ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Pokrov

Author: Father J. Gregory Waynick
Date Published: 11/14/2015
Publication: Pokrov.org

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Deciding which situations need your personal attention, and which do not, is a constant challenge for every busy leader. However, there are two types of incidents that always deserve a leader’s hands-on involvement: sexual misconduct and financial dishonesty. How well and how quickly you respond to these kinds of emergencies is crucial, as they can cause extensive damage to vulnerable persons and to your faith group.

As a faith leader, you want to do what’s right when an accusation of sexual wrongdoing happens in your organization (or when a sexual offender becomes involved in your congregation). Whether you are a pastor or an archbishop, how can you lead well in these very demanding circumstances?

1. Recognize the emergency

When a report of sexual misconduct occurs in your faith community, alarm bells should go off immediately in your head. Push everything else to the back burner; rearrange your schedule. This is a crisis that deserves your immediate and careful attention. (Government authorities should be contacted immediately whenever a sex abuse crime is suspected.)

Make it clear to your team that you are to be informed immediately of any reports of potential misconduct. Be vigilant in listening so that you are attuned to any mention of boundary violations which might lead to sexual abuse, such as, “Mrs. Smith called to complain that [youth chaperone] Jimmy was in the locker room shower at the same time as her son at the teen conference. She said Thomas felt uncomfortable.”

2. Get involved personally

Though you may see yourself primarily as a spiritual leader, you need to get involved personally. Do not delegate away this task, even while involving your leadership team in the crisis. It is painful work, nothing easy about it, but you must roll up your sleeves and do it. As the saying goes, “Being a leader is not a part-time job.”

3. Do your own homework

Your concentrated focus is demanded in abuse cases. Do your own homework! Don’t trust off-the-cuff or uninvestigated answers of others who may be involved. Find out for yourself what really happened. While others will assist in gathering information, you yourself should review carefully the evidence to get the whole picture. (Cooperate fully with law enforcement if they are involved.)

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

The Sunday People told last week how teenager Becky Herbert was driven to the brink of suicide after being raped by her paedophile father David Manning.

Devastated Becky, now 20, said her devout Christian mother Mandy, 47, was brainwashed by her church into taking Manning back after his release from jail.

Now pastor David Hodge, 76, of the Bethany Evangelical Church in Plymouth, Devon, also wants sales assistant Becky to forgive Manning, 47, for putting her through years of sex abuse hell. We asked Mr Hodge to explain – and this is what he had to say:

PASTOR: “The Bible does teach forgiveness. As far as Rebekah (Becky) is concerned, we’ve kept in contact. I’ve seen her on a number of occasions and I think she is a silly girl. She’s venting her spleen for no apparent reason.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Spotlight’s American journalists vs. Vatileaks’s Italian journalists

The United States is now being barraged by massive media PR campaign – (that can only match the PR campaign for Pope Francis U.S. visit) – for the movie Spotlight released on November 6. More than 100 long assenting reviews by mainstream media (from the east coast to the west coast, from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, and still counting) on Spotlight have been published – (which only the Vatican Billions can afford to scheme, master mind and pay for). No other movie in the history of Hollywood ever had such (a Vatican Opus Dei Plan) methodical, massive, orchestrated, organized (almost dictatorial) PR campaign for an “Oscar buzz” (God forbid Spotlight gets any Oscar nomination). (And God is not sleeping because) on November 5th – like a sudden solar eclipse over Spotlight media madness – appears Vatileaks part 2 – with two books published in Italy – showing proofs of documents detailing wealthy Vatican properties in Rome which operate as BROTHELS, seedy saunas and illicit massage parlours where gay priests pay for sex – and that the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, (CDF where Cardinal RATzinger ruled for more than 20 years during papacy of John Paul II) owns hundreds of high-value properties in central Rome, worth hundreds of millions of Euros. Those two books based on Vatileaks 1 and 2 are: Avarizia (“Avarice”), by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, and Via Crucis (released in English as “Merchants in the Temple”) by Gianluigi Nuzzi, another Italian journalist who was in Vatileaks 1 under Pope Benedict XVI. (See news compilation below).

GRAZIE Italian journalists

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CHILE
Buenos Aires Herald

SANTIAGO — Chile’s Supreme Court on Thursday formally requested that the Vatican hand over all records that Pope Francis has relied upon to defend a Chilean bishop whose alleged knowledge and cover-up of church sex abuse has provoked controversy in the South American nation.

Many politicians, parishioners, and abuse victims say that Bishop Juan Barros knew of and helped cover up abuse by Chilean priest Fernando Karadima over a period of decades.

In 2011, the Vatican sentenced Karadima to “a life of prayer and penitence” for abusing children as far back as the 1950s. A judge later determined the accusations were valid though Karadima was not prosecuted as the statute of limitations had expired.

In March, Francis appointed Barros as the bishop of Osorno, a small city in south-central Chile, provoking raucous protests both there and in the capital, Santiago.

Barros said yesterday that he had no knowledge of the alleged sexual abuses.

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

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alan Erwin
PUBLISHED
14/11/2015

A woman abused at a children’s home up to 80 years ago would have been awarded £27,500 in damages but for delays in bringing her action, a High Court judge ruled.

Una Irvine claimed she was hit with a stick with nails in it for stealing apples as part of physical and psychological cruelty endured at Nazareth Lodge in Belfast.

Despite deciding the 85-year-old was subjected to a “harsh and uncaring regime”, Mr Justice Colton dismissed her case on the grounds of being statute barred.

He held there was no discretion to the limitation period and could not identify any reasons for an “extraordinary” delay of more than half a century.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

While Hollywood and the Boston Globe would want you to believe that the new movie Spotlight is an impartial dramatization of the paper’s 2002 reporting on sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Boston, the truth is something else entirely.

As Spotlight slowly makes its way to theaters across the country, mainstream media movie reviewers are grossly distorting the truth about the Catholic Church sex abuse story.

[Just released! The new book SINS OF THE PRESS: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe’s Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)]

For example:

“The Spotlight team found that those in power knew about the abuse. That included the head of the Boston Archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard Law, who continued the pattern of moving Father John Geoghan from parish to parish despite his history of serially molesting boys.” (WBUR, 9/4/15)

Not even close. The mainstream media won’t tell you this, but the Boston Globe’s reporting routinely minimized the critical role that secular psychologists played in the entire Catholic Church abuse scandal. Time after time, trained “expert” psychologists around the country repeatedly insisted to Church leaders that abusive priests were fit to return to ministry after receiving “treatment” under their care.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

Oliver Wheaton for Metro.co.ukFriday 13 Nov 2015

The Church of England makes more money than Starbucks and even McDonald’s, according to figures revealed yesterday.

In 2013 the Church’s income was £1.41billion, whereas McDonald’s in Britain brought in £1.37billion and Starbucks’s British outlets only netted a tiny (in comparison) £399million.

So where is the Church of England getting all this money from?

Almost half comes from regular churchgoers, who each put in an average of nearly £700 a year into the collection plates, through tax-efficient donations.

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ROME
Chiesa

In the United States and in Italy the changes are most spectacular. With new “Bergoglio-style” bishops and cardinals. In Belgium, Danneels’s revenge against Ratzinger. The triumph of the St. Gallen club

by Sandro Magister

ROME, November 14, 2015 – Much more than reforming the Vatican curia and finances (to which he is applying himself more out of obligation than out of passion, with no comprehensive plan and too often relying on the wrong men and women), it is clear by now that Pope Francis wants to revolutionize the college of bishops. And he is doing so in a systematic way.

The two talks that he gave this autumn to the bishops of the United States and of Italy will certainly be numbered among those that most distinguish his pontificate from those of his predecessors.

If there were in fact two national episcopates, each more than two hundred men strong, that were putting the guidelines of Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger into practice, these were precisely the American and the Italian.

Both have had noteworthy leaders: Cardinal Francis George in the United States and Cardinal Camlllo Ruini in Italy. But while in the first case a tough team of cardinals and bishops united in vision and action had formed around George, in the second case none did.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) – Attorneys for a New Mexico diocese and its insurance companies say they are optimistic they will soon reach a resolution during mediation talks in their bankruptcy proceedings.

The Gallup Independent reports that the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 case has been winding its way through bankruptcy court for nearly two years. At a status conference Tuesday, attorneys said they believe a successful resolution might be obtained during mediation talks scheduled to take place in Phoenix Dec. 3-4.

At the conference, attorneys for the Diocese asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma to postpone any court decisions until after the mediation. Thuma agreed.

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GEORGIA
Daily Report

R. Robin McDonald, Daily Report
November 13, 2015

A Douglasville Baptist church is being sued in federal court in Atlanta over church officials’ firing of an elementary school teacher who reported that the church pastor had sexually harassed and groped her, then threatened her if she reported him.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the suit Nov. 2 after finding cause to believe that Marsha Pearson, a teacher at The King’s Way Christian School in Douglasville, had been fired illegally in retaliation for her complaints about William Wininger Sr., former pastor of The King’s Way Baptist Church, which operates the private Christian academy.

The EEOC sued the church and the school on Pearson’s behalf after church officials told EEOC lawyers they were “not interested” in engaging in an informal conciliation process that would have focused on eliminating what the EEOC described as “the unlawful employment practices” that led to Pearson’s termination, according to the civil complaint.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Leicester Mercury

A 73-year-old retired vicar has been jailed for 13 years after being found guilty of 27 sexual assault offences against four victims following a trial at Guildford Crown Court.

He was also given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

Roger Wakely, of Exeter, Devon, a former vicar of Gaulby in Leicestershire, was convicted of 25 counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 years and two counts of attempted sexual assault on a boy under the age of 16 years between the 1960s and early 1980s.

Six of the offences took place in Surrey, with the other offences taking place in London and Leicester.

Surrey Police launched an investigation in December 2013 after one of the victims came forward and reported that he had been sexually abused by Wakely between 1978 and 1981 while he was at a pupil at a school in Surrey.

Wakely was a teacher at the school and was also the school pastor. He sought out the victim by asking him to come to his office on the pretext of talking about his coursework.

Subsequent inquiries led police to identify two further victims, who were targeted by Wakely between 1964 and 1972 while he was a teacher at a school in west London.

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CANADA
CBC News

[with audio]

There is a changing of the guard at the top of the Catholic church in northeastern Ontario as Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe retires after nearly three decades as Bishop of the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie.

Bishops have a mandatory retirement age of 75. But even after he reached that birthday, Jean-Louis Plouffe says it wasn’t until his replacement was named that it sank in he’d no longer be the Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie.

“It comes in as somewhat as a ‘Ooof! This is for real now.'”

During the past 29 years, Plouffe has guided the diocese, which covers parishes in Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay and points in between.

He’s had to oversee the closing of many of those parishes, with sagging church attendance.

“This was the worst thing I had to deal with and it had to be done,” Plouffe said.

He has also had to deal with the scandal and lawsuits from victims of church sexual abuse.

Plouffe said the silver lining of that “crisis” was that he and his priests “rediscovered a deeper meaning” of what it is to serve the faithful.

“We went together through rough times,” Plouffe said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Matt Eaton and Francis Tapim

The Anglican Church will reimburse tuition fees for all students who suffered sexual abuse at their schools within the Diocese of Brisbane, which covers much of southern Queensland.

A diocese spokesman said a letter would be sent to school principals, possibly as early as today.

To date, however, all abuse complaints lodged with the diocese have concerned St Paul’s School in northern Brisbane.

The fee refund announcement came after Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane Phillip Aspinall received a letter by a woman whose brother was abused at the Anglican-run St Paul’s, requesting his tuition fees be repaid.

Dr Aspinall spoke to the woman outside the Brisbane hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which examined the conduct of school counsellor Kevin John Lynch and music teacher and convicted paedophile Gregory Robert Knight.

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CALIFORNIA
The Tidings

November 13, 2015 – J.D. Long-García

Over the last 10 years, the Office of Safeguard the Children has trained more than 300,000 adults to protect children and young people from sexual abuse.

So many adults couldn’t have been trained without dedicated volunteers, according to Joan Vienna, coordinator of the Office of Safeguard the Children.

She calculates 2,171 volunteers have assisted with training, a number that includes 593 VIRTUS facilitators, 430 trainers of Teaching Touch Safety Leadership and more than 1,150 Safeguard the Children parish chairs.

“As we learn and grow, we get better at addressing the situation,” Vienna said. “We’re training children to be their own voice.”

VIRTUS’ “Protecting God’s Children” is a three-hour training for adults that teaches basic steps for child sexual abuse protection. It is mandated for all adults who work with or around children or youth on a regular basis.

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UNITED STATES
PBS Newshour

[with video]

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: one of the year’s most acclaimed movies and the journalism behind it.

Reporters frequently don’t come off well in the movies these days. But the new film opening in many cities this weekend is built around the investigative journalism that uncovered a major scandal in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

The fallout of that report, in turn, triggered numerous other investigations and revelations in other archdioceses.

Jeffrey Brown has the story.

RACHEL MCADAMS, Actress: The numbers clearly indicate that there were senior clergy involved.

JEFFREY BROWN: It was one major institution, the hometown newspaper, taking on another, the Catholic Church.

LIEV SCHREIBER, Actor: We need to focus on the institution, not the individual priests. Practice and policy. Show me this was systemic, that it came from the top down.

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OREGON/NEW JERSEY
The Oregonian

By Bryan Denson | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on November 13, 2015

A Portland judge sentenced a 73-year-old psychologist Friday to six months of home confinement for bilking a Catholic diocese in New Jersey out of more than $100,000 for services she did not perform.

Carol Landesman of Gresham also must pay full restitution and undergo mental health treatment, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman ordered.

Landesman attended the hearing, but didn’t speak.

Federal prosecutors described her in court papers as “extremely remorseful,” with no criminal record. She has relinquished her psychologist’s license and is unlikely to reoffend, they said.

She wrote an apology full of contrition to the court and the archdiocese, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire M. Fay after Landesman’s sentencing. The letter, which was not part of the public record, “certainly persuaded me,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Saturday Paper

MIKE SECCOMBE

The coincidence could hardly be more unfortunate, but it could not have been foreseen. Back in March, on the second anniversary of his pontificate, Pope Francis announced a year to be dedicated to the major theme of his papacy, mercy.

The Year of Mercy, he announced, will begin on the day the church calls the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8.

“I am convinced,” Francis said, “that the whole church will find in this jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time.”

Here in Australia, however, the year of mercy will start not with joy but with an inquisition. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will turn its focus back on the Catholic Church, with hearings in Melbourne starting on December 7. For the third time, Cardinal George Pell will be called into the witness box.

Among the many descriptors that have been applied to Cardinal Pell, “merciful” does not feature prominently.
”
There was nothing merciful about the way the Sydney archdiocese sought to protect the church’s assets from claims by victims. Under Pell, the church’s lawyers were relentless – and successful – in their determination to establish in law a defence that says because the trusts that hold the church’s enormous wealth do not actually employ its priests, they could not be held liable for compensation for the acts of those priests.

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CHILE
Pulso

SANTIAGO (AP) — Un obispo chileno negó el viernes haber sabido sobre los abusos sexuales cometidos por el cura pederasta más infame del país.

El padre Juan Barros además aseguró el viernes que no ayudó al padre Fernando Karadima a programar un viaje a Francia.

Karadima declaró en un tribunal esta semana que Barros le ayudó a organizar el viaje con motivo del 50mo aniversario de su sacerdocio. Aseguró que mantenía “una amistad muy sincera” con Barros.

Tres de las víctimas de Karadima demandaron a la Iglesia Católica de Chile acusando a Barros y a otros funcionarios de encubrir los abusos.

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CHILE
ABC News

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTIAGO, Chile — Nov 13, 2015

A bishop who has been defended by Pope Francis from critics who accuse him of covering up for Chile’s most infamous pedophile priest said Friday that he had no knowledge of the man’s sex abuse of young boys.

Bishop Juan Barros also said he didn’t help the Rev. Fernando Karadima get a trip to France as the priest testified in court this week. Karadima said that Barros helped him get the trip for the 50th anniversary of his priesthood and that he had a “very sincere friendship” with the bishop.

“I had nothing to do with the trip. I only helped him to enroll to officiate Mass at the Lourdes grotto,” Barro said about the Catholic shrine in France.

He also denied knowing about Karadima’s crimes. “I participated in the (El Bosque) parish for years, but as I’ve said before, just because I participated, it doesn’t mean I was witness to everything that happened there,” Barros said.

Karadima led the parish of El Bosque in Santiago for nearly six decades before the abuse allegations came to light in April 2010. Two months later, the then archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, forwarded the allegations to the Vatican amid an eruption of abuse cases globally.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 13, 2015

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

Three priests have ‘cleared’ a fellow priest of sexually abusing a child. What a sham.

[NJ.com]

Few should have faith in these secretive, biased, internal Catholic church abuse processes. We certainly do not.

We hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered abuse by Msgr. Raymond L. Cole or cover ups by Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski will come forward, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

It’s crucial that people report what they know or suspect about abuse or cover ups to the independent professionals in law enforcement, not the self-serving bureaucrats in church offices.

It’s also crucial that New Jersey lawmakers reform or repeal the state’s archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations so that cases like this can be heard in the open, fair secular justice system.

Finally, we’re especially worried that Msgr. Cole will apparently work among Hispanic Catholics, where we believe kids are even more vulnerable to child molesters. We urge parents to be careful with their children and not allow them to be alone around Msgr. Cole.

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OREGON
Herald and News

By STEPHEN FLOYD H&N Staff Reporter

A local pastor accused of sexually abusing a congregation member has been scheduled to stand trial next month, according to court records.

Larry Marshall Murrell, 63, is scheduled for a jury trial Dec. 9 before Judge Dan Bunch for second-degree sexual abuse and third-degree sexual abuse (two counts).

He was arrested Oct. 7 after allegedly forcing “deviate sexual intercourse” on the victim, an adult female, in February.

Murrell served for a number of years as reverend of the House of Prayer for All Nations church on Vine Street. When arraigned Oct. 8, Murrell was directed to have no contact with members of his congregation pending the outcome of his charges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Leader

A CHARITY is to play a vital part in a new independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in the UK.

Stepping Stones North Wales, based in Wrexham, has been offering counselling and specialist support to adult victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse for 30 years.

The charity is the only organisation to offer this dedicated service across the region as well as being the only one invited to take part in this new initiative.

It works closely with the Ministry of Justice, police forces, local authorities and other public sector organisations in supporting victims, many of whom suffer huge problems as they enter into adult life and beyond.

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NEW JERSEY
MyCentralJersey

MILLSTONE BOROUGH – A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a child in South Amboy in the late 1970s has been found not guilty by an internal church tribunal, Diocese of Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski said Friday.

Monsignor Raymond Cole was suspended from his duties as pastor of the St. Joseph Parish in this tiny Somerset County borough in 2013 as a result of the allegation.

The accusation had been forwarded to the diocese by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, which declined to pursue criminal charges because the statute of limitations for such a crime had expired.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

[letter from Bishop Bootkoski]

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on November 13, 2015

Msgr. Raymond Cole, the former pastor of St. Joseph Church in Hillsborough, has been cleared of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s.

A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1970s has been found not guilty by a church tribunal, clearing the way for his return to ministry after a two-year suspension, Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski announced Friday.

Msgr. Raymond L. Cole, 72, was removed as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Hillsborough in October 2013, when the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office alerted the diocese to the sexual abuse claim.

At the time, Bootkoski said canon law required a priest’s suspension when an allegation had been “deemed to have a semblance of truth.” The claim dates to the late 1970s, when Cole served as an associate pastor at St. Mary Parish in South Amboy.

In a letter to parishioners of the Hillsborough church, Bootkoski wrote that the tribunal, composed of three priests from outside the Diocese of Metuchen, cleared Cole after conducting a church trial. The priests are expert in canon law and experienced in the church’s judicial process, the bishop wrote.

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CHILE
Reuters

Chile’s Supreme Court on Thursday formally requested that the Vatican hand over all records that Pope Francis has relied upon to defend a Chilean bishop whose alleged knowledge and cover-up of church sex abuse has provoked controversy in the South American nation.

Many politicians, parishioners, and abuse victims say that Bishop Juan Barros knew of and helped cover up abuse by Chilean priest Fernando Karadima over a period of decades.

In 2011, the Vatican sentenced Karadima to “a life of prayer and penitence” for abusing children as far back as the 1950s. A judge later determined the accusations were valid though Karadima was not prosecuted as the statute of limitations had expired.

In March, Francis appointed Barros as the bishop of Osorno, a small city in south-central Chile, provoking raucous protests both there and in the capital, Santiago.

In the face of strong dissent among many Chileans, Francis has repeatedly defended the appointment, saying the accusations against Barros are unfounded.

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CHILE
Zeit

Von Julius Müller-Meiningen

Als Papst Franziskus auf seiner USA-Reise Ende September nach Philadelphia fuhr, suchte Juan Carlos Cruz lieber das Weite. Cruz, 51, stammt aus Santiago de Chile, er arbeitet in Philadelphia als Leiter der Kommunikationsabteilung eines großen Chemiekonzerns. Cruz flog zu einer Familienfeier in die Heimat, er war nicht traurig, dass er deshalb den Papst verpasste, im Gegenteil: Franziskus, der in der ganzen Welt als mutiger Reformer gefeiert wird, steht in den Augen von Juan Carlos Cruz für Stillstand und Vertuschung.

Am 10. Januar dieses Jahres nominierte der Papst den neuen Bischof von Osorno in Chile, Juan Barros, 59, einen Zögling von Fernando Karadima. 26 Jahre lang leitete der heute 85-jährige Karadima die Pfarrgemeinde im Nobelviertel El Bosque von Santiago und belobigte in seinen Predigten Chiles Ex-Diktator Augusto Pinochet. Aber vor allem missbrauchte er nachweislich Minderjährige und errichtete eine Schreckensherrschaft aus Selbstverherrlichung, Psychodruck und Vergewaltigung. Aus seinem Umfeld kommen nicht nur Dutzende Priester, sondern auch vier in Chile amtierende Bischöfe, darunter der jüngst von Franziskus berufene Barros. “Er war dabei, als Karadima mich berührte”, sagt Juan Carlos Cruz, der nach seiner Aussage als 17-Jähriger eines von Karadimas Opfern im Priesterseminar war. “Er küsste Karadima. Ich sah, wie er abscheuliche Dinge tat.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
NDR

[Janssen case: Wounded amazement in Hildesheim.]

von Florian Breitmeier

Irgendwann im Sommer 2015 muss es passiert sein. Es muss etwas zerbrochen sein zwischen den Bistumsverantwortlichen und dem Betroffenen, sonst hätte der Fall wohl nicht diese Wendung genommen. Als am vergangenen Sonntag das Hirtenwort von Bischof Norbert Trelle in den Gottesdiensten verlesen wurde, schämten sich viele Gläubige ihrer Tränen nicht. Verletzungen allenthalben.

Die Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den verstorbenen Bischof Heinrich Maria Janssen haben auf neue Weise alte Wunden aufgerissen. Der Schock sitzt tief. Es herrscht verwundetes Staunen im Bistum Hildesheim. Verwundet muss sich der Betroffene fühlen. Nach Jahrzehnten des Schweigens suchte er das Gespräch. In Leserbriefen und im Internet wird ihm nun mehr oder weniger offen unterstellt, unglaubwürdig und geldgierig zu sein.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Nov. 9, 2015

Diocese of Gallup’s case begins its third year

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

ALBUQUERQUE – As the Diocese of Gallup begins its third year in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week, the diocese’s legal fees and expenses now exceed $3.2 million.

Attorneys, accountants and insurance researchers submitted quarterly billing statements totaling $542,211.27 for the three-month period of July 1 through Sept. 30, adding up to a total current cost of $3,247,076.58. The bulk of the fees and expenses were billed by the law firm that represents the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants and by the diocese’s lead bankruptcy law firm.

However, the billing statements do not represent a completely accurate total of the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy expenses. They do not include the $45,000 the diocese already paid Tucson Realty & Trust Co. of Arizona and Accelerated Marketing Group of California to conduct two property auctions in September. In addition, the statements do not include any payments the diocese made to law firms or other professionals prior to filing its Chapter 11 petition on Nov. 12, 2013.

Unless otherwise stated, the following recent quarterly billing figures and total fees and expenses will not be paid until the Gallup Diocese has an approved plan of reorganization:

* Quarles & Brady LLP: The Diocese of Gallup’s lead bankruptcy law firm from Tucson submitted a quarterly statement for $216,702.52 for legal fees and expenses. The firm’s total post-petition legal bill is now at $1,814,312.90.

* Keegan, Linscott & Kenon P.C.: This Tucson accounting firm has been overseeing the Gallup Diocese’s finance office for more than two years. The firm submitted a quarterly statement for $45,497.86 in fees and expenses. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $412,789.46.

* Stelzner, Winter, Warburton, Flores, Sanchez & Dawes P.A.: The diocese’s special counsel law firm from Albuquerque billed $231.52 in fees this quarter. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $12,131.34.

* Insurance Archaeology Group: This insurance research company submitted a quarterly statement for $890 in fees and expenses. To date the company has billed the Gallup Diocese $48,819, and thus far the diocese has paid Insurance Archaeology Group $47,929.

* Estate Valuation Consultants Inc.: This real estate appraisal company did not submit a statement for this quarter. To date the company has billed the diocese $22,100 and has received payment for that amount.

* Michael P. Murphy: Murphy was appointed as the “unknown claims representative” to represent any new clergy sex abuse victims who might come forward in the future. Murphy has not submitted any fees or expenses yet, but his flat fee of $50,000 will be due and payable upon the effective date of any plan of reorganization.

* Walker & Associates P.C.: The diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy law firm did not submit a statement for this quarter. To date, the firm has billed $18,062.40 in post-petition fees and expenses.

* Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP: This California law firm is the legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the interests of clergy sex abuse survivors who have filed claims against the diocese in the bankruptcy case. Although the committee represents abuse claimants, the Diocese of Gallup is responsible for those legal fees. The law firm submitted a quarterly statement for $278,889.37 in fees and expenses. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now $918,861.48.

The next court hearing in the bankruptcy case will be held Tuesday. Matters expected to be discussed include the third mediation session scheduled for Dec. 3-4, possible legal action against the diocese’s insurance companies, and motions to lift the automatic stay to allow certain clergy sex abuse claims to proceed to state court.

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

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Nov. 12, 2015

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

ALBUQUERQUE – With U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma publicly weighing the options in the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 case, the diocese is headed back to mediation talks for the third time in six months.

But predictions about the possible success of that mediation vary greatly depending on which party is making the prediction.

In a status conference Tuesday, attorneys for the Gallup Diocese and its insurance companies expressed optimism that a successful resolution might be obtained during the mediation talks scheduled to take place in Phoenix Dec. 3-4.

However, attorneys representing clergy sex abuse claimants expressed skepticism about the chances for success. That skepticism appears centered on continued disputes over insurance coverage.

Startling defense

“It’s not resolved, but there is progress being made and certainly the goal is to put forth a package to the claimants that gives an opportunity to bring some peace and some resolution to those claims, sooner rather than later,” Thomas D. Walker, an attorney for the diocese, told Thuma.

Attorney Edward A. Mazel represents the New Mexico Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association. The association provides claims coverage to the Gallup Diocese for the four liability insurance policies the diocese reportedly had from 1965 to 1977 with the Home Insurance Company, which is now insolvent. According to Mazel, copies of three of those policies have not been located.

Although Mazel said he was also optimistic about the progress of negotiations between the parties, he submitted a statement to the court Monday that outlined a number of legal defenses that might be asserted if disputes about how much money the insurance companies should contribute can’t be resolved in mediation.

Mazel introduced a particularly startling defense based on a Home Insurance Company policy that “specifically excludes coverage for bodily injury that is either expected or intended by the insured.” Citing a clergy sex abuse lawsuit that stated the Diocese of Gallup “knew or should have known” one particular priest perpetrator had a propensity to sexually abuse children, Mazel asserted there would be no insurance coverage for the Gallup Diocese “because the injury would be expected or intended as a result” of the priest’s alleged misconduct.

‘List of horrors’

Ilan D. Scharf, an attorney for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants, took issue with Mazel’s “list of horrors” of insurance company defenses. Scharf said he was concerned that Mazel’s statement was a signal that the insurance companies were “drawing lines in the sand” and hardening their positions before the mediation talks.

“We’d agree that a negotiated settlement is in everybody’s best interest,” Scharf said, “but it also has to be the appropriate negotiated settlement, not just negotiated settlement for its own sake.”

Texas attorney Donald Kidd, who along with attorney Richard Fass represents more than a dozen abuse claimants, said the two previous mediation sessions and subsequent discussions with the Diocese of Gallup and its insurance companies haven’t given him any optimism.

“That has not manifested itself in any type of offer that is close to what the value of the claims are,” Kidd said. He complained that money that might be currently offered by the New Mexico Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association or Catholic Mutual is “burdened by the millions of dollars of attorneys’ fees and expenses” for the Diocese of Gallup, and he described a current offer by Catholic Mutual as “paltry.”

Kidd recently filed a motion for relief from the automatic stay in bankruptcy court that prevents litigation against the Gallup Diocese from moving forward. Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor, who represents 18 abuse claimants, had filed earlier motions for relief from the automatic stay and requested two cases be remanded back to state court in Arizona where they could proceed to trial.

In his motion, Kidd requested the automatic stay be lifted on behalf of 15 claimants, six of whom claim they were sexually abused by John Boland, a former longtime Gallup priest who is believed to be currently living in Ireland. One of Pastor’s automatic stay motions concerns another living priest, Raul Sanchez, a former diocesan chancellor whom Pastor describes as being a fugitive in Mexico.

‘Last best hope’

Although attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup and the insurance companies requested Thuma postpone any court decisions or actions until after the mediation Dec. 3-4, Pastor urged the judge to stop further delays in the case.

“What I would ask the court do is to put a backstop on this, hold their feet to the fire,” Pastor argued. “We need resolution. We don’t need another mediation where we hear the same things that we heard on day one, day two, day three and day four.”

Thuma, however, agreed to put everything on hold until after the mediation, an event he referred to as “our last best hope to settle.”

In his order, Thuma outlined what will take place if the mediation talks fail. Responses to Kidd’s motion will then be due Dec. 14, and a preliminary hearing on the matter will be held on Dec. 16. Also during that hearing, a status conference on Pastor’s stay relief motions will be held.

In addition, Thuma, who frequently verbalizes his own indecision about the case, stated he will seek input from the various attorneys about how the case should proceed if mediation fails, including whether the automatic stay should be lifted, for what claims the stay should be lifted, and whether legal action over insurance coverage should occur.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
USCCB

October 26, 2015

[Note: BishopAccountability.org obtained this USCCB document from several parish websites.]

Spotlight, a movie on the Boston Globe articles on child sexual abuse in the Church, debuted at the Venice Film Festival in September. It is set for a limited U.S. release Nov. 6, followed by a nationwide release Nov. 20. The drama from Open Roads Films is directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy and features several notable actors and actresses: Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo, Stanley Tucci and John Slattery.

In our experience, Catholics and others will take the movie as proof of what is happening today, not what happened in the past. Do not let past events discourage you. This is an opportunity to raise the awareness of all that has been done to prevent child sexual abuse in the Church.

There is much good news to share.

General Thoughts:

1. Acknowledge the reality of the sexual abuse scandal and the changes the Church has made in response

2. Acknowledge the role victims/survivors and journalists played in bringing this issue forward for action

3. Be open and transparent about any abuse in the diocese

4. Make sincere apologies to victims/survivors and families

5. Demonstrate the lessons learned; refer to Annual Reports, Nature and Scope and Causes and Context study

6. Remain vigilant; this is a reminder we cannot afford to become complacent

7. Use this as a reminder that the Church teaches that all human life is precious and is to be protected at all levels

Specifically:

The Church has done many things since the sexual abuse scandal first broke . . .

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Nov 13, 2015

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:13-15

This gospel passage is perhaps one of the most sobering illustrations of how we can spend a lot of time with Jesus and still overlook the intrinsic value of those who are greatly valued and loved by Him. It’s not because the disciples didn’t care about these children, it appears that they acted on a belief that the little ones interrupting Jesus were less important than the adults who were in the audience. The response of Jesus to their rebukes could not have communicated any clearer how much he values those who others overlook or disregard. Jesus demonstrates this same beautiful love over and over again in scripture. Our reluctance to acknowledge and embrace this truth not only hurts others, but it also exposes our failure to grasp the heart of the gospel message.

These same dynamics play out in faith communities whenever we fail to respond to child sexual abuse disclosures in a manner that demonstrates love and value to victims. Too often those who have been traumatized find themselves being rebuked and accused of interrupting the work of Jesus. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Rebuke was the method the disciples used in attempting to keep the children away from Jesus. To rebuke means to criticize sharply or to turn back or keep down. When church leaders, or anyone else for that matter, criticize, turn away, or keep down abuse survivors, they are attempting to keep these brave souls away from the unconditional love of Jesus. Though such rebuke takes various forms, it is often justified by piously placing greater value upon the work of the church or its leaders than those who have been abused and traumatized. I have stopped counting the number of times survivors have shared with me about how they were rebuked after stepping out of the shadows to disclose being abused. In fact, many have experienced what I would call a progression of rebuke. The progression usually begins with a gentle admonishment not to talk too much about it, coupled with a rationale that the admonishment is for the “well being” of the survivor. When a gentle admonishment fails to do the trick, the next step is often a strongly worded admonishment intended to intimidate the survivor into silence. If the strongly worded admonishment doesn’t work, the abuse survivor will often be criticized and shamed by those who demand their silence. When all else fails, leaders may attempt to marginalize or ostracize the survivor hoping they will simply walk away into a silent abyss. The few who survive this toxic process find themselves re-traumatized and faced with the realization that the church is not the place to see Jesus or experience his love. What a grave tragedy on so many levels.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Christopher White November 13

A new film serves as a painful reminder of one of the darkest periods in Catholic Church history, where more than 200 priests and religious were accused of abusing minors and were reassigned in reshuffled in a cover-up.

“Spotlight,” which opened in theaters last weekend, chronicles the Boston Globe’s groundbreaking coverage of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston that would go on to win the paper a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. The film’s retelling of these events may very win its filmmakers Academy Awards.

Reflecting on the 10-year anniversary of the Globe’s revelations, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said that “the media helped make our Church safer for children by raising up the issue of clergy sexual abuse and forcing us to deal with it.” (Editor’s note: The Globe’s editor at the time was Martin Baron, now executive editor of The Washington Post) …

After his meeting in Philadelphia David Clohessy, spokesman for the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priest (SNAP) said, “Is a child anywhere on Earth safer now that a pope, for maybe the seventh or eighth time or ninth time, has briefly chatted with abuse victims? No.”

But as “Spotlight” reminds us, perhaps one of the greatest lessons the church has learned is that in order for the institution to understand the full devastation of the clergy abuse crisis, we must listen to the stories of those most affected, tell them, and ultimately, repent and reform. Francis knows that PR efforts will do the church no favors. Only a change in practice will ensure that predatory priests are a thing of the past.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, November 13, 2015

For more information: Melanie Jula Sakoda (925-708-6175 cell, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com), Cappy Larson (415-637-2006, cappy@rlarson.com), David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Victims want defrocked cleric supervised & kept off church payrolls
As archbishop, he was the highest ranking Orthodox cleric in Canada
But he was found guilty of abusing a young boy in his care & went to prison
He’s been demoted to “monk,” but could still be employed in local parishes
SNAP to OCA bishops: “Warn your flock about him & promise you won’t hire him”

A victims’ group is urging Orthodox officials to make sure that an ex-archbishop who was convicted of molesting a child will not ever work in a North American church again.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to the synod of bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the head of a Canadian monastery begging them to apply the denomination’s guidelines on sex offenders to Seraphim Storheim.

SNAP believes that an accountability plan should be in place for the former archbishop both at his monastery and at any OCA parish that he visits.

[Orthodox Church in America]

From 1990 until his suspension in 2010, Storheim was the highest ranking OCA cleric in Canada. However, following his conviction for sexually assaulting a young boy under his care, the former archbishop was defrocked by his synod last month.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 13, 2015

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

In what may be the most terse and least compassionate church announcement of this sort we’ve ever seen, Detroit Catholic officials admit that a local priest is “credibly accused” of child sex crimes. Shame on Archbishop Allen Vigneron for his self-serving statement about Fr. Thomas J. Cain.

[Detroit archdiocese]

Instead of minimizing Fr. Cain’s crimes or distancing himself from them, Vigneron should be aggressively seeking out his victims and working hard to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about every each of the 64 publicly accused Detroit predator priests (See BishopAccountability.org).

(The real number of child molesting clerics in the Detroit area, we firmly believe, is at least twice that high.)

Vignernon should be exposing every one of them, living or dead, and every church employee who ignored or concealed their crimes. And he should do so now, not in a piecemeal fashion every time a victim, witness or whistleblower sufficiently pressures him to name one more predator. He should be prodding anyone with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes or cover ups to call police and prosecutors. (Even if the predator is deceased, sometimes those who destroyed evidence, intimidated victims, threatened witnesses, discredited whistleblowers or helped a criminal evade apprehension can be charged.)

Pope Francis has said “Everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors and to open pathways of reconciliation and healing for those who were abused.” Is a cold, tiny announcement like this one about Fr. Cain honoring Francis’ pledge? We don’t think so.

We beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Cain to come forward, get help, expose wrongdoers, deter cover ups and start healing. We urge them to contact independent sources of help, not biased, self-serving church officials. And we ask Detroit Catholics to prod Vigneron to personally visit every parish where Fr. Cain worked, seeking out and helping others who may still be suffering in shame, silence and self-blame because of these horrific crimes.

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CHILE
Andina

[A Chilean court has approved sending a letter to the Vatican asking Pope Francis to deliver background information on a possible exculpatry judgment of a Chilean bishop accused to covering up a case of child abuse.]

10:32. Santiago, nov. 13. La Justicia chilena aprobó el envío de un exhorto al Vaticano en el que se pide al papa Francisco entregar antecedentes sobre un eventual juicio exculpatorio de un obispo chileno acusado de encubrir un caso de pederastia, informó este viernes una fuente judicial.

En el exhorto se solicita que se “remita copia íntegra y fidedigna” de los antecedentes que se posean respecto a una investigación en contra del obispo chileno Juan Barros que fue desestimada, según le dijo el Papa Francisco a un grupo de feligreses, señala un informe del Fiscal de la Corte Suprema Juan Escobar.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Alyssa Rosenberg November 13

This post discusses the plot of “Spotlight” in detail.

In a conventional Hollywood movie, “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy’s excellent new movie about the Boston Globe team that conducted the paper’s reporting on clerical sexual abuse, would end in a triumphant fashion.

After a period of intense reporting that involved a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, hours cultivating abuse victims who were skittish after years of being ignored and confrontations with powerful figures in Boston religious and legal communities, Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James) have finally published a damning story about the hierarchy’s complicity in protecting abusive priests and concealing their depredations. But rather than showing us a montage of the triumphant results of their work, priests being arrested and Cardinal Bernard Law being recalled to the Vatican, “Spotlight” returns to the cramped offices the film’s titular team shares. And their phones begin to ring, the lines flooding with calls from abuse victims coming forward to share their stories and revealing that the magnitude of the problem is even greater than the reporters had reckoned with.

That scene, and the choice to end on it, embody what makes “Spotlight” distinct as a movie both about journalism and about sexual assault. McCarthy is willing to tell a story where reporting is the beginning of a long process of reform, rather than the decisive stroke that ends an injustice. And it’s a reckoning with not just the behavior of individual priests, but the culture of a church and a city that enabled them to attack children.

There have been lots of fictional Bostons, but “Spotlight” is the rare film with a sense of the city’s clannishness. And McCarthy is finely attuned to the ways in which Boston’s tribal culture both made victims vulnerable and could be used to discredit anyone who dared to challenge its institutions and priorities.

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UNITED STATES
Tribble Agency

Ariel Lynch 14:35 | Friday, Nov 13, 2015

The film’s story and perspective match that sentiment throughout, focusing on the dismantling of first amendment roadblocks for the victims of sexual abuse put in place by a religious institution that most – legislative branch included – would not (and did not) think twice about challenging.

Having nailed that scene – and its attendant whiff of economic insecurity – with anthropological care, McCarthy proceeds to get everything else uncannily right, from the overstarched shirts and pleated khakis worn by the Globe’s male reporters to the drudgery of looking up old clips and cranking microfilm.

The problem of pedophiles within the priesthood was not new or unique to Boston and had been written about elsewhere; it was well-known in law enforcement and among networks of abuse survivors. Consistently gripping, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight tells the true story of an investigation by the Boston Globe newspaper that had far-ranging implications.

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UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Inquirer

STEVEN REA, INQUIRER MOVIE COLUMNIST AND CRITIC
POSTED: Friday, November 13, 2015

Church spires jut from the Boston neighborhoods in Spotlight, one of the great movies about journalism, and one of the great movies of our time, period.

The stained glass and weathered stone of these sanctuaries – many of them part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston – often front onto parks and playgrounds full of children.

Inside some of those same churches, for decades, priests preyed on children, molesting them, abusing them, and getting away with it, despite the complaints of family members, despite the knowledge of the archdiocese, the cardinals, the bishops.

In a series of stories that began in January 2002, the Boston Globe’s investigative unit, dubbed Spotlight, exposed scores of pedophile clergymen – and the systemic coverup by an institution whose wealth and power reached into every corner of the city.

With dogged realism – and with a screenplay as clear and compelling as it is complex – Spotlight goes back to the early 2000s and tracks how the publication of this monumental series came to be. Directed by Tom McCarthy from a screenplay by McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight is the best kind of procedural drama, unfolding as facts are uncovered, leads pursued, as witnesses and victims are interviewed (often with great reluctance), as lawyers, politicians, and public relations men try to negotiate, manipulate, manage the truth.

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IRELAND
The Pilot (US)

11/12/2015, BY MICHAEL KELLY

DUBLIN (CNS) — Former Irish President Mary McAleese said her devotion to her Catholic faith remains strong, despite public disputes with the church over issues such as same-sex marriage and the ban on female priests.

In an exclusive interview with The Irish Catholic newspaper, her first major interview since she stepped down as president almost four years ago, she also praised Pope Francis for what she sees as “welcoming debate and allowing the church to breathe.”

“I like the fact that Pope Francis welcomes debate. That is by far the greatest legacy he has given the church,” she said.

McAleese has spent much of her time since retirement studying canon law. In the second half of 2016, she plans to return to Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University to complete her doctoral thesis, “The Christening Contract,” which examines what the 1983 Code of Canon Law says about the rights of and obligations to children.

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MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct 27, 2014

For more information contact:
Joe Kohn, Director of Public Relations
Kohn.Joseph@aod.org
313-237-5943

Father Thomas J. Cain. (1919-1984). Ordained in 1945. Decades after his death, allegations of sexual abuse of minors were brought forward to the Archdiocesan Board of Review, considered, and are believed to be credible.

Parish assignments included serving as an associate pastor at St. Vincent de Paul, Pontiac; St. Mary, Monroe; St. Louis, Mt. Clemens; St. Patrick, Detroit; Christ the King, Detroit; and as pastor of St. Maurice, Livonia from 1960- 1984.

The Archdiocese of Detroit places no deadlines or time limits on reporting the sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons, and other personnel and/or to speak to the Victim Assistance Coordinator c/o (866) 343-8055 or vac@aod.org.

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of a former St Stanislaus’ College priest accused of historic indecent and sexual assaults in Bathurst.

Glenn Michael Humphreys, 62, is already serving time in a Western Australia jail on four charges of molesting a 15-year-old boy in Perth in the 1980s.

He was recently denied parole and was not in Bathurst Local Court when magistrate Michael Allen issued the warrant for his arrest on further charges.

Humphreys is accused of seven counts of indecent assault against a male and a further seven charges of sexual assault (category 4) indecent act against a person aged over 14 but under 16.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Caroline Wyatt
Religious affairs correspondent

The latest revelations of dirty dealings swirling around the Vatican have not only shown that the price of sainthood is high (around £350,000), but also the price that Pope Francis is paying for his attempts to reform Roman Catholic HQ.

As the CEO of a global organisation, whose mission statement is spreading the word of God and whose bottom line is saving souls, Pope Francis has called often for a “poor Church” that serves the poor.

His problem, though, is that the Church is not poor.

And in the past, the temptation to abuse the Vatican’s coffers – and money donated by ordinary Catholics – has been too much for some of the Church’s most senior servants to resist, with such dealings obscured until recently by a veil of secrecy.

Three years after the original “Vatileaks”, in which the revelations of the then Pope Benedict’s butler shook the Vatican, two new books based on leaked documents (Avarice by Emanuele Fittipaldi and Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi, of Vatileaks fame) created headlines over the past week.

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LOUISIANA
The New Orleans Advocate

BY JOHN SIMERMAN| JSIMERMAN@THEADVOCATE.COM
Nov. 12, 2015

To the 28-year-old Mississippi man who took the witness stand Thursday in an Orleans Parish courtroom, the Rev. Kevin Boyd Sr. stood tall.

Boyd was his godfather, spiritual lodestar and surrogate father, he said, referring to the founder of The Church at New Orleans by his affectionate nickname, “Pop.”

And then the man, now a father himself, stood up and identified Boyd, 56, as the one who repeatedly molested him starting when he was 11 or 12 and continuing into his teens.

Often, he said, the abuse happened in Boyd’s home or in his church office on Chef Menteur Highway, where the pastor would lay out pillows or clean towels and remove the boy’s clothing to prepare for what became a ritual act.

The man, then the church drummer, said Boyd would sexually molest him while his mother — a close friend of Boyd’s from childhood — worked the night shift at Wal-Mart.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

The group set up to oversee the Catholic Church’s response to a Royal Commission has raised concerns about Hunter clergy abuse trials being moved to Sydney to the detriment of victims.

The Truth Justice and Healing Council was appointed by the Catholic Church to oversee its response to the child sexual abuse Royal Commission.

In its submission to an issues paper on experiences relating to police and prosecution responses, the council raises concerns about problems facing abuse survivors in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese.

It said trial processes can be challenging for survivors, and notes the extra stress relating to trials which are shifted to Sydney.

The council said the enormous strain felt by survivors is amplified when they are geographically isolated at the time they are required to give evidence.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 13, 2015

Jorge Branco
Journalist

A former Brisbane private school headmaster has admitted he was told a school counsellor was sharing information about the size of boys’ penises more than a year before the counsellor was revealed as a paedophile.

Ex St Paul’s School headmaster Gilbert Case told the child sex abuse royal commission in Brisbane on Friday he didn’t consider the complaints “very alarming”.

Mr Case admitted that in September 1995 two boys, identified during the inquiry as BSB and BRC, raised concerns about adequacy of penis size stemming from meetings with notorious paedophile Kevin John Lynch.

“But this was not expressed in any way which could have pointed to the suggestion that the boys’ sexual organs had been sighted by Mr Lynch,” Mr Case wrote to lawyers representing the school and its insurers the following year.

Counsel assisting David Lloyd questioned whether Mr Case thought it was OK for a counsellor to be sharing between students concerns about the adequacy of their penis size.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has begun giving evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission, apologising unreservedly to survivors.

The former Archbishop of Brisbane made the statement after taking the stand and said he deeply regretted that he didn’t press harder to have complaints investigated more thoroughly.

“It’s clear to me now that we did not do enough to help you, and actions of the diocese and the school compounded your distress and suffering,” he said in reference to St Paul’s, one of the schools examined by the inquiry, prior to being questioned.

“My apology is offered to the children, now adults, and the families of those who have been abused,” he said.

“It’s offered to all of you who have suffered great pain and disillusionment that your complaints were not dealt with from the outset as they should have been.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Joshua Robertson
Friday 13 November 2015

The headmaster of a Brisbane school did not think it “alarming” or “improper” when two students complained a school counsellor had discussed their penis sizes with the other, a commission has heard.

Former St Paul’s principal Gilbert Case gave evidence at the hearings of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse on Friday, concerning his former school. The commission has heard evidence former counsellor Kevin Lynch abused boys at St Paul’s and earlier at Brisbane Grammar school over two decades before his death in 1997.

Lynch killed himself after a student wore a wire to a meeting with him where he confessed his sexual abuse. Case told the commission he had arranged to call Lynch during the meeting to check on his welfare after he confided he “could be harmed” during it.

Case said he did not know he was meeting a former St Paul’s student nor did he suspect his friend Lynch was what he now knew to be a “wholesale paedophile”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Allyson Horn and Donna Field

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has apologised to the victims of two paedophile teachers, and says it was clear he did not do enough while Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane to address sexual abuse claims.

Dr Hollingworth was facing questions at a child sex abuse inquiry about his handling of abuse claims at St Paul’s School while he was Archbishop between 1989 and 2001.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining the conduct of school counsellor Kevin John Lynch and music teacher and convicted paedophile Gregory Robert Knight.

Both worked at St Paul’s during the 1980s and 1990s.

Today is the final day the royal commission is sitting in Brisbane.

This afternoon, Dr Hollingworth said he was sorry for the boys who were molested by the teachers.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 13, 2015

This is an apology to the survivors of abuse.

The former governor-general and ex-Archbishop of Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, Dr Peter Hollingworth, was one of the final witnesses to appear in the two-week Brisbane hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse. Here is his apology.

This is an apology to the survivors of abuse. I have asked to make an apology before I give evidence to the Royal Commission. I do so, Your Honour, as an individual person and as a former archbishop. My apology is to the children, now adults, and the families of those who have been abused. It’s offered to all of you who have suffered great pain and become disillusioned that your complaints were not dealt with from the outset as they should have been.

I am appalled by the abuse you suffered at the hand of the two school staff members from St Paul’s School. I am saddened about the way these matters were dealt with during my time as archbishop.

I deeply regret that I did not press harder to have your complaints investigated more rigorously. If I had exercised stronger authority, they may have been addressed more promptly and in a better manner.

It’s clear to me now that we did not do enough to help you, and the actions of the Diocese and the school compounded your distress and suffering, and for that I am very sorry.

Over the past 12 years, I have examined my conscience over these matters and I have read and learnt a great deal more about the damage done to the lives of young people.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

AAP

FORMER governor-general Peter Hollingworth has apologised to child victims of sexual abuse and admitted he failed to protect them when he was Anglican archbishop of Brisbane.

“I am extremely sorry that the church and I failed to protect you,” Dr Hollingworth told the child sex abuse royal commission on Friday.

The former Archbishop of Brisbane made the statement after taking the stand at the Brisbane hearing and said he deeply regretted he didn’t press harder to have complaints investigated more thoroughly.

Dr Hollingworth, who resigned as governor-general in 2003 over the church’s handling of the abuse allegations, conceded if he had exercised “stronger authority”, matters may well have been addressed more promptly and effectively.

“It’s clear to me now that we did not do enough to help you, and actions of the diocese and the school compounded your distress and suffering,” he said in reference to St Paul’s, one of the schools examined by the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

[with video]

November 13, 2015

Jorge Branco
Journalist

Former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth has admitted a “massive failure” in promoting a headmaster who hired two paedophiles.

Documents tendered to the child sex abuse royal commission showed senior Anglican Church officials knew of complaints St Paul’s School headmaster Gilbert Case had failed to act on sexual abuse allegations when he was put in charge of all Anglican schools in Brisbane.

Dr Hollingworth denied knowing about the complaints but conceded the “massive failure” in the Diocese’s recruitment process in promoting Mr Case.

“We have come a long, long way and it’s been a painful journey and not least of all for me,” he insisted.

Mr Case was headmaster at St Paul’s when notorious school counsellor Kevin John Lynch and paedophile music teacher Gregory Robert Knight were employed.

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NEW MEXICO
Las Cruces Sun-News

Russell Contreras, Associated Press November 12, 2015

ALBUQUERQUE – The upcoming release of a movie detailing the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation into the church’s cover-up of clergy abuse may bring up “horrific memories” for New Mexico victims of sex abuse, Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester said.

In a recent letter to Archdiocese of Santa Fe priests and parishioners last week, Wester said that the movie “Spotlight” is a chance for the faithful to pray for abuse victims.

“The film will undoubtedly touch a raw nerve for those abused by the clergy, opening old wounds and triggering horrific memories that continue to haunt and disturb them,” Wester wrote.

However, Wester said it was up to church leadership to reach out to those who were victimized. “The Archdiocese of Santa Fe and I are resolutely committed to seeking the forgiveness of those who have been abused by Roman Catholic clergy and at the same time dedicated to the aid in the reconciliation and healing process,” he said.

New Mexico was at the center of similar scandals years before the Boston stories. The Servants of Paraclete facility, formerly known as Via Coeli in northern New Mexico, served for years as a place to treat priests accused of sexual abuse. But those priests were later assigned to parishes across New Mexico and Arizona where they continued to abuse children, according to various lawsuits.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

DAVID MURRAY THE COURIER-MAIL NOVEMBER 13, 2015

FORMER governor-general Peter Hollingworth has apologised for the Anglican church’s failure to protect children from two pedophiles at a Brisbane school and the handling of complaints when he was archbishop.

Dr Hollingworth read his lengthy prepared apology to the child abuse royal commission before being grilled about the promotion of the school principal who hired both of the pedophiles.

“I am appalled by the abuse you suffered at the hands of two school staff members from St Paul’s School,” Dr Hollingworth said.

“I am saddened about the way these matters were dealt with during my time as archbishop.

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UNITED STATES
The Denver Post

[with video]

By Lisa Kennedy
Special to The Denver Post

It was a Sunday morning after the holidays, and the Boston Globe’s Jan. 6, 2002, article on Page 1 didn’t mince words: “Since the mid-1990s, more than 130 people have come forward with horrific childhood tales about how former priest John J. Geoghan allegedly fondled or raped them during a three-decade spree through a half-dozen Greater Boston parishes.”

That was just the half of it. And, in many ways (though difficult to fathom), not the worst of it. The article — the first of roughly 600 published over the next year — went on to lay out the breadth and depth of a criminal and moral outrage both individual and institutional. As many as 1,000 children and adolescents had been molested or sexually assaulted and the Catholic Archdiocese’s most senior officials often knew about the frocked perpetrators. Priests, the newspaper uncovered, were shunted to fresh parishes where congregants were unaware of the priests’ pasts. This often led to the predators having further contact with children and teens. Under then-Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the archdiocese sought to keep the abuse a secret.

In 2003, the Globe’s dedicated investigative team, Spotlight, earned the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its tenacious inquiry into the archdiocese’s handling of decades of abuse.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Friday, November 13th, 2015

Two lawsuits filed this week against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe allege that three priests sexually abused boys at a church in Mountainair and a Catholic elementary school in Albuquerque.

The lawsuits, filed in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque on behalf of two unidentified men, bring to 49 the total number of clerical abuse suits filed by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall, most naming the archdiocese. Both suits allege negligence in hiring the priests and seek unspecified damages.

A Bernalillo County man alleged that he was sexually abused as a first-grade student at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic School by the Rev. Edward Rutowski, who was a teacher and administrator at the school, according to one lawsuit.

Rutowski was named pastor of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in 1954, according to his obituary. He died in 2004 in Albuquerque.

He was accused in two 1994 civil lawsuits of molesting two minor boys in 1967 and 1971. …

In a second lawsuit filed this week, a New Mexico native alleged that when he was an altar boy at St. Alice Church in Mountainair in the late 1960s, he was raped by two priests, Bernard Bissonnette and James Porter.

Both Bissonnette and Porter were sent to New Mexico for treatment by the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order that ran a facility in Jemez Springs. Both priests later were transferred to Mountainair, according to the lawsuit. The suit also names the religious order as a defendant.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

The church protects its children

Manhattan: In her recent Op-Ed, Marci Hamilton claims, without a shred of proof, that in the archdiocese there are likely “more ugly secrets about hundreds of yet-unnamed priests than any other diocese in the country” (“Let victims pursue their abusers,” Nov. 9). Hamilton ends her article by falsely arguing that “the bishops’ coverup continues today, especially in New York.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2002, the file of every priest going back to the early 1950s was reviewed for any allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. Every allegation was shared with the district attorneys. Under the archdiocese’s zero-tolerance policy, any priest who has had a substantiated allegation against him has been permanently removed from ministry.

As an additional safeguard, Timothy Cardinal Dolan has had an outside firm conduct a second forensic review of every priest’s file to make certain that no allegation has been overlooked.

Also in 2002, the archdiocese entered into memorandums of understanding with the district attorneys in the archdiocese on reporting all clergy sexual abuse of minor complaints. Under that agreement with law enforcement, we strongly urge anyone with an allegation of abuse to immediately contact the district attorney’s office.

In addition, whenever the archdiocese receives a complaint of clergy sexual abuse of a minor, the archdiocese reports the matter to the district attorney’s office and assists and cooperates fully with any investigation.

Finally, in regard to prevention of sexual abuse of all children in our parishes, schools and programs, the Safe Environment Office conducts background checks annually and trains priests, teachers, coaches, parents and their children with age-appropriate safe environment training.

Edward T. Mechmann, Esq., Director of safe environment, Archdiocese of New York

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CANADA
CBC News

By Nigel Hunt, CBC News Posted: Nov 13, 2015

The new movie Spotlight puts the focus on an endangered species: the investigative journalist.

In the summer of 2001, the Boston Globe’s newly appointed editor ordered the paper’s special in-depth reporting team (known as Spotlight) to follow up on a column about a local priest accused of sexually abusing children.

In the process, the journalists uncovered numerous other victims and dozens of additional priests accused of sexual assault who were being protected by the Catholic Church.

After months of digging and tracking down victims, their exposé — published in January 2002 — shocked Boston and led to similar revelations across the country and around the world.

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UNITED KINGDOM
NYSE Post

Nov 13 2015 | by Rosemarie Bishop

The film’s story and perspective match that sentiment throughout, focusing on the dismantling of first amendment roadblocks for the victims of sexual abuse put in place by a religious institution that most – legislative branch included – would not (and did not) think twice about challenging.

Catholic leaders, both ordained and lay, said in op-ed essays they welcomed the attention certain to be paid to the Catholic Church upon the nationwide release of the movie “Spotlight”, which chronicles the Boston Globe’s uncovering of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002. But before we get to the review, a few disclosures are in order: For one, the film’s chief protagonist, Globe editor Marty Baron, is now executive editor of The Washington Post. The paper hasn’t shied away from covering the one-off cases over the years, and there’s a well-earned weariness in agitating the church. As Spotlight’s editor Walter Robinson, Keaton describes himself as Boston “born and raised”. And Spotlight tells a great one, compressing years of exhaustive shoe-leather reporting into two brisk, infuriated hours.

I suspect “Spotlight” is one of those movies that has special appeal for newspaper reporters, but lots of people will appreciate this terrific film. “They are artists in the truest sense of the word who continue to surprise and inspire audiences with their talent”. NYSE Post http://nysepost.com/new-uk-united-kingdom-trailer-for-spotlight-41436

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CONNECTICUT
The Connecticut Law Tribune

MEGAN SPICER, The Connecticut Law Tribune
November 12, 2015

Two years ago, it appeared the sordid saga of Douglas Perlitz was winding down. The founder of an orphanage in Haiti had been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for molesting children who were under his care, and a civil suit filed on behalf of 24 boys and naming some of Perlitz’s institutional backers as defendants — including Fairfield University — had settled for $12 million.
“Right now the victims are very happy,” the plaintiffs attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said at the time. “They’re satisfied they can buy food, medicine, clothing and shelter for themselves and their loved ones.”

But now it appears the Perlitz case may once again explode in the legal arena. Since the time of the settlement, Garabedian said he’s had an “advocate” working in Haiti to try to find additional sex abuse victims. The Boston-based attorney said he has identified 147 additional possible plaintiffs.

Already, Garabedian said he has filed 50 new claims in Connecticut courts, with the latest coming Oct. 30. He anticipates filing dozens more. Each makes the same claim, demanding $20 million in damages against each defendant for each claim made. So far, Perlitz said he’s taken 15 depositions and he expects to complete 20 more. He said he’s still conducting investigations and making determinations about exactly how many more cases to file.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service

A-III (R)

By John Mulderig Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — The clergy abuse-themed drama “Spotlight” (Open Road) is a movie no Catholic will want to see. Whether it’s a film many mature Catholics ought to see is a different question entirely.

This hard-hitting journalism procedural — which inescapably invites comparison with 1976’s “All the President’s Men” — recounts the real-life events that led up to the public disclosure, in early 2002, of a shocking pattern of priestly misconduct within the Archdiocese of Boston. In the process, the equally disturbing concealment of such wrongdoing on the part of high ranking church officials also was laid bare.

One of the picture’s themes is the way in which Beantown’s inward-looking, small-town mentality contributed to the long-standing cover-up. For the supposed good of the community, locals suppressed the knowledge of what was happening, subconsciously choosing not to see what was transpiring just behind the scenes.

So it’s appropriate that the whitewash begins to peel away with the arrival of a stranger to the Hub, the newly imported editor of the Boston Globe, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber). Marty’s outsider status isn’t just based on his geographical origins; he’s also Jewish.

Perplexed that his paper has devoted so little attention to the earliest cases in what would become, over time, an avalanche of legal actions against clerics, Marty commissions the investigative unit of the title, which specializes in in-depth investigations of local stories, to dig deeper.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

There is shock at the arrest of a popular Catholic priest from the New South Wales Riverina, on a child sexual assault charge.

Father Neru Leuea, aged 49, of Narrandera was refused bail in Wagga Wagga Local Court on Thursday on a single charge of aggravated sexual assault of a girl aged under 16.

It is alleged that around 12 or 13 years ago he assaulted a girl who was then aged 10.

Father Neru spent seven years in Griffith and the city’s Mayor, John Dal Broi, said he knew the priest very well.

“I saw him every weekend when I went to church, an extremely popular priest here in Griffith,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
ChurchMilitant

by Christine Niles • November 9, 2015

There’s a new Bishop of Bling in town. Although the latest attempt by liberal media to taint the reputation of Cdl. Raymond Burke involves insinuations of a lavish lifestyle, missing in their crosshairs is their own favorite: Cdl. Donald Wuerl.

On November 4, British journalist Christopher Lamb, Rome correspondent for the left-leaning journal The Tablet, tweeted about the living quarters of various prelates’ apartments, including that of Cdl. Burke.

Others mentioned by Lamb include Cdl. Francis Arinze and Abp. Arthur Roche, among others.

Absent from Lamb’s public shaming was any mention of Cdl. Donald Wuerl, progressive media darling, who has publicly sparred with Cdl. Burke on the issue of Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians as well as the divorced and civilly remarried. Wuerl, as ChurchMilitant.com has confirmed, lives in a Washington, D.C. penthouse as part of a complex valued at nearly $43 million.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Examiner

By DANIEL ALLOTT (@DANIELALLOTT) • 11/12/15

A German Catholic bishop was once dubbed the “Bishop of Bling” for spending church funds on first-class air travel and extravagant renovations to his bishop’s residence. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the former Catholic bishop of Limburg in Germany, ordered renovations to his residence, including heated outdoor stones and bronze window panes, that reportedly cost nearly $43 million. In 2013, Pope Francis removed Tebartz-van Elst from the exercise of his episcopal office and a year later accepted his resignation as bishop of Limburg.

Now some are accusing Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl of living a similarly lavish lifestyle. According to a report by the website churchmilitant.com, Wuerl resides in a Washington, D.C. penthouse atop Our Lady Queen of the Americas church on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. Coincidentally, the residence is valued at the same amount that Tebartz-van Elst was spending to renovate his home: $43 million.

Wuerl’s posh living arrangements in D.C. are similar to those he enjoyed for 20 years as head of the Pittsburgh diocese. That home reportedly included a wine cellar, six-car garage, fine art, Oriental rugs and antiques.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Eric Middlecamp was a priest of the Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians), ordained in 1952. He taught in minor seminaries and high schools, was a boys’ camp director, hospital chaplain, and director of the Order’s foreign missions. His work took him to Wisconsin, Washington DC, Iowa, California and Arizona. Middlecamp was removed from active ministry in the early 1990s after the Salvatorians received allegations that he had sexually abused both boys and girls from the late 1950s through the 1970s. He was kept at the U.S. Province’s headquarters in Milwaukee where he was given the foreign missions job. Middlecamp died March 6, 2011.

Ordained: June 9, 1952
Died: March 6, 2011

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CALIFORNIA
KPBS

Thursday, November 12, 2015
By Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico, Neiko Will

The new film “Spotlight” chronicles the work of Boston Globe investigative reporters into the priest sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church. One of the sources the reporters relied on is a San Diego mental health counselor and former priest who spent many years investigating the sexual lives of clergy.

Richard Sipe’s character in the movie isn’t seen on screen, but some of his many real life phone conversations with reporters are dramatized in the film and are voiced by actor Richard Jenkins.

Sipe, along with KPBS Roundtable host Mark Sauer, who reported extensively on the priest sex abuse scandal for The San Diego Union-Tribune, discuss the story told in the movie.

Listen to Midday Edition Now

San Diego Man’s Role In Uncovering Priest Sex Abuse Featured In ‘Spotlight’

GUESTS:
Richard Sipe, author, “A Secret World”
Mark Sauer, Roundtable host, KPBS News

Midday Edition airs Monday – Thursday at noon on KPBS Radio

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WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015

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

An ex-seminarian who reportedly tried to circumcise himself and was arrested in Wisconsin now admits he recently molested kids. We urge Milwaukee Catholic officials to publicize the abuser’s admission and aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes in Wisconsin.

[Spokesman-Review]

Kevin Sloniker was arrested in Menomonie WI and reportedly admitted to child sex crimes in Washington and Idaho. In 2005, he attended a Minnesota seminary but was allegedly removed.

For the safety of kids, and to help law enforcement, we call on Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki to use church websites, parish bulletins, pulpit announcements and personal appeals to reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Sloniker.

And we call on bishops in Idaho and Spokane, where Sloniker’s crimes happened, to use church websites, parish bulletins, pulpit announcements and personal appeals to reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Sloniker.

Sloniker was at Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, Idaho. He’s part of an arch-conservative Catholic group called the Society of St. Pius X. He’s not the first man with that group to face abuse allegations:

[SNAP]

All too often, when church staff and volunteers are arrested on child sex charges, bishops do nothing. All too often, corrupt church officials refuse to act and thus essentially protect criminals and endanger children. And all too often, secular officials with the power and duty to safeguard society’s most vulnerable pursue only church staff who commit about and ignore church staff who conceal abuse.

Church members and employees in northern Idaho and eastern Washington – especially Idaho Bishop Peter F. Christensen and Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly – have a moral and civic duty to help law enforcement investigate and prosecute Sloniker. They’ll be tempted, of course, to do nothing. But that’s wrong. And their inaction might help enable Sloniker to exploit legal technicalities and escape punishment and hurt more kids.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on November 12, 2015

Why would Orange County Catholic parishioners go on a popular review site to voice their displeasure with how their parish is being run? Because no one else is listening. …and because the diocese won’t come clean about who truly manages the property that the parish now “owns.”

A few months ago, I wrote a post about Franciscan Friar Fr. Daniel Barica. Barica is currently the pastor of Sts. Simon and Jude Parish in Huntington Beach, a wealthy and popular parish close to the ocean. On the eve of the September papal visit, Barica devoted a homily and a letter in the parish bulletin to how he “blesses” his body parts (including his sexual energy) in front of the mirror after his daily shower.

But there’s more. At the time, frustrated parishioners had reached out to me for help, because for them, the problem is much more extensive. Barica, they say, is not listening to their concerns, kicking long-time parishioners out of the parish, changing the rules for weddings and funerals, creating a hostile environment in the neighborhood by installing surveillance cameras pointed at neighbors homes, and—most importantly—they say he is bullying employees and church members who disagree with him.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter November 12, 2015

American bishops will gather in Baltimore next week for their fall General Assembly, where they will elect new committee chairmen, weigh minor changes to their Catholic voting guide, and consider taking action against pornography.

The potential decision to dedicate resources to combatting pornography, a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States, would be a first for US bishops. The viewing of pornography is causing a crisis in marriages and families, they believe, so whatever strategies they develop would be aimed at Catholic leaders and parents, according to Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone.

The Church teaches that pornography is a form of spiritual adultery that harms human dignity and immerses users in a perverse fantasy world that can hurt their relationships. Given Pope Francis’ focus on the family through two international bishops’ summits, the US Church could employ priests and bishops in their traditional role as pastoral counselors.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Michelle Hunter, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on November 12, 2015

New Orleans police arrested the pastor of a Marrero church accused of raping a child, WVUE-TV reported.

Reverend Dr. Sherman Smith, 56, of Algiers, was booked Wednesday (Nov. 11) with molestation of a juvenile or a person with a mental or physical disability, aggravated rape of a victim under the age of 13, sexual battery and two counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile.

Smith is a pastor at Second Highway Baptist Church, 1533 block of Haydel Drive, Marrero. NOPD has not released any other details about his arrest.

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LOUISIANA
Fox 8

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) –
New Orleans police arrested an Algiers man, who is also a pastor at Second Highway Baptist Church in Marrero, for aggravated rape of a child under 13.

Reverend Dr. Sherman Smith, 56, was booked into Orleans Parish Prison on Wednesday at 11:09 a.m. He faces charges of aggravated rape, sexual battery, molestation of a juvenile or person with a mental or physical disability, and two counts of incident behavior with a juvenile.

Smith was taken into custody in Algiers. The NOPD did not release other details of the case.

Smith appeared in magistrate court where his bond was set at $180,000, according to court documents. The court appointed a public defender as his attorney.

His church is located in the 1500 block of Haydel Drive. FOX 8 has reached out other church leaders for comment.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara Independent

1931 – 2013
The Worst of What We Lived

Thursday, February 13, 2014
by PAUL FERICANO

On November 23, 2013, the Franciscan priest responsible for molesting me and hundreds of other boys at St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara during the’60s, quietly passed away in a California hospital at the age of 82. Mario Cimmarrusti committed crimes that made him one of the most notorious perpetrators in the history of the clergy sex abuse scandal. It’s fair to say that he was detested not only by his victims, their families, and the community at large, but by the majority of his fellow friars, most, if not all of whom, chose to ignore and alienate him during the last years of his life.

Many have argued that Mario got off easy. Over the years, and since the scandal first came to light in 1992, the Franciscans have paid out millions of dollars in damages to settle civil suits brought by those who suffered abuse at Mario’s hands. But due to the statute of limitations he never faced criminal charges. Dozens of survivors I know believe they were cheated by the legal system. The best of what they hoped for was stolen from them by a priest who got away with unspeakable sins. “He should have died behind bars rotting in prison,” one survivor told me when he learned of Mario’s death.” This bitterness has been echoed by many others.

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NEW MEXICO
SF Gate

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The upcoming release a movie detailing the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation into the church’s cover-up of clergy abuse may bring up “horrific memories” for New Mexico victims of sex abuse, Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester said.

In a recent letter to Archdiocese of Santa Fe priests and parishioners last week, Wester said that the movie “Spotlight” is a chance for the faithful to pray for abuse victims.

“The film will undoubtedly touch a raw nerve for those abused by the clergy, opening old wounds and triggering horrific memories that continue to haunt and disturb them,” Wester wrote.

However, Wester said it was up to church leadership to reach out to those who were victimized.

“The Archdiocese of Santa Fe and I are resolutely committed to seeking the forgiveness of those who have been abused by Roman Catholic clergy and at the same time dedicated to the aid in the reconciliation and healing process,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Get Surrey

A retired vicar and teacher has been found guilty of the historic sex abuse of four boys.

Roger Wakely, a former pastor at The Bishop Wand Church of England School, in Sunbury, had used his position to molest the boys aged from 12 to 15 years.

At Guildford Crown Court, the jury unanimously found him guilty of all 21 charges on Tuesday (November 10).

At the start of trial he pleaded guilty to an additional six counts of indecent assault involving two of the four victims.

Two of the boys attended Ealing Grammar School and one went to Bishop Wand.

Wakely abused his victims in a period from the 1960s to the 1980s, the jury was told.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Philly

BY BETH GRIFFIN
Catholic News Service

Joseph F. X. Zahra, deputy coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, said his group identified dioceses that exercise good financial management, operate in “an open, transparent manner” and have “the right controls in place to avoid misuse of funds.” He is pictured in a 2012 photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Aid to the Church in Need)

RYE, N.Y. (CNS) — The financial reforms established by the Vatican’s new Council for the Economy drew on good management practices of dioceses in the United States and elsewhere and will serve as a model for dioceses throughout the world, according to a Maltese economist tapped by Pope Francis to modernize the church’s obsolete financial structure.

Joseph F. X. Zahra, the council’s deputy coordinator, said his group identified dioceses that exercise good financial management, operate in “an open, transparent manner” and have “the right controls in place to avoid misuse of funds.” He declined to name specific dioceses and also said good management practices were not confined to the United States.

Zahra predicted the new financial “machinery and administration” will position the Curia as a “best practices” benchmark for other dioceses worldwide to follow.

Zahra spoke to Catholic News Service by telephone Nov. 11 from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana where he addressed students, faculty and administrators. His visit there was part of a series of “communications sessions” organized by Centimus Annus Pro Pontifice, a pontifical foundation dedicated to social justice.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

Lewis Beale

Sadistic nuns. Pedophile priests. Criminal coverups within the Roman Catholic Church. It seems Catholicism can’t win at the multiplex these days. In based-on-fact films such as 2013’s “Philomena,” 2002’s “The Magdalene Sisters,” last year’s “Jimmy’s Hall” and the don’t-take-it-too-seriously “The Da Vinci Code” from 2006, the Catholic Church comes off as a totalitarian institution sucking the joy out of its parishioners, willing to resort to murder to hide its secrets.

This year, a new film takes the church to task. “Spotlight,” from Open Road Films and starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber and Rachel McAdams, tells the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered a clergy sex abuse scandal in the local archdiocese. It shows the church as a powerful force willing to do almost anything — transferring priests from parish to parish, covering up out-of-court settlements, pressuring the paper to tone down its coverage — to protect the sexual predators in its midst.

It wasn’t always this way. For years the Catholic Church was portrayed in a highly favorable light. Priests were kindly Bing Crosby types (1945’s “The Bells of St. Mary’s”) or tough but compassionate and socially conscious, a la Spencer Tracy in 1938’s “Boys Town.” And a whole slew of sometimes stern, but generally kindly, nuns were often played by hall of fame beauties like Ingrid Bergman (“The Bells of St. Mary’s”), Audrey Hepburn (1959’s “The Nun’s Story”) and Deborah Kerr (in 1957’s “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison”).

This disparity is the result of the Motion Picture Production Code, which set moral guidelines for the industry and was in force from the 1930s until the 1960s. Hoping to avoid government censorship of movies, studio heads adopted a set of strictures written by Father Daniel A. Lord, a Jesuit priest, and Martin Quigley, the Catholic editor of the trade paper Motion Picture Herald. The code was then administered for many years by another Catholic, Joseph Breen.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Philly

BY MARK PATTISON
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The U.S. church still stands ready to help the victims of clergy sexual abuse, according to Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau, Alaska, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Child and Youth Protection.

“Victims of abuse have helped us see the errors of the past,” Bishop Burns said in a Nov. 10 telephone interview from Juneau with Catholic News Service. “It’s important that we assist them in the healing process.”

Bishop Burns added, “We express our gratitude for the way they’ve called us to look at ourselves, and see that there is a need to change, to be contrite, and to assist in the healing process. It’s important that we continue to work together in order to be sure that there is a safe environment within the church, and that we never grow lax in assuring that all our children are safe.”

He cited background checks for close to 99 percent of the diocesan and religious priests and deacons, and safe environment instruction for 92 percent of the estimated 4.4 million children who have been enrolled in Catholic educational programs.

“What needs to be done? We need to get to 100 percent,” Bishop Burns said.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Nov 12, 2015

And so ends one of the sorriest sagas in the abuse crisis which has engulfed the Catholic Church in Ireland. It first came to public notice with the jailing of Fr Brendan Smyth in 1994.

On March 29th 1975 Fr Seán Brady, later the Catholic primate, was asked by Bishop McKiernan to conduct a canonical inquiry into allegations of abuse against the Norbertine priest.

Fr Brady was then a 35-year-old canon lawyer and teacher at St Patrick’s College, Cavan, but he acted also as part-time secretary to Bishop McKiernan in the Kilmore diocese.

Shortly afterwards, Fr Brady and local canon lawyer Msgr Francis Donnelly, interviewed Brendan Boland in Dundalk. Also present was Fr McShane, who has since left the priesthood.

The latter was there as support for the teenager because his father was not allowed sit in as that was contrary to canon law procedures, despite the seriousness of the allegations that he was making.

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VATICAN CITY
The Seattle Times

By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is no stranger to drama, intrigue or scandal. But even by Vatican standards, this has been one hell of a month.

Ever since Pope Francis returned from his triumphant visit to the United States, nearly every day has brought surreal revelations of bishops behaving badly, cardinals resisting reform and ideological battles over everything from the theology of marriage to the Vatican’s cigarette sales.

By Wednesday, the Vatican had had enough and issued a series of statements disputing reports left and right, only to end the day with confirmation that two Italian journalists were now under investigation by Vatican magistrates for their involvement in the latest scandal over leaked documents.

How did we get here?

Francis’ crazy month began with a monsignor from the Vatican’s doctrine office outing himself as gay (boyfriend by his side) and denouncing the “hypocrisy” of the church’s doctrine on homosexuality the day before Francis opened his big bishop meeting on family life.

Then, 13 prominent cardinals penned a (leaked) missive to Francis warning that the Catholic Church risked collapse if he went ahead with his reformist agenda at the synod.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Court of Appeal has halted three actions for damages brought against the Catholic Church over the failure to stop paedophile priest, Father Brendan Smyth, sexually abusing children.

A man, his sister and a cousin, took actions against the Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O’Reilly in his capacity as representative of the Kilmore diocese.

The appeal court upheld the High Court’s decision to stop the actions.

All three had also sued Cardinal Sean Brady, in his personal capacity arising from his role as part-time secretary to the former Bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, during a church investigation in 1975 into complaints about Smyth.

Legal sources suggest today’s judgment means Cardinal Brady cannot now be pursued by the plaintiffs either.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Marcel Damphousse of Alexandria-Cornwall, Canada, as bishop of Sault Sainte Marie (area 265,000, population 436,000, Catholics 239,200, priests 90, permanent deacons 66, religious 174), Canada. He succeeds Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) – The following is the full text of the communique issued yesterday afternoon by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples on news relating to its ownership of real estate.

“The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, also known as ‘Propaganda Fide’, adheres fully to the Holy Father Francis’ line of thought and guidance with regard to the life and reform of the Roman Curia; in addition, it his committed to pursuing the institutional aims set forth in the Apostolic Constitution ‘Pastor Bonus’, as well as respecting the will of donors who over the years have contributed to its missionary work. Therefore, it welcomes all the administrative reforms anticipated by the Secretary for the Economy and submits all the budgets and final accounts to the latter.

Certain insinuations on the part of certain sectors of the media, which circulate news not corresponding to the truth, are therefore unacceptable. It has been written, for example, that the Congregation offers luxury properties for rent at low prices as favours, and even that it hosts a spa or is the proprietor of the Hotel Priscilla.

The real estate belonging to the Congregation, donated for the Missions, is rented at market value; there are exceptions in the case of situations of poverty. The aforementioned properties are rented in accordance with current Italian legislation, to which both the Congregation as the owner and the recipient are subject.

The income deriving from the rent of these properties, for which regular tax is paid in Italy (in 2014 the Dicastery paid IMU – imposta municipale unica, property tax, of 2,169,200 euros in Rome alone) is destined principally for the maintenance of the Congregation, the Pontifical Urbanian University, the Pontifical Collegio Urbano, the missionary institutions and young Churches in the mission territories.

Propaganda Fide is grateful to the benefactors who, with its help, make it possible for the Gospel to be announced and provide support for innumerable educational, social and healthcare initiatives in the poorest countries.

We wish to clarify that, should such dissemination of false or biased information recur, this Congregation will be obliged to protect its image in the appropriate forums”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) – The Holy See Press Office yesterday issued the following communique:

“Various articles have been published by news agencies and in the press referring in a biased and inaccurate way to the content of a confidential document, based on the assumption that in the past the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) has been used for illegal financial activity. The Vatican legal authorities have opened an investigation into the circulation of this document. APSA has always collaborated with the competent bodies, is not under investigation and continues to conduct its activities in accordance with current regulations”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., made the following declaration late yesterday afternoon:

“The Vatican Gendarmerie, in their role as judicial police, have informed the Vatican prosecutors that the activity carried out by the journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi may constitute complicity in the crime of disseminating confidential news and documents, pursuant to Law No. IX of Vatican City State, of 13 July 2013 (article 116 bis).

Since the beginning of the investigation the prosecution has obtained pieces of evidence indicating the collaboration in offence by the journalists, who are now therefore under investigation.

The investigators are also examining some other situations regarding persons who, for reasons of office, could have cooperated in the acquisition the reserved documents in question.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

The film “Spotlight,” which depicts the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting team — nicknamed Spotlight — uncovering the local Catholic Church’s coverup of sexual abuse within its ranks, was co-written by Josh Singer and director Tom McCarthy. Here’s their take on how the script came together.

Josh: For us, the story of “Spotlight” starts in 2001 with the actual Spotlight team nailing the story of a systematic coverup of clergy sex abuse in Boston. Of course, one might argue that the story began before that, with the [former priest James R.] Porter case in 1992. Or even before that, with Richard Sipe and the research he started doing in the late ‘60s. So, I guess it’s not surprising that as our story moves forward, it also reaches back, pulling up moments from the past in order to shine a light on the present.

Tom: Now you’re going to say that’s what a journalist does.

Josh: Well, it’s kind of what a journalist does. But what I was getting at is that, for me, our story starts on Kosciuszko Circle, the rotary in Dorchester, trying to figure out which turnout was Morrissey Boulevard, the road that would take us to the Boston Globe for the first time.

Tom: We’d both spent time in school in Boston but there we were, totally lost, trying to find the Globe.

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CALIFORNIA
The Bay Area Reporter

by Cynthia Laird
c.laird@ebar.com

Father John Conley, a gay man who entered the priesthood later in life but was castigated by Archdiocese of San Francisco officials after he reported to police a fellow cleric who he suspected of sexually abusing an altar boy, died November 4 at his residence in South San Francisco. He was 71.

Mr. Conley was a federal prosecutor when he decided to follow his dream of becoming a priest. According to a news release from the archdiocese, Mr. Conley entered Saint Patrick’s Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood April 17, 1993 at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco by then-Archbishop John R. Quinn.

But it was in his role as a whistleblower that he made news, having witnessed what he believed were improper actions by another priest, James Aylward, at a Burlingame church in 1997. Mr. Conley reported the incident to his superiors but was later viewed as an outcast by Aylward’s supporters.

Then-Archbishop William Levada transferred Mr. Conley to a parish in Mill Valley, and ordered him not to discuss the incident he witnessed with nuns assigned to St. Catherine’s parish, where Aylward was pastor, according to a 2004 SF Weekly article.

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UNITED STATES
The Tablet (UK)

12 November 2015 by Sean Smith, CNS

The US church still stands ready to help the victims of clergy sexual abuse, according to the head of the US Bishops’ Committee on Child and Youth Protection.

Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau, Alaska, said that the new film about abuse in Boston in 2002 still rightly shine a spotlight on the errors that the church in America has made, and will keep them working to make it right.

“Victims of abuse have helped us see the errors of the past,” Bishop Burns told the Catholic News Service. “It’s important that we assist them in the healing process.

“We express our gratitude for the way they’ve called us to look at ourselves, and see that there is a need to change, to be contrite, and to assist in the healing process. It’s important that we continue to work together in order to be sure that there is a safe environment within the church, and that we never grow lax in assuring that all our children are safe.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Carolan

Thu, Nov 12, 2015

The Court of Appeal has halted three actions for damages brought against a Catholic Bishop in a representative capacity over the church’s alleged failure to act to prevent paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth sexually abusing children.

The three judge court on Thursday upheld a High Court decision stopping separate actions by a man, his sister and a cousin against the Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O’Reilly, as representative of the Kilmore diocese.

The plaintiffs had also sued Cardinal Seán Brady in his personal capacity arising from his role as part-time secretary to former Bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, during a church investigation in 1975 into complaints about Smyth.

While Cardinal Brady had not made a similar application to Bishop O’Reilly, legal sources suggest the judgment means he too cannot be pursued by the plaintiffs.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 12, 2015

Jorge Branco

A former headmaster at a Brisbane school that employed two paedophiles says he didn’t believe a teacher touching or fondling students’ genitals would be a criminal act.

Ex-St Paul’s School headmaster Gilbert Case made the admission in 10 minutes of questioning by counsel assisting David Lloyd before the child abuse royal commission adjourned for lunch on Thursday.

Mr Lloyd asked the former teacher a series of questions broadly relating to alleged complaints from a student that paedophile music teacher Gregory Robert Knight had exposed himself to boys during a game of “truth or dare” at a school camp in Caloundra, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, in 1983.

He asked whether Mr Case would have considered actions like these inappropriate.

“My view was and I presume you know this, that that was a factor in that teacher leaving the school,” Mr Case said.

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VATICAN CITY
DFW Catholic

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2015 / 03:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The two Italian journalists who made headlines last week for authoring books on confidential Vatican financial documents are under investigation, and could face criminal charges.

In a Nov. 10 statement, the Vatican announced that journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi are currently being investigated for publishing the books, which contain leaked information from a former Vatican financial reform commission.

The investigation follows the arrest of two former members of the Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA).

The commission established by the Pope July 18, 2013, as part of his plan to reform the Vatican’s finances. It was dissolved after completing its mandate.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 12, 2015

Jorge Branco
Journalist

The principal of a prestigious north Brisbane school knew a counsellor – now known to be a paedophile – was seeing students at his own home, a royal commission has heard.

St Paul’s School principal Margaret Goddard told the child sex abuse royal commission on Thursday that Gilbert Case, who preceded her as head of the school, made the admission before she took over in 2001.

She said at a meeting with Mr Case, he spoke about school counsellor Kevin Lynch, who killed himself in 1997 after being charged with sexually abusing a student at the school.

“During that meeting, which took place in Mr Case’s office, he told me a few things about Mr Lynch, and one of them was that he was aware students were seeing – students with St Paul’s were seeing Kevin Lynch at his home,” she said.

In the same meeting, Ms Goddard said Mr Case admitted he had received a complaint while Lynch was still alive from a mother who suspected Lynch had abused her son.

Mr Case denies any knowledge of Lynch’s abuses prior to his death and is expected to give evidence to the commission on Thursday.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

[with audio]

November 12, 2015

Jorge Branco

Staff at a Brisbane private school were told former governor-general Peter Hollingworth had “washed his hands” of sexual abuse concerns and the school would be dealing with them “in-house”, a royal commission has heard.

The meeting took place one or two years after the death of Kevin John Lynch, who killed himself in January 1997 after being charged with sexually abusing a student at the Anglican St Paul’s School.

Dr Hollingworth was the Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane at the time.

On Thursday, former St Paul’s teacher Craig Patterson told the child abuse royal commission rumours surrounding Lynch’s abuse of students at the school grew from a “low rumble” to a “torrent” in the years after the counsellor’s death.

He said then-headmaster Gilbert Case addressed a full staff meeting about a year or two after Lynch’s death about how the school was dealing with the rumours.

“Mr Case… announced to the staff that number one because this was circulating, the whole thing about how the Archbishop, Hollingworth, was involved or not involved or what was going on,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

MATTHEW KILLORAN THE COURIER-MAIL NOVEMBER 12, 2015

A HANDWRITTEN note by former St Paul’s principal Gilbert Case revealed he was aware of allegations pedophile music teacher Gregory Robert Knight had cupped a boy’s genitals.

The document was referred to at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse, while Mr Case was questioned on his actions while in charge of the school at a time when “scores” of boys were abused by two pedophiles over 16 years.

Counsel assisting David Lloyd asked Mr Case about an undated note, written by the principal around the time Knight was allowed to resign, which listed a number of complaints against the teacher.

One of the allegations was that Knight had cupped the penis and testes of a student, known as BRX.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12th, 2015

When former Gallup Bishop Donald Pelotte apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests in 2005, he singled out Clement Hageman as among “the most abusive priests in the diocese.”

This week, one of the two insurers expected to provide money to settle the Diocese of Gallup Chapter 11 bankruptcy said that claims filed by 16 of Hageman’s alleged victims are not covered by the diocese’s insurance policies.

If a judge agrees, “then no coverage would exist for approximately 16 claimants where Father Hageman is alleged to have been the abuser,” an attorney for the New Mexico Property and Casualty Guaranty Association said in a motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque.

Hageman pastored Madre de Dios Church in Winslow, Ariz., until his death in 1975.

The 16 claimants are among 57 alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse who have filed claims in the two-year-old bankruptcy case.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

TIM PALMER: To the latest from the child abuse royal commission, where former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has been accused of “washing his hands” of sexual abuse concerns at a Brisbane school. That allegation was made by a former teacher at St Paul’s School.

And in a long-awaited appearance, the school’s former headmaster, Gilbert Case, was also questioned about his knowledge of the abuse at the time. He told the hearing he didn’t think the behaviour was criminal.

Thomas Oriti reports, and a warning: this story contains graphic details some listeners may find disturbing.

THOMAS ORITI: It was January 1997 when Kevin John Lynch took his own life. And about 500 people went to the funeral, paying tribute to the man who’d been a staple part of their school.

As the counsellor at St Paul’s in Brisbane’s north, he’d seen countless students for years behind locked doors. A number of them have given evidence at the royal commission this week and there appears to be a common theme.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

Dia Wall

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – One week after his installation, Bishop James Johnston presided over a healing service for those impacted by sexual abuse.

It’s one of six services supported by the Office of Child and Youth Protection.

“I hurt and I’m very sorry and sorrowful for anyone in the church, especially children or vulnerable people who were harmed by those who should have protected them,” Johnston said.

“So I’m especially grieved by those who may have been harmed or were harmed by someone in the church that was given a sacred trust.”

People like William Kopp, who was repeatedly molested by Kansas City priest Tom Reardon as a boy.

“He took away my formidable years of creativity, he took away any chance I had of a normal life, what it does to you, you can’t explain it but you feel guilt and shame,” Kopp said.

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UNITED STATES
The Oregonian

By Jeff Baker | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on November 12, 2015

“Spotlight” is a straightforward movie, written, acted and directed in a conventional, old-fashioned way, that tells an extraordinary story: how in 2001-02 a team of investigative reporters and editors from The Boston Globe exposed a pattern of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The Globe articles showed how the church sheltered pedophile priests and transferred them to different parishes where they could commit the same awful crimes on innocent children.

It is not an exaggeration to say the Globe’s reporting changed the world. The problem of pedophiles within the priesthood was not new or unique to Boston and had been written about elsewhere; it was well-known in law enforcement and among networks of abuse survivors. But the Globe’s reporting, particularly the way it showed a systemic coverup within the church, sparked investigations that have led to billions of dollars in settlements and an apology from Pope Francis, who said the church must “weep and make reparation” for what he called the actions of a “sacrilegious cult” of priests. Title cards at the end of “Spotlight” list hundreds of cities around the world, including Portland, where child abuse scandals within the Catholic church have been uncovered.

The Globe’s Spotlight team did not set out to make history. It took an outsider, new editor Marty Baron, to put fresh eyes on what was considered an isolated incident and asked if there was a connection to other cases. The Globe’s staff was uneasy about Baron’s arrival and worried about rumors of layoffs after the paper’s acquisition by The New York Times. Baron saw a reference in a Globe column about sealed files in a case involving a pedophile priest, John Geoghan, and decided the paper would sue to obtain the files, putting it in direct conflict with the church. Baron directed the Spotlight team leader and self-described “player-coach,” Walter Robinson, and his supervisor Ben Bradlee Jr. to pursue the story. The Spotlight staff, reporters Sacha Pfeiffer, Matt Carroll, and Mike Rezendes, did so in time-tested ways: Pfeiffer began locating and interviewing abuse victims, Carroll dug into documents, Rezendes worked a source, victims’ attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

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GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Gracie Bonds Staples – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Early one morning last week, as a steady drizzle fell from a dull gray sky, dozens of victims of child sexual abuse and the people who love them filed into Victory World Church in Norcross to pray.

The hourlong prayer vigil had been arranged by Voice Today, the Marietta nonprofit with a mission to break the silence and cycle of child sexual abuse, in recognition of their pain and to ease the sense of helplessness that comes with it.

For some, such a gathering might seem inadequate, but it is what people do, especially when they are hurting. Angela Williams, Voice Today’s founder and CEO, was hoping it was happening everywhere.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jacob Kagi

Statutory time limits preventing victims of sexual abuse from taking civil action many years later could be scrapped, if WA’s Parliament passes legislation to be introduced by a backbench Liberal MP.

Eyre MP Graham Jacobs will this morning introduce a bill seeking to remove the six-year statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases in WA.

If the legislation passes, it will allow people who suffered physical or mental injuries as a result of abuse to take civil action seeking compensation, regardless of how long ago it occurred.

Dr Jacobs said Victoria had already moved to implement similar laws and it was only a matter of time before other states followed suit, saying WA should make sure it was not last in line.

“The average latency period from the time of tort, as the lawyers would say, and the victim declaring that it had occurred is 24 years. So well outside the six years,” he said.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

El ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, declaró este miércoles ante el ministro Juan Manuel Muñoz en el Palacio de Tribunales, en el marco de la querella presentada por sus víctimas en contra del Arzobispado al que culpan de encubrir los abusos sexuales.

“No reconozco los abusos, con niños nunca, jamás”, enfatizó el sacerdote en la declaración judicial a la que accedió Cooperativa.

Karadima dijo que “respecto de los actores (los querellantes) sostengo mi inocencia. Con respecto a Hamilton yo fui su confesor, eso ya lo dije anteriormente y tuve un careo en la causa criminal con él, pero no me acuerdo”.

“Nunca tuve relaciones sexuales con los actores”, recalcó.

En esa línea, Karadima descartó que las denuncias de abuso fueran para dañar a la Iglesia. “No lo he pensado nunca. Los denunciantes son católicos y yo no tengo por qué pensar que busquen dañar a la Iglesia”.

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CHILE
Fox News

November 11, 2015
Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile – A prominent priest who has been punished for sex abuse by the Vatican proclaimed his innocence in court Wednesday, testifying in a case that three of his alleged victims brought against Chile’s Catholic Church.

Gray-haired and balding, the Rev. Fernando Karadima walked into court wearing a Roman collar and left holding rosary beads, flanked by police officers after being questioned for more than two hours.

Angry protesters waited outside. Some screamed “Pedophile!” and banged on the tinted windows of the dark SUV that drove him back to the convent where he has been living in isolation since the Vatican ordered him to a life of penance and prayer in 2011 for abusing young boys.

“I don’t recognize the abuses, with children. Never, ever,” Karadima testified, according to a court transcript obtained by The Associated Press. “I maintain my innocence … I never had sexual relations with those who accuse me.”

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