ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
CBC News

About 60 residential school survivors have been successful in their bid to have files from the Ontario Provincial Police released in order to support their claims for compensation for abuse.

In a written decision released today, Ontario Superior Court Judge Paul Perell ruled the documents from a five-year investigation at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School in Fort Albany be turned over. The criminal investigation was conducted in the 1990s.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair applauded the decision.

“The release of these records is critical not only to survivors who were badly abused, but to Canadians as a whole,” he said in a written statement.

“Reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples in Canada depends on a shared and complete understanding of the residential school experience.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Joel Eastwood Staff Reporter, Published on Tue Jan 14 2014

Calling it the site of some of the most egregious incidents of abuse in Canada’s residential school system, a judge has ordered the federal government to hand over thousands of documents to support the compensation claims of the survivors of St. Anne’s residential school.

Sixty survivors of St. Anne’s have fought for more than a year to have the federal government release the documents, which were created during a police investigation in the 1990s.

“The documents speak to the sexual and physical abuse suffered by students at St. Anne’s,” said Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell in his decision.

The survivors say the documents will support their compensation claims under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Act.

“Finally, the level of abuse at St. Anne’s is being recognized and they will not have to prove the terrible conditions of the school in each hearing by themselves,” said Fay Brunning, the lawyer for the St. Anne’s survivors, in an email. “The adjudicators and claimants are going to obtain a true picture of the horrors of attending that school.”

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CANADA
GlobalPost

TORONTO – An Ontario judge has ordered the federal government to produce documents that survivors of a notorious residential school say are crucial to their compensation claims.

The survivors accused Ottawa of hampering their bid for financial redress by hiding documentary evidence from a provincial police investigation into St. Anne’s in Fort Albany.

Hundreds of aboriginal children from remote James Bay communities were sent to St. Anne’s from 1904 to 1976.

The police probe in the 1990s turned up evidence of horrific abuse, including use of an electric chair and led to criminal convictions.

A government lawyer had said Ottawa received the documents from police on an undertaking they would not be passed on to anyone.

But Ontario Superior Court Judge Paul Perell says in a decision released Tuesday that the government misinterpreted its disclosure obligations and should turn over the documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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CANADA
Global News

By Domenic Fazioli
Reporter

BEACONSFIELD, Que. – A little over a year has passed, and parishioners at St-Edmund of Canterbury Church in Beaconsfield will tell you they still feel angry and betrayed by their former deacon, William Kokesch.

“Personally, I feel sad,” parishioner Sonia Cary told Global News.

“Not for him, but for the Church.”

The 66-year-old was arrested in December 2012 for possession, production, and distribution of child pornography.

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Montreal
Published Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A Roman Catholic Deacon charged with child pornography will be back in court February 21.

William Kokesch was arrested in December 2012 and charged with distribution, possesion and production of child pornography.

In court on Tuesday his lawyer was tying to get more evidence from the crown about the case.

Jeffrey Boro said his client is anxious to put an end to the case, but would not say whether Kokesch plans to plead guilty or go to trial.

“Anybody who faces serious charges such as these that has somewhat of a public persona certainly is suffering quite a bit,” said Boro.

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CANADA
CJAD

A Beaconsfield deacon facing child pornography charges has had his case pushed back because of more evidence submitted by the crown.

William Kokesch, 66, was not present for a brief hearing at the Montreal courthouse this morning when they set a next court date for late next month, enough time for the defence to evaluate the recent evidence.

“I was actually surprised to receive it. There was a further analysis of what had been seized in this case,” defence lawyer Jeffrey Boro told reporters.

“Some of it was noteworthy enough that I felt a further examination of the file was necessary.”

Crown prosecutor Dominique Potvin told the judge they should determine at the next hearing whether there’ll be a settlement or a trial date set. Boro would not say if a guilty plea was in the offing.

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CALIFORNIA
Irish Central

Niall O’Dowd @niallodowd January 15, 2014

A criminal grand jury in California has indicted former Diocese of Stockton priest Father Michael Eugene Kelly, who fled to Ireland during a previous civil case he later lost.

An extradition warrant has been issued for Kelly’s arrest and deportation to the United States.The 63-year old cleric is a native of Ballingarry, Co Tipperary, where his family still lives and where he fled to after telling his bishop he did not believe he could get a fair hearing.

Kelly faces three counts of lewd conduct and oral copulation with a child and could be sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil gave evidence following a sheriff’s investigation that Kelly began molesting his alleged victim when the child was 10 years old.

The District Attorney’s Office say they will work with the U.S. Department of Justice to extradite Kelly from Ireland to Calaveras County in California.

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CALIFORNIA
4-Traders

Statements Of John C. Manly, Vince Finaldi, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, On The Indictment Of Fr. Michael Kelly, By The Calaveras County Grand Jury For Sexual Molestation Of A Child

STOCKTON, Calif., Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Yesterday, a Grand Jury convened by the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office indicted Diocese of Stockton Priest Fr. Michael Kelly, on numerous criminal counts related to brutal childhood sexual abuse in the year 2000 while serving as the Pastor of St. Andreas Parish in the Diocese of Stockton.

Fr. Kelly absconded to Ireland in 2012, in the middle of a child molestation trial being prosecuted by this firm on behalf of another Kelly victim, only days after he was unanimously found by a jury to have raped and molested our client, a highly decorated Air Force Officer, when he was in 4(th) grade at Annunciation School in Stockton. Kelly is known to be in Ireland, but guards his location and has repeatedly taken steps to avoid service of process.

Our firm, and our clients, are gratified by this indictment, and are very grateful to the Grand Jury and law enforcement officials in Calaveras County who worked tirelessly for justice on behalf of the victim in the indictment and the numerous other victims of Fr. Kelly.

Today, we call on Bishop Blaire, the Diocese of Stockton, and Monsignor Richard Ryan, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Stockton, a seminary classmate and lifelong friend of Michael Kelly, to disclose Kelly’s whereabouts to the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office. Moreover, we call on the Holy See and the Irish Bishops to effectively issue a clerical “all point’s bulletin” to all Dioceses and Parishes in Ireland requiring the clergy there disclose Kelly’s whereabouts to US law enforcement officials immediately. We believe Kelly is being protected by clergy in Ireland and his whereabouts are known to them.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Columnist
January 15, 2014

For years, I have wanted to forgive the Roman Catholic Church. Then yet another sex scandal comes to light, and I want to kick the cathedral over.

The Diocese of Stockton’s bankruptcy filing this week eclipsed the news that Father Michael Kelly was indicted.

A criminal grand jury in Calaveras County charged Kelly with three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.

The indictment alleges Kelly began committing these sex crimes when the victim was 10 years old.

This is where I usually say innocent until proven guilty. But Kelly was already a defendant in a civil trial. A former altar boy claimed the good father raped him.

In midtrial, Kelly fled to Ireland.

So you’re presumed innocent, unless you go on the lam. Then you’re just another lousy fugitive.

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GERMANY
Catholic Culture

Weltbild, a German publishing and bookselling company owned by 12 dioceses and a Catholic welfare organization, has filed for bankruptcy, according to multiple wire service reports.

The publisher faced criticism in 2011 for marketing 2,500 erotic books.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

[Weltbilt, which is owned by Catholic dioceses, has gone bankrupt. The Trier diocese could end up losing 8 million euros.]

Trier/Augsburg. Beim Thema Weltbild-Insolvenz spricht die katholische Kirche mit einer Zunge. Das wird auch bei der TV-Anfrage an André Uzulis, Kommunikationsdirektor des Bistums Trier, deutlich: “Wir werden uns als Bistum nicht einzeln dazu äußern. Das behält sich die Bischofskonferenz vor.” Zumindest bestätigt er, dass es keine Verbindungen zum Paulinus-Verlag gebe.
Beschäftigte nicht betroffen

Damit wird klar: Von dem Insolvenzantrag in Augsburg sind keine Beschäftigten in der Region Trier betroffen. Denn auf seiner Homepage betont der Weltbildverlag, die Folgen der Zahlungsschwierigkeiten beträfen ausschließlich die 2200 Mitarbeiter des Stammhauses in Augsburg. “Nicht betroffen sind insbesondere alle Weltbild-Filialen sowie die Gesellschaften in Österreich und der Schweiz und bücher.de”

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

[Summary: The Trier diocese has a sad record on abuse. The diocese has made compensation payments totaling 280,000 euros.]

sexueller Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche: Trauriger Rekord für das Bistum Trier – die meisten Missbrauchstaten durch Angehörige der katholischen Kirche geschahen im Bistum des Missbrauchsbeauftragten, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann

Das Bistum Trier habe bisher Entschädigungszahlungen in Höhe von 280.000 Euro geleistet, berichtete die Nachrichtenagentur dpa. Bis Februar 2013 habe das Bistum 56 Anträge von Opfern sexueller Übergriffe bewilligt. Die höchste bekannte Summe an ein Opfer habe sich auf 18.000 Euro belaufen.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Examiner

De La Salle ran a home in Kircubbin in Co Down which is due to be examined by a public inquiry into historical wrongdoing.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the UK’s largest ever investigation into child abuse in residential homes over seven decades.

Decades of physical, sexual and emotional suffering were inflicted upon the most vulnerable by the church, state and voluntary organisations, it has been alleged.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

The North’s residential care homes were reminiscent of “a bygone age” that had not moved with the times, an inquiry into historical abuse in Co Down has heard.

Senior counsel for the inquiry Christine Smith QC told the second day of public hearings: “The evidence suggests that those homes operated as outdated survivors of a bygone age.”

Reforms aligned with the introduction of the welfare state in Britain after the second World War were not fully implemented, she said.

She illustrated this by referring to one unnamed witness who has given details to the inquiry of her treatment at the hands of residential home workers following bed-wetting incidents. This witness said that, as a child, she had had her nose rubbed in the wet mattress and forced to take a cold baths using Jeyes Fluid, Ms Smith told the inquiry.

The senior counsel had been outlining the historical and legislative background to childcare during the years 1922 to 1995, the years under examination by the inquiry under its terms of reference.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

The De La Salle Brothers have apologised unreservedly for abuse and suffering inflicted on children in their care.

The inquiry into historical abuse at a range of residential care homes in Northern Ireland heard senior counsel for the religious order offer the apology yesterday during the second day of oral hearings.

Kevin Rooney QC, for the De La Salle Brothers, said: “Brothers recognise the immense pain and

He added: “Brothers recognise the sense of betrayal that the victims have experienced and the violation of trust caused by certain brothers within the order. They recognise that there have been failures to protect the victims.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

From 1859 to 1969, 105,000 children were taken into industrial homes in Ireland.

They were often large and uninviting, designed to make economies of scale, with staff morale poor and workers displaying aloofness from charges who may have been orphaned or separated from their mothers because they were born out of wedlock.

Christine Smith QC said institutions were run during the Victorian era of the 1800s by religious orders for spiritual purposes. Rehabilitation entailed turning the child into a productive member of society.

“By placing children in institutions, as they saw it, souls were being saved from corruption,” the senior lawyer to the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry added.

Catholics held to the 19th century ideal of redemption and rehabilitation long after that period had ended. Only those discounted as unredeemable were left to the state’s care.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The committee investigating Jersey’s historical abuse allegation are to attend Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The investigation – looking into abuse dating back more than 70 years – began on Monday in Banbridge, County Down, and is expected to last for 18 months.

Members of Jersey’s committee will visit the hearings in February.

Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty Northern Ireland said attendees should listen to victims’ evidence and learn lessons.

‘Delivery of pain’

He said it was heartening that Jersey inquiry members would be visiting the HIA hearings, but it was also important the representatives learned from the victims.

“They are important, so learn those lessons and listen to the victims themselves,” he told BBC News.

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Belfast Telegraph

15 JANUARY 2014

Children who believe their human rights have been infringed can take their case to the United Nations under a new legal move.

The optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child has received the required 10th ratification from Costa Rica and will come into force on April 14.

Marta Santos Pais, the UN special representative on violence against children, said the “historic” move would place “the rights and aspirations of children at the centre of the human rights agenda” by giving youngsters the right to seek redress for abuses of their rights for the first time.

Initially, only children from Costa Rica and the nine other countries: Albania; Bolivia; Gabon; Germany; Montenegro; Portugal; Spain; Thailand; and Slovakia, will be able to submit complaints. But Ms Santos Pais said the UN and other organisations would keep promoting ratification of the protocol by the 183 other member states.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

AP | By John Helprin
Posted: 01/15/2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican is gearing up for a bruising showdown over the global priest sex abuse scandal, forced for the first time to defend itself at length and in public against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests and its own reputation at the expense of victims.

The Holy See on Thursday will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among other things, the treaty calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to protect children from harm and to put children’s interests above all else.

The Holy See ratified the convention in 1990 and submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly a decade, and only submitted one in 2012 after coming under criticism following the 2010 explosion of child sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond.

Victims groups and human rights organizations rallied together to press the U.N. committee to challenge the Holy See on its abuse record, providing written testimony from victims and evidence outlining the global scale of the problem. Their reports cite case studies in Mexico and Britain, grand jury investigations in the U.S., and government fact-finding inquiries from Canada to Ireland to Australia that detail how the Vatican’s policies, its culture of secrecy and fear of scandal contributed to the problem.

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TEXAS
KVUE

SALADO, Texas — The founder of a children’s ministry in Salado has been arrested and charged with indecency with a child.

Police arrested Jon Phillip Tidball, 63, on Monday on an outstanding warrant issued in October 2013.

According to lieutenant Donnie Adams with the Bell County Sheriff’s Office, Tidball’s 24-year-old daughter told authorities last August that her father sexually abused her beginning when she was eight years old and continuing until she was 14.

Tidball, a retired Army chaplain, founded Patriot Kids’ Ministries, a ministry for children of military members, five years ago.

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TEXAS
KXXV

[with video]

By Colton Scott

A local church camp operator has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing a girl for seven years.

The charges come after the victim found out the man was running a kid’s ministry camp in Bell County.

Back in October 2013, after years of trying to get charges filed against the suspect, the woman went to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department where authorities then issued an arrest warrant. Bell County police were then able to locate and arrest the man who actually lives on the property where he runs that children’s camp.

Jon Phillip Tidball is the executive director at the Patriot Kids Ministries Camp in Salado where he’s been running the camp since January 2012. Police say that although he has been involved in numerous kid’s organizations and camps throughout Bell County, so far, no other victims have come forward with sexual abuse claims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Child Rights Internatinal Network

The global scale of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and the Holy See’s cover-ups and denial of justice for victims, has been mapped in a new preliminary report published by CRIN today.

The report coincides with tomorrow’s (16 January) UN review of the Holy See on children’s rights, including cases of child sexual abuse committed by Catholic clerics around the world known to the Holy See*.

The report, “Child sexual abuse and the Holy See: the need for justice, accountability and reform”, published says:

“The Catholic Church is against violence. It stands for the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings. Yet child sexual abuse cases have not been addressed sufficiently for decades. Transparency, in the form of full disclosure to external judicial authorities, is the bridge between intention and achievement. The Vatican should choose full disclosure of information over self-preservation.”

The preliminary report marks the launch of a new campaign by CRIN to end sexual violence against children in religious institutions. With the report, the campaign first looks at child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church because of tomorrow’s UN review on the Holy See**.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Aljazeera

The Roman Catholic Church is still choosing self-preservation over full disclosure in child sex abuse cases, according to a report mapping the phemonenon of clerical paedophilia.

A 48-page document, published on Wednesday by the UK-based charity Child Rights International Network (CRIN), said there were still no global guidelines to directly deal with the welfare of the victims and that serious cases were not being sent to civil judicial authorities, despite decades of allegations and controversy.

CRIN director Veronica Yates said: “Child sexual abuse in religious institutions is one of the worst crimes ever committed against children.

“Our research shows that allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have been made in every corner of the world, yet the Holy See continues to harbour perpetrators of abuse, obstruct justice for victims and deny accountability.”

The report was published before a UN Committee on the Rights of a Child (CRC) meeting in Geneva on Thursday that will question a Holy See delegation on issues of transparency, access to justice for children and protection from violence in the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Turlock Journal

By Sabra Stafford
Crime Desk sstafford@turlockjournal.com 209-634-9141, ext. 2002
POSTED January 14, 2014

The Diocese of Stockton has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a series of costly sexual abuse settlements left them financially drained.

After months of contemplating the move to file bankruptcy, the Diocese announced Monday they would file the Chapter 11 papers today.

“After months of careful consideration and prayer, it has become clear to me that the Diocese of Stockton’s financial difficulties can only be resolved by filing for bankruptcy protection,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire. “This decision was reached through consultation with experts in finance and law, as well as with priests, parishioners and many others in the community our Diocese serves.”

Blaire said the Diocese has sufficient funds to cover the normal operations, but does not have the reserve funds needed to cover settle pending lawsuits stemming from sexual abuse allegations.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

Former Roman Catholic priest Jason Sigler, a central figure in New Mexico’s clerical sexual abuse lawsuits in the 1990s, returned to Albuquerque last month after completing a prison term and parole in Michigan, state records show.

Sigler, 75, listed a Taylor Ranch home as his residence on Dec. 9, the New Mexico sex offender registry shows. Neighbors said Tuesday that Sigler recently moved into his wife’s home.

No one answered the door at the residence on Tuesday. Neighbors said they have mixed feelings about Sigler’s presence in the neighborhood.

“Am I happy about it? No,” said Paul Kubiszewski, who lives across the street from Sigler with his wife, Miriam, and two sons, 8 and 3. “Am I going to harass him until he moves? No.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Wire

BRIAN FELDMAN

On Wednesday, Chicago’s archdiocese will begin to release documents related to decades of substantiated allegations of sexual abuse by the clergy.

The files are being released as a settlement and concern 30 priests and 40 victims of abuse. All of the incidents occurred before Francis George became archbishop in 1997, and George stated that the crimes “followed the now well-known national trends” of the 1970s and ’80s.

The Chicago Tribune writes:

One-third of the total number [of priests] are dead, many others have been removed from the priesthood, and none is now in active ministry, according to an attorney who represented the clergymen’s interests in negotiations that led to the release. An attorney for the archdiocese told the Tribune that 95 percent of the incidents in the records occurred more than 25 years ago, and none occurred since 1996.

Writing on the archdiocese’s website on Sunday, Cardinal Francis George stated, “the publication puts the actions of these men and the archdiocese itself in the spotlight. Painful though publicly reviewing the past can be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed,” and that, “publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level. It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Kevin Parrish
Record Staff Writer
January 15, 2014

SACRAMENTO – When the Stockton Diocese electronically files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, it will set in motion a series of deadlines that will take most of this year to play out.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton – the 10th diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy – represents 250,000 people in 35 parishes and 14 missions. It covers six counties, including San Joaquin and Calaveras, and employs 88 priests.

It was founded in 1962 out of what had been territory within the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of Sacramento.

The Stockton Diocese is being represented by the Capitol Mall-based bankruptcy law firm Felderstein Fitzgerald Willoughby & Pascuzzi.

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VATICAN CITY
News 12

January 15, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican faces a stiff challenge of its abuse record tomorrow as it defends itself publicly for the first time against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests.

The Holy See will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its 1990 implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Holy See submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly a decade.

Victims groups and human rights organizations are providing written testimony and other evidence outlining what they say is the global scale of the problem.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Boston.com

By TAMMY WEBBER / Associated Press / January 15, 2014

CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago will hand over thousands of pages of documents involving clergy sex abuse on Wednesday to victims’ attorneys, who will make them public next week as part of a yearslong attempt to hold the church accountable for how it handled abuse allegations, including concealing crimes and putting priests in a position to continue molesting children.

The nation’s third-largest archdiocese agreed to release the files as part of settlements with abuse victims, and will include complaints, personnel documents and other files for about 30 priests with substantiated abuse allegations.

The documents are similar to disclosures made in other dioceses in the U.S. in recent years that showed how the church shielded priests and failed to report child sex abuse to authorities. Chicago officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988 and none after 1996.

‘‘Until there is public disclosure and transparency … there is no way people can learn about it and make sure it does not happen again,’’ said Chicago attorney Marc Pearlman, who has represented about 200 abuse victims of clergy abuse in the Chicago area. He said he has been working to get the church to release the documents since 2005.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes&Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Vatican faces the UN! January 16, 2014

Watch the UN review via livestream here!

http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/category/webcast-archives/crc/

The review will take place on Thursday, January 16, 2014 from 10am-1pm CET, (4am-7am EST) where the Vatican will be reviewed on their compliance with the Convention on Rights of the Child and then from 3pm-6pm CET (9am-12 noon EST) the Vatican will be reviewed on their compliance with the Optional Protocols on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

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GENEVA
Authint Mail

GENEVA — Victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests said Tuesday they hoped UN scrutiny of the Vatican would help finally to hold perpetrators to account and halt future violations.

“This is an important moment for those of us who were raped, sodomised and sexually violated as children by priests,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a global coalition based in the United States.

“Over the years, we’ve struggled to understand why Church officials continue to support and cover up for sexual predators,” Blaine told reporters, two days before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was to examine the Vatican’s record.

“We’re hoping that finally the truth will be exposed and, more importantly, the Church officials will change what they are doing and that Pope Francis will take action that will actually protect children,” she added.

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GENEVA
7 News (Australia)

Geneva (AFP) – Victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests said Tuesday they hoped UN scrutiny of the Vatican would help finally to hold perpetrators to account and halt future violations.

“This is an important moment for those of us who were raped, sodomised and sexually violated as children by priests,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a global coalition based in the United States.

“Over the years, we’ve struggled to understand why Church officials continue to support and cover up for sexual predators,” Blaine told reporters, two days before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was to examine the Vatican’s record.

“We’re hoping that finally the truth will be exposed and, more importantly, the Church officials will change what they are doing and that Pope Francis will take action that will actually protect children,” she added.

Signatories of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child agree to be scrutinised by a watchdog panel.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Jan. 14, 2014

Three years after it declared bankruptcy as a way to deal with its mounting sex abuse claims, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is poised to file the reorganization plan that will detail how it compensates abuse victims and operates as an institution into the future.

The archdiocese has said the plan is complete. But it has offered few hints about its content or when it might be filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Milwaukee.

While the reorganization plan is a significant step toward exiting bankruptcy, legal scholars suggest that exit could still be a long way off. Even then, the legal battles could go on for years.

“This is not the end game. There will be multiple objections on multiple bases,” said Pamela Foohey, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, who specializes in bankruptcy law.

The Milwaukee bankruptcy, filed by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in January 2011, came after the archdiocese had been largely successful in fighting lawsuits dating back at least to the 1950s.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a practicing Catholic, met for almost two hours recently with Cardinal-designate Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, traditionally the top Vatican position under the pope. Ironically, Parolin had been then powerful Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano’s top deputy in 2004 when the Vatican reportedly helped undermine Kerry among US Catholic voters leading to Kerry’s loss to President Bush.

The two reportedly discussed issues related to international religious freedom, including Middle East hot spots and even US healthcare reform. US bishops appear to be contending in the current election campaign for control of the US Senate and likely the continuing US Supreme Court majority that Obamacare’s contraception insurance mandate violates their religious freedom. For more on the meeting, see:

[National Catholic Reporter]

Lurking in the background appears to be the Vatican’s goal of preventing outside governments’ involvement in the Vatican’s control of its bishops, especially in their lobbying efforts to regulate women’s reproduction options as well as their management, or mismanagement, of child abuse allegations worldwide. Looming clashes between national governments and the Vatican on these issues seem inevitable. It is unclear whether the recent meeting will lead to direct discussions between Pope Francis and President Obama on religious freedom, contraception insurance and/or unaccountable bishops. The two have never met.

Meanwhile, later this week the Vatican will have to answer on the record for six hours questions on its child abuse oversight before an international tribunal, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva.

In a 2005 meeting on related Middle East and religious freedom matters, Vatican Secretary of State Sodano, Parolin’s boss then, reportedly sought US Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice’s help in dealing with the Vatican’s oversight of a bishop in a US priest child abuse case, see:

[National Catholic Reporter]

It is unknown whether either Parolin or Kerry raised the priest child abuse scandal subject recently, although the scandal is even more pressing today than it was in 2005.

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CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

BY SUE NOWICKI
snowicki@modbee.comJ
anuary 14, 2014

The Rev. Michael Kelly faces up to 14 years in prison if he’s convicted of the charges included in a Calaveras criminal grand jury indictment presented Monday to Superior Court Judge John E. Martin. The indictment includes three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.

It’s the first criminal charges against Kelly, a longtime Stockton Diocese priest who fled to his native Ireland in April 2012 after he was found liable in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing Travis Trotter. The diocese settled that lawsuit with the largest single award in diocesan history — $3.75 million.

A news release said the Calaveras County district attorney’s office will work with the Office of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., to extradite Kelly from Ireland. Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil said it’s a “lengthy” process but the indictment means the statute of limitations won’t expire, “so that we will be able to pursue justice for the victim when Kelly is caught and returned to Calaveras County no matter how long it takes.”

Kelly, who served at Our Lady of Fatima in Modesto from 1973-79 and helped start the Modesto Youth Soccer Association, responded to the indictment in an email to The Bee: “ I can categorically state to you, and to anyone else, that these allegations are totally and completely false. They absolutely never happened.”

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GENEVA
London South East

Vienna (Alliance News) – Children will be able to bring violations of their rights before a UN human rights body in Geneva from April, the United Nations said Tuesday in Geneva.

Children or their representatives will be allowed to file complaints with the Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child, if all other legal avenues are exhausted in their country.

“It means children are able to fully exercise their rights and are empowered to have access to international human rights bodies in the same way adults are under several other human rights treaties,” said Kirsten Sandberg, the committee’s chairwoman.

UN treaties guarantee the development and family life of children, while aiming to protect them against various forms of exploitation.

The body’s 18 independent experts would adopt child-sensitive procedures and would issue recommendations to the country in question, she said.

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UNITED NATIONS
United Nations News Centre

14 January 2014 – A new legal instrument allowing children or their representatives to file a complaint with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is set to go into effect in April, following its final required ratification, the United Nations today announced.

Costa Rica became the tenth country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the child on a Communications Procedure, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announcement noted.

“The Optional Protocol gives children who have exhausted all legal avenues in their own countries the possibility of applying to the Committee,” said Kirsten Sandberg, Chairperson of the Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors implementation of the treaty and its protocols.

“It means children are able to fully exercise their rights and are empowered to have access to international human rights bodies in the same way adults are under several other human rights treaties.”

Starting in April, individual children or groups of children from the countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol will be able to submit complaints to the Committee on specific violations related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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EUROPE
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 14, 2014 NCR Today

Two groups of noted German theologians have bluntly outlined how church teaching does not align with the concerns or lifestyles of most European Catholics in response to a Vatican questionnaire on Catholics’ attitudes on issues like contraception and same-sex marriage.

Church sexual teachings, say the representatives of the Association of German Moral Theologians and the Conference of German-speaking Pastoral Theologians, come from an “idealized reality” and need a “fundamental, new evaluation.”

“It becomes painfully obvious that the Christian moral teaching that limits sexuality to the context of marriage cannot look closely enough at the many forms of sexuality outside of marriage,” say the 17 signers of the response, who include some of Germany’s most respected Catholic academics.

The theologians also propose that the church adopt a whole new paradigm for its sexual teachings, based not on moral evaluations of individual sex acts but on the fragility of marriage and the vulnerability people experience in their sexuality.

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GENEVA
News 24

Geneva – Victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests said on Tuesday they hoped UN scrutiny of the Vatican would help finally to hold perpetrators to account and halt future violations.

“This is an important moment for those of us who were raped, sodomised and sexually violated as children by priests,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), a global coalition based in the United States.

“Over the years, we’ve struggled to understand why Church officials continue to support and cover up for sexual predators,” Blaine told reporters, two days before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was to examine the Vatican’s record.

“We’re hoping that finally the truth will be exposed and, more importantly, the Church officials will change what they are doing and that Pope Francis will take action that will actually protect children,” she added.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 14 2014

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

The head of a church youth group near Baltimore has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

[CBS News]

According to police reports, Robert David Wright who works directly with children at Clynmalira United Methodist Church in Phoenix, MD, was found to have pornographic photos and videos of young girls, including babies, and some images allegedly included children being raped.

It is not likely that Wright became a youth group leader coincidentally. We suspect he sought that position so he could have access to and influence over kids.

Our hearts go out to the members of the community who feel betrayed and victimized. We urge Clynmalira United Methodist Church officials to aggressively seek out anyone who may have been abused and encourage anyone who may have seen or suspect something to speak up.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

A religious order of Catholic brothers has apologised for the abuse of boys in its care in the North.

De La Salle ran a home in Kircubbin in Co Down which is due to be examined by a public inquiry into historical wrongdoing.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the UK’s largest ever investigation into child abuse in residential homes over seven decades.

Decades of physical, sexual and emotional suffering were inflicted upon the most vulnerable by the church, state and voluntary organisations, it has been alleged.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

[with video]

The inquiry into historical abuse has heard an apology from the De La Salle Brothers for the suffering inflicted on boys in their care.

The Catholic religious order said it “accepts” and “regrets” what happened to children who stayed at a home in Kircubbin, Co Down, which was run by the brothers.

It is one of a number of church and state institutions which are now at the centre of the UK’s largest ever investigation into alleged abuse over seven decades.

Kevin Rooney QC, for the De La Salle Brothers, told the public hearing: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect. That some brothers abused boys in care was in contradiction to their vocation as De La Salle Brothers.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

14 JANUARY 2014

An order of Catholic Brothers has apologised for abusing boys at its residential care home in Northern Ireland.

The De La Salle religious figures ran a property in Kircubbin, Co Down, south east of Belfast, which was supposed to provide sanctuary and education for vulnerable children. Instead they abused those under their protection, a public inquiry established to determine the extent of the abuse heard.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “That some brothers abused boys in care was in contradiction to their vocation as De La Salle Brothers.”

He added: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

The Brothers’ Rubane House in Kircubbin is due to come under the spotlight during the UK’s largest-ever inquiry into historical wrongs committed against children across several Catholic orders, voluntary groups and the state over seven decades.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 January 2014

Two Catholic orders have now admitted children were abused in their care at the largest inquiry into institutional child abuse in UK legal history.

The Sisters of Nazareth nuns joined the De La Salle Brothers in their admissions on Tuesday that girls and boys were subjected to physical and sexual abuse in institutions in Northern Ireland that they controlled.

On day two of hearings at the Northern Ireland historical institutional abuse inquiry, Turlough Montague, a barrister representing the nuns, said: “They recognise the hurt that’s been caused to some children in their care. They apologise unreservedly for any abuse suffered by children in their care. They go forward hoping that lessons will be learned, not just by them in the provision of care but also by carers generally in society and in wider society at large.”

Earlier at Banbridge courthouse, Kevin Rooney, a barrister representing the De La Salle Brothers, told the inquiry the religious order accepted there was abuse at its boys’ home in Kircubbin.

Rooney said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

An order of Catholic Brothers has apologised for abusing boys at its residential care home in Northern Ireland. The De La Salle religious figures ran a property in Kircubbin, Co Down, which was supposed to provide sanctuary and education for vulnerable children.

Instead they abused those under their protection, a public inquiry established to determine the extent of the abuse heard. Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “That some brothers abused boys in care was in contradiction to their vocation as De La Salle Brothers.”

He added: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

The Brothers’ Rubane House in Kircubbin is due to come under the spotlight during the UK’s largest-ever inquiry into historical wrongs committed against children across several Catholic orders, voluntary groups and the state over seven decades.

Many young people were taken into care because their mother was not married, because their families were too poor to keep them or because they were orphans. Once inside some were physically and sexually attacked, victims claim. Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the probe and also heard an apology from the Sisters of Nazareth order of nuns who ran institutions in Belfast and Derry.

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
January 14, 2014

Another American diocese filing for bankruptcy? Ho-hum. That’s become fairly routine, hasn’t it?

Yes, but look again.

Stockton’s Bishop Stephen Blaire announced that bankruptcy was the only realistic choice for the diocese, because of the sex-abuse scandal. As he put it:

Very simply, we are in this situation because of those priests in our diocese who perpetrated grave, evil acts of child sexual abuse.

Now that is new. It’s not new that the sex-abuse scandal has plunged dioceses into bankruptcy; we’ve known that all along. It’s new that a bishop is explaining the problem in such plain language.

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CALIFORNIA
My Mother Lode

January 14, 2014
B.J. Hansen, MML News Director

San Andreas, CA — A Calaveras County criminal grand jury has indicted a former Mother Lode priest, Michael Eugene Kelly, on four counts related to sexual acts with a child.

It includes three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and one count of oral copulation with a child. The indictment was presented to Judge John E. Martin in Calaveras Superior Court yesterday, and he then issued an arrest warrant for Kelly, in the amount of $175,000. The District Attorney’s Office reports that Kelly is living in Ireland, and the office will be working with the Office of International Affairs in Washington, DC to extradite Kelly back to Calaveras County.

“Locating and extraditing Kelly could be a lengthy process,” said Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil, who presented the case to the Grand Jury. “However, the indictment handed down by the Grand Jury tolls the statute of limitations so that we will be able to pursue justice for the victim when Kelly is caught and returned to Calaveras County, no matter how long it takes.”

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STOCKTON (CA)
Wall Street Journal

By STEPHANIE GLEASON
Jan. 14, 2014 T

The Catholic Diocese of Stockton, Calif., said it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday to address growing liabilities stemming from allegations of sexual abuse.

The diocese, known legally as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton, explained its financial troubles saying, “Very simply, we are in this situation because of those priests in our diocese who perpetrated grave, evil acts of child sexual abuse,” according to a news release issued Monday.

Over the past 20 years, the diocese has spent $14 million in legal settlements and judgments over these allegations. Despite having a balanced budget overall, it doesn’t have the funds available to settle currently pending lawsuits or allegations that could arise in the future, it said.

A Chapter 11 filing will allow the diocese to discharge liabilities stemming from sexual-abuse allegations and set up a trust for victims to receive compensation. The diocese said it hopes to arrive at a global resolution with victims and insurers through this process.

While in bankruptcy, the parties will likely agree on a figure that the diocese would contribute, in addition to potentially pulling in funds from insurers, but the diocese admits it holds “relatively little property and assets” overall.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore County Police

A 35-year-old Cockeysville man who is a youth group leader at a Baltimore County church has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Robert David Wright, of the 10000 block of Hillgreen Circle, 21030, is held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $150,000 bail.

An investigation by BCoPD’s Crimes Against Children Unit found that Wright had downloaded to his home computer thousands of pornographic images of female babies, toddlers and prepubescent girls, including images of children being raped.

The investigation shows that Wright shared these images electronically with other users.

Wright is a youth group leader at Clynmalira United Methodist Church, 2920 Stockton Road, Phoenix. There is no evidence at this time that any of the children pictured in the photos and videos recovered at Wright’s residence were members of Clynmalira UMC, or that Wright sexually abused children himself. However, the investigation is ongoing, and detectives are still reviewing the vast amount of pornographic material seized from this suspect’s home.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

By Jon Meoli, jmeoli@tribune.com
6:28 p.m. EST, January 13, 2014

Baltimore County Police said Monday that a Cockeysville man who leads a youth group at the Clynmalira United Methodist Church in Phoenix was arrested Friday and charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Robert David Wright, 35, of the 10000 block of Hillgreen Circle in Cockeysville, was found to have “downloaded to his home computer thousands of pornographic images of female babies, toddlers, and prepubescent girls, including images of children being raped,” Baltimore County Police said.

The investigation, which was conducted by the county police department’s Crimes Against Children Unit, showed that Wright shared the images with other online users, police said.

In a release posted on their website, county police said the investigation is ongoing and materials seized from his home are being reviewed, but there is currently no evidence any of the children in the photos were church members or sexually abused by Wright himself.

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MARYLAND
Fox Baltimore

A 35-year-old youth group leader at a Baltimore County church has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

An investigation found that Robert David Wright of Cockeysville had downloaded thousands of pornographic images of female babies, toddlers and prepubescent girls, including images of children being raped, onto his home computer, county police said. Investigators also found that Wright had shared those images electronically with other users.

Wright is being held at the Baltimore County Detention center on $150,000 bail. Wright is a youth group leader at Clynmalira United Methodist Church. Police say there is no evidence at this time that any of the children pictured in the photos and videos recovered at Wright’s home were members of Clynmalira UMC, or that Wright sexually abused children himself.

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MARYLAND
WUSA

Greg Cohen

COCKEYSVILLE, Md. (WUSA) — A youth group leader at a Baltimore County church has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Police say Robert David Wright, of the 10000 block of Hillgreen Circle in Cockeysville, Md., was found to have downloaded to his home computer thousands of pornographic images of female babies, toddlers and prepubescent girls, including images of children being raped.

Wright is a youth group leader at Clynmalira United Methodist Church, located at 2920 Stockton Road in Phoenix, Md., police say.

There is no evidence at this time that any of the children pictured in the photos and videos recovered at Wright’s residence were members of that church, or that Wright had ever sexually abused children himself, police say.

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MARYLAND
CBS News

COCKEYSVILLE, Md. – The youth group leader of a Baltimore County church has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography, according to CBS Baltimore.

Investigators reportedly found thousands of pornographic photos of female babies, toddlers and prepubescent girls on Robert David Wright’s home computer. Some of the images allegedly included children being raped.

The 35-year-old is a youth group leader at Clynmalira United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Md. The station reports there is no evidence that the children in the photos and videos were from the church, or that Wright has sexually abused children himself.

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MARYLAND
Christian Post

Md. Youth Pastor Charged With Child Porn After Police Allegedly Seize Images of Raped Babies Found on Computer

BY JESSICA MARTINEZ, CP REPORTER
January 14, 2014

A youth pastor was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography after police found thousands of images of female babies, toddlers, prepubescent girls and other children being raped on his home computer in Cockeysville, Md.

The investigation by Baltimore County Police found that Robert David Wright, 35, who led a youth group at Clynmalira United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Md., also allegedly shared the images with others online.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Pastor John Dailey of Clynmalira released a statement on Monday in which he confirmed that Wright is a member of his church and was a volunteer leader of the congregation’s youth group, while adding that church officials are taking the allegations against him “very seriously.”

“Providing a safe environment for the children and youth of the church is of vital importance to us,” said Dailey.

Although Wright faces hefty charges if convicted, there is currently no evidence that he sexually abused the children in the images himself or that they are members of the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Calaveras Enterprise

Enterprise report

The Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that former San Andreas priest Michael Eugene Kelly had been indicted on three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a 10-year-old child and one count of oral copulation with a child.

The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation in this case. The indictment alleges Kelly began committing the acts of molestation when the victim was 10 years old.

Calaveras County Superior Court Judge John E. Martin issued an arrest warrant for Kelly in the amount of $175,000. If convicted of all charges, Kelly faces 14 years in prison.

Kelly lives in Ireland and must be extradited to Calaveras County to answer for his charges. The DA’s Office will be working with the Office of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., to extradite Kelly.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Peterborough Telegraph

by Ken McErlain
ken.mcerlain@peterboroughtoday.co.uk
Published on the 14 January

Tuesday 5.30pm: A former Peterborough priest has been arrested on suspicion of having indecent images of children.

Father David Jennings, current parish priest of St Mary’s Church in Great Yarmouth, has been arrested by Norfolk Police.

The Norwich-born Catholic Priest took over at the church in September having previously served at St Peter and All Souls Church in Peterborough.

In July 2012 he was awarded Freedom of the City of Peterborough for his services to the city.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 14, 2014

Less than 24 hours after Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire announced his intentions to file bankruptcy on Wednesday, the Calaveras County Grand Jury has handed down a criminal indictment of Fr. Michael Kelly.

According to the Lodi News/Modesto Bee, “the criminal grand jury indicted Kelly on three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.”

During five years of civil litigation—which unearthed enough evidence to convince a civil jury that Kelly most likely had abused Travis Trotter—Bishop Blaire allowed Kelly to remain in ministry, working with children and administering sacraments (holding the keys to parishioners’ salvation). After the jury verdict and Kelly fled to Ireland, Blaire said he “urged Kelly to return” but continued to defend the priest‘s

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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

We support the victims and advocates who want to see the Northern Ireland institutional abuse investigation to spread to England and Wales.

[The Guardian]

Kids were hurt in these institutions in large part because governmental officials were at least negligence, or perhaps worse. So the least that governmental officials can do now is to investigate and hold open public hearings. This would help in three ways. It would help those who have suffered so long might at least be heard. It would help the public understand how such devastating maltreatment could have happened and be hidden. And it would help deter recklessness, callousness and deceit by church, school and governmental officials in the future.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Newsletter

A religious order of Catholic brothers has apologised for the abuse of boys in its care in Northern Ireland.

De La Salle ran a home in Kircubbin in Co Down which is due to be examined by a public inquiry into historical wrongdoing.

Kevin Rooney QC, on behalf of the order, said: “They accept and deeply regret that boys in their care were abused. They wish to offer their sincere and unreserved apology to all those whom they failed to protect.”

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the UK’s largest ever investigation into child abuse in residential homes over seven decades.

Decades of physical, sexual and emotional suffering were inflicted upon the most vulnerable by the church, state and voluntary organisations, it has been alleged.

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CALIFORNIA
Kipa

[The Stockton diocese is filing for bankruptcy.]

Stockton, 14.1.14 (Kipa) Das kalifornische Bistum Stockton will wegen drohender Zahlungsunfähigkeit an diesem Mittwoch Gläubigerschutz beantragen. Nach eigenen Angaben ist es das zehnte der 194 römisch-katholischen Bistümer in den USA, das diesen Schritt vollzieht. Bischof Stephen Blaire sprach in einer am Montagabend (Ortszeit) veröffentlichten Erklärung von einer «schwierigen Entscheidung». Sie erlaube jedoch «ein Verfahren, die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs so fair wie möglich zu entschädigen». Der Gläubigerschutz solle zudem die Weiterarbeit der katholischen Kirche von Stockton gewährleisten.

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NORDIRLAND
Tiroler Tageszeitung

[Hundreds of cases of child abuse are being examined in Northern Ireland.]

Belfast – In einem bisher nicht gekannten Ausmaß sollen in Nordirland in den nächsten Monaten Hunderte Fälle von Kindesmissbrauch aufgearbeitet werden. Bei der öffentlichen Untersuchung geht es um Vorfälle aus den Jahren 1922 bis 1995 in Kinderheimen und anderen öffentlichen Institutionen, wie es am Montag von der richterlichen Untersuchungskommission hieß.

Am Ende soll entschieden werden, ob der Missbrauch systematisch erfolgte und die Behörden versagt haben. In Fällen, in denen es möglich ist, sollen Untersuchungen der Polizei und Verfahren angestoßen werden.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Several child sexual and physical abuse lawsuits against Catholic institutions in South Dakota have been tossed out at the urging of local Catholic officials.

[South Dakota Public Broadcasting]

It is shameful that Catholic officials are exploiting a legal technicality to evade responsibility for heinous crimes against kids that they could and should have prevented. And it’s equally shameful that legislators are enabling complicit Catholic officials to get by with this.

Over the past decade, most states have reformed archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations, enabling more child sex abuse victims to use the time-tested U.S. courts to expose predators and protect kids. South Dakota is the only state that has moved backwards.

But just because misguided lawmakers create these loopholes doesn’t mean that purportedly religious figures must take advantage of them. Catholic officials should fight child sex abuse victims, if they must, on the merits, not on the technicalities. If Catholic officials handled these predatory priests properly, they have no reason to fear trials.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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

We are upset that a former priest who was serving jail for molesting Michigan kids is now living in Albuquerque New Mexico.

[MLive]

He is Jason E. Sigler, who pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual assault in 2003.

We urge Santa Fe Archbishop is Michael Jarboe Sheehan to warn his flock about Sigler.

We also encourage individuals in the Michigan area who may have seen, suspected, or suffered abuse by Sigler to call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids, deter cover ups and start healing.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

VIDEO: Father Paul Weighing Defamation Lawsuit Against Archbishop Apuron

Guam – Father Paul Gofigan, already embroiled in a dispute with Archbishop Apuron, is now contemplating a defamation lawsuit against the leader of Guam’s Catholic Church.

Tim Rohr, a close observer of the island’s Catholic community and the editor of the JungleWatch website says that the contemplated lawsuit stems from remarks reportedly made by the Archbishop about Father Paul at a retreat last fall.

Rohr has obtained letters from Father Paul to the Archbishop in which Father Paul called on the Archbishop to retract his remarks. He gave the Archbishop until noon today to do so. But Father Paul announces in a news release [see below] that so far, there has been no retraction or apology by the Archbishop.

The controversy is an out-growth of a decision made by the Archbishop last year to relieve Father Paul as Pastor of the Santa Barbara Church in Dededo. Father Paul has hired a Cannon lawyer and is appealing that decision to the Vatican. That case remains unresolved.

READ the release from Father Paul below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: Father Paul Gofigan
RE: STATEMENT REGARDING REQUEST FROM ARCHBISHOP APURON FOR RETRACTION AND APOLOGY

Tamuning, Guam – January 14, 2014 – At the recent retreat for the clergy of the Archdiocese of Agana this past November, Archbishop Apuron made statements about me and Mr. Joseph Lastimoza that I consider slanderous and defamatory to both to me and Mr. Lastimoza.

On December 6, 2013, I sent a letter to Archbishop Apuron requesting he retract those statements and apologize. He ignored my request.

On Monday, January 13, 2014, I sent another letter to the Archbishop, noting that it had been over a month since my request, that he had not responded in any way, and that I would give him till noon, Tuesday, January 14, to comply with my request for a retraction and an apology in writing, and that a copy be sent to every member of the clergy.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – The riff continues between Father Paul Gofigan and Archbishop Anthony Apuron. In a letter Father Gofigan demands a written apology and retraction of defamatory comments allegedly made by Archbishop Apuron to about 30 clergy while on a retreat to the Philippines.

Father Gofigan gave the archbishop until noon today to issue an apology.

It was one month ago Father Paul Gofigan wrote a letter to Archbishop Anthony Apuron demanding that he retract alleged defamatory comments.

The letter alleges the archbishop made insinuations that Father Paul Gofigan was carrying out an intimate relationship with a married man. Although Gofigan has not been available for comment, Tim Rohr creator of the Jungle Watch Blog was privvy to a copy of Gofigans’s letter and posted it on his website. “Word got out you know in front of thirty people I suppose somebody talked to somebody and it got back to Father Paul, Father Paul took issue and last December 6 sent a letter to the archbishop asking him to send a letter to the clergy to set the record straight.

“Made some heavy references that it could be a sexual relationship using the words such as being intimate and also alleging that he had built a staircase to his upstairs room that the man the man would bring alcohol and booze,” he said.

Father Gofigan in his letter to the archbishop defended himself and the man he is alleged to have relations with. Gofigan said the staircase was actually built well before he even moved into his home. He also admitted that beer was one of his favorite drinks and on occasion the man in question along with other parishioners of the church would donate alcohol along with other food and supplies. Father Gofigan added that parishioners would often visit to socialize, hear confessions and seek counsel. Father Gofigan further demanded that the archbishop retract in writing the “slanderous and defamatory statements”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Norwich Evening News

Peter Walsh, Crime Correspondent
Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A Norfolk priest has been arrested on suspicion of having indecent images of children.

Father David Jennings, parish priest of St Mary’s Church in Regent Road, Great Yarmouth, was arrested by Norfolk police it has emerged.

A statement issued by the Diocese of East Anglia confirms Father Jennings was arrested on January 9 with regard to allegations relating to safeguarding issues. He has been released on police bail and will report back to them in due course.

It said: “Father Jennings has voluntarily withdrawn from all active ministry and as a governor of St Mary’s Primary School, Gorleston, and as a member of the Safeguarding Commission for the Diocese with immediate effect.

“His withdrawal makes no judgement of guilt or innocence but is in accord with the safeguarding procedures of the Catholic Church of England and Wales.”

The Right Revd Alan Hopes, Bishop of East Anglia, has affirmed that “The safeguarding of children and vulnerable people is of paramount importance to the Catholic Church and the Diocese is co-operating fully with the police in this ongoing investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved in this matter.”

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CANADA
Quinte News

Graphic detail was released during the first day of trial against a former Tyendinaga Township Catholic priest.

According to the Whig Standard, the victim turned to drugs, developed an eating disorder and became suicidal following the alleged incident in 2003 or 2004.

The assault is said to have taken place on Wolfe Island, where Father Rene Labelle is accused of sexually assaulting the unnamed victim.

Labelle spent time at Saint Charles Borromeo in Read in the late 80′s and early 90′s.

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ILLINOIS
Peoria Public Radio

[with audio]

By SEAN CRAWFORD

An internal church investigation has determined an allegation of sex abuse against an Illinois priest is “credible.” IPR’S Sean Crawford has details:

30 years ago, Father Robert DeGrand worked in a Jacksonville parish. It was during that time he is alleged to have sexually abused a child. The Springfield Diocese formed a panel to review the claim, and has now determined it has merit. However, the details have not been made public.

The 61 year old DeGrand has most recently worked in churches in the Effingham area. He’s on leave and his future within the church is unclear. The matter is being turned over to the Vatican which could remove him from the priesthood.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A priest from Norfolk has been arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.

Father David Jennings was appointed parish priest at St Mary’s in Great Yarmouth in 2012.

Norfolk Police confirmed a 56-year-old man had been released on police bail.

In a statement, the Diocese of East Anglia said Father Jennings had voluntarily withdrawn from all active ministry, as a governor at St Mary’s Primary School in Gorleston, and as a member of the Safeguarding Commission for the Diocese of East Anglia.

But it said the priest’s withdrawal from his duties “makes no judgement of guilt of innocence”.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A Brooklyn man who admitted he offered a teenage girl $500,000 to leave the country instead of testifying in a sex abuse trial against her former spiritual counselor has been sentenced to four months in jail.

Abraham Rubin apologized and said he’d made a terrible mistake as he was sentenced Friday in Brooklyn.

Three other men were also charged with intimidation in the incident along with Rubin.

The 50-year-old Rubin offered the bribe to the girl and her now-husband in 2012. He told them justice would be better served if they didn’t testify in the case against Nechemya Weberman.

Weberman was a highly respected counselor in the ultra-Orthodox Satmar Jewish community. After his arrest, the community rallied around him, and many people intimidated his accuser.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Some children’s homes in Northern Ireland in the 1960s were relics of a bygone era, the inquiry into institutional child abuse has heard.

The inquiry is examining abuse claims in NI children’s homes and juvenile justice between 1922 and 1995.

Post-war welfare reforms were not adopted by some institutions, the senior counsel to the panel said.

“The evidence suggests that those homes operated as outdated survivors of a bygone age,” said Christine Smith QC.

The biggest ever public inquiry into child abuse ever held in the UK is investigating claims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as childhood neglect.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Times

By JASON HOROWITZ and JIM YARDLEY
JAN. 13, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Less than a year into his papacy, Pope Francis has raised expectations among the world’s one billion Roman Catholics that change is coming. He has already transformed the tone of the papacy, confessing himself a sinner, declaring “Who am I to judge?” when asked about gays, and kneeling to wash the feet of inmates, including Muslims.

Less apparent, if equally significant for the future of the church, is how Francis has taken on a Vatican bureaucracy so plagued by intrigue and inertia that it contributed, numerous church officials now believe, to the historic resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, last February.

In St. Peter’s Basilica on New Year’s Eve, Francis, dressed in golden robes, hinted at the major changes he had already set in motion. “What happened this year?” he asked. “What is happening, and what will happen?”

To some of the scarlet-clad cardinals seated in rows of gilded armchairs at the New Year’s service, the answer was becoming clear. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, one of the highest-ranking Americans in the Vatican, found his influence diluted. Another conservative, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, was demoted. Among the bishops, Archbishop Guido Pozzo was sidelined.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

A Vatican spokesman has denied a report that the Holy See refused to extradite a Vatican diplomat who has been accused of sexual abuse, and revealed that the Vatican is conducting its own criminal investigation in the case.

Last week reports from Poland indicated that the Vatican had refused a request to extradite Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who has been accused of molesting young men both in his native Poland and in the Dominican Republic, where he served as apostolic nuncio until he was recalled to Rome last year. But Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, told reporters that the Holy See had not received an extradition request. Polish officials had merely inquired about the archbishop’s legal status, the Vatican spokesman said; they had been informed that Archbishop Wesolowski is a citizen of Vatican City.

At the same time, he said that Archbishop Wesolowski is the subject of a canonical investigation, undertaken by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As a Vatican citizen he could also be charged with criminal offenses under the Vatican’s penal code.

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CHICAGO (IL)
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

EDITORIAL

Over the weekend Archdiocese of Chicago parishioners received a letter from the man in charge of the Archdiocese, Cardinal Francis George.

In the letter, Chicago Catholics found out that documents about 30 sexually abusive priests will be released this month because of a court proceeding.

Besides the heads up, these Catholics were treated to a new explanation of responsibility in this archdiocese for a priest in this Archdiocese who was arrested in 2005 and 2006 – on Cardinal George’s watch — and who is currently serving a prison term on an abuse conviction. This priest: Daniel McCormack.

Cardinal George, a prince of the Church, starts his explanation about McCormack with a new approach in finger pointing in this largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church’s history in the past half millennia. He blames dead Cardinal Joseph Bernardin for poor vetting of McCormack before his ordination.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

EDITOR’S VIEWPOINT – 14 JANUARY 2014

Some of our past experiences have given us a jaundiced view of public inquiries. Critics say they are often too long, too expensive and a great payday for lawyers. While the inquiry into historical abuse of children in Northern Ireland will cost an estimated £19m and will not report until 2016, these charges are not appropriate in this instance.

This inquiry, which will hear from 300 witnesses and embrace 14 residential care homes in Northern Ireland over a period of more than 70 years, is about uncovering the truth of what happened to the most vulnerable members of our society – young children. Many of them probably can scarcely believe that at last someone will listen to their stories.

While the inquiry can pass on information to the PSNI and then to the Director of Public Prosecutions if it believes there is a possibility of prosecution, that is not its primary aim. That aim is to give a voice to people who were silenced for far too long and who are now only gaining their opportunity to speak because of the litany of other abuses of children which were uncovered in other parts of this island. That made calls for an inquiry here irresistible.

During the course of the inquiry it may be possible to discern common themes of abuse and failures of statutory bodies to either identify instances of abuse or prevent them happening. There is no doubt from the evidence already in the public domain that children were failed by bodies whose duty was to protect them. What we must now hope is that the reasons for such failure can be made clear and new protocols put in place to ensure that care homes are exactly that – places where children are valued and cared for.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY SAMUEL MORRISON – 14 JANUARY 2014

On Monday an inquiry investigating child abuse in state run institutions got under way.

It seems certain that the inquiry will uncover many harrowing stories. It needs to be pointed out, however, that the inquiry will create a hierarchy of abuse victims.

While it will investigate cases where abuse took place within state run institutions, those who suffered abuse outside institutions and were the object of clerical abuse are excluded.

When the issue came before the Assembly TUV was lobbied by victims of clerical abuse, including by families of Brendan Smyth’s victims, and was convinced by their arguments that clerical abuse should be included within the terms of reference of the Inquiry.

Jim Allister therefore sought to widen the scope of the inquiry to include clerical abuse but his amendments were blocked from even reaching the floor of the House.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Abuse victim Margaret McGuckin speaks at the opening session of the independent Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry at Banbridge Court, Northern Ireland. The Inquiry is hearing abuse claims in children’s homes and juvenile justice centres, in Northern Ireland, over a period spanning more than seven decades and has the power to compel witnesses and refer evidence to the police for criminal investigation. Its aim is to establish if there were “systemic failings by institutions or the state in their duties towards those children in their care”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 14 JANUARY 2014

Criminal prosecutions are likely as a result of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, which is now under way.

If a prosecution is imminent, the inquiry will go into closed session in order to avoid prejudicing a fair trial, the inquiry’s chair Sir Anthony Hart stressed yesterday.

In his opening comments, Sir Anthony said that more than 300 men and women will give “deeply upsetting” evidence about the abuse they suffered, which “in some cases they have never spoken to their closest family about”.

Yesterday saw the opening day of the Government investigation into claims of sexual and physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect in 14 residential care homes in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

It will be the most wide-ranging investigation of allegations of institutional child abuse in the UK to date, at an estimated cost of £19m.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

14 JANUARY 2014

Some children’s homes in Northern Ireland were operating as outdated survivors of a bygone age by the 1960s, a lawyer has told an inquiry into historical abuse.

Decades of physical, sexual and emotional suffering were inflicted upon the most vulnerable by the church, state and voluntary organisations, it has been alleged.

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is chairing the UK’s largest ever investigation into child abuse in residential homes over seven decades.

A senior lawyer to the investigating panel, Christine Smith QC, said welfare reforms introduced by the Northern Ireland government after the Second World War were not adopted by some institutions.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

300 victims of child homes horror to tell their story as abuse inquiry finally opens

BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 13 JANUARY 2014

A £19m Government investigation on the abuse of children over a 73-year period in Northern Ireland residential institutions is under way.

More than 300 men and women will give evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) on the physical and sexual abuse and neglect they suffered from those who should have cared for them.

The witnesses, now middle-aged and older, will tell their harrowing stories at the inquiry, which will be held in Banbridge Courthouse, Co Down.

At the end of the 18 months of evidence, involving at least 14 individual institutions, the inquiry will determine whether there were “systemic failings” in preventing such abuse.

The inquiry will investigate historical institutional abuse – if there were systemic failings by institutions or the State “in the duties towards those children in their care between years of 1922-1995”. Abuse will include physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as neglect.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

Brandie Piper, KSDK

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Archdiocese will not have to release the names of priests who have been accused of sexual abuse, at least for now.

A Missouri Supreme Court gave the Archdiocese a delay in the case.

The Archdiocese was ordered to turn over the names of everyone involved in a sex abuse investigation over the last 20 years.

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CANADA
CBC News

An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Catholic priest facing sex-related charges involving a teenager in northern New Brunswick in the 1980s.

Charles Picot, who is in his late 60s, failed to appear in Bathurst court on Monday to answer to three charges of gross indecency and indecent assault.

Picot, who has twice been convicted of similar charges and acquitted once, was not present due to a medical problem, the courtroom heard.

The judge issued the arrest warrant, but decided to hold onto it until Picot’s next court date at the end of April. If Picot does not show up for court again at that time, the judge will send the police after him.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, January 14, 2014 – In addition to the appointment of cardinals, Pope Francis is also taking liberties with the selection of bishops.

Above all when it comes to his native Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio often (if not always) neglects to submit the appointment to the judgment of the cardinals and bishops who make up the Vatican congregation set up for this purpose, even though he radically overhauled it before Christmas.

In Argentina, during the first ten months of his pontificate, Francis has made fifteen episcopal appointments: eight “ex novo” and seven with transfers from other positions.

But in one of these Argentine appointments, something must not have gone quite right.

It is that concerning one of the two auxiliaries of Lomas de Zamora appointed by the pope last December 3, the Capuchin Carlos Alberto Novoa de Agustini, 47, who – as stated in the official biography published in the bulletin of the Holy See on that date – in May of 1996 had “received priestly ordination from the then-auxiliary of Buenos Aires, Bishop Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.”

It happened, in fact, that on the subsequent December 14 a statement from the diocese said that Novoa de Agustini would not be consecrated bishop because “after mature discernment” he had “requested from the Holy Father Francis a dispensation from his appointment, which he had granted to him.” No details were given on the reasons for this reversal.

It is somewhat rare for a bishop to resign the position between the announcement of his appointment and his consecration. The last conspicuous case was that of the auxiliary bishop of Linz, in Austria, the conservative Gerhard Wagner, who asked for the dispensation from Benedict XVI, who had appointed him on January 31, 2009, after the noisy progressive component of the clergy rebelled at his appointment without the other Austrian bishops coming to his defense. Wagner announced his resignation on February 15, while on March 2 the Holy See made public in the official bulletin – something that was not done in the recent Argentine case – the fact that the pope had dispensed him from accepting the appointment.

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CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

A Calaveras County grand jury has indicted the Rev. Michael Kelly of the Stockton Diocese on several child-molestation counts. The county District Attorney’s Office, in a statement issued Monday, said it would seek to work with authorities to extradite Kelly from his native Ireland to face the charges.

The criminal grand jury indicted Kelly on three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.

Kelly, a longtime priest with the Stockton Diocese, fled to his native Ireland in April 2012 after a civil jury found him liable for sexual misconduct against a Marin man when he was a Stockton parish school student more than 25 years ago. He left on the eve of the second phase of the trial to determine damages.

He had served at Modesto, Sonora and Ceres parishes, among others. He has continually maintained his innocence, calling the accusations “vicious false allegations.” He said he had “lost everything” after serving 39 years with the diocese.

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MEXICO
El Pais

INÉS SANTAEULALIA Mexico City 13 ENE 2014

The Vatican has an unprecedented appointment on Thursday in Geneva: The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will study, among other matters, the response of the Catholic Church to the incidences of abuse carried out by its members worldwide over the course of decades. It will be an historic moment; no organization has yet dared to take on the Holy See.

Victims and associations in the USA, Mexico and Europe have taken the opportunity to submit to the committee in Geneva reports with their collated complaints and documented cases of pedophilia. Mexico, from where 169 individuals and organizations will present more than 200 separate cases, has asked that the scandal be treated as a crime of state and the Vatican tried by the United Nations. Such a move would have to be taken in a separate process as the committee has limited itself to making an evaluation.

“Father, good luck with the UN,” someone this Saturday said to former priest Alberto Athié in the Coyoacán neighborhood in the south of Mexico City. Athié arrived in Geneva on Monday to meet with some of the committee’s members. This priest hung up his robes when his reports of pedophilia against Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, fell on deaf ears in Mexico and Rome. He believes the UN now has “an historic opportunity” to see justice served. “The Church is responsible because there were indications that the highest authority sought to protect the abusers and cover up pedophilia, which led to more and prolonged cases,” says Athié.

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UNITED STATES
South Dakota Public Broadcasting

[with audio]

By CHARLES MICHAEL RAY

A 7th Judicial Circuit Court judge has thrown out a number of civil lawsuits against the Catholic Church that allege past sexual and physical abuse in Native American boarding schools.

One case included a series of detailed letters written by clergy that plaintiffs say clearly show the church knew about sexual abuse of minors decades ago but covered it up.

The lawsuits were thrown out in part due to an added statute of limitations passed by the legislature in 2010. That law limited the amount of time those who suffer alleged abuse can bring a lawsuit against the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Capital Public Radio

[with audio]

Stockton’s Catholic Bishop says he will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, making it the tenth in the United States to make such a filing.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton has been hit hard by parishioner lawsuits over sexual abuse by priests.

The diocese and its insurers have paid out more than 32 million dollars over the last 20 years.

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CALIFORNIA
Tracy Press

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton announced Monday, Jan. 13, they are filing for bankruptcy.

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire issued a news release Monday saying he had reached the decision after six months of careful consideration and prayer.

The bishop did not directly detail the diocese’ financial problems but did say the process will allow the church to fairly compensate victims of sexual abuse while continuing to minister to the people in the parishes they administer.

Parish administrator for St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, 163 W. Eaton Ave., Jennifer Overby said Monday the bankruptcy filing will have no effect on the Tracy church because each parish is incorporated separately.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Kevin Parrish
Record Staff Writer
January 14, 2014

STOCKTON – The Catholic Diocese of Stockton will take the “painful but necessary” step of filing for bankruptcy Wednesday.

Four months after warning parishioners of the possibility, the diocese announced Monday that it will seek Chapter 11 protection.

Bishop Stephen Blaire said the decision was the only course open to the diocese in the wake of $32 million spent on settlements and judgments stemming from a rash of child sexual-abuse lawsuits over the past two decades.

Of that total, $14 million came directly from the diocesan budget, the balance from insurance companies.

Blaire estimated an addition $1 million had been spent in legal fees. Stockton will be the nation’s 10th diocese to file for federal bankruptcy court protection.

“Very simply, we are in this situation because of those priests in our diocese who perpetrated grave, evil acts of child sexual abuse,” the 72-year-old Blaire said. “We can never forget that those evil acts – not the victims of the abuse – are responsible for the financial difficulties we now face.”

The bankruptcy filing will take place in Sacramento at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, the same place the city of Stockton filed its Chapter 9 debt-adjustment plan 18 months ago. …

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was quick to respond to the Stockton Diocese announcement.

“A bishop declaring bankruptcy is a convenient, self-serving dodge,” said Newport Beach resident Joelle Casteix, Western regional director of the group. “Despite this irresponsible decision, we hope that others who saw, suspected or suffered from clergy sex crimes and cover-ups in Stockton will step forward, call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.”

Blaire said he expects that to happen.

“During this procedure (in federal bankruptcy court), there will be a sufficient period of time for other victims to come forward,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
Manteca Bulletin

By Rose Albano-Risso
City Editor ralbanorisso@mantecabulletin.com 209-249-3536
POSTED January 14, 2014

Calling it “a painful but necessary decision,” Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of the Diocese of Stockton announced that attorneys for the diocese will be filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday.

The decision comes after months of “careful consideration, consultation and prayer,” and looking for other solutions as a “way out” of the problem.

“Chapter 11 protection is the only way we can fulfill our responsibilities to the victims of sexual abuse and our responsibilities to the parishes and communities we serve,” the bishop stated in the announcement released to the media.

He made it clear that the bankruptcy reorganization filing concerns only “the corporation sole known legally as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton.”

Not affected in the bankruptcy filing are the parishes in the diocese – such as St. Anthony of Padua in Manteca, St. Patrick’s Church in Ripon, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Lathrop – and diocesan schools including St. Anthony of Padua School in Manteca and the Catholic high schools in Modesto (Central Catholic) and Stockton (St. Mary’s High), as well as Catholic cemeteries such as St. John’s Cemetery in Ripon-Escalon, and the Madonna of Peace Retreat Center – because these are separate corporations.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Editorial

January 14, 2014

“Once again, I apologize to all those who have been harmed by these crimes and this scandal, the victims themselves, most certainly, but also rank and file Catholics who have been shamed by the actions of some priests and bishops. Thank you and God bless you.”

— Conclusion of a public letter from Cardinal Francis George to Catholics of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The anguish of victims, the crimes of perpetrators, the humiliation of innocent clerics who’ve been tarred by association — the turbulent legacy of clergy sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Chicago soon will reopen. The archdiocese this week is to release to an attorney for abuse victims the previously undisclosed files of substantiated cases involving 30 current and former priests. Eventually the records will be posted online.

We’ve seen none of these documents and won’t hazard guesses about their contents or the reactions they will stir. By some measures there will not be surprises. The 30 men are among more than 65 priests whose names have been readily available on the archdiocesan website under a damning headline: “Archdiocesan Priests with Substantiated Allegations of Sexual Misconduct with Minors.”

One-third of the total number are dead, many others have been removed from the priesthood, and none is now in active ministry, according to an attorney who represented the clergymen’s interests in negotiations that led to the release. An attorney for the archdiocese told the Tribune that 95 percent of the incidents in the records occurred more than 25 years ago, and none occurred since 1996. More recent files involving ex-priest and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormack aren’t included; the archdiocese says a judge has sealed them for upcoming trials.

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ILLINOIS
Journal-Courier

By DAVID C.L. BAUER Journal-Courier

A preliminary investigation into allegations of clerical sexual misconduct with a minor more than 30 years ago has been concluded in the case of a longtime Jacksonville priest and determined the allegation is credible.

The Diocesan Review Board’s decision is not a conviction of the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand, but addresses whether the allegation and other information are enough to reasonably suspect there has been sexual abuse of a minor, according to a statement from the Diocese of Springfield.

The diocese covers Catholic churches for 130 parishes in 28 central Illinois counties and includes Jacksonville.

The findings of the group — similar to a grand jury in a criminal court — will be sent to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will determine further proceedings. The diocese has also informed the Morgan County state’s attorney and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services of its determination.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By The Record
January 14, 2014

SAN ANDREAS – A criminal grand jury in Calaveras County has indicted defrocked Stockton Diocese Catholic priest Michael Eugene Kelly on several child molestation counts, and the district attorney has vowed to work with federal authorities to return him from his native Ireland to face the charges.

In a statement issued Monday, District Attorney Barbara Yook noted that the indictment was presented to Calaveras County Superior Court Judge John Martin, who issued an arrest warrant for Kelly in the amount of $175,000.

Kelly faces three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child, according to the statement, and if convicted on all counts could be sentenced to a maximum of 14 years in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil presented evidence to the criminal grand jury based on a Sheriff’s Office investigation. The indictment alleges that Kelly began molesting his victim when the victim was 10 years old.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis may be spinning around St. Peter’s in his old Ford sedan, but the wheels seem to be coming off the Vatican’s media spin machine. Informed Vatican journalists seem to be signaling that Francis’ media honeymoon may be ending. The focus has been until now often on engineered photo ops and slick sound bites orchestrated by the papal media handlers. More frequent substantive reporting may be returning, it appears.

A major current challenge for the Vatican appears to be to advance favorably the April canonization of the Polish Pope, John Paul II, while containing two significant controversies relevant to the Polish Pope. One involves the unresolved scandals of John Paul’s protected contributor, Fr. Maciel, and Maciel’s yet unreformed, and perhaps unreformable, money machine, the Legion of Christ; and the other involves two Polish clerics accused of child abuse in the Dominican Republic .

Francis’ approach to these scandals is quite important because they cannot be handled merely by spin tactics and pious platitudes. They require Francis to show his hand, especially on clerical child abuse, which he has seemingly endeavored mostly to sidestep so far.

The papal spin machine is, of course, still trying to focus more on diversionary and ”children friendly” stories like Francis’ recent endorsement of breast feeding in the Sistine Chapel. This likely would have shocked Michelangelo, but would have been well appreciated by his politically more informed contemporary, Machiavelli. The almost always supportive Catholic News Service carried the mothers’ milk story, unadulterated; see:

[National Catholic Reporter]

The generally more substantive AP reporters, including Rome based Nicole Winfield, has instead honed in more on the apparent efforts of the Vatican to try to avoid stories that may cast a shadow over the soon to be canonized John Paul II, namely, the Maciel scandal and the alleged Polish clerical child abusers.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Nuevo Diario

[Summary: The Women and Health Collective, has appeared before the United National Committee on the Rights of the Child, to issue a report on public allegation of sexual abuse by church authorities against children and adolescents in the Dominican Republic. In the past 10 years there have been six cases of abuse perpetrated against at least 19 minors by authorities in the Catholic Church.]

La Colectiva Mujer y Salud, a través del Observatorio de Ciudadanía Activa de las Mujeress, presentó ante el Comité de los Derechos del Niño de las Naciones Unidas, un Informe sombra sobre denuncias públicas de casos de abuso sexual por autoridades eclesiales contra niños, niñas y adolescentes ocurridos en República Dominicana.

El mismo se presenta en virtud de que el Vaticano tendrá que rendir cuentas el 16 de enero sobre el cumplimiento de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño.

En los últimos 10 años se han denunciado 6 casos de abuso sexual perpetrado contra al menos 19 menores de edad a manos de 7 autoridades de la iglesia católica, como lo son: el caso del Albergue de Higüey (Cirilo Antonio Núñez y Ramón Antonio Betances) (2003), el caso del padre Espinal (2006), el caso del sacerdote Juan Manuel Mota de Jesús (Padre Johnny) 2009, el caso del Cura de Bonao (sacerdote Alberto Zacarías Cordero Liriano) en el 2012, en 2013 el caso Juncalito a manos del sacerdote polaco Wojciech (padre Alberto Gil) y el caso del Ex -Nuncio o embajador del Vaticano en Santo Domingo, Joséf Wesolowski.

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ILLINOIS
WICS

A review board has found that an allegation against Father Robert Degrand is credible. That decision was unanimous. The Diocese of Springfield released the information Monday surrounding the alleged abuse said to have happened in 1980. Back then, Degrand was assigned to Our Saviour Parish in Jacksonville. The review board’s findings mean the investigation will be forwarded to the Vatican Congregation in Rome. Degrand, who has been on leave since last September, will stay there.

“Right now he is on leave from any public ministry, and he no longer lives at the rectory at the parishes that he had been using, so there’s a parochial administrator in those parishes,” Kathie Sass with the Springfield Catholic Diocese said.

Those parishes are in Sigel, Neoga, Green Creek and Lillyville–basically around the Effingham area.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 13, 2014

The Diocese of Stockton announced today that they are going to seek bankruptcy protection in federal court on Wednesday. They had announced their “intentions” to file last year.

The first goal of the filing, according to Bishop Stephen Blaire in the Lodi News is to “provid[e] a process to compensate victims of sexual abuse, particularly those who had not appeared in court.”

Which begs the argument: How many millions did Blaire spend in his court battle against Travis Trotter? Trotter, a retired Air Force Major and commercial airline pilot, came forward to accuse Fr. Michael Kelly of sexual abuse. Instead of seeking “a process to compensate” Trotter, or trying to help him, or taking Michael Kelly out of ministry, Bishop Stephen Blaire spent millions of dollars in a five-year legal war with Trotter. The result? A jury said that Kelly more than likely did it. Kelly fled to Ireland.

Not so good for Blaire.

Blaire didn’t even have the decency to put Kelly on leave during the time period up to and during the trial. It’s one thing to support an accused priest, it’s another to flagrantly insult sex abuse victims and parishioners by allowing a credibly accused cleric to continue to work as a priest.

Stockton is also facing the problem of Oliver O’Grady, the serial predator whose victims are continuing to come forward. Blaire could have done a lot of things for these victims—encouraged them to come forward, worked with civil attorneys to get them counseling, or *GASP* been open and transparent with information. But no, he decided to spend his time and efforts supporting Michael Kelly. The victims? He simply didn’t care about them. Until he lost.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Now

By Bob Abrams, today at 4:22 pm

Chicago’s Francis Cardinal George will be remembered for two over-riding themes in his tenure as head of the Chicago Archdiocese, administrator of the largest parochial school system in the world. His main theme is a relentless condemnation of all things homosexual, especially gay marriage.

His other cause, steadfastly championed by the 50-year priest is concealing both the sexual abuse of children by priests and the identities of the perpetrators. To sum up the George Doctrine: Pervs good, homos bad.

At their core, these really aren’t two separate themes, just two sides of the same coin. Like John Candy said in Uncle Buck, “You’re not a gnat are you Bug? Wait a minute, Bug, gnat. Is there a little similarity? Whoa, I think there is!”

There’s a scary similarity here, not to mention a perverse hypocrisy at work. Cardinal George endlessly interjects his opinion into secular affairs that don’t concern him and affect mostly non-members of his Church, while condemning any attempt to root out and punish pedophile priests.

A report describing abuse by 30 of the Church’s offenders and 40 of their victims is going to be turned over to attorneys suing the Archdiocese. The documents will be made public later this week. As one might guess, the Church fought the disclosures.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Catholic priest from Great Yarmouth has been arrested on suspicion of having indecent images of children.

Father David Jennings was appointed parish priest of St Mary’s in September 2012.

Norfolk Police said in a statement: “A 56-year-old man from Great Yarmouth has been arrested on suspicion of possession of indecent images of children.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Huffington Post

Ahead of a Wednesday release of historical files on sexual abuse by Chicago-area priests, parishioners across the area found a message from the head of Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese in their Sunday programs explaining the move.

The pamphlet penned by Cardinal Francis George outlined the church’s plan to go public with files on sexual abuse, telling area faithful it was necessary for maintaining transparency within the archdiocese.

“Publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level,” George wrote in his letter according to the Sun-Times. “It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”

Speaking before news crews Sunday, George said, “It’s always important to tell the truth,” noting that the instances of misconduct happened in the ’80s before he was installed as cardinal, according to ABC Chicago. “I thought I better put it in some perspective, so that was the purpose of the letter.” …

While some parisioners who spoke to the Sun-Times said the release of the files was necessary to move forward and bring people back to the church, members of the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) handed out leaflets of their own outside Holy Name Cathedral.

SNAP activists called George’s message “self-serving” and asked area Catholics to ignore it.

“Please get the information directly from the source and not from someone who is trying to protect themselves and the institution for which they work,” Kate Bochte of SNAP told ABC.

The full report is set to be released Jan. 15 and will become available to the public about a week later.

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