ABUSE TRACKER

PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: One of the victims of sexual abuse by an expelled priest in the Arecibo diocese filed a lawsuit asking the court not to disclose the victim’s identity and personal information to the justice department. The victim, identified as DJMG, said the victim has a constitutional right to privacy and free exercise of the Catholic religion and does not want documents and confidential information the victim had with church authorities to go to the justice department.]

Una de las víctimas de abuso sexual por parte de uno de los sacerdotes expulsados en la Diócesis de Arecibo radicó hoy una demanda en la que suplica al Tribunal que no autorice la divulgación de su identidad, datos y circunstancias personales al Departamento de Justicia.

En una demanda de ocho páginas la víctima, identificada por las inicales DJMG, puntualiza que tiene un derecho constitucional a la privacidad, la intimidad, el respeto a su dignidad humana y al libre ejercicio de su religión católica por lo que no le interesa que se divulgue al Departamento de Justicia los documentos y comunicaciones confidenciales que mantuvo con las autoridades eclesiásticas.

Asimismo la víctima establece que según la Regla 511 de Evidencia de Puerto Rico las comunicaciones confidenciales que brindó a miembros del clero de la Iglesia Católica son de carácter privilegiado y tiene el derecho a que no se divulguen al gobierno ni a nadie, sin su autorización.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Aguas Digital

Los Ángeles (EE.UU.) / EFE – La arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles (California) acordó pagar 13 millones de dólares a supuestas víctimas de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote católico mexicano que estuvo de visita en Los Ángeles en 1987, informaron hoy los abogados.

El mexicano Nicolás Aguilar Rivera, estuvo como sacerdote visitante en varias parroquias de la diócesis de Los Ángeles durante aproximadamente nueve meses en 1987, tiempo en el cual las autoridades creen que abusó de cerca de dos docenas de niños.

Aguilar Rivera viajó a México en enero de 1988, poco antes de que las autoridades expidieran una orden de arresto en su contra por las denuncias de los supuestos abusos.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

Md. man accused of sexually abusing teen while he was a church deacon in the District

By Lynh Bui, Published: February 18

Prince George’s County authorities have charged an Accokeek man with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl when he served as a deacon in the District church they attended about a decade ago.

Police arrested Maurice Blanchard, 45, last week, charging him with child abuse and sex abuse in connection with incidents that spanned almost a year starting in July 2003, according to charging documents.

As part of their investigation, authorities set up a phone call in December between Blanchard and the husband of the now-26-year-old woman, documents show. During the call, which police recorded, Blanchard admitted to having sex in 2004 with the woman when she was 15.

“During the conversation the Defendant admitted to having vaginal intercourse with the Victim in 2004,” the charging documents state.

Sandra Seegars, the woman’s godmother, said her goddaughter was babysitting for Blanchard’s family at the time. She did not go to police partly because she was scared, Seegars said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian – Communist Party of Australia

Editorial

Hopes of the faithful that Francis would be a reforming Pope have received a heavy blow. The Vatican responded angrily to a UN report on child sexual abuse by priests, claiming that it is “prejudiced” against the Catholic Church and that it peddles attacks made by anti-Catholic advocacy groups. But while the Catholic Church features heavily in revelations of cover-up and protection of serial offenders, it is far from the only organisation to which children are entrusted to be accused of failing miserably to protect them from sexual predators. The Catholic Church’s claim of a witch hunt doesn’t stack up.

Australia is getting disturbing insights into the extent of the horrors via the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It was revealed two weeks ago that boys at the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney were routinely beaten, sexually abused and rented out to paedophiles for weekends during the 1960s and ‘70s. The Salvation Army, which ran the home, isn’t denying any claims but insists that guidelines and procedures have been put in place to prevent any such practices occurring again. Like the Catholic Church, it has expressed its sorrow for the abuse and sympathy for the victims.

The Royal Commission was called following a report on the ABC’s Lateline TV program on November 8, 2012. Detective chief inspector Peter Fox essentially put his life and job on the line in an interview with Tony Jones. “I can testify from my own experience the Church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the Church,” Fox said in a letter to the NSW Premier. The public outcry forced the federal government’s hand despite strong opposition from the Church. The terms of reference are suitably broad though time will tell how the question of compensation will be handled.

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ZIMBABWE
Global Times

Xinhua | 2014-2-19
By Agencies

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) has called for moral uprightness among church leaders in the wake of allegations of sexual violence against women and corruption.

EFZ, which represents approved members of evangelical and Pentecostal persuasion, said it was deeply concerned about the public perception of the church following recent allegations of corruption and abuse of women in the form of rape, sexual, spiritual and emotional violence.

Law enforcement is called upon to take its course on corrupt religious leaders, individual actors, leaders of parastatals, (and) public and private institutions that perpetuate this pandemic, EFZ said in a statement issued Tuesday.

A number of church leaders have been caught on the wrong side of the law on a number of occasions, the latest being independent church RMG End Time Message leader Robert Gumbura who was sentenced to 50 years over raping female followers and possessing pornographic material.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 19, 2014

THE Catholic Church has accused one of its veteran educators of lying under oath to blame the church for his failure to report to police serious allegations of child sexual abuse.

In a heated exchange before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse yesterday, senior barrister Jane Needham SC_ for the church _ repeatedly accused sacked principal Terence Hayes of lying and “making up stories” to get himself “out of trouble”.

An emotional Mr Hayes “categorically” denied lying, but yesterday made a series of concessions about his failures in handling abuse allegations levelled at serial pedophile Gerard Vincent Byrnes, who molested and raped 13 girls, mostly in his classroom during class time, at Mr Hayes’ Toowoomba school in 2007 and 2008.

In 2009, The Australian revealed Mr Hayes failed to report to police an allegation by a nine-year-old girl in September 2007 that Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt. It wasn’t until November 2008 that Byrnes was arrested after another molested girl’s mother complained to police.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
NBC Los Angeles

By Gillian Flaccus | Wednesday, Feb 19, 2014

When Los Angeles police were investigating allegations of child abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in 1988, they asked for a list of altar boys at the last parish where the priest worked.

Archbishop Roger Mahony told a subordinate not to give the list, saying he didn’t want the boys to be scarred by the investigation and that he felt the altar boys were too old to be potential victims, according to a deposition made public Wednesday.

The detectives investigating allegations against Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, a visiting Mexican priest, ultimately got the names of the boys from parish families. They determined the priest molested at least 26 boys during his 10 months in Los Angeles, according to the priest’s confidential archdiocese file and police records made public by attorneys for the victims.

Twenty-five of the alleged victims were altar boys and the 26th was training with the priest to be one, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff attorney. It’s not clear what impact Mahony’s action had on the investigation, though at the time police complained that the archdiocese wasn’t fully cooperating.

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MINNESOTA
The New Civil Rights Movement

Judge Rules One of America’s Most Vocal Anti-LGBT Catholics Must Testify About Abuse

by CASEY MICHEL on FEBRUARY 18, 2014

On Sunday afternoon, Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North confirmed that Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt, one of the nation’s most vocal and vociferous Catholic anti-LGBT voices, must testify about covering up child abuse within the church in Minnesota. Sunday’s ruling, which mirrored his decision early last week, came in response to the Twin Cities archdiocese’s appeal to stay the testimony.

Former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, who recently resigned in light of the cover-up, will also be forced to testify before March 13. The judge also reconfirmed his ruling that the church must turn in a list of all priests accused of child and sexual abuse since 2004, though such names will remain under seal. The archdiocese released a partial list in late 2013, but had refused to release the entire list.

The church’s failed attempt at a stay represented, according to Minnesota Public Radio, a “more aggressive legal approach” than those yet fielded. It also offered its most public legal failure to date in the state, and it remains unclear whether any mechanism for appeal remains.

The ruling stands as a boon to both those seeking recourse for decades of sex abuse within the Catholic Church, as well as those who know Nienstedt for his history of outspoken bigotry. While his anti-LGBT views aren’t as prominent as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Nienstedt arguably carries the most acidic views among high-ranking American Catholics.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Editorial

In an interview Monday on the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese’s bankruptcy reorganization plan, Archbishop Jerome Listecki said he wanted sexual abuse victims to know that “we are doing our best” even though it might not seem that way to some victims and that the archdiocese is “not going to walk away from the victim survivors.”

He also said that he wants parishioners to know that “we basically have confronted evil, and we haven’t walked away from it” in dealing with the sexual abuse scandal.

There are those who would take issue with those statements. Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance blasted the plan, announced last week, as an “obscene gesture” by the archdiocese, insulting to those who were victimized by both clergy and a church hierarchy that sometimes turned a blind eye to such abuse.

He was not alone, though we think that criticism is overly harsh. That said, we wish the church could do more, both in terms of the monetary settlements, including a lifetime fund for therapy for victims (about $500,000), and in the number of claimants allowed. If approved by the bankruptcy court, the plan would provide the smallest settlement of any of the Catholic Church bankruptcies filed since 2004. The plan limits the number of claimants to about 125 abuse victims out of the 575 who have made claims against the archdiocese.

In our view, it’s questionable that such a limited plan provides the measure of justice needed for the abuse of children. The court needs to take a close look at the plan and make sure there is nothing else the diocese can do to provide more help and more justice for victims. Perhaps there should be a campaign for victims as there have been for other church causes, or perhaps there are other sources of money for the settlement.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Meredith Rodriguez
Tribune reporter
9:49 p.m. CST, February 18, 2014

Three unidentified young men who say they were abused by Daniel McCormack, a defrocked Catholic priest who in 2007 pleaded guilty to several counts of criminal sexual assault, each filed separate lawsuits Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court.

The suits named the Catholic bishop of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George. It claims that they were negligent in allowing McCormack, who as of last month was confined in a mental health facility after his guilty plea, to work with young boys unsupervised when they knew or should have known that he had a history of sexually abusing minors.

“The case is against the church for allowing him to be in the presence of young children when they knew he had had a propensity to try to take liberties with young boys,” said their lawyer, Richard Levin.

All three plaintiffs were members of the basketball team at Our Lady of the Westside School and were abused by McCormack at different times spanning 2000 to 2005, Levin said. A $3.15 million settlement was announced in January involving a sex-abuse victim who said McCormack abused him in 2002 at the same school.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 00:01 by Martin Scicluna

The United Nations Committee on Rights of the Child has recently delivered a swingeing report on the systemic and long-standing sexual abuse of children by the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the committee undermined the impact of this important report by straying beyond its terms of reference to areas like women’s rights, abortion and contraception, allowing those in the Church so minded to cast doubt on the credibility of the report.

This is a pity because the main thrust of the committee’s 16-page report contains a damning indictment of the Vatican’s “systematic” adoption of policies allowing priests to abuse children sexually. The report urges the Holy See to “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected of having abused minors and to report them to the civil authorities.

It also states that it should hand over its records on abuse of tens of thousands of children so that the culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, are held accountable.

The committee “is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators”.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

Una de las personas abusadas sexualmente por uno de los seis sacerdotes expulsados de la diócesis de Arecibo solicitó intervención en el pleito sometido por obispado del municipio contra Justicia y pidió al Tribunal de San Juan que no se difunda su identidad, datos ni antecedentes personales.

El recurso apela a su derecho constitucional a la privacidad, intimidad y respeto a su dignidad humana, así como a su derecho al libre ejercicio de su religión católica y a su derecho a que no se divulguen sus comunicaciones confidenciales con la iglesia.

El afectado, en la petición, también solicita que no se divulguen las comunicaciones confidenciales sostenidas con miembros del clero religioso del Obispado de Arecibo dentro de los procedimientos eclesiásticos internos de la Iglesia Católica, que culminaron en la expulsión del sacerdote.

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PUERTO RICO
Montreal Gazette

BY DANICA COTO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FEBRUARY 18, 2014

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A man who accused one of the six priests expelled from a Puerto Rican diocese in a sex abuse scandal requested Tuesday that his name and other details not be revealed to prosecutors pursuing a criminal investigation.

The request came just days after the Diocese of Arecibo filed a lawsuit against the U.S. territory’s justice secretary saying it should not be forced to release additional information to authorities. Prosecutors complained earlier that diocese officials gave them scant information concerning the expelled priests who were accused of sodomy, lewd acts and sexual harassment.

Manuel Martinez, a lawyer for an unidentified 23-year-old man, said in a court document filed Tuesday that his client does not want the government to get involved and is satisfied with how the church responded to his accusations.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The child abuse royal commission has heard from the former principal of a Toowoomba primary school where 13 girls were abused by their teacher. Terry Hayes says he knew he was dealing with serious allegations of sexual abuse but referred the matter to his superiors and not to police.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The child abuse royal commission today heard from the former principal of a Toowoomba primary school where a teacher abused 13 little girls.

The public hearing in Brisbane heard that the principal received a complaint from the father of a girl about how her teacher Gerard Byrnes had touched her in 2007.

The principal at the time, Terry Hayes, says he knew he was dealing with serious allegations of sexual abuse. But he referred the matter to his superiors and not to police.

The inquiry has also heard the girl was asked to re-enact the abuse with her father in front of the principal and another staff member.

Stephanie Smail reports.

STEPHANIE SMAIL: Terry Hayes is no stranger to the witness box. In 2009 he was on trial, accused of failing to refer allegations of child sexual abuse to police.

Today the former principal faced the royal commission and was forced to explain what he did and didn’t do when the father of a grade-four girl came forward in 2007 with an allegation about one of his staffers, Gerard Byrnes.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

[with video]

MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 19, 2014

THIS Catholic school principal did not refer serious allegations of sexual abuse in his school to police because he believed “the Bishop must not be compromised”.

Terence Michael Hayes, principal when teacher Gerard Byrnes assaulted 13 girls at his Toowoomba school, failed to apologise when he took to the stand at the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Victim made to enact allegations

Under a grilling before a packed public gallery, Mr Hayes admitted: a victim was forced to re-enact the sexual abuse in his office using her dad’s hands to show how Byrnes touched her; he omitted accusations when reporting the abuse to his superiors that Byrnes put his hands down a girl’s pants; he never liked Byrnes, despite re-hiring him after he retired.

Mr Hayes is still working at another Catholic school.

Byrnes is behind bars.

Mr Hayes told the commission he thought it was more appropriate to refer allegations against Byrnes to the Catholic Education Office than the police.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 19, 2014

A PRINCIPAL sacked for failing to report child sexual abuse allegations to police says he took the matter only to Catholic authorities because of an edict that “the bishop should not be compromised”.

A nine-year-old girl told her Toowoomba Catholic school principal Terence Hayes in September 2007 that teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt, making her uncomfortable.

The Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard yesterday Mr Hayes did not take the allegation to police but merely issued a warning letter to Byrnes, on the advice of his “superiors” at the local Catholic Education Office.

“(We were constantly told) the CEO was the first port of call so the bishop was not compromised,” Mr Hayes said.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

KAREN HEALY THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 19, 2014

FROM the outset of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we were told to prepare ourselves to hear survivors’ experiences of child sexual abuse.

We expected to learn about the past, we were not prepared to hear that we are still failing our children.

On Monday we heard that, within the last decade, senior staff in a primary school failed to refer allegations of child sexual abuse to the police.

Many of us were puzzled by the school’s child protection officer’s comment to the commission that she did not understand why more of the children did not have the courage to come forward.

What did Catherine Long mean? Was it that the children lacked confidence in the system? Or was the children’s lack of “courage” to blame for the horror that unfolded?

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AUSTRALIA
The Eastern Tribune

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH, 2014

BRISBANE: A Former Catholic primary school principal was fired and charged, after he failed to report sex abuse complaints against a teacher to police as he did not want to compromise a bishop.

In Brisbane, at a hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Terence Hayes gave evidence against teacher Gerard Byrnes. Hayes was the principal of a Toowoomba Catholic primary school where 13 young girls were sexually abused by their teacher Gerard Byrnes. Byrnes was then arrested and was later sentenced for 10 years for molesting and raping 13 girls at the school between the age of eight and 10.

Mr Hayes said he reported the complaints to his superiors at the Catholic Education Office (CEO) when the first complaints surfaced in 2007, but he did not inform the police or child protection officials.

When Andrew Naylor SC, the Junior Counsel Assisting questioned Mr Hayes over the reason for not informing the authorities. It is obligatory by state law and the child protection manual issued to all Catholic schools in the diocese to notify the police of any unlawful activity. Mr Hayes told the hearing that the principals believe the CEO was the first port of call and that the bishop must not be compromised.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The former principal at a Queensland school has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse why a girl and her father were asked to re-enact an encounter with a paedophile teacher.

Teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested 13 female students, all aged between nine and 10, at a Catholic school in Toowoomba in 2007 and 2008.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at why Byrnes was allowed to go on offending for more than a year after allegations were first made against him to the school.

Byrnes, the school’s child protection contact, pleaded guilty in 2010 to child sex offences, including rape. He carried out all but two of his crimes in the classroom.

Terence Hayes was in charge of the school when Byrnes assaulted the year four students.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Teacher Magazine

BRISBANE, Feb 19 – A Catholic principal who decided not to tell police about sex abuse complaints against a teacher will continue giving evidence to the royal commission on Wednesday.

Terence Hayes was the principal of a Queensland primary school when teacher Gerard Byrnes sexually abused 13 young girls in 2007 and 2008.

Byrnes, who is now in jail for his crimes, was allowed to keep teaching at the school after the first complaint was made, and went on to assault other girls.

Hayes has already told the royal commission into institutional sexual abuse that he didn’t tell police about the abuse claims concerning Byrnes because he didn’t want to compromise the bishop.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KABC

[with video]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A 24-year-old man is suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, claiming a volunteer sexually abused him.

Robert Reynolds, 24, says Timothy Kovacs, 37, started abusing him in 2003 when Reynolds was 13 years old.

Kovacs worked as a volunteer confirmation coordinator at St. Luke Catholic Church in Temple City from 2002 to 2005.

Reynold’s attorney, Michael J. Kinslow, filed a lawsuit against Kovacs, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the L.A. Archdiocese and St. Luke Catholic Church.

“The abuse was just horrendous. It includes multiple acts of oral copulation and sodomy. It occurred on a regular and frequent basis — three to four times a month, sometimes as much as eight times a month,” said Kinslow.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has been named in a new lawsuit that claims it failed to protect a student from being sexually abused by a volunteer softball coach.

Epifanio Nevarez, a former coach at St. Didacus Elementary School in Sylmar, was convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 in September 2013.

The suit claims the Archdiocese, the archbishop and the school did nothing to protect children at St. Didacus and allowed Nevarez “to come onto campus and victimize the minor child.”

“Specifically, he came into contact with this minor and took her home from the school to have her participate in ‘sex games’ with Nevarez,” the suit alleges.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay $13 million to 17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced Tuesday that the nation’s largest diocese moved to settle 11 cases involving a visiting Mexican priest named Nicolas Aguilar Rivera rather than go to trial.

The settlement also involves six other lawsuits involving four other accused clergy.

Cardinal Roger Mahony would have been called to testify in the cases involving Aguilar Rivera.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Kelly Goff, Los Angeles Daily News
POSTED: 02/18/14

The family of a teenage girl sexually abused by a former softball coach at a Catholic school in Sylmar has filed a lawsuit naming the school, the archbishop and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, alleging they failed to protect students by not performing background checks on its volunteers.

Epifanio Nevarez, 59, pleaded no contest in September to lewd acts with a child under the age of 14 after the 13-year-old girl reported the abuse an older sibling. She said he had pressured her to take part in a sex club and that there were multiple encounters over a five-month period at Nevarez’s Canyon Country home.

At the time of his arrest, Nevarez was a volunteer softball coach at St. Didacus School. He was sentenced to six years in prison and will register as a sex offender upon his release.

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INDIA
Zee News

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday extended till March 3 the judicial custody of the chief priest of Badrinath shrine in Uttarakhand, Keshavan Namboodiri, who has been arrested for allegedly confining and molesting a woman in a hotel here.

Namboodiri and one of his associates Vishnu Prasad, also co-accused in the case, were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Shreya Arora Mehta who remanded them in judicial custody till March 3 after police did not seek their custodial interrogation.

The two were produced before the court after expiry of their earlier 14 days of remand.

According to police, the incident took place on February 3 when the 28-year-old woman had gone to meet Namboodiri at the hotel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein-Zeitung

[Summary: A victim said punishment meted out to a priest retired by the diocese for sexual assaults against young people in the 1980s is appropriate. The priest was fined by the Trier diocese and cannot function as a priest.]

Koblenz/Trier – Die Bestrafung des Priesters im Ruhestand durch das Bistum wegen sexueller Übergriffe gegen Jugendliche in den 1980er-Jahren hält eines der Opfer für “angemessen”.

Das sagte der heute 45-jährige Saarländer der Tageszeitung “Trierischer Volksfreund”. “Ich bin erleichtert, hoffe, nach 29 Jahren meinen Seelenfrieden zu finden.” Vor allem die auferlegte Zahlung von 3000 Euro an eine Einrichtung, die in der Beratung und Prävention gegen sexuelle Gewalt an Kindern und Jugendlichen tätig ist, begrüßte er.

Übergriffe in vier Fällen in den 1980er-Jahren hielt das Bistum für erwiesen, erteilte einen strengen Verweis. Der Priester darf zudem sein Amt für ein Jahr nicht öffentlich ausüben.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By James E. Connell Feb. 17, 2014

An attorney once told me that bankruptcy is about money, nothing else, just money, and I suspect the attorney is correct.

The Bible teaches that the love of money is the root of all evils (1 Tim 6:10), not some evils but all evils, and I hold to the veracity of this teaching.

And the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s reorganization plan recently filed in the bankruptcy court shows a desire that no sexual abuse claimant receive money. Yes, 128 claimants in category No. 9 (statute of limitations) will be paid. But about these claims the plan states that the archdiocese has “objected to” them, yet feels that successfully objecting to the claim would require “a full trial.” It’s a cut-your-losses approach. It would be cheaper to pay the claimants than to pay the trial costs.

So, to the archdiocese, no claim has merit. Is this how bankruptcies work?

Here is why this reorganization plan shatters hope.

The archdiocese went to great efforts to invite into the bankruptcy process the victims/survivors of sexual abuse “by any clergy member, teacher, deacon, employee, volunteer or other person connected with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,” as was stated on the public postings about filing a claim before the Feb. 1, 2012, “bar date.” No eligibility restrictions were mentioned. And when the archdiocese recently announced its reorganization plan, the role of eligibility restrictions was not discussed.

Yet, the reorganization plan clearly shows that eligibility restrictions are central to the archdiocese arguing that no claim has merit. Some of these restrictions are because the alleged abuse was by a member of a religious order or by a lay person. Other reasons for the dismissal of claims are the statute of limitations and the lack of proof that the archdiocese committed fraud.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Star Tribune

Article by: GILLIAN FLACCUS , Associated Press Updated: February 18, 2014

LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay $13 million to 17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced Tuesday that the nation’s largest diocese moved to settle 11 cases involving a visiting Mexican priest named Nicolas Aguilar Rivera rather than go to trial.

The settlement also involves six other lawsuits involving four other accused clergy.

Cardinal Roger Mahony would have been called to testify in the cases involving Aguilar Rivera.

Aguilar Rivera fled Los Angeles to Mexico in 1988 to avoid prosecution.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014

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

More clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against the scandal-ridden Los Angeles Catholic diocese will be disclosed tomorrow.

[Star Tribune]

Our hearts ache for each one of these brave victims and for millions of LA parishioners who continue to be deceived and betrayed by a corrupt Catholic hierarchy.

We are convinced that Archbishop Jose Gomez agreed to these settlements because he dreaded the devastating disclosures of church complicity that would have happened had any of these gone to trial. In each of these cases, we firmly believe that several Catholic officials knew of or suspected these clerics’ crimes long ago and kept them hidden for years, leaving unsuspecting families and vulnerable children at risk of tremendous harm.

Few cases more clearly show the recklessness, callousness and deceptiveness of top Catholic officials than the Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera case. LA Cardinal Roger Mahony and Mexico Cardinal Norberto Rivera both acted selfishly and deceitful throughout that case.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Victoria Kim
February 18, 2014

The Los Angeles Archdiocese has reached a $13-million settlement with 17 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, including those who say they were molested as children by a visiting Mexican cleric, attorneys announced Tuesday.

The settlement was reached on the eve of a trial last Friday over alleged abuses by Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera, a priest who police believe molested more than two-dozen boys during a nine-month stay at two Los Angeles parishes in 1987. Aguilar-Rivera fled to Mexico in the days before police were notified and was never criminally prosecuted.

Attorneys for 11 men claimed in court papers that Archbishop Roger Mahony and his top aide, Monsignor Thomas Curry, were responsible for allowing the priest to flee, alleging that church leaders had “actively thwarted” and “misled” LAPD investigators at the time.

The sum covers approximately $1 million each for those alleged victims, as well as money for six others who say they were molested by other priests, according to attorney Anthony De Marco.

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KANSAS
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A Democratic lawmaker in Kansas says that her bill allowing teachers, caregivers and parents to beat children to point of leaving bruises is about restoring parental rights, not abusing children.

State Rep. Gail Finney’s (D) bill expands current law, which allows spanking without leaving marks.

According to KCTV, the new legislation would permit teachers, caregivers and parents to strike children up to 10 times, and leave redness or even bruising.

McPherson Deputy County Attorney Britt Colle, who proposed the idea to Finney, told KCTV that the measure actually protected children by defining what parents were not allowed to do.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Religion Dispatches

Post by PATRICIA MILLER

Less than two weeks after the Vatican complained that it wasn’t its handling of child sex abuse cases that was problematic but a UN report that dared to dive into matters of Catholic doctrine, a group of Catholics from Kansas City, MO, has petitioned Pope Francis to remove a bishop found guilty of concealing pedophilia, the New York Times reports.

The request was made by 13 parishioners, a nun who coordinated victims’ assistance for the Kansas City diocese, and a priest, the Rev. James Connell. It was backed by an online petition signed by 113,000 Catholics. They asked Pope Francis to remove Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report a priest who had pornographic images of children on his computer. The priest is currently serving 50 years for taking the pictures but Finn remains in place as the head of the diocese.

The UN report said that the Vatican’s failure to remove bishops who facilitated pedophilia by failing to report it or moving abusers from parish to parish was one of the major unresolved problems of the church’s handling of the child sex abuse scandal.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, February 18 – Pope Francis and his eight most senior cardinals were given an update Tuesday by an internal commission examining the troubled Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) – informally known as the Vatican bank. The eight-member College of Cardinals is examining the troubled bank with an eye to its future, and met “in an atmosphere of considerable interest from the cardinals,” who asked “probing questions, to understand the subject well,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. The cardinals, sitting as an advisory board, are considering the future direction of the Vatican bank, which has faced decades of allegations of wrongdoing, including money laundering. Lombardi said the “mission” of the bank is also being reviewed in the context of “the problems that there may have been in the past…(and seeking) some possible guidelines for the renewal” of the bank. No decisions have been made, but the report was “ample and detailed” and touched on its financial and economic performance as well as its social functions in the world, added Lombardi. Pope Francis, who set up the special investigative pontifical commission last June to review the Vatican bank, has not expressed any opinion on its future, said Lombardi.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 18, 2014

VATICAN CITY
While the deliberations of the select group of eight cardinals advising Pope Francis on reforming the governance of the Catholic church remain secret, Tuesday gave several peeks into the shape and contour of the discussions.

Financial reform is topping the agenda, but laity and family life are also points of discussion.

The chief concern in this round of meetings, according to the Vatican: how to make sure the financial structures of the church are “at the service … of the world and not at the operational service of the Vatican itself.”

Speaking during a briefing with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said the cardinals’ group, known formally as the Council of Cardinals, spent the morning meeting with a special commission reviewing the practices of the Institute for the Works of Religion, known commonly as the Vatican bank.

The bank, which is privately held and does not manage the Vatican’s budget, has been the source of controversy for years because of reports of vague withdrawals and deposits made to and by the organization.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston.com

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press / February 18, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Tuesday acknowledged recent infighting inside its financial watchdog agency which preceded the resignation of its president, a new development as Pope Francis works to reform the Holy See’s finances in meetings this week.

The board of the Financial Information Authority complained in a letter to the Vatican secretary of state that it was being kept in the dark about agency activities since the arrival of Swiss anti-money-laundering expert Rene Bruelhart as director, Rome daily Il Messaggero reported Tuesday.

Two weeks after that Jan. 16-dated letter, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the agency president, Cardinal Attilio Nicora, who had clashed with Bruelhart.

The Vatican created the agency in 2010 as part of its first major push to comply with international anti-money-laundering standards. Its mission was to supervise, regulate and investigate the Holy See’s financial activities to ensure they complied with international norms, and to share financial information with other countries in the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Bruelhart, who previously headed Liechtenstein’s financial intelligence unit, joined the Vatican regulator in 2012. He since has been credited with delivering progress in the Vatican’s compliance with international financial norms and scoring membership in the coveted Egmont group of financial watchdog agencies.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 18, 2014

KANSAS CITY, MO. Catholics here formally asking Pope Francis to conduct a canonical review of Bishop Robert Finn say the church’s lack of response to his misdemeanor conviction has caused further spiritual harm to the diocese.

“Civil law has done what civil law can do. The church has done nothing in terms of calling Bishop Finn to accountability. He continues as bishop as if nothing really ever happened,” said Mercy Sr. Jeanne Christensen, a former victims’ advocate for the diocese co-heading the appeal. She spoke at a press conference Monday outside the diocesan offices.

The Kansas City Catholics’ petition, dated Feb. 11, represents a formal request that the Vatican initiate a penal process to determine whether Finn violated church law by failing to report suspected child sexual abuse in connection to Fr. Shawn Ratigan.

In September, Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in prison on child pornography charges; a year earlier, a Jackson County, Mo., court convicted Finn of a misdemeanor for failing to report and sentenced him to two years of probation. To avoid a similar charge in Clay County, Mo., Finn entered an agreement that requires him to meet monthly with the county prosecutor for five years.

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VIRGINIA
New Republic

BY KIERA FELDMAN @kierafeldman

The security guards were bored. It was the first weekend of May 2010—a time when students at other universities were partying before finals. This, however, was Patrick Henry College (PHC), the elite evangelical school better known as “God’s Harvard.” Here, in sleepy Purcellville, Virginia, instead of police officers or rent-a-cops, the security guards were all upperclassmen. On a good Friday or Saturday night, they’d catch freshmen trying to sneak back onto campus after an evening visiting the monuments in nearby Washington, D.C. Mostly, though, they just double-checked that all the doors were locked.

Patrick Henry College was founded in 2000, but you won’t find any bold, modern architecture on campus: Its buildings were designed in the federalist style to evoke an Ivy League school. Dress code is business casual during the week. Daily chapel is mandatory. Drinking, smoking, gambling, and dancing (outside of dance classes) aren’t allowed on campus—only wholesome, school-sanctioned hijinks, like the tradition of tossing newly engaged young men in the central retention pond known as Lake Bob: a “Bobtism.” The security guards saw quite a few Bobtisms.

That May night, Adam Fisher and another guard watched the security monitors from their post. It was long past the 1 a.m. weekend curfew, a time when campus had the still and quiet feel of a small town hours after everyone has gone to bed. It seemed like any other night, but then Fisher’s colleague called out in excitement. He’d caught something on the monitors: the dim glow of brake lights, out there in the darkness. A car was pulling up to the campus entrance.

Fisher and his partner headed out past the dorms, to the fields near the entry. By the time they arrived, the car was gone, and Claire Spear was lying in a field. There was grass in her long, red hair, and she was crying.

Fisher could tell something was very wrong. “Claire, we need to go find your R.A.,” Adam said. “I’m going to take you. Is that OK with you?” She couldn’t answer. She was panicking and having trouble breathing.

Adam picked Claire up and carried her back across campus to the dorms. She was limp in his arms, and her eyes were closed. Claire struggled to explain what had happened.

“She kept saying that she had been violated,” Adam remembers.

When Claire Spear arrived at Patrick Henry as a freshman in 2009, she, like all new PHC students, affirmed a statement of faith saying the devil is real, the Bible is without error, and “Jesus Christ literally will come to earth again in the Second Advent.” It was a great comfort to both Claire and her parents knowing PHC was a bubble unto its own: On campus, only good, moral Christians would be found—their kind of people, people they could trust.

“I figured nothing bad could happen to me,” Claire says.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

February 18, 2014

Archdiocese used therapy scam to defraud victims of civil rights; Cardinal, Bishop thwarted police, helped criminal priest escape US

What: At a news conference Wednesday sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys, Anthony DeMarco and Jeff Anderson will:

· Announce a landmark, $13m settlement on behalf of 17 survivors who were sexually abused by five different perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.

· Discuss how the Archdiocese paid for survivor’s therapy but did not inform survivors of their legal rights to sue, as required by law.

· Demonstrate and discuss how an international conspiracy between Cardinal Roger Mahony and a Mexican bishop allowed a child-raping priest to be dumped in LA’s Spanish-speaking neighborhoods and how Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry defrauded survivors by misleading the police in the case of Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.

· Play excerpts from Cardinal Mahony’s video deposition taken in 2013 where he claims he and his deputies “did nothing wrong” in handling cases of child sexual abuse. Copies of the sworn testimony excerpts will be available for press.

WHEN: Wednesday February 19, 2014 at 11:00 AM PST

WHERE: Westin Bonaventure Hotel – Palos Verde Room
404 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071

WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Anthony DeMarco along with several sexual abuse survivors, including survivors abused by the five perpetrators named in this settlement.

· Documents and additional information will be posted to our website www.abusedinsocal.com under “Case Resources.”

· Spanish speaking interpreters will be available.

Contact: Anthony DeMarco: Office: 626.844.7700 Cell: 310.927.9277
Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.817.8665

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POLONIA/REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Univision

[con video]

La policía de Polonia arrestó este lunes al sacerdote Wojciech Gil, acusado de abusar sexualmente de al menos tres menores en la República Dominicana, quien será trasladado a Varsovia para ser interrogado por la fiscalía y escuchar los cargos que pesan sobre él.

De acuerdo con la agencia Efe, los agentes se presentaron en la casa familiar de Gil en una localidad cercana a Cracovia, con una orden de detención emitida por la fiscalía polaca.

De probarse las acusaciones, el sacerdote podría pasar hasta doce años de prisión según la legislación de Polonia.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Megan Stewart

Tuesday marks the deadline for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release a full list of names of priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

The archdiocese released the names of nine more priests accused of sexual abuse on Monday, a day before the deadline.

Church leaders say it’s all in the name of transparency, but some say it’s more proof of an attempted cover up. All but one of the alleged incidents happened decades ago, and three of the nine priests have since died.

Most of the priests’ names released on Monday were already known and it’s left some wondering why those names weren’t included on a list that was released by the church in December. Also, Monday was Presidents Day, a nationally recognized holiday. Some speculate the names were released a day early because there might have been less scrutiny.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

A Springfield, TN youth minister has been charged with the murder of his 21 year old fiancée. This is an extremely troubling case.

[East Idaho News]

We are saddened that an innocent girl lost her life. We are troubled that Charles Pittman was the youth minister at Providence Baptist Church and is now accused of murder. Anyone who experienced, witnessed or suspects any other abusive behavior from Pittman should immediately report to police. We also hope university and church officials will do outreach to any potential victims.

Our hearts go out to the victim’s family.

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MINNESOTA
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In the financial report recently released (pdf) by the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis providing details of its financial records for 2013, there’s an interesting detail that, to my mind, richly deserves a great deal of attention. As Brian Roewe notes for National Catholic Reporter and Jean Hoffensperger and Tony Kennedy for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the report shows the archdiocese’s operating expenses jumping by about $9 million in 2012. Part of the reason is that the archdiocese, which faces an onslaught of lawsuits related to clerical abuse of minors, added $5 million to its litigation reserve fund in 2012.

But as Hoffensperger and Tony Kennedy note, the report also shows that the archdiocese “spent an additional $2.8 million on its communications office and an evangelical initiative” in this time frame. Here’s Brian Roewe on the same jump in expenses for the communications office and “an evangelical initiative”:

Also of note was the rapid growth of its communications and community relations services. In 2012, the departments’ expenses totaled $731,541, lowest among all programs and services. A year later, the expenses spiked to $3.6 million — greater than that of parish services ($2.2 million) and of the general and administrative costs ($3.1 million), which includes the archbishop, auxiliary bishops, and its financing and accounting.

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POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Reuters

(Reuters) – Polish prosecutors have charged a Catholic priest with four counts of sex abuse against children in his native Poland and in the Dominican Republic, where he was working in a rural parish, the prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

The priest worked in the Dominican Republic until May last year. He left the parish and was suspended by his religious order after local residents accused him of molesting altar boys, church officials said. He is now in detention in Poland.

“Two of the charges concern acts that took place in the Dominican Republic, to the harm of citizens of the Dominican Republic, and two concern acts that took place in Poland and concern Polish citizens,” the prosecutor’s spokesman, Przemyslaw Nowak, told a news conference.

Another Polish cleric working in the Dominican Republic, Vatican nuncio (ambassador) Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, was recalled last September by the Vatican and is being investigated there on child sexual abuse charges.

His whereabouts are not known.

Prosecutors say the priest who has been charged denies the accusations. If convicted, he could face 12 years in prison.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

We commend the Ceres police for their quick and decisive action in the recently revealed case of a local youth minister who was found to have child pornography on his computer.

We call on all organizations to take quick and decisive action when any type of probable negative sexual behavior is discovered, by notifying the police at once. Only when they do this, and establish a pattern of consistent action on behalf of all children and victims, will more victims feel free to come forward, and help eradicate this national shame.

This is not a small problem, nor a local problem. There are thousands of cases throughout the country, and tens of thousands of victims that are too ashamed or fearful to come forth. It’s only when all organizations take the responsibility to follow through and report all behaviors that have, and continue, to harm our children will we be fulfilling our obligations to our children and our society.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published February 18, 2014.

A federal judge created a “Catch-22” for victims of sexual abuse at Yeshiva University’s high school by refusing to consider the impact of the school’s alleged cover-up, former students charged in an appeal of the dismissal of a $680 million lawsuit.

Kevin Mulhearn, a lawyer for 34 men who say they were abused at Yeshiva University’s Manhattan boys high school, said in the judge’s January 29 decision made it impossible for victims to bring a claim.

“There’s no way sex abuse victims can get justice if the school decides to conceal and cover-up their own knowledge and complicity,” Mulhearn told the Forward. Mulhearn filed the appeal on February 14.
Judge John G. Koeltl, of United States District Court in Manhattan, dismissed the former Y.U. students’ claims last month, citing New York State’s statute of limitations. Under state law, child abuse victims have to bring negligence claims against third parties, such as a school, before they turn 21.

Koeltl said that the students, who were abused between 1971 and 1992, knew they were abused, knew who abused them and knew who employed their abusers. They could and should have brought their claims decades ago, the judge said.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

[with video]

Maria Medina

OAKDALE (CBS13) — An Oakdale church was raided by investigators on Monday after a tip led them to a youth minister—the pastor’s son—accused of having child pornography.

Tyler Bliss is already out of jail after bailing out Monday night.

Investigators say they’re working to identify the victims who are 13 years old and younger.
No one at Bliss’ home wanted to talk to CBS13 about his arrest.

He’s the youth minister of Bethel Assembly of God in Oakdale, and a man trusted by many families to watch their kids.

Troy Holder says he went to some of Bliss’ ministry classes and said the 27-year-old was very involved in the youth ministry.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Jason Wells
February 18, 2014

A 27-year-old youth pastor in Oakdale, Calif., was arrested Monday on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

Acting on a tip, Tyler Bliss was arrested after two search warrants were served — one at his home in Oakdale — northwest of Modesto — the other at Bethel Assembly of God, where he oversaw the junior high, high school and college ministries, Fox 40 reported.

Carissa Higginbotham, a spokeswoman for the nearby Ceres Police Department, said images retrieved from computers and electronic devices during the searches appeared to show children under the age of 13 engaged in sexual acts.

“We were very concerned because of the access he has to children,” she told the Modesto Bee.

Ceres police investigated the case because the department has the high-tech capabilities and investigating resources for computer forensics, Higginbotham added.

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CALIFORNIA
KFBK

An Oakdale Youth Pastor is under arrest and is facing child pornography charges.

Acting on a tip, News10 reports Tyler Bliss, 27, was arrested after a search discovered the illicit material on his computers at work and home.

Lonni Beckman is a parrishoner at Bethel Assembly of God in Oakdale and knew Pastor Bliss.

“[He] helped us build a skate park here. He helped us with not getting in trouble and everything,” he said.

Ceres Police Investigator Carissa Higginbotham says they don’t know if Bliss collected the images or actually created them.

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CALIFORNIA
The Raw Story

By David Ferguson
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A 27-year-old youth minister at Bethel Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Oakdale, California, was arrested Monday on child pornography charges. According to the Modesto Bee, Tyler Bliss was taken to Stanislaus County jail after an investigation by the Ceres Police High Tech Crimes unit.

Police acted on a tip when they obtained search warrants and raided Bliss’ home and his office at the church, seizing computers and other electronic devices.

Ceres Police spokesperson Carissa Higginbotham told the Bee that it is too early in the investigation to establish whether Bliss was involved of the production of the materials found on the devices, which she said feature sexually exploitive images and video of children under 13.

“We were very concerned because of the access he has to children,” said Higginbotham.

The Bee reported that “Bliss has served in youth ministry at the church since 2009 and oversees junior high, high school and college programs while pursuing a preaching license with the Assemblies of God.”

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY PATTY GUERRA
pguerra@modbee.comFebruary 17, 2014

Investigators with the Ceres Police High Tech Crimes unit have arrested an Oakdale youth minister on child pornography charges.

Tyler Bliss, 27, a youth minister at Bethel Church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, was taken into custody Monday and was being booked at the Stanislaus County Jail.

According to authorities, officers acting on a tip served search warrants at the church in the 100 block of East G Street and a home in the 600 block of Hudson Avenue, also in Oakdale, on Tuesday morning.

They seized computers and other electronic devices for forensic examination. Carissa Higginbotham, Ceres police spokeswoman, said it’s too early in the investigation to determine whether Bliss was involved in creating any of the images concerned.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the latest round of noise surrounding the film, “Philomena”:

On Saturday, the Independent.ie (Irish Independent) ran a story by Liz O’Donnell on “Philomena” saying that Philomena Lee’s “child was stolen by the nuns.” This is incorrect: the 18-year-old Lee, pregnant out-of-wedlock, was taken to the nuns by her widowed father, hoping they would care for the baby. They did. At age 22, Lee voluntarily signed a contract awarding the nuns her son. The nuns then got her a job. That is the undisputed truth.

Today, Newsday, the Long Island daily, has a story by Anthony DeStefano saying “Philomena Lee had an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican, where he reportedly is planning to screen the film.” This is incorrect: she was denied her request for a private meeting with the pope, and wound up shaking his hand behind a wall as part of the general audience. Moreover, Father Frederico Lombardi of the Holy See Press Office explicitly said, “The Holy Father does not see films and will not be seeing this one.”

At the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards on Sunday, “Philomena” won the Adapted Screenplay prize. Dame Judi Dench, who plays Philomena Lee, did not win Best Actress, but had they had an award for Biggest Fool, she would have won going away: at the awards ceremony, she flashed her butt in front of Oprah Winfrey; tattooed on it was the name Weinstein, in reference to the film’s distributor, Harvey Weinstein. Dench is 79.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

By Amanda Marcotte

On Wednesday, a U.N. human rights panel released its assessment of the Holy See’s responsibilities in the decadeslong child sex-abuse scandal and offered its recommendations to the Vatican on both how to prevent sex abuse in the future and how to deal responsibly with victims when it happens. The report is scathing in its judgment of the church’s past actions, but what is most startling is how aggressive the panel is in recommending that the church radically change its teachings and culture to prevent more child abuse.

Among the recommendations: “Abolish the discriminatory classification of children born out of wedlock as illegitimate children,” “support efforts at international level for the decriminalization of homosexuality,” “explicitly oppose all corporal punishment in childrearing,” “overcome all the barriers and taboos surrounding adolescent sexuality that hinder their access to sexual and reproductive information,” and “review its position on abortion which places obvious risks on the life and health of pregnant girls.” On that last one, the report mentioned the horrific story of that time the church excommunicated a woman for getting her 9-year-old daughter an abortion after the girl was raped by her stepfather.

The Vatican is not happy about this. On Friday, spokesman Federico Lombardi shot back, accusing the U.N. of being biased against the church. “More attention was devoted to well-known non-governmental organizations that are prejudiced against the Catholic Church and the Holy See than to the positions of the Holy See,” he complained, adding that the panel appears “to go beyond its competences and interfere in the doctrinal and moral positions of the Catholic Church.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

At Slate, Amanda Marcotte explains why the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child took a “wide” view of the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic church, one that addresses questions about sexual orientation and gender: it’s because the committee’s charge is to protect rights. Of children. Of all children.

And to address whatever threatens to abrogate the rights of children, in any organization or social group that happens to be under consideration by the committee at the moment. Of any and all children.

Marcotte writes:

While it’s true that the report did take a (welcome) wide view of the sex-abuse scandal, the problem, if you want to call it a “problem,” is not that it’s biased against the church. It’s that it’s biased in favor of human rights and the well-being of adolescents and children. This is a human rights committee. When Catholic doctrine comes into conflict with human rights, it is the U.N.’s job to prioritize human rights. Since this is children we’re talking about here, it’s especially important that the U.N. not hold back on their support for human rights to protect the sensitivities of the Vatican.

As I maintain in the discussion of the U.N. report in this Bondings 2.0 posting that asks whether the U.N. took an approach to its charge that is too wide, it continues to interest me that there are hidden commitments and presuppositions about gender and sexual orientation in the critical discussion of the U.N. report. Is it beside the point, I wonder, that Amanda Marcotte, who defends the “(welcome) wide view” taken by the U.N. report is a woman–while the three critics of that wide view cited by Bob Shine are all men?

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A commission looking into the Vatican bank briefed Pope Francis and top cardinals on its findings on Tuesday ahead of a papal decision about what to do with the institution that has embarrassed the Holy See for decades.

The Vatican commission, which the pope set up in June, gave Francis and his eight-member advisory board of cardinals from around the world a three-hour briefing.

Afterward, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said no decisions on the bank’s future had been taken.

He said the commission gave the pope and the cardinals an “ample and detailed” report on the current and past situation of the bank, and had offered “several possible indications” on its future.

Lombardi would not give any details. “We are waiting for indications from the pope,” Lombardi said.

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TENNESSEE
New York Daily News

BY LEE MORAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014

A devout Christian studies student learning about moral decision-making shot his fiancée dead then tried to make it look like a suicide, police said.

Charles Pittman, 21, allegedly gunned down long-term lover Olivia Greenlee as they sat inside her Toyota Corolla in Union University, Jackson, Tenn., parking lot last Tuesday night.

He is then accused of staging the scene to make it look like the music education student had killed herself.

Charles Pittman, 21, has been arrested for the murder of Olivia Greenlee, also 21.

Greenlee, also 21, was found dead inside the vehicle the following morning.

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TENNESSEE
Jackson University

Affidavit: Union University student Charles Pittman misled police in investigation of Olivia Greenlee’s death

The arrest affidavit for Union University student Charles Pittman, who is charged in the shooting death of Olivia Greenlee in a remote parking lot of Union’s campus, says Pittman tried to mislead police in the investigation of Greenlee’s death.

The affidavit says Pittman provided false evidence and changed the story he initially told police about what happened.

The affidavit says police were called to the campus where Union security had discovered Greenlee dead in her car with the doors locked.

The preliminary cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head, and a 9mm handgun was found in the car.

“Investigators began retracing the hours preceding the discovery of her body and determined that Charles Pittman, later determined to be the fiance of the deceased, was the last person to be in her company before the discovery of the body,” the affidavit said.

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TENNESSEE
East Idaho News

(CROCKETT COUNTY, Tenn.) — A Tennessee judge ordered no bond Sunday for a 21-year-old youth pastor accused of murdering his fiancée.

Investigators believe Charles Pittman shot 21-year-old Olivia Grenlee on the campus of Union University and tried to make the incident look like a suicide. Both Pittman and Grenlee were students of the Christian university.

Grenlee was found dead in the driver’s seat of her car on Feb. 12.

Pittman was a youth and children’s minister at Providence Baptist Church, according to ABC affiliate WBBJ. The church’s reverend did not hold a service on Sunday night due to Pittman’s alleged involvement. The organization’s representatives said he was suspended pending the outcome of he case.

Reverend Randy Kellough released a statement Sunday saying the church is praying for all parties involved, WWBJ reports.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Catholic leaders, public school supporters disagree on Missouri tax credit proposal

By Elisa Crouch ecrouch@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8119

Roman Catholic leaders and Missouri public school officials are butting heads over a potential constitutional amendment that would allow tax credit scholarships to benefit private education.

Thousands of signatures are being collected in Catholic parishes across Missouri to go to voters in November with an initiative that would give tax credits to anyone who donates to foundations that support public or private schools.

The measure, called the Children’s Education Initiative, would set up a $90 million tax credit program intended to leverage private donations to public and private school foundations. Donors would get a 50 percent tax credit for giving to a nonprofit organization that supports private or public schools, including special education programs.

“Our intent on this was to cover all levels of education in the state of Missouri,” said George Kerry, legislative consultant to St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson.

The tax credit program bears some similarities to proposals that school choice proponents have pushed unsuccessfully in the Legislature. As more Catholic and Lutheran schools lose students and close their doors, leaders from both denominations have looked to Jefferson City for a change in public policy that could help stem the loss.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 18

Statement by Judy Jones of St. Louis, Assistant Midwest Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 974 5003, snapjudy@gmail.com )

Missouri’s Catholic bishops are trying to get more tax breaks through a petition-gathering drive about schools. Citizens should think long and hard before signing.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Church officials who worry about shrinking Catholic schools should insist that their bishops take real measures, not symbolic ones, to end the long-standing and dangerous church culture of recklessness and deceit in child sex abuse cases. That will no doubt help stem declining enrollment in parochial schools.

And citizens approached with the church-sponsored petitions should keep in mind one fact: For at least three reasons, public schools are inherently safer than private schools. There is more openness and more accountability in public schools than private schools. And there’s less incentive to ignore or conceal child sex crimes in public schools than private schools.

First, law enforcement and fiscal authorities can more readily and easily audit and investigate public schools than private schools.

Second, citizens and journalists can better gain access to records in public schools than private schools.

Third, public school parents can attend and speak at regular, public school board meetings. They can oust board members, back other candidates, and run for those positions themselves.

These “checks and balances” aren’t perfect. Kids do, of course, get molested in public schools, far more than anyone would like to admit. And child sex crimes are sometimes covered up in public schools. But in our experience, there are far fewer cover ups of crimes against kids in public schools than private ones.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

Police in Pretoria acted decisively when they arrested a local priest for acting inappropriately with a child.

[Eyewitness News]

The family of the victim reported to police that the priest from the Archdiocese of Pretoria acted inappropriately with their child. The priest has since been barred from ministry while the investigation continues. Another pastor was arrested for possession of child pornography and has since appeared in court to answer for those charges.

We hope that any victims, witnesses, or whistleblowers will take courage from these arrests and speak up. Only through speaking up can we prevent other innocent children from being hurt. These arrests are an encouraging sign that the rights of children are moving to the forefront of public concern.

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ITALY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

An Italian bishop secretly defrocked an abusive priest and victims are now calling for his resignation. We support this call.

[The Tablet]

The former priest Marco Mangiacasale was fired last December after the CDF determined the allegations against him were credible. Bishop Diego Coletti of Como, however, tried to keep the laicization hidden. That’s wrong. Parents, parishioners and the public need and deserve to know which clerics and ex-clerics pose a danger to kids.

We are glad that Italian victims are speaking up. We are disappointed that Como Catholic officials put their reputations before the needs of victims. We hope Pope Francis will punish Bishop Coletti for his deceitful and irresponsible behavior.

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GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014

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

Georgia lawmakers may lengthen the time child sex abuse victims can take legal actions against the adults who molested them. We hope this bill (H.B. 771) passes. It’s not perfect but it will make kids safer.

[The Brunswick News]

Giving child sex abuse victims more time to file civil cases helps to publicly expose those who commit and conceal crimes against kids. Ideally, however, we believe the statute of limitations should be removed entirely and a civil “window” be adopted that enables any victim to expose any predator, no matter how long ago the crimes took place.

When California lawmakers did this, more than 300 predators were exposed, many of whom were still on the job or living among unsuspecting neighbors.

Most victims are unable to come forward for years or even decades. We feel that there should be no time limit on when a victim can come forward to get justice for the heinous crime of childhood sexual abuse.

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MARYLAND
NBC Washington

A man who some are claiming worked as a deacon in the D.C. area for years has been arrested for sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Maurice Blanchard was arrested last week by Prince George’s County Police. He allegedly raped a woman in 2003 who was 15 at the time. Her godmother, Sandra Seega, told News4 Blanchard was a deacon at Grace Apostolic Church in Northeast Washington, which she says gave him trust and access to young girls.

“From what she’s told me, he would ask her to come babysit,” Seega told News4. “Then he would sneak downstairs wherever she was sleeping and have sex with her.”

Court documents claim in a phone call, Blanchard admitted to having sex with the victim when she was 16. News4’s Chris Lawrence spoke to the victim Monday. She said Blanchard threatened to kill her if she told anyone about what happened, and that no one would believe her anyway.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Statement by Becky Ianni of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (703-801-6044, snapvirginia@cox.net)

A Maryland man who is a church deacon has been arrested for the sexual abuse of a teenage girl. We urge church officials to seek out other possible victims.

Our hearts go out to this courageous woman and her family. We are grateful that she came forward and is seeking justice. We hope that her actions will inspire others who may have been hurt by Blanchard to come forward to the police.

When victims speak out and criminals are exposed children are safer.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014

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

Victims challenge Twin Cities bishops
They ousted predator priest 7-10 weeks ago
Despite promising “openness,” they told no one
He was publicly exposed yesterday for first time
And he still lives – apparently unsupervised – in the Twin Cities
Self help group blasts “continuing reckless & secrecy” of two bishops

A credibly accused predator priest who was exposed for the first time yesterday was apparently ousted several weeks ago in secrecy, leading a support group for clergy sex abuse victims to blast two St. Paul Catholic bishops for their role in “continuing the recklessness and deceit of Archbishop John Nienstedt, Fr. Kevin McDonough and others.”

Because of a court order, St. Paul Minnesota church officials revealed yesterday that Fr. Kenneth LaVan was removed from active ministry in December 2013 because of allegations that he molested a child.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are blasting Bishop Lee Piche and Bishop Andrew Cozzens for “doing exactly what bishops have done for decades – keeping secrets about child molesting clerics” and urging them explain their “inexcusable and complicity” in the Fr. LaVan case.

“Why on earth, when it was decided weeks ago that Fr. LaVan was too dangerous to keep on the job, did you refuse to tell anyone about him?” asked SNAP in a letter to archdiocesan officials. “How will you justify your secrecy if we later learn that Fr. LaVan molested another child over the past two months when you kept silent about him?”

“Unless Piche and Cozzens start acting differently from Nienstedt and McDonough, they will be viewed – justifiably – as corrupt just like Nienstedt and McDonough,” said SNAP leader Frank Meuers of Plymouth. “’We’ve reformed.’ That’s the carefully-crafted public relations mantra Catholic officials have relentlessly repeated for over a decade. But it’s obvious, in the Twin Cities, this is simply not true.”

“This is incredibly self-serving behavior – right now – by Piche, Cozzens and others in the archdiocesan hierarchy,” Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “These church officials are violating both church policy and common decency by staying silent about yet another predator – who’s living in the Twin Cities – and giving him months to intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, shred evidence, and fabricate alibis.”

Archdiocesan staff say that Fr. LaVan retired in 1998 but admit he was only suspended in December. SNAP believes he likely continued to function as a priest, substituting for vacationing colleagues, helping during busy holiday times, etc. A church bulletin suggests he said Mass in the Twin Cities as recently as November at St. Charles Borromeo parish.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Dominican Today

Warsaw.- The Warsaw Office of the Prosecutor on Tuesday indicted Polish priest Wojciech Gil on four counts of pedophilia and against the sexual freedom of children, two of them in Poland in 2006, before his departure to head a town parish in the Dominican Republic, EFE reports.

After Gil’s arraignment which lasted one and-a-half hours, Office of the Prosecutor spokesman Przemyslaw Nowak said the defendant pleaded not guilty and refused to answer most of the questions by prosecutors.

Nowak confirmed that a judge has been asked to extend Gil’s pretrial detention.

He said prosecutors have interviewed dozens of witnesses over the past months and collected evidence, in addition to documents submitted by Dominican counterparts.

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ALABAMA
WAFF

By WAFF.com Staff

On Tuesday, a judge will hear more on the case against a former Muscle Shoals children’s pastor accused of sexually abusing children at his church.

The hearing is a preliminary one, in which the prosecutor will likely try to prove probable cause to a judge that the crime was committed and that Jeff Eddie committed it.

The whole case won’t be laid out, but at the end of the hearing, if a judge finds probable cause, they will send the case to a grand jury.

Jeff Eddie has been in jail since he was arrested on Feb. 4. He’s been charged with multiple counts of sodomy, sexual abuse of a child and having child pornography.

Eddie was the children’s pastor at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, and that is where investigators said he found his victims.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Feb. 18, 2014

MILWAUKEE The Milwaukee archdiocese will walk away from bankruptcy relatively unscathed if its proposed reorganization plan is accepted by Judge Susan V. Kelley.

Although it was lawsuits brought by 570 alleged childhood victims of clergy sex abuse that forced the archdiocese into bankruptcy court, a close reading of the 337-page document shows that the vast majority of those claims will get no financial compensation from a $4 million fund for survivors.

Most other creditors in the case will be paid, although some will get less than they say they are due.

The archdiocese has no plans to reduce its annual $24 million operating budget or sell any property. It will have to put some property up as collateral to “borrow” $2 million from the controversial cemetery perpetual care trust fund — the same $57 million fund church officials fought to keep out of the bankruptcy case that is now being appealed.

Meanwhile, the price tag for bankruptcy legal fees that the archdiocese must pay will be at least $18 million. Already, $12.5 million has been paid and another $4.5 million in bills has accrued. The archdiocese estimates it will cost another $1 million to complete the bankruptcy under the plan.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 17 February 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Domus Sanctae Marthae the Pope’s third meeting with the Council of Cardinals began. The Council was created on 13 April 2013 and confirmed by Pope’s chirograph of 28 September, to assist in the governance of the Universal Church and to draw up a plan for the revision of the Apostolic Constitution “Pastor bonus” on the Roman Curia. The meeting will conclude on 19 February. Following the morning session, a press conference was held in which Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, presented information on the meeting which begins ten days of intense activity on the part of the cardinals.

“As usual the Cardinals initiated their work with a Holy Mass concelebrated this morning at 7 a.m. in the Sanctae Marthae chapel, after which they began their meetings in a nearby room. Archbishop Pietro Parolin, secretary of State and future cardinal, was and will continue to be present”.

He continued, “The morning was dedicated to hearing the representatives of the Commission for Reference on the the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA). Three members of the Commission were present, rather than the entire Commission: the president Josef F.X. Zahra, the secretary Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda and Joachim Messemer, who is also the international revisor for the Prefecture of Economic Affairs of the Holy See. The work carried out during the eight months since the creation of this body was presented, but no decision was made. Following the meeting, the cardinals dined together with Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and this afternoon they will continue their meeting, but without the attendance of the COSEA representatives”.

“Tomorrow, Tuesday 18 February, the Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) will be heard. On Wednesday, Pope Francis will hold the usual general audience in St. Peter’s Square, while the cardinals will continue their work in his absence and, in the afternoon, the cardinals of the so-called “Council of Fifteen” instituted by John Paul II and responsible for the general consolidated financial statement of the Holy See and the Governorate of Vatican City State will meet with the “Council of Eight”, the cardinals who are participating in the meetings held from 17 to 19 February”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 18 February 2014 (VIS) – This morning a press conference was held during which Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, gave a briefing on the second meeting of the Holy Father and the Council of Cardinals (C8). The meeting was also attended by Archbishop Pietro Parolin, secretary of State, who will participate at all times, although he will be absent from this afternoon’s session due to an official appointment at the Italian embassy to the Holy See.

Fr. Lombardi communicated that yesterday afternoon the Council reflected on the results of the Commission for Reference on the the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA), presented during the preceding morning session. The president of the Commission, Joseph F.X. Zahra, was the only member of the Commission present. Msgr. Alfred Xuereb also attended today’s meeting in his role as the papal delegate to the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute of Works of Religion.

The day’s events began, as usual, at 7 a.m. with the celebration of Holy Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae chapel; the meeting started at 9.30 a.m. in the same room where yesterday’s gathering was held. The morning was spent hearing the representatives of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), instituted by chirograph on 24 June 2013. This Commission was the result of the Holy Father’s wish to acquire a better knowledge of the legal position and the activities of the Institute to enable greater harmonisation of the latter with the mission of the Universal Church and the Apostolic See, within the broader context of reforms involving some of the Institutions which offer support to the Apostolic See. Its task is to gather information on the functioning of the Institute and to report the results to the Pontiff.

The session was attended by Cardinal Raffaele Farina, president; Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, member; Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, coordinator; and Msgr. Peter Bryan Wells, secretary. Professor Mary Ann Glendon was not present as she does not reside in Rome.

The Commission presented the work carried out during these months, which was received with great interest by the cardinals, and provided information on the current situation of the Institute and the problems that it must face. Suggestions were offered for future changes, although no decisions were made following the hearing. One of the key points was the mission of the IOR in relation to the action of the Church in the world and not only from the perspective of economic performance.

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ITALY
The Table (UK)

18 February 2014 13:46 by Robert Mickens

Italian groups supporting victims of sexual abuse by priests have called for the resignation of Bishop Diego Coletti of the northern diocese of Como after it was discovered that he tried to keep quiet Pope Francis’ laicisation late last year of an abusive priest.

Bishop Coletti, 72, claimed he was acting under the Pope’s instructions, but the families of those abused by the former priest – Marco Mangiacasale – said it was the bishop’s decision to keep the news secret, not the Pope’s.

“Coletti was the one who imposed the obligation of privacy … and now he’s looking for excuses to drag Pope Francis into this,” the families charged.

The Diocese of Como confirmed on 12 February that the Pope had dismissed Mangiacasale, 50, from the clerical state on 11 December, just 11 weeks after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) concluded a canonical trial against the former priest. A diocesan tribunal sent the case to the CDF after concluding the initial canonical trial on 23 September.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mercury

Adam Davies 18th Feb 2014

A STUDENT protection officer has testified she was concerned about her colleague giving lollies to year seven girls but she had no idea what grooming was.

Catherine Leigh Long, who still works at the Toowoomba school at the centre of the 2007 child abuse scandal, told a Royal Commission on Monday she had been a teacher for 32-years and had worked at the school since 2003.

In a statement shown to the commission she outlined her role at the primary school which cannot be named.

“During my role as student protection contact, my name was displayed on posters in classrooms and other areas of the school,” she said.

“Students were reminded at assembly that I was the student protection contact and I was available if they needed to talk to me about problems or concerns.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

ABC

Child sex abuse royal commission: Victim asked to ‘demonstrate’ encounter with paedophile teacher in Toowoomba, hearing told

The former principal at a Queensland school has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse why a girl and her father were asked to re-enact an encounter with a paedophile teacher.

Teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested 13 female students, all aged between nine and 10, at a Catholic school in Toowoomba in 2007 and 2008.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at why Byrnes was allowed to go on offending for more than a year after allegations were first made against him to the school.

Byrnes, the school’s child protection contact, pleaded guilty in 2010 to child sex offences, including rape. He carried out all but two of his crimes in the classroom.

Terence Hayes was in charge of the school when Byrnes assaulted the year four students.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 18, 2014

A FORMER Catholic primary school principal who was sacked and charged after failing to report child sex abuse allegations to police is now working at another Catholic school as a Year 7 teacher.

Terence Hayes told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he disclosed his history to the new school – a Catholic P-12 establishment in Burpengary, north of Brisbane.

Mr Hayes was sacked as principal of a Toowoomba Catholic primary school after The Australian revealed he had failed to report to police “serious sexual abuse” allegations in September 2007 about teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes.

Byrnes was arrested in November 2008 and was later jailed for 10 years for molesting and raping 13 girls at the school, aged between eight and 10, in 2007 and 2008.

Mr Hayes was charged and prosecuted but not convicted for the criminal offence of failing to meet his mandatory reporting requirements.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 17 February 2014

The former principal of a Queensland primary school where a teacher sexually abused 13 girls has said he never reported any complaints to police or child protection officers.

Terence Hayes is appearing at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Brisbane.

The hearing is examining how Hayes, and the Catholic primary school he once ran, handled reports of child sex abuse by teacher Gerard Byrnes.

Hayes was a teacher for 26 years, and a principal for six years, before he first heard abuse complaints about Byrnes by schoolgirls in 2007.

The counsel assisting, Andrew Naylor, asked Hayes if he had ever made any mandatory reports under child protection procedures, policies or legislation since the first complaint in September 2007.

“No, I had not,” Hayes replied.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

A Catholic principal didn’t trust or like a pedophile teacher, but never reported child sex abuse complaints against him to police because he did not want to compromise the bishop.

Terence Hayes, who currently works as a year seven teacher, was principal of a Queensland primary in 2007 and 2008 when serious child sex abuse complaints were made against teacher Gerard Byrnes.

But Mr Hayes says he never reported any allegations to police, as the school’s child protection manual and state laws required, because he was always told to go to his superiors first.

“In the Catholic system, principals are not autonomous. We are virtually middle managers. So as, per the advice that had been given to me, we were constantly told we can never do anything without going to the office and getting advice of our superiors,” he told a hearing of the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Tuesday.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Craig Hughes-Cashmore Feb. 17, 2014

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has brought news about the sexual abuse of children in institutions – in the past and present – into hard focus. Many of those known to have been so abused are boys, an unknown but likely large number of whom tell no one or delay reporting it for years – on average 25 years, according to both local and international research.

Four years ago Survivors & Mates Support Network (SAMSN) was established as the first national not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing emotional and practical support to male survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their families.

Since 2011 the network has conducted groups and workshops for men and their supporters. A significant number of men who have completed one of our eight-week groups have engaged with the royal commission and still others are considering making contact.

Survivors & Mates Support Network was established by our own fund-raising efforts and a small community grant from the City of Sydney. What we didn’t anticipate was the avalanche of disclosures triggered by the state inquiries in NSW and Victoria, and the national royal commission and the sudden demand that would create for our service.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Kansas City Catholics call for the removal of bishop who knew about pedophile priest

By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82210

The New York Times is reporting on a group of Roman Catholics in Kansas City that are calling on Pope Francis to discipline Bishop Robert W. Finn. As NYT reporter Laurie Goodstein explains, Finn was convicted of failing to report a pedophile priest in 2012.

Apparently, the Catholic Church still has no policy about what to do about bishops who fail to report suspected abuse to civil authorities.

Finn knew that Rev. Shawn Ratigan kept hundreds of pornographic pictures of young girls – some toddler age — on his laptop, yet failed to let authorities know. While Finn was only given a two-year probation, Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Citizen

A Catholic priest from Pretoria was granted R2000 bail after appearing in court on charges of sexual

The 44-year-old priest from Waterkloof had allegedly made a 17-year-old boy watch a pornographic DVD and showed him his genitals, Beeld reported on Tuesday.

The priest was reportedly on compulsory leave until the matter was completed.

He has to stay with the archbishop of Pretoria, William Slattery, and is not allowed to preach or have contact with his congregation.

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SOUTH AFRICA
City Press

A Catholic priest from Pretoria was granted R2 000 bail after appearing in court on charges of sexual assault.

The 44-year-old priest from Waterkloof had allegedly made a 17-year-old boy watch a pornographic DVD and showed him his genitals.

The priest was reportedly on compulsory leave until the matter was completed.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Post

February 18 2014
By Valeska Abreu

Pretoria – The Catholic priest accused of making sexual advances towards a 17-year-old boy was released on R2 000 bail on Monday.

Once known as one of Pretoria’s most-loved priests, he appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court wearing dark tracksuit pants and a bright green T-shirt.

He kept his head bowed throughout his 30-minute bail application, only looking at the magistrate when directly addressed.

The priest – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was arrested on Friday, although it appears the allegations stem from some time ago.

It is alleged he made sexual advances towards the teenager who had come to him for a confession.

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POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The News

A priest alleged to have abused boys in the Dominican Republic will be charged in Warsaw on Tuesday.

Przemyslaw Nowak, spokesman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, has confirmed that “several charges” will be brought against Father Wojciech G. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws), following the priest’s detainment on Monday near Krakow.

Nowak also revealed that the house in which Father Wojciech G. had been residing in recent months has been searched.

However, Nowak said that he was not at liberty to discuss the details.

Although authorities in the Dominican Republic have already formally charged the priest, Poland has no extradition treaty with the Caribbean country at present, and it is expected that the priest will be tried in Poland.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Domínguez on Monday said he’s pleased with the arrest of Polish priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto), and vowed to do all that’s needed to get the maximum sentence for the prelate’s alleged abuse of seven boys in the Dominican Republic.

Poland police announced Gil’s arrest at his family home in a village near Krakow Monday, on a warrant issued by the Poland authorities, and is expected to be taken to Warsaw for questioning and arraignment Tuesday.

According to Poland’s laws, the priest faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

No borders

Dominguez said upon hearing the news through the media, the Justice Ministry contacted its Poland counterpart to learn of all the details on the priest’s arrest.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

MEDIA RELEASE

A public hearing will commence in Adelaide on 17 March 2014 into the responses into the responses by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and the South Australia Police to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School.

Royal Commission CEO, Ms Janette Dines, says the scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

* The circumstances in which Brian Perkins gained his position of employment at St Ann’s Special School;
* The monitoring, supervision and oversight of Brian Perkins’s activities as an employee and as a volunteer at St Ann’s Special School;
* The response of the principal and the board of St Ann’s Special School to allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins including communication with the parents of the children said to have been sexually abused;
* The response, including internal review(s), to allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School, by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide (including the Catholic Education Office);
* The experience of the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School;
* The circumstances around, and the basis for the payment of monies by the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Adelaide to the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused;
* The nature of the investigation by the South Australia Police (“SAPOL”) into the allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School, including the circumstances in which Brian Perkins was able to leave the State of South Australia in or about 1993 and steps taken by SAPOL to have him return to South Australia; and
* The nature and extent of communications of the investigation and other related matters by SAPOL with the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused.

The venue for the hearing will be Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Court Building, 3 Angas Street, Adelaide.

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NEW MEXICO
KRQE

[with video]

In a recorded message played for church-goers Sunday, Sheehan announced he is following church rules that require him to submit a resignation on his 75th birthday in July.

He says he will write his resignation letter on his birthday.

According to the archdiocese, it will be up to the pope to decide when to accept the resignation and when to appoint a replacement.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan put parishioners on notice Sunday that a successor could be leading the archdiocese by this time next year.

Sheehan said the Roman Catholic Church requires him to submit a letter of resignation on his 75th birthday in July, though it remains unknown when Pope Francis would name a successor, Sheehan said in a recorded message played at some churches during Mass.

“As many of you know, I turn 75 years old on July 9, 2014,” Sheehan said in the recorded message announcing the 2014 Annual Catholic Appeal, the archbishop’s annual fundraising event.

“At that time I must submit my resignation letter to the Holy See,” he said. “It may take awhile for my successor to be appointed but by ACA 2015, I hope that our new archbishop will be here among us.”

Celine Radigan, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, said the decision lies with Pope Francis when to accept the resignation and to choose Sheehan’s successor.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

…Just-disclosed church records in Archbishop Robert Carlson’s home diocese – St. Paul, Minnesota – show that Fr. Gerard Funcheon now lives at a Catholic facility in Dittmer, MO. Funcheon has admitted under oath that he has molested kids in Hawaii and in six other states and on military bases in the U.S. and Germany. Carlson and Funcheon were both Twin Cities priests in the 1970s. . .

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GEORGIA
The Brunswick News

By GORDON JACKSON The Brunswick News

WOODBINE – Extending the time in which a victim of childhood sexual abuse can file a civil lawsuit against an alleged abuser will send a message, State Rep. Jason Spencer, R-Woodbine, says.

“Their actions will come back to haunt them,” he said. “Very few abuse cases are reported.”

Legislation in the state House of Representatives to extend the statute of limitations on civil actions for childhood sexual abuse has been approved by the Non-Civil Subcommittee, but must clear one more committee to get to the House floor.

Spencer says House Bill 771 is necessary, because under current law, a child sex abuse victim may only bring action against his or her abuser up to five years after reaching the age of 18.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Local News

By Kendal Gapinski, Daily Local News
POSTED: 02/17/14

WEST WHITELAND – Justice4PAKids will host a seminar on Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church to help residents learned how to better protect their children from abuse.

The “Keep Your Kids Safe” lecture will feature guest speaker Elizabeth Pitts, formerly from the Chester County DA’s office, discussing ways to protect children from sexual abuse. The event will take place at St. Paul’s Parish Hall at 1105 Lincoln Highway in Exton on Sunday starting at 12:30 p.m. and will last around an hour.

Pitts is a former Deputy District Attorney for the county and currently is the associate director of investigations for Swarthmore College. According to the organization, Pitts supervised the Chester County District Attorney’s Office Child Abuse Unit for more than a decade. She has also been a guest lecturer on child abuse and Megan’s Law at local universities.

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ILLINOIS
Lake County News-Sun

By Bridget O’Shea boshea@pioneerlocal.com | @OSheaBridget February 17, 2014

Two lawsuits are claiming that negligence on the part of officials at South Barrington’s Willow Creek Community Church allowed a church volunteer to sexually abuse two young boys in 2012 and 2013.

The most recent suit was filed Thursday, Feb. 13, and claims that the church did not adequately supervise Robert Sobczak, now 20, who allegedly molested the boys.

Sobczak plead guilty in December to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy that he admitted to molesting during church programs. Sobczak was sentenced to two years of probation and has registered as a sex offender.

A second lawsuit was filed in November by an anonymous couple who claimed that Sobczak had molested their son.

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CANADA
The B.C. Catholic

Malin Jordan

For an agency of “peace,” the UN sure likes to lob missiles. Its latest salvo, fired from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, is aimed at re-making the Catholic Church.

The report from the UNCRC was supposed to be on the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Church over the past couple of decades or so. And that would have been fair enough.

The UN body blasted the Vatican in the report over what it called a “code of silence” that Rome used to cover abuse cases, to silence victims, and to move guilty priests around. It likened the Vatican’s actions in dealing with the cases to a culture of protection.

“The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators,” the UN report stated.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

[with video]

Toowoomba primary school where paedophile Gerard Byrnes raped 13 girls had PowerPoint presentation on dealing with sex abuse

MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 18, 2014

THE assistant principal at the Toowoomba primary school where paedophile Gerard Byrnes raped and sexually abused 13 girls has admitted she was not equipped with the skills to deal with the “catastrophe’’ which hit the school.

Megan Wagstaff, assistant principal overseeing religious education, has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse she was not properly trained.

Commissioner Jennifer Coate asked: “Do you think you were properly equipped as the deputy principal of the school in terms of knowledge, training, and understanding of this complex area?”

“No I was not,’’ replied Ms Wagstaff

Ms Wagstaff said while she followed protocol in reporting the first complaint of Byrnes’ behaviour to the principal, she did not follow procedure correctly.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Chris Calcino 18th Feb 2014

UPDATE: Toowoomba Catholic Diocese management has been accused of deleting claims that a teacher put his hand down a student’s pants from a disciplinary letter.

The Royal Commission inquiry into child sex abuse at a Toowoomba school has heard Toowoomba Diocese senior education officer Christopher Fry told the school’s principal to remove “hands down the pants” claims from a letter to since-convicted pedophile teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes.

Issues were also raised over the original draft sent by then-principal Terence Hayes, in which allegations Byrnes put his hand up girls’ skirts were also omitted.

Mr Hayes attributed the omission to haste rather than any conscious decision, despite the fact notes taken by student protection officer Catherine Long detailing the allegation were in the same office from which he sent the draft email.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Lawyer Herald

Priest seized by Polish authorities over alleged sexual abuse charges in Dominican

Dominican Today published a report by TheNews.pl, which said that a Polish priest has been arrested on Monday in Poland for allegations of sexual abuse. Polish priest Wojciech Gil, or Padre Alberto to his parishioners Juncalito, a town in the Dominican Republic, reportedly abused several boys sexually. Przemyslaw Nowak, a spokesman for the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed the priest’s arrest. The priest’s full name was withheld under the privacy laws of Poland according to the report.

Since late September of last year, Padre Alberto was under investigation by authorities in connection to several sexual abuse allegations. In the Dominican Republic, Padre Alberto has been formally charged with molesting several local boys in Juncalito while keeping his post as head of the parish. Aside from the testimonies provided by his alleged victims and authorities, officials in the Carribean country confirmed that Padre Alberto had child pornography material on his computer. He has since then denied the accusations filed against him, TheNews.pl said in its report.

The Polish news site said that Padre Alberto’s case was part of a broad investigation into Pope Francis envoy Jozef Wesolowski, who is also a Polish prelate and was charged with sexually abusing minors. After his secret was outed by the Holy See, the Vatican pledged to conduct a investigation regarding the allegations filed against Wesolowski. The Vatican has already relieved Wesolowski of his duties as an ambassador of the Church to the Dominican Republic due to the investigation.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Eyewitness News

JOHANNESBURG – Leaders of various catholic churches in Pretoria say their members have been left completely shaken following allegations of sexual abuse against a local priest.

The priest was granted bail by the Pretoria Magistrates Court yesterday.

He was arrested on Friday after a family claimed that his conduct towards one of their children was inappropriate.

He has since been barred from preaching as the police investigation commences.

Father Chris Townsend says he is offering support to those who are struggling to come to terms with the claims.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: February 17, 2014

The list includes the former head of a Catholic Youth Center. Victim’s advocates ask, Why the wait?

The names of nine more priests accused of sexually abusing minors were made public Monday by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, prompting victims’ advocates to ask why the names weren’t on the list released in December.

Most of the priests named were already known abusers, and some for decades, said Patrick Wall, victims advocate at Anderson Advocates law firm. The law firm had already sued many of them in Minnesota or other states, he said.

The now-former priests include Michael Kolar, the nearly 20-year assistant director of the Catholic Youth Center in St. Paul; Gerald Funcheon, a former Anoka priest who has admitted to abusing nearly 50 boys; and Kenneth LaVan, who served in nine parishes before retiring in 1998.

In a statement announcing the names, the archdiocese said the release is part of its ongoing commitment to addressing clergy misconduct.

“We are making these disclosures as part of the ongoing review of clergy personnel files conducted by Kinsale Management Consulting,” said the statement. More names may be forthcoming.

But victims’ attorneys charge that the disclosures were made because of court pressure.

“This is just another example of how important it is for there to be court oversight in the archdiocese’ release of information about child sex offenders,” said Mike Finnegan, an attorney with Anderson Advocates. “This is all information they’ve had, and have kept secret. It wasn’t until their attempt to keep this secret was denied that they released these names.”

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MINNESOTA
Le Sueur News-Herald

Posted on Feb 17, 2014

by Suzy Rook

Included on a list of nine priests “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors released Monday by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is a former Le Sueur pastor.

According to the diocese’s statement, Harold Walsh, 79, served as pastor of St. Anne’s Catholic Church from 1975-79.

Walsh, who now resides in Monticello, was ordained in 1960. He took a leave of absence in 1991 and retired a decade later. He was removed from the ministry in 2005, according to the diocese.

Monday’s release is in addition to a December listing of 34 priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

All but one of the nine cases occurred anywhere from 25 to 50 years ago and all priests listed have been removed from the ministry. Three of the nine are deceased, according the statement.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Some area Catholics want to see Bishop Robert Finn removed from his position. They held a rally outside the diocesan offices in downtown Monday afternoon.

“Either the Pope, the nuncio, the cardinal or the archbishop in St. Louis should come back and say ‘we’re going to ask you to resign’,” Sister Jeanne Christensen told KMBZ’s Bill Grady.

“Bottom line: we’d be very happy if he’d leave this diocese.”

Finn has headed the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese since 2005. In 2012, he was convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse. A priest under his supervision, former priest Shawn Ratigan, will serve 50 years in the child sexual abuse case. Finn got two years supervised probation.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In a rare move, a local nun is joining the appeal to the Pope to discipline their bishop.

Holding a sidewalk news conference outside the Kansas City Catholic Diocesan headquarters downtown, they said Bishop Robert Finn needs to be punished.

They say he mishandled complaints against a priest who admitted to taking pornographic photos of young parishioners.

Sister Jeanne Christensen was once a church insider helping victims, but now she’s revealing continuing failures by Finn.

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