ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Elaine McCahill
Published 10/07/2014

Dublin priest Monsignor Paul Tighe has been appointed by Pope Francis to a new high-profile committee charged with reforming the Vatican media throughout the world.

Msgr Tighe will serve as secretary on the new Committee for Vatican Media which will be chaired by former BBC Trust chairman (Lord) Chris Patten and headed up by experts from the Vatican and around the world.

The committee will propose reforms for Vatican media including building on the Pontifex Twitter account.

Originally from Navan, Co Meath, Msgr Tighe studied civil law at UCD before going on to study for the priesthood at Holy Cross College in Dublin and the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Community Care

Social workers aware of allegations likely to have been under “extreme pressure to keep quiet”, says association’s professional officer

by Rachel Schraer on July 9, 2014

An amnesty for whistleblowers on institutional child abuse has been backed by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), after the government announced an inquiry into historic abuse claims.

BASW professional officer Nushra Mansuri said protection from sanctions for social workers and other professionals who were aware of historic abuse allegations may encourage them to come forward.

Her comments follow a call from MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk for an “amnesty” for whistle blowers on child abuse to come forward to the government’s inquiry about cover-ups by their employers.

Mansuri said: “It is my belief that those working in child protection services that were aware of these allegations were probably under extreme pressure to keep quiet.”

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

BOSTON (MA)
Newsmax

By John Blosser

The “Francis Effect” is being felt strongly in Boston, where the Boston Globe is planning the August launch of a new website aimed at followers of Pope Francis and the Catholic Church, according to the JimRomenesko.com journalism blog.

“Don’t think of this as the place you go to buy statues you bury in the backyard,” the new CEO of the Globe, Mike Sheehan, said, according to the blog. “It’s going to be news and analysis of all things Catholic.”

In an interview with Commonwealth magazine, Sheehan, who became CEO of the Globe in January, said, “It will have a global audience. There’s a natural audience for it.”

Prompting the initiative is response to the reporting of John L. Allen Jr., hired by the Globe this year from the National Catholic Reporter, who has broadened the Globe’s appeal with his coverage of the church.

“I look every day at what is being read digitally, and whatever John Allen writes is always in the top five, which means it’s relevant to people here, but also people from around the country are coming in to read it, too,” Sheehan told Commonwealth.

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

UNITED STATES
Idaho State Journal

In what’s being called the Catholic Church’s most serious attempt yet to apologize for tolerating decades of priests molesting children, Pope Francis this week asked the abuse victims for forgiveness and promised to bring molester priests and their enablers to justice.

“I beg your forgiveness…for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves. This led to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused and it endangered other minors who were at risk,” said the pope following his meeting at the Vatican this week with six people who as children were molested by Catholic priests.

The pope also promised that the church would make reparations to those who were molested, though it’s unclear how the Catholic Church could ever financially heal the wounds suffered by the numerous victims of the abuse in the United States and several other countries. Francis seemed to be equally angry at the church leaders who have tolerated the molester priests as he is with the abusers themselves, and the tone of his words made it clear that his sorrow and desire to change the church’s image are sincere.

He said, “There is no place in the church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not…. Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary McCaughey

Thu, Jul 10, 2014

‘Have the men had enough?”

In the Scottish Highlands, where my mother comes from, this was a well-known phrase used by the women at the end of meals before the menfolk went back to the fields. Indeed it remains current to this day and was used as the title of a novel reflecting that kind of society.

It’s a phrase that comes as we wring our hands and lament the hundreds of bodies of babies uncovered in Tuam.

So much talk of the mothers and their babies. So much said about the homes they found themselves in. So many so quick to crucify the nuns for their apparent ineptitude, cruelty or even illegal acts.

Changing attitudes to the “fallen women”, the Philomenas, the Ann Lovetts, have seen them begin to occupy a different space in our cultural context. There is a growing, sometimes grudging respect for the women who have managed to struggle through and beyond what was done to them to become poignant examples of strength and character for our daughters.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Jacky Jones

Wed, Jul 9, 2014

The conviction of Rolf Harris is a reminder that child abuse is an abuse of power. The crime persists because perpetrators are not challenged and dealt with speedily by the criminal justice system. Children are still abused in Ireland every day.

The HSE Annual Report 2013 shows that 6,462 children were in care at the end of 2013 and 1,547 children were on the Child Protection Notification system.

The HSE expects to receive about 40,000 referrals to the Child and Family Agency in 2014. Between April 2013 and the end of March 2014, 164 allegations were made against priests and religious to the National Board for Safeguarding Children.

Many organisations that have contact with children, including sports organisations and the Catholic Church, don’t understand the relationship between the abuse of power and child abuse so their prevention strategies are inadequate.

The 2013 annual report of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland shows that the Catholic Church does not get it.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Vatican City — When Cardinal George Pell, the Holy See’s new Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, addressed the Vatican press corpson Wednesday to lay out the new economic framework for the universal Catholic Church and introduce the Vatican Bank’s new president, he made what could easily be interpreted as a Freudian Slip. “We are working towards transcendence,” the cardinal said to the packed press room before quickly correcting his mistake. “I mean we’re working towards transparency.”

Pell could have just as easily stuck with the word “transcendence” given his enormous task to lift the Institute for Religious Works or IOR as the Vatican bank is officially called, from its sinful past to a loftier future. The IOR has been mired in a litany of scandals including the criminal corruption trial of its former general director and assistant, and the ongoing money laundering trial against a prelate referred to as Monsignor 500 for his penchant for big bills. The prelate, Nunzio Scarano, who once worked in the Vatican Treasury, is standing trial for allegedly trying to smuggle more than $25 million from Switzerland to a secret Vatican Bank account.

The bank was nearly closed by Pope Francis in 2013 before the pontiff decided to give the administrators one more chance. Since then, the bank has cleaned up its act, but not without a hefty price.

In conjunction with the not-so-surprising announcement that IOR president Ernst von Freyberg would be replaced by asset fund guru Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the bank also released its 2013 Financial Report, in which it reported a somewhat dramatic 97 percent plunge in net revenue from €86.6 million ($118 million) in 2012 to a paltry €2.9 million ($4 million) in 2013.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) The meetings Pope Francis held this week with six survivors of sexual abuse were an “important and very positive” step on the road towards healing and better child protection in the Catholic Church. That’s according to an Irish abuse victim who now serves on the Vatican’s new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

As a 13 year old girl, Marie Collins was abused by a hospital chaplain, who was then protected by his archbishop and went on to abuse and rape other children over a period of 30 years. This week she was in the Vatican to accompany one of the six abuse survivors from the Ireland, Germany and the UK for Mass and a series of private encounters with Pope Francis at his Santa Marta residence.

“It was wonderful to see the Pope listening so intently and the survivor to feel heard and have the opportunity to say everything they wanted to say…..what I was most impressed about the meeting was the fact the Pope gave so much time, there was no hurry….and I spoke to most of the survivors as they came out from their meetings and the general feeling was they felt they had said what they wanted to say and had been heard….

No matter how much you know about abuse, or you read about it in theory, I think sitting across from a survivor who’s telling you what abuse has done to their life and their family, how devastating it all is, it must be emotional and I certainly observed the Pope reacting to what he was being told and I think it must have been a hugely emotional morning for himself as well as for the survivors…

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

SCOTLAND
STV

Two men appeared in court on Wednesday accused of carrying out years of sexual abuse on young boys at a school run by a controversial Catholic group.

Paul Kelly and John Farrell appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court over allegations of brutal sex attacks and beatings at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, between 1978 and 1983.

The pair face a total of 57 charges between them, including multiple accusations of having “unnatural carnal connections” with young boys at the school, sexual assaults, indecent assaults and using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards children.

Kelly faces seven charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour as well as eight indecent assaults and two sexual assaults.

He if further alleged to have committed nine assaults on young boys, including dragging one boy to a river and forcing his head underwater.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth Herald

A Plymouth teacher has appeared in court in Scotland to face dozens of charges of physical and sexual abuse of children – including dragging one child to a river and forcing his head under water.

Paul Kelly, from Plymouth, and John Farrell are accused of carrying out years of horrific sexual abuse on young boys at a school run by a controversial Catholic group.

Kelly, who was a teacher at St Boniface School in Plymouth for 27 years and retired as head of Year Nine, and Farrell appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court today over allegations of brutal sex attacks and beatings at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, between 1978 and 1983.

The pair face a total of 57 charges between them – including multiple accusations of having “unnatural carnal connections” with young boys at the school, sexual assaults, indecent assaults and using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards children.

Kelly faces seven charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour as well as eight indecent assaults and two sexual assaults.

He is further alleged to have committed nine assaults on young boys – including dragging one boy to a river and forcing his head underwater.

Kelly is also accused of three charges of having an “unnatural carnal connection” with boys at the school by repeatedly having sex with them.

One charge alleges that he forced a boy to watch while he “sexually assaulted other pupils”.

The charge further accuses Kelly of forcing other pupils to have sex with the boy.

Farrell faces six charges of assault, nine of indecent assault and two of sexual assault.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth Herald

TWO men appeared in court yesterdayaccused of carrying out years of horrific sexual abuse on young boys at a school run by a controversial Catholic group.

Former Plymouth teacher Paul Kelly and John Farrell appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court over allegations of brutal sex attacks and beatings at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, between 1978 and 1983.

The pair face a total of 57 charges between them, including multiple accusations of having “unnatural carnal connections” with young boys at the school, sexual assaults, indecent assaults and using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards children.

Kelly faces seven charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour as well as eight indecent assaults and two sexual assaults.

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

SCOTLAND
The Courier

By GRAEME OGSTON, 10 July 2014

Two men have appeared in court accused of a string of historical physical and sexual abuse charges at a Catholic school in Fife.

Paul Kelly and John Farrell face a total of 57 charges between them, allegedly committed at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland between 1978 and 1983.

Kelly, 61, of Plymouth, and Farrell, 71, of Newarthill, Motherwell, appeared separately in private at Dundee Sheriff Court on Wednesday. Both made no plea or declaration.

Prosecutors allege they carried out a series of sexual and physical assaults on children.

Kelly faces eight charges of indecent assault, two sexual assaults and seven charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour.

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

UNITED STATES
USA Today

Pope Francis on Monday met and prayed with six European victims of pedophile priests for the first time. Comments from Facebook and Twitter are edited for Clarity and grammar:

This is truly an amazing pope. I’m not Catholic, but my goodness! From cleaning up the Vatican bank to forcing the church to deal with sexual abuse, I say bravo.

This pope walks the walk like none other that I have seen.

— Nikato Muirhead

This step is not enough. The abuse spans decades if not more. A formal plan for combating sexual abuse and rape must be presented.

— @BaileyPittipat

Pope Francis says all the right things, but nothing has really changed. Just look at his comment about excommunicating the mafia. Unnamed people are now excommunicated. Is there a list of people who will be kicked out of Mass if they show up? No. Are women getting treated better? No. It’s all just talk.

— Ray Fleming

As long as the church and its leaders continue to see themselves as special in the eyes of God, nothing will ever change. There are far too many priests who believe that they are above all others, like spoiled children who believe that they can do no wrong.

— Thomas Cole

Francis has the same problem President Obama has. Taking the reins of an ungainly bureaucracy and trying to change the status quo is not as easy it as appears.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Rod Liddle 12 July 2014

I suppose we must accustom ourselves to the fact that some 30 years ago Britain was in the grip of a terrible paedo–geddon — even if, at the time, we did not quite know it. More shockingly still, it was not simply light entertainers who were fiddling about up and down the country, with their cunningly coded messages to children about having an ‘extra leg’ and sinister injunctions to restrain kangaroos. It was, it seems, everyone. The Home Office has announced an enormous inquiry into the whole business, covering a considerable number of major institutions — the government, the BBC, the Church of England and so on.

Some large organisations are missing from the current remit of this inquiry (which will, of course, be headed by an expensive QC): the AA, for example, and the Methodists. But there will surely be room for a separate investigation dealing with them and others like them. No stone will be left unturned, so long as it was a stone put there at least 30 years ago and the person hiding beneath it is either dead or as near dead as makes no practical difference.

This, so far, accords with a great British tradition — our much-cherished 30-year rule. If anything really scandalous occurs involving members of the establishment, we will only discover the truth three decades or so later, no matter how many inquiries are held in the interim. This was true of the Hillsborough tragedy and Bloody Sunday; it seems to me highly likely that in 2033 it will suddenly be revealed that Tony Blair misled the House of Commons and the public over the invasion of Iraq and the police will be seen carrying black plastic bags out of the retirement homes and hospices inhabited by former members of his cabinet, if black plastic bags have not been made illegal by then.

It is always 30 years because by then the people responsible have been well removed from even the most trivial levers of power, or have died. If the US were Britain, then round about now Woodward and Bernstein would be revealing to a shocked nation the true story of the Watergate break-in.

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

TENNESSEE
Tennessean

By Josh Cross jcross@mtcngroup.com

Gallatin police have arrested a Kentucky church pastor on statutory rape charges involving a 14-year-old male member of his congregation.

Roy Neal Yoakem, 46, of Scottsville, Ky., was arrested Monday and is charged with aggravated statutory rape, sexual battery by an authority figure, statutory rape by an authority figure and fugitive from justice, according to a news release from the Gallatin Police Department.

According to police, Yoakem sexually assaulted the teenager on two occasions last month, once at New Gospel Outreach Church in Scottsville where he was the pastor and once at his Gallatin residence on Edgewood Drive.

Yoakem is also a convicted sex offender, according to the release. In 2005 he was convicted in Kentucky of second degree sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy and is currently registered in Tennessee as a violent sex offender.

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

TENNESSEE/KENTUCKY
WRCB

GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) – Police say a Kentucky pastor who is a registered sex offender has been arrested in Tennessee on rape charges involving a juvenile.

The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/1tk04Ma) reports 46-year-old Roy Neal Yoakem is charged with aggravated statutory rape, sexual battery by an authority figure and statutory rape by an authority figure. He is being held at the Sumner County jail.

The newspaper reports Yoakem is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy at the New Gospel Outreach Church in Scottsville, Kentucky, where Yoakem is a pastor, and at a residence in Gallatin, Tennessee. He is also facing charges in Kentucky.

His attorney in Kentucky wasn’t in the office Wednesday and didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

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

UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The 1.2 billion baptised Catholics in the world are all idiots. Which is more precise to say, “Idiot Catholics” or “Catholic idiots”?

For sure, Goliath-bully Bill Donohue of Catholic League would know the correct answer since he is the leader of the pack especially the “American idiot Catholics” or is it “American Catholic idiots”?

The biggest circus on earth is happening in the smallest country of the Vatican. It is the Octopus Dei Beast Circus starring Pope Francis with his one-man show of multiple acts with his trademark of his podgy papal butt and with the support of Vatican Pied Pipers headlines worldwide (see their articles below with our highlights and comments). The Vatican Circus is bigger than the Cirque de Soleil and the Roman Circus of Nero. From acting (preaching) St. Peter’s weep on sexual abuse to tackling the Mafia that now endangers his life (LOL – there’ll be soon stuntmen with rifles at St. Peter’s Square), Pope Francis is the fattest Golden Cow circus production ever created by the Opus Dei Beast Frankenstein Pope & Saint Factory since John Paul II the Great.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Who would trust MPs? Until recently most of us thought they were just in it for the expenses. Now it turns out they’re in it to abuse kids too.

We know because we’ve read it in the papers. Not that they’re any better, tapping Milly Dowler’s phone. Still, at least you can trust the BBC. Apart from their old stars, that is, or the higher-ups who covered for them or fingered the wrong paedos. Really, the police should have stepped in years ago. Except they were probably busy being racist.

So who will speak up for the kids? Once it could have been a bishop or something. Though not after what we now know about the Catholics. And the Church of England’s not much better. Frock-wearing paedos. Thinking about it could drive you to illness. Except you can’t take any chances these days. Not with the NHS just waiting to kill you with a superbug and then giving Jimmy Savile the keys.

Rarely since the last days of Rome can there have been such a dearth of authority in a society. One by one, in the lifespan of most people in Britain, the institutions which once defended and epitomised our country have fallen and now appear unable to get up again.

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

UNITED STATES
Southcoast Today

July 10, 2014

True reconciliation only begins with with an apology.

It takes more than saying one is sorry to heal the wounds that come from hurting others. That takes justice — a commitment to make things right, to change whatever actions have caused harm, and to hold those responsible for that harm accountable for their actions.

Pope Francis on Monday met with a group of Roman Catholics who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy, and he offered a sweeping apology to them for the wrongs done against them when they were children. The meeting was orchestrated by by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who serves on the church’s Commission for the Protection of Minors. It was the first in a series of meetings Francis plans to have with victims — a conversation that actually started under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

“I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse…” Francis said. “This led to greater suffering on the part of those who were abused, and it endangered other minors who were at risk.”

But while the pope made it clear in his remarks that bishops who fail to take action against abusive priests betray the trust of the church and its 1.2 billion believers, the Vatican has been reluctant to discipline church higher-ups. In fact, former Boston Archbishop Bernard Law was promoted a decade ago to a prestigious post in Rome after his role in the archdiocese’s coverup of clergy abuse was exposed, a move that has been bitterly criticized by victims groups.

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

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

Posted: Thursday, July 10, 2014

By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer

A Tulsa pastor must face trial on nine counts of lewd molestation, a judge ruled Wednesday.
At the conclusion of a preliminary hearing that started Monday, Damien Keith Bonner Sr., 32, was ordered to face trial on charges involving three teenage girls.

Bonner most recently has been pastor of the Galilee Baptist Church, 721 E. Pine St., police said. Defense attorney Stan Monroe said Wednesday that Bonner was recently terminated from his preaching job there.

The charges allege that Bonner knew two of the girls through that church and the other girl through Mount Zion Baptist Church, 419 N. Elgin Ave., where he previously was a minister.

The charges allege that the molestations occurred at various places, including in Bonner’s car, at his apartment in Owasso and at Lacy Park in Tulsa.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

By Neil Vowles

Sexual abuse victims say a decision to publish a report into the crimes of a Cathedral steward ten years after it was compiled is “too little, too late”.

Support groups claim victims were denied justice because recommendations in the 2004 report, produced by the Diocese of Chichester in the wake of the conviction of serial offender Terence Banks, were not followed up.

Banks, who became head steward at Chichester Cathedral, was convicted in 2001 for 32 sexual offences over 29 years against 12 boys as young as 11.

The Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner said the report was published to “shed light on past events, to aid learning, build trust and foster openness”.

The report followed an investigation by Sussex Police and was commissioned by the former Bishop of Chichester, The Rt Rev Dr John Hind.

It reveals that, despite being banned from the Prebendal cathedral school in Chichester in the 1970s, Banks still had contact with pupils.

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

ILLINOIS
Journal Courier

By Brett Luster bluster@civitasmedia.com

Pope Francis met in Vatican City this week with six victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, assuring followers that bishops would be held accountable for protection of minors, while not spelling out the concrete changes in enforcement of policies already in place.

A Catholic official representing the Springfield diocese, which includes Jacksonville and area parishes, says Pope Francis underscored the need for healing among Catholics since cases of priest sexual abuse surfaced in 2003, rocking the church across America.

Robert Gilligan represents all six Catholic dioceses across Illinois as the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois. He said the church in Illinois already has policies protecting children who have been sexually abused.

He also said there is a zero tolerance policy regarding priests who have been accused of wrongdoing.

According to Gilligan, clerics alleged with sexual abuse with minors would be removed from ministry positions indefinitely so facts can be gathered and during such times the priests would not serve in positions in which they would have contact with children.

“We err on the side of caution,” he said. …

Kate Bochte, a leader of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said church leaders need to do more to protect children from molestation.

She also said when people speak out from within, there are unintended consequences.

Bochte said she was shunned in 2003 when she and her husband began to speak out against alleged clergy sex abuse by being removed from positions in her former suburban Chicago parish.

Bochte said she recalled hearing abuse stories one-on-one from people who were molested by priests.

“That’s when I realized the whole story wasn’t getting out,” said Bochte, not a survivor herself. “There’s a lot of cover-up in the church.”

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/09/2014

Newly released documents about a local priest disclose that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis placed Joseph Wajda in a top position on the marriage tribunal after it moved him among eight parishes.

Those decisions came after Wajda, who was ordained in 1973, was accused a month into his priesthood of propositioning a boy for sex and continued to be the subject of allegations.

Wajda was accused of making a teenage boy walk around his office naked and masturbate, paying minors for sex, buying expensive presents for teens and taking boys to saunas, according to formerly secret documents released by the archdiocese in a court case.

The documents were made public Wednesday by attorney Jeffrey Anderson. Anderson represents the plaintiff in the case of Doe 1, a lawsuit filed against former priest Thomas Adamson last year.

Now 67 and living in Minneapolis, Wajda was removed from the ministry in 2003. He has repeatedly denied molesting children. The archdiocese has “requested that the Holy See remove him from the clerical state,” according to a written statement Wednesday by Vicar General Charles Lachowitzer.

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

Alateia

Fr Dwight Longenecker

This week Pope Francis met privately with victims of priestly sex abuse from Ireland, Britain and Germany. They attended Mass with the pontiff at the chapel at St. Martha’s Guesthouse, shared a meal and then met privately to tell their stories. Their meeting took place after the second gathering of a special commission the pope has established to address the problem of sex abuse by priests.

The sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests has been a horrible crime against young people, and Pope Francis is right to liken it to a “sacrilegious cult.” As Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI did, Pope Francis shared their struggles and asked forgiveness. Expressing the feelings of most Catholics, Pope Francis said, “Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.”

Predictably, the critics of the Catholic Church are unsatisfied, Barbara Blaine, the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) dismissed the importance of Francis’ meeting. The Pope’s apology was not enough. Blaine demanded, “Francis must take decisive action right now” to address the scandal more directly. She dismissed the Pope’s call for reparations and said “stopping abuse and protecting children comes first…no child on earth is safer today because of this meeting.

With or without church officials, abuse victims can heal themselves. But only with church officials’ help can children protect themselves from child molesting clerics. That’s where the Pope must focus. And that’s where he’s refusing to act.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sadhbh Walshe
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 July 2014

The most promising pope in the modern history of the Vatican had quite the audience this week: Francis spent two days with six people who were sexually abused by priests. He begged their forgiveness, of course, for “an ugly crime” perpetrated by a kind of “sacrilegious cult”. That was pretty bold. But he also made a half-promise: “We must go ahead with zero tolerance”, the pope said on the papal plane, adding that his church should “weep and make reparation”.

As the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in his brilliant treatise on another kind of reparations entirely, there is justice, and then there are practicalities; there are reparations, and then there is existentialism. And when you’re running the most existential institution on Earth – the Catholic Church – sometimes you have to get down to details, even if you’re talking basic penance to God, not amends to people. Sometimes you have to stop talking in empty promises and start cleaning house.

His Holiness sure knows how to say he’s sorry for this “sin of omission”, but as David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) told me on Tuesday, “We don’t need any more symbolic gestures or study panels to make recommendations – we need concrete actions that will protect vulnerable children.”

The past is not just the past, as the church well knows, and if you want evidence that that Francis’s zero-tolerance policy is merely a PR stunt, look back to the pope’s time in Argentina.

Then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was closely involved in the case of Father Julio Cesar Grassi, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of molesting a boy in his care. Details are murky, but Anne Barrett-Doyle, who runs the website Bishop-Accountability.org, which has tracked the case closely, told me this week that Grassi remained free on conditional release until September 2013, when his final appeal was rejected, at least in part because of a private report commissioned by Bergoglio that sought to prove Grassi’s innocence and, according to Barrett-Doyle, to discredit the victims.

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

MISSOURI/MINNESOTA
KSDK

[with video]

Stephanie Diffin, KSDK July 9, 2014

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – New secrets are spilling out about a priest sex abuse case out of Minnesota. A series of confidential documents became public Wednesday, and St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson’s name is in the paper trail.

The documents involve a de-frocked Minnesota priest, and they date back to the ’80s and ’90s when Archbishop Carlson was serving in Minnesota. For a time, he was among those in charge of the man accused of repeatedly abusing kids, whose name is Joseph Wajda.

“I have never abused anybody. I deny all these allegations. They’re false, they’re ridiculous,” Wajda told a KARE 11 reporter, our sister station in Minnesota, in December.

According to the documents released Wednesday, Wajda repeatedly denied allegations that he forced kids to get naked and brushed against them inappropriately, among other accusations. His repeated denial is recorded throughout the documents, including in a memo from Archbishop Carlson in 1987.

The paper trail shows Carlson was among those who questioned Wajda after learning about some of the accusations in 1981.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Will Ed Miliband decide to attack David Cameron on the appointment of Lady Butler-Sloss to chair the child abuse inquiry when he stands up at Prime Minister’s Questions in a few minutes?

The government has been playing a desperate game of whack-a-mole on this issue, and it looked as though Butler-Sloss was an ideal answer to conspiracy theorists. Appointing Lady Butler-Sloss, a judge, to chair the inquiry, answered complaints about this not being a judge-led inquiry. Appointing Richard Whittam QC, a senior Treasury counsel, as the independent legal adviser who will oversee the review of the review quelled mutterings about documents held by the intelligence services because Whittam already has security clearance. Butler-Sloss also brings a wealth of technical experience in the field to the inquiry: she chaired the inquiry into the Cleveland abuse scandal, and who has more recently examined allegations of abuse by two Church of England priests in the Chichester Diocese.

But she has a link that means MPs who have been pursuing the child abuse allegations such as Simon Danczuk think she should step down from the Inquiry before it has even begun. Her brother, Sir Michael Havers, was the Attorney General at the time many of the allegations were raised.

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

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications

Joseph Wajda is included in the John Jay list, which is posted on our website. We offer our assurances that today we handle things differently regarding priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children. The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis permanently removed him from ministry in 2003. We have requested that the Holy See remove him from the clerical state (laicize).

We ask for forgiveness from and pray for hope and healing for all victims of sexual abuse and their families.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis

[with video]

July 7, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:
Gabe Jones
Community Relations Specialist
Phone: 314.792.7557

Today the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the sole plaintiff, a female known as Jane Doe 92, agreed to settle her lawsuit. A protective order in the case has precluded the Archdiocese from commenting on this matter until now. By the terms of the settlement agreement, other than this statement, the Archdiocese will not make any further statements or comments regarding this matter. At the request of the Plaintiff, the terms of the settlement agreement are confidential.

The Archdiocese has vigorously defended this case because it believes Jane Doe 92’s claims and allegations are false. Specifically, the Archdiocese denies that Jane Doe 92 was ever abused by Joseph Ross, a priest who was removed from ministry in 2002. We do not say this lightly. Jane Doe 92 made allegations in this case that her own family members dispute. She said her father witnessed the abuse by Ross and did nothing to stop it; her father denied this allegation under oath. In addition, Jane Doe 92 has been diagnosed, by her own treating doctors, with a medical condition that causes her to falsify claims, exaggerate symptoms and make inconsistent statements. Her own doctors and expert witnesses voiced doubts about her allegations and noted that they contained multiple inconsistencies. We simply do not believe her allegations are true.

In addition, as documented in public records, Jane Doe 92’s criminal charges against Father Ross were dropped by the government because the prosecution believed it could not prove her case. Father Ross was not the only person Jane Doe 92 has accused of rape. She previously alleged she was raped by another person. The government declined to prosecute charges against that person as well due to lack of evidence.

The purpose of a trial is to determine the truth. To allow the jury in this case to determine the truth, the Archdiocese actively sought to have Jane Doe 92’s treating doctors testify at trial because the Archdiocese believed the treating doctors would support the Archdiocese’s position that the abuse of Jane Doe 92 did not happen. Plaintiff took the highly unusual step of trying to block those doctors from testifying at trial.

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 9, 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 )

Toledo Catholic officials are not relenting. They have announced that on Friday they will give a funeral with “fully priestly honors” to a murderer, even as a third national organization has criticized them for the move.

[Toledo Blade]

We are grateful there’s still time for church employees and members to object to this stunningly heartless act. We hope they will.

Earlier this week, the Boston-based Voice of the Faithful wrote to Father Charles Ritter, the “administrator” or temporary head of the Toledo diocese, criticizing funerals plans for Fr. Gerald Robinson, who was convicted of murdering Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl. So too has NSAC, the National Survivors Advocate Coalition, and our group.

It’s a clear choice for Fr. Ritter and his clerical colleagues: side with one guilty priest or with many innocent victims. Show compassion for one deceased adult who did wrong or for many living adults who are blameless.

A simple, private funeral hurts no one. An ostentatious public funeral hurts many.

We hope Toledo Catholic officials will reverse their painful decision.

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

NEW YORK
Rockland County Times

News 12 this week aired a special report focusing on recent disturbing incidents of sexual abuse in the Village of New Square. The six-minute feature spotlighted the criminal case of Rabbi Moshe Taubenfeld, an accused predator indicted by a Rockland County Grand Jury for the repeated molestation of a young male victim over the span of several years. Unfortunately, News 12 Reporter Tara Rosenblum provided more fiction than fact in her poorly produced bit of “infotainment.”

Rosenblum’s dramatized piece is a masterful manipulation of the facts with at least six glaring factual errors. Even more troubling is that she never thought to contact my office for information critical to developing a credible news report.

News 12 management and staff should pride themselves on fair and accurate reporting, not sensationalism and fear-mongering. There is nothing journalistically ethical about playing it “fast and loose” with the facts. Local media organizations exist to serve the community, but Rosenblum’s sweeping inaccuracies and misinformation only serve to erode the trust only recently forged between my highly-skilled special victims prosecutors and the Hasidic community in Rockland County. By distorting the truth, I fear Rosenblum may have reversed much of the progress we’ve made.

Please know my Administration will continue to work closely with the Hasidic community to build confidence in our justice system to encourage more reporting from within. In the future, I would hope that News 12 – its reporters, writers, producers and editors – step up to provide our community with impartial and ethical coverage while standing for the principles of journalism.

Cordially,

Thomas P. Zugibe
Rockland County District Attorney

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

NIGERIA
Christian Post

BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CP REPORTER
July 9, 2014

A self-styled 53-year-old pastor from Nigeria who impregnated more than 20 members of his congregation, including several married women and young girls, claiming that the Holy Spirit told him to have sex with them has been arrested for sexual abuse.

Ebere Amaraizu, DSP, a spokesman for the Enugu State Police Command told NaiJ that general overseer of Vineyard Ministry of the Holy Trinity, Pastor Timothy Ngwu, was arrested for abusing his female members.

“The pastor claims to be obeying prophetic/spiritual injunction to do the will of God, which is to impregnate any one chosen and revealed by the Holy Spirit, irrespective of whether the woman is married or not,” said Amaraizu.

“When the woman is delivered of the baby, the child remains in the ministry with the mother for life,” he added.

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

ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A former staff member at a Southern Baptist church in Alabama was arrested June 5 after two individuals came forward claiming they were sexually abused as children.

Jay Strickland, 50, a nurse anesthetist, paramedic and a former pastor at Sharon Heights Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., is charged with two counts of sexual abuse and one count of sodomy.

Police say an investigation was launched in April after a male victim came forward and reported he had been abused by Strickland when he was a child. During the investigation, detectives learned of a second victim, a female, who reported being abused as a child as well. Both alleged victims are now adults and live out of state.

Terry Trivette, senior pastor of Sharon Heights Baptist Church since 2013, said in a statement to media that legal authorities were notified and Strickland was placed upon an indefinite leave of absence from the church when the allegations surfaced.

After his arrest, Trivette said, Strickland “was formally relieved of his duties and is no longer employed by Sharon Heights Baptist Church.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

OLIVER WRIGHT WHITEHALL EDITOR Wednesday 09 July 2014

The judge appointed to lead the Government’s inquiry into allegations of an establishment paedophile ring is under growing pressure to stand down after it emerged that her brother had been implicated in the events she is due to investigate.

Baroness Butler-Sloss said she knew “absolutely nothing about” allegations that her late brother, the former Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers, had been passed a copy of a dossier naming suspected Westminster paedophiles but failed to act on the information which later went missing.

Sir Michael also backed the decision not to prosecute the diplomat Sir Peter Hayman for exchanging obscene material with members of the Paedophile Information Exchange. He also attempted to prevent the Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens naming Sir Peter in the House of Commons.

But while Downing Street stood by the appointment, a growing number of MPs expressed their concern about her involvement – especially given that her inquiry is expected to focus on events which took place at her time when her brother had responsibility for prosecutions.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The retired judge appointed to chair a child abuse review has insisted she will not quit – as the PM claimed she was the right person for the job.

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was chosen by the home secretary to head the inquiry into allegations of historical abuse.

But Labour’s Simon Danczuk said her position was tainted because her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was Attorney General in the 1980s.

Downing Street said the peer “commands widespread respect and confidence”.

Baroness Butler-Sloss was announced on Tuesday as head of a wide-ranging probe into how allegations of abuse by politicians and other powerful figures in public institutions such as the NHS, the church and the BBC in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were handled.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Pink News

The retired judge appointed to chair a child abuse inquiry was one of the most vocal critics of the government’s decision to legalise same-sex marriage for England and Wales.

Baroness Butler-Sloss was appointed yesterday by Home Secretary Theresa May to chair an investigatory panel looking into how institutions like the government, the NHS, and the BBC handled allegations of paedophilia.

The government has been forced to defend its choice after several politicians and lawyers said the peer was tainted by the fact that her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general at the time of the alleged abuses in the 1980s.

Sir Michael faced criticism after he sought to stop Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens from naming in Parliament a top diplomat – Sir Peter Hayman – as a paedophile in the early 1980s.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

Der scheidende Chef der Vatikanbank, der Deutsche Ernst von Freyberg, beklagt Intrigen in der Führungsetage des Vatikan. „Manchmal hat man das Gefühl, dass sich gerade an der Kurie nicht nur die besten Köpfe, sondern auch große Intriganten tummeln“, sagte von Freyberg in einem Interview mit der „Bild“-Zeitung (Mittwoch).

Seine Mission sei erledigt, betonte der 55-Jährige: „Wir haben 16.300 Kunden geprüft. Die Bank ist jetzt sauber! Das war mein Ziel.“ Er habe 200mal Anzeige wegen Geldwäsche-Verdachts gestellt und 3000 Konten geschlossen. „Damit habe ich mir nicht nur Freunde gemacht.“

Kritisch äußerte sich von Freyberg auch zu den Beratern und Anwälten des Vatikan. Er habe „nahezu alle Beratungsverträge bei der Bank gekündigt“, aber manch einer „wittert jetzt natürlich wieder das große Geschäft“. Insgesamt hätten den Papst „zweifelhafte Investments aus der Vergangenheit gut 45 Millionen gekostet“.

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

NEW YORK
New York Post

By Josh Saul
July 9, 2014

The victim of an Orthodox Jewish sex abuser tore into his attacker Wednesday as the pervert was sentenced to two years behind bars.

“He still wouldn’t apologize to me in person. He never apologized to me,” the teen, who is now in his 20s and had a therapy dog with him in court, said in Brooklyn Supreme Court before Baruch Lebovits, 62, was sentenced.

Lebovits pleaded guilty in May 2014 to engaging in oral sex with the then-teenage boy on eight different occasions in 2004 and 2005.

The sex abuser didn’t speak in court except to thank Judge Mark Dwyer, who acknowledged the high-profile nature of the case.

“I know this is a controversial case. I know this is a community that’s badly split,” said Dwyer.
“We’re all Americans and this American court is going to treat everybody the same.”

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

NEW YORK
New York Times

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
JULY 9, 2014

A cantor whose sexual abuse case split the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison, as expected under a plea deal struck in May.

The cantor, Baruch Lebovits, is expected to serve only a few months of that sentence, because he received credit of 13 months for time served on a previous conviction on the same charge. An appeals court overturned that conviction in 2012.

The case was a prominent one for Charles J. Hynes, the former Brooklyn district attorney, who had vowed to fight sexual abuse among the ultra-Orthodox. Mr. Lebovits was convicted in 2010 of molesting a teenage boy on eight occasions. He was then sentenced to 10⅔ to 32 years in prison.

But after the conviction was overturned, on an evidentiary issue, Mr. Lebovits was released.

The office of Brooklyn’s new district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, had seemed to signal that it would pursue a new trial against Mr. Lebovits. But in May, at what was to be a routine hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers discussed plea negotiations.

The judge, Justice Mark Dwyer of State Supreme Court, said then that he had researched normal prison terms for the type of felony Mr. Lebovits was accused of, and that two years was typical. The lawyers involved and the judge then agreed to two years.

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Wednesday, July 9, 2014

A Brooklyn cantor was hauled to prison Wednesday for abusing a teenage boy, capping a controversial and convoluted case a full decade in the making.

An unapologetic Baruch Lebovits, 62, got shackled, waved goodbye to his son and was led away to serve a two-year stint in prison — which translates to only a handful of months after credit for good behavior and time served.

The Hasidic defendant, who copped in May to felony sex abuse against a 16-year-old in 2004, had already spent 13 months in prison after he was found guilty in a 2010 trial and sent to a maximum of 32 years behind bars — before the conviction was overturned on appeal.

In between then and now, a man accused of illegally meddling in the case was indicted and much later cleared, the competing prosecutions became fodder during last year’s district attorney election and numerous accusations of payoffs and witness intimidation have been lobbed.

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

NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Baruch Leibovits Sentenced To Two Years For Felony Child Sex Abuse, Could Be Free In Only Weeks

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits was sentenced this morning to to two years for felony child sex abuse in a sweetheart plea deal. Because Leibovits already served time in prison for this and other counts but was freed after an error by the prosecution came to light, Leibovits could walk free in a matter of weeks when time served is counted.

It’s another travesty of justice in Brooklyn.

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits was sentenced this morning to to two years for felony child sex abuse in a sweetheart plea deal. Because Leibovits already served time in prison for this and other counts but was freed and slated for retrial after an error by the prosecution (which actually favored Leibovits) came to light, Leibovits could walk free in a matter of weeks when time served is counted.

His original sentence could have seen him serve more than 30 years in prison.

But witnesses were clearly tampered with and bribed, and two DAs did nothing about it – even after the newest DA, Ken Thompson, admitted to the court that it happened. And now another haredi child sex abuser will walk.

Bizzarely, one of Lebovits’ haredi victims – who was allegedly paid off by Leibovits’ family, a fact the DA knows – spoke today in court in support of the sweetheart plea deal as did this victim’s father, who used the opportunity to publicly thank the attorney who arranged that payoff from Lebovits’ family to his family.

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

NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

07/09/14
Hella Winston
Special Correspondent

Baruch Lebovits was led out of Brooklyn Supreme Court in handcuffs Wednesday morning after being sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to felony sex offenses with a minor. With time served and time off for good behavior, Lebovits is expected to serve only a few months in jail.

A lawyer for Sam Kellner had tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade Judge Mark Dwyer to reconsider the sentence in light of other alleged sex offenses for which Lebovits has not been convicted.

Before Lebovits was taken to prison, his victim, YR — accompanied by a therapy dog — stood up to address the court. He began by lashing out at anti-abuse activist Nuchem Rosenberg, claiming that he “is bullying me on the hotline,” a reference to comments made on a call-in line by Rosenberg about YR’s physical appearance. Rosenberg has also speculated on his hotline that YR was paid off in exchange for a promise not to testify against Lebovits at trial.

The Brooklyn district attorney has confirmed that YR did enter into a financial settlement with regard to his abuse by Lebovits and also that YR had expressed an unwillingness to take the stand were the case to go to trial.

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

OHIO
Toledo Blade

Funeral arrangements have been scheduled for the Rev. Gerald Robinson, who died in an state prison medical facility last week.

Father Robinson‘‍s funeral Mass will be held at St. Hyacinth Church, 719 Evesham Ave., Friday at 11 a.m., and he will be buried at Calvary Cemetery. Father Robinson, who was arrested in 2004 and convicted in 2006 for the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in 1980, died Friday in a prison hospice at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. He was serving a sentence of 15 years to life.

Visitations are scheduled for Thursday from 2 to 8 p.m. at W.K. Sujkowski & Son Funeral Home, 3838 Airport Hwy., and Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Hyacinth.

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

VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | July 9, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis’ promised reforms of the Vatican bureaucracy are starting to take shape, with new leaders appointed to oversee the troubled Vatican bank and plans to overhaul the Catholic Church’s approach to global communications.

Pope Francis on July 9, 2014, announced a number of reforms to the Vatican’s communication office and Vatican bank, including tapping Jean-Baptiste de Franssu to lead the bank as its new director.

French businessman Jean-Baptiste de Franssu on Wednesday (July 9) was named new president of the bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion, replacing Ernst Von Freyberg, a German who has run the bank since February 2013.

Six new lay members, including Mary Ann Glendon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See and Harvard law professor, will join the bank’s board.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican’s economic secretariat, announced the latest changes, which he said are designed to improve vigilance and transparency.

“There are many challenges and much work ahead,” Pell said. “The Holy Father has made it clear these changes should move forward expeditiously.”

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

VATICAN CITY
Al Jazeera America

July 9, 2014

The Vatican on Wednesday said it would separate its bank’s investment business from its Church payments work to try to clean up after years of scandal, and vowed to become a “model of financial transparency.”

French businessman Jean-Baptize de Franssu was named as the new head of the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), succeeding German lawyer Ernst Von Freyberg, who has run the bank since February 2013.

Freyberg, who has said he is leaving for personal reasons, has introduced reforms to make the IOR more transparent and compliant with international norms against money laundering, and has closed many suspicious accounts.

The Vatican also plans to increase scrutiny on one of the two sections of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, or APSA — also hit by recent scandals — that runs Vatican properties, handles income and spending, prepares budgets and acts as a central accounting department and purchasing office.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican’s recently formed Secretariat for the Economy, told a news conference that the move was necessary in order for his department to “exercise its responsibilities of economic control and vigilance” over all Vatican departments.

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

VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF JULY 09, 2014

After a sweeping overhaul of the Vatican’s financial operations on Wednesday, one thing seems clear: If Australian Cardinal George Pell fails in getting the Vatican, as he puts it, “off the gossip pages” due to chronic financial scandals, it won’t be because the 73-year-old prelate lacks the power to do the job.

One way or another, changes announced Wednesday bring most of the Vatican’s important financial centers under Pell’s influence, including purchasing and human resources as well as administration of the Vatican’s several billion dollars of investments. They also place Pell confidantes in key positions.

Among the moves unveiled on Wednesday:

• A downsizing of the troubled Vatican Bank, formally known as the “Institute for the Works of Religion”. Administering investments from its estimated $8 billion in holdings will be taken over by a new Vatican Asset Management office, reporting to Pell.

• The “ordinary section” of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), responsible for personal and procurement, will be transferred to Pell’s Secretariat for the Economy.

• Appointment of French businessman Jean-Baptiste de Franssu as the bank’s new president. From 1990 to 2011 de Franssu was an executive with Invesco Europe, an investing firm with $35 billion in assets under management.

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

VATICAN CITY
Sydney Morning Herald

July 10, 2014

Nick Miller
Europe Correspondent

Dublin: Australian Cardinal George Pell has taken personal control of the Vatican’s finances in a reform unprecedented in living memory – but says he is facing “sadness and antagonism” from the old guard at the heart of the Catholic empire.

In an exclusive interview with respected Vatican reporter John L Allen Jr, Cardinal Pell said his mission was “to be boringly successful, to get off the gossip pages”.

On Wednesday, Cardinal Pell held a press conference to announce his economic plan for the Holy See, building on a reform framework approved by the Pope earlier this year.

In February, Cardinal Pell was appointed prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

He revealed on Wednesday he had brought in Danny Casey, his former business manager of the archdiocese of Sydney, to head a new office to oversee some of the reform projects.

One of the biggest challenges is the restructure of the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank, which has previously acted as a conduit for money laundering.

Cardinal Pell’s plan gives the bank a new, smaller role in the church’s finances, sets up a new office to administer billions of dollars’ worth of investments, and reviews of the Vatican’s pension fund.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Jul 9, 2014

Attorney Jeff Anderson on Wednesday released more clergy documents from a massive lawsuit that has forced the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to turn over more than 60,000 internal documents on priests accused of sexually abusing children.

The documents released today involve the Rev. Joseph Wajda, who was accused of sexually abusing children decades earlier. The archdiocese removed Wajda from parish assignments in 1991 and the Vatican decided to kick him out of the priesthood last year.

The allegations against Wajda are already well known. Then-Archbishop Harry Flynn named Wajda in 2002 as a priest accused of sexual abuse, and the claims received extensive media coverage.

Wajda, 67, has denied the abuse claims and said he has appealed his case to the Vatican.

The documents are part of a lawsuit that alleges the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret. The man who filed the suit claims he was sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas Adamson in the 1970s.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: July 9, 2014

The Rev. Joseph Wajda allegedly made one boy strip naked and bumped into his genitals.

Documents made public Wednesday in the ongoing sexual abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis show that a priest who allegedly abused boys was allowed to continue working as a priest and in an administrative role in the church.

One month after the Rev. Joseph Wajda was ordained in 1973, there was an allegation that he propositioned a young boy, and his alleged misconduct carried on for several more years, according to documents released by attorney Jeff Anderson.

“The Wajda documents show how current Archbishop of St. Louis Robert Carlson, while serving in roles including chancellor and auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the 1970s-1990s, along with other Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis officials, mishandled and minimized child sexual abuse allegations against Wajda,” said a statement from Anderson’s office.

A statement from the archdiocese was not immediately available.

Wajda, now 67, was permanently removed from ministry in 2003 and laicized in 2013. He lives in Minneapolis and has denied abusing children.

The archdiocese was court-ordered to produce thousands of pages of documents, including material chronicling Wajda’s alleged abuse, for a lawsuit filed by Anderson against the church and former priest Tom Adamson.

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

OHIO
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jul. 9, 2014

The funeral Mass for a Toledo priest convicted of murdering a religious sister will follow “usual protocol for a diocesan priest’s funeral,” according to the Ohio diocese.

Fr. Gerald Robinson, 76, died Friday at a prison medical facility in Columbus. The Toledo Blade reported he was receiving treatment for heart troubles and had suffered a heart attack around Memorial Day.

In 2006, Robinson was found guilty of the 1980 Holy Saturday murder of Mercy Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed 32 times before being covered with an altar cloth in what some deemed a satanic ritual. It was reported that Robinson presided at Pahl’s funeral Mass.

Robinson, who was serving 15 years to life in prison, maintained his innocence up to his death, which preceded a completion of the appeals process. While the appeals continued, he remained a diocesan priest but was restricted from public ministry.

Details about the time and location of Robinson’s funeral have yet to be released, but the Toledo diocese said it anticipates the family will do so Wednesday afternoon. Fr. Charles Ritter, diocesan administrator, is expected to celebrate the funeral Mass, which is open to the public but closed to the media.

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

VATICAN CITY
Malta Independent

Gozitan priest Mgr Alfred Xuereb, who had been private secretary to Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, has been appointed as non-voting secretary to the new board of the Vatican Bank.

Mgr Xuereb is already the secretary general of the new secretariat for economic affairs of the Vatican.

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

VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By JIM YARDLEY
JULY 9, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis continued his efforts to modernize and reorganize the Vatican finances on Wednesday, by appointing a new leadership for the scandal-tainted Vatican Bank, streamlining other operations and signaling future changes to the church’s global media operations.

“Our ambition is to become something of a model in financial management rather than a cause for occasional scandal,” Cardinal George Pell, the pope’s recently appointed prefect on economic affairs, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The most prominent move, rumored for weeks, was the appointment of Jean-Baptiste de Franssu as the new president of the Vatican Bank, officially known as the Institute of Religious Works, or I.O.R. Mr. de Franssu, a Frenchman who was formerly head of European operations for the investment management company Invesco Ltd., had been serving on an economic advisory council that Francis created in March. He replaces Ernst von Freyberg, a German industrialist appointed last year.

Cleaning up the Vatican’s murky finances has been a top priority for Francis, especially after many of the cardinals who elected him as pope in March 2013 spoke openly about their displeasure with the Vatican’s financial operations.

In recent years, the Vatican Bank has been under growing pressure to comply with international practices to fight money laundering and meet other global norms. In 2010, Italian prosecutors temporarily seized $30 million from two accounts at the bank as part of a financial investigation.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 9, 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 )

More newly-released Catholic Church records show that St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson hid clergy sex crimes when he worked in Minnesota.

According to a Minnesota TV station:

“The documents fault Carlson, who was (a Saint Paul archdiocesan official) from the 1970s to 1990s.

The documents say (he) and other church officials mishandled and minimized allegations against former priest and accused child molester Wajda, which allowed Wajda to continue to serve as a priest.

According to the documents, Wajda allegedly began abusing children a month after his ordination in 1973. The allegations are that Carlson and other church officials “learned in 1981 that Wajda was molesting boys under the guise of counseling but waited five years before sending him to psychiatric care.”

We in SNAP are grateful to the brave Minnesota victims who continue to tear off layer and layer of unhealthy secrecy in church offices and files about abuse and cover up.

We’re also grateful to the Minnesota legislators who reformed their state’s child abuse laws so that cover ups like these can be revealed through civil lawsuits.

And we hope that the continually damaging disclosures about Carlson will prod St. Louis Catholic officials to get on the right side of history and share what they know about clergy sex crimes and cover ups here with law enforcement agencies and advocacy groups.

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

MINNESOTA
KMOV

(KMOV) – Secret Archdiocese documents recently released show how the Archbishop of St. Louis Robert Carlson failed to take action on child sexual abuse allegations against former priest Joseph Wajda.

The allegations occurred when Carlson was part of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the 1970s through the 1990s.

According to a news release, Carlson’s actions, along with other officials, allowed Wajda to continue to serve as a priest.

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

MINNESITA
KSTP

By: Jennie Olson

Secret documents have been made public Wednesday that attorneys say show how a former official with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis mishandled child sexual abuse allegations against former priest Joseph Wajda.

The documents were released as part of a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, and former priest Thomas Adamson.

The documents fault Archbishop of St. Louis Robert Carlson, who previously served as a chancellor and auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis from the 1970s to 1990s.

The documents say Carlson and other church officials mishandled and minimized allegations against former priest and accused child molester Wajda, which allowed Wajda to continue to serve as a priest.

According to the documents, Wajda allegedly began abusing children a month after his ordination in 1973. The allegations say church officials, including Carlson, learned in 1981 that Wajda was molesting boys under the guise of counseling but waited five years before sending him to psychiatric care.

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

BOSTON (MA)
Talking New Media

Michael O’Loughlin has been hired as the site’s national reporter, while Christina Reinwald has been hired as web producer

Press Release:

BOSTON, Mass. – July 9, 2014 — Teresa Hanafin, the editor of The Boston Globe’s new standalone website dedicated to Catholicism, which is expected to launch by early September, announced her new team today.

“As you know, we hired John L. Allen Jr., the premier Vatican reporter in the country, if not the world, earlier this year from the National Catholic Reporter. His insightful reporting and analysis will be supplemented by on-the-ground event coverage by correspondent Ines San Martin, an engaging Argentinean journalist who has moved to Rome and just finished intense immersion in an Italian language course,” Hanafin said.

San Martin has a BA in social communications and journalism and a master’s degree in communication, both from Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires. She worked as a reporter and editor for Valores Religiosos, managed the international press office for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, and was the community/social media manager, content director, and graphic designer for Conta con Nosotros.

Michael O’Loughlin has been hired as the site’s national reporter. O’Loughlin has local roots and a background in religion writing. He grew up in Dracut, Massachusetts, and graduated from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire and Yale Divinity School. He has written for America, National Catholic Reporter, Foreign Policy, The Advocate, and the Religion News Service, and is writing a book on the Catholic Church and millennials, to be published by Paulist Press in the fall of 2015. He has appeared on Fox News and MSNBC.

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

BOSTON (MA)
WGBH

By DAN KENNEDY

John Henry’s vision for the Boston Globe is slipping more and more into focus, as the paper is edging closer to launching its website covering Catholicism and moving from Dorchester to downtown Boston.

The Catholic site will include three reporters and a Web producer, according to an announcement by Teresa Hanafin, the longtime Globe veteran who will edit the project. Look for it to debut in September.

In addition to John Allen, who’s been covering the Church for the Globe since being lured away from the National Catholic Reporter earlier this year, the team will comprise Ines San Martin, an Argentinian journalist who will report from the Vatican; Michael O’Loughlin, a Yale Divinity School graduate who will be the site’s national reporter; and Web producer Christina Reinwald.

Unlike the Globe’s new print-oriented Friday Capital section, which covers politics, the Catholic site will be aimed both at and well beyond Boston with national and international audiences in mind. “It will have a global audience. There’s a natural audience for it,” Globe chief executive officer Mike Sheehan said in a just-published interview with CommonWealth magazine editor (and former Globe reporter) Bruce Mohl.

Because of that, Globe spokeswoman Ellen Clegg tells me, the Catholic site will be exempt from the Globe’s paywall. It will be interesting to see how Sheehan, an ad man by trade, grapples with the difficult challenge of selling enough online advertising to make it work. Although this is pure speculation, I wonder if some of the content could be repackaged in, say, a weekly print magazine supported by paid subscriptions and ads.

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

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch
Tribune reporter
11:45 a.m. CDT, July 9, 2014

A Greek Orthodox priest in Glenview accused of improperly spending more than $110,000 from a church trust fund on personal expenses has been charged with felony theft.

The Rev. James Dokos allegedly wrote checks for tens of thousands of dollars to benefit himself, friends and family and to pay his personal credit card bills from the trust that he controlled, but that was set up primarily to benefit a Milwaukee church, according to a criminal complaint prepared by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office.

The Tribune wrote about the allegations in the complaint last month. The charges became official today, according to the Milwaukee County court website.

Dokos, 62, was a longtime pastor at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee before he was transferred to Saints Peter and Paul Church in Glenview in 2012.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By David Barrett, and Matthew Holehouse
09 Jul 2014

Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former judge appointed to investigate allegations of an establishment cover-up of child sex abuse, was forced to issue an apology after making crucial errors in a previous inquiry into two paedophile priests, The Telegraph can disclose.

The peer was put in charge of a “flawed” investigation into how the Church of England handled the cases of two ministers in Sussex who had sexually abused boys.

Eight months after her report was published Lady Butler-Sloss had to issue a six-page addendum in which she apologised for “inaccuracies” which, she admitted, arose from her failure to corroborate information which was given to her by senior Anglican figures as part of the inquiry.

Critics said it was further evidence that Lady-Butler-Sloss was the wrong person to lead the new Home Office inquiry into a range of institutions, including the Church.

The 2011 report looked at the Church’s handling of information about Roy Cotton, a parish priest in the Diocese of Chichester who died in 2006, and Colin Pritchard, another Anglican minister in the diocese who attended theological college with Cotton in the 1960s.

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

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: James Turner

A retired archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America was sent to jail for eight months this morning for sexually molesting an altar boy at a Winnipeg parish nearly 30 years ago.

Seraphim (Kenneth) Storheim learned this morning he would not get the benefit of a conditional sentence that would have allowed him to stay free in the community while serving his sentence.

“The accused was a mature offender at the time of the offence, the offence was a gross abuse of trust and the lasting effects of the crime on the victim are serious,” Justice Chris Mainella said.

Mainella convicted Storheim, 68, of sexual assault earlier this year following a lengthy Court of Queen’s Bench trial.

The victim was an 11-year-old boy visiting Storheim from Ontario in 1985.

The sexual assault on the child consisted of a single, extremely brief, incident or inappropriate touching when both were naked in the child’s room.

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

CANADA
Brandon Sun

By: The Canadian Press
Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2014

WINNIPEG – A former Orthodox priest is appealing his conviction for molesting an altar boy almost 30 years ago.

Seraphim Storheim was sentenced to eight months in jail Wednesday for sexually assaulting a boy who came to visit him in Winnipeg in 1985.

Storheim showed no emotion in court as Justice Christopher Mainella called his actions deplorable and a gross breach of trust.

The Crown had asked for a 12-month jail sentence, arguing Storheim abused a position of trust, but his lawyer argued for a conditional sentence with no jail time.

At the time of the offence, Storheim was a priest in the Orthodox Church in America but later rose to archbishop — the church’s highest-ranking cleric in Canada.

The 68-year-old was placed on leave when he was arrested in 2010 and retired following his conviction.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 9 July 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press Office a press conference was held to present the new economic plan for the Holy See. The speakers were Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Joseph F. X. Zahra and Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, deputy coordinator and member of the Council for the Economy respectively, and Ernst von Freyberg, president of the Board of Superintendence of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).

Cardinal George Pell announced new and important initiatives for improving the economic management and administration of the Holy See and Vatican City State. These changes, set in motion by the new Secretariat for the Economy, are the fruit of a detailed analysis of the conclusions and recommendations of the Pontifical Council for Reference on the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA), and are considered essential to face risks and weaknesses and, at the same time, to create in the future a new platform for improving economic management. All the changes were approved in the recent meetings of the Council for the Economy (5 July) and the Council of Cardinals (1-4 July), and it is expected that they will be approved by the Holy Father.

The changes relate to APSA (the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See), the Pension Fund, the Vatican media and the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).

The Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the Holy Father has approved these important initiatives. Both Cardinal Pell and the Council for the Economy gave thanks for the Pope’s unwavering support and contributions.

“There are many challenges to face and much work to be done”, Cardinal Pell observed. “The COSEA has recommended that various issues be faced as a matter of urgency, such as the transfer of the Ordinary Section of the APSA, the Pension Fund, the media and the IOR. The Holy Father has clearly stated that these changes must be made rapidly”.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 9 July 2014 (VIS) – The following is the Apostolic Letter issued ‘Motu proprio’ by the Holy Father Francis on the transfer of the Ordinary Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See to the Secretariat of the Economy.

“Confirming a centuries-old tradition, the last Vatican Council II reaffirmed the need for the organisation of the Holy See to conform to the needs of the times, above all by adapting the structure of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, their number, denomination and competence, as well as their approaches and mutual coordination, to the real needs of the Church at every moment.

A concrete result of these principles occurred with the promulgation in February 2014 of the Apostolic letter, in the form of a Motu Proprio, Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens, by which I instituted the Secretariat for the Economy as a dicastery of the Roman Curia. In accordance with the recommendations of the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat is responsible for the economic control and supervision of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the Institutions linked to the Holy See, and the administrations of Vatican City State.

In view of the above, and upon consulting the heads of the dicasteries involved, I consider it appropriate for the Secretariat of the Economy to assume among its institutional competences, from now on and in accordance with the methods and times established by the relative Cardinal Prefect, those tasks which were previously attributed to the so-called ‘Ordinary Section’ of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and, therefore, to transfer to the aforementioned dicastery the competences which the Apostolic Constitution ‘Pastor bonus’ of 28 June 1988 had entrusted to that Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. As a consequence, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See will no longer be divided into sections and, in the future, it will carry out only those functions previously performed by the Extraordinary Section.

Consequently, having carefully examined every question regarding the matter and consulting with the competent dicasteries and experts, I establish and decree as follows:

Article 1

The text of Article 172 of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Pastor bonus’ is entirely substituted by the following text:

1. This Office shall administer the assets belonging to the Holy See allocated to provide the funds necessary for the performance of the functions of the Roman Curia.

2. The Office shall also administer the moveable assets entrusted to other bodies of the Holy See.

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

CANADA
CBC News

A former Orthodox priest and archbishop has been sentenced to eight months in jail for sexually assaulting an altar boy in Winnipeg during the 1980s.

A Manitoba judge handed down the decision Wednesday morning against Seraphim Kenneth Storheim, 68, calling his conduct “deplorable and a gross breach of trust.”

Almost immediately Storheim’s lawyer, Jeff Gindin, said his client is appealing the decision.

“There will be plenty” of grounds for appeal, Gindin said.

“Essentially we feel [Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Christopher Mainella] analyzed credibility with errors all the way through.”

Ginden said Storheim will try to get bail on Thursday.

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

CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Statement by Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga, California, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), SNAP Orthodox Director ( 925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com )

A Canadian archbishop, who was found guilty of child sexual abuse in criminal court in January, was sentenced today to eight months in jail.

[CBC News]

We are glad that Archbishop Seraphim Storheim will spend time in jail, although we are disappointed that it is not for a longer period of time. While incarcerated, he will be unable to hurt any more children.

Now that the criminal process is complete, we urge the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) to go beyond announcing this sentence on their website, given the small group of vocal supporters who persist in clamoring that the archbishop is “innocent.” Church official must insist that every parish bulletin in Canada post a prominent notice urging anyone who might have suffered, seen, or suspected Storheim’s crimes to call police.

OCA officials must also re-examine the decisions made by the archbishop in all cases of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct, to insure that other predators were not protected and that whistle-blowers were not punished.

Moreover, the Church must not wash their hands of this predator. Not only must they move forward to remove Storheim from the clergy, they must also do what they can to ensure that the archbishop is sent to a secure, remote facility far away from children after he completes his time in jail.

Finally, the OCA should post the names, photos, current whereabouts and work histories of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric, whether living or deceased on their website.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
TheTablet

09 July 2014 12:07 by Ruth Gledhill

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, pledged their full backing for the new public enquiry into the handling of child abuse allegations by public institutions.

The inquiry’s chairwoman, Baroness Butler-Sloss, the retired senior judge who is former president of the family division of the high court, has wide experience in the field. She was vice-chairwoman of the Cumberlege Commission, which reported on Catholic Church safeguarding policies in 2007. She also chaired a review of historic child sex abuse problems in the Church of England’s Chichester diocese, as a result of which a clergyman was convicted in 2008.

At the Church of England’s General Synod in York this weekend, survivors of sexual abuse by ministers and clergy will meet the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The eight members of Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS) will be call on the archbishop for a “complete change of culture and behaviour in the Church”.

The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, who is chairman of the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Committee, said he believed the country had a problem with this kind of abuse and said it was important that victims had their stories heard and received justice.

“We’re really pleased there’s been quite a shift and that an inquiry is now taking place,” he told the Press Association.

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

KANSAS
KWCH

[with video]

A Dodge City pastor accused of sexual assault has struck a plea deal.

A Ford County judge sentenced Dr. Jerrold Ketner to 36 months probation after he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery on Tuesday.

Ketner, who is 80-years-old, will not have to pay restitution, nor will he have to register as offender, but he was ordered not to have contact with the victim of the crime or her husband.

Carmen Montelongo says that’s just not enough.

“I’m afraid. I’m going to be afraid to go out. Because with people like this, you don’t know. You just don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Montelongo through a translator. Montelongo speaks only Spanish.

She says she has the same fears now that she did when she decided to turn Ketner in, that he’ll end up hurting someone else.

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

KANSAS
Emporia Gazette

Posted: Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Associated Press
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Dodge City pastor will serve three years of probation for sexual battery in a plea deal that dropped six other felony charges, including rape.

Eighty-year-old Jerrold Wayne Ketner was sentenced Tuesday. He was arrested in March after a woman who went to him for counseling reported she had been raped and molested for several months.
The woman told KWCH-TV ( (http://bit.ly/1qiPkYW ) that Ketner demanded sex when she could not pay him. She videotaped one of the visits and turned it over to police.

Ford County Judge Leigh Hood cited Ketner’s age, health and lack of prior convictions when announcing the sentence.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Wajda Selected Documents

News Release
July 9, 2014

Documents Show How Bishop Carlson, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Gave Wajda Safe Harbor for Decades

(St. Paul, MN) – Secret priest file documents produced under court order by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on former priest and accused child molester Joseph Wajda have been released publicly. The Archdiocese produced the documents as part of a civil lawsuit, Doe 1 vs. the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Diocese of Winona and Thomas Adamson. Adamson is a former priest who is alleged to have sexually abused Doe 1 in the 1970s.

The Wajda documents show how current Archbishop of St. Louis Robert Carlson, while serving in roles including chancellor and auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the 1970s-1990s, along with other Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis officials, mishandled and minimized child sexual abuse allegations against Wajda. Their actions enabled Wajda to continue to serve as a priest, which put children in danger.

In addition, in 1981, Wajda reported to Carlson that Adamson was engaging in sexual misconduct with a youth, according to the documents.

A summary of the Wajda documents, a Wajda timeline, and several of the approximately 3,200 pages of Wajda documents released by the Archdiocese pursuant to the court order are available on our homepage under News and Events at www.andersonadvocates.com. The entire Wajda file produced by the Archdiocese is available upon request. The original Doe 1 complaint and additional information can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

July 9, 2014 9:06 am | Author: berger

It’s “out of the frying pan, into the fire” for Archbishop Robert Carlson. While the Fr. Joe Ross case is behind him. a Lincoln County civil trail against Fr. Joseph Jiang is moving forward. “Carlson’s fingerprints are all over the Jiang case,” said SNAP’s David Clohessy. (KSDK’s Art Hollday asked the $64,000 question about the Ross settlement. Why would Carlson pay a settlement to a woman he claims isn’t telling the truth?) Meanwhile, another priest from Missouri, Fr. Bob Marsicek, has been accused of abuse in Wisconsin and California.

BTW: Clohessy and Barbara Blaine (a SLU alum) received a Global Women’s Rights Award from the Feminist Majority Foundation at a Hollywood gala hosted by Jay and Mavis Leno. Some past winners: Gloria Steinem and Mariska Hargitay of “Law & Order.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Communion News Service

From The Evening Standard

Church leaders have piled unprecedented pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to order a full public inquiry into institutional child sex abuse in Britain.

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Rev Paul Butler, warned that without such an extensive investigation — with people giving evidence on oath — he feared the full truth would not emerge.

He said that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, had urged Home Secretary Theresa May a month ago to launch a public inquiry following a string of shocking claims of abuse. The Right Rev Butler, chairman of the CoE’s churches national safeguarding committee, said religious leaders believed there was a “real problem around institutional abuse”.

“A full public inquiry is required because under those terms people have to take oaths and therefore swear to tell the truth,” he said. “My fear is the whole story won’t come out without that.

“Victim survivors need justice and they need their story to be heard.”

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

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Higuey, Dominican Republic.- The new president of the Dominican Bishops Conference (CED) on Tuesday asked Catholics to denounce the priests who abuse minors, after the Catholic Church’s declaration of zero tolerance against pedophilia.

Nicanor Peña warned that any prelate who engages in some kind of violation will be brought to justice. “Any faithful who’s aware of and truly has some basis, should come to the ecclesiastical authorities, and let them know what’s taking place, so the authority can proceed.”

He acknowledged that pedophilia cases affect the Catholic Church’s image, because many times people lose faith, “but it won’t collapse it.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Sunderland Echo

A FULL public inquiry into institutional sex abuse needs to take place or the whole truth might not come out, the Bishop of Durham has said.

The Right Rev Paul Butler said he believed the country has a problem with this kind of abuse and it is important that victims have their stories heard and they receive justice.

He also acknowledged that the process of investigating such abuse could highlight unpleasant and difficult stories from within the church.

“We’re really pleased there’s been quite a shift and that an inquiry is now taking place,” he said.

“Over a month ago the Archbishop of Canterbury, with support of Cardinal Nichols and the president of the Methodist Church, wrote to the Home Secretary saying a full public inquiry is required into institutional child abuse, which I followed up in the House of Lords a few days ago.

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Often headlines are a little misleading. The headline you just read is not. It’s true.

On the very day that Pope Francis met with abuse victims, the Toledo Blade reported that a convicted murderer – who choked and stabbed a nun to death – would be buried with full priestly honors

By the time you read this that burial may have already happened. Still, it’s worth noting, especially for the sake of those whose lives have been touched by violent crimes, especially murder and child sexual abuse.

Fr. Gerald Robinson died last week in prison. A jury found him guilty of brutally killing Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl.

(It would have happened sooner, but a top Toledo Catholic official interrupted police questioning of Fr. Robinson, resulting in years of delay and doubt.)

The Toledo diocese has no bishop right now. Fr. Charles Ritter heads the diocese now. He’s announced that Fr. Robinson is still “a priest in good standing” and will be buried accordingly.

We begged Toledo Catholic officials to reconsider. So did the National Survivors Action Coalition. So did the Voice of the Faithful.

No dice. No response.

The Catholic hierarchy takes little action against predators who commit child sex crimes. It takes virtually no action against enablers who conceal these crimes. But one would think that Catholic officials would rally and act against a priest who was accused of molesting a child and found guilty of killing a nun.

Think again. Think again, and weep.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

Press Conference for the presentation of the New Economic Framework for the Holy See

Introduction by Cardinal George Pell
Attachments

At 12 noon today, in the Aula Giovanni Paolo II of the Holy See Press Office, a press conference will be held on the theme: “New economic framework for the Holy See”.

Speakers: Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy; Joseph F.X. Zahra, Deputy Coordinator of the Council for the Economy; Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, Member of the Council for the Economy; Ernst von Freyberg, President of the Supervisory Council of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).

Introduction by Cardinal George Pell

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell, the Cardinal Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy today announced several important new initiatives to improve the economic and administrative management of the Holy See and Vatican City State.

These changes initiated by the new Secretariat for the Economy follow detailed analysis of the findings and recommendations of Pontificia Commissione Referente di Studio e di Indirizzo sull’Organizzazione della Struttura Economico-Amministrativa della Santa Sede (COSEA) and are considered essential to address identified weaknesses and risks while also creating a new platform for improved economic management in the future.

All changes have been endorsed at the recent meetings of the Council for the Economy (July 5) and the Council of Cardinals (July 1 – 4) and approved by the Holy Father.

The changes affect:

1. APSA
2. PENSION FUND
3. VATICAN MEDIA
4. IOR

Cardinal Pell said he was delighted the Holy Father had approved these important initiatives and he and the Council for the Economy are grateful for his regular input and constant support.

“There are many challenges and much work ahead. It is clear from the work of COSEA that a number of issues, such as the transfer of APSA’s Ordinary Section, Pension Fund, Vatican Media and IOR need to be addressed urgently. The Holy Father has made it clear these changes should move forward expeditiously.”

The Cardinal Prefect also announced the establishment of a small Project Management Office (PMO), led by Mr. Danny Casey formerly Business Manager of the Sydney archdiocese, to implement and introduce some of the proposed changes beginning with the transfer of APSA’s Ordinary Section into the Secretariat for the Economy. The PMO will report directly to the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

The Secretariat for the Economy will begin in September 2014 to prepare the budget for 2015. The goal is for each dicastery and administration to prepare a budget to be followed. Expenditure (within agreed framework) will be the responsibility of each dicastery and administration. Expenditure will be checked against the budgets during 2015 and any over-expenditure will be the responsibility of the dicastery and administration involved.

“We look forward to moving ahead with this work in the coming months.”

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

VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Businessweek

By Andrew Frye July 09, 2014

Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the former head of Invesco Ltd.’s European business, was named president of the Vatican Bank as Pope Francis continues his reorganization of the Catholic Church’s scandal-tainted financial operations.

Franssu replaces Ernst von Freyberg, who was appointed by Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, at the head of the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, as the bank is known.

“Excellent progress has been made through adherence to international standards,” according to a statement released by the Vatican. “A new anti-money-laundering framework has been put in place and every effort continues to be made to comply with this framework.”

The chairman of mergers-and-acquisitions adviser Incipit, Franssu was appointed by the pope earlier this year to the Vatican’s council that oversees economic issues.

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

VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

The Vatican on Wednesday named a French businessman to head up its scandal-plagued bank as part of a radical overhaul of the Holy See’s economic framework ordered by Pope Francis.

Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, former chief executive of Investco Europe, will lead a newly streamlined bank following a year of internal investigations which resulted in the closure or suspension of thousands of suspicious, ineligible or inactive accounts.

“Our ambition is to become something of a model for financial management rather than cause for occasional scandal,” Vatican finance minister Cardinal George Pell told journalists.

Franssu himself said he was “looking forward to continuing the efforts of transparency.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Lord Patten has been appointed to lead a committee overhauling the Vatican’s approach to the media only two months after quitting his role as chairman of the BBC Trust for health reasons.

The former cabinet minister and last Governor of Hong Kong worked with three different director-generals during his time at the corporation and weathered scandals including excessive executive pay and the corporation’s disastrous Diamond Jubilee coverage.

The Vatican said Lord Patten, a practising Catholic, would head the committee which would be charged with making “substantial financial savings” and ensuring “the Holy Father’s messages reach more of the faithful around the world, especially young people”.

The committee is expected to publish its report within 12 months.

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

VATICAN CITY
Rappler

(UPDATED) Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, former chief executive of Investco Europe, will lead a newly streamlined bank following a year of internal investigations

Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere, Agence France-Presse

Jul 09, 2014

VATICAN CITY (UPDATED) – The Vatican on Wednesday, July 9, named a French businessman to head up its scandal-plagued bank as part of a radical overhaul of the Holy See’s economic framework ordered by Pope Francis.

Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, former chief executive of Investco Europe, will lead a newly streamlined bank following a year of internal investigations which resulted in the closure or suspension of thousands of suspicious, ineligible or inactive accounts.

“Our ambition is to become something of a model for financial management rather than cause for occasional scandal,” Vatican finance minister Cardinal George Pell told journalists.

Franssu himself said he was “looking forward to continuing the efforts of transparency.”

The appointment comes just a day after the bank said profits last year had been all but wiped out in its efforts to clean up its accounts.

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

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

BY PHILIP PULLELLA
VATICAN CITY Wed Jul 9, 2014

(Reuters) – Former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten will head a committee to advise Pope Francis on how to re-vamp and modernize the Holy See’s media strategy, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

Patten, 70, one of Britain’s most experienced politicians, will be president of an 11-member committee made up of six experts from around the world and five Vatican officials.

It will make proposals within the next year to bring the Vatican more up to date with communications trends, improve coordination among departments and cut costs, a statement said.

The Vatican, which already has a number of internet sites and Twitter accounts, including that of Pope Francis, will use more digital media to reach a wider, younger audience, it said.

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

ARGENTINA
The Tablet (UK)

08 July 2014 13:41 by Francis McDonagh

An Argentine court on Friday condemned two former members of the country’s 1976-83 military regime, Luciano Benjamín Menéndez and Luis Fernando Estrella, for the murder of Bishop Enrique Angelelli of La Rioja on 4 August 1976.

The judges described the murder as part of a campaign of “state terrorism”. Angelelli was killed when his car was forced off the road and overturned, and his death was officially declared to be the result of an accident. This version was largely accepted by the Argentine bishops – one archbishop said Angelelli died because he was a bad driver.

One factor in the verdict was the release by Pope Francis of correspondence from Bishop Angelelli to the nuncio in Argentina sent a fortnight before his death, in which the bishop described the threats he had received from the military and local landowners. At the time of his death he was returning from the funeral of two of his priests, Frs Carlos Murias and Gabriel Longueville, who had been murdered by the military, and also reported on this to the Vatican in the correspondence released by the Pope.

Bishop Angelelli, a frequent visitor to deprived communities, was well known for his support of trade unions and co-operatives, and declared that he worked “with one eye on the Gospel and one eye on the people”. The verdict, and the Pope’s role, is a further step in the rehabilitation of the Argentine Church, whose leaders at the time were generally silent about the atrocities of the military regime, and in some cases complicit in them.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Management Today

Will it be a job filled with heavenly blessings or a role doused in hellfire? Lord Patten, the former chair of the BBC Trust, is heading to the Vatican this autumn to advise Pope Francis on his media strategy.

The Oxford University chancellor will head a committee that will report in 2015 on improving the Catholic Church’s TV station, radio and newspaper as well as expanding its output online.

Patten’s time at the BBC, which came to an end earlier this year when the 70-year-old Catholic had heart surgery, ought to prepare him well for the part-time role at the Vatican: both organisations have byzantine governance structures, a core devoted following and have been rocked by child abuse scandals.

It probably won’t do much to lower his blood pressure, though, even if Pope Francis is a media gift of God compared to his stern predecessor Pope Benedict XVI. Acts such as washing the feet of young offenders and ditching the bulletproof Popemobile have done more to repair Catholicism’s image in the last year or so than any number of @Pontifex tweets. But dodgy Vatican bankers and paedophile priests aren’t going anywhere.

Earlier this week the Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, reported 2013 profits that had nigh on been wiped out after it purged dodgy customers. Its president and four non-exec board members are due to step down too, according the BBC.

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

CANADA
CTV Winnipeg

Published Wednesday, July 9, 2014

A former archbishop is expected to find out Wednesday whether he’ll receive jail time or a conditional sentence.

Earlier this year a judge convicted Seraphim Storheim of sexually assaulting an altar boy who lived with him in 1985.

Storheim was an Orthodox Church in America priest at the time and later became archbishop.

The crown wants 12 months in jail, while the defense is asking for a conditional sentence.

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

VATICAN CITY
RTE News

Former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten will head a committee to advise Pope Francis on how to re-vamp and modernise the Holy See’s media strategy.

Mr Patten will chair the 11-member committee made up of six experts from around the world and five Vatican officials.

Dublin priest Monsignor Paul Tighe, has been appointed secretary to the committee.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said Mgr Tighe is a person of integrity and competence, whose innovation in media relations is “making a significant impact in the Universal Church”.

The new committee will make proposals within the next year to bring the Vatican more up to date with communications trends, improve coordination among departments and cut costs, a statement said.

The Vatican, which already has a number of internet sites and Twitter accounts, including that of Pope Francis, will use more digital media to reach a wider, younger audience, it said.

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

LOUISIANA
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jul. 8, 2014 NCR Today

The Louisiana Supreme Court has issued a decision that may require a priest to violate the secrecy of the confessional.

The case involves the possible confession of a 12-year-old minor who allegedly was abused by a church parishioner in 2008. The complaint says that she told the priest during three separate confessions of her abuse, which involved inappropriate touching, kissing and saying that he wanted to make love to her.

Her parents are suing the priest, Rev. Jeff Bayhi, and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, because he did not report the abuse, which continued after the confessions. The alleged abuser died of a heart attack in 2009 during the criminal investigation.

According to the Times-Picayune, the parents of the minor claim that the priest told her to deal with it herself because “too many people would be hurt.” The girl reports, “He just said, ‘This is your problem. Sweep it under the floor.'”

The parents want the priest to testify whether the confession took place and what was said. The priest and the diocese say he cannot reveal what was said in confession.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Portsmouth Herald

MPS have thrown their weight behind an independent inquiry into the handling by public bodies of allegations of child sex abuse.

Home secretary Theresa May last night announced a Hillsborough-style investigation will take place to seek the truth about widespread allegations of a paedophile ring with links to the establishment in the 1980s.

The inquiry will be given access to all government papers it requests, and could be converted into a full public inquiry if its chairman feels it is necessary.

Meanwhile, a separate review, led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless, will look into an investigation conducted last year into the Home Office’s handling of child abuse allegations made over a 20-year period, as well as the response of police and prosecutors to information which was passed on to them.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

BY KEVIN MAGUIRE

The paedophile Pandora’s Box will be opened to give up its vile secrets.

If the inquiry does its job properly, we’ll discover the names of the political Rolf Harrises, Jimmy Saviles, Stuart Halls and Max Cliffords who were disgracefully protected by the establishment.

The resistance of David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to a Hillsborough-style probe was infuriating and yesterday’s U-turn is a victory for public pressure.

It is a vindication of Labour MP Tom Watson who was sneered at in October 2012 when he demanded an investigation into a paedophile.

It is a feather in the cap of his colleague, MP Simon Danczuk, who unmasked Rochdale abuser Cyril Smith then widened his targets.

It is a tribute to the survivors who refuse to be intimidated by their tormentors and bravely come forward. And it is a tribute to a free press that challenged official stonewalling and refused to be cowed by expensive legal threats.

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

UNITED STATES
PBS – Frontline

Click here for the story.

July 8, 2014 by Priyanka Boghani

Yesterday, Pope Francis met for the first time in his papacy with victims who suffered childhood sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members. In a sermon at a private mass for the victims, the pope used “some of his most emotional language yet,” speaking “like a sinner in confession,” wrote Jason Berry, religion writer at GlobalPost and author of Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church.

FRONTLINE spoke with Berry this afternoon to find out more about Francis’s meeting with the victims, what his record in Argentina suggests about his current intentions, and the prospects for his efforts to reform the Vatican.

Berry coproduced Secrets of the Vatican, FRONTLINE’s inside look at the recent scandals that have rocked the church. The film rebroadcasts tonight on many PBS stations (check local listings).

What was different about what Pope Francis did yesterday?

First, Pope Francis spent a great deal of time, according to the press reports, with each of the individuals. The young woman who spoke to the Irish newspapers said he was unhurried, he didn’t look at his watch, and sat with her at length and listened to her. This was different from the approach that Pope Benedict took, with shorter meetings, and not as involved in gathering the emotional weight of each one of their accounts. I don’t mean that as a criticism of the former pope, but Francis decided to go more than the extra mile in spending time with them.

The second point is, his language struck me as quite a reflection of guilt on his part on behalf of the hierarchy of the church. He begged for forgiveness rather like a sinner going to confession. What’s significant there is that when someone in his position establishes a terrain of language, a territorial vocabulary, for discussing something that’s as aching and reaching as this scandal that has been building for years, it creates a kind of arena for ongoing exchanges.

Even though some of the survivors’ groups are attacking him, he’s actually done them a favor by speaking as bluntly as he did. The challenge for the pope and for the Vatican now is how they create the structural changes to meet the promise of the rhetoric.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Conservative Home

Tim Loughton MP: We have the child abuse inquiry that I and others campaigned for. This is what it now needs to do.

By Tim Loughton

Tim Loughton is MP for East Worthing and Shoreham and a former Minister for Children and Families.

It was back in November 2012 that I published an open letter to the Prime Minister on this website requesting that he set up an overarching inquiry into historic child sex abuse in the wake of the flood of abuse stories coming out of the Jimmy Savile revelations.

Twenty months on, that flood had become a tsunami, engulfing the BBC, NHS, independent schools, churches, care homes – and it was threatening to cascade into the world of politics too.

Last month, together with Zac Goldsmith and five other MPs from other parties I wrote to the Home Secretary repeating that request, given the mounting pressure built up from the relentless headlines about yet another child abuse scandal. The campaigning website Exaro helped to spark a social media campaign, putting the matter on MPs’ radar – and after I wrote to all colleagues last week inviting them to co-sign our letter no fewer than 141 had done so by Monday, and rising.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The call by the NSPCC chief to change the law so that failing to report child abuse is a crime has been welcomed by a lawyer who represents 176 victims of disgraced TV presenter and serial abuser Jimmy Savile.

Liz Dux, a lawyer with Slater & Gordon, said: “The NSPCC’s backing for mandatory reporting is a welcome and significant moment in our fight to protect future children from predators like Savile, Harris, Smith and Hall.

“This, coupled with an announcement earlier this week by Theresa May that an independent inquiry is to be held, signals we are moving in the right direction – the victims will take some heart.

“Universally the victims I work with say they want change, they support mandatory reporting.

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

ALABAMA
Daily Reporter

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A former pastor at a Birmingham-area Baptist Church has been charged with sexual abuse and sodomy after two adults told investigators he molested them years ago when they were children.

Sharon Heights Baptist Church cut all ties with the Rev. Jay Strickland, who had served as the Jefferson County church’s administrative pastor, after sheriff’s investigators arrested him last month. Strickland was freed from jail on $70,000 bond and faces a preliminary court hearing July 17.

Authorities began investigating Strickland in April after a man came forward and said the minister had sexually abused him as a boy, al. com reported (http://bit.ly/VG1gdW ). Jefferson County sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Self said investigators later tracked down a woman who told them she too had been molested by Strickland during her childhood.

Few other details about the case have been released. Strickland’s defense attorney, Richard Jaffe, said authorities claim the abuse described by their witnesses happened at least seven years ago.

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

UNITED STATES
Berkshire Eagle

It’s impossible to justify the Catholic Church’s decision to coverup the allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members that exploded like a July 4 firecracker several years ago. Sexual abuse in any form is a heinous act and has long-lasting repercussions for the victims. Church officials did not handle the scandal or its fallout well, and the higher-up officials have never held some of the perpetrators responsible.

Given that history and those circumstances, Pope Francis deserves credit for trying to deal with the situation in his own unorthodox way. Not only did he meet with six of the victims Monday, he begged for their forgiveness and vowed to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

Do the pope’s actions change what happened? No. In his remarks, the pope made no mention of the countless victims or their families around the world, or whether bishops and other prelates involved in the cover-up would be fired or demoted. But it is a start. Asking for forgiveness is one of the first steps in the long process of healing. Through his words and his actions, the leader of the Catholic Church has acknowledged that this traumatic situation took place, and that those involved will be held responsible. Again, that is an important first step. And, it is another example of the willingness that Pope Francis has shown to address difficult situations that the Church appeared to sidestep or avoid before he became the Church’s spiritual leader.

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

AUSTRALIA
Bega District News

By Ben Smyth July 9, 2014

A BEGA Valley man who bravely shared his story of childhood abuse at the hands of Catholic teachers with BDN readers, has also had his traumatic past heard by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

John (not his real name) spent 10 days in Canberra as commissioners held private sessions and public hearings into the Marist Order as part of a sweeping inquiry into child sexual abuse and seemingly institutionalised cover-ups.

In 2012, when then Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Royal Commission, John said despite the anger, guilt and depression that has haunted him since his schooldays at Marcellin College in Randwick, he felt “joyful in the knowledge a day of reckoning was coming” (BDN, 16/11/12).

While the Royal Commission is in the process of requesting additional funding to continue for another two years, John believes that day of reckoning has arrived and now some semblance of healing can take place.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR

Anyone who fails to report child abuse would face criminal charges under plans being put to ministers.

Peter Wanless, the head of the NSPCC, said it should be a crime for someone to keep abuse secret in order to protect an organisation or an individual’s reputation.

Home Secretary Theresa May has left the door open to a change in the law in response to allegations that politicians, and institutions including the government, the BBC, the NHS and the Church were part of an Establishment cover-up of decades of sexual abuse.

In a major change in policy, Mr Wanless, who is leading a review into the Home Office’s handling of abuse allegations, said he now backed so-called ‘mandatory reporting’ of abuse.

Mr Wanless told the BBC: ‘If someone consciously knows that there is a crime committed against a child, and does nothing about it because they put the reputation of the organisation above the safety of that child, that should be a criminal offence.’

He also backed the idea of imposing a duty on hospitals, boarding schools and children’s homes to report abuse.

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

ROME
Catholic Herald (UK)

By CAROL GLATZ on Wednesday, 9 July 2014

The crisis of child abuse by clergy is not a thing of the past — it will linger until the Church humbly and courageously reaches out to all people still suffering in silence, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.

“To some it might seem less than prudent to think that the Church would go out of its way to seek out even more victims and survivors,” opening up further possibilities for lawsuits, anguish and “trouble,” he told representatives from bishops’ conferences from around the world.

However, when Jesus tells pastors to leave behind their flock to seek out the one who is lost, that mandate “is itself unreasonable and imprudent but, like it or not, that is precisely what Jesus asks us to do,” he said in an introductory address on July 7.

The archbishop was one of a number of speakers at an annual meeting of the Anglophone Conference on the Safeguarding of Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults. The 2014 conference was being held July 7-11 at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome and was hosted by bishops from Ireland and Chile. Every year, two different countries organize the conference.

Founded in 1996, the conference is an informal gathering bringing together delegates from the church in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, to share best practices and develop solid norms in the prevention and handling of the scandal of sexual abuse.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Kincora: the name became a byword for depraved sex attacks on children in care. Is the scandal that threatened to bring the political establishment here crashing down finally about to give up its secrets 35 years on? Ivan Little reports

09 JULY 2014

Amid the non-stop conveyor belt of justice at the old Crumlin Road courthouse in Belfast at the time, a depraved group of senior civil servants, paramilitaries and politicians must have been hoping against hope as they watched the television news that the guilty pleas from the three men in the dock would be the end of their worries.

Court Number One wasn’t exactly packed to the rafters as Kincora Boys’ Home officials Billy McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains whispered their one-word admissions to the 23 sex abuse charges against them in December 1981.

I and a small number of other reporters on the Press benches readied ourselves to take notes of what we expected would be a deluge of revelations about what the trio had done to at least 11 boys in their care between 1960 and 1980.

But the full story never came out during the proceedings. And if it hadn’t been for a briefing for a couple of us sitting on a window ledge in the courthouse by a senior RUC detective, it would have been even more difficult to tell what we did of the story of shameful abuse in bedrooms, toilets, landings and the TV room of the home, which stood on the Upper Newtownards Road at its junction with North Road.

Boys were sent there by the courts, or because it was thought they were in moral danger, but their problems were just beginning after they went through the front door of the detached house. …

A unionist councillor, Joss Cardwell, took his own life in 1983 after he was questioned by police. He was chairman of a council welfare committee and said he had statutory visiting responsibilities in relation to care homes. The Rev Ian Paisley was accused of failing to report McGrath’s abuse to police.

A member of his church, Valerie Shaw, claimed she told the DUP leader about McGrath’s homosexual activities eight years before he was arrested and brought to court.

“I approached Dr Paisley on at least seven occasions,” she said in TV interviews. “I asked him time and time again what he intended to do about this. My concern all along was very much for the fact that there were young boys under the threat of this man’s (McGrath’s) corruption.”

Dr Paisley denied the allegations against him and responded by calling for a full judicial inquiry. He said Ms Shaw did tell him about McGrath’s homosexuality, but not that he worked at Kincora. He said he regretted that Ms Shaw didn’t take her concerns to the police, but she countered that she had.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent, and Martin Evans
09 Jul 2014

The brother of the judge in charge of the Government’s inquiry into allegations of an establishment paedophile ring refused to prosecute a paedophile diplomat caught exchanging obscene material.

Sir Michael Havers, the late brother of Baroness Butler-Sloss, was accused of a “white-wash” after he backed a decision not to prosecute Sir Peter Hayman.

Baroness Butler-Sloss, a former president of the Family Division of the High Court who led the inquest into the death of Princess Diana, has been appointed by Theresa May to lead an independent inquiry into allegations that child sex abuse was covered up by state bodies, the church, political parties and the BBC. The Home Office said she had “impeccable credentials”.

But Simon Danczuk MP said the family connection made her ill-suited to investigate allegations about how the Government handled alleged paedophiles.

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

NEW YORK
Saratogian

By Paul Post, The Saratogian
POSTED: 07/08/14

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> The longtime director of a local church preschool and day-care program has been let go amidst allegations of child abuse, although no criminal charges have been filed.

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church terminated Joan Beaudoin of Clifton Park as director of its Christian Childhood Center in May, following an investigation by the state Office of Children and Family Services and Saratoga County Department of Social Services.

Beaudoin was immediately placed on administrative leave when the allegation was first lodged March 25. She was fired after an investigation by state and county officials substantiated such charges, according to the Rev. Adam Wiegand, the church pastor.

“We can’t, in good conscience, allow that person to continue with that on their record,” he said.

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

KENTUCKY
Fox 17

[with video]

Updated: Tuesday, July 8 2014

Roy Neal Yoakem, the 46-year-old pastor at the New Gospel Outreach Church in Scottsville, Ky., was arrested Monday for the statutory rape of a 14-year-old member of his church congregation, according to a Tuesday press release from the Gallatin Police Department.

Yoakem has is a convicted sex offender who lives in Scottsville, with a secondary address in Gallatin.

Yoakem is accused of assaulting the victim on two occasions; once at his church and once at his Gallatin residence in early June, according to the release.

Yoakem has been incarcerated on charges in Kentucky and was extradited to Sumner County on Monday.

Yoakem is registered in Tennessee as a violent sex offender for a conviction in Kentucky in 2005 for second-degree sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy.

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

TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle

By Megan Gray-Hatfield Staff Writer mgray@dentonrc.com
Published: 08 July 2014

A former Denton County pastor is set to face trial later this year after he allegedly tried to coerce a teenage girl to remove her clothes, law enforcement officials said.

Jeffrey Dale Williams, the former lead pastor at The Church of Corinth, will go on trial Dec. 1 on a charge of attempted sexual performance of a child, according to Denton County court records.

Attempted sexual performance of a child is a third-degree felony. If convicted, Williams faces a sentence of two to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services contacted Corinth police investigators about possible allegations of sexual abuse on April 3, 2013.

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