ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Northlands Newscenter

July 8, 2014

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — The Survivor Network of Those Abused by Priests or “SNAP” is responding to Pope Francis’ remarks about not tolerating sexual abuse by clerics.

On Monday, the Pope met with six people who have been abused by Roman Catholic priests.

This was the first time any Pope has met with victims of clergy sexual abuse inside the Vatican walls.

Verne Wagner, the Northern Minnesota Director of SNAP, says the group appreciates the efforts of the Pope to try to right the wrongs of the past, but he says action needs to be taken to follow the words.

“Until we really see changes by the Vatican, you have to wonder how sincere this is. Was this for publicity? Or will there actually be action taken to change how the church reacts to scandals and sexual abuse?” said Wagner.

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
allAfrica

Vanguard

BY CHINENYEH OZOR, 9 JULY 2014

Nsukka — The Police in Nsukka, Enugu State, recently, arrested a 53-year-old man who claims to be the Pastor of Ministry of the Holy Trinity in Umudikwere community whom they alleged specializes in impregnating married women and young girls in his ministry.

Police sources alleged that the Pastor identified as Timothy Ngwu, the General Overseer of Ministry, sexually abuse female members of the ministry and claim that the Holy Spirit directs him to do so in the name of God.

How it was blown open

Crime Alert gathered that the alleged sexual exploits of the self-acclaimed man of God was blown open when his estranged wife, Veronica Ngwu, who hails from Udi L.G.A and have three children for the pastor, could no longer stomach the sexual rascality of her husband. She reportedly lodged complaint with the Anti- Child Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department, Enugu, which led to the arrest of Timothy Ngwu, for alleged sex and child abuses/trafficking.

Veronica, the estranged wife of the suspect reportedly informed the police that she escaped from the ministry with one of her daughters when her husband impregnated her niece and claimed he was obeying the directives of the Holy Spirit and a prophetic revelation. She also informed detectives led by Gloria Udoka (DSP) that the situation at the Vineyard ministry of the Holy Trinity was better imagined than seen alleging that her husband converts married women and single girls to his own and impregnates all of them while pretending to be obeying spiritual directives.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Church leaders have published a report into the sexual abuse by a Cathedral steward over three decades.

The Diocese of Chichester has published a report which was produced ten years ago in the wake of the conviction of Terence Banks.

Banks, who had a long association with Chichester Cathedral and had risen to the role of head steward, was convicted in 2001 for 32 sexual offences against 12 boys over 29 years.

Bishop of Chichester Dr Martin Warner said the report was being published now to “shed light on past events, to aid learning, build trust and foster openness” but not to cause “further pain”.

The CARMI Report, which was received by church leaders in 2004, followed an investigation by Sussex Police and was commissioned by the former Bishop of Chichester The Rt Rev’d Dr John Hind, review after the Banks trial.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Laura Crimaldi | GLOBE STAFF JULY 09, 2014

New Englanders touched by the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church are divided over whether Pope Francis’ first meeting with victims was sincere or a publicity stunt, but they agree on one thing: The gesture will mean little unless the pontiff pushes for change.

“I think meeting with six victims is a great start. It doesn’t mean that anything is going to change,” said Phil Saviano, a Roslindale resident who established the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Francis met on Monday with six victims, two each from Ireland, Germany, and the United Kingdom, in the hotel where he lives on Vatican grounds. They also joined the pontiff for his morning Mass.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, attended the meeting, said Harry-Jacques Pierre, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston. O’Malley is a member of the pope’s new Commission for the Protection of Minors and also organized Pope Benedict XVI’s first meeting with abuse victims, which happened in Washington, D.C., in 2008. …

Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of BishopAccountability.org, a Waltham group devoted to collecting documents about the abuse crisis, said Francis’ pledge was a first.

“The pope made an unambiguous commitment to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect children,” Barrett Doyle said. “We have not had a papal promise like this to date, one so plainly said. Now, we can hold the pope accountable for following through with this pledge.”

Some were skeptical, though, saying Francis has maintained the status quo with bishops since becoming pontiff in March 2013.

Paul Kellen, a founding member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition, said the church so far has done much to shield bishops, but little to help sex abuse victims.

He cited the example of former Boston archbishop Bernard Law, who was accused of protecting abusive priests during his tenure, and was given a prestigious post at a basilica in Rome in 2004 by Pope John Paul II instead of being demoted.

Kellen also referred to Robert J. Carlson, a former auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who responded 193 times in a court-ordered deposition that he could not remember details about priest child sexual abuse during his tenure. Carlson now leads the archdiocese in St. Louis.

Victims of abuse, Kellen said, “would believe that there was some value in what happened to them if it became the motivation to change the behavior of the institution. . . . That’s what I’m looking for.”

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Pope Francis imitates Saint John Paul II the Great

Pope Francis is imitating – (not Jesus) – but his Holy Father of Lies John Paul II the Great – read our related article, Cold-blood-ed John Paul is no saint for children because he said nothing and did nothing to save and protect them for 27 years http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/05/cold-blood-ed-pope-john-paul-ii-is-no.html

With pompous fanfare of empty words, words, words, the Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team arranged theatrics for John Paul II to ask forgiveness for many famous (e.g. Crusades, Galileo) Church crimes but not for his own singular crime and biggest sin which was his complicit hidden JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army with his poster boy and evil Achilles Heel, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, read more here http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/

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LOUISIANA
WAFB

By Cheryl Mercedes

CLINTON, LA (WAFB) – The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge has vowed to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend its beliefs.

It involves a lawsuit, allegations of the sexual abuse of a minor, and whether a priest can be forced to testify about what was said in the confessional.

The parents of a child who claims she was molested several years ago by an older parishioner of Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, La. is suing the alleged now deceased perpetrator, George Charlet, Jr., along with a priest and the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge.

Attorney Brian Abels, who is representing the parents, said the girl, then 14 years old, was sexually abused.

“This is kissing and touching and fondling. The very last time our client thought she was going to be raped,” Abels said.

The suit alleges the girl went to confession three times, each time telling the priest, Father Jeff Bayhi, that Charlet had touched her inappropriately and told her “he wanted to make love to her.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJTV

[with video]

By Michael Hill
Correspondent

These three men survived priest sex abuse. They’ve heard two other popes apologize. Now Pope Francis.

“I beg your forgiveness for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders,” he said.

Leaders these three say who hid or harbored the abusers.

Mark Crawford is the New Jersey director of SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He says of his abuser, “Actually he’s still a priest today and he was allowed to retire, lives in New Jersey, works for the state. Never convicted and that’s what I’m talking about, these secrets are still well kept.”

“They have to help the victims of child abuse instead of spending millions and millions of dollars on the best lobbyists and lawyers,” said Fred Marigliano.

“I think it’s a good step forward. As we all know this is the third pope who has apologized for this scandal and I think it’s time for action,” Stephen Marlowe said.

The trio want cardinals and bishops to out and oust abusers.

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ILLINOIS
NWI Times

Jim Masters Times Correspondent

HAMMOND | Jack Schaap, the imprisoned former First Baptist Church of Hammond pastor, says in court documents he would have gone to trial on charges he sexually abused a 16-year-old church member rather than plead guilty if he was aware of how harsh his sentence would be.

Schaap, who is petitioning to have his 12-year sentence vacated, contends his attorney advised him his sentence would be a maximum 120 months if he pleaded guilty, more likely between three and four years, and perhaps as low as 18 months.

Schaap’s legal brief offers Sixth Amendment claims he had ineffective legal counsel. Upon entering his guilty plea, Schaap told Judge Rudy Lozano he did not realize his actions — which included having the girl driven from Illinois to Michigan to engage in sexual activity — were illegal.

A brief filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster seeking denial of Schaap’s appeal points to contradictions in his statements during sentencing proceedings in which “he acknowledged he faced a minimum 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wales Online

Former High Court judge Baroness Butler-Sloss is to lead the independent inquiry into child sex abuse, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.

The investigation is into the handling of allegations of paedophilia by state institutions as well as bodies such as the BBC, churches and political parties.

Crossbench peer Baroness Butler-Sloss is the former president of the family division of the High Court and chaired the Cleveland child abuse inquiry in the late 1980s.

Mrs May said: “In recent years, we have seen appalling cases of organised and persistent child sex abuse that have exposed serious failings by public bodies and important institutions.

“That is why the Government has established an independent panel of experts to consider whether these organisations have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Now that I’ve finished reading Norbert Krapf’s Catholic Boy Blues: A Poet’s Journal of Healing (Nashville: Greystone, 2014), I thought I’d share some parting thoughts about the book with you. I’ve blogged about it previously here and here.

As my previous postings about Catholic Boy Blues have noted, Krapf grew up in a closely knit German Catholic farm community in rural Indiana. It was in the context of that community, a beloved community, that he experienced repeated sexual abuse at the hands of his parish priest. He was not alone in the experience: as he knew at the time and then as he also learned down the road when he sought to come to terms with the childhood abuse, the priest was molesting other boys, too. In fact, he apparently abused boys for a number of years during which he pastored the parish in which Krapf grew up.

Catholic Boy Blues is Krapf’s attempt as an adult to come to terms with what happened to him as a child. It’s an attempt to exorcise the memory and effects of his abuse at the hands of a religious leader his parents and the rest of his community implicitly trusted. To banish the harm done to him — to remember it in a way that opens the painful memories to healing — he employs the poetic device of inviting a Greek chorus of voices, as it were, to mull over what happened to the devout young altar boy treated as an object by a grown man, the same trusted religious figure whose hands moved from grasping his child’s penis to putting holy oil on the head of a dying parishioner, blessing and baptizing the new-born babe, and consecrating the union of a man and a woman in marriage, as Krapf tells us in a poem entitled “The Hand” (49).

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

07/08/14
Hella Winston
Special Correspondent

On the eve of convicted child molester Baruch Lebovits’ sentencing, a lawyer for Sam Kellner is asking both the judge and probation officer to consider Lebovits’ other alleged victims as well as alleged witness intimidation, tampering and perjury committed by Lebovits’ associates in connection with both his and Kellner’s prosecutions.

In separate letters, the lawyer, Niall MacGiollabhui, cites “well-established” case law that allows the court to consider not only prior offenses for which a defendant was convicted, but also those for which he has not been convicted.

“Once [this information is] considered,” MacGiollabhui writes, “I submit [that the court] will find that the currently promised sentence is woefully inadequate.”

Lebovits has pleaded guilty to felony sex abuse charges and is expected to be sentenced on July 9 to two years in prison; with credit for time served and good behavior he is expected to serve only several months. Legal observers say it is extremely rare that a judge would adjust the sentence based on such a pleading.

Kellner was charged in 2010 with paying a young man, referred to in court documents as MT, to fabricate abuse claims against Lebovits and attempting to extort the Lebovits family through emissaries. However, the case against him was dismissed in March after a reinvestigation by the new Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, found that the witnesses lacked credibility.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) The Institute for Religious Works (IOR) released its balance sheets Tuesday for the year 2013 showing that in a bid to strengthen transparency the IOR closed the accounts of three thousand customers.

They also show that in 2013 the institute, also known as the Vatican Bank allocated € 54 million euro to the budget of the Holy See.

Speaking to Vatican Radio’s Fr Bernd Hagenkord, the outgoing President of The Institute for Religious Works, Ernst Von Freyberg said that Phase One of the reform of the IOR had been concluded.

Below find a full transcription of an interview in English with President of the Institute for the Works of Religion, IOR, Ernst Von Freyberg. Listen to this interview with the Head of Vatican Radio’s German section Father Bernd Hagenkord SJ.

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OHIO
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Monday, July 7, 2014

An Ohio priest who died while serving a life sentence for murdering a nun will be buried with full honors.

Father Gerald Robinson was convicted in 2006 of choking Sister Margaret Ann Pahl to the edge of death in the sacristy of the former Mercy Hospital and then stabbing her 32 times in the chest, neck, and face on April 5, 1980 – the day before Easter and one day before the nun would have turned 72.

According to the Toledo Blade, Robinson presided over Sister Margaret’s Mass of the Resurrection.

The 76-year-old Robinson died Friday morning in hospice at a Columbus hospital run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

His cause of death has not yet been reported, but the priest had been treated at the hospice for heart trouble. …

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and the National Survivors Advocate Coalition have asked Father Charles Ritter to hold a small, private funeral for Robinson and explain why he was not given a full burial.

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NEW YORK/ALABAMA
New York Daily News

BY NINA GOLGOWSKI NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A former Alabama pastor has been charged with sexual abuse and sodomy after two adults came forward accusing him of molesting them as children.

Ex-Birmingham-area pastor, Rev. Jay Strickland, has since bonded out of jail following last month’s charges of two counts of sexual abuse and one count of first-degree sodomy.

An investigation into the alleged abuse was launched in April after a man came forward accusing Strickland of abusing him as a child.

Shortly after, Jefferson County sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Self told AL.com that they tracked down a woman who echoed similar child abuse allegations from years ago.

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ALABAMA
WSFA

By Brianne Britzius
By Christy Hutchings

JEFFERSON COUNTY, AL (WBRC) –
A UAB nurse anesthetist is accused of sexually abusing two people when they were children.

Jay Strickland is charged with two counts of sexual abuse and one count of first-degree sodomy.

The charges were filed after a man and woman came forward with information claiming Strickland abused them when they were younger.

Strickland is out of jail after posting a $70,000 bond. Court records indicate he is from Morris.

UAB Hospital said they have placed Strickland on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. They released this statement:

“Jay Strickland has been placed on administrative leave pending the proper investigation of the circumstances of his arrest. Until more information is available, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Strickland’s attorney, Richard Jaffe, released this statement:

“The law firm of Jaffe and Drennan represents Jay Strickland who faces allegations that are claimed to have occurred over seven or more years ago. Jay is deeply distressed and shocked about these unproven allegations, according to Richard S. Jaffe his lead attorney. Jay has resigned from his volunteer leadership position with his former church. Unfortunately these charges must and need to be fairly and vigorously tested in a court of law. Jay has an exemplary background and character, and those who know him are extremely upset and equally shocked by the allegations.”

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ALABAMA
North Jefferson News

Former Brookside assistant pastor, Warrior EMS officer Jay Strickland arrested on sexual abuse charges

By Robert Carter
North Jefferson News

MORRIS — A former assistant pastor at a Brookside church, who also served with the Warrior Fire Department, has been arrested on charges of sexual abuse and sodomy.

Jay Strickland, who was an administrative pastor at Sharon Heights Baptist Church, was arrested on June 5 on charges that he sexually abused two separate people, both of whom were children at the time.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Self said their office first learned of the accusations three months ago when a male victim came forward. In the course of the investigation, it was determined that another female victim was involved.

Both victims are now adults and live outside the state, Self said.

Strickland, 50 and a Morris resident, was arrested on June 5 and charged with two counts of sexual abuse and one count of sodomy. He was released from jail on $70,000 bond, and faces a preliminary hearing on July 17.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com
on July 08, 2014

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Alabama – A former pastor at a Jefferson County church is charged with sexual abuse and sodomy after two adult victims came forward claiming he abused them as children.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office charged the Rev. Jay Strickland, a UAB nurse anesthetist and former administrative pastor at Sharon Heights Baptist Church in Brookside, with two counts of sexual abuse and one count of first degree sodomy.

Strickland is on administrative leave from UAB pending investigation.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Self said the investigation was launched in April after a male victim came forward and reported he had been abused by Strickland when he was a child. The victim is now an adult and lives in another state.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WFAE

[with audio]

By NICK DE LA CANA

A group of clergy abuse survivors is criticizing the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte for its handling of sexual abuse cases. This comes on the heels of a meeting between Pope Francis and abuse survivors yesterday, and the recent dismissal of criminal and civil sexual assault cases in the Charlotte Diocese.

In 2010, Father Joseph Kelleher was charged in Stanly County with taking indecent liberties with a child when he was a priest in Albemarle in the 1970s. On July 1st, his case was dismissed after the court determined the 86-year-old was mentally incompetent. Court documents say he has dementia and is delusional.

Pam Wennersten Laico, whose brother was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, speaks to reporters. She was joined by David Fortwengler, left, who was assaulted in Maryland when he was 11.

In June, two separate lawsuits were dismissed in which two unnamed men accused the Dioceses of Charlotte and Raleigh of covering up sexual abuse crimes committed by Kelleher and another priest, Father Richard Farwell, who was convicted in Rowan County in 2004 of taking indecent liberties with a child.

The judge dismissed those cases because the statute of limitations had run out. It was too late to file a lawsuit.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

Kevin Killeen (@KMOXKilleen)
July 8, 2014

LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. (KMOX) – A judge in Lincoln County rules the St. Louis Archdiocese is responsible for the alleged misconduct of one of its priests—even off church property.

It’s the civil case of Father Joseph Jiang, accused of wrongdoing with a young girl in Lincoln County.
Attorney Ken Chackes represents the girl’s family.

“The courts say that a church is responsible for the conduct of a priest, even off property, when he is only off property but still doing the duties of the priest,” he says.

The Archdiocese had asked that the case be dismissed, arguing it could not be held responsible for the faraway conduct of one of its priests. The judge denied that request.

“We argued that this priest was only allowed into the home of this family because they knew he was a priest, they trusted him as a priest, he came there as a priest, he prayed with them there as a priest, so he was still doing his priestly duties,” Chackes says.

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LOUISIANA
The Daily Caller

Tristyn Bloom

A recent Louisiana Supreme Court ruling may land a Catholic priest in jail for refusing to testify about a confession he may have heard several years ago, the Times-Picayune reports.

The plaintiffs in the case allege that their underage daughter mentioned during confession to Fr. Jeff Bayhi several years ago that an elderly parishioner inappropriately touched her, and that the priest failed to report it to the authorities.

The current Louisiana Children’s Code says that mandated reporters–people who have regular contact with vulnerable groups like children and are legally required to report signs of abuse– include “any priest…or other similarly situated functionary of a religious organization unless not required to report a confidential communication as defined in the Code of Evidence Article 511.”

The Code of Evidence Article allows exemptions for confidential communication “it is made privately and not intended for further disclosure except to other persons present” and notes that the privilege “may be claimed by the person or by his legal representative. The clergyman is presumed to have authority to claim the privilege on behalf of the person or deceased person.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

(KMOV.com) – A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the St. Louis Archdiocese in connection with an abuse case against a priest.

The archdiocese was sued after the family of a victim claimed it did not do enough to protect their daughter from Joseph Jiang, who is accused of abusing her on the grounds of the Cathedral Basilica and at her Lincoln County home.

The archdiocese argued it could not be held responsible for abuse that did not occurred on church property.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

Kevin S. Held, KSDK
July 8, 2014

ST. LOUIS – A Lincoln County judge denied a request by the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Robert Carlson to dismiss a civil suit filed by the family of a girl claiming she was the victim of sexual abuse by a priest.

The lawsuit, filed after a St. Louis circuit judge dismissed abuse charges against Fr. Joseph Jiang, alleges Archbishop Carlson did not do anything to stop the molestation. The family accused Jiang of having inappropriate contact with the girl on four separate occasions. The charges were dropped in November 2013.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Accused New Square child sex abuser Rabbi Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld pleaded not guilty this morning to second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, the Journal News reported.

Judge William Nelson continued Taubenfeld’s $25,000 cash bail and issued a order of protection compelling Taubenfeld to stay away from his alleged victim.

Taubenfeld is due back in court July 15.

No New Square child sex abuser has reportedly ever been sentenced to prison. Most are never reported to police, allegedly because New Square’s leader, the Skvere Rebbe Rabbi David Twersky, forbids it. The only known case that was reported and prosecuted, Taubenfeld’s younger brother Herschel, ended in a no-prison plea deal – even though the Herschel Taubenfeld was caught on tape admitting the abuse.

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NEW YORK
News 12

NEW CITY – A New Square rabbi, accused of sexually abusing a child multiple times pleaded not guilty in Rockland County Court today.

Rabbi Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld, 55, pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually abused a boy repeatedly from September 2001 until May 2006.

Taubenfeld’s accuser, who spoke to News 12 using the name ‘Laiby,’ says he turned to the rabbi for counseling after the attacks on Sept. 11. He claims members of the Hasidic community tried to pressure him and his family not to press charges.

During Tuesday’s arraignment, the judge issued a temporary order of protection against Taubenfeld, forbidding him to have any contact with his alleged victim.

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LOUISIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 7, 2014

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

The Louisiana Supreme Court may compel a Catholic priest to testify in court about an alleged confession in a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit.

[The Times-Picayune]

This is what happens when Catholic officials conceal child sex crimes for decades – they lose credibility among judges. And this is what happens when Catholic officials deliberately and deceptively exploit confessional confidentiality.

Often, we’ve seen Catholic officials falsely claim that conversations about abuse were confessions, so they could keep hiding the truth from police, prosecutors, parents and parishioners. We hope that’s not the case here.

We hope that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Jeff Bayhi or cover ups by Baton Rouge Catholic officials – will speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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LOUISIANA
Breitbart News

by AUSTIN RUSE 8 Jul 2014

The Supreme Court of Louisiana has ordered a Catholic priest to reveal something said to him in confession, asking him to do something that would result in his automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.

The case revolves around a 12-year-old girl who confessed to the priest that she had sexual relations with an older man who also attended her Church. A law suit was brought against the priest and the Diocese of Baton Rouge after the accused man died of a heart attack and therefore the criminal investigation had ended.

The young girl was said to have testified that she told the priest in confession what had happened and that his response was that it was her problem and she should “Sweep it under the floor.” The suit brought against the priest and the Diocese seeks damages for sexual abuse. The suit charges that, under state law, the priest had a legal obligation to report what the girl told him because he was a “mandatory reporter.”

The church holds that anything said in confession is sacrosanct and can never be revealed. Laws around the world and in all 50 US states recognize the inviolability of the confessional.

Lower courts upheld the claims of the Church, which have been a part of jurisprudence for centuries, but the State Supreme Court decided in May that his testimony can be compelled since the confidentiality of confession was waived by the girl.

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

By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82210

A sexual abuse lawsuit involving the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang is moving forward, despite attempts by the Archdiocese of St. Louis to have the case dismissed.

The archdiocese argued that the court should dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the alleged sexual abuse did not occur on church property, according to a statement released by plaintiff attorney Ken Chackes.

The civil lawsuit accuses Jiang of fondling a teenage girl from Lincoln County. Much of the alleged abuse is said to have occurred in the girl’s home. In the lawsuit, Chackes argues that Jiang would not have been welcomed into the victim’s home if it were not for his position in the archdiocese.

Criminal charges surrounding the same allegations against Jiang were dismissed last year.

Jiang is also accused of sexually abusing a young boy at St. Louis the King School, the elementary school at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

[with video]

By Stephanie Coueignoux

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Members of a support group for people abused by priests want the Charlotte Diocese to admit two priests molested children.

Monday, the diocese applauded Pope Francis’ personal apology to four European victims.

Pam Wennersten Laico became incredibly emotional as she spoke about how she said a local priest sexually abused her brother.
“I can’t believe this one priest destroyed our family, destroyed our entire family,” she said.

She and others are now calling on Bishop Peter Jugis to help the four Charlotte area men they say were sexually abused more than 30 years ago.

“What has Bishop Jugis done for those four men to help them rebuild their lives and put one foot in front of the other?” Laico said.

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UNITED STATES
Bangor Daily News

Posted July 08, 2014

Editorial

In the 16 months since he assumed the papacy, Pope Francis has projected an image of humility and open arms to the outside world — especially when compared with the image of the Catholic Church projected by his predecessor.

It hasn’t taken much for Pope Francis to make waves.

Soon after becoming pope, he traveled to a juvenile detention center outside Rome and washed the feet of 12 young people, including two Muslims and two women — shocking traditionalists while expanding the reach of a custom meant to emulate Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.

Last summer, as he returned to the Vatican from a trip to Brazil, the pontiff said of gay priests, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” It was the first time a leader of the Catholic Church used the word “gay,” and it marked a change in attitude toward gay clergy just eight years after Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, called homosexuality “an objective disorder.”

Pope Francis also has called for a greater role for women in the Catholic Church and he has called on young Catholics to stir up “trouble in the dioceses” in order to forge a church more connected to the people.

Even without major policy changes within the church, a pope’s gestures and statements can have a powerful effect in shifting public attitudes. But even when it comes to gestures, Pope Francis has fallen short in addressing the clergy sexual abuse that has irreparably damaged victims and done serious harm to the Catholic Church.

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

UNITED STATES
Standing on My Head

July 8, 2014 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Pope Francis famously kissed a man with a horrible physical deformity, but what if he kissed a man who was even more horribly deformed in his soul? What if he were to go to prison to hear the confession of a pedophile priest?

The Pope has met with some victims of priestly sex abuse and quite right. I’m sure everyone agrees: let’s do as much as we can to make it up to the victims of priestly sex abuse. Let’s make sure we have adequate child protection plans in place. Let’s have a zero tolerance policy on sex abuse. Let’s make sure the bishops who were covering up are stopped. Let’s guarantee that the police will be brought in when a Catholic priest breaks the law. Let’s stop this terrible crime and protect the children.

Once all that is said and done what do you do with a pedophile priest? Would you be able to forgive a man who was guilty of this horror?

What is your attitude? Would you “lock him up and throw away the key?” Do you want to do something worse–castrate him maybe or maybe throw him in among the demonic thugs in prison hoping that they do the dirty work and torture the guy before they finally kill him? It’s understandable that you would feel that way.

If the man is guilty of a crime he must serve his time, but then what?

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UNITED STATES
NPR – All Things Considered

[with audio]

by SYLVIA POGGIOLI
July 07, 2014

In his first meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse, Pope Francis asked forgiveness on behalf of the church.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

At the Vatican today Pope Francis had his first meeting with victims of clergy. He vowed to hold bishops accountable for the protection of children. The meeting came nearly 16 months after Francis was elected. Victim support groups said it was long overdue. For more on this NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli joins us from Rome. Hello Sylvia.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE: Hello, Robert.

SIEGEL: And I understand the Pope held a Mass with these victims, including a dramatic homily. What did he say?

POGGIOLI: Well, the Pope pronounced his strongest words yet on clerical sex abuse. He begged forgiveness from the victims and said, sex abuse of minors is more than a despicable action, it’s like a sacrilegious cult in the church that profaned God. He said, he realizes many have suffered unrelenting emotional and spiritual pain, and even despair, and some have turned to drugs and resorted to suicide. And he vowed that he will not tolerate abusers and that bishops will be held accountable if they shield them.

SIEGEL: What do we know about the victims who were present with the Pope?

POGGIOLI: There were three men and three women – two each from Britain, Germany and Ireland. Names and ages were not revealed. The Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, the Pope met for about half an hour with each of them and listened very attentively to their stories. The six participants, he said, were very moved by the encounter. But one victim, 43-year-old Marie Cain, later told the Irish Times she told the pope that cover-ups continue and that he has the power to change things. Now interestingly there were no Americans present, even though the sex abuse scandals erupted first in the U.S. It may be that since American watch-dog groups have been among the most critical of the church, the Vatican may have selected a group of survivors more open to reconciliation and more likely to stay out of the media spotlight.

SIEGEL: Sylvia, many victims groups have criticized the Pope for being slow to speak out on the issue of sex abuse and he did anger many of those same groups when he said, in an interview in March, that the Catholic Church has done more than any other organization to root out pedophiles. So how are those groups reacting to today’s meeting?

POGGIOLI: Well, you know, most watch-dog groups won’t be satisfied until the Vatican definitively requires all bishops and religious superiors to report suspected cases of sex abuse of minors to civil authorities. And yet the director of bishopaccountability.org, Anne Barrett Doyle, said, that though over-due, the meeting was positive and the Pope’s homily recognized the terrible impact of abuse on victim’s families. She said, Francis made a significant and historic promise to discipline those who fail to respond adequately to child sexual abuse. But the spokesman for a German survivor group, Norbert Denef, called it a public relations event. Vatican spokesman father Lombardi said it was anything but a PR stunt.

SIEGEL: Sylvia, I understand that Pope Francis has come in for criticism recently, not for his actions as Pope, but as archbishop of Buenos Aires some years ago.

POGGIOLI: Yeah. A recent report by bishopaccountability.org shows that the future Pope was silent on the issue and refused to meet with victims. Just ahead of today’s meeting a group of Argentine survivors wrote him a letter expressing pain that they had not been included. And commenting on today’s meeting, Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop of bishopaccountability.org said, avoidance, silence and denial were successful containment tactics in Latin America but they will not work on the global stage and they are not consistent with the mercy and compassion so evident in Francis’ papacy.

SIEGEL: That’s NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli in Rome talking about Pope Francis’ meeting today with six victims of clergy sex abuse. Sylvia, thanks.

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OHIO
Vindy.com

The Louie b. Free Radio Show

Schedule for July 08, 2014

Scheduled Guests

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – SNAP

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – the largest, oldest and most active support group for women and men wounded by religious authority figures (priests, ministers, bishops, deacons, nuns and others). We are an independent and confidential organization, with no connections with the church or church officials. We are also a non-profit, certified 501 (c) (3) organization and we are here to help. SNAP was founded by Chicago’s Barbara Blaine in 1988. Since then, SNAP has helped thousands of survivors. We offer support in person, (via monthly self-help group meetings in chapters across the country), ove the phone, online, and twice-a-year at national meetings. We also provide a safe and productive outlet for the passion many survivors feel toward preventing future abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area

video

A rare move was made by the Pope. He asked for forgiveness from people who were sexually abused by priests. Pope Francis met one-on-one with several victims. Monday’s meeting happened in the Vatican but it impacted many abuse victims here in the Bay Area. NBC Bay Area’s Monte Francis reports from San Francisco and talks to a local victim of sexual abuse

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A report on child abuse in the diocese of Chichester has been published more than a decade after it was written, following pressure from victims.

The report on abuse between the 1970s and 2000 in the diocese and at the Cathedral was written in January 2004.

The case review followed the conviction of Terence Banks in 2001 for 32 sexual offences against 12 boys over 29 years.

The diocese said victims had “consistently asked for the full facts to be brought to light”.

The review was commissioned by the then Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend Dr John Hind.

Banks had a long association with Chichester Cathedral and grew up living in the Treasury, before leaving home to move to London.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Statement by Anne Barrett Doyle
Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org

An archival organization that gathers documents and data about the global Catholic abuse crisis

July 7, 2014

Though overdue, Pope Francis’s meeting today with clergy sex abuse victims was a positive and necessary step. The Pope’s homily shows some readiness to be transformed by his encounter in Rome with the survivors, and makes several important points – he emphasizes the specifically Catholic nature of abuse by priests, and the terrible impact of abuse on the victims’ families, and the role of “Church leaders.” (See the English and Spanish text of the Pope’s homily.)

Most notably, the pope made a significant and historic promise to discipline bishops who fail to respond adequately to child sexual abuse: “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.”

While the pope’s description of bishops’ culpability as “sins of omission” is inaccurate in the extreme, his is still a stern and specific acknowledgement that bishops must ensure the safety of children.

But now Pope Francis must internalize and personalize his point about Church leaders who “did not respond adequately to reports of abuse.” His future actions on this crucial point must begin from his own past.

As Argentina’s most powerful archbishop, he refused to meet with victims, and he stayed largely silent on the issue of clergy sex abuse, except to issue a surprising denial that he had ever handled an abusive priest. His only known action was to commission a behind-the-scenes report to judges that sought exoneration of a criminally convicted priest by impugning the credibility of the priest’s victims.

Avoidance, silence, and denial were successful containment tactics in Latin America, but they will not work on the global stage, and they are not consistent with the mercy and compassion so evident in Francis’s papacy.

Although his record on abuse is not encouraging, it is possible that Pope Francis will allow his first meeting with victims to radicalize him. The test of his sincerity will be the actions he now takes. We will have some reason for hope if:

1) He quickly schedules a second meeting to include the Argentine victims he ignored when he was their spiritual leader.

2) He demonstrates transparency with one or two significant directives. He should immediately order the release of the Vatican abuse documents currently being withheld from Australia’s Royal Commission. He should also order the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to release the names, assignment histories, and full case files of all 848 priests who were laicized in the last decade. He thereby would make common cause with abuse victims worldwide, as well as the 30-plus U.S. bishops and religious superiors who already have published the names of credibly accused priests.

3) He changes canon law to require bishops and religious superiors worldwide to report suspected child sexual abuse to civil authorities. The two recent UN hearings have drawn attention to the Holy See’s policy of allowing bishops not to report if local law does not require them to do so. This laxness has had devastating results: In countries with weak reporting laws, abusers are staying in ministry, and children are still at risk. In 2013, a criminal court in Argentina had to dismiss a case against a priest who had abused up to 50 boys; the statute of limitations had expired because his archbishop, Cardinal Estanislao Esteban Karlic of the Parana archdiocese, had refused to report the priest’s crimes in 1995. The cardinal instead allowed the priest to move to another Argentine diocese, where he became pastor of a parish. The cardinal’s lawyer applauded the dismissal of the case, saying, “Parents should have made the complaint.”

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LOUISIANA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a ruling made by the Supreme Court of Louisiana:

In 2008, a fourteen-year-old girl alleges that she told her parish priest that she was being abused by a now-deceased lay member of their parish. The girl alleges the disclosures came during the Sacrament of Confession. Now her parents are suing the priest, and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, for failing to report the alleged abuse. The State’s Supreme Court has ruled that the priest, Fr. Jeff Bayhi, may be compelled to testify as to whether the Confessions took place, and if so, what the contents of any such Confessions were.

Confession is one of the most sacred rites in the Church. The Sacrament is based on a belief that the seal of the confessional is absolute and inviolable. A priest is never permitted to disclose the contents of any Confession, or even allowed to disclose that an individual did seek the Sacrament. A priest who violates that seal suffers automatic excommunication from the Church.

As a result of this ruling Fr. Bayhi may now have to choose between violating his sacred duty as a priest and being excommunicated from the Church, or refusing to testify and risk going to prison. The Diocese said Fr. Bayhi would not testify.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

for immediate release: Tuesday, July 08, 2014

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

A New York priest, who was scheduled for a plea deal today in his child pornography case, did not appear before the judge. We hope this case does not have any delays and if the priest gets a plea deal that it is harsh and protects innocent children.

[Post-Standard]

Fr. Robert Ours, who is currently living in Syracuse, was arrested in May for child porn charges. We hope whether this goes to trial or there is a plea deal is his superiors in the Syracuse Catholic diocese aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Ours’ crimes and urge them to contact police and prosecutors immediately.

Additionally, Bishop Robert Cunningham should visit every parish Fr. Ours worked and beg witness, whistleblowers, and victims to come forward and report to secular officials. And we hope anyone who was hurt by Fr. Ours will stop suffering in silence and self-blame, get help and start healing.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

Pope Francis said the clergy abuse crisis was “camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained” Monday in Rome.

He also used some of his most emotional language yet in a Vatican-distributed video of his sermon at a private Mass for six adults victimized by priests as children.

The survivors, two each from Ireland, Germany and the UK, spent the weekend at Santa Marta, the Vatican residential hotel where the pope lives. It typically houses visiting churchmen.

The group had breakfast with the pope, and met individually with him in sessions through the morning.

Francis compared clerical abuse of children to “a sacrilegious cult.”

The pope spoke, too, like a sinner in confession: “I beg your forgiveness, too for the sins of omissions 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.”

“Are sins of omissions not also crimes?” Alberto Athié, a prominent advocate for abuse survivors, said in an interview by phone from his home in Mexico City.

“Is this only about local ecclesiastical authorities, when in fact they were and are acting under the provisions of the Holy See?” ruminated Athié, who left the priesthood and a high-profile position with the Mexican bishops’ conference in 1999, protesting the cover-up of a pedophile.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Diocese of Chichester – Church of England

This report was completed in 2004. It refers to a period of time in the history of Chichester Cathedral and the Diocese of Chichester from the 1970s until 2000, when a serial child sex offender was able to use church networks to gain the trust of children and parents and commit sexual offences. This offender was convicted of these offences in 2001 and sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment, after a lengthy and thorough investigation by Sussex Police.

Today, as we publish this report, first and foremost our thoughts are with the survivors and their families. The effects of abuse can last a lifetime, and the passing of the years may or may not have brought any kind of healing. It is our sincere hope that those affected by these crimes have found a measure of peace over time. Directly following this offender’s conviction, a number of senior clergy expressed their profound sorrow for the victims’ suffering. Now, in 2014, we wish to join our voices with theirs: as Christians we are profoundly ashamed of abuse that has happened in church or church institutions. We extend our most sincere apologies to survivors and their families, though we know that this can never repair the damage done.

Following the trial, the former Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Rev’d Dr John Hind, commissioned an independent author, Edi Carmi, to provide him with a report. Edi Carmi worked with a multi-agency steering group that was chaired independently by His Honour Judge Peter Collier QC. This process was designed to replicate the standard of Serious Case Reviews at the time, as defined in the government guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 1999. It was received by the Bishop of Chichester in 2004, and the recommendations were invaluable in informing practice in the Cathedral and across the Diocese. This report marked the beginning of a crucial process of self-reflection and learning that continued with the published reports by Roger Meekings, Baroness Butler-Sloss and of the Archiepiscopal Visitation. The learning gained from this process of rigorous scrutiny informs every aspect of our safeguarding practice today, which has moved on enormously since 2004.

At the time this report was received, Serious Case Reviews were not published in their entirety. Our decision to publish this report now has been informed by a number of factors, the most important of which has been our interaction with victims of sexual abuse in churches, who have consistently asked for the full facts to be brought to light, so that lessons are learned and everything possible is done to ensure these awful events are not repeated. Sexual offenders operate in the shadows of our communities and exploit any weaknesses in culture and process that exist, as has been shown many times recently in cases across the country in a number of different institutions. Reports such as this illuminate those weaknesses and the ways offenders use them, in the hope that future practice is improved and children are better protected. It is for this reason we are publishing this report today.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Diocese of Chichester – Church of England

Safeguarding Report Published

The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner and the Cathedral Chapter have welcomed the publication of a report which reviewed safeguarding practices in Chichester Cathedral and the Diocese.

The CARMI Report, received in 2004, followed an investigation by Sussex Police resulting in the trial and conviction of an offender for child abuse in 2001. The previous Bishop of Chichester, The Rt Rev’d Dr John Hind, commissioned a review after the trial, to identify learning and produce recommendations. This report is an outcome of that review.

The review was designed to replicate the standard of Serious Case Reviews at the time and was invaluable in informing and improving safeguarding practices in the Cathedral and the Diocese.

Dr Warner and the Cathedral Chapter said: “Today, as we publish this report, first and foremost our thoughts are with the survivors and their families. The effects of abuse can last a lifetime and the passing of the years may or may not have resulted in any kind of healing. As Christians we are profoundly ashamed of abuse that has happened in church or church institutions. We extend our most sincere apologies to all survivors and their families, though we know that this can never repair the damage done.

They added: “It is our sincere hope that those affected by these crimes will regard the publication of the Report as a positive step. Our intention is to shed light on past events, to aid learning, build trust and foster openness, not to cause further pain. In this way, the publication is intended to reinforce our commitment to a continuous review of our safeguarding practices and procedures.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chichester Observer

A REPORT into how a child sex offender was able to use church networks to abuse boys has been published today (Tuesday, July 8) – ten years after it was completed.

The CARMI report, published by the Diocese of Chichester and Chichester Cathedral, was commissioned following the conviction of Terence Banks in May, 2001, for a string of sex offences.

Banks, referred to as CO1 in the report, was convicted of 32 sexual offences against 12 boys over 29 years.

The report was commissioned by the previous Bishop of Chichester, The Rt Rev’d Dr John Hind following the trial and was completed in 2004.

However, today is the first time it has been published in full.

Ashamed

In a joint statement, the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner and the Cathedral Chapter said:

“Today, as we publish this report, first and foremost our thoughts are with the survivors and their families.

“The effects of abuse can last a lifetime and the passing of the years may or may not have resulted in any kind of healing.

“As Christians we are profoundly ashamed of abuse that has happened in church or church institutions.

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

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Holy Mass in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae with a Group of Clergy Sex Abuse Victims

Santa Misa en la Capilla de la Casa Santa Marta con Algunas Víctimas de Abusos Sexuales por Parte del Clero

Vatican Website
July 7, 2014

[Espanol]
[English]

Homily of Pope Francis

The scene where Peter sees Jesus emerge after a terrible interrogation… Peter whose eyes meet the gaze of Jesus and weeps… This scene comes to my mind as I look at you, and think of so many men and women, boys and girls. I feel the gaze of Jesus and I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused innocent persons. Today, I am very grateful to you for having travelled so far to come here.

For some time now I have felt in my heart deep pain and suffering. So much time hidden, camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained until someone realized that Jesus was looking and others the same… and they set about to sustain that gaze.

And those few who began to weep have touched our conscience for this crime and grave sin. This is what causes me distress and pain at the fact that some priests and bishops, by sexually abusing minors, violated their innocence and their own priestly vocation. It is something more than despicable actions. It is like a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been entrusted to the priestly charism in order to be brought to God. And those people sacrificed them to the idol of their own concupiscence. They profane the very image of God in whose likeness we were created. Childhood, as we all know, young hearts, so open and trusting, have their own way of understanding the mysteries of God’s love and are eager to grow in the faith. Today the heart of the Church looks into the eyes of Jesus in these boys and girls and wants to weep; she asks the grace to weep before the execrable acts of abuse which have left life long scars. …

Homilía del Santo Padre Francisco

La imagen de Pedro viendo salir a Jesús de esa sesión de terrible interrogatorio, de Pedro que se cruza la mirada con Jesús y llora. Me viene hoy al corazón en la mirada de ustedes, de tantos hombres y mujeres, niños y niñas, siento la mirada de Jesús y pido la gracia de su llorar. La gracia de que la Iglesia llore y repare por sus hijos e hijas que han traicionado su misión, que han abusado de personas inocentes. Y hoy estoy agradecido a ustedes por haber venido hasta aquí.

Desde hace tiempo siento en el corazón el profundo dolor, sufrimiento, tanto tiempo oculto, tanto tiempo disimulado con una complicidad que no, no tiene explicación, hasta que alguien sintió que Jesús miraba, y otro lo mismo y otro lo mismo… y se animaron a sostener esa mirada.

Y esos pocos que comenzaron a llorar nos contagiaron la consciencia de este crimen y grave pecado. Esta es mi angustia y el dolor por el hecho de que algunos sacerdotes y obispos hayan violado la inocencia de menores y su propia vocación sacerdotal al abusar sexualmente de ellos. Es algo más que actos reprobables. Es como un culto sacrílego porque esos chicos y esas chicas le fueron confiados al carisma sacerdotal para llevarlos a Dios, y ellos los sacrificaron al ídolo de su concupiscencia. Profanan la imagen misma de Dios a cuya imagen hemos sido creados. La infancia, sabemos todos es un tesoro. El corazón joven, tan abierto de esperanza contempla los misterios del amor de Dios y se muestra dispuesto de una forma única a ser alimentado en la fe. Hoy el corazón de la Iglesia mira los ojos de Jesús en esos niños y niñas y quiere llorar. Pide la gracia de llorar ante los execrables actos de abuso perpetrados contra menores. Actos que han dejado cicatrices para toda la vida.

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UNITED STATES
Vox

Updated by Brandon Ambrosino on July 8, 2014

Pope Francis compared pedophiliac priests to a “sacrilegious cult” on Monday. The statement was part of a homily Francis delivered to six victims of clerical sex abuse that he’d invited to a private mass inside the Vatican. After his message, he held 30-minute one-on-one conversations with each victim.

Thousands of minors were abused by Catholic clergy between 1950 and 2002, a 2004 report from John Jay found. In some cases, high-ranking Catholic officials knew of this abuse and either failed to report it to the authorities, or — more shockingly — covered it up. Andrew Sullivan said this revelation “shell-shocked” the Church, and claimed that “many Catholics [would] never feel the same way they once did about this institution.” When Francis took over St. Peter’s throne, many had high hopes that he’d be the Pope to once and for all deal with this evil.

Francis has taken several opportunities to address the crisis. Along with Monday’s meeting with abuse victims, he’s also created the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to advise him on how best to remedy past wrongs and prevent further abuse.

Critics, though, say what he’s doing isn’t enough. Earlier this year, a statement released from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) accused Francis of failing to live up to his own promises of reform: “On church governess, church finances, and simple living, [Francis] acts. On the rape of children he talks.” And on Monday, in response to his latest outreach to victims, SNAP slammed Francis for “refusing to act” in any meaningful way beyond “public relations coups.”

I interviewed experts on this issue and read through several public statements and remarks to see if they had any recommendations for Francis on how to deal with sexual abuse more effectively and immediately. Here are four changes they are calling for.

1) Focus first on prevention

Most agree that the Vatican’s focus should be on preventing further molestations from happening. In a statement released July 5, SNAP argued that “wounded adults can heal themselves but vulnerable kids can’t protect themselves.”

Thomas Plante, a PhD in clinical psychology and author of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012, agrees that the focus should be on the future. “The important issue here is” he told me in an email, “What is the Church actually doing to prevent potential sex offenders from entering seminary and being ordained as priests now?” Many of the sex crimes that have been made light occurred decades ago, said Plante, which makes it difficult for the Church — and even civil authorities, with statutes of limitations — to effectively deal with the crimes. Moving forward, Plante says the Church ought to be “hyper-vigilant about screening applicants to religious life, and making sure all state-of-the-art policies and procedures are followed to ensure kids are safe in the Church.”

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Carol Glatz Catholic News Service | Jul. 8, 2014

ROME
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 Monday.

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 is being held July 7-11 at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome and is hosted by bishops from Ireland and Chile. Every year, two different countries organize the conference.

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IRELAND
TV3

Irish clerical child abuse survivor Mark Vincent Healy will appear on ‘Tonight with Ivan Yates’ for an exclusive interview about his meeting with Pope Francis, which took place yesterday morning in Rome.

Mark Vincent was one of two Irish survivors who travelled to Rome for a private meeting with the Pope.

This will be his first broadcast appearance since the historic meeting took place.

‘Tonight with Ivan Yates’ airs tonight at 11pm on TV3.

Irish clerical child abuse survivor Mark Vincent Healy will appear on ‘Tonight with Ivan Yates’ for an exclusive interview about his meeting with Pope Francis yesterday morning in Rome. The interview, which will air from 11pm tonight (Tuesday 8th July) on TV3, will be Mark Vincent’s first broadcast appearance since the historic meeting took place and an exclusive for TV3. He will appear on the show alongside Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Irish Times.

Dubliner Mark Vincent Healy (54) travelled to Rome last Friday and had been staying at the Pope’s Santa Marta residence before the private 45-minute meeting yesterday morning. He was one of two Irish survivors who met with the Pope and he told The Irish Times that his meeting was “very comfortable”. He spoke about self-harming and suicide among abuse victims, under-reporting of abuse cases by church authorities and the difficulties he was having in bringing it to a conclusion.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

[with video]

After an unholy series of scandals, including money laundering allegations, the Vatican bank’s new administrators have blocked over 2,000 clients’ accounts and ended around 3,000 “customer relationships”.

Last year’s profits were all but wiped out by winding up some dubious investments and paying outside professionals to help with compliance and transparency issues and account closures.

All but about 400 of the 3,000 terminated accounts were “dormant” with small balances and had been inactive for years.

A further 359 customer relationships are due to be terminated after staff and outside experts found they did not meet the criteria for holding accounts at the bank, which has about 15,500 customers, some with more than one account.

The cost of all this mean profits in 2013 plummeted to 2.9 million euros from 86.6 million euros in 2012.

Overseeing it all is Australian Cardinal George Pell, head of the newly created Secretariat of the Economy. He is responsible for a major down-sizing, hiving off the bank’s investment activities and limiting its activities to payment services and financial advice for religious orders, charities and Vatican employees.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Jul. 8, 2014

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican’s final budget figures for 2013 showed a deficit on the part of the Roman Curia, but a strong performance by entities falling under the separate Vatican City State budget covered the deficit and helped the Vatican end the year 8.5 million euros ($11.6 million) in the black.

The Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, the Vatican’s budget management office, presented the consolidated budgets for the Holy See and for Vatican City State to members of the new Council for the Economy on Saturday, and a summary was released by the Vatican press office Tuesday.

The budget of the Holy See, which includes the offices of the Roman Curia and the Vatican communications outlets, ended 2013 with a deficit of more than 24.4 million euros. More than half the figure — 14 million euros — was attributed to a steep drop in the value of the Vatican’s investments in gold.

In 2013, the average price of gold fell more than 29 percent from its average value in 2012.

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NEW YORK
Post-Standard

By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com
on July 08, 2014

Syracuse, NY — Plea negotiations may be underway in the case of a Catholic priest accused of having child porn, but nothing was decided in court today.

Robert Ours, 65, did not appear before County Court Judge Joseph Fahey, who had scheduled today as a possible plea date.

Fahey did not call Ours’s case during court, but Senior Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Cali asked afterward when Ours was due back to court with his lawyers, Emil Rossi and Michael Spano.

The judge said both sides were scheduled next for July 22. The case could either proceed toward trial at that time, with lawyers making legal arguments, or could be resolved.

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UNITED STATES
Press TV (Iran)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Dankof, political commentator, San Antonio, about the pope announcing he will punish priests who sexually abuse children after meeting with some of those abused.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: We know the previous Pope was under a lot more criticism, he was even accused of ignoring, himself personally, cases of child abuse, but what do you think about the way Pope Francis has dealt with the situation?

Dankof: I’m a cynic on this admittedly. I agree with Barbara Blaine the president of an organization called SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – who has basically said that this is a lot of PR window dressing, that it doesn’t really change anything in the way in which systems are conducted in the Roman Catholic Church.

There are several things that the Pope would have to do and state publicly before I would be convinced that he was moving in a better direction.

Press TV: We’re hearing he has strengthened the Vatican’s laws against child abuse. Now he’s saying that the clergy who have committed these offenses should be punished. Can you tell us what kind of action he’s speaking about?

Dankof: I think the best thing the Pope could do to underscore these pedophilia-oriented priests are going to be punished, but also indicate the willingness of the Roman Catholic church to do what is standard in the Protestant groups, at least in the United States, and that is to cooperate with a secular authority.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY TK BARGER
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

Gerald Robinson, 76, the Roman Catholic priest who died Friday in a prison hospice, will be buried after a public funeral to be held sometime this week, but details for it have not yet been announced.

Robinson remained a priest because the post-trial legal appeals process had not been completed but was barred from performing public ministry. He was serving a 15-years-to-life sentence after being arrested in 2004 and convicted in 2006 for the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl of the Sisters of Mercy. The Rev. Charles Ritter, administrator of the Diocese of Toledo until a new bishop is appointed by Pope Francis, will preside at the funeral, church officials said Monday.

No media access will be provided for the funeral. The diocese cited a protocol it developed for situations when funerals are celebrated for priests removed from priestly ministry.

The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests and the National Survivors Advocate Coalition wrote to Father Ritter in a letter dated Sunday requesting that the funeral be private and small, stating, “We hope Fr. Robinson’s passing brings some comfort to those he hurt and their loved ones. But any such comfort will be short lived as those struggling families learn that Fr. Robinson is being buried with full honors.”

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 08, 2014

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

A convicted sex offender minister is using his charisma to garner sympathy and trust from the community. We hope he fails.

[First Coast News]

Florida pastor Darrell Gilyard pled guilty in 2009 to lewd and lascivious acts. In a new TV interview, Gilyard claims to be a changed man. We’re highly skeptical. In our 25 years of experience, we have found that child molesting clergy rarely stop hurting kids.

We are also disappointed and worried that a judge has modified Gilyard’s probation and has allowed him to work around children.

We hope parents and the community will remain vigilant and anyone who saw, suspects or suffered child sex crimes will immediately report to secular officials.

Finally, we hope Gilyard’s congregants come to their senses, oust him and start aggressively seeking out others who have knowledge of or suspicions about his misdeeds, so that he might be prosecuted, convicted and again kept away from vulnerable kids.

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

New Board to Run Vatican Bank as Reform Push Continues

By LIAM MOLONEY
July 8, 2014

ROME—The Catholic Church moved on Tuesday to deepen reform of the Vatican bank by replacing its board as the bank reported a nose dive in profit during 2013.

The Holy See decided to appoint a new board of superintendence under a plan to create simpler and more efficient structures to serve the church and make financial scandals a thing of the past.

This is only the second time in its 127-year history that the bank, officially called the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR, has published its financial accounts and comes as part of Pope Francis ‘ push for greater transparency.

Net profit in 2013 fell to €2.87 million ($3.90 million) from €86.6 million the year before, the IOR said in a statement. In 2011, net profit was €20.3 million.

“We are now in a position to move the IOR to a second phase of reform under new leadership,” said Australian Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the recently created Secretariat for the Economy, in a statement. “This is a time of major change in the Holy See, not only for the IOR.”

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

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 8, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Dorris (314) 503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Pedophile priest is subject of hearing
He’s been arrested twice & faces a civil suit
Cleric has moved with and lived with archbishop

On the same day that St. Louis Catholic officials dodged a potentially embarrassing civil child sex abuse trial, a judge green-lighted a similar trial against a different priest.

Twice in recent years Fr. Joseph Jiang has been arrested on child sex charges – first in Lincoln County in 2012 and then in St. Louis city in April 2014. Now, it looks like he’ll face a civil trial.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Yesterday, according to CaseNET, a Lincoln County judge let a civil lawsuit against Fr. Jiang and his church supervisors move forward. Fr. Jiang and St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson had sought to have the case dismissed.

“We’re grateful Carlson lost and won’t be able to hide behind legal technicalities,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP. “We look forward to him trying to explain, under oath, the remarkably selfish and hurtful decisions he repeatedly made with Fr. Jiang.”

“Now, Carlson will have to explain why he tried to get his hands on a $20,000 check Fr. Jiang gave this victim’s family to try and silence them,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “And hopefully he’ll have to explain why he’s letting a pedophile priest with pending criminal and civil charges live basically unsupervised near one of his victims.”

Fr. Jiang, free on $150,000 bond, now lives at the Dominican Priory on Lafayette near Grand, just six minutes away from the Cathedral parish, where he allegedly met and hurt both the Lincoln County girl and the St. Louis City boy.

[SNAP]

“This is a recipe for disaster. Carlson needs to put Fr. Jiang in a remote, secure and independent treatment center far away where he’ll have no access to kids,” said Dorris. “It’s possible that Fr. Jiang sexually assaulted this boy while he was living at this priory.”

Fr. Jiang is an archdiocesan priest who is reportedly very close to Carlson, having moved with Carlson several times as the archbishop was promoted.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Lindsay Toler Tue., Jul. 8 2014

A Lincoln County judge has refused to dismiss the civil lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Robert Carlson by the family of an underage girl who alleges priest Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang sexually abused her.

Lawyers for the archdiocese wanted the judge to dismiss charges that the church failed to supervise Jiang and intentionally inflicted emotional distress by arguing that the church isn’t responsible for the abuse if it isn’t on church property. The judge denied their motion.

“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling that the case against the Archdiocese can proceed despite the defendants’ argument that it should be dismissed because most of abuse happened off church property,” says the family’s lawyer, Ken Chackes. “We argued that the Archdiocese still had control over Jiang even when he was molesting the victim at her family’s home in Lincoln County.”

Jiang is no longer facing criminal charges for the abuse allegations that spurred the lawsuit. Judges ruled he was not alone with the victim, so child endangerment and witness tampering charges were dropped.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour
theguardian.com, Tuesday 8 July 2014

Powerful people in the 1980s targeted children’s homes that served as a “supply line” for paedophiles, a former health minister has claimed.

As a former child protection manager warned that a “powerful elite” of at least 20 prominent figures carried out the “worst form of abuse”, the former health minister Lord Warner described the sexual abuse of children as a “power drive”.

Warner, a health minister in 2003-07 who conducted an inquiry into child abuse in Birmingham in 1992, spoke out after the home secretary, Theresa May, announced a national inquiry into how the authorities may have ignored child abuse at Westminster.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said the government’s approach had been dilatory and piecemeal. He said: “The inquiry needs to recommend child protection measures for the future. If the government does all those things, we will support them.”

He said: “They have been slow and piecemeal getting to this point. I think victims and others need to be able to give testimony and give their evidence.

“It is vital that the inquiry is sufficiently comprehensive and over-arching. The important thing is to get at the truth to get at justice, to get what happened in institutions, and to get the right answers for the future. The appalling examples of child protection abuse we have seen must never be allowed to happen again.”

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

The Holy See has announced the president of the Vatican bank must leave his post after only 16 months in office. It indicated the move came in the wake of recent efforts to clean up the bank’s internal structures.

The Vatican said Tuesday the shake-up would see its bank’s president, Ernst von Freyberg (pictured above), leave after having been appointed in the final days of Benedict XVI’s papacy.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, who Pope Francis chose to chair the Secretariat of Economy, said it was time “to move the bank to a second phase of reform under new leadership.”

The new board of the bank, which is formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, was expected to be announced on July 8, with French financier Jean-Baptiste de Franssu widely tipped to replace von Freyberg.

Shrinking customer base

Also on Tuesday, the Vatican bank published its 2013 accounts, which saw net profits drop to 2.9 million euros ($3.9 million) from 86 million euros in the previous year.

The IOR pointed out that it had written off 28.8 million euros in investments last year, but gave no further details

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

UK sex abuse victim assaulted by paedophile priests describes ‘life-changing’ private meeting with the Pope who begged his forgiveness

The first British victim of clerical sex abuse to meet Pope Francis has described the experience as ‘life-changing.’

Peter Saunders, 57, who was abused for more than five years by two priests, a teacher and a member of his family from the age of 8, said the visit to the Vatican was ‘very very emotional.’

Francis met six abuse victims including two Britons and two Irish people on Monday in a series of ‘intense’ discussions that lasted more than three hours during which he begged for forgiveness for the ‘sacrilegious’ crimes committed by the ‘sons and daughters of the church, who betrayed their mission.’

The Pope has previously been accused of not doing enough to tackle the abuse crisis.

But he used the encounter to condemn clerical abuse of children in his strongest language yet saying it was ‘sacrilegious’ and caused him personally great pain.

He said the church must ‘weep’ and make reparations for the betrayal of trust.

Mr Saunders told the Boston Globe that by listening to him Francis had done more for him than anyone else.

‘He’s granted me something that the prime minister, and the deputy prime minister and all these other ministers of state in the UK never have. I had the benefit of a discussion with him, with no limits, …It was a life changing moment for me.’

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph

By Nick Squires, in Rome 08 Jul 2014

A “painful” restructuring of the Vatican’s scandal-ridden bank in order to weed out suspicious activity has resulted in a massive fall in profits and the closure of hundreds of customer accounts, it disclosed on Tuesday.

A year-long push for greater transparency and accountability, spearheaded by Ernst von Freyburg, a German lawyer, has resulted in the bank’s net profits falling from £69m (€86.6m) in 2012 to just £2.3m (€2.9m) in 2013.

The bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion or IOR, has blocked the accounts of more than 2,000 individual and institutional clients and ended around 3,000 “customer relationships” as part of the sweeping clean-up process.

The closing of the accounts led to an outflow of funds amounting to €44m, the bank revealed in its latest financial statement. Most of the money was transferred by wire to Italian financial institutions. Another 359 customer accounts were “earmarked for closure”, the bank said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

Fred Bodimer
July 8, 2014

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Pope Francis’s Monday meeting with clergy abuse victims at the Vatican is nothing more than an empty gesture, according to a local clergy abuse victim.

“To be brutally honest, symbolism protects no one,” says SNAP’s David Clohessy.

He says concrete actions need to be taken, instead of more discussion.

“Church officials have been meeting with abuse victims for decades, and there’s still very little change in the church when it comes to clergy sex crimes and coverups,” Clohessy says.

Clohessy says the pope needs to order bishops to turn over all of their files about abusing priests to law enforcement, and order bishops to work with clergy abuse advocates to reform child safety laws rather than fighting them.

Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi says Pope Francis is sincere in his concern.

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VATICAN CITY
CBC News

The Associated Press Posted: Jul 08, 2014

The Vatican bank on Tuesday reported a big drop in profits as Pope Francis presses reforms to make the scandal-tainted institution more transparent.

The bank, formally called Institute for Religious Works, said its net profit in 2013 fell to 2.9 million euros ($4.2 million Cdn) from 86.6 million euros ($125.6 million) the previous year.

The income statement lists a loss of 14.4 million euros ($21 million) attributed to a `’donation” of securities to a Holy See foundation. It didn’t elaborate, but news reports have said a top Vatican cardinal had transferred some 15 million euros to an Italian film company considered close to the Vatican and that the transaction was under investigation.

The bank continues to close accounts that don’t meet tighter regulatory standards. The scrutiny reflects the bank’s aim to improve compliance with international banking standards, including those to discourage money laundering. So far it has blocked 1,239 individual client and 762 institutional client accounts. Of some 3,000 `’customer relationships” terminated, most were dormant accounts, but others didn’t fit the bank’s revamped focus.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

[with video]

Opinion: Anglican Church votes to let priests break seal of the confessional to prevent child abuse but up to dioceses to adopt policy

ALISON COTES THE COURIER-MAIL JULY 09, 2014

IT’S not often a movie audience breaks into spontaneous applause, but I saw it happen in a theatre that was showing the 1994 movie The Priest.

In it, among many other personal issues, the young priest Father Greg Pilkington has to solve an ethical dilemma – should he report to the police the behaviour of a man who has admitted in the confessional that he was sexually abusing his own daughter. He broke the so-called seal of the confessional and the audience wholeheartedly approved – but the Roman Catholic Church did not.

The film raised the issue that is still important today – is the Christian church out of step with modern ethical concerns? The Seal of the Confessional, which dates back to 1215, states categorically that a priest must never reveal what he has heard in the confessional, whether it not such a disclosure would save his own life, refute a false accusation, save the life of another, or avert a public calamity. The punishment for breaking the seal is instant excommunication and, in the 13th century, the priest was incarcerated in a closed monastery for perpetual penance.

So this is serious stuff, accepted by all Roman Catholic and many Anglican priests today.

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FLORIDA
First Coast News

[with video]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For the past seven years Jacksonville Pastor Darrell Gilyard has been silent about his conviction as a sex offender. In a phone conversation, Gilyard broke his silence to talk about social media, his current life and about how he was treated in Dr. Jerry Vines autobiography.

“It has been tough when people expect you to run and hide,” said Gilyard,” but I’ve decided that they weren’t going to push me into the shadows; I live in a glass house.”

For 14 years Darrell Gilyard was the pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, it was here he fell from grace.

In 2007 he was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious conduct. In 2009 he plead guilty to two counts; he was sentenced and the state designated him a sex offender.

“While in Wakulla Correctional I tried to bloom where I was planted,” he said, “I help changed the GED program.”

After his release from prison he was called to be Pastor of Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist church and was met by an ugly community protest in the streets.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By PRESS ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHED: 05:33 EST, 8 July 2014

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.

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UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard

JOE MURPHY, POLITICAL EDITOR

Church leaders today 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.”

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IOWA
Sioux City Journal

VATICAN CITY | The bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City on Monday said he supports Pope Francis’ desire to seek forgiveness from Catholics who were sexually abused by members of the clergy.

Pope Francis begged forgiveness in his first meeting with Catholics who were victims of abuse, and went further than any of his predecessors by vowing to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

“I whole-heartedly support Pope Francis’ mission that we as bishops must carry out our ministry with ‘the utmost care’ to protect our young people,” said Bishop R. Walker Nickless.

Abuse victims and their advocates have long demanded that higher-ups be made to answer for the decades-long cover-ups of rape and molestation of youngsters in a scandal that has rocked the church and dismayed its worldwide flock of 1.2 billion.

The pope celebrated a private Mass on Sunday with six victims — two each from Ireland, Britain and Germany — at his Vatican residence, and spent the rest of the morning listening to their accounts, one on one.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By: Macer HallPublished: Mon, July 7, 2014

The Home Secretary told MPs that an independent expert panel is to be set up to probe claims of paedophile activities in Parliament, hospitals, the BBC, the NHS, churches, firms and other public institutions following the sickening claims against Jimmy Savile, former Liberal MP Cyril Smith and other alleged serial perverts.

And she also appointed a children’s charity chief to spearhead a separate review into the handling of child abuse claims around Westminster in the 1980s.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), will examine the way the Home Office, police and prosecutors dealt with

information about sickening crimes by a suspected paedophile ring said to involve public figures in the “higher echelons” of the political establishment.

Mrs May said: “In recent years, we have seen appalling cases of organised and persistent child sex abuse.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

By Steve Lyttle
slyttle@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Tuesday, Jul. 08, 2014

A support group for victims of clergy abuse plans to hold a news conference Tuesday morning in Charlotte to protest recent dismissals of cases against two Roman Catholic priests in the Diocese of Charlotte.

The news conference comes one day after Pope Francis met with victims of clergy abuse and begged forgiveness for the way that victims’ cases were treated by Catholic officials.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) plans to gather about 10 a.m. outside the Diocesan Pastoral Center on Church Street at Morehead Street.

“We will urge Bishop Jugis to hold a news conference and admit that the men who reported having been sexually assaulted as kids by Fr. Kelleher and Fr. Farwell are credible,” according to a statement issued by SNAP.

During the past month, judges have dismissed both criminal and civil cases filed by people who said they were sexually abused by either Fr. Joseph Kelleher or Fr. Richard Farwell in the 1970s and 1980s.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

video

Pope Francis met with victims of sexual abuse by priests for the first time since becoming head of the Catholic Church, asking for forgiveness and demanding that church leaders take responsibility for the protection of minors. Anne Doyle, BishopAccountabliity.org co-director, discusses on the News Hub with Sara Murray.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Newswire

Contact: Pete Evans, Trinity Foundation, 214-827-2625 ext. 200

DALLAS, Texas, July 8, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ — When Pope Francis sacked the German “Bishop of Bling” Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst last October for spending $43 million of church funds for his residential complex, and denounced the “idolatry of money,” self-indulgence and “insidious worldliness” within the church, we were hopeful. In May, when the pope condemned “profiteers” and “climbers” and “people who follow Jesus for money,” calling for a “poor church for the poor,” we applauded.

But now the Pope has met with several televangelists who engage in more financial excesses than any of his own bishops ever even imagined doing. So why is he becoming cozy with televangelist “bishops of bling?”

In June 2014, the pontiff hosted Kenneth Copeland, dubbed the “Godfather of Prosperity” by CBS News. Also present were James Robison and his wife, Betty, of Life Outreach International, and Tony Palmer, former director of Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Africa.

If Pope Francis is blessing their activities, either he’s not the Francis we’ve come to expect, or he lacks facts about the tax-free money-making operations owned by these religious frauds. For example:

• Kenneth Copeland and his wife, Gloria, live in a 20,000-square-foot lake-front mansion near Fort Worth, Texas. They regularly fly one of their two expensive jets around the world, including regular trips to their multi-million dollar mansion in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In 2008, Mr. Copeland even boasted that he had collected over $1billion in donor funds during his career.

• Tony Palmer, a former employee of Copeland, is ordained with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC), a small offshoot unrelated to the main Episcopal denomination. The CEEC also ordained Gene Ewing, who for decades has been running a direct-mail operation sending out gimmicky letters (with prayer cloths, holy water from the Jordan and holy oil) promising riches and healing for anyone desperate enough to send him money.

• Property records show that James and Betty Robison live in a “modest” Texas home appraised by tax-assessors at $742,800. They also own one or more multi-million-dollar homes in Silverthorne, Colorado and their large Robison ministry ranch and lodge in East Texas, likewise built with donor money.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

On June 23, 2014, Pope Francis met with Kenneth Copeland and 8 other US evangelicals at the Vatican. It was a perfect timing to coincide with the Copeland’s annual convention in Forth Worth Texas from June 30 to July 5 where Kenneth spoke about the Pope during an entire session. which he never did in his entire 40 years ministry. Below is a compilation of disagreement and anger from his followers which is very enlightening. So is this why Pope Francis cancelled his daily mass for the summer and his weekly Wednesday Angelus because he wanted to use those time for meeting with other religions and other sects and evangelicals like Kenneth Copeland – instead of meeting his usual Francis-Maniacs Catholic zombie and stupid nuns in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday Angelus?

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

[with video]

By Lindsay Toler Tue., Jul. 8 2014

Immediately after the Archdiocese of St. Louis settled a civil lawsuit Monday from a woman who accuses a priest of molesting her as a child, church officials went after the alleged victim, discrediting her claims and dismissing her as mentally-ill.

The archdiocese admits that the accused ex-priest, Joseph Ross, sexually assaulted at least one boy before being defrocked in 2002. But in Monday’s statement, executive director of communications Katie Pesha says the woman, known in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe 92, lied about her abuse and has “very personal issues” regarding her mental health.

“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,” Pesha says. “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.”

Jane Doe’s attorney, Ken Chackes, the Circuit Attorney’s Office and several therapists have supported her allegations.

“We believe a jury would have ultimately found that Fr. Ross raped Jane Doe 92,” Chackes said Monday. “We must, however, take action to preserve her health and well-being. We agree with the Archdiocese that there is no healing for Jane Doe 92 that would come from a three week trial of these difficult and personal facts.”

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UNITED STATES
Road to Recovery

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE USE

Road to Recovery, Inc., which is the only organization in the United States that provides direct financial, social, advocacy, and other services to victim/survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic Church personnel and their enablers, responds to the Pope’s meeting today with survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the following way:

1) The meeting is a good first step for Pope Francis, but he must stop asking for forgiveness because forgiveness will only take place when Francis acts decisively. Some of the ways he can act are elicited below:

a) He must admit his missteps regarding clergy sexual abuse when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in Argentina. In addition, he must acknowledge that one or more whistle blowers of clergy sexual abuse in Argentina were mistreated as a result of reports of sexual abuse of children by clergy and other Church personnel;

b) He must dismiss several bishops from their positions, and he should begin with Archbishop John J. Myers of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, and Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, Missouri;

c) He must rescind the appointment of Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey as the Bishop of Fall River, MA because of his knowledge of clergy sexual abuse among the Vocationist Fathers and Brothers who are members of his religious order and who did not do anything about it;

d) He must restore the integrity of whistle blowers and advocates by acknowledging their mistreatment, and he must restore, where appropriate, whistle blowers to paid church positions, and/or offer just compensation to those who lost their jobs unjustly;

e) He must eliminate all diocesan-sponsored and appointed commissions, boards, and offices regarding sexual abuse of children and request local law enforcement to establish independent commissions, boards, and offices to investigate sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church;

f) He must meet with more victim/survivors and their advocates to determine how best to compensate victim/survivors for life relative to ongoing counseling and treatment for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and its symptoms and residual effects on families and communities. Victim/survivors must be guaranteed that whatever they need to recover will be provided by the Church, free of charge.

Contact: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President, Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

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UNITED KING
BBC News

[with video]

The government should order a full public inquiry into institutional sexual abuse, according to a leading Church of England cleric.

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverent Paul Butler, said Theresa May’s announcement of an inquiry into child abuse claims was a “good first phase”.

But he said that in order to get to the truth, people may need to give evidence under oath.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 July 2014 (VIS) – During the meeting of the Council of the Economy on Saturday 5 July, the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, as is customary at this time of year, presented a report of the two main budgets for 2013: the consolidated financial statement of the Holy See and the financial statement of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The data included in these statements may be summarised as follows:

The consolidated financial statement for the Holy See for the year 2013 closes with a deficit of € 24,470,549, due principally to negative fluctuations deriving from the valuation of gold, to the value of around € 14 million. Although evaluative elements and therefore not actualised, according to the accounting principles based on the criterion of prudence contained in the “Regulations for the Preparation of the Financial Statements of the Holy See”, they were recorded among the negative components in the overview of financial management.

The most significant categories of expenditure at those regarding personnel costs (2,886 persons on 31 December 2013), a net sum of around € 125 million, and the payment of taxes which affect the real estate sector, approximately € 15 million.

The administration of the Governorate is autonomous, and independent of contributions from the Holy See. Through its various offices, it supervises requirements related to the administration of the State. The 2013 budget closes with a profit of € 33,040,583, an increase of around € 10 million compared to last year. As of 31 December 2013 the Governorate employed a total of 1,936 persons.

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VATICAN CITY
The Local

After months of reform the Vatican bank has opened the door to a “transparent” and “unburdened future”, the institution’s chief said on Tuesday as he announced a steep fall in profits.

The Vatican bank said on Monday that net profits plummeted from €86.6 million in 2012 to €2.9 million last year, attributed to factors such as “extraordinary expenses”. Without such burdens the bank, officially the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), would have registered profits of around €70 million in 2013.

Ernst von Freyberg, president of the board of superintendence, said the new figures followed “painful” reforms to see the bank meet international standards.

“It is fair to say that over the past months this often painful but very necessary process has opened the door to a new, unburdened future of the IOR,” he said in a statement.

A review in recent months has seen around 3,000 customer accounts closed, the majority of them dormant but including 396 accounts which held a total of €44 million. An additional 359 accounts which did not meet new criteria are due to be closed, prompting the outflow of a further €183 million.

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VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

By Giulia Segreti in Rome

Profits at the Vatican bank plunged last year after thousands of accounts were closed as part of an overhaul of the scandal-ridden institution.

The losses include a €15m loan granted to a production company owned by a friend of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a former senior prelate who retired last year from his position as secretary of state.

Since April 2013 almost 3,000 accounts have been closed and more than 2,000 have been blocked as a result of a screening process of all the accounts held in the troubled bank.

George Pell, the Australian cardinal heading the secretariat for the economy at the Vatican, said in a statement: “This is a time of major change in the Holy See . . . we are creating simpler, more efficient structures for those serving the mission of the Catholic Church.”

The Vatican bank, officially known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), now has 17,419 customers, down from 18,900 in 2012.

In only the second annual report to be published, the bank announced net profit fell from €86.6m in 2012 to €2.9m last year. In the first six months of 2014 net profit was €57.4m.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

The Vatican bank has blocked the accounts of more than 2,000 clients and ended some 3,000 “customer relationships” as part of a clean-up process that nearly wiped out its profit, its 2013 financial statement showed today.

The bank has been hit by years of scandal, including money laundering allegations and is about to be restructured with a new president and a new board. All but about 400 of the 3,000 terminated accounts were “dormant” with small balances and had been inactive for years. A further 359 customer relationships are due to be terminated after staff and outside experts found they did not meet the criteria for holding accounts at the bank, which has about 15,500 customers, some with more than one account. The stated purpose of the bank – formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) – is to manage money for the Church, religious orders, charities and Vatican employees.

The statement showed that the ongoing clean-up process, started by its President Ernst von Freyberg after his arrival last year, has come with a heavy financial price, particularly for ridding the IOR of some dubious investments. Profits in 2013 plummeted to €2.9 million from €86.6 million in 2012 as the IOR took huge write-downs to wind up investments made before the bank’s reform programme started and when there was less vigilance.

Last year’s profits were also hit by extraordinary expenses related to the hiring of external professionals, such as the Promontory Financial Group, to help in compliance and transparency issues and account closures. The statement said 2013 profit would have been about €70 million without the write-downs and the one-off expenses.

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VATICAN CITY
The Nation

July 8, 2014

Vatican City – The Vatican’s scandal-tainted bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), is undertaking a management shake-up in an effort to clean up its internal structures, the Holy See announced on Tuesday.

The shake-up will see IOR President Ernst von Freyberg, a lawyer from a well-known German aristocratic family that was appointed in the final days of Benedict XVI’s papacy, leave his post after only 16 months.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, who was chosen by Pope Francis in February to chair the Secretariat for the Economy – a quasi-finance ministry for the Vatican – said it was time “to move the IOR to a second phase of reform under new leadership.

“The bank’s new board is expected to be announced Wednesday. French financier Jean-Baptiste de Franssu is widely tipped to replace von Freyberg as IOR president.

Von Freyberg’s ouster coincides with the publication of the Vatican’s2013 accounts, which saw net profits fall to 2.9 million euros (3.9million dollars) from 86.6 million euros in 2012. Net profits improved in the first half of 2014, totalling 57.5 million euros.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

I was a minister at the time and he was happy with our response. Now Leon Brittan should be left in peace

David Mellor
The Guardian, Monday 7 July 2014

Home secretary Theresa May continues to surprise her sceptics, with an assured announcement of two reviews, looking into how public bodies undertook their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse, and whether any legal gaps in child protection remain. These could put back on track a totally legitimate concern to root out and punish paedophiles, especially those in high places, which was in danger of spilling over into a witch hunt.

Her Hillsborough-style inquiry will rightly embrace all parts of our national life – not just the poor benighted Home Office, which has received such a good kicking in recent days.

My only reservation would concern the frankly rather emptily populist decision to put the chief executive of the NSPCC in charge of the inquiry into how the Home Office handled abuse allegations. Far more sensible, but, I admit, not so sexy publicity wise, would be to invite a boring lawyer to review what were, after all, legal or quasi-legal decisions, not social worker stuff.

The government needed to act decisively, because the rush to judgment among certain politicians and sections of the press was becoming unbearable.

I was a Home Office minister when Geoffrey Dickens brought in his dossier, amid a welter of press publicity. He was received courteously by then home secretary, Leon Brittan, and his documents were passed to officials for appropriate action. Brittan then wrote to him, detailing what he had done, and Dickens did not express any dissatisfaction with what the home secretary said or wrote. Indeed, three years later Dickens put in Hansard his thanks to the Home Office for its efforts.

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CANADA
Western Star

A former Roman Catholic priest who spent most of his tenure in western Newfoundland has a plea date set for Aug. 25 on sex charges.

Bernard Buckle had his lawyer appear on his behalf in Stephenville Provincial Court on Monday when the time of the plea date was set. He faces three charges of sexual assault.

Buckle, who is now 81 years of age, was born and grew up in Corner Brook before being ordained a priest in 1961 in Corner Brook. After ordination he was appointed assistant priest at Stephenville, where he remained for eight years. In 1969 he became parish priest of Lourdes where he remained for 10 years. He then became parish priest of St. Alban’s in 1979 and remained there for five years, after which he was appointed priest of St. Stephen’s Parish in Stephenville.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Cristina Odone

Theresa May has called for a wide-ranging inquiry into historic paedophile abuse by politicians. Only ten days ago the Home Secretary had refused to even contemplate such an inquiry – but that was before the public mood turned ugly, and demands for truth and transparency grew loud. Faced with such hostility, the normally cool Mrs May lost her nerve.

Three developments in the long, long-running “elite paedophile ring” saga account for the public’s change of heart. Rolf Harris got a sentence of only five years and nine months; Lord Brittan changed his story twice about what he did with the dossier of evidence of a Westminster paedophile gang; and more details emerged surrounding the late Cyril Smith MP’s child abuse.

Newsnight interviewed last night the whistleblower who had first come out with the allegations against paedophiles who abused their power to prey on young vulnerable children, most of them in care. Peter McKelvie expressed his relief that, after more than 30 years, his evidence – traumatic stories from victims and eyewitnesses – was being taken seriously. Justice may be done, he concluded. For some victims it will be a case of too little, too late: their lives lie in ruin, having never recovered from the horror of abuse.

For some, though, this does not mark the beginning of a campaign for justice but a witch hunt. Frank Furedi argued that this lynch-mob mentality would end up with innocent men being wrongly accused of the most heinous crime. Even Fraser Nelson worried that MPs were guilty of a kneejerk reaction in instigating a proper inquiry.

These men are wrong. The only danger we face with this inquiry is if it does not probe deeply enough and lead to a root and branch reform of one of the most powerful institutions in the land. Swap the Catholic Church for Westminster, and the way forward is clear: nothing short of thorough investigation, sincere soul-searching and public penance will satisfy the victims and their supporters. This is a long and painful via Crucis that can last for years, as Pope Francis showed with his public plea for forgiveness yesterday.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Patrick Roberts @irishcentral July 08,2014

Pope Francis is entering uncharted waters with his embrace of pedophile priest victims as occurred yesterday in the Vatican.

The two Irish women present, victims Marie Kane and Marie Collins, quickly pointed out that the cover-ups were as bad as as the actual crimes.

That is why Francis is treading on dangerous turf. There is hardly a serving senior figure in the Vatican, including the former pope Benedict, who has not been accused of a cover-up at some level on the issue.

Now comes Francis, who has never had such accusations made against him, poking around in very dark corners indeed.

His recent warning about the Mafia was meant as a shot across the bows of one of Italy’s most powerful evil forces.

But ranged behind him in the Vatican are men, and they are all men, who will consider any light shone on this subject to be of considerable negative import to them.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

Accredited journalists are informed that a press conference will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 9 July 2014 at 12 p.m., in the Aula Giovanni Paolo II of the Holy See Press Office, on the theme of the “New Economic Framework of 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).

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Brendan Hoban, in his weekly Western People column, asks is there any silence like the silence of the Irish bishops in response to Francis’ reforming agenda?

The difficult truth is that, while technically Pope Francis is all-powerful and can introduce any changes he wants the reality is, change will be blocked and is being blocked by those who see their power and influence placed at risk.

————–

Pope (now Saint) John XXIII was once asked how many people worked in the Vatican. He smiled his usual smile before replying, ‘I’d say, about half of them’.

The response was explained partly by his self-deprecating approach to the Vatican, and all things Roman; but partly too because, cute man that he was, he probably didn’t want to answer the question directly.

In fact, there are at present over 3,000 people working in the Vatican. What, I sometimes wonder, are they all doing? Despite the number of congregations, commissions, departments and bureaucrats, letters to Rome seem to fall into some great cavernous black hole and, it often seems, that only years later a response eventually emerges.

The Catholic Church is arguably the world’s most hierarchical organization and the impression is sometimes given that it’s a monumental, hyper-organised, well-oiled machine in total control of a global agenda; and that it keeps a sharp focus on tightly-monitored over-sight and stringent management with its finger on the relevant pulse in the dioceses that make up the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world.

The reality is very different. Despite the facade and the carefully choreographed public profile the business of managing the universal Church is a mish-mash of disorganisation and dysfunction, where cardinals and department heads behave like feudal lords. The Vatican is more a medieval village than corporate headquarters. In fact there’s a chronic disconnect between what happens in Vatican City and the Catholics of the world.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

8 July, 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released five short films showcasing the work of the Royal Commission and encouraging survivors of child sexual abuse in an institution to share their story.

The short films provide in depth information on the work of the Royal Commission, private sessions and witness support services. The films were created for people who have experienced child sexual abuse in an institution, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The purpose of the project is to raise awareness of the Royal Commission within the community and encourage survivors of child sexual abuse to share their story.

The five short films to be released are:

* A safer future for children – outlining the role of the Royal Commission
* Share your story – providing information on private sessions
* Giving evidence at a public hearing – a guide for witnesses
* A safer future for children: for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
* Share your story: for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

The short films are available, with captions, on the Royal Commission website and the Royal Commission’s You Tube channel.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

EDITORIAL

Hold the Applause, Please

We considered not saying anything about the homily delivered by Pope Francis yesterday or the Vatican’s comments about the private meetings he held with six survivors from Ireland, Germany and Great Britain.

Silence for what was, in essence, another round of someday we are going to do something – just you wait – theater seemed the most appropriate match to the events.

It is possible that many of our readers will think we should have stuck with our initial reaction

As the day flowed on and news outlets including the Vatican carried the full text of the homily and characterizations of Father Frederic Lombardi’s comments, we changed our mind.

We changed it in large measure because silence practiced and nearly perfected by the Vatican is a foundational block of why sexual abuse by priests and nuns and the octopus of its cover-up still hangs like the sword of Damocles over the Roman Catholic Church today.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:61-62)

Pope Francis has given a stunning homily after meeting with victims of sexual abuse in the Church.

He begins by recalling the quotation above, how when Jesus looks at Peter, Peter, filled with remorse at having denied Him, goes out and weeps bitterly.

Francis, sitting in the Chair of Peter, explains why he (Peter) now weeps (my emphasis) …

… some priests and bishops, by sexually abusing minors, violated their innocence and their own priestly vocation. It is something more than despicable actions. It is like a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been entrusted to the priestly charism in order to be brought to God. And those people sacrificed them to the idol of their own concupiscence. They profane the very image of God in whose likeness we were created.

The abuse of children by priests is not just sinful, it is sacrilegious, it is a desecration, a profanation. It is demonic.

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VATICAN CITY
PBS – Frontline

Secrets of the Vatican, FRONTLINE’s investigation into the scandals that rocked Benedict’s papacy and the challenges facing Pope Francis as he looks to reform the Vatican, rebroadcasts tomorrow night on most PBS stations. Check your local listings here.

July 7, 2014 by Priyanka Boghani

Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from six victims of clerical sexual abuse on Monday, during the first such meeting since he became pontiff.

“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,” the pope said during Mass with the victims.

For decades, the Roman Catholic Church has been dogged by clergy sex abuse scandals, with critics accusing church officials of sheltering accused priests instead of referring them to civil authorities. In May, a UN report found that church officials still resist reporting these crimes and largely handle them internally, choosing to defrock priests or consign them to a life of prayer rather than handing them over to civil authorities.

Since becoming pontiff, Francis has taken some steps toward addressing clerical sexual abuse, including redefining sexual violence against children as a crime, and establishing an advisory board called the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors tasked with developing protocols for the church in cases of sexual abuse.

The goal is to improve accountability for church officials who fail to report abuse allegations, said Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, a member of the advisory board, which consists of three clergy and five laypeople.

When Pope Francis met the victims on Monday, he apologized on behalf of those officials. “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 made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth Herald

A MAN who taught at a Plymouth school for three decades is facing charges in connection with the alleged sexual and physical abuse of children.

Paul Kelly is one of six men accused of a series of assaults and indecent assaults over a five-year period in the 1970s and 1980s.

The former head of Year 9 at St Boniface’s Catholic College was due to appear at Dundee Sheriff Court in Fife, Scotland, last week.

But the case against the 61-year-old was postponed due to what police said was an administrative error.

Kelly, who lives in Plymouth, is facing charges over abuse alleged to have taken place at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife.

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg

By Andrew Frye Jul 8, 2014

Pope Francis plans to replace the board and executives at the Vatican Bank after a year of reorganization at the scandal-plagued institution in which more than 2,000 accounts were blocked and profit dropped 97 percent.

“With the support of the Holy Father and the Council of Cardinals, we are creating simpler more efficient structures for serving the mission of the Catholic Church,” Cardinal-Prefect George Pell said today in an e-mailed statement. Net income at the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, plummeted to 2.9 million euros ($3.9 million) from 86.6 million euros in 2012.

Francis, 77, has focused on improving transparency and compliance at the IOR, which was tainted last year when a senior Vatican cleric was arrested in Italy on fraud charges. The pope relied on Chairman Ernst von Freyberg, appointed last year under Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, to comb through the bank’s accounts and holdings for mispriced assets and suspicious accounts.

The profit decline was primarily due to a 16.5 million-euro trading loss tied to writedowns and fluctuations in the value of the IOR’s gold reserves. The trading result was 51.1 million euros last year. The IOR blocked accounts for 1,329 individual clients and 762 institutional clients, it said.

The Vatican’s Finance Ministry will hold a press conference tomorrow to outline its new strategy for the bank.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Civil Society

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless has been asked by the Home Secretary to lead a review into whether the Home Office failed to act on allegations of child sex abuse.

The review will look at how the Home Office handled allegations of child sex abuse that were set out in a dossier in the 1980s by former Conservative MP Geoff Dickens, and how police and prosecutors handled information given to them. Wanless will report back in eight to ten weeks time.

Last week the Labour MP Simon Danczuk called on the then Home Secretary Leon Brittan to explain what happened to the documents after a Home Office review found that 114 files relating to child sex abuse were not available.

Wanless said: “It’s important to discover everything we can about what happened to these files, not only to help those who may have been victims of abuse many years ago but also to protect those children at risk now.

“The NSPCC is known for its independence and I will approach this review with the due diligence and dedication it warrants – which is what all children have every right to expect.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Times

Patrick Wintour

Mon, Jul 7, 2014

The UK’s home secretary, Theresa May, has announced a wide-ranging inquiry into public bodies’ and institutions’ handling of historical child abuse allegations. British prime minister, David Cameron, said there would be no stone left unturned in the search for the truth.

The government drew parallels with the panel inquiry into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster – and its subsequent handling by public bodies including the police – rather than the judge-led Leveson inquiry into the practices of the British press.

The prime minister’s spokesman said there was a case for examining how a range of public bodies handled child abuse claims. These are likely to include hospitals, broadcasting, the church, judicial authorities as well as political bodies.

The detailed terms of reference are still being worked on and may yet be adjusted once the panel of the inquiry is identified.

Mr Cameron spoke to the home secretary over the weekend and agreed that no stone should be left unturned in finding the truth, and that any lessons from how organisations handled claims needed to be learned to understand the failure of society as a whole to listen to the complaints of children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

NIGEL MORRIS DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Monday 07 July 2014

Accusations that sex abuse victims were betrayed by all sections of society – including police, courts, the National Health Service, schools and the BBC – are to be examined by a Hillsborough-style independent inquiry.

An expert panel will also have the power to scrutinise the behaviour of political parties, the security services and private companies amid allegations that paedophile networks operated with impunity in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is expected to receive a flood of new claims of an establishment cover-up of child abuse during those decades.

The panel will report on its interim findings ahead of the general election next May in a move to reassure critics that its findings are not being kicked into the long grass.

The moves were announced after David Cameron promised to “leave no stone unturned” to track down the abusers and find out how they went undetected for so long.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Patrick Wintour, political editor
theguardian.com, Monday 7 July 2014

The home secretary, Theresa May, is to announce a wide-ranging inquiry into public bodies’ and institutions’ handling of historical child abuse allegations, with David Cameron saying there will be no stone left unturned in the search for the truth.

Downing Street drew parallels with the panel inquiry into the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster – and its subsequent handling by public bodies including the police – rather than the judge-led Leveson inquiry into the practices of the press.

The prime minister’s spokesman said there was a case for examining how a range of public bodies have handled child abuse claims. These are likely to include hospitals, broadcasters, the church, judicial authorities and political bodies.

The detailed terms of reference are still being worked on and may be adjusted once the panel of the inquiry is identified. May is to reveal more when she addresses parliament later on Monday.

Cameron spoke to the home secretary over the weekend and agreed that no stone should be left unturned in finding the truth, and that any lessons from how organisations handled claims needed to be learned to understand society’s failure as a whole to listen to the complaints of children.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

CAITLIN OWENS

The pastor and two members of a Corona church pleaded guilty Monday to state charges of beating and threatening the life of a 13-year-old boy, who was forced to dig his own grave, authorities said.

Lonny Lee Remmers, 56, Nicholas James Craig, 24, and Darryll Duane Jeter Jr., 30, tortured the boy in the church-run group home where he lived, according to a witness report in affidavits for search warrants.

————

FOR THE RECORD

An earlier version of this post said the three men pleaded guilty to federal charges; they are state charges.

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Remmers was then the pastor of Heart of Worship Community Church and ran the group home where Craig, Jeter and the victim lived. It was unclear Monday whether Remmers was still the pastor.

The March 2012 incidents included Craig and Jeter driving the victim to the desert and forcing him to dig his own grave. They then made him get in and threw dirt on him. They were responding to Remmers’ instruction to “scare” the boy, according to the affidavits.

While the boy was showering, one of the men rubbed salt into the cuts on his back, according to Steven Larkey, who lived in the group home and provided the witness report in the affidavit. He told investigators he could hear the boy screaming and saw blood all over the shower the next day.

The victim was later tied to a chair with zip ties and placed in the shower. Mace was sprayed on his face, causing it to bleed, and he was not allowed to rinse off for about 30 minutes, according to the victim’s account in the affidavit.

At a Bible study later that evening at Remmers’ home, Remmers asked the boy to sit in the middle of the group and then squeezed his nipple with pliers.

The boy, his mother and sister were members of Remmers’ church. His mother and sister lived in a women’s group home, but the boy said he had been moved to the men’s home as a disciplinary action.

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

JULY 7, 2014, BY LOS ANGELES TIMES

The pastor and two members of a Corona church pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of beating and threatening the life of a 13-year-old boy, who was forced to dig his own grave, authorities said.

Lonny Lee Remmers, 56, Nicholas James Craig, 24, and Darryll Duane Jeter Jr., 30, tortured the boy in the church-run group home where he lived, according to a witness report in affidavits for search warrants.

Remmers was then the pastor of Heart of Worship Community Church and ran the group home where Craig, Jeter and the victim lived. It was unclear Monday whether Remmers was still the pastor.

The March 2012 incidents included Craig and Jeter driving the victim to the desert and forcing him to dig his own grave. They then made him get in and threw dirt on him. They were responding to Remmers’ instruction to “scare” the boy, according to the affidavits.

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ROME
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

Introductory address by Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin
Pontifical Irish College, Rome, 7th July 2014

“The Anglophone Conference is a unique gathering. It is unique in the first place in that it does not have a website, almost a mortal sin of omission by today’s Conference standards! The Anglophone Conference is an informal gathering, by its nature unstructured or at least under-structured. And indeed that may well be its advantage.

The origins of the Anglophone Conference lie in an interest which arose among bishops from a number of English-speaking countries to come together informally to share experiences about how to address the problem of the sexual abuse of children by priests and religious. It was an attempt to take a more coherent look at a phenomenon which, because it was an unspeakably dark part of the life of the Church, inevitably gave rise to the temptation that it be kept out of the limelight. The result was often that the challenge of abuse was not addressed or was addressed in different ways in different parts of the word. In the Anglophone Conference, Bishops came together to begin to trace a different path. …

The crisis of the sexual abuse of children in the Church is not a chapter of the past history of the Church. Abuse can and does still take place. Abuse will remain a wound in the side of the Church until the day on which every single survivor of abuse has achieved the personal healing he or she deserves.

My starting point in any personal reflection on the scandal of sexual abuse is always that what happened should never have happened in the Church of Jesus Christ. We can argue that the sexual abuse of children takes place right across society and that it is unfair to single out the Catholic Church. We can regurgitate statistics which will tell us that the incidence of such abuse is not significantly higher within the Catholic clergy than in society. But if we come back and repeat to ourselves that what happened should never have happened in the Church of Jesus Christ then we have to put all the comforting statistics to one side and begin to think in a different light.

The sexual abuse of children on the scale in which it happened should never have occurred in the Catholic Church because Jesus himself tells us that children are a sign of the kingdom of God. This means that our understanding of faith and of the kingdom is somehow measured in the manner in which we protect and respect and cherish children or in which we fail children. We know well the strong words of Jesus about those who would injure or harm children.

We need to develop a new awareness that what has happened has wounded the entire Church and that now the entire Church is called to put right what has happened. The entire Church is called to put itself right in its relations with the kingdom and with Jesus Christ. Healing is not just a question for the counsellors; it is a theological and ecclesiological necessity.

The only Church response must be one which attempts to bring healing to a wounded Church through robustly responding to all those who have been wounded by abuse. The healing of the Church comes through how the Church works to heal survivors.

The Church must not just be transformed into a place where children are safe. It must also be transformed into a privileged place of healing for survivors. It must be transformed into a place where survivors, with all their reticence and with all their repeated anger towards the Church, can genuinely come to feel that the Church is a place where they will encounter healing. We are not that kind of Church yet: and by far.

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VATICAN CITY
CBS News

ROME — Pope Francis’ landmark meeting with victims of church sexual abuse this week has brought mixed reviews from survivors.

In a message one of the abuse victims he met at the Vatican called “heartfelt,” Francis apologized, begged “forgiveness,” and promised to take further action to ensure clergy members could not abuse young parishioners — and if it did occur, that they’d be caught and held accountable.

He said the Church should “weep and make reparations” for what he termed the “despicable actions” of church members that he likened to “a sacrilegious cult.”

“There is no place in the Church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses,” the pontiff told six abuse survivors. He also issued a new warning that bishops would be “held accountable,” for any attempts to cover up abuse.

The Survivor’s Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) denounced the meeting as nothing more than a “public relations” stunt.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi disagreed.

“For the person that understands and sees and listens to the Pope and what he is doing, it is totally clear that it was absolutely not a public relations event,” said Lombardi.

Irish campaigner Marie Collins was at the private meeting, and she seemed to think Francis was being genuine.

“He wasn’t just coming out with glib answers,” she said. “You know, his responses were very relevant to what had been said to him, and very strong.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Updated: July 7, 2014

Attorneys for the Diocese of Winona filed a motion Monday to move the location of a civil trial about alleged sexual abuse and coverup by the church due to “intense prejudicial” pretrial publicity.

The motion, filed in the Doe 1 case that spurred the deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Rev. Kevin McDonough, argues for a change of venue from Ramsey County to either Olmsted County in southeastern Minnesota, St. Louis County in northeastern Minnesota or Clay County in the northwest part of the state.

The issue will be argued before Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North on July 21. Doe 1 is suing the diocese, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and his alleged attacker, Thomas Adamson. The jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 22.

The church’s memorandum supporting its motion said the “media frenzy” surrounding the suit has prejudiced an overwhelming number of potential jurors in Ramsey County.

“The media coverage of this case has been extensive, pervasive, and in large part, fueled by the plaintiff,” it said. “This media reporting has not been fairly balanced, has repeatedly cast the Catholic Church and the defendants in a negative light …”

The diocese hired a professional jury consultant to anonymously poll 302 jury-qualified Ramsey County residents via telephone about the case.

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NEW JERSEY/VATICAN CITY
NorthJersey.com

JULY 7, 2014

BY FRANCES D’EMILIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday in his first meeting with Catholics sexually abused by members of the clergy and went further than any of his predecessors by vowing to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

Pope Francis celebrates the Angelus noon prayer from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s square, at the Vatican, Sunday, July 6, 2014.

Abuse victims and their advocates have long demanded that higher-ups be made to answer for the decades-long coverups of rape and molestation of youngsters in a scandal that has rocked the church and dismayed its worldwide flock of 1.2 billion.

The pope celebrated a private Mass with six victims — two each from Ireland, Britain and Germany — at his Vatican residence, and spent the rest of the morning listening to their accounts, meeting with each person individually. …

The U.S.-based victims group SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, reacted skeptically.

“We are glad the pope promises to ‘hold accountable’ Catholic officials who conceal abuse,” SNAP Director David Clohessy said in statement. “But he hasn’t done it yet, not in Rome, nor in Buenos Aires. Saying and doing are different things. The first is easy, the second is hard.”

Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of another victims advocacy group, BishopAccountability.org, said the pope’s meeting with the three men and three women was a positive step.

“The pope made a significant and historic promise to discipline bishops who fail to respond adequately to child sexual abuse,” she said.

Robert Hoatson, a former New­ark priest who founded Road to Recovery, an advocacy group of clergy sexual abuse victims, agreed that Pope Francis had made a significant gesture, but said he needed to go beyond statements by doing something about the problem of abusive priests.

“SNAP has called it a public relations stunt — I think it’s more in depth than that, I think the man is trying,” Hoatson said. “But action is key, he’s got to stop asking for forgiveness. Victims are not going to forgive until they see action.”

Hoatson called on Pope Francis to “get rid of” Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, who has been accused of protecting accused pedophile clerics, like the Rev. Michael Fugee; and Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was convicted of a misdemeanor related to the coverup of a sex crime. Hoatson also said the pope should rescind the appointment of Edgar Moreira da Cunha, the Newark bishop appointed last week to head the diocese of Fall River, Mass.

“More needs to be done,” said Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of SNAP, who describes himself as a victim of clergy abuse. “He’s not the first pope to do this, to apologize, to meet with survivors. We’ve heard this many times before. What matters most is actions.”

Sam Rivera, who has said he was abused as an altar boy in the Newark Archdiocese, said: “I don’t think it’s enough. The pope should have the archbishops meet with the abuse victims. What the pope did is at least a start, but we need an apology from the archbishop of Newark.”

Asked if he thought Myers, the Newark archbishop, should be relieved of his duties, Rivera replied: “Definitely. In our case, he was not there to support the victims of abuse, he was not there with us. And now, to get a lavish home with all those improvements, it’s a slap in the face to abuse victims.”

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