ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Sam Kellner’s Attorney Responds to Forward Article

By Paul Berger
Published November 24, 2013.

Setting aside the hyperbole and mischaracterizations deployed liberally throughout Mr. MacGiollabhui’s letter, I would like to correct one of his primary assertions and also to answer his questions.

My article did not, as Mr. MacGiollabhui implied, attempt to find evidence that “Sam Kellner attempted to extort the Lebovits family.” Instead, I showed how Kellner’s involvement in the Lebovits prosecution went way beyond the actions of a wounded father looking for justice for his abused son. Readers can judge whether the evidence I marshaled in this respect was compelling.

Mr. MacGiollabhui asks at the end of his letter why he was not given several recordings referenced in the story. As I explained to Mr. MacGiollabhui during my reporting, I could not release the recordings to him because of commitments I made to the sources who provided them.

Mr. MacGiollabhui’s assertion that I claim in my article that Mr. MacGiollabhui would not comment upon one of the tapes “except in response to hearing the whole tape, is wholly dishonest” — is itself dishonest. Instead, in the article, I state that Mr. MacGiollabhui said he “preferred to respond after hearing the tape in full.” This is correct.

My agreement with a confidential source permitted me to use only excerpts of the tape with Mr. Kellner’s voice. I did send short audio and text excerpts to Mr. MacGiollabhui on November 6. When these proved insufficient, I offered to try to get further excerpts, as Mr. MacGiollabhui correctly points out.

However, Mr. MacGiollabhui omits that shortly after our conversation, the content of my November 6 email, which Mr. MacGiollabhui told me he shared only with his client, appeared on the website of an anonymous blogger — and cheerleader for Kellner — under the headline: “Which Lazy Journalist Will Take the Dershowitz Bait?http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/which-lazy-journalist-will-take-the-dershowitz-bait/” This attempt to preempt my story before it had been published destroyed my confidence that anything further I sent to Mr. MacGiollabhui for his client would not be publicized elsewhere before my story was published.

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RUSSIA
Interfax

St. Petersburg, November 25, Interfax – The business trip of priest Gleb Grozovsky, who is accused of child molestation, has been officially stopped, Alexander Asonov, press officer for the Gatchina Diocese, told Interfax.

“Father Gleb’s business trip to Israel automatically stopped when he was suspended from service,” Asonov said.

Asonov reiterated that the Gatchina Diocese encourages Grozovsky to return to Russia and cooperate with the investigators. “We don’t support his delay in Israel,” he said.

According to earlier reports, Grozovsky, the former senior priest of a church in the Leningrad Region, is accused of molesting two schoolgirls. A criminal case has been opened against him based on Part 4 of Article 132 of the Russian Criminal Code (molesting a child younger than 14).

According to information possessed by the investigators, Grozovsky, who is accused of molesting two schoolgirls, was suspended from service for the period of the investigation into his case on November 18.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Sam Kellner’s attorney Niall MacGiollabhui wrote a long letter to the Forward rightly criticizing Paul Berger’s mistake-ridden, biased article on Kellner published November 14.

If you don’t know the case, Kellner’s attorney’s letter will be difficult to follow. So I suggest you read my refutation of Berger’s article first. It will make Kellner’s attorney’s letter somewhat easier to follow.

In his response, Berger essentially claims the Forward did not give Kellner and his attorney extended excerpts from the tape that supposedly incriminates him because Berger did not want to be scooped by a leak from Kellner. How this excuses publishing a hit piece full of inaccuracies is beyond me. But even more so, how can that be used as an excuse not to give Kellner extended excerpts now?

Kellner’s attorney calls Berger a “useful idiot” for the Lebovits family and calls him a lazy, shoddy reporter – all true in my estimation.

But most devastating are the number of things Kellner’s attorney points out Berger did not know about the case and Berger’s near-complete lack of curiosity about the actual evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

Deacon quits church in protest moments before taking stand at royal commission into child sex abuse

MATTHEW BENNS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEMBER 26, 2013

THE deacon who led the Anglican Church’s response to allegations of child abuse in Lismore quit the church in protest just moments before stepping into the witness box at the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Pat Comben, former registrar at the Diocese of Grafton, said he should no longer be referred to by the title reverend and was not even sure he could still call himself a Christian after 50 years in the church.

The royal commission is examining the response of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to harrowing claims of physical and sexual child abuse over a 48-year period and involving 12 members of clergy and staff at the former North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

“Some of us do have some guilt and take some responsibility for this,” he said after a gruelling two days of evidence finished yesterday.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

MORE than 1000 angry church-goers have signed a petition demanding a suspended priest be reinstated.

Helen Ann Hawkins, 40, set up the campaign after Father Matthew Despard was told he was being stripped of his duties after failing to meet with Bishop Joseph Toal.

The decision came eight months after he self-published his book Priesthood in Crisis, which accused the Catholic Church of covering up sexual bullying.

But his supporters have given him strong backing, signing an online petition as well as a separate paper petition in their droves.

Now Helen plans to take the campaign to Bishop Toal, who announced the decision to suspend him eight days ago, then on to the Vatican.

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UNITED STATES
Michigan Chronicle

Written by Aubrey J. Lynch Sunday, 24 November 2013

The title is taken from words spoken by Pope Francis as reported at rawstory.com on Oct. 21 of 2013. In his brief words, the Pope took issue with those who are so focused on ideology that any indication of love, compassion, understanding and other higher level facets of humanity are lost.

These are powerful, near shocking words to come from the leader of the centuries old Catholic church. The new Pope likely uses messages such as this one to let the world know how he is working to change the institution that has done so much in recent years to attack gays and women.

Bishops of the Catholic Church had put themselves so far out into the public spotlight that they appeared to be campaigning for Republicans in their efforts to defeat the Affordable Care Act. This view has been borne out by a recent article in the National Catholic Reporter on Nov. 14. The article reveals that many bishops are afraid that focusing on economic issues in support of the poor will alienate their Republican donors and help the Democrats. Those donors would then not support the bishops’ focus on gays, abortion and religious liberty.

An article in Enlightened Catholicism tells us that the billionaire Koch Brothers gave a million dollars to the Catholic University of America. In their cozy relationship with the Republicans and their billionaire supporters, the bishops came dangerously close to sedition, if not treason, as they pounded away at “religious freedom” in their attempts to subvert the law of the land that had given women access to insurance to help them control the timing and process of reproduction.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published November 25, 2013.

When an investigative team appointed by Yeshiva University reported in August that the school had “failed to appropriately act to protect the safety of its students or did not respond” to credible allegations that they’d been sexually abused, it drew an important caveat: This dereliction of responsibility had continued, the investigators said, “until 2001.”

After that, “the University acted decisively to address the allegations,” the investigators stated.

As a result of these findings, Y.U.’s current president, Richard Joel, was spared any stigma stemming from the scandal, which involved several decades of alleged sexual abuse by faculty and staff. The problem was pegged instead to the tenure of his predecessor, Rabbi Norman Lamm.

But internal documents obtained by the Forward indicate that, in fact, Joel, who arrived at Y.U. in 2003, was told both before and after he became president about allegations against Rabbi George Finkelstein, the former principal of a Y.U. high school — and that he declined to intervene in the first instance or respond in the second.

The documents show that Mordechai Twersky, a Y.U. alum who is now one of 34 former students suing Y.U. for having failed to protect them, approached Joel in 2000 and again in 2004 to complain about the abuse he had suffered as a high school student at Finkelstein’s hands. But Joel did not take those complaints seriously, according to the documents.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP NOVEMBER 25, 2013

A FORMER politician who became registrar of a NSW Anglican diocese at the centre of an abuse inquiry has denied playing community politics over a group claim from people who suffered abuse.

Pat Comben, who served in the Queensland government in the 1990s was registrar at the diocese of Grafton when 42 former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home started legal action over sexual, psychological and physical abuse at the home over for decades to the early 80s.

Mr Comben who is continuing his evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said on Monday he sent out a press release in response to a story in the Northern Star about the allegations.

In the release, which was recalled after a legal threat by the solicitor for the claimants, Mr Comben said he saw “these matters as being a challenge to the very community of Lismore”.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Four years after an Anglican clergyman was jailed for sexually abusing children at a NSW Anglican home he was still on the Church’s “stud book”, a witness has told a national abuse inquiry.

The official Anglican directory of clergy was jokingly referred to as the stud book, a former registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton told the national inquiry into child sex abuse in Sydney on Monday.

Pat Comben, apologised for the use of the “totally inappropriate name”, which he used when he was being questioned about what he did about disciplining Rev Allan Kitchingman, a convicted sex offender.

Kitchingman was jailed for two and a half years in 2002 for indecent assault on two boys who were under his care at the North Coast Children’s Home, when he was chaplain in the 1970s.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

By LINDA WOODHEAD

Pope Francis is full of surprises. This month he launched a survey of Catholic opinion in order to inform a special synod on the family scheduled to meet in Rome next October. Not surprisingly, it’s caught many national conferences of bishops on the hop. Under John Paul II and Benedict XIV they’d got used to a Vatican which looked inwards rather that outwards for authority. A favourite text was Lumen Gentium’s passage which insists that the magisterium of the Pontiff requires “religious submission of mind and will.” A survey of ordinary Catholics sits oddly with this stance. What can it mean?

Catholic opinion is divided on the answer. Conservatives say the survey’s designed to do no more than expose how the church’s irreformable teaching on family and sex needs to be strengthened. It will aid in the re-confessionalisation of the faithful, helping gather strayed sheep back to the fold. Reformists say the opposite. They welcome the initiative as a sign that Francis really cares about what ordinary Catholics think, and that Vatican II’s claim that the Church is “the whole people of God” is at last being made good.

A closer look at the questionnaire supports the conservative view over the reformist one, for it’s not a survey in any sense that a social scientist would recognize. The 38 questions are larded with theological jargon, and will leave many of the faithful scratching their heads and Googling the Catholic Encyclopedia. Take question 1a, for example:

Describe how the Catholic Church’s teachings on the value of the family contained in the Bible, Guadium et spes, Familiaris consortio and other documents of the post-consiliar Magisterium is understood by people today?

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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh Evening News

FORMER Church of Scotland Moderator the Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan has been appointed to look into safeguarding procedures in the Catholic Church.

Dr McLellan, former minister of St Andrew’s and St George’s Church in George Street, is also a former chief inspector of prisons for 
Scotland.

The move comes as it was revealed a dossier of documents containing allegations of more than 20 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church has been passed to police.

Confidential letters from Scottish bishops, dating back to 1995 and including every diocese in Scotland, will be reviewed by Police Scotland, the force ­confirmed.

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SCOTLAND
Bishops’ Conference of Scotland

Introduction

Each year the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service (formerly National Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults) in the person of the National Co-ordinator presents a report to the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland at their November meeting which details an Audit of the eight dioceses in Scotland in relation to the work of safeguarding in the previous calendar year. For example the 2012 Audit was presented earlier this month to the Bishops’ Conference. The process began with an audit in 2006, by 2007 the format was established.

The Audit contains details of how safe environments are created with disclosure checks on those involved with children and vulnerable adults in a Church setting. When the Disclosure Scotland scheme was introduced it was decided by the Bishops that all Clergy, anyone applying for seminary and all volunteers in parishes would be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure, the most rigorous level. All employees of the Church engaged in work with children or vulnerable adults are required at recruitment to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure. This Disclosure scheme is presently being systematically replaced by the PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) scheme.

As well as Disclosure/PVG Training plays an important role in creating safe environments. The current national safeguarding training programme developed by professionals within the Catholic Church is called “Awareness and Safety in Our Catholic Communities”. The training programme includes a Welcome Guide for all volunteers in the parishes with clear guidance about appropriate safeguarding procedures and good practice. This training is mandatory and delivered by experienced and trained Diocesan safeguarding Trainers. The Audit contains details about the training undertaken annually.

Finally, the Audit presented to the Bishops’ Conference contains details of any allegations which have been made and how these have been dealt with.

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SCOTLAND
Belfast Telegraph

25 NOVEMBER 2013

More than half of all complaints of abuse received by the Catholic Church in Scotland over a six-year period were sex-related, according to a report.

The church has published the results of its Diocesan Safeguarding Audits from 2006/12, giving a breakdown of incidents reported during that time.

A total of 46 allegations were reported, of which 55% related to sexual abuse, 19% to physical abuse, 11% were allegations of verbal abuse and 15% were in connection with emotional abuse.

Of those accused , 56% were priests , 22% were volunteers, 11% were parishioners and the remainder were staff or other people connected to the church.

There have been no prosecutions in relation to 61% of all cases reported, the church said. A further 15% resulted in a prosecution, 10% are still under investigation and the remaining 14% are described as “unknown historical cases”.

More than a quarter of all the accused reported (27%) are now dead, according to the audit report prepared for the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Media Office

Scotland’s Catholic Bishops announce range of safeguarding initiatives.

Monday 25 November 2013.

Embargo 11.00

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has today announced details of three safeguarding initiatives, which will be launched over the next 12 months. In a letter read out at all of Scotland’s 500 Catholic parishes yesterday (24 November, the Feast of Christ the King) the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia said:

“We recognise the trauma and pain that survivors of abuse have suffered and we are committed to providing for them both justice and healing.” The Archbishop added that 2013 had been “a test of faith” for Catholics, but the Church was committed to “consolidation of our safeguarding practices, the renewal of trust in our unshakeable commitment to atoning for abuse in the past, guarding against abuse in the present and eliminating abuse in the future, and supporting those who have been harmed.”

Archbishop Tartaglia also promised that all the initiatives were being “launched in a spirit of openness and transparency” and in recognition of the fact that “safeguarding is a priority within the Church, and all who work in the Church must realise this.”
The initiatives concerned are:

1. Immediate publication of all Diocesan Safeguarding Audits from 2006-2012, giving a statistical breakdown of reported safeguarding incidents during those years.

2. An external “Review of Safeguarding Protocols and Procedures” which will review the suitability and robustness of safeguarding procedures and the quality and rigour of their implementation nationally. The Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan, CBE, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and former Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons will direct this.

3. A Statistical Review of all Historic Cases of Abuse from 1947-2005

A full description of each of these processes is given below.

Commenting on his participation in the review process, Dr McLellan said:

“I have agreed to chair the review panel which will instigate and complete a review of ‘Awareness and Safety’ in the Catholic Church in Scotland. My appointment is a generous sign of respect not simply for me but for the Church of Scotland; and I am pleased to be able to help the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland in what has been for them a difficult year. But my first concern is not to support the Catholic church: rather it is to seek the best protection of many vulnerable children and adults. In pursuing that aim I will be determined to discover the truth and to make clear recommendations. I am very much encouraged by the independence I will have in selecting the membership of the panel, detailing its remit and deciding on its timescale; and by the assurance I have been given that the Catholic Bishops will accept our recommendations.”

Dr McLellan added: “Over the remaining weeks of 2013, I hope to turn my attention to these matters so that I can announce the particulars of the review process and structure early in 2014.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 25 November 2013

A Catholic abuse survivors’ group has praised the Church’s groundbreaking decision to reveal full sets of figures relating to maltreatment claims against priests and members of religious orders in Scotland.

The measure to publish annual and historic figures emerged in a letter by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland which was read out at masses across the country.

It includes the publication of figures relating to complaints made against priests, nuns and monks dating back to 2006 and a statistical review of historic cases from 1947 to 2005. Helen Holland, chairwoman of In Care Abuse Survivors, said that the development, which begins today, would be a major step towards making the Catholic Church more transparent about its past and in the future.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 25 November 2013

More than half of all complaints of abuse received by the Catholic Church in Scotland over a six-year period were sex-related, according to a report.

The church has published the results of its Diocesan Safeguarding Audits from 2006/12, giving a breakdown of incidents reported during that time.

A total of 46 allegations were reported, of which 55% related to sexual abuse, 19% to physical abuse, 11% were allegations of verbal abuse and 15% were in connection with emotional abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 25 November 2013

Police Victoria badgeAustralia’s quest to uncover the plague of child abuse and put right the failure of government and non-government organisations (including churches) to deal compassionately and justly with victims, and firmly and appropriately with perpetrators, continues. Quite rightly, the Catholic Church remains in the spotlight. In February, retired judge Tony Whitlam QC reported on the ‘Father F’ Case in Armidale. He highlighted that all the blame did not lie just with the deceased bishop Kennedy. There were systemic failures not just in the Church but also with psychologists, the police and the courts.

This month, the Victorian parliamentary committee’s report ‘Betrayal Of Trust: Inquiry Into The Handling Of Child Abuse By Religious And Other Non-Government Organisations’ was published.

The Catholic Church hierarchy now seems more prepared to admit institutional and personal failures prior to 1996 when Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response were instituted. They are yet to admit the pervasive, closed clericalist culture which infected the Church until at least 1996. But that will come.

Cardinal Pell who had been an auxiliary bishop in the Melbourne Archdiocese from 1987 to 1996 when he then was made Archbishop told the Victorian inquiry:

As an auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Little I did not have the authority to handle these matters and had only some general impressions about the response that was being made at that time, but this was sufficient to make it clear to me that this was an issue which needed urgent attention and that we needed to do much better in our response.

Understandably, this left many people inside and outside the Church wondering, ‘If Archbishop Little didn’t act between 1987 and 1996, why didn’t his auxiliary Bishop Pell try to do something?’ and ‘If the Archbishop knew during those nine years, why didn’t his Auxiliary?’

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RWANDA
allAfrica

The New Times

BY JOSEPH OINDO, 24 NOVEMBER 2013

In the Old Testament, there are stories of sexual abuse, meaning that this is not a thing that is only plaguing modern society. In 2 Samuel, the Bible documents the story of Amnon, David’s son, contriving to have his half-sister Tamar alone in order to have incestuous sex with her.

Modern society has seen rising cases of sexual abuse, reported in the media while many of them go unreported. Teachers have been caught up in sexual liaison with students, priests have been accused of paedophile while parents have been caught in incest with their daughters.

Pope Benedict is reported to have admitted that sexual abuse of minors plagued the Catholic Church during his papacy. “As far as you mentioning the moral abuse of minors by priests, I can only, as you know, acknowledge it with profound consternation…,” he said.

According to Justin Halcomb in Grace and Truth, “sexual assault is a sin against God because the blessing of sexuality is used to destroy instead of build intimacy and because it is an attack against His image in His image-bearers. The ability of sexual assault to obscure internal and external relationships makes it a cosmic affront to the Creator and the order of his creation. Sexual assault is a sin against God because it violates his most sacred creation-human beings made in His image.”

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

Homily Notes of Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin
Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, 24th November 2013

“For over a year now the Church has been celebrating a Year of Faith. The year ends today as we celebrate the final Sunday of the Liturgical Year – the Feast of Christ the King.

The word “king” is a little foreign to us who really only know democratic government. That is not important. Jesus never wanted to be a king in any political sense. His kingdom was not of this world. His reign was not to be one of domination and power but of service.

Yet it is interesting to recall that the term “king” appears at the very first moments of the life of Jesus on earth and at the very last moments of his life. At the first Christmas, the angels announce to the shepherds that “a king” has been born. On the cross of Jesus is written “Jesus of Nazareth, King”.

Some of the theologians of the early Church referred to Jesus’ kingship as a “kingship of wood”: the only time that his kingship is unequivocally recognised is on the wood of the cross, when that inscription “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” is placed above his dying body. We can only understand the kingship of Jesus when we understand the mystery of the Cross. “Jesus, the king” undergoes the death of a criminal, yet what appears to the world as an ignominious death opens the possibility for Jesus’ true kingship to be recognised and to spread.

On the Feast of Christ the King, we remember that that spreading of the kingdom of Jesus will only come to its conclusion when the salvation won for us by Jesus on the Cross is fully reflected in the life of our world and in the way we live. What does God’s kingdom look like? We hear that in the preface of today’s Mass. The kingdom of Jesus is “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace”.

When we look at the world around us we must quickly recognise that we have a long way to travel before our world truly mirrors that vision of God’s kingdom. Evil and corruption, exploitation and violence still abound. Not everything that was introduced as progress has turned out to be true progress for the human community or the human soul. Human progress does not depend only on scientific progress or economic growth or political power. Progress requires justice. But justice will remain only a word if it is not accompanied by caring and solidarity, by compassion and understanding.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH MAC DONALD – 25 NOVEMBER 2013

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has rebuked those in the Catholic Church who were “all too slow” in recognising the extent of the “criminal abuse of children” by priests.

He was speaking at a Mass to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Child Safeguarding and Protection Office in the archdiocese of Dublin.

SURVIVORS

At a ceremony in the Pro-Cathedral attended by 400 child safeguarding representatives from parishes across Dublin, as well as priests and representatives of survivors of abuse, Dr Martin said the church needed to do more to reach out to survivors of clerical abuse.

The Archbishop urged the church to create “an open door and a safe space for those survivors who still fear telling their story and who still live alone with their anguish”.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the Archbishop explained that from his meetings with survivors, he realised that some of them “are in a lonely place”.

“Very often they have nobody to talk to – they are not a member of an association. They were abused in a way that the pressure was put on them to keep it secret.”

He said they would like to have a space where they could come together, meet one another and support one another.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by ROB SHRYOCK

When a pastor resigns after his 77-church network is implicated in “the largest evangelical sex abuse scandal to date,” how long does it take for him to regain the trust of his colleagues?

The answer, apparently, is 7 months. CJ Mahaney, the founding pastor of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), recently spoke at a conference called “Conviction to Lead 2013” at an SGM megachurch in Knoxville after a long absence from the public eye.

The lawsuit against SGM, which fizzled out in the late spring due to statutes of limitations, alleged that church leaders, including Mahaney, had actively worked to protect multiple abuse perpetrators while harassing and intimidating victims into silence. As T.F. Charlton wrote here on RD back in March:

The suit has been filed not only on behalf of the individual plaintiffs [8 at this point], but also on behalf of a much larger class of people allegedly abused as minors in SGM, who do not wish to come forward with their stories. The suit alleges that the potential additional victims are too many to be included as individual plaintiffs in the suit because SGM’s leaders have cultivated an “environment conducive to and protective of physical and sexual abuse of children.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Anglican Church official Pat Comben quizzed in Royal Commission over response to child sex abuse at North Coast Children’s Home

BY ASHLEIGH RAPER – ABC
November 25, 2013

The Royal Commission into child abuse has heard a former Anglican Church official responsible for responding to historic abuse claims did not pass on allegations to police.

The former registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton, Pat Comben, today took the stand for a second day at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr Comben, who had previously served as Queensland education minister under premier Wayne Goss, was the first to receive claims about the North Coast Children’s Home at Lismore.

He has faced intense scrutiny about the evidence given to the commission by former residents of the home about the physical and sexual abuse they suffered between the 1940s and 1980s.

Witnesses at the commission last week criticised Mr Comben’s handling of the allegations and subsequent negotiations for compensation, with his actions described as cruel and inappropriate.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 25, 2013

THE priest who was at the centre of handling a group claim from abuse victims at an Anglican Church children’s home in NSW has quit, saying he is no longer sure he call himself a Christian.

Former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben said he had taken the view that he had some guilt and responsibility in the mishandling of the claims by 42 former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore who suffered shocking sexual and physical abuse.

He said on Monday he was quitting because history is being re-written by some members of the church.

Mr Comben said he had signed the letter of holy orders relinquishment outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday. That was just before he took the stand to give evidence into the diocese’s handling of allegations by former residents of the home.

“Fifty years in the Church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian,” said Mr Comben outside the commission on Monday after he had completed two days of evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

By Annette Blackwell
From: AAP
November 25, 2013

AFTER 50 years in the church, an Anglican priest says he doesn’t know if he can say he’s a Christian.

The priest, who was central to handling a group claim from people who suffered abuse in a NSW Anglican children’s home, has announced he is quitting the clergy.

In a surprise revelation at Monday’s hearing into how the Anglican Church dealt with victims of abuse at a children’s home in Lismore, the former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben, said he had relinquished holy orders.

Mr Comben was the first to hear of the allegations of abuse at the home and was central to the diocese’s handling of them for three years.

He said he’d signed the papers to leave the ministry on Friday, before taking the stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

A FORMER moderator of the Church of Scotland is to head an inquiry into how the Catholic Church in Scotland handles sex abuse allegations.

The Very Reverend Dr Andrew McLellan’s overhaul of the Church’s safeguarding procedures follows scandals relating to inappropriate sexual conduct of priests.

Earlier this year, the Catholic Church was rocked by revelations of alleged abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands.

Former pupils claim they were molested and beaten by monks who taught them decades ago.

Police are investigating and it has emerged at least 20 other cases of abuse are being probed in Scotland.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The priest who was at the centre of handling a group claim from abuse victims at an Anglican Church children’s home in NSW has quit, saying he is no longer sure he call himself a Christian.

Former registrar of the Grafton Diocese, Pat Comben said he had taken the view that he had some guilt and responsibility in the mishandling of the claims by 42 former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore who suffered shocking sexual and physical abuse.

He said on Monday he was quitting because history is being re-written by some members of the church.

Mr Comben said he had signed the letter of holy orders relinquishment outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse on Friday. That was just before he took the stand to give evidence into the diocese’s handling of allegations by former residents of the home.

‘Fifty years in the Church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian,’ said Mr Comben outside the commission on Monday after he had completed two days of evidence.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by TRISTAN STEWART-ROBERTSON
Published on the 25 November 2013

A DOSSIER of documents containing allegations of more than 20 cases of abuse in the Catholic Church has been passed to police.

Confidential letters from Scottish bishops, dating back to 1995 and including every diocese in Scotland, will be reviewed by Police Scotland, the force ­confirmed.

In one, a bishop describes abuse against “two severely mentally-handicapped young female adults”, according to reports in a Sunday newspaper. Another reportedly refers to a 15-year-old boy as “sexually mature”.

Former advisor to the Motherwell diocese, Alan Draper, called for criminal investigations and an independent Scottish Government inquiry into sexual abuse in the Church.

The revelation came as it was revealed that a former moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly has been asked to look into safeguarding procedures in the Catholic church. Andrew McLellan, who is also a former chief inspector of prisons for Scotland, will oversee the review.

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said the Church has co-operated with police and would continue to do so.

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UNITED STATES
The Awareness Center

Below is a list of Rabbis who support the efforts of The Awareness Center. If you are a rabbi (of any recognized affiliation) and would like to be included, please send an email to: VickiPolin or a “snail mail”, with a note giving us permission to add your name on your synagogues stationary. Please include your full name, synagogue, organization, city, state, and country.

If you are or are not a rabbi, please share this request for supporters with every rabbi you know.

List of Rabbis
Rabbi Jonathan F. Adland – Indianapolis, IN

Rabbi Barbara Aiello – Milan, Italy

Rabbi Morris Allen – Mendota Heights, MN

Rabbi Ruth Alpers – Cincinnati, OH

Rabbi Camille Shira Angel – San Francisco, CA

Rabbi Benjamin Arnold – Evergreen, CO

Rabbi Stephen A. Arnold – South Easton, MA

Rabbi Jeffrey Astrachan – Old Bethpage, NY

Rabbi Craig Axler – Spring House, PA

Rabbi Ian J. Azizollahoff – New York, NY

Rabbi Stephen Baars – North Bethesda, MD

Rabbi Jeremy Barras – Charlotte, NC


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.

SCOTLAND
STV

The Catholic Church in Scotland for the first time publish a breakdown of complaints of abuse and misconduct as it responds to a series of scandals.

It will give details how many ‘safeguarding’ incidents in each dioceses, their type, the category of victim and perpetrator, as well as the outcome of the investigation as part of a new policy.

The church also said it will bring in the former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Andrew McLellan to review its procedures.

The church also announced a statistical review of historic abuse cases between 1947 and 2005

The moves come after the church has been hit by a series of scandals. It faced allegations of sexual abuse at its Fort Augustus Abbey school, while the most senior Catholic in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien announced he was stepping down earlier this year over allegations of “sexual misconduct”.

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SCOTLAND
Paisley Daily Express

Nov 24 2013

The Catholic Church in Scotland has said it will publish a review into cases of reported abuse over a period spanning more than five years.

The church will give details of the number of incidents reported between 2006 to 2012, their nature and the results of investigations into them, members have been told.

It is also expected to announce a further audit of all cases of historic abuse allegations between 1947 and 2005 and a full review of its safeguarding procedures.

The three initiatives, it says, are being launched ” in a spirit of openness and transparency”.

Members of the Catholic community were told about the plans at Mass today. A formal announcement by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland will be made at 11am tomorrow.

Bishops of the eight Scottish dioceses make up the Bishops’ Conference, which represents the Catholic Church in Scotland.

A letter read to mass-goers said: “T he Bishops wish to say on behalf of the Catholic Church in Scotland that we recognise the trauma and pain that survivors of abuse have suffered and that we are committed to providing for them both justice and healing.

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SCOTLAND
ITV

The Catholic Church in Scotland will review recent and historic cases of abuse in the church in a “spirit of openness and transparency.”

The church will give details of the number of incidents reported between 2006 to 2012, their nature and the results of investigations into them, it announced to members.

A further audit of all cases of historic abuse allegations between 1947 and 2005 is then expected to be launched, along with a full review of its safeguarding procedures.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Michael Glackin

A former adviser to the Catholic Church in Scotland has accused it of creating a “smokescreen” to divert attention from the latest allegations of sex abuse.

The comments were made as the Church announced a three-point plan in response to criticism of how it has dealt with child abuse and sex scandals within its ranks.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A former moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly has been asked by the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland to look at its safeguarding procedures.

The external review to be carried out by Andrew McLellan follows a series of scandals in the church.

As well as being a Church of Scotland minister, Mr McLellan is a former chief inspector of prisons for Scotland.

The most recent allegations concerned the Fort Augustus Abbey School.

The former leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, stepped down earlier this year after admitting sexual misconduct.

Police have been investigating the allegations of serious physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus school and its associated prep school, Carlekemp.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The finances of the Grafton diocese of the Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England) came under the spotlight last week at the third “case study” hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, concerning Allan Kitchingman and the North Coast Children’s Home.

The diocese’s motto refers to “caring in the spirit of Christ”, but evidence suggests it was more in the spirit of Mammon, especially when it came to financial assistance for victims of its staff and clergy, who operated its North Coast Children’s Homes.

Management courses always warn of the risk of over-expansion. Apparently, the Grafton diocese had not learnt this lesson. It went into debt of $12 million, through an unsecured loan from investors, to expand its Clarence Valley Anglican School, but found there were not enough enrollments to make it a financially viable venture.

Diocesan Registrar, Anthony Newby, told the Royal Commission that, when he became registrar at Grafton in October 2010, the school debt was not being serviced. An oversight committee was set up to open lines of credit involving other dioceses – “not an easy task as only two, Perth and Adelaide, eventually came on board.” This strategy was needed because the Clarence Valley Anglican School loan was unsecured from the Grafton Diocese Investment Fund, which operated by inviting people to invest on the expectation of a return. The debt-reduction strategy would also mean selling at least $2 million of the diocese’s estimated $200 million asset base.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
Sunday, 24 November 2013

OTTAWA – Nova Scotia’s Antigonish diocese plans a series of public encounters to reach out to sexual abuse victims and those hurt by a former bishop’s child porn conviction.

“As a diocese, we want to express solidarity with those who are hurting and make an effort to accompany all who are hurt or who are disconnected with the Church,” said a Nov. 29 news release.

“To those who have found it necessary to absent themselves from our faith communities, we will continue to try to regain your trust and remind you of how much we miss your presence.”

The meetings follow the multi-million dollar class-action sexual-abuse lawsuit settlement announced by then-Bishop Raymond Lahey in August 2009. About a month later Lahey was found with child pornography on his computer at Ottawa’s airport. He was charged and subsequently pleaded guilty to importation of child pornography.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

The Reverend Ronald G. Falco, pastor of St. George Parish in Worcester, has been named the new pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Northboro.

He replaces the Reverend Stephen M. Gemme, who was removed from his pastoral duties in October for allegedly embezzling more than $230,000 from the Route 20 parish to fuel a gambling habit.

The chancery did not name a replacement for Rev. Falco at St. George’s, but the Reverend Richard F. Reidy, the diocesan vicar general and moderator of the curia, will serve as administrator until a successor is named next summer.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A former Catholic altar boy (let’s call him “Cedric” – not his real name) has told Broken Rites about his experiences at the hands of Father Francis Xavier Brown (a Catholic priest in the Dominican religious order) in Adelaide around 1960. Cedric says he still feels hurt (half a century later) by his experience as an altar boy.

In the late 1950s, Cedric (born in 1950) became a pupil in the junior grades at Blackfriars Priory School (an all-boys school conducted by the Dominican priests and brothers) in Prospect, Adelaide. Eventually, Cedric was selected by the Dominicans to begin training as an altar boy for Saint Lawrence’s parish church in Prospect, North Adelaide. This parish was conducted by the Dominicans and these priests were involved in both the school and the parish.

Cedric says that while he was an altar boy he came under the supervision of Fr Francis Xavier Brown O.P. The letters “O.P.”, after his name, referred to the “Order of Preachers” – that is, the official name of the Dominican religious order. For a time, Father Brown was also simultaneously Cedric’s class teacher. Therefore, Cedric was under the control of Father Brown at the church altar and also in the classroom.

And Father was responsible for hearing boys’ Confessions. That is, Cedric was forced to tell all his “sins” to Father Brown in the confessional. The secrecy of Confession gave Father Brown extraordinary power over Cedric.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Sylvia

It’s taken a while for me to square this away, but finally, here is a report on the testimony from the sex abuse trial of Oblate priest, previously convicted molester Father Eric Dejaeger.

One male victim took the stand yesterday (Friday, 22 November 2013), He testified that he had been sexually abused when he was boy by Father Eric Dejaeger. The victim testified in Inuktitut – there is a translator in the courtroom and the testimony was translated into English.

The following is a small overview the man’s testimony of what happened to him when he was a boy. (A warning to all that some of this is very graphic) ;

(1) The victim was fondled on a number of occasion by Dejager. The fondling transpired in, amongst other places, the kitchen and also during confession (Confessions were heard every Saturday at 6 pm);

(2) In the presence of the dog, Dejaeger would masturbate the boy to ejaculation. – then Dejager would let the dog lick the sperm from the floor, and then get the dog to lick the boy’s penis;

(3) On at least five occasions he was forced to watch Father Dejager bugger the dog;

(4) On one occasion while in the furnace room he was forced to sexually touch the dog while Dejager watched. I’m a little confused on this, but I think that Dejager was also fondling the boy simultaneous to the activity with the dog. No matter, the testimony was definitively that the boy was instructed to do what he did to the dog while Dejager watched.;

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OMAHA (NE)
World-Herald

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

Prosecutors said Friday it was unlikely they would charge two local priests found guilty by the Archdiocese of Omaha of sexually abusing minors because the alleged abuse happened too long ago.

The archdiocese announced Friday morning that it has dismissed the Rev. Alfred J. Salanitro, 54, and sentenced the Rev. Franklin A. Dvorak, 69, to a life of prayer and penance. Archbishop George Lucas determined the verdicts after the archdiocese completed investigations into the two priests.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Friday that his office looked into the Salanitro cases with help from the Omaha Police Department and determined that the statute of limitations had run out on the cases.

In December 2011, a Carter Lake man reported he was sexually abused by Salanitro from 1991 to 1994, beginning when he was 11 years old. Salanitro was associate pastor of Holy Cross Parish at the time.

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

[with video]

By Mary Franzen & Todd Hicks
CREATED NOV. 23, 2013

KENOSHA – Father Ireneusz Chodowski has been cleared of any criminal activity after posting some concerning photos to Facebook.

Father Chodowski had been removed from his post at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church after police opened an investigation on him last week.

Some parishioners concerned with Father Chodowski’s actions believe that the community leaders must be held to a high standard.

“If you’re working with children or working in a religious order, anything is fair game once it’s posted online,” said Frank Trecroci.

Trecroci founded the Renaissance School that leases space from the church and, as someone who works with the public, believes people should consider carefully what they post online.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Sunday 24 November 2013

THE investigation into the Scots parish priest who wrote a memoir claiming there was a culture of “homosexual bullying” in the Catholic Church was instigated by Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Devine before he stepped down from his role, it can be revealed.

Last week, the Sunday Herald told how parishioners at St John Ogilvie’s Church in High Blantyre were furious when it was announced just before evening mass that Father Matthew Despard was suspended and “a penal judicial process” had been launched against him.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ALAN HOWE HERALD SUN NOVEMBER 25, 2013

THE Catholic Church has long had problems with sex and marriage. Its popes still preach that sex outside marriage is a sin, despite so many unmarried priests regularly having sex – much of it criminal.

For centuries priests married freely, but the church came to view women with suspicion – clearly it still does – and it slowly changed its mind.

Today priests must not marry. But St Peter had a missus at the dawn of Christianity and it seems he coped, despite the distractions.

We know he was married because the Bible records Jesus curing Saint Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. It’s not recorded if the first Pope thought that a good thing or not.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

PARISHIONERS are calling for Father Matthew Despard – who self-published a book accusing the Catholic Church of covering up sexual bullying – to be reinstated.

MORE than 1000 angry church-goers have signed a petition demanding a suspended priest be reinstated.

Helen Ann Hawkins, 40, set up the campaign after Father Matthew Despard was told he was being stripped of his duties after failing to meet with Bishop Joseph Toal.

The decision came eight months after he self-published his book Priesthood in Crisis, which accused the Catholic Church of covering up sexual bullying.

But his supporters have given him strong backing, signing an online petition as well as a separate paper petition in their droves.

Now Helen plans to take the campaign to Bishop Toal, who announced the decision to suspend him eight days ago, then on to the Vatican.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Williamson Daily News

by Rachel Baldwin rbaldwin@civitasmedia.com

LENORE – According to information gathered from a criminal complaint filed in Mingo County Magistrate Court, a former youth leader at a church in Lenore is now facing sexual abuse charges.

West Virginia State Police Senior Trooper C.A. Allen says the suspect, 52-year-old Gary Adkins, the 7 year-old victim’s uncle, is accused of inappropriately touching the female child and faces three separate charges that includes two counts of third-degree sexual assault (felony), and one count of sexual abuse (misdemeanor) by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust of a child. Adkins was charged Tuesday.

Adkins had been a minister at Parsley Bottom Freewill Baptist Church until a few months ago and had earlier worked as a youth group leader there, and many members of the congregation say the defendant has an excellent reputation and find the allegations hard to believe.

“That’s just not in his character,” Jacqueline Parsley, who used to go to church with Adkins said, during an interview with the media.

“If the family will just be careful and be patient, the truth will come out, guilty or not,” Parsley said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
November 23, 2013

A Pennsylvania pastor has been accused of indecent sexual contact with an 11-year-old girl, who authorities believed is the daughter of congregants of the Fallen Timbers Community Church.

Ray Scott Teets, 66, has been charged by state police with “indecent assault, unlawful restraint, interference with custody of children, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor, concealing the whereabouts of a child, child luring, stalking and criminal trespass.”

Currently his bail is set at $250,000, according to Trib Live.

This is not the first instance of an inappropriate relationship between Teets and a child. The pastor also informed a judge about a conviction for child sexual abuse from 1986.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: November 23, 2013

Twin Cities archdiocese arrives late to the issue, but scrutiny here mirrors national cases.

Minnesota should expect to see a spike in clergy sex abuse lawsuits as questions about the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ handling of those cases thrusts church leaders here into the national spotlight.

While it’s too early to know how many new cases may yet come, legal analysts and victim advocates say the developments in Minnesota church to significant financial risk.

“This is just the beginning for Minnesota,” said Terry McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that documents clergy misconduct. “The St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese is in a meltdown that perhaps only a dozen dioceses have experienced during the ongoing sexual abuse crisis.”

Nationally, the Catholic Church has spent an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion settling abuse lawsuits, according to court documents and media reports, and nine Catholic dioceses, including Milwaukee’s, have filed for bankruptcy protection since 2004.

In Minnesota, recent events have conspired to bring extraordinary attention to the issue. State law changed earlier this year to permit lawsuits from decades-old abuse cases, prompting more than 20 new lawsuits. A whistleblower in the archdiocese went public with incriminating church documents that seemed to indicate that church officials may have withheld information about new abuse cases. …

Tom Doyle, a Virginia-based canon lawyer who has testified on behalf of alleged victims in hundreds of clergy abuse cases in civil courts, said churches typically respond to allegations in a similar manner: They appoint review boards, hire outside investigators, adopt new policies and, in some cases, remove or demote key players within the church hierarchy.

But two things make Minnesota different, Doyle said. First, the call for Nienstedt’s resignation includes some parish priests. Second, a whistleblower from inside the chancery — former archdiocesan canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger — has provided inside information about the church’s handling of recent abuse allegations and its treatment of priests who were known to have abused children.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Catherine Deveney
The Observer, Saturday 23 November 2013

confidential file of letters from Scottish bishops detailing more than 20 secret abuse cases has been handed to police by a former safeguarding adviser to the Catholic church.

The intervention by Alan Draper, a former adviser to the Motherwell diocese, comes as the church attempts to draw a line under unfolding sex-abuse scandals by announcing a series of measures to be read at all masses this weekend on behalf of the Scottish bishops. However, describing the initiatives as a “charade”, Draper says it is time for criminal investigations and an independent Scottish government inquiry into sexual abuse in the church.

The letters, dating back to 1995, include every Scottish diocese. One bishop, who describes abuse against “two severely mentally-handicapped young female adults”, asks Draper to destroy his letter after reading it. Another refers to an abused child as a “young female parishioner”. while a 15-year-old boy is described as “sexually mature”.

A Catholic media spokesman, Peter Kearney, said the church would co-operate fully with the police, but added: “If someone has been in possession of material which they felt showed criminal behaviour, they would be expected to explain why they had taken 18 years to hand it to the authorities.”

“The letters were given to me in confidence, and for a long time I respected that,” explains Draper. “But the church has failed to reach out to victims and I have felt increasingly frustrated with their inability to manage the situation. It’s a matter of public interest that the file be revealed.”

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CONNECTICUT
Minuteman News Center

By Meg Learson Grosso
mgrosso@fairfieldminuteman.com
Twitter: @mlearsongrosso

Paul Kendrick said that his four years at Fairfield University taught him that the practice of his faith must include the promotion of justice. “That’s what the Jesuits taught me. Why am I such a lone voice in the wilderness echoing back to the Jesuits the social justice values they taught me?” he asked when he spoke to us by phone last week.

Kendrick noted that attorney Mitchell Garabedian, of Boston, who won a $12 million settlement for 24 Haitian boys, after they were sexually abused by Fairfield University alumnus Doug Perlitz, has said he is now bringing suit for at least 27 more former students. Indeed, Garabedian told us there might be even 30 more than that.

Kendrick, who brought the Haitian boys together with Garabedian in the first place, said that before last June’s $12 million settlement, he “begged” Garabedian, and the defendants, Father von Arx, President of Fairfield University, the Society of Jesuits of New England, the Oder of Malta, and others, “to provide resources in Haiti to help the victims deal with the trauma of their abuse.”

Instead, said Kendrick a lump sum of $12 million was paid out with no provision for mental health services.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

• Boston MA (we have cached the original main list posted on 8/25/11; the entire Publication With Respect to Archdiocesan Clergy Accused of Sexual Abuse of a Child as it existed on 1/9/13; and the 1/9/13 posting in its several parts: Cardinal O’Malley’s introductory letter, the main list of accused priests, a glossary, the list of priests whose allegations are considered by the archdiocese to be unsubstantiated, O’Malley’s letter to priests, and his letter to survivors)

• Bridgeport CT (we have cached a copy of this press release)

• Capuchins – Province of St. Joseph (we cached a copy of this list and of the relevant pages of the report; the list was included in Michael Burnett, Fr. Thomas Doyle, and Dr. James Freiburger, Report of the Audit and Review of the Files of the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph [June 18, 2013]; a revised version of the report was created on 6/28/13, when a revised version of the executive summary was also created)

• Chicago (updated at the same URL with no “revised on” date and no indication of who has been added or what has been changed; see our cached copies of earlier versions; numbers in brackets indicate additions, subtractions, and current totals of priests with substantiated allegations: 3/20/06 [+15=55; see Falsani article for prior total]; 9/15/08 [+7=62]; 1/4/10 [+3–1=64]; 1/14/10 [+1=65]; 10/4/10 [same total as 1/14/10 but updated entries on Craig, Hagan, Hoder, Holihan, Huppenbauer, Kissane, Mayer, McCaffrey, and Weston]; 7/5/11 [same total as 10/4/10 but updated entries on Bowman, Flosi, Hoder, and Kissane]).

• Cincinnati (we have cached a copy of this status report)

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Perhaps one of the greatest hypocrites of all time appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week. He is Philip Gerber, the “professional standards” official for Phillip Aspinall’s Anglican Church (known elsewhere as the Episcopalian Church or the Church of England) for many years. He was a sort of moral guardian of church officials and employees.

Gerber was in the job from 2000 to 2009. He would know more than most people just what was required of him by the law concerning reporting of child sexual abuse, since he is a lawyer as well as an Anglican priest.

He told the Royal Commission hearing into the North Coast Children’s Home that he had made “some mistakes” handling abusive priests. Mr Gerber admitted his “failings” and said he was not trying to defend himself. “I am very unhappy with myself, I didn’t take the sort of steps that you are talking about… and am quite embarrassed and apologize that it might have potentially put other people at risk, children and other vulnerable people at risk.”

In particular, Gerber did not report Rev. Brown to police for at least a year after receiving a detailed complaint from Brown’s victim at the Children’s Home, “Tommy” Campion (see previous posting) in 2005. Mr. Gerber agreed he had a duty to go to police with abuse allegations but couldn’t say why he didn’t .Gerber’s excuse was that Brown was a “not uncommon name”, and the victim had not provided a first name, so he did not bother to look at the diocese records about him. Brown continued to hold a license to practice until June of this year.

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CALIFORNIA
48 Hills

By Tim Redmond

The Church of St. Francis in North Beach is a San Francisco landmark. To some Catholics, followers of the humble and gentle saint from Assisi, it’s the landmark, the church named after the namesake of this city. It’s been designated by Catholic Church officials as the national Shrine of St. Francis, and it’s home to a spectacular replica of the Italian chapel called the Porziuncola, where the Franciscan order was born.

It’s also the center of a battle over the use of the shrine, control of the Porziuncola – and, in larger sense, control of the property and operations of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a powerful institution run by conservative clerics in a liberal city.

At the center of the battle are Monsignor James Tarantino, who as vicar of the archdiocese controls all of the Church’s extensive real-estate holdings, and Bill McLaughlin, chair of the Shrine Board of Trustees. The two, along with Rev. Harold Snider, who is in charge of the Shrine of St. Francis, have been involved in a struggle with former Sup. Angela Alioto and the Knights of St. Francis, on organization she created, over the future of the Shrine and the Porziuncola, which would not exist if Alioto hadn’t raised the millions of dollars it took to build it.

And while all of this has been going on, a former church employee who worked at the Shrine has filed a complaint with the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging that she was fired because she refused to continue having sex with McLaughlin.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by ALISTAIR MUNRO

THE Catholic Church sought to draw a line under the scandal surrounding the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien when it was reported that he will face no further disciplinary action from the Vatican.

O’Brien, who was forced to stand down after three priests and a former priest accused him of improper sexual conduct, has spent the past few months in exile for “the purpose of spiritual renewal, prayer and penitence”. He is currently understood to be living at a monastery in England.

On Saturday the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, indicated the Vatican does not plan to pursue further action against his predecessor, who left his post after the revelations were published in February.

Cushley told a newspaper his “impression” was Rome had finished with the matter.

“They will monitor the situation. They will look into it again after a certain period to see that things are going in the way they ought to be going. They may consider other evidence if it comes to light, but it would be up to them as to what they should do,” he said.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

ST. LOUIS – A part-time instructor at a local Catholic middle school has been charged with molesting a 13-year-old student.

The victim told authorities that Seri Grant had inappropriate contact with her during the 2012-2013 school year. In one instance, Grant allegedly touched the girl’s breasts over her clothing. On a separate occasion, Grant is said to have pulled the victim’s pants and underwear down and rubbed her genitals with his penis.

These incidents occurred after regular school hours in the campus library.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Valerie Schremp Hahn vhahn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82460

ST. LOUIS • A part-time instructor for a Catholic middle school for girls from low-income backgrounds has been charged with raping and molesting one of the students.

Seri O. Grant, 54, of the 6900 block of Willow Wood Drive in Northwoods, was charged Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court with first-degree statutory rape and first-degree child molestation. According to court documents, the victim, a 13-year-old girl, was a student at Marian Middle School at 4130 Wyoming Street during the 2012-13 school year. During that time, Grant worked part-time as an instructor.

The victim told authorities that Grant touched her breasts over her clothing and raped her on a separate occasion. The incidents happened after regular school hours in the school library, court documents said, sometime between August 2012 and January 2013.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

Of the 21 persons whose files were released on November 21, 2013, Bro. Joseph F. Reagan is the only one not previously known to be accused. He is not on the Los Angeles archdiocesan lists, and he was not in BishopAccountability.org’s Database of Accused. Reagan joined the Brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1961. He trained in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Texas in 1961-1965, and then worked as a counselor at a boys’ home called Rancho San Antonio in Chatsworth CA (see summary). He left the order in 1966, planning to “achieve my salvation … in the field of baseball.”

The order was contacted several times in June 2002 by a man alleging abuse by Reagan at Rancho San Antonio. The “disturbed” caller was told that Reagan “left the HC Brothers, married, became a cop in Oxnard, and then Regan [sic], his wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident.” A detective with the LAPD also called the order several times in early 2003.

The file contains nothing indicating that the order knew about the abuse before the survivor called, but there are at least four pages missing from the file as released (Bates numbers BOHC/REAGAN 078-081). Some documents raise concerns. One evaluation states that Reagan “seems to have a great deal of natural ability to work with boys” and that he has “shown signs of immaturity in judgment.” Another observes that he “has had a little trouble adjusting to the less manly Brothers but has more or less outgrown it. It should not bother him anymore. Friendly, takes active part in rec. May be a little prone to scandal at first due to naivete.” The order’s concern for such issues can also be seen in a questionnaire that asks reviewers whether applicants to the order are “manly and virile” or “soft or feminine.” Reagan’s Salesian reviewer replies, “I did not notice.”

Here is the entire Reagan file, re-processed to make it searchable and easier to download than the files as released.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Nov. 22, 2013

A Racine Catholic priest removed for posting questionable images on his Facebook page will not face criminal charges, the Kenosha Police Department said Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether Father Ireneusz Chodakowski will return as pastor at St. Peter’s Catholic Parish. Archdiocese of Milwaukee spokesman Jerry Topczewski said that will be up to his religious order, the Massachusetts-based Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. An attorney for the order declined to comment Friday other than to say it is undertaking its own investigation of the matter.

Chodakowski, who had been at St. Peter’s since 2010, was removed last week after someone complained that images on his Facebook account could be potentially pornographic.

Kenosha police issued a statement late Friday saying they conferred with the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation and the Kenosha County district attorney’s office as part of the probe and determined that no crime had occurred. Kenosha police said they concurred with the archdiocese’s assessment of the situation as poor judgment on the part of the priest.

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
Fox 2

[with video]

(KTVI)– A Catholic priest accused in 2012 of molesting an underage girl from Lincoln County no longer faces criminal charges. Pike County Circuit Judge Chris Kunza Mennemeyer threw out the child endangerment charge against Father Xiu Hiu ‘Joseph’ Jiang on Monday. That ruling became public Friday.

A statement issued by the court indicates new information shows the defendant (Jiang) was never alone with the alleged victim and therefore a charge of ‘child endangerment’ was improper. An associated tampering with a witness charge had to be automatically dismissed once the first charge was dropped.

Lincoln County Prosecutor Leah Askey told FOX2 News the statute of limitations has expired on any misdemeanor charges that might have been considered. However, she said if new evidence of a felony is obtained, new charges could be filed.

Lucy Hannegan, organizer of the Friends of Father Jiang website, said she and other supporters ‘never had any doubts in his innocence so it is no surprise to us.’

David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the teenager and her family are ‘very, very upset.’ ‘The victim and the family reported promptly and there is a lot of evidence, yet still the judge tossed out the charges so it is very disconcerting,’ he added.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 23 November 2013

The new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has indicated he believes the Vatican will take no further action against his disgraced predecessor, Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

Archbishop Leo Cushley told a newspaper his “impression” was that Rome had finished with the matter.

Cardinal O’Brien, who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

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SCOTLAND
STV

The new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has indicated he believes the Vatican will take no further action against his disgraced predecessor, Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

Archbishop Leo Cushley told a newspaper his “impression” was that Rome had finished with the matter.

Cardinal O’Brien, who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, stepped down in February after three priests and a former priest made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

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

After his resignation from the Archdiocese, he stated that he would play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland. He later left the country for a period of “spiritual renewal”, with reports suggesting the Vatican had ordered him to leave.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Michael Kelly
November 7, 2013

A senior cardinal has broken his silence over the Vatican’s investigation of controversial Irish priest Fr Tony Flannery.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Irish Catholic this week Cardinal William Levada said that Fr Flannery was not investigated for his views on married priests as has been suggested, but because he ‘undermined’ essentials teachings of the Church.

Cardinal Levada served for over seven years as Pope Benedict’s chief doctrinal adviser. In his role as prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (COF) he was responsible for leading an investigation which has seen Fr Flannery suspended from the exercise of his priesthood.

Cardinal Levada told The Irish Catholic Fr Flannery “takes to the news a lot”. However, the cardinal, who, while retired as prefect, is still a member of the CDF, said “I have never seen in any reports what the fundamental problem was that led to our intervention.

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.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Friday it is delaying the release of the names of some priests who have sexually abused children until at least next month.

Archbishop John Nienstedt had said he would disclose the names, locations and status of the men in November with “permission of the relevant court.”

The archdiocese said a protective order has been in place in Ramsey County District Court since 2009 related to the disclosure.

On Friday, the archdiocese said it just learned that a meeting with a Ramsey County judge has now been scheduled for Dec. 2. The archdiocese said the need for court approval will delay its schedule for disclosure. But the archdiocese said it’s prepared to release information once the judge approves the plan.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post

Posted: 11/23/2013

David Lohr
david.lohr@huffingtonpost.com

Ray Scott Teets, a Pennsylvania pastor arrested Thursday for indecent contact with a minor, had a prior conviction in a child sexual abuse case, which his seminary school was allegedly aware of and did nothing about, according to Maryland attorney Stephen A. Markey III.

Markey told The Huffington Post he personally notified the Kentucky Baptist seminary school Teets attended in the 1990s that Teets had pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in 1988.

In 1992, a Baltimore judge and jury ordered Teets to pay a 15-year-old female victim $500,000 in punitive damages. Markey said he represented the victim in the civil suit against Teets.

“After the verdict I learned he was in a Baptist school studying to be a minister,” Markey said. “I filed a garnishment of any pre-paid tuition that he may have had. I attached to [the request] a copy of the complaint and the verdict that showed he had been convicted of the rape. I did that solely to let them know that they are teaching a rapist –- that they are going to make a rapist a minister. I never heard back from them.”

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

Another batch of religious order and extern files has been released in Los Angeles, as agreed in the survivors’ landmark 2007 settlement with the Los Angeles archdiocese. The released files are in non-searchable PDFs. Today BishopAccountability.org will be providing a first look at selected documents.

We begin with John Peter Lenihan, whose 269-page file from the Orange diocese is among those that have been released. Lenihan requested laicization at the insistence of Bishop Tod Brown on March 28, 2002, and his laicization was granted two months later, on May 28, 2002, an unheard-of level of efficiency in a Vatican laicization bureaucracy that usually takes years to decide a case. Why the hurry?

The new documents reveal that in 2001-2002, after Lenihan had resigned over an interview with Steve Lopez at the LA Times, revealing sexual misconduct and disagreements with the church regarding celibacy, he retracted his resignation, admitted the truth of the interview to his bishop, lied about it to parishioners, and was removed. The diocese then learned that he was violating a therapeutic relationship with a woman, abusing her sexually, and exposing her handicapped child to explicit phone sex voicemails left on the woman’s home answering machine. What’s more, people knew about this latest sexual misconduct. The woman’s lawsuit and its shocking exhibits provide the real context for Lenihan’s rapid laicization.

Much earlier in his career, when the Diocese of Orange had received an allegation on March 25, 1988, from the mother of a 16-year-old girl whom Lenihan had abused, the priest was left in ministry, and less than a month later, his positions as diocesan consultor and member of the council of priests were confirmed. By 2002, things had changed.

Here is the entire Lenihan file, re-processed to make it searchable and easier to download than the files as released.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

[Summary: A new court will decide whether to continue investigation of cases of sexual abuse of former seminarians that were allegedly committed by priest Justo Illarraz. He served as prfect for discipline at the minor seminary at Parana from 1984-1992.]

Un nuevo tribunal deberá decidir si se siguen investigando los casos de abuso sexual a ex seminaristas que se le atribuyen al sacerdote Justo Ilarraz, quien se desempeñó como prefecto de Disciplina del Seminario Menor de Paraná entre 1984 y 1992. Así lo dispuso ayer la Sala Penal del Superior Tribunal de Justicia (STJ) de Entre Ríos, al desestimar un planteo de prescripción solicitado por la defensa del religioso.

La interrupción de las actuaciones, que se iniciaron en septiembre de 2012, había sido dispuesta en agosto pasado por la Sala I de la Cámara del Crimen de Paraná. Con la firma de los camaristas Hugo Perotti y Miguel Angel Giorgio, el tribunal no sólo declaró la prescripción de la causa, sino que también sobreseyó a Ilarraz.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Para este sábado a las 11:00 horas en el Tribunal Oral en lo Penal de Osorno, está pactada la audiencia de lectura de veredicto contra el sacerdote colombiano Carmelo Márquez Julio.

Recordemos que el religioso se encuentra enjuiciado por presunto abuso sexual y tocaciones indebidas en contra de cuatro mujeres, una de ellas de 17 años a la fecha de cometido el delito.

Durante este viernes se efectuaron los alegatos para la fijación de la pena y réplicas donde los intervinientes, vale decir el Ministerio Público y la defensa, reiteraron sus argumentos legales con los cuales sustentan sus tesis, incorporando como prueba rendida todos los testimonios y peritajes efectuados durante la etapa inicial de la causa.

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GHANA
Spy Ghana

A 39-year old Anglican priest, Rev Fr Emmanuel Quartey has been remanded in police custody for allegedly raping a 20-year-old woman.

He will be arraigned before the Cape Coast Circuit Court Three on Monday November 25. The facts are that on Sunday October 17 the victim, a resident of Siwido in Cape Coast, contacted the priest to help her break a blood covenant she had with her boy-friend.

The priest agreed to help the victim and asked her to meet him the following day at a hotel in Elmina. She complied and met the priest in one of the rooms in the hotel where he forcibly had sex with her and warned her not to tell anyone or else she will die.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis will meet with a Ramsey County judge before disclosing its initial list of clergy who have substantiated claims of abuse of a minor against them.

In his November 11 Open Letter, Archbishop John Nienstedt announced that the first phase of disclosure would be made by the end of November, pending approval by the appropriate court.

The Archdiocese said on Friday that it has learned that a meeting with the judge has been scheduled for Dec. 2.

Officials said that there has been a protective order in place in Ramsey County District Court since 2009 related to the disclosure. The need for approval by the court will delay its schedule for disclosure, but officials said they will release that information pending approval by the court.

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.

MINNESOTA
Seattle PI

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Friday it is delaying the release of the names of some priests who have sexually abused children until at least next month.

Archbishop John Nienstedt had said he would disclose the names, locations and status of the men in November with “permission of the relevant court.”

The archdiocese said a protective order has been in place in Ramsey County District Court since 2009 related to the disclosure.

On Friday, the archdiocese said it just learned that a meeting with a Ramsey County judge has now been scheduled for Dec. 2. The archdiocese said the need for court approval will delay its schedule for disclosure. But the archdiocese said it’s prepared to release information once the judge approves the plan.

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

NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published November 22, 2013, issue of November 29, 2013.

Anxiety is building at Modern Orthodoxy’s flagship institution, Yeshiva University, as rumors swirl of looming cuts to address a financial crisis.

Y.U.’s official student newspaper, the Commentator, reported November 20 that the school’s president, Richard Joel, “may announce mandatory furloughs to Y.U. employees” pending an emergency meeting of the University’s board of directors.

School officials have declined to confirm or deny the report.

The Commentator story followed hard on the heels of a memo Joel sent out to faculty and staff a day earlier, warning of dire financial challenges ahead. The email was first reported by the JTA.

Several sources close to Y.U. have told the Forward that the school’s board will hold its emergency meeting early next week.

Y.U. board members did not respond to calls or emails for comment November 19 and 20. Michael Scagnoli, a Y.U. spokesman, declined to comment on whether the meeting is taking place. …

Moody’s said the university’s problems are compounded by uncertainty related to a $380 million lawsuit brought by former students of Yeshiva University’s High School for Boys, in Manhattan. Thirty-four former students are suing Y.U. over claims that the university covered up decades of sexual abuse allegedly committed by former staff members, Rabbi George Finkelstein and Rabbi Macy Gordon. Both men have denied the charges.

A federal judge in New York is expected to rule shortly on whether the case can proceed.

Y.U. staff and students had hoped that 2013 would turn out to be better than the past few years. In 2008, Y.U. was struck by the twin blows of the national financial crisis and the multibillion dollar investment fraud committed by Bernard Madoff, with whom the school had invested substantial sums.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Channel Online

[with video]

The Bishop of Winchester has organised a pastoral visit to the Channel Islands to gain a ‘fresh perspective on safeguarding’.

It follows the suspension of Jersey’s Dean earlier this year, for failing to properly handle an allegation of abuse.

No disciplinary action will now be taken against the Very Reverend Bob Key.

Now next month both the Bishop of Dover and Bishop of Lambeth will be coming to the islands to get a better understanding of complaint procedures.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

EBENSBURG — A criminal investigation into who may have been aware of the alleged sexual abuse of students at Bishop McCort High School by Brother Stephen Baker and failed to alert authorities moved a step forward this week.

Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan told The Tribune-Democrat that she met with members of the staff of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

The focus of the meeting was to determine what information the attorney general’s office will need if it agrees to accept the investigation into who knew what and when, she said.

“We want to make sure we provide the information they need to move forward,” Callihan said.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

This morning, I’d like to share an essay by Rev. Emmet Coyne, a retired priest of the diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, and author of The Theology of Fear. Emmett has kindly offered to let the essay be published here. It’s a proposal to rehabilitate the ancient Catholic practice of interdict, but to turn it upside down, so that lay Catholics begin to use it to call their pastoral leaders to accountability. Here’s Emmett’s essay:

In 1909 in Adria, Italy, “Several thousand fanatical Catholics nearly stoned their bishop to death.” What triggered this? The pope (Pius X) instructed the bishop to move the seat of the diocese to the more important city of Rovigio. One might assume the Catholic citizens of Adria felt they were losing their prominence. So, for the pelting of their prelate, the pope pronounced an interdict on Adria and the surrounding area.

The interdict is an arrow in the Vatican’s quiver for subduing unruly members. It’s a papal ploy to deny the sacraments to individuals and dioceses. It has been employed intermittently to threaten Catholics and was successful. The interdict remains a measure of last resort. To deny the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, effectively cuts members off from God. The interdict conveyed this threat.

Real power in the Roman Church resides exclusively in male celibates. Since Vatican II, lay persons were allowed in to participate in parish councils, but these were simply advisory. There is nothing in the pipeline currently which will allow lay members to exercise authentic power. John Paul II anticipated the emerging laity might seek to ascend to a position of power. He then legislated that no cleric could be under the authority of a lay person. Canon Law through the centuries was the exclusive domain of male clerics to write the rules. The laity are subservient in all of the canons, being accorded with few rights and mostly responsibilities.

The current structure of the Roman Church is an absolute monarchy. Laity are left to beg, cajole, and petition for any participation in advocating structural change and power sharing. Collegiality, even for bishops, is not a constant. They are dependent on the whim of the current pontiff. The result is that committed lay persons are left to their own creative devices until the Pentecost event becomes an accepted truth and is institutionalized. At the first Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out upon the whole People of God, not simply community leaders. This was a unique episode in the consciousness of the new community struggling for self-identity in the wake of the Jesus event. All persons would share equally in the life of the community. This was the radical nature that drew slaves and women especially. So the community surged until the time of Constantine when the imperial model was imposed. This has endured till Vatican II when the hope of lay persons was to become equal participants, no longer relegated to ‘pray, pay, and obey.’

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Thursday, November 21, 2013

Source:Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt

Watch the Archbishop’s video column by clicking here, or at the bottom of this column.

In just another week, we will join with millions of families around the country to celebrate Thanksgiving, a time that has traditionally been set aside to reflect humbly on our many blessings, all of which we prayerfully acknowledge come from our loving and generous God.

I have been reflecting quite a bit lately on God’s blessings to me and the things for which I am personally grateful. I have thought and prayed about this because, particularly now, in the midst of all of the painful strife within our local Church these past many weeks, I am reminded of the great hope we have in Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I am reminded that, as our patron St. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.” This empowerment and strength must always be directed only for the pursuit and telling of the truth in service to God and our neighbor. This strength, which we find in the source and summit of the Holy Eucharist, reminds us that God gives us all that we need to live in his love and in his truth. It is only for us to recognize and accept his gifts. And, it is these gifts from God, those of strength and truth, of faith, hope and love, and grace and light, and so much more, for which we give thanks.

Like you, I am also thankful for the gifts of my family and friends. And, I am grateful for all of you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. There is much sadness and frustration among us still. I feel that, too.

And, yet, I also feel so powerfully your prayers as well as your hope for a path forward. I give thanks for these, too. They have been in my prayers as well. The strength of your prayers has been felt by my entire leadership team, which is working tirelessly to do the right thing in the midst of this crisis. Together, we have learned and grown much these past many weeks. And, we have made decisions to take actions that we sincerely believe set us on that path forward, a path that embraces the truth, for the sake of justice.

These actions, as I shared with you in my column two weeks ago, are anchored by a set of goals that I have set for myself and for all leadership within the Church as we address the very serious concerns before us.

Our first goal, and of greatest importance, is keeping our focus on creating and maintaining safe environments and protecting the young and the vulnerable. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Our protection of children and young people must be our top priority, and it must be what animates our every action and decision.

Our second goal is to care for those who have been harmed by members of the Church. Our hearts ache for the victims of sexual abuse, and they deserve our care and support as, together, we work toward a process of hope and healing. It is among the most important things we can and should do, for the sake of the dignity of each person who now struggles to move forward with his or her life. We are called to love, with great compassion, those who are hurting most among us. This is doubly important when a victim’s pain has been caused by a member of our clergy.

Our third goal is to facilitate the beginning of a healing process for our local Church. We must restore trust with the Catholic faithful, who I know are counting on the clergy and leadership of the Church, most especially me as archbishop, to make virtuous decisions for the good of the body of Christ. I take this responsibility very seriously. I also know I cannot do this alone. My entire staff and I are united in our commitment to work together in pursuit of the truth and restoration of trust.

Finally, our fourth goal is to restore trust with our many clergy who do live out their vocations nobly and with great dedication to their sacred trust. These good men deserve our confidence and respect. We must avoid impugning them as we seek justice for the few who have violated this trust and hurt others.

These four goals — protecting the young and the vulnerable, caring for victims, and restoring trust with both the laity and the clergy — are anchoring me and my leadership team in all we do.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Friday, November 22, 2013

Source:Jim Accurso

As part of the previously stated plan to ensure a comprehensive approach to address the issue of clergy sexual misconduct, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis today announced that it is prepared to disclose its initial list of clergy who have substantiated claims of abuse of a minor against them.

In his November 11 Open Letter, which is available on our website at archspm.org, Archbishop Nienstedt announced that the first phase of disclosure would be made by the end of November, pending approval by the appropriate court. There has been a protective order in place in Ramsey County District Court since 2009 related to the disclosure.

We have just learned that a meeting with a Ramsey County judge has now been scheduled for Monday, December 2. The need for approval by the court will delay our schedule for disclosure. The Archdiocese is prepared to release information once the judge concurs with our plan.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Jon Collins, Minnesota Public Radio,
Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
November 22, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in a statement late Friday that it’s postponing until at least next month the release of names of priests who sexually abused children.

Earlier this month, Archbishop John Nienstedt announced his decision to release the names of priests living in the archdiocese whom the church believes sexually abused children. Nienstedt’s announcement came after MPR News reporting showed church leaders protected an admitted

Church leaders have fought efforts for years by victims and their attorneys to make the names of abusive priests public. They’ve argued that some priests have been falsely accused and releasing their names would damage their reputations.

The archdiocese said it needs to wait until after a Dec. 2 hearing in Ramsey County District Court because it does not believe it can release the names without a judge’s order.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WVWA

By Paul Hess, Multi-media Journalist

Bluefield, W.Va.–Westminister Pastor Jonathan Rockness released the following statement after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced involving an un-named youth volunteer:

“From the moment the church leadership first suspected any misconduct, we have aggressively pursued the truth and we have continually reported all findings to the State Police. We continue to cooperate with their investigation, as we are committed to the truth coming to light and justice being served. We are devastated for any individuals and families who may be potential victims, and we pray that the investigative process will help bring them healing,” says Pastor Jonathan Rockness.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WVNS

By Dan Thorn

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. –
UPDATE: 59News reached out to Pastor Jonathan Rockness with Westminster Presbyterian Church he released the following statement.

“We have been fully cooperative with the authorities and will continue to be, as we are committed to uncovering the truth and seeing justice met. We also hope and pray for healing and wholeness for any potential victims in this situation. We are devastated for them and their families.”

West Virginia State Police are investigating sexual abuse accusations against a youth mentor at a church in Bluefield, West Virginia.

Sgt. Melissa Clemons says a number of individuals have come forward accusing a man who is actively involved in the youth group at Westminster Presbyterian Church of sexual abuse.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KGO

[with video]

Vic Lee

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A woman is telling a story of cruelty, harassment and abuse — all, she says, at the hands of people who consider themselves men of god.

A female worker says she was fired from St. Francis of Assisi Church because she would no longer submit to sexual harassment that included spanking. The woman filed a wrongful termination claim with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The church contends she was fired for other reasons.

Jhona Mathews is a single mother in her early 30s with a 2-year-old child. She worked as an assistant to the church rector Father Harold Sinider. She says the president of the church board of trustees Bill McLaughlin knew she was vulnerable as a young single mother with no particular skills.

Mathews says in her complaint, that he exploited her to satisfy his sexual fantasies.

“Paddling with the wooden paddle, getting spanked in the sacristy of the shrine of St. Francis, which Catholics know, it’s just appalling to hear as a catholic and having sexual intercourse in the shrine of St. Francis,” Mathews’ attorney Sandra Ribera said.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — West Virginia State Police officials are investigating a former church youth teacher and mentor for at-risk youth as a result of sexual abuse and sexual assault allegations.

Sgt. M.D. Clemons, with the Crimes Against Children Unit of the West Virginia State Police, said the individual under investigation was a youth teacher at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield for many years, and that her investigation has found allegations of abuse that date back to 1986.

“He helped with the youth program,” she said. “He also led mission trips.”

Clemons said she has currently interviewed 12 individuals who have reported misconduct that includes sexual abuse and sexual assault. The victims were preteen and teenage boys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Oxford Times

A DISGRACED magistrate, Church of England minister and music teacher has been jailed for sexually abusing a young girl 10 years ago.

Christopher Tadman-Robins, 66, of Upper End, Shipton-Under-Wychwood, has begun a two-and-a-half year jail sentence.

He was ordained in 1989 but in the last 20 years has only conducted occasional services in West Oxfordshire.

He also sat as a magistrate at the former court in Witney, taught music and was a former musical director of the Northern Ballet.

But Judge Philip Bartle QC said his good character and contribution to society did not spare him from an immediate custodial sentence.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

SUBMITTED ON NOVEMBER 22, 2013

The Pike County Circuit Court has dismissed criminal charges against Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, a former associate pastor at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis Parish.

Father Jiang was charged June 28, 2012, in Lincoln County with a felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, a first-degree offense involving sexual conduct. He also was charged with witness tampering.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis had placed Father Jiang on administrative leave following a report involving alleged inappropriate contact with a high school-aged minor. The Archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection notified the Missouri Division of Family Services immediately upon learning of the allegations.

According to a statement at that time from Msgr. Richard Hanneke, the archdiocese’s vicar for priests, the archdiocese was fully cooperating with the investigation.

None of the conduct was alleged to have occurred at the cathedral or on any archdiocesan property, Msgr. Hanneke noted in the statement.

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NEBRASKA
ABC 9

news@kcautv.com

The Archdiocese of Omaha has found a former Catholic priest from Norfolk guilty of sexually abusing minors.

Archbishop George Lucas says there is enough evidence against Franklin Dvorak. Dvorak is accused of abusing a female student from 1970 to 1972 when he was stationed at Sacred Heart Parish. That’s now called Norfolk Catholic.

Dvorak was not formally charged because of the statute of limitations.

The church is now prohibiting him from publicly exercising priestly ministry in the church, but he can retain his clerical status.

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NEBRASKA
Pilot-Tribune & Enterprise

Staff reports

The Archdiocese of Omaha has dismissed Father Al Salanitro from the clerical state after an administrative penal process, according to a news release. He is prohibited from all priestly functions and ministries and can never again serve as a priest anywhere in the Church.

Salanitro served St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church in Blair for five years in the early 2000s.

In December 2011, a Carter Lake, Iowa man reported he was sexually abused by Salanitro from 1991 to 1994, beginning when he was 11 years old. Salanitro was associate pastor of Holy Cross Parish during that time.

The archdiocese notified law enforcement officials of the allegation. Archbishop George Lucas placed Salanitro on administrative leave from his assignment as pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Bellevue pending the outcome of a preliminary investigation. Salanitro denied the allegations.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2

[with video]

November 22, 2013, by Betsey Bruce

(KTVI)– A Pike County judge has thrown out a charge of child endangerment against a Catholic priest who worked at the New Cathedral.

Father Joseph Jiang had been charged with molesting an underage girl in Lincoln County and with attempting to tamper with a witness.

The prosecutor dropped the tampering charge after the judge said there was no evidence the priest and the girl were ever alone together.

The girl and her parents are suing the archdiocese.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 6

KENOSHA (WITI) — A priest at St. Peter Church in Kenosha that had been investigated by police and placed on administrative leave has been cleared of any criminal or illegal behavior. The case is now closed.

Kenosha police say the department had been investigating the priest because of his use of Facebook. The priest belongs to the Marians of the Immaculate Conception — a religious order out of [Stockbridge} Stonebridge, Massachusetts.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing Monday 9 December 2013. The public hearing will look into the Towards Healing process adopted by the Catholic Church in responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines explained that this hearing will be the first of a number of public hearings that will examine the application of Towards Healing in responding to victims and allegations of child sexual abuse against personnel of the Catholic Church.

“This first public hearing into Towards Healing will focus on the experiences of four people who participated in the process,” she said.

“These people are Queensland residents whose claim of child sexual abuse was dealt with through the Towards Healing process. The accused at the time of the abuse were priests and brothers of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Diocese of Lismore and the Marist Brothers.

“As the Commission continues, we will hold more public hearings into peoples’ experience with Towards Healing and its application in different parts of Australia,” Ms Dines said.

To speak with the Royal Commission, call 1800 099 340 or email registerinterest@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

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CANADA
Cambridge Times

A retired Anglican priest with ties to Paris was found guilty Tuesday of sexual offenses dating back 30 years.

Rev. George Ferris, 66, of Cambridge appeared at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brantford on Nov. 19 and was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation for offences that took place in Paris between 1983 and 1989.

During that time, Ferris was serving as minister of St. James Anglican Church in Paris.

Ferris is scheduled to appear for sentencing on Jan. 28.

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NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 22, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Two Nebraska predator priests have been disciplined by the Vatican.

[WOWT]

We strongly urge Archbishop George Lucas to submit the evidence used in the church investigation to secular authorities so that Fr. Alfred Salanitro and Fr. Franklin Dvorak might be criminally charged, convicted and kept away from kids, instead of just being removed from ministry.

Archbishop Lucas and other Catholic officials have a duty to insure the kids’ safety of by making sure these predators are prosecuted and kept away from potential victims, not just ousted from their church positions.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JARED OWENS THE AUSTRALIAN NOVEMBER 23, 2013

THE former administrator of a NSW Anglican diocese under investigation over systemic child abuse has admitted lying about its capacity to pay compensation to a victim who “derailed” church-led negotiations by seeking independent legal advice.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has heard a “pedophile ring” of priests at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home raped, beat and sexually abused dozens of children between the 1940s and 80s.

The inquiry in Sydney was yesterday shown a 2006 letter written by then Grafton Diocese registrar Pat Comben in which he told an abuse survivor, Richard Campion, that it was “difficult” to find even $500 to cover his travel costs to attend counselling.

Mr Comben yesterday admitted he understood the diocese had assets of $2 million.

“No, it was not an honest thing to say to Mr Campion,” the former Queensland Labor minister told the inquiry.

“We were all scared and I was conscious that I would not have been viewed well as an employee had I just gone in there and said ‘The diocese has $2m’.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Channel Online

[with video]

The Bishop of Winchester has issued a statement confirming he is “unable” to release the report into the Dean of Jersey’s suspension.

Tim Dakin said, following legal advice, he has agreed to comply with a request from an “interested party” not to publish Dame Heather Steel’s report.

The report by the former High Court Judge has investigated whether any disciplinary action should be taken against any member of the clergy.

It comes after Jersey’s Dean, Bob Key, was suspended in March for failing to properly investigate the treatment of a 26 year old disabled woman.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

No disciplinary action is to be taken against any Jersey Anglican clergy member into the handling of an abuse complaint, a bishop says.

Inquiries were ordered by Bishop of Winchester, the Right Reverend Tim Dakin, after a woman claimed she was abused by a church warden.

The review examined how the Dean of Jersey, the Very Reverend Bob Key, dealt with the issue.

However, a report into the reviews is not to be released on legal advice.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 22 November 2013

If the dozens of people who were abused at a Church of England (Anglican) home had sued successfully it would have been financial ruin for the New South Wales diocese of Grafton, a lawyer has told a national inquiry into child abuse.

Peter Roland, former lawyer for the diocese, is being grilled at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on why, in 2006 and 2007, traumatised survivors of the North Coast Children’s Home (NCCH) in Lismore were told the church had no liability.

The commission has heard at one stage a letter to 41 victims mentioned a modest ex-gratia payment for “their inconvenience in these matters”.

At the request of the commission chair, justice Peter McClellan, documents showing how much money was spent by the diocese on lawyers were produced, showing bills of $27,000 and $11,000. One bill gave an estimated figure of $62,000 if the case went to court.

The commission heard Roland’s firm had received a dossier of 450 documents detailing emotional, sexual and physical abuse of former residents at the home, but was instructed by the diocese that the church had never been vested with care, control and management of the home.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Some more information from the sex abuse trial of Oblate priest Father Eric Dejaeger. I warn in advance that some of this is quite graphic

(1) All victims who have testified to date were aged 4 to 12 when they were molested. (I say victims because my understanding is that most, if not all, who have testified to date, have received out-of-court settlements)

(2) Father Eric Dejaeger is perceived by some as being physically “extremely vigorous,” almost athletic. I am told that he seems almost unaffected by the testimony;

(3) The court room is packed, but it is small, perhaps holding 20 people max. There are about four support persons in the court at any given time,. There are two sheriffs present at any given time. Yesterday there was a group from the Ministry of Justice. The Deputy Minister was present for the day.

There are some lawyers who pop in and out for short spells;

(4) There is reference in media coverage to victims in the hallways howling in anguish after testifying. This is happening during testimony as well. Yesterday afternoon the man who testified broke down a number of times during testimony and was, I am told, literally howling in anguish.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – A judge has dismissed charges against a St. Louis priest in relation to child endangerment.

Circuit Judge Chris Kunza Mennemeyer dismissed charges against Fr. Joseph Jiang, who pleaded not guilty to the child endangerment charge.

A lawsuit filed by the family of a teenage girl remains active, and it claims that Archbishop Robert Carlson didn’t stop the molestation by a priest who lived in the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica. A motion was made earlier this month to dismiss the lawsuit, and it’s still under consideration.

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OMAHA (NE)
World-Herald

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

The archdiocese announced the decisions Friday morning regarding the Rev. Alfred J. Salanitro, 54, and the Rev. Franklin A. Dvorak, 69.

The archdiocese conducted investigations of both men and reported the allegations to law enforcement.

Salanitro has been dismissed from the clerical state, and Dvorak was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance, according to a news release from the archdiocese.

The action on Salanitro means he has been returned to the lay state and is prohibited from all priestly functions and ministries. He can never again serve as a priest anywhere in the Roman Catholic Church.

Dvorak’s prayer and penance penalty also prohibits him from publicly exercising priestly ministry in the church. He is not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to administer the Church’s sacraments, the release said.

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OMAHA (NE)
WOWT

Two Archdiocese of Omaha priests received their ecclesiastical penalties on Friday after having been found guilty of sexual abuse of minors.

The Rev. Alfred Salanitro (pictured right) has been dismissed from the clerical state, meaning he has been returned to the lay state or “laicized.” The 54-year-old is prohibited from all priestly functions and ministries and can never again serve as a priest anywhere in the church.

In December 2011, a Carter Lake man reported he was sexually abused by Salanitro from 1991-1994, beginning when he was 11 years old while Salanitro was associate pastor of Holy Cross Parish.

The archdiocese notified law enforcement of the allegation. Archbishop George Lucas placed Salanitro on administrative leave from his assignment as pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Bellevue pending the outcome of a preliminary investigation.

Archbishop Lucas and the Archdiocesan Review Board, an 11-member volunteer board of child care experts, law enforcement officials, attorneys, clergy, and mental health professionals that advises Archbishop Lucas on the protection of young people, concluded after a thorough investigation that the evidence met the church’s minimum standard for a credible allegation. …

The archdiocese also announced the Rev. Franklin Dvorak was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance that prohibits him from publicly exercising priestly ministry in the church. He is not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to administer the church’s sacraments.

The 69-year-old Dvorak has been instructed not to wear clerical attire or to present himself publicly as a priest. Dvorak is expected to dedicate his life to praying for victims and repenting of his past offenses. Dvorak is able to retain his clerical status. He was ordained in 1970 and will reach the priest retirement age of 70 in February. His term as pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Omaha expired last summer.

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MINNESOTA
Crookston Times

By Jess Bengtson
Posted Nov. 22, 2013

Crookston, Minn.
At a news conference Thursday in the lobby of the Polk County Justice Center in Crookston, sexual abuse attorney Jeff Anderson announced the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of a man known as “Doe 19.”

Anderson, along with Lonna Hunter, an advocate for Native children, told the story of Doe 19, whom they said was sexually abused by Father James Vincent Fitzgerald at St. Anne’s Parish in Naytahwaush. The lawsuit names the Diocese of Crookston and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate alleging their negligence in placing Fitzgerald in parishes and communities where he had access to children even after learning that Fitzgerald was a child molester. This is the first time Fitzgerald’s name has been publicly released in Minnesota.

Fitzgerald, who is now deceased, was employed by the Diocese of Crookston from 1973 to 1978. During this time, he allegedly abused a minor male. The lawsuit claims the defendants knew or should have known about the abuse. The Diocese of Crookston placed Fitzgerald at St. Anne’s Parish on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Naytahwaush in the mid-1980s. Doe 19 claims the abuse happened in 1984 when he was between 8 and 9-years-old.

The current lawsuit, along with another involving “Jane Doe 4” of Bemidji and the late Father James Porter, requests the release of names of credibly accused and admitted child molesters from the Diocese of Crookston. The Diocese allegedly compiled a list of five priests who had credible accusations of abuse against them.

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