ABUSE TRACKER

GUAM
Jungle Watch

Guam – A news conference comprised of various individuals who have assisted in the financial matters of the Catholic Cemeteries of Guam and the Cathedral-Basilica will be held to respond to, correct, and refute allegations of financial mismanagement made public by Archbishop Sablan Apuron.

These individuals have given of their time, professional acumen, and personal resources to assist Msgr. James Benavente in bringing to order the financial matters of these two entities prior to, during, and after the report by Deloitte and Touche and the allegation of financial mismanagement by Archbishop Apuron.

The news conference will be held at 10:00 a.m. today, August 6, 2014, on the front steps of the Cathedral-Basilica.

As this point, the following individuals have confirmed their attendance and participation:

Mr. Joseph Rivera, former Director of the Bureau of Budget & Management Research
Mr. Art Ilagan, Insurance & Banking Commissioner and former Director of the Department of Revenue & Taxation
Mr. Rick Duenas, Certified Public Accountant and son of former Chief Judge and Sir Knight Cristobal C. Duenas.
Mr. Richard Untalan, past chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council
Deacon Steve Martinez, former Finance Officer of the Archdiocese of Agaña.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MassLive

Springfield’s Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, loyal to Orioles, Church doctrine and being a listener

By Anne-Gerard Flynn | aflynn@repub.com
on August 06, 2014

The Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski will be installed as the ninth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield on Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. at St. Michael’s Cathedral. Rozanski, of Polish heritage, has been auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, where his duties included ministry to Hispanics, as well as to clergy and religious. Appointed auxiliary by Pope John Paul II, his ordination on Aug. 24, 2004, at the age of 46, made him the youngest bishop in the United States at the time.

On the day before his 56th birthday on Aug. 6, Rozanski gave one of his first area interviews, fielding questions in the diocesan chancery about his favorite baseball team (the Orioles), his mother’s advice to remember his working class roots, and his beliefs in Catholic education, a pastoral approach to Catholic doctrine and ongoing Church vigilance against any abuse of minors.

“The charter has been effective,” said Rozanski, who is involved with minor revisions to the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops’ seminal, Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, first issued to Church workers, in 2005. All 195 U.S. dioceses now have staff to assist victims of abuse, bishops are required to report allegations of abuse to law enforcement authorities, and most dioceses undergo annual review of compliance with the document’s 17 points. Billions of dollars in settlement money has been paid by the Church to victims of pedophile clergy, in the wake of victims coming forward and the release of court documents showing a pattern of suspected clergy being transferred to different assignments. “It has raised the consciousness of bishops, priests, deacons, religious, lay ecclesial ministers, catechists, anybody entrusted with youth that, when they feel something is wrong, that they step forward and say it.”

Rozanski stressed that ongoing awareness and adherence to the charter’s regulations is key, something Pope Francis underscored in his recent statement that “all bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.” The pope’s statement was seen as addressing criticisms that bishops transferred pedophile priests, rather than address allegations of abuse against them.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 06, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Victims pass resolution for archbishop’s removal
They cite cover-up of abuse and “hidden evidence”
SNAP to all Minnesota bishops: Beg pope to fire archbishop

In response to a months-long clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal in the Twin Cities, a support group for victims of sexual abuse is calling for the immediate removal of St. Paul’s archbishop.

More than 300 members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), voted to pass a one-page resolution calling for the removal of St. Paul & Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt. SNAP is the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused in religious and institutional settings.

Members adopted the resolution at the group’s 25th anniversary annual conference in Chicago this week

Nienstedt has been blasted by victims and Catholics for quietly moving predator clerics, hiding evidence of abuse and covering-up child sex crimes. Media outlets such as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the New York Times have also called for Nienstedt’s removal.

Nienstedt “has actively participated in the cover up and protection of clergy who have sexually abused children and adults,” the resolution says.

“Will this resolution convince Nienstedt to step down? Probably not,” said Frank Meuers of Plymouth, SNAP’s Twin Cities director. “But we must let our voices be heard. He must step down – or Pope Francis must act – if victims are to heal and children are to be kept safe.”

The group is also urging others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the St. Paul archdiocese to contact secular officials, not Catholic officials.

The group is also demanding complete transparency and accountability from St. Paul Catholic officials.

The resolution is below:

Resolution calling for the removal of Archbishop Nienstedt

Whereas, Archbishop John Nienstedt of the St. Paul/Minneapolis Archdiocese has actively participated in the cover up and protection of clergy who have sexually abused children and adults.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

August 6, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Canberra’s Anglican bishop is investigating “disgraceful and inappropriate” behaviour by clergy and church workers in the diocese.

“There are matters with which I am currently dealing that do involve instances of abuse [in the Canberra-Goulburn diocese],” Bishop Stuart Robinson said on Wednesday. “They do involve disgraceful and inappropriate actions by leaders within the churches. And, yes, lives have been destroyed.”

Bishop Robinson was explaining the decision to hold a diocese-wide “Lamentation Sunday” this weekend to address the issue of child sex abuse.

“The Lamentation Sunday and apology is not predicated on anything other than the pain we are feeling as a result of the pain we have inflicted either directly or indirectly [on the victims of child sexual abuse] over the past 30 or 40 years,” he said.

“People responding to media reports and the royal commission tell us that these things are affecting them, even up to 50 years later, and they want to deal with them.”

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OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 06, 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 teenaged missionary from Oklahoma, who last month was charged with sexually abusing several young children from an African orphanage, will remain in custody. Our hearts ache for the vulnerable children who, instead of receiving much needed aid, were sexually assaulted. We are glad he will be kept in custody and hope officials provide outreach for other children who may have been abused.

Matthew Durham has traveled several times to Kenya to work at a children’s home with an organization called Upendo. The allegations of abuse stem from his most recent trip. We are glad a judge is keeping him in prison pending an appeal. We believe he might flee the US if given the chance.

Durham admitted in writing and on video to a “lifelong attraction” to kids, outreach is even more critical. It is possible that there are more victims who have been suffering in silence and self blame from previous trips or in the Oklahoma community he lives in. Also because he blames “inner demon{s}” for his behavior he’s less apt to respond well to treatment & this should be considered in his sentencing.

Upendo and any other organization he is associated with should immediately provide the children he abused with access to rehabilitative services and reach out to anyone else who might be suffering in silence and self blame, in Kenya and the US.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 6, 2014

Henrietta Cook, Jane Lee

One of Australia’s leading philanthropists has demanded the Premier urgently implement all recommendations from the Victorian inquiry into institutional child sex abuse, warning further delays will lead to a “betrayal of trust”.

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry’s final report was tabled in November, but only three of its 15 recommendations have since been implemented, with legislation for a fourth recommendation before parliament.

Andrew Blode, chief executive of the Jack and Robert Smorgon Families Foundation, which helped establish the Australian Council for Children and Youth Organisations and has supported hundreds of charities, recently wrote to Premier Denis Napthine to express concerns about the delay.

“Clearly, if the Victorian government delay taking action any longer, these same institutions named in the inquiry, which receive in excess of $320 million from DHS to provide community services, would be viewed as a ‘betrayal of trust’.”

On the day the report was tabled, Premier Napthine said all the recommendations “will be considered as a matter of urgency by the Government.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Former Catholic priest David Edwin Rapson has had his child sex abuse convictions quashed and been granted bail ahead of fresh trials.

Rapson, 61, was jailed for 13 years in 2013 for rape and sexual assault offences involving eight boys at two Victorian Catholic colleges between the 1970s and 1990.

But he was released on bail on Wednesday after the Victorian Court of Appeal quashed his convictions when the prosecution conceded the charges should not have been dealt with in the one trial.

He will now face fresh trials in the Victorian County Court.

The Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) concedes the charges against Rapson should have been heard in separate trials, rather than just one.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News

Monsignor James Benavente responded directly to Archbishop Anthony Apuron, in a letter sent today, on Apuron’s previous public statements of financial mismanagement and financial record-keeping problems under Benavente’s watch.

Some of the archbishop’s statements were “absolutely wrong,” Benavente wrote.

A group of Guam financial experts also held a press conference this morning, saying the archbishop’s statements weren’t factual.

On Apuron’s public statement that the Catholic Cemeteries of Guam used land that was not under its name, but was instead under the Archdiocese of Agana, as collateral for a loan, Benavente wrote:

“Regarding the recording of the land at the Catholic Cemeteries as an asset, the Deloitte & Touche (letter) acknowledges this correction in their letter of Jan. 8, 2014. It should be noted that before the Deloitte audit, the only persons who could have have known that the land was also recorded on the Archdiocese books was you, as archbishop, and Deacon Dominic Kim. Additionally, your letter is absolutely wrong in stating that the property was used to secure a loan…. This clarification was pointed out to Deacon Kim in 2012, and a copy of that letter was also given to you.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Kincora: As this murky episode recedes ever further into the past, time is running out to shine a light on it

BY LIAM CLARKE – 06 AUGUST 2014

Kincora is one of those scandals that just won’t go away. It has always been surrounded by rumours of high-level abuse rings, prostitution of boys from care homes and a cover-up by the intelligence services.

It is rather like the fantastic rumours that swirled around major public figures like Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smyth.

It is partly the fact these rumours turned out to be true that has reignited interest in Kincora. There is a growing belief that men like Savile and Smyth did not act alone, and that they were part of a network of abusers who were too well connected to be touched.

For years the official line has also been that Kincora was solved.

Three employees who systematically abused boys and youths in the east Belfast home were jailed in 1980.

Since then there have been two official inquiries, which turned up nothing out of the ordinary.

The first, headed by Sir George Terry, the Chief Constable of Sussex, concluded in 1983 that “there is no substance to the allegations that Army intelligence had knowledge of homosexual abuse at Kincora”.

The second inquiry, under Judge William Hughes, was set up just a year later.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Kincora: How three men alerted MI5 officers to home’s dark secret… and still nothing was done to stop the child sex abuse

BY LIAM CLARKE – 06 AUGUST 2014

The Belfast Telegraph can name three people who gave information about child sex abuse in Kincora to British military intelligence only to see any investigation blocked for years by MI5.

Last night Brian Gemmell, a former captain in military intelligence, confirmed that he had passed on information from three men – James Miller, Roy Garland and Jim McCormick – to a senior MI5 officer named Ian Cameron. All three information sources were completely opposed to the abuse and wanted it ended.

Mr Gemmell, an officer in military intelligence at the time, was trying to gain an entrée to Tara, a secretive Protestant paramilitary group headed by William McGrath. Until late 1971 McGrath’s second-in-command in Tara was Mr Garland.

“I had been aware that McGrath was a child abuser since the 1940s,” Mr Garland said.

He first became aware of it when McGrath, a born-again Christian, was carrying out a mission in Faith House. The premises in Belfast’s Orpen Park has now been converted to an old people’s home and has no connection with its role in McGrath’s day.

A second source of information on McGrath was Mr Miller, an Englishman and former soldier who had settled in Northern Ireland.

He worked as a military intelligence and MI5 agent. In 1971 Mr Miller, who is now dead, was infiltrating Tara for the intelligence services and had reported his suspicions to his handlers.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Jacky Jones

Wed, Aug 6, 2014

Following the recent revelations about mother-and-baby homes, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “It is about the kind of country Ireland was.” I wish he was right.

In 1933 George Bernard Shaw wrote: “It is amazing how the grossest abuses thrive on their reputation for being old, unhappy, far-off things in an age of imaginary progress.”

The concluding observations in Ireland’s fourth report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee show that Ireland is the kind of country that ignored women’s rights in the past and continues to do so in the present.

Sir Nigel Rodley, vice-chairman of the committee, referred to a litany of human rights abuses, including the practice of symphysiotomy, Magdalene laundries, and mother-and-baby homes as “quite a collection” and “there was nothing about accountability in anything we have heard”.

I beg to differ. Women were, and are, held accountable whereas men were, and are, not. Between 1922 and 1987, when the concept of illegitimacy was abolished, 145,073 illegitimate children were born in Ireland.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – Today was moving day for Monsignor James Benavente who has been asked to leave his home of 20 years following his removal as rector of the Agana Cathedral.

This past Sunday’s cathedral bulletin – said it all a picture of a church divided and the quote “for the lesser road was chosen”. Today the controversy within the Catholic community continues as Monsignor Benavente was kicked out of the cathedral rectory – a place he called home for two decades.

His supporters and close friends like Jon Jr Calvo were in Hagatna today, helping him move out. He said, “For anybody to be uprooted after 20 years here at the Cathedral Basilica this is home for him it is home for many of the parishioners so to be abruptly removed at this time is very surprising so we wish him the best and we want to assure him that our prayers and support will always be there for him.”

It was two weeks ago Archbishop Anthony Apuron shocked the local Catholic community. He removed Monsignor Benavente from his position as the rector of the Archdiocese of Agana and as director of the Catholic Cemeteries. The archbishop took it another step further shutting down the Cathedral Museum, a project the monsignor oversaw religiously to fruition.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam – In Tumon, local blogger Tim Rohr spoke before island Rotarians. Rohr writes Jungle Watch, a blog that covers issues involving the island’s Catholic community. Even prior to the removal of Monsignor James Benavente Rohr has been highly critical of Archbishop Anthony Apuron for his controversial removal of Father Paul Gofigan last year from the Santa Barbara Church.

Rohr said, “My only hope is that the archbishop for his own health resigns ASAP.”

One Rotarian questioned, “There seems to be a lot of conviction on your part on the archbishop’s part – do you see any amicable meeting or meeting or meeting of the minds or compromise?”, to which Rohr replied, “Absolutely not.” He then reaffirmed his belief that the archbishop needs to resign.

Rohr said that a several Catholics participating in a press conference this morning on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica in Agana to respond to, correct and refute public allegations by the archbishop was just the beginning.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

by Jolene Toves

Guam – “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,” explained Joe Rivera. He was one of several people who participated in a press conference this morning on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica in Agana.

It was held to respond to, correct and refute public allegations by Archbishop Anthony Apuron of financial mismanagement.

Two weeks ago the archbishop suddenly removed Monsignor James Benavente as the rector of the Archdiocese of Agana and the director of the Catholic Cemeteries. He accused him of financial mismanagement. The archbishop in a July 29th and July 31st press release cited a letter from auditors Deloitte & Touche sent in January that determined the accounting practices especially in the catholic cemeteries are “inappropriate”. The firm had been working on audit of the archdiocese finance for over a year.

Even before the January letter from the auditors, however Rivera, Art Ilagan, and Rick Duenas were asked by Monsignor James to help address and implement accounting recommendations by the firm. Rivera during the press conference provided a paper trail of correspondence outlining the corrective actions they’ve been implementing.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

VIDEO: Former BBMR Director Rivera to Archbishop: It’s Never Too Late to Say “I’m Sorry”

Guam – Concerned about what they said are false allegations against Monsignor James Benavente, various community leaders with financial backgrounds held a news conference today to refute claims of financial mismanagement made by Archbishop Anthony Apuron against the Monsignor.

“We felt compelled to speak out after the archbishop released a statement accusing Msgr. James of financial practices that were grave and detrimental to the archdiocese. Nothing is further from the truth,” said former BBMR Director Joseph Rivera.

Various community leaders with strong financial backgrounds gathered in support of Monsignor James Benavente this morning at the steps of the Agana Cathedral to address allegations made by Archbishop Anthony Apuron against the monsignor. Rivera and Art Ilagan, the insurance and banking commissioner and former director of Rev and Tax spoke on the ousted rector’s behalf. They were responding to specific allegations made by the Archbishop in a July 31st statement.

“There were five allegations on there. Of those five allegations, if you’ll note, two of them were already completed and addressed by Deloitte and Touché in their Jan. 8, 201[4] letter that was already printed also. And another two were addressed in documents that were submitted to the archdiocese, to Deacon Dominic Kim by the cemeteries staff in May 21st. So that’s 2 months prior to this letter,” Rivera pointed out.

Rivera noted that the last item was in the process of being corrected and that Archbishop Apuron had even acknowledged this.

“In fact the archbishop himself in a letter dated June 26, 2014, addressed to Msgr. James–a mere 6 weeks ago–that much corrective action had been accomplished. In that letter, the archbishop, based on the recommendtaions of Deloitte & Touche instructed Msgr. James to have the financial statemetns ending June 30, 2014 ready to be submitted by Aug. 15,” he said.

The news conference follows a sequence of startling events since Monsignor Benavente was fired as rector and director of the Catholic Cemeteries. A prayer service was held last week attended by hundreds in support of the monsignor. On Monday the Cathedral Museum that Monsignor Benavente pioneered was closed indefinitely and yesterday he was seen moving out of the rectory.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP 6 AUG 2014

Former Catholic priest David Edwin Rapson has had his child sex abuse convictions quashed and been granted bail ahead of fresh trials.

Rapson, 61, was jailed for 13 years in 2013 for rape and sexual assault offences involving eight boys at two Victorian Catholic colleges between the 1970s and 1990.

But he was released on bail on Wednesday after the Victorian Court of Appeal quashed his convictions when the prosecution conceded the charges should not have been dealt with in the one trial.

He will now face fresh trials in the Victorian County Court.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Father Richard Salas is still listed as parish administrator for St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Parish in Gander, but he is no longer ministering to the congregation.

The bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Falls, Most Rev. Robert Anthony Daniels, confirmed for TC Media that Salas is under investigation by the RCMP in Gander.

Daniels said Salas was withdrawn from the public ministry several weeks ago. He declined to comment further on the matter under investigation, directing the media to the RCMP for information.

Sgt. Phil Matthews of the Gander RCMP said he is unable to fully discuss the matter at this time, but confirmed Salas has been under investigation following the RCMP receiving a complaint more than a month ago.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

VIDEO: Monsignor James Benevente Moves Out of Hagatna Cathedral; Reassigned to St. Anthony’s in Tamuning

Guam – Monsignor James Benevente has moved out of the Agana Cathedral and reassigned to the St. Anthony’s Parish in Tamuning. The Monsignor was recently removed as the Director of Guam’s Catholic Cemeteries and Rector of the Hagatna Cathedral Basilica.

After Archbishop Anthony Apuron removed Monsignor James Benevente as the director of Guam’s Catholic cemeteries and Rector of the Agana Parish for what he called “Significant accounting deficiencies in the Catholic cemeteries” Monsignor James has now been physically moved out of the Cathedrals pastoral center.

This morning the Monsignor and some close friends were seen moving boxes and furniture out of the pastoral center. The Monsignor only had this to say: “I just want to thank the people of the archdiocese of Agana and the parishioners of the Cathedral Basilica for their continued support and that’s really the only comment I’d like to say. That’s all I have to say thank you very much. Thank you for your prayers thank you.”

This is the latest in a string of controversial events happening as a result of what some are saying is in fighting within Guam’s Catholic church. Just a few days ago the cathedral’s museum was shut down and Monsignor James was instrumental in establishing the museum

Jon Junior Calvo spoke briefly on behalf of Monsignor James. “I’m here on my personal time and my willingness. Monsignor has been a close family friend of ours and we’re here to support him in this transition time,” said Calvo.

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OKLAHOMA
NewsOK

by Matt Dinger Published: August 5, 2014

A 19-year-old Edmond man accused of committing sex crimes against children while volunteering in Kenya will remain in federal custody for now, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Matthew Lane Durham was charged last month in Oklahoma City federal court with four counts of traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

Tuesday, Durham was charged with additional counts of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and aggravated sexual abuse.

He was scheduled to be released on $10,000 bail Tuesday afternoon by a judge, but prosecutors appealed the decision.

A second judge issued an order Tuesday halting Durham’s release until the appeal can be heard.

Prosecutors argue that Durham confessed to committing the acts both in writing and on video. He has also repeatedly threatened to burn down the house of a witness, according to the appeal.

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OKLAHOMA
ABC News

OKLAHOMA CITY — Aug 5, 2014

By TIM TALLEY Associated Press

A 19-year-old man is accused of traveling from Oklahoma City to Kenya so he could sexually abuse children at an orphanage there, according to charges in a three-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury Tuesday.

Prosecutors have alleged that Matthew Lane Durham of Edmond engaged in sex acts with as many as 10 children aged 4 to 10 while volunteering at the Upendo Children’s Home near Nairobi from April to June 2014. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of engaging in illegal sexual conduct in foreign places, aggravated sexual abuse with children and other charges.

The indictment alleges that Durham traveled from Oklahoma City to Kenya in order to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children at Upendo, which specializes in assisting neglected Kenyan children by providing them with food, housing, clothes and academic and religious instruction.

The indictment also accuses Durham of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors under 18 years of age and aggravated sexual abuse of a child under 12.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bob Troester, said Durham could be asked to enter a plea to the charges as early as Wednesday. Durham’s attorney, Stephen Jones, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

A New Square educator accused of sexually abusing a young boy over five years has rejected the prosecution’s offer of state prison time in exchange for a guilty plea.

Moshe Taubenfeld plans to challenge before a jury the felony charge that he sexually abused a New Square boy from age 8 in 2001 until he turned 13 in 2006. Taubenfeld, 55, the father of 20 children, pleaded not guilty July 8 to the charge of second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child.

“Our client has indicated he did nothing of that nature,” defense attorney Gerard Damiani said Wednesday.

Damiani said Taubenfeld denied the accusations when the young man asked him about the alleged abuse during a telephone conversation monitored by Ramapo police and the Rockland District Attorney’s Office.

“Apparently there was an effort to get a statement from him some time ago which proved fruitless,” Damiani said. “It resulted in denials.”

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

August 6, 2014 by J-Wire Staff

Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick has been elected president of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria. Social worker Vivien Resofsky has sent him an open letter.

On hearing of your appointment as President of the Rabbincial Council of Victoria I would like to ask the following:

Dear Rabbi Gutnick,

That the RCV implement the same reforms of child sexual abuse prevention as its counterpart the Rabbinical Council of America.

The Rabbinical Council of America’s resolution of July 2013 to reform child abuse prevention and its implementation by US Yeshiva University’s (YU) Centre for the Jewish Future, is a paradigm shift in child sexual abuse prevention in Orthodox Jewish America that puts our top Rabbi’s new pledge of reform behind and at odds with world leaders and its USA counterpart.

In 2010 the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) followed the Rabbinical Council of America’s direction. Its resolution, Condemning and Combating Child Abuse was identical to its American counterpart. However in the wake of the child sexual abuse crisis at Yeshiva institutions in Melbourne the RCV took a different direction.

The latest American reform that incorporates, “bringing in professionals with experience in this area to train staff and educate the community about preventing sexual abuse,” wrestles control from Rabbis and challenges the way Ultra-Orthodox communities normally operate.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Leslie Hittner

Of all the columns that I have written, those that engender the most response and encouragement are the columns that have taken the Catholic Church to task for the hierarchy’s un-Christian acts of self-preservation when it comes to the sexual abuse scandal.

It has been about 13 years since the scandal broke in Boston, and the hierarchy still has not figured out that what everybody is upset about is not the fact that there have been sexual predator priests — which is bad enough in itself — but rather that the Church leadership has repeatedly tried to cover this fact up.

We are upset that predator priests were not reported to legal authorities. We are upset that predator priests were shifted through multiple parishes in multiple dioceses, and that the parishioners in those churches were not made aware of the nature of the “father” who was giving absolution to their children. Lastly, we are upset that the Catholic Church has chosen not to hold accountable those bishops and cardinals who perpetrated this cover-up.

That lack of accountability remains even today. Selfish acts of self-preservation in the leadership of our Catholic Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis continues with petty lawsuits being argued in Ramsey County. Similar legal fights are taking place in Catholic dioceses elsewhere. Current bishops who may or may not have participated in the sexual abuse cover-up nevertheless continue to fight the bad fight begun by their forerunners.
Even proposed changes to canon law appear to continue to deal with the church’s image and don’t address civil legal issues or establish measures of accountability for bishops and cardinals who chose to skirt the law — or continue to play that silly game.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

ST. PAUL – Plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Anderson released the names of eight priests from the Diocese of New Ulm who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.

Six of the names had been made public previously through lawsuits, but two — the Rev. John L. Gleason and the Rev. John M. Murphy — had not. Both are deceased.

The other priests are David A. Roney, Francis Markey, Vincent Fitzgerald, William J. Marks, Michael G. Skoblik and Douglas L. Schleisman. Schleisman is the only one believed still alive.

Anderson obtained the names through a deposition taken by his co-counsel, Michael Finnegan, of the Rev. Francis J. Garvey, as part of two lawsuits. Garvey served on the priest personnel board of the diocese and was privy to information about offending priests.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Bill Zlatos
Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is sending letters to all the parishes where a Beaver County priest worked, informing them of an allegation of sexual abuse against him.

“The pastor will make the decision whether he wishes to read the letter at Mass and publish the letter in the parish bulletin. Our recommendation is that he does both,” said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, on Tuesday.

One person made an allegation of sexual abuse dating to the late 1990s against the Rev. John “Jack” Fitzgerald, 66, pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish in Conway. The diocese placed him on administrative leave while authorities investigate.

Bishop David Zubik wrote a letter about the allegation that was read last weekend at all Masses at Our Lady of Peace. Fitzgerald worked as parochial vicar at seven parishes between the 1970s and 1991. He was assigned to St. Anthony in Bessemer in Lawrence County from 1991 to 1995 and worked as a part-time priest at St. John Neumann in Franklin Park. He also was chaplain of the Air National Guard’s 171st Air Refueling Wing in Moon from 1986 to 2010.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Alleged paedophile David Edwin Rapson to be freed after prosecution bungle

SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED AUGUST 06, 2014

A PRIEST accused of being one of the state’s worst paedophiles could be freed from prison today after serving just 11 months of a 13-year sentence because of a bungle by state prosecutors.

The move is believed to have devastated many of David Edwin Rapson’s alleged victims who fought for more than 25 to bring him to justice.

The former priest was jailed last year after a County Court jury found him guilty of eight counts of indecent assault and five counts of rape of young boys.

But the convictions were today quashed by the Court of Appeal after a concession by the Office of Public Prosecutions that Rapson, 61, should have faced several trials.

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.

AUSTRALIA
WA Today

August 6, 2014

Adam Cooper
Court reporter for The Age

Former priest David Rapson is to be freed from jail and has had convictions for sexually abusing eight boys at a Catholic boarding school quashed, in a ruling that has devastated men who gave evidence in court against him.

The Office of Public Prosecutions on Wednesday conceded the 13 charges Rapson faced in the County Court last year should not have been heard in the one trial because of differences in the offending that was alleged.

The Court of Appeal said the concession was proper and quashed Rapson’s convictions on five counts of rape and eight of indecent assault, that he be released from custody on bail and that he face a new trial in the County Court.

Rapson, 61, was last year jailed for a minimum 10 years after he was found guilty by a jury of the 13 charges related to the abuse of eight boys at the school between the mid 1970s and 1990.

The latest ruling was a major blow for the eight men who testified in Rapson’s trial, and who might now have to return to the witness stand to have their allegations tested again in court.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

The Bishop of Gloucester, The Right Reverend Michael Perham was questioned today over allegations of sex abuse dating back more than 30 years.

Days after standing down for “personal reasons”, he was quizzed about allegations he abused a girl under 18 and a woman.

Speculation has been mounting since the Bishop resigned on Friday as the cathedral prepared for a series of First World War centenary services.

Now it has emerged that officers probing historic allegations of indecent assault had arranged to speak to the married, father-of-four on a voluntary basis.

The investigation is being run by the Metropolitan Police Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.

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.

ILLINOIS
NWI Times

Sarah Reese sarah.reese@nwi.com, (219) 933-3351

HAMMOND | A former pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond on Friday asked a federal judge to at least allow his attorney to present evidence showing his 12-year sentence should be overturned.

An attorney for Jack Schaap, 56, persisted in claims that Schaap’s defense attorneys provided ineffective counsel and that U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano should have considered his teenage victim’s “sexual aggressiveness” at sentencing, federal court records show.

Florida attorney Charles Murray, representing Schaap, also brushed off prosecutors’ claims that Schaap’s sentence did not outweigh the gravity of his offense.

Prosecutors said Schaap’s conduct was “egregious” and done under the guise of providing religious counseling to the girl. Schaap’s attorney wrote such a characterization is an oversimplification of evidence in the case.

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

MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

By Dan Nienaber
dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

NEW ULM — A statement issued by the Diocese of New Ulm Tuesday repeated the organization’s regrets for the “devastating effects of sexual misconduct on the part of clergy” but said nothing about why it is the only diocese in the state refusing to release a list of priests accused of molesting children.

The statement was a response to a list of eight priests released Monday by the Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm. The firm has been filing lawsuits throughout the state, including Brown County District Court in New Ulm, to have the priest lists made public. They were created for a 2004 bishop study to determine the scope of child sexual abuse by priests in the United States. Every other diocese and Catholic organization that created lists has made them public either voluntarily or in response to a court order.

An attorney with the Anderson firm, Michael Finnegan, said former Diocese of New Ulm Bishop John Nienstedt has publicly stated the New Ulm list has 12 priests on it. Finnegan doesn’t know if the list of eight priests released Monday, which was created based on a deposition of a former diocese official, includes all or some of the names on the diocese’s list. Nienstedt left the diocese to become archbishop of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese.

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.

PARAGUAY
Religion News Service

By David Gibson | Religion News Service August 5

A showdown between Pope Francis and a conservative bishop in Paraguay is heating up as the bishop rejected charges that he sheltered a priest accused of sexual misconduct, and claimed that Pope Benedict XVI himself vouched for the suspect cleric just days before his election as pope in 2005.

The conflict between the Vatican and Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este was sparked by revelations in March that the bishop had promoted a Catholic priest who had been barred from ministry in Pennsylvania after church officials there said he molested several boys.

Last month, Rome dispatched a cardinal and an archbishop to Paraguay to investigate, and on July 30 the Vatican said it was removing the priest, the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity, from his job as the diocese’s No. 2 official. It also took the unusual step of barring Livieres from ordaining any men to the priesthood.

In a detailed and sharply worded 12-point rebuttal to Rome, the Paraguayan diocese said Urrutigoity has been the subject of “a long and harsh defamation campaign in the U.S.” and said he came “recommended by some cardinals with roles in the Vatican.”

One of those cardinals, it said, was Joseph Ratzinger, who “was elected pope Benedict XVI a few days later,” in April 2005.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Catholic Insider

The stories about St. Francis of Cabrini continuing to protest their closing and occupy the church ten years after it was ordered closed and comments by Communications Secretary Terry Donilon merit a response. In particular, the deception by Donilon about how the Archdiocese of Boston uses parish funds just cannot sit uncontested. Donilon said a fund of resources of parishes cannot be tapped by the archdiocese for any purpose the archdiocese chooses. Maybe that is true. But if so, then how exactly does Donilon explain how closed Brighton parish properties were recently transferred from the archdiocese to another related entity to help pay off sexual abuse claims? Later in this post, we also show how little progress the Boston Archdiocese has made with these church squatters.

First, regarding the Scituate situation, here is an excerpt from one article with the Donilon quote:

Canon law consultant Peter Borre of the Council of Parishes, who’s been helping diehard parishioners of deconsecrated Mount Carmel Church in East Boston stave off a wrecking ball, told several dozen supporters — some openly weeping — “the whole rationale for turning this church into condos” is contradicted by the Archdiocese of Boston’s latest public annual report, which he said shows the nonprofit reaped $41 million in surplus revenues in Fiscal Year 2013.

Archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon responded, “Mr. Borre is misleading people. The $41 million is mostly money raised by parishes for the parishes. So even though it shows up on the combined statements of the archdiocese’s books, it can not be tapped by the archdiocese for any purpose it chooses (i.e., their suggestion to reopen St. Frances). These are the resources of the parishes.

BCI agrees that Borre is misleading people–the Boston Archdiocese has no operating surplus. And we are not supporters of him or the Scituate squatters. But Terry Donilon is also apparently misleading people. Terry, if what you said is really the case, then how do you explain the recent transfer of the closed Our Lady of Presentation and St Gabriel parish properties in Brighton to St. John’s Seminary to pay off $3.9M worth of a promissory note to the seminary–a note which is repaying money the Boston Archdiocese got from selling off St. John’s Seminary property in order to pay sexual abuse claims?

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.

LOUISIANA
Opposing Views

By Michael Allen, Tue, August 05, 2014

Father Gilbert Dutel, of the St. Edmond Catholic Church in Lafayette, La., denied recent reports that he sexually abused a 9-year-old boy in the 1970s.

Minnesota Public Radio reported in July about court papers that had been sealed by a judge since 1995 that were part of a “massive insurance lawsuit” in 1992 against some Louisiana Catholic priests:

Another Catholic attorney who had represented victims, Anthony Fontana, was frustrated in his efforts to get the bishop’s attention. “There’s another problem you need to know about,” he told (Archbishop Harry) Flynn. A Lafayette priest named Gilbert Dutel had been accused of coercing young adult men into having sex. Flynn offered a calm reply. He explained that Dutel was cured and that, regardless, he needed to keep him in ministry because of the priest shortage.

The alleged victim claimed in a 1992 affidavit that Father Dutel was working at St. Theresa Church in Abbeville, La., when the alleged molestation happened from 1975 to 1977 in the church rectory.

RawStory.com notes that the alleged victim stated in the affidavit about Father Dutel: “Well, he would just put his arms around me and he was I guess trying to be consoling, kind of gentle and then he just started playing with me and he unzipped my pants. He performed oral sex on me.”

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.

LOUISIANA
Tri-Parish Times

By THE REV. WILMER L. TODD Guest Columnist

An interesting Court Case that reached the Louisiana Supreme Court involved the seal of confession.

A 14-year-old female said she told her confessor, the Rev. Jeff Bayhi, in 2008 she had been sexually abused. Bayhi was the pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Zachary, Louisiana, and its mission, Our Lady of the Assumption.

Now 20, the female plaintiff sought to have to court compel testimony from Bayhi as to whether or not she had confessed and, if so, to detail the contents of the confessions.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge issued the following statement: “The case in question does not involve any charges against any clergy, religious or a paid staff member of the diocese. The Church has great compassion for those who have experienced such egregious misconduct.

“The issue before the District Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Louisiana Supreme Court assaults the heart of a fundamental doctrine of the Catholic faith as relating to the absolute seal of sacred communications (Confession/Sacrament of Reconciliation).

“The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the seal of confession preempted the Civil Court from ordering the priest to testify about whether or not there was a confession and, if so, what was the content. The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed the case against both Fr. Bayhi and the Catholic Church of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard

ALEXANDRA RUCKI

Published: 05 August 2014

A senior Church of England bishop has been questioned by police on suspicion of indecently assaulting a woman and child while he was working in south London.

The Rt Rev Michael Perham, 66, was interviewed under caution by detectives over the incidents alleged to have taken place in the 1980s.

It comes days after Bishop Perham suddenly left his post as the Bishop of Gloucester before he was due to retire aged 67 in November.

The diocese of Gloucester announced Bishop Perham had “stepped back” from his position due to personal reasons.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed a 66-year-old man was interviewed under caution but was not arrested.

He said: “Police can confirm a 66-year-old man today attended a police building in Gloucestershire by appointment where he was interviewed under caution on suspicion of indecent assault on a child aged under 18 years, and indecent assault on a second female, aged over 18 years.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Bishop of Gloucester has been interviewed by police investigating two allegations of indecent assault.

The Rt Rev Michael Perham announced on Friday he would “step-back” from his duties with immediate effect.

Police confirmed only that a 66-year-old man attended a police station in Gloucester on Tuesday but was not arrested.

The Diocese of Gloucester said it was a police matter and it would not be making any further comment.

The alleged offences, dating back to the early 1980s, relate to a child under the age of 18 and a woman over that age.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Gazette

Bishop of Gloucester quizzed by police over historic indecent assault claims against a woman and girl

THE Bishop of Gloucester Right Rev Michael Perham has been interviewed by police today, Tuesday, on suspicion of indecently assaulting a woman and a girl more than thirty years ago.

Bishop Michael, 66, attended a police station in Gloucestershire today to be interviewed about the allegations which date back to 1980 and 1981.

The investigation is being run by the Metropolitan Police Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “A-66-year-old man today attended a police station in Gloucestershire by appointment and was interviewed on suspicion of indecent assault of a child aged under 18 and indecent assault of a second female aged over 18.

“He was not arrested and enquiries continue.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Steven Morris and Ruth Gledhill
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 August 2014

A senior Church of England bishop has been interviewed under caution by detectives on suspicion of indecently assaulting a girl more than 30 years ago.

The bishop of Gloucester, Michael Perham, 66, was questioned on Tuesday by officers from the Metropolitan police’s sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command about the historical alleged offence.

Perham, who left his post suddenly ahead of weekend services, was also questioned about an alleged indecent assault on a woman at around the same time. Both alleged incidents date back to the early 1980s, when Perham was working as a curate in south London.

Mystery had surrounded Perham’s sudden departure just a few months before he was due to retire at the age of 67, following 10 years as bishop of Gloucester. The diocese of Gloucester initially said only that Perham, a married father of four grown-up daughters, had “stepped back” from his ministry due to personal reasons.

The Met on Tuesday afternoon confirmed a 66-year-old man “attended a police building in Gloucestershire by appointment where he was interviewed under caution on suspicion of indecent assault on a child aged under 18 years; and indecent assault on a second female, aged over 18 years.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Echo

The Bishop of Gloucester has announced he will stand down from his role with immediate effect.

The Rt Revd Michael Perham has cited “personal reasons” prompting the fast-forwarding of his exit from the Church of England – he was due to retire in November after 10 years of service.

He was due to retire to Wells and announced earlier this year that he would also step down from his position in the House of Lords.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gazette

By Daniel Chipperfield

THE Bishop of Gloucester has announced that he is to step down after more than ten years in the role.

The Right Reverend Michael Perham previously announced that he would retire in November after undertaking a pilgrimage across his diocese.

However a statement from the Diocese confirmed he plans to step back from the church earlier due to personal reasons.

The deadline for applicants to replace the Bishop closed on Monday, July 7 and the announcement of a new Bishop will be in Spring 2015.

On his retirement in February, Bishop Michael said: “By the time I retire in November I shall have completed more than ten years as Bishop of Gloucester.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Citizen

MYSTERY continues to surround the ‘stepping back’ of Bishop of Gloucester Michael Perham from his role.

Police yesterday confirmed there is no investigation on their part but Gloucester Diocese has continued to refuse to answer any questions, other than saying it is down to ‘personal reasons’.

The Right Reverend Michael Perham was due to retire in November.

Members of the clergy and local vicars have been told not to discuss his move.

There has been speculation on social media on what could have happened to cause the Bishop to suddenly stand down on the weekend of the First World War centenary services.

He was due to play a part in the service of remembrance at Gloucester Cathedral on Sunday, but others stepped in.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Echo

The Diocese of Gloucester has issued the following statement this evening.

It said: “The process is under way to enable the Bishop of Tewkesbury, the Rt. Revd. Martyn Snow, to take up the duties of the Bishop of Gloucester in his absence.

“It follows standard procedure set out in church legislation and is a process used on other occasions.

“It is expected to be formally ratified in the near future.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Echo

The Diocese of Gloucester is remaining tight-lipped over Bishop Michael Perham’s sudden decision to step down.

On Saturday the Diocese announced that the Bishop of Gloucester, who was due to retire in November, would “step back” from his duties with immediate effect.

The Diocese cited “personal reasons”, but would not elaborate further.

The Echo has contacted the Diocese again today to ask for clarification on what the personal reasons are, but it has refused to answer.

There has been speculation on social media on what could have happened to cause the Bishop to suddenly stand down on the weekend of the First World War centenary services.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucester Citizen

By Maryam_Qaiser | Posted: August 05, 2014

The process is under way to enable the Bishop of Tewkesbury, the Rt. Revd. Martyn Snow, to take up the duties of the Bishop of Gloucester in his absence.

It follows standard procedure set out in church legislation and is a process used on other occasions.

It is expected to be formally ratified in the near future.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Stroud News and Journal

THE Diocese of Gloucester has just announced that the process is under way to enable the Bishop of Tewkesbury, the Rt Rev Martyn Snow, to take up the duties of the Bishop of Gloucester in his absence.

The move is, the diocese says, standard procedure set out in church legislation and is a process used on other occasions.

It is expected to be formally ratified in the near future.

The position of Bishop of Tewkesbury has traditionally been regarded as that of deputy to the Bishop of Gloucester.

The diocese made a surprise announcement on Friday that the current Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Michael Perham, who had previously said he would retire in November, has stepped back from his role “for personal reasons”.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Echo

The Bishop of Gloucester Michael Perham has been questioned by the Metropolitan Police over historic sex abuse allegations against a child in the 1980s.

Although Mr Perham, 66, has not been arrested, it is understood he was invited by Scotland Yard to help detectives with their inquiries over an alleged indecent assault on a child between 1980 and 1981.

The former bishop stepped down from his role as head of the Diocese in Gloucester this week, months ahead of his planned retirement in November. He is married to Dr Alison Grove, who is a palliative care consultant. They have four grown up daughters.

At the time of the announcement, ‘personal reasons’ were cited as being behind his early retirement.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, said: “We can confirm a 66-year-old man on Tuesday, August 5, attended a police building in Gloucestershire by appointment where he was interviewed under caution on suspicion of indecent assault on a child aged under 18 years; and indecent assault on a second female, aged over 18 years.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Edward Malnick, and Keith Perry 05 Aug 2014

A senior bishop has been questioned by police on suspicion of indecently assaulting a woman and a girl – days after suddenly stepping down from his post.

The Rt Rev Michael Perham, 66, was due to retire in November after almost a decade as Bishop of Gloucester but withdrew from his role last weekend citing “personal reasons”.

On Tuesday Scotland Yard confirmed that Bishop Perham attended a police station in Gloucestershire to be interviewed over allegations dating from 1980 and 1981.

The investigation is into an alleged indecent assault of a child aged under 18 and indecent assault of a second female aged over 18.

A police spokesman said: “A 66-year-old man today attended a police station in Gloucestershire by appointment and was interviewed on suspicion of indecent assault of a child aged under 18 and indecent assault of a second female aged over 18.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Heart

5th August 2014, 17:27

The former Bishop of Gloucester has been questioned by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of indecent assault on a child and a second female, who was over 18.

The alleged incidents are said to have occurred between 1980 and 1981.

66 year old Michael Perham, who wasn’t arrested, stepped down from his role as head of the Diocese in Gloucester earlier this week, months ahead of his planned retirement in November.

He is married with four grown up daughters.

The Metropolitan Police have issued the following statement:

‘We can confirm a 66-year-old man today, Tuesday 5 August, attended a police building in Gloucestershire by appointment where he was interviewed under caution on suspicion of indecent assault on a child aged under 18 years; and indecent assault on a second female, aged over 18 years.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By: Jane Mathews
Published: Tue, August 5, 2014

The Right Reverend Michael Perham, 66, was due to retire in November after almost a decade as Bishop of Gloucester but stepped down last weekend blaming “personal reasons”.

Scotland Yard yesterday confirmed that he attended a police station in Gloucestershire to be interviewed over allegations dating from 1980 and 1981.

The investigation is into an alleged indecent assault of a child aged under 18 and an alleged indecent assault of a second female aged over 18.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Gloucester said: “This is a police matter. We have no further comment to make.”

A police spokesman said: “A 66-year-old man today attended a police station in Gloucestershire by appointment and was interviewed on suspicion of indecent assault of a child aged under 18 and indecent assault of a second female aged over 18.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

A senior bishop has been questioned by police on suspicion of indecently assaulting a girl and a woman.

The Right Rev Michael Perham, who stepped down as Bishop of Gloucester over the weekend after more than 10 years in the role, was not arrested but interviewed under caution.

He was due to retire in November but withdrew from his role citing “personal reasons”.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We can confirm a 66-year-old man today attended a police building in Gloucestershire by appointment where he was interviewed under caution on suspicion of indecent assault on a child aged under 18 years; and indecent assault on a second female, aged over 18 years.

“He was not arrested.

“The alleged incidents are said to have occurred between 1980 and 1981 and are being investigated by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command. Inquiries continue.”

A spokesman for the Diocese of Gloucester said: “This is a police matter. We have no further comment to make.”

In a statement on Saturday, the Diocese of Gloucester confirmed Bishop Perham had “stepped back” from his ministry due to “personal reasons”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Church of England embroiled in another alleged child abuse scandal after Bishop of Gloucester’s shock resignation

PAUL PEACHEY Author Biography CRIME CORRESPONDENT Tuesday 05 August 2014

The Church of England faces fresh scrutiny over its handling of historic child abuse after the outgoing Bishop of Gloucester was placed at the centre of a police inquiry over allegations of indecent assault on a child more than 30 years ago.

The Rt Rev Michael Perham, 66, suddenly quit after nearly a decade as bishop on Friday citing “personal reasons” but it can be revealed that a police inquiry was launched centred on the parish in south London where the senior cleric started his career in the Church as an assistant curate in 1976.

The force confirmed today that officers from its sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command are investigating “allegations of indecent assault on a child said to have occurred between 1980 and 1981”. Nobody has been arrested during the course of the continuing inquiry, the force said in a statement.

The Metropolitan Police said that a 66-year-old attended a police building where he was interviewed under caution on suspicion of indecent assault on a child aged under 18 and a woman aged over 18. They did not name the bishop.

The diocese has declined to comment further on the reasons for the bishop’s departure but it is understood that senior Church officials have been in contact with a group representing victims of abuse after it was alerted about the allegation four weeks ago. The Diocese of Gloucester said: “This is a police matter. We have no further comment to make.”

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.

LOUISIANA
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Tuesday, August 5, 2014

A Louisiana priest received a standing ovation from his church over the weekend following new details about sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy in the 1970s.

A report released by Minnesota Public Radio last month included a never-before-published affidavit, which had been sealed by a federal judge in 1995. The document indicated that Father Gilbert Dutel “had been accused of coercing young adult men into having sex.”

“Well, he would just put his arms around me and he was I guess trying to be consoling, kind of gentle and then he just started playing with me and he unzipped my pants,” the victim recalled, according to the affidavit. “He performed oral sex on me.”

The victim said that he had around eight sexual encounters with Dutel in total. Two other priests were also mentioned in the affidavit, but this was the first time that Dutel’s name had been made public.

According to Minnesota Public Radio, Bishop Harry Flynn later told lawyers that Dutel had been “cured,” and that the diocese needed to keep him due to a shortage of priests.

The Daily Advertiser reported that on Sunday Dutel read a statement during Mass at St. Edmond’s Catholic Church, insisting that he was innocent. Church members gave him a standing ovation in response.

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.

LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story published Monday about the Rev. Gilbert Dutel’s church homily at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church, The Daily Advertiser misquoted Dutel and incorrectly stated that he was referring to an alleged victim of sexual abuse. A review of the text of Dutel’s homily showed he said, “I regret deeply the embarrassment and heart-ache that all of this may have caused.”

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.

LOUISIANA
The IND

A correction was issued Tuesday by The Daily Advertiser saying its reporter misquoted the Rev. Gilbert Dutel during a weekend homily in which he addresses resurrected allegations that he molested a young altar boy in the mid- to late-1970s.

The correction reads:

In an earlier version of this story published Monday about the Rev. Gilbert Dutel’s church homily at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church, The Daily Advertiser misquoted Dutel and incorrectly stated that he was referring to an alleged victim of sexual abuse. A review of the text of Dutel’s homily showed he said, ‘I regret deeply the embarrassment and heart-ache that all this may have caused.’

The original quote printed in Monday’s paper, incorrectly had Dutel saying he “deeply” regretted the “embarrassment and the heart-ache this man has caused,” making it seem as if the priest was blaming the victim for the negative energy caused by the return of old allegations, the result of unsealed court records and a recent investigative series by Minnesota Public Radio.

St. Edmond’s responded to Monday’s misquote with a link on its web site to the exact statement read by Dutel during his weekend homily.

In addition to Tuesday’s correction, the local paper followed up with a story looking at Bishop Michael Jarrell’s appearance over the weekend at St. Edmond’s, where he joined his troubled priest in addressing the renewed controversy that erupted last week.

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VATICAN CITY/ARGENTINA
Catholic World News

Vatican City, Aug 5, 2014 / 05:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- This Friday Pope Francis will give a live interview on an Argentine radio station that he helped raise the money to found while Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., confirmed the event, telling CNA Aug. 4 that although he doesn’t know exactly how it will be done, most likely “the Pope will make a telephone call to the local radio, and this will be aired on the radio itself.”

Fr. Joaquín Giangreco, the parish priest for the village of Campo Gallo in the Diocese of Santiago del Estero, is set to conduct the interview with the Roman Pontiff.

“About two years ago the parish was building its radio for the existing communication need, taking into account the work of the church of Campo Gallo, covering more than (1,900 square miles),” the priest told Spanish newspaper “Nuevo Diario” in an article published Aug. 3.

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CHILE
El Dinamo

Sor María Graciela Soto, una monja de 93 años, ha declarado como imputada en un caso sobre presuntas sustracciones de bebés en hospitales públicos y clínicas privadas durante la dictadura.

Según reveló hoy el diario digital Emol citando al abogado querellante, Cristián Letelier, la declaración de la religiosa tuvo lugar el pasado viernes en su domicilio ante el juez Mario Carroza, quien está cargo de la investigación.

El testimonio, que duró poco más de una hora, fue recogido después de que peritos del Servicio Médico Legal comprobaran que la anciana monja estaba en plena posesión de sus facultades mentales y no padecía demencia senil.

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CHILE
Purasnoticia

Hasta la “casa de reposo” ubicada en la comuna de San Bernardo, donde cuidan a Sor María Graciela Soto, arribó el pasado viernes el juez Mario Carroza.

En el lugar, le tomó las declaraciones a la religiosa que tiene 93 años de edad y que identificada por los querellantes como nexo en las adopciones irregulares que se habrían registrado en el Hospital Barros Luco, desde fines de los 70 hasta 1986.

Sor María Graciela reconoció al ministro en visita que no era la primera vez que era interrogada, ya en 2003 había prestado testimonio ante el 18° Juzgado del Crimen de Santiago, por similares acusaciones.

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CHILE
Latin American Herald Tribune

SANTIAGO DE CHILE – A 93-year-old Chilean nun, Sister Maria Graciela Soto, has been questioned regarding the alleged abduction of babies in public and private hospitals in Chile during the military dictatorship (1973-90).

The nun was interrogated by Judge Mario Carroza last Friday in her home, online daily Emol reported, citing prosecuting lawyer Cristian letelier.

According to some plaintiffs, Sor Maria Graciela Soto was involved in the illegal handover of babies in the Barros Luco hospital of the Chilean capital during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

On April 15, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts suspended priest Gerardo Joannon, currently under investigation for the irregular adoption of newborns who were pronounced dead shortly after their birth.

The decision was taken following a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIPER), which cited the cases of several girls of single mothers who had been declared dead.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WKBN

By Jonathan Stroshine
Published: August 5, 2014

LAWRENCE CO., Pa. (WKBN) – A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese confirmed Tuesday that Priest John Fitzgerald has been placed on administrative leave following an allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the late 1990s.

The church turned the case over to law enforcement right away, according to Father Ron Lengwin, saying that one event involved in the allegation happened in Allegheny Co. and another in Lawrence Co.

The diocese has asked both the Lawrence County and Allegheny County Distrcit Attorneys to investigate, according to KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

Lengwin said he was not sure why the allegation is being brought to light now, but that it is not uncommon for sexual abuse allegations to come out after the fact.

The Diocese will gather a group of experts including lawyers, therapists and more to decide if Fitzgerald can serve as a priest when the time is right, according to Lengwin.

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

By Nicholas Cafardi

In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano last month, Cardinal Francecso Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, said that his council was working on a revision of Book Six of the Code of Canon Law, “On Sanctions.” The proposed changes would hopefully make the canonical penal process more accessible for bishops who wanted to bring canonical charges against priests who had sexually abused youngsters.

Although it generated some news at the time, the cardinal’s announcement really wasn’t anything new. Canonists have known that the Council for Legislative Texts has been working on a redraft of Book Six of the code since 2008. Not just Book Six, but the entire canonical penal or criminal process—which also covers parts of Book Seven, “On Processes”—needs a redraft.

To begin with, the canonical penal process as presented in the code is bulky and unwieldy, stretching as it does across two books of the code with its application requiring the canonist to jump back and forth between books. The canons are not even presented in chronological order in the sense that the canons that tell you what to do first would come before the canons that tell you what to do next. Rather, the process starts with Canon 1717, the accusation and preliminary investigation in Book Seven, and ends with Canon 1361, in Book Six, on the remission of penalties!

There is definitely work to be done in disentangling the canonical penal process so that it is more user-friendly. Indeed, back when the child sex abuse crisis first exploded, one of the reasons that the bishops gave for their failure to address the crisis properly was that the canonical penal process was too complicated to be useful against priest sex abusers. I am not sure how much weight that excuse actually carried, since the process was not tried and found wanting in those years—it simply was not tried. But the difficulty of the penal process was an excuse we heard a lot from the bishops in the late 1980s and 1990s.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a cnn.com article, “The Lavish Homes of American Archbishops”:

CNN, playing its Pope Francis card, is stunned to learn that “10 of the country’s top church leaders defy the Pope’s example and live in residences worth more than $1 million.”

Rebel #1 is New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan. He is living in a house that is attached to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, was built more than a hundred years ago, and cannot be sold separately because of its landmark status; it also houses offices, living quarters for other priests, guest rooms, a dining area, etc. What is inexcusable are Dolan’s red carpets—CNN claims they are “thick.” I can attest that the accusation is accurate.

Other rebels include Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, and Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski. George is guilty of having “an unobstructed view of nearby Lincoln Park,” Garcia-Siller’s crime is having a “wet bar,” and Wenski is accused of having a “tiki hut.” Those are problems that can be quickly fixed.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the latest failed attack on St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt:

Once again, the foes of Archbishop Nienstedt have come up empty: the names of eight priests in the Diocese of New Ulm who were credibly accused of molesting minors were released yesterday (some of the names were previously disclosed), and only one, Father David A. Roney, was there when Nienstedt took office in 2001. Roney was placed on administrative leave without faculties in 2002; in 2003, he was named in two lawsuits.

It took Nienstedt to do what his predecessor, Bishop Raymond Lucker, failed to do. Lucker was Bishop of New Ulm from 1976 to 2000.

Accusations against Roney took place between 1967 and 1980. Father Francis Markey allegedly groped three brothers at their home in New Ulm in 1982. Father Vincent Fitzgerald allegedly abused a boy from a New Ulm parish in the late 1970s. Father William Marks was involved in alleged abuse between 1954 and 1962. Legal proceedings for claims of sexual abuse began in 1993 against Father Michael Skoblik. Father John Gleason died in 1998 (not much public information is available about him). Father Douglas Schleisman was the subject of accusations dating to 1993. Father John Murphy retired in 1991 and volunteered in ministry between 1996 and 2000; he died in 2001.
In most of these cases, the alleged sexual molestation took place under Bishop Lucker, yet he has escaped criticism from the very same people who are now taking aim at Nienstedt. Why? Because Lucker was a man of the left: He said the Catholic Church needed to consider changing its teachings on homosexuality. By contrast, those out to get Nienstedt hate him because he defends the Church’s teachings on sexuality.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

St. Edmond Catholic Church has posted a video detailing the Rev. Gilbert Dutel’s response to sexual abuse allegations.

Dutel responded to the allegations during church service at St. Edmond on Sunday, when his congregation gave him a standing ovation.

“I maintained my innocence then, and I maintain my innocence now,” he says.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Aug. 5, 2014

A SEVEN-member panel headed by a retired NSW Supreme Court judge will decide the future ministry of senior Hunter Catholic priests Bill Burston and Alan Hart.

Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Bill Wright has called for submissions to the panel, which is considering whether the clergymen should remain parish priests after adverse findings by NSW Special Commission of Inquiry head Margaret Cunneen, SC, in May.

The priests were ‘‘inconsistent’’ and ‘‘unsatisfactory’’ witnesses who knew of the crimes committed by child sex offender priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher, but failed to notify police, Ms Cunneen found.

Retired NSW Court of Appeals judge and prominent Sydney Anglican Church member Kenneth Handley, QC, will head the panel which includes senior Parramatta Catholic educator Patricia Crennan, University of Newcastle theology and ethics Professor Terry Lovat, and Parramatta Vicar-General Chris de Souza.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Lawyer

By: Elizabeth Ahlin August 5, 2014

A St. Paul attorney has released the names of eight Catholic priests identified in a deposition as having been accused of sexual misconduct while serving in the New Ulm Diocese.

The announcement by attorney Jeff Anderson puts pressure on the diocese to release the names of all priests credibly accused of sexual abuse while at New Ulm. The eight names released were identified by priest Francis Garvey in a deposition taken in January.

Six of the eight priests, all of whom served from the 1960s to the 1980s, have been named in past lawsuits. All but one of the eight priests has died.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

August 5, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn has released a public apology for “any abuse and mistreatment” that may have been experienced by individuals as “a result of their engagement with our church”.

The text of the apology, to be read out by Bishop Stuart Robinson at a “Lamentation Sunday” service this weekend, was made public on Tuesday afternoon and is targeted at childhood victims of sexual abuse.

Lamentation Sunday fulfils a pledge made by the bishop during his charge to the Diocesan Synod in Goulburn last September when he led the synod in a confession for past failures by the diocese to respond appropriately to child sex abuse.

While no specific instances of abuse were given on that occasion, a report released by the Anglican Church in 2009 cited 191 cases of child sexual abuse in 17 Anglican dioceses across Australia between 1990 and 2008.

According to the Study of Reported Child Sexual Abuse in the Anglican Church, three-quarters of the complainants were male and usually aged between 10 and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Aug. 5, 2014

ANALYSIS

U.S. women religious leaders face an uncertain future as they gather Aug. 12-16 in Nashville, Tenn., for their annual assembly.

More than 800 elected congregational leaders will discuss how they plan to react to continued charges of infidelity leveled by the church’s top enforcer of orthodoxy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as to the congregation’s plans to take over the organization after the assembly.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents nearly all the women religious congregations in America, has been under attack by the congregation since 2012. The Nashville gathering will be the third consecutive LCWR assembly in which church infighting overshadows the business of the leadership conference.

The issues are multilayered, involving disputes over the role of religious life, the relationship between religious and bishops, questions of obedience, and differing visions of church priorities and mission.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Century

The case of John Howard Yoder

Aug 04, 2014 by David Cramer, Jenny Howell, Paul Martens, and Jonathan Tran

Thirty years after John Howard Yoder was first accused of sexual misconduct and almost two decades after his death in 1997, the story of his abusive behavior remains painfully unresolved in the Mennonite communities in which he was for decades regarded as the foremost theologian and chief representative of Anabaptist thought.

During his lifetime Yoder faced two separate disciplinary proceedings. The first led to his 1984 resignation from the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries (now Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) in Elkhart, Indiana, after which he became a full-time professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he taught until his death. The second was conducted by the Mennonite Church from 1992 to 1996.

Last year a third discernment process was launched, spurred by women who believe that the church has repeatedly failed to uncover and acknowledge the truth.

In 2013, Ruth Krall, professor emeritus at Goshen College, a Mennonite school in Indiana, published The Elephants in God’s Living Room, which used the church’s response to Yoder’s actions as a case study on how sexual abuse is often mishandled in the church. That same year, Barbra Graber, a retired professor at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, wrote a pair of online essays about Yoder’s case. Soon after Graber’s essays appeared, AMBS president Sara Wenger Shenk announced that the seminary had committed itself to “new transparency in the truth telling that must happen.” Last summer the Mennonite Church USA formed a committee to “fairly and accurately document the scope of Yoder’s sexual abuse and the church’s response to it after a careful review of the evidence.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News

Archbishop Martin Krebs, the pope’s New Zealand-based delegate to Guam and other parts of the Pacific, has responded to letters sent by some of Guam’s Catholics who are calling for the Vatican to intervene in the local church community’s leadership turmoil.

Krebs responded to a letter that church choir member Franklin “Frankie” Gutierrez Jr. wrote. Other parishioners have also received responses from Krebs.

The Aug. 1 letter from Krebs states:

“Dear Franklin,
I have received your important message and have taken due note of it.
I have also noted the copy of your message sent to the Secretariat of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.”

Guam parishioners last week began a letter-writing campaign and sent their letters to Krebs and to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, an office in the Vatican.

The letter-writing campaign was launched at a rally attended by hundreds of Catholics at the steps of the Cathedral-Basilica on Tuesday last week.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 5 August 2014

TWO churches have been shut within Scotland’s largest Catholic diocese as congregations brace themselves for a wave of parish closures and mergers across the west of the country.

All Saints in Glasgow’s Barmulloch area closed in recent weeks, with a service presided over by the country’s leading Catholic cleric, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, marking the event.

The church was built in the late 1960s and sits in the shadow of the notorious Red Road Flats, which are earmarked for imminent demolition.

With all but one of the high-rise blocks now empty, numbers attending All Saints have dropped dramatically in recent years.

The closure was preceded by that of St Philips in Ruchazie, in the north-east of Glasgow.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com
on August 05, 2014 at 7:50 AM

FLINT, MI – A Grand Blanc priest accused of inappropriately touching two children remains on administrative leave three months after the allegations.

The Rev. Ken Coughlin was accused of inappropriately touching the hands and legs of two students in May at Holy Family Catholic School in Grand Blanc.

Meanwhile, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said he is still reviewing the case before he will decide whether to bring charges.

The Catholic Diocese of Lansing placed Coughlin on paid administrative leave following the allegations.

Coughlin vows his innocence in a letter that was posted on the Holy Family website Friday, Aug. 1, and placed in the parish bulletin.

“As this investigation has progressed, it has become clear that some of my words and actions have upset some people in our parish,” Coughlin said in the statement. “In response to these concerns, Bishop (Earl) Boyea has asked me to consider entering a program of assessment that assists clergy and religious with their ministry. I have agreed to this request.”

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UNITED STATES
These Stone Walls

“Father Jim” is a senior priest suspended under terms of the Dallas Charter, barred from ministry and from defending his good name due to a claim from 1972.

Editor’s Note: The following guest post by “Father Jim” was received as a comment on a recent post at These Stone Walls. Due to its length and subject matter, we are posting it as a guest post with Father Jim’s permission, but we have shielded his identity because his case is still pending at the Holy See.

Father Gordon MacRae recently wrote of a terrible tragedy in the post, “Jesus Wept: The Death of Father Kenneth Walker, FSSP” on his blog, These Stone Walls. In that post he asked a truly provocative question. Allow me to respond to it in light of priests falsely accused of sexual abuse, the exact situation that has confined Father Gordon to prison for almost twenty years. His question was:

“Has Catholic culture in America become so comfortable with the notion of the last two decades that its priests should be little more than expendable targets with no ability or right for self-defense?”

I believe most priests in the United States unfortunately know the answer to that question. No one talks about it openly, but it can be sensed in the low morale and anxiety among priests. It can be traced directly to a failure of leadership in the American Catholic episcopacy that places public relations and public respect as higher priorities than the truth and the innocence of many good and faithful priests by their bishops’ wholesale embrace of the Dallas Charter. In effect, our bishops have betrayed their pastoral role in loving and caring for their priests as a father loves and cares for his sons. They have allowed themselves to be intimidated by human opinion and political correctness, placing their trust more in lawyers than the Gospel of Jesus who calls us to lay down our very lives for the ones we love.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[Summary: After the second day of trial of priest John O’Reilly, the defense questioned the credibility of the testimony given by mother of the girls in the Santiago court. The priest, member of the Legion of Christ, is charged with sexual abuse.]

Tras la segunda jornada de juicio oral en contra el sacerdote John O’Reilly por presuntos abusos sexuales contra dos menores del colegio Cumbres de Las Condes, la defensa cuestionó la credibilidad del testimonio entregado ante el Tercer Tribunal de Juicio Oral en Lo Penal de Santiago por la madre de las niñas.

En su relato de cerca de seis horas, la mujer explicó que cuando su hija mayor le contó de los ilícitos no la llevó al pediatra porque “no podía creer que esto estaba sucediendo” y porque no quería que otras personas se enteraran.

Agregó que tampoco la llevó al Servicio Médico Legal, pese a la recomendación de la Fiscalía y de su marido -ante la denuncia de actos más cercanos a una violación- explicando que “no quería que le hicieran exámenes, sabiendo por lo que tenía que pasar”. Sobre todo, explicó, porque una ginecóloga le había advertido que luego de un tiempo, el tipo de abusos que acusaba la niña no dejaría marcas.

La testigo indicó que también dudó en llevarla al Centro de Atención a Víctimas de Agresiones Sexuales, Cavas, siempre bajo el argumento que le creía a sus hijas.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conor Ryan
Investigative Correspondent

Louise O’Keeffe, who defeated the Irish Government in the European courts, has demanded a meeting with the Taoiseach to discuss her disappointment at the State’s response to the landmark judgment in her case.

In January she was awarded €30,000 by the European Court of Human Rights because the State had failed to protect her from being abused by her primary school principal, Leo Hickey in 1973.

She has now criticised the Government’s newly-published response to the Council of Europe and what she said was a failure to deliver the comprehensive reply that had been promised.

In January Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to Ms O’Keeffe for what she had endured at Dunderrow national school, near Kinsale, in 1973.

He also apologised for what she had gone through since then, as she fought a 15-year legal action against the Department of Education to have its culpability in the crimes recognised.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

05 AUGUST 2014

A national police group is being set up to link child sex abuse investigations involving public figures and institutions such as schools and care homes.

The body, which is set to meet for the first time in September, has asked all 43 police forces in England and Wales as well as the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Police Scotland for details of their ongoing inquiries.

Chief officers and senior investigators have been asked to sit on the group, which could share information between forces where inquiries overlap.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who will chair the group, said: “Following a meeting of senior officers in Merseyside in the last few weeks, a stream of work, called Operation Hydrant, was established so as to allow a central strategic co-ordination group to collate and share information, advice and best practice among forces who were investigating allegations of historic child abuse where there were persons of public prominence (PPPs) concerned in the investigation.

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CONNECTICUT
News Times

There’s no need to worry if you don’t understand what it means that the Bridgeport Diocese is convening a synod. My entire academic education was in Catholic schools, and I accepted an invitation to have it clarified for me at the Catholic Center in Bridgeport last week. For that matter, church leaders within the diocesan nerve center acknowledge they are still working out the fine details.

If poorly executed, a synod could be perceived as just another closed-door process. So far, this one is being defined by dialogue, by an effort to create transparency through the stained-glass window.

The process is modeled on Pope Francis’ synod on the issue of the family. The Bridgeport Diocese synod began with a listening session at Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford on May 5, with the results to be revealed Sept. 19, 2015 at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport. The synod will draw input from clergy, consecrated women, parishioners at the 82 churches in the diocese, teenagers and many others to advise Bishop Frank Caggiano on how to — in his words — “make our Church more responsive to our current needs and to plan our future together.” He has called the dialogue a “freewheeling experience.”

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UNITED STATES
Ebony

Monica Coleman, pastor and founder of The Dinah Project, offers up healing words and a path to progress for church leaders and congregations who want to help rape survivors

Your spiritual home should be a safe haven, a loving community and the ideal space for healing. Sometimes, that’s the case.

But for some survivors of rape or abuse, church is where their pain is minimized or ignored. For others, it’s where they are blamed for their victimization. For still others, it is where sexual violence actually happens.

It’s hard to believe, but pastors are rarely trained to handle the trauma of sexual assault. Of course, there are churches and clergy well prepared to help survivors heal and to deal with sexual violence and its ramifications with spiritual wisdom and compassion. Some churches are actually agents of change, working to transform society and end rape. Yet it’s important to know that if your church isn’t that kind of place, it’s within your power to help change it. If you are seeking spiritual food for your healing journey, there exist churches where you can get it. In either case, Monica A. Coleman is uniquely qualified to guide you in the right direction.

Coleman is a rape survivor, an ordained A.M.E. minister, an associate professor at the Claremont School of Theology and the author of “The Dinah Project: A Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence.” In 1997, she created a sexual assault ministry at Metropolitan Interdenominational Church, in Nashville, Tenn.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mark Vincent Healy

Tue, Aug 5, 2014

There ought to have been a sense of huge importance noted about Pope Francis’s first meeting with six survivors of clerical child sexual abuse in Rome on July 7th last. The survivors came from Ireland, the UK and Germany.

Stories of decades of clerical child sexual abuse and cover up were represented in that moment for those nations. I was especially pleased to meet survivors from the UK and Germany. There was an immediate affinity between us, which I hope to one day harness into a council of survivors to give voice to the many issues of survivors from around the world.

My experience of abuse by members of the Holy Ghost Fathers, or Spiritans, informed my message to the pope. I am pressing the State and the Catholic Church for research into self-harming and suicide and the provision of rescue services and safe spaces.

Marie Kane and I would not have been standing in Rome but for those amazing Irish survivors who led the way, supported by people such as the late Mary Raftery and the late Christine Buckley.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

by Lauren Ely

Is it possible for a film to capture the horror of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church while at the same time presenting a case for the necessity of the institutional priesthood? Against all odds, this is exactly what Irish director John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary manages to do. Fr. James (played with magnificent presence by Brendan Gleeson) is a good priest, if a haunted one. He is a widower and an alcoholic with a suicidal daughter and a parish full of troubled townspeople in rural Ireland. One afternoon a parishioner confesses to him that he was serially raped by a now-deceased priest as a child, and as a way of taking revenge, he will kill Fr. James in a week.

What follows is a surprisingly complex, if imperfectly executed, meditation on the nature of sin and mercy, set in the epicenter of the sexual abuse scandal. We are introduced one by one to Fr. James’s parishioners, each with their own set of problems including drug use, adultery, and prostitution to name only a few. Their attitudes toward the parish priest range from begrudging respect to apathy to outright contempt. Every hackneyed anti-Church saying one can think of is used by the townspeople as a taunt against Fr. James: that the Church is only out for money, that priests are control freaks, that Catholicism has no good answer for the problem of evil. By contrast we see Fr. James doing the hard, daily work of the priest with dogged fidelity as he counsels prisoners, administers last rites in the middle of the night, and comforts a young widow. The film paints very clearly the life of the priest in stark relief to the world’s perception of what a priest is, all while allowing Fr. James to retain his spirited, gruff, flawed humanity.

The key difference between Fr. James and his parishioners is that he sees his part in the sinfulness of others—in fact, he sees the role that sin plays in the greater spiritual world at large. When a group of men at the local pub berate Fr. James for going to give spiritual counseling to a child murderer in the local jail, Fr. James points out that the murderer at least sought his help, even if it was with mixed motivations. “We talk too much about sins and not enough about virtues,” Fr. James tells his daughter. “Forgiveness has been highly underrated.” In the face of the mundane callousness of his parishioners, one can see the priest weighing his options—are such people worth ministering to, repenting for, dying for? Exactly what are his obligations to them?

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.

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Peter Kirkwood | 05 August 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse now under way around Australia will ensure this issue will have public prominence for the foreseeable future.

Indeed it was the impetus for the authors featured in this interview to write their recently published book, Reckoning: The Catholic Church and Child Sexual Abuse (jointly published by Eureka Street and ATF Press), their own thorough study of this thorny issue in the context of the Australian Catholic Church.

Damian Grace and Chris McGillion are eminently qualified to write on this topic, both with distinguished careers: Grace as an academic specialising in applied ethics and political philosophy, and McGillion as a journalist and author who’s devoted most of his career to writing about religion.

In the interview they talk about what they are trying to achieve with the book, the difficulties in being even handed with this issue, why it has taken the Church so long to come to grips with sexual abuse by clergy, and the effect and significance of the Royal Commission. They conclude in the second part of the interview by looking to the future, discussing how the Church might recover from this, and whether Pope Francis is a sign of hope in dealing with it.

Damian Grace has taught ethics, political philosophy, history of political thought and philosophy of religion over the past four decades. He previously lectured at the University of NSW, and is currently an honorary associate in the Department of Government and International Relations at The University of Sydney.

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OKLAHOME
CBS Houston

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge Monday granted bond to a 19-year-old man charged with sexually abusing boys and girls while volunteering at an orphanage in Kenya but ordered that he remain confined inside his family’s home and avoid contact with children.

U.S. Magistrate Shon Erwin handed down the ruling after a detention hearing for Matthew Lane Durham of Edmond, who is accused of engaging in sex acts with as many as ten children between the ages of 4 to 10 while volunteering at Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi from April to June 2014. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of engaging in illegal sexual conduct in foreign places, aggravated sexual abuse with children and other charges.

“You’re going to be on 24-hour lockdown,” Erwin told Durham on Monday. He set bond at $10,000 and appointed Durham’s father, Oklahoma City Fire Department Maj. Kyle Durham, as his son’s custodian.

He also ordered that Matthew Durham surrender his passport, refrain from using cellphones and computers and avoid contact with children and any witnesses and alleged victims in the case.
“These are serious, horrific charges involving minor victims,” Erwin said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Tuesday 5 August 2014

The Salvation Army would support compensation schemes for victims of child sexual abuse but “would resist having to contribute” to its funding unless it had some authority over staffing, decision making and the ability to question costs.

In its submission to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, the organisation said the establishment and operation of a financial redress scheme should be entirely funded by the Commonwealth, with funds contributed by institutions and offenders only going to abuse survivors.

It also suggested an institution should be given the option to “opt in or out” of the scheme, “as a matter of general principle.”

“Liability for such payments should not be apportioned between institutions,” it read. “Each institution should be responsible for their own wrongdoing. Then, such a scheme could operate on a debt-basis.”

In its submission, the Salvation Army also said it believed any final decision about the amount of compensation to be paid to a victim should be made by the institution, although it would support a national “best practice” protocol.

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.

LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Katie de la Rosa August 4, 2014

No new allegations of sex crimes involving children by Diocese of Lafayette clergy have been made since 1984, Bishop Michael Jarrell told parishioners of St. Edmond Catholic Church in Lafayette on Saturday.

Jarrell addressed parishioners following a week of news reports that St. Edmond Pastor Gil Dutel was accused in legal documents from the 1990s of sexually abusing a boy in the 1970s and making sexual advances to an adult male. The documents only recently were made public in a Minnesota Public Broadcasting investigation of priest sex abuse and cover-ups.

“No additional priests have been accused in recent decades,” Jarrell said in an email response Monday to questions posed Sunday by The Daily Advertiser. “I stand by my 2004 statement: The Diocese knows of no act of abuse by a cleric that may have occurred since 1984.”

Jarrell declined The Daily Advertiser’s request for an interview and did not respond to the newspaper’s second request for the names of 15 priests. Jarrell acknowledged in 2004 that the diocese and its insurers has paid settlements to the sexual abuse victims of those priests.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

Names of New Ulm priests accused of sexual misconduct made public

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 08/04/2014

Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North on Monday denied a motion by the Diocese of Winona to move the Doe 1 priest sexual abuse trial to another district, saying jurors in Ramsey County would be fair to the defendants.

Attorneys for the diocese had argued that the level of publicity about the case has tainted the views of prospective jurors.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did not join in the change-of-venue motion.

Also Monday, attorney Michael Finnegan of Jeff Anderson and Associates noted in court that there are now more than 100 priests the archdiocese has named as the subject of allegations. At least 55 of those names remain sealed.

Archdiocese attorney Thomas Wieser included a chart in a June 18 memorandum to the court that listed the number of files it submitted under seal from March 31 through May 23. The number of files totals 103.

The archdiocese has publicly disclosed the names of 48 accused priests since December.

The church argues the rest should remain secret because there have been false and fabricated allegations that would sully the names of respectable priests.

Doe 1 is the pseudonym of a man who sued former priest Thomas Adamson, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona for abuse he says he suffered by Adamson in the 1970s at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park. The lawsuit alleges that the archdiocese and diocese created a “public nuisance” by allowing offending priests to remain active and concealing information about their misconduct from the public.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Ellwood City Ledger

By Eric Poole epoole@ellwoodcityledger.com And Kirstin Kennedy Calkins Media

CONWAY — Federal authorities are investigating allegations of sexual abuse against a Catholic priest who worked during the 1990s at a parish in Lawrence County.

The Rev. John Fitzgerald, 66, has been placed on administrative leave from his post as pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church in Conway, Beaver County. Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese informed parishioners of Fitzgerald’s leave in a letter distributed during Masses on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.

During the leave, Fitzgerald, who has denied the accusations, will not be permitted to perform church sacraments or identify himself as a priest. He has been removed from parish housing and is not permitted to wear clerical clothing, said diocesan spokesman the Rev. Ron Lengwin. The diocese has placed Fitzgerald in temporary housing for the duration of the investigation.

Fitzgerald served as administrator from 1991 to 1995 of St. Anthony Catholic Parish in Bessemer, Lengwin said. St. Anthony merged more than 10 years ago with St. Lawrence Parish in Mahoning Township to form Christ the King Parish.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 08/04/2014

Plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Anderson released the names of eight priests from the Diocese of New Ulm who had been “credibly accused” of sexual abusing minors.

Six of the names had previously been made public through lawsuits, but two — the Rev. John L. Gleason and the Rev. John M. Murphy — had not. Both men have since died.

The other priests are David A Roney, Francis Markey, Vincent Fitzgerald, William J. Marks, Michael G. Skoblik and Douglas L. Schleisman. Schleisman is the only one believed to still be alive.

Anderson obtained the names through a deposition taken by his co-counsel, Michael Finnegan, of the Rev. Francis J. Garvey, as part of two lawsuits. Garvey served on the priest personnel board of the diocese and was privy to information about offending priests.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A retired Appeals Court judge and prominent Anglican will chair an independent panel set up to advise the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese on its response to a child abuse inquiry.

The Special Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese was scathing of the Catholic Church’s handling of paedophile priests.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen described evidence given by two senior Hunter priests Monsignor Allan Hart and Father William Burston as unimpressive.

Bishop Bill Wright stood both men down from advisory roles and said he would set up an Independent Advisory Panel to help him decide whether further action was necessary.

He has today announced retired judge Kenneth Handley QC will chair the panel.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

By Dan Nienaber
dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

NEW ULM — A former Diocese of New Ulm priest told attorneys he was so angry when he learned a known pedophile priest from Ireland had been sent to Minnesota that he immediately kicked the priest out of a chemical dependency program in Willmar.

The Rev. Francis Garvey was being interviewed by Michael Finnegan, an attorney with the Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, for a deposition for two lawsuits that have been filed in Brown County. One of the lawsuits accuses the Rev. Francis Markey, who died in 2012 in Ireland while awaiting trial for raping a 15-year-old boy in 1968, of sexually assaulting a Henderson boy while temporarily serving at a church there in 1982.

Markey was serving at churches in the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm while going through a chemical dependency program Garvey oversaw at the former Regional Treatment Center in Willmar, Garvey said during the deposition. Markey and several other priests had been sent to the program from the Servant of the Paraclete facility in New Mexico, where priests were sent to be treated for pedophilia.

Garvey, who was 81 at the time of the January deposition, said Markey was one of about 10 priests he had removed from the program after they were accused of molesting someone in Minnesota. He also told Finnegan officials with the Servant of the Paraclete usually told him about the priests being sent to Willmar who had been treated for pedophilia, but they hadn’t told him about Markey’s background.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 4, 2014

The big discussion at the 2014 SNAP conference was “everybody’s favorite pontiff,” Pope Francis.
Journalist Jason Berry—who faced raised eyebrows for earlier comments criticizing SNAP’s methods and “skillset“—told the group at his conference speech that SNAP should work strategically to “get a place at the table” and negotiate with the Vatican. (Note: Berry did apologize to the larger group and individuals for his July 29 remarks)

As much as I like and respect Jason, I think he is being suckered in by former Fox News journo/now Vatican communications guy Greg Burke’s carefully crafted Papal PR Machine. It’s the machine that always ensures there are plenty of photographers around to take photos of the Pope washing the feet of an Islamic woman, driving a car, living in a small apartment, and personally calling letter-writers. (In case you haven’t noticed, the PR move of calling letter writers was so successful, it’s been copied by Barack Obama, who is facing abysmal favorability poll numbers).

But just because the papal PR machine is shouting the loudest, doesn’t mean it’s right.

Fortunately, survivors ain’t buying it. I, for one, think a few “authentic gestures” are required.

What’s an “authentic gesture,” you ask?

Authentic gestures DO NOT include secret meetings with carefully picked survivors (who are asked to attend Mass and are sworn to secrecy until after the meeting). Authentic measures are NOT apologies, and certainly do not describe the deliberate and criminal cover-up of sexual abuse as “sins of omission.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

Lynne Hayes-Freeland

BEAVER COUNTY (KDKA) – Over the weekend, parishioners of Our Lad of Peace in Conway learned their pastor, Rev. John Fitzgerald, was being placed on administrative leave.

It’s because of an ongoing investigation into allegations he sexually abused a minor, almost 20 years ago.

“An allegation had been brought against him, it’s the only allegation, one person and he was removed from ministry temporarily,” said Fr. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese.

That means Fr. Fitzgerald can not wear clerical air or identify himself as a priest as long as he investigation is ongoing. He has denied that the abuse took place.

The diocese is not saying where it happened, but has asked both the Lawrence County and Allegheny County Distrcit Attorneys to investigate.

Fr. Fitzgerald was affiliated with a number of churches throughout the Pittsburgh area. But during the 1990s, which is the focus of the investigation, he was the chaplain at Pittsburgh International Airport.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Aug 4, 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has acknowledged that at least 103 priests have been accused of child sexual abuse — more than three times the number previously disclosed to the public in December.

Related:
• Betrayed by Silence: An investigation in four chapters
• Accused priests: Who they are, where they served, what’s alleged
• July 22: Ramsey Co. judge rules clergy sex abuse case may go to trial

The total includes the 34 priests “credibly accused” of abuse whose names Ramsey County Judge John de North ordered the archdiocese to release in December.

The disclosure of the full list came in a court document referenced by a victim’s attorney at a Ramsey County District Court hearing today. The total number of archdiocesan priests accused of child sexual abuse had not previously been reported.

For months, lawyers for the archdiocese have argued aggressively that many priests have been falsely accused and that their names should not be released. Van de North agreed last year to place the names of the so-called “non-credibly accused” priests under seal. He appointed a special master to oversee requests to unseal names and address other disputes.

But it remained unclear how many priests’ names had been sealed.

In an interview after the hearing, archdiocese lawyer Tom Wieser declined to explain how the archdiocese determines whether an allegation is credible. He also declined to say whether the archdiocese has reported every allegation to police.

Over the past eight months, the archdiocese has released another 14 names of priests whose abuse allegations it describes as “substantiated.” It’s not clear whether those names are among those sealed by the judge.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

In a deposition taken on January 24, 2014 Father Francis Garvey identified Diocese of New Ulm priests accused of sexual misconduct. To-date, the Diocese of New Ulm refuses to publicly release its list of priests accused of sexual misconduct, or information about the priests.

Archbishop John Nienstedt served as Bishop of the Diocese of New Ulm from 2001 to 2007 before his appointment as Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis. As Bishop of New Ulm, Nienstedt oversaw the Diocese of New Ulm’s compilation of identities and other information regarding its priests accused of sexual misconduct for the John Jay Study.

New Ulm Priest Photos 8-4-14

Nienstedt John Jay Study statement 2004

List of New Ulm Diocese Priests Accused of Sexual Misconduct

New Ulm Diocese Sexual Misconduct Information

Fr-Garvey-deposition-01-24-14_Redacted

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PENNSYLVANIA
Times Online

Updated: 4:31 pm, Mon Aug 4, 2014.

By Kirstin Kennedy and Eric Poole Calkins Media

CONWAY — Federal authorities are investigating allegations of unspecified sexual abuse against a local Catholic priest steaming back to the late 1990s.

The Rev. John Fitzgerald, 66, was removed from his post as pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church in Conway and has been placed on administrative leave. Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh informed parishioners of Fitzgerald’s leave in a letter distributed during Masses on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

During the leave Fitzgerald, who has denied the accusations, will not be permitted to perform church sacraments or identify himself as a priest. He has been removed from parish housing and is not permitted to wear clerical clothing, said diocesan spokesman the Rev. Ron Lengwin. The diocese has placed Fitzgerald in temporary housing for the duration of the investigation.

Fitzgerald served as administrator from 1991 to 1995 of St. Anthony Catholic Parish in Bessemer, Lawrence County, Lengwin said. St. Anthony merged more than 10 years ago with St. Lawrence Parish in Mahoning Township to form Christ The King Parish.

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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service Aug. 4, 2014

MAINZ, GERMANY

A German cardinal warned that the number of Catholics leaving his country’s church is “alarmingly high” and urged an end to “scandals and vexations” involving clergy.

“There’s no doubt these figures must make us think. We’ve obviously suffered a loss of trust and credibility which has rarely happened so violently,” Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz wrote in a column published in the Aug. 3 issue of Faith and Life, the diocese’s weekly newspaper.

“The church isn’t just another club, and all efforts must now be made to prevent more scandals through repentance and renewal,” wrote Lehmann, a former president of the German bishops’ conference.

The column followed the release of new church data that showed a sharp increase in Catholics removing their names from parish and diocesan membership rolls.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

BY ABE LEVY : AUGUST 4, 2014

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 4, 2009.

For about 30 years, home to three San Antonio archbishops has been an 800-square-foot apartment above administrative offices at Assumption Seminary.

By late summer, the doors will open on a new $1.1 million house for Archbishop José Gomez on the same seminary campus. Called the Good Shepherd Center, the 5,000-square-foot building will be paid for by private donations, San Antonio archdiocese officials said.

Donors described it as a long-awaited upgrade for Gomez and his successors, a reward for his long hours and a tool for future fundraising and improved hospitality of religious and civic dignitaries.

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LOUISIANA
The IND

The ugly specter of pedophilia has returned to haunt the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, yet on Sunday churchgoers seemed unfazed by allegations that a predator may still be lurking in its midst.

The new allegations came from a four-part investigative series by Minnesota Public Radio, which uncovered a recently unsealed federal lawsuit against the diocese. The court files include a victim statement given in 1992 against three priests from the diocese, one being the Rev. Gilbert Dutel of St. Edmond Catholic Church in Lafayette.

The relationship with Dutel, the victim claims, started when he was 9 or 10 years old and lasted for about six years, eventually including two more priests from the diocese, the Rev. David Primeaux and the Rev. Lane Fontenot.

After a week’s worth of local media coverage, Dutel addressed the elephant in the room during Sunday’s services, prompting a standing ovation from churchgoers, according to this report from The Daily Advertiser.

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UNITED STATES
Stocking the Corners

August 4, 2014 by Jennifer Fitz

I live in a relatively small house. Not Third World Shack small, but the square footage per person makes most first-world “Small Houses!” fans gaze longingly at off-site storage options. I have friends who squeeze way more children into way less space, and friends who do it the other away around. We’re happy with where we fall on the real estate spectrum, grateful for what we have and making the best use of it we can.

CNN, on the other hand, is very worried about People Whose Homes Are the Wrong Size. Well, not just any people. They aren’t worried about publishing executives, or journalists, or graphic designers and IT guys. They must already have the right size homes. It’s bishops, don’t you know. So let’s talk about the clerical housing crisis.

1. Priest & bishops very rarely control where they live.

You get assigned to a job, and the house comes with it. It might be magnificent, it might be horrifying, it might have a deadly elevator. 98% of priests surveyed* report that they’ve had to live someplace very, very tacky. Can you, the current resident, do anything about the situation? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

2. It’s not “your” house to do with as you please.

Unless they’ve gone and used their personal funds to rent an alternate location, the rectory or bishop’s residence does not belong to the occupants. It’s typically the property of the diocese, and each priest or bishop is just a temporary resident. Your local parish priest probably has to fill out an acre of paperwork just to get new wallpaper in the bathroom, because the diocese wants to make sure that no disastrous DIY horror show is awaiting Father Replacement a year from now. The bishop has to not just consider his own needs, which might be minimal, but also what every bishop for the next fifty years is going to reasonably need.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart

Attorneys for a man suing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona have released names of New Ulm priests accused of sexual misconduct.

On Monday, attorney Jeff Anderson released a deposition transcript of Father Francis Garvey, a priest and former top official of the Diocese of New Ulm. Anderson says in his deposition, Garvey identified New Ulm priests accused of sexual misconduct.

New Ulm had refused to release the list in the past.

Diocese of New Ulm priests accused of sexual misconduct, as identified by Garvey in a Jan. 24, 2014, deposition and civil lawsuits:

* Father David A. Roney
* Father Francis Markey
* Father Vincent Fitzgerald
* Father William J. Marks
* Father Michael G. Skoblik
* Father John L. Gleason
* Father Douglas L. Schleisman
* Father John M. Murphy

Archbishop John Nienstedt previously served as bishop in New Ulm from 2001 to 2007. It is not known if any priest named on Monday served during Niensted’s tenure.

Last week, Nienstedt flatly denied any knowledge of abusive priests during his time in New Ulm. When asked if he had ever knowingly had a priest in the diocese that was accused of sexual abuse during his time as Bishop, Niensted’s said no.

The release of names comes after a hearing in Ramsey County District Court on the Diocese of Winona’s motion to change venue in the Doe 1 vs. Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona.

Judge John Van de North denied the request.

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA AND AMANDA GEARING THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 05, 2014

AN independent commission of inquiry into child sex abuse in Australia and England by one of the Anglican Church’s most powerful clergymen and its subsequent cover-up has been finalised, with the year-long probe uncovering new victims of the serial pedophile.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu said the inquiry confirmed the “seriousness of the crimes’’ committed by the late Robert Waddington, who rose to become the church’s head of education in Britain after serving as a school principal in Queensland during the 1960s.

The inquiry, ordered in May, 2013, after an investigation by The Australian and The Times newspapers exposed Waddington as a pedophile, also led to an ongoing probe into other Anglican clergy who served in the Diocese of York in the past 70 years.

The newspaper investigation revealed English church officials and senior Australian Anglicans failed to report to police the allegations of abuse made in 1999 by a former Queensland student, Bim Atkinson, and similar claims made in 2003 by Manchester choirboy Eli Ward. Archbishop Sentamu is expected to release the inquiry report, by English judge Sally Cahill, next month.

In a statement, Archbishop Sentamu said he hoped the church would learn from the “systemic failure’’ that allowed the child abuse. “Whilst it is never possible to put right the wrongs that have been done, the seriousness of the crimes which have been committed makes us determined both to acknowledge our responsibility and our shame for our failure to protect children in the past, and to respond far more positively to those victims who bravely come forward to share their experience today,’’ he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON Aug. 5, 2014

BALLARAT’S Catholic diocese paid for renovations to former Bishop Ronald Mulkearns’ Great Ocean Road property.

The diocese footed the bill, believed to be about $60,000, for converting the Fairhaven home’s garage into an office after the former Ballarat bishop retired in 1997.

Skipton builder Charlie Robinson, who carried out the works, said the office included a wall of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a custom-made desk using American Oak veneers.

Mr Robinson said, from memory, the initial garage conversion cost $40,000, with about $20,000 used to fit it out.

However, due to the length of time that has passed, Mr Robinson does not still have the original documentation.

He also said he was told to give Bishop Mulkearns “whatever he wants” and send the diocese the bill.

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