ABUSE TRACKER

FLORIDA
Daily Commercial

Barbara Denman Special to the Daily Commercial

Regardless of the outcome of its appeal of a $12.5 million award to a man sexually abused in Lake County by a minister convicted of molestation in 2007, the Florida Baptist Convention will continue to plant new churches, one official said.

During a recent meeting at the Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center in Leesburg, the State Board of Missions heard about a new church being planted in Miami. Gary Yeldell, the convention’s attorney of record, also brought the board up to date about the jury award appeal.

The words of a child brought a personal perspective to the new Miami church when 5-year-old Jackson Allen took the microphone.

“We moved to Miami to tell people about Jesus,” the youngster told the board, “by planting a church called Christ Centered Church.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

NIALL O’CONNOR – PUBLISHED 22 MARCH 2014

DENIS Nolan, like so many other priests, presented himself as the pillar of the community. He cared for the sick and elderly; he was a regular visitor to the local primary school; he gave baptisms and confessions at short notice. So when this journalist reported that the parish priest of Rathnew, Co Wicklow, was being investigated “in accordance with the safeguarding of children”, there was understandable shock.

But as a garda investigation was launched into allegations of sexual abuse against Nolan, the victim’s family could not have anticipated the challenges they were about to face.

The ‘pillar of the community’ had been taken away from its people, and some found that extremely difficult to accept.

The family displayed an extraordinary level of steel as mother, sons and daughters came to terms with truth – their loved one John Paul had been abused by the parish priest since an early age. Their lives were shattered, but not irreparably. Night after night, tears fell – and as mum Theresa admits, lives were almost lost.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

NIALL O’CONNOR AND ESTHER HAYDEN – PUBLISHED 22 MARCH 2014 02:30 AM

A FORMER parish priest has been jailed for seven years for the “cold and calculating” sexual abuse of a young boy he would pay money to after he abused him.

Denis Nolan (61) was convicted of “systematically” abusing his victim over five years, starting when he was just 12 years of age.

There were emotional scenes in court yesterday as the victim struggled to fight back tears as he watched his abuser sentenced. John Paul Hunter (19) bravely waived his anonymity as he recalled being subjected to horrendous abuse in the priest’s car, home and local church in Rathnew, Co Wicklow.

Nolan, with an address at Carrigmore, Tinahely, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at the same address on a date between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2007.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 15 years between July 1, 2007 and August 25, 2009, and five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 17 years between August 26, 2009 and August 25, 2011.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Roman Catholic religious brother who taught from 1986 to 1997 at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh is facing trial in Australia on multiple charges of beating and molesting four children in that country more than 30 years ago.

A Melbourne court this week found sufficient evidence to order Brother Bernard Joseph Hartman to stand trial in April 2015 on 18 charges of abuse.

He returned to Australia in 2013 — two years after one of his accusers first went public — to face the charges. But his superiors with the Marianist Province of the United States first learned of accusations against him in 1997, when they removed him from his teaching position at North Catholic in Pittsburgh and sent him to a treatment center, according to the Rev. Martin A. Solma, provincial for the Marianist Province of the United States.

“He never returned to educational ministry and was assigned to internal ministry under a safety plan,” Father Solma said in a statement.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

The Diocese of Winona must release all files it kept on priests accused of abuse, the latest update in a sprawling case against both the diocese and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that continues to grow.

A Ramsey County district judge this week ordered both the Winona diocese, as well as the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, to disclose their documents on priests by March 31. The documents may never see the light of day, at least not at first — they will be sealed and available only to the attorneys.

The documents will “really show what the bishops knew, when they knew it, and whether they concealed it,” said attorney Mike Finnegan in an interview Friday.

The Winona diocese did not respond to a request for comment.

In December 2013, the diocese released a list of 13 names of priests “credibly accused” of abuse, as well as an additional name of a priest accused of abuse since 2004. The diocese is now being asked to turn over all files pertaining to investigations into those priests, and each file could contain hundreds of pages of documents, Finnegan said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church failed in its “moral responsibility” to a victim of child sexual abuse during a court case in which it denied his mistreatment ever took place, despite having evidence to the contrary, the royal commission has heard.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary, Michael Casey, said this was “a position we shouldn’t have taken”.

Mr Casey said the Archdiocese of Sydney continued to deny in court that the abuse took place, even after receiving evidence from a second victim that he too had been abused by the priest, Aidan Duggan.

The first victim, John Ellis, ultimately lost his case in 2007, in a decision the church’s lawyers described as providing “a significant protection to the Cardinal and trustees” against other similar claims brought by abuse victims.

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CALIFORNIA
Oakdale Leader

By Richard Paloma
Staff Reporter rpaloma@oakdaleleader.com 209 847-3021 ext 8136
POSTED March 21, 2014

The Oakdale Bethel Assembly of God youth pastor arrested for possession of child pornography last month was taken into custody by federal authorities on suspicion of receiving or distributing images of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct after a Stanislaus Superior Court hearing on Wednesday, March 19.

Tyler Bliss, 27, of Oakdale, was in court to appear on a single felony count of possession of child pornography resulting from a Ceres Police Department arrest on Feb. 17 where investigators served search warrants at his Hudson Avenue home and the church on East G Street.

During the hearing, the district attorney’s office announced it would not be pursuing charges at which point Bliss was advised that there was a federal warrant for his arrest. Two US Marshals then took Bliss into custody and escorted him out of the courtroom.

Federal mandatory sentencing laws call for a five-year minimum for receipt of child pornography. Bliss could receive up to 20 years in prison for the offenses charged.

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VIRGINIA
Christian Post

BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CP REPORTER
March 21, 2014

Disgraced Geronimo “Pastor G” Aguilar, ex-pastor and founder of the Richmond Outreach Center megachurch in Richmond, Va., is now begging for help to cover his legal fees in fighting seven felony sexual abuse charges as the church prepares to name their new senior pastor on March 29.

Aguilar resigned from the church with three other pastors amid an explosive sex scandal on June 5, 2013. He was extradited to Texas in late May to face the seven felony charges, which include aggravated sexual assaults on two sisters who are younger than 14.

The charges are related to incidents that occurred before he started the ROC ministry, which was found in 2001, according to the church’s website. A notice there also announced that they will be introducing a permanent replacement lead pastor on March 29. If convicted, Aguilar will face life in prison.

The Richmond Outreach Center Recovery Group on Facebook revealed an appeal letter from Aguilar in January, where he details his financial troubles and general woes since the scandal, including being forced out of a swanky $700,000 parsonage the church had maintained for him and his family.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A 61-year-old Catholic priest has been jailed for seven years for systematically sexually abusing a boy in Co Wicklow over a five year period beginning in 2007 when the boy was 12.

Denis Nolan, with an address at Carrigmore, Tinahely, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at that address between 1 January and 30 June 2007.

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PUERTO RICO
Legal Examiner

Posted by Joseph H. Saunders
March 21, 2014

In Puerto Rico, Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan and Bishop Daniel Fernandez Torres of Arecibo have handed over to civil authorities a group of priests accused of sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church on the island has long been criticized by victims of sexually abusive priests for shielding abusive priests, moving them from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police. The church has also always steadfastly refused to turn over records for prosecution or punish officials that covered up the crimes.

It what can be seen as dramatic turnaround by Archbishop Gonzalez Nieves, six cases of alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests were turned over to Puerto Rican prosecutors and he pledged “the full cooperation of the Archdiocese, regardless of whether the person who committed the abuse is a minister, employee or volunteer.

At the beginning of this year the newspaper El Nuevo Dia published a series of hard-hitting stories about sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Puerto Rico. This investigation led to Bishop Daniel Fernandez disclosing that he had defrocked six priests from the town of Arecibo accused of sex abuse. Since then local prosecutors across the island have disclosed that at least 11 other priests are under investigation for similar accusations.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A Wicklow priest was jailed yesterday for seven years when he was convicted of ‘systematically’ sexually abusing a boy over five years starting when the boy was 12 years old.

Denis Nolan (61) with an address in Tinahely, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a date between January 1st, 2007, and June 30th, 2007.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 15 years between July 1st, 2007, and August 25th, 2009, and five counts of defilement of a child under the age of 17 between August 26th, 2009, and August 25th, 2011.

All defilement charges occurred in the Presbytery, Rathnew where Nolan was parish priest at the time. The victim, who is now 19, waived his right to anonymity.

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GERMANY
AINA

Germany (AINA) — His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of the Assyrian Orthodox Church, died Friday morning from a heart attack in a hospital in the city of Kiel in Germany. He was 81 years old and the 122nd patriarch of what is considered to be the oldest church in the world, with a following of some four million across the globe.

He was born on April 21, in Nineveh, Iraq (today’s Mosul) during the fateful year of 1933 when Iraqi forces massacred some three thousand Assyrians in what is known as the Simmele massacre. His parents gave him the name of Sanharib after the ancient Assyrian king. On November 17, 1957, he was ordained as a priest. On On November 17, 1963, he was ordained as Metropolitan Bishop of Mosul. …

He was lax with his bishops and priests. When an Assyrian orthodox priest in Germany was charged and convicted of child abuse the patriarch allowed the priest to continue working in the church.

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SERBIA
InSerbia

High public prosecutor’s office in Smederevo has ordered a one-month detention to priest M.Dj. (56) from Plocice, near Kovin, suspected of raping a child, Novosti reported.

The priest was arrested by Pancevo police charging him with a rape of 9-year-old girl from the village. It is suspected that he raped the girl in his home.

Otherwise, as Novosti learned, it was suspected for some time that the priest sexually exploited young females who came to service or sang in the church choir. It is suspected that he also forced the unfortunate girl to orally satisfy him.

It is not known how the priest was caught.

M.Dj. was questioned by the Prosecution in Smederevo, and the judge of the High Court for preliminary proceedings remanded him in custody. The priest came to the hearing in plain clothes, the Prosecutor’s Office said, and denied accusations, the daily writes.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on March 21, 2014

Michael Fugee is no longer a Catholic priest, and that is right and just. Not only did he confess to fondling a teenage boy, he repeatedly broke a binding legal agreement to stay away from other children. The man is a menace.

But what about Newark Archbishop John J. Myers? As usual, the foot soldier is punished, and the general gets a free pass. This has been the pattern in the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

It is particularly offensive in this case because Myers’ representative signed a legally binding document with Bergen County prosecutors promising to keep Fugee away from children. That agreement was broken repeatedly, as Fugee attended retreats with children, heard their confessions and conducted services.

After The Star-Ledger’s Mark Mueller reported all this, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli opened an investigation. In a plea bargain, he agreed to spare Fugee jail time in return for the promise that Fugee would be defrocked as a priest and submit to supervision by law enforcement officials.

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MONTANA
Missoulian

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press

HELENA — An order of nuns being sued by people who claim they were sexually abused as children at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius is asking a federal judge to delay the proceedings while the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is in bankruptcy court.

District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena halted sex-abuse lawsuits against the Ursulines and the diocese after the diocese filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a proposed $15 million settlement.

Sherlock previously combined the proceedings in the two lawsuits filed by a total of 362 alleged victims.

But the Ursulines are not participating in the settlement, and victims’ attorneys want a federal bankruptcy judge to lift the stay in that state lawsuit.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Jamie Manson | Mar. 20, 2014 NCR Today

Yes, you read that headline right. Bill Donohue, the very vocal head of the Catholic League, has emailed organizers with a request to march in this year’s New York City Gay Pride Parade.

But no, Donohue’s inquiry is not a sign that he has had any kind of personal realization. He plans to march with a banner that reads, “Straight is Great.”

Donohue’s plan was announced today on the website of GLAAD, the nation’s leading lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender media advocacy organization. (The press release also offers a litany of Donohue’s previous anti-LGBT statements.) …

Donohue’s participation could also spark his first conflict with one of his most ardent supporters: Cardinal Timothy Dolan. For years, Dolan has banned the Church of St. Francis Xavier from marching in the parade with a banner that reads, “A Roman Catholic Parish in New York City.”

Assuming that the “Gay is Great” sign will also read “The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights,” one must wonder if Dolan will place a similar restriction on Donohue’s banner.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

A former Hammond Baptist pastor wants his child sex abuse sentence tossed out on legal technicalities. We hope the judge sees through this farce and upholds his sentence.

[Post-Tribune]

Rev. Jack Schaap was charged with using his position at the church to abuse an underage girl. He agreed to the plea deal, but now claims that he had a bad lawyer and his sentence should be tossed out.

It is always disheartening when predators attempt to avoid justice through legal loopholes. We hope he fails in his goal and stays in prison. We also hope that First Baptist Church of Hammond aggressively reaches out to anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse at the hands of Schaap.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A PRIEST OF the Dublin Archdiocese has been convicted in relation to child sex abuse charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

61-year-old Fr Denis Nolan, who had been working in Wicklow Town and Rathnew until two years ago, was sentenced in court in Bray earlier today.

He was ordered to step down from service after a complaint of child sexual abuse not related to today’s proceedings was first received by the Archdiocese.

According to a spokesperson:

He was obliged to co-operate and engage with the Diocesan priest support co-ordinator, who monitors priests in such situations to ensure compliance with restrictions placed on their activities.
All information received by the Diocese was given to the Gardaí and the HSE.

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IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

Paul Neilan

Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly has expressed his “profound sorrow” and apologised to the victims of convicted abuser Fr Gerry Kearns.

On Wednesday, March 12, the 73-year-old priest pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault on two boys in the mid-80s.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, with the last three suspended for an ‘abuse of position’ and ‘trust’ in molesting and fondling the boys, who gave powerful testimony on the wrecking effects the abuse had on them, with one victim saying “I tried to do away with myself twice’.

“Regarding the sentencing of Father Andrew Gerard Kearns,” said the bishop, “a priest of the Diocese of Kilmore, pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault of minors in Cavan Circuit Court on 26th November 2013.

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ILLINOIS
Post-Tribune

By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com March 20, 2014

Jack Schaap, the former pastor at the First Baptist Church of Hammond megachurch, wants his 12-year sentence for having sex with a 16-year-old parishioner tossed, claiming he had bad representation from his attorneys.

Schaap, acting as his own attorney, on Thursday filed in U.S. District Court in Hammond a motion to vacate U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano’s March 20, 2013, sentence. Schaap claims his attorneys, Paul Stracci and Alison Benjamin, told him the maximum sentence he would receive would be 10 years in prison but that his sentence would more likely be three to four years or possibly as few as 18 months.

However, the charge he pleaded guilty to, causing his victim to be taken across state lines for sex, came with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. His plea deal called for a 10-year sentence, and he agreed there were no grounds for a lower sentence.

The plea deal was filed Sept. 19, 2012, the same day prosecutors filed the case against him, which accused him of using his position with the church to have employees take the girl, who was also a student in the church’s school, to Illinois and Michigan that summer so they could be alone. He would later plead guilty after the judge took him through each paragraph of the section of the plea dealing with the specifics of his agreement with prosecutors, including the recommendation of a 10-year sentence. The judge also quizzed him about whether anyone had promised him a different sentence and stressed that Lozano had the final say on any sentence.

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INDIA
UCA News

Christopher Joseph, Kochi
India
March 21, 2014

A Catholic priest and two other men have been arrested in connection with the murder of a seminary rector in southern India’s Bangalore almost a year ago, police said today.

Father Elias Daniel, a Carmelite priest, and two other people identified only as William Patrick and Peter, are now in police custody.

“We have very strong evidence that these people have done it,” said senior police officer Pranab Mohanthy, who leads the investigation, referring to the murder of Father K. J. Thomas of Bangalore’s St. Peters seminary on March 31 last year.

Police said there was “a lot of resentment” towards the rector by the accused, who felt they had been sidelined for important posts in the seminary.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

Charges have been dropped against a man who was accused of violating a clergy sex abuse victim’s privacy. We hope that police and prosecutors will now work even harder to nail the correct offender.

[New York Daily News]

It’s crucial that sex crime victims be safe and feel safe when they do their civic and moral duty by reporting to law enforcement. Every effort must be made to ensure their privacy. And those who violate their privacy must be punished harshly and promptly so that such intimidating and insensitive actions will be deterred in the future.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

An Oakdale youth pastor has pleaded not guilty to charges of downloading child pornography. We hope that justice will be served in this case.

[Modesto Bee]

Taylor David Bliss was charged with downloading child porn at his home and church computer. He will be kept in custody until a judge decides to allow bail or keep him in custody.

Child pornography is not a victimless crime. It is extremely disturbing given Bliss’s role as a youth pastor, a trusted member of the community with unfettered access to children.

We hope that anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered sexual crimes will come forward, report to police and get help. We also hope church officials will aggressively reach out to any victims and be transparent and cooperative with law enforcement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

Nottingham Bishop Malcolm McMahon to become Archbishop of Liverpool, historic stronghold of Catholicism

21 March 2014 10:27 by Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis today appointed the Bishop of Nottingham as the next Archbishop of Liverpool, the diocese traditionally seen as the stronghold of Catholicism in England and Wales.

Malcolm McMahon, 64, a Dominican religious and Chairman of the Catholic Education Service (CES), succeeds Archbishop Patrick Kelly, who submitted his resignation last year on the grounds of ill health.

Liverpool has traditionally been one of the Church’s most important sees and has been in need of a new archbishop since the retirement of Patrick Kelly, who submitted his resignation on the grounds of ill health 14 months ago.

Bishop McMahon was widely tipped as a contender to be Archbishop of Westminster back in 2009.
Born in London, he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Umist) and after graduation worked for the Daimler Motor Company in Coventry and London Transport.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

The Most Rev Malcolm McMahon has been named as the new Archbishop of Liverpool.

The 64-year-old, from London, is the current Bishop of Nottingham.

He said he was “honoured and humbled” to be appointed to the position and will be the city’s ninth Archbishop.

The new Archbishop of Liverpool today paid tribute to the “dignity” of the Hillsborough families and said he would be supporting them in their continuing campaign for justice.

Bishop McMahon, who was ordained as a priest in 1982, went to Oxford University and has had parishes in London and Newcastle.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News

Pax Christi, the international Catholic movement for peace has offered congratulations to its President, Bishop Malcolm McMahon on the news of his appointment to Archbishop of Liverpool.

In a statement, Pat Gaffney, General Secretary of Pax Christi said: “We greatly appreciate the engagement that Bishop Malcolm has with us and our work at both national and international levels. In recent years he has helped us champion the cause of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, executed for his refusal to serve in Hitler’s army and supported our work on nuclear disarmament and the arms trade.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, March 21, 2014

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

We’re somewhat optimistic that Bishop Malcolm McMahon will be a positive force of change for the Catholic Church.

[Catholic Herald]

On the BBC’s Hard Talk programme, McMahon said the Vatican response to the sex abuse crisis had been “too defensive”.

[Catholic Herald]

He also showed courage by saying it was “a big mistake” for the Pope’s preacher, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, to compare the outcry over sex abuse with anti-Semitism.

He also admitted that the Church had been “wrong” in the 1922 document Crimen Sollicitationis (“Crime of Soliciting”) to say that allegations of sex abuse in the confessional should be kept out of the public domain.

It’s important that we judge Catholic officials by their actions, not strictly by their words. But these comments lead us to believe that the Vatican could have made a worse choice for this important post than McMahon.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

Friday, March 21, 2014

HOW can he be more to the point?

Pope Francis marked his first anniversary as Pope by going on a recollection riding to and from it on a bus. It is another act of humility by a Pope who earlier defined the Church’s role in the world to be that of a “field hospital where the wounds of humanity can be healed.”

He is also a Pope who listens and has recently sent out a questionnaire to ask how Catholics feel about the Church’s position on current issues like artificial contraception, the role of women, etc.

So, how can so many Church men miss the point and not take Pope Francis seriously at his word and action?

How can Philippine bishops be raising P350 million to build a Eucharistic Center when Yolanda left so many dead, injured, homeless and jobless?

The wounds inflicted by poverty on people cannot be possibly treated in a P350-million facility that I suspect will serve more to give solace to the devout, and less to heal the physically and spiritually wounded, faithful.

How can healing priest, Fr. Fernando Suarez, be raising P50 million to erect a “colossal statue” (taller than the statue of Liberty) of Mary, Mother of the Poor? I give him the benefit of the doubt that the money his foundation raised for this statue is intact. But I seriously question his priorities, especially now that Pope Francis wants his priests to go near, and smell like, their sheep instead of retreating and smelling good inside majestic places of worship.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 22, 2014

A TEENAGER who told the dean of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral he had been sexually abused was allegedly “humiliated” by the Catholic cleric, who had “a complaint file as big as the New Testament”, church lawyers have said.

No record was kept of this 1983 complaint, which came to light 20 years later while the Archdiocese of Sydney was fighting a separate child abuse case, according to documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The church continued to defend itself in court, the commission heard, even after learning this second victim was abused by the same Sydney priest, Father Aidan Duggan.

“This fresh allegation would suggest that the archdiocese … was on notice of Duggan’s predeliction for young men and did nothing to stop it,” lawyer Paul McCann wrote in a July 2005 letter to the church’s insurers.

“Unfortunately the priest to whom the complaint was made, Father Michael McGloin, also appears to have antecedents for boundary violations and child sexual abuse. It’s unlikely therefore that Father Michael McGloin will be putting on an affidavit in this matter.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

Philly archdiocesan officials have scheduled a “healing mass” for tomorrow at Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

At worst, this is a cynical public relations move. At best, it misses the mark.

Chaput’s focus should be on real reforms that actually make kids safer, not symbolic gestures that make him seem nicer or that make a few adults temporarily feel better.

Chaput’s first job should be protecting the vulnerable. And much remains to be done on this front.

He should discipline – publicly and harshly – those who hid or ignored clergy sex crimes, to deter such irresponsible behavior in the first place.

He should support – not oppose – reforming Pennsylvania’ secular child safety laws, especially the archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations.

He should house – in remote, secure, independent treatment centers – every proven, admitted or suspended and credibly accused child molesting cleric, so that kids will be safer.

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UNITED STATES/ARGENTINA
The Tablet (UK)

[Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina – BishopAccountability.org]

21 March 2014 12:14 by Isabel de Bertodano

Pope Francis has been accused of failing to take appropriate action in a number of cases of clerical child abuse that came to light while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

According to the American organisation BishopAccountability.org, the cases all came to Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s attention, but he is accused of defending the perpetrators or declining to meet victims.

In the case of Fr Julio Cesar Grassi, who was convicted of abuse in a children’s home after a lengthy trial and appeal, the Argentine Bishops’ Conference commissioned a report after his conviction in 2009 which concluded he was innocent. The website’s main accusation against the Pope is that he was supportive of Fr Grassi and the children’s foundation set up by the priest before the accusations emerged. He also reportedly approved the commissioning of the report into Grassi, who is now in prison.

The abuse of five girls by Fr Mario Napoleon Sasso of Zarate Campana diocese between 2002 and 2003 in a community soup kitchen was allegedly covered up by his diocesan bishop. Cardinal Bergolio allegedly failed to respond when the families of the young girls asked to meet him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A school bus driver gained greater access to students because the level of trust grew between him and the principal, the royal commission into sex abuse has heard.

Former principal Claude Hamam said the driver, Brian Perkins, started volunteering around Adelaide’s St Ann’s Special School by helping out in the woodwork shed, doing repairs around the school and mowing the lawns.

‘At the time we had an element of trust that we had for all the staff there,’ he told the commission on Friday.

It is investigating the school and Perkins who sexually abused intellectually disabled children between 1986 and 1991.

Mr Hamam hired Perkins as a driver, telling the commission ‘he seemed to be suitable for the position’.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY March 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church has avoided an historic first trial against an Australian priest for allegedly concealing the child sex offences of another person after a Newcastle magistrate dismissed charges against Hunter priest Lew Fenton.

Magistrate Robert Stone found inconsistencies in evidence by a man, his mother and sister about an alleged sexual assault when the man was 9, which was allegedly disclosed to Father Fenton, were so significant there were no reasonable prospects a jury would convict him.

But Mr Stone, in Newcastle Local Court yesterday, found there was evidence to show the boy was sexually assaulted by Frank Tully, a salesman with the Post group of newspapers, then owned by the Newcastle Herald, at Birubi beach between 1982 and 1984.

Mr Stone dismissed a charge that Father Fenton, 81, knew Tully was going to indecently assault the boy in a room at the rear of Nelson Bay church, and assisted him.

This followed conflicting evidence from the man, his mother and sister, and after significant evidence from the man in court that did not appear in his statement to police.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Jesuit of the Detroit Province ordained in 1977, Kurtz taught for many years at the Jesuit’s University of Detroit High School. He was quietly removed from his teaching position and his ministry was restricted in April 2001 after allegations surfaced that he had recently sexually assaulted a male minor in Denver, Colorado. The Official Catholic Directory shows that Kurtz subsequently lived in Temperance, MIichigan, in a Jesuit Community at Loyola University of Chicago and at the Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. The Jesuits maintain that they notified civil authorities in Detroit in 2001; Kurtz wasn’t arrested until November 2011.

Ordained: 1977

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY ROSALIO AHUMADA
rahumada@modbee.com
March 20, 2014

During his arraignment hearing Thursday in federal court in Fresno, an Oakdale youth pastor pleaded not guilty to a charge of downloading child pornography.

Tyler David Bliss, 27, of Oakdale is accused of downloading the child porn with computers at his home and his church, where he at times viewed some of the illicit images, according to a federal affidavit.

Bliss was served with a federal arrest warrant and taken away in handcuffs Wednesday afternoon shortly after local prosecutors dropped a state charge of child porn possession.

The following day, a federal grand jury indicted Bliss, charging him with one count of receiving and distributing child pornography, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara McAuliffe scheduled Bliss to return to court June 2 for a pretrial hearing.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2014

A criminal case against a man with the odd name of Lemon Juice will be dismissed Friday, the Daily News has learned. The Brooklyn man was accused of tweeting out a photo of a sex-abuse victim during a high-profile trial.

Juice was charged with contempt in November 2012 after a photo of the teen witness was snapped in violation of a judge’s orders while she took the stand against her tormentor Nechemya Weberman.
“I’m happy it’s finally over,” Lemon Juice, 32, said Thursday.

The case against him was sour from the start.

Unlike his two co-defendants, Joseph Fried and Yona Weissman, Juice is a friend of the victim and her husband and came to court to support them — a fact prosecutors learned early on, court papers show. And the Twitter account that bore his name and photo continued posting while he was in custody.

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ROME
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Mar 21, 2014

The former Cardinal Archbishop of Boston Bernard Law, who resigned from the post in 2002 amid allegations of cover-up in the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations, was one of the main guests at a special St Patrick’s Day lunch in Rome’s Irish College.

Another guest at the top tabe at the dinner was controversial Cardinal Raymond Burke, currently prefect of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, its Supreme Court. Last December Pope Francis omitted to re-appoint him to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

The College trustees are Ireland’s four Catholic Archbishops, the Catholic primate Cardinal SeánBrady, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary and Archbishop of Cashel Dermot Clifford.

Also a guest at the lunch was Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton. However, his spokeswoman said last night he “was not aware of other guests attending.”

In June of last year, during debate on the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill, Cardinal Burke said Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s description of himself as a taoiseach who happens to be a Catholic, but not a Catholic taoiseach, “does not make any sense”.

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INDIA
The Hindu

Nearly a year after the murder of Fr Thomas, the 65-year-old rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Malleswaram, the Bangalore police have cracked the case with the arrest of three priests, who allegedly bludgeoned him to death after he caught them red-handed while stealing documents from Seminary.

On April 1, Fr Thomas was found dead with multiple head injuries in the seminary. The breakthrough in the investigations came after the police subjected a few suspects including the three priests, who were seminary on the fateful night of March 31, to narco analysis.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pronab Mohanty, who headed the investigation, told reporters that the police had arrested William Patrick, the priest of the Seminary, who was sleeping in the adjacent room when the ghastly murder took place, besides Ilyas and Peter, both priests in the same Seminary.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

BY COURT REPORTER CANDICE MARCUS
March 21, 2014

A former Adelaide school principal has admitted wrongly telling an inquiry he had done a police check on a bus driver who later molested pupils.

Reading a statement to the royal commission into child sexual abuse, Claude Hamam said he had made an “error of judgment” by telling an internal inquiry in 2001 that he had made the checks on Brian Perkins.

The royal commission is examining how St Ann’s Special School, the Catholic Church and South Australian police responded to allegations Perkins was sexually abusing intellectually disabled students.

“I made a mistake. It was an error of judgment on my part. I did not in any way fabricate the truth,” Mr Hamam said in a statement he read to the hearing before giving evidence.

“I admitted in a subsequent interview with Catholic Education that I had not done a police check, and I was accused of lying.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Former St Ann’s school principal who hired paedophile Brian Perkins ‘made mistake’ over police check

SALLY BROOKS AT THE INQUIRY THE ADVERTISER MARCH 21, 2014

A FORMER school principal who employed paedophile bus driver Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School more than two decades ago has denied he lied about doing a police check on Perkins, but instead says he made a mistake.

Claude Hamam has told an inquiry into the handling of sexual abuse claims at the school that he deeply regrets stating that he did do a police check, at his first interview with the Catholic Education Office in 2001.

“I made a mistake. It was an error of judgment on my part. I did not in any way fabricate the truth,” he said.

“I admitted at a subsequent interview with Catholic Education that I had not done a police check and I was accused of lying.

“This left me shocked and devastated, as I had not intentionally lied but made a mistake.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church failed in its “moral responsibility” to a victim of child sexual abuse during a court case in which it denied his mistreatment ever took place, despite having evidence to the contrary, the royal commission has heard.

Giving evidence this morning to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary, Michael Casey, said this was “a position we shouldn’t have taken”.

Mr Casey said the Archdiocese of Sydney continued to deny in court that the abuse took place, even after receiving evidence from a second victim that he too had been abused by the priest, Aidan Duggan.

The first victim, John Ellis, ultimately lost his case in 2007, in a decision the church’s lawyers described as providing “a significant protection to the Cardinal and trustees” against other similar claims brought by abuse victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 21 March 2014

The Catholic church continued to dispute former altar boy John Ellis was abused even though it had evidence that supported his claim, a senior church official has told an inquiry.

Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary Dr Michael Casey told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he accepted the church should not have continued to dispute Ellis’s credibility in the supreme court.

The hearing in its second week is looking at how the church handled the complaint of Ellis, who was abused by a priest at Bass Hill in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Earlier evidence showed that the church accepted Ellis was a victim of abuse when he went through the internal process, and the veracity of his allegations was supported by a church-appointed independent assessor.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The former principal of St Ann’s special school in Adelaide, Claude Hamam, has admitted to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse that he didn’t do a criminal record check or verify the references of Brian Perkins, a convicted paedophile who went on to abuse about 30 children at the school in the late 1980s and ’90s.

Transcript

PETER LLOYD: The former principal of an Adelaide special school has told the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse that he did not do a criminal record check or verify the references of a bus driver who went on to abuse about 30 intellectually disabled children at the school in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Claude Hamam also acknowledged that he bore some responsibility for allowing Brian Perkins to take some of the St Ann’s children on respite care weekends where they were abused.

Our reporter Samantha Donovan has been following the Royal Commission hearings in Adelaide and joins me now.

Sam, first remind us of what happened at the St Ann’s school.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well, Peter, in the early 1990s it came to light, allegations came to light that about 30 intellectually disabled children had been abused at St Ann’s special school in Adelaide by the school bus driver, Brian Perkins. He not only drove the students but gave them woodwork lessons and even took some of them on respite care weekends.

Most of the children who were abused were unable to communicate what happened to them and that’s why I say about 30 of them were abused and most of the families weren’t told it was likely their children had been abused for more than a decade, and it took about that length of time to get Perkins into court and jailed where he later died.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A senior Catholic Church official has denied he contrived a tactic to support the church’s legal dispute that former altar boy John Ellis was never abused.

Michael Casey had been asked by then archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, to check whether or not the internal church process had found in favour of Mr Ellis’s complaint of abuse by a priest at Bass Hill in Sydney in the 1970s.

Dr Casey, Cardinal Pell’s private secretary, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was shown a June 2005 email from him to the church legal team which said the church-appointed assessor did find ‘on the balance of probabilities’ Mr Ellis was abused by Father Aidan Duggan.

However, the email went on to say that the director of the Public Standards Office, Michael Salmon, had mentioned there were reservations about Mr Ellis’s evidence and that as such the church authority had discretion to reject the assessor’s findings.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS DC

WASHINGTON — She was a 24-year-old swimming instructor who had a sexual affair with a male student under 16.

The woman was convicted in Virginia in 1993 of unlawful sex with a teenager and served 30 days in jail. She was listed on the state’s sex offender registry, and could have tried to get her name removed at some point, but didn’t.

Fifteen years later, the state passed a new law that reclassified her and thousands of others as violent sex offenders. The woman — identified in court papers only as Jane Doe — has unsuccessfully challenged the law, and now her lawsuit is on the agenda Friday when the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court meet in private to consider taking up new cases.

Her appeal comes as states around the country face growing public pressure to protect people from repeat sexual predators. Those labeled sex offenders are being subjected to a host of new limitations, including where they can live, work or travel. But the new restraints have not come without complaints, and courts in Georgia and Ohio have ruled that sex offender laws in those states went too far.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WVVA

[with video]

PRINCETON (WVVA) – A Mercer County man accused of sex crimes while serving as a church volunteer had his bond modified Thursday in light of a new sexual allegation.

Prosecutors say that on March 7, Timothy Probert solicited a sexual favor in exchange for $50 from a man who was going door-to-door in his neighborhood looking for work.

The man became aware of the charges against Probert after speaking with the pastor of the church where Probert had served when the alleged previous misconduct took place.

Probert was arrested in December 2013 on multiple charges of sexual abuse against minors that allegedly occurred while he served as a youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield.

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KANSAS
KWCH

FORD COUNTY, Kan. –
A Dodge City pastor accused of sexual assault remains on house arrest, but with a modified bond.

Dr. Jerrold Ketner, New Hope on the Plains minister, appeared in a Ford County courtroom Thursday afternoon. A judge modified Ketner’s bond to include visits to his doctor and attorney.

Ketner is charged with multiple felony charges including rape and blackmail.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Bond was modified Thursday for a former church youth volunteer accused of child sexual abuse after a judge heard testimony that he recently propositioned a man for sex.

Mercer County Circuit Court Judge William Sadler ordered Timothy Probert, 55, of Bluefield, to be placed on home confinement after a witness testified that Probert offered to pay him $50 to perform oral sex on him. Probert, who is facing 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges, had previously been free on bond.

In response to questioning by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney George Sitler, John Wayne Harkless testified that he was in Probert’s South Bluefield neighborhood in early March going door-to-door and asking residents if he could do yard work to earn extra money. Harkless testified that he knocked on the door at Probert’s residence on Parkway Avenue between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and asked if he had any work. “He said he didn’t,” Harkless testified.

Harkless said Probert then called him back and offered to pay him $50 if he would allow him to perform the sex act.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

20 March 2014 by Christopher Lamb and Elena Curti

The Church’s safeguarding office is to be relocated from Birmingham into the headquarters of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales at Eccleston Square in central London.

The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) will move to London before the lease expires on its current offices in February 2015. In a statement, the trustees for the Catholic Trust for England and Wales (the legal entity of the Bishops’ Conference) said the relocation will fulfill recommendations of the 2007 Cumberlege Commission, which called for CSAS to be fully integrated into mainstream church structures.

CSAS is funded by the bishops’ conference and advises the Church on child protection. In recent years it has completed safeguarding audits of all 22 dioceses in England and Wales. Its work is overseen by the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC), which lists the same Birmingham address as CSAS on its website.

Both organisations replaced the fully independent Catholic Office for Child Protection and Vulnerable Adults (Copca) that was set up in compliance with the recommendations of the Nolan Report of 2001.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

The Diocese of Yakima concluded its defense in U.S. District Court on Thursday in a $3.1 million sex-abuse case filed by a former Zillah man.

Attorneys for the man, identified in court papers as John Doe, and the diocese will present closing arguments sometime in April, when their schedules can be coordinated with Judge Edward Shea, who heard the nonjury trial over the past two weeks.

Doe alleges that the diocese did not properly check Deacon Aaron Ramirez’s background before accepting him as a candidate for the priesthood in 1999. Doe also argues that the diocese failed to properly supervise Ramirez when he worked at Resurrection Catholic Church in Zillah.

Doe, in court papers, says Ramirez invited him to a trailer at the parish on July 29, 1999, for guitar lessons. Doe, who was 17 at the time, says that Ramirez gave him alcohol and repeatedly raped him.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

By Ada Chong Published: Mar 20, 2014

YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash. — A social worker and Zillah’s police chief testified in federal court Thursday in the abuse trial against the Yakima Diocese.

Chief David Simmons handled the sexual assault investigation surrounding plaintiff John Doe in 1999.

Simmons told the court about the incident report indicating Doe and his brother went to a trailer where clergyman Aaron Ramirez lived. Doe walked his brother home, then went back to the trailer. The report said Doe drank with Ramirez, then passed out and woke up naked in Ramirez’s bed.

Doe maintains the Diocese should have protected him.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Rachel Marie Stone | Mar 20, 2014

A friend recently posted some thoughts on Facebook on the movie ‘Frozen’ and the way it critiques the well-worn “love at first sight” trope that’s part of many other Disney movies:

“If a lonely, love-starved girl [see, for example, Tangled] has been sheltered in a castle her whole life, she might become more vulnerable to smooth-talking Prince Charmings ready to help her escape.”

The psychological set-up of earlier Disney princesses might parallel evangelical purity culture in some significant ways, he suggested, referencing a journal article dealing with clergy sexual misconduct.

As Samantha Nelson told me in a 2012 interview, clergy sexual misconduct is often described — even by the women themselves — as an “affair” with their pastor, rabbi, or priest. Even those who have been victims of sexual abuse often fail to see the ways in which the clergyperson abused his power in order to get sex.

And so they blame themselves.

My friend (and many of those who commented) reflected upon the stories of sexual misconduct emerging recently from fundamentalist Christianity — most notably, perhaps, the case of Bill Gothard, who has been teaching reprehensible things in the name of Jesus for decades but has finally been discredited after numerous stories of his sexual abuse of young women have come to light.

It is hard not to think that there is a causative relationship between Gothard (and Gothard-esque) teaching and sexual abuse, particularly of women and girls.

Purity culture teaches unquestioning submission to authority — and authority figures are almost invariably male.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Boz Tchividjian | Mar 20, 2014

Marginalize (verb) To treat a person as insignificant. (Oxford Dictionary)

Derogation – photo courtesy of David Goehring via Flickr
Show caption

“He has worked hard to convince everyone that I am crazy.” These were the words of a woman who was speaking about a relative who had sexually abused her as a child for years. This well-known and “respected” relative has been successful in keeping her abuse disclosures ignored for many years by convincing anyone that listens that she is an irrational and troubled individual. After years of being labeled “crazy” and being ignored, this survivor became silent and even found herself struggling with whether or not the baseless label was legitimate. Do you see what happened? A person who is well liked and well-respected in the community is accused of horrific behavior that the community prefers not to believe. The perpetrator provides the community with exactly what it wants in order for it to look the other way. Believing that the complainant is “crazy” gives the community the excuse to marginalize the victim and the disclosure, all the while showing support to the “unfairly” accused offender.

I recently watched the acclaimed Norwegian film, King of Devil’s Island. Based upon a true story, this movie was about the Bastoy Boy’s Home for delinquent boys located on an island off of Norway in the early 20th century. During the course of the film, a housefather named Bråthen sexually molests one of the resident boys who ends up committing suicide. Another resident eventually reports Bråthen’s abuse to the corrupt superintendent, Bestyreren, who confronts Bråthen. What follows are scenes that vividly illustrate some of the appalling ways sexual abuse survivors are marginalized by our communities:

Don’t Listen: When initially confronted about the reported abuse, Bråthen responds, “You can’t listen to them. They say whatever they want.” Survivors are marginalized when communities are all too willing to accept the claims made by perpetrators and their supporters that the individual disclosing the abuse is “crazy” and should be ignored. Disregarding the claims of a survivor communicates insignificance.

Helpless Souls: During the course of the confrontation with Bestyreren, Bråthen claims, “The only thing I have done is to try and help a boy who could not help himself.” Survivors are marginalized when perpetrators and their supporters paint them as helpless souls. Perpetrators are heralded as compassionate and the survivors are pitied as their disclosures are largely ignored.

Supporters Maligned: At one point, Bråthen identifies the boys who reported the abuse as “animals”, claiming that they were the real source of the victim’s harm. Survivors are marginalized when those who support them are maligned as being irrational and harmful. All too often this becomes the needed validation by some within the community to disregard allegations of abuse.

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INDIANA
Sun-Commercial

Posted: Friday, March 21, 2014

By Jonathan Streetman Jasper Herald

It’s been nearly 60 years since Norbert Krapf was a young altar boy at Holy Family Catholic Church in Jasper. But what happened to him there has stuck with the former Indiana poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize nominee and is the subject of his 26th book, “Catholic Boy Blues: A Poet’s Journal of Healing.”

The book of poems chronicles the sexual abuse Krapf said he endured as a boy serving at the church under Monsignor Othmar Schroeder in the mid-1950s. Schroeder, who died in 1988, has since been alleged to have sexually violated at least 15 boys during his 27-year tenure at the church he founded.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Peterborough Today

by Stephen Briggs
stephen.briggs@peterboroughtoday.co.uk
Published on the 21 March 2014

A former Peterborough priest and teacher is facing a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of historical sexual abuse against young girls.

David Goodstadt was found guilty of rape and a number of other offences by a jury at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday (14 March).

Goodstadt, who had been on bail during a week-long trial, was remanded into custody by Judge Sean Enright.

He will be sentenced at the same court in April after reports have been written about Goodstadt’s offending.

The court was told the offences date back a number of years, when the victims were aged from under 10 to 16.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY March 21, 2014

WHENEVER I think about Cardinal George Pell – and I try not to, really, because life is too short – I think about Jesus.

Before concerned friends leap to the phone to check if I’ve succumbed to the demands of the past few years, can I just say I link Pell and Christ because the best way to consider the cardinal is by applying the ‘‘What would Jesus do?’’ test.

He’s the most prominent Catholic in Australia so we should be lining up his words and actions against the teachings of the first Christian. Only then can we answer the question, does Pell practise what the church preaches?

(A pause here to note I can’t lay claim to the ‘‘What would Jesus do?’’ test because it was Peter Gogarty – outspoken victim of child sex offender priest Jim Fletcher – who first suggested it, initially as a joke, but increasingly seriously.)

The ‘‘What would Jesus do?’’ test will come in handy next week when Pell gives much-anticipated evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 20, 2014

A breaking story today has kept my phone ringing off the hook: A southern California third grader has been accused of sexually assaulting a classmate numerous times during the past year. School administrators only found out about it when other students at an after-school program reported what they saw. (Kudos to those kids!)

Tragic? Yes. Horrifying? Yes.

Preventable. YES!

But fear, panic and over-reaction are not how to prevent this kind of abuse.

Remember: third graders know little to nothing about sex. For the victim in this case, authorities believe that he didn’t report because he didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe what was happening to him.

So, what do you do?

You go back to the four ways to protect your preschooler from abuse. Number 3 is the relevant lesson here:

3) Looking and touching
The bathtub is a good time to teach this lesson. Tell children that no one is to touch their private body parts and they are to never touch anyone else’s. Tell them that no one is to take pictures of them when they have no clothes on. Don’t use a tone of fear in the discussion – If you approach this the same way as you approach the rules of crossing the street or sharing toys, your child will not be scared or threatened.

As your children get older, you can tell them that even if what is happening feels good, they need to tell mom or dad right away.

I just had this discussion with my second grader this afternoon. I asked him what he would do if someone—an adult or another classmate—touched him or wanted my son to touch them. He said he would say “NO!” and go and tell mom.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Written by
Grant Rodgers

The father of a former Des Moines youth pastor who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse hopes his son will be allowed to return to Ohio instead of going to prison.

Ryan Matthew McKelvey, 27, pleaded guilty last month to one count of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or clergy after two female teenagers told police that they’d kissed and had sexual contact with McKelvey. McKelvey worked as a youth pastor at the Heritage Assembly Church and the two victims were students at the church’s unaccredited school, according to court papers.

Polk County District Court Judge Karen Romano is scheduled to sentence McKelvey on Monday morning. McKelvey could be sentenced to serve up to 20 years in prison.

McKelvey’s father, Keith McKelvey, is asking Romano to give his son a suspended sentence so he can return to the family’s home near Dayton, Ohio. In a letter last month written to the judge, the father wrote that his son will have a “support structure” and will receive counseling if he’s allowed to return home.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SALLY BROOKS THE ADVERTISER MARCH 21, 2014

THE sexual abuse of intellectually disabled students was “shocking and appalling” and the handling of the case in 1991 was “unacceptable”, says the former director of the Catholic Education Office.

Allan Dooley also apologised to victims of paedophile Brian Perkins, who worked at St Ann’s Special School in Marion more than two decades ago.

“For the former students and families affected, I am deeply sorry that the abuse at St Ann’s ever occurred,” he said.

“In everything I did I tried to engage and work in an open and transparent way with all the different people and organisations that were involved in the Church’s response.’’

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse the Catholic Church’s vigorous cross-examination of a victim during litigation was wrong.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining allegations made by altar boy John Ellis, who was abused by Father Aidan Duggan in Sydney between 1974 and 1979.

Mr Ellis failed in his attempt to sue the Catholic Church in 2007, with the Supreme Court ruling the church was not an entity that could be sued.

Dr Michael Casey, who is Cardinal Pell’s private secretary, was the main contact point for lawyers defending the church against the compensation claim from Mr Ellis.

Though a church-appointed assessor concluded Mr Ellis had most likely been abused, when the case came to trial, the church decided to fight him on that.

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

AUSTRALIA
Gladstone Observer

Nicky Moffat and Scott Sawyer 21st Mar 2014

The diocese has used school newsletters to reassure Gladstone parents their children were safe from sexual predators.

The move was in response to the damning findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, which unearthed decades-old horrific evidence of sexual abuse within the church’s ranks.

The Observer has seen the letter published in the newsletters of St Francis Catholic Primary School, Tannum Sands, and Chanel College, in Gladstone.

“As the director of Catholic education in the diocese of Rockhampton, I want to assure you that my highest priority is the safety of the children in our schools,” Rockhampton Diocesan director of Catholic education Leesa Jeffcoat wrote to parents.

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

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By JORDAN SHAPIRO Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY • An attorney representing Oklahoma-based arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby in its challenge of a federal contraception coverage mandate launched a nonprofit group in Missouri on Thursday that will focus on the issues of religious liberty and constitutional rights.

University of Missouri law professor Joshua Hawley is part of the legal team representing Hobby Lobby that is scheduled to argue its case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. The company sued to overturn a federal mandate that requires most employers to provide health insurance that includes birth control.

Hawley said the new group, the Missouri Liberty Project, will focus on raising awareness about religious liberty and constitutional rights issues. He filed the registration paperwork Thursday with the Missouri secretary of state’s office.

“These are issues I am very passionate about and want to bring attention to Missourians,” he said. “People are worried about the Constitution and feel like it is being threatened.”

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

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

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

We’re highly skeptical of this group and its goals. Over the past 25 years, we’ve seen laws and rules that were ostensibly adopted to “protect religious liberty” have been abused to protect clergy who commit and conceal heinous crimes against kids.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

MARCH 20, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Due to prior commitments, Kathy and I won’t be attending the Healing Mass at the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul in Philadelphia this Saturday. We would love to receive recap editorials from those who do attend. We will use your recaps as our next blog post. Use the private contact form to let me know you’d like to submit. Also, a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer is interested in interviewing victims of clergy sex abuse in regard to the Mass. If you are willing, please use the contact form to message me and I’ll connect you with the reporter privately via email.

One small victory for victims occurred due to Father Wintermeyer’s comment in a previous post on the Mass. Per his suggestion, the archdiocese requested that all parishes include petitions for the victims of clergy sex abuse during their Masses this weekend. This was confirmed by Ken Gavin, director of Archdiocesan communications. Maybe one day they’ll take the rest of the suggestions to heart and soul.

If nothing else, this Mass will shine another light on the issue of clergy abuse and needed legislative reforms.

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

AUSTRALIA
Gladstone Observer

Nicky Moffat 21st Mar 2014

THE Diocese of Rockhampton’s policies contradict themselves on child sex abuse. And they send mixed messages.

They state that anyone suspecting a child is in immediate danger should call the police, but also mandate that sexual abuse be reported to the principal or designated contact, and no one else.

Enter the Diocese of Rockhampton’s website and you will find 38 Catholic Education policies, none of which is explicitly aimed at preventing child sex abuse or responding to instances of suspected sexual crime against children.

A policy titled Student Protection refers to protecting children from harm, including self-harm, and points to student protection processes for detail on rules for dealing with abuse.

A one-page policy on sexual harassment and bullying provides no definition of either, and points to relevant legislation.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

Defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt says if he needed to write a textbook about witness collusion, he would focus on the Eric Dejaeger trial.

In what might be a foreshadowing of his final arguments in the trial, Kempt said there is an “outright certainty” that complainants fixed their stories before they testified at the Belgian ex-priest’s trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Dejaeger’s lawyer made the comments in court March 20 in response to a Crown application that seeks to allow similar fact evidence in the trial.

Similar fact evidence uses each complainant’s testimony to corroborate testimony made by other complainants.

Dejaeger faces 68 charges related to his time as a priest in Igloolik from 1978 to 1982, most of them sex-related crimes against children.

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MICHIGAN
Click on Detroit

DETROIT –
A trial is next for a Roman Catholic priest who is charged with stealing money from a fund set up to help poor people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

The Wayne County prosecutor says the Rev. Timothy Kane and an accomplice, Dorecca Brewer, approved false applications to the Angel Fund and pocketed thousands of dollars over a four-year period.

The Angel Fund is run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and funded by a single donor. It has granted more than $17 million to needy people since 2005.

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NEW YORK
Edge on the Net

by Jason St. Amand
National News Editor
Thursday Mar 20, 2014

Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, is not happy that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh sat out their city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade events because organizers refused to allow LGBT people to openly march. He’s also miffed that beer companies like Guinness and Sam Adams withdrew sponsorship from the New York City and Boston parades, respectively.

His response? He’s applied to march in the New York City Gay Pride Parade, held June 29, while carrying a banner that reads, “Straight is Great!” …

Though NYC Pride officials praise straight allies, unless Donohue changes his tune in the next few months, he is anything but. Donohue has called the LGBT community sexual deviants and has been criticized for his lack of sensitivity towards victims of priest sexual abuse and victims of bullying.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

I just wrote about a recent situation in which watchdog groups drew attention to an egregious misuse of “Catholic” beliefs, with a positive outcome to the protest of watchdog groups: as my posting notes, when Catholic lay leader Austin Ruse recently called for liberal university leaders to be taken out and shot, the group Faithful America petitioned for Monsignor Anthony Frontiero of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire, who was on Ruse’s C-FAM board, to resign.

And so he did.

Here’s another recent story which demonstrates that when watchdog groups publicize decisions or actions by religious leaders that contradict core values of a religious group, positive things sometimes happen: last Saturday, retired New York Cardinal Egan was scheduled to preside at a special children’s choir Mass at St. Ignatius Loyola parish in Manhattan. The group Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests called foul, given Egan’s deplorable record in the abuse crisis both in the Bridgeport, Connecticut, diocese and in New York.

After SNAP and other groups supporting abuse survivors made a stink about St. Ignatius’s decision to bring Egan in for this children’s event, his appearance at the Mass was cancelled. SNAP applauded this decision, but as its media statement about it notes, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever know who played the behind-the-scenes roles in making such a glaringly insensitive decision (to invite Egan to officiate at the children’s Mass) in the first place–because it is extremely doubtful

that even one church official – Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Egan, the local Jesuit provincial or St. Ignatius staffers – will break the deeply-rooted culture of secrecy in the church around child sex crimes, cover-ups and controversies to share this information.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Survivors of child sexual abuse in Ballarat say they are concerned about the apparent little progress in implementing reforms recommended by last year’s State Parliamentary inquiry. The concerns come as private hearings are held in Ballarat this week.

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IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

Paul Neilan

There were anguished scenes in Cavan Circuit Court last week when two men drew courage from turmoil to confront their priest abuser and gave evidence of the horrific effects his abuse had on them.
The two men were aged just 10 years when Fr Gerry Kearns abused them both. The Cavan priest, now 73, pleaded guilty in the court to four indecent assaults on one and a single assault on the other male, almost 30 years after his offences.

The priest, who will serve jail-time for his fondling and molesting of the males at a location in the county, did not speak throughout the three-hour sentencing hearing in contrast to the muffled, tearful moans of the victim and relatives, who sat at opposite ends of the gallery.

Fr Kearns was not charged with rape and during the hearing denied giving the boys alcohol.

Though the victims had already made statements to gardaí, which could have been read out to the court, they both made the agonising decision to speak of the harrowing after-effects.

“I lost all trust in everyone,” one told the judge. “I felt low all the time, I never trusted anyone, I lost all trust and tried to do away with myself twice.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Lutheran minister arrested for child pornography
He admits molesting several young girls in WI & MN

A Lutheran minister has admitted – apparently for the first time, that he sexually abused children in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Yesterday, he was charged in Missouri with possession of child pornography.

[KSDK]

Matthew Luetke, a pastor at the Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in O’Fallon, MO, told police he had exposed himself and allowed his genitals to be touched by female relatives when they were pre-school age when the family was living in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Those incidents are said to have occurred between 2004 and 2008.

Luetke is believed to have worked at Ascension Lutheran Church in Rochester , Minnesota and attended a Lutheran seminary just north of Milwaukee in Mequon, Wisconsin.

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UNITED STATES
New Times

By Kyle Swenson Thu., Mar. 20 2014

The Chicago-based megachurch leader with serious ties throughout Florida and in Broward has lost his flock due to a sex scandal. Since the ’60s, Bill Gothard has been preaching a submit-to-authority brand of Bible that excoriates rock music and free thinking: Listen to your parents, obey your husband, toe the line, etc.

From his perch at the Institute in Basic Life Principles, the preacher has given millions of seminars across the country on his value system. Red-state poster people Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin are fans, not to mention the walking birth-control advertisement known as the Dugger family from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting. And a decade back, Gothardism was pretty popular across Florida.

In the Gothard cosmos, divine authority is a trickle-down setup. We suckers on the bottom, we’ve got to obey our parents, husbands, bosses, political leaders and such because they derive their moral juice from God himself.

This was the ethos behind the Character First! programs that became controversial around the country in the early and mid-2000s. The program basically was moral education marching orders dripping with evangelical overtones — fine for your home, but not so much in a public school setting.

But former Gov. Jeb Bush and former DCF honcho Jerry Regier both pushed legislation that would put Character First! in public schools across the state. Both were fans of Gothard’s. The former governor implemented the Character First! program at his own charter school in Liberty City.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 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 )

Cincinnati archdiocesan officials are ramping up the restriction on what Catholic teachers may say and do.

[Cincinnati Enquirer]

Top Catholic officials can keep tightening the screws on their flocks about legal speech and behavior. But their tough discipline is likely to ring hollow and be ineffective because they refuse to take similar action against their colleagues who ignore or conceal clergy sex crimes.

It’s ironic that Catholic teachers who say and do things that are legal face punishments while Catholic officials who say hurtful things about abuse victims and do illegal things about predator priests virtually never face punishments.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

March 21, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

An email sent by the Catholic Church’s solicitor to its barristers suggested sex abuse victim John Ellis, as a boy of 14 or 15, used to “force himself” on the ageing priest who was sexually abusing him.

The email was sent during the court case in which Mr Ellis sought damages for abuse, which began when he was a 13-year-old altar boy at the hands of Father Aidan Duggan at the Sydney Archdiocese’s Bass Hill parish.

Tendered in evidence at the royal commission on child sex abuse, the email promises the barristers they will be “greeted with open arms at the Pearly Gates”.

Solicitor John Dalzell is now a partner at Gadens Lawyers but was then a senior associate at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, which was being instructed by Cardinal George Pell, who was a defendant.

The commission has been trying to establish who was responsible for the church’s conduct in the case, which not only left Mr Ellis a broken man, but also insulated the church against claims from other future victims.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

For more info David Clohessy 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Victims blast controversial speakers
SNAP objects to three prelates being honored
Each one, group says, concealed clergy sex crimes
In one case, three Catholic organizations also objected
And in that case, retired NYC Cardinal won’t attend event
Two top church officials should discourage such invitations, SNAP says

Three times last week, a victims’ group raised concerns about Catholic prelates who allegedly concealed child sex crimes speaking at church events, and one of those appearances was cancelled. Now the group is asking the head of the US bishops’ conference to urge his colleagues to avoid similar controversies.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and Joliet Bishop Daniel Conlon about public appearances by bishops who “protected predators and endangered kids.” Kurtz is the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Conlon heads the conference’s sex abuse committee.

SNAP recently objected to these prelates:

–Retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan was to preside over a children’s choir mass at St. Ignatius Loyola parish in Manhattan this month.

[New Haven Register]

[New Haven Register]

The parish had announced the event on its website. But last Friday, the parish announced that Egan would not be coming. http://www.stignatiusloyola.org/

–Retired Philadelphia Archbishop Cardinal Rigali, who is to be a featured speaker at the Catholic Men Servant Leaders annual conference at Lexington Catholic High School in Lexington, Kentucky on March 22.

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MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

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

Priest with child sex abuse allegations is promoted
He is accused of molesting at least four boys & was sued
But he went overseas and is second-in-command of a diocese
And at least one child sex lawsuit against him has been settled
Group wants Jackson bishop to reach out to victims & get priest defrocked

A Catholic priest who allegedly molested several boys is now second-in-command at a diocese in Paraguay. And a victims’ group wants Jackson Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, who was once the cleric’s supervisor, to reach out to others he has hurt and urge the Pope to intervene and defrock him.

[Pocono Record]

Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity was accused of sexually abusing at least four boys in the Scranton Pennsylvania diocese, where Kopacz was in leadership positions, between 2002-2004. At least two civil suits were filed and one of them was settled for $454,550.

But last week, a Boston-based research group called BishopAccountability.org disclosed that Fr. Urrutigoity is now in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and is its Vicar General.

Bishop Kopacz was in charge of investigating child abuse allegations in the diocese of Scranton while Fr. Urrutigoity worked there. Kopacz allegedly ignored a warning about Urrutigoity’s inappropriate behavior without even talking to the victim. In 1999, Kopacz and his Scranton church colleagues were warned by Minnesota church officials about allegations that Father Urrutigoity had abused a seminarian, according to a federal lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 21, 2014

THE Catholic Church was wrong to deny in court that a Sydney priest had sexually abused a child, despite a previous church inquiry finding the abuse took place, Cardinal George Pell’s private secretary has said.

The former archbishop of Sydney has also moved to distance himself from the handling of the controversial case, saying it was “disproportionate to the objective and to the psychological state” of the abuse victim.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Michael Casey said he was “a conduit” between the church’s lawyers and Cardinal Pell, who rarely uses a computer or mobile phone.

The cardinal’s instructions had been to “vigorously defend” the claim, brought by former altar boy John Ellis, who was sexually assaulted by a Sydney priest over several years during the 1970s, Dr Casey said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

Es melden sich immer weniger: Professor Klaus Laubenthal, Ansprechpartner in der Diözese Würzburg für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs, wurden ab März 2013 vier Vorwürfe übermittelt, drei davon gegen bereits verstorbene Kleriker (darunter ein Ordensmann). Der vierte Vorwurf gegen einen ehrenamtlichen Mitarbeiter in der kirchlichen Jugendarbeit betrifft nach Angaben des Bischöflichen Ordinariats eine Grenzverletzung unterhalb der Schwelle der Strafbarkeit.

Im Zeitraum 2012/13 erreichten Klaus Laubenthal noch neun Vorwürfe, 2011/2012 wandten sich 14 Missbrauchsopfer an ihn. Die meisten Opfer waren ab Ende Januar 2010 bereit, über ihren Missbrauch zu reden, nachdem die Fälle am Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin bekanntgeworden waren. Damals hatte der Lehrstuhlinhaber für Strafrecht und Kriminologie an der Universität Würzburg 62 Vorwürfe überprüft.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wirral News

Church disciplinary procedures launched against Reverend Ian Hughes after he was handed a 12-month jail sentence in January

A disgraced Merseyside vicar is facing expulsion from his Church of England post after being jailed for making and possessing indecent images of children.

Church disciplinary procedures have now been launched against Reverend Ian Hughes after he was handed a 12-month sentence in January.

Under the guidelines issued to church leaders, Rev Hughes could be removed and banned from office for life.

The 46-year-old pleaded guilty to making and possessing thousands of child porn images at a crown court hearing earlier this year.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

by JOANNE McCARTHY March 20, 2014

IN a nursing home bed, a former Hunter nun, who was a priest’s sexual partner from the age of 15, spends her days in the silences of advanced dementia while her brother demands the truth from the Catholic Church.

The priest, Father Noel Geraghty of the Catholic order Oblates of Mary Immaculate, died in 2005 without the long-term relationship being acknowledged in public by the Church, although it has confirmed it in writing to the nun’s family.

There is evidence the former nun, 70, who has been in care from the age of 63, was not the priest’s only female sexual partner.

The former nun’s brother, a retired teacher who lives in the Hunter, is speaking about it for the first time as the Church faces a new crisis – exposure of its male clergy’s forbidden, secret and abusive relationships with adult women.

“There are so many women out there in this position,” said the former nun’s brother, David, who asked that the family’s identity not be disclosed.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Nicola Ross March 19, 2014

IN recent days reports have emerged about organised sexual abuse of teenagers in residential care in Victoria. We have also witnessed the devastating stories of adult survivors of child sexual and other abuse by the authorities into whose care they were entrusted when they were vulnerable children.

We hope that the royal commission’s investigations will lead to some outcomes to prevent similar stories being told in 20 years’ time. But is this likely?

At the very same time that the royal commission is in progress, we are hearing stories that must cast doubt on the question of whether we are really ready for change. The most recent story to emerge is related to paedophile gangs targeting children in residential state care in Victoria for sexual favours.

Most people would agree that where it is possible, children are better off in family settings and, thankfully, there are relatively few children and younger people in residential care. Yet there are now approximately 40,000 children in out-of-home care in Australia – with foster carers or in kinship placements (with grandparents or other family members) – and this number is growing. But this does not resolve the issue either, as abuse can or does occur in these settings.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

South Australian magistrate threw out paedophile charges, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse told

SALLY BROOKS THE ADVERTISER MARCH 20, 2014

POLICE had difficulty successfully prosecuting paedophiles almost two decades ago, with one case thrown out by a magistrate who was himself later charged with child sex offences, an inquiry has heard.

Detective Senior Sergeant Walter Conte has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse charges were laid against a paedophile following a raid in 1993 but the matter was dropped.

“The charges for some reason were brought before the Adelaide Magistrates Court whereas they were originally set down for a committal hearing at the Holden Hill Magistrates Court,” he said.

“I recall bringing along my witnesses, and essentially everything was thrown out by Magistrate (Richard) Brown, or perhaps there was no evidence tendered, or something like that.”

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

BY MARGARET SCHEIKOWSKI AAP MARCH 20, 2014

A SENIOR Catholic education officer has apologised to the victims of “shocking and appalling” sexual abuse carried out by a bus driver who worked at an Adelaide special school.

Allan Dooley also said the school principal’s handling of the initial complaints in 1991 was “unacceptable”.

Mr Dooley, former director of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, was giving evidence on Thursday at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

It is investigating Adelaide’s St Ann’s Special School and its bus driver and volunteer, Brian Perkins, who sexually abused intellectually disabled boys between 1986 and 1991.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Thursday 20 March 2014

A lawyer accused of evading his “ethical obligation” not to mislead during a priest abuse case has told a royal commission he was working on the instructions of the Catholic church.

In a cross-examination at the child sex abuse hearing in Sydney on Thursday, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan questioned the ethical approach taken by solicitor John Dalzell.

The lawyer instructed the legal team, which disputed whether John Ellis had been abused by a priest.

The commission is looking at how the archdiocese of Sydney, led by then-archbishop George Pell, handled Ellis’s complaint that he had been abused while an altar boy by Father Aidan Duggan at Bass Hill from 1974 to 1975.

Dalzell was a senior associate with law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth when they were employed by the archdiocese to defend the Ellis case.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Kittanning Paper

A former Kittanning priest has been charged with theft after a series of investigations that began more than three years ago.

Father Emil S. Payer , pastor of Seven Dolors Parish, Yukon, in the Diocese of Greensburg, was arraigned March 11 before District Magistrate Charles D. Moore in Scottdale and charged with theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, theft by receiving stolen property and theft by misappropriation of entrusted property.

Father Payer, who has been on administrative leave from the parish since Aug. 11, 2011, was released on a non-monetary bond.

The charges stem from an investigation that began when parishioners of Seven Dolors Parish approached officials of the Diocese of Greensburg in early 2011 with concerns about parish finances. As a result of that meeting, the diocese immediately began a review of parish finances with an independent auditing firm. Subsequently, diocesan officials held a meeting on April 6, 2011, with the Parish Pastoral Council and Parish Finance Council of Seven Dolors Parish and informed council members of the review.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

BY COURT REPORTER CANDICE MARCUS
March 20, 2014

Police officers investigating a paedophile ring in South Australia were angered at the decision to prematurely shut down the inquiry, a royal commission has heard.

The inquiry into sexual abuse of children who went to St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide has heard the police investigation was closed in 1993.

Detective Senior Sergeant Walter Conte said no reason was given for closing the inquiry, but he had assumed it was due to a lack of resources.

“I know there was a lot of anger in the room about the decision because there was still a lot of exhibits that needed to be rationalised,” he said.

“Certainly there was room for a continued task force at that time. I think hence people were justifiably angry at the management decision to stop at that stage.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston has had a cardinal’s-eye view — shared by only a very select few — of the key events of the first year of Pope Francis’ papacy.

Cardinal O’Malley has devoted much of his vocation to ministering to Hispanic immigrants and working with the Church in Latin America, and he participated in the March 2013 conclave that elected Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. Appointed subsequently to the eight-member Council of Cardinals formed to advise the Holy Father, the Boston archbishop has now taken on a more visible role in the global Church, working closely with Pope Francis on Church reforms, and announcing the formation of a new Vatican commission to address pastoral issues related to clergy sexual abuse and the protection of children.

On March 18, Cardinal O’Malley headlined “The Francis Factor,” an event sponsored by the Archdiocese of Baltimore that allowed the cardinal to share the rich and compelling insights about Pope Francis he has garnered during the past year. Before an audience of 3,000 people, Cardinal O’Malley spoke about Pope Francis as a “quintessential Ignatian Jesuit,” who is now sharing the fruits of his long practice of spiritual discernment, anchored in the discipline of the daily examan. …

You have labored to strengthen the Church’s response to the scourge of clergy sexual abuse, and you sent one of your own priests, Father Robert Oliver, to take over as the promoter of justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, prosecuting cases that are brought to the Vatican. Are you confident that the Holy See is fully engaged in the effort to implement reforms in churches across the world that will help protect children?

We have tried to help the Holy Father understand [the need for a strong response to clergy sexual abuse]. I know he understands its importance. That is why a commission on child protection is being formed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Thursday 20 March 2014

Cardinal George Pell has believed child sex abuse victims should be able to sue the Catholic church for some time, his private secretary has told a royal commission.

Dr Michael Casey, who has been the Sydney archbishop’s private secretary for more than a decade, said that while he had not heard Cardinal Pell express it in the terms quoted at the royal commission last week, he understood it was his view.

“I think it was certainly his view that people had the right to take civil action against the church or church entities for sexual abuse.”

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at how the archdiocese of Sydney handled a complaint by John Ellis that he had been abused while an altar boy by Father Aidan Duggan at Bass Hill in Sydney’s southwest from 1974 to 1979.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler March 19, 2014

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A judge has ordered a Catholic archdiocese to release documents pertaining to the handling of sex-abuse cases.

You already know that story, right? But wait; I’m talking about today’s headline story, not the story that appeared last month or the month before that or… virtually every month since early 2002. It’s all become a blur, hasn’t it? In case after case the archdiocese fights against public disclosure, loses the legal battle, and is forced to release the documents.

Frankly, I’m tired of writing up these news stories. By now I could do it in my sleep, working from a template, filling in the proper nouns for each new case. “Judge X ruled that the Diocese of Y had not made a convincing case that the release of personnel records would violate the religious-freedom protections of the First Amendment.” In today’s case, the Minnesota judge pointedly observed that archdiocesan lawyers had asserted a need for religious-freedom protection, but never made a plausible argument for that protection. Maybe the lawyers are getting tired of it all, too.

Time and again the same old story is played out, with results that are now painfully predictable. The archdiocese resists, and critics say that Church leaders have something to hide. The resistance eventually crumbles, the documents are released, and the critics have another opportunity to cite the misdeeds of the Catholic hierarchy. Whereupon the diocesan PR spokesman issue an improbable claim that the diocese was always anxious to cooperate with the court and ensure that all the facts were available.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — Lawyers for a man suing the Diocese of Yakima rested their sex-abuse case in federal court Wednesday.

Lawyers for John Doe, as he is identified in court papers, concluded with testimony from Bishop Emeritus Carlos Sevilla, who presided over the diocese in 1999, when Doe says he was raped by Deacon Aaron Ramirez at a Zillah parish office.

The diocese opened its defense Wednesday in U.S. District Court with a psychiatrist who said that the emotional problems Doe’s attorneys say he suffers from were more likely caused by abuse endured when he was 5 rather than the incident with Ramirez.

Doe is suing the diocese, alleging it failed to properly screen Ramirez before accepting him as a priesthood candidate, and that church officials did not supervise Ramirez when he worked at Resurrection Catholic Church in Zillah.

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NEW YORK
Saratogian

By Kyle Hughes, NYSNYS News
POSTED: 03/18/14

ALBANY >> Edward Scharfenberger, the Brooklyn priest picked to become the 10th bishop of the Albany Catholic Diocese next month, made his debut as an Albany lobbyist Tuesday, making the rounds and meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“At this point, I’m doing a lot of listening,” he told reporters after a press conference with Cardinal Timothy Dolan about a bill to create a new school donation tax credit that would help both public and parochial schools. “I want to hear from people.”

“Needless to say I see myself as a person who wants to be a peacemaker, to bring people together, to give people a sense of respect: self-respect, respect for their traditions, respect for their beliefs,” he added.

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CANADA
CBC News

Justice Robert Kilpatrick has denied Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss’ application from Tuesday to revisit the testimony of one of the complainants in the trial of former Oblate priest Eric Dejaeger.

The 66-year-old is on trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

He’s facing dozens of charges alleging sexual abuse against children in Igloolik, Nunavut.

After a short break Wednesday morning, Crown prosecutor Barry Nordin made another application to the court, this time to consider the evidence of each complainant to support the evidence of the other complainants.

In total more than 40 people have testified, mostly about alleged sexual acts involving young girls, boys and even dogs.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY GLENN BLAIN

Victims of clergy sex abuse are criticizing Timothy Cardinal Dolan’s efforts to boost charitable donations to schools.

Mary Caplan, co-director of the New York City chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement Wednesday blasting Dolan for lobbying Albany lawmakers this week to approve tax credits for those who donate to schools or other education-related groups.

“When they want money for their institutions, Catholic officials lobby hard and say they care deeply about kids,” Caplan said. “But when kids who were abused want a chance for justice, Catholic officials lobby hard to deny those kids their day in court. All across the US, Dolan and his brother bishops use all their political will and power and resources to block moves to reform archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations laws that endanger kids and protect those who commit and conceal heinous child sex crimes.”

Dolan spent the day at the Capitol Tuesday urging Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders to support legislation that would grant up to $300 million in tax credits to people who donate to schools and other educational organizations. He argued it would encourage more donations to both public and private schools while also boosting funds for scholarships to parochial schools.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, March 19 – The new head of the Vatican Council for the Economy said Wednesday that soon the scandal-plagued Vatican bank will no longer pose a threat to the Catholic Church’s image, while another institution will become the “true bank of the Vatican”. In statements published by Spanish news agency Europa Press, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx said “there won’t be future occasions for (the Vatican bank) to hurt the Holy See’s reputation”. Officially called the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), the Vatican bank has come under scrutiny for alleged money laundering and is now working with the Council of Europe’s Moneyval agency to bring it in line with international standards.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Telegraph reporter 19 Mar 2014

An Islamic teacher who molested a girl as he taught her the Koran has avoided prison after claiming his family was dependent on him because his wife speaks “very little English”.

Suleman Maknojioa, 40, repeatedly rubbed the 11-year-old’s leg and reached underneath her headscarf to touch her chest while giving her and her two brothers private tuition in Arabic.

Maknojioa was said to have “favoured” the girl and believed the touching was “appropriate” to reassure her.

The girl was said to have become frightened of what the tutor would do to her. He was reported to police after the children’s mother overheard her sons, aged 13 and seven, talking about the incidents in the kitchen.

On the day he was arrested, Maknojioa, a father of six, was due to teach 30 children at a mosque near his home in Blackburn, Lancashire.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

IN A terrible betrayal of trust Suleman Maknojioa sexually abused a little girl of 11 as he taught her the Koran.

He had been brought into the family home by the parents to give lessons in the Islamic faith. The justice system has also betrayed this child and affronted public opinion by failing to hand down a tough sentence. Why?

Though Maknojioa was given a 40-week custodial sentence it was suspended for two years because Judge Michael Byrne decided that this man’s family was entirely dependent on him as his wife speaks very little English.

His wife’s inability to speak English is a separate issue but it is nonetheless a direct result of the doctrine of multiculturalism which indulges those who refuse to engage with British culture. It has a pernicious effect on many Islamic women who are thereby isolated and as this case shows totally dependent on their husbands.

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is Lancashire

By Jessica Cree, Crime reporter

AN ISLAMIC tutor who inappropriately touched a pupil during lessons has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Suleman Maknojioa, of Audley Range, Blackburn, was found guilty of five counts of sexual activity with a child after a week-long trial.

Preston Crown Court heard how the defendant, 40, rubbed the girl’s lower leg, and touched her upper leg on top of her clothing.

He also touched the youngster on her chest area underneath her headscarf which she wore for prayers.

Maknojioa had denied the allegations, saying he only ever touched the girl to show encouragement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

An Islamic teacher who molested a young girl was spared jail today after claiming his six children were dependent on him because his wife spoke “very little English”.

Suleman Maknojioa, 40, rubbed the 11-year-old’s leg and reached under her prayer headscarf to squeeze her chest while giving her and her two brothers private tuition in religion at their home.

The girl was left fearing the lessons, held over a period of nine months, and said of the touching: “I did not want it, but I was too afraid to say something.”

Maknojioa was arrested after the children’s mum overheard her sons, aged 13 and seven, talking.

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MINNESOTA
TheMediaReport

Back in December, police began a surreal criminal investigation into whether St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John C. Nienstedt somehow “inappropriately touched” a boy four years ago in broad daylight in front of crowds of people outside a church following a public Confirmation ceremony.

If anyone needed another example of the wildly disparate treatment of Catholic clergy by the media and by law enforcement, one needs to look no further than this batty episode.

Common Sense on Vacation

Police finally concluded just last week what any clear-thinking individual would have known from the beginning: that nothing even remotely inappropriate ever took place.

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