ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Sat, May 3, 2014

Clerical sex abuse campaigner Marie Collins today said that she had a “positive” feeling about the Holy See’s new child protection body, the Pontifical Commission for Minors.

Speaking at a Vatican press conference at the end of three days of meetings in Rome, Ms Collins, who is one of eight people currently serving on the commission, said: “I come away with a very positive feeling from the meetings.

“We are coming from very different perspectives but we all have one aim in mind, the protection of children and part of that is accountability for those who don’t protect children.

“I am happy at the moment that the meeting is addressing the issues I hoped it would address. Obviously we are just starting and you can only achieve a certain amount in two days but I think that what we have achieved in these two days has given us a very good idea of the direction we want to go in, what our initial aims will be.”

The Council for Minors, which contains four women, five lay people and three anglophones, was originally announced last December but it was holding its first meetings this week.

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VATICAN CITY
WCVB

VATICAN CITY —Members of Pope Francis’ sexual abuse advisory board said Saturday they will develop “clear and effective” protocols to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable if they fail to report suspected abuse or protect children from pedophile priests.

Victims groups have long blasted the Vatican for refusing to sanction any bishop or superior who covered up for priests who raped and molested children. They have listed accountability as one of the key issues facing Francis and a key test for his new advisory board.

Francis announced the creation of the commission last December and named its members in March after coming under initial criticism for having ignored the sex abuse issue. The commission’s eight members – four of whom are women – met for the first time this week at the pope’s Vatican hotel to discuss the scope of their work and future members.

Briefing reporters Saturday, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said current church laws could hold bishops accountable if they fail to do their jobs to protect children. But he said those laws hadn’t been sufficient to date and new protocols were needed.

“Obviously our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with the situations where superiors of the church have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children,” O’Malley said. That could include an effort toward creating an “open process” that “would hold people accountable for their responsibility to protect children.”

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VATICAN CITY
DFW Catholic

Vatican City, May 3, 2014 / 10:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ new advisory commission on the protection of minors is expanding its membership to include representatives from around the world to improve sex abuse prevention and to better care for victims.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors recently held discussions “focused on the commission’s nature and purpose and on expanding the membership to include people from other geographical areas and other areas of expertise,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley, O.F.M. said in a statement on behalf of the commission at a May 3 press conference.

Cardinal O’Malley is one of eight members chosen by Pope Francis to serve on the commission, which was established March 22. The group met this past week to discuss the scope of its work. Thus far, there no official statutes have been established.

The commission said its conversations included “many proposals for ways in which the commission might collaborate with experts from different areas related to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.”

The cardinal explained that the group hopes to include “more victim-survivors” of sexual abuse, as well as “at least one person from every continent.”

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VATICAN CITY
Times of Malta

A commission advising Pope Francis on the sexual abuse crisis will recommend that negligent clerics be held accountable regardless of their rank in the Church, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said.

In many cases of abuse, most of which took place decades ago but surfaced in the past 15 years, bishops seeking to protect the Church’s reputation moved priests from parish to parish instead of defrocking them or handing them over to police.

The commission, made up of four men and four women from eight countries including an Irish woman who was a victim of abuse, met for the first time since its formation in March, holding talks with the pope and Vatican officials.

“We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important,” the commission said in a statement.

O’Malley, known as a pioneer for a more open and forceful approach to tackling the scandal since he published a database of Boston clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors online in 2011, said a person’s rank in the Church should not be cause for special treatment or protection.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANA
El Mundo (Espana)

IRENE HDEZ. VELASCO
Corresponsal Roma Actualizado: 03/05/2014 1

“El bien de un niño o de un adulto vulnerable es prioritario a la hora de tomar cualquier decisión”. Ese es el principio fundamental por el que se guía la Pontificia Comisión para la Protección de los Menores, el organismo contra la pederastia creado hace un mes y medio por Francisco y cuyos ocho miembros (entre los que se incluye Marie Collins, una víctima de abusos sexuales a manos de un sacerdote) por primera vez se han reunido en los últimos tres días.

En breve, los miembros de esta especie de patrulla vaticana contra la pederastia informarán al Papa de sus propuestas para proteger a los menores de todo el mundo de posibles abusos sexuales a manos de sacerdotes o de personal relacionado con la Iglesia. Pero el cardenal Sean Patrick O’Malley, el monje capuchino al frente de la diócesis de Boston donde en 2002 estalló un gigantesco escándalo de pederastia, ha resumido en dos palabras el núcleo de su mensaje: responsabilidad local. Es decir, las conferencias episcopales (y más concretamente los obispos) deben de asumir la responsabilidad de prevenir, evitar y perseguir los abusos sexuales en sus diócesis.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | May 3, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Roman Catholic Church failed to recognize the worldwide reach of clerical sexual abuse, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said Saturday (May 3) at a press conference.

“Many don’t see it as a problem of the universal church,” said O’Malley who heads the Vatican’s new commission for the protection of minors.

“In many people’s minds it is an American problem, an Irish problem or a German problem,” he said. “The church has to face it is everywhere in the world. There is so much denial. The church has to respond to make the church safe for children.”

O’Malley, whose Boston archdiocese was at the center of a wave of sex scandals that rocked the church a decade ago, addressed the media after the panel’s eight members held its first meeting in Rome.

Pope Francis announced the creation of the new committee in March. It includes Irish abuse victim and campaigner Marie Collins and two psychiatrists. But the committee is expected to expand to represent every continent around the world.

“We wish to express our heartfelt solidarity with all victims/survivors of sexual abuse as children and vulnerable adults,” O’Malley read from a prepared statement.

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Members of Pope Francis’ sexual abuse advisory board said Saturday they will develop “clear and effective” protocols to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable if they fail to report suspected abuse or protect children from pedophile priests.Victims groups have long blasted the Vatican for refusing to sanction any bishop or superior who covered up for priests who raped and molested children. They have listed accountability as one of the key issues facing Francis and a key test for his new advisory board.

Francis announced the creation of the commission last December and named its members in March after coming under initial criticism for having ignored the sex abuse issue. The commission’s eight members – four of whom are women – met for the first time this week at the pope’s Vatican hotel to discuss the scope of their work and future members.

Briefing reporters Saturday, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said current church laws could hold bishops accountable if they fail to do their jobs to protect children. But he said those laws hadn’t been sufficient to date and new protocols were needed.

“Obviously our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with the situations where superiors of the church have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children,” O’Malley said. That could include an effort toward creating an “open process” that “would hold people accountable for their responsibility to protect children.”

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SCHWEIZ
News

Die näheren Umstände müssen nicht wirklich kümmern. Anscheinend wurden die Regeln etwas zurechtgebogen, es reichen jetzt plötzlich auch weniger Wunder, um heilig gesprochen zu werden. Eilig heilig sollte Karol Józef Wojtyła (besser bekannt unter seinem Künstlernamen Johannes Paul II.) werden. Santo subito! Und ein grosses Geschäft ist es natürlich auch geworden. Reiseveranstalter, Buchhändler und Kitschverkäufer danken’s dem Vatikan von Herzen und mit vollem Geldsack, dass man hier einen Pop-Idol-Kult melken kann.

Ziemlich vergessen gegangen ist in der Berichterstattung über Johannes Paul II. leider, dass er ziemlich lange beim Vertuschen, Verschweigen und Verheimlichen der Kindsmissbräuche und Kindsvergewaltigungen durch den römisch-katholischen Klerus mitgewirkt hat. Extrem unappetitlich war beispielsweise sein Verhalten im Fall von Marcial Maciel Degollado, dem Gründer der Legionäre Christi. Degollado war ein Kindsmissbraucher der übelsten Sorte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Summary: Bernhard Rasche of Neumarkt for the past five years has fought for the rights of abuse victims in the Catholic Church. He knows what he is talking about because he was abused while a student at the St. Kilian mission.]

NEUMARKT/WÜRZBURG. Seit fünf Jahren kämpft der studierte Theologoge Bernhard Rasche aus Neumarkt für die Rechte von Missbrauchsopfern der katholischen Kirche. Er selbst weiß, wovon er spricht, denn auch Rasche wurde als Schüler im Missionshaus St. Kilian im unterfränkischen Bad Neustadt missbraucht. Die Vorfälle in den 1970er Jahren sind lange verjährt, dennoch stehen sich Rasche und die Diözese Würzburg am kommenden Mittwoch vor dem Amtsgericht gegenüber. „Widerruf einer Behauptung“ lautet der Vorwurf der juristischen Auseinandersetzung.

Rasche hatte den Prozess angestrengt, um endlich eine Reaktion seites der Kirche auf seine Missbrauchsakte zu erhalten. „Nicht eine einzige Bitte um ein Gespräch wurde von der Diözese positiv beschieden, geschweige denn überhaupt darauf eingegangen. Nicht ein einziges meiner Schreiben beantwortet“, sagt Rasche zur MZ. Erst ein Schreiben seiner Anwältin habe dazu geführt, dass sich die Diözese äußerte. Nun sitzen sich beide Seiten im Rahmen einer Güteverhandlung über den „Widerruf einer Behauptung“ gegenüber. Rasche hatte das Verfahren angestrengt. „Es ist in all diesen Jahren der einzige Prozess, den ich für mich persönlich bestreite“, sagt er.

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VATICAN CITY
The Local

Pope Francis told the first meeting of a newly-formed Vatican committee to reform Catholic Church finances that it should aim for transparency and helping the needy on Friday.

Francis told the group there should be a “new mentality” in the Vatican and a reform of the bureaucracy to ensure “it better serves the Church.”

Francis created the group following accusations of financial mismanagement and fraudulent behaviour in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church, including in the Vatican bank and its real estate assets agency.

The committee represents “the Church’s awareness of its responsibility in protecting and managing its assets carefully in view of its mission to evangelise and particularly to help the needy,” the pope said.

“Do not abandon this path: transparency and efficiency for this aim,” he said, adding: “It will not be easy and it will require courage and determination.”

Francis was speaking a day after the first meeting of another Vatican committee he has set up to tackle the issue of child sex abuse by priests in response to a wave of scandals that have engulfed the Church.

The Vatican has vowed zero tolerance against predators.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors held their inaugural meeting May 1-3 at Domus Santa Marta in Vatican City. As was previously announced, the purpose of the meeting was to make recommendations to the Holy Father regarding the Commission’s functions and to propose additional members from different parts of the world. The members who took part in the meeting are Catherine Bonnet, France; Marie Collins, Ireland; Sheila Baroness Hollins, United Kingdom; Cardina lSeán Patrick O’Malley O.F.M. Cap., United States; Claudio Papale, Italy; Hanna Suchocka, Poland; Humberto Miguel Yáñez, S.J., Argentina; and Hans Zollner, S.J., Germany.

At the end of the meeting, during a Briefing at the Holy See Press Office, the following statement was issued on behalf of the Commission:

“As we begin our service together, we wish to express our heartfelt solidarity with all victims/survivors of sexual abuse as children and vulnerable adults and to share that, from the very beginning of our work, we have adopted the principle that the best interests of a child or vulnerable adult are primary when any decision is made.

During our meetings, each of us have been able to share our thoughts, experiences, and our aspirations for this Pontifical Commission. Responding to our Holy Father’s requests, these discussions focused on the Commission’s nature and purpose and on expanding the membership to include people from other geographical areas and other areas of expertise. Our conversations included many proposals for ways in which the Commission might collaborate with experts from different areas related to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. We also met with some people from the Roman Curia regarding areas for future cooperation, including representatives from the Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican Press Office, and the Vatican Gendarmerie.

As an advisory commission to the Holy Father, the fruit of our work will be communicated to Pope Francis. In time, we will propose initiatives to encourage local responsibility around the world and the mutual sharing of “best practices” for the protection of all minors, including programs for training, education, formation, and responses to abuse. We have also shared with Pope Francis how important certain areas are to us in our future work. We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important, including developing means for effective and transparent protocols and processes.

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VATICAN CITY
WRAL

VATICAN CITY — Members of Pope Francis’ sexual abuse advisory board say they will develop specific protocols to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable if they fail to report suspected abuse or protect children from pedophile priests.

The eight-member committee met for the first time this week at the pope’s Vatican hotel to discuss the scope of their work and future members.

Briefing reporters Saturday, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said current church laws could hold bishops accountable if they fail to do their jobs to protect children. But he said those laws hadn’t been sufficiently applied and that “clear and effective protocols” are now necessary.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin State Journal

Calling the abuse of their very young children on religious grounds “absurd” and “obviously dangerous,” a Dane County judge on Friday sentenced a Black Earth couple to a jointly recommended 18 months of probation, but made it clear to them that more severe punishment could have awaited them.

Dane County Circuit Judge Ellen Berz said that regardless of what their church taught them, Matthew Caminiti, 30, and his wife, Alina Caminiti, 27, should have known that striking their children, including infants, on their bare bottoms with wooden dowels was wrong and misguided.

“The troubling part is that this behavior is not simply illegal,” Berz said, “it is obviously wrong, just wrong, and you could not, with your intelligence and your love for your children, recognize that.”

The Caminitis were members of the Aleitheia Bible Church in Black Earth, which was led by Matthew Caminiti’s father, Philip Caminiti. The elder Caminiti preached that children were to be disciplined with rods, as instructed by the Bible, to cure them of selfish behavior.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

THE Christian Brothers had a prejudice against abuse sur­vivors who pursued them through the courts in the 1990s instead of seeking pastoral care, a lawyer for the order has told a royal commission.

Howard Harrison, a partner at Carroll and O’Dea solicitors, gave evidence yesterday that there may have been an ill-­informed categorisation that people seeking compensation through the courts were somehow less deserving.

Survivors of extreme sexual and other physical abuse received as little as $2000 each in a tough negotiation that ended with victims signing away their rights to pursue the Christian Brothers any further, the commission heard this week.

In Perth, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the personal stories of 11 men who were sent to Australia from Britain as boys, then ­abused by the Christian Brothers at four West Australian institutions between 1947 and 1968.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 2 May 2014

The Christian Brothers had a misplaced prejudice against physical and sexual abuse survivors who pursued them through the courts in the 1990s, a lawyer for the order has told an inquiry.

A lawyer for the religious order, Howard Harrison, said they may have had the “ill-informed” attitude that people seeking compensation through the courts were somehow less deserving.

“A misplaced prejudice,” Harrison said in response to a question on Friday at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It also heard that a West Australian government compensation scheme for people abused in state care referred 2233 cases to WA police between 2008 and 2011.

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UNITED STATES
Master Adrian’s Weblog

Greetings from Geneva where, this Monday and Tuesday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture will question the Vatican about its record on child sexual violence. This is the second time this year the Vatican has been called by an international body to account for its handling of the crisis of sexual violence throughout the Catholic Church. CCR will be there again with our clients, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), to attend the proceedings and report back to survivors, advocates, and supporters via livestream. Tune in to our report-back on Tuesday, May 6, at 8:30 pm CET (2:30 pm EST).

You can follow the global conversation about this historic hearing on Twitter using the hashtag #VaticanAccountability and ask questions before or during the report-back by tweeting to the hashtag or emailing your questions to askCCR@ccrjustice.org. We will answer as many as possible during the livestream.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

Saturday 3 May 2014

A priest suspended for publishing allegations of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church is to extend an olive branch in a bid to halt legal action against him.

Lawyers for Father Matthew Despard, who has been suspended since last November, said he would make overtures to his new hierarchy.

He faces legal moves to evict him from his parish house and has already lost one legal battle over the disagreement.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By John S. Hausman | jhausman@mlive.com
on May 02, 2014

MUSKEGON, MI – It took less than an hour for a jury to convict Carlton Lindbergh Johnson, a 77-year-old longtime pastor of a Muskegon church, of raping two young relatives and sexually touching a third, over a period of years when they were children.

Johnson, wearing a dark suit with a clerical collar and seated in a wheelchair, showed no emotion as the verdict was read, his expression an unchanging scowl.

In a verdict reached just before 4 p.m. Friday, May 2, jurors found Johnson guilty of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, for sexual penetration of two different girls, and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for sexual contact with a third girl.

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UNITED STATES
The Washington Times

By James P. Kelly III -The Washington Times

U.N. committee must not impose its human rights agenda on the Catholic Church

On Monday in Geneva, the United Nations Committee Against Torture will consider the Holy See’s initial report relating to its compliance with the Convention Against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Though focusing significantly on the tragic and, in the words of Pope Francis, “evil,” sexual abuse of children by a relatively small number of Catholic priests, the committee’s review of the Holy See’s initial report under the Convention Against Torture is part of a much larger debate over whether the U.N. should be actively promoting social and cultural rights that conflict with the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church and other religions.

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the U.N. and its various agencies have identified a variety of social and cultural rights. In many cases, these human rights were inspired by Christian teachings and the writings of great Catholic scholars. More recently, U.N. staff, nongovernmental organizations, academics and transnational courts have re-interpreted these rights or invented new rights in a manner that conflicts with Christian teachings and practices.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

May 2, 2014

United Nations Committee on the Convention against Torture, please condemn the Holy See and the Vatican because you are the last drop of justice left for hundreds of thousands of Catholic children who have no voice and no financial means to reach you and tell you their lifetime of ‘living hell’ as a result of the torture of sexual bestiality they suffered as children sodomized by clergy – which SNAP can clearly explain to you represented by its President Barbara Blaine and some of its members who are now in Geneva. Please read diligently their statement which you have received and which we re post here below and the video by the Center for Constitutional Rights Center for Constitutional Rights.

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COLORADO
KWGN

[with video]

MAY 2, 2014, BY TAMMY VIGIL

DENVER — A Westminster pastor already charged with sexually assaulting a teenager over three years is now facing accusations from three more victims.

Gerald Clark, 51, was supposed to have his preliminary hearing Friday.

Instead, his attorney asked for more time to prepare for these new allegations.

Investigators say Clark met the three new victims through “church associations—some through his work as a pastor at Jericho Ministries International that met at a Broomfield clubhouse at 110 Greenway Dr.

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TEXAS
Patch

Posted by Kristal Dixon (Editor) , May 03, 2014

A former church volunteer with First Baptist Canton pleaded guilty to child sexual battery.

Matthew Brent Sheffield, 31, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of sexual battery against a minor and received an eight year probation sentence.

Sheffield was sentenced on April 18 by Judge N. Jackson Harris in Cherokee County Superior Court. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

A Cherokee County grand jury in April 2011 indicted the volunteer in the June 2010 sexual battery of the boy, who was 14 years old at the time.

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CANADA
Blackburn News

By Dave Richie on May 2, 2014

Nearly two dozen men have now come forward alleging sexual abuse by a late Tilbury priest.

In 2011, four men went public with claims they were sexually abused by Father Bernard Robert, while serving as altar boys at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church during the 1970s and 80s.

The victims’ lawyer Rob Talach says another 16 men have launched lawsuits against the priest, who died in 1996. “In addition to the 20, there’s another four that we’ve had contact with that, we’re not retained yet, but we’re aware of them and we’re aware of their abuse. So it’s been really an ongoing process.”

Talach says the initial four men have settled and received a total of about $550,000 from the Diocese of London.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein

For decades, Michael Mack imagined conversations with the priest who had invited him, a skinny 11-year-old, into the rectory to make costumes for a church play, molested him and then vanished.

Throughout Mack’s childhood in the Washington area and then later as an adult in Massachusetts, the unanswered questions ran through his life “like a thread,” he said.

Sometimes he’d picture himself asking the priest something basic: What was that about? Or the priest apologizing. Other times, his visions were detailed: the two finding that they shared things in common, like poetry. Or when the clergy sex-abuse scandal exploded in the early 2000s, Mack envisioned himself with the priest on a traveling, healing church road show.

But it wasn’t until a few years ago, when he attempted to actually have those conversations, that Mack, now 57, began healing. And for the past two years, he has been telling the story of that journey in a one-man play, “Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith.” The show, which Mack is bringing to his home region Saturday for the first time, recounts his attempts to contact the priest, the unexpected people he meets on that journey and the way forgiveness has helped loosen the grip abuse has had on his psyche.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

[with video]

GOLDEN, Colo. (CBS4)- A pastor accused of sexual assaulting a teenager is facing more charges after additional women have come forward claiming to be victims.

Gerald Clark has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenager over several years.

On Friday a judge added five additional counts after more alleged victims came forward. The additional charges include one count of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust with a pattern of abuse and four counts of misdemeanor unlawful sexual assault.

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CALIFORNIA
The Desert Sun

Reza Gostar, The Desert Sun May 2, 2014

PALM SPRINGS – A lawsuit filed Friday against the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a former church bishop and a former missionary, claims a woman was repeatedly sexually abused when she was a teenager in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert.

The lawsuit claims the victim, Jacqueline Tyler, then 13, was repeatedly abused by a missionary from July to November 1985.

As a result of the abuse, Tyler gave birth to a child on June 30, 1986, the lawsuit alleges.

The missionary, described only as in his 20s at the time, began working for a Mormon church in the same area where Tyler and her family lived, according to attorney Michael J. Kinslow.

The family was Mormon and “their home was a place where he could seek hospitality, food and water when he was working out in the community,” wrote Kinslow in the complaint, adding that, as Mormons, the family had a duty to provide such hospitality.

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GENEVA
BBC Mundo

[Summary: Victims of clergy sexual abuse from Latin America will be among those speaking next week to the UN Committee Against Torture.]

Constanza Hola Chamy
BBC Mundo
Viernes, 2 de mayo de 2014

Había muerto su padre y lo mandaron donde el cura para que lo ayudara. “Me dijo que iba a ser mi director espiritual y que Dios le había dicho a él que iba a ser mi nuevo papá. Yo pensaba que era un santo”.

Pero entonces, Juan Carlos no anticipaba lo que estaba por venir: años de abusos sexuales y psicológicos. Tampoco imaginaba que 20 años después su testimonio sería crucial para graficar ante el Comité Contra la Tortura de Naciones Unidas la supuesta red de ocultamiento y encubrimiento implementada por la iglesia Católica para proteger a estos sacerdotes y evitar que comparezcan ante la justicia.

“Lo de Karadima me duele mucho, el abuso es horrible. Pero lo que más me duele es la respuesta de los que nos tenían que proteger y cuidar, que se convirtieron en nuestros peores enemigos”, le dice Cruz a BBC Mundo.

Se refiere a la cúpula eclesiástica.

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GENEVA
YouTube

Center for Constitutional Rights Center for Constitutional Rights

Scheduled for May 6, 2014

Greetings from Geneva where, this Monday and Tuesday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture will question the Vatican about its record on child sexual violence. This is the second time this year the Vatican has been called by an international body to account for its handling of the crisis of sexual violence throughout the Catholic Church. CCR will be there again with our clients, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), to attend the proceedings and report back to survivors, advocates, and supporters via live stream. Tune in to our report-back on Tuesday, May 6, at 8:30 pm CET (2:30 pm EST).

You can follow the global conversation about this historic hearing on Twitter using the hashtag #VaticanAccountability and ask questions before or during the report-back by tweeting to the hashtag or emailing your questions to askCCR@ccrjustice.org. We will answer as many as possible during the live stream.

http://www.ccrjustice.org/snap

Throughout the world, children and vulnerable adults have been and continue to be subjected to widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican’s policies and practices enable this violence. The Committee Against Torture has been clear that rape and sexual violence constitute forms of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In April, SNAP and CCR submitted reports to the Committee, detailing how the Vatican has violated the core principles of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, which it ratified in 2002.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Pope Francis will address the heads of UN agencies on May 10, the National Catholic Register reports.

The leaders of 29 UN agencies will be meeting in Rome next week, and will be received by the Pope at a private audience on May 10. Pope Francis is also scheduled to meet privately with Ban Ki Moon, the secretary-general of the UN.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

As Vatican officials prepare for a May 5 appearance before a UN committee monitoring implementation of the Convention against Torture, the director of the Vatican press office has issued a statement voicing the Vatican’s hope that “a serene an objective dialogue may take place,” with questions focused on the prevention of torture.

The Holy See signed the Convention against Torture in 2002, and thus incurred an obligation to testify before the UN committee. But having recently been subjected to a harsh criticism of Catholic teachings issued by another UN committee, after testifying on the rights of the child, Vatican officials are clearly concerned that the May 5 hearing, and the UN report that will follow, will also stray beyond the committee’s official competence.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, stressed that the Vatican fully supports efforts to eliminate torture. However, he said, during such UN meetings, “not infrequently the committees pose questions deriving from issues not strictly linked to the text of the Convention, but rather connected to it indirectly or based on an extensive interpretation.”

Father Lombardi went on to warn against “the pressure exercised over the Committees and public opinion by NGOs with a strong ideological character and orientation, to bring the issue of the sexual abuse of minors into the discussion on torture, a matter which relates instead to the Convention on the rights of the child.”

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VATICAN CITY
Galveston Daily News

May 2, 2014.
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Friday publicly backed his new economy czar, who is overhauling the Vatican’s administration amid grumblings from some Holy See bureaucrats about a perceived abrasive and secretive style.

Francis acknowledged Cardinal George Pell’s “tenacity” in calling the imposing Australian the Vatican’s resident “rugby player.” Francis echoed Pell’s call for a new way of doing business at the Vatican in urging Holy See employees to embrace a “new mentality of evangelical service.”

“The path will not be easy and requires courage and determination,” he told members of Pell’s economy council, made up of cardinals and lay experts.

Pell has only been in office for a month but he has already ruffled feathers inside the Italian bureaucracy that has run the Vatican for centuries.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

Religion News Service | by Josephine McKenna
Posted: 05/02/2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) As Vatican representatives prepare to testify before a United Nations inquiry into torture next week, a senior official warned investigators that it would be “deceptive” to link torture with the pedophilia scandals that have swept the Catholic Church.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday (May 2) the Convention Against Torture, endorsed by the Vatican in 2002, was one of the most important in the U.N.’s ambit.

Lombardi also stressed in a statement the Holy See’s “strong commitment against any form of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.”

But he urged the U.N. committee, which is holding three weeks of hearings in Geneva, to resist pressure from nongovernmental organizations “with a strong ideological character” that are intent on including the sexual abuse of minors in a discussion about torture.

“The extent to which this is deceptive and forced is clear to any unbiased observer,” Lombardi said.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

May 2, 2014

Today in preparation for the Vatican to be interrogated by the United Nations Committee on the Convention against Torture (because the Opus Dei owns the global media with Murdoch), it used the National Review in the US to threaten the UN, especially in this phrase: “…as people with varying degrees of interest and devotion stream in and out of St. Peter’s Square… the United Nations Committee Against Torture will soon be hearing testimony from and about the Holy See. The Holy See will testify voluntarily… And the U.N. Committee best keep in mind that the world is watching.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | May. 2, 2014

MILWAUKEE
The bankruptcy of the Milwaukee archdiocese inched forward last month as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley walked lawyers through changes in a document key to the confirmation of a reorganization plan. However, there are still major hurdles before the plan is presented for a vote by claimants, of whom 575 are survivors of sexual abuse.

Kelley scheduled a hearing on the plan that will run Oct. 14-17 with the understanding that lawyer for the creditors committee intend to file a motion to have the plan scrapped.

While lawyers for the claimants vigorously object to the bankruptcy plan, Kelley opened the door for the $4 million allocated by the archdiocese for compensation to be shared among the survivors. In its plan to settle the case, the archdiocese deemed all but 128 of the abuse claims not eligible for funds.

“I would like to see an explanation for not putting all the survivors in one class and letting them decide how the funds will be allocated,” Kelley said. “That’s how it happened elsewhere.”

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IOWA
Quad-City Times

[James Janssen]

By Brian Wellner

Court documents claiming defrocked Davenport priest James Janssen molested at least one victim while serving a stint in the Diocese of Joliet were released this week.

Janssen, when reached at home Friday morning, declined to talk about the allegations.

“I’m very sick,” the 90-year-old Janssen said, attempting to cover his face with a plastic bag to avoid being photographed. “Please, I’m very sick. I don’t want to talk about it.”

At one point, Janssen, his face practically buried in the plastic bag, tried to unlock a white Toyota Camry parked in front of his apartment. There was an oxygen tank in the passenger seat.

He lives in a room at the City Center Motel off Interstate 74 in Bettendorf.

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UNITED STATES
Newsday

Published: May 2, 2014
By PAUL V. KANE, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

With three bold reforms, Pope Francis can reinvigorate the billion-strong Catholic tradition, spur a renaissance in church attitudes, bring redemption for past failings, and give hope to the many poor and ordinary people of our world.

While predecessor popes sought to circle the wagons in defense, evangelize and convert the rest of the world, since becoming head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has sought instead to “convert the church.” The last 50 years have seen the priorities and conduct of the Catholic Church become muddled. The church has had an abundance of leaders, but a deficit of real leadership. But in 2013, the extraordinary happened, Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis.

A rare man and gifted leader, who lives the message of Jesus.

The reforms needed today are right in front of us, but they will not be easily seen.

First, the mandatory retirement age for bishops and cardinals should be dropped to age 70.

Exceptional leaders over age 70 should be given waivers to continue serving.

From 1978 to 2012, it became more important to church officials to promote men into leadership whose orthodoxy and embrace of traditionalism were beyond question. Many were ascetics. Most were possessed by a severe theology that saw the church under siege in a hostile world.

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CHILE
Radio UChile

Camila Medina | Martes 29 de abril 2014

Las víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes elevaron una denuncia ante el Comité de Tortura de Naciones Unidas. El objetivo de la acción jurídica es acusar al Estado Vaticano como cómplice en el encubrimiento de estos crímenes. Desde Chile, el abogado querellante en el caso Karadima dijo que esto busca conseguir que no se repitan casos de abusos ni de encubrimiento por parte de la Iglesia.

Víctimas de abusos sexuales de diversos países buscan demostrar los crímenes cometidos por el Vaticano y los sacerdotes acusados de pederastia, ante el Comité contra la Tortura de Naciones Unidas.

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CHILE
Semana

[Summary: Juan Carlos Cruz first met Fr. Fernando Karadima when he was 16. His father and died and it was thought the priest could help him. Karadima told the youth he was going to be his spiritual director. Cruz said he thought the man was a saint. However, Juan Carlos did not anticipate what was to become years of sexual and psychological abuse. He never imagined that 20 years later his testimony would be crucial before the United Nations Committee Against Torture. Cruz said the abuse was horrible but was worse was the response of the Catholic hierarchy.]

Juan Carlos Cruz conoció al sacerdote chileno Fernando Karadima cuando tenía 16 años.

Había muerto su padre y lo mandaron donde el cura para que lo ayudara. “Me dijo que iba a ser mi director espiritual y que Dios le había dicho a él que iba a ser mi nuevo papa. Yo pensaba que era un santo”.

Pero entonces, Juan Carlos no anticipaba lo que estaba por venir: años de abusos sexuales y psicológicos. Tampoco imaginaba que 20 años después su testimonio sería crucial para graficar ante el Comité Contra la Tortura de Naciones Unidas la supuesta red de ocultamiento y encubrimiento implementada por la iglesia Católica para proteger a estos sacerdotes y evitar que comparezcan ante la justicia.

“Lo de Karadima me duele mucho, el abuso es horrible. Pero lo que más me duele es la respuesta de los que nos tenían que proteger y cuidar, que se convirtieron en nuestros peores enemigos”, dice Cruz.

Se refiere a la cúpula eclesiástica.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

TIM HEALY – PUBLISHED 02 MAY 2014

A WOMAN sent to a children’s hospital aged 13 where she cooked and cleaned from 6am to 10pm daily for two years under an arrangement described by a High Court judge as resembling “a form of slavery” is entitled to seek redress, the court has ruled.

Now aged in her sixties, the woman claimed to have been sexually abused by older male patients and by a priest at the hospital and to have witnessed abuse of patients.

She said she was sent as a resident to the hospital by her mother, was not permitted to return home at Christmas, Easter, her birthday or any other holidays and was frightened to leave “because of the consequences”.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

By Philip Pullella
Reuters
10:30 a.m. CDT, May 2, 2014

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Vatican administrators need a “change of mentality” and must ensure that the Holy See’s finances are efficient, transparent and primarily aimed at helping the most needy, Pope Francis said on Friday.

The pope made his comments in an address to the members of a newly formed body called the Council for the Economy, a 15-member group of prelates and lay people from around the world which will be setting economic policy for the Holy See and exercising oversight.

“A new mentality of service to the gospel should take root in the various administrations of the Holy See,” Francis said. The new council will have “a significant role in this process of reform”, he said.

Francis’ appointment of the outside council of experts, whose members were named last month, was his latest attempt to come to grips with what he has called a hidebound and self-centered Vatican administration.

The 15 council members come from 12 countries. None is a Vatican bureaucrat. They will give economic policy guidance to a new department called the Secretariat for the Economy, headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell. Pell is also an outsider who has held no previous job in the Vatican.

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UNITED STATES
Fox News

By Jerome Elam, Michael Reagan
Published April 29, 2014

Editor’s note: April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The well-groomed neighborhood was lined with a green umbrella of trees that swayed in the warm winds of summer as the last remnants of a long, hard winter faded.

The white house on the corner had seen better days and the front lawn was dotted with bare patches where neglect had invited an invasion of pests.

Opening the front door the morning light illuminates an array of toys and wrapping paper strewn about a well-furnished family room. Just ahead above the dining room table a birthday banner hovered over a half eaten cake and scattered cups and plates. As the quiet of the scene establishes its reign down the hallway covered in brown carpet the muffled cries of a young child could be heard.

The CDC estimates that 1 in 4 girls and1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.
As the door opened to the back bedroom door a man emerged securing a belt around the faded jeans he wore.

A seven-year-old boy emerges his underwear still clinging to his small ankles. The scars and bruises that consume his small body are a roadmap of his vandalized innocence and the suffering he has so horrifically endured.

Tear-stained cheeks and cries that resonate within the tiny soul that has suffered so much soon fill the empty hallway.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Posted on 05/01/2014 by Yerachmiel Lopin

Marci V Hamilton
Professor Marci A. Hamilton Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Sex Abuse and Lawlessness in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community: Marci A. Hamilton in Verdict

Dear Mr. Thompson,

Constitutional lawyer and law professor, Marci A. Hamilton, laid into you for the “sweetheart deal” your office gave to Meilech Schnitzler who assaulted anti-abuse activist, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg. Drawing on my Frum Follies article and the New York Times report, she wrote:

There is the specter in Brooklyn of a sweetheart plea deal for the criminal who threw bleach on the face of the bravest advocate of sex abuse survivors in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community……

The day after the Weberman verdict, Meilech Schnitzler approached Rosenberg and threw bleach in his face. But for the quick action of a person who threw a cup of water on Rosenberg’s face, he might be blind today.

In a move that has sent chills through the ultra-Orthodox survivor community, Thompson cut a deal with Schnitzler that will hardly deter future violence against the survivors’ advocates. Instead of serving the years in prison… Schnitzler… received nothing but unsupervised probation. To quote Rosenberg, “Probation in our circles is a joke.”

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Posted on 04/30/2014 by Yerachmiel Lopin

Attorney Michael Lesher submitted the comment below in response to the Frum Follies post, I Hope Thompson Is Merely Clueless About Witness Intimidation.

In Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities & Child Sex Scandals (Brandeis University Press, 2009), Amy Neustein and I argued that the use of black hat-on-black hat violence – or even the threat of it – against a victim of abuse, or a potential witness at trial, constitutes a federal crime if it’s part of an attempt to interfere with that person’s use of the criminal justice system. This is because Title 18, Section 245(b)(2) of the U.S. Code makes such force (or threat of force) a crime when the interference is “because of his [the victim’s] race, color, religion or national origin.”

When Orthodox Jews are the victims of such attacks, it’s their religion that makes them a target – in this case, not because the attacker is from a different religion (and is acting out of prejudice against the Jewish victims), but because the attacker is from the same religion and singles out his coreligionists as traitors if they resort to secular courts. True, the law has never been applied in this way, but there is no logical reason it should not be. To be subjected to violence or threats specifically because one belongs to an Orthodox Jewish community, and is seeking the benefits of the court system, is a serious civil rights violation regardless of whether the attacker happens to be Jewish or anti-Semitic.

I’m repeating this argument in my forthcoming book on sex abuse cover-ups in Orthodox communities, to be called Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities (McFarland & Co.), which is supposed to appear this summer. I mention it now because I think persuading federal officials to prosecute under this law, in appropriate cases, would be one important way to break the Brooklyn deadlock. We all know what it means for a local state official to take on the whole Orthodox rabbinate. But the U.S. Attorney for New York’s Eastern District represents a much larger constituency and is less susceptible to rabbinic pressure.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

March 30, 2014

The Aharon faction of Satmar hasidim gave convicted witness tamperer Abraham “Abe” Rubin a hero’s welcome on his release from jail. Rubin served only 2 1/2 months in prison for trying to bribe Satmar sex criminal Nechemya Weberman’s victim and her boyfriend. Rubin offered them $500,000 to flee the country and not testify against Weberman. They refused and told police and the DA, leading to Rubin’s arrest.

As I reported Friday, the Aharon faction of Satmar hasidim gave convicted witness tamperer Abraham “Abe” Rubin a hero’s welcome on his release from jail.

Rubin served only 2 1/2 months in prison for trying to bribe Satmar sex criminal Nechemya Weberman’s victim and her boyfriend. Rubin offered them $500,000 to flee the country and not testify against Weberman. They refused and told police and the DA, leading to Rubin’s arrest.

Former Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes only asked for a 6 month sentence, despite the fact that Rubin committed 4 D felonies and an A misdemeanor.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Many of us fought hard to help Kenneth Thompson win election as Brooklyn DA because he promised to end the Hynes era discrimination against orthodox Jewish children. Under Hynes, orthodox child molesters usually got sweetheart deals, if there was any prosecution at all. Any ultra orthodox Jew who dared to go to the civil authorities was subjected to intimidation. Sam Kellner was even set up with false extortion and perjury charges, all to protect a notorious molester, Baruch Lebovits. Under Hynes, Sex Crimes staff were told to refer all intimidation complaints to Louise Cohen. She in turn was supposed to pass the complaints to the Rackets Division under Michael Vecchione. There was almost never any effective follow-up.

Thompson has kept his promise to diligently prosecute sex crimes even when the offenders are orthodox Jews. Thompson did exonerate Sam Kellner. Mr. Thompson’s office has vacated some wrongful convictions and is actively reviewing others. But Thompson has an abysmal record at dealing with witness intimidation. To date he has never shown any results at prosecuting those who intimidated orthodox victims and their supporters. Ken Thompson has never sanctioned the staff in his office responsible for screwing up the Lebovits case (ADA Miss Gregory) or pursuing the Kellner case. Instead, Joe Alexis was promoted and Nicholas Batsides still works there. The office has not brought charges against the Ashkenazi brothers (Zalmen and Berel) responsible for intimidating and bribing witnesses, or members of the Lebovits family who did the same.

Mr. Thompson was photographed hugging Moshe (Gabbai) Friedman who perjured himself to set up Sam Kellner. He attended a massive event headlined by the Satmar Rebbe, Aaron Teitelbaum, who famously called the witness against Weberman a whore. But Thompson is not seen publicly with those who defend victims. Nor does his office meet with them privately. During his campaign he relied on Yossi Gestetner, a PR flack notorious for his propaganda on behalf Nechemya Weberman. Mr. Thompson has held large private meetings orchestrated by Ezra Friedlander with Haredi leadership including many of the people notorious for defending molesters and intimidating victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 2, 2014

Mark Russell and Adam Cooper

A man who claims to have been sexually assaulted as a boy by two members of Melbourne’s orthodox Jewish community is suing the St Kilda East Yeshivah Centre for negligence.

Lawyers for Manny Waks have filed a Supreme Court writ against two men he claims sexually abused him and another 11 defendants, including the Yeshivah Centre, for negligently failing to properly supervise and control the alleged offenders.

Associate Justice Robyn Lansdowne agreed on Friday to extend the time to serve the writ on the 13 defendants.

In the writ, lawyer Dr Vivian Waller outlined how Mr Waks alleged he was sexually abused by two offenders, including David Cyprys, at various locations including the Yeshivah Centre.

Another 11 defendants – separate from the two alleged abusers – are claimed to have been negligent in the operation and management of the Yeshivah Centre and/or negligent in the supervision and control of the alleged offenders.

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MEXICO
euronews

Mexican film Obediencia Perfecta (Perfect Obedience) written and directed by Luis Urquiza is a biopic about disgraced priest Marcial Maciel – who used drugs, abused boys, and fathered numerous children, who he also allegedly abused. The movie is creating shockwaves in mainly Catholic Mexico.

Presenting the film in Mexico City, the director said that the recently canonised Pope John-Paul II had failed to act on the case, which made him guilty by association: “For me, the Pope is obviously guilty. He is guilty, he is associated, he is an accomplice. When there is a genocide and there is a general who is responsible, if the soldiers do something, the general is called and he is judged. Here, Pope John Paul II has not been judged but we already know that this is what the Church does, the Catholic Church as an institution – because there are also exemplary priests.”

After a lifetime surrounded by persistent rumours, in 1997 a group of men publically accused Maciel of sexually abusing them during the 40s and 50s and lodged a formal complaint at the Vatican in 1998. A year later, they were told that the case had been shelved on orders from Pope John Paul II.

Juan Manuel Bernal, who acted in the film, said: “I don’t think that we are looking for scandal or ridicule. We are simply trying to tell a story, to go deep into the subconscious mind of this character, which I think could be interesting for the spectator. Because effectively, we believe that all the world knows the story and most likely somebody read an account of it but has forgotten it. But the awful thing is that it keeps on happening and because of this, I think the film is important.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, has issued a statement in which he emphasised the Holy See’s “strong commitment against any form of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment”.

The statement comes ahead of a meeting between the Holy See and the United Nations Committee on the Convention against torture, which is set to take place on 5-6 May.

Please see below for Fr Lombardi’s full statement:

The “Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishments” is one of the important international Conventions implemented within the ambit of the activities of the United Nations, and which has been signed voluntarily by numerous member States of the international community, the so-called “State Parties” to the Conventions.

To confirm the implementation of the Conventions and the progress they have made, Committees of independent experts have been instituted by the Conventions themselves and therefore by the mandate of the “State Parties”. These Committees have the task of examining the periodical reports that the States Party are required to present regarding the implementation of the Convention. During its sessions in Geneva, the Committee meets with the delegations of the State Parties to discuss their reports and the state of implementation of and enforcement of the Convention, along with any questions that may arise in relation to its interpretation. This is a normal procedure of open dialogue, in which civil society may also play a role through the presentation of comments or recommendations on the part of NGOs of various orientations.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) A briefing for journalists will take place in the Holy See’s Press Office on Saturday May 3rd at 12.30 to report on the outcome of the first meeting of the newly-formed Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, and Marie Collins, a lay member of the commission and campaigner for the rights of abuse victims, will address the briefing.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 2 May 2014 (VIS) – The following is the full text of the informative note from Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., for Vatican Radio:

The “Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishments” is one of the important international Conventions implemented within the ambit of the activities of the United Nations, and which has been signed voluntarily by numerous member States of the international community, the so-called “State Parties” to the Conventions.

To confirm the implementation of the Conventions and the progress they have made, Committees of independent experts have been instituted by the Conventions themselves and therefore by the mandate of the “State Parties”. These Committees have the task of examining the periodical reports that the States Party are required to present regarding the implementation of the Convention. During its sessions in Geneva, the Committee meets with the delegations of the State Parties to discuss their reports and the state of implementation of and enforcement of the Convention, along with any questions that may arise in relation to its interpretation. This is a normal procedure of open dialogue, in which civil society may also play a role through the presentation of comments or recommendations on the part of NGOs of various orientations.

The Convention against torture (usually abbreviated to CAT) dates from 1984. The Holy See became a signatory in 2002, “on behalf of Vatican City State” and presented its “initial” report in December 2012.

The United Nations Committee on the CAT is composed of ten members and is holding its 52nd Session in the Palais Wilson, Geneva from 28 April to 23 May, during which it will examine the reports presented by eight countries: Uruguay, Thailand, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Montenegro, Cyrus, Lithuania and the Holy See. The meeting of the Committee with the Delegation of the Holy See will take place on 5 and 6 May.

Firstly, on the morning of 5 May, there will be a brief presentation of the report by the Delegation, followed by comments from the Speakers chosen by the Committee. In the afternoon of 6 May the Delegation will be able to answer the questions posed on the previous day, and any other questions from members of the Committee.

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UNITED STATES
peterborre

Clergy sex abuse costs in America, 2004 through 2013: $3 billion and counting

Overview

The 2013 Annual Report of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People, was released in mid-March. It includes an appendix by Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research for the Apostolate (CARA) – a Survey of Allegations and Costs related to clergy sex abuse for the period 2004 through 2013.

The Georgetown CARA data are the most comprehensive presentation of clergy sex abuse costs incurred throughout Catholic America by dioceses, by Eastern Rite eparchies, and by major religious orders (‘Conference of Major Superiors of Men’).

Responses in the most recent survey were received from 194 out of 195 dioceses and eparchies (the Diocese of Lincoln NE did not respond); and from 155 out of 215 ‘clerical and mixed religious institutes’.

Yet to my knowledge this has had very little pick up in the mainstream media; strange because it is certainly not ancient history, as discussed below.

Makes one wonder what dozens of religion correspondents on the Catholic beat are up to these days, besides cheer-leading.

From CARA’s detailed tabulations covering the past ten years, some fascinating data come into focus. Major findings are presented and discussed below.

Major Findings

Aggregate costs relating to clergy sex abuse for the period 2004 through 2013, incurred by dioceses, eparchies and major religious orders for men, totaled more than $3 billion.

If there is any bias in this reported total, it would be to understate the amounts because the methodology was self-reporting by the dioceses (etc.: i.e. the eparchies and the religious orders)

Also, the exclusion of costs incurred prior to 2004 leaves out of the total of $3 billion the significant outlays made by dioceses (etc.) during the 1980s, the 1990s and the early years of the new millennium. For almost twenty years, beginning with reports of clergy sex abuse in Louisiana in 1984, the issue remained mostly under the media radar.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

Howard Harrison, a partner at Carroll and O’Dea, which acted on behalf of the religious order during the proceedings in the mid 90s, also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that they knew the ‘Slater and Gordon tsunami had to be managed’ and proceeded with a technical strategy despite early requests for mediation.

Earlier, the hearing was told the Christian Brothers used every legal avenue at its disposal to prevent the case from getting to court.

Through their lawyers they were able to successfully have two separate applications regarding compensation claims by former residents of Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun boys homes moved to WA where they were thrown out because of statute of limitation laws.

When asked by commissioner Justice Peter McClellan why this approach was taken, Mr Harrison said they wanted to manage the process and denied their strategy was to win.

But Justice McClellan disputed his denial saying that his earlier evidence was that ‘any technical point of defence should be taken.’

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GENEVA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 2, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( European cell +39 366 1160224, U.S. cell +1 312 399 4747, Rome hotel- +39 06 598591; SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

First, we humbly ask that you keep in mind that we are convinced that hundreds of innocent children and vulnerable adults are being sexually violated, tortured and assaulted – right now, today – by Catholic clerics.

Second, we ask that you keep in mind that torture and violence can be subtle and manipulative. Or it can be blatant and brutal. Either way, it’s horribly destructive to the human spirit, especially when inflicted on the young by the powerful, on the truly devout by the allegedly “holy.”

For 25 years, we in SNAP have tirelessly tried – using every means and methods we could imagine – to get Catholic officials to stop clergy child rapes and sexual violence. We have tried every tactic we could, from politely writing to and speaking with Cardinals, bishops and other church officials, to meeting with panels and committees established by dioceses, religious communities and national bishops’ conferences, to speaking at parish and public forums and begging parishioners to speak up. We have held demonstrations and passed out flyers in all weather conditions in hundreds of cities in dozens of countries. We have written letters to the editors in newspapers, met with police agencies, prosecutors and lawmakers. Nothing has succeeded in getting Vatican officials to stop this violence.

But keep in mind: kids are being assaulted and lives are being wrecked, while Catholic officials split hairs and make technical claims, ducking, dodging and denying responsibility in this forum as they have done for decades in other forums.

We are grateful for this opportunity to address you. You see just a few of us here. But there are hundreds of thousands of us who have had our innocence shattered by being raped and sexually violated by Catholic employees who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.

We belong to a growing global community of victims of torture, sexual violence and rape called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP. We were founded in 1988 with the simple mission to heal the wounded and to protect the innocent.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 2, 2014

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

We are glad that Washington politicians are dealing with sexual violence on campuses and in the military. (And we are deeply impressed by and grateful for the brave victims who are fighting hard to prevent more sexual violence in these two arenas.) At the same time, however, we are sad that Washington politicians have largely ignored clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

For almost 30 years, the Catholic Church’s horrific and on-going clergy sexual abuse and cover up crisis has made national headlines. More than a dozen years ago, the scandal reached epic proportions.

Yet not a single official in Congress or the White House even called for a mild move like hearings on Capitol Hill. Not even one meaningless resolution was passed. A baseball steroid scandal prompted far more action and attention in Washington than the church hierarchy’s reckless, callous and deceitful handling of tens of thousands of clergy sex abuse reports against at least 6,200 U.S child molesting Catholic clerics.

A few athletes taking pills and injections generated more outrage among politicians than tens of thousands of kids getting raped and sodomized by priests and tens of thousands of crimes getting concealed by bishops.

We applaud every single victim, witness and whistleblower who is speaking up about the outrageous sexual violence at colleges and in the military. Their courage and tenacity – especially in the face of hide-bound traditions, secretive cultures, powerful officials and widespread indifference – is heroic. And it’s painfully familiar.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, May 2, 2014 / 04:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At a communications conference in Rome this week, Cardinal Timothy Dolan offered his own observations on how to communicate effectively, emphasizing the importance of addressing hard issues.

Pope Francis “has given us a good example,” the Archbishop of New York told CNA April 29. “He’s very shrewd, he’s very savvy. He’s what we need.”

“He says, ‘how do we get the message out’,” the cardinal stated, noting that although “he can stand at his window and talk,” he says that “I probably reach more people than the 100,000 in the square if I tweet a message.” …

Cardinal Dolan then said that “if we are going to be effective in our ministry of communications, (then) we are never afraid to tell the truth, even when we are dealing with bad news.”

“What we hear over and over again is that people want and expect utter honesty and transparency from the Church,” highlighting that if a priest is removed from ministry or there are accusations of sexual misconduct “our people want to hear about it first from us,” and not the secular media.

Drawing attention to how “we’re almost never criticized for someone’s misbehavior,” the cardinal explained that “what we are criticized for, and rightly so, is if we attempt to cover it up or if we say nothing,” adding that “to be proactive in the truth is a good strategy.”

The New York archbishop also observed that “every communications outlet has a bias, a slant,” which is natural and to be expected, but that as Catholic communicators we “should also have our own bias.”

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coaltiion

EDITORIAL

We note with great chagrin today our large omission of the work that SNAPAustralia has and is doing and our failure to speak about in the editorial It’s a Small World After All which ran in NSAC News Thursday 5/1/14.

SNAPAustralia precedes the Royal Commission by three years shining a light on the search for truth, and being a determined effort to let victims and their families know they are not alone.

With our apology, we say hats off to SNAPAustralia’s coordinator and webmaster, Steven Spaner.

On the SNAPAustralia.org site you will find great information about the Royal Commission, including Public Hearings webcasts, and the Announcements of Issue Papers and Submission, as well as a running news briefing on the many angles of the crisis in Australia and the testimonies of victims.

Our omission does afford us the opportunity to repeat our call to all of our readers and all of those to whom they forwarded this message and yesterday’s edition of NSAC News –this being a gentle reminder to do it, if you haven’t.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 2, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter, WA Today

A lawyer who defended the Christian Brothers against a class action over child sexual abuse has described the legal action as a “tsunami” that needed to be “managed”.

Carrolll & O’Dea partner Howard Harrison gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday and is expected to be questioned further on Friday.

Public hearings are being held in Perth in relation to sexual abuse at Christian Brothers run institutions in WA between the 1940s and 1960s.

Mr Harrison said when pressed that “some” members of the Order must have been aware of the abuse at the time of legal proceedings in the 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

EMILY MOULTON PERTHNOW MAY 02, 2014

THE Christian Brothers viewed victims who sought compensation through the courts as “less worthy” than those who sought pastoral care, a national inquiry into the child sex abuse has heard.

And the law firm which acted on behalf of the Catholic order, Carroll and O’Dea, advised members to “tough” out the class action brought by Slater and Gordon by adopting a defensive strategy after it was forced to hand over a secret report which contained allegations of sexual abuse by brothers.

Yesterday, The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is looking at the experiences of former residents at four Christian Brothers homes in WA during the 1940s to 60s, heard the report, Reaping the Whirlwind, written by Brother Barry Coldrey named brothers accused of abusing children at the homes between 1920 to 1940.

Some of those brothers had been named by victims in the class action.

Howard Harrison, a partner at the firm who was involved in the negotiations, told the hearing today there was an awareness within the order of the abuse and a need to provide help.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jade Macmillan

A lawyer who previously defended the Christian Brothers in a class action brought on by victims of sexual abuse says the case would be handled differently today.

Howard Harrison, from law firm Carroll O’Dea, appeared before the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse on Friday, which was examining four homes run by the Brothers in WA.

The class action, launched in the 1990s, resulted in an out-of-court settlement of $3.5 million from which some victims only received $2,000 each.

The firm which represented more than 200 victims described the legal battle as a tug of war, saying the Brothers fought it at every turn.

Mr Harrison told the commission that in hindsight, a different legal position would have been taken.

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ROME
National Review (US)

By Kathryn Jean Lopez
May 1, 2014

Rome – For the past several days in the Eternal City, I’ve watched as people with varying degrees of interest and devotion stream in and out of St. Peter’s Square. The pope fascinates them by joy, by beauty. Whether or not all realize that Christ and Church teaching are the joy and the beauty behind he who their iPhones are snapping photos of is unclear, but their desire and the fact that there is something fulfilling here is quite obvious.

As at the Thanksgiving Mass celebrating a God who would give us holy men like the newly declared saints John Paul II and John XXIII, people of all ages applauded mentions of the family and the need to renew and preserve it. This seems a world away from most of ours — where often a lack of common vocabulary and experience brings us deeper into a chaos that divides and confuses.

These past few days here have been about unity and renewal. The “doubleheader” canonization here this weekend was a message in continuity — he who opened the Second Vatican Council and he who brought the Church into the modern world as he witnessed to bold, radical, courageous love. At the same time, it was about reform and renewal. Both sainted popes worked toward changes in the Church and the world — not to adapt the Church to the world but to be better missionaries in the world. The models of their saintly lives are examples and challenges: real people can live lives of heroic virtue — that is, in fact, what Christians are called to.

This all seems a world away from Geneva, where the United Nations Committee Against Torture will soon be hearing testimony from and about the Holy See. The Holy See will testify voluntarily, along with other countries, having signed the Convention Against Torture. And the U.N. Committee best keep in mind that the world is watching.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

It was a tradition steeped in 160 years of history at St. Francis Xavier University. But that tradition is no longer.

The province passed legislation on Thursday that removes the requirement for the bishop to serve as chancellor at the Antigonish university, thereby opening the door for the first time to women and non-Catholics to fill that role.

“It is respectful to the church,” Kim West, chairwoman of the university’s governance committee, told MLAs on Thursday. “It is responsive to the concerns raised by students, alumni and others, and it strikes an appropriate balance. It will enable the university to move forward in confidence to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

The movement to make the change began about four years ago when students on campus protested the bishop’s role after former bishop Raymond Lahey was caught at an Ottawa airport with hundreds of pornographic images of young boys on his computer. Lahey was sentenced to 15 months in jail and was later stripped of his clerical powers.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Click here for the story

By Nick Anderson, Published: May 1

The release Thursday of a federal list of 55 colleges with open “sexual violence investigations” underscores that the twin problem of how to prevent and respond to sex assaults on campus has become a national question, touching schools from elite privates to large publics to small regional schools.

The list from the Education Department continues the Obama administration’s push to shine a spotlight on sex assault in response to questions raised in recent years about how prominent colleges have handled rape allegations and related issues. This week, a White House task force released a report aiming to help colleges prevent sex assaults.

Three Ivy League universities landed on the list: Harvard University (its college and its law school), Princeton University and Dartmouth College. So did other prestigious private schools, such as Emory University, the University of Southern California and Amherst and Swarthmore colleges.

There were four schools listed from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia: Catholic University of America, Frostburg State University, the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia.

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UNITED STATES
MSN News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifty-five colleges and universities — big and small, public and private — are being investigated over their handling of sexual abuse complaints, the Education Department revealed Thursday.

The department’s release of the list is unprecedented and comes as the Obama administration seeks to shed greater light on the issue of sexual assault in higher education and how it is being handled.

Going forward, the department said, it will keep an updated list of schools facing such investigations and make it available upon request.

The schools range from big public universities including Ohio State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University to private schools including Knox College in Illinois, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and Catholic University of America in the District of Columbia. Ivy League schools including Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth are also on the list.

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GENEVA
Fox News

The United Nations Committee against Torture, which requires nations to come before the panel and defend their human rights records, will put an unlikely subject on its hot seat next week when it calls in the Vatican.

The UN panel, which includes representatives from China, the U.S. and eight other nations, will meet in Geneva and call the Vatican to account for its record on torture and inhumane punishment in a procedure to be aired live on the Internet beginning Monday. It’s standard procedure for all 155 nations that signed on to the committee’s convention to submit a report and come before the panel, and the Vatican is both a nation-state and a signatory. Cyprus, Lithuania, Guinea, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay are also scheduled to appear beginning next week.

“The Holy See initiated the procedure by submitting their written report,” Felice Gaer, the U.S. representative and a vice-chair of the committee, told FoxNews.com.

At past sessions, nations that carry out or condone practices universally recognized as inhumane have been forced to defend their records. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has called for the committee to grill the Vatican regarding longstanding allegations of sexual abuse among clergy, contending failures in the Holy See’s response to the scandal amounts to a violation of the convention.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Many priests who admit to or who are found guilty of child sex abuse also have addictions, feel isolated or unfulfilled, while others are narcissistic or worryingly needy, according to the Church’s child protection watchdog.

In its annual report, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) says it would be “wrong” to conclude these behaviours led someone to abuse a child but warns their “presence cannot be ignored and must be considered as part of the treatment and management plan”.

Teresa Devlin has taken over at the helm of the NBSCCI from Ian Elliott and her role on the board for the past five years and as CEO for the past six years had made her believe the board “needs to influence [priest] formation programmes”.

She says one of the outstanding deficits in the Church is the need to “understand why people have committed acts of abuse so it doesn’t happen again”. Such research should then influence priestly training.

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FLORIDA
TBO

Nine men, including a church worker and a member of the military, are under arrest after a child pornography investigation in Polk County.

Sheriff’s office investigators, executing search warrants Tuesday and Wednesday, also found that two of the men sexually molested two children under the age of 16. …

The conversation with Crump led detectives to Bell, 40, of 203 Keystone Road in Auburndale, as a suspect who engages in sexually battering children – two juvenile boys under the age of 16 years old. Bell was charged with seven counts of sexual battery on victim under 18 years old, two counts of lewd exhibition on a victim under 16 years of age; and two counts of negligent child abuse.

Through the investigation of Crump and Bell, detectives identified Crump’s partner and roommate, Timothy Peargin, 54, of 1880 Crystal Lake Drive North #44, in Lakeland, as knowing about but not reporting the sexual abuse of the children and the distribution of child pornography. Peargin told detectives he has been in a relationship with Crump for approximately six years, and has known about the child pornography for approximately four years. Peargin is the organist and choir director at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Edgewood Drive in Lakeland. Peargin told detectives he suspected there might be sexual abuse of children at the residence and knew he should have reported it, and the child pornography, but was giving Crump “one more chance to never do that again.” He is charged with one count of failing to report child abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Slater & Gordon

Media Release

01 May 2014
April 28 – May 9, 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has today exposed the significant legal hurdles faced by victims of abuse who attempt to pursue their civil rights through the courts.

Slater & Gordon Chief Executive Officer and lawyer Hayden Stephens gave evidence today at a hearing in Perth, outlining the work undertaken by the firm on behalf of about 240 men who had been young boys in the care of the Christian Brothers in the 1940s, 50s and 60s in Western Australia. The law firm represented the men in civil action during the early 1990s.

Quotes can be attributed to Slater & Gordon Chief Executive Officer and lawyer Hayden Stephens:

The Royal Commission presents an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and highlight the hurdles that are faced when pursuing your civil rights through the courts as someone who is the victim of institutionalised sexual abuse.

The firm undertook significant work to advance and protect the legal interests of the men, some 20 years ago. Slater & Gordon pursued their legal rights over three years in three jurisdictions – Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. The case also went to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal in NSW.

I hope that through our contribution to the Royal Commission that there is a greater understanding about the significant hurdles that these courageous men faced in bringing their claims to the courts so many years ago and the hurdles that exist to this day.

I am reassured by the Royal Commission’s interest in understanding the legal barriers including strict time limitations and the risk of being pursued to pay legal costs.

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AUSTRALIA
Lawyers Weekly

2 May, 2014 Leanne Mezrani

The CEO of Slater & Gordon has defended the firm’s actions in its class action against the Christian Brothers and denied that the firm coerced sex abuse victims to sign a settlement.

Speaking with Lawyers Weekly, Slaters partner Hayden Stephens (pictured) denied statements made by Edward Delaney and Gordon Grant at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on 30 April. Delaney had claimed that the firm “forced” sexual abuse victims to sign a settlement and Gordon said he believed Slaters had bugged his phone.

Delaney and Gordon were among 240 victims of sexual abuse represented by Slaters in a class action against the Christian Brothers that ran in the early 1990s.

Stephens gave evidence at the Commission yesterday (1 May). He said the Christian Brothers, represented by Carroll & O’Dea, opened negotiations to settle sexual abuse allegations in WA by demanding that the plaintiff pay the defendant’s legal costs.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A TOTAL OF 164 new allegations of sexual abuse were reported to the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog between April last year and the end of March 2014.

This is according to the annual report of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) which was published yesterday. The report notes that allegations of abuse are down from the 242 the previous year and most of the complaints relate to alleged abuse between the 1940s and 90s.

The biggest number of allegations relate to the 60s, 70s and 80s. The board said all of these complaints have also been passed to gardaí or the PSNI and where appropriate to the Child and Family Agency.

The watchdog has undertaken reviews of safeguarding practices in all 26 dioceses and initiated a three-year training programme, according to the annual report.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- A pastor accused of sexually assaulting a teenager may have even more victims. Gerald Clark is facing new charges.

Gerald Clark has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenager over several years. Now a judge will decide whether Clark, 51, will stand trial for allegedly sexually assaulting not just one victim, but four.

The first young woman to come forward told police that Clark was a father figure and mentor to her. She said the sexual abuse occurred approximately 30 to 50 times between 2009 and 2012 when she was 13 to 16 years old.

Clark met the alleged victim and her family at Victory Church. They then followed Clark to Jericho Ministries International which Clark runs out of his Westminster home.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH MACDONALD – PUBLISHED 02 MAY 2014

The Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog has warned there is no room for complacency over a decrease in abuse complaints.

The annual report from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland revealed it dealt with 164 allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the last year, down from the 242 it examined the previous year.

The new figures show that 64 allegations were received against priests in Irish dioceses and 100 against figures from religious congregations, totalling 164 for the period April 2013 to the end of March 2014.

Launching the NBSCCCI’s annual report in Dublin, chief executive Teresa Devlin said it highlighted a number of areas where the Church and its organisations need to pull up their socks including learning “better and more compassionate ways of responding to victims.”

She told the Irish Independent that the Church also needed to work at restoring survivors’ sense of well-being.

The watchdog also highlights a lack of clear standards regarding the supervision of priests and religious out of ministry and against whom an allegation has been made or who have been convicted of abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

New accused cleric exposed in LA
When “outed” in AZ, he was sent overseas
He’s now still on the job in Pope’s home country
SNAP to archbishop: “You must demand his return”
“Reach out to all possible victims,” support group begs

What: Holding signs and photos of themselves at a sidewalk press conference, victims of sexual abuse will:

–Expose a credibly accused cleric who recently lived and worked in LA,
–Show how he lived with families with kids, and
–Explain how he was sent overseas when he was publicly accused of child sex crimes in Arizona.

They will also urge Catholic officials (in the LA archdiocese & in a religious order) to:

–Demand that the cleric immediately return to the United States
–Aggressively seek out others in LA who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes, and
–Announce the accusations against him in parish bulletins and on the archdiocesan website.

Where: Outside of the offices of the Lay Mission-Helpers Association
3435 Wilshire Blvd. (at Normandie), Suite 1940, Los Angeles

When: Friday, May 2 at 11 am

Who: 5-6 victims of sexual abuse who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for men and women abused as kids in religious or institutional settings. They will be joined by a St. Louis man who the organization’s long-time executive director.

Why: Members of SNAP recently learned that a credibly accused cleric lived and worked with vulnerable missionary families in Los Angeles.

Brother Richard Suttle, a member of the Claretian Missionary order, was accused in 2008 of sexually abusing a child in the Phoenix Diocese in the 1980s. Church officials said the allegations were credible. When SNAP exposed this allegation in 2013, Claretian officials admitted that they sent Suttle to Argentina. They say the cleric is being monitored and has been “removed from any ministry with children.”

[Chicago Tribune]

But he is still on the job, SNAP says, with a Claretian UN team. Now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he’s almost certainly among vulnerable and unsuspecting families who know nothing of the accusations against him.

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COLORADO
Daily Camera

By Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writer
POSTED: 05/01/2014

Jason Roberson, a VineLife Church youth pastor accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage church member over several years, could be sentenced to more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of children and stalking.

Roberson, 35, entered the plea last week in exchange for prosecutors dropping charges of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust, unlawful sexual contact, and an additional sexual exploitation of children charge.

A presentence investigation and psycho-sexual evaluation have been ordered, and Roberson is due for sentencing on July 18. The sexual exploitation of children charge is a Class 3 felony with a presumptive sentencing range of 4 to 12 years in prison, while the stalking charge is a Class 6 felony.

He will have to register as a sex offender.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 1 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 saddened but not surprised that Fr. Mark Huberty has apparently assaulted more parishioners. Predators rarely strike once.

[Pioneer Press]

The fact that allegedly neither of his victims wants to prosecute shows just how manipulative he is. Many predatory clerics who prey on vulnerable congregants convince them that it’s “love,” when in fact, it’s cunning exploitation.

It’s virtually always hurtful when clerics prey on congregants. Thank heavens, in about 20 states, this is also illegal. It’s improper and harmful when therapists, doctors and clergy use their prestige and power to sexually violate those who trust them, especially when their wrongdoing is portrayed as affection.

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GENEVA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims to leaflet outside cathedral
Two child molesting clerics worked in Switzerland
Group urges church members & staff to report abuse
SNAP: “Catholic officials should do more to protect kids”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will hand out fliers to Catholic churchgoers and passers. The leaflets urge anyone with information about clergy sexual misdeeds to “start healing and protecting kids by calling law enforcement, exposing wrongdoers and speaking up.”

They will also urge Catholic Church officials to

– publicly disclose the names, whereabouts and work histories of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics, and
– “actively seek out” anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered” clergy sex crimes or cover ups, especially a cleric who was convicted of molesting two children and spent a year on the job in Switzerland.

WHEN
Sunday, May 4

WHERE
On the sidewalk in front of Basilique Notre-Dame de Genève, Rue Argand 3, 1201 Genève

WHO
Three-four members of an international, US-based support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a Chicago woman who is the organization’s founder and president (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
For the safety of children and the healing of victims, SNAP is prodding current and former Catholic Church employees and members who have seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to speak up and report it to police. The group feels the Swiss church hierarchy continues to be irresponsible and secretive about this on-going scandal.

Their flier blasts Swiss church officials for not doing more to expose predators and protect kids. It was just three years ago that, for the first time, Swiss Catholic officials revealed any details about abuse in their dioceses.

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AUSTRALIA
Central Telegraph

CATE Blanchett has stood by the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal despite the embattled organisation’s controversial year before the royal commission.

Turning out to the official launch of the annual charity drive in Sydney on Thursday, Ms Blanchett posed for photos alongside businessman David Gonski.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NICOLAS PERPITCH THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 02, 2014

THE Christian Brothers had their “knee at the throat’’ of abuse victims during compensation nego­tiations and used their dominant legal position to initially demand that the men pay the church’s costs, without any payment for the horrors they had ­experienced.

Slater & Gordon senior solic­itor Hayden Stephens also told the royal commission into child abuse in Perth yesterday that the “minuscule” payments the men eventually received as part of a 1990s class action negotiated by the law firm did not fairly reflect their suffering.

Mr Stephens was highly critical of the structure of a $3.5 million “reconciliation” trust, which he said was largely designed by the Christian Brothers and distributed money on a drip feed to victims, who were forced to go “cap in hand” to seek help.

“It lacked respect and integrity for the victims in many ways,” the lawyer said.

The men received as little as $2000 and had to sign a deed of release agreeing not to pursue further claims against the Catholic Church or the Christian Brothers.

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

May 2, 2014

A FORMER Catholic priest who sexually abused three Victorian schoolboys made one of his victims kneel before him and beg forgiveness.

James Patrick Jennings, 81, will spend the next four months behind bars after assaulting the boys while a priest at Bendigo’s St Vincent’s College in the 1960s.

Jennings, a former teacher priest at St Stanislaus College in the 1960s, was charged with six counts of indecent assaults against four students at the school, but in 2010 was found not guilty on all charges.

This week the Victorian County Court heard Jennings preyed upon the young boarders, working out in which dormitory they slept and when they would be alone.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 05/01/2014

A Maplewood priest charged with alleged sexual activity with an adult woman had been involved in other relationships at a previous parish, according to a court document.

Mark Andrew Huberty, formerly pastor of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was charged in November with criminal sexual conduct involving a parishioner there who sought his spiritual advice.

The prosecutor has now asked the court to allow evidence of “previous bad acts,” known as Spreigl evidence, to be heard by the jury. She also wants to admit evidence “regarding the pornography found on defendant’s computer and his activities on Internet dating sites: match.com, fling.com, christianmingle.com and ashleymadison.com.

The site ashleymadison.com describes itself as “the most famous name in infidelity and married dating.”

Huberty engaged in a sexual relationship with one woman and attempted to do so with another while he was a priest at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in St. Anthony, according to a memorandum filed by prosecutor Therese Galatowitsch on April 23 in Ramsey County District Court.

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NEW YORK
Verdict

May 1, 2014
MARCI A. HAMILTON

Here we are at the end of Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and let’s just say that the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community as a whole is not going to receive any justice awards soon, though two brave individuals should.

First, there is the specter in Brooklyn of a sweetheart plea deal for the criminal who threw bleach on the face of the bravest advocate of sex abuse survivors in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Second, at the end of last month, there was a veritable celebration in honor of the prison release of the criminal who tried to bribe a young woman and her boyfriend with $500,000 to drop charges against ultra-Orthodox molester Rabbi Nechemya Weberman.

The Sweetheart Plea Deal for a Vicious Assault

Former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes repeatedly let down the victims of child sex abuse in the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. He actually lost his job because of it. The man who replaced him, Ken Thompson, ran on a platform of protecting the children who were abandoned by the Hynes administration. He started off strong by dropping the charges against Sam Kellner, who was unfairly charged with extortion when in fact he was trying to obtain justice for his son, who was sexually abused. He made many points then. Earlier this week, he backtracked.

The fight to protect victims of abuse in religious communities is difficult and daunting, and those inside the community can pay the steepest price. One of those men in the ultra-Orthodox universe is Rabbi Nuchum Rosenberg, who has persistently ministered to the abused in his community, forced the issue into the public square through a call-in show and blog, and proudly stood in support of legislative reform in Albany for them. His dogged persistence has created a wedge in the community for justice, and survivors sorely in need of support have started to speak up.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Kelly Catholic News Service | May. 1, 2014

DUBLIN The independent watchdog that monitors child safeguarding procedures in the Irish church pledged to follow the example of Pope Francis and “disturb the peace.”

Speaking Thursday at the launch of the latest report of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, Chairman John Morgan pledged to be a “critical conscience” in the church in Ireland.

Teresa Devlin, CEO of the safeguarding board, said “the church has a new energized leader in Pope Francis, who said that we should ‘disturb the peace of any settled ways in the church … .’ I believe, in terms of child safeguarding, that message can be a central theme in the work of the church in Ireland.”

She said the board took inspiration from Pope Francis in setting out a vision for coming years. “He said to the young people of Rio de Janeiro: ‘Kick up a fuss, I want you to make noise in your church — go out and make noise in the street, I want the church to go out into the street.’ ”

The latest report indicates that while there has been significant progress in ensuring robust child protection standards are followed, there is no room for complacency in the church. The body said it was impressed by the church’s “openness to scrutiny” and determination to learn from the past.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Robesonian

Mary Katherine Murphy mmurphy@civitasmedia.com

WAGRAM — A Scotland County resident who was once the pastor of a church in Robeson County has been charged with with first-degree murder in the death of his infant daughter, who lived in Lumberton.

Lawrence McNeill Dowdy, 52, who lives at 26620 McNeill Lake Road, Wagram, was charged after medical personnel were summoned to his home on Monday and found 7-month-old Peyton Dowdy dead as a result of head injuries.

The charges of first-degree murder and felony child abuse were brought on Tuesday, according to Capt. Jon Edwards of the Scotland County Sheriff’s Office

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ILLINOIS
Spooner Advocate

BY FRANK ZUFALL

No charges, at this time, will be made against former Illinois priest James Steel and Donald Ryniecki, former principal of the St. Joseph Catholic School of Wheeling, Ill., for alleged sexual abuse against Robert Brancato, then a minor, during 1982 and 1983 at a residence owned by Ryniecki on Long Lake in the town of Birchwood.

Brancato, 45, now living in Rapid City, S.D., said he will appeal Frost’s decision to Wisconsin’s attorney general, and if that fails to result in charges against the two Illinois men, he will take his appeal to a federal court.

“I will not allow this to go by the wayside,” said Brancato. “These are habitual offenders who need to be punished, and they need to answer to society for breaking the laws and breaking the souls of children like me.”

Brancato alleges that when he was 12 years old and a student of St. Joseph Catholic School, his principal, Ryniecki, and then-parish priest, Steel, began sexually abusing him at Ryniecki’s summer cottage on Long Lake and continued at the lake in 1983 and at his school in Wheeling. After four suicide attempts Brancato made to end his life because of the alleged abuse as a youth, the last in 2002, he revealed the story of sexual abuse to authorities.

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MISSISSIPPI
Watch Keep

Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, MS hosted a sex abuse awareness training on Tuesday. I planned to attend but wasn’t able to make it. Thanks to our Jackson SNAP leader, Mark Belenchia, for attending and providing some feedback.

Mark was impressed by the presentation of Ministry Safe founder and director, Greg Love. According to the bio on his website, Mr. Love litigates sexual abuse cases across the country, and consults with entities regarding the design and implementation of sexual abuse safety systems. Mark highlighted the section of Love’s presentation on the “train wrecks” of gross mishandling of child sex abuse allegations within churches.

Is Mr. Love aware of the train wreck in the building he was speaking in at Morrison Heights Baptist Church? Throughout the entire conference John Langworthy’s name was never mentioned, not even by Morrison Heights pastor Greg Belser. If he refuses to acknowledge and address the train wreck of the past, how can we expect him to behave differently in the future? Morrison Heights cannot whitewash its abysmal conduct in the Langworthy scandal by simply hosting an awareness training. In early March, I found the link to the abuse conference at the Baptist Children’s Village website.

I was excited to see them partnering with Morrison Heights to host such an important event. I immediately tweeted the link to promote this conference. Later that day, I received a call from someone affiliated with the conference who had received a call from Celeste Cade in the public relations office at the Baptist Children’s Village. I’m told that Celeste is a long time member of Morrison Heights Baptist Church. Apparently, Celeste and Morrison Heights were bothered by my promotion of this abuse awareness event, not wanting any connection made whatsoever to the train wreck of the Morrison Heights/Langworthy child sex crimes debaucle.

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LEBANON
naharnet

Monsignor Labaki’s Lawyer Says No Rulings Received on Child Abuse Case, Assures His Defendant’s Innocence

Mansour Labaki’s lawyer denied on Thursday that Vatican authorities ruled that the monsignor was innocent of the child abuse accusations against him.

“The case is now in the hands of Pope Francis only, and we are sure of Labaki’s innocence according to the documents we have,” attorney Antoine Akl said in released statement.

“And therefore, we were not surprised by media reports saying he was innocent but we are waiting for Vatican authorities to officially communicate the ruling to us,” he added.

Akl also revealed that he has filed a criminal complaint with Lebanese judicial authorities against all locals and foreigners involved in launching accusations against Labaki.

“We gathered irrefutable documents, among them emails, shared by the suspects and used to falsely accuse the monsignor,” he noted.

The case is now in the hands of Maronite Patriarch Behsara al-Rahi who will review it with Pope Francis, added the lawyer.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Leonard Swidler | May. 1, 2014

VIEWPOINT Note from Jamie Manson, NCR books editor: Swiss theologian Hans Küng has written more than 70 books that have influenced not only the ongoing quest to reform the Catholic church, but also theologians and practitioners who engage in ecumenical theology and interfaith dialogue. We asked noted scholar Leonard Swidler and veteran journalist John Wilkins to guide us in our appreciation of the vast scope of his corpus. Not only are Swidler and Wilkins experts in Küng’s thought, both have read the third and final volume of Küng’s memoir, which has yet to be translated from the original German. Both retrospectives also offer reflections on his latest title, Can We Save the Catholic Church?/We Can Save the Catholic Church! (William Collins, $16.99) Today, we offer Swidler’s reflection; Wilkins’ will run Friday. Both ran in the April 28-May 8, 2014, edition of NCR.

There are a number of reasons why it is particularly apt that I would be writing about theologian Fr. Hans Küng’s latest writings. To begin, we are both 85 years old — one year younger than that of a former colleague of ours on the Catholic theological faculty of the University of Tübingen, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Secondly, I was at Tübingen even before Hans in the late 1950s, as a student working on my doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin, and my Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the University of Tübingen.

I arrived in Tübingen, Germany, in the fall of 1957. During the summer semester of 1958, I attended an interesting course offered by the Protestant theology faculty on a newly published book that compared the doctrine of justification according to 20th-century Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth with the doctrine of the 16th-century Catholic Council of Trent. The book dramatically concluded that they were essentially the same.

The author was a brash newcomer on the exciting theological scene, the young Swiss Catholic Hans Küng. I didn’t know who he was then, nor did hardly anyone else — except Ratzinger, who was a fellow assistant to Professor Hermann Volk of the Catholic theology faculty of the University of Münster. It was the same Volk who, as cardinal archbishop of Mainz, Germany, grilled Hans about his best-seller On Being a Christian. At one point, Volk blurted out: “Herr Küng, Ihr Buch ist mir zu plausibel!” (“Mr. Küng, your book is too plausible!”)

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican released a statement on Wednesday saying the Council of 8 Cardinals, which met for 3 days this week, has completed a first review of the Pontifical Councils. Part of the time was dedicated to planning the work to be completed between this week’s session and the next session, scheduled for the beginning of July. The 8 cardinals were appointed by the Pope shortly after his election to serve as advisers to him on the governance of the Church and on planned reforms of the Roman Curia.

It was also announced that the new Council for the Economy will meet for the first time on Friday, May 2nd and Pope Francis will greet the participants. The main focus of the meeting will be the Statutes of the Council itself and the planning of its work.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

30 April 2014 16:28 by James Macintyre in Rome, Abigail Frymann

Pope Francis’ hand-picked group of eight cardinals pressed on with its sweeping programme of Vatican reforms this week.

The so-called C8, who are advising Pope Francis on reforming the governance of the Church, met earlier this week after the historic dual canonisations of John XXIII and John Paul II, which were concelebrated with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on what became dubbed “the day of four popes”.

At the cardinals’ three-day meeting – their fourth since October – they appraised the work of the 12 pontifical councils. The Pope attended most of the meetings and the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, participated regularly, the Vatican said.

“There is still much work to be done, and it is therefore to be expected that it will be completed not this year, but instead during the next,” the Vatican said, suggesting that the scale of the task is larger than initially thought.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Thu, May 1, 2014

The newly instituted Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors meets for the first time this morning for a three-day meeting scheduled to end on Saturday.

The child protection commission is an unprecedented body for the Holy See in that its eight person panel contains four women, five lay people and three anglophones.

Headed by the Cardinal of Boston, Sean O’Malley, the council will look to the expert contribution of four women – French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, former Polish prime minister Hanna Suchocka, British psychiatrist Baroness Sheila Hollins and Irish sex abuse survivor and activist Marie Collins.

The other members are Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, head of pyschology at Rome’s Gregorian University, Argentine Jesuit Humberto Miguel Yanez and Italian canon law expert Claudio Papale.

In a communique yesterday, the Vatican said the commission’s initial task would be to reflect “on the nature and the aims” of the commission itself and to consider ways to involve “representatives from other areas in the world”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A new papal commission for protecting minors from sexual abuse was meeting for the first time to discuss its mandate and expand input from more countries.

Pope Francis, who established the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in December, was to “greet” the commission members at some point during its May 1-3 deliberations, the Vatican spokesman said April 30.

The commission’s meetings were being held at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where the pope lives.

The commission, led by U.S. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, was “expected to reflect on the nature and aims of the commission” as well as discuss ways to include additional representatives and input from other parts of the world, said the spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

Cardinal O’Malley, who is also one of eight members of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on the reform of the Roman Curia and governance of the church, told reporters in December that the commission would take a pastoral approach to helping victims and preventing abuse.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

[annual report]

There have been 164 new allegations of abuse made against the Catholic church in the past year, according to the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI).

In the annual report, the board says there were 164 new reports from April 2013 to March this year – which is lower than the previous year when 242 reports were made.

The largest number of allegations relate to the period between the 1960s and 1980s. Over the past five years, the board has received 1,042 allegations of mistreatment and abuse.

The board says they are “satisfied that all of these have also been passed to the Gardaí/PSNI and where appropriate to the HSCT/HSE”.

Chief Executive of the NBSCCCI, Teresa Devlin, says “Over the last year we have undertaken 18 reviews of safeguarding practice, initiated a busy three year training programme and on a day to day basis, offered advice and support across the various church bodies”.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Journal

[The David Rudofski Child Protection Archive – BishopAccountability.org]
[Joliet diocese]
[Abuse by Clergy in Chicago]

The Daily Journal staff and wire report

Lawyers on Wednesday released a deposition with a long-serving bishop, along with letters and thousands of files from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet — documents they say show diocesan officials downplayed, dismissed and sometimes covered up sex abuse by priests.

In a 247-page deposition, Joseph L. Imesch, who was the Joliet bishop from 1979 to 2006, concedes under blistering questioning he sometimes allowed priests to stay on or transferred them as allegations they sexually abused children arose.

The Joliet diocese serves 655,000 churches and parishioners in seven counties, including Kankakee, Iroquois, Will, Ford, Grundy, Kendall and DuPage counties.

Taken as a whole, the documents paint a picture of a bishop who is consistently indecisive, at best, and diocese officials who seemed obsessed with ensuring the accusations couldn’t sully their reputations, Jeff Anderson, whose law firm released the files on 16 priests, told reporters.

“The documents show a long-term pattern and long-term choices by … bishops and their superiors to protect themselves and their priests at the peril of children,” Anderson said.

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FLORIDA
FBC Jax Watchdogs

Where are all the religious “men of God” in Jacksonville when we need them to speak out?

A judge here in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, has agreed to modify the terms of Darrell Gilyard’s probation to once again allow him access to children, to “minister to children” – so long as the children are in the presence of another adult. Read Bob Allen’s coverage of the story here.

Gilyard is the “pedophile preacher” who plead guilty in 2009 to lewd and lascivious acts, including molestation of a 12-15 year old, with two girls in his church at Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church. He spent three years in jail, and when he got out of the slammer, he was hired by Christ Missionary Baptist Tabernacle as their preacher man. But the kiddos weren’t allowed in his presence because he is a sexual predator. The man is a registered sex offender in our state. Click here to see his registration with the FDLE.

But now a judge has agreed to allow him access to kids once again. And apparently the State Attorney’s office – that would be Angela Corey’s office – didn’t object to the modification. This is absolutely insane, because the adults who will be supervising Gilyard’s access to potential child victims, are adults who themselves don’t have enough sense to not subject THEMSELVES to Gilyard’s manipulation – manipulation and abuse of adult women that that he has admitted to in other churches in Texas.

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JOLIET (IL)
Patch

[The David Rudofski Child Protection Archive – BishopAccountability.org]

[Fred Lenczycki]

Posted by Lorraine Swanson (Editor) , May 01, 2014

Newly released files from the Diocese of Joliet detail the seminary records, sexual abuse allegations and correspondence of a former Hinsdale priest convicted of abusing three boys at St. Isaac Jogues Church.

The Hinsdale boys were just three of the 31 children Rev. Fred Lenczycki admitted to molesting in six parishes in California, Missouri and Illinois for 25 years until 1999. Many of his victims were altar servers, reports said.

He was removed from ministry in 2002 and convicted two years later in DuPage County of aggravated criminal sexual assault against a child. The priest was sentenced to five years.

Today, Lenczycki lives in Berkeley, IL, as a registered sex offender labeled “sexually violent.” He claims he no longer feels the urges that caused him to abuse children in the past.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( European cell +39 366 1160224, U.S. cell +1 312 399 4747, Rome hotel- +39 06 598591; SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

If Pope Francis’ new abuse study panel is to be effective and seem credible, it must act quickly. After all, Catholic officials have dealt with clergy sexual violence privately for centuries and publicly for decades, yet painfully little reform has happened or is happening. And clergy sex crimes and cover ups keep happening while predator priests are being protected, moved and kept on the job.

[The News]

[Chicago Sun-Times]

We’re pessimistic about this panel. But if it is to have any real chance of making any difference, we believe the panel should:

–make their meeting agendas public (long in advance),
–make their meeting minutes public (promptly afterwards),
–immediately denounce the new, secretive Italian bishops’ abuse policy,
–publicly rebuke even a few individual bishops, by name, who are clearly concealing or have concealed abuse, and
–hold open, public hearings about the church’s on-going abuse and cover up crisis in at least a dozen nations.

Secrecy has enabled child rape and cover up. Openness will help expose and prevent it.

Why are we pessimistic? Because over the past two decades, hundreds of similar church panels have been set up at the national and diocesan levels across the world. Because these panels often operate in secrecy, with little real input from independent sources and have almost no power we believe they are mostly ineffective.

These hand-picked panel members –mostly all Catholic church-goers –have rarely spoken out in public, even in the most egregious cases of recklessness, callousness and deceit by Catholic officials. Thus, they lend their names and reputations to an effort that is destined to fail because bishops retain all their power and continue with their irresponsible complicity.

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SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

by Simon Bradley, swissinfo.ch
March 3, 2014

People sexually abused by priests in Switzerland believe not enough is being done to tackle their cases and the bigger issue – this despite new prevention guidelines released by the Swiss Catholic Church in the wake of the global scandal.

“Where are all the Swiss priests who have been accused?” demands Gérard Falcioni, a ski guide and herdsman from the village of Bramois in canton Valais.

Falcioni was himself a victim of abuse by a local priest from the age of five. Since 2002 he has been one of the few people in Switzerland to speak out against the church and tell his story in two books as well as in the Swiss media. But now he has had enough.

“We’re up against a brick wall and we can’t do anything. They are free to do what they want,” he told swissinfo.ch.

Other voices can also be heard questioning progress in tackling abuse within the church.

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NETHERLANDS
The Tablet (UK)

01 May 2014

A deceased Dutch bishop has been identified as a child molester in the second such admission in as many weeks. Utrecht archdiocese, where Johannes Nienhaus was auxiliary bishop from 1982 to 1999, said a commission investigating the scandals had confirmed four complaints against him.

Earlier in April, Roermond diocese said its late bishop Johannes Gijsen had sexually abused two boys, also decades ago.

The Amsterdam daily De Volkskrant, which uncovered the story, said the abuse took place from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s when Nienhaus was chaplain and later rector of a junior seminary in Apeldoorn. Utrecht Cardinal Johannes Eijk, its current archbishop, took note of the four cases reported by the abuse commission and stressed they took place before Nienhaus was a bishop.

The diocese’s statement made clear the cases were being reported in response to queries from De Volkskrant, which said they had been confirmed by the abuse commission two years ago but not made public by the archdiocese at the time. Two years ago, a Dutch Catholic school association named the Nienhaus Foundation after the bishop changed its name because of the accusations against him.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Editorial

Australia may seem like a million miles away from you.

It really isn’t.

In as-the-crow-flies miles, it’s:

9,946 miles from New York City
10,102 miles from Boston
9,072 miles from Chicago
9,072 miles from Los Angeles
8,896 miles from Dallas
And in case you’re interested, it’s:

5,568 miles from Beijing
4,609 miles from the South Pole, Antarctica
7,560 miles from Nairobi
10,075 miles from Quebec City
10,153 miles from Rome
7,339 miles from Buenos Aires
Compared to a million that’s not so far.

In the modern world of air travel and communications, Australia is even closer than you think. You probably know someone that’s been there on a vacation or who does business there or someone who has come to the United States from Australia on vacation or to work.

In January 2013 Australia set up a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Australia is serious, it appears from the diligence of its work, about finding survivors and learning from them. It also appears to be serious about protecting its children.

Here is the Commission’s description of itself:

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating how institutions like schools, churches, sports clubs and government organisations have responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.

It is the job of the Royal Commission to uncover where systems have failed to protect children so it can make recommendations on how to improve laws, policies and practices.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

BY AVA BENNY-MORRISON AAP MAY 01, 2014

SHOCKING allegations aired during a child sexual abuse inquiry might prompt a drop in donations to the Salvation Army this year.

But the charity understands 2014 is a year for rebuilding trust, not for money.

“This year will be a difficult year for us,” Major Bruce Harmer told AAP.

“But our focus is not necessarily on money this year.”

Mr Harmer said this year’s Red Shield Appeal was an opportunity to stand alongside the Australians who had supported the charity for so many years.

The appeal launch on Thursday came on the back of allegations of child abuse at Salvation Army homes.

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