ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Brian Roewe | Jan. 17, 2013

In March, former Philadelphia priest Edward Avery pleaded guilty to conspiracy and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy; he was sentences to two-and-a-half to five years in prison.

On Thursday, Avery recanted that guilty plea, a development that could have serious ramifications for the landmark conviction of Philadelphia archdiocesan Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first U.S. church official to serve jail time for his handling of abuse claims.

The revelation came in testimony during in the first week of the trial of Fr. Charles Engelhardt and former Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, both alleged to have abused the same altar boy Avery had previously admitted to assaulting.

According to multiple reports from the courtroom, Avery took the stand and testified he pleaded guilty only to avoid a longer sentence. The defrocked priest has been in prison since that plea March 22, four days before he was scheduled to stand trial alongside Lynn and Fr. James J. Brennan.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Vatican officials will meet next week with Italian bank-security experts, with a goal of ending a freeze on bank-card transactions inside Vatican City.

The Vatican, which has worked for months to meet European banking standards for preventing money-laundering, was caught off guard by a January 1 announcement that Italy’s central bank would no longer process bank-card transactions from the Vatican. The Vatican hopes to persuade Italian officials that new internal controls have satified the immediate concerns of security officials, and Deutsche Bank—which had handled bank-card transactions inside the Vatican—should be allowed to resume processing those transactions.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Jan. 17, 2013

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Thursday it will allow a Fond du Lac police detective to review the file of a defrocked priest as part of an ongoing sex-abuse investigation there, in response to a motion filed the same day by sex-abuse victims in its bankruptcy case.

That motion accuses the archdiocese of using the bankruptcy’s broad protective order, which is intended to shield victims, to withhold information about the former priest, Jerome Wagner, from a Fond du Lac detective in December.

It asks U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley to make public all records, depositions and other sealed documents involving credibly accused priests and church workers, saying the move is needed to protect children.

Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said Friday that it has a long-standing policy of cooperating with civil authorities investigating clergy abuse, and it blamed the lapse on an internal breakdown of communication.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

Who is more deserving: victims of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, or dead people moldering their graves?

When he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy Dolan chose the dead people, placing $55 million into cemetery trust funds and out of the reach of local abuse victims suing the Church. (They want compensation for the suffering caused by childhood sexual trauma.) Dolan left Milwaukee to take the most visible post in Catholic America — cardinal of New York City – but he could not escape his choice. The victims asked a federal bankruptcy judge to reverse him, and on Friday she did. For now the $55 million is available to settle hundreds of well-documented cases in which priests raped and sexually molested children and adolescents.

Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley discussed her decision in court on Friday, explaining that neither First Amendment protections for religion nor federal law protect the archdiocese from her authority. She sided with creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings, who said the main purpose of the 2008 transfer was to place it out of their reach. In fact the archdiocese had managed the task of mowing the grass and otherwise maintaining cemeteries for generations without a $55 million trust generating income for that purpose.

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HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 17, 2013

Victims of sexual abuse are blasting a Honolulu high school for publicizing a scholarship named after a three-time accused predator priest.

In a letter to the president and board of directors of Maryknoll High School, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org) say that a scholarship honoring accused predator priest Fr. James A. Jackson “hurts victims and discourages them from speaking up, thus endangering more kids.”

They are urging that the scholarship be dissolved.

The endowed scholarship, advertised on the school’s website is named after Fr. Jackson, a Maryknoll missionary priest. The scholarship goes to students who “demonstrat[e] a willingness to contributed to the continued excellence of the Maryknoll family.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian and John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2013, 3:23 PM

Former Catholic priest Edward Avery on Thursday recanted under oath his guilty plea to sexually assaulting an altar boy in 1999, potentially undermining the District Attorney’s larger conspiracy case against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

On the witness stand in the trial of the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former teacher Bernard Shero – who are accused of raping the same 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome’s parish in Northeast Philadelphia – Avery testified that he only pleaded guilty to avoid a longer prison term.

He is serving 2 1/2 to 5 years in prison.

Avery pleaded guilty in March 2012, just four days before the landmark clergy sex-abuse trial of Avery’s codefendant, Msgr. William J. Lynn. After hearing the testimony of Avery’s victim, Lynn was convicted in June of child endangerment for placing Avery in position to abuse the St. Jerome’s altar boy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A former priest who admitted sexually assaulting a 5th-grade boy in the Philadelphia clergy sexual abuse scandal today recanted during the trial of another priest and a former lay teacher charged with sexually assaulting the same boy.

Defrocked priest Edward Avery pleaded guilty last year to sexually assaulting the same boy who has also accused the defendants now on trial: Father Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero (see related story).

But Avery, called to the witness stand from prison where he is serving a 2½-5 year sentence, told the jury today that he never assaulted the boy, didn’t even know him, and only took the plea deal to avoid the possibility of a conviction and a sentence that might have kept him in prison for life.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Sun Herald

By MARYCLAIRE DALE — Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — An imprisoned ex-priest at the center of a landmark Roman Catholic priest-abuse case in Philadelphia says he pleaded guilty to a crime he didn’t commit.

Seventy-year-old Edward Avery testified Thursday that he never touched his accuser but feared a long sentence if convicted at trial.

The same accuser says he was raped by Avery, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and ex-teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999.

Engelhardt and Shero are on trial.

Avery’s testimony could bolster the defense. But prosecutors note that Avery still faces a civil suit and harassment in prison.

A jury last year convicted Monsignor William Lynn of child endangerment for placing Avery in a parish despite an earlier sex-abuse complaint.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By CLAUDIA KOERNER / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Two Orange County residents, a former priest and two other men were indicted Tuesday in connection with trafficking methamphetamine between California and Connecticut.

A grand jury in Bridgeport, Conn., indicted 43-year-old San Clemente resident Chad McCluskey and 47-year-old Kristen Laschober of Laguna Niguel on charges of conspiring to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance containing the drug as well as 50 grams of the drug itself. The grand jury also charged Kenneth Devries, 52, of Waterbury, Conn., Michael Nelson, 40, of Manchester, Conn., and 61-year-old Msgr. Kevin Wallin, formerly of the Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut. If convicted of the conspiracy charges, the five face sentences of 10 years to life in prison.

According to a statement from the Bridgeport Diocese, Wallin served as pastor of St. Augustine Parish for nine years before he resigned in June 2011 citing personal and health issues. The church granted him a sabbatical, but officials became concerned when they could not reach him. Parishioners knew him as a “gifted, accomplished and compassionate priest,” according to the statement.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC Philadelphia

An imprisoned ex-priest at the center of a landmark Roman Catholic priest-abuse case in Philadelphia says he pleaded guilty to a crime he didn’t commit.

Seventy-year-old Edward Avery testified Thursday that he never touched his accuser but feared a long sentence if convicted at trial.

The same accuser says he was raped by Avery, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and ex-teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999.

Engelhardt and Shero are on trial.

Avery’s testimony could bolster the defense. But prosecutors note that Avery still faces a civil suit and harassment in prison.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 17, 2013

The latest from Hawaii: Why would Honolulu’s Maryknoll School keep a scholarship named after a accused child predator? And what kind of message does that send?

Victims blast local high school
Scholarship named after alleged predator
He’s been accused of abuse by three boys
But school & board still honor his memory
“Honoring predators lets abuse thrive,” SNAP says

Victims of sexual abuse are blasting a Honolulu high school for publicizing a scholarship named after a three-time accused predator priest.

In a letter to the president and board of directors of Maryknoll High School, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say that a scholarship honoring accused predator priest Fr. James A. Jackson “hurts victims and discourages them from speaking up, thus endangering more kids.”

They are urging that the scholarship be dissolved.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Jan. 17, 2013

Lawyers for sex-abuse victims in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy are asking the judge to make public all records involving credibly accused priests, depositions and other sealed documents, saying the move is needed to protect children.

They accuse the archdiocese of using the bankruptcy’s broad protective order, which is intended to shield victims, to deny police detectives in an ongoing investigation access to information about a now defrocked priest.

“This is exactly why the public is served by relief of the protective order,” said victims attorney Jeff Anderson, whose firm asked Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley on Friday to modify the order to allow the limited release of information, while still protecting the identities of victims.

Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Archbishop Jerome Listecki, said it’s the archdiocese’s policy to cooperate with civil authorities. He attributed its failure to provide information about former priest Jerome Wagner to the Fond du Lac Police Department last fall as a breakdown in internal communication involving its newly hired victims advocate.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Die Auswertung der katholischen Missbrauchs-Hotline zeigt, wie perfide Sexualstraftäter innerhalb der Kirche vorgingen. Priester sagten ihren Opfern, man sei nun “in der Liebe Christi verbunden”.

Von Matthias Kamann

Es war eine katholische Hotline. Doch obwohl sich die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz damit von März 2010 bis Dezember 2012 eigens für die Erfahrungsberichte von Missbrauchsopfern aus dem kirchlichen Bereich geöffnet hatte, gab es auch zahlreiche Hinweise auf Sexualverbrechen in staatlichen Einrichtungen sowie in Familien.

Von den 1207 Delikten, die den Mitarbeitern der Lebensberatung im Bistum Trier bei dieser bundesweiten Anlaufstelle geschildert wurden, fanden 407 nicht im katholischen Raum statt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Deutsche Bischofskonferenz legt Bilanz ihrer “Missbrauchshotline” vor

Von Ludger Fittkau

Mehr als 8000 Anrufer meldeten sich bei der “Missbrauchshotline” der katholischen Kirche. Dabei berichteten sie von sexuellen Übergriffen durch Seelsorger in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten. Besonders im Zusammenhang mit symbolischen Handlungen wie Beichte oder Gebet.

Sie leiden unter Beziehungsproblemen und Depressionen, haben Suizidgedanken oder sind suchtkrank: Die mehreren tausend Menschen, die zwischen März 2010 und Dezember 2012 zum Hörer griffen und die Psychologen an der Trierer “Missbrauchshotline” der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz anriefen. Es sind überwiegend Männer, die innerhalb von Kirchenmauern zu Opfern sexueller Übergriffe wurden, während außerhalb der Kirche vor allem Frauen betroffen sind. Sogar von körperlichen Verletzungen, die sie auch Jahrzehnte nach der Tat plagen, sprachen die Opfer der katholischen Priester am Telefon. Eine weitere, nahezu logische Folge: das Misstrauen in die Kirche sitzt bei vielen tief.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Sie wollten aufklären: Missbrauchsopfer Claudia Adams ganz persönlich und Christian Pfeiffer, Chef des Kriminologischen Forschungsinstituts Niedersachsen (KFN), bundesweit im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Beide sind gescheitert. Mit dem TV sprachen sie über unerwartete Hindernisse.

Trier. Hat der Pastor noch weitere Opfer missbraucht? Was ist über die Tat dokumentiert? Antworten auf diese Fragen hoffte Claudia Adams in der Personalakte des Priesters zu finden, der sie als Kind missbraucht hatte. Doch dort fand sie kein Wort zum Missbrauch. Daumenbreite Seitenreste deutete sie als herausgeschnittene Unterlagen (der TV berichtete). Sie fragte beim Trierer Bischof und Missbrauchsbeauftragten Stephan Ackermann höchstpersönlich nach, ob die Akte manipuliert worden sei. Die Antwort: Die Akte sei ordnungsgemäß archiviert worden. Was der Bischof nicht sagte: Adams hätte in der Personalakte gar nichts finden können. Denn laut Bistumssprecher André Uzulis werden gemäß Kirchenrecht bei Strafsachen in Sittlichkeitsverfahren sämtliche angefallenen Akten im Geheimarchiv – zu dem nur der Bischof und eine von ihm festgelegte Personengruppe Zugang haben – aufbewahrt. Zudem müssen laut Kirchenrecht bei Sittlichkeitsdelikten jährlich alle Akten, die älter als zehn Jahre sind oder wenn der Angeklagte gestorben ist, vernichtet werden – bis auf einen kurzen Bericht über die Taten und das Urteil.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger

Published January 17, 2013.

Seeking to blunt an outpouring of criticism from alumni, Yeshiva University has issued a statement,emphasizing the wide-ranging powers and broad scope of an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against former staff members at its Manhattan high school.

Y.U. launched the investigation in December after the Forward published the testimony of four former students who said they had been abused at Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

Three former students said they had been abused by Rabbi George Finkelstein, who rose to become principal of the school. A fourth student said that he had been abused by a Talmud teacher, Rabbi Macy Gordon.

In the weeks that followed about 20 more students contacted the Forward to say they had been emotionally, physically or sexually abused by one or both of the men, who worked at the school for more than 50 years combined. Gordon left the school in 1984. Finkelstein left the school in 1995. Both men deny the charges.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Vaterland

Neue Erkenntnisse im Missbrauchsskandal der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland: Die Täter haben ihre sexuellen Übergriffe auf Kinder und Jugendliche genau geplant.

Trier. – Das sei eines der «erschütternden Ergebnisse», die die Auswertung der Gespräche bei der Hotline für Missbrauchsopfer erbracht habe, sagte der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK), Triers Bischof Stephan Ackermann, in Trier. Jene Priester und Diakone hätten «sich das Vertrauen von Kindern erschlichen und diese dann auf schändliche Weise missbraucht» – in der Kirche, in Heimen und in Internaten.

Fast 8500 Gespräche waren bei der Opfer-Hotline der katholischen Kirche geführt worden, die von Ende März 2010 bis Ende 2012 geschaltet war.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Google Translate]

17.01.2013 · Priester haben ihre sexuellen Übergriffe auf Minderjährige zumeist vorsätzlich geplant – und sich Opfer sogar gegenseitig zugeschoben. Ser Missbrauchsbeauftragte der katholischen Kirche, Bischof Ackermann, zeigt sich “entsetzt und beschämt”.
Von Daniel Deckers, Trier

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland, der Trierer Bischof Stefan Ackermann, hat den Willen bekräftigt, die wissenschaftlichen Bemühungen um Aufarbeitung der sexuellen Gewalt im Raum der Kirche „zeitnah und solide“ fortzusetzen. „Wir werden das Versprechen einlösen, das wir den Opfern gegeben haben“, sagte Ackermann am Donnerstag aus Anlass der Vorstellung des Abschlussberichts der Telefonhotline für Betroffene sexuellen Missbrauchs.

In diesem Bericht, der im Internet unter www.hilfe-missbrauch.de für jedermann zugänglich ist, sind in weltweit einmaliger Weise mehr als 8400 Gespräche mit Opfern oder deren Vertrauenspersonen ausgewertet, die sich zwischen dem Frühjahr 2010 und Ende 2012 das Angebot der Bischöfe genutzt hatten, anonym von ihrem Schicksal zu berichten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Der kirchliche Missbrauchsbeauftragte Stephan Ackermann will ungeachtet der Kritik weiter im Amt bleiben. Das sagte der 49-Jährige gestern in Trier. Klar ist aber auch: Die nächsten Monate werden für den obersten katholischen Aufklärer zur Nagelprobe.

Trier. Die Pressekonferenz des kirchlichen Missbrauchsbeauftragten und seines Verantwortlichen für die Ende Dezember abgeschaltete Telefon-Hotline dauert schon knapp eine Stunde, als es im voll besetzten Konferenzsaal des Generalvikariats noch einmal interessant wird. “Wie lange man das noch machen kann, weiß ich nicht”, sagt der ansonsten so gefasste Trierer Bischof, “das ist nicht vergnüglich.” Hat der vor drei Jahren – auf dem Höhepunkt der Krise – von seinen Mitbrüdern zum Missbrauchsbeauftragten ernannte Stephan Ackermann etwa inzwischen die Nase voll von seinem unbefristeten Sonderauftrag? “Ich habe mir die Aufgabe nicht gesucht”, sagt der 49-Jährige, um allerdings gleich hinzuzufügen, dass er Anwalt der Betroffenen bleiben wolle.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2013, 1:02 PM

Facing imminent arrest for the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old pupil in his English class, parochial school teacher Bernard Shero penned a sad letter apologizing to his parents for the “ridicule and shame,” took an overdose of sleeping pills and waited for death in his Bristol apartment.

Death did not arrive on Feb. 10, 2011 but Philadelphia police Det. Andrew Snyder did and the detective told a Common Pleas Court jury today how lucky timing let him arrest Shero instead of follow him to the morgue.

Shero, 49, and Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, are on trial for the sexual assault of the 10-year-old in 1998 and 1999 while he was an altar boy and pupil at St. Jerome’s church and school in the Northeast.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

Jurors in Bernard Shero’s case today heard testimony about his attempted suicide in 2011, on the same day he’d been expected to turn himself in on charges that he had sexually molested an altar boy a decade earlier.

There was testimony today that defendant Bernard Shero tried to commit suicide in 2011, on the morning he was supposed to surrender to face charges he sexually assaulted the boy, then 11 years old, in 2000. In a note, Shero had apologized to his parents and told them he didn’t think he had “much of a choice here” and he thinks they know why.

But he went on to say he’d be dragged though the mud whether he is innocent or guilty.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Times Online

Associated Press

The lone priest to plead guilty in the decade-long investigation of sexual abuse within the Philadelphia archdiocese is expected to testify Thursday for the prosecution.

Now-defrocked priest Edward Avery is serving 2-1/2 to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1999. He also admits conspiring with Roman Catholic church officials, one of whom was convicted of child endangerment last year.

Avery did not testify at that trial.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Stern

Das Scheitern der Studie zum Missbrauchsskandal in der Katholischen Kirche hat bei Betroffenen Empörung ausgelöst. “Die Kirche will sich aus der Affäre ziehen”, sagt Alois Reichgruber dem stern. “Das ist wieder die Kirche, die das Problem aussitzen will.”

Reichgruber war als 16-Jähriger mehrfach von seinem Dorfpfarrer in Oberbayern missbraucht worden. Er gehört zu den fünf Missbrauchsopfern, die der Papst während seines Deutschlandbesuchs 2011 zu einem persönlichen Gespräch getroffen hatte. Der Papst habe sich dabei offiziell bei den Betroffenen für das Geschehene entschuldigt, sagt Reichgruber. “Wir hatten insgesamt nur eine Viertelstunde, dann drängten ihn seine Bodyguards zum Aufbruch.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

17.01.2013 · Die katholische Kirche hat sich um die Aufklärung von Fällen sexueller Gewalt bemüht. Aber es ist noch viel zu tun.

Von Daniel Deckers, Trier

Eines muss man den katholischen Bischöfen in Deutschland lassen: Sie haben es versucht. Anders als die Odenwaldschule, anders als der Deutsche Olympische Sportbund, anders als die Kultusministerien der Länder und auch anders als die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland haben sie vor zwei Jahren ein Forschungsprojekt ins Leben gerufen, um Art und Ausmaß sexueller Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche in ihrem Verantwortungsbereich auf die Spur zu kommen. Als die Bischöfe im Jahr 2002 erste Leitlinien zum Umgang mit Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs im Raum der Kirche verabschiedeten, war die katholische Kirche zudem die einzige Institution in Deutschland, die über ein solches Regelwerk verfügte. Daran hat sich bis heute nichts geändert.

Was derzeit den Mitarbeitern und Einrichtungen in den 27 Bistümern unter dem Stichwort „Prävention“ an Führungszeugnissen, Schulungen und Selbstverpflichtungen abverlangt wird, sucht gleichfalls seinesgleichen. Überdies entstehen seit dem vergangenen Jahr im Zusammenwirken kirchlicher und universitärer Einrichtungen in Deutschland und im Vatikan internetbasierte Präventionskonzepte, die an verschiedene Kulturkreise angepasst werden und dann weltweit Schule machen sollen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Hamburg (dapd-rps). Die katholische Kirche lässt die heftige Kritik des Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer nicht auf sich sitzen. Nachdem Pfeiffer den Kirchenvertretern Zensur bei der Aufarbeitung von Missbrauchsfällen vorgeworfen hatte, hält die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz ihm “Ressentiments” vor. Pfeiffer habe bei der Erarbeitung einer Studie zum Missbrauch “nach und nach eine bemerkenswerte Antihaltung zur katholischen Kirche” entwickelt, sagte der Sekretär der Bischofskonferenz, Hans Langendörfer, in der ARD-Sendung “Beckmann” (Donnerstag, 22.45 Uhr) laut einer vorab verbreiteten Mitteilung.

Langendörfer und Pfeiffer, der auch im Studio zu Gast war, lieferten sich während der Aufzeichnung der Sendung einen Schlagabtausch. Pfeiffer erneuerte seine Vorhaltungen und erklärte, am 7. Mai einen neuen Vertrag für die Studie erhalten zu haben. “Und da stand plötzlich drin: Wir diskutieren über die Texte im Beirat, aber wenn wir zu keiner Einigung kommen, darf der Text nicht veröffentlicht werden.” Schließlich beendete die Kirche die Zusammenarbeit. Darin sieht Pfeiffer eine Zensur. Langendörfer hielt dagegen: “Sie setzen Dinge in die Welt, die Halb- oder Unwahrheiten sind. Das nenne ich eine wirkliche Enttäuschung.” Die Kirche habe die wissenschaftliche Publikation in keiner Weise behindern wollen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger

Der Streit um die gescheiterte Missbrauchsstudie eskaliert: Die katholischen Deutsche Bischofskonferenz warf dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer Unehrlichkeit vor. Pfeiffer habe eine „bemerkenswerte Antihaltung zur katholischen Kirche“ entwickelt.

Hamburg.
Im Streit um die gescheiterte Missbrauchsstudie hat der Sekretär der katholischen Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Hans Langendörfer, dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer Unseriosität und Unehrlichkeit vorgeworfen. „Sie setzen Dinge in die Welt, die Halb- oder Unwahrheiten sind. Das nenne ich eine wirkliche Enttäuschung“, sagte Langendörfer in der ARD-Sendung „Beckmann“ nach einer am Donnerstag vorab verbreiteten Presseerklärung.

Pfeiffer habe „nach und nach eine bemerkenswerte Antihaltung zur katholischen Kirche“ und „Ressentiments“ entwickelt, fügte Langendörfer hinzu. „Dass Sie, Herr Pfeiffer, permanent zu Protokoll geben, Sie hätten ihre Ergebnisse nicht publizieren können – Sie wissen selbst, dass das die Unwahrheit ist“, erklärte Langendörfer. Die wissenschaftliche Publikation „wäre in keiner Weise ein Hindernis gewesen von der Kirche aus“.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Archdiocese refusing to turn over criminal evidence to police in current child sex abuse case
Former Fond du Lac priest Jerome Wagner under active investigation for child sex
assaults
Group urging action by Wisconsin Attorney General

WHO
Victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault by clergy of the Milwaukee archdiocese who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com), will discuss outside the Milwaukee office of the Wisconsin Attorney General, new documents filed in Federal Bankruptcy Court which show that officials of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee are refusing to cooperate with police in a current child abuse investigation in Fond du Lac concerning former priest, Fr. Jerome Wagner. The Archdiocese will not turn over to the police Wagner’s church file, which contains criminal evidence of at least 7 other victims of child sex crimes.

In a brief to the court, at least 350 victims are calling upon Judge Susan Kelley to allow their
attorneys to immediately release Wagner’s file to police and make abuse related files, documents, and depositions public.

Victims, in a letter to the Wisconsin AG, are also urging his involvement to assure the public that
church officials have turned over all abuse related evidence in Wisconsin to local officials and are not obstructing or impeding justice.

Expected to join SNAP members is a victim/survivor of Wagner, who was sexually assaulted by the priest as a youngster attending St. Jerome’s Church in Oconomowoc.

After the press conference SNAP will attempt to hand deliver a letter to the Milwaukee office of the Wisconsin Attorney General.

WHEN Thursday, January 17, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE Lobby of the State Office Building, outside of the Department of Justice, Office of Crime Victim Services (Room 180), 819 N. 6th Street, Milwaukee

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

To: The Honorable J. B. Van Hollen, Attorney General, Wisconsin Department of Justice
From: Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
Re: Archdiocese of Milwaukee obstructing active child sex abuse investigation

Dear Attorney General Van Hollen,

We are writing on behalf of childhood victims of rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy sex offenders from the Milwaukee Archdiocese, our families, and the clergy that support us. Our organization, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) is the oldest and largest self-help community of survivors of clergy sex crimes in the world, founded in 1989 and with over 12,000 members.

Today 350 victim/survivors filed a brief with supporting documents in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court that demonstrate that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is refusing to cooperate with law enforcement officials and turn over evidence of sex crimes against children in a current and active investigation of childhood sexual assault (see attachments). Church officials are making the absurd assertion to the Fond du Lac police that the rules of bankruptcy court prohibit such cooperation. This is contrary to the repeated and public claims by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki that church officials always cooperate with civil investigations of child abuse and that he has already turned over all relevant evidence of sex crimes to district attorneys in the 10 counties in which the archdiocese operates.

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OHIO
WKBN

Five more people have contacted attorneys claiming they were sexually abused by a Franciscan friar who taught religion, coached baseball and was the athletic trainer at Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School in the late 1980s.

Eleven others have reached settlements with the Franciscan Order based in Pennsylvania, JFK High School and the Youngstown Diocese and another person had contacted Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian before the quintet contacted Garabedian later on Wednesday.

Garabedian said Thursday the five men, all JFK students, contacted him with claims they were abused by the friar, Brother Stephen P. Baker, who taught at the school and was the athletic trainer at JFK from 1986-1991.

Garabedian said a sixth person, a woman, also called and said she was being treated for a sports injury while at JFK when Baker made an odd request.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

By Emily Feldman

Thursday, Jan 17, 2013

A federal grand jury has indicted three men from Connecticut, including a priest, and two individuals from California with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, the U.S. Attorney’s office said on Wednesday.

Msgr. Kevin Wallin, who resigned as pastor of Bridgeport’s St. Augustine Parish in June 2011, was arrested on Jan. 3 and charged with six counts of possession with intent to distribute crystal meth.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Wallin is accused of receiving shipments of crystal meth from a California distributor and selling it to an undercover officer six times between September 2012 and January 2013.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.

According to the Diocese of Bridgeport, Wallin, 61, resigned from his post after nine years, telling parishioners “that he was struggling with a number of health and personal issues” and he was granted a sabbatical.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Child abuse inquiry says it’s ready to use powers to compel production of evidence

Rick Morton
From:The Australian
January 16, 2013

THE head of the royal commission into child sexual abuse says the inquiry won’t hesitate to exercise its powers to compel people and organisations to give evidence before it.

Justice Peter McClellan said the task before the commission, set up to investigate institutional responses to child sexual abuse, was complex, large and would take time.

Julia Gillard has given the six royal commissioners until December 2015 to complete their inquiry, with an interim report expected by June 2014.

Justice McClellan, speaking publicly for the first time since being appointed to head the royal commission, said there had been considerable public discussion about the powers of the commission to inquire into matters that were the subject of confidentiality agreements.

Some child abuse victims signed such agreements when settling claims against institutions.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

After his conviction in the Vatileaks trial and having been granted a papal pardon, Paolo Gabriele is to start a new job in the “Bambino Gesù” children’s hospital, in Rome

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, should shortly begin working in the Vatican children’s hospital, “Bambino Gesù”. The news was reported by a number of international news agencies after Italian daily “Il Messaggero” published an article about it.

After being sentenced to 18 months in prison for the “aggravated theft” of confidential documents, in the famous Vatileaks trial, “Paoletto” as he is known to those close to him, received the Pope’s pardon in time for Christmas. Since then, he has been living with his wife and three children in a small apartment given to them.

In a statement issued upon receipt of the papal pardon last 22 December, the Vatican Secretary of State stressed that “although he could not have his old job back and continue to live in the Vatican,” the Holy See would be granting Gabriele and his family “the possibility to resume their lives peacefully.”

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CONNECTICUT
New York Daily News

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, a former pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, Conn., has been charged as part of a five-man meth ring the feds busted up earlier this month. Wallin, 61, resigned from his post as pastor in 2011, citing health and personal issues.

By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Thursday, January 17,

He went from pastor to pusher.

A Connecticut priest was part of a cross-country drug ring that smuggled crystal meth from California into the well-heeled hamlets of Fairfield County, federal prosecutors said.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, a former pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, sold meth to undercover narcs six times since September 2012, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The 61-year-old former church leader and four others were indicted by a grand jury on six counts of possession with intent to distribute.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

The Diocese of Bridgeport expressed “shock” at the news, saying many in Fairfield County regarded him as “a gifted, accomplished and compassionate priest,” according to a statement.

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CONNECTICUT
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport

January 16, 2013

News of Msgr. Kevin Wallin’s arrest comes with a sense of shock and concern on the part of the Diocese and the many people of Fairfield County who have known him as a gifted, accomplished and compassionate priest.

Msgr. Wallin resigned as Pastor of St. Augustine Parish in June 2011, a post he had held for nine years. At the time, he told parishioners and friends that he was struggling with a number of health and personal issues. He was granted a sabbatical in July of 2011.

During his sabbatical, the Diocese became concerned about Msgr. Wallin’s wellbeing and has reached out to him. To date, he has not spoken directly with diocesan officials.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Beim sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen durch katholische Geistliche haben die Täter die moralische Autorität ihres Amtes und den religiösen Kontext planvoll ausgenutzt. Erstmals gibt es zudem Hinweise auf Täternetzwerke, die sich potenzielle Opfer nach Art von Pädophilen-Ringen zugeführt haben.

Von Joachim Frank

Trier –
Dies geht aus einer systematischen Auswertung von fast 9000 Beratungsgesprächen und Internet-Korrespondenzen einer zentralen Hotline hervor, die die katholische Bischofskonferenz von März 2010 bis Ende Dezember 2012 unterhalten hatte. Bei der Präsentation der Ergebnisse sprach der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bischöfe, der Trierer Oberhirte Stephan Ackermann, von einem Angebot für die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs, das „weltweit seinesgleichen sucht“. Es sei eingestellt worden, weil sich am Ende lediglich noch ein bis zwei Anrufer pro Mitarbeiterschicht gemeldet hätten. Die Anlaufstellen in den 27 Bistümern blieben aber erhalten.

Nach den Erkenntnissen aus den Hotline-Kontakten nutzten kirchliche Amtsträger ihren spezifischen Vertrauensvorschuss aus, setzten die Strahlkraft religiöser Riten zur Ausschaltung von Schutzmechanismen der Opfer ein und gaben die eigenen Vergehen als „Ausdruck liebender Verbundenheit in Christus oder Auserwählung vor Gott“ aus. Diese „Spiritualisierung des Verbrechens“ sei für ihn das besonders Perfide und Abscheuliche, sagte Ackermann.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

[Bing Translator]

Trier – Katholische Priester haben ihre sexuellen Übergriffe auf Kinder und Jugendliche genau geplant. Das sei eines der «erschütternden Ergebnisse», die die Auswertung der Gespräche bei der Hotline für Missbrauchsopfer erbracht habe.

Das sagte der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK), Triers Bischof Stephan Ackermann, am in Trier.

Jene Priester und Diakone hätten «sich das Vertrauen von Kindern erschlichen und diese dann auf schändliche Weise missbraucht» – in der Kirche, in Heimen und in Internaten. Fast 8500 Gespräche waren bei der Opfer-Hotline der katholischen Kirche geführt worden, die von Ende März 2010 bis Ende 2012 geschaltet war. Die Bewegung «Wir sind Kirche» bedauerte die Einstellung der Telefon-Hotline.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

[Statement von Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann]

[Statement von Dr. Andreas Zimmer]

[Hotline der Bischofskonferenz für Opfer sexualisierter Gewalt durchgeführt von der Lebensberatung im Bistum Trier]

[Bericht zum Abschluss der Tätigkeit der Hotline der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs – Teil 1]

[Bericht zum Abschluss der Tätigkeit der Hotline der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs – Teil 2]

Auch zukünftig gründliche Aufarbeitung und umfangreiche Beratungsangebote

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz und die Lebensberatung des Bistums Trier haben heute in Trier den „Tätigkeitsbericht zum Abschluss der Telefonhotline der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Betroffene sexuellen Missbrauchs“ vorgestellt.

Im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz hat die Lebensberatung des Bistums Trier im März 2010 eine bundesweite Beratungshotline für Betroffene sexueller Gewalt gestartet. Ziel war es, die Betroffenen zu ermutigen, über den sexuellen Missbrauch zu sprechen, der ihnen im Bereich der katholischen Kirche angetan wurde, und sie bei der Aufarbeitung des Erlebten zu unterstützen. Dafür standen geschulte Beraterinnen und Therapeuten bereit. Die Hotline gehörte zu einem umfassenden Maßnahmenpaket, das die Frühjahrs-Vollversammlung der deutschen Bischöfe im Februar 2010 beschlossen hatte. Die gebührenfreie Telefonhotline, verbunden mit der Möglichkeit zu Internetberatung, war für viele Betroffene erster Anlaufpunkt, Beratungs- und Beschwerdestelle und diente ihnen so als Türöffner und Lotse in der Vermittlung weiterer Beratungsangebote in ihrer örtlichen Nähe. Das Hotline-Angebot war nach Freischaltung bis September 2011 vorgesehen, wurde dann jedoch zunächst bis April 2012 und später bis Dezember 2012 verlängert. Ende Dezember 2012 erfolgte die Abschaltung, da die sinkende Nachfrage schon seit längerer Zeit eine Aufrechterhaltung des Telefon-, Internet- und postalischen Beratungsangebots nicht mehr rechtfertigte. Betroffene können sich weiterhin an die diözesanen Ansprechpartner und Ehe-, Familien- und Lebensberatungsstellen der jeweiligen Bistümer sowie die Beratungsstellen des Deutschen Caritasverbandes und die Telefonseelsorge wenden und deren umfangreiche Angebote in Anspruch nehmen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Von Elke Silberer

Kirche und Moral. Für die Ärztin Irmgard Maiworm hat das einen ganz bitteren Beigeschmack. “Mit dem Hinweis auf Moral wird einer Frau, die wahrscheinlich mehrfach traumatisiert ist, Hilfe verweigert. Welche Moral ist das?”

Die erfahrene Notärztin erinnert sich sehr genau an die dramatischen Ereignisse vom 15. Dezember, als die junge Frau zu ihr in die Kölner Notarztpraxis kam: seelisch verletzt, erschüttert, weinend – vermutlich betäubt und vergewaltigt. Sie musste untersucht werden, brauchte Hilfe. Zwei katholische Krankenhäuser lehnten das ab.

“Es war hochdramatisch”, sagt Maiworm. Da kam diese junge Frau an jenem Samstagnachmittag in die Praxis, aufgelöst, mit verschmutzter Straßenkleidung: “Sie fühlte sich nicht gut.” Die Ärztin schickte die Mutter raus.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Media Statement from Justice Peter McClellan AM – Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Our purpose in meeting with you this afternoon is to briefly explain how the Commission will approach its work in accordance with the Letters Patent and the steps which must be taken before the Commission can commence the process of gathering evidence.

The Royal Commission has been charged with examining the sexual abuse of children in the context of institutions throughout Australia. Having regard to what is already publicly known of these problems the task before the Commission is large. However, until the Commission has commenced its work and people come forward to give us an account of their personal circumstances we cannot gauge the full extent of that task. In recognition of the complexity of the issues which the Commission must examine the government has appointed six commissioners. Each of us has different backgrounds, professional experience, qualifications and expertise. We live in different regions of Australia. To assist the Commission in its work we understand that the government proposes to amend the Royal Commissions Act to provide that the Commissioners need not all sit when conducting a formal hearing. If that legislative change is made the Commission will utilise this capacity in an endeavour to gain a complete understanding of the problems in various parts of Australia in the most efficient manner possible. Even with this legislative change our task is complex and will take significant time.

It is important to understand that the Commission is not a prosecuting body. Our investigative processes will be utilised to receive and consider what we expect will be accounts by individuals who tell of their experience when living within or when they were associated with an institution. The Commission will be concerned to examine these individual accounts to determine how the circumstances arose, the relevant management practices of the institution in which they occurred and the response which the institution has made to any complaint of sexual abuse by an individual. Because the Commission is not a prosecuting body it will establish links with the appropriate authorities in each State and Territory to whom a matter may be referred with the expectation that where appropriate prosecutorial proceedings may commence. It is also important to understand that the Commission is not charged with determining whether any person may be entitled to compensation for any injury which they may have suffered.

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AUSTRALIA
Fraser Coast Chronicle

APN Newsdesk
17th Jan 2013

THE Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in Australian institutions will not determine any compensation for victims of abuse, Justice Peter McClellan said on Wednesday.

Lead commissioner Justice McClellan addressed the media after the first meeting of all six commissioners on Wednesday.

He said the task before the commission was large, but the commission would not know the full extent of the task until it began official work.

“Our task is complex and will take considerable time,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

By Stef Davis

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa

St. Bernadine’s Monastery near Hollidaysburg is now the home of Brother Stephen Baker–a man accused of sexually assaulting 11 boys in Ohio in the 1980s.

Wednesday, for the first time, some of baker’s alleged victim’s speaking out in Ohio.

Voice of alleged victim: “He would take you into a closed, taped training room where no one could see in and he would put you in a whirlpool and uh watch you take a whirlpool or massage your…different areas…private areas…maybe areas unrelated to your injury.”

Victim’s lawyers saying Baker settled with the boys out of court back in October. He was never criminally charged.

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VERMONT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 17, 2013

Last week, for the first time, a now-deceased Vermont priest was identified in a civil settlement as a possible child molester. That revelation is prompting a support group to prod the state’s Catholic bishop to release names of other accused clerics and aggressively seek out their victims.

“For more than a decade, bishops have been required, by their own national policy, to be open and transparent’ about child sex crimes,” said David Clohessy, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Yet for months, perhaps years, Vermont church officials kept secret about apparently credible allegations of child sex abuse against Fr. Joseph Dussault. Parents and the public only know about these accusations because a victim was smart and strong enough to file a suit and persevere to a settlement.”

Eleven civil lawsuits, including one against Fr. Dussault, were resolved on Jan. 9 as one of the cases was about to go to trial.

Now, SNAP is urging Catholic officials in Vermont to use “all the resources available” in order to reach out to others who were injured by Fr. Dussault and other clerics and to be more forthcoming about them.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 18, 2013

Leesha McKenny
Urban Affairs Reporter

A Catholic Church inquiry into its handling of a priest who repeatedly sexually abused altar boys has cleared three senior clergy of a cover-up, laying much of the blame at the feet of a deceased bishop.

The present bishop of Armidale, Michael Kennedy, has apologised ‘‘unreservedly’’ to victims and their families after the investigation’s report into a former priest was released on Thursday.

The report – deeply critical of the diocese under his predecessor, Bishop Henry Kennedy – highlighted poor record-keeping, ineffective assessments and inaction as serious allegations against the priest ‘‘cried out for investigation’’.

The former priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was accused of sexually assaulting boys in the dioceses of Armidale and Parramatta during the 1980s. Two of the 59-year-old’s victims have since committed suicide.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger

Eine vergewaltigte Frau ist von zwei Kölner Krankenhäusern in katholischer Trägerschaft abgewiesen worden. Hintergrund ist eine Ablehnung von Beweissicherung sowie der „Pille danach“. Sie widerspricht den Grundsätzen der katholischen Kirche. Von Peter Berger

Köln.
Frauen, die Opfer einer Vergewaltigung wurden, werden nach Recherchen des „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ in einigen katholischen Krankenhäusern des Erzbistums Köln nicht mehr behandelt. Im Dezember war eine 25-Jährige in zwei Kölner Kliniken, die von der Stiftung der Cellitinnen zur hl. Maria geführt werden, abgewiesen worden. Die junge Frau war offenbar bei einer Party auf den Kölner Ringen mit K.O.-Tropfen betäubt worden und erst einen Tag später auf einer Parkbank in Stadtteil Kalk wieder zu sich gekommen.

Eine Notärztin, die eine Vergewaltigung nicht ausschließen konnte, hatte die Kliniken um eine Spurensicherung gebeten, um mögliche Tatspuren gerichtsverwertbar zu sichern. Sie wurde mit der Begründung abgewiesen, die gynäkologischen Untersuchungen zur Beweissicherung seien seit zwei Monaten untersagt, weil damit ein Beratungsgespräch über eine mögliche Schwangerschaft und deren Abbruch sowie das Verschreiben der Pille danach verbunden seien.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volkskrant

[click here for the story]

[BabelFish translator]

Vrouwen die het slachtoffer worden van verkrachting, hoeven in Keulen niet aan te kloppen bij katholieke ziekenhuizen voor de morning-afterpil of voor lichamelijk onderzoek om sporen van de verkrachter veilig te stellen. De klinieken weigeren dergelijke behandelingen omdat ze in strijd zouden zijn met de waarden van de katholieke kerk. Artsen in de ziekenhuizen die zich verzetten tegen de voorschriften van het aartsbisdom, moeten vrezen voor hun baan. .

Illustratief voor de houding van de ziekenhuizen is een verkrachtingsgeval in december, aldus de krant Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger donderdag. Twee katholieke klinieken weigerden een 25-jarige vrouw de morning-afterpil en wilden geen sporenonderzoek doen. De vrouw werd op een feest gedrogeerd en kwam een dag later bij op een parkbank. Een EHBO-arts kon verkrachting niet uitsluiten en vroeg om het onderzoek. Dat werd echter afgewezen met het argument dat daaraan ook een gesprek is verbonden over een mogelijke zwangerschap,het afbreken daarvan en het verstrekken van de morning-afterpil.

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GERMANY
dabozzz

A young woman was raped in Cologne. An emergency room doctor sent the 25-year-old as evidence in the Catholic sponsored hospitals. But the raped woman was dismissed -. On “ethical and theological grounds”

women who were victims of rape are, after searches of the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” no longer treated in some Catholic hospitals in the Archdiocese of Cologne. In December, a 25-year-old Cologne in two clinics. Cellites of the Foundation of the St. Maria was dismissed be performed.

The young woman was apparently drugged at a party at the Cologne Ring with knockout drops and came only a day later on a park bench in Kalk revived. An emergency room doctor who could not exclude a rape, had asked the clinics a forensics to secure possible Tatspuren in court. She was dismissed on the grounds that gynecological examinations to preserve evidence are prohibited for two months because so a consultation about a possible pregnancy and their demolition and prescribing the pill is then connected.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX
From:The Australian
January 18, 2013

ALLEGATIONS of child sexual abuse have been made against 23 priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, many of whom continue to receive financial support at the discretion of the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell.

The revelation of the number of priests facing such allegations is contained in a file note prepared for the cardinal last year by his chancellor, John Usher.

This document is itself contained in the Whitlam report into the church’s handling of a pedophile priest — identified only as “F” — released yesterday.

The file note suggests all the child abuse allegations against the 23 priests were made since the establishment in 1997 of the church’s Towards Healing protocol for dealing with such claims, although this could not be verified.

“Fourteen of those priests are deceased and the nine remaining priests have all been removed from active ministry,” the document states.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2013

Lawyers for a priest and a former parochial-school teacher attacked the credibility Wednesday of a 24-year-old Northeast Philadelphia man who says the pair sexually assaulted him when he was a 10-year-old altar boy.

The witness – The Inquirer does not identify victims of alleged sexual assault – was questioned for almost four hours by lawyers for the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero.

On Tuesday, the witness told the Common Pleas Court jury that serial sexual assaults by Engelhardt, another priest, and Shero while he was a fifth grader at St. Jerome’s parish school shattered his childhood and propelled him into a life of petty crime and drug addiction.

Defense attorneys Burton A. Rose and Michael McGovern argued that the assaults never happened.

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CONNECTICUT
Record-Journal

Associated Press

A federal grand jury in Connecticut has indicted a former Roman Catholic priest and four other people in an alleged drug operation involving shipments of methamphetamine from California.

Prosecutors say 61-year-old Kevin Wallin of Waterbury, former pastor at St. Augustine’s parish in Bridgeport, received shipments of methamphetamine from California and sold drugs to an undercover officer over the past four months.

The grand jury in Bridgeport indicted the five people Tuesday on drug charges. All five are detained. It’s not clear if they have lawyers.

Also charged are Kenneth Devries of Waterbury, Michael Nelson of Manchester, Chad McCluskey of San Clemente, Calif., and Kristen Laschober of Laguna Niguel, Calif.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP
January 17, 2013

AN inquiry into the way the Catholic Church handled child sex abuse accusations against one of its priests has strongly criticised church procedures.

Had the protocols of today been in force in the early 1980s, the abuse by the priest – identified only as Father F – could have been stopped in its tracks, the report says.

Two of those abused by Father F, at Moree in northern NSW, subsequently committed suicide.

In the report released today, former Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam found there was no cover-up in the way the church responded to complaints against Father F.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News – The World Today

[The full report is available for download on this site.]

By Martin Cuddihy and Stephanie Smail

The Catholic Church has unequivocally apologised for failing to protect its parishioners from the accused paedophile priest known as Father F.

An independent report by former Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam has been scathing of the way the church has dealt with the former priest.

Justice Whitlam levels much of his criticism about the handling of the case at the then-bishop of Armidale, Henry Joseph Kennedy, who has since died.

He describes Bishop Kennedy’s failure to properly investigate as “utterly inexplicable”.

The current Bishop of Armidale has released a pastoral letter accepting his predecessor failed his parish.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune Chronicle

January 17, 2013

By THE ALTOONA MIRROR Special to the Tribune Chronicle (news@tribtoday.com) , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. – For years as his alleged crimes against those students went unreported, Brother Stephen P. Baker, a Franciscan friar based in Hollidaysburg, had a presence at Altoona and Johnstown Catholic schools.

Baker’s presence among area youths includes his role on the Bishop McCort High School baseball team in Johnstown, Pa., in the late 1990s and mid-2000s. He also served in 1998 on the Confirmation Committee for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which developed confirmation preparation guidelines in April 1998.

Baker is a friar of the Third Order Regular based at St. Bernardine’s monastery in Hollidaysburg.

When reached about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday in his room at St. Bernardine’s, he told Tribune news partner WYTV 33 that he was shocked when told of the accusations.

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OHIO
Norwalk Reflector

Norwalk Reflector Staff

Jan 16, 2013

A former Warren John F. Kennedy High School religion teacher, sports trainer and baseball coach used his authority positions to tell students they needed massages to avoid injury, then sexually molested them, one as many as 25 times during the late 1980s. That’s the information provided by a source familiar with the settlements reached in the cases Wednesday, as reported today by WKBN TV-27’s website.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the TV station that he negotiated settlements for 11 men who attended JFK High from 1986 to 1990 that claimed Brother Stephen P. Baker, a baseball coach, religion teacher and athletic trainer during his tenure at JFK, had molested them.

Settlements were reached with JFK High School, the Youngstown Diocese and with T.O.R. Franciscan religious order based in Pennsylvania.

When WKBN reporters reached Baker by phone Wednesday in his room at St. Bernadine’s monastery in Newry, Pa., he said he was shocked when informed about the accusations. “I’m flabbergasted,” Baker told the TV station. “I’ll have to ask my superiors if I can say anything.” Baker then immediately hung up.

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GERMANY
The Trumpet

By Gareth Fraser

From its institution, the universal church of the city of seven hills has shown itself more powerful than governments which at times have challenged its authority and influence. In 2013, amid the Vatican-led “Year of Faith,” another such instance occurred as the German Catholic Church told the Berlin government it had better tow the line regarding the ongoing administration of the sex abuse scandal.

In a move that stunned government officials, the church shut down its phone line dedicated to individuals claiming sex abuse at the hands of priests. The reason? The line was not being used.

For over two and a half years, the line received calls from victims and their family members, acting as their initial contact in resolving alleged acts of clergy exploitation. “The number you have called is not in service” is what callers now hear. A spokesman for the German Bishops’ Conference claimed the line had served its intended purpose.

In a nationally televised interview, Berlin’s sanctioned arbiter for underage sex abuse stated, in defiance of the church’s actions, that such a helpline was “important for the first step towards finding help” for victims.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News – AM

[with audio]

Posted Thu Jan 17, 2013

The Catholic Church says it will waive confidentiality agreements it’s signed with child sexual abuse victims and release any documents IF requested by the royal commission. It’s responding to the head of the royal commission, Justice Peter McClellan, who’s emphasised his inquiry has the power to compel the production of evidence and expects all institutions with confidential agreements to cooperate, saying his inquiry won’t hestitate in exercising that power.

Alexandra Kirk

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: The Catholic Church says it will do what it can to ensure past failures are not repeated. It’s vowed to assist the Royal commission and that includes releasing child sexual abuse victims from confidentiality agreements they’ve signed with the church.

As well the church says it will release any documents the Royal Commission might want.

Francis Sullivan, who’s been appointed by the Catholic Church to coordinate its response to the royal commission, told Alexandra Kirk everyone wants the truth to emerge.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: The whole issue of confidentiality clauses if they need to be waived in order for the truth to come out, they’ll be waived.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Will the Catholic Church as a matter of principle now waive all its confidentiality agreements with victims of sexual abuse?

FRANCIS SULLIVAN: As Commission McClelland said yesterday, he does not want to see any barriers put in place in order to affect the work of the commission and we don’t want to see any barriers in place that will not allow the truth to come out and so our principle position in this is that where confidentially clauses need to be waived, they will be waived.

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NEW ZEALAND
Community Scoop

Kaitaia features again in sexual abuse cases

ECPAT Child ALERT is aware of two Kaitaia child sex abuse cases being before the courts today. This follows on the high profile cases last year that involved a school teacher, a business man and a church leader facing similar charges in this provincial area. According to information the Police are actually dealing with over 20 such cases in this Northland region.

Director, Alan Bell states “This is a very disturbing situation and raises concerns about sexual exploitation of children in New Zealand. The number of cases in Kaitaia may have become known to the Police as a result of increased reporting due to the publicity given to previous convictions. It would be unlikely that there is a particular cause related to the town itself as being peculiar compared to other provincial centres around New Zealand. This raises the question of how many children are being exploited around the country that are not being reported. Some may attribute the high number of cases in Kaitaia to poverty in the region. This can be over emphasised and ignores the real reason behind child sex abuse. The underlying cause of this type of abuse is mainly the demand from males seeking sexual gratification from children. Without this demand the abuse would not be there – regardless of location and the economy.”

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OHIO
WFMJ

[with video]

By Michelle Nicks, Reporter

WARREN, Ohio – Disturbing allegations that “rampant and serial sexual abuse” went on for years at Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School at the hands of a former religious teacher and coach.

Eleven men, who say they were the victims of Brother Stephen P. Baker when they were just 14 to 18-years-old, have now received financial settlements that include money from the Catholic Dioceses of Youngstown, the T.O.R. Franciscan Order out of Pennsylvania, and JFK.

Asking that we protect their anonymity, two former graduates of John F. Kennedy High School in Warren who live and work as successful businessmen in the area, have a disturbing story to tell about the alleged sexual abuse that took place. They say it happened inside the Catholic school and on road trips for sporting events more than 20 years ago.

One man, who we will refer to as John Doe #1, says Brother Baker was also the athletic trainer, so students would have to consult him about sports related injuries.

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OHIO
Youngstown Vindicator

By Ed Runyan
runyan@vindy.com

NEWTON FALLS

Eleven men settled out of court with Warren John F. Kennedy High School for “upper five figures” each as a result of sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a man who taught, coached baseball and served as athletic trainer at the school, two of the victims and their attorney said Wednesday.

Franciscan Brother Stephen P. Baker, now living in a monastery near Altoona, Pa., fondled teenagers age 14 to 18 from 1986 to 1990 in the school training room, elsewhere in the school and on trips outside of Warren, two of the victims said.

Brother Baker worked at the school from 1986 to 1991 but was never a member of the clergy, the Diocese of Youngstown said in a written statement. He is a member of the Franciscan Third Order Regular.

Two of the victims, now in their early 40s, said at a news conference at the Holiday Inn in Newton Falls that fondling occurred most frequently during massages in a small, closed training room at the school containing a whirlpool and massage table. Brother Baker would find excuses to massage athletes and would sometimes massage their genitals, the men said.

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OHIO
Tribune Chronicle

January 17, 2013

By JOE GORMAN Tribune Chronicle (jgorman@tribtoday.com) , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com

BRACEVILLE – The lawyer representing 11 former John F. Kennedy High School students who say they were sexually abused by a baseball coach in the mid-1980s said he was first contacted more than two years ago by someone who lives in Massachusetts.

Over the course of those two years, Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has worked with victims of abuse by clergy for several years, found 10 more people who said they were abused at the hands of Brother Stephen P. Baker, a Franciscan brother, who was the Eagles’ baseball coach and athletic trainer when the abuse took place between 1986 and 1990. The person who contacted Garabedian in Massachusetts was one of the 11 victims.

Garabedian spoke by telephone at a news conference at the Holiday Inn Express sponsored by the Road to Recovery, an organization that helps victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic Church clergy and employees.

Also on hand were two of Baker’s victims, who did not want to give their names or be photographed. One of the men said he still lives in the area. The other man declined to say where he lives now.

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PHILADELHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Ralph Cipriano

Defense lawyers today took the 24-year-old sex abuse victim known as “Billy Doe” on a one-way trip back to Catholic grade school, courtesy of what one lawyer jokingly referred to as “the Wayback machine.”

For those of you who missed the old Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, the Wayback machine used to transport Mr. Peabody the time-traveling mutt and his pet boy Sherman back to famous moments in history.

In Courtroom 304 at the Criminal Justice Center, Billy was confronted with blown-up copies of all his report cards from grades five through eight. He was quizzed about his attendance record, the names of his old grade school teachers, and they even handed him a parochial school uniform, with a monogrammed blue short-sleeve polo shirt and pants, just like the one he used to wear back when he was a fifth and sixth grader at the St. Jerome Catholic School in Northeast Philadelphia.

It was all part of a rigorous two-hour cross-examination that found many inconsistencies in Billy’s story, but landed no knockout blows. At the end, a deflated-looking Michael J. McGovern seemed to cut short his questioning prematurely. Prosecutors appeared surprised and elated by how well Billy had held up on cross. And Billy’s supporters left the courtroom saying the defense hadn’t laid a glove on their boy.

Defense lawyer Burton A. Rose, representing Charles Shero, Billy’s former sixth-grade teacher, got things started today by placing Billy’s blown-up report cards on a flimsy easel that would soon collapse.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Martin Cuddihy and Stephanie Smail, ABC
Updated January 17, 2013

The Catholic Church has unequivocally apologised for failing to protect its parishioners from the accused paedophile priest known as Father F.

[A report] by former Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam has been scathing of the way the church has dealt with the former priest.

Justice Whitlam levels much of his criticism about the handling of the case at the then-bishop of Armidale, Henry Joseph Kennedy, who has since died.

He describes Bishop Kennedy’s failure to properly investigate as “utterly inexplicable”.

The current Bishop of Armidale has released a pastoral letter accepting his predecessor failed his parish.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By STEPHEN JEFFERY
Jan. 17, 2013

A NEW report has made damning findings against the Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse allegations leveled at a former priest in the Armidale diocese during the 1980s.

The independent report, compiled by former federal court judge Antony Whitlam QC, found former Armidale Bishop Henry Kennedy failed to act on repeated allegations against the former priest, known by court order only as “F”.

F was abruptly moved from the Moree parish to East Tamworth in 1984, though no contemporary records explaining his departure have been found.

While F was taken to see psychologist Gary Boyle in East Tamworth, Mr Whitlam claimed he “was never given any version of the circumstances surrounding F’s removal from the parish in Moree except by F himself”.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

An inquiry into the way the Catholic Church handled child sex abuse accusations against one of its priests has strongly criticised church procedures.

An inquiry into the way the Catholic Church handled child sex abuse accusations against one of its priests has strongly criticised church procedures.

Had the protocols of today been in force in the early 1980s, the abuse by the priest – identified only as Father F – could have been stopped in its tracks, the report says.

Two of those abused by Father F, in a northern NSW town, subsequently committed suicide.

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OHIO
Tribune Chronicle

January 17, 2013

Robert M. Hoatson is no stranger to calling foul on alleged sexual abuse.

Months before speaking out for 11 John F. Kennedy High School alumni who claim they were sexually abused by Franciscan Brother Stephen P. Baker, Hoatson, co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, took up the cause of a man who said he was sexually assaulted by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The alleged victim in that case was about to be released from a Massachusetts state prison, where he was being housed for a “serious crime,” Hoatson said in July.

Hoatson would not talk about the specifics of the man’s background, his crime or his relationship with Sandusky, which occurred 25 years ago when he attended a summer sports camp at Penn State.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, John J. Arvanitis, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, and Col. Danny R. Stebbins of the Connecticut State Police, today announced a federal grand jury sitting in Bridgeport has returned an indictment charging three Connecticut men and two California residents, one from Laguna Niguel, with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, the indictment was returned on Jan. 15, 2013. According to statements made in court, this matter stems from a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Connecticut State Police’s Statewide Narcotics Task Force.

The investigation has included the use of court-authorized wiretaps, controlled purchases of methamphetamine, physical surveillance and the use of an undercover officer. The investigation revealed Kevin Wallin of Waterbury, Conn., allegedly received shipments of methamphetamine from individuals in California.

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
CT Post

Tom Cleary

Updated 7:02 pm, Wednesday, January 16, 2013

BRIDGEPORT — The former pastor of St. Augustine’s Cathedral parish was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury charging him with conspiring to sell methamphetamine — and he now faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Msgr. Kevin Wallin, 61, of Golden Hill Street, Waterbury, was arrested on a criminal complaint Jan. 3 after a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Connecticut State Police Statewide Narcotics Task Force.

Federal officials said Wallin allegedly received shipments of methamphetamine from California on six occasions between September 2012 and January 2013. An undercover officer then purchased the drugs from Wallin, officials said.

Wallin, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1984, previously served as pastor of St. Peter Parish in Danbury from 1996 to 2002. He also worked as secretary to Bishops Walter Curtis and Edward Egan in Bridgeport and Diocesan Director of the Ministry for Liturgy. He was a trustee at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield and served on the board of directors for the Bridgeport Catholic Elementary School system.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
6:58 p.m. EST, January 16, 2013

A federal grand jury has indicted five men – including a Bridgeport priest – as members of a drug distribution ring that sold methamphetamine in Connecticut, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday.

The priest, Msgr. Kevin Wallin, is accused of receiving shipments of the drug, known as crystal meth, from a California supplier and selling it to an undercover narcotics investigator six times since September.

Wallin’s, whose most recent address is in Waterbury, could not be reached. A spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport, said Wallin was “a gifted, compassionate and accomplished priest,” and said his colleagues reacted to his arrest with a sense of “shock and concern.”

Wallin had long been associated with St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, where he had been pastor for nine years until his resignation in June 2011. At the time of his resignation, he told parishioners that he was “struggling with a number of health and personal issues,” according to a statement distributed by the Diocese Wednesday.

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OHIO
WYTV

It took the two former student-athletes at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren years to cope with trauma caused by their baseball coach, sports trainer and religion teacher who sexually abused them and nearly a dozen other students during the late 1980s.

It cost one his marriage and nearly cost the other his family. But the two men, who will not be identified because they are victims of sexual assault, said the culture surrounding religious institutions and authority figures led their parents to largely ignore their claims of abuse by the friar, Brother Stephen Baker, who taught at JFK from 1986-1991.

They, and nine others, reached a settlement with JFK, the Youngstown Diocese and T.O.R. Franciscans that totaled in the high-five figures for facing sexual abuse during their time at JFK. Criminal charges can only be filed in one case because the statute of limitations has passed in the 10 other cases.

Both men, who played baseball and football at JFK, said they treated the molestation at the time by joking with each other about Baker.

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OHIO
WKBN

About a dozen men have settled out of court over alleged sexual abuse they suffered more than 20 years ago while students at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren.

The alleged abuse happened between 1986 and 1990 and is being blamed on Brother Stephen Baker. Because of Ohio’s statute of limitations, only one of the victims can file criminal charges because victims have 20 years after the last occurrence of abuse to file criminal charges.

Executive Director of Trumbull County Children’s Services Tim Schaffner said his office always recommends victims of abuse report the incidents as soon as possible.

“What we always recommend is there are lots of good counselors out there. There are a lot of folks that you can go talk to about this, talk about the impact this has had on your life, and they can help guide you through that,” Schaffner said.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Stephanie Smail, ABC
January 17, 2013

The Catholic Church has been broadly criticised by a report it commissioned into allegations of a cover-up of child sexual abuse.

Former Federal Court Judge Antony Whitlam was asked by the Church to investigate how it dealt with a New South Wales priest, known as Father F, who was accused of sexually abusing children.

AM has obtained a copy of the report ahead of its public release this morning.

In the report, Mr Whitlam describes repeated failures by the Catholic Church, and says he cannot understand why Father F, who was accused of paedophilia, was allowed to move from one parish to another.

Father F worked in a number of New South Wales parishes in the 1980s and 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
January 17, 2013

A CATHOLIC bishop failed to act on years of allegations of child sex abuse by a priest, or to pass these warnings on to another diocese where the priest was later accused of abusing an altar boy, a report has found.

The report, written by the former Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam QC and published today, makes a series of damning findings about the church’s management of the priest, who is identified only as “F”.

The bishop from a regional diocese in NSW, who has since died, “sat on his hands and did nothing”, after being warned about F’s behaviour, the report found. His failure to investigate these allegations “is utterly inexplicable”.

Mr Whitlam found a number of “glaring omission(s) from the records of the . . . diocese”, including the reason F was abruptly removed from his first parish, Moree in northern NSW, in 1984.

The report found that a year earlier, the vicar-general of the regional diocese, told another parish priest: “We’ve got a problem with ‘F’. He’s been mucking around with kids.”

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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., January 14, 2013

Elderly woman was once target of alleged murder attempt

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — Margaret Mary Liebst, the former Catholic nun who was once the target of an alleged murder attempt, died recently in Arizona.

Liebst, 90, died in Page, Ariz., Dec. 28, 2012, according to an announcement by Rollie Mortuary Jan. 4. However, details of Liebst’s funeral and burial are not being publicly released by the mortuary.

In 2004, Gallup resident Derek F. Kolb, a former seminarian for the Archdiocese of Denver, was charged with the attempted murder of Liebst, who was a close companion and assistant to the Rev. Thomas R. Maikowsi of the Diocese of Gallup. According to a Gallup Police report, Kolb admitted putting acid in Liebst’s cereal, Windex in her food and drinks, and replacing her insulin with water because he viewed Liebst as an obstacle to his relationship with Maikowski.

Liebst and Maikowski, however, proved to be reluctant witnesses against Kolb. In May 2005, prosecutors dropped the attempted murder charge in exchange for Kolb pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassment. As a result of the scandal, Maikowski was forced to resign from key positions in the diocese but was allowed to remain in the ministry.

Five months after Kolb’s plea agreement, the Diocese of Gallup issued a news release claiming Kolb had made a death threat against Gallup Bishop Donald E. Pelotte. No charges were ever filed in that alleged incident.

Liebst was born on Dec. 21, 1922, in Kansas City, Mo. She originally came to the Diocese of Gallup as a member of a Discalced Carmelite Cloister which established a monastery in Aztec.

Carmelite nuns live in a cloistered — enclosed — monastery and follow a contemplative life of prayer. According to Carmelite literature, they profess the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and a fourth vow of enclosure in a monastery. The term “discalced” means barefoot and is applied to religious orders like the Carmelites whose members wear sandals or go entirely barefoot.

Internal discord caused Liebst’s Carmelite community to disband around 1983. A few of the Carmelite nuns moved to Gallup and established a new monastery here. Eventually those nuns left Gallup in January 2001 after Pelotte couldn’t guarantee a chaplain to celebrate their Masses. They relocated to Kansas at the invitation of Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, then the coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Wichita.

Liebst, however, left the religious order in the 1980s with the closing of the Aztec monastery. She then began working as an assistant to Maikowski. Although no longer a member of her cloistered community, Liebst continued to wear her habit and present herself publicly as a Carmelite nun.

For nearly 30 years, Liebst resided and worked closely with Maikowski, She followed him from Farmington to Gallup during the years he was director of education for the Gallup Diocese. In 2008, she moved into the rectory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Page, Ariz., after Maikowski was appointed administrator of the parish.

Maikowski, 65, remains a controversial figure in the Gallup Diocese. In recent years, he has attempted to repair his tarnished reputation by writing glowing professional profiles about himself and posting them on more than a dozen “reputation management websites” on the Internet. In an effort to distance himself from the Kolb scandal in the Diocese of Gallup, Maikowski falsely claims on most of these websites that he is instead a priest with the “Roman Catholic Diocese of the Midwest,” which is an entirely fictitious diocese.

Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 870-0745 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Get Religion

As strange as it sounds, the goal of this post is to praise The Los Angeles Times for a page-one story focusing on a single case history linked to the decades of sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic priests.

At the center of the story are two brothers, Damian and Bob Eckert and the priest, Father Robert Van Handel, who led the community boys choir in which they sang while growing up in Santa Barbara, Calif. Damian was 9 or 10 when he joined and Bob was about 8.

But the key to this remarkable story, other than the painful memories of Damian Eckert, is a once confidential document. This quotable source surfaced in the legal proceedings linked to the wave of sexual-abuse cases in California, including the Van Handel cases and others linked to the now-closed St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara.

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TENNESSEE
Religion News Service

Bob Smietana / USA Today | Jan 16, 2013

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) A pastor known for promoting corporal punishment has been accused of physically abusing a woman for 25 years, beginning during her childhood.

The Rev. Larry Tomczak, an associate pastor at Bethel World Outreach Church near Brentwood, Tenn., was named in a Maryland lawsuit that was filed against leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a denomination Tomczak helped found in the 1980s and later left.

The suit was originally filed in October by three alleged victims of abuse and was amended Friday (Jan. 11) to add five others. All eight were given pseudonyms.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The defense lawyer for former parochial schoolteacher Bernard Shero today began trying to chip away at the credibility of a 24-year-old Northeast man who says he was sexually assaulted by Shero and two priests when he was a 10-year-old altar boy.

The witness – The Inquirer does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault – testified Tuesday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court that the serial sexual assaults by Shero and two priests destroyed his childhood and led to his life as a drug addict.

But defense attorney Burton A. Rose, showing the jury blow-ups of the man’s report cards from 5th through 8th grades at St. Jerome’s, noted that his grades and attendance barely changed during the time of the alleged assaults in 1998 and 1999.

“So you went to school the next day after this man [Shero] anally raped you in the back of his car?” Rose asked.

“It was school, I had to go,” replied the witness, who was identified as “Billy Doe” in the 2011 county grand jury report.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Defense attorneys in the latest sex abuse case in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia today were attacking the credibility of an alleged victim who has testified he was sexually assaulted by a priest and a lay teacher when he was ten years old, a fifth grader, in 1999 and 2000.

The witness is now 24 years old and came forward a decade after the alleged abuse.

The defense today suggested through questioning that the alleged victim’s story — that he was sexually assaulted by Father Charles Engelhardt in the church sacristy after an early morning mass — is incredible.

At one point, Engelhardt’s attorney, Michael McGovern, noted that the sacristy had several doors for entrance and exit, including one to the outside and another directly to the school. He asked the witness, “Wouldn’t that be a crazy place to rape somebody?”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Stamford Advocate

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 2:21 pm, Wednesday, January 16, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A heroin addict whose complaint helped imprison a Philadelphia archdiocese official came under attack Wednesday, as jurors in a priest-abuse trial learned that he had given three different locations for one alleged rape.

Defense lawyers questioning the gaunt, 24-year-old policeman’s son poked several holes in his accounts, some of which he attributed to years of heavy drug use.

On the stand, he described himself as “semi-comatose … but standing” when he first spoke with a church investigator in 2009.

The witness, with prompting from a counselor, had called the archdiocese from a drug clinic. He ultimately disclosed that two Roman Catholic priests and ex-teacher Bernard Shero had sexually assaulted him in about 1999.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The Vatican is losing €30,000 (nearly $40,000) a day because of a freeze imposed by Italian regulators on bank-card transactions inside Vatican City, the ANSA news agency reports.

Italian banking authorities imposed a freeze on bank-card transactions inside the Vatican on January 1, saying that the Vatican has not yet met European standards designed to prevent money-laundering. The Vatican’s top consultant for banking security, Rene Bruelhart, has expressed surprise at the move, pointing out that the Vatican received a “good” evaluation from European banking examiners last July, and other European countries have expressed no major concerns about Vatican banking practices since the adoption of new security measures last year. The Italian regulators’ move against the Vatican seems to have been prompted by complaints that were lodged before the Vatican’s new security standards were put in place.

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VATICAN CITY
The Economist

Jan 16th 2013, 13:00 by D.L. | ROME

SINCE the beginning of the new year, tourists in Rome who want to visit the Sistine Chapel and see the papal art collections have had to put up with some unholy complications. At the end of a tedious hike from Saint Peter’s square and often lengthy queuing alongside the Vatican’s walls, they are being told that they cannot pay with credit or debit cards. Those without €16 ($21) in cash for an adult ticket have to walk ten minutes to the nearest bank with an ATM. (Cash dispensers in Vatican City are, incidentally, unique in providing the option of instructions in Latin.)

The refusal is the result not of a papal edict banning electronic payments, but of a decision by Italy’s central bank, which doubles as the country’s banking regulator. Payment services in Vatican City have been provided by the Italian arm of Deutsche Bank since 1997, but it did so with out the necessary authorisation. So the Bank of Italy told it to stop processing the payments. It even refused Deutsche’s request for a moratorium.

The reason for central bank’s tough stance is that it has to comply with the European Union’s banking and anti-money-laundering law. This law permits EU banks to operate in non-EU countries only if these have adequate regulatory frameworks and supervisory controls in place. Brussels keeps a list of countries that are considered to satisfy requirements, and the Vatican is not on it.

In July Moneyval, an international body that assesses anti-money-laundering systems, decided that the Vatican’s was not up to snuff—the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR), the Vatican’s bank, has yet to clean up its reputation. The Bank of Italy says that it has been trying to make all banks operating in Italy aware of the situation. “Banking business conducted by IOR cannot benefit from the simplified controls for which EU banks are eligible,” it notes on its website.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

Hamburg. Fast jeder sechste Katholik in Deutschland erwägt nach dem Scheitern einer Studie zur Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs den Austritt aus der Kirche. In der Altersgruppe der 45- bis 59-Jährigen ist es mit 26 Prozent sogar mehr als jeder vierte Katholik, ergab eine am Mittwoch veröffentlichte Forsa-Umfrage im Auftrag von „Christ & Welt“, einer Beilage der Wochenzeitung „Die Zeit“. Demnach verschlechterte sich das Image der Kirche nach der Kündigung der Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kriminologischen Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen (KFN) für 35 Prozent der Befragten weiter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Bing Translator]

Von Daniel Deckers

Professor Christian Pfeiffer war schnell, wie immer. Kaum sah sich die katholische Kirche in Deutschland im Winter 2010 nach den Berichten über sexuelle Übergriffe von Ordensleuten am Berliner Canisius-Kolleg dem Vorwurf ausgesetzt, Täter in ihren Reihen um jeden Preis geschützt zu haben, war der langjährige Direktor des Kriminologischen Forschungsinstituts Niedersachsen (KFN) zur Stelle.

Es sei höchste Zeit für eine breitangelegte Untersuchung über sexuellen Missbrauch durch Priester, ließ er die Öffentlichkeit per Zeitungsartikel und einige Mitglieder der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz per Telefon wissen. Und die Bischöfe ließen sich das nicht zweimal sagen. Sie standen ja mit dem Rücken zur Wand, auch wenn die meisten Taten, die Gegenstand von Berichten wurden, lange zurücklagen und nach Kirchen- wie nach deutschem Strafrecht verjährt waren. Der Öffentlichkeit mussten sie neben Zeichen der Reue auch Werke der Buße präsentieren.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Judy Jones on January 16, 2013

Youngstown Catholic officials kept silent for more than three years about multiple credible child sex accusations against a Catholic school teacher. What else are they hiding?

“Open and transparent.” That’s what Catholic bishops are required to be in child sex cases, according to the official US church abuse policy. What’s ‘open’ about keeping quiet as child sex allegations trickle in – one after the other – against a Catholic school teacher? What’s ‘transparent’ about saying nothing even as settlements are quietly being paid out?

This is the same old, same old.

What did Youngstown officials do – besides say nothing – about this predator? They quietly let him move elsewhere.

The same old, same old.

How many more kids has Brother Baker sexually assaulted over the last three years while Catholic officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania (where he now lives) kept secrets about his crimes?

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on January 16, 2013

Florida’s most notorious predator priest, Fr. Neil Doherty, pled no contest on January 14 to molesting kids. Police and prosecutors built a strong case against him, in part, because of evidence unearthed in more than 20 civil lawsuits against Doherty over the years.

It’s a part of the clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis that few people are aware of: the fact that civil lawsuits can lead to criminal prosecution of predators. Civil litigation enables victims and their advocates to expose long-secret church records as a part of the “discovery” process (including critical evidence—documents, photos, depositions, personnel files—that criminal investigations often overlook). The result: more predators are convicted and kept away from kids.

Civil litigation has led to the arrests of other predators, including Fr. Bruce MacArthur, Fr. A. J. Cote, and Fr. Donald McGuire (the Jesuit who was once Mother Teresa’s confessor). It’s happened at least six times in California alone (with Fr. George Neville Rucker, Fr. Denis Lyons, Fr. Michael Wempe, Fr. Michael Baker, and Fr. Edward Anthony Rodrigue).

Law enforcement authorities are human. They’re often overworked and underpaid. They always have plenty on their plates.

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OHIO
Tribune Chronicle

BRACEVILLE – Two men who said they were abused in the mid-1980s by a Franciscan brother who was baseball coach at John F. Kennedy High School said they have come forward in the hope they can encourage other abuse victims to get help.

The two, who did not want to be publicly involved, spoke at a news conference this afternoon at the Holiday Inn Express.

The two said the sexual abuse took place at the hands of Brother Stephen Baker and that most of the abuse took place when they played baseball for the Eagles and Baker was also the coach and trainer for the program.

The two men and nine others settled claims against the school, the Diocese of Youngstown and a branch of the Franciscan Order in October after a series of meetings in Cleveland in August.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Houston Chronicle

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press | January 16, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The lone accuser in the rape trial of a former Catholic school teacher has given three different locations over the years for the site of the alleged attack.

According to defense questioning Wednesday, the accuser has said the rape occurred in his sixth-grade classroom, outside an apartment complex and near a city park.

The accuser, a 24-year-old policeman’s son, says he was high on heroin when he spoke to the Philadelphia archdiocese in 2009. He says his habit once reached 15 to 20 bags a day.

He accuses two Roman Catholic priests and ex-teacher Bernard Shero of sexually assaulting him in about 1999.

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OHIO
Tribune Chronicle

January 16, 2013

WARREN — The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown said in a written statement this morning that it became aware of sex abuse allegations against Franciscan Brother Stephen P. Baker about two decades after the alleged abuse took place at Warren John F. Kennedy High School.

“Neither the diocese nor John F. Kennedy High School had any knowledge of the allegations of abuse while Brother Baker served the school,” the written statement says.

“Although the abuse is said to have occurred prior to 1991, the allegations were not reported by the former students to the school or the diocese until nearly 20 years later,” the diocese’s written statement says. The diocese said it then reported the matter to Trumbull County Children Services.

Baker sexually abused 11 JFK students as many as 25 times each, according to President Robert Hoatson of Road to Recovery, a nonprofit organization that provides emotional, psychological, financial and spiritual assistance to survivors recovering from sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

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OHIO
Fox Youngstown

A former Warren John F. Kennedy High School religion teacher, sports trainer and baseball coach used his authority positions to tell students they needed massages to avoid injury, then sexually molested them, one as many as 25 times during the late 1980s, a source familiar with the settlements reached in the cases said.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian said Wednesday he negotiated settlements for 11 men who attended JFK High from 1986-1990 that claimed Brother Stephen P. Baker, a baseball coach, religion teacher and athletic trainer during his tenure at JFK, molested.

Garabedian said some of the men, who were between 14-18 when they were molested, are now all between 36 and 40 years old and live in places ranging from Massachusetts to Nevada. Garabedian said some went on to become successful businessmen.

Garabedian said a 12th man has since contacted him claiming he was also abused by Baker.

Brother Baker, reached at about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday in his room at St. Bernadine’s monastery in Newry, Pa., about seven miles south of Altoona, said he was shocked when alerted of the accusations in a brief phone interview with the newsroom. The Diocese of Youngstown said on Wednesday Baker was living there under strict supervision and is not teaching or involved in any public ministry.

“I’m flabbergasted,” Brother Baker said. “I’ll have to ask my superiors if I can say anything.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Gary Macy | Jan. 16, 2013

Editor’s note: After our editorial “Correct an injustice: Ordain women” (NCR, Dec. 7-20), several readers asked us to provide more background on some of the issues raised by the editorial. This is the second in an occasional series of articles looking at these issues. The first article (NCR, Jan. 4-17) looked at the history of women in leadership roles in the development of the church up to the fifth century. This article picks up from the fifth century.

Two points are important to make about the development of leadership roles in the church in the period from the fifth to the 13th centuries. First, the definition of ordination changed radically during the 12th century. Second, women were considered capable of ordination up until the 13th century. This having been said, it is important to understand what ordination meant from the fifth to the 13th centuries. Only then can we understand what it meant to ordain women during that period.

During the first millennium of Christianity, ordination meant election by and installation of a person to perform a particular function in a Christian community. Not only bishops, priests, deacons and subdeacons but also of porters, lectors, exorcists, acolytes, canons, abbots, abbesses, kings, queens and empresses were all considered equally ordained. This makes perfect sense. An ordo (order) was a group in the church (or society) that had a particular job or vocation. In fact, any job or vocation was called an “order,” and the process by which one was chosen and designated for that vocation was an “ordination.”

To quote Cardinal Yves Congar, the French Dominican theologian who died in 1995 at age 91, “Ordination encompassed at the same time election as its starting point and consecration as its term. But instead of signifying, as happened from the beginning of the 12th century, the ceremony in which an individual received a power henceforth possessed in such a way that it could never be lost, the words ordinare, ordinari, ordinatio signified the fact of being designated and consecrated to take up a certain place, or better a certain function, ordo, in the community and at its service.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Newsworks

[Click here for the story]

By Shannon McDonald

My very best friends today are the people I went to grade school with. In 1998, we were passing notes in class and testing the authority of our new sixth-grade teacher, Bernard Shero. In early 2011, we were exchanging frenetic text messages as Shero’s face popped on seemingly every TV screen in America. He and three priests from our Northeast Philadelphia parish had been named in a grand jury report for having allegedly sexually abused minors.

But since then, we’ve been relatively silent about it all. It’s come up a few times in conversations, especially when we run into old classmates we’ve lost touch with. Despite having spent our childhoods surrounded by these men, none of us has much to say.

We weren’t victims, fortunately, and so it almost feels unreal. There’s a sense of shock, not because of the ardent Catholic faith some of my friends have, or because we’d never have expected these accusations. What’s most shocking to me is that while I spent so many lunch periods with my friends groaning about Shero making us read The Phanton Tollbooth, somewhere in that same building, some of my schoolmates suffered in silence.

Shero is accused of offering a 10-year-old boy a ride home from school one day and then driving him to a neighborhood park and anally raping him. That boy is a year younger than me, one of probably 50 males in his class that year. Maybe he lived on my block, served at a mass I attended. He has not been named, but I must know him. He’s not the only alleged victim, and Shero isn’t the only accused.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 16, 2013

An accused predator priest, who quit his job in Philadelphia last week also worked in Pittsburgh. Now, a support group for clergy sex abuse victims wants Pittsburgh Catholic officials to “aggressively seek out others who may have been hurt by him.”

He is Fr. Michael Ledoux, a priest of the Franciscan order who for the past nine years has been working in an administrative role at Widener University in Chester, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. Years before, Fr. Ledoux had been assigned to a parish in Derry, NH where he had been accused of abusing a young boy in the late 1980’s. The claim was found credible, a settlement was paid, and Fr. Ledoux’s supervisors pledged to keep him away from young people.

But until Philadelphia Inquirer raised questions about Fr. Ledoux last week, he was working as a Widener dean.

[Click here for the story.]

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are asking Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik to seek out others who may have been hurt by Fr. Ledoux while he worked in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and to do more than the “bare minimum.”

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

by Patricia Lefevere | Jan. 16, 2013

Newark, N.J. —
About 150 parishioners from St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Elizabeth, N.J., traveled by caravan Jan. 6 to Sacred Heart Cathedral here in an effort to reverse an order by Archbishop John Myers that the four priests living in their parish rectory vacate this month.

The archbishop’s order — which parishioners view as an eviction notice and a summary dismissal of hard-working clergy without recognition of their longtime contribution to the church and the people of Elizabeth — was delivered to three of the priests by telephone the week before Christmas.

The pastor, Msgr. Robert Harrington, 67, said he received a letter from Myers in July notifying him that he was to leave at year’s end for health reasons.

“I have no idea why they wanted to clean house on the others,” he told NCR by telephone Jan. 6, while packing his belongings. Later this month he will move to Brighton Gardens assisted living facility in Mountainside, N.J.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Sam McKeith, AAP
Updated January 16, 2013

The head of the royal commission into child sex abuse says he will not hesitate to investigate alleged assaults that are the subject of confidentiality agreements.

Fronting the media with his five co-commissioners for the first time since they were appointed last week, Justice Peter McClellan said non-disclosure agreements would not stop the commission inquiring into institutional responses to child sex assault.

He indicated the likelihood of a lengthy wait for victims and their families anticipating the start of public hearings, saying the evidence gathering process would take months.

“Our task is complex and it will take significant time,” Justice McClellan said.

“It may be some months before the progress of the commission is apparent to the public.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Media Statement from Justice Peter McClellan AM – Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Our purpose in meeting with you this afternoon is to briefly explain how the Commission will approach its work in accordance with the Letters Patent and the steps which must be taken before the Commission can commence the process of gathering evidence.

The Royal Commission has been charged with examining the sexual abuse of children in the context of institutions throughout Australia. Having regard to what is already publicly known of these problems the task before the Commission is large. However, until the Commission has commenced its work and people come forward to give us an account of their personal circumstances we cannot gauge the full extent of that task. In recognition of the complexity of the issues which the Commission must examine the government has appointed six commissioners. Each of us has different backgrounds, professional experience, qualifications and expertise. We live in different regions of Australia. To assist the Commission in its work we understand that the government proposes to amend the Royal Commissions Act to provide that the Commissioners need not all sit when conducting a formal hearing. If that legislative change is made the Commission will utilise this capacity in an endeavour to gain a complete understanding of the problems in various parts of Australia in the most efficient manner possible. Even with this legislative change our task is complex and will take significant time.

It is important to understand that the Commission is not a prosecuting body. Our investigative processes will be utilised to receive and consider what we expect will be accounts by individuals who tell of their experience when living within or when they were associated with an institution. The Commission will be concerned to examine these individual accounts to determine how the circumstances arose, the relevant management practices of the institution in which they occurred and the response which the institution has made to any complaint of sexual abuse by an individual. Because the Commission is not a prosecuting body it will establish links with the appropriate authorities in each State and Territory to whom a matter may be referred with the expectation that where appropriate prosecutorial proceedings may commence. It is also important to understand that the Commission is not charged with determining whether any person may be entitled to compensation for any injury which they may have suffered.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

THE royal commission into child sex abuse will have the power to over-ride confidentiality agreements, potentially exposing protected religious leaders.

In a move welcomed by victims groups, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan yesterday said he would not hesitate to exercise legal powers to “compel the production of evidence”.

The clarification comes after public concern that victims with non-disclosure agreements with institutions would not be able to tell their stories.

“Under the Royal Commission Act, the commission has powers to compel the production of evidence, including documents, and we will not hesitate in an appropriate case to exercise those powers,” Justice McClellan said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MILANDA ROUT and RICK MORTON
From:The Australian
January 17, 2013

THE head of Julia Gillard’s royal commission into child sex abuse has issued a fiery opening warning to churches, state governments and other institutions that he will not let them hide behind confidentiality agreements with their victims.

In his first public statement as chair of the commission, judge Peter McClellan said the inquiry expected full co-operation and it would “not hesitate” to use its powers to force reluctant organisations to provide evidence or hand over documents.

He also warned the public the task facing the commission was immense and it would take many months before they could even “gauge the full extent” of the work required to examine institutional responses to child sex abuse.

Joined by his fellow five commissioners at a press conference in Sydney, Justice McClellan said there was considerable public debate about confidentiality agreements and whether the commission had the powers to overturn them. It followed concerns expressed by victims groups, revealed in The Australian, that survivors may not be able to testify if they had signed non-disclosure clauses as part of any settlement.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

January 17, 2013

Harriet Alexander

THE head of the royal commission into child sexual abuse has described the task facing the body as ”huge” after the six commissioners met for the first time in Sydney on Wednesday.

Justice Peter McClellan said in order to run it as efficiently as possible, the government would amend the Royal Commission Act to allow hearings to take place without all commissioners present. Some hearings may need to be private to protect victims.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his appointment on Friday, Justice McClellan also sought to allay concerns some matters may be excluded from examination because of confidentiality agreements.

”We wish to emphasise that under the Royal Commission Act, the commission has powers to compel the production of evidence including documentation and we will not hesitate in appropriate circumstances to exercise those powers,” he said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Bischof Stephan Ackermann, hat den Abbruch des Forschungsprojekts zum sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche bedauert, zugleich aber die Haltung der Bischöfe verteidigt.

Die Kündigung des Vertrags mit dem Kriminologischen Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen von Christian Pfeiffer sei ein Rückschlag und bedeute eine massive Enttäuschung für die Opfer, räumte der Trierer Bischof am Montag im Interview mit Spiegel online ein. Die Aufarbeitung des Skandals sei aber nicht gescheitert, weil die Bischöfe das Projekt fortführen wollten und andere Untersuchungen erfolgreich abgeschlossen worden seien.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Aktuell

[Google Translate]

Die Mehrheit der Deutschen zweifelt einer Forsa-Umfrage zufolge am Aufklärungswillen der katholischen Kirche beim Thema sexueller Missbrauch.

75 Prozent der Befragten seien der Meinung, die Kirche wolle eine vollständige Aufklärung verhindern, geht aus der am Mittwoch veröffentlichten Erhebung im Auftrag der “Zeit”-Beilage “Christ & Welt” hervor. Nur 17 Prozent der Befragten glaubten, dass die katholische Kirche die Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs, an denen Geistliche beteiligt sind, wirklich aufarbeiten will. Für die Umfrage wurden Mitte Januar 1.009 Bundesbürger befragt.

Wie die Forsa-Studie weiter zeigt, gibt es offenbar einen wachsenden Imageverlust der katholischen Kirche. 35 Prozent der Befragten erklären den Angaben zufolge, dass sich nach dem Streit um die Missbrauchs-Studie in der vergangenen Woche ihr Bild von der Institution verschlechtert habe. 16 Prozent der Kirchenmitglieder erwägten sogar einen Austritt. Besonders groß sei die Enttäuschung in der Altersgruppe der 45- bis 59-Jährigen: Mit 26 Prozent fanden sich in diesem Segment die meisten Austrittswilligen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Humanistischer Pressedienst

BONN. (hpd) Die Pressemitteilung, mit der die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz am 09. Januar 2013 die Kündigung des Forschungsvertrages mit Prof. Pfeiffer bekannt gab, hatte den Titel „Deutsche Bischofskonferenz will kriminologisches Forschungsprojekt zum Thema sexueller Missbrauch mit neuem Partner durchführen“. Wie soll das gehen?

Leider bleiben die deutschen Bischöfe und der Missbrauchsbeauftragte Stephan Ackermann seitdem die Antwort auf die Frage schuldig, wie das Forschungsprojekt überhaupt sinnvoll fortgeführt werden soll. Denn die vom Kirchenrecht vorgeschriebene Geheimhaltung und Aktenvernichtung scheint mit den Zielsetzungen des Projektes nicht vereinbar:

Das Forschungsprojekt verfolgte fünf Zielsetzungen, die erste davon: „belastbare Zahlen“ zum sexuellen Missbrauch zu erbringen.

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