ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 22 January 2015

The NSW government is considering lifting the time limit in which survivors of child sexual abuse can sue for damages.

The NSW attorney general Brad Hazzard said the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse had uncovered widespread claims about abuse and the legal barriers survivors face in pursuing justice many years after the crime.

“It is well documented that many survivors of child sexual abuse do not disclose their experiences or act on them until decades after the abuse, well after the time period has ended,” Hazzard said on Friday.

The government has released a discussion paper on whether to amend the Limitation Act 1969 and wants to hear from the public.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By Gary Popp
News and Tribune

LOUISVILLE, KY (News and Tribune) – The former pastor of a New Albany church was sentenced Wednesday in a Louisville court to 15 years in prison for the sodomy of a child.

Isrom Johnson, 35, Louisville, was a pastor at Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church along Linden Avenue at the time of his arrest in December 2012.

According to court records, Johnson committed three offenses of, “sodomy in the second degree by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years of age.”

He was taken into custody by the Louisville Metro Police Department after he was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE headmaster of an exclusive Sydney private school which will come under the gaze of the sex abuse royal commission has welcomed the opportunity to work with the national inquiry.

The royal commission announced on Thursday it will next month begin a hearing involving the Wahroonga-based Knox Grammar school and the Uniting Church in Australia between 1970 and 2012.
It relates to concerns raised about inappropriate conduct by a number of teachers towards students at Knox.

In 2010, former teacher Craig Treloar was jailed for two years for numerous sex offences against four boys, aged 11 to 13, who attended Knox in 1986 and 1987.

Headmaster John Weeks says the school regularly reviews child protection policies, student awareness programs and support structures to provide surety to parents and students about safety.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

Exclusive Sydney school Knox Grammar is set to become the focus of a royal commission, with a public hearing to examine how a number of teachers were able to molest boys for decades.

Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, Knox Grammar boasts former prime ministers and prominent actors amongst its alumni.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is turning its attention to the school to examine how the independent school, run by the Uniting Church, responded to concerns about inappropriate conduct from 1970 to 2012.

In 2009 and 2010, four men pleaded guilty to abusing students at Knox Grammar.

The high profile cases included former teacher Craig Treloar, who was jailed in 2010 for abusing four boys aged from 11 to 13 between 1986 and 1987.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • January 22, 2015

If you haven’t yet read the “How To Be A Gay Jesuit” post, do. The introduction, which I appended to the dialogue, was written the the Jesuit priest Fr. Tom Smolich. I had never heard of him, somehow. From his introduction:

Through the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, male religious in this country developed the Instruments of Hope and Healing, a comprehensive approach of outreach to victims of child sexual abuse and of concrete steps toward its prevention. Included in these Instruments is a requirement of continuing education for all religious in their communities.

In 2009, the Society developed an online questionnaire and four case studies in an adult learning format to meet this requirement for the succeeding three years.

This program and its structure were well received, as they provided the impetus for important conversations among Jesuits on issues we are often reluctant to engage: affective needs, appropriate boundaries, and healthy internet usage, to name a few. This 2009 program serves as the foundation for our continuing education for the next five years. This new program has been christened Conversations that Matter.

As part of Conversations that Matter, every Jesuit working or living in the United States will take a yearly on-line questionnaire which refreshes our knowledge about the problem of sexual abuse of minors and the abuse of power in pastoral ministry. The questionnaire also presents information on changing guidelines in these areas. For example, revisions in Vatican policies now include sexual abuse of vulnerable adults and possession of child pornography as offenses which disqualify a priest or religious from ministry. We need to be up to date on such changes.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Newcastle solicitor specialising in compensation for survivors of child sexual abuse says he would welcome the removal of the statute of limitations on historic abuse claims.

In New South Wales, victims of child sexual abuse typically have between three and 12 years to sue for damages, but the government is considering extending or scrapping the time limit.

Peter Kelso said although the limitation seems arbitrary, when it was first introduced legislators would not have been considering its impact on victims of historic sex abuse.

“There would be no way they would have been thinking about historical child sex abuse case,” he said.

“They would have been thinking purely about cases like workers compensation, slip and fall, motor vehicle accidents – that sort of thing.

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NEW YORK
The Daily News

By Scott DeSmit desmit@batavianews.com

ALBION — Closing arguments are expected today in the Orleans County Court trial of a former church pastor accused of molesting three children, all his relatives.

Roy Harriger Sr., 71, former pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Yates, is charged with three counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and three counts of incest.

Harriger, who took the stand Thursday and denied all the accusations, claiming his son and grandchildren were lying, is accused of molesting the children in 2001, 2002 and in 2008.

A state police investigation detailed allegations of abuse dating back to the 1970s in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan, including molesting his son, who also testified this week.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Gaston Gazette

By Lauren Baheri
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2015

A recently removed pastor who once worked in Lincolnton and Shelby was charged last week with sexually assaulting a child.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred decades ago in Jacksonville, Fla.

Michael Wayne Hill, a 52-year-old former Seventh-day Adventist pastor, was charged with sexual battery of a person younger than 12 years old.

No statute of limitations exists in a child sex crime.

Hill served as pastor of churches in Shelby and Lincolnton for 15 years, according to Robert Crux, marketing director for Carolina Conference, the division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that covers Gaston, Cleveland and Lincoln counties

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Two separate lawsuits filed by seven men allege a series of sexual abuses against adolescent boys by a Presbyterian pastor from the early 1980s through the late ’90s at ministries in the Austin and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods.

The suits were filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court by John Does 1-3 and John Does 1-4, respectively.

The suit filed by John Does 1-4 said they were molested by Pastor Douglas Mason at San Marcos Youth Ministry. The men were between 11 and 14 years old when they were abused at different points between 1991 and 1999, the suit claims.

Mason allegedly paid for the boys’ tuition to St. Gregory the Great High School and would check each of them out of class at least once a month to molest them. The suit also lists the Archdiocese of Chicago, which runs the high schools as a defendant, claiming administrators never reported those visits to the boys’ parents or guardians.

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OREGON
Bend Bulletin

By Claire Withycombe / The Bulletin / @kcwithycombe
Published Jan 23, 2015

Deschutes County Circuit Judge Beth Bagley on Thursday lowered the bail for a Gresham pastor facing sexual abuse charges.

Bagley set bail at $250,000, reduced from the $1 million set Jan. 7 by Circuit Judge Walter “Randy” Miller for James Worley, 42, a general pastor at Powell Valley Church.

Worley faces 37 charges, including 20 counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree rape, in connection with alleged abuses reported to have taken place between 2002 and 2004, when Worley was a resident in Deschutes County. Worley was arrested Dec. 17 by Gresham Police.

The two alleged victims , one of whom is a minor, spoke at the hearing Thursday, attesting they fear for their safety if Worley were to be released from custody.

“I feel that if he’s released, other people could be hurt,” said one victim in a brief statement to the court.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. — A former pastor with ties to Lincolnton and Shelby is charged with sexually abusing a child.

Channel 9’s partners at the Gaston Gazette reported Michael Hill is charged with sexual battery of a person younger than 12 years old.

The alleged abuse happened decades ago in Jacksonville, Florida.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

When Western Australia halved the compensation payout for children abused in state care Premier Colin Barnett received half a Christmas card from a survivor.

It was an ironic “thank you” on behalf of thousands of people still suffering the effects of what happened to them as children.

Next week the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is expected to reveal its thinking on how people should be compensated for physical, sexual and psychological damage inflicted in organisations where children should have been safe.

The commission is prioritising redress because many abuse survivors are old and ageing.
A public hearing in March will follow the commission’s consultation paper next week and final recommendations will go to the federal government in June-July.

A lot of people are anxiously awaiting the consultation paper – and they’re not all abuse survivors.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Pedophile priest John Sidney Denham will spend at least 19 years and five months in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But today Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys, describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, `How much worse does it get?'” she stated.

Judge Syme said he treated St Pius X as “his own pedophilic smorgasbord”, with dozens having complained of abuse over four-and-a-half years at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

JAMES FERNYHOUGH Money Editor

A prolific paedophile priest has been jailed for his “sadistic” and “depraved” abuse of boys.

A paedophile priest who abused a “staggering” number of boys has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in a Sydney court today.

John Sidney Denham, 73, who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord”, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But on Friday Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys, describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, `How much worse does it get?’” she stated.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

LEIGH VAN DEN BROEKE NEWS LIMITED JANUARY 23, 2015

A Catholic priest who treated schools as a “paedophilic smorgasbord” will spend at least another 13 years in jail after being sentenced for systematically abusing dozens of vulnerable boys.

John Sidney Denham, 73, had already been jailed for at least 14 years in 2010 for his “sadistic” sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But yesterday in the District Court in Sydney, Judge Helen Syme sentenced him to at least another 13 years for the abuse of another 18 boys — describing his crimes as some of the worst the courts have ever seen.

“As the crown rhetorically asks, ‘How much worse does it get?’,” she said.

Denham’s victims intermittently left in tears as the court heard how, through the protection of church colleagues, he was able to have 18 years of uninterrupted offending across schools in NSW.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 23, 2015

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A “sadistic” paedophile priest who repeatedly abused more than 50 young boys in the Newcastle region while being protected by two fellow priests has been sentenced to a further 13 years jail.

John Sidney Denham used his position as a parish priest and a teacher at St Pius X Catholic School at Adamstown to repeatedly assault, rape or molest at least 57 young boys without interruption for 18 years.

In the Downing Centre District Court on Friday the 73-year-old was sentenced for 48 of these offences, having already been sentenced to at least 13 years’ jail for the other nine offences.

With a partial accumulation of the sentences he now will spend 19 years and five months behind bars.

“Some of the offences represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see,” Judge Helen Syme said of the abuse as Denham sat in the dock with his head bowed.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

For years a Catholic priest viewed a NSW school where he taught as a “pedophilic smorgasbord” catering to his depraved desires.

Unfettered by the church, John Sidney Denham abused dozens of boys whenever and wherever he chose.

He found new victims during his frequent transfers to parishes across the state.

Denham, at 73, is already in the middle of a jail term, handed to him in 2010 for his sexual assault of boys as young as five.

But on Friday, Judge Helen Syme sentenced the priest to another 13 years jail for charges stemming from his abuse of 18 boys at St Pius X in the Hunter in the 1970s.

“Some of the offences represent the most abhorrent and sadistic combination of circumstances that courts are likely to see,” she said.

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CANADA
Digital Journal

By Marcus Hondro

A defrocked priest found guilty of 32 counts of sexually abusing Inuit children between the years 1978 and 1982 apologized in a courtroom at his sentencing hearing today. As he did so, dozens of victims and members of their families cried out.

Threatened children for sex

Eric Dejaeger, 67, and in poor health, committed offences against boys and girls, mostly between the ages of 8 and 12, but for some the abuse started when they were but four-years-old. He was appearing Thursday in an Iqaluit, Nunavut courtroom.

From Belgium, when he committed the offences Dejaeger was an Oblate missionary in Igloolik, Nunavut. His crimes were horrific and cruel, including threatening children with fire and brimstone if they did not perform sexual acts. There was testimony of the former priest offering food to hungry children for sex, even dangling food in front of them.

“I can only take responsibility for what I have done,” he told the judge. “I would like to ask for forgiveness. I promise not to re-offend. And that’s not just words.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Jan. 23, 2015

JOHN Denham is one of Australia’s worst paedophile priests whose crimes were the catalyst for a royal commission.

When we look back and ask how this national tragedy occurred, we need only look at him.

‘‘He is a man who enjoyed the power and status of his priesthood,’’ said Judge Helen Syme when she first sentenced him in 2010.

Defrocked, shackled at times, without his books and offended by the company he keeps, Denham minus the garb of the Catholic Church is now revealed for what he is, and what he was for decades while he was moved around the Hunter and Taree – a sadistic, violent predator of children.

He was first convicted in 2000 when a courageous victim went to police. That man phoned me in June 2006 to ask why no media had ever reported it. I spoke to Denham and included lines about his conviction in a longer article, and it sat on the page like a ticking bomb.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Jan 23, 2015

A Dublin parish priest, rebuked by two Catholic archbishops last June for casting doubt on media reports that Fr Michael Cleary fathered children, has described their reaction “as disappointing to say the least”.

Fr Arthur O’Neill, administrator in Cabinteely, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and the Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin reminded him of 1980s pop group the Housemartins.

“Their melodies and harmonies were always a mixture of populist politics and Christianity, which gave them lots of public appeal.” In his parish newsletter Fr O’Neill recalled his “real surprise” last year was “to read about myself on page one of The Irish Times ‘being rebuked’ by Archbishop Martin for daring to ask such a question.”

He said he had “simply asked what evidence was there at the time to allow so many journalists write with such certainty [about Fr Cleary].”

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CANADA
StarPhoenix

BY HANNAH SPRAY, THE STARPHOENIX JANUARY 22, 2015

A jail sentence is the only way to properly denounce an 82-year-old priest’s actions when he sexually touched a young girl 35 years ago, a Saskatoon judge ruled.

On Thursday, Omer Desjardins was sentenced to six months in jail, plus one year’s probation, for assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 1978. The victim, now 46 years old, reported the assault to police in 2013.

“Sexual abuse of children cannot be tolerated and the sentence of this court must adequately reflect society’s revulsion for such conduct,” Judge Byron Wright said while pronouncing Desjardin’s sentence in Saskatoon provincial court.

Desjardins previously pleaded guilty to indecent assault and sentencing arguments were heard in December, when his lawyer George Green argued for a conditional sentence order, or jail term served in the community.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Jemima Thackray 22 Jan 2015

Since entering the Vatican in 2013, Pope Francis has become something of a media darling, charming even the most secular journalists with his unfussy style and acts of humility (choosing, for example, to live in the Papal guest house rather than the palace).

His commitment to the poor and condemnation of exploitative economic systems, as well as his willingness to learn from other faith traditions, have made him so popular that he was even named Time magazine’s person of the year.

However, it seems that His Holiness has experienced a rather dramatic fall from media grace in recent weeks.

His comments following the Charlie Hebdo attack suggesting there should be limits to freedom of speech were disconcerting for some Francis fans. This week he has disappointed many women by staunchly defending the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which sets out the Catholic Church’s opposition to artificial birth control.

If some people had been fooled into thinking Pope Francis is the person sent to revolutionise the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage and the family, they have now been emphatically disillusioned.

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VATIKAN
Christ und Welt

Erzbischof Georg Gänswein über seine kurialen Krankheiten, sein Verhältnis zu Franziskus und Benedikt als Gegenpapst

Der Vatikan wirkt an diesem finsteren Nachmittag im Januar wie verwaist, Papst Franziskus ist auf Reisen. Kurienerzbischof Georg Gänswein (58), Präfekt des Päpstlichen Hauses, erscheint im schwarzen Talar. Gerade hat er noch in den Vatikanischen Gärten den Rosenkranz mit dem emeritierten Papst Benedikt XVI. gebetet. Mit ihm und vier Helferinnen lebt Gänswein im Kloster Mater Ecclesiae im Schatten des Petersdoms zusammen. Gänswein führt in die ausgestorbenen Gemächer der Präfektur. In Abwesenheit des Papstes hat der Präfekt seinen Mitarbeitern freigegeben. „Als Anerkennung“, sagt er. In seinem Arbeitszimmer mit Blick auf den Petersplatz sind ein übervoller Schreibtisch und nicht ausgepackte Umzugskisten zu erkennen. Das Interview findet im prächtigen Empfangssaal des Präfekten statt. Monsignore Gänswein wirkt gut gelaunt und zündet vor dem Gespräch noch einmal den Adventskranz an.

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ROME
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent January 22, 2015

ROME — A close aide to emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has denied the former pontiff is playing any behind-the-scenes role over the issue of Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, calling such reports a “pure invention.”

The aide also dismissed suggestions that Benedict is a sort of “anti-pope” for conservatives upset with Francis, calling it “stupid and irresponsible,” and labeling such rumors a form of “theological arson.”

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the papal household and personal secretary of emeritus pope Benedict XVI, made the comments in an interview with the German magazine Christ und Welt.

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MINNESOTA
Fairbault Daily News

By CAMEY THIBODEAU cthibodeau@faribault.com

A Catholic priest who served in Faribault in the 1980s has been accused of sexual abuse and the allegations are outlined in a file recently obtained from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Archdiocese by a St. Paul attorney who is representing survivors.

According to documents from the Archdiocese file, Father James Robert Murphy was charged with criminal sexual conduct in Minneapolis for touching a moral squad officer in an adult bookstore in 1980.

In a memorandum dated Dec. 8, 1980, from Father Robert J. Carlson to the Archdiocese file of Father James Murphy, Carlson says that Murphy saw Judge Patrick Fitzgerald, who asked Judge Robert Schumacher to take the case.

The memo further stated that the two judges would ask Murphy to see Archbishop John Roach or Carlson and begin a year of probation and counseling and that psychological testing and treatment would also be ordered. Additionally, he was to report to Roach or Carlson on a regular basis and make a report to the court after one year.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Commonweal

In November 2014, Blase Cupich succeeded Cardinal Francis George to become the ninth archbishop of Chicago—the nation’s third-largest diocese. It was Pope Francis’s first major episcopal appointment in the United States. Cupich had previously been the bishop of two much smaller dioceses: Spokane, Washington, and Rapid City, South Dakota. In 1975, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska, where he was pastor of two parishes before being made bishop of Rapid City in 1998. Archbishop Cupich has served on several committees, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee on Scripture Translation, as well as the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, which he chaired from 2008 to 2011. In December, Grant Gallicho spoke with the archbishop in Chicago. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. …

GG: The first Sunday Mass you celebrated following your installation was at St. Agatha, a parish that has been wounded by revelations about the now-laicized abuser Daniel McCormack. In the homily of your installation Mass, you spoke about the need to rebuild trust broken by bishops who have mishandled abuse cases. You said that holding bishops accountable is a “sacred duty.” Every time I return to Chicago, my hometown, I’m struck by how shaken local Catholics remain over the McCormack case. According to that Chicago magazine survey, the issue local Catholics are most concerned about is sexual abuse. But when it comes to accountability for bishops, a lot of people still wonder: Where is that happening, or how might that happen?

BC: I know that this is a very important topic that is going to be decided soon by the Holy See and the pope’s sexual-abuse commission, headed by Cardinal Seán O’Malley. In November, the cardinal gave an interview on 60 Minutes and indicated that this has to be part of the equation. It is part of our good stewardship in terms of governance. There has to be a way in which we are held accountable. We’re held accountable for financial mismanagement, for personal morals, but we also have to be held accountable when it comes to protecting the vulnerable under our care. So I’m fully supportive of what Cardinal O’Malley said on 60 Minutes.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did, however, in 2002, pass a resolution about our commitment to mutual accountability. There has to be some mechanism by which the Holy See triggers that too. It’s not just our part, but the universal church has to deal with this.

Let me say something too about folks who are really shaken, as you said. It is a healthy sign that they’re shaken. We should be shaken. We should not diminish or dismiss it as unimportant. That should say something to us. There’s a healthy sensitivity about what’s right and wrong. Maybe there was a past era in which people would say, “Well, you know, kids will bounce back” or “It really doesn’t harm them.” But there is maturity—a spiritual maturity—and a social awareness people come to that allows them to be shaken. And that’s good. We should tell people, “You should be shaken by this.” We all should be shaken by this—so that this never happens again.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

By Chris Caesar
Boston.com Staff

Investigators say they will not press charges against a Catholic school janitor once suspected of indecently exposing himself to a student in a campus bathroom.

Revere police said they investigated allegations that an employee of Revere’s Immaculate Conception School acted inappropriately in the bathroom over a period of a month and a half.

Ultimately, though, detectives said no crimes were committed.

“The investigation revealed that a 64-year-old male assigned to the school’s custodial staff used the boy’s restroom, which was across the hall from his office, on several occasions in December and early January,” a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office read. “One boy reported to a parent that he had observed the adult using the urinal during this time.”

The employee did not engage in physical contact, use sexual language, or engage in other behavior that would support criminal charges, the statement continues. He voluntarily met with investigators and was willingly interviewed by detectives.

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DEUTSCHLAND
katholisch

[Bishop Stephan Ackerman of Trier, sexual abuse officer for the German Bishops’ Conference, said the church in the last five years has taken on their responsibilities. He condemned the heinous acts and asked the concerned parties for forgiveness.]

Es gab Fortschritte, aber auch Rückschläge: Nach fünf Jahren Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz heute Bilanz gezogen. Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, sagte, die Kirche habe sich ihrer Verantwortung gestellt, die abscheulichen Taten verurteilt und die Betroffenen um Vergebung gebeten.

“Seitdem arbeiten wir an einer ehrlichen Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung, frei von falscher Rücksichtnahme, auch wenn uns Vorfälle gemeldet werden, die schon lange zurückliegen. Die Betroffenen haben ein Recht darauf”, so Ackermann.

Ackermann: Der Skandal hat die Kirche verändert

Rückblende: Im Januar 2010 kam ein Stein ins Rollen, der die katholische Kirche in Deutschland in eine ihrer größten Krisen stürzte. Nachdem Pater Klaus Mertes, der damalige Direktor des Berliner Canisuis-Kollegs, Missbrauchsfälle an Kindern und Jugendlichen an der katholischen Schule öffentlich machte, wurden immer mehr Fälle in ganz Deutschland bekannt. Die Täter der oft Jahrzehnte zurückreichenden Verbrechen waren Gemeindepfarrer, Lehrer, Ordensleute, die das Vertrauensverhältnis der Jugendlichen ausnutzten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NetzwerkB

Norbert Denef:

“Die jagen den Kindern Angst ein, so dass sie dann damit überhaupt nicht zurecht kommen – mit der Gewalt die da ausgeübt wird.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Er habe „genug von dieser Institution“ und wolle „von diesen Typen“ aus dem Regensburger Ordinariat niemals mehr etwas hören“. Mit diesen unmissverständlichen Worten meldet sich ein weiterer ehemaliger „Domspatz“ zu Wort. Unserer Redaktion schildert er sein Leid als blutig geprügeltes Kind, sein Los als Opfer von sexuellen Übergriffen und seine Enttäuschung nachdem er sich 2010 bei der damaligen „Missbrauchsbeauftragten“ Dr. Birgit Böhm gemeldet hatte. Die Glaubwürdigkeit des Regensburger Bistums in Sachen Aufarbeitung von sexuellem Missbrauch von Minderjährigen und Schutzbefohlenen scheint indes tiefer nicht mehr sinken zu können. Das es auch anders gehen könnte, zeigt ein Blick nach München und Ettal.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

München – “Alle mir zur Last gelegten Vorwürfe sind unzutreffend” – mit diesen Worten hat sich ein Pater des oberbayerischen Klosters Ettal vor Gericht verteidigt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft München geht hingegen davon aus, dass der 44-Jährige wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu bestrafen ist. Sie hat ihn angeklagt: Der Mönch habe sich an zwei Schülern vergangen und es bei zwei weiteren versucht.

Die Vorfälle, die ihn vor Gericht brachten, sollen sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 ereignet haben. Laut Staatsanwaltschaft fasste der Mann die Schüler im Intimbereich an. Der Angeklagte aber sprach jetzt davon, die Schüler an Bauch und Rücken gestreichelt zu haben – mehr nicht. “Ich habe es in vielen Fällen an der notwendigen Distanz zu Schülern fehlen lassen”, sagte er mehrmals in seiner rund zweieinhalbstündigen Erklärung am ersten Verhandlungstag. Dies sei unprofessionell gewesen. “Zu keinem Zeitpunkt aber habe ich mich Schülern in sexuell motivierter Absicht genähert.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A new chair of the Government’s crisis-hit child abuse inquiry should be in place by the end of the month, the Home Secretary has insisted.

Theresa May has revealed her third nomination to chair the panel will be announced soon, as well as a decision on whether to change the panel into a statutory inquiry or a royal commission.

Mrs May set up the inquiry in July to find out whether public bodies had covered up allegations of child sex abuse in the wake of claims paedophiles had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

The inquiry has faced a series of problems, including the resignation of two previous chairs over their alleged links to Establishment figures of the time.

Mrs May said: “I am clear that the new chairman must be someone who commands that confidence and who has the necessary skills and experience to carry out this vital work.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Labour has said there is “no choice” but to restart the inquiry into historical child sex abuse, with a new chair and statutory powers.

Shadow home secretary Ms Cooper said that after six months the inquiry still had no chair, powers or clarity.

Raising the matter in the Commons, she warned that survivors of abuse “are being let down”.

Home Secretary Theresa May told MPs she would announce the new chair and powers for the inquiry at the end of January.

Mrs May also said a file found in the National Archives containing allegations of “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster was being looked into.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Thursday 22 January 2015

Theresa May has announced that she will make a decision on a new chairman for the official inquiry into child sexual abuse by the end of next week, in an effort to rescue the troubled investigation.

The home secretary has told MPs that a shortlist of names has been drawn up from 150 people who were nominated and that she will consult with survivors before her preferred candidate is announced. She said that a lot of the due diligence on the existing shortlist had already been undertaken.

May made the announcement after facing accusations that she was losing control of her attempt to get the inquiry under way.

May also told MPs that a newly discovered Downing Street file dating from 1980, entitled unnatural sexual proclivities, may be a duplicate of a Home Office file that had already been seen by an internal inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, BBC News

Home Secretary Theresa May has faced calls for an inquiry into historical child abuse, which has been beset by problems, to be “re-started”. The inquiry, set up six months ago, remains without a leader, and there have been disagreements within the expert panel over its workings and its future.

Behind the scenes, there is now a bruising confrontation between the child abuse inquiry panel and one of its members, the children’s charity founder Sharon Evans, who was herself abused as a child.

She is furious that the government plans to disband the panel, and redesign the structure of the entire inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

John Crace
Thursday 22 January 2015

It’s been 200 days since Theresa May said she would set up an inquiry into child sexual abuse. In that time, two chairs have come and gone because proper checks had not been carried out on them nor survivors consulted, proceedings have been started without a chair and then cancelled, some panel members have been asked to reapply for their own jobs, there have been tensions between the panel, accusations of bullying, the discovery of a file that may or may not have been missing and no clarity over what powers the inquiry might have when it does eventually start work.

On the day it was announced that Leon Brittan, the former home secretary who had been linked to historical cover-ups, had died, Yvette Cooper decided it was time to table an urgent question to find out what progress was being made.

The home secretary was in an unusually conciliatory mood. Some might say defensive. “The right honourable lady is trying to make an argument between us about this inquiry where I think none exists,” she began. She wanted nothing less than the shadow home secretary wanted.

It had been regrettable there had been delays but she had previously said that a new chair would be appointed and the terms of the inquiry agreed by the end of January and she was on course to deliver that even though she couldn’t actually say how many people were on the shortlist for the job. It’s going to be a hectic next week for Theresa.

It all sounded more or less reasonable, though May did manage to make it sound as if much of the blame lay with Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf themselves for failing to realise they didn’t have the confidence of survivors, rather than with the selection panel for not bothering to check their connections, and it did seem to be taking her department rather a long time to establish whether the new file was the same as the old one. But by the time she had nibbled humble pie – as close to eating it as she’s ever likely to get – to long-time child abuse campaigners Keith Vaz, Simon Danczuk, Tom Watson and Sarah Champion, she was beginning to sound more like her old, confident self.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer
January 22, 2015

Labour are calling for the troubled government inquiry into child abuse to be scrapped after developing into a “farce” in the six months since it was set up.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised Theresa May’s review into allegations there was a cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1980s as lacking “power and clarity” and said the victims are frequently being “let down”.

The home secretary’s inquiry has got off to a staggered start following the resignation of two of its chairmen – which it has still not replaced – as well as allegations panel members are being “bullied” and the victims voicing their frustrations at the lack of progress.

In response, May said she will make a decision over who will replace Fiona Woolf and Baroness Butler-Sloss as the new chair of the inquiry. She added a recently discovered secret file detailing “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster may be a duplicate of one previously seen by a report led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless with Richard Whittam QC.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Cooper urged the inquiry to be relaunched with a new chair and statutory powers.

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MALTA
Gozo News

The Commission for the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults, which falls under the responsibility of the Maltese Episcopal Conference, will be made up of five members, the Curia announced today.

These are: Andrew Azzopardi, who will be the Head of the Safeguarding Commission, Dott. Roberta Attard, Dr Kevin Borg, Fr Antoine Farrugia S.D.B and Clarissa Sammut Scerri. Two other persons, Dr Joseph Sammut and Ms Mariella Fenech Pace, will have the role of legal consultant and administrator, respectively.

Andrew Azzopardi is a qualified social worker and specialises in safeguarding children. He worked in the public sector as a practitioner and manager, where he completed complex child protection investigations and worked with asylum-seeking children. He previously worked with the NSPCC where he completed risk assessments and offered therapy in child sexual abuse cases with both victims and sex offenders. More recently he headed the safeguarding investigations team at the Football Association in England. Andrew holds a post graduate degree in international politics and human rights from City University London. Andrew is the Head of the Safeguarding Commission.

Dott. Roberta Attard is a chartered clinical psychologist and social worker with training in Applied Systemic Theory. She has extensive experience in the field of child and adolescent clinical disorders, child psychotherapy, child forensic psychology, child protection and child abuse investigation. Roberta has practiced in a variety of settings specialising in the use of drawings, play, and psychotherapeutic techniques in individual and group psychotherapy with traumatised children and adolescents. She provides supervision and consultation to other professionals and institutions and delivers training workshops focusing on creative ways of working therapeutically with children suffering from psychological, behavioural and social difficulties. She is a full-time lecturer with the Department of Counselling and a consultant for various State boards and State run programs seeking to provide aid to vulnerable minors.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Martina Borg 22 January 2015

The Maltese Episcopal Conference has set up a Commission for the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults, that will begin functioning in February and will be composed of five members.

Once functioning, the commission will take over five cases from the current response team, two of which have recently received media attention.

The five members are: Andrew Azzopardi, who will be the Head of the Safeguarding Commission, Dott. Roberta Attard, Dr Kevin Borg, Fr Antoine Farrugia S.D.B and Clarissa Sammut Scerri.

Two other persons, Dr Joseph Sammut and Ms Mariella Fenech Pace, will have the role of legal consultant and administrator, respectively.

“The team promises an excellent service as it is comprised of people who have worked in the field for many years,” said Azzopardi

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

January 23, 2015

AAP

Thousands of people who suffered sex abuse as children in institutions across Australia are likely to know by the end of next week whether a national compensation scheme is on the cards.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is expected to publish a consultation paper on redress by next Friday.

The paper, anticipated not only by abuse survivors but by churches, governments and non-government bodies who had responsibility for the care of children, will give some indication of how the commission is leaning before it makes its final recommendations on compensation in June or July this year.

The questions addressed in the paper will be the merits or otherwise of a national scheme, who should fund it and run it, as well as levels of proof required, scales of payment and how claims should be assessed.

Last June the commission asked for submissions on redress and got 86 – the highest number received on any of its seven issue papers to date.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Matthew Vella 22 January 2015

The Curia’s new commission on the protection of children is investigating an alleged case of abuse that has not yet been referred to the police, Apostolic Administrator Charles J. Scicluna said on PBS’s Dissett.

Scicluna, temporarily at the helm of the Maltese archdiocese pending the Vatican’s decision on the next archbishop, said the church had forwarded two cases to the police.

Scicluna said the new commission, which replaces the Curia Response Team headed by retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, will be investigating all reports before forwarding them to the police.

He was challenged about the lack of transparency of hearing such cases behind closed doors, and demanding that criminal cases involving clerical sex abuse be heard behind closed doors in court. Even archbishop emeritus Paul Cremona – presenter Reno Bugeja revealed – was allowed to testify behind closed doors in the criminal case against the MSSP priests accused of sexually abusing orphans in their care at the St Joseph Home in Hamrun.

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CANADA
CBC News

An 82-year-old Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to a 1978 sexual assault north of Saskatoon is going to jail.

Father Omer Desjardins assaulted his young victim when he served in the town of Marcelin.

Judge Byron Wright sentenced Desjardins to six months in jail, to be followed by one year of probation. He also submitted his name to the national sex offender registry.

Wright rejected a defense request for a sentence to be served in the community.

“In cases involving the abuse of children,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Bitchspot

At least they caught the guy. Former Catholic priest Robert “Bob” Poandl, who worked, at one time, at the Holy Cross Church in Pembroke, Georgia, has been sentenced to seven and a half years for transporting a 10-year old boy across state lines to Spencer, West Virginia for the purposes of sexual molestation.

Poandl, who worked in the Savannah area from 2007-2009 and again from 2010-2012, was finally convicted of the sexual assault, which took place in 1991. He could have been sentenced to up to ten years in prison but he now has cancer and the judge decided to let him serve his sentence in a hospital where he is not expected to survive to see the end of his imprisonment. It’s really a shame that there’s no hell for people like this to go to.

Rev. Chet Artysiewicz, head of the Glenmay Home Missioners, based in Cincinnati, the order to which Poandl belonged, said “I respect and accept the decision of the 12 jurors. … Sexual abuse is a heinous crime. … While the jury has rendered its verdict, I realize this does not mark the end of the pain involved in this situation. Today, more than ever, I pray that God’s love and compassion will lead to healing for all involved, especially the victim and his family.” Well maybe you ought to stop thinking that God will fix things and just stop employing pedophiles in the first place!

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TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle

22 January 2015

Jeffrey Dale Williams, former pastor of The Church of Corinth, is expected to be in court next month.
Williams had a plea hearing initially set for Wednesday in Judge Brody Shanklin’s 211th District Court, but it was canceled, despite several people waiting to hear his plea in court.

The former pastor was charged with attempted sexual performance of a child, a third-degree felony, after he allegedly tried to coerce a teenage girl to remove her clothes.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services contacted Corinth police investigators about possible allegations of sexual abuse on April 3, 2013, police said at the time of his arrest.

Records obtained from Corinth police state that Williams allegedly locked a door and put a chair against it before asking the victim to take off her clothes so he could see “eye candy.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio and video]

Guests
Madeleine Baran: Reporter, MPR News
Charles Zech: Director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is the 12th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection. Archdiocese leaders announced their decision last week in the face of sex abuse claims.

How will the process play out here compared to in other archdiocese around the country? What does it mean for parishes and schools? MPR News Reporter Madeleine Baran, who led MPR’s coverage of the clergy sex abuse scandal, and Charles Zech, director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University, join The Daily Circuit to talk about what’s next.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, January 22, 2015

IQALUIT, Nunavut — A defrocked priest who abused a large number of Inuit children has told a judge that he’s sorry for his crimes and won’t commit any more.

At those words from Eric Dejaeger, an Iqaluit courtroom packed with his victims swelled with cries and weeping.

Dejaeger, convicted on 32 counts of child sexual abuse, took the witness stand before Justice Robert Kilpatrick considers the length of his prison sentence.

The Crown has asked for 25 years, which would be reduced to 17 years once credit for time already served is subtracted.

Dejaeger’s lawyer says 12 years — of which no more than four would be spent behind bars — would be more in keeping with previous judgments.

The defence says Dejaeger, who is 67, is being treated for cancer, has heart problems and fears dying in prison.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 22

Statement Kate Bochte of Chicago, SNAP leader ( 630 768 1860, keight@sbcglobal.net )

Chicago’s top Catholic and Presbyterian officials are acting like cold-hearted CEOs, not spiritual shepherds, when it comes to the crimes of a serial child molesting cleric.

Seven new accusers have filed civil suits that include as defendants the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese and the Chicago Presbytery. These two religious institutions must take action now to aggressively find and help every single person who may have been sexually assaulted by Rev. Douglas Mason. (Mason reportedly sexually violated kids at Presbyterian churches and at St. Gregory the Great High School.)

[Chicago Tribune]

Rev. Mason allegedly molested as recently as the 1990s. At least four of his accusers are in their 30s. A settlement was reached with four of his alleged victims in 2007. All of this strongly suggests that there may be dozens of other young men who were assaulted by Mason and who may be suffering in silence, shame and self-blame.

Catholic and Presbyterian officials have a simple choice: They can sit comfortably in their fancy offices, hiding behind expensive lawyers and using smart public relations professionals to duck, dodge and deny. Or they can get out into local churches, act like real shepherds, and seek out young men who may have suffered horrific childhood trauma and now may be trying to numb their continuing pain with addictions to drugs, liquor, sex or work, or experiencing depression, eating disorders or suicidal thoughts – young men who desperately need validation, support and professional therapy.

How Chicago Archbishop Blasé Cupich responds now in this case will show clearly whether he is a Cardinal Francis George clone or is more compassionate toward deeply wounded child sex abuse victims.

Two final points:

First, we firmly believe that Cupich, and likely his predecessor Cardinal Francis George, knew about reports that Rev. Mason abused kids at a local Catholic school months ago, perhaps even years ago.

So Cupich is violating his promises, archdiocesan policies and the US Catholic bishops’ policy, by keeping silent about these serious and credible allegations.

Time and time again, Catholic officials – including Cupich – have pledged to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex abuse cases. Local and national policies purportedly mandate such openness. But Cupich is, we believe, breaking those promises and policies – like many other Catholic officials do and have done. And we believe Cupich will never be disciplined for this. Why? Because those policies are pure public relations, meant to mollify the parishioners, not meant to be enforced. Those policies are window-dressing, nothing more. And this unwillingness by the Catholic officials – to discipline wrongdoers in the church hierarchy – is why cover ups of child sex crimes continue.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

BALTIMORE —Police said they’re hoping to extradite an Ohio rabbi back to Maryland after they said he fled when he was accused of abusing a girl in Baltimore County.

Baltimore County police said they’ve obtained an arrest warrant charging Frederick Karp, 50, of Beachwood, Ohio, with sexual abuse of a minor, perverted practice and second- and third-degree sex offense.

Investigators said they received information on New Year’s Eve that a Baltimore County girl had been abused by Karp over a period of time last year. Police said the abuse happened in Baltimore County, but they didn’t reveal any other details.

Police said Karp is a rabbi in Ohio and also goes by the name Ephraim Karp. Detectives said they went to Cleveland last week to interview him.

After the arrest warrant was issued, detectives went back Karp’s Ohio home, but he wasn’t there. Baltimore County police said he was later found at JFK International Airport in New York, where he was taken into custody and will remain until he can be extradited to Maryland.

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MARYLAND/OHIO
The Baltimore Sun

By Jessica Anderson
The Baltimore Sun

A rabbi from Ohio was arrested and faces charges of sexually abusing a girl in Baltimore County, police said.

Frederick Martin Karp, 50, of Beachwood, Ohio, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he is awaiting extradition proceedings, according to a police department news release.

Police said that on Dec. 31, it received information that a juvenile female living in Baltimore County had been sexually abused over a period of time by the suspect. When detectives went to Cleveland last week to interview Karp, he was not there, police said. He was later stopped by police at JFK Airport.

Karp is president of the Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, and served as spiritual living director at a senior living in Beachwood, according the Cleveland Jewish News.

Gail Herman, an administrative assistant with the Association of Jewish Chaplains, said Thursday that the organization is aware of the charges but declined to comment further, including on Karp’s status with the association.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Foxboro Reporter

By Frank Mortimer
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2015

St. Mary’s Church parishioners have turned to prayer, keyboards and a gathering this week in a respectful hope to keep Rev. Steve Madden in the town he calls home.

“Many of you are upset, confused and frustrated over this major decision. You are not alone,” Laura Canfield, director of the children’s choir, acknowledged in an email to dozens of friends shortly before noon Sunday.

Madden notified the congregation during Masses last weekend that the Archdiocese of Boston has handed him the challenge of leading four Boston parishes.

Some people gasped. A number of them wept.

Madden appeared to be holding back tears and his voice shook as he announced the plan for his departure.

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WISCONSIN
LaCrosse Tribune

By Chris Hubbuch

Diocese bars McGarty from ministry in misconduct case

The Diocese of La Crosse has barred Monsignor Bernard McGarty from public ministry while it investigates his being fined for disorderly conduc… Read more

Monsignor Bernard McGarty was convicted of non-criminal disorderly conduct this week in connection with a December incident involving a massage therapist.

McGarty, an 89-year-old retired priest, pleaded no contest Monday in Wausau Municipal Court and paid a $250 fine for the non-criminal disorderly conduct citation.

The Diocese of La Crosse barred Monsignor Bernard McGarty from public ministry while it investigated the incident. A diocese spokesman was not immediately available to comment Thursday.

McGarty was not arrested but was issued a $250 ticket after he lifted the covering off of his groin during a massage and asked the masseuse to rub his genitals.

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CANADA
CBC News

Eric Dejaeger addressed the court today as his four-day sentencing hearing wrapped up in Iqaluit.

“I am really sorry for what I have done,” the 67-year-old former priest told the judge as victims in the court’s gallery cried. “I am sorry to the families and to my own family,”

Dejaeger says he has done extensive counselling and said, “I promise not to re-offend again.”

Dejaeger was convicted last year on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a priest in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

Justice Kilpatrick extended the hearing yesterday to give Dejaeger’s defence lawyer, Malcolm Kempt, a chance to compile a line-by-line list of recommendations for sentences per charge, as the Crown had done. This morning, Kempt declined to do so, saying such an outline would hurt his client’s case.

Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss gave a rebuttal to Kempt’s final arguments. He said the defence’s guilty pleas were hard won and therefore “insincere.”

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OHIO
Cleveland Jewish News

ED WITTENBERG | STAFF REPORTER
ewittenberg@cjn.org

Rabbi Ephraim Karp, director of spiritual living at Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, was arrested Jan. 15 in New York on an active felony warrant from Maryland.

According to the Queens, N.Y., district attorney’s office, Karp has been charged by the state of Maryland with perverted practice, sex offense, sex abuse of a minor and sex abuse. He is listed in court records as Frederick M. Karp and a release from the Baltimore County Police Department linked the charges to the alleged abuse of a juvenile female over a period of time.

Karp, 50, was arrested at 9:25 p.m. Jan. 15 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as “a fugitive from justice” on the warrant issued by the District Court of Maryland, Baltimore County, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

He was arraigned Jan. 16 in Queens Criminal Court and has a hearing set for Jan. 22 in the same court. As of Jan. 21, he was in custody at the Anna M. Kross Correctional Facility in East Elmhurst, N.Y., according to the New York Department of Correction website.

Karp will likely be extradited to Maryland after his Jan. 22 court appearance because he faces charges there, said Ikimulisa Livingston, spokesperson for the Queens district attorney’s office. She said the crimes he is charged with probably occurred in Maryland.

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MARYLAND/OHIO
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Fredrick “Ephraim” Karp and his wife boarded out of town teenagers who came to the Cleveland, Ohio area to attend local yeshivas. Karp was arrested in New York City last week on child sex abuse charges as he was about to board a plane to Israel to attend a conference of Jewish chaplains – or flee the country. Karp is the president of the US national society of Jewish chaplains and is the rabbi at an Orthodox-run nursing home in the Cleveland area.

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MARYLAND/OHIO
CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) — A 50-year-old rabbi from Ohio was arrested for the sexual abuse of a Baltimore County girl.

According to Baltimore County police, Frederick Martin Karp of the 24200 block of Woodway Road in Beachwood, Ohio was arrested last week at JFK Airport in New York. Police obtained the warrant after detectives learned that a Baltimore County girl had been sexually abused over a period of time by the suspect.

Baltimore county detectives traveled to Cleveland last week to interview Karp after which they obtained the warrants.

Karp was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, perverted practice, second-degree and third-degree sex offenses.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times

An advocacy group held a demonstration Wednesday in Fairhaven to alert the public to two lawsuits filed last month accusing Roman Catholic Church officials of failing to supervise the late Rev. James R. Nickel, who allegedly sexually abused two boys while he was assigned to Holy Trinity Church in West Harwich and another church in Fairhaven.

Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit organization that assists victims of sexual abuse, staged the demonstration outside the headquarters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious order, to encourage other victims to come forward, Robert Hoatson, the charity’s president, said.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who spearheaded the sexual abuse lawsuits against former priest John J. Geoghan and the Boston Archdiocese. Both lawsuits accusing Nickel of abuse were filed in December in Bristol Superior Court.
“He is a known pedophile,” Garabedian said of Nickel.

According to one lawsuit, Nickel was assigned by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts to Holy Trinity Parish from around 1972 to 1978, during which time he counseled children and participated in youth activities.

The suit names the Rev. Gabriel Healy, former pastor of Holy Trinity Church; the Rev. Fintan D. Sheeran, formerly of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts; former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin; and two unspecified church officials as defendants.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Muenchen TV

[A priest of the Upper Bavarian Ettal Monastery is before the Higher Regional Court of Munich. The 44-year-old monk is said to have repeatedly abused two students at the boarding school.]

Fünf Jahre nach Bekanntwerden von Gewaltexzessen im oberbayerischen Kloster Ettal muss sich der Pater wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs der Schüler vor Gericht verantworten. Außerdem wirft die Staatsanwaltschaft dem 44-Jährigen versuchten sexuellen Missbrauch von zwei weiteren Buben vor. Vor einer Jugendschutzkammer des Münchner Landgerichts sind sieben Verhandlungstage angesetzt, an denen zahlreiche Zeugen und Sachverständige gehört werden. Das Urteil wird Ende März erwartet.

Der Ordensgeistliche soll sich zwischen 2001 und 2005 wiederholt an zwei Schülern vergangen haben. Es ging dabei immer um Berührungen im Intimbereich. In zwei weiteren Fällen soll er es versucht haben. Als die Kinder sich dagegen wehrten, ließ der Angeklagte aber von ihnen ab. Der Mönch war als Erzieher im Klosterinternat und als Religionslehrer an dem kirchlichen Gymnasium beschäftigt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Neumarkt Online

[The former Reichert Hofener pastor has been returned to his parish in Heideck after being in custody for five months after being suspected of abuse.]

NEUMARKT. Der lange unter Mißbrauchs-Verdacht gestandene ehemalige Reichertshofener Pfarrer wechselt jetzt offenbar in die Klinikseelsorge.

Der 50jährige Mann war erst vor wenigen Wochen in seine Pfarrei in Heideck zurückgekehrt, nachdem er monatelang in Untersuchungshaft saß. Ihm war vorgeworfen worden, an seinem frühen Wirkungsort in der Pfarrei Reichertshofen in der Gemeinde Sengenthal in den Jahren 1998 bis 2001 einen Buben sexuell mißbraucht zu haben, der damals unter 14 Jahre alt war.

Das Ermittlungsverfahren durch die Staatsanwaltschaft wurde allerdings zum 17. November eingestellt. Die Diözese sieht den Geistlichen rehabilitiert: die Untersuchungen hätten ergeben, dass der Vorwurf des sexuellen Missbrauchs nicht begründet ist, hieß es aus Eichstätt (wir berichteten).

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

[Bishop Dr. Stephan Ackermann takes stock of what has been done since clergy sexual abuse scandal became known five years ago.]

„SEXUELLER MISSBRAUCH AN MINDERJÄHRIGEN: KIRCHE IN INTENSIVEM LERN- UND ENTWICKLUNGSPROZESS“

Anlässlich der Aufdeckung von Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs an Minderjährigen in der katholischen Kirche vor fünf Jahren erklärt der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann:

„Nach dem Schock der Erkenntnisse von 2010 und der Folgejahre, als das Bekanntwerden zahlreicher Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester, Ordensangehörige und Mitarbeiter der Kirche die Öffentlichkeit und uns erschütterten, hat die katholische Kirche einen intensiven Lern- und Entwicklungsprozess durchlaufen, der bis heute nicht abgeschlossen ist. Bei diesem Prozess hat es viele positive Fortschritte gegeben, aber auch Rückschläge. Seit fünf Jahren legen wir das Hauptaugenmerk darauf, einschlägigen Hinweisen sorgfältig nachzugehen, Vorwürfe gewissenhaft zu prüfen und dazu die vorhandenen Regelwerke zu überarbeiten oder neue zu schaffen. Es ist unser Ziel, flächendeckend zu einer Kultur der Achtsamkeit durch Präventionsarbeit auf allen Ebenen zu gelangen.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

01/21/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

A few days ago I wrote about the assertion of Richard D. Anderson, attorney for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in its bankruptcy proceedings, that the Archdiocesan Finance Council ‘did not consider matters relating…to a potential Chapter 11 reorganization’ prior to October of 2013. As I said at that time, I have no reason to doubt that Mr. Anderson is being honest in his statement. However, it continues to puzzle me how the Archdiocesan Finance Council could have been left out of the discussions about potential bankruptcy and the need to protect church assets given that these discussions began long before October of 2013.

These conversations took place in different contexts and with different purposes. Within a short time of my arrival at the Chancery in 2008, for instance, I participated in a series of meetings between Archdiocesan officials and the staff of the Catholic Finance Corporation in which we identified certain problematic decisions and practices that left assets at risk in the event of bankruptcy or even punitive damages awards. Initially these conversations were occurring at times when neither bankruptcy nor litigation was threatened and our concerns were not to shield Archdiocesan resources from legitimate claims and settlements, but instead to fulfill our obligations as stewards of the resources that had been generously given by the faithful of the Archdiocese.

As was generally the case, while everyone could agree to the logic of taking certain actions, the will to do so was not there, and as such these concerns, and mine in particular, were pushed aside. This situation continued until 2012, when two things occurred that brought these issues to the fore. The first was the discovery of the abuse committed by Father Curtis Wehmeyer, which was immediately identified as having potentially disastrous consequences should it reach litigation. The second was the publication of an article in The Economist about the finances of the American Catholic Church entitled ‘Earthly Concerns‘.

The conclusions presented in that article are grim indeed. In fact, the title of this post (‘The picture that emerges is not flattering.’) comes from the very text of the article. Drawing its deductions from pre-2012 church bankruptcy proceedings and confidential interviews with church officials, the article concludes that ‘the financial mismanagement and questionable business practices [found within the Catholic Church in the United States] would have seen widespread resignations at the top of any other public institution’.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

Police will not file charges after allegations of improper exposure at a Revere Catholic school, and while parents are relieved some are not happy that three people lost their jobs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Tim Stanley posted Thursday, 22 Jan 2015

Cardinal Burke was ridiculed for saying men are repelled by a ‘feminised’ Church. But he grasps that fathers have a huge influence over whether children grow up to be Mass-goers

Relations between clergy and media now conform to a silly pattern: clergyman says something perfectly reasonable; media reports that he wants to bring back the Inquisition. So Cardinal Burke was taking a big risk when he gave an interview to the New Emangelisation Project (sic) on the subject of gender and the Catholic Church. With striking candour, he bemoaned the influence of feminism on Catholicism – and with grating predictability, the media called him a Neanderthal.

Newspapers like the Independent jumped on his suggestion that feminism took some responsibility for the child abuse scandals because it encouraged a crisis in sexual identity. The Washington Post’s Kaya Oakes wrote that the cardinal had an old-fashioned view of gender and was oddly blind to the continued institutional domination of men. And David Gibson, of the Religion News Service, pushed things further with an observation that was cattier than Joan Collins playing Puss-in-Boots: “Burke, a liturgical traditionalist as well as a doctrinal conservative who is renowned for wearing elaborate silk and lace vestments while celebrating Mass, also said that ‘men need to dress and act like men in a way that is respectful to themselves, to women and to children’.” Miaow!

But what did the cardinal really say, and how accurate was it? He argued three things. First, that there’s a crisis of Catholic spirituality among men that results in low Mass attendance. Second, that this is partly down to a feminisation of the liturgy. Third, that feminism has also undermined traditional male roles in the family and caused a wider societal crisis. Let’s test each hypothesis in turn.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The Government is under mounting pressure to include Magdalene laundries, private adoption agencies and a myriad of related institutions in the upcoming mother and baby home inquiry.

The Dáil debate on the terms of reference saw a succession of opposition politicians add their voices to those of adoption campaigners who have expressed concern that the investigation will be limited to only the practices and procedures of institutions, adoption agencies, and individuals with a direct connection to a mother and baby home.

The Adoption Rights Alliance has pointed out that potentially tens of thousands of women gave birth in state and private maternity homes and suffered the same fate of forced and illegal adoptions but, if they did not have a link to a mother and baby home, would be excluded.

Sinn Féin spokesman on children Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said successive governments had failed to address the issue and called for the list of 14 institutions named in the terms of reference to be expanded to include the Magdalene Laundries, the Westbank orphanage, and all the activities of private adoption agencies.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Meredith Rodriguez
Chicago Tribune

Seven men filed suit Wednesday against the Chicago Presbytery and related organizations, claiming they were sexually abused by a now-deceased minister whose trail of allegations led to a multimillion-dollar settlement.

The plaintiffs, three of whom filed one lawsuit and four who filed the other, allege that they were abused by Presbyterian minister Douglas Mason, whose alleged sex abuse led the Presbytery to settle with four accusers in 2007. The settlement was confidential, but church officials told the Tribune last year that the amount was $11 million. Mason died in 2004.

In one of Wednesday’s suits, three men now in their 40s allege that Mason abused them from 1982 to 1986 while he was pastor at Austin United Presbyterian Church, where the three attended.

The Presbytery at the time encouraged pastors to counsel young men in private and ignored warnings that Mason was a pedophile, the suit claims.

The three plaintiffs say in the suit that they didn’t remember their alleged abuse until they read about details of the Presbytery’s 2007 settlement early last year, when church officials voted to sell a campground in Michigan. That vote came as the Presbytery was navigating nearly $8 million in debt. The head of the local Presbytery at the time wouldn’t say whether the two were related.

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VATICAN CITY
UCA News

Andrea Gagliarducci for CNA/EWTN News
Vatican City
January 22, 2015

Tommaso Di Ruzza was appointed Wednesday as the new director of the Vatican’s Authority for Financial Information, filling the post left vacant November 19, when the previous director, René Bruelhart, was made president of the Authority’s board of directors.

Di Ruzza’s appointment indicates continuity in the advancement of financial reforms that have been carried on by the Vatican since 2009 under Benedict XVI.

A respected international juridical expert who studied at the universities of Siena, Rome, and Oxford, Di Ruzza has served as a juridical advisor to the Holy See since 2005.

After having served at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Di Ruzza was entrusted with following the operational, juridical, and international issues of the Authority for Financial Information since its establishment in 2011.

In this capacity, Di Ruzza had a prominent role in the negotiations with the Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee regarding its 2012 evaluation of the Holy See’s financial system.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 22 January 2015)

A Catholic priest, Father Theodore Arrivoli (now aged 92), who has ministered in many parishes around the Sydney region during the past 60 years, was charged in court on 15 January 2015 regarding alleged sexual assaults of two children near Sydney in the 1970s. The alleged offences include buggery.

This court hearing was a “first mention” procedure, with a magistrate in the Penrith Local Court, north-west of Sydney. This was a brief administrative process for the charges to be officially filed in court. Father Arrivoli has not yet been required to indicate how he will plead in answer to the charges.

The Arrivoli case will come up again in the Penrith court in March 2015 for a further mention to consider the subsequent steps in the judicial process. The main proceedings would be held on a later date.

In March 2014, police investigators from Hawkesbury Local Area Command, acting on information received about alleged sexual assault matters involving children, commenced investigations.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Russell Lissau

Bond was set at $1 million Wednesday for a former church volunteer from Round Lake accused of sexually assaulting a child about five years ago, police said.

Roberto D. Almeida, 41, of the 1200 block of West Oriole Court, was arrested at his home Tuesday on a warrant after an investigation that began in December, police said.

Almeida is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child. He could face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.

Police launched the investigation after receiving a tip from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. That agency had learned of a boy who reported being abused by a volunteer at a local church about five years ago, Detective Sgt. David Prus said.

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ILLINOIS
Suburban Life

ROUND LAKE – Police were notified by the U.S. Department of Children and Family Services on Dec. 3 that a young man had been exploited several years ago, in connection with a local church volunteer mentor, according to a news release from the Round Lake Police Department.

Following an investigation, detectives discovered that the young man had been sexually abused as a child and there could be additional victims. Roberto Almeida, 41, of 1296 W Oriole Ct., Round Lake, has been identified as the suspect. He faces four felony charges including predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child. His bond is set at $1 million, the release stated.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 22, 2015

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

Child sexual abuse at the exclusive Sydney private school, Knox Grammar, will be publicly investigated by the Royal Commission next month.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse announced on Thursday that it would conduct a wide ranging public hearing into how the school, located in Wahroonga on Sydney’s upper north shore, had responded to inappropriate conduct by teachers towards students between 1970 to 2012.

This would include:

* The experience of sexual abuse of former students at Knox Grammar;
* The response of the school and the Uniting Church to concerns about inappropriate conduct, including investigations and subsequent and criminal proceedings;
* The systems, policies and procedures in place at Knox by which sexual abuse concerns were raised and responded to since 1970; and
* The regulatory system governing Knox’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse by its employees.

Knox Grammar has been the scene of multiple instances of child sexual abuse, particularly in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Helen Davidson
@heldavidson
Thursday 22 January 2015

The child sex abuse royal commission will publicly examine more than four decades of allegations and acts of child sexual abuse by teachers at prestigious Sydney private school Knox Grammar.

Commencing on 23 February, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse will hold a public hearing into what actions were taken by the school and the Uniting Church when it was made aware of allegations of “inappropriate conduct” by employees between the years 1970 and 2012.

The hearing will examine:
• The sexual abuse of former students;
• The response of the school and the Uniting Church in Australia to concerns raised about the abuse, including investigations and subsequent and criminal proceedings;
• The systems, policies and procedures in place at the school regarding raising and responding to concerns;
• The regulatory system governing Knox’s response, as a non-government school in New South

“Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 9 February 2015,” said the commission.

In 2010 a former boarding master was jailed for sexually abusing four students aged 12 and 14 in the 1980s, and for possessing child pornography. The district court heard that Craig Treloar remained at the school for 20 years after he was allegedly reported for showing students porn videos, the ABC reported.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Vatican Radio

‘The consequences and implications of the sex abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church’: that’s the title of an international conference taking place in the northern English city of Durham this week. The three day meeting, which opened on Wednesday, has been organised by Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies and its Project for Spirituality, Theology and Health, with the support of the Jesuits, Benedictines, Marists and St Patrick’s national seminary in Maynooth, Ireland. Philippa Hitchen is the only journalist attending the closed door meeting which brings together a wide range of professionals and interested individuals. Please find the text and audio of her first impressions of the conference, below…

The sexual abuse of children, as everyone knows, is not just a problem for priests and religious. In fact, far more kids are abused by family members than by any other authority figure. But what is it specifically about Catholic culture that enabled and protected abusers, allowing them to act with impunity, often for many years, leaving a trail of victims in their wake?

That’s the question at the heart of this conference, taking place in a former seminary, Ushaw College, where generations of boys and young men in the north of England were trained for the priesthhood.

It’s a timely encounter in light of the first full session of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors that’ll be taking place in Rome at the beginning of next month. Three of the original Commission members are here in Durham, including Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins, together with a newly appointed member, Peter Saunders, who was also abused as a child and has gone on to found an association for others struggling to deal with the lifelong damage such experiences inflict.

Alongside them are theologians and vocations directors, paedicatricans and psychologists, lawyers and teachers, all with expertise in the wider cultural issues surrounding the sex abuse crisis.

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NEW YORK
WGRZ

[with video]

Dave McKinley, WGRZ

ALBION, NY – Disturbing and emotional testimony marked the Orleans County Court trial of a minister accused of sexually abusing young children.

Orleans County District Attorney Joseph Cardone began his opening statement by telling jurors they would hear a case about “despair dysfunction and destruction”.

He was speaking about the accounts of the three alleged victims for which the Rev. Roy Harriger, 71, now stands trial.

All three of Harriger’s accusers are his grandchildren.

Two of them, now young adults, struggled to maintain their composure while on the stand at the mere mention of his name.

They tearfully testified that the abuse occurred when they were between the ages of 5 and 8, when their grandfather babysat them in the parsonage of a Lyndonville church where he once served as pastor.

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OREGON
Statesman Journal

Alexa Armstrong, Statesman Journal January 21, 2015

BROOKS – Residents of this tiny town just north of Salem expressed shock and dismay today after the Marion County Sheriff’s Office announced that a Brooks Assembly of God youth pastor had been arrested on sex abuse charges.

Youth pastor Peter Bass, 36, of Brooks, was being held in the Marion County jail on 15 counts each of first-degree sodomy and second-degree sex abuse.

“He would come in three or more times a week,” said Sue Collins, a cashier at True Value Hardware in Brooks. She described Bass as a regular customer.

“The church has an account here, and he would come in for home projects,” Collins said, adding that his arrest came as a shock.

“I never would have expected to hear something like this about him.”

Deputies arrested Bass about 10 a.m., said Sgt. Chris Baldridge, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. Baldridge released few other details about the arrest, such as where it took place or when the alleged sex abuse occurred.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By Gary Popp
News and Tribune

LOUISVILLE, KY (News and Tribune) – The former pastor of a New Albany church was sentenced Wednesday in a Louisville court to 15 years in prison for the sodomy of a child.

Isrom Johnson, 35, Louisville, was a pastor at Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church along Linden Avenue at the time of his arrest in December 2012.

According to court records, Johnson committed three offenses of, “sodomy in the second degree by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years of age.”

He was taken into custody by the Louisville Metro Police Department after he was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

John Enger Bemidji, Minn. Jan 21, 2015

A northern Minnesota pastor faces 16 counts of felony criminal sexual conduct.

Scott Morey was charged Friday in Clearwater County court, accused of engaging in sexual conduct with three young boys.

County Attorney Richard Mollin said the abuse cited in the criminal complaint began in 2009, when the youngest victim was 9 years old. Morey used money, phones and other devices to bribe his victims, according to the complaint.

The five years of alleged abuse came to light in late 2014 when an older brother of one of the victims noticed suggestive text messages from Morey on his brother’s phone and alerted law enforcement.

Morey is the pastor of three Lutheran congregations in Polk and Mahnomen counties. Morey, 42, lives with his wife and children in Shevlin, a town 20 miles west of Bemidji.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Commission to ensure individuals working within church institutions do not pose risk to children

Therese Bonnici

A commission for the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, set up by the church, will seek to ensure that adults working within church instructions do not a pose a risk to the children they work with.

The commission is also responsible for investigating cases of social abuse and assisting the police in their investigations. Any member of the clergy or other individuals working within church institutions may be suspended temporarily or permanently if they pose a risk to the people they work with. Even in cases where there is not enough evidence, the individual in question may be suspended, if there is a doubt that he or she poses a threat. It is ultimately the superiors who decide whether one is suspended or not, however the advice of the commission will be taken into consideration.

The commission, set to start functioning next month, will be taking over the Church’s Response Team and will inherit five cases – three involving a minor and two involving an adult. Two of the cases have already been made public. The board holds the legal obligation to report any allegation of sexual abuse to the civil authorities. Some cases need also be forwarded to the Vatican – but this depends on the role held by the individual alleged to have committed the crime.

Education workshops and discussions will be held with members of the church working with children or vulnerable adults. Those still to be recruited within church institutions – including church schools – will undergo a strong scrutinising process. Church institutions are also obliged to review the sexual offender’s list every so often.

The police document, launched this morning states that in cases when a pastoral functionary engages in sexual contact in a pastoral relationship, such behavior is considered to be always abusive, whether with or without consent. Pastoral functionaries are expected to behave in an exemplary way, even in their social life outside such pastoral activities. When social relationships become sexualized, even with consent, they are considered inappropriate, unacceptable and scandalous.

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CANADA
Global News

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A defrocked priest who abused a long series of Inuit children is expected today to address the court that is about to sentence him.

Eric Dejaeger, convicted on 32 counts of child sexual abuse, is scheduled to take his second turn on the witness stand in Iqaluit as Justice Robert Kilpatrick considers the length of his prison sentence.

The Crown has asked for 25 years, which would be reduced to 17 once credit for time already served is subtracted.

But Dejaeger’s lawyer said 12 years, of which no more than four would be spent behind bars, would be more along the lines or previous judgments.

Defence counsel Malcolm Kempt says his 67-year-old client is being treated for cancer, suffers from heart problems and fears dying in prison.

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NEW YORK
Newsday

By BART JONES

A Long Island woman Wednesday charged that a Roman Catholic priest sexually abused her when she was eight years old, though the Diocese of Rockville Centre called it “an unfortunate publicity stunt.”

Attorneys for the 20-year-old woman, whom Newsday is not naming due to the nature of the charges, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Nassau County alleging that she was abused…

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MASSACHUSETTS
South Coast Today

By Steve Urbon
surbon@s-t.com
Posted Jan. 21, 2015 @ 2:29 pm

FAIRHAVEN — A town resident is one of two men who have filed sexual abuse lawsuits in Bristol Superior Court against priests within the Diocese of Fall River, alleging they failed for years to properly supervise and protect children from a predatory priest, identified as the late James R. Nickel.

The Fairhaven plaintiff, in his 40s, is maintaining anonymity. He charges that he was abused during the 1980s at St. Mary’s parish in Fairhaven, where Nickel was assigned for several years by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, based on Adams Street.

The second plaintiff, Brian Blackmore, now in his mid-50s, living in Orlando, Florida and unrelated to the first, once lived on Cape Cod, where he alleges the abuse took place at the Holy Trinity Church in West Harwich.

Two of the order’s priests still living in Fairhaven were accused of inadequate supervision: Gabriel Healey and William Heffron.

Also accused are two as yet unnamed priests, along with former Fall River Bishop Daniel Cronin, who now lives in Connecticut.

The suits, filed on New Year’s Eve by prominent abuse victims attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, seek undisclosed damages.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A 20-year-old Long Island woman is filing a civil lawsuit, alleging she suffered sexual abuse as a young parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Greenlawn at the hands of the Rev. Gregory Yachyshyn.

Father Yachyshyn is now a pastor at St. Jude’s in Mastic Beach, 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reported.

“As a child, I was sexually abused by Father Greg. With counseling and support of my family, I now know I did nothing wrong,” the woman’s attorney Michael Rex said, reading from his client’s statement.

Rex said the alleged abuse took place around the woman’s first communion when she was 8 years old.

As WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall reported, the woman filed the lawsuit because she said she wants the priest no longer to lead a parish and for no other child to become a victim.

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NEW YORK
News 12

She claims that when she was 8-year-old, in the weeks prior to receiving her first Holy Communion, she was sexually abused by Father Greg Yacyshyn inside St. Francis of Assisi Church.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

Washington D.C., Jan 21, 2015 / 05:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a petition from a Louisiana Catholic diocese that fears a civil lawsuit could force a priest to violate the seal of confession or go to jail.

The Diocese of Baton Rouge and diocesan priest Father Jeff Bayhi were disappointed by the decision, which the diocese said has “significant ramifications for religious freedom in Louisiana and beyond.”

“The diocese and Fr. Bayhi will continue their efforts to protect the guarantees of religious freedom set forth in our state and federal constitutions, and are confident that those efforts will, in due course, be successful,” the diocese said in a Jan. 20 statement.

The diocese and the priest are considering “a number of options” for other constitutional challenges in the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand the Louisiana Supreme Court’s May 2014 ruling that a court hearing is necessary to determine whether state law protects a priest’s conversation during confession with a minor about an alleged sexual abuser in the parish.

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ALASKA
Pokrov

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Troopers probe allegations of multiple physical abuse at St. Innocent’s Academy

Author: Roni Toldanes
Date Published: 01/21/2015
Publication: Kodiak Daily Mirror

State troopers are investigating allegations of “deeply disturbing” physical abuses at the St. Innocent’s Academy on Mission Road, officials say.

Except for its rusty school bus, the St. Innocent’s Academy does not have big signs. The academy is housed in a nondescript building, right, on Mission Road. At least 12 former students claim to have witnessed or personally experienced physical abuse at the academy through the years.

Except for its rusty school bus, the St. Innocent’s Academy does not have big signs. The academy is housed in a nondescript building, right, on Mission Road. At least 12 former students claim to have witnessed or personally experienced physical abuse at the academy through the years.

The Alaska State Troopers has launched an investigation into allegations of physical abuse that a dozen former students allege to have taken place through the years at the St. Innocent’s Academy in Kodiak, officials said Tuesday.

Sgt. Eric Olsen, Alaska State Troopers’ Kodiak post supervisor, said the state’s police agency “has been made aware of the allegations” and troopers are currently investigating.

“We are actively investigating the case and asking that any person with knowledge of the case to contact the state troopers,” Olsen said.

Two teachers, in interviews with the Kodiak Daily Mirror, said they’ve filed separate formal complaints with the state troopers, alleging physical abuses at the academy.

On Thursday, Jan. 15, the academy issued a statement through its secretary, Anna Spencer:

“We take these allegations very seriously,” the statement said. “Because of the potential far-reaching consequences, which may affect not only the future of the Academy, but potential students as well, and our relationship to the community with which we have so long enjoyed a warm and welcoming relationship, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.”

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OHIO
WLWT

[with video]

CINCINNATI (WLWT & AP) —A Hamilton County priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex in 1991 is challenging his conviction and sentence in a federal court.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati heard arguments Wednesday on Robert Poandl’s appeal.

He was convicted in 2013 of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.

Prosecutors said the suburban Cincinnati priest took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., on Aug. 3, 1991, and raped him there.

“He is a convicted criminal of child sex. He needs to stay in jail for the entire sentence. He’s not safe to be around children and the victims deserve justice,” Judy Jones, Assistant Midwest Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Poandl argues there is no evidence he took the boy anywhere that day and that jurors were allowed to convict him on speculation that he transported him another day.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Doggedly determined reporters following Toto’s example at last peeled back on Monday (1/19/15) the Papal Wizard’s curtain. They got the pope unexpectedly to digress about contraception “pills” and even Catholic “rabbits”, as discussed below. Please see also the superb analysis, “The Catholic church’s complicity in {former Manila street child} Glyzelle Palomar’s suffering“,
by Yale educated and prophetic theologian, Jamie Manson, here:

* [National Catholic Reporter]

* and the insightful discussion, “Pope Francis, Breeding Bunnies and Ideological Colonization“, by a leading expert on Catholics and contraception, Patricia Miller, here:

* [Religion Dispatches]

* Pope Francis evidently is gearing up for this summer’s papal push into US presidential politics and likely against family planning advocate, Hillary Clinton. He was untypically revealing about his current plans in responses to questions in his press conference on the flight back from the Philippines. He earlier had been more circumspect publicly after frightened cardinals, who worried about criminal prosecutions and financial bankruptcy, made him pope two years ago , as I recently discussed here Pope, M.L. King & a Dream About Street Children

* President Obama’s likely successor after next year’s US election, Hillary Clinton, has a long history of standing up to the Vatican, especially on the “pill” and contraception, as I recently discussed here Hillary Clinton vs. Pope Francis in 2015 ? Francis made it inevitable, with his “Catholics are not Rabbits” spin, that family planning will be a top issue in the upcoming US presidential elections. Francis and his subordinate US bishops are already following the latest mistaken right wing Republican line that “contraception” equals “abortion”.

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OREGON
KOIN

BROOKS, Ore. (KOIN 6) — A youth pastor in Brooks, an unincorporated community north of Salem, has been arrested over claims of sexual abuse, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a release Wednesday.

Peter Bass, a 36-year-old man who’s served as the youth pastor for Brooks Assembly of God, was taken into police custody Wednesday morning. He’s awaiting arraignment on 30 sodomy and sex abuse charges.

Bass was fired from his position with the church following his arrest, the sheriff’s office said. No alleged victim of Bass’ have ties to the church, MCSO said.

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OREGON
KGW

Max Barr, KGW.com Staff January 21, 2015

BROOKS, Ore. – Detectives on Wednesday arrested a Marion County youth pastor on sex abuse charges.

Peter Bass, 36, faces 15 counts of second degree sex abuse and 15 counts of first degree sodomy. Bass lives in the unincorporated community of Brooks.

Bass was a youth pastor at the Brooks Assembly of God. He is no longer with the church.

“Currently the Sheriff’s Office has not identified any victims associated to Mr. Bass’s position at the church,” said Sgt. Chris Baldridge with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

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OREGON
KATU

BROOKS, Ore. – Marion County detectives arrested a 36-year-old youth pastor on Wednesday, accusing him of sex abuse.

Peter Bass was fired from the Brooks Assembly of God due to the investigation into his actions, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies said so far they’ve found that none of Bass’ alleged victims was related to his position at the church.

Bass faces 15 counts of first-degree sodomy and 15 counts of second-degree abuse, the sheriff’s office said.

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Rob Davis | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on January 21, 2015

A Marion County youth pastor was arrested and charged with sex abuse Wednesday morning, authorities said.

Peter Bass, 36, of Brooks was taken to Marion County Jail and charged with 15 counts of first-degree sodomy and 15 counts of second-degree sex abuse, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said. Detectives arrested him at 10 a.m.

Bass was fired from his job as a youth pastor at the Brooks Assembly of God as a result of the investigation, police said. The sheriff’s office said it hadn’t identified any victims associated with Bass’ position at the church north of Salem.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

SA Police officer tells Father John Fleming’s defamation trial she felt claims against him went nowhere without a confession from him

A POLICE officer investigating unsubstantiated sex claims made against Father John Fleming agreed the case “was not going anywhere” without an admission or confession, a court has heard.

In the Supreme Court today, SA Police Brevet Sergeant Melissa Worden agreed she told Fr Fleming, during a formal 2009 interview, she felt there would be “no action” against him.

Andrew Harris, QC, for the Sunday Mail — which is being sued, by Fr Fleming, for defamation — asked Br Sgt Worden how she had approached the interview.

“When you went into this investigation, absent a confession from Fr Fleming, did you believe that it was unlikely that this matter would go further?” he asked.

“At the time you were asking (him) questions, you had a belief that, absent an admission, that it probably wasn’t going anywhere further.

“Was that your belief, that it probably wouldn’t go anywhere?”

Br Sgt Worden replied: “Yes.”

Fr Fleming’s case centres on a series of 2008 Sunday Mail articles reporting allegations he was inappropriately sexually involved with two women known as “Jane” and “Jenny”, and a man known as “Richard”.

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LOUISIANA
Bayou Buzz

A Baton Rouge trial judge will be allowed to determine whether a teenager’s communications with her Catholic priest about alleged sexual abuse by an older parishioner were actually confessions or if the priest had a duty to report the allegations.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to intervene in the case, which has pitted state laws meant to protect children against the age-old secrecy surrounding religious confessions.

State District Judge Mike Caldwell, who sits on the 19th Judicial District Court, has said the priest would not be legally compelled to break the seal of confession by testifying about what the young woman told him.

The Diocese of Baton Rouge, however, has argued that if the girl testified about the confessions, the priest would have to either accept her version of events or break the seal and face automatic excommunication.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Jan 21, 2015 By Dan Thompson

A university lecturer has unearthed a previously top-secret file held at the National Archives which could contain allegations of ‘unnatural sexual’ behaviour by establishment figures in the 1980s.

Dr Chris Murphy, from Salford University, stumbled upon the potentially ‘extremely significant’ file by chance – weeks after a Home Office review into historic child abuse allegations failed to find any documents relevant to its investigation.

Dr Murphy, who is a lecturer in Intelligence Studies, was working on a research project about Government secrecy in the National Archives, in Kew, south West London, when he uncovered a file called: “PREM19/588 – SECURITY. Allegations against former public [word missing] of unnatural sexual proclivities; security aspects 1980 Oct 27 – 1981 Mar 20.”

The “PREM” category of files covers documents and correspondence that passed through the prime minister’s office.

He described how he did a ‘double-take’ when he saw the classified file – before wondering about the implications of the title.

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NEW YORK
NBC New York

A 20-year-old Long Island woman is suing a Roman Catholic priest, his Diocese and the parish he worked for over alleged sexual abuse she suffered when she was 8 years old.

The lawsuit also alleges the Diocese of Rockville Centre failed to alert families to known allegations of sexual abuse against dozens of its priests over the years and allowed many of them, including the plaintiff’s alleged abuser, the Rev. Gregory Yacyshyn, to continue working in positions with access to children.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, regularly celebrated Mass and participated in church-related activities, and therefore, “came to admire, trust, revere, and respect” Yacyshyn, who allegedly used his position of authority to abuse her around 2003. His attorney denied the accusations Wednesday.

Yacyshyn was reassigned to St. Patrick’s of Bay Shore, within the same Diocese, shortly after the alleged abuse and before the plaintiff’s parents were aware of it, the lawsuit says. Once the girl’s parents learned of the allegations, they told law enforcement and the Diocese, who allowed Yacyshyn to “remain as a priest of the Diocese in good standing with access to children,” according to the lawsuit.

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CANADA
CBC News

A lawyer for former priest Eric Dejaeger says the Crown’s suggestion of a 25-year sentence for his sex crimes is “excessive” and “heavy-handed.”

Dejaeger, 67, was convicted last year on 32 counts of child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a priest in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

In an Iqaluit courtroom Wednesday, Dejaeger’s lawyer Malcolm Kempt argued for a sentence of 12 years, with a two for one credit for time spent in jail awaiting trial. That would leave Dejaeger with four years left to serve.

Kempt said comparing Dejaeger’s crimes to the horrific and depraved acts of worst-case sex offenders was unfair to his client. He argued far worse sex offenders have received lighter sentences than what the Crown is asking for.

He said Dejaeger has serious health issues and dying in custody is a “very real fear” for the 67-year-old.

Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss had asked for a sentence of 25 years for Dejaeger’s crimes, minus the time the former Oblate priest has already served.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jamie Manson | Jan. 21, 2015 Grace on the Margins

For years, I have written in the pages of NCR about the Philippines. (See here and here.) The country, I believe, epitomizes the need for all Catholics to continue the fight against the Roman Catholic church’s ban on contraception.

The pope’s visit to the Philippines last week seems to have finally raised awareness of the issue.

It wasn’t the media or the theologians who brought this crisis to the world’s attention, but rather, a 12-year-old girl named Glyzelle Palomar.

A former street kid, Glyzelle gave voice to the estimated 1.2 million homeless Filipino children who every day forage in the trash for food and sleep on cardboard boxes in slums.

“There are many children neglected by their own parents,” she told Pope Francis. “There are also many who became victims and many terrible things happened to them, like drugs or prostitution. Why is God allowing such things to happen, even if it is not the fault of the children? And why are there only very few people helping us?”

Some reports said Glyzelle’s sobs were so deep, she was unable to finish her statement to the pope. Francis, visibly pained by her words, embraced the girl and then offered a 40-minute excursus on the nature of suffering and the transformative power of tears.

The scene might have been more moving if the church were not complicit in this young girl’s suffering.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Wednesday 21 January 2015

The troubled official inquiry into child sex abuse has come a step closer to its early demise with its legal counsel, the leading human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson QC, being summoned by MPs to clarify his call for the removal of one of its members.

The move by Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, comes a day after the panel member, Sharon Evans, a child abuse survivor, said Emmerson had “bullied and intimidated” her.

Emmerson reacted to her allegations, made during a committee evidence session on Tuesday, by pointing out her complaints had already been investigated by the Home Office and dismissed as unfounded. He also claimed that Evans, as a member of the inquiry, had repeatedly disclosed confidential information and made a number of factually misleading public statements.

His defence was supported by a statement signed by the remaining seven panel members expressing full confidence in Emmerson’s integrity and rejecting any suggestions that they had been intimidated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
RT

The senior barrister in charge of advising an historic sex abuse inquiry has asked for one of the panel members to be removed. This follows accusations he had bullied her and attempted to influence members of the panel.

Ben Emmerson QC protested against Sharon Evan’s position on the panel after she told its members that he had “overstepped the mark.”

Evans is one of only two abuse survivors to sit on the panel, which had a turbulent beginning after the two selected chairwomen, Baroness Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf, both stepped down.

Evans reportedly told MPs currently investigating internal failures in the committee that Emmerson had tried to exercise control over her during questioning, and influence her in such a way as to stop her giving “honest” answers to questions.

She told the Home Affairs Select Committee that she felt “bullied,” She also said she “felt intimidated by an adviser to the panel.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Ben Emmerson QC: The human rights lawyer who was expected to lead child abuse inquiry is accused of ‘bullying’ and ‘intimidation’

PAUL GALLAGHER Wednesday 21 January 2015

Highly respected and admired for his work on Human Rights law, Ben Emmerson QC seemed like the perfect stand-in to steer the Government’s historical sex abuse inquiry when it was left without a chair for a second time after the resignations of Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf.

Many of his learned friends’ eyebrows were therefore raised this week when he was accused of having “bullied and intimidated” panel member and abuse victim Sharon Evans.

Ms Evans told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday that she had made a complaint about Mr Emmerson to her MP “about the fact that I felt he was overstepping his mark, in terms of that advice and rewriting of letters [from panel members to Home Secretary Theresa May], because I feel the independence of the panel is important.”

Suddenly the spotlight is shining on the legal counsel who, in the words of the committee chair Keith Vaz, has been left “running the show”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By David Barrett, and Tom Whitehead
21 Jan 2015

The troubled inquiry into child sex abuse has suspended its work until Theresa May, the Home Secretary, makes a firm decision on its future.

The independent panel has said it will not hold any further meetings with victims until either a chairman is appointed or a decision is taken whether to replace it.

The move has plunged the inquiry in to further chaos and delays and comes just a day after evidence emerged of tension and infighting within the panel.

On Tuesday, one expert on the panel claimed she was being “bullied and intimidated” by the counsel to the inquiry.

But the rest of the panel distanced themselves from the claims.

However, it is understood the dispute was the final straw and members have now decided to suspend all work until clarity over its future is given.

A statement on the inquiry website said: “The panel has made the difficult choice to delay all scheduled listening meetings until after the Home Secretary has made her decision on the future of the panel and has announced who will be appointed as Chair.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Elizabeth Mohr
emohr@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 01/21/2015

Days into the bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, a federal bankruptcy judge has ordered the parties to mediation.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert J. Kressel said at a hearing Tuesday that he wanted to get things moving and to avoid high costs.

“The history, other than with one notable exception, is these cases — and by these I mean diocesan cases — end up in a settlement,” Kressel said. “… I’m hopeful and confident that’s going to happen here — but the question becomes: is that three or four years from now, with $17 million in fees, or is it six months from now with a fraction of that? I assume that’s a goal we all share.”

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday, calling it the best option to address all claims of sexual abuse at once, “fairly and with finality.”

Church officials had said they were considering bankruptcy in the wake of news of a $9.1 million operating deficit for fiscal year 2014 and expectations of more lawsuits over alleged clergy sexual abuse — more than two-dozen have already been filed and the church has received notice of at least 100 more claims.

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