ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Business Standard

Vatican City, Dec 8 (IANS/AKI) A Vatican court agreed to allow second-in-command and other top advisers to Pope Francis be witnesses in the trial of five people over the leaks of stolen confidential Vatican documents.

It remains to be seen if secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin will actually testify, or Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, the president of the Commission of Cardinals of the Vatican bank, another possible witness.

The court’s decision followed a request by defendant Francesca Chaouqui, a public relations expert who along with a senior clergyman and his assistant are accused of forming a criminal organisation and of stealing and leaking the confidential documents.

The trio faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.

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.

GERMANY
The Local

Germany’s branch of the Catholic Church will “never” be finished dealing with the fallout from decades of abuse against children by members of the clergy, a bishop said on Tuesday.

“I don’t believe that this chapter will ever come to an end,” said Bishop Stephan Ackermann, the man charged with investigating past abuse by the Conference of German Bishops (DBK).

At the beginning of 2010, it began to emerge that priests at an elite Jesuit school in Berlin had sexually assaulted dozens of students in the 1970s and 80s.

The Church admitted that it failed to properly investigate reports of abuse and in some cases even covered them up by sending accused priests elsewhere.

Hundreds of more cases came to light and the Church launched investigations and prevention measures.

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.

MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) – The Archdiocese of Detroit says a child sex abuse allegation has been “found to be credible” against a late Roman Catholic priest and pastor who served in about 20 parishes across southeast Michigan.

The Rev. David West was ordained in 1964 and served in many high-profile positions, including on the faculty of Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, as a minister at Wayne State University and as chaplain at Bishop Gallagher High School in Harper Woods. He died in 2004 at age 65.

According to a recent news release from the Archdiocese of Detroit, the allegation against West was brought forward to a review board and found to be credible years after his death.

An archdiocese spokesman says church officials “put no deadlines or time limits on reporting the sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons and other personnel.”

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth

More than four decades after former Mildura police officer Denis Ryan was stopped from investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, Victoria Police has admitted a conspiracy to cover up the crimes went right to the top.

Mr Ryan detailed to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse how his attempt to investigate allegations against Monsignor John Day in the 1970s was thwarted by what he describes as a “Catholic mafia” within the force.

“The common law of the police force was not to charge a priest, short of murder,” Mr Ryan, 83, said.

“The Catholics looked after the Catholics and the Masons looked after the Masons.”

In 1971 while stationed in Mildura, Mr Ryan learnt of numerous allegations against the assistant priest of the parish, Monsignor Day.

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 YORK
Forward

Amos Kamil
December 8, 2015

As a former student at Horace Mann School in the Bronx’s Riverdale neighborhood, I was instrumental in breaking the silence around the prestigious prep school’s decades-long history of child sexual abuse.

Although I myself am not an abuse survivor, I saw many of my fellow alumni’s stories come to light when The New York Times Magazine published my article, “Prep School Predators,” in June 2012. The article caused a firestorm, and the tale of its aftermath — which includes scores more alumni coming forward and ultimately naming 22 predators — is recounted in my new book, “Great Is the Truth: Secrecy, Scandal, and the Quest for Justice at the Horace Mann School,” co-written by Sean Elder.

Though the two cases are different, I believe that it is worth drawing out the similarities between how Horace Mann handled its scandal and how another institution — Yeshiva University High School for Boys — dealt with its sexual abuse controversy. Both of these cases should spur New York to overhaul its abysmal statute of limitations laws as they relate to child sex abuse.

In the cases of both Horace Mann and Y.U. high school some students came forward to speak of their abuse. But New York’s current statute of limitations law prevents a victim of child sexual abuse from filing suit after he or she turns 23. In essence, the law makes it possible for schools and other institutions to escape legal accountability simply by remaining silent long enough.

Contrary to popular belief, most victims do not come forward to sue but rather to have the abuse acknowledged and to have someone from the institution where the abuse occurred say “Sorry.” In both the Horace Mann and Y.U. high school cases, the schools begrudgingly acknowledged their former students’ suffering but took little if any responsibility.

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.

INDIA
Hindustan Times

Police on Tuesday arrested a 41-year-old fugitive Catholic priest in Kochi on the charge of repeatedly raping a teenager for more than four months when he was attached with the Kottapuram diocese in north Kerala.

Police said Father Edwin Figarez was on the run for the past six months, since he was accused of paedophilia and sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl, who he had met at the church during prayers.

The crime was revealed when the girl’s school noticed behavioural changes in her and she told her parents about the traumatic ordeal. Her parents immediately approached police and a medical examination confirmed the sexual abuse.

An officer said the class 9 student was abused till March 28, four months since the torment began.
The priest ran away to Dubai in April after the police complaint was filed against him and appealed for bail at the Kerala high court, which initially granted his wish till May 5. He was questioned by police after he returned to India on May 2.

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.

PHILIPPINES
Coconuts Manila

On Tue, Dec 8, the Jesuit congregation confirmed that the priest who allegedly fondled Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte when he was a teenager was also accused of child abuse in the US.

In an interview with radio dzMM, Society of Jesus spokesperson Fr. Nono Alfonso, Jr. said they have verified the records of the late Fr. Mark Falvey, SJ, whom Duterte named as his abuser.

Duterte earlier disclosed that Falvey had been one of the Jesuit priests at the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU).

The mayor said the abuse happened once when he was a high school freshman in 1956. He said other boys were also molested by the American priest.

Duterte said he did not file a case because he was afraid of the priest. He was later expelled from the AdDU due to misconduct, and was sent to a distant school in Digos City, the Holy Cross of Digos, where he eventually finished his secondary education.

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.

MICHIGAN
WXYZ

[with video]

(WXYZ) – The Archdiocese of Detroit says a priest who died in 2004 has been linked to an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor that has been deemed to be credible.

Father David West was ordained in 1964 and the allegations of abuse date to the 1970s. The victim came forward years after West’s death.

The Archdiocese is not releasing any information on where the abuse happened.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 8, 2015

Jane Lee

Victoria Police will apologise and pay compensation to a former detective more than 30 years after senior officers covered up his investigation into child abuse allegations against a Catholic priest.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday heard from Denis Ryan, who had doggedly investigated allegations of child sexual abuse against Monsignor John Day in Mildura under intense pressure to stop. His superiors later took over the investigation and cleared Day of any wrongdoing.

Police tried to force Mr Ryan to transfer to another station in 1972, and he ultimately resigned from the force.

Mr Ryan broke down as he told the commission he had had nightmares of children being abused by Day: “Those children were being mentally and physically destroyed by Day and the police protected him. Ballarat Bishop [Ronald] Mulkearns also protected him. I wonder how many kids would have been saved if Victoria Police had gone on with the inquiry into Day.”

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.

MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec 3, 2015

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

Fr WestFather David F. West. (1938-2004). Ordained in 1964. Years after his death, an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was brought forward to the Archdiocesan Board of Review, considered, and was found to be credible.

Parish assignments included serving as an associate pastor Our Lady of Sorrows, Farmington, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Harper Woods, St. Anastasia, Troy, St. Andrew, Rochester, St. Dennis, Royal Oak, St. Joan of Arc, St. Clair Shores, St. Matthew, Detroit; as pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Grosse Pointe Woods, St. Agatha, Redford, St. James, Ferndale, St. Louise de Marillac, Warren; as administrator at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Temperance, St. Aidan, Livonia, St. Basil the Great, Eastpointe, St. Joseph, Maybee, St. Mel, Dearborn Heights, St. Michael, Livonia, St. Victor, Rockwood; and, served on the faculty of Sacred Heart Seminary, as a minister at Wayne State University, and as chaplain at Bishop Gallagher High School.

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.

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.

MICHIGAN
Deadline Detroit

Popular Roman Catholic priest and pastor, Father David West, served in about 20 parishes in southeast Michigan. He died in 2004 at age 65.

Now, more than 10 years after his passing, the church has concluded that an allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor is “credible,” Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Prss reports.

Laitner reports:

The Rev. David West died in 2004 at age 65, well before anyone came forward charging him with sexual abuse, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

But church officials “put no time limits on the reporting of sexual abuse of minors” by members of the priesthood or any other personnel connected with churches and related institutions such as parochial schools and seminaries, said Joe Kohn, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

“It doesn’t matter when it happens or when it’s reported. We try to determine if it’s credible and, if it is, we notify every place” in which the perpetrator ever served because “that increases the likelihood that this might have occurred elsewhere,” Kohn said.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson paid off an abuse victim, demonstrating a tendency of trying to make abuse matters go away, Newcastle Local Court has heard.

The court has begun hearing a stay of proceedings application by Wilson, the most senior Catholic clergyman in the world charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

The court was told the child sexual abuse cover-up charge laid against Wilson was invalid as there was no evidence the offence he is accused of concealing ever happened.

Wilson has pleaded not guilty to concealing the serious indictable offence of the now-dead paedophile priest James Fletcher in the 1970s.

The crown asked to admit tendency evidence in a bid to show Wilson’s alleged actions were not isolated.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison alleged Wilson was involved in paying a woman an amount of money so an allegation of indecent assault would go away.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

TIM PALMER: The chief commissioner of Victoria Police has promised a formal apology to a man driven out of the force for trying to bring a paedophile priest to justice.

The former officer Denis Ryan told the royal commission into child sex abuse today that his colleagues conspired to cover up the priest’s crimes in Mildura in the 1970s.

The commission was told a “Catholic mafia” operated in Victoria Police at the time and that the conspiracy went right to the top.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: In 1956, when Denis Ryan was a young policeman on divvy van duty in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda he came across Catholic priest Father John Day for the first time.

DENIS RYAN: We decided to pull the car over and noticed that the driver was a well-known prostitute Hazel Hanrahan and we then went around to the other side of the car and there was another prostitute. And laying across with their head on the driver and the feet on the other prostitute was a man with his pants down around his ankles, genitals showing. He was wearing a catholic priest collar and on the floor was an empty sherry bottle.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Chronicle Daily

by David Chambers on 08/12/2015

Further claims about Cardinal George Pell’s knowledge of child sex abuse by priests are expected to be aired at a royal commission.

“When you look at it with the abuse of justice, the aiding and abetting, conspiring… for a religious belief that’s got nothing to do with the teaching of Christ, it’s only the teaching of the priests”.

“We say to the victims of Monsignor Day Victoria Police made mistakes in the past”. “The reason I went to him was because I wasn’t being heard at school”, he said.

“I think what part of today is about [is] trying to say sorry, to try and make sure we go forward and make sure we don’t do these things in the future”.

Outside court, current police Commissioner Graham Ashton said he accepted the evidence given by both men and he would be making an apology to Mr Ryan. /

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.

AUSTRALIA
Examiner Post

More damning allegations about Cardinal George Pell’s intricate knowledge of the sexual abuse of boys have emerged.

Miller said he was horrified by what he read in a book written by Ryan, which documented serial sex offences against children, and misconduct by police. “It was corruption at its highest, an absolute conspiracy…when you look at the abuse of justice”. Hazel again said to us: ‘He allows us to drive the auto.

“What we have been doing, what today is about is is particularly hearing Mr Ryan’s evidence and the evidence of former chief commissioner Miller. It’s all about trying to say sorry and trying to make sure we go forward”.

He said in the last few decades there had been profound changes in the way police respond to allegations of sexual assault.

Outside court, current police Commissioner Graham Ashton said he accepted the evidence given by both men and he would be making an apology to Mr Ryan.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Telegraph Times

by Lorena Waters Tuesday, 08 December, 2015

More than four decades after former Mildura police officer Denis Ryan was stopped from investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, Victoria Police has admitted a conspiracy to cover up the crimes went right to the top.

“It is my opinion that chief commissioner Reg Jackson was the architect of the Victoria police’s response to Denis Ryan’s investigations into Monsignor Day”, Miller told the child abuse royal commission on Tuesday.

Mr Ryan told the inquiry he questioned the other police officer as to why they did not charge Day and was told by him: “You don’t charge priests or you will be in more trouble than enough”.

“The Catholics looked after the Catholics and the Masons looked after the Masons”. They had taken Day and his vehicle back to the police station, where he was later picked up by two priests.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Chronicle Daily

by David Chambers on 08/12/2015

Graeme Sleeman says he wrote to Cardinal Pell, then the Melbourne archbishop, about a decade after he resigned as principal of Doveton’s Holy Family Primary School in 1986 in frustration that nothing was done about parish priest Peter Searson.

“I put my career on the line”. In testimony for the Royal Commission’s investigation, witnesses have charged that the cardinal was aware of a widespread abuse and even that he attempted to secure a victim’s silence by offering a bribe.

Then the archbishop ended the call. Mr Sleeman agreed with Cardinal Pell’s barrister Sam Duggan that the archbishop first said “I can’t do that”. Graffiti calling for Cardinal George Pell to be jailed has appeared on a building in Melbourne.

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.

INDIA
UCA News

Christopher Joseph, Kochi
India
December 8, 2015

A Catholic priest has been arrested for allegedly sodomizing a 13-year old boy in India’s Mumbai Archdiocese.

Mumbai police arrested Father Lawrence Johnson, 51, accused of abusing the boy on Nov. 27 at Christ the King Church parish, archdiocesan spokesman Father Nigel Barret told ucanews.com Dec. 7.

The priest is “now under judicial custody,” Father Barret said adding that Father Johnson was arrested Dec. 1 following complaints from the alleged victim’s family.

“Representatives of the archdiocese have met with the victim and his family … All assistance is currently being rendered to the victim’s family,” Father Barret said.

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.

INDIA
Kaumudi Online

KOCHI: Police have arrested Father Edwin Figarez, a priest attached to the Lourdes Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara in Ernakulam district in connection with a case in which he allegedly raped a 14-yr-old girl at the church complex. The priest had gone into hiding after the incident.

Figarez’ brother and Chalakkudi native Sylvetser Figarez (58) and nephew and marine engineer Garvin Figarez (22) from Vellikkulangara were earlier arrested by the police in connection with the incident.

The case was filed by Puthenvelikkara police last April based on the complaint lodged by the girl’s mother. After this, with the help of certain local bar owners and members of Church Committee, the priest went into hiding. Later he slipped away to Dubai. On April 27 he appeared before Vadakkekkara Circle Inspector and recorded statement. But later when the high court rejected his bail petition, he again went into hiding.

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.

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen Today at 7:52 p.m.

Facing a nearly $5 million verdict, six lawsuits and a dozen additional claims stemming from child sexual abuse cases, the Diocese of Duluth on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Chapter 11 filing comes a month after a St. Paul jury handed down a landmark $8.1 million verdict against the diocese and a Catholic religious order in the first case to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.

The Rev. James Bissonette, vicar general of the diocese, said bankruptcy was the only option in wake of a sizeable verdict and uncertainty over the number of lawsuits the diocese will face.

“Because of the size of the award and our limited resources, when we looked at it we needed to do this today in order to assure some measure of justice for all the victims and to make sure that the day-to-day operations of the diocese continue,” Bissonette told the News Tribune.

Bissonette noted that the diocese has been ordered to pay approximately $4.9 million in damages from the recent trial, while the organization’s annual budget is only about $3.3 million.

The diocese is the 15th in the nation to file for bankruptcy over sexual abuse claims, according to victims’ advocates.

Mike Finnegan, an attorney for St. Paul-based Jeff Anderson and Associates, the leading law firm representing abuse victims, said he’s confident that his clients will see a fair resolution to their cases.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Tessa Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

A witness has told the child sex abuse royal commission that he believes his family was paid off following him visiting Cardinal George Pell in 1973 to complain about his brother being molested by a Christian Brother in Ballarat.

BWF told the commission he was 14 and a boarder at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat when his younger brother, BWG, was beaten and molested by Brother Ted Dowlan.

He said went to complain to then Father George Pell at the presbytery after school because the principal refused to come and meet with him.

“Because I was nervous, I just blurted out to Pell that Dowlan had beaten and molested BWG and demanded to know what Pell was going to do about it,” he said.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Padraic Murphy
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell shunned a young boy who begged him to help protect his brother from a notorious church paedophile, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Witness BWF said he went to see Cardinal Pell at a Ballarat presbytery in 1973 after learning Brother Edward Dowlan was beating and molesting his brother at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat.

BWF said he went to see Cardinal Pell out of desperation after the school refused to take action to protect his brother.

“I wanted someone in authority outside the school to know about what was happening,” BWF said.

“(Cardinal Pell said) ‘Young man how dare you knock on this door and make demands.’ We argued for a bit and he finally told me to go away and shut the door.”

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Monday 7 December 2015

Cardinal George Pell became angry at a boy who told him his brother had been beaten and sexually abused by a Christian Brother, an inquiry has heard.

Witness BWF went to see Pell, then a Ballarat priest, after finding out his brother BWG had been molested by Brother Edward Dowlan at Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College in 1973, the child abuse royal commission heard.

“I just blurted out to Pell that Dowlan had beaten and molested BWG and demanded to know what Pell was going to do about it. Pell became angry and yelled at me ‘young man, how dare you knock on this door and make demands’,” BWF told the commission.

“We argued for a bit and he finally told me to go away and shut the door on me.”

Pell’s barrister Sam Duggan said Pell was living at a different Ballarat presbytery at the time.

“I want to suggest to you that you are making this story up about visiting Father Pell at the cathedral presbytery and you never confronted him there,” Duggan said.

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.

MINNESOTA
Washington Post

By David Gibson | Religion News Service December 7

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth announced on Monday (Dec. 7) that it had filed for bankruptcy protection following a jury verdict last month that held the Minnesota diocese responsible for more than half of an $8.1 million judgment on behalf of a victim of sex abuse by a priest.

The Chapter 11 filing makes Duluth the 13th of nearly 200 U.S. Catholic dioceses to file for bankruptcy since 2004 because of the clergy sex abuse scandals. Regional organizations of two religious orders have also sought bankruptcy protection.

The Duluth award was one of the highest single monetary compensations for a survivor of clergy abuse, experts said. It was made possible thanks to a Minnesota law that lifted the statute of limitations on civil claims for sex abuse.

The plaintiff is a 52-year-old man who was a 15-year-old altar boy when the abuse happened in 1978.

The diocese has an annual operating budget of about $3 million and church officials said that even with insurance and savings it could not cover its $4.9 million share of the overall award.

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.

MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press December 7, 2015

More than a decade after the death of the popular Roman Catholic priest and pastor known as Father West, church authorities said an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been “found to be credible” against West, who served in about 20 parishes across southeast Michigan.

The Rev. David West died in 2004 at age 65, well before anyone came forward charging him with sexual abuse, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

But church officials “put no time limits on the reporting of sexual abuse of minors” by members of the priesthood or any other personnel connected with churches and related institutions such as parochial schools and seminaries, said Joe Kohn, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

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.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

Associated Press
POSTED: 12/07/2015

The U.S. Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a St. Paul priest convicted of having sex with a woman who was seeking his spiritual advice.

The justices on Monday left in place the sexual misconduct conviction of the Rev. Christopher Wenthe. The priest was convicted in 2011 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sex with the woman at a meeting in which she sought counseling in 2003.

State law makes it a felony for clergy members to have sex with people they are spiritually advising. Wenthe acknowledged that he and the woman had a 15-month sexual relationship, but he denied that he was providing spiritual aid in those months.

An intermediate appeals court threw out the conviction, but the Minnesota Supreme Court reinstated it in June.

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.

MINNESOTA
Reuters

BY DAVID BAILEY

A Catholic diocese in northeastern Minnesota filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday following a jury’s decision in November that found it 60 percent responsible for a judgment involving a clergy sex abuse victim, the organization said.

A jury awarded the man more than $8 million, and reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection became a necessity after failed efforts to reach a resolution to assist all abuse victims, the diocese said in a statement.

“Given the magnitude of the verdict, the diocese was left with no choice but to file for reorganization,” said diocese Vicar General James Bissonette.

The award stemmed from a case brought by a man who said he was abused in 1978 by a priest at a church in the diocese.

The diocese’s last fiscal year operating budget was less than $3.3 million. That was insufficient even if insurance and savings were used to cover the judgment, and would leave no resources for other victims who have brought claims, the diocese said.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

07 December 2015 by Christopher Lamb in Rome

The Vatican offers fair trials including the presumption of innocence and the right to a defence, a spokesman for the Holy See said today.

Five people, including two journalists, are currently standing trial in the small city state for the leaking and dissemination of documents revealing mismanagement of the Holy See’s finances.

Today the court ruled that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, will be called as a witness during the trial, which has been dubbed Vatileaks 2 after the first Vatileaks saga which saw Benedict XVI’s butler reveal private documents from inside the papal appartments.

The Vatican has come under international criticism for proceeding with a prosecution against journalists, particularly given they are residents of a different country: Italy.

Questions have also been raised about the city state’s justice system with the five defendants assigned their own Vatican lawyer for the proceedings.

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.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Further claims about Cardinal George Pell’s knowledge of child sex abuse by priests are expected to be aired at a royal commission.

Witness BWF will testify on Tuesday at the child abuse royal commission’s inquiry into widespread abuse in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese.

Mr BWF is expected to give evidence about a conversation he had with Cardinal Pell in the 1970s while he was a student at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat, senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said.

Cardinal Pell, now the Vatican’s financial chief, was a Ballarat East assistant priest and Episcopal Vicar for Education in the Ballarat diocese for a decade from 1973.

He has repeatedly denied claims he tried to bribe a victim to keep quiet, ignored complaints and was involved in moving pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale to another parish.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell is ­alleged to have told a fellow cleric that notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was “r–ting boys again”, according to contested evidence before the royal commission.

In 1983, the then rising priest in the Catholic Church was allegedly overheard making the comment to Father Frank Madden at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat a decade before Ridsdale was first charged.

A witness, identified only as BWE, yesterday told the commission he was an altar boy, aged about 12, when he overheard Fr Madden ask the visiting Fr Pell, “how’s everything down your way?”.

“George Pell responded by saying, ‘I think Gerry’s been r–ting boys again’,” BWE said.

But Cardinal Pell’s lawyer, Sam Duggan, put it to BWE the conversation 32 years ago was “pure fantasy” and was not supported because Ridsdale had been moved to NSW at the time — a claim denied by BWE.

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.

CANADA
CBC News

Lawyers for Aviva Insurance are arguing its policies do not cover sexual abuse by priests within the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst.

The diocese has filed a civil lawsuit against the insurer to help it recoup more than $7-million it paid out to victims of sexual abuse.

“Clearly there is no coverage,” said Aviva’s lawyer Charles LeBlond in his opening statement Monday in a Moncton courtroom. “There is no coverage for criminal activity.”

In his statement, LeBlond also said “there is a fair bit of documented evidence that the diocese and the bishops of the day were aware.”

Father Levi Noel and Father Charles Picot, both former priests in the diocese, have been criminally charged with numerous counts of sexual abuse, some dating back to the 1950s.

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.

MISSOURI
Lake News

Posted Dec. 7, 2015

The jury trial of Travis Ray Smith, 45, of California, Mo., the man accused of multiple counts related to child sexual abuse and rape has been declared a mistrial by Judge Kenneth Hayden at the request of the defense attorney, according to the Moniteau County Circuit Clerk’s office.

The reason for the mistrial is not immediately known.

Day one of the jury trial began Monday morning at roughly 9 am in Moniteau County. At some point in the afternoon a request for a mistrial was requested and granted. Smith was formerly scheduled to go to trial on June 2, 2014 after the first trial was continued in late 2013.

In September 2012, Smith was arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on charged of forcible rape, sexual abuse and two counts of statutory rape in the second degree in incidents alleged to have taken place in 1998 and 1999. He was also then charged in Moniteau County Circuit Court with statutory rape in the second degree and statutory sodomy in the second degree related to incidents alleged to have occurred in 2005.

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.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune DECEMBER 7, 2015

The Duluth Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, a month after a victim of priest sex abuse there was awarded $8 million in damages. The diocese was found responsible for $4.8 million.

The northern Minnesota diocese becomes the 15th diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection following clergy abuse litigation, including the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which declared bankruptcy last January.

Given the “magnitude” of the jury’s award, “the diocese was left with no choice but to file for reorganization,” wrote the Rev. James Bissonette, diocese vicar general, in a public statement.

“There is sadness in having to proceed in this fashion,” wrote Bissonette. “The decision to file today safeguards the limited assets of the Diocese and will ensure that the resources of the diocese can be shared justly with all victims, while allowing the day-to-day operation of the work of the church to continue.”

The diocese lists its number of creditors as fewer than 50, and its estimated assets — and liabilities — as $1 million to $10 million.

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.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Dec 7, 2015

The Diocese of Duluth on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection, saying that’s the path it must take if it’s to find a way to compensate clergy sexual abuse victims and continue the church’s mission.

Last month, a jury ordered the diocese and a Catholic religious order to pay more than $8 million in damages to a man who was sexually abused by a priest in 1978. The diocese says it can’t afford its nearly $5 million share of the settlement.

In a statement on the diocese website, the Rev. James Bissonette, vicar general of the diocese, said leaders were left with no choice but to file for reorganization.

The bankruptcy filing “safeguards the limited assets of the diocese and will ensure that the resources of the diocese can be shared justly with all (clergy abuse) victims” while letting the diocese continue its daily work, he added.

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.

MINNESOTA
Journal Obsever

The diocese says it can’t afford its almost $5 million share of the settlement.

Given the “magnitude” of the jury’s award, “the diocese was left with no choice but to file for reorganization“, wrote the Rev. James Bissonette, diocese vicar general, in a public statement. The Diocese says the bankruptcy is keeping with their approach at putting victims first.

“There is sadness in having to proceed in this fashion”, wrote Bissonette.

The diocese says the move was necessary after efforts to reach a resolution with all abuse victims were unsuccessful.

The Duluth Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, a month after a victim of priest sex abuse there was awarded $8 million in damages.

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.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Associated Press DECEMBER 7, 2015

DULUTH, Minn. — A Roman Catholic diocese in northeastern Minnesota has filed for bankruptcy protection after a jury found it partially responsible in a clergy sex abuse case.

The Diocese of Duluth filed for Chapter 11 reorganization Monday.

The diocese says the move was necessary after efforts to reach a resolution with all abuse victims were unsuccessful.

In November, a Ramsey County jury awarded $8.1 million to a man who says he was molested by a priest in northern Minnesota in 1978 when he was a boy. The diocese was held responsible for $4.8 million.

The diocese’s vicar general, the Rev. James Bissonette, says the bankruptcy filing safeguards the diocese’s limited assets while allowing the church’s day-to-day operations to continue.

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.

MINNESOTA
KSTP

The United States Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a Minnesota priest who was convicted of having sex with a woman who was seeking his spiritual advice.

The justices on Monday left in place the sexual misconduct conviction of the Rev. Christopher Wenthe. The priest was convicted in 2011 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sex with the woman at a meeting in which she sought counseling in 2003.

State law makes it a felony for clergy members to have sex with people they are spiritually advising. Wenthe acknowledged that he and the woman had a 15-month sexual relationship, but he denied that he was providing spiritual aid in those months.

An intermediate appeals court threw out the conviction, but the Minnesota Supreme Court reinstated it in June.

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.

MINNESOTA
KDAL

Monday, December 07, 2015 by Dave Strandberg

DULUTH, MN (KDAL) – Following a court decision last month that held the Diocese of Duluth partially responsible in an abuse case from 1978, the Diocese has now filed for bankruptcy protection in order to reorganize under Chapter 11. The judgement on November 4th awarded an 8.4 million dollar judgement for the victim with the Diocese responsible for 60 percent of it or 4.8 million. Father James Bissonette, the vicar general of the Diocese, says after attempts at reaching a mutually agreeable resolution failed, they were left with no choice but to file for reorganization. The decision safeguards the limited assets of the Diocese, ensuring that the resources of the Diocese can be shared justly with the victims while allowing the day-to-day operation of the church to continue.

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.

MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

By Ramona Marozas

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — The Diocese of Duluth filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy following last month’s court decision ordering the Diocese to pay $8.4 million to abuse victims, and Duluth’s chapter was responsible to pay $4.8 million of that.

The Duluth Diocese says they have filed for an emergency basis for bankruptcy protection.

The Diocese will continue to operate during this bankruptcy process.

The Diocese shared this statement by Father James Bissonette, the vicar general of the Diocese, on behalf of the Organization:

“There is sadness in having to proceed in this fashion. After the recent trial, the Diocese again attempted to reach a mutually-agreeable resolution. Up to this point, the Diocese has not been able to reach such a settlement, and given the magnitude of the verdict, the Diocese was left with no choice but to file for reorganization.

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.

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen Today

Facing a nearly $5 million jury verdict and numerous pending lawsuits over child sexual abuse committed by priests, the Diocese of Duluth turned to bankruptcy protection Monday.

The Rev. James Bissonette, vicar general of the diocese, announced the filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a statement on the diocese’s website.

A St. Paul jury last month found the diocese negligent in the supervision of a priest who was accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in Itasca County in the 1970s. The diocese was ordered to pay about $4.9 million in damages awarded by the jury.

Five other child sexual abuse claims also are pending in State District Court, according to online records.

The claims all were brought under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, an act of the state Legislature which opened a three-year window for abuse victims to file lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by statutes of limitation. The window is set to expire in May, and attorneys have said they expect a flurry of activity as the deadline nears.

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

VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

By Angus MacKinnon

Vatican City (AFP) – Pietro Parolin, the most senior cardinal in the Vatican hierarchy, and two close associates of Pope Francis can be summoned to give evidence in a controversial trial of journalists and alleged whistleblowers, a judge ruled Monday.

Overruling objections from the Vatican prosecutor, the judge agreed to putting the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, on the stand, as well as Francis confidantes Cardinal Santo Abril y Castello and Archbishop Konrad Krajewski.

The decision raises the prospect of the church’s dirty linen being laundered in public, with Parolin in particular likely to be quizzed over the bitter internal battle that has erupted in the hierarchy as vested interests resist Francis’s drive to clean up Holy See finances.

The senior clerics are to be summoned to give evidence on behalf of Francesca Chaouqui, a former PR consultant to the Vatican who is one of the five people accused of conspiring to leak classified documents that exposed out-of-control spending at the top of the church.

Chaouqui’s lawyer told a hearing on Monday that she wanted the senior clerics to testify in order to demonstrate that she was working “only in the interests of the pope.”

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.

DULUTH (MN)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[bankruptcy petition]

12/7/2015

WHAT: At a news conference today in Duluth, attorney Mike Finnegan will discuss today’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the Diocese of Duluth.

WHEN: Monday, December 7, 2015 at 3:15 PM CST

WHERE: Holiday Inn – Lyric Room 2
200 West First Street
Duluth, MN 55802

Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3523 Cell/612.205.5531
Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3523 Cell/612.817.8665

Duluth Bankruptcy Petition

(Duluth, MN) – Today, the Diocese of Duluth filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. The Diocese of Duluth is the fifteenth Catholic Diocese or Religious Order to file for bankruptcy in the United States. Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy protection as well. Each of the previous bankruptcies filed by Bishops has ended with a settlement with survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

“We are saddened by the Bishop’s choice to file bankruptcy today instead of releasing the Diocese’s secret documents on child sexual abuse,” said Attorney Mike Finnegan. “Despite the Bishop’s actions today, we will continue to fight for the release of these documents and survivors of child sexual abuse can still come forward confidentially to hold the Diocese of Duluth accountable.”

Efforts by survivors to unseal the secret documents regarding clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Duluth began with the first lawsuit filed in June 2013. Since then, survivors have taken numerous actions to make the files public. The Diocese of Duluth fought these efforts in court. A hearing was scheduled for December 17, 2015, to determine whether some of these secret documents would be released to the public but the bankruptcy filing prevents this hearing from moving forward.

Sexual abuse survivors in Minnesota have until May 25, 2016 to come forward confidentially and bring a claim under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.

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.

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth

Dec 7, 2015

In the wake of last month’s court decision and its $8.4 million judgment, of which the Diocese of Duluth has been found responsible for $4.8 million, we have today filed on an emergency basis for bankruptcy protection in order to reorganize under Chapter 11. The necessity of this decision became clear after other efforts to reach a resolution that would assist all abuse victims and protect the Church’s mission had proved, as yet, unsuccessful. The Diocese will continue those good faith efforts during the bankruptcy process.

Father James Bissonette, vicar general of the Diocese, issued the following statement on behalf of the Diocese:

“There is sadness in having to proceed in this fashion. After the recent trial, the Diocese again attempted to reach a mutually-agreeable resolution. Up to this point, the Diocese has not been able to reach such a settlement, and given the magnitude of the verdict, the Diocese was left with no choice but to file for reorganization. The decision to file today safeguards the limited assets of the Diocese and will ensure that the resources of the Diocese can be shared justly with all victims, while allowing the day-to-day operation of the work of the Church to continue. This decision is in keeping with our approach since the enactment of the Child Victims Act, which has been to put abuse victims first, to pursue the truth with transparency and to do the right thing in the right way.”

Background information

* The Child Victims Act in the State of Minnesota opened up the possibility of civil lawsuits against the Church for cases dating back decades, resulting in an as-yet-unknown number of those historical cases being brought to court.

* The Doe 30 case, decided Nov. 4, held the Diocese of Duluth partially responsible for abuse suffered by a victim in 1978 with an $8.4 million judgment, with the Diocese held responsible for 60 percent of that judgment.

* For more than two decades, since 1992, the Diocese has had safe environment policies in place and diligently followed them. These policies involve mandatory reporting, cooperation with law enforcement, background checks and other safety precautions for Diocesan personnel and safety training for children, and these policies are continually updated and improved.

* The Diocesan operating budget for the last fiscal year was $3,294,627. Although there is insurance coverage and some Diocesan savings available in this case, it is insufficient for such a large judgment, and no resources would be available for the remaining abuse victims who have brought claims.

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.

MINNESOTA
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN
Dec. 7, 2015

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth, Minn., filed for bankruptcy Monday after being hit with an $8.4 million verdict in a clergy sex abuse case.

The diocese, which spans 10 counties in northeastern Minnesota, filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Duluth, court papers show.

Last month, a jury awarded $8.4 million to a man who says he was sexually abused in the late 1970s by a priest serving in the Diocese of Duluth. The diocese, which has said it is considering an appeal, says it knew nothing about the abuse and couldn’t have prevented it.

In a statement on the jury verdict posted on the diocese’s website, it said it was contemplating bankruptcy as a way to compensate abuse victims while preserving the diocese’s pastoral and charitable mission.

“With other victims of clergy sexual abuse pursuing their cases in the courts and a finite pool of resources from which they might be compensated for their suffering, bankruptcy might ensure a more equitable distribution,” the diocese said.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican tribunal hearing the criminal case in the leaking of confidential documents – the so-called “Vatileaks II” case – resumed work on Monday morning.

The defendants – three officials and two journalists – were at the trial, with their lawyers.
According to a statement released by the Holy See Press Office, the morning’s session dealt primarily with the requests submitted the previous week by the defense.

The Court refused a request by Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui for dismissal of charges based upon lack of jurisdiction – reaffirming the laws place the case “without uncertainty” in the jurisdiction of the Court of the Vatican City State, and noting she had previously acknowledged this fact.

The Court refused a request for a psychological expert for Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, since the court only admits “psychiatric” experts, not “psychological” ones – but adding any relevant personality and behaviour issues of the accused would be adequately ascertained from the trial.

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

VATICAN CITY
Christian Science Monitor

By Nick Squires, Correspondent DECEMBER 7, 2015

VATICAN CITY — The trial of three Vatican officials and two Italian journalists resumed Monday at a tribunal within the stone walls of this tiny city state in a case that uncomfortably pits the Holy See’s interests against Italian press freedoms.

One of the journalist defendants has decried the proceedings as Kafkaesque, and he and other commentators have even invoked the Inquisition.

The two journalists are accused of procuring leaked confidential documents they used as the basis for two bombshell books published last month.

The books, one titled “Avarice” and the other “Merchants in the Temple,” described Vatican financial mismanagement, greed, and the misuse of funds, including the use of money from a charitable foundation to renovate a lavish penthouse apartment for a former Vatican secretary of State.

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

VATICAN CITY
BBC News

A Vatican judge trying five people over the leaking of secret documents has agreed to let some of Pope Francis’s senior advisers be defence witnesses.

Officials who could be called include his Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin.

Those on trial include two journalists who published books detailing alleged financial mismanagement at the Vatican, and three members of a papal commission accused of leaking documents to them.

One of them, a priest, alleges a fellow defendant seduced him.

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

VATICAN CITY
GMA News

By PHILIP PULLELLA, Reuters

VATICAN CITY – The “deputy pope” will be summoned to testify before a Vatican court hearing a trial over the theft of confidential papal documents, the first time such a high-ranking official will appear at a public trial inside the city-state.

The lawyer for Francesca Chaouqui, a former public relations consultant for a Vatican reform commission, asked that Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and two other high-ranking Vatican prelates appear before the court.

Parolin, who is sometimes known as the deputy pope, is second only to Pope Francis in the hierarchy of the Vatican, which governs the worldwide Roman Catholic Church.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Religion Digital

Una comisión del gobierno australiano analizó la actuación del cardenal George Pell, que dirige la secretaría para la Economía del Vaticano, frente a una denuncia de pederastia en el seno de la Iglesia Católica.

David Ridsdale, quien es víctima y sobrino del sacerdote pederasta Gerald Francis Ridsdale, acusa a Pell de intentar sobornarle en 1993 cuando supuestamente le dijo: “Quiero saber que es lo que se debe hacer para mantenerte quieto”, según la agencia local de noticias AAP.

La Comisión gubernamental que investiga la respuesta institucional a los casos de abusos sexuales en el seno de las organizaciones religiosas, estatales y públicas ha centrado su sesión este lunes a contrastar las versiones de ambas partes.

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
BBC News NI

By Kevin Sharkey
BBC News NI

Barnardo’s children’s charity has paid more than £180,000 in civil claims linked to alleged abuse at a former home in County Antrim, an inquiry has heard.

On Monday, the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry opened public hearings.

Two former Barnardo’s homes, Macedon and Sharonmore, both in Newtownabbey, are under scrutiny.

The inquiry’s counsel said the hearings would expose “abusive activities and practices” not previously known about.

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.

CALIFORNIA
The Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
07 DEC 2015

A group representing victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests has blasted the San Diego Catholic Diocese for appointing a priest who admitted to destroying documents detailing sexual assaults to oversee their sex abuse hotline.

Likening him to “an admitted embezzler [who] shouldn’t oversee bank accounts,” Melanie Sakoda of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) said Fr. Steven Callahan shouldn’t be allowed to “oversee abuse reports.”

Callahan is listed as the Victims’ Assistance Coordinator on the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego website — with a phone number to call the priest as well as an email address.

In a court deposition in 2007, after approximately 150 men and women filed suit against the San Diego diocese over sexual abuse claims, Callahan admitted to destroying documents in the early 90’s implicating a fellow priest.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Rev. Emmanuel Omemaga fled to his native Philippines in 1993 after admitting to Callahan that he had molested a 14-year-old girl.

Callahan claimed that he had urged Omemaga to turn himself in to the police before he left the country.

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

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Dec 7, 2015

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.” – Mitch Garabedian

Last week, I had the privilege of finally seeing the much-anticipated “Spotlight”. This powerful film focuses on the true story of an amazing group of journalists from the Boston Globe who worked alongside brave and tireless abuse survivors and a relentless plaintiff’s attorney to expose the untold horrors of child sexual abuse and cover up in the Boston archdiocese in 2002. What finally surfaced was hundreds of offending clergy and over 1000 victims in Boston alone.

Though I think everyone should watch this film, I especially think that my fellow Protestants can learn much from seeing it. However, learning will require a humility that enables us to be slow in pointing the finger at others, and quick to the difficult and sobering task of self-examination.

Some may be tempted to watch this film with disgust for the Catholic Church and a sigh of relief for Protestant churches. Such relief would be unfounded and misplaced. A number of years ago, the three companies that insure most Protestant churches reported that receiving approximately 260 reports a year of minors being sexually abused by church leaders and members. This is compared to the approximately 228 “credible accusations” a year of child sexual abuse reported by the Catholic Church. (Both numbers are much higher due to underreporting and the manner in which such information is collected and determined – that is another blog for another day.) In reality, the likelihood is that more children are sexually abused in Protestant churches than in Catholic churches. Regardless, the abuse of one child is one child too many. Instead of pointing fingers, we should be learning from each other and working together to bring an end to this epidemic that permeates all of Christendom. In order to do this, Protestants are going to have to accept the fact that we have many more similarities than differences with our Catholic brothers and sisters when it comes to how we have failed to protect and serve God’s children. Here are just three that surfaced in “Spotlight”:

Clergy who abuse: “When you’re a poor kid from a poor family and when a priest pays attention to you, it’s a big deal. How do you say ‘no’ to God?”

These were the gut-wrenching words of Phil Saviano, a clergy abuse survivor (and member of SNAP) who was attempting to describe the dark dynamics of how his nightmare began. In a later scene, another survivor explains, “He offered to get me ice cream. It’s a priest. I’m a kid. So I go.”

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 December 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Archbishop Luciano Suriani, delegate for papal diplomatic representations, as apostolic nuncio in Serbia.

– Archbishop Romeo Pawlowski, apostolic nuncio in Congo and Gabon, as delegate for papal diplomatic representations.

On Saturday 5 December the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia as apostolic nuncio in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 December 2015 (VIS) – The Council for the Economy, continuing the implementation of new financial management policies and practices in line with international standards, took an important step this week by appointing a new international auditing firm.

The Council accepted a recommendation from its Audit Committee and appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers “PwC”, one of the major international firms, as the external auditor for the consolidated financial statements.

PwC will work closely with the staff of the Secretariat for the Economy, and the 2015 audit will commence immediately.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 December 2015 (VIS) – The Holy See Press Office today issued the following communique:

“This morning at 9.30, in the Vatican City State Tribunal, a further hearing was held in the criminal trial for the dissemination of confidential news and documents.

The defendants were all present, accompanied by their respective lawyers (all five of whom are currently recognised as ‘private’ lawyers: E. Bellardini for Msgr. L.A. Vallejo Balda, L. Sgrò for F. I. Chaouqui, R.C. Baffioni for N. Maio, L. Musso for E. Fittipaldi and R. Palombi for G. Nuzzi).

The College of judges (President Prof. Giuseppe Dalla Torre, and the members Prof. Piero Antonio Bonnet, Prof. Paolo Papanti-Pellettier and Prof. Venerando Marano) heard the oral presentation from the defence, along with the objections and demands already submitted in writing prior to the established deadline (Saturday 5 December).

With regard to each objection and demand submitted, the opinion of the Promoter of Justice represented by Prof. Milano and Prof. Zannotti was heard.

The College therefore retired to the Counsel Chamber shortly before 10.30 for around one hour. Finally, it communicated its decisions, providing the proper detailed motivations. The hearing concluded before midday.

The objection presented by Chaouqui’s defence regarded the presumed lack of jurisdiction of the Tribunal given that the events took place in Italy and were carried out by a person declared a ‘political refugee’ in Italy. The objection was rejected, and the College clarified that the current law attributes without doubt the jurisdiction of the Vatican City State Tribunal, and observed that Chaouqui, by appearing before the investigators and the Tribunal, had in practice recognised such jurisdiction.

The demand presented by the Msgr. Vallejo Balda’s counsel for the defence for a psychological evaluation of the defendant was rejected. The Promoter of Justice explained that the Vatican legal system admits requests for a ‘psychiatric evaluation’ but not for a ‘psychological evaluation’, and that aspects of the personality and behaviour of the defendant can emerge adequately during the proceedings.

Practically all the other demands were admitted, in particular:

– A technical evaluation requested by Chaouqui’s counsel for the defence regarding the documentation available via PC and telephones, to be carried out by an expert designated by the Tribunal accompanied by an expert selected by the defence. The Promoter of Justice approved this request.

– The acquisition of various further elements of documentation and evidence required by various counsels for the defence (texts of email messages referenced in the investigation, text messages, articles published in various newspapers, and a ‘psychiatric evaluation’ of Msgr. Vallejo Balda previously carried out and conserved in his home). The Promoter of Justice was in favour of all the above.

– The College considered it suitable to admit the requests for further witnesses, presented by various counsels for the defence and for different reasons (including clergy such as Cardinals Santos Abril and Parolin, Archbishop Krajewski and Msgr. Abbondi, and figures from the worlds of journalism and communications, such as Mario Benotti, Paolo Mieli, Paolo Mondani, Paola Brazzale and Marco Bernardi), although the Promoter of Justice had expressed a contrary opinion in some cases”.

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

UNITED STATES
Mediaite

by Joe Concha December 6th, 2015

If there was ever a weekend to escape the horrible reality our world and country has become in light of the mass killings in San Bernardino and Colorado Springs before it, this may be as good as any. And for me, that escape usual means a trip to the local movie theatre.

Those trips used to happen much more often as a single guy living in Hoboken, NJ. Wife, two kids and a dog in the suburbs? Not so much. So when that trek to the cinema does happen, the movie better damn well be worth the time. Painfully selective is how the wife deems the process. She’s not much of a buff, and it’s the one area she has 100 percent confidence in my ability to choose a winner, particularly films of the underrated variety (The Debt, Blood Diamond, The Pursuit of Happyness, Friends with Kids and The Prestige are my tops of the past decade). But if we’re talking about a movie that absolutely isn’t underrated but isn’t making much at the box office (only about $15 million despite a wide release over two weeks ago), Spotlight is the best journalism-themed movie since The Insider (Pacino, Crowe), arguably the best of all-time if removing All the President’s Men (Redford, Hoffman) from the equation, and easily, easily the best offering of any genre this year.

Spotlight takes place largely in 2001 Boston and centers on the meticulous, careful, tireless investigative efforts that went into the the Boston Globe’s exposé of clergy sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. Note: Director Tom McCarthy could have gone two ways in crafting the narrative: Focus on the investigative aspect and all the challenges the Globe’s “Spotlight” team had to overcome in being completely, unquestionably accurate before going to press, or use the investigation and its findings to pontificate some kind of bigger, darker message about the Catholic Church or religion in general.

And like The Insider (the mesmerizing true story of a 60 Minutes report–or modified report–about a big tobacco whistle-blower) and All the President’s Men (the must-see story behind Woodward and Bernstein blowing the lid off of Watergate), McCarthy avoids being self-righteous about the transgressions exposed and the entity that allowed it. Instead, it keeps the focus squarely on the behind the scenes battles and politics that are prevalent in newsrooms, along with the business aspect of journalism in general.

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

UNITED STATES
WCF Courier

SCOTT CAWELTI

Why do we often miss what’s right in front of us? We have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear, as the Bible so memorably puts it.

Three instances worth pondering:

First, “Spotlight,” a disturbing new film about the Roman Catholic Church’s coverup of pedophile priests in Boston. It’s a horrific scandal that shook the church to its foundations worldwide.

Four smart and motivated Boston Globe investigative reporters — the “Spotlight” team, grew ever more amazed in 2001-02 when they uncovered church policies that enabled priests to continue abusing children for decades. The power of Boston Catholic church officials was all but absolute.

Yet the film reveals the scandal could have been exposed much sooner had these same reporters been paying attention. During their investigation, they learn they ignored hard evidence sent in by victims at least a decade earlier.

One of many victims, in frustration, tells the reporters flat-out: “I sent you all the facts years ago. But you buried it.”

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.

IRELAND
Sunday World

By Morgan Flanagan Creagh

A paedophile priest was housed at a Tipperary boarding school while on trial for abusing a student there.

77-year-old former priest Henry Moloney was staying at Rockwell College last week during a criminal case which was taken by a former student, reports the Irish Daily Mail.

In 2009 Maloney pleaded guilty in the Circuit Criminal Court to abusing pupils at St Marys College in Rathmines between 1969 and 1973.

He was handed a suspended sentence due to ill health and as he was already under strict supervision.

In 2000 he was caged for 15-months for sexually assaulting two other boys at St Mary’s in the early 1970s.

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

VATICAN CITY
ABC News

By NICOLE WINFIELD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY — Dec 7, 2015

A Vatican tribunal agreed Monday to let the defense call some of Pope Francis’ top advisers, including his secretary of state, to testify in a trial over leaked documents, as the Holy See sought to quash criticism that the five accused weren’t getting a fair trial.

Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre also agreed to defense requests to admit more complete text messages and emails, as well as letters of recommendation and the results of a monsignor’s psychiatric exam into evidence as the trial got underway in earnest.

Three people affiliated with a papal reform commission are accused of leaking documents to two reporters who published blockbuster books detailing waste, mismanagement and greed among some cardinals and bishops, and the resistance Francis is facing trying to clean it up.

The two reporters are also on trial, accused of having illegally acquired and published the material — accusations that have drawn criticism from media rights groups around the world.

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.

AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

December 7, 2015

In a release issued today the organisation stated: “The Yeshivah Centre condemns any form of abuse and acknowledges the serious harm it causes the victim. The Yeshivah Centre deeply regrets the failure to protect those who were victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by people in a position of trust in the Yeshivah Centre and its schools. The Yeshivah Redress Scheme has been established to ensure that the wrongs committed against children while involved in the Yeshivah Centre and its schools will not go unnoticed or unacknowledged.

The design of the Scheme has been guided by learnings from schemes across Australia and the Redress and Civil Litigation Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released on 14 September 2015. The Report details the Commission’s ‘concluded views’ on its recommendations ‘to ensure justice for survivors’.

Yechiel Belfer, speaking on behalf of the recently appointed Yeshivah Centre Committee of Management said, “In establishing this scheme, our primary concern is for the welfare of anyone who may have experienced such abuse. We are offering to victims financial redress, access to specialist counselling, case management and support. And most importantly, we offer our sincere apology.”

“This support will not prejudice any individual’s rights to pursue further legal action,” Belfer added.

Mr Michael Debinski, will oversee the operation of the Scheme and is one of the case managers available to undertake reviews. Mr Debinski also draws on the experiences gained having recently overseen an abuse redress scheme at Jewish Care Victoria where he is President. Reviews will also be undertaken by Mr John Leatherland PSM, whose wealth of experience in child protection and youth justice services spanned over forty years. He was awarded a Public Service Medal for services to vulnerable families and children.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre has set up a redress scheme to help support victims of sexual abuse.

Michael Debinski, who will oversee the independent scheme, said victims would be offered counselling and redress payments, starting at $10,000 and going up to $80,000.

He said he did not know how many victims would come forward.

“We’ve got trained professional social workers who’ll then meet with them, assess their claim and may also assist them if they have other issues they need psychological care or support [with],” Mr Debinski said.

“Yeshiva funds the scheme, but in every other respect we’ve been very careful and diligent to establish it in a way that all of the contact points are independent of Yeshivah.”

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.

AUSTRALIA
SBS

[with video]

By SBS News
7 DEC 2015

Victims of child sexual abuse at the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne will be eligible for up to $80,000 in compensation under a redress scheme launched today.

Accepting the compensation will not remove their right to take further legal action, nor will they be required to sign any confidentiality agreements.

Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre appointed an independent panel to design the scheme.

The scheme’s co-ordinator, Michael Debinski, said victims will be encouraged to report sexual abuse allegations to police, but the decision to report will be up to them.

Former student and abuse victim Manny Waks, whose case sparked the Child Abuse Royal Commission’s investigation of Yeshivah College, came back from his new home in Israel to hear details of a landmark compensation package and an apology.

“There are few cases like Yeshivah where a community turned on its victims and where good people stood by and did nothing,” he said.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

​Redress Scheme Opening Remarks
Manny Waks
7 December 2015

Distinguished guests, friends,

From the very beginning of this journey, I said that one of my aims was to return to the Yeshivah Centre – to be welcomed back. This would indicate a certain level of comfort on my part – both in terms of my personal experience with Yeshivah, and more broadly in terms of how Yeshivah is addressing the issue of child sexual abuse.

It is in this context that I’m delighted and proud to be here to help launch Yeshivah’s Redress Scheme. My presence here today should be viewed both as a stark reminder of the past, and an optimistic reflection on the future. A desire from all of us to move forward.

The profound and long-term impacts of child sexual abuse have been well documented. Often it’s not only the sexual abuse itself that leads to trauma, but also the secondary abuse brought on by the institution’s response – the cover-ups and intimidation – which often is worse than the primary abuse.

There’s no doubt that many of us have been traumatised and re-traumatised by Yeshivah’s actions and inactions. Over many years. While the Royal Commission has heard many instances of abuse and cover-ups in institutional settings, there are few cases like Yeshivah, where a community turned on its victims and where good people stood by and did nothing.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Mark Dunn
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell is ­alleged to have told a fellow cleric that notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was “r–ting boys again”, according to contested evidence before the royal commission.

In 1983, the then rising priest in the Catholic Church was allegedly overheard making the comment to Father Frank Madden at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat a decade before Ridsdale was first charged.

A witness, identified only as BWE, yesterday told the commission he was an altar boy, aged about 12, when he overheard Fr Madden ask the visiting Fr Pell, “how’s everything down your way?”.

“George Pell responded by saying, ‘I think Gerry’s been r–ting boys again’,” BWE said.

But Cardinal Pell’s lawyer, Sam Duggan, put it to BWE the conversation 32 years ago was “pure fantasy” and was not supported because Ridsdale had been moved to NSW at the time — a claim denied by BWE.

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

VATICAN CITY
Europe Online

Vatican City (dpa) – The Vatican on Monday defended its decision to put on trial two journalists who published embarrassing information about the Catholic Church‘s finances, rejecting suggestions it was trampling on the freedom of the press.

Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, whose books were published last month in Italy, have been accused of maliciously soliciting leaks from Vatican officials and risk up to eight years imprisonment if found guilty.

“Many” comments about the trial, which has been dubbed VatiLeaks 2, “are inappropriate, or at times entirely unjustified,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

The legal system of the Vatican City State has “all the procedural guarantees characteristic of the most advanced contemporary legal systems,” and respects “all the fundamental principles” of a fair trial, Lombardi said.

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

VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Vatican City, December 7 – A Holy See court on Monday ruled that the Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin should be called as a witness at the Vatileaks 2 trial. The court granted a request by the defense team of one of the accused, Francesca Chaouqui, to call as witnesses Parolin and Santos Abril y Castellò, the president of the Commission of Cardinals of the Vatican bank, IOR. The court rejected a petition by Chaouqui’s lawyers challenging the Vatican’s jurisdiction for the case on the grounds that the alleged crimes took place in Italy. The court agreed to the Chaouqui team’s request for an expert to analyze electronic communication via email, text and Whatsapp messages between her and Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a senior Spanish clergyman who is also among the five people in the dock.

But it rejected a request from Vallejo Balda’s lawyers for evaluation of his psychological state. Vallejo Balda and PR expert Chaouqui were both members of the now-defunct COSEA commission set up to advise Pope Francis on reform of the Holy See’s economic-administrative structure.

The trial was then adjourned without a date being set for the next hearing.

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.

ROME
The Commentator

If you asked a tabloid journalist to concoct the juiciest ever story, he could hardly have done better. It involves corruption, priestly sex, a young temptress, women’s underwear and Silvio Berlusconi. The Pope will have a job on his hands managing this one

Tim Hedges
On 7 December 2015

Pope Francis has returned from a successful trip to central Africa to a veritable domestic storm. The press are calling it Vatileaks II. The first episode of this, you may remember, involved blackmail and some documents leaked by Pope Benedict’s butler.

I don’t suppose Francis has a butler, but the press is relishing the new scandal. Indeed if you asked a tabloid journalist to concoct the juiciest ever story, he could hardly have done better. It involves corruption, priestly sex, a young temptress, women’s underwear, and Silvio Berlusconi.

It began with two journalists, Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, who have written books on financial waste in the Vatican. They managed a few juicy exposures, including how much you had to bribe officials to get someone made a saint, but nothing really meaty to establish an existential threat to the Church.

Indeed, this is the sort of stuff which should be grist to the mill of this reforming pope. Instead, the Vatican made a daft mistake. Rather than promising to clean out its own stables in a humble, Christian way, it used a law passed by Francis after the first Vatileaks, and issued arrest warrants for four people, including Fittipaldi and Nuzzi.

Arresting two journalists has of itself gone down badly in a country which prides itself on a free press. Politicians are already involving themselves and several have urged Prime Minister Renzi to make diplomatic representations to the Holy See, which of course is a separate country.

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

VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, December 7 – Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a PR who is among five suspects in the Vatileaks 2 trial, said after a brief hearing Monday that she is not hoping to receive a pardon from Pope Francis since she is innocent of the charges levelled against her by the Vatican.

“I am not expecting anything from the pontiff and any such gesture is not what I want in any case,” she told reporters who asked her if she was hoping for a papal pardon. “I am innocent and one doesn’t pardon the innocent, one acquits them”.

Chaouqui is on trial along investigative journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and his former assistant Nicola Maio.

The trial opened last month and the second hearing last week, like Monday’s, was quickly adjourned.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, S.J., has published a “Note” concerning the ongoing trial concerning the leaking of confidential documents – the so-called “Vatileaks 2.”

Judges and lawyers at Vatican City State Tribunal: guaranteeing a fair trial – Note of Father Federico Lombardi

In recent weeks, since the opening of the trial for the dissemination of reserved documents commonly known as “Vatileaks 2”, many observations and evaluations have been written regarding the judicial system of Vatican City State and in particular on the Tribunal where this trial and its related procedures are taking place. Since many of these observations are inappropriate, or at times entirely unjustified, it would appear opportune to offer some considerations enabling a clearer view and a more just evaluation of this fundamental aspect of the situation.

Firstly, although this should be self-evident, it is necessary to recall that Vatican City State has its own legal order, entirely autonomous and separate from the Italian legal system, and has its own judicial bodies for the various levels of judgement and the necessary legislation in terms of criminal matters and procedure.

Within this latter there exist all the procedural guarantees characteristic of the most advanced contemporary legal systems. Indeed, all the fundamental principles are established and fully implemented: an independent and impartial tribunal constituted by law, the presumption of innocence, the right to a technical defence (by private or ex officio legal representation), and the freedom of the judicial college to form an opinion on the basis of evidence in public hearing and in debate between the prosecution and the defence, leading to the issuance of a sentence able to be substantiated and with the possibility of being contested by appeal and ultimately annulled.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Daily News

By Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News
POSTED: 12/06/15

The journalistic procedural drama “Spotlight” won best picture at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s 2015 movie awards voting Sunday.

The film about The Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Archdiocese’s pedophile priest cover-up also nabbed an award for Josh Singer and director Tom McCarthy’s screenplay.

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.

GHANA
Ghana Web

The medical director of the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Koforidua Rev. Brother George Castro Yankey has been caught pants down in an alleged sex scandal with a married nurse of the medical facility.

Starr News investigations at the St. Joseph’s Hospital reveal the director has been implicated in several allegations of sexual harassment against his female staff, but has vehemently denied until he was caught on camera.

The painstaking investigations by Starr News’ Eastern regional correspondent Kojo Ansah uncover an undressed Yankey in the hall of a married nurse, who is a staff, in an attempt to have sexual intercourse with her to facilitate her promotion.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Lawyers for George Pell have cross examined David Ridsdale, who alleged Cardinal Pell offered him a bribe to keep quiet about being abused by his uncle, pedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale. Courtesy Ten News.

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.

AUSTRALIA
7 News

Megan Neil
December 7, 2015

A Victorian bishop who knew about a pedophile priest refused to take the word of a child over one of his priests, an inquiry has heard.

Parish priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale himself has said he was out of control and “went haywire” in the Victorian town of Mortlake, where he is believed to have abused every boy in school.

A victim’s parents met with then Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns in 1982, saying: “We’ve got big problems in Mortlake.”

The child abuse royal commission heard before they said anything else, Bishop Mulkearns said: “How am I to take the word of a child over one of my priests?”

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.

AUSTRALIA
Bunbury Mail

By Melissa Cunningham
Dec. 7, 2015

MORE victims and their parents are expected to appear at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the coming days.

In her opening address on Tuesday, counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness said Bishop Ronald Mulkearns remains subject to a summons to appear before the commission, but is receiving palliative care and is unfit to give evidence.

Between January 1980 and February 2015, 140 claims of sexual abuse made against Ballarat priests and religious operating within the Diocese of Ballarat.

“Should his health improve sufficiently royal commission intends to call him to give evidence in public,” she said.

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.

AUSTRALIA
CQ News

Geoff Egan | 7th Dec 2015

CARDINAL George Pell was allegedly overheard discussing convicted pedophile priest Gerald Risdale “rooting young boys” in the 1980s – before he was made a bishop.

The witness known as BWE told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse he had overheard a conversation between Father Pell, who was a priest at Ballarat at the time, and Father Frank Madden .

BWE said Father Madden asked Cardinal Pell “How are things going down your way?”.

He said Cardinal Pell replied “I think Gerry has been rooting young boys again”.

Cardinal Pell’s lawyer Sam Duggan suggested BWE must be wrong due to the coarse language.

“That has never been language that Father Pell has ever used,” Mr Duggan said. “It’s simply something he would not say.”

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.

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

AAP

A former altar boy has told an inquiry he overheard Cardinal George Pell say a Victorian priest was abusing boys again.

Witness BWE told the child abuse royal commission he heard Cardinal Pell, then a Ballarat priest, tell Fr Frank Madden in September 1983: “I think Gerry’s been rooting boys again.”

The reference is to Gerald Francis Ridsdale, who has been jailed for child sex offences against 53 victims and who is the subject of 78 abuse claims to the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat.

BWE on Monday said he felt scared and stopped being an altar boy after overhearing the conversation.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth

Cardinal George Pell was overheard in the 1980s discussing the sexual abuse of boys at the hands of convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale, a royal commission has been told.

The explosive allegations about what Australia’s most senior Catholic knew of abuse by priests in the Ballarat diocese before he became the Archbishop of Melbourne was aired at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

A man, referred to as BWE during the hearing, told the inquiry he overhead a conversation between Father Frank Madden and then-auxilary priest George Pell at St Patricks Cathedral in 1983.

He said Father Madden asked: “How are things going down your way?”

He said Cardinal Pell replied: “I think Gerry has been rooting young boys again.”

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.

OREGON
KEZI

By Bailey Miller Dec. 6, 2015

EUGENE, Ore. — A local Eugene insurance agent, church volunteer, and family man is accused of dozens of sex crimes.

After turning himself into the Eugene Police Department, the local insurance agent, Rick Jackson was booked on Friday for 30 counts of sex crimes.

The charges include sodomy, unlawful penetration, and sexual abuse. All are felony charges.

Jackson owned an insurance agency on River Road in Northwest Eugene.

Neighbors said he recently took down his insurance signs and spray painted over his slogan, “the most beloved insurance agent in town.”

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

December 7, 2015

Susie O’Brien
Herald Sun

IF the Catholic Church is serious about its response to child sex abuse, then it must get rid of Cardinal George Pell.

Pell is expected in Australia this month to face the child sexual abuse royal commission.

His presence here is a start, but it isn’t enough. Nothing less than the defrocking of Australia’s most senior church member will indicate the church is a fully reformed beast.

No one action can fully compensate victims, but the downfall of Pell — the third-most powerful Catholic in the Vatican — would bring a certain quiet satisfaction to many.

One of the big problems is that Pell continues to keep his head in the sand.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

December 7, 2015

Jorge Branco
Journalist

One of two organisations at the centre of a royal commission into horrific sexual abuse across two decades in two Brisbane schools has pledged to proactively seek out confirmed victims and refund their school fees

The other is yet to indicate whether it will follow suit.

The Anglican Diocese of Brisbane is responsible for St Paul’s School, which employed a paedophile music teacher for four years in the 1980s and a sexually abusive student counsellor a few years later.

Last month the diocese adopted a policy to refund the tuition and boarding fees of what’s believed to be dozens of students from the Bald Hills school and any other confirmed cases of abuse under the diocese’s control.

New complaints of abuse would be referred to police before a refund.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 7, 2015

Jane Lee
Legal affairs, health and science reporter

A survivor has told a royal commission he overheard George Pell joking about paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale “rooting boys again” more than a decade before Ridsdale was convicted of multiple counts of child sexual abuse.

Cardinal Pell – who will appear at the child abuse royal commission in Melbourne next week – was widely criticised for supporting Ridsdale at his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993. Cardinal Pell was also present at at least one meeting of senior priests which decided Ridsdale should be moved to another parish, but maintains he never knew children were being abused while he was in Ballarat.

The survivor, known as BWE, told the commission on Monday he was aged between 10 and 12, and getting ready to serve as an altar boy for a funeral mass, when he overheard Cardinal Pell speaking to parish priest Father Frank Madden in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1983. Cardinal Pell, he said, was officiating the mass because the deceased woman was either his former parishioner or close friend.

“After they had exchanged pleasantries, Father Madden said ‘How’s everything your way?’ or words to that effect. George Pell responded by saying ‘Haha I think Gerry’s been rooting boys again’.”

BWE said that the door between the alcove and the sacristy was usually open because altar boys did not need to remove their clothes to wear their church robes.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/george-pell-accused-of-joking-about-gerald-ridsdales-abuse-of-children-20151207-glhlmd.html#ixzz3tdN0tgFw
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

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.

CALIFORNIA
Hollywood Reporter

by Ashley Lee, Ryan Parker 12/6/2015

The top acting awards went to Michael Fassbender for ‘Steve Jobs’ and Charlotte Rampling for ’45 Years.’

Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s drama about the Boston Globe reporters who exposed sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, was named this year’s best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, edging out George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which was runner-up in the top category. Spotlight, which was written by McCarthy and Josh Singer, also earned took home the award for best screenplay.

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
The News & Observer

BY JOHN MURAWSKI
jmurawski@newsobserver.com

Marty Baron, the newspaper editor who has overseen 10 Pulitzer Prize-winning projects, told a Raleigh audience Sunday that investigative journalism could become an endangered species if journalistic budgets continue to erode.

Baron, 61, was in town Sunday for a screening of “Spotlight,” the Hollywood account of the Boston Globe’s exposé of the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal, coverage that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. Now editor of The Washington Post, Baron noted that the 7-month Boston Globe investigation ultimately yielded 900 news stories during two years and cost well in excess of $1 million in legal fees, travel expenses and staff time.

The movie is being strongly reviewed for its depiction of the Globe newsroom of the era. The imperturbable, taciturn Baron depicted on the big screen represents the power of the press in a different time, before the Internet siphoned off advertisers and the invisible hand of the economy decimated many newsrooms.

In the years since Baron’s reporters uncovered the child abuse and coverup scandal, the relevance of the old-guard media has come under fire and the future nature of journalism has become the object of much speculation. Amid the endless experimentation underway with podcasting and videos and other formats, Baron said investigations must remain the soul of the newsroom.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Sunday 6 December 2015

A Victorian priest warned a police officer to drop his investigation into a colleague over child abuse allegations, an inquiry has heard.

Father Peter Taffe told the police officer he would be out of a job if he pursued an investigation into the Mildura parish priest Monsignor John Day, the child abuse royal commission was told.

Senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, said 140 people had made child sex abuse claims against priests and others in religious orders in the diocese of Ballarat since 1980. Ninety per cent of the claims were against seven priests, including 78 against Gerald Francis Ridsdale and 15 against Day.

Furness said a man had told Mildura assistant priest Taffe in January 1972 his son had been abused by Day. She said Taffe’s first words had been: “I thought he was over all this.”

A former Mildura police officer, Denis Ryan, had already been investigating complaints against Day, she said, and would tell the commission Taffe had warned him in December 1971: “Drop the inquiry into Monsignor Day or you’ll be out of a job.”

Ryan wrote to then Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns setting out allegations from seven complainants. The inquiry was told Mulkearns had said he had been assured police were satisfied there was no substance to the charges, and it was impossible to move Day out of Mildura.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 7, 2015

Jane Lee

A dying retired bishop who moved paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to chuches around Victoria for decades could still be called to give evidence at a royal commission amid claims he covered up and ignored complaints of clergy abuse.

Ronald Mulkearns, 85, the bishop of Ballarat from 1971 to 1997, was expected to appear at the commission’s second hearing into Ballarat Catholic Church authorities.

Senior counsel asssisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Gail Furness, SC, said in her opening address on Monday that the commission had accepted “medical advice that Bishop Mulkearns is receiving palliative care and is unfit to give evidence in this public hearing.”

“Bishop Mulkearns remains subject to a summons to appear before the commission and, should his health improve sufficiently, the royal commission intends to call him to give evidence in public.”

Ms Furness said the commission would hear evidence of Bishop Mulkearns’ repeated refusals to deal with complaints of clergy abuse from a nun, a mother of a survivor and a fellow priest.

The commission has previously heard that Bishop Mulkearns was first told of Ridsdale’s offending in 1975, but moved him to numerous parishes until Risdale was charged and later convicted of multiple child sex offences in 1993.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP
DECEMBER 7, 2015

CARDINAL George Pell said he believed a priest had been abusing boys again, a former altar boy has told an inquiry.

BALLARAT-BORN BWE has told the child abuse royal commission he overheard a conversation between Cardinal Pell, then a Ballarat priest, and Fr Frank Madden before a funeral in September 1983.

He said Cardinal Pell commented to Fr Madden about Gerald Francis Ridsdale: “I think Gerry’s been rooting boys again”.

BWE said he told his mother in 1984 or 1985 that he overheard Cardinal Pell confirm, more or less, that Ridsdale was still having sex with boys.

“She said to me ‘don’t be ridiculous’,” BWE told the commission on Monday.

BWE stopped being an altar boy towards the end of 1983, after overhearing the conversation.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth

A lawyer for Cardinal George Pell has quizzed two victims over allegations Australia’s top Catholic offered a bribe and turned a blind eye to claims of abuse.

Cardinal Pell, now one of the Vatican’s most senior clerics, is due to give evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse next week about the church’s handling of sex abuse allegations in the Ballarat Diocese.

Ahead of his highly anticipated appearance, Pell’s lawyer Sam Duggan cross-examined abuse victim David Ridsdale over his allegations the Cardinal tried to bribe him to stay quiet about abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle, Gerald Ridsdale.

Mr Ridsdale has previously said he called then Bishop Pell in 1993 and told him about the abuse.

Under questioning, Mr Duggan put to Mr Ridsdale that the conversation never happened.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Cardinal George Pell appeared very concerned for an abuse victim who claims the then bishop tried to bribe him to keep quiet, a fellow priest has told an inquiry.

David Ridsdale, a victim and nephew of pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, has accused Cardinal Pell of trying to bribe him in 1993 by saying: ‘I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.’

The child abuse royal commission has heard another priest who was living with Cardinal Pell at the time has given a statement that his strong recollection is that the then bishop was concerned for Mr Ridsdale.

Mr Ridsdale, who has been recalled for cross-examination by Cardinal Pell’s barrister Sam Duggan, said he stood by his evidence.

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.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

A FORMER Kings Cross sex worker has opened his little black book containing the names and details of high profile clients he claims were a part of a “sick” and elaborate paedophile ring.

Dave*, 47, told news.com.au that high profile judges, lawyers, navy captains, a prominent lord mayor and business executives were among hundreds of clients who prowled the Sydney red light district and the “Darlinghurst Wall” pick-up spot to lure underage boys into their hotels and penthouses for sex in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Dave, aged 18 at the time, said a pimp forced him into prostitution and a “seedy” underworld where he was abused, sodomised, threatened and taken advantage of by “hundreds” of men in Sydney over four years.

“The main thing I was concerned about was the people I was meeting, their jobs and positions and things like that and what bothers me was they had underage people,” he said.

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.

EL SALVADOR
Reuters

SAN SALVADOR

El Salvador’s highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric on Sunday denied an accusation that he tried to bribe a woman who was sexually abused by a priest to keep her quiet, as the country’s church faces a growing number of abuse cases.

The woman, who has not been named, said last week that Leopoldo Deras, a priest who died in 2009, sexually abused her when she was between 13 and 21 years old. She became pregnant and gave birth to Deras’ child, which he later legally recognised as his own in 2001.

She alleged that Jose Escobar, archbishop of San Salvador’s Catholic Church, tried to bribe her with a $5000 (£3,311) cheque to keep quiet about the case.

Escobar said in a news conference that he had helped the woman and her child economically but that he has never bribed anyone and added that the woman never said she was abused by Deras.

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.

SOUTH AFRICA
Times LIVE

André Jurgens | 07 December, 2015

Catholic priests have been implicated in 33 cases of sexual abuse in South Africa.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier issued a public apology 13 years ago, promising sweeping reforms after sexual abuse by priests was exposed in an international scandal.

That painful chapter of history is back on the agenda after being made into an acclaimed film that will be screened in South Africa next year. Spotlight relates how the Boston Globe exposed clergy abuse in the US during an investigation that morphed into a global scandal.

The secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Sister Hermenegild Makoro, said 33 cases of clergy sexual abuse had been reported since the scandal broke in 2003.

Of those, seven were reported to police. One priest was charged and later prosecuted in Germany. Two more priests were dismissed. The remainder were either still under investigation or the complaints had been withdrawn.

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.

EL SALVADOR
Diario Colatino

En la acostumbrada homilía celebrada en Catedral Metropolitana, Monseñor José Luis Escobar Alas acompañado del obispo auxiliar, Gregorio Rosa Chávez y el abogado Abrahan Flores, denunció que está siendo víctima de calumnias.

Las declaraciones del jerarca católico, fueron luego que una mujer aseguró a medios locales, que fue violada hace unos años por el padre Leopoldo Antonio Deras Guillén, fallecido en 2009, y producto de esta relación existe un hijo.

Tras la muerte de Guillén, tres propiedades, según su testamento, pasan a ser de la iglesia.

La mujer aun no identificada, reclamó $5 mil dólares para su hijo y amenazó con hacer daño a la iglesia.

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.

EL SALVADOR
Ultimas Noticias

[El Salvador Archbishop denies alleged sexual abuse cover-up – Reuters]

ÚN | Reuters .- El arzobispo de El Salvador, José Escobar Alas, negó el domingo que haya intentado sobornar a una supuesta víctima de abuso sexual por parte de un sacerdote para que guardara silencio, mientras la Iglesia enfrenta varios casos de pederastia en el país centroamericano.

Una mujer, cuya identidad no ha sido revelada, denunció la semana pasada que el sacerdote Leopoldo Deras, quien falleció en el 2009, abusó sexualmente de ella entre sus 13 y 21 años, en un caso que habría iniciado en 1977.

La mujer quedó embarazada producto de esos hechos y dio a luz a un hijo que Deras reconoció legalmente en el 2001.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Wangaratta Chronicle

Jamie Kronborg
jkronborg@nemedia.com.au
December 7, 2015

WANGARATTA’S John Parkes is one of 23 Anglican bishops across Australia preparing answers to 51 questions put to them by the Commonwealth royal commission examining institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

The commission is seeking information about the structure and financial affairs of each Anglican diocese and details of clergy and lay appointees and the roles performed by them.

“At the heart of it there is something like 70 enactments or statements of the general synod or standing committee in relation to child sexual abuse,” Bishop Parkes told the Wangaratta Chronicle.

“I think the commission is interested to see how each diocese has dealt with those, what’s been adopted, (and) what the safeguards are.”

The bishop said the royal commission currently had a particular interest in the former Church of England Boys’ Society in dioceses across Australia.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Sunday 6 December 2015

The second part of public hearings into child sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy within Ballarat institutions begins in Melbourne on Monday, culminating in evidence from Australia’s most senior Catholic and the Vatican’s secretary for the economy in Rome, George Pell.

The first part of the hearings was heard in Ballarat in May, when the commission heard allegations that Pell tried to bribe a child sex abuse victim, David Ridsdale, to keep quiet about his molestation at the hands of his uncle and then priest, Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

Gerald Ridsdale committed more than 130 offences against children as young as four between the 1960s and 1980s, including while working as a school chaplain at St Alipius boys’ school in Ballarat, the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse has previously heard. He is now in prison.

Pell, who supported Ridsdale during his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993, has always denied knowing of any child abuse occurring in Ballarat while he worked there as a priest and with a clerical group called the College of Consultors during the 1970s and 1980s. Pell also spent time living with Gerald Ridsdale in 1973, but has said he had no idea he was a paedophile.

The commission has previously heard Pell was involved in a College of Consultors decision to move Risdale from the Mortlake parish in Ballarat to Sydney in 1982.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (background article, updated 5 December 2015)

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the Catholic Church harboured this child-abuse criminal — Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale — for 30 years in western Victoria while his superiors and fellow-priests remained silent to protect the church’s public image. In 1982, when Father Ridsdale had been abusing children for 20 years, a clergy committee (of which Father George Pell was a member) noted that Ridsdale was being transferred away from Victoria. Thus, he was inflicted on potential victims in New South Wales. Eventually, in 1993, Victoria Police detectives charged Ridsdale in court. He was accompanied to court by his support person, George Pell, who had become an assistant bishop in Melbourne. However, no bishop accompanied the victims. Encouraged by Broken Rites, more victims later spoke to the detectives. In his four court cases between 1993 and 2014, Ridsdale has been jailed for a minimum of 24 years for assaulting 54 of his victims. Broken Rites is proud of its role in exposing the church’s cover-up of this criminal priest.

This 1993 photo helped to expose the cover-up

On every page of the Broken Rites website (in the right-hand column), there is a photo of Father Ridsdale (with his features obscured by dark glasses and a cap) walking to the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 27 May 1993 with his support person, auxiliary bishop George Pell (wearing clerical garb). This was the day when Ridsdale received his first conviction for child-sex crimes. [In 1993, Pell was an Auxiliary Bishop for Melbourne, and three years later he became the Archbishop of Melbourne.]

By 27 May 1993, unknown to Ridsdale and Pell, one of Ridsdale’s victims had alerted the media that Ridsdale was due to appear in court that day for sentencing. Therefore, when Pell and Ridsdale approached the court building, a Channel Nine camera man obtained video footage of their arrival.

That evening, Channel Nine’s news bulletin showed this footage of Father Ridsdale and Bishop Pell arriving at the court. This bulletin was viewed throughout the state of Victoria, including by many church-abuse victims. Viewers noticed that a bishop was accompanying the criminal priest, rather than accompanying the victims.

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.

AUSTRALIA
NT News

MEGAN NEIL AAP DECEMBER 07, 2015

VICTIMS of widespread child sex abuse by clergy in the Ballarat diocese hope a royal commission will bring out the truth, a victims’ advocate says.

THE child abuse royal commission’s inquiry into Catholic Church authorities’ handling of decades of abuse in the Victorian regional diocese resumes on Monday.

Lawyer Judy Courtin, who has worked with Ballarat victims, says the public hearing will be traumatic for abuse survivors but is a necessary step towards getting justice.

“They want the truth to be told about the cover-up and concealment,” Dr Courtin said.

The inquiry’s first stage in Ballarat in May heard as many as 14 priests have been found to have sexually abused children in the Ballarat diocese.

There have been at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints against the Ballarat diocese since 1980, mostly against pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Teri Untalan December 6, 2015

This is the beginning of Advent in the Catholic Church. Rather than words to uplift the faithful during this period of preparation for the coming of Christ, the erstwhile church leaders instead continue their charade that the multimillion-dollar property in Yona still belongs to the archdiocese.

A copy of a certificate of title was posted to support this claim. One can have a certificate of title showing that one owns a particular piece of property, but it would not show that said property has been leased for 99 years, for example.

And a long-term lease is similar to what the archbishop of Agana, Anthony Apuron, did with the property now in the control of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. Unfortunately, rather than 99 years, this valuable piece of the patrimony of the Archdiocese of Agana was deeded in perpetuity to be used and conveyed by, and transferred and sold to, the Redemptoris Mater.

Be informed that the Redemptoris Mater is not part of the Catholic Church in Guam. It is a nonprofit corporation whose organizational documents show that the majority of the principals do not live in Guam, do not worship here, and whose only connection to Guam are that they are the Neocatechumenal-responsible team for which Guam is part of their area. This deed restriction also does not limit the use of the Yona property to be solely as a seminary, as we have been told.

We, Catholics, are being bedazzled with semantics. The property was not transferred, we are told. Its use was just restricted. It did not change hands, just assured that it would remain a seminary.

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.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

New documents have revealed a conflict of interest between Cardinal George Pell and the experts he appointed to investigate child sexual abuse allegations in the church.

Cardinal Pell has claimed his discredited “Melbourne Response” to abuse within the church was a world-first in assisting and compensating victims – however he faces allegations the church sought to protect pedophile priests.

Never-before-published documents shown on 60 Minutes tonight suggest the response was not in fact “independent” and “compassionate”, but a smokescreen designed to protect the church at all costs.

As part of an investigation into claims of sexual abuse perpetrated by school priest Kevin O’Donnell at the Sacred Heart Primary School in Ballarat, Cardinel Pell named psychiatrist Richard Ball a key appointee.

Mr Ball, whose duty was to assess and treat victims of child abuse such as sisters Emma and Katie Foster, also happened to be the go-to expert witness used by lawyers to defend pedophile priests, including the very same priest who raped the Foster sisters, Kevin O’Donnell.

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

UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Margaret Sullivan
THE PUBLIC EDITOR

This is the first of two parts exploring the threatened state of local investigative reporting.

In the recently released movie, “Spotlight,” an investigative reporter for The Boston Globe, Sacha Pfeiffer, grinds away at her job. She gets doors slammed in her face in working-class neighborhoods, she cajoles sources in coffee shops, and she pores over phone directories until the library lights are about to dim.

Her colleagues on the Globe’s investigative team, known as Spotlight, put in their own long hours. The reporter Michael Rezendes (played with manic, twitchy verve by Mark Ruffalo) hangs around courthouses and lawyer’s offices, digging out information through sheer persistence.

The movie tells the story of what the Spotlight team turned up: that startling numbers of Catholic priests in Boston, and beyond, had sexually molested children, and that these priests were systematically protected at the highest levels of the church. The Globe’s investigation, which began in 2001, took many months before a single word was published. It ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for public service — and changing the world.

The film is powerful and moving. And it raises troubling questions about the state of local investigative reporting today and in the future.

For decades, local investigative reporting has been done largely by regional newspapers like The Globe. With their substantial staffs — often several hundred journalists — newspapers could do the painstaking, time-consuming and often unglamorous work that can lead to breakthrough stories.

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.