ABUSE TRACKER

NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Rob Spahr | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 15, 2014

TOMS RIVER – The fate of a Brick priest on trial for molestation charges could come down to a video tape.

A jury in the trial of Marukudiyil Velan, of the Church of the Visitaion in Brick, asked Ocean County Superior Court Judge James Blaney on Tuesday to watch a videotape again on which, prosecutors claim, the priest admits to improperly touching a mother and her two children in 2012, the Asbury Park Press reported.

However, Velan’s defense attorney argues that maintains detectives badgered, cursed at and manipulated Velan until he confessed, the newspaper reported.

Velan, 66, better known as “Father Chris” in the Brick parish, has been a adjunct priest at the Church of the Visitation in Brick since 2001. A garden at the church is named after him.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By Jacob Lupfer
Religion News Service October 15, 2014

Pope Francis has engineered a lively debate at the Synod of Bishops about gays and lesbians, divorced and remarried Catholics, and couples who live together before getting married. Yet through these discussions about Catholic life runs a theme that is as old as the Reformation: the role of individual conscience.

The conflict between conscience and authority is the pre-eminent battle underlying the synod’s debates. Even the dramatic turn from language such as “living in sin” and “intrinsically disordered” is a tacit nod to conscience over authority.

If there is a common thread among issues as diverse as contraception, divorce, premarital sex, and homosexuality, it may be the limits of the Church’s authority over Catholics’ behavior and consciences.

Protestant denominations vary in how much they have abandoned traditional teaching on these matters. Evangelicals have mostly accommodated birth control and divorce, but not premarital or gay sex. Mainline Protestants rarely enforce what weak prohibitions on premarital sex remain, and are more rapidly accepting gays and lesbians in the life and ministry of their churches.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Kesher Israel

This is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community. At this challenging time, we draw strength from our faith, our tradition, and our fellow congregants.

Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials.

Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.

After today’s arrest of Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the Board of Directors suspended him without pay. As always, Kesher Israel will remain open as a place of learning, prayer, and community, including throughout the remainder of the Sukkot holiday.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Times

By MICHAEL PAULSON
OCT. 14, 2014

An Orthodox rabbi who presides over a prominent Washington congregation was arrested on Tuesday and charged with voyeurism.

Although the police in the District of Columbia confirmed the arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel, they declined to provide details or a copy of an arrest report for the misdemeanor charge. Rabbi Freundel is accused of placing a hidden camera in a changing area used by women, as well as some men, to disrobe before they enter a ritual bath called a mikvah, according to a person familiar with the allegation who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The congregation’s mikvah is in a building next to the synagogue, Kesher Israel. The congregation’s board of directors said it had notified law enforcement authorities of its concern about Rabbi Freundel’s behavior, and had suspended him without pay. It called the allegation “a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community.”

“Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” the board said in a statement posted to the congregation’s website.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Peter Hermann and Michelle Boorstein October 14

A prominent modern Orthodox rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue was arrested by D.C. police on Tuesday morning and charged with voyeurism, according to a department spokeswoman.

Barry Freundel, 62, of the Kesher Israel Congregation, was being held in police custody Tuesday and was likely to have an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday. Within hours, the synagogue’s board of directors suspended him without pay.

D.C. police confirmed that his arrest came during a search of his home on O Street NW, about five blocks from the synagogue in the 2800 block of N Street NW that he has led since 1989.

The police spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Crump, confirmed the arrest but declined to provide details of the allegation. Freundel’s home phone was not answered Tuesday afternoon. His arrest was first reported by Washingtonian magazine.

Law enforcement authorities said the case involves a hidden camera but gave conflicting accounts of where the alleged voyeurism took place. Both the synagogue bathroom and the mikvah, where ritual bathing takes place, were mentioned.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox 5

[with video]

By Maureen Umeh, FOX 5 Reporter & Anchor
By Paul Wagner, FOX 5 Reporter

WASHINGTON –
D.C. police have arrested and charged a prominent Georgetown rabbi with voyeurism.

Barry Freundel was arrested at his Georgetown home Tuesday morning and has been the rabbi of the Kesher Israel Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue, on N Street in Northwest D.C. since 1989.

Freundel is accused of setting up a hidden camera inside his Northwest D.C. synagogue and recording women as they showered.

The alleged crime happened in an area of the synagogue known as a mikvah. It is a ritual bath where congregants go to get spiritually cleansed.

D.C. police say Rabbi Freundel used cameras set up in a changing area just outside the mikvah to peep on women.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WJLA

[with video]

By Jay Korff October 14, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP/WJLA) – D.C. police have charged a rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue with voyeurism.

Police said 62-year-old Barry Freundel was arrested Tuesday at his home. Freundel is the rabbi at Kesher Israel Congregation.

A police report indicated that a camera and recorder hidden in a clock radio were found in the women’s shower in the mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath, at the synagogue.

According to the congregation’s website, Freundel has been the rabbi at Kesher Israel for 25 years. The site said Freundel is an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University. He also teaches at Towson University.

A message left at Freundel’s phone number was not immediately returned, but some of his neighbors – who witnessed his arrest -were careful not to judge.

“I hope we all remember that he is a brilliant man and a great leader. My prayers go out to his family and his congregation,” neighbor Sharon Lockwood told ABC7 News.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Haaretz (Israel)

Prominent Washington rabbi Barry Freundel was arrested and charged with voyeurism on Tuesday morning, The Washington Post reported.

A reporter with Washington D.C.’s local Fox television station reported on Twitter that Freundel was arrested for “electronic voyeurism” and “had cameras in ladies rooms.”

Another news website, the Washingtonian, cited eyewitnesses as saying that Freundel was led away in handcuffs while police searched his house, at 30th and O streets, Northwest. They were later observed removing computers and other items from the house.

Police confirmed that the arrest took place during a search of his home, about five blocks from the synagogue, according to the Post.Freundel is the rabbi of Kesher Israel congregation in Washington DC, vice-President of the Vaad of Washington and head of the conversion committee of the Rabbinical Council of America.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Jewish Press

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Published: October 15th, 2014

If the charges brought against a Washington, D.C. rabbi are true, the stain against him and the shadow cast by the accused wrongdoing will be long and hard to remove.

The rabbi of the Modern Orthodox Kesher Israel, also known as the “N” Street shul, has been charged with installing an electronic camera in the mikveh building and using or intending to use the camera to see the women as they prepare to immerse themselves monthly in the ritual bath as is commanded in the Torah. The mikveh is also used on certain occasions by men.

Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel was suspended without pay by Kesher Israel’s board of directors after he was arrested and charged with voyeurism, allegedly using cameras to spy on women in the mikveh.

A police report obtained by the Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate alleges that Freundel was installing a camera hidden in a clock radio above a shower at the mikveh. The rabbi allegedly told the person who caught him that he was fixing the shower’s ventilation system.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

[with video]

BALTIMORE —A rabbi at a prominent Washington, D.C., synagogue who teaches at Towson University was arrested and accused of secretly recording women in showers.

Police arrested Barry Freundel at his home in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning. He’s charged with voyeurism.

A witness told WBAL-TV’s sister station in Washington, D.C., WRC-TV, that Freundel installed a hidden camera inside the women’s showers at Georgetown’s Kesher Israel Orthodox Synagogue. The showers are used for ritual cleansing.

Freundel, 62, is also an associate professor who teaches in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Towson University.

The synagogue released a statement, saying, “This is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community. At this challenging time, we draw strength from our faith, our tradition, and our fellow congregants. Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials. Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so. After today’s arrest of Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the Board of Directors suspended him without pay. As always, Kesher Israel will remain open as a place of learning, prayer, and community, including throughout the remainder of the Sukkot holiday. This is a very difficult time for all of us. We respectfully request that our community be granted privacy. Any further questions should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Daily News

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN

A prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi was busted Tuesday after cops discovered he had allegedly been filming women showering at his modern Orthodox synagogue in Georgetown.

Police swarmed Rabbi Barry Freundel’s O Street home Tuesday morning and spent hours investigating, removing hard drives and computers, witnesses told WTTG-TV. The 62-year-old has served as rabbi at Kesher Israel, some five blocks from his home, since 1987.

Freundel is charged with voyeurism and is expected to appear in court Wednesday.

Kesher Israel has a mikvah, a ritual bath women in Orthodox Judaism are expected to use each month, the Jewish Daily Forward reported. The facility’s mikvah has three changing rooms and the bath, used by men and women at different times, the outlet reported.

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UNITED STATES
Commonweal

Francis Oakley

Human beings chart their collective past, like their individual ones, via anniversaries, and this year has been particularly rife with important memorializations. June saw the seventieth anniversary of D-day in 1944, a date that increasingly tests the limits of living memory. In August we observed the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War. Go further back, and you enter a remoteness where anniversaries more typically engage the historian than the man on the street. Well, I’m a historian; and it is a sixth-hundredth anniversary to which, somewhat forlornly, I wish to draw attention. Forlornly, because I am guessing that we are unlikely to hear much about it, and least of all from church-connected sources. Yet the anniversary marks a truly great ecclesiastical event—one on which the fate of the universal church was directly dependent. November 16, 1414, saw the opening at Constance of a general council of the Latin Church. Both for what it was and what it did, the council was an event of great and historic significance.

In size alone—and it was far better attended than the later, iconic Council of Trent—Constance was perhaps the most imposing of all medieval representative assemblies, ecclesiastical or secular. A citizen of Constance who was charged with helping find quarters for the flood of visitors listed, in addition to popes John XXIII (the first John XXIII, the one who had convoked the council) and Martin V, some five patriarchs, 33 cardinals, 47 archbishops, 249 bishops and suffragan bishops, 247 abbots and priors, 217 doctors of theology, 361 doctors of both laws, 5,300 “simple priests and scholars,” 3,000 and more merchants, shopkeepers, craftsmen, musicians, and players—and over 700 “harlots in brothels.” The council, moreover, attracted not only the papal but also the imperial chancery, as well as the official representatives of a host of European countries; one historian has called it the nearest medieval equivalent to the United Nations.

And what did the council do? Quite a lot, in fact, not least of all the passage of a series of reforming measures, one of which—the decree Frequens (1417)—mandated the automatic assembly of frequent general councils, thereby making them a regular and continuing part of church governance. Had the popes not chosen to ignore that decree, the abuses of the late-medieval church might well have been remedied and the great “rupture” of Protestant Reformation avoided. But the council’s most important achievement was its success in bringing about what years of negotiation, diplomatic pressure, and even military action had failed to achieve—namely, the ending of the Great Schism of the West, which, after a disputed papal election and nearly forty years of debilitating deadlock, had seen Latin Christendom divided first into two and then into three rival “obediences,” each presided over by its own claimant to the papal throne.

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MINNESOTA
City Pages

By Jesse Marx Tue., Oct. 14 2014

Jeff Anderson hurries down the historic hallways of the Landmark Center in St. Paul dressed in a blue-pin-striped shirt with a white collar and pauses to hug two men. Both Jim Keenan and Al Michaud have been working with the attorney for years — both victims of clerical sexual abuse.

“This is a good day,” Anderson whispers and steps aside, revealing an odd sight: two priests.

Handshakes go round and one by one the men step into a room packed with reporters and cameras and survivors and pols — many of the people who’ve had a stake in cleaning up the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the last couple years. Jennifer Haselberger, the former canon lawyer and whistle blower, stands in the back, smiling nervously.

They’ve come to hear Anderson announce the details of a sweeping settlement. His three-decade-long battle, though far from over, has come down to this: a 17-point “child protection protocol” that’s intended to revive confidence in local parishes and remove the veil of secrecy and silence that has plagued generations of sexual abuse survivors.

For instance, the plan forces the archdiocese to report allegations to law enforcement immediately and stay out of the investigation until it’s completed. Meanwhile, the suspected priest will be pulled from active ministry and his personnel files open to scrutiny.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: October 14, 2014

The historic settlement of a clergy abuse lawsuit Monday now moves to a sticky second phase as attorneys try to negotiate financial settlements for dozens of other church lawsuits either filed or pending court action.

Under the “new era of cooperation,” the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and victims’ attorneys will work to forge out-of-court settlements for the lawsuits filed since Minnesota relaxed its statute of limitations on older abuse cases last year. That includes three cases scheduled for trial in January.

“We agreed to a noneconomic portion of a global settlement; now we will try to achieve an economic portion of a global settlement,” said Charles Rogers, a Minneapolis attorney recently retained by the archdiocese to negotiate with victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson.

Anderson said his office has filed 16 lawsuits to date on behalf of alleged victims of clergy sex abuse. Dozens more are pending. And the Minnesota Child Victim’s Act, which opened the doors to lawsuits from decades-old abuse, doesn’t expire until May 2016. Those cases also will need to be negotiated.

Neither side predicts that a global economic settlement will be easy. But it makes more sense to assist victims than to pour money into lawyers fees and litigation, they said.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

Kate Raddatz

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – After a historic settlement in clergy sex abuse lawsuits in Minnesota, now the question becomes how the Catholic Church will pay for it.

The exact amount of the settlement has been kept confidential, but experts say it could cost the Archdiocese tens of millions of dollars.

On Monday, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis along with the Diocese of Winona said they were considering all options to pay for the settlement, including bankruptcy.

Experts say if their insurance doesn’t step up to cover the payment of this settlement, it could be very likely they will file for bankruptcy.

But as for whether or not a bankruptcy claim would then cause Catholic school or churches to shut down, it is unlikely.

As the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with the Diocese of Winona, review their finances to see if they have the assets to pay for their lawsuits, bankruptcy remains on the table.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church drafted a Memorandum of Understanding to share information with the NSW Police Force in 2004 despite being told a year earlier that the agreement breached child abuse mandatory reporting laws, an inquiry has heard.

The Police Integrity Commission had previously heard the MOU was designed to open up lines of communication between the church’s Professional Standards Office and the Child Protection Enforcement Agency, to facilitate the sharing of information relating to allegations of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

But a 2003 letter from Commander Kim McKay from the Child Protection Squad to Michael McDonald, who was the head of the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, advised that the unsigned MOU breached section 316 of the Crimes Act.

In the letter, Ms McKay said “the draft MOU has not been approved by the NSW Police Service, and the arrangements proposed by the MOU are not currently in place”.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

Esme Murphy

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — In her first in-depth television interview, the whistleblower in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis abuse scandal says Archbishop John Nienstedt must step down.

Jennifer Haselberger, Nienstedt’s former top legal adviser, said Monday’s announcement of new policies to protect children is a significant victory, but believes new leadership is needed to implement them.

So, Haselberger said not only Nienstedt should go, but all the top leadership of the Twin Cities archdiocese should leave as well.

Last year, Haselberger resigned from the archdiocese and went public with her concerns that the church covered up and mishandled abuse allegations. She insists she is not on a mission to destroy the archdiocese, but to help save it.

Her efforts, along with a change in state law allowing old abuse claims to be heard in court, are widely credited for the reforms announced this week.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
MSN News

Reuters

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has agreed to pay $9.95 million to settle all outstanding sexual abuse claims against its priests in a bid to close a long-running scandal.

The settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by priests 20 or more years ago, the diocese said in a statement.

“The diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past,” it said.

A large part of the settlement will be covered by insurers, with the diocese paying the rest, the statement said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Steven Morris and agency
The Guardian, Wednesday 15 October 2014

A senior Church of England bishop will face no further police action over allegations of historical sexual offences against a girl and a woman, it has been revealed.

Michael Perham, the bishop of Gloucester, was interviewed under caution by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command.

But Scotland Yard has told Perham that he will face no further action. The Church of England is continuing to assess whether there are any “ongoing safeguarding issues”.

Perham, who is due to retire on his 67th birthday next month, said: “It was right that the allegations should be fully investigated and I am grateful that the police have completed the investigation and concluded there are no grounds for further action to be taken. My family and I are very grateful for all the support and affirmation we have received at this time.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AAP

BY EOIN BLACKWELL
October 15, 2014

The former head of the NSW child protection squad says he was unaware of a special arrangement between the police and Catholic Church to “blind report” incidents of sexual abuse until this week.

John Heslop, former commander of the Child Protection Enforcement Agency (CPEA), told the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) he didn’t know of the arrangement until the inquiry started on Monday.

The commission has heard the church and police had an arrangement of blind reporting, whereby information about abuse allegations would be given by the church to police without key details about the victim, since 1998.

“Are you saying you don’t recall it either way,” asked counsel assisting Kristina Stern.

“Yes,” Mr Heslop said.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

MEGAN BAILEY DIAMOND VALLEY OCTOBER 15, 2014

A PASTOR from Bundoora’s Encompass Church has expressed remorse to the victims of paedophile teacher Kenneth Sandilands during hearings into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

In 2000, Kenneth Sandilands, now 69, pleaded guilty and was jailed for two years for 13 counts of indecently assaulting eight students in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Pastor John Spinella, from Encompass Church (formerly Northside Christian Church), was at Northside Christian College and was on the church board during Sandilands’ time.

Mr Spinella yesterday told the commission hearing the organisation had “bungled” its handling of the matter, in particular the Reverend Denis Smith, who had the power to fire Sandilands.

Mr Spinella said the school now had a mandatory reporting policy for suspected abuse.

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OHIO
WKYC

[with video]

Chris Tye, WKYC 1

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — For sixty years, Ernest Angley has preached to the world from his headquarters in Cuyahoga Falls.

But for the last two months, Akron Beacon Journal columnist Bob Dyer has been talking to dozens of former members of Angley’s congregation who say what went on in here needs to stop. He wrote:

“Angley’s church is a dangerous cult where pregnant women are encouraged to have abortions, childless men are encouraged to have vasectomies and Angley — who preaches vehemently against the “sin” of homosexuality — is himself a gay man who personally examines the genitals of the male parishioners before and after their surgeries. They also say he turns a blind eye to sexual abuse by other members of his church.”

WKYC asked for a comment from the church and received the following: “Reverend Angley is not interested in responding to the article. It is a bunch of lies. It is not hindering us. We are being blessed in each service with crowds.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 15, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

The father of a sexual abuse victim has accused his church of abandoning his family and attempting to “minimise losses” if his son sought compensation, a royal commission has heard.
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the man, given the pseudonym ALD, said Australian Christian Churches tried to protect its assets rather than the victim.

“The church instead worked to minimise potential losses in case the victim should seek compensation,” he said. “Insurance was checked, consideration given to possibly shifting assets to other entities.”

The royal commission heard ALD’s son, given the pseudonym ALA, was sexually abused for two years from the age of 13 by a youth pastor at a Queensland church.

The abuse, which started in 2004, occurred on and off church premises.

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OHIO
Cleveland Leader

Published by Julie Kent on October 15, 2014

Televanelist Ernest Angley of Gracey Cathedral in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, has been accused by former members of his church of demanding that they have vasectomies or abortions, and further claim that the church leader would turn a blind eye to sexual abuse in the church.

During the Akron Beacon Journal’s six-part series covering the various allegations that have been made against Angley, 93, 20 former members of his congregation came forward and spoke with reporters. Members said that he not only encouraged vasectomies and abortions, but also personally examined “the genitals of the male parishioners before and after their surgeries.”

One former member said, “none of us have kids because he makes all the men get fixed”, and another former parishioner, Becky Roadman, said, “You’re not allowed to have babies there.” Others noted that Angley frequently counseled women to have abortions, and that he told at least one woman to think of her fetus as “a tumor.” One woman says that she knows of another woman, who will not come forward at this time, who was forced in to four abortions.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 15, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

A Pentecostal pastor may have overlooked suspicions about his paedophile son-in-law because of their family relationship, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told church members raised concerns about a relationship between youth pastor Jonathan Baldwin and a teenage boy.

The then senior pastor of the Queensland church, Ian Lehmann, told the commission he may have downplayed the claims because Baldwin was dating his daughter.

“He was in a relationship with my daughter and that would have blindsided me to a degree, because I would never have allowed my daughter to have a relationship with somebody if I thought he was engaging in alternate sexual activity,” he said.

The commission has heard Baldwin started abusing the then 13-year-old boy in 2004 and the molestation continued until 2006, after Baldwin married Mr Lehmann’s daughter.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

A former Pentecostal pastor at a Sunshine Coast church cannot accept that a former youth leader who married his daughter is a paedophile, an inquiry has heard.

Jonathan Baldwin was jailed for a maximum of eight years in 2009 for molesting a 13-year-old boy for two years at the Queensland church.

The church, which could not be named for legal reasons, was attended by about 200 people.

Baldwin had a non-parole period of four years and was no longer in jail.

His father-in-law and former boss, Ian Lehmann, told the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday that Baldwin made an error in judgment but was not a paedophile.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

BY ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP OCTOBER 15, 2014

A SENIOR Pentecostal pastor whose son-in-law ran his church’s youth program had no idea he was sexually abusing a 13-year old boy, an inquiry has been told.

IAN Lehmann, who led a small Queensland church where Jonathan Baldwin took sexual advantage of the boy between 2004 and 2006, says he still struggles to accept his son-in-law’s guilt.

Baldwin, who had charge of a 200-strong youth congregation, was jailed in 2009 for eight years, with a non-parole period of four years, for indecent treatment of a child under 16 and for one count of sodomy. He is no longer in jail.

Pastor Lehmann on Wednesday told a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing he found “pedophilia and homosexuality” repulsive, but when he sits down to have a meal with Baldwin “I don’t think I am doing this with a pedophile”.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph has settled 30 claims of sexual abuse for $10 million, according to a news release.

The settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by diocesan priests twenty or more years ago.

The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past. The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.

A large portion of this settlement will be covered by insurers with the balance being paid by the Diocese.

In 2008, the Diocese settled 46 pending cases for $10 million. Jack Smith, the diocese’s director of communications, said these settlements will take away some missions the church wanted to do.

In a statement to 41 Action News, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said those who sued the diocese were heroes.

Dozens of brave Kansas City men and women who were sexually assaulted as a child by priests have settled their abuse and cover up case against the KC Missouri diocese and its convicted bishop, Robert Finn.

Finn and his aides and their expensive lawyers pulled out all the stops to try and deny Jon David Couzens his day in court. They did the same with these other victims. Time after time, Finn failed. So at the 11th hour, to protect their reputations and careers, Kansas City Catholic officials settled this case and the others as well.

While we are relieved these courageous survivors, especially Jon David, won’t have to endure even more mean-spirited legal attacks by Finn and his expensive lawyers, more cover ups by more Catholic officials would have emerged had these cases gone to trial and we’re sad that this won’t happen.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A settlement has been announced this evening for victims of predator priests in Kansas City.

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese says they’ve reached an agreement to settle all 30 outstanding sexual abuse claims for a total amount of $9.95 million.

The cases, filed between 2010 and earlier this year, allege abuse by diocesan priests twenty or more years ago.

“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past. The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse,” according to a statement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gazette

Bishop of Gloucester to face no further police action over historic sex abuse allegations
by Stuart Rust

The Bishop of Gloucester, Right Rev Michael Perham, is to face no further police action over an allegation of historic sex abuse against a woman and a girl.

The Metropolitan Police said simply that they had completed their inquiries into the allegations and would not be taking any further action.

“We can confirm enquiries are now completed and there is to be no further action by the police,” said the Met statement.

The 66-year-old Bishop, a father of three, has issued a statement welcoming the announcement and expressing his relief.

However, he will not be able to return to work immediately because of an ongoing inquiry by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Committee.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

By Jeffrey Field

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph said Tuesday it has agreed to settle all outstanding sexual abuse claims against priests.

The $9.95 million settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year. The abuse alleged in those claims dated back 20 years or more.

A large portion of the settlement will be covered by insurers. The rest will be paid for by the church.

David Clohessy of Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement about the settlement, saying the church did not want to risk a trial and worried jurors would find the accusers credible.

“(Bishop Robert) Finn and his aides and their expensive lawyers pulled out all the stops to try and deny Jon David Couzens his day in court. They did the same with these other victims. Time after time, Finn failed. So at the eleventh hour, to protect their reputations and careers, Kansas City Catholic officials settled this case and the others as well,” the statement said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

Posted: Oct 14, 2014

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph said they have settled all outstanding sexual abuse claims for a total amount of $9.95 million.

The settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by diocesan priests twenty or more years ago.

They explained where the money came from in a release:

“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past. The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.”

“A large portion of this settlement will be covered by insurers with the balance being paid by the Diocese.”

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released a response saying they are glad the sexual abuse survivors won’t have to endure going through trial, but they believe more cover-ups would have come out if the cases had gone to trial.

“While we are relieved these courageous survivors, especially Jon David, won’t have to endure even more mean-spirited legal attacks by Finn and his expensive lawyers, more cover ups by more Catholic officials would have emerged had these cases gone to trial and we’re sad that this won’t happen.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Joanna Menagh

A Catholic priest has been sentenced to 22 months’ jail for sexually abusing a teenage boy while was working in Perth 30 years ago.

Father Glenn Humphreys, 61, was found guilty by a District Court jury of four charges of molesting the 15-year-old boy in the 1980s.

The court heard the boy had gone with his mother, a devout Catholic, to the Church where Humphreys was an assistant priest.

Some of the offences took place in the Church’s presbytery, and another at Quinns Rocks where the two had gone on holidays.

The court was told the victim would visit Humphreys in his quarters and they would smoke cigarettes and listen to Barbara Streisand songs.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 2

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says it has agreed a $9.95 million agreement to settle all outstanding claims alleging sexual abuse by priests decades ago.

Diocese spokesman Jack Smith said in a statement Tuesday that the agreement settles 30 claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year.

Smith says a large portion of the settlement will be covered by insurers with the balance paid by the diocese. He does not provide a breakdown of payments.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

ELLE FARCIC The West Australian
October 15, 2014

A Catholic priest who unlawfully and indecently assaulted a teenager in Perth 30 years ago has been sentenced to 22 months in jail.

Glenn Humphreys was found guilty of four counts of unlawful and indecent assault but acquitted of carnal knowledge against the order of nature in August.

The 61-year-old admitted having an “inappropriate” sexual relationship with the boy, who is now aged 45, but told the court their actions were consensual.

District Court Judge Philip Eaton said given his age, Humphreys would have known his behaviour was “grossly inappropriate”.

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MISSOURI
The Examiner

By Karl Zinke
karl.zinke@examiner.net
Posted Oct. 15, 2014

Independence, Mo.
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has agreed to settle 30 sexual abuse lawsuits for nearly $10 million, the diocese announced Tuesday night.

The agreement for a total of $9.95 million resolves all 30 outstanding claims – including some involving priests in Independence – filed from 2010 to early 2014 alleging abuse by priests from the diocese from 20 or more years ago.

“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past,” the diocese wrote in a press release. “The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.”

The diocese said most of the settlement would be covered by insurance with the remaining amount paid by the diocese itself. The settlement ended the civil lawsuit trial brought by Jon Couzens against Monsignor Thomas O’Brien for alleged abuse in the late 1970s and early ’80s. That trial has been in court in Independence for more than a week

David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese’s timing in settling the lawsuits in a press release.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fars News Agency (Iran)

TEHRAN (FNA)- The American Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, St. Joseph, has agreed to pay $9.95 million to settle all its sex scandals in a bid to close a long-running file, media reports said.
The settlement resolves 30 pending cases filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by priests 20 or more years ago, the diocese said in a statement, Reuters reported.

A large part of the settlement will be covered by insurers, with the diocese paying the rest, the statement said.

The Kansas City diocese in 2008 settled a lawsuit for $10 million brought by 47 plaintiffs who claimed they were repeatedly sexually abused by priests when they were children.

In 2012, one of its priests pled guilty to producing child pornography, and the diocese’s current leader, Bishop Robert Finn, was convicted of failing to report him to police.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

The “gay” issue announced by Vatican Pied Pipers as “earthquake, gray areas, do-over, gradualism, stuns Catholic world, stirs controversy” in the Synod of Bishops is Vatican Circus for idiot Catholics at its most ludicrous. The Washington Post belongs to the Vatican Mammon Beast aka Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team and look at how its title (like John Allen of Crux always cleverly does) deceive Catholics: “Vatican stuns Catholic world with greater openness toward gays and lesbians”. This title is so ludicrous and loaded with pathological lies that it can build a higher Tower of Babylon!

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

POSTED: 10/14/2014

“I pray that the darkness of the past be overcome by the light of this new day.”

— The Rev. Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

That new day should begin to pave the way for healing after Monday’s joint announcement of a legal settlement by archdiocesan officials and the lawyer for sex-abuse plaintiffs.

With it comes the hard work of restoring trust.

The church has been a central part of St. Paul’s identity from our city’s first days. After building the Chapel of St. Paul in 1841, “so delighted were the residents of Pig’s Eye with their first community institution that they rechristened the river settlement in its honor,” wrote Mary Lethert Wingerd in “Claiming the City,” the 2001 book that serves as a biography of the city.

This week, Pioneer Press columnist Ruben Rosario called the scene in a historic courtroom at Landmark Center an unprecedented public reconciliation.

A news conference brought together former adversaries — plaintiffs’ attorney Jeff Anderson and church leaders — with victims. They stood side by side in announcing a legal settlement and a 17-point child-protection agreement.

Through the current suit, the Pioneer Press’ Emily Gurnon recounts, Anderson leveraged the disclosure of more than 50,000 pages of clergy personnel documents from the church, as well as sworn testimony from Archbishop John Nienstedt, former Archbishop Harry Flynn, former Vicars General Kevin McDonough and Peter Laird, and Robert Carlson, formerly with the Twin Cities archdiocese and now archbishop of St.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

10/14/20140

Jennifer Haselberger

Unusually for me, I have agreed to interviews with WCCO TV and radio this afternoon. This has forced me to spend more time ruminating on the provisions of the Doe 1 settlement, and what it means in terms of resolving the crisis in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. I want to state at the outset that I really would like to see this crisis come to an end. I have no interest in becoming entrenched in a position of binary opposition to the Archbishop or the Archdiocese. At the same time, I must admit that I felt much more hopeful about the settlement and its impact prior to the press conference yesterday afternoon. I continue to believe that the provisions of the settlement will have a tremendous impact, but I see that impact as being limited to two key areas: support for victims and investigations of alleged criminal conduct. The rest of the provisions are, by and large, little more than a restatement of previous promises, and I don’t think we should be patting the Archdiocese on the back for agreeing not to have priests in ministry who have abused minors.

In order for me to believe that we are truly entering ‘a new era’, I think that four things still need to occur. What follows is my attempt to outline these four things, as well as to explain my reasons for believing they are necessary. I hope to also have the opportunity to discuss these items with WCCO this afternoon.

Item #1: Leadership Change in the Archdiocese

The first and most critical ‘action item’ if you will, is leadership change in the Archdiocese. Obviously, this has to begin with Archbishop Nienstedt. Whether he chooses to resign or some process is begun to determine his fitness for ministry is not for me to say. What I think is clear is that he lacks many of the characteristics to be any sort of a leader, much less a good leader. This is not just a comment on his handling of allegations of sexual abuse. Many besides me have raised issues about his style of management, his ability to relate to people, and his administration in general. Yet, in calling for a change in leadership, I do not mean to stop there. Bishop Piche should be granted medical retirement. Bishop Cozzens, if his episcopal ministry is to be salvaged, should be transferred to another Archdiocese where he can serve as an auxiliary under a bishop capable of mentoring him in authentic and effective pastoral leadership. The rest of the upper levels of Archdiocesan staff also have to go. I observed yesterday’s press conference from the back of the room, and so my view was different than those of you who saw it unfold through the lens of a camera. From my vantage point what was obvious was that while the faces in front of the camera were by and large new, the faces of those beyond camera range were all too familiar. There will not be any true change in the Archdiocese until all the faces are new. If someone was in a directive position in the years leading up to or during 2013, and stood by while the Archdiocese was assuring the public that there were no accused priests in active ministry, that it was complying with the Charter, and that there had been only one credible accusation since 2005, he or she needs to go. Perhaps that will happen as part of a reorganization plan arising from a Chapter 11 filing, but previous Archdiocesan reorgs have rarely led to the right departures. I think we will only see this change when there is a change at the very top.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Kathleen Hopkins, @Khopkinsapp
October 14, 2014

TOMS RIVER – Jurors weighing the fate of a popular Brick priest on trial on molestation charges on Wednesday will get a second look at what the prosecution says is among the strongest evidence against him – a videotape of what he said to detectives.

An assistant prosecutor reminded the jury on Tuesday that Marukudiyil Velan, better known to parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick as “Father Chris,” admitted on the videotape that he improperly touched a mother and her two children in 2012.

Velan’s defense attorney, however, maintains the detectives badgered, cursed at and manipulated Velan until he told them what they wanted to hear.

Brick priest trial: Sex assault or tall tale?

After deliberating late into the afternoon on Tuesday, the jurors sent a note to Superior Court Judge James M. Blaney saying they wanted to view the videotape again. Blaney sent the panel home without reaching a verdict, saying they would have a chance to see the videotape in the morning.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

Updated October 14, 2014

Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team movie script akin to a Hollywood production for the Synod of Bishops is going on as planned and their foremost Vatican Pied Piper John Allen is the main journalist who’s presenting the bishops in center stage and the lay speakers who were handpicked by the Opus Dei Beast PR. Watch John Allen’s brainwashing title. Today it’s “Married couples are stealing the show at Synod of Bishops” – which deceives idiot Catholics – to feel-good about the lay couple’s 5 minutes fame as in a television show and to not see the truth that the laity are being given bread crumbs of attention by the homosexual misogynists bishops oligarchy boys club.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

OCTOBER 14, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Here is the information you need to calculate if you can currently proceed with either a civil or criminal child sex abuse case in PA. It’s completely confusing, but the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape does a great job of explaining the law.

Civil SOL

Criminal SOL

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MICHIGAN
Detroit News

Oralandar Brand-Williams; The Detroit News October 14, 2014

Detroit – — A woman who authorities say conspired with a Catholic priest to embezzle money from a church charity was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

Dorreca Brewer, 34, of Jackson said nothing as she was sentenced by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Morrow.

Her lawyer, Southfield attorney Randall Upshaw, had asked that Brewer be ordered to give back only $2,000 of the money Upshaw says she is responsible for taking.

But Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Woodyard asked Morrow to order Brewer to also pay back $3,000 given to needy applicants which was split with her co-defendant, the Rev. Timothy Kane.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

A Pennsylvania priest has pleaded not guilty to charges he possessed child pornography and traveled to Honduras for sex with poor street children during missionary trips.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio entered the plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto in Johnstown.

The 69-year-old remains jailed, though Pesto gave lawyers 10 days to return with information about the priest’s finances, at which point Pesto says he may reconsider releasing the priest pending trial.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Island Packet

The Associated Press
October 14, 2014

JOHNSTOWN, PA. — A Pennsylvania priest has pleaded not guilty to charges he possessed child pornography and traveled to Honduras for sex with poor street children during missionary trips.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio entered the plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto in Johnstown.

The 69-year-old remains jailed, though Pesto gave lawyers 10 days to return with information about the priest’s finances, at which point Pesto says he may reconsider releasing the priest pending trial.

Defense attorney Steven Passarello tells the judge the priest will agree to freeze two investment accounts worth $900,000 and surrender his passport to address concerns he may flee prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines says investigators found another account from which Maurizio withdrew $127,000.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

JOHNSTOWN, CAMBRIA COUNTY— A Somerset County Priest pled not guilty in Federal Court Tuesday to charges of sexually abusing young boys at an orphanage and having explicit photos of them.

The U.S Attorney is prosecuting the case against Rev. Joseph Maurizio. The 69 year old was arrested back in September. Attorneys alleged they found images of child pornography on his computer at the church in Central City, Somerset County. Agents raided the church a few days’ prior to his arrest, seizing computers, cameras and other digital equipment.

The defense team for Maurizio maintains that their client is innocent.

On Tuesday Maurizio was back in court for his formal arraignment. 35-40 people including family, friends and church members were there in support of the former priest who was at Our Lady Queen of Angels. Not one was willing to give a statement or comment to the media after the hearing.

The prosecution told the judge they felt Maurizio is a flight risk even with his passport taken away because of large sums of money he has access too. Maurizio’s accounts total more than $1 million, including cash, bonds and IRA’s.

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FLORIDA
Herman Law

Another child sex abuse lawsuit against Archdiocese of Miami alleges Father Neil Doherty drugged and sexually abused a 10-year-old boy

WHAT: JEFF HERMAN (www.hermanlaw.com), a nationally-recognized attorney for victims of sexual abuse, announces the filing of a lawsuit against ARCHDIOCESE OF MIAMI for the sexual abuse of a child by Father Neil Doherty, a priest sentenced last year to 15 years in prison for child sex crimes.

According to the Complaint:

JOHN DOE first met Father NEIL DOHERTY in or around 1989, when JOHN was ten years old and living in Liberty City, Miami. At all relevant times, DOHERTY worked as Pastor at the Holy Redeemer Parish, in Liberty City.

JOHN ran away from his foster mother to stay with his cousin in Miami. While JOHN was crying on the street, he met DOHERTY, who was driving by. DOHERTY told him that part of his job was to help troubled children. JOHN told DOHERTY that he ran away from his foster home and DOHERTY told JOHN he would help him find his birth mother.

DOHERTY took JOHN to a motel on Biscayne Boulevard. While in the room, DOHERTY gave JOHN a marijuana joint and a “soda”. Shortly therafter, JOHN passed out. When he came to, JOHN woke up feeling groggy and he noticed DOHERTY leering at him in a predatory-like manner.

On another occasion, DOHERTY drove past JOHN’s cousin’s house, wearing clergy attire. When JOHN noticed JOHN, DOHERTY invited JOHN into the car with him and again promised that he would help JOHN find his birth mother. DOHERTY drove JOHN to another motel on Biscayne Boulevard and again plied JOHN with marijuana and a “soda”. JOHN passed out. When he came to, JOHN was on his stomach as DOHERTY was sodomizing JOHN.

Doherty sexually abused other boys before, during, and after the time he abused John Doe, which was known to the Archdiocese and actively concealed.

JOHN DOE NO. 125 v. ARCHDIOCESE OF MIAMI was filed last week in Miami-Dade.

Jeff Herman, the attorney for the victim in this case, said: “According to our lawsuit, the Archdiocese of Miami chose to avoid scandal, in part by continuing to give Father Doherty unfettered access to boys, instead of taking action to protect children and help victims heal.”

CONTACT: KAYLA REPAN; krepan@hermanlaw.com; 305-931-2200 (OFFICE) or 561-302-1692 (CELL)

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, October 13, 2014

Statement by SNAP leader Frank Meuers of Plymouth ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

This settlement and these promises are happening for two reasons: because caring victims take legal action and complicit officials fear trials. Let’s never forget these two simple facts. So we desperately hope that no matter how this agreement plays out, we hope that men, women and kids who have been sexually violated by Minnesota priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and other Catholic officials keep filing police reports and civil lawsuits.

What may happen in the future is unclear. What’s happening now and what’s happened in the past, however, is crystal clear: Catholic officials don’t ever pledge reform – must less carry it out – unless they’re under tremendous external pressure. That hasn’t changed and likely won’t. That pressure must come from brave victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, journalists and our justice system.

We in SNAP support any moves toward reducing the nearly limitless power that bishops exercise over so-called church “investigations” into clergy sex crimes and therefore welcome today’s announcement. But we have also heard time and time again, Catholic officials claim that their processes and their new staff are “independent” when in truth, they almost never really are.

So we join with Al Michaud in urging continued vigilance and healthy skepticism. Thousands of clergy sex crimes and cover ups have happened, and keep happening in Minnesota. The reason is not inadequate staff or protocols. So more or different staff or protocols isn’t really the answer. Rather, it’s a strong and independent system of ‘checks and balances’ – involving all of us – on the inherent secrecy of a self-serving, all male monarchy that answers to virtually no one. While hoping these new systems will protect children, we urge anyone who saw, suspects or experienced inappropriate sexual actions or cover ups to call law enforcement promptly.

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WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, October 13, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

A courageous, compassionate and persistent clergy sex abuse victim who helped warn parents and the public about a serial child molesting Catholic cleric is being honored this weekend. He richly deserves it.

He is Arthur Budzinski, a deaf man who helped expose Fr. Lawrence Murphy, a now-deceased predator priest who assaulted dozens and dozens of children for decades.

Arthur is, plainly and simply, an absolute hero. Long before almost anyone publicly discussed clergy sexual abuse and cover ups, Arthur was leafleting to alert families about a dangerous priest. We are overjoyed at the recognition he’s receiving and hope that his bravery will inspire others who are in pain to break their silence, get help, expose predators and start healing.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

A Kentucky youth minister allegedly sexually abused and threatened one of his students. We are grateful to the brave victim who found the courage to speak up.

Rev. Allen Murphy, who was a youth pastor at Polly Ann Church of God in Eubank, was charged with three counts of sex crimes involving a minor.

We urge officials at Polly Ann Church of God to use their resources to reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspects, or suffered crimes by Murphy. We hope any other victims who might be suffering in silence and self-blame will find the courage to speak up, report abuse, help protect other kids, and start healing.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Observatorio Judicial Dominicano

[The extraterritorial application of the Act in the case of criminal Jozef Wesolowski and other
procedural issues]

Santo Domingo, 28 de septiembre de 2014

Junior Santana
Coordinador

Héctor Peña
Asistente de investigación

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción • 2. Inmunidad del agente diplomático • 3. Discusión acerca de la posibilidad de extradición • 4. La denegación a la solicitud de captura internacional en R.D. • 5. Las solicitudes de anticipo de pruebas • 6. Reflexiones finales.
1. Introducción

En los últimos 10 años se han suscitado en República Dominicana seis casos de abusos sexuales relacionados con autoridades de la Iglesia católica1, entre los cuales se encuentra el caso del exnuncio apostólico Jozéf Wesolowki. Ante esta situación, ha surgido la discusión sobre la posibilidad de someter a un diplomático a la acción de la justicia en el Estado receptor, en la misma se tiene en cuenta que la Convención de Viena de 1961 acerca de las Relaciones Diplomáticas establece que solo existen tres excepciones en las que personas con esta calidad podrían ser alcanzadas por el ejercicio jurisdiccional. Dichas excepciones serán abordadas más adelante.

Los órganos judiciales del Estado son competentes para ejercer la jurisdicción penal en contra de las personas que han sido imputadas por la comisión de ilícitos en el territorio en que ejerce su soberanía2. Esto es cónsono con el cumplimiento de la función esencial del Estado, que de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el artículo 8 de la Constitución de República Dominicana consiste en:

“La protección efectiva de los derechos de la persona, el respeto de su dignidad y la obtención de los medios que le permitan perfeccionarse de forma igualitaria, equitativa y progresiva, dentro de un marco de libertad individual y de justicia social, compatibles con el orden público, el bienestar general y los derechos de todos y todas.”

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ALABAMA
Christian News

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A minister in Alabama is refusing to step down despite being voted out after he admitted from the pulpit last month that he has the AIDS virus and that he has been engaging in sexual activity with members of the congregation.

Juan Demetrius McFarland of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery announced during a sermon series last month that he had full-blown AIDS, and that he not only had been having sex with members in the building, but that he did not tell them that he had the virus. He has had HIV since 2003, and AIDS since 2008.

According to WSFA-TV, McFarland revealed further information little by little each week, including that he had been engaging in illicit drug use and that he had been misusing funds.

At first, the congregation expressed concern for McFarland’s health as all they knew during the early admissions was that their leader had AIDS. But as McFarland began to admit other deeds openly each week, they were horrified.

“He confessed to the entire membership and then to the City of Montgomery, because as soon as he got done confessing, it went all over Montgomery anyway,” Deacon Nathan Williams Jr. told the outlet. “So it’s nothing we [are] making up. It’s coming out of his mouth.”

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ALABAMA
NBC News

An Alabama minister who shocked his congregation by confessing he had sex with church members while afflicted with AIDS is now being sued. The congregation of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery voted 80-1 on Oct. 5 to dismiss Rev. Juan Demetrius McFarland as pastor, but he refused to give up the pulpit and presided over services Sunday. Deacons who tried to oust him filed a lawsuit on Tuesday asking the court to order McFarland to vacate the church, citing his “debauchery, sinfulness, hedonism, sexual misconduct, thievery and rejection of the Ten Commandments.”

The deacons’ lawyer, Kenneth Shinbaum, said they feel threatened by a McFarland supporter, Marc Anthony Peacock, who allegedly vowed to enforce “castle law” if they showed up again. “Most of the membership is scared to go to church right now,” Shinbaum said. “They don’t want someone to shoot them.” Peacock told NBC News the allegation was “incorrect” and declined to comment further.

In a series of Sunday sermons, McFarland reportedly admitted to a series of misdeeds, including using drugs, misappropriating church funds and adulterous affairs on church property while he had full-blown AIDS. He confirmed the disclosures to NBC affiliate WSFA but has not spoken publicly about the scandal. McFarland did not respond to numerous requests for comment and it’s not clear if he has an attorney.

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ALABAMA
WTOC

By Tametria Conner

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) – A lawsuit is now pending in Montgomery Circuit Court against the embattled pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church who refuses to step down from his position even after being voted out by church members by an 80-1 margin.

Juan Demetrius McFarland was removed from his leadership role by the church after he made several pulpit confessions in which he admitted to sexual relations with congregants inside the church building while knowingly having AIDS, to drug abuse and to mishandling of the church’s finances.

Just moments after McFarland was voted out, a disturbance erupted in which Montgomery police were called to the church. Police say subjects refused to leave the property but the issue was

But even after being forced out, McFarland, as well as a second defendant identified as Marc Anthoni Peacock, are alleged to have changed the church’s locks and bank account access. Peacock is also said to have informed the church’s Board of Deacons that if they tried to attend the church, he would use “castle law”, meaning he would shoot them.

The attorney for the deacons who are suing for McFarland’s removal says he arrived at the church on Sunday October 12 with a prepared sermon on divine healing.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

OCTOBER 14, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

The 2011 Grand Jury Report on the Archdiocesan cover-up of child sex abuse was my wake up call. As a mom, I’d assumed there were nothing but allies for child protection in my Church leadership and my state government. How wrong I was. The last several years have been an education for both Kathy Kane and myself. We wanted to do more beyond providing this forum.

I recently founded a political action committee (PAC) called Protect PA Kids. Kathy and other dedicated professionals joined the board and generously donate their time. The PAC is non-partisan and not connected to any organization, candidate or ballot measure. Why a PAC? Lobbyists for financially-driven issues drown out the voices of grandparents, parents, law enforcement officials and advocates. As a PAC, we can leverage our collective resources on their behalf. We support candidates who are working hard to protect children and hold those who aren’t accountable. Please considering joining this PAC. Information is available at www.ProtectPaKids.com.

While we focus on issues ranging from teen driving laws to educator background checks, we’ve prioritized child sex abuse Statute of Limitations (SOL) reform. Child predators could be living in your community because of the current SOL. Bill blockers in the state house may say the current ages of 30 for civil and 50 for criminal are adequate. But we know that recourse doesn’t apply to all victims whose abuse happened prior to 2006, when that law was enacted. Our state representatives and senators should be concerned about whether a particular bill will lead to the financial duress of institutions, will cause insurers liability, give victims false hope or allow lawyers to profit. They should act on behalf of voters and children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily American

Central City priest indicted on felony child sex abuse charges will remain in jail for at least 10 days until the judge decides whether to grant him bond.

Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 69, a priest at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, was indicted last week on foreign travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors and possession of child pornography charges.

According to the indictment filed in federal court, each year between 1999 and 2009, Maurizio traveled to Honduras to assist a nonprofit organization that provides services to children there. While he was in Honduras, Maurizio provided money or candy to boys in an orphanage in exchange for sexual favors or silence, authorities said.

During Tuesday’s arraignment hearing prosecutors said they are concerned that he may have access to funds to use to flee the country.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

October 14, 2014

A Somerset County priest charged with sexually abusing children in Honduras appeared briefly today in U.S. District Court in Johnstown for his arraignment and entered a standard not guilty plea.

Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 69, was indicted last week on child-sex charges and possession of child pornography after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

He is being held in the Cambria County Prison pending a detention hearing. Last week, the U.S. attorney’s office requested he be detained pending trial as a flight risk, and a magistrate today ordered that he will remain behind bars while his lawyer and federal prosecutors gather information about nearly $1 million in various bank accounts to which the priest has access.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Citizen

The Bishop of Gloucester will not face any charges following an enquiry by the Metropolitan Police.

He had spoken to Met Police officers over historic sex abuse allegations against a child in the 1980s.

A statement from Bishop of Durham, Rt. Revd. Paul Butler, Lead Bishop on Safeguarding for the Church of England said: “We can confirm that we have been notified by the Metropolitan Police that following enquiries they are to take no further action regarding the allegations made against the Rt Revd. Michael Perham, Bishop of Gloucester.

“The Church of England takes any allegations of abuse very seriously and is committed to being a safe place for all. As in any case where allegations of this nature are made any police investigation is followed by a rigorous process to assess whether there are any ongoing safeguarding issues.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Echo

The Bishop of Gloucester Michael Perham will not face any charges relating to historical child sex abuse allegations.

The Bishop ‘stepped back’ from his duties earlier this year when the matter was being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

But now the police say he will face no further action.

Speaking for Church House in Westminster, the Bishop of Durham the Right Reverend Paul Butler, lead bishop on safeguarding for the Church said: “We can confirm that we have been notified by the Metropolitan Police that following inquiries they are to take no further action regarding the allegations made against the Rt Revd. Michael Perham, Bishop of Gloucester.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed that no action will be taken against a 66-year old man who was interviewd in Gloucestershire on Tuesday August 5.

Bishop Michael said: “It was right that the allegations should be fully investigated and I am gratified that the police have completed the investigation and concluded that there are no grounds for further action to be taken

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Bishop of Gloucester is to face no further action by police over two allegations of indecent assault.

The Right Reverend Michael Perham was questioned in August in connection with historical sex offence allegations dating back more than 30 years.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed it would not be taking the matter any further.

In a statement, the Bishop said it was right the allegations were “fully investigated”.

He added that his family were grateful for the support they had received.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor

14 Oct 2014

The Bishop of Gloucester is to face no further action from police over allegations of indecent assault in the early 1980s, it has emerged.

The Church of England confirmed that it had been notified by Scotland Yard that the Rt Rev Michael Perham will not be facing charges over the claims involving a women and a girl.

It comes just days after the bishop, who “stepped back” from ministry earlier this year because of the allegations, announced that his retirement service was being postponed amid the investigation.

Bishop Perham, 66, was questioned – but not placed under arrest – after attending a police station in August in connection with the allegations, which date back to 1980 and 1981.

He was a curate at St Mary’s Addington in Croydon, south London, at the time.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — With a historic courtroom in downtown St. Paul as the backdrop, attorney Jeff Anderson and officials from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Oct. 13 announced a settlement of one of the first cases filed under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.

They also released a history-making agreement to work together to protect children and help clergy sexual abuse victims/survivors heal.

“This is about truth, and this is about a new day; this is about a new way, this is about a safe way,” said Anderson, who has represented plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits filed against the archdiocese during the past three decades. “It’s not just about pledges and promises. It is an action plan … words don’t protect kids. Actions do.”

During the news conference, a long line of survivors came forward to shake hands with Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens and Father Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general for the archdiocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By MICHELLE HARRIS Oct. 14, 2014

Cover-up of abuse denied by Catholic Church’s former standards director John Davoren

THE Catholic Church’s former professional standards director has defended a practice of withholding victims’ names when he reported clergy sex abuse allegations to police, telling an inquiry there was never any attempt at a ‘‘cover-up’’ or a conspiracy with the NSW Police Force.

John Davoren told the Police Integrity Commission on Tuesday that ‘‘police weren’t happy’’ about not being given victims’ identities.

But most complainants would have simply ‘‘got up and walked out’’ rather than raising abuse allegations with the Church if told their details might be later handed over to police.

He also couldn’t recall police telling him to alter the practice.

The procedure, described to the commission as ‘‘blind reporting’’, resembles arrangements set out in a draft memorandum of understanding between the Catholic Church and NSW Police, the terms of which lawyers had warned NSW Police would breach criminal laws.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Oct. 14, 2014

A “historic settlement” of a lawsuit Monday in Minnesota produced more than financial compensation for the alleged survivor of clergy sex abuse. It also saw the formation of an unlikely partnership among two dioceses and one of the nation’s most prominent abuse litigators.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese and Winona diocese announced an agreement that has already yielded near-mirror 17-point action plans for each diocese and has each committed to work with Anderson’s law firm moving forward, including the disclosure of additional priests with substantiated claims of child sexual abuse.

“This is about a new day, this is about a new way, this is about a safer day,” Anderson said at a press conference Monday.

Part of that new way, he said, is the action plan “that not only protects kids in the future, but honors the pain and the sorrow and the grief of the survivors in the past.”

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MISSOURI
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Oct. 14, 2014

INDEPENDENCE, MO.

He came into the courtroom late Friday afternoon and spoke without equivocation.

“I have never seen him touch or harm anyone,” Jeff Barlow said of Msgr. Thomas O’Brien, the now-deceased priest of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese accused of forcing four altar boys into various sexual acts on numerous occasions in the early 1980s.

While other witnesses brought by the defense have made similar statements during the course of the now-two-week trial, Barlow’s words carried greater weight because he is the only living altar boy among the three that Jon David Couzens has alleged were sexually abused alongside him.

Couzens brought a lawsuit against the diocese in 2011, alleging that O’Brien sexually abused him, Barlow and two other boys between fifth and eighth grade at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Independence.

Couzens has stated that he blocked out the memories of the abuse for much of his life, recalling them once briefly in high school during a meeting with a priest and more recently after a friend called him in May 2011 with concerns that her daughter had been sexually abused.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Road to Recovery

Fr. Joseph Maurizio of Central City, PA, was indicted on October 7, 2014 on charges of having sex with a minor Honduran boy

Fr. Joseph Maurizio had already been accused of sexually abusing young boys in an orphanage in Honduras under the guise of conducting “mission work.”

Is it probable that Fr. Joseph Maurizio had sexually abused children in the United States as well?

Diocesan priests do not take the vow of poverty

What: A press conference alerting the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the greater Altoona-Johnstown citizenry, and the general public addressing to the issue of whether

Fr. Joseph Maurizio has sexually abused children in the United States as well as foreign countries such as Honduras.

Where: On the public sidewalk in front of the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, 927 S. Logan Boulevard, Hollidaysburg, PA, 16648 – 814-695-5579.

When: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Who: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families; and at least one other survivor of clergy sexual abuse.

Why: The research is clear: pedophiles do not stop at only one or two or three victims. They tend to have dozens, if not hundreds, of victims. Fr. Joseph Maurizio was stationed in Central City, PA at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish for a number of years. Many innocent children in the parish religious education and sacramental programs came across Fr. Joseph Maurizio on numerous occasions. Were one, two, three, or more of those children sexually abused by Fr. Joseph Maurizio? It is upsetting to think about the number of children in the Central City and greater Altoona-Johnstown area who may have been sexually abused by Fr. Joseph Maurizio. The Altoona-Johnstown area has already been confronted by the serial pedophile Br. Stephen Baker, a Hollidaysburg-based Franciscan whose victims number in the hundreds. Could Fr. Joseph Maurizio’s victims number in the hundreds? It is not inconceivable. Therefore, Road to Recovery will be in front of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese to appeal to victims of Fr. Joseph Maurizio to come forward, get the help they need to heal, and regain their lives. Road to Recovery will also discuss the fact that diocesan priests do not take the vow of poverty and are therefore allowed to accumulate wealth which can permit a pedophile priest to attract and lure children.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Here’s commentary about the relatio published yesterday by the synod on the family that seems to me well worth reading (for the context of this opening remark, please see the preceding posting, of which this one is a continuation):

On her Facebook page, Heidi Schlumpf* notes that several comments Jamie Manson has made recently on her own Facebook page sum up for Heidi her reaction to the synod (as they do for me, too):

I’ve been silent on the Synod on the Family so far. But Jamie L. Manson has pretty much summed it up for me (I’m reposting three of her FB posts below:)

Reading my newsfeed this week feels like drowning in a deluge of male-privilege and hetero-normativity. #‎synod14

The Catholic media needs more white, privileged, ostensibly hetero men to explain this Synod to us. Otherwise, how will we ever get the unbiased viewpoint? #synod14
Yay! Another day of straight folks telling me how great the news from the Vatican is!

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KENTUCKY
Commonwealth Journal

Tuesday, October 14, 2014
BY CHRIS HARRIS

CORRECTION:
Rex Allen Murphy is a youth pastor at Polly Ann Church of God in Eubank.

A local youth pastor has been charged following accusations that he sexually abused a minor.

According to Colin Hatfield, Eubank Chief of Police, Rex Allen Murphy, 30, of Puncheon Creek Road, Eubank, was charged with first-degree sexual abuse, a Class D felony, use of a minor under 18 in a sexual performance, a Class C felony, and third-degree sodomy, a Class D felony.

Murphy was working as a youth pastor and Sunday School Teacher at Polly Ann Church of God in Eubank, said Hatfield.

Hatfield said that his department began the probe, along with the Department of Social Services, into possible sexual abuse occurring between the suspect and one of his students, a 16-year-old male.

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KENTUCKY
WKYT

By: Phil Pendleton

PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) – A southern Kentucky Sunday School teacher is in jail, accused of sexually abusing a teen.

Rex Murphy, 30, of Eubank, was arrested by Eubank Police.

We’ve learned he was a Sunday School teacher at Polly Ann Church of God.

The police chief tells WKYT that the victim is an underage boy, who told police that Murphy also threatened him with witchcraft.

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KENTUCKY
Local 8

EUBANK, Ky. (AP) — Police have charged a youth pastor in Pulaski County with sex abuse involving a juvenile.

Eubank Police Chief Colin Hatfield told The Commonwealth Journal that 30-year-old Rex Allen Murphy is charged with first-degree sex abuse, third-degree sodomy and use of a minor in a sexual performance.

The Pulaski County jail’s website shows Murphy was booked into the facility early Tuesday. It did not list an attorney for him.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the interim report by the Synod of Bishops:

This is an interim report, and even when it is completed next week, it will not be definitive. That will not happen until next year when the synod meets. Still, this report has elicited much controversy, with more to come.

The midterm report tries to walk a delicate line between embracing the Church’s traditional teachings on marriage while at the same time extending a welcoming hand to those in irregular relationships.

For example, it speaks of “the value and consistency of natural marriage,” maintaining that “unions between people of the same sex cannot be considered on the same footing as matrimony between man and woman.” This affirms the traditional understanding of marriage and leaves no wiggle room for change.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Liz Zemba
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014

A Somerset County priest accused of traveling to Honduras to have sex with a minor boy had access to almost $1 million, attorneys revealed Tuesday morning during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto on Tuesday ordered the Rev. Joseph Maurizio to remain in federal detention as a potential flight risk for another 10 days while his attorney and a federal prosecutor gather information on bank accounts to which he has access.

The priest is accused of traveling to Honduras under the guise of mission work.

A federal grand jury on Oct. 7 indicted Maurizio, 62, pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Central City, on charges of engaging in illicit sexual conducted in foreign places and possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

Maurizio has been in the Cambria County Prison since Sept. 25, when he was arrested on similar allegations contained in a criminal complaint involving teenage boys at a Honduran orphanage.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by EDWARD PENTIN 10/14/2014

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (the Vatican’s highest court), is known for his straight talk and ardent orthodoxy to the Catholic faith.
A participant in the ongoing Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, Cardinal Burke, along with Cardinals Gerhard Müller, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Walter Brandmüller, president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences; Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy; and Velasio De Paolis, president emeritus of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, wrote Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church, affirming Church teaching on marriage.
He discussed the synod, marriage and the talk he presented to delegates in an Oct. 11 interview.

Your Eminence, could you share the contents of your intervention?

My intervention stressed to the [synod] fathers that the marriage nullity process, as it is, has been carefully developed over the centuries to provide for a response according to the truth, a response to a claim of a nullity of marriage.

It’s not just a question of juridicism or legal encumbrances and so forth, but a process that’s actually quite simple and straightforward. It guarantees, as much as we humanly can, that a judge will see all of the arguments, proofs in favor of nullity and all of those in favor of the validity of the marriage and then come to a judgment regarding the claim of nullity.

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Iglesia Decalza

I’ve been reading the results of the preparatory surveys for the Synod on the Family — and the numerous commentaries and opinions expressed by different individuals and groups. As the Synod begins, I would like to add my “wish list” of things I think this Synod could realistically achieve:

1. De-linking marriage and procreation

To me, one of the most troublesome questions on the initial survey was 7f: “How can a more open attitude towards having children be fostered? How can an increase in births be promoted?”. The Church should not be in the business of promoting increases in births. It should be in the business of promoting responsible parenthood — Catholic couples having only the number of children they want and are able to provide for. For some couples, the choice to remain childless is reasonable, whether due to life circumstances, the health of the wife or husband, or the desire not to pass on certain genetic abnormalities. The Church needs to respect that decision and allow couples to marry even when they cannot have children or don’t want to, and they shouldn’t have to lie about their intentions in order to receive the sacrament. It does so already in the case of post-menopausal women so it would not be much of a stretch to extend this practice to those who are childless by choice rather than biology.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Damian Thompson

This tweet about the Vatican Synod on the Family has appeared in my timeline and it speaks volumes about the chaos the debates are generating:

[Screen Shot 2014-10-14 at 13.06.28]

Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Archbishop of Durban, is a participant at the Synod and sometimes spoken of as the first black Pope. His quote refers not just to the media talk of an ‘earthquake’ in Catholic attitudes towards homosexuality but also to yesterday’s document that produced it.

To quote Prof James Hitchcock, writing in the National Catholic Register, ‘there are internal tensions at the Synod that have become public, despite efforts to keep them confidential. Some bishops seem to be working to achieve diverse goals, often in opposition to one another.’

Hitchcock is one of the world’s leading conservative Catholic intellectuals. I don’t share all his views on the Church’s attitude towards gay people, which has in the past seemed unremittingly harsh.

But you don’t have to be a conservative to grasp that yesterday’s mid-way report on the Synod debates was badly judged. Indeed, Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith – parish priest, Catholic Herald consulting editor and doctor of theology – describes it as ‘a car crash’.

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By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Jon David Couzens’ lawsuit alleges that the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was told repeatedly that Monsignor Thomas O’Brien was a danger to children but failed to prevent the abuse.File photo by Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star

A former altar boy took the stand Friday and disputed Jon David Couzens’ allegations of sexual abuse by Monsignor Thomas O’Brien three decades ago.

Jeff Barlow told Jackson County jurors that Couzens’ claims that O’Brien sexually abused four altar boys, including Barlow, as a group in the early 1980s at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Independence were false.

Most notably, when asked Friday whether he knew of any instances in which O’Brien exhibited inappropriate behavior with boys, he told jurors, “Absolutely not.”

But he told The Star in a recorded interview in 2011 that he “absolutely” witnessed inappropriate behavior by O’Brien. In a second phone call, he said O’Brien was a “pedophile” and a “sicko,” and that it was very possible O’Brien could have done something to Couzens and another altar boy.

Barlow also took The Star to task in court, saying stories it published in 2011 about the altar boys angered him, although he said in a phone call after publication that it was a “fine story.”

The account of Couzens and the other altar boys was told in a three-day series called “The Altar Boys’ Secret.”

One of the boys, 14-year-old Brian Teeman, died of a gunshot wound at his home in November 1983. His parents, Don and Rosemary Teeman, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in September 2011 after Couzens told them of the alleged abuse. Their lawsuit contended that Brian took his life because of repeated sexual abuse by O’Brien.

“With God as my witness and without a doubt,” Barlow told jurors on the 10th day of a high-profile trial involving a civil suit filed by Couzens, “I was never abused.”

However, some of Barlow’s testimony Friday in response to other questions contradicted what he told The Kansas City Star in two recorded phone calls three years ago.

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OHIO
Beacon Journal

About the ‘Falling from Grace?’ series
TIMELINE: Ernest Angley in Akron area for 60 years
Ernest Angley’s Grace Cathedral rocked by accusations involving abortions and vasectomies
Allegations of sexual abuse are kept internal at Ernest Angley’s Grace Cathedral

ON THE WEB
Bob Dyer discusses how the ‘Falling from Grace?’ series evolved in Q/A session (audio)

Departed Grace Cathedral associate pastor was a liar, adulterer and drug addict, according to Ernest Angley church leaders

By Bob Dyer
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published: October 14, 2014

Former members of Ernest Angley’s congregation say people who leave the church are not only shunned, but also often criticized by name during services.

Perhaps no one has been subjected to more venom than former Associate Pastor Brock Miller, who stepped down July 4.

Miller told friends and family that he left because he had been “violated” by Angley for seven years and could no longer take it.

Angley “had him undress and touched him all over,” said a family member who did not want to be identified because many members of the large family are still devout followers. “I don’t believe he touched him on his part, but it doesn’t matter. That doesn’t belong in the church. It doesn’t belong anywhere, but it [certainly] doesn’t belong in the church.”

When asked whether Angley explained the reason for the touching, the person replied, “[Miller] was receiving ‘a special anointing.’ ”

Miller’s departure sparked so much conversation that church leaders addressed the situation during a Sunday service on July 13. A recording of the service was shared with the Beacon Journal.

The Rev. Chris Machamer, an associate pastor, did most of the talking. He declared, among other things, that Miller is “a proven liar.”

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ROME
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr. and Inés San Martín
Crux Staff October 14, 2014

ROME — Surprising words of appreciation for homosexuals, couples living together outside marriage and others that appeared yesterday in a working document from a summit of Catholic bishops in Rome have triggered a media tumult on the outside, and sharp debate on the inside.

While the Vatican tried to play down the significance of the document, insisting that it’s merely provisional, some bishops inside the Oct. 5-19 Synod of Bishops on the family seem to be taking it very seriously indeed.

During yesterday’s discussion, one bishop asked why the word “sin” seemed to be nowhere in the text, for instance, while another warned that it could encourage “conforming to the mentality of today’s world.”

The Vatican today released a summary of the discussion that followed release of the document, though without identifying speakers by name.

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POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

ocaleni.polska@gmail.com

Czekałam 10 lat na „przepraszam” ze strony mojego oprawcy i Kościoła. Z czasem dałam się przekonać, że może udawanie, iż nic się nie stało będzie najlepszym lekarstwem. Nic bardziej mylnego.

Molestowanie nie kończy się w momencie, gdy oprawca znika z Twojego życia. Ono wciąż w Tobie pozostaje – mimo upływu lat, wciąż czujesz się brudny. Nie możesz spać po nocach i godzinami przechodzisz przez traumę kolejny i kolejny raz. Nowe związki? Wpadasz w zdumienie, że ktoś jest jeszcze w stanie Cię pokochać takiego „pokaleczonego” – dlatego przyzwalasz na to, by traktowano Cię jak oczywistość. Do dziś płacę za to, co mi zrobiłeś. Ale dziś też podejmuję ważny krok, żeby to wszystko zakończyć. Proszę biskupa elbląskiego o rozpoczęcie procesu kanonicznego w mojej sprawie.

Dziękuję Wszystkim, którzy zainspirowali mnie do działania i wciąż mnie wspierają. Wiem, że wiele osób odwróci się ode mnie lub zapyta „po co walczyć z wiatrakami ?”

Mam dość bycia ofiarą. Jestem Ocaloną.

IMG_20140917_092336

PREZENT NA 25. URODZINY. MÓJ LIST DO BISKUPA DIECEZJI ELBLĄSKIEJ. / A GIFT FOR MY 25TH B-DAY. MY LETTER TO BISHOP OF ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF ELBLĄG.

I have been waiting for 10 years to hear “sorry” from my abuser and from the Church. I began to think that maybe acting like nothing had ever happened would be the best treatment. I was totally wrong.

Sexual abuse is not over when your abuser disappears from your life. It remains within you — even though so many years have passsed, I still can feel how stained and dirty I am. I cannot sleep at night and I sustain my trauma by recreating it in my head over and over again. New relationships? I believed that it’s a miracle that anyone could fall in love with such an emotional wreck — that is why I let them take me for granted. I am still paying for what you have done to me. But today, I am taking one step further. I need closure. I asked bishop of Elbląg to start a canonical process.

Thank you, my wonderful Friends and Supporters for inspiring me. I know that many people will turn their back on me. Some will ask “why are you tilting at windmills”?

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

Regnum Christi laity begin journey to renewal

Atlanta, Ga., Oct 14, 2014 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- North American lay members of the Legion of Christ’s apostolic movement Regnum Christi met Oct. 10-12 for their national convention in Atlanta, where they prepared to revise their laws and organizing structures.

“The goal of this journey you are about to undertake is to express more clearly the lifestyle you are called to live,” Father Eduardo Robles Gil, the new director of the Legion of Christ, told Regnum Christi lay members in an Oct. 2 letter anticipating the meeting.

He said the process will enable them “to delve deeper into your life, spirituality and mission.”

“I pray that this journey might be an occasion for you to better understand, love and live your vocation to Regnum Christi; that it might ‘stir into flame the gift of God’ and that you might experience more deeply the great trust God shows you by making you stewards of this gift.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

By EMER MCCARTHY on Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Under Francis, transparency, efficiency and austerity have become the new catchwords at the Vatican. The Pope has set up numerous secretariats and councils to oversee reform. They are focusing on the Vatican bank, the administration of Vatican departments and, last but not least, the Vatican’s various media outlets. These outlets include the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Centre, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Vatican publishing house and Vatican Radio. The commission overseeing reform of the Vatican’s communication system is led by Lord Patten of Barnes. While the former chairman of the BBC Trust says the commission will not be engaging in “a running commentary” on what it is doing, it would appear that Vatican Radio is right in the eye of the storm.

A lot has been said and written recently about Vatican Radio: that it takes the largest chunk out of the budget without generating any cash in return; that it is the Vatican’s largest employer; that its cost and its size do not correlate to the number of people it reaches; and that the medium of radio is out of date. Some of these claims are true and some deliberately misleading. So let’s separate fact from fiction.

When it was set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, Vatican Radio was at the cutting edge of modern communications. Fast forward 80-odd years and radio broadcasting has shifted from analogue to online digital and satellite broadcasting. This transition has come at a cost and that goes some way to explaining the rising budget deficit in recent years. Yet the change means that every event that takes place in the Vatican is now accessible to people worldwide at the touch of a screen – on a smartphone, tablet or home computer. This leap forward is entirely thanks to Vatican Radio’s web team. What’s more, the commentaries in various languages that accompany live Vatican television feeds, made available to media worldwide, are all provided by Vatican Radio staff.

It has been suggested that Vatican Radio should seek to generate more cash through advertising. In 2009, Vatican Radio began broadcasting adverts on its FM channel, which covers Rome and Lazio. These are understandably vetted to ensure they meet ethical standards that the Holy See seeks to promote. This narrows the field of potential advertisers and the possibility of making serious money. But the idea of introducing advertising across Vatican Radio’s 44 different language programmes is unfeasible. The majority of Vatican Radio programmes are re-broadcast by smaller, poorer partner radio stations across the globe. They are provided free of charge because, quite simply, we cannot put a price on proclaiming the Gospel.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 14, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

The NSW Police Force had an informal agreement with the Catholic Church not to encourage victims of child sexual abuse to come forward, particularly if they were reluctant to make a formal statement, the Police Integrity Commission has heard.

The evidence emerged on Tuesday as the commission continued its examination of how the church and police have co-operated from the late 1990s until today in dealing with scores of abuse complaints against priests and other church employees.

It follows highly publicised allegations that the two bodies effectively conspired to cover up child sex abuse.

The commission is focusing on the church’s Professional Standards Office, and the Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) – a body made up of senior church members, police officers and community members.

The commission heard that the church had a policy of not giving the names of abuse victims to police if the victims chose to deal with the church rather than police.

Instead, police were provided with a “blind report” which set out the allegations and the alleged perpetrator but did not identify the complainant.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

[with related documents]

Winona diocese, archdiocese settle; Diocese calls Adamson’s actions ‘horrific crimes’

Victims of clergy sex abuse stood next to Catholic church leaders in Minnesota on Monday to announce a settlement to a novel lawsuit that includes new measures to keep children safe.

The settlement averts a November trial of the claim that the Diocese of Winona and Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis created a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about an abusive priest.

“We forged a new way and that new way is an action plan — an action plan that not only protects kids in the future, but honors the pain and sorrow and grief of the survivors of the past,” victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said.

Among the new protocols: Church leaders won’t recommend a priest for active ministry or for a position working with minors if they’ve been credibly accused of sexual abuse; they won’t conduct an internal investigation or “interfere in any way” with law enforcement investigations; and each clergy member will sign a declaration stating he has not abused a minor.

The measures differ from national policy set forth by U.S. bishops more than a decade ago by requiring the archdiocese to reveal the names of all abusers and documents related to their cases. They also spell out in greater detail the care the archdiocese is required to provide victims, among other provisions.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: The child abuse Royal Commission has been told that the Northside Christian College in Melbourne failed miserably in its duty of care after 30 children were sexually abused in the 1980s and 1990s.

The inquiry is looking at the serial offender Ken Sandilands.

It’s revealed explosive allegations that the school’s senior pastor bungled the handling of complaints from children, parents, and other teachers. The accusation is that that allowed Sandilands to go on abusing children several years after the first allegations emerged in 1986.

Pastor Denis Smith sat on the church board and chaired the school council. He’s accused of failing to sack Sandilands and concealing crucial information about his misconduct from the school board.

After lengthy and at times heated questioning, Reverend Smith admitted that he did bear some responsibility for what happened at the college.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: The Royal Commission has heard that the person at Northside Christian College making the decisions about former teacher and convicted sex offender Ken Sandilands was the former senior pastor, and that was indisputable.

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AUSTRALIA/NEW GUINEA
Radio Australia

Australian priest accused of child abuse suffers suspected drug overdose and awaits deportation

By Papua New Guinea correspondent Liam Cochrane

An Australian priest accused of child abuse has been discharged from a Papua New Guinean hospital after a suspected drug overdose and is awaiting deportation.

Father Roger Mount was rushed to Port Moresby General Hospital unconscious and vomiting on October 8, just hours after being made aware of plans to send him back to Australia.

Hospital and church officials said he has now been discharged and the ABC understands he is staying in Port Moresby while PNG immigration officials organise his deportation.

Father Mount has spent decades in Papua New Guinea, most recently at a small rural parish in Sogeri, 45 kilometres outside Port Moresby.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle
Tue 14 Oct 2014

Three young schoolgirls were reprimanded for reporting the behaviour of a teacher who was later jailed for the indecent assault of children at a Melbourne school, an inquiry has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into how Melbourne’s Northside Christian College handled complaints made against Kenneth Sandilands, who was a teacher from 1983 to 1992.

In December 1986 the school principal, Ken Ellery, was made aware of allegations against Sandilands and found there was no case to answer.

The commission heard the principal wrote to the school’s senior pastor, Denis Smith, and said he was prepared to defend Sandilands “to the hilt”.

In March the next year, three girls in years five and six said the teacher had placed younger girls from years one and two on his knee and touched them on the lower stomach and legs.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 14, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Three student whistleblowers who reported a teacher for touching younger girls in a sexual way at their religious school were reprimanded by a senior church member for the “dangers and implications” of their stories, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told three girls aged 11 and 12 who complained about Northside Christian College teacher Kenneth Sandilands were rebuked for speaking out in 1987.

The commission also heard that church management did not tell the police once they became aware of seriousness of the allegations because the head pastor believed it was the parents’ responsibility to contact the authorities.

The then head of Northside Christian College, Denis Smith, told the commission he did not advise parents of victims to contact police but said they could speak to Sandilands.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The pastor who oversaw a Pentecostal primary school has denied he failed to fire an abusive teacher because he was protecting the school’s reputation.

Pastor Keith Ingram was assigned to deal with complaints against teacher Kenneth Sandilands, after students at the Northside Christian College came forward about abuse.

But Pastor Ingram apparently didn’t believe the students and took it on himself to give the girls a “firm lecture” about the dangers of making allegations.

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OHIO
Daily Mail (UK)

Ohio televangelist ‘forced members to have vasectomies and abortions, told women to treat pregnancies as tumors and allowed children to be sexually abused’

By STEVE HOPKINS FOR MAILONLINE

Televangelist Ernest Angley has been accused of running an Ohio church where men are forced to get vasectomies and women abortions, and where children were sexually abused.

Self-proclaimed prophet Angley has been described by some of 21 former members as a closeted-homosexual Jim Jones who’s turned a blind eye to sexual abuse.

But the 93-year-old has defended the allegations, saying he is simply an instrument of God.
He told the Akron Beacon Journal: ‘I’m not a homosexual. God wouldn’t use a homosexual like he uses me. He calls me his prophet, and indeed I am,’

Angley it is said to have played an active role in encouraging male followers to undergo vasectomies, and also monitored the results.

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AUSTRALIA
Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 October 2014

Parents of children allegedly abused over a 10-year period by a serial paedophile at a pentecostal primary school were told to take the matter up with the abuser, an inquiry has heard.

Kenneth Sandilands was accused of abusing up to 30 children at the Northside Christian College in Bundoora, Melbourne, between 1983 and 1992.

The school ran under the auspices of the pentecostal Northside Christian Centre when Denis Smith was senior pastor.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is looking at how the pentecostal movement and the school handled allegations against Sandilands, who was jailed in 2000 for two years for sexually abusing eight children at the school.

On Tuesday, Smith said he did not construe warnings given to Sandilands in 1986 and 1987 to be about “anything of a sexual nature”.

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MINNESOTA
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN And BEN KESLING
Updated Oct. 13, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS—The Catholic Church in Minnesota and a lawyer for victims of sexual abuse on Monday announced the settlement in the first-of-its-kind lawsuit claiming that clergy abuse and subsequent inaction by church leadership constituted a “public nuisance.”

The settlement also laid out wide-ranging protocols aimed at requiring greater disclosure and better protection of children, according to victims’ lawyers, and the case could open the door to more easily prosecute abusers in the future.

The public nuisance argument is “something that has not been used in the past,” said Mike Finnegan, an attorney for the victims. “It absolutely sets a precedent.”

This is also the first suit in the state filed since the Minnesota Child Victims Act, passed by the Minnesota legislature in 2013, expanded the statute of limitations for sexual-abuse cases.

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing the man who filed the lawsuit, joined other abuse victims and church officials in St. Paul on Monday to announce a 17-point protocol that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, Minn., have agreed to implement to protect children from abuse.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart

A Minnesota judge signed off on a settlement Monday in a groundbreaking case that accused Catholic church leaders in Minnesota of creating a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about an abusive priest.

It has been called a landmark case. St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt issued a statement calling it “a historic moment in our efforts to assure the safety of children and vulnerable adults.”

Dr. Charles Reid, a Catholicism expert and professor at the University of St. Thomas, sat down with KSTP.com Monday afternoon to discuss the long-term and wide-ranging effects of the settlement.

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MINNESOTA
The New York Times

By JULIE BOSMAN
OCT. 13, 2014

CHICAGO — Roman Catholic leaders in Minnesota pledged on Monday to enact new procedures to help protect children from sexual abuse by the clergy as they revealed some terms of the settlement for a lawsuit brought last year by a man who had been abused by a priest when he was a teenage altar boy.

Church officials and lawyers for the victim, known only as John Doe 1, described the settlement as a major step forward in how the church handles and investigates reports of sexual abuse. According to the settlement, if the archdiocese receives a claim of sexual abuse, it must alert law enforcement officials and wait until their investigation is complete before beginning its own.

The archdiocese also said it would not recommend any member of the clergy for an active ministry if there was a credible claim that he had sexually abused a minor.

At a news conference in St. Paul, Andrew H. Cozzens, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, expressed his remorse to abuse victims and their families.

“I want to say I’m sorry this happened,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened. We have heard your pain, and we are open to continuing to hear that.”

Patrick Wall, an advocate, former priest and lawyer who is employed by the law firm that represents the victim, said that in the near future, the people who initially deal with reports of sexual abuse would not be “the archdiocese’s lawyers or priests, but health care professionals” employed by a nonprofit.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: EDITORIAL BOARD , Star Tribune Updated: October 13, 2014

Nothing about the settlement announced Monday in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis can erase the years of pain suffered by victims of child abuse.

Nothing written on paper can undo the crimes committed by clergy members who preyed on those who trusted them as spiritual guides, only to have that trust broken by sexual predators wearing clerical collars.

The courageous victims who have pursued justice in the face of decades of stonewalling by the Roman Catholic Church deserve most of the credit for the child protection plan revealed Monday — not the lawyers or church leaders who forged the agreement. “Awareness is a painful process,” Vicar General Charles Lachowitzer said at a news conference in St. Paul. “We are humiliated.”

Humiliation is what too many victims of clergy abuse have felt — sometimes in silence and alone — for far too long. Like them, we want to believe the settlement signals a new era for the church — not only in Minnesota but in archdioceses across the country. But we remain skeptical.

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MINNESOTA
The Raw Story

REUTERS
14 OCT 2014

A lawsuit that forced Roman Catholic officials in Minnesota to release decades of files on clergy accused of child sex abuse has been settled along with agreements on new child protection protocols, church officials and a victim’s attorney said Monday.

The lawsuit brought by a man identified as John Doe 1 accused the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona of creating a public nuisance by concealing information on sex abuse by clergy.

He accused a priest of sexually abusing him in the mid 1970s when he was a child and the archdiocese and diocese of failing to supervise the priest properly. Financial terms were not disclosed in the settlement that applies to both the archdiocese and diocese.

“The question of compensation and accountability for all the others who have been wounded is now going to be a work in progress,” said attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents numerous plaintiffs in lawsuits alleging clergy sex abuse.

Anderson said they would slow down the litigation process and engage in mediation and settlement.

Vicar General Charles Lachowitzer said during the joint news conference with Anderson that all financial options are on the table for the archdiocese.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Attorneys for a victim of clergy sexual abuse settled a landmark public nuisance lawsuit Monday against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson filed the suit last year in Ramsey County on behalf of a man who said he was sexually abused as a child by the Rev. Thomas Adamson in the late 1970s. Adamson, who served in the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Winona diocese, is no longer a priest.

The lawsuit accused the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Winona diocese of creating a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret. Anderson and his colleague Mike Finnegan argued in court that the secrecy placed children at risk of abuse from unknown offenders.

Those claims were bolstered by MPR News stories last fall that showed how top church officials continued to protect priests accused of abuse.

The Doe 1 case

At the end of May 2013, an alleged victim of the Rev. Thomas Adamson sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona and Adamson for negligence and creating a public nuisance that puts children at risk. It was the first suit brought under Minnesota’s new Child Victims Act.

The initial filing

The lawsuit alleges that Adamson abused the victim, Doe 1, while he was an altar boy at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Paul Park, in 1976 and 1977. It says the victim’s father reported the abuse to the archdiocese’s chancellor, but that church leaders failed to report Adamson to police.

Unlike a standard negligence case, the public nuisance argument allowed Anderson to obtain more than 50,000 pages from the files of every priest accused of abuse dating back decades — over the objections of a team of church lawyers who argued that the information was not relevant and could ruin the reputations of innocent men.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Girls who reported paedophile teacher admonished, child sex abuse royal commission hears

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH OCTOBER 14, 2014

THREE girls who tried to alert their school to the fact that a teacher was a paedophile were admonished and their parents called to the school, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.

The girls were aged 11 and 12 when they reported their concerns that Kenneth Sandilands had a six-year-old girl on his lap at Northside Christian College and had been touching her inappropriately in 1987.

The headmaster, Neil Rookes, found that there were “some inconsistencies in their account but perceived an element of sincerity” but church pastor Keith Ingram found the girls had largely embellished the incident.

In the witness box today, the former senior pastor of the Northside Christian Church, Denis Smith, was quizzed about whether there was any way to look at the college’s handling of the claims other than “rising” to defend Sandilands.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

October 14, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Three student whistleblowers who reported their teacher for touching a younger girl in a sexual way were reprimanded by a senior staff member for the “dangers and implications” of their stories, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told three girls aged 11 and 12 raised concerns about teacher Kenneth Sandilands with Northside Christian College staff in 1987.

Sandilands, 69, was jailed in 2000 for sexual offences committed at Northside Christian College in the 1980s and was last month sentenced to a further 26 months in prison for sexual offences committed at another school in the 1970s.

Denis Smith, the then head of Northside Christian Centre, which ran the school, asked assistant pastor Keith Ingram to investigate the claims, despite him having no educational qualifications or teaching experience.

The commission heard that Mr Ingram found the “incident spoken of was largely embellished by the girls” and they were to be given a “firm lecture as to the dangers and implications of their stories”.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 13, 2014

With the recent news about 7th Heaven star Stephen Collins, everyone is talking a little bit more than usual about child sexual abuse. As the Collins story is unveiled and we learn more details, chances are that many adult victims of child sexual abuse—victims who were too scared or ashamed to come forward earlier—may confide in you or someone you know that they have been abused.

What do you do?

1) Tell the person that you are sorry and that the abuse was NOT his or her fault.

2) Openly acknowledge that what happened was a crime.

3) Do NOT say things like:

“Why didn’t you tell earlier?”

“You WERE 16. You should have known better.”

“Where were your parents?”

“But you were a boy and she was a woman. That’s not abuse.” (Note: IT IS)

“Why didn’t you fight/say no?”

“But you DID have a crush on the teacher/coach/priest.”

“Are you just after the big payout?”

4) Do not blame the victim for coming forward, breaking down, or triggering at big events (such as weddings or parties) or at a time that is inconvenient for you. It’s not because the victim is being manipulative or trying to “ruin things” for everyone else. Usually, it’s because the person finally feels safe enough to talk. Embrace the victim, tell him or her that s/he has your support, and work on finding a time that you can really devote your attention to the survivor.

5) Set boundaries. Tell the survivor you can help him or her get treatment, find support groups, and/or call the police and report the crime. But remember that you cannot “save” or “cure” the victim.

6) If the crime is recent or a child tells you he or she has been sexually abused, dial 911. If the crime is not recent, but you suspect that children are still in danger of abuse, report to law enforcement.

The best places to start are ChildHelp and the National Child Abuse Helpline and the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). They will ask you questions about what you know, guide you through the process, and help you report the crime to the right authorities.

You may also want to research the criminal and civil statutes of limitations for child sex crimes in your state. There may be a possibility that you can help expose a predator and/or put him or her behind bars.

If other victims of the predator have come forward, call the law enforcement agency that has been investigating the crimes.om/3158-what-do-you-do-when-a-friend-says-i-was-abused-as-a-child#sthash.j79kjOqd.dpuf

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