ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jean Edwards

A former director of an Orthodox Jewish school says he did not know it was a crime for an adult to touch a child’s genitals, the royal commission into child abuse has heard.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman was questioned about the way he dealt with abuse claims against a rabbinical student known as AVL at the Yeshivah Gedolah in Sydney in 2002.

Counsel assisting the Commission Maria Gerace asked: “did you understand that it was against the law for an adult to touch the genitals of another child?”

“I didn’t know that as a fact,” Rabbi Feldman answered.

The Commission heard AVL admitted lying down and massaging the child.

The rabbi said he “didn’t have a clue” that could be a criminal matter.

“My role in general is to look at things from a Jewish perspective, from a religious perspective,” Rabbi Feldman said.

“I’m not in the business of thinking about how society would deal with issues.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A senior rabbi feared his friend would be charged and jailed if a rabbinical organisation encouraged sexual abuse victims to come forward.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman wrote to a senior judge of Jewish court, Sydney Beth Din, in 2011 to object to a statement it was going to release about child sex abuse, fearing it would have implications for his friend, David Cyprys.

Cyprys was convicted and jailed for eight years in 2013 for abusing nine boys at Yeshivah Melbourne.

Rabbi Feldman told a royal commission on Friday he didn’t know when he wrote to the Beth Din whether allegations against Cyprys were true or not.

The commission is holding public hearings in Melbourne into the response of Jewish community leaders at Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi to reports of child sex abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Rabbi Yosef Feldman tells royal commission he didn’t know it’s illegal for adults to touch children’s genitals

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 06, 2015

A HIGH-profile Jewish leader says he didn’t know it was illegal for adults to touch the genitals of children.

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he was unfamiliar with child abuse laws.

He said even while director of the Yeshivah Gedola Rabbinical College he didn’t bother familiarising himself with the laws.

“Obviously I knew I had certain obligations. I didn’t know what they were. I relied on my father,” he said.

Rabbi Feldman’s father, Pinchus Feldman, has been Sydney’s top Rabbi since 1968.

Counsel assisting the commission Maria Gerace asked directly: “Did you understand that it was against the law for an adult to touch the genitals of another child?”

“I didn’t know that as a fact,” he said.

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NEW YORK
Newsday

BUFFALO, N.Y. – (AP) — A New York state senator says the state should repeal the statute of limitations for sexual abuse against minors.

Sen. Marc Panepinto says New York has one of the shortest windows in the country for pursuing complaints through the courts and he’s proposing legislation to change that.

He’s set to appear at a news conference in Buffalo Friday with a man and woman who recently sent a letter to Pope Francis asking for an investigation into the way the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo handled their complaints of sex abuse against church employees.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

Pope Francis told to hand priests over to police as new Vatican child abuse commission starts work

Nick Squires By Nick Squires, Rome 06 Feb 2015

Pope Francis should immediately hand over to the police all the Vatican documents on Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children and “cast out the vipers” who are still being protected by the Church, a British survivor of clerical abuse said.

The Catholic Church needs to end decades of obfuscation and cover-ups by fully cooperating with civil authorities around the world instead of protecting abusive priests, moving them from parish to parish or subjecting them only to canon law, said Peter Saunders.

Peter Saunders, who was sexually abused as a child in London by two Catholic priests and the headmaster of his Catholic primary school, was appointed by the Pope to a new Vatican commission on child protection, which will hold its first full meeting on Friday in Rome.

“The Pope should release all the documents the Vatican has on abusive priests,” he said in an interview shortly after arriving in Rome for the meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

“The Holy Father is a supreme monarch and bishops around the world are answerable to him. “If he says they must give up the documents, they can’t argue with that. It’s one of the things I will be saying to the commission – unless they throw me out.

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INDIANA
Washington Times Herald

By Mike Grant Times Herald

Police have arrested a Washington man accusing him of sexually abusing a boy over a six-year period. Washington Police charged Armando Bruno-Morales, 55, with three counts of child molesting on Sunday. Officers say they began an investigation into the abuse after being contacted by the family and after interviewing Bruno arrested him.

In a probable cause affidavit filed in Daviess Superior Court, Washington City Police Detective Daniel Christie says that the victim claimed the sexual abuse began in 2008 when he was 8 years old. The victim claimed Bruno had been a pastor at a church the family attended and lived with them briefly and later stayed as an occasional overnight guest. It was during that time that police say the molestation began.

Officers say Bruno had been serving as a pastor at an Hispanic Church on W. Main Street while the alleged abuse took place.

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CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Time

In suspending a priest for allegedly abusing a child 30 years ago, the Bridgeport Diocese has put into action its pledge of zero tolerance and transparency.

These are exceptional circumstances. The statute of limitations for child sexual abuse expired decades ago, so police will not pursue criminal charges. Bishop Frank Caggiano posted a letter on the diocese website Wednesday afternoon that there was “credible evidence” that Stephen DeLuca committed a single act of child abuse more than 30 years ago.

That designation was not made by Caggiano alone, but by the Diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board. The matter might have been dealt with quietly, given that DeLuca retired in June, but Caggiano underscored that the diocese is committed to total transparency in the handling of such cases. This means it was prominently announced on the website, and will be addressed during Masses at all of the churches where DeLuca served, which include St. Catherine of Siena in Riverside, where he was a priest in residence, and at St. Agnes in Cos Cob, where he was pastor from 1984 to 2006. He was also well known in Greenwich for his work with the sick and elderly at Nathaniel Witherell nursing home and Greenwich Hospital, where he served as chaplain until a few months ago. He also served as president of Greenwich Catholic School’s board of directors, as treasurer for the Greenwich Fellowship of Clergy and as a staff member at the former St. Mary’s High School in Greenwich. A diocese spokesman said the alleged incident did not occur in Greenwich.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By MARK RUSSELL, THE AGE Feb. 6, 2015

A victim preyed on by a Christian brother who was part of a notorious pedophile ring involving the clergy in the Victorian town of Ballarat claimed George Pell, the former Archbishop of Sydney, ignored his pleas to stop the abuse, a court has heard.

Crown prosecutor Brett Sonnet told the County Court on Friday that the victim of pedophile brother Ted Dowlan, 65, alleged he was at a local Ballarat swimming pool in 1973 when he approached Dr Pell to try to discuss the abuse.

The victim claimed he told Dr Pell, who is now head of the Vatican’s finances, something had to be done to stop Dowlan abusing young boys at St Patrick’s College.

Dr Pell allegedly replied: “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Dr Pell has consistently denied knowing children were being abused in Ballarat during the time he was there.

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CANADA
Sun News

QMI AGENCY

WINNIPEG – A former archbishop has been denied an appeal of his sexual assault conviction and sentence and is now headed to jail.

Kenneth (Seraphim) Storheim was found guilty Jan. 24, 2014, of one count of sexually molesting a young boy — and cleared of a charge he molested the boy’s twin — in incidents from nearly 30 years ago.

A Court of Appeal ruling issued Thursday by Justice William J. Burnett dismissed a motion for the court to hear fresh evidence, as well as motions to appeal Storheim’s conviction and sentence.

Storheim was previously sentenced to eight months in prison but was out on bail pending the results of the appeal.

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CANADA
CTV

Chinta Puxley, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, February 5, 2015

WINNIPEG — A former archbishop who sexually assaulted an altar boy in the 1980s has lost his appeal and is starting his eight-month sentence behind bars.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal said Thursday it agrees with the conviction of Seraphim Storheim and the sentence a lower court imposed. The high court said it wasn’t convinced trial Judge Christopher Mainella — who now sits on the Court of Appeal — made a mistake when he decided Storheim’s evidence wasn’t believable.

“It cannot be said that the trial judge applied a different level of scrutiny to the evidence of the accused,” the judges wrote. “A review of the decision reveals that the trial judge … did not hold the accused’s evidence to a higher standard than that of the Crown witnesses.”

Earlier this year a judge convicted Seraphim Storheim of sexually assaulting an altar boy who lived with him in 1985.

The judges also ruled the sentence fit the crime.

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CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Time

Robert Marchant
Updated 8:16 pm, Thursday, February 5, 2015

Shock and surprise were the responses to the announcement that a priest with longtime roots in the community had been suspended over an alleged incident of sexual misconduct with a youngster that recently came to light.

The Rev. Stephen DeLuca was removed from clerical duties this week by the Bridgeport Diocese, which includes Greenwich. He had been serving as priest in residence at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Riverside. At that church, he filled in for other priests when they were travelling or otherwise unable to conduct services, and he took on occasional clerical duties following his recent retirement at the age of 75. He was also the former pastor of St. Agnes Church on Stanwich Road from 1984 to 2006.

Roseann Benedict, who attends services at St. Catherine’s, said of the recent disclosure, “It’s shocking to me.”

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TEXAS
WFAA

GARLAND — A lawsuit was filed Tuesday against a Garland church after members of its youth group came forward and said they were sexually abused or assaulted by two church employees.

The lawsuit was filed against the Arapaho Road Baptist Church by a lawyer for one of the victims, Tahira Khan Merritt.

Carolyn Alvey, a spokeswoman with the church, said they became aware of the suit early Thursday, but said the church hadn’t been served papers as of 4 p.m.

“From the moment we learned of these allegations, we have been transparent and open about the situation with our staff, congregation, students, investigators and the community,” Alvey wrote in a statement. “This is the only way healing can truly happen. We ask the community to join us in prayer for all those involved.”

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MARYLAND
Episcopal News Service

By Mary Frances Schjonberg | February 5, 2015

[Episcopal News Service] A Baltimore grand jury has indicted Episcopal Diocese of Maryland Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook on 13 counts for allegedly causing the Dec. 27 car-bicycle accident that killed Thomas Palermo.

Five of the charges listed in the indictment handed down Feb. 4 by a Baltimore City grand jury come in addition to those Cook has faced since being charged Jan. 9 with four criminal offenses and four traffic violations.

The new charges include driving while under the influence of alcohol per se (a “per se” DUI charge involves drivers whose blood alcohol limit is above the .08% legal limit and can be charged with drunk driving even if their ability to drive does not appear to be impaired), driving under the impairment of alcohol, texting while driving, reckless driving and negligent driving.

The original criminal charges included manslaughter by vehicle, criminal negligent manslaughter by vehicle, homicide by driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol per se and homicide by driving a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

By Jonathan Pitts
The Baltimore Sun

The head of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland sought Thursday to clarify what he knew about Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook’s drinking, and when he knew it.

Cook, who became the No. 2 leader in the diocese last September despite an arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010, is accused in the December death of local cyclist Thomas Palermo.

She was indicted this week on charges including automobile manslaughter, driving under the influence and texting while driving during an accident resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton, the head of the diocese, said Thursday that he and others involved in the vetting process for Cook were aware of Cook’s 2010 arrest, but “we were not, in fact, aware that Heather was dealing with an ongoing addiction.”

“As a result,” Sutton said in a statement released by the diocese, “all of us viewed her 2010 DUI as a one-time incident, something that Heather herself would refer to during ‘meet-and-greet’ events as a difficult time in her life.”

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CANADA
Winnipeg Sun

A former archbishop has been denied an appeal of his sexual assault conviction and sentence.

Kenneth (Seraphim) Storheim was found guilty Jan. 24, 2014 of one count of sexually molesting a young boy — and cleared of a charge he molested the boy’s twin — in incidents from nearly 30 years ago.

A Court of Appeal ruling issued Thursday by Justice William J. Burnett dismissed a motion for the court to hear fresh evidence, as well as motions to appeal Storheim’s conviction and sentence.

Storheim was sentenced to eight months in prison, but was out on bail pending the results of the appeal.

At trial, court heard testimony the sexual assault occurred in 1985 when the then pre-teen victim was living with Storheim in Winnipeg and serving as an altar boy. The victim testified Storheim walked naked in the home and would lie on the floor with his hand on his penis.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

A disgraced former archbishop at the centre of a sexual assault trial began serving his sentence, turning himself in after the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal this morning.

Seraphim Storheim was to spend at least several hours at the Remand Centre before being transferred to Headlingley Correctional Centre to begin serving an eight month sentence, his lawyer said.

“We lost. The appeals were all dismissed. The fresh evidence motion was dismissed; the conviction appeal was dismissed and the leave to appeal sentence was refused. So basically he began serving his sentence this morning,” Storheim’s lawyer Jeff Gindin said today by phone.

Storheim was convicted of sexual assault in January 2014 and sentenced to eight months in jail for an assault dating back almost 30 years. He spent just over week a behind bars before being freed on bail in July 2014 pending his appeal.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 5, 2015 NCR Today

VATICAN CITY
A two-day meeting in Rome next week of the world’s Catholic cardinals will focus mainly on discussing reform of the church’s central bureaucracy, the Vatican spokesman said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters briefly on a number of topics, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi also said there was no other theme for the meeting, called by Pope Francis for Feb. 12-13.

The meeting, known as a consistory, is expected to see hundreds of the church prelates gather in Rome before Francis formally names 20 new cardinals in a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica Feb. 14.

The pontiff has embarked on a program of reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, known as the Roman Curia. He has been soliciting advice for the reform from a group of nine prelates he has appointed to a special group called the Council of Cardinals.

That group, which includes Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, is to meet at the Vatican Feb. 9-11, just before the full cardinals’ meeting.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Gaby Hinsliff

For well over a decade, hundreds of vulnerable children were sexually exploited and abused by men from whom they should have been protected, not just in secret but sometimes in plain sight. What happened in Rotherham was a terrible, extraordinary thing. But what is so unsettling about Louise Casey’s report on the aftermath of the scandal, published this week, is that this was made possible by the most ordinary of things.

It’s trite and misleading to portray Labour-led Rotherham as a bunch of loony lefties hamstrung by political correctness, terrified of going after mainly Asian abusers in case it looked racist. As Casey makes clear, some witnesses did describe pressure not to say that most of the perpetrators were Asian men, or to raise a perceived link with local taxi drivers, many of Pakistani origin. But others expressed openly racist views. Politicians’ attitudes towards women were so bullying and chauvinistic that one officer said the very idea of the council being too PC was laughable. The report paints a portrait of people who, far from being overly sensitive to others’ feelings, aren’t nearly sensitive enough; who even now are deep in denial about the damage done.

Several councillors nitpicked at the estimate of 1,400 victims, as if things would be fine had it been fewer

One officer complained that Alexis Jay, whose damning inquiry first exposed the scale of grooming for abuse in Rotherham, had got their job title wrong – as if this mattered in the larger scheme of things, or somehow disproved accounts of girls being raped with broken bottles. Several councillors nitpicked at Jay’s estimate of 1,400 victims, as if things would be fine had it been a few hundred less. Others grumbled about the story being exposed by the “Murdoch press”. The wrong people were complaining, apparently. You wonder if some aren’t even now privately dismissing Casey because she works for that bloody Tory, Eric Pickles.

Yet unexpectedly, what leaps out from the report isn’t the influence of politics with a big P so much as office politics: all the surprisingly humdrum, niggling things about status and hierarchy and process that determine who counts in an organisation and who is heard.

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UNITED STATES
America

Gerard O’Connell | Feb 5 2015

In a new and important initiative aimed at protecting minors from sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, eliminating all such abuse and assisting the victims of past abuse, Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences and the Superiors of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life asking for their “close and complete cooperation” with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors that he set up in March 2014.

“Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children”, the Pope said in his letter dated February 2 – the full text of which is published below. “Everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused,” he stated. He repeated yet again that “there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

He explained in the letter that this Commission “can be a new, important and effective means for helping me to encourage and advance the commitment of the Church at every level – Episcopal Conferences, Dioceses, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and others – to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, and to respond to their needs with fairness and mercy.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Press Association 04 Feb 2015

Four more files relating to historical child sex abuse have been unearthed in the Whitehall archives, the Cabinet Office has disclosed.

The documents were discovered in a special archive – known colloquially in Whitehall as the ”cabinet secretaries’ files” – containing ”sensitive, historic papers”.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the files would now be made available to the newly reconstituted inquiry in to historical child sex abuse as well as to the Metropolitan Police and other relevant government departments.

The disclosure comes after it emerged last month that the Cabinet Office was holding a secret dossier from the 1980s relating to the paedophile activities of the late diplomat Sir Peter Hayman.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A FORMER housemaster at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire has been jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing pupils.

David Lowe, 61, took advantage of boys as they slept in their dormitory beds and during singing lessons, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.

Lowe invited the youngsters to his flat and “spanked” them when they had broken school rules. He also crept into the vulnerable pupils’ dormitory and touched them intimately while carrying out night-time checks, his trial was told.

Many of his victims studied at the £16,000-a-year choir Westminster Cathedral Choir School, while others were abused at the Benedictine monk-run Ampleforth College.

The attacks, which took place between 1978 and 1984, were carried out on boys aged eight to 13.

The court heard that some of the victims came forward after reports of Operation Yewtree, the police investigation into historic sexual abuse in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chronicle Live

5 February 2015 By Jonathan Walker

A long-awaited inquiry into historic claims of child abuse is likely to look at claims of widespread abuse at children’s homes in the North, the Home Secretary has said.

It follows assertions that an earlier inquiry into hundreds of allegations dating back to the 1960s, called Operation Rose, was a “whitewash”.

Home Secretary Theresa May has announced that a wide-ranging inquiry into historic child sex abuse is to be reconstituted under a new chair, New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard, with tough new powers to compel witnesses to attend and provide evidence.

It means the investigation can finally get underway, following a series of delays since it was originally set up last July.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Mary E. Hunt

It may be Women’s Week at the Vatican, but you have to look carefully at the skirts to find many women. However well-intentioned Vatican officials may be, they embody Murphy’s Law when it comes to women: everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Maybe if women were more than bit players, things might improve.

The Pontifical Council for Culture in Rome, presided over by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and made up of cardinals and bishops who are all men, are discussing “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference” from February 4-7, 2015 in mostly closed-door sessions. There are enough contradictions in that sentence to end my analysis right here.

I persist, if only to encourage others to trust their intuitions about such dubious endeavors and to think about women when they sing the praises of Pope Francis. Women make up slightly more than half of the Catholic population, and many more than half of its active members. Only by ignoring women can Francis fans herald his achievements.

Only by setting aside the all-male priesthood, bracketing any mention of kyriarchal decision-making structures, and passing over outmoded notions of gender can one honestly say that Francis, who captains the ship, is any better than his immediate predecessors when it comes to half of the church.

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MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 5, 2015

A boarding school. Naked dance parties. Child pornography. Molestation. An arrest. A suicide. Allegations. Lawsuits.

A cover-up.

Total institutional ethical failure.

When I first heard about the scandal at Minnesota’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s (I’ll refer to it from now on as SSM), I had a hard time wrapping my arms around the extent of the criminal behavior. And let’s face it, I am not a novice when it comes to these cases. It takes a lot to shock me.

SSM, a grade 6-12 Episcopal boarding and day school located about 50 miles from Minneapolis, also reminds me of a school a little closer to home—one that suffered its own huge institutional failure when it came to child sex abuse and cover-up.

There is so much to discuss, that I have decided to write a series of posts about SSM and what happened. I am also going to try and tackle some of the questions we are all asking. Things like:

* Why is the headmaster who covered up abuse still working at the school? How common is this?

Why did school administrators allow a teacher with child pornography on a school computer to quietly resign … with a nice, fat check?

* Why didn’t the school do anything earlier—like when they discovered that the teacher was complicit in allowing and observing “Naked Dance Parties” and was rumored to be giving make students lessons on “penis enlargement”?

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Nancy Pelosi

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today released the following statement after Speaker Boehner announced His Holiness Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to address a Joint Meeting of Congress on September 24, during his visit to the United States:

“We are honored and overjoyed that Pope Francis, the first pontiff born in the Americas, has accepted our invitation to address a Joint Meeting of Congress during his upcoming visit to the United States.

“Pope Francis has renewed the faith of Catholics worldwide and inspired a new generation of people, regardless of their religious affiliation, to be instruments of peace. In the spirit of the namesake of San Francisco, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis’ universal message of love and compassion speaks to millions around the world.

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TEXAS
Tahira Khan Merritt

TAHIRA KHAN MERRITT
Professional Limited Liability Company
Attorneys and Counselors
________________________
8499 Greenville Avenue
Suite 206
Dallas, Texas 75231
214-503-7300 – telephone
214-53-7301 – facsimile
www.tkmlawfirm.com

Date: February 5, 2015

Re: Cause No. DC-15-01325, Jane Doe 103 vs. Arapaho Road Baptist Church of Garland, Texas filed in Dallas County District Court.

A lawsuit was filed on February 3rd, 2015 against the Arapaho Road Baptist Church(“ARBC”) located at 2256 Arapaho Road, Garland, Texas. The Church is affiliated with the Dallas Baptist Association, The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Plaintiff, now a young adult, identified only as Jane Doe 103, brought this suit for damages resulting from the sexual abuse she suffered as a child by Jordan Keith Earls (“Jordy Earls”), employed by Arapaho Road Baptist Church as a music minister. His brother, Joshua Douglas Earls(“Josh Earls”), was the church’s youth minister.

The victim is represented by Dallas attorney Tahira Khan Merritt, whose civil law practice for over 20 years has been dedicated exclusively to representing victims of sexual abuse and assault. “All the young women who have come forward to confront the Earl brothers and to speak out are truly brave. It takes great courage to have gone through the criminal process, which has taken about two years. My hope is that Arapaho Road Baptist Church will disclose the truth about what they knew of the risks these perpetrators posed and their misconduct and when they knew. This victim deserves the truth.”

The lawsuit alleges that Jordy Earls and Josh Earls ingratiated themselves with the parents of the Church’s youth group and began grooming minor girls, Doe 103 among them, who participated in Youth Group and Youth Choir. Doe 103 was only an 8th grader when she first met the Earls brothers. The first incident of sexual abuse and assault occurred after Sunday school in the youth building on the church premises. The sexual assaults, abuse and exploitation continued weekly, sometimes more than once a week, during the 10th and 11th grade. Her parents, serving as Sunday school teachers, were long-time members of the church.

In 2013, both Josh Earls and Jordan Earls left Arapaho Road Baptist Church, telling the children they had been “called” to other assignments in South Carolina.

However, in early 2013, the family of one of the other girls from the Youth Group at ARBC notified law enforcement that Josh Earls had sexually molested their minor daughter at a pool party in 2012. After a police investigation, Josh Earls was extradited back to Dallas and arrested on Federal charges of making pornographic images and videos involving multiple underage girls from ARBC. At the same time, local police were also investigating Jordy Earls. As part of their investigation, law enforcement contacted Doe 103 and her parents. Consequently, Jordy was also extradited from South Carolina and returned to Dallas where he soon faced similar Federal charges of child pornography and also state charges specifically for the sexual abuse of Doe 103 and of other girls as well.

The lawsuit alleges negligence and gross negligence against the Church. Doe 103 claims the church knew should have known of the pedophilic propensities of both Earl brother. They had solicited several girls to send them nude pictures.

Emboldened, they sent nude pictures of themselves to the girls in violation of state and federal laws. Both Josh and Jordy Earls subsequently pleaded guilty to federal charges of making child pornography.

In February 2014, Josh was sentenced to 12 years in Federal Prison and lifetime registration as a sexual offender. Like his brother, Jordy also pleaded guilty to child pornography. His sentencing is scheduled for February 18,2015 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

See related news stories:
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/07/former-garland-youth-minister-chargedwith-
producing-child-porn.html/
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/headlines/20130429-preaching-brothers-h
eld-on-sex-charges-involving-garland-teens-they-met-through-church.ece
Please direct any questions you may have to Ms. Merritt at 214-537-3789

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Charlotte Observer

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
Posted: Thursday, Feb. 05, 2015

WASHINGTON Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of the House and Senate on Sept. 24, becoming the first pontiff to do so, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

“We’re humbled that the Holy Father has accepted our invitation and certainly look forward to receiving his message on behalf of the American people,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters.

Boehner is Catholic and extended the invitation for the pope to speak to lawmakers.

During his planned trip next fall, Francis is also expected to visit the White House as well as speak at the United Nations in New York and participate in a massive Catholic rally for families in Philadelphia.

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NEW YORK
Long Island Exchange

SENATOR MARC PANEPINTO CALLS FOR REPEAL OF STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR SEXUAL OFFENSES AGAINST MINORS

(Long Island, NY) On FRIDAY, February 6th at 10:30 a.m., Senator Marc Panepinto will stand alongside childhood sexual abuse victims, Vanessa DeRosa and Tino Flores, and call for the repeal of New York’s controversial statute-of-limitations for sexual offenses against minors. This criminal procedure law currently supports one of the shortest windows in the country for pursuing sexual-abuse complaints through the courts.

Senator Panepinto has co-sponsored two senate bills, S.850 and S.63, which eliminate these archaic laws and bring much needed reform to our legal system. He will discuss the impact of these bills and his role on the Senate Codes Committee – which has repeatedly failed to bring this legislation to the Senate floor – during Friday’s press conference.

WHO: Senator Marc Panepinto; Vanessa DeRosa; Tino Flores; Managing Partner Diane Tiveron and several attorneys from HoganWillig.

WHAT: Senator Panepinto will call for the repeal of New York’s controversial and antiquated statute-of-limitations for sexual offenses against minors.

WHERE: Walter J. Mahoney State Office Building, Hearing Room 4 – 65 Court Street, Buffalo, NY 14202

WHEN: FRIDAY, February 6th at 10:30 a.m.

Senator Panepinto represents the 60th Senate District, which includes parts of the City of Buffalo as well as communities in both the Northtowns and the Southtowns of Western New York.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope’s visit to the US Capitol is part of a trip that will include stops in Philadelphia, New York and Washington

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

“It is my great privilege to announce that His Holiness Pope Francis will visit the United States Capitol on Thursday, September 24, 2015. On that day, he will become the first leader of the Holy See to address a joint meeting of Congress. It will be a historic visit, and we are truly grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation,” House of Representatives Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Thursday.

“In a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another. We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people.”

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 5

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

For the safety of children, Tampa’s Catholic bishop must take action about a soon-to-be-freed predator priest.

[Tampa Bay Times]

Bishop Robert Lynch should visit every parish where Fr. Robert Schaeufele ever worked, imploring anyone with information or suspicions about the predator priest to call law enforcement.

Fr. Schaeufele is set to be freed from prison in about a week. Of the 20 publicly accused Tampa/St. Petersburg predator priests, Fr. Schaeufele is among the most prolific. He faces at least two dozen accusers.

Lynch’s predecessors and colleagues recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, transferred and shielded Fr. Schaeufele, repeatedly giving him access to hundreds of kids. So Lynch can’t wash his hands now and pretend to have no responsibility for or power over this child molester or this troubling situation.

Lynch can and should use pulpit announcements, church bulletins and parish websites to beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Schaeufele’s crimes to call police. He should send mailings to former church members and staff who may have spent time around Fr. Schaeufele, urging them to do the same. He should get out from behind his desk, shove his public relations staff aside, and personally hold a news conference pleading with parishioners and the public to step forward if they might, in any way, be able to help police and prosecutors file more charges against this dangerous man.

In short, Lynch should stop acting like a cold-hearted CEO and start acting like a compassionate shepherd.

Our hearts ache for Chris McCafferty and every single person who was hurt by Fr. Schaeufele. Our hearts also ache for every single child sex abuse victim in Florida who never saw their perpetrators jailed or exposed because of the state’s archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Barbara Heins (Patch Staff)

The former pastor of St. Agnes Church has been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Bridgeport amid a “credible” allegation of child abuse, according to a statement from Bishop Frank J. Caggiano.

The Rev. Stephen J. DeLuca, who retired as pastor in 2006 and has since been a priest in residence at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Riverside and a chaplain at Greenwich Hospital, has been placed “on administrative leave and has removed his faculties to exercise any and all forms of public ministry as a priest. The decision was made after the Diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board ruled that there is credible evidence of an incident of child abuse on the part of Fr. Deluca more than 30 years ago,” Caggiano wrote in a Jan. 31 letter posted on the diocesan website.

According to Caggiano, the diocese “did not learn of this allegation until recently, well after Father DeLuca retired on June 30, 2014. In accordance with both state reporting mandates and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, we notified both the police and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) immediately. Given the information available and the significant time which had passed, neither the police nor DCF took further action.”

The diocese hired an independent investigator who determined the allegation was credible, Caggiano wrote.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

A tale of two cities, London and Vatican City: two different approaches to investigating official cover-ups of child sexual abuse — the UK’s is serious; the Vatican’s is window dressing so far. The latest tale takes place over just a few days, yet shows the essential contrast between the UK’s parliamentary democracy and the Vatican’s absolute monarchy. London’s investigative approach is clearly designed to be expeditious, independent and transparent; the Vatican’s approach is clearly designed to be unending, controlled and secretive. London’s sex abuse commission is seeking to find out who did what when; the Vatican’s sex abuse commission is designed to find “best practices”, including some education and training programs. If the pope is serious, he needs to add to his commission some experienced, independent and proven members, like Fr. Thomas Doyle, Illinois Justice Anne Burke and former Irish President, Mary McAleese? Is Francis trying to avoid the truth? It seems he is.

It has been a tough week for Pope Francis with: (1) the UK investigation announcement, (2) the much and justifiably ridiculed all male “Pontifical Council on Women” with its launch in a night club atmosphere at Teatro Argentina in Rome, and (3) the release of Jesuit educated and former Wall Street lawyer, Gerald Posner’s explosive book, “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican” , (see at Amazon link [Amazon]). Posner, who was generally stonewalled by the Vatican leadership under both the ex-Pope and Francis, covers everything from unspeakable misdeeds involving Holocaust victims’ assets, to Vatican facilitation of bribery of Italian political leaders, to Pope Francis’ recent efforts to stop the financial bleeding.

Please see, for more. my related remarks, “Will UK Probe of Teresa May Compel Ex-Pope Benedict To Testify?‏‏‏” , here,

[Christian Catholicism]

and “Vatican To Women: YES on Unwanted Babies – NO on Tummy Tucks “, here,

[Christian Catholicism]

Will Hillary Clinton, a Yale lawyer who worked on the Watergate Commission that transparently and independently investigated US President Nixon’s criminal cover-up conspiracy, be next to call for a national investigation commission in the USA? President Obama seems to lack the fortitude to do so. Australia’s Julia Gillard and UK’s Teresa May called for serious commissions. Is this a “women thing” only? Why is Michelle Obama, a Harvard lawyer, so silent here? As US whistle blowers and SNAP justifiably take their bows, why are they not blowing their whistles at President Obama’s inexcusable inaction?

Australia has shown that a well funded national commission is the best way to curtail institutional child sex abuse and also to get justice for abuse survivors. The whistle blowers’ and SNAP’s failure to press Obama more to set up a presidential commission is puzzling at best. Please see prominent Australian abuse advocate, Aletha Blayse’s persuasive case for a US presidential investigation commission like Australia already has, here,”Child Abuse, War, and the Need for a National Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse”, here,

[Christian Catholicism]

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Wall Street Journal

By SIOBHAN HUGHES
Feb. 5, 2015

WASHINGTON— Pope Francis will address a joint session of Congress on Sept. 24, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) announced on Thursday, an appearance that will be the first ever by a papal head.

“In a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds,” Mr. Boehner said in a written statement. “His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another. We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

Pope Francis will make history this fall, becoming the first pope to address a joint session of Congress, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Thursday.

The pope is expected to speak to lawmakers in the House chamber on Sept. 24.

“We’re humbled that the Holy Father has accepted our invitation and certainly are going to look forward to receiving his message on behalf of the American people,” Boehner said at a news conference.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that Pope Francis will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Sept. 24, marking the first time a pope has delivered such a speech.

The pope is expected to visit Washington, New York and Philadelphia during his trip to the United States. After the trip was announced last year, Boehner said that he had invited the head of the Roman Catholic Church to speak to lawmakers.

“On Sept. 24 His Holiness Pope Francis will visit us here at the United States Capitol. That day, His Holiness will be the first pope in our history to address a joint session of Congress,” Boehner told reporters during his weekly press conference.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS News

Pope Francis will address a joint session in Congress on Sept. 24 during his visit to the United States, House Speaker John Boehner announced Thursday. He will be the first leader of the Catholic Church to do so.

“We are humbled that the Holy Father has accepted our invitation,” Boehner said during his weekly press conference. In a follow up statement, he said, “In a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another. We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people.”

Boehner actually sent the open invitation to the Pope to address Congress last March and released a statement saying that a joint address would offer “an excellent opportunity for the American people as well as the nations of the world to hear his message in full.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Speaker of the House John Boehner

February 5, 2015|Speaker Boehner’s Press Office

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today made the following announcement:

“It is my great privilege to announce that His Holiness Pope Francis will visit the United States Capitol on Thursday, September 24, 2015. On that day, he will become the first leader of the Holy See to address a joint meeting of Congress. It will be a historic visit, and we are truly grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation.

“In a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another. We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people.”

NOTE: Details regarding media credentialing and logistics for the joint meeting will be released at a later date.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

by Elise Harris

Vatican City, Feb 5, 2015 / 05:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has sent a letter to religious superiors and presidents of episcopal conferences, asking for their full cooperation in ending the sexual abuse of minors, and making the Church a safe haven.

“Everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused,” the Pope said in his Feb. 2 letter.

Addressed to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences and Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the letter was a plea asking for their complete cooperation with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

First announced in December 2013, the commission was officially established by Pope Francis last March in order to explore various proposals and initiatives geared toward the improvement of norms and procedures for protecting children and vulnerable adults.

The commission, the Pope said, is “a new, important and effective means” of ensuring the protection at every level of the Church, including episcopal conferences, dioceses, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life among others.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Reuters

Por Philip Pullella

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (Reuters) – El Papa Francisco ordenó el jueves a los obispos católicos de todo el mundo que cooperen ampliamente con una comisión que él estableció para proteger a los niños del abuso sexual por parte de clérigos y que le otorguen una máxima prioridad al tema si salieran a la luz nuevos escándalos.

El Pontífice envió la carta a los obispos y directores de instituciones religiosas un día antes de que la comisión, que él estableció el año pasado, celebre su primera reunión completa.

En la carta, el Papa dice: “Se debe continuar haciendo todo lo posible para erradicar de la Iglesia el flagelo del abuso sexual de menores y adultos vulnerables, y abrir un camino de reconciliación y curación para quien ha sufrido abusos”.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
La Nacion (Argentina)

Por Elisabetta Piqué | LA NACION

ROMA.- En una carta a los presidentes de las Conferencias Episcopales y los Superiores de los Institutos de Vida Consagrada y las Sociedades de Vida Apostólica de todo el mundo, que el Vaticano difundió hoy, el papa Francisco llamó a todos a comprometerse para “erradicar de la Iglesia el flagelo del abuso sexual de menores y abrir un camino de reconciliación y curación para quien ha sufrido abusos”.

“No hay absolutamente lugar en el ministerio para los que abusan de los menores”, reafirmó el pontífice, al pedir a los obispos y religiosos de todo el mundo que colaboren con la comisión para la tutela de menores que creó en diciembre de 2013 -formada por expertos de todo el mundo y también por víctimas-, que se reunirá en Roma este fin de semana.

Confirmando una vez más la política de “tolerancia cero” puesta en marcha por su predecesor, en su epístola Francisco recordó que puso en marcha la comisión para la tutela de menores para “ofrecer propuestas e iniciativas orientadas a mejorar las normas y los procedimientos para la protección de todos los menores y adultos vulnerables, y he llamado a formar parte de dicha Comisión a personas altamente cualificadas y notorias por sus esfuerzos en este campo”.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 5

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

The head of an Episcopal school in Faribault should be fired. So too should any other school board or staff who helped conceal the crimes of a now-convicted teacher.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Let’s be charitable. Let’s assume that lawyers for Shattuck-St. Mary’s school were right. Let’s assume that school president Nick Stoneman had no legal duty to report the pornography on Lynn Seibel’s computer.

Obviously, Stoneman should have called police anyway. But he refused. So more kids were likely hurt.

We’re glad Seibel in now prison. We hope that someday Stoneman will be too. Morally, there’s little difference between those who commit and those who conceal child sex crimes.

And we’re both sad and worried that Minnesota and Rhode Island kids were put in harm’s way by callous, selfish Episcopal school staffers.

Court documents paint a disturbing picture of how Episcopal officials shielded Lynn Seibel.

Minnesota Public Radio reports that Stoneman “agreed to pay a teacher who had child pornography on his work computer $12,500 as part of a confidential separation agreement in 2003,” “didn’t report the illegal images to police,” and “agreed to pay for temporary health insurance for the teacher, provide free tuition for his son and keep the reason for the resignation secret.”

After leaving Minnesota, Seibel’s resume says he worked at the Community College of Rhode Island (starting in 2010), founded the Lancaster Actors Studio in Providence (2009), directed acting at the International Talent Showcase in Providence (from 2005-2009), was an acting instructor at the Rhode Island Modeling Agency in East Providence (from 2005-2009) and was in marketing and sales at Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence (2005-2008). http://www.lynnseibel.com/media/LynnSeibelProfessionalResume.pdf

That’s a lot of time to be around – and potentially assault – a lot of kids. And if Seibel hurt even one, the blame falls squarely on every single board and staff member at Shattuck-St. Mary’s who knew of or suspected his crimes but selfishly kept silent.

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RHODE ISLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 5

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

A man now in prison for child sex crimes was quietly ousted by a Minnesota Episcopal school before he moved to Rhode Island where he taught seven year olds. We’re both sad and worried that Rhode Island kids were put in harm’s way by callous, selfish Episcopal school staffers.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Depositions and court records paint a disturbing picture of how Episcopal officials shielded Lynn Seibel.

Minnesota Public Radio reports “The head of Shattuck-St. Mary’s School agreed to pay a teacher who had child pornography on his work computer $12,500 as part of a confidential separation agreement in 2003. The agreement came two years after an internal investigation was unable to substantiate claims that the teacher had sexually abused students.

The school official, who didn’t report the illegal images to police, also agreed to pay for temporary health insurance for the teacher, provide free tuition for his son and keep the reason for the resignation secret.”

Seibel’s resume says he worked at the Community College of Rhode Island (starting in 2010), founded the Lancaster Actors Studio in Providence (2009), directed acting at the International Talent Showcase in Providence (from 2005-2009), was an acting instructor at the Rhode Island Modeling Agency in East Providence (from 2005-2009) and was in marketing and sales at Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence (2005-2008).

This is another example of how church officials often make secret payments to proven, admitted or credibly accused sex offenders to make or help them quietly “go away” without warning parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors or the public about these dangerous men and women.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) Making the Church a safer place for children will be at the top of the agenda in the Vatican this weekend as the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors holds its first full plenary meeting. Last December Pope Francis named nine new members from different continents to the Commission, which was set up a year earlier and is headed by U.S. Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

The plenary meeting, from February 6th to 8th, will watched closely by survivors of abuse to see how far the Commission can move in implementing new safeguarding measures and in making child protection a priority for the Church in countries right across the globe.

Among the new appointees to the Commission is Peter Saunders, chief executive of NAPAC, the UK’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood. He sat down with Philippa Hitchen to talk about his work with abuse survivors and about his own journey of healing, including a meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican last July….

Saunders says he founded NAPAC nearly 20 years ago as he couldn’t find any support for himself as a survivor of abuse and initially thought he was the only one it had happened to….

He says when he first disclosed the sexual abuse he’d suffered it made everyone feel incredibly uncomfortable and at that time people just wanted to sweep it under the carpet. Now, he says, it’s finally being swept out again and survivors are at last being given a voice…..

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

Protecting children from abuse is more important than protecting the Church from scandal, Pope tells bishops

05 February 2015 by Liz Dodd

Pope Francis has ordered the world’s bishops to co-operate fully with the Vatican’s new abuse commission which has been tasked with improving child protection procedures.

In a letter released this morning ahead of the commission’s first meeting, the Pope said that safeguarding children was the Church’s top priority, and was more important than preserving its reputation or avoiding scandal.

Diocesan bishops and major superiors are responsible for the safety of children and vulnerable adults in their parishes and institutions, he added, and said that parents must be assured that their children are protected.

“Families should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home. Consequently, priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said in the letter, which is addressed to the presidents of bishops’ conferences and superiors of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho February 5, 2015

Today the Holy See released Pope Francis’s February 2 letter to the world’s bishops conferences and religious communities asking for their “complete cooperation” with the sexual-abuse commission he established last March. The commission’s job, the pope explains, “to improve the norms and procedures for protecting children and vulnerable adults,” which–everyone knows–haven’t been working out so well.

In his letter Pope Francis related his own experience meeting with abuse victims. “I was deeply moved by their witness to the depth of their sufferings and the strength of their faith,” he wrote. “This experience reaffirmed my conviction that everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.” Pastors and those in charge of religious communities, the pope wrote, “should be available” to meet with victims and their loved ones. “Such meetings are valuable opportunities for listening to those have greatly suffered and for asking their forgiveness.”

Because families must feel confident that the church is doing all its can to protect the vulnerable from predator priests, Francis continued, “priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal.” To that end, the pope urges local bishops conferences to “fully implement” the sensible 2011 letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recommending a series of abuse-response procedures. Francis also recommends that dioceses periodically review their policies–and make sure they are being followed.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

ROME, Italy — Pope Francis wrote to Catholic bishops around the world Thursday, ordering them to cooperate with investigations into sex abuse and telling them: “Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children.”

The open letter, published on the Vatican website, came a day before the first full meeting of the Church’s own commission to examine investigate and prevent such scandals.

Families “should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home,” the pontiff wrote. “Consequently, priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

One of the members of the commission, Marie Collins of Ireland, herself a victim of sexual abuse, told Reuters that commission members had asked the pope to write a letter to thwart any resistance from bishops to its work.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail

By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE

Pope Francis has said it is fine for parents to smack their children as punishment for misbehaving.

The Pope said parents should punish their children, ‘do the right thing, and then move on,’ as he acted out the movement of smacking a child on the bottom.

The pontiff made the remarks in front of a large crowd during his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

Addressing the crowd, Pope Francis recalled a conversation he had had with a father who had admitted to him that he would sometimes hit his children as punishment.

‘One time, I heard a father say, “At times I have to hit my children a bit, but never in the face so as not to humiliate them”.,’ the Pope said according to the Telegraph.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Government inquiry into historic child sex abuse will now probe Rotherham Asian sex gang scandal as well as claims of Westminster cover-ups

The systematic and unfettered sexual abuse of 1,400 young girls in Rotherham is to be investigated alongside the alleged Westminster VIP paedophile ring, the new chair of the historical child abuse inquiry said today.

New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard, who was appointed by Theresa May yesterday, said lessons must be learned from the 16-year scandal that has engulfed Rotherham.

Yesterday a criminal investigation was launched after a damning report found Rotherham Council is ‘not fit for purpose’ and still ‘in denial’ about girls as young as 11 being left to be abused by mainly Asian men between 1997 and 2013.

The fear of being branded racist turned the issue of child grooming by Pakistani men into a taboo subject which paralysed the council and police into inaction, according to the report.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

Bernard Gallagher
Reader in Social Work and Applied Social Sciences at University of Huddersfield

The home secretary, Theresa May, has announced a series of major developments in the beleaguered and faltering historical child abuse inquiry – the investigation into claims that political figures, and others from a range of institutional backgrounds, sexually abused children and had their crimes covered up.

This inquiry has been beset with problems ever since it was set up in July 2014. Two successive heads of the inquiry, Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf, stood down following concerns over their suitability; there have been criticisms over the inquiry’s powers and remit, as well as claims of bullying involving panel members.

Central to May’s announcement is the appointment of a new inquiry head, Justice Lowell Goddard, a judge of the High Court of New Zealand.

The appointment of Justice Goddard seems an astute, if not inspired, decision. She led an inquiry into police handling of child abuse in New Zealand; was chairperson of the country’s Independent Police Conduct Authority; contributed to setting up the HELP Clinic, for sexual abuse victims; and was an independent expert to the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture.

Last but not least, she is presumably quite far removed from the UK political and legal establishment and consequently brings with her a neutrality that the inquiry desperately needs.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Lora Moftah

The Roman Catholic Church is making every effort to protect children, Pope Francis said Thursday as he ordered bishops around the world to cooperate with a new commission created to prevent child sexual abuse by clerics. The pontiff assured parents that protecting children was the church’s priority in a letter addressed to bishops and religious institutions, Reuters reported.

“Families need to know that the church is making every effort to protect their children … priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” the pope said in the letter.

Francis’ warning came before a meeting of a commission established by the pontiff to reform the church’s approach to handling child sex-abuse cases by clerics, an issue that has severely harmed the church’s reputation in countries around the world, as Agence France-Presse reported. The commission is headed by American Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley. Also serving on it are both clerics and laypeople, including past victims of clerical sexual abuse, such as Marie Collins of Ireland.

Collins responded to the pope’s letter Thursday, saying commission members had specifically requested Francis’ public support before their meeting in Rome Friday to forestall resistance by bishops. “Bishops’ conferences have various views on abuse, as we know,” she told Reuters. “You must pre-empt that. If the commission wants cooperation … then I think a letter from the Holy Father indicating that they [the bishops] should cooperate certainly lends the backing necessary to our work.”

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News

VATICAN CITY — Feb 5, 2015

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

Pope Francis is urging bishops and religious superiors to cooperate with his sex abuse commission, seeking to give the committee a boost as it prepares to meet for the first time with its full membership.

In a letter released Thursday, Francis said the commission is an important new way to encourage the church’s commitment to taking “whatever steps are necessary” to ensure children are protected.

“Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” Francis wrote.

The commission has been slow getting off the ground: Announced in December 2013, it saw its final members added in December 2014 and still has no statutes. But members have divided themselves into working groups focusing on areas such as reaching out to abuse survivors, holding bishops accountable and keeping pedophiles out of the priesthood, and will meet for the first time as a group starting Friday.

Francis formed the commission after initially facing criticism that he had largely ignored the clerical sex abuse scandal that had so tarnished the papacies of his two predecessors. The aim is to come up with best practices for dioceses and religious orders to implement.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 5

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

Again, a pope “talks the talk” on abuse while refusing to take even one real step toward “walking the walk.”

Today, Pope Francis told his staff not to conceal clergy sex crimes. Sadly, this will have no impact whatsoever.

History, psychology and common sense all confirm what every parent knows: People emulate action, not words.

Ironically, some credit the pontiff’s namesake, Saint Francis, with the sage adage “Always remember to preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.” This is precisely what the pope steadfastly refuses to do on abuse and cover up. He’ll talk. But he won’t act.

He believes church officials shouldn’t live like kings. So he’ll sack the “bishop of bling” in a heartbeat while ignoring – and sometimes promoting – prelates who endanger kids, protect predators, and deceive parishioners about abuse.

The most decisive pope in memory who is quickly and dramatically changing church finances, governance and morale remains stunningly unwilling to deal in any meaningful way with the church’s greatest on-going crisis.

Thirteen years ago, Pope John Paul II said: “There is no place in the priesthood or religious life for those who would harm the young.” Today, Pope Francis said almost exactly the same words. (“. . .there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”)

Like their words, the actions of both men – with wounded victims, predatory priests and complicit bishops – are remarkably similar: few, tepid, belated and ineffective. Francis talks about abuse and cover up more, and says even nicer things. But he acts almost the same as his predecessors did.

Some praise Francis for ousting a Paraguay bishop who promoted a credibly accused predator priest. But Vatican officials insist the prelate was sacked for other reasons, not for endangering kids.

Some praise Francis for addressing a Polish archbishop’s child sex crimes. But in our view, he’s doing what virtually every Catholic official does – trying to minimize damage and maintain secrecy by dealing with clergy sex crimes “in house” rather than in the secular criminal courts.

Some praise Francis for appointing yet another church abuse panel. But in our view, that’s the last thing the church needs.

It’s devastating to read Francis say “Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal.” That’s what has driven and still drives the actions of the church hierarchy in abuse cases: fear of hurting their own reputations and clerical careers. And until the Pope defrocks, demotes, disciplines, or at least denounces dozens of bad bishops, this will continu e.

The Associated Press is correct in reporting that “The (new abuse) commission has been slow getting off the ground.” It’s two years in to the Francis papacy and the group is holding its first full meeting this week and its last members were appointed six weeks ago.

But regardless of timing, unless these panel members show unprecedented courage, only more and better words – and more public relations and eventual betrayal – will results from their talks.

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CANADA
CBC News

In Igloolik, some of the victims of former priest Eric Dejaeger were relieved to hear his sentence, while others say it does not go far enough.

Dejaeger was sentenced Wednesday to 19 years in prison for 32 sex crimes. The crimes were committed three decades ago in Igloolik, mostly against children.

William Qamukaq, a community justice outreach worker in the community, says victims’ feelings are mixed.​

“Some of them may feel that the sentence was too light, some of them may have felt it was too short, but of course it’s a relief for them to know how many years he has.”

After charges were laid in Igloolik in 1995, Dejaeger fled to his native Belgium.

Lieve Halsberghe, a human rights activist in Belgium, campaigned to have Dejaeger returned to Canada to face the charges.

“Five years ago we never thought this was possible. I was afraid I would hurt people in Canada, in Nunavut especially, by stirring up this old story,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent

Pope Francis has urged bishops and religious superiors to cooperate with his sex abuse commission.

The Pope is seeking to give the committee a boost as it meets for the first time on Friday with its full membership.

In a letter, Francis said the commission is an important new way to encourage the church’s commitment to taking “whatever steps are necessary” to ensure children are protected.

He wrote: “Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 5 February 2015 (VIS) – Pope Francis has written a letter to the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences and the superiors of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, in which he calls for collaboration with the Commission for the Protection of Minors, instituted in March 2014. The following is the full text of the letter, signed in the Vatican on 2 February, feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

“Last March I established the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which had first been announced in December 2013, for the purpose of offering proposals and initiatives meant to improve the norms and procedures for protecting children and vulnerable adults. I then appointed to the Commission a number of highly qualified persons well-known for their work in this field.

At my meeting in July with persons who had suffered sexual abuse by priests, I was deeply moved by their witness to the depth of their sufferings and the strength of their faith. This experience reaffirmed my conviction that everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.

For this reason, last December I added new members to the Commission, in order to represent the Particular Churches throughout the world. In just a few days, all the members will meet in Rome for the first time.

In light of the above, I believe that the Commission can be a new, important and effective means for helping me to encourage and advance the commitment of the Church at every level – Episcopal Conferences, Dioceses, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and others – to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, and to respond to their needs with fairness and mercy.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran Feb 5, 2015

The head of Shattuck-St. Mary’s School agreed to pay a teacher who had child pornography on his work computer $12,500 as part of a confidential separation agreement in 2003, according to recently released police reports and court documents. The agreement came two years after an internal investigation was unable to substantiate claims that the teacher had sexually abused students.

The school official, who didn’t report the illegal images to police, also agreed to pay for temporary health insurance for the teacher, provide free tuition for his son and keep the reason for the resignation secret.

Nine years later, the teacher, Lynn Seibel, was criminally charged for possessing child pornography and sexually abusing six students at the Faribault boarding school from 1999 to 2003. He later pleaded guilty to several counts.

The documents show how Shattuck-St. Mary’s Head of School Nick Stoneman, who is now the school’s president worked with the school’s lawyer to approve a resignation letter in which Seibel said he wanted to pursue an acting career in Minneapolis.

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ROME
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Thu, Feb 5, 2015

It is not often that a Vatican Pontifical Council opts to kick off its annual plenary session in a downtown Rome theatre with a nice little nightclub “combo” purring away corner-stage. Yet that was happened yesterday afternoon at the Teatro Argentina in Rome when the Pontifical Council for Culture kicked off its much-discussed four-day plenary session on the theme, Women’s Culture: Equality and Difference.

This is a Vatican “happening” intended to focus on topics such as gender identity, inequality, female poverty and violence against women. However, its working document has already caused a major stir by suggesting that abuse of non-medico therapeutic plastic surgery is, essentially, “a burqa made of flesh”.

That statement hardly seemed consistent with the fact that the Italian actor used to promote the event, Nancy Brilli, is a glamorous lady who not only lives with a plastic surgeon but who has also had non-medical plastic surgery. In the end, the promotional film made with Brilli was removed from the Vatican website, following complaints predominantly from the “anglophonic” world and in particular the US.

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VATICAN CITY
Houston Chronicle

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is urging bishops and religious superiors to cooperate with his sex abuse commission, seeking to give the committee a boost as it meets for the first time Friday with its full membership.

In a letter released Thursday, Francis said the commission is an important new way to encourage the church’s commitment to taking “whatever steps are necessary” to ensure children are protected.

He wrote: “Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Appeal

New contract and handbook language proposed by the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco this week warning Catholic high school faculty and staff that homosexual relations and other sexual activities outside of marriage are “gravely evil” has led to an outcry by the LGBT community and its supporters.

In a letter sent this week to teachers in the Archdiocesan Catholic High Schools, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wrote that the schools must strive to be truly Catholic institutions. In an effort to reach that goal, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is adding statements of Catholic teaching on sexual morality and religious practice into the faculty and staff handbooks of the four archdiocesan high schools and proposing new contract language to “clarify” the church’s view.

The handbook additions, which would take effect in the 2015-16 school year, will apply to Archbishop Riordan High School and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco, as well as Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield and Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo.

According to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, there are about 315 teachers at the four schools who belong to the teacher’s union, which is currently negotiating a new contract, expected to take effect on Aug. 1.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A former housemaster who molested ten boys – including a chorister picked to sing at his wedding – was jailed for 10 years today.

David Lowe smiled and waved at his wife as he was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.

61-year-old Lowe put pupils through years of sexual abuse while teaching at two of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools.

The tutor sexually assaulted six boys at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and four at Ampleforth College – the leading Catholic school in North Yorkshire – between 1978 and 1984.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol Post

A Catholic public school master from Bristol who molested ten boys including a chorister picked to sing at his wedding was jailed for ten years today.

David Lowe, 61, from Charlotte Street South, in Clifton, put pupils through years of sexual abuse while teaching at two of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools.

The tutor sexually assaulted six boys at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and four at Ampleforth College – the leading Catholic school in North Yorkshire – between 1978 and 1984.

Married Lowe crept around boys’ dormitories at night fondling and spanking them as they drifted off to sleep in their bunk-beds.

The father-of-five also carried out attacks during piano lessons and even in a sick bay.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A teacher who sexually abused boys at two prestigious Catholic boarding schools has been jailed for 10 years.

David Lowe, 61, from Bristol, who is now retired, assaulted boys aged from eight to 13 between 1978 and 1984, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The offences took place at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

He targeted 10 boys, leaving treats for them and spanking them at his home, the jury heard.

Lowe was convicted of 15 counts of indecent assault.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

5 February 2015 By David Mercer

A former housemaster at a prestigious Catholic private school has been jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing pupils.

David Lowe, 61, took advantage of boys as they slept in their dormitory beds and during singing lessons at Westminster Cathedral Choir School, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.

Lowe invited the youngsters to his flat and “spanked” them when they had broken school rules. He also crept into the vulnerable pupils’ dormitory and touched them intimately while carrying out night-time checks, his trial was told.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Lettera del Santo Padre ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata e le Società di vita apostolica circa la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori, 05.02.2015

Lettera del Santo Padre ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata e le Società di vita apostolica circa la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori

Lettera del Santo Padre

Traduzione in lingua inglese

Traduzione in lingua spagnola

Pubblichiamo di seguito il testo della Lettera inviata da Papa Francesco ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata e delle Società di vita apostolica circa la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori:

Lettera del Santo Padre

Ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali
e ai Superiori degli Istituti di vita consacrata
e le Società di vita apostolica

Nel marzo dell’anno scorso ho istituito la Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori, annunciata già nel dicembre 2013, con lo scopo di offrire proposte e iniziative orientate a migliorare le norme e le procedure per la protezione di tutti i minori e degli adulti vulnerabili, e ho chiamato a farne parte personalità altamente qualificate e note per il loro impegno in questo campo.

Nel luglio successivo, l’incontro con alcune persone che hanno subito abusi sessuali da parte di sacerdoti mi ha offerto l’occasione di essere diretto e commosso testimone dell’intensità delle loro sofferenze e della solidità della loro fede. Ciò mi ha ulteriormente confermato nella convinzione che occorre continuare a fare tutto il possibile per sradicare dalla Chiesa la piaga degli abusi sessuali sui minori e aprire una via di riconciliazione e di guarigione in favore di coloro che sono stati abusati.

Per questi motivi, lo scorso dicembre ho aggiunto alla Commissione alcuni nuovi membri, in rappresentanza delle Chiese particolari di tutto il mondo. E fra pochi giorni, tutti i membri si incontreranno a Roma per la prima volta.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

[with audio]

2015-02-05 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences and Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life to ask for their complete co-operation with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, in order to insure that everything possible is done to rid the Church of “the scourge” of the sexual abuse of children

Below is the English language translation of the Pope’s letter

Last March I established the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which had first been announced in December 2013, for the purpose of offering proposals and initiatives meant to improve the norms and procedures for protecting children and vulnerable adults. I then appointed to the Commission a number of highly qualified persons well-known for their work in this field.

At my meeting in July with persons who had suffered sexual abuse by priests, I was deeply moved by their witness to the depth of their sufferings and the strength of their faith. This experience reaffirmed my conviction that everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.

For this reason, last December I added new members to the Commission, in order to represent the Particular Churches throughout the world. In just a few days, all the members will meet in Rome for the first time.

In light of the above, I believe that the Commission can be a new, important and effective means for helping me to encourage and advance the commitment of the Church at every level – Episcopal Conferences, Dioceses, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and others – to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, and to respond to their needs with fairness and mercy.

Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children. They should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home. Consequently, priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Carol Glatz posted Thursday, 5 Feb 2015

Francis has written to bishops’ conferences and religious orders across the world

The leaders of the world’s bishops’ conferences and religious orders must ensure that they are doing everything possible to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse and are offering appropriate care for victims and their families, Pope Francis has said.

“Priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said in a written letter.

The letter, dated February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, was sent to the presidents of national bishops’ conferences worldwide and the superiors of religious orders. The Vatican released a copy of the letter today on the Feast of St Agatha.

In his letter, the Pope said: “Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children. They should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 5, 2015 NCR Today

VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis has written a letter to the leaders of the world’s bishops’ conferences and the various Catholic religious orders, asking them to cooperate fully with all initiatives to prevent sexual abuse of minors and to protect those vulnerable with “fairness and mercy.”

Exhorting the leaders to give “close and complete cooperation” to a new Vatican commission advising him on abuse, Francis also states plainly: “There is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors.”

The pope’s letter, dated Feb. 2, was released by the Vatican Thursday. Its release comes one day before the new papal commission on the issues is to meet for the first time at the Vatican with all 17 of its members.

That commission, which is led by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, will be meeting in Rome Friday-Sunday. Announced in December 2013, Francis added new members to it just last December and has included two survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the number.

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

By PHILIP PULLELLA, Reuters February 5, 2015

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Thursday ordered Roman Catholic bishops around the world to fully cooperate with a commission he set up to protect children from sexual abuse by clerics and to give the issue top priority even if it unearths new scandals.

The pope sent the letter to the bishops and heads of religious institutions a day before the commission, which he established last year, was due to hold its first full meeting.

In the letter, the pope says: “Everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.”

“Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children …priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said.

One of the members of the commission, Marie Collins of Ireland, herself a victim of sexual abuse, told Reuters that commission members had asked the pope to write a letter to thwart any resistance from bishops to its work.

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VATICAN CITY
Jerusalem Post

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Thursday ordered Roman Catholic bishops around the world to fully cooperate with a commission he set up to protect children from sexual abuse by clerics and to give the issue top priority even if it unearths new scandals.

The pope sent the letter to the bishops and heads of religious institutions a day before the commission, which he established last year, was due to hold its first full meeting.

In the letter, the pope says: “Everything possible must be done to rid the Church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.”

“Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children …priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” he said.

One of the members of the commission, Marie Collins of Ireland, herself a victim of sexual abuse, told Reuters that commission members had asked the pope to write a letter to thwart any resistance from bishops to its work.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Agence France-Presse in Vatican City
Thursday 5 February 2015

Pope Francis has sent Catholic clergy a powerful reminder of their duty to stamp out sexual abuse of children by priests, warning that they must never let a fear of scandal lead to cover-ups.

In a strongly worded letter to the heads of national bishops’ conferences and religious orders, Francis demanded “close and complete” cooperation with a new child protection commission he has established at the Vatican.

The commission has been given a brief to drive reform on an issue that has severely damaged the church’s authority and reputation in many countries around the world.

Headed by the American cardinal Sean O’Mally, it includes both clerics and lay people, including two victims of paedophile priests, Marie Collins from Ireland and Peter Sanders from Britain. All 16 members, nine men and seven women, will meet for the first time in Rome on Friday.

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CONNECTICUT
Daily Journal

GREENWICH, Connecticut — The Bridgeport Diocese has suspended a Greenwich priest for an alleged incident of child abuse.

Greenwich Time reports (http://bit.ly/18QcL8Y ) that Bishop Frank Caggiano informed diocese members on Wednesday of “credible evidence” that Stephen DeLuca committed one incident of child abuse more than 30 years ago.

Caggiano placed DeLuca on administrative leave and said he may no longer live at St. Catherine of Siena Church. Details were not released.

The diocese referred the matter to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families but criminal charges are not being pursued.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

02/04/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Obviously, I want to see the victims of sexual abuse by clergy adequately compensated for the harm that was done to them. And, I want to see this compensation provided sooner rather than later. Recent bankruptcy proceedings involving Catholic dioceses suggest that the easiest way for this to happen is by the insurance companies agreeing to ‘pony up’ big money to provide monetary compensation to victims and other creditors. However, when the news broke in November of 2014 that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was suing its insurers for refusing to pay on abuse claims, my sympathies went immediately to the insurers.

After all, most if not all of the companies involved in the Archdiocese’s suit are publicly held, and therefore they have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders. And, in many cases there is truth to their argument that the abuse that resulted in these claims was not an ‘accident’ or ‘occurrence’ but an expected event that, if unintended, the Archdiocese should have been able to foresee and prevent. Moreover, in my experience the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis continued to reassign clergy guilty of misconduct even after receiving notice from its insurers that there would no coverage of the individual going forward.

Take, for instance, the case of Father Stanley Maslowski. In 1991, Father Maslowski served time for the theft of nearly $200,000 during a three year period from the parish at which he had been assigned, Saint Thomas of Corcoran. At the time that he was assigned to the parish the Archdiocese was aware that Father Maslowski had a serious sex addiction, and thought it likely he had embezzled from Saint Pius in White Bear Lake. Nonetheless, they were apparently taken by surprise by the more recent theft, which went to fund sex binges that by Maslowski’s own admission often cost up to $1000 a week. In Corcoran. In the 1980s.

Barely more than two years after his release from the workhouse, Father Maslowski was back in ministry in this Archdiocese (on the condition that he end his friendship with the notorious madam Rebecca Rand), despite the fact that the Archdiocese had received notice from Catholic Mutual- Catholic Mutual!!!!- that they would not provide insurance coverage for him if he was reinstated. And, despite serious concerns about his ongoing behavior, he remained in ministry until the summer of 2013, when he was removed due to ‘a change in the church’s political climate’.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Rosa Prince, Assistant Political Editor

Justice Lowell Goddard, the newly appointed chairman of the inquiry into historic sexual abuse, has said her panel will not report back until 2018 but promised it would remain under control by setting ‘achievable goals’.

Following the chaos which surrounded the first attempts to set up the inquiry, with the departures of two chairmen over claims they were too close to the “Establishment,” Justice Goddard promised that victims would play a key role in selecting the new panel and setting its parameters.

Asked if she herself felt equipped to take on “the Establishment,” she said: “Well, I’m a judge so that’s not a new thing for me.

“It’s very important to remember that at the forefront of the inquiry, and indeed the centre of this inquiry, are the survivors of child sexual abuse.

“Their views will inform the inquiry throughout and at the outset will be hugely beneficial in formulating the composition of the panel and setting the terms of reference and scoping the inquiry.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Matthew Weaver
Thursday 5 February 2015

The New Zealand judge appointed to be the third head of the troubled investigation into historical allegations of child abuse has confirmed that she will consider looking into cases as far back as 1945 and that the inquiry could last four years.

Justice Lowell Goddard said there was a balance to be struck between the need for a thorough investigation and making it manageable and timely. But in radio interviews she confirmed that she would consider claims going back before 1970 – the cut-off point of previous inquiries.

Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Goddard said: “I believe there are some persons involved in this who are survivors of abuse who would like to see it go back to the end of world war II and the beginning of the welfare state. The breadth of the inquiry is something that will need to be seriously discussed when I get to England. Clearly, people want to have the experiences they have suffered exorcised. It is a question too of making the inquiry manageable … and outline the way forward in a relatively timely way. But I’m under no illusion that this will take several years.”

Asked how long, she said: “The indication I have been given is three years, possibility into a fourth. I can’t predict anything further than that at this stage.”

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

The most active are the cardinals, the bishops, the theologians who want to innovate in Church doctrine and practice on marriage and homosexuality. But in the first round of elections for the next synod, the defenders of tradition are much more numerous

by Sandro Magister

ROME, February 5, 2015 – As pre-announced by the secretary general of the synod of bishops, Lorenzo Baldisseri (in the photo), the first selection of participants at the assembly next October has been made public, after their election by their respective episcopal conferences.

What the delegation of the United States would be like was already known. The four appointees are all against the admission of the divorced and remarried to communion – a crucial point of the clash underway – while one of Pope Francis’s favorites, the progressive Blase Cupich, fresh from his promotion to the important archdiocese of Chicago, has not been elected.

France’s delegation appears more balanced, with the progressive Jean-Luc Brunin, president of the commission for the family of the French episcopal conference, counterbalanced by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris.

Among the delegates of Spain, the one who received the most votes is the archbishop of Valladolid and president of the episcopal conference, new cardinal Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, for years a staunch supporter of the Neocatechumenal Way, which is the Catholic movement most engaged in defending the traditional model of the family. While the pope’s favorite, new archbishop of Madrid Carlos Osoro Sierra, made it onto the roster only by a hair, passing by just one vote the conservative Juan Antonio Reig Plá, bishop of Alcalá de Henares.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 05, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

ONE of Australia’s leading Orthodox rabbis has admitted asking his son to contact a convicted pedophile to confirm whether a conversation they had while the paedophile was molesting at a Jewish school in Sydney included a confession.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, head of the Chabad movement in NSW, today told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he had wanted to “refresh” his memory about the conversation, before providing his evidence.

Counsel assisting the commission Maria Gerace told the hearing in Melbourne that Rabbi Feldman’s son, Rabbi Eli Feldman, had contacted Daniel Hayman last September asking for details of a conversation with his father which Hayman had described to police after being arrested for child sex offences.

Hayman pleaded guilty in May to indecently assaulting a child under his authority at a camp run by the Yeshiva centre in Bondi.

Asked if he had requested his son to contact Hayman on his behalf, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman said: “You can say so … to refresh my memory if there was something that I didn’t recall.”

A copy of Hayman’s interview with police shows he told detectives he had spoken with Rabbi Boruch Lesches around the time he was abused the victim in the late 1980s, and Rabbi Lesches told him to “stay away” from young boys.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 5, 2015

Jane Lee

The spiritual orthodox Jewish leader of NSW says he does not recall warning convicted sex offender Daniel Hayman to stay away from younger boys at Yeshiva Bondi.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, the former head of Yeshiva College Bondi, repeatedly denied receiving complaints about Hayman abusing younger boys at youth camps organised by Yeshiva during the 1980s, at the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Thursday.

Hayman told police before he was sentenced for indecent assault in 2011 that he remembered senior rabbi Boruch Lesches telling him to “stay away” from younger boys, and had a “vague recollection” that Rabbi Feldman had also spoken to him about this, the commission heard.

When police asked in what context the conversation with Rabbi Feldman took place, Hayman said: “A similar thing to what Rabbi Lesches spoke about, to keep away.”

“From the younger boys?” the police officer asked. “Yes, yes,” Hayman said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 5, 2015

Jane Lee

The head of Sydney’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community did not tell police that a rabbinical student accused of child sexual abuse was planning to leave Australia because he did not think it was necessary.

Appearing before the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Thursday, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, the former head of Yeshiva College Bondi, was questioned on the way he dealt with abuse claims against the student, known as AVL.

About July 2002, a parent complained that AVL – then a teacher’s aide at ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshiva Centre – had abused their child at a local synagogue’s youth camp, the commission heard. Within two days, he had left Australia.

AVL met Rabbi Pinchus Feldman and his son a day after the complaint was made. AVL maintained his innocence and told them he might go back to America.

He had already been told not to return to work until further notice.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Thursday 5 February 2015

The head of an Orthodox Jewish college in Sydney said he had no obligation to tell police that an alleged child abuser and staff member was planning to leave the country.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman said that in 2002 the alleged abuser, identified only as AVL, was told by leaders of the Yeshiva college in Bondi that a complaint had been made against him and that authorities would be notified.

Just a few hours later, AVL told Feldman he might leave the country, to which Feldman responded: “We are not holding you back”, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse heard.

AVL, a rabbinical student and teaching assistant at the college, left Sydney less than 48 hours later and now lives in the US. He has never been charged, the commission hearing at Melbourne county court heard.

“He held his own ticket and made his own decision as to what he wanted to do,” said Feldman, who is also the head emissary for New South Wales.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Jewish leader put girl, 12, into sex offender Daniel Hayman’s care, royal commission hears

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 05, 2015

A SENIOR Jewish leader placed a 12-year-old girl in the care of a now convicted sex offender despite being told he had abused a string of boys, the royal commission has heard.

The young girl said while she was staying with Daniel “Gug” Hayman he indecently assaulted her and would often walk around totally naked.

She was put in his care after being sent to Sydney to study from interstate by her parents.

“Gug would walk out of the bedroom completely naked. I would be sitting on the couch doing my homework and I would be completely shocked. I had never seen a male naked before,” she said.

For years rumours about Hayman had circulated and a string of boys say they complained to senior Chabad leader Rabbi Boruch Lesches.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A senior Australian rabbi told a suspected child sex offender he wouldn’t hold him back if he tried to leave the country.

The head of the Chabad Jewish community in NSW, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, says he didn’t think it his responsibility to notify police that the man intended leaving Australia or that he did so within 48 hours of a complaint being made.

The rabbi gave evidence on Thursday to the royal commission investigating responses by institutions, in this case Yeshiva Bondi in Sydney, to reports of child sexual abuse.

Rabbi Feldman says he met with the suspect, known as AVL, the day after an abuse complaint over an incident at a synagogue camp in 2002.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jean Edwards

One of Australia’s Orthodox Jewish leaders has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse he did not believe he had an obligation to stop an accused paedophile leaving the country.

The commission heard the student at Sydney’s Yeshivah Centre left Australia less than 48 hours after a complaint was made against him in 2002.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman said he did not tell authorities he thought the accused might go to America.

“I did not believe that I have that obligation,” Rabbi Feldman said.

“I did not act, I did not notify the police that he said that he may be going.

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ECUADOR
El Diario

[A priest received an 20-year prison sentence for alleged rape of a teenager. The decision is on appeal.]

A 20 años de cárcel fue sentenciado un sacerdote acusado de una presunta violación a una adolescente, por parte del Tribunal de Garantías Penales de Santo Domingo. El fallo es de segunda instancia.

La información fue proporcionada por Jorge Montero, fiscal provincial de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

Montero explicó que la sentencia se emitió el martes por la tarde, luego de la audiencia de juzgamiento.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The historical child sex abuse inquiry in England and Wales must not “drag on” and will have achievable goals, its new chairwoman has said.

New Zealand High Court judge Lowell Goddard said she would run a “very effective” investigation so that it could protect children in the future.

The inquiry would have sex abuse victims at its “centre”, she said.

The independent inquiry into how public bodies dealt with allegations of child sex abuse may last until 2018.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that her first step on reaching the UK would be to set “clear objectives”.

“It is a very broad landscape, and the inquiry is very complex and multi-faceted, but it needs to be achievable as well,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

February 5, 2015
The Canberra Times

Editorial

ACT Policing has launched, with some fanfare, an operation to investigate allegations of sexual abuse at institutions in Canberra as long ago as 1951.

As part of the launch, an open letter was published online this week inviting individuals to report incidents of historical sexual abuse, whether as victims or witnesses to such crimes. The letter reassures potential complainants that their matters will be overseen by a “small team of highly trained members who have extensive experience in investigating historical sexual abuse matters”.

Operation Attest, as it has been called, is the outcome of amendments passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly in October 2013 repealing two statutory limitation periods relating to certain historic sexual offences committed between 1951-85. Those amendments, in turn, are an outcome of revelations at the long-running Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that victims of abuse have frequently been prevented from pursuing criminal charges against their abusers by statutes of limitations in the states and territories.

In the ACT’s case, criminal proceedings for some sexual offences, including indecent assault of a male, had to be started within 12 months of the alleged offence.

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KANSAS
Chanute Tribune

Michael Wayne Hill of Erie pleaded not guilty to two counts of capital sexual battery in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday.

Hill was the pastor of Seventh Day Adventist Churches in Chanute and several other SEK towns in and near Neosho County until his arrest Jan. 8 in Volusia County, Fla.

Hill is accused of two incidents that occurred in 1990 in Jacksonville while the alleged victim, now an adult, was 11 years old. Hill was arrested while meeting with his accuser. His wife, Marla Hill, was also questioned and released.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, spiritual head of the Sydney Yeshiva and leader of Chabad NSW has apologised to those who suffered child sexual abuse when attending the Yeshiva.

The apology was made at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Melbourne at the end of the fourth day. The Commission has heard evidence from two prominent rabbis that the Jewish practice of mesura which prohibits Jews from advising secular authorities of the misdemeanors of fellow Jews does not apply halachically in cases of child sexual abuse. In fact, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick and Rabbi Pincus Feldman both told the Commission that Jews are obliged to advise the authorities if they become aware of complaints of child sex abuse.

In his closing statement to the Commission, Rabbi Feldman said: “As Head of Chabad in NSW and on behalf of the entire movement I would like to say to the victims: we are sorry that you suffered; it breaks my heart personally and it breaks all of our hearts. We are sorry that you continue to suffer from the ramifications of how those experiences have affected your life, and we give you our solemn commitment that absolutely everything in our power is being done and will continue to be done to ensure that others don’t ever go through t he same suffering.”

His full statement:

“I would like to start by thanking G-d Almighty for the blessing of living in this great country of Australia, which is investing large amount of resources, including this Royal Commission, in ensuring the safety of our society as a place where the dignity of every human being is upheld, including the most vulnerable such as children.

Although I have been unable to be here in the courtroom for the entire proceedings due to circumstances beyond my control, I have been closely following the broadcast.

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

BY MARISSA LANG
MLANG@SACBEE.COM
02/04/2015

Sacramento police arrested a 42-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a teenager he met while working as a choir director at New Testament Baptist Church in North Highlands.

In September, police received a report alleging a sexual relationship between a teenage boy and Kareem Abdul Mitchell that spanned from 2005 to 2008. The alleged victim is now an adult. He told police that he met Mitchell when Mitchell was working at the church on 34th Street off Watt Avenue.

Similar accusations were leveled against Mitchell twice before, while he was working as the choir director, but no charges were ever filed, police said.

On Tuesday, police obtained a warrant for Mitchell’s arrest.

He was taken into custody at police headquarters, where he was being interviewed by detectives.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Police say a man has been arrested on allegations he carried out a sexual relationship with minor for years.

According to the Sacramento Police Department, investigators received a report in Sept. 2014 that 42-year-old Kareem Mitchell had carried out a sexual relationship with a teen boy from 2005 to 2008. Mitchell was working as a choir director at New Testament Baptist Church in North Highlands at the time.

On Tuesday, detectives obtained a warrant for Mitchell and took him into custody later that day. He was booked at Sacramento County Jail on charges of sodomy, oral copulation and others.

Police note there had been other similar allegations against Mitchell in the past, but charges were never filed.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

Nick Janes

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A church choir director is under arrest, accused of sexually assaulting a minor, after the victim came forward with the allegations years later.

Sacramento Police say Kareem Mitchell met his victim, who is now an adult, while working as the choir director at the New Testament Baptist Church in North Highlands. It’s a position the 42-year-old holds to this day.

Investigators say the victim was a minor in his late teens at the time of the sexual relationship between 2005 and 2008, and came forward in September last year. Police believe there could be more victims.

Rev. Donnie Bryant is urging people to let the legal process run its course before passing judgement.

“The thought of these young boys and the offense that they went through, if this is true, it’s devastating,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
News 10

[with video]

Carlos Saucedo, KXTV February 5, 2015

A church community in North Highlands is in shock after learning of serious sexual allegations involving one of their own.

Church choir director 42-year-old Kareem Mitchell is behind bars for allegedly having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a male teenager.

The allegations troubled the congregation at New Testament Baptist Church.

“The pain of something like that, if it’s true, is a very deep pain, I do believe as a pastor,” church pastor Donnie Bryant said. “First reaction is praying and hoping it’s an allegation. The second one is that if it’s not — the families that have been hurt, the children, who are now young men, these teenagers, that’s our greatest concern.”

Sacramento police said the relationship dates back to 2005 when Mitchell met his victim while working as the choir director. The alleged relationship lasted for three years.

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CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

FEBRUARY 4, 2015, BY IAN MCDONALD

NORTH HIGHLANDS-

Sacramento Police arrested a man suspected of sexual assault of a minor Tuesday.

Investigators say 42-year-old Kareem Mitchell was in a sexual relationship with a teen boy from 2005 to 2008. The two met while Mitchell worked as a choir director at the New Testament Baptist church in the North Highlands area, detectives said.

According to police, Mitchell had already been investigated for similar accusations but no charges were ever filed.

Mitchell was ultimately arrested Tuesday, and booked into Sacramento County Jail on sex charges including sodomy and oral copulation.

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

[with video]

STARTS RIGHT NOW. TONIGHT, A SACRAMENTO CHOIR DIRECTOR IN JAIL ACCUSED OF CHILD SEX ABUSE. AND INVESTIGATORS ARE WORRIED THERE MAY BE ADDITIONAL VICTIMS WHO HAVEN’T COME FORWARD. THE ALLEGED VICTIM SAYS IT HAPPENED BETWEEN 2005 AND 2008 WITH KAREEM MITCHELL, A CHOIR DIRECTOR AT THE NEW TESTAMENT BAPTIST CHURCH IN NORTH HIGHLANDS.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Posted: 02/04/2015, 07:38pm | Sam Charles

A new lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago accuses the church of perpetuating a “public nuisance” by keeping convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack in positions with access to children despite accusations of abuse.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of John Doe 239.

With the “public nuisance” accusation, attorneys for the plaintiff are asking the court to order the Archdiocese to “publicly release the history of abuse of each accused child-molesting cleric,” the suit stated.

John Doe 239 was sexually abused by McCormack between 2000 and 2006 while he was a student and altar boy at St. Agatha church and school on the West Side, the suit stated. The two-count suit also alleges negligence.

“In January and November of 2014, the Archdiocese of Chicago voluntarily released almost 22,000 pages of documents related to 66 Archdiocesan priests who have at least one substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor,” the Archdiocese said in a statement. “None of the priests’ names have been redacted or removed to conceal the identity of abusers, and most of them have been listed on the Archdiocesan website since 2006.”

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Ken Borsuk
Published 11:20 pm, Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Bridgeport Diocese has suspended a priest for an alleged incident of child abuse.

Bishop Frank Caggiano released a letter Wednesday informing diocese members there was “credible evidence” that Stephen DeLuca committed one incident of child abuse more than 30 years ago.

DeLuca had been serving as priest in residence at St. Catherine of Siena Church in the Riverside section of Greenwich and was the chaplain at Greenwich Hospital. Before that, he had served as pastor of St. Agnes Church in Cos Cob for many years.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

[with video]

By Saliqa Khan

BALTIMORE —Bishop Heather Cook has been indicted on 13 charges for her alleged role in the death of Baltimore cyclist Thomas Palermo.

The Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City released the grand jury indictment Wednesday afternoon.

This is a normal step in this process. Cook was initially charged by police. Now a grand jury has issued an indictment, a reflection of how serious the charges are:

* Automobile manslaughter
* Manslaughter by vehicle or vessel — criminally negligent homicide
* Homicide by motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, per se
*Homicide by motor vehicle while impaired
* Failure to stop the vehicle as close as possible to the scene of the accident and failure to remain at scene of the accident that might result in death
* Failure to stop the vehicle as close as possible to the scene of the accident and failure to remain at scene of the accident that might result in serious bodily injury
* Driving while under the influence of alcohol
* Driving while under the influence of alcohol, per se
* Driving while impaired
* Texting while driving during an accident that results in death or serious bodily injury
* Texting while driving
* Reckless driving
* Negligent driving

Palermo, 41, was fatally struck on the 5700 block of Roland Avenue on Dec. 27. Cook’s alleged blood alcohol level was .22, nearly three times the legal limit.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Brew

A city grand jury has indicted Episcopal Bishop Heather E. Cook on additional counts arising from her fatal crash with bicyclist Tom Palermo on December 27, the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office announced this afternoon.

In addition to four original criminal charges involving manslaughter, homicide by a motor vehicle while impaired, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and several traffic charges – Cook was indicted today on a series of related counts, including reckless driving, negligent driving, drunk driving, texting while driving and failure to stop a vehicle as close as possible to the scene of an accident.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Media Group

By Staff Reporter

A man abused by pedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth has appealed to the authorities to make an interim compensation payment to the victims of predatory clerics who ran state-sanctioned care homes.

Sam Adair, who was repeatedly abused by Fr Brendan Smyth when he was ‘in care’ at Nazareth Lodge on the Ormeau Road, warned yesterday that the slow pace of the institutional abuse enquiry could mean that the first payments to the abused “will be funeral payments”.

in the seventies and eighties, Fr Brendan Smyth had the free run of Catholic care homes and schools across Belfast where he was a favourite of nuns who unwittingly allowed him access to pupils. After church authorities were aware Smyth was a pedophile, he moved into Nazareth Lodge even though he had no formal role in the institution.

“He raped and abused hundreds of children here, in Britain and in the US,” said Sam Adair. “The irony is that this inquiry isn’t bringing us any new information because the state and the church knew about the activities of priests like Brendan Smyth since the fifties when the records show the perpetrators were moved south of the border by their orders. The police knew all about this but claimed they could do nothing once the abusers were moved out of the jurisdiction.”

Former Archbishop Sean Brady was embroiled in the Smyth scandal when it emerged he had been among three priests who were informed in 1975 by victim Brendan Boland that he had been abused by the serial rapist while aged 11. Smyth went on to abuse dozens more victims after Brendan Boland was sworn to silence by the church enquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Jerusalem Post

A senior Australian rabbi told a government commission of inquiry on Wednesday that the Jewish-Australian Orthodox community was guilty of covering up sex crimes against its members, going so far as to use intimidation to prevent people from coming forward.

In testimony before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, a senior Chabad leader in Sydney and the head of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia, said that “a culture of cover-up, often couched in religious terms, pervaded our thinking and our actions.”

Gutnick asserted that those who reported abuse were labeled mosers (“informers”), and subjected to social ostracism, according to The Guardian.

Such actions are a “gross misuse of rabbinic power,” he said, adding that those who push for victims to go to their rabbis rather than the authorities are trying to “hush it up, to cover it up, to prevent the victim from finding redress. There is no doubt at all: Mesira [‘informing’] has no application whatsoever to instances of child sexual abuse. To use mesira in this way is an abomination.”

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