ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 05/21/2014

A former Hastings priest has been charged with sexually abusing a young altar boy over a period of more than two years.

Francis Frederick Hoefgen, 63, of Columbia Heights subjected the boy to oral and anal sex as well as fondling of his genitals, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Dakota County District Court. The child was between the ages of about 9 or 10 and 12.

The victim, now an adult, went to Hastings Police with the allegations in November.

According to the complaint:

The man said he attended St. Boniface Church and school as a child. While serving as an altar boy, he was sexually abused by Hoefgen “on several occasions over an extended period of time,” the complaint said.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 21, 2014

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

The First Baptist church of Bemis, near Jackson TN, is being sued for child sex crimes committed by one of its members (who is a convicted sex offender and who was arrested last year for stalking adults).

[WBBJ]

We praise the brave girl who is exposing those who committed and concealed these heinous crimes. When child sex crimes happen in churches, both the individuals who perpetrated the wrong and the individuals who enabled the wrong should be held responsible.

In 2006, Chad Lutrell, a church member, was reportedly kissing young girls and stalking and threatening adult women. In 2009, a ten year old girl, whose family belonged to the church, enrolled in the church’s Bible camp. Despite the earlier reports of abuse, church officials let Lutrell work at the camp. That’s where he sexually abused the young girl.

The perpetrator pled guilty. He’s now a registered sex offender. And he was arrested again last year for stalking adult women.

But current and former employees and members of First Baptist, we believe, should be punished for refusing to promptly call law enforcement with their suspicions of child sex crimes. Such punishment is perhaps the best way to deter such recklessness in the future.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 21, 2014

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

We are deeply grateful to a Florida pastor who is publicly criticizing a church group for mishandling a child sexual abuse scandal. When those within the church speak out for victims and accountability, real change is made easier.

[Christian Post]

All too often, church employees and members selfishly try to handle known or suspected child sex crimes privately. All too often, they foolishly put the reputation of their institution above the well-being of the innocent.

That is why we are grateful to Rev. Tullian Tchividjian of Ft. Lauderdale for his outspokenness. We applaud his bravery in saying “Of course he knew…C. J. was, for many years, the micro-managing head of the organization and nothing happened under the umbrella of Sovereign Grace that he wasn’t made aware of, so for anyone to say, ‘Well he didn’t know,’ that’s totally naive.”

We can deter cover ups. We can prevent abuse. We can stop a child molester after his or her third victim, instead of after his or her 33rd victim. But only if those in positions of power, especially within churches, speak up and only if we severely punish every adult who stays silent about abuse and puts his or her personal comfort above the physical safety of children.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Wed, May 21, 2014

The former bishop of Derry has strongly defended the Sisters of Nazareth for “doing the work that nobody else was doing” in providing shelter for children during many “dangerous decades”.

Speaking at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Banbridge, Dr Edward Daly said their work was also “taken for granted” and he asked what would have happened to some 5,000 children cared for by nuns over that time had they not done so.

Earlier yesterday, the Sisters of Nazareth, who ran two children’s homes in Derry, again admitted and apologised for physical and sexual abuses suffered by residents there.

A senior nun and representative for the Sisters of Nazareth repeated the order’s apology for abuses and neglect of children in their care.

Sr Brenda McCall, speaking on behalf of the order, was asked if it was accepted by the order that in some cases the standard of care was not acceptable. She admitted much of the testimony already heard by the inquiry into historical abuses at care homes was “shocking and harrowing”. Certain behaviour by some nuns was “just not right”, she said.

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NEW MEXICO
New Mexican

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe reached a settlement last month with a 36–year–old man who says he was sexually abused by a priest in the early to mid–1980s.

The man’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, said the financial settlement was six figures and would cover therapy costs. Under the settlement, the archdiocese is not admitting any guilt.

The unidentified man, who now lives in Oregon, claimed that when he was 7 or 8 years old, the Rev. Irving F. Klister, who died in 1997, sexually abused him at least four times while he was at confession. The man said the abuse took place at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Maxwell, N.M.

Klister, who was named in another sexual abuse lawsuit in Texas, was ordained in the Diocese of Superior, in Wisconsin. According to his 1997 obituary, he came to the Southwest for health reasons in the early 1950s and was accepted into the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. He was priest at Cristo Rey Catholic Church in Santa Fe and St. Joseph Catholic Church in Springer, N.M.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

I feel sorry for headline writers. I really do. They’ve got so little space to both summarize long stories AND attract readers’ attention.

So I cut them lots of slack. But it’s tough to see headline writers at three news outlets get one story SO wrong as the recent one involving Boston Rabbi Barry Starr who allegedly sexually exploited a teenager and then apparently misled and stole from his flock to conceal his crimes.

The Boston Globe’s headline read

“Rabbi allegedly misused funds to keep liaison with teen quiet”

The Raw Story opted for

“Boston rabbi accused of misusing $480K in temple funds to pay off gay sex accuser”

The Jewish Daily Forward went with:

“Boston Rabbi Barry Starr Paid Teenage Boy $500K To Cover Up Affair”

At best, these headlines miss the point. At worst, they’re dreadfully misleading.

Let’s go one by one and examine the problems here.

–When adults have sex, it’s a “liaison.” When an adult sexually exploits a 16 year old, it’s a crime. Words like “affair,” “liaison” and “relationship” imply consent. And a child cannot consent to having sex with an adult (even if the predator is gentle and convinces the child that it’s “love”).

–The word “gay” here is wrong. For starters, it too implies consent. (Contrast, for example, the phrase “gay sex” with the phrase “heterosexual rape.”) It also suggests that the rabbi may be gay, which may or may not be the case. (Abuse, most therapists say, is about power, not about sexual orientation.) It suggests that the victim may be gay. And finally, it’s irrelevant (Why not say “rough sex” or “naked sex?” Because this has no bearing on the crime itself: a grown up sexually exploiting a youngster. )

And how about the word “accuser?” As I read these articles, the rabbi never denies that he “had sex with” a sixteen year old. So doesn’t the word “accuser” also minimize or mischaracterize what happened here.

Finally, there’s the question of emphasis. If a bank robber parked improperly during his crime, the headline would not read “Alleged criminal parked illegally and robbed bank.”

So why did some coverage stress Rabbi Starr’s alleged financial crimes and minimize his sexual crimes? Shouldn’t the headline have read something like “Rabbi is accused of child sex abuse and theft?”

It helps predators and hurts victims when we describe child sex crimes in ways that diminish or downplay these crimes.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

May 21, 2014 By James Moncur

SEXUAL and physical abuse – revealed in the Record last week when victim David Sharp came forward – is alleged to have taken place at the school in the 60s and 70s.

SIX men have been charged in connection with child abuse at a Scottish residential school run by a notorious Catholic order.

The men, in their 60s and 70s, are at the heart of investigations centred on St Ninian’s Roman Catholic School in Fife between January 1978 and July 1983.

The school, near Falkland, was run by the Christian Brothers order who have been implicated in a number of child sex scandals around the world.

The Daily Record revealed last week the horrific abuse suffered by David Sharp, who was a pupil at St Ninian’s from age 10 to 16.

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NEW YORK
WPIX

NEW YORK (AP) — A police officer, Boy Scout leader and a rabbi are among at least 70 men and one woman charged as part of a child porn investigation that centered on the New York City area, federal authorities said Wednesday.

The five-week operation has targeted people who use computer file-sharing programs to exchange videos and photos of children having sex.

Authorities say the defendants include a police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi and a Boy Scout leader, among others.

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NEW YORK
ABC News

By AARON KATERSKY

They are among society’s most trusted and revered: police officers, firefighters and nurses. The very people sworn to uphold the law and keep people safe are now accused of committing crimes beyond comprehension, ABC News has learned.

Federal agents and prosecutors in and around New York City are prepared to announce several dozen arrests, including police officers, firefighters, nurses, a rabbi, a youth baseball coach and Boy Scout leader, all of whom are accused of creating and distributing child pornography, a senior law enforcement official told ABC News.

Agents found these suspects on peer-to-peer file sharing networks, sources say. The agents seized hard drives and devices that are expected to lead to even more suspects and more charges.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 21 May 2014)

Child-sex charges against a retired senior Catholic priest, Father Richard Cattell, 73, are being scheduled now for the Parramatta Local Court in western Sydney later in 2014. The offences were allegedly committed against an altar boy between 1984 and 1987. In the early 1990s, Father Cattell became the vicar-general assisting a bishop in the administration of western Sydney’s parishes.

Cattell is now living in retirement on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The matter had its first mention on 24 March 2014 in Tweed Heads Local Court, which is the New South Wales court that is nearest to the Queensland border. This court hearing was a brief administrative procedure, to enable the matter to be officially filed.

Richard St John Cattell was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent acts.

Cattell was not required to enter a plea in this initial court appearance,

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

FORMER Bishop of Derry Edward Daly has defended the Sisters of Nazareth for doing what “nobody else was doing” and caring for children during years of “abominable” poverty and violence in the city.

Dr Daly was giving evidence to the Historical Inquiry into Institutional Abuse yesterday and said he had “always admired” the sisters’ work but, like other community leaders, had taken them “for granted”.

The senior cleric said in his 36 years in active ministry as diocesan priest and bishop he had received one complaint about the Sisters of Nazareth.

Dr Daly said he had no involvement in the running of the two homes the order operated in the diocese and had been unaware they were under-staffed and under-resourced.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A native of Spain, Llorente was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1934. He spent the next 40 years in remote Alaskan villages, which were served by Jesuits’ Oregon Province. (He wasn’t an official member of the Oregon Province until he requested that status in 1981.) In 1960 Llorente was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives, serving two terms. He also became a well-known writer. Llorente was transferred in 1975 to the Yakima, Washington diocese, and then to the Boise City, Idaho, diocese in 1982. He remained in Boise until he fell ill in November 1988. He died at the Jesuit House Infirmary at Gonzaga University in January 1989. Llorente was accused in a 2004 lawsuit of the sexual abuse in the 1950s of a 6 or 7-year-old native Alaskan boy; his accuser said he abused other young boys during that time as well. In 2005 another man accused Llorente of sexually abusing him in Alaska, when the man was a 4 to 11-year-old boy from 1956-1963. Both accusers were from Sheldon Point, AK.

Ordained: 1934
Died: Jan. 26, 1989

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TEXAS
Victoria Advocate

BY JESSICA PRIEST – JPRIEST@VICAD.COM Originally published May 20, 2014

A 35-year-old Victoria man arrested by police Monday night in front of Gold’s Gym was planning a life with a 16-year-old.

Stephen Paul Crofutt, arrested on suspicion of online solicitation of a minor, went to the mall with the girl on Mother’s Day and picked out a 13/8-carats, 14-karat white gold engagement ring, according to a complaint filed by Detective Cody Breunig of the Victoria Police Department’s Cyber Crimes Unit.

Breunig wrote that the girl’s mother contacted him Monday morning about Crofutt, whom the family had met at Parkway Church more than a month ago.

Crofutt was a youth volunteer for Parkway Church’s All Star Kids ministry, which is for elementary school children, said the Rev. Mike Hurt.

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AUSTRALIA
YouTube

An abuse survivor now living in London, UK, has used all photos in his possession to produced this video which runs for about 24 minutes.

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ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

(See related) Rome, May 20 – The television production company at the centre of a Vatican scandal reported on Tuesday is owned by Ettore Bernabei, a former director-general of Italian public broadcaster Rai. Bernabei is considered a friend of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone who, according to published reports Tuesday in German daily Bild, is under investigation by Vatican prosecutors probing allegations that the former secretary of state embezzled 15 million euros from Vatican accounts. Bild, citing unofficial Holy See sources, said the money was moved in December 2012 to an unidentified television producer who was a friend of Bertone. Bild also reported that the money relates to a convertible bond for television production company Lux Vide, owned by Bernabei. ANSA was told by company producers Matilde and Luca Bernabei that the bond was repaid with Lux Vide shares to a value they said was estimated by international accounting firm Deloitte.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

We deeply regret any maltreatment and hurt to children at Sisters of Nazareth, says Sister Brenda McCall

BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 21 MAY 2014

For several weeks Sister Brenda McCall quietly listened to stories of the horrific abuse of young children placed in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth.

Yesterday she described the evidence of alleged victims to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry as shocking and harrowing.

As she left the witness box after her second day of evidence to the inquiry, Sister Brenda, a member of the Sisters of Nazareth Congregational Group, apologised to those who were abused while in their care.

The inquiry, which is currently examining events at two Derry children’s homes, has heard allegations of how children were subject to physical attacks, as well as sexual and emotional abuse while in the care of the nuns.

“I would like to say, having sat up the back these last few weeks, it has been a very harrowing and challenging time for us. To listen to the evidence given was very harrowing indeed,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Satellite

SURVIVORS of sexual abuse will for the next two weeks give evidence to the Royal Commission in seven private sessions being held in Brisbane.

Although these seven sittings are full, Royal Commission chief Janette Dines said those who want to share their experiences can phone 1800 099 340.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has had more than 2000 phone calls from people in Queensland, with about 60 to tell their story in this round of sessions.

More than 1500 private sessions have already been held across Australia, including 295 in Queensland.

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IRELAND
The Journal

TWO CHILDREN’S CHARITIES have spoken out about the lack of progress in addressing the need for the State to improve specialised therapy services for children who are victims of sexual abuse.

On Monday we reported that the HSE admitted that more than 50 vacancies in mental health services for children still have not been filled, despite the fact that the investment for them was allocated two years ago.

Mary Flaherty, of the CARI Foundation, which provides therapy to children who are victims of sexual abuse, pointed out that the children her organisation works with are not even covered by HSE services because they do not have the specialist personnel. This is despite the fact that there are up to 4,000 new allegations of child sex abuse each year.

“They specifically exclude child sex abuse,” said. “And for specialist services for victims of sex abuse, due to funding cuts, our own services have reduced further”.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

By MICHAEL ALEXANDER, 21 May 2014

Six men with links to a notorious Irish Catholic brotherhood have been arrested and charged in connection with multiple allegations of child abuse at a residential school in Fife during the 1970s and 1980s.

The six men, now aged between 60 and 76, were spoken to by police as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse, beatings and mental torture at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland.

The incidents are alleged to have taken place between January 1978 and July 1983.

A police spokesman confirmed: “Six men have been arrested and charged with multiple complaints of physical and sexual abuse at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife in the 70s and 80s. This investigation remains live and ongoing.”

The Crown Office confirmed the procurator fiscal at Cupar had received reports concerning six males and the reports remained “under consideration” by the fiscal. It’s understood none of those involved are now resident in Fife.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

Police have added an additional complaint of lewd molestation against a Tulsa minister arrested on May 14.

Sex crimes detectives added the complaint after a 22-year-old woman contacted Tulsa police, alleging that Damien Keith Bonner, 32, molested her seven years ago after the two met at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 419 N. Elgin Ave.

Bonner was charged in Tulsa County District Court with six counts of lewd molestation on May 14 following an investigation by the Owasso Police Department. Those charges involve the same victim, a 15-year-old member of Galilee Baptist Church at 721 E. Pine St., where Bonner ministered for a year prior to his arrest.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

Tullian Tchividjian Blasts Sovereign Grace Ministries Handling of Sex Abuse Scandal; Prematurely Departs The Gospel Coalition

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
May 21, 2014

Tullian Tchividjian is slamming Sovereign Grace Ministries for its handling of a sex abuse scandal, while announcing this week that his participation with The Gospel Coalition will unexpectedly end on Thursday.

Tchividjian, whose brother, Boz, is the founder of Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment, a group that investigates sexual abuse in churches and ministries, spoke out against TGC’s actions in light of the Sovereign Grace Ministries sexual abuse scandal.

C. J. Mahaney, who founded the SGM, along with other ministry leaders, was hit with a civil lawsuit last year alleging that they conspired to “permit sexual deviants to have unfettered access to children for purposes of predation and to obstruct justice by covering up ongoing past predation.”

While the lawsuit was thrown out due to statute of limitations, Tchividjian said that unlike many of those connected to TGC who considered Mahaney a friend and claimed that he had “been the object of libel and even a Javert-like obsession by some,” he saw the situation differently. In his eyes, given that Mahaney’s brother-in-law and fellow former pastor at Covenant Life Church had confessed to knowing about sex abuse claims and withholding that information from police last week, the SGM pastor was guilty.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Former Bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly defends Sisters of Nazareth nuns accused of abusing children

BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 21 MAY 2014

The former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, has defended the work of the religious order at the centre of child abuse allegations at two children’s homes.

Dr Daly said that the Sisters of Nazareth had been “grossly overworked and underfunded” and had cared for children during extremely difficult periods in Northern Ireland’s history.

“One wonders what would have happened to the kids had the sisters not been there,” the 81 year-old said while giving evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The inquiry is currently examining allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse at St Joseph’s Home, Termonbacca, and Nazareth House Children’s home in Bishop Street in Londonderry.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

On May 23, 2014, should the (UN CAT) United Nations Committee Against Torture hand the judgement that the Vatican a.k.a. Holy See is ‘guilty of torture’, it will make an unprecedented declaration that will change forever the course of history for mankind and trump over religion like never before. It will announce the birth of justice for hundreds of thousands of silent Catholic survivors sexually tortured by thousands of pedophile priests of the bestial Vatican JP2 Army worldwide in the 20th century due to the Vatican culture of sexual abuse. It will open the floodgate of justice for these Catholic survivors – just like the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. It will hunt down everyone in the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army (named aptly after the superstar pope who said nothing and did nothing to save and protect children in his globetrotting 27 years papacy) and their complicit bishops and cardinals – like the Nazis – no matter how old they are and how much they’ve changed their lifestyle, their looks and address.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

By Zack Peterson, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 20, 2014

TAMPA — St. Joseph Catholic Church, struggling to cope with the suicide of its pastor amid allegations he gambled away $165,000 in church finances, has a new leader and a chance of getting most of its money back.

The Rev. Carlos Rojas, from the Diocese of St. Petersburg’s missionary in Wimauma, will replace Father Vladimir Dziadek, who hung himself last week, said diocese spokesman Frank Murphy.

“It’s tragic, but we’re lucky to have Carlos’s help,” he said.

To recover from the financial landslide, the diocese plans to file an insurance claim and believes it can recover about 80 percent of the missing $165,000.

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NEW YORK
Christian Post

‘Fight Church’ Pastor Paul Burress Accused of Sexual Abuse, Allegedly Confessed to Swinging, Wife-Swapping Lifestyle

BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CP REPORTER
May 20, 2014

Popular “Fight Church” pastor Paul Burress and his Victory Church in Rochester, New York, are now at the center of a report alleging a sordid pattern of sexual abuse and a past life of swinging and wife-swapping.

Burress and Victory Church have been receiving a lot of coverage in the press lately for being the focus of “Fight Church,” a controversial documentary that examines the use of mixed martial arts in the Christian community.

In response to criticism that mixed martial arts had nothing to do with Christianity, Burress defended it in a CNN op-ed last month.

“Like many competitive sports, mixed martial arts can be considered violent, but it’s not hateful or destructive. It teaches us how to contain and control our most violent impulses through strength, discipline and perseverance — none of which are at odds with Christianity,” wrote Burress.

According to a report posted on a blog called the Bloody Elbow, however, Burress, who is senior pastor at Victory Church, has not been exercising a lot of control over his sexual urges.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

20 MAY 2014

A former Catholic bishop has said nuns at the centre of the UK’s largest ever public inquiry into institutional child abuse were taken for granted.

Edward Daly, 81, expressed admiration for a religious order caring for thousands of troubled children amid the violence and “abominable” poverty of 1960s Northern Ireland.

The Sisters of Nazareth have apologised for “shocking and harrowing” physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect at two residential homes in Londonderry.

Bishop Daly said in 36 years of ministry he only heard one complaint, from a woman separated from her brothers as a child and sent from a home to Australia, but had no involvement in running the centres.

He said: “They were doing work that needed to be done, that nobody else was doing.”

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VATICAN CITY
Capital Gazette

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has denied that its former No. 2 is under criminal investigation for allegedly misusing 15 million euros. But it didn’t rule out that the transaction is being looked at as part of a Pope Francis-mandated fact-finding inquiry into the operations of the Vatican bank.

Germany’s Bild newspaper, citing unnamed Vatican officials, reported Tuesday that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was being investigated for the transfer of funds from the Vatican bank to the Lux Vide media company run by a friend.

Bertone told the ANSA news agency the transaction was approved by the bank’s board and was “completely normal.”

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CANADA
The Telegram

Archdiocese still investigating complaint involving Father Wayne Dohey

A St. John’s priest suspended earlier this year over an allegation of wrongdoing will not face criminal charges.

St. Patrick’s Church parish priest Father Wayne Dohey speaks at an event in 2010 announcing federal government funding to support the restoration of stone masonry at the historic St. John’s church. — Telegram file photo

According to a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. John’s, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has concluded its investigation into a complaint concerning Father Wayne Dohey and determined no charges will be laid.

Dohey was removed from his position as parish priest at St. Patrick’s Parish in March and suspended from all ministerial duties while the archdiocese conducted its own investigation. The spokeswoman said it is not known at this time when that investigation will conclude and confirmed Dohey remains suspended.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Dear all,

As readers of this blog would know, this blog was started by my father, Lewis Blayse, who was a survivor of the notorious Salvation Army Alkira / Indooroopilly Boys’ Home. Readers would also be aware that I have been battling the Salvation Army regarding compensation for my father’s family, in continuation of my father’s lifelong but failed struggle for justice. Readers would also know that I hope, through achievement of a satisfactory outcome in relation to compensation for my family, to establish a strong precedent for a new, fair approach to compensation that will flow on to other victims of Salvation Army abuses and their families.

After digging in its toes for too long, the Salvation Army has recently contacted me (through its head lawyer, Luke Geary) to indicate that it IS now willing to enter into formal talks about restitution to the family for the damage it inflicted upon my father and his extended family. In so doing, it appears to have reversed its previous decision, communicated to me by ‘commissioner’ James Condon, which was to deny it had any further responsibility to set wrongs right beyond the pathetic and cruel responses of the past. This is a limited but potentially positive development, and I am cautiously optimistic that when presented with even more documentation than has already been provided to it, someone in the Salvation Army will see the grievous errors in its earlier approaches, and finally do the right thing by our family. So that Dad’s wishes are finally met.

It must also be said that it’s a potentially positive development in the sense that the Salvation Army now appears to be acknowledging that families of people hurt by child abusers within its ranks are also people who have to be considered in its responses to its organisational failures. I hope that the Salvation Army is extending the same offer to talk about restitution to affected families. Because it must make amends to everyone it has hurt. So that a foundation stone for real healing among all those the Salvation Army has hurt is laid.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 20, 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 )

A Massachusetts rabbi is being investigated for allegedly using funds from congregants to keep his affair with a teenage boy secret. We are deeply disturbed by this news.

[Boston Globe]

No matter how this rabbi met this 16 year old, Starr was of course wrong to have any sexual contact whatsoever with this boy. It is always hurtful for an adult to sexually exploit a youngster, especially when the adult is a trusted religious figure.

As a trusted member of the community, Rabbi Barry Starr, betrayed the trust of his congregants by gravely misusing their donations and – more importantly – by allegedly sexually exploiting a teenager. No matter what the legal age of consent may be, there can never really be true consent between and adult and a child or between a religious leader and a congregant.

We urge Milton Jewish officials to reach out to anyone who saw, suspected, or suffered child sex crimes. We urge secular officials to investigate not only the allegations involving fraudulent use of funds, but also the abuse of a teenager.

Contact – David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Josephine McKenna Religion News Service | May. 20, 2014

VATICAN CITY A senior Vatican official on Tuesday tried to defuse the damaging rift between the Vatican and U.S. nuns after a recent rebuke over obedience and doctrinal differences.

Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz, who heads the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life that oversees men’s and women’s religious orders, said there had been “sensitive times,” but relations between religious orders and the Holy See remained “very close.”

“There are positive aspects and less positive aspects,” the Brazilian cardinal said during a press conference on human trafficking ahead of the World Cup. “We have chosen the path of dialogue. We have to speak positively.”

Bráz de Aviz was speaking at the launch of a campaign by Catholic nuns, backed by the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican, to fight human trafficking at the soccer World Cup in Brazil next month.

A question about the thorny relationship between the Holy See and the American sisters was put to Sr. Carmen Sammut, head of the International Union of Superior Generals, but the cardinal jumped in before she could respond. She, too, stressed the need for dialogue.

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UNITED STATES
Road to Recovery

MEDIA RELEASE – MAY 20, 2014

Fr. Michael Lewandowski was removed from a parish in Davidsville, PA but was stationed in several parishes and schools throughout New York and Massachusetts, and maybe other states as well.

The Franciscan Friars Conventual must notify the public about where Lewandowski worked so that other sexual abuse victims of Fr. Lewandowski can come forward and begin to heal.

What: A press conference dealing with the recent removal of Fr. Michael Lewandowski, OFM Conv., as Pastor of St. Ann’s Parish in Davidsville, PA (Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA) because of an allegation of clergy sexual abuse against him. Fr. Lewandowski was stationed in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York (and possibly many other places) during his priesthood.

When: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Where: On the public sidewalk outside the headquarters of the Franciscan Friars Conventual Religious Order, Our Lady of the Angels Province (formerly St. Anthony of Padua Province), 12300 Folly Quarter Road, Ellicott City, MD 21042 – 410-531-1400

Who: Robert M. Hoatson, Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families and a survivor of clergy sexual abuse himself; Kevin Waldrip, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse whose abuser served jail time; supporters of the courageous victim; and friends.

Why: A courageous survivor of clergy sexual abuse has come forward to report that his/her life was significantly altered by a trusted Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Michael Lewandowski, in or associated with a Catholic institution owned, operated, or staffed by the Franciscan Friars Conventual. Road to Recovery applauds the courage of the survivor and reaches out to her/him with support and encouragement. We want him/her to know that he/she is not alone. We also will call upon the Franciscan Friars of Ellicott City, MD, the headquarters of the recently-established Province of the Angels, comprising the entire East coast and missions in other countries, to travel to every parish and/or institution in which Fr. Michael Lewandowski ministered to notify the public about the sexual abuse allegations against Fr. Lewandowski so that other clergy sexual abuse victims can come forward to begin their healing.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Sharon

Posted May. 13, 2014

By Paula Vogler
Sharon@wickedlocal.com

SHARON – After leading Temple Israel in Sharon for 28 years, Rabbi Barry Starr resigned his position on May 6 when an extramarital affair came to light.

“It is with great remorse and deep regret that I acknowledge I have engaged in marital infidelity and other serious personal conduct which require me to resign as Rabbi of Temple Israel effective Tuesday, May 6, 2014,” Starr’s letter to the congregation stated.

Starr said he is preparing to sell his house and asked that no one from the congregation contact him because this time was too painful to face anyone and he needed time to work through the issues he faces.

“I will be moving on as quickly as possible to leave the community that I love so dearly and start again elsewhere but (my family) will be remaining here at least for a short while,” Starr wrote. “I can only beg of you that you give them the space they need to live their lives and come to grips with my behavior.”
According to the Temple’s website, in addition to his rabbinic duties, Starr is currently a member of the Committee for Jewish Law and Standards and has been “a leading voice in championing traditional, egalitarian Conservative Judaism” in the Temple.

Neither Temple president Arnie Freedman nor executive director Benjamin Maron returned multiple phone calls or email requesting comments on the situation, the search for a new rabbi or how the High Holidays in September would be handled.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Jewish Daily Forward

JTA

Boston-area Rabbi Barry Starr allegedly paid nearly half a million dollars — taken from synagogue funds and borrowed from his congregants — to hide his affair with a 16-year-old male.

According to statements released Monday in the Stoughton District Court, Starr, the longtime spiritual leader at Temple Israel of Sharon before his recent resignation, used $480,000 to pay a man who claimed to be the teen’s brother. Nicholas Zemeitus, 29, threatened to expose the affair, which occurred two years ago, unless Starr paid him.

Much of the money came from the the rabbi’s discretionary fund. The Boston Globe reported that Starr also asked congregants for loans of tens of thousands of dollars to cover up the affair. Congregants are now suing him to recover the funds.

Starr could be charged with larceny by false pretense, forgery and forging a document, Sharon Police Detective Scott Leonard wrote in a statement to the court. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16, so the affair itself does not constitute a crime.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By David Abel | GLOBE STAFF MAY 20, 2014

STOUGHTON — After allegedly starting a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male two years ago, Rabbi Barry Starr paid as much as $480,000 to buy the silence of a Milton man who professed to be the teenager’s brother and who threatened to expose the relationship, according to sworn statements released Monday in Stoughton District Court.

Starr, who developed a national reputation as a leader in Conservative Judaism in his 28 years as rabbi of Temple Israel of Sharon, allegedly transferred money from the rabbi’s discretionary fund to the alleged extortionist. That man — identified in court documents as Nicholas Zemeitus, 29, of Milton — told authorities the rabbi suggested altering checks written by elderly congregants to increase their value, according to documents that police filed in court while seeking search warrants.

Rabbi Starr also sought and received tens of thousands of dollars from longtime congregants and used that money to assure the man’s continued silence, according to court documents. Many of those congregants revered the rabbi and thought of him as family, including an elderly Holocaust survivor who is now suing his former spiritual leader.

Among those approached by Rabbi Starr for money before he resigned was Arnie Freedman, the temple’s president. The rabbi told Freedman several weeks ago that he was in trouble and needed to borrow $50,000, according to the documents.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Tuesday, May 20, 2014

A nationally known leader in Conservative Judaism is accused of misusing funds to pay off the brother of a teen he’d engaged in a sexual relationship.

Authorities said Rabbi Barry Starr paid up to $480,000 to a Massachusetts man who threatened to reveal his 16-year-old brother’s sexual relationship with the religious leader, reported the Boston Globe.

Starr, who resigned May 6, is accused of transferring money from the rabbi’s discretionary fund set up at Temple Israel of Sharon, which he led for 28 years.

Authorities said 29-year-old Nicholas Zemeitus, of Milton, threatened to expose the rabbi’s affair with his teen brother unless Starr paid him.

Zemeitus told police the rabbi suggested he alter checks written by elderly congregants to increase their value.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler May 20, 2014

I have no information about the report that Cardinal Bertone is being investigated for possible embezzlement. My hunch is that the report, aired by Bild, is vastly overblown. Still I can’t help noticing that the Vatican’s response is not a clear blanket denial.

“There is currently no investigation of a criminal nature,” the Vatican press office tells us. That leaves open the possibility that there will be an investigation, or that there is currently an investigation, but not one involving criminal charges…yet. If the intent of the Vatican press office was to discourage speculation, that statement doesn’t do the trick.

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VATICAN CITY
IOL

May 20 2014

By SAPA

Vatican City – A powerful Italian cardinal on Tuesday denied a report that he pressured the Vatican bank into making a suspicious deal with a friend’s television production company and the Vatican specified he was not under criminal investigation.

Germany’s Bild Zeitung newspaper said the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority was investigating a 15-million-euro ($21-million) deal by the Vatican bank with the Italian company Lux Vide owned by Ettore Bernabei.

The 79-year-old Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s former secretary of state and then head of the bank’s oversight committee of cardinals told the Adnkronos news agency that the deal with Lux Vide had been regularly approved.

“The IOR convention with the company Lux Vide was discussed and approved by the committee of cardinals and by the supervisory board at a meeting on December 4, 2013 as shown by the minutes,” Bertone was quoted as saying.

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MEXICO
Pulso

SLP MAR 20 MAYO 2014
Jaime Hernández / Pulso

La periodista Sanjuana Martínez Montemayor afirmó que la pederastia clerical es un “crimen de estado” por la protección que reciben los responsables de este delito, no sólo de la jerarquía católica, sino también de las autoridades civiles, que pone a los curas pederastas como personas “privilegiadas, por encima de la ley”.

En entrevista con Pulso previa a la presentación de hoy de su ponencia “Pederastia, poderes fácticos y obligaciones del estado”, auspiciada por la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP), la reportera de Sin embargo.mx y de La Jornada, indicó que las reacciones de la jerarquía católica sobre el tema hacen pensar que la Iglesia nunca va a entregar a la justicia civil a un sacerdote pederasta.

La periodista externó también que la gran resistencia de la Iglesia Católica en reconocer los casos de pederastia clerical y el ncubrimiento y protección que le dan a los agresores se deben “a la razón más antigua del mundo: el dinero”.

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MEXICO
Pulso

El procurador pedirá expediente eclesiástico; el arzobispado dice que no lo dará

SLP MAR 20 MAYO 2014 3:00
Redacción / Pulso

Casi cuarenta días después de que el Arzobispo Carlos Cabrero reconoció la existencia de casos de pederastia clerical en San Luis Potosí, la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE) anunció que solicitará el expediente para iniciar una averiguación previa penal, sin embargo la iglesia católica, en voz de su vocero Juan Jesús Priego, negó este lunes que se vaya a entregar el legajo.

Pese a esa lentitud y la ausencia de una investigación por parte de la PGJE, el gobernador Fernando Toranzo Fernández negó que le esté dando protección al sacerdote Eduardo Córdova, señalado por varias víctimas como su abusador y contra quien el Arzobispo ha reconocido una indagación que ya se remitió a la Santa Sede.

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MEXICO
Pulso

SLP MAR 20 MAYO 2014 12:40

Talia Corpus / Pulso

Previo a la conferencia que dará este día en San Luis Potosí, la periodista mexicana Sanjuana Martínez Montemayor declaró que la pederastia clerical ha ido en aumento por actitudes de funcionarios como el vocero de la Arquidiócesis Juan Jesús Priego, quien ha calificado de periodismo “amarillista” la cobertura mediática sobre las acusaciones del sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista.

En entrevista con Pulso al Aire, la periodista consideró que detrás de esta actitud está el dinero, pues por ejemplo, en Estados Unidos las cifras son alarmantes ya que la Iglesia está prácticamente en bancarrota, porque debe 2 mil millones de dólares a las más de 10 mil víctimas de los abusos sexuales de los sacerdotes.

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MEXICO
Uno TV

El clérigo Eduardo Córdova Bautista está acusado de presunto abuso sexual.

La Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE), informó que solicitará al Arzobispo Jesús Carlos Cabrera Romero, que le remita todas las denuncias que tiene en contra del sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista, por presunto abuso sexual en contra de varias personas en San Luis Potosí.

Una vez que la Iglesia católica aceptó estar investigando diversas acusaciones en contra del sacerdote, se le pedirán todos los datos de las personas que presuntamente fueron afectadas para iniciar de inmediato la investigación.

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MEXICO
Gazzetta del Sud

Mexico City, May 20 – The Vatican has opened a probe into a priest in Mexico accused of sexually abusing over 100 children over the course of 30 years. A spokesperson for the archdiocese of San Luis Potosi, central Mexico, said the Vatican has been investigating Eduardo Cordova amid allegations he molested children at various private schools. Meanwhile prosecutors have asked the local archbishop to turn over all files pertaining to complaints and accusations against the prelate. Local media say Cordova has long had a potent influence on local politics as a former member of the city council and an advisor on human rights. The case has brought back memories of Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ Catholic movement who inflicted decades of sexual abuse on boys and fathered several children, two of whom he also abused.

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VATICAN CITY
The West Australian

Vatican City (AFP) – A powerful Italian cardinal on Tuesday denied a report that he pressured the Vatican bank into making a suspicious deal with a friend’s television production company and the Vatican specified he was not under criminal investigation.

Germany’s Bild Zeitung newspaper said the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority was investigating a 15-million-euro ($21-million) deal by the Vatican bank with the Italian company Lux Vide owned by Ettore Bernabei.

The 79-year-old Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s former secretary of state and then head of the bank’s oversight committee of cardinals told the Adnkronos news agency that the deal with Lux Vide had been regularly approved.

“The IOR convention with the company Lux Vide was discussed and approved by the committee of cardinals and by the supervisory board at a meeting on December 4, 2013 as shown by the minutes,” Bertone was quoted as saying.

The ANSA news agency also quoted Bertone as saying that there was “no problem linked to this operation”.

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By GREGORY J. MILLMAN
Wall Street Journal

On Monday, Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria, the Vatican’s anti-money-laundering authority, presented its annual report for 2013, claiming significant progress thanks in part to a stronger legal framework and increased international cooperation. The claims received some support last December, when Moneyval,the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism of the Council of Europe, issued a mostly favorable report on financial reforms underway at the Holy See. Rene Bruelhart, director of the AIF since autumn of 2012, spoke with Risk & Compliance Journal about introducing a new anti-money-laundering regime to the oldest organization in the world.

What were the most important steps taken to improve the Vatican’s anti-money-laundering compliance?

Mr. Bruelhart: I’ve been here a little more than one and a half years, having taken office almost exactly 18 months ago. So the first step was to carry out an internal risk assessment to get an understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities here in the Holy See. We put in place a new legal framework, which was approved by Moneyval in its report in December last year. Once we put a new legal framework in place where the competent authority received a broader mandate, and it was clear what it had to do, that also had an impact on the institutional framework. Almost of the same importance was very strong communication of the purpose of all these changes, the risks, and what happens if you do not implement the changes. When the financial institutions understand it has to be done, you give them guidance, and help them.

On the external side we entered international cooperation, such as membership in the Egmont Group in summer of 2013. The Holy See is a global institution,present all over the world. It is important to get access to information in case something is happening or better to get early enough alerts to avoid something happening.

What were the biggest challenges?

Mr. Bruelhart: It’s the oldest institution in the world and if you want to change something or if something has to be changed, it’s important to say why and how. It’s a question of internal transparency and also credibility. What is the impact? What are the consequences? Why are we having a new law? Why should we become members of Egmont Group, the global organization of financial intelligence? Why do we participate in Moneyval? These are the kind of elements which are important, about which we have to be clear and transparent. In the Holy See, you don’t have a financial center, don’t have any kind of commercial banks, or a stock exchange, so it’s a different environment and you have to communicate quite actively.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 20, 2014

This past Sunday, I had a bit of an epiphany. I was getting ready to receive an award for my work on behalf of SNAP for creating awareness for support groups. The organization honoring us—SHARE! The Self Help and Recovery Exchange—is an awesome non-profit that provides more than 140 support groups a week, helps people in crisis find temporary-to-permanent housing, and offers volunteer-to-job training (among a myriad of other services). What struck me about the group is that they empower people to help themselves—instead of allowing the vulnerable to become a “part of the system” and relying on useless handouts without the tools and capabilities to function in society. But I digress. photo I was worried: I needed to give a 5-minute speech. I didn’t really want to talk about me or my story, because that wasn’t what the award was about. I didn’t want to talk about “my” work, because let’s face it: I don’t and can’t do the work that I do alone. But then, it dawned on me: It all started with a support group. The explosion in child sex abuse awareness and prevention did not start with a bunch of doctors standing up and saying, “We have an epidemic!” The child sex abuse and cover-up crisis in the Catholic Church and other religious organizations was not exposed when a bunch of judges to awakened one night and said, “I am going to commence a trial right now and expose this crap.” And none of it was started by lawyers. It started in a support group meeting.

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GENEVA
Foreign Policy

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL MAY 20, 2014

On May 23, a United Nations committee is set to publish its verdict on the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. It’s hard to tell what the result is going be. But it’s entirely possible that the committee will rule that the Vatican is guilty of violating international laws on torture for allowing Catholic priests to commit acts of pedophilia (and by covering up their crimes).

If the U.N. Committee Against Torture rules against the Holy See, church leaders will have only themselves to blame. Both the recently canonized John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, could have chosen to tackle the abuse allegations head-on. Instead they went to considerable effort to cover up cases of abuse, in some cases moving suspect priests away from their accusers to help them evade criminal responsibility.

The current pontiff, Francis I, has vowed to resolve the scandal appointing a commission to address past cases and implement reforms that will prevent further abuses. But this new body has been slow to get off the ground. Victims have criticized the new pope for not acting more decisively. Last month, Francis finally issued a public apology to those affected by the abuse, including a personal plea for forgiveness — a gesture that went quite a bit farther than he’d previously been willing to.

The case currently under review by the U.N. torture panel has the potential to send the scandal into a whole new realm. A ruling against the Vatican could usher in a fresh wave of lawsuits and legal challenges. The reason: according to international law there is no statute of limitations on torture. If members of the panel deem the Holy See to be guilty of abetting torture, that could encourage the filing of allegations dating back, well, forever. Lawyers pressing the claims of abuse victims say that the Vatican, as a signatory to the Convention Against Torture, should assume full legal responsibility for the crimes committed by its priests. (The signs shown in the phone above were left by protesters outside an official inquiry in Australia examining allegations of abuse in the church there.)

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Berlin, May 20 – Vatican prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that former Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone embezzled 15 million euros from Vatican accounts, German daily Bild reported Tuesday citing unofficial Holy See sources. The newspaper said the money went to an unidentified television producer friend of Cardinal Bertone’s.

It said it was moved in a transfer in December 2012 despite resistance from the Vatican Bank.

Bild reported that Renè Bruelhart, the head of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), said that he could “neither confirm nor deny” the reports that Bertone is being probed. Bertone was appointed Vatican Secretary of State by Benedict XVi in 2006 and served in the position until last year, when Pope Francis replaced him with Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

His time in the role was hit by the so-called VatiLeaks scandal, which saw confidential Church documents leaked to the media by the Benedict’s butler in 2012.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The German tabloid newspaper says the cardinal allegedly used the embezzled funds to finance production company Lux Vide

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

The Vatican has apparently launched an investigation into former Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who has been accused of embezzlement. This is according to German tabloid Bild, which claims that the cardinal is suspected of embezzling 15 million Euros from Vatican accounts. The newspaper quotes unofficial Vatican sources.

The sum of money Tarcisio Bertone is said to have embezzled was apparently intended for a television production company Lux Vide, which the former Vatican Secretary of State has links with, Bild says. Today the newspaper also revealed that the Vatican is investigating the cardinal for embezzling 15 million Euros. The operation allegedly took place “in December 2012 through a convertible bond.” The transaction apparently went ahead despite resistance from the Vatican bank and under pressure from Bertone.

But there was no mention whatsoever of this investigation in the report presented yesterday by the director of the Vatican Financial Authority, Brülhart. For now, the Holy See press Office has chosen not to comment on Bild’s report.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Get Reading

May 16, 2014 By David Millward

Jury at Reading Crown Court heard the mother describe how her child, when she was 12, acted like a teenager going through puberty

The mother of a woman who claims to have been abused by a vicar when she was 11 years old told a court how her daughter’s behaviour changed suddenly after the incidents were alleged to have happened.

A jury at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday heard the mother describe how her child, when she was 12, acted like a teenager going through puberty and she could not understand why, until her daughter told her about the alleged assaults many years later.

Vicar denies child sex charges

Brian Spence, 74, who was priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Church, in Englefield, before retiring, denies nine counts of indecent assault involving four girls under-16 between 1995 and 1999.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Get Reading

May 20, 2014 By Natasha Adkins

The jury at Reading Crown Court heard a woman say the incident took place during her confirmation class at St John the Baptist Church in Crowthorne when she was aged 11 or 12

A woman described how as a schoolgirl she was frozen to the spot when she felt a vicar’s hand on her leg, a court heard.

Yesterday a jury at Reading Crown Court heard the woman say the incident took place during her confirmation class at St John the Baptist Church in Crowthorne when she was aged 11 or 12.

Retired vicar Brian Spence, 74, faces nine counts of indecent assault involving four girls aged under 16.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

20 MAY 2014

A Catholic order of nuns has admitted that emotional abuse and neglect took place in its residential homes in Northern Ireland.

The Sisters of Nazareth have already acknowledged and apologised for physical and sexual attacks which occurred within their properties, a focus of the UK’s largest ever institutional child abuse public inquiry.

A senior member, speaking on behalf of the congregation, said evidence from victims at the Londonderry homes was “shocking and harrowing”.

Sister Brenda McCall said: “We must accept that at certain times, by certain sisters, things were just not right.”

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in houses run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of an investigation chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart which is being held in Banbridge, Co Down.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Hinckley Times

Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Clive Loader has given his backing to a support service for male victims of sexual abuse.

First Step offers a free and confidential service to male survivors of rape and sexual abuse living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland who are over the age of 13.

Sir Clive visited co-ordinator Cas Beckett at the First Step offices located within Victim Support in Bishop Street, Leicester, to discuss how the service is making a difference to the lives of local people.

Promoting First Step and raising awareness of male abuse support services contributes to priority number six in Sir Clive’s Police and Crime Plan – to ensure a positive outcome from victims and witnesses of serious sexual offences.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

Tue, May 20, 2014

The Sisters of Nazareth who ran two children’s homes in Derry, have again admitted and apologised for physical and sexual abuses suffered by residents there.

Sr Brenda McCall, speaking on behalf of the order, was asked if it was accepted by the order that in some cases the standard of care was not acceptable.

She admitted much of the testimony already heard by the inquiry into historical abuses at care homes was “shocking and harrowing”.

Certain behaviour by some nuns was “just not right,” she said.

Asked was the order guilty of physical abuse, Sr Brenda said: “Unfortunately yes, I would accept that. Yes.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 20, 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 )

A Chicago Catholic university is confirming today that it still is hiring the most recent U.S. ambassador to the Vatican despite allegations that he “likely” recently sexually harassed a married couple. This is a stunningly reckless move.

[Inside Higher Ed]

Miguel H. Diaz will start as a professor at Loyola University on July 1. The university says it conducted its own review into the allegations and decided to move forward with hiring Diaz.

We strongly urge Loyola University officials to reverse this irresponsible decision. At a bare minimum, we believe students, staff and the public have a right to know how university officials allegedly conducted their “review” and who was involved in it. We urge students and staff at Loyola to insist on this transparency.

No students and staff at any college should be subjected to sexual harassment. Given the findings of University of Dayton officials, Diaz does not belong on any campus.

This case is similar to one at Adrian College, a Methodist school in Michigan. Adrian officials hired Thomas Hodgman as a professor, despite his sworn admission that he sexually abused a teenaged high school girl, and despite allegations that he impregnated her, gave her a sexually transmitted disease and molested two other girls. One of Hodgman’s victims, Joelle Casteix, won a $1.6 million settlement. But Hodgman still teaches at Adrian today.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 20, 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 )

Shame on church officials for dragging their feet with these negotiations. There’s simply no reason it must take this long to resolve credible child sex abuse cases.

[Tribune-Democrat]

Delays only mean even more suffering and uncertainty for deeply wounded adults who have suffered long enough.

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

CITTE DEL VATICANO
L’Huffington Post

La Bild pubblica oggi una notizia relativa a possibili indagini dell’Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria della Santa Sede e della Città del Vaticano relative a un prestito di 15 milioni di euro che sarebbe stato concesso dallo Ior alla casa di produzione televisiva “Lux Vide” (della famiglia Bernabei, ma impegnata su temi religiosi con fiction come “Don Matteo”) dietro sollecitazione dell’ex segretario di Stato Tarcisio Bertone. Di tale indagine non c’è traccia però nel Rapporto presentato ieri dal direttore dell’Aif, Renè Brulhart.

Interpellato dall’Adnkronos, il cardinale Bertone ha smentito decisamente l’accusa di malversazione riportata dal tabloid tedesco poiché, ha detto, “la convenzione dello Ior con la società Lux Vide è stata discussa e approvata dalla commissione cardinalizia di vigilanza e dal consiglio di sovrintendenza nella riunione del 4 dicembre 2013, come dimostra il verbale relativo”.

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

VATIKAN
Bild (Deutschland)

Von NIKOLAUS HARBUSCH

Rom – Nach BILD-Recherchen ermittelt die Finanzaufsicht des Vatikan (AIF) gegen Papst Benedikts früheren Staatssekretär.

Kardinal Tarcisio Bertone (79), einer der mächtigsten Männer im Vatikan, soll 15 Millionen Euro von Konten des Vatikan veruntreut haben. Das Geld soll an ein Medienunternehmen geflossen sein.
VergrößernJahresbericht der Finanzaufsicht des Vatikan (AIF)

Auf einer Pressekonferenz im Vatikanischen Pressesaal legte der von Papst Franziskus eingesetzte Schweizer AIF-Chefermittler Rene Brülhart (43) seinen Jahresbericht vor. BILD befragte ihn zum „Fall Bertone“. Seine vielsagende Antwort: „Ermittlungen gegen Bertone werde ich weder bestätigen noch bestreiten. Zu Einzelfällen werde ich hier nichts sagen.“

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

VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Berlin, May 20 – Vatican prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that former Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone embezzled 15 million euros from Vatican accounts, German daily Bild reported Tuesday citing unofficial Holy See sources. The newspaper said the money went to an unidentified television producer friend of Cardinal Bertone’s. It said it was moved in a transfer in December 2012 despite resistance from the Vatican Bank. Bild reported that Renè Bruelhart, the head of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), said that he could “neither confirm nor deny” the reports that Bertone is being probed. Bertone was appointed Vatican Secretary of State by Benedict XVi in 2006 and served in the position until last year, when Pope Francis replaced him with Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope has received a letter signed by 26 Italian women who admit to have feelings for a priest or a monk and are asking for a review of the celibacy law

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“Dear Pope Francis, we are a group of women from all over Italy (and further afield) and are writing to you to break down the wall of silence and indifference that we are faced with every day. Each of us is in, was or would like to start a relationship with a priest we are in love with.” This is the letter’s opening statement. The 26 women signed with just their name and the initial letter of their surname, plus the name of their hometown, but they did write their surnames and telephone numbers on the envelope. All of them claim to be in a relationship with a priest. The women say they are just “a small sample” but add that they are writing on behalf of many other women who are “living in silence.”

“As you are well aware,” the letter reads, “a lot has been said by those who are in favour of optional celibacy but very little is known about the devastating suffering of a woman who is deeply in love with a priest. We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church.”

“We love these men, they love us,” the 26 women write in their letter, “and in most cases, despite all efforts to renounce it, one cannot manage to give up such a solid and beautiful bond. Unfortunately, this brings with it all the pain of not being able “to live it fully”. This continuous giving and then letting go is soul destroying. When this enormous pain leads to a definitive separation, the consequences are no less devastating and both parties are often scarred for life. The only other alternatives are either for the priest to abandon the priesthood or for the relationship to carry on in secret.”

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

ITALY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

A group of women claiming to be the secret paramours of priests have written to Pope Francis to urge him to roll back the church’s celibacy requirements.

A popular pontiff, Pope Francis receives hundreds of letters every day—but a recent one, signed by 26 women who would like his permission to have sex with their priest-boyfriends, was undoubtedly not like most of the others.

The letter, published by La Stampa newspaper’s Vatican Insider website on Sunday, began with a plea for the pontiff to take heart and make celibacy optional for the signatories’ paramours, who happen to be priests. “Dear Pope Francis, we are a group of women from all over Italy (and further afield) and are writing to you to break down the wall of silence and indifference that we are faced with every day,” wrote the women (who signed with their first names and a last initial). “Each of us is in, was or would like to start a relationship with a priest we are in love with.” Their phone numbers were also apparently made available in case the pope would like to call the women to discuss the issue.

The women, who reportedly met up on a closed Facebook group, say they represent only a “small sample” of an apparently large group of secret lovers of priests. According to Vatican Insider, the letter noted, “a lot has been said by those who are in favour of optional celibacy but very little is known about the devastating suffering of a woman who is deeply in love with a priest. We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church.”

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

CANADA
VOCM

Although police won’t be pressing charge, the Church’s own investigation into a local priest continues, because of new policies in Rome. Archbishop Martin Currie says Father Wayne Dohey will remain suspended until the Church comes to a conclusion regarding the unspecified complaints. Currie says this new policy is a way to handle the bad publicity the Church has received in recent years.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
TheMediaReport

Last week, leading contingency lawyer Mitchell Garabedian dramatically claimed that the Catholic Church is “once again acting in the most immoral way by allowing the wholesale sexual abuse of children.”

Wow! “Allowing the wholesale sexual abuse of children”? What exactly could have prompted Garabedian’s shocking claim? Did the Diocese of Fall River (serving Southeastern Massachusetts), at whom Garabedian directed his comments, recently return a dangerous child abuser to ministry? Did the diocese recently look the other way as abuse was being committed?

As it turns out, the diocese did none of these things. Instead, the diocese simply did not kowtow to Garabedian’s demand for money in his latest abuse suit against the Catholic Church.

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

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

20 May, 2014

From today, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold 7 days of private sessions in Brisbane over the next two weeks.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said private sessions are an important way for Commissioners to hear first-hand about the impact of child sexual abuse and to better understand how it might be prevented in the future.

“All people affected by child sexual abuse while in the care of an Australian institution have the opportunity to tell the Royal Commission of their experiences in a private session with a Commissioner.

“The information provided in private sessions will help the Royal Commission better understand how child sexual abuse in institutions can be prevented,” she said.

Ms Dines said the Royal Commission has made regular visits to Queensland to hold private sessions, meet with service providers and host information forums. The Royal Commission also held a public hearing in Brisbane in February this year.

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

SCOTLAND
The Courier

By MICHAEL ALEXANDER, 17 May 2014

A Scot who says he was subjected to sexual abuse, sadistic beatings and mental torture at the hands of a paedophile Catholic brother at a residential school in Fife during the 1970s is demanding a public inquiry into all cases of institutional abuse in Scotland.

David Sharp, who has described the catalogue of abuse as “Scotland’s shame”, has also told how he was trafficked to Ireland to be raped by up to five men — and believes some of his rapists were priests.

As police confirmed a report had gone to the procurator fiscal surrounding abuse allegations at the former school in Falkland, Mr Sharp told The Courier publicity had led to other alleged victims coming forward.

Mr Sharp, 55, originally from Glasgow and now living in England, says a man he knew as Christian Brother Ryan began preying on him when he was 10 and residing at St Ninian’s School in Falkland, run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

[The Ryan Report – via BishopAccountability.org]

Patsy McGarry

Tue, May 20, 2014

The fourth and final report on implementation of the 99 recommendations arising from the Ryan report is expected to be laid before the Oireachtas by Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan next month.

The report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan report) was published five years ago today, on May 20th, 2009, and included 20 recommendations focused on government departments and institutions responsible for services to children. The then government accepted all its recommendations.

An implementation plan which was published in July 2009 contained 99 recommendations. These focused on addressing the effects of past abuse; developing and strengthening national childcare policy and evaluating its implementation; strengthening regulation and inspection functions; improving the organisation and delivery of children’s services; giving greater effect to the voice of the child; and revising Children First, the national guidelines for the protection and welfare of children and underpinning these with legislation.

Overall offer

Meanwhile, the 18 religious congregations which ran the residential institutions for children investigated by the commission have given no indication that they intend improving on their overall total offer of € 480.61 million to the €1.45 billion costs of redress to victims.

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CANADA
The Province

BY TAMSYN BURGMANN, THE CANADIAN PRESS MAY 19, 2014

VANCOUVER — Carla Robinson’s mother was sexually abused as a child attending two Indian residential schools in British Columbia, but her father dodged that system and encouraged both his daughter and her children to pursue higher education.

The decades-old torment for her mother, however, has resurfaced to produce fresh anger and suspicion after the Robinson family learned a $3,000 education credit offered as part of the residential schools settlement may not be used as tuition for her 12-year-old granddaughter’s private arts school.

Many more survivors also fear they won’t be able to access the money.

Robinson’s case is one among hundreds of wide-ranging complaints expressed by First Nations families across Canada since a January announcement that remaining compensation from the $1.9 billion settlement fund would be dispersed for educational purposes. A dedicated information line, set up to help survivors making their claim, has also received more than 9,300 calls to date.

The notion that reconciliation could be fostered through education, when that was the source of so much trauma for her mother, further appals Robinson, who lives on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ont.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

‘Fear of everything. Fear of God. Fear of the Christian Brothers. Fear that I would go to hell’

[The Ryan Report – via BishopAccountability.org]

Patsy McGarry

Tue, May 20, 2014

On May 20th, 2009, five years ago today, the Ryan report was published. It dealt with the abuse of children in residential institutions run by 18 religious congregations.

Pages 113 to 119 in Volume V of the report – the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, to give it its official title – record recollections of childhood by some who were in the institutions. They told their stories to an interviewing team.

Here are sample extracts, unedited, lest we forget . . .

Statements of “worst thing” that happened to participants while living in an institution:

– After running away having my hair cut off to a very short length and was made to stand naked to be beaten by nun in front of other people.

– When I told nuns about being molested by ambulance driver, I was stripped naked and whipped by four nuns to “get the devil out of you”.

– A brother tried to rape me but did not succeed, so I was beaten instead.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

— Negotiations in a settlement for what may be nearly 100 claims of sexual abuse by a now-dead Franciscan friar who taught at Bishop McCort Catholic High School are continuing despite a lack of participation by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Attorneys representing the alleged victims of Brother Stephen Baker, said to number 85 or so, are waiting for a response from the Franciscans by way of a mediator, a Boston attorney said Monday.

“We’re supposed to receive a response soon from the Franciscans,” Mitchell Garabedian said. “Whether the diocese is involved or not, I don’t know.”

Word that the Baker settlement talks are continuing came the day after the diocese announced that the priest at St. Anne’s Parish in Davidsville was no longer filling that post.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Inside Higher Ed

May 20, 2014
Loyola University of Chicago plans to hire a theology professor and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican after it reviewed allegations that he sexually harassed a married couple at his current employer.

Miguel H. Díaz, who was President Obama’s representative to the Holy See from 2009 to 2012, was found to have likely engaged in “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” toward a married couple who were his colleagues at the University of Dayton. Díaz planned to join the faculty at Loyola before the news broke – and still will after the Chicago university conducted its own review of the events. A spokesman for Loyola said in an email, “We have reviewed the allegations raised against Miguel Diaz and our offer to him stands.” He will become a professor at Loyola on July 1.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Probe in Australia return to quiz more witnesses

BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 20 MAY 2014

A team from the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is to travel to Australia next month to speak to a “significant” number of alleged victims.

The team, including inquiry chairman, retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, will examine the operation of a child migrant scheme involving the transfer of children from institutions in Northern Ireland to institutions throughout Australia.

This visit, the second to Australia by members of the inquiry team, will form the second module of hearings, which are due to commence at the start of September.

At the end of September the inquiry hopes to pursue investigations on the former De La Salle Boys’ Home, Rubane House, in Kircubbin, Co Down.

The inquiry is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.

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

OKLAHOMA
Huffington Post

The Huffington Post | by Steven Hoffer

Posted: 05/19/2014

A pastor in Oklahoma who allegedly molested a 15-year-old girl is accused of giving the victim a pill to prevent her from becoming pregnant, an affidavit says.

Damien Keith Bonner, 32, was arrested Wednesday following an investigation by Owasso detectives and the Department of Human Services, KJRH reports. The pastor at Galilee Baptist Church in Tulsa was charged with six counts of lewd molestation.

According to Tulsa World:

A police affidavit filed Friday shows that a woman filed a sexual-assault report at the Owasso Police Department on April 16 after her 15-year-old daughter told a family friend she’d been involved in a sexual relationship with Bonner.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

9 May 2014 18:05 by Abigail Frymann

Pope Francis is establishing a commission under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the appeals of priests punished for sexual abuse of minors and other serious crimes.

The Vatican press office issued a brief note today stating that the Pope had named Argentine Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosario to be a member of the CDF “in the commission being established to examine the appeals of clergy for delicta graviora,” the Vatican term for sexual abuse of minors and serious sins against the sacraments.

Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan worked with Pope Francis between 1993 and 2000 when both prelates served as bishops in the diocese of Buenos Aires.

The note described Mollaghan as having led the Archdiocese of Rosario “until now,” suggesting that his new role on the commission would be a full-time job in Rome, the US-based Catholic News Service reported.

The Vatican did not provide further details about the commission, when it would be established or what the extent of its mandate would be. It did not mention what Archbishop Mollaghan’s position on the commission would be.

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

MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – Last December, St John’s Abbey disclosed the names of 18 clerics who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse. Now, the personal files of 5 of those men are public — revealing what church officials knew and when.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson released roughly 450 pages that document the history of five St. John’s monks who have worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis accused of sexually abusing children.

“You know, he’d bring me places I’d never been before — nice restaurants,” Lloyd Van Vleet recalled.

With a devout mother and absent father, Van Vleet says he was about 14 years old when Father Robert Blumeyer — who was a priest in Wayzata at the time — began abusing him, and it went on for years.

“It stole my childhood,” he said. “I quit doing everything I liked to do. I quit playing baseball; I quit collecting — everything I did changed.”

Blumeyer is one of the 5 priests who were removed from ministry and sent to St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. — along with:

Robert Blumeyer
Cosmas Dahlheimer
Thomas Gillespie
Francis Hoefgen
Brennan Maiers

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 05/19/2014

A monk who taught at St. John’s University and seminary from the 1950s to the 1970s has been sued by two Minnesota men who claim he sexually abused them at a cabin owned by St. John’s Abbey.

Richard Eckroth, a member of the Benedictine Order who is also a priest, abused more than 360 of what he referred to as his “cabin kids,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for the two men who filed suit Monday in Stearns County.

Eckroth, now 87, has advanced dementia and lives at St. John’s Abbey “under close monitoring,” according to abbey spokesman Brother Aelred Senna.

“St. John’s Abbey was made aware of these allegations against Fr. Richard Eckroth late last week,” the abbey said in a written statement released Monday. “Sorting out the truth of allegations against Fr. Eckroth is complicated by his advanced dementia. … Incidents involving Eckroth are alleged to have occurred more than 40 years ago. While there have been credible claims of inappropriate behavior by Eckroth, there has also been conflicting testimony regarding allegations against him.”

The abbey, which also is a defendant in the lawsuit, said it would “cooperate to seek the truth as we have in the past.”

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

MINNESOTA
WJON

ST. PAUL (AP) — Attorneys for two men are suing St. John’s Abbey and a priest over alleged sexual abuse that happened 40 years ago.

Attorney Jeff Anderson filed the lawsuit in Stearns County Monday. Anderson is seeking the full release of the abbey’s files on abusive priests and monks.

In addition to the abbey, the lawsuit names the Rev. Richard Eckroth, who took dozens of children to a St. John’s-owned cabin near Bemidji during the 1970s. The two men allege Eckroth sexually abused them at the cabin when they were boys.

Eckroth has previously denied abusing children. An abbey spokesman said in a statement that sorting out the truth of the allegations against Eckroth is complicated by his advanced dementia.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

DOE 33 AND 34 COMPLAINT

PRIEST FILES

• Fr. Brennan Maiers File Timeline
• Fr. Cosmas Dahlheimer File Timeline
• Fr. Francis Hoefgen File Timeline
• Fr. Robert Blumeyer File Timeline
• Fr. Thomas Gillespie File Timeline
• Eckroth, Richard Timeline

ADDITIONAL ST. JOHN’S DOCUMENTS

Statement of Doe 33
2-26-97 Memo from Tim Anderson to Flynn re Public Nusiance
4-15-11 St. John’s Alumni Letter
10-23-87 Memo from McDonough to Roach re Dahlheimer SOL
12-9-13 Statement from St. John’s Abbey
Fr. Richard Eckroth photo
Abbots of St. John’s photo

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Robert McClory | May. 19, 2014 NCR Today

In November, I gave a talk about Pope Francis at the Call to Action conference, and every story, every quote I gave about him was greeted with smiles, cheers and laughter. It was something like a papal pep rally.

In my inbox on Friday morning were no fewer than four no-nonsense messages from very upset Catholic organizations urging the signing of petitions calling on Pope Francis to apologize for Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s harsh words to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and urging him to tell the Vatican to back off the “unjust reform agenda” it imposed on U.S. nuns. It is time, several said, “to stop bullying Catholic women leaders.”

My, how things have changed in six months. Of course, the vigorous scolding by Müller has been the big story in recent weeks, but his harangue (the sentiments, if not words, of which it appears the pope agrees with) is only one among a sudden outburst of hierarchical moves to parade power and retake the high ground. Here are some examples you may have seen in NCR or elsewhere.

Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada, a longtime human rights and peace activist, was sentenced in March by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to “a life of prayer and penance” to be lived in a Franciscan friary in Wisconsin. He may not present himself in public as a priest or celebrate the sacraments but may say Mass in private. His singular offense was concelebrating a liturgy in November 2011 with a Roman Catholic woman priest.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER  , Star Tribune Updated: May 19, 2014

Lawyers release documents on five monks known to have sexually abused children.

The clergy sex abuse lawsuit against the Twin Cities archdiocese headed northwest Monday, when archdiocese documents related to child abuse by five monks at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville were publicly released and a lawsuit was filed to pry open the abbey’s files.

The letters and internal memos released were among the thousands of pages of documents the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis provided to attorneys as part of a lawsuit.

They covered five monks previously identified as abusers — including the Rev. Richard Eckroth who brought hundreds of students to an abbey cabin for overnight trips.

Attorney Jeff Anderson filed a lawsuit representing two victims of Eckroth in Stearns County Monday, seeking the full release of the abbey’s filers on abusers.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

The public inquiry into institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland is to travel to Australia to interview alleged victims transferred there.

More than 100 children were removed from church-run residential homes in Northern Ireland, most to Western Australia after World War II.

An investigation chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is examining whether they were physically, sexually or emotionally harmed during their journey.

Lawyers and support staff are expected to pay their second visit to Australia next month ahead of public hearings in September.

Mr Hart said: “The inquiry will examine the operation of the child migrant scheme in the context of children from Northern Ireland institutions who were sent to Australia.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

19 MAY 2014

A former nun interviewed by police investigating alleged abuse at a children’s home in Northern Ireland has said she loved the young people, a public inquiry heard.

In the 1970s, the ex-nun worked at Termonbacca boy’s home in Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth religious order, and admitted witnessing sexual acts. But the woman denied causing physical or sexual harm.

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in residential homes run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of the UK’s largest ever institutional child abuse investigation being held in Banbridge, Co Down.

It is considering cases between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995.

The former nun said: “I gave my best part of my life to caring for kids in Nazareth House and I loved every minute of it and I loved them.

“I cannot undo what people have said about me.”

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

MINNESOTA
WCCO

[lawsuit]

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — More information on members of the clergy accused of sexually abusing children was released on Monday.

The files of five monks who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were made public as part of a new civil lawsuit.

The monks include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers. The public relations representative for the archdiocese said that all five names had previously been released “as part of our ongoing commitment to disclosure and transparency,” and that most of them had already received significant coverage in the media.

The monks served at St. John’s and are accused of abusing boys in the early 1970s.

Two of them — Blumeyer and Dahlheimer — have died since the alleged incidents. The other three either left or were removed from the ministry.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

[lawsuit]

By: Megan Stewart

St. John’s Abbey was urged Monday to release more information about clergy members accused of sex abuse.

Files on five monks of St. John’s were released at a news conference, which was held by Anderson and Associates, the law firm currently suing the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. They were obtained in a 2013 lawsuit filed in Ramsey County.

A former monk and an alleged victim are among those asking for more disclosure.

The alleged victim said he was abused sexually by Father Robert Blumeyer while Blumeyer was a monk at St. Johns.

Blumeyer’s file was released Monday. Documents show Blumeyer was a philosophy professor for three decades at St. Johns before he died in 1983. The victim said he brought his allegations to the Abbot in 2006 and was cut a check to keep quiet.

Other files released were of monks Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgan and Brennan Maiers.

Attorney Jeff Anderson said the files he obtained on the Abbey were heavily redacted. On June 19, he plans to ask Ramsey County Judge John Van de North to order the full release of the files. Anderson said his claim will be backed by a law passed in Minnesota last year that allows courts to force disclosure of information.

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

MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Jennie Olson

More details were unleashed Monday about five monks from Saint John’s Abbey who are accused of sexually abusing children.

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant released the files on the five monks, which were obtained after a 2013 lawsuit in Ramsey County. The files include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers, the attorneys say.

The attorneys have also announced a new sexual abuse lawsuit to be filed in Stearns County against a priest accused of abusing two boys back in the 1970s. The young boys were parishioners at St. Joseph’s when they say they were sexually abused at a cabin in northern Minnesota.

The lawsuit named Richard Eckroth, the Order of St. Benedict and St. John’s Abbey, Anderson said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
4NI

The Chairman of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, Sir Anthony Hart, has today announced that a team of Inquiry lawyers, support staff and Acknowledgement Forum Panel members will pay a second visit to Australia next month.

The visit will form part of the preparations for the Inquiry’s second module of hearings, which will examine the operation of a child migrant scheme involving the transfer of children from institutions in Northern Ireland to institutions in Australia.

The Chairman said that the module – Module 2 – will commence hearings at the beginning of September.

The Inquiry hopes to commence hearings for Module 3 later in the same month. That module will focus on the former De La Salle Boys’ Home, Rubane House, in Kircubbin, Co. Down.

The Chairman said: “As you will be aware, today is the 35th day of public hearings devoted to St Joseph’s Home, Termonbacca and Nazareth House Children’s Home, both in Derry/Londonderry, and we expect that the public hearings in relation to these institutions should be completed by the end of this month, or at the latest by early June.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MAY 19, 2014

The Vatican released statistics today showing a dramatic spike in reports of suspect financial transactions in 2013, framing it not as a rise in illegal activity but as proof that new transparency mechanisms, intended to bring the Vatican in line with international best practices, are working.

According to the numbers presented today, there were 202 potentially suspect movements of money reported to Vatican regulators in 2013, as opposed to just six in 2012 and only one in 2011.

The data were presented in a news conference on Monday by René Bruelhart, a Swiss anti-money laundering expert who directs the Financial Information Authority, known by its Italian acronym “AIF,” which was created in 2010 under Pope Benedict XVI as a financial watchdog unit.

Bruelhart insisted that the primary reason for the increase in suspicious transaction reports is that “the system works,” reflecting new transparency requirements launched under Pope Benedict XVI and strengthened by Pope Francis.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Reuters in Vatican City
The Guardian, Monday 19 May 2014

The number of reports of suspicious financial transactions at the Vatican leapt to 202 in 2013 from six the previous year, its Financial Information Authority (AIF) said on Monday, attributing the rise to keener vigilance prompted by reforms at the scandal-ridden Vatican bank.

Since 2010, the Vatican has been enacting legislation to bring its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), in line with international standards on financial transparency.

The AIF said the bulk of the suspicious transaction reports it had received involved the bank, but declined to give specific numbers or percentages. Five were considered serious enough to be referred to the Vatican’s prosecutor.

“We are not perfect yet, we are not super-good yet,” Rene Bruelhart, the Swiss lawyer who heads the AIF, told a news conference. “We are more than satisfied that the direction we are going is good, but there is still quite a bit of way to go.”

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VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

By Giulia Segreti in Rome

The Vatican’s financial watchdog reported a sharp rise in suspect money transactions in 2013, indicating that internal monitoring and the application of anti-money laundering regulation is improving, as pressure over compliance with international standards remains high.

In its second annual report, the Financial Information Authority (FIA) recorded 202 suspicious transactions, up from six in 2012. Five of these reports have been passed on to Vatican prosecutors for further judicial investigations.

René Brülhart, director of the FIA, ruled out that the surge was due to a “rise in abusive activities” but explained that “it means that the reporting system starts to work and there is much more awareness.”

“Decisive intervention, which has strengthened the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See, confirms the firm intention by the Vatican to effectively . . . combat financial crime,’’ reads the annual report published on Monday.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho May 19, 2014

In a brief note this morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosaria, Argentina, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he will have “responsibility for” a commission to examine appeals by clergy accused of “delicta graviora”–a canonical term that includes the crime of sexual abuse. The Vatican statement provided no further details about this new commission.

As Catholic News Service notes, over the past decade, the Holy See has laicized 848 priests for abusing minors or vulnerable adults. Over the same period, another twenty-five hundred priests were ordered not to have contact with minors, and to live our their lives in prayer and penances, usually for reasons of advanced age.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 19, 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 )

In yet another sign that the Vatican is moving backwards on clergy sex crimes and cover ups, Pope Francis is setting up yet another church abuse panel – this one to help hear appeals of accused child molesting clerics.

[Catholic News Service]

[Naharnet]

Put quite simply: What matters most is the safety of boys and girls, not the bureaucracy for proven, admitted and credibly accused priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and bishops.

This is another indication that the Catholic hierarchy’s main focus remains on accused priests, not on vulnerable kids or wounded adults.

Kids aren’t raped by priests because Vatican officials move slowly. Kids are raped by priests because Vatican officials continue to be more worried about their colleagues’ careers than their flocks’ safety.

Rather than tweak biased and secretive internal church processes, Francis should be helping to reform secular child safety laws and firing bishops who violate them. Instead of changing an inherently self-serving procedure, the Pope should be making sure his staff fully cooperate with effective secular justice systems which have long done a far better job of resolving child sex abuse and cover up cases (instead of putting themselves above such justice systems, as Italy’s bishops have recently done).

It matters little what church panels are set up and who’s appointed to them, as long as top Catholic officials keep rebuffing and stiff-arming law enforcement and government officials across the globe, whether they’re in Poland, Ireland or Geneva.

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VATICAN CITY
Asia News

Vatican City ( AsiaNews) – In 2013 there “has seen a significant strengthening of the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See and Vatican City State to effectively combat financial crime, an institutionalization of international collaboration of the competent authority of the Holy See with its foreign counterparts, and a massively improved performance in monitoring potential financial wrongdoing .”

The was stated today by the Director Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) of the Holy See , René Brülhart , who presented the Authority’s annual report on the activities and supervision of financial information for the prevention and combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Year II , 2013) . ” The Evaluation conducted by Moneyval, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism of the Council of Europe, in December 2013, and our statistics allow us to say that today we have a proper and equivalent system in place to prevent and fight financial crime. A system that is well in line with international standards”.

As evidence of the “significant strengthening” , the AIF indicates ” a notable uptake in suspicious transaction reports (STR) from 6 in 2012 to 202 in 2013. This increase reflects both the development of the legal framework and a substantial improvement in the operational performance of the supervised entities with regard to the prevention of financial crime. Five reports have been passed on to the Vatican Promoter of Justice for further investigation by judicial authorities “.

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VATICAN CITY
Naharnet (Lebanon)

The Vatican on Monday said it was setting up an appeals body for priests under internal investigation by the Catholic Church for alleged child sex crimes.

The new committee will be part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church’s doctrinal watchdog, which handles investigations carried out under Canon Law.

The Vatican said in a brief statement that the body would “examine appeals by clergy over grave crimes” and that Argentine archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan would take part.

The statement did not add further details about the body.

The Catholic Church has been rocked by a wave of revelations and accusations about child sex abuse, which began in Ireland and the United States in the early 2000s.

The Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations, Silvano Tomasi, said recently that 3,420 cases based on “credible accusations” had been investigated over the past 10 years.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Nicole Sotelo | May. 19, 2014 Young Voices

Meet Trish Vanni, a Catholic mother of three from Minnesota. She has worked for the church, holds a doctorate in theology, and carries nearly $100,000 in educational debt. She recently began an online campaign through GoFundMe to heighten awareness about Catholic women’s ministerial debt and to raise funds to help pay her loans. When I heard her story, I made a contribution toward her campaign then began to investigate.

Why do so many lay ministers struggle financially? I know there is a wage gap in society, but is there a wage gap in the church? Is there a gap between lay ministers who are predominantly women and the clergy, who are solely men? Here is what I discovered.

Approximately 38,000 Catholics, the majority of whom are women, currently serve as parish lay ministers, according to a 2012 CARA study. Their median ministerial salary is $31,000 per year.

For lay workers like Trish who hold a doctorate, the median salary rises to only $40,000, clearly not enough to pay off educational loan debt, let alone raise a family.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Minuto Uno

El Vaticano informó este lunes por la mañana —por medio del nuncio en Argentina Mons. Emil Paul Tscherrig— la decisión del Papa Francisco de nombrar al arzobispo de Rosario Monseñor José Luis Mollaghan, miembro de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, en la comisión que se está creando para el examen de las apelaciones de eclesiásticos acusados o condenados por “delicta graviora”.

En los medios eclesiásticos se lee este nombramiento no como una “promoción” sino como una “remoción” ya que aún no cumplía con la edad de 75 años para jubilarse y teniendo en cuenta su actuación como arzobispo se le aplicó el viejo adagio vaticano que reza “promoveatur removeatur” ya que próximamente cumplirá funciones esencialmente administrativas en la Curia Romana.

El hasta ahora controvertido arzobispo rosarino de 68 años, continuará como Administrador Apostólico de “sede vacante” (es decir, que la diócesis no tiene un obispo titular) con las facultades de obispo diocesano mientras el Papa designe a su reemplazante en los próximos días.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 19, 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 )

A Pennsylvania priest has been suspended after child sexual abuse allegations surfaced. We are glad action has been taken and law enforcement has been notified, but we are worried there might be other victims suffering in silence and self-blame.

[Tribune-Democrat]

We also worry that Catholic officials may have kept these allegations quiet for weeks or months before disclosing it. The church hierarchy almost always discloses when the abuse allegedly happened but almost never discloses when they got the abuse report. Catholics deserve to know this.

Fr. Michael Lewandowski (who has been at St. Anne Parish in Davidsville since 1997) is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in the 1980s. The allegation was reported to the Altoona- Johnston diocese from the Franciscan Order that Lewandowski is a member of.

Bishop Mark Bartchak and officials from the Franciscan Order should visit every parish Lewandowski worked and post Lewandowski’s work history and photo on the dioceses website and parish bulletins. Children are kept safe when suspicions about predators are reported immediately.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 19, 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 )

Contra Costa officials, including the DA and the police chief, want a review of the child abuse reporting law and a possible changing of the law. We are grateful officials not only want a review of this law, but are speaking out publically about it.

[Mercury News]

As the law stands now there is a one year statute of limitations for mandatory reporting violations. When a child is sexually violated often times it is not just the perpetrator who is guilty of causing serious harm. More often than not somebody knew or suspected the abuse, but stayed silent.

We have mandatory reporting laws for a reason. To put a restrictive statute of limitation on holding those who broke the law and harmed children responsible is wrong. Any statute of limitation involving child sexual abuse hurts children and helps the guilty. And we hope it is changed.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican indicated Pope Francis was establishing a commission under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the appeals of priests punished for sexual abuse of minors and other very serious crimes.

In a brief note May 19, the Vatican press office announced the pope had nominated Argentine Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosario to be a member of the congregation “in the commission being established to examine the appeals of clergy for ‘delicta graviora,'” the Vatican term for sexual abuse of minors and serious sins against the sacraments.

The Vatican did not provide further details about the commission, when it would be established or what the extent of its mandate would be. It did not mention what Archbishop Mollaghan’s position on the commission would be.

In indicating that the archbishop has headed the Archdiocese of Rosario “until now,” the announcement signaled that being part of the commission would be a full-time job in Rome.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, May 19

DAVIDSVILLE, Pa. — A diocese has suspended a Franciscan priest from working in a southwestern Pennsylvania parish after learning that his religious order had also suspended him due to an allegation of child sex abuse in Maryland in the 1980s.

Bishop Mark Bartchak, who heads the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, advised members of St. Anne Parish in Davidsville, that the Rev. Michael Lewandowski can no longer function as a priest in the diocese.

That decision announced Sunday was prompted by Lewandowski’s suspension by the Franciscans Order at Our Lady of the Angels Province in Ellicott City, Maryland. Lewandowski had served at the southwestern Pennsylvania parish since 1997.

The bishop says the diocese and the Franciscans are not aware of any other allegations against Lewandowski.

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VATICAN CITY
Europe Online Magazine

Vatican City (dpa) – The Vatican‘s financial oversight body on Monday said suspicious transactions within the world‘s smallest country had increased dramatically last year.

The Director of the Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF), Rene Bruelhart, said there were 202 cases in 2013, up from 6 in 2012.

Meanwhile, five transactions were reported to Vatican prosecutors, up from two in the previous year.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican ‘s Financial Intelligence Authority revealed on Monday that it has recorded an increased number of suspicious financial transactions being reported in its monitoring of financial activities of the IOR – the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or Vatican Bank.

The so called “AIF” was releasing its annual report at a press conference in the Vatican.

Authority Director, René Bruelhart, said the report showed that there were 202 suspicious transactions reported to the Financial Information Authority in 2013 compared with only six a year earlier and just one in 2011.

Five of those were referred onto Vatican prosecutors for possible investigation.

Bruelhart explained that the increase in numbers of suspicious transactions doesn’t mean that more illicit activity is taking place. He said it just means that new laws and procedures are being implemented and are working to flag potentially problematic transactions that may require further investigation.

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