ABUSE TRACKER

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
El Comercio (Peru)

Ciudad del Vaticano (Reuters). El Papa Francisco designó el sábado a una víctima de abuso sexual de un sacerdote para que sea parte de un grupo creado para ayudar a la Iglesia Católica a abordar el problema de la pedofilia clerical que la ha perseguido por dos décadas.

La formación de un grupo de expertos fue anunciada por primera vez en diciembre y el sábado el Papa nombró a sus primeros ocho miembros- cuatro mujeres y cuatro hombres- de ocho países diferentes.

Estos miembros iniciales serán responsables de completar la “comisión para proteger a los menores” con otros expertos de todo el mundo y definir el rango de acción del grupo.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Marie Collins and Sean O’Malley are among the first eight chosen by the Pope. “Other members from various parts of the world will be appointed in due course”

DOMENICO AGASSO JR
ROME

Today Pope Francis nominated the first eight members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors instituted to prevent abuse in the Church. The new Commission is made up of four men and four women from different countries, including Marie Collins, who was a victim of sexual abuse in Ireland in the 1960s and the Franciscan Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston and a member of the Pope’s eight-member Council of Cardinals. O’Malley had announced the establishment of a special anti-paedophilia Commission last December. The other individuals selected are: Catherine Bonnet (France); Sheila Hollins (Britain); Claudio Papale, an Italian jurist and Professor of Canonical Law at the Pontifical Urbaniana University; former Polish ambassador Hanna Suchocka; the Jesuit priest Humberto Miguel Yanez (Argentina) and the Dean of the Gregorian Faculty, Hans Zollner (Germany).

The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, announced the first nominations explaining that “the Commission created by Francis to protect minors from sex abuse, is part of the Pope’s mission to respond to his sacred duty of ensuring the safety of young people.” “There will be other members chosen from various parts of the world joining this initial group,” he added.

For the time being, most of the eight members that form the structure’s foundation are European. This is in order “to make meetings easier,” the Vatican spokesman said. “The Commission believes the Church has a crucial role to play in this field and intends to look towards the future without forgetting the past, adopting a multifaceted approach to ensure the protection of minors. This includes education to prevent the exploitation of children, the adoption of criminal procedures where offences are committed against minors civil and canonical duties and responsibilities, development of best-practices identified and developed within society as a whole,” Lombardi said.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

Pope Francis today named eight members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, including an Irish victim of clerical sexual abuse.

This core group of the commission, which includes four women, has been asked to further define the scope of the panel’s responsibilities and recommend additional members.

The Vatican said the commission would promote “a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection, including: education regarding the exploitation of children; discipline of offenders; civil and canonical duties and responsibilities; and the development of best practices as they have emerged in society at large.”

The commission includes Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Catholic experts from seven other countries. Most are from Europe, but the Vatican said additional members would be found from other continents. Among the eight are specialists in human rights, church and civil law, moral theology and psychology.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

22 March 2014 by Robert Mickens

Marie Collins, an Irish sex-abuse survivor and founder of the One in Four victims support group, and Baroness Sheila Hollins, a British psychiatrist and life peer, are among those who were appointed today to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Poland’s former Prime Minister and Ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka, and French child psychologist, Dr Catherine Bonnet, are the other two women on the commission. The fifth layperson is Claudio Papale, an Italian civil and canon lawyer that works at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Pope Francis today also appointed Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and two Jesuit priests from the Gregorian University — Humberto Miguel Yáñez from Argentina and Hans Zollner from Germany — to round out the eight-member commission. A Vatican communiqué said more members “from various geographical areas of the world” would eventually be added to the commission.

Francis announced on 5 December that he had accepted a request from his eight-member Council of Cardinals (C8) to set up the new child protection commission. Cardinal O’Malley is a member of the C8 advisory council and has a reputation as one of the bishops most credible in dealing with clergy sex abuse of minors. Fr Zollner is a psychologist and head of the Gregorian-based “Centre for Child Protection”, a data base and e-learning curriculum set up in early 2012 with strong financial backing from the Archdiocese of Munich. The archdiocesan ordinary, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, also a member of the C8 advisory council, is believed to be the one that persuaded Pope Francis to establish the new commission for child protection. Fr Yáñez, meanwhile, is an Argentinian Jesuit like Francis and directs the Gregorian University’s department of moral theology.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

President Obama’s scheduled visit with Pope Francis next Thursday (3/27) is apparently already paying some dividends on curtailing priest child abuse. Apparently to head off potential public pressure from Obama, Francis has after a year as Pope finally just announced the initial members of his child abuse prevention Commission. While the Commission’s undetermined mandate does not appear to include holding bishops accountable for protecting priest abusers, it may be enough to head off President Obama’s raising the abuse issue strongly and publicly next Thursday.

Per the Vatican Radio release (3/22): “Pope Francis has instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors whose task will be to advise the Holy Father on ways to prevent abuse and provide pastoral care for victims and their families … Members of the new Commission announced Saturday by the Holy See’s Press Office, include four men and four women who will be tasked firstly, with drawing up the Statutes of the Commission, defining “its tasks and competencies”.

”The members of the Commission include: French psychologist Catherine Bonnet; Marie Collins, an Irish victim of abuse; British Professor Sheila Hollins, a specialist in mental health; American Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley; Italian jurist Claudio Papale; Poland’s former Prime Minister and Ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka; and the Jesuits Humberto Miguel Yanez, a moral theologian and former pupil and collaborator of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina and Hans Zollner, vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Chair of the Centre for Child Protection at the University’s Institute of Psychology. Other members will be added to the Commission in the future, chosen from around the world.”
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With respect to next week’s scheduled Vatican meeting and the upcoming US Congressional elections, please note that Pope Francis recently held after almost a year his much anticipated meeting with his select council of eight cardinals, with Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley as the US representative. The meeting reportedly focused 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 have increasingly tried 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, have continued mainly simmering on Francis’ back burner, if not already precluded by his often inconsistent utterances.

The announcement of the eight abuse Commission members, with no specific mandate at present, may be enough, however, to defuse this issue publicly before Obama’s meeting on Thursday with Francis.

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PORTUGAL
Publico

O Papa Francisco nomeou uma vítima de abuso sexual de um padre para fazer parte de comissão que tem como objectivo ajudar a Igreja Católica a resolver o problema de pedofilia que, nas últimas duas décadas, tem assombrado a instituição. Neste sábado, o Papa nomeou os primeiros oito membros – quatro mulheres e quatro homens – de oito países diferentes.

Estes primeiros membros vão ser responsáveis por criar uma comissão para a protecção de menores com outros especialistas de todo o mundo, e vão definir o alcance da acção do grupo. “O Papa Francisco tornou claro que a Igreja tem de pôr a protecção dos menores entre as suas principais prioridades”, disse o porta-voz do Vaticano, Federico Lombardi. “Olhando para o futuro sem esquecer o passado, a comissão terá uma abordagem multifacetada para promover a protecção da juventude”, acrescentou.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

PUBLISHED 22 MARCH 2014 03:44 PM

Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins was today appointed to the Vatican commission to protect children from abuse.

The committee was first drafted in December and Ms Collins is one of the first eight members announced today.

The commission has been comprised of four men and four women who will tackle the ongoing issue of paedophilia in the Catholic Church.

Ms Collins was abused in the 1960s and has been a vocal campaigner against the exploitation of children.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley is also on the board.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement today: “Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst Her highest priorities.

“Looking to the future without forgetting the past, the Commission will take a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection,” he added.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 22, 2014

Pope Francis captured the imagination of the world within hours after his election a year ago through his flashes of humility, and that’s not just a PR facade. In Argentina, he was known as a “bishop of the villas,” referring to the vast slums that ring Buenos Aires, because he had a special love for the poor.

Yet one should never forget that beneath that simple exterior lies the mind of a brilliant Jesuit politician. Some Argentines believe he may actually rival Juan and Evita Perón for the title of best set of political instincts the country ever produced.

That savvy was on display again Saturday, when Francis rolled out the initial members for a new Vatican commission to lead the charge in the fight against clerical sexual abuse.

Despite the generally glowing reviews Francis has drawn over his first year, there have been two streams of criticism that, if allowed to fester, could grow into serious headaches for the pontiff:

— Critics say he hasn’t engaged the church’s clerical abuse scandals with the same vigor he has brought to other problems. An American advocacy group recently raised questions about his response to five abuse cases in Argentina, while his comments in a recent Italian interview reminded some observers of the defensive rhetoric employed by church officials at the onset of the crisis.

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IRELAND
The Journal

ABUSE SURVIVOR AND campaigner Marie Collins, of Aware and One in Four, has been named as a member of the Vatican’s new commission for the protection of minors.

The committee was set up to help improve measures within the Catholic church to protect children against sex abuse.

A statement from the Vatican today said:

…having heard the advice of a number of Cardinals, other members of the College of Bishops, and experts in the field, and having duly deliberated, Pope Francis now is forming a Commission for the safeguarding of minors.

The members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors are:
Dr Catherine Bonnet (France)
Mrs Marie Collins (Ireland)
Professor the Baroness Sheila Hollins (United Kingdom)
Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, OFM Cap (US)
Professor Claudio Papale (Italy)
Her Excellency Hanna Suchocka (Poland)
Reverend Humberto Miguel Yañez, SJ (Argentina)
Reverend Hans Zollner, SJ (Germany)

They will prepare the Statutes of the Commission, which will define its tasks and competencies. Other members will be added to the commission in the future.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

First published:
Sat, Mar 22, 2014

Pope Francis today appointed Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins to the Vatican commission on protecting children from clerical abuse.

The group has been formed to help the Catholic Church tackle the problem of clerical paedophilia that has dogged it for two decades.

The formation of a group of experts was first announced in December, and today the pope named the first eight members – four female and four male – from eight different countries.

These initial members will be responsible for rounding out the “commission for safeguarding minors” with other experts from around the world and defining the scope of the group’s action.

“Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst Her highest priorities,” Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho March 22, 2014

Pope Francis has named the first eight members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which he announced last December. Half are women. Five are laypeople. Two are Jesuits (one of them was formed in Argentina by the pope himself). One is a cardinal–Sean O’Malley–and he’s the only American. Here they are:

Dr. Catherine Bonnet (France)
Mrs. Marie Collins (Ireland)
Prof. the Baroness Sheila Hollins (UK)
Card. Sean Patrick O’Malley (U.S.A.)
Prof. Claudio Papale (Italy)
Her Excellency Hanna Suchocka (Poland)
Rev. Humberto Miguel Yañez, SJ (Argentina)
Rev. Hans Zollner, SJ (Germany)

They will be tasked with writing the “statutes” of the commission, and more members will be added at a later date. In a statement, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, SJ, explained that the commission “will take a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection, including: education regarding the exploitation of children; discipline of offenders; civil and canonical duties and responsibilities; and the development of best practices as they have emerged in society at large.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Pope Francis has appointed Irish abuse victim Marie Collins to the Vatican commission on protecting children from abuse.

The new eight member commission also includes Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who revealed the initiative last December.

It is hoped the commission will help the church develop protocols on dealing with clerical child sex abuse cases.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 22, 2014

Pope Francis on Saturday announced eight members of a new commission in the Catholic church’s central bureaucracy tasked with advising the pontiff on safeguarding children from sex abuse and working pastorally with abuse victims.

Among the members are Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, four laywomen, one Italian professor, and two priests.

Strikingly, one of the laywomen, Marie Collins, is herself a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. An Irishwoman who has campaigned for more thorough investigation of clergy accused of abuse, Collins struggled for years to bring her own abuser to justice.

Announcing the names of the new group in a press release Saturday, the Vatican said the eight would be responsible for determining the commission’s structure, outlining its duties, and putting forward names of other candidates who might join its work.

Detailing of the new commission, officially titled the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, comes as Francis has been facing renewed questioning regarding his understanding of the continuing global clergy sex abuse crisis and his lack of discussion of the topic.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Mar 22, 2014 / 08:21 am (CNA).- Today Pope Francis instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, issuing the names of eight members tasked with structuring the future form of the commission.

“Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst her highest priorities. Today, to carry forward this initiative, the Holy Father announces the names of several highly qualified persons who are committed to this issue,” said Fr. Lombardi, the director of the Holy See’s press office, on March 22.

A statement from the Vatican press office noted that the members’ “principal role will be to prepare the Statutes of the Commission, which will define its tasks and competencies. Other members will be added to the Commission in the future, chosen from various geographical areas of the world.”

The eight initial members are comprised of three women and four men, including Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston. Several are university professors and experts in psychology, law, and aiding those victimized by sexual abuse.

Fr. Lombardi noted that these eight will be “participating in the deliberations concerning the Commission’s final structure; describing the scope of its responsibilities; and developing the names of additional candidates, especially from other continents and countries, who can offer service to the Commission.”

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis announced the initial members of a commission to advise him on sex abuse policy Saturday, tapping lay and religious experts — and an Irish woman assaulted as a child by a priest — to start plotting the commission’s tasks and priorities.

The eight members were announced after Francis came under criticism from victims’ groups for a perceived lack of attention to the abuse scandal, which has seriously damaged the church’s reputation around the world and cost dioceses billions of dollars in legal fees and settlements.

The Vatican in December announced that Francis had decided to create the commission to advise the church on best policies to protect children, train church personnel and keep abusers out of the clergy. But no details had been released until Saturday and it remains unknown if the commission will deal with the critical issue of disciplining bishops who cover up for abusers.

In a statement Saturday, the Vatican hinted that it might, saying the commission would look into both “civil and canonical duties and responsibilities” for church personnel. Canon law does provide for sanctions if a bishop is negligent in carrying out his duties, but such punishments have rarely if ever been imposed in the case of bishops who failed to report pedophile priests to police.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

[Italiana]

The Holy Father Francis has instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which was announced on Dec. 5, 2013, and called to be a part of it:

Dr. Catherine Bonnet (France)
Mrs. Marie Collins (Ireland)
Prof. the Baroness Sheila Hollins (United Kingdom)
Card. Sean Patrick O’Malley, OFM Cap (U.S.)
Prof. Claudio Papale (Italy)
Her Excellency Hanna Suchocka (Poland)
Rev. Humberto Miguel Yañez, SJ (Argentina)
Rev. Hans Zollner, SJ (Germany)

Their principal role will be to prepare the Statutes of the Commission, which will define its tasks and competencies. Other members will be added to the Commission in the future, chosen from various geographical areas of the world.

* * *

Di seguito riportiamo i cenni biografici dei Membri della Commissione (manca la biografia della Dott.ssa Catherine Bonnet):

[The biographies of the members are published below. The biography of Dr. Catherine Bonnet is not included.]

Marie Collins

Marie Collins was born in Dublin, Ireland and is married with one son. She is a founder Trustee of the Marie Collins Foundation, a UK NGO dedicated to the needs of children, young people and their families for whom sexual abuse and harm has arisen via the internet and mobile technologies. Marie was a victim of sexual abuse as a child in the 1960’s and brought the priest who abused her to justice in 1997. She has campaigned actively for the protection of children, justice for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, and for a better understanding of the effects of sexual abuse on children and in 2010 Marie was one of the joint recipients of the Irish Humbert Summer School award for Courage. Marie was a founding member of the Irish depression support group “Aware” in 1985 and ran their voluntary “Helpline” for many years, and she is founding Trustee of the Advocacy and Counselling support group for abuse survivors, One in Four (Ireland). She assisted the Archdiocese of Dublin in setting up their Child Protection Service and drafting of the Catholic Church’s all-Ireland child protection policy, “Our Children Our Church.”

Sheila Hollins

Professor the Baroness Hollins was born in England and is married, with two children. Sheila is a life peer in the House of Lords, Chair of the Board of Science of the British Medical Association, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry of Disability at St George’s University of London, and Honorary Professor in Theology and Religion at the University of Durham. She is a specialist in mental health and has conducted extensive research into clinical and social aspects of the mental and physical health of people with learning disabilities, with a particular focus on bereavement, palliative care and sexual abuse. Sheila has also served as Chair of the World Health Organisation’s Euro Steering Group (2008), President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2005-2008) and President of the British Medical Association (2012-2013).

Seán Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap.

Cardinal O’Malley was born in Ohio and a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Cardinal Seán is Archbishop of Boston, a member of the Council of Cardinals, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and the Presidential Council of the Pontifical Council for the Family. The Cardinal holds a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese literature from the Catholic University of America, where he served as professor (1969-1973) and is presently a Trustee. He founded Centro Católico Hispano in Washington, DC, an organization which provided educational, medical and legal help to immigrants. Since his ordination to the episcopacy in 1984, the Cardinal has also served as the Bishop of the dioceses of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands; Fall River, Massachusetts; and Palm Beach, Florida. Cardinal Seán is well-known for his extensive efforts for the protection of children and was one of the Visitators for the Apostolic Visitation of dioceses and seminaries in Ireland (2010).

Claudio Papale

Claudio Papale è nato a Roma (Italia) ed è coniugato. È Professore straordinario presso la Facoltà di diritto canonico della Pontificia Università Urbaniana ed ha il titolo di Avvocato civilista. Ha conseguito la Laurea in Giurisprudenza presso la Seconda Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata e la Laurea in diritto canonico presso la Pontificia Università Urbaniana. È anche Officiale della Sezione disciplinare della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede e Difensore del vincolo sostituto presso il Tribunale Regionale Pugliese. Recentemente ha tenuto una Relazione su “Delitti contro la morale” presentata in occasione del Corso intensivo sui delitti riservati alla Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede svoltosi presso la Pontificia Università Urbaniana.

Hanna Suchocka

Hanna Suchocka was born in Poland. Her Excellency is Professor, University of Poznan, Faculty of Law, a specialist in Constitutional Law, and author of numerous papers and scientific articles on themes regarding human rights. She is the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland (1992-1993), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Poland (1997-2000), and Ambassador of Poland to the Holy See (2001-2013). She has received honorary degrees from Institut for Family at the Lateran University, Kardinal Wyszynski University in Warsaw, and John Paul University in Krakow. Among many awards, Hanna has received the Max Schmidheimy Stiftung Peace Prize and the Gold Medal of the “Jean Monnet” Foundation (Lausanne) for her activity in favor of integration and human rights.

Humberto Miguel Yáñez, SJ

Gesuita argentino, nato a Mendoza nel 1956, ordinato sacerdote nel 1986, attualmente è Professore di Teologia Morale alla Facoltà di Teologia dell’Università Gregoriana e all’Urbaniana; Direttore del Dipartimento di Teologia Morale dell’Università Gregoriana. In Argentina è stato Direttore del Centro de Investigacion y Accion Social e Direttore della sua Rivista e ha insegnato alla Facoltà di Teologia di San Miguel, al Seminario Interdiocesano di Resistencia e al Seminario di Moron. Membro del Gruppo Teologico. Al Simposio sugli Abusi sessuali su Minori «Verso la Guarigione e il Rinnovamento» della Pontificia Università Gregoriana ha partecipato come membro del Gruppo Teologico.

Da studente gesuita si è formato con il P. Bergoglio, Rettore del Colegio Maximo di San Miguel e nella Parrocchia San José da lui fondata dove la sua attività pastorale si è indirizzata soprattutto ai giovani.

P. Hans Zollner, SJ

P. Hans Zollner, SJ, Dr. theol., was born in 1966 in Regensburg (Germany). He is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist, Academic Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Director of the Institute of Psychology, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the “Centre for Child Protection” of the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University. Father Zollner was Chair of the organizing committee of the Symposium “Towards Healing and Renewal” on sexual abuse of minors which was held at Gregorian University in February 2012 and a member of the Scientific Working Group of the “Round Table on Child Abuse” of the Federal Government of Germany.

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

Pope Francis has named an Argentine theologist and a victim of sexual abuse by a priest to be part of a core group formed to help the Catholic Church tackle the problem of clerical pedophilia that has dogged it for two decades.

The formation of a group of experts was first announced in December, and today the pope named the first eight members – four female and four male – from eight different countries.

These initial members will be responsible for rounding out the “commission for safeguarding minors” with other experts from around the world and defining the scope of the group’s action.

“Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst Her highest priorities,” Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

“Looking to the future without forgetting the past, the Commission will take a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors whose task will be to advise the Holy Father on ways to prevent abuse and provide pastoral care for victims and their families. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, a member of the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals, had announced on Dec. 5, 2013 that such a new commission would be formed in the coming months. At the time, he said the new commission would continue Pope Benedict XVI’s efforts to combat sex abuse by clerics, study current child protection programs, and make suggestions for new Vatican initiatives together with bishops’ conferences and religious orders.

Members of the new Commission announced Saturday by the Holy See’s Press Office, include four men and four women who will be tasked firstly, with drawing up the Statutes of the Commission, defining “its tasks and competencies:”

The members of the Commission include: French psychologist Catherine Bonnet; Marie Collins, an Irish victim of abuse; British Professor Sheila Hollins, a specialist in mental health; American Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley; Italian jurist Claudio Papale; Poland’s former Prime Minister and Ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka; and the Jesuits Humberto Miguel Yanez, a moral theologian and former pupil and collaborator of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina and Hans Zollner, vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Chair of the Centre for Child Protection at the University’s Institute of Psychology.

Other members will be added to the Commission in the future, chosen from various geographical areas of the world.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday named a victim of sexual abuse by a priest to be part of a core group formed to help the Catholic Church tackle the problem of clerical pedophilia that has dogged it for two decades.

The formation of a group of experts was first announced in December, and today the pope named the first eight members — four female and four male — from eight different countries.

These initial members will be responsible for rounding out the “commission for safeguarding minors” with other experts from around the world and defining the scope of the group’s action.

“Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst Her highest priorities,” Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

“Looking to the future without forgetting the past, the Commission will take a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection,” he said.

These will include taking criminal action against offenders, educating people about the exploitation of children, developing best practices to better screen priests, and defining the civil and clerical duties within the Church, Lombardi said.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 22, 2014

Pope Francis today named Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and seven other figures with reputations as reformers to guide a new Vatican anti-abuse commission, a move intended to demonstrate resolve about confronting the child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism.

O’Malley, already the lone American on the pope’s “G8” council of cardinal advisers, is also the lone American among the commission members announced today. O’Malley’s new responsibility is not a full-time position, meaning he will not move to Rome and will continue to serve as the Archbishop of Boston.

The lineup for the new “Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors” includes Irish lay woman Marie Collins, who has said she was raped at the age of 13 by a hospital chaplain. When she tried to report the abuse years later, she has said, she was told by church officials that “protecting the good name” of the priest was more important than remedying a “historical” wrong.

Collins has acquired an international reputation as a campaigner for the rights of abuse victims.

The pope tapped three clergy and five laity, including four women. The members come from eight different countries, with seven from Europe or the United States.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Irish abuse victim Marie Collins has been appointed to the Vatican commission on protecting children from abuse.

In December, the Vatican said it would up a special committee to improve measures to protect children against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis announced the first eight members today, four male and four female, but the scope of the commission remains unknown.

Also on the commission is Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who revealed the initiative last December.

The initial members will be responsible for rounding out the “commission for safeguarding minors” with other experts from around the world and defining the scope of the group’s action.

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VATICAN CITY
Columbus Dispatch

Saturday March 22, 2014

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) — Pope Francis today named a victim of sexual abuse by a priest to be part of a core group formed to help the Catholic Church tackle the problem of clerical pedophilia that has dogged it for two decades.

The formation of a group of experts was first announced in December, and today the pope named the first eight members – four female and four male – from eight different countries.

These initial members will be responsible for rounding out the “commission for safeguarding minors” with other experts from around the world and defining the scope of the group’s action.

“Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst Her highest priorities,” Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

“Looking to the future without forgetting the past, the Commission will take a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection,” he said.

These will include taking criminal action against offenders, educating people about the exploitation of children, developing best practices to better screen priests, and defining the civil and clerical duties within the Church, Lombardi said.

Among those named to the group was Marie Collins, who was a victim of sexual abuse in Ireland in the 1960s and who has campaigned actively for the protection of children and for justice for victims of clerical pedophilia.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

TERRY SWEETMAN THE SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) MARCH 22, 2014

MAYBE it’s a defence mechanism, but lots of bad-taste bloke jokes in pubs revolve around dirty old men offering boiled lollies to children.

It’s a simplistic and stereotypical view that doesn’t stack up against reality but what if the man was not so old and not so dirty and was offering love and security instead of sweets?

That was the experience of a reader whose worst memories have been fuelled rather than quenched by the royal commission into child abuse. The inquiry might bring relief, vindication, justice, revenge or even the elusive closure to some, but for our reader it reopened the windows to her private hell.

It (and my questions about childhood memories a few weeks back) forced her to confront events she had been trying to put behind her for maybe 50 years.

“Does the general public realise,’’ she asked, “that for every victim willing to testify there are as many people hiding in fear that their secrets will be exposed, ashamed of the past, feeling dirty and tainted, confused about their feelings for their abuser?’’

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Mollie Wilson O’Reilly March 21, 2014

On Wednesday I was part of a panel discussion on the occasion of Pope Francis’s one-year anniversary, featuring Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, moderated by Ken Woodward, and hosted by the American Bible Society. It was really more of a group interview than a discussion — after Cardinal O’Malley spoke about the spiritual side of Francis’s papacy, the other panelists, Matt Malone of America and Rusty Reno of First Things, and I took turns asking him questions but didn’t talk much to each other (not onstage, anyway).

If you were there, thank you! I spoke to a lot of audience members afterward and truly enjoyed meeting you all. For those who couldn’t make it, if I find out about a recording or a transcript of the event, I will certainly let you know. In the meantime I am grateful to Beth Griffin’s report for Catholic News Service for capturing the highlights.

The Cardinal, as one of the eight men named by Pope Francis to his personal advisory council, is very well positioned to give an insider’s view of Francis’s plans. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that he was, for the most part, too discreet to do so. I put to him some of the questions that were on my mind and yours: I noted that many people, including myself, were disappointed with the pope’s recent remarks on the sex-abuse crisis in that he did not make any reference to the question of accountability for bishops and administrators who mishandled cases of abuse, despite the role that lack of accountability has played in the scandal and in damaging the church’s credibility. So, I asked Cardinal O’Malley, do you have any sense of whether that issue is on the pope’s radar (I think that’s how I put it), and what he might plan to do about it? His answer, as Griffin transcribes it:

The pope is anxious to launch a committee for child protection, which is coming soon, and has recently spent a lot of time on the abuse issue, Cardinal O’Malley said. “His love for people and his sense of God’s mercy is something that energizes everything he does and he brings that also to the way he looks at the sex abuse crisis.”

The cardinal acknowledged he is “trying to be of service to the Holy Father in this area” because he has more experience than the other cardinal advisers.

That last bit was in response to a follow-up question from me about whether the pope would be asking O’Malley for advice about who should serve on that committee. Anyway, Griffin did not leave out any significant detail that I can recall. The question of accountability was left largely unaddressed, although it’s possible to read the cardinal’s reference to love and mercy as a hint that we shouldn’t be holding our breath waiting for Francis to start firing people.

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GUAM
Jungle Watch

Note: I received this letter with the question of whether or not it should just be sent to Archbishop Apuron or posted on this blog. Since the letter addresses many of the concerns already posted on this blog, I recommended that it be shared here on behalf of everyone. I also had some questions as to whether the author was using a pseudonym or his real name, so I decided to redact the name of the sender, especially since the letter already speaks for so many. The letter makes several points which will be extracted in a later post so that the inquiries into financial accountability can be enumerated more clearly. Here is the letter (emphases mine):

————————————————–

Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron
Most Reverend Archbishop of Agana
Agana, Guam

Your Excellency:

My family has long supported the Church through our stewardship offerings of time, talent, and treasures. Our family has always supported the church, and my parents were an example of faith in action through their generosity.

While I have been aware of some of the issues raised in the media since July, 2013, I have tried to stay away from those issues, trusting that God will guide His church. Matters of ritual adherence and questions of parish unity do not directly concern me, as I know there are those who will decide on these. However, there has been quite a lot of discussion on fiscal responsibility, and I have not seen any clarification to questions asked, and accusations made. I am very deeply committed to helping the Church, but at the same time I am deeply concerned whether my funds are being used as stated.

While I do not speak for the people of Guam, I have been asked to speak on behalf of my family to clarify some issues we are concerned with. Once these are answered, our family will again meet to go over these issues to determine to what level we are to support the Archdiocesan Annual Appeal. All of my questions pertain to the information released to the faithful in the March 2 edition of the U Matuna Si Yu’os on pages 8 and 9.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Sean O’Connaill deplores the bishops’ lack of transparency on the funding and independence of the national body for child protection that they set up (the NSBCCC), and hopes for the day when bishops will be accountable to their people.

Beginning 20 years ago in 1994, the Irish Catholic church was struck by the greatest ever blow to its morale and survival – the revelation that not only could Irish Catholic children suffer life-threatening abuse from a small minority of their clergy, but (far worse) that other ordained men who carry the church’s symbol of pastoral care, the shepherd’s crook, could fail to exert their canonical power to protect those children – and could use that power instead to conceal the crime of the erring priest. In the years that followed, and especially in 2002, it became clear that this failure, and the secrecy that masked it, would follow a pattern affecting even Ireland’s most populous diocese, Dublin.

So serious was the ensuing loss of trust in their commitment to the safety of Catholic children that Irish bishops set up in 2007 the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church – to monitor their own safeguarding performance. In recognition of the depth of scepticism that the clerical church could ever be trusted to monitor itself, the NBSCCC’s first CEO was Ian Elliott, a highly experienced child care professional – and a Presbyterian layman.

Elliott soon proved his determination and integrity by not only finding serious failings in the child safeguarding provision of the diocese of Cloyne, but by withstanding the threat of legal action against him by the diocese’s child protection team. He went on to train the child safeguarding personnel, and to develop the clear safeguarding guidelines, that allow the Irish Bishops’ Conference to claim today that their church in every diocese in Ireland is a model for child safety that the wider world could learn from.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

The Catholic Church’s insurer insisted on being “kept in the loop” in the John Ellis case after lawyers expressed concern at Cardinal George Pell’s “tooth and nail” approach, according to evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission.

Peter Rush, then general manager of Catholic Church Insurance Ltd, complained to the business manager of the Sydney Archdiocese about being “kept out of the loop” in the case and warned this could jeopardise the church’s insurance, the commission heard.

Cardinal Pell will give evidence on Monday. His testimony is eagerly anticipated after two weeks of hearings in which commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan has sought to establish Cardinal Pell’s role in the church’s treatment of Mr Ellis, which the commission has been told caused him harm and suffering.

The questions put to Cardinal Pell’s private secretary of more than 10 years, Dr Michael Casey, may be a guide to what the Cardinal can expect on Monday. The “conduit to the Cardinal”, who handles all his correspondence, admitted the church failed in its moral responsibility to Mr Ellis and his own handling of Mr Ellis’s case lacked compassion.

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FLORIDA
Daily Commercial

Barbara Denman Special to the Daily Commercial

Regardless of the outcome of its appeal of a $12.5 million award to a man sexually abused in Lake County by a minister convicted of molestation in 2007, the Florida Baptist Convention will continue to plant new churches, one official said.

During a recent meeting at the Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center in Leesburg, the State Board of Missions heard about a new church being planted in Miami. Gary Yeldell, the convention’s attorney of record, also brought the board up to date about the jury award appeal.

The words of a child brought a personal perspective to the new Miami church when 5-year-old Jackson Allen took the microphone.

“We moved to Miami to tell people about Jesus,” the youngster told the board, “by planting a church called Christ Centered Church.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

NIALL O’CONNOR – PUBLISHED 22 MARCH 2014

DENIS Nolan, like so many other priests, presented himself as the pillar of the community. He cared for the sick and elderly; he was a regular visitor to the local primary school; he gave baptisms and confessions at short notice. So when this journalist reported that the parish priest of Rathnew, Co Wicklow, was being investigated “in accordance with the safeguarding of children”, there was understandable shock.

But as a garda investigation was launched into allegations of sexual abuse against Nolan, the victim’s family could not have anticipated the challenges they were about to face.

The ‘pillar of the community’ had been taken away from its people, and some found that extremely difficult to accept.

The family displayed an extraordinary level of steel as mother, sons and daughters came to terms with truth – their loved one John Paul had been abused by the parish priest since an early age. Their lives were shattered, but not irreparably. Night after night, tears fell – and as mum Theresa admits, lives were almost lost.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

NIALL O’CONNOR AND ESTHER HAYDEN – PUBLISHED 22 MARCH 2014 02:30 AM

A FORMER parish priest has been jailed for seven years for the “cold and calculating” sexual abuse of a young boy he would pay money to after he abused him.

Denis Nolan (61) was convicted of “systematically” abusing his victim over five years, starting when he was just 12 years of age.

There were emotional scenes in court yesterday as the victim struggled to fight back tears as he watched his abuser sentenced. John Paul Hunter (19) bravely waived his anonymity as he recalled being subjected to horrendous abuse in the priest’s car, home and local church in Rathnew, Co Wicklow.

Nolan, with an address at Carrigmore, Tinahely, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at the same address on a date between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2007.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 15 years between July 1, 2007 and August 25, 2009, and five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 17 years between August 26, 2009 and August 25, 2011.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Roman Catholic religious brother who taught from 1986 to 1997 at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh is facing trial in Australia on multiple charges of beating and molesting four children in that country more than 30 years ago.

A Melbourne court this week found sufficient evidence to order Brother Bernard Joseph Hartman to stand trial in April 2015 on 18 charges of abuse.

He returned to Australia in 2013 — two years after one of his accusers first went public — to face the charges. But his superiors with the Marianist Province of the United States first learned of accusations against him in 1997, when they removed him from his teaching position at North Catholic in Pittsburgh and sent him to a treatment center, according to the Rev. Martin A. Solma, provincial for the Marianist Province of the United States.

“He never returned to educational ministry and was assigned to internal ministry under a safety plan,” Father Solma said in a statement.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

The Diocese of Winona must release all files it kept on priests accused of abuse, the latest update in a sprawling case against both the diocese and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that continues to grow.

A Ramsey County district judge this week ordered both the Winona diocese, as well as the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, to disclose their documents on priests by March 31. The documents may never see the light of day, at least not at first — they will be sealed and available only to the attorneys.

The documents will “really show what the bishops knew, when they knew it, and whether they concealed it,” said attorney Mike Finnegan in an interview Friday.

The Winona diocese did not respond to a request for comment.

In December 2013, the diocese released a list of 13 names of priests “credibly accused” of abuse, as well as an additional name of a priest accused of abuse since 2004. The diocese is now being asked to turn over all files pertaining to investigations into those priests, and each file could contain hundreds of pages of documents, Finnegan said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church failed in its “moral responsibility” to a victim of child sexual abuse during a court case in which it denied his mistreatment ever took place, despite having evidence to the contrary, the royal commission has heard.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary, Michael Casey, said this was “a position we shouldn’t have taken”.

Mr Casey said the Archdiocese of Sydney continued to deny in court that the abuse took place, even after receiving evidence from a second victim that he too had been abused by the priest, Aidan Duggan.

The first victim, John Ellis, ultimately lost his case in 2007, in a decision the church’s lawyers described as providing “a significant protection to the Cardinal and trustees” against other similar claims brought by abuse victims.

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CALIFORNIA
Oakdale Leader

By Richard Paloma
Staff Reporter rpaloma@oakdaleleader.com 209 847-3021 ext 8136
POSTED March 21, 2014

The Oakdale Bethel Assembly of God youth pastor arrested for possession of child pornography last month was taken into custody by federal authorities on suspicion of receiving or distributing images of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct after a Stanislaus Superior Court hearing on Wednesday, March 19.

Tyler Bliss, 27, of Oakdale, was in court to appear on a single felony count of possession of child pornography resulting from a Ceres Police Department arrest on Feb. 17 where investigators served search warrants at his Hudson Avenue home and the church on East G Street.

During the hearing, the district attorney’s office announced it would not be pursuing charges at which point Bliss was advised that there was a federal warrant for his arrest. Two US Marshals then took Bliss into custody and escorted him out of the courtroom.

Federal mandatory sentencing laws call for a five-year minimum for receipt of child pornography. Bliss could receive up to 20 years in prison for the offenses charged.

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VIRGINIA
Christian Post

BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CP REPORTER
March 21, 2014

Disgraced Geronimo “Pastor G” Aguilar, ex-pastor and founder of the Richmond Outreach Center megachurch in Richmond, Va., is now begging for help to cover his legal fees in fighting seven felony sexual abuse charges as the church prepares to name their new senior pastor on March 29.

Aguilar resigned from the church with three other pastors amid an explosive sex scandal on June 5, 2013. He was extradited to Texas in late May to face the seven felony charges, which include aggravated sexual assaults on two sisters who are younger than 14.

The charges are related to incidents that occurred before he started the ROC ministry, which was found in 2001, according to the church’s website. A notice there also announced that they will be introducing a permanent replacement lead pastor on March 29. If convicted, Aguilar will face life in prison.

The Richmond Outreach Center Recovery Group on Facebook revealed an appeal letter from Aguilar in January, where he details his financial troubles and general woes since the scandal, including being forced out of a swanky $700,000 parsonage the church had maintained for him and his family.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A 61-year-old Catholic priest has been jailed for seven years for systematically sexually abusing a boy in Co Wicklow over a five year period beginning in 2007 when the boy was 12.

Denis Nolan, with an address at Carrigmore, Tinahely, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at that address between 1 January and 30 June 2007.

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PUERTO RICO
Legal Examiner

Posted by Joseph H. Saunders
March 21, 2014

In Puerto Rico, Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan and Bishop Daniel Fernandez Torres of Arecibo have handed over to civil authorities a group of priests accused of sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church on the island has long been criticized by victims of sexually abusive priests for shielding abusive priests, moving them from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police. The church has also always steadfastly refused to turn over records for prosecution or punish officials that covered up the crimes.

It what can be seen as dramatic turnaround by Archbishop Gonzalez Nieves, six cases of alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests were turned over to Puerto Rican prosecutors and he pledged “the full cooperation of the Archdiocese, regardless of whether the person who committed the abuse is a minister, employee or volunteer.

At the beginning of this year the newspaper El Nuevo Dia published a series of hard-hitting stories about sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Puerto Rico. This investigation led to Bishop Daniel Fernandez disclosing that he had defrocked six priests from the town of Arecibo accused of sex abuse. Since then local prosecutors across the island have disclosed that at least 11 other priests are under investigation for similar accusations.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A Wicklow priest was jailed yesterday for seven years when he was convicted of ‘systematically’ sexually abusing a boy over five years starting when the boy was 12 years old.

Denis Nolan (61) with an address in Tinahely, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a date between January 1st, 2007, and June 30th, 2007.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 15 years between July 1st, 2007, and August 25th, 2009, and five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 17 between August 26th, 2009, and August 25th, 2011.

All defilement charges occurred in the Presbytery, Rathnew where Nolan was parish priest at the time. The victim, who is now 19, waived his right to anonymity.

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GERMANY
AINA

Germany (AINA) — His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of the Assyrian Orthodox Church, died Friday morning from a heart attack in a hospital in the city of Kiel in Germany. He was 81 years old and the 122nd patriarch of what is considered to be the oldest church in the world, with a following of some four million across the globe.

He was born on April 21, in Nineveh, Iraq (today’s Mosul) during the fateful year of 1933 when Iraqi forces massacred some three thousand Assyrians in what is known as the Simmele massacre. His parents gave him the name of Sanharib after the ancient Assyrian king. On November 17, 1957, he was ordained as a priest. On On November 17, 1963, he was ordained as Metropolitan Bishop of Mosul. …

He was lax with his bishops and priests. When an Assyrian orthodox priest in Germany was charged and convicted of child abuse the patriarch allowed the priest to continue working in the church.

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SERBIA
InSerbia

High public prosecutor’s office in Smederevo has ordered a one-month detention to priest M.Dj. (56) from Plocice, near Kovin, suspected of raping a child, Novosti reported.

The priest was arrested by Pancevo police charging him with a rape of 9-year-old girl from the village. It is suspected that he raped the girl in his home.

Otherwise, as Novosti learned, it was suspected for some time that the priest sexually exploited young females who came to service or sang in the church choir. It is suspected that he also forced the unfortunate girl to orally satisfy him.

It is not known how the priest was caught.

M.Dj. was questioned by the Prosecution in Smederevo, and the judge of the High Court for preliminary proceedings remanded him in custody. The priest came to the hearing in plain clothes, the Prosecutor’s Office said, and denied accusations, the daily writes.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on March 21, 2014

Michael Fugee is no longer a Catholic priest, and that is right and just. Not only did he confess to fondling a teenage boy, he repeatedly broke a binding legal agreement to stay away from other children. The man is a menace.

But what about Newark Archbishop John J. Myers? As usual, the foot soldier is punished, and the general gets a free pass. This has been the pattern in the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

It is particularly offensive in this case because Myers’ representative signed a legally binding document with Bergen County prosecutors promising to keep Fugee away from children. That agreement was broken repeatedly, as Fugee attended retreats with children, heard their confessions and conducted services.

After The Star-Ledger’s Mark Mueller reported all this, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli opened an investigation. In a plea bargain, he agreed to spare Fugee jail time in return for the promise that Fugee would be defrocked as a priest and submit to supervision by law enforcement officials.

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MONTANA
Missoulian

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press

HELENA — An order of nuns being sued by people who claim they were sexually abused as children at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius is asking a federal judge to delay the proceedings while the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is in bankruptcy court.

District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena halted sex-abuse lawsuits against the Ursulines and the diocese after the diocese filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a proposed $15 million settlement.

Sherlock previously combined the proceedings in the two lawsuits filed by a total of 362 alleged victims.

But the Ursulines are not participating in the settlement, and victims’ attorneys want a federal bankruptcy judge to lift the stay in that state lawsuit.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Jamie Manson | Mar. 20, 2014 NCR Today

Yes, you read that headline right. Bill Donohue, the very vocal head of the Catholic League, has emailed organizers with a request to march in this year’s New York City Gay Pride Parade.

But no, Donohue’s inquiry is not a sign that he has had any kind of personal realization. He plans to march with a banner that reads, “Straight is Great.”

Donohue’s plan was announced today on the website of GLAAD, the nation’s leading lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender media advocacy organization. (The press release also offers a litany of Donohue’s previous anti-LGBT statements.) …

Donohue’s participation could also spark his first conflict with one of his most ardent supporters: Cardinal Timothy Dolan. For years, Dolan has banned the Church of St. Francis Xavier from marching in the parade with a banner that reads, “A Roman Catholic Parish in New York City.”

Assuming that the “Gay is Great” sign will also read “The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights,” one must wonder if Dolan will place a similar restriction on Donohue’s banner.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

A former Hammond Baptist pastor wants his child sex abuse sentence tossed out on legal technicalities. We hope the judge sees through this farce and upholds his sentence.

[Post-Tribune]

Rev. Jack Schaap was charged with using his position at the church to abuse an underage girl. He agreed to the plea deal, but now claims that he had a bad lawyer and his sentence should be tossed out.

It is always disheartening when predators attempt to avoid justice through legal loopholes. We hope he fails in his goal and stays in prison. We also hope that First Baptist Church of Hammond aggressively reaches out to anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse at the hands of Schaap.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A PRIEST OF the Dublin Archdiocese has been convicted in relation to child sex abuse charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

61-year-old Fr Denis Nolan, who had been working in Wicklow Town and Rathnew until two years ago, was sentenced in court in Bray earlier today.

He was ordered to step down from service after a complaint of child sexual abuse not related to today’s proceedings was first received by the Archdiocese.

According to a spokesperson:

He was obliged to co-operate and engage with the Diocesan priest support co-ordinator, who monitors priests in such situations to ensure compliance with restrictions placed on their activities.
All information received by the Diocese was given to the Gardaí and the HSE.

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IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

Paul Neilan

Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly has expressed his “profound sorrow” and apologised to the victims of convicted abuser Fr Gerry Kearns.

On Wednesday, March 12, the 73-year-old priest pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault on two boys in the mid-80s.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, with the last three suspended for an ‘abuse of position’ and ‘trust’ in molesting and fondling the boys, who gave powerful testimony on the wrecking effects the abuse had on them, with one victim saying “I tried to do away with myself twice’.

“Regarding the sentencing of Father Andrew Gerard Kearns,” said the bishop, “a priest of the Diocese of Kilmore, pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault of minors in Cavan Circuit Court on 26th November 2013.

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ILLINOIS
Post-Tribune

By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com March 20, 2014

Jack Schaap, the former pastor at the First Baptist Church of Hammond megachurch, wants his 12-year sentence for having sex with a 16-year-old parishioner tossed, claiming he had bad representation from his attorneys.

Schaap, acting as his own attorney, on Thursday filed in U.S. District Court in Hammond a motion to vacate U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano’s March 20, 2013, sentence. Schaap claims his attorneys, Paul Stracci and Alison Benjamin, told him the maximum sentence he would receive would be 10 years in prison but that his sentence would more likely be three to four years or possibly as few as 18 months.

However, the charge he pleaded guilty to, causing his victim to be taken across state lines for sex, came with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. His plea deal called for a 10-year sentence, and he agreed there were no grounds for a lower sentence.

The plea deal was filed Sept. 19, 2012, the same day prosecutors filed the case against him, which accused him of using his position with the church to have employees take the girl, who was also a student in the church’s school, to Illinois and Michigan that summer so they could be alone. He would later plead guilty after the judge took him through each paragraph of the section of the plea dealing with the specifics of his agreement with prosecutors, including the recommendation of a 10-year sentence. The judge also quizzed him about whether anyone had promised him a different sentence and stressed that Lozano had the final say on any sentence.

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INDIA
UCA News

Christopher Joseph, Kochi
India
March 21, 2014

A Catholic priest and two other men have been arrested in connection with the murder of a seminary rector in southern India’s Bangalore almost a year ago, police said today.

Father Elias Daniel, a Carmelite priest, and two other people identified only as William Patrick and Peter, are now in police custody.

“We have very strong evidence that these people have done it,” said senior police officer Pranab Mohanthy, who leads the investigation, referring to the murder of Father K. J. Thomas of Bangalore’s St. Peters seminary on March 31 last year.

Police said there was “a lot of resentment” towards the rector by the accused, who felt they had been sidelined for important posts in the seminary.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

Charges have been dropped against a man who was accused of violating a clergy sex abuse victim’s privacy. We hope that police and prosecutors will now work even harder to nail the correct offender.

[New York Daily News]

It’s crucial that sex crime victims be safe and feel safe when they do their civic and moral duty by reporting to law enforcement. Every effort must be made to ensure their privacy. And those who violate their privacy must be punished harshly and promptly so that such intimidating and insensitive actions will be deterred in the future.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

An Oakdale youth pastor has pleaded not guilty to charges of downloading child pornography. We hope that justice will be served in this case.

[Modesto Bee]

Taylor David Bliss was charged with downloading child porn at his home and church computer. He will be kept in custody until a judge decides to allow bail or keep him in custody.

Child pornography is not a victimless crime. It is extremely disturbing given Bliss’s role as a youth pastor, a trusted member of the community with unfettered access to children.

We hope that anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered sexual crimes will come forward, report to police and get help. We also hope church officials will aggressively reach out to any victims and be transparent and cooperative with law enforcement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

Nottingham Bishop Malcolm McMahon to become Archbishop of Liverpool, historic stronghold of Catholicism

21 March 2014 10:27 by Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis today appointed the Bishop of Nottingham as the next Archbishop of Liverpool, the diocese traditionally seen as the stronghold of Catholicism in England and Wales.

Malcolm McMahon, 64, a Dominican religious and Chairman of the Catholic Education Service (CES), succeeds Archbishop Patrick Kelly, who submitted his resignation last year on the grounds of ill health.

Liverpool has traditionally been one of the Church’s most important sees and has been in need of a new archbishop since the retirement of Patrick Kelly, who submitted his resignation on the grounds of ill health 14 months ago.

Bishop McMahon was widely tipped as a contender to be Archbishop of Westminster back in 2009.
Born in London, he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Umist) and after graduation worked for the Daimler Motor Company in Coventry and London Transport.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

The Most Rev Malcolm McMahon has been named as the new Archbishop of Liverpool.

The 64-year-old, from London, is the current Bishop of Nottingham.

He said he was “honoured and humbled” to be appointed to the position and will be the city’s ninth Archbishop.

The new Archbishop of Liverpool today paid tribute to the “dignity” of the Hillsborough families and said he would be supporting them in their continuing campaign for justice.

Bishop McMahon, who was ordained as a priest in 1982, went to Oxford University and has had parishes in London and Newcastle.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News

Pax Christi, the international Catholic movement for peace has offered congratulations to its President, Bishop Malcolm McMahon on the news of his appointment to Archbishop of Liverpool.

In a statement, Pat Gaffney, General Secretary of Pax Christi said: “We greatly appreciate the engagement that Bishop Malcolm has with us and our work at both national and international levels. In recent years he has helped us champion the cause of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, executed for his refusal to serve in Hitler’s army and supported our work on nuclear disarmament and the arms trade.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

We’re somewhat optimistic that Bishop Malcolm McMahon will be a positive force of change for the Catholic Church.

[Catholic Herald]

On the BBC’s Hard Talk programme, McMahon said the Vatican response to the sex abuse crisis had been “too defensive”.

[Catholic Herald]

He also showed courage by saying it was “a big mistake” for the Pope’s preacher, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, to compare the outcry over sex abuse with anti-Semitism.

He also admitted that the Church had been “wrong” in the 1922 document Crimen Sollicitationis (“Crime of Soliciting”) to say that allegations of sex abuse in the confessional should be kept out of the public domain.

It’s important that we judge Catholic officials by their actions, not strictly by their words. But these comments lead us to believe that the Vatican could have made a worse choice for this important post than McMahon.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

Friday, March 21, 2014

HOW can he be more to the point?

Pope Francis marked his first anniversary as Pope by going on a recollection riding to and from it on a bus. It is another act of humility by a Pope who earlier defined the Church’s role in the world to be that of a “field hospital where the wounds of humanity can be healed.”

He is also a Pope who listens and has recently sent out a questionnaire to ask how Catholics feel about the Church’s position on current issues like artificial contraception, the role of women, etc.

So, how can so many Church men miss the point and not take Pope Francis seriously at his word and action?

How can Philippine bishops be raising P350 million to build a Eucharistic Center when Yolanda left so many dead, injured, homeless and jobless?

The wounds inflicted by poverty on people cannot be possibly treated in a P350-million facility that I suspect will serve more to give solace to the devout, and less to heal the physically and spiritually wounded, faithful.

How can healing priest, Fr. Fernando Suarez, be raising P50 million to erect a “colossal statue” (taller than the statue of Liberty) of Mary, Mother of the Poor? I give him the benefit of the doubt that the money his foundation raised for this statue is intact. But I seriously question his priorities, especially now that Pope Francis wants his priests to go near, and smell like, their sheep instead of retreating and smelling good inside majestic places of worship.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 22, 2014

A TEENAGER who told the dean of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral he had been sexually abused was allegedly “humiliated” by the Catholic cleric, who had “a complaint file as big as the New Testament”, church lawyers have said.

No record was kept of this 1983 complaint, which came to light 20 years later while the Archdiocese of Sydney was fighting a separate child abuse case, according to documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The church continued to defend itself in court, the commission heard, even after learning this second victim was abused by the same Sydney priest, Father Aidan Duggan.

“This fresh allegation would suggest that the archdiocese … was on notice of Duggan’s predeliction for young men and did nothing to stop it,” lawyer Paul McCann wrote in a July 2005 letter to the church’s insurers.

“Unfortunately the priest to whom the complaint was made, Father Michael McGloin, also appears to have antecedents for boundary violations and child sexual abuse. It’s unlikely therefore that Father Michael McGloin will be putting on an affidavit in this matter.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

Philly archdiocesan officials have scheduled a “healing mass” for tomorrow at Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

At worst, this is a cynical public relations move. At best, it misses the mark.

Chaput’s focus should be on real reforms that actually make kids safer, not symbolic gestures that make him seem nicer or that make a few adults temporarily feel better.

Chaput’s first job should be protecting the vulnerable. And much remains to be done on this front.

He should discipline – publicly and harshly – those who hid or ignored clergy sex crimes, to deter such irresponsible behavior in the first place.

He should support – not oppose – reforming Pennsylvania’ secular child safety laws, especially the archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations.

He should house – in remote, secure, independent treatment centers – every proven, admitted or suspended and credibly accused child molesting cleric, so that kids will be safer.

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UNITED STATES/ARGENTINA
The Tablet (UK)

[Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina – BishopAccountability.org]

21 March 2014 12:14 by Isabel de Bertodano

Pope Francis has been accused of failing to take appropriate action in a number of cases of clerical child abuse that came to light while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

According to the American organisation BishopAccountability.org, the cases all came to Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s attention, but he is accused of defending the perpetrators or declining to meet victims.

In the case of Fr Julio Cesar Grassi, who was convicted of abuse in a children’s home after a lengthy trial and appeal, the Argentine Bishops’ Conference commissioned a report after his conviction in 2009 which concluded he was innocent. The website’s main accusation against the Pope is that he was supportive of Fr Grassi and the children’s foundation set up by the priest before the accusations emerged. He also reportedly approved the commissioning of the report into Grassi, who is now in prison.

The abuse of five girls by Fr Mario Napoleon Sasso of Zarate Campana diocese between 2002 and 2003 in a community soup kitchen was allegedly covered up by his diocesan bishop. Cardinal Bergolio allegedly failed to respond when the families of the young girls asked to meet him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A school bus driver gained greater access to students because the level of trust grew between him and the principal, the royal commission into sex abuse has heard.

Former principal Claude Hamam said the driver, Brian Perkins, started volunteering around Adelaide’s St Ann’s Special School by helping out in the woodwork shed, doing repairs around the school and mowing the lawns.

‘At the time we had an element of trust that we had for all the staff there,’ he told the commission on Friday.

It is investigating the school and Perkins who sexually abused intellectually disabled children between 1986 and 1991.

Mr Hamam hired Perkins as a driver, telling the commission ‘he seemed to be suitable for the position’.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY March 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church has avoided an historic first trial against an Australian priest for allegedly concealing the child sex offences of another person after a Newcastle magistrate dismissed charges against Hunter priest Lew Fenton.

Magistrate Robert Stone found inconsistencies in evidence by a man, his mother and sister about an alleged sexual assault when the man was 9, which was allegedly disclosed to Father Fenton, were so significant there were no reasonable prospects a jury would convict him.

But Mr Stone, in Newcastle Local Court yesterday, found there was evidence to show the boy was sexually assaulted by Frank Tully, a salesman with the Post group of newspapers, then owned by the Newcastle Herald, at Birubi beach between 1982 and 1984.

Mr Stone dismissed a charge that Father Fenton, 81, knew Tully was going to indecently assault the boy in a room at the rear of Nelson Bay church, and assisted him.

This followed conflicting evidence from the man, his mother and sister, and after significant evidence from the man in court that did not appear in his statement to police.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Jesuit of the Detroit Province ordained in 1977, Kurtz taught for many years at the Jesuit’s University of Detroit High School. He was quietly removed from his teaching position and his ministry was restricted in April 2001 after allegations surfaced that he had recently sexually assaulted a male minor in Denver, Colorado. The Official Catholic Directory shows that Kurtz subsequently lived in Temperance, MIichigan, in a Jesuit Community at Loyola University of Chicago and at the Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. The Jesuits maintain that they notified civil authorities in Detroit in 2001; Kurtz wasn’t arrested until November 2011.

Ordained: 1977

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY ROSALIO AHUMADA
rahumada@modbee.com
March 20, 2014

During his arraignment hearing Thursday in federal court in Fresno, an Oakdale youth pastor pleaded not guilty to a charge of downloading child pornography.

Tyler David Bliss, 27, of Oakdale is accused of downloading the child porn with computers at his home and his church, where he at times viewed some of the illicit images, according to a federal affidavit.

Bliss was served with a federal arrest warrant and taken away in handcuffs Wednesday afternoon shortly after local prosecutors dropped a state charge of child porn possession.

The following day, a federal grand jury indicted Bliss, charging him with one count of receiving and distributing child pornography, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara McAuliffe scheduled Bliss to return to court June 2 for a pretrial hearing.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2014

A criminal case against a man with the odd name of Lemon Juice will be dismissed Friday, the Daily News has learned. The Brooklyn man was accused of tweeting out a photo of a sex-abuse victim during a high-profile trial.

Juice was charged with contempt in November 2012 after a photo of the teen witness was snapped in violation of a judge’s orders while she took the stand against her tormentor Nechemya Weberman.
“I’m happy it’s finally over,” Lemon Juice, 32, said Thursday.

The case against him was sour from the start.

Unlike his two co-defendants, Joseph Fried and Yona Weissman, Juice is a friend of the victim and her husband and came to court to support them — a fact prosecutors learned early on, court papers show. And the Twitter account that bore his name and photo continued posting while he was in custody.

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ROME
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Mar 21, 2014

The former Cardinal Archbishop of Boston Bernard Law, who resigned from the post in 2002 amid allegations of cover-up in the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations, was one of the main guests at a special St Patrick’s Day lunch in Rome’s Irish College.

Another guest at the top tabe at the dinner was controversial Cardinal Raymond Burke, currently prefect of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, its Supreme Court. Last December Pope Francis omitted to re-appoint him to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

The College trustees are Ireland’s four Catholic Archbishops, the Catholic primate Cardinal SeánBrady, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary and Archbishop of Cashel Dermot Clifford.

Also a guest at the lunch was Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton. However, his spokeswoman said last night he “was not aware of other guests attending.”

In June of last year, during debate on the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill, Cardinal Burke said Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s description of himself as a taoiseach who happens to be a Catholic, but not a Catholic taoiseach, “does not make any sense”.

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INDIA
The Hindu

Nearly a year after the murder of Fr Thomas, the 65-year-old rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Malleswaram, the Bangalore police have cracked the case with the arrest of three priests, who allegedly bludgeoned him to death after he caught them red-handed while stealing documents from Seminary.

On April 1, Fr Thomas was found dead with multiple head injuries in the seminary. The breakthrough in the investigations came after the police subjected a few suspects including the three priests, who were seminary on the fateful night of March 31, to narco analysis.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pronab Mohanty, who headed the investigation, told reporters that the police had arrested William Patrick, the priest of the Seminary, who was sleeping in the adjacent room when the ghastly murder took place, besides Ilyas and Peter, both priests in the same Seminary.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

BY COURT REPORTER CANDICE MARCUS
March 21, 2014

A former Adelaide school principal has admitted wrongly telling an inquiry he had done a police check on a bus driver who later molested pupils.

Reading a statement to the royal commission into child sexual abuse, Claude Hamam said he had made an “error of judgment” by telling an internal inquiry in 2001 that he had made the checks on Brian Perkins.

The royal commission is examining how St Ann’s Special School, the Catholic Church and South Australian police responded to allegations Perkins was sexually abusing intellectually disabled students.

“I made a mistake. It was an error of judgment on my part. I did not in any way fabricate the truth,” Mr Hamam said in a statement he read to the hearing before giving evidence.

“I admitted in a subsequent interview with Catholic Education that I had not done a police check, and I was accused of lying.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Former St Ann’s school principal who hired paedophile Brian Perkins ‘made mistake’ over police check

SALLY BROOKS AT THE INQUIRY THE ADVERTISER MARCH 21, 2014

A FORMER school principal who employed paedophile bus driver Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School more than two decades ago has denied he lied about doing a police check on Perkins, but instead says he made a mistake.

Claude Hamam has told an inquiry into the handling of sexual abuse claims at the school that he deeply regrets stating that he did do a police check, at his first interview with the Catholic Education Office in 2001.

“I made a mistake. It was an error of judgment on my part. I did not in any way fabricate the truth,” he said.

“I admitted at a subsequent interview with Catholic Education that I had not done a police check and I was accused of lying.

“This left me shocked and devastated, as I had not intentionally lied but made a mistake.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church failed in its “moral responsibility” to a victim of child sexual abuse during a court case in which it denied his mistreatment ever took place, despite having evidence to the contrary, the royal commission has heard.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary, Michael Casey, said this was “a position we shouldn’t have taken”.

Mr Casey said the Archdiocese of Sydney continued to deny in court that the abuse took place, even after receiving evidence from a second victim that he too had been abused by the priest, Aidan Duggan.

The first victim, John Ellis, ultimately lost his case in 2007, in a decision the church’s lawyers described as providing “a significant protection to the Cardinal and trustees” against other similar claims brought by abuse victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 21 March 2014

The Catholic church continued to dispute former altar boy John Ellis was abused even though it had evidence that supported his claim, a senior church official has told an inquiry.

Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary Dr Michael Casey told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he accepted the church should not have continued to dispute Ellis’s credibility in the supreme court.

The hearing in its second week is looking at how the church handled the complaint of Ellis, who was abused by a priest at Bass Hill in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Earlier evidence showed that the church accepted Ellis was a victim of abuse when he went through the internal process, and the veracity of his allegations was supported by a church-appointed independent assessor.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The former principal of St Ann’s special school in Adelaide, Claude Hamam, has admitted to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse that he didn’t do a criminal record check or verify the references of Brian Perkins, a convicted paedophile who went on to abuse about 30 children at the school in the late 1980s and ’90s.

Transcript

PETER LLOYD: The former principal of an Adelaide special school has told the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse that he did not do a criminal record check or verify the references of a bus driver who went on to abuse about 30 intellectually disabled children at the school in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Claude Hamam also acknowledged that he bore some responsibility for allowing Brian Perkins to take some of the St Ann’s children on respite care weekends where they were abused.

Our reporter Samantha Donovan has been following the Royal Commission hearings in Adelaide and joins me now.

Sam, first remind us of what happened at the St Ann’s school.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well, Peter, in the early 1990s it came to light, allegations came to light that about 30 intellectually disabled children had been abused at St Ann’s special school in Adelaide by the school bus driver, Brian Perkins. He not only drove the students but gave them woodwork lessons and even took some of them on respite care weekends.

Most of the children who were abused were unable to communicate what happened to them and that’s why I say about 30 of them were abused and most of the families weren’t told it was likely their children had been abused for more than a decade, and it took about that length of time to get Perkins into court and jailed where he later died.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A senior Catholic Church official has denied he contrived a tactic to support the church’s legal dispute that former altar boy John Ellis was never abused.

Michael Casey had been asked by then archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, to check whether or not the internal church process had found in favour of Mr Ellis’s complaint of abuse by a priest at Bass Hill in Sydney in the 1970s.

Dr Casey, Cardinal Pell’s private secretary, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was shown a June 2005 email from him to the church legal team which said the church-appointed assessor did find ‘on the balance of probabilities’ Mr Ellis was abused by Father Aidan Duggan.

However, the email went on to say that the director of the Public Standards Office, Michael Salmon, had mentioned there were reservations about Mr Ellis’s evidence and that as such the church authority had discretion to reject the assessor’s findings.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS DC

WASHINGTON — She was a 24-year-old swimming instructor who had a sexual affair with a male student under 16.

The woman was convicted in Virginia in 1993 of unlawful sex with a teenager and served 30 days in jail. She was listed on the state’s sex offender registry, and could have tried to get her name removed at some point, but didn’t.

Fifteen years later, the state passed a new law that reclassified her and thousands of others as violent sex offenders. The woman — identified in court papers only as Jane Doe — has unsuccessfully challenged the law, and now her lawsuit is on the agenda Friday when the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court meet in private to consider taking up new cases.

Her appeal comes as states around the country face growing public pressure to protect people from repeat sexual predators. Those labeled sex offenders are being subjected to a host of new limitations, including where they can live, work or travel. But the new restraints have not come without complaints, and courts in Georgia and Ohio have ruled that sex offender laws in those states went too far.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WVVA

[with video]

PRINCETON (WVVA) – A Mercer County man accused of sex crimes while serving as a church volunteer had his bond modified Thursday in light of a new sexual allegation.

Prosecutors say that on March 7, Timothy Probert solicited a sexual favor in exchange for $50 from a man who was going door-to-door in his neighborhood looking for work.

The man became aware of the charges against Probert after speaking with the pastor of the church where Probert had served when the alleged previous misconduct took place.

Probert was arrested in December 2013 on multiple charges of sexual abuse against minors that allegedly occurred while he served as a youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield.

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KANSAS
KWCH

FORD COUNTY, Kan. –
A Dodge City pastor accused of sexual assault remains on house arrest, but with a modified bond.

Dr. Jerrold Ketner, New Hope on the Plains minister, appeared in a Ford County courtroom Thursday afternoon. A judge modified Ketner’s bond to include visits to his doctor and attorney.

Ketner is charged with multiple felony charges including rape and blackmail.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Bond was modified Thursday for a former church youth volunteer accused of child sexual abuse after a judge heard testimony that he recently propositioned a man for sex.

Mercer County Circuit Court Judge William Sadler ordered Timothy Probert, 55, of Bluefield, to be placed on home confinement after a witness testified that Probert offered to pay him $50 to perform oral sex on him. Probert, who is facing 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges, had previously been free on bond.

In response to questioning by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney George Sitler, John Wayne Harkless testified that he was in Probert’s South Bluefield neighborhood in early March going door-to-door and asking residents if he could do yard work to earn extra money. Harkless testified that he knocked on the door at Probert’s residence on Parkway Avenue between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and asked if he had any work. “He said he didn’t,” Harkless testified.

Harkless said Probert then called him back and offered to pay him $50 if he would allow him to perform the sex act.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

20 March 2014 by Christopher Lamb and Elena Curti

The Church’s safeguarding office is to be relocated from Birmingham into the headquarters of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales at Eccleston Square in central London.

The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) will move to London before the lease expires on its current offices in February 2015. In a statement, the trustees for the Catholic Trust for England and Wales (the legal entity of the Bishops’ Conference) said the relocation will fulfill recommendations of the 2007 Cumberlege Commission, which called for CSAS to be fully integrated into mainstream church structures.

CSAS is funded by the bishops’ conference and advises the Church on child protection. In recent years it has completed safeguarding audits of all 22 dioceses in England and Wales. Its work is overseen by the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC), which lists the same Birmingham address as CSAS on its website.

Both organisations replaced the fully independent Catholic Office for Child Protection and Vulnerable Adults (Copca) that was set up in compliance with the recommendations of the Nolan Report of 2001.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

The Diocese of Yakima concluded its defense in U.S. District Court on Thursday in a $3.1 million sex-abuse case filed by a former Zillah man.

Attorneys for the man, identified in court papers as John Doe, and the diocese will present closing arguments sometime in April, when their schedules can be coordinated with Judge Edward Shea, who heard the nonjury trial over the past two weeks.

Doe alleges that the diocese did not properly check Deacon Aaron Ramirez’s background before accepting him as a candidate for the priesthood in 1999. Doe also argues that the diocese failed to properly supervise Ramirez when he worked at Resurrection Catholic Church in Zillah.

Doe, in court papers, says Ramirez invited him to a trailer at the parish on July 29, 1999, for guitar lessons. Doe, who was 17 at the time, says that Ramirez gave him alcohol and repeatedly raped him.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

By Ada Chong Published: Mar 20, 2014

YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash. — A social worker and Zillah’s police chief testified in federal court Thursday in the abuse trial against the Yakima Diocese.

Chief David Simmons handled the sexual assault investigation surrounding plaintiff John Doe in 1999.

Simmons told the court about the incident report indicating Doe and his brother went to a trailer where clergyman Aaron Ramirez lived. Doe walked his brother home, then went back to the trailer. The report said Doe drank with Ramirez, then passed out and woke up naked in Ramirez’s bed.

Doe maintains the Diocese should have protected 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
Religion News Service

Rachel Marie Stone | Mar 20, 2014

A friend recently posted some thoughts on Facebook on the movie ‘Frozen’ and the way it critiques the well-worn “love at first sight” trope that’s part of many other Disney movies:

“If a lonely, love-starved girl [see, for example, Tangled] has been sheltered in a castle her whole life, she might become more vulnerable to smooth-talking Prince Charmings ready to help her escape.”

The psychological set-up of earlier Disney princesses might parallel evangelical purity culture in some significant ways, he suggested, referencing a journal article dealing with clergy sexual misconduct.

As Samantha Nelson told me in a 2012 interview, clergy sexual misconduct is often described — even by the women themselves — as an “affair” with their pastor, rabbi, or priest. Even those who have been victims of sexual abuse often fail to see the ways in which the clergyperson abused his power in order to get sex.

And so they blame themselves.

My friend (and many of those who commented) reflected upon the stories of sexual misconduct emerging recently from fundamentalist Christianity — most notably, perhaps, the case of Bill Gothard, who has been teaching reprehensible things in the name of Jesus for decades but has finally been discredited after numerous stories of his sexual abuse of young women have come to light.

It is hard not to think that there is a causative relationship between Gothard (and Gothard-esque) teaching and sexual abuse, particularly of women and girls.

Purity culture teaches unquestioning submission to authority — and authority figures are almost invariably male.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | Mar 20, 2014

Marginalize (verb) To treat a person as insignificant. (Oxford Dictionary)

Derogation – photo courtesy of David Goehring via Flickr
Show caption

“He has worked hard to convince everyone that I am crazy.” These were the words of a woman who was speaking about a relative who had sexually abused her as a child for years. This well-known and “respected” relative has been successful in keeping her abuse disclosures ignored for many years by convincing anyone that listens that she is an irrational and troubled individual. After years of being labeled “crazy” and being ignored, this survivor became silent and even found herself struggling with whether or not the baseless label was legitimate. Do you see what happened? A person who is well liked and well-respected in the community is accused of horrific behavior that the community prefers not to believe. The perpetrator provides the community with exactly what it wants in order for it to look the other way. Believing that the complainant is “crazy” gives the community the excuse to marginalize the victim and the disclosure, all the while showing support to the “unfairly” accused offender.

I recently watched the acclaimed Norwegian film, King of Devil’s Island. Based upon a true story, this movie was about the Bastoy Boy’s Home for delinquent boys located on an island off of Norway in the early 20th century. During the course of the film, a housefather named Bråthen sexually molests one of the resident boys who ends up committing suicide. Another resident eventually reports Bråthen’s abuse to the corrupt superintendent, Bestyreren, who confronts Bråthen. What follows are scenes that vividly illustrate some of the appalling ways sexual abuse survivors are marginalized by our communities:

Don’t Listen: When initially confronted about the reported abuse, Bråthen responds, “You can’t listen to them. They say whatever they want.” Survivors are marginalized when communities are all too willing to accept the claims made by perpetrators and their supporters that the individual disclosing the abuse is “crazy” and should be ignored. Disregarding the claims of a survivor communicates insignificance.

Helpless Souls: During the course of the confrontation with Bestyreren, Bråthen claims, “The only thing I have done is to try and help a boy who could not help himself.” Survivors are marginalized when perpetrators and their supporters paint them as helpless souls. Perpetrators are heralded as compassionate and the survivors are pitied as their disclosures are largely ignored.

Supporters Maligned: At one point, Bråthen identifies the boys who reported the abuse as “animals”, claiming that they were the real source of the victim’s harm. Survivors are marginalized when those who support them are maligned as being irrational and harmful. All too often this becomes the needed validation by some within the community to disregard allegations of abuse.

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

INDIANA
Sun-Commercial

Posted: Friday, March 21, 2014

By Jonathan Streetman Jasper Herald

It’s been nearly 60 years since Norbert Krapf was a young altar boy at Holy Family Catholic Church in Jasper. But what happened to him there has stuck with the former Indiana poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize nominee and is the subject of his 26th book, “Catholic Boy Blues: A Poet’s Journal of Healing.”

The book of poems chronicles the sexual abuse Krapf said he endured as a boy serving at the church under Monsignor Othmar Schroeder in the mid-1950s. Schroeder, who died in 1988, has since been alleged to have sexually violated at least 15 boys during his 27-year tenure at the church he founded.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Peterborough Today

by Stephen Briggs
stephen.briggs@peterboroughtoday.co.uk
Published on the 21 March 2014

A former Peterborough priest and teacher is facing a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of historical sexual abuse against young girls.

David Goodstadt was found guilty of rape and a number of other offences by a jury at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday (14 March).

Goodstadt, who had been on bail during a week-long trial, was remanded into custody by Judge Sean Enright.

He will be sentenced at the same court in April after reports have been written about Goodstadt’s offending.

The court was told the offences date back a number of years, when the victims were aged from under 10 to 16.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY March 21, 2014

WHENEVER I think about Cardinal George Pell – and I try not to, really, because life is too short – I think about Jesus.

Before concerned friends leap to the phone to check if I’ve succumbed to the demands of the past few years, can I just say I link Pell and Christ because the best way to consider the cardinal is by applying the ‘‘What would Jesus do?’’ test.

He’s the most prominent Catholic in Australia so we should be lining up his words and actions against the teachings of the first Christian. Only then can we answer the question, does Pell practise what the church preaches?

(A pause here to note I can’t lay claim to the ‘‘What would Jesus do?’’ test because it was Peter Gogarty – outspoken victim of child sex offender priest Jim Fletcher – who first suggested it, initially as a joke, but increasingly seriously.)

The ‘‘What would Jesus do?’’ test will come in handy next week when Pell gives much-anticipated evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 20, 2014

A breaking story today has kept my phone ringing off the hook: A southern California third grader has been accused of sexually assaulting a classmate numerous times during the past year. School administrators only found out about it when other students at an after-school program reported what they saw. (Kudos to those kids!)

Tragic? Yes. Horrifying? Yes.

Preventable. YES!

But fear, panic and over-reaction are not how to prevent this kind of abuse.

Remember: third graders know little to nothing about sex. For the victim in this case, authorities believe that he didn’t report because he didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe what was happening to him.

So, what do you do?

You go back to the four ways to protect your preschooler from abuse. Number 3 is the relevant lesson here:

3) Looking and touching
The bathtub is a good time to teach this lesson. Tell children that no one is to touch their private body parts and they are to never touch anyone else’s. Tell them that no one is to take pictures of them when they have no clothes on. Don’t use a tone of fear in the discussion – If you approach this the same way as you approach the rules of crossing the street or sharing toys, your child will not be scared or threatened.

As your children get older, you can tell them that even if what is happening feels good, they need to tell mom or dad right away.

I just had this discussion with my second grader this afternoon. I asked him what he would do if someone—an adult or another classmate—touched him or wanted my son to touch them. He said he would say “NO!” and go and tell mom.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Written by
Grant Rodgers

The father of a former Des Moines youth pastor who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse hopes his son will be allowed to return to Ohio instead of going to prison.

Ryan Matthew McKelvey, 27, pleaded guilty last month to one count of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or clergy after two female teenagers told police that they’d kissed and had sexual contact with McKelvey. McKelvey worked as a youth pastor at the Heritage Assembly Church and the two victims were students at the church’s unaccredited school, according to court papers.

Polk County District Court Judge Karen Romano is scheduled to sentence McKelvey on Monday morning. McKelvey could be sentenced to serve up to 20 years in prison.

McKelvey’s father, Keith McKelvey, is asking Romano to give his son a suspended sentence so he can return to the family’s home near Dayton, Ohio. In a letter last month written to the judge, the father wrote that his son will have a “support structure” and will receive counseling if he’s allowed to return home.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SALLY BROOKS THE ADVERTISER MARCH 21, 2014

THE sexual abuse of intellectually disabled students was “shocking and appalling” and the handling of the case in 1991 was “unacceptable”, says the former director of the Catholic Education Office.

Allan Dooley also apologised to victims of paedophile Brian Perkins, who worked at St Ann’s Special School in Marion more than two decades ago.

“For the former students and families affected, I am deeply sorry that the abuse at St Ann’s ever occurred,” he said.

“In everything I did I tried to engage and work in an open and transparent way with all the different people and organisations that were involved in the Church’s response.’’

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse the Catholic Church’s vigorous cross-examination of a victim during litigation was wrong.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining allegations made by altar boy John Ellis, who was abused by Father Aidan Duggan in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Mr Ellis failed in his attempt to sue the Catholic Church in 2007, with the Supreme Court ruling the church was not an entity that could be sued.

Dr Michael Casey, who is Cardinal Pell’s private secretary, was the main contact point for lawyers defending the church against the compensation claim from Mr Ellis.

Though a church-appointed assessor concluded Mr Ellis had most likely been abused, when the case came to trial, the church decided to fight him on that.

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
Gladstone Observer

Nicky Moffat and Scott Sawyer 21st Mar 2014

The diocese has used school newsletters to reassure Gladstone parents their children were safe from sexual predators.

The move was in response to the damning findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, which unearthed decades-old horrific evidence of sexual abuse within the church’s ranks.

The Observer has seen the letter published in the newsletters of St Francis Catholic Primary School, Tannum Sands, and Chanel College, in Gladstone.

“As the director of Catholic education in the diocese of Rockhampton, I want to assure you that my highest priority is the safety of the children in our schools,” Rockhampton Diocesan director of Catholic education Leesa Jeffcoat wrote to parents.

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

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By JORDAN SHAPIRO Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY • An attorney representing Oklahoma-based arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby in its challenge of a federal contraception coverage mandate launched a nonprofit group in Missouri on Thursday that will focus on the issues of religious liberty and constitutional rights.

University of Missouri law professor Joshua Hawley is part of the legal team representing Hobby Lobby that is scheduled to argue its case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. The company sued to overturn a federal mandate that requires most employers to provide health insurance that includes birth control.

Hawley said the new group, the Missouri Liberty Project, will focus on raising awareness about religious liberty and constitutional rights issues. He filed the registration paperwork Thursday with the Missouri secretary of state’s office.

“These are issues I am very passionate about and want to bring attention to Missourians,” he said. “People are worried about the Constitution and feel like it is being threatened.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

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

We’re highly skeptical of this group and its goals. Over the past 25 years, we’ve seen laws and rules that were ostensibly adopted to “protect religious liberty” have been abused to protect clergy who commit and conceal heinous crimes against kids.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

MARCH 20, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Due to prior commitments, Kathy and I won’t be attending the Healing Mass at the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul in Philadelphia this Saturday. We would love to receive recap editorials from those who do attend. We will use your recaps as our next blog post. Use the private contact form to let me know you’d like to submit. Also, a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer is interested in interviewing victims of clergy sex abuse in regard to the Mass. If you are willing, please use the contact form to message me and I’ll connect you with the reporter privately via email.

One small victory for victims occurred due to Father Wintermeyer’s comment in a previous post on the Mass. Per his suggestion, the archdiocese requested that all parishes include petitions for the victims of clergy sex abuse during their Masses this weekend. This was confirmed by Ken Gavin, director of Archdiocesan communications. Maybe one day they’ll take the rest of the suggestions to heart and soul.

If nothing else, this Mass will shine another light on the issue of clergy abuse and needed legislative reforms.

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AUSTRALIA
Gladstone Observer

Nicky Moffat 21st Mar 2014

THE Diocese of Rockhampton’s policies contradict themselves on child sex abuse. And they send mixed messages.

They state that anyone suspecting a child is in immediate danger should call the police, but also mandate that sexual abuse be reported to the principal or designated contact, and no one else.

Enter the Diocese of Rockhampton’s website and you will find 38 Catholic Education policies, none of which is explicitly aimed at preventing child sex abuse or responding to instances of suspected sexual crime against children.

A policy titled Student Protection refers to protecting children from harm, including self-harm, and points to student protection processes for detail on rules for dealing with abuse.

A one-page policy on sexual harassment and bullying provides no definition of either, and points to relevant legislation.

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.

CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

Defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt says if he needed to write a textbook about witness collusion, he would focus on the Eric Dejaeger trial.

In what might be a foreshadowing of his final arguments in the trial, Kempt said there is an “outright certainty” that complainants fixed their stories before they testified at the Belgian ex-priest’s trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Dejaeger’s lawyer made the comments in court March 20 in response to a Crown application that seeks to allow similar fact evidence in the trial.

Similar fact evidence uses each complainant’s testimony to corroborate testimony made by other complainants.

Dejaeger faces 68 charges related to his time as a priest in Igloolik from 1978 to 1982, most of them sex-related crimes against children.

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MICHIGAN
Click on Detroit

DETROIT –
A trial is next for a Roman Catholic priest who is charged with stealing money from a fund set up to help poor people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

The Wayne County prosecutor says the Rev. Timothy Kane and an accomplice, Dorecca Brewer, approved false applications to the Angel Fund and pocketed thousands of dollars over a four-year period.

The Angel Fund is run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and funded by a single donor. It has granted more than $17 million to needy people since 2005.

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NEW YORK
Edge on the Net

by Jason St. Amand
National News Editor
Thursday Mar 20, 2014

Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, is not happy that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh sat out their city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade events because organizers refused to allow LGBT people to openly march. He’s also miffed that beer companies like Guinness and Sam Adams withdrew sponsorship from the New York City and Boston parades, respectively.

His response? He’s applied to march in the New York City Gay Pride Parade, held June 29, while carrying a banner that reads, “Straight is Great!” …

Though NYC Pride officials praise straight allies, unless Donohue changes his tune in the next few months, he is anything but. Donohue has called the LGBT community sexual deviants and has been criticized for his lack of sensitivity towards victims of priest sexual abuse and victims of bullying.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

I just wrote about a recent situation in which watchdog groups drew attention to an egregious misuse of “Catholic” beliefs, with a positive outcome to the protest of watchdog groups: as my posting notes, when Catholic lay leader Austin Ruse recently called for liberal university leaders to be taken out and shot, the group Faithful America petitioned for Monsignor Anthony Frontiero of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire, who was on Ruse’s C-FAM board, to resign.

And so he did.

Here’s another recent story which demonstrates that when watchdog groups publicize decisions or actions by religious leaders that contradict core values of a religious group, positive things sometimes happen: last Saturday, retired New York Cardinal Egan was scheduled to preside at a special children’s choir Mass at St. Ignatius Loyola parish in Manhattan. The group Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests called foul, given Egan’s deplorable record in the abuse crisis both in the Bridgeport, Connecticut, diocese and in New York.

After SNAP and other groups supporting abuse survivors made a stink about St. Ignatius’s decision to bring Egan in for this children’s event, his appearance at the Mass was cancelled. SNAP applauded this decision, but as its media statement about it notes, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever know who played the behind-the-scenes roles in making such a glaringly insensitive decision (to invite Egan to officiate at the children’s Mass) in the first place–because it is extremely doubtful

that even one church official – Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Egan, the local Jesuit provincial or St. Ignatius staffers – will break the deeply-rooted culture of secrecy in the church around child sex crimes, cover-ups and controversies to share this information.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Survivors of child sexual abuse in Ballarat say they are concerned about the apparent little progress in implementing reforms recommended by last year’s State Parliamentary inquiry. The concerns come as private hearings are held in Ballarat this week.

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IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

Paul Neilan

There were anguished scenes in Cavan Circuit Court last week when two men drew courage from turmoil to confront their priest abuser and gave evidence of the horrific effects his abuse had on them.
The two men were aged just 10 years when Fr Gerry Kearns abused them both. The Cavan priest, now 73, pleaded guilty in the court to four indecent assaults on one and a single assault on the other male, almost 30 years after his offences.

The priest, who will serve jail-time for his fondling and molesting of the males at a location in the county, did not speak throughout the three-hour sentencing hearing in contrast to the muffled, tearful moans of the victim and relatives, who sat at opposite ends of the gallery.

Fr Kearns was not charged with rape and during the hearing denied giving the boys alcohol.

Though the victims had already made statements to gardaí, which could have been read out to the court, they both made the agonising decision to speak of the harrowing after-effects.

“I lost all trust in everyone,” one told the judge. “I felt low all the time, I never trusted anyone, I lost all trust and tried to do away with myself twice.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Lutheran minister arrested for child pornography
He admits molesting several young girls in WI & MN

A Lutheran minister has admitted – apparently for the first time, that he sexually abused children in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Yesterday, he was charged in Missouri with possession of child pornography.

[KSDK]

Matthew Luetke, a pastor at the Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in O’Fallon, MO, told police he had exposed himself and allowed his genitals to be touched by female relatives when they were pre-school age when the family was living in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Those incidents are said to have occurred between 2004 and 2008.

Luetke is believed to have worked at Ascension Lutheran Church in Rochester , Minnesota and attended a Lutheran seminary just north of Milwaukee in Mequon, Wisconsin.

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UNITED STATES
New Times

By Kyle Swenson Thu., Mar. 20 2014

The Chicago-based megachurch leader with serious ties throughout Florida and in Broward has lost his flock due to a sex scandal. Since the ’60s, Bill Gothard has been preaching a submit-to-authority brand of Bible that excoriates rock music and free thinking: Listen to your parents, obey your husband, toe the line, etc.

From his perch at the Institute in Basic Life Principles, the preacher has given millions of seminars across the country on his value system. Red-state poster people Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin are fans, not to mention the walking birth-control advertisement known as the Dugger family from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting. And a decade back, Gothardism was pretty popular across Florida.

In the Gothard cosmos, divine authority is a trickle-down setup. We suckers on the bottom, we’ve got to obey our parents, husbands, bosses, political leaders and such because they derive their moral juice from God himself.

This was the ethos behind the Character First! programs that became controversial around the country in the early and mid-2000s. The program basically was moral education marching orders dripping with evangelical overtones — fine for your home, but not so much in a public school setting.

But former Gov. Jeb Bush and former DCF honcho Jerry Regier both pushed legislation that would put Character First! in public schools across the state. Both were fans of Gothard’s. The former governor implemented the Character First! program at his own charter school in Liberty City.

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