ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

Armidale’s court drama in the case of a defrocked priest facing historic child sexual abuse charges

By SAMANTHA-JO HARRIS Oct. 24, 2014

THE committal of a defrocked priest has heard one alleged victim of historic child sexual abuse told his mother “he raped me too”.

On Wednesday Armidale Local Court heard how the man, who was in court to be cross-examined, discovered the allegations against the former priest after he heard about it on the radio.

In a statement made to police in early 2013 the man claimed the “mongrel from Moree” had assaulted him when he was an altar boy in the early 1980s.

The complainant, his mother and partner were in court to be cross-examined about their evidence to see if they would give evidence at the trial.

Magistrate Karen Stafford allowed the cross-examination to start, saying there were “inconsistencies in the statements” and the fact the allegations were from a recovered memory.

But the hearing was delayed after the Crown prosecutor Peter Woods was rushed to hospital with chest pain.

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ITALIA
Il Mattino

ALBENGA – ​ La diocesi di Albenga è stata commissariata da Papa Francesco: era retta da 25 anni da monsignor Mario Oliveri, 70 anni.

La decisione sarebbe stata presa dopo che il Nunzio apostolico Adriano Bernardini ha compiuto una indagine sulla chiesa locale. Era stato inviato lì dal papa dopo che in Vaticano erano arrivate varie segnalazioni su un clero ”disinvolto”.

La notizia non è stata commentata dal vescovo. E la curia ha scelto il silenzio. A monsignor Oliveri viene rimproverato di aver accolto in seminario aspiranti sacerdoti senza aver esaminato con attenzione la reale vocazione dei giovani e questo avrebbe generato preti ”deboli”.

Così la sua diocesi ha dovuto subire vari scandali: sacerdoti condannati o indagati per pedofilia, altri che posano nudi su Facebook, parroci con tatuaggi, sacerdoti che lasciano le parrocchie portando via la ”cassa”, preti che fanno i barman in locali notturni, altri che corteggiano le fedeli.

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ITALIA
Liguria Notizie

GENOVA. 23 OTT. La diocesi di Albenga, retta da 25 anni da monsignor Mario Oliveri, 70 anni, sarebbe stata commissariata da Papa Francesco.

La decisione sarebbe stata presa dopo che il Nunzio apostolico Adriano Bernardini ha compiuto un’ indagine sulla chiesa locale.

Era stato inviato lì dal Papa dopo che in Vaticano erano arrivate varie segnalazioni su un clero “disinvolto”.

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ITALIA
Repubblica

dal nostro inviato MASSIMO CALANDRI

ALBENGA – “Liberaci dal male”, mormora monsignor Mario Oliveri dall’altare della cattedrale di San Michele Arcangelo. E sulla fronte gli s’allunga una ruga profonda: dolore, inquietudine. Amen, signor vescovo: ma è proprio vero che con tutti questi preti peccatori, Papa Francesco ha deciso di “commissariare” la sua diocesi? “Non voglio parlarne. Non è il momento”, taglia corto.

Dopo un quarto di secolo da indisturbato padrone di casa, Oliveri tra pochi giorni dovrà condividere il palazzo vescovile di Albenga con un altro prelato. Un “amministratore apostolico” scelto da Bergoglio per aiutarlo a reggere il peso dei troppi scandali delle sue parrocchie: sacerdoti condannati o indagati per pedofilia, altri che in processione corteggiano le fedeli più carine, parroci che posano nudi su Facebook o per siti gay, che svuotano le cassette delle elemosine e se la danno a gambe, che palpeggiano turiste adolescenti sul lungomare.

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ITALY
Telegraph (UK)

Pope Francis to investigate ‘playboy priests’ who posed naked online in scandal-hit disocese

By Nick Squires, Rome 23 Oct 2014

A scandal-ridden Catholic diocese in Italy where priests posted naked photos of themselves on gay websites, raided church coffers and sexually harassed parishioners is to be investigated by a special envoy to Pope Francis.

The Pope reportedly intends to send an “apostolic administrator” to assess allegations that the diocese of Albenga-Imperia, in the Liguria region of northern Italy, has hosted a string of “playboy priests” moon-lighting as barmen, stealing parish funds and getting tattooed.

Described by one Italian newspaper as “the most gossiped about diocese in Italy”, it has been run for the last 25 years by Bishop Mario Oliveri, 70.

He is expected to be replaced in the near future by an auxiliary bishop, according to Il Secolo XIX, the region’s main newspaper.

Pope Francis has already sent Adriano Bernardini, an apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, to conduct a preliminary investigation into the scandals thay have allegedly unfolded under Bishop Oliveri’s watch

The bishop himself is not accused of any wrongdoing, but is reported to have been overly-charitable in recruiting “black sheep” priests with distinctly chequered pasts, including trainee priests expelled from seminaries for misconduct.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, October 23

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

We are glad the names of four newly “outed” predator priests are surfacing today, especially because three of them are likely living among unsuspecting neighbors in Massachusetts, and Arizona and Forest Lake, MN. (Fr. Donald Drummer, Fr. Robert P. Clark and Fr. John Owens, respectively). But police, prosecutors, parishioners, parents and the public need and deserve to know where and when these priests assaulted children. Archbishop Neinstedt must be more forthcoming if kids are to be better protected and victims are to be better supported.

Catholic officials are NOT disclosing when abuse reports were made against these priests. We suspect that in virtually every case, St. Paul church employees sat on this information for years or decades.

Let’s look specifically at the four newly-named priests. With each of them, Twin Cities Catholic officials kept secret about the child sex abuse allegations against them for years. This secrecy continued unabated over the past decade, despite an allegedly binding national US bishops’ abuse policy that supposedly mandates “openness and transparency.”

They hid accusations against Fr. Clark for at least 14 years, against Fr. Owens for at least nine years, and against Fr. Drummer for at least eight years. Among just those three clerics, that’s 31 years of secrecy, recklessness and callousness.

(Fr. Clark was “removed from active ministry on March 26, 2002.” Fr. Owens was quietly ousted in 2005. Ditto with Fr. Drummer in 2006. And we suspect that allegations against Fr. Majerus were first made in 1971, but he stayed on the job until 1987.)

This new information confirms again just how much St. Paul Catholic officials have endangered and continue to endanger kids. In each case, Twin Cities church officials chose to endanger kids and protect predators by making these moves behind the scenes instead of disclosing them in public.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Oct 23, 2014

Support for people making allegations of clerical child sexual abuse continues to be inconsistent in some Catholic Church religious congregations, a review published today has found.

“Contact in many instances was not made directlyby the congregation and the opportunity for pastoral support was missed,” it said .

The observation was made by Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the Church’s child protection watchdog, its National Board for Safeguarding Children.

Today it has published 18 reviews of child safeguarding practices involving five five male and 13 female religious congregations. Eight are standard reviews of safeguarding practices against the seven established standards that the Catholic Church in Ireland has agreed to meet.

The congregations fully reviewed included the Vincentian Fathers, the Redemptorists, Sisters of St Louis, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the Pallottines, St Joseph’s Missionary Society (Mill Hill), The Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), the Presentation Sisters.

However, because 10 of the congregations are so small and have very limited contact with children, also due to the advanced age of their members and the fact that they face no allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland, these were assessed against a revised framework. “The 10 Congregations demonstrated a strong sense of commitment to working positively with the National Board, in spite of their limited ministries”, Ms Devlin said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

October 23, 2014 Author: berger

As part of a settlement agreement, Twin Cities Catholic officials released names of 17 priests with “substantiated claims of abuse” against them. Among them: Fr. Edward Beutner who worked at SLU in the 1970s and Fr. James Porter who was at a church treatment center here.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Catholic Church child protection watchdog has found that eight religious congregations often failed to contact directly people making child sexual abuse allegations against priests, brothers and nuns and their support for complainants continues to be inconsistent.

In audits of the congregations, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church also found the time frame for reporting allegations against congregation members to the civil authorities was variable up until 2009.

However, it has improved considerably since the introduction of new church standards.

This latest tranche of audits by the NBSCCC examines the responses of eight religious congregations to allegations of abuse against their members.

The congregations are the Presentation Sisters, the Vincentian Fathers, The Redemptorists, the Sisters of St Louis, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, The Pallottines, The Mill Hill Fathers and the Missionaries of Africa, also known as the White Fathers.

It said allegations were made against a number of priests ministering abroad by children both in Ireland and in missionary countries.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with copy of Archbishop Nienstedt’s testimony]

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Oct 23, 2014

Archbishop John Nienstedt gave a false statement under oath about his knowledge of a priest’s criminal conviction for sexually assaulting a child, letters obtained by MPR News show.

Nienstedt testified on April 2 that he first learned of the criminal conviction of the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson, an archdiocesan priest, “during the last six months.” He also claimed little knowledge of Gustafson. “I believe that he is retired,” Nienstedt testified. “He’s in our monitoring program, and he’s living on his own.”

That statement surprised Catholic parishioner LaLonne Murphy, who had written to Nienstedt more than six years ago to inform him of Gustafson’s criminal conviction and his ongoing work as a consultant for Twin Cities parishes.

Murphy, who retired last year as director of liturgy and music at St. Edward’s parish in Bloomington, provided MPR News copies of the letters she sent to Nienstedt, as well as the archbishop’s

Nienstedt’s false statement casts doubt on his credibility as he struggles to respond to a clergy sex abuse scandal that has led to calls for his resignation as the leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

This latest revelation marks the second time that Nienstedt’s testimony in that April deposition has been called into question. MPR News reported in August that Nienstedt gave false testimony about his knowledge of a different priest accused of abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/23/2014

The Twin Cities archdiocese and the law offices of Jeff Anderson issued a joint statement Thursday disclosing the names of 17 priests with “substantiated” claims against them of sexual abuse of a minor.

The names bring to 55 the priests deemed to have substantiated claims of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Ten of the 17 priests have died, “but the pain they caused is very much alive,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a written statement. “I am profoundly saddened and sorry for the harm clergy sexual abuse has caused victims and survivors, their families and the community.”

The joint statement comes 10 days after archdiocese officials and Anderson’s office, which represents victims of clergy sex abuse, held a joint news conference at the Landmark Center. They announced settlement of a lawsuit that had disgorged more than 50,000 pages of priest personnel documents going back decades and a new child protection plan.

The disclosures Thursday were part of the Oct. 13 settlement, Anderson said.

Four of the names have never been released to the public before, he said. Those are Robert P. Clark, Donald Dummer, Harry Majerus and John Owens. Dummer and Owens are still alive.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

(AP) – The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has released the names of another 17 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The release of the names is part of last week’s settlement between the archdiocese and a victim of alleged abuse.

Nine of the priests had claims against them inside the archdiocese; the other eight priests had claims against them elsewhere, but some may have traveled to the archdiocese, had temporary assignments in the archdiocese or lived there as a lay person.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003)

A Catholic priest who lives in Tewksbury has been “outed” today for the first time as a credibly accused child molester. We call on Massachusetts Catholic officials to warn parents, parishioners and the public about him.

In a joint announcement by a law firm and the St. Paul archdiocese, Fr. Donald Drummer is one of three priests whose names are being disclosed today for the first time as having “substantiated claims against (him) of sexually abusing a minor.” The revelations come as part of a settlement of a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit announced last week (John Doe 1 vs. Fr. Thomas Adamson and the St. Paul archdiocese).

We applaud Doe for insisting that more names of predator priests are disclosed as a result of his courageous litigation.

[St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese]

Let there be no mistake about this new information: it’s being released because victims have filed lawsuits and insist on real safety measures, not just pay offs. It’s not a sign of reform by Catholic officials. It’s a sign that when victims are brave enough to step forward and smart enough to file lawsuits, more truth can be exposed and more kids can be protected.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Drummer – or any cleric – will find the courage to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

The Names of 17 Priests Accused of Child Sexual Abuse Added to Archdiocese’s List of Abusers

Disclosures part of Doe 1 settlement and child protection action plan

Documents and priest files on all 17 priests soon to follow

(St. Paul, MN) – Today, the names of 17 additional priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors were added to Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis’ disclosure lists posted on its website. In addition, three men whose names were previously identified as having unsubstantiated claims are now added to the substantiated claim disclosure list. This disclosure of names was agreed upon as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 civil lawsuit and is an early step in the child protection action plan announced last week.

At least four of the names* announced today have never been released to the public before. The list of names includes the following priests:
Edward Beutner Ambrose Filbin *Harry Majerus James Porter
*Robert Clark Jerry Foley William Marks Charles Potocki
Eugene Salvatore Corica Ralph Goniea Wendell Mohs Roger Vaughn
*Donald Dummer Reginald Krakovsky Jim Nickel James Vedro
Thomas Erickson Robert Loftus *John Owens Adalbert Woski

“This is a big step forward in an action plan begun and reached as part of an agreement with the Archdiocese,” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “The more that is known about these offenders and their histories, the safer our community becomes. This is just the beginning of a plan for full disclosure.”

Attached is a fact sheet compiled by Jeff Anderson & Associates based on files received in the Doe 1 case, the official Catholic Directories, and independent investigations. Documents and priest files on all 17 priests will be released in the upcoming weeks and will be available at www.andersonadvocates.com.

————————————————-

NEVER BEFORE KNOWN

Robert Clark (deceased)
Donald Dummer, OMI (alive- Tewksbury, MA)
Harry Majerus (deceased)
John Owens (alive- Forest Lake, MN)

NEWLY RELEASED BY THE ARCHDICOESE – ALIVE

Thomas Ericksen, Minneapolis, MN
Jerry Foley, Minneapolis, MN
Wendal Mohs, OSC, Sartel, MN
Roger Vaughn, OSC, New York, NY (previously released but “unsubstantiated”)
James Vedro, OSC, Murrieta, CA

NEWLY RELEASED BY THE ARCHDIOCESE – DECEASED

Edward Beutner
Eugene Salvatore Corica (previously released but “unsubstantiated”)
Ambrose Filbin
Ralph Goniea, OMI
Reginald Krakovsky, TOR
Robert Loftus (previously released but “unsubstantiated”)
William Marks
Jim Nickel
James Porter
Charles Potocki, OFM
James Vedro
Adalbert Wolski, TOR

This information was compiled by Jeff Anderson & Associates based on files received in the Doe 1 case, the official Catholic Directories, and independent investigations.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2014
Source: Rita Beatty, Communications Manager

From Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Today, we join law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates in jointly disclosing the names and assignment histories of 17 men who have substantiated claims against them of sexually abusing a minor while they were assigned as priests. As part of a legal settlement with Jeff Anderson and Associates announced last week, a process was established for the disclosure of additional names of priests who are the subject of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor.

Of these 17 men whose names are disclosed today, nine are the subjects of substantiated claims of abuse of a minor within this archdiocese.

The remaining eight individuals are or were priests of other dioceses or religious orders who have substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor outside of this archdiocese. The archdiocese is not aware of any substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor asserted against these individuals relating to any conduct that occurred in this archdiocese. Some of these eight individuals held temporary assignments in this archdiocese. In other cases, they may have traveled to the archdiocese, or resided here without ministry faculties or lived here as a lay person.

Most of the reported incidents of abuse related to these 17 men occurred between the mid-1950s and the mid-1980s. All of these men have been permanently removed from ministry in this archdiocese; most of them have been out of ministry here for a decade or more. Ten of these 17 men are deceased, but the pain they caused is very much alive. I am profoundly saddened and sorry for the harm clergy sexual abuse has caused victims and survivors, their families and the community.

In addition, the status has changed for three men whose names were previously disclosed. Both Eugene Corica and Robert Loftus are now moved to the list of men who are subjects of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor within this archdiocese, bringing the total number of names on that list to 55. Roger Vaughn is added to the new list of men who are the subjects of substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor outside of this archdiocese. There are a total of nine names on that list. …

DISCLOSED NAMES

Edward Beutner
Robert P. Clark
Donald Dummer
Thomas Ericksen
Ambrose Filbin
Jerry Foley
Ralph Goniea
Reginald Krakovsky
Harry Majerus
William Marks
Wendell Mohs
James Nickel
John Owens
James Porter
Charles Potocki
James Vedro
Adalbert Wolski

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NORTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Oct. 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003)

A Catholic priest from Bismarck has been “outed” today for the first time as a credibly accused child molester. We call on North Dakota Catholic officials to warn parents, parishioners and the public about him and to beg anyone with information or suspicions about him to call law enforcement immediately.

[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis]

In a joint announcement by a law firm and the St. Paul archdiocese, Fr. John Owen is one of three priests whose names are being disclosed today for the first time as having “substantiated claims against (him) of sexually abusing a minor.” The revelations come as part of a settlement of a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit announced last week (John Doe 1 vs. Fr. Thomas Adamson and the St. Paul archdiocese).

More about Fr. Owen is here:

[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis]

We applaud Doe for insisting that more names of predator priests are disclosed as a result of his courageous litigation. And we denounce Bismarck Catholic officials who apparently have kept silent about the accusations against Fr. Owens for almost a decade. (Twin Cities church officials say they “removed his faculties” in 2005. We strongly suspect that even before then they alerted their North Dakota colleagues about these allegations against Fr. Owens.)

We urge Bismarck’s bishop to “come clean,” explain why he and his colleagues have hidden these allegations, and to fire or at least demote every single Catholic employee who endangered kids by keeping quiet about them.

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UNITED STATES
Second City Torah

October 23, 2014 by Rabbi Ben Greenberg

It has now been more than a week since the revelations occurred in the media of the alleged voyeuristic spying committed by one of the most influential and powerful Modern Orthodox rabbis in America, Rabbi Barry Freundel. If it was not horrible enough that women, most of them in the process of converting to Judaism, were violated in one of the most special and intimate ritual places in Judaism, it is now clear that the problems go back for years. Abuses of a sexual nature are often more about exerting power over someone as much as they are about sexual gratification. Secretly filming women nude at their most vulnerable in a time of their lives during a conversion process when they are particularly vulnerable is about unequivocally declaring, “I have absolute power over you: your soul, who you will marry and when you will marry them and, yes, even your very body.” The violations of rabbinic propriety that surfaced beginning in 2012 (and perhaps earlier) were also abuses of power.

These abuses of power are not unique to Rabbi Freundel or to the Orthodox rabbinate as Rabbi Ruth Abusch Magder pointed out in a blog post on MyJewishLearning.com. They do send a very powerful message though: The time has long come to open up the door for learned women working in clergy roles in the Orthodox community to join all of the Modern Orthodox rabbinic associations. The time has long come to make sure every mikvah has women serving on its board of directors.

Opening up the power structures to women is not because all men have failed, it is because men in conversation only with themselves fail. Men and women together can make better decisions, hold each other accountable and make sure that the needs, concerns and voices of both women and men are respected.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Catholic Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin is to call this afternoon for the development of a new relationship between his church and the media characterised by mutual respect and trust.

In an address to the Radharc television awards ceremony in Dublin, he praised what he calls the “vitally important role” the Irish and global media have played in exposing child sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church.

According to his speaking notes, he also criticised some unidentified commentators, particularly on social media, for failing to objectively question stories, and for publishing instead “their consensus caricature of the Church”.

Archbishop Eamon Martin recalled 35 years of output on RTÉ by what he called the “radical” Catholic television documentary unit of the same name on a wide spectrum of contemporary issues from ethics at home to liberation theology abroad.

He called for the development of a new relationship between his church and the media characterised by mutual respect and trust and not based on fawning or deferential attitudes.

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IRELAND
The Journal

CATHOLIC ORDERS ARE getting better at reporting child abuse allegations.

That is according to the latest child welfare reports from the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

The reports cover five male and 18 female female religious congregations.

The reports show that between variable times in the 70s and 2009, there were 121 allegations of abuse against 54 members of the orders. Of these, two brothers from the Missionaries of Africa were convicted. The complaints came from children in Ireland and abroad.

However, despite the improvement, the board’s CEO Teresa Devlin says the responses to complaints are “inconsistent”.

“However, support for complainants continues to be inconsistent. Contact in many instances was not made directly by the congregation and the opportunity for pastoral support was missed. This however is an improving picture and the reviewers highlighted instances of compassionate meaningful responses to survivors.”

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie | Oct. 23, 2014

Wherever you look right now in the Jewish press, you find distressing stories about conversion to Judaism – and about the ugly politics of the conversion process.

Conversion should be moving and sublime, demanding but profoundly meaningful, and reflective of Judaism’s broadly inclusive values. Sadly, what we see in the media in the last few weeks is how human weakness and political opportunism have caused pain and suffering to candidates for conversion in America and turned conversion in Israel into a political football. Whatever else happens, this much is certain: Sacred values have been trampled.

The “voyeur case,” as it’s been called in the press, involves Rabbi Barry Freundel, a Washington, D.C. rabbi accused of videotaping women candidates for conversion while they were naked in the mikveh (ritual bath). The Jewish world has responded to these accusations with outrage and revulsion. But since Rabbi Freundel denies the charges and nothing as yet has been proven, full consideration of the matter will have to wait.

For now, it can simply be noted that in some ways the case is not about conversion at all; it is about rabbinic misconduct and exploitation of religious authority, of the sort that can happen in a variety of settings and by clergy of all movements and all faiths. At the same time, it does raise questions about the problems of conversion in the American Orthodox world, which in recent years has adapted its procedures, usually not for the better, to accommodate the demands of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. At a later point, these matters will need to be discussed.

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TOWSON (MD)
WTOP

By Nick Iannelli

TOWSON, Md. — Students of a disgraced rabbi are back in class, stunned and saddened to hear about allegations against their former teacher.

Barry Freundel was arrested last week and charged with voyeurism.

According to police, Freundel used a hidden camera to film women as they undressed, preparing for a ritual bath at Freundel’s synagogue in Georgetown.

“It’s just very surreal,” explains Jonathan Munshaw, one of Freundel’s students.

Freundel was a respected, longtime teacher at Towson University.

The school has now replaced him with a new teacher who asked students to share their feelings when they went back to the classroom for the first time Tuesday.

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ROME
Reuters

By James Martin October 23, 2014

If you told me a few years ago that a synod of bishops would make the front page of almost every newspaper, be featured prominently on almost every news website, and be the topic of heated conversation among Catholics worldwide, I would have said that you were — to use a theological term — crazy.

The interest generated by the Synod of Bishops on the Family, the two-week meeting of bishops, priests and lay people that concluded last weekend at the Vatican, surprised even veteran Vaticanologists. In recent years, synods did not garner much enthusiasm, to put it mildly. One reason for the renewed interest this year was Pope Francis’s urging participants to be as open as possible. And they were. Not only to one another, but also in the daily media briefings, which brought their candor before the general public.

The document that received the most attention was the relatio, or report, issued midway through the two-week session. (The Synod of Bishops on the Family, incidentally, is a two-year event. This session was the first. In other words, that first relatio was midway through midway.) The first relatio was characterized by a warm pastoral outreach to divorce and remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples, as well as to gays and lesbians, the last of which were included under the subject line “Welcoming Homosexual Persons.”

The synod’s final relatio, however, proved a less controversial publication, reflecting the variety of viewpoints that exist among the Catholic bishops. Nevertheless, there was still a great deal of confusion over the final document, particularly regarding what it did or did not do. So let’s address those two questions.

WHAT DID THE SYNOD DO?

1. Fostered openness

The synod seems to have ushered in an era of openness in the Vatican. In the past, the results of synods were sometimes seen to be foregone conclusions. Why? Some bishops, for a variety of reasons, may not have felt as comfortable discussing controversial topics, or may have concluded that a pope might not want certain topics raised. That was not the case this month. Bishops were vocal, disagreeing with one another politely but vigorously, a consequence of the pope’s encouragement to be open. “Speak clearly,” he said at the synod’s opening. “Don’t tell anyone, ‘You can’t say that.’”

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OHIO
WLWT

CINCINNATI —Four freshman football players are gone from their team after questionable locker room behavior and a police investigation.

Archdiocese of Cincinnati spokesman Dan Andriacco told WLWT News 5 Wednesday night that Cincinnati police were investigating after receiving reports of alleged inappropriate behavior at McNicholas High School.

Andriacco would not say specifically what happened in the locker room, but that the four teens were suspended from school for five days and kicked off the freshmen football team.

He also said that the school had notified Cincinnati police, who have started their own investigation into the incident.

So far, no charges have been filed.

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OHIO
Local 12

[with video]

Updated: Thursday, October 23 2014

CINCINNATI (WKRC) — The Archdiocese of Cincinnati says they are investigating an incident involving four teens at McNicholas High School for “inappropriate behavior.”

The four freshman football players were suspended from the school for five days and are no longer with the team.

The teens are scheduled to return to school Thursday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Examiner

Oct 23, 2014 11:18 By Martin Shaw

A group of men who claimed they were sexually abused as boys in a Catholic college in Mirfield in the 1960s and 1970s have settled out of court.

The 11 men were training to be priests at the Mirfield Junior Seminary run by the Verona Fathers, an Italian missionary order.

The boys claim they were subjected to a catalogue of abuse by several priests running the boarding school.

Now it has been revealed, all 11 men have accepted payments totalling £120,000. The settlements paid by the order, now known as the Comboni Missionaries, have been made without any admission of liability.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Sam Rigney Oct. 23, 2014

HUNTER activist and abuse victim Peter Gogarty said he hopes his new book will provide understanding and hope for victims of child sexual abuse.

Mr Gogarty – a victim of Hunter paedophile priest Jim Fletcher – launched his book ‘‘Judas Church – Memoir of a Shy Young Fellow’’ at Maitland Gaol on Thursday night.

‘‘I was nine years old when I met newly ordained Catholic Priest Father James Patrick Fletcher,’’ Gogarty says.

‘‘Before I turned 18 I told him I would kill him if he ever touched me again.

‘‘Twenty-five years later, driving home from work, I heard that he had been arrested on multiple child abuse charges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Damian Thompson

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales are to hold an inquiry into the case of the Rt Rev Kieran Conry, he of the two (or is it three?) girlfriends, who resigned as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton when he had a crisis of conscience caused by the tabloids knocking on his door.

Displaying their celebrated transparency, the bishops have decided to keep the name of the ‘chair’ of the inquiry secret. The committee will focus on whether Conry breached guidelines on ‘vulnerable adults’. I very much doubt whether it will ask why Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor persuaded Rome to make his protégé a bishop when his relationship with a woman was already common knowledge. Conry was ‘one of us’, you see: a member of the Magic Circle of ambitious liberals (life president, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor; honorary press officer, Doctor A. Ivereigh) who had various nuncios wrapped round their little fingers.

Meanwhile, what about Catholics who are not ‘one of us’? You can’t get further from the Magic Circle than the parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Blackfen, Kent. The previous parish priest, Fr Tim Finigan, is a traditionalist who celebrated the Tridentine Latin Mass on Sundays – but also the New Mass, in strict conformity with rules laid down by Pope Benedict XVI. No sooner had he left earlier this year than the new PP, Fr Steven Fisher, cancelled the traditional services. Fr Fisher has the backing of his boss, Archbishop Peter Smith, but it’s a decision that has caused terrible distress to traditional Catholics for whom the old Mass at Blackfen was the centre of their spiritual lives. Now, you could argue that an incoming pastor is entitled to change – gently – the way things are done in his parish; but in this case the new man, having apparently concluded that the traddies were ‘divisive’, has effected change in a brutal fashion that has left his flock truly divided. More of a Cromwell than a Fisher, you might say.

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TOWSON (MD)
WJLA

[with video]

By Brad Bell October 23, 2014

TOWSON, Md. (WJLA) – A search is under way to find out if a prominent D.C. rabbi, accused of spying on women as they undressed, may have also recorded video of students he taught at Towson University.

Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel is already charged with voyeurism, after police say he hid a camera inside a ritual bath at Kesher Israel Synagogue.

At Towson, Freundel’s students wonder how many more victims there may be.

“I don’t think we should have to worry about that when we’re interacting with our teachers,” said Grace Peterson.

“I think it’s really inappropriate and … kinda disgusting,” Alex Halperin added.

Freundel was arrested last week in D.C. on charges he secretly spied on several women at the Georgetown synagogue he led as rabbi. It is alleged he used a camera hidden in a clock radio to record video of women in a sacred mikvah cleansing bath.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Hody Nemes

As a teenager, Joey Diangello, a self-described survivor of child sex abuse, left the insular Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where he’d grown up and plunged into the world of heavy metal music.

There, Diangello, who wore mascara and heavy metal T-shirts and sported long, black hair, found some measure of comfort in the music of such bands as Metallica.

But in death, Diangello, a co-founder of the group Survivors for Justice, which seeks to expose child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community — where it is often repressed — returned to the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Monsey, New York. On Ocotber 19, he was buried in a cemetery there under the birth name he abandoned long ago: Yoel Deutsch.

Diangello, who was 34, died of a drug overdose, according to PIX11, a local New York television news outlet. But friends remained uncertain of whether the death was a suicide.

“As of late he had been clean. He was running a marathon, he was really getting his life together, which is why it’s especially frustrating,” said Mark Weiss, a fellow member of Survivors for Justice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Oct 23, 2014 06:00 By Neal Keeling

A paedophile former police officer has been found hanged just days after appearing in court to face fresh allegations of child abuse.

Prolific abuser Don Mackintosh, a ex-sergeant in Greater Manchester Police, and church Boys’ Brigade leader was convicted in 1994 of a string of sex offences against young boys and sentenced to nine years in jail.

Mackintosh, 71, was found hanged at his home on Calico Crescent, Stalybridge, by officers who broke in when neighbours reported he had not been seen for several days.

Last week he appeared at Manchester Crown Court for a preliminary hearing accused of indecent assault against two boys dating back to the mid 1970s and 80s. …

Mackintosh, who also worked as an education welfare officer for Manchester council in the 70s, was also a lieutenant in the 59th Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade, based at Platt Lane Methodist Church, Fallowfield, where he abused his trust to pursue youngsters.

He got away with his crimes for 25 years until one victim had the courage to come forward. This triggered a police investigation and other victims were traced.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Mirror

A paedophile former police officer has been found dead just days after answering fresh child sex allegations.

Serial abuser and ex-Greater Manchester Police sergeant Don Mackintosh was found hanged at his home by officers who smashed down his door.

The twisted sex beast, who was once a church Boys’ Brigade leader, was convicted of a string of offences against young boys in 1994 and sentenced to nine years in jail.

Mackintosh, 71, was found hanged by the neck after appearing at Manchester Crown Court last week accused of indecent assault against two boys dating back to the mid 1970s and 80s.

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WALES
Barry and District News

by Dominic Jones

A WOMAN who was raped by a Jehovah’s Witness elder in Barry has spoken out about her ordeal and her hopes for bringing legal action against the church.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is pursuing legal action against the Jehovah’s Witness church alongside fellow victim and campaigner Karen Morgan in regards to their treatment in the aftermath of being abused by Mark Sewell, 53, who was jailed for 14 years in July for one count of rape and seven counts of sexual assault.

The pair are being represented by Kathleen Hallisey, the lawyer who represented American Candice Conti in a legal action against the Witnesses following years of childhood sexual abuse in California.

The woman, now in her 50s, was raped by Sewell at his home in the early 1990s having become friends with him and his family through the church.

Following the attack, she became pregnant but subsequently miscarried.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Oldham Evening Chronicle

A FORMER deputy headmaster has been jailed for four years after admitting sexually molesting nine youngsters over 35 years ago.

Grandfather Anthony Kerr (71) and in frail physical and mental health, preyed on the vulnerable boys when he was a teacher at an Oldham school.

Kerr, who later went on to devote his life to the church and became a Church of England priest, carried out the offences over four years from the late 1970s.

Manchester Crown Court heard the circumstances were virtually identical in each case: he called the boys – some as young as seven – to his desk to hear them read for him. then he sat them on his knee and fondled them under their short trousers. If they made a mistake wile reading he would pinch them.

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

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

An alleged victim of sexual exploitation has fresh concerns over a pastor and former licensed psychologist who is now working as a hospice chaplain.

The Rev. Bill Little is currently employed by Unity Hospice in St. Louis’ Dogtown neighborhood. Rhonda Pitt, who together with her husband first sued Little in 2011, accusing him of sexual misconduct, is concerned the pastor could hurt someone else.

“We just need people to know. They need to be warned,” Darrell Pitt, Rhonda’s husband, said at a news conference sponsored by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “I just hope we can prevent him from hurting anyone else.”

The couple sued Little, and the now defunct Christ Memorial Baptist Church in Cool Valley, claiming that in the 1980s he used his position as pastor, and his role as their personal therapist, to engage in an affair with Rhonda.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator

Wed, October 22, 2014
YOUNGSTOWN

The $8 million settlement reached in Pennsylvania between 88 sex-abuse victims of Brother Stephen Baker did not involve any Ohio victims, but there are still 28 alleged Ohio victims with claims.

Atty. Mitchell Garabedian of Boston said he plans to begin asking the Diocese of Youngstown for settlement negotiations “forthwith” regarding the 28 who claim also to have been victims of the Franciscan friar while he taught at Warren John F. Kennedy High School from 1986 to 1992.

Garabedian said a representative for the Diocese of Youngstown participated in the negotiations that resulted in the $8 million Pennsylvania settlement, but it was not because any victims were from within the Youngstown diocese.

The settlement was for 88 alleged sex-abuse victims of Brother Baker while he taught at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pa., from 1992 to 2001.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator

Thu, October 23, 2014 .
By Ed Runyan
runyan@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The $8 million settlement reached in Pennsylvania between 88 sex-abuse victims of Brother Stephen Baker did not involve any Ohio victims, but there are still 28 alleged Ohio victims with claims.

Atty. Mitchell Garabedian of Boston said he plans to begin asking the Diocese of Youngstown for settlement negotiations “forthwith” regarding the 28 who claim also to have been victims of the Franciscan friar while he taught at Warren John F. Kennedy High School from 1986 to 1992.

Garabedian said a representative for the Diocese of Youngstown participated in the negotiations that resulted in the $8 million Pennsylvania settlement, but it was not because any victims were from within the Youngstown diocese.

The settlement was for 88 alleged sex-abuse victims of Brother Baker while he taught at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pa., from 1992 to 2001.

Garabedian said the 28 in Ohio are separate from the 11 men who received a settlement from the Youngstown diocese, Warren JFK High School, and Brother Baker’s religious order, the Third Order Regular Franciscans, in 2012 because of alleged sexual misconduct by Brother Baker while at JFK.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Wednesday 22 October 2014

Senior members of the Church of England have issued formal apologies after an inquiry found a high level Anglican clergyman made serious failures in addressing allegations of the sexual abuse of children in Australia and Britain.

The year-long independent inquiry in Britain examined an alleged cover-up by the Anglican church in response to allegations made in 1999 and 2003 against a former Queensland school principal, Robert Waddington, and revealed by the Times of London and the Australian.

Waddington, who died in 2007, was a principal of North Queensland’s now closed St Barnabas boarding school from the early 1960s to 1970. He was unexpectedly sent to Queensland in 1954, one year after he joined the church, very soon after abuse allegations were raised, and in circumstances one former victim suggested were suspicious. After he left St Barnabas, Waddington returned to England where he held senior roles in children’s education and became the dean of Manchester.

At least six boys and one clergyman were allegedly abused by Waddington, the Australian reported, as far back as the early 1950s and as recently as 2003.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

Support For Complainants Inconsistent But Practice Overall Continues To Improve

(23rd October 2014 )

18 reviews of safeguarding practice across 5 male religious congregations and 13 female religious congregations have been published today. 8 of these are standard reviews measuring safeguarding practice against the 7 established standards that the Catholic Church has agreed to meet. However, because 10 of the orders in question are very small, have very limited contact with children, the advanced age of their members and no allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland, were assessed against a revised framework. This framework has been devised to address the actuality of their current existence.

“The findings for the 8 full reviews show that the timeframes for reporting to the civil authorities in relation to allegations against priests/brothers/sisters up until 2009 is variable but has improved considerably since the introduction of the “Safeguarding Children, Standards and Guidance,” said Teresa Devlin, CEO, NBSCCCI. “However, support for complainants continues to be inconsistent. Contact in many instances was not made directly by the Congregation and the opportunity for pastoral support was missed. This however is an improving picture and the reviewers highlighted instances of compassionate meaningful responses to survivors.”

The reports also showed that a number of the priests were in ministry abroad and allegations were made from both children in Ireland and in the missionary countries. Practice in terms of managing those situations varied, but increasingly is now dealt with by returning the accused priest to Ireland and being placed under restrictions in houses in Ireland. Where allegations have been made abroad it is rare for the complainant to pursue any action in relation to criminal or civil investigations. In these instances the Church inquiries are critical in establishing if there is a semblance of truth to the allegation and in the management of risk.

“We have also found that management plans relating to accused Priests and Brothers and sisters have improved significantly over time, though there is still room for improvement, in terms of clarity of roles, review of restrictions, and sharing of information,” said Devlin. “Adherence to other aspects of the 7 standards was less well developed in many Congregations. Many have limited ministry with children in Ireland today therefore the applicability of all criteria was limited. Recommendations for improvement where relevant have been made.”

For those 10 Congregations undergoing the revised audit process it was found that where there is ministry with children, the policy and procedures of the Diocese/Service provider was followed. The 10 Congregations demonstrated a strong sense of commitment to working positively with the National Board, in spite of their limited ministries.

“The publication of these Safeguarding reviews may evoke memories, it is important that complainants come forward if there are still unreported allegations of abuse,” said Devlin. “So, please do come forward and report them to the civil authorities and to the Diocese or Religious Order.”
ENDS

For further information please contact: Ger Kenny 087 2488393

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

Overview Report – 6th Tranch Reviews & 1st Tranche small Female Congregations

6th Tranche Review Reports

St. Joseph’s Society for Foreign Missions ( Mill Hill)

Sisters of St Louis

Missionaries of Africa ( White Fathers)

Pallottine Fathers & Brothers

Redemptorists

Union of Sisters of the Presetnation of Blessed Virgin Mary

Vincentians

Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary

Female – Small Congregations

Notre Dame des Missions

Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa

Faithful Companions of Jesus

Daughters of the Heart of Mary

Medical Missionaries of Mary

Missionary Sisters of St. Columban

Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary

Sisters of Marie Reparatrice

Ursulines of Jesus

Sisters of Adoration and Reparation

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Catholic Church child protection watchdog has fully reviewed the responses of eight religious congregations to allegations of sexual abuse of children in their care.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church said the timeframe for reporting allegations against congregation members to the civil authorities was “variable up until 2009”.

However, it said it has improved considerably since the introduction of new church standards that year.

Commenting on the audits, the board’s chief executive, Teresa Devlin, said the religious congregations’ support for complainants continues to be inconsistent.

The audit reports relate to: the Presentation Sisters, the Vincentian Fathers, the Redemptorists, the Sisters of St Louis, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, The Pallottines, The Mill Hill Fathers and the Missionaries of Africa also known as the White Fathers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies

Posted: 23 Oct 2014

IN 1999, after receiving allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in his province, Lord Hope, then Archbishop of York, wrote a letter of apology, aware that “this whole business will have caused you deep disquiet and distress and a considerable degree of sadness and pain.”

The letter was sent not to the survivor, but to the abusive priest. On Wednesday, it was published as part of a strongly critical report on the Church’s response to allegations of abuse against the priest, the former Dean of Manchester, the late Robert Waddington. It details how the failure to implement policies meant that victims were denied an opportunity to see their abuser brought to justice.

The report is the result of an inquiry commissioned last year by the present Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu (News, 17 May 2013), after a joint investigation by The Times in London and The Australian newspaper in Sydney had revealed allegations against Waddington dating back decades.

The inquiry, led by Sally Cahill QC, concludes: “Irrespective of the policies in force, there was a systemic failure: appropriate referrals would not have taken place . . . because the decision-making was in the hands of those not qualified or sufficiently experienced in child protection to make those decisions.”

On Wednesday, Dr Sentamu, who has visited all the victims living in the UK, said he was “deeply ashamed that the Church was not vigilant enough”. There was a need for “deep repentance”.

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CALIFORNIA
My News LA

POSTED BY JOHN SCHREIBER ON OCTOBER 22, 2014

A former teacher at the private Catholic girls school, Notre Dame Academy in West Los Angeles, was freed on $400,000 bail Wednesday after her arrest on suspicion of sexually molesting a student several years ago.

Elizabeth Brewer, 39, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of felony child sexual assault and was bailed out about 2 p.m. today, according to the sheriff’s website.

Culver City police made the arrest because the alleged crime or crimes occurred in that city between 2005 and 2007. “Mrs. Brewer was a teacher at the Notre Dame Academy in the city of Los Angeles during the same period, and it is alleged that the victim was one of her students,” Culver City police stated.

The elementary school is at 2911 Overland Ave., and the high school at 2851 Overland Ave.

So far, Brewer has not been charged, but police said detectives presented their case to the District Attorney’s office.

Anyone who may have been a victim of a similar crime, or who has more information about the case, was urged to call Detective Tobias Raya, (310) 253- 6318; or the watch commander, (310) 253-6202.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By TRE’VELL ANDERSON

A former teacher at a Los Angeles all-girls school was arrested Wednesday and accused of sexually assaulting one of her students between 2005 and 2007.

Elizabeth “Beth” Brewer, 39, has been charged with several felony charges by the Los Angeles District Attorney, according to a Culver City Police Department press release.

Brewer was a teacher at the private, Catholic high school Notre Dame Academy. The alleged victim is believed to have been one of Brewer’s students while she taught there.

The teacher left in 2006 after six years of service for unknown reasons, according to a source with knwoledge of the case who did not want to be identified.

After working at the high school, Brewer got a job as a course instructor and research analyst at UCLA before joining the Loyola Marymount University School of Education as adjunct faculty in 2007.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

CULVER CITY (CBSLA.com) — A woman was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of the sexual assault of a former student at an all-girls Catholic high school.

Elizabeth Brewer, 39, faces several felony charges of sexual assault of a minor.

The alleged acts occurred in Culver City between 2005 and 2007, police said.

“Mrs. Brewer was a teacher at the Notre Dame Academy in the City of Los Angeles during the same time period and it is alleged that the victim was one of her students,” said Det. Raya.

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

OCTOBER 22, 2014, BY MELISSA PAMER

A former teacher at a Catholic girls’ high school on the Westside of Los Angeles has been arrested on suspicion of felony sexual assault in connection with incidents that occurred between 2005 and 2007.

Elizabeth Brewer, 39, was arrested Tuesday morning after a “lengthy investigation” into an alleged incidents that involved one of her underage students at Notre Dame Academy in Rancho Park, according to the Culver City Police Department.

The school’s president informed parents of the arrest in a letter Tuesday. President Nancy Coomis said she first learned of the allegations several years ago after the student had graduated and Brewer was no longer at the school.

The allegations were reported to police immediately, Coomis said.

“We have cooperated with the police investigation and will continue to do so,” Coomis wrote. “School personnel are screened on their ability to work safely with minors, are provided information to help recognize and deal with issues of child sexual abuse, and are given guidance and instruction on appropriate professional conduct with students. Every student has the right to be respected and treated with the dignity befitting a child of God.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

WARNING — Eternal damnation awaits those who pursue sexual intimacy without pregnancy prospects, except maybe for clerics. This is the “wonderful warning” that recently Pope Francis and his Synod of Bishops, in effect, confirmed again — both for “opposite sex couples” and for “same sex couples”. This also confirmed the clear Vatican strategic link between the contraception and homosexuality issues. As the prominent Catholic observer, Peter Steinfels, noted a decade ago: “Homosexuality becomes the obvious battleground for addressing questions about nonprocreative heterosexuality.”

Papal power, of course, is derived from (1) claims that the pope is the only infallible transmitter of Jesus’ hopeful “message of love”, and (2) continued belief in these claims by over a billion docile Catholics who contribute and vote. Unending scandals of priests’ child abuse and bishops’ financial corruption, as well as chaotic clerical confrontations over “doctrines” and “turf”, like those at the recent Synod, are sending a very “unloving and fallible” message to a billion plus Catholics.

See, in the picture and report here, as a likely indication of related political and financial considerations, Pope Francis’ welcoming at the end of the Synod, Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, hardly the most “prophetic” supporter of Pope Francis’ breeding strategy:

[StarAfrica]

As usual, the voices of women, as Francis’ “Adam’s Rib”, were barely heard at the Synod, as strongly noted in “‘Baad” News Around the World” here:

[National Catholic Reporter]

The man-made “Rabbitt Rule” (Breed & Breed More!) of Popes Pius XI (1930) and Paul VI (1968) appears still to be the cornerstone of the Vatican’s key moral “doctrine of procreative sex, ONLY”. Corollaries this Rule include:

1. Catholic “opposite sex couples” must “shoot” for pregnancy in each intimate encounter; and

2. Catholic “same sex couples”, who cannot “shoot” for pregnancy, cannot be intimate ever; otherwise heterosexual couples will also demand “unfruitful non-procreative sex”.

These continuing Vatican scandal setbacks make it strategically paramount for the Vatican to generate more Catholic babies, at least to replace millions of younger, and even older, Catholics, who increasingly find the Vatican’s Church to be neither loving nor infallible. Meanwhile, the Vatican’s main worldwide religious competitor, Muslims, keep producing more babies, at a higher rate than Catholics now do, putting more pressure on the Vatican’s escalating “Baby Crusade”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

22 OCTOBER 2014

Witnesses in historic child abuse cases should be forced to give evidence as victims deserve more than promises of co-operation from Government agencies, MPs have heard.

Scandals including Rotherham, Rochdale and the brutal paedophile ring who abused boys from the Kincora home in Belfast are linked by allegations of an MI5 cover-up, Alliance Party MP Naomi Long said.

And it would be “utterly naive” to expect former security and intelligence service officials to voluntarily give evidence if they could face prosecution, Ms Long said.

She reiterated demands for the Official Secrets Act to be temporarily suspended to ensure full evidence emerged in connection to the Kincora investigation.

Ms Long added the Government-commissioned UK-wide probe into historic abuse – chaired by Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf – should also have statutory powers to compel witnesses to give evidence, as she warned state institutions had previously failed the victims.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Updated: Wednesday, October 22 2014

By: Maria Miller

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — It’s only been a day since the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown announced an $8 million settlement with 88 alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Brother Stephen Baker and already 6 News has learned at least one more alleged victim has come forward.

It was announced Wednesday by Road to Recovery, an organization that helps victims of sexual abuse.

The group was in Hollidaysburg with a parent of an alleged victim asking the diocese to do more.

“Your mind is spinning, you can’t believe it happened. You don’t want to tell anyone about this, you don’t even want it to be a reality for yourself,” said Barbara Aponte.

“I know this because as a child I was a victim of sexual abuse, not by a clergyman but by a family member.”

Aponte not only knows what it’s like to be a victim, she knows what it’s like to lose a child because of the stigmas attached to sexual abuse.

Her son, Luke Bradesku, took his own life at 29, but it took nearly 11 years until his family found out why. They say he was a victim of Baker. “Had my son gotten help, he might still be here,” Aponte said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Child abuse investigation: PM confident inquiry chair Fiona Woolf will act ‘with integrity’ despite connection to former minister under scrutiny

Paul Peachey

The head of the Government’s sprawling historical child abuse inquiry is facing demands to step down after she admitted hosting dinner parties with the former minister under scrutiny over his role in an alleged Establishment cover-up.

In a letter to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, Fiona Woolf, a lawyer, said that she had hosted three dinner events for Lord and Lady Brittan and dined twice at their home since 2008.

Despite other connections with the couple, including living in the same street, she said this did not amount to a “close association” with the former minister.

But concern at her relationship with the couple is mounting, particularly as Ms Woolf was only appointed after the original choice to head the inquiry – Lady Butler-Sloss – was herself forced to step aside over Establishment and family links to Lord Brittan.

The peer faces questions about what actions he took, while serving as Home Secretary in the 1980s, after being handed a now-missing dossier by the late MP Geoffrey Dickens that included claims of the involvement of VIPs in a child sex ring. In her first public grilling since she was appointed head of the inquiry, Ms Woolf – the Lord Mayor of London, former Law Society president, and member of the RAC club – repeatedly denied that she was a member of the Establishment.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Bob Gardinier
Published 4:54 pm, Wednesday, October 22, 2014

TROY — A former School 14 guidance counselor and one-time Roman Catholic priest who was convicted in 2002 for inappropriately touching an 11-year-old boy and possessing a library of child pornography had his Sexual Offender Registration level 3 status — the rank assigned to the most the top level, reduced to 2 after a hearing Wednesday.

William J. Heim, now 72, appeared before Judge Andrew Ceresia asking for the reduction. Ceresia heard testimony on how the man had not re-offended since he was released from prison 10 years ago and had complied with and attended all of the sexual offender courses required by parole and probation.

Assistant District Attorney Roman Griffith, however, argued that Heim has only been off probation for a couple of years.

“He has not had that fear of going back to jail hanging over his head for only a couple of years,” Griffith said. “We argued he has not been truly tested and should stay at a level 3, which requires the person to report every 90 days whether he has moved or not.”

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CANADA
North Renfrew Times

by Terry Myers

Father Michael Daniel Miller, 70, a Catholic priest who served in Deep River in the 1970s, will return to Pembroke court December 3 to face the verdict on charges of child sexual abuse.

Miller appeared in Pembroke court last week before Superior Court Justice Martin James on charges of gross indecency and indecent assault on a male.

Miller was previously convicted and sentenced to nine months in prison last year on five counts of indecent assault on a male.

Three of those charges involved victims who had served as altar boys at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church and whose families had welcomed him into their Deep River homes.

The current charges were laid following last year’s court proceedings, after another Deep River man came forward to claim that he also was a victim of sexual abuse at Miller’s hands in the early 70’s.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Warsaw. – The Warsaw Office of the Prosecutor on Tuesday announced that a Polish priest has been charged in his country of sexually abusing minors in Poland and the Dominican Republic, AP reports.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Warsaw, Przemyslaw Nowak, said the priest, identified only as Wojciech G., has been charged on 10 counts acts of abuse, eight of them with teen boys under 15.

Nowak said Wednesday that the alleged abuses occurred in Poland in 2000 and 2001 and in Dominican Republic from 2009 to 2013.

The priest, identified as Wojciech Gil in an interview for the TVN network , was also indicted on possession of pornography and possession of an unlicensed weapon and ammo. He was arrested near Krakow in February and has been in police custody since.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

Archbishop’s Residence Committee to be Established to Determine Best Uses for North State Parkway Residence

Chicago, IL (October 22, 2014) – Archbishop Blase J. Cupich has informed the priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago of his decision regarding his choice of residence and will live in the former quarters of the late Bishop Lyne at Holy Name Cathedral. Archbishop Cupich made this decision in consultation with Cardinal George, Msgr. Dan Mayall, Pastor of Holy Name Cathedral, and several Chicago priests.

Among the considerations that Archbishop Cupich took into account when making this decision was the historical significance of the North State Parkway Residence with its symbolic meaning for the people in the Archdiocese. As the home of all the Archbishops of Chicago since it was built in 1885 by Most Rev. Patrick A. Feehan, the Residence has hosted St. John Paul II and two of his predecessors before they were elected Pope, Cardinals Pacelli (Pius XII) and Montini (Paul VI). President Franklin D. Roosevelt was also an overnight guest. The important legacy of the Residence is that it was made possible through the sacrifice and financial commitment of Archdiocesan Catholics.

Another consideration for Archbishop Cupich in making this decision was his expressed desire to reside in a place where he could be most effective in serving all the people in the Archdiocese of Chicago. When his schedule permits, the Archbishop intends to say daily Mass at the Cathedral. The location also provides easy access to his office at Archbishop Quigley Center, as well as everything Chicago has to offer in everyday life in the City.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Huffington Post

By Carol Kuruvilla

Chicago’s incoming Archbishop Blase Cupich is foregoing the archdiocese’s lavish $14.3 million Cardinal’s Mansion for humbler digs.

The Chicago Archdiocese confirmed in a press release Wednesday that Cupich is breaking from the tradition set by his predecessors and has made up his mind to move instead to the rectory at Holy Name Cathedral.

The decision was made, in part, because Cupich expressed a “desire to reside in a place where he could be most effective in serving all the people in the Archdiocese of Chicago.”

The Archbishop also has plans to say daily mass at Holy Name Cathedral, which is the seat of the Chicago archdiocese.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Two clergy sex abuse stories yesterday by television stations – one in Texas, the other in Indiana – made me want to crawl back into bed and stay there.

First, KHOU TV, the CBS affiliate in Houston, reported that a girl, “when she was 13. . . .began a sexual relationship” with her 37-year-old youth pastor, Derek Hutter. The station reported that she “had sex with Hutter over a dozen times” and “had been involved with the youth minister since she was 13-years-old.”

[KHOU]

Then, WBIW, the Fox affiliate in Vincennes, reported that 34-year-old youth pastor Derrick “Duke” Hampsch is accused of “engaging sexual acts with a minor” and that “the probable cause listed three incidents in which the victim described taking part in sexual acts with Hampsch.”

[WBIW]

(emphasis added)

Look at those underlined words and phrases. Each implies consent. Each suggests that the victim, despite being a child, is a willing participant. (And one phrase – “when she began a sexual relationship” – actually says that the child was the instigator.)

Each phrase is dreadfully hurtful. Reporters simply MUST be more accurate and sensitive in their language surrounding sex crimes, especially child sex crimes.

Ever wonder why so many rape and abuse victims stay silent? In part, it’s because of callous, stupid and inappropriate reporting like this.

If I put a gun in a teller’s face and demand the bank’s money, no one writes that she “took part in a financial transaction” with me. So no one should say or suggest that somehow, when adults sexually violate kids or teenagers, there’s no coercion involved.

Child molesters are usually more subtle and less overtly violent. But they still force their victims into what may seem like compliance. But it’s not. And we shouldn’t use careless or callous language that implies an equality and a willingness between child and adult that is just not possible.

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UNITED STATES
Watch Keep

Amy Smith

In August 2014 SNAP entered a community partnership with StoryCorps. Since 2003 StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 50,000 interviews with over 90,000 participants. With the storyteller’s permission, each conversation is recorded on a CD to share and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to their weekly broadcasts on NPR’s Morning Edition and on their Listen pages. To help commemorate the 25th Anniversary of SNAP at the 2014 National Conference, StoryCorps reserved two full recording days for SNAP members to share their stories. Since then, others have been able to record at the StoryCorps booths in San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

Laura C. Morel, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A wrestling coach arrested Tuesday on charges that he recently hit two students was accused of stripping a Pinellas Park High student naked in 1998 after he caught the boy smoking a cigarette, according to records.

Teachers grew concerned when the student began missing classes around Thanksgiving. When confronted, the student said he felt uncomfortable seeing Scott Stern, a wrestling team volunteer, at school.

According to police records, the boy said that after Stern caught him smoking a cigarette in a car, Stern asked him to come into the wrestling room.

“Coach Stern said he could handle the smoking situation in three ways,” an officer wrote in a report. “One was to call his mother, two was the hard way, and the third was the mental way.”

The boy chose the mental way. Stern forced him to strip naked and balance a ruler on his head, records show.

When confronted by school officials and police, Stern admitted to making the student balance the ruler, but denied making him take off his clothes.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The cardinal has denied last Sunday’s alleged “incident”. At the post-Synod round table the President of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Mgr. Melina, argued that the open approaches proposed during the Synod were simply “ways to attract people. It is like introducing end of season sales, Church style”

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“It is not true that I deliberately avoided going to greet Pope Francis at the end of last Sunday’s mass because of an argument … these allegations are false,” Cardinal Ludwig Müller said at the end of a round table on the theme “The hope of the family. The Synod and beyond” held at the European University of Rome. He denied that he avoided greeting the Pope after the celebration of October 19th because of an argument a number of individuals claimed he had had with him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

Bernard Gallagher
Reader in Social Work and Applied Social Sciences at University of Huddersfield

Bernard Gallagher has, in the past, received funding from the Department of Health, the Home Office, the Economic and Social Research Council, the NSPCC, and The Nuffield Foundation. He is a trustee of the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.

The Conversation is funded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Alfred P Sloan Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Our global publishing platform is funded by Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Fiona Woolf’s first appearance before the Home Affairs Committee as Chair of the independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse provided some useful, albeit minimal, information on what work she and her panel will be undertaking.

Ms Woolf replaced Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who was originally appointed to lead the inquiry by the home secretary, Theresa May, to investigate the handling of abuse allegations by “a variety of public bodies and other important institutions”.

There have been serious misgivings about this inquiry – particularly around its remit – from the outset, and Ms Woolf’s appointment and eventual select committee appearance have done little to address them. Indeed, the problems have only multiplied.

Softly softly

Those overseeing the inquiry seem to be in no rush to commence proceedings. The home secretary set it up on July 7 2014; Butler-Sloss was appointed on July 8, and resigned on July 14 after her establishment links and record on other child abuse investigations was pillorited in the media. Her replacement by Woolf was revealed on September 5.

Woolf did not appear before the committee until October 21, more than six weeks after she was selected and 15 weeks after May initiated the inquiry – and still the panel has not begun its substantive work.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – A retired priest with the St. Louis Archdiocese has been suspended due to a recently reported allegation of sexual abuse.

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson announced the suspension of retired priest Father John Ghio.
Carlson says the suspension is due to a recently reported allegation of sexual abuse which was alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s.

Click here to read a statement from the St. Louis Archdiocese.

Ghio is currently retired from active ministry and resides in a monitored environment.

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FLORIDA
Fox 13

[with video]

By: Josh Cascio, FOX 13 News

CLEARWATER (FOX 13) –

Even 15 years can’t erase the awful memories.

“Degrading, like I was powerless over it,” recalled Jon.

Jon, who wanted his identity hidden, says he was 16 when he was caught smelling like cigarettes by his wrestling coach, Scott Stern at Pinellas Park High.

Stern allegedly offered not to tell Jon’s mother — if he followed his rules.

“He asked me to take off my underwear and hold a ruler over my head until arms wouldn’t hold it anymore,” Jon said. “I think it was for his own sexual fantasy, maybe for little boys.”

Jon would eventually be forced to transfer schools, and a case he filed against Stern would later be dropped. He says the encounter still haunts him.

“It is definitely still there. The first reaction I saw was, ‘Oh my God,'” he said.

That reaction came after learning of two new cases against Stern, now a wrestling coach at Clearwater Central Catholic.

In one from February, Stern is accused of making a 17-year-old strip naked, then grabbing him by the throat and groin while yelling at him. The other involves forcing another student to strip and slapping him on the rear.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

By WFLA.com web staff

PINELLAS PARK, FL (WFLA) –
A third allegation against a former Clearwater wrestling coach surfaced on Wednesday, one day after the coach’s arrest on battery charges.

Documents released by Pinellas Park Police on Wednesday detail a 1999 abuse allegation against Scott Stern, 45, a former Pinellas Park High School wrestling coach who was arrested Tuesday on charges he battered two students at Clearwater Catholic School.

Deputies say he struck a two male students at Clearwater Catholic School, where he was a coach. Stern resigned from his coaching position at Clearwater Catholic about two weeks ago.

Investigators say Stern made one victim strip naked, he then grabbed the teen in his throat and groin area while yelling at him. The second victim was battered on several occasions between August 2013 and May 2014. Investigators say the victim was forced to take off all of his clothes and was struck with a ruler and Stern’s hand on the buttocks.

On Wednesday, Pinellas Park Police released details from an alleged 1998 incident report involving Stern and another teen. The incident described a similar scenario involving a ruler and a student who was told to strip naked.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

[with video]

THE Archbishop of York has said he is “deeply ashamed” that the Church of England failed to ensure children were not abused by a former cathedral dean.

Dr John Sentamu was responding to a report published today into the handling of allegations of sex abuse against the late Robert Waddington, formerly Dean of Manchester, which found there were “systemic failures” by the Church.

Dr Sentamu’s predecessor as Archbishop, Lord Hope of Thornes, has been accused of failing to act on information he received.

Today’s report, by Judge Sally Cahill QC, found that: “Our conclusion, having heard his (Lord Hope’s) evidence is that his concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount in his response to these allegations.”

Lord Hope has said he is “disappointed” that the report has raised concerns about how the cases were handled and denied that there was a cover-up.

Responding to the report, Dr Sentamu said: “I have already been in contact with those who gave evidence to the inquiry regarding their alleged abuse by Robert Waddington.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Oct 22, 2014 By Wayne Ankers

The Church of England failed to ensure children were not abused by a former dean of Manchester, a report has found.

Claims of sex abuse by the late Robert Waddington, formerly Dean of Manchester, were first made in 1999 but the report says there were ‘systematic failures’ in the handling of the allegations.

And a former Archbishop of York Lord Hope of Thornes has been accused of failing to act on information he was given.

The report, by Judge Sally Cahill QC, found that: “Our conclusion, having heard his (Lord Hope’s) evidence is that his concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount in his response to these allegations.”

Lord Hope has said he is ‘disappointed’ that the report raised concerns about how the cases were handled and denied that there was a cover-up.

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POLONIA
Al Momento

VARSOVIA, Polonia.- El párroco polaco Wojciech Waldemar Gil (padre Alberto Gil) fue acusado formalmente aquí de abusar sexualmente de menores en su país y en República Dominicana, dijo la fiscalía.

Przemyslaw Nowak, vocero de la fiscalía de Varsovia, dijo este miércoles que el sacerdote fue acusado de diez actos de abuso, ocho de ellos en perjuicio de niños varones menores de 15 años.
Explicó que los hechos habrían ocurrido en 2000-2001 en Polonia y en 2009-2013 en República Dominicana.

El padre Alberto Gil, quien negó los cargos de abuso sexual, también fue acusado de posesión de material pornográfico y posesión de un arma de fuego y municiones sin permiso.

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POLAND
Star Tribune

Article by: Associated Press Updated: October 22, 2014

WARSAW, Poland — Prosecutors say a Polish parish priest has been formally charged in his native country with sexually molesting minors in both the Dominican Republic and Poland.

A spokesman for prosecutors in Warsaw, Przemyslaw Nowak, said the priest, whom he identified as Wojciech G., has been accused of 10 offenses, eight being the sexual abuse of boys under age 15.

Nowak said Wednesday the alleged acts took place from 2000-2001 in Poland and from 2009-2013 in the Dominican Republic.

The priest, who used his own name, Wojciech Gil, when speaking to TVN television, is also charged with possessing pornographic materials and possessing a firearm and ammunition without having a permit. He was arrested near Krakow in February and remains in police custody.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 20 October 2014)

Many years ago, Broken Rites began researching “Brother Gabriel Mount”, who had worked in Catholic children’s homes conduced by the St John of God Brothers in New South Wales and Victoria. We discovered that he eventually became a priest (“Father Roger Mount”), working in Papua New Guinea. In October 2014 he was brought back to Australia, where police charged him with multiple child-sex offences in Melbourne, involving seven Victorian victims, He is scheduled to appear in court in Melbourne again in early 2015. New South Wales police, also, are investigating Father Mount concerning incidents that are alleged to have occurred in NSW.

Broken Rites research ascertained that, early in his church career (in the 1960s and 1970s), Roger Mount was listed in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory as Brother “Gabriel” Mount, a member of a Catholic religious order called the St John of God Brothers. (When men joined this religious order, they normally adopted an ancient “saintly” name – hence Brother “Gabriel”.)

Later, Brother “Gabriel” Mount transferred to Papua New Guinea, where he left the St John of God order and became a diocesan priest. He reverted to his birth name, becoming Father Roger Mount, and was attached to the Diocese of Port Moresby. He reached a senior rank in this diocese. His most recent parish, Sogeri, is on the southern end of PNG’s famous Kokoda Track.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 22 October 2014)

A retired senior Catholic priest from western Sydney, Father Richard Cattell, has been undergoing preliminary court procedures (charged with child-sex offences) and now he is about to appear before Judge H. Syme in Sydney’s Penrith District Court for the final steps in the justice process. On the District Court schedule, Father Cattell is listed as case number 201400062169.

Father Cattell retired from parish work in the mid-1990s. He later lived privately at Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast and, recently, on the Gold Coast in Queensland. On 28 February 2014, New South Wales detectives travelled to Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales side of the Queensland border, and interviewed Richard Cattell at Tweed Heads police station about one former altar boy who has alleged that he was sexually abused while Cattell was based at parishes in western Sydney in the 1980s.

Cattell was taken on 24 March 2014 to Tweed Heads Local Court, to enable the matter to be officially filed in New South Wales.

Richard St John Cattell, aged 73, was charged with indecent acts against this boy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

22 October 2014 14:38 by Christopher Lamb

The Archbishop of York has said he is “deeply ashamed” that the Church of England failed to stop abuse by a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, Robert Waddington.

An independent inquiry by Judge Sally Cahill found that the allegations made against Waddington, who died in 2007, had not been adequately responded to by the Church and puts forward a series of recommendations for improvement.

Complaints were made against Waddington between 1999 and 2004 relating to incidents that took place in Australia in the 1960s and when he was Dean of Manchester in the 1980s.

Archbishop John Sentamu, who commissioned Judge Cahill’s report, said the inquiry had shown “systemic failures” by the Church.

Archbishop Sentamu’s predecessor Lord Hope was among those singled out for criticism for how he responded when he heard of allegations against Waddington.

These included not taking advice from his child protection officer, failing to take action that might have led to a prosecution, not establishing the risk to children and the fact that he interviewed Waddington about the allegations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
The Guardian, Wednesday 22 October

The Archbishop of York has said he is deeply ashamed that the Church of England failed to ensure children were not abused by a former cathedral dean.

John Sentamu was responding to a report published on Wednesday into the handling of allegations of sex abuse against the late Robert Waddington, formerly dean of Manchester, which found there were systemic failures by the church.

Sentamu’s predecessor as archbishop, Lord Hope of Thornes, has been accused of failing to act on information he received.

The report, by Judge Sally Cahill QC, found that: “Our conclusion, having heard his [Lord Hope’s] evidence, is that his concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seems to have been paramount in his response to these allegations.”

Hope has said he is disappointed that the report raised concerns about how the cases were handled and denied that there was a coverup.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Caroline Wyatt
Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu has apologised to victims of sexual abuse by a former cathedral dean.

Dr Sentamu was responding to a report into how abuse allegations against the Very Rev Robert Waddington, formerly dean of Manchester, were handled.

His predecessor was criticised for not acting on allegations in the report, which found “systemic failures” within the Church of England.

At least two men made claims of abuse in 1999 and at sometime in 2003-04.

The then Archbishop of York Lord Hope of Thorne and others were criticised in the report by Judge Sally Cahill for not acting at the time the allegations were made – and therefore putting other children at risk.

Several other boys the inquiry spoke to said they too had been subject to sexual abuse by the late Dean Waddington, who died in 2007.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill

A senior Church of England priest who was deeply sexually and emotionally abusive to young boys escaped prosecution when he was alive, possibly because of a failure to act against him when the first complaints were made, according to a report today.

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said it was a matter of “shame” and “deep repentance” that the abuse had occurred. The inquiry by Judge Sally Cahill QC found that the former Archbishop of York, Lord Hope of Thornes, did not act on information he was given about abuse by Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, who is now dead.

The 125-page report makes chilling reading and illustrates how a respected churchman could at the same time groom the young boys he had access to while cultivating an illusion of goodness in front of almost everyone else.

Throughout his long career as a paedophile, during which senior clergy praised him as someone with “a special gift with boys”, children were abused in Australia, where Waddington also worked, and in England. He would treat his chosen boys like young adults and give them the pet name of “mon petit”. There were also reports of boys being taken away by him on holiday, and of “boys frolicking with little clothing on.”

Judge Cahill concludes that it is a “possibility” that Waddington might have faced prosecution had any investigation been made into allegations against him in 1999, 2003 or 2004. The last victim identified was in the 1990s but as late as 1999, when the first complaint was made to Lord Hope, Waddington had access to the choirboys’ cloakroom at York Minster.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

[with video]

By Melissa Beckman

CLEARWATER, FL (WFLA) –
A former high school wrestling coach, accused for making students strip naked and battering them and arrested, has bonded out of jail.

Pinellas County Sheriff’s detectives say they know of two victims and believe there may be others out there.

The Sheriff’s Office arrested Scott Stern, 45, Tuesday. He resigned from his coaching position at Central Catholic High School two weeks ago.

Detectives say Stern made the first victim take off all of his clothes, and then grabbed him by the throat and groin area while yelling at him. The second victim claims he was battered on several occasions between August 2013 and May 2014. The teen claims Stern forced him to take off all his clothes and struck him with a ruler.

Stern’s attorney tells 8 On Your Side his client is innocent of the charges.

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FLORIDA
TBO

A former Clearwater high school wrestling coach assaulted two students after he made them take off their clothes, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said.

Scott Stern, 45, was arrested Tuesday on two counts of simple battery, deputies said.

He was the wrestling coach at Clearwater Central Catholic High from 2003 until recently.

According to investigators, in February, Stern made an 18-year-old male strip, and then grabbed him by the throat and groin area while yelling at him as a form of discipline.

A sheriff’s office report said another student, a 17-year-old boy, was battered by Stern on several occasions between August 2013 and May. The teen was forced to strip, then Stern struck him with a ruler and slapped him on the buttocks, the report said.

On another occasion, the boy was forced to take off his clothes while Stern conducted a strip search, the report said.

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FLORIDA
Daily Star (UK)

By Cyrus Engineer / Published 22nd October 2014

Scott Stern, 45, was taken into custody by police in Florida after resigning two weeks ago.

An 18-year-old claimed Stern – who taught wrestling and history at Clearwater Central Catholic High School – ordered him to remove his clothing and grabbed him by the groin and throat while shouting at him.

WFLA-TV has said the coach considered it a form of discipline.

The second victim, a 17-year-old, alleges Stern told him to strip before using a ruler to spank him.

There are fears other teens may also have fallen victim to Stern.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

Laura C. Morel, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A wrestling coach arrested Tuesday on charges that he recently hit two students was accused of stripping a Pinellas Park High student naked in 1998 after he caught the boy smoking a cigarette, according to records.

Teachers grew concerned when the student began missing classes around Thanksgiving. When confronted, the student said he felt uncomfortable seeing Scott Stern, a wrestling team volunteer, at school.

According to police records, the boy said that after Stern caught him smoking a cigarette in a car, Stern asked him to come into the wrestling room, where he forced him to strip naked while balancing a ruler on his head.

The Pinellas Park Police Department forwarded their investigation to the State Attorney’s Office in 1999, but prosecutors declined to file a child abuse charge against Stern.

Stern, who worked at Clearwater Central Catholic High School for 12 years, currently faces two counts of battery.

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FLORIDA
New York Daily News

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS

A 45-year-old Catholic high school wrestling coach and history teacher has been arrested and charged with battery for allegedly “punishing” two students by forcing them to get undressed, then beating their bare bodies, authorities said.

Scott Stern was taken into custody on Tuesday in Florida by Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies, WFLA-TV reported.

His alleged victims were two male students at Clearwater Central High School. Stern resigned two weeks ago. Deputies began investigating earlier this month after receiving a complaint, WABC-TV reported.

In February, Stern ordered an 18-year-old to remove his clothing and then grabbed him by the groin and throat while screaming at him, authorities said. It was considered a form of discipline, WFLA-TV reported.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC

[with video]

An inquiry has sharply criticised the Church of England’s handling of allegations of child sex abuse against the late Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington.

Its head, Judge Sally Cahill, said there had been systemic failures by the church in not reporting the sexual abuse, despite several alleged victims from the UK and Australia speaking out 15 years ago.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has offered a wholehearted apology, as the BBC’s Caroline Wyatt reports.

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UNITED KINGDOM
York Press

[with video]

by Mike Laycock

A REPORT on the Church of England’s handling of child abuse allegations against a former cathedral dean has strongly criticised a former Archbishop of York.

It says Lord Hope struggled with the conflict between his responsibilities for both the pastoral care of clergy and discipline, and says his concern for the welfare of Robert Waddington seemed to have been paramount in his response to the allegations against the former Dean of Manchester Cathedral.

The report, published following an independent inquiry set up by current Archbishop Dr John Sentamu, also identifies ‘systemic failures’ in the church’s failure to implement or follow its own procedures and guidelines on the reporting of incidents.

It makes eight recommendations for future handling of allegations, including policies that decision-makers should not have a pastoral responsibility for the alleged perpetrator, child protection should be approached on a national rather than diocesan basis and record keeping should be national.

Dr Sentamu said he was ‘deeply ashamed’ that the church was not vigilant enough to ensure such things did not happen, adding: “Any act of abuse committed by someone in a position of authority in the Church is a matter of shame and requires deep repentance.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 23, 2014

Michael McKenna
Reporter
Brisbane

ONE of the most senior Anglican clergymen in the world covered up horrific sexual abuse of children in Australia and Britain, according to an independent inquiry whose findings have rocked the church worldwide.

Lord David Hope of Thornes, formerly the Archbishop of York, was slammed by the church-­ordered inquiry, which found that he kept allegations against Robert Waddington secret from police and that his biased internal invest­igation into pedophile clergyman had put more children at risk.

Lord Hope, then the second-highest-ranking official in the Church of England, was also accused of compromising potential police investigations in both countries and misleading Queensland victim Bim Atkinson into dropping his fight against the church.

Victims of Waddington are calling for Lord Hope, who was knighted for his services to the Queen, to be stripped of his life peerage in the House of Lords.

Headed by English judge Sally Cahill, the 12-month inquiry was ordered last year after a joint investigation by The Australian and London’s The Times exposed a high-level cover-up into the 1999 and 2003 allegations into the late reverend Waddington.

The Cambridge-educated Waddington was principal of a Anglican boarding school in far north Queensland for almost a decade until 1970, before returning to England where he rose to become the head of education for the church in Britain and later dean of Manchester. The newspaper investigation revealed that at least six boys and a young clergyman were sexually abused and beaten by Waddington in Britain and Australia.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of York

Wednesday 22nd October 2014

The Office of Lord Hope of Thornes issued the following statement today. Bishop David Hope is a former Bishop of London, and the former Archbishop of York.

STATEMENT RE THE WADDINGTON INQUIRY

Lord Hope issued the following statement today

(Wednesday 22 October 2014)

I have maintained throughout my career that any allegation of abuse made against anyone connected to the Church must be dealt with professionally and swiftly. Accordingly, as someone who has always taken safeguarding extremely seriously, I am obviously disappointed that this Inquiry has raised concerns about how the two cases in question were dealt with during my time at Bishopthorpe.

As Bishop of Wakefield, then London followed by my time as Archbishop of York I always took great care and acted in, what I believed to be, an appropriate and effective manner in cases where the abuse of victims was brought to my attention. I note that the Inquiry itself is clear that no allegations of abuse in the Diocese of York were ever made during my time as Archbishop.

At the time 15 and 12 years ago respectively such allegations as were reported to me were unspecific. Indeed the full details of the allegations in question have never been brought to my attention either at the time that I was Archbishop, or during this Inquiry. The allegations were also from unnamed sources who had indicated their unwillingness at that stage to go to the police. In such circumstances, at that time, there was no recommendation that reporting to the police and statutory authorities was mandatory and that there was ‘no single, correct procedure for dealing with a disclosure of abuse by an adult'[1]. If any allegations were passed to me today, however, I would not hesitate to inform the police and the statutory authorities.

I am glad that the Report has found that there is no evidence that Waddington abused anyone else after I spoke to him in 1999.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of York

[with video]

Wednesday 22nd October 2014

Archbishop’s Statement On Publication of the Independent Inquiry by Her Honour Sally Cahill into the Church of England’s Response to allegations against Robert Waddington

I wish to begin by expressing my gratitude to the Judge, Her Honour Judge Sally Cahill QC, Mr Joe Cocker and Mrs Nicola Harding for the work they have done in producing this report. I also want to thank all those who gave evidence to assist the Inquiry team in coming to its conclusions.

I have already been in contact with those who gave evidence to the Inquiry regarding their alleged abuse by Robert Waddington. As I have said to them I am deeply ashamed that the Church was not vigilant enough to ensure that these things did not happen, failing both to watch and to act, where children were at serious risk.

Any act of abuse committed by someone in a position of authority in the Church is a matter for shame and requires deep repentance. We are called as individuals and corporately to a higher standard and to show God’s love and care as revealed in Jesus Christ. Those who trusted us in this only to be grievously wounded deserve not only our wholehearted apology but also the assurance we will keep a watchful eagle’s eye and act swiftly. …

At the request of some of those interviewed by the inquiry to the Archbishop of York this report will not be made available in an electronic format but in hard copy only.

Hard copies of the report are available from Bishopthorpe Palace in York and Church House Bookshop, Westminster. Copies of the report have been sent to newsdesks.

Copies of the Report for the media will be available free of charge on Wednesday 22 October. After this date, the Report will be available at a cost of £7.50 plus postage and packing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Communion News Service

The Bishop of Manchester issues a statement today on the publication of The Inquiry into the Church of England’s response to child abuse allegations made against Robert Waddington.

Robert Waddington abused children. He abused them in Australia and in England. He exploited the trust placed in him, first as a teacher and then as a priest, to gain repeated and unsupervised access to the children he abused. My heart goes out to those whose lives have been irreparably damaged by what Robert Waddington did to them. When I read of the ongoing effects of his abuse, decades after it took place, it makes my blood run cold.

So I want to thank Archbishop Sentamu for setting up this inquiry. I also want to thank Judge Sally Cahill and her colleagues for their hard work over these last months. But above all I want to say thank you to those who Robert Waddington abused, and who came forward. Thank you, because every time a survivor of abuse speaks out it makes it just a little easier for the next person to speak. Thank you, because every time one of you tells your story, you make a little narrower the space in which abusers can conceal their crimes. Thank you for the courage you have found, and for the long years you may have spent in plucking up that courage.

The Cahill Inquiry has done what it could to encourage other survivors of abuse by Robert Waddington to come forward. They state clearly that they have heard no evidence that he was continuing to abuse children at or after the turn of the millennium, when allegations were first raised with Child Protection Advisors here and in York. Nevertheless, it is plain that a more vigorous and coordinated response by the dioceses involved, and with the police, might have led to a situation where it would have been possible to bring Robert Waddington to account for his earlier crimes, in his lifetime. That opportunity was tragically missed. The eight recommendations in the Report, which largely focus on the national dimension of safeguarding, will go some way to avoiding similar situations ever happening again. Manchester Diocese itself is in a very different place now. Our safeguarding work is led by a full time professional officer, fully qualified to carry out her responsibilities. In her absence and as additional back up we have access to consultancy from one of the major and most highly respected national safeguarding organisations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Crime Editor

Child abusers should no longer be protected from justice by the confidentiality of the confessional, the Archbishop of York told The Times today.

Dr John Sentamu said that after listening to survivors of sexual abuse by a senior clergyman he had pressed the Church of England to undertake legal and theological study on the secrecy of confession.

Under canon law priests are forbidden from disclosing what is said to them in the confessional.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Lawsuit vs. abusive minister & ex-radio host settles
One of his victims will speak publicly for the first time
He sexually repeatedly exploited her during counseling
He surrendered his psychologist’s license to state officials
But he’s now around “vulnerable adults” as hospice chaplain
Last month, he was honored by a large local funeral home chain
And he also reportedly worked for Cardinals & Seattle Mariners
SNAP urges others who “saw, suspected or suffered” misdeeds to “speak up”

WHAT:
Holding signs and a photo of an alleged offender at a sidewalk news conference, a woman who was sexually exploited by a minister, ex- psychologist, ex-St. Louis Cardinals consultant and ex-KMOX radio talk show host will

— blast a funeral home & hospice provider for honoring the minister last month,
— discuss, for the first time, her civil lawsuit against the minister and his church, and
– disclose that the suit has settled and that his psychologist’s license has been revoked, and
— prod anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered his misdeeds to speak up, expose wrongdoing, and protect others.

WHEN:
Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 2:30 p.m.

WHO:
A woman who was sexually exploited by her minister, filed an unusual lawsuit against him, settled the case and now worries about the minister’s efforts to gain access to other vulnerable adults. She’ll be joined by her husband and three-four members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHERE:
Outside the Unity Hospice headquarters, 6406 Wise Ave. (corner of Tamm) in St. Louis’ Dogtown neighborhood

WHY:
Last month, Rev. Bill L. Little was honored by a local funeral home and the hospice company where he works.

[Unity Hospice]

But two lawsuits against him, charging that he sexually exploited congregants or counselees, have settled. And while being investigated, he relinquished his psychologist’s license to state officials and was ordered to surrender his certificates and licenses due to an inappropriate relationship with a patient and for performing treatments for which he was not licensed. (As best SNAP can tell, he has never regained his license.)

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, October 22, 2014

For more information: Melanie Jula Sakoda ( 925-708-6175 cell, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com ), Cappy Larson ( 415-637-2006 cell, cappy@rlarson.com ), David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Convicted abusive archbishop still gets a salary
Victims’ group is “outraged” by “this hurtful injustice”
Hierarch was retired and is no longer an archdiocesan employee
Survivors believe this set-up is a way to channel archdiocesan funds to the prelate’s legal defense
Officials early on made it clear that church entities must not be involved in raising money for archbishop’s attorney fees
Victims’ beg the synod to put an end to “this hurtful, expensive charade”

Members of an abuse survivors’ group say that Orthodox Church officials are continuing to pay an archbishop who was retired in the wake of hjs conviction on child sexual abuse charges.

Archbishop Seraphim Storheim was found guilty of molesting a child in January of 2014. He was once the highest-ranking Orthodox prelate in Canada. (He worked in Winnipeg and Ottawa.)

[Orthodox Church in America]

However, official archdiocesan minutes that were recently put online show that Storheim received his full salary through the end of August. Although his employment benefits ended in June, he will apparently continue to collect two thirds of his salary, with no end in sight to the payments.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By DAVE SUTOR dsutor@tribdem.com | Posted: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 4:36 pm

Eighty-eight former Bishop McCort High School students who Brother Stephen Baker sexually abused will receive a combined $8 million in compensation.

A settlement, involving four parties – the victims, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Third Order Regular Franciscans and Bishop McCort Catholic High School, was announced on Tuesday.

Baker, whose January 2013 death has been ruled a suicide, abused the children when he served as an athletic trainer at the Johnstown school from 1992 through 2001.

“The victims of Brother Stephen Baker should be proud of themselves for having the strength to step up and fight such devastating evil,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based attorney for almost three dozen of the accusers.

Richard Serbin, an Altoona lawyer who represents some of the other molestation victims, added: “No amount of money eliminates the emotional and physical pain of having been sexually molested by someone you trust and respect. By coming forward, these brave young people took action in an effort to prevent other children from being sexually abused.

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TOWSON (MD)
The Towerlight

20 OCTOBER 2014 BY JONATHAN MUNSHAW, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Update (Oct. 21, 3:42 p.m.): Director of Communications Ray Feldmann told The Washington Post that the University did not know about these trips to the synagogue for Freundel’s class, and that they were unauthorized by the school.

Original story

The University has indefinitely suspended Associate Professor Barry Freundel with pay, following his arrest outside his home in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 14.

Freundel was charged with voyeurism for allegedly setting up a hidden camera disguised as a clock radio in a ritual bath, to which he pled not guilty.

“Dr. Freundel has been suspended from any and all faculty duties and responsibilities, pending the outcome of that investigation and associated criminal proceedings. At this time there is no indication that these activities occurred on the Towson University campus. We are concerned about the serious nature of this matter, and we are providing support and counseling resources to members of the campus community,” Director of Communications Ray Feldmann said in a statement Wednesday.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

Alarm grows over news that rabbi accused of voyeurism took students to ritual bath

By Peter Hermann October 21

Police searched a D.C. rabbi’s office at Towson University on Tuesday as students and campus officials expressed growing alarm over news that the rabbi, who was a professor there, took students on field trips to his Georgetown synagogue and invited them to use a ritual bath where he is now accused of secretly recording women.

Students in two of Barry Freun­del’s religious classes said on Tuesday that the professor who replaced the suspended rabbi let students vent and that in back-to-back sessions, several said they either had been invited to shed their clothes and use the bath, called a mikvah, and had declined, or knew classmates who had participated.

“It was very emotional, confusing, frustrating,” said Jenna Taylor, a 22-year-old majoring in health-care management, describing her class on faith perspectives in medical history now being taught by Avram Reisner, a rabbi and theologian from the Baltimore area. Freundel began teaching at the school in 1989.

A woman who had helped Freundel with the ritual bath from late 2013 through May said she assisted at least a half-dozen Towson University students as they showered and immersed themselves in the mikvah as part of the field trips. The woman said she is in contact with D.C. police.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

The offices of a now suspended Towson University professor were searched by police on Tuesday.

The Washington Post reports police were at the office of Barry Freundel yesterday.

Freundel is now charged with six counts of voyeurism. The DC Rabbi was also a professor of religious studies at Towson.

Some students in his class say they were invited to use the religious cleansing bath at a Georgetown synagogue where Freundel worked and which are the focus of the investigation.

Freundel is accused of secretly recording women getting into the baths at the synagogue.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Trisha Estabrooks

More than five decades after the last residential school in St. Albert closed its doors, a new plan is in the works to remember the city’s sometimes-painful past.

There were once two residential schools in what is now St. Albert:

* The Edmonton Indian Residential School (1919-1960), which was originally run by the Methodists and later by the United Church, and

* St. Albert’s Indian Residential School (1941-1948) was run by the Roman Catholics
Both buildings were destroyed by fire and no longer exist.

Now, St. Albert United Church minister James Ravenscroft and well-known aboriginal activist Maggie Hodgson want to create ‘a healing garden’ to commemorate the children who were forced to attend the faith-based organizations.

The story of residential schools in St. Albert’s is not well-told, they said. In fact, many people are often shocked to hear that St. Albert even had residential schools, said Ravenscroft.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Oct 21, 2014 By James Lyons

Three Labour MPs warned that Fiona Woolf’s ties to the Tory grandee meant she should not investigate how historic abuse allegations were handled

The new head of the national child sex abuse inquiry is facing calls to quit before she starts – as the full extent of her links to Leon Brittan were revealed today.

Three Labour MPs warned that Fiona Woolf’s ties to the Tory grandee meant she should not carry out the probe into how historic abuse ­allegations were handled.

Ms Woolf said that she has enjoyed five dinner parties with Mr Brittan and his wife – prompting Labour MP Simon Danczuk to comment: “In the world where I come from if you have people round for dinner regularly, you would consider yourselves friends.”

Mr Danczuk, who exposed Cyril Smith as a paedophile, added: “The public will suspect the government is trying to protect Leon Brittan.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Matthew Weaver and Rowena Mason
The Guardian, Wednesday 22 October 2014

Fiona Woolf, the second person to lead the government’s inquiry into child abuse, is facing parliamentary and legal pressure to stand down after it emerged she was on “dinner-party terms” with Lord Brittan, who was home secretary when a dossier about alleged Westminster paedophiles went missing from his department.

Woolf, a QC and lord mayor of London, replaced the government’s initial choice, Lady Butler-Sloss, who resigned soon after the inquiry was set up when it emerged that her late brother Lord Havers was attorney general at the time of some of the historical allegations.

Now a second conflict of interest row is growing as lawyers representing victims of the abuse insist that Woolf should resign after it emerged that the Tory peer was one of her neighbours, with whom she had dined five times since 2008.

She also faces a legal challenge over her appointment and an parliamentary motion calling for her replacement.

The shadow energy secretary, Caroline Flint, told BBC’s Daily Politics programme: “I think it’s really difficult for her to stay.” But No 10 insisted the prime minister had “full confidence” in Woolf.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Child abuse inquiry chair ‘beyond the pale’ and must step down over dinner party links to top Tory Leon Brittan, say victims

The new chairman of the government inquiry into child sex abuse was dismissed as ‘beyond the pale’ for victims today because of her dinner party links to Leon Brittan.

Fiona Woolf admitted she entertained the former Home Secretary and his wife three times at dinner parties at her house, and twice went to his central London home for dinner.

The revelations showed she was not fit to oversee the official inquiry into historic allegations of child abuse, victims said today.

Asked whether Mrs Woolf should step down, Alison Millar, who represents a number of abuse victims whose cases are likely to be raised in the inquiry, said: ‘Yes. I think this evidence of dinner parties with Lord Brittan really puts her beyond the pale in terms of her credibility with my clients.’

Ms Millar told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘This is not about Fiona Woolf’s ability or her integrity. This is about her independence and her ability to lead this inquiry in a way that is credible to the survivors of abuse whom I represent.

‘The people that I am in contact with because they are my clients, or I am in contact with otherwise, the general view among them is that Fiona Woolf really does not have the necessary credibility to lead what is such an important inquiry for them.’

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

A victim of historical child sexual abuse has launched a legal challenge to the choice of Fiona Woolf as the chair of the inquiry investigating the issue.

A judicial review application, seen by the BBC, claims she is not impartial, has no relevant expertise and may not have time to discharge her duties.

Labour wants Mrs Woolf to meet abuse victims amid concerns over her links to former home secretary Lord Brittan.

Downing Street said it had “full confidence” in her doing the job.

The BBC’s assistant political editor Norman Smith said he believed the government would do everything it could to “cling onto” Mrs Woolf given that her predecessor in the role had already stood down and the inquiry was being asked to produce an interim report by the end of March.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

video report by Tom Lyden

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis brought in some heavy hitters to investigate the child sex abuse allegations plaguing the church, but survivors say they weren’t told about a very relevant bit of history from a new hire’s resume.

Tim O’Malley, the former superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, was appointed to the newly-created position of director of ministerial standards and safe environment at the end of August. Last week, he brought in his old boss — former Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion — to help without much fanfare; however, Campion had first-hand experience dealing with a child abuse allegation 20 years ago — and it’s a case that’s very similar to those the church is accused of mishandling.

Campion’s own methods are raising serious questions, but lawyers announced last week that he will join the investigation of abuse allegations after they announced a settlement involving the archdiocese. Some abuse survivors, including Bob Swiderski, welcomed the idea of having a top cop come into the church.

“We just heard he was this longtime cop,” Swiderski told Fox 9 News.

Yet, back in 1993, Campion was the No. 2 guy at the BCA. That’s when former Minneapolis Police Chief John Laux forwarded a letter he got from two brothers who said they were molested by a counselor at the YMCA’s Camp Warren. That counselor, William Jacobs, had become the Minneapolis Park Police Chief, and Campion arranged a meeting between Jacobs and one of his victims. During that meeting, Jacobs allegedly confessed.

Speaking to Fox 9 News by phone from the chancery office, Campion claimed his hands were tied. The Attorney General’s Office told him the cases were outside the statute of limitations, and the victims didn’t wish to go public. So, Campion told Jacobs he was going to keep an eye on him. When asked whether he conducted an investigation, Campion said, “I did an inquiry.”

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MISSOURI
Fox 2

[with video]

OCTOBER 21, 2014, BY ANDY BANKER

WEBSTER GROVES, MO (KTVI) – Stunning news for parishioners at St. Louis area Catholic churches. Arch-Bishop Robert Carlson has announced the suspension of a long-time priest after an allegation of sexual abuse.

They knew him as Father Jack at Annunciation Parish in Webster Groves. Fr. John Ghio last served as a retired priest in residence. To the allegation of his sexual abuse of a minor in the 1980’s, just revealed in announcement from the Arch-Bishop, seems out of the question.

Ghio served in 8 other parishes since his ordination in 1980, Including St. Joseph’s in Manchester from ’83-’86. there will be an announcement of his suspension, in the Sunday bulletins of all 9 parishes.

St. Catherine, Alexandria in Riverview Gardens, St. John the Baptist in St. Louis, St. Joseph-Manchester, St. Angela- Florissant, Our Lady of Lourdes U-City, St. Joseph–Farmington, St. Peter in St. Charles, Assumption in Mattese, and Annunciation in Webster Groves.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Vindicator

Staff and wire report

PITTSBURGH

Attorneys for about half of the 88 former students sexually abused by a Franciscan friar, who worked as a teacher and athletic trainer at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown, Pa., say the students’ claims have settled for $8 million.

Altoona attorney Richard Serbin represents 13 former students at the school, and Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian represents 33. The students said they were abused by Brother Stephen Baker, who worked at the school, 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, from 1992 to 2001.

Baker, 62, committed suicide in January 2013 by stabbing himself shortly after two former Warren John F. Kennedy students and Garabedian disclosed that 11 former Kennedy students had reached a settlement with that school, the Diocese of Youngstown and the religious order under which Baker served, the Franciscan Third Order Regular. The newest settlement involved the Diocese of Youngstown as well.

The Warren revelations prompted many of the alleged McCort victims to come forward.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By SAMANTHA-JO HARRIS Oct. 22, 2014

THE hearing into a defrocked priest facing historic child sexual abuse charges was halted on Wednesday after the prosecutor was rushed to hospital suffering chest pains.

Just after lunch, Peter Woods complained he was “feeling flat”, before walking out of the courtroom clutching his chest.

Later, court staff said Mr Woods had been complaining of symptoms which indicated a problem with his heart, but he said he was feeling no pain when treated by the paramedics.

Crown solicitor Edward Freelander, who had been in the district court, offered to step up for the hearing, which was expected to involve the cross-examination of three witnesses, including one of the complainants.

The committal was to determine which witnesses would be needed to give evidence when the case went to trial.

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POLSKA
Gazeta Wiadomosci

Prokuratura Okręgowa w Warszawie skierowała do sądu akt oskarżenia przeciwko Wojciechowi G., duchownemu podejrzewanemu o molestowanie nieletnich na Dominikanie.

Do Sądu Rejonowego w Wołominie trafił akt oskarżenia przeciwko Wojciechowi G. podejrzewanemu o wykorzystywanie seksualne nieletnich w wieku poniżej 15 lat na Dominikanie.

W akcie oskarżenia pojawiły się zarzuty popełnienia łącznie 10 przestępstw, w tym osiem dotyczy “obcowania płciowego z małoletnim poniżej lat 15 lub dopuszczenia się wobec takiej osoby innej czynności seksualnej, lub doprowadzenia jej do poddania się takim czynnościom”. Zarzuty te dotyczą ośmiu różnych osób, w tym dwóch Polaków i sześciu obywateli Dominikany. Dwa przestępstwa miały być popełnione w Polsce w latach 2000-2001, pozostałe w latach 2009-2013 na Dominikanie.

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