ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
The Doings LaGrange Park

Jane Michaels
jmichaels@pioneerlocal.com |

LaGrange Park resident Ken Kaczmarz didn’t lace up running shoes much before 2009. Since then the 43-year-old electrical engineer has run eight marathons and has his sights set on a grueling Ironman competition Sept. 7 in Madison, Wis. to benefit World Vision’s child protection programs.

Q. Why did you start running?

A. I had some deadline projects at work. It was very stressful. I’m director of the electrical engineering department for CompX International, Inc. in Grayslake. I started running one day to the end of the block, and after a few months, I ran a 5K. As I got into it, my church, Christ Church of Oak Brook, had a team for World Vision. I joined their team and did the Chicago Marathon in 2011. …

Q. This cause is also highly personal?

A. One of the reasons I became involved was because as a kid, I was molested by a priest. I was extremely active in the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests from 2002 to 2006. I was one of the leaders in Chicago, but I had to get out of it. It was absorbing my life. I’ve helped hundreds of survivors, so I saw what sexual abuse does and how it destroys lives.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

June 20, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Gregory Sutton
The Canberra hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse began on June 10 with the formal lifting of the suppression order on Gregory Sutton’s name that had been in effect (but sometimes breached) since his trial in 1996.

Sutton, who now “lives in the community”, was released from prison after serving 12 years in 2008. His original 18-year-sentence, for 67 counts of child sexual assault, is due to expire at the end of this year. He is 62-years-old, was in regular contact with his lawyer, Greg Walsh, during the Canberra hearing and, through him, apologised to a number of his victims.

Sutton taught for the Marist Brothers from 1973 to 1987 and, over that time, is known to have committed offences at six different schools including Marist College Canberra where he abused seven boys, all aged between 10 and 11, from 1980 to 1983.

The first allegation that Sutton may have been abusing children was made by Denis Doherty, the headmaster of his first school, in 1974.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 20, 2014

The Canberra Times

The harrowing ultra-marathon that is the royal commission on institutional responses to child sexual abuse left Canberra on Thursday after public hearings centred almost entirely on abuses by two former teachers, and how their employer, the Marist Brothers religious order, responded to the allegations surrounding their activities.

So egregious were these abuses, and so transparently lacking the Marist Brothers’ response, that they have become almost a byword for institutional abuse in religious schools in NSW, Queensland and Canberra. Indeed, the Catholic Archbishop of Goulburn and Canberra, Christopher Prowse, wrote to parishioners before the two weeks of proceedings began to prepare them for the “public testimonies of the very sad experiences of some victims’’.

The crimes of John William Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, are familiar to many Canberrans. Chute was jailed in 2008 after pleading guilty to a string of offences committed when he was a teacher at Marist College in Pearce, between 1985 and 1989. Seven charges dating from before then – Chute’s teaching career spanned 1952-93 and included stints at 12 Marist Brothers schools in NSW – had to be dropped because of statute of limitations issues.

The identity of the other Marist teacher – which had been the subject of an 18-year-old suppression order after his conviction and jailing in 1996 on multiple child sexual abuse charges – was revealed at the royal commission last week as Brother Gregory Sutton. Like Chute, Sutton taught at a number of schools throughout NSW before coming to Canberra, leaving behind him a trail of victims. Many have never overcome their psychological trauma, as they detailed to the hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

EVIDENCE given under oath by the Salvation Army’s Sydney leader James Condon about his handling of child sexual abuse committed by another officer was “highly improbable”, the NSW government has said.

The criticism, in a written submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is supported by one of the church’s internal ­investigators, whose submission states “the evidence given by Commissioner Condon is not plausible”.

The dispute is detailed in documents published yesterday by the commission, which also state there is evidence suggesting more than 100 boys suffered brutal physical and sexual abuse at Salvation Army-run children’s homes across Australia.

This included being beaten, raped or locked in a “cage”, often for weeks at a time, a submission from the commission’s counsel, Simeon Beckett, said.

Senior Salvation Army officers “failed to investigate” allegations of many of these crimes, Mr Beckett said. “Structural, systemic and cultural problems permitted the sexual abuse of children to occur on such a wide scale” and over several decades before 1983.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry
June 20, 2014

In the latest installment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s bad luck blues, the former Vatican secretary of state, 79, has responded to critical news coverage by defending the renovation of his 6,500-square-foot apartment and denying anything was amiss in a $20 million Vatican Bank loan he helped steer to Lux Vide, an Italian TV production company.

The German daily Bild Zeitung cited unofficial sources in reporting last month that a Vatican investigation of Bertone was underway for that transaction.

“I don’t understand these attacks,” Bertone told ANSA, the Italian news agency. “I am in harmony with the pope…He likes me.

In his airplane news conference returning from Israel to Rome, Francis responded to a question about Bertone’s role in the loan. “It’s something being studied,” the pope said, according to Catholic News Service. “It’s not clear. Maybe it’s the truth but at this moment it’s not definitive.”

For six months, Bertone worked to cement good will with the pope by staying on as the second-highest Vatican official under Francis, assisting in the transition.

The secretary of state is traditionally viewed as the pope’s prime minister, the public face of a papacy. Bertone was a highly public figure for the shy, retiring Benedict.

When Francis emerged as a commanding personality, at ease in public, Bertone took a long back seat in his final months in office. He was wise to do so. Bertone had baggage, lots of it.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Post

Prague, June 20 (ČTK) — Czech Social Democrat (ČSSD) lawmaker Igor Jakubčík caused outrage with his statement that the Catholic Church was an ally of Nazi Germany and approved of Jews’ murders in the Chamber of Deputies today.

“The Catholic Church did not suffer during World War II. It was one of the biggest allies of Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church approved of the transfers and murders of Jews,” Jakubčík said.

He took part in a debate on a draft amendment by some ČSSD lawmakers, which extends the deadlines for the assessment of churches’ applications for the return of property to churches confiscated from them by communists and for checking the restitution decisions. The law on restitution took effect in January 2013.

Jakubčík also said the church assisted Nazi criminals when leaving for South America after the war.
František Laudat (opposition TOP 09/STAN) called on Jakubčík to make an apology.

Government Christian Democrat (KDU-ČSL) deputies Ludvík Hovorka and Jaroslav Klaška said Jakubčík’s statement is unfortunate and ill-advised.

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UNITED STATES
Ring of Fire

Posted on June 20, 2014
by Chandler Carney

Conservative Christian colleges across the United States have taken it upon themselves to conduct rape and sexual assault investigations, which have transpired into a ferocious game of victim-blaming and PR cover-ups. The administrator’s “investigations” have left many students feeling more traumatized than before they sought assistance.

The issue is that these institutions are not legally bound to comply with federal laws intended to address rape. They have opted out of receiving federal funding, which makes them exempt from Title IX requirements regarding sexual violence. “Title IX says schools must hold a separate investigation independent of a criminal investigation to ensure that victims can change dorms and class arrangements, get campus restraining orders, and receive help filing a police report if they choose to do so,” states New Republic writer Kiera Feldman.

Patrick Henry College in Virginia is one right-wing private Christian school that prides itself on not accepting any assistance from the government in order to not comply with Federal regulations aimed at student safety, education or financial assistance. The school’s website states that “in order to safeguard our distinctly Christian worldview, we do not accept or participate in government funding.”

The Dean of Patrick Henry College, Sandra Corbitt, has taken it upon herself to conduct investigations, as many other unqualified administrators have done at fundamentalist universities. One victim remembers Corbitt stating that “it’s my job to poke holes in your story. I have to make sure that you’re not lying to me…I don’t think you’re wholly innocent in this situation.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Carmen Durso

On Wednesday the MA House of Representatives, and on Thursday the state Senate, each unanimously passed House Bill 4126, an act which substantially extends the civil statute of limitations on suits against those who sexually abuse children.

This bill opens the Courthouse doors to thousands of childhood sexual abuse survivors who were previously barred from obtaining justice, or being able to name their abusers in a public forum. And it particularly important for those whose opportunity to file a criminal case is forever barred.

Prompted by news of the 552 victims in the Boston Archdiocese clergy abuse crisis of 2002-2003, this process started 11 years ago, with a bill filed by Representative Ronald Mariano, (D) Quincy, now House Majority Leader. Despite strong opposition from affected institutions, Rep. Mariano continued to refile, and strongly support, this measure in each session since then.

In 2012, two additional legislators, Rep. John Law, (D) Watertown, and Sen. William Brownsberger, (D) Belmont, joined this effort, and with the strong support of House Speaker DeLeo, and Senate President Murray, were able to craft a bill which garnered the approval of all interested parties.

Over the past 11 years, numerous abuse survivors, individual supporters, advocacy organizations, legislators, mental health professionals, lawyers, parents, clergymen and media reporters, have all played a significant role in keeping this issue alive, by demonstrating how wide spread child sex is and putting a human face on the affected victims.

Because there are still significant time limitations to bring suit, it is important to understand what the bill does:

A child who is sexually abused may file a civil suit against the perpetrator of the abuse, or the employer/supervisor of the abuser, until age 53.

The provision allowing claims against the perpetrator is retroactive. So someone abused in the past, will have until age 53 to bring suit. Suits against the employer/supervisor of the abuser are prospective only, that is, they can only be brought for abuse which occurs after the effective date of the new law.

However, there is also a new 7 year discovery rule with regard to both perpetrators of abuse, or the employer/supervisor of the abusers. This means that, regardless of the victim’s age, s/he may bring suit within 7 years after s/he first understands that s/he has been harmed by the abuser’s conduct. This provision is retroactive as to BOTH abusers and employer supervisors.

The 7 year discovery rule applies, regardless of the age of the survivor.

For more information, contact:

Carmen Durso
LAW OFFICE OF CARMEN L. DURSO
175 Federal Street, Suite 1425
Boston, MA 02110-2287
T: 617-728-9123
F: 617-426-7972

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Ceske Noviny

Prague – Czech Social Democrat (CSSD) lawmaker Igor Jakubcik caused outrage with his statement that the Catholic Church was an ally of Nazi Germany and approved of Jews´ murders in the Chamber of Deputies today.

“The Catholic Church did not suffer during World War Two, it was one of the biggest allies of Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church approved of the transfers and murders of Jews,” Jakubcik said.

He took part in a debate on a draft amendment by some CSSD lawmakers, which extends the deadlines for the assessment of churches´ applications for the return of property to churches confiscated from them by communists and for checking the restitution decisions. The law on restitution took effect in January 2013.

Jakubcik also said the church assisted Nazi criminals when leaving for South America after the war.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 19 June 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Baltimore, U.S.A., as bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts (area 7,306, population 871,000, Catholics 248,800, priests 181, permanent deacons 85, religious 362), U.S.A. He succeeds Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

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CANADA
CBS News

Twenty-four names have been engraved in a stone erected outside a Chapel Island school.

The newly-unveiled monument erected outside of Mi’kmawey School recognizes members of the community forced to endure residential schools.

Between 1923 and 1967, many native children were taken from their families and sent to the Shubenacadie School, where some were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Thursday’s unveiling ceremony honoured the victims — but also focused on those living in the community now.

During the ceremony, elementary school children read the names of those uprooted from their home community many decades ago and sent to Shubenacadie.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

The body investigating historical claims of abuse at Derry care homes for children has been forced to issue an apology – after an error led to a number of names of witnesses who requested anonymity appearing on the inquiry’s official website.

The Derry Journal was contacted by a former of resident of St. Joseph’s Boys home in Termonbacca earlier this week who said he had been able to find reference not only to himself but to his siblings by name in daily transcripts published on the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry website.

The ‘Journal’ examined a sample of daily transcripts and found a number of other witness names.

The majority of these privacy breaches related to the indexing of the day’s hearing.

The man told the ‘Journal’: “A lot of very bad things happened to me at Termonbacca. What we went through…

“When I decided to give evidence

“I was asked if I wanted to waive my anonymity – and I replied that I did not. To find my name… to me it just says they considered us worse than dogs on the street. We deserved respect – and we feel betrayed.”

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CALIFORNIA/MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 20, 2014

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

A priest who worked in and was sued in Los Angeles for child sex crimes has quietly been working in Mexico but was recently suspended by his bishop.

Fr. Jeffrey Newell is one of seven Tijuana priests who have been temporarily ousted for alleged child sexual abuse.

[U-T San Diego]

[USA Today]

It’s tragic that this predator priest has apparently struck again. It’s even more tragic because these devastating crimes could have been prevented if only Catholic officials in Los Angeles and Mexico had acted responsibly. They have many resources – parish bulletins, websites and pulpit announcements – that they could and should have used to warn families about Fr. Newell.

Fr. Newell should have never been given a church job in Mexico. At the least, he should have been suspended – if not defrocked – years ago. Catholic bishops in both places should be ashamed of themselves for knowingly letting this dangerous cleric be around children.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Newell’s crimes will speak up, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 20, 2014

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

Church lawyer says that priest is defrocked
Victims blast MO bishop for violating church policy
SNAP to Jeff City diocese: “End the continuing secrecy”
Catholic officials let pedophile legally change his name
Then they sent him from NJ to “unsuspecting families” in MO

A lawyer for Catholic church officials disclosed Wednesday that a twice-convicted predator priest who pled guilty this week to sexually assaulting three Missouri boys has been formally defrocked by the Vatican.

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Jefferson City Bishop John Gaydos for keeping this news secret for almost two years and begging him to “aggressively seek out” others who may have “seen, suspected or suffered” the cleric’s crimes.

In an email to the director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, attorney Charles Carella of Roseland NJ (973 994 1700, CMCarella@carellabyrne.com) said Fr. Carmen Sita (known in Missouri as Fr. Jerry Howard) was permanently ousted from the priesthood in September of 2012 by then-Pope Benedict. Carella represents the Newark archdiocese, which ordained Sita/Howard.

(Here’s a link to the actual defrocking document:

[SNAP]

“Catholic officials in Missouri callously kept this fact hidden from parents, police, parishioners and the public, which essentially rubbed even more salt into the already-deep wounds of this serial predator’s victims and their families,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “It would have been a real comfort to many victims and to many concerned Catholics to know that Fr. Howard was off the payroll and kicked out by the Vatican. But instead of sharing this information, Bishop Gaydos hid it.”

SNAP also charges that the bishops’ secrecy “clearly violates the U.S. bishops formal and allegedly binding national abuse policy, which mandates ‘openness and transparency’ in clergy sex abuse cases.”

At least five New Jersey men have settled civil cases stemming from child sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Sita/Howard, according to New Jersey attorney Greg Gianforcaro (908 859 2200 phone, 908 310 4624 cell, gianforcarolaw@msn.com).

At least one former Missouri man has settled a civil case involving Sita/Howard. He is Mark McAllister, who grew up in Boonville, but now lives in Virginia (540 520 8674, macmd@cox.net).

In 1982, Fr. Sita pled guilty in Jersey City to molesting a boy and giving him liquor. Then, Newark Archdiocesan officials let Sita change his name to Gerald “Jerry” Howard and sent him to the Jefferson City Missouri diocese, under then-Bishop Michael McAuliffe. McAuliffe assigned Fr. Howard to Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic parish in Boonville.

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UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Daily News

BY JASON NARK, Daily News Staff Writer narkj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5916
POSTED: June 19, 2014

SOMETIMES THEY turn on the television in the office, to scramble the sound of babies screaming.

They’ll jump up from their computers and suggest a coffee break, hoping sunlight and some conversation will fade the images they’ve just seen.

Some go running, letting rage push their pace, tears and sweat mixing over the miles.

No matter what they do to decompress, the investigators, lawyers and forensic analysts who handle child-pornography cases say they can’t outrun the first image they saw on the job, let alone the thousands of other horrors their eyes and ears have witnessed.

“When you choose to do this job, you are going into that world and it is permanently traumatic to your psyche in a way that can’t be reversed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan, who has handled hundreds of cases involving child pornography, recently said at her Center City office.

“It’s the darkest underside of humanity, and that’s what we have to deal with every day. Once you do it, there’s no turning back. There’s no taking it away.”

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IRELAND
The Guardian

Roy Greenslade

Filmmaker and journalist Sinéad O’Shea interviewed me for her 2008 documentary “The McCanns v The Media”. She has made films and reports from all over the world. In recent years she has worked on child abuse investigations for the BBC, Al-Jazeera English and RTÉ.

I want to stress that this is her view, and not mine, but I do think her piece needs an airing. Absent a forum within Ireland, I am delighted to provide one here…

In the past couple of weeks Ireland’s problem with itself has again become the subject of global headlines.

Four years ago Catherine Corless began collecting testimonies from former residents of the Bons Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The institution was run by the clergy and funded by the state to house unmarried mothers, the “untouchables” of Irish life.

Corless remembered the place from her own childhood surrounded by eight-foot walls with “broken bottles on top.” There were so-called “home babies” in her school too.

They were, said Corless, kept to “one side of the classroom, arriving and leaving at different times so there would be no interaction with ‘ordinary’ schoolgirls.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Irena Ceranic

The headmaster of a private Perth school has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse the school has improved its policies for mandatory reporting.

The commission is investigating how a teacher was able to molest students for 10 years from 1999, despite several colleagues raising suspicions.

The current headmaster joined the school in 2011, after the teacher was convicted.

The school’s child protection policies were inspected in 2012 by an independent consultant, who made 21 recommendations.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times

By The Associated Press
June 20, 2014

BOSTON — Massachusetts House and Senate negotiators will begin work soon to hammer out a compromise bill designed extend the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits.

On Thursday the Senate approved a bill extending the time an individual can file a claim of sexual abuse from 3 years after the act occurs to 35 years, taking effect when the victim has reached 18 years old.

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CAMBODIA
Cambodia Daily

BY OUCH SONY AND ALEX CONSIGLIO | JUNE 20, 2014

SA’ANG DISTRICT, Kandal province – The chief monk of Tuol Krasaing pagoda was defrocked on Wednesday after crashing his sport utility vehicle while drinking and driving and wearing a military police uniform, according to police.

Phang Meas, a 70-year-old monk at Tuol Krasaing pagoda, was in the car with the chief monk, Khan Heng, at the time of the crash.

Phang Meas said Mr. Heng stopped to buy beers on the way to his father’s funeral and began drinking them while driving. That’s when he put on a military police uniform labeled with the name “Second Lieutenant Sen Theavy” over his robes.

“He was wearing the uniform so that people would not know a monk was driving the car,” Phang Meas said. “I’m happy he’s not coming back. He was always drinking wine and scolding other monks.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
Published 20/06/2014

A LEADING theologian has criticised Mary McAleese’s claim that the Pope’s synod is “bonkers” saying her comments were “not in keeping with what you would expect from an ex president”.

The retired professor of moral theology at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Fr Vincent Twomey, rejected Mary McAleese’s hard hitting criticisms, saying they were “not serious comments”.

Ms McAleese made headlines earlier this week when she criticised the Catholic Church’s forthcoming synod on the family, in Rome.

On Monday, Dr McAleese dismissed the synod as “bonkers” because the views of celibate bishops would be canvassed.

She said there was “something profoundly wrong and skewed” about asking “150 male celibates” to review the Catholic Church’s teaching on family life.

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ITALIE
La Croix (France)

[Summary: A Sicilian bishop is being blamed for a nearly $5.6 million euro debt, according to Panorama, the Italian weekly. ]

L’hebdomadaire italien Panomara publie ce mercredi 18 juin une enquête sur le risque de faillite d’un petit diocèse en Sicile, Mazara del Vallo, qui a notamment engagé de fortes dépenses pour la construction d’une église.

En couverture, le pape François l’air soucieux, « scandale » écrit en grosses lettres. À l’intérieur, mise en page avec photos d’un évêque portant une chasuble signée Armani et d’une église au coûteux chantier : l’hebdomadaire Panorama daté du mercredi 18 juin met en cause la gestion de Mgr Domenico Mogavero, 67 ans, évêque de Mazara del Vallo, pittoresque chef-lieu d’un petit diocèse côtier au sud de Palerme, en Sicile, non loin de Marsala, qui a donné son nom au fameux vin doux.

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ITALIA
Panorama

«C’è un meccanismo perverso che sta emergendo a me, sta emergendo in queste settimane in cui io finalmente ho potuto accedere, nonostante io l’avessi chiesto 10 mila volte, alla effettiva situazione economica della diocesi», così monsignor Domenico Mogavero, vescovo di Mazara del Vallo, si rivolge ai preti della diocesi nel corso di una drammatica riunione nella quale espone il bilancio con debiti che sfiorano i sei milioni di euro.

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MEXICO
Milenio

[Summary: A minor who once served at the parish of Our Lady of the Annunciation has filed a complaint with the attorney general of San Luis Potosi state saying he was raped and sexually abused by priest Eduardo Bautista Cordova.]

ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ VÁZQUEZ
19/06/2014
San Luis Potosí

Un menor de edad que en su momento fungía como sacristán de la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación, a cargo del ahora ex sacerdote Eduardo Córdova Bautista, presentó denuncia en la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado por violación, abuso sexual calificado, corrupción de menores, privación ilegal de la libertad y otros en contra de Córdova quien se encuentra prófugo.

En un comunicado de prensa, los abogados de coadyubancia legal en apoyo las víctimas de Córdova dieron a conocer que la denuncia fue presentada el pasado lunes, con lo que se inició la averiguación previa número 74/2014.

El comunicado dice lo siguiente.

La víctima, cuyo nombre se mantiene en reserva para su protección, presentó formal denuncia en contra de Eduardo Córdova Bautista, cuyo paradero se desconoce y en contra de la Arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí, respecto de los hechos que se relatan en el contenido del escrito que fue presentado con el objeto de ser constitutivos de alguno de los delitos previstos en la Ley, para que se proceda en términos del Código Procesal Penal vigente en el Estado para consignar en relación con la posible comisión de los Delitos de violación, abuso sexual calificado, corrupción de personas menores de dieciocho años de edad, privación ilegal de la libertad, encubrimiento y lo que resulte.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun Daily

HUNDREDS of children are believed to have been kidnapped in Africa and brought to Britain for brutal voodoo rituals, a UN watchdog said, urging London to do more to combat the scourge.

“We’re concerned about reports that hundreds of children have been abducted from their families in Africa and trafficked to the UK, especially London, for religious rituals,” said Kristen Sandberg, head of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

“They are used in so-called voodoo rituals, and are also raped and sexually abused. The number of convictions is extremely low,” the former Norwegian supreme court judge said Thursday.

British police are reported to have recorded scores of cases over the past decade of children who have faced torture and abuse as part of witchcraft rituals.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 19:55 EST, 19 June 2014

A mysterious memo about “Frater Bart”, an email from a lawyer suggesting a pedophile brother be kept under wraps after doing time and a sudden journey to Canada.

All three surfaced at a royal commission hearing into how the Marist Brothers Australia handled child sex abuse allegations against two men who over decades molested children at schools in the ACT, Queensland and NSW.

Below the surface is the devastation of victims.

The commission sitting in Canberra this week heard first from survivors. There were the victims of Gregory Sutton, jailed for 12 years in 1996 after pleading guilty to 67 charges of sexually assaulting 15 different children, and those who as children fell foul of predator John Chute, known as Brother Kosta, who was sentenced to six years’ jail in 2008.

The mysterious memo was revealed when Brother Alexis Turton – who has been vice-provincial and provincial, and until 2012 head of the order’s professional standards office – entered the witness box.
The confidential memo for the attention of church lawyers detailed Sutton’s history with the order back to 1974 – when he was grooming and molesting boys at a north Queensland primary school – up to August 18, 1989, when Turton sent him to a Canadian therapy centre.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Travis Andersen, Derek J. Anderson and Jennifer Smith | GLOBE STAFF | GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS JUNE 20, 2014

The Massachusetts Legislature is on the verge of finalizing a bill that will give alleged child sexual abuse victims an additional 32 years to file civil lawsuits, a move one specialist said will open the door to thousands of new cases.

The bill would extend the statute of limitations for filing suits against alleged perpetrators and, in future cases, the people or institution supervising them. Under the legislation, the victims would be able to file suits up to age 53, instead of the current limit of age 21.

The Senate passed the measure Thursday, after it was approved by the House Wednesday.

Lawmakers expect to send a bill to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk soon, after a few more procedural votes, said Senator William N. Brownsberger, the Senate cochairman of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

“We’re very glad we were able to get this done,” said Brownsberger. “It is going to protect children in the future. It really is.”

Carmen L. Durso, a lawyer for sexual abuse victims and a vocal supporter of the bill, also hailed its passage. “It will open the doors of the courthouse to thousands, literally thousands of people who have otherwise been excluded from being able to file suits,” Durso said by phone. “This will give them the opportunity to name their perpetrators and do what almost all of them want to do, which is make sure their perpetrators can’t get to other victims.”

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INDIANA
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE – Two representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Thursday urged the bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese to account for the whereabouts of two priests removed from ministry after credible sexual abuse allegations.

Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest region associate director, said the group wants Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades to post the information on the diocese’s website, as 30 other U.S. bishops have done.

“If they are too dangerous to work in a parish somewhere,” she said, “they are too dangerous to be out amongst other places where they have access to kids.”

Jones and SNAP member Steven Spaner, both of the St. Louis area, stood in front of the diocese’s offices at 915 S. Clinton St. for about an hour beginning at 10:30 a.m., speaking to the media and holding pictures of male and female child victims.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY BRENT WITTMEIER, EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON – Evidence given by residential school abuse survivors in closed-door hearings should never see the light of day, the lawyer in charge of abuse settlement process says.

Dan Shapiro, chief adjudicator of the Independent Assessment Process, says Canada will be courting a potential “privacy disaster” if it doesn’t destroy the 800,000 audio recordings, transcripts and other documents associated with 38,000 claims of sexual abuse, physical abuse and other heinous acts.

Destruction is the only way to show “proper respect” to aboriginal Canadians who were abused and victimized at Canada’s residential schools, Shapiro said Thursday, following a presentation at the University of Alberta’s access and privacy conference.

“The records contain some of the most intimate, private information,” Shapiro said. “Even the perception that their information will be made public can cause great harm emotionally and revictimize those individuals and create ripple effects in their communities.”

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

JUNE 19, 2014, BY MELISSA PAMER

A church volunteer accused of molesting at least five boys and girls in an El Monte congregation where his arrest prompted prayers appeared in court in Pomona Thursday.

Johnny Beserra III, who pleaded not guilty last month to 13 felony counts and one misdemeanor in connection with an ongoing child molestation investigation, appeared for a preliminary hearing setting conference but the proceeding was postponed to July 16.

The May 24 arrest of the 20-year-old shocked officials at United Pentecostal Church in El Monte, where Beserra attended Sunday school and later graduated from the church’s K-12 school, El Monte Christian Academy, according to a pastor at the church.

“We’ve known him for many, many years. It was definitely a shock,” said Nathan Cupoli, a youth minister.

Church officials took the “news” about Beserra to El Monte police within an hour being alerted, Cupoli said Wednesday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
New England Public Radio

[with audio]

by: Henry Epp
JUNE 19, 2014
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.

Catholics in western Massachusetts are getting a new leader. Pope Francis picked Mitchell Rozanski of Baltimore to replace retiring bishop Timothy McDonnell.

At a press conference in Springfield, Bishop McDonnell introduced his successor with a little humor.

“They scoured the earth, and found the right man to take my place. Unfortunately, he’s from south of the Mason-Dixon line,” McDonnell said.

That regional difference leaves plenty of work for the incoming Bishop. The 56-year-old Rozanski had never been to western Massachusetts before this week. But he says he’s ready to immerse himself in the community. …

Parishioner Anne Lynch of Springfield has something else she wants Rozanski to focus on. After Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Lynch said she hopes the new bishop brings young people back to the church, who may have been alienated by the sexual abuse scandals of the last few decades.

“These kids aren’t as trusting as we were as kids. I mean, you never thought the priests did anything wrong, and these kids know that they’ve done wrong, and it’s going to take time,” Lynch says.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Berkshire Eagle

Pope Francis has made his first direct impact upon Western Massachusetts with the appointment of Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, of Baltimore, to succeed the retiring Bishop Timothy McDonnell and become the ninth bishop of Springfield. Ideally, as a bishop he will use the pope as an example in setting policies and engaging in the many issues facing the church.

Bishop Rozanski is an encouragingly young 55, and his Polish heritage will please the many Berkshire residents of Polish ancestry. The parishioners of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Adams went over Bishop McDonnell’s head in successfully persuading the Vatican to allow it to remain open after it was closed by the Springfield diocese six years ago. It was reopened as a mission of the St. John Paul II Parish in Adams, and we hope Bishop Rozanski will consider returning the church to parish status, as desired by members.

So far in his tenure as pope, Francis has put an emphasis on civil rights and economic fairness and de-emphasized the social and political issues that have consumed the church for years. An example came two years ago when Bishop McDonnell, along with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, denounced the Affordable Care Act because of its requirement that contraception be included in employees’ health benefits. That was one narrow aspect of a law that has been and will be of great benefit to poor Americans, including Catholics, who cannot otherwise afford health care, and encourage Bishop Rozanski to look at the big picture when it comes to programs that help the needy. …

The twin scandals of sexual abuse by priests and the cover-ups of this abuse by church leaders exploded in the Archdiocese of Boston courtesy of Cardinal Bernard Law — still enjoying his Vatican sanctuary — and touched Springfield as well. Two months ago, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to ask forgiveness on behalf of the Catholic Church for the decades-old pedophile scandal, which should signal dioceses around the country that they should exchange defensiveness for aggressiveness in addressing this problem.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

NICK GRIMM: A warning now – this next story from the royal commission into child sexual abuse contains disturbing details.

The headmaster of an Anglican school in Perth says the conviction of a former teacher has been etched into the minds of the school community.

The primary school teacher is now in jail for molesting five of his students, but he was able to “groom” the boys for years before he was arrested.

A public hearing has been told that the concept of grooming behaviour is still absent from the school’s child protection policy, even after the man went to trial twice.

Thomas Oriti reports.

THOMAS ORITI: The 12th case study of the royal commission told a harrowing story. It’s a story spanning more than a decade where a primary school teacher, known as “YJ”, lured boys inside his classroom and sexually abused them.

When one victim turned 18, he went to the police. He told the hearing the abuse changed his life forever.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ

Paris Arrow

Hola Francisco, ¿cómo está usted? Es la corona papal demasiado pesada para la cabeza? ¿Se siente solo en la cima de la Pirámide del Vaticano? Lee nuestros 6 sugerencias sobre cómo se puede cambiar el mundo sea un lugar mejor antes de morir … porque realmente, usted ha cometido el robo más grande en la historia de la humanidad! Y el único lugar donde se vaya a es el lago de fuego – si usted no devuelve el robo por parte de los imperialistaslos acumulado en bancos suizos del Vaticano a las naciones pobres del Tercer Mundo. http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/06/6-suggestions-for-pope-francis-as-he.html

So what’s the matter, podgy Francisco, you thought the papacy was an easy job like dancing the Argentina tango or waving the child duck dance of wibble wobble as you papal fart at 1.2 billion Catholics with Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team lies, lies, lies day after day like an old OD fool on the Vatican hill? Can’t you stand anymore the frantic Francis-Maniacs adulation at St. Peter’s Square every Wednesday – the guaranteed money machine of millions of dollars audience – that brings in hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to gather and pray the robotic Angelus with you?

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Royal commission told lawyer tried to silence ‘regrettably upfront’ sex offender Kostka Chute

June 19, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

A lawyer acting for the Marist Brothers visited serial paedophile Kostka Chute in jail in a bid to prevent him from making disclosures that would endanger the order’s insurance cover, it was alleged at the sex abuse royal commission.

Peter O’Brien, who is representing victim and whistleblower Damian De Marco, put it to the former head of the order, Brother Alexis Turton, on Thursday that significant steps had been taken to ensure Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) would not withdraw its cover of crimes committed by Chute.

The Marist Brothers, through its insurers, has paid out $6.84 million to 38 of Chute’s victims.

Brother Alexis had been the order’s professional standards officer at the time of Chute’s Canberra trial and the class action that followed.

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MEXICO
Arquidiocesis de Tijuana

Escrito por Administrator
martes, 17 de junio de 2014
Tijuana, B.C. a 17 de junio de 2014.

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana desea comunicar a los fieles católicos y a todas las personas de buena voluntad una situación que le está tocando vivir con dolor.

En comunión con la Iglesia Católica Universal en lo que respecta a la atención de casos de abuso a menores por parte de clérigos, esta Iglesia particular participa en algunas revisiones que la Santa Sede está llevando a cabo.

La Iglesia siempre ha indicado los criterios doctrinales respecto a la vida de los presbíteros. Estos criterios han sido incluso acentuados por el Papa emérito Benedicto XVI, y asumidos y continuados por el Papa Francisco, quien insiste a tiempo y a destiempo en revisar y afrontar las situaciones irregulares que puedan darse en algunos clérigos de las diversas diócesis del mundo.

En tal sintonía, la Arquidiócesis de Tijuana asume sus deberes morales y espirituales y colabora con la Santa Sede en juicios eclesiásticos en los que se analizan acusaciones hechas a algunos clérigos pertenecientes a esta Iglesia particular.

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MEXICO
El Solde Tijuana

Laura Bueno Medina

La arquidiócesis de Tijuana reconoció que se están investigando siete casos, en su mayoría, por abuso sexual, por parte de las instancias eclesiásticas del Vaticano, en donde se determinará la acción y sentencia que se ejerza contra los hoy acusados de acoso o agresión sexual.

Se acusa a un sacerdote, no precisamente de un abuso completo, sino sencillamente de acoso, pero sin llegar a mayores, y se dice que es menor (la víctima), no un niño, no hay ningún caso de niños, si de menor, porque se puede considerar que con quien haya tenido que ver es menor de edad, explicó el líder de la arquidiócesis de Tijuana, Rafael Romo Muñoz.

Asimismo el arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz informó que de los siete sacerdotes implicados, las recomendaciones de la Santa Sede fueron que se retirara a cinco de los padres de manera temporal de su tarea de oficiar misa, mientras que los dos restantes siguen celebrando en sus respectivas parroquias.

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MEXICO
20 Minutos

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana informó que analiza las acusaciones qen contra de siete sacerdotes por abuso de menores, de los cuales sólo uno ha sido separado temporalmente de su cargo.

Las investigaciones en torno de los sacerdotes continúan por la Arquidiócesis En conferencia de prensa, el arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz indicó que este caso ya era seguido por El Vaticano desde 2012 con continuidad en 2013, pero sólo hasta de manera reciente recibieron los resultados de las primeras indagatorias por parte de Roma.

Aclaró que no existe ninguna denuncia de tipo penal, sino que sólo se han dado algunas medidas cautelares, y aseguró que la Arquidiócesis continuará con las indagatorias en tanto se recibe la segunda recomendación de El Vaticano.

Señaló que, sin embargo, las investigaciones en torno de los sacerdotes continúan por la Arquidiócesis, aunque anotó que “la emisión de un juicio definitivo queda reservada a las instancias competentes, cuando los procesos concluyan”.

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MEXICO
Noticieros

TIJUANA, México, jun. 19, 2014.- El Vaticano investiga a cinco párrocos de la Arquidiócesis metropolitana de Tijuana, por supuestos abusos a menores y adolescentes.

Las indagatorias iniciaron en 2012, pero aún no se ha confirmado su culpabilidad, y las presuntas víctimas aún no han presentado denuncias ante las autoridades judiciales.

Rafael Romo Muñoz, arzobispo de la Arquidiócesis de la ciudad, aseguró que apoyará a la Santa sede en tanto se determina la situación de los sacerdotes.

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MEXICO
Uno TV

La Arquidiócesis de Tijuana, Baja California, informó que analiza las acusaciones en contra de siete sacerdotes por abuso de menores, de los cuales sólo uno ha sido separado temporalmente de su cargo.

En conferencia, el arzobispo Rafael Romo Muñoz indicó que este caso ya era seguido por El Vaticano desde 2012 con continuidad en 2013, pero sólo hasta de manera reciente recibieron los resultados de las primeras indagatorias por parte de Roma.

Aclaró que no existe ninguna denuncia de tipo penal, sino que sólo se han dado algunas medidas cautelares, y aseguró que la Arquidiócesis continuará con las indagatorias en tanto se recibe la segunda recomendación de El Vaticano.

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MEXICO
UT San Diego

By Sandra Dibble

TIJUANA — Seven priests from Tijuana’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese are under investigation for sexual abuse of minors.

Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz made the announcement Wednesday, following news reports earlier this week about an investigation into accusations of pedophilia by several Tijuana priests. Though a number of priests were named in the news reports, Romo stressed that “there is no sentence on the part of the Holy See.”

At a news conference responding to the allegations, Romo said church authorities first began investigating the allegations in 2012. The following year, in March, priests from the Archdiocese of Hermosillo were dispatched to Tijuana, on orders of the Vatican, and charged with interviewing the accused priests, their alleged victims and any witnesses to the abuse. Their report was sent to the Vatican, which in turn made recommendations to Romo in April.

Romo said that all of the alleged victims in these cases were in their teens. “There is no case of abuse of children,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 20, 2014

Anthony Klan
Reporter-Investigations Unit
Sydney

THE Catholic Church has agreed to begin paying child-abuse victims of an Adelaide ­special school after 12 years of legal wrangling, following a petition that gained more than 104,000 signatures.

Peter Mitchell, whose son was sexually abused at the St Ann’s special school in Adelaide more than two decades ago, and who launched the petition in February, said the Catholic Archbishop for Adelaide, Philip Wilson, had agreed to meet him in mediation.

“The fact that lawyers for the Catholic Church have moved to end the fight through the courts and begin mediation on our cases is a huge breakthrough,’’ Mr Mitchell said.

Pedophile Brian Perkins abused and produced pornography of severely intellectually disabled children at the school, where he worked as a bus driver, between 1986 and 1991.

South Australian police seized photos of naked, disabled children at Perkins’s home in 1991, but he was not arrested until 1993.

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

A church lawyer advised the Marist Brothers to keep jailed pedophile John ‘Kostka’ Chute out of the legal arena when he was released, because he was so honest he was likely to ‘dump on others’.

Br Chute taught at various schools including St Carthages in Lismore over his long career. He was jailed for multiple sex offences and now lives in a nursing home.

Brother Alexis Turton, the former head of the Marist Brothers Order in Australia, was copied into an email to the current head of the order Brother Jeffrey Crowe from a church lawyer in May, 2009.

Br Turton was under intense cross examination on day two of his evidence to a royal commission hearing into how the order handled allegations of sexual abuse against two brothers jailed for pedophilia.

The solicitor representing Damien De Marco, who was abused by Chute (known as Brother Kostka), challenged Br Turton as to what knowledge he had of the abuse.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19, 2014

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

A Corpus Christi priest has been acquitted on charges of assaulting an altar boy.

[Caller-Times]

We suspect there’s more to this case than has been revealed. We also suspect that some have seen, suspected or suffered wrongdoing by Rev. Patrick Serna. If so, we hope that they find the courage and strength to speak up, get help, expose misdeeds and protect others.

We have little faith in so-called “church investigations” into alleged clergy crimes and misconduct. And it should be remembered that in criminal matters, the bar is high for a conviction. Accused priests often get expensive, top-notch defense lawyers.

We are grateful that this family sought justice in court. We hope more of the truth about this situation surfaces soon.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, July 19

Statement by David Clohessy of SNAP (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

We take strong issue with comments on abuse made by the new head of the Springfield diocese.

For several years, Bishop Rozanski has been on the US bishops abuse committee. That body has been virtually worthless. It has done little or nothing about the absolute bare minimum and has focused far more on public relations than abuse prevention.

[WGGB]

He claims that being on the panel “has taught me first of all about the importance of reaching out to victims and survivors acknowledging their pain.”

This is disingenuous. Bishops keep pretending that they didn’t “understand” abuse until recently and that their carefully crafted cover ups were somehow well-intentioned “mistakes” when they were deliberate decisions to protect church officials instead of innocent children.

We hope Bishop Rozanski proves us wrong by promptly posting not just names, but photos, whereabouts and work histories of every child molesting cleric who is or has been in his diocese – whether living or dead, whether diocesan or religious order, whether proven, admitted or credibly accused.

If he’s learned about “the importance of reaching out to victims,” we urge him to go, this weekend, to every parish where Fr. Charles J. Sullivan worked, and beg victims, witnesses and whistle blowers to contact police.

Fr. Sullivan was publicly accused three years ago, the allegations were deemed credible, and church officials said he would live a “life of prayer and penance.” But according to Bishop Accountability.org, his whereabouts are unknown. So he’s likely living among unsuspecting neighbors, perhaps volunteering at a school chess club in the afternoons or babysitting his relatives kids in the evening. It’s possible he might be criminally charged, convicted and imprisoned, if the bishop would show – by his deeds, not his words – that he does indeed “understand the importance of outreach.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WGGB

(SPRINGFIELD, Mass.) (WGGB)–Springfield’s new Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of the Archdiocese of Baltimore was introduced to Western Massachusetts on Thursday.

Bishop Rozanski also celebrated his first mass in the chapel at St. Michael’s Cathedral.

Earlier in the day. the diocesan staff had a chance to meet Bishop Rozanski as he shook hands and said hello.

Then the new bishop was formally introduced at a diocesan news conference.

Bishop Rozanski was ordained a priest in 1984 and in 2004 he was named auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Baltimore.

Bishop Rozanski says his years of service as a pastor will help him transition to being bishop in Springfield,”I love being out among the people, I get great strength from being out among the people and I look forward to working with priests and the religious men and women, the deacons and the people of the Diocese of Springfield,” says Bishop Rozanski.

In Baltimore Bishop Rozanski has served on the child and youth protection committee for the conference of Catholic bishops for the past 7 years.

He has a message to victims of clergy sex abuse,”It has taught me first of all about the importance of being a shepherd, of reaching out to victims and survivors acknowledging their pain, and certainly the spiritual harm that has been done,” says Bishop Rosanski.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Think Progress

BY TARA CULP-RESSLER JUNE 19, 2014

The students who attend Bob Jones University, one of the most conservative Christian colleges in the country, say that they’re often traumatized after seeking counseling from school administrators on the issue of sexual assault. According to an Al Jazeera investigation, Bob Jones staff members have responded to allegations of rape by telling rape victims they should repent for their sins.

Katie Landry, who was raped by a coworker several times during the summer before she started attending Bob Jones, didn’t tell anyone about her assault for several years. She was deeply ashamed and failed most of her classes her first year of school. When she eventually sought counseling, the dean of students told her that “we have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.”

“He confirmed my worst nightmare — it was something I had done, it was something about me, it was my fault,” Landry said in an interview with Al Jazeera’s program America Tonight. The dean also asked her if she had done anything “impure” or smoked pot.

“I think they should have not heaped more shame on me. Because I was already filled to the brim with shame. I didn’t need any more,” Landry added.

Other students, who opted to speak to Al Jazeera anonymously, shared similar stories. One student says her school counselor told her to ask her rapist for forgiveness. “I would say that the impact of the two years of counseling I had with her is that I felt like I had been raped all over again,” that student recounted.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

18 JUNE 2014

The chairman of Northern Ireland’s public inquiry into historical institutional child abuse has requested a one-year extension to his work.

Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers said Sir Anthony Hart made a persuasive and compelling case and will recommend that the Executive agrees to lengthen the investigation.

The treatment of young people, orphaned or taken away from their unmarried mothers, in houses run by nuns, brothers or the state is a key concern of the retired High Court judge’s probe which is being held in Banbridge, Co Down, and was ordered by ministers.

The panel is considering cases between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995 and open oral testimony is due to finish in a year’s time.

Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness said: “We do not underestimate the complexities of dealing with institutional abuse. We must ensure that the inquiry provides every opportunity for those impacted by the allegations of institutional abuse to be heard in an open forum.

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INDIANA
WANE

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A couple protesters stood at the front of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese office Thursday to encourage Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades to release more information about two priests accused of sexually abusing children.

The protesters are from SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. They are concerned about the location of two priests. One is Father Cornelius Ryan who served at Saint Joe Hessen Cassel at 11337 Old Decatur Road South from 2011 to 2013. The second, Father James Seculoff was the pastor of Saint Patrick’s parish at 2120 Harrison St.

According to Bishop Rhoades, Ryan admitted to sexually abusing a child in Africa about 20 years ago. Seculoff also spent time serving in the Fort Wayne area and resigned amid sexual abuse allegations.

“We would like Bishop Rhoades to please put more information out there for the parents,”Judy Jones from the Midwest SNAP said. “And just what is the status of these two priests? Where they are being kept? Where they are located? If they’re too dangerous to be in a parish, they’re too dangerous to be out there working in other places where they could be among children.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, July 19 2014

Statement by Kathryn Robb (kathrynrobb1@gmail.com 781-856-7207 cell), a board member of Massachusetts Citizens for Children and a member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests and an advocate for this legislation

A bill to reform Massachusetts archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations on child sex crimes has passed the State Senate today. (It passed the House earlier.)

[MassLive]

We are grateful to the many determined victims and advocates who have made this progress possible. While this measure is far from perfect, we’re encouraged by it. Any legislation that gives more child sex abuse victims more chances to expose more predators in court is positive. We are grateful as well for the hard work by Rep. John Lawn and Senator William Brownsberger on this crucial bill.

At the same time, however, we hope Massachusetts lawmakers will do more to enable victims to also expose those who conceal child sex crimes. That would give employers more incentive to act promptly, transparently and responsibly when abuse reports arise and to take stronger steps to prevent abuse and cover up in the future.

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NEW ZEALAND
Auckland Now

ERICA DONALD

A former nun who re-entered the secular world after being sexually abused by a priest is now trying her hand at singing, songwriting and recording.

Pauline Grogan, 69, performed her first 10-song concert on June 2 at Pinehurst School on Auckland’s North Shore where she still does some relief teaching and hopes to have her CD, Songs of Life, ready for sale by the end of the year.

Grogan is no stranger to diversity – working as a teacher and marriage celebrant; once touring the country with her one woman play and still pulling in big audiences as a motivational speaker.

She is also the author of Beyond the Veil, an autobiography documenting her years as a novice and nun from the age of 17; her sexual abuse at the hands of a catholic priest, and the new life she made for herself after leaving the convent when she was 29.

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IRELAND
Limerick Post

Alan Jacques | June 19, 2014

A LOCAL Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) activist is calling for the Good Shepherd convent and other institutions in the city where the Catholic Church were involved, to be investigated in light of the recent mother and baby home scandal in Tuam.

Sean O’Neill maintains that the latest revelations represent yet another harrowing aspect of the relationship between Church and State in post Civil War Ireland. The Limerick RSF activist insists that all the other institutions where the Catholic Church were involved in State policy must also be examined.

The Good Shepherd institution opened on Clare Street in 1848. Now home to Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD), it served as a Magdalene Laundry for over a century. Mr O’Neill feels the role of the nuns at the convent must now be probed.

“In Limerick, the Good Shepherd nuns ran an industrial school and a laundry where young children were incarcerated until they reached 16 years. The laundry was a commercial undertaking using child labour and the conditions seemed to be prison like,” Mr O’Neill claims.

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ITALY
Irish Central

John Spain @irishcentral June 19,2014

In Italy last week on a break, it took me a moment to realize what the hotel owner was talking about when we were chatting after I had checked in.

“The babies — what a sad event,” he said. “But in Italy too we had such things. The church …” he sighed, shaking his head and shrugging at me in understanding and sympathy.

Two things struck me about this. It was an indication of how the appalling story of the remains of hundreds of babies found at the former unmarried mothers and babies home in Tuam in Co. Galway had traveled. We were staying in a small town in northern Italy, not somewhere you expect to be up to speed on news from Ireland.

But the graphic and shocking story had made the Italian newspapers, complete with references to skeletons of babies uncovered “in a septic tank.”

On that basis, it’s probably accurate to say that the story went around the globe. And it is extremely damaging to the image of Ireland, exposing the cruelty and hypocrisy of our recent past for the whole world to see.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Marist Brother and known paedophile made deputy leader of community attended by boys as young as 12

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 19, 2014

A KNOWN paedophile was made a deputy leader of a Marist Brothers community and allowed to work at a “farmhouse” facility which was attended by boys from the age of 12, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.

When he was charged by police, Brother Kostka Chute had his legal fees paid for by the Marist Brothers, a multi-million dollar organisation that enjoys tax-free status, and accompanied to court on every occasion by the religious orders’s director of professional standards, Brother Alexis Turton.

Brother Turton, 74, who is a former Australian provincial, or head, of the Marist Brothers, said he could understand that his support for Brother Kostka was likely to have appeared offensive to the victims of his abuse but he had considered it part of his role.

He said there was an expectation within the Marist Brothers that he made sure that Chute, who was living at a Marist Brothers property at Blacktown, kept his court appointments.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ewan Gilbert

Concern over the Catholic Marist Brothers’ indemnity against legal action by victims of child sexual abuse was the subject of an email sent by a lawyer for Brothers being questioned at an inquiry.

The email, produced on the last day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Canberra, was sent to the Catholic Marist Brothers in 2009, warning them about convicted paedophile Brother John Kostka Chute.

In it, lawyer Howard Harrison warned Marist Brothers provincial Jeffrey Crowe and director of professional standards Brother Alexis Turton that the Brothers could be at risk from Brother Kostka’s “honesty”.

“Just back from Canberra,” Mr Harrison wrote in the email after visiting Brother Kostka in jail.

“Regrettably quite upfront about various discussions with provincials over the years. I think we will have some problems with indemnity in due course.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Alexandra Chachkevitch and Lisa Black
Tribune reporter
1:21 p.m. CDT, June 19, 2014

The Rev. James Dokos, leader of Glenview’s Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church, will be charged with felony theft in the alleged mishandling of a trust fund at a Milwaukee church, said David Feiss, assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County.

Authorities have concluded a monthslong investigation and will file a charge against Dokos of Class G felony theft, alleging he misappropriated an amount of money exceeding $10,000, Feiss said.

The Tribune reported in October that documents the newspaper obtained showed that Dokos, while serving as pastor of Annunciation Church Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, wrote checks to himself totaling tens of thousands of dollars from a trust fund provided to the church, and that he used the fund to pay at least $32,000 in credit card bills. The documents included copies of cancelled checks and banking records from the trust fund.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • June 19, 2014

The other day, I blogged about the conviction of Fr. Isidore (Stanley) Brittain on child pornography charges. The Orthodox priest was an unpaid staffer at his local Orthodox parish, and, according to police, was “loosely affiliated” with the parish at the time of his arrest. Last week, I wrote about how the OCA’s 2011 Sexual Misconduct committee (SMPAC) report strongly faulted Met. Jonah for letting Fr. Isidore serve in that Corvallis parish, given his past record of alcoholism, sexual harassment, and seeking out gay sex. I said then that the committee was absolutely right to fault Jonah, but the report (which was a heavily politicized document) failed to fault Bishop Benjamin as well.

I’ve just located in my files Met. Jonah’s response at the time to the SMPAC report, in which he strongly disputes its reporting and conclusions. Here is a relevant part to the Brittain case:

Fr Isidore was released (as suspended) to the Diocese of the West at the request of Bishop Benjamin, to be under the close supervision of his psychologist and his spiritual father, Fr Stephen Soot. I spoke personally with the psychologist, as well as Fr Stephen and Mat. Mona Soot.

Not only does the memorandum confuse the timeline of events, and have a number of key facts simply wrong, its assertion that Fr. Isidore was not closely supervised in his recovery efforts [sic]. I doubt he could have been more closely supervised. In fact, both Bp Benjamin and I have exercised extreme care in this, and his process carefully monitored by a psychological professional together with a priest. Absent significant financial resources to pay for inpatient treatment or to pay for his room and board at a monastery, how could we have done anything better?

Boy, this chaps my hide. Here’s what could have been done better: Brittain ought to have been defrocked, and allowed to participate in the parish as a layman. If Jonah’s account is accurate, it is appalling to consider that these clerics — Met. Jonah, Bp. Benjamin, and Fr. Soot — believed that a sexually troubled priest (in this case, an alcoholic homosexual) ought to be able to use ministerial service in a parish as an aid to rehabilitation. And that they took the advice of a psychologist over common sense. In one sense, this is understandable; the Catholic bishops routinely did this in years past. But these decisions were made in 2009 or later, long after everybody knew, or ought to have known, how foolish and risky these decisions were.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The Raw Story

By Tom Boggioni
Wednesday, June 18, 2014

According to an investigative report from Al Jazeera America, rape victims searching for help at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., were told to repent and seek out their own “root sin” that caused them to be raped.

Within the past year BJU has opened its own investigation into sexual abuse and rape, and now former students who were victimized are coming forward to tell their stories about life on a campus where they were shamed and told to keep their stories to themselves.

Coming from a conservative Mennonite family, Katie Landry, who at age 19 had never even held hands with a boy, was raped multiple times by her supervisor at her summer job. Two years later, haunted by the attacks, and attending Bob Jones University, she sought help from then dean of students, Jim Berg.

According to Landry, Berg asked whether she’d been drinking or smoking pot and if she had been “impure.” He then brought up her “root sin.”

“He goes, ‘Well, there’s always a sin under other sin. There’s a root sin,’” Landry explained. “And he said, ‘We have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.’ And I just ran.”

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, Founder and President of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

A controversial Chicago-based religious group is admitting that a high profile Protestant pastor acted “inappropriately” with teenaged girls.

Our hearts ache for the dozens of women who as teens and young adults were sexually harassed by Rev. Bill Gothard. We share the hurt they must feel because Gothard’s church superiors so tardily and so inadequately.

[Chicago Sun-Times]

Gothard should never be around kids, not now, not evern. The Institute in Basic Life Principles should fire him and do everything possible to prevent him from hurting more innocent youngsters. And they should aggressively and publicly beg others who saw, suspected or suffered Gothard’s hurtful acts to come forward, get help and call police.

We strongly suspect that Gothard or his church supervisors have broken the law, either by molesting kids, destroying evidence, stonewalling police, decieving prosecutors, endangering others or similar offenses. We beg those with any knowledge or suspicions of wrongdoing by Gothard or IBLP officials to contact law enforcement agencies promptly.

We are also very troubled by Gothard’s wish to “work with and encourage young people . . . on a personal basis.” No parent should trust him. His church colleagues and supervisors should aggressively warn families about him and do all in their power to make sure he stays way from youngsters.

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TEXAS
KIII

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) – A popular priest in Sinton has been acquitted of assaulting a 13-year-old boy

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The Faith is supposed to be comprehensive, fertile, life-giving. It is catholic in the sense that it encompasses everything. Like a great work of literature, it includes the heights and depths of human nature, the wonder of creation, the beauty of passing fancies whispered silently, the shock of stunning realities shouted loudly. It is complex, where everything interpenetrates or foreshadows everything else. It is beautiful. It is terrifying. It is awesome. It is heaven and hell, the earth, the cosmos. It is a mystery, like life itself.

But we make it into a neutered puppy, crated up throughout the day, making sure it “does its business” outside the house. The Catholic Faith – indeed the Holy Trinity – has become a toy, a tool, or worse a club that we join to beat others over the head with.

It is supposed to perfect our nature, but we use it to kill our nature. We use it to cut off even our healthy and natural reflexes.

As a blog reader wrote to me concerning the Archbishop Carlson situation …

When otherwise good people rationalize away the scandal, and write lengthy essays telling us to not look behind the curtain, that’s what I don’t like. They aren’t disputing the facts: they are just trying to tell Catholics why they shouldn’t be outraged.

In other words, we don’t want to be real about this – or about anything. Our Faith serves not as a bridge to Love, not as a challenging and thrilling way to engage the tragedies and comedies of our very existence, not as a means of making life better and of caring for others, even at the cost of our own self-sacrifice, but as a shield: as a barrier or a diaphragm to prevent conception, to block conception in the intellectual sense, to prevent us even conceiving of anything that might trouble us.

Galileo wrote to Kepler …

Oh, my dear Kepler, how I wish we could have one hearty laugh together! Here at Padua is the principal professor of philosophy whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass [i.e., telescope] which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? What shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly! And to hear the professor of philosophy at Pisa laboring before the Grand Duke with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations, to charm the new planets out of the sky.

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TEXAS
Caller-Times

Krista M. Torralva
11:17 AM, Jun 19, 2014

SINTON – A Sinton priest accused last year of assaulting an alter boy was acquitted by a San Patricio County jury.

Rev. Patrick Serna was accused of jabbing a 13-year-old alter boy in the back in February 2013 at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sinton, prosecutor Frank Errico said. The charge was simple assault, a Class C misdemeanor.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi had launched an investigation after the accusation and found Serna innocent.

“The not guilty verdict handed down Wednesday in San Patricio County court regarding allegations of assault by the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sinton, affirms his innocence and upholds the investigative findings of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. Prayers are requested for all concerned as well as the restoration of the good name of the priest involved,” the Diocese said in an emailed statement.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter June 18, 2014

A board investigation of the former president of a controversial Oak Brook-based religious and home-schooling organization, who resigned following allegations he sexually harassed teen girls, concluded he acted in an “inappropriate manner.”

But “no criminal activity was discovered” to have been committed by Bill Gothard, according to a statement by the board of directors of the Institute in Basic Life Principles posted on its website.

The board said based on a review conducted by outside legal counsel, it unanimously agreed that “at this time” Gothard “is not permitted to serve in any counseling, leadership or board role within the IBLP ministry.”

That leaves open the question of whether the 79-year-old Gothard may be allowed to return one day as he did after resigning following another sexual scandal years earlier.

The ministry, which Gothard founded, has held seminars reaching millions and includes the home-schooling arm Advanced Training Institute International. It has operations in seven states and 12 countries.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19, 2014

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

Another person has disclosed having been molested at a Pittsburgh Catholic school and we’ve learned the name of another credibly accused child molesting Catholic cleric.

That means that in just three months, nine clerics have been publicly accused of sexually assaulting Pittsburgh kids.

[Tribune-Review]

We are deeply grateful to every single former North Catholic student who has reported having been hurt by Marianist clerics there. Now, we hope that others who saw, suspected or hid this wrongdoing will speak up too.

It’s possible that at least one or two of the school staff who committed or concealed crimes at North Catholic can be criminally charged, convicted and kept away from kids. It’s possible that they might also be sued in civil cases or punished by church officials.

But only if those who have been so deeply hurt contact police and prosecutors, not church figures. And it’s more likely only if those who knew of or suspected abuse also step forward.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

Jun 17, 2014 10:00 By James Moncur

PROFESSOR Alan Miller says it’s vital to find out what the state knew about abuse that went on at residential homes – particularly allegations of child deaths and the destruction of documents.

A LEADING human rights expert has called on the Scottish Government to launch a “forensic” inquiry into historical abuse in Scotland.

Professor Alan Miller, chairman of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, wants an independent ­investigation into crimes committed against children in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

He believes it is vital to find out what the state knew about abuse that went on at residential homes – particularly allegations of child deaths and the destruction of documents and records.

Speaking to the Record on the eve of today’s publication of abuse victims’ ­consultation findings, Miller called for a “national, ­judge-led” inquiry.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

By Danae King, The Baltimore Sun
June 19, 2014

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski will soon move to Springfield, Mass., to serve as bishop of that diocese, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced Thursday.

Rozanski, 56, has been a priest and bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore for almost 30 years and served at several churches in the area.

“I will remain forever grateful for the privilege to have ministered as priest and bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” Rozanski said. “The formation and guidance that I have received from the dedicated archbishops, bishops, priests, religious men and women and laity of this wonderful church leave me humbled, yet hope-filled in answering the call to be Bishop of Springfield.”

Rozanski will be the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, succeeding Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, and will start Aug. 12.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19, 2014

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

Church lawyer says that priest is defrocked
Victims blast Myers for violating church policy
SNAP to Newark archdiocese: “Stop the secrecy”
Catholic officials let pedophile legally change his name
Then, they sent him from NJ to “unsuspecting families” in MO

A lawyer for the Newark archdiocese disclosed yesterday that a twice-convicted predator priest who pled guilty this week to sexually assaulting three Missouri boys has been formally defrocked by the Vatican.

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Newark archdiocesan officials for keeping this news secret for almost two years and begging them to “aggressively seek out” others who may have “seen, suspected or suffered” the cleric’s crimes.

In an email to the director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, attorney Charles Carella of Roseland (973 994 1700, CMCarella@carellabyrne.com) said Fr. Carmen Sita (Jerry Howard) was permanently ousted from the priesthood in September of 2012 by then-Pope Benedict.

(Here’s a link to the actual defrocking

[SNAP]

“Catholic officials – in both New Jersey and Missouri – callously kept this fact hidden from parents, police, parishioners and the public, which essentially rubbed even more salt into the already-deep wounds of this serial predator’s victims and their families,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “It would have been a real comfort to many victims and to many concerned Catholics to know that Fr. Howard was off the payroll and kicked out by the Vatican. But instead of sharing this information, two prelates – Archbishop John Myers and Bishop John Gaydos – hid it.”

SNAP also charges that the bishops’ secrecy “clearly violates the U.S. bishops formal and allegedly binding national abuse policy, which mandates ‘openness and transparency’ in clergy sex abuse cases.”

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 19 2014

The head of the process for compensating survivors of Canada’s aboriginal residential schools is going to court to ensure that their private testimonies of physical, sexual and emotional abuse are never made public.

Dan Shapiro, the chief adjudicator of the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), will ask a judge of the Ontario Superior Court to order that hundreds of thousands of documents related to the cases of native claimants be destroyed when the process is ended.

Mr. Shapiro will outline his arguments Thursday in Edmonton in a speech to a conference of privacy and access experts, a copy of which was obtained in advance by The Globe and Mail.

“The history and legacy of residential schools must never be forgotten. But the price of remembering must not be the betrayal of those who were abused as children in those schools,” Mr. Shapiro will tell the crowd. “Our goal is to ensure that the information claimants entrust to us in confidence is protected for all time.”

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NEW YORK
JTA

June 19, 2014

(JTA) — A rabbi who advocates against child sex abusers refused to accept an apology from a Hasidic man, the son of an accused abuser, who threw bleach in the rabbis’s face.

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg told Brooklyn state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Gubbay, who asked Meilech Schnitzler to make the apology in court on Wednesday, that he would not accept the apology because “you didn’t harm me. You harmed all the children I represent,” the New York Post reported.

In December 2012, Rosenberg on his blog for sexual abuse victims accused Schnitzler’s father of being a child sexual molester. As Rosenberg walked past Schnitzler’s Brooklyn fish market, Schnitzler ran toward him with a cup of bleach and threw it in his face. Rosenberg, of the same Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, was treated for burns on his face, around his eyes and in his left eye.

The incident came a day after Nechemya Weberman, a Satmar Hasidim leader, was convicted on 59 counts of sexual abuse of a then-18-year-old woman when she was between the ages of 12 and 15 and went to Weberman for counseling. Rosenberg supported and assisted the victim throughout the judicial process.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19, 2014

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

We know little about Springfield’s new Catholic bishop and we wish him well. But we rarely see new bishops take stronger steps to protect kids, so we caution Springfield area parents and parishioners against being complacent about children’s safety.

[WWLP]

It’s always tempting to assume that the new prelate will automatically somehow be “better” than his predecessor when it comes to the church’s on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis. But that’s rarely the case.

So we beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to continue reporting what they hear, see, know and suspect about clergy misdeeds and crimes to secular authorities, not church authorities.

That’s how to best safeguard the vulnerable – rely on the unbiased, independent professionals in law enforcement, not the biased, self-serving church officials in chancery offices.

There are 48 publicly accused Springfield child molesting Catholic clerics. We urge Bishop Rozanski to disclose their whereabouts and post their photos and work histories on the diocesan website. That’s the quickest and cheapest way he can help parents protect their kids – by providing facts about who and where these proven, admitted and credibly accused predators are now and have been.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 19, 2014

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

Youngstown Catholic officials are being sued by a day care center owner who married a convicted sex offender.

[Vindicator]

It’s ironic that in this case, Youngstown Catholic officials seemed to take a hard line against abuse perpetrated by a lay person when those same Catholic officials coddle their own predator priests.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Catalina Gaitan | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 19, 2014

Pope Francis has appointed a new bishop in Springfield, according to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Auxiliary Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, 55, of Baltimore will replace Bishop Timothy McDonnell, 76, who has been serving in that position since 2004, church officials said.

The announcement was made today by Archbishop Carlo Vigano in Washington.

Rozanski became an ordained priest for the Baltimore archdiocese in 1984 and was named auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in 2004, officials sai

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VATICAN CITY
Buenos Aires Herald

Pope Francis will not walk in a traditional religious procession through the streets of Rome tonight in order to save his strength for coming engagements, the Vatican said.

It said there was no reason for alarm over the health of the 77-year old Argentine pope, who is known to suffer from sciatica, or leg pain caused by a pinched nerve.

The procession of over a kilometer (0.7 miles) in which the pope holds up a gold monstrance – a case containing a communion host – marks the day that the Roman Catholic Church in Italy celebrates the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

“The pope saw it opportune to not do the long route by foot … with a view towards his upcoming commitments,” the Vatican said, noting that he will travel to southern Italy on Saturday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WWLP

By Anthony Fay
Published: June 19, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski is Pope Francis’s new choice to lead the Catholic Church in western Massachusetts. But who is this man who will soon be in charge of a diocese serving more than 230,000 Catholics?

Here’s what we know:

* He’s young. Rozanski is currently 55 years old, and will turn 56 in August. That makes him far younger than many American bishops. Bishop Timothy McDonnell, who he will be replacing, is 76 years old; one year past the mandatory retirement age of 75. Given his age, Rozanski could theoretically lead the Springfield Diocese for about 20 years.

*He’s from Maryland. Rozanski was born in Baltimore, attended schools in the Baltimore area, served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and was made an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese in 2004.

* He’s focused on ministry to the Latino community. Bishop Rozanski was Vicar of Hispanics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and in that position had been vocal in support of laws benefiting immigrants.

* He’s proud of his heritage. Bishop Rozanski’s personal coat-of-arms includes the colors of the Polish Flag, and a picture of a rose, which is a play on the translation of his last name, which means “rose flower” in Polish.

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NEW JERSEY
Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Staff and Wire Reports
Follow on Twitter
on June 18, 2014

BOONVILLE, Mo. — A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to two concurrent 12-year sentences after admitting that he molested three teenage boys in the 1980s.

Gerald J. Howard, who also was known as Carmine Sita, admitted Tuesday that he forced two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old boy into sex acts between May 1984 and September 1987 in Boonville. He also admitted that he gave his victims drugs and alcohol.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Howard was a priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Boonville.

More than 30 years ago, Sita was convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy and also convicted of drug dealing while serving at St. Aloysius in Jersey City. He served there from 1976 to 1982.

In January 1983, he was sentenced in Hudson County to five years probation and ordered to undergo treatment. By August 1983, he joined SS Peter and Paul Church in Boonville after a short stay at a treatment center in New Mexico.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

An inquiry’s heard the Marist brothers were advised a too-honest brother jailed for child sex charges should be kept “out of the legal arena” on his release.

A Church lawyer advised the Marist Brothers to keep a jailed pedophile brother out of the legal arena when he was released, because he was so honest he was likely to “dump on others”.

Brother Alexis Turton, the former head of the Marist Brothers Order in Australia, was copied into an email to the current head of the order Brother Jeffrey Crowe from a church lawyer in May, 2009.

Br Turton was under intense cross examination on day two of his evidence to a royal commission hearing into how the order handled allegations of sexual abuse against two brothers jailed for pedophilia.

The solicitor representing Damien De Marco, who was abused by John Chute (known as Brother Kostka), challenged Br Turton as to what knowledge he had of the abuse.

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OHIO
Vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN

The former owners of a child day-care center at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New Middletown have sued the church and church officials.

They allege the officials breached the center’s lease and wrongly evicted the center’s owners because the center’s administrator married a man who was convicted of an attempted sex offense against a minor.

Besides the church, defendants are the Rev. Stephen Popovich, church pastor, and Bishop George Murry of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

The civil lawsuit was filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by Atty. David L. Engler on behalf of St. Paul’s Childcare Center and its former owners, Linda Davis, and her daughter, Nicole Davis Fairchild, both of Austintown.

The complaint, which demands a jury trial, seeks damages in excess of $75,000.

Father Popovich terminated the child-care center’s lease and barred Davis and her daughter from the premises Oct. 25, 2013, forcing the sale of the business “at a distressed cost,” and causing Davis Fairchild to lose her job as child-care administrator, the suit says.

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IRELAND
Amnesty International

The Irish government’s establishment of an independent Commission of Investigation into ‘mother and baby homes’ must result in an effective and comprehensive investigation that is fully compliant with Ireland’s human rights obligations, Amnesty International said today in a letter to Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny.

“Ireland’s obligation to ensure truth, justice and reparations for victims of past human rights abuses must be central to the work of this pending Commission of Investigation,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“The commission must be mandated to investigate the causes of high infant mortality rates at ‘mother and baby’ homes around the country, as well as other reported concerns including alleged illegal adoption practices, vaccine trials conducted on children without consent, forced labour, and that women were denied adequate medical care.

“Confronting, acknowledging and dealing with this legacy of past human rights abuses are essential if Ireland is to move forward as a rights-respecting society.”

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IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

Ronnie O’Gorman Galway Advertiser, Thu, Jun 19, 2014

Most families, most adults, and most communities have secrets; past indiscretions they would rather forget about, and usually not very serious. But some of them can be very painful, and are kept hidden, in a sort of a Secrets Box, long after they need to be.

It took an artist like Patricia Burke Brogan, to prise open the heavy doors of the Magdalene Laundry, which had remained a sad, and neglected, community secret for generations. The marginalisation of unmarried mothers was so embedded in our psyche that we were afraid to look inside ourselves.

There were no whistleblowers in the Ireland of the early 1990s; yet Patricia deeply felt that the stories of the ‘Maggies’ had to be told. Not in a sensational headline-grabbing way, but in such a way that the lives of the women involved would be remembered as part of our shared humanity.*

Patricia, a former Mercy novice, who had worked as a supervisor in the laundry, originally wrote the story as a one-act play. Single-mothers, Cathy, Brigit, Mandy and Nellie-Nora, whose children are either dead, or have been taken away for adoption, or were enclosed in orphanages, were condemned to work in humiliating conditions in a laundry. The women are ‘disgraced and forgotten’ by the community outside the gates; while their lovers, the fathers of their children, are not held responsible. Having read the play, Fintan O’Toole, the literary editor and drama critic with The Irish Times, encouraged Patricia to enlarge the story into a full-length play, and send it to Irish theatre companies for production.

After several rejections, Punchbag Theatre Company, agreed to do it. Eclipsed opened in a converted garage near the Spanish Arch, on St Valentine’s Day, February 14 1992 (the irony of the date was not lost on Patricia). It was an immediate success. ** There were some objections, which probably helped its promotion. One evening people stood outside the theatre objecting that nuns were depicted in a bad light. Yet the crowds kept coming. People openly wept in the audience. It went on tour of Irish theatres receiving excellent reviews. But when Punchbag took the play to the Edinburgh Theatre festival, and it won the major Fringe award, it attracted the mother and father of all the publicity that you can imagine.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WGGB

SPRINGFIELD (WGGB) – Springfield’s Catholic Diocese has a new Bishop this morning. Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski of Maryland has been named the 9th Bishop of Springfield by Pope Francis.

Bishop Rozanski will succeed current Bishop Timothy McDonnell, who submitted his resignation 18 months ago.

The change was announced in Washington, D.C. by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. Bishop Rozanski will be installed on Tuesday August 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Conor Berry | cberry@repub.com
on June 19, 2014

SPRINGFIELD — Pope Francis on Thursday named Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, to succeed retiring Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell as head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

Rozanski, 55, is the ninth bishop of the 144-year-old Springfield diocese, which spans all four Western Massachusetts counties and caters to the region’s roughly 230,000 Catholics spread over 81 parishes.

Rozanski’s appointment was simulatneously announced in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, and by the Vatican Press Office. An installation date is scheduled for Aug. 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield.

After more than half a century as a priest, McDonnell submitted his letter of resignation almost 18 months ago, as required by church law, when he turned 75 on Dec. 23, 2012.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

SPRINGFIELD — An auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Md., has been named the ninth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

The Most Rev. Mitchell Thomas Rozanski will be installed as bishop on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield, the diocese said in a statement. He will succeed the Most Rev. Timothy McDonnell, bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, who submitted his resignation on his 75th birthday – Dec. 23, 2012 – as required by canonical law.

Rozanski’s appointment by Pope Francis came early today, with the announcement made simultaneously by the Vatican Press Office and in Washington, DC by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

McDonnell was appointed as bishop of Springfield on March 4, 2004 and was installed on April 1, 2004. He came to Springfield from the Archdiocese of New York, NY. He has indicated that he will retire in Western Massachusetts.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
iobserve

SPRINGFIELD — Pope Francis today named Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, currently an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, as the Ninth Bishop of Springfield, Mass.

He will succeed Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell who submitted his letter of resignation almost 18 months ago, as required by church law, on his 75th birthday, Dec. 23, 2012.

Bishop McDonnell was appointed March 4, 2004 as bishop of Springfield and installed April 1, 2004. He came to Springfield from the Archdiocese of New York. He has indicated that he will retire here in western Massachusetts.

The acceptance of Bishop McDonnell’s resignation and the appointment of Bishop Rozanski were announced in Washington, D.C. by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States and simultaneously by the Vatican Press Office. An installation date has been set for Tuesday August 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield.

He will be the first bishop for the Diocese of Springfield with Polish roots.

Bishop Rozanski will be introduced this morning at a 10 a.m. press conference scheduled for the Bishop John Marshall Center. The press conference will be available via live streaming on the diocesan website www.diospringfield.org and the diocesan news website www.iobserve.org.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WWLP

By Lynn Barry
Published: June 19, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) -Pope Francis on Thursday named Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, currently an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland as the Ninth Bishop of Springfield.

He will succeed Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell who submitted his letter of resignation almost 18 months ago, as required by Church law, on his 75th birthday, December 23, 2012.

Bishop McDonnell was appointed March 4, 2004 as Bishop of Springfield and installed April 1, 2004. He came to Springfield from the Archdiocese of New York, NY. He has indicated that he will retire in western Massachusetts.

The acceptance of Bishop McDonnell’s resignation and the appointment of Bishop Rozanski were announced in Washington, DC by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States and simultaneously by the Vatican Press Office. An installation date has been set for Tuesday August 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield.

Bishop Rozanski will be introduced this morning at a 10am press conference scheduled for the Bishop John Marshall Center.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

[Summary: Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell as bishop of the Springfrield, Mass., diocese under canon 401, 1, of the Code of Canon Law. The new bishop is Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, auxiliary bishop of the Baltimore, Md., diocese.]

Il Santo Padre Francesco ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale della diocesi di Springfield in Massachusetts (U.S.A.), presentata da S.E. Mons. Timothy Anthony McDonnell, in conformità al can. 401 §1 del Codice di Diritto Canonico.

Il Papa ha nominato Vescovo di Springfield in Massachusetts (U.S.A.) S.E. Mons. Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, finora Vescovo titolare di Walla Walla ed Ausiliare dell’arcidiocesi di Baltimore (U.S.A.).

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IRELAND
Sunday World

PADDY MURRAY

t’s hard to believe. 769 babies dumped in a septic tank.

And do you know why it’s hard to believe? Because it’s not true. It’s made up. It’s fantasy.

Of course, there is going to be an inquiry and there probably should be.

And it should ask not just what role the nuns or others running mother and baby homes had in the dire conditions, but what role the State had and, indeed, what role was played by the families which clearly abandoned these young, pregnant and very often abused girls.

But if there is going to be an inquiry perhaps it should not start with utter gibberish dreamed up by English newspapers.

Right now, there is not a single shred of evidence that 769 babies were ‘dumped’ in a septic tank in Tuam.

Indeed, a respected historian pointed out this week that, whatever about the behaviour of the nuns, it was all but certain they didn’t “dump babies in septic tanks”.

Finbar McCormick, a professor of geography at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “The structure as described is much more likely to be a shaft burial vault, a common method of burial used in the recent past and still used today in many parts of Europe.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 19, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

The Marist Brothers made no attempt to locate Gregory Sutton’s other victims after Canadian psychotherapists told them in 1990 he had possibly abused multiple children, a royal commission has heard.

Brother Alexis Turton, the then head of the order who has been accused of shipping Sutton out of the country on August 18, 1989, to foil a police investigation, is adamant he was aware of only one victim at the time.

“Certainly with today’s wisdom we would have done things differently,” he told Thursday’s hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Another former Marist Brother, Denis Doherty, has previously told the commission that he told his superiors of concerns about Sutton decades before his crimes were exposed.
Advertisement

Mr Doherty’s lawyer, Timothy Kernaghan, put it to Brother Alexis on Thursday that he had committed a criminal act.

“Do you think today that your decisions of how to deal with the matter in August 1989 and in the times that followed amounted to you concealing the commission of a serious crime upon a child?” he asked.

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INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims blast church over 2 predator priests
They’re worried about where accused clerics are now
Bishop should visit every parish where the men worked
And he should beg “victims, witnesses & whistleblowers” to “speak up”
Group also wants diocese to post names of child molesting clerics on websites

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, advocates for clergy sex abuse victims will blast church officials for their apparent inaction about two recently revealed predator priest. They will urge Ft. Wayne church officials to;
–reveal where two recently suspended predator priests are now,

–put them in remote treatment centers so kids area safer, and
–post the names of all credibly accused clerics.

The victims will also beg current and former church members and staff to contact independent sources (like therapists, police, prosecutors or their group) with any suspicions or information about clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Ft. Wayne-South Bend diocese.

WHEN
Thursday, June 19, at 10:30 am

WHERE
Outside of the Fort Wayne Catholic diocese headquarters, 915 S. Clinton St (corner of Washington) in Fort Wayne, IN

WHO
Two members of a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
Two Fort Wayne area Catholic priests were recently revealed to have credible child abuse allegations against them. They are Fr. Cornelius J. Ryan (of the Holy Cross order) and Fr. James F. Seculoff (of the Ft. Wayne-South Bend diocese cleric).

Fr. Ryan spent roughly twenty years working in Africa, where the alleged abuse took place.

[BishopAccountability.org]

In January, Fr. Seculoff was removed from his position as pastor of St. Patrick’s parish (260-744-1450, st.patrick.f.w@gmail.com), after an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was found credible. Since then three more victims of his have come forward.

Church officials have said little or nothing about where the priests are now. SNAP believes parents, parishioners and the public deserve to know this, and that such transparency is mandated by a 2002 US bishops abuse policy. SNAP also says that the clerics belong in “remote, secure, independent treatment centers so that kids will be safer.”

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MISSOURI
Boonville Daily News

By Edward Lang, Managing Editor
Posted Jun. 18, 2014

Boonville

Gerald Howard plead guilty to three of the six current counts of forcible or attempted forcible sodomy against him Tuesday afternoon at the Cooper County Courthouse.

Howard was being held for charges of sexual misconduct against minors during the early to mid-1980s at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Boonville. Before coming to Boonville, he had already been in trouble for this sort of crime in Jersey City, New Jersey; therefore causing him to change his name from Carmine Sita to Gerald Howard.

During the hearing yesterday, Howard was asked repeatedly by Honorable Judge Robert Koffman if he understood the plea he was presenting to the court. He repeatedly said he did. The guilty plea was entered for counts one (forcible sodomy), five (forcible sodomy) and six (attempted forcible sodomy). Cooper County Prosecuting Attorney Doug Abele agreed to the plea. The motion was granted to dismiss all other charges.

Howard also waived his right to a trial and appeal with this plea, which he told Koffman, he understood.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

A retired judge leading a public inquiry into historical child abuse at kids’ care homes in Derry has requested a one-year extension to his work.

Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers say Sir Anthony Hart made a persuasive and compelling case and they will recommend that the Executive agrees to lengthen the investigation.

The inquiry has already heard a series of allegations from former residents of two Derry care homes run by nuns.

St Joseph’s Boys’ Home, Termonbacca, and Nazareth House Children’s Home, at Bishop Street, were both run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

Former residents pf the Derry homes have told the inquiry that children were made to eat their own vomit and bathe in disinfectant.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 18, 2014

BOSTON — The Massachusetts House has approved a bill to extend by more than 30 years the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits against their alleged attackers or the institutions that employed them.

The measure passed Wednesday on a unanimous vote and now goes to the Senate.

Current state law only gives victims until age 21 to file civil actions against alleged abusers. The bill would raise that age up to 53.

The proposal would also increase from three years to seven years the period in which a lawsuit can be filed after the recovery of so-called repressed memories of childhood abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

By Ruby Gonzales, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
POSTED: 06/18/14

EL MONTE >> A church volunteer is accused of molesting five children at a local school and church.

On Wednesday, El Monte Police asked for the public’s help in finding other possible victims.

“We’ve exhausted our leads,” Lt Chris Williams said. ”We’re concerned there may be more (victims).”

Prosecutors charged 20-year-old Johnny Beserra of El Monte with three counts of sodomy by use of force, two counts continuous sexual abuse, two counts oral copulation of a person under 18, two counts of sodomy of a person under 18, child molesting, oral copulation of a person under 14, oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 or younger, forcible oral copulation and lewd acts upon a child.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges at his May 28 arraignment, said Ricardo Santiago, a public information officer with the District Attorney’s Office.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MassLive

By State House News Service
on June 18, 2014

BOSTON — After years of trying to strike a compromise, the House voted unanimously on Wednesday to extend the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual assault to bring civil claims against their abusers.

The bill (H 4126) would allow victims of child sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits up until the time they turn 53 years old, an extra 35 years on top of what is currently allowed.

Rep. John Lawn, a Watertown Democrat who worked with victims, advocates and groups like the Catholic Church to reach the compromise, said the bill struck a balance between allowing victims the time to come to terms with their abuse while also respecting the rights of institutions that might become involved in lawsuits stemming from decades-old incidents.

Lawn got involved with the issue after a constituent came to him seeking assistance after she was raped, drugged and impregnated as a young teenager by her uncle, Lawn said the woman was in her 40s before she was fully ready to confront her abuser, but it was too late to seek justice.

The new statute of limitations would be applied retroactively to cases against the alleged perpetrator of the abuse, but not for institutions who may have “negligently supervised” the abuser. The bill would also extend from three years to seven years the limit for a civil lawsuit to be brought against either class of defendant from the time the victim “discovered or reasonably should have discovered that an emotional or psychological injury or condition was caused” by the sexual abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

[with video]

EL MONTE (CBSLA.com) —A 20-year-old Christian school volunteer has been accused of molesting at least five children.

Johnny Beserra III was arrested in late May at his home on more than a dozen counts of felony lewd acts with a child, including oral copulation and sodomy.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held on $9 million bail.

The incidents, which occurred at the United Pentecostal Church & El Monte Christian Academy, date back four years, police said.

“We have identified five victims,” El Monte police Lt. Christopher Williams said. “We’re concerned also because the victims are not specific to any sex or any age range. Everything from elementary school to junior high to high school.”

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

[with video]

JUNE 18, 2014, BY MELISSA PAMER AND NERISSA KNIGHT

Investigators believe there may be additional child molestation victims of a 20-year-old El Monte man charged with 14 criminal counts, police said Wednesday.

Johnny Beserra III was arrested May 24 in connection with an investigation in which five alleged victims had been identified, according to a news release issued by the El Monte Police Department.

He was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office with 14 counts of lewd acts with a child, sodomy and oral copulation, according to police.

The alleged crimes took place at the United Pentecostal Church, where Beserra was a volunteer, or at El Monte Christian Academy, according to police Lt. Christopher Williams.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

Mediation begins between Catholic Church and St Ann’s sex abuse victims seeking compensation

BEN HYDE THE ADVERTISER JUNE 19, 2014

OUT-OF-COURT negotiations have begun to settle compensation claims over the St Ann’s Special School sexual abuse case.

A father of one of the abuse victims, Peter Mitchell, said this morning that the Catholic Church had entered talks with the victims’ families who are seeking compensation.

“We’re grateful to Archbishop (Philip) Wilson that we’re entering mediation to settle our claims,” he said.

“But we can’t provide any further comment as we don’t want to jeopardise the mediation process.”

The mediation could end 12 years of legal battles over paedophile Brian Perkins’ molestation of 36 students at St Ann’s Special School more than 20 years ago.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Ken Camp

Stephanie Henry — a survivor of childhood sexual abuse — became a stripper when she saw her body as a “commodity” that could provide relief from financial desperation. Today, she devotes her life to combating human trafficking and attitudes that objectify girls and women.

“I am doing this so I can heal, too,” Henry recently told a group of professionals and volunteers who work with teenagers.

Trafficking treats girls and women as commodities when they are forced or coerced into renting out their bodies, often for diminishing returns the more “used” they are, she notes.

Henry, who leads the Activism for Empowerment Foundation, has worked to combat trafficking in Kenya, Nigeria and Cambodia. But she emphasizes trafficking occurs in American communities as well.

That places a heavy responsibility on the faith community, she said.

“Churches are where people often go for help. Every single solitary church should go through trafficking education,” she insists.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Bobby Kerlik

Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2014, 11:06 p.m.

The sexual abuse scandal at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School has widened to at least 22 alleged victims, as the Diocese of Pittsburgh said on Wednesday that three more have come forward.

The latest allegations implicate Marianist Brother William Kiefer, who was at the school from 1956 to 1962 and is now deceased, said diocese spokesman the Rev. Ron Lengwin. The number of accused Marianists is now nine, he said.

The oldest allegation dates to the 1940s, Lengwin has said.

“When we speak to (the victims) we let them know we’re willing to help, if we can,” Lengwin said. “Of course, we also turn it over to the Marianists and the District Attorney’s Office.”

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the Allegheny County DA, said the office has not received any information that would allow it to move forward with a prosecution.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Josh Saul

A Brooklyn judge ​forced an Orthodox Jewish man who threw bleach into the face of an anti-child abuse advocate to apologize in court Wednesday — but the advocate refused to forgive his attacker.

Meilich Schnitzler, 38, was sentenced to five years probation for the December 2012 bleach attack on ​Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg in Williamsburg.

“The conduct is the kind that resonates viscerally. By the grace of God the rabbi wasn’t blinded,”​ Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Joseph ​Gubbay said before ​ordering Schnitzler to make amends.

“I want to say I’m sorry for what I did and I regret what I did,” Schnitzler said.​ ​“Can you please forgive me?”

But Rosenberg, standing in the gallery, shook his head.

“No, because you didn’t harm me, you harmed the thousands of children I represent,” Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg – who criticized District Attorney Ken Thompson for the no-jail plea deal Schnitlzer received – said he was targeted for his child advocacy work.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Gerry Braiden
Senior reporter

LAWYERS for the Catholic Church have been accused of moving to block court action by an alleged victim of a priest dismissed by the Vatican over sexual abuse allegations.

The Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh’s legal team has applied for a court hearing in an attempt to have the compensation case against Thomas Mullen time-barred from proceeding.

Although an out-of-court ­settlement remains likely, it is expected the lawyers will essentially use the preliminary hearing to try to argue that because the abuse took place some years ago they are unable to investigate the allegations against Mr Mullen.

However, representatives of his alleged victim have claimed that since the Vatican investigated and disciplined Mr Mullen, it was “odd” that similar inquiries could not take place in a civil action in Scotland.

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