ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Pewsitter

By Frank Walker
Pewsitter.com

Archbishop Paglia, the postulator for the cause of once-blocked Liberation Theology icon, Oscar Romero, and perhaps the only person who seems to have first-hand knowledge that Pope Benedict supposedly lifted it after blocking it for a generation, is being accused of fraud.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, a Vatican official, is under investigation by Italian prosecutors on suspicion of embezzlement and price fixing during the sale of an historic castle, according to media reports Wednesday.

The sale of the San Girolamo castle in central Italy has already led to the arrest of two employees of the diocese of Terni where Paglia, who is president of the Holy See’s council for family matters, was bishop.

Now prosecutors are probing Paglia on allegations of criminal conspiracy and fraud in relation to the sale of the castle four years ago to real estate company IMI immobiliare, which was headed by one of the arrested diocese employees.

Diocese funds were allegedly used illegally and money was found to be missing from diocese funds.

According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which cited the prosecutor for the city of Terni in central Italy, Paglia is alleged to be one of the instigators of the fraud.

The mountain of things we are supposed to believe in the new FrancisChurch just gets higher and higher! Pope Francis doesn’t endorse the condemned Communist-produced heresy of Liberation Theology and neither did murdered, I mean ‘martyred,’ Archbishop Romero, but both of them repeatedly spoke and acted just like Liberation Theologists. Both associated with the leaders of the movement and receive their praises, and the FrancisChurch has placed its guiding ‘lights’ at the seats of highest honor in the Church.

The denials are perfunctory. The beatification itself is telling. Martyred for loving the poor? How do you love the poor by defending Marxist guerillas?

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ITALY
The Local

Published: 28 May 2015

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, a Vatican official, is under investigation by Italian prosecutors on suspicion of embezzlement and price fixing during the sale of an historic castle, according to media reports on Wednesday.

The sale of the San Girolamo castle in central Italy has already led to the arrest of two employees of the diocese of Terni where Paglia, who is president of the Holy See’s council for family matters, was bishop.

Now prosecutors are probing Paglia on allegations of criminal conspiracy and fraud in relation to the sale of the castle four years ago to real estate company IMI immobiliare, which was headed by one of the arrested diocese employees.

Diocese funds were allegedly used illegally and money was found to be missing from diocese funds.

According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which cited the prosecutor for the city of Terni in central Italy, Paglia is alleged to be one of the instigators of the fraud.

Those under investigation have 20 days to hand over files explaining their defence.

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ITALY
The Tablet (UK)

29 May 2015 by Grace Isaac
A senior Vatican official has denied accusations of fraud relating to the purchase of an historic castle in Umbria.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, is one of ten people under investigation by Italian prosecutors for alleged fraud and embezzlement over the purchase of San Girolamo castle in 2011.

The castle, on the hills outside the town of Narni, is situated in the diocese of Terni, where Paglia was bishop from 2000 to 2012.

The local council sold San Girolamo castle to the real estate company IMI Immobiliare, which is headed by the bursar of Terni diocese, Paolo Zappelli.

The then Bishop Paglia is accused of having illegally used diocesan funds to purchase the castle.
Council officials are alleged to have colluded with Paglia, selling the castle in 2011 for far less than its true value.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family and lead Vatican organizer of September’s World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, is under investigation by Italian prosecutors into charges of embezzlement.

Published reports in European media outlets say the investigation stems from 2011 when the archbishop led the Diocese of Terni in Italy, and diocesan funds may have been used improperly in a scheme to purchase then resell at a profit a 14th century Italian castle.

A diocesan financial officer at the time was also the head of an Italian firm that purchased the property, which today remains undeveloped.

In Philadelphia, Archbishop Charles Chaput said in a statement May 29 that he was saddened to learn the news of Archbishop Paglia, “and will pray for him.”

“At the same time,” Archbishop Chaput said, “I assure everyone that matters facing him do not impact our plans for September. We continue to work without interruption and joyfully anticipate welcoming our Holy Father and the world to Philadelphia later this year.”

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ITALY
Telegraph (UK)

By Nick Squires, Rome 28 May 2015

A senior Vatican official is under investigation for alleged fraud and embezzlement in relation to the sale of a 14th century castle in Umbria, in the latest scandal to hit the Roman Catholic Church.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who is the head of a Vatican department, is accused of buying the castle in central Italy at an artificially low price with the intention of later selling it at its market value, in an alleged scam that would have netted a profit of nearly €4 million (£2.9 million).

San Girolamo castle, in the town of Narni, was owned by the local council before being sold to the Church.

Council officials are alleged to have colluded with the archbishop, selling the castle four years ago for a knock-down price of €1.76 million – about a third of its true value.

Prosecutors in the nearby city of Terni suspect that the alleged conspirators planned to manage it for a few years, either as an upmarket guesthouse or for religious purposes, and then sell it for €5.6 million.

Archbishop Paglia, 70, who is head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, is alleged to have illegally used diocese funds to purchase the property.

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ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

Monsignor Paglia indagato per l’acquisto del castello di Narni L’accusa: associazione a delinquere Don Vincenzo incredulo

di Amalia De Simone – Fiorenza Sarzaninidi

La procura di Terni chiude le indagini sulla compravendita del castello di San Girolamo e contesta l’associazione per delinquere oltre a numerosi reati per l’irregolarità della gara pubblica. Tra gli indagati, monsignor Vincenzo Paglia – attuale presidente del Pontificio consiglio per la famiglia – il vicario episcopale della diocesi Francesco De Santis, oltre al presidente dell’Istituto diocesano per il sostentamento del clero, Giampaolo Cianchetta. Le indagini sono state svolte dal nucleo valutario della Guardia di Finanza guidato dal generale Giuseppe Bottillo e dalla Questura di Terni guidata da Carmine Belfiore.

Lo scenario

Operazioni finanziarie e immobiliari realizzate con i conti correnti della diocesi umbra di Terni, Narni e Amelia, gravata da un pesante buco economico, sono lo scenario dell’ inchiesta che coinvolge uno dei più importanti esponenti della chiesa cattolica. Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, esponente di spicco della comunità di Sant’Egidio e vescovo della diocesi di Terni dal 2000 al 2012, è stato raggiunto da un avviso di conclusione indagini firmato dal pm della procura di Terni Elisabetta Massini. Le accuse vanno dall’associazione per delinquere alla turbata libertà degli incanti, truffa ai danni del Comune di Narni, abusivo esercizio del credito, appropriazione indebita.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Corriere della Sera

di Gian Guido Vecchi

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO «Ovviamente, resto a disposizione dell’autorità inquirente e confido totalmente nella giustizia terrena». A metà pomeriggio di una giornata scandita dalle telefonate con l’avvocato, monsignor Vincenzo Paglia mette nero su bianco e lima e fa trasmettere alle agenzie di stampa poche righe sorvegliate che fanno trapelare solo una parte del suo sconcerto.

Chi gli è vicino fa notare che un vescovo in una diocesi ha dei collaboratori e non controlla di persona i movimenti dei conti, che vede e parla con un sacco di persone e non ha idea se una chiacchierata al telefono col sindaco costituisca una «fattispecie delittuosa» che ti può mettere nei guai, che quel progetto gli era stato presentato come una «buona azione, addirittura meritoria»: il «castello-convento» che va in rovina e nessuno vuole, una possibilità di «crescita del patrimonio immobiliare» della diocesi per farne un «uso ecclesiastico» o magari «un centro di ospitalità e di cultura», il tutto «portando beneficio al territorio».

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ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

di Gian Guido Vecchi

«Ovviamente, resto a disposizione dell’autorità inquirente e confido totalmente nella giustizia terrena». A metà pomeriggio di una giornata scandita dalle telefonate con l’avvocato, monsignor Vincenzo Paglia mette nero su bianco e lima e fa trasmettere alle agenzie di stampa poche righe sorvegliate che fanno trapelare solo una parte del suo sconcerto.

Chi gli è vicino fa notare che un vescovo in una diocesi ha dei collaboratori e non controlla di persona i movimenti dei conti, che vede e parla con un sacco di persone e non ha idea se una chiacchierata al telefono col sindaco costituisca una «fattispecie delittuosa» che ti può mettere nei guai, che quel progetto gli era stato presentato come una «buona azione, addirittura meritoria»: il «castello-convento» che va in rovina e nessuno vuole, una possibilità di «crescita del patrimonio immobiliare» della diocesi per farne un «uso ecclesiastico» o magari «un centro di ospitalità e di cultura», il tutto «portando beneficio al territorio».

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ITALY
Yahoo! News

Rome (AFP) – Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, a Vatican official, is under investigation by Italian prosecutors on suspicion of embezzlement and price fixing during the sale of an historic castle, according to media reports Wednesday.

The sale of the San Girolamo castle in central Italy has already led to the arrest of two employees of the diocese of Terni where Paglia, who is president of the Holy See’s council for family matters, was bishop.

Now prosecutors are probing Paglia on allegations of criminal conspiracy and fraud in relation to the sale of the castle four years ago to real estate company IMI immobiliare, which was headed by one of the arrested diocese employees.

Diocese funds were allegedly used illegally and money was found to be missing from diocese funds.

According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which cited the prosecutor for the city of Terni in central Italy, Paglia is alleged to be one of the instigators of the fraud.

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ITALY
International Business Times

By Umberto Bacchi
May 28, 2015

A top Vatican official has been placed under investigation for embezzlement in relation to the purchase of an historic Italian castle in what might become the last of a series of scandal to hit the Holy See, it has been reported.

Prosecutors in Terni, central Italy, have included the name of Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia among a list of individuals suspected of having fraudulently manoeuvred the sale of the 19th-century San Girolamo castle, located on the lush Umbrian hills near the town of Narni, local press said.

The building, which houses an old Franciscan convent, was sold by the Narni City Council to a real estate company named IMI Immobiliare four years ago for about €1m (£700,000, $1.1m).

At the time, Monisgnor Paglia, currently the president of the Holy See’s council for family matters, was serving as the bishop of Terni, a diocese which includes Narni.

Prosecutors allege that the castle was sold way below its real value – which they estimate at more than €5.5m – and purchased with church money as part of a criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the archbishop, Il Corriere della Sera reported.

The director of IMI Immobiliare (the buyer) was in fact Paolo Zappelli who was also the bursar of the diocese of Terni.

Detectives claim the company completed the purchase with funds from the diocese, which was at the time facing a separate deficit crisis, and later gained it the dubious title of Europe’s second most indebted diocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

DAVID O’REILLY, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Friday, May 29, 2015

The Vatican archbishop in charge of overseeing the World Meeting of Families is under investigation for possible embezzlement, according to several European news organizations.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, reportedly bought the 14th-century San Girolamo castle in Umbria at an artificially low price with the intention of reselling it at full market value.

“The alleged scam” would have netted a profit of about $4.4 million, the British newspaper The Independent reported Friday.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is hosting the ninth triennial World Meeting of Families here in September, issued a statement Friday saying the investigation of Paglia did not appear to affect the meeting.

“I assure everyone that matters facing him do not impact our plans for September,” Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in the statement.

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WISCONSIN
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Paul Srubas, Press-Gazette Media May 29, 2015

A Nevada man who claimed he was molested by a former Freedom priest is not entitled to compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The case involved a lawsuit filed by “John Doe 119,” who claimed the former Rev. John P. Feeney molested him in 1984 in Las Vegas. The lawsuit states the man was 13 when he was assaulted by Feeney, but it was not until around 2008 that Doe recognized that he had psychological trauma as a result of Feeney’s acts. Doe sued the diocese for negligence in hiring and retaining Feeney.

In the lawsuit, Doe claimed Feeney, a pastor in Las Vegas at the time of the assault, was still an agent of the diocese, that the diocese was aware Feeney had molested children in Wisconsin and that it negligently failed to warn others that he was a danger.

Doe won his case in a lower court in Clark County, Nev., where a jury in 2012 awarded him $500,000 in compensation from the diocese, according to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The state Supreme Court decision reverses that.

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UNITED STATES
Charisma News

JENNIFER LECLAIRE

I never enjoy writing about pastors falling into sexual immorality—and when pastors take their own lives it reminds me of the suicide in my own family just a few years ago. But this column is among the most tragic I’ve ever penned.

Please understand, I am writing this with sorrow upon sorrow for the sole purpose of laying an axe to the root of the devil’s plans to steal, kill and destroy more lives.

Yesterday I learned that Seth Oiler died in the prime of his life. The 42-year-old pastor of First United Methodist Church (UMC) in Newark, New Jersey committed suicide in his church-owned home a week ago. His untimely death followed an adulterous affair with a church staff member to which he admitted. I can only imagine the guilt, shame and condemnation that was flooding his soul.

We reported on a similar story in December 2013, when Isaac Hunter, former pastor of Summit Church in Orlando, took his own life. His death came about a year after he admitted to an affair with a former staffer. Unlike Oiler’s story, with Hunter there were apparent warning signs, including reports of a downward spiral of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicidal thoughts. A suicide note was even discovered far in advance of his death.

Stopping This Deadly Cycle

Sexual immorality is tragic, but there is a way back from this sinful path. Indeed, we know that many pastors have been fully restored to ministry even after falling into immorality and idolatry. What’s especially tragic is that the devil that tempts people into sex immorality—or any manner of sin—is the same devil that later brings accusations, guilt, shame, condemnation and the like. It’s a set up. The question is, how do we stop the deadly cycle?

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TEXAS
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 29 May 2015

The Village Church has issued an extensive apology for its treatment of Karen Hinkley over the annulment of her marriage to Jordan Root, who confessed to watching images of child abuse over many years.

Root entered what the church called a “process of walking in repentance” which saw him removed from ministry and reported to the authorities. However, Hinkley found herself the subject of church discipline because she had her marriage annulled contrary to the church’s covenant membership provisions. The church refused to accept her resignation from membership while she was under discipline because that too was contrary to the covenant.

The Dallas megachurch, whose leader is Matt Chandler, was widely criticised for its conduct. According to a Christianity Today report, Chandler plans to apologise in services this weekend for failing to show compassion to struggling church members. He said that elders had been “domineering” in their approach to church discipline in a few cases and that this was wrong and unChristian.

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MISSOURI
Riverfront Times

By Danny Wicentowski Fri., May 29 2015

Doug Lay was beloved among his students at St. Louis Christian College. The student body voted him 2015’s Teacher of the Year.
But the bookish English professor was nowhere to be found among the well-wishers who gathered at First Christian Church of Florissant earlier this month for the college’s graduation ceremony.

Lay’s conspicuous absence was no accident: He’d been banned from the church’s premises in April, one month after he’d started raising questions about the way the church’s senior pastor, Steve Wingfield, handled allegations of sexual abuse.

In a meticulously researched report titled “Is It Enough: Sexual Abuse Within the Church: A Case Study at First Christian Church of Florissant,” Lay accused Wingfield of ignoring warnings about a youth minister named Brandon Milburn. A former student of Lay’s, Milburn had once been a rising star in the north county megachurch. Last year, Milburn was unmasked as a serial child molester.

In 2014, Doug Lay sent his accusation-filled report, “Is it Enough,” to FCCF leadership.
As documented in a Riverfront Times investigation, Milburn started hanging around First Christian Church of Florissant, or FCCF, in 2005. That’s also where he found his victims, two eleven-year-old boys, whom he abused repeatedly between 2007 and 2009.

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MASSACHUSETTS
National Catholic Reporter

Steve Sheenan | May. 20, 2015 Examining the Crisis

BOSTON

In 2002, I stood on the sidewalk in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston with several hundred members of the Voice of the Faithful and a handful of people who had been sexually abused by members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic church. One by one, the survivors told us their stories of the abuse they suffered and how it had taken them many years before they found the strength to come forward and bare their pain and torment in the public arena.

A few of those present then formed an organization called Speak Truth to Power (STTOP) and began meeting in front of the cathedral on Sunday mornings in a protest demanding that the Boston archdiocese provide justice to the survivors and take all the precautions necessary to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults and to bring this shameful history of the archdiocese to an end. A call was also made for the resignation of the cardinal archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law, for his role in covering-up the abuse by reassigning offending priests and protecting them from being indicted and tried for their crimes.

Last Sunday, May 17, a group of 25 survivors and supporters gathered in front of that cathedral to celebrate the 700th consecutive Sunday of this protest.

Not all of these 25 were present every Sunday, but every Sunday there were members of the group out there on the sidewalk in spite of the snow, rain, or scorching heat. These demonstrations were held calmly and politely, not wishing to cause a public disturbance or interrupt a religious service. The intent has always been the same, to remind the cardinal archbishop of Boston and all bishop/cardinals that we will not go away until justice has been served for the survivors and that children everywhere are provided a safe environment in which to live and grow.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 29

Statement by Amy Smith, Dallas co-leader of SNAP ( 281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com )

An officials at a large Dallas church says he’ll apologize on Sunday to a woman whose mistreatment by church officials has generated a firestorm of protest. We’re not impressed by the pastor’s promises.

[Christian Today]

If an apology happens, it will likely be a belated, grudging and vague one from Matt Chandler of The Village Church to Karen Hinkley. Still, we hope it brings some comfort to Karen who has suffered so much and so needlessly because TVC officials have acted so selfishly, secretively recklessly and hurtfully.

(Hinkley’s husband, Jordan Root, admitted viewing images of child abuse. TVC officials disciplined her when she sought to annul their marriage.)

[Christian Today]

We suspect Chandler is doing this only because he and his colleagues have been severely and widely criticized for their cruelty to this brave, wounded woman.

But an apology does nothing to protect the vulnerable or heal those already hurt because of the crimes of Jordan Root and the actions of TVC staff.

We firmly believe that kids are at risk now because Root walks free, living and working among unsuspecting families. And we firmly believe there are kids he has hurt who are suffering in silence, shame and self-blame.

TVC staff should use their vast resources to alert parents, police, prosecutors and the public about Root’s crimes and to aggressively seek out youngsters he has assaulted. The church has a moral and civic duty to help law enforcement investigation and prosecute Root, so that other kids may be spared devastating harm.

Adults can heal themselves, with or without apologies from complicit church officials. Kids, however, ca

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TEXAS/INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 29

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

Catholic officials are putting innocent children at risk by keeping an accused predator priest on the job even though he was sued for child sex abuse more last week ago.

We demand that staff at Notre Dame, the Ft. Wayne diocese and the San Antonio diocese suspend him immediately. They are acting recklessly and callously and are breaking the US bishops’ child sex abuse policy.

[WSBT]

Since 2002, the US Catholic church hierarchy has formally and repeatedly pledged it would suspend credibly accused child molesting clerics. Yet a high-profile priest and professor, Fr. Virgilio Elizondo, was accused last week in a civil lawsuit of sexually assaulting a child in Texas in the 1980s.

Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins are needlessly taking risks with the safety of boys and girls. They should

— immediately suspend Fr. Elizondo from any and all positions,
— send him to a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center, and
— use their vast resources to aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by this cleric or cover ups by his church or university supervisors.

Some at the university say Fr. Elizondo spends little time on campus. That doesn’t matter. It takes only seconds for a child molester to shove his tongue in a boy’s mouth or his hands down a girl’s pants.

Anyone with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes or cover ups should call secular authorities, not church officials.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

VATICAN CITY | BY PHILIP PULLELLA

May 29 The Vatican bank has made good progress in transparency but needs more changes to consolidate anti-money laundering reforms, the Holy See’s financial regulator said on Friday.

The Financial Intelligence Authority’s (AIF) also said in its annual report for 2014 that it had forwarded seven cases of suspected fraud or tax avoidance to the Vatican prosecutor’s office for further investigation.

It said the number of reports it had received of potentially suspicious financial activity fell to 147 last year, down from a peak of 202 in 2013, which officials said showed that reforms and reporting procedures were working.

The Vatican bank, seeking to repair its image after a series of financial scandals, has been undergoing massive reforms over the past three years.

The bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), has toughened regulatory standards and closed thousands of accounts.

Reforming the IOR has been one of the most sensitive issues tackled by Pope Francis as he has sought to overhaul the complex Vatican administration.

The report said it had carried out the first on-site inspection of the IOR to see if it was fully complying with new international transparency and accounting requirements as well as anti-money laundering legislation.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

USA, Germany, Italy, UK, Philippines, et al., Must Press Pope, Like Ireland & Australia Have, To Restore Church Democracy To Protect Catholics

The Vatican’s sexual morality policy errors on same sex marriage, contraception and other matters are only sick symptoms of a fundamentally deformed Church management structure. These errors stem mostly from the Vatican’s self-interested goal of preserving the myth of a top down, unaccountable, infallible and absolute papal ruler with his unaccountable Vatican bureaucracy and subordinate worldwide bishops. True monarchies like the papacy are doomed in this world of democracies.

The editors at the National Catholic Reporter recently referred to the pope’s many seemingly intentional and contradictory statements and actions as the “Francis two-step”, or the “Pope Francis shuffle”. On the issue of church teaching on sexuality, the editors believe the time for dialogue is likely passed. Action is needed. The strongest message out of the Irish referendum is that on its teaching about sexuality, the Church today faces a watershed moment, just as it did in 1968 with Humanae Vitae banning the birth control pill.

The editors note that Pope Paul VI, whom incidentally Pope Francis unnecessarily, hastily and unwisely beatified, addressed contraception with a disastrous formula. By rejecting the evolving learning about artificial birth control and married love — documented by social science and the testimony of committed, faithful married Catholics on the papal commission he appointed — Paul contributed mightily to the erosion of episcopal credibility. Pope Francis is doing likewise with his “son of the Church” ideological nonsense.

The editors at the National Catholic Reporter view the recent Irish vote for same-sex marriage as a watershed moment for Catholic Church teaching. As an experienced international lawyer, I am more sceptical.

Pope Francis has failed in two years even to initiate any significant permanent reforms in the Catholic Church’s top down governance structure — the source of most papal scandals and sexual morality errors. After much spin, the unnecessary Vatican Bank has reported still almost 150 suspicious transactions in 2014 involving many hundreds of millions of dollars.

Moreover, the pope’s failure to address seriously his biggest challenge, the priest child abuse scandal, is telling. This is clear, for example, from the pope’s acquiescence in the continuing merciless abuse of survivors in Milwaukee, as described below by Fr. Thomas Doyle, and the pope’s outrageous promotion and protection of Cardinal George Pell, also described more below.

It is clear the Vatican is mainly trying to ride out the scandals — keeping the hierarchy out of jail and flush with cash as top priorities. German and US bishops are do battle with each other over giving remarried divorced Catholics access to communion — a big money issue for bishops in both countries. The German bishops want to loosen up the marriage rules to appeal to divorced couples to protect the multi-billion dollar annual German governmental subsidies. US bishops want to preserve the rigid marriage rules to appeal to “low tax” US billionaires who need the anti-gay marriage voters to elect a US Republican president next year.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Cardinal George Pell said this week he is prepared to return to Australia from the Vatican to give evidence in person to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, if he is officially requested to attend. This newspaper would be astounded were the royal commission not to make such a request, for Cardinal Pell’s testimony may be a pivotal part of this important inquiry into one of this nation’s darkest and most tragic chapters.

Cardinal Pell has had a distinguished career with the Catholic Church, including key leadership positions such as Archbishop of Sydney and Archbishop of Melbourne. He will have a crucial insight into its operations. Nor can he ignore the fact that his own time in Ballarat coincided with some of the worst abuses of children by other priests.

The royal commission this week held hearings in that city, and heard that Cardinal Pell once shared a home with other priests including one of the worst child sexual abusers in our history, Gerald Ridsdale. Indeed, Cardinal Pell gave public support to Ridsdale during a 1993 court appearance. Ridsdale, appearing via video link from jail, where he is serving a lengthy sentence for his appalling crimes, said that when he approached now-Cardinal Pell for that support, the church leader would have known the nature of the charges.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness, SC, described how the College of Consultors – a group of priests who advised Ballarat’s then bishop, Ronald Mulkearns – decided to move Ridsdale between parishes. Cardinal Pell was for a time a member of that group. He has repeatedly denied knowing children were abused in Ballarat when he was there, yet his recollections of the time, and knowledge of the processes of the church, will be important information for the commission.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

5/29/2015

It was reported that St. John’s priest Richard Eckroth, who was retired and living at St. John’s Abbey for years, died this week. It must also be noted that Eckroth had a long history of predatory conduct that shattered the lives and souls of innocent children whose numbers are yet to be known. The number of kids Eckroth abused could exceed 100. What is known is that Eckroth was a serial offender that had been described by at least one Abbot as dangerous. What is also known is that Eckroth was given cover for many of those years by top St. John’s officials.

Our firm currently represents three survivors of abuse by Eckroth and has worked with many others over the past twenty-plus years. What we have learned about this predator is that as a priest, monk, professor and pastor of St. John’s he easily built the trust of parents who readily gave him permission to bring their children to a remote cabin owned and maintained by St. John’s Abbey where he then abused many of them. Eckroth plied children, some as young as eight years old, with alcohol and often employed means of coercion and threats of violence to accomplish his abuse. Over the years we have worked with several of those kids, now adults, who struggle with an aftermath of depression, anxiety, shame and guilt as a result of what Eckroth did to them.

The Child Victims Act now permits those survivors of abuse by Eckroth and others to bring civil actions until May of 2016. The death of Eckroth or any offender does not prevent survivors from asserting claims against those who made the conscious choices to protect the Eckroths and other abusers like him in the past. We applaud the courage of the survivors who have come forward and encourage others to do so knowing that by coming forward they can regain some measure of the power that was taken from them as a child. When a survivor comes forward it can bring hope and help to themselves and to others. Richard Eckroth no doubt left a trail of devastation and broken and shattered lives wherever he went. However, every time one of Eckroth’s survivors and the survivors of others like him, comes forward and shares the secret, they can begin the process of recovery. And survivors can come forward confidentially.

Today we release some of the documents that have been disgorged in other litigation concerning Richard Eckroth’s history. These documents include a 1993 report from St. Luke’s Institute where Eckroth was sent for sexual deviancy and abuse. Other records reflect the knowledge of top officials at St. John’s that regarded Eckroth as a “danger” for years.

Eckroth St. Luke Report 1993
Return to St. Luke
Eckroth travel to St. Luke
Evaluation Arrangements
Email regarding allegation
Email regarding Eckroth
E-mail regarding Eckroth allegations
Email regarding Eckroth settlement
Letter to detective regarding Eckroths wherabouts
1971 Eckroth Cabin
Eckroth Photo

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A retired St. John’s Abbey priest accused of sexually abusing children is dead.

The law office of Jeff Anderson and Associates announced Friday that Father Richard Eckroth passed away this week at the age of 88.

Allegations of abuse against Eckroth date back to the late 60s and early 70s, when he was accused of sexually abusing children that he took to a St. John’s Abbey-owned cabin in Bemidji.

Three adult survivors of his alleged abuse are being represented by Attorney Jeff Anderson.

“Eckroth plied children, some as young as eight years old, with alcohol and often employed means of coercion and threats of violence to accomplish his abuse,” Anderson said.

Anderson and Associates released a document Friday from St. Luke’s Institute concerning Eckroth. The report, written in 1993, reveals Eckroth was sent to the institute by St. John’s Abbey for evaluation of sexual deviancy and abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 30, 2015

The Ballarat diocese of the Catholic Church may not be able to continue funding settlements for ­child sex survivors, so great is the scale of the abuse.

At least 10 and possibly more than 14 diocesan priests from late last century have had complaints against them substantiated, the royal commission into child sex abuse heard yesterday.

Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird said settlements to abuse survivors which are not covered by Catholic Church Insurance were paid from a bequest set up in the 1930s.

He said the fund had about $1 million left and once that was ­extinguished, claims would be paid from general ­accumulated funds of the diocese. “I do have doubts that we could meet those claims,” he said yesterday.

There was a development fund with more than $100m from various contributors which the diocese could draw upon, but the financial position of the diocese was “not strong” and many parishes required subsidies.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

AAP

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird says he hopes the child abuse royal commission provides some healing for victims.

The royal commission has heard the community in the Victorian regional city is divided, with groups “at war” over the response to the history of child sexual abuse in the Ballarat diocese.

Bishop Bird agreed the leaders of the church, not just in Ballarat, needed to tell the community that it was a good thing for abuse victims to come forward.

“I’ve said it several times but I would need to continue to say it because some people don’t see that that’s a good thing,” he told the commission.

He said some people did not appreciate the full impact of the abuse.

Reading a statement to reporters, Bishop Bird apologised to victims.

“I have been very moved and I am very sorry that as young children they endured such horrendous abuse at the hands of the very people who should have cared for them.

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ITALY
America Magazine

Gerard O’Connell | May 27 2015

The Italian media are reporting that Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, has been listed among those placed “under investigation” by an Italian prosecutor in connection with the sale of a castle at Narni, in the region of Umbria, central Italy, that took place four years ago in the diocese of Terni, where he was bishop from 2002-2012.

The press alleges that he is being investigated for association with others to swindle the municipality of Narni, and for false declaration, abusive exercise of credit and undue appropriation. They say that the notification that he is under investigation has been sent to him as well as to the vicar-general of the diocese and to the president of the diocesan institute for the support of the clergy. They report that the notification was issued after the deputy-prosecutor of Terni, Elisabetta Massini, had completed a two-year preliminary investigation.

It’s important to note that under Italian law that fact that one is being placed “under investigation” does not mean that one is being charged with a crime, much less that one is guilty of the said crime. It simply means that there is a need for further investigation and the prosecutor has the legal responsibility to notify the person of this. This further investigation could lead to one’s acquittal, or to being brought to court for trial.

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ITALY
Al Dia

By Ana Gamboa
May 29, 2015

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, this week was listed among those placed “under investigation” by an Italian prosecutor in connection with the sale of a castle at Narni, in central Italy, America Magazine reported.

According to the investigation, the archbishop is part of a list of individuals suspected of having fraudulently maneuvered the sale of the 19th-century San Girolamo castle, located on the lush Umbrian hills near the town of Narni.

Last time we reported on Archbishop Paglia was on a much lighter note, when he visited Philadelphia back in March. As the Catholic archbishop in charge of organizing Pope Francis’ September visit to the city, he helped unveil a special milkshake at the Center City location of Potbelly Sandwich Shop chain.

On Wednesday, America Magazine reported that the Vatican archbishop told the Italian news agency ANSA he had not received any notification from the state prosecutor about being under investigation. “Obviously, I remain at the disposition of the investigating authorities and trust totally in the earthly justice,” he stated.

The Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, told AL DÍA he was saddened to learn of the recent news regarding Archbishop Paglia. “I will pray for him. At the same time, I assure everyone that matters facing him do not impact our plans for September. We continue to work without interruption and joyfully anticipate welcoming our Holy Father and the world to Philadelphia later this year.”

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NEVADA
National Law Review

Friday, May 29, 2015

The ecclesiastical doctrine of incardination defines the relationship between clerics and the church. According to the United States Conference of Bishops (no relation), “incardination is traditionally used to refer to the attachment of the priest or deacon to a diocesan Church headed by the diocesan bishop.” In an opinion issued yesterday, the Nevada Supreme Court tackled the question of whether a relationship established by canon law also establishes a relationship defined by civil law. Catholic Diocese of Green Bay v. John Doe 119, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 29 (2015).

The question arose from a lawsuit filed by a sexual assault victim against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in Nevada. The priest involved had originally been incardinated in the Diocese of Green Bay. The victim obtained a jury verdict and the diocese, a religious organization incorporated and headquartered in Wisconsin, appealed on the basis that the Nevada state courts lacked personal jurisdiction. The District Court found support for the existence of an employment or agency relationship between the priest and the Diocese of Green Bay based on the incardination. The Supreme Court disagreed finding “that the ecclesiastical system of incardination does not conclusively establish employment or agency.” Writing for court, Justice Michael A. Cherry noted that while the court cannot opine on ecclesiastical matters, it could determine whether a religious organization’s structure creates an employment relationship.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
29 MAY 2015

A Quiverfull author and homeschooling advocate defended the Duggars against “pagans and gullible Christians” who are “howling for scalps.”

Rick Boyer, who wrote the book “Take Back The Land” endorsed by Jim Bob Duggar, said the reality TV stars had responded appropriately to revelations that their eldest son had molested his sisters and other girls as they slept at the family home, reported Right Wing Watch.

“‘Abuse’ is the new ‘racism,’” wrote Boyer as part of a series of Facebook posts. “As soon as you’re accused of it, you’re considered guilty. Just what would you like the Duggars to have done? Turn all their kids over to a godless psychologist? Maybe one supplied by the local public school system where ‘abuse’ is so unheard of? Should they have skinned Josh alive, rolled him in salt and hung him on a meathook?”

The posts by the Home Educators Association of Virginia board member, who also wrote the book “The Hands-On Dad,” were flagged by the watchdog group Homeschoolers Anonymous.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Jack Waterford
Editor-at-large, The Canberra Times

It’s been an uncomfortable week – indeed it’s been an uncomfortable few years — for the declining numbers of Australian Catholics adhering firmly to the values of the church, and believing as firmly in the edicts of its leadership as in its teaching and traditions.

A high proportion of Australian Catholics have origins in Irish Catholicism where, a week ago, a country overwhelmingly, if increasingly nominally Catholic, voted in a referendum for gay marriage.

An institution that could bring down governments can now scarcely govern itself.

The church campaigned hard for a no vote. A generation ago, as when the Irish had a referendum about divorce, that would have settled the matter. This time church opposition settled it the other way.

The conscious rejection of the church’s argument was the more explicit because of its appalling record with the physical and sexual abuse of children. And of equally contemptible policies, going all the way back to the Vatican, of cover-up, and putting the commercial interests of the church and the reputation of its officers ahead of the interests of children.

The collapse of the Irish church’s moral authority is witnessed by a catastrophic decline, in only 30 years, of church attendance, and political influence.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POLAND/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC- Polish official visits Dominican Republic to discuss alleged sex crimes by Archbishop Józef Wesołowski

For immediate release: Friday, May 29, 2015

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org )

We are grateful that a Polish official has gone to the Dominican Republic to discuss alleged child sex crimes by Polish Catholic clerics. We hope the trip results in secular criminal charges against one cleric and more charges against the other.

[The News]

We especially hope defrocked Archbishop Józef Wesołowski is sent to Poland from Rome and is put on trial. Catholic officials in Rome claim they’ll hold some sort of proceeding there about Wesolowski. But we’re very skeptical. It’s unjust and unwise to let any institution deal internally with serious child sex crimes, especially an institution like the Catholic hierarchy with a long, dreadful, well-documented and on-going track record of ignoring and concealing heinous sexual violence against children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Evening Post

A lawyer says the number of people who have reported being abused by church officials is “the tip of the iceberg” after more victims of a paedophile Leeds priest came forward.

The Yorkshire Evening Post reported this month how the Church of England awarded a six-figure payout to a man who was abused by Terence King from the age of 11.

King, a former vicar at St Mary’s Church in Woodkirk near Morley, killed himself while being investigated by police in 2002. It is thought detectives were looking into complaints by several victims at the time.

Now the lawyer representing the man who made the successful claim says the story has prompted others to begin the fight for justice.

Dino Nocivelli, of Bolt Burdon Kemp, said: “My firm has been contacted by several people who have also suffered child abuse within the Church of England, including two people who suffered abuse at the hands of King.

“This confirms my view that when we talk about child abuse within the Church of England, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of people who have come forward.”

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INDIANA
Catholic Philly

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS) — Father Virgilio Elizondo, founder of the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio and a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has been accused of sexually abusing an unidentified boy more than 30 years ago in a lawsuit filed against him, the San Antonio Archdiocese and a former priest.

The lawsuit, filed May 22 in Bexar County District Court in San Antonio, alleges that a boy listed as John Doe was sexually abused by a former priest, Jesus Armando Dominguez, while he was living in an orphanage and was a student at Assumption Seminary. According to The Associated Press, the boy was allegedly sexually abused again when he reported the incidents to Father Elizondo. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

A spokesman for the San Antonio Archdiocese told Catholic News Service May 28 that the archdiocese declined to comment on the case because it had not been served the lawsuit.

The former priest accused of abuse was ordained for the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, the spokesman said.

An email from a Notre Dame spokesman said the university was “reserving comment until further inquiries are completed,” adding that school had only became aware of the allegation after it was reported by a local television station.

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UNITED KINGDOM
York Press

TWO more people have come forward to say they were abused at the hands of a retired York vicar.

The Press reported earlier this month how the Church of England had made a six-figure payout to a man who said he suffered years of physical and psychological abuse by the Rev Terence King while he was serving as a vicar in Morley, West Yorkshire.

Mr King retired to York in 1999 and committed suicide in 2002 while under investigation by West Yorkshire Police over child sex abuse allegations.

Now Dino Nocivelli, a senior solicitor from Bolt Burdon Kemp, who represented the victim, has revealed that two more people had since contacted the firm to allege they too were abused by Mr King.

Meanwhile, an independent investigation for the Methodist Church has uncovered that allegations of abuse were made against a total of 91 individuals within its York and Hull district between 1950 and the end of 2014.

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VATICAN CITY
Economic Times

Reuters

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican bank has made good progress in transparency but needs more changes to consolidate anti-money laundering reforms, the Holy See’s financial regulator said on Friday.

The Financial Intelligence Authority’s (AIF) also said in its annual report for 2014 that it had forwarded seven cases of suspected fraud or tax avoidance to the Vatican prosecutor’s office for further investigation.

It said the number of reports it had received of potentially suspicious financial activity fell to 147 last year, down from a peak of 202 in 2013, which officials said showed that reforms and reporting procedures were working.

The Vatican bank, seeking to repair its image after a series of financial scandals, has been undergoing massive reforms over the past three years.

The bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), has toughened regulatory standards and closed thousands of accounts.

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
May 29, 2015

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican’s financial watchdog registered 147 suspicious transactions in 2014, down by more than a quarter from the previous year, reflecting progress by the Holy See in detecting and preventing financial crime, officials said Friday.

The Financial Information Authority, or AIF, said it turned over seven of those cases, mostly involving potential fraud or tax evasion, to Vatican prosecutors. In three of the seven cases, the AIF froze suspicious transactions with a total value of €562 million.

Friday’s annual report was the third published by the regulator, which Pope Benedict XVI established in 2010 to work toward compliance with international standards on financial crimes. That move was the start of a series of financial reforms at the Vatican, which have been continued by Pope Francis.

In 2013, the European money-laundering watchdog Moneyval praised the Vatican for its efforts on financial transparency but said regulatory oversight needed tightening at the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR. That same year, Pope Francis named a special panel to reform the bank.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 28

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

A Bible college professor has quit his job over a clergy sex abuse and cover up case. It’s heart-breaking.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Doug Lay is a hero. He should be recognized and treated as a hero by both St. Louis Christian College and First Christian Church of Florissant. He has been brave and caring throughout the entire Brandon Milburn ordeal, seeking the truth and comforting Milburn’s victims. I am honored to know Doug and am deeply proud of him for his integrity and courage. A small group of others at FCCF – including Dawn Varvil and Titus and Kari Benton – have also acted heroically during this tragic situation.

Lay says that SLCC officials Dr. Guthrie Veece and Mike Chambers did not pressure him to resign. But we believe that Veece and Chambers could and should have done more to expose the selfish pressure put on college staff by FCCF staff. We believe that Rev. Steve Wingfield has used his muscle to try to intimidate whistleblowers at least three times now (first, through an unsuccessful restraining order bid, then through an unsuccessful lawsuit and now through informal pressure on the college).

Reasonable people may disagree about what Wingfield knew when and how he responded (though we wholeheartedly agree with Lay, Dawn Varvil, Titus Benton and others who firmly believe that FCCF staff should have been more honest and responsible by calling police and warning congregants sooner).

But no one can deny that children were sexually assaulted because of the witting or unwitting actions and inactions of Rev. Wingfield and his employees. Having put kids in harm’s way (likely unintentionally) and having kept kids in harm’s way (perhaps unintentionally), FCCF staff have a duty to aggressively reach out to others who were hurt at FCCF.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

On the surface, the words “rape” and “hope” are similar. They rarely belong in the same sentence. But here’s an exception: Recent changes in rape laws give us hope.

Thanks to the courage of victims of sexual violence, who are gaining more strength and getting more political, 28 states now have no statute of limitations on rape.

[East Oregonian]

Is that enough? Of course not. Is that dramatic progress over the past few years? You bet it is.

And the long-term trends look good for us. More and more lawmakers (and judges and cops and prosecutors and jurors) are seeing just how irresponsible and hurtful these predator-friendly deadlines are.

And this is true in cases of sexual violence against kids too, not just adults.

(See recent headway on this front in Georgia: [Verdict])

“The moral arc of the universe is long,” Martin Luther King told us, “but it bends towards justice.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Symon Hill

Last month, I moved out of a residential Christian community attached to a Methodist church in London. I moved for several reasons. One was the way that the church had handled an allegation of sexual abuse. The victim in that case was interviewed as part of the Methodist church’s Past Cases Review into abuse allegations. She had no advance notice of Thursday’s announcement by the Methodist church, which has formally apologised for 1,885 cases of abuse over the past 60 years. Despite media references to “historical abuse”, some of the cases are very recent.

This should be a wake-up call for all Christians in Britain. It is time for Protestants who have complacently dismissed church abuse as a “Catholic problem” to face the reality that abuse is endemic across denominations. As a Christian, and as someone who writes and teaches about religion and sexuality, I have heard far more stories of sexual abuse than I can count – along with stories of cover-ups, sexist responses, victim-blaming and repeated failures to take allegations seriously.

In terms of abuse in British churches, the 1,885 cases announced by the Methodists are undoubtedly the tip of the iceberg.

Only a few years after the Catholic child abuse scandals, we are on the brink of a new scandal. This time it will be about abuse across churches, probably mostly of adults. It can no longer be blamed simply on Catholic doctrine or clerical celibacy.

Sexual abuse is about power. If the victim has the courage to complain, the abuser often uses their higher status to discredit the victim – perhaps because they are a respected individual who will be believed, or perhaps because the victim is vulnerable and will not be. Abusers can, implicitly or explicitly, appeal to the self-interest of church leaders not to cause trouble or bad PR by taking action to deal with allegations.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | May. 29, 2015

EDITORIAL

To help them prepare for this fall’s Synod of Bishops on the family, the presidents of the bishops’ conferences of Germany, Switzerland and France gathered with biblical scholars and theologians to discuss and clarify “the issues at the heart of the current debates on marriage and family,” including “theology of love” and of sexuality as a “language of God and a gift precious to God.” Let’s hope that among the scholars they called upon were theologians like Creighton University’s Michael G. Lawler and Todd A. Salzman. And let’s hope they took a hard look at the results of the Irish referendum on marriage.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was correct when he called the overwhelming support for marriage equality in Ireland a “reality check” for the church — it most certainly is, which is why the world’s bishops should be discussing it.

But Martin got it wrong when he said the outcome was part of a social revolution. The overwhelming public support for a broader, more inclusive acceptance of marriage equality has certainly come swiftly, but is more evolution than revolution, which is Lawler and Salzman’s point.

If Cardinal Walter Kasper is correct when he says that Pope Francis “wants a listening magisterium,” let’s hope that Francis, too, is listening to what the Catholics of Ireland are telling the church. They have made manifest in casting ballots what sociologists have documented in research and what Catholic families have experienced in the lives of their children, aunts and uncles, parents and even grandparents: “That God can be,” to quote Jamie Manson, “as fully present in the relationships of same-sex couples as God can be in opposite-sex couples.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Mayana C. Slobodian Published on Wed May 27 2015

On Sunday, the final event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada will kick-off in Ottawa. The truth is, after seven years, many Canadians still don’t really know what this commission is.

The most common misconception is that it was initiated by the government of Canada. There is a sad irony in this, given that Ottawa has ignored and resisted the work of the TRC from the start.

Meanwhile, it has spent the last seven years enacting legislation and policies that, far from rectifying the relationship between Indigenous people and the Canadian government, serve to perpetuate the systemic inequalities that the residential schools worked so hard to entrench.

The TRC wasn’t set up, as many assume, as a PR move or out of the kindness of our prime minister’s heart. Rather, Ottawa was sued into it. In 2007, on behalf of the 80,000 living former students, the Indian Residential School Survivors Society successfully sued the government of Canada and the churches that operated its schools. It took six years, and remains the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history. It was the former students themselves who insisted on a truth commission, and it runs on money taken out of that overall settlement.

The relationship between the federal government and the TRC has always been tense. By 2009, all three original commissioners had stepped down citing, among other concerns, objections to meddling from Ottawa. One of the first acts of the next commissioners was to move the headquarters from Ottawa to Winnipeg. The TRC has also taken the federal government to court twice over access to archival documents, and its 2010 interim report criticized the government’s “unacceptable reluctance to co-operate.”

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VATICAN CITY
Ledger-Enquirer

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
May 29, 2015

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s financial watchdog agency said Friday it received 147 reports of suspicious financial transactions last year, a sign that tough new anti-money laundering norms are taking hold at its scandal-marred bank.

The Financial Information Authority’s annual report showed a slight decline in the number of suspicious reports received in 2014 compared to the 202 received in 2013. In 2012, when the Vatican’s efforts at greater financial controls were in their infancy, only six suspicious transactions were reported.

Of the 147 transactions that were flagged as potentially problematic in 2014, the agency forwarded seven to Vatican prosecutors for investigation. The report said most concerned suspected fraud, tax fraud or tax evasion.

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI created the agency in 2010 as a key part of an overall bid to clean up the Vatican’s financial house to comply with international anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms.

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POLAND
The News

Attorney General Andrzej Seremet has visited the Dominican Republic in connection with two child abuse cases involving Polish clergymen.

Seremet spoke with victims of Father Wojciech G. (full name witheld under Polish privacy laws), who was sentenced by a Polish court to seven years in prison in March 2015 for abusing children in both the Dominican Republic and Poland.

Besides the prison sentence, the clergyman has been ordered to pay a combined sum of PLN 155,000 damages to the victims, divided between six minors in the Dominican Republic and two in Poland. Seremet’s counterpart Attorney General Francisco Dominquez Brito had visited Poland in December 2014 prior to the trial.

He commented then “that we expect a just, high sentence which will satisfy public opinion in the Dominican Republic.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) The Financial Intelligence Authority of the Holy See and the Vatican City State – Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria or AIF for short – gave a briefing to journalists on Friday at the Press Office of the Holy See to present the annual report for 2014.

The report reviews the activities and statistics of the AIF for the year 2014, which the AIF says present a continuous strengthening of the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See and the Vatican City State to regulate supervised entities, fostering international cooperation of the Vatican competent authority with its foreign counterparts and to consolidate the prevention and countering of potential illicit financial activities.

The President of the AIF, René Brülhart, explained that expansion of the Authority’s cooperation with other national and international financial oversight organs has improved the AIF’s ability to carry out its mandate. “By signing Memoranda of Understandings (MOUs) with other Financial Intelligence Units of 13 countries, including Australia, France and the UK as well as with the Regulators of Germany, Luxembourg and the United States of America, we have also massively strengthened international cooperation,” Brülhart said.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Alle ore 11.00 di questa mattina, nell’Aula Giovanni Paolo II della Sala Stampa della Santa Sede, si tiene un briefing per la presentazione del Rapporto Annuale dell’Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) sull’attività di informazione finanziaria e di vigilanza per la prevenzione e il contrasto del riciclaggio e del finanziamento del terrorismo. Anno III, 2014.

Intervengono al briefing il Dott. René Brülhart, Presidente dell’AIF e il Dott. Tommaso Di Ruzza, Direttore dell’AIF.

Riportiamo di seguito il Comunicato Stampa riguardante il Rapporto annuale 2014 dell’AIF:

Supervisory framework and international cooperation System further strengthened

The Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) of the Holy See and the Vatican City State has presented its Annual Report for 2014. The report reviews the activities and statistics of the AIF for the year 2014.

2014 has seen a continuous strengthening of the legal and institutional framework of the Holy See and the Vatican City State to regulate supervised entities, fostering international cooperation of the Vatican competent authority with its foreign counterparts and to consolidate the prevention and countering of potential illicit financial activities.

“With the introduction of Regulation No. 1, we have completed the prudential supervisory framework of the Holy See and Vatican City State,” said René Brülhart, President of AIF. “By signing Memoranda of Understandings (MOUs) with other Financial Intelligence Units of 13 countries, including Australia, France and the UK as well as with the Regulators of Germany, Luxembourg and the United States of America, we have also massively strengthened international cooperation.”

The reporting system has been consolidated after having received 6 suspicious transaction reports (STR) in 2012, 202 in 2013 and 147 in 2014. Such development is a consequence both of the full implementation of the legal framework and of the substantial improvement in the operational performance of the supervised entities with regard to the prevention of financial crime. 7 reports have been passed on to the Vatican Promoter of Justice for further investigation by judicial authorities. The number of cases of bilateral cooperation between AIF and foreign competent authorities has increased from 4 in 2012 to 81 in 2013 and 113 in 2014. “This continuous increase is a result of the systematic efforts undertaken by AIF as well as the strong commitment of the Holy See and the Vatican City State to cooperate actively with other jurisdictions to prevent and combat potential illicit financial activities globally,” said Tommaso di Ruzza, Director of AIF.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

COMMENTARY: There have been three key moments in the recent history of the Irish Church when leading bishops and priests could have chosen to strengthen the faith of the people. Instead, poor choices and inaction have weakened what remains.

by DEACON NICK DONNELLY 05/28/2015

The vote in Ireland has been to legalize same-sex “marriage,” an outcome that suggests a loss of moral clarity among the majority of Catholics in the Irish Church. I am left asking the question: Is the Irish Church dead?

I know this may sound shocking, and some may accuse me of alarmism and defeatism. However, sacred Scripture is clear that, though Our Lord has promised to be with the universal Church until the end of time (Matthew 28:20), it is possible for a local Church to die.

The Book of Revelation contains the locutions and visions Our Lord granted to his beloved disciple, St. John the Evangelist. Our Lord sent seven messages to the local Churches, one of which was addressed to the Church of Sardis, which reveals the awful possibility of the death of a church:

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: “The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God” (3:1-2).

In 2003, Pope St. John Paul II urgently addressed the exhortation contained in Our Lord’s Letter to the Church of Sardis to the whole of Europe, including the Church in Ireland, “Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death” (Revelation 3:2). Twelve years later, it is clear that Ireland and many other European countries have not heeded Pope St. John Paul II’s final warning, and, in fact, many of the bishops and people have done the exact opposite: They have weakened what remains to the point of death. …

he Apostolic Visitation of the Irish Church

The first key moment was Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic visitation of the Irish Church in response to the crisis caused by pedophile priests and the bishops’ widespread cover-up of crimes of child sexual abuse. Pope Benedict’s “Letter to the Catholics of Ireland,” announcing the need for an apostolic visitation, clearly stated his judgment as the Successor of St. Peter that his brother bishops had failed. He said this was a failure where “grave errors of judgment were made and failures of leadership.”

The apostolic visitation report was mainly a snapshot of the Irish Church that summarized safeguarding measures that the Irish episcopacy and religious orders were already putting in place. It also made a number of reasonable recommendations, including: the updating of safeguarding guidelines in accordance with the norms established by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; the reorganization of ecclesiastical tribunals; the formation of seminarians; and various formation, spiritual and administrative changes for religious orders.

One paragraph of the report stands out in light of the open dissent among Irish priests supporting, or remaining neutral towards, the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in 2015:

“Since the visitators also encountered a certain tendency, not dominant but nevertheless fairly widespread among priests, religious and laity, to hold theological opinions at variance with the teachings of the magisterium, this serious situation requires particular attention, directed principally towards improved theological formation. It must be stressed that dissent from the fundamental teachings of the Church is not the authentic path towards renewal.”

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

A SENIOR lawyer has been appointed to lead the public inquiry into the historical sexual abuse of children in residential care.

Susan O’Brien QC will be charged with looking into the treatment of children by institutions – including churches and independent boarding schools – going back decades.

Education secretary Angela Constance said the public inquiry – thought to be the biggest ever in Scotland – would be a “massive undertaking” which aimed to “shine a light into the dark corners of the past”.

She also announced plans to lift a three-year time bar which prevents civil actions being brought against abusers, allowing claims for damages in cases which took place after 1964.

And there will be £14.5 million of new funding to help provide support services for those who have been abused.

Ms O’Brien, who led the 2003 inquiry into failings that led to the death of baby Caleb Ness, will begin work on 1 July. Her inquiry is expected to last four years.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

SEAN FINE – JUSTICE WRITER
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, May. 28 2015

Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin says Canada attempted to commit “cultural genocide” against aboriginal peoples, in what she calls the worst stain on Canada’s human-rights record.

Genocide – an attempt to destroy a people, in whole or part – is a crime under international law. The United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948, does not use the phrase “cultural genocide,” but says genocide may include causing serious mental harm to a group.

Chief Justice McLachlin appears to be the highest-ranking Canadian official to use the phrase. Former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin used it two years ago in describing residential schools for aboriginal children when he testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the Conservative government. That commission is to make its report public next week.

“The most glaring blemish on the Canadian historic record relates to our treatment of the First Nations that lived here at the time of colonization,” Chief Justice McLachlin said. She was delivering the fourth annual Pluralism Lecture of the Global Centre for Pluralism, founded in 2006 by the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, and the federal government.

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CANADA
Huffington Post

Marika Morris
Adjunct Research Professor, Canadian Studies, Carleton University. Research Consultant with a focus on building healthy communities.

For 120 years, indigenous children in Canada were separated by federal law from their families and communities and sent to church-run Indian residential schools. The documented purpose of these schools was to wipe out indigenous cultures, languages, spirituality and traditions. It failed, but it caused much continuing harm in the process. Many of these students were physically and sexually abused, did not learn how to have good relationships and were taught to be ashamed of themselves and their parents. Thousands died at these schools and never came home at all.

This Sunday, participating churches across Canada will be ringing bells at noon, ringing for reconciliation, acknowledging their part in this process and their commitment to working with indigenous peoples to build a new and brighter future. Those churches that don’t have belfries, like First United Church and All Saints Westboro in Ottawa, will be outside ringing handbells, tambourines and anything that makes a ringing noise. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has spent six long years listening to the testimony of residential school survivors, is marking the end of its journey from May 31-June 3 with ceremonies, educational events, and a call to action. Across Canada, all kinds of people are participating in the walks for reconciliation, planting heart gardens, and other events.

In other parts of the world, grave injustices deliberately committed against a people can lead to decades or centuries of further hatred and violence. Indigenous peoples in Canada want to move forward with the rest of Canada, in a relationship of justice and harmony. This involves acknowledging not only the injustices of the past, but the continuing injustice and trauma of murdered and missing indigenous women, destruction of indigenous lands and waters, and the fact that First Nations and Inuit children receive a much lower standard of education in their communities than other Canadian kids. Reconciliation is a recognition of these realities and a commitment to action. We can’t just be sorry about what happened in the past, we must rectify the injustices of today and build a better future together based on justice and equality.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Portsmouth News

POLICE fear there may be other victims of a retired vicar jailed for sexual assault on a child.

Graham Gregory, 79, from York, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday, having been found guilty in 2014 of two counts of indecent assault on a girl under 13 years.

He held positions across the country, including Chichester.

Detectives were contacted by a woman in 2012 who claimed that she had been abused as a child between 1969 and 1971 when she lived in Wandsworth.

Detective Constable Aaron Vardy, of the Metropolitan Police’s Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: ‘Gregory abused his position as a figure of trust and authority.

‘It takes a lot of courage to report this type of crime and in some cases victims feel that they are only able to come forward years after the offence. This conviction highlights that regardless of how much time has passed, we remain committed to bringing offenders before the courts.

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FLORIDA
CBS 12

WEST PALM BEACH (CBS12) – A former private school teacher, accused of molesting two students, faced one of his accusers in court on Thursday.

Stephen Budd is on trial, charged with sexually molesting two of his fourth grade students at the Rosarian Academy, a West Palm Beach Catholic school.

The alleged victim told jurors she is 18 years old now, and just graduated from high school. She said the sexual abuse she endured in fourth grade became like a normal part of school for her.

The first incident, said the young woman, happened while Budd played a movie and the classroom was dark.

She said Budd offered her and her friend extra classroom incentive play money, “Budd Bucks.” The “Budd Bucks” were a status symbol in the classroom, she said.

“He moved my underwear to the side,” she said, and touched her private area. She ran to the bathroom crying.

The sexual incidents soon resumed, said the young woman.

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INDIANA
WTHI

By Eric Stidman
Published: May 28, 2015

MADISON COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) – A former Vincennes, Indiana youth pastor charged with sexual misconduct with a minor entered a guilty plea Wednesday in a Madison County, Indiana courtroom.

Derrick “Duke” Hampsch was arrested by Vincennes Police Detectives in 2014 after a victim’s family member came forward with allegations Hampsch took part in sex acts with a female victim. Hampsch, at that time, served as a Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church in Vincennes.

A court document provided to News 10 explained in April of 2010, Hampsch fondled the victim and had the victim fondle him. This incident, the document stated, happened at a First Baptist Church event in Anderson, Indiana. The victim told police, the church group traveled from Vincennes and stayed overnight at the Madison Park Church of God.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

CLAIMS AND REVELATIONS FROM THE CHILD SEX ABUSE ROYAL COMMISSION’S HEARINGS IN BALLARAT

EARLY OFFENDING BY GERALD RIDSDALE
Started offending while in seminary in 1950s.

KNOWLEDGE BY THE CHURCH IN BALLARAT
* The first complaint about Ridsdale was made to Bishop James O’Collins in 1961. He was told if it happens again he’s “off the mission” (priesthood taken away).
* Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew about Ridsdale’s offending in 1975, but didn’t suspend him until 1988.
* Convicted priest Paul Ryan says Bishop Mulkearns knew about him in 1977 and “buried his head in the sand” about sexual abuse in diocese. Ryan was removed as priest 1993.
* Bishop Mulkearns, Monsignor Leo Fiscalini and vicar general Father Henry Nolan all received complaints about Ridsdale’s conduct in Mortlake (1981-1982).

KNOWLEDGE BY THE CHURCH IN SYDNEY
Documents show Bishop Mulkearns in 1983 told Sydney Archbishop Cardinal Edward Clancy that Ridsdale was receiving counselling for “certain sexual problems” and was not to have contact with children following his transfer to Sydney.

CLAIMS ABOUT CARDINAL GEORGE PELL
* BRIBERY
Ridsdale’s nephew David Ridsdale accused Cardinal Pell of trying to bribe him in 1993 after being abused by his uncle. Pell allegedly asked him: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”
Pell denied the allegation. “At no time did I attempt to bribe David Ridsdale or his family or offer any financial inducements for him to be silent.”

* DISMISSED COMPLAINT
Timothy Green says when he was 12 or 13 he told Pell, in 1974, that Brother Edward Dowlan was abusing boys at St Patrick’s College. “Father Pell said `don’t be ridiculous’ and walked out.”
Pell says he has no recollection of a conversation with Green. “To the best of my belief, this conversation did not happen.”

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UTAH
Deseret News

By Ben Lockhart, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Two members of the famed piano group The 5 Browns are working with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to promote a bill that would incentivize states to reconsider their statute of limitations laws with regard to sexual crimes.

Deondra Brown said she and sister Desirae have been in meetings with Reid as he prepares a draft of the bill and looks for a co-sponsor.

“(The bill) would help the states, (encourage) them to change their statute of limitations laws,”Deondra Brown said.

The sisters founded the Foundation for Survivors of Abuse after their father, Keith Brown, was sentenced to prison in 2011 for sexually abusing his daughters over a period of several years in the 1990s.

“We started receiving emails from victims all over the country saying that they were not allowed by their statute of limitations to prosecute when they were finally ready,” Deondra Brown said. “We realized what a big problem it is for victims (not) to be able to have that closure and that opportunity to prosecute and put these criminals away.”

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CANADA
Metro

By Rosemary Westwood
Metro

I don’t lack reasons to be embarrassed: shiny forehead, very loud voice, a sometimes uptight nature.

Some days, I even have the bonus of being Catholic. It’s a bit like being an American — you’re an easy butt of jokes.

The Vatican can’t go long without sparking controversy, and the pope (any pope) can’t go long without inflaming the global public.

Such was the case this week. After Ireland legalized same-sex marriage in a historic referendum, a senior Vatican official said: “I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles but of a defeat for humanity.”

How ridiculous, and (perhaps inevitably) aggrandizing. A defeat for humanity is worsening climate change. A defeat for humanity is nuclear war. Even if you don’t support same-sex marriage (I do), allowing it doesn’t come with such dire consequences.

That’s far from my first, or likely last, embarrassment.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wandsworth Guardian

by Laura Proto

A retired vicar who indecently assaulted a child while he was a curate at a church in Southfields has been jailed for three years.

Graham Gregory, 79, was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 13 last year, and was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday, May 26.

A woman contacted police in 2012, saying she had been abused between 1969 and 1971 when she lived in Wandsworth and attended the church where Gregory was a curate.

She said Gregory, now of Brockfield Park Drive, Huntington, York, kissed her on several occasions before he assaulted her.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

29 May 2015 by Joanna Moorhead, Liz Dodd

A group of men has called on the Comboni Fathers to acknowledge and apologise for decades of abuse they allege took place at the order’s junior seminary in Yorkshire.

Brian Hennessy, one of 12 ex-students who have come forward to say they were abused by priests at Mirfield Junior Seminary in Yorkshire between the late 1950s and the early 1980s, this week sent a 157-page report detailing more than 1,000 instances of abuse to the archbishops of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

The report was also sent to the abbots and religious superiors of all the religious communities in Britain and the heads of the religious conferences.

In an accompanying letter Mr Hennessy said that priests and Religious had failed in their task, abandoned their mission and the spirituality of the Gospels by refusing properly to acknowledge and validate their pain and suffering.

Last year a group of victims were given payments by the order of between £7,000 and £30,000 each which Kathy Perrin, a lawyer with the Catholic Church Insurance Association, which represented the order, said was not an admission of guilt.

She explained: “Everything happened an incredibly long time ago and two of the priests who were accused are now deceased. My clients simply don’t know what happened at Mirfield and don’t feel that it can be established now.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: The bishop of Ballarat has told the royal commission the diocese may struggle to make compensation payments to all its victims of child sexual abuse.

But Paul Bird acknowledged that it could borrow money from a diocese fund which is worth $100 million.

The commission heard there had been at least 130 claims made against 14 local priests between 1980 and now.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Catholic Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird acknowledges that when it comes to clerical sexual abuse his community is divided.

PAUL BIRD: Yes, there are quite a few divisions I would say and people have sometimes quite different reactions. Those of course who would be directly hurt, those who, certainly those who’ve been offended against and their families would really feel the crimes that have been done. Others who may be more distant from that might not see the real, the full impact, or not appreciate it.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Paul Bird has been the bishop of Ballarat since 2012.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 28 May 2015

As many as 14 priests have been found to have sexually abused children in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese, the child sexual abuse royal commission has heard.

Data before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse shows there have been at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints of child sexual abuse against the Ballarat diocese since 1980.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness said that number included seven claims jointly held against the Christian Brothers.

She said at least 14 priests of the Ballarat diocese have been the subject of one or more claim or substantiated complaint of child sex abuse. Ballarat bishop Paul Bird said he was not certain that all 14 had been substantiated and he thought it was a lower number, maybe 10 or 12.

Furness said data from the diocese’s records show Gerald Francis Ridsdale had been the subject of at least 76 claims and substantiated complaints from the late 1950s to the late 1980s.

Earlier, Bird told the commission that he thought the Vatican should remove a priest from his position if he has been convicted of abusing children, but that it has not always done so.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

ONE of Victoria’s most senior priests says the Catholic Church should consider ordaining women.

Ballarat bishop Paul Bird said today a lack of women in the church may have contributed to the widespread abuse of children.

He told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that the issue should be revisited.

“If we looked at the possible negative effects of not including women, then that would add to the reason for the discussion,” he said.

“If we see that as a difficulty in having the church really balanced as a community, and with a recognition that perhaps in some cases that very imbalance…was a contributing factor to some crimes…then that would be all the more reason.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 29, 2015

Chris Johnston

What are the connections between three senior Catholic Church leaders and notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale? Both inside and outside of the child sexual abuse royal commission these connections are being tested and incrementally revealed, despite Ridsdale’s evidence this week full of noticeable omissions and memory lapses.

Take Thursday, for example, down at Fairhaven outside a nice house on the Great Ocean Road, occupied by former bishop Ronald Mulkearns, 83. He was named this week as the “pivotal person” responsible for failing to prevent rampant child sexual abuse at Catholic institutions in Ballarat in the 1970s, moving Ridsdale around the state and overseas as the allegations against him piled up.

Fairfax Media reported last year the Ballarat Catholic diocese paid for a $60,000 renovation on the coastal house. Another media outlet reported in 2013, after a stroke, that he leads an “active lifestyle” down the coast. The former bishop is not before the commission, citing ill health. Despite that he took an interesting visitor yesterday, who has admitted the royal commission was discussed.

The visitor was retired Catholic priest John McKinnon, who spent his working years at parishes in western Victoria, including Ballarat. He now lives in Hamilton.

The ABC went to Fairhaven to knock on former bishop Mulkearns’ door and while he declined to comment, they found Father McKinnon outside. He was most talkative. Asked what the pair discussed inside, he said: “Obviously the royal commission was part of it, but we don’t want to talk about that all the time.”

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AUSTRALIA
Gazette Herald

BY ANDREW HIGGINS / MAY 28, 2015
Gordon Hill hopes the many individuals like him who have been abused as youngsters by clergy in Ballarat will ultimately find yourself discovering a bit of little bit of peace and recognition.

The 72-year-old is glad he made the 3000km journey from Western Australia to the Victorian regional metropolis to inform the royal fee of the bodily and sexual abuse he suffered as a toddler at St Joseph’s Home.

But many survivors of the widespread abuse by clergy over many years within the Ballarat diocese really feel that even after an intense two-week public listening to, there’s nonetheless an extended solution to go.

In specific they level to the Catholic Church’s response and dealing with of abuse complaints.

“There does not appear to be something put into place and no eagerness to do something,” survivor Andrew Collins stated.

“You would assume that in any case these years that they might have had this down pat now, that procedures would have been put into place they usually’d be doing issues that have been victim-centred not church-centred.”

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Child abuse sex inquiry: Bishop Paul Bird denies as many as 14 Ballarat priests involved in abuse as hearings wrap up

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

A bishop disputes figures at a royal commission hearing in Victoria that the diocese of Ballarat had at least 14 priests involved in child sexual abuse.

At least 14 priests in the diocese of Ballarat are the subject of complaints of child sexual abuse, a royal commission hearing in Victoria has been told.

However, that figure was disputed by Bishop Paul Bird who testified on the final day of hearings in Ballarat of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Bird said while he does not know the actual figure, he does not think all of the complaints were substantiated.

“It’s less than 14 … maybe 12, maybe 10,” he said.

Bishop Bird agreed there were clear divisions in the Ballarat community in relation to survivors of child abuse being encouraged to come forward.

“Some people don’t think it’s a good thing,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 29, 2015

Jane Lee

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird doubts the diocese will be able to afford all the compensation claims it expects to receive from survivors of clergy abuse.

The diocese had worked with Catholic Church Insurance to try to estimate how much they may have to pay in compensation claims for historic and current child abuse, Bishop Bird told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday.

The Bishop – the final witness for the commission’s Ballarat hearing –was “not confident” about the sum, but said he had “doubts that we could meet those claims” as the diocese’s finances were “not very strong.”

Claims not covered by Catholic Church Insurance were paid out of a fund set up by a bequest in the 1930s. There was $1 million still in the fund, the commission heard.

The diocese also owned “very few” small parcels of land held by a trust and had a more than $100 million development fund, contributed to by the diocese and other investors.

Since January 1980, at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints had been made against the Diocese of Ballarat for child sexual abuse, including seven jointly held with the Christian Brothers.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Friday 29 May 2015

Potential misuse of the Catholic confessional has been exposed after at least one priest has admitted using the private disclosure to seek absolution for abusing children.

The revelation meant the system lacked honesty and substance if a priest could be absolved in such a way, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse was told on Friday.

“It’s not yet public, but we have heard from at least one priest who confessed to his confessor, and in that way reconciled his offending behaviour, which continued with his belief in God,” justice Peter McClellan told the commission in Ballarat on Friday.

“That throws up a rather startling illustration of how the confessional might be misused, doesn’t it?”

Ballarat bishop Paul Bird agreed that would be a terrible misuse of confession.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Megan Neil
May 29, 2015

At least one priest admitted he was abusing children during confession, the royal commission has heard.

Commission Chair Justice Peter McClellan has revealed that at least one priest confessed his offending behaviour in confession.

“It’s not yet public, but we have heard from at least one priest who confessed to his confessor, and in that way reconciled his offending behaviour, which continued with his belief in God,” Justice McClellan said on Friday.

“That throws up a rather startling illustration of how the confessional might be misused, doesn’t it?”

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird said that would be a terrible misuse of confession, which was supposed to mean conversion from doing wrong.

“If it’s such a serious matter as a crime, to treat it as though it was something that one could confess, I think to me that is simply a shelf of a ritual, it has no substance.”

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 27

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

We are grateful that Nordonia Hills school board president James Virost resigned today and we hope that Fr. Ralph Wiatrowsky of St. Barnabas will soon be disciplined. Both men wrote a judge essentially urging a lighter sentence for a convicted child sex offender (former Nordonia Hills school board President Steve Bittel). They should be ashamed of themselves.

[WKYC]

School and church officials should always put the safety of their kids above the wishes of their friends. Helping sex offenders get shorter sentences is reckless and hurtful. When officials write letters urging lighter punishments for sex offenders, they are being selfish and short-sighted and they rub even more salt into the already deep and usually still fresh wounds of victims and their loved ones.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Bittel’s crimes will call law enforcement. And we hope that those who care about kids will keep pressuring Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon to publicly and harshly discipline Fr. Wiatrowsky for his irresponsible actions in this case.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

At a time when Catholic families placed priests on a pedestal, Gerald Francis Ridsdale held an “almost supernatural” level of power even in his own family.

He was charismatic and many were in awe of him, his nephew David Ridsdale recalls.

Ridsdale’s mother would be frantic when he came home to visit, ordering his six siblings to get their cars off the driveway hours before his arrival.

He appeared to be a hardworking priest who helped his parishioners, particularly the needy and youth.

But it was all a ruse that was allowed to continue for decades and, as one judge put it, plummeted to the depths of evil hypocrisy.

Ridsdale used his exalted position in the eyes of Catholic families and communities to find his prey.

Father Adrian McInerney admired Ridsdale’s ability, and even what he did for youth, saying Ridsdale sought out families in need when he went to a parish.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Megan Neil
May 29, 2015

The Vatican should remove a priest from his position if he’s been convicted of abusing children, but has not always done so, a Victorian priest says.

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird has also told the child sex abuse royal commission that the position of a priest provided cover for clergy who abused children.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

live stream

Bishop Paul Bird is giving testimony to the commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By JARROD WOOLLEY May 29, 2015

WITH his wispy white hair, large glasses, and liver spots on his balding head, he could be any ordinary man on the street.

But there is nothing ordinary about Gerald Ridsdale.

It is hard to reconcile the image on the screen — that of a feeble old man who needed the assistance of a walking frame — with the one that has been painted in the media of an evil, perverted sex fiend who preyed on young children with zero thought for the hurt and harm he was causing.

But make no mistake — the man who appeared at the royal commission into child sex abuse via video link from his Ararat prison is a monster.

He’s serving time for abusing 54 individual victims. It’s thought there are countless others who fell victim to Ridsdale, including many who have taken their own lives, unable to live with the irreversible psychological damage done to them by the defrocked priest they initially trusted.

The commission, in part, is trying to find out how Ridsdale and other priests and Christian Brothers could continue interfering with children for so long and what the church did to stop it.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By KATE McILWAIN May 29, 2015

Notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale wormed his way into a Sydney family’s life and ‘‘latched on’’ to a young boy before abusing him at Bulli Parish, where he worked for three weekends as a relieving priest in the 1980s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat has heard the 81-year-old former priest went on to abuse children in Maroubra and the Diocese of Wollongong after he had been sent away from Ballarat because of multiple complaints that he was sexually abusing children.

Despite conditions imposed by Ballarat’s Bishop Ronald Mulkearns that Ridsdale be tranfered to work in a desk job at Sydney’s Catholic Inquiry Centre and have no contact with children, the paedophile tracked down a prayer group which included families with children.

“In this particular prayer group, you latched on to a 10 or 11 year-old boy straight away, didn’t you?,” counsel assisting the commissioner, Gail Furness, said during Thursday’s hearing.

“And you became friendly with the family, you had a computer and a keyboard that you used because the boy was interested in keyboards, and you lent him the keyboard, didn’t you?

“In your words, you wormed your way into his family?”

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) — A rabbi is in trouble with the law, accused of molesting a child and now police are searching for more possible victims.

Miami Beach Police arrested Steve Karro, 55, on Thursday.

Karro was a substitute Rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Synagogue Congregation.

According to his arrest report, on April 16th, Karro “intentionally touched/grabbed the buttocks” of an 11-year old girl. The report also states he kissed her along her neck after having her sit on his lap.

Police said the alleged victim has known Karro for five years.

Karro allegedly gave the girl candy and “told her not to tell her mother about what had happened.”

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FLORIDA
New Times

BY KYLE MUNZENRIEDER

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Steve Karro, a 55-year-old rabbi on Miami Beach, is behind bars today on charges of molesting an 11-year-old girl. The alleged incident happened last month, but Karro told police that he was merely trying to cleanse the girl of her “negative energy.”

Karro is a substitute rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Congregation. He also pursues a career as a fine artist, and indeed has his own art gallery on Arthur Godfrey Road. That’s where the incident happened back on April 16.

Karro allegedly grabbed the girl’s buttocks over her clothes at the gallery. He then sat the girl down on his lap and kissed her along the neck. The victim then ran out of the gallery, but not before Karro alleged gave her a bag of candy and told her not to tell her mother.

According to police, Karro has known the victim for five years.

When questioned by police, Karro denied most of the charges but did admit to touching the girl’s buttocks. However, he said the girl was “exhibiting negative energy” and touched her to “cleanse” her.

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FLORIDA
Local 10

[with video]

Author: Amanda Batchelor, Senior Digital Editor, abatchelor@wplg.com

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. –
A substitute rabbi at a Miami Beach synagogue is facing charges after allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl last month.

Steve Karro, 55, was arrested Thursday on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child.

According to an arrest report, Karro, who is a substitute rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Congregation, intentionally grabbed the buttocks of the victim on April 16 while they were at the Karro Art Gallery.

Police said Karro also kissed the girl’s neck after sitting her on his lap. Police said the rabbi and victim have known one other for five years.

According to detectives, Karro denied some of the allegations, but said he touched the victim’s buttocks for a “cleansing as she was exhibiting negative energy.”

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FLORIDA
WSVN

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — According to Miami Beach Police, a rabbi has been arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl, though he claims he did so to “cleanse” her of negative energy.

Fifty-five-year-old Rabbi Steve Karro is accused of touching and kissing the girl, who he has known for five years, at Karro Art Studio, located at 738 West 41st St., on Miami Beach. “A few officers just came here and started taking pictures and were asking questions, and they took pictures all over the place, and they left,” said Ezekiel Eneus.

According to the arrest report, Karro intentionally touched and grabbed the buttocks of the victim over her clothing. He also kissed her neck and sat her on his lap. As nerves began to build, she got up and began to leave the studio, he then handed her a small bag of candy and asked that she not tell her mother of what took place.

“I feel very sorry for her, also for the family. I pray for everybody. This is a very bad situation for the family and also for him,” said Michelle, who works nearby the art studio.

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FLORIDA
NBC Miami

[with video]

A substitute Rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Synagogue Congregation on Miami Beach was arrested Thursday morning on molestation charges.

Steve Karro, 55, who is also an artist, is charged with molestation of a child under the age of 12 and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16.

According to the police report, Karro touched and grabbed the buttocks of an 11-year-old girl over her clothing, while she was visiting his art gallery at 738 41st Street.

The police report said Karro also kissed the girl along her neck after sitting her on her lap. The girl got visibly nervous and rushed out of the gallery.

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FLORIDA
Miami Herald

BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@MiamiHerald.com

A substitute rabbi arrested for domestic violence almost two decades ago was charged Thursday with fondling an 11-year-old girl through her clothes and caressing her buttocks at his Miami Beach art gallery.

Police said Steve Karro, 55, placed the child on his lap last month and kissed her on the neck, then touched her bottom. During questioning by police, Karro said he touched the child’s buttocks for “cleansing” reasons because she was exhibiting “negative energy.”

Police said Karro gave her a bag of candy and asked her not to tell her parents about what had happened as she left the studio, 738 Arthur Godfrey Rd., on April 16. Police said the child and Karro knew each other for five years, but officers couldn’t explain why she was at the studio alone.

Karro, a substitute rabbi at the nearby Shaare Ezra Sephardic Synagogue Congregation, was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct of a child, and molesting a child. Calls to the synagogue and to Karro were not immediately returned Thursday.

Police said there was no indication that Karro did anything wrong while serving there.

Karro’s only previous brush with the law, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, was for beating up his wife in 1999. His wife was also arrested during that encounter, in what was described then as a “knock-down, drag-out fight.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By JARROD WOOLLEY May 29, 2015

PAEDOPHILE priest Gerald Ridsdale said if former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns had gone to the police rather than try and rehabilitate him with counselling, his offending would have stopped because he would have been in prison.

Giving evidence for a second day at the child sex abuse royal commission in Ballarat, Australia’s worst paedophile priest said he was now sorry he wasn’t reported to police and believes he should never have been ordained.

Ridsdale also appeared to back track on evidence given on Wednesday, conceding he may have approached Cardinal George Pell to give character evidence at his 1993 court appearance.

Comment: Ridsdale the old, cold face of evil

He had previously said he believed that was arranged through his legal team.

It was also revealed yesterday Cardinal Pell was on a committee of parish consulters that met in 1982 where Bishop Mulkearns said it had become “necessary to remove” Ridsdale from his post as parish priest at Mortlake’s St Colman’s Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By DANNIELLE MAGUIRE May 29, 2015

A DEFROCKED priest charged with numerous historic child sex offences will finally stand trial in Sydney early next year.

The former Armidale priest, whose identity has been gagged, was sent to trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday.

He will stand trial in Sydney on January 18.

The trial is expected to take four weeks.

The ex-priest first appeared before the Armidale Local Court on October 18, 2012.

He had been charged with more than 120 offences, including 25 charges relating to the abuse of three girls across regional NSW between 1979 and 1988; 36 charges relating to the abuse of six boys between 1981 and 1984 in Moree and 64 charges relating to the abuse of two girls and one altar boy between 1982 and 1985.

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MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

JACKSON, Mich. (WWJ/AP) – Bond was set at $1 million for a former Michigan Catholic school priest, teacher and wrestling coach charged in connection in the alleged sexual assaults of several boys more than three decades ago.

State Attorney General Bill Schuette said75-year-old James Rapp was arraigned Thursday in Jackson District Court on 13 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

A not guilty plea was entered on Rapp’s behalf. He’ll remain jailed pending a June 26 preliminary examination conference.

Schuette said the investigation into Rapp’s conduct began in 2013 when two victims — now grown men — came forward to report the abuse that allegedly occurred when Rapp was assigned to Jackson Lumen Christi High School in the 1980s.

Jackson County Sheriff Steve Rand said his department launched an extensive investigation revealing several more victims.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Sun

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, May 28, 2015

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Supreme Court today overturned a $500,000 judgment against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in Wisconsin in a case in which a priest in Las Vegas was accused of inappropriately touching a teen.

The court ruled that the District Court in Nevada does not have jurisdiction over the diocese.

The priest involved was originally from the diocese in Wisconsin and moved to Los Angeles and then to Las Vegas.

The incident allegedly occurred in 1985 when the priest was accused of running his hand up the teen’s leg and touching his genitals, according to court documents. The teen was a student at a Catholic school in Las Vegas.

The boy, who was in his early teens, said the incident led to psychological injuries in his later life.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

“The Milwaukee situation is the most insidious and openly destructive one I have seen in 31 years…”, said Dominican Fr. Thomas P. Doyle recently. Tom Doyle gives the reasons for his concern and outrage in his recent full remarks below. There he addresses the horrendous and ongoing mistreatment, indeed “re-abuse”, by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee of local survivors of priest sexual abuse, including some of the more than 200 deaf boys who were abused a single priest. See the related HBO Emmy and Peabody Awards’ winning documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God , and here .

This abusive Milwaukee priest was protected for decades by unaccountable cardinals and bishops, including ex-Pope Benedict and his Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone. For years, these defenseless deaf boys tried to tell of their priest abuse in Milwaukee, to little avail.

This Catholic hierarchical cover up of a “one-priest” sexual abuse tsunami and of the related “re-abuse” of survivors are outrageously not unique, as is evident from the recent grilling by the Australian Royal Commission of Fr. Gerald Ridsdale, who was protected by his close ties to Cardinal George Pell, whom Pope Francis nevertheless promoted to a top Vatican position.

Most of the Risdale allegations had been well established and publicized before Pell’s promotion. Almost 75,000 people in just a few days have signed a Change.org petition calling for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former Archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions under oath in Australia, despite Pell’s initial efforts to duck giving testimony there on new matters. Pell, in effect, under oath earlier also admitted to “re-abusing” abuse survivors with cruel and punitive legal tactics, for example, in the so-called Ellis case, like the Milwaukee Archbishop and Cardinal Timothy Dolan also apparently have similarly done.

A Vatican confidante reportedly spoken to by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia confirmed Pope Francis was personally aware of the allegations against Cardinal Pell, but was treating them as just that — unconfirmed allegations. Unconfirmed beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, perhaps. But in my experience over three decades as an adviser to top leaders of multinational organizations and corporations, not one of them would ever have promoted Pell like the pope did in light of the well known, widespread, multiple and plausible allegations against Pell. Indeed, Pell admitted before moving to the Vatican under oath to, in effect, using ruthless legal tactics to punitively “re-abuse” abuse survivor, John Ellis.

Of course, Rupert Murdoch appears to be very close to the Vatican and Pell, and also apparently to a top Pell supporter, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and to the indicted Adelaide Archbishop, the first Catholic archbishop ever criminally charged in a priest child sexual abuse cover up case . And the pope and Murdoch also appear to be partnering to elect a “low tax” Republican as US president next year, possibly Jeb Bush with Big Oil backing.

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IRELAND
The Journal

SOME 184 ALLEGATIONS of historical clerical abuse have been brought to the attention of a national watchdog organisation in the last year.

The allegations relate to physical, emotional and sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy between 1950 and 2006, according to an annual report published today by the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

In the year under review, 58 new abuse allegations were made against Diocesan clergy while 126 concerned religious priests, brothers and sisters.

The allegations, which were all raised during the 2014-15 year ending 31 March, have now been passed on to the Gardaí or PSNI and, if necessary, to Tusla or the Northern Irish Health and Social Care Trusts, the Board said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wall Street Journal

By JENNY GROSS
Updated May 28, 2015

LONDON—Britain’s Methodist Church has made a public apology after a report detailed nearly 2,000 cases of alleged sexual and emotional abuse within the institution over more than 60 years.

The church, which apologized for failing to protect the victims, is the latest religious establishment in
The independent report, commissioned by the church and based on written records and interviews with ministers and members of the church over three years, identified 1,885 cases of sexual, physical, emotional and domestic abuse, as well as cases of neglect between 1950 and 2014.

Martin Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Church, said on Thursday that the abuse inflicted by some Methodists on children and adults is “a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Toronto Star

By: Associated Press, Published on Thu May 28 2015

LONDON — Britain’s Methodist Church said Thursday it had found almost 2,000 reports of physical and sexual abuse within the institution over more than half a century, and has apologized for failing to protect the victims.

Martyn Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Conference, made an “unreserved apology” for the past abuse.

He said the abuse “inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

Atkins said the church would “do all in its power to improve its systems to protect children, young people and adults from abuse within the life of the church and on church premises.”

The report, published after three years of research, found 1,885 cases of sexual, physical, emotional and domestic abuse or neglect going back to 1950. In 26 per cent of the cases, church ministers or lay employees were identified as the alleged perpetrators.

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MINNESOTA
St. John’s Abbey

William Anthony Eckroth was born in Mandan, North Dakota, on June 21, 1926. William was the tenth child of fourteen born to Louis and Hattie (Gruenenfelder) Eckroth. His father was a German-Russian immigrant and worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad. William entered St. Joseph’s School in Mandan in 1932, and by the time he received the sacrament of confirmation from Bishop Vincent Wehrle, OSB, he felt the call to become a priest. William frequently served Mass with his younger brother Eddie in their nearby parish church.

On a train trip to see his Benedictine sister Caroline, he visited Fr. Angelo Zankl, OSB (1901-2007) in St. Paul, who was once an assistant at Mandan. This visit increased William’s desire to become a Benedictine monk.

When William finished grade school, Father Hildebrand Eickhoff, OSB (1885-1971) made arrangements for William to come to Saint John’s Preparatory School. William graduated in 1944 as valedictorian and immediately enrolled in Saint John’s University.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 28

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

We are glad that a predator priest has passed away and can no longer hurt kids. We’re glad too that his victims can hopefully sleep better at night knowing that he can’t assault any more children.

[St. Cloud Times]

[St. John’s Abbey]

He is Fr. William Eckroth of the Benedictine Catholic order. He mostly lived in Minnesota (St. Cloud, Albany, and St. Joseph) though he was sent to work in the Bahamas and to Maryland for treatment.

Fr. Eckroth was in his 80s and reportedly experienced dementia. But there’s no magic age at which a pedophile is cured so it’s possible that he molested other kids even in his later years.

We hope that all of Fr. Eckroth’s victims – whether hurt long ago or more recently – find the strength and courage to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and start healing. And we hope they find consolation.

Now that he’s passed on, we hope St. John’s officials will be more forthcoming about Fr. Eckroth’s crimes and about those who ignored, concealed and enabled them.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A priest who visited convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale in prison says no-one within the Catholic Church at the time fully understood the effect Ridsdale’s abuse had on his victims, and many believed he could change.

Ridsdale, an 81-year-old former priest, this week gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat.

He is currently at Ararat Prison, where he is serving an eight-year sentence for the rape and abuse of children.

The commission heard his offending first came to the attention of a bishop in 1961, but he was left to assault possibly hundreds of victims over the next three decades.

Ridsdale admitted the church should have notified authorities about his offending, saying “What I’ve done and the damage that I’ve done … I’d say, definitely”.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Emily Yahr May 28

There’s only one thing more troubling than TLC pulling “19 Kids and Counting” off the air after allegations of child molestation against star Josh Duggar. And that’s the fact that it’s not the first time something like this has happened.

Last year, the network canceled “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” after it was reported that Mama June — mother to 9-year-old Alana Thompson, star of the show — was dating a convicted child molester. Two months earlier, Discovery Channel (owned by TLC’s parent company, Discovery Communications) scrapped “Sons of Guns” when star Will Hayden was charged with the rape of a child.

Given that network talent typically goes through rigorous background checks, how could this occur more than once? Reality TV has grappled with this since its inception: When you showcase real people, you get very real problems – especially on channels that feature unusual families or personalities. It’s not just Discovery shows: There’s a wide range of disturbing issues in reality TV history. VH1’s dating show “Megan Wants a Millionaire” was yanked off the air when a contestant was suspected in the murder of his ex-wife. CBS’s “Big Brother” kicked off a contestant for holding a knife to another person’s throat on camera.

Certain industry insiders caution against blaming the network or production companies for allowing these cast members on air in the first place, pointing out there’s only so much they can prevent. Others say that some vetting processes are too lenient, and that potential reality stars will hide damaging pasts in order to get their shot on TV. Then there’s the fact when it comes to background checks, laws can limit what investigators are even allowed to uncover and report to the networks in the first place.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

Late last year, Douglas Phillips, then president of the extreme Christian-right group Vision Forum Ministries, admitted to, in his words, having “a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.” This was a bombshell in Christian-right circles, where Phillips is a major figure, maintaining a close friendship with the Duggar family of TLC fame (Vision Forum gave Michelle Duggar the “mother of the year” award in 2010 at an event called Baby Conference that had 1,500 attendees), former child actor Kirk Cameron, and creationist Ken Ham. Phillips preaches a strong patriarchal view of Christianity, one that teaches that women should give birth until they can’t anymore and that both wives and daughters are to live in perfect submission at home, going so far as to deny daughters the right to choose who to marry.

Phillips resigned in October, but now it seems that his public pronouncement regarding that “inappropriate relationship” may have seriously downplayed what actually happened. Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, who says she was the woman Phillips confessed about, is now suing Phillips and Vision Forum for what she alleges was an abusive and manipulative relationship that caused her serious mental harm and distress.

Her complaint, filed Tuesday morning in Texas’ Bexar County district court, paints a picture of a man whose religious faith in “patriarchy” has not led him to put women on a pedestal but rather to treat them like objects to be used up and discarded when you’re done with them.

The complaint alleges that Phillips met Torres-Manteufel, then just Torres, in 1999 when she was merely 15 years old and then “methodically groomed” her, by acting as her spiritual mentor, to accept his abusive treatment, eventually moving her into his home to live with his family in 2007. There, she alleges, he quickly asserted himself as an authority figure over her in every way, “the pastor of her church, her boss, her landlord, and the controller of all aspects of her life.” Then, according to the lawsuit, he started pushing her into sexual encounters, even though his church teaches that any sexual contact—not just intercourse, but even kissing—outside of marriage is wrong. This left Torres believing, according to the complaint, that she was in a “no-win” situation, where she had “to submit to Douglas Phillips” because of his authority over her, but that doing so left her as “damaged goods.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 28, 2015

St. John’s Abbey monk the Rev. Richard Eckroth, who was repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children, died Sunday at the abbey. He was 88.

Eckroth was named by St. John’s Abbey and by the Diocese of St. Cloud on a list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. He was the target of at least four lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, although the abbey said he denied abusing children.

He sustained serious injuries in 2001, when a dead tree fell on him while he was cutting firewood, and the abbey said that he lived with progressing dementia for years after that. That made difficult it to determine Eckroth’s side of the story when allegations of abuse surfaced.

Eckroth died in the abbey’s retirement center. He graduated in 1944 from St. John’s Preparatory School and entered the abbey in 1945.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By J. Freedom du Lac and Abby Ohlheiser May 28

More than a dozen advertisers have backed away from TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” after Josh Duggar apologized amid child molestation allegations.

The popular program was yanked from TLC’s schedule Friday, a day after Josh Duggar — the oldest of the 19 Duggar kids — said he had “acted inexcusably” and was “deeply sorry” for what he called “my wrongdoing” when he was “a young teenager.” Duggar, 27, also resigned from his high-profile position with the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying organization.

The latest season of “19 Kids and Counting” concluded May 19. But TLC had reruns on its schedule until Friday’s announcement.

[TLC pulls ’19 Kids and Counting’ citing ‘heartbreaking situation’]

General Mills started the advertiser exodus last week, when the company said it was taking “19 Kids and Counting” off of its advertising schedule. Others soon followed suit.

Right now, the list of companies that have released statements saying they’re not interested in advertising with “19 Kids and Counting” in the future include:

* Payless ShoeSource
* Choice Hotels
* Walgreens

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

Hulu has pulled the reality series “19 Kids and Counting” from its lineup, following reports of sexual misconduct allegations against one of the stars, Josh Duggar, stemming from when he was a juvenile.

Although the streaming-video service didn’t confirm removal of the TLC series, episodes weren’t found Thursday on the Hulu site, where they had been available as recently as Wednesday.

The show’s banishment follows TLC yanking the series from its program schedule last week.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A top lawyer who has represented abuse victims has been appointed to chair a public inquiry into historic cases of child abuse in care.

Susan O’Brien QC will lead the probe first announced by education secretary Angela Constance in December.

In a statement to Parliament, Ms Constance set out the remit of the inquiry, which will cover children in formal institutional care including faith-based organisations, children’s homes and secure care.

It will also extend to those in foster care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

Ms Constance said the Scottish Government plans to lift the current three-year time bar for civil action in cases of historical child abuse since September 1964.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY KATRINE BUSSEY , CATRIONA WEBSTER

The Scottish Government has pledged to “shine a light in the dark corners of the past” as it announced a top QC will lead a public inquiry into historic cases of child abuse.

Susan O’Brien QC, who has experience of representing abuse victims, will head the inquiry first announced by Education Secretary Angela Constance in December.

It will cover allegations of abuse of children in formal institutional care including faith-based organisations, children’s homes and secure care as well as those in foster care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

The Scottish Government said it also plans to lift the current three-year time bar for civil action in cases of historical child abuse since September 1964.

Ms Constance also announced £13.5 million over the next five years for a support fund for survivors of abuse in care, with a further £1 million for all victims of abuse.

The inquiry will have the power to compel witnesses to attend and give evidence, and the Education Secretary previously pledged that where crimes are uncovered the “full force of the law” would be used to bring those responsible to justice.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

One of Scotland’s leading QCs will chair a statutory public inquiry into historical abuse of children in care.

Susan O’Brien’s remit will include allegations of abuse in institutions, foster care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

Education Secretary Angel Constance said the inquiry would have powers to force witnesses to give evidence.

She had previously said abusers would “face the full force of the law”.

The minister also confirmed the Scottish government intends to lift the three-year time bar on civil actions.

This will include compensation claims for damages in cases of historical abuse that took place after 1964.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Theresa Ghiloni | tghiloni@mlive.com
on May 28, 2015

JACKSON, MI – A former Jackson Lumen Christi High School priest in Jackson was arraigned on 13 charges of criminal sexual conduct in district court Thursday morning.

James Rapp, 75, is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and 10 counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for alleged sexual assaults against several boys in the 1980s, according to a statement from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office.

Rapp served as a priest, teacher, maintenance supervisor and wrestling coach during his time at Lumen Christi High School from 1980-86, when the alleged crimes occurred, according to the statement.

Jackson County District Judge Joseph Filip set a $1 million bond for Rapp during his arraignment on May 28.

Rapp has been serving a 40-year prison sentence in Oklahoma, after he was convicted in 1999 of sexually abusing two teen-age boys in Duncan, Oklahoma, where he was a church pastor, according to Jackson Citizen Patriot archives.

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MICHIGAN
Seattle PI

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A former priest, teacher and wrestling coach at a Michigan Catholic school has been charged in connection with reported sexual assaults of several boys more than three decades ago.

State Attorney General Bill Schuette says 75-year-old James Rapp was arraigned Thursday in Jackson District Court on 13 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Schuette says the investigation started in 2013 when two men came forward to report alleged past abuse.

Rapp was assigned to Jackson Lumen Christi High School at the time. He was told to leave in 1987 following allegations a student was molested.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Father John Jay Hughes has been granted “retirement status,” according to archdiocesan officials. Hughes’ 15 minutes of fame came in the early 1990s when he appeared on the Phil Donahue Show. Producers couldn’t find a single U.S. Catholic bishop or official to be on a segment discussing pedophile priests. SNAP’s David Clohessy, slated to be on the program, recommended the priest to Donahue’s staffers because Hughes had stridently defended the church hierarchy in several op-eds. More recently, Hughes – then at Christ the King parish in U. City – told reporters he was “unaware of the circumstances” of Fr. Joseph D. Ross’ departure from that parish – and St. Cronin’s – due to abuse charges.”. .

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