ABUSE TRACKER

FLORIDA
WGCU

The Diocese of Venice has reached a six figure settlement with a man who accused a former Fort Myers priest of sexual abuse. The agreement was reached after the accuser obtained secret documents showing the Catholic Church knew the priest was guilty of abusing him as a child.

During a press conference in front of St. Francis Xavier Church in Fort Myers Tuesday, the accuser’s attorney released documents from an investigation conducted by the Diocese of Venice over the span of four years.

The confidential investigation found Jean Ronald Joseph – a former priest at St. Francis—was guilty of violating cannon law by abusing a sixteen year old boy nearly two decades ago.

Adam Horowitz, the victim’s attorney, said his client came forward in 2008, but was only able to seek damages now because of these documents.

“We obtained these confidential church documents because one of the priests at the Diocese of Venice happened to be a friend and an associate of my client’s father—and he acted perhaps out of turn and gave my client that document,” he said. “Had he not done so, we would have never seen this document. It would have never seen the light of day. And much of the community would have believed that Father Joseph was innocent of these charges and my client was a liar.”

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.

FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014

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

A Venice Catholic official gave a clergy sex abuse victim a damning document about a predator priest, a document which has now been made public. It clearly shows that the victim told the truth and the priest told lies.

We are grateful to the church official who was brave and caring enough to provide this nine-page ruling by a church court to a man who was sexually assaulted as a child by Fr. Jean Ronald Joseph in Ft. Myers. (We don’t know the church official’s name.)

Fr. Jean Ronald Joseph was accused of molesting a boy and “sleeping with young boys multiple times.” Last year, a church panel found that Fr. Joseph “touched genital area and penis” and “did not cooperate with attempts of reformation by the diocese.”

In 2009, in a horribly mean-spirited move, after church officials disclosed he was accused of abuse, Fr. Joseph publicly released the name of his victim at a news conference and called him a liar.

Not a single Catholic official or employee in the Venice diocese – from bishop to bookkeeper – disciplined or even denounced Fr. Joseph for such a hurtful and intimidating move. Nor did a single church staffer call the police about these alleged heinous crimes. Shame on them.

What now?

Venice Bishop Frank Dewane should publicly apologize for tolerating Fr. Joseph’s cruel but shrewd media stunt in 2009. He should also personally visit each parish where Fr. Joseph worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call law enforcement. Finally, Bishop Dewane should write to his colleagues in Haiti, where Fr. Joseph allegedly lives now, and insist that they warn their flocks about this dangerous cleric.

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MALTA
Gozo News

A young priest was arraigned in the Gozo Court this afternoon charged with child molestation.

Magistrate Paul Coppini granted a request made by Carmelo Galea, the priest’s lawyer, for the hearing to be held behind closed doors.

The court also agreed to a ban of the publication of proceedings, his name, or the name of the victims. The priest, hid his face from waiting reporters as he was taken in to court.

It is understood that the alleged abuse took place over several months.

The priest was granted bail against a personal guarantee and deposit.

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.

MALTA
Times of Malta

August 19, 2014

by Steve Mallia

Editor’s Blog: Why did magistrate ban the press from priest case?

Was it correct for the presiding magistrate to ban the press after a Gozitan priest was taken to court today (Tuesday) charged with offences related to molestation?

That depends on the circumstances. If for some reason the complainant felt there was no way he or she could testify and there are objective reasons to support this – i.e., embarrassment is not enough – then there are grounds for the magistrate to entertain such a request. But even there, such a decision should only be taken in the most exceptional circumstances.

Yet in this case it appears no such request was made by the complainant. The request came from the defendant’s lawyer. This raises the bar considerably.

Innocent till proven guilty is a given, especially when delicate accusations are made against a priest. But there is a very simple option open to the magistrate to deal with such a scenario: banning publication of the name. This also serves the purpose of protecting the identity of the complainant.
However, a blanket ban on all coverage tends to defeat the object of open justice. Making court proceedings accessible to the public is not just a desirable notion; it is a fundamental principle contained within the European Convention of Human Rights and, as such, should not be dispensed with unless there is a very special reason for doing so. If such a reason is present, it should be communicated clearly so that everybody can understand it.

The magistrate did no such thing in this case. First he threw out certain members of the media for not wearing jacket and tie (a ridiculous requirement, particularly in the sweltering heat of August), and then he threw out the press altogether.

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INDIA
Business Standard

Police have arrested a priest for having allegedly raping an eight-year-old girl within the premises of a temple in Satbiri area of south Delhi on the occasion on Janmashtami.

According to the police, the incident took place last night when the girl was playing in the temple yard with a few children on the occasion of Janmashtami.

“The accused, identified as Vishvender, a 60-year-old priest took the girl to a separate room made in the temple and raped her,” said a senior police official.

The priest was later arrested from the temple after the girl narrated the incident to her parents who then approached police.

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.

FLORIDA
News-Press

Fort Myers, Florida (News-Press) — A confidential Diocese of Venice document detailing sexual abuse by a former priest at a Fort Myers church will be released Tuesday at a press conference announcing a settlement in the case.

The defrocked priest, Jean Ronald Joseph, was accused in 2009 of sexually abusing a child while he was serving at St. Francis Xavier church.

Adam Horowitz, the victim’s lawyer, and an attorney for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, will hold the press conference at the church, 2157 Cleveland Ave.

“This is a case in which the priest held a press conference to call his victim a liar,” Horowitz said this morning.

The allegations were made against Joseph in 2009 by a 31-year-old man. The events happened about 15 years previous, the victim said. The diocese made the accusations public at that time. The priest was defrocked by the diocese in 2013.

“What I’m going to release today is a confidential church document when the diocese found the priest guilty,” Horowitz said. He claims a cover-up by the diocese.

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

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Victims challenge Presbyterian officials
They sent six lawyers in convicted sex offender case
After a child porn conviction, they still hired him as pastor
He is now serving 30 years for child porn & illegal castration
Stop “cruel and intimidating” legal maneuvers, group says
They beg church officials to reach out to victims in churches & Scouts

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is criticizing a Jefferson City-based Protestant organization for bringing six lawyers to a court hearing yesterday in Fulton to defend it in an abuse case involving a convicted and incarcerated offender.

Presbyterian officials from the Missouri Union Presbytery (573-635-9221) sent six lawyers to defend a civil child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the church and Jack Wayne Rogers. Rogers is being sued by a Kansas City man who charges he was abused as a child by the former youth pastor in 2000. Rogers worked at the Presbyterian Church of Bellflower (MO).

Rogers was working at the church in 2000, 8 years after his 1992 conviction for the possession of child pornography. In 2003, Rogers pleaded guilty to additional counts of possession and distribution of child pornography and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2004, he also pleaded guilty to illegally castrating another man. He is currently incarcerated in Florida.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), are blasting Presbyterian officials and urging them to stop what the group calls “vindictive and intimidating” legal maneuvers.

“The judge heard three uncontested simple motions, so church officials knew the hearing was neither complex nor contentious,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Executive Director. “Still, Presbyterian officials brought in the big guns from Missouri’s largest law firm in what we suspect was an effort to intimidate the victim. If that’s their goal, we’re confident they’ll fail.”

News reports say that Rogers was a Boy Scout leader.

SNAP wants church officials to:

— disclose how much they are spending to defend themselves in the Rogers case,
— reach out to all congregations that may have welcomed or hired Rogers, and
— make a public plea to local Boy Scout organization to reach out to other potential victims.

“There is no good, moral, or legal reason for this kind of legal overkill,” said Barb Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director. “The only reason to send that many lawyers into a courtroom is to intimidate the victim and help continue cover-ups.”

The victim in this case, Rev. Kristopher D. Schondelmeyer, is a now a Presbyterian minister living in Ohio. His goal in filing the lawsuit is to encourage other victims to come forward and get healing.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Daniel Mizzi 19 August 2014

A priest in his 40s was today arraigned in court in Gozo to face charges of child molestation. He was released on bail against “a hefty” personal guarantee and deposit.

It is understood that the victims were all girls.

The priest was seen leaving the courtroom with his lawyer, getting into a Toyota Yaris and speeding off to avoid journalists and members of the media. The court’s decision to ban the publication of the name also restricts media houses from showing his face in photographs.

“Some witnesses, who are still young, are afraid to testify,” sources told this newspaper.

Magistrate Paul Coppini upheld a request by the priest’s defence lawyer, Carmelo Galea, for the case to be heard behind closed doors. The request was upheld almost immediately by the court.
However, it is thought the magistrate put the sitting forward by 24 hours after arguing that the prosecution had enough evidence to proceed. So far there is no ban on the publication of details, which is normally reserved for cases involving minors who are related to the accused.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein | GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 19, 2014

As you know, a big-budget Hollywood movie about The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series on the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal is in the works, and we managed to get our hands on a draft of the script, dated June 2013.

Co-written by Josh Singer, whose name might be familiar to fans of “The West Wing,” and Tom McCarthy, who’s also directing the movie, “Spotlight” tells the story of how a team of Boston Globe reporters and editors discovered and, despite concerns about a possible backlash among the newspaper’s advertisers and Catholic subscribers, chronicled the Archdiocese of Boston’s practice of covering up the crimes of problematic priests.

Even at 131 pages, the script moves briskly, starting with the Eileen McNamara column about pedophile priest John Geoghan that originally piqued the interest of then-Globe editor Marty Baron. To be played in the movie by Liev Schreiber, Baron comes across as fearless, heroic, and mostly humorless. Much is made of his outsider status — “So the new editor of the Globe is an unmarried man of the Jewish faith who hates baseball?” — the clear implication being that if not for Baron’s willingness to pursue the story, the issue of priest sex abuse may not have been so fully investigated.

The other stars of this story, at least according to the screenplay we read, are editor Walter V. Robinson, described as a “Boston everyman,” reporters Michael Rezendes (“good looks, bad haircut”) and Sacha Pfeiffer (“wholesome”), and Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer who represented several of the victims. (He’s described in the script as “abrasive, to say the least.”) In the movie, Michael Keaton will play Robinson, while Mark Ruffalo will play Rezendes, Rachel McAdams is in discussions to play Pfeiffer, and Stanley Tucci will play Garabedian.

Because every good movie about investigative journalists has to have a scene in a parking garage, the script includes a scene in a parking garage. There are also scenes at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a “crappy” East Boston diner, Faneuil Hall, Ringgold Park in the South End, a courtroom, and, of course, the offices of the Globe.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

Fri, Aug 15, 2014

Childhood sexual abuse has a profound long-term economic impact on survivors, according to a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

Even decades after the abuse occurred, survivors are more than twice as likely as others to be out of the labour force as a result of being sick or permanently disabled, the research has established.

When account is taken of the psychological difficulties that abuse is already known to cause, male survivors are three times more likely to be sick or disabled than other men.

For women, the impact of child sexual abuse on involvement in the labour force in later life is much smaller and not statistically significant, the study finds. This may arise because the older women who were surveyed were more likely than their male peers to have been “in and out” of the workforce during their adult lives, according to co-author Prof Alan Barrett, head of the economic analysis division of ESRI.

Research has shown the links between abuse and psychological disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. However, the ESRI research is one of the first to examine the economic effect on people who suffered sexual abuse in their childhood years.

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UNITED STATES
The Catholic Eye

Posted by David H Lukenbill

SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, is a wonderful organization that keeps the pressure on the Church to deal with sexual abuse within its priestly ranks effectively.

I have been following them for several years, and they are an organization to keep in touch with for the absolutely amazing work they do.

Many critics claim they are anti-Catholic, but, from what I’ve seen, they area anti-sexual abuse by priests and pro-children.

Here is an excerpt about how they were formed.

An excerpt.

SNAP all began with one person. Barbara Blaine founded SNAP in 1988 after years of pain, depression and shame. She was abused as an 8th grade child by a Toledo, Ohio priest who taught in the catholic school she attended. Years later, her pleas for help from Toledo’s bishop fell on deaf ears. Barbara realized that survivors of clergy abuse could help each other and, by mid 1988, she had built a network of about two dozen victims. By early 1989 several survivors had struck up friendships, held regular telephone conversations and exchanged letters. In 1991, the very first SNAP Meeting was held at the Holiday Inn, Chicago.

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FLORIDA
News-Press

At a news conference this afternoon, Adam Horowitz, an attorney for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, will announce a pre-litigation settlement of a child sexual abuse and cover-up claim against the Diocese of Venice involving the Rev. Jean Ronald Joseph.

The allegations relate to Joseph’s abuse of a teenage boy while assigned to St. Francis Xavier parish in Fort Myers, according to a news release from Horowitz.

In 2009, allegations against Joseph by a 31-year-old man were made public by the Diocese of Venice. Joseph denied the abuse, which was alleged to have happened at St. Francis Xavier about 15 years ago.

Horowitz said he will release the new church document, which outlines the internal church investigation and judicial proceedings against Joseph that led to his removal as a priest last year.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

19 August, 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will be holding private sessions in Launceston from 26 – 29 August 2014.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said all people affected by child sexual abuse while in the care of an Australian institution have the opportunity to tell the Royal Commission of their experiences in a private session.

“Over the course of this week 18 survivors of child sexual abuse in Tasmania will have the opportunity to tell the Royal Commission of their experiences, in a private session with a Commissioner.

“The Royal Commission has already held more than 2,200 private sessions in cities and town across Australia and this is the first time the Royal Commission has held private sessions in Launceston.

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.

MALTA
Times of Malta

[with video]

Young priest hides face as he is arraigned over alleged child abuse, bail granted after sitting behind closed doors

A young priest was granted bail this afternoon after being arraigned before a magistrate in Gozo to face charges of child molestation.

The priest, believed to be in his thirties, covered his face as he was taken to court.

No details of the case were given, but the alleged abuses are understood to have taken place over a number of months and involved several children.

The sitting was held held behind closed doors following a request by lawyer Carmelo Galea. Reporters were ordered out of the courtroom. The court also banned publication of the priest’s name.

Following the granting of bail, the priest left the courtroom accompanied by his lawyer.

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FLORIDA
10 News

Fort Myers News-Press, news source August 19, 2014

Fort Myers, Florida (News-Press) — An attorney for survivors of clergy sexual abuse is planning to announce a pre-litigation settlement of a child sexual abuse and cover-up claim against the Diocese of Venice involving the Rev. Jean Ronald Joseph.

The allegations relate to Joseph’s abuse of a teenage boy while assigned to St. Francis Xavier parish in Fort Myers, according to a news release from attorney Adam Horowitz.

In 2009, allegations against Joseph by a 31-year-old man were made public by the Diocese of Venice. Joseph denied the abuse, which was alleged to have happened at St. Francis Xavier about 15 years ago.

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.

MALTA
Malta Independent

A young priest was charged with child molestation in Gozo this afternoon, but no details of the case are forthcoming as a total ban has been imposed by the court.

The case was heard behind closed doors on the request of the priest’s lawyer Carmelo Borg. Journalists present for the sitting were ordered to leave.

The priest, in plain clothes, hid his face as he was escorted up the steps leading to the Gozo courts. His attitude changed after the court sitting, as he walked down the steps without covering his face in spite of the clicking or rolling cameras, having been given protection by the magistrate.

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IRELAND
Dundalk Democrat

Dundalk man Brendan Boland, who has just published a book on his experience of abuse by the serial paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth, has said he is disappointed with the Cardinal’s letter of resignation to the Pope.

“It’s a long time coming,” he said. “He should have done it back in 2010. Maybe he should not have taken the job at all in 1994 when he found out Smyth was arrested in Northern Ireland”.

The cardinal, who was 75 on Saturday, has submitted his resignation to the Vatican.

This is required of all Catholic bishops when they reach that age.

He will remain a cardinal for life and may continue to vote in papal elections until 2019, when he will be 80.

Interviewed on RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme on Sunday, Mr Boland said he and Smyth’s other victims were “really disappointed. Cardinal Brady is resigning. It appears to us that he’s just retiring naturally as if he’s done nothing wrong. I feel let down again. They’re attempting to save face again”.

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Sydney Morning Herald

Onboard the Papal plane: The Pope has publicly broached the prospect of his own death for the first time, giving himself “two or three years” but not ruling out retirement before then.

Talking to reporters on a flight back to the Vatican from South Korea, the 77-year-old pontiff, who seemed in good spirits, was asked about his global popularity, which was evident again during his five-day visit.

“I see it as the generosity of the people of God. I try to think of my sins, my mistakes, not to become proud. Because I know it will last only a short time. Two or three years and then I’ll be off to the Father’s House,” he replied light-heartedly.

The Argentine Pope said he could handle the popularity “more naturally” these days, though at first it had “scared me a little”.

While the Pope has not spoken publicly before about when he might meet his maker, a Vatican source said he had previously told those close to him that he thought he only had a few years left.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 19, 2014

Jane Lee, Cameron Houston

The Catholic Church’s independent investigator into allegations of clerical abuse has been asked at the sex abuse royal commission whether he reported abuse to police and if he obstructed certain victims’ attempts to take legal action against the church.

Independent Commissioner Peter O’Callaghan, QC, was also questioned over his involvement in decisions on how much counselling the church should fund and his frequent communication with lawyers for the Archdiocese of Melbourne, which could have compromised his independence.

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, SC, repeatedly asked Mr O’Callaghan why it was his role to advise Carelink, the Melbourne Response’s counselling arm, if and when victims were given treatment.

Mr O’Callaghan replied that he was responding to a request, and that his position “doesn’t preclude me from other roles in the organisation”. He insisted he had acted independently at all times.

A barrister since 1961, he was appointed the Independent Commissioner of the church’s Melbourne Response – its internal process for handling abuse allegations – initially for a six-month term in 1996. Since 1996 the church has paid him more than $7 million.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

BY ANGUS LIVINGSTON AAP AUGUST 19, 2014

AFTER 18 years investigating pedophiles in the Catholic Church, Peter O’Callaghan QC is sure of one thing: people don’t make up stories about sexual abuse.

HE was appointed in 1996 to investigate sexual abuse in the Melbourne archdiocese and thought the claims would flood in over the first six months.

They never stopped coming.

Almost two decades later he is still getting calls from victims, including one during a break in a royal commission hearing on Monday.

As the independent commissioner of the church’s Melbourne Response to clergy sex abuse, Mr O’Callaghan has identified 81 offenders and upheld 326 claims of abuse since October 1996, with just nine claims unsubstantiated.

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Inquisitr

Pope Francis made a shocking revelation on Monday, as reported by Newsmax, claiming that he only has “two or three years” to live.

The 77-year-old Pontiff apparently shared the shocking news with reporters during his flight back from South Korea and seemed to be in good spirits about the whole thing. When he was asked about the global popularity he enjoys he responded:

I see it as the generosity of the people of God. I try to think of my sins, my mistakes, not to become proud. Because I know it will last only a short time. Two or three years and then I’ll be off to the Father’s House.

The Pope added that he was able to handle the popularity “more naturally” these days even though it was tough at first.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam – Archbishop Anthony Apuron responds to a letter written by five Catholic priests calling on him to clarify statements he made in a July 29th press release regarding his reasons for the removal of Monsignor James Benavente.

According to Father Adrian Cristobal Archbishop Anthony Apuron had and still has every intention of meeting with Fathers Tom McGrath, Jeff San Nicolas, Mike Crisostomo, Patrick Castro and Gus Gumataotao. The five priests as we reported wrote a letter to the archbishop dated August 4th. They were seeking clarification on his statement in his July 29th press release explaining his decision to remove Monsignor James Benavente from his positions as rector of the Archdiocese of Agana and director of the Catholic Cemeteries. The basis for his removal? Allegations of financial mismanagement. In the statement the archbishop wrote, “I informed the Presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors and the Archdiocesan Finance Council about this situation and they expressed their support.”

The five priests are part of that Presbyteral Council and in their letter to the archbishop said they disagree with his statement and it’s connection with his decision to remove Monsignor James. As we reported they referred to a meeting they had with the archbishop on July 25th during which he presented the financial situation of the Archdiocese of Agana. The priests state the archbishop made no mention of his intent to remove Monsignor James and that they were not consulted on the matter. They also stated they had no opportunity to discuss or raise objection to his removal and that at no point during these proceedings was a vote or question on the matter placed on the table for discussion to come to the conclusion of our “expressed support of your decision to remove him”.

According to Father Cristobal however, he tells KUAM today that the archbishop explained in detail the serious situation that the archdiocese found itself to the Presybteral Council during that july 25th meeting and he told the council clearly that he was going to take action.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A priest is to be arraigned in court in Gozo today to face charges of child molestation.

The alleged abuses took place over a series of months.

This will be the first arraignment since two former priests were imprisoned in November 2012 after they lost their appeal against abuse convictions.

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CALIFORNIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno

To: All Media Contacts
From: Teresa Dominguez, Chancellor
Date: August 18, 2014
Re: Investigation of Diocesan Priest in Progress

On Thursday, August 14, 2014, the Victim Assistant Coordinator for the Diocese of Fresno received a call from a concerned parent. Arrangements were made to meet with the parents and their youth that evening to receive a detailed account of the events and observations that motivated the family to make contact with the Diocesan officials. Immediately following the interview, mandated reporting procedures were engaged and the report was received by the Los Banos Police Department.

On Friday, August 15, 2014, an investigation by law enforcement was initiated and the priest, Rev. Robert E. Gamel, Pastor of St. Joseph Church in Los Banos, was placed on administrative leave. Rev. Joe Baca has been appointed Administrator Pro Tem for an indefinite amount of time.

The Diocese of Fresno is cooperating with the investigators while following diocesan safe environment policies and procedures which take into consideration the wellbeing of all parties involved. Since an investigation is in progress, the Diocese is unable to comment on any details regarding this case.

Anyone with information that may be relevant to this investigation is asked to contact Sergeant Ivan Mendez at (209) 827-7070 Ext. 114. The Diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator, Cheryl Sarkisian, may be contacted at (559) 493-2882.

Most Rev. Armando X. Ochoa, Bishop of the Diocese of Fresno, calls upon the faithful to hold this issue in prayer out of concern for all involved.

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CALIFORNIA
Fresno Bee

BY ROB PARSONS
Merced Sun-Star
August 18, 2014

A 64-year-old Catholic priest in Los Banos is under investigation for alleged “Internet related sex crimes” involving at least one teenager, the Los Banos Police Department announced Monday.

The Rev. Robert E. Gamel was placed on administrative leave Thursday pending further investigation, according to a statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese in Fresno. Gamel, 64, has been a priest at St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish since 2009, according to media archives.

Catholic officials in Fresno confirmed Gamel is under investigation in the statement released late Monday. Gamel could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

No arrests have been made and no criminal charges have been filed, Los Banos Police Cmdr. Jason Hedden said.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

As if any further proof were needed of how the anti-Catholic group SNAP manipulates the media and lies to the public about the Church’s handling of sex abuse cases, consider this recent ominous media statement from David Clohessy, the group’s National Director:

“A new child sex abuse lawsuit has been filed against Fr. William Authenrieth who is apparently still alive and living in Massachusetts.

“We urge [a Florida bishop] to urge his colleagues in Massachusetts to warn the public and their parishioners about Fr. Authenrieth …”

But wait …

There is no “Fr. William Authenrieth.” Authenrieth was indeed once a priest, but as a few seconds of research clearly show, the Church laicized him some three decades ago, in 1985.

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UNITED STATES
Emes Ve-Emunah

Guest Post by Rabbi Yosef Blau

One of the strongest advocates for victims of sex abuse is Rabbi Yosef Blau, Mashgiach Ruchani of Yeshivas Rabbenu Yitzchok Elchanan (YU). I received the following a submission of a short post generated by the scandal in the seminaries owned and operated by sex abuser Elimelech Meisels. I am honored to do so. It follows:

Sexual abuse is criminal behavior and the police should be contacted. This does not imply that there is no role for the rabbinate and the community leaders in confronting abuse. In many cases the victims are unwilling to cooperate with the police often because of community pressures. Even when they do there is a need to remove an accused offender from a position where he is a potential danger before the slow process of a police investigation and prosecution is completed.

The recent case of the head of a seminary in Israel accused of sexual misconduct with students is an example of the need for rabbinic action. While according to Israeli law the behavior is illegal it is unlikely that American students, who have returned home and know little Hebrew, will go to the Israeli police. Only pressure from an external דין בית will cause the offender to resign his position.

Since he created the school and chose its staff a thorough investigation of the circumstances is necessary to determine if others were negligent and guilty of enabling the abuse or covering it up. This would require speaking first to all the students who were abused or witnessed any questionable behavior and to ascertain if they informed anyone on staff of their concerns.

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

Victims may be turned away from the child abuse royal commission from next month, with the government yet to make a decision on an extension.

The commission has requested its 2015 deadline be extended by two years, along with an additional $104 million, but is yet to be told the outcome.

Without the extension, the commission says 3000 victims won’t be heard.

Commission chairman Peter McClellan told a closed community meeting in Victoria the uncertainty meant victims may be turned away from September, News Corp Australia reports.

More than 2200 abuse victims have had private sessions with the commission, with another 1800 scheduled before the end of the year.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 19, 2014

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

THE QC leading the Melbourne archdiocese’s response to victims of clergy sex abuse has rejected claims his title of “independent commissioner” conceals the church’s proximity to his role.

Peter O’Callaghan QC has today given evidence at the royal commission hearing examining the archdiocese’s Melbourne Response process.

Mr O’Callaghan, who has been independent commissioner since the Melbourne Response began in 1996, told the commission he “absolutely”

believes he is independent from the archdiocese, though he is funded by it and uses the same instructing solicitors.

“I believe I have been independent in all respects,” he said.

“So far as I’m concerned, I make the decisions without fear or favour and without any influence from other persons.”

Victims who wish to seek compensation from the archdiocese under the Melbourne Response, established by then Archbishop George Pell, are required to meet with Mr O’Callaghan so he can investigate whether their claims meet the balance of probabilities.

They are then referred to a panel which decides the appropriate level of compensation, capped at $75,000, and advises the archdiocese of any punitive action it should take against the offender.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Melissa Davey
theguardian.com, Tuesday 19 August 2014

The barrister appointed by Cardinal George Pell in 1996 to investigate hundreds of child sexual abuse claims involving the Catholic church in Melbourne thought all claims would be investigated within six months, the royal commission has heard.

More than 18 years later, Peter O’Callaghan QC is still working on the investigation as victims continue to come forward.

His role in Melbourne Response – the operation set up by the church to investigate the claims – included interviewing victims in his legal chambers in the city and making recommendations to the church as to whether they should be compensated, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse heard on Tuesday.

On Monday, two witnesses told the hearing at Victoria county court in Melbourne how they felt discouraged by O’Callaghan from reporting their abuse to the authorities. They also spoke of feeling overwhelmed by O’Callaghan’s chambers, where most interviews were, and still are, carried out.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Melissa Davey
theguardian.com, Tuesday 19 August 2014

The lawyer in charge of investigating child sex abuse claims on behalf of the Catholic archdiocese in Melbourne told victims that if they went to the police, his investigation process would end.

Peter O’Callaghan QC told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Tuesday that he believed once police became involved, he would be in contempt of court if he continued the church investigation.

The two-week hearing in Melbourne is scrutinising church’s scheme for handling abuse cases, known as the Melbourne Response, established by Cardinal George Pell in 1996.

A witness identified only as AFA told the commission on Monday that during his meeting with O’Callaghan, he was told he would be eligible for compensation from the church of up to $75,000, but this process would be postponed if he went to police.

O’Callaghan said this was standard procedure.

“…if the police are in charge of a matter then I take no further steps because to do so would be conducting a concurrent investigation with the police which would be inappropriate,” he told the Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response commissioner expected complaints process to take six months

August 19, 2014

Jane Lee and Cameron Houston

The man who determined whether the Catholic Church should compensate Melbourne clergy abuse victims for almost 20 years thought it would only take six months to handle all their complaints.

Peter O’Callaghan, QC, was appointed the Independent Commissioner of the church’s Melbourne Response – its internal process for handling abuse victims’ complaints – for a six-month term in 1996.

Mr O’Callaghan, who appeared at the Royal Commission in Melbourne on Tuesday, said he told the church’s solicitors and Archbishop Hart that he was optimistic the investigations could be concluded in a short time-frame.

“I was all for expediency if I could achieve it,” he said.

After almost two decades and over 351 complaints, Mr O’Callaghan, QC, conceded his initial estimate was “utopian”.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By BOB O’TOOLE Aug. 18, 2014

HUNTER Catholic priests Monsignor Allan Hart and Father William Burston should be removed from their positions as parish priests immediately, and asked to retire or resign from active ministry.

The Clergy Abused Network (CAN), which is a voluntary group of survivors of sexual abuse in a religious context, does not seek to completely end their ministry. They should be free to perform relief liturgical celebrations in the diocese as required.

But the findings of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry in May this year make anything less than their removal as parish priests unacceptable.

The commission investigated, among other things, Catholic Church knowledge of child sex allegations involving the late Hunter priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, found that Monsignor Hart was “an unsatisfactory and unimpressive witness”.

The behaviour of Monsignor Hart was an embarrassment to those present at the inquiry.

He contradicted himself. He attempted to distance himself from the issues by claiming he had passed information to his superiors and by doing so had abrogated himself from any further responsibility.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 19, 2014

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A victims’ advocacy group is criticizing the Diocese of Pittsburgh for not alerting the public 11 years ago when it learned that a Boston priest had been accused of committing sexual abuse here in the early 1960s.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh is defending its actions, saying it had no direct information about the allegation when it learned of it in 2003.

The Rev. John P. Carroll, who is supervised by the Archdiocese of Boston, faces a church trial there that could lead to his removal from the priesthood over an allegation that he sexually abused an altar boy at St. Michael Church in Elizabeth in 1962 or 1963. Father Carroll, now 86, is currently restricted from ministry.

Bishop David Zubik sent letters over the weekend to be read at parishes where Father Carroll had served between 1962 and 1972, asking any potential victims to come forward, after the Boston archdiocese notified him this month of the trial. Father Carroll also served at St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama, St. Margaret in Green Tree, St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Alphonsus in Springdale and St. Denis in Versailles (now St. Patrick in McKeesport).

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

BY ANGUS LIVINGSTON
August 19, 2014

The man in charge of investigating pedophile priests in Melbourne told one victim to sue the Catholic Church.

The priest had been moved to the victim’s parish after allegations of abuse elsewhere were reported to the church.

Melbourne Response independent commissioner Peter O’Callaghan QC told the child abuse royal commission he believed the man had a case for compensation through the courts.

“I said to him, `Look, I know that you should get independent legal advice because there may be an action open to you’,” Mr O’Callaghan told the commission on Tuesday.

“I thought he would have much more success, and I think he did.

“I don’t recall the details of it, but typically of course if you can mount a case at common law you will recover much more than the ex-gratia compensation.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Helen Vines
Updated 19 Aug 2014

The head of the Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse allegations encouraged victims to go to the police, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Peter O’Callaghan, QC, has been the independent commissioner for the abuse complaint handling process, known as the Melbourne Response, since it was set up in 1996 by then Melbourne Archbishop George Pell.

Mr O’Callaghan has come in for criticism during the current proceedings, with two witnesses telling the commission he discouraged them from taking their claims to the police.

Giving evidence to the commission, Mr O’Callaghan said he encouraged victims to go to the police, and some followed his advice, while others did not.

He agreed with counsel assisting Gail Furness SC that if police were investigating a complaint, his own investigation stopped because “it would be a concurrent investigation and quite inappropriate”.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Catholic priests encouraged victims of abuse to go the police, the church tells the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN AUGUST 19, 2014

VICTIMS of sexual abuse by Catholic priests were repeatedly encouraged to make formal complaints to police, but rarely did, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Melbourne Response independent commissioner Peter O’Callaghan QC told the commission today many victims didn’t want to name offenders to police.

Mr O’Callaghan told the hearing he didn’t pass matters to police because victims didn’t ask him to and he didn’t want to breach their confidentiality.

Just 119 of the 326 upheld complaints have been dealt with by police since the Melbourne Response, the church’s internal compensation panel, was started in 1996.

Mr O’Callaghan is being grilled as part of the commission’s examination of the Melbourne Response scheme.

It has been widely slammed by victims and was last year heavily criticised during Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into abuse by religious and other organisations.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

By: Blair Miller, KOB.com

An Albuquerque law office filed four new lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe alleging priests raped several boys in the 1990s and before in the latest string of legal filings against the church.

The lawsuits come just three months after similar lawsuits were filed against the Archdiocese.

Four male victims, who range from age 31 to 58 now, allege they were abused as children by four different priests, including Fr. Perrault, Fr. Jason Sigler and Fr. Tony Gallegos in northeastern New Mexico.

The lawsuits say the victims have suffered from delayed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of the abuse.

The lawsuits also say priests were hired by the Archdiocese directly out of the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, where priests were sent from around the country for psychosexual disorder treatment.

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NEW YORK
WIVB

[with video]

HARTLAND, N.Y. (WIVB) – A pastor from Orleans County accused of sexually abusing children will go to trial in January.

Rev. Roy Harriger is charged with three counts of coercive criminal sexual conduct against a child, one count of first degree incest, two counts of incest and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. A judge set a trial date of January 20 when Harriger was in court Monday for pre-trial motions.

At least 15 people in three states have signed affidavits claiming 70-year-old Harriger molested them as children. But many of those cases are past the statute of limitations.

However, a grand jury has found enough evidence to indict Harriger on charges relating to three children. News 4 has learned that Harriger is accused of molesting a boy and a girl about 12 years ago when he was pastor of the Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville.

The case first came to light last Thanksgiving, when Harriger was arrested by State Police. His own son, George Harriger, told News 4 he was molested as a boy but never realized there were others.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Melissa Davey
theguardian.com, Monday 18 August 2014

After coming under fire from three witnesses at the 16th public hearing of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, the independent commissioner appointed by the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese to investigate sex abuse claims, Peter O’Callaghan QC, will face the court on Tuesday morning.

He did not appear on day one of the public hearing on Monday after more than two hours of power outages delayed the proceedings.

The court had heard how two men – Father Kevin O’Donnell and Michael Glennon – were responsible for 73 of the 326 sexual abuse complaints upheld by the Melbourne archdiocese.

They were investigated as part of the church’s Melbourne Response scheme established by Cardinal George Pell. That scheme will be the subject of the hearing over the next fortnight, which will hear from many of the victims interviewed by O’Callaghan as part of church investigations.

A witness identified only as AFA told the court how he was sexually abused by Glennon on three separate dates, starting from when he was 15. His case would later be investigated under O’Callaghan.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 19, 2014

Andrew Thomson

A teacher who split from his wife and started a sexual relationship with a teenage student faces jail.

The 48-year-old teacher, a father of five who had admitted his offending to police, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court to nine charges involving the girl, who was 15 and 16 years old at the time.

The victim’s mother said in a victim impact statement her life and relationship with her daughter would never be the same again, the Warrnambool Standard reports.

She said her faith and trust in people of authority had been absolutely shattered and she never suspected such evil from a teacher. …

The teacher, who the court heard had also been a victim of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, said the girl was very persuasive and he couldn’t resist her.

The offences were committed at Warrnambool, Port Fairy and other smaller towns in the district.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 18, 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 Cleveland Catholic priest is challenging an Ohio law that requires HIV positive adults to disclose their condition to sexual partners.

It seems that no group of sex offenders try harder to overturn sex-related laws more than Catholic priests. We’ve seen accused Catholic clerics challenge indecent exposure, sex offender registry, statutes of limitations and other similar laws. (Next month, for instance, Catholic officials in Hartford Connecticut are seeking to overturn a good statute of limitations law there and replace it with a more predator-friendly one.)

In dozens of cases, we’ve urged Catholic bishops to disclose whether or not they’re paying for lawyers for alleged sex offender priests. Almost always, bishops ignore our requests, even though they have pledged, for at least a dozen years, to be “open” about clergy sex cases.

According to the Plain Dealer, “Fr. James McGonegal is charged with soliciting sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park last October.” We hope Catholic officials are keeping him in treatment, and hope they’ll send him to a credible, independent center for men with sexual difficulties, run by experienced professionals, instead of a discredited church facility run by Catholic clerics.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Stockman | Aug. 18, 2014

Leaders of the largest organization representing women religious in the United States issued a statement Monday that they will continue the dialogue with church officials demanding reform, but they will also protect the integrity of their group.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is made up of leaders from religious communities across the nation and represents about 80 percent of the women religious in the U.S. The group held its annual four-day assembly in Nashville, Tenn., last week, where much of the conversation was about the ongoing doctrinal assessment and demands for reform by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Following the assembly, which ended Friday, the LCWR national board held a three-day meeting and on Monday afternoon issued a statement on its work with Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain to implement the mandated reforms. The doctrinal congregation appointed Sartain to oversee the reform efforts.

“Our study, discernment, and prayer led us to reaffirm our strong belief that ongoing conversation with church leadership is key to building effective working relationships that enable both women religious and church leaders to serve the world,” the board said in the statement. “It is our deepest hope to resolve the situation between LCWR and CDF in a way that fully honors our commitment to fulfill the LCWR mission as well as protect the integrity of the organization.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pottstown Mercury

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh’s bishop has notified parishioners that a retired priest now living in Boston has been accused of molesting a child at a western Pennsylvania parish where he served in 1962 and 1963.

Bishop David Zubik also urged anyone who attended St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth — or five other Pittsburgh-area parishes through 1972 — of the allegations.

The Boston Archdiocese says the Rev. John Carroll lives in a home for retired priests in the Boston area.

The priest also served at St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama, St. Margaret in Green Tree, St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Alphonsus in Springdale, and St. Denis in Versailles, which is now part of St. Patrick parish in McKeesport, all in the Pittsburgh diocese.

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OHIO
The Plain Dealer

By James F. McCarty, The Plain Dealer
on August 18, 2014

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The soliciting case against a Cleveland priest was thrown into doubt this morning after a judge questioned the constitutionality of the law governing the crime he was charged with.

The Rev. James McGonegal, 69, the former pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, is charged with soliciting sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park last October.

The charge is a felony because McGonegal is HIV positive, but failed to divulge this to his intended partner.

McGonegal’s scheduled trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court today was postponed after defense attorney Henry Hilow asked the judge to consider his argument that the Ohio statute used to charge his client is outdated, and the case should be dismissed.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, August 18, 2014

For more info: Judy Jones (636) 433-2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com, David Clohessy of St. Louis (314) 566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com

Therapist hired by diocese loses license
He counseled several clergy sex abuse victims
And he was used to evaluate prospective clerics
Board found “{he} acted inappropriately with a client”
SNAP says his recommendations are now “questionable”
Group wants bishop to let victims choose their own therapist

A psychologist who worked for the Youngstown diocese in two roles has lost his license for having an inappropriate and non-professional relationship with an adult client.

Psychologist D. Terence Heltzel, in a four page “consent agreement” with the State Board of Psychology, admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with one of his female clients.

According to the consent decree “The Board received a complaint from an adult female alleging that Dr. Heltzel acted inappropriately towards her during her during her final therapy session.”

“The Board and Dr. Heltzel agree that (he) established a professional psychological psychotherapy relationship with (this client) when (she) sought help following the deaths of two family members (and) entered into a non-professional relationship with (her),” the decree says.

“This psychologist dealt with possible victims and possible predators but is guilty of misconduct himself,” said David Clohessy, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Now, already wounded victims have been hurt again because of the very poor choice by Youngstown Catholic officials to hire Heltzel.”

“We suspect that Heltzel has tested and evaluated dozens of prospective Youngstown area priests, seminarians and deacons and maybe lay employees over years and years,” said Judy Jones of SNAP. “Now his judgments about those church staff – and their suitability for employment – are in serious doubt.”

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 15, 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 )

Members of a Ft. Worth area church cheered as a minister made callous and intimidating comments in a child sex case involving a twice-accused colleague.

Shame on them.

Congregants of Cowboy Way Church cheered and applauded as visiting Pastor Randy Free told them “Our beloved pastor finds himself in the greatest spiritual battle of his life…However there is a silver lining behind this storm cloud … That is that Dan’s God and our God has never lost a battle. And he’s not about to lose this one.”

Shame on Free and everyone who clapped at these insensitive, chilling words. Such hurtful remarks make victims, witnesses and whistleblowers feel frightened and discouraged about reporting known and suspected child sex crimes.

As adults, we face a simple choice. We can make it easier or harder for crime victims to step forward, expose wrongdoers, help police, protect kids and start healing. Members and staff at Cowboy Way Church are making it harder, on teenagers and adults who have been sexually assaulted. And they’re rubbing salt into the already-deep wounds of many crime victims.

It’s very hard for those with information about child sex crimes to speak up. But unless they do, more child molesters hurt more kids. Those at Cowboy Way Church are ignoring this sad reality.

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OHIO
Courthouse News Service

By JEFF D. GORMAN

(CN) – An Ohio church that failed to report an abusive priest owes damages to the teenager he victimized at his next parish, a state appeals court ruled.

Jessica Simpkins said she was 15 when Brian Williams, the senior pastor at Sunbury Grace Brethren Church, raped her in March 2008. Williams was sent to prison for eight years for two counts of sexual battery.

Before Williams was Sunbury’s pastor, he was the youth pastor at Grace Brethren Church in Delaware, Ohio.

After settling her lawsuit against Sunbury for $90,000, Simpkins sued Delaware Grace and Pastor Darrell Anderson for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, infliction of emotional distress and failing to report child abuse.

Simpkins alleged that in the early 1990s, Delaware Grace had learned that Williams had inappropriate sexual contact with a minor female but failed to take action.

Delaware Grace had also allegedly learned in 2001 that Williams had inappropriately touched a woman that he was counseling.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Every institution has its own politics, and the Maltese Church falls squarely in that state of fact. Last week, a former parish priest vented his frustration at being asked to resign his post because the Church was being held to ransom by some parishioners and feast organisers. All too often it takes an incident such as this to point out the elephant in the room. Fr Emanuel Camilleri, who was at Mgarr parish, blurted out that the Church was in a leadership crisis.

Initially, many were flummoxed, it was a bolt out of the blue. But when this newspaper tried to speak to the Curia to get a reaction the next day, we were told that there was no comment to be made. That same day, we were given a full length rebuttal by one of the parish committees that organise the feast there. We were told that the letter was given the ok by the Church.

Still, all seemed to peter out. But yesterday, Fr Camilleri’s beliefs were echoed word for word by the respected Fr Joe Borg in his column in The Times. Fr Borg also calls the issue the “elephant in the room”. He clearly states his doubts about whether the current leadership is up for the job. But before that, he tackles the issue of the Church being out of touch and getting its priorities wrong.

And this is where the main problem lies. Pope Francis has clearly rejuvenated the Catholic faith on a global level. You could also say that his actions – however small – have gone towards restoring people’s faith in humanity.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Bill Zlatos
Monday, Aug. 18, 2014

An expired statute of limitations will keep the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office from pursuing an allegation of sexual abuse involving a priest and a minor, authorities said Monday.

The district attorney, through a spokesman, endorsed the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s handling of such cases, even though the diocese did not act on this allegation for nearly 11 years.

The diocese said it learned of the allegation against the Rev. John P. Carroll on Dec. 9, 2003, from the archdiocese in Boston. The allegation dates to when Carroll was parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth from 1962 to 1963. He was in the diocese until 1972.

Church officials in Boston informed the Pittsburgh diocese on Aug. 5 that it had begun steps to dismiss him from the priesthood.

“If we are talking about something that is alleged to have taken place in 1962, or in the 10 years after, until this individual was no longer associated with the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the statute of limitations would still prevent us from taking any action on the allegation,” said Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

A Kansas City judge upheld a $1.1 million award to 42 clergy sex abuse victims in an unprecedented “breach of contract” case against Bishop Robert Finn, who hails from our town. The suit charged Finn violated a 2008 settlement which included non-economic abuse prevention commitments. The only other case in the U.S. is a pending one against the Jesuits over the alleged abuse of a student by Fr. Daniel C. O’Connell, a former St. Louis University president. .

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Mon, Aug 18, 2014

Abuse victim Brendan Boland (53) has expressed disappointment at the manner of Cardinal Brady’s retirement as Archbishop of Armagh and Catholic Primate of All-Ireland.

The cardinal, who was 75 on Saturday, has submitted his resignation to Rome, as is required of all Catholic bishops when they reach that age. He remains a cardinal for life and may continue to vote in papal elections until August 16th, 2019, when he will be 80.

In 1975 Brendan Boland, then 14, was questioned by canon lawyer Fr John Brady and Dundalk parish priest Msgr Francis Donnelly on allegations he made about being abused by Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Present in support of Brendan Boland was then young Dominican priest Fr Oliver McShane in whom the teenager had first confided about the abuse. Fr McShane has since left the priesthood. At the end of the inquiry Brendan Boland was sworn to secrecy by Fr Brady.

On Cardinal Brady’s letter of resignation, Brendan Boland said yesterday “it’s a long time coming.” He felt “he should have done it back in 2010. Maybe he should not have taken the job at all in 1994 when he found out Smyth was arrested in Northern Ireland”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 18, 2014

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 )

For 11 years, Pittsburgh Catholic officials hid the fact that Fr. James P. Carroll is a credibly accused child molester. Yesterday, they finally “came clean” about his crimes. But Pittsburgh church staff said nothing about their callous cover up.

We strongly suspect that Fr. Carroll has spent the past decade living among unsuspecting neighbors who see him as a charming, safe, “grandfatherly” figure. We hope he hasn’t assaulted more kids over these 11 years.

No matter how Catholic officials try to spin it, this is irresponsible and inexcusable. It’s a clear violation of the promises made by Catholic officials – in Pittsburgh and at the national level – to be “open” about clergy sex crimes. Even worse, Pittsburgh Catholic officials, by keeping silent about a potentially dangerous cleric, may have enabled him to hurt more kids.

Two months ago, we disclosed (at a news conference) that Fr. Carroll was a credibly accused child molester.

At that time, back in June, like they have done for years and still do, Pittsburgh Catholic officials said nothing.

Bishop David Zubik’s PR man claims that in 2003, he and his well-educated staff “considered child sexual abuse as a ‘moral defect,’ as it did with alcoholism, rather than a disease,” (according to the Tribune Review). That is insulting baloney.

In 2003, Zubik and other top Pittsburgh Catholic officials knew child sex abuse was a crime. They knew it was apt to be repeated. They knew that citizens have a duty to help police catch criminals. They knew that if they told the truth about Fr. Carroll, more victims might step forward and file charges and Fr. Carroll might be convicted and imprisoned. But they chose – for more than a decade – to stay silent and endanger kids.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

[with video]

William D. Lindsey

The critically important support organization for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, SNAP, has a fundraising drive underway right now. I’d like to draw readers’ attention to the drive. As the video at the head of the posting states, at present, SNAP support groups in the U.S. are confined primarily to large urban areas. SNAP is trying to expand its outreach by setting up new support programs in three new cities.

The group is soliciting financial assistance to send two SNAP trainers to those three cities. Please consider helping. The Indiegogo link above has a button that allows you to contribute online.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For Immediate Release: Monday, Aug. 18, 2014

Contact: David Clohessy of St. Louis MO 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Brenda Brunelle of Windsor, Canada 519 800 3492, windsor@SNAPnetwork.org

Victims urge Catholic group to do outreach
Its former official faces sentencing in sex case
Ottawa man was former head of Catholic youth group
He just pleaded guilty in 1984 child sexual assault case
In 2002, a civil case against him & Knights of Columbus was settled
Group says Knights should prod others who were hurt to “come forward, get help, and call police”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging a Catholic men’s organization to help find others who may have been sexually assaulted by an Ottawa man who pleaded guilty last week to child sex crimes.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests are writing the head of the New Haven Connecticut-based Knights of Columbus, prodding them to “do aggressive outreach” to seek out “others who may have seen, suspected or suffered abuse” by Steve Fagan. For years, Fagan, who pleaded guilty last Monday to sexually assaulting a boy in 1984, was the State Chair of the Knights’ Ontario youth auxiliary.

Fagan will face a sentencing hearing on October 17 and “such outreach may help prosecutors convince the judge to levy an appropriate sentence,” SNAP’s letter said.

“The justice system works best, and kids are protected best, when judges have more information about child molesters before they are punished,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “If there are others victims of Fagan out there, the least the Knights can do is find them and urge them to contact Crown officials in the next few weeks.”

The Crown is seeking a six month jail sentence, two years’ probation, that Fagan be listed on the sex offender registry.

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NEW MEXICO
Courthouse News Service

Monday, August 18, 2014

By VICTORIA PRIESKOP

ALBUQUERQUE (CN) – The Archdiocese of Santa Fe protected a series of pedophile priests in a cover-up lasting at least 30 years, according to three recently filed lawsuits.

The lawsuits in Bernalillo County Court sketch a history of boys between the ages of 9 and 15 being molested by priests who the Archdiocese allegedly knew sexually children, but allowed to work with children nonetheless.

Two of the three plaintiffs claim that the priests had received treatment at the Servants of the Paraclete center in Jemez Springs, N.M., and that the Paraclete center charged an average of $10,000 for the treatment.

The treatment was intended to “cure” priests of sexual attraction to children, but “after some effort at treatment, usually by prayer, these abusers were released into New Mexico parishes and communities and hired by [the Archdiocese of Santa Fe],” John Doe D claims in his complaint.

John Doe D’s lawsuit lists the names of 40 priests, including an archbishop, who the archdiocese allegedly admitted “have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.” The abuse allegedly occurred from the 1950s through the 1990s.

John Doe D claims that the archdiocese knew that its “culture of the day include(ed) a ratio of pedophile priests to non-pedophile priests of about 40 percent in the decades preceding and including plaintiff’s birth and childhood.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE

PITTSBURGH —Pittsburgh’s bishop has notified parishioners that a retired priest now living in Boston has been accused of molesting a child at a western Pennsylvania parish where he served in 1962 and 1963.

Bishop David Zubik also urged anyone who attended St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth — or five other Pittsburgh-area parishes through 1972 — of the allegations.

The Boston Archdiocese says the Rev. John Carroll lives in a home for retired priests in the Boston area.

The priest also served at St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama, St. Margaret in Green Tree, St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Alphonsus in Springdale, and St. Denis in Versailles, which is now part of St. Patrick parish in McKeesport, all in the Pittsburgh diocese.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By SAM SOKOL
08/18/2014

NEW YORK- An Israeli-Australian dual citizen wanted for allegedly sexually abusing several teenaged girls was arrested and is slated to be extradited to Australia.

Malka Leifer, an ultra-orthodox woman living in Emmanuel, was the principal of the Adas school in Melbourne between 2001 and 2008. She stands accused of engaging in sexual behavior with a number of students, including three sisters. She left Australia after being fired by a local school board.

“Ms Leifer is wanted to face prosecution in Victoria for alleged sexual assault offenses,” The Age quoted a spokesperson for the Australian Attorney General.

The arrest is the result of legal action initiated by a victim seeking compensation from Leifer, resulting in an extradition request filed in a Jerusalem district court by the Israeli AG’s international department.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 18, 2014

Jewel Topsfield
Education Editor for The Age

The former head of an Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne will be extradited to Australia to face charges of sexually abusing her students.

Malka Leifer, a former principal of the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, fled to Israel in 2008 after the school board sacked her following complaints of inappropriate conduct with students.

The Australian Attorney-General’s Department said Mrs Leifer had been arrested in Israel in response to an extradition request made by Australia.

“Ms Leifer is wanted to face prosecution in Victoria for alleged sexual assault offences,” a spokesperson said.

The Israeli news website Ynet reported overnight that a resident of Emmanuel, a settlement town in the West Bank, was arrested on Sunday.

It said the woman was suspected of sexually abusing three sisters at an Orthodox high school in Melbourne between 2004 and 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Former principal of Adass Israel School in Melbourne arrested over alleged sexual abuse

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN AUGUST 18, 2014

A FORMER principal of a Melbourne Jewish girls’ school has been arrested amid claims she sexually abused students including sisters.

Malka Leifer was arrested in Israel overnight where it is believed extradition proceedings have started in an attempt to have her returned to Melbourne.

The Attorney General’s office confirmed this morning Ms Leifer is wanted in Melbourne to face allegations of historic sexual offending against a string of girls.

The mother of eight left Australia in 2008 after she was sacked as principal at the ultra orthodox Adass Israel School in Elsternwick.

The sacking followed complaints that she had acted inappropriately with students while principal between 2001 and 2008.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson | August 17, 2014

Sister Elizabeth Johnson accepted an award on Friday night (Aug. 15) from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the umbrella organization for most of the 50,000 Catholic nuns in the U.S. The LCWR has for two years been the target of an investigation by the Vatican over a range of perceived problems with their doctrinal views and their social justice mission. The sisters reject the accusations.

The investigation is a source of much controversy, and despite signs that it might ease under Pope Francis, the polemics reignited a few months ago when a top Vatican cardinal blasted the nuns for announcing that they would honor Sister Johnson — whose work theologians from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have sharply criticized — at their annual meeting last week in Nashville.

In addition to our story on the conference, we also have the full text of Sister Johnson’s talk:

Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Remarks for Leadership Award Dinner
Nashville, TN, August 15, 2014
Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ

I. Thank you so much. To quote Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night”:

I can no other answer make but thanks,
And thanks, and ever thanks. (Act 3, scene 3)

It is a beautiful honor to receive this award from you, faithful women with whom I share the vocation of being a woman religious in the church today. You are truly my Sisters! You could have chosen from among so many other women religious exercising leadership today in so many different venues. I am awed by your tribute and humbled to join the ranks of previous recipients.

A shout-out to my sister Susan and brother-in-law Stephen who are joining us tonight from Oregon, as well as my dear friend Cathy Hilkert OP from the University of Notre Dame, and other good friends and members of my Brentwood leadership team.

This award is recognizing leadership I have exercised in the ministry of theology. In truth, I would never have become a theologian were it not for the leaders of my own religious community. This vocation within a vocation was simply not on my radar. But Mother Immaculata Maria sent me to study for a Masters, and subsequent General Superiors sent me for the doctorate and helped me discern whether to take a faculty position at Catholic University. They thought the church needed women to teach theology and sensed my interest. From them to our current President Helen Kearney and her recent public supportive statements, the care from my leaders has been unceasing.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

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

One of Australia’s most prolific child-abuse criminals, Father Kevin O’Donnell, was harboured in the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese for fifty years. In his final years, he even received public praise from one of his superiors, Bishop (later Cardinal) George Pell.

O’Donnell is dead but his numerous victims — and their families — still bear the scars of his crimes.

Father Kevin O’Donnell was a child abuser from 1942 to 1992. He fitted Masses, weddings and funerals in between his sex-abuse activities.

The Catholic Church now admits that O’Donnell was a child-abuser from day one. Broken Rites has seen a typed transcript of an interview that Mr Peter O’Callaghan QC (sex-abuse commissioner for the Melbourne archdiocese) had with an O’Donnell victim on 23 March 2003. In the transcript, Mr O’Callaghan commented that O’Donnell was engaged in sex abuse from the time he was ordained — and (said Mr O’Callaghan) he did it in every parish he was in.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina 12

[Summary: Archbishop Guillermo Jose Garlatti of Bahia Blanca was indicted yesterday for concealing former chaplain Aldo Vara during the eight months he was a fugitive from justice. Vara was charged with crimes against humanity.]

Por Diego Martínez

El arzobispo de Bahía Blanca, Guillermo José Garlatti, fue procesado ayer por el encubrimiento agravado del ex capellán Aldo Vara durante los ocho meses que estuvo prófugo de la Justicia. El juez federal subrogante Alvaro Coleffi consideró probado que Garlatti omitió informarle sobre el Fondo Integral de Solidaridad (Fides) que el arzobispado le siguió pagando a Vara mientras el Estado ofrecía una recompensa para capturarlo y que ocultó también otros datos útiles para la búsqueda, descubiertos en el allanamiento a la Curia. El magistrado sostuvo que el arzobispo intentó durante su indagatoria “explicar lo inexplicable”, al sostener que “no pensó” o “no se le ocurrió” que los datos que ocultaba fueran valiosos para la Justicia y lo procesó también por el delito de desobediencia. El empresario Leopoldo Bochile, ex apoderado de Vara, quien murió poco después de su detención en Paraguay, fue procesado por encubrimiento.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Tom Bateman
BBC Radio 4 Today reporter

A paedophile at the centre of a forthcoming historical abuse inquiry advised the Home Office on changes to the residential child care system.

Peter Righton gave “considerable assistance” as an expert in child care to a government report in 1970.

He had earlier left a teaching job over complaints of child abuse. He later became a member of a pro-paedophile campaign group. Righton died in 2007.

The Home Office said it was “absolutely committed” to stamping out child abuse.

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UNITED STATES
The Chronicle of Higher Education

August 18, 2014 by Charles Huckabee

A theologian and nun who drew the ire of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops with a book they considered radical and flawed fired back on Friday, saying the church’s investigation of women’s orders was “unconscionable” at a time when the hierarchy’s moral authority has been eroded by financial and child-abuse scandals, the Religion News Service reported.

Speaking in Nashville, Tenn., as she accepted an award from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, a professor of theology at Fordham University, lambasted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ criticism of her 2007 book Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God, published by Continuum. The book saw a spike in sales in 2011 after the bishops issued a statement saying the work contained “misrepresentations, ambiguities, and errors.”

In her remarks on Friday, Sister Johnson said she suspected that the bishops had not read the book. “To this day, no one, not myself or the theological community, the media, or the general public, knows what doctrinal issue is at stake,” she said.

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MEXICO
Pulso

[Summary: The recent case of alleged sexual abuse by a priest in the Fatima church rectory is due to misuse of freedom, according to Archbishop Jesus Carlos Cabrero Romero of San Luis Potosi. The archbishop said during an interview after noon Mass that it is like when Judas betrayed Jesus Christ. Priest Jose de Jesus Cruz Rodriguez is accused of trying to sexually abuse a minor.]

Rubén Pacheco / Pulso

El reciente caso de presunto abuso sexual cometido por un sacerdote en la casa parroquial del templo de Fátima, se debe al mal uso de la libertad, señaló el arzobispo de San Luis Potosí, Jesús Carlos Cabrero Romero.

Considera el prelado que San Luis Potosí no es un ejemplo de cómo actuar ante actos de pederastia clerical.

Después de oficiar la tradicional misa dominical de mediodía, en entrevista, el arzobispo ejemplificó que al igual que cuando Judas traicionó a Jesucristo, el cura José de Jesús Cruz Rodríguez, acusado de intentar abusar sexualmente de un joven, probablemente hizo mal uso de su libertad como párroco.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —A former St. Raphael Catholic School teacher and Trinity football coach is now facing sex abuse charges.

Philip Dale Anderson, 56, is accused of sexually abusing a student while he worked for the Archdiocese of Louisville.

Anderson, who now lives in Somerset, was arrested Friday afternoon at a restaurant on Brownsboro Road.

Police said the abuse allegedly took place around 30 years ago, when the student was between 11 and 14 years old.

Anderson spent a dozen years at St. Raphael’s parish in the upper Highlands neighborhood between 1981 and 1993 and also coached football at Trinity High School during that time.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

A Catholic priest denies raping a West Australian teenager more than 30 years ago but admits he has done some wrong things, a court has heard.

Glenn Humphreys, 61, is charged with abusing a boy between 1983 and 1986, when the boy was aged 15 to 17.

Defence lawyer Seamus Rafferty told the Perth District Court it was not disputed that on a few occasions in 1986, Humphreys had engaged in inappropriate behaviour.
But at the time, his actions were lawful and involved mutual touching, Mr Rafferty said in his opening statement.

Prosecutor James MacTaggart said Humphreys had indecently assaulted the victim without consent on several occasions while he was the assistant parish priest at a church in the southern suburb of Rockingham.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam – There are new developments to report in the ongoing controversy in the local Catholic church as several priests have written a letter to Archbishop Anthony Apuron demanding clarification to statements he made in a press release to the media regarding the removal of Monsignor James Benavente.

Father Tom McGrath, Father Jeff San Nicolas, Father Mike Crisostomo, Father Patrick Castro and Father Gus Gumataotao are the latest in a string of faithful members of the island’s Catholic community seeking answers and clarification from the archbishop specifically on the removal of Monsignor Benavente. Just a week after the monsignor’s 20-year celebration of faith and service, the archbishop removed him from his duties as the rector of the Archdiocese of Agana and the director of Catholic Cemeteries.

The archbishop removed the monsignor based on allegations of financial mismanagement. His sudden ouster created an uproar in the local church many of whom gathered in prayer on the footsteps of the cathedral. Andy Balajadia said at the time, “We are losing confidence and trust in his leadership. I hope that by praying he will change.”

Others who have worked alongside the monsignor on the church’s finances also took the steps of the cathedral to defend the reputation of Monsignor James. “We felt compelled to speak out after the archbishop issued a statement accusing Monsignor James of financial practices that were grave and detrimental to the archdiocese nothing is further from the truth,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church is being urged to show its “moral compass” as an inquiry resumes in Melbourne into alleged child sexual abuse by priests.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hear from victims and representatives of the church, including Cardinal George Pell, who is scheduled to give evidence via video link from the Vatican on Thursday.

The church has moved to change its long-standing policy on the way it handles sexual abuse cases, but compensation and redress for victims remains an issue.

The Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) is pushing for a national independent redress scheme.

In the short term, chief executive officer Leonie Sheedy wants churches and charities to start contributing to a fund, primarily to pay the funeral expenses of victims.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Abuse victim Paul Hersbach doesn’t want an apology from the Catholic Church. He doesn’t want the church to burn. He just wants compassion.

Mr Hersbach was sexually abused for three years during the 1980s by the same Catholic priest who had also abused his father and uncle.

Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo had lived with the Hersbach family, was known to the children as “gramps” and even had a cap with the phrase “Super Gramps” embroidered on it.

But when Mr Hersbach made a complaint to the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response scheme for abuse victims in 2006, he said he felt like he was being interrogated.

Mr Hersbach told the child sex abuse royal commission in Melbourne he wants the church to show some compassion.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 18, 2014

CAMERON HOUSTON AND JANE LEE

Victims of clerical abuse have told the Royal Commission that the Catholic Church’s response was primarily concerned with avoiding civil litigation and limiting compensation payouts.

The church was urged to reform its controversial Melbourne Response and review all of the 326 cases it has settled since the system was introduced in 1996 by former archbishop of Melbourne George Pell.

The commission was told on Monday that the church paid $17.2 million in ex gratia payments for child sexual abuse claims over the past 18 years, which included medical and counselling expenses. Victims received an average payout of $36,100.

The cost of administering the Melbourne Response was more than $17 million, which included $7.7 million to Independent Commissioner Peter O’Callaghan, QC, and his staff.

Serial paedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell was responsible for the largest number of payouts, with 50 victims receiving compensation for abuse spanning from 1944 to 1992.

Chrissie Foster told a packed room in Melbourne’s County Court that O’Donnell was directly responsible for the suicide of her eldest daughter Emma and the permanent brain damage sustained by her daughter Katie in a car accident.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Melissa Davey
theguardian.com, Monday 18 August 2014

Victims have told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that the scheme established by the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne to investigate their claims lacked compassion and independence and left them feeling betrayed.

During an emotional day marred by a power blackout that delayed the hearing by more than two hours, victims also questioned the so-called independence of commissioners appointed by the church to investigate sex abuse claims, and spoke of feeling pressured by senior church officials into meeting them and accepting compensation.

The hearing taking place in Melbourne over the next fortnight is scrutinising the scheme, known as the Melbourne Response, established by Cardinal George Pell in 1996.

Reading her witness statement on Monday morning, Chrissie Foster described how two of her three daughters, Katie and Emma, were repeatedly abused by Father Kevin O’Donnell at Sacred Heart primary school in Oakleigh. At times her husband, Anthony, took over reading for her.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

David Marr
theguardian.com, Monday 18 August 2014

It’s a telling detail: when the abused come to the witness box of the royal commission, they affirm.

They were born deep inside the church to families that never missed mass and sent their kids to the parish primary school over the road. But they don’t swear on the Bible when they come to give their testimony.

Chrissie Foster affirmed. She was the first witness on the first day of the first Melbourne sitting of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She deserved her place at the top of the billing.

Two of her children were raped by Father Kevin O’Donnell, not in the dark ages but in suburban Melbourne in the 1990s. One is dead, the other is permanently incapacitated. The church, though it had known about O’Donnell’s criminal ways for at least 30 years, tried to fob off Chrissie and her husband Anthony with pastoral rhetoric and a few dollars.

It’s hard to imagine this commission ever having been called but for the Fosters’ implacable and dignified pursuit of the church. They never lost their tempers. Their good humour has somehow survived. Their judgment has seemed impeccable at every turn.

Twelve years ago, when their campaign began, they went shyly on television in disguise. But the resistance of the church compelled them to put their names and faces to the story of their daughters’ abuse and their own mistreatment. They have told it so many times but what they always wanted was a royal commission and now they stood side by side in the witness box to tell their story all over again.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 18, 2014

Jane Lee and Cameron Houston

Paul Hersbach kept his composure until the end.

He, like all the 321 victims of child sexual abuse who have lodged claims to the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response, had been forced to tell their stories to strangers before.

The first time he spoke about his abuse in detail, it was to two people at Carelink, the Melbourne Response’s counselling arm, to explain why he needed access to its services as a primary victim, not a secondary victim. He found this confronting and “exceptionally traumatic”.

“I feel I told them more than I needed to and far more than I believe was reasonably required for them to do their job.”

Mr Hersbach explained how the man he once called “gramps” had sexually abused his father, uncle, brother and himself when he was a child.

Victor Rubeo, who died on the day he was to appear in court for a committal hearing over charges of sexual abuse, “inserted” himself between father and son over 16 years.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

Child sex abuse royal commission: Catholic priest abused two generations of boys in the same family, inquiry hears

BY LOUISE MILLIGAN
August 18, 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard a devastating account of how a Catholic priest preyed on two generations of boys in the same family.

Tony Hersbach and his twin brother Will were molested by Father Victor Rubeo in Melbourne in the 1960s.

The priest then abused Tony’s two sons, Paul and Adam, in the 1980s.

Paul Hersbach gave evidence to the commission today and he and his father gave an exclusive interview to the ABC’s 7.30 program about how the domineering and charismatic priest managed to take hold and control their family.

“He was like a father, but like an incestuous father, so he had this real dark, secret side,” Tony told 7.30.

“And you know, in our family life, he was able to do whatever he wanted to. He basically took over.”

Paul said: “We called him Grandpa, which… bothers me a lot.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

BY ANGUS LIVINGSTON AND GENEVIEVE GANNON
August 18, 2014

The victim of a pedophile priest was discouraged from going to police and felt he had to take a Catholic Church payout, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

The church has paid a combined $17 million in compensation to abuse victims in the Melbourne archdiocese, but only 119 of the 326 upheld complaints have been dealt with by police.

Victims told the royal commission they felt betrayed by the church’s Melbourne Response process, which they said lacked compassion, and called for the $75,000 cap on compensation payments to be scrapped.

A victim of pedophile priest Father Michael Glennon said Melbourne Response independent commissioner Peter O’Callaghan told him the prospects of Glennon doing any more jail time were low and he might not be charged.

“I felt Mr O’Callaghan was trying to discourage me from going to the police,” the man told the commission on Monday.

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UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe

Food for thought:

* Imagine your English teacher demonstrating mastery of the language by regularly uttering statements like this, “We seen them deer when we was up north!”
* Imagine your mathematics teacher regularly adding numbers incorrectly.
* Imagine your social studies teacher talking about visiting “Toledo, the capital of the U.S.”
* Imagine your music teacher with an inability to count rhythms correctly or carry a tune.

Now try to imagine yourself valuing these teachers’ lessons. In each case, regardless of the theory expressed, actions belied their true subject-matter expertise to the point you probably justifiably questioned their credibility…a lot… Their actions told you, “I am not qualified to teach about this.”

Now:

* Imagine your Catholic faith teacher, who professes to know more than you about truth, being exposed as a liar.
* Imagine your faith teacher confusing the commandment about adultery with those about murder or stealing.
* Imagine your faith teacher enabling and covering up clergy’s sexual abuse of minors but writing the Church’s norms to protect children.

Such is the case with the Catholic hierarchy and sexual abuse. The bishops declare themselves the ultimate teaching authorities on faith yet, on a weekly basis we read of bishops being caught telling lies or enabling abusers. We live with the appalling reality that bishops equate raping children to an adulterous affair, though rape is about forcefully taking that which is not given and destroying the child’s physical, emotional and spiritual life in the process. Perhaps lesser known, the primary authors of the US bishops’ charter to protect children, themselves harbored sexually abusive priests even after the charter was signed. What is most puzzling of all is that a) the bishops think anyone should take them seriously as moral authorities and b) that anyone does.

Here are just a smattering of proof points:

1. Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minneapolis said in an April, 2014 sworn legal deposition that he didn’t know until March, 2014 that Ken LaVan, a priest with multiple credible sexual abuse accusations, was still in active ministry. However, this past week revealed that ole John was actually getting annual updates about Ken’s ministry activities.

Psst….John, this is called “lying” and violates the 8th Commandment: “Thou shall not bear false witness.” John, I gotta tell ya, this really kills your street creds in the truth department. Plus, when you lie under oath in this country, it is also called a “crime” further crumbling your “truthiness” credibility. Much like Dr. Seuss’ book calling for another liar to depart public leadership, “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!”, I think it’s beyond time we say, “John C. Nienstedt Will You Please Go Now!”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN AUGUST 18, 2014

MELBOURNE’S Catholic Church has paid victims of clerical sexual abuse more than $17 million since introducing an interntal compensation panel, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Sitting in Melbourne for the first time the commission heard this morning ex-gratia payments made under the church’s Melbourne Response scheme totalled $17,259,472.

Of that almost $10 million was paid as compensation while $7.5 million was paid to cover victims’s medical and counselling costs.

A further $1.6 million was paid to victims outside of the Melbourne Response.

The internal complaints system is being scrutinised in the royal commission’s latest public hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 18, 2014

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

THE mother of two girls who were abused by one of Victoria’s most notorious paedophile priests has told how she felt “betrayed” by receiving an apology from then Archbishop George Pell as well as a warning against litigation in the same month.

The royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse has begun a two-week hearing probing the Melbourne Response, through which the Catholic Melbourne archdiocese offered financial compensation and counselling to abuse victims.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC told the crowded courtroom there had been no formal or external review of the Melbourne Response since it began in 1996.

The church has paid $11.3 million in compensation since the Melbourne Response began, with $1.6m of that figure for claims outside the Melbourne Response process.

Nearly 20 per cent of all compensation paid by the Melbourne Response relates to a single priest, Kevin O’Donnell, who was found responsible for 50 abuse complaints including from Emma and Katie Foster, who were students at his parish school in Oakleigh.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Melissa Davey
theguardian.com, Sunday 17 August 2014

Cardinal George Pell introduced the Melbourne Response to sexual abuse cases in the Catholic church because victims were not being treated in a compassionate and consistent way, he will tell the royal commission.

The method of handling sexual abuse cases by the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne was introduced in 1996 by Pell, the most senior member of the Catholic church in Australia. It is under review for the first time since its inception in 1996.

Pell, now the Vatican’s financial controller, will give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via video link on Thursday. His argument was outlined on Monday morning by counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness.

She said church lawyer Richard Leder and archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, would also give evidence about how the scheme operated.

Furness said the commission would scrutinise the appointment by the church of independent commissioners to investigate sex abuse allegations; a free counselling and professional support service provided to victims, known as Carelink; and the compensation panel which provided ex gratia compensation payments to victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 18, 2014

Jane Lee and Cameron Houston

Victims have called for all 351 compensation claims to the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response to be reviewed and have accused the process as lacking compassion and transparency on the opening day of the Royal Commission.

Paul Hersbach told the Commission on Monday that his father, uncle, brother and himself had been abused by Father Victor Rubeo, who the family had referred to as ‘Gramps’ which had been embroidered on his hat.

“I do not need or want a personal apology. I do not want the church burned down,” he said. “All I want is for someone from the Catholic Church to show compassion and give me a call one day and say ‘Hi Paul how are you going these days?..Can I do anything to help?'”

When Mr Hersbach sought compensation from the church, he said that he was discouraged by independent commissioner Peter O’Callaghan, QC, from reporting his abuse to police because he “didn’t think anything would happen”. Six weeks later he received a letter from Mr O’Callaghan saying “with respect to the unsurprising haziness of your memory there would not appear to be much point in your taking the matter to the Police”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Child abuse claims in Victoria since 1996 have cost the Catholic Church more than $34 million, an inquiry has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating the church’s so-called Melbourne response to allegations of child sexual abuse by its clergy.

The scheme was introduced by Cardinal Pell when he was Melbourne’s archbishop in 1996, and was a first of its kind.

It allowed anyone allegedly abused by priests or others under the authority of the archbishop to have what the church called “an independent commissioner” to investigate their claims and make findings.

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KENTUCKY
Commonwealth Journal

BY JEFF NEAL
COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL

Former Southwestern High School football coach Dale Anderson was arrested Friday night in Louisville on charges that he sexually abused a young boy over two decades ago.

Anderson, 55, was taken into custody outside a Louisville restaurant, according to a Louisville Metro Police citation, and charged with sodomy, attempted sodomy and sexual abuse.

According to the citation, the alleged victim — now an adult — claimed Anderson sexually abused him beginning when he was 11 years old. The abuse continued until he was approximately 14, according to the citation.

“The (alleged) victim disclosed oral sex, forceful attempted anal sodomy and sexual touching,” according to the citation.

The alleged victim told Louisville Metro Police the abuse occurred when Anderson was a teacher and coach at St. Raphael Catholic School in Louisville. Anderson left the Louisville area to take the Southwestern job in 1993.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

Updated: Aug 17, 2014
By John Paxton

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A former teacher and football coach at St. Raphael Catholic School has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a former student.

According to court records, the accuser, now an adult, says the abuse started around age 11 and continued until about age 14.

Philip Dale Anderson Jr. is charged with sodomy, attempted sodomy and sexual abuse. He was taken into custody Friday at 2 p.m. at Austin’s Restaurant on Brownsboro Road.

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OUISVILLE (KY)
The Courier-Journal

Charlie White, cwhite@courier-journal.com August 17, 2014

A former teacher at St. Raphael Catholic School and football coach at Trinity High School was arrested after a man told Louisville Metro Police he was sexually abused as a boy.

Philip D. Anderson Jr., 56, was arrested Friday afternoon on charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and sexual abuse, said Dwight Mitchell, a police spokesman.

The victim told police he was between the ages of 11 and 14 when he was abused by Anderson when he was a student at the parish school in Louisville’s Upper Highlands neighborhood, Mitchell said.

Police took Anderson, who now lives in Somerset, Ky., to Metro Corrections after arresting him, Mitchell said.

A Metro Corrections records room worker said Anderson was released late Friday night on his own recognizance. His court arraignment date wasn’t immediately known.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

August 16, 2014

Paris Arrow

Vatican is apex of materialism

The Vatican Circus for Idiot Catholics is in full swing in South Korea for 5 days and Pope Francis – the Pretender and Impostor of Jesus and biggest thief in mankind’s history – and fattest clown-in-white is busy deceiving South Koreans idiot Catholics especially the youth – with his classic hypocrisy and papal farts of pathological lies concocted by the Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team. On Friday, he met with young people of the Asian Youth Day (a version of World Youth Day of Satanas St. John Paul II) where he told them to “combat the allure of materialism that stifles authentic spiritual and cultural values and the spirit of unbridled competition which generates selfishness and strife” and to “reject inhuman economic models which create new forms of poverty and marginalize workers.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

One of the world’s first child abuse compensation schemes will be scrutinised when the Child Abuse Royal Commission sits in Melbourne this morning.

The Melbourne Response, introduced in 1996, was the one of the Catholic Church’s first redress schemes for victims of paedophile priests.

The commission will hear from Cardinal George Pell via video link from the Vatican on Thursday about his involvement in setting up the scheme and in responding to allegations of child sex abuse in Melbourne where he is archbishop in the 1990s.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Catholic
Posted: Tues., Aug. 12, 2014

Pittsburgh Catholic Staff Report

Bishop David Zubik has placed Father John Fitzgerald, 66, the pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish in Conway, Beaver County, on administrative leave pending further investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

This action was taken the day after diocesan officials met with an individual who alleged abuse by Father Fitzgerald in the late 1990s. Diocesan officials immediately reported the allegation to the district attorneys of Allegheny County and Lawrence County because the abuse was alleged to have occurred in both jurisdictions.

Prior to this, no other allegation of sexual abuse against Father Fitzgerald has come to the diocese’s notice. Father Fitzgerald has denied committing any acts of sexual abuse. While he is on administrative leave he cannot administer the sacraments, dress in clerical attire or identify himself as a priest.

A letter from Bishop Zubik was read at all Masses Aug. 2-3 at Our Lady of Peace, and a diocesan official answered questions afterward. A copy of the letter will be mailed to all the parishioners.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 17, 2014

A priest in the Archdiocese of Boston has been accused of sexually abusing a minor while he was a priest in the Pittsburgh area in the early 1970s.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh announced today that the allegation against the Rev. John P. Carroll concerns when he was assigned to Saint Michael Parish in Elizabeth Township from 1962 to 1963.

The victim made the allegation directly to the Archdiocese of Boston, according to a news release issued by the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik wrote this weekend to Saint Michael Parish and all parishes where Father Carroll served while in the Diocese of Pittsburgh informing them of the allegation.

Bishop Zubik said his purpose in writing “is to discover whether anyone else may have an allegation against Father Carroll or anyone who was acting in the name of the church.”

Father Carroll served in the Diocese of Pittsburgh from 1962 to 1972. In addition to his assignment as a parochial vicar at Saint Michael, Father Carroll served at St. Isaac Jogues, Elrama; Saint Margaret, Greentree; Saint Susanna, Penn Hills; Saint Alphonsus, Springdale; and Saint Denis, Versailles (now Saint Patrick, McKeesport).

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MISSOURI
St. Ann Catholic Church

From our Archbishop:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have accepted the recommendation of the Review Board of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in its determination that a report alleging the sexual abuse of a minor by the late Father Alexander Lippert in the early 1970s is considered credible. Father Lippert died in April 2000, prior to any allegations being made against him. Although he is unable to offer a defense, the allegation against Fr. Lippert is considered “credible though unsubstantiated” because there was enough evidence to conclude that the abuse could have occurred as reported.

Father Lippert’s priestly assignments in the Archdiocese of St. Louis were as follows:

April 1956 Assistant pastor, Holy Guardian Angels
July 1959 Immaculate Conception, Union
1961 St. Liborius
1963 St. Teresa (in residence)
1965 St. Ferdinand, Florissant (in residence)
May 1968 St. Aloysius, Spanish Lake
July 1970 Requested leave of absence; took up residence at St. Paul the Apostle, Pine Lawn
June 1980 Associate pastor, Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France
Nov. 1980 Administrator, St. Catherine of Alexandria, Coffman
May 1983 Associate pastor, St. Ambrose
April 1986 Associate pastor, St. Thomas of Aquinas
July 1988 Sick leave
Jan. 1991 Relieved of priestly duties and granted retirement.

Anyone who wishes to make a report of the sexual abuse of a minor by Father Lippert or by any other priest, deacon or employee of the Archdiocese of St. Louis may contact De-con Phil Hengen, Director of Child and Youth Protection, Archdiocese of St. Louis at 314.792.7704 or phengen@archstl.org. Reports may also be made to the Missouri Division of Social Services Child Abuse Hotline at 800.392.3738 for allegations involving a person who is currently under the age of 18, or to civil authorities for allegations involving a person who is now an adult, but was abused as a minor.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson
Archbishop of St. Louis

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Bill Zlatos
Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014

Authorities are investigating a claim that a Boston priest molested a child in Elizabeth more than 50 years ago.

The Rev. John P. Carroll, a priest from the Archdiocese of Boston, has been accused of sexually abusing a minor while he was assigned at St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth, officials of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh disclosed Sunday.

They learned about the allegation from Boston church officials Aug. 5 and alerted authorities here.
Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik warned St. Michael Parish and all the parishes where Carroll served of the allegation in a letter this weekend.

“I urge anyone who has been abused by any person representing the church to notify civil authorities and to contact the diocese to obtain assistance with counseling to help with recovery from abuse,” Zubik wrote.

Carroll worked at the Pittsburgh Diocese from 1962 to 1972, including his stint at St. Michael. He also worked at St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama, St. Margaret in Green Tree, St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Alphonsus in Springdale and St. Denis in Versailles, now called St. Patrick in McKeesport.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Nicholas Kristof

IN an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes. And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns.

“I may not believe in God, but I do believe in nuns,” writes Jo Piazza, in her forthcoming book, “If Nuns Ruled the World.” Piazza is an agnostic living in New York City who began interviewing nuns and found herself utterly charmed and inspired.

“They eschew the spotlight by their very nature, and yet they’re out there in the world every day, living the Gospel and caring for the poor,” Piazza writes. “They don’t hide behind fancy and expensive vestments, a pulpit, or a sermon. I have never met a nun who rides a Mercedes-Benz or a Cadillac. They walk a lot; they ride bikes.”

One of the most erroneous caricatures of nuns is that they are prim, Victorian figures cloistered in convents. On the contrary, I’ve become a huge fan of nuns because I see them so often risking their lives around the world, confronting warlords, pimps and thugs, while speaking the local languages fluently. In a selfish world, they epitomize selflessness and compassion.

There are also plenty of formidable nuns whom even warlords don’t want to mess with, who combine reverence with ferocity, who defy the Roman Catholic Church by handing out condoms to prostitutes to protect them from H.I.V. (They surely don’t mention that to the bishops.)

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 18, 2014

Cameron Houston and Chris Vedelago

The Catholic Church has expelled an inner-Melbourne priest after allegations of sexual impropriety as the sex abuse royal commission begins its Melbourne hearings into decades of abuse and alleged cover-ups.

The disclosure that the priest’s alleged victim received a financial settlement from the church and refused to assist police has led to the accusation that the church paid hush money. Father Mato Krizanac, 60, of the Croatian Catholic Centre at St Nicholas’ church in Clifton Hill, was the subject of a 12-month internal investigation by the church’s independent commissioner, Peter O’Callaghan, QC, of the Melbourne Response, and the Archdiocese of Adelaide, where the alleged offences are said to have taken place in the mid 1980s.

Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart told Father Krizanac in June that he would be permanently stripped of all clerical duties, while parishioners were believed to have been informed at Mass on Sunday.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Melbourne confirmed the allegations had been referred to South Australian police in April 2013 – a month before Father Krizanac was placed on “administrative leave” by the church.

The alleged victim received a financial settlement from the church, but refused to assist police, who were unable to investigate the matter.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 17, 2014

Jane Lee
Legal Affairs Reporter for The Age

There is a cloud over when all of the state inquiry’s recommendations for preventing child abuse will be legislated, three months before the Victorian election.

The state inquiry into the handling of child abuse made the recommendations in its Betrayal of Trust report, which was tabled last November. The Coalition has so far only implemented three of its 15 recommendations, creating offences for grooming, failure to protect children from abuse and failure to disclose abuse. Reforms for a fourth – ensuring religious ministers have working with children checks – are before Parliament.

Attorney-General Robert Clark told a forum hosted by victims’ support group Commission Of Inquiry Now on Friday that the government was working on laws and considering options for the other recommendations, which aim to make organisations more accountable for child abuse, and make it easier for victims to claim compensation.

Mr Clark would not say whether all would be implemented in the 12 sitting days before the November election: “We’re working through each…and when we’re in a position to do so we’ll bring [proposed laws] to the Parliament particularly in relation to the civil redress, limitation of actions and civil liability provisions.”

He would not say whether the government would hold an extra parliamentary sitting to ensure all the recommendations were implemented.

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IRELAND
The Journal

CLERICAL ABUSE SURVIVOR Brendan Boland says that the resignation of Sean Brady as Primate of All Ireland has come too late.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme, Boland said that Brady had been “rewarded” for covering up child sex abuse.

Boland disclosed that he had been abused by notorious paedophile Brendan Smyth to a priest in 1975. He has written a book, Sworn to Silence about the cover up that ensued.

He said that he has no desire to meet with Brady, but said that he wants Brady to read the book.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

The Maltese Church’s leadership is in a worse situation than that of the Nationalist Party after the 1976 general election, according to Fr Joe Borg.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Former Mġarr parish priest Emanuel Camilleri’s assertion – as reported in The Malta Independent – that the Catholic Church in Malta faces a “leadership crisis” has been echoed by priest and university lecturer Joe Borg.

In an opinion piece which appeared on today’s edition of The Sunday Times of Malta, Fr Borg argued that the leadership crisis faced by the Archdiocese of Malta was the elephant in the room which “all those I have talked to in the Church readily admit to in private to its existence, only to remain totally silent about it in public, or, worse still, deny its existence.”

Fr Camilleri, who had previously served as the parish priest of the St Mary parish in Birkirkara and of Msida, was only appointed parish priest of Mġarr last March.

However, his tenure was soon met with controversy as he sought to enforce a decree he had nothing to do with – it was issued by the Curia on 28 March – on the Via Sagra procession held in the locality.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In Recent News (One Hand, Other Hand): How Catholic Leaders Deal with Priests Guilty of Abusing Minors v. How Catholic Leaders Deal with Lay Employees Who Are Gay

In the news lately, there’s this: as this editorial in the Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY) indicates, this past Wednesday, Father James Taylor, a Catholic priest in Niskayuna, pled guilty to having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl. Taylor was arrested in April. His bishop, Edward Scharfenberger, placed him on administrative leave after the arrest, but has announced that the diocesan sexual misconduct review board will not make a final decision about Taylor’s continuing work as a priest until after the civil proceedings against him have finished.

Scharfenberger’s approach to the case prompts the Daily Gazette to ask,

[W]hy wait until civil legal proceedings have been completed before holding a hearing, to then determine whether Taylor should remain a priest?

As the editorial notes,

If you own a business and one of your employees is convicted of having sexual contact with a minor, the second that court case is over, that guy is fired. . . . If the bishop really wanted to send a message about zero-tolerance, he would use the outcome of the criminal court case as the final arbiter and kick this guy to the curb now.

And then there’s this, also in the news recently: in July, William Nifong, a Latin teacher at Northside College Prep School in Chicago, proposed to Colin Collette, a longtime music director at Holy Family Catholic church in Inverness, Illinois. Collette announced the engagement on Facebook.

And then he was fired. Immediately after his wedding plans appeared on Facebook. Lisa Black tells the story for the Chicago Tribune here and here.

A priest can be arrested after having had sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl. He can plead guilty to the charge in civil court.

But his bishop will still bend over backwards to assure that the priest receives every consideration as his clerical career is assessed.

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NEW ZEALAND
Scoop

Sunday, 17 August 2014
Press Release: Mike Ledingham

Shadow of Priest’s Abuse Over Author’s Grunt Sequel

Wairarapa author Mike Ledingham tackles the difficult topic of abuse in the Catholic Church in Always a Grunt, the newly published sequel to his popular first book, Once a Grunt.

Like his first book, Always a Grunt is chocker with short stories laced with humour and sharp observations of human foibles and vanities.

However, two of the stories also delve deeper into sensitive areas of emotional turmoil as they recount the awful tragedy of an infant’s death, and the sickening and unjust dilemmas a youngster faces after falling victim to paedophile priest.

“The feedback after the first book came out was really encouraging,” says Mr Ledingham. “So I feel braver about branching out into some different areas with some of the new stories. It’s still in the same style, though. People who enjoyed the first book won’t be disappointed.”

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