ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

By Kim Glovas

COATESVILLE, Pa. (CBS) — A Chester County, Pa. man is behind bars today in lieu of $1 million bail, charged with the rape of a 13-year-old girl in late 2011.

Humberto Cervantes, 34, of Coatesville, is charged with felony rape and related crimes after the girl and her parents went to Bensalem police late in 2012.

Bensalem Township police sergeant Andrew Aninsman says Cervantes befriended the victim at a Pentecostal church in Trenton, NJ, where he was a deacon at the time. Aninsman says the two met a few times for walks in Bensalem parks.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Friday, January 11, 2013

A church deacon has been arrested on charges he raped a 13-year-old girl at a Bensalem motel two years ago, police announced Thursday.

District Judge Leonard Brown arraigned Humberto Cervantes, 34, of Coatesville, on nine offenses and ordered him held on $1 million bail. Police said Cervantes was a deacon at a Trenton Pentecostal church when he befriended the alleged victim, now 15.

Police said Cervantes met with the alleged victim several times in Bensalem.

The two “went to a few parks and talked about church, life, and family,” police said. “On the final visit, when the victim believed they were going to a park, Cervantes took her to a Bensalem motel and raped her,” police alleged.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Main Line

By MICHAEL N. PRICE
mprice@journalregister.com

A 34-year-old former Trenton church deacon was arrested in Bucks County Wednesday for allegedly raping a then 13-year-old girl in May 2011, according to court records.

Humberto Cervantes, 100 block of Seltzer Avenue in Caln, was a deacon at a Pentecostal church in Trenton when he befriended a young girl who attended the church, according to a criminal complaint filed by police. Cervantes allegedly called and texted the girl, and met with her on multiple occasions, before taking her to a Bensalem motel in May, 2011.

The police investigation began on Dec. 31, 2012, when Bensalem detectives interviewed the now 15-year-old girl. According to the complaint, the girl told investigators that during their final meeting Cervantes picked her up from school and took her to a motel in the 4000 block of Bristol Pike in Bensalem. Cervantes then allegedly forced the girl to have sex with him despite her repeated objections. He then drove her back to school, police said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPVI

BENSALEM, Pa. – January 10, 2013 (WPVI) — A Pentecostal deacon is charged with the rape of a parishioner when the girl was just 13-years-old.

34-year-old Humberto Cervantes, of the 100 block of Seltzer Avenue in Coatesville, is charged with rape and related offenses.

The Bensalem Police Special Victims Unit began their investigation in December 2012 when the victim reported that she had been raped by Cervantes at a Bensalem Motel in 2011.

According to the victim, Cervantes was a deacon at a Pentecostal Church in Trenton, New Jersey when he befriended her. They allegedly met several times in Bensalem, going to several parks and talked about church, life and family.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Milanda Rout
From:The Australian
January 12, 2013

SIX days after Julia Gillard announced her sweeping – and rather ill-defined – royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse last November, law firms started circling victims for potential clients.

One newspaper advertisement read: “Royal Commission. Were you sexually abused? You may have a claim. Register now – time limits apply.”

The government was not impressed, and made noises about misleading advertising, given no compensation scheme had been announced, but it was the author of its own predicament.

The rushed decision by the Prime Minister to announce the inquiry without any terms of reference, structure, number of commissioners, length of time, whether it would include a compensation scheme, have a forum for victims or even have an investigatory arm left the doors wide open to all interpretations.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Lauren Wilson and Rick Morton
From:The Australian
January 12, 2013

VICTIMS-RIGHTS group have roundly embraced Julia Gillard’s terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and praised the selection of the six commissioners who will spend the next three years examining the evidence.

Religious institutions also welcomed the announcement of the framework for the inquiry yesterday but noted that some issues, including whether the commission would compel Catholic priests to break the “inviolable seal of confession”, remained to be resolved.

While some organisations, including the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, had called on the government to expand the terms of reference to include all forms of abuse suffered by children at the hands of institutions – not just sexual abuse – most advocacy groups conceded yesterday that the inquiry was broad enough.

Hetty Johnston, the founder of victims-advocacy group Bravehearts, said: “We are just ecstatic – there is everything in there that we hoped to see and nothing that we feared we might.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SUSANNAH MORAN
From:The Australian
January 12, 2013

AS a judge who has presided over some of the nation’s most controversial cases and who was a barrister at the Maralinga inquiry, Peter McClellan brings a wealth of experience to head the federal royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse.

Justice McClellan, 65, will take a three-year break from his role as chief judge at common law in the NSW Supreme Court to take on the role.

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said he was “an excellent choice for the role”.

“His extensive experience appearing in and running complex inquiries, his ability for hard work and his compassion make him an ideal candidate,” he said. “He is one of Australia’s top lawyers, known for his principled approach and commitment to fairness and justice. I am confident he will give all parties a full and fair hearing.”

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

January 12, 2013

Barney Zwartz

TRUTH, justice and redress: bold promises for a royal commission, but ones Australians have been longing to hear when it comes to child abuse.

At first sight, victims and their supporters are greatly heartened by Friday’s announcements: both the commissioners and the terms of reference seem excellent. The reasons why the inquiry was necessary – the suicides and premature deaths, the plight of survivors, the concealment and protection of predators, the barriers to justice, the need for law reform and more – are all recognised.

The government has promised the necessary resources, including for advocacy groups, given a long and extendable time frame (but balanced that with a request for an interim report after 18 months), and set up a mechanism by which police can investigate and prosecute as the commission keeps working.

In some ways the most vital work the six commissioners will do over their three-year mandate will take place in the first two months, as they decide how to operate and who they will hear. There are two mutually exclusive imperatives: to be thorough yet also timely.

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NETHERLANDS
Expatica

A Dutch Catholic priest who planned to ‘name and shame’ people leaving the church by pinning their photos up in public has decided not to go ahead.

Harm Schilder had claimed the move would enable other parishioners to pray for people who want to deregister as Catholics but now says he ‘sees the risky side’ of his much-criticised plan.

‘There is now no point in putting the plan into action,’ Schilder says on his weblog. Instead, he and volunteers will look at other ways to ‘keep them with the church’.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Paedophile former priest, Daniel Curran, has had his sentence for abusing young boys reduced by the Court of Appeal.

Curran pleaded guilty to five charges of indecently assaulting two boys between 1989 and 1994 and was jailed for four years last February.

He ranks as one of Northern Ireland’s most notorious clerical paedophiles with a catalogue of abuse that includes attacks on 13 boys over a 17 year period.

The pattern in which he abused those children was always the same. Curran was a Priest at St Paul’s in West Belfast in the late 80s. He built a friendship with the parents of altar boys and then took them to his isolated cottage near Tyrella Beach in County Down where he plied them with alcohol and sexually abused them.

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VERMONT
Rutland Herald

By Kevin O’Connor
STAFF WRITER | January 08,2013

Three years after paying more than $20 million to settle almost 30 priest misconduct lawsuits, Vermont’s Catholic Church faces a new challenge: Will the first of a dozen new cases go to trial this week or can it forge an agreement to end them all?

The state’s largest religious denomination had hoped to rid itself of nearly a decade of lurid headlines and legal headaches in 2010 when it sold its historic 32-acre Burlington headquarters and 26-acre Colchester Camp Holy Cross to make good with all its then-known accusers. But that settlement didn’t preclude other former altar boys and young male churchgoers alleging sexual abuse from filing later lawsuits.

Lawyers for the first of 12 new plaintiffs are scheduled to argue their case in U.S. District Court in Burlington starting Wednesday. At a pretrial hearing Monday, Judge William Sessions III asked attorneys for both sides about the possibility of a settlement.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week

01/10/13

Rabbi Gerald Skolnik

Whether in the insular ultra-Orthodox community of Brooklyn this year, or the relatively more modern and open Orthodox community of Yeshiva University in the 1970’s, covering the years when I was an undergraduate student there, recent revelations about sexual abuse in the Jewish world, and efforts to hide it from public view, have been terribly disturbing to all of us. It does not appear that our community is plagued by the kind of serial cover-ups that have tragically characterized the Catholic Church in recent years, which I guess we should be grateful for. But nonetheless, learning that abusers were either sheltered from authorities, or simply allowed to “quietly leave,” stains our community as a whole.

When I hear the stories of abuses such as these, the one thing I am not is surprised. That might sound like a strange thing to say, especially for a rabbi. You might well think, how can I be so cynical? It is almost as if I am expecting there to be inappropriate and even aberrant behavior in our communities. But the truth is that I don’t for a moment doubt that such behaviors exist, nor that they always have. And I have absolutely no doubt that this is not an “Orthodox” issue, or Ultra-Orthodox issue. It crosses all denominational lines.

This is not a matter of cynicism at all. It’s simply a matter of reality. Social pathologies exist in all communities, even (especially?) in religious ones. It is our own, time-cherished and embellished communal self-image that has convinced us of our “specialness,” and made it hard to believe that the problems that afflict everyone else in the world also afflict us.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
susan.spencer@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The co-founder and second-in-command pastor of the Church of the End Times in Uxbridge pleaded guilty Thursday to resisting arrest, but won’t serve any more jail time.

Dennis H. Stanley, 36, most recently of 41 Murphy’s Way, Uxbridge, was sentenced in Worcester Central District Court by Judge Janet McGuiggan to 60 days in the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction but received credit for the 60 days already served after he was held without bail Nov. 2.

One charge for violating a restraining order taken out by his estranged wife, Beth Ellen Stanley, was dismissed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

ON paper, the Gillard government appears to have set down sensible terms of reference for its royal commission into child sexual abuse.

For practical reasons, the commission will not deal with abuse in the family or with the physical and emotional abuse or neglect of children, unless it occurred within the context of child sexual abuse.

But even without broadening its scope to include such evils, the commissioners, announced yesterday, face a mammoth task if they are to finalise their work, as envisaged, by December 2015 and produce an interim report by June 30 next year. Led by senior NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan, their broad mix of judicial, policing, community service, public policy and child health expertise will stand them in good stead.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan has been appointed to head a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the announcement as she outlined the details of the inquiry, which was approved by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on Friday.

Former WA Senator Andrew Murray will be one of six commissioners appointed to assist Justice Murray.

The inquiry will be expected to provide an interim report by the end of June 2014 and will wind up in December 2015.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

THE most comprehensive investigation ever into child abuse in Australia will be headed by a NSW Supreme Court judge and is expected to take evidence from overseas witnesses.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced an unprecedented six-strong royal commission – headed by Justice Peter McClellan – with wide-ranging powers to investigate decades of abuse by the church and other institutions.

With public hearings expected to commence within months, the commission will have its own investigations unit to weed out the worst cases of abuse.

The commission has been asked to provide an interim report within 18 months and is expected to cost well over $50 million during its three-year term.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Steve Lewis and Alicia Wood
From:The Daily Telegraph
January 12, 2013

THE most comprehensive investigation into child abuse in Australia will be headed by a NSW Supreme Court judge.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced an unprecedented six-strong royal commission, headed by Justice Peter McClellan, with wide-ranging powers to investigate decades of abuse by the church and other institutions.

Public hearings are expected to begin within months, and the commission will have its own investigations units.

The commission has been asked to provide an interim report within 18 months, and and is expected to cost more than $50 million during its three-year term.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Why is the government holding a royal commission on child sex abuse?

The inquiry was triggered by ”shocking” revelations of child sex abuse in institutions, such as churches, and evidence that too many adults turned a blind eye or covered it up, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

Why does it need six commissioners?

The royal commission has a big job ahead of it and will deal with a large amount of evidence. Many people will want to give evidence and the commissioners might divide up the task of hearing testimony.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

January 12, 2013

Judith Ireland, Jonathan Swan

Adults Surviving Child Abuse, president Dr Cathy Kezelman

Dr Kezelman said her organisation was happy to see the terms of reference as a ”starting point” and happy that they were informing a greater awareness of survivors.

Time to deal with the issue … Tony Windsor, federal member for New England. Photo: Andrew Meares

”We knew from the original announcement that the institution of the family was not included. It would be ideal obviously for the needs of survivors to all be acknowledged … but this is a substantial royal commission,” she said. ”It’s good to see that there are several commissioners, representing the police, judiciary, mental health and the legislative side.

”Everyone involved [in the commission] should either have previous experience in or be educated on dealing with trauma.”

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GERMANY
Reuters

By Alexandra Hudson

January 10, 2013

Germany’s justice minister said on Thursday the country’s Roman Catholic Church appeared to be shrinking from independent scrutiny after bishops sacked a top criminologist they had hired to investigate clerical sexual abuse.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the German bishops had initially committed to an outside study after devastating abuse revelations in 2010 which saw 600 people file claims against priests, but said they now seemed to want to control which findings would be published.

Victims’ groups and sympathisers were outraged by the Catholic bishops’ decision on Wednesday to sack Christian Pfeiffer, a man described by Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger as one of Germany’s foremost criminal experts.

“It appears that conducting an independent, serious study into the abuse cases, as originally intended, is impossible for the Church,” she told Deutschlandfunk radio. “This is a shame, as it gives the impression that ultimately they (the Catholic Church) did not want everything to be independently studied.”

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW

ANALYSIS: Rome wants to turn back the clock in Ireland but the church may have the wrong take on the abortion issue

The Holy See has not given up on Ireland. Despite two tempestuous decades of clerical sex abuse scandals, marked by the Irish Catholic Church’s unprecedented loss of credibility and moral authority, there are those in the Vatican who would still like to believe that Ireland can resume its once “proud” role of last bastion of traditional, conservative Catholicism in an increasingly atheist western Europe.

When Pope Benedict XVI last Monday spoke of his dismay that “in various countries, even those of Christian tradition, efforts are being made to introduce or expand legislation which decriminalises abortion”, it was hard not to see this as a specific reference to Ireland.

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AUSTRALIA
Upper Yarra Mail

By KATH GANNAWAY

10th January 2013

FORMER St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School teacher Pam Krstic has worked closely with two parents of children abused by convicted Healesville priests and supported them in their efforts to achieve justice for their own children and protection for all children in the future.

The announcement last year of a Royal Commission into institutionalised abuse by clergy is a triumph for Pam and the Healesville victims of Catholic paedophile priests, which very much includes their families.

In 2006 she and Ian Lawther founded HEAR (Healesville Education and Awareness Raising) to advocate for the education of parents and teachers in schools to recognise grooming behaviour. At the same time they tackled the Catholic Church Melbourne Archdiocese’s practices for handling clergy sexual abuse under their flawed Melbourne Response.

Over the past six years Pam has challenged the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response directly, advocating for and supporting the parents who dared to go to the police when the church didn’t.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

A SENIOR NSW police officer who blew the whistle on an alleged cover-up of clergy child abuse says independent investigators will be crucial to the royal commission on abuse.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday will announce the appointment of six royal commissioners to investigate cases of child sexual abuse and the terms of reference for their inquiry.

The commissioners, to be appointed for three years, will be asked to provide an interim report within 18 months.

The commission will have an investigative unit to examine specific cases of sexual assault and institutional secrecy.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox said he was pleased to hear the investigative unit would be established.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Rick Morton
From:The Australian
January 11, 2013

JULIA Gillard says six “very eminent” Australians conducting the royal commission into child sexual abuse will ensure victims will no longer be ignored.

Julia Gillard today announced the terms of reference for the inquiry, to be led by senior NSW judge Peter McClellan, and which will be expected to provide an interim report by the end of June 2014. It is scheduled to wind up in December 2015.

As well as the appointment of six royal commissioners, the inquiry will include a special unit to investigate cases of sexual assault and organisational cover-up to ensure the inquiry does not get bogged down by thousands of individual claims.

Ms Gillard said the nation needed the royal commission because child sexual abuse in institutions was a “hideous, shocking and vile crime” and victims needed to be heard.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A leading child protection advocacy group is absolutely ecstatic about the terms of reference for the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Bravehearts director Hetty Johnston welcomed the inclusion of the group’s submission in the terms of reference.

“We couldn’t be happier, we’re absolutely ecstatic,” she said.

“It’s absolutely everything we hoped it would be, we’re absolutely thrilled with the outcome,” she told AAP.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A lawyer who will represent scores of Ballarat sexual assault victims at the royal commission has welcomed the focus on organisational abuse, saying it can devastate entire generations.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday announced the terms of reference for the royal commission on child sexual abuse, which will start as soon as possible and hand down its interim report mid 2014.

It will focus on how organisations have managed and responded to claims of sexual abuse and associated forms of abuse and neglect.

Viv Waller, who will represent 70 victims of abuse perpetrated by clergy in Ballarat during the 1970s, said abuse within churches and schools was particularly abhorrent, given offenders had access to a fresh lot of victims each year.

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AUSTRALIA
My Daily News

Daniel Burdon
11th Jan 2013

SOME of Australia’s leading minds will lead the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Friday.

The Royal Commission will be led by Justice Peter McClellan, the current Chief Judge at Common Law of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Ms Gillard said the commission would investigate how institutions responsible for children had managed and responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.

It will also look into where systems to protect children have failed and make recommendations on how to improve laws and policies.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Olivia Monaghan

The terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse were released this afternoon in Sydney.

In speeches that emphasised the need to acknowledge the experiences of survivors of child sex assault in Australian institutions (both religious and other), Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Attorney General Nicola Roxon, and Minister for Families Jenny Macklin outlined the significance, structure and legislative framework of the commission.

Explaining the terms of reference

The terms of reference highlight several defining characteristics – most notably a multifaceted approach to child sex assault, a broad range of powers, and the commission’s independence in decision-making.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

Victims of sexual abuse and their families have welcomed the Inquiry’s terms of reference. However, some say the treatment of victims’ families should also be specifically listed in the terms of reference.

Transcript

SALLY SARA: For the victims of institutionalised sexual abuse this Royal Commission has been a long time coming. Lives have been ruined and families shattered. Sadly for some, the inquiry comes too late. Many could no longer live with the pain and shame of what had happened and took their own lives.

And while the Royal Commission’s terms of reference have been welcomed by many, some say the treatment of victims’ families should also be part of the inquiry.

And a warning, Annie Guest’s report contains some disturbing content.

ANNIE GUEST: After lifetimes of hurt and campaigning for justice, there’s been a collective sigh of relief from victims, their families and advocates after the release of the inquiry’s terms of reference.

JIM BOYLE: I didn’t think we’d get here as fast. We thought this might take another five years.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

[with video]

The Australian Greens are concerned the federal government’s royal commission into child sexual abuse in institutions lacks a focus on such activities in Aboriginal communities.

The Australian Greens are concerned the federal government’s royal commission into child sexual abuse lacks a focus on such activities in Aboriginal communities.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday announced NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan had been appointed to head the six-member royal commission into child sexual abuse in institutions.

“Our only concern is the absence of specific reference to Aboriginal abuse,” Greens leader Christine Milne said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

The mammoth job of the six eminent Australians leading the Royal Commission in to child sexual abuse begins within days. They’ll have their first meetings next week, and will have to decide deciding how the commission will be structured. The terms of reference leave it up to the commissioners to decide who gives evidence, which public and private organisations it wants to examine, and if and who should pay compensation.

Transcript

SALLY SARA: It’s the announcement that thousands of sexual abuse victims have waited decades for.

The Prime Minister has unveiled the details of the Royal Commission into institutionalised sexual abuse.

Six eminent Australians have been appointed and will begin work next week.

The commissioners, led by the New South Wales Supreme Court Judge Peter McClellan, will hold a phone hook-up on Monday and meet on Tuesday.

Among the first order of business will be deciding on the structure of the commission.

The Government’s set an initial timetable of three years for the inquiry but it’s yet to reveal the budget.

Lexi Metherell reports.

LEXI METHERELL: The Prime Minister today received approval for the establishment of the Royal Commission from the Governor-General.

Julia Gillard says it’s a chance for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse to feel Australia is listening.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The Northern Territory government says it will co-operate with the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Friday the commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse would be led by Justice McClellan.

The commission will look at victim redress measures, child protection systems and flaws in the reporting of abuse as well as canvass the experiences of authorities and victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Slater & Gordon

11 January 2013

A national law firm that has acted for hundreds of victims of sexual abuse today welcomed the release of the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and the announcement of highly qualified commissioners.

Slater & Gordon General Manager, Hayden Stephens, said the broad terms of reference announced today would give the commission significant scope to perform its role and examine sexual abuse in institutional settings.

“This Royal Commission is a once in a generation opportunity to expose the cultures that have allowed such horrifying abuse to take place and to see comprehensive steps taken to prevent such abuse in the future,” Mr Stephens said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

January 12, 2013

Bianca Hall, Judith Ireland

THOUSANDS of child sexual abuse victims across Australia have been offered the prospect of financial compensation for their treatment at the hands of institutions and organisations.

The royal commission into child sex abuse will be asked to report on what institutions and governments should do to address or to soften the impact of past and future abuse. This could include forcing institutions to offer redress, helping crimes be referred for prosecution and offering support services.

Announcing the terms of reference, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia must never again avert its eyes from the spectre of child sexual abuse.

”Any child being subject to child sexual abuse is an evil and horrible event,” Ms Gillard said.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The NSW Greens have backed Justice Peter McClellan’s appointment as head of the royal commission into child sex abuse, saying he brings a “wealth and experience” to the role.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Friday that the commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse would be led by Justice McClellan AM, who is the Chief Judge at Common Law of the NSW Supreme Court.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said in a statement that having the Justice McClellan as the chair “brings a wealth of experience and competence to the Commission”.

Mr Shoebridge said he also supported the commission’s terms of reference.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

January 12, 2013

Jack Waterford

Everyone has an opinion, it seems, on whether priests should be allowed to hide behind the seal of the confessional if anyone tells them about the sexual abuse of children. It’s an issue less likely to arise at the royal commission into institutional sexual abuse of children than some think. But here’s one that will – or should – will we let priests, or bishops, or principals, or for that matter, lawyers, hide behind the seal of legal professional privilege?

Suppose a school principal is informed of allegations that a teacher has sexually molested a pupil. She (the principal) wants to do the right thing, by everybody, perhaps particularly for the child. First, of course, the child must be protected from the risk of further harm, assuming, for the moment, the allegation could be true. That obligation, probably, stands before any other. But the principal has other obligations too.

She has an obligation to the teacher, the subject of the allegations, to do a proper investigation, or, at the least to see that a proper investigation occurs, probably by the police. There are questions about the school’s obligations to the alleged victim, and also to other victims. There will almost inevitably be questions about the school’s liability, given the propensity for lawyers to sue those of potential defendants with the deepest pockets. The principal consults a lawyer about the full range of her duties and obligations, whether by force of positive statute law (say, in relation to the mandatory notification of suspected child abuse), or in relation to its duty of care, or status as employer or perhaps occupier of land. The principal is frank with the solicitor, who, professionally, recommends that others higher and lower in the school system become involved in the decision making. Some of the advice – say about the duty to move to protect the alleged victim – is unequivocal. Other bits of the advice speak of choices, and the need to move so as to minimise the school’s liability at common law.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

[with audio]

The Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse is beginning to take form, with the Attorney-General revealing it will have the power to set up a special investigative unit to ensure any potential criminal cases that emerge during the inquiry are investigated and prosecuted quickly. Victims groups have welcomed the model, but say it may be more efficient for victims to go straight to police rather than raise their allegations with the Royal Commission.

Transcript

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Prime Minister is to announce the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse this afternoon.

Six commissioners will lead the huge inquiry, and the structure of the commission will be largely left up to them.

But the Attorney-General has already revealed the commission will have a special unit to ensure criminal allegations raised in the inquiry are investigated and prosecuted swiftly.

That’s being welcomed by victims groups but they’re warning victims they may be better off taking their cases straight to the police.

Lexi Metherell reports.

LEXI METHERELL: The Royal Commission’s role is not to make criminal prosecutions, but policy recommendations.

Nonetheless, the Government wants to ensure any potential criminal cases that emerge during the inquiry are investigated and prosecuted quickly.

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AUSTRALIA
National Times

January 11, 2013

Justice Peter McClellan AM has most recently been the Chief Judge at Common Law of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He was appointed to the position in 2005. He has also held judicial and other appointments including Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, Chairman of the Sydney Water Inquiry and Assistant Commissioner at the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Justice McClellan was admitted to practice law in 1974 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1985.

Bob Atkinson APM served as the Commissioner of the Queensland Police Service for 12 years from 2000 until his retirement in October 2012. In a 44-year career with the Queensland Police Service, he served throughout Queensland from Goondiwindi to Cairns. He was a detective for about 20 years and acted as the police prosecutor in various Magistrates Courts during this period. Commissioner Atkinson has extensive experience in change management, overseeing reforms after the Fitzgerald inquiry from 1990 and following the Public Sector Management Commission Review and Report Recommendations of the Queensland Police Service in 1993.

Justice Jennifer Coate has most recently been appointed a Judge of the Family Court of Australia. She has held a number of appointments including as Judge of the County Court of Victoria, State Coroner of Victoria, the inaugural President of the Children’s Court of Victoria and Senior Magistrate and Magistrate of the Magistrates Court of Victoria. During her time as President of the Children’s Court of Victoria, Commissioner Coate oversaw the establishment of the Children’s Koori Court. Commissioner Coate also has experience as a part-time Law Reform Commissioner, a solicitor in private practice, a solicitor for the Legal Aid Commission of Victoria and in policy and research for the Victorian Government.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

The head of a Catholic Church council established to work with the royal commission on child abuse says it will be transparent and open.

The head of a Catholic Church council set up to work with the royal commission into child abuse says the church wants to work transparently with authorities so “the truth can come out”.

But Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of the new Truth, Justice and Healing Council, says the seal of confession remains “intimate” for the church and its followers, and should be maintained.

The new council, announced in December, will be headed by former NSW Supreme Court chief judge Barry O’Keefe and Mr Sullivan, the former secretary-general of the Australian Medical Association.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Victims groups, religious organisations and State governments have all welcomed the final details for the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. In announcing the terms of reference today, the Prime Minister said the six member commission will ensure that the voices of victims will be heard and that adults no longer turn a blind eye to such shocking crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced the terms of the Royal Commission into institutional child abuse, with plans for a legislative change to allow for more evidence to be submitted. Here are the details of the Commission.

Six commissioners will examine past and current child sexual abuse in organisations. They will look at:
* how organisations have managed and responded to claims of sexual abuse and other associated forms of abuse and neglect
* whether the response was enough
* what can be done better protect children under their care
* what should be done to identify child sexual abuse and encourage people to report it
* how organisations should respond when they find out information that suggests that sexual abuse of children under their responsibility
* barriers and failures to reporting, investigating and dealing with cases of child sexual abuse in organisations
* how these barriers can be removed
* how to support survivors
* how to ensure victims receive justice
* Also will look at archives, records and documents, submissions from public, non-government and private organisations, and laws, policies and practices of institutions, organisations and governments

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

WE look at who is who in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and what part they will play.

Announced in November 2012, the royal commission will only focus on child sex abuse in institutional contexts.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard today declared the royal commission’s terms of reference, as well as the names of those trusted to head up the important report.

We take a look at who is who inside the royal commission:

Justice Peter McClellan AM – Chair Commissioner

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan has been appointed to head a royal commission into child sexual abuse

Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the announcement as she outlined the details of the inquiry, which was approved by Governor-General Quentin Bryce today.

”It is clear from what is already in the public domain that too many children were the subject of child sexual abuse in institutions,” she said.

”And that too many adults who could have assisted them turned a blind eye so that they didn’t get the help that they needed.”

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

January 11, 2013

Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a six-member royal commission will ensure the voices of child sexual abuse victims are heard and adults no longer turn a blind eye to such shocking crimes.

Ms Gillard on Friday announced the appointment of NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan to head the inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

The commission will be expected to provide an interim report by the end of June 2014 and will wind up in December 2015.

However, child advocates say it could take much longer given the complexity of the problem.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The “broad expertise” of the six members of a royal commission into child sexual abuse will ensure a balanced approach to the investigation, a leading church welfare group says.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Friday that NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan would head the commission as it examines institutional responses to child sex abuse.

UnitingCare Australia National Director Lin Hatfield Dodds has welcomed the appointment of multiple commissioners, saying her group had urged such an approach.

“In our submission, we argued for the appointment of more than just one commissioner, saying a broad range of expertise was needed to deal with the volume of work that this issue will generate,” Ms Hatfield Dodds said.

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AUSTRALIA
Prime Minister of Australia

FRI 11 JANUARY 2013

Prime Minister
Sydney

Subject(s): Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; Newstart; Executive remuneration; Drink spiking in Indonesia; Cyber-bullying; NSW bushfires

PM: Good afternoon.

With Ministers Macklin and Roxon who are here with me today, I have just visited the Governor-General, and the Governor-General has agreed to my request to establish a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia.

In November, I announced the Government’s intention to have such a Royal Commission.

Since that announcement in November we’ve been involved in a process of consultation about the terms of reference and Minister Macklin will detail some of the consultations that have been gone through.

In addition, I had the opportunity to speak directly to my State and Territory colleagues about collaborating on this at the Council of Australian Governments meeting towards the end of last year.

Following those consultations and discussions, today we can announce the establishment of the Royal Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
Updated January 11, 2013

There has been a collective sigh of relief from victims, their families and advocates after the release of the terms of reference for the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Prime Minister to head the commission which will begin work next week.

The terms of reference leave it up to the commissioners to decide who gives evidence, which public and private organisations it wants to examine, and if and who should pay compensation.

The commission will have the power to set up a special investigative unit to liaise between the commission and police so criminal allegations that do arise are investigated and prosecuted quickly.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Editorial
From:Herald Sun
January 12, 2013

The Catholic Church has copped the brunt of the accusations of child sexual abuse among its ranks. For 20 years it has faced a rightfully growing cacophony of blame.

For 20 years it has faced a rightfully growing cacophony of blame.

Mostly, its handling of abuse allegations is a lesson in how not to do things.

But the problem has run much deeper than the Catholic Church.

Individuals in organisations – church, state and welfare – have stolen the innocence of countless children and teens for decades. They’ve lived and sometimes died with their secrets.

Now, for all these organisations the time for hiding is over. Documents must not be kept in dusty filing cabinets. Secrets held tight over the generations should be told.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

January 12, 2013

Barney Zwartz

Analysis

TRUTH, justice and redress: bold promises for a royal commission, but ones Australians have been longing to hear when it comes to the scandal of child sex abuse.

At first sight, victims and their supporters are greatly heartened by Friday’s announcements: both the commissioners and the terms of reference seem excellent. The reasons why the inquiry was necessary – the suicides and premature deaths, the plight of survivors, the concealment and protection of predators, the barriers to justice, the need for law reform and more – are all recognised.

The government has promised the necessary resources, including for advocacy groups, given a long and extendable time frame, but balanced that with a request for an interim report after 18 months and set up a mechanism by which police can investigate and prosecute as the commission keeps working.

In some ways the most vital work the six commissioners will do over their three-year mandate will take place in the first two months, as they decide how they will operate and who they will hear. The commission has two mutually exclusive imperatives: to be as thorough as possible, yet also timely.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advocate

By Judith Ireland and Bianca Hall
Jan. 11, 2013

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said too many people have turned a blind eye to the shocking crime of child sexual abuse, as she announced the terms of reference for the royal commission today.

Ms Gilllard said that it is clear that too many children had been subject to sexual abuse in institutions and were not provided with a safe childhood.

Describing child abuse as a ”hideous, shocking and vile crime”, Ms Gillard said, ”I believe our nation needs to have this royal commission.”

Ms Gillard said to survivors of child sexual abuse, ”we want your voices to be heard. Even if you felt for all of your life that no one’s listened to you.”

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GERMANY
Spiegel

The German Catholic Church called off an independent review of allegations of sexual abuse in its ranks this week. The head of the investigation accused the Church of censorship. On Thursday, the two sides traded blame as German commentators largely mourned the end of the examination.

Representatives of the German Catholic Church and independent investigators traded blame Thursday after an agreement to have an independent examination of sexual abuse in the Church broke down earlier this week.

The Church’s Bishops’ Conference called off the investigation — agreed to in 2011 after a nationwide abuse scandal the year before — citing a lack of trust with the investigators. The Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute (KFN) had been tasked with investigating personnel files from churches in all of the country’s 27 dioceses, to look for and examine cases of abuse.

But the Bishops’ Conference was allegedly unable to agree on a way to cooperate with the KFN, with some citing the issues of privacy and data protection. Some dioceses refused to make documents available, reportedly out of fear that private information on those involved could possibly be made public.

Christian Pfeiffer, who as the director of the KFN had led the investigation, told SPIEGEL ONLINE this week that the Church had refused to cooperate with the investigation, and that he had had to remind the Church of its promise of transparency.

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INDIA
Times of India

By V Narayan, TNN | Jan 11, 2013

MUMBAI: A 70-year-old dargah priest in Mumbai was thrashed by a mob before being handed over to the police on Thursday for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl and them making an MMS clip of the act.

Niyad Ahmed Hasan Ansari, sadar of a dargah in Mumbai was arrested on Thursday and his phone, which he used to make the MMS, seized. As the news spread, two more minor girls and their parents came forward as witnesses in the case against Ansari. “The two minor girls were his victims too. The accused had dismissed the teachers who use to come to the dargah to teach Arabic. After sacking them, he started taking the classes where sexually abused the minor girls,” a police source said.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

KATHRYN HAYES

The new Bishop of Limerick has said he hopes legislators will be inspired to know how best to protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children. Fr Brendan Leahy from Dublin was yesterday appointed Bishop of Limerick by Pope Benedict XVI.

The 52-year-old professor of systematic theology at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, succeeds bishop Donal Murray, who resigned three years ago following the publication of the Murphy report.

The report, which dealt with clerical child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, criticised Bishop Murray for his failure to adequately deal with allegations of abuse when he was an auxiliary bishop in in Dublin.

Speaking in Limerick following the official announcement of his appointment, Fr Leahy, who will be ordained Bishop of Limerick after Easter, spoke about the need to protect the life of unborn children.

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AUSTRALIA
The Rural

By Bianca Hall, Michelle Grattan and Josephine Tovey
Jan. 11, 2013

AN investigation unit designed to prosecute sex offenders will be established as part of the royal commission on the sexual abuse of children due to begin later this year.

The federal government will today announce the terms of reference for the commission, which will focus on the ”systemic failures and issues” in the response of organisations and institutions to the sexual abuse of children.

While royal commissions do not have the power to prosecute individuals, the government will ensure that allegations of abuse raised by the commission can be investigated and, if proven, prosecuted.

Fairfax Media understands that the commission’s terms of reference will require commissioners to establish a process for the referral of individual cases to the police.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The federal government will appoint six royal commissioners to investigate cases of child sexual abuse.

The commissioners, to be appointed for three years, will be asked to provide an interim report within 18 months.

“The royal commission is going to have an enormous job ahead of it,” Attorney-General Nicola Roxon told ABC Radio on Friday.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will announce the commission’s terms of reference later on Friday.

The commission will include an investigative unit to examine specific cases of sexual assault and institutional secrecy.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News – AM

[with audio]

The Federal Government’s revealed the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will be designed to ensure individual cases of abuse that emerge in the inquiry are investigated by police and prosecuted as swiftly as possible. There’ll be six commissioners on the inquiry, each with three year terms – with an interim report due at the 18 month mark. The Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, has told AM there’ll be no set time limit for the commission, but the government wants to ensure it runs efficiently, given the mountain of evidence it’s set to hear.

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UNITED STATES
Freethought Blogs

The Catholic Church continues its war on women in ever-more bizarre ways, tying itself into all kinds of knots as it tries to enforce its policies on the people over whom it has some authority. For example, the church seems to hate the thought that women might be getting pregnant in ways that it does not approve of based on its medieval ways of thinking. As a result, it finds itself embroiled in legal cases that do not show it in a good light.

A former first-grade teacher at Kettering’s Ascension Catholic School is suing the school, Ascension Church and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati in federal court, saying officials discriminated against her a year ago when they fired the unmarried woman after she told the principal about her pregnancy.

Kathleen Quinlan of Kettering, who has since delivered twin girls, said in the Dec. 14 lawsuit that her firing for moral reasons was discriminatory because male employees who engage in premarital sex don’t face the same consequences “insomuch as they do not show outward signs of engaging in sexual intercourse (i.e., pregnancy).

But the church is not only opposed to women getting pregnant outside of marriage, it is also opposed to women getting pregnant while married if the pregnancy did not occur through ‘normal’ sexual activity.

In Indiana, Emily Herx made national headlines in April when she sued the Diocese of Ft. Wayne-South Bend in federal court, saying the diocese discriminated against the married teacher when officials fired her for having in vitro fertilization treatments. Diocesan officials say the procedure is “gravely immoral.” She said other employees violate Catholic teachings without consequence.

And it is not only in vitro fertilization that is verboten, so is artificial insemination.

The Cincinnati archdiocese is facing a pending federal lawsuit similar to Quinlan’s, filed by former parochial teacher Christa Dias of Clermont County. The 2011 lawsuit claims the single woman was fired after she became pregnant through artificial insemination.

And who was this person who was entrusted by the church to uphold its high moral values and thus had to fire Dias because she did not meet those standards? It was the principal Rev. James Kiffmeyer, “who was suspended from 2002-2006 on allegations of sexual misconduct against two male students in separate incidents while he was a teacher at Middletown’s Fenwick High School.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

From: Archdiocese of Los Angeles Priority: Normal

The Center for Religion and Spirituality at Loyola Marymount University is sponsoring a lecture by Dr. Colt Anderson, Dean of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Studies at Fordham University. He will speak on resources from medieval reforms for the modern clerical abuse crisis. He will deliver his lecture, “Lessons of History: What Can the Church of the Middle Ages Teach Us about the Modern Sex-Abuse Scandal?,” on Wednesday, January 23, at 7:00 p.m., in the Ahmanson Auditorium (University Hall, Room 1000) on campus.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Jeffrey R. Anderson

Once again, our most trusted and most powerful religious and social institutions are fighting to keep their secrets and their sins safe from disclosure. Luckily, courts continue to recognize how important the exposure of secrets is to accountability and child protection.

On Monday, California Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias ordered the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to release the names of priests and church officials contained in the Archdiocese’s internal records on the sexual abuse of children. The records were originally ordered to be released as part of a groundbreaking $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese and survivors in 2007. Since that time, the Archdiocese has fought tooth and nail to release the files (which include abuse reports, church memos, and letters to and from the Vatican) in redacted form to protect the anonymity of abuser priests and those church leaders who protected them.

The release of the Archdiocese’s files in unredacted form is a major victory for survivors, who no doubt agree with Judge Elias, who spoke publically about the release, saying “Don’t you think the public has a right to know?”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America must provide decades of files detailing sexual abuse allegations as part of discovery in an ongoing lawsuit. The BSA maintains that the files are not relevant to the lawsuit, while the lawsuit alleges that prior to the plaintiff’s 2007 sexual abuse, the BSA concealed knowledge of sexual abuse in scouting. The files will not immediately be public due to a protective order in the case.

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INDIA
Times of India

JAIPUR: A 68-year-old priest of a temple was arrested for allegedly molesting a woman devotee on Thursday morning. People at the temple located in Mahesh Nagar beat the priest black and blue after they came to know that he had grabbed a woman and did a few indecent things. Initially, the priest was booked for disturbing peace but was later arrested on charges of outraging the modesty of a woman.

According to the police, the 24-year-old victim had gone to the temple on Thursday morning. She was taken aback when the accused identified as Ram Naresh Das (68) grabbed her and touched her private parts. This was done while the victim woman was taking a round of the temple’s

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GERMANY
The Star

By Alexandra Hudson

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s justice minister said on Thursday the country’s Roman Catholic Church appeared to be shrinking from independent scrutiny after bishops sacked a top criminologist they had hired to investigate clerical sexual abuse.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the German bishops had initially committed to an outside study after devastating abuse revelations in 2010 which saw 600 people file claims against priests, but said they now seemed to want to control which findings would be published.

Victims’ groups and sympathisers were outraged by the Catholic bishops’ decision on Wednesday to sack Christian Pfeiffer, a man described by Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger as one of Germany’s foremost criminal experts.

“It appears that conducting an independent, serious study into the abuse cases, as originally intended, is impossible for the Church,” she told Deutschlandfunk radio. “This is a shame, as it gives the impression that ultimately they (the Catholic Church) did not want everything to be independently studied.”

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GERMANY
Salon

By Mary Elizabeth Williams

Today in irony: Catholic church leaders are having trust issues.

A sweeping independent investigation into sex abuse charges dating back nearly 70 years has screeched to a halt in Germany, because the German Bishops Conference there says “The trust was shattered” between the conference and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony. The bishops have now canceled their contract with the institute.

The head of the institute, Christian Pfeiffer, lashed back at the bishops Thursday, citing old-fashioned butt-covering as the cause of the falling out. “The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising clearly demanded that all texts must be submitted to them for approval,” he said, “and they made it clear to us that they also had the right to prohibit the publication of texts.” He added, chillingly, “They have a requirement that you have to destroy the papers ten years after the conviction of a priest. They kept us in the dark about this, because we agreed in the contract to an analysis of records going back to 1945.”

German Bishops’ Conference spokesman Matthias Kopp has denied Pfeiffer’s charges, saying, “Because the Catholic church is ready to undertake a research project of this kind, it shows how much freedom of research means to it … There has been, to our knowledge, no destruction of documents. A major problem was data protection regulations. It was important to us to clarify how we would be able to anonymize data and keep it safe.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 10, 2013

Roy Bourgeois, the longtime peace activist and Catholic priest dismissed by the Vatican because of his support for women’s ordination, has received the official letter notifying him of the move three months after it was made.

The letter, which comes from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is signed by the congregation’s prefect on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI and states that the pope’s decision in the matter is “a supreme decision, not open to any appeal, without right to any recourse.”

Written in Latin, the letter dismisses Bourgeois from the priesthood and restricts him from all priestly ministries. It asks Bourgeois to return a signed copy “as a proof of reception and at the same time of acceptance of the same dismissal and dispensation.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 10, 2013

Backpedaling. Backsliding. Moving in the wrong direction. Whatever you call it, bishops all across the US are quietly doing this with clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

Remember that pledge to be “open and transparent?” It’s increasingly being honored only in the breach.

A clear and recent example is Springfield IL Bishop Thomas Paprocki. (Yes, the same guy who once said that the devil was behind lawsuits against child molesting clerics and complicit church officials.)

Times reporter Bruce Ruston lays out at least three low-key backward moves by Paprocki:

–A report on clergy sexual misconduct (and financial misdeeds) in the diocese by ex-U.S. attorney J. William Roberts has quietly been removed from the diocesan website.

— The biography of retired Bishop Daniel Ryan, on the same diocesan website, was edited in May, removing any hint that Ryan “engaged in illicit sex or otherwise did anything improper” (which Roberts’ report had found).

–The diocesan panel “that once screened candidates for the seminary is no longer active, according to one panel member.”

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
Sun-News

LAS CRUCES – The Diocese of San Antonio has announced Bishop Oscar Cantú, auxiliary bishop of San Antonio, will replace Bishop Ricardo Ramirez as head of the Diocese of Las Cruces.
The appointment was publicized in Washington, Jan. 10, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States, according to the San Antonio website.

Oscar Cantú was born December 5, 1966, in Houston, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Dallas and his master of arts and master of divinity degrees from the University of St. Thomas, Houston.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
KHOU

Associated Press

Posted on January 10, 2013

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a Houston-born bishop as the next bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces.

Bishop Oscar Cantu was introduced Thursday at a press conference in Las Cruces and will replace Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, who is retiring.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Cantu is a product of Houston’s Catholic Schools, attending Holy Name Catholic School and St. Thomas High School. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Dallas and a Masters in Divinity and Masters in Theological Studies from the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent

A Dominican priest has been returned for trial by judge and jury on 39 counts of sexually assaulting a juvenile at various locations in Munster over an eight-year period.

Fr Vincent Mercer (66), who is out of ministry but remains a member of the Dominican Order, made his second appearance in relation to the charges today at Cork District Court.

He is charged with 39 counts of sexually assaulting the juvenile, who was aged between 11 and 17 at the time, on various dates between January 1st, 1986, and February 22nd, 1994.

The offences are alleged to have happened at a house in Cork city, a location in Co Limerick, a location in Co Cork and a number of unknown locations.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

January 10, 2013

WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Ricardo Ramírez, 76, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and named Bishop Oscar Cantú, 46, auxiliary bishop of San Antonio, to succeed him.

The appointment was publicized in Washington, January 10, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Oscar Cantú was born December 5, 1966, in Houston, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Dallas and his master of arts and master of divinity degrees from the University of St. Thomas, Houston.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

After years of delay, orchestrated by some of the most able lawyers in the country, the Catholic Church may soon reveal more truth about how it dealt with priests who sexually abused hundreds of children in the sprawling Archdiocese of Los Angeles. A court order issued Monday, in a case joined by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, requires the release of more than 30,000 pages of documents, with the names of abusers and their superiors un-redacted. Considering previous actions by higher courts, Judge Emilie Elias’s decision is likely to survive appeals and the deluge of new facts could occur in weeks, if not days.

At the very least, the memos, personnel files and psychiatric reports will give the public an unprecedented look inside the process followed by then Cardinal Roger Mahony and his fellow officials, as they received complaints about priests whose crimes included the serial rape of minors. The papers will also reveal something of the Catholic hierarchy’s mindset as it weighed the imperatives of the law against the needs of the Church. At times in the decades-long, international sexual abuse crisis, top churchmen did cover-up crimes and protect perpetrators. It’s hard to imagine this did not occur in America’s largest diocese, where more than $700 million has been paid to compensate men and women who were sexually violated as boys and girls.

It’s hard to imagine, too, that the files on notorious priest abusers, who continued in service after complaints were lodged against them, won’t raise serious questions about the conduct of their supervisors including Cardinal Mahony. As the recent conviction of Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia showed, high-level Catholic leaders risked being charged with serious crimes as they sought to protect the Church from scandal and neglected their duty to protect the public. The self-protective impulse, reinforced by the oath cardinals take to avoid scandal, has inclined some clerics toward unconscionable cover-ups and evasions including the transfer of priests out of jurisdictions where their arrest was imminent. Transfers, including international reassignments, have permitted priests to escape arrests. Others have been hidden in psychiatric treatment centers out of the reach of police and prosecutors.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 10, 2013

We are not optimistic about Bishop Oscar Cantu’s promotion. Pope Benedict has appointed a number of bishops in recent years who have terrible track records on child safety.

While Bishop Cantu was a high ranking official in the diocese of San Antonio, dangerous predators have only been exposed because of the courage of victims

— Brother Richard Suttle recently lived in San Antonio and studied at a Catholic college. Archdiocesan officials permitted this, even though, according to the Express News, Suttle “sexually abused a teen in the early 1980s in Arizona, according to a public notice from the Phoenix diocese.”

— Father Charles H. Miller “worked at St. Mary’s University for more than two decades and was let go in 2007 after his religious order found a claim that he sexually abused a teen in 1980 to be credible. In 2008, Miller was moved to Rome,” the Express News wrote in 2009. Evidently, Miller still works for the Marianists though they have since sent him to Rome.

— Fr. Larry Hernandez had his faculties (i.e., his ability to function as a priest) suspended in early 2008 because of credible child sex abuse allegations. San Antonio Catholic officials, including Cantu, kept it quiet until March 2009.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Published on Thursday 10 January 2013

THE Diocese of Limerick has announced that Fr Brendan Leahy is the new Bishop of Limerick.

Fr Leahy, who will take up his appointment in the spring, was announced as the incoming Bishop of Limerick by Diocesan Administrator Fr Tony Mullins on the steps of St John’s Cathedral at 11am today to coincide with the announcement in Rome by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at midday (local time).

Also present for the announcement was Apostolic Nuncio, His Excellency Charles Brown along with a number of priests of the Diocese.

Fr Leahy will succeed Bishop Donal Murray, who retired as Bishop in December 2009. Fr Mullins has for the past three years served as Diocesan Administrator.

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IRELAND
RTE News

[Murphy Report – Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin – BishopAccountability.org]

Fr Brendan Leahy has been appointed Bishop of Limerick by Pope Benedict XVI.

Fr Leahy, who is a professor of theology at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, succeeds Dr Donal Murray.

Dr Murray resigned three years ago following the publication of the Murphy Report.

The report had found that Dr Murray mishandled sexual abuse allegations in the Archdiocese of Dublin, where he had been a bishop before moving to Limerick.

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IRELAND
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) After three years of sede vacante, clergy and faithful of the diocese of Limerick, Ireland, celebrated the news Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a new bishop to the mid-western diocese.

He is 53 year-old Rev. Brendan Leahy, a qualified barrister and to date Professor of Systematic Theology at Ireland’s major seminary, St Patrick’s Maynooth.

Limerick, which has been without a bishop since the resignation of Bishop Donal Murray in 2009, is one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel (also known as Munster) and is subject to the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. With over 60 parishes, it encompases Ireland’s third most populous city, of the same name. Limerick diocese is also located in one of the areas worst hit by the nation’s economic down-turn, with high levels of unemployment and emigration.

A priest from the Dublin Archdiocese, Rev. Brendan Leahy is a von Balthasar scholar and ecumenist, and has published books and articles on topics such as John Paul II, the Marian profile of the Church, issues facing the Church in the twenty-first century, the ecclesial movements of the Church, interreligious dialogue and the Priesthood.

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ILLINOIS
Illinois Times

By Bruce Rushton

Sexual no-nos among clergy are nothing new in the Diocese of Springfield.

The diocese in 2005 hired a Methodist to figure things out when a priest was severely beaten after soliciting sex in Douglas Park. Accusations of homosexual conduct rose to the very top of the diocese, with one man claiming to have bedded a half-dozen men of the cloth, including then bishop George Lucas.

J. William Roberts, the former U.S. attorney and Sangamon County state’s attorney retained by the diocese to investigate, concluded that the bishop was pure, but other clergy members were not. Daniel Ryan, the bishop prior to Lucas, wasn’t celibate, according to Roberts, and Ryan had fostered a culture of secrecy that resulted in mistrust among parishioners and failure to hold accountable priests who engaged in inappropriate conduct. Eight priests were either removed or placed on leave after the investigation began, Roberts told reporters in 2006.

Clergy misconduct ranged from viewing inappropriate websites to sinful sexual activity between consenting adults to sexual abuse of minors that cost the diocese more than $6 million in legal settlements. The Roberts investigation also revealed misappropriation of church funds.

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PHILADELHIA (PA)
San Francisco Chronicle

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Testimony is expected to begin Monday in the trial of a Roman Catholic priest and a former Catholic school teacher accused of raping a former altar boy.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports (http://bit.ly/13js0jN) the final jurors were selected Wednesday in the trial for the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero. It’s a panel of eight men and four women.

The case was spun off from last year’s high-profile trial of a church official charged with helping the Philadelphia archdiocese cover up abuse complaints.

The 65-year-old Engelhardt and the 49-year-old Shero are charged with sexually assaulting the boy in the late 1990s. Both have pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers wanted them tried separately from the defendants in last year’s case.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolnische Rundschau

Die katholische Kirche trennt sich von Wissenschaftlern, die die Missbrauchsfälle in ihren Reihen aufarbeiten sollten. Studienleiter Christian Pfeiffer wirft der Kirche Aktenvernichtung vor. Justizministerin Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger ist erstaunt über den Rückzieher. Von Ulla Thiede

Berlin.
Damals, im Sommer 2011 in Bonn, war Christian Pfeiffer geradezu euphorisch gewesen. “Weltweit hat sich noch keine katholische Kirche dazu entschlossen, so detailliert Aufklärung zu betreiben”, sagte er seinerzeit im Bonner Uni-Club. Der niedersächsische Kriminologe hatte gerade von den deutschen Bischöfen den Auftrag bekommen, den sexuellen Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zu erforschen. Einen ersten vollständigen Überblick hoffte er, 18 Monate später veröffentlichen zu können. Das wäre in diesen Wochen gewesen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Donaukurier

Nach der Aufkündigung der Zusammenarbeit mit dem dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer bei der Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchskandals hält die Kritik an den katholischen Bischöfen an.

Nach der Aufkündigung der Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer bei der Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchskandals hält die Kritik an den katholischen Bischöfen an. Bundesjustizministerin Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) zweifelte den Aufklärungswillen der Bischöfe an, die katholischen Laien forderten einen neuen Forschungsauftrag.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Von Harald Biskup

Norbert Denef, der selbst jahrelang missbraucht wurde, ist enttäuscht von der mangelnden Missbrauchsaufklärung in der katholischen Kirche. “Aus Sicht der Betroffenen hat sich nichts verändert”, sagt er.

Herr Denef, wie beurteilen Sie das Scheitern des Forschungsprojekts?

Das hatte sich ja schon abgezeichnet, und ich fühle mich mit meinen Befürchtungen bestätigt. Das Modell konnte auf der Basis einer freiwilligen Selbstverpflichtung der katholischen Kirche einfach nicht funktionieren. Die gemeinsame Unterzeichnung des Vertrags durch den Vertreter der Bischofskonferenz und den Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer war eine große Aktion für die Presse. Passiert ist danach nichts mehr.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelhessen

Bonn/Hannover (dpa) – Im Streit um die gestoppte Studie zu Missbrauchsfällen in der katholischen Kirche geht die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz rechtlich gegen Zensurvorwürfe vor.

Der Hannoveraner Kriminologe Christian Pfeiffer sei aufgefordert worden, nicht mehr von Zensur in der Kirche zu sprechen, weil dies schlichtweg falsch sei, teilte die Bischofskonferenz am Donnerstag in Bonn mit. Der Direktor des ursprünglich mit der Studie beauftragten Kriminologischen Forschungsinstituts Niedersachsen (KFN) sagte, er habe von der Kirche eine Unterlassungserklärung erhalten.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 10 November 2012 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

– Appointed Bishop Oscar Cantu as bishop of the diocese of Las Cruces (area 115,166, population 532,000, Catholics 140,200, priests 81, permanent deacons 38, religious 82), USA. Bishop Cantu, previously titular of Dardano and auxiliary of San Antonio, was ordained to the priesthood in 1994 and received episcopal ordination in 2008. In the national bishops’ conference he currently serves on the committees on Catholic Education, International Justice and Peace, and Protection of Children and Young People, as well as the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs. He succeeds Bishop Ricardo Ramirez C.S.B., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

– Appointed Fr. Marwan Tabet, M.L., as bishop of the eparchy of Saint-Maron de Montreal of the Maronites (Catholics 85,000, priests 20, religious 15), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Bhamdoun, Lebanon in 1961, entered the Congregation of the Lebanese Maronite Missionaries in 1980, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1986. He succeeds Bishop Joseph Khoury, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same eparchy the Holy Father accepted in accordance with canon 210 para. 1 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

– Appointed Fr. Brendan Leahy as bishop of the diocese of Limerick (area 2,100, population 178,800, Catholics 171,500, priests 167, religious 411), Ireland. The bishop-elect was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1960 and ordained a priest in 1986. Since 2006 he has taught Systematic Theology at St Patrick’s College Maynooth and served as a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology. He is also the chairman of the archdiocese of Dublin’s Diocesan Ecumenical Committee and the secretary of the Irish Bishops’ Advisory Committee on Ecumenism.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 09, 2013

We are not optimistic about Las Cruces’ next Catholic bishop. Pope Benedict has appointed a number of bishops in recent years who have terrible track records on child safety.

And we’re disappointed with Bishop Ramirez’ handling of pedophile priest cases. Roughly 30 of his brother bishops have posted on their diocesan websites the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Ramirez’ has not.

In 2002, Bishop Ramirez said that the diocese, in its nearly 20-year history, had not faced any abuse suits. Weeks later, however, he admitted that he had let an admitted molester, Fr. David Bentley, work in a parish since 2000. (Catholic officials had paid $70,000 in 1997 to a man who said Bentley abused him and his siblings at a children’s home in the 1970s.

We wish Ramirez well in retirement. But let’s not re-write history and ignore the fact that Bishop Ramirez, like most of his Catholic colleagues, has acted recklessly and callously and secretively about children’s safety.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
National Catholic Reporter

by Dennis Coday | Jan. 10, 2013

USCCB has announced:

WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Ricardo Ramírez, 76, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and named Bishop Oscar Cantú, 46, auxiliary bishop of San Antonio, to succeed him.

The appointment was publicized in Washington, January 10, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Oscar Cantú was born December 5, 1966, in Houston, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Dallas and his master of arts and master of divinity degrees from the University of St. Thomas, Houston.

He was ordained a priest in 1994 and named auxiliary bishop of San Antonio in 2008.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO

Il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale della diocesi di Las Cruces (U.S.A.), presentata da S.E. Mons. Ricardo Ramírez, C.S.B., in conformità al canone 401 §1 del Codice di Diritto Canonico.

Il Papa ha nominato Vescovo di Las Cruces (U.S.A.) S.E. Mons. Oscar Cantú, finora Vescovo titolare di Dardano ed Ausiliare di San Antonio (U.S.A.). …

NOMINA DEL VESCOVO DI LIMERICK (IRLANDA)

Il Papa ha nominato Vescovo di Limerick (Irlanda) il Rev.do Sac. Brendan Leahy, del clero dell’arcidiocesi di Dublin, finora Professore di Teologia sistematica al Collegio di San Patrizio a Maynooth.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Barry Duggan

Thursday January 10 2013

A PROFESSOR OF theology and qualified barrister has been appointed as the Bishop of Limerick by Pope Benedict.

Fr Brendan Leahy is a priest in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

He is the currently professor of systematic theology at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.

Born in Dublin in 1960, Fr Leahy lived in Crumlin until he was six-years-old before moving to Rathfarnam.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Failed Messiah

The Pike County sheriff released the Affidavit of Probable cause against Rabbi Aryeh Goodman of Chabad of East Brunswick, New Jersey. It explains what Goodman allegedly did to a young camper in 2001, and it also tells some of the story of how police got the goods on him.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, the rabbi of Chabad of East New Brunswick, New Jersey, was arrested on child sexual abuse charges late last week.

This is what the Affidavit of Probable Cause alleges Goodman, now 30-years-old, did to a student in Camp Menachem, a Chabad (messianist) sleepover camp, in 2001:

• The alleged victim says that while he was in school in the spring of 2001, Goodman approached him and asked if he would like to attend camp at Camp Menachem that summer. Goodman said that he was a counselor there and promised that if the victim agreed to attend, Goodman would be his counselor.

• The alleged victim attended the camp and Goodman was indeed his counselor. Approximately 15 boys were in his group. They all shared a bunk area with bunk beds.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger

Published January 10, 2013

Yeshiva University has declined to say if it will make public the results of an investigation into sexual abuse allegations at its Manhattan high school despite former students’ fears about the scope, openness and motivation behind the probe.

In a statement to the Forward, released January 8, a Y.U. representative promised “a full and completely independent investigation,” but declined to say what will happen to the work now being conducted by an international law firm hired by the university. In a follow-up statement issued the next morning, the representative said that after the investigation was complete, the board expected that it “will be in further communication with the public.” He declined to explain what that means.

Y.U. launched its investigation after the Forward published allegations by three former students that they had been abused by Rabbi George Finkelstein, who served at Y.U.’s High School for Boys from 1968 to 1995, where he rose to become principal. Another student said that he had been abused by a Talmud teacher, Rabbi Macy Gordon, who taught at the school from 1956 to 1984.

Immediately following the story, Finkelstein resigned from his executive position at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, and Gordon was placed on indefinite leave from his teaching position in Jerusalem.

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

It was supposed to provide a great deal of enlightenment on the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal. But now, researchers and bishops are parting ways after a bitter disagreement over a report on the affair.

The goal was clear: the abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church to its core since the beginning of 2010, was supposed to be addressed seamlessly. The church leadership wanted to investigate the abuse cases in detail in which priests and others abused young people – going back as far as 1945. To carry out the study seriously and objectively, the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) brought in the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN). The scientists from Hanover were to be granted access to all personnel records of the past decade in all 27 dioceses.

Researcher Christian Pfeiffer accused the Church of interference

But there is now disagreement between the KFN and the DBK. The bishops canceled the contracts with the Institute. “The trust was shattered,” official sources said. It was impossible to think of continuing this work. On the other hand, KFN head Christian Pfeiffer spoke of censorship and the hindrance of his work: “The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising clearly demanded that all texts must be submitted to them for approval, and they made it clear to us that they also had the right to prohibit the publication of texts, ” Pfeiffer told German public radio.

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CANADA
Times-Colonist

Father Phil Jacobs’s evidence was rehearsed and calculated and in some cases, simply not believable, the Crown argued Wednesday during final submissions in B.C. Supreme Court.

Jacobs, 63, who was parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker in Saanich from 1997 to 2002, is charged with sexual assault and sexual touching of a young person under the age of 14.

He is also charged with sexually touching a second youth under the age of 14 and, while in a position of trust, sexually touching a third young person.

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ROME
Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, January 10, 2013 – Every time Benedict XVI speaks out against marriage between homosexuals, he is immediately besieged with criticism. But the last time he did so, in the annual pre-Christmas address to the curia, this did not happen. Everybody silent.

Acting as shield for the pope was the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, whom he cited in support of his own ideas. And none of the opinionists on the other side felt like taking aim against a luminary of European Judaism, in addition to the head of the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A New South Wales Catholic priest has been charged with sexually abusing two boys he taught in Newcastle more than 50 years ago.

Police from Strike Force Georgiana have been investigating the 83-year-old man for some time.

The Strike Force is based at the Lake Macquarie Local Area Command. …

Police say the alleged offences happened while the man was teaching at a school in Hamilton in the 1960’s.

The man is from Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

A CATHOLIC priest will face court charged with indecently assaulting two teenage boys at a school in the NSW Hunter region in the 1960s.

Police on Thursday served court attendance notices on the 83-year-old Glenbrook man’s legal representatives in Sydney.

He is facing eight counts of indecent assault with a child under 16 years.

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LEOMINSTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A former Leominster church pastor convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl has lost his bid for a new trial.

The Rev. Angel Morales, 34, onetime pastor of the Casa de Restauracion Church at 134 Spruce St., Leominster, was sentenced to 10 to 12 years’ imprisonment in 2011 after being found guilty by a Worcester Superior Court jury of two counts of child rape aggravated by age difference. The jury acquitted him on a third count.

The victim, whose family attended Rev. Morales’ church, testified at his February 2011 trial that she and her pastor engaged in sexual intercourse three times in late 2009 and early 2010, when she was 14 years old.

Rev. Morales admitted to two sexual encounters with the girl when questioned by Leominster police detectives. A DVD of the videotaped interview was played for the jury.

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UNITED STATES
Justia Verdict

Marci A. Hamilton

This is the era in which institutions are learning that they simply cannot keep their secrets about sexual abuse and assault to themselves, no matter how hard they try. The reasons for this profound change will be the stuff of sociology and history dissertations, to be sure, but we can also see, right in front of us, a primary mechanism that is spurring this revolution against the conspiracies of silence that aided perpetrators and endangered the vulnerable for so long. As this means of effecting justice has prospered, the public’s outrage has increased, survivors have been empowered, and the pace of revelations has sped up significantly.

We are witnessing the end of the old boys’ network that treats women and children as expendable. You know it’s over when even the world of football can’t keep its ugly secrets anymore: Penn State, Poly Prep, and now Steubenville, Ohio have faced, or will face, justice. Men in power, including the mighty football heroes, no longer can feel confident that the victims can be intimidated or made to be silent.

In football, when the sport has gone wrong, the players and coaches have been treated not just as heroes, but as beings tantamount to gods. In their twisted universe, they deserve what they take, because they have sacrificed so much, and the system around them covers up any transgressions for the greater good of the team and the community. Until now, women and even children were expendable, merely the spoils of war for them. (Current headlines have focused on football, but a recent alleged assault in the Philadelphia Four Seasons Hotel by a professional basketball player is confirmation that this is a sports-wide issue.)

For example, at Penn State, hallowed coach Joe Paterno not only failed to take action to protect children from the predatory Jerry Sandusky, but also allegedly gave players accused of sexual misconduct a pass.

Similarly, Notre Dame had not one, but two, players credibly accused of sexual assault on its national championship bowl team. Neither is being brought to justice, because one of the victims committed suicide and the other was so intimidated by teammates that she was too afraid to press charges. Why would two alleged criminals be on a Notre Dame football team? There is no requirement that the school permit them to stay on the team. One might have thought that the Catholic Church had enough problems with credibility on the sexual assault and abuse of children that it would not want its signature university and its revered football team to reinforce its current image of callous disregard for sexual assault and abuse victims.

Suffice it to say that the bishops and university administrators continue to struggle with the concept that their sexual abuse and assault secrets are everyone’s business in this era. Why are they everyone’s business? Because the Internet has given victims a voice, provided critics with a platform, and created a means of collecting disparate data that, when brought together, paints the pictures of cover-up.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

January 11, 2013

Bianca Hall

AN INVESTIGATIVE unit designed to prosecute sex offenders will be established as part of the royal commission on the sexual abuse of children due to begin later this year.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Families Minister Jenny Macklin will on Friday announce terms of reference for the commission, which will focus on ”systemic failures and issues” in the response of organisations and institutions to the abuse of children.

While royal commissions do not have the power to prosecute individuals, the government will ensure allegations of abuse raised by the commission can be investigated and, if proven, prosecuted.

Fairfax understands the terms of reference will require commissioners to establish a process for the referral of cases to the police.

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GERMANY
Times of Malta

Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops sacked a criminologist studying sexual abuse of minors by their priests yesterday, prompting him to accuse them of trying to censor what was to be a major report on the scandals.

The independent study, examining church files sometimes dating back to 1945, was meant to shed light on undiscovered cases of abuse after about 600 people filed claims against molesting priests in 2010 following a wave of revelations.

The German scandals were part of a series of abuse scandals that also shook the Catholic Church in Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands and the United States, and forced Pope Benedict to issue a public apology. …

Pfeiffer told German Radio the bishops wanted to change previously agreed guidelines for the project to include a final veto over publishing its results, which he could not accept.

“Everything was settled reasonably and then suddenly came… an attempt to turn the whole contract towards censorship and stronger control by the church,” said Pfeiffer, head of the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute.

The critical lay Catholic movement We Are Church called the decision “a devastating signal for the credibility of the church leadership” that showed the bishops could not accept an independent inquiry into the scandals.

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GERMANY
God Discussion

By D. Beeksma
On January 9, 2013

Christian Pfeiffer, a criminologist who was investigating sexual abuse of minors by priests, has been fired by German Roman Catholic bishops, Euronews reports (see news video embedded below). Pfeiffer accuses the bishops of trying to censure a major report on the scandals, which looks at cases dating back to 1945.

Matthias Kopp, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops Conference, says the investigation will be continued without Pfeiffer. “We did not give up the research project,” he told Euronews. “Of course it will be continued in order to come to terms with sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. It is not a matter of with or without Pfeiffer. We terminate the work with Pfeiffer today because the mutual trust is totally broken.”

A series of abuse scandals forced Pope Benedict XVI to issue an apology and offer compensation to victims in 2010, but Pfeiffer says a cover-up continues, “It is obvious that the project has failed because of the Catholic Church’s wish to control and to censure,” he said. “We were asked to sign a new contract in which the Church would have had the right to forbid the texts that had been written by us over years of work if they don’t like it.”

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VERMONT
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on January 9, 2013.

The legacy of pain and shame created by Catholic Priest Father Edward Paquette is coming to something of a resolution. Paquette was alleged to have molested numerous children and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington was accused of having covered up his crimes.

Lawyer Jerry O’Neill stated that “Many people who have walked away from this diocese because of the way it has treated the survivors.” Among those who sued the Burlington Diocese was a Rutland native who says that Paquette began molesting him at the age of twelve back in 1974. The federal trial was set to start Wednesday morning, but the settlement was reached at the last minute. O’Neill spoke truly saying that “It’s never a win. When you’re sexually molested as a child you never win, no matter how much money you get.”

It is unlikely that there will be any more cases involving Paquette, Alfred Willis or Joseph Dussault, all priests accused of molesting children, and all named in this latest round of lawsuits. According to O’Neill “The reason is because in April 2006 a court released a protective order and all the documents showing that the diocese was knowledgeable about what the priests were doing took place. Six years have passed. That’s the primary statute of limitations.”

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Catholic priest charged with indecently assaulting two teenage boys – Lake Macquarie LAC

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Police have charged a Catholic priest with allegedly indecently assaulting two teenage boys in the 1960s.

Strike Force Georgiana was established in March 2008, consisting of investigators from Lake Macquarie Local Area Command, to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse by various priests within the area.

About Midday today (Thursday 30 August 2012), police attended an address in Penrith, and served two Future Court Attendance Notices on the legal representative of an 83-year-old Glenbrook man.

The notices relates to eight counts of indecent assault with a child under 16 years.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By SAM RIGNEY
Jan. 10, 2013

POLICE have charged a Catholic brother with allegedly indecently assaulting two teenage boys in the 1960s.

Strike Force Georgiana detectives attended a home in Penrith about midday today, serving two court attendance notices on the legal representation of an 83-year-old Glenbrook man.

Police said the notices relate to eight counts of indecent assault with a child under the age of 16.

The 83-year-old man will appear in Newcastle Local Court on February 26.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

RICK MORTON
From:The Australian
January 10, 2013

A CATHOLIC priest has been charged with eight counts of indecently assaulting two boys in the 1960s in a police investigation that has already charged six other priests with child sexual offences in the Hunter Valley region of NSW.

The 83-year-old Glenbrook man was served with court attendance notices through his legal representative, based in Penrith, about noon yesterday.

Police will allege he indecently assaulted two boys younger than 16 on eight occasions while he was teaching at a school in Hamilton in the “early to mid 1960s”.

He is due to appear in Newcastle Local Court on February 23.

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.