ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
SBS

[with video]

Source AAP

The first public hearings of the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse began today in Sydney.

WHY IS IT HAPPENING?

The main aim of the royal commission is to investigate systemic failures within church and state-run institutions relating to child sexual abuse and related matters.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the terms of a Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse.

A joint statement from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Mr Dreyfus and Families and Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin said the commission hearings would “mark the start of a healing process for survivors and their families”.

“The royal commission will enable thousands of Australians who suffered as children to recount their experiences and express feelings that many carry to this day as a result of the harm caused to them,” they said in the statement.

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AUSTRALIA
The Journal (Ireland)

AN AUSTRALIAN INQUIRY into church and institutional child abuse began public hearings earlier today with warnings that widespread and “shocking” allegations would be heard against places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools.

Justice Peter McClellan opened the hearings in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, announced by the government last November, saying that thousands of people had so far come forward.

“It is now well known that the sexual abuse of children has been widespread in the Australian community, however the full range of institutions in which it has occurred is not generally understood,” McClellan said in an address.

“Many of the stories we are hearing will shock many people.”

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AUSTRALIA
NZWeek

By Joseph A. Cambra Updated 16/09/2013

A national inquiry conducted by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse opened its first public hearing Monday in Sydney for a long-time issue of church and institutional child sexual abuse cases, a media release from the commission said Monday.

The inquiry was commissioned by the federal government to investigate allegations of systemic abuse within religious and state-run institutions, local media ABC News said.

New South Wales (NSW) state’s Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan has been appointed to lead the royal commission into national child sexual abuse cases earlier this year, with the support from five other commissioners.

According to the chief executive of the commission, Janette Dines, many stories hearing during the inquiry will shock people.

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AUSTRALIA
Jacaranda FM

16 September 2013

More than 500 victims of child sexual abuse in Australian institutions will tell their stories to a public inquiry which began in Sydney today.

The chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, warned that many testimonies would shock people.

McClellan had already heard 400 adult witnesses give their evidence behind closed doors, and the commission will now hear from 500 child abuse victims in open hearings.

“It is reported to us that when it occurs in residential institutions, sexual abuse is almost always accompanied by almost unbelievable levels of physical violence inflicted on the children by the adults who have responsibility for their welfare,” McClellan said at the start of the public hearings.

“Many have thought of suicide and some have attempted it,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Advocate

By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 15, 2013

HE buried a son in August last year and became the dignified grieving father who called for a royal commission.

One year later retired Newcastle solicitor Louis Pirona still grieves, but the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse holding its first public hearings in Sydney on Monday acknowledges his son’s life and death mattered.

‘‘It honours people like John who are part of that tragic cohort of victims of child sexual abuse, where so many have taken their lives,’’ Mr Pirona said.

‘‘If John was here he would be pleased to know he played a significant part in it coming to pass.’’

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

[with video]

(NECN) – A survivor of abuse at the hands of a church choir director is speaking out after receiving a settlement from the Archdiocese of Boston.

Hervay Gerard says the director, Emmett O’Brien, began abusing him back in the 1960s when he was 10 years old, and the abuse continued for years.

He says he hopes talking about this case will give courage to other victims of sexual abuse.

“It’s time for the church to stop condoning criminal activity by keeping quiet about it. It’s time to let the victims heal by acknowledging that they have responsibility for what happened 40 years ago,” Gerard says.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

JOHN MEAGHER – 14 SEPTEMBER 2013

In the middle years of the 1950s, my father earned a few pennies by tending to the gardens of Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co Tipperary. Run by Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, it was a place where so-called “fallen women” were kept and to this day, he recalls the unmistakable sound of sobbing that could be discerned behind the grey stone walls.

There is a chance that one of the women he heard crying was Philomena Lee. Originally from Limerick, she became pregnant in 1952 and, on telling her appalled family, she was placed in the care of the nuns at Sean Ross.

Philomena was just 18 and like many unmarried expectant mothers at the time she was considered a moral degenerate in an Irish society that was ruled with an iron fist by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.

Sean Ross was one of numerous church-run institutions set up to keep unmarried mothers out of sight and mind, and Philomena would spend three arduous years there in what, effectively, amounted to incarceration.

But that was nothing compared with the heartache she would suffer when, in 1955, her son Anthony was removed from her care by the nuns, and put up for adoption. She was not allowed to say goodbye to him, but managed to catch a glimpse of him being bundled into a black car and driven away.

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INDIA
Times of India

JAIPUR: A woman has filed an FIR alleging she was molested by a priest who runs a popular ashram in Jhunjhunu district’s Bagad area.

She said the priest had lured her into a room at the Pabudham ashram in Bagad on the pretext of performing special prayers. Police said the woman belongs to Mahendragarh in Haryana.

“The ashram is very popular in the area,” said a police officer. “In her complaint lodged on Saturday, the woman alleged she had been frequenting the ashram for the past seven to eight years. When she went there last week, ashram priest Mal Singh asked her to come into a room there and molested her.”

The officer said the accused tore the woman’s clothes and tried to strip her. “She says she escaped from the room,” he said. “When she was leaving, he threatened to cast black magic on her.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Star

By Ciaran Hannah/Published 15th September 2013

Guy Marsden, 59, is writing a book with broadcaster and author Tony Horne about his disgraced uncle.

Now Savile’s circle of celebrity pals are living in fear of being named in the book.

Guy will reveal fresh details of the secret paedophile parties the BBC star hosted, some attended by his showbiz friends.

He will claim that Savile had influential members of the British legal system in his back pocket to allow him to act without fear of prosecution.

And he will also expose Savile’s secret links with members of foreign royal families – suggesting he could have abused countless victims from overseas.

Roofer Guy from Leeds, West Yorks, ­decided to write the book after staying silent for years over the Jim’ll Fix It star’s ­ shameful secret life.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The head of NSW community services and both former and current executives of Scouts Australia are to be called as witnesses at the royal commission into child sexual abuse sitting in Sydney.

The first public hearings open on Monday morning with all six commissioners hearing evidence from victims and organisations in relation to convicted pedophile and former Scouts master Steve “Skip” Larkins who is in jail for child pornography offences.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at how organisations dealt with complaints about Larkins, who was head of a foster care service for Aboriginal children up to 2011 even though the Scouts had received complaints about him in the 1990s.

A witness list published by the commission includes former Scout commissioner Bill Metcalfe and former Scout leader and whistleblower Armand Hoitink, as well as other Scout notables including Alan Currie.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Richard Chambers
Sunday 15 September 2013

Enda Kenny says reforms are underway

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told a major European conference on child abuse and neglect that Ireland still has a problem with the abuse of children.

He says that although over a dozen reports have shone a light on the failings of the past, such abuse doesn’t go away entirely.

Mr Kenny said: “It is the lingering dark stain on the rich fabric of our humanity. It is an evil which persists. Child abuse is pervasive – it is a devastating fact that children all over the world are subject to physical, sexual or emotional ill-treatment or neglect.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

15 SEPTEMBER 2013

The number of referrals to child protection services in Ireland increased by nearly a quarter last year, it was revealed.

The rise has put a huge strain on services already under pressure, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny added.

It follows a series of critical reports which chronicled decades of abuse by the religious orders.

The Taoiseach said: “Child abuse hasn’t gone away. It doesn’t go away.

“It is the lingering dark stain on the rich fabric of our humanity.

“It is an evil which persists.”

Already increased awareness has resulted in a substantial increase in referrals to the child protection
services, up by nearly a quarter in 2012 alone.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

FIVE men are taking legal action against a Sydney-based Catholic order alleging they were abused as schoolboys by a priest who remains with the organisation despite church leaders having known for decades about similar allegations against him.

The alleged victims of the priest, who has not been convicted of any offence, say they are concerned about his role managing the order’s archives and that he may have access to children.

The national royal commission into child abuse, which begins hearing public evidence today, will rely heavily on documents supplied by the Catholic Church, having issued it with about 40 separate notices to produce such files.

Many of the former schoolboys said they had confidence to begin legal proceedings only after the royal commission was announced and hoped it would help end a culture of silence.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 15, 2013

DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Peter Fox has no regrets.

‘‘Someone’s got to be the sacrifice,’’ he said on the anniversary of the day he told a public meeting in Newcastle that NSW Police alone could not achieve justice for the victims of historic child sexual abuse.

An open letter to Premier Barry O’Farrell in the Newcastle Herald on November 8 last year led to an appearance on the ABC’s Lateline, the announcement of a NSW commission of inquiry on November 9, and a federal royal commission on November 12.

‘‘It’s taken a huge toll on me and my family,’’ Inspector Fox said of his 13 days of evidence at the NSW inquiry and strong criticism from some of the serving police officers.

His police career is finished, but he takes comfort from the support he has received from victims, their families and the public.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON Sept. 15, 2013

WHEN Gary walks into the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault, he feels like he leaves an alien world behind.

“I feel like I’m in a trusted environment. I don’t have to watch my back all the time,” Gary said.

Gary, who didn’t want his last name used, was a victim of clergy sexual abuse and spent many years in his shell.

But when he heard a news bulletin announcing the perpetrator had been sentenced to 14 years’ jail, he was literally shocked into action.

“I nearly had a heart attack. I got the shock of my life.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

ELAINE KEOGH – 15 SEPTEMBER 2013

A PRIEST has hit out at what he called, “the murkiness of the devious world of ecclesiastical politics,” at his final mass before he begins a ‘sabbatical.’

Close to 1,500 people, including members of the Muslim and Bahai faiths, attended Fr Iggy O’Donovan’s final mass at the Augustinian Church in Drogheda today, and heard the Mayor claim that “ultra conservative” elements have forced the Augustinian’s to “push” Fr Iggy out of Drogheda.

While Fr Iggy has denied reports he has been silenced by the Church hierarchy in Rome, many see the decision to move him from Drogheda to Limerick, where he will be on sabbatical, as a move taken in response to complaints about his liturgy.

Fr Iggy, who is known for encouraging young people and other members of the community to take part in the mass, made international headlines in 2006 when he concelebrated Easter Sunday mass with the Church of Ireland clergyman the Reverend Michael Graham.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

15.09.2013 · Der Limburger Bischof Tebartz-van Elst hat sich dazu bereit erklärt, alle Kosten für die umstrittenen Baumaßnahmen auf dem Domberg offenzulegen und überprüfen zu lassen. Darauf haben sich Bischof und Domkapitel zum Abschluss des Besuchs von Kardinal Lajolo geeinigt.
Von DANIEL DECKERS

Der Limburger Bischofs Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst muss sein Finanzgebaren im Zusammenhang mit dem Bau seines Bischofshauses lückenlos und überprüfbar offenlegen. In einer gemeinsamen Erklärung von Bischof und Domkapitel, die am Samstag unter Vermittlung von Kurienkardinal Giovanni Lajolo beschlossen wurde, sichert der Bischof zu, „dass er alle Kosten für die Baumaßnahme auf dem Domberg umgehend im Bischöflichen Ordinariat feststellen lassen und der Sonderprüfung einer Kommission zugänglich machen wird, die er beim Vorsitzenden der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz erbeten hat“. Der Abschlussbericht der Kommission, der alle Kosten, die Finanzierung und die eingeschlagenen Verfahrenswege überprüft und erfasst, werde offengelegt.

Desweiteren heißt es in der Erklärung, der Bischof habe „erneut seinen festen Willen zum Ausdruck gebracht, bei der Leitung der Diözese von den Beratungsorganen regelmäßigen und verlässlichen Gebrauch zu machen, die dafür im allgemeinen und partikularen Kirchenrecht vorgesehen sind. Das Domkapitel – eines jener Beratungsorgane – werde dem Wunsch von Papst Franziskus entsprechen und „diesen Weg des Bischofs aufmerksam und loyal begleiten“. Im Übrigen vertraue der Bischof darauf, dass die Konferenzen und Räte auf diesem Weg dazu beitrügen, „die anstehenden Probleme im Geist der Offenheit und der Geschwisterlichkeit zu lösen“.

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GERMANY
GlobalPost

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) – A German Catholic bishop accused by critics of being an autocrat and lavish spender has agreed to let an outside commission audit his finances after a rare week-long visit by a Vatican monitor.

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, whose costly new residence is out of step with Pope Francis’s stress on simplicity and poverty, also pledged to work more closely with his diocesan advisors.

Tebartz-van Elst and Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, a Vatican diplomat examining the diocese that includes Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt, celebrated Mass together on Sunday before the Italian prelate was to return to Rome and report to the pope.

“The final report of the commission, which will examine and include all costs, finances and procedures involved, will be disclosed publicly,” Tebartz-van Elst pledged in a joint statement with his cathedral chapter of close advisors.

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CHILE
Criterio

El cardenal chileno Francisco Javier Errázuriz rechazó la millonaria indemnización que exigieron al Arzobispado de Santiago tres víctimas de abusos sexuales por parte de un influyente sacerdote capitalino

domingo, 15 de septiembre de 2013

El cardenal chileno Francisco Javier Errázuriz rechazó la millonaria indemnización que exigieron al Arzobispado de Santiago tres víctimas de abusos sexuales por parte de un influyente sacerdote capitalino.

En entrevista con el diario La Tercera, publicada este domingo, el prelado dijo que puede entender “el gravísimo daño sufrido” por las víctimas del presbítero Fernando Karadima, pero se preguntó “por qué razón no le pidieron la indemnización a él”.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

Errázuriz se pregunta por qué denunciantes no pidieron indemnización a Karadima

El arzobispo emérito de Santiago, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, se refirió a la indemnización que solicitaron las víctimas de Fernando Karadima al Arzobispado de Santiago y expresó que puede entender “el gravísimo daño sufrido” pero que no sabe “por qué razón no le pidieron la indemnización al sacerdote Karadima”.

A pocos días de partir a Roma a integrar el grupo de los ocho cardenales que el papa Francisco nombró para modificar la Curia, el religioso señaló: “Puedo entender que estas tres víctimas busquen obtener una indemnización por el gravísimo daño sufrido, porque, efectivamente, al escuchar sus testimonios se siente su tremendo dolor”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Sun, Sep 15, 2013

In a homily delivered in Drogheda this morning Augustinian priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan criticised the role of right-wing Catholics and career-oriented clergy in persecuting Irish priests recently silenced by the Vatican.

The Drogheda-based priest who has been offered a sabbatical by his superiors offered his support to Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery during his final homily at St Augustines in Drogheda.

“I cannot leave here today without making some reference to a distinguished colleague of mine in the priesthood. I speak of Fr Tony Flannery. If I had not been made aware first hand of the details of this case I could not have given it credance,” he said.

“Even hardened veterans are shaken by the murkiness of the devious world of ecclesiastical politics. How has it come to this, that a great and good priest like Tony, who has dedicated his life to the preaching of the Gospel, is persecuted with a zeal that is as pathological as the paranoia that feeds it?”

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SCOTLAND
Stirling Observer

Sep 15 2013

Disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien should stay away from Scotland for the good of the Catholic Church, according to his successor.

Monsignor Leo Cushley, who is taking over as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said that although he is a free man, it would be “wiser” for him not to return.

Cardinal O’Brien stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

He issued an apology, saying ”there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me”.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Public Hearing – Case Study 1

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold a public hearing in Sydney on Monday 16 September 2013.

The webcast will be made available here from Monday 16 September

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Child abuse survivor Tony Nolan explains why he believes it’s important to speak up, as the Royal Commission on Child abuse prepares to hold its first hearings in Sydney.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 15, 2013

HE buried a son in August last year and became the dignified grieving father who called for a royal commission.

One year later retired Newcastle solicitor Louis Pirona still grieves, but the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse holding its first public hearings in Sydney on Monday acknowledges his son’s life and death mattered.

‘‘It honours people like John who are part of that tragic cohort of victims of child sexual abuse, where so many have taken their lives,’’ Mr Pirona said.

‘‘If John was here he would be pleased to know he played a significant part in it coming to pass.’’

John Pirona, 43, father of two and NSW Fire Brigade officer, committed suicide in July last year after ‘‘Too much pain’’ from sexual abuse by notorious paedophile priest John Denham.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 15, 2013

View the Royal Commission webcast here

TWO men preyed on vulnerable Hunter children for decades despite allegations to government departments, but only one case is before the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse starting on Monday.

The case of jailed former Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services chief executive Steven Larkins will open the first public hearings of the Royal Commission in Sydney.

The case of the second jailed man, self-appointed ‘‘volunteer carer’’ Robert Holland, ended in 2009 when he died after a court heard authorities failed to act on allegations he was sexually abusing children in his care, including Aboriginal children.

Now two female victims of Holland are accusing the NSW government of further betrayal over compensation.

The women were repeatedly sexually abused by Holland in the 1980s while he received government funding for being their ‘‘carer’’.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 15, 2013

ONE year ago exactly, on September 16, hundreds of people gathered in Newcastle and called for a royal commission into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and other institutions.

They stood outside Panthers up to an hour before the meeting started. They carried in extra chairs to cope with the numbers.

They supported the family of John Pirona, whose suicide in July last year after “too much pain” from being sexually abused as a child by Hunter priest John Denham was the catalyst for the Newcastle Herald’s Shine the Light campaign for a royal commission.

They cried as Mr Pirona’s widow Tracey and father Lou laid bare their grief. They cheered as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox sent a message to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell – that police alone could not achieve justice for Australian victims of historic child sexual abuse.

And two months later the hundreds at Panthers on that day, the thousands more who supported the Herald’s campaign, and the tens of thousands across the country who echoed the Hunter’s rallying cry, achieved that goal.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

At almost 12 months since the Royal Commission was announced by former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, public hearings will commence tomorrow. The battle will begin.

As churches sharpen their financial swords, others sharpen their pens. There will be much comment, especially on the style of the hearings format. Will it be officious? Will it state a point of view in the wake of six months of hearing evidence from the small group of selected victims? Will it explain why it has chosen to begin with the Larkins case (see previous posting)?

Expect some crowing from the churches that it is not only them that have problems with covering up child sexual abuse. Expect some damage control statements from the NSW government concerning revelations about the handing of the Larkins case by its Department of Community Services, especially since the Minister is currently under siege for other matters.

Will the full complement of six commissioners fill the bench? Will there be one or more selected commissioners? Some insight will be given to how the work is being distributed among the six commissioners.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

A Question of Conscience Tony Flannery Foreword by Mary McAleese Londubh Books, €14.99, pbk, 160 pages

DERMOT KEOGH – 14 SEPTEMBER 2013

Available with free P&P on www.kennys.ie or by calling 091 709350

Written by the well known Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery, this book ought to be his reflections on more than 40 years’ service to the Gospel and to the Catholic community in Ireland.

During that time, Fr Flannery preached tirelessly at parish and school retreats around the country, holding novenas in towns and cities that frequently attracted large congregations to usually empty churches. In the process he became one of the best known and most valued spiritual leaders in the country among ordinary Catholics.

That’s what this book should have been about – his service to the Catholic community in Ireland and what that has taught him.

Instead, this slim volume, with a foreword by former President Mary McAleese, chronicles Fr Flannery’s painful journey since February 2012 when he was ‘silenced’ by the Vatican. Being ‘silenced’ means he was forbidden from saying Mass, hearing confessions, conducting retreats, leading novenas or otherwise practising his ministry as a priest.

So one of the best-known and most-valued priests in Ireland, a man regarded with respect and affection by so many Catholics here, has been stopped in his tracks – his life’s mission brought to an abrupt halt.

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SCOTLAND
Scotland on Sunday

by STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on the 15 September 2013

THE Catholic Church in Scotland will slowly rebuild its reputation which has been shattered by recent scandals according to Monsignor Leo Cushley, who this week will become the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

However, the veteran Vatican diplomat who has been sent to Scotland following the resignation in disgrace of Cardinal Keith O’Brien said there will be no “quick fix”.

In an exclusive interview with Scotland on Sunday ahead of his installation at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh on Saturday, the archbishop elect insisted the Catholic laity and the wider Scottish public can separate the crimes of paedophile monks and priests and the sins of the cardinal from the many priests who diligently serve their communities.

“I think quick solutions are not our style and I don’t think they usually fix very much anyway,” he said. “My own way will be to do it the way I have been made. I will do it quietly and patiently by building and rebuilding relationships with individuals, which will take a while. Apart from some things where we need to do some housekeeping, and housekeeping is a different matter, I think it will come through the best of what we have.

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SCOTLAND
Huffington Post

Disgraced Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien should stay away from Scotland, his sucessor has warned, after allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

He stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations against him, and has since left the country at the request of the Vatican for a period of ”spiritual renewal and reflection”. He issued an apology, saying ”there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me”.

Monsignor Leo Cushley, who is taking over as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said that although he is a free man, it would be “wiser” for him not to return.

Mgr Cushley, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Programme, said: “He is a free man in a free country so he can come back if we wants but the Holy See will be the ones to ask him to do whatever it is they intend.

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

THE new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has said he does not believe his disgraced predecessor, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, should return to Scotland.

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent 15 Sep 2013

The cardinal, who admitted sexual misconduct with priests after resigning earlier this year, was ordered by the Vatican to leave Scotland in May for a period of spiritual renewal and penance.

He stood down following allegations made by three priests and a former priest of “inappropriate” behaviour in the 1980s, and later admitted his sexual conduct had “fallen beneath the standards” expected of him.

Monsignor Leo Cushley, a veteran Vatican diplomat who will be installed as the new archbishop on Saturday, said it was “not impossible” that the cardinal would return to Scotland one day, but he did not believe it was likely or desirable.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme: “He is a free man in a free country so he can come back if we wants. But the Holy See will be the one to ask him to do whatever it is they intend.

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SCOTLAND
Sunday Mail

DISGRACED Cardinal Keith O’Brien should stay away from Scotland for the good of the Catholic Church, according to his successor.

Monsignor Leo Cushley, who is taking over as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said that although he is a free man, it would be “wiser” for him not to return.

Cardinal O’Brien stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

He issued an apology, saying “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me”.

Following his resignation, he stated that he would play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland and has since left the country for a period of “spiritual renewal and reflection”.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The new Catholic archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has said he does not believe his disgraced predecessor should return to Scotland.

Monsignor Leo Cushley will formally replace Cardinal Keith O’Brien in the role on Saturday.

The cardinal resigned in February after admitting sexual misconduct, and was told by the Vatican to leave Scotland.

Mgr Cushley also said he did not believe an independent investigation into Cardinal O’Brien was necessary.

The cardinal stood down following allegations by three priests and a former priest of improper sexual contact in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

BY PHILIPPA MCDONALD AND REBECCA ARMITAGE – ABC
September 15, 2013

The actions of one man in particular will be a major focus of the first public hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney this week.

The commission is examining how organisations including Scouts Australia, Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services (HACS) and the then Department of Community Services “responded to information and allegations concerning” Steven ‘Skip’ Larkins.

Larkins, the former chief of HACS, is currently in jail. In August 2012 he was convicted of four counts of possessing child pornography.

According to District Court judge Peter Berman, the appeal judge in his matter, Larkins’s thumb drive contained 40 pornographic videos.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Philippa McDonald and Rebecca Armitage

Make no mistake, few institutions caring for children in Australia are likely to be spared the scrutiny of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Public hearings begin in Sydney tomorrow and the commission’s chief Janette Dines says it will look “very broadly at institutions”.

“We’re looking at all sorts of institutions that have responsibility to look after children, and this week there are five institutions whose conduct will be examined,” she said.

They include Scouts Australia, a New South Wales Government department, the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Service and its former head, Steven Larkins.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

ANNETTE BLACKWELL From: AAP September 15, 2013

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse opens in Sydney on Monday and will focus on how three NSW organisations handled allegations about a convicted pedophile.

Its first public hearing, at the commission offices in Governor Macquarie Tower, will shine the spotlight on branches of Scouts Australia, Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services and the NSW Department of Community Services.

They will be asked what they knew of allegations levelled at convicted pedophile Steve “Skip” Larkins.

The former chief executive of a Newcastle-based foster care agency for Aboriginal children was not revealed as a child sex offender until 2011 when police investigating child pornography claims uncovered sex abuse complaints from the 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

[with video]

By Hannah Belcher

Inside Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney worshippers are at Sunday mass.

Outside, victims of sexual abuse protest in silence, hoping their presence will make passes-by think about the children abused in churches, orphanages, charities and state institutions.

And from Monday, some of Australia’s victims will tell their stories in public for the first time.

‘By having a public hearing you know it has that authority to say “Yes, these things did happen, we must believe them”, says Leonie Sheedy of the Care Leavers Australia Network, an advocacy group for sexually and physically abused orphans.

Sheedy curates a museum filled with memorabilia, donated by victims.

‘Some of them can’t bare to have them in their home because of the memories. It is going to be extremely painful and the nation will be shocked at these stories. But the nation needs to be shocked in order to move forward.’

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[with video]

September 14, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

Questions abound as the royal commission sifts through thousands of cases coming before it.

Brace, brace, brace.

As the royal commission on child sexual abuse starts public hearings, that’s the warning from experts, victims and the commission itself.

The stories to come out at the commission chaired by NSW Judge of Appeal Peter McClellan will shake Australia to its soul.

There will be outrage, disbelief and anger nationwide. There will be lives and reputations broken, household-name institutions brought low, families torn apart, grief and pain in gut-wrenching abundance, apologies galore.

We will learn that what we trusted was not to be trusted. That children who should have been safe were not. That what we thought was an aberration confined to a few sick individuals was – is – widespread.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Cindy Cantrell / Globe Correspondent / September 14, 2013

Cambridge poet and playwright Michael Mack was an 11-year-old altar boy in 1968 when his favorite Catholic priest invited him to the rectory to make a costume for a church play.

The sexual abuse he suffered that day haunted him for decades, ultimately leading to the autobiographical play “Conversations With My Molester: A Journey of Faith,” which he will perform free on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Framingham State University Dwight Performing Arts Center.

In other news, Westborough native and cancer survivor Dave McGrath will lead his third annual Skating for Hope fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge-Worcester beginning at 5 p.m. on Sept. 20 at the College of the Holy Cross Hart Center. More information is available at skatingforhope.org.

Nancy Moorhouse of Natick, an outreach coordinator for the MetroWest region of ReServe Greater Boston, will host a free First Impressions meeting for ages 55 and older seeking meaningful post-retirement positions on Oct. 2, 1:30 to 3 p.m., in Framingham. To learn the location and register, visit reserveinc.org/greaterboston.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

September 15, 2013

If the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton files for bankruptcy it will not be the first U.S. diocese to do so. Likely, it won’t be the last.

In a letter from Bishop Stephen Blaire, the 250,000 parishioners of the Stockton Diocese were warned that there seems no other path given the $18.7 million already paid out to settle 22 molestation lawsuits and the likelihood of more cases ahead.

“… It is important to tell you that options other than bankruptcy protection have not emerged,” Blaire said in his letter. While no final decision has been made, he said, the need for bankruptcy protection “appears likely.”

To the tens of thousands of the faithful in the diocese, this sobering news is not unexpected.

Child abuse litigation has cost the U.S. Catholic Church $3 billion in settlements since the scandal erupted with a series of cases uncovered in Boston in 1992. In the two decades since, case after case has emerged.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moncton has closed its office in the city as it looks for millions of dollars to pay compensation to victims of sexual abuse.

To date, 90 victims have come forward in a confidential compensation process headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Michel Bastarache. There are another 10 or so people who have filed lawsuits against the church and two former priests.

One of the priests accused, Father Camille Leger of Cap Pelé, died 23 years ago. Father Yvon Arsenault was removed from his priestly duties last July.

Archbishop Valery Vienneau said the diocese has managed to cut $400,000 from its annual budget — including $50,000 from closing the diocese in Moncton — but with the pending lawsuits, he said there could be more cutbacks.

“We try to make projections because I know what happened in other dioceses but that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen here. We hope that we will be able to get through this and not go bankrupt,” he said.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Diocese of Moncton is shedding staff and selling off one church property in order to cover the roughly $5 million in compensation owed to victims of sexual abuse.

The diocese has been forced to deal with a series of sexual abuse controversies in the last year.

Retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Michel Bastarache was hired to help deal with the sex abuse compensation process. It is estimated the diocese will pay out $5 million to victims of sexual abuse.

Those bills have caused the diocese to cut the number of staff to 14 from 19. As well, the diocese’s office in Dieppe, which was once the home of the bishop, is being sold because it can no longer afford to pay the annual $50,000 in operating costs.

Archbishop Valéry Vienneau said the diocese’s growing deficit and dropping church attendance factored into the decision to cut staff and sell off the property.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

NICKY LARKIN – 15 SEPTEMBER 2013

THEY live their lonely lives in musty old houses, their only contact baptising babies and anointing the dead. This, according to Fr Tony Flannery, leads the Catholic clergy to temptation.

Last week, Fr Flannery – co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests – said the lonely lives that clergy lead result in an inevitable struggle over sexuality.

Fr Flannery is the first priest to speak openly about the possible link between celibacy and sexual abuse. He questioned whether this has caused some priests to turn to children for sexual outlets. Because of his comments, Fr Flannery has been suspended from duty and is under threat of excommunication from the Vatican.

Over the past decade, fresh cases of clerical sexual abuse have popped up across every parish in the land. This vast cache of dark secrets shook our souls to the core, decimating an already greying Mass-going population.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Authority derives from legitimacy. Credibility derives from transparency. By these definitions, the Royal Commission has fair authority but lesser credibility, for a few reasons, which should be addressed.

Established, under public pressure, by former Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, the commissioners have the backing of the full force of government authority. There were some legitimacy problems, mostly coming from the rushed nature of the commission’s establishment.

This meant that there was no debate on who should be appointed as commissioners. Government has the authority to merely make the appointments. Legitimacy derived from authority, but this is not a democratic principle when it occurs this way round. Dictatorship has authority but no legitimacy.

Another aspect of the rush to set up the Royal Commission, which caused concern, was that less than a week was given for submissions as to the Terms of Reference. This meant, in reality, that only the large organisations with most to lose from revelations, entered submissions. Public debate on issues such as which categories of abuse were to be considered did not occur. There were many other issues of concern to many people, but time constraints were invoked to limit the enquiry to institutional responses and to child sexual abuse within institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 15, 2013

Rory Callinan
Investigative journalist

The paedophile former scoutmaster at the centre of the first royal commission into child abuse was employed as a housemaster by a notorious order of paedophile brothers, Fairfax Media can reveal.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse begins its hearings on Monday, with the activities of former Newcastle scoutmaster Steven Larkins among those to feature.

Larkins, who is serving a 15-month sentence for fraud and possession of child pornography, was able to become chief executive of the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services, in charge of vulnerable children, despite being involved in paedophile activity with scouts in the 1990s.

He was sacked from the CEO’s job after being caught with child pornography in 2011. A further investigation led to him being convicted of falsifying documents that enabled him to work with children despite his paedophile background.

The commission’s hearings are expected to examine how Scouts Australia, Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services and the then Community Services Department responded to the allegations and information about Larkins. …

Whistleblower and former scout leader Armand Hotink, who complained to the scouts about Larkins’ suspected paedophile activities in the 1990s, said he had discovered Larkins was working at Kendall Grange, a school for troubled boys run by the St John of God brothers.

He said he had warned police, who told him they were ”keeping an eye” on Larkins.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Listin Diario

César Medina
lobarnechea1@Hotmail.com

Mientras fue nuncio de su Santidad, Jozef Wesolowski gozaba de inmunidad diplomática por su condición de embajador del Vaticano en el país, protegido por el Tratado de Viena.

No podía ser arrestado aún en el caso de haber sido sorprendido in fraganti en su habitual práctica pedófila. Si ciertamente se marchó del país, pudo haberlo hecho bajo rigurosa protección diplomática.

Y si todavía se encuentra en territorio dominicano, tampoco puede ser arrestado aunque se le formulen acusaciones.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Diario Digital

[Summary: SANTO DOMINGO Dr. Julio Cury said the former Papal Nuncio Jozef Wesolowski could not be tried in the country for pedophilia under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18, 1961, which established immunity for the diplomatic staff of the 174 member countries, which include the State of Vatican City]

SANTO DOMINGO.-El Dr. Julio Cury declaró que el ex nuncio apostólico Jozef Wesolowski no podría ser juzgado en el país por pederastia en virtud de la Convención de Viena sobre Relaciones Diplomáticas del 18 de abril de 1961, la cual consagra inmunidad a favor del personal diplomático de los 174 países miembros, entre los que figura el Estado de la Ciudad del Vaticano.

Consultado al respecto, el jurista manifestó que según el artículo 31 de la indicada convención, los agentes diplomáticos, incluidos los embajadores y nuncios acreditados ante los Jefes de Estado, gozan en el país receptor de inmunidad penal, civil y administrativa. Aclaró, sin embargo, que esa inmunidad no equivale a impunidad, pues nada impide que sean perseguidos por esos mismos hechos ante los tribunales del país acreditante.

“El artículo 26.2 de la Constitución dispone que la República Dominicana reconoce y aplica los instrumentos internacionales que hubiese ratificado, por lo que de que de conformidad con la Convención de Viena sobre Relaciones Diplomáticas, ratificada por nuestro país el 19 de diciembre de 1963 mediante Resolución No. 101, Wesolowski no pudiera ser imputado ante la jurisdicción represiva nacional por ningún ilícito penal que hubiese cometido aquí desde su acreditación y hasta la fecha que se le comunicó a las autoridades ejecutivas el cese de las funciones del ex nuncio”, sostuvo.

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FLORIDA
Miami Herald

BY JAY WEAVER
JWEAVER@MIAMIHERALD.COM

At his Catholic high school, he seemed to have everything going for him: decent grades, lots of friends and a real shot at winning the state wrestling championship in his weight class.

But in his senior year at Monsignor Edward Pace High School, he started skipping school and flunking classes. And he quit the wrestling team.

All to avoid one man: Marist Brother Ken Ward, the Miami Gardens school’s dean of students.

“I would drive from Aventura to Pace, but I couldn’t be there because of him, so I would turn around,” said the former student, now 27. “I was so embarrassed inside because I let him touch me.”

Ward, who was in charge of discipline at the Archdiocese of Miami school, would regularly summon him on the P.A. system to his office and instruct him to undress, according to the former Pace student’s lawsuit filed this month against Ward and the archdiocese. As a ruse, he said, the dean would accuse him of using steroids so he could inspect his muscular body, with the office blinds shut so no one else could see.

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

MIAMI (CBSMiami/The Miami Herald) – A former Catholic high school wrestler and other former students have accused an ex-dean of sexual abuse.

CBS4 news partner, The Miami Herald, spoke with the former wrestler listed as a victim in the case. He is now 27-years-old and the abuse happened when he was a senior at Monsignor Edward Pace High School.

The man known as “John Doe D” was once a said to be a high school wrestling star with a real shot at winning the state wrestling championships in his weight class.

However, during his senior year, the paper reported he quit the team, began flunking classes and skipping school.

He said he did it to avoid one man: Marist Brother Ken Ward, the Miami Gardens school’s dean of students, the paper reported.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

LIMBURG –
Nach mehrtägigen Gesprächen mit Vertretern des Bistums Limburg zum Streit um Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst wird der päpstliche Gesandte Giovanni Lajolo erstmals öffentlich zu den Gläubigen sprechen. Er hält bei einem Festgottesdienst am Sonntag (15. September) in Königstein die Predigt, wie das Bistum mitteilte. In der Taunusstadt feiert die Diözese seit Freitag und noch bis Sonntag ihr traditionelles Kreuzfest. Die Messe wird der Kurienkardinal gemeinsam mit dem Bischof feiern. Mit Spannung wird darauf gewartet, ob Lajolo sich bei dieser Gelegenheit zu seiner Vermittlung und einem eventuellen Ergebnis äußern wird.

Der Kardinal ist seit Montag im Bistum, um sich im Streit um die Amtsführung des Bischofs ein Bild zu machen. Kritiker werfen dem katholischen Kirchenmann einen autoritären Stil und Verschwendung vor. Der Gesandte führte bislang hinter verschlossenen Türen mehrere Gespräche.

Der Frankfurter Stadtdekan Johannes zu Eltz, einer der Kritiker des Bischofs, nannte seine Treffen mit Lajolo in der «Frankfurter Neuen Presse» (Freitag) eine Wohltat. Er habe alle Fragen mit «schonungsloser Offenheit» ansprechen können, sagte er der Zeitung.

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GEORGIA
Statesboro Herald

From staff and wire reports

A Catholic priest in Ohio who once worked in Glennville, Claxton, and Pembroke will stand trial Monday on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old Cincinnati boy he took to West Virginia in August 1991.

The Rev. Robert Poandl, who worked in seven Georgia towns as part of Glenmary Missions out of Fairfield, Ohio, faces federal child sex charges following a Nov. 14 indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, according to the FBI Cincinnati division website, www.fbi.gov/cincinnati.

FBI agents arrested Poandl, also known as “Father Bob,” at the Glenmary Missions campus, where he lives, the day after his indictment was returned.

The crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

According to www.bishop-accountability.org, Poandl pleaded not guilty to the charges Nov. 20 and was released on his own recognizance, placed on house arrest with a GPS monitoring device.

After his arrest, Glenmary Missioners released a statement on their website claiming the charges were related to a June 2009 accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor in 1991 in Spencer, W.Va.

The statement said those charges against Poandl were dismissed by a West Virginia court in August 2010 and his record was expunged.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

September 14, 2013

Sister Janet Mock, a sister of St. Joseph of Baden in Beaver County who is now executive director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Silver Spring, Md., is returning to Pittsburgh to speak Monday.

The title of her talk is “Sense of the Faithful: A View from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.”

The Vatican last year ordered an overhaul of the conference, an umbrella group that represents most of the 68,000 Catholic sisters in the United States. The Vatican has accused the group of doctrinal flaws and failures to promote church teaching, and last year Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain was assigned to oversee the group for up to five years.

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CALIFORNIA
Reuters

By Ronnie Cohen
SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Sep 13, 2013

(Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton, California, is contemplating filing for bankruptcy protection after nearly depleting church funds available to settle sex-abuse claims brought against its clergy, the bishop said on Friday.

The diocese, comprising 250,000 parishioners from California’s Central Valley, is in line to become the 10th U.S. Catholic district to file for Chapter 11 reorganization under the weight of child molestation cases against priests.

“We have exhausted our resources,” Bishop Stephen Blaire told Reuters. “We face three lawsuits and a potential fourth. We have really no money at this time to provide any kind of compensation.”

Child sex-abuse litigation has cost the U.S. Catholic Church some $3 billion in settlements since the scandal surfaced in Boston in 1992 and has driven eight dioceses into bankruptcy since 2004. The diocese of Gallup, New Mexico, has said it plans to become the ninth to file for bankruptcy later this month.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Anglican Diocese of Newcastle is today meeting to vote on a new bishop, after a previous vote failed to reach consensus.

Five candidates, including a woman, nominated for the last vote in March, to replace the retired bishop Brian Farran.

This time round the Northern Territory bishop Greg Thompson is the only candidate vying for the role.

Assistant bishop of the Newcastle Diocese Peter Stuart says about 300 clergy and lay people from across the diocese will attend the Synod to vote. …

Synod discusses sex abuse

The Anglican Diocese of Newcastle held its ordinary session of Synod yesterday, with topics of discussion including sexual abuse in the church and same sex marriage.

Bishop Peter Stuart told the gathering the reality is abuse by clergy and lay people is part of the Diocesan story.

He said the church needs to accept and come to terms with the reality that trusted people preyed on vulnerable members and the Church failed to see it.

“We have people who were members of our Anglican family telling us how, as children, serious sexual assault was perpetrated against them by respected clergy and/or laity,” he told the Synod.

“Their recollections are profoundly heartbreaking.

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MINNESOTA
West Central Tribune

ST. PAUL — A St. Paul law firm has scheduled a news conference for Monday afternoon regarding sexual abuse allegations against a Catholic priest who once served in Willmar.

Two women are scheduled to speak out about the abuse committed by the late Rev. David A. Roney, according to a release from Anderson and Associates in St. Paul.

Roney served at St. Mary’s Church in Willmar in the 1960s and 1970s.

According to the news release, the law firm will be filing two lawsuits on behalf of three women. The suits claim that the New Ulm Diocese was negligent in allowing Roney to have continued access to children even after receiving reports of inappropriate behavior with girls.

The lawsuits will be the first ones filed regarding Roney under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which was passed by the Legislature this year and became law on Aug. 1.

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NEW MEXICO
The Daily Times

By Hannah Grover The Daily Times
Updated: 09/13/2013

FARMINGTON — In the 1980s, when a Louisiana family filed a lawsuit against a Catholic diocese for covering up a priest’s sexual abuse, it shocked the nation.

It was the first such lawsuit. Although the family had not initially considered legal action, the diocese’s unresponsiveness pushed them forward.

Thousands more would follow.

Since then, nearly 15,000 victims have come forward, according to BishopAccountability.org, a project focused on collecting data on the sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Between 1984 and 2009, more than 3,000 lawsuits were filed in the United States, and the church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements and awards.

As more cases came to light, John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducted a study to look at priest sex abuse between 1950 and 2002.

The study found that only 4 percent of the all the priests in the priesthood had been accused of abusing a child.

And the Diocese of Gallup, which encompasses the Farmington area, has not gone unscathed. A series of sex abuse lawsuits caused it to declare bankruptcy earlier this month.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
El Nuevo Herald

BY POR NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICANO — El Vaticano informó el jueves que está colaborando con la Procuraduría de República Dominicana, que investiga al nuncio apostólico en el país caribeño por rumores que lo vinculan con abuso sexual de menores, un caso explosivo que la provocado interrogantes jurídicas sobre las responsabilidades de la Santa Sede cuando sacerdotes acusados provienen de sus propias filas.

El vocero vaticano, reverendo Federico Lombardi, negó que la Santa Sede quiera proteger al arzobispo Jozef Wesolowski al convocarlo a Roma y relevarlo de sus funciones antes que la Procuraduría dominicana haya anunciado su investigación

Wesolowski fue convocado el 21 de agosto después que el arzobispo de Santo Domingo, cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López, informó al papa Francisco sobre las denuncias en julio. Semanas atrás la Procuraduría anunció que había iniciado una investigación, en lo fundamental debido a reportes noticiosos de denuncias de conducta sexual indebida de Wesolowski, de 65 años, así como de un amigo y también sacerdote polaco que está fuera del país.

El procurador dominicano Bolívar Sánchez ha dicho que ha entrevistado a siete menores de entre 13 y 18 años como parte de la investigación, agregando que tres de ellos trabajaban en las calles de Santo Domingo, la capital, mientras que los otros cuatro viven en otras localidades. Medios locales de prensa han reportado que algunos de los menores son limpiabotas. Sánchez dijo que algunas de las alegaciones de los adolescentes son coherentes.

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OHIO
Cincinnati.com

Written by
Amber Hunt

Federal prosecutors plan to allege that a longtime Catholic priest had a history of molesting children before he was accused of taking a Cincinnati boy to West Virginia and assaulting him in 1991, according to a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

In the motion, prosecutors allege that the Rev. Robert F. Poandl molested two young boys over a three-year period beginning in May 1981. Both boys were about 10 years old at the time, according to the filing, and the priest had met the childrens’ parents through Worldwide Marriage Encounters, a program affiliated with the Catholic Church designed to bring husbands and wives closer together.

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in Poandl’s trial, in which he’s accused of transporting another then-10-year-old boy from Cincinnati to Spencer, West Virginia, on Aug. 3, 1991, and assaulting the boy.

The alleged victim is identified only as “D.H.” in the indictment. It’s the policy of The Enquirer not to identify alleged victims of sexual assaults. Poandl couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. He was released on an electronic monitor in November pending trial. He belongs to a Fairfield-based Catholic religious order called the Glenmary Home Missioners and is not associated with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has issued its fourth discussion paper. It concerns procedures to minimize abuse in the out-of-home care sector. This mostly covers children who previously would have been placed in the old Children’s Homes. The paper calls for submissions on how to achieve this, with a deadline of November 8th 2013

The bulk of submissions are likely to come from the care-provider organisations, which are mostly church-based. It would also be expected that the support organisations which have benefited from very generous federal government grants will also prepare submissions. It is much less likely that people who have gone through the system will put in a submission, because of lack of resources, residual trauma or inability to adequately express their opinions.

It would be nice if the commission were to give the latter category of people real assistance in this regard.

Commission chief executive Janette Dines said areas of interest included foster care, relative or kinship care, family group homes, residential care and independent living. Dines is quoted as saying that “The royal commission is interested in strategies that will keep children in care safe from sexual abuse and in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of current models of oversight of out-of-home care practices.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IN what she described as ‘‘the very final moments’’ of her three years and three days as Australia’s 27th prime minister, Julia Gillard drafted a letter to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

The letter, published with Ms Gillard’s approval, was in response to a letter Ms McCarthy had sent to Ms Gillard in May, after learning about her tears in parliament over the DisabilityCare legislation.

Ms Gillard describes Ms McCarthy as ‘‘a truly remarkable person’’, a description that all of us at the Herald – and all of the people she has helped over the years – would endorse.

‘‘Thanks in large measure to your persistence and courage, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry and the federal Royal Commission will bring truth and healing to the victims of horrendous abuse and betrayal,’’ Ms Gillard wrote.

Ms Gillard announced the Royal Commission in November last year, days after Premier Barry O’Farrell announced a more limited inquiry into events in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

We are about to learn that what we trusted was not to be trusted. That children who should have been safe were not. That what we thought was an aberration confined to a few sick individuals was – is – widespread.

As the royal commission into child sexual abuse begins public hearings on Monday, experts, victims and the commission warn the stories that will come out will generate disbelief, outrage and anger nationwide.

We will learn that child sexual abuse happens not just in churches but wherever adults come into contact with children – from charities to daycare to sports camps, but especially in residential settings such as boarding schools and hostels. (It most often happens in families, but they are outside the commission’s terms of reference.)

We will hear that it spans fiddling and fondling (common) to violent, penetrative rape, even of little children (rarer). And the “monsters” are seemingly ordinary people. Many of the stories will relate to events long ago. But it is also clear, from victim accounts in private sessions held around the country since May, that “this isn’t as in the past as people might expect”, says commission chief executive Janette Dines.

Patrick Parkinson, a law professor at the University of Sydney, a witness to the commission and author of a book on child sexual abuse in churches, says: “We will face hearing stories which will shock us, which are evil in every sense of the word.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TRENT DALTON From: The Australian September 14, 2013

WHEN doctors warned Keith Grosser that the cancer marching through his liver and bowel meant he might not see another Christmas, the widowed 73-year-old Brisbane retiree made urgent and ruthless cuts to his bucket list.

He refined his “things to do before I die” to a single line: tell the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about one of the most brutal episodes of child abuse in Australian history.

Last Tuesday, at precisely 3.32pm, Grosser exited the rear right-side passenger seat of a Yellow Cab in the driveway of Brisbane’s Traders Hotel on Roma Street and shuffled gingerly towards the hotel elevator that would take him to the room where he would empty his bucket.

Aware of his health problems, the royal commission, which will spend the next two years laboriously interviewing more than 5000 Australians who registered with the historic commission, fast-tracked Grosser’s interview to ensure details of the sickening sexual abuse he endured in two Anglican Church boys’ homes on the New England Tablelands in northern NSW between 1946 and 1954, would not die with him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunraysia Daily

By Kaitlyn Opie Sept. 14, 2013

SACRED Heart Mildura parish priest Michael McKinnon is hoping to eradicate sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

He has called on Sunraysia people to sign a petition that seeks to implement a list of policy changes aimed at preventing sexual abuse, and improving the Church’s response to incidents.

The cause is especially close to Father McKinnon’s heart – three of his siblings were abused growing up.

Father McKinnon, who was ordained as a priest in 1981, said he had no knowledge of the abuse until his siblings opened up about it a few years ago.

“But in hindsight, there were indicators there and so I have a particular interest and sense of justice needing to be done,” he said.

“My sister has experienced anger and hurt and has made it clear to me that that is not directed at me as a Catholic priest.

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CANADA
Scarborough Mirror

By Andrew Palamarchuk

Members of a Scarborough church are in shock after their priest was charged in connection with a sexual assault.

Police allege a woman went to All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church at 545 Danforth Rd. where she was sexually assaulted Sept. 3.

A couple who entered the church interrupted the assault.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, police arrested 54-year-old Ioan Pop and charged him with sexual assault.

Magda Popescu, president of the church’s ladies’ auxiliary, said Pop has been the priest at All Saints since he came to Canada about 14 years ago.

“Actually he built this church, of course with the help of the community, but he was always working hard,” she said. “Really, I cannot say anything bad about him.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Sept. 13, 2013

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and its insurance companies may be poised to reach a settlement that could fast track a resolution of its nearly 3-year-old bankruptcy, but lawyers for sex abuse victims with claims against the church are objecting, saying any settlement talks must include victim-survivors.

The archdiocese has asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa to stay its lawsuit against Stonewall Insurance Co. and others carriers for 60 days so the parties can enter mediation, a move that would presumably also put on hold Randa’s pending decision on whether the insurers are liable for sex abuse claims against the archdiocese.

Attorneys for victims oppose the stay, saying any delay would prejudice those creditors and that a definitive decision from Randa on the insurance question is needed to move the case forward.

“We need a decision on the insurance coverage to guide the parties,” said attorney Michael Finnegan, whose firm represents most of the 570-plus sex abuse victims with claims in the bankruptcy. “And we are concerned about any talks between the insurers and the archdiocese that do not include survivors.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Der Papstgesandte Kardinal Giovanni Lajolo soll im Konflikt um den in Kritik geratenen Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst vermitteln. Beim Kreuzfest in Königstein wird er zu den Gläubigen sprechen. Wird Kardinal Lajolo in seiner Predigt auf die Spannungen im Bistum eingehen?.

LIMBURG. –
Nach mehrtägigen Gesprächen mit Vertretern des Bistums Limburg zum Streit um Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst wird der päpstliche Gesandte Giovanni Lajolo erstmals öffentlich zu den Gläubigen sprechen. Er hält bei einem Festgottesdienst am Sonntag (15. September) in Königstein die Predigt, wie das Bistum mitteilte. In der Taunusstadt feiert die Diözese seit Freitag und noch bis Sonntag ihr traditionelles Kreuzfest. Die Messe wird der Kurienkardinal gemeinsam mit dem Bischof feiern. Mit Spannung wird darauf gewartet, ob Lajolo sich bei dieser Gelegenheit zu seiner Vermittlung und einem eventuellen Ergebnis äußern wird.

Zollitsch: “Sehr bedrückt”

Der Kardinal ist seit Montag im Bistum, um sich im Streit um die Amtsführung des Bischofs ein Bild zu machen. Kritiker werfen dem katholischen Kirchenmann einen autoritären Stil und Verschwendung vor. Der Gesandte führte bislang hinter verschlossenen Türen mehrere Gespräche. Der Frankfurter Stadtdekan Johannes zu Eltz, einer der Kritiker des Bischofs, nannte seine Treffen mit Lajolo in der “Frankfurter Neuen Presse” (Freitag) eine Wohltat. Er habe alle Fragen mit “schonungsloser Offenheit” ansprechen können, sagte er der Zeitung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Immer mehr Kirchenmänner gehen zu dem Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst auf Distanz. Es bestehen Zweifel, ob der 53-Jährige überhaupt zu einem Kurswechsel fähig ist. Mit Spannung wird eine Predigt des päpstlichen Gesandten Giovanni Lajolo erwartet.

LIMBURG. –
Im Konflikt um den Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst ist kein rasches Ende in Sicht. Nach gegenwärtiger Planung beendet der Sondergesandte des Papstes, Kardinal Giovanni Lajolo, am Sonntag seine einwöchige Mission zur Klärung der Querelen zwischen Tebartz und seinen Kritikern und kehrt nach Rom zurück. Eine Abschlusserklärung sei nicht vorgesehen. Auch der Bischof selbst werde sich nicht äußern. Vielmehr werde Lajolo am Sonntag das traditionelle Kreuzfest in Königstein mitfeiern und im Gottesdienst predigen.

Noch während Lajolos Aufenthalt im Bistum wuchs der innerkirchliche Druck auf Tebartz. Mit den Kardinälen Karl Lehmann (Mainz) und Reinhard Marx (München) gingen zwei der höchsten deutschen Kirchenführer auf Distanz. Die Entsendung Lajolos durch Papst Franziskus bezeichnete Lehmann als „Alarmzeichen“. Die Kardinäle ließen ihr Unbehagen über die Finanzierung von Tebartz‘ Bischofsresidenz sowie über eine mutmaßlich falsche eidesstattliche Erklärun

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VATICAN CITY
Aleteia

A Vatican spokesman has said that the Holy See is willing to hand over a former nuncio accused of sexual misconduct to civil authorities in the Dominican Republic if requested to do so.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said that the Holy See continues to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations into Archbishop Józef Wesolowski, former apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic.

Because there is no extradition treaty between the Vatican and the Dominican Republic, the Holy See is not required to return the nuncio to Dominican officials. In addition, the Vatican has a legal right to invoke diplomatic immunity in protection of the nuncio.

However, Fr. Lombardi told CNA on Sept. 12 that the Holy See has declared “our intention to cooperate with the Dominican authorities whenever they require it.”

The recall of the nuncio to the Vatican “by no means implies the desire to prevent him from assuming his responsibility for whatever may come out of the investigations” in the Dominican Republic,” Fr. Lombardi explained.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Sep. 13, 2013 Distinctly Catholic

Unfortunately, there is yet no English translation of this article at Vatican Insider. But, the gist of it is that the Vatican is cooperating with officials in the Dominican Republic who are investigating the former nuncio to that country, Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who has been accused of paying young boys for sex. As a member of the diplomatic corps, Wesolowski might enjoy immunity and there is no extradition treaty between the Holy See and the DR. So, this indication from the Vatican spokesman signals something truly extraordinary, a chink in the self-protective clerical armor that might, God willing and over time, put an end to the idea that once you get a miter, you are accountable to no one. Stay tuned. This is going to be a very important case to watch.

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POLAND
The News

The Vatican has stated that it will cooperate with authorities in the Dominican Republic over an investigation into allegations of paedophilia by a Polish archbishop.

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who had been serving as papal nuncio in the Caribbean republic, was recalled to the Vatican on August 21, and simultaneously suspended from his post.

The recall occurred after the archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, informed Pope Francis about the allegations in July, and the Vatican launched an internal investigation.

With Dominican prosecutors confirming their own investigation last week, accusations snowballed that the Vatican was trying to shield the 65-year-old archbishop, prompting Thursday’s Vatican statement.

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INDIA
Outlook

A local court today sentenced a priest to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for “outraging the modesty” and attempting to rape a 12-year-old girl at Dunneke village in Moga in December last year.

District and Sessions judge Karamjit Singh Kang convicted the priest Patwinder Singh on charges of attempt to rape and outraging the minor girl’s modesty.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the accused and in case of default, he will have to serve an additional three months in jail.

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ILLINOIS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim Townsend ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82211

A Roman Catholic bishop in Springfield, Ill. has returned the Rev. Thomas Donovan to ministry in Alton after an internal investigation into what the priest’s own clinical therapist had diagnosed as “non-sexual self-bondage.”

Bishop Thomas Paprocki said in a statement Thursday that Donovan would be a chaplain to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George, and would move to the nuns’ provincial house in Alton on Sunday.

Last November, Donovan called 911 from the rectory of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Springfield, where he was pastor, and told dispatchers he had placed himself in handcuffs and needed police help to free himself.

When police arrived, they found the priest wearing an orange jumpsuit and “a leather bondage-type mask with a bar in his mouth,” according to the police report.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Ira Lamcja Staff Reporter, Published on Fri Sep 13 2013

A Romanian Orthodox priest has been charged with sexual assault after police say a woman was attacked in an east end Toronto church.

The incident happened on Sept. 3 in All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church, located near Birchmount and Danforth roads, police said in a statement released Friday.

The attack was interrupted when a couple entered the church, police said.

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CANADA
CBC News

A close friend of an Orthodox archbishop accused of sexually assaulting two brothers says the alleged abuse couldn’t possibly have happened.

Connie Kucharczyk told the Winnipeg trial of Seraphim Storheim that she was shocked when police called her in 2010 to discuss their investigation.

She says Storheim hugged “everyone he saw” but never crossed a line.

Storheim is accused of sexually assaulting the pre-teens when they lived with him in Winnipeg three decades ago.

The men have testified Storheim walked around naked and asked them to touch him sexually.

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PORTUGAL
Noticias ao Minuto

Segundo o Jornal de Notícias (JN), o sacerdote acusado de pedofilia e com o início do julgamento marcado para o próximo dia 19, omitiu os rendimentos à Segurança Social e tem neste momento total ‘apoio judiciário’ por parte do Estado para a sua defesa por insuficiência económica.

A única verba que o arguido poderá ter de pagar será relativa aos honorários dos advogados, que, no entanto, pode ser excluída, caso os mesmos decidam não cobrar ou a diocese da Guarda suporte os custos.

De acordo com dados do processo consultados pelo JN, “o padre não declara à Segurança Social qualquer verba de salário, assinala que não é proprietário de imóveis e omite a titularidade de qualquer viatura”.

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PORTUGAL
Publico

O antigo vice-reitor do Seminário do Fundão, padre Luís Mendes, acusado de 19 crimes de abuso sexual de menores a cargo daquela instituição, está a beneficiar de apoio judiciário por parte do Estado, depois de ter omitido os rendimentos à Segurança Social. Para o Estado, Luís Mendes não tem capacidade económica para suportar os custos judiciais do processo.

No requerimento de pedido de apoio judiciário, Luís Mendes “não declara à Segurança Social qualquer verba de salário, assinala que não é proprietário de imóveis e omite a titularidade de qualquer viatura”, avança o Jornal de Notícias na edição desta sexta-feira. Perante a alegada insuficiência económica, o pedido de protecção jurídica foi deferido.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 13, 2013

For more information: Judy Jones of St. Louis 636 433 2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com, David Clohessy of St. Louis, 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Catholic priest trial to start
He’s accused of molesting a boy

Fr. Robert Poandl’s criminal child sex abuse trial is set to begin on Monday, Sept 16th in the Potter Stewart U.S. Federal Courthouse (room 109), 100 East 5th St., in downtown Cincinnati, OH.

He faces federal child sex charges that he took a 10-year Cincinnati old boy to West Virginia in August 1991 where he is alleged to have sexually assaulted the child.

“This victim and his family are very brave,” said Judy Jones of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “And this predator is very shrewd.”

Jones urged anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Poandl’s crimes to call prosecutors immediately.

“It’s never too late to share what you know or suspect with law enforcement officials,” she stressed. “It’s up to us to pass on information. And it’s up to police and prosecutors to determine what will help them prosecute a criminal.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCUR

[with audio]

By DAN VERBECK AND STEVE BELL

Shawn Ratigan, a 47-year-old Catholic priest convicted of making child pornography, was sentenced to 50 years by a Kansas City federal judge Thursday afternoon.

Judge Gary Fenner labeled Ratigan a pedophile in serial fashion.

Minutes before, Ratigan choked back emotion as he told the judge, “Fifteen years is a lot of time, but fifty, come on.”

Parents of the two-year-old girl photographed by Ratigan said they never want their child to see him again. The mother of the child said her daughter considered the priest her “best friend.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An 85-year-old Catholic priest charged with sexually abusing boys in the East Midlands will stand trial next year.

Francis Paul Cullen was extradited from Tenerife in August to face 27 charges of sexual offences against boys under the ages of 15, dating back 50 years.

He appeared at Derby Crown Court via videolink from Nottingham Prison and spoke only to confirm his name. No plea was taken.

The offences allegedly took place in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

13 September 2013

Parishioners in Scotland have boycotted Mass and withheld their offertory donations in protest at their bishop’s decision to remove a priest who publicly accused another cleric of sexual abuse.

Two hundred people in the parish of St Sophia’s in Galston, Ayrshire, have signed a petition accusing the Bishop of Galloway, John Cunningham, of persecuting and ostracising Fr Patrick Lawson after he issued the priest with a decree of removal last week.

Fr Lawson, who is suffering from cancer, has campaigned for nearly two decades for the Scottish hierarchy to take action against Fr Paul Moore, a retired priest who, he alleges, abused altar boys and made sexual advances towards him when he was a seminarian in the mid-1990s.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The country’s bishops refused to meet with six Irish priests silenced by the Vatican claiming their predicament was not an issue for the Irish hierarchy as the priests were members of religious orders and not diocesan priests.

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Fr Tony Flannery, one of the six priests censured by Rome, has just published a book highlighting the “inhumanity” of the secret process used against him by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s watchdog on theology.

Fr Flannery, a Redemptorist, is also harshly critical of the country’s bishops saying they consistently fail to provide leadership and are incapable of standing up to clericalism in the Vatican. He says they provided no support to the six silenced priests who have suffered much private torment since taken to task by Rome.

“One of the big frustrations has been trying to deal with the bishops. Trying to deal with them is impossible, ” he said. “There is no possibility of the bishops taking a stand, the Irish Bishops Conference is a dysfunctional body and there is no real leadership. The one amongst the bishops that has the most capacity to lead is Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin but for whatever reason he has not assumed this role,” he said.

Describing the CDF’s attitude to him and its lack of due process, Fr Flannery said: “They didn’t seem to have the slightest interest in meeting me or hearing my side of the story, I was clearly of no consequence to them as a person,” he writes.

The CDF never directly dealt with Fr Flannery, using the Redemptorists’ Superior General Michael Brehl as messenger. They also ordered that their grievances with Fr Flannery, over writings in the order’s Reality Magazine that they say were contrary to the teachings of the Church, were to be kept entirely secret.

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CANADA
CP24

Chris Kitching, CP24.com
Published Friday, September 13, 2013

A priest at an east-end church is facing a charge of sexual assault, Toronto police say.

Police said a woman was sexually assaulted by a man at All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church on Danforth Road, near Birchmount Road, on Sept. 3.

A couple entered the church and interrupted the assault, police said in a news release Friday.
A suspect was arrested Wednesday.

Police said Ioan Pop, 54, of Toronto is charged with one count of sexual assault.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

Toronto police say a Romanian Orthodox priest is facing a sexual assault charge in connection with an alleged incident at an east-end church.

It’s alleged that a woman went to All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church (in the Birchmount Road and Danforth Road area) on Sept. 3, and while there she was sexually assaulted.

Police say a couple entered the church and interrupted the assault.

Ioan Pop, 54, of Toronto was arrested on Wednesday.

He is scheduled to appear in court on the sexual assault charge on Oct. 15.

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ILLINOIS
KMOX

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KMOX) – Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki returned one of his priest’s to the ministry, following a lengthy period of treatment and counseling.

In November 2012, Springfield priest, Father Thomas Donova, called 9-1-1 with a bit of problem. He had gotten stuck in a pair of handcuffs.

Bishop Paprocki granted Father Donovan a leave of absence, saying he “suffered from non-sexual self bondage,” and after months of treatment, a special church panel has recommended his gradual return to the ministry.

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CANADA
Cambridge Times

TORONTO – Toronto police say a Romanian Orthodox priest is facing a sexual assault charge in connection with an alleged incident at an east-end church.

It’s alleged that a woman went to All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church (in the Birchmount Road and Danforth Road area) on Sept. 3, and while there she was sexually assaulted.

Police say a couple entered the church and interrupted the assault.

Ioan Pop, 54, of Toronto was arrested on Wednesday.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A new book by Redemptorish priest Fr Tony Flannery, who was silenced and removed from public ministry by the Vatican last year, is not available in Veritas bookshops. Owned by the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, there are 11 such bookshops in Ireland.

Fr Flannery’s book A Question of Conscience was published in Dublin last night and details his dealings with the Vatican last year.

Contacted by The Irish Times yesterday about availabity of the book in its shops, a Veritas spokeman said he believed there was an issue the publishers, Londubh Books. He asked that questions be emailed to him and said these would be forwarded to senior managers who were on a trip to the US. As of last night, there was no response to the questions.

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is Derbyshire

A FORMER priest made an eight-minute appearance in court today on sex charges involving children.

Francis Cullen, 85, denied the allegations and was told he would stand trial at Derby Crown Court on March 24.

The timetable was approved by Judge Andrew Hamilton, who remanded Cullen in custody.
Cullen followed the hearing via a video link from Nottingham Prison, where he is being held.

He will be brought to the Derby court on December 20 where a bail application could be made.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Archbishop John J. Myers promoted his spokesman and a deacon on Wednesday to high-ranking administrative positions in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.

Jim Goodness, director of communications for the archdiocese since 1999, confirmed Thursday that he and deacon John J. McKenna were made vice chancellors.

“This is a rare privilege,” Goodness said. “I will continue to serve the archdiocese and archbishop in increasingly responsible capacities.” The archdiocese serves more than 1 million Catholics in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

Goodness has been Myers’ main defender in a recent string of scandals involving priests accused of sexually abusing children.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A former Kansas City, Mo. priest will spend the next 50 years behind bars.
A judge sentenced Rev. Shawn Ratigan Thursday in a U.S. District Court in Kansas City.

Federal prosecutors sought a 50-year sentence for the Roman Catholic priest who admitted taking pornographic photos of children.

Before learning his sentence, Ratigan spoke to the victim’s family saying, “There’s no words I can express to tell you my sorrow, but it’s there. I was good friends with all of them; I just couldn’t help it.” …

The Associate Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement regarding Ratigan’s sentence, saying, ” It’s very reassuring to know that Ratigan can’t ever hurt another child.”

The statement goes on to say, “at the same time, the bank robber gets 50 years while the guy who drove the get away car does no jail time,” referring to Bishop Finn, who failed to report the suspected child abuse.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

For more than 150 years, thousands of Aboriginal children in Canada were taken from families and communities, and stripped of languages, cultural identities and traditions.

They were to become a part of mainstream culture. The government policy failed, but the devastating impacts continue today. Yet the history and impacts of residential school are still relatively unknown and little understood.

A core mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) is to educate all Canadians about the complete history of the residential schools, and to inspire reconciliation for individuals, families, communities, religious organizations and peoples of faith, governments, and the people of Canada.

The Anglican, United, and Presbyterian Churches and the Roman Catholic entities which ran residential schools signed the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007, whose provisions established the TRC’s mandate. As a result these Christian denominations are key partners in the TRC’s work.

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CANADA
The Province

BY CHERYL CHAN, THE PROVINCE SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Alvin Dixon was only 10 when he was torn away from his family in Bella Bella and sent to a residential school in Port Alberni.

It didn’t take long before he got his first thrashing. His sin: Speaking his Heisla language with another student.

“A supervisor heard me, took me to the playroom in the basement, leaned me over the bench and walloped me over and over with a strap,” says Dixon, 76, a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation.

It didn’t get better in the eight years afterwards, he says: “You’re sent to an institution very much like a jail, nothing gets better.”

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CANADA
Sun News

DEAN PRITCHARD | QMI AGENCY

WINNIPEG — Former archbishop Kenneth (Seraphim) Storheim took the witness stand Thursday to deny allegations he sexually molested two boys while a priest in Winnipeg nearly 30 years ago.

Storheim, who went on to become Canadian Archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America, is accused of molesting two pre-teen twin brothers in the mid-1980s when he was the rector at Holy Trinity Sobor in Winnipeg.

Storheim admitted hugging the brothers and engaging one of the boys in a conversation about puberty — “One of the stupider things I have done,” he said — but denied accusations he engaged in physically inappropriate behaviour.

“I felt compassion for the family and the very difficult circumstances they had in life,” he said.

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CANADA
International Business Times

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay | September 13, 2013

Former Archbishop Kenneth (Seraphim) Storheim claimed that he was not guilty of the alleged sex assault.

Mr Storheim is blamed of two counts of sexual assault which involves 2 pre-teen brothers. These young children were members of a parish in Winnipeg’s North End. Mr Storheim was suspended 3 years back after having his tenure of being the highest-ranking cleric in the Canadian diocese of the Orthodox Church of America. The suspension took place after he had been charged of the same. Storheim started testifying on Thursday to defend himself.

Mr Storheim described the two children as hard working and vivacious yet mischievous. He considered them among the average children. He mentioned that he had met the family first in Ontario, after which he shifted to Winnipeg probably in 1984. It was during those days when the brothers were sent to work and live with Mr Storheim at the Winnipeg church. They were brought up a single mother.

Even though the former Orthodox archbishop denied charges against him of sexual assault, he did confess that he had had a discussion with one of the boys regarding puberty. Mr Storheim considered the discussion as one of the most unwise things he had ever done in his life. He told Justice Christopher Mainella that he had regretted getting engaged in such a conversation with the boy.

Mr Storheim informed the court that the mother of the boys had called him later on. She seemed pretty angry while she talked to him. She told him that she had sent the boys to be taught about scripture, not about any dirty stuff. Mr Storheim said that he had had the realisation that she was referring to the conversation regarding puberty.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Mike McIntyre
Posted: 09/13/2013

He stands accused of serious criminal allegations: molesting two young brothers while working as a parish priest in Winnipeg.

But Seraphim Storheim took the witness stand in his own defence Thursday and said the only thing he’s guilty of is caring too much for a troubled family he took under his wing.

“I overstepped a sense of compassion,” said Storheim, 67, who is now an archbishop with the Orthodox Church in America, which has historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I felt compassion for this particular family, so I paid more attention to that family trying to support and encourage them.”

Storheim has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in incidents that allegedly occurred 28 years ago but were only recently reported to police.

Storheim admits he talked to the 11-year-old boys about puberty and body development, which included specific comments about ejaculation and pubic hair. He said the topic only came up during Bible study when the boys began asking questions. He said he regrets not quickly changing the subject.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Robert Herrick

Christopher Charles Prowse has been appointed after four years as the Bishop of Sale in Victoria.

He will take up his new role in November.

Bishop Prowse has pledged his full support to victims of sexual abuse within the church.

He says it is important the church recognises the trauma suffered by victims of institutional abuse.

“Wonderful brave people that have come forward and said that they have suffered at the hands of church personnel, it’s an enormous tragedy, great drama of our time,” he said.

“But when I sit down and speak to the victims, I listen to stories of great heroism and if we can help them in any shape or form that’s our top priority.”

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ISRAEL
Aruz Sheva

By Adam Ross
First Publish: 9/13/2013

Rabbi Yona Metzger, former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, has responded for the first time to the investigations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust that led him to step down early from his public office.

“Sadly the media has distorted my character and this has been very hurtful for me.” Metzger said in an interview to Israel’s Channel 10. He added, “Our media looks for blood and only looks for the negative.”

The former chief rabbi claimed that if the famed Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, the first to hold the title of Chief Rabbi of Israel, was in the post today, he would not have been as adored as he was, due to the treatment he would have received from media.

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ILLINOIS
Patch

Posted by Natalie Stevens (Editor) , September 12, 2013

A Boulder Hill man has been sentenced to five years for two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, said Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis.

Kevin Freeman, 28, of the 0-99 block of Shermead Road, Montgomery, was charged with having sexually abused two different victims late 2010 through 2011.

The investigation began with he Oswego Police Department, which found another potential victim. The information was forwarded on to the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office.

In both instances, said Weis, Freeman knew or became familiar with the victims, both 16 years old at the time, through membership at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Oswego. In one instance he was the the youth group leader.

“It is clear that this sex offender, in using his position, not only violated these young women, but also violated the trust placed in him by fellow church members and parents,” stated Weis. “This sentence should send a clear and succinct message that the abuse of children by those entrusted to keep them safe will not be tolerated.”

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ILLINOIS
The Beacon-News

By Erika Wurst ewurst@stmedianetwork.com September 12, 2013

A 28-year-old Montgomery man was sentenced to five years in prison this week for sexually abusing two teenage girls he met at an Oswego church.

Prosecutors said Kevin Freeman, 0-99 block of Shermead Road, met the girls, both 16 years old at the time, through his membership at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, where he was a group leader to one of the victims.

As they were investigating one case, police identified a second victim. The abuse allegedly occurred in late 2010 through 2011, prosecutors said. Freeman was sentenced to two five-year terms for his conviction on two counts of criminal sexual abuse. The sentences will run concurrently.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

VAN NUYS (CBSLA.com) — A former usher at a Kingdom Hall of Jehova’s Witnesses faces 30 years in prison in exchange for pleading no-contest to sexual abuse involving three boys he met at the Sun Valley church.

Marcelo Lozano pleaded no contest Thursday to two counts of continuous sexual abuse and one count of oral copulation with a person under the age of 14. The remaining charges are due to be dropped.

“It’s a just outcome in the sense that we have to look out for the emotional impact that testifying in the trial would have on the victims in this case,” Deputy District Attorney Rena Durrant told KNX1070′s Claudia Peschiutta.

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