ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 27, 2015

A WHISTLEBLOWER priest has revealed serial paedophile Gerald Ridsdale’s sexual behaviour was raised at a high-level church meeting in 1982.

Father Eric Bryant told the Herald Sun that concerns over Ridsdale’s “committing homosexual acts” were explicitly discussed in the meeting — which was attended by now Cardinal George Pell — at which it was decided to shift Ridsdale from the parish of Mortlake.

The stunning revelation came as Ridsdale on Wednesday broke his silence over his crimes to the royal commission.

He said church authorities knew he was molesting children in the 1960s, but gave him access to more vulnerable youngsters for almost 30 years.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Tagespost

[Editorial: Ireland-vote has consequences]

Von Guido Horst

Es wird nicht lange dauern, dann wird das starke Votum der wahlberechtigten Iren für die Einführung der Homo-„Ehe“ auch rechtliche Konsequenzen in anderen europäischen Staaten haben. Italien ist so ein Fall. Hier gibt es noch nicht einmal behördlich eingetragene Partnerschaften von gleichgeschlechtlichen Paaren. Von solchen „weichen Themen“ haben die Regierungen der letzten zwanzig Jahre die Finger weggelassen – der Vatikan und die Italienische Bischofskonferenz saßen ihnen wohl zu nah im Nacken. Doch nach dem, was am Samstag in Irland passiert ist, gibt es für die Regenbogen-Lobby im Stiefelstaat kein Halten mehr. Und Matteo Renzi wird nachgeben müssen. Auch in Deutschland regen sich nun die üblichen Stimmen, die nach den zivilen Lebenspartnerschaften jetzt auch die Homo-„Ehe“ nach irischem Vorbild fordern. Keiner will mehr das Schlusslicht in West- und Südeuropa sein, wenn es um die Gleichstellung von Heteros und Homos geht.

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ROME
Pontifica Universita Gregoriana

Sexual abuse may damage the fundamental worldview and the existential components of spirituality, leading to struggles in living the trauma also from a spiritual point of view.

The impact of child sexual abuse (CSA) on the spirituality of survivors can include challenges in anger, despair, confusion, guilt, and sometime a complete withdrawal from any spiritual activity. If victims are unable to maintain their faith, they may be further burdened by feelings of guilt and shame.

Survivors struggle with a loss of belief in God, justice, fairness, humanity, and the world as a good place; existential crisis such as loss of meaning and connection with others or with the world and God; and a sense of foreshortened future. The belief about fairness and justice in the world influence how they perceive the world as predictable, understandable and controllable. The underlying sense of trust and belief in a fair world influence the sense of self, relation with others and God as well as the concept of spirituality in general.

Survivors may experience the crisis of faith that most believers experience when something terrible happens in their life. Survivors may have difficulty in believing a God who protects and is just: They may have a feeling of spiritual emptiness and a search for answers for the experience of CSA. They tend to question where God was when the abuse was happening. Often they struggle with the question why a loving God should allow something so terrible happen to them. Some may conclude that God does not exist because God will not allow sexual abuse to happen to them. They may tend to believe God is distant and uncaring. CSA may diminish their trust in God’s love for them and they may disconnect from anything religious since they feel God has abandoned and betrayed them.
– See more at: http://ccpblog.unigre.it/?p=752#sthash.3fiJWZ7w.dpuf

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AUSTRALIEN
kathweb

Canberra, 27.05.2015 (KAP/KNA) Kurienkardinal George Pell will sich vor einer australischen Missbrauchskommission gegen den Vorwurf einer Schweigegeld-Zahlung verteidigen. Er sei bereit “per Erklärung, in einer Videoschaltung oder persönlich” als Zeuge vor dem staatlichen Untersuchungsausschuss in seiner Heimatstadt Ballarat auszusagen, teilte Pell, Chef des Sekretariats für Wirtschaftsangelegenheiten im Vatikan, laut australischen Medien am Mittwoch mit.

Hintergrund ist die Anschuldigung, Pell habe dem sexuell missbrauchten Neffen eines pädophilen Priesters Geld für dessen Schweigen angeboten. Dies hatte Pell bereits zuvor zurückgewiesen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[It happened over decades and many have looked the other way: sexual abuse and physical abuse in Catholic institutions. Five years after the scandal became public, asks controversial: Has the Church learned the right lessons?]

Als 2010 bekannt wurde, dass am Berliner Canisius-Kolleg des Jesuitenordens Kinder missbraucht worden sind, wurde damit eine Welle von Enthüllungen ausgelöst. Auch viele katholische Einrichtungen in Bayern waren betroffen. Mehr als fünf Jahre sind seitdem vergangen. Kontrovers-Reporter Anna Kemmer und Christian Wölfel blicken in verschiedene bayerische Bistümer und fragen nach: Ist seitdem wirklich umfassend aufgeklärt und entschädigt worden?

Ihre Recherchen ergeben: nicht überall. Zwar zahlten die bayerischen Bistümer an mindestens 119 Betroffene rund 680.000 Euro. Manche Bistümer setzten bereits 2010 unabhängige Anwaltskanzleien und Missbrauchsbeauftragte ein.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Terra

[The Polish government discussed possible financial compensation to the six Dominican victims of sexual abuse by the Polish priest Wojciech Gil, a Polish official said Tuesday. He did not specify details of any compensation.]

E i obierno de Polonia analiza una posible indemnización económica a las seis víctimas dominicanas de abuso sexual por parte del sacerdote polaco Wojciech Gil, informó el martes el procurador de ese país, Andrzej Seremet.

El funcionario no precisó los detalles de las eventuales indemnizaciones.

Seremet comenzó el martes una visita a República Dominicana para suscribir un acuerdo de cooperación judicial con su similar dominicano Francisco Domínguez Brito y tenía previsto reunirse con los familiares de los seis jóvenes que fueron víctimas de abusos sexuales por parte de Gil cuando eran menores de edad.

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DOMICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Poland’s chief prosecutor Andrzejeg Seremet on Tuesday acknowledged as “difficult” that former Vatican envoy Jozef Wesolowski, a Polish citizen and charged with sexual abuse of minors in the Dominican Republic, could be extradited to the Caribbean country as many people demand.

Pope Francis ordered Wesolowski’s house arrest in Rome in September last year, citing the alleged “serious acts of child abuse in the Dominican Republic.

The Polish national, who faces as long as 10 years in prison, is accused of abusing minors during his mission in the Dominican Republic, where he was Vatican envoy from January 2008 to August 2013, shortly before the scandal broke.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | May. 26, 2015

WASHINGTON
Pope Francis wants to retool the Catholic hierarchy so that it not only defines and enforces church teachings, but also listens and responds to how laypeople understand God’s will, German Cardinal Walter Kasper said.

Kasper, a noted theologian whose writings are known to have influenced Francis, said the pope wants to create a “listening magisterium.”

Kasper said one concept important to the pope is that of the sensus fidei, or the capacity of individual believers and the church as a whole to discern the truths of faith.

That concept, Kasper said, “was emphasized by the council … [but] Francis now wishes to give it complete meaning.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 27/05/2015
Reporter: Louise Milligan

One of the worst paedophiles in Australian history, Gerald Ridsdale, has talked about the abuse he perpetrated, who knew about it and, the traps he set for it, at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Gerald Ridsdale is one of the worst paedophiles in Australian history. His victims are thought to number into the hundreds.

He was a Catholic priest, moved around parishes in the Ballarat Diocese for years, long after the Church knew about some of his crimes.

He’s been convicted of multiple child sex crimes on four occasions and remains in prison.

But today, for the first time, Ridsdale has had to give evidence in public. He appeared by video link at the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and he revealed that the Catholic Church was aware of his abuse from the early-’60s, more than a decade earlier than previously thought.

Louise Milligan reports from Ballarat.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: For two weeks, Ballarat has been forced to face its bleak history.

In this courtroom, the shameful truth of a Catholic community, riddled with child sexual abusers for decades, has been revealed.

DAVID RIDSDALE, NEPHEW: The Church dictated the boundaries of right and wrong and the congregation’s relationship to the clergy was one of submission rather than supplication.

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ITALY
The Local

An Italian priest who allegedly posed as an American manager online has been arrested as part of an investigation into a global paedophile ring.

The 49-year-old priest was arrested in Alassio in Liguria where he had recently moved from the town of Oulx in Turin, Corriere della Sera reported.

He was arrested along with three others, including two unemployed men aged 58 and 51 and a worker aged 51 in Torrecuso, Livorno and Rome.

The priest, who has not been named, allegedly purchased pornographic photos and videos of pre-adolescents through the paedophile network on the internet.

In some cases the material included children aged just a few years old, mostly from Asia.

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TENNESSEE
The Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
25 MAY 2015

A Tennessee pastor who was recently admonished by police for having sex with another man in a church van parked in a parking lot, was arrested this week for embezzling an estimated $60,000 from his church’s coffers.

Boyd Watson Holder Jr. 44, was taken into custody after church officials reported that between $70,000 and $100,000 had been discovered missing from the Victory Apostolic Church bank account in Kingsport, reports the TimesNews.

It has been a rough six months for Holder, who was discovered by police last December having sex with another man in a church van in an empty parking lot. Holder reportedly apologized to the officers and was told to not “have relations in public” again before being ordered off the property.

In February church officials alerted police that money was missing from a church bank account that only Holder had access to.

When asked about the missing money, Holder told church members, “It’s none of your business.”

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TENNESSEE
Inquisitr

Boyd Holder, the 44-year-old pastor of Victory Apostolic Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, found himself in big trouble this week. On Wednesday, the man of the cloth was indicted by a grand jury and charged with stealing more than $60,000 from his church. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Holder was also slapped with a money laundering indictment.

But even though this marked the first time he was arrested and charged, Holder is not stranger to trouble with his congregation, and even with the police. While prosecutors have not said exactly what they believe Holder used the 60 grand on — some reports have the figure between $70,000 and $100,000 — reports from a local newspaper, the Kingsport Times News, as well as a local TV station, give what may be a pretty good idea.

Through his attorney, Holder has denied any wrongdoing — even in connection with an incident last December when, according to police, Holder was caught having sex with a man in a van owned by the church, parked in a lot behind a vacant building.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY ROSALIO AHUMADA
rahumada@modbee.com

A judge on Tuesday sentenced a man to five years in federal prison for downloading child pornography at an Oakdale church where he served as youth pastor.

Tyler David Bliss, 28, of Oakdale on March 2 pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography, according to a plea agreement memo filed in federal court. He agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors to avoid a trial.

Along with the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill ordered Bliss to serve 15 years of supervised release once he is out of prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

Federal prosecutors said Bliss downloaded the child porn with computers at his home and his church. Bliss was a supervisor of student ministries at Bethel Church when he was arrested Feb. 17, 2014.

The Oakdale church on G Street is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Derek Scally

A ghost is haunting Germany: the ghost of Catholic Ireland. Four days after Irish voters backed marriage equality, politicians of all persuasions here are demanding that Germany follow Ireland’s example and open civil marriage to all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Behind these demands lies shock. Shock that ausgerechnet Irland – Ireland of all countries – could leapfrog Germany on this key social issue.

In many German minds, Ireland is perceived as the arch-Catholic conservative backwater that progress forgot. But the Yes vote has forced a rapid rethink of how Germany views Ireland – and how liberal Germany considers itself.

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IRELAND
National Secular Society

Posted: Tue, 26 May 2015 by Keith Porteous Wood

The Catholic Church is now paying the price for its past in Ireland

NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood welcomes the Irish referendum result on marriage equality and argues that the Catholic Church’s appalling recent history in Ireland shows it deserves to be discredited- as it now has been, by the overwhelming referendum “Yes” result.

Last week, Ireland’s citizens voted in a landslide to legalise same-sex marriage. Unsurprisingly, the constituencies most in favour of “Yes” were within 50 miles of Dublin followed by the larger cities. Those least in favour tended to be nearest to the meandering border with Northern Ireland, probably with a higher proportion of protestant voters. Variations in the percentage of turnout did not impact on the overall result. More rural areas tend to be less in favour, but not always. While the very rural Mayo and Galway East were only just in favour, the even more remote Galway west was over 60% in favour.
The major lessons of the Irish referendum endorsement of same sex marriage by nearly 2:1 are religion-connected.

Primarily, it showed just how out of step the Catholic Church is with the Irish population. Even more striking is the speed with which this country, so recently completely in hock to that same Church, has changed diametrically. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, notably more realistic than many of his episcopal brethren, recognised that the Referendum signified a “social revolution” that did not happen in one day. Indeed.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

Heather Brown

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Reality TV star Josh Duggar has apologized for what he called “wrongdoing” in response to reports he molested five girls starting in 2002. Authorities have reportedly said he can’t be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has run out.

So, why do we have time limits on prosecuting crimes? Good Question.

“The problem is that stories change and evidence disappears and at some point we’re not confident that we’re going to get an accurate portrayal of what happened 20 years ago,” said David Larson, a professor of law at Hamline University.

Outside of federal crimes, each state legislature determines its own numbers for limits. Depending on the criminal or civil case, when the clock starts ticking is different for each case. It could be when the crime or negligence first happened, when it was first reported or when its effects were discovered.

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GUAM
KUAM

By Jolene Toves

The Concerned Catholics of Guam will be hosting a village meeting at the Sinajana Community Center on Thursday from 6-8pm. According to president Greg Perez, the village meetings are an effort to unite the local Catholic community, bring awareness to the issues within the Catholic Church and allow parishioners to voice their concerns.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

By: Beth McDonough

“For sale” signs have gone up in front of several properties owned by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The properties include the 244 Dayton Avenue location, home to the office of The Catholic Spirit; the Archbishops’ residence and chancery offices at 226 Summit Avenue; the Hayden Center at 328 West Kellogg Boulevard and a vacant lot at 250 Dayton Avenue. There’s another property in Northfield for sale as well.

The sales are part of an effort to provide a chunk of cash at a time when the Archdiocese desperately needs it.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked Tom Mertens, the chief financial officer for the Archdiocese, if this was a hard move to make.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — For-sale signs have been posted outside several properties owned by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as it seeks to pay creditors.

KSTP-TV (http://bit.ly/1Q9xSSd ) reports the properties with the for-sale signs include the chancery and the archbishop’s residence in St. Paul near the cathedral, as well as three other properties in St. Paul and another in Northfield.

Archdiocese chief financial officer Tom Mertens tells the TV station that it was a difficult decision to try selling the properties because of their “significance and history.” He says it will be cheaper to rent spaces.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY MEGAN NEIL AAP MAY 27, 2015

THEY shared a presbytery and had enough of a relationship for George Pell to accompany his fellow priest to court, yet Gerald Ridsdale has little recollection of the cardinal.

THAT Australia’s worst pedophile priest has no memory of living with the nation’s most senior Catholic figure has angered victims, even though Cardinal Pell now says he’s prepared to appear in person before the child sex abuse royal commission’s Ballarat inquiry.

In his own much-anticipated appearance, Ridsdale maintained he remembered little of his former house mate.

Ridsdale told the commission he can’t remember any of the priests who lived at the Ballarat East presbytery with him in the early 1970s, even then Father Pell.

“I’ve been told that but I can’t remember actually being there with George,” Ridsdale said via videolink from prison.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Stephen Woods stood up to get a closer look at the 81-year-old in the dark green prison jumper on the screen.

The priest who had raped the 14-year-old after he had gone to him for advice about his sexuality was no longer two to three times his size.

‘When I stood up and looked at him, he was my size,’ Mr Woods said of seeing Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

‘This time I wasn’t a kid, I was a man.

‘I saw him and I thought, You know, you’re not so powerful any more’.’

Mr Woods hasn’t seen Ridsdale since the second of his four court cases, when he was jailed in 1994 for 18 years for abusing Mr Woods and 20 other victims.

Though hurt that Ridsdale doesn’t remember the names of any of his victims, Mr Woods is focused on the child sex abuse royal commission uncovering the full story behind the widespread abuse by clergy in the Ballarat diocese.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nehanda Radio

UNITED KINGDOM – The woman who played a key role in bringing down sex-abuse preacher Walter Masocha, will this Saturday be launching her “Victim No More” event in Milton Keynes.

Jean Gasho’s blog “He was my Daddy” was instrumental in exposing how Masocha sexually abused members of his church.

Masocha a former university lecturer, who led the Stirling-based Agape for All Nations Church, was convicted last month for groping a young deaconess while he was supposed to be praying for her stomach complaint and for putting his hand down a schoolgirl’s trousers saying he was trying to remove demons.

The deaconess was told Masocha had been “trying to remove ‘something’ from her genitals”. The schoolgirl, then aged 15, was left in tears after Masocha groped her bottom claiming she had ants or demons in her pants.

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on May 26, 2015

Sexual assault survivors, backed by state prosecutors and victim support groups, stood together Tuesday to say they won’t be satisfied if Oregon lawmakers extend the statute of limitations for rape to 12 years.

House Bill 2317, set to be heard Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, would double the state’s current six-year time limit to file charges in rape cases.

But 12 years is not long enough, said several rape survivors and their advocates. They want a 20-year window and blamed state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, for blocking the move.

“Six years is appallingly short. Twelve years is similarly appallingly short,” said Meg Garvin, executive director of the Portland-based National Crime Victims Law Institute and a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School.

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OREGON
OPB

by Amelia Templeton OPB | May 26, 2015

Oregon lawmakers will consider a bill Wednesday that would double the state’s general statute of limitations on rape from 6 years to 12 years.

But some rape survivors and their advocates say that’s not enough time to bring many sexual attackers to justice. They are pushing for the revival of an earlier version of the bill that would extend the statute of limitations to 20 years.

“Let’s not be a state where women, who after finally finding the will and strength to ask for their justice and demand it, let’s not be a state where they are told they are too late for that,” said Bryn Garrett, a Portland woman whose testimony contributed to a criminal conviction for sex abuse against a pastor earlier this year. Garrett was unable to pursue charges in her own case because prosecutors did not file charges before the statute of limitations had expired.

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TEXAS
WSBT

[with video]

Suzanne Spencer

SAN ANTONIO, Tx. –
A priest and professor teaching at Notre Dame is named in a civil lawsuit in Texas. In the lawsuit, Rev. Virgilio Elizondo is one of two priests accused of sexually assaulting a minor in the 1980s.

The plaintiff, who is not named, accused Fr. Elizondo of touching the minor inappropriately. The lawsuit says Fr. Elizondo, “reached over, kissed him, and began to fondle him…”

According to the court documents, the plaintiff “fought off Father Elizondo and then ran from his vehicle” during an incident in 1983.

The same plaintiff claims another priest, Fr. Jesus Armando Dominguez, touched him inappropriately on several occasions. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff went to Elizondo “to seek clarity from Father Elizondo regarding his past interactions with the now, Father Dominquez.”

As a result, the lawsuit says the plaintiff suffered emotional trauma, loss of respect for authority, attempted suicide, and suffers from substance abuse and addictions.

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OHIO
Nordonia Hills News-Leader

by Eric Marotta and Briana Barker Editor and Reporter Published: May 27, 2015

Nordonia Hills — In addition to sponsoring a www.change.org petition calling for Board of Education President Jim Virost’s resignation, the Facebook group U-KNIGHTED for our Children has also sponsored a petition on the same website calling for the Cleveland Caltholic Diocese’s “evaluation” of the Rev. Ralph Wiatrowski, pastor of St. Barnabas Parish.

“We are asking for the immediate evaluation of Father Ralph Wiatrowski as the right choice for pastor and leader of St. Barnabas Parish and School,” the petition states.

Around 190 individuals had signed the online petition by press time May 22.

Both the Rev. Wiatrowski and Virost wrote pre-sentencing letters to the Summit County Court of Common Pleas on behalf of former School Board President Steve Bittel, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison on felony charges related to child pornography and a police standoff he initiated last September.

The Rev. Wiatrowski said he welcomes a review.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By St. Paul Pioneer Press on May 26, 2015

HASTINGS, Minn. — A Dakota County jury has found a former priest not guilty of molesting an altar boy 25 years ago at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Hastings.

The former Rev. Francis Hoefgen, who had undergone treatment after a sexual abuse allegation in 1984 and was later reassigned to Hastings, was charged with criminal sexual conduct in May 2014 after a man stepped forward and claimed he had been abused between 1989 and 1991.

Hoefgen, 64, pleaded not guilty and a jury trial began last week. The jury acquitted him Tuesday evening.

Hoefgen broke down and sobbed with friends and family after the not guilty verdicts were read. He left the Hastings courtroom without commenting.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: To the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Ballarat.

One of Australia’s worst paedophiles, Gerald Ridsdale, is giving evidence there today.

Ridsdale has several convictions for sexually assaulting more than 50 children and won’t be released from jail for another seven years when he’s 88.

He’s giving evidence via video link from prison.

The now defrocked priest has told the hearing that he never told anyone about his offending for fear of being defrocked.

He’s also explained that he was molested by three people when he was a boy and struggled with sexual issues while training to be a priest.

Samantha Donovan is following the commission hearings and joins us now.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tom Tuite
PUBLISHED
27/05/2015

A former lay worker with the Church of Ireland will stand trial accused of sexual abuse of 10 boys between 1977 and 1990.

Patrick O’Brien (76) is facing 75 counts of indecent assault at numerous locations throughout the State, including St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

Mr O’Brien, with an address at Knocklyon Road, Templeogue, in Dublin, was arrested yesterday.
He was taken to Terenure Garda Station by detectives attached to the Child Protection and Human Exploitation Bureau.

He was charged and then brought to appear before Judge Cormac Dunne at Dublin District Court.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Survivors of child sexual abuse and their supporters have poured scorn on the evidence given by Gerald Ridsdale, accusing the convicted paedophile of protecting the hierarchy of the Catholic church.

Ridsdale, 81, gave evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse via video link from prison, where he is serving time after being convicted of more than 140 offences against children as young as four over three decades until the 1980s.

Ridsdale repeatedly said he did not recall key details of his interaction with Catholic clergy as he was being moved around parishes in Victoria where he committed the sexual offences.

The former Catholic priest said he did not recall living with George Pell, Australia’s most senior cleric, nor why Pell agreed to appear in court as a character reference for him in 1994.

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MINNESOTA
Faribault County Register

May 27, 2015
Associated Press

HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) — A former priest has been acquitted on charges that he sexually abused an altar boy at a Hastings church almost 30 years ago.

The St. Cloud Times reports (http://on.sctimes.com/1FNPSQR ) that Hoefgen broke down and sobbed with friends and family after the not guilty verdicts were read Tuesday. He left without commenting.

The 36-year-old Red Wing man who accused Hoefgen of abuse from 1989 to 1992 hung his head in his hands after the verdicts came down. He left before the session ended.

Hoefgen was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The jury deliberated about three hours.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Child sexual abuse inquiry: Paedophile Gerald Ridsdale continued on as priest despite bishop’s warning, royal commission hears

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

One of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, Gerald Ridsdale, was allowed to continue on as a priest despite a bishop receiving a complaint about him in his first year, the child sexual abuse royal commission is told.

The elderly Ridsdale is giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in Ballarat via video link from Ararat prison, where he is serving an eight-year sentence for the rape and abuse of children.

He was quizzed at length about whether or not people were warned about his offending tendencies as he was moved between schools around western Victoria, in the 1960s and 70s.

Ridsdale told the inquiry he remembered receiving a warning from a bishop over an incident involving a boy in Ballarat.

“The first complaint that ever came in was in my first year as priest,” he said.

“I remember going in a room and fondling him, and putting my hand down his trousers, it would have been a fairly brief kind of thing.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 27, 2015

Tony Wright
National affairs editor of The Age

He doesn’t look like a monster, this old man peering through spectacles, bald but for a few wisps of greyed hair above his ears.

Looks deceive. It’s all in the perspective.

He was a monster, sure enough, to little boys awed by this man in the robes of a priest who offered himself as a friend and molested them, again and again. Boys who, according to senior counsel, afterwards couldn’t bear anyone touching them or their fathers coming near.

The child in a Ballarat primary school showing the priest his toys, only to find a hand shoved down his pants. The bedwetter in an English boarding school, the Australian priest as housemaster bathing him and putting him into fresh pyjamas and taking him into his bed. The boys welcomed to the country house of the parish priest to play pool, and who accepted holiday invitations to his underground dug-out in the NSW opal-mining town of White Cliffs, only to discover themselves trapped.

No one knows how many children Gerald Ridsdale molested from the 1950s when he was a seminarian in Werribee and on through the decades of his priesthood as he was moved from parish to parish around Victoria’s western district for several decades.

He did not even inform his god, apparently, at least through the normal priestly channels – he left his child-abusing out of his religious confessions, he says, and never told his monstrous secret to anyone until the game was up. When the game finally was up, he was convicted of abusing scores of children.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

I was abused as a child: disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale gives evidence at sex abuse royal commission in Ballarat

May 27, 2015

Jane Lee and Rania Spooner

A paedophile priest who was convicted of more than 100 charges of sexual abuse against children over about 30 years began offending before he was ordained and says he worked with no restrictions at any of the parishes he was moved to amid numerous abuse allegations.

Gerald Ridsdale, 81, told a royal commission on Wednesday he had spent his life feeling “uncomfortable” around adults, keeping secrets and in fear of being discovered as a paedophile. He also said he had been sexually abused as a child himself, and had had a three-year relationship while in prison.

The first time he abused a child was at a camp for disadvantaged children while he was still in training to become a priest at a seminary in Werribee.

Within a year of his ordination in 1961, the Catholic Church received its first complaint about Ridsdale abusing children. Then-Bishop James O’Collins threatened to send Ridsdale “off the mission” if he offended again, which meant he would no longer work as a priest.

Ms Furness asked if this threat played on his mind as he moved to different parishes and abused children. Ridsdale, who was also abused by a cousin and an uncle when he was younger than 12, said: “It could have.”

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VATICAN CITY/AUSTRALIA
BBC News

The Vatican’s finance chief George Pell has offered to testify in a high-profile Australian inquiry into institutional child sex abuse.

The cardinal was formerly the Archbishop of Sydney, Australia’s most senior Catholic official.
He is accused of silencing a victim of a paedophile priest and aiding the priest’s move to another parish.

Australia is investigating how schools, churches and the government responded to child abuse cases.

‘Horrified’

This week a royal commission began hearing testimony from victims in Ballarat in the state of Victoria, where Gerald Ridsdale had sexually abused dozens of boys in various parishes between the 1950s and 1970s.

Mr Pell has been accused of being complicit in moving Ridsdale around the state, and of attempting to bribe Ridsdale’s nephew into keeping quiet about his abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
TVNZ

Gerald Ridsdale knew he was committing “serious sins” and hurting the children he sexually abused, yet he never stopped nor thought for a moment about the lives he was destroying.

Australia’s worst pedophile priest can’t even remember the names of all the children he abused over four decades.

Hearing that one boy would not let anyone touch him after the abuse, the 81-year-old said he never thought about the impact of what he had done.

“I didn’t know that then, but I do now,” Ridsdale told the child sex abuse royal commission’s Ballarat inquiry.

He was only concerned for his own sexual gratification? “That’s right.”

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AUSTRALIA
Debrief Daily

[with copy of the letter from Archbishop Fisher]

SARAH MACDONALD
@sarahvmac

Catholic schoolkids in Sydney have brought home a note to parents headed ‘Speaking the Truth in Love’.

But many Catholic parents will not be feeling the love.

Penned by the Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher and published on his website, it references the horrific stories emerging from the Royal Commission hearings in Ballarat, which the Most Rev. Fisher admits are ‘harrowing and for many people demoralising’.

Witnesses have talked of the brutal bashings and sex crimes they experienced as young boys at the hands of trusted and respected Catholic clergymen. They have told stories of children shared around by pedophiles, and revealed that when they tried to speak out they were actually punished for speaking ill of God’s holy representatives.

The abuse is believed to have contributed to 45 suicides or early deaths in the region.

So what does Anthony Fisher say to his flock? He says he is appalled by the conduct of some priests and shares feelings of contamination and shame.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

Parents’ anger at Sydney Archbishop’s note sent home with Catholic schoolchildren about horrific abuse being uncovered at royal commission that says some criticism is ‘unfair’

By JOHN CARNEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A letter that’s been taken home by Catholic school kids in Sydney in an attempt to put parents’ minds at ease as the on-going Royal Commission into sex child abuse inquiry continues this week has not got the positive response the church hoped for.

Called ‘Speaking the Truth in Love’ it is written by the Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher and is also published on the Archdiocese of Sydney website. The letter refers to the disturbing evidence emerging from the inquiry in Ballarat in recent weeks.

While making it clear that like everyone else he feels ‘disillusioned, contaminated and shamed’ by what has come out of the commission, his claims that the church has been treated unfairly has left parents angry and feeling as if the Archbishop is backing the church’s former responses to allegations of sexual abuse.

‘Many things are being said about the church at the moment some of them fair, some of them not so fair. It is alleged, for instance, that we engaged in self-protective legal evasions,’ the Archbishop wrote.

Debrief Daily website reports the letter has stirred up anger among some Catholics in Sydney with one parent calling it ‘Satanic Verses’, others have described it as ‘a real kick in the teeth to victims’, while others saw it as a sign that the Catholic Church is still in denial.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Monsignor William Lynn, the high-ranking Roman Catholic official convicted in the priest sex abuse scandal, will be meeting with his defense lawyer today, to figure out whether to seek bail, again. It follows last month’s court proceeding that sent him back to prison.

The former senior official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was convicted of a single count of child endangerment in 2012 over his handling of priest sexual abuse complaints.

Monsignor Lynn served about half of a 3-6 year prison sentence, but was released on bail in 2014, after Superior Court reversed his conviction. In late April, the State Supreme Court reversed a key element of that decision, and back behind bars he went.

Defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom says while the case has been remanded to Superior Court, the three-judge panel may not hear arguments until September.

That’s why he’ll ask his client about filing a bail petition to return to house arrest pending appeals, or staying put.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

By Fiona Henderson May 27, 2015

UPDATE: GERALD Ridsdale told the Royal Commission on Wednesday crimes reported in confession should be reported to police.

“Well from my experience and what I’ve done, and the damage that I’ve done, I’d say yes definitely,” he said.

“I don’t know what the church ruling or legislation or thought is about that, but that’s my personal opinion.”

EARLIER: Ridsdale said he was molested twice as a child and “sexually tested” by an uncle while giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Ridsdale said he was assaulted by an older cousin when they shared a bed when he was eight or nine, and a Christian Brother a few years later.

He also gave evidence that priests had a great deal of community status, and he read a lot of spiritual books when he was growing up.

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PENNSYLVANIA
iradiophilly

by: Rebel – Havertown, PA
started: 05/27/15 5:44 am | updated: 05/27/15 …

Monsignor William Lynn, the high-ranking Roman Catholic official convicted in the priest sex abuse scandal, will be meeting with his defense lawyer today, to figure out whether to seek bail, again. It follows last month’s court proceeding that sent him back to prison. The former senior official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was convicted of a single count of child endangerment in 2012 over his handling of priest sexual abuse complaints. Monsignor Lynn served about half of a 3-6 year prison sentence, but was released on bail in 2014, after Superior Court reversed his conviction. In late April, the State Supreme Court reversed a key element of that decision, and back behind bars he went.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Convicted paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale has told the child abuse royal commission he did not have a particularly close relationship with Cardinal George Pell and did not discuss his offending with him.

‘I never had much to do with him’, he said.

Ridsdale says he can’t remember having any dealings with now-Cardinal George Pell, despite living in the Ballarat East presbytery with him.

Ridsdale also said he can’t remember asking then-Father Pell what he would say on his behalf at Ridsdale’s first court appearance in 1993, when the two were photographed together.

In May 1993, Cardinal Pell accompanied Ridsdale to court in Melbourne where he pleaded guilty to 30 charges of indecent assault.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Wednesday 27 May 2015

Convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale has described how he committed a string of sexual offences, including on a boy in the UK, after being repeatedly moved to different locations by the Catholic hierarchy.

Ridsdale, 81, was speaking via a video link from prison to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse, held in the Victorian city of Ballarat.

The former priest said that shortly after he was ordained in 1961, he fondled a young boy, which resulted in a complaint. He was told by local bishop James O’Collins that “if this thing happens again you’ll be off to the missions”. He said he was then sent to Mildura.

After offending further, he was sent to Swan Hill and then Warrnambool. He said he did not request these moves. “In those days there wasn’t a choice,” he said. “There was no consultation, it was ‘you go’ and you went.”

He said he did not discuss his widespread sexual offences with anyone and was not told the reasons for his new placements. Under questioning from Gail Furness, he frequently said he did not recall details of his time as a priest, nor could he recollect conversations with high-ranking Catholic officials.

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AUSTRALIA
Gazette Herald

Pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale’s lack of reminiscence of key particulars of who within the Catholic Church knew about his abusing is one other kick within the guts for victims, advocates say.

Clergy abuse sufferer Andrew Collins says victims are bitterly disenchanted that Ridsdale has not revealed who within the church hierarchy knew about his offending and moved him round.

“A few them have walked out and stated there’s simply nothing occurring. They’re disillusioned,” Mr Collins stated.

Lawyer and Monash University doctoral researcher Judy Courtin stated Ridsdale’s selective reminiscence was simply not credible.

“Whenever it involves speaking about anybody within the hierarchy he has no reminiscence of it in any respect,” Ms Courtin advised reporters in Ballarat.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Victims of clergy abuse have said they are “disappointed” over pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale’s lack of memory of key details on who in the Catholic Church knew about his abusing.

Today, Ridsdale told the Royal Commission he was “out of control” abusing children, and admitted he did not tell anyone for fears of being defrocked.

Appearing today before the commission’s Ballarat hearing into institutional responses to child sex abuse via videolink from jail, Ridsdale has repeatedly referred to the prosecutor’s notes and has struggled to remember much of his previous testimony and the circumstances of his offending, including the names of some of his many victims.

Clergy abuse victim Andrew Collins spoke outside court and said victims are bitterly disappointed Ridsdale did not reveal who in the church hierarchy knew about his offending and moved him to other parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON May 27, 2015

GERALD Ridsdale said he was molested twice as a child and “sexually tested” by an uncle while giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Ridsdale said he was assaulted by an older cousin when they shared a bed when he was eight or nine, and a Christian Brother a few years later.

He also gave evidence that priests had a great deal of community status, and he read a lot of spiritual books when he was growing up.

However he was told by an older priest friend: “Always remember when you’re reading books like that, that it’s not necessarily how people like that lived but that’s how they would have liked to live.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

‘I am deeply committed to helping the survivors’: Cardinal George Pell FINALLY agrees to give evidence at Royal Commission into child sexual abuse

By LUCY THACKRAY and JOHN CARNEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cardinal George Pell has told the chair of the royal commission he’s prepared to give evidence in person ‘if needed’.

‘I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally,’ he said in the letter to Justice Peter McClellan on Tuesday night.

He also said he’d been horrified by the allegations of abuse in Ballarat and was ‘deeply saddened’ by the way church authorities dealt with reports of abuse.

Abuse victims have given evidence Pell bribed them to keep quiet, ignored complaints and was complicit in moving Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to a different parish.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 27, 2015

Rania Spooner
Crime reporter

Convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale says he was sexually abused by two family members before he was 12 as he began giving evidence at the Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse in Ballarat.

Ridsdale, 81, whose offending against children spans more than three decades from the 1950s to the late 1980s, was appearing by videolink from Ararat Prison on Monday morning.

Being questioned by counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, SC, Ridsdale accepted evidence he gave investigators in 1994 of being sexually abused himself, including by an older cousin.

After dropping out of St Patrick’s College in Ballarat at 14, Ridsdale joined an accounting firm, where he worked for more than two years before deciding to become a priest, the commissioner heard.

At the Corpus Christi seminary in Werribee, Ridsdale said his only problem was masturbation, about which he had confessed and had been told was a “serious sin”, he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

One of Australia’s most notorious child sex offenders, Gerald Ridsdale, was unable to control his sexual desires while in the seminary, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in Ballarat has heard.

The elderly Ridsdale is giving evidence to the inquiry via video link from prison, where he is serving his latest sentence for abusing young boys.

Ridsdale was read out a long list of his offences over the years, involving many victims.

He told the royal commission he could not remember some of the offences.

He also told senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, he could no longer recall being abused himself as a child, despite making statements to that effect in the 1990s.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Gerald Francis Ridsdale says he did not tell anyone he had abused children when he was first ordained because he was afraid of being kicked out of the priesthood.

Ridsdale has told the child abuse royal commission that he did not confess all his sins during confession once he left the seminary, and told no one he was abusing children when he was ordained in 1961.

“I didn’t confess the sexual offending against children,” Ridsdale told the commission’s Ballarat hearing, via videolink from jail.

He did not tell the Ballarat bishop who ordained him that he had offended while in the seminary studying to be a priest and while overseas.

“I don’t think I told, would have told anyone at all,” Ridsdale said.

“I never told anyone. It’s the sort of thing I wouldn’t tell anyone.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

AAP

GERALD FRANCIS RIDSDALE’S LIFE AND OFFENDING

1934 – Born May 20, St Arnaud, Victoria
Primary school St Aloysius, Redan
Secondary school St Patrick’s College, Ballarat
1954-1958 – Studied for priesthood Corpus Christi College, Werribee. Began offending.
1958-1960 – Seminary, Collegio Brignole Sale, Genoa
1960-1961 – Seminary, All Hallows College, Dublin
1961 – July 25, ordained as priest at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat
– Fills in at five parishes including Horsham, Inglewood, Camperdown and Ballarat North
1962-1964 – Assistant priest at Ballarat North
– First complaint in Ridsdale’s first year as priest – boy from Villa Maria boarding school in Ballarat East
1964-1966 – Assistant priest Mildura
1966-1969 – Assistant priest Swan Hill
1970-1972 – Assistant priest Warrnambool
1972-1974 – Assistant priest Ballarat East
1974-1975 – Parish priest Apollo Bay. Puts in for transfer February 1975 after man tells him in a pub there’s talk about him and kids.

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

Vatican City 26 May 2015

Cardinal Pell has once again restated his willingness to give evidence to the Royal Commission in a letter written to the Chair of the Commission, Hon. Peter McClellem AM, last night.

“Without wanting to pre-empt the Royal Commission in any way — you can’t just invite yourself to give evidence — I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the Commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally.”

Cardinal Pell also said it was important to restate his strong personal commitment to full co-operation with the Royal Commission, in light of the Ballarat hearings and speculation about his own willingness to give evidence.

“Like everyone else, I am horrified by the accounts that survivors have given in their evidence during the Ballarat hearings, and at the enormous impact the abuse has had on them, their families and the community.

“I am also deeply saddened by the way Church authorities have failed in responding to these crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Cardinal George Pell says he is prepared to give evidence in person to the royal commission into child abuse.

The Cardinal has been criticised for his failure to appear at the inquiry sitting in Ballarat.

However this morning he released a statement saying he would appear before the commission “in person, if asked to do so.”

Cardinal Pell said he had made the offer in a letter written to the chair of the commission, Justice Peter McClellem, last night, although he stressed that he had not been asked to give evidence in any form.

STATEMENT: Pell offers to appear at inquiry

“I just want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the Commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally,” he said in the statement.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Cardinal George Pell says he will give evidence to the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse if requested

May 27, 2015

Rania Spooner

Cardinal George Pell has promised to appear in person at the royal commission into institutional child abuse if asked, in a letter sent to the commission hours before a former housemate, notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, began to give evidence.

In a letter sent last night to the commission’s chair Peter McClellan, Cardinal Pell wrote of his full willingness to cooperate with its investigation.

“Without wanting to pre-empt the Royal Commission in any way – you can’t just invite yourself to give evidence – I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the Commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally,” Cardinal Pell wrote.

“Like everyone else I am horrified by the accounts that survivors have given in their evidence during the Ballarat hearings, and at the enormous impact the abuse has had on them, their families and the community.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

CARDINAL George Pell has told the chair of the royal commission he’s prepared to give evidence in person.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally,” he said in the letter to Justice Peter McClellan on Tuesday night.

He also said he’d been horrified by the allegations of abuse in Ballarat and was saddened by the way church authorities dealt with reports of abuse.

Abuse victims have given evidence Pell bribed them to keep quiet, ignored complaints and was complicit in moving Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to a different parish.
They have called on him to return to Australia to face the royal commission.

In the letter, Pell says he has not yet been asked to give evidence in any form.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 26 May 2015

Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior cleric, has told the chair of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse that he is prepared to give evidence in person.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally,” he said in the letter to Justice Peter McClellan on Tuesday night.

He said he had been horrified by the allegations of abuse in Ballarat and was saddened by the way church authorities had dealt with reports of them.

Abuse victims have given evidence that Pell bribed them to keep quiet, ignored complaints and was complicit in moving paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to a different parish. They have called on him to return to Australia to face the royal commission.

In the letter, Pell says he has not yet been asked to give evidence in any form. “But as I have said repeatedly, I am deeply committed to assisting the royal commission and to doing anything I can to help survivors,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

George Pell to give evidence in person at Royal Commission, as paedophile Gerald Ridsdale appears via videolink

UPDATE: VILE paedophile Gerald Ridsdale is giving evidence to the Royal Commission via videolink, as Cardinal George Pell says he’s prepared to give evidence in person if needed.

Ridsdale was giving evidence for only minutes, but said numerous times “I have no recollection”.

WATCH RIDSDALE GIVE EVIDENCE HERE

Ridsdale is giving evidence at the Royal Commission in a move victims hope will unlock decades of secrets about how the Catholic Church covered up child sex crimes.

The frail Ridsdale, who turned 81 last week, is giving evidence via videolink from the Ararat jail he has called home for decades.

He has admitted molesting hundreds of kids over an evil career that spanned three decades and has been convicted of abusing just 54.

He first pleaded guilty to widespread abuse in 1993 when he was controversially supported in court by church figures including the now Cardinal Pell.

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Royal Commission overnight Cardinal Pell said he would be happy to appear in Ballarat in person.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

KAITLIN THALS

Cardinal George Pell said he is prepared to travel to Ballarat to give evidence in person at the child sex abuse royal commission after explosive allegations were made against him.

The Royal Commission into Institutionalised Sexual Abuse, which began hearing evidence in Ballarat last week, was told that Cardinal Pell tried to bribe the nephew of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to stay quiet about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle.

Cardinal Pell has denied the claims but issued another statement today saying he would front the hearings in Ballarat if he was asked to do so.

“Without wanting to pre-empt the royal commission in any way – you can’t just invite yourself to give evidence,” he said in a statement.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link, or by attending personally.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Live stream.

Gerald Ridsdale is giving evidence to the Royal Commission via videolink.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, May 26, 2015 / 03:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While the Synod of Bishops’ ordinary council gathered to discuss the upcoming Synod on the Family this week, a private group of bishops and experts convened behind closed doors in Rome to consider the most controversial issues at the synod, particularly support of gay unions and Communion for the divorced and remarried.

Pope Francis chaired the May 25-26 meeting of the Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops, which is preparing for this October’s synod on “the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in contemporary world.”

The council, meeting at the Vatican, examined the synod’s instrumentum laboris, or working document, which was produced by last year’s Synod of Bishops, and integrated it with the responses to questions which were sent to dioceses worldwide.

“An extensive and detailed study of the text has generated proposals and contributions for its integration and improvement,” the Vatican Information Service noted, adding that the working document’s final text will be prepared and translated by the Secretariat General within the next few weeks.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

A Dakota County jury acquitted former priest Francis Hoefgen Tuesday. A man had accused Hoefgen of abusing him more than 20 years ago.

Hoefgen, 64, of Columbia Heights had been charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct.

A man reported the abuse to police in November 2013. He said he was molested from age 9 to 12 years old when he served as altar boy at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Hastings.

The jury arrived at the verdict in less than four hours.

In a statement released after the jury’s decision was read in court, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said he was grateful to the victim for coming forward.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 26, 2015

HASTINGS – A Dakota County jury on Tuesday evening found Fran Hoefgen not guilty of accusations that he raped an altar boy more than 20 years ago at a Hastings church where he was a priest.

Hoefgen broke down and sobbed with friends and family after the verdicts were read. He left the courthouse without commenting.

The 36-year-old Red Wing man who accused Hoefgen of abuse from 1989 to 1992 hung his head in his hands after the verdicts were read. He left the courtroom before the hearing concluded.

Hoefgen was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The jury deliberated for about three hours before returning the verdicts.

After the verdicts were read, Hoefgen’s attorney, Michael Colich, said the charges and trial have weighed heavily on Hoefgen.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

David Pakman

I’ve been covering the Josh Duggar child molestation case on The David Pakman Show, not because we care about reality TV shows like 19 Kids and Counting, but because the case is representative of so much of what is wrong with extremist right-wing Christianity and so-called morals in the United States today. Josh Duggar’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, knew about the molestation for years. During that time, Michelle campaigned against LGBT rights, while Jim Bob sent Josh to work away from home.

Jim Bob did have Josh meet with Arkansas State Trooper Jim Hutchens, but Hutchens never took official action, and ended up being convicted on child pornography charges himself, effectively killing any chance of action against Josh Duggar or the family for coverup.

Mike Huckabee issued a statement of support for the Duggars. Judge Stacey Zimmerman, who has connections to Mike Huckabee, ordered the police records referencing some instances of Josh’s child sex abuse to be destroyed.

Naturally, I was heartened and optimistic this morning when I read that a Republican finally stepped up and was calling for charges in the case. Unfortunately, Arkansas State Senator has called for charges against Kathy O’Kelley, Chief of the Springdale, Arkansas police. Senator Hester argues that by releasing the police report about Duggar, she has put the victims in danger.

This doesn’t hold water. The police report was released redacted, and Chief Kelley was merely following the law with regard to Freedom of Information Act requests. Senator Hester hasn’t called for charges against Duggar himself — in any case, the statute of limitations may have elapsed on his wrongdoing. Senator Hester hasn’t called for charges against Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar for coverup and failure to take victims and would-be victims out of harm’s way. Senator Hester hasn’t called for charges against Judge Zimmerman, who still hasn’t explained why she destroyed the police records when news of Duggar’s child sex abuse went public.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Tuesday 26 May 2015

A senior Vatican official has attacked the legalisation of gay marriage in Ireland. The referendum that overwhelmingly backed marriage equality last weekend was a “defeat for humanity”, he claimed.

“I was deeply saddened by the result,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said at a conference in Rome on Tuesday night. “The church must take account of this reality, but in the sense that it must strengthen its commitment to evangelisation. I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles, but of a defeat for humanity.”

The remarks by the Vatican’s top diplomat, who is seen as second only to the pope in the church’s hierarchy, represent the most damning assessment of the Irish vote by a senior church official to date.

It was a far more critical response than the circumspect reaction offered by archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who said: “It is very clear that if this referendum is an affirmation of the views of young people … [then the church needs} a reality check.”

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ROME
Catholic Culture

Bishops from Germany, France, and Switzerland met on May 25 in at the Gregorian University in Rome, to discuss their plans for the October meeting of the Synod of Bishops.

The closed-door meeting—which brought together some of Europe’s leading “progressive” bishops, under the leadership of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, with few Vatican officials invited—appeared to be an effort to plot strategy for the handling of controversial issues, such as the treatment of homosexuality and the proposal to allow Communion for Catholics who are divorced and remarried.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

At a two-day meeting this week, the “ordinary council” of the Synod of Bishops discussed and revised a draft of the instrumentum laboris, the working document for the Synod’s October 2015 session.

Pope Francis chaired the meeting of the ordinary council, along with Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops. Along with its work on the instrumentum laboris, the council also discussed the procedures that will be used for the October session.

The instrumentum laboris is the product of a process that began with the final statement from last year’s session of the Synod. The Office of the Synod then prepared a lineamenta, a preliminary document that included a series of questions, to stimulate responses from episcopal conferences, religious orders, and other ecclesiastical bodies. After receiving those responses, the Synod office then drafted the instrumentum laboris. Following this week’s discussion of that document, the instumentum laboris will now be finalized, translated, and published by the Synod office in preparation for the October meeting.

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UNITED STATES
Extra

Controversy continues to explode around the headline-making scandal surrounding “19 Kids and Counting” reality TV star Josh Duggar, the oldest son in the wildly popular TLC reality show.

Josh was accused of molesting five underage girls in 2002 when he was 14 years old, but was never charged with any crimes. The statute of limitations keeps authorities from prosecuting him now, but attorney Rosemarie Arnold told “Extra” his alleged victims still have recourse.

“Civil cases could be viable depending how old the girls are,” Arnold clarified.

She went on to say that the “statute of limitations for a civil sexual abuse case in Arkansas [where the Duggar family resides] is three years from your majority,” meaning the day you turn age 18 or three years from the day you realize you were injured because of the abuse. “So if the girls are young enough or have suppressed memories, then the statute of limitations for the civil suit could be still be viable.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune MAY 26, 2015 — 6:02PM

A Dakota County jury on Tuesday acquitted Francis Hoefgen, a former Hastings priest, of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct following a trial on accusations of decades-old abuse.

Hoefgen, who is no longer a priest and lives in Columbia Heights, was accused of repeatedly abusing a boy who was a student at the parochial school at St. Boniface Church between 1989 and 1992. Hoefgen, 64, is one of few priests to face criminal charges for alleged sex offenses that are decades old.

Jurors deliberated about four hours before returning the not guilty verdict.

Throughout the trial, Hoefgen’s attorney, Michael Colich, questioned the reliability of the accuser’s memory and the lack of physical evidence presented.

“Simply say to yourself, where’s the evidence?” Colich said to closing arguments Tuesday.

Hoefgen’s accuser, now 36, testified last week that Hoefgen’s abuse progressed from fondling to oral and anal penetration when the man was in fourth, fifth and sixth grades at St. Boniface’s parochial school. He said “Father Fran,” as Hoefgen was called, abused him during the school year, usually after the two cleaned up after a funeral or midweek mass. The Star Tribune has not named the man during the trial because he was the victim of an alleged sexual assault.

“He liked the defendant, Father Fran. He trusted Father Fran. He came to be able to talk to Father Fran and tell him what was going on. [Hoefgen] took advantage of that,” Assistant Dakota County Attorney G. Paul Beaumaster said Tuesday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

By Simon Rocker, May 26, 2015

Chief Ephraim Mirvis has stated that any allegation of child sexual abuse must be reported to the police “without delay”, following last week’s conviction of a Charedi teacher for sexual assault.

All rabbis under the authority of the chief rabbi are to be asked to attend a mandatory seminar being organised by the United Synagogue to alert them to the dangers of abuse.

Todros Grynhaus, the son of a dayan of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, awaits sentence after being found guilty in Manchester of seven counts of sexual abuse against two girls aged 14 and 15 at the time.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Rabbi Mirvis said the conviction was of “immense significance” and praised the courage of victims and others who “withstood tremendous pressure” to bring it about.

“Though certainly not the first such case, it sends an unequivocal message that nobody, in any part of our community, can expect to commit these horrific crimes and escape prosecution,” he said.

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FLORIDA
WPTV

[with video]

Brian Entin

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Former Rosarian Elementary School teacher Stephen Budd’s trial started Tuesday with pretrial motions.

A 21-year old woman testified about her abuse allegations involving Budd from nearly 15 years ago at a different school.

She said Budd touched her private areas in exchange for candy, but did not immediately report the incidents to police.

The judge will decide whether her testimony will be allowed during the trial.

Budd is accused of molesting two elementary school-age children at Rosarian Academy.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

By Riley Yates
Of The Morning Call

The Diocese of Allentown is fighting a lawsuit that claims it failed to protect a South Korean teenager who was sexually abused at a dormitory for Pius X exchange students, saying the high school shouldn’t be held responsible for what happened inside the privately operated dorm.

The girl was 14 and attending Pius X when she was repeatedly sexually assaulted more than four years ago by a tutor at ACE Academy in Pen Argyl, a family-run facility that housed and mentored Korean students attending the Catholic school in Bangor. Her suit charges that the diocese and the school were negligent in allowing the abuse to occur, and that she disclosed it to a priest during confession, but he failed to report it.

At a hearing Tuesday, the diocese asked Northampton County Judge Michael Koury Jr. to toss the suit, saying that the girl’s lawyer hasn’t established enough of a connection between the school and ACE Academy. The man who abused the girl, Richard Kim, worked for ACE and was not an “agent or employee” of Pius, said David Dye, an attorney for the church.

“There is no allegation that Mr. Kim is associated or connected with the diocese at all,” Dye said. In fact, he said, it is unclear whether the school even knew who Kim was.

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TEXAS
KENS

A civil lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Archdioceses of San Antonio accuses two priests of sexually assaulting an orphan during the 1980s.

The lawsuit claims leaders of the church covered up the complaints for decades.

The lawsuit alleges that former San Antonio priest Jesus “Jesse” Dominguez, a seminary student at the time, began to serve as a father figure to the orphan. According to the lawsuit, the boy was living at a nearby orphanage, and Dominguez would regularly help with homework, clothing and food, eventually taking the minor out for movies and meals. The outings, the lawsuit states, would end in Dominguez taking the boy back to his living quarters and molesting him. This happened for two years, about two or three times per week, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also states that when the boy would question Dominguez’s actions, he would claim a heart condition and often fake a heart attack. On one account, the boy claimed Dominguez threatened to kill the minor and himself when the minor’s questions proved too much.

Dominguez was sued three separate times in California and is a convicted sex offender, according to media reports.

The lawsuit states the boy attempted to get help from another church leader, but his concerns were dismissed. KENS 5 is not disclosing the name of this leader because the person has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime.

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ARKANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 26

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 male Arkansas politician claims a female police chief should be fired for releasing a police report about alleged child sex crimes by prominent conservative activist Josh Duggar.

[Washington Times]

But the politician says nothing about two male officials who also played a role in document’s release.

We’re very skeptical of State Senator Bart Hester claim that he’s worried about the privacy of Duggar’s alleged victims. We’re not convinced he’s sincere.

Time and time again, we’ve seen officials profess concern over victims’ privacy when their real goal is to preserve predators’ secrecy.

The victims’ names were redacted from the police report. And it’s been days since the report was released but we’ve heard no one else say they’re worried about the victims’ privacy. That’s not to say that Hester is entirely off base. It is indeed crucial that the safety of victims – and their confidentiality – is safeguarded.

But it’s even more crucial that kids are safeguarded. That’s what exposing proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters does.

When a predator is “outed” and families are warned about him, usually his victims feel better. And almost always, kids are safer. So if we must err, let’s err on the side of protecting the actual safety of vulnerable kids, rather than on the side of protecting the perceived feelings of adults.

We’re glad the police report was disclosed. We’re glad that Springdale Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley, Mayor Doug Sprouse and City Attorney Ernest Cate agreed to put kids’ safety first.

We’re glad Duggar’s alleged victims’ names are still private and hope they will remain so. And we hope that others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Duggar or cover ups by church officials will find the strength to protect others, expose wrongdoers, get help and start healing.

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CANADA
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

Pastoral letter by Archbishop Prendergast of Ottawa on the closing ceremonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Monday, May 25 2015

The closing ceremonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be held in Ottawa this coming May 31 to June 3. The Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J., Archbishop of Ottawa, has issued a pastoral letter, asking Catholics in the Archdiocese to be in solidarity with Aboriginal Peoples over offences committed in the former Indian Residential Schools, inviting them to join him in prayer, and encouraging participation in the public events as an expression of reconciliation, including joining Archbishop Prendergast in the Solidarity Walk on May 31. The Most Reverend Gerard Pettipas, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Grouard-McLennan and President of the Corporation of Catholic Entities Party to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement (CEPIRSS), and the Most Reverend Sylvain Lavoie, O.M.I., Archbishop Emeritus of Keewatin – Le Pas, will also be present for the TRC closing ceremonies, as well as Aboriginal members from the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council.

Link to the Pastoral Letter

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

MARK KENNEDY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa is calling on followers of the faith to “repent” and seek forgiveness for how the church mistreated thousands of aboriginal children in residential schools for many decades.

The message is contained in a pastoral letter written by Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and comes just days before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) releases the findings of its six-year probe into this controversial chapter of Canadian history.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has publicly released Prendergast’s letter as part of its efforts to support and pray for residential school survivors, and reconcile with them.

Meanwhile, the Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches – which were also involved in the school system – are gearing up for next week’s TRC release with plans to forge “reconciliation” activities.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 26, 2015

HASTINGS – Calling the prosecution’s case against Fran Hoefgen “a disgrace,” his attorney urged jurors Tuesday in Dakota County to find Hoefgen not guilty of charges that he sexually abused a former altar boy more than 20 years ago.

Michael Colich told jurors that police and prosecutors assumed the altar boy’s story was true and did no investigation to find evidence to support the story. In fact, the only evidence presented to the jury, Colich said, was by Hoefgen’s defense and it showed that key points of the victim’s testimony are wrong.

“How can you convict someone when there’s no evidence besides (the victim) telling us it happened,” Colich told jurors during closing arguments.

Jurors were beginning to deliberate the case in the early afternoon and will decide whether Hoefgen is guilty of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Hoefgen, 64, is accused of abusing the former altar boy between 1989 and 1992, when Hoefgen was associate pastor at St. Boniface Church in Hastings. Hoefgen is a former St. John’s Abbey monk and priest who also served at St. Boniface in Cold Spring.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 26

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

Over the past five years, only about 20 criminal cases have been opened against Swiss Catholic priests and monks for sexual abuse in Switzerland since, despite church officials admitting 172 alleged offenders.

[swissinfo]

Both figures, we suspect, are and should be much higher. We believe Catholic figures are hiding the identities, crimes and whereabouts about hundreds of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians, brothers and other church employees.

And frankly, we do not believe Bishop Charles Morerod of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg who claims that “every accusation made against a living priest or a lay person who works for the church will be handed over to the justice authorities immediately.” Time and time again, we’ve heard these pledges by Catholic officials and time and time again we’ve seen them broken.

We urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups by Swiss Catholic officials to contact secular authorities – not church staff – and expose wrongdoers, protect kids, and start healing.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail

‘It will be with me until the day I die’: Woman, 79, who survived Irish Magdalene Laundry reveals how she’s still haunted by the fear, back-breaking labour and loneliness she suffered in brutal workhouse 60 years ago

By NAOMI GREENAWAY FOR MAILONLINE and LUISA METCALFE FOR MAILONLINE

Worked to the bone, beaten and abused, the experiences of women held in the ‘care’ of the nuns in Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries, is the stuff of nightmares.

But for one woman, Kathleen Legg, who is about to turn 80, those nightmares remain very real, 60 years after she left the horrific institution.

She said: ‘The memories are still there. There are some things you can’t block out. Until the day I die, it will be with me.’

Speaking about her time in the institution to Fiona Phillips on ITV’s Lorraine this morning, Kathleen, who was born in Lisvernane, Co Tipperary, said: ‘I used to wake up screaming.

‘I never told my husband where I’d been but he used to wonder why I had these nightmares.

‘It was the shame,’ she said, explaining why she never told her husband, who has since passed away. ‘It was kept a secret for 60 years.’

The laundries were set up in 1922 when the newly independent Irish state delegated welfare duties to the religious orders.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Vatican’s official newspaper has said that Ireland’s passing of the same-sex marriage referendum constitutes a “defeat” that highlights a gap between the Catholic Church and modern society. While both Pope Francis and the Vatican have officially so far avoided addressing this disastrous Irish referendum result, the newspaper reported of “a challenge for the whole Church,” and of “the distance, in some areas, between society and the Church.” It said: “The margin between the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ votes was too large not to be accepted as a defeat. It was the result of high voter turnout, notably among young people, … “.

On Saturday (5/23/15), Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the marriage referendum results show that the Church has a huge task in front of it to get its message to young people.

A basic premise of the Vatican newspaper and Martin is flawed. They both, in effect, claim that the Yes vote won because of the young.

Polls, however, show the Yes vote won by landslide margins among all groups except the over-65 age group. The Church hierarchy’s current message is clearly falling on deaf ears among a lot more than just the young. The hierarchy, including Pope Francis evidently, yet again fail to appreciate that the priest child sex abuse scandals have reduced their moral authority severely. The pope apparently is still even standing up for disgraced Cardinal George Pell, who must be directed by the pope to return to Australia promptly to testify. Pell is becoming another repeat of the Cardinal Bernard Law/ Vatican cover-up script. The Royal Commission into child abuse has shown that victims from Ballarat Australia, which Pell once oversaw, still lack justice.

Cardinal Georges Cottier, a theologian, was cited by the newspaper as saying it was impossible to understand the Irish referendum result “without taking into account the paedophilia scandal which has rocked the Irish Church.” But that scandal is an obscenity to old, as well as young, Catholics in Ireland and everywhere else.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 26

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 glad that Gallup Catholic officials are moving toward resolving dozens of clergy sex abuse and cover up cases by selling mostly vacant property. This proves what we’ve long said: that Catholic officials have far more wealth than they admit and can do right by suffering victims if only they’ll put forth some effort.

[Wall Street Journal]

We urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups by New Mexico Catholic officials to contact secular authorities – not church staff – and expose wrongdoers, protect kids, and start healing. We urge Catholics to keep prodding the church hierarchy to be more honest about church finances and to do more about children’s safety.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

Three companies have decided to remove ads from U.S. cable network TLC’s reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” in a sign of waning support for the top-rated programme about a large Christian family following reports that the eldest son had molested underage girls.

General Mills Inc (GIS.N) said it made its decision before TLC pulled episodes of the show on Friday.

Payless Shoesource Inc and Choice Hotels International Inc (CHH.N) told Twitter followers on Tuesday that they would no longer back the show.

“We share your concerns and we have decided to remove our advertising from the show,” Choice Hotels said in a response to a consumer who questioned the sponsorship on Twitter.

Walgreen Co WALG34.SA, another of the show’s advertisers, said on Facebook “we will continue to monitor the situation.”

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian

Lindy West

Between Bill Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi, Rolf Harris, Jimmy Savile, Terry Richardson, Woody Allen, like half the British government or something, and, most recently, American schlock TV star Josh Duggar, one might say that it has been a rough couple of years for famous men accused of sexual impropriety. The hammer’s really coming down. Tough break, gentlemen.

Or not. Actually, I believe the word you’re looking for is “fantastic”. Fantastic break, gentlemen.

Because the reality is that some of these men got away with their alleged crimes for years (decades, even) without ever being publicly exposed. Others saw their victims come forward only to be laughed off and dismissed by the culture at large – victims forced to watch the world fawn over their abusers while the statute of limitations achingly slipped away. None except for Ghomeshi, Harris and perhaps Cosby have experienced significant damage to their careers, and even those who are facing criminal charges got to spend the previous years doing exactly as they pleased, (allegedly) flush with the illusion of untouchability, leveraging their fame and power while freely victimising others for sport and pleasure.

That’s not a loss; it’s a win. That’s not being embattled; it’s being pampered. The pain of being criticised, however loudly, on the internet is in no way proportionate to the pain inflicted by sexual assault. Receiving a five-, 20-, or 50-year buffer before any charges stick to you is pretty much as cushy as crime gets.

The Duggar case, in this regard, is particularly repulsive. For those unversed in the “look at this weird family” school of American reality television (subsets include “let’s all laugh at the impoverished” and “fats – they think they’re people!”), the Duggar family populates a programme called 19 Kids and Counting, formerly 18 Kids and Counting, formerly 17 Kids and Counting. The premise is that patriarch Jim Bob Duggar incessantly impregnates his wife Michelle in order to expand the ranks of their sanctimonious Christian homeschooling cult – which, as far as I can tell, holds as its sacraments: boringness, purity, female subservience, shamelessly rubbing heterosex in strangers’ faces, the letter “J”, hairdos of a peltlike nature and keeping LGBT people from doing stuff.

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TEXAS
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 26 May 2015

The Village Church has responded to criticism of its treatment of the wife of a member who had her marriage annulled after her ex-husband was found to be viewing images of child abuse.

The 10,000-member church, whose lead pastor is Matt Chandler, supported Jordan and Karen Root in their work with the SIM USA mission organisation in East Asia. Jordan Root was found to have been viewing child pornography and his appointment with SIM was terminated following an investigation and his admission of guilt.

Jordan entered a “process of walking in repentance” but Karen Root – now Hinkley – was told that her move to have the marriage annulled placed her in breach of the church’s membership covenant. She was also told that her resignation of membership could not be accepted while she was in breach of the covenant.

After a storm of negative publicity, the church issued a statement to its members saying that “this case of sin has brought immense damage to a marriage and a ministry” but adding that “in the midst of this heartbreaking situation, we have maintained a tremendous love and burden for both Jordan and Karen, for both the offender and offended”.

The statement outlines the steps taken regarding Jordan Root, including reporting him to the authorities. It said that following an FBI investigation of his computer he was not facing criminal charges. It says: “Jordan’s sin is serious and difficult, and he has confessed, repented and appears to be submitted to the direction of his elders and pastors. This means Jordan is not in formal church discipline (Matt. 18:15). Instead, moving forward, Jordan will remain in a season of intentional pastoral care, where his role will be to remain faithful to actions in keeping with repentance (Acts 26:20), pursue holiness and purity, and continue to flee from sin.”

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IRELAND
Gay Star News

26 MAY 2015 | BY JOE MORGAN

The Catholic Church’s attempt to keep gay couples away from marriage in Ireland has failed, a Vatican newspaper has lamented.

The Osservatore Romano has said they have been ‘defeated’, highlighting a gap between their dated views and the ones held by 62% of Irish voters.

With young people proving the Church’s power over the country has waned, the newspaper said the result spoke of a ‘challenge for the whole [of the Catholic community].’

‘The margin between the “yes” and the “no” votes was too large not to be accepted as a defeat. It was the result of high voter turnout, notably among young people,’ the Vatican paper said, according to the AFP.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Hollywood screenwriter Neal E. Gumpel, who was sexually abused as a minor child by known pedophile Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, will be joined by his wife, Helen Gumpel, retired successful fashion model and actress, who thwarted a sexual attack in Bill Cosby’s dressing room on the set of “The Cosby Show,” at the graduation exercises of Fordham Prep School, Bronx, New York, to draw attention to the sexual abuse of Neal E. Gumpel and the lack of appropriate response by Fordham Prep School and the Jesuit Fathers and Brothers.

Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, was a Jesuit priest and teacher at Fordham Prep School, and he sexually abused more than one minor child while a teacher at Fordham Prep School and a visiting professor at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, including Neal E. Gumpel.

Fordham Prep School and the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Priests and Brothers) who staff and administer Fordham Prep School and were responsible for Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ for decades until his death, refuse to acknowledge and bear responsibility for the allegations of sexual abuse against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ in Maine and give any assistance to Neal E. Gumpel, validate his claim and help him heal.

What
A press conference and leafleting alerting the media, Fordham Prep School parents and alumni, and the general public that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Fordham Prep School refuse to help a clergy sexual abuse victim of one of its priests and teachers, Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ heal by validating his claim of sexual abuse as a minor child.

When
Wednesday, May 27, 2015 from 3:00 PM until 5:00 PM – Graduation at 4:30 PM

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the motor vehicle entrance to Fordham University, Bronx, New York, across from the New York Botanical Gardens on Southern Boulevard

Who
Hollywood screenwriter Neal E. Gumpel, a resident of Connecticut who has alleged that he was sexually abused as a minor teenager by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ; Helen Gumpel, wife of Neal E. Gumpel, former successful fashion model and actress who appeared in an episode of “The Cosby Show;” and members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why
Neal E. Gumpel, whose parents graduated from Fordham University, was an unsuspecting high school minor teenager when his brother invited him to spend a weekend at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine. Rev. Roy Alan Drake, SJ was a Jesuit priest from Fordham Prep School who was working at the time at Maine Maritime Academy and invited Neal E. Gumpel to his residence on or near the campus, served him alcohol and sexually abused him. Demonstrators will call on Fordham Prep School and the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus to do the right thing by validating the claim of Neal E. Gumpel and helping Neal E. Gumpel heal.

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Fordham University Ph.D. ’88 – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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ARGENTINA
Analisis Digital

[Lawyer Rosario Romero said that Judge Susana Maria Paoloa Firpo, who heads Transitional Court No. 2, this week could set a new hearing for priest Justo Jose Illaraz who is accused to abusing minors at the Prana seminary. The hearing was set ofr May 17 but the judge was on sick leave and the hearing was postponsed.]

La abogada querellante Rosario Romero estimó que la jueza Susana María Paola Firpo, titular del Juzgado de Transición Número 2, podría fijar esta semana una nueva audiencia para la indagatoria del cura Justo José Ilarraz, quien está acusado de abusos de menores en el Seminario de Paraná. La letrada recordó que “la audiencia estaba fijada para el 17 de mayo, pero como la jueza estaba con licencia por enfermedad, la pospuso”. Por otra parte, Romero indicó que la magistrada también “deberá resolver en los próximos días un pedido del defensor del sacerdote”, quien se opuso a una ampliación de pericias que hizo la querella.

La letrada recordó los fundamentos de la resolución de los vocales del Superior Tribunal de Justicia (STJ) y dijo que los de Carlos Chiara Díaz y Claudia Mizawak “fueron muy importantes”. “El de la doctora habla de la premisa de los pactos internacionales de derechos humanos y el del doctor analiza de forma muy profunda los antecedentes de jurisprudencia internacional y las características de la causa. Fueron dos votos muy importantes y muy fundados”, recalcó Romero.

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TEXAS
Ed Cyzewski: Freelance Writer

MAY 26, 2015 / ED CYZEWSKI

When I compared the people who rejected Jesus with the people who accepted Jesus for a recent book project, there is one stark difference between the two.

Those who rejected Jesus had systems of religious practices and theological constructs to rely on and defend. When Jesus came to fulfill the law, impart the Spirit, and offer access to God outside of religious authorities, they saw him as a threat.

Those who accepted Jesus were generally the sinful outsiders who had little to no previous connection with God. They had been rejected by the religious institutions and the leaders who controlled the insiders and outsiders. They didn’t rely on laws or rules to get in with God. They were no doubt living in sin, but they also didn’t have a false sense of connection with God. They were ready to receive God’s genuine freedom, not a man-made counterfeit based on proof-texting and laws.

I’ve been following a recent series of events involving a missionary named Karen Hinkley affiliated with The Village Church in Dallas, a congregation that is led by Matt Chandler. Chandler, it should be noted, leads the Acts 29 Network, a church planting network that had long been affiliated with well-documented spiritual abuser Mark Driscoll until Driscoll’s misdeeds became too much of a liability.

I’ll offer a brief summary of the situation involving the Village Church. Karen (now Hinkley) and Jordan Root were serving as missionaries, Jordan confessed to viewing child pornography (and later admitted to abusing young girls when he was underage), Jordan also has a long history of being in situations with young, vulnerable children, Karen opted to annul the marriage and leave Jordan, the Village Church disagreed with Karen and placed her under church discipline, Jordan is allegedly a member in good standing because he “repented” despite his history of lying, Karen is under church discipline, and The Village Church has denied her request to terminate membership.

Karen has pleaded with The Village Church to be more forthcoming about the details surrounding her husband and has asked them to work diligently to uncover any inappropriate contact he may have had with children as proof of his repentance.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Office of the Chief Rabbi

26 MAY 2015

The conviction of a prominent member of the Manchester Jewish community for sexual abuse is of immense significance. Though certainly not the first such case, it sends an unequivocal message that nobody, in any part of our community, can expect to commit these horrific crimes and escape prosecution. The longstanding view of the Chief Rabbi and Beth Din has been restated a number of times in recent years, but this is an opportune moment to reinforce that position once again.

I would like to commend the victims and others who withstood tremendous pressure and gave evidence. I hope that their courage will inspire others to come forward in the future.

This kind of abuse is a stain on all of society and we are no less vulnerable to the scourge of sexual crimes than any other community. Perpetrators of these crimes destroy lives and every one of us shares in the responsibility to protect victims and potential victims. As such, we must not only ensure that all incidents are reported to the police without delay, but that we must do everything in our power to promote a culture whereby reporting such crimes to the relevant statutory authorities is supported and encouraged.

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UNITED STATES
Salon

JENNY KUTNER

Several outlets have noted in the past week that the Duggar family has been outspoken in its support of Bill Gothard’s home-schooling program, which includes lessons on sexual assault that blame and shame victims for their “immodesty” and for contributing to their own abuse. (Gothard happens to be no stranger to problematic sexual behaviors; he was accused of sexually harassing his female employees last year.)

Mother Jones posted a sample of the sorts of lessons the Duggar family advocates, originally cited by blogger Samantha Field, and the takeaways for children are horrifying:

[photo of a graphic called Counseling Sexual Abuse]

These lessons do not just teach girls and women to blame themselves. They teach boys and men to blame them as well. They reinforce the notion that men should be allowed to act violently with impunity. They erase the detriment of sexual violence and portray it as something else entirely — an accident, not a crime.

But there’s so much else going on here; the homeschooling lessons reveal only a small segment of an even more intricate, scarier belief system. The Quiverfull movement — to which the Duggars not only subscribe, but also support mightily on their now-shelved reality TV series — promotes exactly the sort of retrograde, misogynist ideas that allow sexual violence to flourish. Gawker has a handy guide to some of the movement’s basic principles, which taken together create a perfect storm for rape and sexual assault to occur, and then for the burden to fall squarely on female victims’ (modestly covered) shoulders. Via Gawker:

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Victims are praying Australia’s worst pedophile priest reveals the full story of what the Catholic Church knew about his offending.

Defrocked priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale will testify before the child sex abuse royal commission’s Ballarat inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday, from his jail cell.

He will not be asked about his offending, after being convicted in four separate court cases of abusing more than 50 children.

But the royal commission and victims want to know who was responsible for moving Ridsdale from parish to parish, allowing him to continue to offend.

Andrew Collins, who was abused by other clergy in the Ballarat diocese, said victims wanted the truth made public about who essentially facilitated the abusers.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Fiona Henderson May 26, 2015

BALLARAT priest Father Adrian McInerney said he would break the confessional seal to report a crime.

Father McInerney told the royal commission he had changed his mind over the past few years because of the magnitude of Ballarat’s clergy sex abuse tragedy.

When asked if he had ever heard confessions of sexual aggression, he said he had heard about adultery but never confessions of abuse.

Senior counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness asked Father McInerney if he did hear such a confession, would he feel obliged to keep it to himself?

“If it’s a crime, it’s a crime and has to be reported,” Father McInerney said.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

Paul Berger
May 26, 2015

Manny Waks stands on a street corner in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He drank so much the night before that he doesn’t remember what time he got back to his hotel room. His voice is hoarse and his eyes are hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses. Waks is not sure why he got so wasted, but it could have something to do with his mission today — confronting the man who, according to Waks, sexually abused him as a child more than 25 years ago.

It’s just after midday on May 10, a spring Sunday morning. The sun has finally burnt through the early morning mist and blossoms litter the sidewalk on the cross streets. Waks leans against the brick wall of a diner beneath the shadow of a red awning. Directly across the street, a few doors down, he can see the apartment of Velvel Serebryanski.

Men and women walk along the avenue, sipping coffee or carrying groceries. Children glide by on scooters. They would probably be oblivious to this 39-year-old man if it were not for his entourage — a video cameraman, a sound technician holding a boom microphone, a photographer shooting stills, a director shouting orders and a beefy off-duty security guard standing, arms folded, off to the side.

The crew are here to shoot “Breaking the Silence,” the follow-up to an award-winning documentary film about Waks called “Code of Silence,” which aired in Australia in 2014.

Waks is the center of attention because he was the catalyst for an Orthodox sex abuse scandal that erupted in Australia in 2012, leading to the arrest and jailing of several men for sexually assaulting boys during the 1980s and 1990s. The abuse scandal led to a government commission investigation and the resignation of several senior Chabad rabbis.

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TEXAS
Matthew Paul Turner

As you likely know, Matt Chandler is the pastor of The Village Church, a Southern Baptist and neo-reformed mega church in the Dallas area boasting a weekly attendance of 11,000. Chandler is also the president of the Acts29 network, and one of the many pastors who signed that letter to Mark Driscoll.

On May 23, Chandler’s church sent its membership one doozy of a letter, a letter laced with a plethora of reformed catchphrases and dogma, a letter detailing the reasons why the church has put Karen Hinkley (formerly Karen Root) under “church discipline.”

Karen, along with her now ex-husband, Jordan Root, were sent out (by the church and Serving in Mission) as missionaries last August to South Asia. Then, in December, Jordan confessed to viewing child pornography.

According to Karen: “The discovery of Jordan’s pedophilia and use of child pornography was an indescribable shock and triggered a thorough upheaval of every aspect of my life.” SOURCE

And she couldn’t be more correct…

After Jordan’s confession, the church brought them home from the mission field. They put Jordan through some “path toward repentance.” And they chided Karen for wanting her marriage to be over.

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UNITED STATES
Revangelical

The Scandal of Evangelical Celebrity: How the Celebrity-Culture of Evangelicalism Fosters Neglect & Abuse

May 26, 2015 by Brandan Robertson

The media is reeling after the news broke last week that Joshua Duggar, the eldest son of the famed Duggar Family Joshfrom TLC’s hit show “19 Kids And Counting” was guilty of molesting family members and other children when he was 14 years old. Duggar, who was the spokesperson for FRC Action, the non-profit legislation arm of the conservative evangelical public policy organization Family Research Council was forced to resign from his prominent public position in light of this scandal being uncovered. TLC also canceled his families hit television show after it was revealed that Joshua’s father, a pastor, business owner, and family man, Jim-Bob, had known about the molestation for over a year before he took any significant action to address the situation.

The Duggar controversy is just one of dozens of painful scandals that have emerged from within conservative Christianity in recent years. From the Sovereign Grace Ministries child abuse scandal to the spiritual and psychological abuse from within Mars Hill Church in Seattle, it seems that abuse and cover-ups have become as common to Evangelical Christianity as the sex-abuse scandals once dominated popular perception of the Roman Catholic Church.

In the midst of the tidal wave of scandal, we must ask whether these abusive situations are a matter of coincidence or symptomatic of a much larger issue with the religious system in which they are occurring? What is it about conservative Christianity that seems to continue to breed environments of such toxicity? I want to suggest that the fundamental problem at the heart of all of these scandals is that many evangelical churches and leaders have exchanged the call to servanthood and sacrifice for celebrity and self-interest. Let me explain.

For nearly four decades, evangelicalism has been the predominate religious voice in the United States. Out of this fledging faith movement has come a conglomerate of businesses, publishing houses, media companies, political organizations, and churches that have turned evangelicalism from being a mere religious movement to a cultural force itself. Instead of warring against culture like the fundamentalists that evangelicalism sought to differentiate itself from, evangelicals sought to imitate the “ways of the world” in an attempt to create our own “redeemed” culture. This looked like adopting the methods and practices of many spheres of American culture- from the entertainment industry to Fortune 500 Companies- and using it as a means to grow in influence while spreading the Gospel.

Adopting this mindset has fundamentally shifted the way that many religious leaders view and practice their ministry. Instead of being a shepherd, dedicated to serving and caring for their flock, many evangelical pastors view themselves as celebrity teachers and CEO’s, whose primary concern is to grow their brand and expanding the size of their fan base (or “church”). If you were to examine the life of the average evangelical megachurch pastor, you’d find that there is little that differentiates their lives from the lives of a famous television personality or the visionary CEO of Apple. While there are some “celebrity” pastors that seem to have found a balance between being celebrity CEO and being connected intimately to their congregations, many others have created organizations that do little more than promote and protect their sense of self-importance. And when you lead an organization of thousands of people and millions of dollars dedicated solely to you and a message, it’s easy to become blinded by ego and forget what it means to be called to public ministry.

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ARKANSAS
Washington Times

By Jessica Chasmar – The Washington Times – Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Arkansas state Sen. Bart Hester wants Springdale Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley fired over the recent release of a 2006 police report that contained allegations that Josh Duggar as a teen molested five underage girls, including his sisters.

Mr. Hester, a Republican, said Ms. O’Kelley acted recklessly in releasing the report and accused her of re-victimizing the girls by making the allegations public, a local CBS affiliate reported.

“The law to protect minors’ identities is not a suggestion,” Mr. Hester said Saturday. “So sad to see the person charged with protecting the community being so reckless and irresponsible. I believe it is unavoidable that the Springdale police chief should be terminated. She has re-victimized these young ladies.”

The Springdale police report was obtained by In Touch Weekly magazine and posted online this week with the names redacted, CBS reported. On Thursday, Washington County Juvenile Judge Stacey Zimmerman issued a court order that the police report be destroyed and expunged from the public record, CBS reported.

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MISSOURI
Chronicle of Higher Education

A professor at a small Bible college in Florissant, Mo., who has been a vocal critic of a local church’s handling of a sex-abuse scandal said the matter had prompted him to resign from his job at St. Louis Christian College, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The professor, Douglas Lay, had been a member of the First Christian Church of Florissant, which has close ties to the college, according to the newspaper. He and others in the church’s congregation argued that church leaders had mishandled allegations against a former youth minister who pleaded guilty to charges of statutory sodomy.

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NEW MEXICO
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, N.M., which stretches across 55,000 square miles of northern Arizona and New Mexico, is seeking to sell 55 parcels of mostly vacant desert land to help fund a settlement with about 60 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.

In court papers filed last week, the diocese asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David Thuma for permission to hire two real-estate brokers and to move forward with an auction process for the properties.

The auction will be held 50 to 60 days after the judge signs off on the request, according to court papers.

Lawyers representing the diocese, its insurers and alleged victims have spent nearly a year and a half assessing the value of the diocese’s assets and collecting evidence on the allegations of abuse and cover-up by diocesan officials.

The Diocese of Gallup, home to 58,000 parishioners, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2013 as several lawsuits related to sexual-abuse claims were preparing to go to trial.

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ITALY
Daiji World

Milan, May 26 (IANS/AKI): Police on Tuesday arrested a priest and three other suspected paedophiles in an operation that broke up an alleged international child pornography ring.

Police said they identified 223 people who accessed “obscene and extremely violent material”, including 29 Italians.

The material shows young children being forced to have sex with each other and with animals, according to the investigation spearheaded by police in the northern Italian city of Milan.

Suspected paedophiles are being probed in 35 different countries over the alleged network whose members produced and shared “multimedia” material over the internet, police said.

Two unemployed men and a labourer were arrested in Tuesday’s bust as well as the priest and all are middle-aged, police said.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Milan, May 26 – A priest was among four people arrested by police Tuesday in a major pedophile investigation that allegedly involved as many as 30 suspects. Charges include acquisition or trafficking of pedophile material including videos on the Internet. Also arrested were two unemployed people aged 58 and 51, and a worker aged 51, police said. The priest, 49, was arrested in Alassio and was taken to jail, while the others were arrested in Rome area and Imperia, said police. More than three children under 16 were victims, said police.

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UNITED STATES
God’s Politics

by Rosie Scammell 05-26-2015

More than 55,000 people have signed a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to return to his native Australia and face a government commission on child sex abuse, after allegations that he tried to bribe the victim of a pedophile priest.

Addressed to Pope Francis, the Change.org petition calls for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions from Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Appearing in person at the government inquiry is necessary in order to “see and listen to the pain of the victims first hand and explain his actions and decisions,” the petition says.

Calls for the cardinal to testify in Australia follow allegations made earlier this week by the nephew of Gerald Ridsdale, an imprisoned abusive priest, who said Pell tried to silence him after he disclosed suffering sexual abuse.

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