ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Children can help design institutions that are safe for them, a royal commission says.

The Royal Commission into Institutional responses to Child Sexual Abuse says Children have knowledge and experience different to adults and can make a unique contribution to developing safe institutions.

As part of its interim report released on Monday, the commission says it has ordered research into the views of children about their safety from sexual abuse in institutions.

‘In considering prevention, it is important that institutions do not overly rely on any one practice, including child focused programs,’ the commission said.

‘Rather, they need to holistically address the risk of child sexual abuse with a range of approaches.’

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Jimmy Savile admitted getting knighthood was ‘a relief because it got me off the hook’

In the light of details about sexual abuse and macabre acts that emerged from an inquiry into Jimmy Savile last week, this compelling and disquieting interview by the celebrated journalist Lynn Barber takes on new meaning. We run it in full for the first time since it was published in 1990 in The Independent on Sunday

LYNN BARBER Sunday 29 June 2014

Sir James Savile is absolutely knocked out, over the moon, tickled pink, and thrilled to bits with his knighthood, and still reeling from the excitement of it all. Ooh, but it has played merry hell with his diary. “The Queen deciding to give me this tremendous responsibility – I mean, you go to bed one minute without a care in the world and you wake up the next morning with this gi-normous responsibility come through the letterbox.

Do you want to see the gear?” he asks, burrowing under the put-u-up to find his briefcase (we are in his London flat) from which he produces a transparent plastic folder. “Read it all,” he urges. “Go on. Have a little dwell on that. That folder encapsulates it all.”

The folder encloses the letter from the Prime Minister offering him a knighthood, the envelope it came in, some bumf about keeping it secret till the proper date and then – proudest of all – telegrams from Charles and Diana, from Prince Philip, a handwritten letter from Angus Ogilvy and a very sweet homemade card with a stuck-on snapshot of Princess Bea, from the Duchess of York. He is almost bursting with pride as he shows them off.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

Girls targeted from nine, boys from ten and it takes 22 YEARS for survivors to come forward: Chilling statistics of child sex abuse revealed in Royal Commission report

Volume 1
Volume 2

By SARAH DEAN and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

It takes an average of 22 years for survivors of child abuse to come forward and many Australians who have been abused still haven’t spoken out, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse says.

In its interim report, released on Monday, the commission said on average female victims were nine years old and male victims 10 years old when the abuse started and that it takes men longer than women to disclose their abuse.

The commission, which began its inquiry into institutional abuse on 13 January 2013, said its analysis also showed 90 per cent of sex abusers are men.

‘We understand that although many people have come forward to the Royal Commission, it is likely that they represent only a minority of those abused,’ the commission said.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Royal Commission has so many cases to hear it must sit for three years

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JULY 01, 2014

One in four abusers are members of the clergy or religious order
Justice McClellan asks to extend its deadline to the end of 2017

THE child sex abuse royal commission needs another two years and $104 million to do its job, Commissioner Peter McClennan has said in the first of its long-awaited reports.

There have been more than 1000 individual institutions reported to the commission, with more than one in four child abusers being members of the clergy or religious orders.

The Catholic church was the worst culprit, with 68 per cent of abuse claims out of all the religious instutitions reported.

The commission estimated a shocking one in three girls and one in seven boys in Australia will be victims of some form of child sexual abuse in their lifetime.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Suman Varandani@suman09
on June 30 2014

Bishop Max Davis, a senior member of Australia’s Catholic Church, has stepped down from his position after being charged with sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in 1969.

Davis, who is believed to be Australia’s first bishop to be charged with sexually abusing a teenager, was a teacher at St. Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth, when the alleged incident took place, the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia reportedly said, in a statement. According to reports, Davis faces three counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 14.

“At that time – 45 years ago – the bishop was not ordained. The bishop emphatically denies the allegation and the charge will be defended,” the Ordinariate, which is the Catholic Diocese of the country’s defense force, said in the statement.

The statement also reportedly said that Davis will not be allowed to continue in his role as a member of the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services until the court has made its ruling. Davis reportedly holds a military rank that is equivalent to a two-star officer.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A story in the Local section Sunday about retired Milwaukee Archbishop incorrectly stated that former priest David Hanser is deceased. In addition, the story said the Catholic Church sees gay and lesbian people as “intrinsically disordered.” The Vatican has stated that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and same-sex attraction is “objectively disordered.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

June 30, 2014

The outgoing head of the Anglican Church in Australia says a lack of central authority in the church has affected its efforts to deal with child sexual abuse.

Addressing the church’s national parliament in Adelaide on Monday, Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall said the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse had expressed surprise and concern at the dispersed power structure within the church.

Dr Aspinall, the Anglican church primate, said the church had taken a number of steps to improve child safety and respond to allegations of abuse over the past decade but acknowledged more work was needed.

However he said the “very weak” nature of the national offices within the Anglican church represented a serious challenge.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Kirstan Conley

A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to molesting a Bronx teenage girl is being sued by his victim — even though the cleric has died.

Father Jaime Duenas was 87 when he was charged in 2011 with fondling the 16-year-old. He pleaded guilty to the charges and had the case sealed — but not before blaming the victim for his lewd behavior when he pointed out to investigators that “she wore short skirts.”

Now, he is named in a lawsuit seeking restitution.

“My client comes from a very religious family and she lost her faith because of what he did,” lawyer Michael Dowd said after filing the civil suit in the Bronx last week.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

BY THE NATIONAL REPORTING TEAM’S LORNA KNOWLES
June 30, 2014

A disabled woman who was sexually abused by her priest has spoken out against the Catholic Church for relying on the so-called “Ellis defence” to fight her legal claim.

Jennifer Herrick says the church is still using the controversial legal precedent to block victim’s claims, despite Cardinal George Pell telling the child abuse royal commission that victims should be able to sue the church.

Ms Herrick was a shy 19-year-old with a severe physical disability when her local priest, Father Tom Knowles, struck up a friendship with her.

“He made me feel normal, he made me feel like my walk didn’t matter,” she said.

Ms Herrick says when she was 22, Father Knowles initiated sex with her. It was sudden and painful and she felt powerless to stop him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

[with video]

The Catholic bishop accused of child sex offences at a college northeast of Perth 45 years ago will face court next month.

Bishop Max Davis, the head of the Catholic Church’s military diocese, was on Friday charged by West Australian police with three counts of indecent treatment of children under 14.

Police allege Bishop Davis indecently assaulted a 13-year-old boy while he was a teacher at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia in 1969.

Bishop Davis, 68, who lives in the ACT, is due to face the Perth Magistrates Court on July 25.

It’s understood he is the first Australian bishop and the most senior Australian church official charged with a child sex offence.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ben Worsley

A Marist Brother who was sentenced to six years’ jail for abusing boys and girls is still a Brother in the Catholic order, a royal commission has heard.

John Kostka Chute was convicted in 2009 of 19 sex offences involving six children, most involving his time teaching at Marist College in Canberra.

The former head of the Marist order, Alexis Turton, is on the stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for a third day.

Peter O’Brien, the lawyer for one of Chute’s victims, asked Brother Turton about Chute’s current status within the order.
Mr O’Brien: “Kostka Chute is still a Brother with the Marist order?”
Brother Turton: “Yes.”
Mr O’Brien: “Having spent six years of a term of imprisonment for molesting children under his care, he’s still a Brother in the Marist Brother order?”
Brother Turton: “Yes.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Thomas E. O’Rourke was a Jesuit of the California Province, ordained in 1943. He ministered in San Francisco and Los Angeles CA, as well as in Phoenix, AZ where he was a staff member at Brophy Prep. from 1975 until his death in 1993. O’Rourke was accused at some point of sexually abusing a minor in 1968 in Los Angeles, while he was assigned to Loyola High School.

Ordained: 1943
Died: Jan. 1, 1993

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

WHEN well-known scandals, like that of the mother-and-baby homes or the Magdalene Laundries, finally hit the public consciousness — we often hear a common refrain: “Oh it was a different time.”

Journalists and commentators get accused of imposing the morality and ethics of 21st century Ireland on an Ireland which bears no comparison.

As a result, we hear that the religious orders and nuns who ran these homes and institutions “did their best” operating within a very different set of moral boundaries. In short, people thought differently and the treatment of unmarried mothers and their children was an acceptable, if unfortunate, aspect of that society

However, a recent discovery made by the grandson of Dr Halliday Sutherland paints a picture of an Irish clergy deeply suspicious of anyone asking questions of how Magdalene Laundries and mother-and-baby homes operated.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

The two-week Perth inquiry investigated the responses of the Christian Brothers and West Australian state authorities to abuse allegations at Christian Brothers-run schools and orphanages in Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun.

Among the most shocking evidence presented at the hearings, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told boys were subjected to torture, rape and beatings by Christian Brothers at the four childcare institutions between 1947 and 1968.
And they were abused with impunity, the commission was told.

Survivors of abuse were hamstrung at every turn, with children as young as ten, many of whom were child migrants, being beaten by Christian Brother superiors if they told of the abuse.

The survivors told of how statute of limitation laws in WA, as well as double jeopardy laws, prevented men from coming forward to identify a Christian Brother later convicted of abusing five boys in his care.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thirteen young Catholic girls were raped and molested by their teacher in Queensland because five adults stayed silent to protect the church.

That was the damning case presented to the royal commission into child sex abuse when it came to Brisbane to look at how a teacher was allowed to keep working at a Toowoomba school for more than a year after abuse claims surfaced against him.

The commission was told the school’s principal, assistant principal, a student protection officer, and two Catholic education officers first learned of the abuse claims against Gerry Byrnes in September 2007.
But not one of them ever told police or parents.

It wasn’t until Byrnes was arrested in November 2008 that the church began investigating his 37-year teaching career at seven schools.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 30, 2014

A man jailed for six years for abusing children is still a member of the Marist Brothers, a hearing in Sydney has been told.

Brother Alexis Turton, the former head of the order in Australia and head of their professional standards office until 2012, said that John Chute, known as Brother Kostka, was still a member, at Monday’s hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Peter O’Brien, the solicitor representing Damian De Marco, who was assaulted by Chute when he was a student at Marist College in Canberra, asked Brother Turton, if he was aware of any moves to “defrock [Chute] as a brother”.

Brother Turton said he had no knowledge if moves were afoot to remove Chute from the brotherhood.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

How did a pedophile stay a Scout leader, evade NSW working-with-children vetting processes, become CEO of a children’s home, get close to fostering a child and escape early prosecution?

The first public hearing of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse wanted answers to those questions when it sat on September 16, 2013 at Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney.

Steven Larkins, former Scout leader and general manager of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services (HACS), was jailed in 2012 for a string of offences against children and for offences committed to avoid detection.

There had been reports about him since the early 1990s.

Five institutions – Scouts Australia NSW, HACS, the Department of Community Services (DoCs), the Commission for Children and Young People, and the NSW Police Force – were under the commission’s spotlight.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP JUNE 30, 2014

In 18 months the child sex abuse commission has revealed just the tip of a deep iceberg.

EXPLOSIVE claims by a NSW detective that the Catholic Church covered up evidence of pedophile priests led to the creation of one of the biggest royal commissions ever in Australia.

THE pressure on government to call a national inquiry grew as public outrage gained momentum over Peter Fox’s allegations of cover up by the church and police.

When then Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on November 12, 2012 a Royal Commission into institutional responses to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse in Australia there had already been 300 various child abuse inquiries across three decades – but nothing like this.

On January 11, 2013 Justice Peter McClellan was named head of a six-member panel and by February terms of reference were announced.

The number of commissioners and scope of the inquiry signalled the wide-ranging forensic power this commission would have – it could compel powerful institutions to open their archives and ledgers and powerful people to give evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Caracol Radio (Colombia)

Un obispo católico dimitió en Australia tras ser acusado de abuso infantil.

Max Davis, quien se convirtió en el primer obispo australiano procesado por el delito, está acusado de abusar de un adolescente en 1969, dos años antes de convertirse en sacerdote.

El sacerdote ocupaba el cargo de obispo castrense desde 2003.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

A man who as a child had cigarette butts put out between his toes while in the care of the Salvation Army was given just $10,000 compensation.

The 10th public inquiry by the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse looked at how the organisation dealt with abuse complaints.

It heard a matrix was used to measure what was offered to abuse victims.

EF was seven when placed in the Indooroopilly Boys Home in Queensland in 1966. He was violently punished and raped by the home’s manager, Major Victor Bennett.

This second hearing into the Salvation Army was shown a report outlining EF’s complaint, including that Mr Bennett put out cigarette butts between his toes.

The report had “allegations not proven” written on it.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

“The ones who suicided are the lucky ones; we are the walking dead who remain.”

The 66-year-old man who had been placed in the children’s home run by the Anglican Church in Lismore when he was two, sat slightly hunched in the witness box at the royal commission hearing.

His evidence, like that of many abuse survivors who told their stories during 14 public hearings into child sex abuse in institutions, was listened to in numbed silence.

In a broken voice and sometimes in tears he told how his six-year-old brother used to protect him, but then his brother was sent to another home.

Forty years later in 2006 the man giving evidence read an article by Tommy Campion, another former resident of the North Coast Children’s Home.

He said he cried for days.

In the 1980s he had been diagnosed with depression and attempted suicide several times. He now had leukaemia. In broken voice he told of beatings that left him scarred; of being left at a table for ten hours because he could not eat the food. If he threw up he would be made to eat the vomit.

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MICHIGAN
WKZO

by John McNeill

BATTLE CREEK (WKZO) — Authorities are looking for more potential victims of former Christian radio host John Balyo, who is accused of sexually assaulting at least one young boy.

Homeland Security agent Kenneth Duke says Balyo had contact with children through his photography business and his sponsorship of children through an aid agency.

They also found news articles in a storage facility about missing children along with a bondage kit and it made them think he may have done it more than once.

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MICHIGAN
Fox 17

by Jessica McMaster
Reporter/Produce

CALHOUN COUNTY, Mich. (June 29, 2014)– A former West Michigan radio host accused of molesting a child is expected in court Monday.

John Balyo faces charged of criminal sexual conduct after police say he had oral sex with an 11-year-old inside a Battle Creek hotel room.

According to a spokesperson with Homeland Security, investigators found duct tape, handcuffs, rope, zip-ties and children’s socks in a so-called “bondage kit” that was found inside a storage unit rented by Balyo.

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MICHIGAN
Radio Ink

Former WCSG host John Balyo is expected to be in court today to face charges of criminal sexual conduct. Police say the former Christian radio host had oral sex with an 11-year-old at a hotel. Balyo was quickly fired from his job at WCSG. Investigators say Balyo’s arrest was part of a bigger sex trafficking investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

MARGARET SCHEIKOWSKI
June 30, 2014

A bus driver’s repeated sexual abuse of intellectually disabled children, many of whom could not speak or communicate in any way, was the focus of the Royal Commission’s Adelaide hearing.

It investigated the response, such as it was, made by the South Australian police, St Ann’s Special School and the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide to claims of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins.

From 1986 to 1991, Perkins was the school’s bus driver, volunteered in woodwork classes and provided respite for parents by taking groups of boys on weekend camps and other excursions.

The then-principal didn’t carry out a police check on Perkins, who had three child sex convictons.

He ended up molesting as many as 30 disabled children, but it was not until 1991 that police raided his home and seized two canisters of film later found to contain images of naked students.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Volume 1
Volume 2

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Monday 30 June 2014

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has requested an extra two years and $104m to finish its job.

The royal commission, set up by former prime minister Julia Gillard, released its interim report on Monday afternoon. It has interviewed more than 1,700 people in private sessions, identified abuses in more than 1,000 institutions and held 14 public hearings into case study incidents, which include the handling of abuse claims within the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, NSW state-run children’s homes and Marist Brothers schools.

The commission recently announced it would hold a public hearing into Swimming Australia.

The interim report, the most comprehensive document on the royal commission released so far, covering all findings to date, comes in two parts, including 150 de-identified victims’ stories of abuse.

The report confirmed statements by chief commissioner Justice Peter McClellan in a speech at Griffith University earlier this month, including that the slated 2015 end date to the commission – which was always open to change – did not allow enough time to adequately hear all cases.

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AUSTRALIA
Press TV (Iran)

One of the most senior members of the Catholic Church in Australia has resigned after being charged by a court with child sex abuse.

Bishop Max Davis is accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student at Saint Benedict’s College in Western Australia, where he was a teacher back in 1969.

Davis is the first Australian Catholic bishop to be charged with child abuse as sex scandals continue to shake the Catholic Church.

“At that time – 45 years ago – the bishop was not ordained,” the church said in a statement. “The bishop emphatically denies the allegation and the charge will be defended.”

Davis served as chaplain on various ships and bases in Australia and overseas as bishop of the Australian Defense Force.

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AUSTRALIA
Yahoo! News

Volume 1
Volume 2

The royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sex abuse has handed down its interim report, but says it has not yet compiled enough information to make any recommendations.

It is calling for another two years to complete its work, as well $104 million in extra funding.

The royal commission says it has identified several main themes from the many personal stories it has heard.

The themes include repeated abuse and multiple perpetrators, barriers to reporting the abuse and adults that have systematically failed to protect children.

However, it says it is not clear how prevalent abuse has been, or continues to be, in institutions.
The royal commission says its initial research shows 90 per cent of perpetrators were male.

It has found that it took 22 years on average for victims to report abuse, with men taking longer than women.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse is yet to reach a view on a national redress scheme for survivors.

In it’s interim report released on Monday, the commission said it had heard calls in public hearings, submissions and in the media for a national redress scheme.

“We have not yet reached a view on a national scheme,” the commission said.

“It is likely that we will be able to identify shortcomings in the institutional redress schemes we have considered in detail.

“We might also recommend some principles of best practice.”

Four Australian states have offered redress schemes for former residents of child institutions in Qld, WA, Tas and SA.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

PETER TRUTE
June 30, 2014

The Salvation Army is facing a slump in donations to its flagship fundraising drive after an inquiry’s revelations of terrible sexual abuse of children in its care.

Donations to the Red Shield Appeal Doorknock in May are down an estimated 20 per cent this year.

Spokesman Major Bruce Harmer said the evidence heard at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a key factor.

The church expects to fall 20 per cent or $2 million short of its $10 million target for the doorknock held on May 24 and 25.

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ILLINOIS
My Fox Chicago

The former pastor of a west suburban church sexually abused a boy who was his neighbor and a parishioner, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.

John Hays, 57, allegedly abused the victim from the time he was 8 until he was 13, Assistant State’s Attorney Beth Novy told a judge.

Hays, of the 5800 block of West Race, is listed in police records as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of River Forest, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

“Beginning when the victim was about 8 years old, the victim would go to the defendant’s house to play video games with the defendant’s sons. While the boys were playing the games, [Hays] would enter the room and place the victim on his lap” and fondle him, Novy said.

Hays played what he called “a tickle game and touch the victim all over the victim’s body,” Novy said.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Report of Case Study no.1 – The response of institutions to the conduct of Steven Larkins

Report of Case Study no. 2 – YMCA NSW’s response to the conduct of Jonathan Lord

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission Interim Report was released on 30 June 2014. The Interim Report is in two volumes.

Volume 1 outlines why we are here, what we have done, what we’re learning and what we need to do next.

Volume 2 includes the personal stories of 150 people who shared their experience of abuse by coming to a private session or providing a written account. They have been chosen as a representative group and all names and other identifying features have been changed. This volume also includes a selection of de-identified poetry given to us by survivors.

You can download a copy of the Interim Report below.

Volume 1

Volume 2

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

What has already been said at the royal commission into child sex abuse.

“Until I began my work with the commission I did not adequately appreciate the devastation and long-lasting effect which sexual abuse, however inflicted, can have on an individual’s life.” – Justice Peter McClellan on opening the first public hearing.

“Unless we address this, we have no credibility.” – Deputy head of Christian Brothers Oceania Julian McDonald at a Perth hearing into two residences run by the order.

“Fifty years in the church and I do not know if I can even say I am a Christian.” – Pat Comben after two days of evidence on how he handled abuse survivor claims at an Anglican home in Lismore in northern NSW.

“We have historically provided a poor service for poor children. No government has ever really paid the money that it really requires to care for someone else’s child.” – Former Queensland senior welfare officer Janice Doyle.

“To work with kids and help them to experience life, love and friendships in an environment where there are no walls or boundaries.” – Pedophile Jonathan Lord listing his ambitions in his resume for a YMCA job.

“Why in the diocese of Lismore, then across all of Australia, then the world, why not one good fearless person could have stepped out against the depravities and wrongs that existed.” – What abuse survivor Jennifer Ingham wanted to ask a bishop.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

An inquiry into Catholic Church legal liability in abuse cases heard how Cardinal George Pell took a hardline with one victim to stop people suing.

Cardinal George Pell agreed that putting a sex abuse victim through a legal wringer was un-Christian when he faced a child abuse inquiry in March.

The hearing was the eighth by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

It was revisiting the well-known John Ellis case to explore Catholic Church legal liability.

Father Aidan Duggan abused John Ellis when he was an altar boy between 1974 and 1979. The impact hit Mr Ellis as an adult and broke him mentally.

He lost his job as a partner in a law firm.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph (UK)

Bishop Max Davis accused of sexually assaulting 13-year-old boy in 1960s, becoming most senior Australian clergyman to be charged in Catholic Church sex abuse scandal

By Associated Press 30 Jun 2014

A senior member of Australia’s Catholic Church has stepped down from his post after being charged with sexually abusing a teenage student decades ago, the church said on Monday.

Bishop Max Davis, the head of the church’s military diocese, is accused of abusing a student in 1969 when he was a teacher at St. Benedict’s College in Western Australia, the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia said in a statement. The Ordinariate is the Catholic Diocese of the country’s defence force.

Bishop Davis – the most senior clergyman in Australia to be charged in the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal – has denied the allegations

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ANNETTE BLACKWELL
June 30, 2014

The pastoral got shoved aside as financial payouts became the focus of the Catholic Church’s system of dealing with abuse victims, the fourth royal commission public hearing discovered.

Towards Healing – a protocol put in place by Catholic bishops in 1997 to help people who were sexually abused by clergy – was the focus of this hearing.

The process was shown to be inconsistent and at times poorly run. The church agreed that once insurers took over, the pastoral got lost.

Two women abused by priests and two men sexually assaulted by Marist brothers told of their journey through Towards Healing.

Payouts varied widely depending on the diocese and who was running the process.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ANNETTE BLACKWELL
June 30, 2014

Men and women who survived childhood rape and beatings in a NSW Anglican home were told to go away when they asked for help, the third hearing into child sexual abuse was told.

In October, 2013, the commission sitting in Sydney examined how the Anglican Diocese of Grafton handled complaints of extreme abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore. Up to 200 children passed through the home from 1944 to 1985.

Children were malnourished and flogged with canes, pony whips and belts. Staff, pastors and other inmates raped young children.

Tommy Campion, a 67-year-old former resident, and about 40 others came forward in 2006 to seek an apology and redress. The diocese denied liability and challenged the group’s assertion that it was liable for the home.

Evidence was the diocese, which was $12 million in debt because it had built a loss-making private school, took a hard line on compensation.

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AUSTRALIA
Digital Journal

BY GRETA MCCLAIN

A senior Roman Catholic Bishop who is head of the Australian Defence Force military diocese, has been arrested by Western Australian police and charged with sexual assault.

Bishop Max Davis, 68-years-old, is charged with sexually assaulting a student at St. Benedict’s College in New Norcia in 1969. The alleged assault occurred when Davis was a teacher and the school, and prior to Davis being ordained as a Catholic priest.

The charges and arrest were confirmed in a statement by the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia, which stated:

“An allegation has been made to the police that in 1969 Bishop Max Davis abused a student at St. Benedict’s College in New Nocria. At that time – 45 years ago – the bishop was not ordained. The bishop emphatically denies the allegation and the charge will be defended.”

According to The Guardian, Davis is thought to be the highest ranking Catholic clergy to be charged with a sexual offence, and is believed to be the first Australian Catholic clergy to be charged with such an offense.

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VATICAN CITY
The Voice of Russia

A senior Polish cleric has been found guilty of child sex abuse by a disciplinary panel of the Catholic Church and has been defrocked, the Vatican announced.

Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, 65, was removed in August from his post as Holy See ambassador to the Dominican Republic after allegations surfaced in the media of child sexual abuse, dpa reports.

After an investigation into the matter, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s disciplinary watchdog, convicted him and deemed him no longer fit to serve as a priest, a statement said.

Wesolowski has two months to file an appeal against that decision.

Until then, “all the actions that are commensurate to the seriousness of the case” will be taken against the archbishop, the Vatican said, in remarks that were seen as hinting at the possibility of an arrest.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Malcolm X said something that applies today to Pope Francis’s secret biggest hidden heist in mankind’s history and deceptive hypocritical papacy: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Pope Francis’ boss the Vatican Mammon Beast a.k.a. Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team – together with the 1% wealthiest of the globe – are the people doing the oppressing.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Courier Times

By Elizabeth Fisher Correspondent

The fighting faithful of St. Ann parish in Bristol packed the pews, the side aisles and the vestibules Sunday for what the Archdiocese of Philadelphia decreed would be the final Mass before the church merges with St. Mark, just blocks away.

About 250 worshiping warriors, many wearing battle “uniforms” of white T-shirts emblazoned with the traditional Trinitarian symbol, a red and blue cross usually fronting priest vestments and nun habits, attended the 10 a.m. Mass.

The Rev. Tom Morris, pastor of St. Ann, read his farewell remarks, written in what he called a “love letter” to his flock.

“I consider myself a married man, married to the church and to you, the members of St. Ann,” Morris told the congregation. “My hands will miss holding, touching, washing of your feet (emulating Jesus’ washing of the feet of his apostles at the Last Supper, and emulated today at Holy Thursday services). These hands will miss baptizing, distributing the Holy Eucharist, the anointing of the sick and dying.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

June 29, 2014

BOSTON (AP) – A Boston lawyer who represents victims of childhood sexual abuse is calling a change in state law a step in the right direction.

Gov. Deval Patrick recently signed legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits against alleged perpetrators.

Individuals who previously had only until age 21 to sue would now have until age 53.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said the law will help victims seek justice, but expressed disappointment it would not allow people older than 21 to retroactively sue those who supervised their alleged abusers or the institutions that employed them.

The new law also extends from three years to seven the period in which a lawsuit can be filed after the recovery of repressed memories of childhood abuse.

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UNITED STATES
The Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Sunday, June 29, 2014

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic, was defrocked last week by a church inquisition board and was stripped of his credentials as a priest. He has two months to appeal his conviction, and likely faces separate charges from Vatican City judicial authorities.

Mr. Wesolowski is the highest ranking official in the Catholic Church to face a conviction on sex abuse charges.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the defrocking was “encouraging,” but criticized the Holy See for not pursuing criminals charges first — or letting outside authorities take the reins.

“Changing someone’s job title is secondary,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director. “Keeping pedophiles away from children is crucial.”

Mr. Wesolowski, 65, is a Polish native, and was serving as a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic when he was recalled to Vatican City in August, amid charges of sex abuse on the Caribbean island.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic opened their own investigation after he had returned to Rome. Polish authorities tried unsuccessfully to extradite Mr. Wesolowski in January, but the Holy See stopped him from being transferred on the basis that he is a Vatican citizen.

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NEW YORK
Sunday Gazette

Editorial
Sunday June 29, 2014

Tim just wants justice, any way he can get it.

He called the paper the other day looking for help.

He said he’d been sexually abused by his stepfather between about the ages of 8 and 12, and he wanted his story to come out. He’s about 40 now, so it’s been about 30 years since the abuse occurred. But the pain is still deep.

He begged for a story. But newspapers are often very reluctant to print such accounts because they’re difficult to verify and because they would be opening themselves up to a libel lawsuits should the allegations turn out to be false.

He said repeatedly that if we didn’t believe him, he’d take a lie-detector test. He’d make his stepfather and his mother and his brother take lie-detector tests as well.

It wasn’t a case of whether we believed him or not. A newspaper is not a law enforcement agency that can administer such tests. It would need corroboration, a criminal charge or a court decision or something from the police.

If only, he said, the statute of limitations on his case hadn’t expired, he would be able to get his story to the public and perhaps get some justice for what he suffered.

If there’s anything you can do, he said, anything, it would be much appreciated.

“God bless you,” he said as he hung up.

It happens more often than one might think, a victim abused decades earlier coming forward in late-middle age to tell of their abuse. But by then, it’s too late for legal action.

Despite numerous such cases, and despite the publicity surrounding the experiences of sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church, Penn State University and other institutions, New York still has among the shortest statutes of limitations for sex crimes in the country. Some states have eliminated or are in the process of eliminating limits on child sex crimes altogether, recognizing that it often takes many years for victims to muster the courage or strength to come forward. New York, advocates say, still lags far behind.

Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey of Queens has been fighting to get the limits changed for the past several years. This year, she sponsored the Child Victims Act of New York. The bill, which has been passed by the Democrat-controlled Assembly four times in the past eight years but never has never gotten through the Senate, would eliminate criminal and civil statute of limitations for certain sex offenses (such as incest) committed against a child younger than 18.

The bill also includes an unusual provision for those cases in which the statute of limitations has already expired. It would suspend the civil statute of limitations for one year after passage of the law in all applicable cases. That would allow older victims such as Tim to have their stories heard in civil court. California, Hawaii, Delaware and Minnesota are among the states that have adopted the window, according to a June 4 article in The Wall Street Journal.

Opponents of extended or unlimited statutes of limitations argue that as cases grow old, they become more difficult to prove, especially after decades. Perpetrators and witnesses forget things. They die. Evidence disappears, if there ever was any. And some institutions have argued that opening that door would allow people to tarnish their reputations without being able to produce irrefutable proof.

But we’ve all heard stories of so-called “cold cases” being solved many years after they’ve been committed, thanks to advances in evidence technology and the perseverance of detectives and victims.

Child victims of sex crimes at least deserve a chance to make a case.

Unfortunately, the state Legislature, as it has in the past, went home for the summer without taking action on the statute of limitations, leaving child abuse victims once again trapped between their pain and the arbitrary limits of the law.

Perhaps when they return to session, they’ll reconsider and finally do something.

Among the most heinous crimes are those in which the victims are children.

Why should there be a limit on justice for them?

Why should there be a limit on justice for Tim?

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Updated June 27, 2014

Paris Arrow

The selected sick goes to the Vatican for photo-ops while the sick in hospital is shunned by Pope Francis

For the second time, Pope Francis has canceled again a planned visit to one of Rome’s main hospitals, the Gemelli hospital where he was to celebrate a mass there Friday afternoon. But an hour before his planned arrival, the Vatican issued a statement saying he was cancelling the visit due to an “unexpected indisposition.” Does anyone know what “unexpected indisposition” means? Ever hear any of Pope Francis’s colleagues those Hollywood celebrities use that word as an alibi? It’s unheard of. Pope Francis of course is the most famous celebrity on earth (as his fellow Jesuit Thomas Reese said, read here http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/2014/02/whos-liar-pope-francis-or-un-vatican.html ) for he has graced the cover of every magazine on the planet that Opus Dei partner Murdoch Media Empire owns, read about Murdoch here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/06/australia-investigate-catholic-mafia.html

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Sunday 29 June 2014

In his first interview with a female journalist since his election to the spiritual leadership of the world’s 1.2 billion baptised Catholics, Pope Francis dodged a string of questions about whether he intended raising the status of women in his church and made a joke about women being “taken from a rib”.

The pope said women were “the most beautiful thing God has made”. And he added: “Theology cannot be done without this feminine touch.”

He agreed not enough was said about women and promised that steps were being taken to remedy the situation.

But when his interviewer, the Vatican correspondent of the Rome daily Il Messaggero, Franca Giansoldati, asked him whether he could detect an underlying misogyny in the Catholic church, Francis replied: “The fact is that woman was taken from a rib.” Giansoldati wrote that he then laughed “heartily” before saying: “I’m joking. That was a joke.”

The 77-year-old pontiff went on: “The issue of women needs to be gone into in more depth, otherwise you can’t understand the church itself.” But did he envisage, say, appointing a woman to head a Vatican department?

“Well,” replied the pope cryptically. “Priests often end up under the sway of their housekeepers.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

LIAM CROY AND AAP The West Australian
June 30, 2014

A senior Catholic bishop has been charged with sexually abusing a child in New Norcia 45 years ago.

Max Davis, 68, is believed to be Australia’s first bishop and the most senior Church official to be charged with a child sex offence.

He is currently the Bishop of the Australian Defence Force.

Bishop Davis has been charged by WA Police with sexually abusing a student while teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia in 1969 – two years before he was ordained.

He has denied the charge and will defend it.

The Catholic Church Military Ordinariate of Australia last night said that Bishop Davis would stand down while the matter was before the court.

Bishop Davis was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and he “emphatically denies” the charge.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Liberal

By STEPHANIE KONATAR June 30, 2014

THE Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a four-year high in sexual assault reports last year, on the back of greater awareness created by Royal Commission into child sexual assault, according to executive officer Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia (RDVSA) Karen Willis.

Almost 20,000 sexual assaults were reported in police in 2013, this is an increase of 8 percent on the previous year.

NSW saw an increase of 11 percent since 2012- an increase is quite a positive thing Ms Willis said at the launch Sexual Assault Counselling Australia in Dubbo.

“This is great news, because what we know is that only 17 per cent of people who experience sexual assault report it to police,” she said.

“We know it’s really difficult for victims to come forward.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 30, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

SEVENTY years ago, when she was just a teenage girl, the Salvation Army used to keep Dulcie May Holmes locked inside a cage.

Every time she ran away, Dulcie would be subjected to forced internal examinations by staff working at the church-run Industrial School for Girls in Toowong, Brisbane.

“Until now I just kept it to myself,” the 86-year-old said. “I never told anyone. I was too ashamed in the beginning … I just couldn’t get it out.”

Earlier this year, officers from the child abuse royal commission visited Dulcie’s rural home in Glenwood, Queensland, and asked her to describe what happened. Other graphic stories of abuse at boys’ homes run by the church emerged at two public commission hearings in January and March this year. “I’m pleased somebody knows about it now. We’ve suffered enough anyway, deep down,” Dulcie said.

Today, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will deliver its first interim report, 18 months after it first came into being.

After 14 public hearings, more than 1700 private meetings with victims, and allegations of child abuse at more than 1000 institutions, the report is expected to make the case for an extension of its current 2015 deadline.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Leslie Hittner

It was nice to see the Diocese of Winona respond to my last column. Even then, the diocese was vague about the nature of the criticism.

When I asserted that the collections in December went to diocesan priests, I was wrong. Thanks to a friend of mine, I found out that those monies go to men and women in religious orders. Diocesan priests pay into a separate fund — one to which the diocese no doubt contributes as well. It was not clear about diocesan contributions in the news release — but that would be normal.

I promised my friend that I would write a column to correct my error. The defensive response of the diocese made it much easier for me to do so. I found it of continuing interest that financial issues can be counted upon to bring the diocese forth. It sounded like the bishop of Winona corresponded with each parish about the error that I had made in my recent criticism of the church’s continuing cover-up of sexual abuse.

But predictably the bishop’s response was about the money. It was not about the sexual abuse cover-up.

Since 2008, I have written a total of 10 columns that were critical of the actions of the church. I have also written a letter to the bishop of Winona that was critical of the reasons that led the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the social justice arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to decide not to fund the Land Stewardship Project after having done so for over two decades.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Oregon Peter P. O’Grady was a Jesuit of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, ordained in 1933. He served in parishes and schools in the dioceses of Seattle and Spokane WA, Great Falls and Helena MT, Boise City ID and Portland OR. He died in Spokane June 16, 1993. O’Grady was accused in a 2004 lawsuit of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 1991. The diocese deemed the allegations “proven or credible”.

Ordained: 1933
Died: June 16, 1993

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

[November 17, 2011 – Statement Of The Archdiocese Of Boston Regarding Reverend Victor C. Lavoie – Boston archdiocese]

LaVoie, Rev. Victor C. 69, of Woburn, MA went to his heavenly reward June 26, 2014. The son of Rene and Ruth (McCusker) LaVoie, he was born August 25, 1944 in Hartford, CT. His early years were spent in Manchester, CT, before moving to Watertown. He graduated from Saint Mary’s School in Waltham. He attended Saint John’s Seminary, and was ordained May 15, 1971. He attended Boston College and received his Master’s in Spirituality from Santa Clara University in California. Brother of Anne Uva of Syracuse, NY, John LaVoie and his wife Mary of Duxbury, Joseph LaVoie and his wife Debbie of East Falmouth, and the late Thomas LaVoie.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 28, 2014

Patrick Hatch
Reporter for The Age

A former student at an ultra-orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne is suing the school and its former principal, who fled the country days after molestation claims against her surfaced.

Malka Leifer fled to Israel in 2008, days after being sacked as principal of Adass Israel Girls’ School, in Elsternwick, following complaints of inappropriate conduct with students.

Parents told The Age at the time that Ms Leifer had molested students aged 15 and 16 at her home and probably at school camps and that one victim had attempted suicide.

Two former students filed civil claims in the Melbourne Supreme Court in March last year against Mrs Leifer and the school for breach of duty.

Solicitor Nick Mazzeo, of law firm Lennon Mazzeo, has acted on behalf of a number of former students at the school who claim to have been sexually abused by Mrs Leifer.

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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh Evening News

The head of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland has been honoured by the Pope.

Archbishop Leo Cushley was today presented with the Pallium, an ancient ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, bestowed by Popes on Metropolitan Archbishops as a symbol of jurisdiction and of communion with the See of Peter, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

Archbishop Cushley replaced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stood down in February last year after admitting sexual misconduct, as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

The Catholic Bishop of the Australian Defence Force has been charged by police with a child-sex offence allegedly committed in 1969. Bishop Max Davis, 68, is believed to be the most senior Catholic clergyman (and the first bishop) to be charged by Australian police with a child-sex offence.

The alleged incident took place when Davis was teaching at St Benedict’s College, a boys’ school in New Norcia, north-east of Perth.

On 29 June 2014 a statement from the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia said:

“An allegation has been made to the police that in 1969 Bishop Max Davis abused a student at St. Benedict’s College in New Norcia. At that time – 45 years ago – the bishop was not ordained. The bishop emphatically denies the allegation and the charge will be defended.”

The statement said that Bishop Davis will stand aside while the matter is dealt with by the courts in Western Australia.

Research by Broken Rites

Bishop Max Leroy Davis was born in Townsville, Queensland, in 1945 and grew up in Perth, where he was educated by the Christian Brothers.

From 1962 to 1964 he served as a sailor in the Australian Navy.

After studying for the priesthood, he was ordained in 1971. He served with parishes in the Perth archdiocese and was a part-time chaplain for the Army.

From 1975 to 1993, he served as chaplain on various ships and bases in Australia and overseas.

In 1990 he became part of the Catholic Church’s newly established Military Ordinariate and was appointed its vicar-general (that is, the administrator under the military bishop). He became the principal Catholic chaplain for the Navy in 1993.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY June 29, 2014

THE Catholic Church has warned a woman it will block her compensation claim by using a defence that was severely criticised at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Victorian order, the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, has advised Central Coast woman Jennifer Herrick it will raise the High Court decision known as the Ellis defence to block her claim against its trustees when the matter returns to court in August. The trustees hold the order’s assets.

The order’s use of the defence has been condemned by solicitor and child sexual abuse victim John Ellis, whose unsuccessful compensation case against the Catholic Church led to the 2007 decision that has insulated the Church from claims against it ever since.

The commission’s investigation in March this year of the Church’s handling of Mr Ellis’s case included an admission by Cardinal George Pell that Church litigation against Mr Ellis amounted to “legal abuse”.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The head of the Catholic Church’s military diocese, Bishop Max Davis, has been charged by West Australian police with a child sex offence dating back to 1969.

The alleged incident is believed to have taken place when Bishop Davis was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth.

It is understood he is the first Australian bishop and the most senior Australian Church official to be charged with a child sex offence.

Bishop Davis was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and he ’emphatically denies’ the charge.

‘An allegation has been made to the police that in 1969 Bishop Max Davis abused a student at St. Benedict’s College in New Norcia,’ the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia said in a statement on Sunday night.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

The Bishop of the Australian Defence Force has been charged with a sex offence dating back to 1969.

Bishop Max Davis is believed to be the most senior clergyman in the Catholic Church, and the first bishop, to be charged with a child sex offence.

The alleged incident took place when Bishop Davis was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, north-east of Perth.

The Church said Bishop Davis was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and that he “emphatically denies” the charge.

“An allegation has been made to the police that in 1969 Bishop Max Davis abused a student at St. Benedict’s College in New Nocria,” said a statement from the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 29, 2014

Rachel Olding
Reporter

One of the most senior members of the Catholic Church has been charged with a child sex offence, the Church has confirmed.

Bishop Max Davis, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1998, has stood aside from his post as bishop of the Australian Defence Force while the matter is before a Western Australian court.

He has been charged with abusing a student at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, Western Australia, in 1969 when he was a teacher at the school.

It is believed Bishop Davis, who was elected Military Ordinary Bishop of Australia in 2003, is the first bishop in Australia to be charged with child sexual assault.

“The bishop emphatically denies the allegation and the charge will be defended,” a statement from the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia said.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

I don’t know about you, but when someone who’s hurt me or a loved one tells me to “move on,” or “move forward,” and hasn’t made amends, I get a little tetchy. But I get a little curious too, the way one does when one is told not to look at something.

Recently, a friend sent me a link to a beautifully scripted and filmed video featuring Australian Salvation Army Eastern Territorial Head, James Condon, called “Dealing with Regret.” Jimmy’s video was a warm, intimate ramble in the style of FD Roosevelt’s fireside chats. Jimmy says he has no regrets in life. I’m sure we’re all happy for him (with the possible exception of anyone who may have been harmed by Colin Haggar, perhaps).

At the end of the video, though, Jimmy explains that he’s often had to tell people: “You need to let go of that and move on.” He admits moving on isn’t easy (he’s only human), but reassures us that God is there to help us. This riled me, because if you’re a victim of the Salvation Army, or love someone who is, you can be pretty damn sure the Salvation Army isn’t there to help you. Not properly.

Anyway, I was a little angry by the end of this video, but curious too. What’s this “moving on” business and why did Jimmy place such heavy emphasis on it?

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IRELAND
Birmingham Mail

Jun 29, 2014 By Mike Lockley

A Midland car worker has won his 16-year fight to get the Irish government to investigate a former children’s home where 222 youngsters died from 1922 to 1949.

Derek Leinster, who now lives in Rugby, was a former resident of the controversial Bethany Home in Rathgar, Dublin, which has been included in the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes in Ireland.

Derek, aged 72, claims he suffered neglect at the home and as a result endured gastroenteritis, diphtheria, whooping cough and pneumonia in his formative years at the home, where his unmarried mother, Hannah, was forced to spend the last four months of her pregnancy.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church has confirmed that Bishop Max Davis has been charged by West Australian police with a child sex offence dating back to 1969.

Bishop Davis is believed to be the first bishop to be charged with a child sex offence in Australia and is understood to be the most senior Australian Church official to face such charges.

The alleged incident took place taken place when Bishop Davis was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, north-east of Perth.

The Church said Bishop Davis was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and that he “emphatically denies” the charge.

“An allegation has been made to the police that in 1969 Bishop Max Davis abused a student at St. Benedict’s College in New Nocria,” a statement from the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Australia.

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UNITED STATES
Failed Messiah

Australian police are reportedly investigating senior Chabad leaders in both Sydney and in Melbourne for failing to report child sex abuse as required by law and for covering up the abuse (and, it seems, for sanction harassment and abuse of witnesses against them).

All the rabbis mentioned in the article are senior Chabad rabbis.

Leches is now the Chabad rabbi of Monsey, New York.

Feldman is the head of Chabad in Sydney, Australia.

Hayman, while not a rabbi, is a Chabad follower who served on Chabad’s board and was active in its summer camp in a supervisory role and directly with students. He was later protected while living in Los Angeles by Debbie Fox, the Orthodox social worker who ran the LA Jewish community’s sex offender program and who was close to Ohel, the scandal-plagued Brooklyn-based haredi social services organization that has allegedly mishandled dozens of sex offender cases. (Ohel also worked closely with former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to allegedly cover up cases of haredi sex abuse. Hynes is currently under federal and state criminal investigation for illegally using government funds to campaign, to pay campaign workers – and to, I’ve been told, give cronies no-work jobs.)

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 27, 2014

Richard Baker
Investigative reporter

Some of Australia’s most senior orthodox Jewish leaders are under investigation for allegedly failing to report multiple instances of child sexual abuse.

The Sunday Age has obtained witness statements and tape recordings from this month’s successful prosecution of a former Bondi Yeshiva authority figure, Daniel Hayman, that indicate senior Jewish leaders failed to act on complaints of abuse and cast doubt over their public statements on the scandal.

The documents and recordings provide an insight into strongly held views within segments of Australia’s ultra-orthodox Jewish communities that child sexual abuse should not be reported to secular authorities.

New South Wales police and the NSW Ombudsman are examining whether senior Rabbis broke the law by failing to report incidents of alleged child sexual abuse at Bondi’s Yeshiva centre to authorities.
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Similar investigations are taking place in Melbourne into the failure by leaders of St Kilda’s Yeshiva college to act on allegations of abuse by two former employees who were recently jailed for sexual abuse offences against students.

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MEXICO
Tabasco Hoy

[Summary: Priest Francisco Javier Castillo Rios was arrested on a warrant by a group of agents of the state ministerial police of San Luis Potosi. He is accused of sexual abuse and rape. He served in the Ojo Caliente community of Santa Maria del Rio. It is alleged he raped a minor who wanted to be a priest and the boy was told the abuse the price he had to pay if he wanted to become a minister of the Catholic Church.]

Fue detenido el sacerdote Francisco Javier Castillo Ríos, por un grupo de agentes de la Policía Ministerial del Estado de San Luis Potosí, le dieron cumplimentó a la orden de aprehensión girada por el Juzgado Cuarto del Ramo Penal.

El sacerdote Francisco Javier Castillo Ríos, es señalado como presunto responsable de abuso sexual y violación.

Cuando se dio a conocer la denuncia presentada en su contra, el presunto se desempeñaba como titular en la parroquia de Ojo Caliente, comunidad de Santa María del Río.

Se dijo que el sacerdote habría violado a un menor que tenía aspiraciones de ser sacerdote a quien aseguraba que era el precio que tenía que pagar si quería convertirse en ministro de la Iglesia Católica.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Herald Scotland

Sunday 29 June 2014

Vicky Allan

BACK in 1991 when Dr Anthony Clare interviewed Jimmy Savile for Radio 4’s In The Psychiatrist’s Chair, it was clear that he felt uncomfortable with much of what the TV presenter and DJ was saying.

Here was a man who never put down roots, who carried no baggage, who had never had any kind of long-term relationship, who spoke of having “no feelings”, who boasted of the “clout” he had and who eulogised about his own personal freedom. “I’ve got a shoulder bag that’s not been unpacked for nearly 30 years,” he said. “I don’t sleep in the same bed more than two nights running … I’m not constrained pretty well by anything. The tough thing in life is ultimate freedom.”

Those words seem particularly chilling now that we know a little about the ugly way that Savile exercised his ultimate freedom and considerable clout; now we know, through a report published last week, that he used his celebrity status and access to the NHS to “exploit and abuse” vulnerable patients and staff at several hospitals; that he boasted of having sex with corpses, and that at Leeds General Infirmary where he volunteered as porter, he abused victims aged from five to 75.

Two questions inevitably arise. Firstly, how did he manage to create this protective silence around him? Savile’s behaviour was indeed truly shocking – but even more shocking is that he got away with it for so long.

Another question crosses the mind of anyone following the Savile story: Why did he do it?

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UNITED STATES
Telegraph

By Robert Mendick, and Eileen Fairweather 29 Jun 2014

The Government is under mounting pressure to hold a comprehensive nationwide inquiry into historic child abuse following the latest disclosures over Jimmy Savile’s prolific sex offending.

Almost 120 MPs from all parties have joined forces to call on Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to set up an overarching investigation into a series of cases.

It comes as Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, warned that the culture that helped Savile to abuse hundreds of children and adults without being caught still existed. The campaign for a nationwide inquiry has been orchestrated by seven MPs, including Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative backbencher, and Tim Loughton, the former children’s minister, but has snowballed with support from more than a sixth of all MPs.

They have written to the Home Secretary to demand an investigation similar to the independent inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster. It would examine failures by police and other authorities to properly investigate a number of high-profile cases.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel June 28, 2014

Retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, a once-towering figure who diminished his legacy by his handling of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in southeastern Wisconsin and his own sex scandal, is returning in old age to the Benedictine abbey where he began his religious life more than 70 years ago.

Weakland, 87 and increasingly frail, has told friends he will be moving by Sept. 1 from his Milwaukee condo to the St. Vincent Archabbey, a community of monks in Latrobe, Pa., about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

A group of local priests is planning a farewell luncheon in July, an event that is already drawing criticism from abuse survivors.

“It’s an opportunity to express our thanks and appreciation, and to say farewell and God bless you as you go to the next phase in your life,” said Father David Cooper of St. Matthias Parish, the head of the local priests alliance that is organizing the send-off.

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WALES
Wales Online

Jun 29, 2014 By Ciaran Jones

Material related to claims against high-ranking member destroyed ‘due to passage of time’

The Jehovah’s Witnesses destroyed allegations of child abuse and rape against a respected church elder, we can reveal today.

The church claims it disposed of evidence showing claims against paedophile Mark Sewell dating back more than 20 years.

Depraved Sewell, 53, faces a “very substantial” jail term after being found guilty on Friday of eight historic sex charges, including rape, between 1987 and 1995.

We can also today reveal how:

All but one of the fellow elders who investigated claims against the disgraced businessman, who was once an elder in the Barry congregation, declined to give evidence in his Crown Court trial;

The Jehovah’s Witnesses provided nothing to help the police and prosecutors in their investigation, despite “dis-fellowshipping” Sewell 20 years ago;

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NEW ZEALAND
Scoop

Sunday, 29 June 2014
Press Release: Sensible Sentencing Trust

While New Zealand bestows abusers with human rights protection
Perhaps our Director of Human Rights might like to issue an open invitation to all the Priests convicted of child abuse to come to New Zealand for safe refuge and protection. McVicar

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is hailing a decision by the Vatican to defrock a top archbishop for sexual abuse of children but the Trust is lamenting the fact that in New Zealand a man with similar offences is having his name and convictions protected by the Director of Human Rights.

Trust Spokesman Garth McVicar said while he is disgusted by child sexual abuse wherever it occurs he was congratulating the Vatican for taking the appropriate action, including naming the offender.

“I find it very alarming that here in New Zealand the Department supposedly responsible for defending our human rights and protecting our children decides instead to defend the rights of a man convicted of multiple offences of sexual abuse on children.”

Mr McVicar said, “Like New Zealand the Catholic Church has many Priests with a shocking history of child abuse, but unlike New Zealand the Vatican is determined to name and shame the offenders and hold them to account.”

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MALTA
Malta Independent

The Catholic Church in Malta and the police have given conflicting details regarding priests involved in child sex abuse cases since 2010.

The Church told this newspaper that a total of 11 complaints were received during this period and so far, two of these cases were found to be positive. When asked whether any referrals were made to the police, the Church said yes.

In contrast, when asked to reveal the number of cases investigated by police in terms of priests abusing children, and the number of prosecutions between 2010 and now, the police said; “Please note that during the period requested, the Police did not receive any reports.”

This has resulted in a rather confusing situation with both sides giving conflicting statements.

The procedure relating to Church investigations into sexual abuse is explained in the document entitled “Statement of Policy & Procedures In Cases of Sexual Abuse in Pastoral Activity”. This document is currently being updated and the new document is in its final stages, a representative from the Church said.

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CALIFORNIA
Woodland Daily Democrat

CREATED: 06/28/2014

Calling his behavior “a crime and a sin,” Sacramento Catholic Church officials told the Sacramento Bee they will ask the Vatican to defrock a disgraced Davis priest after he pleaded guilty to statutory rape of a teenage parishioner.

Hector Coria Gonzalez faces face jail and probation after pleading guilty to the charge Friday in Yolo Superior Court.

“Father Coria’s behavior with the minor was a crime and a sin,” Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, told The Bee Friday in a prepared statement. “He will now be held to account for his behavior.”

Eckery told The Bee the diocese will forward Gonzalez’s case to Rome and “ask the Holy See to permanently dismiss him from the priesthood.”

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF JUNE 28, 2014

As the countdown continues towards Pope Francis’ first meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse, which is expected next week, recent days have brought reminders that the challenges facing the pontiff as he attempts to lead the church out of the scandals are both stunningly simple and maddeningly complex.

Here’s the simple part: For reasons of both PR and substance, it’s critical that Francis not send any signals of retreat. Two developments last week underscored that point.

First, the Vatican announced Friday that Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski has been sentenced to laicization, meaning he’s to be stripped of his status both as a bishop and a priest.

A former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Wesolowski was recalled in August after a local TV network charged the 66-year-old with paying for sex with underage boys and being a frequent visitor to a Santo Domingo neighborhood known for prostitution with minors.

Wesolowski has two months to appeal the verdict, and in the meantime he’ll be under a sort of house arrest. It remains to be seen if Wesolowski will be extradited to face charges in the Dominican Republic or Poland, with the Vatican vowing to cooperate with any such request. He’s also subject to criminal prosecution under the laws of the Vatican City State.

Concerns that the Vatican might be sheltering Wesolowski had mounted in recent months, and featured prominently in a hearing with Vatican officials before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in February.

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MEXICO
ABC News (US)

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Jun 28, 2014

Authorities in the northern Mexican state of San Luis Potosi have arrested a Roman Catholic priest on suspicion of sexually abusing a minor, the second priest charged there in a week.

State investigative police say Friday’s arrest of Guillermo Gil Torres was based on a complaint from the boy’s grandmother, who said the child became noticeably sad and nervous and asked never to be sent to church.

The incidents started in November when Gil Torres, pastor of Santa Rosa de Lima church, invited the boy to look at photographs of his travels and allegedly began rubbing his legs, police said according to testimony from the family.

The Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi did not answer telephone calls or emails seeking comment on Saturday. Mexican media reported that Gil Torres had been suspended last month when the complaint was filed.

He was arrested while driving in the capital city, also called San Luis Potosi, where the church is located.

Earlier this week, a judge in the same state ordered the arrest of now-suspended Catholic priest Eduardo Cordova, who is also suspected of sexually abusing minors.

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MEXICO
Milenio

IMELDA TORRES
28/06/2014

San Luis Potosí
Por abuso sexual calificado fue detenido un sacerdote de la capital potosina y ahora en vez de sotana, tendrá que usar el uniforme del penal de La Pila.

Información de la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado señala que la detención se llevó a cabo este viernes, por agentes de la Policía Ministerial del Estado que dieron cumplimento a una orden de aprehensión contra el cura Guillermo Gil Torres, quien era párroco de la Iglesia Santa Rosa de Lima, ubicada en la calle Francisco Villa de la colonia 21 de Marzo, en la ciudad de San Luis Potosí.

Esto luego de que fue denunciado por la abuela del menor de edad, del que obviamente se omiten sus datos. Agentes de la corporación hicieron la investigación y un juez encontró los elementos suficientes para pedir su aprehensión, lográndose en la avenida de Las Artes esquina con Xicoténcatl, cuando manejaba su vehículo particular.

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MEXICO
Azteca Noticias

[Summary: The San Luis Potosi attorney general said priest Guillermo Gil Torres has been arrested and charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a minor.]

San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí.- La Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE) informó la detención del sacerdote Guillermo Gil Torres, por el delito de abuso sexual calificado en agravio de un menor de edad.

En un comunicado, la PGJE señaló que la Policía Ministerial del estado (PME) dio cumplimiento, la víspera, a una orden de aprehensión en contra del cura en la avenida de Las Artes esquina con Xicoténcatl por Himno Nacional, derivada de la denuncia presentada por la abuela del menor de edad y de la investigación de agentes de la Policía Ministerial.

Los familiares y el afectado dieron a conocer en su denuncia, que los hechos comenzaron en noviembre del año pasado.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

We disagree with the Dominican Republic’s only cardinal and three catholic bishops who on Friday praised the Vatican’s decision to defrock its former envoy in the country Jozef Wesolowski for the sexual abuse of minors stating that “the conviction sends a message to the enemies of the Catholic Church who continue talking gibberish and that it was the best response on Justice and the best decision the Holy See could’ve made.” The cardinal got it wrong and is the other way around – The Catholic Church is the enemy of humankind because of the secret Vatican Swiss Banks that hoard the wealth of the 1% wealthest of the globe, see here graphs and articles http://pope-francis-con-christ.blogspot.ca/2014/02/hidden-heist-in-holy-see-biggest-heist.html The cardinal’s news releases are all Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team pre-script statements. Catholics must cease being stupid and the world must stop being blinded by Octopus Beast PR stunts because the crux of the matter is – it took one year for the Vatican to defrock him because they needed to trace and settle all the billions of dollars in the former papal nuncio’s names and signatures. The truth is there are seven best responses the Vatican must make in expiation of the former papal nuncio’s crimes because the wealthy ex-ambassador’s crimes are not only his personal sex with minors

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NEDERLAND
Ondrzoek

DEN HAAG, 27 juni 2014 – Een onafhankelijke commissie voor hulp, erkenning en genoegdoening bood ongeveer 350 mensen een financiële tegemoetkoming aan op basis van hun klacht over fysiek en psychisch geweld tegen hen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (RKK). Het excessief geweld had plaats toen zij minderjarig waren. De commissie bood de ongeveer 350 slachtoffers financiële tegemoetkomingen aan voor een bedrag van in totaal bijna een miljoen euro.

Bij deze ongeveer 350 klachten gaat het om excessief fysiek en psychisch geweld door personen die werkzaam waren binnen de RKK in Nederland. De commissie, die voluit de aanduiding Hulp, Erkenning, Genoegdoening voor geweld tegen minderjarigen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk heeft, ging bij de behandeling van de klachten uitsluitend af op de authenticiteit van de klacht en de melding; er was geen bewijs of ondersteuning van de aannemelijkheid nodig.

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

1987 memo on Fr. Kern
1992 memo on Fr. Kern
1993 memo on Fr. Kern
Sexual abuse victim letter to parish

By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-82211

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson has reigned over Roman Catholics in St. Louis for the last five years.

But it is a historic lawsuit filed hundreds of miles away in his former home of Minneapolis that now stands as the archbishop’s most significant challenge — one that may determine both his legacy and his future.

The case will attempt to show that for years church leaders such as Carlson mishandled sexual abuse claims in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and allowed known abusers back into ministry to victimize others.

Already, the Minnesota case led to the release this month of a legal deposition of Carlson that triggered outcry over his response concerning laws about child sex abuse.

But that deposition is only the first in a long series of documents that will be released in the coming months under a judge’s order. The combined release of church records and court filings will for the first time give the public an inside look at Carlson’s tenure in Minneapolis.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

By Amanda Jarrett
Published: June 28, 2014

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — Federal officials close to the investigation of Ronald Lee Moser told 24 Hour News 8 they believe he may have had other victims throughout West Michigan.

Moser was indicted on federal charges earlier this month, accused of making child pornography.

When investigators raided his house in early June they found Moser with a 11-year-old boy, along with cell phone images of the boy in sexually suggestive poses.

The federal investigation into Moser led officials to the arrest of longtime Christian radio host John Balyo.

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ARGENTINA
Iglesia Descalza

By Religión Digital (English translation by Rebel Girl)
June 27, 2014

Pope Francis handed over a letter and evidence that had been sent to the Vatican by Monseñor Enrique Angelelli that show the human rights violations committed by Argentina during the military dictatorship. On Friday, July 4th, the sentence against the soldiers accused of being the intellectual authors [of Angelelli’s murder] will be pronounced.

The letter was submitted as evidence in the trial for the alleged murder of Angelelli in La Rioja. The written testimony of military persecution is a blow to members of the Vatican who for years denied that the letter and the evidence has come to the Holy See.

“We are constantly hampered in fulfilling the mission of the Church. We priests and religious have been personally humiliated, seized, and raided by the police on orders of the army,” Angelelli wrote in his letter. Days later, he would be killed on Route 38 in the vicinity of Punta de los Llanos.

The letter and evidence were sent in July 1976 to the Vatican nuncio who in those days was Pio Laghi. That cardinal, who died in 2009 and was investigated for complicity with the Argentinian dictatorship, always denied having received them.

Francis, fulfilling his promise that he would open the Vatican archives, sent two documents to Monseñor Marcelo Colombo, Bishop of La Rioja: a letter from Angelelli and a report titled “A chronicle of the facts related to the assassination of Fathers Longueville Gabriel and Murias Carlos”, the priests in the Riojan city of Chamical who were assassinated on July 18, 1976. The account of the assassinations had been presented the same month they were committed, and Angelelli took the trouble to send multiple copies to the Holy See as he didn’t trust the nuncio.

The federal criminal court in La Rioja will resume hearings today on the pleadings of the parties in the trial for the murder of Monseñor Enrique Angelelli, perpetrated during the military dictatorship.

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TEXAS
KENS 5

[with video]

by Sharon Ko / KENS 5

Posted on June 28, 2014

SAN ANTONIO — A priest who was already convicted of attempted rape and the sexual assault of a girl has now been tied to an alleged case of abuse in San Antonio.

Recently, a woman came forward claiming the late reverend Bruce MacArthur raped her when she was a girl in the late 1970’s at Saint James Catholic Church.

The San Antonio director of ‘Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,’ Barbara Boehland said the victim did not receive any help from the church and instead, reached out to SNAP.

“It takes awhile for people to come forward. It’s a shameful thing. It’s embarrassing. You feel filthy. It takes a lot of courage to come forward and we’re really proud of this person,” said Boehland.

The Archdiocese of San Antonio confirmed it believes the woman’s claim and Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller responded in a statement saying the church hopes “that any members of our community affected by sexual abuse will be encouraged to seek all needed pastoral support or counseling as part of their healing process.”

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Jimmy Savile reports uncover shocking details about the late TV presenter and DJ who has been linked to a Catholic boys’ home in Shefford

UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

Written by JULIA SUTTON

JIMMY Savile abused corpses as well as sexually assaulted patients aged from five to 75 in NHS hospitals after decades of unrestricted access, investigators claim.

The reports into the former BBC DJ, who also presented Jim’ll Fix It and Top of the Pops, cover 28 hospitals including Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor psychiatric hospital.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted the shocking revelations ‘will shake our country to the core’.

Savile died aged 84 in October 2011 – a year before allegations that he had sexually abused children came to light.

The Advertiser has been following the case as the TV personality has also been connected to a former Catholic boys’ home in Shefford.

St Francis House closed in 1973 and we revealed that Savile used to visit the home, as there was a Catholic Church on the site, which is still open.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Nacional

[Summary: The Dominican government said Thursday it is satisified after the Vatican condemned and expelled from the priesthood the former apostolic nuncio Josef Wesolowski. He was accused to sexually abusing children in the Dominican Republic. The archbishop has been expelled, which is the maximum penalty of the church, according to President Danilo Medina. He said Pope Francis told him this would happen.]

CARACAS, 27 Jun 2014 (AFP) – El gobierno dominicano expresó este jueves su satisfacción luego de que El Vaticano condenara y expulsara del sacerdocio al exnuncio apostólico (embajador) polaco Jozef Wesolwski por pederastia, caso por el que será objeto de un juicio penal.

“Lo han expulsado, esa es la pena máxima de la Iglesia y el sacerdocio, y él, su santidad (el papa Francisco), me prometió que eso iba a ocurrir y que no iba a estar tranquilo hasta que eso ocurriera”, dijo en una declaración pública el presidente Danilo Medina. El mandatario dominicano sostuvo el pasado 13 de junio una audiencia con el pontífice en el que abordó el caso.

Wesolowski, de 65 años de edad y que fue nuncio en República Dominicana desde enero de 2008 hasta agosto de 2013, fue condenado a la dimisión del clero, informó este viernes El Vaticano. A través de un comunicado, La Procuraduría General de la República (fiscalía) expresó su confianza de que este paso abra las vías para una condena penal al sacerdote polaco, de 65 años. “Esa decisión da apertura al proceso para una sentencia penal, que deberá ser condenatoria, en razón de los graves hechos cometidos”, señala el comunicado.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Journal

Bloomberg News

ROME — Pope Francis’s global survey of parishes conducted last year revealed sex scandals and negative experiences involving members of the clergy damaged the Roman Catholic Church’s image among its faithful.

“Sex scandals significantly weaken the Church’s moral credibility, above all in North America and northern Europe,” the Vatican said in its Instrumentum Laboris, a text summing up the results of a worldwide survey among Catholic parishes.

Last year, the Vatican asked parishioners around the world to give input on issues such as birth control, gay marriage and divorce. The results, which include parishoners’ perceptions of the church, were made public Thursday in a text that will serve as a starting point for discussions when bishops from around the world meet at the Vatican in October to debate family issues.

The survey confirmed that more than a decade of sexual scandals have seriously hurt the church’s image, affecting its own faithful. In April, Francis asked for forgiveness on behalf of priests who had sexually abused children and said more had to be done to rectify damage done and punish offenders.

The document also said that “some clergy are uncompromising and insensitive in their behavior” in daily interaction with parishoners, contributing to the image of the Church as not being supportive.

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UNITED STATES
Urban Review STL

The weekly poll here isn’t scientific, the participants self select. Still, the number of participants is pretty consistent week to week. But when last week’s poll, Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Archbishop Robert Carlson?, had more votes in the first 24 hours than most get after 7 days I knew an effort was on to distort the outcome of the results.

Clearly obedient Catholics in St. Louis have a very favorable opinion of Carlson, however, the early results showed twice as many readers had a very unfavorable opinion as those with a very favorable.

The priest, realistically considered, is the most immoral of men, for he is always willing to sacrifice every other sort of good to the one good of his arcanum — the vague body of mysteries that he calls the truth.
— H L Mencken, Treatise on the Gods (1949)

The very first comment said I “hate the Catholic Church and its teachings.” I view all religions pretty much equally, man-made constructs to control the masses. To me it doesn’t matter is someone is a Baptist, Jehovahs Witness, Muslim, Jewish, Scientologist, Mennonite, Presbyterian or Catholic — all are the same to me.

Another comment said St. Louis is a “Catholic city”. Yes, I had my alderman (Dorothy Kirner) once ask me what parish I lived in. Huh? I wasn’t here long before I realized you’re assumed catholic unless stated otherwise.

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IRELAND
The Week Magazine

How Catholic was Ireland?

It used to be easily the most Catholic country in the world. The church’s connection to the island nation dates to St. Patrick’s conversion in the 5th century, and the modern Irish state is explicitly bound up with the church. The constitution opens with the words, “In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority…” and continues with reference to “obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial.” In Ireland, the church, not the state, runs almost the entire education system. Until recently, social life, too, revolved around the local church. In 1984, nearly 90 percent of Irish Catholics went to Mass every week. But by 2011, only 18 percent did. It’s a massive cultural shift.

What changed?

Mass attendance began dropping rapidly during the 1990s, as Ireland began its “Celtic Tiger” economic boom. The country was modernizing, urbanizing, and taking on a more global perspective, and the local church was no longer the only nexus of community life. For the first time, the country had a vigorous debate about abortion and began teaching sex education in schools. At the same time, several long-hidden scandals began to emerge. In 1992, the Irish learned that a powerful and beloved bishop, Eamon Casey, had a fathered a son, and that the Rev. Michael Cleary, the “Singing Priest” with best-selling records and his own radio show, had a secret family with his housekeeper. But the biggest seismic jolt came over the last decade, when the priestly sex-abuse scandal horrified the entire country.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 28, 2014

The group of eight cardinals advising Pope Francis on reforming the governance of the Catholic church is set to meet with him for the fifth time, presumably to more seriously consider an overall blueprint for a new structure of the Vatican’s central bureaucracy.

While the cardinals have not indicated exactly what the group will be focusing on during its July 1-4 meetings, the Vatican signaled in an April statement that the prelates have already finished a review of the Vatican’s nine main governmental bodies, known as congregations, and are now proceeding to review its 12 auxiliary bodies, known as councils.

Likewise, unsubstantiated reports in June were speculating that Francis was considering creating several new secretariats to combine similar Vatican departments into one structure for the sake of expediency and effectiveness.

Francis established the advisory group, known formally as the Council of Cardinals, last year to “study a project of revision” of the Vatican’s bureaucracy, known as the Roman Curia. The group met together for the first time in October.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Patrick Counihan @irishcentral June 28,2014

Pope Francis is to meet Irish victims of clerical sexual abuse at the Vatican next week in a significant move.

Campaigner Marie Collins, the first known abuse victim to meet the pontiff, has welcome the news.

She met with the Pope briefly in Rome last month when she attended the first meeting of the Vatican’s new Commission for the Protection of Minors.

One of four women on the commission which meets again next month, Collins has welcomed the Pope’s announcement that he will meet victims from Ireland, America, Britain and Poland.

Collins told the Irish Times that she is ‘hopeful’ and ‘quite positive’ about the commission.

Acknowledging matters are at an early stage, she told the paper: “From what I’ve seen, I think it’s going in the right direction. I do think the people involved are sincere.

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jun. 27, 2014

Calling his behavior “a crime and a sin,” local Catholic Church officials will ask the Vatican to defrock a disgraced Davis priest after he pleaded guilty to statutory rape of a teenage parishioner.

Davis priest Hector Coria Gonzalez will face jail and probation after pleading guilty to the charge Friday in Yolo Superior Court.

“Father Coria’s behavior with the minor was a crime and a sin,” Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, said in a statement Friday. “He will now be held to account for his behavior.”

Eckery said the diocese will forward Gonzalez’s case to Rome and “ask the Holy See to permanently dismiss him from the priesthood.”

Gonzalez, 46, will serve 90 days in jail for sexual acts with the 16-year-old girl in the rectory of St. James’ Parish in Davis, where he had been a priest since July 2012. Gonzalez will also be placed on formal probation for three years and barred by Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson from having contact with the girl until she turns 18.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santiago.- Dominican Republic’s only cardinal and three catholic bishops on Friday called the Vatican’s decision to convict its former envoy in the country Jozef Wesolowski for the sexual abuse of minors, the best response on Justice.

Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, Santiago archbishop Ramón Benito de la Rosa Carpio; San Francisco emeritus bishop Jesús María Moya and La Altagracia Archdiocese bishop Nicanor Peña said it was the best decision the Holy See could’ve made.

López Rodríguez said the conviction sends a message “to the enemies of the Catholic Church who continue talking gibberish,” adding that it was the best response possible.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

Jimmy Savile may have been involved in the death of a child during his horrifying 50 year campaign of abuse, a shocking new report has said.

The allegation was detailed in a report published today following an independent investigation into Savile by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

According to the Daily Mail, a male witness, who claims he was also sexually abused by the late DJ, said he saw Savile and a friend “drag away” a little girl who was found dead in Leicestershire the next day.

The vulnerable child, called either “April or Elizabeth” was being cared for at the Roecliffe Manor children’s convalescent home in Woodhouse Eaves in the 1960s, the informant said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Taxpayers’ bill to compensate Savile victims could hit £30million: Lawyers have racked up six-figure costs as they squabble over payment scheme

By CHRIS GREENWOOD

Taxpayers face a growing bill for Jimmy Savile’s crimes because of a bitter and expensive dispute over his estate.

Lawyers have already racked up six-figure costs as they squabble over the compensation scheme for victims of the sick sexual predator who died in 2011.

The expensive litigation, which has already dragged on for 20 months, threatens to engulf his entire £3.3million legacy.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said the public purse will underwrite any claims not met by Savile’s estate, for which NatWest is the executor.

This could be extremely costly as compensation could run into tens of millions of pounds.

Law firms have already taken on almost 200 victims but there are believed to be around 500 in total who could each claim up to £60,000 compensation – giving a maximum bill, in theory, of £30million.

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SCOTLAND
Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald

Published: 28 Jun 2014

He helps man who claims he was gang raped

A KILWINNING priest has urged any victims of abuse at a Catholic retreat in Ayrshire to come forward after a man alleged he was raped by clergy there.

The man who claims he was brutally gang raped by priests at Coodham House when he was only nine or 10 was due to make a statement to police this week. Father Gerard Magee, who has supported the man, has been demanding answers from the Passionist Order who ran Coodham in Symington, South Ayrshire, in 1960 – the year of the alleged crime.

Father Magee, of St Winning’s Church, said: “People have been reluctant to come forward – they thought no one would believe them. Sadly, that was the case – children who came forward were likely to get the belt. But that is not the case anymore.

“It is a crime to abuse children. People from all over the central belt in Scotland visited Coodham.”

Father Magee said the 65-year-old Motherwell man approached him for help after he watched a BBC documentary about Catholic abuse last year. The alleged victim said he visited Coodham – then known as Fatima House – with his father and friend when priests asked if he could help with a party.

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THAILAND
The Phuket News

BANGKOK: A Thai court has jailed a former Buddhist monk for five-and-half years for raping a teenage girl at his Bangkok temple, in the latest scandal to tarnish the image of the nation’s clergy.

Sanan Kamsridaeng, 65, confessed to raping the girl – who was aged under 15 at the time – last year and detaining her against her will when he was still a monk, a Bangkok criminal court official told AFP.

“He was sentenced on Thursday (June 26) to six years in jail for the first count… and five years for the second count. But because he confessed the judge cut his sentence to five years and six months,” the official said.

He was disrobed after his arrest last year.

In recent weeks Thailand’s national religion has faced damaging accusations linked to monks’ behaviour, with high-profile scandals ranging from reports of monks taking drugs and drinking, to a case in May of five defrocked abbots charged with sexually abusing boys.

The National Office of Buddhism (NOB) has launched a hotline to report monks behaving badly, after the leader of Thailand’s military junta expressed concern over the image of Buddhism.

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UNITED STATES
The Advertiser

What people don’t know can hurt them — as proven repeatedly by a system of secret justice that has grown up inside the courts.

General Motors’ handling of its Chevy Cobalts with faulty ignition switches is the latest example. GM has settled several claims by victims or their loved ones — on the condition that the terms remain secret.

Public settlements might have warned everyone of the danger or even forced the company to replace the switches sooner. None of that happened. The cars weren’t recalled until February, nine years after one of the earliest settlements.

Keeping the terms of settlements secret (or sealing documents) has become routine, and not just among automakers. Corporations have used the strategy to hide the side effects of dangerous drugs, tires that shred on the road and small planes with defective parts. The Catholic Church kept settlements secret to protect abusive priests.

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UNITED STATES
Standing on My Head

June 27, 2014 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Last week Salon ran a hatchet piece on Pope Francis by Anna March. In one of the most ludicrous article I’ve ever read it was suggested that Pope Francis’ nice guy image is nothing more than a PR stunt run by a sinister conservative member of Opus Dei… I commented on March’s piece here.
Today Patricia Miller–a pro-abortion Catholic lets rip about Pope Francis.

At the Huffington Post she declares that Pope Francis has let women down in three ways. Her article is here.

You can predict what three ways the Pope has let women down: First he has not allowed women’s ordination:

Francis said early on that he wouldn’t challenge the teaching of Pope John Paul II that women can never be priests. “The church has spoken and says no… That door is closed,” he said. But many Catholic scholars disagree with John Paul II’s assessment that the church can’t ordain women. It’s more a matter of church tradition, which is itself shaky because there were women priests in the early years of the church, than doctrine. They also disagree with the move by Pope Benedict, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to declare Pope John Paul’s pronouncement essentially infallible.

I love those bald, unsubstantiated statements: “Many Catholic scholars disagree with John Paul II’s assessment…” No names, no reference, no quotes, but Pat says so so it must be true. Of course it could be true that many scholars disagree. Many scholars disagree with lots of stuff. Let’s move on.
Then the most amazingly bald lie of all: “There were women priests in the early years of the church.” Whaaat?! Where’s the evidence? Where did such a flat lie come from?

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