ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

By David Chang

Wednesday, Dec 12, 2012

Cumru Township Police arrested a pastor who they say stalked and harassed members of the congregation by sending them harassing and sexually explicit text messages.

Last November, a member of the Spring Valley Church of God in Muhlenberg Township told police she received several text messages between April and November from a person who refused to identity himself. The woman described the messages as forms of harassment and believed she was being stalked at her workplace and home. Investigators say some of the messages were sexually explicit.

Police began to investigate and say they discovered that other members of the Spring Valley Church received similar text messages. Cumru Township Police say they later learned Reading City Police were also conducting their own investigation after receiving a report from another alleged victim at Spring Valley Church. The combined efforts of both police departments led them to identify the suspect as Aron Andonie, a member of the Pastoral Staff at Spring Valley Church.

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NEW YORK
New York Times

Editorial

Published: December 11, 2012

The sexual abuse conviction in a State Supreme Court in Brooklyn of a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community sends a strong and overdue message to Williamsburg’s tightly knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, which has shielded such abusers from legal scrutiny.

In a case brought by Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, the court convicted Nechemya Weberman, a 54-year-old unlicensed therapist, of repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl who had been sent to him for help. Mr. Hynes said the verdict had lifted the “veil of secrecy” and had served notice that henceforth the prospects for justice are “only going to get better for people who are victimized in these various communities.”

Prosecutors have long had trouble finding witnesses in the community because speaking out, especially to non-Jewish legal authorities, could bring retaliation. In this particular case, Mr. Hynes charged four men with allegedly trying to interfere with bribery and threats. Four others face criminal contempt of court charges for taking pictures in the courtroom in an apparent attempt to intimidate the victim. On Tuesday, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, an advocate for child sex abuse victims, was taken to a hospital after what appeared to be bleach was thrown in his face as he walked down the street in Williamsburg.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Weberman’s sexual assault victim’s mother speaks out: ‘She brought justice. Now other people can come forward’

A Hasidic counselor was convicted this week of sexually abusing a girl since age 12. On Tuesday, the mother told the Daily News’ Simone Weichselbaum how she learn ed of the abuse and what she thinks of her daughter’s stand. The News is withholding her name to protect the identity of the victim. Here’s the mom’s story:
—

She never told me face to face until this got out. She never told me, she never told us.

We got a call from the police station. They said come over right away. I was so shocked. I called my husband right away.

The therapist [at the new school] had called the police. That school made every girl get therapy once a week. My children told me, ‘You have to believe her.’ She is my youngest.

Her childhood was robbed. She was such a bubbly child.

I lost a couple of years with her. After what she went through hopefully she will pick up.

She wasn’t a rebel at all. She was a shy, very smart child. She likes to know. Very bright child. She is a very good child.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

Posted: 12/12/2012

DECATUR, Alabama – A counselor at the Baptist Children’s Home in Decatur has been charged with sexual abuse following claims that he inappropriately touched an adult patient.

Jonathan Eric Minnon, 21, of 2308 Len Circle, Hartselle, was arrested for second-degree sexual abuse and released from Decatur City Jail on $500 bond.

Decatur Police began an investigation into the woman’s claims on Nov. 8 after she reported Minnon made sexual advances toward her and touched her, according to a Decatur Police report. Minnon was her counselor.

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INDIANA
Houston Chronicle

December 13, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — State attorneys are defending Indiana’s punitive damages limit against a man who won a $150,000 jury award against a Roman Catholic priest he alleged sexually abused him when he was 17.

Lawyers for the attorney general’s office asked the Indiana Supreme Court Thursday to set aside a Marion County judge’s decision that ruled the law violated the state constitution.

Indiana’s law limits punitive damages to $50,000 and allows the state to take a three-quarter share.

Attorneys for the man referred to as John Doe say the law intrudes on judicial power and violates the right to trial by jury.

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NEW YORK
WKBW

[with video]

By WKBW News

December 13, 2012

Albany, N.Y. (WKBW) – A program called Altamont that was started by an Albany area priest with locations all over the state including Buffalo is now under investigation.

The Altamont headquarters and other offices in Albany are the focus of the intense investigation and were raided by the feds, Wednesday. Altamont helps homeless drug addicts recover. Father Peter Young started the program many years ago. Officials have not said if Young himself is being targeted. Sources tell the Albany Time Union it centers around the organizations use of grant funding.

The Albany Time Union also reports the investigation involves Dennis Bassat who was a director of an Albany area facility. He was arrested last week after agents said he misused the organization’s funds.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

Louise Dickson , Times Colonist December 13, 2012

A former student at St. Joseph’s Catholic School testified he emailed Father Phil Jacobs in 2002 asking for an explanation after Victoria media reported allegations that Jacobs had sexually abused teenage boys in the U.S.

Jacobs, 63, who was parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker in Saanich from 1997 to 2002, is charged with sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference with a person under 14 and sexual touching. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between September 1996 and June 30, 2001.

The former student, whose identity is protected by a court order, testified Wednesday that Jacobs never touched him sexually. But he felt at risk during a conversation with Jacobs while the two were sitting on the couch in the rectory.

He was about 13 at the time, he testified.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Dec. 13, 2012

NEWCASTLE Anglican Bishop Brian Farran could seek an apprehended violence order after a defrocked priest alleged that some disgruntled parishioners wished to ‘‘damage you permanently with their own hands’’.

The bishop sought legal advice, and police were consulted after former Terrigal priest John Gumbley wrote to the bishop on December 6 alleging that ‘‘some have declared they wished to hurt you physically’’.

Mr Gumbley alleged some people felt ‘‘fury’’ at decisions taken by the bishop, including defrocking Mr Gumbley in 2010 due to his relationship with a woman parishioner who worked for the diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

December 13, 2012

Megan Doherty

It may be in the churches of south Canberra or on a bike cycling the backblocks of the ACT that Francis Sullivan draws strength for what he knows will be a torrid time ahead.

The seasoned Canberra lobbyist has been appointed chief executive officer of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, a role within the Catholic Church ”managing the issues and ramifications” of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Former NSW Supreme Court judge Barry O’Keefe, QC, has been appointed chairman of the council.

Mr Sullivan says it will be the most difficult position of his career but one he takes on willingly to ensure the Catholic Church listens and responds to stories of abuse – and tries to prove that things have changed.

”I’ve said quite openly as a Catholic I’m very disillusioned with the whole thing and I think it’s been a scandal,” he said, of child abuse within the church. ”People don’t expect church people to be engaged in this type of behaviour and there has been a history where there has been a cover-up, and that has also been scandalous.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM MCILROY
Dec. 12, 2012

THE Catholic Church in Australia has appointed the leaders of a new council established to co-ordinate its engagement with the upcoming royal commission on child sexual abuse.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart yesterday announced former New South Wales Supreme Court chief judge Barry O’Keefe and former Australian Medical Association secretary-general Francis Sullivan to lead the 10-person Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

The council is expected to include a representative group of Catholics and will co-ordinate the church’s “embrace” of the royal commission and provide feedback to Catholic leaders.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge and Maitland Bishop William Wright have already been appointed to the council.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

13 December 2012

Canberra man Mr Francis Sullivan has been appointed chief executive officer of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which will oversee the Church’s engagement with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia.

Former NSW Supreme Court judge and former Commissioner of NSW’s Independent Commission Against Corruption Mr Barry O’Keefe QC has been appointed chairman of the council.

The council will include representatives from the community to provide expertise, wisdom and guidance over the course of the royal commission. It will comprise men and women with professional and other expertise and will seek to have an effective on-going relationship with people who have been damaged by the sexual abuse scandal.

Mr Sullivan has held positions as secretary-general of the Australian Medical Association, chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, and consultant to the Pontifical Counsel for the Pastoral Care of Health Care workers at the Vatican. He is an adjunct professor at Australian Catholic University and was chairman of the university’s Canberra campus review panel.

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TEXAS
Politico

By JUANA SUMMERS | 12/12/12

Rep. Loretta Sanchez offered a scathing indictment of the Pentagon’s response to the sex abuse scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, comparing it to the abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church.

“People need to realize that whether it’s rape or sexual assault actually, that that is a crime,” the California Democrat said Wednesday when asked to outline the changes she’d make to prevent what she has previously described as an epidemic of sexual assault in the military. “You do not move the guy to some other unit such as the Catholic Church did. That is incorrect.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call
8:48 p.m. EST, December 12, 2012

A man who claims he was sexually abused by a Chester County scoutmaster — sometimes at a Scout camp in the Poconos — has sued the Boy Scouts of America and the Mormon church.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Philadelphia County Court, alleges that the Scouts knew pedophiles were attracted to the organization but didn’t do enough to track those suspected of abuse or warn parents of their presence in Scouting.

It is the first lawsuit against the Scouts in Pennsylvania since the release in October of thousands of pages of the Scouts’ secret “perversion files.” The files detail the cases of leaders kicked out of the Boy Scouts from the 1960s into the 1980s because they were accused of molesting Scouts.

In many cases, including two from the Lehigh Valley, the Boy Scouts dealt with accusations of abuse privately rather than calling on authorities to investigate, the files show.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Centre Daily Times

By MARYCLAIRE DALE — Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A Delaware store manager is suing the Boy Scouts of America and the Mormon church over childhood sexual abuse committed by the scoutmaster at his church-run troop.

Melvin Novak’s lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Philadelphia. It charges that newly released Boy Scout “perversion files” show the organization hid abuse claims for years.

Novak’s abuser, Vance Hein, is in prison for a parole violation related to his 1999 conviction in Novak’s case.

The 28-year-old Novak says the abuse made him “a quitter” when it came to school and jobs and plunged him into years of substance abuse. The Newark, Del., man has also quit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

AAP
December 13, 2012

A REPORT by a former Federal Court judge on whether the Catholic Church appropriately managed sexual abuse allegations against a former NSW priest has been received by the church.

The Bishop of Armidale, Michael Kennedy, and the Bishop of Parramatta, Anthony Fisher, said in a joint statement that the report had been received on Thursday.

Antony Whitlam QC examined the history of appointments, ministry and activities and the way in which complaints by the alleged victims of the priest, known as Father F, were handled.

His report deals with the events leading to Father F’s sacking from the ministry in 2005 and what happened during a meeting between Father F and senior Catholic figures in 1992.

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OKLAHOMA
The Independent

Associated Press

A former janitor at a Tulsa megachurch who admitted to sex crimes against three girls told his victims Wednesday that “no one’s perfect” in an statement in which he pointed to Scripture just before a judge sentenced him to 55 years in prison.

A 13-year-old girl who was raped by Chris Denman sobbed in the first row of the courtroom as the judge handed down the sentence. The scandal at Victory Christian Center also ensnared five other church employees who are accused of waiting to report the August rape in a church stairwell.

Denman faced up to life in prison after pleading guilty to raping the 13-year-old, molesting a 15-year-old girl and propositioning a 12-year-old. It wasn’t clear if all three girls were in the courtroom Wednesday, but when the judge gave Denman an opportunity to speak, Denman directed his statement to them.

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DELAWARE
The News Journal

Written by
Mike Chalmers
The News Journal

The grooming of young Melvin Novak as a sexual abuse victim began with role-playing games.

What would the teenager do, his scoutmaster would ask, to save a friend in trouble?

“Would you get undressed if that was necessary to save your friend?” he’d say, according to a lawsuit Novak filed Wednesday in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

The progressively sexual games were part of Novak’s initiation into a bogus “special brotherhood,” complete with achievement levels and gifts for reaching them, he said. “Everything had a reward at the end,” said Novak, now 28, of Newark. “From the time I was 8 years old, this guy was Santa Claus.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Aubrey Whelan, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Thursday, December 13, 2012,

Saying he was sexually abused for almost a year by a scoutmaster, a Wilmington man has filed suit against the Boy Scouts of America and the West Chester Latter-day Saints church that sponsored his troop.

Melvin Novak, 28, said at a news conference Wednesday that his childhood “just fell apart” after he was abused by Vance Hein, a family friend, a prominent member of his Mormon congregation, and the scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 84.

As a matter of policy, The Inquirer does not identify victims of sexual abuse. However, Novak and his attorneys said they wanted to spread awareness about his case and sexual abuse in general.

The suit contends that the Boy Scouts concealed information and downplayed the prevalence of sexual abuse in scouting, and that scout officials should have kept Hein away from contact with young boys.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Herald

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A Delaware man sued the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday over childhood sexual abuse committed by the scoutmaster at his church-sponsored troop.

Melvin Novak filed the lawsuit in state court in Philadelphia, charging that newly released Boy Scout “perversion files” support his claim that the organization hid abuse complaints for years.

“They knew about this conduct, they knew what was going on, and they covered it up in the most despicable way,” lawyer Stewart J. Eisenberg said at a news conference attended by Novak and his father.

The lawsuit names the larger Mormon church and the Downingtown-area chapel that Novak attended. The Boy Scouts said it regrets the past abuse of scouts, while church spokesman Eric Hawkins said abusers should face both legal prosecution and church discipline. Neither group had seen Novak’s lawsuit.

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CANADA
Sooke News Mirror

By Edward Hill – Saanich News

Warning: The following story contains graphic testimony of a sexual nature that could be upsetting to some readers.

An alleged victim of a former Saanich priest testified Tuesday that Phillip Jacobs molested him a number of times more than a decade ago, while attending St. Joseph the Worker Catholic School on Burnside Road West.

The young man, who can’t be identified, described to the court and Justice J. Miriam Gropper a number of incidents of sexual touching during his time as an altar server under direction of Jacobs, at the time the parish priest.

Led by the questioning of Crown prosecutor Clare Jennings on the second day of the trial, the witness said the pattern of touching by Jacobs escalated from a hand on the back, then to his buttocks and then to more direct molestation.

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UNITED STATES
The Observer

December 13, 2012

By DAN O’ROURKE , The OBSERVER

In some ironic ways, the priest pedophilia scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, which the Boston Globe revealed (and for which it won a Pulitzer Prize) did something positive for all our institutions by disclosing the sexual abuse in them.

All society’s institutions wield two-edged swords. That’s a belligerent and bloody metaphor. A better one would be that our institutions have their shadow side. They do lots of good, but they also can give rise to darkness and evil.

It’s not only our churches. The United States Military, the British Broadcasting Corp., the Boy Scouts of America, and, of course, our schools and universities come to mind.

The abuse of children is not just a Catholic problem. Many mainline Protestant churches have recognized and addressed the issue. And in Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Satmar Hasidic community, Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed counselor has been convicted of abusing many young girls. This extremely strict community ostracizes and severely disciplines its adolescent girls for normal teenaged behavior. It reminds me of the agonizing and heartrending story of the Madelines in repressive Catholic Ireland in which rebellious girls were kept isolated in virtual slavery. This was as recent as 1960. That tragedy is documented in the film, “The Madeline Sisters.”

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ALABAMA
Hartselle Inquirer

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A counselor at Baptist Children’s Home in Decatur has been accused of making sexual advances toward one of his patients.

Jonathan Eric Minnon, 21, of 2308 Len Circle in Hartselle turned himself into police Wednesday and was charged with sexual abuse in the second degree, a Class A misdemeanor. He has been released on a $500 bond.

On Nov. 8, Decatur Police received a report of sexual abuse that occurred at the Baptist Children’s Home. The victim, an adult female, had been attending therapy sessions with her counselor, Minnon.

During one of the sessions, the victim alleged that Minnon made sexual advances toward her and touched her inappropriately. During the investigation, police obtained additional evidence that they believe corroborates the victim’s claim.

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INDIANA
Chicago Magazine

A string of assaults and sexual crimes committed by pastors across the country have one thing in common: The perpetrators have ties to the megachurch in Hammond, Indiana.

By Bryan Smith

Genesis

In the beginning—1959, in this case—Jack Hyles arrived at the First Baptist Church of Hammond as a skinny, charismatic Bible thumper with a Southern-fried drawl and a couple of cheap suits. No one could have imagined he would grow into the larger-than-life figure whom critics would dub the Godfather and others would consider the Chosen One.

Born in the tiny Dallas suburb of Italy, Hyles often preached about his alcoholic father, his devoted and deeply conservative Christian mother, and the curse of growing up poor. After serving in the army in World War II, he married his sweetheart, Beverly Slaughter. The fire-and-brimstone words of his mother burning in his head, Hyles then enrolled at East Texas Baptist College in Marshall, Texas, where he became a student pastor. After graduation, he set out to spread his particular brand of harsh theology.

In a show of modesty that would be almost unthinkable in later years, Hyles acknowledged that he didn’t immediately set bushes to burning. After his first sermon in 1947, “Elijah blushed and Heaven’s flag flew at half mast for three days,” he lamented in a 1975 Time magazine article.

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INDIANA
Chicagoist

If you want to know about the culture that allowed former First Baptist Church of Hammond pastor Jack Schaap to transport a 16-year-old girl across state lines in order to have sexual relations, then head to Chicago magazine’s website immediately. Chicago’s Bryan Smith wrote a detailed investigative piece that reveals a culture of misogyny, sexual and physical abuse and literal interpretations of the Bible at First Baptist that precede Schaap’s crimes by decades, were tolerated by the church’s deacons and may have been carried forward by graduates of the church’s Pastor Schools and graduates of its university, Hyles-Anderson College.

Jeri Massi, who documents sexual abuse of children among Christian fundamentalists, told Smith the sheer volume of allegations connected to First Baptist is “astonishing.”

Examples from First Baptist “take in everything: pedophilia, violence, defamation of the innocent to protect the guilty, heresies against Christian doctrine, defiance against lawful authority. . . .” And all this barely half an hour’s drive from downtown Chicago.

Websites dedicated to tracking the suspected crimes of Christian fundamentalists have documented a dozen cases across the country of preachers whose actions have led to a litany of arrests and civil lawsuits. Few are as high profile as Schaap, who agreed to a plea deal in September and said at his hearing he was not aware of the federal laws against transporting minors across state lines to have sex. But Schaap was merely following in the footsteps of his father-in-law, Jack Hyles, who transformed First Baptist from a sleepy Indiana church into the 14th largest church in the country.

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UTAH
Fox 13

December 12, 2012, by Brittany Green-Miner

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – A former West Valley City pastor lost his job and is now facing charges.

Havili Mone faces one count of failure to report child abuse, a class B misdemeanor.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Janelle Stecklein
The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Dec 12 2012

West Valley City • The former pastor of the Tongan United Methodist Church was charged Wednesday with failing to report child abuse.

Meanwhile, his former congregation, now fractured into two distinct groups — the Methodists and the Weslyan Tongans — is headed to civil court to duke it out over who should have access to the property and money that belonged to his former flock.

Filimone Havili Mone, 59, faces one count of failure to report abuse of a child, a class B misdemeanor, in West Valley City Justice Court.

The sexual abuse charge stems from the long-time pastor’s failure to promptly report a crime when he allegedly learned that young boys in the congregation had been sexually abused by an older boy several years ago. It ultimately led to his removal by national leaders of the United Methodist Church (UMC) for violating church’s mandatory abuse reporting policy. But local church members say Mone’s departure was the catalyst for a deep schism within the congregation that serves an estimated 600 members.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: December 12, 2012

A Brooklyn fishmonger was charged by the police on Wednesday with throwing bleach in the face of a rabbi who is an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual abuse in the borough’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

The fishmonger, Meilech Schnitzler, 36, of Williamsburg, turned himself in to the 90th Precinct station house around 1 p.m., the police said.

Mr. Schnitzler, identified in state corporate filings as the chairman of the company that owns Schnitzler’s Famous Fish, is accused of tossing a cup of bleach at Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg while he was walking near Mr. Schnitzler’s store Tuesday. The bleach caused burns to Rabbi Rosenberg’s eyes and face and discoloration to his clothing, the police said.

Mr. Schnitzler was charged with felony assault, misdemeanor assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon, Officer James Duffy said.

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NEW YORK
CNN

By Rande Iaboni and Marina Carver, CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) – New York police have arrested a man for throwing a chemical, believed to be bleach, on a rabbi who advocates for sexual abuse victims.

Meilech Schnitzler, 36, turned himself in to police Wednesday and was charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of a weapon.

He is accused of attacking Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg in Brooklyn’s tightknit Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg on Tuesday.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A man has been arrested for allegedly throwing bleach at a rabbi who advocates for sexual abuse victims.

Meilech Schnitzler is expected to be charged with attacking Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg on a street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The bleach hit Rosenberg in the eye, police said.

The 62-year-old victim runs a web site that publicizes child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community.

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NEW YORK
WABC

[with video]

NEW YORK (WABC) — An Orthodox Jewish rabbi says he was hit in the face with a cup of bleach while walking down a Brooklyn street.

Police say 36-year-old Meilech Schnitzler was arrested shortly after he turned himself in Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after he allegedly threw bleach into the eyes of his neighbor, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg.

Rosenberg, who has spoken out against child sex abuse in the Satmar Hasidic sect, says the thrower is connected to another person in the community that he has accused of abusing children.

Police say they have a report of the alleged incident, and that the 62-year-old victim was treated and released from a hospital.

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NEW YORK
Albay Times Union

By Brendan J. Lyons

Published 3:28 pm, Wednesday, December 12, 2012

SCHENECTADY — A task force of FBI agents and state Attorney General’s investigators raided three offices tied to the Altamont Program early Wednesday, carting away records and computers from the statewide non-profit organization that was founded decades ago by Father Peter Young.

Agents from both agencies used search warrants to seize records at the Altamont Program’s headquarters on Duane Avenue in Schenectady and also from an office at the Schuyler Inn in Menands, a converted training and housing facility for Vesta Community Housing Development Board, Inc., which rehabilitates buildings that are rented to community service programs or low-income tenants.

Another raid took place at an office on Eagle Street in Albany that’s used by the organization.

Young, 82, is an iconic Capital Region priest whose work with drug addicts and convicts began in the 1950s. He lived with Bishop Howard Hubbard in the 1960s at the former St. John’s Church in Albany’s South End, where the two priests laid groundwork for drug rehabilitation programs that served as the template for community service organization.

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ALBANY (NY)
YNN

ALBANY, N.Y. — The FBI raided three Peter Young nonprofit facilities, according to a source close to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Young, an Albany priest, is notable in the Capital Region for his work with drug rehabilitation programs and the needy.

The FBI and Attorney General’s office conducted a raid on three offices in Albany, Menands and Schenectady.

An attorney for Peter Young Industries says that two years ago, it was discovered that an employee stole a significant amount of money from the nonprofit organization. That employee was fired and Young contacted the state about the theft.

Young’s attorney says financial documents were seized in the raid.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Sun

By OWEN CONLON

POPE Benedict was mercilessly mocked by twits yesterday on his first day on the internet site.

The Pontiff made his debut after being introduced to Twitter by his adviser, Irish priest Monsignor Paul Tighe.

And he ran the gauntlet from pranksters as he made his first online remarks.

User @TwopTwips sent him a message reading: “Hi mate. I’m thinking of getting one of them popemobiles — do you know what insurance band it would fall under? Cheers fella.”

Another, @GOD87620876, added: “I hear you’re still spreading rumours about me and the Virgin Mary. Stop it!”

Other accounts also berated the Holy Father over ongoing paedophile priest scandals.

However, Mgr Tighe, who is originally from Co Meath, said the German-born Holy Father is “intrigued and pleased” with his debut online.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Archdiocese arguing Thursday that, in principle, all 570 victim cases should be tossed

Archdiocese arguing Thursday that, in principle, all 570 victim cases should be tossed from court

Two years of false hopes and 8 million dollars in lawyers’ fees later, apparent now that Listecki’s using bankruptcy to maintain cover up

WHO
After a court hearing in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court where Archbishop Jerome Listecki will petition Judge Susan V. Kelley to dismiss, in principle, nearly 600 cases by victim/survivors of childhood sex crimes by clergy of the Milwaukee archdiocese, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will be joined by claimants in the hearing to discuss Kelley’s rulings and the future of the bankruptcy proceedings.

One of the cases being targeted for dismissal by the Archdiocese is community leader Leonard Sobczak. Sobczak, who was sexually assaulted by Fr. Richard Nichols at St. Peter and Paul parish on Milwaukee’s east side, has served as Chair of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.

Sobczak will join SNAP leaders after court to discuss his case and the outcome of the hearing.

WHEN
Thursday, December 13th. Court hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
On the front steps of the Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee.

WHAT
In Federal Bankruptcy Court on Thursday December 13th Judge Susan V. Kelley will hear arguments from church lawyers who, at the instruction of Archbishop Jerome Listecki, will ask the court to again dismiss, in principle, nearly 600 cases filed by victims sexually assaulted by clergy of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, including Leonard Sobczak, who at the age of 13 was assaulted by Fr. Richard Nichols at St. Peter and Paul parish.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

By Pervaiz Shallwani

A man accused of throwing bleach at a Brooklyn rabbi who advocates for sexual-abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community was arrested Wednesday afternoon.

Melech Schnitzler, 36 years old, turned himself in to police at the 90th Precinct stationhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a day after Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was doused with a cup of Clorox, according to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Schnitzler, who was accompanied by a lawyer, has been charged with assault, menacing, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon. He was awaiting arraignment on Wednesday afternoon.

Rosenberg, 62, runs a website and hotline that encourages victims of sex abuse in the Hasidic community to come forward and report the crimes to the police and has been ostracized by the Jewish community as a result.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
The Turner Report

A Florida sex offender with ties to the Branson-based Kanakuk Kamps, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of seven felony sex charges involving underage boys.

Edward Ringheim, 41, Windermere, Florida, allegedly treated his victims to free trips to Universal Studios by using his employee pass, one of the victims told authorities.

Parents also allowed Ringheim to accompany their children to Kanakuk’s Branson facility, according to published reports. Investigators say he brought about 30 children to Kanakuk for summer camp over a four-year period. One of the boys he took to Kanakuk was one of Ringheim’s victims, authorities said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
3 News

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Benedict XVI hit the 1 million Twitter follower mark yesterday as he sent his first tweet from his new account, blessing his online fans and urging them to listen to Christ.

In perhaps the most drawn out Twitter launch ever, the 85-year-old Benedict tapped the screen of a tablet brought to him at the end of his general audience after the equivalent of a papal drum roll by an announcer who intoned: “And now the pope will tweet!” …

The first papal tweet has been the subject of intense curiosity – as well as merciless jokes, criticism and commentary. “The pope has an iPad?” comedian Jon Stewart asked earlier this year. The Onion satirical newspaper ran a piece “Pope tweets picture of self with God.” And in perhaps a more long-term and problematic issue for the Vatican, the (at)Pontifex handle was flooded with negative messages from users remarking on the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on December 12, 2012

Ten years ago tomorrow, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as head of the Boston Archdiocese after mountains of evidence proved that he repeatedly protected predators, deceived parishes and endangered kids.

Law has been called “the first US bishop to experience personal consequences for concealing abuse.”

Sadly, he’s also the only one.

Recently, two high ranking church officials – Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn and Philadelphia Msgr. William Lynn – have been found criminally guilty of refusing to report known or suspected child sex crimes to law enforcement.

But that’s the secular justice system, not the church hierarchy, imposing a penalty on wrongdoers. Despite their convictions, both men have retained their positions within the church. In the case of Bishop Finn, he has steadfastly refused to step down from his post, despite the calls from parishioners and priests within his own diocese to do so.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OHIO
The Times Leader

December 8, 2012

By MARK LAW – For The Times Leader , Times Leader

STEUBENVILLE – A Mount Pleasant man arrested Thursday by federal authorities for possession of child pornography admitted to investigators he has been downloading “child erotica” since 2004.

Ryan Kasler, 31, of 24 Union St., Mount Pleasant, had an initial appearance Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers in Columbus, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Kasler is being held without bond and is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. A detention hearing for Kasler is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday before Deavers, the U.S. attorney’s office reported.

According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and an unnamed foreign law enforcement agency began an investigation into a movie production company that operated a website offering DVDs and streaming videos featuring naked boys.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OHIO
The Herald-Star

December 12, 2012

By MARK LAW – Staff writer (mlaw@heraldstaronline.com.) , The Herald-Star

COLUMBUS – A Mount Pleasant man was ordered held without bond on a charge of receipt of child pornography following a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

Ryan Kasler, 31, of 24 Union St., Mount Pleasant, was arrested at his home Thursday after a raid by federal authorities.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers ordered Kasler be held without bond following a detention hearing on Tuesday. …

The postal inspector said the investigation revealed Kasler is employed by the Martins Ferry Romanian Mission.

The First Christian Church of Martins Ferry operates the Romanian Mission, according to the church’s website.

Kasler is listed at the director of the Romanian Mission, according to the church’s website, and he directs the mission’s day-to-day affairs and is serving as onsite missionary in Arad and Ghioroc, Romania.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

New York rabbi who has helped expose child sex abuse in Orthodox community doused with BLEACH after accusing fish store owner of molesting boys

By Snejana Farberov

Victim: Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was hospitalized after being splashed in the face with what is believed to be bleach on a Brooklyn street

A New York City rabbi who has been advocating for victims of child sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community was hospitalized after someone threw what is believed to be bleach in his face.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg said an assailant he recognized as the son of a man he has accused of molesting boys tossed a glass filled with the chemical at him as he walked in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section Tuesday.

Police say the two were involved in an ‘ongoing dispute.’ No arrest has been made so far, but the suspected attacker is expected to turn himself in shortly.
Rosenberg runs a hotline and blog that publicizes child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GALLUP (NM)
San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — The Diocese of Gallup has been named in another clergy sex abuse lawsuit.

The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/z0cIwR) that the lawsuit was recently filed in Arizona’s Coconino County Superior Court on behalf of an Arizona man who says he was sexually abused as a minor by two Gallup Diocese priests in the 1970s. The lawsuit says the man claims he was abused as an altar boy in Winslow, Ariz.

Diocese of Gallup spokesman Rev. Tim Farrell told The Associated Press that Bishop James S. Wall has not seen the lawsuit and does not know anything about the episodes alleged in the lawsuit that are described in the Gallup Independent.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk
Dec 12, 2012

From one religious body to another, there’s a horrible sameness about the sexual abuse of children by those charged with their moral and spiritual development. The differences come in the institutions and communities, and how they deal with the abusers and their victims.

The trial and conviction of a leader of the Satmar Hasidim in Brooklyn for the sexual abuse of a young girl has laid bare how the sect has protected abusers by ostracizing and threatening those who would call them to account. As the Daily News reported, “Many in the Satmar world were angered to see such a highly-regarded man in the community forced to defend himself in the ‘unreliable’ secular court system, instead of secret rabbinical court proceedings.” That a rabbi active in the effort to bring abusers to justice had bleach thrown in his face on a Brooklyn street yesterday is testimony that the struggle for child protection is just beginning.

Then you’ve got the situation of a Southern Baptist pastor in Missouri indicted for abuse of a girl but still presiding over his congregation without so much as a proposal to remove him from his position. In a fine piece of reporting, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tim Townsend uses the case to explore the challenges of addressing abuse when it comes to self-governing congregations that belong to umbrella denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention.

Meanwhile, out in Los Angeles, the files on abusive priest in the Catholic archdiocese are finally being released to public view, but it’s unclear whether the clerical superiors responsible for covering up the abuse will have their names uncovered. Last year, the judge in the case permitted those names to be blacked out. “You know that the Church recycles priests,” he said. “Now you want to know who in the clergy recycled. For what useful purpose? The case is settled.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WYOMING
National Catholic Register

[click here to read the story]

by TIM DRAKE
12/11/2012

LANDER, Wyo. — Two months after beginning as chaplain for Wyoming Catholic College, Father Stuart MacDonald has been dismissed, following allegations of improper behavior — drinking and using inappropriate language — with students surfaced.

Father MacDonald, a priest of the Diocese of St. Catharines in Ontario, Canada, was fired from his position on Nov. 19.

“His dismissal is subsequent to an internal investigation by the college, which revealed Rev. MacDonald’s improper conduct and language with the college’s students and a pattern of behavior unacceptable as a Catholic college chaplain,” said the college’s press statement about the dismissal.

Father Robert Cook, president of the college, said he first met Father MacDonald in the spring.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Messenger

Police widen investigation into historic sex abuse at top Catholic school, St Ambrose College in Hale Barns

By Kate Banks, Reporter
9:45am Wednesday 12th December 2012

POLICE are now investigating at least five former teachers in relation to historic sexual and physical abuse at top Hale Barns Catholic school, St Ambrose College.

The investigation has widened further, with more than 20 alleged victims and witnesses coming forward since allegations, which are said to have taken place between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, emerged last week.

As part of the investigation a 63-year-old Trafford man was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images.

The former teacher has been bailed until March 12, pending further enquiries into an incident which allegedly took place in the early 80s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Click Manchester

by Mark Langshaw. Published Wed 12 Dec 2012

Greater Manchester Police have received further calls from the public in relation to a historic abuse investigation at a school in Altrincham.

Officers from Trafford’s Public Protection Investigation Unit, with assistance from officers in the Force’s Public Protection Division, are investigating incidents of sexual and physical abuse at St Ambrose RC College in Altrincham between the early 1960s and late 1980s.

As part of the investigation a 63-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images. He has been bailed until 12th March next year, pending further enquiries.

Following an appeal made to the media on 6th December, a number of further phone calls were made to a dedicated line.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Detectives investigating alleged sexual abuse at a Catholic boys’ school in Cheshire are looking into new allegations after receiving more calls from former pupils.

Last month, a 63-year-old former teacher was held on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images dating back to the early 1980s.

He was later bailed until March 12, pending further inquiries.

His alleged victim was a pupil at St Ambrose College in Hale Barns, Altrincham, where the man taught.

Detectives from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are investigating incidents of sexual and physical abuse at the fee-paying school between the early 1960s and late 1980s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Mancunian Matters

Posted Wednesday, December 12, 2012

By Mancunian Matters staff

Further allegations of sexual abuse at a Catholic boys’ school in Altrincham are being investigated after more former pupils have come forward.

Greater Manchester Police are investigating alleged incidents at St Ambrose College in Hale Barns from across three decades.

A 63-year-old former teacher was bailed pending further inquiries last week after being held on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images.

Detective Inspector Jed Pidd, from Trafford’s Public Protection Investigation Unit, said: “While it is not appropriate to detail the number of calls we have received, it is fair to say the size of this investigation has grown, given the response from members of the public.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

More officers are being drafted in to investigate allegations of historical sex abuse at a Catholic college in Greater Manchester.

The alleged offences involved staff at boys-only St Ambrose RC College in Altrincham from the 1960s to 1980s.

A 63-year-old man from Trafford was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault and possessing indecent images last month and bailed until March.

The investigation has been extended due to the response to an appeal.

The man was arrested over allegations of an incident in the early 1980s when the victim was a 17-year-old pupil.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

Detectives investigating alleged sexual abuse at a Catholic boys’ school are looking into new allegations after receiving more calls from former pupils.

Last month, a 63-year-old former teacher was held on suspicion of indecent assault and possession of indecent images dating back to the early 1980s.

He was later bailed until March 12, pending further inquiries.

His alleged victim was a pupil at St Ambrose College in Hale Barns, Altrincham, Cheshire, where the man taught.

Detectives from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are investigating incidents of sexual and physical abuse at the fee-paying school between the early 1960s and late 1980s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Nicky Davis on December 11, 2012

The Vatican has promoted Archbishop Paul Gallagher to become the new papal nuncio for Australia.

We hope that Archbishop Gallagher will be a better friend to victims and ambassador for the church than his predecessor, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazarotto. Lazarotto has repeatedly refused to assist governmental inquiries into abuse, such as the Murphy Commission in Ireland and the current Royal Commission in Australia, and by doing so has helped to perpetuate cover-ups of clergy sex abuse.

We urge Archbishop Gallagher to reverse the hurtful course of Lazarotto and to actively engage with the Australian government in order to get to the bottom of the clergy sex abuse crisis. We also call on Archbishop Gallagher to do everything in his power to force Lazarotto to come clean about what he knew and when. Sadly, given the history of other papal nuncios, we are not optimistic about this.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Bob Hohler
| Globe Staff
December 12, 2012

A Boston College football player Tuesday admitted to facts sufficient for a finding of guilty on a wiretap charge that he illegally audiotaped a female student having consensual sex with his teammate in a campus suite the players shared.

In a plea agreement, the case against Jaryd Rudolph, a 6-foot-4-inch, 295-pound junior defensive lineman from Plympton, was continued without a finding until March 12 on the condition he perform 20 hours of community service and have no contact with the victim.

Rudolph was advised in Brighton District Court that if he fails to abide by those conditions or offends again in any way, his case could be put back on track for a trial.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

By Louise Dickson, Times Colonist December 12, 2012

Warning: This story contains graphic details.

A former student at St. Joseph’s Catholic School said he was scared and confused when Father Phil Jacobs touched his genitals in a back room of the parish church.

The young man, whose identity is protected by a court order, appeared ill at ease as he testified Tuesday at Jacobs’s trial by judge in B.C. Supreme Court.

Jacobs, 63, was parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker in Saanich from 1997 to 2002. He is charged with sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference with a person under 14 and sexual touching. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between September 1996 and June 30, 2001.

“It was all very confusing,” the young man said. “When you went to school, you’re taught that priests are someone you can trust, that you can confide in. They were good people. It’s tough to understand that.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Written by
Bill McCleery

Police continue to look for an Indianapolis pastor suspected of forcing a boy to have sex with him in the mid-1990s, starting when he was 12 and continuing past the boy’s 13th birthday

Otis B. Jetter, 70, is charged with three felony counts of child molestation in an affidavit signed Nov. 30 by court officials .

Jetter is a pastor at Pilgrim Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, 2301 Dr. Andrew J. Brown Ave., Indianapolis.

The alleged victim, who is now 29, reported the incidents last month to Indianapolis police after noticing that another young boy had accompanied Jetter to church one day this year but then stopped coming to church, according to the affidavit.

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UNITED STATES
Examiner

December 11, 2012
By: Vicki Polin

Betsy Salkind is a gifted and talented entertainer, comedian ad writer. In the past she was a staff writer for the “Roseanne” and also “Saturday Night Special”. Betsy has also appeared on Girls’ Night Out, The Tonight Show and SHOWTIME’s Fierce Funny Women. Betsy has also been a long time activist for survivors of sexual abuse with her work with the National Association to Protect Children, and was also instrumental in changing the laws in California to offer equal protection to children sexually abused by family members.

Recently, Betsy Salkind’s published her newest book “More Than Once Upon a Time”, which I personally believe should be on everyone’s must read list. As usual, Betsy has a very unique way of educating the public about childhood sexual abuse and the struggles many adult survivors cope with on a daily basis.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Two lay people will lead a council established by the Catholic Church to co-ordinate its engagement with the royal commission on child sex abuse.

Former NSW Supreme Court chief judge Barry O’Keefe and former secretary-general of the Australian Medical Association Francis Sullivan were announced as the chair and chief executive, respectively, of the 10-person council on Wednesday.

Mr Sullivan said their brief was twofold; the first duty being to nationally co-ordinate the church’s ’embrace’ of the royal commission, and the second being to provide feedback to the church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

By Genevieve Gannon
From: AAP
December 12, 2012

A CATHOLIC advocacy group hopes the church’s decision to appoint lay people to lead its council to the child abuse royal commission indicates a willingness to achieve genuine reform.

Two bishops and a nun have already been nominated to the 10-person council but it will be led by members of the laity.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart on Wednesday announced former NSW supreme court chief judge Barry O’Keefe and former Australian Medical Association secretary-general Francis Sullivan would respectively be chair and chief executive of the council.

Catholics for Renewal president Peter Johnstone said the church had so far failed to identify systematic institutional failures, but the appointment of people outside the church hierarchy was a good sign.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

December 13, 2012

Barney Zwartz

ONCE bitten, twice shy, the adage says, and Catholic bishops in Australia over the decades have made all sorts of promises about learning the lessons of abuse, putting victims first and the like that have crumbled under the pressure of expediency.

So the wider community might be doubly sceptical about what changes the church’s new lay-led Truth, Justice and Healing Commission might actually produce, especially as the two men appointed yesterday to run it could not give any examples.

New chief executive Francis Sullivan gave fine promises about truth, justice and listening.

”We are really genuine in saying this process is about healing, which will never happen unless we first listen,” he said. ”And to listen, we need to be in the other person’s shoes, and to step into these shoes won’t be easy – it will take an open heart and compassion. But that’s our brief.”

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

A controversial Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leader known for advocating on behalf of victims of sexual abuse was sprayed in the face with bleach this afternoon on Roebling Street in Williamsburg. Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was allegedly assaulted by a relative of convicted sex offender Baruch Lebovits, whose conviction was overturned back in April, the Examiner reports. And Failed Messiah, a news blog that reports on New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, reports that Rosenberg has now been released from the hospital and is not blind in one eye, despite rumors on Twitter.

The assault occurred on day after the conviction of Nechemya Weberman, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish leader from Williamsburg who was convicted of sexually abusing a young girl for three years between 2007 and 2010. According to the Examiner, “Several high ranking chasidic leaders are blaming Rabbi Rosenberg for numerous arrests and convictions of sexual predators living within the Satmar community, including the conviction of Nechemya Weberman earlier this week.”

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NEW YORK
NBC New York

A rabbi known for anti-child abuse activism in Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community had bleach thrown in his face on a Williamsburg street Tuesday, police said.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was attacked on Roebling Street at about noon, police said. The bleach attack comes a day after a religious counselor in Brooklyn was convicted of the sustained sexual abuse of a girl in a controversial case that divided the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By LORENA MONGELLI and AMY STRETTON

An anti-sex abuse activist — who was a daily fixture at the trial of convicted child molester Nechemya Weberman — had bleach splashed in his face yesterday on a Brooklyn street.

Crusading Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, 62, was ambushed as he walked down Roebling Street across from Schnitzler’s Famous Fish market around noon, he and witnesses told The Post.

“He comes up to me and he taps me on the shoulder,” the still-shaken Rosenberg recounted after being treated for ocular burns at Woodhull Medical Center.

“He walked up hard to me. He looks me in the face. I saw him holding a glass. I thought it was coffee or something and he throws it in my face.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
WPIX

[with video]

FIRST ON PIX: Bleach thrown in face of rabbi who writes about sex abuse in Williamsburg’s Orthodox Jewish community

(Brooklyn, New York) – A Brooklyn rabbi who writes a blog about sex abuse within the insular, Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg told PIX 11 he had bleach thrown in his face by another Hasidic man Tuesday.

Rabbi Nachum Rosenberg told PIX11 he was walking down Roebling Street, when a man with a beard and black coat ran across from a fish store and confronted him.

“He takes a full cup of bleach and he spilled it onto me. Half of my face is burned, and my left eye, I can’t see right out of it. I see everything very faded.”

The attack happened one day after a jury convicted a prominent Satmar Hasidic man, Nechemya Weberman, of repeatedly molesting a student in the community, starting when she was just 12 years old. Weberman, an unlicensed counselor, faces up to 117 years in prison, when he’s sentenced next month. Many Hasidic men in the community raised money for his defense.

The trial exposed secrets about the alleged Satmar Hasidic “modesty squads” that allegedly raid the homes of girls and families that don’t follow the strict rules of the Hasidic community.

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NEW YORK
JTA

December 12, 2012

(JTA) — A Hasidic rabbi who advocates for victims of sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community was injured when a chemical was thrown in his face.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg on Tuesday was walking down the street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he lives, when a man approached him from behind, tapped him on his shoulder and then threw a chemical believed to be bleach in his face, according to reports.

Rosenberg, 62, was treated for burns on his face, around his eyes and in his left eye. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The rabbi runs a website and blog for sex-abuse victims, as well as a telephone hot line.

He told New York media that he believes the attack was in retaliation for his support and assistance of the now 18-year-old female victim of Satmar Hasidic leader and convicted child molester Nechemya Weberman, who was convicted on Monday of 59 counts of sexual abuse of the woman when she was between the ages of 12 and 15 and went to him for counseling.

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NEW YORK
New York Magazine

By Adam Martin

Someone threw a glass of what was apparently bleach in the face of a rabbi who has made it his mission to expose sexual assault in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, the day after a prominent member of the community was found guilty of sexual assault. Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, who runs a call-in line and website for people to report abuse, told the New York Post and the Times that he knew his assailant, but he didn’t identify the alleged bleach thrower. “He walked up hard to me. He looks me in the face. I saw him holding a glass. I thought it was coffee or something and he throws it in my face,” Rosenberg told the Post.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

SOMERSET — Three women have sued a Virginia church and two summer camp nonprofits – including one in Somerset County – for alleged sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a camp worker.

They contend the worker was not properly screened despite past complaints of similar misconduct.

The camp worker is not named as a defendant by the women, who were 13 to 17 years old when they allegedly were abused from 2003 to 2005 at events they say were coordinated by nonprofits Summer’s Best Two Weeks and Christian Camps of Pittsburgh Inc., and the Vienna Presbyterian Church of Vienna, Va.

A church official did not immediately return a call for comment on the lawsuit reported Tuesday by the Daily American of Somerset, which is where the lawsuit was filed.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Simon Lauder, staff

The Catholic Church has announced a national body to coordinate its response to the national royal commission into sexual abuse.

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council will be chaired by former Supreme Court judge Barry O’Keefe QC.

The group, which is yet to be fully announced, will provide support and expertise to the commission and identify institutional failures and find ways to stop child abuse happening in the future.

Mr O’Keefe says he recognises the job ahead will be difficult.

“But as a barrister of many, many years and a judge of many years and a commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, I learnt to face that which was unpalatable,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
My Daily News

APN Newsdesk
12th Dec 2012

A FORMER Supreme Court judge will head up a new Truth, Justice and Healing Commission to liaise with the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse on behalf of the Catholic Church.

The Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference announced on Wednesday it would set up the next commission.

The church’s new commission will be led by retired judge Barry O’Keefe QC and Francis Sullivan, a long-time associate of the Australian Medical Association.

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AUSTRALIA
Macquarie Port News

By Barney Zwartz
Dec. 12, 2012

The Catholic Church has set up a new Truth, Justice and Healing Commission to advise its bishops and run its dealings with the forthcoming royal commission on child sex abuse.

It will be headed by two laymen, a retired Supreme Court judge as chairman and a prominent layman as chief executive, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Chairman Denis Hart said today.

Saying the church recognised it needed a sophisticated and coordinated response, Archbishop Hart has promised a new era of co-operation, transparency and honesty. So did both new appointments – Barry O’Keefe, QC, as chairman and Francis Sullivan as chief executive – whose first job will be to lift the commission’s membership to 10.

Archbishop Hart, the archbishop of Melbourne, said the new commission would also work with victims of clergy sex abuse.

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IRELAND
Portadown Times

Published on Wednesday 12 December 2012

A RICHHILL man who claims he and several others were abused as children in a Protestant Church-funded orphanage in County Wicklow is heading a campaign for justice.

Sidney Herdman (48), a printer with a partner and two children, lived in the now notorious Westbank Home in Greystones during the late 1960s and early 1970s after his mother moved from Northern Ireland to Dublin to give birth to him.

He claims he and other young boys and girls were abused and wants a full investigation along the lines of the Ryan Report into abuse in the Catholic Church.

“There was terrible physical, sexual and mental abuse, the scars of which I still wrestle with every day,” said Sidney.

The home was run by an Adeline Mathers who came from Portadown – she died in 1999. And while she was not involved in sexual abuse, Mr Herdman said, “She often beat us with electric cable and injected us if we wet the bed – she was a tyrant of a woman, who claimed to be a born-again Christian. We lived in constant fear.”

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DELAWARE
Daily Times

By ALEX ROSE
arose@delcotimes.com
@arosedelco

MEDIA COURTHOUSE — A former senior member of a controversial church pleaded guilty Tuesday to four counts of indecent sexual assault without consent and two charges of corrupting the morals of a minor for molesting four young female church members between 1981 and 1988.

Richard Bellingham, 58, of Newark, Del., was arrested in June after former members of the congregation came forward to describe physical and sexual abuse when they were between 4 and 15 years old.

The first victim alerted Pennsylvania State Police and the Delaware County District Attorney’s office to the abuse in January, telling them that Bellingham began molesting her in 1981 when he lived with her family.

That woman, now 39, said her family belonged to the Church of Our Savior at the time, where her father served as a high-ranking member. Bellingham was a close friend of her father.

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CANADA
Sooke News Mirror

By Kyle Slavin – Saanich News

The first time the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria knew of Father Phillip Jacobs, they were also made aware of past allegations against the priest of “inappropriate behaviour” with a young male.

Michael Lapierre, a former longtime chancellor and vicar general with the diocese, said in the initial letter they received in 1995 requesting consideration for the then Ohio-based Jacobs to come and work for a Greater Victoria parish, the letter-writer mentioned the accusations.

“The letter … indicated there was an issue regarding Father Jacobs, and that had been looked into and dealt with,” Lapierre said Monday during the first day of Jacobs’ B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Jacobs, 62, is charged with sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference of a person under 14 and touching a young person for a sexual purpose. The incidents are alleged to have occurred in Saanich between 1996 and 2001.

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CANADA
CTV

VICTORIA – Day two in the trial of a former priest charged with sexually abusing children picked up where Monday left off.

Former St. Joseph the Worker altar boy, Chris Duggan, continued his testimony telling the court he knew Jacobs well. The 26-year-old testified that he witnessed contact between Jacobs and altar boys but was not a victim of sexual abuse.

Duggan also told the court that Jacobs would invite altar boys back to the rectory basement for movie nights after mass.

Following Duggan, Jacobs first accuser took the stand.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: December 11, 2012

An outspoken advocate for child sexual abuse victims in the Satmar Hasidic community was injured by a chemical he believed to be bleach that was thrown in his face as he walked down the street in his Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood on Tuesday.

The advocate, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, who runs a Web site and telephone call-in line that publicizes claims of sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community, said in an interview at the hospital where he was treated that he was walking on Roebling Street just after noon when a man came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“He has a cup of bleach,” Rabbi Rosenberg said, adding that he recognized the man. “And then he says ‘whoops’ and throws it in my face and walks off.”

A Police Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday evening that there had been an “ongoing dispute” between Rabbi Rosenberg and the man who threw the unidentified substance, but that no arrest had yet been made. Rabbi Rosenberg was taken to Woodhull Medical Center with burns to his face. According to a relative who was at the hospital, he had a corneal abrasion to his left eye and chemical burns around his eye. He was released after treatment and is expected to fully recover, his relative said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily Nes

Satmar crusader against molestation says bleach was splashed in his face, following Nechemya Weberman’s landmark sex abuse conviction

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A Hasidic activist who has crusaded against perverts in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community said he was splashed with bleach by an enemy in a violent act of street retribution Tuesday.

Nathan (Nuchem) Rosenberg, 62, said the vicious attack was linked the the bombshell sex abuse conviction Monday of prominent Satmar sect counselor Nechemya Weberman.

Rosenberg attended every day of the trial to support the victim.

“Because of the Weberman case, everything is upside down,” he said. “Everybody is crazy.”

Rosenberg, who suffered an internal eye burn that limited his vision, runs an information phone line that often names alleged molesters. He said he was walking down Roebling St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn around noon when he was approached by another man. …

The victim’s account was confirmed by Primo Santiago, 65, a liquor store owner who witnessed the attack from outside his store.

Santiago told the Daily News he saw someone run across the street with a cup, splash its contents and run away.

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NEW YORK
Examiner

December 11, 2012
By: Vicki Polin

Brooklyn, NY — Early today Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg was attacked on the street by the son of an alleged sex offender. According to reports the alleged assailant threw bleach into his face. Rabbi Rosenberg was immediately rushed to a local emergency room where he was treated and released.

The police took Rosenberg’s clothes as evidence and according to a reliable source, the police will be arresting the assailant shortly.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin State Journal

Bishop Robert Morlino cracks down on Madison nuns for espousing ‘New Ageism’ and ‘indifferentism’

DOUG ERICKSON | Wisconsin State Journal | derickson@madison.com | 608-252-6149

Two longtime Madison nuns who lead an interfaith spirituality center have been banned by Madison Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino from holding workshops or providing spiritual direction or guidance at any Catholic churches in the 11-county diocese.

Sisters Maureen McDonnell and Lynn Lisbeth, both Sinsinawa Dominicans, have diverged too far from Catholic teaching, according to a confidential memo sent Nov. 27 to priests on behalf of Morlino. A copy of the memo was leaked to the State Journal.

Two other women connected to the interfaith center, called Wisdom’s Well, also have been banned as part of the same action.

The memo says Morlino has “grave concerns” about the women’s teachings, specifically that they “espouse certain views” flowing from such movements as “New Ageism” and “indifferentism.” The latter, according to the memo, is “the belief that no one religion or philosophy is superior to another.”

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WISCONSIN
National Catholic Reporter

[Statement Directing Pastors and Rectors to Prohibit Individuals Associated with Wisdom’s
Well Interfaith Spirituality Center from Undertaking Activity at Parishes – Diocese of Madison]

by Joshua J. McElwee | Dec. 11, 2012

Madison, Wis., Bishop Robert Morlino has forbidden his diocese’s parishes and schools from using materials from an area interfaith spirituality center and banned the center’s staff members, including two Catholic sisters, from speaking at all diocesan events, according to a letter from the diocesan vicar general.

The blanket ban, first reported Tuesday by the Wisconsin State Journal, concerns Wisdom’s Well Interfaith Spirituality Center, which provides workshops and overnight retreats for people seeking spiritual direction.

Msgr. James Bartylla, Madison’s vicar general, states in a Nov. 27 letter to the diocese’s priests that even the center’s advertisements for centering prayer are no longer to be distributed on parish property. …

The letter specifically names four women in the ban, including Dominican Srs. Maureen McDonnell and Lynn Lisbeth, both members of the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, which is headquartered in Sinsinawa, Mich., about 90 miles southwest of Madison.

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INDIANA
WLFI

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A 70-year-old man is facing charges after a 29-year-old man told police he was molested starting when he was 12 years old.

The 70-year-old man, Otis Bernard Jetter, was identified by the victim as a pastor at The Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Indianapolis. Church officials said he has been removed from that position.

According to the man, Jetter would drive him to church in his van and engage in multiple sex acts when the boy was 12 and 13 years old. In some cases, the boy said he was given cash and told to keep it a secret.

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INDIANA
Fox 59

By Dan Spehler

Indianapolis

An eastside pastor is charged with three felony counts of child molesting, after a parishioner accused 70-year-old Otis Bernard Jetter of molesting him when he was a child.

Jetter denied the allegations when confronted by police, but late last week, the Marion County prosecutor filed charges against Jetter.

The accuser, Arthur Stevens, spoke recently with Fox59 to share his story. Stevens said he had always enjoyed going to church at Pilgrim Chapel Missionary Baptist Church.

But at the age of twelve, things suddenly changed.

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

Eliyahu Federman

Nechemya Weberman, a prominent member of the Satmar sect in Williamsburg, was convicted Monday of repeatedly sexually abusing a young teen he was entrusted to mentor.

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, CBS and others have labeled Weberman and Satmar “ultra-Orthodox,” unwittingly conveying the assumption that the more Jewishly observant you are the more extreme you must be.

The descriptor “ultra-Orthodox” is reserved to convey the message that a particular group of Jews are extreme and fundamentalist but Orthodox refers to Jewish observance, not wearing fedoras, long coats and sporting bushy beards. So using the terms “ultra-Orthodox” implies that the more Judaism you observe the more extreme you become.

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NEW YORK
Washington Post

By Lauren Markoe| Religion News Service,

Updated: Tuesday, December 11

The world’s largest group of Orthodox rabbis is lauding the process that led to the conviction of a Hasidic Jewish man on Monday (Dec. 10) on sexual abuse charges, and called on all segments of the Jewish community to cooperate with police in such cases.

“The RCA strongly advocates, as a matter of Jewish law, the reporting of reasonable suspicions of child abuse to the civil authorities and full cooperation with the criminal justice system,” reads a statement from the Rabbinical Council of America, which represents more than 1,000 rabbis in 14 countries.

The RCA is generally dissociated from Hasidic Jewish communities — fervently religious groups that follow the teachings of particular rabbis in almost all aspects of daily life. Hasidic Jews distinguish themselves by their Old World clothes, and they typically have little interaction with outsiders.

Concentrated in Israel and Brooklyn, Hasidic communities such as the Satmars, to which the convicted man belongs, have frustrated police with their unwillingness to work with civil authorities on sexual abuse cases. They have invoked Jewish law to justify their insistence that the community alone handle such matters.

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CHILE
La Nacion

Este jueves declarará ante el Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago el sacerdote John O’Reilly, acusado de abuso sexual por la madre de una alumna de 8 años del Colegio Cumbres.

La diligencia se realizará a petición de la defensa del sacerdote, que busca que O’Reilly entregue su versión de los hechos ante el tribunal y así, pueda acreditar su inocencia.

El requerimiento responde a que -según ha señalado el abogado del sacerdote, Luis Hermosilla- en 5 meses de indagatoria, el fiscal e investigador, Ignacio Pinto, se ha negado a tomar declaraciones del acusado.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

Juzgado autorizó a sacerdote John O’Reilly a declarar por acusaciones de abusos sexuales

En una decisión inédita, el Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago autorizó al sacerdote John O’Reilly a entregar su testimonio aun si es formalizado en el caso por la acusación de abusos sexuales contra menores que se sigue en su contra.

La concesión la efectuó el tribunal a petición de la defensa, encabezada por el abogado Luis Hermosilla, quien argumentó para su solicitud que el fiscal Ignacio Pinto no ha recogido la versión del sacerdote.

O’Reilly fue alejado del colegio Cumbres en julio pasado luego de que los padres de una niña de seis años lo acusaran de abusar sexualmente de la pequeña.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

El sacerdote Alfonso Baeza se refirió en Lo Que Queda del Día a la condena por “conductas abusivas” contra el ex vicario Cristián Precht y aseguró que “hay algo que no le calza” en las acusaciones en su contra.

“Para mí lo que ha sucedido, si es que ha sucedido como lo dicen, no es un motivo para perder el cariño y el aprecio por lo que significa y lo que ha hecho Cristián Precht al servicio de la Iglesia, al servicio de los más perseguidos. En ese sentido, creo que hay una cierta injusticia en lo que ha sucedido y más injusticia sobretodo en algo que para nosotros los cristianos es muy importante”, señaló el sacerdorte.

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CANADA
Metro

By Luke Simcoe
Metro Windsor

When Brenda Brunelle was 13 years old, she claims she was sexually abused by a priest in her Catholic parish. The experience has haunted her for more than three decades.

“Your mind becomes formulated around guilt and self-blame,” she said. “I was entirely convinced that I had done something to deserve this and that I was going to hell.”

Brunelle alleges she was molested by Rev. Michael Fallona in the late 1970s. After years of seeking closure through church channels, she sued the diocese for $3 million in 2009, and finally settled out of court this July.

Now, she’s dedicated herself to helping others find support and healing.

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NEW ZEALAND
TVNZ

Wednesday December 12, 2012

In the space of 16 months, Father John William Fitzmaurice went from being a highly respected Catholic priest to a convicted fraudster.

His guilty pleas yesterday to six charges in the Christchurch District Court marked the sad end to an investigation that began in August 2011.

While serving as an administrator at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and at Addington’s Sacred Heart Parish, Fitzmaurice defrauded the church of $127,650.

Just what Fitzmaurice did with all the money remains unclear, but yesterday Catholic Bishop of Christchurch Barry Jones told The Press : “I understand

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RENO (NV)
Reno Gazette-Journal

Written by
Jaclyn O’Malley

An elderly defrocked priest who moved to Reno and once ran a halfway house for parolees pleaded guilty in a Denver federal court to a charge that he masturbated on a commercial airline flight.

Daniel Drinan, 64, of Reno, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of indecent exposure on a plane related to his Sept. 8 arrest. In 1977 he was ordained as a Claretians priest, and later served in Texas before he was defrocked in 2002, after a child’s parents reported to police they didn’t like how he touched the child, according to news reports in Texas covering the case. Police later cleared him of any inappropriate behavior with the child, the reports said.

Attorneys agreed in court papers that they will reccomend to the judge that Drinan receive two years probation for the airplane fondling and be fined $2,500. A sentencing hearing had not yet been set.

Drinan was arrested after authorities said he was exposing his genitals while viewing pornography on his laptop during a Southwest Airlines flight from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Denver.

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NEW YORK
Religion News Service

For Immediate Release

The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the world’s largest organization of Orthodox rabbis, is encouraged by the process that led to the conviction of Nechemyah Weberman, an Orthodox Jew who acted as an unlicensed counselor and was today found guilty for the sexual molestation of an adolescent girl. For many years the RCA has condemned the efforts of many parts of the Jewish community to cover up or ignore allegations of abuse, viewing these efforts as against Jewish law, illegal, and irresponsible to the welfare of victims and the greater community. The RCA strongly advocates, as a matter of Jewish law, the reporting of reasonable suspicions of child abuse to the civil authorities and full cooperation with the criminal justice system. The RCA decries any invocation of Jewish law or communal interests as tools in silencing victims or witnesses from reporting abuse or from receiving therapeutic and communal support, and strongly condemns those members of the Jewish community who use such tactics.

In light of the issues raised in this trial the RCA commits itself to increasing the training of its members who serve in all areas of the rabbinate, including pulpits, education, chaplaincy, and communal service, to know how to recognize, prevent, and respond appropriately to issues of child abuse. In addition, the RCA will help its members develop policies regarding prevention and response to issues of child abuse in their individual congregations and schools, as well as in their larger communities, and, where nonexistent, to support the creation of response teams that include mental health practitioners, law-enforcement personnel, and specially trained rabbis to respond to allegations of abuse and molestation.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Daily Mail Reporter

The teenage victim of a Rabbi who subjected her to years of systematic rape and sexual abuse has described her joy at his conviction, declaring: ‘Now he’ll learn how it feels to be helpless.’

Rabbi Nechemya Weberman faces over 25 years in jail after he was found guilty of fondling the teen, forcing her to perform oral sex on him, and making her act out porn films, over the course of many years beginning when she was 12.

The girl’s parents, now 17, sent her to Weberman, an influential religious counselor in New York, for extra tuition after she broke various rules of their ultra-orthodox and secretive Satmar Jewish sect.

But instead the ‘master manipulator’ subjected her to a campaign of sadistic abuse convincing her parents that she was a ‘rebellious liar’ who needed strict re-education.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Hermano de Cristián Precht: “He escuchado a gente decir que esto es venganza del sector conservador de la Iglesia”

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 11/12/2012

El hermano del sacerdote Cristián Precht envió una declaración pública, en la que a parte de cuestionar a la Iglesia por la sentencia que le dieron al religioso, revela lo que cercanos han interpretado del hecho.

Precht recibió la sentencia de la Iglesia, en la que se le prohíbe ejercer públicamente su ministerio sacerdotal por un plazo de cinco años, debido a “conductas abusivas”.

Ante este hecho, el abogado Hernán Precht aseguró que “he conversado con mucha gente en estos días y he escuchado varias interpretaciones conspirativas para explicar lo sucedido. Hay quienes sostienen que esta es una venganza del sector conservador de la Iglesia, que vieron caer a Karadima, que era su ícono y baluarte, y que al hacer caer a un ícono del sector progresista de la Iglesia, establecen al menos un empate moral al interior de la institución”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the only English-born nuncio in the active service of the Holy See, is the new papal nuncio to Australia

Gerard O’Connell
Rome

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher as the new apostolic nuncio to Australia.

The Vatican broke the news on December 11, after the Australian Government had given its agreement. Archbishop Gallagher succeeds the Italian Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarrotto whom the Pope last August sent as nuncio to Israel, and simultaneous as nuncio to Cyprus and Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine.

A man of considerable diplomatic experience, the 58-year old Archbishop Gallagher is the only English-born nuncio in the active diplomatic service of the Holy See. At the time of his appointment to Australia he was nuncio in Guatemala, where he had served since February 2009.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Fitchburg Priest Charged in Child Porn Case Flees Country – Telegram & Gazette, Oct. 31, 2011]

Posted by Barbara Dorris on December 10, 2012

We are glad that Fr. Lowe Dongor surrendered to Filipino police, after more than a year on the run. Fr. Dongor is wanted for possession of child pornography and theft.

Fr. Dogor was the associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Parish in the diocese of Worcester in Massachusetts. He is accused of stealing money from the parish and possession of child pornography. He was arraigned in September 2011 for these charges, but fled the country in October 2011.

We are glad that Bishop McManus notified Catholic officials in the Philippians after Fr. Dongor fled the US. We are grateful that the FBI and Filipino authorities were able to work together to get Fr. Dongor extradited back to the US to face charges.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed: …

– Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, currently apostolic nuncio in Guatemala, as apostolic nuncio in Australia.

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NEW JERSEY
Observer-Tribune

Posted: Friday, December 7, 2012

In 1988, a young man accepted a settlement from the Delbarton School for damages he suffered after he was sexually assaulted while a teenager by the Rev. Timothy Brennan who was then a monk at Delbarton.

At the time, the teen, referred to only as “John Doe,” signed a confidentiality agreement that barred him from ever talking about the settlement.

Now, 24 years later, the victim, now an adult, wants to purge the painful memories and speak publicly to help other victims reach peace.

But because of the confidentiality agreement, he must remain silent or risk being forced to pay back the settlement along with other penalties to Delbarton.

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NEW JERSEY
Observer-Tribune

Delbarton school gets heat for suit against former Mendham resident’s lawyer

By PHIL GARBER, Managing Editor

MENDHAM – To Bill Crane, a lawsuit filed by St., Mary’s Abbey and the Delbarton School against his lawyer is one more tactic of intimidation in the ongoing battle by Crane and others to uncover victims who were sexually assaulted by priests at the school.

The former Mendham resident knows about the subject. He and his twin brother Tom, 46, filed a lawsuit in March alleging that they were sexually abused as youngsters by the Rev. Luke Travers, a former Delbarton headmaster, and the Rev. Justin Capato, a former Delbarton teacher.

Last month, Delbarton filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Morristown claiming Crane’s lawyer, Gregory Gianforcaro of Phillipsburg, violated a confidentiality agreement by publicly disclosing terms of a 1988 settlement of a lawsuit filed by a teenager who was a victim of sexual misconduct by a monk at the school.

A terse statement from St. Mary’s Abbey was released.

“St. Mary’s Abbey will not have any comments regarding the legal case recently filed involving attorney Gregory Gianforcaro,” the statement said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Patch

By Heidi Dezayas
Email the author
December 10, 2012

A former Central Catholic High School guidance counselor is out of jail and has waived a preliminary hearing on heroin-related charges.

Last week, Kelly Scherer, 36, waived a preliminary hearing on charges of conspiracy; two counts of intent to possess a controlled substance; and four counts of manufacture, delivery or possession of a controlled substance before District Justice Thomas Caulfield.

Forest Hills police are accusing Scherer of dealing heroin and selling it to an undercover police officer from her Sumner Avenue apartment.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the Forest Hills Police Department, Scherer was being investigated back in 2011. A neighbor tipped off police, saying he suspected Scherer was dealing drugs from her apartment.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Pam Casellas, The West Australian
December 11, 2012

In tonight’s special edition of Compass, Geraldine Doogue investigates the child sexual abuse crisis in Australian churches, from the groundbreaking 1992 Compass program The Ultimate Betrayal to Julia Gillard’s recent Royal Commission announcement.

When Compass lifted the lid on clerical sexual abuse in Australia with the shocking film The Ultimate Betrayal it was dismissed by many as unthinkable.

Two decades and several groundbreaking documentaries later, Compass charts the full saga of the child sexual abuse crisis in Australian churches that led to the Royal Commission announcement.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A fugitive priest wanted in the United States for more than a year for possession of child pornographic materials has surrendered to Philippine officials and is now on his way back to the US to face the charges against him.

According to a report of the Iloilo-based news site The Daily Guardian on Tuesday, Father Lowe Dongor, fled the US and returned to the Philippines last year but turned himself in to the National Bureau of Investigation after months of negotiations.

Dongor, 36, had fled the US in October 2011 after entering a “not guilty” plea on charges of possession of child pornography.

The Daily Guardian said the priest, a native of Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo, is accused in the US District Court of the District of Massachusetts of Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution (UFAP).

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Florence F. Hibionada

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A FILIPINO priest, who was suspended after being charged with theft and possession of pornographic materials, issued a public apology.

Reverend Father Lowe Dongor, in his letter, made a plea to critics and media to spare his family from incessant media attention.

Dongor opened up after a year of silence since he fled to US that had the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charged him with one count of felony act of Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution (UFAP).

Dongor, in a handwritten “My Apology” letter, said: “My heart is in grief and I know that yours as well. I am so sorry. I want to apologize to all the people who has believed and supported me for the damaged I have done to you all, to the church and to myself.”

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