ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com June 10, 2014

COLLEGEVILLE St. John’s Abbey Abbot John Klassen on Tuesday called allegations of inappropriate sexual contact by a former St. John’s Prep School headmaster against a former member of the St. John’s Boys’ Choir unsubstantiated and defended his integrity and character.

The allegations of inappropriate contact by the Rev. Timothy Backous surfaced in a letter sent May 31 by Chris and Kathy McDermid, who live in St. Cloud and whose son was in the choir when it made a trip to Europe in 1990, to Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The letter was copied to Klassen and St. Cloud Bishop Donald Kettler.

The McDermids wrote the letter after learning that Backous had presided over Mass on Memorial Day weekend at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. They asked Nienstadt to investigate the allegations and not allow Backous to be around children. …

Statement from Abbot John Klassen, 10 June 2014:

I am certain that the pain the McDermid family has expressed is sincere, and I am sympathetic to what they describe they have been through.

I have known Father Tim Backous for many years, worked side-by-side with him, and observed his many, many interactions with children and young people. I have also reviewed the reports from nearly 25 years ago when the allegations of inappropriate conduct against Father Backous were first presented. The allegations were not substantiated. Father Backous has no restrictions placed upon him. I have absolute confidence in his integrity and character.

We have publicly acknowledged those members of our monastic community against whom there are credible allegations, and we have reached out to victims to accept responsibility. We will continue to do so. But we also hope that those who are innocent will not have to live under clouds of doubt because of the actions of others.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
International Business Times

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay | June 11, 2014

Archbishop Robert Carlson said that he was not sure if sex with children was a crime.

The St. Louis Archbishop, who is involved in a sex abuse scandal which had taken place in the 1980s, said in court that he had not been aware back then that it was against the law for priests to have sex with children. The video depiction of the court statement was released on Monday, June 9.

According to NBC News, the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul was ousted after the lawsuit against the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona, Minnesota has taken place. The court video, released by the St. Paul law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, shows Carlson responding to the question if he had been aware that it was a crime to engage in sexual activities with a child. “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson said. “I understand today it’s a crime.” He was also asked when it was the first time that he realised that sex with a child was a crime. “I don’t remember,” the 69-year-old priest said.

Carlson was in charge of investigation of sexual abuse claims during his tenure as the archbishop. He admitted earlier that he had not contacted police even though a clergy member confessed getting involved in inappropriate sexual behaviour. Attorney Jeff Anderson, representing an alleged clergy abuse victim, released documents that indicated that the archbishop had been aware of the gravity of child abuse accusations in 1984. One of the documents shows that he wrote to then-Archbishop John Roach to inform him that the parents of one of the alleged victims was planning to contact police.

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

SOUTH AFRICA
iAfrica

A South African regional court Tuesday cleared the extradition of a German Catholic priest wanted in his home country for the sexual abuse of children, a court official said.

After six years of court cases, Georg Kerkhoff could finally be sent home to face charges if the South African justice minister approves the judicial decision, according to a court clerk.

The judge in the town of Brits, northwest of Johannesburg, ordered Tuesday that Kerkhoff, aged in his fifties, be detained “pending the decision of the minister. The decision should made within 72 hours.”

He had been free on bail since last September.

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

SOUTH AFRICA
Times LIVE

Aarti J Narsee, Jerome Cornelius | 11 June, 2014

While the alleged victims of German Catholic Priest Georg Kerkhoff may never get closure, he will return home to face prosecution after his extradition application was granted

Yesterday, the Brits Magistrate’s Court halted all criminal proceedings against Kerkhoff in South Africa to make way for his extradition, following an agreement between the state and the defence.

The order was followed by an extradition application held in chambers on the defence’s request.

Kerkhoff, a priest at a Catholic church in Sundowner, Randburg, was facing charges of sexually abusing five boys, aged nine to 11, after he allegedly climbed into their tents wearing just boxer shorts during a First Holy Communion camp in February 2008.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Brian McDonald

Wed, Jun 11, 2014

Medical professionals who oversaw vaccine trials at Irish mother and baby homes insisted the vaccines did no harm and were administered in the children’s best interests.

But no parental consent was sought for the trials. Doctors effectively granted each other permission to proceed in at least one of the trials.

Babies, almost all of them under 12 months and a small number of whom were either described at the time as mentally or physically “handicapped”, were used in the trials carried out on behalf of the British multinational pharmaceutical company Wellcome by two of Ireland’s most eminent medical scientists in the 1960s and 1970s.

Prof Patrick Meenan and Prof Irene Hillary, attached to the department of medical microbiology at University College Dublin, oversaw the Irish trials involving the three-in-one vaccine and its use in conjunction with the polio vaccine. But Prof Hillary insisted she did not regard them as trials. “I view them as investigations to improve things,” she said in a 1997 interview with 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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Carl O’Brien

Wed, Jun 11, 2014

In May 1999 then taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced plans for a statutory inquiry into the mistreatment of children in reformatories and industrial schools.

The decision was welcomed as a genuine effort to shine a light on a very dark period of Irish history. But within months, the enormity of the task began to emerge to those involved in the process.

Ryan report Three years later, the judge appointed to head the inquiry had resigned . A key avenue of inquiry into the issue of vaccine trials had sunk into a legal quagmire. And the air was rank with accusations of lack of co-operation from government departments and rows over issues such as compensation.

It was a decade before the statutory inquiry’s report – the Ryan report – eventually emerged into the light of day.

It’s a reminder that the decision by the Government to establish a commission of inquiry into the mother and baby homes is the easy bit. Attempting to draw together the complex strands woven into this period of Irish life – such as infant mortality, burial arrangements, vaccine trials, forced adoptions and social attitudes – will prove far more daunting.

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 Examiner

By Shaun Connolly, Claire O’Sullivan and Conall Ó Fátharta

Catholic bishops apologised for the “hurt caused by the Church” as Taoiseach Enda Kenny ordered a wide-ranging investigation into what he branded the “abominable” way mothers and babies were treated in religious-run homes.

The probe will look at death rates and burial practices at the homes, as well as illegal adoptions and vaccine trials.

The bishops’ conference said in a statement: “The investigation should inquire into how these homes were funded and, crucially, how adoptions were organised and followed up.

“We also support the Irish Government’s intention to publish legislation on ‘tracing’ rights for adopted children and their mothers with due regard to the rights of all involved.”

The bishops’ statement added that the scandal reminds us “of a time when unmarried mothers were often judged, stigmatised and rejected by society, including the 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.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Amy Forliti
Associated Press
POSTED: 06/10/2014

Attorneys for victims of alleged sexual abuse by clergy are asking a judge in St. Paul to order the archdiocese to turn over its electronic data on accused priests — such as emails, texts and data on hard drives — so they can get an even deeper look at what church leaders knew and when.

If the judge agrees, attorney Jeffrey Anderson said, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will be required to turn over more of its internal communications than ever before.

“I think it really will give us a very deep insight into the inner workings (of the church) and the conscious choices being made by the top officials,” he said.

The archdiocese did not immediately answer questions sent via email. Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North will hold a hearing on Anderson’s request later this month.

Anderson said he and his colleagues have already received roughly 70,000 pages in documents from church officials as part of a case in which they claim the archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance and risked public safety by keeping the names of accused priests 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.

OREGON
Albany Democrat-Herald

• By Kyle Odegard, Albany Democrat-Herald

An Albany man who was a priest with a Lewisburg Orthodox church was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison as part of a plea deal for child pornography charges on Tuesday.

Stanley Brittain, 39, pleaded guilty in Linn County Circuit Court to four counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse during Tuesday’s hearing.

Prosecutor Michael Wynhausen said Brittain trafficked online in child pornography, and had hundreds of images and movies, some with victims of abuse who were babies or toddlers.

An investigation in Oklahoma child pornography suspect led authorities to Brittain, who was arrested by Albany police in April.

Wynhausen spent minutes giving graphic details about some of the child pornography. “This is just a fraction of the images,” he said.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – Religion and Ethics Report

[with audio]

[Crimen Sollicitationis – 1962]

[Crimen Sollicitationis – 1922 – with notes from Thomas Doyle, O.P., J.C.D.]

Friday 6 June 2014
Noel Debien and Tiger Web

For 80 years, the Catholic Church did more than discourage the reporting of child sexual abuse, it enforced a policy of strict and absolute secrecy, punishable by excommunication. Noel Debien and Tiger Webb report on ‘crimen sollicitationis’, a papal decree with direct practical effects long after it was repealed.

This isn’t a conspiracy.’

Kieran Tapsell is adamant—it’s simply too big for that: ‘You can’t have a conspiracy of 5000 bishops.’

Tapsell is talking about the air of secrecy surrounding the Catholic Church’s response to allegations of clerical sex abuse. For him, the reason for this secrecy isn’t conspiratorial; it’s the result of a clearly defined canon law. This argument makes up the bulk of his new book, Potiphar’s Wife: the Vatican’s Secret and Child Sexual Abuse.

‘I don’t like using words like smoking guns,’ Tapsell says, ‘but canon law imposes secrecy, and the law is there to be obeyed.’

It wasn’t always thus: for most of the two millennia the Catholic Church has been in business, priests committing the heinous crime of sexual abuse were dismissed from the Church and handed over to the civil authorities. That changed in 1922 under Pope Pius XI, with the secret issue of one document: crimen sollicitationis.

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.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

They want independent review of clergy abuses & cover-ups
And they warn more lawsuits will happen if officials don’t act

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, child sex abuse victims and their supporters will hand out fliers about child molesting clerics to church members attending the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. The leaflets urge Baptists to:

–insist that their church officials hire independent experts to review child sexual abuse scandals, and
–immediately respond to child sexual abuse reports with openness and compassion.

The fliers also

–warn that more victims will start suing Baptist officials unless the church hierarchy begins to take “real steps” to “expose those who commit and conceal clergy sex crimes,” and
-encourage church members to ask their children or loved ones if they were molested by church workers or volunteers and, if so, call police and therapists immediately.

WHEN
Wednesday, June 11 at 11:45am- 1pm

WHERE
Outside the main entrance of the Baltimore Convention Center: One West Pratt Street Baltimore, MD 21201

WHO
4-6 Victims of child sex abuse who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) including the mom of a child sex abuse victim who is suing a Montgomery County-based ministry with ties to the Baptists.

WHY
Thousands of Baptists from across the U.S. are in Baltimore this week for their annual convention, and abuse victims want the church-goers to prod their denominational hierarchy to take child sex abuse cases more seriously. (Southern Baptists are the second largest religious group in the nation.)

Twice in recent months, SNAP leaders wrote to Dr. Frank Page, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, asking to speak at this meeting, to help the SBC in shaping practices and policies that help prevent abuse and cover ups. SNAP also asked the SBC to hire and consult with an independent organization called GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) for an independent expert review of the scandal involving a convicted child sex offender and Baptist minister John Langworthy of Mississippi and Texas.

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

CALIFORNIA
The Valley Catholic

By Roberta Ward

Anthony Gonzalez has been named Director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (OPCVA) for the Diocese of San Jose. The office responds to victims’ inquiries and allegations and is responsible for training employees and volunteers in parishes, schools and diocesan-related programs and projects aimed at protecting youth and others from sexual abuse.

Gonzalez comes to the diocesan position from Child Quest International, Inc. where he was Assistant Director, leading services which address victim advocacy and case management. He also served as communications ambassador for government affairs and directed daily operations for the agency’s partnerships and client services.

His academic background is in Communication Design and Media Arts, and he has professional certifications as a NamUs Victim Advocate, radKIDS Abduction and Abuse Prevention Trainer, and i-SAFE Internet Safety Trainer.

Building on the work of the office since the OPCVA began a decade ago, Gonzalez notes that today there are fewer reports of diocesan offenders because “the training and checking are paying off, and there is overall compliance.”

He especially noted a new aspect of training of “teen leaders” which includes volunteers under 18 who may be in regular contact with minors or vulnerable adults.

As of May 21, 2014, they may no longer use the “Shield the Vulnerable” online option for Safe Environment volunteer training.

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

UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Jun 10, 2014

Please, Archbishop Carlson, don’t insult our intelligence, and we won’t insult yours.

You have testified, under oath, that in the 1980s it was not clear to you that sexual abuse of children was a crime. Do you expect us to believe that? Do you want us to believe it?

If you didn’t know that molesting children was a crime, why were you concerned that parents of a victim might talk to the police? If you didn’t know that sex with children was illegal, why did you write a memo alluding to the statute of limitations?

Leave aside the apparent contradictions in your sworn testimony. Taking it at face value, how are we to respond to your claim that you didn’t know for sure that child abuse was a crime? We aren’t talking about fine detail of the law, some gray area, some arcane local statute. Civilized society, always and everywhere, has taken a dim view of the sexual exploitation of children. If you actually expect us to believe that you didn’t know it was illegal to molest children, then you’re also asking us to believe that you have less practical judgment, less common-sense discernment, less understanding of the nature of law than we expect of any intelligent adult.

But of course you probably did know that sexual abuse was illegal. You probably meant to say that you didn’t know whether or not the terms of the law applied to the particular cases under discussion during your deposition. You were giving a lawyerly response, trying to defend yourself and defend the archdiocese in which you had served. In much the same way, you dodged other questions by saying almost 200 times that you couldn’t recall the details of various cases.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

In response to Archbishop Robert Carlson’s disturbing deposition, the Association for the Rights of Catholics (314-837-0678) and SNAP are holding a brief news conference Wednesday, 6/11 at 2 p.m. outside the “new” Cathedral on Lindell (at Newstead). For details: Barbara Dorris, SNAPdorris@gmail.com 314-503-0003

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

SOUTH AFRICA
The New Age

A South African regional court Tuesday cleared the extradition of a German Catholic priest wanted in his home country for the sexual abuse of children, a court official said.

After six years of court cases, Georg Kerkhoff could finally be sent home to face charges if the South African justice minister approves the judicial decision, according to a court clerk.

The judge in the town of Brits, northwest of Johannesburg, ordered Tuesday that Kerkhoff, aged in his fifties, be detained “pending the decision of the minister.

The decision should made within 72 hours.”

He had been free on bail since last September.

Originally from Aachen in West Germany, Kerkhoff was sought for alleged pedophilia.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 10, 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 )

America’s bishops meet tomorrow in New Orleans. We urge officers and members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to censure – or at least harshly denounce – current and former Twin Cities bishops for the ongoing horrific cover up scandal there, especially Archbishop John Nienstedt, retired Archbishop Harry Flynn, and Archbishop Robert Carlson (who now heads the St. Louis archdiocese).

In recent depositions

–Flynn claimed he couldn’t recall details about predator priests 132 times,

–Carlson claimed he didn’t remember 193 times, and

–Nienstedt admitted that he never took any action against those who enabled child sex crimes and he doesn’t believe he should.

These revelations, under oath, speak volumes about how top Catholic officials are still dealing with the child sexual abuse scandal – through continued cover-ups and deceit.

Every promise made over the last 12 years by every US Catholic official – about children’s safety, and openness, transparency, and “zero tolerance” – rings hollow when prelates gather, year after year, and stay silent about their complicit colleagues.

Bishops who conceal child sex crimes are virtually never punished, either in the church or in the secular courts. So at a bare minimum, they should be denounced in public, especially by their colleagues, if there’s ever going to be a chance at real reform of the church hierarchy.

At recent USCCB meetings, every single bishop kept quiet after Bishop Robert Finn was convicted of hiding child sex crimes. We beg America’s bishops to find some courage tomorrow and not make the same mistake by ignoring the on-going crimes and cover ups by Nienstedt, Flynn, Carlson and others who are protecting or have protected Twin Cities predator priests and are endangering or have endangered Twin Cities children.

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

IRELAND
Journal

THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES should be included in the government’s statutory investigation into mother-and-baby homes, Justice for Magdalenes Research has said.

It welcomed the announcement of the investigation into the abuses in Ireland’s mother and baby homes, and its members “stand in solidarity with all women and children who spent time in these institutions and with their family members”.

It is now calling on the government to include the Magdalene Laundries in the terms of reference of this statutory investigation.

It gave the following reasons:

* There was huge traffic between mother and baby homes and Magdalene Laundries
* The McAleese Committee did not retain records received from the religious orders responsible for operating the Magdalene Laundries
* The McAleese Committee’s terms of reference did not allow it to investigate individual complaints of abuse or examine fully the religious orders’ financial records
* All religious orders responsible for the Magdalene Laundries have refused to apologise or provide compensation.

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
RTE News

Mary Joyce and the others have made it an annual pilgrimage for years, writes Midlands Correspondent Ciaran Mullooly.

Mary’s mission is straightforward: she comes back time and time again to the Castlepollard Mother and Baby Hospital because she is searching for her Aunt Carmel, who was just 17 years old when she came to this austere and bleak three-storey building run by the nuns in the countryside just outside Castlepollard.

Her ‘sin’ – to have become pregnant – and then moved into St Peter’s.

Mary says she is certain the baby was born here and she holds a death registration certificate to confirm the same infant died less than three weeks later at Tullamore hospital – more than 80km away.

“She died on December 13 1950 of hydrocephalus [water on the brain] and spina bifida” says Mary – who is still angry about what happened.

Every summer Mary and the rest of a small group of relatives now meet here to remember the dead and the missing.

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

SOUTH AFRICA/GERMANY
IOL

June 10 2014
By SAPA

Johannesburg – A South African regional court Tuesday cleared the extradition of a German Catholic priest wanted in his home country for the sexual abuse of children, a court official said.

After six years of court cases, Georg Kerkhoff could finally be sent home to face charges if the South African justice minister approves the judicial decision, according to a court clerk.

The judge in the town of Brits, northwest of Johannesburg, ordered Tuesday that Kerkhoff, aged in his fifties, be detained “pending the decision of the minister. The decision should made within 72 hours.”

He had been free on bail since last September.

Originally from Aachen in West Germany, Kerkhoff was sought for alleged pedophilia. He had made a new start in South Africa, where he then was accused of relapsing.

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.

MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, Western Regional Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 949.322.7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

A credibly accused serial predator priest is missing. The next step is clear: Mexico’s bishops must use their resources – pulpit announcements and websites and everything in between – to warn their flocks about him and beg those with information about him to call law enforcement.

[VICE News]

Fr. Eduardo Cordova was found guilty by the Vatican of abusing a teenage boy. The Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi filed a criminal complaint in May with secular authorities, and 19 victims have filed criminal complaints since then.

Although the Vatican found the complaints against Cordova credible, enough so to defrock him, it appears that Cordova still maintains a level of support among his colleagues. It is always disappointing and troublesome when church officials or parishioners support a credibly accused predator priest. It hurts victims and intimidates witnesses and victims.

Child molesting clerics will keep moving elsewhere to evade justice as long as bishops let them. When bishops show real courage and leadership – and alert parishioners and parents and the public – about these dangerous priests, this precarious practice will stop.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 10, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The first witness to give evidence at the child sexual abuse royal commission hearing in Canberra says she was unhappy with the $93,000 compensation payment she received.

The female witness, identified as ADM, said she had been repeatedly abused over an extended period of time by former Marist Brother Gregory Sutton at a school in Campbelltown in the mid-1980s.

She gave graphic evidence of the nature of the abuse saying that on occasion, Sutton had her and another girl on his lap at the same time.

ADM said she had eventually been granted $93,000 in the late 1990s as a result of a mediation process.

But she only received $58,711, with $24,989 going on legal fees and another $9,300 being rebated to the Health Insurance Commission to cover the cost of earlier counselling.

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
Maitland Mercury

June 10, 2014

A victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of a Marist Brother recalls turning around a crucifix worn by her abuser “so Jesus wouldn’t see what was going on”.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, sitting in Canberra, is looking at whether the church turned its back on scores of victims by failing to act on numerous reports of inappropriate behaviour.

In 1984 and 1985, Brother Gregory Sutton worked as a teacher at St Thomas Moore School at Campbelltown in southwest Sydney.

A woman identified only as ADM gave evidence to the commission on Tuesday, relating to her time as a Year 5 student at the school.

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

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

LEMA SAMANDAR THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 11, 2014

A MAGISTRATE has been forced to allow a child molester to escape jail because of a dated law, despite what he described as the “catastrophic” impact on the victim.

Daniel Hayman, 50, a Jewish orthodox man who pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a child under his authority at a Yeshiva camp in 1987 or 1988, received a 19-month suspended sentence.

Then aged 24, the camp leader drove the 14-year-old boy from the Stanwell Tops camp to isolated bushland where he sexually ­assaulted the teen, Downing Centre Local Court heard yesterday.

Magistrate David Williams said he had to sentence Hayman under 1980s law, but if he was to punish him under today’s legislation he would “not hesitate in sending him to jail”. He described the assault’s impact as catastrophic after hearing a victim’s impact statement.

Hayman was last month acquitted of a similar offence against a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s due to a “legal oddity”. During sentencing, Hayman kept his head down and read a religious text.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jared Owens
Reporter
Canberra

THE Marist Brothers repeatedly failed to remove pedophile teachers from classrooms, flying one self-confessed offender to north America where he subsequently worked as a Catholic school headmaster despite facing 24 charges of sexual abuse back in Australia, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has turned its attention the Marist Brothers, examining the Catholic order’s failure to act on repeated warnings about brothers Gregory Sutton and John Chute, who are collectively suspected of molesting 69 children at numerous schools between 1960 and 1991.

The commission yesterday heard Sutton — who allegedly abused 21 children in Sydney, Canberra, Lismore and north Queensland between 1973 and 1987 — admitted pedophilia to the order’s then head, Alexis Turton, in 1989 after receiving a “tip off” from a local family that two teenage girls had reported him to police.

The girls, now middle-aged, told the commission Sutton molested them on countless occasions in private and in full view of their Year 5 class while sitting on his lap. They were forced to perform sex acts on him, and on each other.

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 Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Statement of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference welcoming the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

On the second day of its Summer General Meeting, the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has published the following statement welcoming the announcement by Government of a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes:

We welcome the announcement today of a statutory Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland.

The harrowing story which is continuing to emerge of life and death in Mother and Baby homes has shocked the people of Ireland. It is disturbing that the residents of these Homes suffered disproportionately high levels of mortality and malnutrition, disease and destitution.

Sadly we are being reminded of a time when unmarried mothers were often judged, stigmatised and rejected by society, including the Church. This culture of isolation and social ostracising was harsh and unforgiving. The Gospel calls us to treat everyone, particularly children and the most vulnerable, with dignity, love, compassion and mercy. We must ensure that all children and their mothers always feel wanted, welcomed and loved. Mindful of the words of Jesus, ‘Let the little children come to me, because it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs’, we apologise for hurt caused by the Church as part of this system.

It is important that the Commission, and all of us, approach these matters with compassion, determination and objectivity. We need to find out more about what this period in our social history was really like and to consider the legacy it has left us as a people. Above all we need to enable those who were directly affected to receive recognition and appropriate support. We therefore welcome the Government’s intention that the Commission of Investigation will have the necessary legal authority to examine all aspects of life in the Homes. The Investigation should inquire into how these Homes were funded and, crucially, how adoptions were organised, processed and followed up.

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
Journal

THE IRISH CATHOLIC Bishops’ Conference has today welcomed the announcement of an inquiry into mother and baby homes in Ireland.

They commented that the “harrowing story which is continuing to emerge” has shocked the people of Ireland. “It is disturbing that the residents of these homes suffered disproportionately high levels of mortality and malnutrition, disease and destitution,” they said.

“Sadly we are being reminded of a time when unmarried mothers were often judged, stigmatised and rejected by society, including the Church. This culture of isolation and social ostracising was harsh and unforgiving. The Gospel calls us to treat everyone, particularly children and the most vulnerable, with dignity, love, compassion and mercy. We must ensure that all children and their mothers always feel wanted, welcomed and loved.”

The bishops said it is important that we find out more about what is a period in our social history was really like and to consider the legacy it has left us as a people.

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

UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Q. Are you the Son of God?

JESUS. I really don’t remember.

Q. Did you say you would destroy the temple and build it in three days?

JESUS. I have no recollection of that. Do you have that in a document?

Q. I have a document here that quotes a number of things you said.

JESUS. I don’t remember that document. May I see it?

Q. Before I show it to you, I’m asking if you recall the events it describes, such as chasing the money changers out of the temple. Did you do that?

JESUS. Is that recorded in the document?

Q. I’m asking you if you have any recollection of that outside the document?

JESUS. I have done many things. I don’t remember every one of them.

Q. Did you heal a blind man on the Sabbath?

MR. THURM. Objection. Leading the witness, and a vague time frame. Which Sabbath?

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“And Pilate asked him, ‘Art thou the King of the Jews?’ And he answering said unto him, ‘I can’t remember.’ ”

Of course that’s not what the second verse of the 15th chapter of Mark’s gospel actually says. Jesus, on trial for his life before Pontius Pilate, replies, “Thou sayest it.”

He didn’t deny it, he didn’t admit it, he certainly didn’t go all Watergate on him and say, “At this point in time, I have no present recollection of what may or may not have happened.”

Now contrast that with how St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson responded in a deposition on May 23. He was answering — more precisely, not answering — questions posed by attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., who represents a victim in a priest-abuse case that took place in 1984. Archbishop Carlson then was an auxiliary bishop in the St. Paul archdiocese. He held the title of chancellor to then-Archbishop John R. Roach.

Mr. Anderson asked the archbishop if at the time, he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Archbishop Carlson replied. “I understand today it is a crime.”

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
The Blaze

Jun. 10, 2014 Billy Hallowell

An archbishop’s claim that he wasn’t sure decades ago whether he knew an adult — and, more specifically, a priest — having sexual relations with a child was illegal has raised more than a few eyebrows.

St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson told attorney Jeff Anderson last month in a taped deposition that he wasn’t certain he knew priest sex abuse was criminal when he served as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis during the 1980s, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“Archbishop, you knew the crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid,” Anderson said.

Carlson, though, expressed uncertainty: “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”

Anderson continued his questioning, asking when Carlson first discerned that it’s criminal for adults to engage in sex and when he first understood that it was illegal for priests to have sex with children.

“I don’t remember,” Carlson answered on both counts.

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.

MEXICO
VICE News

By Alasdair Baverstock

June 10, 2014

A Catholic priest in northern Mexico is still nowhere to be found after 19 people filed a sexual abuse criminal complaint against him with authorities late last month.

Eduardo Córdova, a clergyman and legal representative for the church in the state of San Luis Potosi, is accused of using his clout to prey upon minors over the course of his 30-year career.

Evidence has been passed on to prosecutors but no formal charges have been filed yet. Cordova’s current whereabouts are unknown.

The Vatican has since stripped Córdova of his clerical functions, following investigations into the alleged sexual abuse of a 16-year-old in 2012.

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.

MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 10, 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 a deposition released yesterday that’s attracting national attention (The Washington Post, NBC News, the Religion News Service, and elsewhere), former Saginaw bishop Robert Carlson said 193 time he “couldn’t recall” information about predator priests. He also made three other startling claims;

1) Carlson admits that he never called the police about known or suspected clergy sex crimes at any point in his 24 years as a priest, bishop and other top church official in Minnesota.

2) Carlson testified under oath that he wasn’t sure whether he knew it was illegal for priests to have sex with children when he served as chancellor of the Twin Cities archdiocese in the 1980s.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

3) And another Catholic bishop testified under oath – in a different deposition – that Carlson advised him to claim memory loss if he were deposed in clergy sex abuse cases.

Clearly, he’s being deceptive. And he continues to be deceptive in clergy sex cases here in St. Louis.

Given this, we can’t help but suspect he also concealed clergy crimes during his years in Saginaw (2005 – 2009).

So we call on current Saginaw Bishop Joseph Cistone to do what Carlson never did and take a firm stand to protect children and expose wrongdoing. He must post on his website the names, photos and whereabouts of all predator priests (proven, admitted and credibly accused). He needs to personally visit the parishes where they worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. And he should publicly denounce his predecessor for being deceitful.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

BY JONATHAN CAPEHART
June 10

Pope Francis is pretty awesome. His prayer summit with the presidents of Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the Vatican on Sunday was the latest example of the leader of the Catholic Church putting action behind his words of peace, reconciliation and mutual understanding. After more than a year of reading stories about the pontiff’s penchant for humility, mutual understanding and advocacy for the poor, we shouldn’t be surprised.

Frances Kissling and I got to talking about the breath of fresh air that is Pope Francis at a dinner on Sunday. We continued the conversation via e-mail the next day. “I’m one of those Catholics who want to see big changes in how the Catholic church treats its people. It just too often hurts people and ignores their suffering,” she wrote. “And it has never stopped being a middle ages monarchy flashing its ‘bling’ in the presence of abject poverty. So, when Francis took over, I had and still have a lot of hope for some important changes.”

But the former longtime president of Catholics for Choice who joined a convent at age 19 and lasted all of six months tamped her enthusiasm during our initial chat with a characteristically bold statement. “The pope looks more like God every day,” Kissling said. Just like God, “he allows evil to exist around him.”

By evil, first and foremost, Kissling means the priest sex-abuse scandal that continues to rock the Catholic Church. She decried the pope’s “inability to grapple with the high-level evil that perpetuated sexual abuse: the priests and cardinals that abused children and are still unpunished, not even criticised publicly.” Kissling isn’t the only one surprised and disappointed by the pope’s seeming inattention. That he recently announced he would to sit down with victims of abuse is being met with cautious optimism in some quarters.

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
Journal

Updated at 4.30pm

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said the Government will engage in a full consultation process with opposition parties and independent politicians as it works to establish a full Commission of Investigation into mother-and-baby homes run by religious orders.

It follows confirmation from the Children’s Minister this afternoon that a wide-ranging probe will go ahead “with full statutory powers to examine all matters pertaining to mother-and-baby homes throughout the state”.

Speaking in the Dáil, Enda Kenny said the investigation was being launched with a sense of sadness and a “sense of duty”.

He said the Commission would examine “a period when women and particularly young women were silent and silenced”.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CatholicPhilly

BY LOU BALDWIN

Brother Robert Schieler, F.S.C., was elected Superior General of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) on May 20 at the Institute’s 45th General Chapter in Rome.

Philadelphia born and educated, Brother Robert is the 27th successor to St. John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719). As such he will lead the largest teaching congregation of men in the world with approximately 4,300 members serving in 80 countries.

Brother Robert was born in the former Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in West Philadelphia and was taught by the Christian Brothers at West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys. After his 1968 graduation he entered the Christian Brothers in Ammendale, Md. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from La Salle University in 1972 and also earned a master’s degree in European history from Notre Dame University and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

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.

MEXICO
Diario Oaxaca

Procuraduría de SLP dice que citará a arzobispos señalados por presuntas víctimas de encubrir al padre Córdova

[Summary: Miguel Angel Garcia Covarrubias, attorney general for the state of San Luis Potosi, said citations will be issued to Archbishops Antonio Szymanski, Arturo Ramirex, Luis Morales Reyes and Carolos Cabrero Romero Jesus, to testify in the case of former priest Eduardo Cordova Bautista, who is accused to abusing at least 100 children during a 30-year period.]

México.- El Procurador general de Justicia de San Luis Potosí, Miguel Ángel García Covarrubias, dijo que sí habrá citatorios a los arzobispos Arturo Antonio Szymanski Ramírez, Luis Morales Reyes y Jesús Carlos Cabrero Romero, para declarar sobre el caso del ex sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista, acusado de abusar de al menos 100 niños durante 30 años.

El funcionario no precisó si serán citados al mismo tiempo, argumentando secrecía en los procesos de investigación.

La razón para llamarlos sería para que aporten posibles datos necesarios en la investigación que se sigue a Córdova Bautista, quien enfrenta dos denuncias por abuso sexual en la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE).

Presuntas víctimas del sacerdote señalaron que en su momento denunciaron los abusos ante la alta jerarquía católica de la entidad, pero fueron ignorados.

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
The American Conservative

[with video]

By ROD DREHER • June 10, 2014

In the clip above from a recent videotaped deposition, released today, Robert Carlson, the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis, claims that he didn’t always know it was a crime for adults, including priests, to have sex with children. He testifies that he’s not sure when he learned that it was illegal. He testifies that he’s not even sure he knew as far back as the 1970s that sex with children was illegal.

If this testimony is accurate, Archbishop Carlson is a moral idiot who lacked the sense to run a Boy Scout troop, much less a Catholic parish or diocese. But there is good news for the archbishop: documents released yesterday indicate that he may simply be a butt-covering coward perjurer:

Anderson went on to ask Carlson whether he knew in 1984, when he was an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, that it was crime for a priest to engage in sex with a child.

“I’m not sure if I did or didn’t,” Carlson said.

Yet according to documents released Monday by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates in St. Paul, Carlson showed clear knowledge that sexual abuse was a crime when discussing incidents with church officials during his time in Minnesota.

In a 1984 document, for example, Carlson wrote to the then archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John R. Roach, about one victim of sexual abuse and mentioned that the statute of limitations for filing a claim would not expire for more than two years. He also wrote that the parents of the victim were considering reporting the incident to the police.

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

UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

In 2008 Google blocked ads on my blogs with no explanation, while I was at the SNAP conference in Chicago. That block is still active, who knows who was behind it.

Now even though I get thousands of clicks a week here at City of Angels the only way I can make money from the blog is to ask readers directly for cash. I also never got a settlement from the Chicago Archdiocese, so this blog is really my only asset.

Now and then I have to hold a PayPal campaign to raise funds.

Dear Readers, please send money!

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 10, 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 )

The Irish government announced today that it would set up an independent commission to investigate all aspects of the mother and baby homes throughout the country. We are glad that action is being taken and we hope the commission is up and running and fully funded soon.

[The Journal]

Irish mother and baby homes have recently been in the news because of startling discoveries of infant mass graves and cruel and inhuman treatment of the mothers and children. The Irish Children’s Minister, Charlie Flanagan, stated that now is the time to “shine a light” on these homes. We are glad that government officials have acted quickly to start setting up a commission of inquiry.

Learning the truth helps prevent future abuse and aids in the healing of those who suffered. We hope anyone who was affected by any of the Irish mother and baby homes will gain comfort from knowing that they no longer need to suffer in silence.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Philip Ryan
Published 10/06/2014

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called the treatment of mothers and babies in church run homes an “abomination”.

Mr Kenny was speaking in the Dail following the announcement of a Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes run by religious orders.

The move follows weeks of controversy after the discovery of an alleged mass grave containing the remains of almost 800 babies in Tuam, Co Galway.

Mr Kenny said he felt a “sense of sadness” when the shocking details emerged but said he had a duty to resolve the issues.

The Taoiseach said young women were “banished” from areas of the country or forced to face “shame and suppression” when they became pregnant outside of marriage.

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
Journal

THE CHILDREN’S MINISTER has said he is anxious that the Bethany Home in Rathgar is included as part of the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes in Ireland.

Charlie Flanagan said today that he was conscious of the grievances felt by those connected to the Bethany Home, a protestant-run home on Dublin’s Orwell Road, where young unmarried mothers lived with their young children.

Many of the children were subsequently adopted, and survivors say they suffered neglect as children.

Over 200 children died while in the care of Bethany Home. A monument to them was recently unveiled.

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 Mirror

By Sarah Bardon

Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan confirms probe will take place after Cabinet meeting this morning

The Government today confirmed a Commission of Investigation will be set up to probe the horrific revelations at mother and baby homes across the country.

Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan revealed the inquiry will have the power to compel witnesses and documents.

He said it will examine forced adoptions, burials and clinical trials on young children in an attempt to shine a light on “these dark periods”.

Mr Flanagan said: “It is my hope and determination to ensure that all of these issues are dealt with in a way that is comprehensive.

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
Sunday World

By Kevin Palmer

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has admitted that babies of unmarried parents were treated as “an inferior sub-species” for decades in Ireland, in shocking comments that will resonate across the country.

A special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates at the so-called mother and baby homes for much of the 20th century, with the burial practices at these sites and also secret and illegal adoptions and vaccine trials on children on the agenda of investigation.

It is thought about 35,000 unmarried mothers spent time in 10 homes run by religious orders in Ireland.

The inquiry has been ordered after massive national and international focus on the story of one home, run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours in Tuam, Co Galway, where the remains of 796 infants are believed to be buried.

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
CBS St. Louis

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMOX)

That’s how many times St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson answered questions with some form of the phrase “I don’t remember” during a deposition last month regarding how he handled allegations of abuse against a Minnesota priest when he was there in the 1980s.

Transcripts of the deposition were released on Monday.

This case happened in 1984, when Carlson was an Auxiliary Bishop in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese. The plaintiff’s attorney asked Archbishop Carlson if he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Archbishop Carlson responded. “I understand today it’s a crime.”

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Maureen Fiedler | Jun. 10, 2014 NCR Today

I just finished reading the NCR report on the upcoming meeting of U.S. bishops in New Orleans, scheduled for Wednesday through Friday.

I am glad they will continue to grapple with the ongoing issue of sex abuse and search for ways to reach out to typhoon victims. I assume the conversations on the family will include a discussion of divorced and remarried people being able to receive Communion, since this is part of the upcoming Synod of Bishops in Rome and Pope Francis is clearly interested in making this change.

But as I read the agenda, a lot is missing. Not surprisingly, I have some suggestions that do not appear in the pre-meeting report.

If the bishops are going to discuss family issues, which women are speaking or being consulted? Last I checked, women are 50 percent of heterosexual marriages. And those who bear children might have a lot to say about that “contraception mandate” in the Affordable Care Act. Many would not agree with the bishops’ position on this.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

[with video]

By Ray Downs Tue., Jun. 10 2014

St. Louis’ “Most Reverend” cloaked man says that back in the wild and crazy ’80s, he didn’t know sexually abusing a child was against the law.

The comments came during a deposition for a lawsuit against Thomas Adamson, a former priest who is accused of molesting more than a dozen kids in the Minnesota area during the 1980s. Carlson was the chancellor of the Minnesota archdiocese during those years, and attorneys representing the plaintiffs called upon him to comment about what he knew.

And Carlson basically said he knew so little, that he didn’t even know raping kids was a crime.

See also: Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang: Archbishop Robert Carlson Subpoenaed in Priest Sex Abuse Case

The deposition was made in May but not released until Monday by attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents the plaintiff in Minnesota. Anderson also released video of the deposition in which Carlson repeatedly denies knowing whether or not sexually abusing a child was a crime back in the 1970s and ’80s. Here’s the video:
Anderson: “Archbishop, you knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid.”
Carlson: “I’m not sure I knew whether it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”

Anderson: “When did you first discern it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid?”

Carlson: “I don’t remember.”

Anderson: “When did you first discern that it was a crime for a priest to engage in sex with a kid who he had under his control?”

Carlson: “I don’t remember that either.”

Anderson: “Do you have any doubt in your mind that you knew that in the ’70s?”

Carlson: “I don’t remember if I did or didn’t.”

Anderson: “In 1984, you are a bishop, an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. You knew it was a crime then, right?”

Carlson: “I’m not sure if I did or didn’t.”

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
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | Jun 10, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis canceled a second day of private audiences and his morning Mass on Tuesday (June 10) because of a minor illness, but Vatican officials downplayed speculation about ill health.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope had postponed several appointments and was resting.

“There is nothing to worry about,” Lombardi said. “His life has been very intense in the past few weeks. It is totally normal for the pope to rest.”

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.

BELGIE
Katholiek Nieusblad

De 57-jarige diaken en verpleegkundige Ivo Poppe uit Wevelgem is aangehouden op verdenking van veelvoudige moord.

Dit meldt de Vlaamse krant Het Nieuwsblad. Volgens het parket van Kortrijk heeft de man meer dan tien patiënten in het Heilig Hart-ziekenhuis van Menen (ondertussen AZ Delta) onwettig geëuthanaseerd. Hoeveel slachtoffers de man precies maakte, is nog onduidelijk. Wel zeker is dat hij bekentenissen afgelegd heeft. “Mijn cliënt handelde uit medelijden met mensen in een uitzichtloze situatie”, zegt Filip De Reuse, de raadsman van de verdachte. “Mijn cliënt is altijd een graag geziene man geweest in Wevelgem.”

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.

BELGIUM
UCA News

Catholic Ireland Belgium June 10, 2014

A deacon serving in the Catholic Church in Belgium has been arrested and charged over the deaths of at least 40 patients in a Catholic hospital.

57-year-old Deacon Ivo Poppe reportedly kept records of patients whom he smothered or to whom he gave a lethal dose of insulin at Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur Menin.

The married father of three adult children worked at the hospital as a nurse from 1980 until 2002 when he was ordained as a deacon.

He continued to visit the hospital as a part-time pastoral assistant until he began working full-time as a deacon in 2011.

According to his lawyers, Poppe said he was acting out of compassion when he felt the patients’ suffering was excessive.

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

Carl O’Brien

Tue, Jun 10, 2014

Until recent decades, the landscape was dotted with institutions where unmarried women were consigned to give birth in conditions of shame, secrecy and hardship.

But even though we feel we know all about this dark chapter of Ireland’s social history, we have few details on the precise nature of women’s and children’s experiences inside these homes, or the power structures used by society to confine them.

There have been four statutory reports into the abuses of children, and a Government inquiry into the Magdalene laundries, but no investigation into mother and baby homes.

We have some fragments, courtesy of valuable work by historians, journalists and the memoirs of those consigned to these institutions.

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
Newser

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff
Posted Jun 10, 2014

(NEWSER) – The story went that the remains of 800 babies were found in an Irish septic tank—but it’s becoming increasingly clear that things are more complicated. Yes, 796 babies died at St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Ireland between 1925 and 1961. But “some of the headlines that went abroad internationally were quite horrendous and gave a very mistaken impression of what actually happened,” says Irish education minister Ruairi Quinn. Indeed, historian Catherine Corless now tells the Irish Times she “never said to anyone that 800 bodies were dumped in a septic tank.” But she “still believe(s) those bodies are there in that general area.”

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
Reuters

In the leafy grounds of a center for the disabled in rural central Ireland, a small tombstone hints at the building’s previous role as a “mother-and-baby home”. It reads: “In Memory of God’s Special Angels”.

No names, no dates, just an acknowledgement that buried in the garden of the Manor House in Castlepollard are children born to unwed mothers at the Church-run institutions that dotted Ireland half a century ago.

The discovery of a mass grave at a similar home, two hours drive to the west in the small town of Tuam, has prompted the Irish to ask why so many babies died, anonymously, in the care of the Catholic Church that was once a pillar of respectability.

“If something happened in Tuam, it probably happened in other mother-and-baby homes around the country,” said Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, who has seen the Church’s authority shattered by revelations of sex abuse by priests and cruelty at so-called Magdalene laundries where “fallen women” were forced to work in harsh conditions.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

A statutory inquiry is to be set up by the Irish Government into state sanctioned, religious-run institutions used to house pregnant mothers.

The special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates at Mother and Baby homes across several decades of the 20th century, the burial practices at these sites and also secret and illegal adoptions and vaccine trials on children.

It is thought about 35,000 unmarried mothers spent time in one of 10 homes run by religious orders in Ireland.

The inquiry has been ordered after massive national and international focus on the story of one home, run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours in Tuam, Co Galway, where the remains of 796 infants are believed to be buried. Some lie in the remnants of what was once a concrete septic tank on the grounds of the home.

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.

IERLAND
KerkNet

BRUSSEL (KerkNet/Irish Times/RTE) – De Ierse minister voor Onderwijs Ruairí Quinn en de historica Catherine Corless distantiëren zich van de sensationele berichtgeving over de kinderlijkjes in een voormalig weeshuis van zusters. Het onderzoek van Catherine Corless legde de basis voor een verhaal dat wereldwijd het nieuws haalde. Haar onderzoek maakte duidelijk dat 796 kinderen, veelal zuigelingen, tussen 1925 en 1961 de dood vonden in het tehuis van de zusters in Tuam. Corless verzamelde de overlijdensakten van elk kind, waarin ook telkens de naam, de leeftijd, de plaats van geboorte en de doodsoorzaak worden vermeld. Dat maakt duidelijk dat baby’s en kinderen overleden aan de gevolgen van tuberculose, krampen, mazelen, kinkhoest, griep, bronchitis, hersenvliesontsteking en andere ziekten. Zij stierven in een periode dat kinderen veel sneller de dood vonden en infecties zich, vooral in instellingen, snel konden verspreiden. Maar de Ierse historica uit Tuam benadrukt dat zij nooit heeft beweerd dat 800 kinderlijkjes in een beerput werden gedumpt. Zij stelde vast dat vele kinderen werden begraven in een onofficieel kerkhofje achter het tehuis, waar de plaatselijke bevolking rozen legt en waar een Mariagrot werd gebouwd.

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

IRELAND
Irish Central

Jane Walsh @irishcentral June 10,2014

A woman who was taken and put up for adoption by Irish nuns spent 44 years trying to track down her birth mother.

She was born in the notorious Bessborough home in County Cork where protests were held this weekend and calls were made to remember all the unmarried mothers and children who passed through there.

Catherine Deasy was separated from her mother by the nuns of the Bessborough Sacred Heart Convent in Cork as soon as she was born. Her mother, Johanna Sheehy, had been declared an unfit mother and was warned to keep away from her child.

One night in 1954, Johanna was caught trying to sneak into the nursery to deliver a tiny pair of crocheted booties to her daughter and was transferred to another convent miles away as punishment.

Four years later, she received a photo of her daughter with a devastating message.

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 Examiner

[video – TV3]

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

A former mother superior at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home has said its adoptions were not forced, that mothers were well-fed, and that its high historic death rates could be explained by lack of access to antibiotics.

Sr Sarto also denied claims that parental consent was not sought by the nuns when vaccine trials were carried out on children.

But according to research revealed by the Irish Examiner last week, death rates at Bessborough in Cork, Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary, and Castlepollard in Westmeath, ranged from 30% to 50% between 1930 and 1945.

And memoirs by the former chief medical officer, Dr James Deeny, and by former midwife, June Goulding, also referred to a culture of neglect at Bessborough in the 1950s.

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
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 10 June 2014)

Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission has begun examning how Catholic Church authorities ignored the crimes of Marist Brother Gregory Joseph Sutton, who was inflicted on Australian Catholic schoolchildren for 20 years. Originally, the Commisson had considered giving Sutton a code-name, “Z.A.”, but on 10 June 2014 the Commission decided to allow publication of his real name – Gregory Sutton.

Brother Sutton worked as a primary teacher, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, in various Catholic schools including (this is not a complete list):

* a parish school in North Queensland (under Queensland law, the name of this school cannot be published);
* a parish school at Lismore, northern New South Wales; and
* Marist College, Canberra.

On 10 June 2014, the Royal Commission began holding a week or more of public hearings (Case Study 13) which will include the question of how the Marist Brothers administration responded (or failed to respond) to the crimes of “Brother ZA” [Brother Grregory Sutton], plus another Marist (Brother John “Kostka” Chute).

When the public hearing began (chaired by Justice Jennifer Coate), Sutton’s lawyer (Greg Walsh) applied to have his client’s identity kept secret on the basis that publicity could cause “psychological damage” to Sutton as well as putting Sutton at risk of physical harm. Commissioner Coate ruled against the application. Thus, for the first time since 1996, the media is now able to publish Sutton’s name.

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
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 9 June 2014)

Broken Rites has researched the background of Marist Brother Gregory Sutton, who fled from Australia to the United States. He was eventually extradited back to Australia, where he was jailed for child-sex crimes committed in Catholic schools in New South Wales. Sutton also taught primary-school classes in Queensland and Canberra but the criminal charges were confined to his New South Wales crimes. In 2014, the Sutton case is being examined by Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission.

Broken Rites has ascertained that Brother Gregory Joseph Sutton was born in Australia on 19 March 1951. After his schooling, he became a trainee Marist Brother, living in a Marist residential centre with other Marist trainees, absorbing the Marist culture. It is believed that a second son from the same family also became a Marist Brother.

Until around that time, each new Marist Brother normally discarded his birth-name and adopted a “religious” forename (for example, Fred Smith might become “Brother Alphonsus”). From around Gregory Sutton’s time, the younger Marists started using their birth name (in Sutton’s case, he became “Brother Greg”).

The Marists in Australia were divided into two provinces. Sutton belonged to the Sydney-based province, which supplied Marist Brothers to schools in New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. A Melbourne-based province covered Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western 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.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

Recently released Catholic records show that Twin Cites archdiocese officials helped a predator priest become a therapist and have continued access to kids. In light of this, Archbishop John Nienstedt should disclose which other perpetrator priests;

— he may be helping get another job around children and/or

— his predecessor helped get second careers around innocent kids & vulnerable adults.

And officials from the University of St. Thomas – where the predator also worked – should write to thousands of alums, aggressively seeking other possible victims of this predator and urging them to call law enforcement.

[Star Tribune]

Fr. Timothy McCarthy was a popular St. Paul area priest who, according to church memos, abused two boys early in his career. A psychologist told church officials Fr. McCarthy’s behavior was borderline criminal. And yet apparently, no church officials called police. Instead they helped him gain credentials to counsel teenagers and young adults at the University of St. Thomas.

Finally, adding insult to injury, Fr. McCarthy is still a priest today. According to Bishop Andrew Cozzens (who’s still on the job today) McCarthy “has denied abuse allegations — a factor in Archbishop John Nienstedt’s decision not to push for his involuntary removal from the priesthood.”

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
Journal

FIANNA FÁIL ARE expected to back a Sinn Féín motion being tabled in the Dáil this evening calling for a fully independent judicial inquiry into all mother-and-baby homes that operated in the country.

The motion, which will be voted on tomorrow evening, calls for the enquiry to be set-up as soon as possible.

The issue was also discussed at Cabinet this morning, with Taoiseach Enda Kenny telling reporters on the way in that the Government were treating the recent controversy over the mass grave at Tuam as a much wider issue.

Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan was due to present his inter-departmental review during this morning’s meeting. Kenny said that the Government would decide on “the best way to proceed” once that took place.

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
RTE News

Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan has announced a statutory Commission of Investigation into mother-and-baby-homes across the State.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Mr Flanagan said that it is too early to say who will lead the commission, but that he has some names in mind.

He said that the Government will receive an initial report from a cross-departmental investigation by 30 June.

Mr Flanagan said its work will inform the Government on the terms of reference and composition of the Commission of Investigation.

He said it is important that a light be shone on “these dark periods”.

Mr Flanagan said he hopes the inquiry will examine all issues, including the high mortality rates, the burial practices following these deaths, the legal circumstances around adoptions and the question of conducting of clinical trials.

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
BBC News

Irish Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan has announced a statutory Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes in Ireland.

The cabinet has been discussing the deaths of almost 800 children at a convent-run mother and baby home.

The remains of some children were found in a concrete tank in County Galway.

The grave in Tuam was initially thought to date to the 1850s when discovered 40 years ago. The children, one as old as nine, died between 1925 and 1961.

Ministers have been receiving a progress report from an inter-departmental group, which was set up by the government to examine the matter.

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
Journal

THE CHILDREN’S MINISTER has announced a statutory Commission of Investigation to investigate mother and baby homes.

Charlie Flanagan told RTÉ’s News at One that the commission will have full statutory powers and will “not be interfered with by government”.

Flanagan said that “we need to establish the truth of this matter”.

He said that now was a “time for sensitivity, not speculation”.

“That is why this morning, the government has decided to establish a Commission of Investigation with full statutory powers to examine all matters pertaining to mother and baby homes throughout the state.”

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
Journal

THIS AFTERNOON’S ANNOUNCEMENT that the Government is to set up a full Commission of Investigation into the operation of mother-and-baby homes has been welcomed by the Adoption Rights Alliance, which campaigns on behalf of women who were formerly resident in the institutions.

Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan confirmed today that the commission will have full statutory powers and will “not be interfered with by government”.

It follows a Cabinet meeting this morning, at which ministers were briefed on the issue by the Minister.

Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance said that Flanagan’s announcement appeared to “answer everything we were calling for”.

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

Harry McGee, Rachel Flaherty, Mary Minihan

Tue, Jun 10, 2014

A statutory commission of investigation is to be set up by the Government into issues in religious-run mother and baby homes across the State.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting this morning.

The special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates at Mother and Baby homes across several decades of the 20th century, the burial practices at these sites and also secret and illegal adoptions and vaccine trials on children, Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan said.

“My determination is to ensure all of the issues are dealt with in a way which is comprehensive,” said Mr Flanagan.

He added that it was essential the facts were established and a “light was shone on this dark period”.

Mr Flanagan said it was too early to say who will lead the commission, but added he had some names in mind.

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
Newstalk

The government has announced a full Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes. It will have full statutory powers to seek documents and compel witnesses.

The wide-ranging inquiry will examine all aspects of the running of the homes and will not just be confined to the revelations concerning the former Bon Secours home in Tuam.

The terms of reference for the Commission will be decided when a final report comes from a high-level departmental group.

That report, from nine government departments, is due to be finished by June 30th.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Children’s Minister announces Commission of Inquiry with full statutory powers into all mother and baby homes

MINISTER for Children Charlie Flanagan has announced a Commission of Inquiry with full statutory powers into all mother and baby homes.

Minister Flanagan said the investigation would establish the truth about what happened in all mother and baby homes across the country.

He hoped the inquiry would also investigate allegations of forced adoption and controversial vaccine trials carried out on children without their mother’s permission.

“It is my hope and determination that all these issues are dealt with in a way that is comprehensive,” he said.

The move follows weeks of controversy after the discovery of an alleged mass grave containing the remains of almost 800 babies in Tuam, Co Galway.

Mr Flanagan said he was hoping the commission would have cross-party support.

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 Examiner

A statutory inquiry is to be set up by the Government into state sanctioned, religious-run institutions used to house pregnant mothers.

The special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates at mother and baby homes across several decades of the 20th century, the burial practices at these sites and also secret and illegal adoptions and vaccine trials on children.

It is thought about 35,000 unmarried mothers spent time in one of 10 homes run by religious orders in Ireland.

The inquiry has been ordered after massive national and international focus on the story of one home, run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours in Tuam, Co Galway, where the remains of 796 infants are believed to be buried. Some lie in the remnants of what was once a concrete septic tank on the grounds of the home.

Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan said it was time to shed light on another dark period in Irish history.

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 Examiner

Newstalk has reported that experimental drug trials were conducted on at least 290 children across 10 mother-and-baby homes in the 1960s and 70s.

The trials were said to be conducted at homes at Bessborough in Cork, St Peters in Westmeath, St Clare’s in Stamullen, The Good Shepard in Dunboyne as well as six Dublin Homes.

In one of the trials, 80 children allegedly became unwell after they were given a vaccine intended for cattle in a trial at five care homes and orphanages in Dublin in the mid 70s.

The information is contained in a report from the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health’s report to the Oireachtas in the year 2000, obtained by Newstalk.

Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, says that any claims that the parents of the children gave permission for the trials to take place are “not credible”.

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 Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The order which ran the mother-and-baby home in Bessborough in Cork initially refused to transfer files relating to controversial vaccine trials to the HSE.

The Irish Examiner revealed in 2011 that, as the former adoption agency operated by the Sacred Heart Sisters had not applied for accreditation, and was not compelled to do so under the Adoption Act, its files would remain the private property of the order and could not be inspected by the Adoption Authority.

While the order did later agree to transfer around 25,000 files to the HSE, in a letter sent to one of the victims of the trials, Maureen Downey Hickey, who was later adopted to the US, the HSE stated it had “been advised that immunisation records will continue to be the responsibility of the order”.

More than 210 infants and babies, some 123 of whom were in the care of the State, took part in three confirmed trials to test vaccines between 1960 and 1973.

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 Mirror

Jun 10, 2014 06:00 By Alana Fearon

Marian Kelly reveals how her son was forcibly taken from her just hours after birth and illegally given up for adoption at Cork mother and baby home

A heartbroken mum whose baby son was taken from her hours after birth, has revealed how heartless nuns told her: “What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t feel.”

The growing outrage over the treatment of children in State religious homes intensified yesterday as it emerged vaccines meant for cattle were tested on kids.

Marian Kelly was just 18 when she gave birth to her son Anthony in 1974 and was taken to the Bessborough mother-and-baby home in Co Cork.

Choking back tears, she opened up about how she was allowed to hold her baby for just a few short minutes before he was taken from her by the Sacred Heart sisters who ran the home.

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
The New York Times

By DOUGLAS DALBY
JUNE 9, 2014

TUAM, Ireland — That 796 children, mainly babies, died at St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home between 1925 and its closing in 1961 is not disputed. A local historian, Catherine Corless, says she researched the death certificates. What troubled her was that she could find burial records for only one child and wanted a plaque to commemorate the lives of the others.

Ms. Corless surmised that the children’s bodies were interred in a septic tank behind the home, and she then met a local man who said he had seen bones there while playing as a child. While even she acknowledges that the conclusion was a circumstantial leap, once it was picked up in the local press, it was sensational enough to rocket around the globe, becoming a story of a disused septic tank brimming with bones.

Since the news broke last week, however, some of the assumptions that led Ms. Corless to her conclusion have been challenged, not least by the man she cited, Barry Sweeney, now 48, who was questioned by detectives about what he saw when he was 10 years old. “People are making out we saw a mass grave,” he said he had told the detectives. “But we can only say what we seen: maybe 15 to 20 small skeletons.”

Where and how the bodies of the children were actually disposed of remains a mystery — and a scandal in tiny Tuam, population 8,200, that has for the moment revealed more about the ways local lore and small-town sleuthing can be distorted in the news media juggernaut than about what actually went on decades ago at the state-funded home for unmarried pregnant women run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a Roman Catholic order.

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
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Tuesday, June 10, 2014

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson testified last month that he wasn’t sure whether it was illegal for priests to have sex with children while he served as chancellor of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese.

The former chancellor gave a deposition last month in a lawsuit that claims the Minnesota archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret, reported Minnesota Public Radio.

The 69-year-old Carlson also faces a massive clergy abuse lawsuit in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he’s served as archbishop since 2009.

One document made public in that case shows more than 100 priests and church employees have been accused of sexual abuse, and the Missouri Supreme Court ordered the archdiocese to turn over their names under seal.

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.

IRLAND
kathweb

Dublin, 09.06.2014 (KAP) Der katholische Erzbischof von Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, hat eine “vollständige Untersuchung” von Heimen für ledige Mütter und deren uneheliche Kinder in Irland gefordert. “Wenn in Tuam etwas passiert ist, dann ist es wahrscheinlich auch in anderen Mutter-und-Baby-Heimen im Land passiert”, sagte der Erzbischof in einem Interview mit dem irischen Nachrichtensender RTE. In Tuam in der Grafschaft Galway war vor kurzem bekanntgeworden, dass 800 Kinderleichen aus einem Massengrab aus einem Mutter-Kind-Heim stammten, das von katholischen Ordensfrauen geleitet worden war.

Man müsse die “gesamte Kultur der Mutter-und-Baby-Heime” erfassen, so Erzbischof Martin weiter. Auch die Adoptionspolitik der Heime und Angaben über medizinische Experimente müssten genau untersucht werden, forderte der Bischof. Es handle sich um eine “sehr komplizierte und sehr sensible Angelegenheit”, doch der einzige Weg, diesen Teil der Geschichte zu verarbeiten, sei das “Finden der Wahrheit”.

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.

IRLAND
Mittelbayerische

VON TERESA DAPP, DPA

DUBLIN. Missbrauchte Kinder in Schulen und Heimen, ausgebeutete Frauen in Arbeitshäusern, und nun auch noch Massengräber voller Kinderknochen: Irland steht ein weiteres Kapitel schwieriger Vergangenheitsbewältigung bevor. Diesmal geht es um Heime für unverheiratete Mütter und die dort geborenen Babys. „Die Kinder-Sterberate lag dort bei über 50 Prozent“, sagt Susan Lohan von der Initiative „Adoption Rights Alliance“. Zu Tausenden wurden die kleinen Leichen anonym verscharrt. Der Fall, der derzeit Schlagzeilen macht, ist besonders grausam. Fast 800 Skelette liegen in einer Jauchegrube in Tuam, einem Örtchen im Westen des Landes.

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.

IRLAND
Tiroler Tageszeitung

Dublin (APA) – Der katholische Erzbischof von Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, hat eine „vollständige Untersuchung“ von Heimen für ledige Mütter und deren uneheliche Kinder in Irland gefordert. „Wenn in Tuam etwas passiert ist, dann ist es wahrscheinlich auch in anderen Mutter-und-Baby-Heimen im Land passiert“, sagte der Erzbischof laut Kathpress in einem Interview mit dem irischen Nachrichtensender RTE.

In Tuam in der Grafschaft Galway war vor kurzem bekanntgeworden, dass 800 Kinderleichen aus einem Massengrab aus einem Mutter-Kind-Heim stammten, das von katholischen Ordensfrauen geleitet worden war.

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.

IRLAND
Radio Vatican

Politiker und Kirchenvertreter in Irland wollen die Geschichte der Heime für ledige Mütter und deren uneheliche Kinder durch eine unabhängige Kommission aufarbeiten lassen. Anlass für den Vorstoß sind jüngste Erkenntnisse zu einem Grab mit 800 Kinderleichen in der zur Grafschaft Galway gehörenden Stadt Tuma. Sie sollen aus einem Mutter-Kind-Heim stammen, das von katholischen Ordensfrauen geführt wurde. Das Massengrab war bereits in den 70er Jahren entdeckt worden. Lange Zeit hieß es, bei den Leichen handle es sich um Opfer der irischen Hungersnot im 19. Jahrhundert. Eine Historikerin deckte dagegen auf, dass es sich bei den Toten aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach um die sterblichen Überreste von jungen Heimbewohnern handelt, die zwischen 1925 und 1961 ums Leben kamen. Der Erzbischof von Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, sagte im RTE-Radio:

„Die Indizien sagen doch: Wenn das in Tuma passieren konnte, dann ist es vielleicht auch in anderen Mutter-und-Baby-Heimen anderswo im Land passiert. Darum glaube ich, dass wir eine umfassende Untersuchung brauchen. Es bringt nichts, nur das Geschehen in Tuma zu untersuchen und nächstes Jahr dann noch anderes herauszufinden – wir müssen die ganze Kultur der Mutter-und-Baby-Heime durchleuchten.“

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.

IRLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

09.06.2014, von JOCHEN BUCHSTEINER

Pater Brian D’Arcy, einer der bekanntesten Katholiken Irlands, traf vermutlich eine verbreitete Stimmung, als er von einer „Greueltat“ sprach, „die in einem anderen Land passiert sein muss“. Aber es ist Irland, seine Heimat, in dem ein Massengrab mit fast 800 Kinderskeletten entdeckt wurde. „Ich konnte gar nicht glauben, dass dies in meiner Lebenszeit passiert ist, in meinem Land und unter der Religion, zu der ich gehöre und der ich mein Leben gewidmet habe“, sagte der fassungslose Pater am Freitag dem irischen Fernsehen.

Die Öffentlichkeit steht kopf, seit die Forschungsergebnisse der Heimathistorikern Catherine Corless zur Gewissheit machen, was zuvor nur in einigen Regionen des Landes als Gerücht kursierte: dass Babys und Kinder „gefallener Mädchen“ in katholischen Heimen unmenschlich behandelt und nach ihrem Tod wie Abfall weggeworfen wurden

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.

IRLAND
taz

DUBLIN taz | Tuam ist eine wenig bemerkenswerte Ortschaft in der westirischen Grafschaft Galway. Sie hat ein wenig Bekanntheit erlangt, weil die lokale Folkrockgruppe Saw Doctors der Nationalstraße 17, die durch Tuam führt, ein Lied gewidmet hat. Außerdem wurde die Bahnstrecke um Tuam für Filmaufnahmen für „Der Ausgestoßene“ mit John Wayne benutzt. Die Strecke wurde jedoch 1978 geschlossen, der Bahnhof von Tuam steht leer.

Der Name des Orts stammt vom lateinischen „Tumulus“ ab – Grabhügel. 1875 hat man in Tuam eine Urne aus der Zeit um 1500 vor unserer Zeitrechnung gefunden. Einen weitaus grausigeren Fund machte die Historikerin Catherine Corless. Sie hat herausgefunden, dass zwischen 1925 und 1961 fast 800 Kinderleichen in einem Abwassertank auf dem Gelände eines Heims für „gefallene Mädchen“ – also ledige Mütter – abgelegt worden sind.

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
Spiritual Sounding Board

Six North Carolina brothers were arrested last week for allegedly sexually molesting their younger sister for over a decade, beginning when she was 4 years old until she was 14 years old. The names of the brothers are Eric Jackson, 27, Jon, 25, Matthew, 23, Nathaniel, 21, Benjamin, 19, and Aaron, 18. The charges include statutory rape, sexual assault, and rape. The young girl is currently 16 years old. The young men belong to a homeschool family with 11 children. At the time of the alleged abuse, they were living in North Carolina and two of the brothers were reportedly members of Scott Brown’s church, Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

The men’s parents – John Jackson, 65, and Nita Jackson, 54 – also were charged with felony child abuse and released after posting a $15,000 secured bond. Tilley said they were charged because they were aware of the abuse and failed to take action. (http://hamptonroads.com/2014/05/six-nc-brothers-accused-abusing-girl-over-decade)

Scott Brown has had very close ties with the now defunct Vision Forum Ministries and recently fallen Christian Patriarchal leader, Doug Phillips. Brown also heads up National Centers for Family -Integrated Churches which was originally connected with Vision Forum’s ministry. Church Elder Dan Horn also has similar connections with Vision Forum Ministries.

The church elder said he took Eric in December 2012 to speak with detectives and added he would have contacted investigators if Eric hadn’t agreed to do it.

“We believe their repentance is genuine,” Horn said.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com

A former Twin Cities bishop who now leads the Archdiocese of St. Louis responded 193 times in a court-ordered deposition that he could not remember details about priest child sexual abuse during his tenure.

Archbishop Robert James Carlson served from 1979 to 1994 as a top handler of priest abuse cases in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, attorney Jeffrey Anderson said.

Anderson represents victims of childhood sexual abuse, including a man who sued in May 2013 alleging he was molested by former priest Thomas Adamson while he served in St. Paul Park.

“He doesn’t remember anything about what he did,” Anderson said about Carlson at a Monday news conference in St. Paul.

“The sad and sorrowful thing is the victims of these abuses that had been concealed for so long by so many trusted figures have to remember.”

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
Net News Ledger

Posted 9 June 2014 by James Murray

THUNDER BAY – NEWS – A June 4 decision by Manitoba Justice Perry Schulman in Fontaine et al. v. Canada (Attorney General) found that so-called form-fillers acted in an “unconscionable” fashion with “unequal bargaining power” while coercing Residential School survivors to sign payment agreements that deprived as many as 1,000 former students the full amount of their claims awarded under the IRS.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and Grand Council Treaty #3 (GCT#3), two of the largest political organizations representing First Nations in Ontario and Manitoba, are raising awareness among former Indian Residential School (IRS) students as financial arrangements made by legal firms and other agencies for assisting with compensation claims are under investigation.

“Within the Treaty 3 territory we had the highest number of Indian Residential schools in comparison with any other part of Canada and as such for generations our communities, families and individuals have been severely impacted by the abuses and trauma, including misguided nutritional experiments on our relatives that attended these schools. While the Common Experience Payment (CEP) and Independent Assessment Process (IAP) offered an opportunity at recognition and reconciliation for harm to our IRS survivors, it is extremely painful to hear that victimization by ruthless lawyers has been perpetrated against vulnerable people who have had to endure a lifetime of pain and suffering,” said Grand Council Treaty #3 Grand Chief Warren White. “I encourage all IRS claimants who have questions or concerns about the manner in which their file, claim or compensation has been managed to come forward.”

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
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Alexandra Paul
Posted: 06/9/2014

The day Winnipeg lawyer Ken Carroll talked a sick, elderly woman into a 10-hour bus trip from Thunder Bay and had staff take $8,100 off her cheque as soon as she walked out of a Winnipeg bank, he was in trouble.

And any lawyer who did anything like it is also in trouble now, after a court ruling in Manitoba last week put a stop to the dubious practice.

Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench cited Winnipeg lawyer Ken Carroll and the First Nation Residential Schools Solution Inc. as a test case to make a larger point.

Mr. Justice Percy Schulman said his ruling applies to any lawyer and agency that filled in forms for survivors to get compensation and then charged their fees against their compensation cheques.

In fact, Schulman made no bones about his feelings on the matter in a ruling that covered 55 pages and took up for some 1,000 survivors of residential schools.

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
Failed Messiah

Magistrate Williams said he needed to apply the law as it was at the time of the offense but said if it had occurred today he “would have had no hesitation in sending [Daniel “Gug” Hayman] to jail.”

Daniel “Gug” Hayman

Daniel “Gug” Hayman, a former director of Chabad in Sydney, Australia sexually abused a boy at a Chabad camp in the late 1980s. Hayman went on to fail to comply with his voluntary sex offender counseling in Los Angeles and lived openly there under the partial protection of Debbie Fox, a social worker who at one time was mistakenly believed to be a strong advocate for haredi and Orthodox abuse victims.

Hayman was finally arrested in Australia on the old abuse charge and pleaded guilty.

What did Hayman plead guilty to?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hayman sat in court today and “did not stop reading from the Book of Pslams as he was given the sentence for touching and holding a 14-year-old boy’s penis during a camp at Stanwell Tops in the 1980s.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Emma Partridge June 10, 2014

A Jewish volunteer found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage boy at a Yeshiva camp was handed a 19-month suspended jail sentence in a Sydney court on Tuesday.

Daniel Robert Hayman did not stop reading from the Book of Pslams as he was given the sentence for touching and holding a 14-year-old boy’s penis during a camp at Stanwell Tops in the 1980s.

Magistrate David Williams said he would not have hesitated in sending Hayman to jail had the offences been committed recently but said he was bound by the laws at the time the offence was committed.

Hayman, a dual Australian-American citizen who lives with his wife and children in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a child under 16 and under his authority at a hearing in May.

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

UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • June 10, 2014

The Irish Times pokes more holes in the initial reporting of the Tuam story. Excerpt:

‘I never used that word ‘dumped’,” Catherine Corless, a local historian in Co Galway, tells The Irish Times. “I never said to anyone that 800 bodies were dumped in a septic tank. That did not come from me at any point. They are not my words.” …

At this point, it doesn’t appear that the story, while still horrific, is not as bad as it appeared when first reported. That is, it doesn’t seem that the children were especially mistreated at the Catholic home, and their bodies disrespected because they were the issue of unmarried parents. It seems — I keep saying “seems,” because there’s still a lot we don’t know about the “Home Babies” case — anyway, it seems that the high death rate had a lot to do with Ireland’s poverty at the time, and while illegitimate children were harshly and cruelly stigmatized in Ireland at the time, that ought to be understood in context of the era, its intense poverty, and the conservatism of all Irish society, not just the Roman Catholic Church. I could be wrong. We’ll see.

It’s wrong to call all this “good news,” but to me, it is a relief to learn that the Church may be less culpable than the initial reports indicated. I posted the shocking first story, and have posted the debunking follow-ups as they’ve become available. That hasn’t stopped pious Tom Piatak, a stringer for a turgid Midwestern monthly, from losing his grip over my blogging. A “bitter apostate” he calls me, which is theologically ignorant; according to the Catechism, an “apostate” is one who totally repudiates Christianity, while a “schismatic” is one who affirms Christianity but who does not submit to the Roman pontiff. But this isn’t really about theology with him, but rather tribal breast-beating:

Rod Dreher’s desire to pass judgment on Irish Catholicism on the basis of one poorly sourced story, and Andrew Sullivan’s desire to jettison sexual morality on the basis of that same story, tell us that they cannot be trusted when it comes to 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
The Australian

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE former head of a Catholic order, due to give evidence at a royal commission hearing starting today, failed to take any action in response to allegations of child sexual abuse, its lawyers have said.

Marist brother Alexis Turton is expected to give evidence during the Canberra hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Separately, lawyers acting for the commission have published their submissions relating to a previous hearing, arguing evidence exists to allow the commissioners to make adverse findings against Brother Turton, as well as other Marist clerics.

Between 1993-94, Brother Turton spoke to one alleged abuser, Raymond Foster.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The suppression order protecting the identity of former Marist Brother Gregory Sutton found guilty of child abuse in 1996 has been lifted.

Sutton has been known as ZA since 1996, but the order was lifted following an application to the NSW District Court by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse sitting in Canberra.

Sutton’s lawyer, Greg Walsh, applied to have his client’s identity kept secret on the basis it could cause psychological damage as well as putting Sutton at risk of physical harm.

Commissioner Justice Jennifer Coate ruled against the application. She said the issues raised had not been sufficient to shift the balance away from the obligation for a clear and open inquiry.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times

The Marist Brothers have paid out $6.84 million in compensation to 38 former students who were sexually abused by John William Chute, who is also known as Brother Kostka.

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Simeon Beckett, said payments averaged $178,000 but those made through Towards Healing were substantially less.

Chute is now living in the community in NSW.

The royal commission heard on Tuesday that allegations of sexual abuse were made against him as early as 1960 and that he had admitted to “inappropriate touching” while at Marcellin College in Randwick.

Chute was transferred to St Anne’s Primary School at Bondi and was again the subject of allegations of sexual abuse in 1961 and 1962.

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
Northern Star

Jessica Grewal | 10th Jun 2014

THE child abuse royal commission has begun its inquiry into allegations two predator Catholic brothers from Lismore were allowed to damage dozens of children over more than four decades before finally being jailed for their sins.

For the first time since he was convicted of 67 child sex abuse offences in 1996, Gregory Sutton has been exposed for the years of torment he inflicted on students at St Carthages in the 80s.

A non-publication order imposed by the NSW District Court at the time of his sentence was lifted at the start of today’s hearing.

The harnessing of the careers and protection of both Sutton and brother John “Kostka” Chute – a former St Joseph’s (now Trinity College) principal, who despite admitting child abuse at Lismore, was promoted to Canberra’s prestigious Marist College – is the focus of the hearing.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

It has taken almost 30 years but two women, abused as 10-year-olds by then Marist Brother Gregory Sutton, have finally received an apology from their molester.

Sutton, whose identity was disclosed for the first time at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Canberra on Tuesday, had told one of the two he would kill her family if she ever spoke out.

The offences occurred while Sutton was a teacher at St Thomas Moore School in Campbelltown in 1984 and 1985. Before this he had taught at Marist College Junior School at Pearce in Canberra from 1980 and 1983. It has been alleged that while in Canberra, Sutton had abused seven boys aged 10 and 11.

Sutton’s lawyer, Greg Walsh, contacted the former Marist Brother during the lunch break and told him earlier attempts to apologise to witnesses ADM and ADQ had not been passed on.

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
Echo Netdaily

AAP – Stories of ruined lives, death threats, lost police statements and a three-decade-old apology have featured in the opening session of child sexual assault hearings in Canberra.

Witnesses on Tuesday recounted their mistreatment at the hands of Marist Brothers Gregory Sutton and John Chute who worked as teachers at schools in NSW, the ACT and Queensland.

Sutton worked for a period at St Carthages in Lismore, while Chute is a former principal of St Josephs (now Trinity College).

‘The affect of the abuse by Brother Gregory has been profound and had a significant impact on me in a number of areas of my life,’ one female victim told the hearing, recounting numerous problems since the 1984 abuse.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jared Owens
Reporter
Canberra

A PEDOPHILE Catholic brother was allowed to continue working as a school principal, even after he was charged with 24 counts of child sexual abuse in the 1990s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning commenced a hearing into the Marist Brothers’ dealings with two pedophile teachers John Chute and Gregory Sutton accused of collectively abusing 69 girls and boys at numerous schools across NSW, Queensland and Canberra.

Counsel assisting the commission Simeon Beckett, in his opening address, that senior Marists were repeatedly warned about both Chute and Sutton, and both admitted wrongdoing, but allowed them to continue teaching.

Sutton was “sent for counselling” to the Southdown Institute, a residential care facility in Canada, after revealing wrongdoing to a senior Marist, Alexis Turton, in 1989.

Police in Australia meanwhile issued 24 warrants for his arrest between 1992 and 1993.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ralph Riegel and Emma Jane Hade

A GOVERNMENT and church-backed independent commission of inquiry into the mother and baby homes scandal won’t be launched until it is clear it will not interfere with garda investigations.

Privately, senior cabinet ministers acknowledged such an investigation would be set up within months though there is increasing concern over the scale of its inquiry remit.

Mother and baby homes operated across Ireland for 40 years but were also intrinsically linked to industrial schools and orphanages.

The facilities are also at the centre of secret vaccine trial and clandestine foreign adoption controversies.

The Coalition is open to the inquiry being led by domestic or overseas judicial official once its precise remit is agreed.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Caroline Crawford
Published 10/06/2014

AS the full extent of the shocking mother and babies home scandal becomes apparent, a number of questions remain to be answered.

Just how much light the Bon Secours order of nuns can shed on this matter remains to be seen. They have welcomed an investigation saying they were “shocked and deeply saddened” by the reports about St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home.

However, it is not clear if remaining members of the order are aware of any gravesite for children at the home.

What do the surviving records from the home tell us?

All records on the home were passed on by the Bon Secours to the Health Service Executive in Galway. The ledgers have now been found at Tulsa, the Child and Family Agency. They must be studied in depth.

The specific number of children who may be buried in the tank at Tuam is also unclear. Historian Catherine Corless has so far checked only a cross-section of 100 names from the list against local burials. It has also emerged that records do not exist for all of the graveyards in the area. A full in-depth review of each of the 796 children will be needed to ensure they were not buried elsewhere.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Caroline Crawford
Published 10/06/2014

A prominent member of the committee set up to mark the 800 babies who died in a Tuam home has called for a “reality check” when it comes to apportioning blame for the tragedy.

Martin Ward, who is also a former Mayor of Tuam, insisted that the Catholic Church must not carry all responsibility for what happened in the homes, insisting that society and the parents of the young girls must also accept blame in the matter.

“I think people need a reality check. People have got to look at the times and the culture that was in it. Kids outside the home were dying in large numbers as well. People don’t seem to realise that,” he said.

Mr Ward said it was easy to simply blame the Catholic Church for what went on but pointed out that society at the time was harsh.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Caroline Crawford
Published 10/06/2014

The scandal over events at St Mary’s Mother and Baby home has been 90 years in the making. These are the main developments:

* St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home was operated by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, Co Galway, from 1925 to 1961.

* Inspectors’ reports from 1947 raise concerns about the high numbers of deaths at the home. They also mention emaciated children.

* In 1975 two Tuam children, Frannie Hopkins and Barry Sweeney, discover skeletons, believed to be those of children, in a covered-over crypt while playing in the field near where the home stood. Prayers are said at the site by a local priest and the bones are covered over again.

* Locals in Tuam tend to the grave over the decades and it is recorded on maps as a children’s burial ground.

* In recent years a local group set up a committee to erect a memorial at the site. As part of this work, historian Catherine Corless requests the death certificates for all children who died in the home over its 36 years. She was left stunned to receive death certificates for 796 children ranging in age from two days to nine years. They died from a range of ailments.

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

A drug company, which has records of children who underwent experimental vaccine trials in baby homes, has said it will “respond fully” to those requesting their own personal data.

A spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was commenting after the use of trial vaccines on children in orphanages between 1960 and 1973 re-emerged in the wake the baby deaths controversy at St Mary’s mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

A €2m state probe into the vaccine trials was abandoned in 2006 by former health minister Mary Harney after a court challenge.

Victor Boyhan, a councillor in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, who was in the care of the Church of Ireland run Bird’s Nest home, yesterday called for an inquiry before an Oireachtas committee into the drugs trials.

A Department of Health report confirmed in 2000 that 123 residents of Dublin children’s homes were used in vaccine trials by the Wellcome drug company. It suggested some children used in one trial may have been more susceptible to polio infection as a result.

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

Tue, Jun 10, 2014

An inquiry into the operation of mother and baby homes in Ireland should establish precisely what happened in those institutions; the level of approval and support they received from State agencies and Catholic Church authorities and whether the lurid headlines of recent weeks have any basis in fact. Unmarried mothers and their children experienced cruel and deliberate discrimination. But to what extent did social rejection facilitate forced adoptions, improper vaccine trials, avoidable deaths and the heartless disposal of small bodies?

The painstaking work of local historian Catherine Corless drew public attention on the deaths of 796 children who died at a mother and baby home in Tuam Co Galway, between 1925 and 1961. Her efforts, over a number of years, including paying for copies of publicly available death certificates, were designed to ensure that every dead child from the home should be remembered by name on a formal burial plaque.

Reports that the bodies of 800 children were “dumped in a septic tank” did not come from her. But they dominated political discourse; broadened the debate and drew attention to an unhealthy symbiotic relationship that existed between church and State during those years, including many working in health services.

The surprising thing about the Tuam disclosures is that we are surprised. Modern Ireland has an amazing capacity for self-induced amnesia. The systemic abuses that took place in industrial schools, mental hospitals, county homes and laundries were well documented but largely ignored.

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

Harry McGee, Rachel Flaherty

Tue, Jun 10, 2014

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the issues in mother and baby homes are much wider than just one home and another senior member of Cabinet said the Government is moving toward a full inquiry.

Speaking on his way into a Cabinet meeting this morning Mr Kenny said Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan would give a presentation on the progress of an interdepartmental review into some of the issues at the homes.

These included mortality rates, burial practices, forced adoptions and other issues.

The Sacred Heart Home opened in Bessborough, Co Cork, in 1922, managed by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. Cormac O’Tuama, looks at teddies and flowers placed outside the gates of Bessborough during a memorial service on Sunday. Photograph: ProvisionMother and baby home inquiry must examine our culture of concealment

“I have a briefing from the Minister for Children this morning and will decide what is the best thing to do,” Mr Kenny said. He said the issues were “much broader than just one home.”

The review was ordered following disclosures that almost 800 infants and young children had died in the Bon Secours home in Tuam between 1925 and 1961.

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

If shame has gone, why do we use secret abortions in England to preserve the myth of holy Ireland?

Fintan O’Toole

Tue, Jun 10, 2014

The Irish psychosis whose latest expression is thousands of dead babies in unmarked graves is a compound of four elements: superiority, shame, cruelty and exclusion. The Taoiseach last week called the deaths of those children “yet another element of our country’s past”. Are we so sure that these forces are not also our country’s present?

The superiority complex in Irish society came from the desperate need of an insecure middle class to have someone to look down on, an inferior Other against which to define its own respectability.

In 1943, the Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers compiled a well-meaning memorandum on children in institutions. It noted of those in mother-and-baby homes that “These illegitimate children start with a handicap. Owing to the circumstances of their birth, their heredity, the state of mind of the mother before birth, their liability to hereditary disease and mental weakness, we do not get, and we should not expect to get, the large percentage of healthy vigorous babies we get in normal circumstances. This was noticeable in the institutions we visited.”

These were humane and compassionate reformers. And it seemed obvious to them that children born out of wedlock would be physically and mentally weak and that “we should not expect” them to be normally healthy.

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.