ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Child sex abuse allegations against the man who founded the pentecostal movement which became the Hillsong Church will be examined by a national inquiry.

The sex abuse royal commission will examine how the Sydney Christian Life Centre and Hills Christian Life Centre, (now Hillsong Church) and the Assemblies of God in Australia, (now Australian Christian Churches) treated allegations against the Pentecostal christian pastor Frank Houston and two other men.

Houston, who died in 2004 aged 82, was considered the father of Sydney’s Pentecostal churches.

He was a Salvation Army officer in his native New Zealand and founded his first Assemblies of God ministry at Lower Hutt in 1960. He later became superintendent of the New Zealand Assemblies of God before moving to Sydney in 1977.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

Child abuse allegations against Frank Houston, the father of Hillsong’s lead pastor Brian Houston, are to be investigated by a national inquiry, the Guardian reports.

In particular, Australia’s royal commission on sexual abuse will examine the way in which the churches Houston was linked with dealt with the abuse.

Originally trained as a Salvation Army officer, Frank Houston later became a Pentecostal pastor in the Assemblies of God. He founded Sydney Christian Life Centre, which was in 1999 merged with his son Brian’s church – Hills Christian Life Centre, now known as Hillsong.

He is therefore credited with building a movement that became one of the largest megachurches in the world.

Before his death in 2004 aged 82, Houston confessed to sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand three decades earlier, and was immediately removed from ministry by Brian

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

ALBANY — A defrocked deacon was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office announced.

Judge Stephen Herrick also ordered Angel Garcia, 61, of Albany to register as a sex offender and submit to 10 years of post-release supervision.

A jury found Garcia guilty on Aug. 14 of two felony counts of sexual abuse of a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

He was defrocked in 2010 for unrelated child molestation allegations. At the time, he was at the Church of the Holy Family on Central Avenue.

Each of the sex abuse counts carried a possible sentence of up to 7 years in prison.

The trial was not related to the allegation that Garcia sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s before his ordination as a deacon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which found reasonable grounds to believe the earlier allegations, defrocked Garcia.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

ST. PAUL – Four survivors of sexual abuse, some at the hands of St. John’s Abbey monks, will be at a news conference Thursday where lawsuits will be announced against St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud.

Abbey monk Richard Eckroth also will be named as a defendant, according to clergy sex abuse attorney Jeff Anderson. Two survivors who previously settled lawsuits with St. John’s Abbey are expected to discuss their experiences at the news conference.

They were abused by Eckroth and the Rev. Cosmas Dahlheimer. It’s expected that Anderson will file a lawsuit that accuses St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud of creating a public nuisance by their handling of allegations against their monks and priests.

Anderson plans to ask St. John’s and the Diocese of St. Cloud again to release all the files of clerics credibly accused of sexual abuse. St. John’s has publicly named 22 clerics, and the Diocese of St. Cloud has named 33 clerics with credible allegations of child sexual abuse against them, according to Anderson.

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CALIFORNIA
Manteca Bulletin

By Rose Albano Risso
City Editor ralbanorisso@mantecabulletin.com 209-249-3536
POSTED September 18, 2014

The Diocese of Stockton received 34 claims of sexual abuse in the three months prior to the Aug. 15 submission deadline related to the filing of bankruptcy protection by the diocese.

The Chapter 11 reorganization process is continuing right on schedule, said Sr. Terry Davis, Director of Communications for the Diocese, in a statement sent out to media outlets. The nearly three-dozen abuse claims that were filed do not identify any priest currently in active ministry, she reported.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection was described by Bishop Stephen Blaire earlier this year as “the only way we can fulfill our responsibilities to the victims of sexual abuse and our responsibilities to the parishes and communities we served.” It was a “painful but necessary decision,” he added, and that it came only after months of “careful consideration, consultation and prayer.”

The key to the bankruptcy proceeding is to determine exactly what claims the Diocese will face which will enable the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California to distribute the remaining assets of the diocese as fairly as possible, explained Davis at that time.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Richard Gazarik
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest was placed on indefinite leave because federal agents raided his Somerset County church office and residence last week.

Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese suspended the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, of Windber, diocesan spokesman Tony DeGol said on Wednesday.

Maurizio has been pastor of our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, near Indian Lake Resort, since 2003, according to the diocese.

His suspension occurred because neighbors said they saw agents from Homeland Security searching his rectory office and his Windber home, carting off boxes of records.

Maurizio has extensive connections in Central and Latin America through orphanages that he supports financially, according to tax records.

DeGol said the diocese is not aware of Maurizio’s nonprofit organizations and has no idea what the probe involves.

“Obviously, this is a federal investigation, and we’re not privy to that,” he said.

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MAINE
WCSH

Grady Trimble, WLBZ September 17, 2014

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Father Adam Metropoulos of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor admitted to investigators that he inappropriately touched two teenage boys five years ago at his home. He also admitted to recording two women showering at his home over the years. This information is from a police affidavit filed in the case.

According to one police officer’s statement, “Mr. Metropoulos told me that while the boys were sleeping, he felt both of them in the genital areas…”

Affidavit: Priest admits to touching boys

Metropoulos was arrested Saturday for allegedly recording a woman in the shower. He is charged with violation of privacy and possession of child pornography, which police said they seized after searching his computers.

Metropoulos’ bail is set at $100,000 cash. Bail conditions include that Metropoulos is not to have contact with children under 18 and he is not to use or possess any devices that can access the internet. He will be subject to random searches for internet devices.

The Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said it is too early to tell if he will face any other charges.

“If he’s somebody who’s a predator, who’s used his position in the church to gain the trust of children and parents and families to engage in this conduct, that’s just horrific,” Roberts said. “If he’s somebody who’s got issues of his own and has made a mistake here, but isn’t necessarily a predator, that’s a completely different situation, but we have to err on the side of caution and assume, given his history, particularly with an earlier conviction, that this may be a predator that we need to take very seriously.”

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17

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

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Fr. Keating’s resignation achieves virtually nothing. It’s incumbent on Archbishop John Nienstedt to quickly announce whether Twin Cities Catholic officials find the child sex abuse accusations against him credible. And before that, it’s incumbent on Nienstedt to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins and church web sites to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Keating.

And it’s deceitful for St. Thomas university officials to ignore the credible child sex abuse allegations against him. They too have a civic and moral duty to do outreach, especially to their staff and alums, about Keating.

The archdiocese’s clergy review board recommended that Fr. Keating not be allowed to mentor teenagers and young adults, according to Minnesota Public Radio. But Fr. Keating did just that. “It’s unclear whether (archdiocesan staff) rejected the recommendation and never passed it along to the university or if university officials knew of the recommendation and disregarded it,” MPR reported.

Every single staffer at the university and at the archdiocese should be up in arms until top officials at each institution until they disclose which one of them acted recklessly and ignored the board’s recommendation. Such secrecy is unhealthy and irresponsible.

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MINNESOTA
Makato Free Press

Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2014

By Dan Nienaber dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

An abusive priest, who a top church official with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis described as one of the “most abusive” to work in the archdiocese, spent time serving parishes in Gaylord and Sleepy Eye.

That description of the Rev. Louis Heitzer, who served as a priest from 1942 until he died in 1969, was made by former Vicar Gen. Kevin McDonough, the next highest-ranking official after the archbishop. He was responding to a letter written to him in 2002 by a woman concerned about the sexual abuse her brother and other boys experienced while Heitzer was working in Franklin from 1950 to 1954.

“As I have come to know more about what Louis Heitzer did, I believe he was perhaps the most abusive priest to ever be a part of this archdiocese,” McDonough’s letter said. “I now believe he abused boys every place he went.”

The letter was in Heitzer’s priest file, which had been provided by the archdiocese for a court case where an abuse victim is being represented by the Jim Anderson & Associates law firm. The firm is working with many victims throughout the state and has been leading an effort to have Catholic leaders release all the information they have about abusive priests who work, or have worked, in Minnesota.

There are 185 pages of information in the Heitzer file showing he spent much of his time as a priest working in churches that are now part of the New Ulm Diocese. The documents also show archbishops were very aware of numerous allegations against him by parishioners and their children. As the allegations arose Heitzer was moved to different churches.

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TEXAS
News 4

Updated: Wednesday, September 17 2014

By Randy Escamilla SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio Catholic priest with the religious order Missionaries of the Holy Family has been arrested by the San Antonio Park Police Covert Operations Unit.

The arrest happened Monday in the City’s Olmos Park. Police say Father Alberto Trevino, 63, exposed himself to an undercover officer.

San Antonio Police Department Spokesman Sgt. Javier Salazar previously worked as an undercover officer arresting men for sex crimes in the city’s parks.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. —A former Louisville Catholic school teacher and football coach who faces sex abuse charges in Jefferson County was arrested again Sunday evening in Pulaski County.

According to the Pulaski County Jail website, Dale Anderson was arrested Sunday on charges of second-degree sodomy, first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse.

Anderson, who now lives in Somerset, was arrested last month in Louisville and accused of abusing a student between the ages of 11 and 14 sometime between 1981 and 1993. At the time, he was a teacher at St. Raphael and a football coach for Trinity.

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ALABAMA/TEXAS
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A former Southern Baptist youth minister arrested Aug. 20 in Texas on a warrant has returned to Alabama to face charges of sexual abuse.

Charles “Kyle” Adcock, 31, appeared Sept. 12 in Colbert County District Court in Tuscumbia, Ala. He waived extradition from Frisco, Texas, and was transferred to Alabama on Wednesday, according to local media.

Adcock is charged with 22 counts of second-degree rape and nine counts of second-degree sodomy stemming from his time as youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Police say Adcock had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a girl in the church youth group between 2010 and 2012 beginning when she was 14. The alleged victim, now an adult, claims the incidents occurred at the church, Adcock’s home and a third location.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Sep 17, 2014

The Rev. Michael Keating, who was sued for alleged child sex abuse last year, has resigned from his position as a Catholic Studies professor at the University of St. Thomas, according to a statement published Tuesday on the university’s website.

Keating had been on a leave of absence since October 2013.

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately,” Keating wrote in his resignation letter, according to the statement. “I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community.”

A university spokesman declined to comment.

The university’s statement does not refer to the abuse allegations against Keating. They became public in October 2013, when a woman sued the priest, claiming that he sexually abused her in the late 1990s when she was about 13 to 15 years old. The lawsuit remains unresolved.

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MAINE
WABI

[with video]

By John Krinjak

A Bangor priest accused of possessing child pornography made his first court appearance Wednesday.

We also learned that he may also have had sexual contact with children in Bangor.

52-year-old Adam Metropoulos has been suspended from his duties at St. George Greek Orthodox Church after his arrest this week on child porn and violation of privacy charges.

The investigation began after a woman told police she was photographed while taking a shower at the priest’s home.

Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts says they found child porn on a computer in the home and Metropoulos also admitted to having sexual contact with children in Bangor.

“During the context of this investigation, when the police interviewed him, he acknowledged that a few years ago he had touched a couple of teenaged boys,” said Roberts.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: September 17, 2014

The Rev. Michael Keating said he was resigning in light of “employment options and long-standing goals.”

The Rev. Michael Keating, sued last year for allegedly sexually abusing a Twin Cities girl more than a decade ago, has resigned from his teaching position at the University of St. Thomas.

Keating, a full-time faculty member in the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas since 2005, took a leave of absence last fall.

The university website posted his letter of resignation Tuesday.

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately,” wrote Keating.

“I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community,” Keating wrote.

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IRELAND
Telegraph (UK)

The sinister side of the Catholic Church was laid bare in Martin Sixsmith’s documentary about Irish mothers whose babies were taken from them, says Michael Hogan

4 out of 5 stars

By Michael Hogan 17 Sep 2014

I’m probably the wrong person to review This World: Ireland’s Lost Babies (BBC Two). As a new-ish father, I’ve become enormously soppy, especially when it comes to emotional stories about parents and children – welling up during the news, dabbing my eyes at adverts, snivelling in an undignified manner during episodes of ITV’s Long Lost Family. Must be hormones or something. I’m also half-Irish (full name: the none-more-Irish Michael Joseph Hogan), just to throw some extra emotion into the equation. So it was with some trepidation that I sat down to watch journalist Martin Sixsmith’s companion documentary to last year’s feature film Philomena.

That Bafta-winning, Oscar-nominated Hollywood production, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, dramatised Sixsmith’s efforts to to help Philomena Lee find her long-lost son Anthony, taken from her as a baby in the Fifties by the Catholic church and sent off to America for adoption. Naturally, that had me in floods too.

This follow-up saw the silvery, sincere Sixsmith meeting other Philomena figures and illuminating the wider story. He travelled across Ireland and America to hear touching stories of lives irrevocably changed, while investigating the Catholic Church’s role in a huge, horrible adoption racket which saw thousands of “illegitimate” children taken from their “fallen” mothers and packed off abroad, often with generous donations to the Church flowing in the other direction. Buying and selling babies by another name.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

Bail set at $100,000 for suspended Bangor priest charged with possession of child pornography

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Sept. 17, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — A district court judge set bail Wednesday at $100,000 cash or surety for the suspended Greek Orthodox priest arrested earlier this week on charges that he allegedly possessed child pornography and surreptitiously photographed a woman taking a shower in his bathroom.

Bail for Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor originally was set at $10,000 cash. Since his arrest Monday, he has been held at the Penobscot County Jail unable to post bail.

Judge John Lucy set the bail recommended by Michael P. Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, and Metropoulos’ attorney, Marvin Glazier. Lucy said the bail could be reviewed at a later date.

Conditions include no unauthorized contact with minors, no Internet access and not possessing a device that can take photographs.

Metropoulos is next due in court on Nov. 5.

Roberts said outside the courthouse after Metropoulos’ first court appearance that the high bail was warranted given the suspended priest’s 1983 conviction on a sex charge in Michigan and his admission to police that a few years ago, he “touched two 15-year-old boys inappropriately.”

The prosecutor also said that, so far, no sexually explicit photos or videos of local children had been found on Metropoulos’ computer.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

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

Today, despite repeated pledges of “openness and transparency,” in a gathering closed to the public and to journalists, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is co-sponsoring a meeting that we suspect will largely focus on the church’s on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis.

This week, the International Congress of Canon Law gathers at Catholic University in Washington DC to discuss “Crime and Punishment: Nature, Problems and Perspectives of Canonical Penal Law and Its Relation to Civil Law.”

According to the group’s website, “The conference is an academic conference and is not open to the press.”

This is a key component of the crisis in a nutshell: Catholic officials meet in private with other Catholic officials to discuss how Catholic officials should deal with child molesting clerics (and perhaps, with complicit church supervisors). We hope the USCCB and the ICCL will quickly reconsider their decision to keep their deliberations private.

Catholic officials have held thousands of meetings about this crisis. But words and discussion won’t fix it. Only decisive action will protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. What is needed is clear: those who commit and conceal clergy sex crimes must be quickly and publicly exposed, disciplined, and turned over to law enforcement. Catholic officials must post names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics on their websites. They must personally and promptly go to every parish where sex offender clerics worked, publicly name them, and beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered their crimes to call police and get help.

They must demote, not promote, their colleagues and employees who endanger kids by protecting predators, through acts of omission or commission. They must lobby for – not against – reforms to archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly secular statutes of limitations.

The event began today at 8.00 a.m. at Catholic University of America and runs through Sept. 21. Participants are apparently staying at the Double Tree Hotel, 8727 Colesville Road in Silver Spring.

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

He’s trying to overturn “great” child safety law, they say
SNAP to prelate: “Stop protecting predators & hurting kids”
Group urges him to drop appeal before state Supreme Court
Hearing is set for Sept. 22 in pedophile priest/cover up lawsuit
They prod Catholic officials to post names of child molesting clerics

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will
–blast Hartford’s Catholic archbishop for trying to overturn a state law that protects kids and exposes predators,
–reverse himself and drop his appeal to the state’s highest court, and
–safeguard children by posting predator priests’ names on parish and archdiocesan websites.

WHEN
Thursday, Sept. 18 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Supreme Court building, 231 Capitol Avenue (corner of Lafayette St.) in Hartford CT

WHO
Eight-ten men and women who are abuse victims and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including an Ohio woman who exposed clergy sex crimes and cover ups by Hartford’s archbishop when he headed the Toledo diocese for a decade (2003-2013)

WHY
Hartford’s Catholic archbishop is asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to make it much harder for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to protect children, inside and outside of the church. He wants the justices to toss out a widely-praised 12 year old state law that gives victims more time to expose those who commit and conceal child sex crimes through civil litigation.

In 2002, Connecticut lawmakers extended the statute of limitations, letting child sex abuse victims to take legal action against their predators and employers who shield them until they turn 48 years of age. (Since 2002, lawmakers have extended it even further.)

Archbishop Leonard Blair – and his predecessor Archbishop Henry Mansell – claim that the statute was unconstitutional, based on the ‘due process’ clause of the state constitution.

“Two months ago, Pope Francis said the church should ‘make reparations” to victims and “All bishops must (exercise) the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors,’” said David Clohessy, director of SNAP. “But Blair is doing the reverse. And worse, if he wins, he’ll be enabling child molesters in all settings to remain under the radar and keep sexually assaulting kids.”

[NPR]

In 2012, a jury found Hartford Archdiocese officials negligent and reckless in handling abuse reports against Fr. Ivan Ferguson and awarded a victim a $1 million judgment (which includes $300,000 in punitive damages). Fr. Ferguson admitted his crimes. But Blair also wants to overturn this verdict.

Fr. Ferguson has been accused before. In 1993, three men filed civil abuse and cover up lawsuits charging that they were molested by Fr. Ferguson in the1970s and that archdiocesan staff could and should have prevented the crimes.

Two were settled. In 2002, Ferguson was still a priest but had no ministerial or teaching duties. At least two cases against Ferguson were included in a 2005 $14 million settlement with Archdiocese involving 14 predator priests. At least five other cases against Fr. Ferguson have been filed since then.

From 1985 to 1993, Ferguson worked as a chaplain at Hartford Hospital. He is now deceased.2002

During his ten years as head of an Ohio diocese, SNAP charges that Blair similarly fought against statue of limitations reform there.

Finally, SNAP is urging Blair to post on his archdiocesan website the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of the 33 publicly accused child molesting clerics who are or have been in the Hartford Archdiocese. Roughly 30 US bishops (including Bridgeport’s) have done this. In SNAP’s view, this is “the bare minimum” Catholic officials should do.

“Since bishops recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained and transferred thousands of predator priests, the least they can do – to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded- is disclose who and where these offenders are,” said Clohessy.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

The victim is represented by New Haven attorneys Tom McNamara (203 782 9241, tmacesq@gmail.com) and Hugh Hughes (203 683 1772). Over the past 22 years, McNamara has handled dozens of child sex abuse and cover up cases. The archdiocese is represented by John W. Sitarz (860 527 1141) and Wesley Horton (860 522 8338).

CONTACT
David Clohessy 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Claudia Vercellotti 419 345 9291, SNAPtoledo@gmail.com, Beth McCabe 860 335 8187 thirdmccabe@comcast.net, Jim Hackett 203 710 0968 SNAPct@cotse.net

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MAINE
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: September 17, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — A judge has ordered a Greek Orthodox priest held on $100,000 bail on a charge of possessing child pornography.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Roberts said Wednesday that police originally began investigating 52-year-old Adam Metropoulos when a woman complained that he’d photographed or videotaped her without her knowledge while she was showering in the priest’s parish-owned home in Bangor.

Roberts tells WZON-AM that Metropoulos acknowledged having child pornography on his computer, as well as having had inappropriate contact with a teenager in the past.

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NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

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

A Nebraska pastor has been charged with sexual assault after allegedly inappropriately touching a teenage girl. We applaud this brave girl for reporting her abuse. Other children will be safer because she had the courage to speak up.

Clifton J. Wells has been the pastor at the Church of Jesus Christ for 26 years and is a retired Omaha firefighter.

We hope this girl’s bravery will encourage anyone else who might have been hurt by Wells to come forward, contact police, and start healing.

Officials at the Church of Jesus Christ should immediately alert parishioners about Wells arrest and beg anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered abuse to come forward and report to law enforcement.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis’ international Council of Cardinals has begun creating the first draft of a new apostolic constitution that would implement a major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

The so-called C9, a papally appointed group of nine cardinal members, held its sixth meeting Sept 15-17 with Pope Francis at the Vatican to help advise him on the reform of the Vatican’s organization and church governance.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters Sept. 17 that the series of discussions have now begun a more “concrete” phase with “putting ink on paper” in the form of a draft for the introduction to a new constitution.

“It may be assumed that, with the next two meetings of the council — Dec. 9-11, 2014, and Feb. 9-11, 2015 — the draft constitution will reach an advanced stage of preparation, making it possible for the pope to proceed with further consultations,” the priest said in a written statement.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

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

In what a noted Vatican journalist calls a “decapitation,” and “a move without precedent,” Cardinal Raymond Burke – who had a very sorry tenure running the St. Louis archdiocese (2003-2008), “is on the verge of being demoted” from head of the church’s highest court to a “purely honorary role” and an “ecclesiastically very modest title” at “the behest of Pope Francis.”

Even a staunch Burke defender says this demotion is “likely”.

“If confirmed,” writes veteran church observer Sandro Magister, “Burke would be completely removed from the curia and employed in a purely honorary position without any influence on the governance of the universal Church.”

Magister also wrote “On December 16, in effect, Pope Francis humiliated Burke by crossing him off from among the members of the congregation” and now “seems right at the point of giving the go-ahead for Burke’s second and more grave demotion.”

We are reminded of Martin Luther King’s remark that “The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.” It is just that Burke’s long troubling rise within the Catholic hierarchy has come to an end. The church will be safer and healthier as a result. Children will be better protected. And dozens of child sex abuse victims – in LaCrosse and St. Louis and elsewhere – will be comforted by the fact that such a cold-hearted prelate will have less influence.

We were sad when Pope Benedict promoted Burke to his post in Rome, one of a long string of bishops who ignored and concealed child sex crimes yet were rewarded by Vatican officials.

While in St. Louis, Burke was often reckless, deceptive and callous regarding predator priests, vulnerable kids and wounded victims. He expanded the troubling practice of importing sexually troubled priests from across the US, letting some of them work in local parishes and letting others stay in church facilities that are secretive and careless about public safety.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN (Duluth, MN & Superior, WI) SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

According to just-released church records, for almost 60 years, numerous Minnesota Catholic officials concealed the crimes of a predator priest who:

– was at a church retreat house in Nevis, Minn., that let him say weekend masses at nearby parishes even though center staff had been warning in writing that he had molested children, and

– was returned to ministry as a chaplain at a nursing home in 1969 in Ivanhoe in the New Ulm diocese. (This fact had not been reported previously.)

We urge New Ulm Bishop John M. LeVoir to aggressively seek out anyone who may have been sexually assaulted by Fr. Louis Heitzer.

A Twin Cities Catholic official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, wrote in 2002 that Fr. Heitzer was “‘perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be part of this Archdiocese’ abusing kids ‘every place he went.’”

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

NEBRASKA
KETV

[with video]

BELLEVUE, Neb. —A Papillion pastor is accused of sexual assault of a child.

It’s an update to our report Monday on Clifton Wells, who’s named in a criminal complaint by the Sarpy County Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors allege Wells inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl several times.

The alleged incidents took place in July, when Wells gave the girl a ride to pick up a job application.

According to a court affidavit, the girl said Wells told her, “I am not going to treat you like a 14-year-old; I am going to treat you like a 17- or 18-year-old.”

Wells told investigators he was counseling the girl because she was misbehaving at school, telling her he was going to “speak” to her like a 17- or 18-year-old. He said any contact with her was incidental during their conversation.

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

NEBRASKA
WOWT

[with video]

An arrest warrant has been issued for pastor Clifton Wells after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.

In August, the girl’s mother sought a protection order against Wells. That order was denied by Judge William Zastera.

Since then, the Sarpy County Attorney’s office did file an arrest warrant and Judge Stefanie Martinez agreed to it.

Wells was the pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ (not affiliated with the Latter Day Saints).

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NEBRASKA
World-Herald

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
By Emily Nohr / World-Herald staff writer

A pastor who lives in Papillion has been charged with third-degree sexual assault of a child after he was accused of inappropriately touching a parishioner’s daughter, according to authorities.

According to a felony arrest warrant issued in Sarpy County, Clifton J. Wells, 61, is accused of touching the 14-year-old Bellevue girl in July while driving her to pick up a job application at a sandwich shop.

Upon the girl’s return home, according to the warrant, she told her mother about the incident, and her mother called Child Protective Services, which took a report and advised her to contact law enforcement.

According to the warrant, Wells is a pastor at a small church called the Church of Jesus Christ, which the mother told authorities is not affiliated with Latter-day Saints.

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

NEBRASKA
Press & Dakotan

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A 61-year-old Omaha-area pastor has been charged with felony sexual assault of a child.

Sarpy County prosecutors say Clifton Wells, of Papillion (puh-PIHL’-yuhn) inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl several times in July when he gave the girl a ride to pick up a job application. Wells told investigators he’d been counseling the girl about her misbehavior at school, and he denied that any sexual assault occurred.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

I wrote this to some readers the other day …

I’m beginning to suspect that when we catch wind of something wrong in the lives of our friends or associates, it’s quite likely far worse than we suspect. People soft pedal their sins all the time, even to themselves. In our lack of faith and naivete, we say, “Oh, these priests wouldn’t be child molesters,” when in fact they may be evil to the core. They may not be, but it is only our fear and squeamishness that keeps us from seeing what may be the truth. It is only our lack of trust in God that prevents us from confronting the enormity of the darkness in our own lives and in the lives of others.

In other words, since we don’t trust God to redeem and rescue us, even from the thickest of muck and mire, we put on our rose colored glasses and pretend that everything’s OK. But sometimes things are so much more sordid and corrupt than we can imagine, and sometimes hell is hotter than we think.

The following examples illustrate this. These are all people I’ve known, though I’ve changed the names to conceal their identities.

* All the kids in junior high and high school made fun of Frank for being “gay”. He was a friend of mine, and I knew he was effeminate, but after we graduated, he finally admitted the truth. Not only was he “gay”, he had been having anonymous sex with men through the “glory hole” in the men’s room stall at the truck stop, ever since he had gotten a job there as a bus boy at the age of 14. Dozens of times a day for many years.

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MAINE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Statement by Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga,CA, Orthodox Christian Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com )

A former Brookline, MA seminarian, who was convicted of a sex crime in Michigan in 1983, has been arrested again in Maine and accused of possessing child pornography.

Father Adam Metropoulos has been charged with possessing child pornography and photographing a woman without her permission.

The clergyman was suspended “from all priestly duties” by his bishop yesterday. However, Metropoulos had been employed by Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor, Maine, from September 2001, until yesterday.

Before attending Holy Cross Seminary, Metropoulos worked as a high school chemistry teacher in Maine from 1990-1997.

We urge church officials to use their positions to reach out to the Greek communities in Bangor and Brookline and beg anyone who experienced, witnessed or suspected Metropoulos of sex crimes to contact the police.

We also urge the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the jurisdiction to which Saint George belongs, immediately open an investigation into how someone with a prior sex offense was allowed to both enroll in seminary and obtain a position of authority in the Church.

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TEXAS
In Forney

CRANDALL, Texas – A former Crandall, Texas, associate youth pastor was arrested last week in Dallas County for indecency with a child by sexual contact.

67-year-old Steven Gray, a former associate youth pastor at the Lord’s House of Prayer in Crandall, Texas, was arrested on September 8, 2014, for indecency with a child by sexual contact of a then-11-year-old boy at his south Dallas trailer home in the Pecan Lake Estates mobile home park. The boy and Gray allegedly met at the church.

According to Dallas County investigators speaking with Fox 4 News, who first broke the story, Gray left the church approximately three years ago after serving approximately 30 years. The incident is believed to have happened in 2009.

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TEXAS
The Raw Story

DAVID FERGUSON
17 SEP 2014

A 67-year-old former associate pastor at a Texas Christian church is accused of repeatedly molesting a then-11-year-old boy.

According to My Fox Dallas-Ft. Worth, former youth pastor Stephen Gray is accused of repeatedly molesting a boy from his congregation at Gray’s trailer in a mobile home park in south Dallas.

The boy, now 16, told his mother and family friend John Hall about the molestation, which took place over the course of a summer.

The boy, who knew Gray from Sunday school classes at the Lord’s House of Prayer in Crandall, apparently began to make daily visits to Gray’s trailer in the summer of 2009.

In Gray’s arrest warrant, the boy reportedly “started going over to [Gray’s] residence on a daily basis…On one of these visits, the boy asked about a cowboy hat and [Gray] said if he wanted that hat, he would have to earn it.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE Catholic archdiocese of Sydney has overturned the findings of a Vatican inquiry, conducted under its previous archbishop ­George Pell, which attacked the credibility of alleged child abuse victims and said they may have “fabricated” their claims of abuse by a priest.

A “definitive final ­decree”, written by Cardinal Pell’s interim successor, Bishop Peter Comensoli, found “with moral certainty” that the alleged victims were abused at a boarding school during the 1970s, as they claimed.

Evidence available to the initial inquiry but not mentioned in the previous decree suggested a “pattern of allegations and admissions” about the priest that “substantially undermines the credibility of his claim to innocence,” Bishop Comensoli found.

His final decree, issued this month, also raised “significant doubts” over the conclusions of the three senior Australian clerics appointed by Cardinal Pell to carry out the original investigation.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN (Duluth, MN & Superior, WI) SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

According to just-released church records, for almost 60 years, numerous Minnesota Catholic officials concealed the crimes of a predator priest who worked in the Crookston diocese.

It’s not news that Fr. Louis Heitzer was a prolific pedophile. However, his work in the Crookston diocese was not disclosed until yesterday.

We urge Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner to aggressively seek out anyone who may have been sexually assaulted by Fr. Heitzer.

Minnesota Public Radio reports that Fr. Heitzer was at a church retreat house in Nevis, MN, that “allowed Heitzer to preside over weekend Masses at nearby parishes,” even though center staff had been warned in writing that he had molested children.

A Twin Cities Catholic official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, wrote in 2002 that Fr. Heitzer was “‘perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be part of this Archdiocese’ abusing kids ‘every place he went.’”

In Bishop Hoeppner’s diocese, we believe there may be eight or ten men who struggle in silence, shame, secrecy and self-doubt, living sad and lonely lives as they battle the life-long harm caused by childhood sexual trauma. They deserve comfort and consolation. They deserve a bishop who acts like a compassionate shepherd, not a cold-hearted CEO.

Bishop Hoeppner should use his diocesan websites, parish bulletins, and pulpit announcements to seek out and help anyone who may have been sexually assaulted by Fr. Heitzer or any other child molesting cleric in the Crookston area.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Albany Times Union

CENTRAL CITY, Pa. (AP) — A parish priest has been placed on leave after federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials searched the rectory of a central Pennsylvania church and a private residence where he’s listed as having a phone number.

ICE officials and U.S. Attorney David Hickton of Pittsburgh aren’t commenting on the searches conducted Friday at Our Lady Queen of Angels’ rectory in Central City, Somerset County, and the residence listed to the Rev. Joseph Maurizio.

A woman who answered the phone at the private residence Wednesday would not identify herself, but said the priest had no comment.

Hickton and ICE officials have confirmed an ongoing investigation, but won’t say what it entails. Among other things, ICE officials have jurisdiction over crimes involving international travel.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 17 September 2014 (VIS) – This morning, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., provided an update on the sixth meeting of the Council of Cardinals, which began on Monday, 15 September and will conclude this afternoon. As usual, the Holy Father was present at all sessions apart from this morning’s, due to the Wednesday general audience.

“In the previous meetings, the Cardinals had worked by examining all the Congregations and Pontifical Councils, but they had also assigned a significant amount of time to hearing the referring Commissions on economic and organisational questions (COSEA and CRIOR) and on matters pertaining to the economic Dicasteries. Work in this area may now be considered complete, following the constitution of the Council and the Secretariat for the Economy. The press conference held by Cardinal Pell in July focused on the results of this work and on the initiation of the activities of these new organs.

“Therefore, in this meeting the Council of Cardinals resumed work on the other Dicasteries. In the meantime, several contributions had been prepared by various members of the Council on the different issues within their sphere of competence, which were proposed or presented to the Council. During these days, the Council focused on two principal “hotspots”.

“The first includes the themes of the laity and the family. It is a very broad area, encompassing many issues, including for instance the role of women in society and in the Church, youth, childhood, or matters related to lay associations and movements, and so on.

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POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

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 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.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 17 September 2014)

A Christian Brother charged with the indecent assault of boys while he was a teacher in New South Wales, is likely to plead guilty, a court has been told. Brother David Standen, 65, a senior member of the Catholic order of Christian Brothers, has been charged regarding his time as a teacher at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn, in southern NSW, three decades ago.

Standen appeared in Goulburn Local Court on 17 September 2014 for a brief preliminary procedure His lawyer (Greg Walsh) told the court that the defence expects the forthcoming court process to be a short one, involving negotiation with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“I can indicate they are likely to be pleas of guilty,” Mr Walsh told Magistrate Geraldine Beattie.

The matter will come up again soon in the Goullburn Local Court for the next step in the prosecution procedure.

Standen is charged with 11 counts of indecent assault on males. Police allege that the assaults were committed against eight boys aged 12 while Standen was teaching at St Patrick’s College in Goulburn between 1978 and 1980. (This former boys’ boarding school has since been replaced by Trinity Catholic College Goulburn, which is for girls and boys.)

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily American

By the DAILY AMERICAN

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Central City, has been placed on leave of duties, according to a press release from the Most Rev. Mark Bartchak, bishop of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Federal agents searched the Our Lady Queen of Angels rectory on Friday. Maurizio later informed the bishop about the search. Details about the nature of the search are scarce. Several residents reported seeing Department of Homeland Security agents at the church. A media request filed with the department has not been returned.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

A Somerset County priest has agreed to step away from his parish duties after federal agents raided his church. The diocese of Altoona-Johnstown released a statement earlier today, saying Reverend Joseph Maurizio pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Central City is on leave. Federal agents and homeland security raided the church on Friday- the diocese was not aware of it until later on. No charges have been filed and it’s unclear what they were looking for.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

HESPERIA (CBSLA.com) — Two members of a Victorville church, one of them a youth pastor, have been arrested on suspicion of having sexual relationships with two teenage girls and authorities believe they may have more victims.

Victor Callejas-Vargas, 22, and Jesse Rodolfo Rios, 19, both of Hesperia, are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on several sex charges involving a minor, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials.

Victorville Police launched an investigation on Sept. 9 after receiving a report of a possible inappropriate sexual relationship between a 14-year-old girl and two men, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said. The investigation led detectives to a second victim, a 17-year-old girl, and to the suspects, all of whom are members of Centro Cristiano de Fe Church in Victorville.

Callejas-Vargas is also an employee and youth pastor of the church, officials said.

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MAINE
WCSH

Chris Facchini, WCSH September 16, 2014

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — News of the arrest of Father Adam Metropoulos on possession of child pornography and violation of privacy charges stunned members of St. George Greek Orthodox Church. There are about 90 families that make up the church parish.

Lee Speronis is the president of the nine member church council. He said he spent most of Monday night on the phone with other council members. He wouldn’t comment on the criminal investigation, but said that the church council would be moving Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting to Tuesday night so they could address the arrest and how to move forward.

“I think we’re doing what we can do which is just reach out to each other and hugs and get together and talk. And we can’t address the criminal stuff because nobody really understands it and there’s not a lot of information out there but what we can address what do we do with our community with our family,” said Speronis.

Speronis also confirmed that Father Metropoulos had been suspended indefinitely by Metropolitan Methodios, who is the head of the Greek Diocese of Boston. The Greek Diocese is sending a replacement priest so they can hold services this Sunday.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

A LAY group which campaigns for change in the Catholic Church has criticised the amount of money spent on a bishop’s residence and diocesan offices in north Belfast.

Voice of the Faithful said the decision to carry out an estimated £1 million-plus on refurbishing Lisbreen House had highlighted the “lack of transparency in the Church – especially in financial matters”.

Yesterday The Irish News revealed that an estimated seven-figure sum – including £300,000 of government funding – has been spent revamping the 15,000 sq ft Lisbreen House over the past two years.

It is home to Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor and also houses diocesan offices.
The work attracted attention because of the length of time it took as well as the erection of elaborate entrance gates.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporter

When the Christian radio host accused him of plagiarism, the quick-witted preacher sounded flabbergasted — and annoyed.

“Man, I thought we’d have a better interview than this,” Mars Hill Church Pastor Mark Driscoll said.

Driscoll’s heated November 2013 exchange with radio host Janet Mefferd would prove a crucial turning point in his explosive rise and recent fall, igniting a chain of events that would begin unraveling the Seattle megachurch he founded.

For years the edgy, blue-jeaned, hipster preacher used charisma and combativeness to barrel through turmoil, once bragging that he’d mow down all who questioned his vision: “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace, it’ll be a mountain by the time we’re done,” he once said in a meeting. “You either get on the bus or you get run over by the bus.”

Behind the scenes, former church members said, Driscoll could be vicious, abusive and controlling. Some charged that he refused to promote an overweight elder because Driscoll said his “fat ass” would tarnish Mars Hill’s image.

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UNITED STATES
Forbes

Rob Asghar

The crisis at the famed megachurch Mars Hill church has led to steep declines in attendance and revenues and sudden layoffs and closures. It came as a result of the reckless leadership style of its leader, Mark Driscoll (chronicled well in a recent piece by Seattle Times reporter Craig Welch).

Beyond the problems attributed to Driscoll’s behavior, other questions should arise. For example, why do these situations happen? Do toxic leaders build up toxic followers, or is it the other way around? It, in fact, seems to be a complicated tango, one in which each side gradually leads the other off the precipice.

Some years ago, former Los Angeles Times religion writer William Lobdell wrote about his experiences covering the sexual abuse scandals of the Catholic Church. Lobdell shared that what broke his spirit wasn’t the way the church leaders refused to see the truth, but rather the way the ordinary laypersons refused to see it–how they shouted down peers bold enough to speak honestly about their traumas, how they sought to rationalize any evil done by their beloved leaders.

That’s one crucial aspect of the link between toxic leaders and followers. In the case of megachurches, there’s also the appeal of protecting one’s part in a big, impressive show — like being a regular at the cool club that everyone talks about. The star of the show is usually an uber-charismatic, dramatic salesperson. Like the brash and humorous Driscoll.

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UNITED STATES
Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome

September 16, 2014 by Reba Riley

If there’s one thing I know the power of, it’s a name.

For the better part of a decade I suffered from a chronic mystery illness that was attacking me from the inside out. Countless doctors and specialists couldn’t diagnose me, couldn’t give me a name for what was happening. They told me it was all in my head — that I could pull myself out of it if I just tried harder.

I believed them.

Debilitating fatigue and pain became a way of life. My physical distress was second only to the mental torture that went like this, “I am doing this to myself. I do not have an actual medical condition. These symptoms are not real. There is nothing wrong with me.”

But there was something wrong with me. After eight years of sickness, a doctor handed me a slip of paper. On the paper was the name of the disease I had been fighting; the disease that had been fighting me.

I wept with joy. (Which confused my poor doctor more than a little bit.)

I had a name. The symptoms were real. I did have a medical condition. I was not doing it to myself.

Because of the name, I found out I was not alone; there were thousands of other people dealing with the very same condition. Because of the name, I discovered community, support, resources, and treatment. Because of the name, I recovered.

Because of the name, fatigue and pain are no longer a way of life for me.

Which is why I am giving a name to a spiritual condition that is even more real and more dangerous than the disease that robbed me of my physical health for many years:
Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome.

PTCS presents as a severe, negative — almost allergic — reaction to inflexible doctrine, outright abuse of spiritual power, dogma and (often) praise bands and preachers. Internal symptoms include but are not limited to: withdrawal from all things religious, failure to believe in anything, depression, anxiety, anger, grief, loss of identity, despair, moral confusion, and, most notably, the loss of desire/inability to darken the door of a place of worship.

The physical symptoms of PTCS — which may or may not be present — include: cold sweats, hives, nausea, vomiting, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbance, rashes, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure — oh, to heck with it. The symptoms are as varied as the people who suffer them.

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CALIFORNIA
Highland News

On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 deputies from the Victorville Police Department received a report of a possible inappropriate sexual relationship between a 14 year old girl and 2 adult men. Further investigation led detectives to a second victim, a 17 year old girl.

The suspects were identified as Victor Callejas-Vargas, 22, of Hesperia, an employee and youth pastor of the Centro Cristiano de Fe Church in Victorville. The second suspect was identified as Jesse Rodolfo Rios,19, of Hesperia, a resident and member of the Centro Cristiano de Fe Church. The two victims are both members of the church.

Investigators conducted interviews with the suspects. Both suspects were subsequently arrested, transported and booked into the High Desert Detention Center. Vargas was booked for sex with a minor three years younger, sex with a minor with the suspect over 21 and the victim under 16 years of age, and oral copulation with a person under 16. Vargas is being held on $100,000 bail. Rios was booked for oral copulation with a person under 18, and sex with a foreign object and is being held on $100,000 bail. Both are scheduled to be arraigned on September 17.

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FLORIDA
News-Leader

Siân Perry, News-Leader

“Remember that not all male babysitters are bad,” Nicholas Mitko Clark wrote in his profile on a babysitting services website that also featured a photo of him with his arm around a young boy.

Clark, 21, of Yulee, was arrested Thursday on federal child pornography charges stemming from an investigation that began last year into a suspect in Canada.

Clark is accused of engaging in an instant message conversation with that suspect and receiving and distributing “images of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” according to a statement issued Monday by U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida.

Investigators also found child pornography on Clark’s computer as well as Google searches relating to young boys and teen sex, Bentley said.

Clark worked at the Fernandina Beach Boys & Girls Club, volunteered with area youth organizations and churches, including First Presbyterian here and South Jacksonville Presbyterian, and was a summer camp counselor. The Yulee High School graduate was one of the founders of Teens for Change and the student representative of NACDAC, the Nassau Alcohol, Crime and Drug Abatement Coalition.

Read more: Fernandina Beach FL News Leader. The local news source for Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach FL – Babysitter held on sex charges

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer
Posted Sep. 17, 2014

STOCKTON — The Diocese of Stockton said it has received 34 claims of sexual abuse since it notified the public of a deadline to file such claims imposed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

In a statement, the diocese also announced that no priest in active ministry was named in those claims.

Diocese leaders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in January, saying its finances have been drained by legal costs and settlements arising from claims of child sexual abuse by priests.

Over the past two decades, those costs have mounted to $32 million for the diocese, which oversees parishes in San Joaquin, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Tuolomne, Alpine and Mono counties.

Following the bankruptcy filing, the courts set Aug. 15 as the deadline for anyone thereafter to file such a claim.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Police Minister said he will be relying on the Commissioner to determine the level of resources thrown at a child sex probe into Newcastle’s Anglican Diocese.

A police strike force was set up in August to investigate alleged child sexual assaults in the Hunter region, dating back 40 years.

It is focussing on the Anglican Diocese, with police urging anyone who has been a victim or has knowledge of a child sexual assault to contact them.

The Police Minister Stuart Ayres said resources will be allocated based on demand.

“I’ll be taking advice from the Commissioner who will be allocated the resources as he sees most appropriate,” he said.

“We allocate our resources based on demand at the moment and so we know that fluctuates.”

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

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

INGRID PERITZ
MONTREAL — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Sep. 16 2014

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, a self-styled “workers’ priest” who was archbishop of Montreal for over two decades, is seriously ill in hospital.

The archdiocese of Montreal said Tuesday that the 78-year-old cardinal has been in hospital for a few weeks. He has been suffering from “fragile” health for several years, including complications related to diabetes, said Lucie Martineau, director of communications for the archdiocese. …

Cardinal Turcotte earned a reputation as a charismatic, approachable figure during his 22 years as archbishop of Montreal. His tenure wasn’t without tumult; he oversaw church-building closings, sexual-abuse scandals, and upheavals caused by Quebeckers’ growing disaffection with organized religion.

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

CALIFORNIA
Turlock Journal

By Sabra Stafford
Crime Desk sstafford@turlockjournal.com 209-634-9141, ext. 2002
POSTED September 16, 2014

The Diocese of Stockton’s efforts to declare bankruptcy has led to 34 new potential claims of sexual abuse being reported.

The Diocese reported the allegations arose during a three month period of notifying claimants and did not involve any priests serving in an active ministry.

The Diocese made the decision in January to file for bankruptcy after a series of costly sexual abuse settlements left them financially drained.

The 34 new claims have been filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and will now be evaluated by a court-appointed committee of creditors and the Diocese. The filings followed a period of extensive outreach by the Diocese to ensure all potential claimants were aware of the August deadline for submitting sexual abuse claims to the court. The Diocese published notices in more than two-dozen national, regional and local newspapers, and mailed notices to every household on local parish and Catholic school mailing lists.

The information related to the new claims has been ordered by the court to remain confidential.

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

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Nikki Papatsoumas
Wednesday Sep 17, 2014

The Catholic Church says appropriate checks on parish staff are in place after a Blenheim priest admitted indecently assaulting another male.

Father Aidan Kay, 71, formerly of St Mary’s Catholic Church, pleaded guilty to the charge in Blenheim District Court yesterday.

The victim, who is over 16 years of age, has name suppression.

Kay had been the parish priest at St Frances Xavier in south Hobart, Australia, for five years before his appointment to St Mary’s.

He has been relieved of his duties at St Mary’s, which he joined in January 2013.

Speaking on behalf of St Mary’s, Archbishop of Wellington John Dew said before a priest was asked to join a parish, they went through a number of checks.

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

CANADA
The Telegram

Gary Hoskins will be going to Supreme Court. Judge Lynn E. Cole made the ruling when the 56-year-old former Roman Catholic priest appeared before her in Stephenville Provincial Court for a preliminary inquiry Tuesday to determine if there was enough evidence to proceed with trial.

Hoskins is facing two charges of alleged sexual assault on boys who were in their late teens at the time he was a priest at St. Stephen’s Parish.

The sexual assaults took place in or around Stephenville.

Cole placed a ban on any evidence put forward during the preliminary inquiry to protect the identity of the victims.

According to court records, Hoskins is a resident of Mississauga, Ont.

Meanwhile, Rev. Bernard Buckle, another priest who served at St. Stephen’s Parish, is also facing charges of three counts of sexual assault.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart

Files detailing child abuse accusations against another local priest were released Tuesday an attorney.

The reports against the late Father Louis Heitzer are the latest piece of the ongoing accusations that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis failed to protect children.

Heitzer was referred to as “perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be part of this Archdiocese,” in one file. The files were released by attorney Jeff Anderson on Tuesday.

The files detail meetings with families and church leaders and Heitzer’s continued involvement in Twin Cities churches within the archdiocese, the Diocese of Crookston and the Diocese of New Ulm.

Heitzer was ordained in 1942 and worked at several parishes in Minnesota, including Winsted, St. Paul, Marshall, Sleepy Eye, Olivia, Winthrop and Forest Lake. He died in 1969.

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

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

September 14, 2014

John Allen’s article appeared in Abuse Tracker today with his version of “The vision behind Crux”. Below (see image of Vatican Corruption) is our rebuttal under each of his paragraphs which are in italics.

But let’s get to the crux of his wile message at once.

John Allen wrote: “To begin, the basic ambition of Crux is simple: To get the story right… I also believe that if Crux can get the story right on a regular basis, one natural consequence could be softening divisions in Catholic life”.

SOB Same Old Bloke John Allen wile is this: “the basic ambition of Crux is simple: To get the story right” – — what this really means is “To concoct the story — and to make it appear seemingly right”. That is the expertise of John Allen and his clones of Vatican Pied Pipers – they can make Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils appear right and feel-good right for idiot Catholics – just like Hollywood does with all its fiction make-believe to be true stories. Read Argo &“saint” John Paul II are make-believe legends of Hollywood and the Vatican, the twin cities that “lie for a living”

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

MAINE
WABI

By Shawn McVicar

A Bangor priest remains behind bars after police arrested him for possessing child pornography.

Adam Metropoulos, 52, is charged with possession of sexually explicit material and violation of privacy.

Metropoulos is the priest of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor.

District Attorney Chris Almy says in 1983, Metropoulos was convicted of sexual assault in Michigan.

Bangor Police say their investigation started Saturday, after a complaint from a woman who had been staying at Metropoloulos’ house.

According to Sgt. Tim Cotton of the Bangor P.D., “On Saturday evening, we received information from an adult female that she had been staying at the Metropoulos residence, and while having a shower, she noted that there was a camera pointed towards her in the shower from a basket across the room. She exited the shower, retrieved the camera and also retrieved the memory card from the camera. She later confronted Mr. Metropoulos about why the camera was there, and then shortly thereafter, came to the police department and notified us on the activity.”

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

VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

As the impeccable prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura, he is on the verge of being demoted to the purely honorary role of “patron” of an order of knighthood. At the behest of Pope Francis

by Sandro Magister

VATICAN CITY, September 17, 2014 – The “revolution” of Pope Francis in ecclesiastical governance is not losing its driving thrust. And so, as happens in every self-respecting revolution, the heads continue to roll for churchmen seen as deserving this metaphorical guillotine.

In his first months as bishop of Rome, pope Bergoglio immediately provided for the transfer to lower-ranking positions of three prominent curial figures: Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, and Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, considered for their theological and liturgical sensibilities among the most “Ratzingerian” of the Roman curia.

Another whose fate appears to be sealed is the Spanish archbishop of Opus Dei Celso Morga Iruzubieta, secretary of the congregation for the clergy, destined to leave Rome for an Iberian diocese not of the first rank.

But now an even more eminent decapitation seems to be on the way.

The next victim would in fact be the United States cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who from being prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura would not be promoted – as some are fantasizing in the blogosphere – to the difficult but prestigious see of Chicago, but rather demoted to the pompous – but ecclesiastically very modest – title of “cardinal patron” of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, replacing the current head, Paolo Sardi, who recently turned 80.

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

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

New pedophile priest lawsuit filed
Serial predator’s whereabouts are unknown
He fled to Mexico after multiple accusations here
Victims: “Pope must stop child molesting clerics from moving”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will prod Sacramento’s Catholic bishop to do more about a predator priest who fled to Mexico and is being sued again for child sex crimes.

Victims and their supporters will beg the bishop – and Pope Francis – to;

–warn Catholic officials in Mexico about the priest,
–do all they can to put him in a remote, secure, independent treatment center, and
–aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by the priest.

And the victims will urge Pope Francis take firm action to prevent predator priests from moving to other nations when abuse reports against them surface.

WHEN
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 11:30 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Sacramento Catholic diocese headquarters (“chancery office”), 2110 Broadway in Sacramento

WHO
Three-four men and women who are abuse victims and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), the nation’s largest and oldest support group for men and women abused in religious and institutional settings.

WHY
Two Sacramento area men who are now in their 30s are filing a civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against the local Catholic bishop and an accused fugitive pedophile priest who suddenly sold many of his belongings at a yard sale, then drove to Mexico, claiming that a relative had a serious illness.

Starting in 2002, As many as 14 youngsters have accused Fr. Francisco Javier Garcia of child sex crimes. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 1995, but Garcia fled to Mexico avoiding the charges. Prior to the warrant being issued, a victim came forward and reported their abuse to law enforcement.

According to the lawsuit filed by Garcia’s victims, Garcia was known to have abused other children prior to being moved to other churches.

Garcia was highlighted in an award-winning 2004 Dallas Morning News investigative series called “Hiding in plain sight.” It was about child molesting clerics who went or were sent abroad after accusations against them were made.

[BishopAccountability.org]

SNAP wants Pope Francis to take firm action to prevent child molesting clerics from moving.

“It is extremely irresponsible and dangerous for Catholic officials to let predators flee abroad and suffer no consequences and molest again,” said Tim Lennon of SNAP.

“Church officials hire, train, ordain, transfer, and pay these predator clergy. So the least they can do is ensure they don’t harm any more children,” said Barbara Dorris, outreach director of SNAP. “An easy way to do that is to put them in secure, remote treatment centers.”

According to a Boston-based research and archive group, BishopAccountability.org, there are 20 publicly accused child molesting clerics in the Sacramento diocese. SNAP suspects the real total of proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests, nuns, brothers, seminarians and parochial teachers is much higher.

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

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Sep 16, 2014

SPOILER ALERT!!! If you intend to see Calvary — and you should — and you don’t want to know how this spiritual whodunit (or rather, who’lldoit) turns out, read no further.

Last evening I saw Calvary, John Michael McDonough’s remarkable movie about Father James, a righteous and caring Irish priest played exceptionally well by Brendan Gleeson. The movie opens with the voice of a parishioner in a confessional informing Father James that he was repeatedly raped as a child by a now deceased priest, and that as a result he will murder him in a week’s time — not because he is guilty of anything but precisely because he is a good man.

Over the week’s course, we discover a Catholic world blown apart by the abuse scandal. The parish, located in beautiful County Sligo, is a grim community of skeptics, adulterers, depressives, and drunks. This being Ireland, there’s no shortage of gallow’s humor, and there’s also no doubt that Father James is doing his level best to hold things together. But in the end, his church is burned down, his dog has its throat cut, and his life is, as promised, terminated.

The movie’s title makes it only too clear that this is a parable. It is the Passion of Father James — the final week of a man of God who sacrifices his life to make up for the — original? — sin of another. He throws the revolver he has brought to defend himself — his last temptation — into the sea. He is shot on a beach below the headlands that point to the name of the place outside the walls of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified — Golgotha, Calvary, Skull. There is, perhaps, a hint of redemption at the end.

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

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Source: Anne Steffens, Interim Director of Communications

From Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Documents from the priest file of Louis Heitzer given to the court earlier this year were released today by Jeff Anderson and Associates. This release is in the interest of public disclosure and accountability.

The archdiocese received reports of sexual abuse of minors by Heitzer prior to Heitzer’s death in 1969. Between 1991 and 2004 the archdiocese received additional reports of Heitzer’s sexual abuse of minors decades earlier.

The archdiocese’s goal is to help victims/survivors of minor clergy abuse and their families heal. The archdiocese recognizes that the healing process is unique for each person and family. The archdiocese, however, has come to understand that for many people it is important to know that abuse will not happen again. Verbal assurance will not suffice; concrete action is necessary.

The archdiocese will continue to develop concrete steps such as new procedures to address reports of abuse. Another such step is public disclosure of the identity and assignment history of the clergy member against whom accusations of sexual abuse of a minor have been substantiated. Heitzer’s assignment history was first released by the archdiocese in December of last year and is now updated with additional assignment information for 1967 up to his death in 1969.

Louis Heitzer

Date of birth: 7/15/1914, deceased
Date of ordination: 1942
Date the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis posted this cleric’s name on a list of those with claims of substantiated abuse against them: December 5, 2013

Cleric’s prior assignments:

Associate priest, Most Holy Trinity, Winsted (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1942-1944;
Associate priest, St. Andrew, Fairfax (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1944;
Associate pastor, Assumption, St. Paul, 1944-1945;
Associate priest, Holy Redeemer, Marshall (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1945;
Associate priest, St. Mary, Sleepy Eye (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1945-1948;
Associate priest, St. Joseph, Waconia, 1948;
Associate priest, St. Aloysius, Olivia (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1948-1950;
Administrator, Sacred Heart, Franklin (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1950-1954;
Pastor, St. Joseph, Rosen (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1954-1955;
Pastor, St. Michael, Gaylord (now part of New Ulm Diocese), 1955-1956;
Pastor, St. Luke, Clearwater, 1956-1958;
Pastor, St. Scholastica, Heidelberg, 1958-1966;
Associate priest, St. Richard, Richfield, 1966-1967;
Assistant pastor, St. Peter, Forest Lake, 1967;
Sacramental service and supply ministry, clergy retreat house, Nevis (Crookston Diocese), 1968;
Chaplain, rest home, Ivanhoe (New Ulm Diocese), 1969
Diocese or religious order: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Date permanently removed from ministry: 1969
Current location: Deceased
Current status: Died in 1969

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

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

A Blenheim priest who has admitted an indecent assault is the first case of a clergyman pleading guilty at the first opportunity, the head of sexual-abuse charity says.

Alastair Aidan Kay, 71, pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault on a male over 16.

Kay was stood down from St Mary’s parish in Blenheim after a complaint was made to police about an incident on July 15.

He made his first appearance in the Blenheim District Court yesterday morning.

Defence lawyer Rob Harrison asked the conviction not be entered so Kay could go through a restorative justice programme. This would involve a meeting between the offender and victim to work out a way forward.

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

MAINE
MI NBC

BANGOR, MAINE — Adam Metropoulos, originally from Saginaw, has been arraigned in Bangor, Maine for possessing child pornography and photographing a woman without her permission.

Metropoulos, who is 52-years-old, is a priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor.

Police said they began investigating when a woman told them that she thought she had been photographed or recorded without her permission.

He is currently being held on $10,000 bond.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Metropoulos has been suspended from “all priestly duties” until the case has been resolved.

The paper, who ran an extensive background piece on Metropoulos back in 2002, says he moved to Maine from Saginaw in 1990 to teach at a high school there.

Metropoulos was a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University and went on to work at Dow Chemical. He later left Dow Chemical in order to pursue a doctorate from the University of New Hampshire.

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

MAINE
WCSH

Samantha Edwards, WLBZ 5:15 p.m. EDT September 16, 2014

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — A Bangor area Greek Orthodox priest was arrested Monday afternoon after a woman claimed he video taped her in the shower. Adam Metropoulos, 52, is charged with a violation of privacy and possession of child pornography.

The investigation began Saturday when the woman reported the alleged video taping to Bangor police detectives.

Sgt. Tim Cotton with Bangor police said, “When she was in the shower she looked across the bathroom and she observed what she believed to be a camera in a basket on a wall. She exited the shower, went and checked on the camera. It, in fact, was a camera and was, in fact, recording her activity in the shower.”

Bangor police interviewed Metropoulos and searched his home where police said they found child pornography.

Sgt. Cotton said, “They also left with multiple items. Computer equipment and hard drives, memory cards, and disks…the initial search found items that we believe meet the criteria to be child pornography.”

Metropoulos does have a criminal past. Sources tell NEWS CENTER Metropoulos was convicted of sexual assault on April 25, 1983 in Saginaw, Michigan.

Metropoulos moved to Maine and taught chemistry at Millinocket’s Stearns High School from 1990 to 1997. We did ask the Department of Education if the prior conviction would have shown up on Metropoulos’ background check, but the state did not begin conducting background checks until 1999.

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

VATICAN CITY
Daily Mercury (Australia)

THE Islamic State (Isis) is intent on killing the Pope, the Iraqi ambassador to the Holy See has warned the Vatican.

Habeeb Al-Sadr, who has been the ambassador since 2010, has advised that one of Isis’ goals is to assassinate the Pontiff and warned that the jihadists “don’t just threaten”, according to Italian newspaper La Nazione.

Mr Al-Sadr confirmed he did not have any specific intelligence on an impending attack but said that their “genocide” of Yazidi Christians and destruction of holy Islamic sites was an indication of their intent.

“What has been declared by the self-proclaimed Islamic State is clear – they want to kill the Pope,” he told La Nazione on Tuesday, adding: “The threats against the Pope are credible.”

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[Rev. Louis J. Heitzer/Rev. Joseph Heitzer – assignment record via BishopAccountability.org]

Father Louis Heitzer Priest File
Father Louis Heitzer Timeline
Key Documents from Louis Heitzer File

Father Louis Heitzer is believed to have abused young boys in every location he worked, ruining the lives of many, and was never held accountable for his actions. Ordained in 1942, Heitzer worked at several parishes during his 25+ years in the priesthood. He worked in cities including Winsted, St. Paul, Marshall, Sleepy Eye, Olivia, Winthrop, Clearwater, Heidelberg, Lexington, Union Hill, Forest Lake, Ivanhoe and Nevis, Minnesota.

At least three Archbishops knew of Heitzer’s inappropriate behavior with children and numerous parents sent letters to Church officials detailing accounts of sexual abuse by Heitzer. Meetings were held in rural parishes with parents of several youths who claimed to have witnessed or experienced abuse by Heitzer.

At least a decade after allegations of inappropriate behavior surfaced, Heitzer was hospitalized and after one month of treatment was returned to ministry “with perfect safety.” In 2002, after more victims came forward alleging sexual abuse by Heitzer, then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough, in a September 24, 2002 letter refers to Heitzer as “perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be part of this Archdiocese. I believe he abused boys every place he went.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn.
Sep 16, 2014

Efforts by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to cover up clergy sex abuse stretch back to at least the 1950s — a decade earlier than previously revealed, according to documents released today by victims’ attorneys.

The archdiocese file on the Rev. Louis Heitzer shows that bishops used now-familiar strategies to protect Heitzer from prosecution nearly six decades ago. During the 1950s and 60s, four bishops failed to notify police of allegations that Heitzer sexually abused several boys. Instead, the archbishops transferred Heitzer to 14 parishes over his 27-year career.

The 152 pages, released as part of a clergy sex abuse lawsuit that accuses the archdiocese of creating a public nuisance by keeping information on abusers private, raise questions about how long Catholic leaders in the Twin Cities have covered up abuse.

Memos and letters show a pattern of secrecy by Archbishop John Murray, who served as the third archbishop of St. Paul from 1931 to 1956, Archbishop William Brady, who served from 1956 to 1961, Archbishop Leo Binz, who served from 1961 to 1975, and Coadjutor Archbishop Leo Byrne, who served from 1967 to 1974.

The previously confidential documents reveal a world in which church leaders protected priests who sexually abused children and downplayed complaints from parents and their children, while victims suffered in silence without the aid of support groups or therapy.

Heitzer, a German immigrant who died in 1969, spent less than a year at most parishes before bishops quietly sent him elsewhere. In a 2002 letter, then-vicar general Kevin McDonough described Heitzer as “perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be a part of this Archdiocese. I now believe that he abused boys every place he went.”

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

CALIFORNIA
The Record

STOCKTON – The Diocese of Stockton said it has received 34 claims of sexual abuse since it notified the public of a deadline imposed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The diocese announced the news Tuesday in a statement that also said no priest in active ministry was named in those claims.

Diocese leaders filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in January, saying its finances have been drained by legal costs and settlements arising from claims of child sexual abuse by priests.

Over the past two decades, those costs have mounted to $32 million for the diocese which oversees parishes in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Tuolomne, Alpine and Mono counties.

Following the bankruptcy filing, the courts set Aug. 15 as the deadline for anyone thereafter to file such a claim.

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

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 16 2014

Statement by Tim Lennon of San Francisco, Bay Area Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 415-312-5820, tlennon@snapnetwork.org )

Stockton Catholic officials disclosed today that 34 victims of predator priests have come forward in recent months. We suspect this number – 34 victims of Stockton predator clergy – is a drop in the bucket. The real total, we believe, is much higher.

Our hearts ache for all of these victims, especially those who were not able to come forward by the Stockton bishop’s callous and arbitrary deadline.

Even predator priests who are “not in active ministry” are still dangerous, which is why it is crucial that Stockton’s bishop lets parishioners, police and the public know who and where they are.

A judge required Stockton Catholic officials to do “extensive outreach.” How could the Stockton diocese brag about this same “extensive outreach” if they were compelled to do it by the court?

Stockton church officials claim that a court order means “all information about these claims is confidential.” That does not, however, prevent Stockton Bishop Blaire from publicly disclosing the names, whereabouts and work histories of the proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Stockton’s bishop should do this, for the protection of the vulnerable and the healing of the wounded.

We note that the Diocese is not interested in “resolving outstanding claims as fairly as possible.” It’s interested in avoiding embarrassing child sex abuse and cover up trials. Church officials are interested in avoiding depositions at which they and other church officials will face tough questions on why they acted recklessly, deceitfully and callously with clergy sex predators.

The high church officials are interested in focusing public attention on those who commit child sex crimes, not on those church officials who conceal them. These officials are interested in protecting the careers and reputations of past and current officials. Their actions are not focused on the healing of the wounded and the protection of the vulnerable. And they’re interested in focusing on money, not corruption.

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

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein | GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Actor Mark Ruffalo was at the Globe on Monday to do research for his new movie “Spotlight,” in which he’ll play Globe investigative reporter Michael Rezendes, a member of the Pulitzer-winning team that broke the Catholic sex abuse scandal. Ruffalo was seen in the newsroom, the cafeteria, and the library — not that we were following him. Ruffalo’s costar Rachel McAdams has been spotted around Boston, so she must be researching for her own role in the film (she’ll play former Globe reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, who’s now a star at WBUR). . . .

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

South Yorkshire PCC Shaun Wright finally resigns in the wake of the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal

By Martin Evans, Crime Correspondent

Shaun Wright, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, has resigned in the wake of the Rotherham child sex exploitation scandal.

Mr Wright had come under increasing pressure following the publication of Professor Alexis Jay’s report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham. He was the councillor with responsibility for children’s services in the borough from 2005 to 2010.

But he initially resisted calls to resign including from the Prime Minister, Home Secretary and the Labour party, which eventually expelled him.

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

GROSSBRITANNIEN
Spiegel

[The police chief in Rotherdam has resigned amid controversy about how police handled sexual abuse cases.]

Der Polizeichef der englischen Stadt Rotherham ist zurückgetreten. Shaun Wright wurde seine unrühmliche Rolle in einem riesigen Missbrauchsskandal zum Verhängnis. Er ist sich aber immer noch keiner Schuld bewusst.

London – Premierminister David Cameron, Innenministerin Theresa May und Oppositionsführer Ed Miliband hatten Shaun Wright aufgefordert, den Posten aufzugeben. Er hatte sich lange gesträubt. Jetzt hat der oberste Polizeichef der nordenglischen Stadt Rotherham dem Druck nachgegeben – und trat zurück. Er sei in den öffentlichen Dienst gegangen, um Positives für den Süden Yorkshires zu bewirken. Der Schutz verwundbarer Personen, besonders sexuell ausgebeuteter Kinder, sei seine oberste Priorität gewesen. Doch seinem Anspruch an sich selbst genügte Wright offenbar nicht.

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

OSTERREICH
Kleine Zeitung

[Summary: The civil actions brought by a former pupil against two Admonter Fathers for alleged sexual abuse and aggravated assault goes to a new round in court. On Monday, the legal representatives for the ex-pupil presented the court of upper Styria Leoben a motion for bias against the judge. This motion must now be considered by the district court. The priests say they had no free time in all their years at Admont and they deny responsibility for the offenses at the school and this should be handled by the state.]

Die zivilrechtliche Klage eines ehemaligen Zöglings gegen zwei Admonter Patres und das Stift wegen des Vorwurfs sexuellen Missbrauchs und schwerer Körperverletzung geht in eine neue Gerichts-Runde.

Der Ex-Zögling und sein Rechtsvertreter stießen sich laut dem Sprecher des Klägers u.a. an der Behauptung der Padres, dass sie in all den Jahren in Admont keine Freizeit gehabt hätten. Womit die Verantwortung für die zur Last gelegten Delikte an den Staat als Schulaufsichtsbehörde übergehe und somit die Republik bzw. der Steuerzahler dafür gerade zu stehen hätte.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 16

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

A youth pastor has been arrested for alleged child sex crimes and the question now is what will his congregants do now? Will they actively help police and prosecutors? Or will they sit passively back and force the brave victim to carry the burden of pursuing a predator alone?

[My Fox DFW]

We beg current and former staff and members of the Lord’s House of Prayer in Crandall to aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Steven Gray.

That’s the best way to protect kids. That’s the responsible course of action. That’s what Jesus would do, we believe.

But in most cases, colleagues and congregants of credibly accused child molesting clerics do little or nothing. They leave it up to a wounded victim and overworked police and overwhelmed prosecutor to keep a predator away from kids. Then they express shock and horror when the predator’s shrewd lawyer gets him or her off on a technicality or gets a short sentence and later re-offends.

So we beg every person associated with the Lord’s House of Prayer to show courage and try hard to find and console others with information about or suspicisions about Gray’s crimes. That’s the right thing to do.

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INDIA/MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN (Duluth, MN & Superior, WI) SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

A credibly accused predatory Indian priest has lost another court ruling and is now one step closer to facing a trial in Minnesota. For the safety of children and the healing of victims, we hope he will be extradited soon.

[court document]

Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul is accused of molesting two girls. When child sex abuse allegations against him surfaced, he quickly returned to India, where he remains.

[ABC News]

Twice this year, United Nations panels have harshly criticized Vatican officials for their refusal to help law enforcement apprehend this dangerous cleric, Fr. Jeyapaul, who molested girls in the Crookston, MN diocese and worked at one event (maybe more) in the St. Paul Archdiocese.

We’ve long worried about the safety of girls in India near Fr. Jeyapaul, especially since his bishop put him in charge of overseeing schools, knowing full well that he was considered a fugitive from US criminal authorities.

Fr. Jeyapaul is one of an increasing number of accused predator priests who have been allowed to flee to other countries despite credible child sex abuse allegations or sometimes arrest warrants.

According to BishopAccountability.org, Minnesota Catholic officials “knew of rumors about inappropriate behavior by (Jeyapaul) in 8/04” but Fr. Jeyapaul “suddenly returned to India in 9/05.”

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POLAND/POKSKA
Ocaleni

Skazany wyrokiem za molestowanie nastolatki w Henrykowie Lubańskim, ksiądz Jan M. przebywa na wolności, w domu księży emerytów w Legnicy. To dlatego, iż otrzymał wyrok w tzw. zawiasach – 1 rok i 8 miesięcy w zawieszeniu na 3 lata. Dla porównania – nastolatka była przez księdza molestowana przez całe cztery lata.Co więcej – w komputerze księdza znaleziono programy i treści pedofilskie. Sąd uznał księdza również winnym posiadaniu nielegalnych materiałów. Wyrok nie jest prawomocny.
predator

Ocaleni I Polish Sutvivors: jesteśmy zaniepokojeni niskim wyrokiem, mimo, że sąd uznał księdza winnego wszystkim trzem postawionym zarzutom. Jeszcze bardziej martwi nas fakt, że ksiądz dostał wyrok w zawieszeniu i pozostaje poza kontrolą: nie mamy pewności, czy nie będzie molestował kolejnych dzieci. Wyrażamy też wielki szacunek dla nastolatki, która odważyła się zeznawać przeciwko swojemu agresorowi – brawo!

Liczymy na to, że adwokat poszkodowanej odwoła się od wyroku i, że ksiądz ostatecznie trafi do więzienia. Liczymy również, że zostanie on dożywotnio pozbawiony kontaktu z dziećmi. Mamy nadzieję, że w międzyczasie ujawnią się kolejne ofiary księdza Jana M., jeśli takowe istnieją. Do tego czasu apelujemy opiekunów legnickich dzieci o ostrożność.

Więcej na ten temat w Polskim Radiu Wrocław
————————————————————————————
The priest Jan M., convicted of sexual harassment of a teenage girl in Henryków Lubański is currently on the loose, staying in the retirement home for priests in Legnica. Why? He was given a suspended sentence – one year and eight months of imprisonment conditionally suspended for three years. To draw a comparison, the junior miss had been sexually harassed for four years. What is more, there was pedophile content and related programs discovered on the priest’s computer. The court found him guilty of possession of illegal material. The sentence is not final and binding.

Polish Survivors: we are alarmed by the degree of penalty, although the court found the priest guilty of all three charges. What concerns us even more is the fact that the he was given a suspended sentence and remains out of control: we cannot rest assured that he will not harass other children. We also express our respect to the teenage girl who dared to testify against her aggressor – bravo!

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POLAND/POLSKA
Ocaleni

Czy w USA, Anglii, Holandii, Belgii, we Włoszech i innych krajach, z których pochodzą nasi czytelnicy, również pedofile dostają kary w zawieszeniu i chodzą na wolności?

sad-pijani-kierowcy

Oryginalny obrazek (by Andrzej Rysuje) znajdziesz TUTAJ.

O jednej z takich spraw pisaliśmy tutaj: Skandal! Ksiądz pedofil na wolności!

Zupełnie absurdalny wydaje się przy tym fakt, że do więzienia w Polsce można iść za… kradzież wafelka wartego 99 groszy (więcej)!

—————————————————

Do pedophilies from USA, England, the Netherlands, Belgium or Italy receive a deffered sentence for pedophilia and they are still on the loose?

We mentioned such a case here: Scandal! Pedophile priest on the loose.

it is even more ridiculous, as in Poland you may end up in jail for stealing… a wafer which costs about 30 cents.

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MAINE
WABI

[with video]

By Adrienne DiPiazza

Bangor Police say they arrested a man Monday in Bangor after getting complaints from a woman who said someone had been taking her picture without her knowledge.

Adam Metropoulos, 52, the priest of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor is charged with violation of privacy and possession of sexually explicit material.

District Attorney Chris Almy confirmed Metropoulos is accused of possessing child pornography.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Sept. 16, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — The bishop of the Greek Orthodox diocese that includes Maine has suspended the priest at St. George Church who was arrested Monday after being accused of possessing child pornography.

Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor remained at the Penobscot County Jail unable to post $10,000 cash bail Tuesday morning while the congregation waited for word from its diocesan office in Boston on how to proceed.

He was arrested Monday afternoon after being accused of possessing child pornography and photographing a woman without her permission.

Metropoulos was charged with one count each of possession of sexually explicit material, a Class C crime, and violation of privacy, a Class D crime, according to Bangor police.

Metropolitan Methodios, head of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, announced in an email on Tuesday that Metropoulos “has been suspended from all priestly duties” until the criminal case has been resolved,

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The New Testament contains two Epistles by St. Peter. A third one was recently discovered, but some are doubting its authenticity. It appears to have been written during Jesus active ministry …

***

Peter, Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the Other Eleven and to Various Disciples.

May God bless you all. I give thanks always and everywhere for the hard work you are doing in spreading what Jesus is calling the “gospel message”.

Which, of course, needs some refining.

I took Jesus aside the other day for an “ad hoc meeting” and tried to talk some sense into him. He keeps insisting on this whole “cross” thing and claiming that he’s going to suffer. “God forbid!” I told him. After all, we can’t have that – it would be bad for the organization and we have to protect our branding.

Some of you have been asking how he responded to me. Not well, really. “Get thee behind me, Satan!” was a bit of an over-reaction, as far as I’m concerned. He keeps saying that’s the “hour” for which he was sent. Totally beyond me.

Meanwhile, we’re forming a Doctrine Committee to deal with things. Oh, and there’s a Fish Fry on Friday next week, though we clearly don’t have enough at this point to feed the multitude. The Fall Festival is taking volunteers and Scrip is available in the Gathering Area.

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MAINE
USA Today

Matthew Diebel, USATODAY September 16, 2014

The priest of a Greek Orthodox church in Bangor, Maine, has been arrested for alleged possession of child pornography and photographing a woman without her permission, according to reports in local media.

Adam Metropoulos, 52, of was charged Monday with possession of sexually explicit material, a Class C crime, and violation of privacy, a Class D crime, police told the Bangor Daily News.

According to the News, an investigation began over the weekend when a woman complained to police that she believed she had been photographed or video recorded without her permission or knowledge.

Metropoulos, a native of Michigan, has been the priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church since September 2001, the paper reported, and was a high school chemistry teacher before that.

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IRELAND
Ecumenical News

Henri Rose Cimatu
Monday, September 15 2014

The Evangelical Alliance Ireland has said that believers, and not the State, should fund their own schools

The EAI stance is similar to that held by a prominent atheist group and a leading Muslim academic in the predominantly Catholic country.

EAI executive director Nick Park said evangelical Christians feel alienated by State-funded schools that are usually run by the Catholic Church, which has by far the largest religious following in Ireland.

He mentioned Catholic practices such as the First Communion which can be a problem for evangelical parents. …

Increased prosperity in the 1990s along with cover ups by Catholic leaders of child abuse at schools in the 20th century have undermined church credibility and led to many Irish now shunning Catholicism.

The Irish Times reported that the position of EAI to call for a secular education system in Irish schools is similar to the one proposed by Atheist Ireland.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

SCOTT KAUFMAN
16 SEP 2014

Despite allegations that he abused his position in Victory Church to curry sexual favors from his parishioners, a feature-length documentary about controversial “Fight Church” pastor Paul Burress was released on Tuesday, according to Hemant Mehta.

Earlier this year, former members of his Rochester, New York congregation accused Pastor Burress of abusing his power in the community to entice people into his swinger lifestyle.

In an email, the church’s executive pastor, Al Odgen, characterized those claims as a “vindictive email attack against Paul and Victory [Church],” and accused the church’s “enemies” of being “obviously in collusion with each other.”

The film does not address the controversy surrounding Pastor Burress’s abuse of power within his church, focusing instead on his ministry and the children and young men who fight in it.

The filmmakers, Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel, wrote in The New York Times that one of the abiding concerns of Burress and other pastors who practice mixed martial arts (MMA) is that “the modern church [has] become ‘feminized’” because it fails to realize that “many of the Bible’s core tenets involve fighting.”

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INDIA
Business Standard

Press Trust of India | New Delhi September 16, 2014

The Delhi High Court today dismissed as “premature” the plea challenging a trial court order recommending extradition to the USA of Indian Catholic priest Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in that country during his stay in 2004.

Justice Pratibha Rani rejected Jeyapaul’s plea after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) submitted that the government has not passed any order for extraditing him to the US.

The submission was made before the court by an MEA official, after which the court dismissed the plea as being premature.

On September 12, the high court had refused to stay the trial court’s order.

It had also called for a status report from the Centre on whether the trial court’s recommendation has been accepted.

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MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Sept. 15

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

A veteran Catholic teacher, Richard Pryor, has been indicted for allegedly molesting students on out of state trips. Our hearts ache for these 11 boys and their families.

[Sun Herald]

We applaud every person who has cooperated or is cooperating with this investigation. But this is exactly the kind of crime that Catholic bishops assure us can’t happen. For more than a dozen years, they’ve pledged to not let priests, teachers and other staff alone with children. We urge Biloxi Bishop Roger Morin to explain how this happened.

We also urge Bishop Morin to

–emphatically and repeatedly beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Pryor’s crimes to call police and

–personally visit every school where Pryor worked, making the same plea.

If kids are to be safer and predators are to be convicted, it’s crucial that Catholic employees aggressively seek out anyone with suspicions about or knowledge of Pryor’s crimes. Passively sitting back and letting these victimized kids and their families carry the full burden of prosecuting Pryor is callous and irresponsible.

It’s our civic and moral duty to help police and prosecutors keep predators away from kids.

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FRANCE
The Local

Two men are in French jail after they allegedly used an official Vatican vehicle to try to smuggle several kilos of cocaine and cannabis through France, according to media reports.

It must have seemed like the perfect cover to two suspected drug smugglers: an official Vatican vehicle with diplomatic license plates. However, things didn’t exactly go according to plan.

The tale began when the personal secretary of 91-year-old Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia turned over the car to two Italian men last week for a tune up. The men allegedly did a lot more than change the spark plugs.

French daily Le Monde reported the pair, who are 30 and 41 years old, promptly drove the car to Spain and picked up four kilos of cocaine and 200 grams of cannabis and headed back to France, which is where their luck ran out.

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FRANCE
Times Live

he Vatican was left red-faced Tuesday after it emerged that a car bearing its diplomatic plates had been stopped in France with four kilogrammes of cocaine on board.

The car — which also contained 200 grammes of cannabis — belonged to 91-year-old Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mejia, emeritus librarian at the Holy See, who retired in 2003 and who is currently bedridden.

Pope Francis, a fellow Argentinian, visited Mejia, who was confined to a hospital in Rome after a heart attack, just two days after being elected.

French radio reported that the cardinal’s private secretary entrusted the vehicle to two Italian men to take it for its annual check-up.

The two men promptly drove to Spain to buy the drugs, thinking that they would be protected by the diplomatic plates, according to RTL radio — a scenario not yet confirmed by legal sources.

The pair were picked up on Sunday at a toll station near Chambery in the French Alps on their way back.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

Un contrôle routier, mené dimanche matin à Chambéry (Savoie), aurait permis aux douaniers de découvrir dans une voiture diplomatique, avec deux homme à bord, 4 kilos de cocaïne et 150 grammes de résine de cannabis, rapporte RTL.

C’est la plaque d’immatriculation du véhicule qui a permis d’établir que celui-ci appartient à la délégation en France du Vatican. Ses passagers, deux Italiens de 30 et 41 ans, se seraient présentés dans un premier temps comme de simples chauffeurs, expliquant que la drogue ne leur appartenait pas.

Les premiers éléments de l’enquête auraient permis d’identifier le propriétaire du véhicule comme étant Jorge Maria Mejia, bibliothècaire émérite du Saint-Siège et âgé de 81 ans. C’est le secrétaire particulier de ce dernier qui aurait confié quelques jours plus tôt la voiture aux deux hommes pour qu’ils en fasse la révision. Ce dont ils auraient profité pour faire un aller-retour en Espagne et y acheter la drogue, pensant échapper aux contrôles grâce à la plaque diplomatique.

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FRANCE
Midi Libre

La voiture, munie d’une plaque diplomatique, appartiendrait à un cardinal de 91 ans. Deux hommes ont été interceptés à son bord.

Une voiture diplomatique du Vatican transportant quatre kilos de cocaïne et environ 200 grammes de cannabis a été interceptée dimanche 14 septembre à un péage près de Chambéry en Savoie, a-t-on appris mardi de source judiciaire, confirmant une information de RTL. Les deux occupants de la voiture, deux Italiens âgés de 30 et 41 ans, ont été interpellés et placés en garde à vue. Celle-ci a été portée mardi à 96 heures, les deux hommes devant être déférés jeudi matin au parquet de Chambéry pour être présentés à un magistrat et une information judiciaire devant être ouverte pour trafic de stupéfiants.

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg

By Elisa Martinuzzi Sep 16, 2014

The Vatican Bank named Lazard Ltd. (LAZ)’s Italy Chairman Carlo Salvatori and Banco Santander SA’s Mauricio Larrain to the board as it completes an overhaul of lender’s governance.

The appointments add “significant financial experience and global perspective at a time when the role of IOR is being reinforced,” the bank, formally known as IOR, or Institute for the Works of Religion, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Since becoming pontiff last year, Pope Francis has replaced the Vatican Bank’s leadership and made transforming the scandal-tarnished lender one of his top priorities. The bank has closed 2,000 accounts amid allegations of money laundering.

Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the former head of Invesco Ltd.’s European business, was named IOR president in July. The new board of seven members includes former Deutsche Bank AG Chairman Clemens Boersig.

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FRANCE
The Guardian (UK)

Agence France-Presse in Lyon
theguardian.com, Tuesday 16 September 2014

A car bearing Vatican diplomatic plates was stopped in France with 4kg of cocaine and 200g of cannabis on board.

The car belongs to the 91-year-old Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mejia, emeritus librarian at the Holy See, who retired in 2003 and who is bedridden after a heart attack. Pope Francis, a fellow Argentinian, visited Mejia in hospital in Rome two days after being elected.

French radio reported that the cardinal’s private secretary entrusted the vehicle to two Italian men to take it for its annual checkup. The two men drove to Spain to buy the drugs, thinking they would be protected by the diplomatic plates, according to RTL radio – a scenario not yet confirmed by legal sources.

The pair were picked up on Sunday at a toll station near Chambéry, in the French Alps, on their way back. Neither of the men had a Vatican diplomatic passport, so the Vatican was not directly implicated, French legal sources said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The group of Cardinals called to oversee the Institute for the Works of Religion has appointed two new members to the IOR Board of Superintendence.

A Vatican statement on Tuesday said the IOR Board of Superintendence is now complete with the nominations of Mauricio Larraín and Carlo Salvatori.

The Commission, which oversees the body known as the “Vatican Bank”, was reshuffled last January.

Please find below the full text of the Vatican statement:

IOR Board of Superintendence completed with nominations of Mauricio Larraín and Carlo Salvatori.

The Cardinals’ Commission of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) has appointed Mr. Mauricio Larraín (Chile) and Mr. Carlo Salvatori (Italy) as members to the IOR Board of Superintendence.

On the occasion of the nomination Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, President of the IOR’s Supervisory Commission of Cardinals, said: “The IOR is looking forward to working with these two new board members who will add significant financial experience and global perspective at a time when the role of IOR is being reinforced and confirmed to meet the objectives of the Holy Father.”

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MAINE
Greek Reporter

AP – Authorities say a Greek Orthodox priest from Bangor is facing child pornography charges.

Police on Monday arrested 52-year-old Adam Metropoulos, a priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, on charges of violation of privacy and possession of sexually explicit material.

Bangor police say they started investigating on Saturday when a woman complained that she thought she had been photographed or video recorded without her permission or knowledge.

District Attorney Chris Almy confirmed Metropoulos is charged with possessing child pornography.

Metropoulos is being held at the Penobscot County Jail on $10,000 bail and could not be reached for comment. It could not be determined if he has a lawyer.

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Former Catholic school teacher charged with historic child sex offences – Lismore

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Police have charged a former Catholic school teacher with 19 historic sex offences against children and adult teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Officers from Richmond Local Area Command established Strike Force Golvo in April this year to investigate historic sexual abuse at a Catholic school in Lismore.

Today (Tuesday 16 September), detectives arrested an 81-year-old man at his home in Kingscliff.

The man was taken to Tweed Heads Police Station where he was been charged with nine counts of sexual assault against a child, three counts of sex assault, four counts of indecent assault, one count of detain for advantage and two counts of soliciting a male to commit an indecent act.

He has been granted conditional bail and will appear Lismore Local Court on October 20.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Leicester Mercury

A welfare helper at a Rosminian-run Catholic boarding school has been jailed for sexually abusing a pupil, in the 1980’s.

Francis Belt (72) pleaded guilty to two counts of gross indecency at Ratcliffe College, Ratcliffe on the Wreake, Leicestershire, when the boy was between 13 and 15 years.

Leicester Crown Court was told that when the matter came to light Belt was moved elsewhere as the Rosminian Order covered up the scandal.

The victim was then made to write an apology letter to his abuser.

Belt worked in a pastoral role offering support to the pupils – especially the homesick or lonely ones – as well as helping with sports, other activities and doing maintenance jobs.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

A former Catholic school teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting students more than 30 years ago.

The 81-year-old man was arrested at his home on the NSW north coast on Tuesday.

The arrest comes as police investigate historical abuse at a Catholic school in Lismore.

The former teacher allegedly assaulted students at the boarding school between 1977 and 1986.

He was charged with 19 offences, including sexual assault and detaining a person for advantage.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

The Cardinals’ Commission of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) has appointed Mr. Mauricio Larraín (Chile) and Mr. Carlo Salvatori (Italy) as members to the IOR Board of Superintendence.

On the occasion of the nomination Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, President of the IOR’s Supervisory Commission of Cardinals, said: “The IOR is looking forward to working with these two new board members who will add significant financial experience and global perspective at a time when the role of IOR is being reinforced and confirmed to meet the objectives of the Holy Father.”

With these appointments, the IOR Board of Superintendence is now complete. Besides Mauricio Larraín and Carlo Salvatori, it is composed of Mr. Jean-Baptiste de Franssu (France), President of the Board, Mr. Clemens Boersig (Germany), Prof. Mary Ann Glendon (USA) and Sir Michael Hintze (UK), who assumed office on 9 July 2014. In addition to these six lay members of the Board, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, Secretary-General of the Secretariat for the Economy, serves as its non-voting Secretary.

As set out in the Institute’s revised Statute from 1990, the IOR Board of Superintendence defines strategy and ensures oversight of operations. The members of the Board of Superintendence are nominated in accordance with the new legal framework and for a period of five years.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent September 15, 2014

ROME — The Vatican’s top official for the family says that October’s Synod of Bishops will debate altering church rules barring divorced and remarried Catholics from communion, but considers its emphasis will probably be on practical strategies for helping couples rather than changing doctrine.

Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said that with regard to divorce and remarriage, the synod is more likely to look at better marriage preparation and wider access to church courts for requesting annulments, a process that declares a marriage invalid, rather than changing the current discipline.

Paglia spoke in a September 2nd interview with Crux. He stressed that while the synod will touch on the debate over divorced and remarried Catholics, its real agenda is much broader, including a wide range of ‘profound human problems’ concerning the family.

“We’re focusing on this issue that, though extremely important, isn’t really crucial. We have to consider the children, the elderly, the sick, adoption processes, [and] the lack of intergenerational dialogue.”

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TEXAS
KDFW

[with video]

By: Dionne Anglin

A former North Texas youth pastor was arrested recently for allegedly fondling a young boy.

The 67-year-old former associate pastor, Steven Gray, is accused of fondling a “then” 11-year old boy, who was visiting him inside his trailer at a south Dallas mobile home park.

The arrest warrant affidavit says the victim, who is now 16, told his mother and a friend about what happened during at least one of the visits.

John Hall says he is that friend.

“He came out with me about four or five weeks ago during the summer and he said, ‘This is what happened: I was molested,” said Hall.

According to the affidavit, the victim says at age 11, “He started going over to [Gray’s] residence on a daily basis,” and, “On one of these visits, [Gray] asked about a cowboy hat and [Gray] said if he wanted that hat, he would have to earn it.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Sep 16, 2014 06:00 By John Scheerhout

One in four of Greater Manchester Police’s best detectives are now working on historic sex abuse cases, it has emerged.

Some 40 of the 160 officers on the force’s Major Incident Team are dealing solely with sex cases dating back to the 1960s.

They range from the high-profile probe into disgraced former MP Cyril Smith to investigations into alleged grooming gangs and abuse at care homes across Greater Manchester.

The unmasking of Jimmy Savile and other public figures as sex abusers has encouraged more and more people to come forward with complaints.

The Smith probe has so far uncovered 20 alleged victims who say they were abused between at Knowl View boys’ home in Rochdale and other places.

Some 24 others have come forward and alleged they were abused by others at Knowl View.

It has emerged an investigation into horrific abuse at the former Broome House care home in Didsbury has been re-opened after a man reported he was raped by staff in the mid-1990s. Three men have been arrested.

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