ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Transcript Day 11

Monday, June 24, 2013

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD June 25, 2013

ALL day I have searched for an image with which to describe the courtroom feel of the Special Commission of Inquiry sitting in Newcastle.

And the best I can come up with is this: imagine a giant ball of wool that you know is there, but which you cannot see.

Imagine, now, that the court participants – the barristers, the witnesses, the special commissioner Margaret Cunneen – can pull skeins of that ball of wool out into the open and examine them, at length, in minute detail.

That’s what it’s like.

The participants have the full script. The affidavits lodged as evidence in chief. Volume after volume of them, all marked with coloured tabs for ease of finding a particular quote or passage.

The media can apply for material, but approval is not always automatic.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

[with video]

This is a transcript of a statement by Joanne McCarthy outside the commission yesterday afternoon.

“I am pleased to have assisted this special commission in its inquiry into the NSW police force’s handling of the alleged failure of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese to disclose the offending of paedophile priest Denis McAlinden. This became known as Strike Force Lantle.

I have the highest confidence in the commission’s staff, and thank them for their support.

I am looking forward with interest to the next stage of this inquiry, scheduled to start next week, which is an historic, timely and necessary investigation into how the Catholic Church handled allegations of child sex abuse by clergy in the Hunter Region.

As difficult as inquiries into these kinds of issues can be, they are important issues. It is worth noting that some of the most significant media investigations, and police prosecutions involving Catholic clergy in Australia, have occurred in the Hunter Region.

I am very pleased [that] we have a federal royal commission and we have this inquiry looking into specific issues in the Hunter Region . . . on the back of a Victorian parliamentary inquiry which has really exposed to the Australian public the very real differences between what the Catholic Church has said in the past about how it deals with these matters, and what it actually has done behind the scenes with the victims and their families who have had to deal with the Church on their own.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 25, 2013

SENIOR Catholic clergy have known about, and covered up, the actions of a paedophile priest in the Hunter for at least 16 years, an internal Church report allegedly reveals.

In a jaw-dropping day of evidence before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, it was also revealed that Newcastle police allegedly knew about and held on to the report for almost 12 months before their inaction was raised with the Police Integrity Commission by Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

The report, compiled by the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese in 1995, included a confession from disgraced priest Denis McAlinden that he had abused young victims in the preceding years. It also included a letter from Bishop Leo Clarke urging McAlinden to accept his defrocking, move overseas “for the good of the Church” while his “good name” was protected.

The police also had a 26-page statement from a McAlinden victim who referred to Father Brian Lucas’s alleged knowledge of the criminal nature of McAlinden’s offending in 1993.

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.

OREGON
The Oregonian

By Aimee Green, The Oregonian
on June 25, 2013

A 43-year-old man who says he was sexually abused by Oregon’s most notorious pedophile priest in the early 1980s filed a $12.25 million lawsuit Tuesday against the Archdiocese of Portland.

The man alleges he was abused by former priest Maurice Grammond from 1980 to 1982 at Our Lady of Victory in Seaside — at least 23 years after church officials began hearing reports that Grammond was molesting children. That included a 1957 report of making boys swim naked with him and “messing” with them.

The man was an altar boy, and 10 to 12 years old when he says Grammond abused him.

“(Grammond) devastated the lives and the souls of dozens of youngsters who loved their church and trusted their priest, and this case is no different,” said Portland attorney Kelly Clark, in a news release.

Clark and the man’s other attorney, Erin Olson, say that the man supressed the abuse until 2012, when he came to terms with it and the detrimental effects it has had on his life. Oregon law allows victims to sue for childhood abuse up until they reach age 40, or until five years after they realize the abuse has damaged them — whichever is later.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 25, 2013

SENIOR Catholic clergy in the Hunter knew since 1995 that disgraced priest Denis McAlinden had sexually abused hundreds of victims in the Hunter, but failed to report him to police, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Newcastle police also had evidence of the cover-up for almost 12 months, and took little or no action against the Church.

The sensational evidence was dropped like a bomb before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday by Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

Ms McCarthy revealed she had been given a copy of an internal Church report into Father McAlinden’s offending by a victim of the notorious priest.

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

CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

By Andy Furillo — afurillo@sacbee.com

A priest who also is a high-ranking official in the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento testified today that he was not acting in the capacity of a “confessor” or “spiritual director” when he and a private investigator told the Rev. Uriel Ojeda two years ago that he was the subject of a sexual abuse investigation.

The priest, Timothy Nondorf, said none of the rituals even remotely suggesting the Catholic sacrament of confession were at play when he and the investigator visited Ojeda on Nov. 30, 2011, at Ojeda’s parish in Redding. The subject of the visit, Nondorf said, was to deliver a letter to Ojeda informing him that “a credible accusation” had been lodged against him and that he was going to be removed from the ministry.

Nondorf said that when he delivered the letter to Ojeda with the purpose of bringing him back to Sacramento to face charges, he was acting only in his role as an official representative of Bishop Jaime Soto in the investigation into allegations that Ojeda had engaged in sexual misconduct with a girl who was then 14.

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.

COLORADO
Gazette

Published: June 25, 2013, 12:46 pm, by Lance Benzel

A Colorado Springs teenager who says he was paid to have sex with a priest he called “grandfather” in 2011 told a friend he agreed to the deal partly out of pity for the elderly clergyman.

“I kind of feel sorry for him,” the then-15-year-old altar boy said of the Rev. Charles Robert “Bob” Manning, 78, according to a phone conversation that was secretly taped by a friend in 2011 and turned over to Colorado Springs police.

“He’s on the verge of dying. He’s real close,” the boy says later. “That’s why I don’t want him to get in trouble.”

In a 20-minute recording played for jurors on Tuesday, the boy sounds reluctant to discuss the allegations but opens up after assurances by Evan Hess, a fellow teen who is friends with the accuser’s sister.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness | GLOBE STAFF JUNE 25, 2013

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley is banning a dissident Austrian priest from speaking at a parish in Dedham, prompting a coalition of reform-minded Catholics who invited the priest to move their event to a nearby Unitarian Universalist church.

The Rev. Helmut Schuller was invited to speak at St. Susanna Parish on July 17 as part of a 15-city tour of the United States called “The Catholic Tipping Point,” sponsored by a coalition of progressive Catholic organizations, including the Needham-based Voice of the Faithful.

Schuller is the founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, which advocates for women’s ordination, optional celibacy for priests, and greater lay participation as ways of addressing a priest shortage in Western Europe. About 1 in 10 Austrian priests now belong to the group, the Austrian Independent newspaper reported this month. Similar groups have sprung up elsewhere, including the United States.

Terrence C. Donilon, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, said in a statement released to the Globe: “It is the policy of the Archdiocese of Boston, and the generally accepted practice in dioceses across the country, not to permit individuals to conduct speaking engagements in Catholic parishes or at church events when those individuals promote positions that are contrary to Catholic teachings.”

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Washington Post

Child abuse allegations mar anniversary of celebrated Anglican bishop

By Trevor Grundy| Religion News Service, Updated: Tuesday, June 25

CANTERBURY, England — Anglicans around the world are marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of their church’s greatest 20th-century heroes, a man who fought poverty and white racism in South Africa and mentored some of that continent’s best-known politicians and church leaders. …

But an explosive story in the magazine “Private Eye” sheds light on a recently released Scotland Yard file on Huddleston alleging the late apartheid icon was a child molester. The file from the 1970s was kept out of the public eye but today might have ended his illustrious career. …

There was speculation he might one day be appointed archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

But then Huddleston was accused by a local mother in the run-down East End of London of sexually harassing her two sons.

Although Huddleston denied the accusations, he told a senior police officer: “It’s all perfectly true. I have sat them on my lap and I have touched their bottoms and pinched them but there is nothing indecent. It was purely a mark of affection.”

In his report, the officer wrote: “He (Huddleston) has been outrageously indiscreet.”

In a book called “Trevor Huddleston: Turbulent Priest,” author Piers McGrandle said that after the accusation, Huddleston withdrew from public life for several months after suffering a mental breakdown.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

The Newcastle Herald journalist at the centre of a Hunter child sex abuse inquiry said police did not act immediately on documents that revealed the church had warned paedophile priest Denis McAlinden about interfering with children.

Joanne McCarthy said she gave internal church documents that warned McAlinden – one of two priests being investigated by the Special Commission of Inquiry into an alleged child abuse cover-up by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese – to police.

During cross-examination from her counsel, Winston Terracini SC, Ms McCarthy said the material included a confession from priest Brian Lucas who said he was aware McAlinden had sexually abused children.

“Was there any attempt by the police at this point to interview Lucas?” Mr Terracini asked.

Ms McCarthy replied: “No”.

Ms McCarthy agreed with Mr Terracini’s suggestion the material “tends to indicate the systemic protection of paedophiles”.

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

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Staff
on June 25, 2013

NEWARK — Archbishop of Newark John J. Myers said the church will no longer enter into an agreement with a civil authority that places the archdiocese in a supervisory role, according to a report on NCRegister.com.

Myers made the revelation in an interview with the National Catholic Register after admitting the church mishandled the supervision of a priest who violated a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

The agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office required the Newark Archdiocese to supervise Michael Fugee, who was convicted of groping a boy in 2003. The verdict was later overturned because of judicial error. To avoid retrial, Fugee entered a state rehabilitation program, underwent counseling for sex offenders and, by means of the agreement with prosecutors, promised to stay away from children.

Fugee resigned from the ministry in May though he is back in the rectory in a different role. In the interview published on the National Catholic Register’s website today, Myers defended the decision to allow Fugee to return to restricted ministry after he won an appeal of his conviction.

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

NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 25

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

Even now, an admitted and convicted Newark predator priest is living in an undisclosed rectory, Archbishop John Myers admitted in a newly published interview.

That’s outrageously reckless. Myers should immediately move Fr. Michael Fugee to a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center, far away from those he has hurt.

Fr. Fugee has admitted – and been found guilty – of hurting a Catholic child. Myers is in charge of protecting Catholic children. So why is Myers letting Fr. Fugee live near Catholic children in a Catholic building in a Catholic parish?

And for the sake of public safety, Myers should disclose where he’s been letting Fr. Fugee live for the past few weeks.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
GlobalPost

“Banned in Boston” used to refer to plays or films that an Irish Catholic establishment, led by the cardinal-archbishop, deemed immoral and thus blocked from local venues.

In today’s ironic counter-meaning, it is Father Helmut Schüller, a reform-minded priest from Austria who has been banned from speaking at Catholic parishes in Boston by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, as Catholic activists arranging his July speaking tour have learned.

“We have found it necessary to move Father Schüller’s talk,” Larry Bloom, a volunteer in the Boston suburb of Dedham said in an email to members of several reform groups. Schüller had been scheduled to speak at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham on July 17.

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

AUSTRALIA
Vatican Crimes

TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2013

Former bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese Michael Malone and the mother of a boy abused at the hands of a Catholic priest in Maitland will take the stand during the next round of public hearings into child ­sexual abuse allegations across the diocese.

The hearings will continue today in Newcastle Supreme Court, starting with police officers, including former Maitland detective, Wayne Humphrey.

From July 1 hearings are expected to include evidence from diocesan head Bishop Bill Wright and police whistleblower Peter Fox.

Patricia Feenan – the mother of Daniel Feenan who was abused by Father James Patrick Fletcher – is expected to take part in the public hearings from July 8.

The hearings are part of the ­special commission of inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child ­sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland – Newcastle.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian June 26, 2013

A CATHOLIC bishop ordered the release of internal church documents that ultimately led police to investigate some of the church’s most senior clerics over the alleged cover-up of child abuse committed by priests.

During 2009, a NSW state government inquiry into the alleged cover-up has heard, the then Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, ordered the documents be provided to a victim of this abuse.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
Catholic Culture

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has forbidden a speaking appearance by a dissident Austrian priest at a local parish.

Father Helmut Schüller, the leader of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, was scheduled to speak in July at St. Susanna’s parish church in Dedham, a Boston suburb. Father Schüller is making a tour of the US, speaking in several cities about the Austrian group, which brought together several hundred Austrian priests in a “Call to Disobedience,” a vow to ignore Church teachings on several controversial issues.

Last year, on Holy Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI lamented that “a group of priests from a European country issued a summons to disobedience,” saying that such an action damaged the unity of the Church and the cause of true reform. Although he did not name the group, Pope Benedict clearly had the Austrian Priests’ Initiative in mind. Later, in November, the Vatican announced that Schüller—a former vicar general of the Vienna archdiocese—had been stripped of his title of “Monsignor” because of his leadership role in the dissident group.

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

NEW JERSEY
The Record

TUESDAY JUNE 25, 2013

BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

In his first interview about a scandal involving a Catholic priest arrested last month for allegedly violating an agreement with prosecutors, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers defended his actions and provided new details about church’s decision making during the crisis.

Myers, in an interview published online Tuesday by the National Catholic Register, explained a confidential review board ruling in the decade-old sex-abuse case against the Rev. Michael Fugee and addressed new charges that Fugee violated an agreement with prosecutors by working with children throughout New Jersey.

Fugee was convicted of groping a 13-year-old boy in 2003 when he was an assistant pastor at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff. The conviction was overturned in 2006 due to a judicial error, but to avoid a retrial, he entered into a special rehabilitation program for first-time offenders.

Fugee also signed an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the archdiocese that strictly prohibits ministering to children for as long as he remains a priest. Last month he was charged with seven counts of violating the agreement for allegedly hearing confessions of children.

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.

NEDERLAND
Een Verzwegen Leven

Robert Chesal

Een misbruikslachtoffer heeft een merkwaardig document onder mijn aandacht gebracht. Alweer beweert een rooms-katholieke congregatie dat het allemaal wel meevalt met dat misbruik in de kerk.

Het document is een recente uitgave van de Mill Hill Missionarissen, een rooms-katholieke congregatie die al jaren onder vuur ligt wegens beschuldigingen van seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen. Een van de beschuldigde Mill-Hill priesters is de Nederlander Cornelius Schilder, vanaf 2003 bisschop van Ngong in Kenia.

In 2009 werd Schilder door het Vaticaan naar huis gestuurd omdat hij een 14-jarige jongen zou hebben misbruikt. Het besluit van het Vaticaan was gebaseerd op onderzoek door Fons Eppink, destijds regionaal-overste van de Mill-Hill Missionarissen in Kenia.

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.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Archdiocese Chapter 11

FROM LEXOLOGY.COM

In 2005, as the Archdiocese of Milwaukee (the “Archdiocese” or “Debtor”) faced numerous lawsuits by alleged abuse survivors, it transferred in excess of $35 million from its “Parish Deposit Fund” to its parishes and a newly created Southeastern Wisconsin Catholic Parishes Invest ment Management Trust (the “Trust”).

After the Archdiocese filed for bank – ruptcy protection on January 4, 2011 following its failure to settle more than twenty-three abuse lawsuits, the official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Committee”) of the Archdiocese, which five-member com mit tee was comprised of four personal injury plaintiffs and alleged abuse survivors, investigated those transfers and alleged that they were recoverable as fraudulent conveyances.

Notwithstanding, on December 10, 2012, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (the “Court”) held that the Committee did not have the derivative standing necessary to commence litigation seeking the avoidance and recovery of the $35 million. See In re Archdiocese of Milwaukee, 483 B.r. 855 (Bankr. E.D. Wis. 2012).

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.

COLORADO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 25, 2013

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP National Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Priest abuse trial starts
St. Louis cleric is accused in Colorado
He allegedly repeatedly molested boy
And he reportedly took child to get nipplies pierced
Prosecutors say priest gave booze, pot and cigarettes too

A criminal trial has begun against a St. Louis priest who allegedly molested a Colorado boy.

The accused is Fr. Robert Charles Manning, who reportedly sexually assaulted the child and named the victim “as a beneficiary of his bank account – and began providing him with expensive gifts, including jewelry, watches and a $3,000 used car,” according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Manning now lives in St. Louis. He worked in St. Louis archdiocese, at parishes in Bridgeton, Glencoe and Imperial.

Manning apparently was sent to Colorado, an unusual move for an archdiocesan priest, around 2007.

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

They’re at it again. The people who like to add information after the event. The “but wait – there’s more” people.

Police gave their evidence to the New South Wales government enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse last month. This month, the clergy were due to appear. However, more police have been rounded up in an attempt to discredit Peter Fox, who triggered the enquiry in the first place.

Detective Sergeant Jeffery Little (pictured above) accused Detective Fox of producing a report with “significant” inaccuracies and that Fox’s statements were “a manipulation of the truth.” His lawyers, who may have liked the use of horse-racing analogies by virtue of owning horses, probably came up with the widely-reported sound bite that Fox had “ridden on a saddle of lies.”

Unfortunately, the good Detective Little may have been a bit hard of hearing, or nervous about appearing at the enquiry. Most media articles reported him as saying it was “WRITTEN on a saddle of lies.” Presumably, the PR machine did not get to these sources in time.

Mark Cohen, SC, representing Chief Inspector Fox, asked Detective Sergeant Little why it took him 15 months after he was appointed to Strike Force Lantle to contact Chief Inspector Fox. He said he had not seen the need because he relied on an investigator’s report that Chief Inspector Fox had already handed over all relevant information from his investigation.

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

AUSTRALIA
Care Leavers Australia Network

The recent claims, by lawyer and lobbyist Bryan Keon-Cohen, that the Catholic Church is a law unto itself in its resistance of governmental responses to child abuse, could be applied to Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand.

On the 22nd of this month, Good Shepherd, an organisation established by the Good Shepherd Sisters has scheduled a Festival at Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne in order to celebrate 150 years since the Good Shepherd Sisters arrived in Australia. The problem is that the summary, by Trish Carroll, Good Shepherd Mission Leader, of the history of the organisation, conveniently excludes the work of the Sisters in the twentieth century. So allow me to fill in the resounding gap.

There are no precise figures for the number of girls who slaved in the eight Magdalene laundries, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, in twentieth century Australia because Good Shepherd has not released their records. We do know, as a result of the Federal Senate reportForgotten Australians (2004) that the Good Shepherd laundries in Australia acted as prisons for the girls who were forced to labour in workhouses laundering linen for local hospitals or commercial premises. The report alsodescribed the conditions as characterised by inedible food, unhygienic living conditions and little or no education. In 2008, in Federal Parliament, Senator Andrew Murray likened the Convent of the Good Shepherd ‘The Pines’, Adelaide to a prisoner-of-war camp.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
National Catholic Reporter

Kate Simmons | Jun. 24, 2013 NCR Today

The first American speaking tour of a reform-minded Austrian priest has hit its first snag.

Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley says Fr. Helmut Schuller can’t speak on archdiocesan property, forcing a rescheduling of the Boston leg of his 15-city tour, which begins July 15.

Last week, Boston Auxiliary Bishop Walter Edyvean called St. Susanna Parish — Schuller’s scheduled speaking stop — to inform them that O’Malley had ruled that “Father Schuller could not speak at any Catholic parish because he espouses beliefs that are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church,” according to parish Deacon Larry Bloom.

Schuller’s talk will be moved to the First Church of Dedham, a Unitarian-Universalist congregation down the street, Bloom told NCR in a email June 24.

St. Susanna tends to attract parishioners with a lot of questions so “we often have speakers who represent various, sometimes controversial, points of view,” wrote Bloom, who serves as Director of Adult Faith Formation for the parish.

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

NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Register

Newark’s archbishop discusses the disturbing violation of a court agreement by an archdiocesan priest who is barred from ministering to minors.

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND 06/25/2013

Over the past three months, the Archdiocese of Newark has been at the center of the latest clergy abuse scandal, after local media reported that a troubled diocesan priest, Father Michael Fugee, participated in numerous youth retreats in direct violation of a court agreement that allowed him to return to ministry under restricted conditions that barred him ministering to minors. In 2003, Father Fugee was convicted of sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy, but that decision was overturned on appeal in 2006 because of a judicial error.

The subsequent court agreement, a “Memorandum of Understanding,” required the Newark Archdiocese to oversee the priest’s compliance with the directive.

Archbishop John Myers of Newark acknowledged that Church administrators learned of the priest’s activities after they were reported in the New Jersey Star Ledger in April, and in the wake of the revelations, Msgr. John Doran, the vicar general of the Newark Archdiocese resigned. So did a pastor and youth minister in a Trenton, N.J., parish where Father Fugee had been invited to minister during youth retreats, without formally requesting permission from the Diocese of Trenton. Archbishop Myers has acknowledged in a variety of public forums, including a video on the archdiocese’s website, that an independent investigation by a law firm hired by the diocese had concluded that “the strong protocols presently in place were not always observed.”

During a June 20 interview with Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond, Archbishop Myers explained the context for his decision to allow Father Fugee to remain in restricted ministry, outlined the changes he had made to tighten oversight of the 16-17 priests currently supervised by the diocese because of sexual abuse, and raised questions about whether individual dioceses always could effectively supervise priests who were placed in restricted ministry.

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.

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By DYLAN GOFORTH World Staff Writer on Jun 24, 2013

A Tulsa pastor was arrested Monday on complaints of sexual abuse of a minor after a 15-year-old girl reported to police that she was pregnant with his child.

Gregory Ivan Hawkins is being held on $50,000 bond at the Tulsa County Jail after being arrested at about 3:30 p.m. at 3600 L.L. Tisdale Parkway.

Hawkins, 54, allegedly began the sexual relationship with the girl in April 2012 when the girl was 14, according to his arrest report.

The report states that Hawkins is pastor at Zion Plaza Church, and owner of Zion Child Care & Learning Center, both at 612 E. 46th St. North.

The report states the girl told police she had sex with Hawkins in multiple locations from April 2012 to January 2013, at which time she became pregnant with Hawkins’ child.

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.

SOUTH CAROLINA
MidlandsConnect

by Ivory Hecker
Posted: 06.21.2013

SUMTER, SC (WACH) — A Sumter minister was arrested Friday after Sumter Police say he sexually assaulted three female members of his church.

Sumter Deputy Chief of Police Alvin Holston said Larry Durant, 58, of Four Bridges Road, is charged with two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct with a minor, second degree (between the age of 11-14 years old), and four counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct, third degree.

Holston said Durant talked the girls into sex by using his position as a pastor and telling them the sex was part of a “healing process” and “private prayer.”

Police say the victims told police the incidents took place at Word International Ministry facilities on Manning Avenue and North Guignard Drive. The victims also said some of the acts took place at the Durant’s home.

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.

SOUTH CAROLINA
The Item

By Rob Cottingham rcottingham@theitem.com

Officers of Sumter Police Department have arrested the pastor of WORD International Ministries on Guignard Drive and charged him with multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct involving multiple children.

Larry DuRant, 58, of 2080 Four Bridges Road, was arrested Friday and charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor between the ages of 11 and 14 and four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to the department, detectives had been investigating reports from both victims and their families who told police DuRant allegedly forced the children to participate in various sexual acts. He used his position in the church, according to reports, claiming the occurrences were part of a “healing process” and “private prayer.”

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.

SOUTH CAROLINA
WLTX

[with video]

Sumter, SC (WLTX) — Court documents are revealing addtional information about the claims being made against a Sumter preacher accused of sex assaults.

Police say 58-year-old Larry Durant, a pastor at Word International Ministries in Sumter, used his influence as a minister to get close to the victims.

“We want to make sure there’s no more victims out there,” Deputy Chief Alvin Holston with Sumter Police said.

“The manner in which he lured them in, we feel that at some level there’s a strong potential that there may be other victims we’re talking about a span of, right now, over two year,” Holston said. “It appeared that he may have had a routine on gaining the trust and the private company of some of the juveniles.”

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.

SOUTH CAROLINA
The item

BY BRADEN BUNCH bbunch@theitem.com

A young girl having the courage to come forward with her family in mid-May and tell police what happened to her prompted the month-long investigation ultimately leading to the arrest of a local minister on criminal sexual conduct charges, officials with the Sumter Police Department said Monday.

On Friday, Sumter law enforcement charged 58-year-old Larry DuRant, pastor of Word International Ministries on North Guignard Drive, with a total of eight various criminal sexual conduct charges, including two charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor between the ages of 11 and 14. DuRant was released from the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center on Saturday afternoon after meeting a $120,000 bond set earlier in the day.

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.

SOUTH CAROLINA
WBTW

By Associated Press
By WLTX-TV News

SUMTER, SC –
A Sumter pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting three female members of his church.

Police said that 58-year-old Larry Durant had been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He also faces four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Police say family members told them Durant coerced the victims into having sex with him starting in 2011. Police say the Word International Ministry pastor told the victims the activity was part of the “healing process” and “private prayer.”

“The manner in which he lured them in, we feel that at some level there’s a strong potential that there may be other victims we’re talking about a span of, right now, over two year,” Sumter’s Deputy Chief Alvin Holston told WLTX on Monday.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Calls for Bishop Bell head Terry Boatwright to resign have been made by the founder of an abuse charity following the jailing of child abductor Jeremy Forrest.

Marilyn Hawes, a mum-of-four, teacher and the founder of Enough Abuse, has said that management at the school should ‘grow a spine’ and apologise for getting it wrong.

This comes after maths teacher Forrest started a sexual relationship with his 15-year-old pupil before taking her to France on September 20 last year.

On Friday (June 21) the 30-year-old from Ringmer was jailed for five counts of sexual activity with a child and child abduction.

Forrest is the latest child sex offender associated with Bishop Bell School, after governor Canon Gordon Rideout was jailed for historic sex offences last month and another teacher, Robert Healy, was sent to prison for having sexual relationships with pupils back in 2009.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON June 25, 2013

The Newcastle Herald ­journalist awarded for her role in bringing about a royal commission into child sexual abuse has told a special inquiry Peter Fox was more eager to investigate ­allegations of clergy concealment than other police.

Winner of the Graham Perkin Award, Joanne McCarthy, gave evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry yesterday for the final week of hearings into the police investigations of alleged sexual abuse cover-ups by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

Ms McCarthy said when she spoke to Detective Inspector David Waddell about a potential concealment he was “not wholeheartedly” convinced the matters should be investigated.

“I’m not saying that negatively … not saying you’re against doing something,” Ms McCarthy told the special inquiry.

Comparatively, she said Detective Chief Inspector Fox jumped hurdles some officers were unable to overcome because they were matters involving the church.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian June 25, 2013

A VICTIM of child abuse by a Catholic priest was upset that a NSW detective publicly discussed her case on television without her consent, an inquiry has heard.

In an interview on the ABC’s Lateline program last year, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox publicly claimed he was “ordered to stand down” from the investigation of pedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

During the TV interview, he described taking a witness statement from one of the priest’s un-named victims, who had come forward and whose evidence he described as “explosive”.

Giving evidence today to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, established to investigate Detective Fox’s claims, the Newcastle Herald reporter Joanne McCarthy said she had subsequently spoken to the victim, who was upset about the interview.

“Initially she wasn’t upset at all … the distress she relayed didn’t occur until February or March this year,” Ms McCarthy said.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

NEIL KEENE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 25, 2013

POLICE whistleblower Peter Fox pushed to be included in investigations into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church as a “last hurrah” before retiring from the force, a special commission of inquiry has heard this morning.

Newcastle journalist Joanne McCarthy told the inquiry that Inspector Fox gave her his wife’s private phone number and instructed her how to obliterate email trails in order to keep their correspondence secret from other police.

Ms McCarthy said it was “obvious there was some kind of internal police bad blood”.

The commission is investigating why Insp Fox was taken off the case and whether police acted appropriately in doing so.

Ms McCarthy said Insp Fox appeared to be feeling “alone and isolated”, which is why he approached her as his “sounding board”.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 25, 2013

THE journalist at the centre of an inquiry into how police handled child sex abuse allegations within the Catholic church has denied colluding with whistleblower detective Peter Fox to withhold information from other police.

Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy has spent the morning under heavy cross examination from Wayne Roser SC, who is representing several senior police officers.

Mr Roser suggested that Ms McCarthy had refused to identify two witnesses at a meeting she had with former chief inspector Brad Tayler, but Ms McCarthy strongly denied the suggestion.

The meeting with Mr Tayler had been organised by then-Newcastle police commander Max Mitchell. In evidence provided on Monday, and again on Tuesday morning, Mr Tayler had asked Ms McCarthy for the names and numbers of other victims who she had spoken to.

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

AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

June 25, 2013 by Vivien Resofsky

About a month ago I sat in the Rabbi’s office, hopeful despite the negative responses over the last 7 years. The question took me by surprise. ” How many people support you?”…writes Viven Resofsky.

I first saw a Rabbi about child sexual abuse in 2004 while I was working at Jewish Care. A terrible example of child sexual abuse was the catalyst. The abuse had gone on for years and finally the girl had the courage to ask for help. She went to a teacher she trusted at Beth Rivkah Ladies College but the teacher did not help her. Instead she told her student that she was not a pure diamond because her parents were not born into Ultra Orthodox families and had become Ultra Orthodox by choice. (Baal Teshuvah).

Despite the fact that the teacher was mandated to report disclosures of abuse she did nothing and consequently nothing in the girl’s life changed. So the girl did something she could do by herself and began to hurt herself physically. Luckily, she came across a doctor who not only knew how to respond but had the confidence and conviction to respond responsibly.

There were other referrals about child sexual abuse and in my opinion, many people who were working with children weren’t sufficiently educated and confident to deal with child sexual abuse.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By Elle Watson June 25, 2013

“Bad blood” and internal politics were ongoing in the NSW Police Force at the time a Strike Force was established to investigate concealment of alleged sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, a Special Commission of Inquiry has heard this morning.

Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy said Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told her about internal issues in 2010, before the establishment of Strike Force Lantle.

“It was obvious that there were internal political issues, I didn’t want to buy into them,” Ms McCarthy said.

“My obligation to the victims was to make sure they were looked after by police … How police handled the investigation was up to police.”

She said Det Chief Insp Fox indicated in emails sent in 2010 he was “desperately keen” to investigate matters of concealment by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

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

AUSTRALIA
Wollondilly Advertiser

The late-night email set out how to wipe email trails and mask mobile calls to keep them secret. But the contact between Peter Fox and Joanne McCarthy was nevertheless exposed.

As relationships go, this one has caused a lot of trouble – for the police, the Catholic Church, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and even the Prime Minister. Now it’s all being laid bare in the Newcastle Supreme Court.

Fairfax Media journalist McCarthy is being grilled in the witness box at the special inquiry into how police and Catholic Church priests and officials handled allegations of sexual abuse in NSW’s Hunter Region.

The inquiry was set up by the NSW Premier after a whistleblower policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, went on ABC’s Lateline last November, alleging a cover-up. The Prime Minister called a separate royal commission on child sexual abuse days later.

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.

IDAHO
Reuters

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho | Tue Jun 25, 2013

(Reuters) – Four men sued the Boy Scouts of America and its largest sponsor, the Mormon Church, on Monday accusing both organizations of failing to protect them from sexual abuse by adult volunteers when they were children at scouting activities in Idaho.

Three of the men said they were abused as members of Boy Scout troops affiliated with the Utah-based church, two of them by a scout leader previously identified as a molester in a complaint brought by a parent.

The fourth plaintiff belonged to a troop sponsored by a chapter of the Elk Club, which was not named as a defendant in the suit.

All the cases of abuse alleged in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, the state capital, occurred in the early 1980s and 1970s, when the plaintiffs ranged in age from 12 to 14.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A senior New South Wales policeman has apologised to whistleblower Peter Fox for comments he made in his statement to the Special Commission investigating child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church.

The Special Commission is looking into Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims that he was ordered to stop investigating two Maitland-Newcastle priests, Father Denis McAlinden and Father James Fletcher.

Peter Fox’s superior, Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, began giving evidence this afternoon at the public hearings in Newcastle.

In court today he made changes to his statement before it was tendered to the Commission, saying there were “unfair comments” regarding Peter Fox, and he apologised.

He also told the court there was no intention to shut Peter Fox out of the investigation but “it needed fresh eyes”.

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.

IDAHO
Idaho State Journal

By Dave Goins / For the Journal

BOISE — A federal court case filed here Monday against the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints names a Driggs man as one of three alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse crimes against now-former Boy Scouts.

Plaintiffs in the case accuse the defendants — the LDS Church, (that has promoted Scouting programs), and the Boy Scouts — of failing to inform parents of the scouts that documents — recently opened by courts — show it was known that pedophiles were working within the ranks of the Boy Scouts.

“The lawsuit is based on the defendants’ failure to inform the parents of the threat of pedophiles preying on unsuspecting boys,” said Boise attorney Andrew M. Chasan, a legal representative for the four unnamed plaintiffs.

A church spokesman in Salt Lake City, Utah, responded with a news release to the legal action filed in U.S. District Court Monday in Boise, stating that, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind, and works diligently to prevent abuse and provide support and assistance to victims of abuse.”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By Barney Zwartz June 25, 2013

The Catholic Church is still impeding police pursuit and conviction of clergy sex offenders, according to a former head of Victoria Police’s sexual crimes squad.

Former Detective Inspector Glenn Davies, who now works with victims of clergy sex abuse, says his experience of working with the church is that it is “protectionist, elitist and dismissive of suggestions for change”.

Mr Davies, who resigned from Victoria Police last year after he admitted briefing journalists about then-current investigations, made a submission to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled clergy sexual abuse. This was posted on the inquiry website late on Tuesday.

Ten submissions were posted on the website, including a defence of Towards Healing by one of its investigators, former police superintendent Paul Murnane, plus a second “right of reply” by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 25, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

One of the Australian Catholic Church’s most senior figures, Father Brian Lucas, confessed in an internal church document that he knew the disgraced paedophile priest Father Denis McAlinden had been “interfering with children” but he had done nothing about it.

Fairfax Media reporter Joanne McCarthy told the inquiry into church and police handling of sexual abuse in the Hunter region that documents handed to her by a victim, known as AL, indicated the systematic protection of paedophiles within the church.

Father Lucas’ confession was contained in documents that then bishop of Maitland-Newcastle diocese Michael Malone had authorised be released.

In 1993 Father Lucas had known of McAlinden’s abuse of a girl aged under 10. Two years later McAlinden was defrocked in secret.

On Tuesday afternoon the inquiry heard that McCarthy gave the documents to a NSW detective, Shaun McCleod, in April 2010.

“The material that the police had obviously shows on the face of it an intention to alert McAlinden … if that isn’t trying to protect a paedophile, I don’t know what is,” McCarthy’s barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, suggested to her.

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.

ZAMBIA
allAfrica

BY MARTIN NYIRENDA, 25 JUNE 2013

THE Church has come into the spotlight not for all the good reasons, it has been marred by sex scandals with reports of brothers duping sisters all in the name of prophecy and defilement cases occurring right in the grounds of worship.

Thus this has cast some doubts on some people as to whether the Church still remains that holy sanctuary which is expected to be the custodian of the moral values where every troubled soul can run to seek solace.

Not too long ago a Kabwe housewife recounted in a magistrate’s court how a prophet allegedly raped her in the process of being prayed for.

The woman recounted before Kabwe resident magistrate Jennifer Bwalya that on the fateful day she travelled to Kasavasa area to meet the prophet, who was in the company of another person for prayers.

In this case, Anthony Musoka was slapped with a charge of rape.

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

NEW MEXICO/ARIZONA
The New Mexican

By Tom Sharpe
The New Mexican

Twelve lawsuits filed recently in Arizona charge that the Roman Catholic bishop of Gallup protected alleged pedophile priests by assigning them to pastoral duties in small parishes for more than two decades.

Robert E. Pastor of the Phoenix law firm of Manly Steward Finaldi said the lawsuits were filed in Coconimo County on behalf of 10 men and two women, who were minors when they were allegedly molested in Arizona by priests from the Diocese of Gallup. About two years ago, he said he filed a similar lawsuit, on behalf of a man, which is set to go to trial in February.

“That first case came to me and, like a lot of people, you think, ‘Well, that’s just one bad priest. There can’t possibly be any more’ — even though we know about Boston, we know about L.A., we know about Milwaukee, and, lo and behold, what do we find out?” Pastor said. “That there were many priests in the diocese of Gallup and we know why — because the bishop of Gallup was picking his priests from the sex-offender treatment center there at Jemez Springs, New Mexico, and that’s got to be one of the poorest decisions anyone’s ever made.”

The Rev. James Wall, Gallup’s bishop for the last four years, did not respond to a message seeking comment, but issued a pre-prepared written statement though the diocese’s media liaison, the Rev. Tim Farrell of Farmington. The statement says that while the diocese can’t comment on pending litigation, Wall prays for the victims of abuse and urges anyone who has experienced misconduct by any official of the church to contact law enforcement.

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.

FALL RIVER (MA)
Herald News

Diocese of Fall River says lawsuit filed by woman in Rev. Porter sex abuse case continues ‘painful episode’

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

By Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Jun 24, 2013

More than 20 years later, the scandal of the Rev. James Porter continues to be a “painful episode” for the Diocese of Fall River.

On Monday, the diocese said it had not seen the latest lawsuit filed in a Minnesota state court on behalf of a woman there whom Porter abused several times from 1969-70.

The victim was 9 years old at the time. She said Porter molested her whenever he visited her family’s home and in the parish school in Bemidji, Minn., where he served as an assistant to the pastor.

The woman, now her in 50s, continues to suffer emotional distress, humiliation, loss of self-esteem and embarrassment, said Jeff Anderson, a civil attorney representing the plaintiff who has represented dozens of other sex abuse victims in lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

The lawsuit in Minnesota — where the statute of limitations does not apply in sex abuse cases — accuses the Diocese of Fall River and its co-defendants of negligence and seeks $50,000 in damages.

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

MINNESOTA/MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Somerset

By Brian Fraga

Below is a timeline of Father James Porter provided by Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing a Minnesota woman who says Porter abused her from 1969-70.

The plaintiff has filed a lawsuit against in a state court in Minnesota against the Diocese of Fall River, the Diocese of Crookston, Minn., and the Servants of the Paraclete, seeking $50,000 damages and a court order that the defendants release the names and files of all priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Timeline
1952 – graduates from Boston College High School
1956 – completes Mathematics degree from Boston College
April 2, 1960 – ordained a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, graduates from Baltimore seminary and assigned to St. Mary’s Church in North Attleborough.
1963 – Parents at St. Mary’s make complaints against Porter and he’s transferred to Sacred Heart Parish in Fall River, MA

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

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

BY PAUL MAGUIRE AAP JUNE 25, 2013

A JOURNALIST began a secret information exchange with a senior NSW police officer because she believed he was ready to investigate the concealment of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Hunter Valley.

Newcastle Herald reporter Joanne McCarthy told a special NSW commission of inquiry on Tuesday that was the reason behind her extensive contact with Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox from 2010.

Under cross examination by barrister Wayne Roser on behalf of several other senior police officers, Ms McCarthy denied her arrangement with Det Insp Fox had anything to do with difficulties he may have been encountering within the force.

When explaining a series of emails during 2010 and 2011 between herself and the officer, Ms McCarthy said: “He was ready to investigate concealment.

“Possibly he was feeling isolated and alone.

“I think I was a bit of a sounding board, I guess he was feeling pretty much on the outer and I was trying (she broke off and resumed) … possibly we were both feeling the same way.”

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

AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Paul Maquire
AAP

A NSW crime manager has told an inquiry he holds no animosity towards the whistleblower who alleges police and clergy covered up abuse allegations involving Catholic priests.

Newcastle crime manager Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey says he believes Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is a good detective.

“Despite what anyone may think, I have no animosity to (Detective Chief Inspector) Peter Fox,” he told the inquiry into the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by Hunter Valley Catholic priests on Tuesday.

“He’s a good detective, a very senior police officer and I have no problem with his work at all.”

Det Insp Fox secretly provided information to several journalists since 2010 for numerous newspaper, radio and televisions reports about child sexual abuse by priests.

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.

COLORADO
The Gazette

Published: June 24, 2013

By LANCE BENZEL lance.benzel@gazette.com –

During private encounters away from church, a Colorado Springs priest allegedly lavished attention on a 15-year-old altar boy – showering him with gifts and supplying him with booze, pot and cigarettes.

But according to the Rev. Charles Robert Manning’s one-time assistant, all that attention came with a price.

“He told me there were three things he wanted to do before he died: To kiss me, to see me naked and to have sex with me,” the former altar boy, now 18, told a jury Monday in recounting an alcohol-fueled day in the fall of 2011 in which he said Manning, 78, crossed all three wishes from his list.

Formerly a pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, 8755 Scarborough Drive in Colorado Springs, Manning has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and several related counts, some alleging he supplied the boy with drugs and alcohol.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

A former priest who pleaded guilty to abusing two altar boys over 20 years ago yesterday spoke of the shame of being among the most despised people in Irish society as he apologised to his victims for what he had done to them.

Patrick Crowley (62), a former priest of the diocese of Cork and Ross who was laicised in 2002, said it pained him to listen to the effect of his abuse on his victims.

Crowley took the stand at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday to apologise after pleading guilty to three counts of sexually assaulting one boy and six counts of sexually assaulting the other boy on various dates between September 1st, 1989, and May 31st, 1990.

“As a convicted paedophile I live with the reality that every day of my life I am among probably the most despised people in society. It is very hard to forget what I have done. I cannot pretend I did not know what I was doing was wrong,” said Crowley.

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

MINNESOTA
WDAZ

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

By: Cynthia Johnson, WDAZ

Attorneys for a woman suing the catholic diocese of crookston released internal church documents today that warned leaders one of their priests was a threat.

The documents date from 1967 to 1970. They are communications among the bishops of Fall River, Massachusetts, Crookston, Minnesota and other church officials. The documents are letters about Revered James Porter, who was removed from the priesthood in 1974 and in 1993 was convicted of molesting 28 children. He was a priest at St. Phillip Parish in Bemidji in 1969 when the victim, who is known as Doe 4, was allegedly sexually abused by Porter.

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

AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Athena Yenko | June 25, 2013

Joanne McCarthy, Newcastle Herald reporter, admitted in the Newcastle Supreme Court that NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell had summoned her for a “bizarre” request that “threw” her off and made her wish she was not there.

Ms. McCarthy said that the Commissioner requested for some tips on how to handle allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church’s Maitland-Newcastle diocese. She said that during the meeting, the Commissioner probed for names and numbers of all the abused victims.

Ms. McCarthy thinks that the “bizarre” request was provoked by a prior incident when she encouraged a sexual abuse victim to give a statement to the Commissioner. During the incident, she called for the victim to “get angry with him” referring to how the inquiring police handled the victim.

Ms. McCarthy also admitted flinching over accusations that she was “in league” with priest child abuse whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox or that her “alliance” made her took his side exclusively. She strongly denied allegations that she supported Inspector Fox’s “agenda against certain police.” She made it clear that her primary objective was “get the victims looked after.”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NEIL KEENE From: The Daily Telegraph June 25, 2013

A SENIOR police officer investigating child sex abuse in the Catholic Church said prosecutions “weren’t the way to go” when it came to historical offences, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

Newcastle journalist Joanne McCarthy told the inquiry, which resumed yesterday, that a senior police officer involved in investigations called her in 2010 to tell her a “truth and reconciliation” process might be more appropriate.

“I thought in my head: ‘As if’,” she said.

The first part of the commission of inquiry is looking into why police whistleblower Peter Fox was taken off the investigation and whether it was appropriate to remove him from the case.

Evidence expected to begin next week aims to shed light on whether the Catholic Church covered up instances of pedophilia, and if so to what extent.

Ms McCarthy, whose work prompted calls for a Royal Commission, said she had encountered various police hesitant to pursue the Catholic Church.

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.

NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

Bisschop Gijsen (80) is maandag in Sittard overleden. Dat heeft het bisdom Roermond laten weten. Hij was van 1972 tot 1993 bisschop van Roermond. Hij stond bekend als een eigenzinnige en zeer behoudende bisschop.

Sittard
Van onze verslaggever
Joannes Matthijs Gijsen werd geboren te Oeffelt (Noord-Brabant) op 7 oktober 1932. Op 6 april 1957 werd hij priester gewijd. Op 20 januari 1972 werd mgr. Gijsen, toen rector van het zusterklooster Sint-Elisabethdal in Nunhem, benoemd tot 22ste bisschop van Roermond.

Zijn bisschopswijding vond plaats in de Sint-Pietersbasiliek te Rome door paus Paulus VI op 13 februari van dat jaar. Op 4 maart vond de inbezitneming van de zetel in de Roermondse kathedraal plaats. Mgr. Gijsen bleef bisschop van Roermond tot 23 januari 1993. Hij werd rector van een klooster in Walpersdorf (Oostenrijk) tot hij op 12 oktober 1995 werd benoemd tot eerst apostolisch administrator en vanaf 25 mei 1996 tot bisschop van Reykjavik (IJsland). Dit bleef hij tot hij op 30 oktober 2007 met emeritaat ging. In 2007 kwam hij terug naar Nederland.

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.

SEATTLE (WA)
Wall Street Journal

SEATTLE, June 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Priests from across the U.S. gather in Seattle this week for The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests’ (AUSCP) second national assembly celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. (www.uscatholicpriests.org)

Almost a thousand priests across the U.S. are members of AUSCP. They will consider 15 resolutions representing their broad concerns and determine together what action will be taken on resolutions that pass.

There are resolutions that address the processes by which church authority is exercised; others address how bishops are selected; and some on the expansion of ordination. Particular initiatives include evangelization, general absolution, and the use of the 1974 Sacramentary.

Fr. David Cooper, AUSCP board chair, says, “AUSCP is committed to open and transparent discussion and to the careful consideration of the important proposals put forward by our members. We are encouraged that the array of these resolutions reflects the broad concerns of our membership. It should be an exciting assembly.”

Assembly speakers on Vatican II will be: Fr. Patrick Brennan, author of The Mission Driven Parish; Catherine Clifford, professor of theology at Saint Paul University, Ontario, Canada; Fr. James A. Coriden, canon law professor at Washington Theological Union; Robert Blair Kaiser, author and journalist for Time Magazine, and an award winning reporter on the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965); and Robert Mickens, current Vatican correspondent for The Tablet, an international Catholic weekly magazine.

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.

ITALIA
Wall Street Italia

ROMA (WSI) – “I filmati hard di festini in Vaticano sono conservati nella cassaforte di un notaio di Lugano. Me lo ha raccontato un imprenditore che lavora con la Santa Sede e io ho portato tutte le carte ai giudici”.

Parla Francesco Zanardi, presidente della “Rete abuso”, un’associazione italiana che ha raccolto negli anni decine e decine di denunce di giovani vittime di sacerdoti e che le ha puntualmente girate alla polizia.

Due anni fa da Zanardi si è presentato un imprenditore. E gli ha raccontato una storia di festini e adescamenti di ragazzi. Di fatti scabrosi accaduti dentro le mura della Santa Sede. “Ho preso il suo racconto con le pinze, inizialmente con molta diffidenza – racconta Zanardi -. Perché venire da me e perché dirmi quelle cose orribili? Mi ha risposto d’essere rimasto disgustato da quel mondo e che voleva uscire da un giro in cui era stato introdotto da un noto manager vicino alla Santa Sede. Erano i giorni in cui si parlava del Corvo in Vaticano. Ho capito, però, che qualcosa di vero c’era”.

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.

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 24, 2013

I have not seen the series premiere yet, but Showtime is streaming the whole first episode of their new series RAY DONOVAN on YouTube.

According to the Facebook page: “Set in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous, RAY DONOVAN does the dirty work for LA’s top power players. The one-hour drama series stars Liev Schreiber as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city’s elite disappear”

Why do I care (besides the fact that I really need a new show to watch now that I have seen all of the episodes of Walking Dead and Downton Abbey)? Well, it’s personal. Last year, the show’s production supervisor reached out to me because one of the show’s stars hoped to talk to victims of priest sexual abuse. Actor Dash Mihok wanted to create an accurate representation of his character Bunchy Donovan, Ray’s brother, who is a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. Since I personally could not help (I’m not male and not a victim of a priest), I put them in contact with my good friend Ken (an actor, as well as a survivor), who helped him wrap his arms around a complex and difficult subject.

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

MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

JUSTIN GLAWE
BEMIDJI PIONEER

BEMIDJI — As Jim Grimm stood on the sidewalk in front of St. Philip’s Catholic School Monday, two silent and unmoving faces stared back in photo form.

One, a young girl with a gap-toothed grin, neatly cut brunette hair and a red and white polka dot dress, and the second, an elderly man with glasses and a tan sweater.

The man was Rev. James Porter, a priest who molested Grimm and at least 20 other boys — then students at the school — in 1969-70. The girl, now a woman in her 50s living in the Bemidji area, is “Jane Doe 4,” who filed a lawsuit against Porter’s former employer, the Diocese of Crookston, Monday.

Jeff Anderson, an attorney who represented Grimm in the first round of lawsuits against the diocese 21 years ago, has been filing lawsuits on behalf of victims thanks to the Child Victims Act, signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton in May.

Anderson represents Jane Doe 4.

“They have a legal and moral obligation” to release internal files on priests suspected of abuse, Anderson said of the Diocese of Crookston.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

[Porter documents]

[Porter timeline]

[Porter laicization letter to the pope]

[Original laicization to the pope]

Allen Costantini

CROOKSTON, Minn. — A lawsuit filed by Saint Paul attorney Jeff Anderson in Crookston Monday morning charges The Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts and the Servants of the Paraclete group with a dozen counts of nuisance and negligence in their handling of former Priest James Porter.

Porter admitted or was linked to the abuse of more than 100 young boys and girls, dating back to the 1950’s. This lawsuit involves the case of a unnamed Minnesota woman, now in her 50’s, who alleges that Porter, who died in 2005, molested her while he was a priest at St. Phillips parish in Bemidgi in 1969 and 1970.

“And where she and her family had come to trust this very cunning, but very dangerous wolf in shepherd’s clothing, Father James Porter,” said Jeff Anderson.

Bemidgi is in the Crookson diocese. Porter became a priest and committed sex abuse while in the Fall River diocese. He was treated for his abusive practices by the Servants of the Paraclete group.

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

AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON June 25, 2013

The Newcastle Herald ­journalist awarded for her role in bringing about a royal commission into child sexual abuse has told a special inquiry Peter Fox was more eager to investigate ­allegations of clergy concealment than other police.

Winner of the Graham Perkin Award, Joanne McCarthy, gave evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry yesterday for the final week of hearings into the police investigations of alleged sexual abuse cover-ups by the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

Ms McCarthy said when she spoke to Detective Inspector David Waddell about a potential concealment he was “not wholeheartedly” convinced the matters should be investigated.

“I’m not saying that negatively … not saying you’re against doing something,” Ms McCarthy told the special inquiry.

Comparatively, she said Detective Chief Inspector Fox jumped hurdles some officers were unable to overcome because they were matters involving the church.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD June 24, 2013

FOR all its cast of characters, this Special Commission of Inquiry into the police handling of “certain child sexual abuse allegations” in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has a few star witnesses.

In an earlier bank of sittings, it was Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, whose allegations of collusion between church figures and senior police led to the inquiry in the first place.

Yesterday afternoon, though, it was the turn of Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy, whose six years of reporting on child sexual abuse has “shone the light” on a previously hidden shame.

As the committee heard, Ms McCarthy won the 2012 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award in March this year for her body of work on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in the Hunter Valley.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 24, 2013

AFTER a year of waiting for police to act on their investigations into alleged child abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church, journalist Joanne McCarthy took her concerns to the Police Integrity Commission.

Making her much-anticipated appearance before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, the Newcastle Herald journalist said her motivation stemmed from her desire to support abuse victims, one of whom had complained about how police had treated her.

She also told the inquiry that she had a heated conversation with then-Newcastle police commander and now Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell.

“I rang him to get angry with him and to let him know that I wasn’t happy [about the way that an abuse victim had been treated by police],” Ms McCarthy told the inquiry.

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

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

June 25, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell invited journalist Joanne McCarthy to a meeting with police so she could ”give them some tips” on handling allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church’s Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

McCarthy, a Fairfax Media reporter, told a commission of inquiry in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday she thought the suggestion was ”bizarre”. She said it ”threw me” to have been asked at the meeting by police for names and numbers of abuse victims, and she ”didn’t want to be there”.

She had earlier called Mr Mitchell to ”get angry with him” over police treatment of a victim who had offered a statement, with McCarthy’s encouragement.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A New South Wales inquiry into sex abuse by Hunter region Catholic priests says calls for it to be expanded to investigate claims about the shredding of police documents are outside its terms of reference.

The ABC’s Lateline program last week revealed that internal police documents relating to a key Catholic church body set up to deal with abuse cases, were shredded.

Later reports suggested the documents were only copies but the police whistleblower who prompted the Newcastle-based inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, yesterday called for its terms of reference to be expanded to look into the claims which he said “sent shivers down his spine”.

But in a statement last night, the Special Commission of Inquiry said the request had been considered, but it was decided it was outside its terms of reference.

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.

ISRAEL
Failed Messiah

A 45-year-old gay personal trainer and tour guide has come forward to claim that haredi Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger sexually harassed him five years ago.

Another Gay Sexual Harassment Allegation Against Chief Rabbi Surfaces
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

A 45-year-old gay personal trainer and tour guide has come forward to claim that haredi Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger sexually harassed him five years ago.

Ynet reported that the man says he came forward now because Metzger was questioned under caution by the police last week week in a fraud, breach of public trust, money laundering and embezzlement allegations investigation which has also resulted in the arrests of three of Metzger’s associates, a police raid on Metzger’s home and on his office, and Metzger being put on house arrest for 15 days beginning last Thursday.

There are multiple sexual harassment allegations against Metzger that have previously been made public. Some of those allegations stretch back as far as the late 1980s. The most recent incident made public before this allegedly took place a few months ago.

The personal trainer-tour guide says the incident took place when he accompanied a group of priests to a meeting with Metzger in the chief rabbinate in Jerusalem.

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.

ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
6/24/2013

The detention of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger’s former driver and personal assistant, Haim Nissan Eisenshtat, was extended on Monday by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court until at least June 30 in the bribery and fraud case which has nearly brought down the chief rabbi and three others on bribery, money-laundering and fraud allegations.

Two other suspects, Simcha Karkovsky – manager of the Beit Hatavshil charity in Bnei Brak, and Nissan Ben-Zion Zioni – manager of a beit midrash study hall and rabbinical school in Tel Aviv, were both released to house arrest under various conditions.

The decision comes following a successful appeal by the three on Sunday before the Lod District Court in which it overruled the Rishon Lezion court’s earlier decision extending the suspects detention for longer.

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.

ISRAEL
JTA

By Ben SalesJune 24, 2013

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim of the haredi Orthodox organization Eda Haharedit shares little common ground with Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, a religious pluralism activist.

But when news broke last week that Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, was arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, Pappenheim and Regev had the same reaction: Who cares?

For Pappenheim, the chief rabbi is a political figure who has scant influence as a religious leader.

And to Regev, he represents a coercive religious authority whose actions have little meaning for Israel’s secular majority.

Both regard the chief rabbi’s legal troubles as both unsurprising and largely irrelevant.

“Whom does the chief rabbi serve?” asked Regev, who heads Hiddush, a religious pluralism nonprofit. “The secular sector has no connection to the rabbinate. It doesn’t have any expectations of the chief rabbinate.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

“Regardless of whether mandatory reporting laws were in place, any right-thinking person would have realised that the sodomy of children was a serious crime which merited police investigation, no matter who the alleged perpetrator was. It is offensive and irresponsible to suggest that an 11-year-old child could have consented to sexual activity with someone 10 years his senior – in fact Australian law has always deemed such behaviour to be statutory rape.”

For immediate release
Monday 24 June 2013

[The Australian victims advocacy group] Tzedek strongly condemns and is appalled by the callous views and behaviour of Rabbi Boruch Lesches as reported in The Age.

We expect the police to thoroughly investigate all claims relating to the rape and sexual abuse of children at Yeshivah, irrespective of when this is alleged to have occurred, and to vigorously pursue any perpetrators and their enablers to the full extent of the law, including considering extradition of anyone now living overseas who is credibly accused of committing a serious criminal offence.

If Rabbi Lesches was indeed aware of the allegations that children under Yeshiva’s care had been assaulted and raped by a person known to him, his behaviour is both immoral and unfathomable. Regardless of whether mandatory reporting laws were in place, any right-thinking person would have realised that the sodomy of children was a serious crime which merited police investigation, no matter who the alleged perpetrator was. It is offensive and irresponsible to suggest that an 11-year-old child could have consented to sexual activity with someone 10 years his senior – in fact Australian law has always deemed such behaviour to be statutory rape.

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

AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Boruch Lesches issued a partial apology last night for saying that young victims of child sexual abuse may have wanted the sex and consented to it. But Lesches – who did not apologize for claiming that “goyyim” as young as five willingly have sex with dogs and with their own siblings because they are bored and don’t have much to do (unlike Jews, who have lots of Torah to study) – apparently lied several times in that apology.

Rabbi Boruch Lesches – Chabad’s former rosh yeshiva in Sydney, Australia and its current mora d’asra (chief rabbi) in Monsey, New York – issued a partial apology for saying that young victims of child sexual abuse may have wanted the sex and consented to it, largely by claiming that his remarks were taken out of context and that the Australian newspapers that had the tape of his comments did not try to contact him before accusing him publicly.

But Lesches – who did not apologize for claiming that “goyyim” as young as five willingly have sex with dogs and with their own siblings because they are bored and don’t have much to do (unlike Jews, who have lots of Torah to study) – apparently on those and accounts, as The Age reported today:

…Despite Rabbi Lesches clearly recalling in the telephone conversation the alleged abuse of one Sydney boy, he said in his statement [i.e., the partial apology] that he was “never informed of any allegations regarding minors prior to this call”.

“In retrospect I am shocked to hear of these allegations, because I often entrusted my own young children to the care of the alleged perpetrator, without hesitation. I would never have done so had I known of the allegations,” he said.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Times

Michael Mickler

New York, June 24, 2013 — Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was elected 266th pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013. As the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, he has completed his first 100 days in office. Unlike American presidents, there’s no expectation of this period being a benchmark of his early success. Nor did Francis come into the pontificate with a ready-made plan of action. In fact, he admitted to being “disorganized.”

Still, he inherited a church at a crossroads, if not in crisis. Exposure of “backbiting, corruption and cronyism” inside the Vatican, the so-called “Vatileaks,” hastened the previous pontiff’s departure. Following Francis’ election, Erin McClam of NBC News wrote that he had “a to-do list as long as his cassock.” She suggested he faced seven major challenges: cleaning house at the Vatican; leading the church out of the sex abuse scandal; getting along with other faiths; winning the West; should women be priests and priests marry; modernization; and persecution. …

Leading the church out of the sex abuse scandal

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) noted Francis was not on its list of “the worst choices for pope.” There was no evidence of his complicity or cover-up of abuses. Still, he was among many of the world’s Catholic bishops — fully 25% — who failed to meet a deadline for establishing policies to deal with complaints and priests who were accused, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Three weeks into his pontificate, Francis I told the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s chief enforcement agency, to “act decisively with regard to cases of sexual abuse.” SNAP officials dismissed this as “empty rhetoric,” once again, “a top Catholic official asking another top Catholic official to take action about pedophile priests and complicit bishops … Big deal.”

It is clear that Francis I will need to do much more (discipline offenders, reveal histories) to establish his credentials as a leader capable of combating the scourge of predatory priests.

Grade: C

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.

ARIZONA/NEW MEXICO
Sacramento Bee

By Montoya, Jimenez & Pastor, P.A.

Published: Monday, Jun. 24, 2013

PHOENIX, June 24, 2013 — /PRNewswire/ — A Catholic bishop allegedly engaged in an active and on-going attempt to cover-up clergy sexual abuse, according to civil lawsuits filed by two women and ten men against the Diocese of Gallup and its priests. This brings the total number of lawsuits pending against the Diocese of Gallup to 13. The Diocese of Gallup includes northern Arizona. All of the lawsuits were filed by Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor in Coconino County Superior Court. The law firm of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi are co-counsel.

The lawsuits allege that the Bishop of Gallup protected pedophile priests by assigning them to poor rural towns along historic Route 66. The priests were routinely assigned to small parishes made up of mostly Hispanic families.

These 6 priests of the Diocese of Gallup are accused of misconduct: The Revs. William Allison, John T. Sullivan, Clement Hageman, Raul Sanchez, Brother Mark Schomack, and Monsignor James Lindenmeyer. The lawsuits include the following facts and allegations:

Rev. William Allison:

*Originally from the Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana;
*Patient at the sexual abuse treatment center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico run by the Servants of the Paraclete;
*Bishop of Gallup assigned him to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Flagstaff, Ariz;
*Bishop of Gallup asked Fr. James Lindenmeyer to keep a close eye on him.
*Lindenmeyer wrote the Bishop “that three boys came to me and have told me of incidents involving *Father Allison and I have no reason whatsoever to doubt their word.”
*Neither the Bishop nor Lindenmeyer reported the sexual abuse to police. Instead, the lawsuit alleges *Lindenmeyer “requested that all this be kept in the strictest of confidence, just as the seal of the confessional.”

Rev. John T. Sullivan:

*Sullivan allegedly sexually abused Catholic children in New Hampshire before arriving in Arizona.
*The Bishop of Grand Rapids, Michigan wrote to other Catholic bishops stating that he “honestly believe[d] Father Sullivan is a psychopath [and] while nothing of an immoral nature came out in the open while he was with us, there were indications of his conduct with children.”
*Sullivan became a patient at the sex offender treatment facility Via Coeli located in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
*The superior general of the treatment center, Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, stated he was “very much disturbed by this errant padre. He has been in very serious difficulties in every parish in which he has served. Priests who have known him are of the opinion that he should have been laicized years ago. *The scandals in which he has been involved have been most serious and it is amazing that he has escaped civil prosecution.”
*Gallup assigned Sullivan to Madre de Dios Catholic Church in Winslow, Ariz.
*The Bishop of Gallup reported to other bishops that Sullivan “was doing a fine job and was very much liked by the poor Mexican people among whom he was working.”
*The lawsuit alleges that the Diocese of Gallup knew or should have known Sullivan would continue to sexually abuse the children of the families at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Rev. Raul Sanchez:

*The Catholic Church helped Sanchez emigrate from Mexico to the United States where he become an United States Citizen.
*The Bishop of Gallup sent him to a prestigious university in Rome where he obtained his degree in Cannon Law.
*He was made Chancellor of the then Diocese of Gallup.
*Sanchez was suddenly reassigned to serve as a chaplain in the U.S. military.
*In the lawsuits, Pastor alleges that the Diocese of Gallup received “complaints of sexual misconduct by Father Sanchez toward boys and or girls.”
*Lawsuits allege the decision to assign Sanchez to positions outside the Diocese of Gallup is part of a pattern and practice designed to “avoid scandal and news of [Fr. Sanchez’] sexual misconduct.”

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.

ITALIA
Libera

Il presidente dell’associazione, Francesco Zanardi, riporta alla magistratura il racconto di un imprenditore italiano che sostiene di aver preso parte a incontri sessuali

LUGANO – Filmati hard di festini in Vaticano sarebbero conservati nella cassaforte di un notaio di Lugano. È la dichiarazione shock che riporta questa mattina il Caffè, che ha raccolto la testimonianza di Francesco Zanardi, presidente di “Rete abuso”, un’associazione italiana che raccoglie da anni denunce di giovani vittime di sacerdoti, girandole in seguito alla polizia.

Zanardi ha così messo in luce i fatti dei quali è venuto a conoscenza due anni fa, quando un imprenditore che lavora con la Santa Sede gli si è presentato raccontandogli storie di festini e adescamenti di ragazzi avvenuti dietro le mura del Vaticano.

“Ho preso il suo racconto con le pinze, inizialmente con molta diffidenza – racconta Zanardi al Caffè -. Perché venire da me e perché dirmi quelle cose orribili? Mi ha risposto d’essere rimasto disgustato da quel mondo e che voleva uscire da un giro in cui era stato introdotto da un noto manager vicino alla Santa Sede. Erano i giorni in cui si parlava del Corvo in Vaticano. Ho capito, però, che qualcosa di vero c’era”.

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.

ITALIA
Libero Quotidiano

Parla il presidente di Rete Abuso. Un imprenditore tedesco consegna le prove in duplice copia. Ma la Procura ha molti dubbi su questa storia

Video pornografici che immortalano alte cariche del Vaticano mentre abusano di giovani minori durante alcuni, segretissimi, festini sarebbero stati depositati presso un prestigioso notaio di Lugano. Questa l’ultima rivelazione choc di Francesco Zanardi, presidente di Rete Abuso impegnato nella tutela dei diritti minorili, primo a denunciare il presunto scandalo che coinvolgerebbe una fitta rete di prelati del Vaticano. L’inchiesta, partita dalle pagine del Fatto Quotidiano, ha posto l’accento sulla probabile esistenza di prove che documenterebbero i fatti, orribili, accaduti tra le mura vaticane. Festini hard, abusi, giovani minorenni: questo ciò che sarebbe stato documentato in alcuni filmati realizzati direttamente dai giovani coinvolti e custoditi presso uno studio notarile nel centro della cittadina svizzera.

Gola profonda – A rendere nota l’indiscrezione Francesco Zanardi, paladino della crociata contro la pedofilia (e anche lui vittima di abusi da piccolo). Se l’indiscrezione dovesse essere confermata porterebbe importanti novità sul caso delle orge con minori in vaticano. La denuncia sarebbe partita da una fonte top secret, un imprenditore tedesco con rilevanti agganci in Santa Sede, che avrebbe depositato regolare denuncia presso i magistrati italiani che, a loro volta, avrebbero aperto un fascicolo di indagine. Zanardi ha raccontato a Il Caffè di essere entrato in contatto con l’imprenditore circa due anni fa quando, all’epoca, il presidente di Rete Abuso era riuscito a smascherare un prete pedofilo, don Italo Casiraghi, che nonostante la condanna per abusi continuava a svolgere le sue funzioni parrocchiali presso Pietra Ligure.

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.

ITALIA
il Caffe

MAURO SPIGNESI

“I filmati hard di festini in Vaticano sono conservati nella cassaforte di un notaio di Lugano. Me lo ha raccontato un imprenditore che lavora con la Santa Sede e io ho portato tutte le carte ai giudici”. Parla Francesco Zanardi, presidente della “Rete abuso”, un’associazione italiana che ha raccolto negli anni decine e decine di denunce di giovani vittime di sacerdoti e che le ha puntualmente girate alla polizia.

Due anni fa da Zanardi si è presentato un imprenditore. E gli ha raccontato una storia di festini e adescamenti di ragazzi. Di fatti scabrosi accaduti dentro le mura della Santa Sede. “Ho preso il suo racconto con le pinze, inizialmente con molta diffidenza – racconta Zanardi -. Perché venire da me e perché dirmi quelle cose orribili? Mi ha risposto d’essere rimasto disgustato da quel mondo e che voleva uscire da un giro in cui era stato introdotto da un noto manager vicino alla Santa Sede. Erano i giorni in cui si parlava del Corvo in Vaticano. Ho capito, però, che qualcosa di vero c’era”.

Zanardi, molestato da bambino, è una specie di “cacciatore di pedofili”. Viaggia in lungo e in largo per l’Europa, ha un database ricco di dati, nomi e fatti. Cerca di capire dove sono finiti i preti condannati, se sono ancora in attività e se hanno ancora a che fare con i ragazzi. Raccoglie le notizie, le verifica, e se ritiene che abbiano un fondo di verità e un profilo penale le passa alla magistratura. È lui che ha scovato nell’esilio di Pietra Ligure don Italo Casiraghi, l’ex parroco di Gordola condannato nel 2005 per atti sessuali con fanciulli. “L’ho anche filmato, e il video l’ho messo su internet, mentre celebrava la messa – racconta -. E pensare che il parroco del paese mi aveva detto che non era più in attività”.

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.

ITALIA
Giornalesttismo

di Dario Ferri – 24/06/2013 – Il presidente di “Rete Abuso” aggiunge un altro elemento al caso dei festini hard rivelato dal “Fatto Quotidiano”

I video hard che ritraggono alti prelati del Vaticano mentre abusano di giovani minori in festini top secreti sarebbero custoditi da un notaio di Lugano. E’ la denuncia shock di Francesco Zanardi, presidente di “Rete Abuso” e rivelatore dell’ancora presunto scandalo che coinvolgerebbe il Vaticano.

NASCOSTI A LUGANO – Una decina di giorni fa il “Fatto Quotidiano” aveva rivelato l’esistenza di prove che documenterebbero lo svolgimento di festini hard nei quali alti prelati del Vaticano molesterebbero giovani minorenni. I video che proverebbero questi abusi, filmati dagli stessi ragazzi coinvolti in questa vicenda, sarebbero custoditi presso un prestigioso studio notarile della più importante città della Svizzera italiana, Lugano. La rivelazione shock è stata fornita da Francesco Zanardi, noto attivista che lotta contro la pedofilia, anch’egli vittima di molestie sessuali da piccolo, e presidente di “Rete Abuso”. Zanardi ha confessato questa importante, se sarà confermata, novità sul caso delle orge con minori in Vaticano al settimanale ticinese “Il Caffè” , che ne ha fatto storia di copertina della sua ultima edizione. La rivelazione sarebbe stata a fatta al presidente di “Rete Abuso” da un imprenditore tedesco con importanti agganci all’interno della Santa Sede, e come ha dichiarato lo stesso Zanardi, la denuncia è già stata presentata presso i magistrati italiani, che hanno aperto un fascicolo di indagine.

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

St. John of God Brother, Kevin McGrath is to be extradited from New Zealand to Australia to face 252 charges of child sexual abuse in the Newcastle- Maitland area. His case, strangely, has not come up at the New South Wales government enquiry.

This is particularly so, because of the errors by the NSW police in the extradition process.

McGrath had been a teacher and dormitory master at the St. John of God boarding school for boys with learning and behavioural difficulties, “Marylands” in New Zealand. He also worked with the Hebron Trust, which was a learning centre for street kids.

In 1993, he was sentenced to three years prison for offences against these boys. If they had already been having difficulties, they would have had severe ones after McGrath had finished with them.

In 2006, he was convicted on a further 22 charges in New Zealand, and released on bail in 2008. By this time, one would assume that authorities would be fairly well convinced that he would be found guilty of the 252 charges raised from his time at the notorious KendalGrangeCollege in Morisset, in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese.

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

Australia’s Catholic Cardinal, George Pell (pictured above, entering court with former housemate Fr. Gerald Ridsdale) has been spared a problem.

Ridsdale, Australia’s worst paedophile priest, was eligible for parole this month. However, his application for parole was rejected by the Victorian Adult Parole Board after more people spoke out on allegations of abuse, causing a new investigation. Despite considering Ridsdale’s bid for freedom, the Adult Parole Board ruled to defer any decision until receiving the outcome of Victoria Police’s probe.

The Victorian Adult Parole Board, newly headed by Elizabeth Curtain, has been under fire over recent parole decisions, notably a case where a serial, violent sex offender was released, then assaulted and murdered ABC radio staffer, Jill Meagher, from Ireland.

Ridsdale was being urged to reveal how the church helped cover up his illegal activities. His victims say he should give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. “If he started to talk about what he knew, the Catholic Church house of cards would come tumbling down,” one of Ridsdale’s victims said.

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

KENTUCKY
WDRB

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) — The trial for a former Louisville priest accused of sex abuse has been delayed. James Schook was supposed to go on trial Monday, but both sides agreed that he can be evaluated by a state psychiatric facility.

Schook is accused of abusing two boys in the 1970s, but was just charged in 2011.

Last week, his attorneys said Schook was too sick to go on trial due to his having terminal skin cancer. The case has been delayed before because doctors said Schook might not live until the end of the year.

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.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Leader-Telegram

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE – The Archdiocese of Milwaukee plans to make dozens of priests’ personnel files public in the next week, along with hundreds of pages of other documents that sex abuse victims hope will hold Roman Catholic leaders accountable for transferring abusive priests to other parishes and concealing their crimes for decades.

The documents are being released as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and victims suing it for fraud.

The archdiocese has said the records will include personnel files for 42 priests with verified claims of abuse against them, along with depositions from top church officials, including New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who previously led the Milwaukee archdiocese. The documents are to be posted on the archdiocese’s website by July 1.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Nick Xenophon says senate must consider principles of parliamentary privilege over priest naming

MICHAEL OWEN From: The Australian June 25, 2013

INDEPENDENT senator Nick Xenophon says Senate President John Hogg must consider important principles of parliamentary privilege if he probes the incorrect naming of an Adelaide priest as a perpetrator of clerical sexual abuse.

Senator Xenophon yesterday stopped short of agreeing to accept any sanction from the Senate over his actions.

“I am not going to pre-empt anything the Senate does – but there are also important principles of privilege at stake and the reasons for it,” he said.

“I am confident the President of the Senate will deal with the complaint fairly and promptly, unlike the way the Adelaide Archdiocese of the Catholic Church dealt with John Hepworth’s complaints.”

Senator Xenophon used parliamentary privilege in September 2011 to name Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of three priests who allegedly abused former head of the Traditional Anglican Communion John Hepworth in a Catholic seminary the 1960s.

The South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions recommended earlier this month that no abuse charges be laid against Monsignor Dempsey, after a 19-month investigation found there was insufficient evidence for a jury to have a reasonable chance of conviction.

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

IRELAND
RTE News

A former Catholic priest, who confessed to sexually assaulting two altar boys in the sacristy of a Co Cork church over 20 years ago, has been imprisoned for 12 months.

Patrick Crowley, 62, with an address at Cuan Mhuire, Athy, Co Kildare, admitted sexually assaulting one boy on six occasions and the second boy on three occasions on dates between September 1989 and June 1990.

Cork Circuit Criminal Court was told the abuse took place after morning mass.

One victim described what happened to him as his “dirty secret.”

He said it changed him from a happy go-lucky, carefree boy, to a cagey, secretive one.

He recalled his gut wrenching fear and anxiety and said he felt he was being preyed upon and actively hunted.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
intern-at.de

Angestoßen durch die Presseveröffentlichungen und die Fernsehauftritte von Alexander Probst und Franz Wittenbrink haben sich einige Ehemalige der Regensburger Domspatzen zusammengesetzt um an einer möglichst vollständigen Darstellung der früheren Zustände an den Schulen und Internaten in Regensburg und Etterzhausen/Pielenhofen sowie einer möglichst umfassenden Aufklärung der sexuellen Übergriffe mitzuwirken.

Anlass hierfür sind vor allem die bagatellisierenden Darstellungen durch handelnde Personen (wie beispielsweise Georg Ratzinger und Sturmius Wagner) in der Öffentlichkeit, und auch die verharmlosenden Stellungnahmen auf der Homepage der Regensburger Domspatzen und der oberflächlichen Berichterstattung auf den Internetseiten des Bistums Regensburg.

Dies ist umso erstaunlicher, wenn man bedenkt, dass auch heute sowohl in der Chorleitung wie auch in der Schulleitung Personen tätig sind, die diese Zeiten selbst miterlebt haben. Es drängt sich hier leider wieder der Eindruck auf, dass nur maximal soviel in der Öffentlichkeit zugegeben werden soll, wie sich aufgrund der Darstellung in den Medien nicht mehr verheimlichen lässt. Selbst uns bekannte Opfer die sich heute noch in Diensten bzw. scheinbaren Abhängigkeiten zur kath. Kirche befinden, umgeben sich bei telefonischer Nachfrage weiterhin mit der Mauer des Schweigens, die die jahrzehntelangen Missstände erst ermöglicht haben.

Uns allen ist klar, dass sich auch in der Zukunft Übergriffe und Missbrauch nicht vollständig verhindern lassen. Aber nur mit einer umfassenden Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit, wird sich ein Bewusstsein schaffen lassen, das die Anzahl solcher Vorfälle vermindert. Und ein einziger Fall, der durch eine solche Aufarbeitung in der Zukunft verhindert wird, rechtfertigt diese für manchen auch schmerzliche Aufklärung.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
intern-at.de

Unter der fast wortgleichen Überschrift verbreitet das Bistum Regensburg auf seiner Homepage seit Januar 2013 falsche Darstellungen und versucht durch Halbwahrheiten und unwahre Behauptungen ausgesuchte Betroffene des sexuellen Missbrauchs bei den Regensburger Domspatzen in der Öffentlichkeit unglaubwürdig zu machen (für Interessierte hier der Link: Bistum Regensburg – Stellungnahme zu den Äußerungen Herrn Alexander Probst).

Zu Beginn des Textes heißt es:
„Jede Beschuldigung gibt das Bistum Regensburg weiter an die Staatsanwaltschaft. Stellt die das Verfahren wegen Verjährung ein, strengen wir kirchenrechtliche Aufarbeitung an. Für den Fall, dass dies nicht möglich ist, weil der Schuldige verstorben ist, hat die Kirche als einzige Institution in Deutschland ein Anerkennungsverfahren eingeführt…“

Dies ist eine eindeutige Fälschung der „Leistungen in Anerkennung des Leids, das Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs zugefügt wurde“, wie sie im März 2011 von der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz veröffentlicht wurde. Dort heißt es nämlich „Das vorliegende Papier behandelt ausschließlich Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger, bei denen eine Schmerzensgeld- oder Schadensersatzleistung aufgrund von eingetretener Verjährung rechtlich nicht mehr durchsetzbar ist.“ Davon, dass der Schuldige verstorben sein muss, steht da nichts geschrieben.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Vor mehr als drei Jahren wurde der sogenannte Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche bekannt. Bistümer und Orden versprachen nach dem Bekanntwerden der Taten, die Opfer zu entschädigen, die Vergehen aufzuarbeiten und dafür zu sorgen, dass sich so etwas in der Zukunft nicht wiederhole. Was ist aus alledem inzwischen geworden? Irene Esmann hat nachgefragt.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Gut drei Jahre ist es her, dass die katholische Kirche in Deutschland vom Missbrauchsskandal überrollt wurde. Es gab viele Entschuldigungen der Amtskirche sowie das Versprechen, die Fälle aufzuarbeiten. Was ist daraus geworden?

Von: Irene Esmann
Stand: 20.06.2013

Die Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in der katholischen Kirche erfolgt in “unterschiedlichen Geschwindigkeiten”, so drückt es Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig aus, der von der Bundesregierung eingesetzte unabhängige Beauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs. Die deutschen Bistümer richteten einen Entschädigungsfonds ein, die Benediktinermönche in Ettal machten erst kürzlich mit einer wissenschaftlichen Studie auf sich aufmerksam, die auch von Seiten der Betroffenen als großer Schritt in die richtige Richtung gewürdigt wird. Dem gegenüber stehen der Ausstieg der Diözesen aus einem wissenschaftlichen Projekt mit dem kriminologischen Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen und die Beschwerden von Betroffenen, ihre Anträge auf Entschädigung seien nicht weitergeleitet und mit Serienbriefen abgeschmettert worden.

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.

OSTERREICH
Katholisches

(Wien) Die Priesterrebellen der österreichischen „Pfarrer-Initiative“ um den ehemaligen Wiener Generalvikar Helmut Schüller, den Linzer Priester Peter Paul Kasper und den Pfarrer Gerald Gump gaben heute, Mittwoch, eine Pressekonferenz in Wien. Sie erklärten in Papst Franziskus einen „Hoffnungsträger“ zu sehen. Verstanden wissen wollen sie das jedoch nicht als Gehorsamserklärung gegenüber dem Papst, sondern im Sinne, daß der Papst die Forderungen der „Pfarrer-Initiative“ erfüllen solle. Wörtlich als „Hoffnungsträger“ bezeichnete auch Wiens Erzbischof Kardinal Schönborn Papst Franziskus erst vor wenigen Tagen, was wohl anders gemeint war, als es sich die Rebellen denken.
Die Rebellen fordern „Anerkennung von Grundrechten für alle Getauften“. Konkret meinen die zum Teil im offenen Konkubinat lebenden Priester „freien Zugang“ zu den Sakramenten und zwar zu allen, auch zu den Weiheämtern „egal ob Frauen oder Männer und ob verheiratet oder unverheiratet“.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian June 25, 2013

A FAIRFAX reporter who spent years working with the detective at the centre of a NSW government inquiry into Catholic church child abuse said yesterday the policeman might have been motivated by a personal agenda against his colleagues.

The reporter, Joanne McCarthy of The Newcastle Herald, moved to distance herself from the detective, Peter Fox, telling the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry that “my job, as he sees it, is to criticise the NSW Police”.

The inquiry was established after Detective Chief Inspector Fox publicly claimed he was “ordered to stand down” from the investigation into an alleged cover-up relating to a pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

“He believed that he should have been involved in the investigation,” McCarthy told the inquiry. “That’s his position.”

In a 2010 email sent to McCarthy, two years before he went public with his claims, Chief Inspector Fox said he hoped to withhold witness statements he had taken from police investigating the alleged conspiracy. This email went on to state that two of his superior officers were “practising Catholics”, although McCarthy told the inquiry she “didn’t buy into” the policeman’s argument.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 24/06/2013
Reporter: Emma Alberici

The NSW special commission of inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church resumed in Newcastle and heard both praise and criticism for the police officer who sparked the inquiry Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church resumed today in Newcastle with praise and criticism for detective chief inspector Peter Fox, the police officer who sparked the inquiry.

The journalist who Peter Fox has described as his informant, Joanne McCarthy from the Newcastle Herald, took the stand today.

She described Peter Fox as having a different approach to his investigations, saying he was pretty keen compared to other police.

Ms McCarthy also told the inquiry she was phoned by another senior police officer in the Hunter who said the internal Church documents she’d supplied to investigators would not lead to a prosecution.

JOANNE MCCARTHY, NEWCASTLE HERALD (female voiceover): “On 13th August, 2010, I received a call from police officer Stephen Ray. He told me that in regards to the Catholic Church, prosecutions weren’t the way to go. He said a Truth and Reconciliation Commission might be the better way to go.”

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.

ISRAEL
Israel Hayom

Mordechai Gilat

In a normal country, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, who is embroiled in a criminal scandal, would have spent the past few days in a jail cell, all by himself with nothing but the famous odor of Lysol to keep him company. He would have been behind bars, like any other suspect. He would have been questioned under caution and exposed to some of the evidence against him in the interrogation room.

After all, he is the prime suspect in a serious fraud case and there is no reason to show him any courtesy. The needs of the investigation mandated that all he and the other three suspects — who also enjoyed the same courtesy by default — be remanded in police custody, with or without undercover agents in their cells to get them to incriminate themselves, to thwart any possibility that they would coordinate their testimonies or obstruct the investigation.

But this is not a normal country and here Metzger was remanded to house arrest, with the help of his longtime attorney David Libai, who has successfully seen him through previous scandals and who knows his client very well.

Libai, a former justice minister, is usually recruited to defend the creme de la creme of white-collar and corruption suspects; those who are in dire, or seemingly dire, legal straits, and those whose case seems to be a lost cause. They call on him to bail them out of jail and see them through a serious indictment or lengthy sentence. He is reputable and well-connected and his rates are very high.

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.

ISRAEL
Harretz

By Yair Ettinger | Jun.24, 2013

How will the investigation of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger affect the elections set to take place a month from now, which will determine who the chief rabbis will be for the next ten years? Although it’s very hard to predict how the 150-member electoral committee will behave, the investigation of Metzger is undermining the confidence of the Haredi candidates from Shas and Degel Hatorah who were thought of as favorites since legislation that would have strengthened the religious-Zionist candidates was shelved last week. This is how the election campaign, with all its instability, appears at the moment — and there could be further upheavals in store over the next month.

Of the 150 members of the electoral committee, 123 are known for their positions as chief rabbis of cities and local authorities, rabbinic judges, mayors and heads of religious councils. Twenty others are representatives of the public, appointed by the chief rabbis and by the minister of religious services. Among the remaining seven are two ministers — Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz and Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, who were appointed on Sunday, and another five members of Knesset.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein must now decide what will happen to Rabbi Metzger’s representatives on the committee. By law, each of the two chief rabbis appoints five representatives of the public. Metzger and his Sephardi colleague, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, handed in their lists last Thursday, shortly before Metzger’s investigation began. Metzger’s list contains one prominent name, that of Rabbi Ben-Tzion Tzioni, the same man who was arrested last Thursday and was allegedly one of the people who gave bribe money to the chief rabbi. His name allegedly links the two, a matter that the police will be probing, while the four other representatives will come under scrutiny for other reasons.

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.

ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Dr. Samuel Lebens / Jewish World blogger | Jun.24, 2013

Apparently, Rabbi Joseph Soloveithchik, the great Modern Orthodox leader and scholar, was practically offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel. Legend has it that he was assured that if he wanted the position, David Ben-Gurion would personally see to it that he would be selected. As the story has it, Soloveitchik declined the offer partly because it was the case that Ben-Gurion, a secular prime minister of a secular government actually had the sort of power to appoint whoever he saw fit to preside over the Rabbinate of Israel (for a more historically accurate account of Soloveitchik’s potential candidacy, see Rabbi Jeffery Sack’s article on the issue). Certainly, Prof. Isaiah Leibowitz refused to support Soloveitchik’s candidacy for the following reason:

“I view the very institution of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel – religious leadership established by an atheistic government for reasons of political gain, religious leadership functioning with the authority of such government and entwined in its bureaucracy – as a prostitution of religion, destruction of the Torah, and desecration of God … I wish to further point out that I’ve heard from friends in the United States that R. Soloveitchik himself has privately expressed his complete agreement with what I have written … regarding separation of religion and state.”

Indeed, without going quite so far, Soloveitchik did later say himself that, “the Chief Rabbinate is ensnared in the political net … It proves that this holy institution is nothing more than a ball for the political parties to play with.”

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.

ISRAEL
YNet

Reuven Weiss, Akiva Novick
Published: 06.24.13

A 45-year-old trainer has accused Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger of sexually harassing him some five years ago, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.

The personal fitness trainer, who is a homosexual, said he decided to talk after the rabbi was questioned under caution by the police this week on suspicion of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust and money laundering.

The trainer, who also worked as a tour guide, said on Sunday that the alleged incident took place as he was accompanying a group of priests who had met with Metzger at the chief rabbi’s office in Jerusalem during their visit to Israel.

“During the meeting I sensed that Rabbi Metzger did not stop looking at me,” the man recalled. “After the meeting he approached me and said he could help me get work as a tour guide for groups visiting Israel. He asked for my phone number, and then asked if I would accompany him to his office. When we entered he closed the door, and from here things got really weird. He asked if I worked as a trainer and said he was looking for one. He told me he also wanted to get massages. I was shocked.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 24 June 2013 (VIS) –.Today, the Holy Father appointed Fr. Mario Leon Dorado, O.M.I., as apostolic prefect of Western Sahara. Fr. Leon Dorado is currently administrator of the same Apostolic Prefecture.

On Saturday, 22 June, the Holy Father: …

– accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, USA, presented by Bishop John Charles Dunne, upon having reached the age limit.

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.

INDIANA
News-Sentinel

News-Sentinel staff reports
Monday, June 24, 2013

The priest removed from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hessen Cassel admitted to allegations of child abuse after being confronted, according to Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

Rhoades has named the Rev. William Kummer as the church’s new administrator. Its previous administrator, the Rev. Cornelius Ryan, was removed June 10 because of the allegation of past sexual abuse of a minor.

Kummer, whose appointment is effective July 16, is no stranger to Fort Wayne, previously serving at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 4500 Fairfield Ave. The diocesan website, www.diocesefwsb.org, lists him as the current pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church in Plymouth.

Rhoades made the announcement after he finished celebrating the 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday at St. Joseph, according to a copy of his remarks made available by the diocese.

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.

NEDERLAND
NRC

[Summary: The bishop, 80, has died. Gijsen was the highest Dutch Church leader who was charged with child abuse. According to a complaint lodged against him, Gijsen – when chaplain in Valkenburg – in 1958 committed extensive sexual acts with the 10-year-old son of a parishioner in 1958. The now 64-year-old man filed his complaint in this regard in 2009, before the abuse scandal in the Netherlands was revealed.]

Jo Gijsen, de bisschop van Roermond van 1972 tot 1993, is overleden. Dat heeft het bisdom vanmiddag bekendgemaakt. Gijsen werd 80 jaar oud. Hij was al langere tijd ernstig ziek.

Tijdens zijn ambtsperiode in Roermond was Gijsen omstreden wegens zijn conservatieve opvattingen. Zo deed hij geruchtmakende uitspraken over homoseksualiteit. Dat was volgens hem tegennatuurlijk en onder alle omstandigheden af te wijzen.

Gijsen was de hoogste Nederlandse kerkbestuurder die werd aangeklaagd wegens kindermisbruik. Volgens een klacht die tegen hem werd ingediend heeft Gijsen, toen hij in 1958 kapelaan was in Valkenburg aan de Geul, verregaande seksuele handelingen verricht met de 10-jarige zoon van een parochiaan. De nu 64-jarige man diende zijn klacht hierover in 2009 in, vóór het misbruikschandaal in Nederland geopenbaard werd.

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.

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer
on June 24, 2013

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A longtime priest at St. Helena Church on Cleveland’s West Side has pleaded guilty to stealing $176,000 from the Romanian Catholic institution, a prosecutor said.

The Rev. Andre Matthews, 54, used some of the money to pay credit card bills, buy cars and pay tuition for a family member to attend Cleveland State University, according to Assistant County Prosecutor James Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said some of the money Matthews stole was raised through church-sponsored bingo.

The West 65th Street church is one of several Romanian Catholic churches in Northeast Ohio and has 80 to100 families as members, said the Rev. Ovidiu Marginean, chancellor at the Romanian Catholic Diocese of Canton. Services are primarily conducted in Romanian.

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

SCOTLAND/VATIKAN
religion@ORF

Der Vatikan will laut einem Medienbericht die Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den schottischen Kardinal Keith O’Brien überprüfen. O’Brien war zu Beginn des Jahres nach Vorwürfen sexueller Belästigung zurückgetreten.

Der Vatikan will die Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den schottischen Kardinal Keith O’Brien (75) untersuchen. Das habe der päpstliche Nuntius in Großbritannien, Erzbischof Antonio Mennini, einem angeblichen Missbrauchsopfer persönlich mitgeteilt, berichtet die deutsche katholische Nachrichtenagentur KNA unter Berufung auf die Zeitung „The Observer“ (Sonntag).

Der „Lenny“ genannte frühere Priester hatte O’Brien zu Jahresbeginn beschuldigt, ihn in seiner Zeit als Seminarist sexuell belästigt zu haben. Der Kardinal trat kurz darauf als Erzbischof von St. Andrews und Edinburgh zurück und verzichtete auch auf seine Teilnahme an der Papstwahl in Rom.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

Gegen den Pfarrer laufen staatsanwaltschaftliche Ermittlungen, ihm wird vorgeworfen, einem Jugendlichen zur Vornahme sexueller Handlungen Geld angeboten zu haben. Der Pfarrer bestreitet dies. Annahme des Amtsverzichts ist keine Vorverurteilung

Trier (kath.net/pm) Der Pfarrer der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Lebach im Saarland hat gegenüber dem Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann seinen Amtsverzicht zum 30. Juni 2013 erklärt. Bischof Dr. Ackermann hat diesen Verzicht in der vergangenen Woche angenommen. Gegen den Pfarrer laufen staatsanwaltschaftliche Ermittlungen. Ihm wird vorgeworfen, einem Jugendlichen zur Vornahme sexueller Handlungen Geld angeboten zu haben. Der Pfarrer bestreitet diese Vorwürfe.

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.