ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Paul BergerJune 8, 2015

A tony New York congregation is standing by its embattled rabbi.

Morris Tuchman, president of The Hampton Synagogue, in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., said that Rabbi Marc Schneier “has served, and continues to serve, our congregation in an exemplary manner and we are proud to have him as our rabbi.”

Schneier was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America earlier this year, according to a source with first-hand knowledge of the expulsion who refused to be named.

The RCA did not publicize Schneier’s expulsion at the time.

The rabbinic group continues to refuse to comment on when and why Schneier was expelled.

Reached by phone on June 5, Schneier said that the RCA never informed him that he has been expelled and that the idea of him being expelled was “crazy.”

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UNITED STATES
Salon

Former homeschooler on the Duggar family’s horrifying fundamentalist “education”: “It’s literal rape culture”

JENNY KUTNER

Almost as soon as it was revealed last month that Josh Duggar sexually assaulted his younger sisters when he was a teenager — and that his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, did what they could to cover it up — the Internet erupted with speculation about how the family’s intensive fundamentalist Christian homeschooling program may or may not have contributed to the abuse.

You’ve likely seen some of the lesson plans from Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute, for which the Duggars have advocated persistently, and which pushes an educational curriculum apparently comprised of some of the most damaging, unbelievably misogynistic viewpoints imaginable. To much of the public, the ATI lessons on sexual assault that have circulated online are basic examples of what we mean when we talk about rape culture and victim-blaming; to children who are raised in the homeschooling program — like the 19 Duggar kids — the lessons are “the truth.”

Nicholas Ducote, a self-identified “homeschool survivor,” was one of those children once. Now 27, Ducote was raised in Louisiana and homeschooled by his mother, a fundamentalist Christian and ATI devotee. As he grew up and began to question the homeschooling movement and religion more generally, Ducote stayed in touch with a number of other ATI alumni whom he met through a homeschool speech and debate program. Together, they gave voice to their shared history of shame, anxiety and confusion perpetuated by their experiences with the program.

“When I was in church, I was the special kid, because I was being homeschooled to be a culture warrior,” Ducote told Salon. “Homeschoolers were like the exemplary, perfect Christian children who exemplified everything that most American Christians think children should do and believe — that they should be fighting for a Christian America. There were so many people who thought that no one else had experienced that.”

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ALASKA
KTVA

ANCHORAGE – A Fairbanks priest was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was caught using a work computer to receive images of child pornography, authorities say.

Clint Michael Landry — who was employed as a priest with the Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks since 2011 – will be under a lifetime period of supervised release after serving his prison sentence, according to a statement from the Alaska District Attorney’s office.

Landry was caught using a work computer to receive child porn through his Yahoo email account in May 2014.

“A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines,” the statement says. “In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino coconspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.”

The talks with people in the Philippines took place from June 2013 to May 2014. Investigators found Landry communicated with at least eight different Yahoo accounts to see videos of minors engaged in “sexually explicit conduct,” the DA’s office said. In at least three instances, Landry sought children younger than 11 years old.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Eric Zorn

Several people have asked me why the state can’t pursue sex abuse charges against former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert if, as has been widely reported/insinuated/alleged, he had sexual contact with students in the 1970s when he was a teacher and coach at Yorkville High School.

Why do we have statutes of limitations that, in effect, wipe the slate clean on most offenses after several years have elapsed? Why should we reward those not lucky enough to get caught near the time of their offense?

I addressed this issue in a 1999 column, the bulk of which went like this:

When I hear the words “statute of limitations,” I think of a skeleton in a closet disintegrating slowly, year by year, until at last it is a formless pile of dust.

I think of the maxim, “Time heals all wounds,” and of the moral and practical notion that the person you are today is not the same person you were, oh, say, 21 years ago. I think of pages torn from a calendar serving as a greater and greater counterweight to culpability.

This is the sense in which most of us use the expression informally–for instance, in talking about violations of marital vows or allegations of past abuse of legal and illegal substances among certain Republican presidential hopefuls and committee chairmen, as well as certain prominent Democrats. “That was a long time ago,” we say when we’re in the mood to be fair. “The pain caused has faded, the damage repaired.”

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ALASKA
KTUU

Chris Klint, Senior Digital Producer, cklint@ktuu.com

U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler’s office previously said little about the charges against 58-year-old Clint Landry, who had served as the parish priest at the Sacred Heart Cathedral since June 2011. That silence ended Monday, however, in a statement announcing Landry’s sentencing after he pleaded guilty to attempted enticement of a minor.

According to Loeffler’s office, Landry used at least eight different Yahoo accounts to negotiate Filipino sex shows involving children between June 2013 and May 2014. He paid for the child porn using Western Union money transfers.

“A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines,” prosecutors wrote. “In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino co-conspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.”

Prosecutors provided numerous examples of transactions, some with explicit descriptions of the content Landry had bargained for.

“On June 13, 2013, the defendant communicated with a co-conspirator, asking ‘[c]an you show me young boys[?]’” prosecutors wrote. “He went on to ask, ‘what handsome young boys do you have?’ When told that the available ‘young boy’ was 10 years old, the defendant’s response was ‘ok,’ and he inquired ‘how much.’ The defendant then attempted to offer 1600 Philippine pesos for online access to the child, or approximately $35.”

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ALASKA
News-Miner

By Dorothy Chomicz dchomicz@newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS – A former Fairbanks priest was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for child sex crimes, according to a news release from the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Alaska.

Clint Michael Landry, 58, was employed by the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks when he used a work computer to view videos of prepubescent boys and girls engaging in sexual acts.

Landry will be on supervised release for life after he is released from prison.

Landry began working for the diocese in June 2011. The offenses occurred between June 2013 and May 2014, according to the news release.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
Jun 08, 2015

The criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis are very bad news for Archbishop John Nienstedt. He now becomes the American bishop most clearly in the cross-hairs of Church critics; the calls for his resignation will be louder and more frequent.

Like his most recent predecessor on the hot seat, Archbishop Nienstedt has a reputation for stalwart defense of Church teachings. For that reason, some Catholics will be delighted to push for his removal, while others will be inclined to think that the attack against him is ideologically driven.

No doubt there is an ideological tinge to the uproar in Minnesota. But the prosecutor’s charge lists serious problems with the archbishop’s handling of abuse complaints. If Archbishop Nienstedt was ignoring clear evidence of priestly misconduct, he should be held accountable.

Still there’s another element in this story, which has been almost completely ignored by the media in Minnesota. The case that led to the criminal charges—the case of the notorious Father Curtis Wehmeyer—did not arise under Archbishop Nienstedt’s leadership.

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GERMANY
Headlines from the Catholic World

Berlin, Germany, Jun 8, 2015 / 01:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican confirmed on Monday, June 8 that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Heiner Koch of Dresden-Meissen as Archbishop of Berlin.

As Archbishop of Berlin, he will shepherd a population of 5.7 million, of whom 407,000 are Catholics. The Berlin archdiocese also has 421 priests and 668 religious.

Bishop Koch was born in 1954 in Duesseldorf, and studied theology in Bonn. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne on his 26th birthday, in 1980. …

Bishop Koch is also involved in preparations for the Synod on the Family being held in Rome in October, and joins Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, of Osnabrueck as the bishops who will represent Germany at the synod.

All three delegates are known to support the ‘Kasper proposal’, which would allow some divorced-and-civilly-remarried Catholics to receive Communion after a period of penance.

According to a list of participants compiled by Edward Pentin and published by the National Catholic Register, Bishop Koch was present at the “Shadow Council” held May 25 at the Pontifical Gregorian University. That meeting aimed to promote “a pastoral opening on issues such as communion for the divorced and remarried, and the pastoral care of homosexuals,” according to one of its participants.

And in a February interview with a German newspaper, Bishop Koch called for changes in the pastoral care of homosexuals, saying that to “portray homosexuality as a sin is hurtful,” adding that the Church “needs a different language when it comes to homosexuals … I know gay couples who value reliability and commitment and live these in an exemplary manner.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

Published on Mon Jun 08 2015

Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, now a saint, have apologized in the past 25 years for all manner of wrongs done in the name of the Catholic Church over the centuries.

Those sins include clerical sex abuse of children in the United States, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere. Historical persecution of Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Protestants, Jews, Roma and others. Abuse of women. The cowardice some Christians showed during the Nazi Holocaust. The slave trade. Missionary abuses of indigenous peoples. And the condemnation of Galileo, who challenged the false idea that the Earth is the centre of the universe.

These apologies didn’t always live up to the hopes of those who were wronged. But they were an expression of official contrition that went some way toward acknowledging the Church’s human frailty, healing the hurt, and setting the historical record right.

Canada’s 80,000 aboriginal survivors of the church-run residential school system deserve no less. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper should seek a papal apology on their behalf when he meets Pope Francis on Thursday. Some 150,000 children were ripped from their families in a racist attempt to “kill the Indian in the child” that was abetted by Catholic and other Christian clergy, and 6,000 died in the schools. Many were abused emotionally, physically and sexually. It was a dark chapter in our history.

The Anglican Church in Canada has long since apologized. Back in 1993 then-primate Archbishop Michael Peers declared “I am sorry, more than I can say.” Others involved with the schools, including the United Church, Presbyterians and Jesuits have similarly expressed sorrow and regret.

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UNITED STATES
Diary of a Whimpy Catholic

June 7, 2015 by Max Lindenman

Last week, at a Sacra Liturgia conference in Manhattan, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone warned his audience that “gender ideology” threatens the foundation of the faith. To illustrate his point, he went on to list the “grand total” of 14 gender identities recognized by a major university, adding, “I’m sure even more will be invented as time goes on.” A parent at one Marin County’s Catholic schools objected, calling the archbishop’s statement “ill-considered, hurtful and lacking in knowledge and compassion.”

Whatever may be said about Cordileone’s impish tone, he’s right that opening a gap between people’s anatomy and their self-conception upsets the whole apple cart of Catholic anthropology. Not only does it overthrow the Catholic view of the unified person for a system of body-soul dualism, it demotes the body to junior partnership. With no automatic regard for the equipment we were issued, we risk losing sight of how God meant for the sexes to complement one another, and, by uniting physically, to create new life in a way that mirrors his own creation of the world.

So that’s how gender ideology threatens Church teachings. Fair enough — it bore repeating. But if we accept that gender dysphoria is a real condition, we really ought to consider how Church teachings threaten the faith of the people it affects, and the people whom they affect.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., June 2, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE — Attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup have asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma to approve a plan to auction off about 115 mostly vacant parcels of land in Arizona and New Mexico to help the diocese fund a plan of reorganization.

In a motion filed May 18, diocesan attorneys also asked Thuma to approve the hiring of Tucson Realty & Trust and Accelerated Marketing Group, a California firm, to conduct the auction as well as conduct a public marketing campaign to get the property sold within 90 days of the court order.

Susan G. Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the Gallup Diocese, retained those two companies to direct similar property sales in the Diocese of Tucson’s bankruptcy case in 2005. Statements submitted by both companies assert the firms have “extensive experience marketing difficult, rural properties” in the Southwest.

According to the diocese’s motion, properties to be auctioned are “for the most part, excess real property not otherwise currently utilized for Diocesan purposes. The Sale Assets consist mostly of unimproved, vacant land in rural areas.”

Any objections to the plan need to be filed with the court by June 11.

Six Gallup parcels

With a few possible exceptions, most of the properties do not appear to have a high dollar value.

Based on the list of proposed parcels to be auctioned, officials with the Diocese of Gallup are not parting with many of the diocese’s more valuable properties. The diocese’s commercial property in Winslow, Ariz., with the busy McDonald’s restaurant located on the lot, is not listed, neither is the G-Bar Ranch, also known at the Barth Ranch, located outside of St. Johns, Ariz., or Gallup’s Downtown Plaza shopping center on West Aztec Avenue.

Some of the properties are made up of just one parcel of land, while other properties include multiple parcels. The list includes 18 parcels scattered across Apache and Navajo counties in Arizona, and 98 parcels located in nine New Mexico counties, including 64 parcels outside of San Rafael, N.M., in La Vega Estates. Six parcels are located in Gallup.

If Thuma approves the diocese’s motion, diocesan officials will be able to add or delete properties from the list as the marketing and sale process proceeds.

Auction plans

Tucson Realty & Trust and Accelerated Marketing Group have agreed to be compensated $45,000 for the marketing costs related to the auction and a commission of 10 percent of the purchase price of each property that will be paid as a buyer’s premium. Any cooperating third party broker will be paid 2.5 percent from the broker’s fee. The sales will be on an all cash, no contingency basis.

The companies are planning to conduct an “open outcry” and “absolute and without reserve” auction for some of the properties. An “open outcry” auction is one with live bidding, and an “absolute and without reserve” auction means there is no reserve or minimum bid, with the property being sold to the highest bidder regardless of price. Some properties, however, may be sold with a reserve price set.

Other properties may be sold in a “sealed bid” program where sealed bids will be submitted and the Diocese of Gallup will recommend to the Court the bid to be accepted.

Marketing strategy

Tucson Realty & Trust and Accelerated Marketing Group plan to run a heavily marketed sales campaign for about six weeks prior to the auction that targets print, broadcast, consumer, business and trade news media organizations in Arizona and New Mexico.

The firms are also planning a direct and electronic mailing campaign of promotional information to developers, land improvement companies, environmental agencies, real estate brokerage companies, accountants and attorneys.

The $45,000 marketing fee will be the only cost to the Diocese of Gallup related to the sale of properties.

If Thuma approves the motion, diocesan attorneys stated the auction would likely be held approximately 60 to 90 days after the court approval. Proceeds from the sale will help fund the Gallup Diocese’s plan of reorganization, including payment of administrative expenses.

The next major event in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case is a court ordered mediation June 10-11, which will involve the diocese and nine other parties.

Properties to be auctioned

Apache County, Ariz:
■ Concho: three vacant parcels
■ St. Johns: one vacant parcel
■ Springerville: one vacant parcel

Navajo County, Ariz:

■ Holbrook: four vacant parcels
■ Show Low: three vacant parcels
■ Snowflake: two vacant parcels
■ Snowflake: one vacant parcel
■ Winslow: three parcels used by Vincent de Paul Society’s Food Bank

Cibola County, N.M:

■ Near San Rafael: La Vega Estates, 64 vacant parcels
■ Near Bluewater: three vacant parcels
Luna County, N.M:
■ Near Deming: nine vacant parcels
McKinley County, N.M:
■ Gallup: six vacant parcels
■ Thoreau: one vacant parcel
Rio Arriba County, N.M:
■ Lumberton: vacant land
Sandoval County, N.M:
■ Near Guadalupe: one vacant parcel
■ Rio Rancho: three vacant parcels
San Juan County, N.M:
■ Blanco: one vacant parcel
■ Farmington: one vacant parcel and land used by Catholic Charities
■ Near Navajo Dam: one vacant parcel
Socorro County, N.M:
■ Near Belen: one vacant parcel
Taos County, N.M:
■ Near Colorado border: two vacant parcels
Valencia County, N.M:
■ Near Los Lunas: four vacant parcels

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UNITED STATES
Wonkette

by Kaili Joy Gray
Jun 08

What kind of fair and balanced “news” network would Fox be if it didn’t have its own rightwing whackadoodle Catholic priest on speed dial to pronounce God’s own truth to the half-comatose octogenarian audience? (That’s a rhetorical question.) As Fox’s official “religion contributor,” Father Jonathan Morris is often called upon to explain, in his priestly garb, what Jesus said about slut pills, or how Obama is raping the First Amendment — or, as he did on Tucker Carlson’s Sunday show, why the Duggars should not have to lose their reality TV show just because Josh molested four of his sisters and a babysitter:

We’re hearing such outcry. Get the Duggars off TV! It’s so bad for America! This is a bad example! How can you possibly allow them to stay on? Really?!? […] A social outcry, that they are somehow bad people, they should not be allowed on television — I don’t think so.

Lucky Duggars, they get their very own Catholic priest to go on TV and defend their right to be on TV, despite their past unpleasantness. Not that we’d expect a Catholic priest to understand the outcry over a family covering up sexual abuse of children — yes, that’s a pointed dig at the Catholic Church’s widespread cover-up of sexual abuse of children, in case you missed it — but we’re a little surprised that Father Morris appears so emotionally invested in protecting the Duggars’ reality TV career. After all, he says, if the Kardashians get to be on television, why not the Duggars, HUH??? And, like the rest of the “journalists” on Fox — and the Duggars themselves — he’s appalled that anyone would criticize this particular family or point out its “family values” hypocrisy when the Duggars never claimed they were without sin anyway:

What’s been shocking to me is all of these very secular headlines rejoicing at the downfall of the family that never said it was perfect.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup IndependentgALL

Published in the Gallup Independent, June 6, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP — Local civic leader Mary Ann Armijo is weighing in on the controversies that have surrounded her Catholic parish and the Diocese of Gallup over the last month.

“I know that we’re all afraid that at some point they are going to close St. John Vianney, but I think as parishioners, instead of being upset we should maybe all just come together and not give them a reason to close St. John’s,” Armijo said in an interview Thursday.

On May 10, the Gallup Diocese announced it was immediately transferring the Rev. James Walker, the parish’s popular pastor, to another assignment and reducing St. John Vianney Parish into a chapel with only two weekly Masses and no religious education program for children.

After a swift and vocal public outcry, Bishop James S. Wall reversed those decisions and announced the church would remain an active parish. Wall also appointed the Rev. Kevin Finnegan, his chancellor and vicar general, as pastor. Parishioners, however, continued to be frustrated with Wall’s lack of response to their phone calls, letters and requests for a meeting.

Colored by disability

Armijo, a Gallup businesswoman, former City Council representative and the current chair of the McKinley County Democratic Party, said although she respected fellow parishioners who have spoken out in the media, she does have a different opinion on a couple of issues.

One of those opinions, she said, is colored by her own personal experience with having a visual impairment disability.

A number of parishioners have been upset that Finnegan, who has paraplegia, requested adult volunteers help him during Mass rather than youth servers. Armijo said after seeing Finnegan celebrate Mass, she understood why he might have made that request.

“That’s how I feel about my own disabilities,” Armijo said. “I wouldn’t want a 15-year-old that just got a learner’s permit to drive me around. I would want someone with experience, someone that’s been with me through my disabilities to be with me.” “And I guess that’s why I feel a little more compassion to the fact that, you know, Father Finnegan has the right to ask for adult servers,” Armijo said, adding she thought he might be concerned about falling down near a child.

Sparse attendance

Armijo also noted that church attendance was “very sparse” on Sunday, and she attributed that to parishioners protesting the recent decisions coming down from the Gallup chancery. Armijo said she believes such protests are unfair to Finnegan, and also unfair to other members of the parish.

“We all have to remember the purpose that we’re there,” Armijo said. “We’re not there to serve Father Walker, but we’re there as Christians to serve our Lord. I just still feel it’s unfair that Father Finnegan has been put in that position by people not showing up.”

“As Christians, we’re called to stand together,” Armijo added. I mean, it’s what Jesus said, ‘Upon this rock we’re going to build the church.’ We are the church. And if we let them do this, and we don’t go to church, and we continue to protest, then we’re giving them every reason. And I’m just not the person that’s going to give them that reason.”

Lack of communication

Armijo did agree with parishioners who have criticized Wall’s lack of communication regarding the decisions of the last month. Although Armijo said she was “trying to understand” if the bishop truly needed to act quickly regarding St. John Vianney, she said she believes Wall should have personally visited the parish and explained those decisions.

“They could have really stopped a lot of this if they just would have communicated,” Armijo said of Wall and his chancery officials. She said the Gallup Diocese needs to do a better job of communication and expressed the hope they will correct this in the future.

“I think he needs to go to communications class,” Armijo said of Wall, “or if he’s got a communications person, that person really needs to communicate. It’s just simple. That’s all people want. People just want to be heard.”

“And I believe in transparency, whether it’s from the church or government,” Armijo added. “They need to be more transparent and let us know and communicate better.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, June 8

For more information: Amy Smith 281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com, David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Victims seek help from NC group
It funded and sent missionary abroad
He was fired after admitting child pornography
Self-help organization now wants “outreach” to “others who may be hurting”

A North Carolina-based non-profit fired a missionary it sent abroad after he admitted viewing child pornography. Now, a support group for child sex abuse victims is urging the organization to “aggressively reach out to others he may have hurt and perhaps help law enforcement file charges against him or others who shielded him.”

A Charlotte group called SIM (Serving in Mission), funded and sent Jordan Root to East Asia to spread Christianity in 2014. While there, Root confessed to SIM officials that he “has been sexually attracted to prepubescent female children for many years and that during his service with SIM he has been viewing nude photographs of children via the Internet to gratify this sexual desire.” The group fired Root.

[SIM statement on outcome of the investigation of Jordan Root]

But now, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are urging SIM “to find and help others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Root’s crimes” and to help law enforcement prosecute Root and others.

“It’s possible that Root or his supervisors or colleagues might be criminally charged with violations like endangering kids, intimidating witnesses, destroying evidence, obstructing justice or failing to report suspected child sex crimes,” said Amy Smith of SNAP, a blogger who has followed the case closely and has been in touch with Root’s wife who has recently gotten her marriage annulled. “Aggressive outreach by every church official who dealt with Root could make a real difference here.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Monday, June 8, 2015

A suspended Chester County priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal child pornography counts and charges of destroying evidence.

Mark Haynes, 55, previously of SS. Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown, admitted to trading hundreds of pornographic images of children over Instagram and enticing teenage girls he met online to send him explicit photos of themselves.

He contacted the teens while posing online as a 16-year-old girl named Katie Caponetti between 2010 and 2014.

Prosecutors have alleged that he had illicit online contact with 25 minors. And federal investigators previously said they received a host of additional allegations against Haynes since his arrest last year, including reports from three accusers who say the priest molested them in the 1990s.

Haynes has denied he sexually abused anyone, and prosecutors did not charge him in connection with those allegations, saying they appeared to fall outside the statute of limitations.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Metro

A suburban priest who created a fake identity as a teenage girl online to obtain nude pictures of his underage victims pleaded guilty in federal court today.

Mark John Haynes, 56, a former priest at Saint Simon and Jude Church in West Chester, PA, pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and charges of destroying evidence.

He could face up to 10 years in jail.

Haynes was arrested in October 2014 after Chester County police tracked the source of child porn being posted on the internet to the church.

Haynes had created the identity of a 16-year-old girl, “Katie Caponetti,” which he used online to communicate with other minors and to exchange nude pictures and videos with them.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Local News

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@dailylocal.com, @ChescoCourtNews on Twitter

PHILADELPHIA >> A former priest at Ss. Simon and Jude Church in Westtown pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges involving child pornography and other offenses involving sexual misconduct with children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Mark Haynes, 56, of West Chester, pleaded guilty In U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to all counts contained in a superseding information filed by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger charging child exploitation. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10. Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

Haynes, a former parochial vicar at a number of churches in the Delaware Valley, pleaded guilty to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence.

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PORTUGAL
DN

[Priest accused of sexual abuse of minors is released at expiration of his term of probation.]

Luís Mendes foi condenado em 2013 a dez anos de cadeia pelo Tribunal do Fundão, mas a decisão ainda não transitou em julgado. Prazo para permanecer em prisão domiciliária expirou no domingo.

O bispo da Guarda, Manuel Felício, disse hoje à agência Lusa que “devem ser dirigidas ao tribunal” as perguntas sobre o fim da prisão domiciliária do padre e ex-vice reitor do Seminário do Fundão condenado por abuso sexual de menores.

Em dezembro de 2013, Luís Mendes foi condenado a 10 anos de cadeia pelo Tribunal do Fundão, mas a decisão ainda não transitou em julgado e, entretanto, o prazo para a manutenção da prisão domiciliária (situação em que se encontrava desde que foi detido há exatamente dois anos e meio) expirou no domingo.

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ARGENTINA
Nuevo Diario

El abogado defensor del sacerdote acusado de abuso sexual recibió los estudios médicos realizados por profesionales y los resultados “dieron negativo”.

Estos resultados médicos serán presentados por la defensa técnica para ser sumados al expediente judicial que investiga al sacerdote Julián Ruiz, acusado de haber abusado sexualmente a un menor de edad de la localidad de Monte Quemado, departamento Copo.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Janell Ross June 8

Two days after former House speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) indictment became public, a small group of sexual abuse survivors gathered at Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago. The group, made up of members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), was there say thank you to prosecutors for exposing Hastert’s alleged crimes.

It was also there to issue a distinct challenge to Illinois lawmakers.

One year after pushing state legislators to enact changes in the criminal statute of limitations – the time during which a person can be prosecuted for sex crimes involving minors — sex abuse survivors and their advocates, some legal scholars and anti-rape activists are pushing Illinois and other states to go further. Much further.

They want to see Illinois and other states extend, eliminate or — at the very least — temporarily lift the often short time frames during which alleged victims have to report sex crimes and the system has to peruse these cases in criminal and civil court. And some of these same forces are now pushing Congress to use its ready weapon – federal funding – to incentivize states that do so. In late May, just hours before the charges against Hastert became public, retiring Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told a Nevada newspaper that he is seeking co-sponsors for just such a bill.

At first glance, the statue of limitation reform movement can seem like the kind of push for civil and criminal procedure reform with meaning to only a small subset of Americans involved in such cases. To others, it might seem like one of those causes so deep in the legislative weeds that rallying support will be difficult. And the reforms do have their critics.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The number of abuse survivors using the Catholic Church’s confidential counselling and support service has fallen for the first time since it was founded four years ago.

The 2014 annual report of Towards Healing published today, records that 1,100 people received face-to-face counselling.

This is a reduction of 9.1% on the 2013 figure.

The number of new clients contacting the service fell from 426 in 2013 to 348 last year.

There was also a reduction in the numbers re-engaging with the services which declined from 72 in 2013 to 58 in 2014.

Towards Healing took over from the Faoiseamh service, which had provided counselling from 1996 to 2011.

Since 1996 a total of 5,470 people have been supported by both Faoiseamh and Towards Healing and a total of 365,820 counselling sessions have been provided.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis is meeting now for three days with Cardinals Sean O’Malley and George Pell. The pope needs now, after over two years of papal foot dragging, to stop playing games on curtailing priest child abusers and on holding bishops accountable. He needs to fund and staff adequately his presently almost illusory abuse advisory commission. The pope also needs to tell Pell emphatically to stop using legal threats to try to intimidate Peter Saunders, and thereby other commission members as well. Inexplicably, other than Marie Collins, the other members seem almost invisible and even indifferent to the abuse Saunders and Collins continue to be subjected to. Francis’ silence now is reminiscent of his earlier failure to stand up squarely and bravely for his two tortured Jesuit confreres in Argentina.

The pope and O’Malley appear to have used a shameful “bait and switch” strategy with Saunders and other abuse commission members. They selected Saunders to meet with the pope to unload privately his abuse survivor stories. Last July, Saunders and five other survivors attended a private Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, where he made the first promise by any pope to hold bishops accountable for preventing sexual abuse by clergy. The pope said, “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.” See Vatican Information Service here.

As Bishop Accountability’s intrepid Anne Barrett Doyle correctly recently indicated, the only meaningful measure of the sincerity of the pope’s historic vow will be whether he removes church officials who fall short of his “utmost care” standard. Disciplining such powerful colleagues as Pell will be politically tough, but for the pope to make good on his promise, accountability must begin at the top. Diocesan bishops cannot be expected to comply with standards that Vatican officials have ignored with impunity.

Then the pope and O’Malley picked Saunders, a devout Catholic, for the abuse commission. After Saunders and others publicly accepted commission membership, the pope and O’Malley farcically told the commission members that the commission will not address “individual cases”. If the commission fails to address individual bishops’ accountability, yes, it is a farce! Thank God the brave Saunders was unswayed by the papal ruse. He has prophetically pursued the individual cases of both Pell and Chile’s Bishop Barros. Amen!

Pope Francis must rebuke Pell and insist that he immediately withdraw his threatening, even menacing, approach to Saunders. The pope should then take this opportunity to launch a review of the evidence of Pell’s harshness towards victims that has emerged in two government inquiries in Australia.

Meanwhile, US bishops are set to hold their last national meeting before Pope Francis’ US visit, the pope and bishops’ 2016 US presidential election strategy appears to be in a “free fall”. Pope Francis, with his seemingly discredited No. 3, Australian Cardinal George Pell, and the pope’s criminally investigated Minneapolis USA Catholic officials, may turn out to be more of a net liability than an net asset, as a supporter for US Republican candidates and their low tax billionaire backers, at least by the time the elections are held in November 2016, given the current negative papal trajectory.

Two new US criminal court proceedings have uncovered revelations relating to child sexual abuse scandals that have significant US national political connections. These cases, as well as the recent overwhelming negative Irish vote on one of the pope’s marriage positions, and the unending public relations miscues of the combative and shameless Pell (with at least some tacit yet shameful papal blessing, it appears), have important and potentially adverse implications for Pope Francis’ upcoming US trip and for his potential effectiveness in helping to elect Republican candidates in next year’s US elections.

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CANADA
Anglican Communion News Service

[Anglican Journal] National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald said he is hopeful that the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) outlining concrete actions that would respect the sovereignty and integrity of Canada’s Indigenous peoples would help Indigenous Anglicans’ own struggle for self-determination within the Anglican Church of Canada.

What resonated with him the most in the report, said MacDonald in an interview, was its call for “a full and complete acceptance of the values, protocols and ideals of Indigenous people and their equal weight in governance, in life, in culture. It adds a lot of weight to what we’re trying to do.”

Indigenous Anglicans believe that “the Gospel, the living word of God, wants to be living and real in Indigenous life,” said MacDonald. “You can’t do that if you have no respect for Indigenous life.

“What we have looked for, hoped for and longed for in the church and in the larger society is something that this report asked,” he added. “What the TRC report describes so well is that Indigenous concerns are woven into the fabric of Canadian life so completely that you cannot have justice unless you have indigenous justice, and indigenous justice means justice for all.”

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UNITED STATES
Crying Out for Justice

BARBARA ROBERTS ♦ JUNE 7, 2015

How should a church deal with a person who has been professsing Christianity, but has been committing heinous sexual immorality? The Bible’s answer to this question should tell us how The Village Church ought to have dealt with Jordan Root.

At John Pavlovitz’s article Matt Chandler, Village Church, Acts 29 Network, and The Long Overdue Funeral For Frat Boy Christianity a reader asked the following question (link):

What would people who claim to be Christians like to see The Village Church do to Jordan Root? Kick him out? Tell him he isn’t welcome anymore? Shun him? Make him draw a sign on his shirt that says he is a child molester? What would be appropriate?

I believe that Jordan Root’s admissions to watching child porn are not anything like a full confession. My reasons? When first pressed by Karen, he admitted to viewing images of adult porn. Only when Karen repeatedly pressed him did he admit to watching child porn. And then he virtually rubbed her face in it by describing some of the porn in lurid detail — imagine how that defiled Karen’s mind! It was not a confession made in humility, nor did it have any of the signs of genuine contrition and repentance. It was squeezed out of him, and then he used the confession to HURT Karen further (by describing the images in gross detail). Want verification? See endnote at bottom of this post for links.

Jordan used a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access some or most of the porn. That is one of the reasons why the FBI have not been able to charge him with anything. But if he were genuinely repentant, he would be giving the FBI full and comprehensive details of what he viewed, how they can verify that he viewed it so they can charge him, and how he obtained it, so that the FBI can use that info to prosecute the makers and purveyors of that child porn. Jordan has done nothing like this.

Jordan Root, if he were genuinely repentant, would have signed himself up for a five- or seven-day a week pedophile treatment program of the highest quality. He has not done anything remotely like that.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Matt Sepic Jun 8, 2015

Some Catholic faithful in the Twin Cities have expressed hope that criminal charges filed last week against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will result in major changes in the way the church deals with allegations of sexual abuse.

Others say the charges would not have been necessary had church officials handled abuse allegations properly.

The archdiocese is facing six gross misdemeanor counts for allegedly failing to protect children abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, who’s serving a five-year prison sentence.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 June 2015 (VIS) – This morning, the Holy Father’s tenth meeting with the Council of Cardinals began. The “Council of Nine” will continue its work until Wednesday 10 June.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

WASHINGTON—The 2015 Spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will be broadcast via satellite from St. Louis, June 10-11, to Catholic television outlets and all broadcasters wishing to air it. The satellite feed will run Wednesday, June 10, (10:15 a.m.-4:15 p.m. Eastern), and Thursday, June 11, (9:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Eastern). Media conferences will follow open sessions of the meeting.

The proceedings will also be live streamed at www.usccb.org/about/leadership/usccb-general-assembly/index.cfm. News updates, addresses and other materials will be posted on this page. For those wishing to follow the proceedings on social media, updates from the meeting will be live tweeted at http://twitter.com/USCCBLive with the hashtag #USCCB15. Updates will also appear at www.facebook.com/usccb.

The meeting agenda will include a report from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, USCCB president, on the consultation of U.S. dioceses for October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family in Rome. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia will provide an update on the World Meeting of Families. Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami and Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico, will discuss the themes of Pope Francis’ upcoming encyclical on ecology. Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, will unveil new digital resources available to U.S. dioceses in time for the papal visit.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by David V Barrett
posted Monday, 8 Jun 2015

Saunders had called the cardinal a ‘dangerous individual’

Cardinal Pell’s lawyer has called on his critic Peter Saunders to withdraw allegations he made on Australian television.

Calling the cardinal “a dangerous individual”, Mr Saunders, a member of the Vatican’s advisory commission on child sexual abuse, had accused him of knowing that a paedophile priest, Fr Gerald Ridsdale, had abused children, which the cardinal has repeatedly denied.

“He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – [it’s] almost sociopathic I would go as far as to say, this lack of care,” Mr Saunders said in the interview.

He went on: “In all the interviews, in all I’ve read, in all I’ve heard, I have seen not a shred of evidence that George Pell has any sympathy, empathy or any kind of understanding or concern for victims and survivors of these crimes.”

Mr Saunders called on Pope Francis to remove Cardinal Pell from his position as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Despite legal threats from Cardinal George Pell, 60 Minutes defends its interview with Vatican advisor who said Pell was ‘sociopathic’ towards abuse sufferers.

08/06/15

60 Minutes brands Catholic Church ‘out of touch’

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MONTANA
Missoulian

RICHARD GEARY

I was 12 years old when our local priest molested me. I thought I was younger at the time, but the lawyers who deposed me said he arrived in Helmville in 1959, so I had to have been 12 when it happened.

I had already spent two summers working on the hay crew, doing adult work for adult wages, but it was a big deal when he asked if I wanted to paint his kitchen. Working for the family was one thing, but getting a real job working for an authority figure like the priest was a big step toward adulthood. I took the job.

He was always touching and hugging the altar boys, rubbing his hands under our shirts as he gave us a hug when we arrived to help at Mass. Often, he loaded us into his car and took us to dinner in Helena or Lincoln. None of us liked to sit beside him in the car, because he was always rubbing our legs in a playful manner. Just naive country kids, we didn’t have a clue about his intentions, but it was still uncomfortable.

As I was painting one afternoon, he called me into the guest bedroom of the rectory. I thought he wanted help moving something, so I put down my brush and went to him.

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MISSOURI
Restore FCCF

Why is there a Restore FCCF movement?

Mission: Our purpose is to fulfill the Great Commission, spread the Gospel of Christ through our community, help the hurting and restore the unity of leadership, staff, and the congregation.

Why did we create restorefccf.org?

The simple answer – to combine all the issues and documents concerning First Christian Church of Florissant and present them in one location. This gives everyone a chance to read all of the information and commentary about the problems facing First Christian Church and its members.

The primary goal is to get to the truth. It is difficult to make an intelligent assessment concerning everything going on at First Christian if you don’t have the facts.

The Short Version of a Long Story

In 2005 FCCF First Christian Church of Florissant hired Brandon Milburn to serve in the Children’s Ministry. He was hired by Steve and Ruth Wingfield.

In August 2011, inappropriate actions by Brandon were brought to the attention of Steve Wingfield by one of the elders who witnessed it first-hand.In February 2012, Dawn Varvil in a conversation with Steve Wingfield and Scott Strandell told them of the following inappropriate actions by Brandon Milburn: buying a minor expensive gifts, spooning with a minor and a minor stating he was spending the night at the Varvils’ when he was actually staying with Brandon. No action was taken to address these concerns.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 8 June 2015

Stephen Naysmith
Social affairs correspondent

Victims and the groups that represent them have been cautious about the announcement that Susan O’Brien QC will lead the Scottish National Inquiry into historic child abuse, set up by the Scottish Government.

The remit of the inquiry is to examine abuse of children in formal institutions, such as children’s homes. Crucially while that will include homes run by churches, the inquiry will not cover abuse in more general faith settings.

The latest voice to object to this limitation comes from churches themselves. The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service, a Christian charity based in Kent, but also registered in Scotland, says this is simply letting churches off the hook.

Instead, it says, the Scottish Government should have adopted the methodology currently being employed by the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry.

Abuse, it says, is just as likely to have occurred at churches in settings such as Sunday services. Paedophiles often seek out places of worship, CCPAS argues, as they are seen as a soft touch.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 8, 2015

Timna Jacks, Henrietta Cook

At least two new alleged victims have contacted Scotch College amid its revelations that students were sexually abused at the school.

The Hawthorn private boys’ school admitted in late May that it had settled at least five historical claims, dating back to the 1960s. It sent a letter to its alumni urging those who suffered abuse to contact the school and seek support from its psychologist.

Scotch has since been contacted by a new group of victims, a school spokesman confirmed.

“Since Scotch’s very public invitation to contact the school, some old boys have called to discuss their time at Scotch,” the spokesman said.

“When contacted, the school advises old boys to speak to the school psychologist, and it is suggested that they speak to support services and seek their own independent legal advice. At all times, Scotch acts in the interests of the old boys in an effort to help them.”

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AUSTRALIA
Reuters

A lawyer representing Australian Cardinal George Pell has written to a member of a Vatican commission on sex abuse requesting that he withdraw “false allegations” made in a recent television interview, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Commision member Peter Saunders, in an interview on Australian television last week, said Pell had shown a lack of concern for victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia that was “almost sociopathic”, and his position at the Vatican had become “untenable”.

Saunders comments, which included a call for Pell to be dismissed over allegations he failed to take action to protect children years ago, were widely criticised by senior Catholic Church officials in Australia who defended Pell’s record and consideration for victims of abuse.

The 17-member Vatican commission on sex abuse, which is advising the Pope on how to root out sex abuse in the Church, also distanced itself from Saunder’s criticism saying it “has no jurisdiction to comment on individual cases or inquiries”.

Richard Leder, a lawyer for Pell, sent a letter to Saunders on Thursday requesting that he withdraw “the false allegations” and “correct the record”, adding that it was clear his comments weren’t supported by the Vatican, the newspaper reported in an online article on Sunday.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 8, 2015

Rory Callinan
Investigative journalist

“It has been confirmed that you have been touching the private parts of bodies of girls at this school …while at this point in time we don’t intend to press charges we must warn you we have witnesses…”

With the reading of this statement to a paedophile teacher on November 29, 1982, the cover-up of more than a decade of child sex abuse at St Agnes Catholic Primary School in Matraville was complete.

The abuse of girls by school teacher and netball coach Michael Drew had just been erased with the collaboration of some of the highest officials in Catholic Education.

The Herald has obtained a copy of the confidential dismissal statement read by the then headmaster, William Joseph Rooney, which allegedly provides written proof of how teachers and officers from Catholic Education discretely removed Drew without contacting police.

The document, which was highlighted during a recent civil court case involving Drew, is likely to send a shudder through the Catholic Church’s educational section as it potentially provides proof of the offence of misprision of a felony – the covering up of a crime.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Lewis Dean
June 8, 2015

Nadine Dorries has revealed that she was sexually abused as a child by Liverpool vicar Reverend James Cameron and that she took revenge by naming a character in her book after him.

The Mid Bedfordshire Conservative MP told BBC Radio 5 Live she endured two years of abuse from the age of eight by her local vicar Reverend James Cameron, who died in 2011.

Speaking about the abuse for the first time, Dorries said the ordeal began after her mother started working at her church.

“That’s when I’d wake up in the middle of the night and he was by my bed,” she said.

“From that moment on, you just become totally different from everyone else in society. You are unlike all of your friends. You have this dirty, shameful, disgusting knowledge that no-one else has, and it’s just awful.”

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey June 7

Mark Driscoll, the preacher who stepped down from his Seattle megachurch in October 2014 after being accused of plagiarism, bullying and an unhealthy ego has been trying to return to some kind of speaking tour at Christian conferences. But the attempt was cut short Sunday when Hillsong, one of the most influential international megachurches, cut him from the speaker list at its upcoming conferences in the United Kingdom and in Australia.

Hillsong is an international megachurch based in Australia that has exported its influence to major global cities and into churches’ music across the United States. Hillsong’s founder, Brian Houston, released a statement saying he did not want the 30-minute interview with Driscoll to distract from the larger five-day conference.

“The teachings of Christ are based on love and forgiveness, and I will not write off Mark as a person simply because of the things that people have said about him, a small minority of people signing a petition or statements he has made many years ago for which he has since repeatedly apologised,” Houston said.

Houston called one or two of Driscoll’s remarks “outrageous,” though he did not note what they were.

“Clearly Mark has held some views and made some statements that cannot be defended,” Houston said in the statement. “One or two of the more outrageous things he is purported to have said, I have heard for the first time through the media exposure over the past week.”

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler

FLORISSANT • A nine-piece band plays inside a church auditorium, and three projection screens hang overhead, including one in the center that flashes lyrics. The band’s repertoire consists of Christian songs that could easily be mistaken for mainstream pop music. First Christian Church of Florissant members stand, clap and sway in response.

Yet, as he prepares to deliver his sermon, Pastor Steve Wingfield apologizes for the small crowd at the long-standing megachurch.

Wingfield has strawberry blond hair and is dressed in a black, long-sleeved, buttoned shirt and gray khakis as he digs into the current series of sermons focusing on the “Path to Restoration.” Today’s message is about broken relationships, a hardship afflicting even the closest knit families, including church families.

“If you want to be part of an imperfect church family, where flawed people are trying to figure this thing out together, you’re welcome here,” Wingfield tells a half-filled auditorium, while revealing details about his home life, including his role as a grandfather.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Independent

Lindsay Watling
PUBLISHED
08/06/2015

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has revealed the stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels are based on her own experience.

The former ‘I’m a Celebrity’ contestant, who grew up in a working class family in Liverpool, says she was abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Reverend William Cameron when she was nine.

Ms Dorries, who never went to the police, claims the abuse began when she was summoned to the Haleford vicarage on the pretence of looking at his stamp collection.

The man, now dead, showed her a ‘Playboy’ magazine as well as photos of him and his wife having sex, the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire said in an interview.

She claims he also used to visit her family home and perform sex acts near her when she was in bed.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

[video: Cardinal Pell]

June 8, 2015

Statement by Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director, BishopAccountability.org (cell 781-439-5208)

Cardinal Pell’s lawyer reportedly has sent a letter to survivor and papal commission member Peter Saunders, accusing him of making “false allegations” about Pell’s response to abuse victims and ‘inviting’ Saunders to withdraw the statements.

[Sydney Morning Herald]

The cardinal’s apparent attempt to intimidate Saunders is inappropriate. That the Vatican’s third most powerful official would act with implied menace against a survivor who is serving Pope Francis and the church with such generosity and whole-heartedness supports the main point made by Saunders in his controversial interview – that Pell is unfit to hold a senior position in an administration ostensibly dedicated to survivor outreach and child protection.

The next move belongs to Pope Francis: the credibility of his promise of ‘bishop accountability’ is at stake.

Unless Saunders is defended against Pell by the pope or by a papal representative, like commission president Cardinal Sean O’Malley, other commission members will be silenced and discouraged, and the public’s confidence in the group’s integrity will be undermined.

Pope Francis must rebuke Pell and insist that he immediately withdraw his threatening approach to Saunders. The pope should then take this opportunity to launch a review of the evidence of Pell’s harshness towards victims that has emerged in two government inquiries in Australia.

Last July, Saunders and five other survivors attended a private Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, where he made the first promise by any pope to hold bishops accountable for preventing sexual abuse by clergy. The pope said, “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.”

[Vatican Information Service]

The only meaningful measure of the sincerity of the pope’s historic vow will be whether he removes church officials who fall short of his “utmost care” standard. Disciplining such powerful colleagues as Pell will be politically tough, but for the pope to make good on his promise, accountability must begin at the top. Diocesan bishops cannot be expected to comply with standards that Vatican officials have ignored with impunity.

And Pell’s strike against Peter Saunders is nothing new for the Australian prelate: he has a documented history of using legal tactics to silence assertive survivors. No case documents this more thoroughly than his treatment of survivor John Ellis when Pell was archbishop of Sydney. Ellis had been sodomized and molested for years, starting when he was 13, by Father Aiden Duggan, a priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Sydney. Ellis’s harrowing struggle as an adult to find justice and healing under Pell was investigated and assessed in a case study that is part of a large ongoing nationwide inquiry by Australia’s government, its high-powered Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In January 2015, the royal commission produced Report of Case Study No. 8: Mr. John Ellis’s experience of the Towards Healing process and civil litigation.

[Royal Commission]

* The royal commission found that when a devastated Ellis finally turned to litigation in 2004, after the archdiocese had botched and delayed his Towards Healing process, Pell decided to mount a “vigorous” attack on his claims, not only to defeat Ellis but “to encourage other prospective plaintiffs not to litigate claims of child sexual abuse against the Church” (Finding 18, Report of Case Study No. 8).

* In June 2005, Pell allowed his lawyers to continue a legal strategy that centered on the archdiocese’s dispute of the fact that Ellis had been abused — despite previous conclusions by Pell’s vicar general and church investigator during the Towards Healing process that Ellis’s claims were credible (Findings 24-26, Report of Case Study No. 8).

* Part of the archdiocese’s “non-admission” strategy involved cross-examining Ellis in excruciating detail about his years of rape by Duggan. Church lawyers later admitted to the royal commission that this questioning was not necessary, given that the court case concerned only whether Ellis’s claims were within statute. And Cardinal Pell conceded to the commission that his instructions had resulted in Ellis “being cross-examined and challenged as to whether the abuse occurred, in circumstances which were harmful and painful to him” (p. 13, Report of Case Study No. 8).

* The archdiocese finally won its case in 2007, with the Court of Appeal finding that Cardinal Pell could not be sued as a representative of the archdiocese or as a corporation sole. Nor could he be held liable personally, since he was not archbishop while Duggan was abusing Ellis. The Trustees also could not be held liable, the court ruled, because they have no supervisory role over priests. Just as Pell had intended, the case created an encompassing legal shield – the so-called “Ellis Defence” — that protected it against future lawsuits.

* In a November 2007 memo, Pell’s lawyers exulted that the Court of Appeals decision placed “a number of significant obstacles that will need to be addressed by any claimant seeking to resolve claims litigiously rather than through Towards Healing. Refocusing the resolution of these claims through Towards Healing has alone been a significant and favourable outcome of this litigation …” The memo continued, “Finally, as this decision has provided significant protection to the Cardinal and the Trustees, this in turn will give rise to a significant reduction in damages exposure and therefore the risks that are presently insured against” (page 16, Report of Case Study No. 8).

About BishopAccountability.org

Founded in 2003 and based near Boston, Massachusetts, USA, BishopAccountability.org is a large online archive of documents, reports, and news articles documenting the global abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. An independent non-profit, it is not a victims’ advocacy group and is not affiliated with any church, reform, or victims’ organization. In 2014, its website hosted 1.5 million unique visitors.

Contact for BishopAccountability.org

Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, barrett.doyle@comcast.net, 781-439-5208 cell
Terence McKiernan, President and Co-Director, mckiernan1@comcast.net, 508-479-9304

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

‘Once again the Catholic Church is out of touch and closing ranks’: 60 Minutes hits back at Cardinal George Pell after he demands apology from sex abuse victim

By LEESA SMITH FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and CINDY TRAN

Australia’s highest ranking Catholic threatening legal action has not stopped the 60 Minutes TV program from hitting back at Cardinal George Pell and his fellow leaders across the country.

Child sex abuse victim Peter Saunders, who was handpicked by Pope Francis to sit on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, broke his silence on last Sunday’s show about his thoughts on Cardinal Pell describing him as ‘dangerous’ and claiming his position was ‘untenable’.

Despite turning down invitations from 60 Minutes to respond to the damning remarks, Cardinal Pell remained tight-lipped – until after the show aired when a spokesperson stated that he was left with no choice but to seek legal advice.

‘The false and misleading claims made against His Eminence are outrageous,’ the statement said.

‘From his earliest action as an Archbishop, Cardinal Pell has taken a strong stand against child sexual abuse. There is no excuse for broadcasting incorrect and prejudicial material.’

But 60 Minutes journalist Tara Brown claimed otherwise and launched a scathing attack on Cardinal Pell and the Catholic Church within Australia on this Sunday’s program.

‘The Catholic Church in Australia stands in crisis,’ Brown announced at the beginning of the show.

‘The men who lead it have put themselves on a collision course with the victims of child sexual abuse by expressing their unfailing support for George Pell.’

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Bishops Meet As US Plans Slip, +Pell Threatens and US Bishops & House Leader Hastert Are Linked To Child Abuse Related Crimes

As US bishops get set to hold their last national meeting before Pope Francis’ US visit, the pope and bishops’ 2016 US presidential election strategy appears to be in a “free fall”. Pope Francis, with his seemingly discredited No. 3, Australian Cardinal George Pell, and the pope’s criminally investigated Minneapolis USA Catholic officials, may turn out to be more of a net liability than an net asset, as a supporter for US Republican candidates and their low tax billionaire backers, at least by the time the elections are held in November 2016, given the current negative papal trajectory.

Two new US criminal court proceedings have uncovered revelations relating to child sexual abuse scandals that have significant US national political connections. These cases, as well as the recent overwhelming negative Irish vote on one of the pope’s marriage positions, and the unending public relations miscues of the combative and shameless Pell (with at least some tacit yet shameful papal blessing, it appears), have important and potentially adverse implications for Pope Francis’ upcoming US trip and for his potential effectiveness in helping to elect Republican candidates in next year’s US elections.

The pope’s and his worldwide subordinate bishops’ credibility with many Catholics continues to nosedive as Irish voters showed. And yet Pell and Australian bishops continue to act as if they are ‘out of touch’ with Catholics lived reality. The Australian 60 Minutes news program has replied to Pell’s direct complaints and indirect legal threats about their first segment featuring the pope’s handpicked abuse survivor adviser, Peter Saunders, with their latest scathing segment on Cardinal Pell here. Pell and the pope seem to be getting poor media management advice. 60 Minutes is surely not FOX TV! Pell, by his shameful and public combativeness against Saunders, a survivor of sexual abuse by two priests, is arrogantly mostly making Saunders case against Pell for him, as the pope shamefully and silently observes.

Pope Francis and Cardinal Sean O’Malley appear to have used a shameful “bait and switch” strategy with Saunders. They selected him to meet with the pope to unload privately his abuse survivor stories. Then they picked Saunders, a devout Catholic, for the abuse commission. After Saunders and others publicly accepted commission membership, the pope and O’Malley farcically told the commission members that the commission will not address “individual cases”. If the commission fails to address individual bishops’ accountability, yes, it is a farce! Thank God the brave Saunders was unswayed by the papal ploy. He has prophetically pursued the individual cases of both Pell and Chile’s Bishop Barros. Amen!

Also, Canadian government officials recently demanded that the pope visit and apologize for “cultural genocide” and for the Catholic Church’s historical negative role with “native Canadian” aborigines. The pope objects fairly to genocide-like atrocities AGAINST Catholics, like Armenian, Iraqi and Syrian Catholics. What about genocide-like atrocities BY Catholics against indigenous populations?

The Canadian demand just further buttresses California Native Americans’ objections to the unwarranted and unnecessary canonization process for Fr. Junipero Serra. The Hispanic Franciscan’s flawed canonization is evidently mostly another offensive political sop to try to attract US Latino voters for the pope’s US Republican candidate, as Pope John Paul II earlier tried to do with Serra’s beatification six weeks before the US election in 1988 aimed at drawing US Catholic Latino voters to a “Vatican friendlier” Republican candidate, G.H.W. Bush, it appears.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

Sunday Star Times

JONATHAN CARSON

A former Catholic priest, now living in Nelson, has been charged with historic sex offences, including indecently assaulting young girls and rape.

Peter Joseph Hercock, 71, a former chaplain at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt and administrator at a Nelson school, appeared in the Nelson District Court last week.

He is charged with two counts of rape, five counts of indecently assaulting girls aged under 16, assault and unlawfully entering a building.

He is yet to enter a plea.

All of the charges relate to alleged offending in the 1970s and 80s in Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

Diocese of Liverpool vows thorough investigation will take place into claims about St Mary’s Anglican Church priest Reverend William Cameron

Liverpool-born Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has alleged she was abused by an Anglican vicar as a child.

The former I’m a Celebrity contestant, who grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool, detailed the allegations after revealing stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels are based on her own experience.

Ms Dorries alleged she was abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Reverend William Cameron when she was nine.

He was better known to parishioners by his middle name James and made priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Anglican Church in Halewood in 1966 shortly before the abuse began, she told the Mail on Sunday.

The Diocese of Liverpool today vowed the allegations would be “thoroughly, appropriately and sensitively investigated”.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

To get the Josh Duggar story, InTouch utilized solid investigative journalism

By Paul Farhi June 7

Until Caitlyn Jenner displaced it in the tabloid firmament last week, the hottest story in America’s booming celebrity-gossip industry was the revelations about Josh Duggar. The eldest kid on the popular “19 Kids and Counting” reality TV series, Duggar, now 27, was identified in a 2005 police report as the alleged molester of five young girls, including four of his sisters, when he was a teenager.

Unlike the highly orchestrated Jenner story, the revelations about Duggar came from actual journalistic digging. And it came from a somewhat unlikely source: InTouch Weekly , a magazine and Web site not known as a giant of investigative journalism, even within the Kardashian-centric universe it inhabits.

InTouch’s last big splash, so to speak, was in January, when it photoshopped Jenner’s head onto a female model’s body to suggest what he might look like as a woman. At the time, Jenner’s intentions were rumored but unconfirmed, and InTouch’s cover was widely denounced as trashy and insensitive.

Yet InTouch has led coverage of the sordid Duggar story with what looks like solid reporting. Although rumors about Duggar’s past have appeared periodically on the Internet for years, the magazine nailed it by disclosing the police investigation and incident report. It subsequently revealed that Duggar’s father, Jim Bob, waited a year before reporting the allegations to authorities.

Not long after InTouch dropped its first bombshell, Josh Duggar resigned from his job at the Family Research Council, a conservative-advocacy group based in Washington. His parents later acknowledged the veracity of the allegations, and Josh Duggar has apologized for “my wrongdoing.” Meanwhile, TLC, the cable network owned by Discovery Communications of Silver Spring, Md., has put “19 Kids and Counting” in limbo, its return to the air uncertain.

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COLOMBIA
Imneuquen

Colombia

“El taita” Édgar Orlando Gaitán, director de la fundación Carare y premiado internacionalmente, fue detenido por las autoridades por el abuso de unas 50 mujeres, algunas de ellas menores de edad.
A través del suministro del ancestral yagé, habría abusado sexualmente de decenas de mujeres, varias de ellas menores de edad, que habrían acudido a él para realizarse limpiezas físicas y espirituales, según acusó la Fiscalía.

María Soledad Franco, directora seccional de Fiscalías, manifestó que el indígena “ejercía sus actividades delictivas en una finca de La Vega (Cundinamarca)”, sede de la fundación Carare, dirigida por Gaitán, que se autodenomina el último descendiente de la etnia Carare.

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COLOMBIA
Latin Times

By Cedar Attanasio | Jun 07 2015

Neo-Shaman and ayahuasca ceremony leader Édgar Orlando Gaitán Camacho has been charged on suspicion of assaulting eight women while serving as their spiritual guide, Colombian prosecutors announced on Thursday. Suspecting multiple assaults over a period of decades, authorities calculate that Camacho drugged and raped as many as 50 women while serving as an ayahuasca priest. Ayahuasca, also known as yagé, is a hallucinogenic tea traditionally used by indigenous peoples of the Amazon. Authorities allege that Camacho, also known as “El Taita,” added sedatives to the ayahuasca he administered, allowing him to prey on women who attended his ceremonies.

Participants in ayahuasca ceremonies report significant improvements in mental well’being, along with life-changing epiphanies as a result of taking the drug. Western anthropologists and biomedical researchers working in Amazonian communities have long supported these claims. A recent small-scale study in Brazil suggested that ayahuasca could be an effective treatment for depression. Larger-scale clinical studies are expected in the future. Regardless of the drug’s potential benefits, ayahuasca imbibing requires leaders to guide participant’s “trips.”

According to regional Colombian prosecutor María Soledad Franco, Camacho took advantage of his position as a spiritual leader to assault dozens of women seeking physical and emotionally healing, including at least one minor.

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CANADA
CTV

Michelle Zilio, CTVNews.ca
@michellezilio

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask the Pope to apologize on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for its involvement in Canada’s residential school system.

Mulcair made the comments in an interview with CTV’s Question Period, days ahead of Harper’s trip to Vatican City. The Prime Minister will meet with the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, including Pope Francis, on Wednesday and Thursday.

“With all of the evidence that’s now on the table, the Vatican should issue a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential schools. While the Prime Minister is with the Pope, he should simply ask him if he’s willing to issue that sort of an apology,” said Mulcair.

Last week, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its report on the residential school system. The report made 94 broad recommendations, touching on areas of child welfare, justice, health and education.

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AUSTRALIA
60 Minutes

JUNE 7, 2015

60 Minutes broadcasts an extraordinary development surrounding Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell.

“I think it’s critical that George Pell is moved aside, that he is sent back to Australia, and that the Pope takes the strongest action against him.” These are the damning words of Peter Saunders, the man handpicked by Pope Francis to sit on the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

In an interview with Tara Brown in Rome, Peter gives a wide-ranging and damning assessment of Cardinal Pell’s actions to date, and calls for Pope Francis to move against him.

STATEMENT FROM SPOKESPERSON FOR CARDINAL GEORGE PELL

31 May 2015 10.45pm

Cardinal Pell has been informed of the contents of the 60 Minutes program this evening. The false and misleading claims made against His Eminence are outrageous.

From his earliest actions as an Archbishop, Cardinal Pell has taken a strong stand against child sexual abuse and put in place processes to enable complaints to be brought forward and independently investigated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
Sunday 7 June 2015

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has revealed that the stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels are based on her own experience.

The former I’m a Celebrity contestant, who grew up in Liverpool, says she was abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Rev William Cameron when she was nine.

Better known to parishioners by his middle name James, he was made priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Anglican church in Halewood in 1966, Dorries told the Mail on Sunday (MoS).

Dorries, who never went to the police, claims the abuse began when she was summoned to the vicarage on the pretence of looking at his stamp collection.

The man, who is now dead, showed her a Playboy magazine as well as photos of him and his wife having sex, the Mid Bedfordshire MP told the newspaper.

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UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard

GARETH VIPERS

Published: 07 June 2015

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has revealed that she was abused by a vicar as a child.

Ms Dorries, who once appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, has said she was abused by and Anglican vicar and family friend while growing up in Liverpool.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the Mid Bedfordshire MP revealed the stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels were based on her own experience.

Ms Dorries, who never went to the police, claims the abuse began when she was summoned to the local vicarage on the pretence of looking at the vicar’s stamp collection.

The man, now dead, showed her a Playboy magazine as well as photos of him and his wife having sex, she told the newspaper.

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UNITED STATES
Mirror

7 JUNE 2015

BY MIKEY SMITH

The Tory MP has revealed tales of child sexual abuse in her new novel were drawn from her own experiences

Tory MP Nadine Dorries has revealed the tales of child sexual abuse in her novels are based on her own experience.

She says she was abused by a vicar and family friend when she was just nine years old, living in an Irish-Catholic community in the 1950s and 60s.

The Anglican vicar, Reverend James Cameron, would pay frequent visits to her family – often after she was tucked up in bed – and perform sex acts.

She told the Mail on Sunday the abuse started when she was called to the vicarage, under the pretense of seeing the vicar’s stamp collection.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 7, 2015

Georgina Mitchell

Current affairs program 60 Minutes has launched a scathing attack on the Catholic Church, saying senior officials are “out of touch” and have alienated victims of sexual abuse by issuing statements in support of Cardinal George Pell.

As the program opened on Sunday night, journalist Tara Brown began an editorial that suggested

“The Catholic Church in Australia stands in crisis,” Brown declared within the first ten seconds of the program.

“The men who lead it have put themselves on a collision course with the victims of child sexual abuse by expressing their unfailing support for George Pell.”

Last week, the program interviewed Peter Saunders, a member of the commission that advises the Pope on the protection of children, who made a number of allegations about Cardinal Pell relating to whether he had knowledge of the actions of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

GRANT MCARTHUR HERALD SUN JUNE 07, 2015

CARDINAL George Pell has sent a legal letter demanding Peter Saunders withdraw allegations which the Cardinal claims present him as a sociopath who lied to cover up child sexual abuse matters.

Through his lawyer, Cardinal Pell accused Mr Saunders, who sits on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, of adopting the authority of the church committee in a misleading manner during an explosive 60 Minutes interview.

A British child abuse survivor, Mr Saunders last week told the program Cardinal Pell’s treatment of abuse victims had been callous and his position was untenable.

A letter from Cardinal Pell’s lawyer Richard Leder states Mr Saunders’ comments were “either uninformed as to the relevant history, or were deliberately selective” and that they were “inconsistent with the position of the church and the church committee of which you are a member”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald

Catholic News Service

The Dutch-born, London-educated Libero Milone was chairman of Deloitte Italy

More than a year after establishing special structures to oversee the Vatican’s finances, Pope Francis has named an Italian accountant and expert in corporate risk management as the Vatican’s auditor general.

The Vatican announced the appointment of Libero Milone, the Dutch-born, London-educated chairman and managing partner of Milone Associates, on Friday.

He has worked for Flack Renewables, Wind Telecom and Fiat. Until 2007, he was chairman of Deloitte Italy and served three years as a member of the audit committee of the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

The statutes Pope Francis approved in early March for the Council and Secretariat for the Economy specify that the auditor general will have the power to audit the books of any Vatican office and will report directly to the pope.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 7, 2015

Georgina Mitchell

A man who called Cardinal George Pell “sociopathic” over his alleged treatment of survivors of child sexual abuse has been asked to withdraw his comments in a letter from Cardinal Pell’s lawyer, after members of the Church defended the Cardinal in public statements.

In an interview on 60 Minutes on May 31, Peter Saunders – a member of the Vatican’s advisory commission on child sexual abuse – said Pell’s position had become “untenable” and the Pope should act now to remove him from the Vatican because he was “a dangerous individual” who displayed a cold-heartedness and contempt for abuse victims.

“He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – [it’s] almost sociopathic I would go as far as to say, this lack of care,” Mr Saunders told the program in an interview in Rome.

“I think he is somebody who, understandably, victim survivors will have a huge, huge issue with.

“In all the interviews, in all I’ve read, in all I’ve heard, I have seen not a shred of evidence that George Pell has any sympathy, empathy or any kind of understanding or concern for victims and survivors of these crimes.”

In the 15-minute segment, which featured historical comments from George Pell but which the Cardinal refused twice to be interviewed for, Mr Saunders said it was highly likely Pell and his peers knew paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale had abused children. He called for them to face criminal charges if this knowledge was proven.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 6 June 2015)

The Catholic Church sheltered Father John Stockdale for 31 years in parishes in northern Victoria while he committed sexual crimes against boys. Publicly, Father Stockdale upheld the strict morality which the church imposed on all lay Catholics. Privately, Father Stockdale was going to a gay club to have casual sex. On New Year’s Eve in 1995, Fr Stockdale was found dead in a sex cubicle at the “Club 80” gay venue in Melbourne.

A Victorian man (“Joe”) told Broken Rites in August 1994 that, when he was an altar boy 20 years earlier, he was molested by Father Stockdale. Broken Rites advised Joe to report the crime to the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit. Joe was slow in contacting the police and, when the police finally learned about Stockdale’s activities, the priest was dead.

The church inserted a death notice in the Melbourne “Herald Sun” on 4 January 1996, saying that Fr John Stockdale had died “suddenly” in Melbourne. A colleague told parishioners that Stockdale had had a heart attack.

Nine months later, the full circumstances of this death were revealed. The Herald Sun” (7 September 1996) reported that Father John Stockdale’s death occurred about 11.30 PM on 31 December 1995 — New Year’s Eve — in a sex cubicle at Club 80, a “men-only” club in Collingwood, Melbourne.

At Club 80, patrons retire to these cubicles to have random, anonymous sex. In fairness to Club 80, Broken Rites acknowledges that this club is not just about sex cubicles. It also has rooms for first-run movies (including art-house, not just porn, movies), plus areas for reading, socialising and refreshments. The club was advertised as “for men only”.

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MINNESOTA
Whispers in the Loggia

SATURDAY, JUNE 06, 2015

Two years since a storm of revelations of abuse and cover-up began bearing down on the archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, yesterday saw the tumult take yet another eruptive turn as the bankrupt Twin Cities church was institutionally charged with six “gross misdemeanors” of child endangerment stemming from its handling of a now-jailed and laicized cleric whose pattern of misconduct is alleged to have continued into 2011.

Nearly 13 years since the US bishops enacted the Dallas Charter and Norms to mandate stringent safe-environment provisions as the church’s national law, the latest criminal proceeding over post-2002 lapses centers on the case of Curtis Wehmeyer, a thrice-convicted abuser ordained in 2001 and removed from ministry in mid-2012 following years of concerns expressed to archdiocesan officials.

After pleading guilty to a combined 20 abuse and child pornography counts later in 2012, Wehmeyer was dismissed from the clerical state by the Vatican earlier this year.

In a 44-page presentment that veers between graphic disclosures of Wehmeyer’s conduct and a detailed timeline of the Chancery responses to alarms sounded over the priest’s activity – including a 2004 incident where he solicited young men for sex in a Barnes & Noble bookstore – Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said the findings amounted to “a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the archdiocese… over the course of decades.”

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Brendan Hoban

Here’s a question: when the Irish bishops decided to actively support the No side in the recent referendum, who actually made that decision?

Presumably there was some kind of consultation, some input from their paid advisors, some assessment of how a particular policy might sit with their priests and their people. In that process, who is listened to? Or more to the point, who is not heard?

I’m being ironic, I’m afraid. There was no consultation (as far as I could see) with priests or people.

Even the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), representing about a third of Irish priests, weren’t asked for an opinion, but then again we’re used to being ignored. There was no consultation either with the Association of Catholics of Ireland. We were not listened to; we were not heard.

The bishops’ decision to support the blunt strategy of outright opposition had all the hallmarks of a policy decided behind closed doors in Maynooth, without testing it against the wisdom of people and priests – and then people wonder why the bishops can get things so unerringly wrong?

That decision, it is now clear, supported by groups like Iona, Catholic papers desperate to hang on to their readers, and right-wing Catholic groups, was disastrous. The bishops, ignoring their people and their priests, got it exactly wrong.

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CANADA
Rabble

Truth and Reconciliation Commission challenges Canadian churches

BY DENNIS GRUENDING | JUNE 7, 2015

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) has released a summary of its final report into the history and legacy of Indian residential schools. The first paragraph in the Introduction describes Canada’s entire Aboriginal policy and its implementation as “cultural genocide.” The TRC defines that term as “the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group.” This includes seizing lands, the forcible relocation of populations, restrictions upon movement, banning languages and spiritual practices, disrupting families and the removal of children.

This is strong language but Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and former Prime Minister Paul Martin have both used the same term in recent months.
Beyond words to action

Justice Murray Sinclair, the TRC chair, has made numerous speeches and provided many interviews over the past several weeks and he has said repeatedly that what Canada needs now is move beyond words and apologies to action and reparation.

A major TRC recommendation, which appears repeatedly throughout the report, calls on governments across Canada to adopt and implement the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The TRC says that the UN declaration “is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Recent US criminal court revelations relating to child sexual abuse scandals in Illinois and Minneapolis, that both have US national political connections, suggest that US leaders, including House leaders, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama, may hardly be more forthcoming about “insider child sex abuse scandal” related matters than secretive Pope Francis and his Vatican “old boys’ club” have been about numerous cardinals.

Some of these recent revelations relate to two separate and significant new US criminal proceedings: (A) one involving abuse allegations and the former No. 3 US political leader, longtime Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, and (B) the other involving several priest child abuse cover up allegations and former longtime Minneapolis Catholic Church top official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, brother of Democratic President Barack Obama’s well regarded Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough.

The Minneapolis revelations, on top of the ongoing Cardinal George Pell revelations from Australia, raise serious questions about Pope Francis’ real agenda in holding bishops accountable. The pope’s US representative or nuncio reportedly has been directly involved in the Minneapolis Archdiocesan decision making. Indeed, as intrepid grandmother and advocate for children, Betty Clermont, has very pointedly reported recently, Pope Francis defiance in practice of the UN committee seeking to protect children from torture is extremely troubling and raises even more questions about the pope’s real agenda.

Fortunately for US children and their parents, these recent revelations are arising in independent and public US criminal judicial proceedings that promise full future disclosures, rather than secretive and captive Vatican proceedings ultimately controlled by the pope, like the current one for disgraced and admitted multiple child abuser, Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski.

Disappointingly, the Vatican clique and the US political establishment appear to share elements of the same flawed approach to “insiders” who abuse children sexually or who protect child abusers — “DON’T ASK ! DON’T TELL !”. This approach will change soon, one way or another.

Reviewing some US politicians’ seeming silence about these scandals, brought to my mind the memory of my former Harvard Law mentor, Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who would likely have asked here, “What did they [politicians and bishops] know and when did they know it?”

A former Democratic Congressman, Rep. Melvin Watt, reportedly heard over 15 years ago an “unseemly rumor” about about Hastert’s sexual misconduct. Moreover, a sister of a second alleged Hastert sex abuse victim as a high school student, now deceased, credibly told ABC TV’s Brian Ross in this recent video how she tried futilely to get the media and others, including ABC TV, to listen in 2006 to her story about Hastert’s alleged abuse of her brother. That was around the time Hastert was being pressed for being so lax for so long on the Congressman Mark Foley scandal, which did political damage to the Republican Party in 2006.

Foley resigned amidst accusations of inappropriate sexual communications with young male House pages, that Boehner and Pelosi were both at some point aware of. Hastert unexpectedly resigned as well the following year.

Did John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi hear the rumor about Hastert? When? How about others from Illinois like President Obama, Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Hillary Clinton? If they knew of the rumor, why did they not speak up? Did protecting Hastert, and possibly others, have anything to do with the national political establishment’s surprisingly very muted reaction to the 2002 and subsequent Boston Globe’s bombshells on the priest sex abuse scandal.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

Jennifer Haselberger

6/06/2015

This afternoon, priests of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis received the following message from Archbishop Nienstedt.

——————–

From:
“Wohlers, Laurie”

Subject: Statements on Charges Filed Against Archdiocese Friday

Date:
June 6, 2015 at 1:36:50 PM CDT

To:
Undisclosed recipients: ;
June 6, 2015

Dear Brothers in Christ,

The events of the past 24 hours have been disturbing to me and, I am sure, to all of you, too. We have been working cooperatively with the St. Paul Police and the Ramsey County prosecutor’s office. They had not indicated their findings to us before noon this past Friday. My staff and I will continue to work with them closely and collaboratively to meet their concerns. The Archdiocese Office of Communications will keep you informed of further developments. As we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi, we acknowledge that the grace of the Holy Eucharist elevates us beyond our all too human nature so as to be united in the one Body of Christ. Let us, therefore, be one in communion and mission. Let us remain united in our prayer for one another.

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

——————–

I would be the first to admit that there is little that the Archbishop could say at this moment that would propitiate my sense of indignation and outrage. At the same time, this message seems notable as much for what it doesn’t say as what it does. I am sure that many reading this would agree that what we would most like to see from the Archbishop are the simple words ‘I am sorry’.

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UNTIED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

– Criminal Complaint: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis 6.5.15.pdf
— Civil Petition: Archdiocese Petition 6.5.15.pdf
— RCAO Media Briefing Video: RCAO Announces Charges Against Archdiocese

This looks like the French Revolution in the Vatican Roman Catholic Church begins in Minnesota! HOORAH Ramsey County !!! for daring to take on the mighty Goliath Vatican Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis!!!!

On Friday, June 5, 2015, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office (RCAO) filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis with multiple counts of failing to protect children. The RCAO and its secular prosecutor prove that in the 21st century, the Vatican aka Holy See, the Roman Catholic Church and its dioceses, its popes, cardinals, bishops and priests are no longer above the law – secular law, that is, – or temporal law (as they say it in the BS Latin language of the Vatican). In the Medieval or Middle Ages the spiritual power was considered as “higher” than the temporal power. In 1301, Pope Boniface VIII wrote Unam Sanctam, his ex-cathedra declaration that “There is no power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God”…and those allowed to judge are only the “ordained priests, kings and princes”. OMG it took 700 years to defy and revolutionize that Papal Bull because it’s only now in the 21st century that priests and their higher cardinals and bishops are no longer doing the judging (with their colorful liturgical vests or black priestly uniform) and their spiritual powers count for naught in the civil or secular court of law of nations. But imagine the countless injustices they have carried out for centuries because of that Papal Bull(shit), the countless people who suffered be it burning at the stake for women and heretics, and those countless victims who were wrongfully punished because of the spiritual powers of “ordained” men of God.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Betty Clermont

The UN Committee against Torture “found that the widespread sexual violence within the Catholic Church amounted to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” After Vatican officials were called to Geneva in May 2014 to respond to tough questions like why the pope believes his responsibility for protecting children against torture only applies within the Vatican City State, the committee issued its report.

The members “ordered the Vatican to hand over files containing details of clerical sexual abuse allegations to police forces around the world, … to use its authority over the Roman Catholic Church worldwide to ensure all allegations of clerical abuse are passed on to the secular authorities and to impose ‘meaningful sanctions’ on any Church officials who fail to do so.” With the exception of one staged PR event, the pope has refused to take any of these measures.

The Vatican had issued an “Initial Report” preparatory to the hearing. “Nowhere in the Holy See’s [the name of the Church’s global government] Initial Report under the Convention does it make any mention of the widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence committed by Catholic clergy against hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults around the world. There is no mention of acts that have resulted in an astonishing and incalculable amount of harm around the world – profound and lasting physical and mental suffering – with little to no accountability and access to redress … [T]he Vatican has consistently minimized the harm caused by the actions of the clergy, through both the direct acts of sexual violence and Church officials’ actions which follow, such as cover-ups and victim-blaming. … The Holy See’s Initial Report to this Committee is itself evidence of the minimization of these offenses and the resulting harm.”

The Committee against Torture report came “after senior officials sought to distance the Vatican legally from the wider Church … saying priests were not legally tied to the Vatican but fell under national jurisdictions. But the committee insisted that officials of the Holy See – including the pope’s representatives around the world and their aides – have a responsibility to monitor the behavior of all under their ‘effective control.’”

The committee also urged a “prompt and impartial” investigation in the case of Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the pope’s nuncio (ambassador) to the Dominican Republic.

Wesolowski solicited sex for money from Santo Domingo’s poorest boys. “We learned from the children that Wesolowski took pictures of them while they were masturbating. Oral sex was performed,” Nuria Piera, an investigative journalist in the Dominican Republic, said. “He abused that poverty and used that mechanism to approach children and take advantage of them for years,” according to Yeni Berenice Reynoso, National District prosecutor.

A dossier accusing Wesolowski of sex abuse of minors was sent to Pope Francis “sometime in July” 2013 by Santo Domingo Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez. The pope found the information credible enough to dismiss Wesolowski on August 21 via confidential letter. But the pope never reported Wesolowski to civil authorities nor made the information public.

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CHILE
Economia y Negocios

[The provincial superior of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Mariano Irureta, said through a statement that there is a preliminary investigation against the priest Francisco Mendez Basáñez. He is being investigated for alleged abuse of authority and sexual abuse that happened between 2002 and 2005.]

El superior provincial de los Padres de Schoenstatt, Mariano Irureta, informó a través de un comunicado que existe una investigación previa en contra del sacerdote Francisco Basáñez Méndez.

El religioso está siendo indagado por presuntas situaciones de abuso de autoridad y abuso sexual que habrían ocurrido entre 2002 y 2005. El padre Basáñez ha sido separado de toda actividad pública y pastoral. “Según los resultados que arrojen las investigaciones, se tomarán todas las medidas necesarias”, indicaron en el texto.

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MINNESOTA
Noticias 24/7

Acusan a una arquidiócesis de Minnesota de alentar los abusos sexuales perpetrados por un sacerdote

Una arquidiócesis católica con un legado jurídico emblemático de abusos sexuales infantiles ahora se enfrenta a reclamos judiciales por la manera en que los ha manejado.

En 1983, el abogado Jeff Anderson presentó un caso civil contra la arquidiócesis de Saint Paul, Minnesota, por abuso sexual a menores por parte de un sacerdote. Eso abrió una compuerta de víctimas que se presentaron con historias de abusos sexuales del clero en todo Estados Unidos.

El viernes, John Choi, el fiscal del condado de Ramsey, subió a seis los cargos contra la arquidiócesis de Saint Paul y Minneapolis. La acusó de alentar, causar o contribuir al abuso sexual de tres víctimas por parte de un sacerdote en 2010 y 2011.

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UNITED STATES
InTouch Weekly

PSYCHOLOGIST: DUGGARS FAILED TO ACKNOWLEDGE JOSH WAS A SEXUAL PREDATOR

While Jessa Duggar identified herself as a victim of sexual molestation by her brother Josh Duggar, she was quick to come to his defense — saying people who are calling him “a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist” are going “overboard.”

And this isn’t surprising, according to clinical psychologist Paula Bruce — who has not treated Josh, Jessa or any of the victims, but specializes in child sexual abuse and trauma.

She explains to In Touch Weekly that Jim Bob and Michelle not only neglected to recognize the suffering their daughters experienced, but also failed to view their son as a predator.

“There’s nothing [in Josh’s statement] that acknowledges that this is something sexual and that that sexual stuff came from somewhere and that it had an impact on someone else sexually in terms of their sexual development,” Dr. Bruce tells In Touch.

“I think that there’s an complete failure to understand 1. his own sexuality and 2. the damage that sexual behavior [caused] and that he was a sexual predator. None of them acknowledged that this is predatory behavior.”

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CANADA
Global News

The Canadian Press

COLLINGWOOD, Ont. – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne calls the federal government’s response to recommendations from a six-year study of Canada’s residential schools legacy “disappointing.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released 94 recommendations Tuesday along with a summary of its conclusions, including its description of a “cultural genocide” and the estimated deaths of more than 6,000 children.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not address a ceremony that was held on Wednesday to formally close the commission’s work.

He has suggested in the House of Commons that his government has already moved on addressing aboriginal concerns in the seven years since he issued an historic apology from the government of Canada.

Wynne began her speech to the Ontario Liberal annual general meeting on Saturday by acknowledging the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and saying there is “no possible excuse for any government to ignore the abuses of our past relationship.”

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ARKANSAS
Fox 8

ARKANSAS – Jill and Jessa Duggar explained the precautions their parents took after Josh admitted to molesting them while they were asleep.

In an interview airing Friday at 9 p.m., the sisters share their feelings about the news being public and their brother being called a pedophile and a rapist. They defend him, saying they know the truth because they are victims, says Cosmo.

In the interview, Jill says her father put locks on the doors and didn’t allow the children to play hide-and-seek anymore.

“As a mother now I look back and I think, you know, my parents did such an amazing job for me,” Jessa said. “Even when we went through the DHS investigation, they complimented my parents on what an amazing job they did through that process. … I see as a mom, I hope that I can set up the same safeguards in my family that they did.”

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MINNESOTA
Rai News (Italia)

L’arcidiocesi della Chiesa cattolica del Minnesota è stata incriminata dalle autorità dello Stato per aver coperto una serie di casi di abusi sessuali su minori da parte di un sacerdote. Ad essere sotto indagine sono i leader religiosi locali, che non avrebbero affrontato una serie di report interni in cui si parlava della questione.

Le accuse

I reati contestati all’arcidiocesi sono sei, tra cui quello di non aver protetto i bambini e quello di aver gestito male il caso di pedofilia venuto alla luce anni fa riguardante il reverendo Curtis Wehmeyer. Il religioso alcuni anni fa ha riconosciuto di essere colpevole e di aver molestato due bambini. Per questo motivo è stato condannato a cinque anni di carcere. L’uomo è accusato anche di molestie nei confronti di un terzo minore in Wisconsin.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Idea

[The evangelical church should intensify both the work-up of sexual abuse of young people in its facilities as well as preventive measures.]

Stuttgart (idea) – Die evangelische Kirche sollte sowohl die Aufarbeitung von sexuellem Missbrauch an Jugendlichen in ihren Einrichtungen als auch Vorbeugungsmaßnahmen intensivieren. Das forderten Experten beim Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentag in Stuttgart. Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig (Berlin), appellierte an die EKD, einen Leitenden Geistlichen einer Landeskirche mit der Aufklärung vergangenen Unrechts zu betrauen. Es wäre ein starkes Signal, wenn die evangelische Kirche die Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchs zur Chefsache machen würde. In der katholischen Kirche habe ein Bischof diese Aufgabe übernommen, während es im Bereich der EKD nur eine „Konferenz für Prävention, Intervention und Hilfe bei Verletzung der sexuellen Selbstbestimmung“ gebe.

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VATIKAN
RD (Nederland)

[The papal advisory committee for the protection of minors in the church, which was instituted by Pope Francis in the fight against sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, wants to see vigorous action against bishops who abuse cases to cover up. This was reported by the Belgian news KerkNet Thursday. The committee recommends that entered into the canon law sanctions against bishops who evade their responsibilities in the fight against abuse.]

De pauselijke advies­commissie voor de bescherming van minderjarigen in de kerk, die door paus Franciscus is ingesteld in de strijd tegen seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, wil dat er streng wordt opgetreden tegen bisschoppen die misbruikzaken in de doofpot stoppen.

Dat meldde de Belgische nieuwsdienst KerkNet donderdag. De commissie pleit ervoor dat in het kerkelijk recht sancties worden ingevoerd tegen bisschoppen die in de strijd tegen misbruik hun verantwoordelijkheid ontlopen.

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SCHWEIZ
Appenzeller Zeitung

[The Catholic Church continued to report persons as victims of sexual assaults by clergymen. The dioceses registered last year twelve incidents.]

Bei der katholischen Kirche melden sich weiterhin Personen als Opfer sexueller Übergriffe durch Kirchenleute. Die Bistümer registrierten im vergangenen Jahr zwölf Vorfälle. Die neuen Meldungen gehen fast alle auf die Jahre 1950 bis 2000 zurück.

Ein Fall datiert aus dem Jahr 2013, wie die Schweizerische Bischofskonferenz (SBK) am Freitag im Nachgang zu ihrer Versammlung in Einsiedeln mitteilte. Von den zwölf gemeldeten Opfern waren zum Zeitpunkt der Übergriffe acht Kinder und drei erwachsene Frauen. Ein Opfer war ein Jugendlicher.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF JUNE 05, 2015

“Spotlight,” the movie based on The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series exposing the Catholic Church abuse scandal, has a release date. We’re told the film, directed by Tom McCarthy, will be in theaters Nov. 6.

The movie has an impressive cast that includes Liev Schreiber as former Globe editor Marty Baron, Michael Keaton as Spotlight team editor Walter Robinson, Mark Ruffalo as reporter Michael Rezendes, Rachel McAdams as reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, Brian d’Arcy James as reporter Matt Carroll, and Maureen Keiller as former Globe columnist Eileen McNamara.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By MICHELLE SAHN (Patch Staff)

A Catholic school basketball coach from Woodbridge has been has been charged with repeatedly performing a sex act in the presence of a 14­-year-­old girl, authorities said.

Darren Ventre, 40, of the Fords section of Woodbridge, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.

He volunteered as athletic director and as coach of the girls’ basketball team at St. Matthew the Apostle R.C. Church in Edison, according to a news release from Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Woodbridge Police Robert Hubner.

Ventre brought the girl to his home and performed the sex act on a number of occasions over an extended period, the news release said.

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NEW JERSEY
MyCentralJersey

Suzanne Russell, @SRussellMyCJ

WOODBRIDGE – A township man who is a girls basketball coach for an Edison Catholic parish is facing aggravated criminal sexual contact charges after he allegedly performed a sex act in the presence of a 14-year-old girl at his home.

Darren Ventre, 40, of the Fords section, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with allegedly repeatedly performing a sex act in the teen’s presence, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey.

Carey said Ventre is being held at Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick on $75,000 bail.

According to Carey, Ventre volunteered as athletic director and coach of the girls basketball team at St. Matthew the Apostle Parish, 81 Seymour Ave., Edison. The team included girls from the school and the parish.

Ventre allegedly brought the teenage girl to his home and performed the sex act on a number of occasions over an extended period. The investigation began after the girl told a counselor, who contacted the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency, Carey said.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Sue Epstein | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on June 05, 2015

WOODBRIDGE — The coach of the girls’ basketball team at St. Matthew the Apostle Church in Edison was charged Friday with repeatedly performing a sex act in the presence of a 14-year-old girl, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey announced.

Carey said Darren Ventre, 40, of the Fords section of Woodbridge, was arrested and charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.

The prosecutor said Ventre volunteered as athletic director as well as the girls’ basketball coach at the Catholic school.

He said Ventre was arrested and charged during an investigation by county Detective Grace Brown and Woodbridge Township police Detective Tina Small.

The investigation revealed Ventre brought the girl to his house and performed the sex act on a number of occasions over an extended period of time, Carey said.

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MINNESOTA
CNN

[with video]

(CNN)A Catholic archdiocese with a landmark legal legacy in child sexual abuse now faces criminal complaints in its handling of them.

In 1983, attorney Jeff Anderson filed a civil case of priest sexual abuse of minors against a U.S. archdiocese in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It opened a floodgate of victims who came forward with clergy sex abuse stories across the country.

On Friday, Ramsey County prosecutor John Choi leveled six counts at the archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He accused it of encouraging, causing or contributing to the sexual abuse of three victims by a priest in 2010 and 2011.

Read the criminal complaint

Each count is a “gross misdemeanor,” and each carries a maximum of one year in prison and/or a $3,000 fine. The complaint focuses on abuse by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, but it and an accompanying document say his case was just one of many that the archdiocese let slide.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Vatican and the US political establishment appear to share the same basic approach to “insiders” who abuse children sexually or who protect the abusers — “DON’T ASK ! DON’T TELL !”. This approach will change soon, just watch !!

Pope Francis will visit the USA in September. He wants to try to help elect next year a “Vatican friendly” US President and Congress and thereby solidify a “friendly” US Supreme Court majority for decades to come. The pope’s evident immediate goal is to head off a potentially catastrophic US national investigation of institutional child sexual abuse, like independent investigations already underway in Australia, Ireland, the UK, Canada and elsewhere.

The media magnified pope prefers, often with amplification by some opportunistic and fawning journalist cheerleaders, to pontificate vaguely, superficially and even at times magically and inconsistently, about subjects like the “poor” and “climate change”. He pontificates as an out of touch celibate 78 year old bachelor who got a community college equivalent certificate in chemistry over a half century ago. He then ruled for years in a purportedly mainly Catholic Argentina where few now even regularly attend Mass.

The pope had been invited to speak to the US Congress before top US leaders got to see strong evidence of the pope’s real weakness among Catholic voters, as Irish voters recently overwhelmingly proved in rejecting a key position of the pope’s on marriage. Many Catholics like the pope’s friendly and refreshing style, but the Irish have shown few will vote for the pope’s medieval positions that are mostly aimed at preserving the absolute papal monarchy.

The pope wants to avoid discussing openly in the USA how his irrational and self interested opposition to modern birth control hurts the poor and accelerates global warming by generating unaffordable and unwanted population growth. And surely the pope wants to avoid talking about still unaccountable bishops, like Cardinal George Pell and those ten US Catholic Church officials described in a recent criminal complaint in Minneapolis, who protect alleged priest child abusers, as the pope also did in Argentina, and in effect is still doing as pope from many indications.

Unfortunately for the pope, there are clear, disturbing and public parallels between (A) his troubling disregard, evident when promoting Pell last year to the No.3 Vatican position, of credible allegations about Pell relating to serious child sex abuse cover-up and even worse actions, and the pope’s ongoing avoidance mostly of the worldwide priest child sex abuse scandal, just shown again in the Minneapolis criminal complaint covering at least ten senior Church officials’ failures, and (B) the US Congress’ recent minimizing of child sex abuse allegations about longtime former No. 3 US government official, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (who was recently criminally indicted), and the US Congress’ (and President Barack Obama’s) inexcusable avoidance of investigating the US institutional child sex abuse epidemic, including in the US Catholic Church. The case for a US national inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse has been made by many, including here by leading Australian advocate for abuse survivors, Aletha Blayse.

Hastert’s recently disclosed scandal, and the recent disgraceful revelations about Minneapolis’ Church officials, including Fr. Kevin McDonough, brother of President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, now help explain perhaps why both the US Congress and the White House avoid even mentioning the Catholic child sex abuse scandals.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Nine men have been reported to the procurator fiscal in connection with alleged abuse at a former Catholic boarding school in the Highlands.

Prosecutors are considering the claims linked to Fort Augustus Abbey.

The Crown Office said the reports were submitted to the fiscal in Inverness.

A spokesperson said: “The procurator fiscal has received reports concerning nine men in relation to incidents alleged to have occurred between September 1967 and December 1992.”

The statement added: “The reports remain under consideration.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

Als Leiter des Canisius-Kollegs trat Pater Klaus Mertes 2010 eine Welle bei der Aufdeckung von sexuellem Missbrauch los. Am Sonntag war er in Regensburg.

Von Robert Werner und Stefan Aigner

„Sie hätten wir hier gebraucht“, sagt Udo Kaiser, nachdem er eine gute Stunde zugehört hat. „Warum hat man Sie nicht zu Rate gezogen?“ Kaiser ist einer jener missbrauchten Domspatzen, die das Schweigen vor fünf Jahren gebrochen haben und seitdem immer wieder auf die fehlende Aufarbeitung im Bistum Regensburg aufmerksam machen.

Pater Klaus Mertes, den Kaiser anspricht, hat dieses Schweigen ebenfalls gebrochen. Nachdem sich ehemalige Schüler 2010 gegenüber dem damaligen Leiter des Canisius-Kollegs als Opfer körperlicher, psychischer und sexueller Gewalt geoutet hatten, schrieb Mertes einen Brief an etwa 600 ehemalige Schüler der Berliner Jesuiten-Schule und trat damit eine Welle des Aufdeckens von Missbrauchsfällen an schulischen Einrichtungen in ganz Deutschland los.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

By C.W. Nevius
June 5, 2015

I’m starting to be concerned about San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. For a man of the cloth, he seems awfully fixated on sex.

It seems he can turn any topic into an examination of sex and sexual identity. On Wednesday, Cordileone was at a conference in Manhattan that was promoting the idea of conducting Mass in Latin. If you think it would be difficult to turn that into an attack on transgender men and women, you are underestimating our archbishop.

Quicker than you could say Caitlyn Jenner, who became a news sensation by adopting a female identity after living most of her life as Olympic champion Bruce Jenner, Cordileone was off.

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NEW YORK
WHEC

[with video]

By: Berkeley Brean – @whec_bbrean

A Hollywood music producer is accused of sexually abusing teenage boys in Rochester.

Police say the abuse happened inside Roy Battle’s home in the city over three and a half years from 2009 to mid 2012. But during that time, police say Battle was affiliated with a church in Chili and that his alleged victims were teenagers at the church.

Police will not release his mugshot even though we asked for it several times, but we know he was indicted on ten counts of sexual abuse in March. The district attorney’s office says he posted bail after his arraignment. That’s why police told us about Battle’s indictment now. They’re concerned there are more victims out there.

Officers want the families of those children — if they exist — to call Investigator O’Shaughnessy at (585)428-9379.

Friday, we worked to learn more about Battle. In a 2012 documentary, using the stage name “Battle Roy,” he talks about getting involved in local Rochester churches.

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SCOTLAND
Press and Journal

6 June 2015 by Jane Candlish

Nine men have been reported to the fiscal in connection with alleged abuse at a former Catholic boarding school in the Highlands.

Prosecutors are now considering the evidence submitted in relation to Fort Augustus Abbey.

The alleged offences took place between 1967 and 1992 – around the time that the school, which was run by Benedictine monks, was closed.

A number of victims came forward in the aftermath of the revelations about Jimmy Saville’s paedophile past.

The shamed broadcaster visited the school several times during his trips to the Highlands.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Donovan Vincent News reporter, Published on Fri Jun 05 2015

A Superior Court judge has ordered Ottawa to perform additional searches for RCMP documents pertaining to allegations of abuse at a residential school at Moose Factory, Ont., in the 1960s.

Ottawa lawyer Fay Brunning is acting on behalf of claimants who say they witnessed events related to the alleged severe beating of a child at the now defunct Bishop Horden Indian Residential School. Some of the claimants say they saw numerous employees or supervisors of the school subsequently fired and or criminally charged.

Brunning had argued in a factum that the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement called for Ottawa to scour its historical records for documents pertaining to the schools including “at the very least” documents about abuse.

But Brunning argued the federal government didn’t meet its legal obligations to do so. Only records kept by Libraries and Archives Canada and Indian Affairs were searched as part of the compensation process, she argued.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis “to hold it criminally accountable for its failure to protect children.” The charges are connected to 3 separate victims of sexual abuse by former Catholic priest Curtis Wehmeyer, who is currently serving a 5-year prison sentence for molesting two boys in his parish.

“It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused, but it is the archdiocese as well,” Choi said at a Friday news conference.

VIDEO – Archbishop Nienstedt’s deposition on Father Wehmeyer

In 2013, Wehmeyer was convicted on 20 felony charges for sexually abusing two minors. He’s also charged in Chippewa County, Wisconsin with second-degree sexual assault. Father Wehmeyer was defrocked by Pope Francis just this past March.

No individuals charged

The 6 gross misdemeanor charges list the archdiocese as a corporation, as Choi says there is insufficient evidence at this time to pursue criminal charges against individuals. Since the charges target the archdiocese as a whole, a conviction would result in a fine but no jail time.

‘Facts were ignored’

The charges allege church ignored warnings about Father Wehmeyer being a sexual predator, including his bunking with a child on camping trip to Big Sandy Lake in Aitkin County.

“Facts were ignored, minimized, not shared with other individuals who needed to know,” Choi said.

Investigation not finished

The investigation is ongoing and St. Paul police and the Ramsey County attorney’s office are renewing their requests for anyone with information to come forward. Statements from more than 50 witnesses and the review of more than 170,000 pages of documents over the past 20 months led to the charges announced Friday.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Timeline of charges

2013

February: The Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer is sentenced to prison for abusing two boys in 2010. He is later defrocked.

May: Minnesota Child Victims Act prompts the filing of lawsuits alleging clergy abuse, some decades old.

September: Whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger says church officials knew of Wehmeyer’s sexual misconduct.

December: Under court order, archdiocese releases names of 33 credibly accused priests.

2014

January: Ramsey County declines to charge church officials in Wehmeyer case, saying it can’t prove they violated law requiring immediate reporting of abuse allegations.

March: Ramsey district judge orders archdiocese to produce files related to credibly accused priests.

April: Archdiocese’s internal task force reports “serious shortcomings” in its handling of child sex abuse.

May: First criminal charges following new law are filed against former priest Francis Hoefgen in Dakota County.

October: Archdiocese and clergy abuse victims reach settlement, including reforms in reporting abuse.

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MINNESOTA
The Sun Daily (Malaysia)

Posted on 6 June 2015

CHICAGO: US prosecutors laid criminal charges against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis on Friday for its failure to protect children from sexual abuse at the hands of a disgraced priest.

The archdiocese in the northern state of Minnesota is one of a number of Catholic institutions which has declared bankruptcy in the wake of massive payouts to the victims of clergy sex abuse.

“We are alleging a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis over the course of decades,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement.

Choi said the church failed to respond to “numerous and repeated reports” of troubling conduct by Curtis Wehmeyer leading all the way back to when he first entered the seminary in 1997. He was defrocked in March 2015.

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MINNESOTA
Press TV (Iran)

The Catholic Church in the US city of Minneapolis faces criminal charges for turning a blind eye to reports of child abuse by a priest for years.

Prosecutors accused the church authorities of failure to protect children and act on repeated reports of the troubling conduct by Priest Curtis Wehmeyer.

The priest was convicted in 2013 of molesting two brothers and was defrocked and is currently in prison.

John Choi, a Minneapolis attorney, filed the criminal charges against the archdiocese, accusing it for failing “to protect children” from the abusive priest.

“Today we are alleging a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the course of decades,” said Choi on Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
Independent Australia

Lyn Bender

6 June 2015

‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’ doesn’t cut it for a Church that has protected itself and its priests over victims, writes Lyn Bender.

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has exposed generations of abuse that has been quietly countenanced by “good” people, and respected institutions.

The evidence given in Ballarat to the Royal Commission is excruciatingly unbearable to hear. It is blood chilling evidence of a cancerous contagion of loathsome cruelty. It is generational and passed on from priest to priest — some of whom received their own fierce initiation.

But while the abuse is of itself a horror story, the damage reaches far out into the community. The greatest injury is to the trust in those to whom many would turn in time of need. Those anointed to provide support wisdom and moral guidance. Those who betrayed trust were pronounced the guardians of Christian teachings — on love, compassion and care for the vulnerable. But the Church is also the guardian of centuries of outdated dogma that excludes and punishes. It is perhaps this contradiction that has fostered the schism of values that has institutionalised a satanic enactment of abuse and brought suffering to its children. “Suffer the little children” has been bastardised.

The lukewarm apology of the Catholic Church to the unfolding revelations of cruelty is, of itself, appalling testimony to the pervasive attitude of diminishing the harm done. With the vast lexicon of words to describe sin and transgression, those now bearing witness as church elders at the Commission can muster very little ownership of the trauma inflicted. All seems to be concentrated on saving the beast of the constructed Church. In the reverence for this incarnation of a religion, the parishioners have been forgotten.

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MINNESOTA
KFGO

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Leaders of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis say they will ”continue to cooperate” with authorities after the archdiocese was criminally charged with failure to protect children.

Ramsey County prosecutors filed six gross misdemeanor charges Friday against the archdiocese as a corporation. County Attorney John Choi says archdiocese leaders turned a blind eye to repeated misconduct by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer for years before Wehmeyer was eventually imprisoned for molesting two children.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens says the archdiocese deeply regrets the abuse suffered by Wehmeyer’s victims.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic World Report

Minneapolis, Minn., Jun 5, 2015 / 05:35 pm (CNA).- The Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese has pledged cooperation amid charges of mishandling allegations against a former priest of sexual misconduct involving children.

“We deeply regret the abuse that was suffered by the victims of Curtis Wehmeyer and are grieved for all victims of sexual abuse,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens, an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, said June 5.

“We all share the same goal: to provide safe environments for all children in our churches and in our communities,” he added.

Bishop Cozzens said the archdiocese will continue to cooperate with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

The archdiocese on Friday was served with civil and criminal complaints that it failed to protect children from former Curtis Wehmeyer. The criminal charges total six misdemeanors with a maximum fine of $3,000 each, the New York Times reports.

In 2013 Wehmeyer was convicted to five years in prison for criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography. He was convicted of abusing two boys while a pastor at a church in St. Paul, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He also faces sex crimes charges in Wisconsin.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Friday, June 5, 2015

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Judge Tim O’Malley, Director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment

I want to offer a few comments about the criminal and civil charges filed today.

We have the utmost respect for Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, his office, and the St. Paul Police Department, its investigators and Chief Tom Smith. Importantly, we equally respect the civil and criminal law processes here in Minnesota.

We all share the goal of protecting children. To that end, the Archdiocese will continue to work with the St. Paul Police Department and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, as well as our private and public sector partners, to accomplish that goal. We share County Attorney Choi’s and Chief Smith’s commitment to prevent the kind of harm caused in the Wehmeyer case from ever happening again.
As County Attorney Choi noted, facts must lead the way. Truth is in the details. We join Chief Smith in thanking those who have courageously come forward to help find that truth and, in turn, protect children. We also join the County Attorney and the Chief in encouraging anyone with information to contact the St. Paul Police Department. The more complete the information, the more likely justice will be served.

Because this is an ongoing investigation and we do not want to interfere with it, we cannot make any other comments at this time.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Friday, June 5, 2015

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Today, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was served with civil and criminal complaints, charging that the corporation failed to protect children in the 2012 case involving former priest, Curtis Wehmeyer.

We deeply regret the abuse that was suffered by the victims of Curtis Wehmeyer and are grieved for all victims of sexual abuse.

We will continue to cooperate with the Ramsey County Attorney’s office. We all share the same goal: To provide safe environments for all children in our churches and in our communities.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
June 5, 2015

Today the Ramsey County Attorney’s office filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for “failing to protect children” from an abusive priest. The charges arise from the actions of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer.

As reported by the Minneapolis Tribune:

Today we are alleging a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the course of decades, said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.

This is a historic action and involves a County Attorney who has been tentative to this point in bringing claims. As Jeff Anderson said today:

I have, in the past, been openly critical of the seeming inaction by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and John Choi in not charging the Archdiocese officials pertaining to Curtis Wehmeyer and others, and expressed frustration over a seeming lack of vigor. Today, I am praising the Ramsey County Attorney for taking this action. It is evident that it took that office a long time to carefully develop the evidence and to conduct their own independent investigation, armed with the documents disgorged in civil litigation and the depositions taken of the top officials, by interviewing witnesses and developing a body of evidence that has supported a criminal complaint against the Archdiocese as a corporation.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

Rachel Slavik

ST. PAUL (WCCO) — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis now faces criminal charges over how it handled an abusive priest.

The Ramsey County Attorney today said top church leaders failed to protect children from the Reverend Curtis Wehmeyer. He’s in prison for molesting two brothers in Minnesota and facing charges of sexually abusing a third boy in Wisconsin.

Over the last several months they’ve interviewed more than 50 witnesses specifically looking at who knew what when with complaints against Curtis Wehmeyer. Although Wehmeyer committed the crimes, prosecutors say the top church is also criminally responsible.

“Facts can’t be ignore, they can’t be dismissed, and are frankly appalling,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said.

A 43 page criminal complaint outlines Wehmeyer’s 11 years with the Catholic Church — a tenure filled with complaints of inappropriate behavior with young boys and men but no effort to stop him.

“When confronted with disturbing information about Curtis Wehmeyer, church officials time and time again turned a blind eye,” Choi said.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

MEDIA RELEASE – JUNE 5, 2015

Kevin Malone and three of his schoolmates were unsuspecting students from towns throughout Bergen County, New Jersey, when they attended Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, New Jersey, many years ago but were sexually abused either by Brother Charles B. Irwin, CFC, or Br. John B. Chaney, CFC at Bergen Catholic High School. Brother Charles B. Irwin, CFC, and Brother John B. Chaney, CFC, both are named serial pedophiles from Bergen Catholic High School

Bergen Catholic High School has re-victimized all four sexual abuse victims by foot-dragging and failing to be reasonable in settlement negotiations

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media; parents, students, and alumni of Bergen Catholic High School; and the general public of the recent re-victimization of four credible sexual abuse victims of either Br. Charles B. Irwin or Br. John B. Chaney and the foot-dragging and failure to be reasonable in settlement negotiations

When
Saturday, June 6, 2015 from 4:30 pm until 6:15 pm (Graduation at 6:00 pm)

Where
On the public sidewalk outside Bergen Catholic High School, 1030 Oradell Avenue, Oradell, New Jersey 07649

Who
Rev. Kobutsu Malone (formerly Kevin Malone), sexual abuse victim of Br. Charles B. Irwin (by telephone, from Maine); Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, former member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and sexual abuse victim of three Christian Brothers; and other members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why
Buddhist monk Rev. Kobutsu Malone, formerly known as Kevin Malone in the 1960s when he was a student at Bergen Catholic High School, was sexually abused along with many classmates by Br. Charles B. Irwin, CFC, an acknowledged serial sexual abuser, at Bergen Catholic High School. Kobutsu Malone and two of his schoolmates, sexually abused by serial sexual abuser Br. Charles B. Irwin, and one sexual abuse victim of serial sexual abuser Br. John B. Chaney at Bergen Catholic High School, are being re-victimized by Bergen Catholic High School’s foot-dragging and failing to be reasonable in settlement negotiations. Demonstrators will call on Bergen Catholic High School to do the right thing, compensate the credible victims of sexual abuse for their injuries, validate their claims and help them try to heal.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250
Rev. Kobutsu Malone, Sedgwick, Maine – 207-359-2555

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Father Ronald Mulkearns refuses to front royal commission despite presiding over Ballarat misery

by ANDREA HAMBLIN
HERALD SUN, Melbourne, Saturday JUNE 06, 2015

THE bishop who was in charge at Ballarat when some of Australia’s worst paedophiles preyed on young children has no plans to help a royal commission uncover the truth about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

Father Ronald Mulkearns was bishop while children suffered at the evil whims of Fr Gerald Ridsdale, Fr Paul Ryan and Brothers Robert Best and Edward Dowlan.

A Victorian inquiry has previously heard Fr Mulkearns could not give evidence to it because he was too ill and suffered memory loss due to a stroke.

But he may yet be called to face the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

In a statement to the Herald Sun on Friday, the commission said: “Whether Bishop Mulkearns is able to give evidence to the royal commission has not yet been determined.”

In Aireys Inlet on Friday, where he maintains a peaceful retirement in his seaside home with million-dollar views of the Great Ocean Rd, Fr Mulkearns would not comment on his condition.

The only evidence of ill-health was a packet of throat lozenges he bought from a pharmacy.

The 84-year-old appears capable; he lives independently and drives daily.

During lone walks to buy a paper and milk, he smiles and occasionally chats to passers-by.

Earlier this year, he travelled to Sydney for a celebration dinner organised by the church.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the inquiry began, Fr Mulkearns told the Herald Sun he sympathised with victims — but he would not attend the inquiry.

“I have heard the accounts of those who have suffered abuse and I recognise the pain and suffering experienced by them and their families,” he said.

“I support the royal commission.”

But asked if he would attend the hearings, he said: “No.”

His refusal to answer questions has angered victims and their advocates.

Some locals also want to know why he won’t come forward.

“Hiding only makes him look guilty,” one woman said.

Another local who knows Fr Mulkearns said the excuse of poor health was troubling.

“It turns my stomach,” the local said.

“I doubt he’s too ill to attend the royal commission.”

Fr Mulkearns has the option of providing a statement to the commission, but refused to say whether he planned to do so.

Asked if he felt a responsibility to help victims, he said: “I’m feeling all sorts of things at the moment.”

Declining to be interviewed further, he said he did not want to “interfere” with the commission’s “important work”.

Victims’ group Broken Rites said Fr Mulkearns had the power to prevent suffering at the hands of priests.

“Victims have been waiting 20 years and more to hear the truth about what was known about Ridsdale’s offending,” a spokeswoman said.

“Many children could have been saved from vile criminal acts if the church reported Ridsdale and others to the police.”

Fr Mulkearns was in charge when accused priests were moved to other parishes.

In 1971, he refused to move paedophile Monsignor John Day when Day was first accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse against boys and girls across Victoria.

Charges had been dropped, but a deputy headmaster wrote to the bishop urging him to remove Day from parishes.

The bishop replied: “Any such move would be tantamount to a public declaration that I consider him guilty.”

Day had been subjected to “very great embarrassment”, the bishop wrote.

He was also accused of destroying church documents from his time at Ballarat.

According to minutes shown to the inquiry last month, Fr Mulkearns moved Ridsdale to another parish.

andrea.hamblin@news.com.au

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MINNESOTA
Ramsey County Attorney’s Office

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis criminally charged with multiple counts of failing to protect children

— Criminal Complaint: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis 6.5.15.pdf
— Civil Petition: Archdiocese Petition 6.5.15.pdf
— RCAO Media Briefing Video: RCAO Announces Charges Against Archdiocese

County Attorney also files civil petitions to ensure justice

Saint Paul, MN – The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office (RCAO) today filed criminal charges and a civil petition against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to hold it criminally accountable for its failure to protect children and seek legal remedies to prevent such failures from ever happening again. These charges are in connection with three separate victims of sexual abuse by former Catholic priest Curtis Wehmeyer. 1

Statement from Ramsey County Attorney John Choi:

Today, we are alleging a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis over the course of decades. By filing criminal charges and taking civil action, we are holding the Archdiocese accountable for its failure to responsibly and meaningfully respond to numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct by Curtis Wehmeyer, beginning with his entrance into seminary in 1997 and ending with his formal dismissal as a priest in March of 2015. It was not only Curtis Wehmeyer who harmed children, but it was the Archdiocese as well. The Archdiocese’s failures have caused great suffering by the victims and their family and betrayed our entire community – from the many courageous clergy and laypeople whose legitimate concerns about Wehmeyer’s behavior were ignored or minimized to those Catholics and non-Catholics alike who were falsely led to believe that the Archdiocese had effective measures in place to protect children. By taking these actions, we are determined to hold the Archdiocese accountable for its crimes, achieve justice on behalf of the victims and our community, and take all necessary steps to ensure that such failures by the Archdiocese never happen again.

1 On November 8, 2012, Curtis Wehmeyer pled guilty in Ramsey County District Court to three felony counts of criminal sexual conduct with two minors and seventeen felony counts of possession of child pornography. On November 7, 2014, the Chippewa County (Wisconsin) District Attorney’s Office charged Curtis Wehmeyer with second degree sexual assault involving a third minor victim. The Wisconsin prosecution is still ongoing.

2 Today’s Criminal and Civil charges specifically seek to hold the Archdiocese accountable for its role in contributing to Curtis Wehmeyer’s victims’ need for protection or services and their delinquency or status as juvenile petty offenders:

* The criminal charges include three separate counts of Contributing to the Need for
Protection or Services (Minn. Stat. § 260C.425) and three separate counts of Contributing
to Status as a Juvenile Petty Offender or Delinquency (Minn. Stat. § 260B.425).

* The civil petition alleges the Archdiocese contributed to the need for protection or services of children (Minn. Stat. § 260C.335) related to the same conduct contained in the criminal complaint. The civil petition is brought under legal authority solely vested with a county attorney and is intended to seek legal remedies to prevent the Archdiocese from allowing this behavior to ever happen again.

The actions taken by the County Attorney are the product of an intensive 20-month investigation conducted by investigators from the Saint Paul Police Department (SPPD) and the RCAO that initially began with victims coming forward to police and an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Archdiocese’s report to police on June 20, 2012, concerning the victims of Curtis Wehmeyer. Based upon the facts uncovered in this initial phase of the investigation, a second phase of this investigation was initiated in March of 2014 with a specific focus on the Archdiocese and its handling of Curtis Wehmeyer and concerning information about him. During the second phase, investigators from the SPPD and RCAO interviewed more than 50 witnesses and obtained approximately 170,000 pages of documents from numerous sources. This investigation is still ongoing.

“Our goal throughout the process was to serve as fact finders, and that is exactly what we did. We presented a case—based on facts—that demonstrates our commitment to helping victims and holding the guilty accountable,” Saint Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith. “We will continue to investigate all allegations of misconduct, but we need the public’s help. The more people— whether victims, clergy or others—who come forward, the more we can do to protect the vulnerable and the abused.”

It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
_____________________________________________________________________________
RCAO Contact: Dennis Gerhardstein at dennis.gerhardstein@co.ramsey.mn.us or 651.600.1830
SPPD Contact: Steve Linders at steve.linders@ci.stpaul.mn.us or 651.266.5735

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MINNESTOA
Ramsey County Attorney’s Office

Related Documents for June 5, 2015 Press Event:

— Criminal Complaint: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis 6.5.15.pdf
— Civil Petition: Archdiocese Petition 6.5.15.pdf
— RCAO Media Briefing Video: RCAO Announces Charges Against Archdiocese
— RCAO Press Release: Archdiocese criminally charged with multiple counts of failing to protect children.

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