ABUSE TRACKER

WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 25, 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 )

Thirty brave child sex victims have settled their abuse and cover up suits against Seattle Catholic officials. We applaud these courageous and determined individuals and suspect that there are dozens more victims in the Seattle area – from these two parochial schools and other schools – who remain trapped in silence, shame and self-blame.

We hope this settlement will encourage them to step forward, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

It’s tough for any abuse victim to speak up. But it’s especially tough when the perpetrator is a powerful religious figure. And it’s especially tough to report abuse in Catholic schools. The classes tend to be closely knit, so many victims fear that if they speak up, others will find out who they are and what happened to them. And many who graduate from Catholic high schools carry a mass of confusing feelings. On one hand, they are convinced they got a good education and they’re grateful for it. On the other hand, they know they should never have been assaulted. But deep loyalty to their alma mater is one added factor that keeps many Catholic school victims quiet.

We are grateful these 30 individuals have worked so hard and long to hold complicit church officials accountable for their reckless actions. It’s a shame that Catholic officials drag these cases out for years, but we appreciate the persistence of these victims who have suffered so much for so long.

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WASHINGTON
MSN

By Eric M. Johnson of Reuters

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The Archdiocese of Seattle has agreed to pay about $12.125 million to 30 men who alleged they were sexually abused as children and teens at two Seattle-area schools from the 1950s until 1984, their attorney said.

The men alleged in lawsuits filed in King County Superior Court that the Catholic district failed to shield them from known abusers at Seattle’s O’Dea High School and at Briscoe Memorial School, in nearby Kent, plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Pfau said in an interview.

The schools were operated jointly by the Christian Brothers of Ireland religious order and the Archdiocese of Seattle, which owned both schools, he said. The settlement agreement, which had been negotiated over the past year, was announced on Tuesday.

The agreement comes weeks after Pope Francis said the Roman Catholic Church had to take a stronger stand on a sexual abuse crisis that has disgraced it for more than two decades.

Media in the U.S began reporting in the early 2000s how cases of abuse were systematically covered up and abusive priests were shuttled from parish to parish instead of being defrocked and handed over to civil authorities.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Vatican comments on recent reports on Franciscans of the Immaculate, Legion of Christ

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, has issued a statement in response to questions related to recent media reports on the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and the Legionaries of Christ.

Andrea Tornielli has reported that Pope Francis met on June 10 with members of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Father Lombardi confirmed that Pope Francis met on that day with Father Fidenzio Volpi, the community’s commissioner, and all of the community’s seminarians, and stated that the community is searching for a house in Rome so that the seminarians could study at a pontifical university.

In response to reports on the Legionaries of Christ, Father Lombardi said that with the drafting of a new constitution for the community, the work of the pontifical delegate (Cardinal Velasio de Paolis) has concluded and the Legionaries again fall under the purview of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

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MINNESOTA
Austin Daily Herald

By Trey Mewes and Jenae Peterson

Area Catholics and Pacelli Catholic Schools families are left with more questions than answers after the Diocese of Winona revealed Monday that a former priest may have sexually abused a teenager during his time in Austin. Yet local leaders say the news only shows the need for more transparency when it comes to sexual abuse in schools.

“What happened today in Austin has happened in the Twin Cities repeatedly, and every time it is with more feelings of disappointment, a sense of betrayal, a lack of trust,” said Pacelli President Jim Hamburge. “All of those things come to mind because they shouldn’t have happened in the first place and once it happened, [the accused] never should have been in a position to harm anyone else.”

The diocese released more details about 14 priests accused of sexually abusing children earlier this week. The list of priests includes Jack Krough, who served in Austin from 1976 to 1980 and from 1996 to 1998.

Krough taught at Pacelli High School during his tenure in the 1970s. In 1993, he admitted a photo of a nude 16-year-old male found in his home was taken by him in 1978. Krough also admitted he sexually abused a minor between 1979 and 1981 when he was confronted with accusations in 1997, during his second stint in Austin.

He was sent to St. Luke’s Institute after both admissions for treatment and assessment, and went back into ministry each time. He resigned from the ministry in 2002, after he was confronted in another incident involving inappropriate touching.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

posted by Mike Durkin

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
Attorneys for the victims of alleged sexual abuse by Minnesota priests are asking a judge to order the release of church emails and text messages related to abuse allegations.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said they need to verify which individuals, at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, knew about allegations of abuse and when they knew it.

The electronic records are being sought in a lawsuit that alleges church officials created “private and public nuisances by failing to disclose information about certain priests accused of sexually abusing minors.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: June 25, 2014

Plaintiff’s attorneys want to question archbishop and get more documents. Church lawyers say some records are protected by First Amendment.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis went to court Wednesday to try to halt further demands for information about how the church handled priest sex abusers.

Attorneys for an alleged victim of clergy abuse asked a Ramsey District Court judge to approve a second round of depositions from Archbishop John Nienstedt and former vicar general Kevin McDonough.

They’ve also asked that records from the archdiocese’ priest personnel board be included in the documents the archdiocese has been required to submit to them. The archdiocese has said the records are protected by the First Amendment.

The hearing before Ramsey District Court Judge John Van de North is part of a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of a man who claimed he had been abused decades earlier by the Rev. Thomas Adamson, who later left the priesthood.

It contends that church officials here and in the Winona Diocese put children and others at risk by failing to disclose information about priests who had been accused of abuse.

The lawsuit has led to unprecedented disclosure of church filesand the release of names of more than 100 priests accused of child sex abuse in every diocese of the state except New Ulm.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 25, 2014

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

A Michigan pastor deceived his flock, claiming that his associate pastor went on leave for “personal reasons” when in fact the associate faces child abuse charges. It is extremely disingenuous and dangerous for church officials to be so misleading in child abuse cases.

[Grand Haven Tribune]

Last Sunday, Rev. Tom Cook of First Presbyterian Church in Grand Haven gave a vague reason to his members for associate pastor Scott Robertson leave.

Church officials have an obligation to tell the truth to their community. Alerting parents about potential predators allows them to properly protect their children. It also encourages victims who are suffering in silence and self-blame to speak up. Rev. Cook should be ashamed of himself and should be disciplined.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 26, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE Vatican actively prevented bishops taking action against sexually abusive priests as recently as 2000, the royal commission has heard, with the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide saying that he considered resigning his position over one such case.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Philip Wilson said the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Clergy “always came down on the side of the priests” accused of child-sex abuse.

“There was a phenomenon going on where bishops, particularly in the US, were trying to deal with these cases involving abuse and the Congregation for the Clergy consistently made things difficult for them in trying to do that,” Archbishop Wilson said.

“The Congregation for the Clergy always came down on the side of the priests and the instructions they gave to the bishops were (that) what they had done had to be put aside and the priest allowed back into ministry.”

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MICHIGAN
Grand Haven Tribune

BECKY VARGO
GRAND HAVEN
JUN 25, 2014

The Rev. Tom Cook of First Presbyterian Church announced to his congregation on Sunday that Scott Robertson, the Grand Haven church’s associate pastor of Family Life, was on leave dealing with a personal situation.

Members of the congregation said Cook didn’t share any more information, and Cook is on vacation this week and not available to answer questions from the Tribune. Office staff declined to comment.

Robertson, 32, could be arraigned today on a fourth-degree child abuse charge, said Capt. Mark Bennett of the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department. The Grand Haven man is being charged with causing injury to his then 3-month-old son.

The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of up to one year in jail.

Bennett said the county prosecutor’s office likely authorized the lesser charge because the child is almost fully recovered. In addition, the father has no criminal history and is no longer living at home.

Robertson pleaded no contest in May to a Michigan Department of Human Services petition seeking to take the child out of his care.

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OREGON
KOIN

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 25, 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)

Another clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit has been filed against the Portland Catholic archdiocese stemming from crimes by a notorious serial predator, Fr. Maurice Grammond.

[KOIN]

We applaud this brave man for exposing incredibly irresponsible actions by several top Catholic officials who repeatedly refused to tell police, parents or parishioners about a clearly dangerous child molesting cleric.

It’s very tough for child sex abuse victims to disclose their suffering. It’s even harder for them to seek justice and expose wrongdoing in court. But it’s crucial if kids are to be safer and crimes are to be prevented.

We hope that families will learn of this lawsuit and discuss ‘safe touch’ with their kids. We hope that employers will learn of it and work harder to screen potential employees and respond quicker and better when abuse reports are made or abuse suspicions are raised.

Most of all, we hope that this courageous man’s lawsuit will prod others who have been betrayed by child molesting clerics and irresponsible church supervisors to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoers, deter wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, June 23, 2014

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE – In less than six month’s time, the Diocese of Gallup has racked up more than $600,000 in legal and accounting fees and expenses since it filed its Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Those “first interim” professional fees, totaling nearly $612,000, were detailed in several hundred pages of court documents.

Quick payment, however, may not be forthcoming.

According to the court file, the Gallup Diocese is not currently able to pay its own bankruptcy attorneys and accountants. Like clergy sex abuse survivors who have to submit their claims to the court by the Aug. 11 deadline, the diocesan attorneys and accountants may have to wait for payment until the diocese sells off property, taps into insurance policies and possibly draws from the financial assets of other Catholic dioceses and religious orders who allowed their sexually abusive clergy to serve in the Diocese of Gallup.

The diocese filed its Chapter 11 petition on Nov. 12, 2013, in response to what Bishop James S. Wall said were mounting clergy sex abuse legal claims and lawsuits.

The diocese had been named as a defendant in 13 such lawsuits in Arizona’s Coconino County Superior Court, and the first case was slated for a jury trial in February of this year. By filing for bankruptcy, Wall halted all those civil cases, spared his church officials from court depositions and testimony, and kept the Gallup Diocese’s child sex abuse history from a jury.

First interim fees

The Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case, however, is proving to be costly in other ways. The diocese’s three currently active law firms and one accounting firm recently submitted their first interim fees and expenses to the court for a total cost of $611,916.63.

*Quarles & Brady of Tucson, the diocese’s lead law firm in the bankruptcy, submitted an application for payment for the period of Nov. 12, 2013 to March 31, 2014. Quarles & Brady requested payment of $450,601.03, which included $426,550 for fees and $24,051.03 for expenses.

*The Albuquerque law firm of Walker & Associates is providing a supporting legal role in the bankruptcy case. Attorney Thomas D. Walker submitted an application for payment of $18,062.40, which includes legal fees, expenses and gross receipts taxes. Walker’s billing period extends through April 30, 2014.

*The Albuquerque law firm of Stelzner, Winter, Warburton, Flores, Sanchez & Dawes, which is listed as special counsel for the diocese, submitted an application for $4,820.69 for legal fees, expenses and gross receipts taxes for a billing period through March 31, 2014. According to the law firm, most of its work for the diocese was related to “routine employment law-related services” rather than to the Chapter 11 reorganization. Prior to the bankruptcy, attorney Robert P. Warburton of the Stelzner firm represented the Diocese of Gallup in many of its clergy abuse lawsuits and legal negotiations.

*Keegan, Linscott & Kenon, an accounting and financial consulting firm from Tucson, submitted its application for payment for $138,432.51, which includes professional fees and expenses. The firm’s interim billing period goes through March 31, 2013.

The Diocese of Gallup is also responsible for paying the legal fees and expenses of the legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which advocates for the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants in the case.

Tasks and challenges

According to statements made by Quarles & Brady, the Stelzner law firm, and the Keegan accounting firm, the three companies did not charge the Gallup Diocese their full professional rates. All claimed they offered the diocese various financial discounts, and Quarles & Brady stated the firm had written off over $60,000 of its time.

Last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma issued orders approving the interim compensation fees and expenses submitted by those three firms. Thuma authorized “such compensation and expenses as and when sufficient funds become available to do so.”

Thuma has yet to rule on Walker & Associates’ application for payment.

In the Quarles & Brady application, the law firm included an itemized list of legal fees by category that is nearly 120 pages in length. Some of the more critical legal tasks include dealing with bank accounts improperly opened by parishes and missions using the diocese’s tax identification number, determining what real estate property the diocese owns because the diocese did not maintain such a list, trying to ascertain market values of property, researching information about insurance coverage, sorting out oil and gas leases, negotiating with various creditors such as utility companies and banks, and reviewing diocesan files to identify potential claims against the diocese.

According to the Keegan accounting firm, it faced a number of challenges because the diocese’s chief financial officer, Deacon James Hoy, resigned two months before Wall made his Chapter 11 announcement.

“The Debtors are currently without a Chief Financial Officer …, and did not have one for several months pre-petition,” the firm stated in its application for payment. “The Debtors also did not have accounting software or systems that were appropriate for their operations.”

The accounting firm stated it “had to perform both high-level analysis and ground-level operational and training functions” as it worked with Hoy’s staff.

Identifying assets

So how will the Diocese of Gallup eventually pay the ongoing fees for all these attorneys and accountants and settlement money to clergy sex abuse claimants?

According to court documents, attorneys for the diocese and the Unsecured Creditors Committee have been working to identify potential diocesan financial assets.

The Gallup Diocese owns considerable property in Arizona and New Mexico, some of which will be sold. Quarles & Brady stated it has been identifying “property that is not critical to the continued mission and ministry” of the diocese that could be sold to fund a plan of reorganization.

Thuma also approved the diocese’s hiring of the Insurance Archaeology Group, a New York company that specializes in the forensic review of insurance assets.

In his diocese’s application to the court to hire the company, the Gallup bishop stated Insurance Archaeology Group “has a team with the required expertise, experience, and resources to locate and recover documentation of missing liability coverage and other historic insurance issues.”

According to Wall, the company “will be able to review the earliest available insurance records, research top priority internal records, investigate related internal record sources, and identify potential outside sources.”

Some of those potential outside sources most probably include other Catholic dioceses and religious orders that allowed their sexually abusive clergy to serve in the Gallup Diocese.

Currently, the Unsecured Creditors Committee has a motion before the court requesting the Diocese of Corpus Christi in Texas be compelled to produce a number of documents concerning the Rev. Clement A. Hageman, a sexually abusive priest who left Corpus Christi and served in the Gallup Diocese for more than three decades. The Corpus Christi Diocese is objecting to the motion, and Thuma has scheduled a final hearing on the matter Wednesday.

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MEXICO
e-Consulta

[Summary: Archbishop Rafael Romo Munoz knew for two years accusations, allegations and complaints against priests for sexual harassment of children and allowed them to continue in the church. Three investigations by various agencies provided enough for the Vatican to order temporary suspension of seven priests. Five were removed from parishes while two continue in the parishes. The archdiocese confirmed suspension of Jeffrey David Newell, pastor of Our Lady of the Incarnation in Camino Verdo; Enrique Tenorio Perez of St. Martin Caballero in Colonia Las Villas; and Aurelio Castillo Aguilar, priest of St. James Church. The archbishop explained that priest Danilo Pietro Zanini continues in his parish because he has not received instructions from the Vatican. The archbishop also denied that pastor Carlos Vastillo was involved in the investigations. These two names appeared as suspected pedophile in the “Dossier Tijuana Saint and Sinner blog.]

Tijuana, Baja California (SinEmbargo/Zeta).– Durante dos años, el Arzobispo de Tijuana, Rafael Romo Muñoz, tuvo conocimiento de señalamientos, acusaciones y denuncias en contra de sus sacerdotes por acoso sexual a menores y les permitió continuar dentro de la Iglesia, mientras víctimas, testigos y clérigos dieron cuenta de las acciones de los párrocos inculpados. Tres investigaciones realizadas por diferentes instancias brindaron evidencia suficiente para que El Vaticano ordenara la suspensión temporal de siete sacerdotes. Cinco fueron removidos de las parroquias que dirigían y alojados en propiedades pertenecientes a la Iglesia, dos más continúan al frente de sus iglesias.

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana confirmó la suspensión de los padres Jeffrey David Newell, párroco de la iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación en Camino Verde; Enrique Tenorio Pérez, padre de la iglesia San Martín Caballero en la colonia Las Villas y Aurelio Castillo Aguilar, presbítero de iglesia Santiago Apóstol, en la colonia Reforma. El Arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz explicó que del sacerdote Danilo Pietro Zanini aún no recibe instrucciones del Vaticano para suspenderlo, por lo que continúa en la parroquia San José de la colonia Durango. Además negó que el párroco Carlos Castillo esté implicado en las investigaciones. Estos dos nombres aparecieron como presuntos pederastas en el blog “Dossier Tijuana: Santa y Pecadora” del laico Teodoro Uckerman, quien denunció el caso públicamente, denuncia que fue retomada por la prensa local.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan
Health Correspondent

THE remains of 474 infants – who died in mother-and-baby homes and hospitals – were used for research and doctors’ training in Irish universities for a quarter of a century, the Irish Independent has learned.

New figures reveal the full extent of the practice of doctors using “unclaimed bodies” for anatomical study up until the mid-1960s with no evidence of consent being obtained.

There were 474 unclaimed infant remains transferred to the medical schools at four universities from 1940-1965 for the “study of the anatomy and the structure of the human body”.

The latest revelations come in the wake of renewed controversy over standards of care in the mother-and-baby homes across the country following the discovery of mass infant deaths at St Mary’s in Tuam, Co Galway.

The baby remains were transferred to UCD, Trinity College Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin, and NUI Galway until a campaign by the college professors got under way to encourage voluntary donation.

The infant remains transferred to the medical school in NUI Galway came from two Galway hospitals as opposed to directly from mother-and-baby homes, according to records. It is unclear what the circumstances of the deceased babies’ parents were. The Central Hospital in Galway had a TB ward and was replaced by the Regional Hospital Galway in the early 1950s.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

Posted by Paige Cornwell

The Seattle Archdiocese has agreed to pay $12.125 million to 30 men who say they were sexually abused as children decades ago at Seattle’s O’Dea High School and Briscoe Memorial School in Kent.

In lawsuits filed in King County Superior Court, the men allege the Seattle Archdiocese failed to protect them from known abusers, including two former O’Dea teachers who were members of the Christian Brothers Catholic order, which filed for bankruptcy in April 2011. The Christian Brothers operated O’Dea and Briscoe, a former orphanage and boarding school for boys, but both schools were owned by the Archdiocese.

“I deeply regret the pain suffered by these victims,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain said this afternoon in a statement. “Our hope is that this settlement will bring them closure and allow them to continue the process of healing.”

Seattle attorney Mike Pfau, who represented the 30 men, said today the settlement puts an “end to the ugly chapter for the Archdiocese.” He said his clients, who range in age from 42 to 68, feel relieved after the decade of litigation in the wake of the abuse, from the early 1950s until 1984.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

A Catholic archdiocese in northern Alberta has been linked to a series of alleged sexual assaults dating back to the 1950s by four victims who filed lawsuits this month.

Though the three men and one woman all filed statements of claim against the Catholic Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan, the allegations span three decades and several members of the archdiocese. All four attended St. Bernard Mission School at the time of the alleged abuse. The four lawsuits total $890,000.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Priest accused of sexual assault asked to preside at funeral of alleged victim’s aunt, court told

June 25, 2014
Adam Cooper
Court reporter for The Age

A man who claims he was sexually assaulted by a priest as a boy reacted with disbelief when told about 40 years later that the same man would conduct his aunt’s funeral, a jury has been told.

Former priest James Henry Scannell is accused of sexually assaulting a boy at the priest’s then home in Kew between August 1970 and July 1972 when the boy was aged between 11 and 13. Mr Scannell, now 88, has pleaded not guilty to one charge of buggery.

Mr Scannell is alleged to have led the youngster into his bedroom and then sexually assaulted him one day when the boy was at the priest’s house working for pocket money.

Prosecutor Kristie Churchill, in her closing submission in the County Court on Wednesday, told the jury the boy was “frozen in fear” and experienced pain and discomfort while being assaulted.

Afterwards, the boy was told to have a shower and give confession before he walked home crying, the jury heard. He never returned to the priest’s home.

But defence counsel Max Perry told the jury it was difficult to prove one person’s allegation against another when so much time had elapsed.

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IRELAND
Journal

THE MINISTER FOR Justice has announced approval for legislation that will support survivors of Magdalene laundries.

Frances Fitzgerald announced that the Government has, this morning, agreed to her proposal for publication of the scheme of a new bill.

Commenting in the Dáil during Parliamentary Questions, the Minister further announced that, to date, lump sum payments totalling €12.8m have been made under the Magdalene Redress Scheme to 357 former residents of Magdalene Laundries, with further offers still being made.

* The bill will give survivors:
* Access to health services;

An exemption from means test criteria for certain State services and schemes (including the Nursing Home Support Scheme)

Fitzgerald added that legal provision is being made for relatives to act on behalf of any of the women who do not have the capacity to act of their own behalf.

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ROME
Matter

If you intend to be a proper Catholic priest, you would be wise to follow the little formalities of the church. When in Rome, for example, you are required to wear your cassock or at least a clergy shirt, and bishops and cardinals are expected to wear their flowing robes. But Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was cardinal of Buenos Aires before he became known to the world as Pope Francis, hated pomp and ceremony and was not very proper at all. He kept his scarlet robes in a convent founded by an Argentine nun, so he wouldn’t have to carry the damn things back and forth to Vatican City. Before heading for a priests’ residence in central Rome he would stop by the convent, chat for a bit, and pick up the garments, which had been reverently pressed and folded for him by the nuns.

Bergoglio stopped at the convent one last time, last year in March, on his way to the historic conclave of 115 cardinals that would elect him the first Latin American pope and the first from the order of the Society of Jesus—the Jesuits. He must have had a very good idea of his chances. Little known beyond Argentina, he had nevertheless finished second in the vote that elected Benedict XVI in 2005. It was understood that he was an outlier, ascetic, unconventional to a fault, but he seemed to be the right kind of pope to clean up the world’s oldest and largest institution, hemorrhaging followers and riddled as it is with ancient vices, and bring it into the XXIst century.

What may not have been so clear to the cardinals who chose him above all others at that conclave is that Francis would enter the Vatican like Jesus into the Temple or a bull into a china shop, knocking over conventions and rules with abandon. And what stunned everyone was that, from the moment he stepped out on the balcony of St. Peter’s for the first time on that drizzly evening, he would channel a ravening hunger for change among millions of people all over the world. He certainly didn’t look like a world-changer. A mild-mannered, slightly stooped, grandfatherly old man dressed in simplest white—no lace and scarlet finery for him—he stood quietly contemplating the crowd for a very long minute before uttering a hearty buona sera! with a pronounced Argentine accent. The effort of bending forward to receive the people’s blessing made Francis’s back tremble slightly, and watching on a screen I, a non-Catholic, was moved, too.

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MICHIGAN
New York Daily News

BY NINA GOLGOWSKI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, June 24, 2014

A Christian radio host in Michigan has allegedly admitted to raping a 12-year-old boy.

John Balyo, 35, formerly of radio station WCSG, was arrested at last Friday’s Big Ticket Christian music festival in Gaylord, Mich. after authorities say he paid to have sex with the boy on May 17.

His accused rape-date organizer, Battle Creek resident Ronald Lee Moser, 42, was later arrested on June 5 after authorities stormed his home and found him with a 12-year-old boy, MLIVE.com reported.

Moser was also found with a cell phone containing photos of the boy wearing a thong in sexually suggestive poses and several online photo albums containing child pornography that authorities believe he traded online.

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WASHINGTON
Q13 Fox

SEATTLE — The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle announced Tuesday that it reached a $12.1 million settlement involving 30 claims of sexual abuse by members of the Christian Brothers order, which operated The Briscoe School in the Kent Valley and Seattle’s Bishop O’Dea High School.

The most recent cases in the settlement are nearly 30 years old, with some dating back nearly 60 years, the archdiocese said.

The settlement was funded by archdiocese insurance programs.

A teaching order, the Christian Brothers operated The Briscoe School, a boarding and day school for boys in the Kent Valley, beginning in 1914.

The order also staffed and managed Bishop O’Dea, an archdiocese high school, from its opening in 1923.

“I deeply regret the pain suffered by these victims,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain said in a news release. “Our hope is that this settlement will bring them closure and allow them to continue the process of healing.”

In lawsuits filed in King County Superior Court, the plaintiffs alleged both the Christian Brothers and the Seattle Archdiocese failed to protect them from known abusers.

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CALIFORNIA
The Lookout

By Zina Markevicius
For The Lookout

June 25, 2014 — Egotism and lust for power are not limited to Wall Street. Roger Crane’s thought-provoking play, The Last Confession, demonstrates how politics and personal ambition pervade the Vatican as well.

Based on historical events, the play running at the Ahmenson Theater through July 6, centers on the Catholic church’s most influential leaders, as they navigate the election, sudden death and the replacement of Pope John Paul I in 1978.

Photo. Program Cover. The Last Confession – An Anatomy of Ego and Power LA Ahmenson Theater
Manipulative and power-hungry, these cardinals and other top officials play politics to push their own agendas and careers. They make an unsympathetic bunch.

Among the key players is Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, portrayed by Briton David Suchet, best known for his role as Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Unlike the lovable detective, the scheming cardinal seems ruthless in his pursuit of power, until the death of his friend, John Paul I, after just 33 days as pope.

“I made him pope, and I abandoned him,” confesses Benelli, who pushed his fellow cardinals into selecting the fellow Italian.

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AUSTRALIA
Advertiser

By Katherine Fenech June 24, 2014

A FORMER Marist brother has told a royal commission hearing he had warned church officials a fellow brother was a possible child molester but was ignored.

The commission held a fortnight of public hearings in Canberra, looking at whether the church ignored repeated reports of abuse by two Marist Brothers, moving them to other schools.

One of the brothers, Gregory Sutton, taught at Campbelltown’s St Thomas More primary school in 1984, where he allegedly sexually assaulted two girls and a boy in his year 5 class.

Denis Doherty was principal of a North Queensland primary school in the 1970s, where Sutton also taught.

Mr Doherty said he had raised concerns about Sutton having “pet” students whom he favoured with the provincial of the order, Charles Howard, during an annual visit in 1976. But Mr Doherty said when he asked what would be done about Sutton he was told “none of your business”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Alex Rose, Delaware County Daily Times
POSTED: 06/24/14

MEDIA COURTHOUSE — A Parskide Sunday school teacher and youth basketball coach pleaded guilty Monday to one count each of possessing child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility, both felonies of the third degree.

Steven Daniel Almond, a deacon at the Middletown Presbyterian Church, turned himself over to authorities in June 2013 on two counts of disseminating photos or films of child sex acts, 25 counts of sexual abuse of children for possession of child pornography and 27 counts of criminal use of a communication facility.

Almond, 55, of the first block of West Forestview Road, posted 10 percent of $250,000 bail in July.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Delaware County Detective Joseph Walsh, a member of the county’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, identified a computer sharing suspected child pornography on a peer-to-peer file network on June 6, 2013.

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WASHINGTON
KOMO

SEATTLE — The Archdiocese of Seattle announced Tuesday it has paid $12.1 million to settle 30 claims of sexual abuse by members of two church-run schools in western Washington.

The abuse claims were made by students at schools run by the Christian Brothers, which is a teaching order that operated the Briscoe School in the Kent Valley and Seattle’s Bishop O’Dea High school, according to the Archdiocese.

“I deeply regret the pain suffered by these victims,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain said in a news release. “Our hope is that this settlement will bring them closure and allow them to continue the process of healing.”

The archdiocese continues to operate O’Dea but the Christian Brothers are no longer involved. Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni says the Briscoe School closed in the late 1960s.

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WASHINGTON
CBS Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) — The Archdiocese of Seattle said Tuesday it has agreed to pay $12.1 million to settle 30 sexual abuse claims filed by men who say they were abused decades ago at two archdiocesan schools operated by the Christian Brothers religious order.

The claims involved O’Dea High School in Seattle and the Briscoe School, a boarding and day school for boys in suburban Kent. The archdiocese continues to operate O’Dea, but the Christian Brothers are no longer involved. The Briscoe School closed in the late 1960s, archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said.

“I deeply regret the pain suffered by these victims,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain said in a statement.

Plaintiffs’ lawyer Michael Pfau said the archdiocese, under Sartain, “did the right thing and acknowledged the tremendous amount of pain and suffering that our clients, their families and our community have endured.

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GEORGIA
Dawson News

By Michele Hester Staff Writer
mhester@dawsonnews.com
UPDATED: June 25, 2014

A former youth ministry intern from Dawsonville faces nearly three dozen child pornography charges in connection with an investigation that originated earlier this year in neighboring Forsyth County.

According to Dawson County jail records, more than 30 warrants were issued Friday for Sean E. Paul, 28. He was arrested on Monday.

Paul has been charged with 32 counts of sexual exploitation of children and a single count of child pornography, all felonies.

He also faces charges of child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor in Forsyth County.

It was his March arrest in Cumming that led investigators to his Richmond Drive home, where Dawson County Sheriff’s Capt. Tony Wooten said “a significant amount of child pornography” was found on electronic and computer equipment.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Catholic archbishop of Adelaide says the church needs to discuss the responsibilities of priests to whom a crime is confessed.

Philip Wilson was asked at a royal commission hearing into child sexual abuse what happened if someone confessed to a crime against a child.

The archbishop explained that a firm commitment of amendment would be required before the penitent could be given absolution.

That meant the person had to commit to something that showed the behaviour would stop.

“If you heard that in confession, you have the ability to say to them, ‘as a consequence of this you must fulfil the obligation of the law’,” he said.

The bargaining for absolution was something a priest had to do in the confessional, he told Justice Peter McClellan, who pointed out it left the priest with the knowledge that the person was at least a potential danger to children.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: Associated Press Updated: June 25, 2014

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Attorneys for victims of alleged sexual abuse by clergy are asking the church to turn over electronic files about accused priests — so they can verify who had information about these priests, and when they had it.

During a hearing Wednesday in St. Paul, victims’ attorneys will ask a judge to order the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona to turn over emails, texts and other computer data about abuse allegations.

The documents are being sought in a lawsuit that alleges church officials created a public nuisance by keeping the names of accused priests secret.

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CANADA
Timmins Press

By Len Gillis
Tuesday, June 24, 2014

TIMMINS – The new billboard sign that went up in Timmins Tuesday is believed to be the only one of its kind in Ontario. But the fellows who put the sign up are saying one in six men in Ontario should see it.

That’s because the issue of sexual abuse against young males is rampant, they said, and it is something that needs to be exposed and talked about more.

Ray Auclair and Ray Lariviere, both of Timmins, are men who are survivors of sexual abuse from their adolescent years.

Auclair grew up in Timmins. Lariviere grew up in Chelmsford. As young teenagers, even though they were hundreds of miles apart, both were victimized in remarkably similar circumstances by older men; men who gained their trust and confidence and then sexually assaulted them.

One was molested by a businessman, the other by a priest.

The priest went to jail. The businessman committed suicide.

Auclair and Lariviere are now friends who met in a support group. They are also committed to encouraging more men to come forward, to tell their stories of abuse and to expose the abusers. Both men spoke at a special dinner held in Timmins back in February to raise funds for the Timmins billboard project.

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SINGAPORE
The Online Citizen

“When I was fifteen, I came into unfortunate contact with a priest who would engage me in play wrestling and attempt to touch my crotch in the process,” activist and former member of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Dr Vincent Wijeyshingha, said in a Facebook post on Monday.

“He once brought me to his bedroom and took a stack of pornographic magazines from his wardrobe to show me,” he added, without naming the priest.

Dr Wijeysingha’s online note was in response to a statement by the Catholic Archbishop, William Goh, over the weekend, in which he described the “lifestyle” of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) people as “detrimental to society”.

The Archbishop also said such a “lifestyle” was “not helpful to integral human development and contrary to Christian values.” (See here.)

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

By: Cassie Hart

In a deposition released Tuesday, a former priest says he was never disciplined for allegations of abusing children in his decades-long career with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Father Jerome Kern worked at St. Mark’s in St. Paul after being ordained in 1966.

During the April 15 deposition, he was asked when the last time was that he engaged a child in some form of sexual contact; Kern replied it had been 35 years. At the time, he didn’t think his contact with some young boys was sexually abusive.

University of St. Thomas Law Professor, Charles Reid, who is an expert on canon law, religion and the Catholic Church, stopped by KSTP to offer analysis on the case.

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TENNESSEE
Times-News

June 24th, 2014 10:45 pm by STAFF REPORT

KINGSPORT — A former Kingsport Catholic priest accused of molesting a young boy more than three decades ago had his conviction upheld Monday after the Tennessee Supreme Court refused to hear his case.

William Casey, previously of Greeneville, is currently serving a 35-year sentence as a result of his 2011 conviction in Sullivan County Criminal Court on charges of first-degree sexual misconduct and two counts of aggravated rape.

The charges stemmed from the repeated sexual abuse of an altar boy that occurred while Casey was a priest at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in the 1970s.

The Supreme Court denied Casey’s appeal without hearing the case. The action upholds the ruling previously issued by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

BY ANNETTE BLACKWELL
June 25, 2014

The decision by an Australian bishop to stand aside a NSW priest because of complaints he molested children led to Vatican infighting which pitched powerful bodies against one another.

It also led to a decision that has ramifications across the globe as to how Catholic bishops can deal with priests who are suspected child sexual abusers.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse at a Sydney hearing is looking at how the Catholic Church under its own law – canon law – deals with priests or religious against whom allegations have been made.

In particular, it is looking at the case of John Gerard Nestor, who was a priest in the Wollongong diocese in NSW when he was charged with the indecent assault of a teenage altar boy in 1996. He was acquitted.

The Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson, who was the bishop of Wollongong in the late 90s, stood Nestor aside when he refused to go to a clinic for assessment as recommended by the church’s internal procedure, Towards Healing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Vatican always sided with priests in abuse cases, archbishop says

JUNE 25, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide has said the Vatican actively prevented bishops taking action against abusive priests during the late 1990s, and he considered appealing to the Pope or resigning his position over one such case.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Philip Wilson said the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Clergy “always came down on the side of the priests” accused of child sex abuse.

“There was a phenomenon going on where bishops particularly in the US were trying to deal with these cases involving abuse and the Congregation for the Clergy consistently made things difficult for them in trying to do that,” Archbishop Wilson said.

“The Congregation for the Clergy always came down on the side of the priests and the instructions they gave to the bishops were (that) what they had done had to be put aside and the priest allowed back into ministry,” he said.

The commission is investigating the case of one allegedly abusive priest, John Gerard Nestor, who Archbishop Wilson barred from working publicly during his previous appointment as bishop of the Wollongong Diocese in NSW.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

June 25, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Archbishop Philip Wilson was newly appointed to the Diocese of Wollongong when he received some disturbing reports about a local priest, the then Father John Gerard Nestor.

It was 1996 and Mr Nestor was already facing charges of sexually molesting a 15-year-old boy. He would later be convicted and then acquitted on appeal in 1997.

In the meantime, Archbishop Wilson was hearing complaints from other families about Father Nestor’s behaviour on the summer camps he ran in the early 1990s.

Complainants alleged Mr Nestor swam naked with boys, watched them showering and held competitions to “find the ‘hairiest arse’ and the ‘biggest dick’.”

Appearing before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Wilson, now the Archbishop of Adelaide, shed light on the inner workings of the Catholic Church and its handling of priests accused of misconduct.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By EMMA SPILLETT June 25, 2014

Wollongong lawyer Mark Johnston still remembers the day Frank* wandered into his office, seeking advice about his dealings with the Catholic Church.

The initial meeting triggered a chain of events, which culminated in a year-long legal battle that allegedly exposed the failings of the Church’s ‘‘Towards Healing’’ program.

Fast forward nearly a decade and the Church’s internal settlement regime is now under intense scrutiny by the Royal Commission into the Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse.

Some abuse victims have come forward to blast the Church’s ‘‘healing process’’ and its alleged attempt to steer people away from legal action, in exchange for a financial settlement.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By KATE McILWAIN June 25, 2014

A former Wollongong bishop threatened to take the matter of a priest accused of child molestation all the way to the Pope, a hearing into institutional child abuse heard.

On the second day of a public hearing into how the Wollongong Catholic Diocese responded to complaints of child sexual abuse against then Father John Nestor in the 1990s, the now Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson was the first witness.

Following on from his appearance the previous day, Archbishop Wilson was questioned about events in 1997.

At that time, Mr Nestor had successfully appealed a conviction of aggravated indecent assault against a 15-year-old altar boy.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Wednesday 25 June 2014

Towards Healing, the process the Australian Catholic church used to deal with allegations of child sexual abuse, did not have Vatican approval, a royal commission has heard.

Archbishop Philip Wilson told the commission on Wednesday how a formal decree he made when he was bishop of Wollongong to stop a priest about whom there had been complaints, was nullified by a powerful Vatican body.

The archbishop is in the box for the second day explaining how he dealt with John Nestor, a priest who was defrocked by Pope Benedict in 2008.

Complaints about Nestor dated back to 1991.

In 1996 he was found guilty of indecent assault of a teenage altar boy but was acquitted on appeal in 1997.

The archbishop said he used the Towards Healing protocol – the internal process set up by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference – to have Nestor assessed after he was acquitted.

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SINGAPORE
Malaysia Chronicle

‘RAPE & BUGGER’ HYPOCRISY: Catholic priest molested me when I was 15 – activist

SINGAPORE – Social activist Vincent Wijeysingha has accused a Catholic priest of trying to molest him when he was a teenager, in a strongly-worded Facebook post on Monday night that attacked the Catholic Church and its stand on homosexuality.

Here is the statement he published on Facebook on June 23:

I see no grounds in Archbishop William Goh’s pronouncement on homosexuality for anything but contempt. Throughout its existence in Singapore, the church has raised its voice in support of little that Christianity has to offer the moral universe. Yet when it does, when one would expect it to affirm its teachings at Matthew 26:27 and in the first Letter to the Corinthians at Verse 13:13, it chooses one within a domain where it has no rights, given its own hideous record.

The universal church is guilty of the systematic rape and abuse of children committed to the care of a clergy ostensibly vowed to celibacy. The response of the magisterium to the thousands of adults now asking it to repair the untold damage done to them in their childhood was first to threaten and coerce into silence and, when that failed, spend billions – yes, billions – of dollars in out of court settlements. Meanwhile, it shielded paedophile clerics from the intervention of the law. In some cases involving senior prelates, it appointed them to sinecures in the Vatican, putting them outside the ambit of local police authorities.

Contrary to what has been put about that this is an isolated phenomenon limited to the United States and Ireland, this is a global phenomenon. While not as extensive as other dioceses, the local church in Singapore is not exempt. Some years ago, it was embroiled in a scandal involving a historical allegation of sexual abuse by a priest. The accused was transferred to another church where his access to children was unimpeded.

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Aimee Green | agreen@oregonian.com
on June 24, 2014

A man in his mid-50s who says he was abused as a boy by Oregon’s most prolific pedophile priest — Maurice Grammond — filed an $8.1 million lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Portland in federal court Tuesday.

The man, who now lives in California, says that when he was age 6 to 9 he was raped at his home and at the rectory at Our Lady of Victory by Grammond. He estimates he was sexually assaulted 10 to 20 times from 1969 to 1972.

Grammond grew close to the boy and his three brothers after their mother died, said Portland attorney Kristian Roggendorf, who filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Roggendorf said this latest victim to come forward brings the number of Grammond’s victims to about three dozen.

Roggendorf’s client is identified in the suit under the pseudonym Martin Voe. Roggendorf said that as early as the mid-1950s, the archdiocese had received a credible report about Grammond molesting a child.

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SINGAPORE
The Star

SINGAPORE: A Social activist has accused a Catholic priest of trying to molest him when he was a teenager, in a strongly-worded Facebook post on Monday night that attacked the Catholic Church and its stand on homosexuality.

Dr Vincent Wijeysingha’s post was in response to Arcbishop William Goh’s recent statement that restated the Catholic Church’s view of the family unit and that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) relations is “not in accordance with the plan of God”.

It comes amid support by various groups of a Wear White campaign organised by a Muslim religious teacher to protest against homosexuality during this Saturday’s Pink Dot event.

Dr Wijeysingha, 44, a former Singapore Democratic Party member, was Singapore’s first openly gay politician. He quit the party last August to focus on LGBT rights and other civil liberties.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Stanly News and Press

By Tiffany Thompson for the SNAP
CNHI

Tuesday, June 24, 2014 — A civil lawsuit that was pending against Father Michael Joseph Kelleher in Mecklenburg County Superior Court has been dismissed after a trial judge ruled that the case exceeded the statute of limitations. Two unnamed men, who reported that Kelleher sexually abused them while they were in their teens, filed the lawsuit Sept. 28, 2011.

The lawsuit stated that “since at least the mid-1970s, [the Charlotte Diocese] has known or should have known that Father Joseph Kelleher was abusing minors and also that he was spending long periods of time alone with them in the rectory, at other locations and on overnight trips both within and outside the territory of the defendant diocese.”

According to the court’s recent ruling, however, the two men waited too long to report their claims of sexual abuse and therefore exceeded the statute of limitations.

Seth Langson, a Charlotte attorney who represented the two men, confirmed that he has 30 days in which to file an appeal to the judge’s decision.

“It is critical to remember that this ruling did not have anything to do with whether the Diocese had covered up and concealed sexual abuse by priests or whether Father Kelleher and/or Father Richard Farwell had abused our clients,” Langson said in his “A Voice for Victims of Sexual Abuse” blog.

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CALIFORNIA
Fox 5

by Salvador Rivera
Reporter

SAN DIEGO — Priest Jeffrey Newell has been suspended by the Catholic Church for sexually abusing children in Tijuana. This is the second time Newell has been sanctioned for his actions.

Years ago, Newell was involved in the Los Angeles sexual abuse scandal. His victims were promised he’d never be allowed near children ever again. It turns out he had been working in a Tijuana church since 2010.

After a number of allegations, a team of Vatican investigators arrived in Tijuana to look into complaints against Newell and 17 other priests. Seven of them, including Newell, were relieved of their duties.

With disciplinary action pending, Newell fled Tijuana and is reportedly back in California, possibly San Diego.

Richard Sipe, who has researched priest abuse for decades, says the Catholic Church continues to shuffle predator priests, only now, exporting the problem to Latin American countries such as Mexico.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Seth H. Langston

Posted on June 23, 2014

Diocese Sex Abuse Cases

Today the trial judge ruled that our clients had waited too long to bring their claims for sex abuse against the Diocese. It is critical to remember that this ruling did not have anything to do with whether the Diocese had covered up and concealed sexual abuse by priests or whether Father Kelleher and/or Father Richard Farwell had abused our clients.

We were looking forward to presenting our case to the jury and introducing all of the evidence about how the Charlotte Diocese has acted no differently than many other dioceses across the country in dealing with such allegations.

Despite the Judge’s ruling, I encourage anyone who was sexually abused by a priest of the Charlotte Diocese to come forward.

This case also should motivate people to demand that our legislatures extend or abolish the civil statute of limitations for sex abuse.

Please pray for the brave survivors who came forward.

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OREGON
KOIN

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) – A man who says he was repeatedly raped as a child by a priest in Seaside, Ore. is suing the Archdiocese of Portland for $8.1 million.

The man, identified in the complaint under the pseudonym “Martin Voe,” said between 1969 and 1972 – when he was between the ages of six and nine – Archdiocese of Portland priest Father Maurice Grammond abused him between ten and 20 times.

This, while the Archdiocese knew of previous abuse cases committed by Grammond in the 1950s, said Voe’s lawyer, Kristian Roggendorf.

“The Archdiocese knew that Fr. Grammond had been credibly accused of abusing boys as early as the mid-1950s, and the Archbishop had even been contacted by a judge of the Clatsop County Court the year before my client’s abuse started,” said Roggendorf.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Nonprofit Quarterly

WRITTEN BY RICK COHEN CREATED ON TUESDAY, 24 JUNE 2014

Amid the national controversy around columnist George Will’s view that women who have been sexually assaulted on college campuses occupy “a coveted status that confers privileges,” there is a specific story of one university with an apparently reprehensible policy regarding the treatment of victims of rape.

Bob Jones University in South Carolina lost its nonprofit tax status in a 1983 Supreme Court decision in which the Court decided that the university’s virulent racist policies were incompatible with compelling government public policy and could override the school’s belief that the First Amendment protected its racism. Would the IRS have acted similarly had it known of BJU’s treatment of women at the school who report themselves as victims of rape?

Al Jazeera’s impressive America Tonight program has aired a two-part show on BJU’s approach to the issue of sexual assault on campus. It tells of a woman who, after being raped by her supervisor at a summer job, reported the incident to the dean of students. As the young woman recounts the story, here is what the dean said:

“He goes, ‘Well, there’s always a sin under other sin. There’s a root sin,’” she recalled. “And he said, ‘We have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.’”

The Al Jazeera story covers the allegations of that young woman and others who described at BJU a “culture that heaped on shamed and pushed them to silence…[in which] they were told that their sins had brought on their rapes, that their trauma meant they were fighting God and that healing came from forgiving their rapists.” The details in the story address not only the incidents of sexual abuse, but the trauma (not privilege, Mr. Will!) endured by the victims and the religious counseling offered by the school’s staff, focusing on getting the victims to forgive the rapists and to convince them to remove from their thinking the thoughts that made them unhappy, depressed, in cases, suicidal.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

A bishop from the Dominican Republic has reported that he was shocked to see a former papal nuncio, who is under investigation on sex-abuse charges, walking freely around the center of Rome.

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who had been the Vatican’s representative in the Dominican Republic, was recalled to Rome last year. Prosecutors in the Dominican Republic have said that they have convincing evidence that the prelate molested young men there; he has also been accused of abuse in his native Poland.

The Vatican has promised to cooperate with Dominican and Polish prosecutors, and pointed out that as a citizen of the Vatican city-state, Archbishop Wesolowski is also subject to criminal prosecution there. The Vatican has made no further public statement about his case. But when Pope Francis told reporters that three bishops are under investigation, most reporters assumed that Archbishop Wesolowski was included in that number.

However, Bishop Victor Masalles, an auxiliary of the Santo Domingo archdiocese, reported that he saw the Polish bishop during a trip to Rome. “For me it was a surprise to see Wesolowski walking along the Via della Scrofa,” he said.

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POLAND
Catholic News Service

By Jonathan Luxmoore
Catholic News Service

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — Poland’s Catholic Church has held a penitential service for victims of sexual abuse by priests, after calls for more action to curb molestation in the country.

“It was said this was America’s problem, and then a problem of Anglo-Saxon countries, and then a problem for the West — the frontiers were pushed ever further so we could insist it didn’t affect us,” said Bishop Piotr Libera of Plock, a former bishops’ conference secretary-general.

“As bishops, we must admit that, instead of putting the good of children in first place, we too often allowed ourselves to be deceived by the fraud, duplicity and denial mechanisms of perpetrators of the crime of pedophilia.”

“Ashamed and repentant, we ask for forgiveness,” he said in a June 20 Mass in Krakow’s Jesuit basilica. “We ask God and we ask people who were hurt by the priests.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

National Catholic Reporter was named first in “General Excellence” among national Catholic newspapers for the 13th time in 14 years by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada at the 2014 Catholic Media Conference that ran June 18-20 in Charlotte, N.C.

The judges said NCR provides “simply excellent coverage of the Catholic world in the U.S. and abroad. Challenging in some articles but solid in sourcing across articles. American journalistic standards with a strong sense of the newsworthy.”

NCR also garnered 21 other CPA honors, including four first-place awards for news writing and commentary:

Best online blog: “Distinctly Catholic” by Michael Sean Winters
Best news writing on a national event: “Lack of funding ends lay-run forum” by Megan O’Neil
Best news writing on an international event: Mary Jo McConahay’s coverage of the Guatemala genocide trial
Best investigative reporting: “Contradictions cast doubt on Philadelphia verdicts” by Ralph Cipriano

NCR also took the second- and third-place honors for investigative news writing. Second place went to NCR staff writer Brian Roewe for “Excommunicated: A tangled tale leads to Australian priest’s dismissal.” Third place was awarded jointly to Jason Berry, Joshua J. McElwee and Tom Gallagher for “Anatomy of a cover-up,” “The widow: Deposition shows dedication to order,” and “The banker: insulator and facilitator.”

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Sexual abuse survivor, attorneys will request release of electronically stored information from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Ramsey County Hearing Moved to 9:00 AM Wednesday, June 25, 2014

(St. Paul, MN) – On Wednesday June 25, 2014, at 9:00 AM in Ramsey County District Court, Judge John Van de North may decide whether the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona will be required to turn over electronically stored information in the Doe 1 civil lawsuit filed in May 2013.

Doe 1, along with his attorneys are also seeking additional deposition time with Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Vicar General Father Kevin McDonough and records from the Priest Personnel Board.

Please note the time change made by the Court. The hearing will begin at 9:00AM CDT tomorrow in Ramsey County District Court.

• The original Doe 1 complaint and additional information can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.927.7872 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.927.7872 Cell/612.205.5531

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MINNESOTA
WXOW

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A priest accused of molesting boys says leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis allowed him to remain around kids for decades – even though parents complained about his conduct.

Attorneys for a man who claims he was abused by the Rev. Jerome Kern released documents in the case Tuesday, including a sworn deposition in which Kern says he wrestled with kids and horsed around, but didn’t think his actions were inappropriate.

He says no one in church leadership told him he should stop the behavior and he wasn’t restricted from being around kids. Attorneys for victims say church leaders first got a report about Kern in 1969. He was removed from ministry in 2002.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service | Jun. 24, 2014

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican will name a special “assistant” to advise the leadership of the troubled Legionaries of Christ, whose revised constitutions Pope Francis has still not approved four months after they were submitted to him.

Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil, general director of the Legionaries, made the announcement in a video message sent to the congregation’s members Sunday and now accessible on YouTube.

Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz and Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, informed Robles Gil of the plan for an adviser at a recent meeting, the general director said.

“We asked if this assistant would have a role in government, but we were told that no, our government was autonomous,” Robles Gil said in the video.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Minihan

Tue, Jun 24, 2014

Women who worked in the Magdalene laundries and remain resident in Ireland will get a medical card and other supports following Cabinet approval for draft legislation today.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald also confirmed payments which have been made by the State to the women will be exempt from means test criteria for services such as nursing home support.

“Following the apology issued in the Dáil by an Taoiseach to former residents of the Magdalene laundries, the Government committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by Mr Justice [John]Quirke in his report,” she said.

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ITALY
National Catholic Reporter

Nicholas Collura | Jun. 24, 2014 NCR Today

It is hard to imagine a more perfect contemporary personification of human evil than the Italian mafia Camorra scattering carcinogenic trash throughout Naples or the ‘Ndrangheta, whose high-placed and diversified criminal activities did not put it above assassinating a 3-year-old in January.

This weekend, Pope Francis found a gesture to rival these mafia organizations’ power, declaring them excommunicated. His prophetic action set off a range of speculations.

Some fear the pope has placed himself in danger. Similar worries began circulating last year, when Calabrian state prosecutor Nicola Gratteri warned that “if the godfathers can find a way to stop” the pope from condemning corruption and reforming Vatican finances, “they will seriously consider it.” At that time, mafia expert John Dickie was more skeptical: “Even a rudimentary projection of the likely consequences of a hit on the head of the Catholic Church,” he said, “would show it to be catastrophic” to the mafia itself.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

The Little Sisters of the Poor apparently have not agreed to accept convicted murderer Gerald Robinson as a patient at their Sacred Heart Home in Oregon.

In a court filing today, Rick Kerger, attorney for the dying Catholic priest, amended his petition seeking to have Robinson released from a prison hospital to return to Toledo. He informed the court that the Little Sisters “were not asked to care for, and have not made any commitment to care for” Robinson.

Mr. Kerger wrote that the error in his original petition for equitable relief filed on Friday was his own. He declined to comment Tuesday.

Last week, Mr. Kerger asked a federal court judge to release Robinson to the Little Sisters of the Poor or to Robinson’s brother and sister-in-law in Toledo. Robinson, 76, is in a hospice unit at Franklin Medical Center, a Columbus hospital run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, after suffering “a massive coronary.”

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CANADA
Sun News

TONY BLAIS | QMI AGENCY

EDMONTON – A northern Alberta Catholic archdiocese has been slapped with four separate lawsuits totalling $890,000 relating to alleged historical sexual assaults.

According to the four statements of claim, which were filed June 11, the assaults happened at or near the St. Bernard Catholic Church in Grouard, Alta., in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Two of the lawsuits allege sexual assaults by a priest identified as Father Lambert.

One male plaintiff claims Father Lambert sexually assaulted him in the basement of the St. Bernard Mission School on unknown dates between 1952 and 1961.

The alleged victim says he suffered irreparable psychological harm, recurring flashbacks, betrayal and an aversion towards church settings as a result of the alleged forced masturbation, groping and attempted sodomy.

A second male plaintiff claims Father Lambert put his hands down his pants and fondled his penis on an unknown date in 1952 at the Grouard town hall, which was owned and operated by the St. Bernard Catholic Church.

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OHIO
ABC News

TOLEDO, Ohio — Jun 24, 2014
By JOHN SEEWER Associated Press

A nursing home run by nuns has not been asked or agreed to take care of a dying Roman Catholic priest convicted of killing a nun at a hospital chapel in 1980, his attorney said Tuesday.

The attorney for the Rev. Gerald Robinson wrote in a court filing that his statement last week that the Little Sisters of the Poor were willing to care for the priest was in error.

“The Little Sisters of the Poor were not asked to care for, and have not made any commitment to care for Father Robinson,” attorney Richard Kerger said.

Robinson has been in a prison hospice unit in Columbus since the end of May after suffering a heart attack and wants to die in his hometown of Toledo, Kerger said in a motion filed Friday in federal court.

The motion said that the Little Sisters of the Poor, who run a home for the elderly and dying just outside Toledo, indicated a willingness to care for Robinson during his final days. It also said the priest’s brother and sister-in-law were willing to take him in, Kerger said.

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UNITED STATES
Deliverance

I have observed that many people I know are unsympathetic to the never-ending sex scandals within the Catholic Church. “It’s only Catholics doing bad things to Catholics,” I have been told. “Any people dumb enough to subject themselves to such a gross cult-like authoritarian structure deserve anything that happens to them!”

With the case of Father Timothy Backous, however, the Catholic Diocese of Duluth, the St. Scholastica Monastery, and the corporation of ESSENTIA HEALTH have gone outside the confines of the Church. They have involved the public at large, with potential consequences for Protestants, Jews, Eastern Orthodox, Swedenborgians, Buddhists, Atheists, Pagans, whoever.

ESSENTIA HEALTH, corporation-wide, is a public medical entity. They actively solicit and encourage ALL of the public to obtain their services. They engage in a continuous process of advertising and publicity. As a public combination of hospitals and medical centers, and receiving at least partial funding from public monies, ESSENTIA HEALTH is obliged to follow state and federal rules and regulations on a number of issues.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 24, 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 recently released deposition, a predator priest admits the Twin Cities archdiocese took no action against him after abuse allegations were reported. We are not surprised, but we’re deeply disappointed that Catholic officials were and are so reckless with the safety of children.

[Star Tribune]

Fr. Jerome Kern is one of 30 priests the archdiocese recently admitted has credible abuse allegations against them.

We hope, as more and more of these revelations come to light, that parishioners and parents will be able to better protect their children and demand that church officials act legally, responsibly, and in line with their own codes of conduct.

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IRELAND
Catholic World Report

June 24, 2014

While the media rushed to exaggeration, misinformation, and fabrication, the real societal ills behind the deaths of 800 Irish children were largely overlooked.

Michael Kelly

For a month now, sections of the Irish and international media have been convulsed by reports of shockingly high mortality rates at a state-funded, Church-run mother and baby home in the west of Ireland. It has been difficult to separate fact from fiction and too few commentators have sought to get to the bottom of the story, with many instead choosing to focus on salacious exaggerations, misinformation, and untruths.

Yes, there was a shockingly high infant mortality rate in the Tuam mother and baby home run by the Bon Secours congregation of nuns. Between 1925 and 1961, 976 infants died. Many of the children, it appears, were buried at an unmarked grave, which was lovingly tended by local Catholic families for decades. Now, the tragic deaths of so many youngsters should be devastating enough in itself to warrant further investigation. But some media commentators and seasoned campaigners immediately sought to exaggerate the story in the most appalling fashion. The children were soon forgotten in the dash to hang their deaths as a crime around the neck of Catholic Ireland.

In media reports, the common grave soon became a “mass grave” and then a “septic tank.” The nuns were accused of “dumping” the children in the grave, and there have been suggestions that police should open up a criminal investigation into the deaths despite absolutely no evidence that any of the tragic deaths were in untoward circumstances. The government has promised a Commission of Inquiry to look at the issue. However, some are wary that the terms of reference may be set so narrowly as to include only Catholic-run institutions, leaving out so-called “county homes” where many unmarried mothers lived with their newborn babies. Former residents of a Protestant-run home in Dublin have also complained that their plight has been ignored.

The world’s media soon arrived, inevitably adding more heat than light. A Washington Times headline screamed, “Catholic Church Tossed 800 Irish Orphans into Septic Tank”; Salon’s stated: “An Irish Catholic Orphanage Hid the Bodies of 800 Children.” More fuel was added to the fire by Father Brian D’arcy, a liberal priest and darling of the Irish media, who likened the nuns’ behavior to that of the Nazis during the Holocaust.

So quick has been the rush to judgment that an eminent media outlet has been forced to roll back on earlier versions of the story. The Associated Press has issued a correction to earlier stories which included claims that were demonstrably untrue. In a response issued at the weekend, the AP admitted that

in stories published June 3 and June 8 about young children buried in unmarked graves after dying at a former Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms; documents show that many children at the orphanage were baptized. The AP also incorrectly reported that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers; although that may have occurred in practice at times it was not Church teaching. In addition, in the June 3 story, the AP quoted a researcher who said she believed that most of the remains of children who died there were interred in a disused septic tank; the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any. The June 3 story also contained an incorrect reference to the year that the orphanage opened; it was 1925, not 1926.

Despite the misreporting, it’s important to be clear: the Tuam mother and baby home was a terrible place with awful conditions that reflected a society build on petty snobbery; “illegitimate” children and unmarried mothers were treated in a very unchristian fashion by a country that professed to be a bastion of Catholic virtue. It is unlikely that other, similar homes—whether run by the Church, state, or another religious denomination—were any less harsh.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John G. O’Flaherty was a Jesuit of the Missouri Province ordained in 1942. He served in parishes in St. Louis and Kansas City, and as a hospital chaplain in Monett, MO. He was also assigned at various times to Pueblo and Denver, CO. He died in 1987. O’Flaherty was accused of abuse in a 2011 civil complaint filed in Pueblo, CO.

Ordained: 1942
Died: June 19, 1987

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Rick Bella | rbella@oregonian.com
on June 23, 2014

The senior pastor of a Happy Valley church is facing sex-crime charges in Multnomah County.

Michael George “Mike” Sperou, 64, of Happy Valley, co-founder of the North Clackamas Bible Community, was arrested by Portland police Thursday. He was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on suspicion of three counts of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration.

Under Oregon law, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration is a Class A felony that falls under Measure 11 and is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years, four months in prison.

After he was arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Sperou posted a $35,000 security deposit against bail of $350,000 and was released Saturday.

Sgt. Pete Simpson, Portland police spokesman, said reports on Sperou’s arrest are not yet available and that hadn’t heard any details in the case.

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OREGON
KOIN

[with video]

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — The pastor of a Clackamas County church is charged with three counts of sex crimes.

Michael Sperou faces three felonies for unlawful sexual penetration. He is listed on the website of BcResources.net as a senior pastor and founding member of the North Clackamas Bible Community.

Michal Mitchell, Sperou’s niece and a member of the church, told KOIN 6 there is no physical church. Instead, members move from home to home. She also said her uncle is innocent.

“I’m convinced. I know him very well. I know that he’s innocent,” said Mitchell. “He’s the most wonderful person that I know, and it’s not just me. A lot of people would say he’s their best friend, and the most wonderful and influential person in their lives.”

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OREGON
KPTV

By FOX 12 Staff

CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OR (KPTV) –
The pastor of a Clackamas County church pleaded not guilty to several sex abuse charges.

Michael Sperou was arrested June 19 on three charges related to sex abuse. Police did not release any details of those charges.

The website for North Clackamas Bible Community lists Sperou as a senior pastor and founding member.

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MINNESOTA
Austin Daily Herald

By Trey Mewes

An Austin priest admitted taking a nude photo of a teenage boy when he served in Austin around 1978 and also admitted to sexually abusing a minor male a few years later, according to information released by the Diocese of Winona.

The diocese released details Monday about 14 priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, calling their decision an effort to be transparent and promote healing.

One of the 14 was Jack Krough, 64, who was ordained in 1975 and began serving at Austin’s St. Augustine Catholic Church and Pacelli Catholic Schools the next year. Krough transferred to Winona in 1980, but not before he allegedly sexually abused a minor male.

In 1993, Krough admitted he took a photo found in his home of a nude 16-year-old back in 1978 when he served in Austin. He was sent to St. Luke’s Institute for an assessment but was returned to the ministry in New Richland and Waldorf, Minn.

Krough admitted to sexually abusing a minor between 1979 and 1981, after someone reported the crime to the diocese in 1997. Krough was removed from ministry at St. Edward’s Catholic Church in Austin and Our Lady of Loretto in Brownsdale and taken to St. Luke’s for treatment. He resigned from the ministry in 2002, after he was confronted in another incident involving inappropriate touching.

As of December, Krough lived in Barron, Wis.

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MEXICO
National Catholic Reporter

David Agren Catholic News Service | Jun. 24, 2014

MEXICO CITY The archdiocese of Tijuana has suspended seven priests — including one sued for abuse in Los Angeles — over allegations of sexual abuse.

The priests are not allowed to practice their ministries, Mexican media reported.

An archdiocesan spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press the American priest was Fr. Jeffrey Newell, who worked previously in the Los Angeles archdiocese.

No other names were released by the archdiocese.

In a June 17 statement, the archdiocese said: “As a church we make a call to those that have been victims of abuse to minors or witnesses to it to file complaints with the competent civil authorities.”

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Updated June 9, 2014

On April 2, 2014, Archbishop John Nienstedt gave his deposition in the case of Doe #1, which is a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, and Thomas Adamson.

We offer the deposition in its entirety, as part of our renewed commitment to transparency. As you will notice, the Archbishop answered every question asked. The court pre-determined the length of the four hour deposition, and the Archbishop continued to answer questions past the time allotted. There was not a single question asked about Thomas Adamson and the allegations of abuse of Doe #1 in 1976-1977.

You will see a searchable PDF of the deposition below.

You will also see links to the entire video of the deposition (in three chapters) posted below, allowing you to see the questions and answers in context.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

On May 8, 2014, Andrew Eisenzimmer, who served the archdiocese as Chancellor for Civil Affairs between 2005 and 2012, was deposed in the Doe 1 case in St. Paul. The case is a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, and Thomas Adamson for allegations of abuse between 1976 and 1977. We offer the deposition as part of our renewed commitment to transparency and disclosure. However, selected portions were redacted—and others that were ordered sealed have been removed—to protect victims.

PDF:
Deposition of Andrew Eisenzimmer

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: June 24, 2014

Priest is among those identified as credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis took no action against the Rev. Jerome Kern when parents complained that he had sexually abused their sons, Kern said in a court deposition released Tuesday morning.

Kern is among more than 30 priests the archdiocese identified last December as being credibly accused of abusing minors. He has been sued several times, including last November as the scandal over the archdiocese’s handling of abuse claims was escalating.

The plaintiff, a man in his 50s who claims Kern abused him in the 1970s, is represented by the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates, which has sued the archdiocese multiple times since a change in state law allowed the filing of suits claiming decades-old abuse.

The St. Paul-based firm released the deposition Tuesday as part of a series of public releases of sworn statements in clergy abuse cases, including testimony by Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[Fr. Jerome Kern file]
[Timeline]
[key documents]
[deposition]
[video]

DOE 26
Plaintiff,
Defendants

Videotape deposìtion of FATHER JEROME KERN, taken putsuant to Notice of Taking Deposition, and taken before Gary W. Hermes, a Notary PubIic in and for the county of Ramsey, State of Minnesota, on the 15th day of Àpril, 20I4, at 445 Minnesota street, St. Paul, Minnesota, commencing at approximately 9:31 o’clock a.m.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Richard Chin
rchin@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 06/24/2014

[with video]

Jerome Kern, a Twin Cities priest accused in a 2013 lawsuit of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1970s, said he didn’t feel he was doing anything wrong when he had physical contact with children in the past, according to a deposition transcript released Tuesday.

“I never saw anything myself in terms of sexual abuse,” testified Kern, who worked in St. Paul and Forest Lake parishes and is accused by a man indentified as Doe 26 who says Kern “engaged in unpermitted sexual contact” with him in the 1970s when Kern was serving as a priest at Our Lady of Grace in Edina.

Over the decades, at least 20 individuals have alleged that Kern abused them when they were children, according to St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing Doe 26 in the lawsuit against Kern and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Anderson’s office released a transcript Tuesday of a deposition Kern gave on April 15.

In his deposition, Kern, a priest since 1966, said his conduct with children was never reported to police as far as he knows, nobody from the archdiocese told him what he was doing was a crime or warned him he could go to jail for touching children, and he was never concerned that he would be arrested for his behavior with children.

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MICHIGAN
Fox 17

[with video]

by Nicole DiDonato
Reporter

WEST MICHIGAN (June 23, 2014) — It’s a hidden crisis in West Michigan. Experts who work with victims of sexual crimes say thousands of minors are sold into human trafficking right in our own communities.

If you think human trafficking only happens in third world countries, think again.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates 300,000 minors are at risk of being sold every year in the U.S. And it’s happening even closer to home.

“Unfortunately the state department estimates in West Michigan alone, there are 2,400 minors for sale at any given time, mostly on the internet. And this is in the land of the free, ” said Rebecca McDonald, founder and president of Women At Risk International. …

WAR gets up to 20 tips a month and turns them over to law enforcement.

Just recently, police arrested WCSG radio personality, John Balyo, and charged him with first degree criminal sexual conduct. McDonald believes this is a wake-up call.

“Law enforcement is there to be the judgement,” says McDonald.

“Our job is to be compassionate and to reach out to the victims of this man who have years of recovery and to even his family members who are victims in this situation.”

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MICHIGAN
Fox 17

by Paul Cicchini
Reporter

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 24, 2014) – A former radio host who is now facing criminal sex charges has been removed as a volunteer with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.

John Balyo had helped the traffic squad since 2004.

The group, which is a 501(c)(3), assisted with community parades and other events.

Balyo was arrested Friday in Gaylord at the Big Ticket Festival.

Monday, he was charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct involving a child.

According to a police report, Balyo had sexual contact with a 12-year-old boy.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD TV

By Steve Kelso and 24 Hour News 8 web staff

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — A longtime Christian radio host allegedly admitting to sexual assaulting at least one 12-year-old boy.

John Balyo was arraigned Monday in a Battle Creek courtroom on one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. It’s a felony charge that could land him in jail for the rest of his life.

Balyo shook his head as the charge against him was read.

He was arrested as the result of a federal investigation into Ronald Moser of Battle Creek. Police say Balyo paid Moser to arrange sexual liaisons with young boys for sex and that one of the encounters — involving a 12-year-old — happened in Battle Creek in May.

Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert told Magistrate David Heiss Monday that Balyo confessed to police.

“It is my understanding based on the police report that the defendant did make admissions to count one,” Gilbert said.

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MICHIGAN
WZZM

[with video]

Christa E Graban, WZZM June 23, 2014

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (Battle Creek Enquirer) — A former Grand Rapids-area Christian radio host admitted to having sex with a 12-year-old boy, the Calhoun County prosecutor said Monday.

John Balyo, 35, of Caledonia, was ordered Monday to be held without bond after Prosecutor David Gilbert said Balyo made incriminating statements to investigators.

“The defendant did make admissions to count one of the complaint,” Gilbert told Calhoun County District Court Magistrate David Heiss during Balyo’s arraignment.

Balyo is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct — a penetration offense — and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct — a touching offense. Battle Creek police have alleged he had a sexual encounter with a 12-year-old boy in Battle Creek on May 17.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Agar | jagar@mlive.com
on June 23, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – John Balyo, the former Christian radio host accused of sexual assault, was fired as a Kent County sheriff’s reserve on Friday, June 20, when the allegations came to light.

Balyo served in the Enforcement Unit of Kent County Sheriff’s Department’s Traffic Squad.

The all-volunteer group provides assistance to Kent County Sheriff’s Department and other police agencies in the county at special events.

Undersheriff Jon Hess said the director of the Traffic Squad terminated Balyo on Friday. Balyo had volunteered as a reserve since 2004.

Hess reported no problems with Balyo’s work.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 24, 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 )

In a rare “split in the ranks,” a bishop says that Vatican officials have “injured the people of God” by their “silence” over former Vatican envoy Archbishop Józef Wesolowski, who is accused of sexually abusing boys in Dominican Republic.

[Dominican Today]

Santo Domingo Archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop Víctor Masalles admitted yesterday that he saw Wesolowski walking free in Rome. Vatican staff are refusing to extradite Wesolowski to Poland where law enforcement authorities want to question him for his alleged child sex crimes.

In our view, it’s incredibly irresponsible for Catholic officials to thwart a police investigation. But it’s also incredibly irresponsible for them to let a credibly accused child molesting cleric live in the figurative and literal center of Catholicism evidently with no supervision.

Consider these three simple facts. It takes seconds to molest a child. Millions of tourists and their families visit Rome annually. Most of them respect and trust clerics. Only a tiny handful of them know who Wesolowski is. He likely still dresses as an archbishop.

That combination is a child molesting cleric’s dream. Knowing that he faces potential criminal prosecution and imprisonment, this looks like a recipe for re-offense.

If not for self-serving Vatican intervention, Wesolowski would likely be behind bars now. The least Vatican officials can do is to put him in a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center where he’ll be kept away from kids. Anything less dramatically increases the chances that Wesolowski will assault another innocent child.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 25, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

ONE of Australia’s most powerful Catholic officials has defended his practice of holding private, ­unrecorded conversations with priests accused of child-sex abuse in which he quietly convinced them to resign.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Brian Lucas said the interviews, during which he kept no note of what was said, were “about the protection of children”.

It is the second public ­inquiry to interrogate Father Lucas, general secretary of the Australian National Catholic Bishops Conference, over the interviews.

In September, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry heard he conducted interviews with about 35 allegedly abusive priests during the 1990s, convincing those who confessed their crimes to quietly resign their posts.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

BEN PIKE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 25, 2014

ONE of the Catholic Church’s most senior priests did not take notes after confronting accused pedophiles in the clergy because he did not want to “betray” them.

Father Brian Lucas has already come under fire from former premier Barry O’Farrell who, in parliament, called for him to be sacked because he did not report pedophile priests to the police.

Yesterday he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that taking notes during meetings with accused priests would have prevented them from speaking “frankly and openly”.

“I don’t think that’s fair to a person. If you’ve said to him ‘we’re having a frank conversation, this is confidential’, I’m not going to take a note of it,’’ the trained lawyer said.

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ITALIA
Live Sicilia

TRAPANI – Il presidente della Caritas di Trapani, don Sergio Librizzi è stato arrestato dalla sezione pg della forestale presso la procura con l’accusa di concussione e reati sessuali.

Secondo l’accusa, don Librizzi avrebbe chiesto prestazioni sessuali a migranti maschi che chiedevano lo status di rifugiati politici. Il sacerdote era componente – “molto influente”, ha sottolineato il pm Paolo Di Sciuva in una conferenza stampa a Trapani – della commissione territoriale presso la Prefettura, deputata al rilascio dello status. “Costringeva i giovani a prestazioni sessuali – ha detto il procuratore capo Marcello Viola – mediante pressioni, facendo leva sul suo ruolo apicale, sulla sua posizione di dominio”.

L’indagine, non ancora conclusa, per ora coinvolge soltanto don Librizzi. Fondamentali sono state le intercettazioni ambientali. Tra le vittime, almeno otto, non ci sono soltanto migranti, ma anche disagiati che si erano rivolti alla Caritas. Le accuse riguardano episodi che vanno dal 2009 ai giorni scorsi. In particolare gli episodi riscontrati sarebbero concentrati negli ultimi sei mesi. Le prestazioni sessuali sarebbero avvenute nell’auto del sacerdote, sulla quale gli investigatori avevano collocato le “cimici”. Il sacerdote è stato portato in carcere. “Abbiamo chiesto ed ottenuto la custodia cautelare in carcere – ha detto il procuratore Viola – perché c’è il rischio di inquinamento delle prove, ma anche della reiterazione del reato”.

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ITALIA
L’Huffington Post

Il presidente della Caritas di Trapani, don Sergio Librizzi, è stato arrestato dalla sezione della forestale presso la procura con l’accusa di concussione e reati sessuali. Il prete è stato fermato nella canonica della chiesa di San Pietro, di cui è parroco. Non si conoscono ancora dettagli sulla vicenda in cui secondo l’accusa è coinvolto.

Don Librizzi avrebbe approfittato del suo ruolo di componente della commissione territoriale di Trapani per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale, per costringere richiedenti asilo a prestazioni sessuali in cambio del rilascio dello status di rifugiati. Concussione e violenza sessuale pluriaggravata sono le imputazioni formulate nell’ordinanza di custodia cautelare emessa dal gip di Trapani su richiesta della Procura.

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ITALY
The Local

Updated: 24 Jun 2014

An Italian priest, who is also a director of the charity, Caritas, has been arrested in Sicily for allegedly sexually abusing immigrants.

Sergio Librizzi, Caritas director in Trapani, was arrested at the vicarage as he was preparing for mass, Adnkronos reported.

He is accused of at least ten episodes of sexual violence against immigrants in Sicily, in addition to facing charges of embezzlement.

“The sexual crimes relate to a number of subjects, both underage and adults, all non-EU citizens with whom the priest was in contact due to his position within Caritas,” Marcello Viola, the public prosecutor of Trapani, told Adnkronos.

Librizzi allegedly demanded sexual favours from immigrants in return for issuing documents.

Sicily is a frequent landing post for both economic migrants and asylum seekers arriving in Italy by boat, after crossing the Mediterranean sea from North Africa.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 24, 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 pope continues to distance himself from the scandal-ridden Legion of Christ. And he’s appointing a new adviser to the troubled order. We applaud this course of action.

[ABC News]

It’s smart public relations for Francis to stay away from the Legion. We share his apparent view that much reform is still needed in the Legion.

In any institution, reform must be preceded by exposing and sacking those who committed or concealed child sex crimes. The Legion hasn’t done this.

When it comes to clergy sex crimes and cover ups, the Legion continues to be perhaps the single most secretive Catholic group in the world. When they post on their websites the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of every current and former Legion who hurt kids – directly by assault or indirectly by complicity – then they may have the right to claim they’ve begun to attack their corruption.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Jun 17

Santo Domingo.- President Danilo Medina said Sunday that he “spoke about everything” with Pope Francis, who received him in a private meeting at the Vatican.

“We spoke about many things. We spoke about everything,” he said when asked if he discussed with the Pontiff the pedophilia cases linked to catholic prelates in the country, specifically former Vatican envoy, bishop Jozef Wesolowski.

Medina’s statement again reveals his now habitual stance of shying away from controversial topics and cases of government corruption.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Dia

Santo Domingo.-El obispo auxiliar de la arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo, monseñor Víctor Masalles, reveló ayer que se sorprendió al ver en Roma al exnuncio apostólico Józef Wesolowski, acusado de abusar sexualmente contra menores en República Dominicana.

El Vaticano ha anunciado que el exnuncio Wesolowski será juzgado no sólo canónicamente por la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, sino también penalmente por el Tribunal Vaticano.

“Para mí fue una sorpresa ver a Wesolowski pasearse por la Via della Scrofa en Roma(una calle de Roma). El silencio de la Iglesia ha herido al pueblo de Dios”, indica Masalles en su cuenta de Twitter.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Santo Domingo Archdiocese auxiliary bishop Víctor Masalles on Monday affirmed he was surprised to see in Rome former Vatican envoy Józef Wesolowski, accused of sexually abusing boys in Dominican Republic.

The Holy See has announced that Wesolowski will be tried not only under canon law but also criminally by the Vatican Court.

“For me it was a surprise to see Wesolowski walking along Via della Scrofa in Roma (Rome street). The silence of the Church has injured the people of God,” tweeted Masalles.

Outlet eldia.com.do reports that it tried to contact Masalles for further details, but a source at his parish said the Auxiliary Bishop was in Rome last April for the canonization of late popes John PauI II and John XXIII.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

Saskatoon lawyer Dan Shapiro is well-intentioned in applying to a court to have the private records and testimony of nearly 38,000 residential school abuse survivors destroyed, but the drastic measure should not go ahead.

Not only would it destroy unique information that provides great insight into the horrific history of Canada’s residential schools, but it would also be a disservice to the long-term interests of the descendants of the survivors who came forward with heart-wrenching stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse that led to generations of family dysfunction and other problems that today marginalize too many First Nations people.

As chief adjudicator for the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) that assesses complaints of abuse and decides on compensation for survivors, Mr. Shapiro notes that the claims process was meant to be confidential and safe.

While it’s true that the documents include medical records and income tax information as well as graphic personal stories, his assessment is wrong that destroying all documentation is the only way to ensure the privacy of individuals and confidentiality of the files.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

VATICAN CITY — Jun 24, 2014

The superior of the Legion of Christ religious order says the Vatican next week will name a new adviser to help oversee it.

It’s the latest sign that Pope Francis doubts the Vatican’s three-year reform experiment has resolved all the order’s problems.

Francis has kept the Legion at arms’ length since he inherited the reform project launched after the Legion admitted its founder sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children.

Francis has yet to meet with the new superior and didn’t send a message to the congregation when it met in January to chart its new course. The Vatican insisted on naming two members of the new government and during his recent trip to Jerusalem, Francis skipped a luncheon planned by the Legion and ate instead with the Franciscans.

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IRELAND
BBC News

23 June 2014

When an inquiry into the Tuam home was announced, the Irish prime minister (Taoiseach) Enda Kenny said babies of unmarried parents had been treated as “an inferior sub-species” for decades.

It is believed nearly 800 children died at what was once a mother and baby home run by nuns in Tuam, County Galway.

BBC News NI Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison visited the Bon Secours home in County Galway and spoke to one man who has written two books about his forced separation from his mother.

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IRELAND
The Associated Press

BY SHAWN POGATCHNIK
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DUBLIN (AP) — Revelations this month that nuns had buried nearly 800 infants and young children in unmarked graves at an Irish orphanage during the last century caused stark headlines and stirred strong emotions and calls for investigation. Since then, however, a more sober picture has emerged that exposes how many of those headlines were wrong.

The case of the Tuam “mother and baby home” offers a study in how exaggeration can multiply in the news media, embellishing occurrences that should have been gripping enough on their own.

The key fact is that a researcher, Catherine Corless, spent years seeking records of all the children who died in the orphanage in County Galway during its years of operation from 1925 to 1961. She found 797 death records – and only one record that one of the youngsters had been buried alongside relatives in a Catholic cemetery.

The rest, Corless surmised, were likely interred in unmarked graves on the orphanage grounds, including in a disused septic tank. She and other Tuam residents called for a state-funded investigation to identify remains and give the children a proper memorial.

The reports of unmarked graves shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the Irish public, who for decades have known that some of the 10 defunct “mother and baby homes,” which chiefly housed the children of unwed mothers, held grave sites filled with forgotten dead.

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UNITED STATES
WGBH News

By SCOTT NEUMAN
Originally published on Mon June 23, 2014

The Associated Press today offers “a more sober picture” than it and other news organizations (including NPR) did earlier this month regarding reports of nearly 800 bodies of infants and young children at a former Catholic home for unwed mothers in Ireland.

The case of the “mother and baby home,” located in the town of Tuam near Galway city, “offers a study in how exaggeration can multiply in the news media, embellishing occurrences that should have been gripping enough on their own,” the AP writes.

The reports were based on research by Catherine Corless, who spent years seeking records of the deaths of children at the orphanage during the years it was open, from 1925 to 1961.

Specifically, the AP points to an investigation by The Irish Times in Dublin that revealed discrepancies in maps used by Corless to determine where the bodies might have ended up. It also said reports that many of the children had never been baptized were rebutted by records. Other evidence called into question whether the decommissioned septic tank could have been used as a burial site, the AP said.

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KANSAS
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
06/23/2014

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has restricted the duties of a retired priest after receiving what it says are two credible allegations of inappropriate conduct.

The allegations did not involve minors, the archdiocese said in a brief article published in the June 20 issue of The Leaven, the archdiocesan newspaper.

Duties of the Rev. George Seuferling, who retired in 2001, are now limited to performing weddings and funerals for family members, according to the article.

“The archdiocese asks anyone who has knowledge of inappropriate conduct by any priest, deacon, employee or volunteer to please contact the confidential report line at (913) 647-3051 or civil authorities,” the article said.

A victims advocacy group criticized the archdiocese for not notifying a wider audience about the allegations.

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IRELAND
The New Republic

By Jason Walsh

The headlines out of Ireland reverberated around the world, and how could they not? As reports had it, over several decades nearly 800 dead babies had been secretly dumped in a septic tank at a Roman Catholic maternity home for unwed mothers and their children in Tuam, County Galway. Ireland’s dark past was under the microscope again, and everyone wanted a peek.

London’s Independent called the discovery at St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home “the Irish Holocaust,” a term usually reserved for the 1845–52 famine. The Guardian demanded, “Tell us the truth about the children dumped in Galway’s mass graves.” The Washington Post headlined its report, “Bodies of 800 children, long-dead, found in septic tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers,” which was promptly picked up by The Sydney Morning Herald. The spetic-tank claims were reported to readers of publications as diverse as The New York Daily News, Salon and Al-Jazeera. Weeks later and the scandal rumbled on, dominating the news in Ireland, a searing indictment of a country already home to too many scandals involving the historical nexus of Church and state.

The only problem was that in the gleeful rush to report and judge, the truth got lost.

The Associated Press last week issued a lengthy correction admitting that the septic tank might not contain any human remains at all; the wire service had also incorrectly reported that the children hadn’t been baptized because they were born out of wedlock. Other media outlets have been slower to dial down the hyperbole. Britain’s Guardian newspaper amended a headline on an opinion piece, removing the “dumped” claim, but most outlets have left their fact-free speculation to stand.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Hamilton

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR SEX CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN (H 4126) House 147-0, approved a bill increasing the statute of limitations during which a person can file a civil suit for child sexual abuse. Current law allows victims to file a suit up until the age of 21 while the bill would increase the age to 53. The extension is retroactive for claims against actual perpetrators of abuse and prospective for others with indirect liability like supervisors.

Supporters said that many children who are victims of sexual abuse are not emotionally ready to confront the situation until many years later. They noted the bill also would help hold institutions accountable for negligent behavior in supervising perpetrators of these crimes.

The Senate approved the bill on a voice vote without a roll call. Final approval is needed in both branches before the measure goes to Gov. Patrick.

A “Yes” vote is for the bill.

Rep. Paul Brodeur Yes
Rep. Leah Cole Yes
Rep. Michael Costello Yes
Rep. Diana DiZoglio Yes
Rep. Paul Donato Yes
Rep. James Dwyer Yes
Rep. Lori Ehrlich Yes
Rep. Christopher Fallon Yes
Rep. Robert Fennell Yes
Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante Yes
Rep. Bradford Hill Yes
Rep. Bradley Jones Yes
Rep. John Keenan Didn’t Vote
Rep. James Lyons Yes
Rep. Wayne Matewsky Yes
Rep. Leonard Mirra Yes
Rep. Jerald Parisella Yes
Rep. Carl Sciortino has resigned
Rep. Theodore Speliotis Yes
Rep. RoseLee Vincent Yes
Rep. Steven Walsh has resigned
Rep. Donald Wong Yes

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Peter Gogarty June 23, 2014

IN the NSW Parliament recently, Barry O’Farrell, the man who established the Special Commission of Inquiry into certain matters regarding two paedophile priests in the Hunter Valley, rose to his feet and gave the Catholic Church, its bishops and Father Brian Lucas a spanking regarding their lame response to Commissioner Margaret Cuneen’s report and findings.

Pushed by a number of journalists, and by the Newcastle Herald in particular, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference subsequently made a brief statement on June 18.

It said: “Father Lucas has the support of the bishops because the report did not make adverse findings as to credit, nor did it recommend any action be taken with respect of Father Lucas.”

Around about the same time as this was unfolding, Father Lucas was giving evidence before the national royal commission, and for those of us who saw his evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry, there was a sense of déjà vu.

It was almost as if Father Lucas was reading from his own transcript – he didn’t keep notes so that the “interviewee” would not be put off from making admissions, conceded that a consequence of his actions was that there was no “paper trail” that might be used in later police prosecutions, didn’t remember a particular offender but conceded he probably interviewed him, didn’t go to the police because victims would not have wanted him to, and so on.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WWLP

BOSTON (STATE HOUSE) – Legislators on Monday sent to the governor’s desk a bill extending the statute of limitations in civil child sex abuse cases.

House and Senate lawmakers voted last week on the bill (H 4126), which would extend the statute to 35 years after a victim turns 18, up from three years.

Under the bill, an individual could file a lawsuit until he or she turns 53 years old. The bill is also retroactive, allowing individuals who realize later in life that they’ve suffered emotional and psychological harm to file a claim seven years after the realization, up from three years.

Lawmakers also enacted a bill aimed at enhancing access to mental health treatment services (H 3704).

The bill requires health insurers to make utilization review criteria for mental health services publicly available by August 2014, instead of Oct. 2015, the date currently in Chapter 224, the health care cost containment law passed in 2012.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CSNPhilly

June 23, 2014

A Delaware County Sunday school teacher pleaded guilty on Monday to child pornography charges.

Steven Almond, a former Deacon at Middletown Presbyterian church where he taught Sunday School and coached basketball, was arrested last year after detectives found dozens of child porn videos on his home computer.

In June, 2013, police searched Almond’s home on W. Forestview Road in Parkside and pulled out four computers, a hard drive, flash drives, multiple cell phones and nearly two dozen CD/ DVDs.

Detectives say they found more than 50 videos believed to be child pornography, some of which showed children who appeared to be under the age of 5.

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AUSTRALIA
South Coast Register

June 24, 2014

A FORMER Catholic priest, who worked in the Shoalhaven in the 1970s, facing five charges of indecently assaulting children, appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Monday.

Robert Flaherty, 70, who now lives at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, appeared before Magistrate McGlynn, facing five charges of indecent assault against children.

Magistrate McGlynn adjourned the matters until August 1 for possible committal for sentence.

The offences were alleged to have taken place in the Shoalhaven and Sydney up to 40 years ago, with the alleged victims aged between 11 and 15.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has been unable to move into a new apartment at the Vatican, because the firm remodeling the space has declared bankruptcy.

The former Vatican Secretary of State had been scheduled to take up residence this week in a large apartment in the San Carlo palace, inside the Vatican grounds. But the Italian daily Il Messaggero reports that the move has been delayed because of the collapse of the firm that had been contracted to combine two existing apartments into one spacious unit with a gracious rooftop terrace.

Reports that Cardinal Bertone was moving into a luxurious apartment had stirred complaints in Rome, because the cardinal is a Salesian priest who has taken a vow of poverty and because Pope Francis has advocated a modest style of living for Vatican clerics.

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