ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

Published: 25 November 2012

Archbishop Mark Coleridge has written a letter to the clergy of the Archdiocese of Brisbane in the wake of the declaration of a Royal Commission into abuse

In the lead-up to the announcement of the Royal Commission and now in its aftermath, Catholic clergy have again been humiliated in a way that spares none of us.

This seems to have gone on for years, and it is hard to gauge accurately the toll it has taken on the ordained.

I suspect it is more severe than we are usually prepared to acknowledge.

In my nearly forty years as a priest, nothing approaches the sexual abuse crisis as a blow to clergy morale.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Evening Sun

The priest accused of stealing more than $380,000 from his former church, St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Bonneauville, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Third-degree felony charges of theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, and access device fraud are moving on to Adams County court for Caesar Belchez, 52.

Belchez was assigned to the Bonneauville church from 2006 to 20011, and during that time, police say, he stole $384,750.76 from the church in cash, checks and credit cards issued to the parish.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Dearbhail McDonald and Tim Healy

Thursday November 22 2012

THE Director of Public Prosecutions tried three times to prosecute the choirmaster whose bank and pension accounts have been frozen following a record €4.7m damages award for raping and abusing two cousins when they were schoolgirls.

One of Joseph Carrick’s victims, Jacqueline O’Toole, who was raped and then left pregnant at 15, was awarded €4m – the highest award ever for an abuse victim.

The award dwarfs the previous record, reached only last week, when a mother of three who was raped and sexually abused as a child by her godfather was awarded €2.8m damages by a High Court jury.

Ms O’Toole and Geraldine Nolan claim that they were repeatedly raped and sexually abused by Carrick, whom they met after joining a local church choir in the early 1970s.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A woman, who was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted by a man in her church choir in the 1970s, has been awarded damages of €4m by a High Court jury.

It is the highest award of its kind.

Joseph Carrick, from Carysfort Woods, Blackrock, Co Dublin, was described in court as an “evil paedophile” who preyed on children.

Carrick, who is now in his 70s, did not defend the case taken by Jacqueline O’Toole, 55, from Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

In a separate related case yesterday, another woman, Geraldine Nolan, from Townsend Street, Dublin 2, was awarded €700,000 for rape and sexual assault by the same man.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Porsia Tunzi | Nov. 21, 2012

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents thousands of American nuns, has been awarded the Herbert Haag Prize for 2013 for Freedom in the Church.

The Catholic-based Herbert Haag Foundation honored LCWR “for their candid stance in this crisis, for their persistent loyalty to the Christian message and for the spiritual energy with which they carry the conflict,” according to a recent press release.

The award honors “people and institutions that engage themselves in the spirit of the apostle Paul for freedom in the church and in doing so give witness to the world,” the press release said.

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CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service

By WILLIAM DOTINGA

MARTINEZ, Calif. (CN) – A group of sisters whose parents subjected them to 20 years of horrific sexual abuse and torture say they may still have a case against church officials.

Each daughter, now an adult woman, said that church leaders, police officers and social workers stonewalled investigations to protect the parents, Zion and Glenda Lea Dutro, who were prominent evangelical leaders in Antioch, Calif.

Zion Dutro accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 300 years in prison, while his wife pleaded no contest and received a 15-year prison sentence for her actions.

The original complaint sought punitive damages from the city of Antioch, Contra Costa County, a number of officials, Calvary Open Bible Church and two pastors.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hull Daily Mail

A VICTIM of horrific abuse at an East Yorkshire care home feels justice can finally be done after a landmark court ruling.

Graham Baverstock was sexually abused as a child by Brother James Carragher at St William’s Community Home in Market Weighton.

Carragher was a member of Catholic organisation the De La Salle Order of Christian Brothers at the time.

An ongoing police investigation is looking into alleged abuse committed by others at the home.

Now the Supreme Court has ruled the Catholic Church and the Brothers are both liable to pay compensation to Mr Baverstock and more than 170 other victims who were abused at the home from the 1960s to the 1990s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

170 former pupils at St William’s school in Middlesbrough claim that they suffered appalling physical and sexual abuse within the home.

The diocese claimed the Roman Catholic De La Salle Order of Brothers, which it hired to run the school, should share the liability for the cases of abuse.

In a landmark ruling, a judge at the Supreme Court agreed that the liability did not solely lie with the diocese.

Dr Jim Whiston says that the decision made by the Supreme Court has vindicated the diocese’s view.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan

November 22, 2012

The following is from Fr Frank Brennan’s presentation at the Anglican Church of Australia’s Public Affairs Commission Conference The Nathan Project, University of Melbourne, 19 November 2012. This nationwide forum was named for the biblical prophet Nathan who confronted King David with God’s displeasure over his behaviour.

Introduction — the righteous Nathan and the compromising David

It is always a pleasure to return here to Trinity College to meet with Anglicans committed to social justice. I studied around this Melbourne University Crescent with some of you who were also students at the United Faculty of Theology. Ecumenical studying and working together often equips us better for engagement in the public square, using language and concepts accessible and familiar not just to those of our particular ecclesial tradition within Christianity. Thanks to my ecumenical formation, I learnt early that there was little point in quoting papal encyclicals as if they were trumps even though they might contain many pearls of wisdom. I learnt the value of communicating with concepts backed by authority, restricting myself to concepts and authority affirmed by my listeners.

27 years ago I was ordained priest in St Stephens Cathedral Brisbane. I was privileged to have the Catholic bishops of Queensland joined on the sanctuary by the Primate of the Anglican Church and the Moderator of the Uniting Church in Queensland. Archbishops John Grindrod and Frank Rush had worked together in the regional diocese of Rockhampton before going to Brisbane. John then became Primate of Anglican Church and Frank was President of the Australian Catholic Bishops conference. I worked with them and Doug Brandon, the Uniting Church moderator, in our joint commitment to improving the lives of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders during some testing political times including the Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane in 1982. When it came time for my ordination three years later, it seemed only natural and appropriate that the leaders of the three major Churches in Queensland pray together that the Spirit come upon me in priestly service. It was by doing something co-operative together for the cause of justice that we found our way clear to worship together and that we wanted to pray together in the most formal of liturgical contexts. But for our joint endeavour in the public square for justice, there is no way that we would have all prayed together on that sanctuary that night in Brisbane. We had learnt to communicate with each other and to pray together by committing ourselves in solidarity to action for justice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

A religious congregation which provided teachers to an East Yorkshire residential school can be held liable for the sex abuse which took place there, the Supreme Court has ruled.

St William’s, a school at Market Weighton, near Hull, was closed in 1994 after the headmaster, Brother James Carragher, was accused, and later convicted, of sexual offences against boys over 20 years.

Nearly 200 men who say they were abused by Brothers at the school are claiming £8 million in damages from the school’s managers and the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, known as the De La Salle Brothers, which provided the teachers.

Defending the action, the congregation claimed it could not be held vicariously liable for the actions of the teaching Brothers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Published on Thursday 22 November 2012

A ROMAN Catholic lay order must share liability for a multi-million pound compensation claim for child abuse at a former children’s home in Yorkshire, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The De La Salle Brotherhood, which provided staff to the St William’s home in Market Weighton, will have to compensate victims of abuse committed by its members, along with the Middlesbrough Diocese, which had overall responsibility for the home’s management.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of an appeal from the diocese which had previously been held solely liable. The diocese remains solely liable for any abuse committed by staff who were not De La Salle Brothers.

The ruling clears the way for the settlement of up to 170 claims from former residents at St William’s. Their solicitor, David Greenwood, estimates the total value of the claims, which include the most serious sexual abuse, at around £5m.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 23, 2012

Richard Baker, Philip Dorling, Nick McKenzie

THE Catholic Church’s little-known treatment clinic for clergy with psychosexual problems harboured known paedophiles and shielded them from police scrutiny.

Whistleblowers closely involved with the now-defunct Encompass Australasia program allege paedophile clergy were diagnosed with a ”mood disorder” so they could be treated at Sydney’s Wesley Private Hospital and meet private health insurance criteria.

A well-placed source aware of the status of some clergy treated by Encompass Australasia between 1997 and 2008 said he believed several did not have a mood disorder but were ”cold and calculating criminals” who bragged about their exploits with children to others while at the hospital.

”Some of these people were not mentally ill, in my opinion. They were criminals who knew exactly what they had done and were proud of their achievements,” said the source, who asked not to be named for fear of being sacked. ”People who should have been in Long Bay Jail were still living in the community.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Religion and Ethics

By Des Cahill
ABC Religion and Ethics
21 Nov 2012

Next week, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference will hold its normal November meeting beside the tomb of St Mary of the Cross, Australia’s first saint. It is noteworthy that the bishops will discuss the holy and unholy mess created by the clerical sexual abuse scandal and the forthcoming Royal Commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse, as well as the continuing fallout from the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry.

The Church has already lost the public relations war. The evidence of the Victoria Police has made very sure of that by the evidence of their statistics. These show that between January 1956 and June 2012 in their Victorian jurisdiction, of the 519 “distinct victims,” 71.29% occurred within the Catholic Church system as compared to the Anglican (7.13%), Salvation Army (6.94%) and Jewish (3.47%) figures – although, of course, these figures do not pertain just to ministers of religion.

My own statistical analysis shows that at least one in twenty who graduated as priests from the Corpus Christi seminary which serves Victoria and Tasmania between 1940 and 1972 eventually became child abusers. This in many ways mirrors the study of the John Jay College for Criminal Justice of 105,000 priests, commissioned by the United States Catholic Bishops, which found that 4% became convicted abusers.

Also noteworthy is that it seems that Archbishop Denis Hart from Melbourne and Archbishop Mark Coleridge from Brisbane have taken up the public relations running. The television interview last week by Cardinal George Pell to an overflowing press room was uniformly assessed to be a disaster. He was bumbling, poorly briefed by his advisers and simply wrong in some of his comments, especially in suggesting that clerical sex abuse amongst the Catholic clergy is no higher compared to other cognate professional and religious groups.

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OKLAHOMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist pastor in Oklahoma second-guessed himself after the arrest of his former youth pastor on eight counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Jeff Self, pastor of First Baptist Church in Coalgate, Okla., told CBS affiliate KXII television, which broadcasts in a two-state area covering North Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma, that church leaders dismissed 28-year-old Dustin Werneburg in August after the third allegation of sexual misconduct against the youth pastor in three years.

Dustin WerneburgPolice arrested Werneburg Nov. 14 at Blanchard Middle School in Blanchard, Okla., where he was serving as a teacher’s aide, the station reported. He was jailed in Coal County on three counts of second-degree rape, three counts of forcible sodomy, a charge of lewd or indecent proposals to a child and lewd molestation, all involving a girl under the age of 16.

Police said the girl’s parents found inappropriate text messages and photos exchanged between her and Werneburg. Investigators said the two began texting in November of 2011 and exchanged at least 1,000 messages.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

By Mitch Mitchell
mitchmitchell@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount Tuesday with a former Nolan Catholic High School student who said he was sexually abused by a priest.

The lawsuit states that Rev. William Paiz abused John Doe No. 109 between 1982 and 1987 starting when the boy was 15. Doe, now in his 40s, filed suit in January, saying he was sexually assaulted while at All Saints Catholic Church, St. George Catholic Church and at other locations.

During that period, Paiz was assigned to All Saints and St. George’s Catholic Churches in Fort Worth and taught religion at Nolan Catholic High School, according to the Fort Worth diocese.

The settlement agreement includes provisions that Paiz not work in a position that puts him in contact with any children, juveniles or young adults and not be able to present himself as a priest, said Tahira Merritt, John Doe 109’s attorney.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press

By Jennifer Bell, Crime reporter

A CATHOLIC brotherhood which supplied teachers to a Catholic children’s home in East Yorkshire can be held legally responsible for the sexual abuse of boys, leading judges have ruled.

About 170 men – including victims from York – are seeking damages after alleging they were abused as children at St William’s in Market Weighton which provided residential care and education for boys, aged 10 to 16, with emotional and behavioural problems.

The home’s former principal, Father James Carragher, was jailed for 14 years in 2004 after admitting abusing boys in his care.

Compensation claims on behalf of former pupils were first submitted in 2004. St William’s was owned by the Diocese of Middlesbrough but many of the staff were members of the De La Salle Brotherhood, a Catholic order of lay teachers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
AO Advocates

Posted by: A.Dean on Nov 21 2012

A landmark judgment in the Supreme Court today has pushed forward the law on vicarious liability, in a way that may help survivors of child abuse hold responsible parties accountable, and obtain the compensation they deserve. The ruling in Catholic Child Welfare Society & Ors v Various Claimants and The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian School & Ors concerns a dispute between the Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle Order (the “Christian Brothers”) over who should pay compensation to victims of child sexual abuse committed at the St William’s School a number of years ago.

The St William’s School was managed by the Diocese, but many of its teachers and staff were members of the Christian Brothers. A number of abuses were committed by members of the Christian Brothers; these abuses occurred over decades, and one of the former Christian Brothers headmasters, James Carragher, was convicted of numerous sexual offences against boys and jailed in 2004 for 14 years. Over 170 men brought the original claim against the Christian Brothers and the Diocese for redress.

The crux of the appeal related to whether the Diocese alone is vicariously liable for the abuses of these men, or whether liability is mutually held by both the Diocese and the Christian Brothers. In 2010 the Court of Appeal held the Diocese solely liable for the abuse, and for paying £8 million in compensation to the many victims. The Diocese appealed, claiming that the Christian Brothers ought to share liability for what happened, in light of their close involvement with the day-to-day activities of the school and the numerous abuses by Christian Brothers staff. Today’s ruling has allowed the Diocese’s appeal, and in the process made new and powerful law for claimants. Writing for the Court, Lord Philips summarised the decision by stating:

This is not a borderline case. It is one where it is fair, just and reasonable, by reason of the satisfaction of the relevant criteria, for the Institute to share with the Middlesbrough Diocese vicarious liability for the abuse committed by the brothers.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

by John C Seitz | Nov. 21, 2012

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: GENDER, POWER, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
By Marie Keenan
Published by Oxford University Press, $62.50

If we want to understand sexual violence, we have to get to know its perpetrators and the worlds in which they were formed. In the particular context in which Marie Keenan is interested — clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up in the U.S. and Ireland since the middle of the 20th century — such an adage goes from truism to nonstarter. Pressure not to get to know clerical abusers and the institutional, educational and social worlds of their formation comes from many angles of varying validity.

A posture of attentiveness to abusers may strike some abuse victims and their advocates as excusing the abuse and losing sight of the harm it may have inflicted. For their part, media outlets have helped uncover abuse, but they have also contributed to the vilification of clerical offenders, fixating on the category of pedophilia (at the expense of other abusive scenarios), and fomenting moral panic.

Church officials, on the other hand, want to isolate abusers and officials complicit in cover-up. They would have us pay attention to abusers only as aberrant pathological individuals. The theological or institutional context for their production as clergy is more or less off-limits.

Keenan, a researcher and lecturer in applied social science at University College Dublin and a registered psychotherapist, plunges into these taboo waters, taking her readers into the theological, moral and institutional contexts for abuse and cover-up. Working with the ever-present caution that to “understand all is never to forgive it all,” Keenan makes this journey in part through analysis of extensive conversations with nine Catholic men — all retired or laicized Irish priests and brothers — who admitted to having sexually abused minors in the past.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 21, 2012

A Columbia University professor is siding with a twice-accused child molester who is the voice for the character Elmo and is hurting gays and lesbians in the process.

In today’s New York Times, professor Katherine Franke defends Kevin Clash as “the most recent victim” of “a ‘sex panic,’” adding that “At precisely the moment when gay people’s right to marry seems to be reaching a positive tipping point, sexuality is being driven back into the closet as something shameful.”

These callous remarks seem to equate gay sex with pedophilia, which is wrong, hurtful, and irresponsible. They play into and help perpetuate the most archaic and discredited notions about sexuality. Franke owes a deep and public apology to gays, lesbians and child sex abuse victims. And the Columbia administration should discipline her for such harmful comments which rub even more salt into the already deep wounds of many people.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WHTM

Updated: Nov 21, 2012

By Myles Snyder

BONNEAUVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) –
The case against a parish priest charged with embezzling more than $384,000 from a central Pennsylvania church is bound for trial.

Father Caesar A. Belchez, 52, of New Freedom, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning when he appeared before District Judge Daniel Bowman.

Belchez is accused of taking the money between 2006 and 2011 while he was pastor at Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Bonneauville, according to prosecutors. He allegedly embezzled nearly $312,000 in cash and made an additional $72,766 in unauthorized purchases with credit cards issued to the parish.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WSAU

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) Milwaukee’s Catholic Archdiocese says it will fight in court to prevent its local churches from having to pay anything toward the Chapter-11 bankruptcy in the archdiocese. Judge Susan Kelley will hold a hearing December 6 on a request by creditors – including those sexually abused by priests – to be compensated with assets from the more than 200 parishes in the 10-county archdiocese. About 575 sex abuse victims are seeking compensation from the archdiocese as part of the nearly two-year-old bankruptcy case. The church says it wants the judge to throw out 62 more claims, because those victims had previously signed settlement agreements in their cases. And it will ask Judge Kelley to let the church’s insurance carrier pay about 270 of the sex abuse claims.

Civil courts previously refused to let the Milwaukee Archdiocese use insurance to pay sex abuse victims – but the church said a different policy applied in that case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 22, 2012

Sean Nicholls
Sydney Morning Herald State Political Editor

THE Premier, Barry O’Farrell, has announced the special commission of inquiry into the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Hunter will proceed and will report by next April.

Mr O’Farrell revealed plans for the NSW inquiry before the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced a national royal commission into child sexual abuse, raising questions about whether it would go ahead.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Mr O’Farrell confirmed the NSW inquiry would proceed and released its terms of reference.

He said it was important to investigate the claims that prompted the inquiry by a senior police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, that his investigations into paedophile priests had been hampered by police and the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hill Dickinson

“Not just a borderline case” – Hill Dickinson success as Supreme Court hands down judgment in The Catholic Child Welfare Society & others –v- Various Claimants & The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools & others.

Kari Hansen, partner, and Hayley Riach, solicitor, are celebrating as the vicarious liability arguments upon which this action has been fought for the past seven years have finally been determined. The Supreme Court has clarified the law as to vicarious liability of unincorporated associations and emphasised that where there is an argument for dual vicarious liability each individual ’employer’ / ’employee’ relationship should be considered on its own merits. This is the first time that the Supreme Court has confirmed that it is possible for there to be dual vicarious liability.

In recent years, the principles of vicarious liability have been considered by Courts at all levels, particularly in the context of the sexual abuse of children. Today, the Supreme Court unanimously found that it was fair, just and reasonable for an unincorporated association of lay religious Brothers (“the Institute”) to share vicarious liability for abuse committed by some of its members.

The claims and parties

A group, presently consisting of 170 claimants, allege that they were subjected to physical and sexual abuse whilst they were residents at St William’s, an Approved School and later a Residential Care Home (‘the school’) in Market Weighton, Yorkshire, between 1958 and 1992.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Brian Farmer

Wednesday 21 November 2012

A Catholic brotherhood which supplied teachers to a residential school can be held legally responsible for sexual abuse of boys, leading judges ruled today.

Around 170 men are seeking damages after alleging they were abused as children at St William’s in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, and a former head was convicted of numerous serious sexual offences, the Supreme Court heard.

A panel of five Supreme Court justices today concluded that legal responsibility should be shared between a welfare society which managed the school and a brotherhood which provided teachers.

St William’s was founded in 1865 by Catholic benefactors and run locally as a “reformatory school” for boys, Supreme Court justices had been told at a hearing in London.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Pocklington Post

Published on Wednesday 21 November 2012

A CATHOLIC diocese has won its appeal against a ruling it was solely liable for abuse at St William’s Home for Boys in Market Weighton.

Claims of abuse between the 1960s and 1990s are being made by more than 170 ex-pupils of the former home.

The Court of Appeal ruled in 2010 that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough was responsible for an £8m compensation claim.

The Supreme Court agreed with the diocese that an organisation which supplied teachers was also liable.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
November 22, 2012

A NSW government inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child abuse within the Catholic Church will focus solely on abuse committed by one former priest.

By concentrating on claims about the late Denis McAlinden, the inquiry would not duplicate the work of the national royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell said.

The inquiry, to be led by one of the state’s most senior prosecutors, Margaret Cunneen SC, was set up after a serving NSW detective, Peter Fox, claimed senior officers told him to stop investigating McAlinden.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox also said a network of priests in the NSW Hunter Valley conspired to conceal their abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Traditional Unionist leader Jim Allister wants to see the Stormont Executive’s inquiry into the historic abuse of children in care homes and other institutions extended to include abuse by members of the clergy.

In September the retired judge Sir Anthony Hart said he was opposed to any widening of his remit.

Mr Allister has suggested amendments to the bill setting up the inquiry.

He said this would extend its scope to include clerical abuse.

Mr Allister has tabled a series of amendments and the Speaker William Hay must decide whether to allow them to go forward for debate next Tuesday when the assembly reaches the consideration stage of the bill.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Published on Wednesday 21 November 2012

Costs for an inquiry into historical institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland could reach £19 million, the Assembly has heard.

Ulster Unionist MLA Mike Nesbitt, who chairs Stormont’s OFMDFM committee, said MLAs had been informed, in September, that predicted costs had doubled from initial estimates.

Speaking on Tuesday the Strangford MLA added: “On the estimated costs of the inquiry the committee sought clarification from the department whether the figures in the financial and explanatory memorandum of between £7.5 million and £9 million remained accurate.

“Officials advised the committee that the estimated costs had been revised upwards – doubled in fact to £15-£19 million to take into account the complexities of the inquiry and the associated legal costs.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

A Stormont inquiry into institutional child abuse has created a hierarchy of victims, it has been claimed in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

TUV leader Jim Allister yesterday described a decision not to widen the scope of the investigation to include victims of clerical abuse as a missed opportunity.

“Right as it is that we certainly address the issue of institutional abuse, I think it is unfortunate that in the addressing of it, we create a hierarchy of abuse victims: those abused within institutions and those abused outside institutions who were predominantly the object of clerical abuse. That issue cannot be forgotten about or swept aside,” said the North Antrim MLA.

“The reality of this Bill is that it does forget about them. This was an opportunity to address all abuse, including clerical abuse, and I very much regret that has not been taken.”

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AUSTRALIA
The National

Australian inquiry into child sex abuse ‘should have focused on Catholic Church’, former priest says

Kathy Marks

Nov 21, 2012

SYDNEY // Stephen Woods was 11 when he was first abused by a teacher at his Roman Catholic primary school in Ballarat, Victoria. Robert Best, from the Christian Brothers religious order, would take him to his office and molest him, “while all the time telling me that I was bad and it was my fault”.

Another Christian Brother, Edward Dowlan, abused him at a boys’ boarding school and when Mr Woods, troubled and confused, later sought advice from the Catholic Church, he was introduced to Gerald Risdale, who raped him in a public toilet by Lake Wendouree, in Ballarat. He was 14.

All three men, who had multiple victims, were eventually jailed by the Australian authorities, but Mr Woods, now 51, remains furious at the way the Church concealed their actions. Risdale was moved from parish to parish, and Victoria police later concluded that the bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, had known about his behaviour as far back as the 1970s. Despite that, Risdale was allowed to continue in the ministry until his arrest in 1993.

It is this type of systemic failing that a royal commission, announced last week by Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, is to address. It will focus not only on the Roman Catholic Church – which, as in other countries such as Ireland and Germany, has been plagued by child-abuse scandals – but on other religious and state institutions, such as schools, orphanages and Scout groups.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP
November 21, 2012

ARCHBISHOP George Pell will be given the power to appoint fellows to the governing council of Sydney University’s beleaguered St John’s College, after a mass resignation in the wake of a scandal over student behaviour.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell on Wednesday introduced an amendment bill to the 1857 laws that set up the Catholic residential college, saying the resignation of all but one of 18 governing fellows had left it in “limbo”.

Disgusted by loutish behaviour at the college, and having lost confidence in the governing council, Cardinal Pell earlier this month asked the council’s six priest fellows to resign.

The new bill will render all positions on the council vacant and give Cardinal Pell the power to appoint all 18 fellows for up to three years.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 20, 2012

The circumstances surrounding the Vatican’s removal of longtime peace activist and priest Roy Bourgeois from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers are unclear, several canon lawyers say.

Additionally, it is ambiguous under what authority the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was able to dismiss the priest, the lawyers say.

Bourgeois, a member of Maryknoll for 45 years who had come under scrutiny for his support of women’s ordination, was dismissed from the order by the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation in October, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers announced in a press release Monday.

Central questions about the dismissal include whether Bourgeois was dismissed both from the order and the priesthood; if there are any options for appeal; and why his dismissal came from the doctrinal congregation and not the Vatican congregation that deals with religious orders.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

A paedophile priest awaiting sentence for sexually abusing a brother and sister has died, a court has been told.

Cases against 71-year-old Joseph Steele were listed for mention at Belfast Crown Court yesterday.

But Recorder, Judge David McFarland, said he understood the priest had died, so the case cannot go any further.

Judge McFarland listed the case to be heard again today so that it can be officially closed once the death certificate has been produced.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 20, 2012

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee is firing back at creditors in its bankruptcy, vowing to fight their plans to pursue the assets of its 200-plus parishes and calling their proposed lawsuit “frivolous and a waste of time and money.”

At the same time, lawyers for the archdiocese have moved to throw out 62 of the 575 sex abuse claims filed in the bankruptcy, its largest group of claims objections yet. And the church has filed a complaint aimed at recovering what could be tens of millions of dollars from its insurers.

“I have few options left,” Archbishop Jerome Listecki told local Catholics in a letter last week, explaining the church’s legal strategy. “We will continue to examine every possible legal avenue that moves us toward a resolution of the Chapter 11.”

James Stang, lead attorney for the creditors committee, said the archdiocese’s legal theories are flawed, and would be proved so in court.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 November 2012

A Catholic diocese has successfully forced a Christian Brothers order to share the cost of compensating more than 170 victims of alleged physical and sexual abuse who attended a Yorkshire children’s home.

The landmark decision in the supreme court confirms advances in the legal doctrine of “vicarious liability” under which religious bodies are deemed responsible for the criminal actions of their priests.

Churches have repeatedly attempted to evade liability by claiming that the relationship between a priest or monk and their diocese or religious order is not that of employee and employer.

The supreme court decision related to St William’s residential school in Market Weighton, east Yorkshire. It involved a dispute between the diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle order of Christian Brothers over who should pay compensation.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery
From:Herald Sun
November 21, 2012

CONVICTED pedophile Christian Brother Robert Best has failed in a bid to have his convictions overturned.

Robert Charles Best, 70, was jailed for a minimum of 11 years and three months in August last year for molesting young boys during a 20-year period at three Victorian schools.

The shocking history of abuse related to 11 boys he taught at St Alipius Primary School in Ballarat, St Leo’s College in Box Hill, and St Joseph’s College in Geelong between 1969 and 1988.

Among them was a nine-year-old disabled boy who was raped by Best.

The former school principal was found guilty at trial of 21 charges and later pleaded guilty to a further six.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 21, 2012

Melissa Iaria

AAP

Pedophile Christian Brother Robert Best has lost an appeal against his convictions for abusing a schoolboy in the 1970s.

Best, 71, was jailed last year for a minimum 11 years and three months for sexually abusing young boys during a 20-year period at three schools.

On Wednesday, Victoria’s appeals court rejected his appeal on seven of his convictions for indecently assaulting a schoolboy between 1971-74 while Best was principal of St Alipius Primary School in East Ballarat, when the pupil was aged between eight and 11.

In their unanimous judgment, Justices Chris Maxwell, Pamela Tate and Robert Osborn found Best failed to show a miscarriage of justice had occurred during his trial.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Rural

[with audio]

By Jessica Swann

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

In rural Australia the Church still plays an important role in bringing the community together, but when the Church is under intense scrutiny, rural parishioners question their faith in God and in the Catholic Church.

This week the Australian government has called for public help to shape the terms of reference of a Royal Commission into child sex abuse in Australia.

The investigation will be broad including schools, community groups and religious institutions.

It also announced there will be consultations with stakeholders including victims of abuse, community leaders and religious groups.

It’s the Catholic Church however that is the feeling the heat the most.

For one small parish in rural New South Wales, the pews were full last Sunday but the parishioners expressed a deep sense of disappointment and confusion at what is shaping up to be an avalanche of accusations against members of the clergy within the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Cassandra Wilkinson
From:The Australian
November 21, 2012

AUSTRALIA has never been a place where religion has been a cause of protracted violence or political disorder.

A country founded by jailers who worshipped at St James and convicts who worshipped at St Mary’s has gone on to include Asian Buddhists, European Jews, Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians, Bosnian Muslims and Serbian Christians, Indian Hindus and Muslims, and a generous buffet of other faiths from Baha’i to Scientologists.

By and large we get along because the secret to religious tolerance is common respect for a non-religious state.

The royal commission into child abuse has at its heart a single worthy mission: to ensure that all citizens enjoy state protection from individuals or groups who would harm them. Sadly it has also already become a blunt instrument with which to belt religion. Self-righteous atheists have leapt to pour scorn not only on abusers and their protectors but also on the foundations of religious belief. The ABC’s resident national treasure, Phillip Adams, claimed last week that religion twists sexuality. Yet rape is inflicted on adults and children of all classes, on all continents, among all religious groups and ethnic communities; it does no service to victims to pretend the problem is not endemic.

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IRELAND
Kilkenny People

Published on Wednesday 21 November 2012

A KILKENNY-BASED priest, who was previously convicted of indecently assaulting children, appeared before Cork District Court last week charged with sexually assaulting a minor over an eight-year period.

Fr Vincent Mercer (66), from the Black Abbey in Kilkenny City, is facing 39 counts of sexual assault against a teenager over 20 years ago. He was remanded on bail last Thursday, to appear again in court in January. The alleged abuse began when the juvenile was aged 11, in 1986, and continued until February of 1994, in a number of locations in Cork and Limerick. A statement from the Dominican Order said it is understood that Fr Mercer intends to plead guilty.

Fr Mercer is a serving member of the Order, but is not presently in ministry. He was moved to the Black Abbey a number of years ago, following his conviction in 2005 of a string of indecent assault offences against young boys in the 1970s, when he was headmaster of Newbridge College.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Erica Abeel

Many American filmmakers have the bad habit, in my view, of taking an impartial stance when it comes to stories about the behavior of borderline criminal characters. Consider such feature films as Margin Call by J.C. Chandor and, more recently, Arbitrage by Nicholas Jarecki, which follow the toxic maneuvers of financial miscreants yet fastidiously refrain from passing judgment, as if the directors were mesmerized, mental functions on hold, by the mere sight of a senior partner at Goldman Sachs who flies to an Asian tailor for fittings of handmade suits.

That’s why documentaries have become essential. Like the blessedly biased MSNBC, they’re not afraid to stake out positions, offer outrage a bullhorn. Most crucially, perhaps, hard-hitting documentaries air abuses by the powerful that mainstream media lacks the cojones to expose. Now Alex Gibney, preeminent documentarian and a specialist in the abuse of power, weighs in with the superb Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, which tackles the subject of child sex crimes and cover-up in the Catholic church.

You may think you’ve been there before — sexcapades of the clergy have received ample exposure in the press; and Amy Berg’s 2006 docu Deliver us from Evil fired the opening salvo. But Gibney (awarded a 2007 Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side) takes you places you won’t have have imagined. His new film (translated as “My Most Grievous Fault”) winds its way from the heartland of Milwaukee, through the churches of Ireland — all the way to the highest offices of the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Erik Pineda | November 21, 2012

The battle to win those Catholics to be faithful to the Church and to make them remain as such remains for Pope Benedict as he and the other heads of the Catholic congregation grapple with allegations of sexual, physical and other forms of abuse of some members of the clergy.

The head of the Catholic Church, which counts more than five million faithful in Australia, has released on Wednesday the latest installment of a three-part book series that reflect on the life of Jesus Christ. …

The new book is released as Australia grapples with allegations of sex abuses that compelled the local Catholic Church leadership to rethink the manner it reacts and handles such controversies, impacts of which is absorbed mostly by the church, ABC said in a report.

The church’s sexual abuse complaints policy will likely “be revised again as the commission progresses and of course when final recommendations are made,” The Australian quoted a statement issued by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference on Wednesday.

It refers to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is set to be fully established following a consultation process spearheaded by the federal government.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By MARK GRIFFITHS
Nov. 21, 2012

THE bravery of Hunter police officer Peter Fox has finally helped lift the lid on the widespread nature of the sexual abuse of children in Australia.

Within days of his interview in this newspaper and subsequent television appearance, the federal government called for a Royal Commission with almost unanimous community support.

Much media attention has focused on the abuse in institutions, in particular the Catholic Church, including what has happened within this region.

It is appropriate to spend time and money trying to uncover the extent of abuse within such institutions and the ways in which they did, or did not, confront the issue.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
November 21, 2012

VICTIMS advocates have called for the federal government to be centrally involved in administering a sex abuse compensation fund, similar to Ireland’s, even though Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says compensation is not the government’s prime focus.

Helen Last, director of clergy abuse advocates In Good Faith, said compensation was a vexed area because of the arbitrary response of the churches to compensation claims.

She said compensation offers ranged from significantly more than the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response $75,000 cap to “paltry” amounts of several thousand dollars, while large orders including the Christian Brothers and Good Shepherd Sisters had recently cut their standard payments to $5000 where abuse was committed by brothers and $2000 where it was committed by nuns.

“These figures are an insult and they cause so much despair for the victims,” Ms Last told The Australian. “The victims are walking away from that and saying, ‘You can keep it.’ ”

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

The Catholic Church will review its national sexual abuse complaints policy at next week’s meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, reports The Australian.

ACBC president Archbisghop Denis Hart (pictured) confirmed both Towards Healing and the church’s other complaints process, the Melbourne Response, would be on the agenda at next week’s Sydney meeting of the church’s peak body.

“I am sure the bishops will discuss the two present responses in the light of their inherent value, as well as any criticism, to assess the best way forward for all,” Archbishop Hart said.

A spokesperson for Cardinal Pell’s archdiocese of Sydney said the sexual abuse complaints policy had been reviewed since it was introduced in 1997. “We would expect procedures to be revised again as the commission progresses and of course when final recommendations are made,” the spokesperson said.

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WASHINGTON
Bothell Reporter

By RAECHEL DAWSON
Bothell Reporter Reporter
November 20, 2012

A child sex abuse claim, which involved a Kirkland church, has been settled. A trial was scheduled to begin against the Seattle Archdiocese next Monday but the parish district settled for $635,000 on Thursday.

Former youth minister Jim Funnell at St. John Vianney Church in Kirkland allegedly sexually abused the plaintiff, identified by his initials D.E., in the mid-1980s for more than one year. It is said others were abused as well.

D.E. was living in Kirkland at the time of the abuse but now resides in Bothell.

Funnell was hired, which the plaintiff claims, during the time when former Seattle Archbishop Raymond Haunthausen and other Catholic bishops were collaborating on how to address the emerging sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church.

However, the Archdiocese failed to adequately warn its employees and timely adopt the policies regarding child sex abuse, and Funnell slipped through the cracks because church officials failed to conduct a proper background check, said the victim.

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TULSA (OK)
Christianity Today

Melissa Steffan

An Oklahoma county judge denied a motion to dismiss charges against two Victory Christian Center (VCC) youth pastors after staff at the Tulsa megachurch failed to report child abuse for two weeks.

John and Charica Daugherty, the son and daughter-in-law of VCC’s head pastor, are not themselves accused of any sexual misconduct. Rather, charges against them assert that the Daugherty’s, along with three other VCC employees, violated the law by failing to report a 13-year-old girl’s rape allegations against another VCC employee, Chris Denman.

Denman already pleaded guilty last month to six felony sex crimes against children, including the rape.

The Daughterys argue that Oklahoma’s anti-child-abuse statutes legally do no require them to have reported the crime, and that such laws apply only to those who are responsible for the care or well-being of the child, which they were not.

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WASHINGTON
Patch

By Greg Johnston

A victim of sexual abuse by a former youth minister at Kirkland’s St. John Vianney Church, who recently settled a case against the Archdiocese of Seattle, says he buried the issue for some two decades, but that finally confronting the abuse has allowed him to begin the healing process.

Rolfe Eckmann of Bothell, 41, also said he knows of 10 to 12 other victims and believes there were more — and that those who have not come forward are not being honest with themselves.

“I think a lot of people might ask, ‘Why now, after all these years?’” he said. “People who haven’t come forward really aren’t being honest with themselves. I feel good I came forward. I would never have gone to counseling for it if I hadn’t.”

Last week Eckmann and his attorney settled a lawsuit with the Archdiocese of Seattle for $635,000 over the sexual abuse, which occurred in the mid-1980s, when he was 13 and 14 years old, and went on for about a year. The youth minister, James R. Funnell, was fired by the archdiocese and was charged with sexual assault in 1989, pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

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OREGON
KATU

[with video]

By Thom Jensen KATU News

HILLSBORO, Ore. – Parents have been fighting for years without success to get a church near a public grade school to move its meetings for sex offenders.

They say they’ve run into roadblocks trying to get this sex offender meeting to move. They say they’ve been trying for at least three years to convince Sonrise Church, where these registered offenders meet, to move the meeting far away from any schools.

Additionally, some of these sex offenders will actually start living at the church within the next month, KATU News has learned.

The motto at the church is “A safe place to hear a life changing message.” But parents who have children right next door at Quatama Elementary School question that message.

The church holds a service every week and as many as 120 registered sex offenders attend.

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OREGON
KATU

[with video]

By Thom Jensen KATU News and KATU.com Staff

HILLSBORO, Ore. – A local pastor stuck up for the sex offenders and ex-convicts Tuesday who attend a special service at his church next to an elementary school.

But James Gleason, lead pastor at Sonrise Church, said he’d consider moving the service after parents of children at the school complained and KATU aired a story about the controversy last week.

Every Sunday evening 120 people, mostly ex-cons, meet at the church, which is right next to Quatama Elementary School. Some of the felons are sex offenders. But Gleason said he won’t tell neighbors exactly who these people are and what crimes they committed.

“I would never put a picture of John Smith up and say here’s his sexual crime, and he attends this Light My Way service,” he said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Amnesty International

Clerical child sex abuse victims face exclusion from Institutional Abuse Inquiry

Amnesty International and victims of clerical child sex abuse have joined forces to call for the Northern Ireland Executive to set up an inquiry into clerical child sex abuse in the region.

The call comes as the Northern Ireland Assembly prepares to consider the Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry Bill, which will establish an inquiry into child abuse carried out in institutions but, crucially, will exclude victims of clerical abuse outside residential settings.

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International, said:

“Last year the National Board for Safeguarding Children published diocesan reviews which gave a glimpse into the horror of abuse suffered by children in parishes across Northern Ireland. But internal reviews are no substitute for a proper, independent investigation into clerical child sex abuse throughout Northern Ireland.”

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

BY BISHOP BILL WRIGHT

It is a week since Prime Minister Gillard announced the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, and some people have seen it as the worst week the Catholic Church in Australia has ever had.

So much of the talk has been about the Church’s slow and inadequate response to allegations of abuse over a long period. In all honesty, though, I’ve been feeling quite positive and relieved ever since the announcement.

Here is the occasion when the nation as a whole can come to grips with one of its greatest issues. It is the beginning of a most important, purifying process.

I am delighted for those victims of abuse who have struggled so hard to get their story told. It may be that there are those for whom the Commission will again bring up things that they would rather not have to relive, and I hope they will be considered and helped through it all.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The Supreme Court has ruled that two Catholic organisations are jointly responsible for physical and sexual abuse at a children’s home.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle Roman Catholic Order, who supplied teachers, have both been held liable.

More than 170 victims came forward to report abuse at St William’s care home and school in Market Weighton, near York. Abuse dating back to 1958.

The school came under the jurisdiction of the Middlesbrough diocese, but the De La Salle order was in day-to-day charge of running the place.

The Middlesbrough Diocese did not contest its responsibility for what happened. But it insisted the De La Salle order should also be held responsible for compensating victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Advertiser

By Megan Gorrey
Nov. 20, 2012

PETER Ingham, the Catholic bishop of Wollongong diocese that covers Campbelltown, has loudly welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a royal commission into child sex abuse in institutions — including the Catholic church.

In a statement that was read out at local Sunday Masses, Bishop Ingham said he would co-operate fully with the investigation and be open to its suggestions.

He apologised to sexual abuse victims and insisted they and their families “must receive respect, justice and compassion”.

“The protection of children is of prime importance, not the protection of any organisation,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Wed, 21 Nov 2012

The Supreme Court has today ruled on a dispute between two Catholic organisations about who is responsible for paying compensation to over 170 victims of alleged physical and sexual abuse at a Yorkshire children’s home.

The case involves the Catholic diocese of Middlesbrough and the Catholic De La Salle Brothers order, in respect of alleged systematic abuse of children going back more than fifty years at the St William’s children’s care home and school at Market Weighton. It was ruled that the De La Salle Brothers were “vicariously” (financially) liable for wrongdoing of the members of the Order, even though they are not employees, despite the Order’s attempts to evade responsibility for this reason.

The case has huge implications, potentially beyond the UK, but particularly for the Catholic Church, where many of those responsible for child abuse – such as “brothers” are not, technically, employees. This decision is likely to finally resolve another recent similar case involving the Catholic diocese of Portsmouth, where the appeal court ruled on vicarious liability in the same direction as the Supreme Court has done today.

St William’s took emotionally and behaviourally disturbed boys, aged 10 to 16, referred by councils largely from Yorkshire and the North East. The former headmaster James Carragher has twice been convicted of a series of indecent assaults, buggery and taking photographs of young boys. In 2004 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison, having already served a seven-year sentence imposed in 1993. The institution was closed down in 1992.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The St Williams ruling has been labelled a “landmark” judgment by Jordans Solicitors, who represented the victims.

Organisations who care for children will now be held liable for the abuse of children in their care if their work creates a risk of abuse.

Prior to this decision, claimants had to show that an organisation employed or closely controlled the abuser. More than 170 men claim they suffered physical and sexual abuse at the home between 1958 and 1992.

In 2004 James Carragher, the former headmaster of St Williams, was found guilty of 14 counts of indecent assault against boys, some as young as 12. He was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.

“‘It is clear that extensive abuse by staff has taken place at St Williams. Since starting the case both organisations who ran the home have attempted to use legal technicalities to evade responsibility, a tactic mirrored in other church abuse cases. I have had to witness the distasteful spectacle of seeing the two Roman Catholic organisations blame each other . This case should have been settled years ago._

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

A Catholic brotherhood which supplied teachers to a residential school can be held legally responsible for sexual abuse of boys, leading judges have ruled.

Around 170 men are seeking damages after alleging they were abused as children at St William’s in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, and a former head was convicted numerous serious sexual offences, the Supreme Court was told.

A panel of five Supreme Court justices concluded that legal responsibility should be shared between a welfare society which managed the school and a brotherhood which provided teachers.

St William’s was founded in 1865 by Catholic benefactors and run locally as a “reformatory school” for boys, Supreme Court justices had been told at a hearing in London.

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MONTANA
Beaumont Enterprise

MATT VOLZ, Associated Press

Updated 6:56 p.m., Tuesday, November 20, 2012

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Settlement negotiations between hundreds of alleged sex abuse victims and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena may have hit a snag with the church’s insurers refusing to cover the claims.

The insurers and the diocese are locked in a dispute over the terms and conditions of the diocese’s insurance policies that date back to the 1970s — and whether some policies even existed. The sides disagree on how policies apply to the 324 claims of sex abuse stretching back decades by priests and nuns in homes, churches and school across western Montana.

The claims are from two combined lawsuits filed last year against the diocese and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province. The plaintiffs, many of them Native Americans, say the diocese and the sisters knew or should have known about the abuse, but covered it up instead of stopping it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Catholic teaching institute is liable for alleged physical and sexual abuse at a former boys’ school, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Claims of abuse are being made by 170 former pupils of St William’s in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire.

Judges said the De La Salle Brotherhood was liable along with the Middlesbrough diocese which owned the school.

The BBC’s Danny Shaw said it was a landmark ruling which could affect other claims of abuse at institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
The Queensland Times

Peter Foley
21st Nov 2012

A LEADER of Ipswich’s Catholic community has welcomed the announcement of a national royal commission into child abuse.

St Mary’s Ipswich parish priest Father Peter Casey said the care and safety of children was all-important.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week announced the creation of the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse.

Father Casey said Brisbane’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference had offered to co-operate with the commission.

“The royal commission into child abuse in various institutions, both Church and state, including the Catholic Church, may produce an outcome that will ensure the safety of all children from any form of abuse,” Fr Casey said.

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CONNECTICUT
Easton Courier

Written by Nancy Doniger
Sunday, 18 November 2012 20:04

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot

Nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

— The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss

Elizabeth Wenzel cited the quote from the beloved children’s author when she presented a petition with 736 signatures to the Parks and Recreation Commission at the Nov. 8 special meeting on renaming Toth Memorial Park. She presented a piece of pressure-treated wood to make the point that the current sign “is not serving the community.”

After hearing comments on both sides of the emotionally charged issue — the majority in favor of the name change — the commission voted unanimously to change it. The Toth Park sign came down the next day, replaced by what appeared to be the same piece of wood that Ms. Wenzel supplied.

The issue has divided the community, and it’s time to move on and devote its time and attention to parks and recreation, the commission said, acknowledging it had been a wrenching decision.

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CONNECTICUT
Easton Courier

Written by Nancy Doniger
Sunday, 18 November 2012

In an emotional three-hour meeting on Nov. 8 the Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to rename Toth Memorial Park. The decision came after increasing allegations that the park’s namesake, the late Stephen “Skipper” Toth, was a child molester.

The wooden sign with the Toth name was removed from outside the park on Nov. 9. It will be replaced once the commission comes up with a new policy for naming parks and a new name.

Ted Alexander, 63, was one person who had mixed emotions about the decision. Mr. Alexander, one of Mr. Toth’s alleged victims, had testified in 2004 when a previous Board of Selectmen and parks commission heard private testimony from multiple sources. Mr. Alexander agreed to go public and tell his story to The Courier after resident David Antonez revived the issue in July. Mr. Antonez came across the accusations against Mr. Toth when he was searching for Toth Park on the Internet. …

Attorney Helen McGonigle represented Mr. Powel in 2004 and submitted documents and testimony with updated information. A $10-million judgment was entered against Carlo Fabbozzi, Mr. Toth’s business partner, for molesting Mr. Powel. The Diocese of Bridgeport, which hired Mr. Fabbozzi as a gardener, settled with Mr. Powel.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Western Queensland

[with audio]

The church has been in the spotlight since early last week when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced there would be a Royal Commission into child abuse in Australia.

The Prime Minister says the commission will investigate all religious organisations, including the Catholic Church, as well as state care providers, and not-for-profit organisations.

Longreach priest Matthew Moloney says the church is very much on “centre stage”.

“The church is going through a time of deep pain as many of the victims are… the victims are the ones that need to be brought healing and peace so that they can move forward,” the former musterer says.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts | Nov. 20, 2012

Ah, they finally got him, as we all knew they probably would. Eventually. And with a press release it was done: Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest for 45 years, was told that the Vatican “dispenses” him “from his sacred bonds.”

And the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, caught in the culture that finds advocating for women’s ordination such a grievous and unpardonable offense, “warmly thanks” Roy “for his service to mission and all members wish him well in his personal life.”

And so it goes, as Vonnegut would say. So it goes.

Bourgeois’ case is a prime illustration of what, today, the institution can and can’t tolerate. Bourgeois’ major offense, the sin that is unforgiveable in the eyes of the church, for which penalty is removal from the order which he has served for nearly half a century and dismissal from the community, was advocating for women’s ordination. …

The Cardinals Who Nearly Destroyed the Church

The point to be made, now that Bourgeois is out, is an obvious one. There are cardinals who have had as much to do as any individual might with the near destruction of once grand Catholic communities in places like Boston and Philadelphia, who have been permitted to remain priests and go quietly into retirement.

Not a word has been said by Rome or by his successors about Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua who had a large space in Philadelphia’s chancery office that was filled with files recounting sexual abuse of children.

Bevilacqua oversaw priests who were involved in nothing short of sexual torture of youngsters. And he hid their deeds until the statutes of limitation kicked in and the priests could no longer be prosecuted. They would retire, and he would escape the law and any Vatican sanction until he could retire.

His successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, ignored the charter that the bishops themselves had been forced to construct in the course of the scandal. He violated the church’s rules and likely violated civil law by not reporting alleged abusers. And off he quietly went, as a middle manager in the chancery office headed to jail.

Cardinal Bernard Law, everyone knows, had to leave Boston because of the enormous public pressure and the outrage of his priests, but he took a cushy job in Rome and retained his seats on at least six powerful Vatican congregations, including the Congregation for Bishops, until he was allowed to quietly retire.

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ITALIA
Style

Concussione e violenza sessuale. Sono queste le accuse contestate a don Alberto Barin, cappellano del carcere milanese di San Vittore arrestato oggi dagli agenti della polizia penitenziaria e della squadra mobile.

Secondo quanto dichiarato dal procuratore Edmondo Bruti Liberati in una nota, il sacerdote è stato denunciato da sei detenuti che lo hanno accusato di aver richiesto prestazioni sessuali in cambio di «generi di conforto» (come sigarette, dentrifici, shampoo e spiccioli) e di «interessamento alla loro posizione carceraria» (ad esempio la promessa di dare parere favorevole alla scarcerazione).

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ITALIA
You Reporter

MILANO / La procura di Milano ha disposto il fermo di don Albero Barin, sacerdote cappellano del carcere di San Vittore. Don Barin è indagato per violenza sessuale reiterata e pluriaggravata ai danni di 6 detenuti della casa circondariale milanese e per il reato di concussione.

Il procuratore della Repubblica di Milano Edmondo Bruti Liberti ha comunicato che in esecuzione dell’ordinanza di custodia cautelare emessa dal gip presso il tribunale di Milano, don Alberto Barin è stato arrestato nel pomeriggio dalla polizia giudiziaria della IV sezione della squadra mobile in collaborazione con la polizia penitenziaria.

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ITALY
Wall Street Journal

By STACY MEICHTRY

Police arrested the chaplain of a Milan prison on Tuesday as part of an investigation by prosecutors into whether the cleric solicited sexual favors from immigrant inmates in exchange for basic goods such as toothpaste, according to the top prosecutor in the investigation.

Milan’s sexual crimes prosecutor Pietro Forno said he had placed Rev. Alberto Barin, the 51 year-old Roman Catholic chaplain of San Vittore prison, under investigation on suspicion of abuse of office and sexual violence.

Mr. Forno is seeking to determine whether Father Barin, who has not been charged, coerced six of San Vittorio’s male inmates to perform sex acts on him over the past four years in exchange for money and staples, such as toiletries and cigarettes.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Milan, which has oversight of Father Barin, said it was “bewildered and pained” by the chaplain’s arrest and pledged to cooperate with the investigation.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporte

by Jerry Filteau | Nov. 20, 2012

Baltimore —
Among the actions emerging from the U.S. bishops’ annual fall assembly here, one that was least likely to garner any big headlines was their decision to add a new assistant director to the staff of the National Religious Retirement Office.

But behind it is one of the more dramatic human issues facing the U.S. church in coming years: a growing crisis in the many billions of dollars in unfunded retirement and elderly care costs that religious orders of men and women, especially women, are facing within the next couple of decades.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. men and women religious today are age 70 or older, and 86 percent are 60 or older, said the report behind the proposal to expand staffing of the office. The office not only allocates funds from the yearly national collection for retired religious, but also provides extensive consultation services to help religious congregations prepare better for the funding crisis for aging members that so many of them face.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 20, 2012

A former head of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers has expressed support for Roy Bourgeois, saying the longtime peace activist and priest has a “deep love for the church” and his dismissal from the order by the Vatican represents meddling in Maryknoll’s affairs.

In his first statement since the dismissal, Bourgeois said Tuesday, “The Vatican and Maryknoll can dismiss me, but they cannot dismiss the issue of gender equality in the Catholic Church.”

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has “interfered with the integrity of the society,” said Maryknoll Fr. John Sivalon, who served as the order’s superior general from 2002 to 2008.

“It makes it very hard to consider how we talk about mission and visioning for the future and being open to the Spirit, when in fact we’re being dictated to that this is what we need to follow,” Sivalon said Tuesday. “And so I think there is a question about the society itself and how the integrity of the society has been affected by this.”

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on November 20, 2012

We’re glad this irresponsible pastor, Fr. Lieu Vu, has resigned. He needlessly and deliberately put kids in harm’s way by letting a convicted child molester volunteer at at leastt one parish function. He also foolishly argued for “forgiveness.” While forgiveness is good, it shouldn’t be mistaken for prudence.

We can and should forgive child molesters. But we shouldn’t give them the chance to hurt more kids.

Bishop Patrick McGrath should publicly disclose and denounce the church employee who wrote the perpetrator a permission slip to be on school property. It is especially disturbing that that letter was written on November 15, 2010, almost two years ago. It is frightening to think of how many times that letter could have been used to gain access to kids. Bishop McGrath should clarify what the original purpose of the letter was, and should also tell parishioners whether the church staffer who penned the letter was fired or quit.

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UNITED KINGDOM
AO Advocates

Posted by: A.Dean on Nov 20 2012

The past month and a half has seen of the most significant periods of media coverage about child sexual abuse in the history of the UK. It has also, by extension, been one of the most harrowing months for survivors of sexual abuse who are still coming to terms with their experiences.

The Jimmy Savile scandal continues to grow in the number of alleged victims and lines of inquiry, even as the police have begun arresting living people who may have been involved in elements of the scandal. Meanwhile, investigations into abuse in north Wales, the reopening of old official inquiries, and potential connections to government officials have filled the newspapers.

This culminated recently with the wrongful implication on BBC Newsnight that a senior Tory politician, Lord McAlpine, had abused a child in a Welsh care home. The abused person, Steve Messham, later admitted to the Guardian that he mixed up the identity of his perpetrator. When actually shown a picture of Lord McAlpine, Messham affirmed that McAlpine was not the man who abused him, and apologised. But the ensuing firestorm, including the resignation of BBC General Director George Entwistle and the stepping aside of other senior staff, threatens to obscure that there really are a lot of survivors out there who have not yet told their stories. That doing so became messy in Meesham’s case should not, we hope, convince other survivors to stay quiet.

Mistaken accusations of sexual abuse do happen, just as they do with other sorts of crimes. But the recent BBC Newsnight scandal does not give credence to the argument that there is a growing threat from false accusations. These are extremely rare. Child sex abuse is not the kind of crime that people like to associate with. The opposite, in fact, is true: we see repeatedly how brutally hard most survivors of child abuse find even admitting the abuse to themselves, let alone to loved ones and then to the world. They typically feel terrible shame, as if it’s their fault, and bottle it up for decades – very often forever.

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ITALY
National Secular Society (United Kingdom)

Posted: Thu, 15 Nov 2012

Italy’s Catholic Church will be forced to pay taxes starting in 2013 after the EU pressured the country’s government to pass a controversial law stripping the Church of its historic property tax exemption.

The Catholic Church in Italy is excluded from paying taxes on its land if at least a part of a Church property is used non-commercially – for instance, a chapel in a bed-and-breakfast. “The regulatory framework will be definite by January 1, 2013 – the start of the fiscal year – and will fully respect the [European] Community law,” Italian premier Mario Monti’s government said in a statement on Tuesday.

The move could net Italy revenues of 500 million to 2 billion euros annually across the country, municipal government associations said. The extra income from previously exempt properties in Rome alone – including hotels, restaurants and sports centres – could reach 25.5 million euros a year, La Repubblica daily newspaper reported.

On Monday, the Council of State, Italy’s highest ranking court for administrative litigation, ruled against the new law. Authorities stepped in, arguing that everyone in Italy should pay property tax, including the Church.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 19, 2012

A civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against who has been called “Illinois’ most notorious predator priest” is moving ahead and will be the focus of a hearing today in St. Clair County Illlinois.

It involves Fr. Raymond Kownacki of the Belleville Diocese. He’s been accused of molesting boys and girls and was once sued for impregnating a teenager and performing an abortion himself.

Leaders of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are applauding the victim for “helping to expose wrongdoing, by both a child molesting cleric and corrupt church colleagues, and helping to deter such awful behavior in the future.”

They urged current and former employees of the Belleville Catholic diocese to help find other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers, “so that Kownacki might be criminally prosecuted and kept away from kids.”

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SAN JOSE (CA)
KGO

Lilian Kim

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — The pastor of a San Jose church is stepping down after a convicted child molester was granted official permission to be on school property.

It’s still not clear who granted that permission, but on Monday the Diocese of San Jose announced the pastor of St. Frances Cabrini School is stepping down. Father Lieu Vu’s resignation is effective immediately and there are no plans to reassign him in a position as pastor.

The Diocese of San Jose won’t say why Father Vu is stepping down, but his resignation comes just one month after an incident that left parents outraged. It was during the St. Frances Cabrini School’s festival fundraiser when a group of parents noticed that Mark Gurries, a former parent and registered sex offender, was volunteering at the event.

T.J. Locke-Scheig was among a handful of parents who urged Father Vu to do something, but the pastor was said to have resisted and told the parents to be compassionate.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A California pastor has resigned in wake of a scandal involving a registered sex offender who was allowed to work as a Catholic school festival volunteer.

The Diocese of San Jose says the Rev. Lieu Vu resigned on Monday as pastor of the St. Frances Cabrini School and Parish.

The San Jose Mercury News (http://bit.ly/QqYVzV) says the diocese also released a letter written by a former diocese human resources employee permitting convicted 51-year-old pedophile Mark Gurries to participate at last month’s elementary school festival.

Someone at the festival recognized Gurries and reported it to a security officer. The convicted molester was escorted off campus.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News

By Julia Prodis Sulek and Mark Gomez Mercury News
contracostatimes.com

SAN JOSE — The pastor of the Saint Frances Cabrini School and Parish resigned Monday, weeks after his defense of a convicted child molester at a parish festival infuriated parents and scandalized the Diocese of San Jose.

In announcing the resignation of the Rev. Lieu Vu, the diocese also released a letter written by a former diocese human resources employee permitting convicted pedophile Mark Gurries to participate and volunteer at parish and school events.

Gurries unveiled a copy of the letter Oct. 6 when a 19-year-old former student recognized him working the sound system at a parish festival, setting off a heated exchange between a group of parents and the Rev. Vu.

When parents expressed outrage and demanded Gurries be removed from campus, the pastor reportedly defended Gurries, saying he had a right to be there and should be forgiven.

The heated confrontation continued for five hours, ending when a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy, who was working the festival as security, escorted Gurries off campus.

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AUSTRALIA
Knox Weekly

By TARA McGRATH
Nov. 21, 2012

CARMEL Rafferty was silenced, shut down and bullied in 1992 when she dared to question the behaviour of a parish priest at the school where she worked as a teacher.

The Boronia resident — known as Mrs Giddings during her teaching life — taught at Holy Family in Doveton for five years from the late 1980s, before being appointed as a senior school teacher in grades 5 and 6.

It was during this year that her pupils started coming forward to tell her that they were uncomfortable with the way the priest, Peter Searson, was touching them.

It’s because of her experiences more than 20 years ago that Ms Rafferty was “overjoyed” to hear the federal government’s announcement of a royal commission on institutional responses to allegations of child abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Adam Carroll
20th Nov 2012

UPDATE: FEDERAL Attorney General Nicola Roxon has defended the tight deadline that has been set for stakeholders to have their say on the terms of reference for the royal commission into child abuse.

Victim groups, religious organisations and other interested parties have until Monday to make written submissions as the government draws up the terms of reference and decides on the make-up of the commission.

Ms Roxon said the government remained eager to have things in place of the investigation to begin early next year.

“I don’t want the drafting of the terms of reference and the consultation to turn into a royal commission in itself,” Ms Roxon said on Tuesday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jill Rowbotham and Milanda Rout
From:The Australian
November 21, 2012

THE Catholic Church will review its national sexual abuse complaints policy, with the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, believing it ultimately will be revised during the course of the royal commission.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Denis Hart confirmed both Towards Healing and the church’s other complaints process, the Melbourne Response, would be on the agenda at next week’s Sydney meeting of the church’s peak body.

“I am sure the bishops will discuss the two present responses in the light of their inherent value, as well as any criticism, to assess the best way forward for all,” Archbishop Hart said.

A spokesperson for Cardinal Pell’s archdiocese of Sydney said the sexual abuse complaints policy had been reviewed since it was introduced in 1997.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Michael Owen
From:The Australian
November 21, 2012

SHIELD laws to protect journalists, professionals and whistleblowers from revealing their sources cannot be considered in South Australia because of Julia Gillard’s royal commission into child sexual abuse, the Weatherill government says.

South Australian Attorney-General and Acting Premier John Rau yesterday said “matters concerning disclosure” related to the commission, announced by the Prime Minister last Monday, meant he could not consider drafting state legislation to provide legal protection for journalists and other professionals who did not want to reveal details about confidential discussions they had with sources or clients.

“In light of the current ambiguities on matters related to disclosure, particularly in the context of the forthcoming commonwealth royal commission, it is not appropriate for me to advance any consideration of this matter until issues become more clearly resolved,” Mr Rau said.

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SOUTH AFRICA
IOL

November 20 2012
By Yogas Nair

KwaZulu-Natal – A priest visiting from India, who had sexually groomed a 12-year-old North Coast girl for two months on Skype by showing her images of the Kama Sutra, has been convicted of rape.

Adhyatma Adhyatma Amithananda, 57, a Hindu priest and self-proclaimed spiritual teacher, arrived in South Africa from Kerala in March 2010. He had been invited by religious leaders in oThongathi (Tongaat).

The victim’s family met him at a local temple where he was delivering a religious discourse.

The girl had epilepsy with chronic seizures and the family had asked him to pray for her to cure her of her condition.

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OHIO
Fairfield Echo

By Ed Richter

CINCINNATI —

A Fairfield-based Glenmary Missioners priest accused of federal child sex charge was released on his own recognizance and was placed on house arrest with GPS monitoring pending trial following a detention hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

During Monday’s hearing, the Rev. Robert Frank Poandl, 71, also entered a plea of not guilty on the sole charge of transporting a minor across state lines for illicit purposes, according to Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. If convicted, Poandl faces up to 10 years in prison.

Alverson said Poandl will be released from custody later Monday evening after the GPS monitoring has been set-up and the remaining paperwork is completed. Poandl has been held in the Butler County Jail since voluntarily turning himself in to the FBI last Thursday following his Nov. 14 indictment. The case has been assigned to Judge Michael Barrett.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that Poandl had transported a 10-year old boy from Cincinnati to West Virginia in August 1991 where he is alleged to have sexually assaulted the child, and that he has substantial international travel and connections across the country which makes him a flight risk. The crime was not disclosed until the victim came forward, according to the FBI’s Cincinnati field office.

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CONNECTICUT
Law360

By Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Law360, New York (November 19, 2012, 7:41 PM ET) — The Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. on Monday claimed Interstate Fire & Casualty Co. has improperly failed to cover at least $800,000 in settlements with several victims who allegedly suffered childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

The Archdiocese is seeking damages for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of the Connecticut Unfair Insurance Practices Act and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act that resulted from Interstate’s alleged failure to provide indemnification under excess general liability…

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Gordon Taylor

An Indigenous woman from Queensland who was abused by a Catholic priest in the 1960s says the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse must examine the widespread abuse of Aboriginal children by members of the Catholic Church.

Tjanara Goreng Goreng was repeatedly sexually abused by a Catholic priest over several years while attending boarding school at the Range Convent in Rockhampton.

After 30 years of silence, she took on the Catholic Church and won a settlement for the years of abuse by the priest.

He had abused many other Indigenous children throughout Queensland and was eventually jailed for his crimes.

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UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

Andrea Burzynski
Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Four deaf Wisconsin men were some of the first to seek justice after suffering childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, and a new documentary about the Catholic Church’s poor handling of such cases stemming from the Vatican seeks to make their voices heard.

“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” explores the impact of the Roman Catholic Church’s protocol as dictated from the Vatican for dealing with pedophile priests. It opens in U.S. cinemas on November 16, and will air on cable channel HBO in February.

“A lot of individual stories had been done about clerical sex abuse, but I hadn’t seen one that really connected the individual stories with the larger cover-up by the Vatican, so that was important,” Gibney told Reuters in an interview.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Ben Packham
From:The Australian
November 20, 2012

COMPENSATION for victims will be a second order priority for the royal commission into child abuse, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says.

Contrary to other media reports today, Ms Roxon has also signalled that every victim may not get a chance to tell their story to the royal commission, saying she wants to ensure the inquiry is “manageable”.

But she said the priority was learning how to reduce child sexual abuse and improve the handling of complaints.

“Our primary concern is to look at the recommendation that will help fix the system for the future,” she said.

“So our primary concern is not to be looking at compensation as a starting point. But I think … the entire community understands that that might be something that flows from the work of the commission, so we are not ruling that out.”

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 20, 2012

Dan Harrison
Indigenous Affairs and Social Affairs Correspondent

Attorney General Nicola Roxon has defended the tight timeframe for feedback on proposed arrangements for the Royal Commission on Child Sexual Abuse.

The government has allowed just one week for comments on a discussion paper it released late yesterday which sets out options for the commission’s terms of reference and other details

Victims groups such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, have said the timeline is too tight.

But Ms Roxon defended the process, hinting the government would take a flexible approach to late submissions.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Premier Barry O’Farrell says it is disappointing there is only a one week public consultation period over the terms of reference for the Federal Government’s Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

The Greens say the public has not been given enough time to have a say about the terms of reference for the Commonwealth’s Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

Stakeholders will have seven days to make submissions about what issues they think should be investigated by the Commission and how different governments should work together to share information.

But NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says a week is not enough time for victims groups to give considered responses.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 20/11/2012
Reporter: Leigh Sales

Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has called for input into the establishment of the Royal Commission into institutional child abuse. She joined 7.30 to explain the process.

Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Many people who suffered sexual abuse as children in institutions will be desperate to tell their stories to the royal commission the Federal Government announced last week, but how many of those cases will be investigated? The Government has released a discussion paper on the inquiry and is calling on any interested parties to provide suggestions about how it should run. The Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, is in Sydney today to promote changes to the federal anti-discrimination laws but she made time to join me in the studio to discussion the royal commission plans.

Nicola Roxon, will every person who wants to tell their tale of sexual abuse to this royal commission be able to do so, and will every one of those cases be investigated?

NICOLA ROXON, ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, our position and our starting point is yes, they should be able to, but of course there’s going to be a lot of work done – particularly with victims’ groups who are talking with us now about how you potentially might group people together, how you might find a selection of individual stories. We do think it’s important for people to have the opportunity to tell their story and we do think that that informs the sorts of recommendations commissioners will make – but it has to be manageable, so there’s a difficult balance there. Whether they will all be investigated is going to depend on the circumstances of every case. We’re really trying to make clear that a royal commission is not a police force, it’s not a prosecuting body, it’s not a court and the normal criminal processes should still continue. We don’t want people to see this as an alternative to pursuing, in the proper forums, criminal action if that should be taken.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono Australia

Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Federal Government has released a consultation paper on the Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, announced last week by the Prime Minister.

The consultation paper asks for stakeholder views on:
• The scope of the Terms of Reference, including the issues the Commission should investigate and make recommendations on;
• The form of the Royal Commission, including how the Commonwealth and states and territories could work together to ensure full access to information;
• The number of Royal Commissioners and appropriate expertise; and
• The timetable and reporting arrangements.

Attorney General Nicola Roxon and Acting Minister for Families Brendan O’Connor said: ”We want all stakeholders, especially survivors of child sexual abuse, their families and their advocates, to help shape the development of the Royal Commission.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Adelaide

The Federal Government has recently announced a Royal Commission into institutionalised child abuse in Australia, and many are wondering just how it will work, and what the legal implications could be. Dr Rita Shackel is a senior lecturer at Sydney University’s Faculty of Law and she’s discussing the terms of reference for the Royal Commission, and the legal implications given that many new cases of abuse are expected to be brought to light as a result. She has been conducting research on the dynamics of child sexual abuse and the barriers to disclosure, and has a particular interest in historical cases of child sexual abuse, both in terms of the evidentiary, procedural and legal issues such cases throw up, but also regarding the rights and needs of victims. Dr Shackel is speaking here with Stan Thomson…..

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OKLAHOMA
KXII

COAL COUNTY, OK — A Former Coalgate youth pastor has been arrested for sex crimes against children. 28-year-old Dustin Werneberg was taken into custody Wednesday on several second degree rape charges.

An affidavit states the sexual abuse has been going on for more than a year. Kristen Shanahan spoke with the lead investigator of this case and the pastor who says he never believed his employee could be involved in something like this.

Police tell us Werneburg was arrested at Blanchard Middle School in McClain County Wednesday where he was serving as a teacher’s aid. He is now behind bars in Coal County on three counts of Second Degree Rape, three counts of Forcible Sodomy, a charge of Lewd or Indecent Proposals to a Child and Lewd Molestation. Investigators say all these crimes were committed against a girl under the age of 16.

Coalgate police investigator Richard Costantino says former youth minister Dustin Ray Werneburg was arrested on eight sex crime charges after a parent came forward saying Werneburg had inappropriate contact with their daughter.

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OHIO
WHIO

The Associated Press

CINCINNATI —

A Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia in 1991 so he could sexually abuse him.

The Rev. Robert Poandl, of the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, was released on his own recognizance following his not guilty plea Monday in federal court in Cincinnati.

An indictment last week accused Poandl of taking the boy on Aug. 3, 1991.

The religious order says the indictment is related to a June 2009 accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor in Spencer, W.Va.

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OHIO
Fox 19

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19)- With a call for a bible verse written on his chest, a former Cincinnati-area priest appeared in court on Monday to plead not guilty for a child sex charge.

A federal grand jury has charged Robert Frank Poandl, 71, of Fairfield with one count of transportation of a minor across state lines for illicit purposes.

Poandl, who is also known as “Father Bob,” was arrested by FBI agents at the Glenmary Missioners in Fairfield.

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OHIO
San Francisco Chronicle

CINCINNATI (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia in 1991 so he could sexually abuse him.

The Rev. Robert Poandl, of the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, was released on his own recognizance following his not guilty plea Monday in federal court in Cincinnati.

An indictment last week accused Poandl of taking the boy on Aug. 3, 1991.

The religious order says the indictment is related to a June 2009 accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor in Spencer, W.Va.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 19, 2012

Roy Bourgeois, a longtime peace activist and priest who had come under scrutiny for his support of women’s ordination, has been dismissed from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, which he served for 45 years, according to the congregation.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made the dismissal in October, according to a news release issued Monday afternoon by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

Dominican Fr. Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer acting on Bourgeois’ behalf, told NCR he was not aware of the move.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Calgary Herald

By The Associated Press
November 19, 2012

LONDON – A retired Church of England priest has been jailed for four years after admitting that he sexually abused three boys between 1983 and 1991.

The case against 75-year-old Rev. Ronald Johns revealed that the bishop of Carlisle had responded to another boy’s complaint in 1993 by moving the priest but taking no further action.

Judge Rabinder Singh, presiding Monday in Carlisle Crown Court, noted that a pre-sentence report described Johns’ behaviour as manipulative and predatory.

When a complaint was made in 1993, the late Bishop Ian Harland removed Johns from his post and reassigned him to a village church.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 19, 2012

Bishops, priests and religious should wear the formal long robes of a cassock during most occasions when visiting Rome, a high-ranking Vatican official has said.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, made the request for the formal dress in a letter released during last month’s Synod of Bishops.

It came at the bequest of Pope Benedict XVI, reports a posting at veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister’s site at the Italian newsmagazine l’Espresso.

Bertone’s letter, first made public Monday but dated Oct. 15, asks bishops and cardinals “kindly to guarantee” the observance of a 1982 letter by Pope John Paul II on the matter.

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OHIO
FBI

U.S. Attorney’s Office
November 15, 2012 Southern District of Ohio
(937) 225-2910

CINCINNATI—A federal grand jury has charged Robert Frank Poandl, 71, of Fairfield with one count of transportation of a minor across state lines for illicit purposes.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Edward J. Hanko, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); William Hayes, Acting Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Ohio and Michigan; and agencies in the Greater Cincinnati Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force announced the indictment today following Poandl’s arrest by FBI agents at the Glenmary Missioners in Fairfield where Poandl, known as “Father Bob,” lives.

The indictment alleges that in August 1991, Poandl took a 10-year-old boy across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity with him. The crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

During Poandl’s initial appearance, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Muncy told U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Bowman that Poandl had transported a 10-year-old boy from Cincinnati to West Virginia in 1991, where he is alleged to have sexually assaulted the child, and that he has substantial international travel and connections across the country, which makes him a flight risk. Muncy also told the court that the crime was not disclosed until the victim came forward. Magistrate Judge Bowman ordered Poandl detained and scheduled a detention hearing for Monday, November 19, 2012, at 1:30 p.m.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

AAP
November 20, 2012

A FORMER canon of a British cathedral has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing three teenage boys.

Ronald Johns, the 75-year-old former canon of Carlisle Cathedral in northern England, had pleaded guilty to sexual offences against three boys from 1983 to 1991.

The victims were aged between 14 and 17 at the time.

“As you accept, you have ruined your life and brought disgrace upon yourself,” judge Rabinder Singh said as he sentenced the former clergyman on Monday.

The court heard that when the allegations were first made in 1993, Johns’ bishop demoted him to a village parish instead of telling police.

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