ABUSE TRACKER

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For years Catholics around the metro have signed petitions to have their voices heard about the hurt they feel with Bishop Robert Finn as head of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

With the help of a former priest who has expertise in canon law, that’s the church law, they hope letters sent to Rome will make their way to Pope Francis. He has the authority to ask for Bishop Finn to step down.

When Bishop Finn was convicted in 2012 for failing to report a priest involved in child pornography, it was viewed as a victory for some victims. However, the guilty plea did not force the bishop step down as head of the diocese as some had hoped.

“There’s been no discipline or retribution from within the church structure, and yet he allowed children to continue to be abused after he knew he didn’t report,” former victim advocate Jeanne Christensen said.

There are more than 100,000 people who have signed a petition calling for Bishop Finn to step down. So far, that pressure has not pushed the bishop out.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —A group of activists is calling on Pope Francis to take action against Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn over his role in the sex abuse scandal in Kansas City’s Catholic Church.

Finn was convicted on a misdemeanor count of not immediately reporting a priest who was accused in a child pornography case. That priest, Shawn Ratigan, is now serving 50 years in prison for having sexually graphic pictures of young girls on his computer.

Finn’s critics gathered outside the local Catholic headquarters Monday.

James McConnell said he was about to become a deacon, but went to Finn to tell him that he could not serve under him.

“I told him I could not go before him and promise respect and obedience as required for ordination,” he said.

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

UNITED STATES
eurweb

Lawsuits for sexual abuse cases of children and adults; as well as Pastor’s resignations after admitting infidelity are at an all time high. Weaving in his personal experiences, real-life lessons, and going against the grain of traditional preachers, author and Pastor Jonathan K. Sanders in his new book, “Sex in the Pews,” has put on paper what most just talk about at the restaurant after church. “There is a hidden sex culture in the Church that must be confronted if things are ever going to change,” says Sanders.

Recently in the news a large church in Gilbert, Arizona says its married lead pastor resigned after confessing to engaging in extramarital affairs with more than one woman from the congregation. Pastor Isaac Hunter of Summit Church in Orlando, the son of mega church pastor Joel C. Hunter, resigned his position recently after admitting to an affair with a former church staff member. But, it’s not just the mega churches and it’s more than affairs.

“This subject of sex in the pews goes beyond one religion” says Sanders. “From Catholic priests to Pentecostal pastors, no one is exempt in the wild church sex culture. Even at the Kingdom Hall and Mosques, there are indiscretions that would shock and amaze you.”

In his book, Sex in the Pews: An exposé on the hidden sex culture in the church, Sanders pulls the cover off of sex, adultery, child sex abuse, hidden agendas, the church gay agenda, marriage cover ups, and other indiscretions in the church that most pastors shy away from discussing.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

Posted by Chris Oberholtz, Multimedia Producer
By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV/AP) –
Roman Catholics in the Kansas City area have joined a formal request to Pope Francis to discipline Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of failing to report a priest involved in child pornography.

An online petition signed by more than 110,000 people worldwide asking for Finn’s removal was also sent to the Vatican. The petition asks for Finn’s resignation.

Others want Pope Francis to initiate a “canonical penal process” against the area’s top bishop.

Finn, the head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, was placed on two years of court-supervised probation after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

The case was related to Finn’s handling of complaints against the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a priest who admitted taking lewd photographs of young parishioners. Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison and 21 years in state prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

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

NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 17

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

Shame on Archbishop John Myers. Despite claims that he’s imitating Christ, Myers is spending an exorbitant amount for his own comfort, status and worldly prestige.

[The Star-Ledger]

Hundreds of Newark Catholics have been betrayed twice – first, by a predator priest, then by a corrupt archbishop. Many of them are unemployed, underemployed, or unemployable, struggling with crippling medical and therapy bills. Meanwhile, Myers spends parishioners’ hard-earned contributions to make himself feel better.

The claim that donations from the flock aren’t paying for Myers’ opulence are disingenuous. The Catholic church manufacturers nothing. Its wealth is given to it – either in cash, checks, stocks, bonds or property. Myers can try to spin this any way he likes. But it’s obvious that he’s exploiting the kindness of rank-and-file Catholics to enhance his own luxurious lifestyle, while those who have been severely hurt by his selfishness, recklessness and callousness continue to suffer.

At least Myers is consistent. He’s as deceptive with church finances as he is with predator priests

America’s Catholic bishops steadfastly refuse to say even a peep about their colleagues who continue to endanger kids and protect predators. Let’s hope at least a few of them have the decency to decry their colleague Myers for his latest irresponsible extravagance that rubs salt into the already-deep and still-fresh wounds of hundreds of victims and thousands of parishioners.

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

NEW JERSEY
Beaumont Enterprise

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A major expansion is under way at the northwestern New Jersey home where the Archbishop of Newark will live once he retires.

The Star-Ledger (http://bit.ly/1jLyQIO) reports the new three-story, 3,000-square-foot wing at the Franklin Township residence will include an indoor exercise pool, a hot tub, three fireplaces, a library and an elevator, among other amenities.

The 4,500-square-foot home sits on 8.2 wooded acres and is valued at $800,000. It now serves as Myers’ weekend residence and has five bedrooms, a three-car garage and an outdoor pool.

The expansion will cost at least $500,000 — an amount that doesn’t include architectural costs, furnishings and landscaping.

The construction comes as the 72-year-old Myers asks the Roman Catholic archdiocese’s 1.3 million members to donate funds for the “archbishop’s annual appeal.” The fundraising effort that supports an array of initiatives, including religious education, the training of future priests and feeding the poor.

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

MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

Nine more priests … eight from long ago. Says Jean Hopfensperger of the Strib: “Nine more priests who sexually abused minors were named Monday morning by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. ‘In all but one case, the incidents occurred 25-50 years ago and all of the clergy involved have been out of ministry in the archdiocese for many years, in most cases for decades,’ said a statement announcing the list. ‘Of the nine men disclosed today, three are known to be deceased.’ ”

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

MINNESOTA
Stillwater Gazette

By Jonathan Young
February 17, 2014

A former priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Stillwater is on a new list of priests the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor. The list also includes a former pastor at Guardian Angels in Oakdale and St. Francis of Assisi in Lake St. Croix Beach.

On Feb. 17 the archdiocese added nine names to the list of priests “against whom claims of sexual abuse of a minor … have been found to be substantiated.” The archdiocese says it released the nine names in response to an ongoing review of personnel files by Kinsale Management Consulting. The review began in December.

The latest list of names includes Thomas Gillespie, 76, a former priest at St. Mary’s in Stillwater. According to the archdiocese, Gillespie served at St. Mary’s 1978-1986, when he left the archdiocese. The archdiocese says he was removed from ministry in 1996 and currently lives in Collegeville.

Also on the new list is Kenneth LaVan, 82, who served at Guardian Angels in Oakdale (formerly Lake Elmo) 1970-1983 and at St. Francis of Assisi in Lake St. Croix Beach 1983-1985. According to the archdiocese, LaVan retired from full-time ministry in 1998 and now lives in Oakdale. He was removed from all active ministry in December 2013, according to the archdiocese.

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

CONNECTICUT
Darien Times

By Susan Shultz on February 17, 2014

The new head of the Diocese of Bridgeport, which includes Darien and other Fairfield County towns, continues to make strides in open communication as he strives to ‘build bridges’ within the diocese.

Bishop Frank Caggiano was originally set to meet with the Bridgeport chapter of the Voice of the Faithful at its public meeting Thursday night, marking the first time the head of the diocese has attended a public meeting with the organization since it was formed in 2002. The meeting has been postponed due to the upcoming storm.

“The Bishop shares VOTF’s commitment to zero tolerance for children abuse as well as a healing outreach to those who were abused and affected in any way by the crisis,” Diocese Communications Director Brian Wallace told The Darien Times.

The Voice of the Faithful began in Massachusetts as parishioners’ response to allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergymen. Reports of sexual abuse hit a crisis level nationally in 2002, according to Connecticut Magazine, with reports of misconduct involving hundreds of Roman Catholic priests and thousands of young victims. There were 23 lawsuits involving sexual abuse in the Diocese of Bridgeport alone.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 17, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Recalcitrant Twin Cities church officials have been forced to finally make nine more predators’ names public by a safety-conscious judge and victim. But Catholic officials must go further. They have shielded these predators for years. Now they must warn citizens and Catholics about them, not just in Minnesota but in every state they worked.

It’s irresponsible for Twin Cities Catholic officials to do what protects them – suspend these predators, when caught, from local parishes – while doing little or nothing to protect others.

Archbishop John Nienstedt, Bishop Lee Piche and Bishop Andrew Cozzens must use their tremendous resources – pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, diocesan websites, newspaper ads and personal visits to the places these predators worked.

We’re especially worried about Fr. Freddy Montero, who is now reportedly living among even more vulnerable families in Ecuador – who almost certainly don’t know his criminal past.

We challenge archdiocesan officials to disclose how many child molesting clerics “remain under investigation” and when each of these so-called investigations began. It’s been clear for a long time that Catholic officials move extraordinarily slowly when they’re confronted with clergy sex abuse reports and eventually only announce a finding of “substantiated” when they’re virtually forced to do so.

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

SOUTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, February 17, 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 )

A South Dakota legislative panel will vote tomorrow on a measure that moves the state backwards and endangers kids.

[Indian Country Today Media Network]

South Dakota Senate Bill 130 will effectively reinstate the statute of limitations to 1960s levels and deny victims their chance to expose child molesters in court.

Hundreds of Native Americans, mostly from the Lakota and Dakota tribes, have come forward with lawsuits against the Catholic Church hierarchy. They report that they were violently sexually assaulted while living in Catholic boarding schools in the 1960s.

We urge lawmakers to block this bill. Being heard in a court of law and seeing justice served is an extremely important step in the healing process, not to mention important for holding those responsible accountable and deterring cover ups in the future. We urge SD legislators reject this archaic, predator-friendly bill.

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

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on February 17, 2014

The 4,500-square-foot home sits on 8.2 wooded acres in the hills of Hunterdon County. With five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a three-car garage and a big outdoor pool, it’s valued at nearly $800,000, records show.

But it’s not quite roomy enough for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers.

Myers, who has used the Franklin Township house as a weekend residence since the archdiocese purchased it in 2002, is building a three-story, 3,000-square-foot addition in anticipation of his retirement in two years, The Star-Ledger found. He will then move in full-time, a spokesman for the archbishop said.

The new wing, now just a wood frame, will include an indoor exercise pool, a hot tub, three fireplaces, a library and an elevator, among other amenities, according to blueprints and permits filed with the Franklin Township building department.

The price tag, the records show, will be a minimum of a half million dollars, a figure that does not include architectural costs, furnishings and landscaping.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Euan Kerr St. Paul, Minn. Feb 17, 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released more names Monday of priests it says have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.

The list, posted on the Archdiocese website, includes nine names. All but two of the men are already known to the public. Three are dead. Only one was accused in the past decade.

The list includes Harry Walsh, a former priest whose alleged abuse was disclosed in an MPR News investigation in December.

In a statement, the Archdiocese said the private firm it hired to review its files is also looking at other priests who’ve been accused of abuse more recently. It said if the private team substantiates those claims, those names will be added to the list.

The move comes less than a day after a Ramsey County District Court Judge ruled for the release of more names. The judge also denied a motion to block depositions of former Vicar General Kevin McDonough and Archbishop John Nienstedt.

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

MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

A Minnesota archdiocese is releasing the names of nine more priests it says were “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor.

The announcement Monday from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis follows its earlier disclosure of 30 such priests.

The disclosure follows a review of clergy files by an outside firm the archdiocese hired after it came under intense criticism for its handling of clergy sexual misconduct.

The archdiocese says it became aware of two of the nine priests after 2004, when it previously released a list of accused priests.

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 17, 2014

Bishops are very quick divert attention from their role in the cover-up of sex abuse by pointing fingers at public schools, where there is another, very real child sex abuse crisis.

But why haven’t the bishops helped to publicly fund or support any legislation that helps victims in public schools? Why haven’t they spoken out against the unions, who have put millions of dollars into defeating legislation that would protect children in public schools?

And why do they try and divide the victims’ movement by pitting survivors against each other?

It’s simple: they don’t care about stopping abuse. It’s just lip service. They only care about silencing victims—all victims, no matter the abuser. The bishops will do everything to keep the lid on sex abuse in public schools, because once you start peeling the layers of the onion …

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 17, 2014

A big question I get from parents is: How can I keep my child safe?

While I have a book on the subject coming out soon, there is one thing we can all do right now to make our kids safer:

Go with your gut.

If you are in a situation and things seem odd, they probably are. If you have to be talked into taking yourself or your child places that make you feel “hinky” or uncomfortable, go with that gut feeling that tells you to stay away. Never rationalize yourself or your child into danger.

As the commercials say: Most of your immune system lives in your gut. When it tries to tell you something, listen.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Amnesty International has expressed concern at claims that the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog is being undermined through funding cuts.

The claims were made by the former chief executive at the National Board for Safeguarding of Children (NBSC), Ian Elliott, who retired last summer.

He said the Catholic Bishops, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union, which together fund the board, were undermining its work by consistently cutting that funding.

He claimed he had been made to curtail further probes of dioceses, missionary organisations and religious orders by starving investigators of resources.

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

REPUBLICAN DOMINICANA/POLONIA
Noticias Sin

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

Los agentes se personaron en la casa familiar de Gil, en una localidad cercana a Cracovia (sur del país), 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.

La fiscalía de Varsovia pretende que Wojciech Gil comparezca mañana, cuando se decidirá si se prolonga o no su arresto.

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

SOUTH DAKOTA
Indian Country Today Media Network

Stephanie Woodard
2/17/14

In March of the following year, a South Dakota circuit court judge relied on the new law to dismiss 18 of the Native American cases, telling The Huffington Post that he felt the law could be applied retroactively, in other words, to lawsuits filed before its existence. More cases were dismissed during 2011.

“Our case was six days from trial when…the court retroactively applied HB 1104,” recalled Dahlen. She and her sisters, who’d sued along with her, appealed to South Dakota’s supreme court, which again denied them the right to be heard, she said.

Not fair, many from in and outside the state have said. “Right now, the point is not for the legislature to litigate these cases,” said state representative Troy Heinert, Rosebud Sioux. “The point is to pass a bill that will give people their day in court.” The abuse phenomenon is not confined to South Dakota, Heinert noted, but part of a worldwide phenomenon facing the Church.

A “travesty” was how Yates described SB 130. “We now know because of science that it takes most people many years to come to terms with childhood sexual abuse. The statute of limitations proposed in SB 130 gives them only a couple of years to do so and grants church entities immunity in the care of all of our children. If this bill is passed, South Dakota will make it more difficult to protect all its children.”

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Independent Catholic News (UK)

Posted: Monday, February 17, 2014

A petition signed by more than 113,000 people, and a letter from a group of parishioners and religious in Kansas City, Missouri, has been sent to Pope Francis this week urging him to take disciplinary action against Bishop Robert W Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of failing to report a priest who was an active paedophile, the Kansas City Star and New York Times report.

Bishop Finn was found guilty on a misdemeanour charge for failing to inform authorities after he learned there were hundreds of pornographic pictures of young girls and toddlers on a laptop belonging to Fr Shawn Ratigan. He was given two years of court-supervised probation. Ratigan has begun a 50-year prison sentence.

The group ask why Pope Francis suspended a German bishop who spent many millions of Euros building his luxurious quarters, but left in office a bishop who failed to protect children. They argue that Bishop Finn also broke church law and should be subject to a penal proceeding.

The request to the Pope was initiated by Fr James E Connell, a priest and canon lawyer in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, who belongs to a newly-formed group of Catholic priests, religious and laypeople called Catholic Whistleblowers.

Father Connell cited Canon 1389 in the church’s Code of Canon Law, which says that a person who through ‘culpable negligence’ harms another person by performing or omitting his ‘ecclesiastical power’ is to be given a ‘just penalty’. Fr Connell said he cited this canon because it was recently mentioned by Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former chief prosecutor, as a means of holding church officials accountable.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/17/2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has released names of nine additional priests with “credible claims against them of sexual abuse of a minor.”

The names were released Monday after a review of clergy files by Kinsale Management Consulting, a Los Angeles agency hired by the archdiocese, officials said in a statement posted to the archdiocese website.

All have died or otherwise been removed from ministry.

The priests are:

— Robert Blumeyer; worked at St. Boniface in Hastings and St. Bartholomew in Wayzata; died 1983.

— Gerald Funcheon; worked at St. Odilia in Shoreview and St. Stephen in Anoka; now lives in Dittmer, Mo.

— Kenneth Gansmann; served at St. John’s of Union Hill, near New Prague; died; date of death unknown.

— Thomas Gillespie; worked at St. Bernard in St. Paul and St. Mary’s in Stillwater; now lives in Collegeville.

— Michael Kolar; served as assistant director and director, Catholic Youth Center in St. Paul; lives in St. Paul.

— Kenneth LeVan; worked at St. Michael in St. Paul, St. Anne in Minneapolis, Guardian Angels in Oakdale, St. Joseph in Lino Lakes, and other locations; lives in Oakdale.

— Francisco (Fredy) Montero; served as chaplain to the Hispanic community, Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, Minneapolis; now believed to be living in Ecuador.

— James Stark; served at St. Stephen’s in Anoka, St. Andrew’s in St. Paul, Nativity in Bloomington, Holy Spirit in St. Paul, St. Peter’s in Richfield; St. Michael in Farmington; died 1999.

— Harold Walsh; served at St. Pius X in White Bear Lake, Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Paul, St. Stephen in Minneapolis, Holy Trinity in South St. Paul, St. Henry in Monticello; retired 2001.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Jennie Olson

A Minnesota archdiocese has released the names of nine more priests it says were “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor.

The announcement Monday from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis follows its earlier disclosure of 30 such priests. The disclosure follows a review of clergy files by an outside firm the archdiocese hired after it came under intense criticism for its handling of clergy sexual misconduct.

The archdiocese says it became aware of two of the nine priests after 2004, when it previously released a list of accused priests.

A Ramsey County judge on Sunday had rejected the archdiocese’s request that it not have to release the names of all local priests accused of sexually abusing children since 2004.
Out of the nine priests on the list, three are dead, and all are no longer serving in ministry. The most recent person on the list was removed from ministry in December; the archdiocese removed the rest between 1960 and 2007.

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

POLAND
BBC News

Police in Poland have arrested a Catholic priest suspected of committing sex offences against children in the Dominican Republic.

The 36-year-old, identified only as Wojciech G, is accused of molesting boys while serving as a parish priest on the Caribbean island.

He denies the accusations.

Last year Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was recalled to Rome amid claims he sexually abused children in the Dominican Republic.

The 65-year-old archbishop, formerly the Vatican’s representative to the island, is one of the highest ranking Catholic Church officials to be investigated for alleged abuse.

In the latest case, Wojciech G was arrested at his home near Krakow on Monday and is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday.

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 17, 2014

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis began meeting Monday for the third time with a select group of eight cardinals advising him on reforming the global Catholic church, but it remains unclear just what reforms are in the offing.

The meeting of the group, known formally as the Council of Cardinals, opens a week at the Vatican that could be a bellwether for the effect of the pope’s intended reforms of the central command structure for the church.

In the space of eight days, the pontiff is to:

* hear reports from three groups studying reform of the Vatican’s finances;
* welcome cardinals from around the world for a special ceremony adding new members to their ranks; and
* kick off more formal preparations for an October meeting of the world’s bishops that could lead to changes in the church’s pastoral practices focused on family life.

Responding to questions at a press briefing Monday afternoon, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said the Council of Cardinals had not told him whether they made any decisions Monday morning or whether they expected to do so before their meetings wrapped up Wednesday.

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

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Updated February 17, 2014

Below is a list of ordained ministers of the Catholic Church who previously had assignments in the archdiocese, and who have had credible claims against them of sexually abusing a minor in our archdiocese. All of these claims have been substantiated, which means that there is reasonable grounds to believe that the reported abuse occurred. Most of the reported incidents of abuse occurred between the mid-1950s and the 1980s, and most of these men have been previously identified in media reports. All of these men have been permanently removed from ministry, and most of them have been out of ministry for a decade or more.

Clergy who have committed acts of sexual abuse have caused insufferable harm to victims, families, parishioners, and the Church. We grieve and pray for all who have been harmed and are committed completely to combating acts of sexual abuse and doing all we can to ensure that these horrors are never repeated in the Church.

For more information, read a Q&A on the disclosure of names.

Priests with credible claims against them of sexual abuse of a minor

Notes regarding disclosure: Included in this disclosure are clergy members from other dioceses or religious orders who at one time worked in the archdiocese and were accused of engaging in sexual abuse of minors in our archdiocese, to the extent we have reliable and sufficient information to determine whether the claim was credible and could be substantiated. These disclosures will indicate that the individuals are non-diocesan clergy. We may not be able to report on the present status of such clergy members because the archdiocese does not always have access to such information since they are under the authority of their respective diocese or religious order. We do not have sufficient information to make a disclosure regarding priests from outside our archdiocese who may have served here at some point in time but committed child sexual abuse elsewhere.

Also, please note: Despite our best efforts to provide accurate information, our listings at this time may include some errors or omissions. The archdiocese requests that anyone with additional information or corrections regarding clergy members that are or should be subject to disclosure, to contact Greta Sawyer, the archdiocese’s Victim Assistance Coordinator at 651-291-4497.

Thomas Adamson – Permanently removed from ministry from our archdiocese in 1985.
John Brown – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Cosmas Dahlheimer – Permanently removed from ministry (date unknown, died in 2004).
Gilbert DeSutter – Permanently removed from ministry in 2003.
Gilbert Gustafson – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Louis Heitzer – Permanently removed from ministry in 1969 (died in 1969).
Rudolph Henrich – Permanently removed from ministry in 1976 (died in 1992).
Francis Hoefgen – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Richard Jeub – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Dennis Kampa – Permanently removed from ministry in 2003.
Robert Kapoun – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Jerome Kern – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Lee Krautkremer – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Ronan Charles Liles – Permanently removed from ministry in 1985 (believed to have died sometime before 2006).
Alfred Longley – Permanently removed from ministry in 1968 (died in 1974).
Brennan Maiers – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Timothy McCarthy – Permanently removed from ministry in 1991.
John McGrath – Permanently removed from ministry in 1995 (died in 1995).
Paul Palmitessa – Permanently removed from ministry in 2012.
Joseph Pinkosh – Permanently removed from ministry in 1992.
Francis Reynolds – Permanently removed from ministry in 1987 (died in 1988).
Richard Skluzacek – Permanently removed from ministry in 2005 (died in 2012).
Michael Stevens – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Thomas Stitts – Permanently removed from ministry in 1985 (died in 1985).
Robert Thurner – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002.
Clarence Vavra – Permanently removed from ministry in 2003.
Joseph Wajda – Permanently removed from ministry in 2003.
Raymond Walter – Permanently removed from ministry in 2003.
Curtis Wehmeyer – Permanently removed from ministry in 2012.
Robert Zasacki – Permanently removed from ministry in 2002 (died in 2008).
Disclosures As a Result of Comprehensive File Review

The following names were released February 17, 2014 as a result of a comprehensive file review by an outside national firm. For more information about this disclosure, please see this statement from the archdiocese.

Robert Blumeyer – Permanently removed from ministry in 1983 (died in 1983).
Gerald Funcheon – Permanently removed from ministry in 1993.
Kenneth Gansmann – Permanently removed from ministry from our archdiocese in 1960 (died, date unknown).
Thomas Gillespie – Permanently removed from ministry in 1996.
Michael Kolar – Permanently removed from ministry in 1991.
Kenneth LaVan – Retired from full time ministry in 1998. Removed from all active ministry December 2013.
Francisco (Fredy) Montero – Permanently removed from ministry from our archdiocese in 2007.
James Stark – Permanently removed from ministry in 1986 (died in 1999).
Harold Walsh – Permanently removed from ministry in 2005.

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

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Monday, February 17, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

Continued Disclosure of Names Part of The Archdiocese’s Comprehensive Approach to Address Clergy Sexual Misconduct

As part of our ongoing commitment to address clergy sexual misconduct, especially for the healing of victims and safety of children, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis today released the names and related information of nine priests against whom claims of sexual abuse of a minor within our archdiocese have been found to be substantiated. Consistent with Archbishop Nienstedt’s previously stated commitment to disclose information regarding clergy against whom there are substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors, information can be found on our web site in the special section created for this purpose in December 2013.

In all but one case, the incidents occurred 25-50 years ago and all of the clergy involved have been out of ministry in the archdiocese for many years, in most cases for decades. Of the nine men disclosed today, three are known to be deceased.

Two of these nine cases were made known to the archdiocese after the compilation of the John Jay list in 2004, bringing the total number of cases made known to the archdiocese after 2004 to three, including Curtis Wehmeyer, who has already been disclosed by us to the public and widely covered in media reports. Of the three claims made known to the archdiocese after 2004, one relates to incidents that occurred in the 1950’s but that were not made known to the archdiocese until several years after the compilation of the John Jay list.

We are making these disclosures as part of the ongoing review of clergy personnel files conducted by Kinsale Management Consulting at the request of the archdiocese. This file review process, which began in December 2013, initially focused on all living clergy, whether in active ministry or not. It now also includes several priests who are deceased.

Certain clergy members who we have made known to the public through press releases or who have been the subject of media reports over the past many months are not included in this disclosure. They remain under investigation. If claims against them are substantiated, their names will be added to our web site. Similarly, if the claims against them are not substantiated, that too will be made known.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

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

All but one case involves incidents 25-50 years ago, archdiocese said in a statement.

Nine more priests who sexually abused minors were named Monday morning by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“In all but one case, the incidents occurred 25-50 years ago and all of the clergy involved have been out of ministry in the archdiocese for many years, in most cases for decades,” said a statement announcing the list. “Of the nine men disclosed today, three are known to be deceased.”

The disclosures were announced as part of the review of clergy files the archdiocese commissioned after allegations of clergy misconduct escalated last fall, along with criticism of the archdiocese’s handling of abuse cases.

The statement said that two of the cases became known after the archdiocese compiled its list of credibly accused priests for the John Jay review in 2004. One involved incidents from the 1950s.

The priests named Monday are:

Robert Blumeyer: Permanently removed from ministry in 1983 (died in 1983).
Gerald Funcheon: Permanently removed from ministry in 1993.
Kenneth Gansmann: Permanently removed from ministry from our archdiocese in 1960 (died, date unknown).
Thomas Gillespie: Permanently removed from ministry in 1996.
Michael Kolar: Permanently removed from ministry in 1991.
Kenneth LaVan: Retired from full time ministry in 1998. Removed from all active ministry December 2013.
Francisco (Fredy) Montero: Permanently removed from ministry from our archdiocese in 2007.
James Stark: Permanently removed from ministry in 1986 (died in 1999).
Harold Walsh: Permanently removed from ministry in 2005.

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

MINNESOTA
WCCO

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO/AP) – The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released the names of nine priests on Monday who have had substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors against them.

A judge denied an attempt by lawyers for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to block a court order requiring the archbishop to testify about how the church handled clergy sexual abuse and release the names of all local priests accused of abusing children since 2004.

The archdiocese contended Ramsey County Judge John Van de North exceeded his authority in allowing attorneys for an alleged clergy abuse victim to depose Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports Van de North said in his ruling that there was “no persuasive legal or factual basis” for the motion.

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

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Polish journalist Miroslaw Wekly on Monday said his country’s public opinion was surprised with the arrest of countryman priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) on Sunday, on charges of sexually abusing seven boys in the Dominican Republic.

Speaking on Skype from Krakow, the journalist said he and other colleagues had traveled to the mountain town of Juncalito, northern Santiago province, and other places where the prelate allegedly committed the abuses. “Gil claimed that the charges against him were a plot by drug traffickers in the region but when I was in Juncalito, no one mentioned this, and the priest mentioned this only after his arrest.”

Wekly, speaking on CDN channel 37, added that Gil is expected to be interrogated in the Polish capital of Warsaw.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 17/02/2014
Reporter: Leonie Mellor

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard a Queensland Catholic school was initially reluctant to act against a teacher who was eventually convicted of raping some of the girls in his class.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse has heard a Queensland Catholic school was initially reluctant to act against a teacher who was eventually convicted of raping some of the girls in his class. The sex attacks began on the primary school pupils in 2007. The inquiry started taking public evidence in Brisbane today and heard from angry parents as well as the school’s former protection officer, who blamed some of the children for not coming forward. From Brisbane, Leonie Mellor reports for Lateline.

LEONIE MELLOR, REPORTER: The shocking sequence started in 2007. 13 girls in Year Four were abused by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes.

GAIL FURNESS, COUNSEL ASSISTING: 10 of the offences were particularly serious and involved digital, anal and vaginal rape. All but two offences were committed by Byrnes during class time in his classroom at the primary school.

LEONIE MELLOR: The commission heard that despite strict protocols, the Catholic primary school …

GAIL FURNESS: … employed and re-employed a teacher against whom credible and serious allegations of child sexual abuse had been made without taking any action against him.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

A must-read article from this past week: Stephanie Krehbiel on the “Woody Allen Problem”: how is it possible to read pacifist Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder now, now that we know that Yoder was a serial sex abuser? Here’s the problem:

Small wonder, then, that Mennonite church leaders wanted nothing less than to deal with the evidence, mounting throughout the 1980s and 90s, that Yoder was a serial sex abuser. Many of his victims were women students at what is now the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), and at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also employed. Dozens of women lodged complaints with seminary officials and church leaders, who seemed by and large helpless or unwilling to control his predatory behavior. Yoder died in 1997 without any formal charges ever having been filed against him. The secrecy with which church leaders and administrators dealt with his behavior meant that many people who were influenced by his theology had no idea that women had accused him, repeatedly, of sexual violence.

As Krehbiel goes on to point out, it’s not just that the Mennonite church did nothing to deal with Yoder: “[W]hat they did do was too little, too late, and more about institutional damage control than about justice or healing for Yoder’s victims.” And, of course, as Krehbiel also notes, the re-emergence of the story that Woody Allen sexually molested his step-daughter Dylan Farrow raises questions all over again about what we do with Yoder’s legacy–just as it is raising questions for many of us about how to interpret Allen’s work.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Leslie Dyste

A Ramsey County judge ruled Sunday the Archbishop and a former Vicar General still must testify on record about how the church handled clergy sex abuse allegations.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis tried to get last week’s ruling against Archbishop John Nienstedt and Father Kevin McDonough put on hold while it appealed. It argued the court doesn’t have the authority to order them to testify.

On Sunday a judge threw out the request while also denying a request to delay the release of the names of priests accused of sexual abuse since 2004.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: The child abuse royal commission has heard that a primary school in Toowoomba failed as recently as six years ago to stop a serial sex offender from abusing more than a dozen girls at the school. It happened despite a raft of child protection policies.

The inquiry’s first public case study outside Sydney is focusing on the abuse of 13 girls in 2007 and 2008. Their teacher Gerard Byrnes was found guilty of 44 offences. He remains in jail.

Today the inquiry heard from some of the parents of the victims who detailed the profound impact the abuse had had on their children and their families.

The inquiry also heard that the school’s student protection officer did not, and still does not, understand the concept of how children can be groomed by sex offenders.

PM’s Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: The girls who were abused by their primary school teacher, Gerard Byrnes, were either sworn to secrecy or were too afraid to speak out. And when they did, it took some time for their complaints to be taken seriously.

The effect of the abuse on the victims and their families has been profound.

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

AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

EDITORIAL: Brisbane Royal commission hearings into child sex abuse set to bring yet more disturbing stories

THE royal commission into child sex abuse began its hearings in Brisbane yesterday with one certainty – that we will hear yet more disturbing stories of dreadful abuse and institutional failing in dealing with both innocent victims and perpetrators of these horrendous crimes.

Since the commission began public sittings in April last year, it has revealed a problem that was even more distressing and widespread than any modern society could have imagined possible.

Before the commission started its work it had been a lazy tradition, in some circles, to regard institutionalised child abuse as a particularly Catholic problem, somehow tangled up with priestly vows of abstinence and a secretive church hierarchy more interested in protecting its own than practising the Christian charity it preached.

But the testimonies presented thus far to the commission show that abuse of children in institutions is an insidious vileness that can fester and grow wherever adults of a particular inclination have control over the young, even when purportedly there are systems in place to stop exactly this sort of exploitation.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 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”.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, February 17, 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 )

A priest in Poland has been arrested for sexually abusing children in the Caribbean.

[Capital News]

Poland arrests suspected paedophile priest

We are grateful for law enforcement officials and for the brave victims who spoke up. Poland has largely ignored the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in many European and Western nations. We take this as an encouraging sign that officials in Poland are ready to start taking this crisis seriously.

We hope that those who were hurt or witnessed child sexual crimes will be encouraged by this arrest to speak up. We also want church officials in Poland and the Caribbean to reach out to any other possible victims.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Judge Denies Archdiocese’s and Diocese’s Motion to Stay Discovery and Depositions of Archbishop Nienstedt and Fr. Kevin McDonough

(St. Paul, MN) – Ramsey County Judge John Van de North denied a request today from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona to stay discovery in a civil lawsuit and delay the release of names of priests who have been accused of sexual abuse since 2004. Also, the depositions of Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough will proceed in the civil lawsuit filed on behalf of a sexual abuse survivor, Doe 1, who was abused by Father Thomas Adamson at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park.

“The judge’s decision over the weekend reflects the urgency of this information needing to be known and revealed as soon as possible and addresses the perils that exist,” said Doe 1’s attorney Jeff Anderson. Judge Van de North’s clerk alerted attorneys today and told the parties it was sent “prior to signing and filing because of the upcoming deadline.”

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: And the Royal Commission is also looking at the mandatory reporting regime that was in place at the time of the abuse at the Toowoomba School. The rules were tightened after the school principal was found not guilty of failing to refer the allegation to police.

Monique Scattini represented the families of five victims who took the civil action. She spoke to Emily Bourke about how the mandatory reporting rules have changed since then.

MONIQUE SCATTINI: In 2006 the reporting requirements under the Education General Provisions Act, that required that a person must provide a written report, and that that written report needed to be handed to police where there was an allegation.

Now, what happened, the principal of the school satisfied the test, if you like, under that piece of legislation that was in place around reporting – albeit fairly wanting in relation to the sum of his sort of emails and phone calls with his superiors at the school.

However, he was found not guilty, and his charges dismissed, because he didn’t, it was the obligation, under that particular piece of legislation, for the senior staff in Catholic ed to report it, and the charges weren’t brought against them, and therefore the charges were dismissed against the principal.

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

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

The former student protection officer at a Queensland Catholic primary school still can’t believe that 13 girls didn’t have the courage to speak out about being sexually abused by their teacher.

Catherine Long, who is still a teacher at the school, gave evidence at a hearing of Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Monday.

Ms Long was present at a 2007 meeting between the school’s principal Terence Hayes and a girl who had a complaint about being abused by teacher Gerard Byrnes.

She says although she was the school’s student protection officer at the time, she did not report the complaint to police.

“No, I didn’t think I was in charge of the situation,” Ms Long told the enquiry.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 18, 2014

A DOZEN schoolgirls may have been saved from sexual abuse at the hands of their classroom teacher if their principal or Catholic authorities immediately reported allegations to police.

Veteran schoolteacher and student protection officer Gerard Vincent Byrnes was arrested for molesting or raping 13 of his students, aged eight to 10, in November 2008, 14 months after one of his Grade 4 students complained to the principal, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard yesterday.

Holding public hearings in Brisbane for the first time, the commission was told principal Terence Hayes relayed the girl’s complaint — that Byrnes had touched her chest under her shirt and put his hands up her skirt — only to the local Catholic Education Office. The police were not informed.

It was only when another girl told her mother in November 2008 that she had been abused by Byrnes that the police became involved, discovering Byrnes had raped and molested 13 girls in total, mostly at his classroom desk during class time.

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

POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Capital News (Kenya)

By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE | February 17, 2014

WARSAW, Feb 17- Polish police on Monday arrested a Roman Catholic priest suspected of sex offences against children in the Dominican Republic, state prosecutors said.

The 36-year-old priest, who served in the central city of Santiago on the Caribbean island and is identified only as Wojciech G for legal reasons, will be formally questioned and charged on Tuesday, said Dariusz Nowak, a spokesman for prosecutors in Warsaw.

“We received documents from the Dominican Republic that, among other things, will allow us to press charges,” Nowak told reporters.

Wojciech G flatly denied any wrongdoing in an October 2013 interview with Polish media, suggesting he was set up by local drug gangs.

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

VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, February 17

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is opening the most critical week of his year-old papacy: Two commissions of inquiry on Vatican finance will report their recommendations for reform and preparations get underway for a summit on family issues that will deal with the widespread rejection by Catholics of church teaching on contraception, divorce and gay unions.

In between, Francis will preside over his first ceremony to formally welcome 19 new cardinals into the elite club of churchmen who will eventually elect his successor. In typical Francis style, the new cardinals hail from some of the poorest places on earth, including Haiti, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

The first half of Francis’ busy week will be devoted to the third meeting of his “Group of Eight” advisers, the senior cardinals representing every continent who Francis appointed to help him govern the church and overhaul the antiquated and inefficient Vatican bureaucracy. They are due to hear recommendations from two panels of experts on reforming the troubled Vatican bank and rationalizing the Holy See’s overall financial and administrative structures.

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

POLEN
Europe Online

Warschau (dpa) – Ein polnischer Priester, der in der Dominikanischen Republik mindestens zehn Jungen sexuell missbraucht haben soll, ist am Montag in Polen festgenommen worden. Ein Sprecher der Warschauer Staatsanwaltschaft teilte mit, der Ordenspriester werde am Dienstag vernommen. Die Staatsanwaltschaft in der Dominikanischen Republik ermittelt seit Monaten gegen den 36-Jährigen und hatte die polnische Justiz um Rechtshilfe gebeten. In Polen laufen ebenfalls Ermittlungen gegen den Mann wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Kinderpornografie.

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

POLEN
Tiroler Tageszeitung

[Summary: A Polish priest who allegedly abused at least 10 boys in the Dominican Republic was arrested Monday in Poland. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, according to the Warsaw prosecutor’s office.]

Warschau – Ein polnischer Priester, der mindestens zehn Buben in der Dominikanischen Republik sexuell missbraucht haben soll, wurde am Montag in Polen festgenommen. Die Staatsanwaltschaft in der Dominikanischen Republik ermittelt seit Monaten gegen den 36-Jährigen Ordenspriester und hatte die polnische Justiz um Rechtshilfe gebeten. Die Vernehmung ist laut Warschauer Staatsanwaltschaft für Dienstag geplant.

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

MINNESOTA
kathweb (Osterreich)

[Archbishop John Nienstedt must testify about abuse cases in his archdiocese. The court in Ramsey County dismissed an appeal by the archdiocese.]

Washington, 17.02.2014 (KAP) Der Erzbischof von Saint Paul und Minneapolis in den USA, John Nienstedt, muss vor Gericht über Missbrauchsfälle in seiner Erzdiözese aussagen. Das zuständige Gericht von Ramsey County (Minnesota) wies einen Einspruch der Erzdiözese zurück, wie die Online-Zeitung “Twincities.com” (Sonntagabend Ortszeit) meldete. Zugleich bestätigte Richter John Van de North in seiner Entscheidung die Anordnung an die Kirchenleitung zur Namensveröffentlichung. Bis Dienstag müssen die Namen aller seit 2004 des Missbrauchs beschuldigten Priester vorgelegt werden.

Gemeinsam mit Nienstedt muss auch Generalvikar Kevin McDonough in einem Missbrauchprozess als Zeugen aussagen. In dem Fall geht es um einen Priester, der trotz bekannter Übergriffe seit 1964 weiter als Geistlicher beschäftigt worden sein und zwischen 1976 und 1977 erneut einen Buben missbraucht haben soll. Nienstedt lehnte den Ruf in den Zeugenstand unter Hinweis darauf ab, dass er für die Kirche in Minneapolis erst seit 2008 Verantwortung trägt.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Weser Kurier

[Father Hans Zollner, Jesuit and psychology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, coordinates the Center for Child Protection at the university. Zollner said the Holy See has not delivered 14 years of the required reports to the United Nations so he knew the UN report would be unpleasant. He said Pope Benedict XVI tightened the rules of how abuse cases are handled.]

„Kirche hält Fälle nicht geheim“
Herr Zollner, sind Sie von der Schärfe des UN-Berichts überrascht, der dem Heiligen Stuhl weiterhin schwere Versäumnisse im Hinblick auf sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern attestiert?

Hans Zollner: Der Heilige Stuhl hat 14 Jahre nicht die geforderten Berichte geliefert, insofern wussten alle, dass es unangenehm werden würde. Auch mit Enttäuschungen und berechtigtem Ärger wurde gerechnet. Am Anfang des Berichts ist der Ton: Ihr habt eure Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht, aber ihr gebt euch Mühe. Dann folgen allerdings schwere Vorwürfe.

Trifft der Vorwurf zu, die Kirche sei mehr an der Wahrung des eigenen Rufs interessiert, als die Interessen der Opfer zu verfolgen?

Auf die Vergangenheit bezogen stimmt das. Aber heute ist das anders. Der Heilige Stuhl hat sich erstmals dem UN-Komitee gestellt. Benedikt XVI. hat die kirchliche Gesetzgebung verschärft, immer wieder Missbrauchsopfer getroffen und um Verzeihung gebeten. Franziskus hat eine Kommission zu diesem Thema angekündigt. Die Glaubenskongregation hat eindeutig gesagt, dass die Gesetze in dem jeweiligen Land eingehalten werden müssen, ohne Wenn und Aber.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
My Fox Orlando

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –
Bishop Robert Finn was placed on court-supervised probation in 2012 after being caught in the middle of a sex scandal, but some parishioners believe the crime is more punishable than that.

Liz Donnelly, a life-long Catholic, wants Bishop Finn removed from his post. She, 13 other parishioners, a priest, a nun, and 113,000 signatures on a petition want the matter taken directly to Pope Francis.

“The Catholic Church is built on peace and justice principles, yet within the church there’s not justice,” said Donnelly. “I think we’re meant to stand up for what we believe in. If we don’t speak out, we can’t sit in the pews and grumble.”

Donnelly has left her church and does not provide them any money. Leaving the church was not an easy decision, but she plans to return if Bishop Finn leaves.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

[with video]

SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 17, 2014

A TEACHER at a Toowoomba Catholic school where 13 pre-teen students were sexually assaulted or raped by their classroom teacher says she doesn’t “get” why the victims didn’t have the “courage” to complain.

Catherine Long was a student protection officer and learning support teacher in 2007 and 2008 at the Toowoomba Catholic primary school when Gerard Vincent Byrnes abused the girls, aged eight to ten.

Ms Long gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Brisbane today. She and principal Terence Hayes listened in September 2007 as one of Byrnes’ students and her father told them Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt.

Neither Mr Hayes nor Ms Long reported the matter to police, and other children were abused in the complaint’s wake. The allegations only went to the local Catholic Education Office, which did not take the matter further.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard that a primary school in Toowoomba had a raft of child protection policies but failed to stop a serial sex offender from abusing more than a dozen girls at the school. The inquiry also heard that the student protection officer at the school did not, and still does not, understand the concept of how child can be groomed by sex offenders.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The child abuse royal commission has heard that a primary school in Toowoomba failed as recently as six years ago to stop a serial sex offender from abusing more than a dozen girls at the school. It happened despite a raft of child protection policies.

The inquiry’s first public case study outside Sydney is focusing on the abuse of 13 girls in 2007 and 2008. Their teacher Gerard Byrnes was found guilty of 44 offences. He remains in jail.

Today the inquiry heard from some of the parents of the victims who detailed the profound impact the abuse had had on their children and their families.

The inquiry also heard that the school’s student protection officer did not, and still does not, understand the concept of how children can be groomed by sex offenders.

PM’s Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: The girls who were abused by their primary school teacher, Gerard Byrnes, were either sworn to secrecy or were too afraid to speak out. And when they did, it took some time for their complaints to be taken seriously.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 17 February 2014

A Queensland Catholic school did not tell parents or police about sexual abuse allegations against a teacher for more than a year, an inquiry has heard.

Complaints of abuse were first made against Gerard Byrnes in 2007 but he remained working as a teacher at the school until he resigned in June 2008, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Brisbane was told on Monday.

A month later, Byrnes was re-employed as a relief teacher at the school in July and held the position until he was arrested that November. Over his course of employment at the school he sexually abused 13 girls.

The principal, Terence Hayes, the school’s student protection officer, Catherine Long, and the Catholic Education Office were aware of the sexual abuse complaints and took no action, the commission was told.

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

AUSTRALIA
7 News

BY MARTY SILK
February 17, 2014

A pedophile teacher continued to work and abuse girls at a Catholic primary school despite both the principal and the student protection officer knowing about child sex abuse complaints against him.

Gerard Byrnes was eventually jailed in 2010 after pleading guilty to 44 counts of abusing 13 girls between 2007 and 2008.

School Principal Terence Hayes and student protection officer Catherine Long first heard a complaint from a schoolgirl, who said Byrnes touched her breast, in September 2007.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard in Brisbane on Monday that during a meeting with the girl’s father, Mr Hayes said he would deal with Byrnes internally.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Royal commission into child abuse hears that serial child abuser Gerard Byrnes was kept on teaching staff at Toowoomba school

MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 18, 2014

A QUEENSLAND Catholic school kept a serial child abuser on staff, disciplining him only with a letter and rehiring him a month after he retired.

The national child abuse inquiry was yesterday told the abuse escalated after the principal was first made aware of the behaviour and elected to handle the matter internally.

Thirteen girls were raped and molested by Gerard Vincent Byrnes before he was arrested.

Sitting in Brisbane for the first time yesterday, the inquiry heard how complaints were not investigated despite approved protocols in place for dealing with sexual abuse claims.

The events occurred within the last decade.

Royal commission chief executive Janette Dines labelled the case “confronting” because it was so recent and protocols did not protect the children from the attack.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
News-Leader

Written by
Associated Press

KANSAS CITY — Roman Catholics in the Kansas City area have joined a formal request to Pope Francis to discipline Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of failing to report a priest involved in child pornography.

An online petition signed by more than 113,000 people worldwide asking for Finn’s removal also was sent to the Vatican, The Kansas City Star reported.

Finn, the head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, was placed on two years of court-supervised probation after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

The case was related to Finn’s handling of complaints against the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a priest who admitted taking lewd photographs of young parishioners. Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison and 21 years in state prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

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

POLAND
The News

A Polish priest was detained on Monday near Krakow in connection with an investigation concerning alleged child abuse in the Dominican Republic.

Przemyslaw Nowak, spokesman for the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, confirmed the news on Monday morning.

Father Wojciech G. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws) has been under investigation by the Polish prosecutor’s office since late September.

The Dominican Republic’s attorney general transferred its case files, containing about 650 documents, to Poland last autumn, and it is understood that if charges are brought, the cleric will be tried in Poland.

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

ISRAEL
JNS

By Maayan Jaffe/JNS.org

Sexual abuse of minors has for many years been among the most controversial and suppressed issues in the Jewish community. An inaugural conference in Israel next month will, at the very least, contribute to the conversation on that issue.

“The mere fact that we are talking with each other is crucial,” said Prof. Asher Ben-Arieh, director of the Jerusalem-based Haruv Institute, whose stated mission is “to become an international center of excellence contributing to the reduction of child maltreatment.”

The First International Congress for Child Protection Organizations in the Jewish Community takes place from March 3-5 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sponsored by Haruv and Magen LeYeladim U’Lemishpachot, the conference will draw representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, South Africa, and Israel to talk about how to deal with sexual abuse of minors, particularly in the Orthodox Jewish community. Attendees will strategically review the participating organizations and their programs, and collaboratively generate a code of best practices.

“Ultra-Orthodox communities around the world are similar and share communal characteristics,” Ben-Arieh told JNS.org. “We also learned that… in many cases, perpetrators are ‘shipped’ to different communities instead of being dealt with.”

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

February 17
BY MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star

If you doubt the power of one person, listen to what happens when one soul is motivated by faith.

The Vatican, maybe even Pope Francis himself, may at long last hear the concerns of many Catholics within the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese. Parishioners here have seen their diocese battered financially, their churches unfairly tarnished by the sins of pedophile priests. For too long, that hurt was intensified rather than lightened by the underwhelming response of church leadership.

In that way, lifelong Kansas City area Catholic Jeff Weis was in sync with many people who watched when Bishop Robert Finn was found guilty of failure to report suspected child abuse in 2012. The charge against Finn involved the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who was found was guilty of child pornography charges and sentenced to 50 years.

Weis thought Finn would resign. After all, this was the same bishop who promised change after he ushered through a $10 million settlement on behalf of the diocese to 47 victims and their families. But nothing happened.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com

A judge has denied a motion by the Twin Cities archdiocese to prevent Archbishop John Nienstedt from testifying about priests accused of child sexual abuse.

Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North ruled Sunday afternoon that he would not stay his orders of Tuesday regarding the testimony of Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough. He also refused to stay his order that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona submit names of priests accused of sexual abuse since 2004.

The archdiocese and diocese filed motions Thursday asking Van de North to stay his orders pending their appeal of the issues to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

The legal wrangling came in the case of John Doe 1 vs. the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona and Thomas Adamson.

Adamson is a former priest who has been sued more than a dozen times for allegedly sexually abusing children.

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Michael Finnegan, who represent the plaintiff, argued that the judges’ orders should stand.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC Canberra

[with audio]

By Sukayna Sadik, Kate Corbett and Genevieve Jacobs

A former Goulburn resident claims he was physically and emotionally abused as a child while in the care of Salvation Army officers from the mid-1960s.

At just four years old, Jim Luthy was orphaned when his mother died and his father abandoned him. He was placed under the Salvation Army’s care in Goulburn but his experiences at the Gill Memorial Home left him traumatised.

“It was a place of extreme brutality,” Mr Luthy told Genevieve Jacobs on 666 Mornings. (Listen to attached audio)

“I was abused physically by a Salvation Army Officer there. I wrote to the Salvation Army, they acknowledged that this officer was an extreme abuser, they didn’t dispute that, eventually. They gave me a number of pay outs for the abuse but I was abused physically, bashed, hit and – for anything – abused emotionally.”

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

ILLINOIS
WLS

(BARRINGTON) Two lawsuits are claiming that negligence on the part of officials at northwest suburban 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, Pioneer Press reports.

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. In both cases, the children were enrolled in Willow Creek’s Special Friends program for children with special needs.

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

MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Leslie Dyste

A Ramsey County judge ruled Sunday the Archbishop and a former Vicar General still must testify on record about how the church handled clergy sex abuse allegations.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis tried to get last week’s ruling against Archbishop John Nienstedt and Father Kevin McDonough put on hold while it appealed. It argued the court doesn’t have the authority to order them to testify.

On Sunday a judge threw out the request while also denying a request to delay the release of the names of priests accused of sexual abuse since 2004.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is holding its first public inquiry outside Sydney today, investigating a scandal that engulfed the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba just a few years ago.

The case involves the abuse of 13 primary school girls by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes, who pleaded guilty and is now serving a 10-year jail sentence.

The Commission is investigating how the school staff, including the principal, and Catholic Church officials in Queensland dealt with the allegations when they emerged in 2007.

The World Today’s Emily Bourke is at the inquiry in Brisbane and joins us now. Emily, how did the Royal Commission begin today’s inquiry?

EMILY BOURKE: Good afternoon, Eleanor. We’ve been hearing about how Gerard Byrnes, a teacher and the child protection contact person at the primary school in Toowoomba, was charged with 44 child sex offences several years ago, and those offences were committed between 2007 and 2008. All of the students were abused while sitting in Byrnes’ classes, and so he was arrested in 2008 after the first complaint was lodged in 2007.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: ANTHONY LONETREE , Star Tribune Updated: February 16, 2014

Church also must release larger list of priests accused of sexually abusing children.

A Ramsey County District Court judge on Sunday rejected a request by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that he delay a previous order requiring Archbishop John Nienstedt to testify about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse cases.

The archdiocese asked Judge John Van de North in motions last Thursday that he drop the earlier demands while the church proceeded with an appeal.

The judge also refused on Sunday to drop a related requirement — made as part of his Feb. 11 order — that the archdiocese release the names of all local priests accused of sexually abusing children since 2004.

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

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Bullying and intimidation claims against Catholic Church by father of victim of sex monster Brian Perkins

THE Catholic Church is bullying and intimidating families seeking justice for the sexual abuse of their intellectually disabled children, a victim’s father claims.

Peter Mitchell says the church has deliberately frustrated victims’ parents by failing to resolve 12 years of legal battles over the molestation of 36 students by paedophile Brian Charles Perkins at St Ann’s Special School more than 20 years ago.

But the church has denied causing any delays in legal proceedings, saying it has provided counselling and support to families.

Mr Mitchell has launched an online petition, which has gathered more than 16,000 signatures, to raise awareness about the case ahead of formal hearings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Adelaide next month.

Eight people abused as children by Perkins have lodged civil claims against the church and St Ann’s Special School.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former student protection officer at a Queensland primary school says she could not understand why students who had been sexually abused “didn’t have the courage to come forward”.

Catherine Long was a student protection officer at the Toowoomba primary school where teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested 13 female students, all aged between nine and 10, 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.

Ms Long, who still teaches at the school, was today questioned by the commission in Brisbane as to why she did not refer one student’s complaint to police or authorities.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AAP

ANNETTE BLACKWELL
February 17, 2014

An online petition calling on the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide to settle a 12-year legal battle with parents of profoundly disabled children who were abused at a church school has attracted more than 60,000 signatures in five days.

The petition was started by Peter Mitchell, the father of one of the boys who attended St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide from 1986 to 1991.

It was 10 years later that Mr Mitchell and other parents discovered what had happened to their children.

The former bus driver at the school, Brian Perkins, was arrested in 2001 and later jailed for 10 years.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lucy McNally

The Anglican Church says it is trying to make amends to around 45 abuse victims by offering some of them up to $75,000 each in compensation.

Last year the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse looked at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

Run by the Anglican Church, it was a place of brutal physical and sexual abuse between the 1940s and the 1980s.

The Commission examined the way the church dealt with a group of victims who launched a class action back in 2008.

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

SOUTH AFRICA
The Post

February 17 2014
By NTANDO MAKHUBU

Pretoria –

A Pretoria Catholic priest has been arrested for sexually abusing a minor, after the church advised the victim’s family to lay a charge with the SAPS.

He is parish priest of a Catholic Church in the east of Pretoria.

His arrest on Friday was on charges related to inappropriate conduct with a minor, the chancellor of the Archbishop of Pretoria, Father Robert Mphiwe, said on Sunday.

“The complaint was initially laid with the Pretoria Archdiocese in January. The priest was immediately placed on administrative leave,” Mphiwe said.

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

POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Polish priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) was arrested in his country Monday in connection with charges of sexually abusing several boys in a town of the Dominican Republic, outlet thenews.pl reports.

Quoting Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Przemyslaw Nowak, who “confirmed the news on Monday morning,”

News.pl said the pries, whose full name it withheld the under Polish privacy laws, has been under investigation by the Polish authorities since late September.

“The Dominican Republic’s attorney general transferred its case files, containing about 650 documents, to Poland last autumn, and it is understood that if charges are brought, the cleric will be tried in Poland,” the outlet said.

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

MINNESOTA
BringMeTheNews

February 16, 2014 By William Wilcoxen

A Ramsey County judge has rejected a request by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to put a deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt on hold.

The Pioneer Press reports Judge John Van de North upheld last week’s ruling that Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough must answer lawyers’ questions about the church’s handling of clergy sex abuse cases. The archdiocese had sought a delay while it appealed the issue to a higher court.

Van de North also declined to put on hold a separate order requiring the archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona to submit lists of priests who have been accused of sex abuse since 2004, the Pioneer Press says.

The judge ruled on Feb. 11 that Nienstedt and McDonough should be deposed within 30 days.
They will be questioned by lawyers for a plaintiff who says he was abused by Rev. Thomas Adamson in St. Paul Park during the 1970′s. The lawsuit alleges Adamson had admitted molesting boys while he served in the Diocese of Winona and accuses church officials of responding by transferring him to a parish in the archdiocese.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By: Leslie Dyste

A Ramsey County judge ruled Sunday the Archbishop and a former Vicar General still must testify on record about how the church handled clergy sex abuse allegations.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis tried to get last week’s ruling against Archbishop John Nienstedt and Father Kevin McDonough put on hold while it appealed. It argued the court doesn’t have the authority to order them to testify.

On Sunday a judge threw out the request while also denying a request to delay the release of the names of priests accused of sexual abuse since 2004.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Dear President Obama:

With respect to next month’s scheduled Vatican meeting and the upcoming US Senate elections, please note that Pope Francis, after almost a year as pope, will hold his much anticipated meeting this week with his select council of eight cardinals, with Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley as the US representative. The meeting reportedly will focus on Francis’ top priorities: (1) consolidating his worldwide control over his childless male hierarchical subordinates, and (2) reviewing his efforts to clean up sordid Vatican finances in order, among other goals, to minimize Vatican cardinals’ potential criminal liability exposure for financial misdeeds.

At the same time, Francis and his media echo chamber are increasingly trying to claim counterfactually and inconsistently, apparently to avoid potential legal liability for covering up for priest child abusers, that popes do not control local Church officials. Other Vatican challenges, including addressing pressing issues affecting child protection, responsible family planning and respecting gay persons’ rights, continue mainly simmering on Francis’ back burner, if not already precluded by his often inconsistent utterances.

Cardinal Bertone, former Vatican Secretary of State, has reportedly recently stated that the ex-Pope had first decided to resign in mid-2012, which coincides with the International Criminal Court’s announcement that it would, at least preliminarily, defer pursuing a criminal investigation of the ex-Pope. That meant there was little need for the ex-Pope to remain to oversee his legal defense. Avoiding potential criminal liability appears to be the Vatican’s 11th Commandment and the Vatican’s top priority.

Please also note, President Obama, in anticipation of your March 27 meeting with Pope Francis and for the sake of defenseless innocents and your desired legacy, my concerns as a fellow Harvard Law School graduate and as a Catholic grandparent about the unfolding strategy of Pope Francis and his billionaire backers. Francis apparently is seeking, in effect, to exempt the Vatican both from enforcement of international laws and any independent judicial oversight, especially for child abuse related crimes. Many of these laws apply to and are enforcible against even US Presidents. Stalin was right that the pope has no divisions, but he has legions of hard nosed lawyers, creative publicists, opportunistic apologists and self-interested donors.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry

To view transcripts, evidence or witness statements for a particular session, please click onto the links provided below.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

THE Anglican Church has warned the royal commission into child sexual abuse not to assume multibillion-dollar church assets can be sold to compensate abuse victims.

The warning comes in a submission to the commission from the titular head of the Australian church, Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, and two senior church officials.

They were responding to a finding by Simeon Beckett, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, that the Anglican Diocese of Grafton had enough assets to settle abuse claims from former residents of an orphanage at Lismore in northern NSW.

From evidence presented at a public hearing in November, Mr Beckett found the diocese put its own financial interests above the needs of abuse victims.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Reporter

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG, mgoldberg@thereporteronline.com
POSTED: 02/16/14

SKIPPACK — A Lansdale priest who allegedly admitted to detectives that he touched a man’s genitals without consent in a YMCA locker room in December is headed for trial in the case after waiving his preliminary hearing in district court.

John H. Roebuck, 64 — a parochial vicar at Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church in Lansdale until December, when he was placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia — waived charges of second-degree misdemeanor indecent assault and summary harassment on Feb. 11 before District Judge Albert Augustine of Skippack.

Roebuck remains free on $50,000 unsecured bail, which was set by Augustine at his Jan. 17 preliminary arraignment, while awaiting formal arraignment in county court.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emily Bourke

The child abuse royal commission will today turn its attention to how staff and Catholic Church officials at a Toowoomba primary school in south-east Queensland dealt with allegations of sexual offences against girls between 2007 and 2008.

In 2010, veteran teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes pleaded guilty to child sex offences committed against 13 girls and was sentenced to 10 years’ jail.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is taking a closer look at how the school dealt with the complaints.

Monique Scattini represented the families of five victims who took legal action and says the abuse could have been prevented.

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

IRELAND
Irish Central

PATRICK COUNIHAN @irishcentral February 16, 2014

Religious bodies in Ireland used ‘covert means’ to limit the power of government investigations into clerical sex abuse according to a former Catholic Church watchdog.

Ian Elliott, the author of several reports into child sexual abuse in Irish dioceses, has made the claims in an interview with the Sunday Independent.

In response, a government adviser has expressed ‘profound concern’ to the newspaper over the claims made by Elliott.

Elliott told the Sunday Independent that the work of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church was undermined by religious bodies consistently cutting its funding.

Leader of the board’s investigations until last year, Elliott told the paper that believes that efforts have been made to curtail further probes by starving investigators of resources.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Beaumont Enterprise

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Roman Catholics in the Kansas City area have joined a formal request to Pope Francis to discipline Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of failing to report a priest involved in child pornography.

An online petition signed by more than 113,000 people worldwide asking for Finn’s removal also was sent to the Vatican, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1nCmwb8) reported.

Finn, the head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, was placed on two years of court-supervised probation after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

The case was related to Finn’s handling of complaints against the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a priest who admitted taking lewd photographs of young parishioners. Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison and 21 years in state prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Adam Davies 17th Feb 2014

BRAVEHEARTS founder Hetty Johnston said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a chance for organisations to air their dirty little secrets once-and-for-all.

The Royal Commission will hold public hearings in Queensland for the first time from today.

The commission will specifically investigate the response by the Catholic Education Office in Toowoomba to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Saviour’s Primary School in 2007.

It will also investigate the response by the principal and other members of staff at the school to the allegations.

It is expected the hearing will run for up to two weeks.

Ms Johnson said the royal commission was not only important for the people involved, but also for every child past, present and into the future.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 17, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A Salvation Army officer accused of physically and sexually abusing dozens of young boys at a boys’ home in south Sydney was given the army’s silver star award at a function late last year, despite the allegations against him.

The organisation later celebrated the award in the January edition of its national magazine, on the eve of royal commission hearings that were told details of the horrific acts of abuse he and his colleagues allegedly had perpetrated. Major John McIver was awarded the silver star on December 1 by Commissioner Jan Condon in recognition of the fact that his two sons had become commissioned officers. All parents of officers in the Salvos are given the award, which ”recognises the influence of parents, and significant family and friends, on the lives of their officer children”.

Major McIver’s award was then given special mention in the army’s Pipeline magazine, which published a picture of him and his wife receiving the award and noting that the head of the army’s eastern territory, Commissioner Condon, had attended the ceremony. The picture story was later quietly removed from the Salvation Army’s website.

”It is incomprehensible to me how they could give someone an award who they knew had so many allegations of cruel and brutal treatment of children against him,” the executive officer of abuse survivors group Care Leavers Australia Network, Leonie Sheedy, said.

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

SOUTH DAKOTA
SFGate

By NORA HERTEL, Associated Press
Updated 5:04 am, Sunday, February 16, 2014

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — As a TV reporter, Jolene Loetscher told other people’s stories. Now, as an advocate for childhood sexual abuse, she’s telling her story, if somewhat reluctantly.

Loetscher, who was assaulted as a teenager, has started a camp for abused kids and lobbied in support of legislation to remove the statute of limitations in some cases of child rape.

She’s currently helping in an effort to create a panel that would study the issue and recommend policy changes to state lawmakers. It would be called Jolene’s Law Task Force.

“It’s not just ‘Jolene’ that’s going through this,” Loetscher said. “I wanted it to be for all these other voiceless victims.”

An estimated 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are victims of sexual abuse.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 17, 2014

A CATHOLIC priest whose order paid a $43,000 settlement after he was alleged to have sexually abused a child is living in accommodation provided by the church next to a Sydney school.

Teachers at the primary school have privately expressed concern about the presence of the priest, a member of the Vincentian holy order, who is also living close to another two schools.

In 1994, the trustees of the Vincentian Fathers agreed a financial settlement with a man who claimed to have been assaulted several times by the priest, including an attempted rape when he was 14.

Church documents, seen by The Australian, show that the priest “denied the allegations but indicated there were some lesser matters with three, maybe five, students”.

The settlement document shows the alleged victim received $43,000 after agreeing not to take civil or criminal action against the priest and to keep the details of the agreement confidential.

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

MALTA
Times of Malta

Sunday, February 16, 2014
by Fr Joe Borg

The handling of child abuse cases by the Catholic Church in many countries had been, for many years, nothing short of scandalous. This attitude constituted a horrendous betrayal of the Church, its mission, and worse still, the vulnerable children it was bound to protect. It is true there was a time when the appraisal of the significance from the abuse, its effects and remedies was different from what it is today. But, at best, this can only slightly attentuate certain reactions.

The overall reaction was appalling and we are still paying a horrible high price for the lack of effective action taken. That is the way it was and that is the way it should be described: nothing more, nothing less.

Having said that, I add that the report penned by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child under the guise of a purported defence of children is also worthy of disdain. The report (at least in several parts) smacks more as an endeavour to engage in a culture war against the sexual mores and pro-life stand of the Catholic Church than a genuine attempt to protect and defend children.

Its recommendations for the Church to abandon its teachings on, for example, abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception are not only beside the point but downright counterproductive.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

A pedophile teacher’s continued access to primary school children despite Catholic education authorities knowing he was a risk will be the subject of a public hearing of the royal commission into child sexual abuse which opens in Brisbane on Monday.

It is the first hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to be held outside Sydney.

The hearing at the Brisbane Magistrates Court will inquire into the response of the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, to allegations of child sexual abuse against teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes at St Saviour’s Primary School in 2007.

Byrnes was jailed for 10 years in 2010 after pleading guilty to 33 counts of indecent dealing with children under the age of 12, 10 counts of rape and one count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under 12.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, Feb. 15

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A Catholic priest, nun and parishioners have filed formal charges with the church headquarters in Rome against Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn for his illegal and hurtful recklessness, callousness and deceit in the horirific case of a serial predator priest.

[The New York Times]

We are deeply grateful to these brave individuals and wish them success. Far too many church employees and members do little or nothing to seek justice and prevent cover ups, even when kids are severely hurt because ofirresponsible prelates.

Catholics are not powerless. They should not pretend to be. This determined group is showing real courage and compassion. Again, we are grateful that they are taking action to safeguard kids by seeking discipline for an egregious wrongdoer.

Bishop Finn should be punished because it is unjust for him to escape consequences for his selfish and hurtful deceptions. And he should also be punished because that’s the best way to deter other bishops in the future from putting their reputations ahead of the safety of children.

We are skeptical of internal church processes and believe that all clergy sex crimes and cover ups should be reported to secular officials. In this case, however, our justice system has done what it can. But he remains in office.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein-Zeitung

[Summary: A priest accused of a boundary violation has been given a “severe reprimand” by Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the Trier diocese and cannot perform priestly duties in public and has been fined 3,000 euros. The action came after a canonical preliminary investigation. A man, now 45, alleged he was abused in 1985 when he was age 16 by the priest. According to church law, a criminal offense could not be proven.]

Koblenz/Trier – Selbst die Kirche wirft nun einem Pfarrer im Ruhestand “sexuelle Übergriffigkeit und Grenzverletzung” gegenüber einem Minderjährigen vor – schwere Konsequenzen erwarten den Mann trotzdem nicht.

Der Mann, der in Koblenz und im Kreis Altenkirchen bis jetzt im Einsatz war, hat einen “strengen Verweis” von Bischof Stephan Ackermann kassiert, darf ein Jahr sein Amt nicht öffentlich ausüben und muss eine Geldbuße in Höhe von 3000 Euro zahlen. Eine Amtsenthebung oder strafrechtliche Konsequenzen kommen auf ihn nicht zu.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —A group of Catholics is calling on Pope Francis to take action against Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn.

A priest, nun and local parishioners have filed a formal request with the church to suspend Finn.

In 2012, Finn was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report a priest who was involved in child pornography. He remains the bishop in the Kansas City and St. Joseph diocese.

The complaint said Finn’s actions also broke church laws.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

[with video]

February 15, 2014, by Kerri Stowell and Kasey Babbitt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — a group of Roman Catholics are taking a rare step. They’re urging the pope to remove a local bishop from his post. They have been writing letters and signing a petition which will be going straight to Pope Francis.

It’s a story which is making headlines again. Bishop Robert Finn was caught in the middle of a sex abuse scandal and placed on court-supervised probation in 2012. Some parishioners, like Liz Donnelly, don’t believe it’s enough.

“I think we’re meant to stand up for what we believe in. If we don’t speak out, we can’t sit in the pews and grumble,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly, a life-long catholic, wants Bishop Finn removed from his post. She’s one of 13 parishioners, along with a priest, a nun and 113,000 people worldwide writing letters and signing a petition. The documents will be going straight to Pope Francis urging him to make the change.

“The Catholic Church is built on peace and justice principles, yet within the church there’s not justice,” said Donnelly.

Bishop Finn was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of failing to report a priest involved in child pornography.

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

FLORIDA
Daily Commercial

Staff report

An organization that advocates on behalf of clergy sex abuse victims has asked the Florida Baptist Convention to reconsider plans to appeal a $12.5 million award to a man sexually abused in Lake County by a minister convicted of molestation in 2007, the ABPnews/Herald is reporting.

“By appealing, at best you’ll be postponing, at a great moral and financial cost, an eventual day of real reckoning,” David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said in a letter to Florida Baptist Convention Executive Director John Sullivan. “At worst, you’ll be hurting not just the victim in this case, but all other victims who have been violated and betrayed by Southern Baptist clergy.”

ABPnews/Herald , created after a merger of the Associated Baptist Press and the The Religious Herald , is the only independent news service created by and for Baptists. It is reporting that Clohessy, an abuse survivor who testified before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002, warned Sullivan that even if successful, “your appeal will only delay the inevitable.”

“Over 25 years of SNAP’s history, we have found that those responsible for injustices are eventually held accountable, not only through the justice system but also through the court of public opinion,” Clohessy said in his letter.

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

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
The Examiner

Sex-abuse scandal at North Beach church the latest dust-up that has garnered worldwide attention

By Chris Roberts @Cbloggy

In a time of trials that have tested the will of the faithful worldwide, the Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco has emerged relatively unscathed.

The sex abuse scandals staining archdioceses in Boston, Los Angeles and now Chicago have had no parallel in San Francisco. Instead, the local archdiocese’s reputation has recently been sullied across the world by lurid claims of sexual battery and harassment, all allegedly committed within one of its most sacred spaces.

A lawsuit filed late last month by a 33-year-old woman formerly employed by the church accuses her ex-bosses of harboring a veritable den of sin underneath the roof of a shrine dedicated to The City’s patron saint. Jhona Mathews alleges that one of the men, who is in his 60s, hired and used her for sex. And a charming and popular priest who wielded significant influence as the archdiocese’s second-in-command let it all happen, the suit claims.

The lawsuit contains lurid details, including paddling the woman’s bare bottom, and comes after years of chaos at the North Beach church, including a fight over interring dead pets and a holy order’s dismissal from the chapel.

HOUSE OF WORSHIP RICH IN HISTORY

Catholics have worshipped at what’s now the corner of Columbus Avenue and Vallejo Street since the Gold Rush days. Once a thriving parish for the Italian-Americans who still lend their culture to the area, damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake and the steady exodus parishioners from the church led the archdiocese to close the Church of St. Francis in the 1990s. It was reborn a few years later in with a new mission, and special status, from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops as the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi — the namesake and patron saint of San Francisco.

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

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
The Examiner

By Chris Roberts @Cbloggy

In a Roman Catholic Church routinely accused of sexual wrongdoing, the San Francisco archdiocese has a distinction: it has been dragged into scandal not by a priest, but by a lay person.

Here, the most-recent sex accusations at a church are centered around a self-styled real estate developer, who gained the trust of priests and fellow worshippers despite a checkered past that includes alleged financial improprieties and a litany of lawsuits.

AN ALLEGED PRIOR THEFT

Before Bill McLaughlin came to San Francisco to became chair of the shrine’s board of trustees, he left a trail of lawsuits and accusations behind him in Marin County, including allegedly stealing money from a former Tiburon mayor’s campaign fund, according to court records.

Therese Hennessy, who served on the Tiburon Town Council from 1995 in 2001, did not call police after she learned her campaign treasurer, McLaughlin, wrote 15 checks to himself from the campaign fund in 2000, she swore in a deposition Feb. 7.

She confronted him and demanded he return the money — and he did. But then Hennessy turned to McLaughlin’s friend and confidante at St. Hilary Catholic Parish, Father James Tarantino.

She says she told the priest that McLaughlin was untrustworthy and was involved in other schemes that defrauded Marin residents out of their money. She added that McLaughlin “should not be placed in a position of having access to church funds,” she said in the deposition.

When Tarantino came to The City to work as Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s chief deputy in 2010, he chose as his residence the empty and available rectory next to the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi. There, McLaughlin made a mark as its most-active lay volunteer.

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

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
The Examiner

By Chris Roberts @Cbloggy

Monsignor James Tarantino has spoken out about an alleged sex scandal at the North Beach shrine next to his residence, saying his reputation has been ruined and his character humbled.

But, he insists, he is not bitter and hopes that all involved find peace and healing.

The San Francisco native had spent 33 years building a sterling reputation as one of the local Roman Catholic Church’s finest priests — a religious résumé that includes rebuilding Marin Catholic High School into an academic powerhouse as its president and transforming a sleepy and rundown Catholic parish in Tiburon into a vibrant community with an active school as its still-revered parish priest.

And now, at 62, with a terminal illness returning after first appearing nearly 40 years ago, his name is connected with an alleged sex scandal at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said during an hourlong interview with The San Francisco Examiner, his first with media since the scandal broke at the Vallejo Street church that adjoins his residence. “After decades of hard work, my reputation is ruined.”

“But,” he said, “I’m not making it about me. I’m not a victim here.”

He says he is neither angry nor bitter. Tarantino said he prays every day for Bill McLaughlin, the former volunteer and friend of Tarantino’s from St. Hilary’s in Tiburon who is accused by former shrine employee Jhona Mathews of using her for sex.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

The Dark Box John Cornwell Profile Books, £16.99, hbk, 320 pages

15 FEBRUARY 2014

Clerical sex abuse is modern Ireland’s Famine.

Clerical sex abuse is modern Ireland’s Famine. It’s the event which has shaped and shaken the country more than any other. The who, what, when and where are slowly being excavated, but the why still remains unanswered. That’s the task which the Cambridge academic and author John Cornwell sets himself in his new book.

He has a startling and original theory to put forward, which is that the rise in child abuse by priests throughout the Catholic world was linked directly to changes in the customs around first communion and confession which came into force under Pope Pius X in the early part of the last Century.

With Catholicism “seduced and corrupted on every side by secular influences”, Pius was desperate to haul the faithful back into line. One weapon was a ruthless spy network which reported on priests with liberal views in an Inquisition-style “reign of moral terror”.

The other was a hardening of the rules around communion – which he now demanded be taken more regularly, ideally every day– and the declining practice of confession, which suddenly went from an annual to a weekly obligation.

The most radical change, introduced by Papal decree in 1910, was that confession was now required of children, not after puberty as before, but from around the age of seven. This put predatory priests in a position where they had easy access to children.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP FEBRUARY 16, 2014

THE Anglican Church has warned the royal commission into child sexual abuse not to assume multibillion dollar church assets can be sold to compensate abuse victims.

The warning comes in a submission to the commission from the titular head of the Australian church, Brisbane archbishop Phillip Aspinall, and two senior church officials.

They were responding to a finding by Simeon Beckett, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, that the Anglican Diocese of Grafton had enough assets to settle abuse claims from former residents of an orphanage at Lismore in northern NSW.

From evidence presented at a public hearing in November, Mr Beckett found the diocese put its own financial interests above the needs of abuse victims.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

SHANE PHELAN – 16 FEBRUARY 2014

THE former head of the Catholic Church’s child safety watchdog has accused religious bodies of using “covert means” to limit its investigations.

The sensational claims were made by Ian Elliott, who has authored several high-profile reports on the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse in various dioceses.

His comments will come as a major embarrassment to the Catholic hierarchy as it seeks to put an end to years of scandal over its handling of child sexual abuse.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Mr Elliott said religious bodies were undermining the work of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) by consistently cutting its funding.

He said he believed efforts had been made to curtail further probes of dioceses, missionary organisations and religious orders by starving investigators of resources.

Mr Elliott said he could “see no justification” for this “other than a desire to limit the role of the board by covert means”.

Although the board is independent, it is funded by three major Catholic bodies: the Conference of Religious in Ireland, the Irish Missionary Union and the Irish Bishops Conference.

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

RELAND
Irish Independent

SHANE PHELAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDITOR – 16 FEBRUARY 2014

THE National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church was set up by church authorities in 2007 as a response to the clerical sex abuse scandals.

Its aim is to offer advice on best practice in safeguarding children to Catholic organisations, assist in the developing of procedures, and to monitor ongoing safeguarding practices.

Funding for the board is provided by three major religious organisations: the Irish Bishops’ Conference; the Conference of Religious in Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union.

Although funded by these bodies, the board was set up to be independent and has a memorandum of understanding with all Church bodies “to enable the unfettered delivery of its functions”.

For its first chief executive, it chose Ian Elliott, the former lead adviser on child protection at the North’s Social Services Inspectorate and a former divisional director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. A key part of the board’s work has been entering Catholic dioceses and organisations and conducting audits. This included examining how diocesan authorities responded to abuse allegations and safeguarded children in the past, as well as assessing what improvements needed to be made for the future.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

16 FEBRUARY 2014

THE Government’s lead adviser on child protection has expressed “profound concern” after a former Catholic Church watchdog accused religious bodies of using “covert means” to limit its investigations.

The sensational claims were made by Ian Elliott, who authored several high-profile reports on the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse in various dioceses.

He told the Sunday Independent that the work of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, which he led until last year, was being undermined by religious bodies consistently cutting its funding.

Mr Elliott believes that efforts have been made to curtail further probes by starving investigators of resources.

He said he could “see no justification” for this “other than a desire to limit the role of the board by covert means”.

The remarks have already prompted major concerns in political circles.

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

INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Written by
Tim Evans

A man walks into the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and confesses to raping a young woman in 2005.

In Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky — as well as 28 other states across the U.S. — he would have been arrested and prosecuted.

But in Indiana, Bart Bareither walked out a free man.

Why? Because in this state, rape charges no longer can be filed if the incident took place more than five years ago.

Indiana is among just seven states with a statute of limitations of five years or less for filing rape charges. In 11 states, the statute of limitations is from six to 9 years. In 12 others, it ranges from 10 to 20 years. And 20 states have no limit at all.

The unique set of circumstances highlights the delicate balance between liberty and justice that plays an integral part in a criminal justice system based on the classical belief that “it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” It also comes as advances in DNA technology are prompting some states to re-examine decades-old limits on prosecuting rape and other sex crimes.

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

UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 15, 2014

It’s a measure of how bad things have become for the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ that the first question a journalist feels obliged to ask the religious order’s new leader is, “Have you ever sexually abused anyone?”

For the record, the answer of Father Eduardo Robles Gil Orvañanos was, “I can promise, swear, whatever you want, that I haven’t. . . it would make no sense at all for us to put someone in a leadership position with something to hide.”

Robles spoke in a Feb. 14 interview with the Globe, his first with an English-language news outlet.

The Legionaries not so long ago were a Catholic powerhouse, a body of gung-ho priests enjoying the support of Pope John Paul II and other Vatican heavyweights and wielding vast political and financial muscle. The order fell from grace after revelations that its founder had lived a shocking double life, including having relationships with two women and fathering up to six children, as well as sexual abuse of young seminarians and, reportedly, even two of his own children.

The founder, Mexican Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, died in 2008. The bombshell about his misconduct, along with scandals involving other prominent Legionaries, makes the order the most polarizing symbol of the broader sexual abuse crisis in Catholicism. A recent Associated Press report described the Legionaries as “one of the most egregious examples of how . . . church leaders put the interests of the institution above those of the victims.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ALAN HOWE HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 17, 2014

IF there is a Heaven, William Booth is in it. A pawnbroker by trade, Booth was converted to Methodism in 1844 and took to it with evangelical enthusiasm.

Falling out with the Methodists, he moved to London where he was struck by the wretchedness of life for so many after the Industrial Revolution. While industrialists had made fortunes, millions were without hope, without work, undernourished and living in disease-infested slums.

A practical man, Booth imagined a Christian response to this squalor. He’d keep preaching the word of his God, but he and his army of volunteers would feed the poor, help find them work and house pregnant, unmarried women who in those days — and until recently — were scorned by their communities and churches.

By the 1880s, his Salvation Army was finding missing people to reunite families, rehabilitating prisoners, detoxing alcoholics and accommodating the homeless.

Booth brought dignity to shunned people who lives had slipped from their control and for whom no one else — much less the organised religions — cared. …

That brand today is in tatters. Cunning paedophiles, knowing the Salvos’ children’s homes would provide a steady supply of vulnerable innocents, aimed at them. Several infestations of them coalesced into debauched tag teams of wicked men and, unusually, some women, to arrange forced, sometimes violent, sex with children in their “care”.

Evidence presented at the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about the conduct of some Salvos has been chilling. If it is to be believed — and the Salvos have been paying compensation, so someone does — then they have had officers who truly despised the children entrusted to them.

Evidence heard so far has boys — hungry, shoeless and regularly beaten — being raped by Salvation Army captains, before being sent to other adults’ homes to be further exploited.

One of the Salvation Army officers was Lawrence Wilson who is alleged to have seen the boys as a kind of currency to be used throughout the dark underworld of bisexual paedophilia.

The Salvos have paid out $1.2 million in compensation for his victims. So far.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Feb. 15, 2014

When Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee was filing for bankruptcy three years ago, he said it was the only way to ensure the local church could continue its mission and operations, and treat childhood victims of sexual abuse — many of whom had begun to sue — “equitably.”

The archdiocese last week filed its reorganization plan, essentially its proposed road map for exiting bankruptcy. Except for an additional $2.4 million in debt, the plan would allow the 10-county archdiocese — home to some 600,000 Roman Catholics — to emerge for the most part unscathed, from an operational standpoint. Although the archdiocese will have spent an estimated $18 million in legal fees before the bankruptcy is over, the plan calls for it to sell no property; pay all of its vendors (although some would get less than they sought);and continue to fund all of its pension and health care plans.

Whether it treats abuse survivors equitably is another matter. Although all victims would have access to church-funded therapy, whole classes of survivors would receive no financial settlement. Those sexually assaulted as a child by, say, a Catholic schoolteacher or parish choir director would receive nothing. Victims of religious order priests and nun would receive nothing.

In all, 128 of the 575 men and women who have filed sex abuse claims in the bankruptcy would receive a financial settlement — about $27,000 each on average, unless additional funds are secured by suing insurance companies. But even victims of the same priest could be treated differently under criteria proposed by the archdiocese, survivors and their lawyers said Friday.

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