ABUSE TRACKER

VATIKAN
Frankfurter Allgemeine

04.12.2013 · Der Heilige Stuhl hat einen Fragenkatalog der UN nach Maßnahmen gegen Kindesmissbrauch in der Kirche nicht fristgerecht beantwortet. Gleichwohl tritt er dem Vorwurf entgegen, sich hinter „juristischen Formalitäten“ zu verschanzen.

Von JÖRG BREMER, ROM

Der Heilige Stuhl in Rom will doch auf den Fragenkatalog des UN-Ausschusses für die Rechte von Kindern bei der Menschenrechtskommission in Genf antworten, mit dem dieses Gremium die Vergehen pädophiler Geistlicher in aller Welt an ihren Schutzbefohlenen untersuchen will. Das sagte am Mittwoch Monsignore Massimo De Gregori von der ständigen Vertretung des Heiligen Stuhls bei der UN-Menschenrechtskommission in Genf. Er wies damit eine Meldung der BBC vom Vortag zurück. Allerdings habe man den Abgabetermin am 1. November nicht einhalten können. Doch die ersten Fragen seien schon bearbeitet worden, und die übrigen Antworten kämen rechtzeitig vor der Anhörung Mitte Januar.

Die BBC hatte am Dienstag mit Berufung auf die „National Secular Society“ britischer Humanisten berichtet, der Vatikan weise die Beantwortung zurück und verberge sich dabei hinter „juristischen Formalitäten“.

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MINNESOTA
Die Tagespost

Minnesota (DT/KNA) Das katholische Erzbistum St. Paul und Minneapolis darf die Namen von 46 des sexuellen Missbrauchs beschuldigten Priestern veröffentlichen. Auf gerichtliche Anweisung sind neben den Namen und dem Geburtsdatum auch das Jahr der Priesterweihe, bisherige Einsatzorte, die aktuelle Tätigkeit und die Wohnadresse zu publizieren, wie die Tageszeitung „Star Tribune“ (Dienstag) berichtet. Dafür setzte das Distriktgericht in Ramsey County eine Frist bis 17. Dezember. Das Erzbistum begrüßte der Zeitung zufolge die Entscheidung. Die Namen würden Donnerstag auf der Bistumswebsite und in der Kirchenzeitung aufgelistet.

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ITALIEN
Tageszeitung

von Artur Oberhofer

Roland Riz will das Urteil nicht kommentieren, der Professor sagt nur: „Ich freue mich für die Kurie.”

Am Oberlandesgericht in Bozen hat es am Mittwoch einen Paukenschlag gegeben: Das Oberlandesgericht hat nämlich die Vollstreckbarkeit des Urteils im Fall Don Giorgio Carli ausgesetzt.

Um was geht es?

Die Erste Sektion der Abteilung für Zivilsachen am Landesgericht in Bozen hatte im August die Diözese Bozen-Brixen bzw. die Pfarrei San Pio X. zur Zahlung des Schadenersatzes im Fall Don Giorgio Carli verurteilt.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 17:11 by Terry Sanderson

Did you know that the Pope “sneaks out” of the Vatican at night dressed as an ordinary priest so that he can minister to the homeless and destitute on the streets of Rome?

Isn’t it marvellous?

Did you know that Pope Francis once worked as a bouncer at a nightclub?

How wonderful – he’s just like one of us – a working man.

As the propaganda piles up, Pope Francis basks in the adulation of the uncritical masses.

But wait. What’s this? The sex abuse scandal that so tormented his predecessor seems to be emerging again after being swept under the rug during Francis’s honeymoon period.

The Holy See (the political wing of the Vatican) has at last responded to questions put to it by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about the global issue of child rape by priests.

Or, more accurately, it has not responded. It says that it has nothing to do with what goes on in the dioceses and parishes of its churches. Therefore it cannot be held responsible in any way for the unspeakable things that some of its priests do to defenceless children.

And just when the Vatican thought it had distracted us from the horrors that thousands of its priests have perpetrated, it all starts slithering back again.

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CANADA
National Post

Charles Lewis | 04/12/13

The BBC is reporting that the Vatican has rebuffed a United Nations request for information concerning sexual abuse.

The Vatican, the report says, insist that the only valid jurisdictions are the ones where the alleged abuse took place.

“The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child put a wide-ranging questionnaire to the Holy See — the city state’s diplomatic entity — last July, asking for detailed information about the particulars of all sexual abuse cases notified to the Vatican since 1995,” the BBC reported.

“The questions included whether priests, nuns and monks guilty of sexual crime were allowed to remain in contact with children, what legal action had been taken against them, whether the Church required clergy to report abuse to secular authorities and whether complainants were silenced.”

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MINNESOTA
Winona Post

[Doe 1 Order Releasing Names of Credibly Accused Priests]

By Chris Rogers

On Monday, a St. Paul judge ordered the Diocese of Winona to release a list of names of 13 priests or former priests credibly accused of sexual abuse. That list includes five living priests from the Winona Diocese, none of whom are currently serving the church, and eight deceased priests, according to diocesan officials. Winona Diocese leaders indicated Tuesday they would comply with the court order.

The attorney seeking the release, Jeff Anderson, called the ruling a “turning point” for justice in priest abuse cases. Officials from the diocese said that the release might condemn accused individuals without a fair trial.

The diocese created the list in 2004 and argued against its release on Monday, as well as during previous court proceedings. The order requires the diocese to release the names, city of residence, ordination date, and assignment history of the 13 priests by December 17, and the same information by January 6, 2014, for any priests who have been credibly accused since 2004. The archdiocese of St. Paul is also required to release a list of 33 priests under the order. The lists are of “credibly accused” priests as determined by the diocese and archdiocese. The priests have not necessarily been found guilty. Diocese of Winona Director of Mission Advancement Joel Hennessy said that he was not privy to all instances of credible accusations since 2004, but acknowledged one such case involving a priest in Blue Earth. According to a Pioneer Press report, Father Leo Koppala was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl. A statement from Bishop John Quinn said that the diocese had not received any reports of sexual misconduct by Koppala prior to his arrest in that incident.

“There may not be a shocking number of new names” revealed in the list, but even one is incredibly important to victims and to public safety, said Anderson.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

Lieve Halsberghe tracked down the disgraced Belgian priest Eric Dejaeger and helped bring him to trial in Nunavut.

Now, she’s going after another priest accused of historic sex crimes — because of a promise she made to the late Marius Tungilik, whose lifelong struggle with childhood trauma finally ended a year ago, in December 2012, with his sudden death.

“I wanted to go to France to confront this man with this before [Joannis Rivoire] dies because that’s a promise I made to Marius,” Halsberghe said.

Fugitive priest Father Joannis Rivoire faces four charges related to his time spent in Nunavut starting in the 1960s. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 1998, but not much has happened since.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 4 December 2013 (VIS) – The Autorita di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF), the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Holy See and Vatican City State, signed today a Memorandum of Understanding with its German Counterpart, the Zentralstelle fur Verdachtsmeldungen at the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA).

The Memorandum was signed in the Vatican by Cardinal Attilio Nicora, president of the AIF, and Michael Dewald, director of the Zentralstelle fur Verdachtsmeldungen at the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA).

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is standard practice and formalises the co-operation and exchange of financial information to fight money laundering and terrorist financing across borders between the competent authorities of both countries. It is based on the model Memorandum of Understanding prepared by the Egmont Group, the global organisation of national Financial Intelligence Units, and contains clauses on reciprocity, permitted uses of information and confidentiality.

“This Memorandum is strengthening AIF’s international reach and further integrates the Holy See and Vatican City State with a co-ordinated global effort to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism”, said AIF director Rene Bruelhart. “Today’s signing underlines our fruitful relationship and will further facilitate our joint efforts”.

The AIF became a member of the Egmont Group earlier in July this year and signed in the last months MOUs with the Financial Intelligence Units of the U.S.A., Belgium, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands. More are expected to be signed in the course of the coming months.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 4 December 2013 (VIS) – The meetings of the Council of Cardinals continued, as planned, yesterday afternoon with the participation of the Holy Father.

“The work of the Council took place in an environment of great serenity, with an open and cordial exchange between all participants”, communicated the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J.

“As mentioned yesterday morning, the new secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin was invited to the afternoon session to greet the members who wished him well in his new role, and in to establish contract in the hope of fruitful collaboration in the service of the Holy Father for the governance of the Church.

“This morning the Holy Father was not present due to the regular Wednesday general audience, but work continued as usual. The council considered the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia in turn (for example, the Causes of Saints, Catholic Education, Evangelisation of Peoples and so on).

“It is possible that during the meetings scheduled for these days, a first round of considerations on the Congregations may be completed, to be followed by an examination of the Pontifical Councils and the other dicasteries.

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National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | Dec. 4, 2013 NCR Today

POPE FRANCIS: UNTYING THE KNOTS
By Paul Vallely
Published by Bloomsbury Continuum, $20.95

Well into Paul Vallely’s absorbing portrait of the show-stopping new pope, we see Jorge Bergoglio as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, presumably offering Communion to any and all takers in his born-again mission to the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“When you’re working in a shanty town 90 percent of your congregation are single or divorced,” says Fr. Augosto Zampini, a diocesan priest who serves as one of Vallely’s key sources. “You have to learn to deal with that. Communion for the divorced and remarried is not an issue there. Everyone takes Communion.”

Vallely doesn’t explicitly place Zampini at the scene — nor is it clear how well he knew the archbishop — but the implication is clear. Faced with a choice of inviting the few or the many to partake, Bergoglio allowed pastoral needs to trump church rules.

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INDIANA
Daily Reporter

By Noelle Steele
Staff Writer
First Posted: December 03, 2013

GREENFIELD — A former New Palestine youth minister pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor Tuesday morning after admitting to the court he fondled a young girl at his church.

Steve Harding, 61, was sentenced to two years in Hancock County Community Corrections and one year of probation after accepting a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to the Class D felony charge. Harding’s community corrections sentence could include participation in work-release, a program that allows offenders to leave the facility to go to and from their jobs, or home detention.

State law does not require someone convicted of sexual misconduct with a minor to register as a sex offender.

Harding did not address the court in detail about his misconduct but was required to answer a series of yes-or-no questions as part of a plea agreement. When asked if he had touched the girl in a sexual manner, he answered, “Yes.”

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INDIANA
KPC

Associated Press

A former youth pastor at a suburban Indianapolis church has pleaded guilty to charges that he had sexual contact with a girl who attended the church.

A Hancock County judge sentenced 61-year-old Steve Harding to spend two years in a community corrections program and a year on probation. Harding pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a felony charge of sexual misconduct with a minor for his actions while he was a youth pastor at New Palestine United Methodist Church.

The Daily Reporter reports ( http://bit.ly/1k9SYA7) prosecutors dropped a more serious charge of child molesting.

Judge Richard Culver told Harding he took advantage of the girl’s trust in him as a family friend and mentor.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Republican

[Springfield Diocese List of Priests with Credible Allegations 08.30.11 via BishopAccountability.org]

WEST SPRINGFIELD
The Reverend John A. Koonz, 76 of West Springfield, MA died Wednesday November 27, 2913 at his home surrounded by his family. He was born in Cornwall, NY son of Joseph H. and Theresse (Gunther) Koonz. He attended St. Columba Elementary School in Chester, NY until 1946, when the family moved to North Adams. He then attended the former St. Joseph’s Elementary School and graduated from the former St. Joseph’s High School with the class of 1955. He graduated from St. Anselm’s College in 1959 and completed his theological studies at St. Mary’s University of Theology Seminary in Baltimore, MD in 1963. On May 26, 1963, Rev. Koonz was ordained to the Priesthood by Bishop Christopher J. Weldon at his home parish of St. Francis of Assisi in North Adams, MA.

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VATICAN CITY/GERMANY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Financial Intelligence Unit of the Holy See (AIF) on Wednesday, December 4, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with its German counterpart, the “Zentralstelle für Verdachtsmeldungen at the Bundeskriminalamt” (BKA).

The Memorandum was signed in the Vatican by Cardinal Attilio Nicora, President of AIF, and by Dr. Michael Dewald, director of Zentralstelle für Verdachtsmeldungen at the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA).

A Vatican Comuniquè explains that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is standard practice and formalizes the cooperation and exchange of financial information to fight money laundering and terrorist financing across borders between the competent authorities of both countries.

It is based on the model Memorandum of Understanding prepared by the Egmont Group, the global organization of national Financial Intelligence Units, and contains clauses on reciprocity, permitted uses of information and confidentiality.

“This Memorandum is strengthening AIF’s international reach and further integrates the Holy See and the Vatican City State with a coordinated global effort to fight Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism,” said AIF Director René Bruelhart. “Today’s signing underlines our fruitful relationship and will further facilitate our joint efforts.”

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

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Each settled for six figure amounts
One man was assaulted by two clerics
A Catholic religious order resolved his suit
But Bishop Finn’s diocese refuses to do so
In the other case, predator admitted wrongdoing

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, victims of clergy sex abuse and their supporters will disclose two recent settlements in local clergy sex abuse cases against two priests.

In one of them, a boy was assaulted by two priests. In the other one, a boy was assaulted by a priest who later admitted wrongdoing.

They will also

–prod Bishop Robert Finn to disclose the identities of predator priests (as a Minnesota judge just ordered a bishop there to do) and post their names on his KC diocesan website, and
–prod anyone who many have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or cover ups to come forward, get help, expose predators, protect kids, deter wrongdoing and start healing.

When:
TODAY, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 1:15 p.m.

Where:
Outside the KC Catholic diocesan chancery office/headquarters, 20 W. 9th Street in downtown KC.

Who:
Three members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a St. Louis man who is the organization’s long time executive director

Why:
Two local pedophile priest lawsuits have settled.

1. – A high profile Kansas City clergy sex abuse victim has settled, for $125,000, with one of two Catholic defendants in a lawsuit that he filed two years ago.

[BishopAccountability.org]

In September 2011, Jon David Couzens Jr. filed a civil suit charging that two priests – Fr. Isaac True and Msgr. Thomas J. O’Brien – sexually assaulted him in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he was a nine and ten year old altar boy at Nativity parish in Independence.

Another defendant, Bishop Robert Finn’s KC diocese, has NOT settled with Couzens.

2. – John Doe M R has settled his case against Fr. James Urbanic, the KC diocese and Society of Precious Blood for $130,000. The case was filed in Feb. 2012 in Buchanan County, where the alleged crimes took place, at St. Francis Xavier’s Catholic church. The two met at Bishop LaBlond High School in St. Joseph.

In this case, all three defendants settled.

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VATICAN CITY
Time

By Kharunya Paramaguru Dec. 04, 2013

The Vatican has told the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that it will not disclose information on cases of alleged sexual abuse of children committed by members of its clergy.

The committee wrote to the Church in July asking for “detailed information” on the investigations, legal proceedings and outcomes of cases of alleged sexual abuses.

In a written response to these questions — hand-delivered last month but just published online by the U.N. on Tuesday — the Vatican wrote that “it is not the practice of the Holy See to disclose information on the religious discipline of members of the clergy or religious according to canon law.” It said this was “in order to protect the witnesses, the accused and the integrity of the Church process.”

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VATICAN CITY
New Straits Times

[Read the list of questions from UN Committee on the Rights of the Child here.
Read the Vatican’s response here.
Read the SNAP-CCR report here.]

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has told a UN investigating committee that it cannot be held legally competent over the abuses of children carried out by Catholic churchmen because they are subject to national laws, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

“When individual institutions of national churches are implicated, that does not regard the competence of the Holy See but rather the laws of the countries concerned,” Father Federico Lombardi said.

Lombardi said Vatican officials would explain their position at a meeting in Geneva on January 16 with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is checking whether the Catholic Church is honouring the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“The competence of the Holy See is at the level of the Holy See,” Lombardi said, explaining that the Vatican was among the first states to sign up to the convention.

Campaign groups for abuse victims have criticised the Vatican in the past for making the legalistic distinction between the central administration of the Church and the actions of individual clergymen.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

A warmer day yesterday. No wind. It made a world of difference. As cold as it is was it almost felt balmy 🙂

Yesterday (Tuesday 03 December 2013) the sex abuse trial of Father Eric Dejaeger recessed for the day in early afternoon. Two female victims testified.

I have had issues getting things sorted out with net access during the day, – think that’s all in hand now so will be able to make use of the lunch hour tomorrow. Other commitments last evening kept me from the computer until evening. I have the testimony of one witness here – will finish tomorrow.

First, some general observations.

Yet again, with one exception, during testimony Father Dejaeger listens intently, and fixes his gaze on the witness, He occasionally strokes his beard, but for the most part sits with hands clasped under his chin.

I will come back to the one exception later when I touch on the testimony.

I mention Dejaeger’s demeanour during testimony – I saw another picture of the man when he was escorted into court after lunch this afternoon.

Dejaeger arrived at 1:28. Court was scheduled to resume at 1:30 pm.

First I must say that Dejaeger looks lithe and fit. He has obviously lost weight if we compare pictures from Belgium (ie, cheeks hollowed) – but he is by no means fading away, and, he moves with ease.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson jchristenson@winonadailynews.com

The Diocese of Winona said Tuesday it will not contest a judge’s ruling compelling the diocese to release the names of 13 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

“The Diocese of Winona will fully cooperate with the order,” said Bishop John Quinn in a statement, referring to a Ramsey County judge’s decision Monday ordering both the Winona and Minneapolis-St. Paul dioceses to release their lists of priests.

The information released will include each priest’s name, date of birth, year of ordination, whether the priest is alive or deceased, all parishes where the priest served within the diocese, current ministerial status and most current address known, according to the ruling.

Joel Hennessy, director of communications for the Diocese of Winona, said the information will be released by the Dec. 17 deadline set by the court. The exact date and procedure for releasing the information has not yet been determined, and some information regarding the current address of some individuals will need to be verified before the release could be made.

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RUSSIA/ISRAEL
Interfax

St. Petersburg, December 4, Interfax – Russian Orthodox priest Gleb Grozovsky, who is accused of lewd acts with a child, remains in Israel but his exact whereabouts are unclear, according to his lawyer.

“He is in Israel, I don’t know where exactly. In this situation he has the status of a citizen and not that of a priest,” Artyom Bakonin told Interfax.

Investigators claim that the 34-year-old priest sexually abused girls aged nine and 12 at a hotel on the premises of an Orthodox children’s camp on the Kos Island in Greece in June this year. Grozovsky, who was afterward temporarily posted at a drug abuse help center in Israel, had an arrest warrant issued for him and put on an international wanted list.

In November, the Diocese of Gatchina, near St. Petersburg, announced that Grozovsky’s posting in Israel had been terminated and urged him to return to Russia. Grozovsky was suspended as a priest for the period the alleged crimes are being investigated.

Grozovsky protests his innocence.

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CALIFORNIA
Lez Get Real

Earlier this week we reported on an LA Times two part feature article on Cardinal Roger Mahony’s mishandling of the child sex abuse scandal in Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The article paints the picture of a man who had ambitious plans for the archdiocese and his legacy, but hid the abuse of children, because he saw his greater agenda would be endangered by the revelation of the molestation scandal… A man who was and is more worried about that legacy, then he was about justice and the safety of children.

Mahony went as far as to keep law enforcement uninvolved. Instead of turning priests accused of abuse over to the police for prosecution, Mahony would, instead, send them to out of state “treatment centers” he knew would keep a secret. And under his administration of the LA Archdiocese, abuse victims were discouraged from contacting the authorities.

All the while Mahony kept detailed documentation and files of the abuse cases safely locked in his desk.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

A MAN has failed in an attempt to sue disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien over alleged sex abuse by a parish priest.

The 33-year-old from Bathgate, West Lothian, claims he was given cash and rosary beads to buy his silence.

The priest he blames for molesting him between 1989 and 1992 has since died.

The man went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking £100,000 damages, and in papers submitted to the court his lawyers tried to argue that Cardinal O’Brien and other senior figures in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in Scotland should legally carry the blame – in the same way that an employer can be sued over an employee’s wrongdoing.

The churchmen named in the action are the trustees of the Archdiosese of St Andews and Edinburgh.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE 33-year-old, from Bathgate, who alleges he was molested by a priest between 1989 and 1992 says O’Brien and other church figures should take the blame but was told he had left it too late to raise action.

A MAN has failed in a bid to sue disgraced cardinal Keith O’Brien for £100,000 over sex abuse by a parish priest.

He claims he was given cash and rosary beads to buy his silence. The priest he blames for molesting him between 1989 and 1992 has since died.

The 33-year-old man, of Bathgate, West Lothian, went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking £100,000 damages.

He claimed O’Brien and other senior figures in the Catholic Church in Scotland should carry the blame.

The churchmen named in the action are the trustees of the Archdiocese of St Andews and Edinburgh.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Vatican has refused to provide information requested by the United Nations on the alleged sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns or monks.

The Vatican said the cases were the responsibility of the judicial systems of countries where abuse took place.

The UK National Secular Society accused the Vatican of hiding behind legal technicalities.

On his appointment in March, Pope Francis said dealing with sex abuse was vital for the Church’s credibility.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child put a wide-ranging questionnaire to the Holy See – the city state’s diplomatic entity – last July, asking for detailed information about the particulars of all sexual abuse cases notified to the Vatican since 1995.

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

MISSOURI
Lake News

The trial of a California, Mo. man charged with multiple counts of sexual child abuse in Moniteau County has been continued.

The pre-trial conference for Travis R. Smith, 43, has now been set for May 16, 2014 with the jury trial scheduled to begin Monday, June 2.

Smith is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Stover.

In September 2012, Smith was arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on charges of forcible rape, sexual abuse and two counts of statutory rape in the second degree in alleged incidents that took place in March 1998 and February 1999. Smith was also then charged in Moniteau County Circuit Court with statutory rape in the second degree and statutory sodomy in the second degree related to incidents alleged to have occurred in 2005.

The allegations involve two different victims.

In June 2013, the charge of forcible sodomy for deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion was added to the charges filed against Smith. This incident was alleged to have occurred in October 1999.

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NEW YORK
WKBW

[with video]

By WKBW News

December 3, 2013

Barker, N.Y. (WKBW) After decades of silence, George Harriger is speaking out for justice.
“I’ve left a predator on the streets,” said Harriger.

The predator in question, he says is his own father, Roy Harriger who now faces sexual assault charges after several alleged victims, all family members have a come forward, including George himself.

Roy Harriger is the pastor at this Community Fellowship Church in the Town of Hartland and was arrested on November 27 but one day later was bailed out of jail.

This past Sunday, Roy Harriger was in attendance for worship at Community Fellowship Church.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

I’d like to recommend to you a movie Steve and I saw on the day after Thanksgiving–Stephen Frears’s Philomena, starring Judi Dench. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, since I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t yet seen the movie. Many of you will already know that the film recounts the real-life story of an Irish woman, Philomena Lee, who gave birth to a child in one of those homes for unwed mothers run by nuns in Ireland. The little boy was taken from her and sold to a couple in the states, and she spent years searching for her son–the focus of the film’s plot.

The plot has the makings of a political diatribe–evil nuns, censorious Catholic attitudes towards sex, lies, secrets, and silence. The cruelty and duplicity of the nuns with whom Philomena deals is breathtaking. A filmmaker with a heavier hand would no doubt have bulled the story along in a determined, monochromatic way that allowed us to leave the theater full of righteous indignation against those who did Philomena wrong, ruined her life, and (spoiler alert) thwarted her attempt to find her son. All in the name of Jesus and his divine mercy, it goes without saying, of course . . . .

Frears’s touch is much defter, however, and the story succeeds at getting under the skin as a result–and then won’t let one go. I’ve struggled for days now with the movie’s lack of clear resolution, its lack of the kind of moral indignation that would let me off the hook as I tussle with the thought of those evil nuns, those Catholic authority figures with their censorious notions of sex, the lies, the secrets, and the silence.

Instead, what Frears offers as the plot unfolds are quicksilver shifts from rage to tears to laughter, none of which allows one to nestle cozily down into a space of easy outrage. What we get instead is a story of unexpected redemption in which Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), the English journalist who offers to help Philomena search for her son and tell her story, and who has all the appropriate enraged responses to the evil nuns we ourselves also have, becomes Philomena’s disciple in the spiritual life. Hearing from her a story of grace and forgiveness more complicated than the one he’d prefer to have heard and told–a story that ends up implicating him . . . .

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AUSTRALIA
Wyndham Weekly

By Goya Dmytryshchak

A Catholic brother accused of sexually abusing two boys and two girls in the 1970s and ’80s in Melbourne’s west has been bailed until next March.

Brother Bernard Hartman, 73, has been charged with 14 counts of indecent assault. The charges relate to separate complaints from two men and two women, including Altona Meadows woman Mairead Ashcroft.

Taskforce Sano detectives allege the offences happened at a school and homes in the western suburbs of Melbourne between 1976 and 1982.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court last Thursday extended Hartman’s bail until a contested committal hearing on March 17.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

My theory: It was a deal. Francis got named Pope to derail child sex abuse charges with a Sudden Left Wing Turn in the church. He gets to steer to the left and help the poor, and the old monarchs get to keep the files secret. Just my paranoid, plot seeing brain at work as always. BUT IN FACT this sudden left-wing turn may affect UN prosecutors’ motivation. Just a thought.

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UNITED STATES
eNews Park Forest

New York –(ENEWSPF)—December 3, 2013. Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), released the following statement on the Vatican’s response to a set of questions posed to it officially by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child with regards to the handling of the widespread sexual violence against children in the church.

In its vague and delayed response to the committee, the Vatican has once again refused to accept responsibility for the policies and practices that allow, even facilitate and encourage, the proliferation of rape and sexual violence against children in the Catholic Church. In claiming it only bears responsibility for what happens inside Vatican City and blaming the lack of prevention and redress for these crimes by priests and others associated with the church around the world on local governments, the Holy See has taken one of its most explicitly disingenuous and misleading positions on the issue to date.

The Vatican conveniently ignores its strict policies regarding internal reporting and oversight and the ways in which it has blocked efforts at civil remedies, blocked efforts to ensure access to justice for victims by fighting reforms or the abolition of statutes of limitations, and rewarded bishops who have subverted and often thwarted criminal and civil investigations in many countries.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

The Vatican has refused to provide information to a UN panel about its investigation into sexual abuse of children by the clergy. The Church said it couldn’t be held responsible for the behavior of Catholics worldwide.

The Holy See on Tuesday said it wouldn’t release the details of its internal investigations into abuse cases unless required to do so by the request of a state or government in order to cooperate with legal proceedings. The Church’s refusal came in response to a series of questions posed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the main UN treaty that guarantees human rights for children.
The Vatican ratified the convention in 1990 and submitted its first implementation report in 1994, but then proceeded to not provide progress reports for nearly a decade. The Church finally provided one last year after coming under renewed pressure following an increase in child sex abuse cases in Europe in 2010.

The UN had asked the questions in response to the latest progress report, and a Vatican delegation is set to appear before the panel in person at a committee hearing in Geneva on January 16.

In its response to the panel on Tuesday, the Holy See said the details of its internal disciplinary proceedings were “not open to the public” in order to protect “witnesses, the accused and the integrity of the Church process.” It added that it cannot ratify international treaties on behalf of all the world’s Catholics, and that they can only be implemented in the territory it controls – the Vatican City State.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

By JENNIFER TODD
Staff Writer
jtodd@lnpnews.com

A Pequea Valley Junior High School basketball coach and former youth pastor has been charged with the repeated sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy.

Officials also charged Jonathan D. Masteller, 23, of Kinzer Road, Kinzers, with having images and videos on his computer depicting child pornography.

He was arraigned Tuesday by District Judge B. Denise Commins and committed to Lancaster County Prison after failing to post $250,000 bail.

Masteller is the junior high head boys’ basketball coach at Pequea Vallley, according to the district’s website.

On social media sites, Masteller also identified himself as being employed by Pequea Valley as an assistant in a third-grade emotional support classroom.

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VATICAN CITY
3 News (New Zealand)

[Read the list of questions from UN Committee on the Rights of the Child here.
Read the Vatican’s response here.
Read the SNAP-CCR report here.]

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican has dodged a series of questions posed by a UN committee about clerical sexual abuse by noting that the Holy See doesn’t control the actions of every Catholic in the world, much less regulate every Catholic priest, parish or school.

Rather, the Vatican asserted that local bishops are ultimately responsible for keeping children safe from paedophile priests, and that schools and workhouses where abuse occurred in Ireland and elsewhere are subject to local civil laws and regulations, not Vatican jurisdiction.

The Vatican’s position was laid out in a response to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about its implementation of the 1989 UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, the main UN treaty guaranteeing a full range of human rights for children.

The Holy See ratified the convention in 1990 and submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly a decade, and only submitted one last year after coming under renewed pressure following the 2010 explosion of child sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

[with video]

(ABC 6 News) — A Ramsey County judge ruled Monday that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as well as the Diocese of Winona must release the names of priests accused of sexual assault.

This after a law suit where the victim demanded that the names be released for the public’s safety.

Back in August Bill Beardmore stood before us and told us of the sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of his own priest more than 50 years ago.

“I felt like I was the person that had done something bad, I was just a little kid, I was an altar boy,” said Beardmore.

Beardmore is just one of the victims that attorney Jeff Anderson has represented that has asked that the names of the priests that have been credibly accused be released.

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VATICAN CITY
ABS-CBN (Philippines)

Reuters
Posted at 12/04/2013

[Read the list of questions from UN Committee on the Rights of the Child here.
Read the Vatican’s response here.
Read the SNAP-CCR report here.]

ROME – The Vatican refused to provide a United Nations rights panel with information on the Church’s internal investigations into the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying on Tuesday that its policy was to keep such cases confidential.

In response to a series of tough questions posed by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Holy See said it would not release information on its internal investigations into abuse cases unless required to do so by a request from a state or government to cooperate in legal proceedings.

The response of the Holy See, which will be directly questioned by the panel in January 2014, will be closely watched as it tries to draw a line under financial scandals and abuse by priests that have damaged the standing of the Roman Catholic Church around the world.

Since becoming the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years, Pope Francis has largely succeeded in changing the subject after the resignation of Benedict XVI in February.

The questions from the panel aimed to assess the Church’s adherence to the 1990 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty guaranteeing a full range of human rights for children which the Holy See has signed.

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ITALY
FINNBAY

(FINNBAY-ANSA) – Pesaro, 3 December 2013. A judge on Tuesday handed a 43-year-old priest in the north-eastern city of Pesaro a two-and-a-half year sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The case of Father Giangiacomo Ruggeri, a former spokesman for the bishop of Fano, began when a lifeguard saw the priest and the child passionately embracing on a beach last year. “She could have been my daughter”, said Marco Mandolini, who promptly called the cops.

Police later entered into evidence a covert videotape of Ruggeri, an ex girl-scout leader and diocese communications director, with his underage protegee on the beach on July 10 and 12, 2012. “I don’t know what came over me”, Ruggeri, who was the child’s spiritual adviser, told police when he was arrested. “We all, beginning with the church, are and live with imperfect men”, his employer, Bishop Armando Trasarti, said at the time.

Immediately suspended by the church after his arrest, the errant priest spent five months in jail, followed by a period of reflection in a convent, a few months working in a church library in the city of Perugia, and a move to Rome, where he now works as a cook at a canteen for political refugees.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday December 3, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

The Vatican is ducking and dodging a United Nations Panel’s request for information about the churches ongoing clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis.

[Center for Constitutional Rights]

[National Secular Society]

On clergy sex crimes and cover ups, Pope Francis breaks no new ground. Like Benedict and John Paul before him, he parses words, splits hairs, hides information, and exploits legalistic technicalities.

The pope’s refusal to give straight answers and act exactly like his predecessors is especially disheartening because in so many other ways he seems like a tiny bit of fresh air. If he’s willing to bend and break some long standing church traditions, why is he so unwilling to do so about the safety of kids?

This is a simple sad story: the pope refuses to honor a deadline, tell the truth, and be accountable. New face, same outcome. Ultimately keeping children away from predators is far more important than carrying your own luggage and riding a bus.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

One of the submissions to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which is worthy of close study is that by John and Nicola Ellis, both of whom are lawyers who have represented victims. John Ellis is himself a victim. A past court action against the Catholic Church by Mr. Ellis resulted in the finding that the Catholic Church could not be sued, because it, technically, does not exist (see previous postings on “Ellis Defence”).

The submission covered here is one on the general principles on which the “Towards Healing” process (see previous postings) errs. Mr. Ellis has, apparently, also made a personal submission on his own experiences with the Catholic Church, which is private. There exists considerable anticipation of Mr. Ellis’ evidence to the hearings on the “Towards Healing” process at the Royal Commission, beginning on 9th December.

As stated previously, this author is not a lawyer (and not even a “bush lawyer”) so there will undoubtedly be technical errors. Apologies are given to the Ellis’ in advance, for any misinterpretations of their submission. Despite these disadvantages, it is important to give a general idea of what they feel about the “Towards Healing” process, since they are the acknowledged experts on it.

The focus of this posting will therefore be the 25 main points they make, with little interpretation of them, in terms of consequences and necessary regulatory changes required to address the problems they raise. For those who have the time, energy and expertise to do so, a look at their submission, available on the Commission’s web-site, is encouraged.

1. Complainants have to go to church which abused them. The church won’t allow independent contact person e.g. counselor, on the basis that this is too expensive for the church. It does not allow for victims’ lawyers. As indicated in yesterday’s posting, the church’s submission appears to be very anti-lawyer in terms of victim support persons. As a result, the primary concern of victims is that they won’t be believed. The situation creates a power imbalance (see previous postings on this issue in general). For example, the church representative is referred to as the “church authority”. Sometimes, delays in the process can be used to create a legal limitations problem – e.g. normally, one has a certain amount of time after becoming aware of the effects of abuse on oneself, so if the church delays the process longer than this time (the victims is assumed to be aware of the effects of the abuse when he or she first approaches the church), the victim is disadvantaged in the legal process.

2. Victims are discouraged, or filtered out, at the first contact point with the Professional Standards Office, which runs the process. Victims are sometimes told to “go away and think about it [the complaint]” which is seen as a rebuff.

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POLAND
The News

Loyal parishioners turned out in force yesterday as a Polish priest was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for molesting five boys from 2002 to 2009.

Father Slawomir S. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws) had pleaded not guilty and he was not present in court yesterday. The clergyman had led a parish in Rawa Mazowiecka, central Poland.
The five victims had served as altar-boys for the priest, and all of them had been under fifteen at the time of the abuse.

The priest has been banned for life from working with minors, and he is also forbidden from making any contact with the victims in future.

One of the abused, now an adult, told the TVN24 news station that he finally stepped forward as he “would have been furious if the priest abused someone else.”

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

A MAN has failed in an attempt to sue disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien over alleged sex abuse by a parish priest.

The 33-year-old from Bathgate, West Lothian, claims he was given cash and rosary beads to buy his silence.

The priest he blames for molesting him between 1989 and 1992 has since died.

The 33-year-old went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking £100,000 damages.

In papers submitted to the court, his lawyers tried to argue that Cardinal O’Brien and other senior figures in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in Scotland should legally carry the blame – in the same way that an employer can be sued over an employee’s wrong doing.

The churchmen named in the action are the trustees of the Archdiosese of St Andews and Edinburgh.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Paul Thornton
December 3, 2013

During the Roman Catholic Church’s decades-long sex abuse crisis, then-Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony went to great lengths to keep law enforcement uninvolved. Instead of handing priests accused of abuse over to police, he would send them to therapists he knew could keep a secret or to faraway rehab programs. Under his watch, the church discouraged abuse victims from talking to authorities.

That’s according to The Times’ two-part series Sunday and Monday on the 23,000 pages of documents ordered released by the courts that detail Mahony’s efforts to keep accusations of abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese from erupting into a public scandal. The stories portray Mahony, who retired as archbishop in 2011, as a politically active prelate whose behind-the-scenes maneuvering to cover up the abuse stands in stark contrast to the image of social consciousness he projected in public.

We’ve received more than two dozen letters on the series so far, and only two have defended Mahony. Some of the letters are from Catholics disgusted by their leaders’ conduct; a handful come from readers who say they’ve been abused themselves.

The reaction to Times articles on abuse in the church hasn’t always been this one-sided. As the scandal unfolded through the years, a good portion of the letters we received accused The Times of being too harsh on Mahony or of harboring an anti-Catholic bias. They said the cardinal possessed many redeeming qualities or did more than most bishops to rid his parish of sex abuse.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Pesaro, December 3 – A judge on Tuesday handed a 43-year-old priest in the north-eastern city of Pesaro a two-and-a-half year sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The case of Father Giangiacomo Ruggeri, a former spokesman for the bishop of Fano, began when a lifeguard saw the priest and the child passionately embracing on a beach last year. “She could have been my daughter”, said Marco Mandolini, who promptly called the cops. Police later entered into evidence a covert videotape of Ruggeri, an ex girl-scout leader and diocese communications director, with his underage protegee on the beach on July 10 and 12, 2012. “I don’t know what came over me”, Ruggeri, who was the child’s spiritual adviser, told police when he was arrested. “We all, beginning with the church, are and live with imperfect men”, his employer, Bishop Armando Trasarti, said at the time. Immediately suspended by the church after his arrest, the errant priest spent five months in jail, followed by a period of reflection in a convent, a few months working in a church library in the city of Perugia, and a move to Rome, where he now works as a cook at a canteen for political refugees. “I accept the court’s decision”, Ruggeri told defense attorney Gianluca Sposito at today’s sentencing. The victim’s family will sue for damages in civil court, family attorney Omar Severi said.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

By Barbie Latza Nadeau
December 3rd 2013

Why doesn’t popular Pope Francis issue a straightforward apology for rampant child sex abuse by Catholic priests, instead of swerving time and again on the issue?

There is no question that Pope Francis has put a shine on the tarnished Catholic church through acts of humility and courage in the first eight months of his papacy. Cold calls to Catholics and random acts of kindness—including rumors that he regularly sneaks out of Vatican City at night to help feed the poor in Rome—have endeared him to the most ardent naysayers. But the first Latin American pontiff hasn’t won everyone over quite yet.

Advocates of the clerical child sex scandal say the pope still has done little to address the church’s disgraceful record on child abuse. And on Monday, he seemed to miss another big opportunity to apologize for the church’s sins. In a meeting with 13 Dutch prelates in Rome, he apparently intended to flick at the issue. According to prepared remarks given to those who attended the meeting, he was planning to say, “I wish to express my compassion and to ensure my closeness in prayer to every victim of sexual abuse, and to their families; I ask you to continue to support them along the painful path of healing, that they have undertaken with courage.” But those in attendance said he veered off script and instead held an open conversation with the clergy present, failing to focus on the sex abuse problem in the Dutch church as he may have intended, according to the prepared remarks. Last year, the Dutch government issued a harsh report against the Catholic church after investigating more than 20,000 valid claims of child abuse by priests since 1945. They called out the Dutch church’s failure to “adequately deal with the abuse.”

Monday’s missed opportunity is not the first time this popular pontiff has punted on the issue. In a broad interview published in several Jesuit magazines in September, he also chose not to address the issue at all, which disappointed many Catholics who were hoping to hear from the new pope on this contentious topic. In another interview in October, this time with La Repubblica the pope again remained silent on the subject of sex abuse, missing what many Italians felt was a golden opportunity to put his views on the record.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Another take on Evangelii Gaudium, this by Jason Berry, who deserves tremendous credit for his persistence in reporting about the Catholic clerical sex abuse crisis long before anyone else dared to write about this: Berry notes that Francis and his pastoral formulation of Catholicism are enjoying great popularity in Europe, where unemployment for Spanish and Greek young people is now at Depression-era levels. But he also points out that the stress on open doors and on the need for a decentralized church which places service to the least among us first on its agenda will cause people to ask questions about how he intends to address the abuse crisis.

Berry writes,

Francis’s reference to a church “clinging to its own security” came on the same day a clergy abuse survivors’ group in Milwaukee, Wis. released a letter drafted by Father James Connell, a canon lawyer and former diocesan official, to the Congregation for Clergy in Rome, asking the Vatican to nullify a controversial $57 million transaction by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as archbishop of Milwaukee six years ago, burying the money in a cemetery trust to avoid paying settlements to clergy abuse victims.

In 2007, Dolan shifted the $57 million from general funds into a special cemetery trust as lawsuits by abuse victims mounted. Dolan soon went to New York to become archbishop and subsequently a cardinal. In Milwaukee, the diocese faces 550 victim cases. The diocese filed for federal bankruptcy relief three years ago in an effort to bargain down the settlements; the bankruptcy turned into grinding litigation in which church lawyers challenged the validity of the victims’ claims.
A group of sympathetic clergy rallied to the cause of the victims. The letter that Father Connell wrote as part of the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance, asks theVatican to rescind the $57 million transfer, approved by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who was prefect of Congregation for Clergy at the time.

The Vatican policy on clergy abuse, such as it is, encourages bishops to report crimes to law enforcement and work within a given country’s laws. But with bishops bound by canon law to seek approval for shifts of funds over $5 million from Congregation for Clergy, the Vatican is in a position of de facto micromanaging certain decisions that bear on large settlement issues.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Raw Story

By Scott Kaufman
Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Los Angeles Times has published an exhaustive account — based on over 23,000 pages of internal documents from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — of the former Archbishop of Los Angeles’s complicity in the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal.

The article documents Roger Mahony’s involvement at all levels of the attempted cover-up of priests who molested children, beginning with the day in December 1986 when Father Michael Baker confessed to Mahony that he had molested two boys.

According to Mahony in a video deposition, his initial reason for not reporting Baker to the police was that “you only call the police when you’ve victims that you can talk to,” because “the suspected child abuse form” contains “a big section about each victim and the victim’s parent, so you, obviously, if you can’t fill out the form, you can’t send it in.”

Instead of reporting Baker to the police, he had him sent to a church-run clinic in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, where they “treat pedophilia.” When abusers were sent to therapists outside the church, Mahony and his aides selected ones they knew would not report the abuse to authorities.

Once the archdiocese was made aware of abuse allegations, Detective Dale Barraclough of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sexually Exploited Child unit told the Times, “we knew that the suspect, 99% sure, that he was going to be out of the country or out of state.”

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MINNESOTA
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Tuesday, December 3, 2013

A county judge in Minnesota has given the Catholic Church just two weeks to turn over the names of at least 33 priests who are accused of abusing children.

After nearly 30 years of fighting for the names to be released, advocates finally convinced Ramsey County Judge John Van De North to order the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to reveal the name of the alleged abusers, according to WCCO.

The church compiled a list of the clergy accused of child abuse in 2004, but a 2009 ruling had kept it private. Judge Van De North also ordered the church to reveal any priests who have been accused since 2004.

“The era of secrecy around the identities of those offenders is now drawing to and nearing an end,” attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents victims of abuse, explained. “Survivors who suffered alone in silence, thinking they are the only ones abused now know they may not be alone”

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ITALIEN
KIPA

[Summary:A Catholic priest and former diocesan spokesman has been found guilty of sexually abusing monors and committing obscene acts in public and has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.]

Rom, 3.12.13 (Kipa) Wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs einer Minderjährigen und obszöner Handlungen in der Öffentlichkeit ist ein katholischer Priester und ehemaliger Bistumssprecher in Italien zu zweieinhalb Jahren Haft verurteilt worden.

Wie italienische Medien am Dienstag berichteten, untersagte ein Gericht im mittelitalienischen Pesaro dem Geistlichen zudem für ein Jahr, in der Öffentlichkeit zu wirken, und schloss ihn für fünf Jahre von öffentlichen Ämtern aus.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday met for the second time with the 8-member Council of Cardinals to discuss the proposed reforms of the Roman Curia. The meeting will last until Wednesday. The first meeting took place in October.

In a press briefing, the head of the Holy See Press Office Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, stated the Cardinals have been gathering the insights of the bishops from their various regions of the world. The December meeting will focus on the various Dicasteries of the Curia, with the morning session devoted to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Father Lombardi reminded the journalists the Cardinals are not seeking “mere tweaks” to the current Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus, but will create a “substantial” revision, that will probably end with a new Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia.

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VATICAN CITY
The Kansas City Star

December 3
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ efforts to reform the Machiavellian Vatican bureaucracy have gotten a vote of confidence from an unlikely source.

Italian Premier Enrico Letta praised Francis’s undertaking Tuesday, saying it could be a model for Italian public institutions in similar need of an overhaul.

The proposed reforms include the creation of an advisory board of eight cardinals.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 3 December 2013 (VIS) – The Council of Cardinals instituted by Pope Francis to assist him in the governance of the universal Church and to draw up a plan for the revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus on the Roman Curia, as announced by the Holy Father’s chirograph dated 28 September, began its second round of meetings this morning, to continue until 5 December. The first round took place from 3 to 5 October.

The Council is composed of eight cardinals from the five continents: Cardinals Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Chile; Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India; Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Sean Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, U.S.A.; George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the function of co-ordinator. The secretary is Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy.

In a briefing held today, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., communicated that the cardinals will meet in the Santa Marta guesthouse at from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and will hold the afternoon sessions from 4 to 7 p.m. The morning began with the holy Mass concelebrated with Pope Francis in the chapel.

“This time, the cardinals have commenced work directly in the Santa Marta guesthouse, rather than meeting beforehand on the Third Loggia, as they did in October”, said Fr. Lombardi. “The Pope was present at the meeting and will probably also attend this afternoon. However, tomorrow he will not attend the morning session as he will hold the general audience in St. Peter’s Square. During the intervening months between one session and another, the cardinals have continued their work, both personally and in contact with each other; they have also gathered opinions and suggestions on the situation of the Church based on the events in which they have participated; for example, Cardinal Gracias has attended numerous meetings in Asia, while Cardinal Marx has held his own in Europe”.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Dec. 3, 2013

VATICAN CITY As the pope meets for the second time this week with eight cardinals he has appointed to help him reform the church’s central bureaucracy, the Vatican said Tuesday the objective is not small changes but wide revisions.

The work of the group, known formally as the Council of Cardinals, “requires going in depth … to really go in depth,” said Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi at a press briefing.

“Their idea and their objective is not to make small changes … but a consistent and in-depth revision” of the papal document, known as an apostolic constitution, which governs the functions of Vatican bureaucracy, Lombardi said.

“We can even speak about a new apostolic constitution for the Curia,” he said.

The cardinals’ group is meeting Tuesday through Thursday at the Vatican. The group, which includes prelates from six of the seven continents, met for the first time Oct. 1-3. The lone American in the group is Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Honduran Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga serves as its coordinator.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

Read the list of questions from UN Committee on the Rights of the Child here.

Read the Vatican’s response here.

Read the SNAP-CCR report here.

Rights Group Calls Response Disingenuous, Vague
press@ccrjustice.org

December 3, 2013, New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), released the following statement on the Vatican’s response to a set of questions posed to it officially by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child with regards to the handling of the widespread sexual violence against children in the church.

“In its vague and delayed response to the committee, the Vatican has once again refused to accept responsibility for the policies and practices that allow, even facilitate and encourage, the proliferation of rape and sexual violence against children in the Catholic Church. In claiming it only bears responsibility for what happens inside Vatican City and blaming the lack of prevention and redress for these crimes by priests and others associated with the church around the world on local governments, the Holy See has taken one of its most explicitly disingenuous and misleading positions on the issue to date.

The Vatican conveniently ignores its strict policies regarding internal reporting and oversight and the ways in which it has blocked efforts at civil remedies, blocked efforts to ensure access to justice for victims by fighting reforms or the abolition of statutes of limitations, and rewarded bishops who have subverted and often thwarted criminal and civil investigations in many countries.

The response is vague and general, where the committee sought concrete data and facts. If the Vatican does not have this information, then it has wholly failed in its obligation to investigate allegations of sexual violence by its clergy against children; more likely, it has failed to disclose information about the tens of thousands of cases brought to its attention. As demonstrated in our initial filing to the committee and as we will highlight in our forthcoming submission, the Vatican has certainly been able to track these cases when it comes to aggressively fighting or blocking victims’ efforts for compensation in civil actions.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights represents SNAP in their effort to hold high-level Vatican officials accountable for enabling and covering up widespread and systematic sexual violence against children in the Catholic Church.

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ITALY
adnkronos

Vatican City, 3 Dec. (AKI) – High-ranking Vatican cleric Monsignor Nunzio Scarano went on trial in Italy on Tuesday accused of corruption and slander over a 20 million euro smuggling plot.

A court in Rome said witnesses from the prosecution would be heard on 13 December .

Scarano, Vatican accountant, was arrested on 28 June together with Italian policeman and former secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, and financial broker Giovanni Carenzio over the alleged smuggling plot.

All three suspects are accused of attempting to smuggle the cash to Italy from Switzerland on a private jet on behalf of wealthy ship owners from Naples.

Scarano allegedly paid a 400,000 euro bribe in the alleged plot which went awry when Carenzio failed to show up with the money that had been entrusted to him.

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ITALY
France 24

AFP – The trial of a senior cleric accused of corruption and attempted money laundering at the scandal-plagued Vatican bank opened in Rome on Tuesday, Italian media reported.

The court immediately postponed the trial of Nunzio Scarano to December 13, when the first witnesses for the prosecution will be heard, the reports said.

Scarano, who was not present in court, was arrested in June on suspicion of having acted as an intermediary for suspect transactions at the Vatican bank — otherwise known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).

The prosecution accuses Scarano of acting as a front for suspicious payments made through the Vatican bank and “interrupting the traceability of money.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Tue, 03 Dec 2013

Vatican ducks questions from UN on the worldwide child abuse in Catholic institutions

The Vatican has failed to answer detailed questions by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers or nuns or brought to the attention of the Holy See. These formal questions were raised as part of the review of the reports the UN Committee require states that have ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child to provide every five years.

In a formal response to the UN Committee’s ‘list of issues’ or questions, the Holy See based its failure to answer them on the legal technicality that it is “related but separate and distinct from the Catholic Church”. It added: “it is not the practice of the Holy See to disclose information on the religious discipline of members of the clergy or religious according to canon law, unless there is a related matter concerning international judicial cooperation with a State and the request by the State is made, generally, through specific procedures”.

The UN Committee prefaced its questions by pointing to “the recognition by the Holy See of sexual violence against children committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns in numerous countries around the world, and given the scale of the abuses”.

Keith Porteous Wood of the (UK) National Secular Society, which, together with victims groups, has submitted evidence about such abuse to the Committee earlier this year, commented: “Under the direct control of the Pope, the Church operates a firm ‘command and control structure’ over the worldwide Church, particularly over the handling of clerical rape and sexual violence offences. It requires that it is sent all records of the tens of thousands of these criminal offences, and secretes them centrally.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Monday, December 2, 2013

Source: Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is grateful for the approval of Ramsey County court to release information relating to priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors in our archdiocese. We anticipate releasing this information on Thursday, December 5 on a new page of our web site and in our archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Spirit.

Included in this disclosure will be the following information: the cleric’s name; year of birth; age; year of ordination; year of death (if deceased); prior assignments; current status (permanently removed from ministry, laicized, deceased, etc.); city and state where they presently reside. The information to be released is mostly related to reported incidents that occurred between the mid- 1950’s and 1980’s. Most of the men whose names will be released have been previously identified in media reports. All of these men who will be identified have been permanently removed from ministry or are deceased.

These disclosures are not intended to be final. A comprehensive review of clergy files is ongoing presently and the list will be updated regularly as additional announcements are made in the future. This new level of disclosure is part of a comprehensive and cohesive set of actions we have been taking this fall to address the issues associated with clergy sexual misconduct in our archdiocese. These disclosure practices may evolve in the future as we progress with our disclosure, including recommendations that may be made by the independent task force or through the review of our clergy files by an outside firm.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

A priest arrested in Eastbourne this morning (Tuesday) on suspicion of sexual offences against a young boy has been interviewed and released on police bail this afternoon while enquiries continue.

The 56-year old man had been arrested this morning at his home address in Eastbourne, on suspicion of acts of indecency, indecent assault, and cruelty, against a boy then aged between 12 and 13, in East Sussex during 1988 and 1989.

The man is a Church of England priest who does not currently have permission to officiate.

He was bailed until April 3 next year.

There are currently no allegations of recent or current offending and police emphasise that there is nothing to suggest that any young people are currently at risk.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Church of England priest has been bailed after his arrest on suspicion of acts of indecency, indecent assault and cruelty against a boy.

The victim was aged 12 and 13 at the time of the alleged incidents in 1988 and 1989.

The 56-year old’s arrest in Eastbourne, East Sussex, follows a Diocese of Chichester-commissioned inquiry.

Earlier this year two other priests referred to in the report were jailed.

Helpline

They were convicted for sex attacks on children, but police have said the arrested man has no link with those offences.

A statement from the Diocese of Chichester said the priest did not currently have permission to officiate.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Beth Hawkins

Archdiocese of St. Paul and MinneapolisThe Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced Monday evening that it will comply on Thursday with a judge’s order to produce the names of priests accused of child molestation, as well as their past and present assignments and other details.

Ramsey County District Court Judge John Van de North gave the Archdiocese a Dec. 17 deadline for the release of a list of 33 priests it has substantial evidence sexually abused minors. The Diocese of Winona was ordered to release another 13.

In addition, Van de North gave the dioceses until Jan. 6 to release the names of abusers brought to its attention since 2004, when the lists were compiled.

Advocates for abuse survivors, however, were skeptical that the information released will mark a watershed moment. Commitments to full transparency in sex-abuse scandals in Roman Catholic dioceses here and worldwide have come peppered with caveats, they noted.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (updated 3 December 2013)

Broken Rites research has revealed how the prominent Catholic order of Salesian Fathers harboured an Australian paedophile priest, Father Frank Klep, for four decades – allowing him to commit sexual crimes against defenceless boys. But, with help from Broken Rites, some of his victims finally managed to get Klep exposed during three court cases. Klep’s most recent court appearance was on 2 December 2013.

Frank Gerard Klep was ordained as a priest in Melbourne in 1972. He was convicted in Melbourne in 1994 for indecently assaulting vulnerable boys, aged 13, in the sick dormitory of a Salesian secondary school, Salesian College (also known as “Rupertswood”), at Sunbury in Melbourne’s north-west. The offences occurred in the 1970s but were covered up until the 1994 court case.

During the 1980s and ’90s, parents and ex-students from “Rupertswood” tried to get Klep removed from the priesthood but the Salesians obstinately protected him. The Salesians eventually transferred him from Australia to the Pacific island Samoa — and they illegally concealed his criminal conviction from the Samoan authorities. In Samoa, he was out of reach of the Australian police. In 2004, after more victims contacted the Australian police, Samoa deported Frank Klep back to Australia, where he eventually pleaded guilty regarding the additional victims. He was again convicted. Even as Klep entered jail in December 2005 (eleven years after his first conviction), his Salesian bosses still had not removed him from the priesthood.

In court again on 2 December 2013 (after more of his victims contacted Broken Rites and the police), Klep pleaded guilty to more crimes against boys, including buggery.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

What a beautiful spot! I had always thought Iqaluit was flat and barren, Not flat at all – it’s hilly and rocky – and today, windy, windy and oh so COLD. Thankfully I bought a good pair of boots on Sunday – my toes are warm 🙂

So, landed safe and sound – luggage put away and then myself and friend headed for the courthouse and arrived in time for the afternoon session.

And there he was. Convicted Oblate clerical molester Father Eric Dejaeger, sitting at the defence table. Long straggly gray beard. Balding. Navy sweat shirt, sweatpants and canvas (?) navy shoes.

I’m not sure what I expected, but, there he was. In flesh and blood.

The courtroom layout is quite different here in Nunavut. I would love to take a picture to post for all to see, but, not allowed 🙁 The witness stand faces the judge – I am told that is because Inuit believe that they look a person in the eye that person can not lie. I was struck by that particular change in layout, and the reason for the change.

Father Eric Dejaeger barely took his eyes off the witnesses. He stared intently, rarely ever breaking his gaze. I spotted him stroking his beard a couple of times, but most of the time he rested his chin on clasped hands, occasionally chewing at a thumb nail or fiddling with his fingers.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Catholic Church’s grandiosely-named Truth, Justice and Healing Council (otherwise known as the PR Unit set up by the church to deal with the fall-out from the Royal Commission) has made a submission on the subject of the fourth hearing of the Commission, concerning the “Towards Healing” process.

[Correction: A factual error in the last posting has been pointed out to me. I referred to the “Towards Healing” and “Melbourne Response” as being both the brain-child of Cardinal George Pell. Pell was responsible for the “Melbourne Response”, allegedly following intense pressure from the then Victorian State Premier, Jeff Kennett. The “Towards Healing” program came from the peak Bishops’ body, later. To use my own terminology, I made an “inadvertent misrepresentation” – that is, I stuffed up on my research. All I can do is to apologize for the error and promise to lift my game in the future.]

The above-mentioned Council claims to speak for all sectors of the Catholic Church, in matters relating to the Royal Commission. It says that almost all sectors now use the “Towards Healing” process to deal with allegations of abuse in the church. The Jesuits held out until 2004 before joining the system. The Melbourne Archdiocese, formerly headed by George Pell and now headed by Denis Hart (see previous posting), is now the only one holding out. It still prefers to use its original “Melbourne Response” process.

The “Melbourne Response” process has been severely criticized at the recent Victorian State Parliamentary enquiry, and elsewhere. It seems that the Royal Commission, which has access to all of the data from the Victorian enquiry, will now concentrate on the “Towards Healing” process at its hearings beginning in Sydney on 9th December. The two processes are fairly similar, but there are very real differences which cannot be detailed here, at this stage. A future posting will hopefully be able to achieve this difficult task of showing the differences, and their implications.

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PORTUGAL
Publico

O ex-vice-reitor do seminário do Fundão, Luís Mendes, acusado de 19 crimes de natureza sexual sobre menores, conhece hoje a decisão do tribunal depois de mais de três meses de julgamento.

O acórdão será histórico. É um dos poucos padres a entrar no rol de sacerdotes católicos julgados em Portugal por abuso sexual de menores. Em 1993, o padre Frederico Cunha foi condenado a 13 anos de prisão pelo homicídio de um jovem de quem terá abusado sexualmente. Fugiu para o Brasil a meio da pena.

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PORTUGAL
El Periodico

[Summary: A former parish priest in the Guarda diocese, located in the north, was sentenced yesterday to prison after being found guilty of 19 offenses of sexual abuse involving six children.]

Un exvicepárroco de la diócesis de Guarda (norte de Portugal) fue condenado ayer a 10 años de prisión por 19 delitos de abuso sexual a seis menores. Según la sentencia, el condenado, de 37 años, que desempeñaba funciones educativas en una parroquia de la ciudad de Fundao, abusó sexualmente de muchachos de entre 12 y 15 años, cinco de los cuales estaban internados en el seminario de la localidad. El vicepárroco estaba en arresto domiciliario.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

Created: 12/02/2013

By: Scott Theisen

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it plans Thursday to release the names of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

The archdiocese says the names will be posted on a new page of the archdiocese’s website and in its newspaper, The Catholic Spirit.

A Ramsey County judge ruled Monday that the archdiocese has until Dec. 17 to disclose its list of 33 credibly accused priests. The Diocese of Winona also has until then to disclose its list of 13 priests.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Francis F. Hoefgen became a Benedictine monk in at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN 1973 and was ordained a priest in 1979. He was then assigned to a St. Cloud parish, as an assistant priest. In 1984 he admitted to his superiors and to the local police chief – who was also one of Hoefger’s parishioners – that he had sexually abused a 17-year-old boy. This was after the boy disclosed the abuse to a psychologist, who alerted authorities. Hoefgen was not charged; he was quietly sent to St. Luke’s Institute in MD for six months of psychiatric treatment, then returned to ministry in a St. Paul-Minneapolis parish. He was removed from parish work and returned to St. John’s Abbey after his victim sued, in 1992. Hoefger was allowed to work as St. John’s guest master, and as a spiritual director and private retreat leader until July 2002, after the U.S. bishops established the Charter for the Protection of Childern and Young People. He eventually left the priesthood, and was laicized in November 2011. In November 2013 Hoefgen was accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy ages 11-13, from 1989-1992.

Ordained: 1979

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

STOCKTON — Roman Catholic Bishop Stephen Blaire of the Stockton Diocese sent a letter to each parish last week, saying there appears to be no options other than filing for bankruptcy.

“Moving in this direction will enable us to continue to meet our obligations to the victims of sexual abuse, to the poor and vulnerable, and to you, our people,” he wrote. “I anticipate the diocese making a decision based on our financial future after the first of the year.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Heart

A Church of England priest has been arrested in Eastbourne on suspicion of child sex abuse and cruelty against a boy dating back up to 25 years.

The 56-year-old man, who does not currently have permission to officiate, was detained this morning (Tuesday 3 Dec) at his home in Jervis Avenue.

Sussex Police said he was held on “suspicion of acts of indecency, indecent assault and cruelty against a boy known to him” who was then aged 12 and 13 in 1988 and 1989.

His arrests follows a review and inquiry by a team of detectives after information was referred to the force by the Diocese of Chichester in 2011, following a report commissioned by the diocese by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The 56-year-old man, who does not currently have permission to officiate, was detained this morning at his home in Jervis Avenue, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Sussex Police said he was held on “suspicion of acts of indecency, indecent assault and cruelty against a boy known to him” who was then aged 12 and 13 in 1988 and 1989.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

A 56-year-old Eastbourne priest has been arrested this morning (Tuesday) on suspicion of acts of indecency, indecent assault and cruelty against a young boy.

The Church of England priest, who does not currently have permission to officiate, was arrested at his home address in Jervis Avenue.

The alleged offences are against a boy aged between 12 and 13 in East Sussex during 1988 and 1989.

He is currently in custody for interview and further enquiries.

There are currently no allegations of recent or current offending and police emphasise that there is nothing to suggest that any young people are currently at risk.

The arrest results from a review and subsequent investigation, by a team of Sussex Police detectives, after information was referred to the force by the Diocese of Chichester in 2011 following a report commissioned by the Diocese from Dame Elizabeth Butler Sloss.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier

By Pay Byrne Dec. 3, 2013

A CONVICTED former Christian Brother yesterday pleaded guilty to a fresh charge of indecent assault on a 10-year-old boy at St Alipius Parish School in 1974.

Ballarat Magistrates Court heard Stephen Francis Farrell, 62, of Balwyn North, was 22 years old when he assaulted the boy.

The latest victim became Farrell’s third after he was convicted in 1997 of nine counts of indecent assault stemming from acts he committed on two nine-year-old boys, also pupils at St Alipius during the same period.

Farrell avoided jail in 1997. Yesterday, the court heard Farrell was teaching the victim during an art class in late 1974 when the victim spilt paint on his pants.

Crown prosecutor Raelene Maxwell, who called for the immediate imprisonment of Farrell, said Farrell told the victim to go straight to the sick bay and take his pants off.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Teacher

BALLARAT, Vic, Dec 3 – The ripple effect of damage caused by a former Christian Brother who confessed to abusing a third schoolboy means he must be jailed, prosecutors and victims’ advocates say.

Stephen Francis Farrell, 62, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a 10-year-old boy while he was teaching at St Alipius School in Ballarat in the mid-1970s.

It is the third victim Farrell has admitted to assaulting, after a 1997 conviction on nine charges of indecently assaulting two brothers at St Alipius about the same period.

On that occasion Farrell avoided jail, with a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years.

But prosecutor Raeleene Maxwell called for Farrell to be jailed for the new offence.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The Los Angeles Times has published a long article on Cardinal Mahony and the Sex Scandal.

This series is based on nearly 23,000 pages of internal documents from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and various religious orders that were made public this year in compliance with court orders. In addition, Times reporters reviewed thousands of pages of depositions and court filings and interviewed dozens of people, including church officials, victims’ families and law enforcement officials. Cardinal Roger Mahony declined to be interviewed or respond to questions sent to his attorney.

… so the authors assure us.

One of the interviews the Times conducted was with Detective Gary Lyon, who speaks about Mahony and his cohorts …

“They lied as bad as any thug or ex-con I’ve ever come across on the street,” Lyon recalled in an interview. “They were more interested in saving the reputation of the church than helping us find these young victims.”
***

But my point here is not that the bishops are sometimes scoundrels who have abandoned the faith and who enable the sexual abuse of innocent children and lie about it, my point rather is the character of Cardinal Mahony that emerges from the Times article, which is itself a condensed version of a 23,000 page portrait.

Here’s what we learn about the man.

He’s a narcissist.

Grandiose, self-righteous, smug, filled with an elevated sense of his importance, petty, petulant, pissy, not to be trusted, vain, conceited, and consumed with a sense of entitlement and indignation. He allows the faith to falter in Southern California, builds a despicably ugly cathedral that costs hundreds of millions of dollars, attacks Mother Angelica and EWTN for being orthodox and daring to criticize him, and – God have mercy on his prideful soul – he lies when the case calls for it.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In his clearest public reference as pope to the subject of clerical sex abuse, Pope Francis urged bishops to support abuse victims while also reaching out to priests who have “fallen short of their commitments.”

The pope made his remarks Dec. 2 to bishops from the Netherlands making their first visits “ad limina apostolorum” (“to the threshold of the apostles”) since they met with Blessed John Paul II in 2004.

Speaking in French, the pope brought up sex abuse near the end of his talk, in a section devoted to bishops’ care of priests under their authority.

“Like fathers, find the necessary time to welcome (your priests) and listen to them, every time they ask. And do not forget to go out to meet those who do not approach you; some of them unfortunately have fallen short of their commitments. In particular, I want to express my compassion and assure my prayers to all victims of sexual abuse and their families; I ask you to continue to support them along their painful path of healing, undertaken with courage,” the pope said.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

[with video]

Peter Kirkwood | 03 December 2013

In Australia, sexual abuse by clergy is the Church issue of the moment. The ongoing national Royal Commission, which is due to begin public hearings into the Catholic Church next week, and separate recent enquiries in Victoria and NSW, ensure the crisis has been, and will continue to be in the headlines.

The results of a survey of Mass-going Catholics released at the end of October by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Pastoral Research Office shows anger and disillusionment among grassroots believers. The survey of about 2800 Catholics in over 200 parishes found 54 per cent agreed that ‘the response of church authorities to these incidences (of sexual abuse) has been inadequate and shows a complete failure of responsibility’.

But how to diagnose accurately the complex issues underlying sexual abuse in the Church? How to deal fairly, justly and adequately both with victims/survivors and with offenders? Why such a dismal failure of leadership by Church hierarchy and how should it be practicing its responsibility? What is the way forward?

The man featured in this video is a prophetic voice in this fraught territory. What he says is informed and grounded through decades of experience. He speaks with clarity, insight and authority, and his words are deeply challenging.

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MISSOURI
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist pastor charged with sex crimes stands trial this week in a county court in California, Mo.

Travis Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church of Stover, Mo., faces felony charges of sodomy and statutory rape in a high-profile case that gained media attention after church members stood by the pastor acquitted of similar charges in 2011.

Last December the St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlighted the case in a story on the difficulty of handling reported abuse cases in the Southern Baptist Convention, which recognizes the local congregation as sole authority in the hiring and firing of ministers.

Lamine Baptist Association removed the Stover congregation from its membership roll in April, though the official reason was lack of participation and not the pastor’s legal problems. Smith remains listed as pastor on the church website, along with affiliations with the Missouri Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Kevin Parrish
Record Staff Writer
December 03, 2013

STOCKTON – Out of options, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton is expected to file for bankruptcy early next year.

Bishop Stephen Blaire has issued a letter notifying the six-county diocese’s 250,000 members that a final decision is likely “after the first of the year.”

Blaire said that after months of research, “no viable option has emerged other than reorganizing financially under the protection of bankruptcy court.”

The letter was distributed Sunday to the diocese’s 35 parishes and 14 missions.

Blaire also encouraged various auxiliary Catholic organizations to obtain legal advice to be ready for possible asset claims that could be made by creditors. He said they “need to be prepared in case they are challenged, as has happened in other dioceses.”

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson and The Associated Press

The Diocese of Winona must disclose this month the names of 13 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors, a state judge ruled Monday.

The Ramsey County judge also ruled Monday that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis must disclose its own list of

33 priests.

If the dioceses do not release any names on the lists, they must file detailed explanations for each arguing why they should be kept private. The dioceses also have until Jan. 6 to reveal names of priests accused of recent sexual abuse of minors.

Mike Finnegan, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates, representing the plaintiff in the case, called the decision “historic” and an important step to assure child safety. The plaintiff maintained that making the identities of the accused clergy public was necessary to protect other children from becoming victims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

A Church of England priest has been arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse and cruelty against a boy dating back up to 25 years.

The 56-year-old man, who does not currently have permission to officiate, was detained this morning at his home in Jervis Avenue, Eastbourne.

Sussex Police said he was held on “suspicion of acts of indecency, indecent assault and cruelty against a boy known to him” who was then aged 12 and 13 in 1988 and 1989.

His arrests follows a review and inquiry by a team of detectives after information was referred to the force by the Diocese of Chichester in 2011, following a report commissioned by the diocese by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

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SPAIN
Sydney Morning Herald

December 3, 2013

Fiona Govan

The botched restoration of a church fresco by an elderly parishioner brought it international fame – and a fortune from tourists. Now, the town of Borja is at the centre of a fresh controversy.

The parish priest in charge of the church where the Ecce Homo draws hundreds of visitors each week was arrested on Friday for allegedly pocketing church funds of about €210,000 ($310,000).

Florencio Garces, 70, was detained by Guardia Civil on suspicion of misappropriating funds, of money laundering and sexual abuse.

The arrest has stirred emotion in a town that leapt into the public eye last year after elderly resident and local artist Celia Gimenez, 83, attempted to restore a 100-year-old fresco of Christ, with dire but highly amusing results.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Boua Xiong

MINNEAPOLIS – Monday’s ruling to release names of priests accused of sex abuse isn’t just providing relief for victims, some parishioners are also welcoming the decision.

“It’s time. It’s way past time,” Jan Buczek, who attends the Basilica of St. Mary said.

Buczek said the sex abuse scandal never tested her faith in God but did shake her trust in justice. She believes the move to release names is a step in the right direction.

“I know quite a few people that have been hurt and involved and they’re going to be happy that these men are finally being taken to task,” she said.

Many parishioners at the Basilica did not want to go on camera but their concerns were made clear in the latest church newsletter out Sunday.

In it Father John Bauer wrote a letter to the Archbishop highlighting top concerns after holding listening sessions. Bauer wrote many people have concerns like:

“How can we go forward and believe that things are going to change?”

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: December 2, 2013

WASHINGTON — The notices arrive almost every day. They tell a young woman named Amy, as she is called in court papers, that someone has been charged with possessing child pornography. She was the child.

“It is hard to describe what it feels like to know that at any moment, anywhere, someone is looking at pictures of me as a little girl being abused by my uncle and is getting some kind of sick enjoyment from it,” Amy, then 19, wrote in a 2008 victim impact statement. “It’s like I am being abused over and over and over again.”

Next month, the Supreme Court will consider what the men who took pleasure from viewing Amy’s abuse must pay her.

Images of Amy being sexually assaulted by her uncle are among the most widely viewed child pornography in the world. They have figured in some 3,200 criminal cases since 1998.

Amy is notified through a Justice Department program that tells crime victims about developments in criminal cases involving them. She has the notifications sent to her lawyer. There have been about 1,800 so far.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

The US Supreme Court will soon hear an unusual child pornography case. We disagree with the Justice Department when they say $3.4 million is too much to award to a victim of this heinous crime. Given how widespread and devastating child sex crimes are, and how tough it is to catch and convict predators, we as a society must do more to deter these crimes in the first place.

[New York Times]

It’s important to remember that sexual violence is often used in the making of these images. Kids are often raped and sodomized – sometimes violently and always hurtfully- to make these photos.

Those who download and view these degrading photos of kids being sexually exploited should pay.

The financial awards should both help victims deal with the horrific damage they suffer and deter future crimes. We must make people think twice before they create, search for or download child porn. We must do what we can to dry up the market for child porn, however daunting that goal may seem. If adults can’t make money from it maybe fewer kids will be hurt.

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MINNESOTA
LaCrosse Tribune

• Winona Daily News

A Ramsey County judge today forced the Diocese of Winona to disclose a list of 13 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

Judge John Van de North also ordered the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to disclose a list of 33 priests also accused of abuse. Both lists were compiled in 2004.

The dioceses must release the priests’ names, birth year and age, year of ordination, whether they’re alive or dead and the year of death, the parishes they served, their current status, and the current city and state where they live.

The dioceses must provide detailed explanations for any names they choose not to release.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

Well, if they wanted a judge’s order, they got it. At the Strib, Jean Hopfensperger reports: “The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis must release the names of 33 priests accused of sexually abusing minors by Dec. 17, a Ramsey County District Court judge ruled Monday morning. Judge John Van de North ordered that the archdiocese provide not just the names of the priests but their year of birth, year of ordination, the list of parishes where they served, their current ministerial status and residence and whether they are still living. The same information must be provided by the Diocese of Winona, Van de North ordered. … The archdiocese had agreed to provide the information for 29 of the 33 priests on the list. But the judge ruled that the information should be made public for all of them. Last month, in response to new allegations of clergy sex abuse against several priests, Archbishop John Nienstedt promised to release some names of accused priests, with court approval.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: December 2, 2013

Judge orders release of names of 46 priests accused of abusing minors in the St. Paul archdiocese and Winona diocese.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as the Diocese of Winona, must release the names of 46 priests accused of sexually abusing minors, a Ramsey County District Court judge ruled Monday. He set a deadline of Dec. 17.

Judge John Van de North ordered that the church provide not just the names of the priests but their year of birth, year of ordination, the list of parishes where they served, their current ministerial status, current residence and whether they are still living.

The Twin Cities archdiocese has held secret its list of 33 credibly accused abusers since it was compiled in 2004. Another 13 clergy have been on a similar list in the Winona diocese.

“We are greatly relieved that finally there will be disclosure so children will be protected from further harm and those who have been hurt can come forward,” said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney specializing in clergy sex abuse. …

Bob Schwiderski, director of the Minnesota chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), was in the courtroom. He called the ruling “huge.” It comes on the heels of a change in Minnesota law that gives abuse victims a three-year window to file lawsuits claiming past abuse, removing the statute of limitations that prevented may cases from moving forward.

Making public the names of clergy who have sexually abused children over the years will help heal the wounds of survivors, who often have felt alone in their suffering, he said.

“It might not open a flood gate of new victims, but it will open a flood gate of emotions,” said Schwiderski, who was sexually abused by a priest as a boy.

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MISSOURI
Connect Mid-Missouri

BRANSON (AP) — A Christian sports camp network based in Branson is facing two lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by its ex-director, who is serving a long prison sentence for sexual abuse of boys at a camp.

One lawsuit, filed in Taney County against Kanakuk Kamps, alleges former director Peter Newman molested a boy from 2000 to 2005. The second case, filed in federal court in Dallas, alleges Newman sexually abused a camper from 2001 through 2007.

The lawsuits allege camp officials knew about Newman’s behavior but didn’t keep him away from children.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Hans Kung | Dec. 2, 2013

COMMENTARY

Church reform is forging ahead. In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis not only intensifies his criticism of capitalism and the fact that money rules the world, but speaks out clearly in favor of church reform “at all levels.” He specifically advocates structural reforms — namely, decentralization toward local dioceses and communities, reform of the papal office, upgrading the laity and against excessive clericalism, in favor of a more effective presence of women in the church, above all in the decision-making bodies. And he comes out equally clearly in favor of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, especially with Judaism and Islam.

All this will meet with wide approval far beyond the Catholic church. His undifferentiated rejection of abortion and women’s ordination will, however, probably provoke criticism. This is where the dogmatic limits of this pope become apparent. Or is he perhaps under pressure from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and its Prefect, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller?

In a long guest contribution in Osservatore Romano (Oct. 23), Müller demonstrated his ultra-conservative stance by corroborating the exclusion of remarried divorcees from the sacraments who, unless they live together as brother and sister (!), are ostensibly in a state of mortal sin on account of the sexual character of their relationship.

As Bishop of Regensburg, Müller, as a clerical hard-liner who provoked numerous conflicts with parish priests and theologians, lay bodies and the Central Committee of German Catholics, was as controversial and unpopular as his brother bishop at Limburg. That Müller, as a loyal supporter and publisher of his collected works, was nevertheless appointed CDF prefect by Papa Ratzinger, surprised people less than the fact that Francis confirmed him in office quite so soon.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Dec. 2, 2013

Statement by Megan Peterson, Twin Cities SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 218-684-0073 cell, survivor19@live.com )

A Minnesota judge is ordering two Catholic bishops to reveal names of accused predator priests. Kids will be safer as a result. But it should never take a court order to force Catholic officials to disclose the names of potentially dangerous child molesting clerics.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

These names won’t include all of the alleged predator priests in these two dioceses. We suspect that records have been destroyed and that abuse reports against dozens of credibly accused clerics have been wrongly deemed “unsubstantiated” by self-serving Catholic officials over the past few decades.

Archbishop John Nienstedt wants to keep one name secret because he can supposedly find no proof that the accused priest worked in the Twin Cities. So what? If he’s a proven, admitted or credibly accused child molester, parents, parishioners and the public should be warned about him, no matter where he worked.

Nienstedt wants to keep secret three other names because church officials supposedly can’t substantiate the allegations. That argument might wash except that long-secret church records show that time and time again, even with credible victims and ample evidence; Catholic officials claim they can’t “substantiate” allegations. They have so abused the public trust and their own “kangaroo courts” that no reasonable person believes the church hierarchy when it says that an accusation cannot be substantiated. (One glaring example: the Fr. Michael Keating case)

False allegations do happen. In the case of child molesting clerics, however, they are exceedingly rare. And when they do, it is of course very hurtful to the accused adult. But it’s even more hurtful to many others when credible allegations are ignored or hidden. When we are forced to choose between the reputation of one adult or the safety of several kids, responsible grown-ups always side with kids’ safety.

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MINNESOTA/SOUTH DAKOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Clarence Vavra was ordained a priest of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese in 1965. In his 38 years of active ministry, he was transferred 17 times. The Official Catholic Directory reveals several gaps in his assignment history which include a “sick leave” in the early 1970s, an unspecified “special assignment” in the mid-1980s and an unexplained absence from the 1997 and 1998 Directories. He is known to have received inpatient psychological treatment in 1996. In 1975-1976 Vavra worked at a Jesuit mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota; he admitted in a 1996 psychological evaluation to having sexually abused several boys ages 9-12 and a teen boy while there. Vavra agreed to retire in 2003, in exchange for an extra $650 per month from the archdiocese. In November 2013 he is living in a residential New Prague, MN neighborhood, a block away from a school. Also in November 2013, Rosebud Indian Reservation law enforcement officials opened an investigation.

Ordained: 1965

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is Guernsey

A SUGGESTION that Jersey and Guernsey might withdraw from the Diocese of Winchester might not affect most islanders – but the threat is hugely significant.

Historically, the Channel Islands were part of the Diocese of Coutances. However, Pope Alexander VI transferred them to Winchester in 1500. Despite that, the Bishops of Coutances continued to exercise de facto jurisdiction and it was not until an Order in Council of 11 March 1569 that the Channel Islands were finally placed under the Episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester.

So whatever has triggered the latest talk of separation is clearly serious, given the centuries of tradition linking the islands with Winchester.

At the heart of it is the handling of an investigation into a sexual misconduct complaint and the gagging of a report into it which has led to the Bishop of Winchester parachuting two other bishops in on a fact-find mission with the full support of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Capital (Peru)

El papa Francisco expresó este lunes su “compasión” por las víctimas de los abusos sexuales por parte de sacerdotes, durante el discurso que entregó a los obispos holandeses en visita “ad limina”, la que realizan al pontífice las conferencias episcopales de cada país cada cinco años.

“Deseo expresar mi compasión y asegurar mi oración a cada una de las víctimas de los abusos sexuales y a sus familias”, escribió el papa en su discurso.

El pontífice argentino les pidió además que sigan apoyando a las víctimas “en el doloroso camino de curación, que conducen con valor”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Jersey Evening Post

PRESSURE will today be put on the Chief Minister to express concern about the way the Bishop of Winchester has handled an investigation into the conduct of the Dean.

In the States this afternoon, Deputy John Le Fondré was due to ask Chief Minister Ian Gorst two questions relating to the Steel report, which the Bishop is currently refusing to release to anyone – even those directly involved such as the Dean – after a legal approach by an ‘interested party’.

The Bishop, the Right Rev Tim Dakin, has confirmed that no disciplinary action will be taken against the Dean, the Very Rev Bob Key, following the investigation into his handling of a complaint of abuse by a churchwarden on a vulnerable woman.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Politicians have urged Jersey’s chief minister to push for the publication of a report into an abuse complaint handled by the island’s Anglican Dean.

The review into how the complaint was dealt with found no action should be taken against any clergy members.

Last month, the Bishop of Winchester said the findings would not be made public on legal advice.

Jersey’s Chief Minister Ian Gorst said he expected that once the report had been finalised it would be released.

Former High Court judge Dame Heather Steel, who led the review, is currently working on a final report for the diocese.

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CANADA
CBC News

The federal government is seeking private investigators to find as many as 1,000 clergy members, former residential school staff, and students responsible for abuse in residential schools, but one northern lawyer says hunting down abusers could cause more harm than good.

Stephen Cooper, who has represented former residential school students for nearly two decades, says he’s worried about the negative impacts.

“It is really intimidating,” Cooper says. “A lot of survivors will not proceed if they know their abuser will be contacted. Even if the person of interest doesn’t go ahead with the hearing, they are aware of the allegations which, frankly, can be really dangerous to the survivor, both to their mental health and physical well being.”

Aboriginal Affairs says alleged perpetrators will have an opportunity to voluntarily participate in a court-ordered Independent Assessment Process, and will be given a chance to answer to the crimes they’re accused of.

Cooper says it’s just not money well spent.

“They should be looking into the deaths of so many residential school students,” Cooper says. “Take that million dollars and put it to good use.”

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CANADA
The First Perspective

The federal government is hiring private investigators to track down people who are accused of abusing students in Indian residential schools.

The investigators will be deployed across Canada to find those who have been accused by former residential school students of abusing them, according to officials.

Those identified as alleged abusers and who are then found will be invited to participate in court hearings where they can defend themselves and promote reconciliation.

The search for alleged abusers is part of the federal government’s Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which has an Independent Assessment Process (IAP) that provides compensation to former students who claim serious sexual, physical or any form of abuse that caused psychological damage.

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POLAND
GlobalPost

AFP

A Polish court on Monday sentenced a Roman Catholic priest to eight-and-a-half years in jail for sexually abusing underage boys.

The 49-year-old, who was only identified as Slawomir S. because of privacy laws, had abused five boys under the age of 15, the Polish PAP news agency reported.

The priest, from a village parish in central Poland, was arrested in April 2012 after one of the boys said he had been abused.

The court in the town of Rawa Mazowiecka also banned the priest, who had lent his victims cash and helped pay their phone bills, from ever teaching children.

Dozens of parishioners turned up outside the court for the closed-door trial to defend their priest, who pleaded not guilty.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP/WCCO) – A judge has ordered that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis must release the names of 33 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

The names include 29 priests on a 2004 list of priests deemed to have been credibly accused of abuse, plus one who had a substantiated claim leveled against him later.

That list actually includes 33 names. An archdiocese attorney says one is a member of a religious order and nothing shows he served in the archdiocese. The other three are priests for whom the archdiocese says the allegations can’t be substantiated.

Ramsey County Judge John Van de North also ruled that the Diocese of Winona must release the names of the 13 priests accused there.

That information must be disclosed by Dec. 17.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: December 2, 2013

Archdiocese and Diocese of Winona had sought to release 29 names, but court ordered all to be identified.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis must release the names of 33 priests accused of sexually abusing minors by Dec. 17, a Ramsey County District Court judge ruled Monday morning.

Judge John Van de North ordered that the archdiocese provide not just the names of the priests but their year of birth, year of ordination, the list of parishes where they served, their current ministerial status and residence and whether they are still living.

The same information must be provided by the Diocese of Winona, Van de North ordered.

“We are greatly relieved that finally there will be disclosure so children will be protected from further harm and those who have been hurt can come forward,” said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney specializing in clergy sex abuse.

Anderson is representing John Doe 1, whose sexual abuse lawsuit sought to force the archdiocese to reveal the names of abusive priests. Ramsey County District Judge Gregg Johnson ruled in 2009 that it be kept private in that case.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

Updated: Dec 02, 2013
posted by Mike Durkin
by Rob Olson

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
A Ramsey County judge on Monday ordered the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release the names of 33 credibly-accused priests released by Dec. 17. The Diocese of Winona must also release its list of 13 priests by the same deadline, bringing the total to 46.

The judge also set a January deadline for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release the names of any priests credibly accused since the list of 33 was compiled in January.

The archdiocese sought to release just 29 names, arguing that three of the cases do not have credible evidence and one happened outside of the archdiocese. They also wanted to release one name not originally part of the original list of 33.

POPE ADDRESSES CLERGY ABUSE

Pope Francis on Monday addressed the issue of clergy sex abuse in the Netherlands and called for prayers for the victims.

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