BEN KESLING and MARK PETERS

Missouri’s Supreme Court let stand a lower-court ruling that a support group for alleged victims of the Roman Catholic Church sexual-abuse scandal must open its records in a case raising questions about the privacy rights of crime victims.

The high court on Tuesday denied a petition filed by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, forcing the group to comply with a subpoena to turn over more than two decades of records sought by lawyers for the Rev. Michael Tierney. The Kansas City-area priest has been accused in civil court of sexually abusing a minor in the early 1970s. He denies the accusations.

The group, known as SNAP, has been fighting the subpoena since last year, saying it is an invasion of the privacy of victims and jeopardizes the group’s work. “We’ll continue to do everything possible to protect the privacy and safety of victims,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP. “We’re in uncharted waters for us, and we’re taking it a step at a time,” she said.

Nearly two dozen groups, including the National Organization for Women Foundation and National Center for Victims of Crime, jointly said in an amicus brief that the subpoena “has the capacity to set the survivor community back a minimum of 10, if not 20, years.”

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OREGON
KATU

[Woodburn police report – The Oregonian]

By KATU.com Staff and Dan Cassuto KATU News

WOODBURN, Ore. – Court documents released Tuesday afternoon reveal the alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy by a Woodburn priest happened at his house following a church event.

Father Angel Perez, 46, a priest at Saint Luke Catholic Church, made his first court appearance in the afternoon after his arrest early Monday morning. Police began an investigation after they received a report that a child said Perez had inappropriately touched him.

Perez faces one count of first-degree sexual abuse, which is a felony. He’s also accused of giving alcohol to a minor.

Court documents say Perez invited the boy to spend the night at his house after a party. The boy told police Perez touched his genitals and took pictures using a cell phone very early Monday morning. The documents also say Perez was naked from the waist down.

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MISSOURI
Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A group that advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse has lost an effort in Missouri to shield some documents from lawyers for an accused priest.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Jackson County judge’s order for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to release some records.

The issue stemmed from lawsuits against a Roman Catholic priest by accusers who say they repressed memories of begin abused decades ago. The defense argued that documents held by SNAP could raise doubts about such memories and whether a gag order was violated.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

[police report]

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian

A Salem boy told authorities that the Rev. Angel Armando Perez gave him a beer and touched his genitals when he was sleeping over at Perez’s house on an air mattress following a community church event Sunday night, according to court records released Tuesday.

A probable cause affidavit says the child, either age 11 or 12, awakened to find Perez touching him. The document says the priest had a cell phone in one hand, and the boy was awakened by flashes that he believed were from the cell phone’s camera.

Perez, the parish priest at Saint Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, made his first appearance in Marion County Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon on allegations of sexual abuse, abuse of a child in the display of sexually-explicit conduct, furnishing alcohol to a minor and driving under the influence of intoxicants.

The boy told investigators that he had gone to a community church event party with his family, and planned to spend Sunday night at Rev. Perez’s house. Perez had asked the boy’s parents a few days earlier if he could take the boy to the mountains for a trip, the affidavit said.

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BELGIE
Knack

“Slachtoffers seksueel misbruik in de kerk moeten zich melden want kunnen worden vergoed” (Bethune)

dinsdag 14 augustus 2012

Tielt – Norbert Bethune die het opneemt voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk heeft al verschillende van hen in contact gebracht met het bisdom. Telkens zijn ze er ontvangen en ook vergoed voor het doorstane leed. Dat zegt hij naar aanleiding van de nieuwe klacht tegen Roger Vangheluwe. Bethune roept mogelijke slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk op om zich nog voor eind oktober aan te melden. Sommigen zijn vergoed tot 25.000 euro.

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BELGIE
HLN

[mit video]

Er is een nieuwe pedofilieklacht ingediend tegen Roger Vangheluwe, die twee jaar geleden ontslag nam als bisschop van Brugge omdat hij twee neven seksueel had misbruikt in hun kindertijd. Hier vind je een overzicht van de zaak-Vangheluwe en de Operatie Kelk, het gerechtelijk onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik van kinderen en een mogelijke doofpotoperatie daaromtrent binnen de katholieke Kerk.

– 22 april 2010: De Brugse bisschop Roger Vangheluwe (74) neemt ontslag, nadat hij bekend heeft dat hij een neefje seksueel misbruikt heeft. Vangheluwe was meer dan 25 jaar de bisschop van Brugge en de bisschop met de langste staat van dienst.

– 24 juni 2010: In het kader van Operatie Kelk laat de Brusselse onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy speurders van de Brusselse federale gerechtelijke politie binnenvallen in het aartsbisdom Mechelen-Brussel, de Sint-Romboutskathedraal, de kantoren en de privéwoning van kardinaal Godfried Danneels in Mechelen. Tegelijkertijd worden huiszoekingen gehouden in Leuven bij de Commissie Adriaenssens, de opvolger van de Commissie Halsberghe, alsook in Brussel bij het Rijksarchief.

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OREGON, U.S.A.
Reformatorisch Dagbld (Nederland)

WOODBURN – De rooms-katholieke pastoor Angel Armando Perez (46) uit de Amerikaanse staat Oregon is maandag gearresteerd nadat de politie een klacht ontving over seksueel misbruik. Op 36-jarige leeftijd zou hij een toen 12-jarige jongen hebben misbruikt.

De pastoor van de St. Lukaskerk in Woodburn wordt beschuldigd van seksueel misbruik, seksuele handelingen met de jongen en het geven van alcohol aan een minderjarige.

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BELGIE
NOS

In België is bisschop Vangheluwe opnieuw beschuldigd van seksueel misbruik van een minderjarige. Dat bevestigt het Belgische Openbaar Ministerie.

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BELGIE
HLN

[mit video]

De Kerk neemt “uitdrukkelijk afstand” van het gedrag van voormalig bisschop Roger Vangheluwe en andere daders van seksueel misbruik. Dat zegt Paul Quirynen, advocaat van de Belgische bisschoppen, op Radio 1 naar aanleiding van de nieuwe klacht tegen Vangheluwe. Het tehuis Huize Godtschalck is dan weer verbaasd over de klacht van een van zijn oud-bewoners tegen Roger Vangheluwe.

De nieuwe klacht is volgens Quirynen “schokkend nieuws”. De Kerk neemt volgens de advocaat afstand van het gedrag van daders van seksueel misbruik en kiest “de kant van de zwakkeren en de slachtoffers”. Ze toont ook de bereidheid om de wonden van de slachtoffers zowel emotioneel als financieel te verzorgen, klinkt het.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Steve Theisen on August 14, 2012

We are grateful that victims of Rev. Edouard are stepping forward and seeking justice in the courts. When victims stay silent, nothing changes. But when victims find the courage to take action, there’s at least a chance for prevention, healing and justice.

If you were hurt by a clergy member, suffering in shame, isolation and self-blame won’t fix it. Only by stepping forward, speaking up and getting help can you both recover personally and help others. Now’s the time to do it.

Let’s hope that every person who has any information or suspicions that could shed light on these allegations will find the courage and strength to call police so that the full truth might become clear.

If you have knowledge or suspicions – however old, small or seemingly insignificant – about clergy sex crimes, it’s your moral and civic duty to call police. Please summon the courage to do what’s right, call law enforcement right away.

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SALINA (KS)
The Register

Written by Doug Weller

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Salina — Father Allen Scheer pleaded no contest Aug. 10 to a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery and was placed on six months probation.

Father Scheer, 50, was charged April 18 with a misdemeanor count of sexual battery involving inappropriate sexual contact with an adult man in Salina. He pleaded not guilty April 20 in Saline County District Court and requested a jury trial, which was set for Aug. 15.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger, in a statement released Aug. 10, said, “It grieves me to learn that Father Scheer may have undertaken an activity that was illegal as well as inconsistent with our faith. However, I appreciate his acceptance of responsibility.

“It is my hope that the Church can be a source of healing for anyone who may have been harmed by this incident. Father Scheer will be provided emotional and spiritual assistance. Father Scheer’s possible return to ministry will be determined in time following evaluation by health-care professionals and diocesan leadership,” the statement said.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Kimberly A.C. Wilson, The Oregonian

The Rev. Angel Armando Perez made his first court appearance on Tuesday in a case involving allegations of sexual abuse, use of a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

According to jail records, Perez now also faces an accusation of driving under the influence.

Parishioners filled the benches of the courtroom in Marion County Circuit Court. Several dozen recited the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish before the proceeding began. Perez appeared via video from the Marion County Jail during the 10-minute court session and listened to attorneys and judicial staff discussing scheduling of additional hearings.

A release hearing, to consider bail for Perez, was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Aug. 20. A preliminary hearing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 22.

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SALINA (KS)
Salina Journal

8/14/2012
By ERIN MATHEWS

A Salina man who reported to police that he had been inappropriately touched by a Catholic priest was equipped with a listening device when he visited the Rev. Allen K. Scheer’s office and received an apology, according to an arrest affidavit.

According to the affidavit, when later contacted by police, Scheer initially denied touching or making any sexually explicit comments to the man, until he was informed of the recording device. Then he admitted touching the man’s upper thigh to see if he was receptive to sexual advances, according to the affidavit.

The arrest affidavit was opened to the public following resolution of the case Friday, when Scheer entered a plea of no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge of battery in connection with the April 12 incident. He initially was charged with sexual battery, which also is a misdemeanor.

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MISSOURI
National Catholic Reporter

Aug. 14, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Following denial Tuesday of an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests will have to decide whether to comply with a local judge’s order to grant access to more than 23 years of internal documents to attorneys representing accused priests.

The denial, issued by the court Tuesday afternoon, is the latest in a months-long saga of SNAP, the leading advocacy group for clergy sex abuse victims, to stop access to the documents.

The group had filed a writ of prohibition to the court in late July, alleging that the order, which requires it to hand over a range of eight categories of documents, violates the freedom of speech and the rights of association of SNAP’s members and volunteers.

Several groups — including 24 victims’ advocacy and church reform groups and six former and current local, state and federal prosecutors — filed amicus briefs with the court that supported SNAP’s position, saying the order could lead to further victimization and ultimately “intimidate, harass, and silence victims of sexual abuse.”

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Aug 14, 2012 | by Jeff Eckhoff |

A former Pella pastor used his position to spin a web of secrets and manipulate four of his troubled, deeply religious parishioners into sex, jurors were told this morning.

Iowa prosecutors say Patrick Edouard, then the brilliant, popular leader of Pella’s Covenant Reformed Church, raped three of the women and manipulated all four in violation of a state law that prohibits sex between people who provide mental health counseling and the people they counsel.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan said Edouard’s pursuit of vulnerable women in his congregation stretched from 2006, when he pushed a Des Moines lawyer to the floor of his basement study after she sought advice over infertility issues and what motherhood might mean for her career, to 2010, when the woman’s brother-in-law came home early one day. Edouard’s van was in the man’s driveway, Roan said, and the man’s wife – the lawyer’s sister-in-law – was buttoning her blouse.

In both those instances and two others, Edouard used a combination of flattery and concern over the women’s personal problems to lure the women in, Roan said. Each woman then was told that they were obligated to keep the relationship secret for the good of their families, Edouard’s wife and the church. Most soon found themselves in long-term illicit affairs.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Noelle Crombie, The Oregonian

A priest who knew the Rev. Angel Perez in his final year at Mount Angel Seminary said he never saw the 46-year-old show “any tendency toward children in an inappropriate way.”

“I am sitting here in absolute shock,” said Monsignor Richard Paperini, now the parish priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Milwaukie. Paperini was president of the Mt. Angel Seminary in 2001. Perez was ordained the following year.

On Monday, Perez, now the parish priest at Saint Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, was arrested after police responded to a complaint at about 1:30 a.m. Monday alleging inappropriate contact between the priest and a 12-year-old boy.

He faces accusations of sexual abuse, use of a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Perez was booked into Marion County Jail Monday evening and remains held without bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 3 p.m. in Marion County Circuit Court, according to the jail.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
Mynews3

Reported by: Elizabeth Donatelli
Email: EDonatelli@Mynews3.com

LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) — The Franciscans have released the personnel file for a former Las Vegas Catholic friar after they settled a lawsuit in which he was accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy.

Brother Thomas Thing’s personnel file begins as a psychological evaluation in 1978. It recommends therapy and says he fears his impulses are “dirty and destructive.” Yet he goes into the brotherhood and is in Las Vegas in the mid-1980s when he meets Tim Coonce at St. Christopher Catholic Elementary School, where the boy was in seventh grade and the alleged sexual abuse took place.

A quarter of a century later, Barbara Blaine — president of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests — and fellow victims and friends stood outside the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas.

“We believe that he should not be any position of power or authority,” she said. “They did not warn anyone here in Las Vegas, and these parents trusted and allowed their son to be around Brother Thing, and the impact has been devastating for that boy.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on August 14, 2012

The Missouri Supreme Court has denied our writ seeking to stop the intrusive and intimidating legal maneuvers by Kansas City Catholic officials who want 24 years of communications between our support group and victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors, journalists and others who seek our help.

We’re disappointed but we know that very few writs are granted. We’ll continue to do everything possible to protect the privacy and safety of victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors, journalists and others who seek our help. We’re in unchartered waters for us and we’re taking it a step at a time.

We’re especially disappointed because our position is supported by two dozen children’s and crime organizations, four ex-prosecutors and two current prosecutors. If Kansas City Catholic officials prevail, those who work at or are served by rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other non-profit agencies will be severely hurt.

Here’s what the court said today:

SC92716 State ex rel. David Clohessy, in his capacity as Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Relator, vs. The Honorable Ann J. Mesle, Respondent.

Petition for writ of prohibition denied.

To see the ruling:
1. Go to https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/base/welcome.do

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NEW YORK/CANADA
Huffington Post

Kris Allen Gowdy, HIV Positive Youth Pastor, Allegedly Attempted To Arrange Sexual Encounter With 15-Year-Old Boy (VIDEO)

Kris Allen Gowdy, an HIV-positive youth pastor at a church in Courtice, Ontario, has been arrested after Canadian authorities say he attempted to arrange a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old boy.

According to a press release, Gowdy befriended an undercover investigator online under the username “collegetoy2033” on a social media website, allegedly for the purpose of having sex.

When the 42-year-old showed up at the presumed 15-year-old’s house on August 9, he was arrested and charged with luring a child via computer, and attempted aggravated sexual assault.

“He’s all over chat rooms and social media,” said police spokeswoman Sgt. Nancy Van Rooy to the Democrat and Chronicle. “He’s quite narcissistic. He’s out there and has been for some time.”

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian

The arrest of the Rev. Angel Armando Perez, pastor of St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, is the first real-time accusation against a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland in many years and, perhaps because of the Catholic clergy sex scandal, the complaint about him went first to the police, not the archdiocese.

Perez, 46, was arrested Monday afternoon after a complaint alleging inappropriate contact between the priest and a 12-year-old boy. Perez faces arraignment today in Marion County Circuit Court on accusations of sexual abuse, use of a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

When police arrived to take Perez in for questioning, a member of the parish staff called the Archdiocese of Portland, according to Bud Bunce, a church spokesman. Perez immediately was placed on administrative leave as required by the archdiocese’s child protection policy. He is not allowed to say Mass or perform any priestly duties, Bunce said. The archdiocese will complete its own investigation once the legal process is complete, he said.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A priest of the St. Cloud diocese ordained in 1956, Rausch started his career as a high school teacher and spiritual director. He earned a PhD in pastoral psychology in Rome, and went on to become General Secretary of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. Rausch was known as a champion of social justice issues. He was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of St. Cloud in 1973, then Bishop of Phoenix in 1977, where he served until his sudden death in 1981, at age 52 . Rausch was accused in a lawsuit that was settled in 2002 of sexually abusing 17 year-old boy in 1979. His accuser, who is said to have had incriminating photographs of Rausch, claimed that Rausch then “passed him on” to two other priests.

Born: Sept. 4, 1928
Ordained: June 2, 1956
Died: May 18, 1981

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VATIKAN
DW

Paolo Gabriele, der Ex-Kammerdiener des Papstes, hatte eine Mission. Er wollte sich als “Verbindungsmann des Heiligen Geistes” gegen das Böse in der Kirche erheben, wie es in nun veröffentlichten Unterlagen heißt.

Die Anklage wirft Gabriele vor, vertrauliche Unterlagen vom Schreibtisch des Papstes gestohlen und einige davon an die italienische Presse weitergegeben zu haben. Darin ging es um ein angebliches Mordkomplott gegen Benedikt XVI. und um umstrittene Geschäfte der Vatikan-Bank IOR.

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VATIKAN
Tagesschau

[mitt Audio]

Von Stefan Troendle, ARD-Hörfunkkorrespondent Rom

Paolo Gabriele war kein Einzeltäter. Die wohl entscheidende Information aus dem Vatikan ist, dass der ehemalige Kammerdiener des Papstes beim Dokumentenklau Helfer hatte. Es waren also auf jeden Fall mehrere Personen in die Weitergabe der vertraulichen Schreiben vom päpstlichen Schreibtisch an Medienvertreter beteiligt. “Vor einigen Tagen haben wir ja selbst erklärt, dass Dokumente an die Öffentlichkeit geraten sind, während Gabriele im Gefängnis war”, sagte Papstsprecher Federico Lombardi. “Mit anderen Worten: Es ist unmöglich zu sagen, dass er die einzige Person war, die Journalisten Dokumente übergeben hat.”

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AUSTRALIEN
Moment Mal

National Catholic Reporter, Australien:
Drei leitende, hochgestellte Amtsträger der katholischen Kirche sind Gegenstand der Untersuchung einer angeblichen Vertuschung priesterlicher, sexueller Übergriffe auf junge Mädchen, berichtet The Sydney Morning Herald auf Grund einer Reihe von Zeugenaussagen.

Laut The Sydney Morning Herald wurde Pater Brian Lucas von der New South Wales Polizei als ein Beschuldigter bezeichnet. Er ist der Generalsekretär des Australischen Katholischen Bischofskonferenz und gilt als Beschuldigter hinsichtlich einer angeblichen Verschleierung der Verbrechen des pädophilen Priesters Denis McAlinden. Weitere beschuldigte Personen sind, Erzbischof Philip Wilson von Adelaide und Bischof iR Michael Malone von Maitland-Newcastle.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

Der Pfarrer der saarländischen Wallfahrtskirche St. Wendel hat einem Kollegen offenbar Drohbriefe geschickt. Hintergrund sind Missbrauchsfälle von Priestern an Minderjährigen. Der betroffene Kollege hatte diese zur Anzeige gebracht.

Nach Informationen des SWR haben Ermittlungen der Kriminalpolizei in Völklingen ergeben, dass sich an verschiedenen Schreiben, die an den Geistlichen in der Gemeinde Köllerbach gegangen waren, zweifelsfrei Fingerabdrücke des Pfarrers von St. Wendel befinden. In den Drohbriefen wurde der Köllerbacher Kollege als schlimmster Volksverhetzer seit Goebbels und Himmler bezeichnet und ihm körperliche Gewalt angedroht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saarbrucker Zeitung

Saarbrücken. Der ehemalige Völklinger Dechant Klaus Leist gerät in der Affäre um Drohbriefe an den früheren Köllerbacher Pfarrer Guido Johannes Ittmann immer stärker unter Druck. Ittmann teilte in einem offenen Brief mit, dass Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft bei ihren Ermittlungen gegen Leist dessen Fingerabdrücke an einigen Drohbriefen gefunden hätten (Veröffentlicht am 14.08.2012)

Saarbrücken. Der ehemalige Völklinger Dechant Klaus Leist gerät in der Affäre um Drohbriefe an den früheren Köllerbacher Pfarrer Guido Johannes Ittmann immer stärker unter Druck. Ittmann teilte in einem offenen Brief mit, dass Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft bei ihren Ermittlungen gegen Leist dessen Fingerabdrücke an einigen Drohbriefen gefunden hätten. Leist wird verdächtigt, in seiner Zeit als Dechant Ende 2010 und Anfang 2011 anonyme Drohbriefe an Ittmann verfasst zu haben, der damals Pfarrer der Herz-Jesu-Gemeinde war. Ittmann hatte im Mai 2010 Anzeige erstattet, nachdem er Hinweise auf frühere Missbrauchsfälle in seiner Gemeinde erhalten hatte. Leist bezeichnete die Missbrauchsvorwürfe seinerzeit als “Gerüchte”, die sich nicht erhärtet hätten. Ittmann verließ an Ostern 2011 nach einer Serie von Drohbriefen seine Gemeinde und begab sich in ärztliche Behandlung. Leist ist derzeit Pfarrer in St. Wendel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Offener Brief von Pfarrer Guido Johannes Ittmann an die Priester im Bistum Trier und die Pfarrangehörigen der Pfarrei Herz Jesu, Püttlingen-Köllerbach

Bereits mehrfach wurde in diversen Medien (Spiegel, SWR, Saarbrücker Zeitung) über die Pfarrei Herz Jesu, Püttlingen im Zusammenhang mit Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger berichtet.
Als ehemaliger Pfarrer dieser Pfarrei habe ich im Sommer 2010 drei Sexualstraftäter angezeigt, darunter zwei ehemalige in der traditionalistischen Martingemeinde in Köllerbach tätige Priester sowie einen dort in einflussreicher Stellung tätigen Laien.

Dies geschah auch auf dem Hintergrund, dass ein Betroffener einen der Täter ermorden wollte und mich darüber in Kenntnis setzte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Die katholische Pfarrgemeinde Herz-Jesu im saarländischen Püttlingen-Köllerbach kommt nicht zur Ruhe. Vor zwei Jahren hatte der dortige Pfarrer Guido Ittmann den jahrelangen sexuellen Missbrauch von Minderjährigen in einer Nachbarpfarrei angezeigt. Ermittlungen der Staatsanwaltschaft Saarbrücken bestätigten die Vergehen, doch waren die Taten allesamt verjährt und wurden deshalb nicht weiter verfolgt.

Verfolgt von anderer Seite wurde fortan allerdings Ittmann, mit Drohbriefen und perfiden Unterstellungen. Verantwortlich dafür war nach SWR Informationen offensichtlich ein Pfarrer-Kollege.

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BELGIEN
BRF

Die föderale Staatsanwaltschaft hat bestätigt, dass gegen den früheren Bischof von Brügge, Roger Vangheluwe, eine zweite Klage wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs eingegangen ist. Vangheluwe hatte bereits den Missbrauch an zwei seiner Neffen zugegeben. Nach Medieninformationen sind gewisse der neuen Vorwürfe gegen Vangheluwe noch nicht verjährt.

Roger Vangheluwe hat sich zurückgezogen, er hält sich derzeit anscheinend in einem Kloster im südfranzösischen Lyon auf.

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BELGIEN
De Rredactie

Gegen den früheren Bischof von Brügge, Roger Vangheluwe, ist eine neue Klagen eingegangen. Ein heute 30 Jahre alter Mann, der in einem katholischen Waisenhaus aufwuchs, soll von dem Geistlichen mehrmals sexuell Missbraucht worden sein.

Wie jetzt bekannt wurde, hat der Betroffene bereits Mitte Juli Klage gegen den Ex-Bischof eingereicht. Nach Angaben seines Anwalts Walter Van Steenbrugge, der die meisten der Opfer von Vangheluwe vertritt, wurde der Kläger sowohl im Waisenhaus, als auch in einem katholischen Ferienheim belästigt. Der Mann sei schwer psychisch gestört, auf die schiefe Bahn geraten und sitze deswegen derzeit im Gefängnis. Inzwischen stellt sich die Frage, ob auch in diesem Fall eine Verjährung der Fakten vorliegt. Anwalt Van Steenbrugge ist nicht so sicher davon.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

In a blustery, half-hour talk that opened this year’s SNAP conference in Chicago, Dominican priest and celebrity expert witness for contingency lawyers Fr. Thomas Doyle reiterated his contempt for his putative employer, the Catholic Church, according to sources present.

In a talk about the clergy scandals entitled, “1982 to 2012: Thirty years – What’s changed, and what hasn’t,” Doyle did acknowledge that “there has been a lot of positive change” and “children are safer.” But despite the unprecedented efforts that the Catholic Church has undertaken to protect kids, Doyle has still somehow concluded that the bishops’ approach to victims has “gotten worse.”

Admitting apostasy?

Fr. Doyle’s most eye-opening remarks, however, came during a Q&A period following his talk, when Doyle essentially conceded that he is really not even Catholic.

Although he said he was still “legally a priest,” he freely acknowledged that he has “nothing to do with the Catholic Church” and “nothing to do with the clerical life.”

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on August 14, 2012

In the early 1990s, Catholic bishops claim, seminaries began to better screen and train potential priests about sexual difficulties. The charges against Fr. Angel Perez and dozens of other young clerics prove that those bishops’ claims are exaggerated and those programs are problematic.

He worked in Astoria, Oregon City, Corvallis, Grants Pass and Coos Bay – a fairly high number of churches in a relatively short time.

Let’s hope that every person who has any information or suspicions that could shed light on these allegations will find the courage and strength to call police so that the full truth might become clear.

If you have knowledge or suspicions – however old, small or seemingly insignificant – about clergy sex crimes, it’s your moral and civic duty to call police. Please summon the courage to do what’s right, call law enforcement and hopefully prevent more devastated lives.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Tom Hallman Jr., The Oregonian

WOODBURN — The Rev. Angel Perez is scheduled to appear in Marion County Circuit Court this afternoon on sex crimes allegations.

Perez, the parish priest at St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, is expected to be arraigned at 3 p.m.

The Rev. David Zegar, of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Northeast Portland, served at St. Luke Catholic Church prior to Perez’s assignment. He said he knows the parish and its congregants well.

He told The Oregonian he was “sad for everyone involved.”

“All I can say is I’m so sad,” he said after celebrating Mass this morning. “For now it’s best to let the police conduct their investigation.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Colin Campbell
BBC South East Home Affairs Correspondent

A bishop attempted to prevent a priest’s Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check – which detailed allegations of child sex abuse – being dealt with properly, it has been alleged.

The allegation forms part of an official complaint against Bishop of Lewes, Rt Rev Wallace Benn, according to sources outside the Diocese of Chichester.

A CRB check against a retired priest who has since been charged with 38 sex offences against children and young adults, was not passed on for more than three weeks, it is claimed.

The official complaint by the Diocese’s independent Safeguarding Advisory Group is being investigated by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office.

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DEARBORN (MI)
Patch

By Jessica Carreras

The hearing for a Dearborn priest charged with indecent exposure and drunken driving has been moved to a later date, the 19th District Court confirmed Tuesday.

The Rev. Peter Petroske, who has been suspended as the head priest of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Dearborn, will be arraigned at the district court on Sept. 13, at which time his preliminary examination will also take place.

The court date was originally set for Aug. 14.

Petroske, 57, was arrested the evening of Aug. 2 after Dearborn police received a call that a man was driving his car around naked in the area of Garrison and Haigh streets in west downtown Dearborn.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on August 14, 2012

We are not surprised that more victims of Fr. Daniel McCormack have come forward. He was one of the most prolific predator priests in the entire church, and we expect even more victims to come forward in the future, especially if victims such as these two men continue to find their voice and speak publicly about their abuse.

This is not an easy thing to do and can be very painful for survivors of abuse, but the example that they set for other victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers is extraordinary. We are proud of these men for coming forward, and we urge anyone else who may have seen, suspected, or suffered McCormack’s crimes to come forward.

When allegations against McCormack first surfaced years ago, we repeatedly begged Cardinal Francis George to mount an aggressive outreach effort to find and help more of McCormack’s victims. George refused. So now, instead of prompt healing, we’re seeing the horrific pain be needlessly prolonged and the embarrassing scandal play out over decades.

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HAMMOND (IN)
The Christian Post

By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter

August 14, 2012

First Baptist Church of Hammond in Indiana has become more united than ever in the wake of Pastor Jack Schaap’s dismissal, a spokesman for the church told The Christian Post.

The church community was rocked recently by Schaap’s dismissal, which came about following his admission of adultery with a young teenager. Investigations into the scandal surrounding the former pastor are continuing, the church spokesman confirmed, but the quick action by the church has allowed its members to come together during the difficult time.

“People are very pleased at how fast our deacon board acted in the dismissal of our former pastor. Seems like that has helped them, the fact that they made the right choice and they are very open,” said Eddie Wilson, spokesperson and public relations director, to CP in a phone interview on Monday.

Last week, the church’s board of deacons revealed that Schaap, 54, had admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a school girl who is currently 17. The girl, however, would have been just 16 years old when the inappropriate relationship began. Schaap had led the 15,000-member congregation for the past 11 years, and has not yet made a public comment since the FBI launched an investigation into his relationship.

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OREGON
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Daily Mail Reporter

A Catholic priest has been arrested on child sex abuse charges.

The Rev Angel Armando Perez, 46, the parish priest at St Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, Oregon, was arrested on Monday after police responded to a complaint about inappropriate contact with a 12-year-old boy.

Perez faces accusations of sexual abuse, use of a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

Mexico-born Perez has been pastor of St Luke Parish since 2008.

The details of the allegations and investigation were not immediately disclosed.

Perez was said to be a popular priest that everyone flocked to.

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UNITED STATES
The Pensive Quill

Anthony McIntyre

It’s sad that America’s top Catholic official won’t answer a simple question: How many predator priests got how much money to quietly move on . . . perhaps to molest again? This is a predictable tactic bishops use when forced to defend the indefensible: they attack the messenger – David Clohessy

How often does the following point by Valerie Tarico need to be made before futher reiteration becomes superflous?

After all, these are men who claim to speak for God. They have direct access to the White House, where they regularly weigh in on issues ranging from military policy to bioethics, and they expect us all to listen – not because of relevant expertise or elected standing, but because of their moral authority. If paedophile payouts weren’t enough to convince you that this “moral” authority is often anything but moral, take a look at some of their other sins against compassion and basic decency.

There is no edge in moral authority that clerics of any hue could possibly lay bona fide claim to. To assert otherwise seems fraudulent. What creative primal moral force would contemplate allowing responsibility for its moral precepts to fall into the hands of any group comprised of such fallible men?

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Kimberly A.C. Wilson, The Oregonian

The ordainment of Rev. Angel Perez in 2002 was significant for two reasons: He was the rare Mexico native among priests in Oregon and, in a year when the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals were making national news, he was the rare priest ordained period in the state.

A decade ago, Oregonian reporter Shelby Oppel wrote a profile of Perez that described his ascent from a seminary student in Mexico to the archdiocese in Portland. The piece, which follows in its entirety, was published on the front page on Aug. 5, 2002.

On Monday, Perez, now the parish priest at Saint Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, was arrested after police responded to a complaint at about 1:30 a.m. Monday alleging inappropriate contact between the priest and a 12-year-old boy.

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DEARBORN (MI)
The Detroit News

By Christine Ferretti
The Detroit News

Dearborn— A Catholic priest accused of driving through the city naked while intoxicated will appear in court for a hearing next month, court officials said Tuesday.

The Rev. Peter Petroske, 57, is charged with misdemeanor counts of operating while intoxicated and disorderly/obscene conduct in connection with the Aug. 2 incident.

Officials with Dearborn District Court said an arraignment slated for Tuesday was rescheduled for Sept. 13. At that time, Petroske will also face a preliminary examination before District Judge Richard Wygonik.

The Archdiocese of Detroit placed Petroske on administrative leave after learning he’d been pulled over near Garrison and Haigh after police were called at 11:18 p.m. Aug. 2

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WOODBURN (OR)
NWCN

by Mike Benner
NWCN.com

Posted on August 14, 2012

WOODBURN — The pastor at St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn was arrested Monday on accusations of sex crimes involving a 12-year-old boy.

Perez was taken into custody following a report to Woodburn police about 1:30 a.m. about inappropriate conduct with a minor, said Officer Mike Araiza of the Woodburn Police Department.

The priest, ordained in 2002, was expected in court Tuesday afternoon for accusations of first- degree sex abuse, using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

“Any person taking advantage of a position of trust is very concerning,” said Araiza.

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UNITED STATES
The Rutherford Institute

When Priests Become Predators, Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors: An Interview with Tom Neuberger

By John W. Whitehead
August 8, 2012

For nearly 40 years, Tom Neuberger has been a legal gadfly, challenging the powers that be and fighting for the “little guy” in the court system and the media. Although raised a devout Catholic and having received nearly all of his schooling in that educational system, Tom has spent the twilight of his career seeking justice on behalf of those who were betrayed by the very institution which played such a key part in his education and upbringing.

Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Tom received his secondary, college and legal education at pillars of the Catholic school system on the East Coast ‑ Salesianum High School in Wilmington, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. After clerking for a federal judge, Tom returned to Delaware and embarked on what turned out to be a fascinating and wide ranging legal career.

He has battled censorship in public venues, challenging the actions of the Cincinnati Reds to ban the sign “John 3:16”at the World Series and the World Cup’s removal of “Save Bosnia” signs at the height of the genocide there. He dueled with the NCAA, forcing it to rescind its penalties and ban on football players taking a knee to say a quick prayer after scoring a touchdown and fought for the rights of students to pray on public university property. He has represented female high school coaches as they sought equal pay with their male counterparts and sued the Pentagon to end the requirement that on duty female Air Force officers wear a burqua when traveling off-base on official military business in Saudi Arabia. He also forced the Pentagon to rescind its discipline of a decorated airman who was punished after publicly criticizing the military’s tainted anthrax vaccination program. He has battled for the rights of attorneys and civil rights organizations to be free of retaliation for speaking out and taking on unpopular causes and even beat back the efforts of the President of the United States to discover the membership lists of one such organization. He has sued more police and public agencies than he cares to remember, exposing wide ranging cronyism, corruption, discrimination, retaliation and a host of other illegal behaviors.

After a career full of these and other similar battles, in December 2003 a new cause emerged. Shortly before Christmas, a man walked through his office door and explained that he had been sexually abused for many years, starting at age nine, by a priest who was the principal at the high school from which Tom had graduated. The criminal authorities had told him there was nothing they could do because too much time had passed, and no civil attorney would take the case because they didn’t want to challenge the powerful Catholic Church in Delaware. Could Tom help him expose this and protect other kids in the community from this child predator who continued to roam freely? Tom took on the case, worked over Christmas, and soon had the case prepared and the lawsuit filed.

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BELGIE
Het Nieuwsblad

De feiten die voormalig bisschop Roger Vangheluwe volgens een nieuwe klacht pleegde zijn wellicht nog niet verjaard volgens het kerkelijk recht. Dat zegt kerkjurist Rik Torfs. De paus moet nu een initiatief nemen, zegt hij.

Het parket bevestigde maandag dat er een nieuwe klacht is ingediend tegen Vangheluwe, door een voormalige bewoner van een tehuis in Loker, een deelgemeente van Heuvelland.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

[mit video]

De Kerk neemt “uitdrukkelijk afstand” van het gedrag van voormalig bisschop Roger Vangheluwe en andere daders van seksueel misbruik. Dat zegt Paul Quirynen, advocaat van de Belgische bisschoppen, op Radio 1 naar aanleiding van de nieuwe klacht tegen Vangheluwe. Het tehuis Huize Godtschalck is dan weer verbaasd over de klacht van een van zijn oud-bewoners tegen Roger Vangheluwe.

De nieuwe klacht is volgens Quirynen “schokkend nieuws”. De Kerk neemt volgens de advocaat afstand van het gedrag van daders van seksueel misbruik en kiest “de kant van de zwakkeren en de slachtoffers”. Ze toont ook de bereidheid om de wonden van de slachtoffers zowel emotioneel als financieel te verzorgen, klinkt het.

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BELGIE
NOS

De Vlaamse oud-bisschop Roger Vangheluwe zou nog een jongen seksueel hebben misbruikt. Mogelijk is de zaak ook verjaard, maar zeker is dat nog niet, aldus correspondent Marc Bessems.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) Het tehuis Huize Godtschalck is verbaasd over de klacht van een van zijn oud-bewoners tegen Roger Vangheluwe, de voormalige bisschop van Brugge. Dat zegt Guy Rabaut, algemeen directeur van het begeleidingstehuis in Loker. Rabaut belooft volledige medewerking aan verder onderzoek.

“We hebben het nieuws van de aanklacht met veel verwondering gehoord”, zegt Guy Rabaut van Huize Godtschalck. “We zijn niet op de hoogte gebracht en weten weinig van wat er gebeurd is. Het is dan ook vroeg om verklaringen af te leggen, maar we kunnen nu al zeggen dat we het bijzonder erg vinden als het waar zou zijn.” Huize Godtschalck is verbaasd dat twee jaar na het uitbreken van het schandaal rond Roger Vangheluwe dit nieuws nog aan het licht komt.

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BELGIE
Gazet van Antwerpen

Er is opnieuw een pedofilieklacht ingediend tegen Roger Vangheluwe, de voormalige bisschop van Brugge. Een dertiger uit West-Vlaanderen zou vanaf zijn acht jaar door Vangheluwe “enkele jaren seksueel misbruikt” zijn.

Volgens advocaat Walter Van Steenbrugge verbleef de man ten tijde van het seksueel misbruik in de jaren ’90 in Huize Godtschalck in het West-Vlaamse Loker. Die instelling was aanvankelijk een weeshuis. Vandaag worden er jongeren met een problematische thuissituatie opgevangen.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

TIELT/LOKER – De Zusters van het Geloof uit Tielt willen geen commentaar geven aan de media op de klacht van een oud-bewoner van het tehuis Huize Godtschalck dat ze jarenlang beheerden. De 30-jarige man diende klacht in tegen de voormalige bisschop van Brugge, Roger Vangheluwe, die hem meermaals misbruikt zou hebben.

‘Wij geven geen commentaar aan de media, enkel aan het gerecht en de politie indien dat nodig zou blijken’, vernam Belga dinsdag bij de zusters.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

An accomplice was named by the investigating magistrate. The information had so far been kept secret; the suspect is not a member of the clergy, but a computer expert, employee of the Secretariat of State

Marco Tosatti
Rome

Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler will be prosecuted for having stolen a large number of confidential documents and leaking them to the press. But in the bill of indictment, an accomplice was named by the investigating magistrate, a man whose identity had so far been kept secret, a lay employee of the Secretariat of State and computer expert. What is now clear, despite the Vatican magistrates’ efforts to limit the scale of the issue to legal aspects, is that the shadow of a conspiracy looms over the Vatican, a conspiracy involving a number of people, who together with Paolo Gabriele, handled and exchanged documents or even provided them for him.

Who are these people? Unfortunately the bill of indictment that commits Gabriele for trial does not mention names, only capital letters, X,W,Y, that are all linked to witnesses questioned during the preliminary investigation.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, 48 years old, employee of the Secretariat of State is the “new entry” of the enquiry. An envelope addressed to Paolo Gabriele, bearing the seal of the Secretariat of State- Information and Documents office and containing confidential documents, was found on his desk. Sciarpelletti said: “This envelope was not given to me by Paolo Gabriele, but by W in order for me to keep it and deliver it to Paolo Gabriele”. It seems that some time ago Gabriele had asked Sciarpelletti to introduce him to W and through him also meet Y, another unknown person who is obviously connected to the Secretariat of State and the Curia. Sciarpelletti had therefore been passing envelopes from W to Gabriele and vice versa. Another unknown person, X, apparently gave Sciarpelletti an envelope for Gabriele: “X thought of me and entrusted me with the envelope because of my acquaintances within the Secretariat of the Holy Father. Moreover when this happened Paolo Gabriele was present and accompanied me”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Today the magistrate committed Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, for trial. He is charged with aggravated theft of confidential papal documents

Giacomo Galeazzi
Rome

In the sentence of indictment by the examining magistrate Piero Antonio Bonnet, it has been revealed that one more person has been charged with aiding and abetting and breaching confidentiality: Claudio Sciarpelletti, employee of the Secretariat of State and computer expert who had been arrested on the 25th of May, even though at the time the news wasn’t made public.

The Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi explained that Sciarpelletti’s role was “marginal”. Among the documents seized from Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler who today has been committed for trial, charged with aggravated theft of confidential papers belonging to the Holy See, the Vatican gendarmerie also found a cheque dated 26th of March 2012 and made out to His Holiness Benedict XVI for the amount of 100 thousand euros, a gold nugget and a 1581edition of a translated version of the Aeneid. During his time in prison, starting from his arrest on the 23rd of May and up until the 21st of July when he was granted house arrest, Paolo Gabriele underwent psychiatric evaluation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Walpole

By Veronica Hamlett and Keith Ferguson
Wicked Local Walpole

WALPOLE —

Prosecutors won’t say why the accuser in the case against suspended Blessed Sacrament priest Emile “Mike” Boutin wouldn’t testify after preparing for trial for more than two years.

Had it not been for the accuser’s refusal to testify, Boutin would have been on trial for indecent assault and battery last week after more than two years of delays.

The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office dropped all charges against Boutin last Tuesday shortly after learning the accuser wouldn’t take the stand.

“It was a case that rested very heavily on the alleged victim’s testimony,” said David Traub, spokesman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s office.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

August 13, 2012|By Amy S. Rosenberg and John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will try to unload its massive vacation home on the Ventnor, N.J., beachfront, assessed at $6.2 million, at a Sept. 15 auction, church and real estate officials said Monday.

“They really want to get it sold,” said Bob Dann of Max Spann Real Estate & Auction Co., who is handling the listing of the 19-room Villa St. Joseph by the Sea.

The house, on a block-long property that runs 175 feet along the Boardwalk from Princeton to Portland Avenues, was used until this summer as a getaway for retired priests and high-ranking archdiocese officials.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Petrina Berry
AAP
August 14, 2012

THE Catholic Church in Brisbane says it supports an inquiry’s suggestion that religious authorities should be required by law to report suspected child abuse.

The Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry has raised extending mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse to include priests, churches and other religious organisations.

Teachers, police, nurses, doctors and child safety offices are already required by law to report suspected child abuse and neglect.

Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge issued a statement on Tuesday saying he supports mandatory reporting.

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BELGIUM
Buenos Aires Herald

A Belgian lawyer said on Monday he had launched an inquiry into a new case of alleged sexual abuse by the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, who has already admitted to having abused his under-age nephews.

“The present case concerns sexual abuse in the 1990s,” at a care home in Loker, in western Belgium near the French border, the lawyer, Walter Van Steenbrugge, said.

He said he had handed the allegations to a court in Brussels and lodged an inquiry with it. It was up to the court to decide whether the statute of limitations ruled out a prosecution, and if not, whether or not to prosecute the bishop, he added.

Vangheluwe, who was bishop of Bruges from 1984 to 2010, is the highest-ranking member of the Belgian Catholic Church to be involved in a child abuse scandal which resulted in 475 complaints of molestation by priests.

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NEW YORK/CANADA
WHEC

A former local youth pastor is charged with attempting to entice a 15-year-old boy online.

42-year-old Kris Allan Gowdy is charged with luring a child via computer and attempted aggravated sexual assault.

Investigators in Durham, Ontario, Canada believe Gowdy intended to have sex with the teen. Police say an undercover officer was posing as the teenage boy.

Police say Gowdy is also HIV positive.

Gowdy previously served as a youth pastor in Rochester. Gowdy currently lives in Canada, where he works as a youth pastor with a church about 40 miles outside Toronto.

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BELGIUM
Expatica

A new allegation of child sexual abuse has been made against the former Bishop of Bruges Roger Vangheluwe.

Vangheluwe resigned from his post as Head of the West Flemish Diocese in April 2010 after it emerged that he had sexually abused his then under-age nephew in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Another family member has also made child sex allegations against him.

The news of the fresh allegations against Bishop Vangheluwe was broke by the weekly magazine Humo and it has been confirmed by the Federal Judicial Authorities.

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NEW YORK/CANADA
YNN

[with video]

Canadian authorities arrested a former Rochester church youth pastor on charges he lured a child online for sex.

Kris Allan Gowdy, 42, of Newcastle, Ontario, is charged with luring a child via the computer and attempted aggravated sexual assault.

Police say Gowdy was arrested after an investigator posed as a teenage boy Gowdy set up a meeting with for the purpose of having sex.

Canadian police said Gowdy frequented many sites under the name ‘collegetoy2033.’

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OREGON
KPTV

[with video]

WOODBURN, OR (KPTV) –
A Woodburn priest is accused of sexually abusing a child.

The alleged victim called police at 1:30 a.m. Monday to report inappropriate contact from the Rev. Angel Perez.

Perez is the pastor for St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Woodburn.

Detectives investigated the complaint and then arrested Perez on Monday.

He is facing charges of sexual abuse, using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY LEEANN SHELTON Staff Reporter August 14, 2012

Two men filed separate lawsuits Monday against the Archdiocese of Chicago, claiming now-defrocked priest Daniel McCormack abused them at a West Side parish nine years ago.

The lawsuits were filed in Cook County Circuit Court against the Archdiocese and Cardinal Francis George, and list the plaintiffs only as John Doe.

Both men, now in their early 20s, claim they first met McCormack at St. Agatha Catholic Church where he was a pastor and coach starting in September 2000, according to the suits.

One of the plaintiffs claims he was in seventh grade when McCormack first began inappropriately hugging and touching him. The boy, who worked in the parish’s after-school daycare program, claims the then-pastor began sexually abusing him two years later, in 2003.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Everton Bailey Jr., The Oregonian

A Woodburn priest has been arrested on allegations of sex abuse involving a minor.

The Rev. Angel Armando Perez, 46, the parish priest at St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, was arrested after police responded to a complaint at about 1:30 a.m. Monday alleging inappropriate contact between the priest and a 12-year-old boy.

Perez faces accusations of sexual abuse, use of a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor. He was booked into Marion County Jail Monday evening.

The age and identity of the alleged victim have not been released.

“Anytime allegations like this are made, it’s a tragedy for everyone involved, potential victims, priests, for everyone,” said Bud Bunce, a spokesman for the archdiocese. He refused to comment further, saying he didn’t have details of the arrest.

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OREGON
Bend Bulletin

WOODBURN — Woodburn police have arrested a priest accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Angel Perez was booked into the Marion County jail on suspicion of sexual abuse, furnishing alcohol to a minor and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

Investigators received the complaint about the priest Monday at about 1:30 a.m. A police spokesman declined to release the age or gender of the alleged victim

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Aug. 13, 2012
By NCR staff

Three senior church officials in Australia are under investigation for ties to an alleged cover-up of a priest’s sexual assault of young girls, an Australian newspaper has reported.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, an investigation by New South Wales police has named Fr. Brian Lucas, general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, as a person of interest in relation to an alleged concealment of the actions of pedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

Other persons of interest are Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide and retired Bishop Michael Malone of Maitland-Newcastle.

According to multiple news reports, the three allegedly had knowledge of McAlinden’s abuse in 1993, a decade before the church reported the matter to authorities. McAlinden, never facing charges, died in 2005, but two years later the Maitland-Newcastle diocese confirmed that he was a serial child sex offender believed to have targeted hundreds of girls — ages 4 to 12 — for more than four decades.

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OREGON
KATU

WOODBURN, Ore. – Police arrested a Woodburn priest Monday and accused him of child sex abuse, Woodburn police said.

After a child reported being inappropriately touched by 46-year-old Angel Armando Perez, police investigated and then arrested Perez on first-degree sexual abuse, “using (a) child in a display of sexually explicit conduct” and giving alcohol to the child.

Police said Perez is a priest at St. Luke’s Catholic Church.

Woodburn police are asking anyone who may have information about this case to contact Detective Rick Puente at 503-982-2345.

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OREGON
KOIN

Reported by: Faris Tanyos
Email: ftanyos@koin.com

A Catholic priest in Woodburn was arrested on child sex abuse charges Monday.

Angel Armando Perez, 46, was taken into custody on one count each of first-degree sexual abuse, using child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

The Woodburn Police Department reports that approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday officers were notified that Perez had allegedly inappropriately touched a minor. Detectives arrested him a short time later.

The details of the allegations and investigation were not immediately disclosed.

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OREGON
San Francisco Chronicle

WOODBURN, Ore. (AP) — Woodburn police have arrested a priest accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Angel Perez was booked into the Marion County Jail on charges of sexual abuse, furnishing alcohol to a minor and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

Investigators received the complaint about the priest Monday at about 1:30 a.m. A police spokesman declined to release the age or gender of the alleged victim, saying the investigation remains active.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Anthony Schick, The Oregonian

A Woodburn priest was arrested Monday in connection with a case of alleged sex abuse.

At around 1:30 a.m. Monday, Woodburn police received a report of a minor who reported inappropriate contact from Angel Armando Perez, 46, the parish priest at St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Woodburn. Perez was arrested on allegations of first degree sex abuse, using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor.

The age and identity of the minor have not yet been released.

Officer Mike Araiza of the Woodburn Police Department said there is only one known victim at this time. Araiza said the Marion County District Attorney’s Office is also involved in the investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, August 13, 2012 – The judicial process has been set for Paolo Gabriele, the unfaithful butler of Benedict XVI.

Next autumn, he will be tried for the aggravated theft of confidential documents, copies of which he took from the pontifical apartment.

On the last working day before the summer closure of the Vatican tribunals, investigating judge Piero Antonio Bonnet granted the request of the prosecutor, Nicola Picardi, and ordered that a trial be held. It will also involve a second defendant, Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer technician at the secretariat of state, but he will face a lesser charge of aiding and abetting, in practice for obstructing the investigation into his relationship with the main defendant.

The complete texts of the complaint and the indictment, each of them fifteen pages long, have been released by the Vatican press office:

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Aug. 13, 2012 NCR Today

Today the Vatican confirmed it’s proceeding to a criminal trial against Paolo Gabriele, the 45-year-old former papal butler charged with being the mole at the heart of the Vatican leaks scandal, which has featured revelations painting an unflattering picture of corruption, cronyism and palace intrigue.

Also to stand trial is 48-year-old Claudio Scarpelletti, a computer specialist working in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, charged with a minor offense of aiding and abetting Gabriele’s crime, based on discovery of an envelope containing sensitive materials found in his Vatican desk.

This morning, the Vatican released 35 pages of material related to the case, comprised of two lengthy reports – one from the Vatican’s prosecutor, the other from the judge who ruled that both Gabrielle and Scarpelletti must stand trial. Those documents contain extracts from the interrogations of both men, as well as from two psychological evaluations of Gabriele. (Under the Vatican’s penal law, the psychological state of the accused is relevant to assessing culpability.)

The following are some basic questions and answers about the latest developments in the Vatican’s “butler did it” saga.

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BELGIUM
Chicago Tribune

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A Belgian lawyer said on Monday he had launched an inquiry into a new case of alleged sexual abuse by the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, who has already admitted to having abused his under-age nephews.

“The present case concerns sexual abuse in the 1990s,” at a care home in Loker, in western Belgium near the French border, the lawyer, Walter Van Steenbrugge, said.

He said he had handed the allegations to a court in Brussels and lodged an inquiry with it. It was up to the court to decide whether the statute of limitations ruled out a prosecution, and if not, whether or not to prosecute the bishop, he added.

Vangheluwe, who was bishop of Bruges from 1984 to 2010, is the highest-ranking member of the Belgian Catholic Church to be involved in a child abuse scandal which resulted in 475 complaints of molestation by priests.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KTRK

HOUSTON (KTRK) — A man is accused of taking a sexual photograph of a teenage girl at a southwest Houston church.

Court documents state on May 3, 2011, Houston police investigated allegations of online solicitation of a minor against Medger Chauncey Duckens. In September 2011, HPD officers say they executed a search warrant at Duckens’ residence and discovered pornographic images of a 17-year-old female as well as text messages of a sexual nature to the same teen on Duckens’ phone.

The next month, investigators say they recovered images on Duckens’ computer hardware that corresponded to sexual text messages sent by the defendant to the 17-year-old girl.

According to court documents, the teen told police that she had been involved in a relationship with Duckens since she was 16 and that the relationship consisted of sexually graphic text messages, images and discussions. She says one of the images found on Duckens’ computer hardware was taken in the sound room during a church service at the Heavenly Star Baptist Church on Allum Road.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU

by KHOU.com staff

Posted on August 13, 2012

HOUSTON – A 44-year-old Pearland man is facing charges after investigators say he took a nude photo of a teenager in the sound room of a local church.

Medger Chauncey Duckens is charged with promotion of child pornography.

According to court documents, the victim told investigators she’d been involved in a relationship with Duckens since she was 16.

She said their relationship consisted of sending sexually explicit photographs and text messages.

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